I am diverting from my Montgomery Mondays this week because I re-discovered one of my favourite stories this week by accident, and have to write about it!
Around the World in Eighty Days is, in my humble opinion, an incredible story, which could only have been concieved by the eminent writer, Jules Verne. First published in 1873, it follows an unlikely hero in his tour around the globe, a globe which must be of historical interest to readers today, since the book reflects the state of the British Empire at that time.
Phileas Fogg is a rather eccentric, ever British gentleman, who just happens to get into an arguement with some random from his club, an arguement that leads him to make a bet that the globe can be traveled around in a mere 80 days (remember folks, the airplane wasn't around yet). He sets out to proove it, along with his French valet. Along the way he is faced with many adventures, which test his stoic and precise outlook on life. He travels to Dover, then across the continent, to India. In India, the practice of burning widows on the funeral pires of their husbands was still very much alive in the country, and Fogg and his friends stumble across such a ceremony being performed. And of course, they save the poor hapless widow, who turns out to be a young and beautiful woman, and who ends up having feelings for Mr.Fogg that extend beyond gratitude. To add some suspense to the trip (as if the fact that one good wind storm could have lost Fogg the whole wager and cost him his life savings wasn't enough), the British authorities suspect him of being a bankrobber and have detectives stationed at all British outposts across the globe looking for him. So will Fogg win his bet? And will he discover his love for the Indian beauty before it is too late? (Cough - Spoiler - obviously). It's just a great old book, just as appealing to guys than girls, and one that has earned its good reputation. :)
There have been several film adaptations of Around the World in 80 Days, the most recent of which was a Jackie Chan spin-off version. Yeah, crazy, where does Jackie Chan fit into a story from a French author in the 1800s? Well, I'll tell you - Jackie Chan stands in for Fogg's French Valet, and turns out to be the bank theif that Fogg is mistaken for in the book. But he didn't steal 30000 pounds, no not Jackie. He stole...drumrole...A JADE BUDDHA. Yup. Well despite the fact that this movie ruins the entire story, it is actually quite a funny journey, which I would recommend provided one does not associate it too closely with the book. Call it a parody. Whatever it is, Jackie Chan is always fun to watch, and Steve Coogan puts in an solid eccentric performance as Fogg, with a special appearance from none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger (who clearly doesn't mind having a laugh at himself), Luke and Owen Wilson, Rob Schnieder, and John Cleese. So you're wondering if there will be laughs? Look at the names and judge for yourself. It definitly made for some great inside jokes in my family. :)
There was a 1956 version made which is perhaps the most famous, starring David Niven, which won Best Picture of the year.
But the difinitve film, which I would most highly recommend, is one that has lost its stature with age, though not its brilliance. It is a 1989 miniseries production which, though it does alter the story slightly, stays true to the spirit of the adventure like no other. And it stars Peirce Brosnan. Which really, is reason enough for anyone to watch it. The role acts as a hilarious backdrop to his Bond fame, for as you may see if you watch the series, Fogg just doesn't know how to throw a punch. But it is EXTREMELY well acted, if a bit long at parts, and is well worth digging up from the vault and watching. It too has some cameos by famous actors, most noteably from Christopher Lee, who initiates the bet which sends us following Fogg on his journey.
And since no story is ever worth anything until Mickey notices it, it is worth mentioning that yes, there is a Mickey, Donald and Goofy version out there. :) Do you have 12 minutes to spare? If you do, watch it. Maybe Jules Verne would be horrified....but who could possibly judge Mickey?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ck-M3ToZk4
Travelling around the world in 80 days was once an impossible feat. But the world has, metaphorically, gotten smaller since those days. You could definitly do it in under a week now. That is, if you were as rich as Mr. Fogg. But never, never could you encounter such adventure by stumbling groggily through english-speaking airports around the globe. No no, Fogg's voyage defined the epic reality of world travel, and has entertained millions of readers, and film watchers, in the doing.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Puffed Sleeves
"Merry Christmas, Diana! And oh, it's a wonderful Christmas. I've something splendid to show you. Matthew has given me the loveliest dress, with such sleeves. I couldn't even imagine any nicer." Anne of Green Gables, chpt xxv
You may all remember how puffed sleeves were always a dream of Anne's. And if you were anything like me, you were rather inclined to take Marilla's part when you actually saw the massive clouds of fabric around Anne's arms when tender-hearted Matthew made a point of making this dream come true. But Anne was radiant in her happiness, and puffed-sleeves surely had a similar effect on many women of that era.
Puffed sleeves seem to have come and went several times during the 1800s. During the early 1800s the puffed sleeve was in, though a puff was not too large, and could be placed on the shoulder, or slightly further down the arm. http://www.vintagedance.com/dress-early1800s.htm The went out of fashion again, only to pick up later in the century, where the size of puffs seemed to peak. Here is a picture of an antique black suit coat jacket with enormous puffed sleeves, which the seller believes to be from approx 1894: http://www.etsy.com/listing/64996235/antique-1800s-black-puff-sleeve-suit Huge, eh?
Lucy Maud Montgomery herself loved fashion. Not an entirely uncommon obsession in young women. The puffed sleeve interested her in her own life, long before she wrote Anne. In one of her scrapbooks, Montgomery had glued in a clipping from a fashion magazine of an elegant lady in a slim-waisted dress, with billowing puffed sleeves. Clearly, she allowed Anne to share in her joy for a fashion of her youth. This is an amazing link, please check it out, displaying the puffed sleeves that were known to Montgomery in the 1890s, the ones she loved, and the ones Anne would have worn: http://lmm.confederationcentre.com/english/collecting/collecting-2-1.html If you have looked at these, then you will realise that the costumes in Sullivan's film of Anne of Green Gables are really entirely accurate. I will leave it to you to judge how elegant they are.
Worth noting is that puffed sleeves do exist, in some form, today. They are most common in wedding dresses, and in such a form they are not unlike the puffs of Montgomery's day, but in everyday clothing if they appear at all, they tend to be very small, and located at just below the shoulder. http://notcouture.notcot.org/post/2083/ Perhaps not quite to Montgomery's taste, but then, who knows?!
"Twenty-one years later, in 1926, Montgomery talked even more nostalgically about those early fashion plates in her scrapbook, comparing the young women of the 1890's with the current flappers: "Many obsolete fashions are very laughable and ugly but this did not strike me as being so. Indeed, compared to the fashions of today it seemed to me dignified, beautiful and becoming. . . . No, I do not think the girls of '93 needed the rather scornful pity that is sometimes meted out to them by the scantily-garbed damsels of today. We were just as pretty, just as graceful, just as well-pleased with ourselves" (SJ,III,315). " - [from the confederationcentre link above]
You may all remember how puffed sleeves were always a dream of Anne's. And if you were anything like me, you were rather inclined to take Marilla's part when you actually saw the massive clouds of fabric around Anne's arms when tender-hearted Matthew made a point of making this dream come true. But Anne was radiant in her happiness, and puffed-sleeves surely had a similar effect on many women of that era.
Puffed sleeves seem to have come and went several times during the 1800s. During the early 1800s the puffed sleeve was in, though a puff was not too large, and could be placed on the shoulder, or slightly further down the arm. http://www.vintagedance.com/dress-early1800s.htm The went out of fashion again, only to pick up later in the century, where the size of puffs seemed to peak. Here is a picture of an antique black suit coat jacket with enormous puffed sleeves, which the seller believes to be from approx 1894: http://www.etsy.com/listing/64996235/antique-1800s-black-puff-sleeve-suit Huge, eh?
