Naomi Clifford's Blog, page 2
March 30, 2020
March 16, 2020
Belgravia – a review
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February 27, 2020
December 29, 2019
The Legend of Margaret Catchpole
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December 1, 2019
There’s Something About Darcy by Gabrielle Malcolm
The subtitle of this book by Dr Gabrielle Malcolm, an expert in Austen’s place in popular culture and the global fan world associated with Austen, is The curious appeal of Jane Austen’s bewitching hero.
How has he managed to get under our skin and why do we love him so much? If you watched TV in the Nineties you would know at least part of the answer, but in case your memory requires jogging, here is the Lake Scene from Andrew Davies’ ‘sexed up’ 1995 BBC production of Pride & Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, in which Darcy has tried to cool his passions and dampen his emotions with a quick dip in the cool water only to encounter the object of his ardour Lizzie Bennet taking a tour around his magnificent ancestral pile.
On the face of it, Darcy is not a prepossessing hero – he’s humourless, alpha, sexist, stubborn, rude – so it is difficult to understand why women who are otherwise strong and independent would love him. In Colin Firth’s incarnation, he was supremely handsome (yes, he is my favourite Darcy, you can keep Matthew McFadyean) but he is also aloof to the point of rude, snobbish, and embarrassingly socially awkward. But ‘on the face of it’ is the point; Austen lets us know that there is much more going on below the surface. Her first choice for the title of P&P was, after all, First Impressions. He reveals himself as tender, kind, compassionate and caring.
Gabrielle Malcolm clocked the phenomena of Darcy-worship when she noticed a young woman waiting for a bus in Bath and carrying an ‘I 
Darcy’ tote bag. She began to consider that the demand for Austen and Darcy-related things went far beyond Austen’s original work and to ask herself why that should be.
She does a magnificent job in tracing Darcy’s literary DNA, which shows strains of Sheridan and Frances Burney, as well as his literary progeny: the more gothic Rochester (Charlotte Brontë’s dislike of Austen’s work notwithstanding) and Heathcliff, Thornton, the hero of Mrs Gaskell’s North and South, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and through Georgette Heyer’s heroes and Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel. E.L. James’s Christian Grey could be considered a great-great-grandnephew.1
Malcolm goes on to look at the numerous film and TV adaptations of P&P. I was surprised and happy to learn that Fay Weldon’s 1980 screenplay included Lizzie Bennet reading Mary Wollstonecraft and that the pairing of Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul was just as successful as Colin Firth plus Elizabeth Ehle (who were apparently having a ‘thing’ at the time of filming so brought an extra fizz to the action).
The last part of There’s Something About Darcy is a discussion of the numerous works that have taken P&P as direct inspiration and provided prequels, paraquels and sequels, or have used the characters and plot to riff off into different time dimensions or fantasy worlds. I loved Jo Baker’s Longbourn, the story of the Bennet household from the point of view of a servant, in which Darcy scarcely features, but cannot say I am familiar with many other of these works. Perhaps that will change now.
This is a serious and carefully considered work, consistently interesting and referencing the author’s huge store of knowledge of Austen-related culture. She wears her deep expertise lightly, using an accessible, straight-forward style that makes the book a pleasure to read.
There’s Something About Darcy: The Curious Appeal of Jane Austen’s Bewitching Hero
by Gabrielle Malcolm
Endeavour Quill (2019)
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October 13, 2019
Sanditon Episode 8
CONTAINS SPOILERS
Woah! Despite my best feminist self, I feel a tiddly bit cheated.
I’ll dive straight in.
Lord Babington woos Esther with a carriage drive. She takes the reins and has a right old laugh. That’s more like it!
Georgiana warns Charlotte not to believe a word Sid says.
“Oh, give over,” we hear from the back row. “That Sid’s a lovely boy, and he’s promised to be good from now on.” What could possibly go wrong?
So they all go to the ball. It’s wall to wall chandeliers and mirrors. Char is decked out in silver. Lovely Mary Parker is pure Top Shop Christmas Party glitter. Georgiana tips up and gleefully leaps about with Arthur, much to the chagrin of his sister Diana, who fears she will be ending her days alone. “No!” says Arthur after the ball is over, “I’m not the marrying kind. Don’t understand how ladies work.” Say no more.
Dishevelled psycho Edward puts in an appearance, shouting at Esther about love, but she spurns him. The Esther/Lord Babs alliance looks pretty solid. Tick that one off.
