Poldark Returns!

Tags

18th century, capture, Caroline Penvennin, Demelza, Dwight Innes, Elizabeth, France, Geoffrey Charles, George Warleggan, history, injustice, Jacobin, justice, mining, money, Poldark, Ross Poldar, Valentine, Winston Graham

Drama lovers, history buffs and anglophiles, Poldark has returned to Sunday nights for its third season. Sunday brought what in the UK would be episode 3, but here is episode 2. Demelza and Ross are still in love, but Ross’ headstrong ways still make life hard for Demelza. I’m glad to see she’s got the strength to carry on no matter how obstinate Ross gets. And I’m thankful that at least occasionally, Ross tells her that he’s over Elizabeth and praises Demelza as she’s due.

George Warleggan has grown more prosperous and more pompous as he now is a Justice of the Peace. Woe, to the poor person brought before his court. Unless you’re rich, you don’t stand a chance at justice.

Elizabeth has had a new child, Valentine, whom George believes is his, but Elizabeth knows is Ross’ from another instance of Ross’ foolishness at the end of last season. Elizabeth staged a premature birth by pretending to fall down a staircase. At first she doesn’t want to bond with the baby, but as she comes to align herself more with George  she also accepts Valentine.

Drake, Morwenna, and Sam

We’ve got a few new characters already. Elizabeth’s young cousin Morwenna is brought to the house to mind Geoffrey Charles, who’s probably about 10 and has gotten quite perceptive and witty in a way George doesn’t appreciate. If George has his way Geoffrey will soon be off to boarding school.

Also after Demelza’s father dies, her two brothers Sam and Drake come to town. Drake soon develops feelings for Morwenna, who at first is tentative because Drake is clearly low born. Sam’s a very pious Methodist and that causes trouble. George insists that Sam and his followers are kicked out of the nearby church. How Christian of you, George! Soon Demelza finds an unused farm building and since Ross is away lets Sam use it for his church.

Where is Ross? He’s gone to France to look for Dwight who’s ship has been captured or lost, no one knows at first. France is in the throws of Jacobin violence. As Caroline and Dwight eloped as her uncle lay on his death bed, Caroline is, of course, beside herself with worry all the while worrying about her love. Rightly so, as in France, they’re killing first and asking questions . . . well, never.

The drama has been true to the original book series and offers romance and drama with complex characters and exquisite scenery and costumes. I do miss Jud’s whinging ways, but with three new characters and more to come, I understand.

 

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

The Heir Apparent

Tags

18th century, comedy, farce, romance

Sunday I saw The Heir Apparent at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. It’s a fast-paced farce about a young man who connives to get his uncle to name him sole heir so he can marry his true love. The problem is his love has a shrewd guardian, an aunt, whose arranged for the young lady to marry the uncle. Woe is me!

So the conniving continues all done in verse. The couplets are clever and constant. Some include modern references to “soccer moms” and such so if you’re a purist, you won’t be thrilled. It’s a play to go to for a bit of fun.

Poldark by Winston Graham

Tags

18th century, Cornwall, Demelza, Elizabeth, Francis, mining, Poldark, romance, Ross, Verity, Winston Graham

After enjoying the Masterpiece 2015 version of Winston Graham’s Poldark, I read the book. Set in the late 18th century, Poldark is the first novel in the series about the Poldark family. It’s a family with some interesting facets. The side headed by Charles Poldark is quite refined and wealthy. The side headed by Joshua Poldark, Charles brother was less fortunate. Joshua had two sons and one died as a child. His wife died young. His son Ross, who’s the central character in this novel, got into gambling trouble and was urged to fight in the American colonies to let matters at home cool. Joshua didn’t have great success with his mining or farming interests and dies before he can see his son Ross return from the war.

Ross’ death becomes a rumor that takes hold in Cornwall. His true love believes it and winds up engaged to his cousin. His family’s drunk and disorderly servants believe it and they let the property fall to almost ruin. This book covers about half the events that you see in season one of the 2015 television series.

I read historical fiction for the details and surprises. Winston Graham’s clearly done his homework on life in Cornwall in 1873 and following. The dialect sounds accurate and every event and encounter, whether it’s a day at the market or a fishing trip rings true. It’s an era where people had a lot of spirit and vitality. (I’m starting to think the human race lost a lot by not riding horses. I think horseback riding made people stronger, physically and emotionally.)

Ross intrigues as he’s a bridge between classes. He understands his periwigged relatives as well as the villagers who scrape by and have no standing in a court of law where the scales are tilted in favor of the gentry. Even though Ross has little money, his rank puts him far above the villagers, yet as Demelza, the urchin girl he saves from her drunken abusive father, points out Ross can fit in either social circle.

