Goodreads review: Shirley Link and the Safe Case

Thought we'd start something new here, just to see how we like it. Goodreads is a great place to connect with readers who have similar interests to yours; we've been there awhile. 

This is the latest book Noe has read, Cindy will add her's now and then too.

Shirley Link & The Safe Case by Ben Zackheim
My rating: 3 of 5 stars 

This is a fun short story for elementary school aged kids, and though it is for children, the way the crime was done was very imaginitive - worthy of Holmes or Poirot. If you have children and would like for them to read something that isn't about witches or vampires but still with a bit of adventure, check this one out.

Note: Goodreads rating is as follows:
 did not like it
 it was okay
 liked it
 really liked it
 it was amazing

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Review from Germany

Lovely comments!

Thank you so much for the review, Miss Janine.
It's reviews like this that keep us writing ~
cindy

Janine Zachariae rated a book 5 of 5 stars ★★★★★ Mr Darcy falls in Love by Noe (Goodreads Author) read in April, 2015 Before I start with my review I just wanted to thank the author for creating such a lovely book.  "You have bewitched me body and soul" is one of the sentence you'll never forget from Pride and Prejudice. And Jane Austen just bewitched me. It's that's easy. The first time I read P&P it was like a sweet fairytale in England. The story is well known: Elizabeth Bennet met Mr Darcy at a ball and both didn't like each other at the beginning.  "First impressions" were made specially because of what Wickham told Lizzy about Fitzwilliam Darcy.  But at Rosings Darcy finally made a proposal to Lizzy but she dumped him and told everything she hated about him ... Anyway. Let me come back to "Mr Darcy falls in love." Have you ever wonder how Charles Bingley and Mr Darcy became friends? Have you ever wonder what happened after the ball at first? You will get all the answers and much more. Darcys part of the story.  I really got in love with Darcy, again. In some other books Fitzwilliam never became the chance. You get the imagine that he was just stubborn and mean. But not in this one. Darcys character was so lovely described that you just can fall in love with him. It was a wonderful read.  Jane Austen would love it herself!  I love the friendship between Bingley and Darcy. Charles was so cute even he had a broken heart. I could write much more about it but you should make your own opinion of it.  So, thank you Noe and Cindy for writing such a wonderful book. I know it's lots of work in it and I know that it wasn't easy to write a book like this. To take one of the sweetest lovestories ever and make it new must be difficult. But at the end you can feel the love for Jane Austen in it. I really enjoyed it. Normally I'm skeptical about books like this. But after reading "Mr Darcy and the Time Space Continuum" it was time to read this. ~~~~~~~~~~

"Pride and Prejudice" and "Mr Darcy falls in love" side by side

Noe and I have recently been reading our book, Mr Darcy falls in love, along with Pride and Prejudice just for the enjoyment of it. Of course, when writing it, we diligently referred to her incomparable book many times so as to write our story from Darcy's point of view with the same timeline and events.

Here's a section I really enjoy, where the two stories are discussing the same episode, one through Lizzy's eyes and the other through Darcy's. I hope you enjoy it too!

Pride and Prejudice:

 

and now ... 
Mr Darcy falls in love:

♥ We would love to hear your comments ♥

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Pride and Prejudice movie characters, part 8

Mr.  Collins

I thought picking our favorite Mr. Collins would prove to be challenging. Each depiction of him on the screen has its own appeal, and each is done to the same level of excellence. Does that speak to the human condition - that we can so easily portray a foolish man and can do it well? - maybe. We, however, will not become philosophical at this point, although the women may rightly gloat that men seem to have an easier time of it, considering how so few women captured Lady Catherine’s nonsensicalness very well ... but seriously, Mr. Collins is such an important part of the story no adaptation that I’m familiar with leaves him out. The difficulty in choosing vanished when I started looking at those who played him from how the book describes him.

I don’t know if Miss Austen did this in coming up with Mr. Collins, but he seems to have the opposite qualities of several of the main characters:

• Mr. Darcy: never gives himself the trouble of trying to be pleasing to anyone.
• Elizabeth: sensible, unimpressed by wealth, and definitely not a flatterer.
• Jane: sincerely possesses what would be termed Godly qualities, or as Lizzy says ‘she is really angelic’.

