Living Room Literature is a curious initiative which is in the middle of a Brontë course:
Living Room Literature is a simple idea: short literature courses for small groups of people looking to nurture or rekindle their love of books without leaving the comfort of a relaxed home environment. Classes – which take place in the informal setting of a living room: your own or mine depending on which course option you choose – are sociable but serious. I want to help busy people understand a text and its context in a deep way, but there’ll also be tea and cake to push us along.
The Brontës and the Road Less Travelled
Living Room Literature, Percy Road, Ravenscourt Park, London
14 January 2021,10:00 am - 11 February 2021,12:15 pmVillette (Charlotte Brontë) and Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Brontë)
Both texts have long been unfavourably compared with the more celebrated Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights despite sharing many of their subversive qualities: Anne’s ‘tenant’ is a single mother living in hiding from her depraved alcoholic husband whilst Charlotte’s Villette is an uncompromising depiction of the effects of repressed passion on the psyche of its lonely and awkward narrator-governess, Lucy Snowe. We will delve deep into the novels’ key themes, consider aspects of style and explore the way both approach issues about the place of women in mid-Victorian society.
Neither of these novels appear much on syllabi in schools or even beyond so here’s a perfect opportunity to ponder the justice of this omission: literary turkeys or hidden gems?
1) “Peril, loneliness, an uncertain future, are not oppressive evils, so long as the frame is healthy and the faculties are employed; so long, especially, as Liberty lends us her wings, and Hope guides us by her star.” – Charlotte BrontëCharlotte Brontë is possibly most famously known as the author of the classic novel, Jane Eyre. The author spent most of her life in the quiet town of Haworth in Yorkshire, isolated from the rest of the world. She experienced her fair share of grief in this home, with her mother and all her five siblings dying before her.This quote is strikingly relevant for our current times, living with the danger of the pandemic. However, Brontë urges us to remain hopeful, despite an ‘uncertain future’. (Poppy Dillon)
The Brontë sisters are there with Jane Eyre an intense novel in which a young orphaned girl seeks freedom and love without sacrificing her integrity and Wuthering Heights a novel full of passion and depiction of destructive love. (Sudha Devi Nayak)
"I don't—" I'm drowned out by an ice-sharp crack, followed by the pitiful sounds of books avalanching onto the floor. One of our largest shelves has split down the middle, like the chestnut tree in Jane Eyre. And anyone who's read Jane Eyre knows what that portends.
My initial idea for what a Paladin might read was Bram Stoker’s Dracula, what with all the religious imagery and vampire hunting involved. However, I think that those who fight for their faith and typically rid the world of evil in the name of goodness will find a lot to love about this monster mash. Surprisingly entertaining, this retelling of Jane Eyre not only features vampires, but also zombies and werewolves, as the plucky Jane arms herself with a stake and resolute Christian values to wipe Thornfield clean of misbehaving bloodsuckers. It’s a bit ridiculous, but just might reinvigorate a burned-out Paladin with a newfound delight for righteous justice. And, perhaps, Oathbreakers will revel in the mischief of transforming such a beloved classic into an ironic slasher fan fiction.CW: Gore (Zoe Robertson)
Aged 18, he contracted tuberculosis, which would later kill his elder brother, and spent two years in a sanatorium; an experience that changed his life. Eden struck up a conversation with a fellow patient, an English teacher, who was “sitting on his bed doing The Times crossword puzzle”. He advised Eden to make good use of his time by broadening his knowledge of literature; he duly did, reading “most of Dickens, the complete works of Shakespeare, Trollope, Forster, the Brontës, Greene, Waugh etc”.
Mesa Community College Musical Productions presentsMusic and Lyrics by Paul Gordon. Book by John CairdJanuary 14 – January 16, 2021 19.00hJanuary 17 - 14.00h
This show will be streamed through Showtix4u.com.Charlotte 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. Nominated for five Tony Awards, Jane Eyre explores religion, sexuality and protofeminism, all while enchanting audiences with a timeless love story.
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Images of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë have been reproduced – on a lampshade.And as a backdrop to the siblings, there is a portrayal of the parsonage where they grew-up and the moors above Haworth that provided so much inspiration for classic works such as Wuthering Heights. [...]“My aunt lives in Halifax so I know Yorkshire well and love visiting,” says Rosalind Freeborn, who created the lampshade.“I plan to produce Shakespeare, Dickens and Austen shades too – I like a theme!”Rosalind creates her artwork using a range of paper scraps and products, including tissue paper, newspapers and even sweet wrappers. (Alistair Shand)
2. The Four-Faced LiarToasting women has never been so delicious. The Four-Faced Liar isn’t your typical straight girl falls for lezzie movie where the lesbian plays a sex driven siren or that ends in death and destruction, and it’s not your cookie cutter everything-falls-into-place-too-easily movie either. The Four-Faced Liar follows Molly and Greg, a straight-laced couple who, new to New York, become friends with Trip and his Brontë-loving heartbreaker of a lesbian roommate, Bridget. It doesn’t take long for the chemistry to build between Molly and Bridget in this skillfully made romance.The film is rich in character development and is filled with cheaters, liars and heartbreak, but there are no one-sided villains or good guys. Every character is human. That’s what makes this movie great. It’s real, it’s complex, it’s endearing — it’s reflective of real life.
Did you make good use of your library card as a child / teenager?When I was very young, I was one of those kids that was constantly reading Goosebumps or Darren Shan books – generally from a local library my parents took me to. When I think about that now, my ‘grown-up’ literary interests (blackly-comical, grotesque sci-fi) seem completely predictable. I more or less went off reading for pleasure in my teenage years until I was 16, when my English teacher Mr. Walters gave me this big stack of books that were gathering dust in the department from past courses. I spent the summer reading them, and discovering some classics (Crime & Punishment, Wuthering Heights, The Metamorphosis) which got me back into it.