Lucy Maud Montgomery herself loved fashion. Not an entirely uncommon obsession in young women. The puffed sleeve interested her in her own life, long before she wrote Anne. In one of her scrapbooks, Montgomery had glued in a clipping from a fashion magazine of an elegant lady in a slim-waisted dress, with billowing puffed sleeves. Clearly, she allowed Anne to share in her joy for a fashion of her youth. This is an amazing link, please check it out, displaying the puffed sleeves that were known to Montgomery in the 1890s, the ones she loved, and the ones Anne would have worn: http://lmm.confederationcentre.com/english/collecting/collecting-2-1.html If you have looked at these, then you will realise that the costumes in Sullivan's film of Anne of Green Gables are really entirely accurate. I will leave it to you to judge how elegant they are.
Worth noting is that puffed sleeves do exist, in some form, today. They are most common in wedding dresses, and in such a form they are not unlike the puffs of Montgomery's day, but in everyday clothing if they appear at all, they tend to be very small, and located at just below the shoulder. http://notcouture.notcot.org/post/2083/ Perhaps not quite to Montgomery's taste, but then, who knows?!
"Twenty-one years later, in 1926, Montgomery talked even more nostalgically about those early fashion plates in her scrapbook, comparing the young women of the 1890's with the current flappers: "Many obsolete fashions are very laughable and ugly but this did not strike me as being so. Indeed, compared to the fashions of today it seemed to me dignified, beautiful and becoming. . . . No, I do not think the girls of '93 needed the rather scornful pity that is sometimes meted out to them by the scantily-garbed damsels of today. We were just as pretty, just as graceful, just as well-pleased with ourselves" (SJ,III,315). " - [from the confederationcentre link above]
Saturday, January 15, 2011
The Journey Begins
"I do like a road, because you can be always wondering what is at the end of it" ~ The Story Girl
Now I know that this is not yet Monday, but seeing as I will be pulling an all-nighter Monday night to complete an essay for my class, you will please forgive me for posting this early.
The Journey Begins is the first 1-hour episode of the Road to Avonlea tv series. Here we meet a young, headstrong, romantic Sara Stanley. She is sent by her widowed father from her home in Montreal, to go and stay with her mother's relatives for a while in P.E.I. Her father's motives are selfless - he is caught up in an embezzlement scandal and, though innocent, he wants to spare his daughter the stress. And so she and her cousin Andrew from Toronto join their family for an indefinite visit - the Kings. Alec and Janet King, and their three children Felicity, Felix, and Cecily, and two maiden aunts, Hetty and Olivia.
The Journey Begins begs its inspiration from several sources. First and foremost, it is based on L.M.Montgomery's "The Story Girl." The Story Girl is a book told from the perspective of Beverly King, who travels with his brother Felix to PEI for the summer break to visit their family in PEI.
The character of Beverly King in the book has been re-christened Andrew King in Road to Avonlea, minus the brother. In the episode, Andrew says his father is in South America - well in the novel, he is in Rio de Janero. In the novel, Beverly's cousins were Dan, Felicity, and Cecily. In the tv series, they dropped Andrew's brother, and called Dan Felix, and made him younger than Felicity: Felicity, Felix, and Cecily. Peter Craig, the hired boy, is in both the episode and in the book. And in the opening episode we meet, very briefly, a girl called "Clemmy," who, as it turns out from the story lines of later episodes of the series, is based on the book's character called "Sara Ray." (There are also characters called Aunt Olivia and Felix in the book: Chronicles of Avonlea.)
And Sara Stanley. How can we forget her? Yes, she is the in novel, as heartwarming and bewitching as ever. Her circumstances are somewhat different, however. For one thing, she is living with her Aunt Olivia and Uncle Roger who, like the Matthew and Marilla of Anne of Green Gables, lived together in the family house. There was no Nanny Louisa or Aunt Hetty, although her father is Blair Stanley. She is 14 in the book, a little older than in the series, but then since she stays for a longer time in the series, it works out well that she was cast younger.
I believe that Marilla was, in a way, the inspiration for the creation of Miss Hetty King, though Hetty King's character is much more proud and slightly less sensible than our beloved Miss Cuthbert.
