As news broke last month of a new Chair at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, the 25-year-old appointee Lucy Powrie—touted as the youngest in its history—said public reactions had been positive, but she assumed not reactions would be so kind in private.“I started to realise that there will be people who look at me and think I’ve been appointed because I’m young,” Powrie told Advisor.The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. Powrie’s journey to becoming Chair began more than a decade ago when, as a teenager, she began recording videos for YouTube.Among the books she read and shared with her growing audience was the Brontë back catalogue. The love of these books blossomed, leading her to join the Brontë Parsonage Society, which runs the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire.Powrie went on to become the Society’s Young Ambassador in 2018, having sent an email to the museum’s comms and marketing lead (and now Director, Rebecca Yorke) explaining her interest in the Brontë and the growing audience of fans.She has since run a Brontë bookclub on YouTube, held in-person events at the museum, and became “an advocate for young people visiting the museum”, which she said was a “dream come true”.Last year Powrie became a trustee of the Society’s board. More recently, as the Society’s former Chair Julian Sladdin stepped down, an opportunity arose to lead the board.“You don’t see many young people as Trustees, or Chair, Vice Chair”, Powrie said.One of the concerns about stepping up to the role of Chair was “maybe I don’t know everything about a specific area”, she explained.“I was aware of the barriers and I just decided I would step over them,” she explained; “it wasn’t like I had designs to climb up [the leadership ladder], but it was something I had to think very carefully about and just go for”.“The biggest barrier to young people finding leading positions in museums is imposter syndrome. For a lot of young people, it wouldn’t occur that you could be on a board or could be involved, boards typically skew older.“There’s also an assumption in welcoming young people onto a board that you have to alienate other demographics, which I don’t think is true.“The point of a board is not that you are one person standing alone. It’s multiple people with a different background and experience all collaborating and providing feedback.”Despite Powrie’s social media following, which runs into the tens of thousands, she does not consider herself an ‘influencer’; not least because she has since established herself as an author in her own right, publishing a series of Young Adult Fiction novels.“I don’t try to influence people to read, I just want people to follow along and share their lives reading as well”, she said.“As a teenager when I visited the museum it was so great, because I walked through the doors and there were people exactly like me, and my age, who loved the Brontës. I’d never seen that anywhere,” she said.Powrie said her approach to creating a following online has been centred around building community and sharing experiences. Her approach as Chair will be much the same.“People are always looking for [community], and they are so passionate about the Brontës. They want to talk about them, they want to share their opinions and theories. We’re talking about women who were born two hundred years ago but feel so relevant.”
Romance novels have a long history in Western culture. From Ovid’s Ars Amatoria to Samuel Richardson’s Georgian Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, to the Gothic sagas of the Brontë sisters and the Victorian social romance of Jane Austen, the genre has shape-shifted along with society. (Melanie Kembrey)
It’s not yet clear who else will be filling out the predictably starry ensemble (personally, I hope Carey Mulligan makes an appearance again, as she has in Fennell’s past two hits, in some bonkers and unexpected role), though we do know that Fennell will be writing and producing as well as directing, and that the film is already in pre-production ahead of a UK-based shoot in 2025. So, I say to my fellow Brontë obsessives: this is not a drill. It’s time to blast Kate Bush and dig out your own battered copy of this literary classic once again. (Radhika Seth)
Hong Chau (The Instigators), Alison Oliver (Saltburn), and Shazad Latif (Magpie, Star Trek: Discovery) have landed the three remaining major roles in Academy Award winner Emerald Fennell’s buzzy Wuthering Heights adaptation for Warner Bros, MRC, and LuckyChap.Sources tell us Chau is playing Nelly Dean, the film’s chief narrator, with Oliver as Isabella Linton. Shazad plays Edgar Linton, a wealthy, aristocratic man who marries Catherine Earnshaw (Margot Robbie). The actors come to the project after Warner Bros snapping it up in a fierce bidding war, with a commitment to a theatrical run with a big P&A spend. As previously announced, LuckyChap’s Robbie and Euphoria‘s Jacob Elordi lead the cast. (Matt Grobar)
A historic property that has Brontë connections goes under the hammer next month – with a £650,000-plus guide price.Kirklees Council is selling the Grade II*-listed former Red House Museum, at Gomersal.Dating back to 1660, the house and grounds are associated with Luddite activities and the Taylor family, particularly Mary, a radical feminist and friend of Charlotte Brontë.Charlotte was a regular guest at the property in the 1830s and gave it a starring role as Briarmains in her novel, Shirley.Bought by Spenborough Council in 1969, the building served as a museum from the early 1970s until it was closed to the public in 2016.The property was then earmarked for a wedding venue and holiday accommodation, but the plan fell through.Kirklees Council announced last year it was looking to dispose of several assets when it was facing a £47m budget deficit, and was hoping to bring in a minimum of £4 million from the various sales.Bought by Spenborough Council in 1969, the building served as a museum from the early 1970s until it was closed to the public in 2016.The property was then earmarked for a wedding venue and holiday accommodation, but the plan fell through.Kirklees Council announced last year it was looking to dispose of several assets when it was facing a £47m budget deficit, and was hoping to bring in a minimum of £4 million from the various sales.“It would make an outstanding family home, as it must have been for generations of the Taylor family, and contains some really exceptional original features, including stained glass windows in the dining room that are described by Charlotte Brontë in Shirley.”He added: “Not surprisingly we have had a great deal of interest from would-be buyers.”Charitable organisation Red House Yorkshire Heritage Trust was formed in November 2019 in the hope of saving the Red House site and its buildings so they could benefit the local community.
