strange and random happenstance

Lost in Austen
Release Date: September 3rd-24th, 2008
Starring: Jemima Rooper, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Daniel Percival, Gemma Arterton, Hugh Bonneville, Alex Kingston, Morven Christie, Ruby Bentall, Florence Hoath, Perdita Weeks, Michelle Duncan, Guy Henry, Tom Mison, Christina Cole, Elliot Cowan, Genevieve Gaunt, Rae Kelly Hill, and Lindsay Duncan
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Amanda Price is sick of the crassness and just general lack of manners in the modern world. Therefore whenever she can she escapes into the genteel world Jane Austen created in Pride and Prejudice. After a particularly unromantic proposal from her boyfriend the unexpected happens; Lizzy Bennet appears in her bathroom. At first she thinks she's gone mad, but Lizzy soon returns and is quick to enter Amanda's world while Amanda takes her place in the Bennet household. Though with Lizzy absent things quickly start to go awry. Mr. Bingley doesn't fall immediately for Jane and instead fixes his amorous attentions on Amanda. Amanda, being a true fan of the book, tries her hardest to right this wrong, even claiming she is a lesbian in order to unite the destined lovers. Amanda can see her presence is a baffling imposition and her "gifts" of insight after years of reading their story confuses all the characters around her. But she is determined to keep the story on it's track. Lizzy will return and marry Mr. Darcy and everything will be fine. Amanda meanwhile just has to not fall for the man she's been fantasizing about since she was twelve. And at first this is very easy. Darcy knows that there's something not right about Miss Price. She's forward, she's awkward, she's everything that he should be against, and yet, she's the one he wants to dance with. She's the one he's drawn to. But Amanda couldn't ruin the happily ever after of all happily ever afters could she? It's her duty as a fan of Jane Austen to live within the narrative as best she can. But what happens when the characters become real humans to her and love becomes the most important thing of all? 

If one looks at the fandom surrounding Jane Austen, the festivals in full costume, the balls recreated down to the tiniest details, it's clear that the greatest dream of any Janeite would be to find their way into one of her books. This would be the greatest wish fulfillment ever and that is what we get with Lost in Austen. Amanda Price as our avatar has stumbled upon this magical portal in her bathroom and what results is a trip down the rabbit role via Jasper Fforde and the cupboard to Narnia. Amanda gets the chance at catching Mr. Darcy, a dream that every girl for over two hundred years has dreamt upon picking up Pride and Prejudice. But what's so interesting about Lost in Austen is that Amanda is such a fangirl that while she is living her dream she is also trying to maintain the story's narrative. She is almost completely selfless as she keeps trying to keep everything intact while Lizzy is absent. All the while she is fighting her feelings for Darcy. Amanda is at sea when meeting the man she's loved since she was twelve. All these emotions coupled with knowing he is meant for a woman he has never met give us the pull on our heartstrings that the original story does, maintaining the "will they won't they" that is so necessary in keeping the narrative moving. Just like Lizzy she is fighting against what she really wants, and in the process this brassy and bolshy Brit wins our heart as well as Darcy's. When she gives in to her feelings it is sublime, because as Lady Catherine said, perhaps she was too scared to admit what she really wanted, and what Amanda really wanted, despite every instinct in her Pride and Prejudice loving body, was Darcy for herself.

This what-if story is so meta and so wonderful each time I watch it something else catches my eye. It's digging fully into the story that Austen wrote while also playing with every fangirl fantasy or idea that has been posited in two hundred years. Think of not just all the adaptations to film and stage over the years of Austen's work, think of all the alternative tellings, the retellings, the what-ifs, the and-thens, the fanfic, all of it, and yet somehow Lost in Austen found a unique and new story. This takes the characters as we know and love them and throws them on their heads. Some changes are purely for comedic value, such as Caroline Bingley's sapphic interests, others are more poignant, such as the true worth of Mr. Wickham, while still adhering to the strict narrative Austen wrote. Yet what I find most fascinating is that while you could spend years arguing who the "pride" and who the "prejudice" refer to among our hero and heroine, with Amanda we are given a character who has these faults as well. Because Amanda is belabored with her preconceptions of years of escaping into the pages of Pride and Prejudice. She sees the characters as Austen wrote them not thinking that they would have a life beyond the confines of the story. I often wonder when I'm not reading a book if the characters are just all sitting around waiting for me to read them so they can say their lines and act out the scenes or if perhaps they're off somewhere else having a good time until I come and force them into their proscribed roles. Here they are very much off having fun. They have unexpected first names, character traits that one would never expect, and most of all, even more humanity than you'd think a character out of a book could possess. And this throws Amanda for a loop. She is constantly fighting an uphill battle between what she expects, what should be, and what is, and I loved every second of it.       

