Cranford
They've been showing BBC's Cranford on Swedish telly the last couple of weeks, and tonight it was the penultimate episode. I've enjoyed it very much, even if the episodes have been so SAD. I wasn't prepared for so much melodrama. Embarrassingly enough I never finished reading Cranford all those years ago, but I still had it in my shelves, so tonight I just HAD to read it. Four hours later I'm in love with Elizabeth Gaskell. Such comedy! I was a bit confused during my reading since a lot of characters from the tv series weren't in the book, and the series still felt very Gaskell-ian, but after checking wiki I realized that of course there were a few more short stories, and an article, that they had incorporated into the adaptation of Cranford. Pretty well done, even if I still have to read those two short stories - My Lady Ludlow and Mr. Harrison's Confessions
They did keep quite a lot of the dialogue from Cranford though, even if they seem to have ditched Signor Brunoni, the magician. All those wonderful women! "Cranford is in the possession of the Amazons" indeed. I completely understand why I didn't "get" the book when I was 15, too subtle in many ways, the whole community and social comedy thing. Last year I read Wives and Daughters for the Victorian fiction course, and there were many elements from Cranford there too, but so much longer and more complicated, just as North&South (which I only half read, but fully watched, of course, Richard Armitage ftw!) and Ruth (never finished, but interesting!) are. Cranford is much fluffier, even if the drama and sadness is very present in the background. It's not as political in some ways, which I suppose is both good and bad, but Gaskell is so good at capturing all the subtles problems within a small community of women..
Yeah, I didn't mean to read the whole book, but when I'd got started I just couldn't stop. My poor exam.. and tomorrow there's the performance of the Taming of the Shrew to watch in the afternoon AND that means that I'll miss Merlin's premiere on Swedish telly. Too bad. I've told mum to watch! I haven't re-watched the first episodes so I hope I will enjoy it as much as I did a few months ago.
They did keep quite a lot of the dialogue from Cranford though, even if they seem to have ditched Signor Brunoni, the magician. All those wonderful women! "Cranford is in the possession of the Amazons" indeed. I completely understand why I didn't "get" the book when I was 15, too subtle in many ways, the whole community and social comedy thing. Last year I read Wives and Daughters for the Victorian fiction course, and there were many elements from Cranford there too, but so much longer and more complicated, just as North&South (which I only half read, but fully watched, of course, Richard Armitage ftw!) and Ruth (never finished, but interesting!) are. Cranford is much fluffier, even if the drama and sadness is very present in the background. It's not as political in some ways, which I suppose is both good and bad, but Gaskell is so good at capturing all the subtles problems within a small community of women..
Yeah, I didn't mean to read the whole book, but when I'd got started I just couldn't stop. My poor exam.. and tomorrow there's the performance of the Taming of the Shrew to watch in the afternoon AND that means that I'll miss Merlin's premiere on Swedish telly. Too bad. I've told mum to watch! I haven't re-watched the first episodes so I hope I will enjoy it as much as I did a few months ago.