Jane treasures!!!

Three days after Jane's Birthday my Christmas presents for myself arrived safely, from Bath, delivered practically to my bed on a lovely Saturday morning. Now I have the most elegant silver charms in town and the most elegant Emma edition! All complete with a booklet.

And... I even have a stylish plastic bag ;-)

(Link to the JA centre in Bath hidden in the post title).

Mein liebes Fräulein Mozart…

Just discovered my copy lost deep under the papers… And it’s only half-finished.

I find the idea of a novel about Nannerl Mozart, a forgotten genius, fascinating. A historical novel set in Salzburg of the 18th c. sounds very promising. Part of the novel being in letters adds to it. I share my birthday with Nannerl and I visited Salzburg in summer 2007. I have read half of the book, finding it atmospheric and the main character appealing and could at some moments identify with her. So, why did I stop reading?
It was so sad I could not bear it and turned to other books. But of course I’ll return to it when I am in the mood. And I would like to learn more about the real Nannerl , for the personality seems extremely interesting. It was just so heartbreaking she did not have any possibilities to develop her talent and be happy with the one she loved. Even, of course, if this novel is only a version. Interesting that there are at least two novels by other authors dealing with Nannerl’s story:

Mozart's Sister by A.M. Bauld
Mozart's Sister by Nancy Mozer

I’m reading a German translation of La Sorella di Mozart by Rita Charbonnier. It’s curious all the three ladies did not think of a more interesting title to their novels. I love the way the title of Rita Charbonnier’s novel was translated into German.

Some links:

Rita Charbonnier’s site
Rita Charbonnier’s blog (in Italian, but with some useful links)
Nannerl in Wikipedia…

Beautiful poem

On Saturday I discovered a thin book of poems I thought had been lost forever. At 4 or 5 I was absolutely captured by the romance of this. The combination of the poem and illustration still seems perfect.

Sisters

the dawn

and the sunset

two daughters of the Sun

two sisters inseparable

two sisters inseparable

but married far

married far

to their young husbands

to the West the evening one

to the East the morning one

a sea and a mountain

between their two palaces

the day is the high mountain

the night is the deep sea

the sisters are stretching their hands

but all in vain

Radetzkymarsch

Joseph Roth's fiction
Dec 5th 2002 From The Economist print edition

IN A lull at the battle of Solferino in 1859, the young emperor, Franz Joseph, asks for a spy-glass to survey the field. Aghast, an infantry lieutenant, Joseph Trotta, hurls him to the ground as French and Italian marksmen open fire on the figure who has so foolishly identified himself as the Austrian commander. Trotta, the son of a Slovene watchman, takes a bullet in the shoulder. In gratitude, the emperor promotes and ennobles him. So opens one of the gravest and grandest of all 19th-century novels written in the 20th century.
The story traces the varying fortunes of the Trotta family. The hero of Solferino, a stranger to the social heights, grows eccentric. His son, a cautious district commissioner, lives dutifully in the paternal shadow, hoping that his own son, Carl Joseph, a well-meaning but feckless young officer, will somehow justify the newly glorious Trotta name. …

I actually have the book (It was recommended in the trabel book on Vienna, so I was tepted to buy it). Die Frage ist blos--- The quiestion is only--- when do I read it?

I am browsing through The Economist articles to find new material for classes, and found this excerpt by chance (all the interesting articles seem to have premium status).

In the days of nowhere...

The days after the new year night and beore Christmas seem like days nowhere. You have a free week, but you cannot afford a holiday trip anywhere so you stay at home with your books and films and the interet. You don't venture outside much unless you are invited anywhere for it's dark soon after ou get up and you mostly don't have to get any food since you have plenty of leftovers from new year night. Sometimes you unwrap you cross-stitching you've been doing for (five) years and still haven't done those final touches to think it complete. Sometimes you get o read the book you've meant o read for ages and you can afford to be engrossed in it. Yesterday I picked up "Little House on the Prairie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder which for various reasons I left unfinished on page 120 this summer. And it felt really nice to be totally engrossed in a book after many days. True, in my mind I jokingly regard some passages as "material for technical translation classes", for it has some deailed descriptions of carpenter work etc., which I have to reread one or two times before I can picture how building a roof or making a beadstead looked, but on the whole I think it's a great book and look forward of reading the series further, for, again, it's a book on immortal values, and it being written so simply makes you feel snug and warm like the little girls Laura might feel tucked up in her little bed in their little house.

