Susan Hated Literature

Harriette Wilson, the woman who blackmailed the king
Author: Frances Wilson
ISBN: 0571205240 DDC: 941.073092
See also: LibraryThing ; Other reviews

Harriette Wilson’s Memoirs omit both time and place; there are no addresses given, no locations described, no elections, diseases, or wars. “Dates make ladies nervous and stories dry,” she wrote.

It has taken me quite a while to finish this book. Usually that isn’t a very good sign, it means I’ve not really being all that interested in it, but usually I don’t read non-fiction. Whenever I do it always takes me longer to get through.

This is the story of Harriette Wilson who grew up to become a courtesan in Regency London. The woman whose Memoirs caused a scandal, and raised her quite a bit of cash, as those named began to buy her silence. But as well as that it is a story of how few options there were available to women at that time. It was a case of be married or be damned. Harriette seems to have chosen the damned option. It was her book that led to the, now famous, if incorrect line by Wellington, “publish and be damned”.

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Writ & Dir: Andrew Dominik ; based on the book by Ron Hansen

• Brad Pitt … Jesse James
• Mary-Louise Parker … Zee James
• Casey Affleck … Robert Ford
• Sam Rockwell … Charley Ford
• Jeremy Renner … Wood Hite
• Sam Shepard … Frank James
• Garret Dillahunt … Ed Miller
• Paul Schneider … Dick Liddil

I loved this film.

I loved everything about it. The acting was brilliant. The way the story unfolded. The narration. The casting. The scenery. The cinematography. The soundtrack. Everything was just great. Best film I’ve seen this year. Which’d be a higher compliment if this wasn’t the first film I’ve been to see so far this year. But I’m guessing it’ll be up on the top ten list by the end of 2008.

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Author: Jack Finney
ISBN: none DDC:813.54
See also: LibraryThing | Andy’s Anachronisms | Books you never read | Thoughts on writing and other afflictions | Book reviews by Emma | MADreads

In shirt-sleeves, the way I generally worked, I sat sketching a bar of soap taped to an upper corner of my drawing board.

Simon Morley is leading an average enough life, working for an advertising company, when a man comes calling. This man, Rube Prien, offers him a new job, working for the government, but he must keep it a secret, and until he agrees he won’t know what it is he is signing up to. At first he thinks he’ll refuse but slowly his curiosity gets the better of him. And he discovers that the secret is time-travel.

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Dir: Neil Burger
Writ: Neil Burger based on short story Eisenheim the Illusionist by Steven Millhauser

• Edward Norton - Eisenheim
• Paul Giamatti - Inspector Uhl
• Jessica Biel - Sophie
• Rufus Sewell - Crown Prince Leopold

In Austria at the turn of the 20th century a young carpenter’s son falls in love with a girl from the local nobility. Obviously her family are not impressed by this and do their best to separate the pair, and after much drama they succeed. The young boy is Eisenheim, aka Eduard Abramovich, and at the very beginning of this film we see him on stage in Vienna. As he begins his act he is promptly arrested by Inspector Uhl. Uhl then heads off to debrief the Crown Prince Leopold, and as he does we get to see all the back story too.

I loved the look of this film. Visually it worked really really well. Such a pity then that the rest of the film fell short. I never got a sense of Eisenheim as a character. Yes, we know that he loves Sophie, who by now is unofficially engaged to the Leopold, but as for the rest of his character? Nothing. Sophie is slightly more understandable. She has grown up knowing that eventually she’ll have to marry for the good of her family, but yet was never able to forget her teenage love. Leopold is another character fairly lacking in development. He’s the badguy. And that is about it. Inspector Uhl is probably the most rounded of the main characters, and he is played superbly by Giamatti.

