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dangermousieI finally caved in and bought the BBC adaptation of Clarissa, Samuel Richardson's famous 18th century novel about a virtuous woman from a horrible family who ends up at the mercy of the rake Lovelace. Nothing good comes out of it, of course. This is the kind of novel where you count corpses by the end.
I must admit, a huge reason for buying this is because Sean Bean plays Lovelace. Lovelace is my favorite character in the book. Not in the sense of finding him good or likeable (he gets his just comeuppance, and he is a truly awful person), but because of the mix of fascinating qualities that a villain of a melodrama usually never has: he truly falls in love with Clarissa, but not enough to overcome his character, his pride, or his cruel streak. He is horrible, but he is fascinating, and I think Sean Bean can portay this duality wonderfully. Clarissa has to be both repelled and attracted. And, I know it's an unfashionable admission, but I rather like Clarissa. True, she is a bit too saintly and preachy for my liking, but she gets such a raw deal, you keep rooting for her to end up happy and just end up doing a mental equivalent of peeking through fingers to see what horrible thing will happen next.
And I love the irony of Clarissa/Lovelace. Because she could have loved him if he didn't ruin it all.
Now all I want is an adaptation of my favorite 18th century novel, Cecilia by Fanny Burney. I adore Cecilia and have a crush on Delville. Cecilia is smart, strong and full of common sense. Delville is a dutiful young aristocrat who finally has enough and defies his psycho Mom for the love of Cecilia (in my favorite scene in the book. I think Austen got a bit of inspiration there for the whole Lady Catherine thing). The book is chockful of funny scenes, passionate declarations of love, misunderstandings, jealousy, elopment, and every other good thing. I never understood why Burney's Evelina, with the really annoying secondary characters, insipid heroine and patterncard of perfection hero, is better known.
I must admit, a huge reason for buying this is because Sean Bean plays Lovelace. Lovelace is my favorite character in the book. Not in the sense of finding him good or likeable (he gets his just comeuppance, and he is a truly awful person), but because of the mix of fascinating qualities that a villain of a melodrama usually never has: he truly falls in love with Clarissa, but not enough to overcome his character, his pride, or his cruel streak. He is horrible, but he is fascinating, and I think Sean Bean can portay this duality wonderfully. Clarissa has to be both repelled and attracted. And, I know it's an unfashionable admission, but I rather like Clarissa. True, she is a bit too saintly and preachy for my liking, but she gets such a raw deal, you keep rooting for her to end up happy and just end up doing a mental equivalent of peeking through fingers to see what horrible thing will happen next.
And I love the irony of Clarissa/Lovelace. Because she could have loved him if he didn't ruin it all.
Now all I want is an adaptation of my favorite 18th century novel, Cecilia by Fanny Burney. I adore Cecilia and have a crush on Delville. Cecilia is smart, strong and full of common sense. Delville is a dutiful young aristocrat who finally has enough and defies his psycho Mom for the love of Cecilia (in my favorite scene in the book. I think Austen got a bit of inspiration there for the whole Lady Catherine thing). The book is chockful of funny scenes, passionate declarations of love, misunderstandings, jealousy, elopment, and every other good thing. I never understood why Burney's Evelina, with the really annoying secondary characters, insipid heroine and patterncard of perfection hero, is better known.