What about the other one? Ummmm. Just as Sid is about to pop the question on the balcony, the scene of Sid’s earlier horrid horridness, a catastrophe befalls, well, just about everyone. Stringer’s grumpy dad, annoyed that his son has been given an opportunity in London Town, collapses with a fatal heart attack and while falling to the ground knocks a naked flame, staring a devastating fire and putting paid to nearly all Tom Parker’s luxury seaside apartments.
Stringer is heartbroken about Pa, yeah yeah, but that’s nothing compared to Tom Parker. He’s ruined, I tell you, and facing debtor’s prison. I would be tempted to say, “So what? That’s life, buster!” but Sid, dear dear boy, thinks otherwise and gallantly goes off to raise funds to save his brother. I know I mentioned it earlier, but bear in mind that The Brothers was Jane Austen’s original title for the work. Fam and all that.
Char decides to put a bonnet on it.
And so it turns out. Sid returns with good news for Tom and bad news for Char. He’s only gone and pimped himself out to the odious ex Eliza and her massive coffers and permitted himself to become engaged. No wedding bells for Char. And probably a life dissipating his sorrows in the bars and bagnios of Covent Garden for Sid.
I had a lump in my throat when Char boarded the coach for home. Everyone knows the sorrow of a broken romance. But with literally two minutes for Sid to put everything right I knew that was that, get over it. Our man did gallop up to the carriage but only to plead with Char not to hate him (that is so mannish!). She was big enough to lie and say nooooo, everything’s fine, on you go, mate.
Historical context
Statement: I accept historical accuracy isn’t really the point of the series.
Full marks for the fire machines. Gawd, but they were useless, though.
3/10 for Char’s hair and that’s only because she had a reasonable do for the ball and she wore a bonnet (but not to the ball).
Nudity quotient
Not much apart from Lord and Lady Babington in bed. Shoulders only. We wouldn’t want to intrude on their precious bond, though, would we.
Predictions
Series 2.
I reviewed Episode 1 of Andrew Davies’ Sanditon (ITV) for the Historical Writers’ Association.
Read my recap of Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6 and Episode 7.
The post Sanditon Episode 8 appeared first on Naomi Clifford.
October 7, 2019
Sanditon Episode 7
CONTAINS SPOILERS!
We’re on the home stretch now, folks!
All the main characters have decamped to Sanditon for the regatta. Hurrah! But after the shock revelations that Sid’s heart has been broken by Mrs Campion, Char is in a mood. It doesn’t get better when the said ex turns up in Sanditon, all London airs and beige clothes, and mistakes Char for the help.
Do you fancy a quick boat ride, miss?
So, naturally, Sid feels the thing he really should do to fix things is console Char with an erotic boat trip and a mini feel-up. Heave. Ho. Etc.
But lo! Who else tips up? Susan, the random woman dishing out the old Anna Raeburn to our Char at the glittering ball in Ep 6, that’s who! And, would you know it, fragrant Susan is a Lady Somethingorother AND, apparently, a mistress of the Prince Regent. She’s not here for the Toffs v Plebs boat race. Oh no. She’s here to Take Char in Hand and Put Things Right (maybe).
Would you really trust the advice of a woman who has chosen the Prince Regent as a partner? ‘A Voluptuary Under The Horrors of Digestion’. 1792 caricature by James Gillray from George IV’s time as Prince of Wales.
Meanwhile, over on the dark side…
You know in my recap of Episode 6 I said Lady Denham was Not Dead Yet. Well, I never spoke a truer word. While Esther, dressed in a symbolic gown of green, is recapping to her on Edward and Clara burning the will and getting down and dirty on the floor, thinking she was more or less talking to the air, Lady D is actually listening. Then she (Lady D) rises as if from the grave, denounces the very very guilty parties and sends ’em packing without a farthing. Luckily, Esther has wished Lady D well in heaven, so she’s OK (maybe).
Back to the action.
Arthur prises Georgiana Lambe out of her bed where she is being bored to death with Bible readings by the Creepy Vicar and takes her down to the regatta for a spot of fun and cake. She says she resents being stared at by the masses for her reputation-shredding escapade with Otis and the abductor. He sensibly says she is constantly stared at so what’s the diff?
Stringer clumsily but sweetly makes a sort of advance towards Char, but she doesn’t even see it and thanks him for being a great shoulder for her broken heart (this metaphor has gone a bit wrong, but bear with). Then it’s the boat race and may the best man win. There’s a lot of in-out-in-out from the coxes. And the best man does win, except he is not Sid.
So, Sanditon looks saved, mostly by Sue, who might return with The Prince in tow. More hurrahs! Bonus: Tom and Mary Parker’s marriage is saved because he won’t go bankrupt.