En 1995, Maryse Condé a transposé le grand classique anglais Wuthering Heights dans le contexte sociohistorique antillais du tournant du 20ème siècle. L’entreprise est risquée, quand on connaît la sévérité de la réception des réécritures et adaptations de classiques en littérature ou au cinéma. Elle l’est aussi par son apparente incongruité : la Guadeloupe semble bien éloignée de l’austérité des landes du Yorkshire, la société antillaise de l’Angleterre victorienne, et le français mêlé de créole de Condé, de la langue de Brontë. Mais cette stratégie de réappropriation d’une œuvre du canon européen semble pertinente dans le contexte que nous venons d’évoquer, et particulièrement pour ce roman qui non seulement est à l’origine de sa vocation d’écrivain, mais aussi immédiatement associé à une interrogation sur sa légitimité comme écrivain : « les gens comme nous n’écrivent pas ». La Migration des cœurs est la réécriture postcoloniale par une femme du roman d’une femme qui a dû se faire passer pour un homme pour être publiée. (Anna Lesne) (Translation)
Universiti Teknologi Brunei in collaboration with the Brunei Reading and Language Acquisition Project (ReLA) and the High Commission of Bangladesh to Brunei Darussalam present
Jane Eyre
Adapted and written by Witsy Mathew
Music by Ak Muhd Khairin Pg Hj Zainurin
With A’isyatul Alyaa (Jane Eyre)
Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB) Multipurpose Hall
December 21, 2020
Twenty students from various educational institutions made their theatrical debut at the Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB) Multipurpose Hall last week, with a stage performance of the Victorian era drama, Jane Eyre.
The 90-min theatrical presentation is based on the classical novel by Charlotte Brontë, which follows the journey of the titular character, from childhood to adulthood, as she moves through life from one tragic obstacle to another.
The classic gothic tale is filled with captivating characters, complicated family history, dark secrets, romance, mysteries and is an exercise in exploring the pitfalls of Victorian-era classism, sexism and xenophobia. (Azrina Zin)
The soundtrack and the complete performance can be found on YouTube.
2 The Wife Upstairs by Rachel HawkinsRachel Hawkins's The Wife Upstairs updates Jane Eyre for modern readers by bringing the tale into the 21st century. In this version, Jane is a dog walker with her own secrets who falls for the wealthy Eddie Rochester, a man who may be harboring a dark truth about his late first wife. (Sabienna Bowman)
7 The Wife Upstairs by Rachel HawkinsJane Eyre gets a 21st Century update in The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins. In this reimagining, Jane is a dog walker who falls in love with the broody and incredibly wealthy Eddie Rochester. The only trouble is Eddie's first wife died under mysterious circumstances, and no matter how hard Jane tries, she can't seem to escape the woman's shadow. (Sabienna Bowman)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne BrontëEven this 19th century gothic romance can relate. It’s a feminist’s manifesto, one that might not be obvious to modern audiences, but shocking nonetheless for its time. In fact, Charlotte Brontë, the more famous and (apparently) more respectable Brontë, tried to erase this one from history, preventing its republication in England until 1854.Today, the classic is widely available, though lesser known than Charlotte’s Jane Eyre. The book’s main character, Mrs. Helen Graham, runs away from her brute of a husband to Wildfell Hall, where she supports herself by painting. The husband’s such a bad actor that his fellow drinking friends turn on him in the end, something Nadia would do well to pay attention to. (L.L. Wohlwend)
A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year, edited by Jane McMorland HunterIf you’re new to poetry, A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year is a great place to start. Jane McMorland Hunter has organized a broad assortment of poetry, featuring artists like Robert Frost, Emily Brontë, Shakespeare, and Emily Dickinson. This collection has something for everyone. (Jamie Orsini)
On what day do young Catherine and Hareton plan to be married in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights? [Answer: New Year's Day] (Naomi Gordon)
He came on TV and addressed the nation from his teleprompter, sounding it out like a sixth grader being forced to read Wuthering Heights
A virtual alert for today, January 13, in Brussels:
The Brontës in Brussels Zoom Lecture
The Arts Society Brussels
Wednesday, January 13, 2021 - 20:00
Avenue Paul Hymans 2 Woluwé-St-Lambert 1200
How many tourists in Brussels know that the two most famous Brontë sisters lived here for a time?Helen MacEwan is a British-born writer turned biographer, who studied modern languages at university, but English literature has always been her passion- literature and also literary biography - finding out what her favourite authors were like as people, which experiences formed them. Helen has formed the Brussels Brontë Group with talks. Check out her website for more details: www.thebrusselsbrontegroup.org.
“I have seen the West End, the parks, the fine squares: but I love the City far better. The City seems so much more in earnest: its business, its rush, its roar, are such serious things, sights and sounds,” English author Charlotte Brontë wrote in the novel Villette over 160 years ago.Brontë’s words could equally be describing the square mile of the 2010s as the 1850s.The coronavirus pandemic has changed all that. England’s third national lockdown has left the Square Mile a ghost town of closed shops, empty streets and silent offices as a majority of the City’s half a million staff work from home. (James Booth)
Fans of Jane Eyre will love this new twist on a classic. Jane’s dreams come true when she meets a wealthy widower, but as their romance escalates, their separate pasts threaten their shared future.
We read our novels aided by two flashlights and noted with awe that Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters created their timeless literary masterpieces without ever experiencing the magic of electricity. (Cathy Salter)
Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, DOI: 10.1080/00111619.2020.1866484American cultural and political presentations of 9/11 often resort to the easily recognizable narrative convention of Bildungsroman, intensifying the nostalgia for an illusory, ideal past before the crisis. Evoking the classic novel Jane Eyre as well as the history of its reading, Patricia Park’s Re Jane and Susan Choi’s My Education disrupt the narrative scheme of initiation, destabilizing and questioning the popular way of understanding growth in connection to the experience of 9/11. Both novels’ engagement with feminist ideas enables them to stage different ways of imagining a continuation over the temporal and spatial rift that 9/11 created in American popular imagination. Furthermore, as the protagonists of the novels are presented as products of American military and political imperialism in Asia, writing their multidimensional subjectivity into being has significance for positioning America in the international world. This global feminist perspective not only retrieves complex feminist history but also introduces broader global networks within which to regard the stories of 9/11. This article examines the particular ways in which My Education and Re Jane problematize and experiment with different modes of storytelling and argues that such narrative projects have multilayered implications for narrating 9/11 today.
