A Scene From the Much Anticipated James McAvoy Movie

I informed him in exchange that my Christian name was Philip.

“I don’t take to Philip,” said he, smiling, “for it sounds like a moral boy out of the spelling-book, who was so lazy that he fell into a pond, or so fat that he couldn’t see out of his eyes, or so avaricious that he locked up his cake till the mice ate it, or so determined to go a-bird’s-nesting that he got himself eaten by bears who lived handy in the neighborhood. I tell you what I should like. We are so harmonious, and you have been a blacksmith — would you mind it?”

“I shouldn’t mind anything that you propose,” I answered, “but I don’t understand you.”

“Would you mind Handel for a familiar name? There’s a charming piece of music by Handel called ‘The Harmonious Blacksmith.’ ”

“I should like it very much.”

“Then, my dear Handel,” said he, turning round as the door opened, “here is the dinner, and I must beg of you to take the top of the table, because the dinner is of your providing.”

Oh, how very British is the above conversation. Self confesses she can just see James McAvoy uttering half of those lines. Perhaps the other half would be uttered by some British actor of manly mien, maybe Tom Wisdom. Just not Hugh Grant, for he would destroy it with his facial twitches.

Anyhoo, the conversation is a passage from the book self is currently reading, Dickens’ Great Expectations. A quick scan of Amazon reader reviews revealed that over half of the readers felt the book’s subject was very dark indeed. Self doesn’t know yet what this means, for she’s on p. 218 and the darkness has not yet descended.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers, stay tuned.