North and South

I thought it might be time to change the look of my livejournal. Back to the basics more or less...
First I intended to use the grey scale but I changed it to brown colours. It looked less depressing.

But now to something completely different (the new love part in the header).

To all those Germans and others who've been afflicted with Charles Dickens during their English lessons.
At least I suffered from. We had to read Hard Times. The first thing I did, I went to the book store and bought the German translation of it. To tell the truth, it didn't make the story any better. Since I left school I even tried to read Oliver Twist and David Copperfield. But every time I started I only managed to read a couple of chapters. Even with the film versions I never reached the end. I don't like the way he describes things.

But I'm absolutely fond of Jane Austen novels or those by the Bronte sisters. Well, my English teachers are not to thank for that.
After I left school I thought it might be a good thing to practise English and to improve my vocabulary with watching English videos. No DVD at that time.
It must have been around 1996 when I stumbled over this marvellous BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice at the store that sold OV videos here in Germany. And after I had bought my first DVD player about five years ago and had made a trip to London I bought there at the BBC store my copy of Pride and Prejudice on DVD.

A friend of mine whom I had lent my Jane Austen DVDs recently recommended a BBC production of North and South. First I thought it was a new adaptation of this mini serie with Patrick Swayze.
'No' she said. 'If you like Pride and Prejudice you will fall for North and South.'
She was absolutely right. North and South is brilliant and I think slightly (but only slightly) better than Pride and Prejudice. And I've downloaded the e-book at Gutenberg.org and started reading right away.

As the German version (my friend had lent me her DVD) is cut (I really don't know why they did that) I bought the English copy which is about 30 minutes longer. And I bought Wives and Daughters as well. It is the second adaptation (chronologically the first) of an Elizabeth Gaskell novel.
I was astonished to learn from the extras on this DVD that she was a contemporary of Charles Dickens. I don't want to think about the possibility how much better I might have liked my English lessons if we had to read e.g. North and South. And Gaskell describes the social grievances as detailed as Dickens but without his brutal 'Gothic' touch. 'I'm sorry' to all the Dickens fans out there but I think her the better novelist.

So if you like Pride and Prejudice and like a good (love) story you must see North and South.

Here is the BBC web site and here are Gaskell's novels as e-books on Gutenberg.org.

And if you are in Germany make sure to watch the British version because, the DVD has subtitles, the Germany dubbing could be better and it is uncut.

And now I'm going back to watch episodes 3 and 4 for the umpteenth time.

A Happy New Year to all of you.