Blog Tour - Celebrate Elizabeth Gaskell's 200th Birthday!

Celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Birth with a Blog Tour on September 29, 2010

Elizabeth Gaskell Birthday Blog Tour graphic by Katherine Cox of November's Autumn

"He shrank from hearing Margaret's very name mentioned; he, while he blamed her--while he was jealous of her--while he renounced her--he loved her sorely, in spite of himself." Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South

2010 marks the bicentenary of mid-Victorian novelist and short story writer Elizabeth Gaskell’s birth on September 29, 1810 near London. Best known for her detailed and sensitive portrayals of English social strata, her novels are cherished by literature lovers and social historians for their honest depiction of life of the rich and the poor from the first half of the nineteenth century. Four of her books have also been brought vividly to the screen in television mini-series adaptations: The Brontes of Haworth (1973), Wives and Daughters (1999), Cranford (2007) and Return to Cranford (2009).

To honor Elizabeth Gaskell’s literary achievement, please join me and other fellow Gaskell enthusiasts for a blog tour in celebration of her birthday. Visit any of the participant’s blogs on Wednesday, September 29, 2010 to read about her life and times, and reviews of books and movie film adaptations. There you will also find a link to take you to the next blog on the tour. Enjoy!

I have provided links to the participants' blogs so that you can get to know them before the blog if you like. The links will be updated on September 29 to go directly to the post on the tour.

Biography

Elizabeth Gaskell’s life and times: Vic – Jane Austen’s World

Novels/Biography

Mary Barton (1848) Book: Kelly – Jane Austen Sequel Examiner
Cranford (2007) Movie: Laura – The Calico Critic
Ruth (1853) Book: Joanna – Regency Romantic
North and South (1854–5) Book: Laurel Ann – Austenprose
North and South (2004) Movie: Maria – Fly High
Sylvia's Lovers (1863) Book: Courtney – Stiletto Storytime
Wives and Daughters (1865) Book: Katherine – November’s Autumn
Wives and Daughters (1999) Movie: Elaine – Random Jottings
The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) Book & (1973) Movie The Brontes of Haworth: JaneGS – Reading, Writing, Working, Playing

Novellas

Mr. Harrison’s Confessions (1851) Book: Alexandra – The Sleepless Reader
My Lady Ludlow (1859) Book: Alexandra – The Sleepless Reader
Cousin Phillis (1864) Book: Alexandra – The Sleepless Reader


Resources

Your Gaskell Library: Links to MP3's, ebooks, audio books, other downloads and reading resources available online: Janite Deb – Jane Austen in Vermont
Plymouth Grove – A visit to Elizabeth Gaskell’s home in Manchester: Tony Grant – London Calling

"Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom." Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters

Portrait of Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (née Stevenson), by George Richmond, chalk, 1851. Bequeathed to the National Portrait Gallery, London by the sitter's daughter, Margaret Emily Gaskell, 1913

Brontës of Haworth (1973) - episode 3

I finally figured it out. Fry used Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë as his primary source, and the narration is from the Life as read by Gaskell as portrayed by Barbara Leigh-Hunt. No wonder it seemed like an enactment of the bio I just read, it is!

This image shows the Bronte family as portrayed in the TV mini-series. Charlotte is in the center, played by Vickery Turner. Emily, played by Rosemary McHale, is to her left. Ann Penfold, playing Anne Bronte, is in front. Michael Kitchen is Branwell, and Alfred Burke is Patrick Bronte.

Episode 3 is eventful with Branwell's seduction and subsequent disgrace, the publication of the book of poems by the Misters Bell, the attempt at a school at Haworth, Patrick Brontë's eye surgery, and the peddling of Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey, and The Professor. We also get to meet Arthur Bell Nicholls, played by a young bewhiskered Benjamin Whitrow, who happens to be my favorite Mr. Bennet. I forgot that Mr. Nicholls knew Charlotte for some time, having been her father's curate at Haworth, and he evidently admired Charlotte from the beginning of their acquaintance, according to Fry, and she admired him as well.

Here's a link to my post on episode 2, and the post on episode 1.

Brontës of Haworth (1973) - episode 2

This episode began with a reenactment of the famous portrait of the sisters by Branwell. Although it is suggested that Branwell's self-portrait in the middle has been somehow erased--not sure how that would work--the mini-series suggest that he never got around to painting himself in...just as he never got around to living up to his potential. The irony being that the sisters, especially Charlotte, expected to live in his shadow, but he, of course, only lived in theirs, much to his torment.

Episode 2 mainly focuses on Branwell, with a small detour when Charlotte and Emily go to Brussells to school. For the most part, I think the casting is wonderful, but I didn't care for the actor playing M. Heger (IMBD doesn't list him so I may have to try to catch his name in the credits). He seemed far younger and more debonair than I've imagined M. Heger to be. I always thought Charlotte was attracted to his mind :)

I'm woefully ignorant of Anne's life, but I'm liking her enormously as played by Anne Penfold, and William Weightman's death was truly Brontëesque. I loved how Emily scolded Charlotte for never realizing Anne's affection for William. And, of course, his death was yet another nail in Branwell's own coffin, at least according to screenwriter Christopher Fry.

Here's a link to my post on episode 1, and the post on episode 3.

Brontës of Haworth (1975)

I watched episode 1 of 5 of The Brontës of Haworth last night, courtesy of Netflix.

It strikes me as a dramatization of the primary episodes and anecdotes that constitute the Brontë myth. For example, the series opens with Patrick Bronte purchasing the box of tin soldiers for Brandon, and then we are introduced to the children as they each choose their favorites and begin to play with them. The voice-over explains the world of the children--their intense creativity and precocious following of the politics of the day. We are shown that Charlotte, thought smaller than her younger siblings, is, as Patrick informs us when the children are caught out on the moors in a thunderstorm, "quite a little woman" and capable of looking after the others. We also get to witness Patrick waking up the children by firing his pistol into the graveyard that is next to the parsonage.

The only part where Christopher Fry, who wrote the screenplay, might have let his imagination fill in the gaps of standard Bronte bio, is where Branwell is in the church and the plaque commemorating the death of his mother and older sisters Maria and Elizabeth inspires a flashback to when his Aunt Branwell forced him to look at Maria in her coffin. He, in flashback, rants about his distress that he will never be good enough to go to heaven and see her again after he dies. The implication being that this episode is the seed of his later self-destruction.

I actually quite liked the children actors who portrayed Charlotte, Brandon, Emily, and Anne. The production isn't slick, modern, or particularly insightful, at least so far, but it is solid (those Yorkshire accents are real!). It sort of feels like an encyclopedia entry on the Brontes come to life.

In reading the IMDB description, it appears that Barbara Leigh-Hunt will be playing my beloved Elizabeth Gaskell, which will be a real treat. I've enjoyed her performances in the mighty 1995 Pride and Prejudice as Lady Catherine, the awesome 1999 Wives and Daughters as Lady Cumnor with a lisp, and, of course, she was the Registrar who married Jean and Lionel in As Time Goes By. I don't believe I've ever seen her as a young woman, however, so this should be interesting.

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Here's a link to my post on episode 2, and the post on episode 3.