Amelie und die Liebe unterm Regenschirm

I finished this book last week and I feel really sorry it ended for it was such a nice cosy read to have in bad weather curled up with a bit of cinnamon tea (Christmas mystery in June (!) and marshmallows. It tells a story of a young owner of an antique toys Amelie Lenz, from Vienna, who once bumps into a stranger on a rainy day and loses her heart even if she has not seen it face under the umbrella... Of course, she's trying to find him and eventually the man of her dreams appears somewhere where she has not been looking. All in all, it's cute for the Vienna feel, especially if you have been there before and can recognize some places. The book has a very cute toy character too, a large teddybear Augustl, who sits in Amelie's shop window and is ever decorated with various accessories according to Amelie's mood.

(Oh, I find it hard to be retelling a German book in English!)

Well, when I finished it I definitely felt I wanted more "sugar" :-) But switched to "Little House on the Prairie" so far (it's a treasure I discovered in the staff room bookcase at the Uni). Speaking about the Uni, the academic year is finished, we've eaten O.V.'s bluberry cake and now I may think myself free for freelance translating (already started and it's sooo boring to translate about boring machines) and also some holiday afterwards! Belive me or not, but it's the first time I've been looking forward to the beginning of an academiv year hardly has one come to it's end! I think "this academic year results" deserve a separate post later.

Frozen

It's so cold outside we had to switch on the portable heater and it still doesn't help much/ I want nothing but wrap up in a shawl with a cup of Christmas Mystery (!) tea and L.M.Montgomery's diaries or better Amelie und die Liebe unterm Regenschirm. It feels so much like late autumn! I was taken for a student again. Yesterday I had a re-sit with a student and while she was writing the test I sat at a desk in the next row. A group of students went into the classroom and announced they were going to write a paper there, their teacher would not be present however. I had to expain we were having an exam there. Then the students... asked when our teacher was going to come. Sure I had to explain and saying sorry they left my student and me in peace. I think it will still continue several years longer. Not that I mind it much (better than too look like ateacher ;-)) but sometimes it's too tiresome to explain to people I'm a teacher! it was so cold at the Uni too. The classroom was awfully big and I entertained myself examining the desk graffity left by many many students who had to while away a boring lecture there. I was reading a bit of Amelie und die Liebe unterm Regenschirm too, it fit so much because it was describing late autumn! It does not look like June at all :-( And June my favourite time of the year for its long days and the promise of a whole summer ahead!!!

Dolly keeps a secret...

Dolly keeps a secret

Safer than a Friend

Dolly's silent sympathy

Lasts without end.

Friends may betray us

Love may Decay

Dolly's Discretion

Outlasts our Day.

Could Dolly tell of us?

Her wax lips are sealed.

Much has she meditated

Much - ah - concealed.

Dolly ever sleepless

Watches above

The shreds and relics
Of our lost Love

Which her small fingers

Never may move.
Dolly is harmless.
We who did harm

Shall become chill as she

Who now are warm

She mocks Eternity

With her sly charm.

From Possession by A.S. Byatt

Now let me introduce the ladies who keep my secrets:

First comes Christabel, my first porcellain doll, named so after Christabel, the poet, from the novel mentioned above. I long wanted to have my own porcellain doll and when I saw this one in the department store I was struck at how much like my image of Christabel she looked! I had only just finished that impressive novel and of course I had to buy Christabel and give her home and love her because her story in the book was not the happiest. So she is my first and favourite.

Next come the three ladies that have travelled a long way from China (I got the three of them when I was interpreting at a home and interiors exhibition in Guangzhou, almost 3 summers back).


My favourite of the three is Iris Ivy May Marianne Rose (yes, quite a long name, I know!). Iris is just because I like the name, Ivy May is from the book I was reading at the time - Fallen Angels by Tracy Chevalier, Marianne is for Marianne in S&S, and also she reminds me a little of Kate Winslet, so Marianne and Rose both come for the names of the heroines Kate Winslet played. KW played an Iris too for that matter, but I did not think of it initially! Names for the other two were a bit hard to choose. Now they are Camille Frances and Arabella Georgina. The former has her name because she is so sweet, and I think the names are becoming to her sweetness (she used to be Amelia, but I changed it to Camille later (associated with camomilles and their sweetnees in my mind, and also with France!) , not to associate my dolly with Amy from Vanity Fair!). Arabella Georgina looks a bit like Arabella from Captain Blood (loved the book when a teenager) and as for her second name, her costume makes me think of Georgian period and of red dahlias (called georginas in Russian)! It's peculiar that in this set of three the three women in our household have different preferences with these three: I like Iris best of all, mum thinks Camille Frances the sweetest and my sister says Arabella Georgina is the best! We also have also ascribed a country to each of them: Iris looks English, Camille is French and Arabella German (I should think up a third German name for her, maybe!)

