Quiz Results etc.

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Before I write anything else, this cake-related link has made me laugh more than anything in ages…. enjoy!

I was very impressed by everyone in the quiz, I don’t think I’d have done nearly so well, even though I did pick books I’d read, mostly. Between you, all the answers were found. For those still wanting to have a go, look away now…

1. Antony and Cleopatra – William Shakespeare
2. Pamela – Samuel Richardson
3. Emma – Jane Austen
4. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
5. Shirley – Charlotte Bronte
6. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
7. Lady Windermere’s Fan
8. Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
9. Lady Chatterley’s Lover – DH Lawrence
10. Mary Poppins – PL Travers
11. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
12. Mrs. McGinty’s Dead – Agatha Christie
13. Lolita – Vladimir Nabakov
14. Cider With Rosie – Laurie Lee
15. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
16. Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? – Edward Albee
17. Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
18. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
19. Charlotte Gray – Sebastian Faulks
20. The Jane Austen Book Club – Karen Joy Fowler
21. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell


Well done all!
Now, to open it up, which books in your collection did I miss out?
Others I could have included from my bookshelves…

Miss Hargreaves – Frank Baker
Lesley Castle – Jane Austen
Lady Susan – Jane Austen
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day – Winifred Watson
Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary – Ruby Ferguson
Miss Ranskill Comes Home – Barbara Euphan Todd
Mariana – Monica Dickens
Enter-Patricia – Richmal Crompton
Naomi Godstone – Richmal Crompton
Felicity Stands By- Richmal Crompton
Millicent Dorrington – Richmal Crompton
Mrs. Frensham Describes A Circle – Richmal Crompton
Marriage of Hermione – Richmal Crompton
The Odyssey of Euphemia Tracey – Richmal Crompton
Matty and the Dearingroydes – Richmal Crompton (you get the idea with RC!)
Liza’s England – Pat Barker
Mapp and Lucia – EF Benson
Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma – Diana Birchall
Mary Barton – Elizabeth Gaskell
Ruth – Elizabeth Gaskell
Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
Fenny – Lettice Cooper
Mrs. Harter – EM Delafield
Messalina of the Suburbs – EM Delafield
Sister Carrie – Thomas Dreiser
The Memoirs of Letitia Horsepole – John Fuller
Eustace and Hilda – LP Hartley
Winsome Winnie and other nonsense novels – Stephen Leacock
Chloe Marr – AA Milne
Michael and Mary – AA Milne
Clara Hopgood – Mark Rutherford
Vanessa and Virginia – Susan Sellers
Cluny Brown – Margery Sharp
Young Mrs. Savage – DE Stevenson
Mrs. Miniver – Jan Struther
At Mrs. Lippincote’s – Elizabeth Taylor
The Ballad of Sylvia and Ted – Emma Tennant
Miss Bunting – Angela Thirkell
Sylva – Vercors
Miss Mole – EH Young

Quizzical

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You’re looking brainy, may I say, so perhaps you’d like a little quiz for the weekend? I made it for the literary week, but wasn’t used, so tonight Our Vicar and The Carbon Copy teamed up against Our Vicar’s Wife (we decided those were more or less fair teams) to have a go at the following quiz… enjoy! (Do read the instructions first… none of them did, and it led to complications…!)

