Evening Class

Last updated
Evening Class
Evening Class (novel).jpg
First edition (UK)
Author Maeve Binchy
Country Flag of Ireland.svg Ireland
Language English
Genre Novel
Publisher Orion Books (UK)
Delacorte Press (US)
Little, Brown (Canada)
Publication date
1996
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages544 pp (paperback edition)
ISBN 9780752804514

Evening Class is a 1996 novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. It was adapted as the award-winning film Italian for Beginners (2000) by writer-director Lone Scherfig, who failed to formally acknowledge the source, although at the very end of the closing credits is the line 'with thanks to Maeve Binchy'. [1]

Contents

Plot introduction

A story of many Irish men and women from various backgrounds and how a teacher, Nora O'Donoghue (known as "Signora"), and an Italian evening class changes their lives over the course of a year. Each chapter deals with the life story of one or more students in the class. In a Dickensian way, they bump into each other and are affected by the decisions of those around them.

Major themes

It is a story of love and deceit, family drama, wealth and poverty, of friendship and courage, and lots of laughter.

Nora O'Donoghue and Aidan Dunne also appear in Quentins , another novel by Maeve Binchy, and play a more significant role in Heart and Soul .

Film adaptation

The novel heavily inspired the plot of the Danish feature film Italian for Beginners (2000), which won a Silver Berlin Bear and several other major international awards. Maeve Binchy was not paid, credited nor informed of this, but was later paid an undisclosed sum, when her publisher contacted the producers of the movie, Lars von Trier's company Zentropa. Although the film's writer-director Lone Scherfig had told the press that the film was based on her idea, executive producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen later admitted that she had made him aware of the similarities but that he had simply decided not to pay the original author. [2]

Related Research Articles

Maeve, Maev or Maiv is a female given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish name Méabh, which was spelt Meadhbh in early modern Irish, Meḋḃ or Meaḋḃ in Middle Irish, and Medb in Old Irish. It may derive from a word meaning "she who intoxicates", "mead-woman", or alternatively "she who rules". Medb is a queen in Irish mythology who is thought to have originally been a sovereignty goddess. In ancient and medieval Ireland, the drinking of mead was a key part of a king's inauguration ceremony.

Maeve Binchy Irish novelist

Anne Maeve Binchy Snell was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, columnist, and speaker. Her novels were characterised by a sympathetic and often humorous portrayal of small-town life in Ireland, and surprise endings. Her novels, which were translated into 37 languages, sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, and her death at age 73, announced by Vincent Browne on Irish television late on 30 July 2012, was mourned as the death of one of Ireland's best-loved and most recognisable writers.

<i>The Glass Lake</i>

The Glass Lake is a 1994 novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. The action takes place in a rural Irish village as well as in London in the 1950s. It is notable as the last of Binchy's novels to be set in the 1950s. Binchy explores the roles of women in Irish society and inconstant lovers, and uses an operatic plot to hold the reader's attention.

<i>Italian for Beginners</i> 2000 film

Italian for Beginners is a 2000 Danish romantic comedy film written and directed by Lone Scherfig, and starring Anders W. Berthelsen, Lars Kaalund and Peter Gantzler, together with Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Anette Støvelbæk and Sara Indrio Jensen. The film was made by the austere principles of the Dogme 95 movement, including the use of handheld video cameras and natural lighting, and is known as Dogme XII. However, in contrast to most Dogme films which are harsh and serious in tone, Italian for Beginners is a light-hearted comedy. It was made on a $600,000 budget, and went on to gross over 27 times that.

<i>Quentins</i>

Quentins is a 2002 novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. The title refers to Quentins Restaurant, a fictional upscale dining establishment in central Dublin, Ireland. The restaurant was referenced numerous times in previous Binchy titles; this novel explores its 30-year history as well as the lives of its patrons. The novel was produced as a BBC Word for Word audiobook in 2003.

Deirdre Purcell is an Irish author. Purcell is a former Abbey Theatre actress, who has played as Christine opposite Donal McCann in Drama at Inish, Miss Frost in the stage adaptation of The Ginger Man, and Pegeen Mike in The Playboy of the Western World. Purcell is also a former TV and press journalist. She has been awarded The Benson & Hedges and Cross awards for journalism. She lived in Beara Peninsula in West Cork. Since October 2009, she has presented All About the Music on RTÉ Lyric FM. She is a former presenter of "It Says in the Papers" on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1.

<i>Light a Penny Candle</i>

Light a Penny Candle is a 1982 novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. Her debut novel, it follows the friendship between an English girl and an Irish girl over the course of three decades, beginning with the English girl's stay in Ireland during the Blitz. It is one of Binchy's best-known novels.