And here comes the final girl: she is just Anne, named so after Anne Shirley, the inforgettable Anne of Green Gables. The story of how she started living with me is similar to Christabel's. Two years ago I reread Anne of Green Gables and was completely under its spell. And once I met Anne in the children's department store I felt we had a special bond! So I returned to buy her next time I was at the daparment store. I know she's not a redhead, so she's not a 100% Annein looks, but she looks so lovely and endearing all the same.

P.S. It's obvious I am a fan of going into children's sections in stores sometimes. Helps to relieve stress :-) And now when I come home and watch these lovely girls look at me from the chest of drawers it helps to relax too!

No need to say I was just in awe when I happened to be in toy museum in Salzburg, that was absolutely fantastic! I also discovered they have a dolls museum in Baden, if it is Vienna for this summer again, I could visit there too!

Must upload the Salzburg photos some time, the internet speed makes it impossible now!!! :(

Victory Day

I won’t be original today. I just want to mention a book on WWII on this Victory day. I read “Das Jagdhaus” a little over a month ago and still remember the feeling of being very much impressed. It’s a novel written by Rosemarie Marchner and tells a story of a well-to-do family in Linz during WWII. In September 1939 Antonia and her family gather to celebrate baptizing of Antonia’s second daughter Lilli, and at the ceremony the priest remarks casually that the child is so old as the war (16 days). Antonia doesn’t want to think that her little girl has to do anything with the war, especially when it’s so lovely and peaceful in the town, with sunlight pouring through chestnut leaves and all her family near her. But all of them will have to face the war soon thogh they initially did not have anything to do with it. Antonia’s parents decide to flee from Vienna to Italy, because her father (a University professor) cannot adapt his views to the Nazi ideolology and cannot lie too. They leave Peter, Antonia’s much younger brother (he’s 12 or 13) with Antonia’s family and her parents-in-law. And the boy finds it hard to be left behind. Antonia is uneasy as to how he might be influenced by Nazi propaganda, but he remains true to his father’s ideals of humanism. Meanwhile, the war comes nearer, supplies become shorter, everyone is tense and tired of the war who none of them wanted but was involved into. Antonias husband Ferdinand has to go to the line though he’s about 40, not a young man any more, and he hates it to be a puppet in the deadly game started by Hitler. The war comes even closer, with bombings in Linz and Antonia’s father and mother in law insist she takes her both girls, Enrica and Lilli to the hunting-house in the country, belonging to the family, where they will be safe. There Antonia will discover a secret from her husband’s past – he has another daughter from his first youthful relationship, Marie, and Antonia is to meet her and even get on well with her. In about half a year, when there are just about a couple of days before the war ends, Antonia cannot wait any more and drives back with both the girls to discover Peter was called to defend the city from the enemy troops. In a couple of days Peter returns psychologically traumatized. The war is over but it will take time to build a new life. Besides, Antonia still doesn’t have any news from Ferdinand. He comes back unexpectedly one day in autumn. The family is almost re-united and when Antonia burns his and Peter’s uniform in the garden, she finally burns the dismal past with it and feels inner peace and hope for the future.
So the plot is not particularly exciting and doesn’t have any unexpected twists and turns, but it’s hardly possible to put the book down. I think it’s exactly because it’s so non-exciting on the surface – and so deep and realistic instead. You just grow to care about this family (and how many families were there to live through the events described in the book!) and hope they they live through the war. It’s so particularly moving for us, who see the war as history, to see it as reality. Those people did not know what will come next day but they tried to live normal lives as much as they could. There’s Antonia’s father taking his young son Peter to Stefansdom, Vienna’s historical heart and speaking about him on eternal ideals, Antonia’s old-fashioned father-in-law, comparing the old times with the new war which broke out when he was already old, Antonia’s mother-in-law trying pretend war did not exist unless anyone of her family was directly touched by it, Antonia, becoming stonger with the war getting even more respect from her husband’s parents and becoming a real responsible mistress in the house, serious Enrica, Antonia’s elder girl, very sensible and helpful, the little Lilly who does not know the world before the war (the chills is so old as the war…), Ferdinand, a good man and an assiduous layer for whom the war is completely against his nature, Peter, growing into a handsome young man, ho was to study and dance with girls instead of being made to kill other people at war… Fanny and Paula, the nanny and the cook in the household, staying loyal to their employees…
The time when one wasn’t sure about anything, the official news communicating numerous victories of Wehrmacht and “enemy” radiostations absolutely forbidden (but for Enrica Antonia would have been arrested and never seen her family again for unlawful listening of the BBC), shocking talks about what they did to people in concentration camps, beautiful cities like Hamburg turned to burning hell and later bombs falling on your own house, the already losing Germany taking 15-year old boys to the line in a desperate attempt to defend to the last man in the last days of the war. We never see a battlefield in this book, we just see people who were involved into that chaos against their will and how they were getting through it.
My grandma and her sister told me a lot about the war. They were children then and had to help in the fields all day long, because any pair of working hands, even a child’s hands was needed. My great-grand mother and her three girls having to provide for themselves after the war stole their husband and father, my great-grandfather from them (by the way, he had a heart disease and was a little over 40 when called to the front, but again, by 1944 the front needed any man). Grandmother sometimes said the war stole her childhood. And indeed, she was 8 when it started and almost 13 when it was over. She never went to school further than the basic 4 grades. Her sister, my godmother, told me that the teacher came to great-grandmother and tried to talk her into letting the girls study further, but there was the argument that “they had to work and get something to live by” now that they didn’t have a father. Even now, when they are far past 70 they are so brilliant and intelligent, it’s just heartbreaking they didn’t have an opportunity in life to get a higher education though they had all the potential for it. My grandma says she’s always wanted to be a teacher. I think she would have made a brilliant one. (I’m the one in the family now to put her unfulfilled dream into life!).
And, reading this book, it was interesting to see the other side of the story, what the was was like there, in the country that was “the enemy” then. It wasn’t any easier. Just when my grandma, a country girl, was working hard in the field with other children and her mum, somewhere there in Austria, in the town of Linz, there was a little girl of the same age, Enrica, who sensed trouble when a policeman came into their house and switched off the radio tuned onto the “enemy” station before he could discover it and arrest her mum, taking her from the family forever (Enrica is fictional, but it doesn't matter). And how many such boys and girls were there on both sides who were made serious and responsible in sprite of their age in those circumstances? How many lives destroyed through the war on both sides? Neither side had it easy and both sides had get up from the ruins when it was over. And it was life for them. It’s us who take it as history. But it’s the history that should be remembered. We often forget how happy we are to live today.

