It was broadcast last night and although the acting and direction is very
forceful I couldn't help noticing the weakness of the conception of
Tietjens as a 'super-intellect' which is present in the book. Considering
the current attacks on social welfare, the book's ludicrous portrayal of
matters around the inception of state pensions is somewhat creepy. Even
Shakespeare's history plays are more reliable as history than this, and
Ford was writing of events within a few years of writing. Its handling of
suffragette issues is more sympathetic. I imagine its High Tory fantasy
view of the Edwardian gentleman would appeal to Carcanet.
Ford was an outstanding editor, an agreeable minor poet, a charming and
unreliable relater of memoirs and gossip, and an indifferent if persistent
novelist who has an undeserved posthumous reputation as a modernist
classic. This was 'Downton Abbey' for would-be intellectuals. Underneath
its Empire veneer lurked some very unrealistic views on welfare that
wouldn't be too strange to todays' conservatives.
On 25 August 2012 18:16, Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> My "publisher" Carcanet alerts me to this possibility today via its
> E-letter. However, even though the likely broadcaster here within Wash DC
> (WETA, channel 26/1-4) has recently added an all-UK, mostly BBC channel to
> its cast of stations, Wuthering Heights will be streaming at 9PM EDT, not
> Parade's End. Alas. Any suggestions, though I imagine if the FMF
> adaptation has no major problems, it may eventually be made available for
> viewing by WETA-TV.
>
> Actually, now that I've checked the time in London, a 4PM stream of
> Parade's End would not be viewed by the local station here as a desirable
> time for their first broadcast of this work.
>
> I've published about Ford Madox Ford's legendary editing skills, loved
> Parades' End when I read it as a graduate student, and have collected his
> first editions for many years. His poetry problematic in an intriguing way,
> but I had repeated success teaching it within a course I taught regularly,
> Modern British Poetry.
>
> Barry
>
--
David Joseph Bircumshaw
**
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
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