The Hall of Fire

'I know your disposition, Lizzy. I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband; unless you looked up to him as a superior. Your lively talents would place you in the greatest danger in an unequal marriage.' Just wondering if any of the anti-Mr. Benne...

I think there was attraction between them - a spark or whatever expression you will - right from the start. That is not love, of course. Jane very largely invented (or at any rate, popularized) the scenario of the antagonists/lovers. People have been ripping her off ever since. I recently posted on ...

Fascinating character, Mr. B. There are a couple of other men in Austenverse who appear to be out of the same mould. Austen makes it clear that the plight of an intelligent person married to the wrong partner was pretty grim. The author gives us several instances of unsatisfactory marriages in her n...

I don't understand what "Boys Own Paper" means. Just realized that I never explained this term. Boys Own Paper was a British magazine dating from Victorian times. It was a cut above the "penny dreadfuls" but followed that formula of simple storytelling. BOP told tales of derring...

Ethel wrote: (Was this the sort of lecture you were contemplating, Queen B? :

Yes.

Admirably expressed.

How completely turned 'round we have become in a little more than a century. Nowadays it is physical passion that is extolled by our society and I think any other basis for marriage is regarded as illegitimate, while virtue has become a dirty word. It would be interesting to trace the tracks of tha...

If it really comes to London next year, I'll definitely arrange to see it there, unless some very major obstacles will come in my way. (Then, it might even be possible to plan a moot around the show.) :D Well, that sounds very tempting! Can anyone who has seen the show post comments on the Scouring...

Well, aren't we a boring bunch?

Been on holiday. :) I don't mind people disagreeing with me. :) I love and admire most of the chapter, especially the confrontation between Frodo and Saruman. The damaged Shire, the cowed or collaborating hobbits, "This is Mordor" - great, unsettling stuff. But I still think the too-easy B...

CHAPTERS 45-50 SPOILERS If she was alive today, Jane could make a fortune writing mystery thrillers. :D (J.K. Rowling is hugely influenced by her.) Her plots are so telescoped, her clues so cunningly distributed and she practices Chekov's Rule so admirably. And it never feels contrived. This turn o...

I find it easier to answer if I break the topic down a bit and consider female characters created by particular authors. Dickens's female characters are hopeless. Dora is particularly unbearable, but most of his girls are nearly as bad. Bunch of legless virgins. I blame Dickens's extreme sentimental...

Unpopular and misunderstood, rather than controversial perhaps. Didn't Jackson say that he didn't understand why it was included (paraphrasing from memory)? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Besides the TORC thread, I have found the essay I referred to: http:...

I read an essay once which argued that Mr Collins was being quite generous in making his offer to Elizabeth. The hilarious/ghastly fact is that the guy is really quite eligible, as a clergyman with a living, a generous patroness, and also heir to Longbourn. That is how his world sees him (not sure h...

Anyone want to discuss one of the most controversial parts of LOTR: the Scouring of the Shire? We had a good discussion going on this once upon a time at TORC, before it collapsed in semantics and Shagrat’s (remember him?) obsession with orcs and half-orcs. http://forums.theonering.com/viewtopic.php...

Surely this is on many posters list of favourite quotes... There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft,...

People plunged into intimacy very quickly, I think, in those days. Couples often became engaged after a few dances and sharing a glass of wine. It was largely because they seldom met people outside their own order, I guess. This was true even a century later, with people of gentility (or pretension...

On the face of it, Aragorn might seem a better match for Éowyn than Faramir, given the heroic role he plays in Rohan, the bond he forges with Éomer and his key part in causing Éowyn to take the drastic action which sends her to defend Theodeon on Pelennor Fields. It can look, to a casual eye, that É...

Great posts (especially the Maiden :)) - and thanks to all for keeping this thread going. Most of my on-line time is taken up with my screenplay writing, but I could never see myself losing interest in discussing Tolkien. :) I'm doing a comparison between Faramir and Aragorn - more on that later. Fo...

Interesting thoughts, Faramond. :) I tend to agree with you. But this question still remains: why did the people of Gondor say in old lore " the hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king would ever be known" if the old kings were not really healers? Wishful thi...

This is not a readers-loved-it/non-readers-don't situation.

I've love the books since I was eleven, and I was underwhelmed by the film.

I'm glad others enjoyed it but I found it uninspired.