When I picked “Das Jagdhaus” up I did not realize the story was connected to another book by Rosemarie Marscher, “Das Bucherzimmer” (highly praised by the assistant in the bookshop near Stefansdom, Vienna, where I bought it). “Das Buecherzummer”, however, is not a direct first part of the story, it’s about Marie, Ferdinand’s unlegitimate daughter and her life in pre-war Linz, the next book, “Das Jagdhaus” focuses on Antonia and Ferdinand’s family, Marie coming as a secondary character. I’m going to read “Das Buecherzimmer” soon and no doubt it will be brilliant, atmospheric and realistic as well. When the shop-assistant praised Rosemarie Marschner she was absolutely right. If only RM would now write another book, focusing on post-war Linz and, say, Enrica this time? I wonder if she ever thought about it herself.

I love red roses

"I love the red roses, ... I want the crimson ones. They satisfy some craving in me as no other flower does."

Leslie, ("Anne's House of Dreams" by Lucy Maud Montgomery).

This is the red rose my students gave to me on Tuesday. A lovely one and still blooms! Overall, the "Last Bell" day was nice and I really feel sorry to part with my first students!

Guess who is the teacher :-)) (hate my hair here :-( )

There's no time for us... The Timew Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

There's no time for us,

There's no place for us,

What is this thing that builds our dreams,

Yet slips away from us.

Who wants to live forever,

Who wants to live forever, .....?

There's no chance for us,

It's all decided for us,

This world has only one sweet moment

Set aside for us.

Who wants to live forever,

Who wants to live forever, .....?

Now touch my tears with your lips,

Touch my world with your fingertips,

And we can have forever,

And we can love forever,

Forever is our today.

Who wants to live forever,

Who wants to live forever, .....?

Who waits forever anyway?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Haven't updated here for ages (neither time nor decent internet connection), but I would like to mention the book that recently impressed me and a song with lyrics I think fitting the theme of the book perfectly.

Jane, Jane, Jane!

