#alexandre dumas (pere)

[giantkillerjack]

The Count of Monte Cristo, narration at the start of the book: Edmond is a good sweet young man.

300 pages in: Listen to me. Edmond is better than everyone around him i don't know what to tell you he's just the best that's just how it is.

Me: Nice.

[elgallinero]

Apprendre le Francais

share.libbyapp.com/title/448016

[cantsayidont]

Hateration holleration:

PRISCILLA: Sofia Coppola feature adaptation of Priscilla Presley's memoir is what a British magazine I used to read would have called "a real spot-the-point exercise." It's attractively composed, but totally lacking in story, characterization, themes, or thesis. The real Priscilla executive-produced, which may be why the film has so little to say about her marrying Elvis at 17 (other than to politely observe her parents' seemingly impotent disapproval), their drug use, or either of them as people. However, that doesn't explain the blank-faced performances of Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, who seem to be in the film solely to have something on which to hang the various vintage outfits. I have no strong feelings about Elvis Presley one way or the other, but Elordi's sleepy caricature has precisely none of the sexual charisma that made the real Elvis a star. Just read a book — even the most fawning Elvis bio will have more substance than this empty film.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS PART I: D'ARTAGNAN: Given how many times the venerable Dumas classic has been filmed over the years, you'd think someone would at least occasionally do a proper job of it, but this grimy and disagreeable new French version certainly isn't it. The rolled-in-mud mise-en-scène should come with a complimentary package of Wet-Naps; the casting is lifeless and frequently inappropriate (Vincent Cassel is a somnambulistic and elderly Athos, while Éric Ruf is the dullest screen Richelieu in conscious memory); and there's a grievous lack of humor, charm, or sophistication. Worse, screenwriters Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière thought they could improve on the original Dumas plot and were sorely, sorely mistaken. The biggest problem with the book, as regards film and TV adaptations, is that there's simply too much going on even for four hours of screen time; while omitting sections of the original plot is perhaps inevitable, trying to pad it out with non-Dumas nonsense does no one any favors. This dreary and tiresome film is nearly as wrongheaded as the stupid 2011 Paul W.S. Anderson version and is no fun at all — a deadly sin when it comes to THE THREE MUSKETEERS — with few virtues beyond the frustratingly brief glimpses of Eva Green, suitably fetching as Milady de Winter (who presumably will be more prominently featured in Part II). Stick with the 1973–1974 Richard Lester movies, which also take liberties with the plot, but are actually fun, and exceptionally well-cast if inevitably very English. Even the decaffeinated 1948 American version (with Gene Kelly as D'Artagnan) is better than the new one.

[dontcallittimetravel]

Happy deathday to Alexandre Dumas, but not the one you're thinking of

[mywingsareonwheels]

An “Endeavour” fic I won’t be writing, so please do take it up as a prompt, anyone who wants it :D

Three Musketeers AU.

The King/Queen equivalent: Bright. Or possibly Bright is a rather sweet version of Richelieu.

In Treville’s role: Fred Thursday (trying to herd cats/be team dad to a bunch of brilliant chaos beings)

Athos: Jakes (depressed, horrible backstory, the sensible one except when he really really isn’t)

Aramis: Morse (the genius idealistic one who’s torn between the wine/women/song end of things and a more religious and ascetic drive) 

Porthos: Strange (because someone needs to keep those two in order and also have a lot of fun <3 )

Constance: Trewlove (except in this Constance/Trewlove is also a musketeer, and possesses one of the few braincells in the general Trewlove manner)

D’Artagnan: Fancy (naturally :D)

(We couldn’t think of a Max alas. No hobbits or others worthy of being Max in the books. He could be an original character who’s a love interest for Morse/Athos perhaps? :) )

(I am very much obliged to my Partner for a lot of this, they being the resident Dumas afficionado, and who I have also managed to turn into an Endeavour fan. :D )

[shakespearenews]

