Friday, July 3, 2009

Carte Noire

As all my regular readers know...okay, as I alone know, I am a bit lazy when it comes to the blog posts and will look for almost any excuse to avoid doing any extra work. So I am quite happy to offer random vistors a clue about a great reading series sponsored by Carte Noire. Dominic West of The Wire fame reading a shall we say polemical scene between Lizzie Bennett and posh Mr. Darcy? Do I have to say more than that? Oh, you poor, benighted sots. Just click the damn link.

10 comments:

  1. Glad you stopped the tease and offered a link. For a moment there I thought you had no consideration for your readers' poor nerves.
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    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  2. Well, even I am not so lazy as to try and get away with just posting the link and nothing else.

    Or at least I'm not so lazy yet.

    The Wire fans may be a bit surprised at his very British accent, though I had heard he was a Brit before I ever saw the show.

    v word=hydric, which might have been a bit more apt over on Adrian's blog, with its extended discussion of male moisturizers...

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  3. Poor guy, reading Jane Austen with a British accent, thinking, "No, damn it. I'm not trying to be posh, like American corporations that hire British voiceover artists to pich their products. I really talk this way!"

    Reading P&P was one of the epochal moments of my reading life, which is why I invoked Mr. Bennett in my previous comment: sardonic, witty to the point of condescension ... a role model for me.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  4. I missed the Mr. Bennett allusion, Peter.

    Yes, he's a great character, although he does seem to have rather ill-advisedly abdicated to his wife in the matter of parenting his daughters. They don't all turn out so well as Elizabeth, do they?

    My aunt made the 'mistake' of sending me a small box of books once when I was in college. I was supposed to be studying for a test, but instead spent the evening reading the newly arrived Pride and Prejudice. I doubt I did all that well on the test, which is of course long forgotten, whatever it was. But that introduction to P&P I haven't forgotten at all. And it did form one of the elements of my theory that the best sort of reading is almost always some form of Stolen Pleasure, done when you were really meant to be doing something else.

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  5. In that marvelous first chapter, Mrs. Bennett complains that her husband has no consideration for her poor nerves. He replies that yes, he has great consideration for her poor nerves because he has heard about them these many years.
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    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  6. Thanks, I recognized the tone, but couldn't have found the text. Well, I suppose I could have, since it was near the beginning.

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  7. That opening scene is one I'll remember as long as I have a memory left. I remember the bok rack in which I found P&P because the book happened to be at eye level, and I thought, "Hmm, I've never read Jane Austen. I think I'll take a look." The impression must have been strong, since I remember the details so well.

    That and Bill James' Roses, Roses are the only books that have hit me this way.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  8. I've got to get on to Bill James sometimes soon.

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  9. That's also good to hear. I'd recommend starting either with one of the earlier books (1-6) or middle ones (7-16). Some of the later ones are good, too, but you might enjoy them more if you've read some of what went before.
    ==============
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  10. Thanks--that gives me a lot of scope. I think I will start with the earliest one I can find.

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