The Hall of Fire

I think the books of all three writers are suffused with a strong moral sense. Lewis's are the most obviously Christian; I'm tempted to say - the most heavy-handedly Christian. Rowling keeps religion off stage, while the presence of witches in her books has led to ridiculous claims that she promotes...

Had Dostoyevsky (sp?: can't be bothered to check) invented Miss Havisham the lit critics would be drooling on about the great psychological insight etc of the great Russian authors unlike the parochial English novelists, etcetera.... (I think I've read too many snobbish literary critics.) I also thi...

We did Bleak House a couple of years ago on TORC.

I can't find my copy of GE so am going off memory. Does anyone know where an online version can be found?

Bit late to the game but... here I am!

My favourite Dickens novel and how incredibly cinematic is that first chapter! All a film-maker would have to do would be to plonk his camera down in a graveyard and follow the text almost exactly.

Hey! That's what David Lean did!

Rowling is no stylist, that's for sure. However, I simply don't care. :) Luna won't see Book 7 out. She has no dramatic function, so I suppose her dramatic function is... to die. And that line about the DA was like having friends.... that didn't ring true. Rowling is manipulating us into feeling sor...

Charlotte Bronte, 150 years ago, agreed with Maria.

She (CB) just had a complete lack of sympathy with the world presented and it seems with Austen's style.

Here is the scene with 'the look'. I suppose if I could only save one image from the film, it would be the image of Darcy gazing at Lizzie with such love when she goes to Georgiana's aid. Oh, man! Am I the only one who has hit the "pause" button there and just looked at "the look&quo...

I had the one volume LOTR with the Baynes front cover for many years - until it disintegrated.

I was always fond of it - but there are better Tolkien illustrators about.

Welcome Glawariel! Hope you like it here.

N.B. I've been recruiting from a HP board: hence some new names here.

Mr Collins is marvellously done, even by the high standards of this production. Mrs B's dilemma would be affecting if she was presented more sympathetically. After all, if her husband died she and her daughters would be left with next to nothing, not even a roof over their heads. I've said before - ...

Well, Bingley's almost-first words are: "It's nothing to Pemberley, I know but..." He then asks Darcy: "Have I your approval" Quarrel with the word "deference" if you will :) but the lines signal to the audience Darcy's higher social status (and Bingley's acknowledgemen...

Excellent post Ethel. The first scene dramatizes something always implied in Austen's novels: the contrast between her men and her women in terms of their freedom of movement. The men are nearly always depicted striding here and there, or riding. When a situation becomes unpleasant, they can decamp ...

Count me as a huge fan of the BBC series. Slight nitpick however - posters are calling it a "movie". It's - what? - five or six hours long. Hence its fidelity to the book. With so much time, the adaptors can take their time and adopt a relaxed pacing. A real film of 2 hours or so would hav...

I was probably reading too much into Dumbledore's comment about Voldemort and the diary. Yes, Snape told him how Voldemort reacted. The reference to the lost powers of the diary are actually explained - Voldemort told Lucius that the diary would open the CoS. So Dumbledore is unlikely to have told S...

Queen B: I agree. There is a blending of the mead hall and the trenches in JRRT's villians, of the dehumanized and the all-too-human. In a way, though he would probably hate me saying so, it's a very modern look at which evils we can stomach being in human form and which we can't...or can we? What ...

My take on this is that, in creating the orcs, Tolkien tried to reconcile two very different approaches to story-telling. The first is the ancient mode, in which the enemy of Man is the Other, a monster, usually a mythical critter like the Minotaur, or a troll. The Other is a soulless beast, so no n...

Glad to see you here, Wagner! :) Y'know I am beginning to suspect that Snape may have known about the horcruxes. What do people make of this: "When Voldemort discovered that the diary had been mutilated and robbed of all its powers, I am told that his anger was terrible to behold." It is b...

Lee and Howe.

Signing them up to work on the film project was absolutely inspired.

I think Snape was acting on Dumbledore's orders, in collusion with him.

I read the first book over a weekend. It reminded me of when I was 13 and reading The Hardy Boys. I think they are fine for their audience, but I realize I am not their audience. Saw the first movie and liked it. Fell asleep a half hour into the 2nd movie and haven't watched a minute since. I am no...