So Magnificent An Ocean

The Brontë birthplace is not the only property on the market with Brontë connections. The Sunday Times lists another one:

No 1 Rockmount is a five-bedroom period house on West End, the coastal road that heads west out of Kilkee, in Co Clare. In June 1854, Charlotte Brontë, the author of Jane Eyre, famously spent part of her honeymoon in a property just three doors down, then known as the West End Hotel. In a letter to a friend at home in England, she described the stretch along the seafront here, writing, “. . . so magnificent an ocean — so bold and grand a coast — I never yet saw.” (Dara Flynn)

Ahram (Egypt) reviews the novel مسك التل (The Hill’s Musk) by سحر الموجي (Sahar El-Moguie):

Amina, the fictional submissive early 20th century Egyptian middle class mother of the trilogy of Naguib Mahfouz, Catherine Earnshaw, the indomitable protagonist of Emile (sic) Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and Mariam a clinically depressed psychiatrist who is always standing between two worlds of sobriety and bewilderedness, or maybe even between life and death, are the protagonists. (Dina Ezzat)

Some Austen vs Brontë tidbits (with free blunders included):

It’s not just that Austen’s books have remained a presence. Texts far older and far less widely-read remain a part of English class curriculums, on book store shelves. But people aren’t shelling out thousands of dollars to go on Henry James-themed tours of England, or gathering at yearly conferences to discuss the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. And even beloved literary figures like Charlotte Brontë’s Heathcliff (!!!!!) fail to inspire the same sort of worldwide adoration that Fitzwilliam Darcy does. (Boston Herald)

The [Jane Austen Society of Pakistan] now has chapters in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and London. At meet-ups, discussions stretch from Austen in the news to Austen in their lives. "For instance, we'll discuss parallels between Elinor and Marianne Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility) and Elizabeth and Margaret Windsor (from Netflix's The Crown); or Jane Austen vs Charlotte Brontë — do women authors create the most romantic heroes? Favourite and least favourite heroines, frenemies, heroes, cads, screen portrayals — we never run out of topics," says Sukhera. (Joeanna Rebello Fernandes in The Times of India)

Vijesti (Montenegro) talks about the Wuthering Heights production performed in Bar:

Inscenacija romana Emili Brontë, prema riječima rediteljke, govori sasvim otvoreno o ljudskim manama i prikazuje ljude koji po svojim potrebama i suštini uvijek ostaju isti, samo se mijenjaju socijalna struktura i način na koji nas društvo ograničava. Dora Ruždjak Podolski istakla je saradnju sa crnogorskom ekipom i prostor u kome se predstava igrala. (Translation)

L'Alsace (France) interviews the writer Guillaume Musso:

Votre premier livre lu ? Les Hauts de Hurlevent d’Émilie Brontë, découvert à onze ans chez mon grand-père pendant les vacances de Noël. C’est l’après-midi. Il pleut. Une coupure de courant m’empêche de regarder la télé. Dans la bibliothèque de mon grand-père, à côté des Mémoires du Général de Gaulle, je trouve un vieux livre qui appartenait à ma mère quand elle était plus jeune, Les Hauts de Hurlevent. Je commence à le lire et je ne le lâcherai plus. À partir de ce moment-là, j’ai compris que grâce aux livres, je ne serai plus jamais seul. (Translation)

Politics and Prose uploads a complete talk by John Pfordresher presenting his book The Secret History of Jane Eyre; Catholic Reads reviews the trilogy Unclaimed, Nameless and Vanished by Erin McCole Cupp:

Cupp’s 3-part adaption of Jane Eyre nearly as powerful as Brontë’s original. It still remains true to Christian and Catholic morals regarding sex and marriage and it remains a wonderful book that both religious and secular readers can enjoy and respect. Fans of the original Jane Eyre will love Jane E. and new readers who might find the original classic literature intimidating will enjoy this adaptation as well, though they will likely miss a lot of the references. If buying 3 novella eBooks does not suit you then you can buy the whole book in physical form under the title, Jane E Friendless Orphan, though the cover of that one isn’t as beautiful as the covers for the eBooks. Besides, fans of the original Jane Eyre would do well to remember that it was originally published in three volumes like this. (A.R.K. Watson)

Better living through Beowulf  posts on how Jane Eyre cares for the sick. History Things traces a profile of Emily Brontë. Mon Jardin Littéraire (in French) reviews Syrie James's The Secret Diary of Jane Eyre.

Bonnets at Dawn

This is an ongoing podcast and a crowdfunding project focusing on the eternal Brontë vs Austen (apparent) dichotomy:

Bonnets At Dawn (and Instagram)
Lauren Burke and Hannah K Chapman
Chicago, United States

Austen vs. Brontë is a literary thunderdome! Listen each week as Lauren and Hannah compare and contrast the lives, work and fandoms of the Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters.

Both Brontë and Austen teams want that this project go beyond the podcast and be a book. The project can be funded on Unbound:

This unique biography will compare and contrast the lives and work of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters via comics, essays and an accompanying podcast.
Each week, authors Lauren (Team Brontë) and Hannah (Team Austen) will present their research and debate topics such as Darcy vs. Heathcliff, Steventon vs. Haworth, and Northanger Abbey vs. Jane Eyre on their podcast. Brontë biographers, Austenesque authors, fashion researchers, artists and actors will be interviewed to weigh in on this very important debate.
Each chapter of the book will be comprised of Team Austen and Team Bronte essays drawn from the discussion on the podcast and feature comics from some of our favorite artists. Here are a few things you can expect -
Popular animators - the Satrun sisters, will illustrate Victorian and Regency fashions in paper doll style.
Cheesecake artist extraordinaire, Monica Ras, is tackling our chapter on Victorian men versus Regency heroes, and drawing our beloved Brontë and Austen men as hunks.
Storyboard specialist J.M. Tolman will craft an illustrated quiz to test your knowledge.
Gothic-inspired comic artist, Laura Neubert will illustrate our trip to the Brontë Parsonage.
And many more artists will be announced!

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Jane Eyre meets Xanadu in Hebden Bridge (or Branwell's bike has a flat tyre)

Poor Branwell, even in an article on GQ about sexism in cycling, he appears as an example of patriarchal bias:

As an artist, Branwell Brontë wasn't up to much. He was a mediocre painter, as his portrait of his more talented sisters shows, and a lousy poet whose work in his lifetime did not reach beyond the pages of the local newspaper. The brilliance of his siblings, you may know. Emily wrote Wuthering Heights, Charlotte Jane Eyre and while Anne Brontë's The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall is not as fondly remembered, she is at a disadvantage having snuffed it at 29, so might really have nailed one later in life.
Anyway, the point is that this year the Arts Council will be spending a significant proportion of a £97,702 grant so that we "get to know Branwell" on the 200th anniversary of his birth. The rest will go towards commemorating Emily's birthday next year but even so. Fifty grand on Branwell Brontë? Put it like this. Let's say the literary Brontës were three brothers, giants of the written word, with a less gifted sister, who spent most of her life drunk or on opium, as Branwell did, before pegging it through tuberculosis at the age of 31. Do you think the Arts Council would now be setting fire to a wheelbarrow of cash so we could "get to know" Doris? You see? It's different for girls. (...)
Yet it would seem equally straightforward to concede that Branwell Brontë lacked artistic ability comparable to his sisters, only the patriarchy won't let go. So it's different for girls. (Martin Samuel)

American Theatre interviews Jen Silverman, the playwright of The Moors:

There’s so much going on with genre here too, because clearly we have the Brontës, and then I was thinking Daphne du Maurier and Flowers in the Attick—his pulp-Victorian-mashup-gothic-satire. There’s sort of an Ionesco thing too. Was any of this conscious on your part, or am I just making all this up? (David Adjmi)
It is 100 percent accurate, and very little of it was conscious. I mean, I love du Maurier, I love so many of the references you just made. But when I wrote the first draft, none of that was on my mind. I was doing the FreeWrite residency at Williamstown [Theatre Festival in the Berkshires], where you go up there for a week and you work on whatever you want. I had been going through a pretty hard life moment, and I kind of stumbled off an Amtrak, moved into a dorm room, and wrote the play.
You did it in a week?
The first draft—obviously it’s changed since then. Writing it didn’t feel different from writing a realistic play; I wasn’t consciously thinking, “Oh, let’s explore genre.” I’d spent months reading all these letters from Charlotte Brontë, so in a way that was just the theatrical language I was steeped in.
Did you think, “I want to write a play about this”? Was it research, or did you just want to read Brontë?
I had no thought of writing a play, I just got sucked in. The letters are so seductive! The voice in them is so strong, and so is the world that she’s painting of—these wind-blown, desolate moors. I was so fascinated by that, and by the idea of this woman who is living two lives: She’s living the life of a spinster in an isolated house and then she also has this bold, literary voice that is traveling out and away, to places she herself can’t reach.
When I started writing, it wasn’t in any way an adaptation of the Brontës. It simply felt like I had been in conversation with this voice for a few months, and here I was in a very difficult and private moment at Williamstown, continuing a conversation—about intimacy, visibility, isolation, desire. And of course, after the fact, when the rewriting and sculpting starts, then you’re like: Oh, I’m having a particular interaction with genre—that’s when craft comes into play. 