In the book, readers get more of Graham’s well drawn characters, like Demelza who becomes the spirit of Ross’ home, Prudie and Jud, who curse and complain at every turn, Elizabeth, Ross’ former love and Francis, his cousin. At the start of the book Demelza’s 14 and then the story jumps ahead to when she’s 17, which I’d have liked to see.

This gap between the rich and the really rich intrigues and I’m trying to figure out how these families trained their servants so that in a few generations they no longer spit, cursed and drank way too much.

The story moves along quickly and includes some events I wish the 2015 series had. I’m ready to start on the second novel Demelza once I finish my other books.

If you liked the TV series, you really ought to read this novel. If you like Downton Abbey or Mr. Selfridge, you may just like Poldark more.

*In the 1970s the BBC produced the first Poldark series.

Poldark

Tags

18th century, Aidan Turner, British, drama, Masterpiece, Poldark, Ross Poldark

At first glance from my PBS emails, I didn’t think much of this summer’s Poldark. However, last week there wasn’t much to do in the evenings and I needed to keep awake to overcome my jet lag, so I watched an episode a night. While it’s not a top tier Masterpiece, it has grabbed me.

Poldark, Ross Poldark, had to fight for the red coats because he got in trouble gambling. In Virginia most of his company is killed. Ross survives but it takes him years to return home. When he’s back, he learns that his love, who though him dead, is about to marry his cousin, his richer cousin. Also, his father’s died and the family home and estate is in ruins. Poldark sets to regaining his wealth by reopening a mine and tending to his farm.

Unlike many in the town, Poldark is fair-minded and not blinded by status. He pays his workers well and lends a hand to those who fall on hard times. When he sees Demelza, a young village woman abused by her father, he hires her as a housemaid to work with his two unkempt, often drunk servants.

It’s tough seeing his love married to his weak, insipid cousin and the local society women do nothing but annoy Poldark. As time goes by he’s aware that Delmelza’s more than just a decent housekeeper. Under her rough manners, she’s wise, kind and beautiful. Rashly, he marries her upsetting all social proprieties.

I like that the show presents an era we rarely see on Masterpiece. Poldark’s house is dark and run down, unlike Downtown Abbey or The Paradise. It’s a rougher time, especially for the lower class. There’s a lot about borrowing money and wrangling to gain financial advantage. Even those draped in silk with their walls lined with ancestral portraits aren’t free from worry. It shows how the Crawley’s financial woes were more common throughout time.

The program can get a bit far fetched or descend to the bodice ripper conventions, but that’s easily forgiven. Overall, Poldark entertains and sheds light on 18th century Britain.

That Hamilton Woman

Tags

18th century, 19th Century, Alexander Korda, Criterion Collection, Emma Hamilton, Emma Hart, England, Horatio Nelson, Horatio Nelson 1st Viscount Nelson, infidelity, Lady Emma Hamilton, Lady Nelson, Lawrence Olivier, Michael Korda, Naples, navy, passion, romance, That Hamilton Woman, Vivien Leigh

That Hamilton Woman (1941) opens with a once well-off woman trying to steal a bottle of wine from a shop in Calais. She’s caught and thrown in jail with another woman who joined in the brouhaha that followed her arrest. Starring Vivien Leigh and Lawrence Olivier, That Hamilton Woman is a propaganda movie that Churchill asked the director Alexander Korda to make to appeal to Americans and convince the public that joining the war was the right thing to do.

Based on history, Leigh stars as Emma, who’s frequently changed her name about as frequently as she’s changed lovers. Her last lover, whom she thinks will marry her sent her to Naples to stay with his uncle, an ambassador who has a passion for collecting art — and beautiful women if they come his way. Though she and her mother who’s with her are worldly enough to know better, Emma’s surprised that her “fiancé” is going to marry a rich woman to help him out of financial troubles. He arranged for his uncle to take Emma offer her hands. Jilted, she’s furious at the trickery, but she’s an opportunist and winds up marrying the old uncle and making the most of life as an ambassador’s wife.

Horatio Nelson by Abbott (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

She meets Horatio Nelson, the famous naval leader who beat Napolean, time and time again. Though their both married, they become intimate. Leigh’s perfect as the coquettish and politically astute Emma. Olivier is commanding as Nelson. We see the couple across many years from when they first meet, to when Nelson returns after 5 years at war. It’s the only movie I’ve seen where the leading man is still dashing despite losing an arm and an eye.

