Review: Lark Rise to Candleford (novel)

Just finished this book, so now I can tick it off my list of New Year's Book Resolutions.

Lark Rise to Candleford isn't actually a novel. It's three "novels" that are actually Flora Thompson's autobiography, focusing on her childhood in Lark Rise and Candleford Green. The books were originally written and published separately. In 1945 they were combined into this version, and have been published together ever since. The title and some of the character names were stolen for the series that claims to be based on it. Actually, the series bears as much resemblance to the book as it does to The Lord of the Rings.

Going by the blurb on the back, I expected the book to describe the author's time working for the post office. That does happen... eventually. In the third book. The other two are essentially a series of essays describing her childhood, the people she knew, and what life was like in the late 1800s. Fascinating as an insight into history, but not what I was expecting.

It took me a while to get used to the book's format. In the first book each chapter deals with a different subject -- preparing food, the lives of the neighbours, and going to school, among others. It's essentially a series of anecdotes connected on that subject. The second book widens its focus outside Lark Rise, when Laura and her family go to visit their relatives in Candleford. And finally the third one shows Laura getting a job in the post office and working for Miss Lane.

Lark Rise to Candleford is interesting as both a semi-fictionalised autobiography and a sort of history book. But as a story on its own, it frequently falls flat. There are several references to things that happened later in Mrs. Thompson's life -- most notably the death of her brother in World War I. The only problem is that these references aren't elaborated on. One minute the narrator is describing life in the 1890s, the next she mentions something that happened in the 1920s. It feels like she meant to continue writing about her later life then remembered she was writing about her childhood. (Apparently she did write another autobiography about life in the 1900s, but that book isn't included in this compilation.)

If you're interested in lesser-known facts about the Victorian era and don't mind the essay-esque format of the first part, you might enjoy this book. And whatever else can be said of it, it's much better than the series.

Is it available online?: Not as far as I know.

Rating: 6/10.

(Not Really a) Review: New Year's Book Resolutions

Happy New Year! 😃 Almost everyone makes New Year's Resolutions today. I'm no exception. But my resolutions are a list of books I intend to read in the New Year. This is the top 5 on my list.

The Warden is the first in the Barsetshire series. I want to read literally anything by Anthony Trollope, and this is the top of the list. If it's anything like Barchester Towers, this book is well-worth reading.

He Knew He Was Right, also by Anthony Trollope, is one of those books I want to read because I saw the miniseries based on it. (I'll review the miniseries. Eventually.) Since I already know the plot it shouldn't take too long to read. Though "shouldn't take too long to read" is not a phrase I'd ever expect to use about a Victorian novel.

It's about time I read an Agatha Christie novel! I chose Murder on the Orient Express mainly because I love the film. Some people don't like reading mystery novels when they already know the ending, but I don't mind. It's always fun to spot the clues along with the detective, and when you know the end you see things you'd never have noticed before.

Lark Rise of Candleford is another of those books I want to read because of its adaptation. But in this case, I want to see just how badly the series butchered it. Unlike the other books on this list I've already started this one. So far it's slow going. It's not actually a novel; it's a collection of scenes from the author's childhood.

I've only read one of Shakespeare's works before. I was twelve, Much Ado About Nothing was required reading for English... and it might as well have been written in Ancient Egyptian, for all I understood of it. That experience put me off reading any more of his works for years. Now I've decided to try again. Romeo and Juliet is such a well-known play that it should be easy to follow. (I hope.)

Will I manage to read these and the other books on my list? Time will tell. If I review any of them, you'll know I've finished them. If I don't, I probably haven't.

Review: Lark Rise to Candleford (series)

I can sum up this series in one sentence: the Coronation Street of period drama. That's how dull, implausible, and trashy it is.

I watched a few episodes of it when it was being aired, and remember it as being incredibly boring and unrealistic. Recently I decided to rewatch it. Lots of other people were talking about how good it was, so obviously I thought there was something wrong with my memory. Maybe I'd just seen the bad episodes of an otherwise good series.

No, the whole series is like that.

The music is the only good thing about this series.

Lark Rise to Candleford is a loose adaptation of three semi-autobiographical novels by Flora Thompson. If it was any looser, it would fall off completely.

I only recognised a handful of the actors:
Julia Sawalha (Jessie in Cranford, and Mercy Pecksniff in Martin Chuzzlewit) as Dorcas Lane
Brendan Coyle (Nicholas Higgins in North and South) as Robert Timmins
Claudie Blakley (Martha in Cranford) as Emma Timmins
Karl Johnson (Tungay in David Copperfield 1999) as Twister
Linda Bassett (Abby Potterson in Our Mutual Friend 1998) as Queenie
Peter Vaughan (Mr. Boffin in Our Mutual Friend 1998) as Rev. Ellison
Phil Davis (Smallweed in Bleak House) as Arthur Ashlow
Victoria Hamilton (Mrs. Forster in Pride and Prejudice 1995) as Ruby Pratt
Liz Smith (Peg Sliderskew in Nicholas Nickleby 2001) as Zillah

I watched series one torn between laughter and disbelief. The Christmas special left me speechless. Slogging through series two was a battle of Greek proportions. I spent most of the last few episodes in tears of laughter. That was the only way I could cope with this mess. And I can safely say I will never watch the third and fourth series.

LRC doesn't have a plot. It has a collection of plots, one or two to each episode. Its main characters are Dorcas Lane, a postmistress, and Laura Timmins, her assistant. It all blurs together so much in my mind that I can hardly remember any specific plots from it, except for one or two especially outrageous things.

In the first few episodes the problems with this series become apparent. Problem one: the very modern characters. The mark of a good period drama is that the characters act as if they're really in Victorian England/Tsarist Russia/Tang Dynasty China/whatever place and era it is. Lark Rise to Candleford has a collection of 21st century characters who for some reason have decided to dress up in 19th century clothes. That's it. They're only wearing the costumes, and making no attempt to fit in with the 1890s beyond that.

Problem two: the lack of a coherent plot. Some series have a new plot in every episode but manage to be very good series in spite of that. Jeeves and Wooster springs to mind. LRC doesn't. Its episodes follow a predictable pattern. A never-before-seen character appears, and is often treated as if they'd always been there somewhere, the plot revolves around this character, the episode ends, and both character and plot are completely forgotten in the next one, which continues the cycle. It's exactly as frustrating as it sounds.

Problem three: the caricatures. There are virtually no likeable characters, or even ones with a personality. And almost every character is a caricature. Laura, despite being the narrator, is as interesting as watching paint dry. Robert is an arrogant jerk who'd rather see his family go without food or clothes rather than accept charity. Thomas is always babbling about religion, and comes over as decidedly unhinged as a result. Dorcas is always right, always knows best, blah blah blah.

Problem four: the morals or lack thereof. It was an absolute scandal in Victorian England for a couple to live together without being married. Queenie and Twister would have been shunned by the whole village as soon as it became known they weren't married. Think of the mayhem Lydia and Wickham caused in Pride and Prejudice by running off and living together without being married. In this respect, things were no different in the 1890s than approximately eighty/ninety years before.

Problem five: that bizarre Christmas special. I still can't believe that someone looked at this sub-par series and thought, "What it needs is a ghost story." So we take a sudden and unexplained detour into the supernatural which is never mentioned again. Especially weird is that this ghost has supposedly been lurking around for eighty years, but no one has ever seen or heard of her before.

This is only scraping the surface of "what's wrong with LRC". I've never found a more disappointing, overrated period drama.

Is it available online?: Some episodes are. I don't know if the whole series is, but why would anyone want to watch the whole sorry mess?

Rating: 1/10.