The author and columnist Katie Lett lists her favourite books for the Daily Express:

I grew up with Australian men who have a three-grunt vocabulary and only get passionate about the surf and the turf. So the idea of Heathcliff, this burly bloke who could be poetic and passionate, was every girl’s dream. I read this while working on a sheep station. It was the opposite of the wild and windy moors. (Caroline Rees)

The Times reviews House of Fiction by Phyllis Richardson:

For readers who have already been to Haworth Parsonage (the Brontës), Shandy Hall (Laurence Sterne) and Monk’s House (Virginia Woolf), Richardson offers a gorgeous property supplement of new places to visit in person — or on the page. If the writing is occasionally workaday, it is more than made up for by the author’s enthusiasm. (Laura Freeman)

City Journal vindicates the 1948 British film The Winslow Boy:

The uproar catches the interest of Sir Robert Morton, England’s most eminent—and expensive—barrister, masterfully played by Robert Donat as a complex mix of eloquence, cold hauteur, ruthless intelligence, and deep but hidden feeling, a legal version of Jane Eyre’s Mr. Rochester. (Myron Magnet)

iNews describes Hebden Bridge as a paradise of tolerance:

Tim Whitehead, 44, an agent for performers, who returned to Yorkshire to live in Hebden Bridge after eight years in London, says it is hard to explain why the small Yorkshire mill town has such a thriving LGBTQ commuity.
Howarth (sic), where the Brontë sisters lived, is just 20 minutes up the road but remains a “closed community by comparison”, he says. (Dean Kirby) 

Idaho Press introduces us to Heather Mullins, a roller derby player:

In roller derby, players compete under pseudonyms, and Mullins’ job at the Warhawk Air Museum helped inspire her derby-league moniker, “Jane Eyre Raid.” The other part comes from her favorite English novel by Charlotte Brontë: “Jane Eyre.”
“Jane Eyre Raid seemed like a perfect fit,” Mullins said. (Olivia Weitz) 

LitHub pairs classic country songs and novels:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë & “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones

In what might be the most romantic of all country songs, “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones depicts one man’s unrequited love that he harbors until the end of his life. The day the townspeople remove his corpse from his home is the day he stops loving the woman he fell in love with in his youth. Bronte’s only novel, Wuthering Heights, depicts a similar devotion. At the end of this complicated love story, Heathcliff is so obsessed with the memory of his adopted sister Catherine that he talks to her phantom. (Sarah Creech)

The Austen anniversary is discussed in the Daily Star (Bangladesh):

Women in Jane Austen's time weren't allowed a lot of leeway. Literary circles were so strongly male dominated that the first page of Austen's first published book, Sense and Sensibility, didn't have her name. “Written by 'A Lady'”, it said. These same restrictions caused other writers like the Brontë sisters and Mary Anne Evans (who we know as George Eliot) to take up pseudonyms throughout the 19th century. (Sarah Anjum Bari)

Past in perspective in The National (Pakistan):

Most of the writers of Victorian England have written fictional novels, which often have a touch of the supernatural. Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Jane Austen, Edgar Allen Poe, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Oscar Wilde and Robert Louis Stevenson are some of the famous writers of gothic fiction. All these writers lived during the Victorian era, where these beliefs were common.

Wakefield Express and Keighley News are eager to see Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre in Leeds. The latest episode of  the Kate Bush Fan Podcast

 is a celebration of Kate’s debut single, the classic song Wuthering Heights! Seán chats to participants at the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever in Dublin (see the video below featuring hundreds of “Cathys”!) and he explores the story of the song and the Emily Brönte (sic) novel; how it immediately thrust Kate into international stardom. It’s our tribute to the lasting legacy of this truly remarkable recording. (Seán)

Rochdale Online informs that a local young dancer will be Jane in the Anne Doyle's Jane Eyre performances in Preston next October. While I Was Reading posts about some Jane Eyre book covers.

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Wildfell Hall in Portuguese

A new Portuguese translation of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has been published in Brazil:

A Senhora de Wildfell Hall
Anne Brontë
Translator: Julia Romeu
Grupo Editorial Record
ISBN:  9788501080691

Filha mais nova da família Brontë, Anne era irmã de Emily Brontë, autora de O morro dos ventos uivantes, e de Charlotte Brontë, autora de Jane Eyre — livros clássicos e reeditados até hoje. Anne Brontë (1820-1849) desafia as convenções sociais do século XIX neste romance, A senhora de Wildfell Hall. A protagonista da obra quebra os paradigmas de seu tempo como uma mulher forte e independente, que passa a comandar a própria vida. Ao chegar à propriedade de Wildfell Hall, a Sra. Helen Graham gera especulação e comentários por parte dos vizinhos. O jovem fazendeiro Gilbert Markham, por sua vez, desperta um grande interesse pela moça e, aos poucos, vai criando uma amizade com ela e com seu filho. Porém, os segredos do passado da suposta viúva e seu comportamento arredio impedem que o sentimento nutrido pelos dois se concretize, fazendo com que Gilbert tenha dúvidas sobre a conduta da moça. Quando a Sra. Graham permite que ele leia seu diário a fim de esclarecer os fantasmas do passado, o rapaz compreende os tormentos enfrentados por aquela mulher e as razões de suas atitudes. Ela narra sua história até então, desde a relação com um marido alcoólatra e de conduta abominável até a decisão de abandonar tudo em nome da proteção do filho.

The preface by the translator can be read here. A couple of readers's reviews can be found on Pétalas de Liberdade and Leitura Maravilhosa.

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The Tenant of Wuthering Hall by Bertha Grey

The Guardian's Country Diary visits North Lees Hall:

Organic forces take over Brontë's land of secrets (...)
The rain started as I crossed the pasture above North Lees Hall, the model, it is widely accepted, for Thornfield Hall in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre. It’s a house the author visited more than once, staying with her friend Ellen Nussey in nearby Hathersage, and the intertwining of the names – thorn being an anagram of north and lee derived from the Anglo-Saxon for field – coupled with the detailed description Brontë gives, are persuasive. (...)
History is not so much layered here as crammed in, like old furniture in an attic, along with Mrs Rochester. In the woods, above a clearing, cupped behind a high retaining wall buried in creepers like some lost Inca ruin, was a chocolate-brown pool overhung with alder and oak. It was long and crescent shaped. The only sound was drops falling off the leaves and rippling the surface. (...)
The pond was built to power a lead smelting works, probably in the early 18th century. In the 1840s, when Brontë visited, the site was being used as a paper factory. Now it felt somewhere wholly organic, reclaimed. (Ed Douglas)

Feminism in India explores Bertha Mason's character in Jane Eyre:

Jane Eyre is a progressive book in many senses – far ahead of its time, it is even deemed feminist. As she lived in a time when women were not encouraged to write, Charlotte Brontë wrote under the pseudonym Currer Bell to avoid being ostracized by society, and to avoid being badly received by the audience because the book was written by a ‘woman’.
Jane Eyre revolves around the life of a simple, ‘plain’ yet intelligent, orphaned girl who struggles with internal and external battles before she comes to accept that she loves her employer Mr Rochester, who is double her age, and from an upper class background. Her life turns upside down when she discovers, right before her wedding, that her lover has an ex-wife, a madwoman hidden in the attic, and flees – narrowly escaping from committing to a sinful relationship. Eventually, the madwoman, Bertha Mason, commits suicide, and Jane marries Mr Rochester.
Sure, Jane is a groundbreaking, rebellious character in literature and has been talked about everywhere, but in this article we will analyze the one character, which even though is absolutely essential to the plot, has no representation of her own – a character that has been termed ‘mad’, ‘violent’, and ‘crazy’. No prizes for guessing who! Bertha Mason, despite being so important to the plot of the story, interestingly does not have a single dialogue in her part. Over the course of the decade where Jane speaks of her life with Rochester, not once does Bertha speak. (Read more) (Ismat Ara)

The East Hampton Star talks about Elizabeth Doyle Carey and Carrie Doyle. You know authors and sisters...

“Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life,” the poet laureate Robert Southey informed Charlotte Brontë when she sent him her poems, along with her sibling Anne’s writing, to critique. The Brontës went on, quite efficiently, to make it their business. (Judy D'Mello)

 A quite random Brontë mention in Poughkeepsie Journal:

When I was younger, my goal was to own a sprawling Victorian mansion. Perhaps it was because Samantha was my American Girl doll of choice or perhaps it was because I read the Brontë sisters a few too many times, but I often used to dream of a multitiered estate to call my own. (Sabrina Sucato)

The Arizona Republic reviews the film Lady Macbeth:

Katherine (Florence Pugh) is married off to a cold brute and sent to live at an estate set in a landscape as desolate and wild as Brontë’s moors. There, Katherine lives in isolation with little more to keep her company than no-nonsense house servant Anna (Naomi Ackie), who harshly rakes the tangles from her hair and offers little comfort. (Barbara VanDenburgh)

The International News (Pakistan) quotes Charlotte Brontë on self-esteem:

Self-appreciation is also something you might miss out by being among people other than yourself. You may have countless people complimenting you, but at the end of the day, you need that assurance from none other than yourself. This is aptly summed up by Charlotte Brontë who said: “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” (Rabia Tufail)

A curious article on Catholic Stand on the Holy Trinity and... Tristan and Isolde:

You may remember that in Wuthering Heights, Catherine Linton’s love for Heathcliff was so great that she said, “I don’t love Heathcliff, I am Heathcliff.” In other words, she wanted to enter into him more fully and more completely than their human bodies allowed, and remain there forever. She was not so much saying what had happened, but what she desired to happen more than anything else. She wanted to lose herself in him and wanted him to lose himself in her. You find the same idea in the story of Tristan and Isolde. When the two reached the heights of human love, their union was so sublime that at one moment Tristan actually calls Isolde, Tristan and Isolde call Tristan, Isolde. (David Torkington)

Entertaniment Weekly publishes an excerpt from You Play The Girl by Carina Chocano:

One gray and freezing Sunday afternoon, my mom drops us off at the crappy mall, where the movie [Flashdance] has washed up after ending its run at the fancy mall. My naked longing to see this movie again makes me feel self-conscious. Standing in the empty parking lot on this dreary and windy day, I’m not quite Jane Eyre; maybe more like Cathy in the Pat Benatar version of Kate Bush’s tribute to Wuthering Heights. All at once, I’m overcome with a shame so bilious I think I’ll dissolve into the asphalt. I’m fifteen, but I’m not stupid. I know this is a terrible movie. I know it’s a lie from start to finish. But it’s a lie I very badly want to believe in.

Addicted to follow in love? Your Tango has some ways to know it:

7. You're bored by the thought of stability.
A calm and easy bond built on affection, trust, support — a partnership — well, that sounds like a commercial for a family car I don't want to drive.
I tell myself I want that stuff (or should want that stuff), but my brain lingers on the idea that every day should be a passionate tumult, a Heathcliff and Catherine affair: doomed but like your heart will be ripped out if you're not together. (I even once told aforementioned love object that "Don't we all just want that Wuthering Heights sh*t?" Surprisingly, to me, some people don't and are probably happier for it.) (B.A. Marvell)

LitHub has some pieces of advice for your wedding toast:

Do not read anything from Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Romeo and Juliet, or Twilight, despite the fact that they are Very Famous Romantic Novels. Read: dude keeps his old wife in the attic! Vindictive ex-boyfriend corrupts a woman’s son for revenge! Obnoxious teenagers can’t wait five minutes without killing themselves! Stupid sparkly vampires! You don’t want to invoke that shit on your wedding day—even if the part you read is like, so romantic. (Emily Temple)

Vijesti (Montenegro) discusses the Serbian adaptation of Wuthering Heights now on stage in Bar (Montenegro):

“Ispisan i sastavljen od višestrukih narativa, kontradiktornih ili prije hibridnih žanrovskih odrednica, kao omaž strastima i sa jednom i više nego sadržajnom tematikom koja obiluje romantičarskim, okeanskim osjećanjima, ne dozvoljavaju da ga ukalupimo u još jednu ljubavnu priču. Štaviše, izgleda da je tačna procjena Martina Ketla o 'Orkanskim visovima' za koje kaže da, ukoliko ih želimo posmatrati samo kao ljubavni priču, onda na Šekspirovog „Hamleta“ možemo gledati kao na neku vrstu sitkoma”, rečeno je na promociji.
Čini se da je Emili Bronte kroz “Orkanske visove” demistifikovala i razotkrila sve ono podrazumijevano o onom ljudskom, isuviše ljudskom i upravo tu leži njena moć - ona je oslobodila život od činjenica, i svih naših sviknutih poluistina o ljubavima, strahovima, mržnjama, kajanju i iskupljenju, ali i mnogim drugim emocijama i fenomenu. Stela Mišković na promociji nije htjela govoriti mnogo o pisanju prve balkanske dramatizacije ovog, kako je kazala, za dramatizaciju izuzetno potentnog, ali i kompleksnog romana, prije nego što publika bude imala priliku da pogleda predstavu. Ipak, istakla je da je dugo razmišljala o tome šta će biti idejna okosnica predstave, po je tako u toku procesa došla do teme izbora koje pravimo, dosljednosti kojom stojimo iza njih, načina na koji prihvatamo svoje i tuđe izbore. To ju je potom dovelo i do teme malograđanštine koja joj je poslužila kao spona sa današnjicom, što predstavu čini aktuelnom. Mišković je kazala i da je za ovu priliku radila tzv. filmsku dramaturgiju koja podrazumijeva nizanje kratkih, kroki scena koje omogućavaju ukidanje jedinstva prostora i vremena. (Translation)

La Croix (Belgium) talks about holidays and summer in the Brontës:

L’été sera assurément festif à Haworth cette année, avant un été encore plus spécial l’an prochain, le 30 juillet 2018 voyant le bicentenaire de la naissance d’Emily Brontë. En cette période plus encore que toute l’année, nombre de touristes et aficionados affluent dans le petit village du Yorkshire où les sœurs Brontë écrivirent parmi les plus grands chefs-d’œuvre de la littérature mondiale.
Si on imagine plus volontiers l’atmosphère locale en automne et en hiver, la lande battue par les vents, la saison d’été permettait de belles sorties à ces grandes marcheuses, par exemple à la petite cascade située à mi-chemin de la ferme de Top Withens qui aurait inspiré Emily pour Hurlevent.
La correspondance de la famille, traduite en français cette année, montre qu’elles aspiraient à s’échapper du village, mais devaient se résoudre, plutôt que voyager, à tenir la maison ou travailler comme préceptrices. Charlotte l’exprime en ce mois de juillet 1839 où, libérée de ses obligations auprès de la famille Sidgwick qui l’employait, elle rêve d’aller au bord de la mer, sur la côte est du Yorkshire, seule avec sa meilleure amie Ellen Nussey. (Sabine Audrerle) (Translation)

Some late appearances of the Austen vs Brontë fever:

Algo en las novelas de Austen las hace amenas y entrañables. No empalagan con cursilería o el dramatismo de las novelas de las hermanas Brontë. Nada extraordinario ocurre y sin embargo, Austen hace gozar intensamente su descripción de la vida cotidiana en bosques de la provincia británica. (Raudel Ávila in La Razón) (Translation)

The Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen version of Pride and Prejudice caught my eye. I’d read the book years ago, but connected more with the brooding loneliness of Jane Eyre than any of Austen’s wealthy and silly single girls. (Marisa Johnson in The Atlantic)

It is a truth universally acknowledged: Austen was not a romantic, like the Brontës. A clear realist and ironist, she's all in for restraint and order, morals and manners. The passionate Brontë sister-writers can have their wild moors, wuthering heights and Heathcliff — even a madwoman in the attic — but Austen liked emotions buttoned up in British fashion. (Jamie Stiehm in Creators)

[Virginia] Woolf elegantly unplucks the writing careers of a number of these now celebrated authors, including Jane Austen, who she argues is successful because although she may not be as fine a writer as Charlotte Brontë, she is more successful because she is one of the first women authors who writes unashamedly as a woman, exploring settings and themes she understands (and are considered trivial by men) rather than being constrained by the rules of fiction put in place by the long history of male writers. Charlotte Brontë, she argues, at times allows her own anger, her authorial voice, to intrude. (Jenni Ogden in Psychology Today)

Pulso (Chile) has an article about a terrible attempted femicide and quotes Jane Eyre:

En estos momentos hay dos mujeres, de distintas épocas y países, que están presentes en mi mente. Una es Jane Eyre, ese entrañable personaje del siglo XIX de la novela de Charlotte Brontë. Una mujer que en su época trata de mantener la independencia económica, sin menospreciar un trabajo como profesora en una humilde escuela rural, aun cuando antes había accedido a un empleo de nivel considerado superior para esa época como institutriz en una casa aristocrática. Para ella, tener un lugar y una posibilidad de sostenerse a sí misma son suficientes motivos de agradecimiento. Leyendo este libro se comprende por qué los clásicos son clásicos: porque además de estar magistralmente escritos, penetran el alma humana siendo capaces de transmitir su esencia con sus debilidades y grandezas y ese anhelo de trascendencia que está -en algunos más, en otros menos- en todos latente.
Jane Eyre no está dispuesta -y eso es lo sorprendente en el siglo en el cual fue escrito- a transar su dignidad ni su independencia por regalías -joyas, vestidos, mansiones…- ni aun cuando sean de parte del hombre a quien tanto quiere. Descarta ser otra más como tantas mujeres de su época que anhelan “casarse bien”. Eso hace que Mr. Rochester -un aristócrata difícil de carácter pero noble en su esencia- se enamore de ese espíritu: por su clara identidad, por su consecuencia. El amor que hay entre ellos es tan auténtico que -y aquí quien no ha leído aún el libro que no continúe leyendo esta columna- finalmente los dos se reencuentran, pero no en un ambiente bucólico, sino con un Mr. Rochester ciego, por haber tratado de salvar de un incendio a sus trabajadores y con su mansión en ruinas por las llamas. Belleza absoluta este final. (Francisca Jünneman) (Translation)

The Eastern Daily Press informs that a Jane Eyre performance in Norwich was cancelled due to cast sickness. EDIT: Fortunately it was just a one-day-thing. Next week, as the Yorkshire Evening Post reports, the production will be in Leeds. A Jeopardy winner who happens to be curious about Jane Eyre in Kitchissippi Times. The Brussels Brontë Blog has a fascinating post on German Brontë falsifications.

Finally, we just love this award in the MyStudySyncTV contest

The results are in for our 2016-2017 MyStudySyncTV contest. This marks our 4th annual contest in which we asked students to produce their own version of our signature StudySync®TV or SkillsTV videos, modeling student-led literary discussion groups on texts and skills within StudySync.
To create these award-winning episodes, teams of students developed essay prompts and scripts, planned props and video effects, and acted in their own unique episodes. Each year, StudySync not only recognizes the Top Middle School and High School Productions, but also gives accolades for Best Actor and Actress. (...)
Best Actress in a High School production:
Starring in the outstanding MyStudySyncTV submission on Jane Eyre’s novel Wuthering Heights, congratulations Sarah Mozden! (Diane Cadogan)

Epic.

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J. Eyre in Indianapolis

A contemporary and musical new look into Jane Eyre opens today, July 21, in Indianapolis:

EclecticPond Theatre Company presents
J. Eyre
Music, Lyrics, and Book by Paige Scott
Grove Haus, 1001 Hosbrook St, Indianapolis, IN
July 21, 22, 28, 29 @20.30 h

CAST

Jane Eyre – Devan Mathias
Edward Rochester – Tim Hunt
Blanche/Adele – Miranda Nehrig
Helen/Bertha – Mary Margaret Montgomery
Mr. Mason/St John – Abby Gilster
Grace Poole/John – Chelsea Leis
Mrs. Fairfax/Mrs. Reed – Carrie Neal

CREW

Stage Manager – Sarah Stiles
Costume Designer – Marina Turner
Pianist – Jacob Stensberg

Based on Charlotte Brontë’s epic novel, J. Eyre tells the story from a contemporary set of eyes. Told by 6 women and one man, be swept away by this new musical and on to the mysterious grounds of Thornfield Hall. You may find love there, but you may find something else…

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Brontë Birthplace in the market, once more

Unexpected and not very good news for the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton. It's again on the market, according to Keighley News:

Now the Market Street property, which has been Emily’s coffee shop since 2014, is being sold.
After running it as a successful cafe, owner Marc De Luca has decided to sell the business, due to family commitments.
Since the cafe opened he and his wife Michelle have had two children, and he said they were no longer able to devote enough time to family, Emily’s and their other business, De Luca Hair.
He is planning to sell the business and building privately, which he says will help him make sure the building’s future is in safe hands. He has no plans to shut the business before a new buyer is found. (...)
Although Emily’s operated as a business, many of the features still remained, and customers could sit in front of the fireplace the siblings were said to have been born in front of.
The business has become one of the best rated in the district on TripAdvisor.
Mr De Luca said:  (...)
“Whoever buys it has to be the right calibre of person. We don’t want to sell it to a property developer from London.
“We live in the village so we still want to make sure any new owner does the best for Thornton. It is a great starting point for anyone who wants to open a business here. Our intention is to keep it open until it is sold.
“It has become quite an attraction for the village, so we want that to remain. It is successful, and gets a lot of tourists in, and long may it continue. You have people coming in here who have come from all over the globe, so you have to be respectful to its history.”
Mr De Luca is accepting offers privately, and anyone interested in buying the business can e-mail him on mark@delucaboutique.co.uk.

Jacqueline Wilson in The Independent:

The first adult book Wilson read was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. “I was bored and had run out of library books. I would have been about 11 at the time,” she says.
The 71-year-old author has written more than 100 novels and is best known for 'The Story of Tracy Beaker' series
“My parents didn’t have many books but there was an old copy of Jane Eyre. It didn’t look very promising from the outside. But from the moment I started reading I was riveted.
“I hadn’t realised that sometimes adult books started with the main character as a child. And here we had a little girl sitting in a window seat and it just seemed very real to me.
"I couldn’t stop reading it, I was blown away by it and it’s still one of my all-time favourite classics.” (Matilda Battersby)

Norwich Eye reviews the National Theatre's performances of Jane Eyre in Norwich:

Director Sally Cookson has brought to Norwich a vibrant and joyous interpretation of a well known story. I did not expect to find the show as thrilling and absolutely captivating as it is, and it has made me keen to rediscover the original novel. Jane Eyre shows us a woman who has a difficult and often loveless upbringing but who has a force of character and personality that helps her to overcome challenges that would defeat most of us. She stays true to her beliefs and passions through betrayal and hardship – and in this production Nadia Clifford gives us a true hero as a role model as relevant to our lives now as when Charlotte Brontë first introduced her. (Julia Swainson)

Shelly Beth and Big Family Little Adventures also review it.