Just finished it! And reading it was so rewarding an experience! True, I had some problems with its “seriousness” and ‘wordiness” at the beginning, as I put it before, but I liked it even then and further on I only liked it more and more! And having read up to the end I wouldn’t think it’s for a younger age anymore, it’s truly a classics, a book about ultimate values, about staying true to your high principles, a book with so psychological a narration that makes it engaging regardless of how many years ago it was written. And then, if it was written in the 19th c., the 19th c. atmosphere only adds to the charm.
Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester should surely be one of the most romantic couples in literature. I absolutely love that they loved each other for their inner selves, it is so powerful a message!

On the whole, the book may go a bit slowly at the beginning, but it only improves and absolutely glows by the end! I think I may safely add it to the favourites list and will want to reread it some time later! And you can also say the book is good if you want to attempt a couple of illustrations to it afterwards! (I am sketching ruined Thornfield and Jane now)

Now I can watch the 1980s version to compare it with the book and the recent BBC Jane Eyre :-)

P.S. They still have the Penguin edition in bookshops, but the print is even smaller than in my "Sophia Kramskaya" edition!

On Becky Bloomwood and commercial translation

ATTN Mintie (as a Becky fan and fellow teacher), otherwise to whom it may concern ;-)

I hereby acknowledge the receipt of my long-waited copy of Shopaholic and Baby (shipped within a week since the date of the order by a separate parcel) and express my anticipation that it will provide for intertaining commutes if I am able to read in public transport considering the late hours I complete performing teaching obligations endowed on me by the department for language teaching. Please be informed that I have already had the pleasure of recommending the book mentioned herein to my students. The title and the author of the book have actually been put on the blackboard for their reference in class last Friday. I also plan to introduce certain letters from the Shopaholic novels to my students for translation practice, learning new vocabulary and a little fun combined, and sincerely hope fullfilling the task proposed will be to their substantial benefit.

Yours faithfully,

Lost in commercial translation &c.

Please find the image of the book cover enclosed into this message to the left of the present text.

No enclousure link has been added since the author of the present message cannot think of any link related to the subject.

Prinzessin Rosenbluete, wach gekuesst!

I read it shortly before the new year and it as really a lot of fun and tastefully written, precisely a kind of books I like and would like to write myself one day. I picked it up in Vienna because I am fascinated with the sleeping beauty (Dornroeschen) story and kind of try collecting its different interpretations. This book turned out to be a sequel to Prinzessin Rosenbluete, but it does not matter because the previous story was clearly mentioned in this one. In this book Emma, a schoolgirl, it called through the loudspeaker into Swan Kingdom to help the Princess who fell asleep for hundred years. Kristen Boie gives unexpected but funny interpretations of the fairytales we all know since we were little, and I love the modern language, humour and attitude! For example, the Princess is nothing like a sweet girl, in fact she's very wilful and capricious. And Emma likes the lunch her mum gave her for the sport competiotion so much better than the food she and her schoolfriend Ludwig are provided with at the palace in Swan Kingdom. The frog prince does not want to be prince anymore as he hates his wife nagging so much and wants to become a frog again... The funniest probably was when the little man from the tale about a miller's daughter who became queen changes his peculiar name for Eberhard Schulze!

Looking forward to reading more Kristen Boie if I have chance. In fact, I am much looking forward to reading my German books in general, I only should finish Jane Eyre first, I think by the weekend!

Jane Eyre, the book

I don't know what to think about this book. I know it's a classics and I see its merits but I cannot fully love it the way I love Jane Austen or Elizabeth Gaskell or Anne Bronte! I think the story itself is good (even if it has some coincidinces there must be some inner logics in this) but each time I am picking the book up to read further I feel there's something about it that won't let me loving it. Sometimes I think I should have read it when younger, then I would have been more impressed by the heroine's spirit (and probably more troubled by the age difference, Rochester would have seemed ancient for me then, like Colonel Brandon did, when I was 17 and read Sense and Sensibility for the first time!). What I like most of all about the story now is the idea of people being equal. True, Jane was not humble and I love when she says to Rochester that night in the garden she addresses him as if her soul were addressing his soul as if they were standing together after passing the grave. I sympathise with Rochester for his past mistake and wish them happy (I'm now reading the chapter about their courtship time) though I know they will have to go through a lot before there may be some glimpse of earthly happiness for them but I still cannot say I am totally in love with the book, there's something that slightly irritates me. Maybe, it's a bit too melodramatic or a bit too serious. My sister read it several years ago (she must be about 13 then and when I asked her these days how she liked it she said it was "a tedious and moralistic novel with lots of improbable events in it". So maybe the idea of getting to know Jane Eyre when teenage won't always work, lol! At last, today's morning I approximately got what I did not like about it. Charlotte has a good story and good ideas put into the novel but she spoils it with being too wordy, too serious or too melodramatic so that the drawing which would have otherwise been exellent in shapes and contrast gets somewhat smudged, loses prominence and sharpness and becomes less expressive. Sometimes the narration seems too monotonous! (Now it's me who's becoming too wordy!).