Basically, what Dumas has done is to streamline the play, cutting some of the self-indulgent material Shakespeare has included. He pares down the play while sticking to the main plot. Some actions are moved forward without any violence to the story line and he cuts a few characters out. Until the ending, most of the changes are largely dictated by the need to limit the number of set changes. Elizabethans, with their perfunctory notions of set, bothered themselves very little about set changes. They were virtually unnecessary. By the 19th century, however, the elaborate sets forced playwrights to try to configure the action of the play into as few changes of set as possible. The playwright attempts to get as much action into a single scene as possible. This has the beneficial result of holding the attention of the audience, by not interrupting their limited attention span with frequent set changes. If a set change takes too long, or happens too often, the audience tends to lose interest and lose the thread of the story. This also tends to make modern plays a little more thoughtfully written from the point of view of staging them.

[shadowsong26x]

So this is in response to a post I came across earlier that otherwise was making some very excellent points about anti-intellectualism and the importance of studying things like art and history, etc.

Except.

One of the points it was talking about was the idea of replacing classics with YA/fanfiction/etc. as the basis for the literature aspect of education. And the refutation of that was that we shouldn’t replace “thought provoking and stimulating media with media that’s just designed to entertain and sell“

And here’s where I have a problem.

Not because we should not study/stop studying classics. There are several reasons for doing that, many of which are good ones.

But because the idea that those two things are mutually exclusive really gets under my skin.

(As a note, most of what I’m going to discuss in detail comes from English and French literature, because that is where the majority of my reading/background is.)

First of all, let’s just jump right in and start with one of the first names that comes to mind when talking Classical Literature: what the hell do you think Shakespeare was doing? Theatre during the 16th and 17th century in England (and most of Europe) was not considered high/intellectual art. He was writing mass entertainment. Did he also put together things that were profound/thought-provoking/stimulating? Absolutely. And I would argue that the fact that he does both is part of why he has endured in a way that some of his contemporaries did not. Like, occasionally you’ll see one of Fletcher or Johnson or Marlowe’s plays done, but nowhere near the frequency or ubiquity of Shakespeare.

And the same can be said for Moliere. Theatre was not a respectable place to work or write; that’s why the great 17th-century French playwrights (Moliere, Corneille, Racine) wrote under stage names. And yet, Moliere wrote Tartuffe, which, among other things, got him into actual legal trouble. And then followed that with Dom Juan (one of my favorite works of his), which is, among other things, includes a prologue commenting on that censorship, and is largely making a Point about hypocrisy (as is Tartuffe; he was on a Theme for a while there).

And then you look at 19th-century writers, and Dickens runs the entire spectrum. He absolutely wrote to make a point and provoke thought, but there’s a reason  he wrote serially, and that was to keep interest/entertain an audience and earn a profit.

Alexandre Dumas (pere) who wrote The Three Musketeers (one of my absolute favorite novels) and The Count of Monte Cristo, was writing at least in part to entertain his audience. His work was also published serially, but he was paid by the line rather than the word (which makes him, imo, more accessible than Dickens, though admittedly some of that may be that I’ve read more modern translations rather than contemporary/19th-century ones).

Which brings me to my next point.

The advantage to working with the classics as text is not because they are high art, or because they were written with the intention of provoking thought as opposed to entertaining an audience. The advantage is that the things that have endured, regardless of why they were written, are the ones that balance those two fairly well. Being both entertaining and giving something for the audience to dig into if said audience so desires. The preachy moralistic philosophical treatises disguised as novels don’t really have the same impact as other classics; the absolute dreck (and there is absolute dreck in every period of popular literature, fight me) tends to not stand the test of time. (some of it does; sometimes because it’s important for genre reasons, sometimes because of other sociocultural factors, sometimes by sheer coincidence; but the majority of what lasts does so for a Reason).

The advantage to working with modern literature (yes, including things like YA and blockbusters) is accessibility. And there’s also variance in writers working in the same period, of course. Like I mentioned before, look at Dumas vs. Dickens. You can also examine Shakespeare vs. Marlowe.

