Oscar (Fiennes) is a priest who gambles discreetly and donates his winnings to help the ... more
poor. Lucinda (Blanchett) is an Australian business woman who boldly defies society's rules. When they meet over an innocent game of cards, their lives are changed ...
In mid-1800's England Oscar (Ralph Fiennes) is a young Anglican priest a misfit and an ... more
outcast but with the soul of an angel. As a boy even though from a strict Pentecostal family he felt God told him through a sign to leave his father and his fai...
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Oscar Hopkins is a high-strung preacher's kid with hydrophobia and noisy knees. Lucinda ... more
Leplastrier is a frizzy-haired heiress who impulsively buys a glass factory with the inheritance forced on her by a well-intentioned adviser. In the early parts o...
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Set onboard an ocean liner travelling to Australia in 1864 this novel is both a love ... more
story and an historical tour-de-force that relates the developing romance between Oscar Hopkins an Oxford seminarian and Lucinda Leplastrier a Sydney heiress with ...
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Oscar Hopkins is a high-strung preacher's kid with hydrophobia and noisy knees. Lucinda ... more
Leplastrier is a frizzy-haired heiress who impulsively buys a glass factory with the inheritance forced on her by a well-intentioned adviser. In the early parts of this lushly written book, author Peter Carey renders the seminal turning points in his protagonists' childhoods as exquisite 19th-century set pieces. Young Oscar, denied the heavenly fruit of a Christmas pudding by his cruelly stern father, forever renounces his father's religion in favour of the Anglican Church. "Dear God," Oscar prays, "if it be Thy will that Thy people eat pudding, smite him!" Lucinda's childhood trauma involves a beautiful doll bought by her struggling mother with savings from the jam jar; in a misguided attempt to tame the doll's unruly curls, young Lucinda mutilates her treasure beyond repair. Neither of these coming-of-age stories quite explains how the grown-up Oscar and Lucinda each develop a guilty passion for gambling. Oscar plays the horses while at school, and Lucinda, now an orphaned heiress, finds comfort in a game of cards with an odd collection of acquaintances. When the two finally meet, on board a ship bound for New South Wales, they are bound by their affinity for risk, their loneliness and their awkwardly blossoming (but unexpressed) mutual affection. Their final high-stakes folly-- transporting a crystal palace of a church across (literally) godforsaken terrain--strains plausibility, and events turn ghastly as Oscar plays out his bid for Lucinda's heart. Yet even the unconvincing plot turns are made up for by Carey's rich prose and the tale's unpredictable outcome. Although love proves to be the ultimate gamble for Oscar and Lucinda, the story never strays too far from the terrible possibility that even the most thunderstruck lovers can remain isolated in parallel lives.
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Oscar Hopkins is a high-strung preacher's kid with hydrophobia and noisy knees. Lucinda ... more
Leplastrier is a frizzy-haired heiress who impulsively buys a glass factory with the inheritance forced on her by a well-intentioned adviser. In the early parts of this lushly written book, author Peter Carey renders the seminal turning points in his protagonists' childhoods as exquisite 19th-century set pieces. Young Oscar, denied the heavenly fruit of a Christmas pudding by his cruelly stern father, forever renounces his father's religion in favour of the Anglican Church. "Dear God," Oscar prays, "if it be Thy will that Thy people eat pudding, smite him!" Lucinda's childhood trauma involves a beautiful doll bought by her struggling mother with savings from the jam jar; in a misguided attempt to tame the doll's unruly curls, young Lucinda mutilates her treasure beyond repair. Neither of these coming-of-age stories quite explains how the grown-up Oscar and Lucinda each develop a guilty passion for gambling. Oscar plays the horses while at school, and Lucinda, now an orphaned heiress, finds comfort in a game of cards with an odd collection of acquaintances. When the two finally meet, on board a ship bound for New South Wales, they are bound by their affinity for risk, their loneliness and their awkwardly blossoming (but unexpressed) mutual affection. Their final high-stakes folly-- transporting a crystal palace of a church across (literally) godforsaken terrain--strains plausibility, and events turn ghastly as Oscar plays out his bid for Lucinda's heart. Yet even the unconvincing plot turns are made up for by Carey's rich prose and the tale's unpredictable outcome. Although love proves to be the ultimate gamble for Oscar and Lucinda, the story never strays too far from the terrible possibility that even the most thunderstruck lovers can remain isolated in parallel lives.
