Morwenna (Jane Wyman) about to be raped by her husband, Osborne Whitworth (Poldark 1977-78, second season) Near casual execution of a group of men who happen to have Ross among them (also season 2) Dear friends and readers, As I didn’t want to make another over-long blog, I’ve divided up what I want to say [...]
Archive for September, 2010
Winston Graham’s The Black Moon (Poldark novel 5, Pt 2, Cornwall 1794-95): violence the basis of order; coerced marriage as continual rape
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, Costume drama, feminism, Film adaptations, historical fiction, Poldark, Winston Graham, tagged coerced marriage, rape on September 30, 2010 | 10 Comments »
Winston Graham’s The Black Moon: Re-entry (Poldark novel 5, Pt 1, Cornwall 1794-95): the land, politics, love & marriage, young woman for sale
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, historical fiction, Poldark, political novels/films, Winston Graham, tagged coerced marriage, Cornwall, Ross Ellis on September 29, 2010 | 10 Comments »
Opening still from 2nd season of Poldark (1977-78) Dear friends and readers, The fifth Poldark novel, Black Moon, was written 20 years (1973) after the fourth, Warleggan (1953). It’s a richer book than the four previous: it moves in a leisurely way, has philosophical dialogues, reaches new levels in its depiction of what a coerced [...]
Winston Graham’s Poldark’s Cornwall: 3 types of historical fiction
Posted in 18th century, Autobiographical, Costume drama, historical fiction, men's memoirs, Poldark, political novels/films, Travel Writing, Winston Graham, tagged Cornwall, Poldark, travel book on September 19, 2010 | 14 Comments »
Godolphin House, Cornwall, used as Trenwith, the Poldark family home (1975-76 Poldark mini-series) Dear friends and readers, Tonight I had a familiar experience: the Admiral and I were on the way to a opera in DC, and as soon as we got into the car, and upon opening my latest Poldark novel, Black Moon (the [...]
Henry James’s Roderick Hudson: A novel of displaced homosexuality & thwarted self-development
Posted in 19th century novels, Andrew Davies, colm toibin, Edith Wharton, Henry James, Uncategorized, tagged Golden Bowl, homoeroticism, homosexuaity, Leon Edel, portrait of a lady, Princess Casamassima, Roderick Hudson on September 12, 2010 | 13 Comments »
Pool, Villa D’Este, Tivoli, from Edith Wharton’s Italian Villas and Gardens Dear friends and readers, Over the month of August on Trollope19thCStudies a very few of us read Henry James’s Roderick Hudson, if not James’s first novel, his earliest in print and still read. I had not read it since I was in my early [...]
How much our houses can mean: putting away one’s life, what was once close to hand, near to heart
Posted in Autobiographical, cats, Facebook, library books, Samuel Richardson, women's poetry, tagged clarissa, Our house on September 8, 2010 | 10 Comments »
To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive. — R. L. Stevenson Our house, 1984 (Jim’s mother, me, two daughters): it has not changed all that much Our backyard: you see Izzy’s windows last summer Dear [...]