Look, anti-intellectualism is absolutely a problem. I’m not denying that. And we study the classics for a lot of reasons, and one of them is the idea that there should be common cultural touchstones/reference points. But the idea that entertainment and depth are mutually exclusive; the implication that studying modern popular literature can’t provide some of the same thought-provoking and/or stimulating discussion is limited and, frankly, a little elitist/gatekeepy. It also often adds extra layers of difficulty in approaching the literature in question. And, yes, there is value in probing those layers and learning about the context/the way language and morality and ideals shift over time. Ideally, there should be room for both. Honestly, I think there’s value in looking at things side-by-side; the Classic and then a modern piece that addresses some of the same issues/themes. One of my high school English teachers did that; looking at a couple of Star Trek Borg episodes when reading...I think it was 1984? That sounds right.

There’s just a lot more modern dreck to wade through, because it hasn’t had time to be winnowed away and leave the ‘good’ pieces to stand the test of time.

tl;dr: the high-art low-art dichotomy is BS and approaching media, especially literature, that way is an incredibly flawed take.

[sexysymphony]

I posted 4,681 times in 2022

That's 624 more posts than 2021!

7 posts created (0%)

4,674 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@thetorontokid

@kyberkenobi

@gffa

@bladling

@anakinsthot

I tagged 4,049 of my posts in 2022

Only 14% of my posts had no tags

#obi wan kenobi - 1,783 posts

#anakin skywalker - 1,072 posts

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#art - 248 posts

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#kenobi spoilers - 140 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#and they’re usually like ‘no they wouldn’t do that its illegal’ they admitted to it in offical documents!!! & they dont care if its illegal

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

🌺 Send this to ten blogs you think are wonderful. 🌺

Brit!! 💐💕💐 my fellow dilf appreciator this is so sweet

1 note - Posted November 12, 2022

#4

sucking that dick like a kazoo

2 notes - Posted September 10, 2022

#3

💌

happy valentines day! 🥰

aaahhh!! 💖🥰💖 happy valentines day to you too!! ❤️💐💐💐❤️ 🌼🌸🍫💝

2 notes - Posted February 14, 2022

#2

star wars mutuals what do i name my new betta?

I’ve had a fish named Finlan Vos and @anakinsthot has Kit Fishto

4 notes - Posted November 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Tag people you’d like to get to know better

Thanks for the tag @anakinsthot

Favorite color: yellow!! a bright sunny yellow, on the warm side

Currently reading: Chicot the Jester by Alexandre Dumas pere & Jedi Apprentice #15 The Death of Hope by Jude Watson

Next up: obviously I’ll finish out the Jedi apprentice books but a third of my bookshelf is to be read books.. maybe The Snowman by Jo Nesbø?

Last song: Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op 56-“Scottish”: I. Andante con moto - Allegro un poco agitato - Assai animato - Andante come prima; by Felix Mendelssohn performed by the LSO under Peter Maag (im sorry. this is what it’s like. also holy shit the second movement has a lovely clarinet solo, and it’s not even a bastardly one)

Last series: i think i started watching Cowboy bebop

Next up: i keep telling myself to watch Halston but it seems so depressing :(

Sweet, Savory, or Spicy: Sweet!!!!

Currently working on: i want to write fic i do! but I’m a huge coward. i have been trying to wrangle my brain into somehow making a prequels version of the Three Musketeers (which will never work) or do a modern obikin orchestra au (finally, a use for my degree). Oh lol occasionally I edit out @anakinsthot’s excessive commas in Bitter Honey and Anakin Skywalker, Witch

No pressure tagging: I’m shy but I do want to get to know people! @profkenobi @mcnobi @kyberkenobi

11 notes - Posted March 28, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[la-femme-au-collier-vert]

