Inspired by Mansfield Park

That is what the title of two versions of Mansfield Park that I just watched SHOULD have been. They seemed to have the same characters, mostly, and the same plot points, mostly, but that is where the similarities ended.

First, the Mansfield Park on the current PBS line-up. I give it a C. The heroine, Fannie Price, was played by Billie Piper, who apparently had it in her contract that she would not style her hair according to the character or the time period, but would just be allowed to wear her current day haircut, whether or not she even brushed it. (Not really, but that is the most logical explanation for her total lack of period-appropriate grooming). Online reviews of the production focus on different criticisms, but they all remark on the hair. And on the running. She did a lot of running, which seemed totally inappropriate. Edmund was cute. You can see the hair, the running, and cute Edmund, in this clip from youtube, although the voice does not sync too well. By the way, Mrs Bertram was not like that at all in the book......

Interestingly, Maria Bertram was played by Michelle Ryan, more recently seen in Bionic Woman, on TV. I didn't really watch the TV show, but I enjoyed thinking about a hypothetical movie mash-up between Bionic Woman and Jane Austen. Now that would be an interesting movie! It would be called Maria!, the bionic, Regency England heroine!

The second adaptation, Mansfield Park by Miramax, BBC Films and Patricia Rozema (1999) was even worse. I give it a D+. I should have known when the subtitle on the intro screen read "From Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, her letters, and journal" or some such disclaimer. Another tipoff would have been the description of Fanny as "spirited young woman" on the back of the DVD cover. If there is one thing the Fanny is not, it is spirited. Apparently even Jane Austen's mother thought Fanny was too timid. They also decided to imagine that Fanny Price was Jane Austen! Budding writer, sassy relative, and ironic commentator. And a feminist and abolitionist. Oh the horror. And if that wasn't bad enough , there was the "we are modern" ploy of talking directly to the camera. Bad. Edmund was cute.

I will be taking a break from Austenmania, and not watching Miss Austen Regrets, the biopic. I just know I am going to dislike it, so why bother?

The Awful Truth is awful good

If you like 1930's screwball comedies, you will probably like The Awful Truth. A 1937 classic with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. This is one of those movies, like The Thin Man series, where people booze it up in the morning, everyone is way dressed up, all the time, even at home, and wit just pours effortlessly from everyone's lips.

The two play Jerry and Lucy Warriner, a socialite couple who get divorced but of course still love each other. The plot is entirely predictable, but the movie is still great.

These are people who wear a suit and tie or a sparkly gown even in their own home, in the morning.


The movie has some great lines (especially by Aunt Patsy) and some great animal acting, since their dog, Mr Smith, almost steals the show, he is so funny.

Watching this makes me want to drink champagne at all hours, invest in some fluffy boas, and wear dressing gowns all weekend......

And of course, it confirms my belief that Cary Grant is the most handsome and attractive person who ever walked this earth.

Breadth, not depth

Baby = baby quilt.

This one is for a friend who just had her third. I make baby quilts randomly. Some friends have one for each kid, some have gotten none, and some have one for one kid, but nothing for the other. It depends on whether I am in a quilting mood when I hear about the birth. I think this one is appropriate for a girl named Margaux.

It is rather small, only about 25 inches by 25 inches. More of a wall quilt really. But it did reawaken my quilting interest..... uh oh. Fabric is so beautiful and interesting, it can be addictive.

My husband sometimes asks me, when I buy fabric, "What are you going to make with that?" and I hate having no answer, since I may have bought it just because it was pretty.

Imitation

Have you ever, gentle reader, found that, when amongst the company of a person or persons from the Southern Climes, you find yourself using "y'all" and "sugar" and wishing for some sweet tea? Or perhaps you have read lately about Ms Spears affectation of a British accent, no doubt occasioned by the presence of one from Great Britain so close to her. It is true, then, that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. I find myself, after eight days of total immersion in all things Austen, to be thinking and feeling in her language. I desire to use the phrases "exceedingly vexed", "most disagreeable" and such, to have farthings and shillings in my pockets, to be torn as to whether to wear my sprigged or my dotted muslin, and to have my suitor carry me about the county in a barouche or curricle, not that I am even quite sure what those conveyances are. How sad that my husband has no desire to put on a waistcoat and dance with me in someone's parlor..... or that we cannot take long country walks, hither and yon, to admire the scenery and discuss what to do about the servants or our younger sibling's most headstrong behaviour.

