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Howard's End

(131 Posts)
Deedaa Mon 13-Nov-17 21:05:51

Any one watching? I nearly didn't bother but I really enjoyed the first part. It's years since I last read the book so don't remember much of the story.

lemongrove Tue 05-Dec-17 12:34:31

I can’t be bothered to argue the toss with you trisher
That’s your view, the other view from several posters is that things could have been clearer.This isn’t the politics thread you know.Even there, other views should be considered.
That way, we all go home happy.

trisher Tue 05-Dec-17 11:16:20

Thank goodness for programme makers who recognise the importance of the gaps in stories and don't include every single word and action. It results in much more interesting and involved dramas. There are plenty of programmes that dot every i and cross every t, it's nice to get something different.

lemongrove Tue 05-Dec-17 10:52:04

Well, since various GN’ers here have said the same trisher
It seems as if it woukd have been a good idea to have filled a few gaps.

trisher Tue 05-Dec-17 09:50:12

Surely you didn't need to have read the book. I didn't think there were too many gaps and I did appreciate that you were left to fill in some things. It worked on all levels.

lemongrove Tue 05-Dec-17 09:32:57

That’s it shysal far too many gaps.
It was as if they were thinking that all their viewers had read the book ( and recently.)

shysal Tue 05-Dec-17 09:28:12

I ended up feeling rather let down. I had to check with the RT that it was the last episode. It should have been a 6-parter rather than 4 so that the gaps could have been filled.

lemongrove Mon 04-Dec-17 23:26:49

I ‘sort of’ enjoyed it but it did feel as if it needed another episode between the last two.
The field of corn ending was (sorry) corny.
Good acting from all though.
Was Bast as wishy washy in the book, can’t remember.

Eglantine21 Mon 04-Dec-17 22:29:48

Yup. Usually takes them a couple of weeks......

Jalima1108 Mon 04-Dec-17 22:20:13

Yes, she was 28.

I thought he moved on rather quickly, but then I have known some men do that in RL hmm

SueDonim Mon 04-Dec-17 21:48:03

Wasn't Margaret aged 28 in the first episode? Though I'm not sure what length of time the entire book is set over. Mr Wilcox seemed to get over Mrs Wilcox's death rather quickly, unless the series telescoped time.

Jalima1108 Mon 04-Dec-17 18:59:20

I'm glad I stuck with it, I nearly gave up because I found everyone talking over the top of everyone else extremely irritating in the earlier episodes.

mrsmopp Mon 04-Dec-17 18:40:33

I was hoping the movie version with Emma Thompson would be on Netflix but no such luck. Saw it years ago and would like to see it again, to compare them.
Have enjoyed this and sorry it has ended.

Eglantine21 Mon 04-Dec-17 18:27:19

That's why it's such a fabulous book. Everyone sees the actions of the characters in a different light.

blossom14 Mon 04-Dec-17 17:52:04

I was confused by all the action appearing in the final 15 minutes. Also I thought Charles Wilcox (the son) went to Howards End to confront the sisters and make them leave, he was in a furious temper about not being treated fairly business/ inheritance wise by his father since the marriage. Mr Bast was unfortunate in turning up at the moment he did.
Just goes to show we all interpret things in a different way.

trisher Mon 04-Dec-17 17:35:00

Jalima1108 they were te women activists who damaged property but the word was coined in order to demean and trivialise them.
^First used, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, in the Daily Mail in 1906, suffragette was not only new but a deliberate (and deliberately negative) coinage, intended to divide the suffragists, whose campaigns remained peaceful, from those who, as Pankhurst urged, should henceforth adopt more ‘militant’ methods. Suffragette, as a compound of suffrage (“The casting of a vote, voting; the exercise of a right to vote,” as the Oxford English Dictionary would confirm) plus the suffix -ette, was by no means complimentary. On one hand, -ette was a diminutive and was often seen as trivialising in intent, as well as distinctly patronizing; a lecturette (first used in 1867) was “a short lecture,” a meteorette “a small shooting star.” Both were very different from their non-diminutive counterparts.
-ette had moreover another meaning which had become familiar in recent years. This, as in leatherette, first used in 1880 and cashmerette, used in 1886, signalled the idea of imperfect imitation, as well as inauthenticity. As a result, just as leatherette was a fake version of leather, so too, by implication, were the suffragettes ‘fake’ — and profoundly improper — versions of the suffragists^

Jalima1108 Mon 04-Dec-17 16:58:06

He was an absolute pain, wasn't he dbDB77

But the thought of what he may be facing in the future is chilling - actually I didn't think of it before you mentioned it because he seemed so very young, although he was supposed to be at university.

dbDB77 Mon 04-Dec-17 16:54:31

I found Tibby intensely irritating & unpleasant throughout - pompous, superior & patronising. Then there were the final scenes through the fields - that Edwardian idyll - all very Merchant Ivory - about to be shattered by WWI - and I realised that young lads like Tibby were soon to be made army officers and slaughtered at the Somme and Paschendale - lives cut tragically short.

Jalima1108 Mon 04-Dec-17 16:20:07

I think suffragettes were so named to differentiate them from 'suffragists'.

The suffragists believed in peaceful campaigning, whereas the suffragettes believed in direct action

Jalima1108 Mon 04-Dec-17 16:18:28

Morgana I did wonder that too as my mind meandered this morning; even if Mr Wilcox popped off, whether she would marry someone else - surely she was only in her 30s by then and could have had a child of her own.

I think I'll read the book too, rather than watch the film version which I missed somehow.

'Good, thank you' No, no!

merlotgran Mon 04-Dec-17 16:17:12

Anyone know what happened to Leonard Bast's wife?

I haven't read the book.

Jalima1108 Mon 04-Dec-17 16:15:15

willsmadnan grin
I was thinking about it this morning and that just suddenly struck me.
Of course, I should have been writing Christmas cards and letters .....

grannyticktock Mon 04-Dec-17 15:35:41

I did enjoy it, although I am grateful to several posters above for pointing out some of the subtleties that I missed. Makes me want to read the book now. Very well cast, acted and fimed.

Just one point: when Dolly came to see Meg, one said, "How are you?" and the other replied, "Good, thanks!" Nononono! She would not have said this even 25 years ago, let alone 100. I will have to read the book now, just to check!

trisher Mon 04-Dec-17 14:53:31

This was the era of the Suffragette movement and Margaret would, I'm sure, support the principles of equality for women.
Margaret did defy her husband in staying at Howards End with her sister. She was then leaving him to go to Germany. In the day this would put her completely beyond the pale and leave her with no social standing. Suffragettes may be regarded as heroic today but they were not well regarded at the time. They wore white dresses in the summer to indicate their purity as many consideered them sacrilegious. The white in the WSPU colours also stands for purity. Finally the term "suffragette" was coined by the Daily Mail as a term of abuse. Equality for women wasn't possible then.

Telly Mon 04-Dec-17 13:57:38

I am now reading the book and finding that the serial has been quite true to the original, although they have had to make some changes. Really enjoyed it.

Morgana Mon 04-Dec-17 13:30:41

Is Margaret too old to have a child?