In Naples the couple is fairly open about their love. It maddens Nelson’s son who’s stationed on his ship and he’s the first to refer to Emma as “That Hamilton Woman.” Town gossips soon use that term as well, but it doesn’t bother Emma. She’s got chutzpah galore. I read the history and this was a woman who used to dance naked on tables in her early days in “show business.” So the late 18th century wasn’t as straight-laced as you might think.

The Ambassador Hamilton enjoys Emma more as an ornament than anything else. While he asks Emma to be discreet, he isn’t all that hurt by her affair. Nelson’s wife is another story. She’s been waiting for him for 7 years and has gotten wind of “that Hamilton woman.” The stern and upright, Mrs. Nelson meets her husband in London when he returns after defeating Napolean’s navy at Trafalgar, in a battle scene that’s wonderfully shot. She’s a plain woman who’s strict and old fashioned. I’m not sure whether the real Lady Nelson was like this and think the film would be stronger if she were actually a rather attractive nice woman. This choice makes it easy to side with Nelson. I prefer more complexity and reality.

The real Emma Hamilton, in a 1782–84 portrait by G. Romney,                (Source: Wikipedia)

Be that as it may, the film is dramatic and it was fun to watch Vivien Leigh in a role other than Scarlett O’Hara. Since we see in the first scene that Emma ends up on the skids, I’m not spoiling anything by discussing that. I felt sorry that she ended up like that. It didn’t seem right that her husband, who never insisted she end her affair, died penniless and then she got no money from Nelson. According to the Criterion Collection bonus feature with the director’s nephew, history’s unclear about what happened to Emma, but the moral code of the day required that to show an adulterous couple, you would have to show that dire consequences follow that sort of life choice.

All in all, That Hamilton Woman, was an entertaining way to learn about 18th and early 19th century British history. Nelson’s military acumen and self-sacrifice are laudable and though I doubt the film would succeed in convincing Americans it’s time to jump into WWII.

Again, the Criterion Collection’s bonus features were worth seeing. Michael Korda, whose uncle directed the film and whose father was the art director, provided lots on insights into its making and the collaboration between his father and uncle. He also described Vivien Leigh’s tempestuous relationship with Olivier whose personality favored more even-keel people.

Related articles

• That Hamilton Woman
• DVD Review: Charmed Lives – Leigh, Olivier, and “That Hamilton Woman”
• DVD Review: That Hamilton Woman
• Regency Personalities Series – Emma Hamilton
• Why Lady Hamilton
• That Hamilton Woman: a tale of two halves (for better or for worse)
• History of the World According to the Movies: Part 46 – Late Georgian Great Britain
• Nelson biopic sets sail

BBC’s Persuasion 2007

Tags

18th century, British, Jane Austen, period piece

I’m not that sure I’ve read Jane Austen‘s novel Persuasion. I recall Bridget read it, but if I did, it was long ago.

I saw this BBC adaptation on Netflix and thought, “Why not?” and I’m glad I did. Persuasion is simpler than Austen’s other works like Pride and Prejudice or Mansfield Park. There are some minor storylines, but we don’t get invested in them as we do in Austen’s other books.

In Persuasion, Anne Elliot is surprised when her former fiancé Mr. Wentworth re-enters her life eight years after she turned him down. Her father’s squandered his fortune and must lease his grand home. His tenants turn out to be Mr. Wentworth’s sister and brother-in-law.

She has not gotten over him and he still feels the sting of rejection. Anne rejected Wentworth due to the persuasion of her relatives who believed he was too poor for her. Now he’s returned after acquiring a fortune for his success in the navy.

This book lacks a confidante for the heroine and doesn’t have as much wit as one finds in say Sense and Sensibility or Emma or P&P. The father is a self-absorbed fop, but he doesn’t ever face the consequences he seemed to deserve.

Yet I was drawn into the story wondering how the couple would get together. Austen wrote while suffering with the illness that eventually killed her. (Experts can’t agree on what it was.) Thus this book wasn’t revised as carefully as her other books.

While I did like the story it was hard to understand why Wentworth was so smitten with Anne, why he couldn’t forget her. She wasn’t especially beautiful and because she isn’t shown amongst friends we don’t see her wit or spark. She’s a good, dutiful young woman with a churlish family. In real life such women don’t usually catch the eye, let alone spark an enduring love in a handsome young man, I’m not complaining just letting you know this is escapism, not reality.

It’s a short film at just about 90 minutes so you don’t have much time to wish for more characters or dialog. The film moves along at a clip.