Happy Easter 2014!



 

 

 

 Eat chocolate and have fun! :)



Persuasion by Jane Austen

 



 

Jane Austen's final novel, her most mature and wickedly satirical, is the story of Anne Elliott, a woman who gets a second chance at love. To achieve happiness she must learn to trust her own feelings and resist the social pressures of family and friends.

The story starts with the aftermath of Anne being persuaded by her family not to marry Captain Wentworth because he has nothing but his person to offer her, leaving this a rather dark story compared to the tone of Austen's previous novels. Even though the novel is rather short, it is not completely a light read; people face danger in "Persuasion", the fall ill, the fall in love and out again. Instead this dark telling is only lit by hope. Hope of falling in love and surviving it, hope of getting a second chance in life and to love and be loved in return.

"I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never."

Somehow the ending of the plot is easily guessed, yet the road to that result is rather bumpy and unpredictable. It is filled with great dangers and several twists that makes the reader question his certainty of the end of the novel. It is after all not a typical Austen novel. I highly recommend this book to anyone being interested in reading Austen and realistic fiction.

A Study in Scarlet and the Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 



 

"Doctor Watson, Mr Sherlock Holmes." - The most famous introduction in the history of crime fiction takes place in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet, bringing together Sherlock Holmes, the master of science detection, and John H. Watson, the great detective's faithful chronicler. This novel not only establishes the magic of the Holmes myth but also provides the reader with a dramatic adventure yarn which ranges from the foggy, gas-lit streets of London to the burning plains of Utah.

The Sign of the Four, the second Holmes novel, presents the detective with one of his greatest challenges. The theft of the Agna treasure in India forms a catalyst for treachery, deceit and murder.

 

 

A Study in Scarlet

This is first story of ACD's Sherlock Holmes mystery where Holmes and Watson first time meet each other and throughout story we see their relationship growing. Also we meet few characters which are present in almost all Holmes cases because he's independent investigate and his work is in interaction with police, detective Lestrade and we witness his deductive reasoning, he is so proud of that part of his way of thinking that sometimes he's so preoccupied with his own greatness especially when he finds solution, clues, guilty parties almost from no clue what so ever but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle describes it so vividly that reader is left satisfied and convinced.

Study in Scarlet is split in two parts but second part where Watson describes the story in third person. The first part case is well written and presented with great Holmes deductive reasoning and interaction with his new co-lodger and associate Dr Watson, also great interaction with police. But it's a first ACD's story and any mistake he made he corrected it in stories that follows and he did it brilliantly, as we all know.

Holmes character is not perfect, far from it, but what he does with information and than transforms it into reasonable conclusion -it is like a work of art, art of deduction, as he call it. His cold, calculated analysis of clues puts us readers in position where we constantly wonder how we miss it and with this way of telling the stories we are never bored and we grow to love that man full of flaws but with brilliant mind.

Doyle descibes his great fictional character of all times so humanly despite his annoying habits and flows. No wonder that even today we enjoy watching and reading all kind of variations of modern Holmes and Watson with great joy.


The Sign of the Four

The second story starts with Sherlock's "questionable" habit of abuse of drugs, widely spread in that time in late 19 st. London with Chinese opium rooms and medicinal solutions of morphine and cocaine that Holmes was (ab)using but only because his mind was still and he must keep it alert when he has no case. With that intro we have insight into his psychology and with that flaws and bad habits we experience him as real person with all his complexity.

The Study in Scarlet is complex story with heavy past full of human greed and guilt, well described with minuscule details such as missing dad ( a childhood ago), strange secret pearls, invitations, oriental back story...so many details and clues but eventually Holmes puts it all missing pieces together into one coherent story with conclusion however hard it

may be after so many years had passed.

The Sign of Four is so much darker, full of secrets and greed but also full of emotion with Watson's infatuation in a female client. Holmes is of course oblivious to romantic part of Watson's feelings. Doyle isn't a master of romance but it's a mystery and not a romance/detective novel.

These two stories are not Doyle's best short ones but eventually they become so much better. The short story/case studies introduces us with his great character and his profile of Holmes and Watson's personal history and their two different ways of life, living and working together.

I highly recommend these two great crime novels.

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John Keats- Ode to a Nightingale

I love this video. Benedict Cumberbatch has a wonderful voice.

The Lark Ascending - Ralph Vaughan Williams

A beautiful piece of classical music.  I love it.