Adapted by Chris Bush, based on the novel by Charlotte BrontëDirected by Lucy BettsThe Barn Theatre, Rose Bruford College 21, 22 & 23 November 2024Orphaned, neglected and beaten, Jane Eyre finds a place as governess to Mr Rochester’s ward at Thornfield Hall. She feels she belongs there, a home at last. But there are secrets and noises in the night and Mr Rochester is not all he seems.
Finally, it wouldn’t be a critique of BookTok if we didn’t address the copious thrillers. So as I close out this piece, I’ll leave us with the over-hyped recent thriller trilogy, “The Housemaid” by Freida McFadden.McFadden permeates the subgenre, especially with this novel that narrates ex-criminal Millie’s new job as a housemaid for a wickedly wealthy couple with secrets of their own. And while I didn’t mind “The Housemaid” for all its twists and turns, I can’t help but feel like “the madwoman in the attic” is one of the most overused paradigms.If you’re seeking that supernatural eeriness, you’ll find it in the origin of the trope, “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë. Mysterious voices in the attic, disturbing ghostly movements, female hysteria. Other classics like “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier or “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys, and even contemporary tales like “The Wife Upstairs” by Rachel Hawkins found inspiration from Brontë’s brilliant gothic story. (Kaylee Monahan)
Her work sold in America, receiving praise in the New York Times, which wrote: "With the publication of Precious Bane, a substantial readership came to respect Mary Webb’s quiet genius; and it is for this country classic that she has been remembered ever since.It added: "When she died at the age of 46, literature lost a voice that promised to speak for Shropshire as poignantly as Thomas Hardy had spoken for Wessex and Emily Bronte for Yorkshire." (Joanne Writtle)
Published in 1979, "The Madwoman in the Attic" was more than a scholarly text—it was a radical reinterpretation of female literary expression. Gilbert and Gubar introduced a revolutionary lens through which to view women writers, particularly those of the 19th century like Charlotte and Emily Brontë. They argued that the seemingly "mad" or rebellious female characters in these works were not mere plot devices, but powerful proxies for the authors' own suppressed rage and rebellion against patriarchal constraints.
In their landmark analysis, Gilbert and Gubar saw Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" as a quintessential example of this narrative strategy. Bertha Mason, the infamous "madwoman" locked in the attic, was not just a plot obstacle, but a complex symbolic representation of the protagonist's own thwarted desires and social frustrations. This character became a metaphorical embodiment of the creative and emotional restrictions imposed on women during the Victorian era.
The madwomen and harridans of Brontë, Austen and others were proxies for the authors’ own rage and rebellion, Ms. Gilbert and Ms. Gubar declared. So, too, was Shelley’s “Frankenstein”: her monster, herself. (..)
The book became a feminist blockbuster, joining second-wave feminist classics like Kate Millet’s “Sexual Politics” (1970) and Elaine Showalter’s “A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing” (1977), which traced the legacy of gender discrimination in the arts. (...They thought of calling their course Upstairs, Downstairs, but settled on The Madwoman in the Attic, in homage to the madwoman who haunts Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” otherwise known as the first Mrs. Rochester. The patterns that began to emerge as they taught those works — what they described as a distinct feminine imagination and literary tradition — were thrilling to them. (Penelope Green)
In many articles about students’ reading abilities, there is an overemphasis on students’ disengagement from canonical texts — those traditionally deemed “classics” that all students should read. Works such as “Wuthering Heights,” “Jane Eyre,” “The Iliad,” “Great Expectations” and “Pride and Prejudice” are often heralded as crucial for understanding the human condition and appreciating humanity’s greatest achievements. While these texts can offer valuable insights, they predominately feature white authors and white protagonists, suggesting that only certain humans are worthy of appreciation.When the canon is prioritized, contemporary, diverse and young adult literature, especially works by and about minoritized people, are often overlooked. By emphasizing a narrow selection of texts, we can alienate students who might connect more deeply with stories that reflect their own experiences. By spotlighting white-centric literature from centuries ago, we risk making reading feel irrelevant to students’ lives, further diminishing their motivation to read. (Stephanie R. Toliver)
In her most well-known novel “Wide Sargasso Sea” — the aforementioned prequel to “Jane Eyre” — follows the madwoman of Rochester’s attic before madness. Or, more accurately, the novel closely follows her into madness. A series of tragedies and horrors are lodged into the psyche of Antoinette Cosway since childhood: the prolonged threat of violence against her family, the deterioration of her mother and then a mob’s burning of her home and a brush with death, prevented only by a superstitious sign (a parrot burning to death). Later, living in an abbey, Cosway confesses to a nun “I had a dream I was in hell.” And recalling the image of her worn mother being taken away to an insane asylum, she begins to cry, asking “why, why must such terrible things happen?” The nun offers no consolation, telling her only to “put that dream out of [her] mind” before sadly concluding “we cannot know why the devil must have his little day. (Grant Yoon)
A screening of Jane Eyre will take place at St Thomas’s Church in Goring next Thursday at 10.30am.The romantic drama is based on the 1847 book by Charlotte Brontë where Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowksa) finds her true love in Edward Rochester (Michael Fassbender), the owner of an old mansion. However, Edward has a dark secret which will destroy Jane’s life forever. (Henley Standard)
ARTICLES
Welcome by Sharon Wright, Editor.
