North and South, Spooks
Velp, I finished North and South. Three days. Not a record for me but sooner than I was expecting. I admit I stayed up until about 3:00 last night reading it madly, and then read the last couple of chapters this afternoon after I got home from school. There are few books I care enough about to stay up late for, but every now and again a book comes along that sets my blood racing and makes me indulge in a mad race against time to engulf it and find out what happens as soon as possible. When that happens I just keep reading come hell or high water until I've finished. In this case I was of course enthralled by the love story and mad to find out how it's resolved and what happens. Hence the midnight reading-I'd read about him proposing yesterday afternoon and then picked up the book right before going to bed planning on just reading five minutes. Well, we all know how that goes!:D Great book- I loved it. Margaret, especially I though was a really unusual and well-developed character-I can see why Elizabeth Gaskell was going to call her book Margaret Hale before her publisher convinced her otherwise. It was a wise decision though-book titles referring generically to clashes are just more effective than those referring to a single character, no matter how unusual and fantastic that character is. Which is why P&P is called Pride and Prejudice and not Elizabeth Bennet-and so on and so forth. In the case of Jane Eyre, well, in that case there really is sufficient reason for calling it after the main character-Jane is the sole and complete focus with no emphasis on Rochester except as relates to her and no relating to broader issues with social and political ramifications like in N&S and P&P. But I'm soo glad I read it-fabulously wonderful,especially in the descriptions of Mr. Thornton's "baffled passion"-lovely phrase, that, it caught at me because I'd never heard one quite like it before and of course it's so appropriate as he storms away, much like Darcy, miserable, furious, and stunned after being summararily and scornfully rejected. The similarities between those two scenes and in fact the two books, by the way, is incredible, he he. Probably why I like them both so much. But I would be curious as to who wrote theirs first-Jane Austen came first, right, and Elizabeth Gaskell came much later? I read somewhere, can't remember where, that Charlotte Bronte and Elizabeth Gaskell were good friends and wrote to each other frequently. I think that's a lovely idea. Much more on the book later with some of my favorite quotes, but for now, here's how I would rate the four or so top romances from the 18th/19th century that I've read;
Pride and Prejudice
Villette/Jane Eyre
Emma/Mansfield Park
North and South
all other Jane Austen books
Wuthering Heights
A Room with a View(although it's less of a romance than these others are)
I Capture the Castle
Also, two lovely batches of N&S icons I found here and here
(Teasers:
)
Hmm, I can now get the movie sometime in the next week. Unfortunately I share the Netlfix account with my two brothers who have insisted on getting the last two discs of season 3 of Spooks to watch instead. I love Spooks, although I haven't decided whether I still do now that Matthew and Keeley are gone and it's taken such a radical turn in style and focus, but I must say I would throw those two discs out in a second for North and South. Ah well. All in good time. Btw, what do you guys think of Spooks after Tom left? I was perfectly willing to give it a chance in spite of the devestating lack of Tom and the equal blow of losing Zoe, who were obviously my two favorite characters by far, if it had just continued in the same style and content. But it's apparently completely switched focus, they obviously rejuvenated it under a new director or something as the whole feel of the show is suddenly and completely different. It's now got lots of subtle-and not-so-subtle political agendas and leanings, a completely different sort of dialogue and different balancing of the characters' personal and professional lives, and even different music and camera shots. Ugh! But the most infuriating thing is that slowly but surely they got rid of all the good characters. WHY??? Why DID they get rid of Tom closely followed by Zoe?(Unless of course it's because they'd already gotten married in real life and Keeley was pregnant or something like that-I did notice that in the last couple of episodes she seemed to have put on wait. Would one of you mind informing me? Because if so I forgive them wholeheartedly for abandoning the show, especially so awkwardly and hurriedly-at least that's what it felt like, as if the writers realized that they were going to leave at the last minute and had to hurriedly incorporate into the show the melodramatic ways that they got rid of their characters with) No, I haven't overlooked the gorgeous and luscious Adam, but my allegiance still remains to Tom-I like Adam but Tom had some sort of charisma that just intensified and deepened the whole show. Now that he's gone it all seems rather flat and blank. And no, it's not because I love him so much or anything! I really was willing to give the continuation a large chance because it's a great show, Adam is good, and if it had just gone on like it was would have been perfectly fine. Now it's by turns lousy and boring and very good but extremely depressing. Neither of which I can handle. My brothers have been giving good-to-middling reports but I've heard lots of it as I'm in and out and it's just darn depressing. *sigh* Such a pity. But then again we wouldn't have been able to watch futher than the third season anyway as Netflix doesn't go farther than that.
