I watched the BBC 2008, version of, 'Sense & Sensibility', last night. My favourite had been the Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson movie but after watching this version I actually understood it and appreciated the actor's and how it was directed making it more credible. Understated would be the best description with a lot of recognizable British actor's but no stars, they actually brought the era and the nuance of Austen's writing to the forefront of the story.
The young woman I know are enthralled with Austen, being a Bronte fan I have found it hard to get into the character's however I have put that down to being a feminist. I also have a Yorkshire influenced background so living in a country parsonage makes more sense to me then a grand house with servants. Although the Bronte's had their servants, maybe paid for by the parish.
I have also spent more time in the north than the gentrified areas of Sussex and Devonshire. I have to say as a period piece it does capture the 18th century era. I have not checked the timeline of Austen's writing although I know it had to be near the era of the Napoleonic Wars. They are certainly not present in the scenes or spoken about neither are the hero's, Wellington or Nelson.
Jane Austen's awareness of emotion and female anxiety is brilliant. It struck me as how two hundred years later we are still dealing with similar emotions with a lot less support.
I have to tip my hat to the Austenite's and the British cast and Director of the BBC 2008 version, it gave me an interesting window into that era and the woman who helped shape it.
Tuesday 27 September 2011
Friday 23 September 2011
Jennie Churchill a celebrated life.
The DVD on TV series on Jennie Churchill. The series taken from a two part biography on Winston Churchill's Mother, Jennie Jerome. The series is Jennie's life from when she was a young woman and her meeting with Lord Randolph Churchill. Jennie an American, with an interesting family history, was a dark haired beauty of her day. Jennie's Mother moved her daughter's of whom I think were three to Paris. This is where Lord Randolph and Jennie meet. The intense affair of Jennie and Lord Randolph resulted in a pregnancy and a rushed marriage, and a love match of two intense personalities.
The famous story of Jennie, a restless person decided to ride out with her sister, Leone which resulted in Winston Churchill being born in the entry of Blenheim Palace. I have actually been in the small room where Britain's greatest leader was born. Blenheim Palace is today open to the public and you can see the Louis XIV furnitures and mural from the SunKing's Palace. The grounds are a wonderful place to visit with fountains and a bridge over a man made lake. The palace was given to his ancestor the Duke of Marlborough for his victories in Europe by Queen Anne.
Jennie Churchill was Lord Randolph's greatest supporter in his career as a politician and his attempt to be a Prime Minister. A great speaker who's life ended young from a disease that left him with a form of dementia. His son, Winston greatly admired his Father and went to Parliament to follow in his foot steps.
Jennie, had a long affair with a Russian, Count Kinsky. She then went on to marry a man the age of her sons, a guard's officer . The marriage lasted ten years until he went off to marry one of the great actress's of the day, Patsy Cornwallis-West.
Two of Jennie's greatest achievements were, besides her support of Lord Randolph, to organize a woman's group and raise enough funds to send a hospital ship to South Africa during the Boer War. Her other achievement was to start a magazine, 'The Anglo-Saxon', aimed at the American market.
Before her also untimely death, she married, Arthur Porch a businessman. Her life happy with her two sons married, and a growing number of grandchildren, Jennie fell down a flight of stairs and broke an ankle. She never recovered from the break and died of gangrene.
Winston Churchill, disappointment of his Mother's loss was twofold as he had hoped for her see him become Prime Minister. Jennie died in he early 1920's and Winston achieved his greatest post in 1940.
Of all the American woman, who married into the aristocracy of Britain, Jennie Jerome made the greatest contribution, by her support of her husband, Lord Randolph, and her son Winston.
In the series she is played by the American actor, Lee Remick,
The famous story of Jennie, a restless person decided to ride out with her sister, Leone which resulted in Winston Churchill being born in the entry of Blenheim Palace. I have actually been in the small room where Britain's greatest leader was born. Blenheim Palace is today open to the public and you can see the Louis XIV furnitures and mural from the SunKing's Palace. The grounds are a wonderful place to visit with fountains and a bridge over a man made lake. The palace was given to his ancestor the Duke of Marlborough for his victories in Europe by Queen Anne.
Jennie Churchill was Lord Randolph's greatest supporter in his career as a politician and his attempt to be a Prime Minister. A great speaker who's life ended young from a disease that left him with a form of dementia. His son, Winston greatly admired his Father and went to Parliament to follow in his foot steps.
Jennie, had a long affair with a Russian, Count Kinsky. She then went on to marry a man the age of her sons, a guard's officer . The marriage lasted ten years until he went off to marry one of the great actress's of the day, Patsy Cornwallis-West.
