I guess to be original I could use "In which" instead of "where" — from what I remember, all the chapter titles in Vanity Fair follow that pattern. Anyway, Charlotte, not that this is anything new, but I like the idea. ;)

I will try to make this short and sweet but there are a lot of random things to share!


New layout! Well, since the past week or so. I love how the colours in the layout match so well with the background — I didn't touch a thing. And the Marie Antoinette icon (by dragonclouds) fits perfectly — soft and spring-like. It just makes me happy! (Layout by knotloved and background by appletooth.)

- I'm very tempted to have a Jane Austen movie marathon — but not her adaptations. Rather, the "biographies" — Becoming Jane and Miss Austen Regrets would be extremely fun together, methinks. This comes from my finally finishing Just Jane by Nancy Moser, a fictional autobiography/novel. It was very nice, starting from her early twenties (with Tom LeFroy, thankfully a minor event) to her blossoming success and writing of Persuasion. It is bizarre knowing how things go, though. I liked learning more about her family. Another wonderful novel is The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James. It's much more fictional and focuses on a smaller part of Jane's life (and "possible" love affair). I recommend it! I've also got Cassandra's Sister by Veronica Bennett still sitting on my bookshelf at home, waiting to be read. Yet one can never have too many Jane Austen-related books!

Oh, dear, I'm failing miserably with length already. ( Etsy purchase, Music, Blogs, &c. )

This bring me to a question: Does anyone know if you can add RSS feeds to your LJ friends list in any way? I know that someone can created a syndicated LJ account that will post there blog here on LJ, but is there anyway to incorporate other blogs onto my f-list? I'd love a way to easily see updates but I'm not going to constantly be checking these individually.


- I've crawled out from the rock under which I've been hiding! I've started watching Twilight. ( &c. )

I do believe that's it. I've got some real life updates but I'll post those separately — there's enough here as it is. (That'll make you think twice about wishing I ever updated more — not that any of you do, but in theory...)

The Dashwood Sisters' Secrets of Love by Rosie Rushton

So... if you've heard anything about this book, you probably already know what a waste of time it is. I picked it up at the library having never heard about it, and of course I would want to read a modern-day version of Sense and Sensibility. Even the bad reviews I read once I got home didn't deter me from reading it.

The result? It really was awful. Yet for some reason, I enjoyed it just enough to keep reading. I say this is a combination of my picturing the Dashwood girls as the recent cast of the 2008 BBC miniseries: Hattie Morahan, Charity Wakefield, Lucy Boynton and Janet McTeer, all in their period hairstyles with "modern clothes." Trust me, it was bizarre. Elinor and Margaret (or "Ellie" and "Georgie") were in overalls, for some reason, and Marianne (or "Abby") was in a red shirt and a black skirt. I don't know why I picture things like I do, but whenever I read a book, settings and characters just look a certain way and then I'm stuck. :P

So, as much as the premise of this book sounds like a good idea — bringing Jane Austen's beloved Sense and Sensibility to the modern teenage world, à la Clueless — it really didn't work here. At all.

There was no character and no storyline that came close to anything half as good as the original. What really bugged me was the pace of the whole thing — the author spent the first half of the novel on the weird situation with "Mr. Dashwood" — who, in this version, has run out on his wife and daughters and married a bimbo half his age. He then dies suddenly of a heart attack, and, as a result of his leaving the estate "Holly House" to his new wife, leaves his old family homeless and penniless. I much prefer Austen's short but satisfying introduction on the Dashwoods, with a loving husband who had nothing to do with the estate being "taken" from the girls.

After all of this boring setup, the rest of the story whizzes by and leaves you wondering where the "fairy tale romances" happened.

Edward — excuse me, "Blake" — is going out with Lucy for no believable reason, and unlike the Austen original, is very much a jerk in that he is not excused for his treatment of Elinor. I mean, Ellie thinks he is a jerk and is angry at him during parts of the book, which is completely untrue in S&S. Then again, I don't know how you would modernize the Edward/Lucy story without tarnishing Edward's charcter, but still...

Abby/Marianne is the most superficial brat who also manipulates anyone she has to to get what she wants — which is usually a date with the hottest "it" boy and drinks at the club. (Keep in mind that she's only sixteen, so I don't know why she is clubbing so easily...) Her relationship with Willoughby/"Hunter" is predictable and pointless — he's the hot, super-rich, arrogant guy who everyone can see is bad news except for Abby. Whereas everyone is supposed to be charmed by Willoughby, so it doesn't add up. The Colonel Brandon/"Nick" character was sweet, though I don't understand why he would ever fall in love with Abby.

Margaret also gets her own storyline/romance. In this version, her name is Georgina (or is it Georgiana? "Georgie" for short.) She's thirteen and is a tomboy who also has a boyfriend by the end of the book. *facepalm*

So, my final advice would be — don't waste your time. Unless, like me, you can't resist and your curiosity gets the better of you, and you feel like something mindless to read.

As a side note, it turns out that this author has written two other teen Jane Austen "remakes" — one of Northanger Abbey and one of Emma. Eeek! Check them out.

Why are all these Jane Austen tributes so terrible? It's like Debra White Smith all over again.

I'm not sure why I gave this so much space, but I really felt like reviewing something. :P Like a big check mark, ticking something off of my ever-growing reading list and accomplishing something, heehee.

In no particular order:

Remember that Robin Jones Gunn contest I entered? I WON!!!! Along with nineteen other people, I won an autographed copy of Sisterchicks Go Brit!. I'm so excited because, a) it's about England, so that puts it at the top of the Sisterchick list, and b) IT'S SIGNED BY MY FAVOURITE MODERN AUTHOR!!!!!!!! How amazingly exciting. I still can't believe it.

