Dickens (with four M's and a silent Q)

Busy day today, lots going on, making, baking, my sister's birthday party, kids were cute etc. But I don't have anything along those lines to post tonight because when the day is that full I tend to need to just shut down and relax in the evening. Also in a day that busy I forget to take photos, and you know I hate to blog without a picture. 

Anyhow, I relaxed and treated myself tonight by watching the final episodes in the televised BBC version of Little Dorrit. Dude, it was soooo good. I love me some period drama. Not the overly smarmy ones, but some good, real, gritty ones with good acting and excellent design. So Little Dorrit rang all my bells.  

I watched a televised version of Nicholas Nickelby awhile back that has me on this Dickens kick. Now I just really want to go back to school and study his whole oeuvre. His stuff is great. I don't know why I never read it in school. Dense, amazing characters, and often darkly funny. But man, they are looooong, which makes them hard to get through when you have about a half an hour a day for reading, broken down into 10 minute segments, even if you are a voracious reader. I'd like to set myself the goal of reading through all his works but its probably not practical for me right now. Someday.

But I do intend to go to the library tomorrow and get ahold of a copy of Little Dorrit. I know the pacing will be different from a miniseries, but I'm so excited now to learn more about the characters that just this little peek into their world has made me very interested in. (ugh, that was an awkward sentence, but I'm really too lazy/tired to change it.) Its so funny, but Hubs watched them all with me, and in between episodes, we'd find ourselves talking about the characters as the day went by. Wondering what they'd do next, trying to puzzle out their motives and such. It was really fun. The last time we found ourselves talking about the characters in a TV show this much was when we watched Six Feet Under. I still wonder what those characters are doing sometimes. (Oh Ruth, are you happy....?)

Anyhow, suffice it to say I reccomend this version of Little Dorrit. The acting was amazing. I have new actor crushes on many of them due to their brilliant performances. (especially Matthew MacFayden as Arthur Clennam and Eddie Marsan as Pancks) (Also, [second parentheses, eep, now we know its late at night] I now want to have lots of cats so I can name them after Dickens characters. Specifically one called Smyke and one called Pancks) Oh, and I want to go around Venice in period costume, preferably with a corset and leg o' mutton sleeves. 

Yeah, I'll probably have to settle for just reading the book. Maybe I could do it in a canoe on my parent's pond. Canoe... gondola... its not that much of a stretch. 

Comments

[ShawnVS]

Watched it. Loved it. A late winter watch. Mini-series mesmerized. Big fat mugs of tea in hand. Electric fire electrifying. Heavy blanket to keep out the Dickensian chill. Did I mention that I loved it? Well, I did.

[finger thumb]

Oh that sounds perfect. It'd be best watched in the winter for sure. Ah tea, I miss English Tea. I only drink herbal these days and its just not the same as a big milky, sugary tea. Also, you mush watch Downton Abbey. SUCH a good series. Finished watching the first season and am trying to find the second.

[brooklyn_codger]

Man, Little Dorrit, so good. I listened to it as an audiobook in the spring and it made my LIFE. Also: you are SO RIGHT re the cat names!