These are the opening lines of novels or plays whose titles feature a woman’s name. The dates signify date of publication. Where XXXX appears in the opening line, it indicates part or all of the name in question.
What are the titles and who are the authors?
1. (1623) Nay, but this dotage of our general’s
O’erflows the measure; those his goodly eyes,
That o’er the files and musters of the war
Have glow’d like plated Mars, now bend, now turn
The office and devotion of their view
Upon a tawny front 2. (1740) I Have great Trouble, and some Comfort, to acquaint you with. The Trouble is, that my good Lady died of the Illness I mention’d to you, and left us all much griev’d for her Loss; for she was a dear good Lady, and kind to all us her Servants. 3. (1815) XXXX, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. 4. (1847) There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. 5. (1849) Of late years, an abundant shower of curates has fallen upon the north of England: they lie very thick on the hills; every parish has one or more of them; they are young enough to be very active, and ought to be doing a great deal of good. 6. (1891) On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor. 7. (1892) PARKER: Is your ladyship at home this afternoon? XXXX: Yes – who has called? PARKER: Lord Darlington, my lady. 8. (1925) XXXX said she would buy the flowers herself. 9. (1928) Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. 10. (1934) If you want to find Cherry Tree Lane all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the cross-roads. 11. (1938) Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. 12. (1952) Hercule Poirot came out of the Vieille Grand’mere restaurant into Soho. He turned up the collar of his overcoat through prudence, rather than necessity, since the night was not cold. 13. (1959) XXXX, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. 14. (1959) I was set down from the carrier’s cart at the age of three; and there with a sense of bewilderment and terror my life in the village began. 15. (1961) The boys, as they talked to the girls from Marcia Blaine School, stood on the far side of their bicycles holding the handlebars, which established a protective fence of bicycle between the sexes, and the impression that at any moment the boys were likely to be away. 16. (1962) Set in darkness. Crash against front door. MARTHA’s laughter heard. Front door opens, lights are switched on. MARTHA enters, followed by GEORGE. 17. (1996) My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born. Instead, they returned to Ireland. 18. (1996) Noon. London: my flat. Ugh. 19. (1998) Peter Gregory kicked the door of the dispersal hut closed behind him with the heel of his boot. 20. (2004) Each of us has a private XXXX. Jocelyn’s XXXX wrote wonderful novels about love and courtship, but never married. 21. (2006) Let us begin with two girls at a dance

A Year of Mornings

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The book publication I’ve been most eagerly awaiting is one with almost no words. Which might not say much for Stuck-in-a-Book’s literary credentials, but perhaps you’ll understand when I tell you what the book is…

I’ve eulogised about the blog 3191 before – this post could scarcely be bettered by a teenage girl waving pom-poms and screaming ‘Oh my gawwsh, they’re so, like, awesome!’ For those who haven’t come across their blog, either pop over there and have a look, or go to my post linked above to read what they do. In brief, two people living 3191 miles apart took photos every morning and posted them alongside each other – now they do the same in the evening. Beautiful and unexpected coincidences, symmetries, contrasts would appear – both are brilliant photographers, focusing on the details of normal, domestic life.

So I first in line to Princeton Architectural Press to ask for a review copy, when I found out that A Year of Mornings was going to be published in book format. And it’s delicious. The book is out in the US at the beginning of October (though their blog suggests it’s out now, so maybe they know best) and out on Amazon.co.uk a bit later – though the date there is changing every now and then. Keep an eye out. The pictures aren’t done quite how I expected – the photos are done in pairs, as on the blog, but the sets of two aren’t all the same size, and are at odd positions over the pages. It kinda works, but sometimes means my favourite pairs are rather small (20th June is perhaps my favourite, but honourable mention must go to 11th July) – but this is a small quibble.

Mav and Steph, with Princeton Architectural Press on design, have created a truly beautiful, wonderful book of photographs which demonstrate talent without being pretentious or off-putting. This would make a lovely coffee table book, or a great gift, and I can’t thank Karen/Cornflower enough for pointing me in the direction of their blog over a year ago.

Lost in Lost in Austen

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It’s official. I love Lost in Austen too much. This is utterly daft, but keeps getting better and better – after astonishing revelations concerning Georgiana Darcy and Caroline Bingley, I ought really to be writing to the scriptwriter ‘Damn you and damn every man who won’t light a candle in his window and stay up all night damning you’ (brilliant line!) but, as it is, I adore everything about this programme. In amongst the absurdities and nonsenses were some very genuinely moving moments. I might have to put the DVD on my birthday list – and can’t wait to see what Jemima Rooper will do next…

No need to be Saki

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Our Vicar’s Wife and I, along with some local friends, are in the midst of a literature and arts week – one of Our Vicar’s Wife’s creation and assembly, that is. Yesterday it kicked off with sophisticated afternoon tea and an informal book group, where we all talked about what we’d been reading recently. Today started off with a book group on Mary Ann Shaffer’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Soceity, for which Our Vicar’s Wife had asked me to talk a little about the history of the epistolary novel… I was rather embarrassed and spoke too quickly, but didn’t go too badly. Always fun to mock Pamela a little bit…

