Victorian Christmas in Copenhagen

I’m crazy about Christmas. It is I guess my rebound after hating the dark Danish winters so much. I especially love Copenhagen around Christmas – the old part of town can completely set me back in time and I forget all my depressing thoughts and feel like I part of a H.C. Andersen-fairytale. I always seek the traditional Danish Christmas decorations and the moods in Copenhagen, which are not difficult to find. Especially if you walk around Strædet in the evening, just past Gamel Torv - here you can easily disappear and pretend that you're back in the 1800s Copenhagen and might just run into H.C.A. himself.

Place of the month in December is The Victorian Home. I went there today for the first time and I think every one in this city should pay it a visit. It is a complete apartment as it looked in 1890 with the original interior. It is part of The National Museum and they only have limited guided tours making it a very unique experience. As you walk around the halls of this amazing place, you hear the story of the family, who lived there from the 1890s up until the 1960s until the apartment was given to The National Museum.
And this time of year it is especially charming as the apartment is decorated with an old traditional Danish Christmas tree.

Shake me up, Judy

Sunday night in my flat is devoted to one thing and one thing only: BBC’s Bleak House. As a student of British literature I have crossed paths with old Charles D. quiet a few times. As a young nerd I of course loved ‘A Christmas Carol’ and the aura of British Victorian life that lingers around everything that has to do with him. In general, I can’t say that I am a BIG fan of his, as I think I’ve read only two of his novels in their entirety.

But Bleak House is a great example of my initial fascination with British, Victorian culture. Before I started university, I lived in Paris for a while and on one visit to Shakespeare & co’s I found a copy of Bleak House. I thought, ‘hey this must be the greatest example of British literature – I have to get copy’. Also of course in order to get Shakespeare & Co’s fine stamp in my book.

Anyway my Penguin’s edition of Bleak House then went on my bookshelf; looking cool and sort of intellectual (and dusty) and I didn’t open it at all before I started my studies a few years later. Now I think I’ve begun reading it 3 times and returning a couple more, until now, when I’ve honestly given up. Sorry, Charles, I enjoyed Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, but…pyh.

Well, to compensate for my lack of reading the books, I’ve seen many TV, film and stage adaptations of his works. It’s the first time I have seen Bleak House, though, but I think this one really gets it all right. Since I’ve only read about half of the novel maybe 3 times, it is so wonderful finally to have a TV version that you trust to bring all the details of the story and characters. The complicated story of the case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce and the fate and consequences for all the people involved is actually made exciting.
The actors have been chosen really well and fit into their parts with ease and calm. No big celebrity actors star in this and if they do, they are well disguised - Except of course for the former X-files actress Gillian Anderson. She gives a (surprisingly?) good performance with an accurate English accent, as the mysterious and fragilely beautiful Lady Deadlock.

But what really makes my Sunday night so completely devoted to this series is apart from the intrigues and good acting the beautiful set design. The colours and the lighting in this production set the mood of Victorian London so well that you can almost feel the damp and dirty air. Also the costumes and make up creates the characters, seen especially in the contrast between the disgusting Mr. Smallweed and the pure and natural Esther.Therefore the best way to wallow great drama and English Victorian atmosphere is really Bleak House