There's another 1991 version of Robin Hood that I just recently discovered, via UKTV's list of the top 10 Robins. Shortly after, it was on TV so I couldn't help but watch it. The most exciting part? David Morrissey plays Little John! That takes my interest level up by few thousand. Not exactly George Kennedy, eh? But a very good Little John nonetheless. And they had a Much the Miller, and Will Scarlett was Robin's right-hand man. And Uma Thurman was Marian, which bizarre. She had the modern girl spirit, but still, I much prefer Lucy Griffiths. I didn't like that Robin and Marian didn't know each other before the story began — I like the idea that they have they're own complicated history. This version also focused on the tension between the Saxons and the Normands (eek, spelling?) which I didn't know was part of the "Robin Hood" story. So all in all, it's been worth watching, but nothing worth keeping. But I did like this quote:

Maid Marian: [watching Sir Miles Folcanet ride away from them] My future husband is sulking.
Will Scarlett: [watching Robin Hood ride up to them] Oh, I don't know, he looks quite happy to me.

I'm sooooo addicted to The Supersizers Go... TV series. It's about two people who go "back in time" for a week and eat only the food of that period. It's fascinating and usually very disgusting. (A Victorian boiled calf's head, anyone? Or a Restoration pie with every kind of meat you can imagine, including whole chickens heads?) They also experience how the people of that time lived — roles of the wife and husband, things they did for pleasure, how they entertained, etc. It's very funny and educational, and Sue Perkins and Giles Coren make a great team. I started a little backwards and watched the Victorian episode first, followed by the Restoration and the Wartime episodes. I'm most looking forward to the "Regency" episode! I just love seeing history and how people used to live...

David Morrissey and Lucy Griffiths to be in a new ITV film about a stalker. At first I thought David Morrissey was going to be the stalker which wouldn't be hard to picture given his Bradley Headstone role in Our Mutual Friend, but no, he plays the guy being stalked. Lucy plays a new love interest... Should be interesting.

Lots of new dramas from the BBC. There's a new Little Dorrit in the making, whose cast includes Freema Agyeman and Matthew Macfadyen! The BBC always does wonderful Dickens adaptations, so my hopes are high. Yet it sounds like they're trying to cash in on the success of Bleak House:

Adapted by acclaimed writer Andrew Davies (Sense And Sensibility, Bleak House) Little Dorrit will play out in soap opera format with 14 half-hour episodes following an initial hour-long episode.

Also, it looks like Tess of the D'Urbervilles is the next fall drama for the BBC. I've never read the book (by Thomas Hardy) but I know enough of the story. I prefer happy stories, but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy this — I guess I'm just not looking forward to it as much. but oooh, Hans Matheson!

I finally got to the library today and picked up A Room With a View by E.M. that I've been wanting to read for ages. I also found Mansfield Park (1983) and Vanity Fair (1998) on DVD, and the books Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman (which looks good and has good reviews) and The Dashwood Sisters' Secret of Love by Rosie Rushton, which has less-than-favourable reviews but looked too fun to pass up. (It seems like the other five Austen novels are much more neglected, so a Sense and Sensibility remake/tribute is at the very least a fun read... hopefully.) It's exciting having some books that I want to read! I've been in a lull for awhile.

And last but not least, I watched The War Bride the other day with Anna Friel and I really enjoyed it. It's about a London girl in WWII who falls in love with and marries a Canadian soldier. Soon she finds herself sent with her little girl to live with his family in the prairies of Alberta. Nothing extremely unique, but it was still well done — good acting — and a very enjoyable story about history and romance and enjoying life through hardship. Definitely worth watching.

Oops, one more thing — I found this video on YouTube which features the 1976 version of Our Mutual Friend. I though some of you fellow OMF fans would like to see it. I wish I could see the actual series... (And how bizarre to see other actors playing Bella, John, Lizzie and Eugene?!)

I saw Prince Caspian today with my dad and it was sooooooo amazing! Anyone who says otherwise doesn't understand the Chronicles if you ask me. :P ( I don't even know where to begin )

I wasn't expecting to be touched like that, but it was awesome to be reminded of God's character. Seriously, Aslan is amazing and I always think of God when I watch Narnia.

And yes, this wasn't the best movie as far as storyline goes, but you have to see it all as a bigger picture — this is just a part of the Chronicles of Narnia, connecting one part of the story to another. I think the next film — The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will have a lot more to work with, so I'm really looking forward to that. I also can't wait for The Silver Chair — I think that will make a fantastic movie!


ETA: Ohmygoodness, I can't believe I reviewed the first movie on my LJ when it came out. I've had this journal for that long! And I've been using it regularly too. (If you're curious, you can find my "review" for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe here.) I must say, I didn't go into much depth! And it also sounds like I had just read the book before seeing the movie.

Part Three is done! Whew, that means I'm finally finished. This has been fun, and I hope you've enjoyed reading/watching as well!

( &c. )

And we're done! I just love that miniseries, and personally I prefer it to the 1995 movie, but that's just my taste. ;) Both versions are so different that it really depends on what style you like best, and what you think about the actors... You have to admit, though, it's nice that these actors are closer to the characters' real ages, and it is all very pretty!

You can see part one here and part two here.

I finally did it! Two down, one to go. ;) I'm sorry this took a little while — after the last picspam, I wasn't feeling like making another too soon afterwards. I think I did most of this today, actually. It feels like I went crazy, but I don't think there's any more pictures than last time.

I'm glad that so many of you enjoyed the first part that I did. Hope you enjoy this second part!


( &c. )

(three_nails, I hope it's okay that I'm using your "preview" idea! It's cause you're so smart and creative. ;D)

You can find part one of this picspam here.