RECOMMENDATION SUNDAY
Been a long time!
BOOK: Last month I read Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton for my Women & Work class.* I hadn't heard great things about it, but I ended up really enjoying it. One does feel that it's a first book - it begins as a social problem novel and ends as a murder mystery (though the same could be said of Bleak House). However, Gaskell shows her characteristic ability to render exciting scenes that leap off the page - there are a couple in here to rival the riot in North & South. Mary is not the darling heroine Molly Gibson is, but I found her story engaging. And Gaskell's passion for righting the wrongs of the working classes pervades the book. Overall, it's a good read, and particularly interesting when seen as a sort of sociopolitical prequel to N&S. And the potential's there for a really great movie! Are you listening, BBC?
FILM: Speaking of Bleak House, my roommate decided to start watching it last night and I was reminded of a what a creative, intriguing adaptation it is. At first unsettling - perhaps off-putting - because of the dark scenes and jolting camera work, the miniseries definitely draws you in with its slowly increasing circle of connected characters and the pervading sense of buried secrets waiting to be unearthed. Add in a fantastic cast of actors and you have an adaptation which is, in certain ways, more effective than the book.
SONG: The commercials for V got Muse's Uprising stuck in my head for most of last week. A remarkably satisfying song to shout along to! And an anthem fitting to the 'condition of the underclasses' theme of this week's recommendations.
*Awesome fact: another of my profs edited the critical edition.
BOOK: Last month I read Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton for my Women & Work class.* I hadn't heard great things about it, but I ended up really enjoying it. One does feel that it's a first book - it begins as a social problem novel and ends as a murder mystery (though the same could be said of Bleak House). However, Gaskell shows her characteristic ability to render exciting scenes that leap off the page - there are a couple in here to rival the riot in North & South. Mary is not the darling heroine Molly Gibson is, but I found her story engaging. And Gaskell's passion for righting the wrongs of the working classes pervades the book. Overall, it's a good read, and particularly interesting when seen as a sort of sociopolitical prequel to N&S. And the potential's there for a really great movie! Are you listening, BBC?
FILM: Speaking of Bleak House, my roommate decided to start watching it last night and I was reminded of a what a creative, intriguing adaptation it is. At first unsettling - perhaps off-putting - because of the dark scenes and jolting camera work, the miniseries definitely draws you in with its slowly increasing circle of connected characters and the pervading sense of buried secrets waiting to be unearthed. Add in a fantastic cast of actors and you have an adaptation which is, in certain ways, more effective than the book.
SONG: The commercials for V got Muse's Uprising stuck in my head for most of last week. A remarkably satisfying song to shout along to! And an anthem fitting to the 'condition of the underclasses' theme of this week's recommendations.
*Awesome fact: another of my profs edited the critical edition.