It should be noted that other characters in the first season are all from The Story Girl as well - Peg Bowen, and Jasper Dale and Aunt Eliza. And of course we have the appearances of Mrs Lynde and Marilla from Anne of Green Gables (in later seasons, Muriel Stacey, Davy and Dora will appear from one of the Anne books as well).
The first episode of Road to Avonlea is one that will spirit you away to bye-gone-days, and remind you of all that is good in the world. And, if you are anything like me, it will also get you hooked on the series! Road to Avonlea is in itself a masterpeice of writing, of taking element of Montgomery's stories and vignets and weaving them into a new, but oh-so-familiar story. But none of it could have been possible without Montgomery's own genius. So cheers to Montgomery and the Road to Avonlea screen-writers: They remind us of why we live.
Now I know that this is not yet Monday, but seeing as I will be pulling an all-nighter Monday night to complete an essay for my class, you will please forgive me for posting this early.
The Journey Begins is the first 1-hour episode of the Road to Avonlea tv series. Here we meet a young, headstrong, romantic Sara Stanley. She is sent by her widowed father from her home in Montreal, to go and stay with her mother's relatives for a while in P.E.I. Her father's motives are selfless - he is caught up in an embezzlement scandal and, though innocent, he wants to spare his daughter the stress. And so she and her cousin Andrew from Toronto join their family for an indefinite visit - the Kings. Alec and Janet King, and their three children Felicity, Felix, and Cecily, and two maiden aunts, Hetty and Olivia.
The Journey Begins begs its inspiration from several sources. First and foremost, it is based on L.M.Montgomery's "The Story Girl." The Story Girl is a book told from the perspective of Beverly King, who travels with his brother Felix to PEI for the summer break to visit their family in PEI.
The character of Beverly King in the book has been re-christened Andrew King in Road to Avonlea, minus the brother. In the episode, Andrew says his father is in South America - well in the novel, he is in Rio de Janero. In the novel, Beverly's cousins were Dan, Felicity, and Cecily. In the tv series, they dropped Andrew's brother, and called Dan Felix, and made him younger than Felicity: Felicity, Felix, and Cecily. Peter Craig, the hired boy, is in both the episode and in the book. And in the opening episode we meet, very briefly, a girl called "Clemmy," who, as it turns out from the story lines of later episodes of the series, is based on the book's character called "Sara Ray." (There are also characters called Aunt Olivia and Felix in the book: Chronicles of Avonlea.)
And Sara Stanley. How can we forget her? Yes, she is the in novel, as heartwarming and bewitching as ever. Her circumstances are somewhat different, however. For one thing, she is living with her Aunt Olivia and Uncle Roger who, like the Matthew and Marilla of Anne of Green Gables, lived together in the family house. There was no Nanny Louisa or Aunt Hetty, although her father is Blair Stanley. She is 14 in the book, a little older than in the series, but then since she stays for a longer time in the series, it works out well that she was cast younger.
I believe that Marilla was, in a way, the inspiration for the creation of Miss Hetty King, though Hetty King's character is much more proud and slightly less sensible than our beloved Miss Cuthbert.
It should be noted that other characters in the first season are all from The Story Girl as well - Peg Bowen, and Jasper Dale and Aunt Eliza. And of course we have the appearances of Mrs Lynde and Marilla from Anne of Green Gables (in later seasons, Muriel Stacey, Davy and Dora will appear from one of the Anne books as well).
The first episode of Road to Avonlea is one that will spirit you away to bye-gone-days, and remind you of all that is good in the world. And, if you are anything like me, it will also get you hooked on the series! Road to Avonlea is in itself a masterpeice of writing, of taking element of Montgomery's stories and vignets and weaving them into a new, but oh-so-familiar story. But none of it could have been possible without Montgomery's own genius. So cheers to Montgomery and the Road to Avonlea screen-writers: They remind us of why we live.
