We just finished watching our DVD version of He Knew He Was Right, a BBC production from 2004.
A year ago, we watched The Way We Live Now, a very similar miniseries. Both productions are based on novels by Anthony Trollope. He Knew He Was Right first appeared in print in 1868. It's darker than The Way We Live Now, so if you want a happy ending, rent The Way We Live Now. Both miniseries are compelling and the production values are excellent. We could hardly wait for each installment to come in from Netflix.
Trollope was the object of much literary scorn late in his career, and for a long time after his death. As Wikipedia will tell you, this critical derision sprang from the fact that he admitted in his autobiography that he wrote on a strict schedule to meet a quota, and that he wrote to make money. For shame!
Trollope's novels make great movies. He hasn't been as popular as Jane Austen in our cinemas, probably because his vision of society is darker; he focuses often on the overwhelming influence of money on relationships. Even so, there are plenty of funny moments in his work.
Jilted Woman: "I'll stab you, and her, and him, and then myself!"
Uncle: "Well, that's a great deal of stabbing, my dear. You'd best get on with it."
I'm not the British literature expert here, so I welcome comments from Kathryn, Katy, and anyone else who might have a thought to share.
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3 comments:
Trollope, Trollope, say it ain't 1000 pages long! I recently read this book, and I am quite confident that, had Trollope been able to edit himself down to 800 pages, the book would have been great. I suspect the miniseries corrects this narrative problem.--K
Hi Rosslyn, I know nothing about Trollope but enjoyed your descriptions! Hope you're well. I've been busy after the conference but coming back online now. How is your writing? Take care.
Hi Amy,
Thanks for stopping in! Glad you're rejoining the cyberworld. The writing is going well. I just finished drafting a synopsis for the second novel in the series. Next step: chapter outline. I find myself slightly reluctant to tackle the chapter outline because it requires me to actually *commit,* if you know what I mean. Nonetheless, I know from experience that once the synopsis is finished, the chapter outline really isn't that hard. I just need to sit down and crank it out.
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