was Northanger Abbey not a long six part series?! I really enjoyed this one! Andrew Davies you wonderful man! You have done it again! He has a touch with Austen, like Zefferelli with Shakespeare. *SIGH*
"I should say stairCASES, for there are several..."
I was just thinking the same thing myself! There is SO much potential for a longer series with this book. We could have really understood the characters and why they behaved the way they did, better.
That said I loved it! Shortened version et all.
me too...brilliant!!
Lois:"Are there any more at home like you?"
Clark:"Not really no"
Lois:"didn't think so"
I was, frankly, not amused at all the sexual allusions. But, that's typical Andrew Davies.
shareOh my GOD! Queen Victoria! Is that YOU???
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Perfect? I beg to differ.
And it has nothing to do with being a prude, but EVERYTHING to do with the fact that Austen didn't write nude scenes into her books.
Andrew Davies has been quoted as saying that he intentionally puts sex into all his adaptations. He has Catherine reading "The Monk," which is a book the character would never have read. NEVER.
His version of S&S will have a sex scene at the beginning that will destroy a particular plot twist later on.
I hate him.
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I'll sit on the fence a bit on this one. I LOVED this adaptation of Northanger Abbey but have to admit I fast forward the bath scene everytime cos it makes my skin crawl.
I think Andrew Davies comments about sex do make him sound like a dirty pervert and am really disappointed to hear about him ruining the plot line in S & S, although at the end of the day they did have affairs and sex in those days and although JA isn't graphic about it she does mention that people went off and had affairs.
Austen knew about sex and she wrote about sex, but not graphically. Not the way Davies does. There is really no need to be quite so "in-your-face" about it. Making it interesting for a modern audience doesn't mean you have to have graphic sex.
And no, I am not a big fan of P&P1995. My favorite version of P&P is P&P80.
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I love Andrew Davies' P&P and today I discovered that I also like his Emma. I think he's great. He has real talent, but he applies it so wrongly!! Most people agree this is a good version, except for the sex bits. WHY can he not take the hint?? Jane Austen does not need to be sexed up! Whoever it was who said something about Queen Victoria, you made me laugh and I hope to steal that line in future, but think about what you're saying. This is Jane Austen we're talking about. It's supposed to be moral and virtuous! Okay, so she's a little out of Queen Victoria's era, but the point still stands. And yes, some of her characters had affairs, but it's mentioned vaguely, and it was only the BAD characters who had them.
I can handle a little deviation from the original dialoge (I also love Emma Thompson's S&S), and some extra/missing scenes, but I don't like it when the writers stray from the period, the spirit of the book, or the characters' personalities. Which is what this one does. Everybody's so convinced that sex sells, they forget Pride and Prejudice was like the most popular mini-series ever. Because of, not in spite of, the fact that it stayed true to the period and the book. Ah well. If somebody doesn't make a smashing Austen adaptation very soon I shall wash my hands of the whole business. It's dissappoining, really.
Early on, there is a "dream sequence" scene where Catherine is leaning up against a tree, half-dressed, looking like she's having an orgasm. This is a young, naive, completely innocent girl.
The book Davies has her reading, "The Monk," is chock full of scenes involving rape, incest and torture, and is a book Catherine Morland simply would not have read. She read Mrs. Radcliffe's books instead. Those were more appropriate for a girl her age.
Jane Austen wrote about illegitimacy, extramarital sex, premarital sex and homosexual sex. But she did it subtly, and Davies is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. Feh.
Early on, there is a "dream sequence" scene where Catherine is leaning up against a tree, half-dressed, looking like she's having an orgasm. This is a young, naive, completely innocent girl.
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You think young, naive, innocent girls can't have orgasms?
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ane Austen wrote about illegitimacy, extramarital sex, premarital sex and homosexual sex. But she did it subtly, and Davies is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. Feh.
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Do us and yourself a favor and stop watching his adaptions then. *Rolls eyes*
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I hate him.
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LOL, I can just see you now with your red face while stomping your foot. What a CHILD you are.
elisabetta611:
LOL, I can just see you now with your red face while stomping your foot. What a CHILD you are.
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Funny, after seeing 90% of your posts here, I could say the same thing about you.
Mine too! I enjoy the 95 and 05 adaptations, but the 1980 version is closest to the book and has remained my favorite.
As far as Northanger Abbey goes, I have not yet seen the ITV production, so I can't say whether I liked it or not. I have only seen the old version with Peter Firth as Henry Tilney, and it was cute, but not the greatest adaptation I've seen.
Someone made a comment that in the new production of NA, Catherine is shown reading The Monk and that she would have never read that book. Now, I have not seen the scene in question (so I can't answer as to whether I think it was over sexualized or not), but I think Catherine Moreland would have sprinted to the nearest copy of The Monk that she could have gotten her hands on. She was completely enthralled with the genre. Sure, The Monk was more shocking that Radcliffe's works, but being titillated and shocked is what drew people to novels in the first place. In fact, I would think that the more outrageous The Monk was purported to be, the more Catherine would have wanted to read it. Truth be told, however, if she had read The Monk rather than Udolpho, I think her overactive imagination would have kicked into overdrive and she would have been too freaked out to fuction at Northanger Abbey.
:-)
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