Guest Post: The Duchess of Duke Street

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 9
Main characters: Louisa Trotter, Charlie Tyrrell, Mary, Mr. Starr, Merriman, Major Smith-Barton
Genre: Drama, Some Comedy
Recognizable actors: Gemma Jones, Joanna David (in a couple of episodes), Robert Hardy (in one episode), Jullian Fellowes (in one episode)
Length: 31 Episodes (2 Series), 1 hour per episode
Based on: Loosely based on the life of Rosa Lewis, the Duchess of Jermyn Street
Time period: 1900 - 1925
Year it came out: 1976
Story: Louisa has one dream: to become the best chef in England and work for "the best people there is -- rich people". The series follows her story from an assistant cook to the owner of the Bentinck Hotel in Duke Street. The story takes place throughout the Edwardian era, through World War I, and half way through the 20s.
My overall opinion: This is a very good series. Just a quick heads-up before I go into the review, there are some suggestive themes in The Duchess of Duke Street and maybe a couple of scenes that you might want to skip, but I will say that nothing is graphic. If it were on TV, it would probably be rated PG. Now onto the review:

The main character of The Duchess of Duke Street is Louisa, who was once a poor woman, but who rises to become the owner of the Bentinck Hotel. Louisa does have her faults, but overall she is a likable character. Even though her position in society gets higher and higher as the story goes on, she still has her cockney accent and attitude. She cooks more at the beginning of the series, but when she runs the Bentinck, she cooks less and manages the hotel more. 

And if you hadn't noticed, Louisa is played by Gemma Jones, who can also be seen in Sense and Sensibility (1995) as Mrs. Dashwood and Jane Eyre (1997) as Mrs. Fairfax.

As Louisa builds up the hotel more and more, there are more additions to the staff and residence of the Bentinck...

The person that has been with Louisa the longest is Mary (pictured on the right), who Louisa met at her first cooking job. She is one of Louisa's most trusted employees and one of her closest friends. Mary becomes closer with another employee, Mr. Starr (who, sadly, I don't have a picture of, but you might be able to find him in the staff picture -- he's the one next to Mary); Mr. Starr is always accompanied by his beloved dog, Fred.

The oldest member of the staff is Merriman, the butler. The thing you have to forget about him as you are watching The Duchess of Duke Street is his age. He really doesn't age and is there for the entire series (save the first couple of episodes); he is just always old, but still strong.

In addition to the staff that also lives there, the Bentinck is also the home of a couple of Louisa's friends.

Most importantly, Charles "Charlie" Tyrrell (later Lord Haselmere) resides in a room that is reserved for him. He helped Louisa with financing the hotel when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. He is also the only man that Louisa ever loved.

Another one of the permanent guests is Major Smith-Barton (or Major as Louisa calls him), who is retired from the army. He kind of is a guest, but he also works at the hotel due to not being able to pay his hotel bill.

Something that I didn't expect from a show made in the 70s is good costuming, but The Duchess of Duke Street has it! Many of Louisa's dresses are very pretty. For the most part, her dresses are Edwardian, but as fashions change, her clothes change.

Louisa is always nicely dressed and has very fine clothing. My only issue with her clothes is that towards the end of the series in the 20s, her clothes made her look older and weren't as pretty as her older dresses.

Overall, this is a very good series and I highly recommend it. The format of the show is like Upstairs Downstairs, but I like Duchess of Duke Street better. As you watch the series, you really get to know all of the characters pretty well. And, like I've said before, the show would be about TV-PG due to a couple of scenes.

If you would like to read my original reviews of The Duchess of Duke Street, you can read them at my blog:

Series 1

Series 2

Make sure you visit my blog Elegance of Fashion for reviews, tournaments, and other events! 

Birthday: Nancy Reagan

Nancy Reagan

Birth: July 6, 1921

It’s her 91^st birthday!

You know her because – she was the wife of President Ronald Reagan. She loved wearing red.

Cover Focus: The Fiddler

The Fiddler by Beverly Lewis

 

Book blurb from goodreads.com : “Amelia "Amy" DeVries, a 24-year-old violinist, is disillusioned with life and love after the collapse of her long-running romance. Weary of endless rehearsals and performances, Amy sets out on a road trip through the Pennsylvania mountains. She leaves her cell phone behind so life's demands can't intrude on her solitude. She doesn't know, nor care, where she will end up.

