Well well well. Here we are in week FOUR, which if you all recall was originally when we were supposed to be
completely finished with this amazing Bleak House readalong.
I have a few things I'd like to discuss. Firstly, as much as I like Charley and want her to have a good life, I'm really supremely unhappy that it was Esther who got the ugly end of whatever mysterious illness they both came down with. Did she really deserve that, Dickens? No she did not. So why does it happen to her? I don't think necessarily that Dickens would have been on board with our working "so Woodcourt wouldn't love her and she would be free to live with Ada for the rest of her life" theory. But you never know.
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| (Also, 1850's germ theory: the era of We Haven't Quite Figured This Out, Have We?) |
And then Boythorn is super-awesome and offers Esther his house to rattle around in, which is not at all a plot device to get Esther closer to Lady Dedlock, nosiree. It's just him being cheerful and nice and not at all creepy like the other jolly fat guy who likes animals.
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| Plot twist! |
So last week I was really behind and missed the spontaneous combustion bit, and Alice and I discussed it yesterday and there's the moment where Guppy and Weevil
nee Jobling are falling all over themselves to get out of Krook's room, and I couldn't stop picturing them as these two:
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| Guppy and Jobling, respectively. |
which led to a conversation about dream casting for Bleak House. Shall we have at it to cover up that I'm STILL
three chapters behind? YES LET'S DO.
Who would you cast?!?
Logging you in...
Laura · 579 weeks ago
I guess the uglifying of Esther is so she looks less like Lady Dedlock now? Or maybe just some kind of weird Dickensian cruelty, who knows? Stupid Dickens.
Tikabelle 87p · 579 weeks ago
What Red Read 121p · 579 weeks ago
You and Alice have come up with the perfect Guppy and Jobling. Bravo. Guppy just needs his long, flowing locks, which I'm pretty sure were described at one point, though I forgot where now.
I was actually surprised Dickens uglied up Esther, cos I thought, if she was to be the opposite of Jane Eyre, then she'd be pretty the whole time.
Meg · 579 weeks ago
readingrambo 112p · 579 weeks ago
Gillian is still Lady Dedlock. AS DISCUSSED. And Ada...........can I just cast Jennifer Lawrence because I feel like she could bring some dimension to the role? Yes, her. JLaw.
Tikabelle 87p · 579 weeks ago
YES to JLaw being Ada.
Meg · 579 weeks ago
I'm starting to be just a little bit fond of the Guppy and Jobling scenes. Their quarrels are kind of adorable, and your Simon Pegg/Nick Frost casting just solidifies that for me.