Nicholas Nickleby

Man, it's muggy here tonight.  Watched movies earlier today, Pride and Prejudice and Nicholas Nickleby. I found a version of the latter that didn't have any actors that are frequently in the tabloids. Kate is played by Sophia Myles, she was also in Patricia Rozema's version of Mansfield Park. I like her. Both the characters of Kate and Madeline are somewhat stronger than in the book. Watching it I remembered how much I like Smike and Noggs. It's because of their amazing capacity to love in spite of all the ways life had beat them down; they could've turned bitter or evil, but they didn't. I read it over a year ago, so I had forgotten a lot of what happens. The movie was relatively close to the novel, though obviously at 600 plus pages, even at over 3 hours, a lot of it had to be cut (such as the theatre troupe in London, and the family Nicholas works as a tutor for.)  One idea that stuck with me is that there is a tipping point where the evil you do comes back to haunt you, even your friends who are equally bad can not be counted on in a pinch.  Ralph Nickleby's world falls apart debt by debt (or exploitation by exploitation) until the truth of his son comes back to haunt him and he kills himself. There is also help in unexpected places (John Brody, Noggs, Peg), and honest ways to make money that don't involve the exploitation of others.

I had to rush to the video store to get them turned in by 9 pm. I think I made it. I was only going to watch the part 1 of Nicholas Nickleby, but I got drawn into it and wanted to finish it. They were officially due at 8 pm, but I called and they said 9.  Stopped at the grocery store and then got ice cream on the way back home, a slight coolness had begun to fill the air, making it a little more comfortable. The mugginess has now turned to outright showers, maybe it will clear the air. Still around 70 degrees out: that's a warm night here.

Warm and damp.