I found this series extremely enjoyable even if it was a bit slow to start. But I have to say, I was very disappointed with the ending. I hate the way everything was summed up at the end by the narrator. It left me feeling unsatisfied after so promising a build-up.
shareYes,I completely agree...It was a really disappointing ending but overall it was really enjoyable!!!
shareWell, they had no choice. That's how the book ended.
I must say, this has to be the most faithful adaptation from book to movie that I've ever seen in my life. They left out the part about Ladislaw being robbed by Bulstrode, but other than that it was extremely faithful to George Eliot's novel.
No, I don't mean the ending in general, I just don't like the way it was summarised at the end by the narrator. They could have done it differently and better.
shareBut that's what I mean. They followed the book so closely that they had to do it that way. The last chapter in Middlemarch (which you can read in its entirety on line) is called Finale and it sums up everyone's life.
shareOh right...sorry, I've never read the book. Well it would have been better if they had strayed a bit from the book for the ending to make it more entertaining to view.
shareYes, I agree. Sometimes novels have to change slightly when adapted to film because what makes entertaining reading doesn't neccessarily mean it will be entertainimg to watch.
shareYeah the way Judi Dench summed it all up was a bit of a let down..
shareWell, how would you have had the ending? Another six hours of summing up?
shareHardly. I said the ending should be entertaining to watch. Somehow I don't think six hours summing up would be classified as entertainment, tedium maybe.
Anyway, how would I have the ending? The simple answer is, I don't know. All I know is that the ending that was used, although accurate, was an anti-climax and slightly cold and depressing.
I enjoyed the mini series on a whole but just felt that we could have been rewarded with a better ending.
Did you like the ending?
Yes, I liked the ending. I just saw it angain recently and I haven't been able to get it (and the theme music) out of my mind.
shareI would have liked more screen time with Will and Dorothea, myself...
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I agree, in the book Eliot tells us more about Will and Dorothea's life, how Will goes on to be a politian and such.
"You can't tell the heart, the heart hopes even when it's hopeless"
The trouble is that the book is not a romance - it is more like a social commentary. Dorothea married not for love but so that she could be of service to a man with a great mind.
The series is absolutely faithful to the book - even to the point that the reader (just like the viewer) always knows that she should have married Will to have ever found fulfillment.
So I think that the ending suited the tone of the whole thing - he completed her life and she still remained of service.
The saddest of all is the summing up of Tertius and Rosie's relationship - probably Eliot's salutory lesson that marrying for love (or lust) is not such a good idea either!
Rose and Lydgate's marriage was a tragedy because both married for contradictory reasons. She was a social climber who thought he was going places and he was a serious man of science uninterested in material things. He though he was getting a supportive partner and she thought she was getting a big shot. There was never love on either side. (She more or less forced him to marry her.)
In the final summary George Eliot mentions that Lydgate dies prematurely and Rose quickly marries again to somebody with real money, so she gets her happy ending after ruining Lydgate's life.
Yes I agree with you. I really disliked Rosie in both book and series. I don't see why Lydgate married her (physical attraction aside she always came across as superficial and silly, and how did he not realise that she was not going to be a good partner?)
I still think that Lydgate should have got together with Dorothea, but of course this would not have been tragic enough for Eliot LOL.
I also wish we'd been given a minute longer at the end, and perhaps some dialogue between D and W. I know it wasn't in the book but it would have been nice.
I hated Rosamond. Absolutely hated her. The only time I felt a flicker of sympathy for her was when she lost the baby and was begging Tertius not to be angry with her. The rest of the time I just snarled every time she appeared.
shareWell it would have been better if they had strayed a bit from the book for the ending to make it more entertaining to view.Huh? More entertaining to view? share
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They married and he became successful in Parliament. Nothing was said about children, however.
Semper Contendere Propter Amoram et Formam
I love the summing up narration at the end. Eliot’s prose is lyrical and Dench delivers it superbly, especially the last line. It gives me the same feeling I had when I read the novel in lit class.
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