Jane Austen describes Mr. Collins in her book as follows:

He “was not a sensible man . . . A fortunate chance had recommended him to Lady Catherine de Bourgh when the living of Hunsford was vacant; and the respect which he felt for her high rank and his veneration for her as his patroness, mingling with a very good opinion of himself, of his authority as a clergyman, and his rights as a rector, made him altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility.”

Basing our list, then, on that description of him and not on the acting ability of the men who play the role as Mr. Collins, I have arranged them in the order that I believe most closely resembles him.

#4 -- 2005 - Tom Hollander- Hollander least portrays that sense of obsequiousness coupled with self importance. He is more sheepish and shy than Mr. Collins should be. This portrayal of Mr. Collins being so far off is in keeping with the fact that this is one of the worst P&Ps made, considering the big name actors it has in it. The gentility of what Austen conveyed is all gone from it and it has more the look and feel of Charles Dickens’ description of the London underbelly.

#3 -2004 Bride and Prejudice-- Nitin Ganatra - Ganatra brings that feel of self-importance and self-assuredness, in particular the idea that he is a real ‘catch’ and any lady is his for the asking. The missing ingredient, though, is that he really has no Lady Catherine to be attentive to in an ingratiating or servile manner and with that component gone, you really don’t have Mr. Collins. He is, nevertheless, one of our favorites, for who else could inspire such a song as “no life...without wife”?

#2-1980 -  Malcolm Rennie - Rennie handles the part very well and fits the physical description better than any of the others, because Mr. Collins is said to be tall and heavy and a great walker. Also, we see he can’t wait to utter some complement to whoever for whatever, so he is quite good as Mr. Collins. If the rest of the cast had been as well chosen, this would easily be my favorite portrayal of P&P.

 


There is a tie for the number one spot:

#1-1940 - Melville Cooper - His proposal to Elizabeth is by far the funniest, and even though the movie is just under two hours long, compared to the two versions that are five hours long, he manages to capture the personality of Mr. Collins in his performance. He is my personal favorite, as is this version of P&P. Keeping the comedy and wit to the fore despite the radical changes made to the story is what makes me feel the same way from watching this movie as I do when reading the book.

#1-1995 - David Bamber - Bamber has the advantage of being in the best-made (meaning lighting, sets, etc) long-playing version of P&P. What I don’t like about it is that it is a more dramatic version, as they play down the comedy of the book, and Bamber fits into the overall feel of this version while also playing the part for some humor. So he does actually display every aspect of Mr. Collins as described in the book.

Melville Cooper

David Bamber

Pride and Prejudice movie characters, part 7

Lady Catherine de Bourgh

It is now time to choose the best Lady Catherine de Bourgh from the movies we’ve been discussing; her ladyship is an important character in Pride and Prejudice. Because Darcy and his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, visit her at the same time Lizzy is visiting Charlotte Lucas-Collins, Darcy’s opinion of Elizabeth is deepened and then congealed, moving him to propose to Elizabeth the first time. Lady Catherine is pivotal later in a most unusual way, giving Darcy hope that his chances with Elizabeth have not been lost for good. This, of course, is one of Jane Austen’s most interesting twists of the P&P story, leading him to  return to Longbourn, setting up one of the screens simplest and most endearing proposals. Austen had a real knack for that, if one but pauses to consider this proposal along with those of Knightley to Emma, and Henry Tilney to Catherine Morland.

Judy Parfitt, who plays the role in the 1980 version, is perfect as the queen in the movie Ever After (one of our favorite movies), but as Lady Catherine, she came across more like an emotionless nobody spouting bits of trivial information. Currently she plays the part of an eccentric nun in the TV show Call the Midwife, and she is magnificent. It is obvious she has the range to be Lady Catherine, but actors are to say the lines given and do as the directors direct, so I would much rather blame them than her for this very bad portrayal of Lady Catherine.