Yet oddly enough it's Elizabeth Bennet that effects the story the most because of her absence. Pride and Prejudice without Elizabeth Bennet is almost like chaos theory in action. Yes, it's not the dire situation that Jasper Fforde shows in his first Thursday Next book, The Eyre Affair, because Jane Eyre is nothing without it's narrator, whereas without Elizabeth Bennet there are still enough characters to make up a story, it's just a very different one. Because Lizzy is the vibrant core of Pride and Prejudice, always keeping everyone in line with an arched eyebrow or a well placed smile. Without her everything is off, everyone feels off and comments on her absence being so unlike her. And that is my one problem with Lost in Austen, Lizzy leaving. Yes, there is a mutual need that Amanda and Lizzy feel for each other, a desire to be in the others place in some version of Freaky Friday, yet I think Lizzy's need is out of character. Yes, she would fare very well in our modern times, yet she is about family and loyalty and caring for those she loves. How can she justify just leaving them behind and throwing Amanda in their place? I seriously don't get it. As I've said before the adaptation is all about exploring the way the characters are different outside the lines that Austen has drawn for us yet with Lizzy it's like her lines were erased and an entirely new character who is more than a little selfish was drawn in her place. In her modern life she's a nanny and taking care of a family, so why would she take care of this family and not her own? Later when she is able to discuss things with her father it makes a little more sense, but up until then I just don't feel Lizzy's presence. And perhaps they did this on purpose, because if Lizzy were truly herself you'd never root for Amanda and Darcy. But still, my heart breaks for Charlotte Lucas.     

But, much like Pride and Prejudice, this adaptation is a fine balance of comedy with the obligatory ripping out of your heart and gleefully trampling on it. The modern Amanda and her clashes with what the past lacks, especially in regard to dental health, is where the comedy really lies for the first two episodes. Her observations on things she would have never guessed at, like how revolting Mr. Collins really is, or how her randomly misplaced modern vernacular would effect Lydia, or how, like in Austenland, the only song she can perform is wonderfully modern and anachronistic, this are comedic highlights. Yet as the adaptation proceeds the comedy gives way to the heartfelt. The stark truths, such as Darcy having to marry a virgin, and what happens when Bingley becomes unhinged because of Jane's fate. Also, the knowing how it's supposed to be versus what it has become isn't just a thorn in Amanda's side but a knife to the heart. The scene where Jane pleads with Bingley to be happy for the both of them because she never will be, I dare you not to ugly cry. Lost in Austen taps into those universal truths of love and despair that Austen herself wrote about and that makes this adaptation shine. It is so different from Austen, it takes such liberties, and I know this might annoy some viewers, but down in it's bones it shares the same DNA. But I wouldn't expect anything less from the writer, Guy Andrews, looking at his track record he has worked on some of my favorite British shows, but most importantly is Blandings. This was adapted from the Blandings books by P.G. Wodehouse and shows a similar comedic base that taps into true feeling while also strongly hinging on nostalgia.

Though I must sadly end in a rant. This rant has to do with the DVD release. As you have obviously read here on my blog I have issues with substandard releases. What I want is the show as it originally aired in the best quality possible preferably in a really pretty package. That's why I actually am advising you to not buy this release because it is not complete. As anyone who pays attention to DVD releases knows one of the hardest things is licensing of music. I'm not talking about music written for the show but the popular songs and standards that appear in it. Look to the TV show Freaks and Geeks. The DVD release was delayed years because they refused to release the show in any format other than the one that aired, and hence I was a happy camper when I bought my DVD set and all the beloved eighties songs were there. Other shows take a more lackadaisical approach. Look to Northern Exposure, a show which was lauded for it's use of music when it aired and yet the DVD sets, well, the music is noticeably absent and filler music is used, thus making the show less than. Other shows that I've long awaited like Ashes to Ashes I have a feeling will never be released in the US because of the copious amount of eighties songs used and yet I couldn't buy the set unless ever single song was there because it wouldn't be the same. Two of the best jokes in Lost in Austen are destroyed because of these omissions on the DVD. The first is just a quick side joke in that Amanda's ring tone is the theme from the Andrew Davies adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. But the second is a more egregious error. When Amanda is asked to sing she sings Petula Clark's "Downtown." Yes, it's very funny and watching the DVD when it skips from Amanda being asked to sing to the party at Netherfield Park clapping for her I was taken aback. It's not just the removal of this hilarious scene but what the song comes to mean, especially for Bingley in his search for peace after losing Jane that makes the removal unconscionable. Of course there's still time to fix this... just a nice BluRay release, song intact. That's all I ask for. Please?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Amanda Price, Bicentenary Ball, Blandings, Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, Freaks and Geeks, Jane Austen, Jasper Fforde, Jemima Rooper, Lost in Austen, Pride and Prejudice, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Eyre Affair

Players by Terrance Dicks
Published by: BBC Books
Publication Date: April 26th, 1999
Format: Paperback, 306 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

While trying to show Peri a glamorous time after a particularly sewer based adventure, the TARDIS gets the right when not the right where and they end up smack in the middle of the Boer War. Not only in the middle of the strife in South Africa, but in the middle of an assassination attempt against a young Winston Churchill. Winston pooh-poohs the idea that the assassin was after him, but the Doctor knows how integral Churchill is to the coming century so he can't discount this theory. By eliminating Churchill the entire course of future history will be changed. What's more disconcerting is that this has happened before, in The Doctor's second incarnation, almost twenty years in Churchill's future, there was an odd assassination attempt during WWI that The Doctor thwarted. Could there be someone, or a group of someones, so invested in the death of Churchill that they would be willing to wait decades till the perfect opportunity to strike presented itself again?

The Doctor is disturbed by these events and decides to set himself and Peri up in London society in the 1930s. They're bound to run into Churchill, Peri will get her luxury and glamour, and The Doctor will get his answers. Not long after they arrive there is an attempt on their lives quickly followed by one on Churchill. The Doctor doesn't take any risks and hires some Pinkerton agents to see to their safety. But whomever their opponents and would-be killers are, determined and ruthless is how they operate. In the midst of the abdication crisis, could these mysterious assassins be playing some sort of game with The Doctor as their pawn and Churchill's death as a significant move?

One of the fun aspects of Doctor Who is that because he can go anywhen, well, we have the chance to run into some rather august personages, even previous versions of himself. So far in this series of books he hasn't run into anyone of note, but then again, he hasn't really been hanging around earth that much...  in the television series he has met everyone from Dickens to Da Vinci, here we have someone who has even shown up on the show, Winston Churchill. I like that this gives a little bit of context and background to The Doctor's relationship with Churchill, because when the 11th Doctor gets that phone call at the end of "The Beast Below" there is obviously a prior and congenial relationship between the two. I like to think that this book is where it all started.

Yet at the same time I couldn't help be reminded of the first Thursday Next novel by Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair. While I know that this book came out after Players, the fact remains that it is more well known, and I can't help but keep thinking about Thursday's father showing up again and again and asking if she knew who Churchill was. Because, quite literally, if there's one person who was a force for good in the last century, it was Churchill.

And because we are dealing with Churchill, well, we are dealing with some of my favorite time periods. Africa, England, pulling together for the empire in times of crisis... ah, this book had me hooked from page one... but then it lost me. I wanted to love it, it was a fast read in a time period I love, but it just flat lined. The problem I had was with the anachronisms. In any historical fiction, and in particular in a story dealing with time travel and the ability to accidentally change the past, butterfly wings and all that, there are acceptable anachronisms and unacceptable anachronisms. There can be things played for laughs, like in Blackadder: Back and Forth when Edmund messes up the time lines and Shakespeare ends up being known as the inventor of the ballpoint pen. And there can be serious changes, like here if Winston Churchill were eliminated before England's hour of need.