Bustle recommends a panel in the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con:

Heads up, Brontë fans! A graphic novel based on Jane Eyre is coming soon from The Devil Wears Prada screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna. First announced by Entertainment Weekly back in February, Jane comes this fall to your favorite bookstore. McKenna will discuss her upcoming graphic novel at a San Diego Comic Con panel on July 22.
Jane modernizes Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, casting the eponymous heroine as an aspiring art student who's forced to take an au pair position after moving to New York City. While caring for her charge, Adele, Jane finds herself falling for the girl's guardian, the wealthy and mirthless Rochester. (...)
Co-created with Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Ramón K. Pérez (Mouse Guard, Tale of Sand), Jane is McKenna's first foray into the comic-book realm. She says, "Our Jane is a modern girl working through some very contemporary problems ... We moved the story in exciting new directions while maintaining the mystery, romance, and yearning that has kept this story vital for years." (Kristian Wilson)

Also in Bustle a list of biographies of writers:

'The Brontë Myth' by Lucasta Miller
There is so much to explore when it comes to the lives of the three Brontë sisters. Miller does an exquisite job of separating fact from fiction when it comes to the much-hyped about lives of these extraordinary sisters. (Melissa Ragsdale)

The Guardian reviews Eight Ghosts: The English Heritage Book of New Ghost Stories:

Location is vital to a good ghost story, and ancient houses and abandoned barracks are standard tropes in a genre that has deep roots in English architecture; from Mr Lockwood’s bedroom in Wuthering Heights to the Dartmoor manor in Catherine Fisher’s Chronoptika series. (Danuta Kean)

The Journal Gazette interviews Darby Bixler, Belle in a local production of Beauty and the Beast:

Q. If you were putting together Belle's library, what are some titles you would make sure were on the shelves? (Corey McMaken)
A. If I had Belle's library, the first books I would make sure to include are the Harry Potter series. I absolutely love those book! But I would also make sure all the classics are there. I really enjoy "Wuthering Heights."

The Washington Post,  Boston Globe and Medium review the film Lady Macbeth:

This image, this woman, is familiar. She is Catherine Earnshaw of "Wuthering Heights," swearing "I am Heathcliff." She is Emma Bovary and Lady Chatterley: passionate and stifled. And, of course, she's Lady Macbeth, asking the spirits to turn her breast milk into poison. (Maia Silber)

The lack of soundtrack music makes the air in those rooms feel heavy and foreboding; it’s as though we hear each furtive thought. The effect is like reading a Brontë novel crisscrossed with “Madame Bovary” and then sparked to life by one of the darker students of human nature — Patricia Highsmith, perhaps. (Ty Burr)

Where Catherine fails as a dynamic contemporary anti-heroine is in her merciless treatment of Anna, Teddy, and Sebastian, all of whom are black. If Andrea Arnold‘s analogous (but more lyrical) Wuthering Heights (2011) raised its black Heathcliff over the white Earnshaws and Lintons, Lady Macbeth gloomily maintains the racial status quo. (Graham Fuller)

Bed number nine in this Hello Giggles post apparently has a Brontë feeling:

Can’t you see yourself reading Jane Eyre while lounging around in this dreamy beauty? (Anna Buckley)

Rimini Today mentions one of the talks at the Parco Poesia Festival 2017:

„A seguire Silvio Raffo, traduttore di tante grandi poetesse della letteratura inglese e americana, ci fa scoprire le ragazze con l’unicorno, Emily Dickinson, Emily Brontë e Christina Rossetti“
Ore 17.00

Lapidario Romano - Museo della Città
via L. Tonini, 1

Le ragazze con l’unicorno: fanciulle e madri della poesia
Intervengono Biancamaria Frabotta, Giorgio Ghiotti, Silvio Raffo

This Polish literature professor in Gazeta Uniwesytecka (Poland) doesn't like non-English adaptations of English classics like Jane Eyre;  Perfect Wedding has some Brontë quotes to use on wedding decorations. Mystical Authoress reviews Wuthering Heights. 

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Wuthering Heights in Montenegro

A new stage adaptation of Wuthering Heights opens today, July 20, in Bar (Montenegro), part of the Barski ljetopis Festival 2017:

Orkanski visovi
based in Emily Brontë's Wuthering HeightsJuly 20, 21, 22, 23
Scena Stari Grad Bar

Director: Dora Ruždjak Podolski
Dramatization and dramaturgy: Stella Miskovic
Set design: Jelena Tomasevic
Costumes: Lina Lekovic
Music: Slobodanka Boban Dabović

Hitklif: Miloš Pejović
Keti: Ana Vučković
Neli: Katarina Krek
Hindli: Dejan Ivanić
Frensis: Branka Stanić
Edgar: Emir Ćatović
Izabela: Jelena Simić
Ernšo: Simo Trebješanin

Further information can be found on Dan,  RTCG and here.

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Fan Fiction in a Private Ship

Publishers Weekly announces some children/YA books for Spring 2018. Including:

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt:
Brightly Burning by Alexa Dunn, reimagining Jane Eyre in space aboard the private ship The Rochester.

The Guardian explores the contemporary use of pen names:

The recent spate of men writing with gender-neutral names seems commercially driven. It is not a necessity for acceptance, as the Brontë sisters or George Eliot felt their pen names to be. However, there are earlier examples of men who wrote as women to give voice to “female” issues at a time when recourse to the females themselves proved elusive or unthinkable. (Paula Cocozza)

Nadia Clifford and Tim Dunlap (Jane Eyre and Rochester in the touring National Theatre production of Jane Eyre) have visited a bookstore in Norwich promoting the performances of Jane Eyre. In Eastern Daily Press:

Nadia Clifford and Tim Delap, who play Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester in the National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic production, visited the Book Hive on Tuesday where they spoke about their experiences of the well known novel.
Ms Clifford said: “I first read Jane Eyre when I was about 14, and straight away I felt such an affinity with Jane, and with so many characters in the novel. And then I read it again at about 21. Obviously I re-read the book when I got the part, and I was reminded of how many emotions I experienced the first time I read it, and how much I identified with it as a teenager.”
Mr Delap said the stage adapation remained very faithful to the book, including all the best bits from the novel and all the key moments in Jane Eyre’s life.
“We’ve just added a huge amount of theatricality to it and we’ve told it in a really exciting, theatrical, visual way,” he said. (Emma Knights)

LouBou reviews the production.

Lucy Atkins lists the best thrillers for Five Books:

Why did you want to choose classic thrillers? Do you feel they don’t get enough attention?
I gravitated towards the older classics because I feel that they are the origins of the genre that I’m writing in and not necessarily always recognised as such. I find it interesting to trace the history of this psychological suspense genre. Jane Eyre is one of the first psychological thrillers, though obviously it has lots of other things going on as well, and The Woman in White was the The Girl on the Train of its time.

More Brontë mentions in Austen articles in the press:

Though Austen had her detractors like Charlotte Brontë, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain, they were outnumbered by her admirers like Sir Walter Scott, Anthony Trollope, Virginia Woolf, who called her the first truly great female author and the first good English author to have a distinctly feminine writing style, while Rex Stout, the creator of Nero Wolfe and a man who said he previously believed men did everything better, deemed her the greatest English writer ever. (Vikas Datta in India New England News)

Like George Eliot and the Brontës she was a daughter of the manse, living quietly in the country in a succession of picturesque vicarages. Also like Charlotte and Anne she was a governess, being occasionally dragooned to look after her brother Edward’s brood as the poor relation at Godmersham Park. (Wendy Holden in Daily Express)

For example, and just among other female novelists, what of Emily Dickinson’s passionate poetry, the windswept stories of the Brontë sisters, Mary Shelley’s monstrous Frankenstein, or Radcliffe’s gothic gore? Surely these stories were brought forth by more than mere hermits, spinsters or wives with no regular access to pathology labs or the morgue? (Janine Barchas in the Washington Post)

La abadía de Northanger. (...)  Divertida e irónica, esta "Jane Eyre" austiniana es de las más divertidas e irónicas de sus novelas. Un claro retrato de la condición humana. (Flavia Pittella in Infobae) (Translation)

Jane Austen non dovrebbe rientrare nelle letture scolastiche. I suoi libri sono molto più difficili, noiosi e sofisticati di Gita al faro, Jane Eyre e Cime tempestose. (Clara Mazzoleni in Studio) (Translation)

„Ein gut umzäunter, äußerst gepflegter Garten, mit ordentlich gezogenen Grenzen und filigranen Blumen“ lautet Charlotte Brontës Negativ-Urteil über „Pride and Prejudice“. Doch wer einen Garten hat weiß, wie viel Arbeit dessen Pflege bedeutet. Und um im Bild zu bleiben: Jane Austen hatte wahrhaftig einen „grünen Daumen“! (Axel Hill in Kölnische Rudschau) (Translation)