The wonderful Dame Judi Dench in the 2005 movie is actually ridiculous as Lady Catherine. She certainly looked stern enough, but there was no pomp and presumption of superiority in her manners. As I have said before in this discussion of P&P movies, this version gives me the impression of having been done in a hurry, as if they were pressed for time. Why else would they have Lady Catherine come to the Bennet home at midnight to talk to Lizzy instead of how the book says it happened? There is so much about this movie that stinks, which is another reason why her performance most likely appears in a bad light. In any case, Judi Dench does no justice to Lady Catherine, though she is an excellent actor in just about everything else I’ve ever seen her in. I should say that I own this version out of my love for P&P, and there are some portions of it that are very good, but they are very few.

Edna May Oliver, in the 1940 film, plays the role in the same way as my favorite (mentioned last), so that I was tempted to say my choice is a tie between the two. But, instead, I will say Edna lost by a hair. Great actors are amazing, however -- she plays a lady’s maid in A Tale of Two Cities and is just as believable in that role as she is as Lady Catherine.

My choice: There is truly only one Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and her name is Barbara Leigh-Hunt. In the 1995 BBC/A&E version of Pride and Prejudice, she projects pride and conceit, while at the same time making it perfectly believable that “shelves in the closet” are not something beneath her notice. She gives the appearance of gentility, and then with a quick glance reveals her harsh, critical nature. The one mistake the director of this version made with Lady Catherine is letting us see her when Mr. Collins’ letter informing them of his intention of coming to visit is being read at the Bennet home. Much later, when they try to give her a dramatic appearance as Lizzy meets her during the time she visits Charlotte, all the suspense of who she is, what she looks like, etc. has been lost by having revealed her sooner. But her portrayal of the great lady is really the only thing that counts, and no one does it better than she does.

 
  

 

The real Lady Catherine de Bourgh

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Pride and Prejudice movie characters, part 6

Miss Caroline Bingley

When we think of Pride and Prejudice, we automatically consider Darcy's pride and Elizabeth's prejudice and, of course, they each had their share of both. But the one person that exhibits these two qualities potentized is Caroline Bingley. She scoffs at people who make their money in trade, even though that is how her father made the family fortune. She asserts herself into a higher rung of English society by assuming a superior air, and nothing pairs so well with snobbishness as hypocrisy -- Caroline Bingley is the epitome of both. I suppose a book about her could be called Snobs and Hypocrites ... maybe I should think about that as my next P&P variation!

The 1940 movie must have set the example for most of the others that followed with reference to the way Caroline is portrayed. I'm referring to leaving out the dynamic of her wanting Darcy for herself; the 1980 BBC, the 2005 P&P, and Bride & Prejudice all have Miss Bingley not showing that much interest in Darcy. Only one version does that, the 1995 BBC series with Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle and Anna Chancellor. This dimension of the story being left out, though, is a big mistake. There are some spicy exchanges in most versions between Caroline and Elizabeth which are fun to watch, but without the aspect that Caroline is fighting for Darcy's attention, all that is being portrayed is Miss Bingley being full of -- dare I say it? -- pride and prejudice! 

The real laugh of all this in the book is that Lizzy, who has no interest in Darcy, is simply enjoying the comedy playing out before her as she sees Caroline doing all she can to get Darcy to take notice of her, only to be ignored by him. Sure, you will enjoy the story without her interest in him shining through in these other movies, but why leave Austen's brilliance on the sideline? You might as well hang a copy of the Mona Lisa on your wall that is only partly done.

Now as to who plays the best Caroline Bingley in the movies we've been discussing, I was tempted to say it is a tie between Frieda Inescort in the 1940 movie and Anna Chancellor from the 1995 BBC version. However, the scales tilt in Anna's favor, because she really can be so Caroline -- gracious, elegant, with jealousy and pride all mixed together.

Honorable mention goes to Indira Varma as Kiran from Bride and Prejudice -- just looking at her IMDb photo, you might think she didn't even have to act the part!

Our choice for best Miss Bingley, Anna Chancellor

1940 version

1995 Anna Chancellor

1980 BBC

2005 version

 Bride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice movie characters, part 5

Continuing our discussion of the various characters
Colonel Fitzwilliam

"Colonel Fitzwilliam ... was about thirty, not handsome, but in person and address, most truly the gentleman." Who doesn't like this cousin of Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice? But which of the various movies we've been discussing has the best Colonel Fitz?

