Little Dorrit

Author: Charles Dickens

Genre: Classic, life, romance

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 9

Type: Fiction

Number of pages: 844

Time period: 1800s

Passage from book: Quotes coming below.

My overall opinion: An excellent read. It’s really not a hard read…just loooooonnnnnng. Very long. But very good too. A good book, especially if you watch the TV series first….great movie, btw. :) There were a few quotes I especially loved…

“In the country, the rain would have developed a thousand fresh scents, and every drop would have had its bright association with some beautiful form of growth or life. In the city it developed only foul stale smells, and was a sickly, lukewarm, dirt-stained, wretched addition to the gutters.”

“Mr. Pancks took hold of his tough hair again and gave it such a wrench that he pulled out several prongs of it. After looking at these with an eye of wild hatred, he put them in his pocket.”

John Chivery says, “I mistaken on a point that, even at the present moment, makes me take out my pocket-handkerchief like a great girl, as people say: though I am sure I don’t know why a great girl should be a term of reproach, for every rightly constituted male mind loves ‘em great and small.”

Sparkler’s names for Fanny were interesting and profuse: my dear girl, my life, my dear, my love, my adorable girl.

Altogether a wonderful Dickens! I think I liked it as much as Great Expectations. :)

Male Doubles: Post 4

I accumulated so many short posts adding one or two doubles that I decided to combine all the male ones into another big post. So here it is -- Male Doubles: Post 4! Note that all of these have been published previously...no new ones here. But soon, Male Doubles Post 5! That'll have new ones. :)

John Rhys-Davies

Gimli (Lord of the Rings, 2001, 2002, 2003)

Sallah (Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc 1981, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989)

A Turk (?) (King Solomon's Mines, 1985)*

Voice for Cassim (Aladdin, 1995)*(correct picture?)

Ciaran Hinds

Captain Wentworth (Persuasion, 1995)

Sir Tarleton (Amazing Grace, 2006)

Bill Paterson

Mr. Gibson (Wives and Daughters, 1999)

Lord Dundas (Amazing Grace, 2006)

Andy Serkis

Voice for Gollum (and Gollum's actions were based on his own) (Lord of the Rings, 2001, 2002, 2003)

Captain Haddock (Tintin, 2011)*

Rigaud (Little Dorrit, 2008)

Alun Armstrong

Flintwich (Little Dorrit, 2008)

Bucket (Bleak House, 2005)

***Interesting, Alun Armstrong has also acted in two versions of Oliver Twist, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, AND The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I think we could say he's essential to Dickens!***

Spotlight: Amy Dorrit

Amy Dorrit (Little Dorrit 2008)

Played by Claire Foy.

With her sister (who's dreadful).

With a variety of family members.

*gasp* There's the dress I saw on a traveling display of movie outfits!

With Arthur Clennam (Matthew MacFadyen).

With her sister again.

Movie: Little Dorrit

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 9 (actually, it’s not quite a 9.5, but probably a 9.3 or 9.25 or somewhere in there. J Yes, I’m being too precise…which is why I went for just a 9)

Genre: Classic, romance, life

Primary actors: Clare Foy, Matthew MacFadyen, Andy Serkis

Length: 7.5 hours according to the back, but popularly rumored to be 8 hours. J

Based on: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens.

Time period: 1800’s

Year it came out: 2008

My overall opinion: I really liked it. Matthew MacFadyen is unbelievably better than he was in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice which is where you all know him from. J I really liked the soundtrack, I found Amy to be a lovely heroine, the scenery etc was awesome, and it was altogether worth 8 hours. Can’t wait to watch it again. There are a few objectionable scenes, but if you watch it with someone who’s watched it before, you can figure out what to skip. (Or, if you’d like, email me and I’ll send you the list I have of what to skip) I used a list from Miss Elizabeth (Elegance of Fashion) and just using that was enough to miss everything bad. It includes Mrs. Jennings from S&S 95, and Andy Serkis is Gollum in Lord of the Rings. I loved it!

There's Andy Serkis! Scary. And you know what? I SAW that very dress that she's wearing in that picture in a traveling show of various movie costumes. Now I saw it before I saw the movie, but studied it carefully and managed to identify it! How cool is that?