Two of Jennie's greatest achievements were, besides her support of Lord Randolph, to organize a woman's group and raise enough funds to send a hospital ship to South Africa during the Boer War. Her other achievement was to start a magazine, 'The Anglo-Saxon', aimed at the American market.
Before her also untimely death, she married, Arthur Porch a businessman. Her life happy with her two sons married, and a growing number of grandchildren, Jennie fell down a flight of stairs and broke an ankle. She never recovered from the break and died of gangrene.
Winston Churchill, disappointment of his Mother's loss was twofold as he had hoped for her see him become Prime Minister. Jennie died in he early 1920's and Winston achieved his greatest post in 1940.
Of all the American woman, who married into the aristocracy of Britain, Jennie Jerome made the greatest contribution, by her support of her husband, Lord Randolph, and her son Winston.
In the series she is played by the American actor, Lee Remick,
Wednesday 14 September 2011
'There was nothing to do but wait - and dance,' DeCourcy / 'We met on VJ night, supposedly celebrating victory. The bomb cast shadows that we have lived in ever since,' Bingham.
This summer I had found two books on a similar theme, the effect of prewar and post.
The first book is the poetic description of a world, a society ending, culminating the post war world of WWI to the anxiety ridden, stillness of 1939, 'The Last Season', is sublime.
Anne DeCourcy's use of facts such as the dropping birthrate of the 1930's to the average age of marriage 27.7 for men and 25.58 for woman to her look at the violent crimes of the 1930's which were uncommon outside the home to the ability to wander freely and only certain area of London which where considered unsafe brings the era alive.
She then goes on to describe Germany from the view point of a visitor who would come back thinking that the corruption of civic life was grossly exaggerated, although the Berliner's look on and vainly had worked to end it. The book then goes on to describe the important figures of the day, Chamberlin to Churchill, and the society they lived in along with the debutantes of the era, diplomacy and dancing. To the last paragraph which is the King's diary, 'Today we are at war again, and I am no longer a midshipman in the Royal Navy.'
The effect of this novel is like a still painting, a moment in time captured.
'Wind off the Sea,' by the author Charlotte Bingham is a romance novel. Bingham's excellent writing and creation of war stories that she creates around her character's is the underlying beat of this book.
We know the character's have either been through the war or grown up in it. She brings into her English southern coastal village an American stranger who is searching for his Mother's past or some of the history of his family. Waldo Astley, her character comes into the life's of each family to bring about a better life or enlighten them on what life can be. So enchanted is he with the village, he buys a home and falls in love with a war heroine. This is set in the backdrop of a country struggling to overcome the war years the economy and the freezing winters that were England's lot after the war.
Bingham is a skilled writer with a lot of work to her credit. It takes a very good writer to make this type of story seem credible and she does it well.
One of these books is more fact than fiction creating an era and the other is fiction in a setting of fact. They are both a very enriching and entertaining.
The first book is the poetic description of a world, a society ending, culminating the post war world of WWI to the anxiety ridden, stillness of 1939, 'The Last Season', is sublime.
Anne DeCourcy's use of facts such as the dropping birthrate of the 1930's to the average age of marriage 27.7 for men and 25.58 for woman to her look at the violent crimes of the 1930's which were uncommon outside the home to the ability to wander freely and only certain area of London which where considered unsafe brings the era alive.
She then goes on to describe Germany from the view point of a visitor who would come back thinking that the corruption of civic life was grossly exaggerated, although the Berliner's look on and vainly had worked to end it. The book then goes on to describe the important figures of the day, Chamberlin to Churchill, and the society they lived in along with the debutantes of the era, diplomacy and dancing. To the last paragraph which is the King's diary, 'Today we are at war again, and I am no longer a midshipman in the Royal Navy.'
The effect of this novel is like a still painting, a moment in time captured.
'Wind off the Sea,' by the author Charlotte Bingham is a romance novel. Bingham's excellent writing and creation of war stories that she creates around her character's is the underlying beat of this book.
We know the character's have either been through the war or grown up in it. She brings into her English southern coastal village an American stranger who is searching for his Mother's past or some of the history of his family. Waldo Astley, her character comes into the life's of each family to bring about a better life or enlighten them on what life can be. So enchanted is he with the village, he buys a home and falls in love with a war heroine. This is set in the backdrop of a country struggling to overcome the war years the economy and the freezing winters that were England's lot after the war.
Bingham is a skilled writer with a lot of work to her credit. It takes a very good writer to make this type of story seem credible and she does it well.
One of these books is more fact than fiction creating an era and the other is fiction in a setting of fact. They are both a very enriching and entertaining.
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