When her car breaks down deep in the mountains, Amy realizes the flaw in her "no cell phone" plan. She abandons her car and walks the winding roads, searching for help. Following the smell of woodsmoke and the sound of music, she finds a rustic log cabin. There she meets a young Amishman--and through him a community--that will change her life forever.”

Why I like this cover: I think some of the reason I like it is because even though it has Amish elements, the girl on the front is so clearly not Amish! Of course, that goes with the storyline. Amy has such a contrast between the cream dress and her black hair. And just a little flush on her cheeks is perfect. She looks rather pensive. I wish I knew the young Amishman’s name…oh well. The straw hat and suspenders clearly mark him as being Amish. One of the most obvious things about the cover, one of the things that draws your eyes is the fiddle that Amy is holding. I wonder how it figures in the story? Obviously it’s a primary part of it. I love Amy’s dress. And did you notice the horse and carriage behind the young man? Love it!

P.S.: Discovered this cover too...I think it's for the same book:

Birthday: George W. Bush

George W. Bush

 

Birth: July 6, 1946

It’s his 66th birthday!

You know him because – he was our 43^rd president. His dad was also president, but earlier.

A Distant Melody

Author: Sarah Sundin

Genre: Romance, life, war, adventure

Series: Wings of Glory

Number in series: 1^st

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 9.5

Type: Fiction

Number of pages: About 400, I think

Time period: 1940’s, World War II

My overall opinion: I do hope you all know that I loved the third book in this series, Blue Skies Tomorrow. After reading it, I was eager to read the first two books in the series, and was very excited to be finally able to read this, the first one! And what made me happy…I loved it just as much. Which has cemented my opinion that Sarah Sundin is one of my favorite authors. If you like romances, World War II stories, stories with fighter planes and bombers in them, or any combination of the above, you will love this book.

The Knot: Ultimate Wedding Lookbook

Author: Carley Roney (and the editors of theknot.com)

Genre: How-to

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 9

Type: Non-fiction

Number of pages: 288

My overall opinion: This was a pretty awesome book! It had big glossy pages and hundreds of photographs of weddings in every conceivable color, style, and setting. There were sections packed with pictures for each color. For example, in the blue section, there are photographs of weddings in turquoise and fire-engine red (very pretty and bright!), navy and sunshine (I’d prefer a brighter blue, but it’s nice), aquamarine and sour apple (LOVE!), and robin’s egg and chocolate (very popular right now). For probably eight other colors, it had section like this, each with different shades of the color paired with other colors. Also, each of the color sections tells what flowers are (for example) green, if it’s a green section. Inbetween these sections are chapters about everything from putting the wedding together to what the cake should be like (a whole chapter just about that!) and what the food should consist of, plus where the reception should be and much more. If you are close to being married, this book would probably be immensely helpful! We just got it to read for fun, but. :) Below, a spread from the green section...and one from the blue section below that. Delightful, yes?

Happy July 4th!

Happy 4th of July!

May God continue to bless America.



Spotlight: Susan

Susan (Chronicles of Narnia)

Played by Anna Popplewell.

I love that picture, even thought Susan has never been one of my favorite characters. She had a primary part in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and in Prince Caspian, but only an appearance in Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia

Author: Carmen Bin Ladin (Osama’s sister-in-law)

Genre: Biography, life

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 8

Type: Biography

Number of pages: 214

Time period: Late 1900’s

My overall opinion: This book isn’t so much about Osama Bin Laden (as she spells in – different from her last name), as about the life of women in Saudi Arabia. It’s quite eye-opening! She married Osama’s brother, and lived in SA for many years. It was especially interesting to hear about the lives of the princesses – their royal family over there is huge! When the book came out (I’m not sure if it’s changed since then) they spent tons of money on clothes, makeup, and jewelry. But this could only been seen in their house, because if they went outside, they had to wear all those heavy black veils, covering everything. It’s almost like they’re all from a different time period. Anyway, yeah, you might want to try this book!