But then there are things that just get under my skin and piss me off, aka, the unacceptable anachronisms. In this book there where two that just drove me crazy. One was the fact that while playing out the abdication crisis with Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII that Wallis was going to be there for his abdication broadcast. Now the clever and acceptable anachronisms is what was going to happen because of the Players... what annoyed me was Wallis's presence. She had fled the country at this point! You can mess with history, you just can't mess with it this much. It's keeping the details intact that make a story like this work. As for the Pinkerton Dekker, who is a little too much Harrison Ford in Bladerunner, well, he was too much of an earlier era. His tommy gun wielding prohi just felt so out of place, it's like Terrance Dicks was taking Boardwalk Empire and trying to force it to breed with the new Upstairs, Downstairs. It was so wrong, not all period dramas mesh, and it didn't surprise me in the least when I learned that Dekker was in a previous Terrance Dicks novel... sometimes you just need to let your characters go. And don't get me started with the Rebbecca joke or the fact Dicks then pulled a Dashiell Hammett and decided to bring in the Continental Op... sigh, sometimes less is more and it's best to separate styles.

As for our big bad? I really loved the Players and their nebulous unexplained nature. In the previous book with the 5th Doctor, Fear of the Dark, I felt that one of the failings was taking a mysterious entity and making it have too too solid flesh. By instead having this race of immortals from who knows where or when and them just playing a game with our history just for fun... well, I like it. I also like that they will obviously return. But what I loved is that at the end they let The Doctor live, not because he wasn't a threat to them, but because they saw his potential as either a player or a very powerful pawn.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Blackadder, Bladerunner, Boardwalk Empire, Boer War, Doctor Who, Jasper Fforde, Peri, Players, Terrance Dicks, The 6th Doctor, The Eyre Affair, Upstairs Downstairs, Wallis and Edward, Winston Churchill, WWI, WWII

One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde
Published by: Viking
Book Provided by Viking
Publication Date: March 8th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy
The written Thursday Next has a lot to handle. Since the destruction of Thursday1-4, Thursday5 has become the only written Thursday Next with five books falling to her. She views it her duty to due justice by the real Thursday Next, which none of her fellow book characters like. Under the regime of the previous Thursday they were allowed to run whatever scams and deals they felt like, secure in the knowledge of a strong reader base due to the amounts of sex and violence. That reader base is gone. There are now only a few die hard readers, leading the books to become more in danger. But the Bookworlds love of the real Thursday should keep their place at the far end of speculative fiction and fantasy. Of course, all these changes would be easier if the real Thursday would stop by and give a thumbs up to quell the rising discontent, especially at the arrival of Thursday's new understudy, Carmine.

Sadly, the understudy is a must, because while failing to be a Jurisfiction agent, Thursday has managed to get a little power investigating Bookworld accidents... one of which takes her across the remade Bookworld to conspiracy, where she not only finds something fishy, but she realizes people are thinking she's the real Thursday, not the written one. To add further confusion, she has ended up with the real Thursday's Jurisfiction badge, because the truth could be stranger than anything those conspiracy nuts could dream up. With doubt lingering as to where the real Thursday is and if the written Thursday might only think she's written and actually be real, Thursday, whichever she might be, views it her duty to get to the bottom of things with her trusty new sidekick, Sprocket, the automaton butler. But there are people who don't want the truth uncovered, mysterious Men in Plaid, and there's the peace talks with Racy novel coming at the end of the week that if Thursday isn't there for, could mean all out war. Sneaking off to the real world, Thursday finally meets the love of her life, Landen, omitted from the books for copyright reasons. It would be so tempting to stay, blue fairy it and become the real Thursday, whether she is or not. But the "Thursday" in whichever Thursday she is, won't allow questions to be left unanswered. So back in the Bookworld, secrets must be uncovered, the truth found and Thursday's identity solved.

Jasper Fforde books are usually very meta, but I think I've reached my threshold. This book was a Thursday Next book without Thursday Next. Instead we follow around the written Thursday, who, while thankfully is not contemplating her navel too much, is still just not Thursday enough. Even if she's able to confuse the other characters in the book, you could tell she wasn't the genuine article. There was just too much that bothered me in the book to make this an enjoyable read. The major gripe I have is the entire reinvention of the Bookworld. Instead of the Bookworld we knew and loved with the great library and jumping from book to book, now we have an actual world, there's even a map. Couple this with Thursday not really being Thursday and it's like Fforde is starting back at the beginning. I don't want to start back at the beginning! I have grown to know and love the characters and the world he has created, only to have him completely destroy it. Characters we cared for are now through the looking glass and act as vapid and self obsessed "actors." Turning everything on it's head we get too much Bookworld and not enough real world. You need grounding to make something this far out there work, and without Laden and the kids, there is no grounding. Plus the whole reason for the Racy Novel war, which has been brewing for a long time, seems to only work within the new world structure with a globe and geography... which leads me to wonder, why was there a war looming before the reinvention? But worst of all? The cliffhanger from previous novel is still unresolved with this "filler" book. There was no tying up of loose ends, just a lot of jokes and asides that led nowhere.

