Happy Birthday Miss Austen!!!

Also read again and for the third time at least Miss Austen's very finely written novel of Pride and Prejudice. That young lady had a talent for describing the involvement and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going, but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied to me. What a pity such a gifted creature died so early!
-Sir Walter Scott

Happy Birthday Jane Austen!

According to several blogs that celebrate all things Austen, Sourcebook is making many of their Austen spin-off titles available free in the electronic format in order to celebrate this special day!  Check out the link below for details...

Free Jane Austen books!

I can't say that I have ever read a bad Jane Austen book,  but my favorite would have to be Persuasion.  It is a work that holds such realistic and controlled optimism that  I never fail to be amazed by it.  I find it a bit less cynical, but every bit as humorous as P&P or Sense and Sensibility.  If you haven't read Austen, pick up any of her books and give it a go.  You really don't know what you're missing.  Oh and by all means check out the literary adaptations of her work.  There are several that are spectacular, including the 1995 version of Persuasion starring Amanda Root and the always wonderful Ciaran Hinds...





  

A Picture is Worth a Thousands Words...

Today's Top 5 Tuesday features a topic near and dear to most lovers of genre fiction, literary adaptations.  I love seeing my favorite books come to life with gorgeous characters and settings.  I am sometimes amazed, often times perplexed as to how the director/writers vision of the work matches up with the original.  What follows is a list of my top 5 favorite literary adaptations and if you notice that the BBC is well represented on the list, well, what can I say?  Obviously, those Brits know their way around this whole adaptation business.

Pride and Prejudice - BBC- 1995
The best of the best!  Firth and Ehle and an amazing screenplay create this excellent version of Jane Austen's classic!  Adaptations do not get better than this.

Jane Eyre - BBC - 1983
Of the over 25 film and television versions of Jane Eyre that I have experienced, this is the definitive version.  Yes, the production's look is a bit dated, but the length allowed for a full exploration of Charlotte Bronte's classic text.  And while many still think that Timothy Dalton was too attractive to be Rochester, he was masterful in the role, so I graciously overlooked his hotness.  

Little Dorrit - BBC- 2008/2009
Another amazing Andrew Davies success!  Davies script, along with outstanding performances from Matthew MacFayden, Claire Foy and Tom Courtenay, made Dicken's sprawling tale accessible, romantic and incredibly moving.

North and South - BBC- 2004
Richard Armitage as Thornton.  What?  Isn't that enough?

The Uninvited -Paramount - 1944
This 1944 Paramount production based on Dorothy Macardle's fantastic haunted house novel, breaks the BBC's stranglehold on my top 5.  The film features excellent performances by Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey along with a script that stays incredibly faithful to the original.  This film manages to be simultaneously charming and scary as hell.  If you haven't had the pleasure, I recommend renting it immediately.

Pride and Prejudice (Restored Edition)
Jane Eyre (BBC, 1983)
Little Dorrit
North & South
The Uninvited (1944)