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Monthly Archives: March 2007

Silliest servant blunders

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Actually, I’m not talking about the mistake of taking on a career tightening Prinny’s corset, though I think this poor fellow deserves combat pay for his efforts.

I’m talking about the more egregious mistakes regarding servants I’ve seen once in a while in Regency-set romances.

This past weekend I listened to a children’s song by Tom Chapin in which a royal footman sang in an imitation Cockney accent. But what I can deal with in a children’s song I find harder to take in a historical romance. I have read stories in which a butler or valet spoke Cockney and I have to admit that grates. It’s as if the author felt it was necessary to clarify the differences in social status.

Yet some authors make the opposite error. In one book I read a scene where the hero, on returning home, warmly and publicly greets a man on the stairs using his first name. For a moment I thought there was a brother or good friend the author hadn’t mentioned before. It turned out to be the butler. It didn’t ruin the book for me but it did confuse me for a scene.

Yet I think this is something that is easily researched or even just absorbed through enough reading in the period. It’s not hard to learn the names and roles of various servants. Maybe the relationship between them and their masters is a bit more of a subtle thing. The way I understand it, servants often took their tone from the households they served. In a respectable household, the servants who dealt most closely with the family members (and as you can see some of them had to deal quite closely!) and also those who dealt with guests were expected to be respectable and well-spoken themselves. Of course, in a more ramshackle household the servants could run amok, too. It’s all part of the characterization.

Georgette Heyer wrote some of the strongest servant characters in her novels, like the domineering old Nurse in VENETIA, or Keighley, the groom in SYLVESTER. I don’t think I’ve read a romance in which a servant had a romantic role but I’ve read a few in which the heroes or heroines pretended to be a servant. Probably my favorite of those is Loretta Chase’s THE SANDALWOOD PRINCESS.

So what are some of your favorite servant (or pretending to be) characters? Do you like it when an author plays with class differences in a romance? Are there errors in depiction of servants that grate on you?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

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Amazing Grace

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I recently saw Amazing Grace, a passionate (and romantic) film which does a nice job of turning the story of William Wilberforce’s late 18th century fight against the British slave trade into an entertaining movie with a beginning, middle, and end.

The film is by no means perfect. To turn Wilberforce’s struggle into a nice plot arc, there’s a lot of jumping forward and backward in time, which confuses some viewers.

There are also some definite alterations to historical fact.

These, of course, are likely to be met with the same reception they always get — some people will care more, some less, and some not at all. Some will say why bother at all it you’re not going to do it right? Some will mind the costume errors but not the other changes, and some will mind everything but the costume errors.

Overall, I really liked the movie.


To start with: the cast! Oh, what a cast. We have Ioan Gruffudd as Wilberforce: charismatic, dogged, brooding. (First picture.)

We have Ciaran Hinds as Banastre Tarleton: angry, snide, sharply intelligent. (Second picture).

And because we can never have too many handsome, dark-haired actors, we also get Rufus Sewell as rebellious anti-slavery crusader Thomas Clarkson. (Third picture.)

And — yes! Albert Finney (fourth picture), as John Newton, who wrote the famous hymn. (Yes, who’d have pictured Tom Jones grown up so anguished?)

Toby Jones plays the Duke of Clarence, the naval son of King George III (and later King William IV) as a clever and witty bon vivant.

And Michael Gambon plays Fox (fifth picture).

And for true Regency-fan coincidence (yes, you heard it here first! A Risky exclusive bon mot!), Wilberforce’s cousin Thornton is played by Nicholas Farrell…and Thornton’s wife is played by Sylvestra Le Touzel.

There, isn’t that amazing???? 🙂 (Just curious — is there anyone here as movie-obsessed as I, who sees something odd there?)

Oh, okay, I’ll out with it. In the (really quite boring) 1983 BBC version of Mansfield Park, Nicholas Farrell played Edmund Bertram, and Sylvestra Le Touzel played Fanny Price.

So these two actors played Fanny and Edmund falling in love in 1983, and they play a married couple here. Wonder if they had fun reminiscing?

