Falling in love with Dickens :-)

A "pardnership" broken - the opening scene of the book and the movie

I recently ordered some DVDs from Amazon - my favourite Jane Eyre adaptation, Jane Eyre 1983; and two Charles Dickens BBC series - Our Mutual Friend and Bleak House. I'd seen JE before, but I'd never watched the other two series.
Last Friday I came down with a cold. One of those colds that causes your nose to drip,drip like a tap, no matter how many times you blow it. Ugh! My nose is sore and red yet. Anyways - Friday, sick with a cold, it seemed like a good opportunity to watch one of my new DVDs. I picked Our Mutual Friend. The first episode had me hooked! But then when I started watching what I thought was the second episode, I found myself totally confused. Someone had died, at least two marriage proposals had taken place, and I'd somehow missed it all. I was in fact watching the third episode - I had somehow inadverdently missed ep. 2. But by the time I had figured this out, ep. 3 had gotten so exciting, I simply couldn't stop to go back and watch ep. 2.

"Fashion"!

So, technically, I have only seen three-quarters of Our Mutual Friend. Next time I watch the series, I'll make sure I see the second episode!
Almost as soon as I'd finished watching the last episode, I decided that I really, desperately wanted to read the book! Fortunately my mum was able to pick it up from the library during her Saturday morning shopping trip [thankyou so much! :-) xoxo] - while I was at home, sniffling away.
It is a massive volume! 900 pages! I knew it was a largeish size book, but I didn't know it would be that big. . .

Bradley Headstone (David Morissey) and Rogue Riderhood (David Bradley)

I am now almost one-fifth of the way through (which may not sound like much, but it equates to a couple hundred pages!), and I am thouroughly enjoying it! Previously, the only Charles Dickens novel I had ever finished was A Christmas Carol. I tried to start The Old Curiosity Shop a couple of years ago, but couldn't get into the story. Now, I feel like Dickens and I are finally getting to know each other properly.

Eugene Wrayburn (Paul McGann) and Lizzie Hexam (Keeley Hawes). All screencaps taken by yours truly!

Dickens' prose in Our Mutual Friend is absolutely delicious! And the characters! The amiable Mr. and Mrs. Boffin; Mr. Venus, the bone articulator; Gaffer Hexam, with his grisly mode of scratching a living; Silas Wegg, the "literary man with a wooden leg"; Mr. Eugene Wrayburn and Mr. Mortimer Lightwood, lawyers and best friends; Mr. and Mrs. Veneering; Mr. and Mrs Podsnap. . . to name just a few. As with any Dickens saga, there are dozens of different characters to have to keep up with.
There is no more effective way of keeping warm on a chilly winters' evening (it's the middle of winter here, remember!) than by curling up in a comfortable corner with a nice fat volume of Dickens for company.

Current Mood: Calm

EDIT: nearly everyone who has read this post has clicked on the second image from top, trying to view it at full size. Well, just for you, I uploaded the full-size screenshot. Click here to view!