Letter from the Chair. Julian Sladdin. Chair of the Brontë Society Board of Trustees.Excloosive. Wot a relief, say Brontë fans by Sharon WrightWhat's in a name? by Sharon WrightWritten in ink and tears by Jenna Gray'a ghoul or a vampire' by Elysia BrownClose-up on the Collection: Friends and neighbour by Ann Dinsdale
June Jolly by Miriam Halahmy
The cash, the lies and 'that woman' by Andrew StodolnyMembership Matters: Welcome / Brontë Society Membership Survey 2024 / Young Brontë Friends / Staying Paperless for the Brontë Society AGM / Stay in Touch / Farewell from me! by Nick Jones, Development OfficerThe Brontë Bookshelf: How would we tell the Brontë story had it never involved Elizabeth Gaskell? by Graham WatsonDirector's Diary by Rebecca Yorke. Director Brontë Society and Brontë Parsonage Museum
La gallega Lucía Lago debuta en la ficción con una novela de misterio, romance y meigas. Con una prosa cuidada y una atmósfera que recuerda a las hermanas Brontë, la escritora nos lleva de viaje por leyendas y escenarios de la costa gallega. (Lara Capelo) (Translation)
Analyzing Character Images in Jane Eyre from the Perspective of Feminism.
Jiaqi Ma,
Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2024) Vol. 7: 84-90Charlotte Brontë is one of the greatest realist female writer in the history of 19th century English literature, as well as Jane Eyre is her famous representative work. Through the perspective of feminism, the article analyzes in depth the characters of Jane Eyre, Rochester, and other female characters, such as Helen Burns and Bertha Mason. The paper also vividly demonstrates the profound influence of feminism on the roles of males and females in the Victorian Era. Jane Eyre explores the ideas of British women's consciousness of equality, independence and their courageous pursuit of love.
Haworth is probably the most cosmopolitan place in Yorkshire – between about 9am and 9pm.The works of sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë have been translated into 60-plus languages and have enchanted readers around the world. That’s not bad for three odd Yorkshire lasses who wrote these now classic novels to amuse themselves as they waited for the internet to be invented.Logically, fans of Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall visit the sisters’ locale to swallow the landscape and village that inspired them. Even outside peak season you can hear conversations in a wide range of foreign languages as well as non -British English. (...)But now there’s another kind of international tourist in Haworth. I ask a couple of young Chinese students on Haworth’s Main Street if they like the Brontës. They look at me puzzled.Following a very short and awkward conversation I realise they’re not here as Brontë fans. In fact, I’m not sure they had hitherto heard of the Brontës.I ascertain they’re from one of the Leeds universities and they’ve come to Haworth because they’ve seen photos of it on social media. I find this odd but apparently it’s pretty common among Generation Z.And as long as they’re spending money and not peeing in people’s doorways and making a din, who cares? (David Himelfield)
The British writer-director Andrea Arnold has worked in American episodic TV (“Transparent,” “I Love Dick,” the entire second season of “Big Little Lies”), and she made a 2011 version of “Wuthering Heights” that’s as stark and storm-tossed as a night on the moors. (Ty Burr)
And at the frillier end of cultural representations of men, the likes of Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights depend more on their ability to smoulder a lady to a crisp with a glance than on their emotional articulacy. (Catherine Bray)
Un dels seus llibres predilectes és Cumbres Borrascosas, una obra que esmenta amb freqüència com la seva favorite. (Dani Serrano) (Transaltion)
This very limited Australian season will mark the commencement of a South East Asian Tour for the production which will see the British company including many of the original London cast members returning to their roles.The lead roles of Heathcliff and Catherine will be played by John Leader and Stephanie Hockley respectively. Sam Archer plays Lockwood/Edgar Linton, Rebecca Collingwood Isabella Linton/Linton Heathcliff, Matthew Churcher as Hindley Earnshaw/Hareton Earnshaw, and Nandi Bhebhe in the role of Leader of the Moors. (...)“How exciting to be bringing our beloved Wuthering Heights to Sydney! Following in the footsteps of my productions of Tristan & Yseult, The Red Shoes and Brief Encounter, I hope Wuthering Heights will capture the heart of Sydney, just as Sydney has captured mine. Prepare for all the drama, humour and hope that you could wish for – I can’t wait to be down under again,” said Emma Rice.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, 1847Is it just us or is this book moving enough to make you run out of the house during a downpour and into your nearest park wearing an impractical long dress? This list wouldn’t be complete without paying homage to Cathy and Heathcliffe, whose impassioned souls roam over the Yorkshire Moors. A tale where the wild heath, the imposing house and the thrashing elements are famously ‘main character energy’. It would only be right to read this while welcoming in the start of a classic British winter. (Sophia Haddad)