As I said, I really loved the film. I loved its color, and commitment, and intensity. I loved that we saw sides of this period that we too seldom see. (The scenes in Parliament were all splendid.) And I loved the actors.

And though I don’t have a picture of her here, I liked Romola Garai’s performance as Wilberforce’s love interest quite a lot. Her character is intelligent, forthright, articulate, and Garai carries off both the dramatic bits and the lighter moments equally well.

As for the historical changes I mentioned above…I have mixed feelings here. They mucked about a bit with costumes and hair (as is usual), and though I noticed some of it, it didn’t much bother me.

What did bother me rather more was that Pitt and Wilberforce were sitting in the House of Commons together with the Duke of Clarence and “Lord” Tarleton. Yeah, just weird. And even weirder — the real Tarleton was never in his life a peer anyway! Years after the end of the movie, he was made a baronet — still not a peer, of course! But throughout the movie (and on the official movie website), he is consistently referred to as “Lord Tarleton.” And I really can’t think of a single good reason why. (I have thought of one bad reason… Aristocrats are by definition selfish and evil, so they supported the slave trade, so Tarleton had to be made a peer…???)

So… Have you seen the movie? Do you intend to?

Which actors or actresses in it would most tempt you to see it? Or would the setting or the subject most convince you to take the plunge?

All comments welcome!

Cara
Cara King, author of My Lady Gamester and movie fanatic

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300 and the Regency

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What does the movie 300 have to do with the Regency period? Other than my eager anticipation, that is. I’ve now seen the move THREE times and, needless to say, I LOVED it. Not only was it visually stunning (and I’m not referring to the Spartan abs; one quickly accepts the undress as costume), it was marvelously acted (Gerard Butler was superlative. He totally inhabited the role of Leonidas), and quite emotional. It also was very violent. I talked my friend Katie in to seeing the movie with me by saying, “The violence is so stylized, Katie, it won’t bother you.” Then watching the movie with her, I suddenly saw the blood and carnage. There are reasons it is rated R.
For those who may not know, 300 is based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller. It tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, when 300 Spartans sacrificed their lives battling the largest Persian army ever assembled. This battle is considered a pivotal event in history preserving Western Civilization. The movie was filmed against a blue screen; the setting and special effects were computer generated, making it a whole new movie-going experience. This is, however, a Risky Regency blog. So what does 300 have to do with the Regency?

1. Regency education included studying Greek and Roman texts. I could imagine Regency boys reading Herodotus’s history of the Battle of Thermopylae and being as enthralled as the young guys in the movie theater. After the movie, one of them said, “That was awesome!”
2. I also imagine that military men in the Regency studied the Battle. King Leonidas chose the High Gates, a narrow passage through the mountains, as the best place on which to fight the Persians. The terrain gave the massively outnumbered Spartans enough advantage to cause huge Persian losses. Wellington also used terrain to advantage. He picked the location of Waterloo for its advantage and at a crucial moment in the battle hid his troops behind a hill, surprising the French and helping to turn the battle around to victory.
3. The Spartan’s use of the phalanx formation, forming a line of shields and spears that made them impenetrable by the attacking Persians. In the Napoleonic Wars, when infantry formed squares, they were similarly impenetrable. At Waterloo, Wellington’s squares held over onslaught after onslaught by French cavalry.
4. After the Persian King Xerxes won at Thermopylae, his army pillaged Athens and destroyed its temple. The Parthenon replaced that temple. During the Regency, Lord Elgin rescued (purloined??) the marble friezes and took them back to England hoping in vain, to earn a fortune for them. The Elgin Marbles remain in the British Museum, and, coincidentally, 300 premiered in London March 14.
5. In 1823 Lord Byron traveled to Greece to join the movement for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. Before he could participate in battle, though, he died of fever. In his Don Juan canto, he wrote about Thermopylae:

Must we but weep o’er days more blest?
Must we but blush? — Our fathers bled.
Earth! render back from out thy breast
A remnant of our Spartan dead!
Of the three hundred grant but three,
To make a new Thermopylae.–Don Juan, Canto iii, Stanza 86
On March 20 on the Wet Noodle Posse blog and the Warner Women blog, I’m going to talk about what the movie 300 can teach us about story-telling.
About love scenes
About minor characters
About theme

Have you seen 300 yet? What did you think? Can you think of any other connection to the Regency?

