tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407954869793373668.post1342706374889916982..comments2023-05-12T21:41:08.215+10:00Comments on The Spiralling Shape: What Wendy Watched: wuthering, wuthering, etc etcWendyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08890231930979311533noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407954869793373668.post-58087962237327707872009-08-24T18:24:47.505+10:002009-08-24T18:24:47.505+10:00I suspect the Victorian novelists who were seriali...I suspect the Victorian novelists who were serialised do work better on television, since serial fiction is so very much one of the progenitors of television drama: the ones who spring immediately to mind are Dickens (as you say), Thackeray (the <i>Vanity Fair</i> adaptation was excellent), George Eliot (<i>Middlemarch</i> was wonderful), Elizabeth Gaskell (I loved both <i>Cranford</i> and <i>Wives and Daughters</i>), and Anthony Trollope (<i>The Barchester Chronicles</i>, of course, but also <i>The Way We Live Now</i>).<br /><br />Of course, the downside to this is that they don't work as films.<br /><br />Then again, Austen missed serial publication, and her novels are lovely on the telly. So there's something missing from our otherwise flawless hypothesis.Catrionahttp://circulatinglibrary.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407954869793373668.post-41862886436725978812009-08-24T14:57:45.023+10:002009-08-24T14:57:45.023+10:00yes strange isn't it. I remember when I first ...yes strange isn't it. I remember when I first read Jane Eyre it totally freaked me out ( I was probably a little bit young) and then I went through a phase of loving it. Now I find it a little boring whereas Wuthering Heights has grown on me. I do actually like The Tenant of Wildfell Hall a lot too.<br /><br />And Rochester is blind as well...he really can't take a trick can he?<br /><br />I hadn't thought about their novels in terms of Victorian serialisation. Perhaps that's why they don't work for television, whereas Dickens does (in my humble opinion).<br /><br />I think the physical and social isolation of the Brontes had a lot to do with their style and content as well. (although that may well be romanticising them.)Wendyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08890231930979311533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407954869793373668.post-465433842628342562009-08-24T13:58:15.469+10:002009-08-24T13:58:15.469+10:00The Brontes are a bit liminal, to me: definitely n...The Brontes are a bit liminal, to me: definitely not with the eighteenth-century feel that even Austen's later works have, but not the big, sprawling, typical early to mid-Victorian novels that Dickens or Thackeray or Trollope wrote.<br /><br />(I suspect it's partly because they, unlike most of the other canonical Victorian authors, managed to avoid serial publication.)<br /><br />I do love <i>Wuthering Heights</i>; oddly, it's <i>Jane Eyre</i> that does my head in these days. I still like the book, but I wonder how I never noticed before what a dreary little creature Jane is.<br /><br />Poor Mr Rochester--tied for life to that dull little puritan in her grey alpaca.<br /><br />Becky Sharp would have eaten her alive, as she did Amelia.<br /><br />(Now, <i>there's</i> an excellent adaptation for you, if you haven't seen that one yet.)Catrionahttp://circulatinglibrary.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407954869793373668.post-53522087810395861352009-08-24T07:07:13.616+10:002009-08-24T07:07:13.616+10:00It used to be my least favourite of the Bronte nov...It used to be my least favourite of the Bronte novels. Then last year we read it at our bookclub and I found a liking for it I hadn't had when i first read it when I was much younger.<br />I am not quite of the Kate Bush song era - I have come to it at a later date. That dancing! Wonderfully eccentric and charming. (hope I don't sound patronising)Wendyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08890231930979311533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407954869793373668.post-73926560673582394602009-08-23T22:47:08.274+10:002009-08-23T22:47:08.274+10:00Although I appreciate Wuthering Heights, the book,...Although I appreciate Wuthering Heights, the book, in a literary way, I am not enamoured with it. I prefer Vanity Fair, Austen, The Leopard, etc. Though to be fair, Wuthering Heights has a much better song: I remember Kate Bush's song so well. I am of the Kate Bush song era!!!2pawhttp://cindy2paw.typepad.com/2paw/noreply@blogger.com