ギャスケル論集 (Gaskell Theory) No 29 (September 2019)
Arisa Nakagoe
"Making Money out of the Dead": Financial Aspects of The Life of Charlotte BrontëYoshiaki Shirai
All in all, this piece of historical fiction resembles a love letter not only to Austen, but also to the world of literature itself, alluding to many of the greats like Charlotte Brontë and Virginia Woolf, bringing forward their contributions to society. (Can Gultekin)
So would I recommend this book to you or anyone? yes definitely if you love Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and the gothic creepiness of Brontës especially Jane Eyre then this book will suit you down to the ground. There are certain places even now in the “modern” age that gives us a creeping feeling of dread or a feeling of sadness and decay, and this is how I feel that this story works, though its set present day the way the tension builds and creeps up on you is almost an old gothic feeling, that mysterious house with a tragic past and certain things going on that make it more mysterious and terrifying. (Zoe Radley)
Historical rediscovery is one of the feminist movement’s great successes. From the 1970s onward, books such as Sheila Rowbotham’s Hidden From History, Dale Spender’s Women of Ideas (And What Men Have Done to Them), and Joanna Russ’s How to Suppress Women’s Writing argued that the traditional canon—literary, artistic, scientific—is skewed by sexism. Many brilliant women were underappreciated in their lifetime; others were discarded by posterity. The Brontës wrote under men’s names. Marie Curie was named on the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 only after her husband, Pierre, also her co-researcher, intervened. Orchestras refused to play the work of female composers. Over the past 50 years, there has been a concerted effort to counterbalance this tendency. (Helen Lewis)
ReadingRoCo Book Club: "Wuthering Heights"When: 7 to 8 p.m.
Where: Online via Roanoke County Public Libraries
Discuss the controversial but enduring gothic romance by Emily Brontä via Zoom. RSVP by email or fill out the online form at roanokecountyva.gov.
Contact: materials@roanokecountyva.govSource: Roanoke Times
The author Charlotte Brontë did not like Austen's writing; Charles Darwin, however, loved the novels.Writing in 1848, the author Charlotte Brontë accused her predecessor's lack of feeling. She described Austen's work as “an accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a common face.” It is unsurprising that Brontë considered Austen's writing rather banal compared to her darker Jane Eyre. However, a surprisingly big fan of Austen's work was Charles Darwin. Ironically, Austen took Darwin's place on the British £10 note in 2013. (Madeleine Muzdakis)
Movies and TV based on Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre have been popular ever since the first adaptation of the novel in a 1910 American silent movie. The short classic drama marked the beginning of numerous Jane Eyre adaptations that are popular even to this day. Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre adaptations include a lot of old classics. There are more than sixteen English language film versions of Jane Eyre, including eight silent movies. However, if we consider TV series and adaptations more loosely based on the story, the number is way more than that. Here, we will discuss some of the best Jane Eyre adaptations that perfectly portrayed the Victorian era of the novel. (Tulisha Srivastava)
My latest ailment, it seems, may not be chilblains after all, but “Covid toe”, a baffling long-term side-effect of the virus that can last for months (Covid-19 dropped by our mostly quite warm house last spring). Oh, well. Either way, the treatment, at least in mild cases, is the same – hydrocortisone cream or witch-hazel generally do the trick – and so, too, is the Jane Eyre-ish feeling that comes over the afflicted as they gingerly peel off their socks at night in front of the fire.
Mexican GothicThe captivating cover is enough to have us buying this book, and the ending is enough to make us obsessed! Personally, I am not a horror fan, but this book had me up all night, and not in a bad way. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novel is a shining example of the re-emergence of the Gothic genre. If you’re a fan of Dracula, Jane Eyre or Rebecca, this is a novel you have to get your hands on. (Lillie Skerman)
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
This 1898 Gothic Novella is filled with horror induced by the ambiguous and the mundane. It first appeared in Collier’s weekly in a serialised form. If you’ve read Brontë's especially Jane Eyre; you’d love the vibe of this short book. (Tania Syed)
Domenica 10 gennaio 2021 su IRIS andrà in onda “Jane Eyre” parte del ciclo “Gli Intramontabili”. Il film, diretto dal regista italiano Franco Zeffirelli è una co-produzione italiana, francese e britannica, adattamento del romanzo di Charlotte Brontë. L’appuntamento con il film è alle 21:15 su IRIS.Il film, uscito nel 1996 ha incassato più di 5 milioni di dollari negli Stati Uniti. Il film ha anche vinto un David di Donatello per i migliori costumi. (Davide Allegra in dituttounp) (Translation)
Régi meggyőződésem, hogy télen, amikor szürkeség és hideg van, pláne a karácsonyi szezonban, kosztümös klasszikusokat kell olvasni és nézni. Leginkább Jane Austent, de a Brontë nővérek is belefér. A vigasztalan sötétség remek ellenpontjai ezek az eleganciával, reneszánsz műveltséggel, fojtott vonzalmakkal, és ideális esetben elmés fejtegetésekkel teli történetek. (Bódar Judit Lola in 24.hu) (Translation)
Più austero di Mr Darcy, più passionale di Mr Rochester, più sexy di Heathcliff (a voler fare una combo tra universo maschile della Austen e delle sorelle Brontë), il Duca ha lanciato una nuova carriera per Regé-Jean Page. (Laura Larcan in Il Messaggero) (Translation)
Les séries et films à voir si vous avez aimé “La Chronique des Bridgerton” (...)Jane Eyre (2011). Si vous aimiez écouter de la musique emo angoissante à l'époque et lire les sœurs Brontë (juste nous ?), pensez à Jane Eyre. Cousine lunatique de Orgueil et Préjugés, cette belle adaptation du roman de Charlotte Brontë de 1847 met en scène Michael Fassbender et Mia Wasikowska et a été réalisée par l'auteur de True Detective Cary Joji Fukunaga. (Anna Moeslein in GQ Magazine) (Translation)
Auf Netflix ist eine neue Serie namens Bridgerton an den Start gegangen, die einen regelrechten Hype mit sich bringt. Die Serie stellt eine Mischung aus altbekannten Formaten wie „Jane Eyre“, Downton Abbey et cetera mit einem poppigeren und moderneren Ansatz dar. (SerienJunkies) (Translation)
Una serie che fin dal titolo mettesse in evidenza il legame tra romanticismo e libri non poteva essere così male. Tra l’altro, sono piuttosto convinta che la mia insoddisfazione per l’assenza di un lato romantico della mia vita sarebbe molto più sopportabile, se non avessi creato e nutrito le mie aspettative proprio con la lettura dei romanzi romantici per eccellenza come Orgoglio e Pregiudizio di Jane Austen (che so praticamente a memoria come la protagonista della serie Lost in Austen) e Cime Tempestose di Emily Brontë. (Francesca Meraviglia) (Translation)
La Nación (Paraguay) mentions a pioneer local radio adaptation of Wuthering Heights:
Otro de los programas de gran relevancia en la radio La Capital constituía la radionovela “Cumbres Borrascosas”, obra original de la escritora británica Emily Broté (sic), escrita en el año 1847 y considerada un clásico de la literatura inglesa, a cargo de la Compañía Radioteatral Paraguay, bajo la dirección de Francisco F. López, según la publicación del diario El Tiempo, del 17 de marzo de 1942 que reproducimos en la página. (Eduardo Palacios) (Translation)
Nerd Daily and Bookish Jottings publish reviews of The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins.
