Tagged: The Woman in White

And Finally

I did it! I finally got over that massive “readers block’ / “I’m going to hold my breath until all those books on my list magically disappear” moment. I’m on chapter four of Dracula and I love it.

Despite owning Dracula for eight to nine years, and attempting to read it more than once I’ve never made it past chapter one. I find that funny, because it’s a great read. It reminds me of The Historian, although I’m more than aware that The Historian is based on Dracula. I like the whole first person/journal entry idea. It’s v Blair Witch meets The Woman in White.

I’m actually super excited to be back on the list and reading again. I feel all dedicated and organized. I was feeling rather down about the whole thing until last Monday when I cleaned my entire house and found my original NYR 2011 list and was able to cross of over twenty books. I’ve done well. Now I have a new obsession….. Carving the Count into one of my six pumpkins :)

I have my idea for the costume. It’s gonna be great. You’re gonna love it.
(before you guess, it’s not Dracula, or Dracula related. It is Disney related… and not a princess.)

Ciao

XOXO

le sigh…

     So I carried on in my conquest of book to movie challenge. I watched The Woman in White, and A Tale of Two Cities. While A Tale of Two Cities was actually pretty darn great, The Woman in White was highly disappointing.

     Masterpiece Theatre is wonderful, and I love hearing the host give the forward and afterwards. I do understand why some things were left out, I even agree. I totally disagree with some major plot changes, and character amalgamation. Ah well. I will say that the choice of Simon Callow as Fosco was a thumbs up; and if you’re trying to figure out where you’ve seen Hartwright before – he’s the star of last years screaming hit The Walking Dead… which TBF made me watch. *shudder.

     A Tale of Two Cities was awesome. For the year it was made, 1980, they did a bang up job. Sydney Carton/Charles Darnay was none other than good old Price Humperdink a la The Princess Bride. I love Sydney Carton, always did, and he was well represented. (In contrast/comparison to how much I loved Marion Halcombe, and didn’t love the representation in the film.)

     All in all I find I am quite cynical while watching a film that has been adapted from a book I have loved. It’s unfortunate for the film. I’m fast aproaching Oliver! as I’m nearly done the audio book.

Stay Classy

Moi xoxo

Challenge Accepted!

     Last night I watched two movies from the Book to Movie challenge hosted over at Two Biblomaniacs. I am reading a set NYR list and therefore the films I can watch are limited to those books, but oh what fun! Yesterday while cleaning the kitchen I watched Brave New World, and The Count Of Monte Cristo.

Brave New World: 1998 – Peter Gallagher, Leonard Nimoy.
    The book was intense, sad, and then some what a jarring rip off at the end. It had a balanced feel of innocence in a time of debauchery, freedom in the midst of oppression, and a quasi happiness floating like a soap-bubble through hell. The movie seemed to have taken the set, props, and character names from the novel and hosted a totally different play. While I understand editing and screen cuts are needed, this simply wasn’t the same story. The actors did a fine job, they committed to the strange and odd people and managed to have an ok movie… if I hadn’t read the haunting beauty of the book, I wouldn’t have known the soul had been taken out of the story.

 The Count of Monte Cristo: 2002 – James Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris.
     Ah – again. Okay so the movie was fun, fast paced, and visually stunning. I loved Jim Caviezel and Richard Harris in their roles, and seeing Luigi Vampa on-screen was excellent – however. Okay wait before I go all “they changed the story line, they messed with characters, they left two-thirds of the novel out”, I want you to understand that yes, I am more than aware the book to movie version that I would approve of would be roughly 24 hours long. Honestly I belive if I had been saddled with the task of placing that tome of Dumas’ onto film I couldn’t have done a better job….(with the exception of the ‘best friends’ who never really were even acquaintances in the book part). I think they boiled things down and took the parts they wanted and it worked. I should leave it there. I will.

     Two more down and guess what I’m watching tonight? The Woman in White! I am actually kind of scared that Fosco isn’t going to be as compelling as I want him to be, that I won’t love this version of Marian Halcombe. Also I have A Tale of Two Cities, guess who plays Darnay/Carton?! Prince Humperdink :) ha! 

Ciao

Moi xoxo

Being, However, Nothing but a Woman…

   
  Don’t get all Feminist on me; that’s a quote from The Woman In White.
TBF informed me today I have one more book to add to the millions on the list. He had to come get me at home as the bike refuses to start for me. Why oh why am I mostly fiercely independent and want to do things myself, and at other times I just wish some man would save me. Right now, sitting on this hulking smoking, stupid metal piece of crap I don’t want to hear about how to fix it, I want it fixed. FIX IT. Please.
 

     I like flowers. I love tulips. I love flowers. Flowers are feminine and delicate and nice….. However I will master this, I will learn how to bend that stupid iron steed to my will I WILL learn to fix it. Before The BoyFriend was TBF a funny thing happened. I encountered a slow leak in the tire of a work truck I had borrowed. I asked this super cool engineer guy for help and he said “Okay, I’ll help you this one time, but you’d better be watching because it’s only this one time. I’m not a jerk or anything but Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat forever.” (Or in this case, a woman.) Since that day, I have changed roughly six tires on my own, and learned to put on chains for winter conditions. There is hope. 