<i>Circle of Friends</i> (novel)

Circle of Friends is a 1990 novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. Set in Dublin, as well as in the fictitious town of Knockglen in rural Ireland during the 1950s, the story centres on a group of university students. The novel was adapted into a 1995 feature film directed by Pat O'Connor.

Lone Scherfig Danish film director and screenwriter (born 1959)

Lone Scherfig is a Danish film director and screenwriter who has been involved with the Dogme 95 film movement and who has been widely critically acclaimed for several of her movies, including the Oscar-nominated film An Education (2009). Scherfig's movies are generally romantic comedies, including her film One Day (2011), based on the David Nicholls novel. Through both experimenting with creative constraints and her astute attention to detail, she has come to be recognized as a significant talent in the film industry.

<i>Tara Road</i> (film) 2005 American film

Tara Road is a 2005 film directed by Gillies MacKinnon. It is based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Maeve Binchy.

<i>The Copper Beech</i>

The Copper Beech is a 1992 novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. Set in the 1950s and 1960s, the storyline follows the lives of 12 characters living in a small Irish town, in chapters with interlocking plot elements. The novel was recorded as a BBC audiobook in 2007.

<i>Heart and Soul</i> (Binchy novel)

Heart and Soul is a 2008 novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. The plot centers around what Binchy terms "a heart failure clinic" in Dublin and the people involved with it. Several characters from Binchy's previous novels, including Evening Class, Scarlet Feather, Quentins, and Whitethorn Woods, make appearances.

<i>Echoes</i> (Binchy novel) Novel by Irish author Maeve Binchy

Echoes is a 1985 novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. As Binchy's second novel, it explores various themes of Irish small-town life, including social classes and expectations, the paucity of educational opportunities before the introduction of free secondary education in 1967, and women's roles. A four-part television miniseries was adapted from the novel in 1988.

Gordon Snell is a British author of children's literature and scriptwriter.

51st Berlin International Film Festival Film festival

The 51st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 7 to 18, 2001. The festival opened with war-drama film Enemy at the Gates by Jean-Jacques Annaud. 70 mm restored version of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 Sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey was the closing film of the festival. The Golden Bear was awarded to French-British film Intimacy directed by Patrice Chéreau. The retrospective dedicated to German-Austrian filmmaker, screenwriter Fritz Lang was shown at the festival.

Mary Agnes Donoghue is an American screenwriter and director. Following early jobs as a secretary and short story writer, Donoghue's first writing credit was the 1984 film The Buddy System. She went on to pen the screenplays for Beaches (1988) and Paradise (1991), which was also her directorial debut. Donoghue co-wrote and co-produced Deceived (1991) and two year later, her first play, Me and Mamie O'Rourke, made its debut at the Strand Theatre in London. In the 2000s, Donoghue wrote the screenplay for White Oleander (2002) and co-wrote Veronica Guerin (2003) with Carol Doyle. In 2013, Donoghue wrote and directed Jenny's Wedding.

<i>A Week in Winter</i>

A Week in Winter is a novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. It was published posthumously in 2012. It set a record for the most pre-orders ever for a book on Amazon.com.

<i>Silver Wedding</i> (novel) 1988 novel by Maeve Binchy

Silver Wedding is a 1988 novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. Set in London, Dublin, and the west of Ireland in the year 1985, the novel explores the lives and inner feelings of a couple and their family and friends who are about to celebrate the couple's 25th wedding anniversary.

<i>Chestnut Street</i> (book)

Chestnut Street is a 2014 short story collection by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. It was published posthumously by her husband, Gordon Snell. It contains 36 short stories, the majority never before published, which Binchy had written over a period of decades. Each story centers around a different resident or family living on or connected to the fictional Chestnut Street in Dublin.

Róisín Ingle is an Irish writer – a journalist, columnist and editor – as well as a podcast presenter and producer. Growing up in Sandymount, Dublin, she lived and worked briefly in the UK but has lived and worked in Ireland for most of her life. She worked at the Sunday Tribune and then moved to the Irish Times in the late 1990s, where she has worked since, notably producing a widely-read lifestyle column, working as a features editor and producing multiple series of podcasts. Selections of her columns, which number more than 4,000, have been collected in two books, and she is also co-producer of and a contributor to another, and editor of others, notably a collection of work by Maeve Binchy.

References

  1. Maeve Binchy (1996). Evening Class. Orion. ISBN   978-0-7528-0451-4.
  2. B.T. May 17 2010: Lone Scherfig tyvstjal idé til 'Italiensk for begyndere'