Instead of her usual originality, Levy spends a lot of time reflecting on other people’s reflections. We get Levy’s take on Simone de Beauvoir’s take on Violette Leduc. Levy’s take on Elizabeth Hardwick’s take on the Brontë sisters. It’s all a bit meta. (Ceci Browning)
Yorkshire Bylines talks about how The Boggarts – a group of some of the country’s top writers – are crowdfunding to produce an anthology of poetry and prose about bogs:
Give Peat A Chance will be an anthology of prose and poetry by some of the country’s top writers including Amy Liptrot, Alys Fowler, Pascale Petit, David Morley and Rob McFarlane. It aims to create connection and understanding around peatland landscapes like Walshaw Moor, which looms above Howarth (sic), Hebden Bridge and Hardcastle Crags.
Widely thought to be the original Wuthering Heights, it’s a site of special scientific interest and it’s also a bone of contention currently with a proposal to build one of the UK’s largest wind farms attracting a passionate local debate. (Jimmy Andrex)
The 2009 miniseries Wuthering Heights is one of many adaptations of the classic 1847 novel by Emily Brontë. Hardy plays the leading role of Heathcliff, who is raised by the wealthy Earnshaw family. Later in life, he launches a vendetta against them. Heathcliff also falls in love with Cathy, and their romance becomes a danger for everybody around them. Charlotte Riley plays Cathy, Hardy’s now real-life wife, so it’s no surprise that the pair have very believable chemistry. (Alyssa De Leo)
6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëGoverness Jane has overcome a troubled childhood to work for Mr. Rochester.As their mutual attraction spikes, Jane wonders about the secrets he’s hiding at Thornfield Hill.The novel is known for being not only one of the best romantic books but one of the greatest novels of all time. (Alycia McNamara)
Duván’s style combines dreamlike imagery with striking textures and tones, inviting viewers into a reflective and emotional experience. Now based in Besalú, Spain, since 1998, he has showcased his work internationally, fostering a dialogue between diverse cultures and art forms. His initiatives, such as founding the Museum of Art of Armenia and Quindío (MAQUI), further highlight his commitment to the artistic community and cultural preservation.
The painting will be part of the exhibition /Rojo Duván/ at the Chantier Art Gallery (Manuel de Falla 36, Barcelona, Spain) from November 21 until January 10, 2025
A date has been set for when a Grade II* listed former museum with Brontë connections will be auctioned off.Kirklees Council said the Red House, a Georgian mansion in Gomersal, would be listed for sale with Pugh Auctions on 3 December, with a guide price of over £650,000.The property, which was once the home of Charlotte Brontë’s friend Mary Taylor, was previously a museum which closed in 2016 and a plan to turn it into holiday accommodation and wedding venue fell through.Kirklees Council announced it would dispose of several assets to address a £47m deficit last year. The Red House Yorkshire Heritage Trust, formed to try and save the site in 2019, said they were "profoundly saddened" by the decision to sell it.A statement on their Facebook page said they had worked with Communities Together to put forward a bid to purchase the house and gardens with a view to restoring community access, but the council did not accept it."As a result, Red House will now be sold by auction," the group said.“We are profoundly saddened by this outcome and fully understand and share the community’s strong disapproval of the council’s decision.”According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Graham Turner, the council's cabinet member for finance and regeneration, said: "As this building is now surplus to the council’s requirements, it could generate crucial capital funding to help us deliver a better future for Kirklees.”Mary Taylor's family lived at the Red House and she met Charlotte Brontë at Roe Head School in Mirfield and maintained a lifelong friendship with the writer. (Abigail Marlow)
