Little House on the Prairie trailer

In case you missed it, Netflix has redone the classic series based on the classic novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder and I actually really enjoyed it... it's got a nice blend of heart and darkness with nothing feeling overdone...if you're a fan of the story, I recommend having a look!

"The Other Bennet Sister"

A few months ago, the BBC released The Other Bennet Sister based on the best selling novel by Janice Hadlow to much race reviews...now the series is also streaming on Brit Box, and I'm very much enjoying it. Do check it out if you get the chance and you're an Austen fanatic!

Trailer 

Mary, the bookish ugly duckling of Pride and Prejudice’s five Bennet sisters, emerges from the shadows and transforms into a desired woman with choices of her own.

What if Mary Bennet’s life took a different path from that laid out for her in Pride and Prejudice? What if the frustrated intellectual of the Bennet family, the marginalized middle daughter, the plain girl who takes refuge in her books, eventually found the fulfillment enjoyed by her prettier, more confident sisters? This is the plot of Janice Hadlow's The Other Bennet Sister, a debut novel with exactly the affection and authority to satisfy Jane Austen fans.
Ultimately, Mary’s journey is like that taken by every Austen heroine. She learns that she can only expect joy when she has accepted who she really is. She must throw off the false expectations and wrong ideas that have combined to obscure her true nature and prevented her from what makes her happy. Only when she undergoes this evolution does she have a chance at finding fulfillment; only then does she have the clarity to recognize her partner when he presents himself—and only at that moment is she genuinely worthy of love.
Mary’s destiny diverges from that of her sisters. It does not involve broad acres or landed gentry. But it does include a man; and, as in all Austen novels, Mary must decide whether he is the truly the one for her. In The Other Bennet Sister, Mary is a fully rounded character—complex, conflicted, and often uncertain; but also vulnerable, supremely sympathetic, and ultimately the protagonist of an uncommonly satisfying debut novel.

Bridgerton season 4

I hope you all have been enjoying it as much as I have! I'm feeling that this season has been better than the last...

Part 1

Part 2

"The Gilded Age" season 3

The Gilded Age returns for season 3, and needless to say, I'm very much looking forward to it...

"The Deluge"

Time to break out the subtitles again for The Deluge, another French film about Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette:

"Jeanne du Barry"

Johnny Depp stars in this film about Louis XV and his infamous mistress

For more, check out this Tea and History episode on the infamous courtesan:

The Last Great Mistress of France

"Marie Antoinette" films

A few trailers for a couple "recent" films about one of history's favorite ill-fated queens

This 2006 gem is still beloved for it's candy coated aesthetic and romantic feel

PBS-2022

"The Empress" and "Corsage"

If you were unaware, Netflix has a series on Empress Elizabeth called "The Empress" (2022, and based on the novel), while on Amazon Prime Video, there's "Corsage" which came out last year...do check both out if you're interested!

"Vanity Fair" and adaptations

First published serially from 1847 to 1848, “Vanity Fair” is William Makepeace Thackeray’s most famous work in which the author reflects his interest in deconstructing the notions of literary heroism of his era. It is the story of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley, who have just completed their studies at Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for Young Ladies and are beginning to embark upon the world. The simple-minded nature of Amelia, who comes from a wealthy family, is contrasted with the strong-willed nature of Becky, who will stop at nothing to climb the social ranks of English society. The novel takes its name from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, one of the most famous work of Thackeray’s day, in which a town called Vanity is depicted to represent man’s sinful attachment to worldly things. Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, “Vanity Fair” is Thackeray’s classic satire of the societal trappings of Victorian England, self described as a novel without a hero.

1998 trailer

2004 Trailer

 

 2018 trailer 

"Dangerous Liaisons" and adaptations

Published just years before the French Revolution, Laclos's great novel of moral and emotional depravity is a disturbing and ultimately damning portrayal of a decadent society. Aristocrats and ex-lovers Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont embark on a sophisticated game of seduction and manipulation to bring amusement to their jaded lives. While Merteuil challenges Valmont to seduce an innocent convent girl, he is also occupied with the conquest of a virtuous married woman. Eventually their human pawns respond, and the consequences prove to be more serious—and deadly—than the players could have ever predicted.