We have to choose the perfect Colonel from either the 1980 mini series or the 1995 A&E/BBC version, because basically, these are the only ones that take the time to show much of him. For instance, the 1940 version with Greer Garson has the colonel giggle like a silly girl and clap when Elizabeth is finished playing the piano for Lady Catherine and that's about it; whereas, the 2005 P&P with Keira Knightley has a good actor playing the part, but has him informing Elizabeth about Darcy in church, so the conversation must take place in whispers, which is a very poor choice.

Anthony Calf, who plays the part of the colonel in the BBC version, does a great job, of course, but we always thought he was too handsome for the part and should instead have been chosen to play George Wickham, who is described as having all the best part of beauty, a fine countenance, a good figure, and very pleasing address. Calf's manners as the colonel, though, also make the perfect Fitz.

With the book's description of the colonel in mind, however, you should see Desmond Adams from the 1980 version playing this part. I like this version for many of its aspects, one being that it has more of the conversations between Elizabeth and the colonel that are in the book than the others do, and Adams more closely resembles this character.

In particular, there is one conversation where they are walking the grounds of Rosings and Lizzy remarks that 'Darcy likes to have his own way', to which Fitz responds, “He likes to have his own way very well, but so we all do. It is only that he has better means of having it than many others, because he is rich, and many others are poor. I speak feelingly. A younger son, you know, must be inured to self-denial and dependence.” Lizzy gives her opinion that the younger son of an earl can know very little of either. The colonel informs her, his point is that he cannot marry just anybody, making her wonder if he said that so she would not get her hopes up about him. It's a really nice scene.

The 1995 series just has the colonel tell Elizabeth about Darcy saving a friend from a most imprudent marriage, which is the only significant part of their conversation. But for people who love P&P, more is better!

So, even though I have taken the long way to get there, I must say I prefer seeing Desmond Adams playing the part as Colonel Fitzwilliam. Thankfully, whoever is responsible for deciding what scenes to have in their movie wisely chose to have more of what is in the book about the colonel, making it the best choice for me.

1940 1980 -- best Col. Fitz

    1995                                2005

 

Pride and Prejudice movie characters, part 4

Continuing our discussion of the other characters

Uncle and Aunt Gardiner

The Gardiners, like Georgiana, are an integral part of the Pride and Prejudice story. Just consider: Lizzy is traveling with them on their Northern tour for three weeks, which leads to her and Darcy being thrown together again while they are visiting Pemberley. Later on, it is Aunt Gardiner who gives Lizzy the full account of Darcy’s involvement in finding Lydia and Wickham, which, as we know, moves her to thank Darcy for what he did for her sister, which then leads him to propose again! It is a pity that more of the movie adaptations don’t allow for these two characters from the book to have more screen time.

But when I think of Uncle and Aunt Gardiner in the P&P movies, only one couple comes to mind, and that is Tim Wylton and Joanna David from the 1995 BBC version. For one thing, Tim looks like an uncle -- friendly face and manners. Then Joanna is “hip enough” (if it is alright to use that word for something that takes place in the 1800s). Her facial expressions often tell you what she's thinking. You can clearly see why he and she would be the favorite relatives of the Bennet girls.

I love the scene with Mr. Gardiner and Darcy talking about who pays to have Wickham marry Lydia. This is a very short scene, but it is so striking to see a matter of such importance being settled by two gentlemen, with a handshake that is coupled with trust and respect. To me, it highlights how vastly superior Uncle Gardiner is to his sister, Mrs. Bennet, which is why Elizabeth is glad that Darcy gets to meet him on their visit to Pemberley. Though the other actors do a creditable job with the part (that is to say, in the other versions that have them make it on the screen), hands down there is no other Uncle and Aunt Gardiner for me.

MR DARCY falls in love -- book release

Quietly, so as not to call a lot of attention to himself, Mr. Darcy walked into Amazon Kindle ebook room last Sunday, March 17. Of course, someone of that great stature can’t really go unnoticed, and sure enough, many people grabbed ahold of him right away...