In the afternoon we had a look round some of the studios and gardens open for Somerset Arts Week – saw some wonderful watercolours, exceptional animal sculptures, and fun designs with fabrics. Lots of things I’d have spent money on if I had it. A trip to a local book barn (not the Bookbarn) led to my buying Miss Mole by EH Young, and then we had a play reading of Noel Coward’s one-act play Ways and Means. Tomorrow we’re off to Lyme Regis to play at Persuasion and The French Lieutenant’s Woman.

In the evening, not part of the schedule but coincidental, I flicked on to a repeat on BBC4, called Who Killed Mrs. De Ropp? I was so excited when we first got BBC4, the cultural channel supposedly crammed with programmes about literature and art and such like. Hmm. Hasn’t really happened – I’ve probably wanted to watch about three programmes in the three years we’ve had it. But tonight has added a fourth – Who Killed Mrs. De Ropp? According to IMDB it was first shown on 2 May 2007, so I’m hopelessly behind the times, but am very glad they chose to repeat it. The programme is based on three short stories by Saki, and stars the wonderful Gemma Jones. I’ve never read anything by Saki, but have had a collection of his work on my shelves for years, which I think Our Vicar’s Wife gave to me. Having had a sample of his work, I am now very keen to read them – and each story is so short that it would do before bed.

The three stories used for Who Killed Mrs. De Ropp? are ‘The Story-Teller’ and ‘The Lumber-Room’ from Beasts and Super-Beasts, and ‘Sredni Vashtar’ from The Chronicles of Clovis. Though with seemingly little connection, they are all linked by an overbearing female relative and mutinous children – so the makers of the programme assimilated these into one overbearing female relative and one group of mutinous children. What is most impressive about this programme is that it came directly from the books – almost nothing wass altered. Since Saki was a character, he did the narrative bits. And it’s wonderful – the stories are slightly macabre, they also have a deliciously light tone, almost EM Delafield-esque. For instance:

[On a train:] The smaller girl created a diversion by beginning to recite ‘One the Road to Manderley.’ She only knew the first line, but she put her limited knowledge to the fullest possible use. She repeated the line over and over again in a dreamy but resolute and very audible voice; it seemed to the bachelor as though some one had had a bet with her that she could not repeat the line aloud two thousand times without stopping. Whoever it was who had made the wager was likely to lose his bet.

Any Saki-lovers out there? I’m going to make a start on Beasts and Super-Beasts forthwith.

Old Friends

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A while ago I emailed Danielle from SourceBooks, Inc. and she very kindly agreed to send me Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil G. Brinton all the way from America (available through their website, or Amazon – or in bookshops if you’re in the US). I first heard about this book on Elaine’s blog, Random Jottings, and knew that I’d have to read it at some point. For those who didn’t read that post on Random Jottings, I’ll fill you in – Old Friends and New Fancies is the first Jane Austen sequel ever written, back in 1913, but Brinton didn’t stop there, no sir. This book is a sequel to ALL the Austen novels – characters from each of the six crop up and meet each other and – well, just think of all the possible matches to be made!

They include a list of characters at the beginning for those not completely familiar with all JA’s oeuvre, or just because there are so many – have just done a quick count, and there are forty of Austen’s characters listed. Pride and Prejudice contributes the most, at fifteen, while Emma only offers two, but each is represented in some manner. We kick off with Elizabeth and Darcy, which is probably how it should be, but before long we are whirled off into the various interrelations between novels…

The central questions are – with Mary Crawford end up with Colonel Fitzwilliam? And, will William Price choose Georgiana Darcy or Kitty Bennet? What delicious choices. William Price and Georgiana Darcy were always two of my favourite background-characters, so to witness them dancing at a ball was quite something (even if Brinton does what Austen never did, and gives Georgiana dialogue). On an aside, whom would I have paired, or just occasioned to meet… Mr. Palmer and Mr. Bennet would be a joyous pair to eavesdrop. Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Jennings! Mr. Collins and Mr. Elton! Catherine Morland and Harriet Smith! Oh, endless, endless…

I wonder quite how Brinton made her decisions about central characters? Obviously the young, single folk were thrown to the forefront… but Mary Crawford is the oddest decision and portrayal. Brinton obviously didn’t love Mansfield Park that much; not only are Fanny and Edmund excluded from proceedings, we also have a volte face in how Mary Crawford appears. She is misunderstood, meek, sensible, kind and has none of the flirtatious, slightly selfish, overly loud persona Fanny distrusts in Mansfield Park… interesting.