“If only I had the privileges of a man, I would order out Sir Percival’s best horse instantly,
and tear away on a night-gallop, eastward, to meet the rising sun – a long, hard, heavy,
ceaseless gallop of hours and hours, like the famous highwayman’s ride to York.
Being, however, nothing but a woman, condemned to patience, propriety, and petticoats
for life, I must respect the house-keeper’s opinions, and try to compose myself
in some feeble and feminine way.” –Marian Halcombe.



  


The Woman in White – 1.

    
     My tears do not flow so easily as they ought – they come almost like men’s tears, with sobs that seem to tear me in pieces, and that frighted every one about me.
I love Marian Halcombe.
What Marian looks like in my head.
    
     I should have broken down altogether and burst into a violent fit of crying, if my tears had not been all burnt up in the heat of my anger. As it was, I dashed into Mr. Fairlie’s room – called to him as harshly as possible, “Laura consents to the twenty-second” – and dashed out again without waiting for a word of answer. I banged the door after me, and I hope I shattered Mr. Fairlie’s nervous system for the rest of the day.
She is made of that which I would like more of.
     As your friend, I am going to gell you, at once, in my own plain, blunt, downright language, that I have discovered your secret-
She is an amazon of the olden days filled with fainting couches and women’s fancy. She is deliciously self depreciating, stupendously self assured, and completely (you think I’m going to say compelling eh? do to the good ole’ alliteration?) loveable.
     …Two young ladies have been staying here, but they went away yesterday, in despair; and no wonder. All through their visit…we produced no such convenience in the house as a flirtable, danceable, small talkable creature of the male sex; and the consequence was, we did nothing but quarrel, especially at dinner time. How can you expect four women to dine together alone every day and not quarrel? We are such fools, we can’t entertain each other at a table. You see I don’t think much of my own sex, Mr Hartwright – which will you have tea or coffee? – no woman does think much of her own sex, although few of them confess it as freely as I do. Dear me you look puzzled. Why?
I’m not sure I’ve ever been so totally in love with a character that it overshaddows my love of the book. This is a woman I could have dinner with every day, and never quarrel.
     The Woman in White is such a fantastic read, and I’m only in the the first quarter of the story. Thankfully I have roughly 2100 pages left, so I won’t miss it any time soon. And really, the cast of characters are such fun. Mr. Fairlie is beautifully introduced, and pulls a smile out of me with every sigh and simper. Mr. Gilmore is so lovely once you get to actually hear from him, and Walter is a lad who reminds me of certain younger brothers. I am reading this book on my iPhone, corteousy of the iBook app. I will be buying it so I can underline it, and fold the pages down, and break the spine… all in love and admiration of course. I feel this treatment is nothing short of the highest form of respect for a book, to be loved.

Some days are worth waking up for.

So this morning started out like most mornings in my life, bad. I can’t explain why I hate waking up, but I do. Usually it’s because I fall asleep counting all the things I forgot to do, all the people I owe money to, and all the things I’m worried about (read: weight). In the morning it’s all still there! It hasn’t magically disappeared in the sweet dream world and it’s all too realistic and unsolved. I’m sure I could try “counting my blessings” a la Bing Crosby circa Holiday Inn, but really… OK maybe I should start trying that.
I’m struggling to get through Tess of D’Uberfields by Tom Hardy right now. I feel a bit frustrated due to the fact that it is boring me to tears, and it is apparently such a great book. I mean, it’s hard not to feel like your the dumb kid in class when you just hate what everyone else is saying is so fantastic. I’m also reading The Woman in White by Wilikie Collins on my iPhone right now, it’s fabulous. Very funny and so far quite a light and easy read. If you haven’t already, check out the iBook app on itunes. I haven’t paid a single penny for a book yet and I have classics on there! I have War and Peace, A Tale of Two Cities, The Odyssey, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Bleak House, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, The Woman in White, and Winnie the Pooh.
Free is always fantastic, so fantastic in fact that I don’t mind using the word fantastic just a couple more times than absolutely necessary! And while on the subject of fanstaticle-ness, let me explain the blog title today. So back to the beginning, this morning I felt tragic. I combated that with a super fun bright pink lipstick by Rimmel. 010 Dizzy, it’s a super fuchsia fun time. I used techniques by my favorite blog out there over at www.bycelinea.com and thus put my best face forward to the day. In my rush around the block today I forgot about a meeting I had at the bank. So I was motoring out there and boom, I get pulled up by the RCMP for speeding. I can not stress enough about how much I hate money, simply due to the fact that I don’t have any. For some reason, my prayers get answered, and I only get a warning, no $196.00 ticket, which the female officer stresses I could have gotten but she was feeling kind. THANK HEAVEN.
On my way back to work after shuffling funds back and forth from different accounts with the bank people. (I keep thinking if I keep moving stuff around some how I’ll find some money hiding under other money.) I remembered today was April 1st! Celina’s blog contest winners would be announced today. Guess what? I won! I won an amazing product which I never would have been able to afford, (or find for that matter), in normal life. Christmas in April! Oh for the love of kittens today has turned out all right after all. Now – all I have to do is finish that damn book…

Moi xoxo