Dickensblog

'Little Dorrit,' part two

First off, we need to straighten something out. Flora is NOT meant to represent Catherine Dickens. She's meant to represent Maria Beadnell, Dickens's girlfriend from his youth. Time to fire your researchers, I think, Ms. Linney!

Moving right along . . .

When we left off last week, almost the last thing I wrote was about Amy being like a high school girl writing her hoped-for future married name all over a notebook. Actually, it looks now like John is more the type to do that. (He talked that way in the book, too; I'm glad they kept it. But I miss his little cane with the pointing finger on top. And his mother! She was funny.) John's sweet, but it's kind of sad how he and her father are planning out her future in the prison -- "she would always be here" -- and not seeing a thing wrong with the idea.

Get a load of that hair! I was not aware that Henry Gowan was an escapee from the cast of High School Musical. And I'm sorry, but that dog does not look like a "Lion." A Fifi, maybe, but not a Lion. Cute dog, though.

Claire Foy and Russell Tovey are very, very good here. I see she's letting him get his proposal all the way out, which surprises me; it seemed like Amy was stronger in the book when she asked him straight out not to propose, and told him she trusted him never to interrupt her walks in her favorite place again. And I thought this adaptation was all about bringing out her strength. But she hits a nice balance here between compassion and firmness. And he is just heartbreaking. (Brought my mother to tears, in fact.) Although not too good at taking a hint, poor thing.

Daniel Doyce isn't quite as I pictured him -- I thought of him as older -- but I like him. Zubin Varla has a nice little air of wry detachment that suits the role.

Ooh, a Dorrit brother fight! The Frederick of the novel wouldn't have had the strength, the daring, or the disrespect to say even that much (at least not yet). It adds a subtle touch of malice, though, to William's words about how decrepit he's getting and how he'd be better off in the prison. Mr. Chivery's face is incredibly eloquent during that speech. He's getting to be the go-to man for ironic commentary around here (his "It's not as if she's royalty" in the previous installment was quite the devastating little insight).

The cool thing about LiveJournal . . .

. . . is that you can find other Little Dorrit bloggers there! Check out this very nice liveblog/review.

Dickens on TCM

I almost forgot -- some of you might like to know that TCM is airing the 1988 Little Dorrit adaptation, starting tomorrow morning at 9 Eastern. (The second part airs next week.) I'm DVR'ing it, with some trepidation. Age difference notwithstanding -- and unquestionably great as Derek Jacobi is -- I can't get used to the idea of an Arthur who looks like Amy's grandfather. Still, it should make interesting viewing sometime, so I'll record it and hang onto it for a while, and maybe one of these days get a blog post or two out of it!

Charles Dickens, blogger?

If Dickens had lived today, would he have been a blogger? Or a Tweeter? Or a computer game writer? It seems the possibilities are endless! 

Speaking of technology, I've started a LiveJournal account -- not just for Dickens stuff, but for cultural stuff in general. But I am cross-posting my Little Dorrit musings (good word, Chris!) over there, and those of you who like that format are welcome to wander on over and take a look. It doesn't look like much at the moment, I'm afraid, as I'm not too familiar with the format myself. But I'll try it for a little while and see how it goes.

A hearty welcome to all the first-time readers and commenters who've been dropping by this week. It's wonderful to have you here. I'll see you all Sunday for part two! (The other night I caught my mother snooping through this article in the Washington Post "TV Week" for clues as to what's going to happen. Good article -- aside from the part where Davies takes credit for something Dickens wrote -- with one or two very nice quotes from Claire Foy. But alas for Mom, no big revelations. We'll all just have to keep tuning in . . . )

Dickens in the 'New Yorker'

The New Yorker recently ran a major piece on solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. In a sidebar feature, they consulted the opinion of one Mr. Charles Dickens:

I believe that very few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture and agony which this dreadful punishment, prolonged for years, inflicts upon the sufferers; and in guessing at it myself, and in reasoning from what I have seen written upon their faces, and what to my certain knowledge they feel within, I am only the more convinced that there is a depth of terrible endurance in which none but the sufferers themselves can fathom, and which no man has a right to inflict upon his fellow creature. I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body; and because its ghastly signs and tokens are not so palpable to the eye and sense of touch as scars upon the flesh; because its wounds are not upon the surface, and it extorts few cries that human ears can hear; therefore the more I denounce it, as a secret punishment which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay.

Read more.

A very singular letter

A reporter for TheNewsStar.com writes about a previously unknown letter from Dickens that's on loan to Louisiana Tech -- but doesn't say what's in it! Tease.