Brief Encounter (1945)

A suburban woman of Milford, England, Laura (Celia Johnson) once a week travels to the city where, after shopping, she  watches a film at a cinema, returning by the evening train to her conventional marriage and two children. Much of the story centers around the small tearoom, and it's mostly comical residents, near the train's waiting platform, wherein traveller's sip tea and munch on pastries.

On one such visit, Laura stands on the platform when another train, not stopping there, passes, throwing a small cinder into her eye. Inside the tearoom she asks for a glass a water to wash her eye free of the painful bit of grit, whereupon a man, Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), stands up to help, noting that he is a doctor.

This simple event is almost forgotten until the following week the two run into each other again, this time at a busy restaurant where almost every table is taken. Accordingly, the two share a table and, later, an afternoon at the movie house. Charmed by the idealistic doctor, Laura intrigues the married Alec with her strong sense of self and her easy laugh (as he later puts it: "I love you. I love your wide eyes, the way you smile, your shyness, and the way you laugh at my jokes"). Feeling a bit guilty, the couple furtively make plans to repeat their outing the next week, but this time the doctor, who fills in once a week at the local hospital for a friend, does not show up until Laura is at the tearoom at the train station, where he hurriedly explains his absence as his train, travelling in the opposite direction as hers, arrives. The two again plan an outing the next week.

Their next venture together, a comical boating trip downstream, quickly develops into a furtive relationship, in which they both admit their love for one another. When they take a drive into the country on this penultimate meeting, however, he purposely misses his train, intending to stay at his doctor-friend's flat, into which he invites her. She refuses, returning to the station and her voyage back to Milford, but at the very last moment, rushes from her train, running through the rain to the flat in which she has left Alec. At almost the same instant she arrives, however, the friend returns early, so that she is forced to rush out the back entrance, ashamed for what has almost occurred.

 

 

Realising the impossibility of their relationship, and the dark consequences arising in both their relationships with their spouses, he announces upon their final meeting that he will be travelling with his family to Africa, and will never see her again. Painfully, they sit together in the tearoom—which, in fact, has been the very first scene of the film—awaiting perhaps a tender goodbye, until one of Laura's chattering, suburban friends enters, and the two are unable to say anything. When Alec's train arrives he has no option but to tenderly squeeze her shoulder before disappearing forever, Laura rushing out of the tearoom as another train passes, possibly intending suicide to squelch what she describes:

 

"I had no thoughts at all, only an overwhelming desire not feel anything ever again."

 

She returns, however, to the tearoom, riding home with her incessantly chatting friend to suffer out the night, as she mentally repeats the events to her seemingly unaware husband, as he studies a crossword puzzle. As they are about to go up to bed, he approaches:

Fred Jesson: "You've been a long way away."

Laura Jesson. "Yes."
Fred Jesson: "Thank you for coming back to me."

 

 

 

Brief Encounter is one of the most poignant films I have seen.  I love it! :) xx

  

  

  

    

Sherlock Series Three, Episode Three - His Last Vow

 

 

A case of stolen letters leads Sherlock Holmes into a long conflict with Charles Augustus Magnussen, the Napoleon of blackmail, and the one man he truly hates. But how do you tackle a foe who knows the personal weakness of every person of importance in the Western world?
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

This episode is very dark and has an awful villain in it which gives me the creeps! There are a few surprises about Mary. Enjoy everyone. :) xx  

Sherlock Series Three, Episode Two - The Sign of Three

Sherlock faces his biggest challenge of all – delivering a Best Man’s speech on John’s wedding day! But all isn’t quite as it seems. Mortal danger stalks the reception – and someone might not make it to the happy couple’s first dance. Sherlock must thank the bridesmaids, solve the case and stop a killer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Episode 2 of Sherlock was great. It is John and Mary's wedding day and Sherlock is the best man. This episode is moving and very, very funny! There is a case in this one and you may feel confused at times, but stick with it because it is very enjoyable. :)



 



 

 

 

Sherlock Series Three, Episode One - The Empty Hearse

 

 

A couple of years after the shocking effects of The Reichenbach Fall, Dr John Watson has managed to move on with his life. London is under threat of a huge terrorist attack and Sherlock Holmes is about to rise from the grave with all the theatricality that comes so easily to him.


 

 

I enjoyed the first episode of Series 3 of Sherlock. It was brilliant, great, funny and sad!  I laughed a lot.  BC is as handsome as ever!  :)

 

Sherlock Is Back!!

 

 

I'm so excited!!! Happy New Year!!! :)