North & South Goodness

[dangermousie]

I, like many people on my flist, have been discovering the goodness that is the BBC adaptation of Mrs. Gaskell's novel. I read N&S a few years back when I was going through a Gaskell binge (I also recommend Cranford, Wives and Daughters, Mary Barton (another labor novel), Ruth, My Lady Ludlow, Cousin Phillips, Sylvia's Lovers (a flawed book but a

Comments

[lesbiassparrow]

I can't believe I missed this adaptation until last week! I've only read a few of Gaskill's works but I think she is underrated. And how is this for blashemy - I think this is so much better a book than Hard Times in its representation of the North and industry.

I have ordered the DVDs (I haven't seen the last one yet) and am in agony because they have not arrived yet.

[dangermousie]

Yeah, I do think she is underrated and I agree it's better than HT. But then, much as I adore Dickens at his best (Our Mutual Friend, Nicholas Nickleby, Great Expectations etc), HT is my least favorite of his books.

[lesbiassparrow]

Well. HT never recovered from me having to read it in school (sadly neither did Great Expectations). Gaskell used to be on the school syllabus...perhaps I should be glad I missed her until college!

[neadods]

HT never recovered from me having to read it in school

I like Hard Times, and I still admit that its only use in a school is as a textbook example of How Not To Write Anything.

[dangermousie]

Heh.

We had to read an abridged (!!!!) version of GE in school (as well as an abridged version of Les Mis. I think it's a horrifying insanity to assign abridged books but that's a rant for another time) and I found a proper copy and loved it.

HT I read on my own and still meh. I am afraid it's just the book :P

[lesbiassparrow]

I think they had some bizarre notion in Ireland that it would grip up because it was all about students caught in this awful system and struggling to grow up in this confined athmosphere. Of course, I see that looking back, but I didn't when I was 16. Nor did anyone else. At least it was better than the books we had to read in Irish, which made Dickens look like a feast for young minds...

[dangermousie]

You mean you know Irish-Gaelic? I am really impressed. One of my friends was a linguistics major in college and her specialty was Gaelic languages and from what I can tell they were really hard. (I also took Welsh with her which was severely fun as there were only 8 of us and we met in the Prof's study and he made us tea, but that's another story).

[lesbiassparrow]

Gaelic indeed - every Irish child has to learn it. I spent a chunk of my life living in the Irish speaking part of Ireland, but haven't spoken it for about 20 years. I am teaching a directed study in beginning Irish at the school where I teach and I fear for the student, because going back over the grammar I realise how horrifically different it is from the other European languages.

I can't understand Welsh at all - it looks even more impossible than Irish!

[dangermousie]

I took 2 semesters of Welsh and got an A in both of them but I am afraid I've forgotten it and the only things I can do in it now, other than read it correctly is order a rabbit and a cup of tea :P