Customer Reviews

Affairs of the Heart: Series 1

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Five stars for American born (1843), turned British subject prior to death, author Henry James and his tales of romantic conquest in an English setting. Stories are primarily Victorian era, as Henry James himself died in 1916. He left behind many very interesting stories and in this DVD set, seven of them have been brought to life in a fun way.

Each of the episodes is based on a separate book. Author James has a way of leaving the ending a surprise. Not always does boy get girl, or girl get boy, or all's-well-that-ends-well. You CAN expect the unexpected. That is the delight of this set. Some are romantic tragedy, some comedy, some suspense, a full smorgasbord of high living played out with a wide range of accomplished British actors and actresses.

Episode 1: "Catherine" based on "Washington Square"
Episode 2: "Adela" based on "The Marriages"
Episode 3: "Miss Tita" based on "The Aspern Papers"
Episode 4: "Grace" based on "Covering End"
Episode 5: "Milly" based on The Wings of the Dove"
Episode 6: "Flora" based on "Glasses"
Episode 7: "Mary and Louisa" based on "The Tone of Time" and "The Real Thing"

If you don't know of Henry James and his writing, the included biography on the DVD set will help. After seeing this group of his stories, you'll be looking for more from his books. With "Affairs of the Heart" you could enjoy him for a week, one DVD segment per day. More likely, however, you'll not be able to put 23 hours between watching each episode.

With Henry James having written over 50 published works, let us hope there will be an "Affairs of the Heart Series Two" in the future.

I can't add much to the previous review, I agree completely with the excellence of this set. I can only say that I contacted the company that put this out and they tell me the Second series will be out in September 09 and I'll definitely have it on preorder!

I bought this series, at first for Jeremy Brett, who plays in the episode "Grace", a witty and charming one. Brett is, as usual, a dashing and perfect performer. (people who wish to provide this unfairly underrated actor with a posthumous Bafta may go to facebook:"posthumous BAFTA for Jeremy Brett). But in fact, I enjoyed very much all the episodes. The stories are enthralling, deep, behind a light appearance. The actors are very good and their delivery is perfect. Moreover there are english subtitles, very helpful for people who can't hear...and for foreigners. I'm delighted with this series.

Like most British literary series of the 70's, these stagings are short on dazzling set design & cinematography, but are very well-costumed and have plenty of period costume eye-candy.

The scripts are tight and, judging from what I remember about the original James books, faithful to the stories' basic themes. When you condense a novel down to a 50-minute play, as they do here with "The Wings of the Dove", some finer points will get lost but the gist of the story is expressed well.

A great part of the satisfaction of a series like this is to see actors as they were back in the day. Diana Rigg, Jeremy Brett, Patricia Routledge, Margaret Tyzack and Anton Rodgers are a few of the actors who are better known for other work. If you know Routledge only from her work on "Keeping Up Appearances", her younger self here will be a nice surprise.

For some people, the pace of these episodes may feel slow (I felt that as well) but I would say that you should just accept that and relax into the different pace of story-telling. This series is a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

Fran