Nevertheless, I am glad I am reading the original now (I meant it for ages!) and learning the minute particulars of it and I am sympathising with the characters. I just expected to be a little more involved with it maybe. I heard so many people admire and recommend the story I expected I would admire it wholly too. I am quite enjoying reading it and I respect it as a classic novel but I am not someone left breathless after I close the book. Even if I keep thinking about it.

Sometimes I even think that I maybe find the "modernized" interpretation in the 2006 miniseries a bit more compelling than the original story (though I don't approve of making the Lowood scenes so sinister and cutting out Jane's relationship with Bessie, Miss Temple and Helen).

It's curious that my copy has a Russian painting used on the cover (because it comes from a Russian publishing house who print some English texts), I belive it's Kramskoy's portrait of his wife reading! Or maybe she was his daughter. The lady's name is Sophia Kramskaya and the only copy of the portrait I found online is sadly not in full colour.

Jane Eyre, part 2

Watched the second half of the series yesterday and ended up hoping they would release it on DVD soon since they already aired it on the Culture channel! I cannot compare the second half to the book in detail (yet) but I very much enjoyed watching the second half putting aside all the comparisons. My conclusion will be that the portrayal of the relationship was done wonderfully, but I can feel how they interpreted it towards the modern audience. I won't complain about that, however. Being a translator I would say that the most important thing is to consider the interest of those for whom you are interpreting, and that is what was done in the new adaptation and with an impressing result. These Jane and Rochester look so well together, you can see it from the moment Jane helps him on the horse and you start feeling for them and wanting they finally overcome all the obstacles and be happy together. You feel happy for Jane when she looks herself over in the mirror after Rochester proposed and your heart breaks when she's wondering in the moor after the truth about the mad wife is revealed. (The scenes with Bertha were hard for me to bear). You have to interpret the first person narration when adapting the novel to screen and Ruth Wilson's rendering Jane's state of mind was so moving and psychologically true. And there was something about Toby Stephen's Mr Rochester that made you believe he was Rochester and sympathize with him.

I was very happy for both when Jane returns to Thornfield and they are reunited, and the closing scene, though somewhat melodramatic, made sense. I can now see how they wanted to make contrast between the Reeds portrait where Jane was "not the family" and the family portrait with the cousins, Mrs Fairfax, Adele and the two children (and Pilot :-) ) where Jane is a happy wife and mother. The story has its dark and heartbreaking moments but this end does not leave a heavy feeling with you.

On the whole, I think I am rather glad they took a bit of a modernistic approach to it. It was moving to follow the development of the relationship, really romantic and impressive. Combined with realistic landscapes and scenery I really think it was made less gloomy and more perceptible for modern audience. It's just amazing how they made it more perceptible with actually not deviating much from what was in the novel.

Looking forward towards the DVD and also going to see the 1983 version after I finish the novel.

Jane Eyre, the book and the screen version with Ruth Wilson

It was aired here yesterday for the first time, so on new yer's day I picked up the book to become more familiar with the story than I had been before (I'd seen Zeferelli version about 6 years ago and read an abridged version of the novel around the same time). I've reached visitors at Thornfiels so far, but the 2nd episode of the new series went a little further than that.

First about the book. I am enjoying it but I somewhat find Charlotte's style too wordy and the story wanted more pace I think (now it goes faster, just as I would like!). I like the special atmosphere of the book and it leaves a special feel with me even when I put the book aside.

I expected more of the new series, but I wouldn't say I entirely disliked it. I did not like how they crumpled all the childhood period in only 5 minutes or so. They just showed the surface and Jane's character as a child remained undeveloped. But I think it was important in the book, it explains why Jane was what she was when she came to Thornfield.

I liked Ruth Wilson as Jane, she has somewhat irregular features which suits well to her remoteness and Rochester's perception of her as a "witch" and "elfish creature". But she seems too forward in my opinion compared to the Jane from the book, even though I find the personality as portraid in the series attractive too. Ruth Wilson also reminds me of Victoria hamilton (Queen Victoria in Victoria and Albert and also some parts in Jane Austen adaptations) and it confuses me a little.