Remember this day, men, for it will be yours for all time–King Leonidas

Diane

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A Bit o’ Green

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! I grew up with Irish grandparents, so this was always a BIG day in my family. My grandmother would make corned beef and cabbage, my grandfather would hang a big Irish flag up over the garage, and there was a lot of singing of folk songs (never mind that no one in my family can actually sing!). It was like “My Big Fat Irish Holiday.”
Today, I’m going to go to a parade this afternoon, and a concert of Irish music tonight. There will be no singing, and probably no corned beef, and definitely none of those tall green hats, but maybe some Guinness.
A few factoids. This is the feast day of St. Patrick, who lived from around 373 to 493, and who died on March 17 (the best way to commemorate this, of course, is green beer!). The biggest parade in the US is in New York City, where an estimated 2 million people show up. The first public celebration of SPD in the US was in Boston in 1737. In New York, the Crown and Thistle tavern held a party in 1756, and in 1780 George Washington allowed his troops a holiday on March 17 (later known as the St. Patrick’s Day Encampment).
I hope you all have a bonny day! Does anyone have any fun plans?
And, in case you feel the urge to bake, here is my grandmother’s soda bread recipe (I don’t give this to just anyone!):
Irish Soda Bread
5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
I tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp, cut into cubes
2 1/2 cups raisins
3 tbsp caraway seeds
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 large egg
Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter heavy, ovenproof 10 to 12 inch diameter skillet with 2 to 2 1/2 inch high sides. Whisk first 5 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Add butter; using fingertips, run in until coarse crumbs form. Stir in raisins and caraway seeds. Whisk buttermilk and egg in medium bowl to blend. Add to dough; using wooden spoon, stir just until well incorporated (dough will be very sticky)
Transfer dough to prepared skillet; smooth top, mounding slightly in center. Using small, sharp knife cut 1 inch deep X in top center. Bake until bread is cooked through and tester inserted comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool bread in skillet 10 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool completely. Makes 8 to 10 servings.
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MacGuffin

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Some of you movie fans might know the term “MacGuffin” popularized by Alfred Hitchcock:

“A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or Maguffin) is a plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story. It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is always the necklace and in spy stories it is always the papers.”

MacGuffins spur the action in romances, too (it was author Carolyn Jewel‘s post on the topic that inspired me); for example, how many women seeking their family heirlooms can you think of? The heirlooms themselves don’t matter; what matters is that she needs the hero’s help to pose as a courtesan/governess/schoolteacher in order to infiltrate the villain’s lair. Sometimes the villain ends up being the hero, so she doesn’t get his help in the first place, but you get the idea.

Or there are some spy secrets that need to be divulged to the British government to help win the war against Boney (Wellesley/Wellington being too busy arriving after 11:00 at Almack’s to help), and our h/h have to scurry across England and France to find them.

Basically, as I think I understand it, a MacGuffin catapults the everyday into the extraordinary. The best example is Janet Leigh at the beginning of Psycho; you can see she’s just stolen some money, and is on the run, but that doesn’t matter once she encounters Anthony Perkins.

My WIP opens with a man buying a woman at auction. It’s not necessarily a MacGuffin, since the reasons behind her being sold are pertinent to the story, but the fact that he bid on her (versus the farmer with the bad teeth) sets my story in motion.

Do you like big bang opening scenes? Do you care why the hero and heroine are together, or are you willing to suspend disbelief if presented with a compelling enough MacGuffin? And what’s your favorite Hitchcock movie (mine’s Notorious–a stunning Ingrid Bergman and a caddish Cary Grant? Be still, my heart!) And what’s your favorite fiction MacGuffin?

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