Brinton doesn’t really try to write in the style of Austen – the period feel is more or less there, though it’s worth noting that we’re as far (time-wise) from Brinton now as she was from Austen then, but Brinton doesn’t attempt to echo Austen’s wit and narrative asides and general Austenness. Having said that, she doesn’t try to soak the characters in Brintonness either, whatever that would be like; she is content to set them loose together on a shared stage, and see what happens.

Old Friends and New Fancies, I would think, is for Austen-fanatics like myself. Without knowing all the characters beforehand it would lose a lot of its enjoyment factor – there are the odd comments to savour, such as ‘Mrs. Knightley’s matchmaking doesn’t always work out well’ or Tom Bertram’s ‘We only had one real failure in amateur dramatics’ (I paraphrase both). This shared knowledge is a reward and a treat whenever it appears. On the whole, this book (republished in 2007 by SourceBooks) is rather silly, a lot of fun, and very well managed by Brinton.

Danielle also sent me a couple of other Austen sequels, Pemberley Shades by D. A. Bonavia-Hunt (1949) and The Darcys & The Bingleys by Marsha Altman (2008) so… more to investigate!

Tess and the jeans-test

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It’s been a while since I reviewed an actual book on here, hasn’t it? It’s partly because I’ve been busy doing lots of other things, like painting the bathroom and organising all my books, and partly because there are only so many posts I can write about Mapp and Lucia. So I shall turn to that inferior medium, the television.

We sat down, en famille, to watch the BBC’s latest costume drama – Tess of the D’Urbervilles. For a genre which had been declared dead by TV executives until Colin Firth et al blasted that theory out of the lake, they certainly push as many as possible onto our screens at the moment. Over the past couple years we’ve had Cranford, Lark Rise to Candleford, Sense and Sensibility, Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop, A Room With A View… I’ve probably missed some, but you get the gist.

Every time, we get columnists and bloggers and everyone talking about the pros and cons of costume drama – is it lazy scheduling or is it intelligently using a world of potential stories and well-loved characters? It’s very simple, to my mind. If the programme would work equally well without costumes and history, then it’s a success. Cranford, probably the best thing I’ve seen on television in years, would have phenomenal in any era and if Dame Judi was in jeans. So, the jeans-test for Tess…

Erm. Shall we say a strong maybe? The actors are great – Gemma Arterton will soon be everywhere, including Lizzie B in Lost in Austen, and was fantastic in Capturing Mary with Maggie Smith last year, and Ruth Jones is an inspired, funny casting as Tess’s Mum. The shooting is beautiful. But they still rely so heavily on wearing peasant costumes and waistcoats and having horses and saying “didn’t ought to” and speaking in a West Country, that it be, that if it were transferred to 2008, they’d spend hours staring at a wall. Somehow the relationships between the characters don’t feel *quite* real, they’re more textbook period drama and a little thoughtless – Alec, for instance, is obviously a cad from the second he sidles up smoking a cigar and smirking lasciviously. On the other hand, of course, we have the wonderful Anna Massey as his mother, who can do no wrong.

Perhaps I’ve been a little harsh. It is a very good programme and I’ll certainly watch the rest, just… once you’ve seen Cranford, you realise there are new heights which could be met.

Elaine’s Suggestions…

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Just a quick post tonight to point you over to Elaine’s response to the Pride and Prejudice Musical – click here. Lots of suggestions for appropriate songs, and is bound to make you chuckle!