VM thought of the day:
Veronica: "I'm a little punchy; I haven't been sleeping."
Logan: "Thoughts of me? Hey, I get it. Um, sometimes I'm up all night just thinking about myself."
Right there. Why I love them. Great dialogue and chemistry. Considering that they've already broken up and are now pseudo-enemies.
ETA:(whatever the heck that means-what DOES it mean, by the way? I've seen so many people use it and just realized I have no idea what it means) Gaskell and Bronte were friends, according to Amazon-"Gaskell was the wife of a Unitarian pastor;
a liberal and reformer who was a good friend of Charlotte Bronte. "
Pride and Prejudice
Villette/Jane Eyre
Emma/Mansfield Park
North and South
all other Jane Austen books
Wuthering Heights
A Room with a View(although it's less of a romance than these others are)
I Capture the Castle
Also, two lovely batches of N&S icons I found here and here
(Teasers:
)
Hmm, I can now get the movie sometime in the next week. Unfortunately I share the Netlfix account with my two brothers who have insisted on getting the last two discs of season 3 of Spooks to watch instead. I love Spooks, although I haven't decided whether I still do now that Matthew and Keeley are gone and it's taken such a radical turn in style and focus, but I must say I would throw those two discs out in a second for North and South. Ah well. All in good time. Btw, what do you guys think of Spooks after Tom left? I was perfectly willing to give it a chance in spite of the devestating lack of Tom and the equal blow of losing Zoe, who were obviously my two favorite characters by far, if it had just continued in the same style and content. But it's apparently completely switched focus, they obviously rejuvenated it under a new director or something as the whole feel of the show is suddenly and completely different. It's now got lots of subtle-and not-so-subtle political agendas and leanings, a completely different sort of dialogue and different balancing of the characters' personal and professional lives, and even different music and camera shots. Ugh! But the most infuriating thing is that slowly but surely they got rid of all the good characters. WHY??? Why DID they get rid of Tom closely followed by Zoe?(Unless of course it's because they'd already gotten married in real life and Keeley was pregnant or something like that-I did notice that in the last couple of episodes she seemed to have put on wait. Would one of you mind informing me? Because if so I forgive them wholeheartedly for abandoning the show, especially so awkwardly and hurriedly-at least that's what it felt like, as if the writers realized that they were going to leave at the last minute and had to hurriedly incorporate into the show the melodramatic ways that they got rid of their characters with) No, I haven't overlooked the gorgeous and luscious Adam, but my allegiance still remains to Tom-I like Adam but Tom had some sort of charisma that just intensified and deepened the whole show. Now that he's gone it all seems rather flat and blank. And no, it's not because I love him so much or anything! I really was willing to give the continuation a large chance because it's a great show, Adam is good, and if it had just gone on like it was would have been perfectly fine. Now it's by turns lousy and boring and very good but extremely depressing. Neither of which I can handle. My brothers have been giving good-to-middling reports but I've heard lots of it as I'm in and out and it's just darn depressing. *sigh* Such a pity. But then again we wouldn't have been able to watch futher than the third season anyway as Netflix doesn't go farther than that.
VM thought of the day:
Veronica: "I'm a little punchy; I haven't been sleeping."
Logan: "Thoughts of me? Hey, I get it. Um, sometimes I'm up all night just thinking about myself."
Right there. Why I love them. Great dialogue and chemistry. Considering that they've already broken up and are now pseudo-enemies.
ETA:(whatever the heck that means-what DOES it mean, by the way? I've seen so many people use it and just realized I have no idea what it means) Gaskell and Bronte were friends, according to Amazon-"Gaskell was the wife of a Unitarian pastor;
a liberal and reformer who was a good friend of Charlotte Bronte. "