It's been years since I read Susanna
Clarke's novel, but I remember being inseparable from it when I did.
This 7-part BBC adaptation is a fantastic transition from book to
screen, and I thoroughly recommend it to fans of the novel.
At a total of 7 hour-long episodes,
it's long enough that nothing felt omitted, and every major character
is (in my opinion) very well cast. Bertie Carvel makes a delightfully
eccentric gentleman-magician, Eddie Marsan a convincing pedantic
academic, and Marc Warren a wonderfully sinister Faerie King, to name
only a few.
This adaptation perfectly captures the
atmosphere of the original novel, with the sharp contrast between the
stiff, mannered Georgian England and the fascinatingly grotesque
faerie world of Lost Hope. Every scene looks beautiful, and the series
as a whole feels like an intriguing cross between Jane Eyre's country
houses and moorland and a particularly noir Alice in Wonderland.
A faithful and gripping adaptation of
one of my (many) favourite novels. Watch it if you get the chance!