Lord B goes to see Esther and offers to be a supportive friend in her hour of need without bothering her with that love stuff. She has a cry, and we love her for it (he does too).
Final scene: Char alone in the Sanditon project room feeling wistful. Enter: Sid. Blah Blah, he says, I’ve sent the snobby ex packing back to London and I am a better man when I am with you, or words to that effect, Your Honour.
Scores
Historical context
Please, I beg you, costume department, stop with the long hair and put a bonnet on Charlotte. She’s looking like a woman of the street.
Nudity quotient
Good. We had naked Sid in the distance emerging from the sea, where he had gone to sort out his head. Plus a bit of manly chest and lower leg.
Predictions
Difficult. Obviously nothing’s over until it’s over, and I feel there’s going to be a curve ball thrown in from left field because that is the job of the scriptwriter, but this is where we appear to be heading:
Esther and Lord Bab marry after lots of psychotherapy and couples counselling.
Char and… jury’s still out, I’m afraid, until Sid can show he has genuinely changed and wants children (he’s great with the nephs and nieces). Perhaps Stringer is not developed enough as a character to be properly in the running.
Georgiana Lambe moves in with Arthur and Diana and lives to a long age, single and happy. She leaves her fortune to street children.
The post Sanditon Episode 7 appeared first on Naomi Clifford.
September 30, 2019
Sanditon Episode 6
CONTAINS SPOILERS!
We’re galloping along at an amazing speed. Plus there are stunts (well, one).
Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) is in an almost permanent state of perplexion.
So, off Char pops to London alone, as you do, in search of her abducted friend Georgiana Lambe, armed only with Otis’s address on a scrap of paper. Of course London is all lurching drunk poor people who want to molest her in dark alleys and when one actually assaults her he gets short shrift from a passing stranger, who turns out to be
Sid!
What a hero.
Otis is not such a hero, however, having ‘sold’ the declared love of his life Miss Lambe to a horrible man to pay off his gambling debts. During the frantic search for Miss Lambe we discover that not only is Sid a smoker and a drinker but he’s also a user of sex workers (‘The usual, Mr Parker?’ or words to that effect from the brothel-keeper).
Sid find out that poor Georgiana is in a coach with a fat bloke heading for Scotland and the famous anvil. Who goes to the rescue?
He does! (Plus Char)
And who leads a terrifying chase in a chaise and performs a leap worthy of the best Tom Cruise, bringing the coach to a halt and rescuing Georgiana from a fate worse than death?
Sid does!
Georgiana is safely carted back to civilisation and prescribed a hot bath and a quiet night. Sid and Char are all fired up by the excitement and there’s a party on! Just as well Char’s packed a golden gown and her curlers in her reticule, just in case.
Glittering balls. Charlotte is prepared for any occasion.
Charlotte gets dolled up.
Meanwhile, near Sanditon, Lady Denham is fading fast so Evil Edward goes looking for her will, only for Clara to beat him to it. In a moment of intimacy, they conspire to deprive the donkey sanctuary of its inheritance and salivate together over the prospect of the riches coming to them and when that’s finished they promptly get down to business on the floor. Urgh!
While Edward lights a post-coital cigar Clara does what she does best: sexual blackmail – if she doesn’t get a bigger slice of the pie she’ll tell Esther about their little moment. But it’s not over until the fat lady sings, that is Lady Denham is Not Dead Yet.
At the aforementioned ball, Char and Sid dance together in a flirty way and we can all feel the love. Earlier, we learn that Sid was disappointed in love by a certain ‘Eliza’ who chucked Sid and married for money. The beeeaatch! Looking like Sid is odds-on favourite now.
But then Char confides in a random woman called Susan that she’s confused (a mode her face has displayed in every scene through the six episodes). She feels attracted to Sid, she continues, but angry with him at the same time. ‘Ah,’ says Susan. ‘That means you are in love!’
Nonsense, I say, Susan! What Char is describing, in my humble experience, sounds very much like the state of being married (first few years anyway – it’s all mellow companionship now, I assure you).
But would you believe it? Everything comes crashing down. Eliza’s at the ball. And she’s widowed! And who’s laughing and joking with her?
Only Sid, that’s who.
Will Char’s tentative dreams be squished? What about Stringer?
In other news:
Tom Parker continues to try to save Sanditon and his marriage.
