Posts Tagged ‘aristocrat’
The Lion in Winter (1968)Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 |
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In 1183 Henry II summonses his sons Richard, John, and Geoffrey to join him and his prison-bound wife Eleanor at Chinon for a family Christmas, along with King Philip II of France and his sister Alais, Henry’s mistress. Philip is insisting Alais now marries John as agreed years before else he wants her dowry, the lands of the Vexen, back. As Eleanor has already given the province of Aquitaine to Richard, the outcome of this may decide the very future of England. Everyone present except perhaps Alais are masters of double-dealing and deceipt, so it could be a lively Yuletide. Search keywords |
The Age of Innocence (1993)Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 |
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Society scion Newland Archer is engaged to May Welland, but his well-ordered life is upset when he meets May’s unconventional cousin, the Countess Olenska. At first, Newland becomes a defender of the Countess, whose separation from her abusive husband makes her a social outcast in the restrictive high society of late-19th Century New York, but he finds in her a companion spirit and they fall in love. |
Vanity Fair (2004)Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 |
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The British Empire flowers; exotic India colors English imaginations. Becky Sharp, the orphaned daughter of a painter and a singer, leaves a home for girls to be a governess, armed with pluck, a keen wit, good looks, fluent French, and an eye for social advancement. Society tries its best to keep her from climbing. An episodic narrative follows her for 20 years, through marriage, Napoleonic wars, a child, loyalty to a school friend, the vicissitudes of the family whose daughters she instructed, and attention from a bored marquess who collected her father’s paintings. Honesty tempers her schemes. No aristocrat she, nor bourgeois, just spirited, intelligent, and irrepressible. Search keywords |
Persuasion (2007)Thursday, May 28th, 2009 |
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On the brink of financial ruin, the Elliot family is forced to vacate their ancestral home in order to recover their debts and avoid losing face amongst their parish. The task of organizing their effects falls to levelheaded Anne Elliot, destined for spinsterhood at age 27 after being persuaded eight years earlier to refuse the proposal of Frederick Wentworth, a dashing (but destitute) naval officer… |