Guest Post: Great Expectations (2011)

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 3
Main characters: Philip "Pip" Pirrip, Miss Havisham, Estella Havisham
Genre: Drama 
Recognizable actors: Gillian Anderson (Miss Havisham), David Suchet (Mr. Jaggers), Harry Lloyd (Herbert Pocket),  Perdita Weeks (Clara)
Length: About 3 hours
Based on: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Time period: 1811 to 1830
Year it came out: 2011
Story: Pip is a young orphan being raised by his cruel sister Mrs. Joe and her kind husband, Joe Gargery. One day while visiting his parents graves, Pip comes across an escaped convict who threatens Pip into stealing some food and a file for him. Pip helps the man and the convict disappears. Sometime later, Mrs. Joe receives word that the wealthy Miss Havisham is interested in Pip and would like him to visit her. Pip meets Miss Havisham, a spinster who was abandoned at the alter, and her adopted daughter, Estella. Years later, after Pip had been training under Joe to become a blacksmith, Pip finds out through the lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, that he has come into a fortune but with a few rules, one of which being that he cannot inquire or guess who his benefactor is.
My overall opinion: I've never read Great Expectations, but I have seen this version and the 1999 version with Ioan Gruffudd. I didn't like either version, but I'm not quite sure which version I liked better. 


The good of this version: I felt like I got more of the story and got to know the characters more than the 1999 version. Some period dramas take four or five (or even more) hours to tell the story (which, don't get me wrong, I actually prefer than a shorter period drama), but I felt like I got the story in the three hours that this Great Expectations took to tell the story. Although comparing the 1999 version and the Wikipedia page of Great Expectations to this version, there were some things that I noticed were left out (like Pip's friend, Biddy), but it wouldn't feel like something was missing if someone didn't see another version of Great Expectation or read it before.

My favorite character in Great Expectations: this guy! Herbert Pocket became Pip's room mate when Pip came into his fortune and moved to London. Honestly, Herbert was probably the most normal character in Great Expectations. He didn't have some dark past (unless getting into a fight with Pip counts when they were really young), he had good morals, he was an all-around good guy. 

I liked Gillian Anderson's Miss Havisham compared to the 1999 Miss Havisham. I felt like there was a little more to her character. In the 1999 version of Great Expectations, Miss Havisham was 100% spiteful, but in this version there is more to her than that. This Miss Havisham seemed insecure and towards the end she regretted her actions towards Pip.

Another good point of this miniseries is the costuming. Estella had some very nice dresses! Though they showed a little too much shoulder for the time period, fixing that they were very nice dresses. Her dresses as an adult were mostly from around 1830. She looked very nice in those dresses.

Miss Havisham, of course, had the same dress on the entire miniseries -- her wedding dress. Her wedding dress was an interesting choice by the costume department. Most of the time, Miss Havisham is portrayed as wearing a non-Regency era dress, but here she is. Considering her dress is from the Regency era, we can pinpoint about how old Miss Havisham is. I go into it in my review of Great Expectations at Elegance of Fashion if you would like to hear my reasoning on it.

Now for the bad: I did not like this Pip, mainly because of his appearance. He looked too girly! I don't know if it was something the make-up artists did or what, but he just didn't look right. Besides his looks, I didn't like Pip very much after he got his fortune: he became very dislikable. I liked him much better as the child who went over to Satis House to play with Estella.

Okay, this might not necessarily be a "bad", but I didn't care for it very much. Spoiler The part I'm talking about is Miss Havisham's death. From what I've read of how she died, this version takes another route: instead of being lit on fire by standing too close to the fire when her and Pip were arguing, in this version, Pip is on his way home and Miss Havisham takes what appears to be love letters and her old wedding bouquet and takes them to the fire place where she individually lights the items on fire and puts them in the fireplace; one item ends up falling too close to her dress and lights her on fire; Pip, walking away from Satis House, notices the fire and runs back to help Miss Havisham (though too late) End of Spoiler

Okay, I know I said that I liked how Estella looked, but I had mixed emotions about this Estella. Her dresses were nice, but I didn't think she was all that pretty in some scenes. But ignoring that, this approach to Estella was an interesting one. This Estella seemed to actually care for Pip, though she was told not to. She warned him not to come back to Satis House since it will only cause pain. She warned him that she was going to hurt him. Spoiler And even when she announced her engagement to Pip, she seemed concerned for him. Also, for her marriage, she thought that she wasn't doing the right thing by marrying the cruel Mr. Drummle, but she was forced to go through with the marriage. End of Spoiler Not sure how accurate this "care" is to the Estella in the book, but it was something I liked.

Satis House... I know it's supposed to be run down, but was there supposed to be so much mold on the walls? It left me wondering how Miss Havisham and Estella could live there and not get seriously ill. It was pretty run down. But then again, it might be accurate to the book... The lighting that was also used was a bit bleak: a lot of the characters looked pale (and they shouldn't have).

