Carol:
Upside, Downside
Glamour is not a word I use very often, and I associate it mostly with Gloria Swanson, Marlene Dietrich, and other Hollywood stars of the thirties and forties who glide out of their boudoirs in slinky dresses, hair shimmering in waves, puffing on gilded cigarette holders. Glamour is about attraction and artifice, trompe l’oeil. Scarlet O’Hara understood glamour. My everyday world isn’t about glamour, which is just fine with me. I know people who are beautiful, even elegant, but I don’t know anyone who is glamorous. Well, that’s not true. Have you met the Crawleys?
It should be no surprise that a retired English teacher would be addicted to European period pieces, and right now that means Masterpiece Theater on PBS, specifically Edwardian England and the seemingly glamorous lives of the Crawley family of Downton Abbey, the latest import from Great Britain’s ITV 1. At first I thought the key theme of the mini-series mimicked Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, with its gaggle of girls and preoccupation with arranging good marriages, and financial security, for a houseful of young women. But, as the episodes take us more closely into the lives and worldview of Lord Grantham, his American wife, and their three daughters, we see more complexity in their relationships and the whisper of the social and political upheaval that will amplify with the Great War and Depression.
Most English period pieces are also about class, distinctions of birth and upbringing that have nothing—and everything—to do with money. Sometimes, listening in on the servants’ gossip as they relax “below stairs” after dinner, I am reminded of the 1970’s Upstairs, Downstairs, the first Masterpiece Theater program I ever watched, which ran for sixty-some glorious episodes. It too began in the days before the Great War when the aristocratic world of the English class system was beginning to fray around the edges before it would be ripped apart after World War I, but Upstairs, Downstairs was plunked right into the elegant heart of London where Downton Abbey is set in the lush Hampshire countryside of the imposing, elegant Highclere Castle.
Whereas Upstairs, Downstairs moves the audience between the interior worlds of the Aristocrats above and the servant class below, we might almost rename the current series "Inside, Outside." The audience is taken from the opulent but sometimes stifling interior of the Abbey--with its elaborate staircases, corridors and rooms within rooms—to the incredible, spacious expanse of lawn and lake surrounding the Abbey. After the drama and intrigue of Inside, we take a giant, relieved breath of the fresh Outside.
Most significantly, the Abbey becomes a character in the drama, and we begin to understand that Lord Grantham’s primary concern is not the future of his daughters but the future of the Estate. And, not as a piece of property, but as a living entity with its own complex eco-system. We also begin to understand that the Abbey gives as much as it takes; the valets, butlers, housemaids, chauffeurs, grooms and cottagers on the Estate, whose jobs seem so redundant and ridiculous to outsiders, all play a role in the life of Downton Abbey, and in turn are provided security and stability. One of the most revealing and dramatic scenes takes place between Robert Crawley and his distant, middle-class cousin Matthew Crawley. Lord Grantham politely but firmly rebukes the young heir to the Abbey for humiliating the valet Moseley by not letting the man do his job. By dressing himself, serving his own food, and letting Moseley stand by idly, Matthew demeans the servant and makes his job seem ridiculous.
I am ecstatic to find out that Downton Abbey has at least 4 remaining episodes after I watch Episode 3 tonight. I get at least another month of vicarious living in the elegant, glamorous world of Lord and Lady Grantham. And, when the season is over? Good news, those of you who enjoy the glamour of the past…. a brand new mini-series is in mid-filming for 2011 release, an English period piece called…. Upstairs, Downstairs.
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Megan:
After reading the topic I first thought of my journals and questioned the motivation for documenting some of my very worst behavior… nothing glamorous about the feelings I have while reading what I was doing this time last year.
So, instead I though of nostalgia for the Good Old Days and some of the popular entertainment, which inspires that feeling through Masterpiece Theatre/BBC productions of period pieces, fashion trends and archaic writing equipment. You watch a show like Mad Men and although it's sort of a dystopic view of history, with infidelity and alcoholism and sexual harassment, everyone gets really excited about the accuracy of the wardrobe.
And I thought about my courtyard flat in England and how it was a perfect vision of a country cottage, straight out of Cranford or Sense and Sensibility. The big house was even called Norland. In addition to cobblestones, ivy covered rock walls, tiny door ways and hidden staircases, and exposed beams, my little flat also had no central heating, damp mold in the corners, uneven floors, weird drafts and a beautiful Georgian window with little panes of lead glass. The window was added part way through my stay at Norland. My landlords were doing restoration work on the 250 year old property to fix some of the shoddy modernizing construction that happened over the centuries. A fireplace so large you can stand in it was discovered behind a wall upstairs. My landlady ran screaming through the court yard calling to all her tenants that she had discovered history.
They also restored the barn and carriage houses adding 3 more apartments to their tenancy. I was offered one of the new flats, but even the addition of a clawfoot bathtub didn’t seem worth all the effort and paperwork it would take to change my address from Flat 4 to 6. And still there would be no central heating.
When my landlords decided to change my window from a large single pane to authentic reproductions of the original lead paned sash window, I was sure they told me the window would be energy efficient and warmer. That turned out to be a lie. The first window they bought did not fit, but they didn’t realize that until the old window had already been taken out. So, while waiting for the replacement to be built, I got a board instead and had no natural light for 2 weeks. The flat had never been warmer.
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| My flat. Left window was authentic, Right window replaced after this photo was taken. |
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