...simply because I'm masochistic...
So yeah, after yesterday's neurotic rants I decided that I deserved a trip to Borders. I had been enjoying some books by Lauren Willig, and some amazon reviewer of one of her novels brought up this other author Georgette Heyer. I wanted to track down something by Heyer (the essential pretense of my whole Borders expedition). They really made the decision easy for me by only having one title in store (I bought "An Infamous Army") So far (I'm only about 1/2 way through the 1st chapter) the writing is a bit dull, but I'm going to be fair & reserve judgement...give the story a bit of time to really pick up. But just from browsing through Heyer's catalog on Amazon, I'll grant her this : she has some good titles. Y'know, classy sounding stuff --in a relatively trashy genre. She had a 50+ year career during which she wrote a buttload of historical romances. Yep, reading material perfectly suited to this week's masochistic-romantical mindset. Brilliant.
Another similar purchase that I perpetrated-- the DVD of Persuasion ( the recent Masterpiece Theater /BBC co-production). You'll remember last month how inordinately miffed I was that I missed the beginning. Well I am now owner of the ENTIRE thing so all's well that ends well, yes? Oh, and I also ordered something from one of Border's computer kiosks (I really ought not shop in a self-pitying state of mind...makes me overindulgent) It was the DVD of Wives & Daughters that I've been eyeing FOREVER (hell, it's been on my Amazon wish list since 2005) My confirmation email sez if it doesn't come in to my local Borders by 2/18/08 then I get it for FREE when it does arrive. Sweet, eh? So it's a unique situation of eagerly anticipating something to get here late. Well, reasonably late, I should qualify... if the Borders staffer sez "Looks like the ETA on your ordered DVD is , ahhh, mid April 2012" then I'd rather pay for it. Although I've let it languish on my wish list for nearly 3yrs...I don't know why I'm all impatient now.
So of course I watched Persuasion as soon as I got home... well maybe not quite immediately..I first watched an episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine and THEN I put in Persuasion. It is very good...my fave of the the three new productions I saw during Jane Austen January. I liked it just a nano-smidgen more than I liked Northanger Abbey (which was also really great and shall--inevitably-- be purchased by me) Mansfield Park was likable enough but not exceptionally stellar. It differed a lot from the 1999 big screen
version (which I preferred) but I am not sure which one is more faithful to the novel (I picked up The Complete Novels of Jane Austen compendium last month but thus far have only finished off Sense & Sensibility )
But I hath digressed. I wanted to share with you the big climactic romantic denouement from Persuasion. It's a bit of a spoiler, but if you didn't already know that the heroine winds up with Mr PERFECT after a totally perfunctory detour with Mr Charming-but-Wrong, then you're a complete Austen neophyte, and odds are you navigated away from this page a paragraph or so ago.
Anyways, it's not going to be a trend with me to give away the endings of every period drama I watch (even if I did it with Northanger and am doing it now) It's just that this one kinda cracked me up. I mean, it's sufficiently romantic (as it ought to be). But it was also pretty amusing...probably unintentionally so.
So first off, poor Anne practically runs a marathon ( I would have dropped after a block )and she's panting like maaad and probably on the verge of a swoon but she is keeping a vise-like grip on that consiousness...at least until she gets her g.d. kiss. And she is like, straining at the bit for that kiss. She looks like she might bite him! And in response to that, he opts to execute a head descent in SUPER SLOW slo-mo. I mean, ridiculously slow. He starts the lean in..and then you could leave the room and make yourself a sammich and return before there is actual lip contact. He might be just the tiniest bit still mad at her and want to punish her.
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