And this is a WTF moment that is almost funny in an absurd kind of way:

With that in mind, think about the lesson at the end of the novel. Emma is turned off by the relationship of Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill, who have been secretly engaged, a poor woman with few connections and a man of higher social standing (Charlotte Brontë found the treatment of Jane Fairfax so unfair that Jane Eyre began as essentially a fan-fiction). (Leah Rachel Von Essen in Bookriot)

Real Simple recommends A Secret Sisterhood by Emma Claire Sweeney and Emily Midorikawa:

Friends and authors Emma Claire Sweeney and Emily Midorikawa delve into the lives and female friendships of several authors, including Austen, in the forthcoming A Secret Sisterhood. Sweeney and Midorikawa recount how Austen befriended her niece’s governess and amateur playwright, Anne Sharp, and turned to her for manuscript critiques. A perfect gift for both the Janeites and the female friends in your life. (Elizabeth Sile)

Kumparan (Indonesia) recommends some classics:

Jane Eyre: Jane Eyre merupakan salah satu karya fiksi klasik paling populer sepanjang masa. Sesuai judulnya, buku ini mengangkat kisah Jane Eyre, seorang gadis yatim piatu yang mengalami penderitaan sejak kecil, diperlakukan tidak adil oleh bibinya dan dimasukan ke sebuah sekolah dengan disiplin yang keras, yang membuat hidup Jane tidak lebih baik dari sebelumnya.
Ketika dewasa, Jane menjadi guru pribadi dari seorang gadis Prancis kecil, anak asuh seorang tuan tanah kaya raya bernama Mr. Roschester. Dari pertemuan itulah, Jane dan Mr. Rochester saling jatuh cinta. Melalui novel ini kita diajak untuk melhat permasalaha seperti pertentangan antara cinta, moral, kelas sosial dan feminisme. (Translation)

4Live (Italy) interviews the writer Meris Carpi:

Parliamo di lei, come mai da foodblogger a scrittrice di un libro giallo, cosa l’ha portata a scrivere questo romanzo sulle “indagini”?
“Ho sempre letto tantissimo, fin da piccola. Il primo libro “serio” a 10 anni, Jane Eyre, prestatomi dalla mia amica Roberta. Sul mio comodino non c’è solo un libro, ma almeno cinque, la passione dello scrivere è nata tanto tempo fa, ma non ho mai avuto il coraggio di pubblicare.” (Martina Ciccotelli) (Translation)

El Periódico (Spain) celebrates the publication of an anthology of Joy Williams short tales:

Diálogos en los que gente más o menos normal mezcla sus comentarios anodinos con observaciones totalmente inesperadas que llevan la conversación por derroteros fascinantes, como en 'La última generación', donde una conversación sobre el amor propicia la mención de 'Cumbres borrascosas', para saltar de ahí al relato de una paliza que supuestamente le dio Emily Brönte (sic)  a su perro Keeler y de allí... A donde Joy Williams quiera. (Enrique de Hériz) (Translation)

The described story is The Last Generation 1989.

More on the future of the public toilets at the Brontë Parsonage Museum Car Park in Keighley News. This columnist of Waterloo Chronicle doesn't love Wuthering Heights. We loved number 11th in this list of pictures from the Librarie Mollat's Instagram as compiled by Ground Zero. A dress made with book covers and pages (including Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights) in the Ventura County Star. Sweetly dreaming of the past compiles links to the little books of the Brontës online. Les Lectures de Marinette (in French) reviews Jane Eyre.

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Gordon & Caird's Jane Eyre Musical Revisited

An alert (although only for professionals) for today July 19. A new version of Gordon & Caird's Jane Eyre. The Musical is in the works. Broadway World reports:

The musical stage adaptation of Jane Eyre, which originally debuted on Broadway in 2000, will receive a new developmental reading presented by Cleveland Musical Theatre with an industry presentation on July 19th at Opera America in NYC.
The Michael J. Fox Show's Juliette Goglia stars as Jane with Dr. Zhivago's Tam Mutu as Edward Rochester & Ragtime's Stephanie Umoh as Blanche Ingram.
In addition to Goglia, Mutu & Umoh, the cast features Alison England (Mrs. Fairfax), Graydon Long (St. John Rivers), Madeleine Pace (Young Jane), Lauryn Hobbs (Helen), Jeff Williams (Brocklehurst), Ryan Speakman (Richard Mason), and Amy Griffin (Miss Scatcherd).
Tony Award-nominated composer/lyricist Paul Gordon (Daddy Long Legs) and Tony-winning librettist John Caird (a Tony winner for Les Misérables) return to revisit and rewrite their musical adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's classic novel.
Jane Eyre is directed by Cleveland Musical Theatre's Artistic Director Miles J. Sternfeld, with Musical Direction by Brad Haak, Associate Musical Direction by Laura Bergquist, General Management by Sean Francis Patrick, and Casting by Jamibeth Margolis.

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Post Truth Era: Alternative facts vs Apathy and Negativity

The Telegraph reports that the so-called 'earliest known painting of the Brontë Sisters' has been sold. The article seems to be written only reading the press release of the auctioneers, therefore it seems appropriate to double check some 'facts'.

A painting acquired “by mistake” after an auction house mix-up has sold for £50,000 after it was identified as the earliest known portrait of the Bronte sisters.

Actually it was £40,550 (£50,038 including buyers premium).

Landseer is thought to have met Charlotte, Anne and Emily in 1833 when they visited Bolton Abbey in North Yorkshire, where he was an artist in residence. At the time he was a young painter, yet to become a favourite of Queen Victoria. The portrait is dated 1834.

This is pure speculation and it has never been substantiated in fact.

 Clues in the picture include the detail of “Charlotte’s protruding front tooth” and jewellery that matches objects on display in the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, Mr Humbert said.

Again, this is wishful thinking at its best.

“We are never going to be able to prove anything 100 per cent because this is a cold case,” he said.
“But it has been widely accepted by the establishment as a Landseer portrait of the Brontës, as shown by the fact that it came from nowhere and sold for £50,000.” (Anita Singh)

Not widely and decidedly not by the Brontë experts and institutions.

We leave the best for last. This comment by the auctioneer on BBC News/Daily Express is priceless:

"The evidence was compelling that this is the Brontes as painted by Landseer and its successful sale has proved that research and factual evidence will overcome apathy and negativity."  (...)
There's too many details for naysayers to say this is not right.

On Keighley News we also read:

Brontë Parsonage Museum executive director Kitty Wright declined to comment on the sale of the painting.

Of course, solid proof, no mere speculation or wishful thinking aka 'alternative facts', has nothing to do when there is a successful sale. Paraphrasing naysayer Carl Sagan: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary (apathetic and negative as it may be) evidence. It speaks volumes that the most extraordinary evidence supplied is that someone has paid 50000 GBP.

The Antiques Trade Gazette also covers the news in a more objective way.

Keighley News talks about some of the most ambitious projects of the Brontë Society:

A centre for women’s writing could be built in an underground former reservoir above the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
And a long-lost barn could be rebuilt alongside the Haworth attraction to house a visitor centre dedicated to the famous literary family.
The proposed projects – both in the very early stages – have been revealed in interviews this month by Brontë Society executive director Kitty Wright. (...)
The ideas for new buildings on land owned by the Brontë Society near the museum were put forward in the Brontë Society’s recent successful bid to become an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation.
Kitty said that such accreditation with the Arts Council allowed the society spend time and money looking at the feasibility of such projects, but stressed major funding would have to be found to actually carry them out.
She said the large Victorian underground reservoir lay on land behind the parsonage.
She said: “It was built after Patrick Brontë commissioned the Babbage report into public health in Haworth. The village needed a fresh water supply.
“It’s fantastic to have the reservoir for its own historical reasons, with its links with Patrick Brontë."
Kitty said the Brontë Society would have to carry out detailed investigations into utility supplies, engineering, drainage and access, as well as environmental surveys and extensive consultation with local people. (...)
“We have to keep looking to secure or future but we have to be very clear about preserving the things that make us special. It’s absolutely about being true to our heritage and finding a way of expressing that.”
Kitty stressed that the other idea, rebuilding the barn, was only a tentative suggestion at the moment.
During the Brontës’ lifetimes the barn stood on a small hill between the Parsonage Museum and the car park, but there are now mature trees on the land. (David Knights)

Also in Keighley News, great news for the Parsonage:

The international popularity of the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth is expanding across the entire county.
Yorkshire saw a 30 per cent increase in overseas visitors in the first three months of 2017, with 267,000 people spending £99 million.
International spend in Yorkshire is almost double the national average which is up 16 per cent year on year.
The Brontë museum recently reported a 24 per cent increase in visitors during the Easter weekend including its busiest Easter Saturday to 10 years.
This was blamed on the ‘Brontë buzz’ both locally and around the world from the ongoing five-year bicentennial celebrations for the births of Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne.

