I read The Crimson Petal and the White, it must've been some eight or nine years ago, and liked it a lot - I remember saying (writing?) to someone that it was postmodernist literature in the best possible way, meaning that its pronounced metafictional elements, overt and covert intertextuality, and deliberate anachronisms were well employed in service of a compulsive story and a truly memorable central character in its beguiling, independently-minded prostitute cum governess Sugar...a contemporary Victorian novel, liberally laced with bodily fluids and profanity of all kind, it was nonetheless somehow subtle, multi-layered and a bit moving.
Anyhow, Wei gave me this dvd set (part of a birthday gift) of the bbc's take on the novel, a four-part (one hour each) miniseries starring the excellent Romola Garai, and it's good, not flinching from the filth and seediness of the milieu and nicely highlighting the (separate) themes of writing and families; also, giving an aptly gothic flavour to the fragile Agnes, William Rackham's troubled bride. It's lavishly mounted, with a completely but effectively (and, given Faber's postmodernist-Victoriana style, perhaps aptly) non-period mood-setting score, and if the story feels somewhat compressed (we lose much of the inner lives of even the main characters, never mind the secondary figures) and lacking in the abundance of the source material, it's still very enjoyable, and still a great story.
Anyhow, Wei gave me this dvd set (part of a birthday gift) of the bbc's take on the novel, a four-part (one hour each) miniseries starring the excellent Romola Garai, and it's good, not flinching from the filth and seediness of the milieu and nicely highlighting the (separate) themes of writing and families; also, giving an aptly gothic flavour to the fragile Agnes, William Rackham's troubled bride. It's lavishly mounted, with a completely but effectively (and, given Faber's postmodernist-Victoriana style, perhaps aptly) non-period mood-setting score, and if the story feels somewhat compressed (we lose much of the inner lives of even the main characters, never mind the secondary figures) and lacking in the abundance of the source material, it's still very enjoyable, and still a great story.