We’re on Main Street in Haworth, a few miles from Keighley. This steep, cobbled thoroughfare was the stomping ground – or in the case of Branwell, staggering ground – of the legendary Brontë family.The literary connection attracts thousands of international visitors to this Pennine high street lined with bookshops, cafes and gift shops. On a crisp but sunny Wednesday, the majority of visitors are British but you can hear the odd conversation in a foreign language.And yet Main Street is a working street with a surprisingly large number of long-established residents. It’s not all holiday rentals after all.Claire and her husband Barry have run Hawksbys, a gallery and craft shop near the top of Main Street, for 23 years. Because of Main Street’s persistent popularity the couple work seven days a week with only sporadic breaks.“When you go out of the village you get a lot of perspective. You realise how beautiful it is. You get that ‘homecoming’ feeling,” says Claire, 43.“You look down the street and you think, how many people have that view?...and it’s so atmospheric.”I ask Claire if she’s a Brontë fan because one shouldn’t assume everyone on Main Street is. “I prefer Jane Austin [sic],” she says and laughs.Down the hill with slightly less of a view is a woman we’ll call Janice. Janice (she doesn’t want to give her real name) is more openly ambivalent.“It’s lovely,” she says before adding cautiously, “I just wish the tourists would be a bit more respectful.” [...]Janice finds some of the international tourists amusing, especially those from parts of the US where a 100-year-old building is considered ‘ancient’.“They think our houses are [film] sets or fascias. They don’t realise they are real houses,” she says.And while Janice doesn’t necessarily love Haworth’s visitors, she has a soft spot for Japanese visitors. The Bronte canon is immensely popular in Japan to the extent signs to the Brontë Waterfall and Top Withens are in Japanese.“You can be shamed by the Japanese tourists; the amount they know about it,” says Janice. (David Himelfield)
Tell us about your new book, Charlotte. Where did the idea come from?The novel is about memory, family secrets and the power of objects. It tells of Charlotte Brontë’s brief marriage to Irishman Arthur Nicholls through the voice of his second wife, Mary. The idea sprang from my interest in the Brontë sisters and their work – they wrote women characters with emotional depth who were independent and resourceful, like themselves. I’ve visited Haworth several times and the museum in the parsonage where they lived is a little jewel.What do you hope this book instils in the reader?For people to realise that Ireland exerted a stronger pull on Charlotte Brontë’s imagination than has necessarily been acknowledged. And that although the Brontës are regarded as jewels in England’s literary canon, they had an important Irish connection which fed into their work. Their father, Patrick, was Irish and fired his children’s imaginations with stories, books and newspapers.What did you learn when writing this book?That in marrying Arthur, Charlotte was reaching out to life and hope. We have a view of the Brontës as doomed, tragic figures but Charlotte was happy with Arthur during their nine months of married life; also, the sisters’ letters show them to be creative, loyal, resilient, witty and sharp observers. They were proto feminists in an era where women were more or less the property of a father or husband. (Sarah Gill)
It’s a story that echoes the power of writing theme Connolly explored in his Lost Things series and, despite a second visit involving Emily Brontë’s Cathy feeling slightly rushed, a worthy addition to his impressive oeuvre. (Pat Carty)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, The Awakening by Kate ChopinI read them quite early on in the album process, and it’s only now I’ve thought about them again. I hadn’t really been exposed through education to feminism. I was in a relationship that wasn’t balanced, and these books showed me women that were fighting for that balance and fighting to be equal. I read them, and they stuck with me. And then I went on with my life. Looking back on those books, what they were about, why they made me feel certain things – it’s so much of the character traits that I really was too afraid to embody myself. When I came to the end of the record and I had finally learned to embody these characteristics, like dignity, independence, sticking to your moral compass despite what society wants, equality in a relationship. Especially with Jane Eyre, she wanted to be seen as an equal and didn’t want to sacrifice her own values. All of these qualities were things I had to learn in the making of this record. And now that I’m finally getting there with those qualities, these books have popped up again in my head. (Konstantinos Pappis)
Helen Mirren once said ‘All you have to do is look like crap on film and everyone thinks you’re a brilliant actress. Actually, all you’ve done is look like crap’. It’s a bold statement, the kind you can only expect from a seasoned professional who’s been around the image-conscious Hollywood block a few times. But although Mirren is nearly eighty, her proclamation is no less resonant nowadays than it was during her days as a young actress. [...]A BBC article hyperbolically entitled ’Wuthering Heights: Hollywood’s worst casting decisions’ (surely that title belongs to James Corden in Cats?) begins with a summary of the novel that reads like a thirteen-year-old’s panicked last-minute copy-and-paste from Wikipedia: ‘Catherine is a teenager who lives on a farm in England in the late-1700s. Heathcliff is a dark-skinned