Quirky Monday: Week of Mush

You know how I theme read? I also theme watch. And since it's Valentine's week, here's a little Valentine quirk for you: 

I watch chick flicks and period films the whole month of February.

I'm one of those types who plunks down in front of the screen ready to squeal at period romance and mourn over the fact that so few people behave like this anymore(that's for a later post)

So for you reading pleasure, below is a list of the films I indulge in this month--with a new one recently added, because Sean Bean in frock coat. 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

 Follows the coming of age of a young governess, Jane Eyre, and her love for her master, the enigmatic Mr. Edward Rochester. Read so many times both covers are torn off, pages are dog-eared, and binding held together with—wait for it—packing tape.

Originally published: October 1847

Adapted for Film/Television:   adapted thirty-four times between 1910 and 2011

Adapted for the Stage/Radio: Adapted 22 times between and 2013 including radio adaptions, and web series

Most Famous Adaptions:

Film: Starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontain; 2011 Starring Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska

Stage: Adaption by John Caird and Paul Gordon, starring Marla Scheffel  and James Stacy Barbour

Television: 1983 BBC starring Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton; A&E 1997 starring Samatha Morton and Ciaran Hinds; Masterpiece Classic 2006 starring Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson(personal favorite)

Radio: Campbell Playhouse 1944 starring Orson Welles and Loretta Young; BBC 1994 starring Ciaran Hinds

**NEW**Clarissa by Samuel Richardson

Note: Hardest classic I’ve ever read. I have developed an intense dislike of epistolary novels.  Follows the lovely Clarissa Harlowe, and her seducer Robert Lovelace.  Also has the ability to makes me cry quarts--at the villain’s demise of all things

Originally Published: 1748

Adapted for Film/Television: Once in 1991

Adapted for Stage/Radio: Once in 2010

Most Famous Adaptions:

1991 BBC Starring Sean Bean as Lovelace(and that, ladies and gents makes 102 on my stupid list!!!!)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The lives and loves of the Bennett sisters, particularly Jane and Elizabeth, the latter of whom catches the eye of the proud and misunderstood(yes, I said misunderstood)Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. I could go on a whole spiel about why Darcy is so misunderstood—but that’s another can of worms altogether.

Originally Published:

Adapted for Film/Television: Eleven times between 1938 and 2005

Adapted for Stage/Radio: Nine times between 1935 and 2014(I happen to know the playwright of the 2014 adaption)

Most Famous Adaptions:

1940 Starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier(and containing the BEST Lady Catherine/Elizabeth showdown ever “I like her. She loves you Darcy; she’s the one for you.”  Eeek! Why was that not in the book?!

1995 A&E/BBC Starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth(with that LAKE SCENE!!!! why was THAT not in the book?!)

“Furst Impressions” Wishbone episode starring the darling Jack Russel Terrier as Mr. Darcy(if you haven’t seen it, Youtube it—SO CUTE!!!)

2005 Starring Kiera Knightly and Matthew Macfacdyen (Confession: I am not a Kiera Knightly fan, but this movie was one of her good ones—and the little thing with casting Collins as a shrimp—loved it!!!)

2014 by Melissa Lelani Larson. Premiered at BYU in Utah for the 50^th anniversary of the Fine Arts Building

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

Follows the story of the dashing masked hero, Sir Percy Blakney and his wife Marguerite St. Just, as they rescue French aristocrats and foil the plans of the slimy Chauvelin.  Read the first book in four hours—lost sleep due to how good it is. Sequels? Not so much.

Originally Published: 1905

Adapted for Film/Television: Eighteen times between 1918 and 2006

Adapted for Stage/Radio: Adapted three times between1950 and 1997

Most Famous Adaptions:

1934 Starring Leslie Howard(playing the fop to the hilt!!!)

1982 Masterpiece starring Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour and Ian McKellan(SO dashing as brunette, and fabulous foil for Anthony Andrews!)

1997 Broadway Musical by Frank Wilderhorn and Nan Knighton originally starring Douglass Sills, Christine Andreas and Terrence Mann

1999; 2000 A&E Adaption starring Richard E Grant, Elizabeth McGovern and Martin Shaw(some fans hate this—I happen to LOVE it. All of them! It’s called poetic license people. Deal!)

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

The most famous of the Gaskell novels, follows the somewhat snobbish Margaret Hale as she moves from the south of England to the North, where she also catches the eye of mill owner John Thornton.

Originally Published: 1855

Adapted for Film/Television: Twice; 1975 and 2004

Most Famous Adaptions:

2010 BBC Starring Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Note:  my personal favorite Austen

Fanny Price is sent to live with her rich relatives at Mansfeild Park, where she observes that just because you’re rich, it doesn’t make you happy. She also falls in love with her cousin, Edmund.

Originally Published: 1814

Adapted for Film/Television: five times between 1983 and 2014

Adapted for Stage/Radio: three times between 2003 and 2014

Most Famous Adaptions:

1999 by Patricia Rozema starring Francis O’Connor and Johnny Lee Miller

2003 BBC Radio starring , Felicity Jones,  Benedict Cumberbatch and David Tennant(and Benedict and David make stunning brothers!!)

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Originally Published: serialized 1866

Adapted for Film/Television: twice in 1971 and 1999

Most Famous Adaptions:

1999 BBC starring Keeley  Hawes, Justine Waddell, Tom Hollander and Anthony Howell(I personally don’t find one of the leading men all that stereotypically attractive, but hey, to each her own. His voice makes me squeal.)