More Haworth news. The Haworth Primary School has collaborated in the Claire Twomey Wuthering Heights - A Manuscript project:

Pupils at the school visited the Haworth museum this month to each write a line with support from volunteer Stuart Davies.
Sue Newby, the museum Learning Officer, said ‘Wuthering Heights – A Manuscript’ had captured the imagination of visitors from all over the world.
She said: “We were really pleased to offer pupils from our local primary school the opportunity to sit in the house where Emily wrote her famous novel and take their turn to copy out a line.
“All the children seemed to relish the sense of occasion and we hope they will return next year with their families to see the finished manuscript.” (David Knights in Keighley News)

Haworth's foot-paths have been cleaned:

Parish councillors have spearheaded the clearing of footpaths around Haworth.
Work has been carried out to improve access to footpaths that become impassable due to poor grounding and overgrown weeds.
Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council worked with Bradford Council and Community Payback to carry out the work.
The footpath at North Street, leading from the Sun Inn car park behind the West Lane churches, was strimmed.
Work on the footpath from Cold Street to Woodlands Rise has included weedkiller treatment, and footpaths from Heathcliff flats to the Bronte Parsonage Museum have also been improved. (David Knights in Keighley News)

The Hindu's Book Shelf includes today Wuthering Heights:

Emily Brontë's magnum opus Wuthering Heights showcased the hypocrisy, social classes and gender inequality in the Victorian Era.
Most of the authors, especially in the 19th century, had to write no fewer than four-five books to create a space for them in the revered literary circles. For some, even 20 books might have not sufficed. But, that is not the case of the daughter of an Irish clergyman, who spent much of her life in Hawthorn (sic), England.
Considered one of the best women authors who have put their thoughts to paper, Emily Bronte was as intense, intellectual and elusive as her solo book Wuthering Heights . Alas, she didn't know the profound legacy she was to leave behind, as she had died suddenly at the age of 30. (Arathi M) (Read more)

Psychology Today on ghosts:

When I was seven years old, my aunt Hazel, the youngest of my mother's sisters read me the first two chapters of “Jane Eyre” in the big green nursery with its black board across one wall, at Crossways, the house where my father had just died. You will remember how Jane is carried off unceremoniously and locked in the Red Room where she thinks she sees her uncle’s ghost.
It seems a strange choice of lecture for a seven year old, though my sister who was present was two and older than I.
It had a terrifying effect on me, one that has lasted all my life, and perhaps led me, too, to become a writer in an effort to render active what I had submitted to passively. Mr Reed, Jane’s uncle, in the book, like my own father just down the corridor from the nursery in the big bedroom, with the mauve velvet curtains, has died in this somber, silent room with its crimson curtains.Jane believes her uncle has come back to see if his wife, Jane’s cruel aunt, Mrs. Reed, has carried out his death-bed wishes and is taking good care of little Jane, his sister’s child. (Sheila Kohler)

Pen names in Jezabel:

The Wall Street Journal reports that the tides have turned since the Brontë sisters and George Elliot were publishing under manly names. Or perhaps they haven’t turned—for instance, read Catherine Nichols’s Jezebel essay on the different reception she received when submitting her work as somebody named “George”—so much as there is a huge market demand for psychological “Girl Who” thrillers, often featuring dead or missing women, written largely by women for female audiences. And the guys—and their publishers—want in. (Kelly Faircloth)

And Daily Star:

Anonymity can be liberating. The pen names Currer and Ellis Bell, respectively, allowed Charlotte and Emily Brontë to use influences from their local neighbourhood to craft Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. George Elliott, the famed writer of Middlemarch, was actually Mary Anne Evans. (Sarah Anjum Bari)

Austen vs Brontë tidbits:

Women like Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, and especially the Brontë sisters. Charlotte, Emily and Anne are in the middle of 200th anniversaries of their own, as we remember the bicentenaries of their births in the years 1816 to 1820. Along with Austen they crafted brilliant works of genius that are the equal of any novels written by men, and in the public’s eye the Brontës and Jane have become inextricably linked.
I once asked one of the hard working guides at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth what question they are asked more than any other. It was ‘Which of the Brontë sisters wrote Pride and Prejudice?’ followed closely by, ‘Is this where Jane Austen wrote her novels?’ (Nick Holland in The History Press) (Read more)

Treinta años después, en 1847, Charlotte Brontë publicaba Cumbres borrascosas y declaraba que no entendía el interés que despertaban las historias de Austen, a las que calificaba peyorativamente de “jardines bellos, cultivados y aseados” (Rodrigo González in La Tercera) (Translation)

 The nouns are harsh; it’s the verb, though—be prevailed on—that’s key. Even in its superficial passivity, it understands that Lizzy, at least at this moment, is the one with the power. Charlotte Brontë once scoffed of Austen that “the Passions are perfectly unknown to her”; this was, it seems, a misreading. Austen was acutely aware not merely of such Passions, but also, indeed, of the freedoms they could offer. (Megan Garber in The Atlantic)

Certo, nell’Ottocento [Darcy] ha dovuto vedersela con l’imperfetto Rochester, l’eroe romantico di Charlotte Brontë, ma dalla seconda metà del Novecento regna incontrastato nelle fantasie femminili, anche quelle ormai contaminate dall’hardcore. (Il Dubbio)(Translation)

Para muitos, Austen é a rainha da literatura inglesa. Bem... Melhor deixar esse assunto para outro momento. Não é intenção provocar os fãs das irmãs Brontë com esse fato. Porém, a autora consegue transitar entre a Academia e o grande público, composto pelo leitor comum - para citar o termo de Virginia Woolf, que inclusive era leitora e admiradora de Austen. (Ricelly Jáder in Diário de Nordeste) (Translation)

Anders als etwa die Brontë-Schwestern flüchtet sie sich beim Schreiben nicht in eine Fantasiewelt, sondern bewegt sich dicht an der Realität. Allerdings karikiert und parodiert sie ihre Mitmenschen, deren Beziehungen und auch die herrschenden Verhältnisse nach Herzenslust. (Stephanie Pieper in NDR) (Translation)

The death of the film director George A. Romero is reported in this article of Metro which traces a genealogy of zombie films:

George A. Romero didn’t invent the word “zombie,” but he might as well have. Before he unleashed “Night of the Living Dead” upon an unsuspecting world in 1968, the word didn’t instantly conjure up what it would mean from then on out: white terror, hungry corpses, gnawed-upon flesh. “Zombie” simply meant the undead, the deceased reanimated. Sometimes they were bad: Frankenstein’s monster was a zombie. Sometimes they were not: The blank-faced, not-quite-dead wife of Val Lewton’s “I Walked with a Zombie” (a stealth adaptation of “Jane Eyre,” amazingly) was also a zombie. (Matt Prigge)

Image Journal interviews film director Rodrigo García:

I was fascinated by the stories in the Bible, and these are stories that live in the realm of stories, in our heads. I think the world where Hitler lives is the same world where Captain Ahab or Jane Eyre live. We don’t know them. We’ve never seen them. I am not trying to say that Ahab is Hitler or that Jesus is like Madame Bovary, just a fiction; but in our heads, they are all stories. (Gareth Higgins and Scott Teems)

La Repubblica (Italy) interviews the writer Karin Slaughter:

Come ti sei rapportata all’ondata di thriller psicologici che presentano protagoniste femminili?  "Non credo si possa parlare di un’ondata. In realtà si tratta di un fenomeno letterario che ha origini lontane, credo fin da Cime tempestose. (Eva Grippa) (Translation)

Linda's BookBag recommends A Secret Sisterhood: The Hidden Friendships of Austen, Brontë, Eliot and Woolf by Emily Midorikjawa and Emma Claire Sweeney. CBC does the same with Worlds of Ink and Shadow by Lena Coakley. The Book Lovers Boudoir hated Wuthering Heights. Vesna Armstrong Photography posts recent pictures of Ponden Hall and Brontë country.