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Oscar Hopkins is a high-strung preacher's kid with hydrophobia and noisy knees. Lucinda ... more
Leplastrier is a frizzy-haired heiress who impulsively buys a glass factory with the inheritance forced on her by a well-intentioned adviser. In the early parts of this lushly written book, author Peter Carey renders the seminal turning points in his protagonists' childhoods as exquisite 19th-century set pieces. Young Oscar, denied the heavenly fruit of a Christmas pudding by his cruelly stern father, forever renounces his father's religion in favour of the Anglican Church. "Dear God," Oscar prays, "if it be Thy will that Thy people eat pudding, smite him!" Lucinda's childhood trauma involves a beautiful doll bought by her struggling mother with savings from the jam jar; in a misguided attempt to tame the doll's unruly curls, young Lucinda mutilates her treasure beyond repair. Neither of these coming-of-age stories quite explains how the grown-up Oscar and Lucinda each develop a guilty passion for gambling. Oscar plays the horses while at school, and Lucinda, now an orphaned heiress, finds comfort in a game of cards with an odd collection of acquaintances. When the two finally meet, on board a ship bound for New South Wales, they are bound by their affinity for risk, their loneliness and their awkwardly blossoming (but unexpressed) mutual affection. Their final high-stakes folly-- transporting a crystal palace of a church across (literally) godforsaken terrain--strains plausibility, and events turn ghastly as Oscar plays out his bid for Lucinda's heart. Yet even the unconvincing plot turns are made up for by Carey's rich prose and the tale's unpredictable outcome. Although love proves to be the ultimate gamble for Oscar and Lucinda, the story never strays too far from the terrible possibility that even the most thunderstruck lovers can remain isolated in parallel lives.
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Oscar Hopkins is a high-strung preacher's kid with hydrophobia and noisy knees. Lucinda ... more
Leplastrier is a frizzy-haired heiress who impulsively buys a glass factory with the inheritance forced on her by a well-intentioned adviser. In the early parts of this lushly written book, author Peter Carey renders the seminal turning points in his protagonists' childhoods as exquisite 19th-century set pieces. Young Oscar, denied the heavenly fruit of a Christmas pudding by his cruelly stern father, forever renounces his father's religion in favour of the Anglican Church. "Dear God," Oscar prays, "if it be Thy will that Thy people eat pudding, smite him!" Lucinda's childhood trauma involves a beautiful doll bought by her struggling mother with savings from the jam jar; in a misguided attempt to tame the doll's unruly curls, young Lucinda mutilates her treasure beyond repair. Neither of these coming-of-age stories quite explains how the grown-up Oscar and Lucinda each develop a guilty passion for gambling. Oscar plays the horses while at school, and Lucinda, now an orphaned heiress, finds comfort in a game of cards with an odd collection of acquaintances. When the two finally meet, on board a ship bound for New South Wales, they are bound by their affinity for risk, their loneliness and their awkwardly blossoming (but unexpressed) mutual affection. Their final high-stakes folly-- transporting a crystal palace of a church across (literally) godforsaken terrain--strains plausibility, and events turn ghastly as Oscar plays out his bid for Lucinda's heart. Yet even the unconvincing plot turns are made up for by Carey's rich prose and the tale's unpredictable outcome. Although love proves to be the ultimate gamble for Oscar and Lucinda, the story never strays too far from the terrible possibility that even the most thunderstruck lovers can remain isolated in parallel lives.
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 1995 - Drama - Director: Ang Lee - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Greg Wise, Hugh Laurie, Robert Hardy
Advantages: Fascinating characters, interesting, clever ending. Disadvantages: Carey writes using a fairly formal and complex style.
Australian author Peter Carey wrote Oscar and Lucinda in 1988 and it went on to win the Booker Prize for that year. The book is described on the back as a love story but after reading it I can confirm that it is much more than boy meets girl. Set in the late 1800's this is a book which explores a period of time when emigration between the UK and Australia first became popular. The book deals with the cultural issues which surround the aborigines and more strongly with the issue of religion.
The book starts long before Oscar and Lucinda actually meet, when they are both children living on different continents. We start with Oscar who is spending his childhood in Devon, isolated and alone, with his overprotective, religious and fanatical father. Oscar's two older siblings and mother died when he very young. Oscar father ...
Advantages: Entertaining story with great illustrations Disadvantages: might give kids ideas!
Oscar by Torbjorn Lundmark and Dana K. Lundmark
ISN 0868962813
Published by Ashton Scholastic
Yet another of my children?s books brought back with us from Australia in 1989 so it is quite an old book. It was actually a birthday present from a pre-school friend of my 27 year old daughter! It has been read to many classes of children in school over the years and my husband read it to our grandchildren when they stayed the night a few weeks ago. All enjoyed the story and appreciated the humour which is expressed in both the story and the illustrations.
The story is about a nice, well behaved little boy called Oscar who hates salami (I question why anyone would force their child to eat salami) and his ingenious ways of avoiding eating the stuff.
The illustrations showing Oscar?s hatred of salami are wonderful and I love the way hid huge ...
Advantages: The performances of the two leads and some excellent direction. Disadvantages: An ending that betrays the early convictions of the film.
Whilst Training Day failed to make a significant impact at the UK Box Office, the acclaim induced by an Oscar winning performance by Denzel Washington ensured that it?s DVD sales have been much more impressive. I figured that it was about time that I found out what all the fuss was about and recently acquired a copy for a very reasonable £12.97 from Tescos.
The Film
Training Day is a cop movie, although it is a far cry from the succession of buddy movies that have flooded onto our screen lead by the genre defining Lethal Weapon. This is a hard-hitting story of the ugly, and no doubt infinitely more realistic, side of police life with corruption, brutality and betrayal taking the place of heroism, action and camaraderie. Director Alonzo Fuqua introduces us to a myriad of complex moral issues that face undercover police officers ...