Scores
Historical context
‘Abduction is a hanging offence,’ states Sid when confronting the driver of the coach containing Miss Lambe and her monetary potential. Common misconception. Abduction was a misdemeanour not a felony. If Georgiana had been proved to have been forcibly married in England and then forced to have sex (and the marriage had been annulled), that would have been rape, a hanging offence indeed. In practice men were hanged for the rape of a child, but rarely of a woman. See my book The Disappearance of Maria Glenn for more on this.
Charlotte’s hair: Full marks for the updo.
Nudity quotient
None. But there was that sex on the floor if you like that kind of thing.
Tropes
I am seriously not happy about the messages Sanditon is sending out.
If Char ends up with Sid, she will be playing the part of wife-as-medicine. Take this unhappy borderline depressed man with a sensitive soul but self-destructive behaviours (smoking, drinking, whoring) and add a sweet gentle woman and lo! a good man will emerge. If the bad man comes back, she didn’t do her job properly.
Abused people (Clara) become sexually promiscuous.
Fat people are either sweet but ridiculous (Arthur) or evil (the man who wanted to marry Miss Lambe for her fortune).
I reviewed Episode 1 of Andrew Davies’ Sanditon (ITV) for the Historical Writers’ Association.
Read my recap of Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4 and Episode 5.
The post Sanditon Episode 6 appeared first on Naomi Clifford.
September 23, 2019
Sanditon Episode 5
Folks, we’re *still* in Sanditon! On the sandy beach!
Basically, four things occurred:
Life’s a beach. Lady Denham (Anne Reid) glowers at sulky Esther Denham (Charlotte Spencer), while Clara Brereton (Lily Sacofsky) thinks evil thoughts (probably). Factotum just tries to keep out of it. Creator: Simon Ridgway © Red Planet Pictures.
THE CRICKET MATCH
The set piece is a village cricket match – Gents v Men – (which says a lot in itself). The whole event is very touch and go because hopeless Tom Parker hasn’t paid the Men, who are threatening to down tools and not play, which, as you know, would Not Be Cricket.
It all looks glorious. The sun’s out and the Gents sport fetchingly tonal beige breeches and waistcoats. The hunky Men (well Young Stringer is hunky) are in manly shirts and neckerchiefs. The Gents guzzle the wine and sandwiches in the gazebos, but the Men are sober and respectable.
When Tom Parker is out (Leg Before Wicket, if you must know transl. for non-UK readers, he broke the rules accidentally by putting his limb in the wrong place), and throws a strop about it even when the umpire (creepy vicar) changes his mind, plucky former tomboy Char steps in to play for the Gents and Stringer bowls like a girl especially for her. And yes, women DID play cricket in the Georgian era but not usually with men.
Note: Two strange absences, if you get my meaning. (1) No visible betting. Cricket was all about the ‘sport’. (2) Sand. For all that the match was played on the sandy beach at Sanditon, there were none of the usual discomforts of English beach life i.e. sand in the sandwiches, sand in personal crevices. A detail, I know, but…
THE MARRIAGE PROPOSAL
Look, if Esther doesn’t want Lord Babington, I’ll have him. He’s deffo growing on me. Funny, sensitive, keen to do the right thing and actually very handsome. Also he can see Our Esther for the sadly neglected unloved vulnerable wit, brain and kind soul that she is Underneath It All. They go off to ride horses and he pops the question. She’s tempted but after a sesh with Evil Edward refuses his offer. Bad move, Est! Let’s hope that you have a rethink.
THE ELOPEMENT/ABDUCTION
Following on from the above theme of absences… Georgiana has been in secret correspondence with that Otis Molyneux and Char hatches a plot to help her sneak off to meet him from the 4pm coach. But Char forgets the time because Stringer is running towards her with a silly look on his visage (he was bowling at her, if you can call it that) so G goes alone and lo! and behold she is reportedly bundled into the coach to London by two men. Oh my goodness! Next thing, Sid is shouting at Char again and Char is throwing caution to the wind and going to London unaccompanied in search of her friend.
As I spent years researching elopements and abductions in the Long 18th Century, I will be most interested in how this develops in Episode 6.
THE IMPENDING DEMISE
Looks like Lady Denham has had a stroke and could be on the way out. What will happen to her money?
Scores
Historical context
Cricket: Nicely done but Char would not have been allowed to participate. Mary and Tom, you are in loco parentis. What were you thinking?
Miss Lambe’s possible abduction: Perfect and very Austen, I would have thought, but let’s see what transpires in Episode 6.
Side note: Esther’s bare arms and long curling hair look makes her look like she’s stepped out of 1950s Vogue. Intentional?
Nudity quotient
Zero, except for Esther’s bare arms.
