Young Writers Society

Have you heard of Masterpiece Classic? It's a program on PBS, that shows on every Sunday for a period of time.

What they do is incorporate the classic works in TV shows and/or mini series.

Last year they showed the Jane Austen collection. And I do know they did Cranford, Jane Eyre, My Boy Jack and A Room With A View.

This year they are doing the Charles Dickens collection. But just a few. But, before they do they showed Tess of D'Ubervilles (did I spell that right?) by Thomas Hardy and they are doing Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte at the moment.

Anyway, tell me what you think. I would love to have conversations and questions about the different books.

First one (for this year) what did you think of Tess?

I thought Tess was a strong character and she wasn't the type of girl who thought irrationally. She made her decisions, and sometimes they were stupid and your asking yourself "Why would she do that?" but at the end she did what she had to do though I think she didn't have to kill that guy whose name escapes me. That's what I got from her because I only saw the ending. Thankfully they are showing it again either tonight or tomorrow.

But on another not, Masterpiece Theatre really knows how to bring books to life and I like how they stick to the book and not just do what they feel, you know? Ah, I couldn't live without them.

~Angel

Hi, I saw Tess originally on the BBC. That is, I presume you're talking about the Gemma Arterton version? I thought the cinematography was very pretty; in fact, aesthetically, it was perfect... but it felt a bit shallow to me. Certainly the 70s Polanski version was a lot more loyal to the book, and grittier too.
Just a pet peeve here, but it does grate a bit when I read people saying that Masterpiece Theatre 'makes' things well, when in fact they merely broadcast them. A lot of it is from the BBC. But there you go. Probably a fair amount of funding came from the US.