Toibin’s Ireland Dear friends and readers, It’s about time I wrote in praise of Colm Toibin, of his biographical and critical essays, of his novels, his biographical fiction, his travel books. I can’t think of any writer as originally thoughtful, perceptive, humane, quietly iconoclastic, informative, absorbing, who reads authors as interesting or simply writes as [...]
Archive for the ‘henry james’ Category
In praise of Colm Toibin: un-put-downable
Posted in 20th century culture, colm toibin, henry james, Henry James, men's memoirs, novels of sensibility, sexual experience, women's ilves, tagged Colm Toibin on April 25, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Movies out of 19th century sources: real (novels, memoirs, histories) and pseudo (modern historical-costume drama): the question of Trollope’s place
Posted in 18th century novels, 19th century novels, Costume drama, Film adaptations, film studies, henry james, Trollope, tagged clarissa, Golden Bowl, Hardy films, James films, pallisers, portrait of a lady, simon raven on December 23, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Isabel Collard (Christine Kavanagh) accused of murdering her brother-in-law and lover, Roger (James Faulkner) and mother-in-law, Harriet Collard (Judy Parfitt) (Blackheath Poisonings, 1992) Dear friends and readers, Now I’ve re-watched all 26 episodes of the Palliser films, re-read all my blogs, and am watching for a second time Simon Raven’s 1992 adaptation of Julian Symons’s [...]
Jane Campion’s Portrait of a Lady: unusually Jamesian
Posted in 19th century novels, Costume drama, feminism, Film adaptations, henry james, Henry James, Movies, tagged Jane Campion, john malkovich, kate field, nicole kidman, portrait of a lady on June 19, 2010 | 13 Comments »
Isabel Archer (Nicole Kidman) Dear friends and readers, I carried on with my study and comparison of films based on 18th and films based on 19th century matter, and earlier this week watched Jane Campion’s brilliant effective film adaptation of Henry James’s novel, The Portrait of a Lady, screenplay Laura Jones, produced by Steve Golin [...]
Pallisers 12:25: The duchess, our heroine’s dying begins; why her daughter and Silverbridge’s fates mean so much to her
Posted in 19th century novels, Film adaptations, henry james, political novels/films, Trollope, Uncategorized, tagged Jeremy Irons, pallisers on April 29, 2010 | 3 Comments »
The Duke helping a very sick Duchess (Susan Hampshire) away from the Ruined Priory Dear Friends and readers, After a six month-hiatus, I return to the 1974 BBC Palliser series once again to conclude my study of this magnificent film cycle, 1:1-8:17 on the old blog, and 9:18-2:24 thus far on this. Three films cover [...]
Boris Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago: an apolitical political novel for our times
Posted in 20th century culture, Andrew Davies, henry james, political novels/films, Trollope, tagged boris pasternak, david lean, George Meredith on March 24, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Yuri (Hans Matheson) looking out from the army train (2002 Dr Zhivago) What he sees: countryside Town Guns Dear friends and readers, About a week ago, I finished listening to Philip Madoc read aloud the whole of Boris Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago, probably as translated by Manya Harari and Max Hayward. I would like to share [...]
The homoerotic Davies: Tipping the Velvet, Line of Beauty, Room with a View, Fanny Hill
Posted in 18th century novels, 19th century novels, Andrew Davies, Film adaptations, henry james, womens' films, tagged fanny hill, john cleland, line of beauty, passage to india, room with a view, sarah davis, tipping the velvet on February 1, 2010 | 12 Comments »
Nick Guest (Dan Steevens), opening shot of hopeful young man dazzled by wealth, power (Line of Beauty, 2006) Nan Astley (Rachel Stirling) and Florence Banner (Jodhi May), closing moments, seasoned real friendship, bravely going to introduce themselves to family (Tipping the Velvet, 2002) Dear friends and readers, I decided to group the remaining Andrew Davies [...]
Another year in reading
Posted in 18th century novels, 19th century novels, Anne Bronte, henry james, Samuel Richardson, women's novels, women's art, womens' films, tagged George Meredith, Iris Origo, Margaret Drabble, mary cassatt on January 5, 2010 | 17 Comments »
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), The Cup of Tea (1879) Again Cassatt, again her sister, Lydia, this time At the Tapestry Loom (1881) (we went to a wonderful show and lecture on her art at the National Women’s Museum of Art in DC this year) Dear Readers and friends, Over on Reveries under the Sign of Austen, [...]
Costume drama movies ca 1960s to 80s: Daisy Miller and The Europeans (with comments on Maurice, Jefferson in Paris, and the 2009 Emma)
Posted in Costume drama, Film adaptations, henry james, Movies, womens' films, tagged cranford, jefferson in paris, maurice, merchant-ivory-jhabvala on November 15, 2009 | 15 Comments »
Gertrude Wentworth (Lisa Eichhorn) in landscape with gazebo, 1979 Merchant-Ivory-Jhabvala Europeans Daisy (Cybill Shepherd) and Winterbourne (Barry Brown) watch a Punch and Judy show, 1974 Bogdanovich Daisy Miller Dear Friends, I’ve been thinking about a specific period of costume drama that is not done sufficient justice to, partly because it’s not recognized as a period [...]