foundling of the same age’. The treatment of Heathcliff’s race as his defining feature in the second sentence comes across as somewhat problematic, and what the rest of this article impeccably (if inadvertently) encapsulates is the problem with movie releases in the Internet epoch, when social media vultures seize on a singular piece of casting information like a freshly killed impala and tear it apart with frightening zeal — without actually having seen the film. The professed motivation behind the freshest feast is that Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie are considered too polished and beautiful to play Emily Brontë’s tortured, gurning, windswept youths. The author expresses this by describing them as ‘impossibly good-looking’, but then fumbles around for something to back up this superficial argument, going on tangents about so-called ‘iPhone face’ (a phenomenon whereby certain actors’ faces look too modern or ‘Instagrammable’ for period dramas) and Heathcliff’s ethnicity (equating the absence of a black actor in the ambiguous role of a traveller to Laurence Olivier playing Othello in blackface). But the beauty argument is an empty critique, as it is patently untrue that glamorous actors cannot play dishevelled or unattractive characters. Were that the case, millions of hair and makeup artists would be out of work. (Daisy Simpson)
Music and lyrics by Paul Gordon. Book and additional lyrics by John CairdDirected by Linda CooperWith Presley Calonge, Justin Jackson, Bella Burke, Daniel Arce, Melody Wimberley, Jesse Wilkerson.Nov. 8 – 23, 2024Nov. 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22*, 23 – 7:30 p.m.Nov. 9, 16, 23 – 2:00 p.m.Nov. 10**, 17 – 3:00 p.m.Academic Performance – Tower TheaterCharlotte Brontë’s great love story comes to life with music to lift your heart and set your spirit soaring. This beloved tale of secrets and the lies that secrets create, of unimaginable hope and unspoken passion, reminds us what it is to fall deeply, truly and completely in love.Jane’s story begins in Gateshead, where she is in the unfortunate care of her cruel Aunt Sarah and cousin, John, as per her uncle’s dying wish. The miserable young orphan is finally rescued when she is sent away to attend Lowood School for Girls. After six years, Jane leaves Lowood and is shortly after hired as a governess at Thornfield Hall. Here, she meets Mr. Edward Rochester, thus beginning her passionate and heart-wrenching journey of love, loss and the struggles of morality.
The complete program can be downloaded here.
Austin Shakespeare’s borrowed production uses those myriad methods to get at the beating emotional core of Jane’s soul. Those familiar with the National Theatre, either through lucky British visits or through their “At Home” screening service, know its reputation for creative sets and unique storytelling. Under artistic director Ann Ciccolella, Austin Shakespeare has expertly crafted a similarly thrilling theatrical experience. Scenic designer Evonne Paik Griffin faithfully re-created the National Theatre’s staging, sparse ramps and platforms against a bare screen, delicately lit with the occasional projection from resident lighting director Patrick W. Anthony.The tallest platform structure hides an array of musical instruments, where many actors retreat if they aren’t needed for the main story. The play is essentially live-scored by those actor/musicians playing guitar or bass or even violin accompaniments. It adds emotional heft to scenes, dishing up musical undercurrents of threat, sorrow, or joy as the mood sees fit. There are a few sung portions as well. Many of these come courtesy of Chelsea Manasseri, who plays a tenderly sympathetic Bertha (and a cruel Aunt Reed) when not enhancing the atmosphere with her rich alto.In addition to working as a literal merry band of players, the ensemble (with the exception of Taylor Flanagan’s Jane) works in multiple roles throughout the play. Tim Blackwood is Mr. Rochester, but also a cowering schoolgirl during early Lowood Institution scenes. Cassie Martin is Jane’s housemaid and first semi-ally Bessie, but also her beloved but doomed school friend Helen Burns. Memorably, A.Y. Oza works as the fire-and-brimstone, blustering Lowood headmaster Mr. Brocklehurst, then spends the latter half of the production with astounding athleticism on all fours as Rochester’s playful dog Pilot.But much of Brontë’s text focuses on Jane’s interior life. It’s where many productions err. Since they can’t capture Jane’s fierce inner desires formed by her experiences, many default to the romance as focus. But this production places Jane’s independence and obstinate strength over any pious governessing. Part of that is the sheer pluck of Flanagan’s performance, which never veers into romantic cliches. Instead, any melodrama has a backbone of solid steel. But much of it is yet another ingenious use of the ensemble as a Greek chorus illuminating Jane’s innermost thoughts and struggles. Cast members often surround Jane to converse, to question, to torture. There are group chants and movements, an effective use of every single performer helping convey Jane’s feelings.The result is imminently powerful. The clever staging and presentation keeps this story from veering into sanctimonious sermon, or maudlin, self-important romance. Jane is never boring. She’s a woman who admits to being desperate for affection, finding her own strength. Brontë’s Jane Eyre is a tale of discovering and maintaining inner worth. And Austin Shakespeare’s production illustrates Jane’s quest for a life of liberty and yes, some love, with grace. (Cat McCarey)