So, overall, that is my opinion of Great Expectations. I wasn't too particularly fond of it or the 1999 version that I watched. Yet, it probably won't be the last version of Great Expectations that I will watch. Content-wise, there are some suggestive themes and a derogatory word used. There was also quite a bit of violence. If this was released in theaters, I would say that it would be rated PG-13. It is not a very light-hearted period drama, so be warned.

If you would like to read my original review of Great Expectations at my blog, you can find the review here.

Make sure you visit my blog Elegance of Fashion for reviews, tournaments, and other events! 

Literary Tag!

I didn't write this tag, but copied it off some blog a long time ago...it's been sitting in my files for months. :) So I figured I'd share it with you. Enjoy!

Share (up to) four heroines of literature that you most admire and relate to. Like the rest of the world, I love Elizabeth Bennett. Her wit and vivacity are most delightful. I also like Jo March quite a bit. Her tomboyish side is quite similar in some ways to me, though in some other ways (like her writing) we are vastly different.

Elinor Dashwood is another delightful heroine, and she’s one the literary heroines that I’m most like. We’re both oldest children (and daughters), we both mother the family, we both tend more towards sense as opposed to flightiness, and we both hide our true feelings about matters of the heart, so to speak.

Finally, Eowyn from Lord of the Rings…I love her because she’s pretty and brave – especially the brave part. J

Five of your favorite historical novels? Like, historical fiction? I can do that. :D I love To Die For by Sandra Byrd…the whole Zion Chronicles series by Bodie Thoene…Keeper of the Light by Patty Metzer…Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy…and Swiss Courier by Tricia Goyer.

Out of those five books who is your favorite character and why? The title character in Scarlet Pimpernel. He’s courageous, he’s daring, he’s delightful, and he’s disguised!!

What is your favorite time period and culture to read about? Totally 1800’s England. I love Jane Austen’s books. I also find King Henry VIII and his six wives all very interesting.

If you were to attend a party where each guest was to portray a heroine of literature, who would you select to represent? Hard question…probably Elinor Dashwood, since I’m most like her. Or maybe Susan Pevensie, since I’m too old to be Lucy, and I can’t be one of the boys (though I like them all better).

What are your sentiments on the subject of chocolate? LOVE. I like the really dark stuff best…

Favorite author(s)? I love all the ones I’ve already mentioned, plus: Penny Zeller, Sarah Sundin, Sharlene MacLaren, Lisa Bergren, Jill Eileen Smith, Lynette Eason, Wanda Brunstetter, Irene Hannon, Davis Bunn, Joel Rosenberg, L. M. Montgomery, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Tessa Afshar, and many more!

As a small, imaginative, red-haired damsel might query; would you rather be divinely beautiful, dazzlingly clever, or angelically good?  Why? Another hard question. I think dazzlingly clever. That’s harder to take away – being so beautiful could be ruined, or make one terribly conceited (though I suppose that being clever could too). And being angelically good…not to be bad, or anything, but it might be a little boring sometimes. But clever! Oh joy. :)

In which century were most of the books you read written? Ummm…either late 1900’s, early 2000’s, or 1800’s in general.

In your opinion, the ultimate hero in literature is…  Mr. Darcy. Or Aragorn. One or the other. They’re both amazing – Mr. Darcy because he’s Mr. Darcy, and Aragorn because he’s such a wonderful king!

Have you ever wanted to change a character’s name? Yes, but I can’t remember anyone particular. Oh, I didn’t think that Gabi was the right name for the heroine in Swiss Courier. I associate Gabi with Lisa Bergren’s River of Time series, so it wasn’t right for this girl. Oh! I thought of another. I didn't like Emily's name in An Eye for an Eye by Irene Hannon. Great girl, awesome story, but she didn't look like her name (on the cover) or act like it either. Should have been...maybe Shannon? (BTW -- Mark was the perfect name for the hero in that story...)

In your opinion, the most dastardly villain of all literature is... Mr. Wickham. He’s simply dreadful! Eloping with Lydia, telling a huge fictitious story to Lizzy, being so smooth, and of course, attempting to seduce Georgiana…that was kind of backwards. But you get the idea.

Three favorite Non-fiction books?  Other than the Bible, The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha, King Henry VIII’s Wives by Antonia Fraser, and Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris.

Birthday: Princess Diana

Princess Diana

Birth: July 1, 1961

Death: August 31, 1997

It’s her 51st birthday!

You know her because – she was mighty famous. She married – and became a princess! I’m not emulating her, but she sure had some awesome outfits.