Daphne Du Maurier, who passed away in 1989 just short of her 82nd birthday, was one of the most successful authors of the 20th century, producing many novels, short stories and plays. Several of her works have been adapted to the big and small screen. There are three versions of
My Cousin Rachel, 1952, a 1983 four-part miniseries, and 2017. I watched the latter last night courtesy of Netflix. Although I have not read the novel or any of Du Maurier's works, in viewing the film it is easy to see why the book was so popular - and difficult to adapt into great cinema. An hour-and-forty-six minutes may not have been enough time to develop it fully. I'm tempted to rent the TV adaptation. Set in the 1800's in Cornwall, a rural, seaside area in England, it is the story of a young man who inherits an estate from the much older cousin who raised him. The elder had moved away due to ill health, married, and died of a brain tumor. The younger becomes infatuated with the widow, who may have murdered her husband and now may have designs on the property. I won't say anymore, especially about the ending, which I loved but which may disappoint many. Sam Claflin, who starred in three of the four
Hunger Games flicks, and the great Rachel Weisz are solid in their roles, as is Holly Grainger as the better match for the protagonist. Barely 30, Grainger is the midst of an outstanding career, already having played Lady Chatterley, Bonnie Parker, Lucrezia Borgia and Estella from
Great Expectations. Roger Michell, who is from South Africa, directed and adapted the screenplay for
My Cousin Rachel, which at times has the feel of cliff notes, likely a concession to the impatience of modern audiences. He has 21 titles under his name at IMDb, the most notable of which is
Notting Hill (1999), which I haven't seen. 9000+ users at IMDb have rated
My Cousin Rachel, forging to a consensus of six on a scale of ten. Its appeal is likely limited to those curious about how it was adapted and those who enjoy old-fashion fare. Here's a still of the leads in character:
The proofing of
Present and Past has gone from the absurd to the ridiculous. I copied and pasted the file into Create Space's template, and that solved the problem of certain sentences not extending to the margin. That move reduced the length by about 30 pages. Unfortunately, I noticed that the text on many pages doesn't extend all the way to the bottom. Worse, the portions cannot be joined by a simple press of the back arrow. Why should things be easy? I now have to count lines and copy and paste. I've ignored those pages that fall only one or two sentences short of the bottom. If the next proof copy doesn't have glaring errors I will be very surprised. I'm keeping the file from which I copied and space alive, and making corrections to each - just in case. In 172 pages I've found 19 errors.
The floating book shop was rained out today. I shopped for one Christmas gift. Everyone else in my family wants either a gift card or cash.
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