Bleak House

I read this book last fall, and I must say it was my favorite book ever. Well, maybe tied with To Kill A Mockingbird. Charles Dickens is a master, weaving many seemingly unrelated plotlines into one big, fat, smash-bang, holy-cow, I-didn't-see-that-coming climax. And the falling action and resolution of Bleak House are by far the best love story in all of literature. Seriously--it kicks Pride and Prejudice's butt.

I then went onto our county library's website to reserve the DVD which Masterpiece Theater had shown a couple of years ago. We never watch TV, so I had no idea that this movie existed, but I was very excited to see it. As my luck would have it, the first two times it came up my turn to check it out, I was out of town and missed my chance. But last week I finally got my turn. I watched a couple of episodes every day (it is 7 1/2 hours total). I was not disappointed.

I think this version of Bleak House was very loyal to the book. A few minor storylines were necessarily left out, but the characters were, except for one, exactly as I had pictured them in my mind. The actress who played Esther was quite good as far as playing the character, but physically, she was just plain weird-looking. I mean I didn't want a Barbie doll in the role, but she is just not what I had pictured at all. I still LOVED the movie, though.

I don't understand why BBC chooses such.....unusual-looking girls for their main roles. The male protagonists are always very handsome, and the female lead roles are sort of strange looking.

Anyway, if anyone is looking for a good suspense, murder-mystery, romance, detective story, I highly recommend Bleak House. The book is huge, but worth every page.