Fidelity to the original
Jane Austen’s own title for the work was The Brothers. I think the relationship between Sid, Tom and Arthur needs to be more centre stage.
Predictions for ending
My money is on Char and Stringer, Esther and Babington, Mrs Griffiths and Creepy Vicar (they so deserve each other), Edward and Clara (ditto), Arthur and Georgiana (he positively beamed at her on the beach, she’ll come round). Sid will turn out to be Not the Marrying Kind or he dies young. He’s a smoker, which in films/tv means he is doomed. Have you not seen Jurassic Park?
I reviewed Episode 1 of Andrew Davies’ Sanditon (ITV) for the Historical Writers’ Association.
Read my recap of Episode 2, Episode 3 and Episode 4.
The post Sanditon Episode 5 appeared first on Naomi Clifford.
September 16, 2019
Sanditon Episode 4
CONTAINS SPOILERS
I was expecting we would all be off to London this week, but alas we were confined to the increasingly claustrophobic Sanditon. OK, there was some ‘liberty’ and Char and Georgiana were not the only ones taking it.
Anyway, back to the action, such as it was.
Char and Georgiana told Mrs Griffiths (who is looking a lot like Jane Austen herself, which I am not sure how I feel about) a bunch of fibs and went for a picnic, without maids. Who should pop out of the landscape but Georgie’s boyf, up from London. His name is Otis! Otis Molyneux.
Note: The writers may have named Otis in reference to James Otis (1725-1793), an American Patriot who is credited with the catchphrase: ‘taxation without representation is tyranny’ and who believed that fundamental freedoms, life, liberty and property, should be extended to black people.
Char put on her disapproving face and demanded he account for himself but all we learn is that he is ‘a merchant’ in London, has been granted his freedom from slavery and Sid doesn’t approve of him.
The picnic amongst the bluebells involved some light canoodling between the lovers. Char played the gooseberry.
‘Tongue?’ asked Char, ‘…or a little pork pie?’
For goodness sake, Andrew Davies!
Back in town the Terrace was not going well. Parker, still facing possible ruin, reneged on his promises to Young Stringer about employing more men and decided to buy the wife a costly pearl necklace instead, like you do. Actually, that is what people actually do. So 100 per cent for emotional accuracy, Andrew.
Georgiana Lambe (Crystal Clarke), the teenage heiress Miss Lambe.
What of our Goth trio? Not looking good, I have to say. Devious minx Clara caught the incesty duo Edward and Esther up to no good and is using it to torment Esther. Clara let slip a snippet about her past, which involves an uncle in the night. My prediction: Clara inherits from Lady D and Edward marries her.
Then Sid discovered Otis was in town and banned him from going near ‘my ward’. When Char intervened and accused him of prejudice and being a slaver he shouted at her in public (in public!) and then handed her over to the care of Young Stringer to ‘take home’. Like she can’t walk? Anyway, they had a heart-to-heart on the beach and she told him, all casual like, that she wished all men could be like him. Sigh. Odds currently Sid (man with a past) 8-1, Young Stringer (man with a future) 3-1.
According to Sid Char’s big idea, the Regatta, is to be a non-starter, but Tom Parker’s an optimist. Prediction: Final scene of final episode will be full of boats and bunting.
Scores
Historical context Char’s hair: Dear Costume Department, I get you don’t like Regency hair but please stop it with Char’s long hair look!
Now that ITV’s @Sanditon is screening, with its heroine’s ahistorical Half-Up Hair, it’s a good moment to revisit a thread about Regency women’s actual hairstyles: something really quite like a mullet https://t.co/AsMEA7ZOvQ
— Hilary Davidson (@FourRedShoes) August 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/FourRedShoes/stat...
Sanditon Town: am liking the strong mise en scène very much, dodgy CGI notwithstanding.
Question: If Otis is a merchant of any standing, why does he travel on the outside of the coach?
Nudity quotient Otis went swimming but he was fully clothed, expensive boots and all, so zero (again). Another question: Do Esther’s very bare arms count?
Fidelity to the original The moorings have been sledgehammered and we’ve found ourselves drifting in the doldrums.
New metric – Weather Please remember that an English spring does not permit anyone to go swimming in unheated lakes and seas. Especially in Austenland, where even a short walk in the rain always results in double pneumonia.
I reviewed Episode 1 of Andrew Davies’ Sanditon (ITV) for the Historical Writers’ Association.
Read my recap of Episode 2 and Episode 3.
The post Sanditon Episode 4 appeared first on Naomi Clifford.