Progetto, elaborazione drammaturgica e interpretazione ... Elena Bucci e Marco SgrossoRegia Elena Bucci con la collaborazione di Marco SgrossoUna produzione CTB Centro Teatrale BrescianoCollaborazione artistica Le Belle BandiereDomenica 10 gennaio 2021
Lo spettacolo sarà diviso in tre puntate in successione quasi fossero tre atti come nel teatro di tradizione:
Parte I, ore 17.00
Parte II, ore 17.45
Parte III, ore 18.30
In streaming dal Teatro Laura Betti di Casalecchio di Reno
Disponibile fino a domenica 17 gennaioOttocento è un appassionato esperimento di elaborazione drammaturgica che sfocia in una scrittura scenica originale, offerta allo sguardo dello spettatore nella sua natura più duttile.Elena Bucci si immagina un'ideale assemblea nella quale si trovano vicini artisti che - in paesi lontani e con diversi talenti - hanno sperimentato modi nuovi di raccontare l’uomo e il mondo.Accanto alla preziosa intimità della poesia di Emily Dickinson e di Emily Brontë si coglie l’inquietante fruscio del mondo gotico evocato da Poe e da Mary Shelley o quello delle dame incipriate disegnate da Baudelaire.Si scivola dai racconti di Čechov ai tormentati ritratti tratteggiati da Dostoevskji e da Tolstoj; dai nuovi equilibri suggeriti da Ibsen al decadente affresco parigino di Dumas figlio che, sposato alla musica di Verdi, ci porta a Traviata; dalla fredda denuncia civile di Victor Hugo al toccante affresco umano e sociale dei Buddenbrook di Thomas Mann, dai nuovi astri teatrali del Risorgimento italiano al surrealismo di spudorati nasi russi che fuggono dai volti per viaggiare in carrozza.In questa folle e variegata galleria, ben più affollata di quanto si riesca a dire, Bucci e Sgrosso hanno cercato di rileggere e di rivivere quella capacità di dipingere, musicare e narrare che rende uniche e preziose le vite di tutti.
Further information on Ravenna&Dintorni and Modena Today. EDIT: La Repubblica also recommends the production.
Of the three Brontë sisters, Anne has always trailed behind Charlotte and Emily in the popularity stakes, which is a pity as her writing abilities equalled theirs. Indeed, she tackled subjects that were taboo for her time more openly and comprehensively than they did. [...]The novel tackles weighty themes, especially women’s legal position in mid-Victorian Britain. Basically, when they married they had little or no control over their own lives, children or property. The idea of a woman leaving her husband and fending for herself and her children (Helen is an artist who sells her paintings) was shocking to contemporary society.Other significant themes are alcoholism (of which Anne had direct experience in her brother Branwell), domestic violence, the relations between the sexes and attitudes to religion and salvation (Anne, like her protagonist Helen, believed in universalism). [...]With few exceptions, the novel was mostly condemned by contemporary reviewers and that continued to be largely the case for more than a century. About 1960, biographers praised Anne Brontë as the first realist woman writer and the first feminist novelist, but it was only late in the 20th century that The Tentant of Wildfell Hall began to get critical acclaim. It is now safe to call it an established landmark feminist text. (Brian Maye)
Modernized spins on the classics aren’t a new thing. If “The Wife Upstairs” doesn’t give itself away with its title, you’ll figure it out as soon as Jane, plain and small, a dog-walker in a hoity-toity neighborhood, meets widower “Eddie” Rochester, living alone in a mansion. He doesn’t even have a dog.But the predictability isn’t complete, and chances are you’ll fly through “The Wife Upstairs” both because you’re intrigued by the unfolding story itself and because you’re putting together all the nods to its inspiration, Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre.”The setting here is not England but Birmingham, Alabama. Eddie’s wife, Bea, started a wildly successful home decor company called Southern Manors and then died in a boating accident with her best friend, Blanche.Or did she? Did they? After Blanche’s body is found, police begin looking into the possibility of murder. Meanwhile, Jane has been swept off her feet by Eddie. She has everything she’s ever wanted. Or does she?This Jane is no demure Victorian lass. Her history involves apparent dark deeds, and the police may be looking for her. Her real name isn’t even Jane!“The Wife Upstairs” doesn’t try to hide where it’s going. Not many pages in, author Rachel Hawkins reveals what might have been a shock if saved for the end. Alternating voices and flashbacks ensue.Despite a structure that feels disjointed at times, “The Wife Upstairs” speeds to an exciting and satisfying conclusion, with an eyebrow-raising postscript. But maybe the best thing about the book is that it may inspire you to read “Jane Eyre” again. (Gail Pennington)
In the right hands, the retelling of a well-known story performs something close to alchemy. It’s like hearing a song you love played in another key—familiar, but there are enough differences that it sounds new, makes you hear something in it you never heard before. When I sat down to write my own retelling of Jane Eyre, The Wife Upstairs, I knew I wanted to do something similar—not just to replay the beats of the original novel, but to take those elements and create something unique. The following five takes on Jane Eyre showed me it could be done, each one carrying the echoes of the original novel, but crafting it into five very different stories. (Read more)
There is of course nothing new about writers taking inspiration from the masterpieces of their predecessors and, by turn, creating their own key works – from West Side Story’s riff on Romeo and Juliet, to Jean Rhys’s anti-colonial riposte to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre by retelling the story of Antoinette Cosway in Wide Sargasso Sea, to the reshaping of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion for Broadway and Hollywood in the form of My Fair Lady. (Cahal Milmo)
Scarborough was once the Biarritz of Yorkshire.It was an elegant, seaside resort with visitors as esteemed as the Brontë Sisters and Winston Churchill.Scarborough isn't as warm as Biarritz, although it is considerably drier than the French Atlantic city. The town remains one of, if not, the most popular Yorkshire seaside resort, alongside Whitby and Bridlington. (Dave Himelfield)
I realise Bridgerton is more Mills & Boon than Brontë, more Downton than Dickens and I'm sure it's very entertaining. But not for me.