Now, my mini-rant above, doesn't mean that there wasn't things that I enjoyed. There was a through plot, which some of his previous books have lacked, it just wasn't the one I wanted. I also love how he is will to take the piss out of himself with the self mocking tone indicating that his books have an inherent crappiness that leads to them being remaindered. Of course he also hints, that these are almost proto novels, his books aren't done, and it will take written Thursday's intervention for the books to evolve into the books we know and love. The Thursday Next books aren't "there" yet, but one day, they will be. I also liked the little Agatha Christie Death on the Nile parody as well as Jenny's existence being established. It was also nice to see Fforde reaching out to currently popular genres like Steampunk and Fan Fic, which, while Fan Fic does verge on the line of plagiarism, I like that the island was a fun and happy place, if lacking depth. It kind of reminded me of a Con. But at the end of the day, the little things didn't help the big things. I hope that the next Thursday Next book actually has Thursday and not some pale imitation. Each book has been a little weaker, and a little more a shadow of the initial genius of The Eyre Affair, and maybe it's time to put Thursday out to pasture, because if this "reinvention" was a way to try to invigorate the series, it failed. If given the choice though, I still think he should focus on writing the follow up to Shades of Grey, the best book he's ever written and one of my favorites of all time.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Bookworld, Death on the Nile, Fan Fic, Jasper Fforde, Jurisfiction, Landen, One of Our Thursdays is Missing, Racy Novel, Shades of Grey, Steampunk, The Eyre Affair, Thursday Next

Something Rotten: Thursday Next Novel the 4th by Jasper Fforde
Published by: Viking
Publication Date: August 5th, 2004
Format: Hardcover, 389 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Battenburg Cake, Bismack, Emma Hamilton, Goliath, Hamlet, Jasper Fforde, Jurisfiction, Landen, Lewis Carroll, Minotaur, Something Rotteh, Spec Ops, Terry Pratchett, The Eyre Affair, Thursday Next

The Eyre Affair: Thursday Next Novel the 1st by Jasper Fforde
Published by: Viking
Publication Date: January 28th, 2002 US, July 19th, 2001 UK
Format: Hardcover, 374 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

In a world similar to our own, but not quite, books are revered with a fanatical devotion, Dodo's are a common re-engineered pet, the Goliath Corporation covertly controls most of England, cheese is exorbitantly taxed and the Crimean War still rages on. The Special Operations Network, dealing with the unusual, takes care of what is deemed too bizarre for the regular PC plods. There are 30 departments, the functions of most departments being shrouded in mystery. Our heroine, Thursday Next, works for SO-27, the Literary Detectives, who police everything from forgeries to theft, all within the parameters of books. And in a society devoted to the written word, it's a demanding job. We join Thursday as she's heading out to Gad's Hill, the home of Charles Dickens, where, despite extreme security measures, the manuscript for Martin Cuzzlewit has disappeared, yet again. Only there is just one man who could have pulled off this crime, neither appearing on camera or setting off securing alarms... Acheron Hades, a man who can lie in deed, thought and action. He doesn't appear on film, he can hear anytime his name is spoken within a certain distance and he and Thursday have a history. Of course the history is more her turning him down when he was her professor then anything lurid... but this is a first, someone who can say no to Hades and knows what he looks like. But the question everyone is asking themselves is, why does Hades want this book?

