I'm already annoyed by this Vanity Fair adaptation.

[Burney]

The actress playing Becky Sharp is not a redhead (which is a key trait of the character in the book). This, to me, is depriving ginger actresses of work and highly racially insensitive.

[barrybueno]

The actress playing Becky Sharp is not a redhead (which is a key trait of the character in the book). This, to me, is depriving ginger actresses of work and highly racially insensitive.

'Gingers have no souls' Eric Cartman

[eastgermanautos]

The actress playing Becky Sharp is not a redhead (which is a key trait of the character in the book). This, to me, is depriving ginger actresses of work and highly racially insensitive.

Never read that British sh!t. Who is it, Dickens?

[71 Guns - channeling the spirit of Mr Hat]

Never read that British sh!t. Who is it, Dickens?

Dickens :rolleyes: - It's Thomas Hardy, you colonial numpty.

[Burney]

Dickens :rolleyes: - It's Thomas Hardy, you colonial numpty.

William Makepeace Thackeray - as well you know. :rolleyes:

Anyway, the wife and I had a bet on how long it would take before the first historically-unlikely black character appeared. I had five minutes (this not being the BBC) and she took 2 minutes. Lo and behold, on 1 minute, 59 seconds and 57 hundredths of a second, there was a black chick at Becky and Amelia's school.

Fine result for the wife, there.

[WES]

Dickens :rolleyes: - It's Thomas Hardy, you colonial numpty.

He's an ex-colonoial numpty, 71. Or 'rebel numpty' should you prefer. :nod:

[71 Guns - channeling the spirit of Mr Hat]

William Makepeace Thackeray - as well you know. :rolleyes:

Anyway, the wife and I had a bet on how long it would take before the first historically-unlikely black character appeared. I had five minutes (this not being the BBC) and she took 2 minutes. Lo and behold, on 1 minute, 59 seconds and 57 hundredths of a second, there was a black chick at Becky and Amelia's school.

Fine result for the wife, there.

Pìss, pot, all, same. Having suffered this sort of shíte at Eng Lit 'A' Level, I care not one jot for it now.

Except for Lark Rise to Candleford. That was excellent.

And not a BME in sight :hehe: :-|

[Sir C]

William Makepeace Thackeray - as well you know. :rolleyes:

Anyway, the wife and I had a bet on how long it would take before the first historically-unlikely black character appeared. I had five minutes (this not being the BBC) and she took 2 minutes. Lo and behold, on 1 minute, 59 seconds and 57 hundredths of a second, there was a black chick at Becky and Amelia's school.

Fine result for the wife, there.

His house in Tunbridge Wells is now a rather fine restaurant - or at least it was 15 years ago. wd wmt.

[Burney]

His house in Tunbridge Wells is now a rather fine restaurant - or at least it was 15 years ago. wd wmt.

I seem to remember having eaten there many moons ago. :rubchin:

Didn't he also have something to do with the Post Office?

And he wrote Barry Lyndon, which is very underrated.

[Burney]

Pìss, pot, all, same. Having suffered this sort of shíte at Eng Lit 'A' Level, I care not one jot for it now.

Except for Lark Rise to Candleford. That was excellent.

And not a BME in sight :hehe: :-|

There would be if they did an adaptation today. Some of the characters would simply turn up as black as your boot and there'd be not a hint of an explanation of how they got to late 19th Century rural Oxfordshire or why none of the other characters ever makes any reference to their pigmentation.

[Ash]

His house in Tunbridge Wells is now a rather fine restaurant - or at least it was 15 years ago. wd wmt.

He lives in Kensal Green now.

[Ash]

Pìss, pot, all, same. Having suffered this sort of shíte at Eng Lit 'A' Level, I care not one jot for it now.


I had to read The Trumpet Major by Hardy at school. :-( Dreadful experience.

[Burney]

He lives in Kensal Green now.

I think 'lives' may be pushing it. As that other underrated Victorian man of letters Chesterton put it:

"For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green."

[Sir C]

I had to read The Trumpet Major by Hardy at school. :-( Dreadful experience.

Hardy's great though, as a rule. The Mayor of Casterbridge is a triumph.

[Viva Prat Vegas]

I had to read Canterbury Tales at school
Couldn't make head nor tale of it
:-(

[Sir C]

I seem to remember having eaten there many moons ago. :rubchin:

Didn't he also have something to do with the Post Office?

And he wrote Barry Lyndon, which is very underrated.

Downstairs used to be a casual bistro-type affair, which was excellent. But I'm thinking back to the mid-90s now :hehe:

Of Thackeray and the Post Office know I nothing.

That's the opening line of a poem if ever I wrote one.

[Burney]

I had to read The Trumpet Major by Hardy at school. :-( Dreadful experience.

My take on Hardy is that he's a wildly overrated novelist (although beloved of school curricula by virtue of his plots and themes having all the nuance of a sledgehammer to the nuts) and a wildly underrated poet.

[71 Guns - channeling the spirit of Mr Hat]

I had to read The Trumpet Major by Hardy at school. :-( Dreadful experience.

I feel for you, A. Don't even get me started on Austen, Shakespeare or Chaucer...although at least Chaucer had some smut.

[Burney]

I had to read Canterbury Tales at school
Couldn't make head nor tale of it
:-(

In 'translation' or in the original middle English?

I can still recite the first 12 lines of the Prologue in Middle English. You'd be amazed how few people ask me to do so, though. :-(

[Viva Prat Vegas]

'Twas in Middle English
Given the book to read over the Summer Holidays in preparation for the start of A Level English Lit
Fretted over failing to comprehend the text whilst on a 2 week trip abroad and was then told in September that it didn't matter whether none of us had even looked at the book
Choc full of apostrophes, I seem to recall

[Burney]

'Twas in Middle English
Given the book to read over the Summer Holidays in preparation for the start of A Level English Lit
Fretted over failing to comprehend the text whilst on a 2 week trip abroad and was then told in September that it didn't matter whether none of us had even looked at the book
Choc full of apostrophes, I seem to recall

If you weren't taught the pronunciation, it was criminal to give you it to read, since you can't appreciate the meter and rhymes of the poetry without them. How to put kids off great literature in one easy lesson. :rolleyes:

Much better to give you the very accessible Neville Coghill translation first and then give you the original.

[Ash]

I think 'lives' may be pushing it. As that other underrated Victorian man of letters Chesterton put it:

"For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green."

Rests.

Not far from WH Smith and Winston Churchill's young child, ISTR. the latter was quite hard to find.

[Burney]

Rests.

Not far from WH Smith and Winston Churchill's young child, ISTR. the latter was quite hard to find.

Funny name to give a kid.

[eastgermanautos]

He's an ex-colonoial numpty, 71. Or 'rebel numpty' should you prefer. :nod:

Right. We sorted you lot out at the Battle of Yorktown!

[AFC East]

There would be if they did an adaptation today. Some of the characters would simply turn up as black as your boot and there'd be not a hint of an explanation of how they got to late 19th Century rural Oxfordshire or why none of the other characters ever makes any reference to their pigmentation.


I was about to say above, fine to have a black person in the cast, just as long as every new character they met was completely shocked by their presence. I suspect this wasn't the case.