From the ridiculous to the sublime, I spent the evening at a rather different concert – no, not the last night of the Proms, but in Chiselborough church listening to Urban Voices, a choir from London. They were absolutely brilliant – all sorts of influences, from gospel to soul to rock to pop to R&B, and singing praises to God, alongside other pieces. A fun, friendly group providing an amazing evening.

Eliza Doolittle-Bennet?

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Lyn from dovegreybooks Yahoo Group (not to be confused with Lynne from dovegreyreader blog) sent me another little piece of information today – I hope she won’t mind if I quote her email:

Just got home to find the latest issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine waiting for me. Nice new smaller format, looks very good. I thought I’d give this a try for a year because I got a good deal on the sub through the JA Society here. Flicking through, I see an article on Lost In Austen & on the back cover, an ad for JA’s P&P :the new musical. Was there ever an old one? I feel myself growing faint, it’s coming to Broadway apparently. The tag line on the website is

The world has waited two centuries for this smart, song-filled & compelling investment opportunity (I’m not joking!)

If you click on the site, you’ll hear Darcy singing about Fine Eyes.

Lyn (feeling as though that particle exploder did something to the world after all & I’m in another dimension).

Well. Gosh. Of course, it does seem rather as though one can’t have anything on the stage without a song and dance accompanying nowadays, and it’s a miracle that Austenmania hasn’t led to this before. Bad as the 2005 film was in so many ways, at least it didn’t have Keira doing the can-can singing ‘It is a TRUTH uni-ver-salllllly ackNOWledged!’

But am I too quick to judge? Obviously I would go and see this, even if I expected it to be dire, and I imagine there are enough Pride and Prejudice addicts to make this sell out whatever the quality – but perhaps, just perhaps, it would actually be good? Stranger things have happened. And what if they took a selection of extant songs… how would that go… Lizzie could sing I Don’t Know How To Love Him then Learning To Love Him and finally Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man. Lydia could get I Could Have Danced All Night, and Sixteen Going On Seventeen, while Kitty would have to settle for You Can’t Get A Man With A Gun. And for Mr. Bennet, howsabout If I Were A Rich Man?

More suggestions in a similarly irreverent tone, please!

A Murder Is Announced

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A Murder Is Announced was the first Agatha Christie novel I read, probably in 1998 or thereabouts, just as I entered my teenage years. It led to a brief passion for Christie (more particularly Miss Marple) which has rather subsided over the years, but only because I got steered onto other paths. I’m no Christie snob, and certainly rank her as the best plot-creator I’ve read (see Harriet’s recent post on Endless Night and a defence of Christie in style not just structure). I must return to her soon – The Carbon Copy is quite a Christie aficionado (spelt it correctly this time!) though more of a Poirot man.

Tonight Our Vicar’s Wife and I went to see A Murder Is Announced performed at the Swan Theatre in Yeovil – I’d spotted a banner advertising it when we drove past the other day, and we thought it sounded like a fun evening. Sadly Our Vicar couldn’t make it, and The Carbon Copy isn’t coming down until next weekend, so it was just the two of us – and, horror of horrors, when we got there we found it was sold out! Nothing daunted, we asked whether we could have standing tickets, and the lovely people said we could, so long as we didn’t block any fire exits. So we stood.

What fun. Nothing like a good murder mystery, even if I did know whodunnit already. Actually, that’s what astounded me – I could remember the plot almost perfectly, nearly a decade after reading A Murder Is Announced. Not only did I know who’d dunnit, but I also noticed all the places where the play differed from the novel (quite a few, quite substantial, including one murder) – no great feat, perhaps, but there are books I’ve read recently about which I remember absolutely nothing. Not a thing. No names, plots, endings. Usually I’ve forgotten most details of a novel within a fortnight of finishing it, however much I enjoyed it – which has made re-reading Mapp and Lucia series immensely fun. Yet old Agatha’s work is crystalised in my mind – perhaps because it was one of the first Real Books I read, rather than Teen Fiction? Perhaps because it was my first detective novel? Perhaps Christie is just talented in this way?

Answers on a postcard… and any closet Christie fans, do spill. Favourite novel of hers, which should I read to reawaken my Christie passion, and, most importantly: Marple or Poirot?