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A Cologne and a Perfume

The smell of the moors... well, not really, sort of. On the Immortal Perfumes catalogue:

Heathcliff: A Cologne Inspired by Wuthering Heights
from 45.00$

"I cannot live without my soul!"
With a love as tumultuous and wild as the moors, Heathcliff and Catherine from Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights haunt the page with their passionate love.
Dark and brooding Heathcliff features notes of amber, leather, labdanum, white patchouli, cedar, myrhh, saffron, and chocolate. This scent is dark and gourmand.
All couples featured in the Literary Lovers Collection are designed to be worn on their own or layered with their mate.

Catherine: A Perfume inspired by Wuthering Heights
from 30.00$

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same..."
Free-spirited Catherine features notes of white musk, amber, English Ivy, frangipani, rain, white patchouli, and heather. This scent smells like the rain that drives the moaning branches of the trees.

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Signatures on the Brontë Way

Keighley News talks about one of the latest Brontë200 initiatives:

People are being invited to add their signature to a major new piece of artwork which will be created as part of Brontë birthday celebrations.
Large-scale textile works marking the famous signatures of the legendary literary sisters are to be installed on the Brontë Way footpath.
And internationally-acclaimed artist Lynn Setterington is seeking public input at a series of workshops.
The Sew Near-Sew Far project – a collaboration with the Brontë Parsonage Museum – is in support of Brontë200, a five-year programme celebrating the bicentenaries of the births of Charlotte in 2016, Branwell in 2017, Emily in 2018 and Anne in 2020.
Lynn said: "Signatures are an important marker of identity and the Brontë sisters famously used pseudonyms at their time of writing to disguise the fact they were women.
"I'm creating three artworks for the Brontë Parsonage Museum exploring the adopted and real signatures of Charlotte, Emily and Anne and I'm looking for local people to help me create them by sewing their own signatures into the pieces.
"We're looking for individuals and organisations that make a difference to their community – people who often go without thanks or praise for the amazing work they do. (...)
The finished artwork will go on display at sites near the Brontë Bridge and Waterfall from September 30 to October 15.
And a film documenting the collaboration will be screened later this year. (Alistair Shand)

Eastern Daily Press interviews Tim Delap, Rochester in the touring production of Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre:

 Did you know the book before taking on the role of Rochester?
Obviously it’s such a famous novel but I hadn’t read it before the audition which is kind of awful to admit. When I did read it I found that the image of people have of the book is not really what the book is about. It is seen as this very romantic novel, the cover is often very twee and the depiction of Jane as this meek and mild character, but it is not that at all. She is this incredibly firey, feisty, powerful character. That’s one of the things that Sally is so passionate about. It is an incredibly exciting novel, really energetic and I think this show reflects that and hopefully it will bring audiences and readers back to it.
Is there a misconception that it a bit of a girl’s book?
For some reason I always connected it to Jane Austen and they are so different. Charlotte Brontë’s voice is so unique and so powerful and this is just a brilliant feminist novel about equal rights and I think the show puts that across. The love story of Rochester and Jane is not you’re average romance either. There is a real meeting of minds. (Simon Parkin)

Norwich Evening News interviews Sally Cookson herself:

 What inspired you to adapt and direct Jane Eyre? Is it a book you particularly admired? 
I chose this particular title because it’s a story that I love and have enjoyed a close relationship with ever since I was intrigued as a child by Orson Well’s black and white melodrama with fabulous music by Bernard Hermann. I didn’t actually read the novel until I was in my early twenties - and I remember thinking while I read it: ‘this is a clarion cry for equal opportunities for women not a story about a passive female who will do anything for her hunky boss’. I was struck by how modern Jane seemed - her spirit and strong will, her peculiar and brilliant mind striving for personal freedom to be who she is, lashing out against any constraint that prevents her from being herself. She was exactly the sort of person I wanted to be. (Simon Parkin)

The Week asks the novelist Gail Godwin about her favourite novels:

Wuthering Heights - The Earnshaws held their own in the wild isolation of the Yorkshire moors until the day Mr. Earnshaw brought home a dirty, ragged boy from Liverpool. The sullen Heathcliff wins his way into the hearts of the father and daughter Cathy, and eventually becomes master of the place. Is Heathcliff the devil incarnate, or simply endowed with greater passion and single-minded willpower?

Austin360 reviews the play The Moors:

The plot of “The Moors” begins as a pastiche of Jane Eyre (and indeed there are other intentional nods to the Brontë sisters and their work along the way, mashing together bits of their novels’ plots), with spinster sisters Agatha and Huldey hiring a new governess, Emilie, to come work at their isolated home on the English moors. Emilie soon discovers that things at this house are not as she expected with the sisters, their absent brother who supposedly wrote to her, and their ambiguous servant who may be named Marjory or Mallory. (Andrew J. Friedenthal)

The Young Folks reviews Lady Macbeth:

Pugh runs a gamut of emotions, from coldly eating breakfast as a man dies in the next room to being a mother figure to a little boy. As her relationship with Sebastian intensifies the comparisons to Emily Brontë’s novel become more poignant, with Pugh and Jarvis canoodling on the moors – though, interestingly enough, Pugh’s Katherine dictates the terms of their undying love. Her final reveal at the end is a master class of fear and trembling. (Kristen Lopez)

In Midland Daily-News a columnist mentions the Brontës:

A Facebook friend of mine, Bernie, who is about 50 years old, is always doing something outdoors and always something very demanding. Nearly every Monday he posts a weekend picture of himself in a wetsuit, exiting the near-frozen waters of some North American lake, wearing a toothy grin. He'll have a caption about finishing a 12-mile swim in near-Olympic time and then riding his bike home some 40-odd miles.
Ok, we get it, Bernie. I sat home and watched a movie about the Bronte sisters. We have different ideas about recreation. (Dave Shanedshane)

Birth.Movies.Death posts about Rebecca:

For most of her career, Dame Daphne du Maurier was plagued by the title "romantic novelist," an epithet she felt unworthy of her work. Her best-known novel, Rebecca, is also her least understood, an elegant treatise on the power dynamics of marriage shrugged off as nothing more than a poor Jane Eyre facsimile, another disposable work of that most shameful genre, "women's fiction."  (Meredith Borders) 

And Book View Café compares both Rebecca and Jane Eyre.

Trouw (in Dutch) reviews Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman:

Een lekker leesbare roman over een verliefde kantoorjuffrouw, met een ondubbelzinnig positief slot? Dat riekt naar chicklit. Maar wie daarom dit debuut negeert, doet de schrijfster en zichzelf toch tekort. Eleanor Oliphant staat met twee stevige benen in de grote Britse 19de-eeuwse literatuur, van Jane Austen tot Charlotte Brönte’s ‘Jane Eyre’, niet toevallig het boek dat Eleanor tussen haar matras en de muur bewaart. (Marijke Laurense) (Translation)

SparklyPrettyBriiiight reviews Yuki Chan in Brontë Country; Smart Bitches Trashy Books talks about Norton Conyers and possible Jane Eyre connections. AnneBrontë.org posts about Thornton. Echo Daily covers the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever event in Lismore. Libreriamo (Italy) recommends Jane Eyre in a horoscope (the things we report for the Brontës...) but just for Pisces. Finally, an alert from Washington D.C.:

Georgetown professor John Pfordresher appears at East City Bookshop discussing his new book, The Secret History of Jane Eyre: How Charlotte Brontë Wrote Her Masterpiece. In his book, Pfordresher explores the parallels between the book’s story and Brontë’s life and why she disavowed the book after it was written. Free, 6:30 PM. (Benjamin Freed in The Washingtonian)

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