In the past fortnight I have seen Persuasion three times (twice on TV, and once in a DVD rental), seen Northanger Abbey once (last night), and reread most of the novels. Last week I was most exceedingly unwell, and was forced to retire to the couch for two entire days during the week. There, combined with this most recent weekend, and today's holiday, I was able to find such time as to peruse Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion, and reread Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park, in their entirety. I am utterly infused with Jane-ness.

And I find that my opinions on her works have altered from my youth. While still treasuring P and P and Persuasion, I confess that I enjoyed S and S much less than I had hoped, while being delightfully surprised at how much I enjoyed Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park. I don't think I will even attempt Emma, as it reminds me most painfully of Gwynneth Paltrow ...

As I once took a class on Romanticism, I found that Northanger Abbey was quite a clever send up of those romantic novels such as The Monk and The Mysteries of Udolpho, and that it contains some quite witty writing, such as, in a scene between two matrons:

"Mrs Allen had no similar information to give, no similar triumphs to press on the unwilling and unbelieving ear of her friend, and was forced to sit and appear to listen to all these maternal effusions, consoling herself, however, with the discovery, which her keen eyes soon made, that the lace on Mrs Thorpe's pelisse was not half so handsome as that on her own".

And Henry Tilney is really quite witty and clever himself, and more of a real person than some of the more serious Austen heroes.

Furthermore, Mansfield Park used to be my least favorite of the novels, mainly due to the total insipidness of Fanny's character, but now I find that the rest of the novel is quite good, and has more realistic characters and and a more compelling plot.

The questions now, is what to do next? I can't really bring myself to re-reread the novels, but who else has her discerning wit and talent for drawing room conversation? Who else can finely describe a person in only a few sentences, or elicit sympathy for the lives of the barely rich who find themselves trapped by convention? I have read George Eliot, but she is less witty, I have read Charles Dickens, but he is less refined and less romantic. Jane Austen's greatest flaw was that she only wrote six novels....

And for the record, I think the recent television version of Persuasion is quite as good as the 1995 BBC version with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds. The former has some odd direction, and plays most loosely with the novel. But the latter commits a far greater sin. All but the last scene are done most tastefully, with realistic crumbs on the table, beer for breakfast, and muddy skirt hems. But the last scene, after Anne and Wentworth are married, shows them sailing off on a ship, on another of his commissions. There is no ship in the book! Anne does not sail off on a ship!!!!! THERE IS NO SHIP! It is most shocking, and really, I was almost unable to breathe, upon seeing this flagrant disregard for the text. Why they would feel the need to tack that complete falsehood on at the end is completely beyond my powers to discern! Most disagreeable!

A Letter

Dear Jane,

Last night I watched the PBS version of Persuasion again, as they are showing productions of all your works on Masterpiece. I first watched it on Sunday, and then I watched the rebroadcast last night. Sure, I had to stay up until midnight, but it was worth it.

On the whole, I think Persuasion is my favorite of your novels. The new production did not really do it justice. Anne Elliot is a dutiful daughter who gives up a chance at marriage because it is the right thing to do for her family, not because she is wishy-washy and indecisive. This television show made her all hesistant and passive, staying in the corners of the rooms, looking breathlessly at people, getting out of the way. I think the producers mistook her proper and dutiful personality for weakness. Perhaps that is an accurate way to portray Fanny from Mansfield Park, but not Anne Elliot.

Plus, there were some changes to the plot, which made the story weaker, not stronger. And a few modern touches like having Anne look directly into the camera all the time, having her RUN, in public, all over Bath looking for Wentworth, and then having them kiss in public, that were just awful.

The worst I think was adding the totally new scene at the end showing Wentworth buying Kellynch for Anne as a wedding present. That made no sense, since Anne's father owns Kellynch, and would not sell it, nor is Wentworth rich enough to buy it. Furthermore, it is entailed upon Anne's cousin Mr. Elliot, and he wouldn't want to sell it either. Why add a terrible scene like that onto a perfectly good book?

The best thing about the production was that the producers did realize that your novels are in a way Harlequin Romances for the literary type. They cast a total hottie to play Wentworth. He was appropriately wounded, brooding and smoldering. Just like Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice. But better looking.