Thursday is approached by SO-5 to help in their apprehension of Hades. What happens is a fiasco. All the Special Op agents are killed, except Thursday, who was saved by someone matching the description of Rochester from Jane Eyre. But a fictional character saving her life is not the biggest concern when she faces questions from SO-1, internal affairs, and a future version of herself appears to her and tell her to transfer to a LiteraTec job in Swindon. She listens to herself and heads to Swindon, even if the job is technically a demotion and she's avoided the town since a) she grew up there b) her family still lives there and c) Landon. Her family is complicated, seeing as technically her father doesn't exist because he's been written out of time. A Chronogaurd in SO-12 he jumps back and forth in time and when he went rogue he was eliminated, but somehow he still had three children and shows up every morning for breakfast. Her Uncle Mycroft and her Aunt Polly live with her mother, where Mycroft has made some of the most fascinating inventions, even a portal into the written word! But the complications of family are nothing to Landen. The man she fell in love with while serving in the Crimea, the man she was to marry, the man she left when he sullied her dead brother Anton's memory saying that he caused one of the worst fiascoes in the history of the Crimea.

Of course Landon will have to wait when Mycroft, Polly and Mycroft's Prose Portal are kidnapped by none other than Acheron Hades. Seeing as he now has the Cuzzlewit manuscript and a way into said manuscript... things are not looking good. Everyone's suspicions are confirmed when one of the minor characters, Mr. Quaverly, turns up in a trunk in Swindon, permanently excised from the book. But even after Spec Ops and Goliath try to trick Hades, Martin Cuzzlewit seems safe... of course they didn't count on Mycroft destroying the original manuscript to save the book. The lack of his ransom and the betrayal of Mycroft leads Hades to his most heinous crime yet... he kidnaps Jane Eyre. One of the most beloved books of all time, Jane Eyre, without Jane's first person narration ends abruptly once Jane is gone. It's up to Thursday to save her family, get her man, end a war, save a classic and perhaps get happy endings for everyone.

This book is written for bookworms who have read all the classics and will get all the little jokes and asides. The parallel world Fforde has created is beyond fascinating. The devotion of this world to the written word makes rock stars out of Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen, which I heartily applaud. While it takes awhile to get used to the small differences that ended up creating major differences in our timelines, many of which are played for laughs, it's the moments within the literature itself that shines. As for the bureaucracy, politics and technology, I find it diverting, but not integral. From the short passages with Polly trapped within Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", to Thursday's prolonged sojourn within Jane Eyre, it's the books within the book that I adore. Ironically the first time I read this book I had not yet read Jane Eyre, a fact which has since been rectified. But the fact then remains that it was actually Fforde and his interpretation of Jane Eyre that became my first introduction to the classic. Of course I'd seen all the adaptations so I knew what the plot was and was able to appreciate the fact that in Thursday's world the ending of the book is wrong, what with Jane going off to India with her cousin. But it was Fforde's description of this world, his representation of Rochester as a heroic and self-sacrificing man that I then took with me back to the original. So in a way, my introduction to one of the most famous literary figures in history came about in a very Nextian way... watch an adaptation, read a book about the characters taken out of context, then read the original. But the thing that kept me reading late into the night is that once Thursday is ensconced at Thornfield, it's the waiting, the knowing that somehow she will right the book to end it like it does in our world that keeps the pages turning. How will she rectify the wrong? Because this is one of the greatest love stories ever told and it can't end like it did!

Though there is one detraction for me. It's the believability of this frenetic society. I know it's absurd and funny as all get out, but could a society really retain this frenzy over this prolonged a period. With the way our attention spans flit from one thing to the next could people's devotion to Shakespeare really last as long as it has? Would people truthfully be changing their names to emulate authors and characters in books? Again, I get the satire, but it's the underlying human nature that I partially question. Of course I am like the characters, I do possess these fanatic tendencies, but I don't think the public as a whole could retain it for such a long period. The Rocky Horror Picture Show nature of the Richard III performances with the audience members being the actors and then also participating in an elaborate call and response routine seems to me fun, but not able to last as long as it supposedly does. Even The Rocky Horror Picture Show couldn't sustain my local theater to stay open, and I know Shakespeare is in an entirely different ballpark, but still... don't get me wrong, I love this book and would love to visit this world, but I have some quibbles, not enough to ever put the book down or to stop me from foisting it one others... but still...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Acheron Hades, Book Review, Charles Dickens, Crimean War, Dodo, Goliath, Jane Eyre, Jasper Fforde, Literary Detective, Rochester, Rocky Horror, SO-27, Spec Ops, The Eyre Affair, Thursday Next