VICTORIAN ROMANCE
[HE GOLDEN BUTTERFLY, by Walter Besant and James Rice, first appeared in 1877 as a novel.-It has now been adapted by Howard Agg for the | BBC as a ten:part radio serial, and will | be heard in the Main National Pro- | gramme at 3.0 p.m. beginning Sunday, | August 26. It has been produced by Val | Gielgud and Audrey Cameron. | In many ways, The Golden Butterfly seems like a conventional late Victorian novel. There is the innocent and almost | too-good-to-be-true heroine and the missing will; the ‘selfish and marble- ) faced society beauty with a secret: past; | the eccentric American millionaire, and the poor, brave young hero. But however conyentional the irigredients, Val Gielgud considers the treatment of this little-known novel to. be both original and charming. He suggests that its sur-: vival is due to "the ingenuity of its construction and the originality and charm of its characterisation." It is a | book, he says, containing the’ nicest balance of plot, humour and people. The title of the sefial relates to a treasured luck-bringer which an American oil-king keeps in a glass box bearing the inscription, "If this golden butterfly fall and break/Farewell the Luck of Gilead P. Beck." The oil-king (played by James McKechnie) is a magnanimous, egotistical fellow who dispenses his millions on an abortive humanitarian enterprise, and is invince.
ibly amiable in spite of all discomforts. Norman Shelley plays Joseph Jagenal, the lawyer who is guardian to the young heiress, Phillis Fleming (Prunella Scales); Godfrey Kenton and Jeffrey Segal play Joseph’s two midcle-aged, dilettante brothers, Humphrey and Cornelius; Barbara Couper is heard as the
wealthy socialite, Victoria Cassilis, who is to initiate Phillis into Society; and Mary O'Farrell is the charming and elderly Agatha L’Estrange. Roland Dunquerque, Phillis’s young admirer, is played by Geoffrey Matthews, If this tale of the wealthy heiress in the midcle of changing guardians-a frenetic business when carried out ace cording to Victorian rules-seems complicated, at least it does sort itself out before long. :
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 889, 17 August 1956, Page 7
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330VICTORIAN ROMANCE New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 889, 17 August 1956, Page 7
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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