Trailer

1988 (buy or rent...this is one of my favorites)

2023 trailer

Austen adaptations

Taking a look through YouTube, I found many of the trailers for Austen adaptations from the past few decades, including the 1996 version with Kate Beckinsale in full...most of them are available on Amazon Prime and Brit Box for your viewing pleasure 🙂

Sense and Sensibility-1995 trailer

Pride and Prejudice-1995 trailer

Persuasion 1995/97 Trailer

Emma-1996 trailer

Emma-1996

Mansfield Park-1999 Trailer

Pride and Prejudice 2005 Trailer

Mansfield Park-2007 Trailer

Northanger Abbey-2007 Trailer

Persuasion-2007 trailer

Sense and Sensibility-2008 trailer

Emma-2009 Trailer 

Sanditon-season 1 trailer (2020)

Sanditon-season 2 trailer (2022)

Sanditon-season 3 trailer (2023)

Emma-2020 Trailer 

Persuasion-2022 trailer

"Pride and Prejudice: Having A Ball"

I saw this BBC production when it originally aired back in 2013, and am delighted to find it on YouTube...enjoy!

"Belgravia"

Having seen the first season of this series (brought to us by the indomitable Julian Fellowes), I just discovered that season two is upon us in three days time...I'm very much looking forward to it!

Belgravia trailer

The Next Chapter trailer

Bridgerton season 3

It's back! Bridgerton season 3 has finally been announced...let the excitement begin!

Season 3 trailers

"Death Comes to Pemberley"

This Austen spinoff has apparently also been made into a TV movie on Masterpiece:

In their six years of marriage, Elizabeth and Darcy have forged a peaceful, happy life for their family at Pemberley, Darcy’s impressive estate. Her father is a regular visitor; her sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; the marriage prospects for Darcy’s sister, Georgiana, are favorable. And preparations for their annual autumn ball are proceeding apace. But on the eve of the ball, chaos descends. Lydia Wickham, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister who, with her husband, has been barred from the estate, arrives in a hysterical state—shrieking that Wickham has been murdered.  Plunged into frightening mystery and a lurid murder trial, the lives of Pemberley’s owners and servants alike may never be the same.

"Napoleon"

Starring the indomitable Joaquin Phoenix as the iconic Emperor...definitely one on my must see list!

"The Buccaneers"

Premiering last night on Apple TV, the Buccaneers based on the classic novel by Edith Walton and starring a favorite of mine, Christina Hendricks...I'll definitely be watching!

I also found this 1995 adaptation

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

The Real Buccaneers

Set in the 1870s, the same period as Wharton's The Age of Innocence, The Buccaneers is about five wealthy American girls denied entry into New York Society because their parents' money is too new. At the suggestion of their clever governess, the girls sail to London, where they marry lords, earls, and dukes who find their beauty charming—and their wealth extremely useful.

After Wharton's death in 1937, The Christian Science Monitor said, "If it could have been completed, The Buccaneers would doubtless stand among the richest and most sophisticated of Wharton's novels." Now, with wit and imagination, Marion Mainwaring has finished the story, taking her cue from Wharton's own synopsis. It is a novel any Wharton fan will celebrate and any romantic reader will love. This is the richly engaging story of Nan St. George and Guy Thwarte, an American heiress and an English aristocrat, whose love breaks the rules of both their societies.

"The Great"

Currently in its third season, this funny and charming Hulu series stars Elle Fanning as Catherine the Great and Nicolas Hoult as her hapless husband Peter...do check it out if you haven't already!

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

The Gilded Age, season 2

This Sunday, The Gilded Age returns for its second season...needless to say, I'm looking forward to it as I enjoyed the first season...

"Belle" and "Chevalier"

One film I re-watched, and one new one I saw for the first time are "Belle" and "Chevalier" about two unusual but extraordinary mixed race people who lived in the 18th century: Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay in England, the Chevalier Saint Georges in France...definitely worth checking out if you are interested!

The painting of the real Dido and her cousin Elizabeth that inspired the film

The illegitimate daughter of a captain in the Royal Navy and an enslaved African woman, Dido Belle was sent to live with her great-uncle, the Earl of Mansfield, one of the most powerful men of the time and a leading opponent of slavery. Growing up in his lavish estate, Dido was raised as a sister and companion to her white cousin, Elizabeth. When a joint portrait of the girls, commissioned by Mansfield, was unveiled, eighteenth-century England was shocked to see a black woman and white woman depicted as equals. Inspired by the painting, Belle vividly brings to life this extraordinary woman caught between two worlds, and illuminates the great civil rights question of her age: the fight to end slavery. (via Amazon)

Royal Blood podcast, episode 112

 

The real Chevalier Saint Georges 

Royal Blood podcast, episode 131

Royal Blood podcast, episode 132