The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 46 Issue 1, January 2021) is already available online. We provide you with the table of contents and abstracts:Editorial
pp. 1-3 Author: Amber M. Adams
Emily Brontë in the Post-Romantic Age: The Transformation of Romantic Imagination in Emily Brontë’s Poems
pp. 4-17 Author: Zhao, Jinging
Abstract:
Though the Romantic lineage of Emily Brontë’s works has been identified by critics, the post-Romantic feature of her writings remains to be further explored. By focusing on the representation of a cardinal concept in Romanticism — the Romantic imagination – in Emily Brontë’s poems, this article seeks to explore the transformation of Romanticism in Emily’s world. It aims to present a detailed analysis of Emily Brontë’s relationship with the Romantic movement, her mixed feelings towards the Romantic legacy of the preceding generation, as well as the spiritual dilemma she faces.
Comedy in Wuthering Heights
pp. 18-29 Author: Tytler, Graeme
Abstract:
A careful reading of Wuthering Heights shows that, notwithstanding the grimness permeating its various narratives, there are elements in the text which may be said to be of essentially comic interest. That Emily Brontë seems to have no mean gift for comedy is apparent enough, say, through Joseph’s witty utterances; through the satirical portrait of the housekeeper Zillah; through the silly things said by some of the main characters as youngsters; and through a number of more or less farcical incidents and episodes, to cite a few obvious examples. Much less obvious, on the other hand, are some of the ways in which Emily gives us to understand that her two principal narrators, Lockwood and Nelly Dean, should be viewed as somewhat comic figures, thereby confirming for us the idea that, for all its distressing content, her novel nevertheless represents a happy blending of comedy with tragedy.
The Queer Ecological Aesthetics of Wuthering Heights
pp. 30-42 Author: Patnaik, Anhiti
Abstract:
This essay explores how the contemporary English filmmaker Andrea Arnold invents a queer ecological aesthetic to adapt Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights in her 2011 film by the same title. A queer ecological aesthetic combines queer, ecofeminist and postcolonial approaches to disavow the institutional and cultural ways in which white heterosexist patriarchy ‘sexualizes’ nature and ‘naturalizes’ heterosexuality. Arnold’s film forges subtle intimacies between nature and sexuality and the human and the non-human by focusing on Catherine and Heathcliff’s ambiguous erotic encounters on the moor. In lieu of a formal plot, dialogue and musical score, Arnold locates Catherine’s and Heathcliff’s desires within a complex mesh of ecological and creaturely narratives. Her film critiques ecophobic and erotophobic discourses in the West by depicting tactile and affective gestures between Catherine and Heathcliff that may be deemed ‘queer ecological’. This is also evident in Heathcliff’s intersectional character as a feral/non-white/non-human child whose presence threatens the white heterosexist patriarchal structures of the Yorkshire gentry. The essay reveals how Arnold revives the subversive impact of the original novel in the Victorian age for a contemporary ecophobic and erotophobic audience.
‘Currer Bell’: Jane Eyre’s Alternative Proper Name
pp. 43-55 Author: Jung, Daun
Abstract:
This essay reads ‘Currer Bell’ as an important alternative name for Jane Eyre which helped to convey an ambiguous sense of authorship and genre to the public at its initial publication. Through a close analysis of its discursive and narrative function, this essay will demonstrate how ‘Currer Bell’ worked as a curious name that helped to construct ambiguous subjectivities for both Charlotte Brontë and Jane Eyre. While this strange proper name worked as part of Jane Eyre’s realist project at first, it became a disrupting element to the book’s genre claim later. At the same time, Jane Eyre’s first-person narrative authority had been challenged by the outer voice of ‘Currer Bell’.authorial credibility and moral character.
In the Name of the Mother: Matrilineal Bonds in Charlotte Brontë’s The Professor
pp. 56-68 Author: García-Cuevas García, Raquel
Abstract:
A study of motherhood in Charlotte Brontë’s novels cannot be considered complete without addressing the importance of matrilineal bonds in her first novel, The Professor. Although the figure of the mother is present throughout the novel, this aspect has barely received any critical attention. Both main characters, William Crimsworth and Frances Henri, are shown actively to seek re-encounters with the maternal figure, which does not feature as explicitly in any of the other novels by Charlotte Brontë. Thus, by exploring the importance of matrilineal bonds in The Professor, this article seeks to illuminate how Charlotte Brontë was negotiating with questions of motherhood from the beginning of her career as a novelist.
‘Work abounded, wages rose’: Political Economy in Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley and Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy
pp. 69-81 Author: Setecka, Agnieszka
Abstract:
This article discusses Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley as a response to ‘The Hill and the Valley’, one of Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy. Whereas ‘The Hill and the Valley’ is informed by a belief that following the rules of political economy can solve all social problems of the day, Shirley, for all its similarities to Martineau’s novella, reflects different, less unambiguously affirmative attitudes to capitalism and political economy. Even the novel’s happy ending, which brings prosperity and settles social conflicts in Yorkshire, has too much of a fairy tale quality to convince the reader of the beneficial influence of the free market economy.
