Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British-themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week for British Isles Friday, Sim continued her exploration of the London Underground, ten thousand steps at a time. Becky reviewed Wouldn’t It Be Deadly, a mystery novel by D.E. Ireland featuring the My Fair Lady characters.

The DVD cover of the 2015 version of Far from the Madding Crowd staring Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts

The newest version of Far from the Madding Crowd, originally a novel by Thomas Hardy, was recently released on DVD. I read some Hardy novels years ago, but I don’t think this was one of them. The story didn’t seem familiar, although one of the quotes was:

It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.

That’s been a useful quote for me in recent months as I try to understand non-dominant cultures and their various intersectionalities, all expressed in language that is mired in the dominant culture. It’s no wonder we all struggle when we’re trying to tease out what is real and what we believe, separate from the ways we were raised and the messages that society foists upon us.

I agreed with Sim in her review of Far from the Madding Crowd that one of the three suitors was completely unappealing to my modern sensibilities. I was especially leery after witnessing a recent conversation on Facebook where a guy defended his practice of telling women he doesn’t know that they’re beautiful–as if it were some God-given right. Meantime, he ridiculed the many women who told him that they find such behavior creepy. He could be cast as Sergeant Troy in this movie but I’d still find it hard to accept that our strong heroine would go for him.

I loved the landscape, costumes, and Carey Mulligan’s performance. In the end, the story worked for me, too. Rick fell asleep. I swear 19th-century costumes are a soporific for him.

Have you seen Far from the Madding Crowd or read the book? What did you think?