The Montgomery Monday
This is it folks - Montgomery Mondays are coming up! I want to dedicate my Mondays to my favourite Canadian author: Lucy Maud Montgomery.
L.M. Montgomery, who apparently preferred to be called Maud by her friends, was a very interesting woman for her time. She was both a realist and a romantic, a woman of fashion and a woman of depth. She has written A LOT of books, which I am ashamed to say I have not all read. She is, of course, most famous for Anne of Green Gables, the novel and the series, which comprised of 7 books. She also wrote the Emily of New Moon series (3 books), The Story Girl (2 books), The Chronicles of Avonlea, and many other chronicles. Much of her work has been televised. Anne of Green Gables was made into the best movie of its decade, and the sequel was based on the next few books in the series combined. Then of course there is Anne The Continuing Story, which might not be a bad movie in itself, but has nothing to do with any of the Anne series, except that it takes place in WWI, which happens during the last book of the series, and which GIlbert does NOT fight in. Also, anyone who has visited P.E.I will know that Anne of Green Gables is also a fun play/musical. :) I believe that it has been televised before the iconic movie with Megan Follows, but no other version can compare to hers! Emily of New Moon was made into a television series, and Road to Avonlea, on of the best series ever to come out of Canada, was based on a collection of various writings, including The Story Girl, Anne of Green Gables, and many other of her works.
L.M.Montgomery did not spend all her life on P.E.I, but it was the setting for most of her works, and one can only suppose that she had been very happy there. Montgomery married later in life, late for that period anyway, and moved to Ontario after her marriage. Her life, after childhood, was not a very happy one. Some years into her marriage her husband began to suffer mental illness, and she took care of him for decades, suffering from depression herself. It seems that all the optimism she had was poured into her writing. And what writing it was. Montgomery's work continues to inspire and comfort readers around the world today. And that won't change any time soon.
So if you are interested in who might have been the inspiration for Gilbert Blythe, which of Montgomery's stories are told in Road to Avonlea episodes, how the movies were filmed, or how popular puffed sleeves really were, then stay tuned and check this out every Monday. :)
L.M. Montgomery, who apparently preferred to be called Maud by her friends, was a very interesting woman for her time. She was both a realist and a romantic, a woman of fashion and a woman of depth. She has written A LOT of books, which I am ashamed to say I have not all read. She is, of course, most famous for Anne of Green Gables, the novel and the series, which comprised of 7 books. She also wrote the Emily of New Moon series (3 books), The Story Girl (2 books), The Chronicles of Avonlea, and many other chronicles. Much of her work has been televised. Anne of Green Gables was made into the best movie of its decade, and the sequel was based on the next few books in the series combined. Then of course there is Anne The Continuing Story, which might not be a bad movie in itself, but has nothing to do with any of the Anne series, except that it takes place in WWI, which happens during the last book of the series, and which GIlbert does NOT fight in. Also, anyone who has visited P.E.I will know that Anne of Green Gables is also a fun play/musical. :) I believe that it has been televised before the iconic movie with Megan Follows, but no other version can compare to hers! Emily of New Moon was made into a television series, and Road to Avonlea, on of the best series ever to come out of Canada, was based on a collection of various writings, including The Story Girl, Anne of Green Gables, and many other of her works.
L.M.Montgomery did not spend all her life on P.E.I, but it was the setting for most of her works, and one can only suppose that she had been very happy there. Montgomery married later in life, late for that period anyway, and moved to Ontario after her marriage. Her life, after childhood, was not a very happy one. Some years into her marriage her husband began to suffer mental illness, and she took care of him for decades, suffering from depression herself. It seems that all the optimism she had was poured into her writing. And what writing it was. Montgomery's work continues to inspire and comfort readers around the world today. And that won't change any time soon.
So if you are interested in who might have been the inspiration for Gilbert Blythe, which of Montgomery's stories are told in Road to Avonlea episodes, how the movies were filmed, or how popular puffed sleeves really were, then stay tuned and check this out every Monday. :)
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