It is with great PRIDE, and not just a little PREJUDICE, that during this 200th anniversary
of Jane Austen's most loved book, I announce the release of a companion book:

Noe’s novel, Mr Darcy falls in love.

We look forward to hearing any thoughts you have on our book, and hope all of you readers will take a moment to rate and review the book there on Amazon. We do plan to get it in print format and make it available on more venues, but that’s where he sits right now.

In going over the book ourselves, I must say as editor, I’m a bit put out at myself, because I already found some mistakes I should have seen... mostly punctuation, one misspelled word so far, but regrettably, also one incorrect statement that I’m sure was my fault, not Noe’s. Let me know if you catch that.

I do plan to correct those errors in a future upload, but maybe all of you who have purchased this first edition should keep that copy, since once it becomes super famous, it just may be worth a lot !! LOL

Thank you for reading what noeandcindy.write !

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Pride and Prejudice movie characters, part 1

The Lesser Characters

As we take a closer look at the movies of Pride and Prejudice and begin our discussion of the characters, let’s start with Mary and Kitty Bennet. They are the middle girls, for the line-up is: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty (aka Catherine), and Lydia.

Mary is described in the book as “being the only plain one in the family”, having “neither genius nor taste, and though vanity had given her application, it had given her likewise a pedantic air and conceited manner” -- chapter six. She is an accomplished pianist, the one who usually plays for the small family get-togethers, but at Bingley’s Netherfield ball, when Mary tries to sing for the crowd, her “powers were by no means fitted for such a display; her voice was weak, and her manner affected” -- chapter eighteen. But it is also Mary who explains this to us: “Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” -- chapter five.

We are given even less information about Kitty, other than that she follows Lydia in whatever she does, even though Kitty is two years older. Most middle children will testify to being easily overlooked, and since with P&P we have proof of that happening for centuries, the habit is probably too entrenched now for it ever to change! One might wonder if Jane Austen purposely had the two middle children be obscure, or was it nature at work, beyond her control.

Therefore, naming a favorite Kitty is just about pointless since there is so little about her, except her ‘timing her coughs ill’ and that she received some information from Lydia when she was away at Brighton. Most of the movies honor this ‘let’s overlook the middle child’ and Kitty is almost a non-entity, so I will say the Kitty (played by comparatively young Polly Lucinda Maberly) in the 1995 BBC version is my favorite, because we at least see more of her in it than in the others. The P&P version with Elizabeth Garvie may also give more air time to her, but the girl that comes to mind readily when I think of Kitty is this one.

Mary, on the other hand, has more of a character to be developed and scenes to be in. Even though the portrayal in the version with Colin Firth is perhaps more like what the book describes, I like the Mary (played by Marsha Hunt) in the 1940 version with Greer Garson & Laurence Olivier, and the one (played by Tessa Peake-Jones) in the 1980 BBC version with Elizabeth Garvie. Playing the part less seriously and more lighthearted seems to be a better fit in the transition from page to screen. As an example, I would cite the scene in the 1940 version when at Netherfield she is playing the piano and singing off-key. You still feel the same sense of embarrassment in that older version, but it just comes across better than the more serious portrayal of the 1995 one.  And besides, though she is plain, in both of these there is still a hint of that Bennet beauty, which seems only natural.  

One other minor character worth mentioning:

Mrs. Reynolds, Darcy’s ‘respectable-looking elderly housekeeper’ is mentioned in chapter 43 of P&P; Elizabeth meets her when she and the Gardiners go to see Pemberley. This is the only time she’s talked about, but it’s an important minor role, for Mrs. Reynolds is the one who tells us about young Darcy: “I have never had a cross word from him in my life, and I have known him ever since he was four years old.” This part is played beautifully by Bridget Turner, who by the way, is almost impossible to find anything about with regard to this part on the internet!! We could not even find a separate photo of her, as you can see below. We had to pull out our DVD to even find her name... she is not included in the IMDb character list of this version of Pride and Prejudice, but who knows why? She does a super job playing this housekeeper and we just had to include her here.

Pics of Mary Bennet: 1940, 1980, 1995, 2005

Pics of Kitty Bennet: 1940, 1980, 1995, 2005








Mrs. Reynolds, second from the left: 1995 version