If I’m going to be brutally honest I was a little bored by this film. Possibly because I had a fair idea of what was going to happen all along. Show Spoilers ▼

IMDb | Stuff as Dreams are Made on | Western Eye | At the movies

Author: Colleen Gleason
ISBN: 9780451220073
DDC: 813.6
#1 in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles
See also: ColleenGleason.com ; LibraryThing ; SSD review ; Quixotic’s review

His footsteps were soundless, but Victoria felt him moving.
She grasped the bark of the oak, pressing her body into the tree as if it could suck her into safety.

Victoria Gardella has just discovered the secret her family hides; some of them are born Venators or vampire hunters. And she, just about to make her début in C19th London society, is one. Her first choice is whether or not to accept this new life. If she wishes she can give it all up, and be returned to a state of ignorance about the fact that vampires are real. Otherwise her life will be changed forever.

Of course, she chooses to be a Venator, after all, if she hadn’t it would have been a very short book. But once that decision is made she comes to realise that there are more and more choices and decisions she must make, as she tries to balance a living a normal society-lifestyle with staking vampires.

That last sentence should tell you that there is a little bit of Buffy in Victoria. No bad thing and it is more a general similarity rather than any stealing of that programme’s ideas. Victoria, like Buffy, must balance her everyday life, keeping her secret slaying from certain members of her family and friends. But that is about as close to Buffy as this book comes.

I flew through this; started it this morning and finished this evening. It is a very entertaining read, and I grew quite fond of Victoria. Some of the other characters I was less sure of, but that is part of the point, we aren’t meant to know.

Paranormal fantasy/horror books are becoming quite common; this one is different in that it is set in Regency times. I thought that the blending of the horror and the historical elements was done quite well, although I did have to wonder at one point if our Miss Gardella wasn’t a little fast.

If you like vampire stories you should enjoy this one.

Dir: Christopher Nolan
Writ: Christopher Nolan, & Jonathan Nolan

• Hugh Jackman - Robert Angier
• Christian Bale - Alfred Borden
• Michael Caine - Cutter
• Andy Serkis - Alley
• Piper Perabo - Julia Angier
• Rebecca Hall - Sarah Borden
• Scarlett Johansson - Olivia Wenscombe

I really wanted to enjoy this film. I thought the trailer made it look intriguing, I liked the films of Nolan that I’ve already seen. And who isn’t a fan of Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman? But, something, I’m not quite sure what, felt flat and dull about this film.

The plot revolves around two magicians in London at the end of the 19th century. They start the story as friends, working in the same act, but then an accident happens and they end up bitter rivals. At first they try to ruin each other’s careers and lives, but soon both get caught up in “the ultimate trick” and try to figure out how it is done.

The plot unfolds through flashbacks and the reading of diaries, both men picking through the lives of the other. We start towards the end of the story, with Borden (Bale) in prison awaiting trial for the murder of Angier (Jackman), and at the end we return to that time for the grand finale.

All the acting is top-notch, but the story is a bit of a let down, and more than a little obvious. There are twists and turns, but all are signposted and although not everything turns out exactly as you might have thought, in most cases I could see what was going to happen. Then again I suppose that is part of the film, and for the most part the rest of the film makes up for this limitation.

What I really liked about The Prestige was the fact that there were no good guys and no bad guys, no one in a white hat to cheer on. Both rivals had their reasons for acting and the audience’s sympathies do switch from one to the other.

I did like the film, but I couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed in it.

IMDb | SSD | Slant Magazine | Me against the Keyboard

aka Huo Yuanjia
Dir: Ronny Yu
Writ: Chris Chow

• Jet Li - Huo Yoanjia
• Shido Nakamura - Anno Tanaka
• Dong Yong - Nong Jinsun
• Betty Sun - Moon

Billed as Jet Li’s final martial arts epic, you should know to expect plenty of fight scenes in this film. But there is also a plot and a storyline too. One that revolves around the historical figure of Huo Yuanjia, a man who in his early life won great renown as a fighter and practitioner of wushu a skill he learned despite his father’s orders to the contrary.

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