Jane Eyre’s Rooks and Crows
pp. 82-87 Author: O'Gorman, Francis
Abstract:
This short paper looks again at an intriguing pattern in Charlotte Brontë’s imagining of corvids in Jane Eyre (1847), suggesting that these creatures are indications of a particular, and very probably unconscious, imaginative habit in the novel. The birds appear in the text at crucial moments as if they are closely associated in Charlotte’s mind with important turns in the plot. The end of the paper considers the subtle implications of these creatures of the air for the novel’s wider interest in the air itself.
REVIEWS
Charlotte Brontë, Embodiment and the Material World
pp. 88-90 Author: Pearson, Sara L.
The Brontës and War: Fantasy and Conflict in Charlotte and Branwell Brontë’s Youthful Writing
pp. 90-92 Author: Duckett, Bob
History of English Literature, Volume 5: Early and Mid-Victorian Fiction, 1832–1870
pp. 92-93 Author: Watson, Graham
Glass Town [A Graphic Novel]
pp. 93-95 Author: Duckett, Bob
Rereading Jane Eyre: A Personal Retrospective
pp. 95-96 Author: Van Der Meer, Carolyne
Amy Sutherland: Which book have you reread the most?K.B.: Probably the first book that threw me to the wall, Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” which I read when I was 10. I will pick it up on a wild and wintry night in the west of Ireland and go into the glorious gothic atmosphere of it. I’m also a nightly reader of poetry, even if only 5 minutes. I take down the collected poems of Philip Larkin a great deal. He’s always more miserable than you can ever be, so he’s great company.
This thrilling tale is a Southern Gothic twist on “Jane Eyre” that’s full of suspense, twists and turns. When Jane, a broke dog walker with a suspicious past, moves to Birmingham, Alabama, to work in the uppity gated community of Thornfield Estates, she meets Eddie Rochester, a recently widowed resident. As the two fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by his deceased wife’s legend. But Eddie has secrets of his own. The story of this twisted love triangle will have you on the edge of your seat all the way until the end. (Kami Phillips)
Where the Reader Grows reviews The Wife Upstairs.
English Period Dramas To Watch If You Like Netflix's Bridgerton: (...) Jane Eyre (2011). Charlotte Bronte's classic literary character Jane Eyre has been translated to the big screen several times, but never with as much haunting impact as Cary Joji Fukunaga's 2011 adaptation.Mia Wasikowska stars as the titular governess whose happy existence at Thornfield Hall is interrupted by the arrival of Edward Rochester (Michael Fassbender), a cold and cryptic headmaster harboring a secret. As Jane begins to fall for her new boss, the harrowing revelation of Rochester's history threatens her existence. (Jake Dee in ScreenRant)
The interview starts with a conversation concerning her captivating track ‘Wuthering Heights’ which had shocked the nation upon its release. Bush discussed how she was inspired by the television series, noting: “I saw the series on the television, it was on very late at night, and I caught literally the last five minutes, as she was at the window trying to get it. It just struck me, it was so strong, and for years it’s just been going around in my head.” (Joe Taysom)
owned by the National Trust who call it ‘the closest you’ll get to true wilderness in Essex’.To visit you have to arrange for a permit and you can’t cross over to it at high tide. It’s referred to as ‘bleak, remote and quiet’ and ‘the Wuthering Heights of Essex’. (Clare Youell & Louise Lazell)
After spending several months in lockdown, I frequently dream of my most memorable trips. The windblown romance of the wild world of Heathcliff and Cathy up on the moors on the St Alkelda’s Way pilgrimage path in North Yorkshire.
Tania Markovic: Dans Final Cut, vous racontez également les séquelles laissées par une mère envahissante qui décide de tout : de l’interdiction d’évoquer votre père à celle de parler italien, du choix de vos vêtements à celui de faire franciser votre nom… La petite fille puis l’adolescente que vous étiez se réfugie dans la lecture. Dans le spectacle il est fait énormément référence à Marguerite Duras et en particulier au Ravissement de Lol V. Stein, mais le livre que vous avez sur scène c’est Jane Eyre…M.S.: Jane Eyre était un de mes romans préférés. Je l’ai lu très jeune et il m’a beaucoup accompagnée. L’héroïne de Charlotte Brontë est une jeune fille solitaire, orpheline, qui cherche à s’assumer seule en travaillant comme préceptrice. Elle tombe alors sous le charme de son employeur, M. Rochester, mais cet amour va être cassé par le fait qu’il y a une femme folle cachée et enfermée dans la maison. Cette femme n’est autre que l’épouse de Rochester… J’étais fascinée par cette histoire, par le secret de cette folie, sans doute parce que j’avais l’intuition, même opaque, de la maladie de ma mère… Puisque ma mère, comme je le raconte dans le spectacle, était paranoïaque. Jane Eyre m’accompagne sur le plateau car c’est le personnage que j’ai rencontré dans la littérature qui se construisait, comme moi, à partir d’une folie cachée. (Translation)
« C’est un matin comme un autre à Shadavar (…) Jane Eyre et Rochester sirotent leur café en souriant ; Mademoiselle Else repasse ses robes ; Anna Karenine feuillette l’annuaire des trains ; Obi-Wan Kenobi fait des élongations et le Vicomte de Valmont, adepte du yoga, est déjà en position du lotus. Oblomov a failli se lever ; les Jésus enlacent leur Marie-Madeleine… ». (Anne Besson) (Translation)
Diez Minutos (Spain) discusses a local kind of famous who wants to have a tattoo with a quote from Wuthering Heights.