I wasn't sure about Toby Stephens as Rochester judging from film stills I'd seen, but the moment I saw him rising from the ground in the fog, I felt there was something "Rochesterish" about him. I still cannot pinpoint exactly what it was, his moodiness maybe.

From the scene Jane helps Rochester on the horse it's very obvious how well they would suit together I think. And after the fire scene it looks very much obvious as if Rochester is going to kiss her, I think it was a bit too bold and early implied (thinking of the forst proposal in Keira Knightley P&P version here). After that scene Jane looks very happy as if he'd just proposed to her, I would expect a more thoughtful reaction from Jane in the book. And she puts on a small red scarf the next morning (see the picture above!), that is just too forward an implication I think ;-)

In general, Jane and Rochester seem to get on very well from very early on, and their inclination towards each other seems too obvious, not the way I would imagine it's in the book, but it looks quite romantic to me so I do not complain. But I do think it's different from the novel.

Adele looks a bit older than it the books, but she's nice. Mrs Fairfax is ok, but I liked the one in the Zeferelli version more. Pilot is cute!

I loved the Thornfield landscapes, they looked so very realistic and English with their lack of sunlight, and the scene of Jane and Rochester meeting was wrapped in a fog.

To wrap up, I'd say that this version does not exactly conform to the book, but it's enjoyable enough once you forget the crumpled and sinister-looking beginning (the Lowood scenes were so awfully scary!). I would describe it as a-too-forward-Jane version. It's somewhat reminiscent of what they did to Fanny in the Mansfield Park adaptation with Frances O'Connor, but I don't complian of that much, I had other issies with that film. I rather like the heroine's development in both Mansfield Park and this Jane Eyre though there was nothing like that in their character in the books!

Pippi is priceless!

Inspired by Astrid Lindgren's 100th birthday I decided to reread Pippi Longstocking after many years. This girl is priceless! And the book is absolutely timeless, it will make a wonderful reading when I am already 70, that is for sure. Reading the 3d part yesterday I just sat on the carpet with a cup of cofffee, bisquits and sandwiches behind. Mum, looking at me, said it was awfully bad manners, but I think it was just attempting to join the fun of the book, the dream of childhood freedom, like when Pippi, Tommy and Annika were eating muffins on the desert island with their hands when they did not have forks or had coffee on the old oak-tree in the garden. Not that I often or ever have snacks sitting on the floor, but yesterday was such a day thanks to Pippi.

When a child I wanted to be like her, sometimes I even put my feet on the pillow hiding my head under the blanket. And when I was 16 I used bottle post when we were camping a 1000km from home. With astonishing results! - I got a reply half a year later (sometimes I will tell the story in detail here!).

Pippy is wonderful. She's so artless, so good-natured, her logics is absolutely disarming. I remembered this for ages, ever since I read the book for the first time being 6: "Why should I give up watering my flowers this rainy October morning if I've been dreaming about it all night? Should I give it up because of some silly rain?". I love her being a sailor's daughter and having travelled a lot (being a sailor's daughter myself, though of course I am romanticising my dad a bit here). And she has a wonderfully kind heart, not conscious about it at all. She's a wonderful friend and there's never a boring moment with her. She's every hild's dream of being free from any restrictions come true!

On the other side, this book is wonderful for bringing kids up. Reading about Pippi's bad manners or her not ever wanting to go to school a child wouldn't think it exemplarly behaviour, and would never do this way.

It was a lovely rereading, the translation is a real masterpiece and the phrases I reread after many years just resonated in my head and I kept remembering what I thought and how I felt reading it when a 6- or 7-year old. The book is quite worn out, the pages are stained with chocolate and something else because I loved nibbling at something when reading, things seemed tastier with a book then! I relived the childhood joys and fears again and felt wonderfully comforted.

Pippi is a masterpiece. She's absolutely timeless. I'm looking forward to the times when I am reading it to my own kids :)

I think I have not mentioned it here yet (or have I?), but Astrid Lindgren loved "those wonderful books for girls" and said that Anne of Green gables was one of absolutely unforgettable favourites for her. I am wondering if a bit of spirit was inherited from anne together with a fiery hair done it two funny plaits.

Picture: this is how my book cover looks (it has stories about Karsson, Pippi and Emil under one cover). It was published to mark astrid lindgren's 80th birthday, so it is 20 years old now.

Astrid Lindgren's 100th Birthday!

I can't miss this day, even if Google misses. Yandex (one of Russain most popular search engines) has Pippy Longsttocking featured on the main page however!