Portaceli le ha dado dos grandes personajes.A.G:: Y me acompañarán toda la vida. Una hace muchos trabajos, pero pocas veces tiene la oportunidad de hacer algo que te cambie profundamente. Jane Eyre y Anna Karénina son dos personajes muy distintos, con temperaturas muy diferentes, pero que a mí me han conmovido de una forma brutal.¿En qué sentido?A.G.: Jane Eyre es el personaje más importante que nunca nadie en teatro me había ofrecido, y para mí fue un reto tener que tirar de la función, aunque estaba muy bien acompañada. (Magí Camps) (Translation)
November 15, 2024 2:00 pm - 3:00 pmWith Christine Nelson who curated the 2016 exhibition Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will at New York’s Morgan Library & Museum and authored the companion volume The Brontës: A Family Writes (Scala Arts Publishers). She was the Morgan’s longtime Drue Heinz Curator of Literary & Historical Manuscripts. The first “adult” novel she read was Jane Eyre.Did you first encounter Jane Eyre
in a high school class, on a family bookshelf, at the local library, or perhaps in a film adaptation? In this tour, we will see (and even feel!) the various ways Brontë’s brilliant 1847 work has taken physical form, from its first incarnation in three simple, cloth-covered volumes to an early 20th century binding depicting Jane as an Edwardian beauty. We will hold copies of Brontë’s novels that have passed through the hands of Lewis Carroll, Marianne Moore, and Maurice Sendak—into our own. And we will examine one of the Rosenbach’s great treasures: a preface to Jane Eyre in the author’s own hand, in which she famously cautions small-minded critics that “appearance should not be mistaken for truth.” Bring your own beloved copy of any of the Brontë authors’ novels to this special Behind the Bookcase tour as we consider how any book—whether a pristine first edition or a tattered paperback—constitutes a treasure as long as we cherish it.
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What new dimensions are there to the rules and obstacles in love when Romeo is a woman, or trans, or of a different race or class? How do we look at Medusa when retold as a story about gendered power and monstrosity? How is the mad savage wife reframed when her madness is explored in the context of alienation and patriarchy, as in the equally classic Jane Eyre retelling, Wide Sargasso Sea? Plus, whether Jordan with Daisy, or Jane Eyre with mad wife Bertha—as in L.L. McKinney’s Escaping Mr. Rochester—these reworkings also present the opportunity to place focus on two marginalized characters alongside each other, putting their solidarities, intersections, or even tensions in conversation as they both navigate a world set up against them. (Wen-yi Lee)
“I noticed that many novels of education, or coming-of-age narratives, depicted schooling in a negative way,” Chalk wrote in an email to The Quadrangle. “Characters almost always had some core traumatic experience at school– from David Copperfield and Jane Eyre to more recent main characters in novels by Zadie Smith and Elena Ferrante. So I set out to see what other patterns I could find in these novels, and discovered that a majority of them posited reading (often reading fiction) as an alternative and positive form of individual education.” (Leyla J Mercado)
Honourable mention: Norton Conyers, North Yorkshire – its secret staircase, only discovered in 2004, is thought to have inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. (Sarah Baxter)
Friday 15 November 2024A day of nature, creativity, and yoga with Emma Conally-BarklemJoin us for a relaxing day of nature, creativity, and yoga in the inspiring and picturesque Brontë village of Haworth.Led by yoga teacher, author, and poet Emma Conally-Barklem, this day is suitable for all abilities, with no writing or yoga experience required - just a willingness to join in!Here's what you can look forward to:• 9.30am: Welcome and breakfast drink and snack• 10am: Morning yoga and meditation wellness session• 11am: ‘Nature as Muse’ sensory walk and note taking• 12pm: Lunch break (you're welcome to bring your own lunch or join us at Cobbles & Clay café in Haworth)• 1pm: A talk on the Brontës and their love of nature, followed by a guided practical writing session with journaling and writing tips• 2.30pm: Yoga relaxation session to end the dayPlease wear suitable clothing and bring water, walking shoes, and waterproofs.
