CCTV cameras and flowers for Haworth

Of course the Daily Mail was ready to jump at the news of a CCTV camera attached to the only cypress pine tree left at the Brontë Parsonage Museum garden and said to have been planted by Charlotte Brontë and Arthur Bell Nicholls.

It's hardly a surprise that there are CCTV cameras trained on the home of the Bronte sisters – now a museum and national treasure where some of the greatest English novels were written.  
But the decision to nail a camera – complete with an electrical box and cables – to a tree said to have been planted by Charlotte nearly 200 years ago has sparked outrage among literary enthusiasts.
They now plan to complain to English Heritage about the ‘eyesore’ which they say ruins the iconic view of the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire.
Local resident Justin Ponter, 42, moved to the town to learn more about the Bronte family. He said: ‘I’ve spent a lot of time at the parsonage, so I quickly spotted this camera which had just been stuck on to a tree that’s 160 years old.
‘It’s ridiculous. They’ve nail-clipped a cable up the back of the tree which has gone into a big grey box and they’ve then lashed jubilee clips around the tree trunk.
'I think they hoped no-one would notice it, but they’ve placed this monstrosity right in the middle of their most iconic view.
‘The tree is one of the last remaining things of the Brontes’ and they’ve treated it like a botched job on a telegraph pole.’
It is believed Charlotte, who wrote her 1847 novel Jane Eyre at the parsonage, planted two cypress-pines with her husband Arthur Bell Nicholls in 1854 to commemorate their wedding.
She died the following year. One was felled in 2008 due to disease, but the remaining tree is a vital link with the past.
A spokesman for the Bronte Society, which runs the museum, said: ‘We take seriously any concerns made to us about such matters. We will be carrying out our own investigations.’ [...]
An English Heritage spokesman said: ‘We were recently asked to comment on listed building consent for a number of alterations to the Bronte Parsonage, including the addition of CCTV.
‘We advised that it should be fixed to mortar joints, to minimise damage to the masonry. The application did not cover CCTV units in any other location. In many cases the installation of CCTV can take place without planning consent.’

Seriously, it may not seem like a great decision, but then again we don't know what moved them to place it right there in the first place. Surely the Daily Mail et al would be far more alarmed if gravestones started disappearing from the churchyard as has happened in other Yorkshire graveyards (or whatever the point of that CCTV camera is). Or wouldn't they?

The news has also reached Perth Now (!).

Anyway, onto better news for the area. The Telegraph and Argus reports:

Councillors agreed to give £50 to the group in charge of efforts to restore an historic Haworth building.
Members of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council approved a recommendation to award the cash to Bronte Spirit, which has been campaigning to renovate the Old School Room in Church Street.
Money will be used to plant and decorate flower tubs outside the building on a Tour de France theme.

The Guardian interviews writer Siri Hustvedt:

When did you first know you were a writer?The fantasy arrived when I was 13. I was in Reykjavik for a summer and it never got dark. There was a whole library of English books and I was a great reader. I suddenly had access to books that were too hard for me before. Lots of Dickens. Jane Eyre. Wuthering Heights. Jane Austen. I couldn't stop. I read the abridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo. I read some Mark Twain. While reading David Copperfield in the middle of the night – probably because of the light I had insomnia for the first time – I looked out of the window and thought, "If this is what books can do, this is what I want to do." I published my first poem in The Paris Review in 1980. (Viv Groskop)

Lit Addicted Brit posts about Villette. Laodicea writes about Wuthering Heights. Random Things Through My Letterbox reviews Red Room: New Short Stories Inspired by the Brontës, edited by A.J. Ashworth.

Wuthering ReProgrammed

A new cover of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights has been released

Wuthering Heights
from Wuthering Heights by Matthew Joseph Payne

Matthew Joseph Payne's LSDJ, banjo and vocal cover of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights". Free download includes .lsdjsng file and two live tracks featuring a variety of guest musicians!

released 08 February 2013
original song "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush from her album The Kick Inside
arranged, programmed, performed, recorded, mixed and mastered by Matt Payne

cover art by Jay Tholen

Branwell, a legend on Twitter

The Mirfield Reporter has loved a stay at the Cobbles Cottage at Haworth:

The call of the crows high above the Brontë Parsonage is all that breaks the silence as we take take a breather in the paddock where the world’s most famous literary sisters spent much of their childhood.
Tendrils of smoke curl from village chimneys as we admire the view out over the moors and beyond. No wonder Emily, Charlotte and Anne were so inspired by their surroundings.
You’d simply never guess there was a Friday rush-hour going on in nearby Bradford as we contemplate the paths Heathcliffe (sic) might have taken over the moors towards Wuthering Heights.
Our reverie is interrupted as a small group of Japanese tourists, sunhats on (even in February) and cameras round necks, arrives so we decide to head back to our equally peaceful cottage in the cobbled main street of Haworth.
The aptly titled Cobbles Cottage is roughly halfway up the main street (a few doors down from the Fleece, if you go by pubs) and is something of a revelation.
From the outside it looks like a traditional, double fronted cottage; inside, however, two worlds collide in the most delightful way.
Stone flagged floors and exposed beams are teamed with an ultra modern fitted kitchen and spinning bar stools; spotlights pick out the impressively huge original range.
Upstairs, the bright and airy master bedroom’s wooden floor and Victorian fireplace also has a gloriously modern en-suite bathroom complete with power shower and heated towel rail.
The cottage also has free wifi access – not sure what the Brontë sisters would have made of the worldwide web but Branwell would have been a legend on Twitter. (Read more)

The Sunday Times talks about John Carey's upcoming memoir, The Unexpected Professor. In the book, the author tells about his dislike for Wuthering Heights:

I started trying to fill the gaps in my knowledge of Victorian fiction after weeks of immersion in poetry, with the result that I found myself reading novels as if they were patches of poetry interspersed with relatively uninteresting prose — which I still tend to do. My catch-up reading began with Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. I'd always meant to get round to it but never had, and I found it unexpectedly tiresome. The idea of Cathy and Heathcliff as wild children on the moors has great poetic power, of course. But it's essentially timeless, and fitting it up with a plot and a full supporting cast is cumbersome and extraneous. Besides, the minor characters are feeble, and the narrative is tangled and disrupted as if it's trying to hide the unlikelihood of the events. The story is exasperating because the one thing all the passion and violence obviously ought to lead to is forbidden by the conventions of Bronte's day. So instead we have two characters going mad with frustration. Cathy at one point is said to dash her head against a sofa and grind her teeth, almost reducing them to splinters. Besides being ridiculous, this is no substitute for seeing her and Heathcliff in bed together. I realise that these objections may appear coarse and masculine, and apologise if they do. However, an aspect of the novel that appears coarse to me is the simmering female desire, running through the narrative, for males to be brutal and violent, like hugely sexy Heathcliff, and not weaklings like Edgar and Linton.
The principle behind the poetry in Charlotte Brontë, on the other hand, seemed to me to be self-control, which no one in Wuthering Heights could be accused of.

The Irish Independent interviews the author Sebastian Barry:

Silver-screen visions aside, Barry was happy to chat about his upcoming book The Temporary Gentleman, which is all about Roseanne McNulty's brother Jack, a soldier who finds himself washed up in Accra at the end of World War II. "I received the first hard copy several weeks ago. That's always one of the best parts," revealed Barry.
"It feels very Brontë-esque, waiting at the gate for it to arrive. There's a sense of childish joy about the whole thing." (Kristy Blake Knox)

Daily Mail interviews the actress Sophie Kennedy Clark:

Favourite author? Jean Rhys − Wide Sargasso Sea is my favourite book of all time. Growing up I was terrified by Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre, and Rhys’s book is about her before she went mad! (Amy E. Williams)

The Boston Globe does the same with another actress, Kate Burton:

The daughter of Richard Burton, Kate Burton had no ordinary childhood, except like many other teenage girls she soaked up the Brontë sisters. “I loved Hermann Hesse too,” she says. (Amy Sutherland)

Broadway Classical World presents an upcoming concert by the quartet Jacaranda:

Jacaranda's next concert, tonight, March 8 at 8:00 p.m., will be held at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall, which is waiving admission to honor Jacaranda's 10th anniversary. (...)
Composed in Los Angeles at the end of WWII, Korngold's Quartet No. 3 was performed by Denali in its final season, and will also be performed by Lyris for the first time. The quartet was premiered at UCLA Royce Hall in 1946. Fearing that his film music would be forgotten, Korngold recycled themes from "Devotion" (1943) about the Brontë Sisters, the war themed "Between Two Worlds" (1944), and the classic "The Sea Wolf" (1941) with Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino and John Garfield. 