I wonder if this scene from the story collection The Thousand and One Ghosts (1849) by Alexandre Dumas pere inspired Bram Stoker and the wedding scene we see in the 1992 version. If anyone is interested the story has been published alone as La Dame Pâle (The Pale Lady) in French. It precedes Carmilla and concerns a love triangle between a young woman and two brothers in the Carpathians. The unfavored brother refuses to give up even in death…

[shiradestin]

Alexandre Dumas, père, and His Works Bearing Witness to his Forefathers

     According to NPR’s book reviewer Drew Toal, reviewing the book The Black Count, by Tom Reiss, “…novelist Alexandre Dumas — the one known for penning The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers — is often referred to as “Alexandre Dumas, pere.”   …  For the father of Alexandre Dumas, pere, the sword was mightier than the pen, and this larger-than-life figure’s story heavily influenced…

[appareils-futiles]

What I'm reading (including audiobooks) according to Gooreads: 1. A Scandal in Bohemia by: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (audiobook) 2. The Count of Monte Cristo by: Alexandre Dumas (Pere) (audiobook) 3. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by: Adam Hochschild 4. Dune (Dune Book #1) by: Frank Herbert 5. Uncle Tom's Cabin by: Harriet Beecher Stowe 6. Scenes from my Life by: Michael K. Williams (been reading this for months, one chapter left, it's really good though, I just have no attention span) 7. Cardcaptor Sakura: Collector's Edition Vol. 1 by: CLAMP 8. The Brother's Karamazov by: Fyodor Dostevsky (my first Russian Lit!) 9. The Lonely Life by: Bette Davis (which is her first of 2 memoirs but it reads more like sitting with a cup of tea with your grandma and she's telling you her life) I also have a slew of audiobook/kindle samples, at least 6 other physical books and ofcourse personal things that I haven't read yet. Whoa is me. Honestly just hoping I can finish these 9 by the end of the year.

[nedsecondline]

French Fridays Review: The Corsican Brothers (Les Frères Corses), by Alexandre Dumas, Pere

Wow, this is a book worth listening to and then reading, several times!  I love this comment from the summary on a site called Fabula, an org that …French Fridays Review: The Corsican Brothers (Les Frères Corses), by Alexandre Dumas, Pere

[pattymarvel]

#currentaudiobook for @bookriot #ReadHarderChallenge2022 challenge #8, "Read a classic written by a POC." I decided to swap this in to replace "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas pere (senior). I could have finished the 52 hour-long audio by New Year's Eve if I listened at (at least) double speed, but I couldn't have enjoyed it at that speed. This Zora Neale Hurston classic is under seven hours long. (at Cleveland, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmr7eOxpxTC/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cantsayidont]

The sheer number of abridged, heavily sanitized versions of THE THREE MUSKETEERS presented as kids' stories or family entertainment is kind of a wonder given how much of the book's plot revolves around cuckolding, and it seems to have so rotted the brains of adapters that even the writers of versions not intended as Wholesome Family Entertainment (like the current two-part French feature) visibly struggle to grasp what the story is actually about.

[dutcrackerma]

The Princess Nutcracker at the Hardin Center

During the holiday season, millions of people across the globe watch the famous ballet, The Nutcracker. Known for its wonderful music and dancing, The Nutcracker is a magical story full of romance and excitement. It is often considered one of the best ballets in the world.

Among the many characters in the princess nutcracker ballet, there are two main Rocking Horse Series female characters: Clara and Masha. These roles are played by women of different levels, but they are all usually cast in the same age range. Generally, this is about eleven or twelve years old.

In most productions, Clara is the young heroine of the story. Other versions have her name as Maria, and sometimes even Masha. In the American Ballet Theater's version, the Sugar Plum Fairy is absent. Other versions have the character of Friz join Clara on her Christmas adventure.

The Nutcracker ballet has become a classic over the years, but it's still a fun and exciting story to watch. The ballet centers on a young girl's Christmas Eve and her adventures with a magical toy soldier. It's based on a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann and was adapted by Alexandre Dumas Pere. It's an excellent introduction to classical music for children, and it features memorable roles.