Today, we celebrate the birthdays of two literary giants, Jane Austen and Noel Coward. It's amazing how much that both writers have in common. Both born near the end of the previous century, but making their mark in the next. And both were known for writing comedies of manners that are still being read and performed today.
Jane was born in the age of Enlightenment. During her lifetime, she saw her country involved in two long-term wars, one with France, the other with the newly formed United States. She saw the fall of the French monarchy, the creation of the Regency in England.
Favorite Jane Austen: Emma
Least favorite: Mansfield Park
Jane Austen book seriously crying out to be adapted: Northanger Abbey
Favorite adaptation: Persuasion (hands down the best movie version of Jane Austen novel)
Least favorite: Mansfield Park. Fanny Prince in this adaptation had absolutely nothing to do with the character that Jane Austen created.
Noel Coward, actor, writer, composer. Born in the last year of the nineteenth century, he's a creature of the twentieth. Saw two World Wars during his lifetime, his career rise and fall and rise again before he died in 1973.
I've been lucky enough to see many productions of Mr. Coward's work beyond his two most famous plays, Private Lives (with the delicious Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan) and Blithe Spirit.
At his best, his characters are wittier than any mere human as a right to be. At his worst, he's still funnier than most writers. His characters can be seen as brittle, or caricatures. They exist in a time and a place, where men and women dressed up to go get a loaf of bread, they drank cocktails like Manhattans and Old Fashions, and went out to nightclubs every night.
My favorite play is one that is revived the least. Fallen Angels is a frothy little play about two women who discover a shared lover is in town. They proceed to get completely drunk while their husbands are out town, argue and pass out. Tallulah Bankhead starred in the London production.
My least favorite is The Vortex, his first play about a drug-addicted piano player with a Mommy complex. I saw Rupert Everett mumble his way through this play in London many years ago. It was painful.
So Happy Birthday to Noel and Jane. I raise a glass of champagne to the both of you.
1 comment:
Hi Elizabeth! I found you through Charlie Horse's blog. We share a name. My given is Ann Elizabeth and I've been known as Liz, Buffy, and Ann.
Anyway, had to add this about Noel Coward - Brief Encounter. Have you seen the movie with Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard? If you haven't, you MUST.
I love Noel. You're right when you say he's more clever than most people have the right to be. I think he's one of those geniuses that mark the world and are never, ever replaced.
Good luck with your writing. Stick with it! The best advice I ever heard came from Aaron Brown of CNN (how I'll miss him): Persistence will win over talent and beauty every time.
~Ann
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