Posted on 01/01/2021 6:24:46 AM PST by C19fan
I was on YouTube just wasting time before midnight to start the new year. As a side note, I am the Ebenezer Scrooge of New Year. I hate this "holiday" because I feel like I have to "celebrate" and the only thing I associate the night with is debauchery. I saw this period drama I have never heard of before pop up on recommended videos. Watching this appeared much more preferable to sitting on the couch listening to the Bidens and watching musicians I do not care one iota for. This period drama is "East Lynne" based on a novel by the same name written by Ellen Wood and published in 1861. I have never heard of the author before. The basic plot is a successful solicitor Mr. Archibald Carlyle falls madly in love and marries a poor baronet's daughter Lady Isabel Vane. At first their marriage seems happy but Lady Isabel gets jealous of Mr. Carlyle's long time friendship with Miss Barbara Hare. Her jealousy is heightened by a fiend waiting for his inheritance Francis Levison. Levison convinces Lady Isabel to flee the marriage and shack up with him in France leaving her three children behind. Tragedy strikes Lady Isabel and she ends up going back to her home and children disguised as a governess as Mr. Carlyle managed to get a divorce and marries Miss Hare. This is the period drama equivalent of eating a tub of your favorite ice cream. The melodrama is laid on thick but the story is very moving. The YouTube video of the complete movie leaves much to be desired but if you watch on a small screen and use headphones it will do. On my scale of 1 to 5 bonnets, I would give this 3 bonnets. Watching this was quite a guilty pleasure.
Sounds like Mrs. Doubtfire!
I did wonder if that movie was inspired by this story.
“I am the Ebenezer Scrooge of New Year. I hate this “holiday” because I feel like I have to “celebrate” and the only thing I associate the night with is debauchery.”
I feel exactly as do you. I have not celebrated New Years in over 40 yrs and don’t miss it a bit.
I only enjoyed one New Year. My friend and his girlfriend got a ticket for me to celebrate what was called Fortnight (so?) in Manhattan. The pass enabled one to access events all over Manhattan. My favorite was there was ballroom dancing with a full orchestra. I so wished I knew how to dance a waltz as I looked at the couples twirling around the dance floor.
I think it’s called Firstnight! Yes, that used to be a thing for a while and it was really a lot of fun. They had them in NJ for a while and one was near me, in Montclair.
Hee hee...I actually read the BOOK. It was a real weeper, too.
I started to watch that on YouTube — thanks for the reminder. East Lynne is famous for being a standard joke because it was a play so often done in local theaters. “Next week, East Lynne!” The classic American Heritage magazine even had an article about that in 1963 that I read as a kid and it stuck with me. The article is online, apparently.
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