I don't think I have anything absolutely special to say but I love her books and I think that's the most important. I lost count as how many times I read the novels about Karlsson, Pippi and Emil, the book is quite worn out! When I was 6 I finished Pippy for the first time and I remember crying because I did not want the story to end. Pippi came to be a real friend and I just did not want to say goodbye to her.

Then, last autumn, I bought several books by Astrid Lindgren that I never read before and I assure you it's not less lovelier to read her books when you are over 20 than when you are 6 or 7! She brings about your own childhood memories in such a simple and charming manner!

Astrid used to say she wrote mostly to entertain the "inner child" in herself and I think it's really wonderful she never properly "grew up". Later on her son remembered she could not sit still when her children were playing but always joined them in the game.

There was a very good documentary on her yesterday evening on the "Culture" channel. I saw bit and pieces from Junnibacken (sp-?), the museum dedicated to her books where she saw to it herself that children felt comfortable there, i.e. that they could play directly in the museum.

Astrid visited Russia several times, and - amazing - she never mentioned the fact she never earned anything from translations of her works published in Russia!!! That was very tactful of her and I think the visits here really meant to her as Russia was always a country where children's literature was treated seriously as really important.

They say Karlsson is the most popular of Lindgren's chracters here in Russia, maybe, due to the good cartoon every child knows here (there were loads of Karlsson toys in toyshops when I was small too) while Swedish kids prefer Pippy. I think that must be true, but I personally prefer Pippi too. Karsson is fun, but sometimes he struck me as awfully selfish (and that he is!) and I used to fly into passion with him when he would eat up all the sweets and not share anything with his friend. But I wanted a friend like Pippi who would always invent something or tell a story from her travels and make you a cup of coffee and a nice surprise hidden in a tree-hole or somewhere else in the old garden.

I also found out Astrid Lindgren loved "Anne of Green Gables" and read it a hundred of times as a child and had very warm and loving memories of the book later on. Maybe, Pippi inherited a bit of fiery temper and her fiery hair done in two plaits from Anne? I think it's a possible theory.

I'm toying with the idea of putting up a Russian Astrid Lindgren fan-site because we don't have any... That is, if I ever have time!

Happy Birthday to Astrid! I think she deserves every praise because her books are real treasures!

I put a lesser known of Astrids photos here, her and her son Lars. She had Lars when she was only 19 and unmarried (a scandal in 1920s), and she had to leave him with childcare while she was trying to earn at least something for a living (actually trying to make the ends meet)and it was only weekends that she could see her baby. Later on when she married her boss several years after she was able to give him a home but people also think that her own son's story is the reason why boys in her books are so vulnerable and lonely (Like in Karlsson or Mio, my Son). In yesterday's documentary it was said that the two major influences on her writing were her own idyllic childhood memories and the poignant story with Lars.

I think I wanted to say something else but I forget now!

Richard Armitage's birthday

I'd better not miss it here. Actually I have seen only North and South where he played one of my 3 main literary crushes - John Thornton (the other two being Captain Blood and - no surprize - Fitzwilliam Darcy from Pride and Predjudice) and did it very well. He was perfectly attractive and romantic and what not. When I watched an interview with him afterwards I was very pleasantly impressed at how intelligent he was and how respectfully he treated the novel as the main source for the BBC production and how he read it from cover to cover before starting to work at the role of John Thornton, and how his family was from the same background as John... and the other interviews I read online keep persuading me he's a very intelligent man, not without a sense of humour and treating his job really very thoughtfully. And he's respectful to his fans and sends very friendly messages to the Armitage Army site.

He starred as Claude Monet in the BBC Impressionists and that is something I am yearning to watch because Monet is one of my favourite painters ever and to see him acted by an actor who I really respect and admire is something not to miss... but something to wait apparently because the series has not yet been released here! Then another thing is that I wish there would be another version of a film based on the Captain Blood novel starring Richard. I think he could do perfectly for in the role: he suits very well in looks and is exactly capable of performing Peter Blood, an intelligent doctor who by twists of fate turns into a "noble" cold-blooded and fearless pirate, so sensible and level-headed on one hand, as so passionately in love with Isabella Bishop on the other... That would be perfect. It's a pity there isn't any more Pride and Prejudice version in production. Or they could have cast him as Captain Wentworth. Maybe, they do a new Emma in a couple of years? ;-)

All this thoughts make me want to write to him and ask for a signed card. Which I maybe will do as soon as I figure out how to get an International Reply Coupon for my addressed-back envelope. Well, he's intelligent and clever, and a man should be intelligent and clever first and foremost... sigh...

(Link for Armitage Army hidden in the post title)