"Mi próximo tatu es uno que siempre he querido hacerme", comienza escribiendo Alejandra en su storie. Se trata de una frase de su libro favorito, 'cumbres borrascosas'. A la joven le apasiona la lectura y esa obra dice habérsela leído muchas veces, y tiene la frase perfecta para grabarla en su piel. Lo que no sabe si es español o en inglés, así que pide ayuda a quien más la conoce: sus fans. (Translation)
Oh dear readers, Ashley and I have been planning and plotting and considering which Jane to share with you this year. You may recall 2019’s selection, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. This January, we’ll be passing our time with Jane Eyre, the titular character of Charlotte Bronte’s most famous work. Why Jane in January you ask? Well, we considered Austen in August but decided that was too limiting. Jane in January accomplished our task last year and gave us many more Janes to choose from as authors, characters, and historical personages, so there you have it. We like variety and options, especially in our reading lives. Jane Eyre, much like the Bennett sisters, is a beloved literary character, so we had to narrow our options greatly, and finally selected the titles below from ten that made our short list. (...)
So, if you want to read along with us this month, we’d love to be friends on Goodreads so you can track us in real time, and here’s what we’ll be sharing with you here, and when.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte ... January 7
Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker ... January 14
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys ... January 21
Re Jane by Patricia Park ... January 28
The Wife Upstairs - In this gripping reimagining of Jane Eyre that takes place in Birmingham, Alabama, Jane starts out as a dog-walker in Thornfield Estates, a wealthy gated community, where she soon finds out all that glitters is paste. She snares the attention of the mysteriously widowed Eddie Rochester, who recognizes that the secrets of Jane’s past perhaps mirror his own — and invites Jane to move in. She quickly gets access to a lifestyle she had only ever dreamed about, but something isn’t right: Eddie is distant. Strange noises come from upstairs. And she begins to realize she’s on a countdown to someone discovering who she really is. What would have happened if Jane Eyre had not been a naïve innocent with a heart of gold? Grab this page-turner and find out. (Nichole Perkins)
Love a bit of Jane Eyre? Try out the new adaptation of the novel following Jane, a dog walker who falls head over heels in love with Eddie Rochester, a handsome bachelor with a hidden secret... (Emmy Griffiths)
Rated Reads reviews the novel.
It followed this up with an adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights by Andrew Sheridan that brought gritty, modern dialogue to the Yorkshire moors in the nineteenth century, but which largely worked well, accompanied by live musicians playing Alexandra Faye Braithwaite's atmospheric, folky score. (David Chadderton)
Si vous aimiez écouter de la musique emo et lire les sœurs Brontë dans votre jeunesse (ou ce n’est que moi ?), plongez-vous dans Jane Eyre. Cousine ombrageuse d’Orgueil et Préjugés, cette belle adaptation du roman de Charlotte Brönte (sic) paru en 1847 met en scène Michael Fassbender et Mia Wasikowska et a été réalisée par l’auteur de True Detective Cary Fukunaga. (Vanity Fair) (Translation)
رواية جين آيرتعتبر 0 رواية جين آير (Jane Eyre) التي كتبتها الكاتبة الإنجليزية تشارلوت برونتي (Charlotte Brontë) 1 عام 1847م من الأعمال المميّزة التي جسدت دور المرأة في روايات الحب والبحث 2 عن الهوية، وقد حقّقت هذه الرّواية نجاحاً كبيراً من المبيعات، وكانت بمثابة العلامة 3 الفارقة في حياة الكاتبة الإنجليزيّة[٨] (Translation)
Pero volviendo a Gambito de dama, su éxito ha sido equiparado a una especie de Rocky, en el que en vez del boxeo hay ajedrez, y en vez de machos sudorosos, una chica muy lista. Imaginamos que a lo que se alude con esa peculiar comparación es al género al que ambos pertenecen: la novela de ´aprendizaje' o Bildungsroman, un término que fue acuñado en 1819, y un género que ha tenido siempre un gran éxito de público, sea en manos de Dickens o de Thomas Mann, por citar a los más clásicos. En el ámbito femenino también se ha dado, el primer ejemplo que nos viene a la cabeza es la maravillosa Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brönte (sic), pero todas las novelas de Jane Austen podrían entrar en esa categoría y más recientemente La amiga estupenda de Elena Ferrante, sería un buen ejemplo. (Colectivo De Mujeres Por La Igualdad En La Cultura ) (Translation)
Monica PicaMidgard EditriceISBN-13 : 978-8866722281December 18, 2020Quella che Monica ci racconta in questo lavoro è certamente una storia di emancipazione, attraverso una vicenda che ai nostri occhi banalmente adusi al ventunesimo secolo potrebbe apparire datata, d’altri tempi, quelli a cui in effetti lei ci rimanda, che attraversano gli anni ‘80 del Novecento fino al decennio successivo. Un’emancipazione squisitamente femminile,poiché dettata dalla determinazione, dalla volontà, dal guardare avanti non scaturita dalla voglia di riscatto, dalla vendetta, da sentimenti di rivalsa e dimostrazioni di forza più intrinsecamente maschili. È una storia di donne quella che unisce Maria Sole, il segreto della sua adorata, magnifica zia e Jane Eyre, perché fatta anche di quei sensi di colpa a cui gli uomini appaiono per lo più immuni o, quantomeno, diversamente declinanti. Ed è forse di tutto questo che Monica Pica come Charlotte Brontë ci vuole parlare, di quei mondi così endemicamente separati, che fanno di un uomo preoccupato un essere arrogante e in fuga e di una donna tormentata una persona soggetta all’abbandono, che è profondamente più doloroso dell’essere lasciati soli, perché il prezzo lo paga chi indossa il proprio fardello, non chi si spoglia e scappa da esso. (Mario Fioriti)
“Il titolo – ci spiega l’autrice – è un omaggio ad uno dei miei libri preferiti, Jane Eyre di Charlotte Brontë, e l’ho fatto legando ad esso la vita della protagonista, Maria Sole, che lo riceve in dono dalla sua maestra delle elementari”. La narrazione diventa però un modo per addentrarsi in una sfera di problematiche che ancora oggi, purtroppo, viviamo costantemente. Monica continua rivelandoci come “Jane Eyre diventa quasi un ‘amuleto’, un manifesto di ispirazione al coraggio e alla libertà. Ma non c’è nulla di eroico nella vita di Maria Sole, una bambina prima, una donna poi, come tante altre nate negli anni ’70 in un paese del meridione che vive la sua vita nel nome di una parola,’ salvezza’. (Translation)