A date has been set for when Kirklees Council hopes to offload the historic Grade II*-listed former Red House Museum, which has Brontë connections.Tuesday, December 3, will see the Georgian mansion - dating back to the 17th century - go under the hammer with Pugh Auctions, with a guide price of £650,000 plus.Bought by Spenborough Council in 1969, the building served as a museum from 1974 until it was closed to the public in 2016.The museum was earmarked for a wedding venue and holiday accommodation after it closed, but this plan fell through.Kirklees Council announced it was looking to dispose of several assets last year when it was facing an eyewatering £47m deficit, and was hoping to bring in a minimum of £4m from the sales.Auctioneers say the historic property is likely to be suitable for redevelopment or change of use and could potentially be returned to its original use as a large private residence.The property’s many original features include an 18th-century wooden staircase leading to a galleried landing, as well as several fireplaces, and striking stained glass windows featuring portraits of William Shakespeare and John Milton.Other options for some of the properties included Community Asset Transfers – where a site is handed over to be owned and managed by the community - though in the case of Red House, the Council is pushing ahead with an auction.Will Thompson, a director at auction house Pugh, said: “In keeping with its four decades as a museum, the Red House is a fascinating treasure trove that is drenched in the history of this part of West Yorkshire."It would make an outstanding family home, as it must have been for generations of the Taylor family, and contains some really exceptional original features, including some stained glass windows in the dining room that are described by Charlotte Brontë in Shirley.”He added: “The house is also in the highly sought-after village of Gomersal and not surprisingly we have had a great deal of interest from would-be buyers.”Charitable organisation Red House Yorkshire Heritage Trust has commented on the news.The group was formed in November 2019 in the hopes of saving the Red House sites and its buildings so they could benefit the local community.A statement on their Facebook page says: “Communities Together and Red House Yorkshire Heritage Trust collaboratively put forward a bid to purchase the house and gardens with a view to restoring community access."Kirklees Council did not accept this bid. As a result, Red House will now be sold by auction.“We are profoundly saddened by this outcome and fully understand and share the community’s strong disapproval of the Council’s decision.”Councillor Graham Turner, cabinet member for finance and regeneration at Kirklees Council, said: “Next month we’ll be auctioning off Red House in Gomersal."As this building is now surplus to the council’s requirements, it could generate crucial capital funding to help us deliver a better future for Kirklees.”
“Ultimately, ‘Jane Eyre’ is a tale of redemption,” Director Linda Cooper, associate professor and chair of Theatre Arts, said. “I’m hoping … (the audience) will understand what forgiveness is and that God tempers judgment with mercy, and so there’s hope for everyone.”The expanded stage showcased numerous locations, including the peaceful forested garden of Thornfield Hall and the heartless atmosphere of Lowood School. These scenes are brought to life by the musical’s creative team, production staff and orchestra, which is conducted by adjunct music professor Kathryn Wert.“Jane Eyre is a hero of mine, full of spirit and fortitude,” Cooper said. “She faces this world with only God as her guide and listens to his still, small voice in all situations. Even when her flesh is weak, it is her moral compass that gives her strength to carry on in the face of adversity.”“Helen Burns is my favorite character because of how her character shaped the rest of Jane’s journey from beginning to end,” Jesse Wilkerson, who plays the role of Mr. Rochester, said. “If it wasn’t for Helen, I don’t think Jane would ever have been able to forgive Mrs. Reed or Rochester, and her story would have been completely different.”The cast of “Jane Eyre” faced several difficulties, including an unforeseen last minute cast change requiring Wilkerson to switch to the role of Rochester in the final week of rehearsals. Despite this, Wilkerson has remained optimistic in the success of the musical.“It has been a very busy week diving deep into the life and character of Edward Rochester, but I can confidently say this has been the greatest experience I’ve had with learning a (role) and the most challenging,” Wilkerson said. “God has blessed me a lot in this process.”Wilkerson is not the only cast member who is excited to be working on this musical. His co-star, senior Presley Calonge, plays the leading character, Jane Eyre. Calonge said she hopes the audience will be able to appreciate the musical’s story of hope and redemption.“This entire show is to recognize that hope in life,” Calonge said. “In the same way you can look at the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, and I mean … what a hopeless time. … Later he rose from the dead, and now we have eternal life with him. And I think that is so beautiful and knowing that even in the times where life seems the most hopeless, there’s always an ounce of hope.”Calonge described Eyre as “a force of nature” and someone who “sticks up for herself and others.”Calonge said Eyre’s outfit stands out from the others; her sage green dress acts in contrast to the darkened hues of maroon, purple and navy that adorn the rest of the cast.“She is a representation of hope and light within all these peoples’ lives that she interacts with,” Calonge said.As “Jane Eyre” embarks on a journey for the eternal benefit of each of its characters, a few central themes carry throughout.“(The musical is) a haunting story of love, hope and redemption,” Calonge said. (Kadence McKinnon)
7. Supongo que al tener que acotar el libro a diez personajes, habréis tenido que dejar fuera otros que también os gustan mucho. Si pudierais añadir uno más, ¿cuál sería? ¿Por qué?C: Creo que, como lectoras voraces desde niñas, podríamos hacer una lista interminable de personajes que podrían haber aparecido en el libro. Pensándolo ahora podría decir Alicia, de Lewis Carroll, Julieta Capuleto, Jane Eyre, Catherine Earnshaw o Anna Karenina.A: Todas ellas, sin olvidad a Jo March y Anne Shirley, dos de mis personajes icónicos y que habríamos disfrutado mucho buscando sus voces. La verdad es que nos gustan tantos, desde nuestros personajes favoritos de la infancia como dice Cris, como Rapunzel o La Sirenita, hasta muchos más contemporáneos como Hermione Granger. (Translation)
