"Jane Austen? Her books are for girls!" That's what my friend Wayne said when I tried to persuade him to see the film SENSE & SENSIBILITY. Such distinctions never concern me in the least, and I thought SENSE (both the novel and the film) were about as good as it gets in the Austen realm...until I discovered PERSUASION.
The other day, having a few idle moments, I grabbed my well-worn paperback copy just to read a few pages. I had read it thru a few months ago for the tenth or eleventh time. But the quick "few pages" turned - of course - into reading the whole thing again.
Austen's style, her gentle mocking of customs & conventions of the time, and her underlying theme that the course of true love never runs smooth all conspire to make PERSUASION a page-turner. The characters remind me of people I know or have known; their motivations and idiosyncrisies are subtly played upon by Austen.
Then inevitable outcome of reading the book again was watching the 1995 film version - again - one of the best novel-to-screen adaptations I can think of. The casting is just about perfect down the line. Amanda Root embodies the good-hearted Anne who suffers the pains of an abandoned romance while being gently abused by her family; Ciaran Hinds perfectly employs a slightly pompous attitude to cover up his deep torment.
But the real jewels in the cast are the excellent character actors who hit the proverbial nails on the head: Phoebe Nicholls as the vain, shallow Elizabeth; Sophie Thompson's hilariously hypochondriac Mary; Fiona Shaw as the sincere & kindly Mrs. Croft; and the late Susan Fleetwood who so accurately captures the well-intentioned meddling of Lady Russell. Samuel West's outward attractiveness covers up the opportunistic scheming of the young Mr. Elliot. And so on, down to the least one-line bit parts.
For girls? Not really. For romantics, surely.
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