Anyway, I will still watch all the other ones, but I hope they do a better job with the remaining novels.

Your faithful fan.

P.S. My husband overheard two women on the bus talking about the production. They said the exact same thing I did, that Anne was not portrayed as a strong person in the television show as she was in the book! So it is not just me who thinks this way about the show.

P.P.S. This Sunday is Northanger Abbey, but I fear the NFC Football Conference Game will run long and I shall be prevented from watching it. But after all, it is the Packers playing, and I can always watch Northanger Abbey Monday night.

P.P.P.S. I suppose it could be worse, the summary line from the library about the DVD of an older BBC version reads "Anne Elliot will do anything to get Captain Wentworth now that he is interested in Lousia Musgrove". Now that sounds like a Harlequin Romance!

Sublime

Sublime
adj. elevated or lofty in thought, language, etc; supreme or outstanding.
v. to convert from solid state to gas.



Interesting that one word has two such different meanings. Lately, our 18 inches of snow on the ground has been subliming, due to the warm temperatures. The result has been sublime. Dense, thick, beautiful fog.

This is not to say that fog does not have its drawbacks, as demonstrated by the hundred car pileup on the interstate the other day, which killed two people and put many more in the hospital.

But if you are a pedestrian, walking among the fog, it is a sublime experience.

Listmania

Not to be confused with Lisztomania, Ken Russell's 1975 movie about Franz Liszt, starring Roger Daltrey.

No, I'm talking about lists. What are we so obsessed with making lists? Is it our desire for order? Or our urge for social ranking? Whatever, I love 'em. Sometimes.

I got a book out of the library, called The Top Ten, writers pick their favorite books. Edited by J. Peder Zane. This book asks "What are the ten greatest works of literature of all time?" Now, what immediately struck me about this book was its ludicrous claim. No one can even begin to rank the world's greatest works because no one has read them all. Therefore, all rankings and lists are by definition fatally flawed. Furthermore, they only ask current writers, 125 of them. No critics or academics, or people from the street.

The authors don't seem too aware of the limitations of the concept, saying that this is "the most authoritative guide yet to the world's most extraordinary books." Hardly. They then go on to make sublists from the main rankings, e.g the top ten works by American authors, or the tope ten mysteries, even though this method must be suspect statistically, since this is not what the people were asked to rank.

That does not mean it wouldn't be interesting to see what people think.... But unfortunately the lists seems as obvious and cliched as a Britney Spears joke. Here are their top ten:

1. Anna Karenina
2. Madame Bovary
3. War and Peace
4. Lolita
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
6. Hamlet
7. The Great Gatsby
8. In Search of Lost Time
9. The stories of Anton Chekhov
10. Middlemarch

I will admit right away that I have only read 5, 6, 7, and 10. But really, is Anna Karenina really the best novel EVER written? How many people read it today? Does it move them? Do they cry, or send copies to all their friend, imploring them to read it?

They then go on to describe all 544 books mentioned by any one writer, stating that all these books are worthy of reading. But from looking at the descriptions of many of them, I am not inclined to pick up many of them. Oh sure, I should read Faulker, I'll try Chekhov, and give the Madame Bovary one more try. But in general, their great books did not seem great to me. Maybe I should pick five at random and read them and then decide.

Here is my list, more than ten, in no order, and not all novels. I am sure I am forgetting many, many books.

The novels of Raymond Chandler
Gain by Richard Powers
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Eye of the Heart (collection of short stories by Latin American writers)
Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The novels of Charles Dickens, all of them
The Odyssey by Homer
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
The novels of Jane Austen, all of them
Daisy Miller by Henry James
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
The works of Italo Calvino
Ship of Fools and Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter
The novels of Barbara Pym
The USA Trilogy by John Dos Passos
The autobiographical works of Simone de Beauvoir especially La jeune fille rangee
Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier
Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice
L'Ecume des Jours by Boris Vian
The poems of Paul Verlaine
The Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
The Lorax and The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss
The Betsy, Tacy and Tib novels by Maud Hart

Oh and many more. I suppose it would be hard to narrow it down to ten. My absolute favorite, Life: A User's Manual, was a book I recommended to just one person, and they did not even like it.

What would you have on your list?