UNBOUND

I’ve been re-watching the miniseries of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South and thank it for leading me to a book I never would have read otherwise.  Although the series took some very modern liberties with the text, it works and manages to capture the essence of the book with its similar themes to Pride and Prejudice – rich and poor, prejudice versus knowledge, love versus misunderstanding. Filmed adaptations of some of Mrs Gaskell’s books such as Wives and Daughters and the Cranford series have lifted her out of ill-deserved literary obscurity in the last few years. 

 Sometimes filmed adaptations are an excellent way in to classic novels, removing the intimidation factor of books written when we had fewer demands on our time.  The TV version of George Eliot’s Middlemarch made me read a book I never would have attempted otherwise (888 pages), and Vanity Fair made me read Thackeray for the first time.

 Not all adaptations from well loved books are so successful. The miniseries of Brideshead Revisited was one of my favourites, prompting a visit to Castle Howard and a reading of Evelyn Waugh’s novel. I didn’t hate the recent film version and it certainly looked epically beautiful but it lacked dramatic impact.  The compression of events skewed the plot and made it a simpler story about love rather than a heady mix of faith, nostalgia and lost innocence.  I don’t know whether it was the time restriction of a feature film over a mini series or the fact that it already had been beautifully rendered in my mind by the previous adaptation and Waugh’s text.

I’ll soon be seeing the latest film of Jane Eyre. Wish me luck…

 Is it better to see films/series first before reading the book?  What books can you suggest that have worked just as well on the big or small screen?

I know of no better way to face the dreary, drizzling days of winter than with a good book in hand. Something absorbing enough to drown out the pattering rain and heart-racing enough to distract from the chill in the air. My favourites are those with an element of suspense, such as Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale.

The Thirteenth Tale is the story of Margaret Lea, who agrees to become biographer to the famous and enigmatic writer Vida Winter. She soon becomes immersed in the story of the volatile March family and the imposing Angelfield Manor. But as Vida’s tale unravels, the past seeps into Margaret’s own life, and dark secrets are revealed.

In The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon crafts a highly atmospheric story set in the lamplit, misty streets of Barcelona. Daniel is just ten years old when his father takes him to visit the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. There he is allowed to choose a single book to take with him – and the story he chooses becomes one that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian blends history with the gothic, following the story of a young girl who inherits a curse and a quest for knowledge. With her we traverse the worn flagstones and vaulted ceilings of Oxford’s most famous library to the smoky tea houses of Istanbul – all in the pursuit of Dracula.

 These are books in which mystery and menace underlies every sentence, keeping you guessing until the end. And yet each is steeped in an old-world Romanticism – a fascination with the past and an almost lyrical style of writing. In short, they are sure to raise goosebumps that have nothing to do with the chill of the season.

What stories do you enjoy on a cold dark winters night?

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