Great Expectations (2011)

TV miniseries review: Great Expectations (BBC, 2011), directed by Brian Kirk

Little orphan Pip lives in the marshes with his blacksmith uncle (Shaun Dooley) and greedy aunt (Claire Rushbrook). He reckons he'll be a blacksmith too when he grows up. One day, he comes across an escaped convict, Abel Magwitch (Ray Winstone), and helps him - he's too terrified not to - and thinks nothing more of it. Especially not since the lady, Miss Havisham (Gillian Anderson), from the big house wants him to come and play with her adopted daughter, Estella.

And Pip does. At first, they're reluctant playmates, but they grow up and get educated together, and little Pip gets his hopes up about marrying Estella when he's older.

When Pip (Douglas Booth) is older, and so is Vanessa (Vanessa Kirby) ... he gets a scholarship of sorts, to go to London and learn to be a gentleman. The benefactor wishes to remain anonymous, but this must be the work of Miss Havisham! And so Pip goes to the big city, learns to be a toff, and tries hard to squander all his money, hoping to marry Estelle at the end of it ...

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843)

Novella review: A Christmas Carol [En julsaga] by Charles Dickens, Swedish translation by Nils Holmberg (Peter Pauper Press, Inc / Monica Lindhs Presentböcker AB, 1993 [1843])

In this classic Christmas tale, Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge is a stern and stingy man whose attitude to Christmas is "Bah! Humbug!" He hates everything that goes with the holidays - the cheerfulness of people, the charity collectors, the carol singing, you name it. He especially hates being in a good mood and spending money on frivolous things, like coal to warm up the office.

On the night to Christmas Day, he's visited by the ghost of his former business associate, who is bound to walk the earth because of the heavy chain he forged for himself in life by being a miserable, tightfisted, joyless git. He wants to save his friend from the same fate, and tells Scrooge three ghosts will visit him, and to take heed.

"Bah! Humbug!" says Scrooge, and is then visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, who show him that he didn't always hate Christmas, what those around him are currently doing for their holidays, and what's going to happen if he continues being the way he is.

The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff (2011)

TV film review: The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff (2011), written by Mark Evans

The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff is an affectionate and very silly parody of the works of Charles Dickens. Jedrington Secret-Past (Robert Webb) is  the owner and proprietor of the titular shop, and kindhearted soul that he is, he even allows filthy street urchins to come in for a trade.

One day, the imposing Malifax Skulkingworm (Stephen Fry) arrives with the news that Mr. Secret-Past has a big debt to pay, which he inherited from an ancestor, and even though Mr. Secret-Past was an orphan, this matters not. As he can't pay the debt, his wife Conceptiva (Katherine Parkinson) and two children (Finley Christie and Ambra Lily Keegan) get taken to debtors prison, while Mr. Secret-Past has until Christmas Day - read: a few hours - to come up with the money, or he will never see his family again.

David Copperfield (1999) - Guest review by Nan

Film review: David Copperfield (1999), directed by Simon Curtis

I recently made it all the way through the novel version of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield (all 847 pages of 10 point font). I really enjoyed it, but I also kept wishing I could have read it in serial form (a chapter per month) rather than all at one time. It is a fascinating and convoluted story that gets wrapped up neatly, with only occasional slogs through mires of detail.

It is said to be the most autobiographical of Dickens’ work, and tells of David’s experiences at a boarding school, blacking factory, debtors’ prison, and finally finding his calling as a writer. The story came back to me gradually, and I remembered being crazy for a made-for-TV version from the days of Once Upon A Classic on PBS. I started searching for this version on the internet, but without success. However! Scrolling through the other available versions, I found one from 1999 starring Maggie Smith (perfectly cast as Miss Betsey Trotwood) and Daniel Radcliffe (as DC the younger)!

The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde (2003)

Book review: Thursday Next #3: The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde (Hodder & Stoughton, 2003)

Thursday Next is in trouble. Deep trouble ...

Pursued by a sinister multinational corporation and an evil genius with a penchant for clothes shopping and memory modification, literary detective Thursday Next is on the run. Not an ideal situation considering she's pregnant by her husband who is presently suffering a non-existence problem.

Taking refuge in the Well of Lost Plots - a place where all fiction is created - Thursday ponders her next move from inside an unpublished novel of dubious merit entitled Caversham Heights. But in Thursday's world, trouble is only ever a page away, and when a succession of JurisFiction agents are killed, only one woman is up to the job of unmasking the villain responsible.

Will Thursday ever be able to enjoy the quiet life again, or is she about to lose the plot completely?

Unlike The Eyre Affair, which was a self-contained story, The Well of Lost Plots isn't so much of a sequel to Lost in a Good Book as it is a direct continuation. Like Pirates of the Caribbean. There were things left hanging in the previous book, such as the current non-existence of Thursday's husband, Aornis trying to kill Thursday, and the in-fiction trial for changing the ending of Jane Eyre.

In this instalment of the madness that is the world of Thursday Next, she's taking a break from reality by hiding out in the unpublished crime fic Caversham Heights, while waiting for her bun in the oven. Her grandmother comes along to help her to remember Landen, seeing as how the mnenomorph sister of Acheron Hades is living inside her memories, trying to undo Thursday from inside her own mind. Thursday is also sharing a houseboat (an old airplane) with a couple of Generics - generic characters on the way to become proper characters.

The most "bangable" man in British literature

The Awl has posted a list of 111 Male Characters Of British Literature, In Order Of Bangability. (Thanks for posting about it in the forum, rhubarbsmom!)

First of all, let's correct the image they use to illustrate the article, as they've chosen number THREE on the list as opposed to number one. Can't have that now, can we?

There we go. MUCH better. Order is restored.

Ta-daaaah!! Mr. Rochester of Jane Eyre made number one! :D Congratulations on your impeccable taste, Carrie Frye! Of course he is the most bangable character in British literature. Here are some reflections on selected parts of the rest of the list: