Good god, Elizabeth Gaskell!

[blamebrampton]

Death, death, death and a bit more death! 

Why yes, I am watching Cranford and remembering why I was so horribly scarred in the days I was reading through the Gaskell oeuvre ... So many magnificent male characters, each cut off just as his life reached the possibility of happiness. And no, leaving Jem and Dr Harrison to have happy endings is not sufficient recompense.

Elizabeth Gaskell. Great-Grandmother of Emos everywhere ...

Comments

[glass-violet.livejournal.com]

dear, cheerful mrs gaskell! you're right, she (and mr hardy, oh my yes, everyone who tells me they've just read "the most depressing book ever!" is handed my somewhat battered copy of 'jude the obscure') has a lot to answer for.
i have ever been fond of poor cousin phyllis...

[meredyth-13.livejournal.com]

You make me laugh. :)

I saw the ad for Cranford tonight and thought 'Oh, look, that's where old Austen cast members go to die ...'

[i-autumnheart.livejournal.com]

Heh - I've been enjoying Cranford a lot, but it was a wee bit focused, wasn't it?

Although... I went and read the original last week (I have to confess I hadn't heard of it until three weeks ago), and there was a definite addition of happy endings to the TV version.

[deensey.livejournal.com]

this is why we love her?

[shu-shu-sleeps.livejournal.com]

Cranford is one of hers that I've never read, and I have to admit I've missed the adaptation on ABC. But she's not THAT depressing, North and SoOuth and Wives and Daughters were quite happy books...... not like that depressing Hardy man - god, talk about slit your wrists stuff - after three years straight of being FORCED to read just about everything that Thomas bloody Hardy wrote (his poetry is the WORST) I haven't gone near anything he's written for years!