"Coming home with me?"

Magnet #485 - Chatsworth House

So my sister went on this Jane Austen pilgrimage to the UK last year, stopping by several JA sites such as this one, Chatsworth House.

Jane Austen's World has a great blogpost on this particular house and its fountains. If it looks familiar, it should - it's been used in several movies over the years, including the latest re-do of Pride & Prejudice with Keira Knightly and Matthew Macfadyen (versus the original!recipe, best all-around adaptation, with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth).

Supposedly, Chatsworth is the house that Jane Austen based Mr. Darcy's Pemberley on in Pride & Prejudice.

I don't mind saying, I've never been one of those P&P girls who love, love, love the book, Colin Firth and the 95 version (in that order). I think the 95 version is terrific and Colin's a fantastic Darcy. I even think the 05 version is ok and Matthew's an fairly good Darcy. But, having never read the book, P&P has never imprinted on me as OMG, the best love story ever. (I own the book, and I have a bookmark in it at about the 100-page mark, so that's half the battle, methinks.)

One day about four years ago now, on a lazy weekend afternoon, I was flipping through channels, and stumbled on this BBC movie on PBS called North & South. No, not that North and South, as I've magnetblogged before. I was completely enchanted. I don't think I moved from the sofa. For four hours. Straight.

Because it's awesome. It's a fabulous love story (minus the Bennett henhouse), set against an interesting background of the Industrial Revolution. The hero is the one man who could possibly best Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy for best romantic hero ever: North & South's John Thornton, as played by Richard Armitage. In addition to one of the greatest movie-ending lines ever, Mr. Thornton gets one of the best hero introduction scenes - ever. You'll find yourself holding your breath in the moments just before...well, both scenes, actually. Or really during any scene with he and Margaret.

It definitely has one of the most angsty proposal scenes ever - again, here it is. The ending is arguably the best romantic movie ending ever - here it is, if you want to be spoiled, but it won't make much sense if you haven't invested the other 3 hours and 55 minutes.

And, finally, it's probably the only miniseries that could spawn a marathon 5-hour, 32-page, global, cross-locational (NY/Boston/DC/Las Vegas/Beijing) simulpost session between five women, who for the most part, haven't even met each other, but have bonded over an irrational love of screencaps, trains and train stations, all things Fanny and Higgins, numerous cups of tea and handshakes, rewinding the good parts, fugly pants, and most of all, Richard Armitage.

Goodness, if you haven't seen it, and you love Jane Austen (or hell, even if you don't), get thee to Netflix now.

As my sister says: "It's like Pride & Prejudice! With cotton!"