The term “sociopath” appeared in the DSM-I in 1952—the same year that John Steinbeck's “East of Eden” was published. Today, we may apply it to the book’s villain, Cathy Ames, a crafty, cunning, manipulative, murderous girl with no empathy and no guilt. Steinbeck simply called her “a monster,” produced by “a malformed soul.” But in Zoe Kazan’s Netflix miniseries adaptation of the novel, Cathy, played by Florence Pugh, is not simply a monster. She’s an antihero with a traumatic backstory set up to justify her descent into a life of murder and prostitution. “Kazan’s ‘East of Eden’ is a rich, captivating work, a judicious, intelligent refashioning of its material,” Alexandra Schwartz writes, but the softening of Cathy’s character rings false. Schwartz writes about Steinbeck’s singularly damned villain, and what is lost—and gained—in adaptation: newyorkermag.visitlink.me/0Q…