Last week, the copyright on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” expired, so anyone can now use its characters and particulars to fashion their own version, much as Jean Rhys did in “Wide Sargasso Sea,” based on Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre.” That’s why we just saw the release of “Nick,” by Michael Farris Smith, in which the narrator of Fitzgerald’s classic novel, Nick Carraway, tells his own backstory. (Bethanne Patrick)
Jane Eyre (2011)If you liked listening to angsty emo music back in the day and reading the Brontë sisters (just me?), consider Jane Eyre. A moody cousin of Pride & Prejudice, this beautiful adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel stars Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska and was directed by True Detective auteur Cary Fukunaga. Available to stream on HBO Max. (Anna Moeslein)
Christmas 1995 was one to forget. I was ill and mostly confined to the sofa, trying to keep down mince pies as my big sister made her way through the VHS release of Andrew Davies’ Pride and Prejudice. A few years earlier, I had been subjected to the Julian Amyes version of Jane Eyre starring Timothy Dalton, but at least that was weirdly gothic and unintentionally hilarious; this was another level. (Lanre Bakare)A New York Times reader writes a letter saying:
Books are indeed a lovely escape from Zoom. After a long day of teaching secondary school history on Zoom, in person or a combination, I am happy to retreat to Alexandre Dumas’s “Count of Monte Cristo,” having already finished, since June, two volumes by the Brontë sisters, some Dickens and “Dracula,” all classics that I should have read but never did in high school or college. (Rachelle E. Friedman)
The best distraction of all: your favourite things. January’s long nights are the perfect time to curl up beside the fire with your favourite book to get lost in another world, whether it’s Jane Eyre and her time in Thornfield with Mr Rochester, Frodo’s adventures across Middle Earth with the Fellowship of the Ring, or Aisling’s misadventures in Ballygobbard. (Denise O'Donoghue)
A Classic-Lit Riff: The Wife Upstairs by Rachel HawkinsThe well-worn "wife in the attic" trope provides fodder for a compulsively readable tale that flips Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre on its head — this version skips the coming-of-age and opens as heroine Jane arrives in a gated community in Birmingham. The result is a gothic thriller laced with arsenic. (Maureen Lee Lenker)Any thriller that has the word "wife" in the title is going to be good. And proof comes courtesy of Hawkins' modern retelling of Jane Eyre, which is the year's first irresistible page-turner that will keep you up at night. (available now) (Tierney Bricker)
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins is a retelling of Jane Eyre with a darker twist. Newly arriving in town, Jane, a penniless dogwalker, meets Eddie Rochester. He is very charming and also very rich. Living in his mansion where his wife died a year ago, Eddie is ready to offer Rachel everything she ever wanted: stability, acceptance and a perfect life. As dreamy as everything seems, dark secrets lurk within Eddie's ornate villa.
Now Rachel Hawkins, best-selling author of eleven books for children, has produced her first “adult” novel, a revisioning of “Jane Eyre” set in Mountain Brook.And it really is an adult novel. Not so much because of the sexuality and some scenes of violence, although there is lots of that, but because of the darkness, the cynicism, the depiction of life in Mountain Brook as shallow, pretentious, hypocritical, ostentatious, and Hobbesian in its genteel, country club, tooth-and-claw, struggle of all against all. (Don Noble)
This compelling retelling of Jane Eyre deftly serves up a delicious mystery with a side of biting social commentary. (Suzanne Krohn)
Another review can be read on Bibliostatic.
Loin du portrait classique de héroïnes littéraires de l’époque, Jane Eyre n’est pas une jeune femme en détresse. En créant ce personnage singulier, Charlotte Brontë va à l’encontre des codes de la littérature victorienne classique, dans ce roman en partie autobiographique. Son héroïne est une pionnière de la littérature. Sa personnalité indépendante la rend moderne, encore aujourd’hui. Orpheline, pauvre et bafouée par un homme marié, elle reste assez forte pour affronter seule le sexisme de son époque. (Margaux Ravard) (Translation)
Aus dieser Sammlung erwächst als kaum zufälliges Ergebnis ein internationaler Überblick vom späten Mittelalter bis in die Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts. In den sich Berühmtheiten (wie Keller, Fontane oder Rosegger) neben einen Schwerpunkt zu Autorinnen (wie Jane Austen, Emily Brontë oder P.S. Buck) und die Würdigung weniger im Brennpunkt stehender Schriftsteller (wie Gryphius, Carl Spitteler oder Pirandello) einreihen. (Translation)
O filme de 2011, baseado na obra da escritora Charlotte Crontë (sic) e dirigido por Cary Fukunaga, conta a história de Jane Eyre, uma jovem que ficou órfã ainda criança e que trabalha com governanta em uma mansão.O drama é recheado de reviravoltas, romance e muita emoção. O longa conta com a atuação de Mia Wasikowska, conhecida por seus papéis como Alice, em Alice no País das Maravilhas, Edith, em A Colina Escarlate, e Emma Bovary, em Madame Bovary. (Eduarda Knack) (Translation)
That's a first on the blunders world.
Lançado em 1847 por Emily Brönte, o livro "O morro dos ventos uivantes" é um clássico da literatura mundial. Nele, é apresentada a transformação do amor em um sentimento violento, de vingança. Heathcliff, personagem principal, se apaixona pela irmã de criação, Catherine, mas o relacionamento não se consolida. Após perdê-la, jura retaliar aqueles que vê como responsáveis pela separação. (Translation)
Una passeggiata nella brughieraNell’attesa di esplorare la brughiera dello Yorkshire, quella che fa da scenario ai celebri romanzi delle sorelle Brontë, potete sempre dirigervi nel Basso Canavese, in Piemonte, dove si trova la Riserva Naturale della Vauda. La vauda canavesana è la brughiera più a sud d’Europa, un luogo tranquillo e romantico perfetto per prendersi per mano e godere della natura più placida, la stessa che tanto amava la scrittrice di Cime Tempestose. (Cristina Grifoni) (Translation)
Wuthering Heights 1939 was one of the films seen by Steven Soderbergh last year.
