Ronald Colman as Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities, said to be his favorite role Dear all, Last week I managed to watch a digitally restored, almost complete (137 minutes) version of the once famous 1937 Lost Horizon, directed by Frank Capra, screenplay Robert Riskin from James Hilton’s 1933 utopian/dystopian novel of the [...]
Archive for June, 2009
Ronald Colman movies: Lost Horizon and Random Harvest
Posted in 20th century culture, Film adaptations, Movies, ronald colman, Uncategorized, tagged classic movies, greer garson, psychological stars on June 30, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Eveline Hasler’s life of Emily Kempin-Spyri
Posted in 18th century, Anne Bronte, feminism, political novels/films, Theater, translation art, women's novels, tagged emily kempin-spyri, eveline hasler on June 24, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Dear Friends, While away on a brief trip to a friend, I managed to read at night an English translation by Edna McCown of Eveline Hasler’s Flying with Wings of Wax, biographical fictional life of the first woman to achieve a law degree in Zurich, Emily Kempin-Spyri (1853-1901). Hasler’s book as translated by McCown is [...]
A survey of editions of Jane Austen in the last 25 years or so
Posted in 18th century, Austen, Film adaptations, Movies, translation art, women's novels, tagged Isabelle de Montolieu on June 18, 2009 | 22 Comments »
“I think [Lionel Trilling]’s very strange. He says that ‘nobody’ could like the heroine of Mansfield Park. I like her” (from Whit Stillman’s 1990 Metropolitan Audrey Rouget [Carolyn Farina] to Tom Townsend [Edward Clements]) Dear all, I’m chuffed to be able to say the Jane Austen online magazine has decided to feature the series of [...]
1974 BBC Pallisers, 9:18-10:20, Summary of Parts and Themes, with Transcripts of especially good Scenes
Posted in 19th century novels, Austen, Costume drama, Film adaptations, political novels/films, Trollope, tagged ang lee, emma thompson, Jeremy Irons, kate nicholls, pallisers, simon raven, stuart wilson on June 16, 2009 | 14 Comments »
“We must go out there” (and face the world, a young and older woman’s entrance into the world, last still from 10:20) Dear Friends, Though it’s been a number of months (again) since I last posted about the 1974 BBC Pallisers series, I am still working my way slowly through all the Parts. I’ve decided [...]
And quite enough books to be going on with: Forster & Jhabvala’s Howards’ End; Nicola Beauman’s The Other Elizabeth Taylor
Posted in Austen, Costume drama, Film adaptations, novels of sensibility, Uncategorized, women's novels, women's art, tagged forster, howards end, Jhabvala, nicola beauman on June 9, 2009 | 12 Comments »
. . . and quite enough friends to be going on with; bookshops; galleries; gardens — Fleur Adcock, “Instead of an Interview” Dear Friends, The header for these many postings about books I’m reading for pleasure, insight, comfort are a play on Fleur Adcock’s lines in a sonnet. Since I last wrote of books I’m [...]
Formalist poetry by men: Birchall, Hollander’s “Movie-Going,” Hecht’s “Proust on Skates”; Empson’s villanelles
Posted in 18th century, Movies, Poetry on June 4, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Dear Friends, This blog is occasioned by my having discovered that the review I wrote for “Ellen and Jim have a blog, too” of Peter Birchall’s poetry collection, Nature, Nonsense, & Foreign Parts, escaped Jim and my vigilance. Rather than just reprint what I said then, I’d prefer tonight to print less of his lines [...]
Il Giuramento
Posted in gothic, Music, Plays on June 2, 2009 | 1 Comment »
So on Sunday we went to hear the Washington Concert Opera’s version of Saverio Mercadante’s Il Giuramento: Elizabeth Futral as Elaisa, Krisztina Szabó as Bianca, James Valenti as Viscardo and Donny Ray Albert as Manfredo. At dinner afterwards (at Tonic at Quigley’s Pharmacy) we wondered why this opera had disappeared from the repertoire when many [...]