The Conversation asks for festivals and funding for female directors and describes Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights 2011 as

a uniquely brutal and bruising take on Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights in 2011.  (Melanie Williams)

Diari de Girona (in Catalan) interviews the writer Toni Sala:

No ho tinc tan clar. Mira, ara mateix m'han fet fora d'una feina de biblioteques perquè trobaven que tenia massa nivell.
Qui el tenia contractat?
Jo porto clubs de lectura. Trio uns llibres i els comentem amb lectors de la biblioteca. Però a l'Ajuntament de Tordera li ha semblat que treballar llibres de Joseph Conrad o Cims borrascosos d'Emily Brontë era massa elevat i que havíem de fer còmics i novel·la de best-seller. És una renúncia a la funció de la cosa pública que a mi em fa pensar amb el que em va passar quan era professor d'institut i vaig assistir a la degradació del món de l'ensenyament. Em fa por que les biblioteques no acabin anant també cap aquí. (Daniel Bonaventura) (Translation)

Quite pathetic.

Corriere della Sera (Italy) talks about women writers in literary anthologies for schools:

Figuriamoci alle scrittrici come Christa Wolf e Toni Morrison: non esistono. Nel volume su Neoclassicismo e Romanticismo, ci sono soltanto Madame de Staël ed Emily Brontë, in un profluvio di autori tedeschi e inglesi. (...)
Invece, editore e autori della Loescher hanno aperto un vero dibattito sul «canone», un termine un po’ tecnico ma importante perché indica l’insieme dei opere-caposaldo di una letteratura, quelle che fanno da linee-guida. Spiegano dunque: «”Rosa fresca aulentissima” ha come connotato specifico la volontà di riflettere sul canone della letteratura italiana… Di qui una scelta necessariamente limitata di autori, che privilegia gli italiani, e che anche fra questi definisce le proprie proposte antologiche in relazione al loro contributo al canone. … Se il tratto essenziale dell’opera fosse stato quello di una storia culturale italiana ed europea, allora senz’altro vi avrebbero trovato spazio il misticismo medievale, e con esso Ildegarda di Bingen, e la Querelle des femmes ottocentesca. Date, invece, le caratteristiche di “Rosa fresca aulentissima”, una generica attenzione alla “letteratura di genere” sarebbe forse suonata posticcia. Le figure femminili, così come quelle maschili, trovano spazio, anche ampio, laddove hanno contribuito ad affermare o consolidare alcuni aspetti del canone letterario, dal petrarchismo rinascimentale all’opera della Brontë e di Virginia Woolf». (Valeria Palumbo) (Translation)

El Correo de Burgos (Spain) about female writers.We notice that the Spanish newspapers have real problems when it comes to putting the umlaut in the right place:

Otra escritora, Charlotte Brönte (sic), revolucionó la literatura de mediados del siglo XIX con Jane Eyre. Una heroína que busca independencia y ser dueña de su propio destino y no el fin último de toda mujer en aquel tiempo: lograr un buen matrimonio. (Marta Casado) (Translation)

International Business Times quotes from Jane Eyre (you know, the "women feel just as men feel" bit) in order to celebrate International Women's Day 2014; The Yorker puts Jane Eyre as a notable contender in a a list of best female literary characters; The Sunday Times' Critical List recommmends the Bristol performances of Jane Eyre; The Dawson English Journal publishes a student paper on Jane Eyre; Dan the Man's Movie Reviews posts about Jane Eyre 2011; Better Living Through Beowulf discusses Jane Eyre as a "Lenten Meditation". The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page shares some of the merchandise related to The Brontës and the Animals exhibition.

Shirley on BBC Radio 4

Tomorrow, March 10, BBC Radio 4 will air the first episode of a new radio adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Shirley. The author of the adaptation is Rachel Joyce, who knows her Brontës as she previously adapted The Professor and Villette. These are the details:

Woman's Hour. 15 Minute Drama
Shirley  (Monday to Friday, 10:45 AM / 7:45 PM)

Cast
Charlotte Brontë ... Lesley Sharp
Shirley ... Jemima Rooper
Caroline ... Joanne Froggatt
Robert Moore ... Joseph Kloska
Louis Moore ... Joel MacCormack
Mrs Pryor ... Christine Kavanagh
Helstone ... Sean Murray
Hortense Moore ... Priyanga Burford
Mr Sympson ... David Seddon
Crew
Director ... Tracey Neale
Adaptor ... Rachel Joyce

Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, dramatises Charlotte Brontë's tale of romantic entanglements and turbulent times in the Yorkshire of 1811.

"Something unromantic as a Monday morning." And so begins this passionate love story ...

Set against a Yorkshire industrial background, Charlotte Bronte's powerful second novel is also an impassioned plea for social equality - for workers and women alike. Set during the time of the Luddite unrest, two strands weave together. One, the struggles of workers against mill owners, the other involving the romantic entanglements of the two heroines - Shirley Keelder and Caroline Helstone. It is the friendship of these two women, and the contrast between their situations, that lies at the heart of the piece. Many believe the character of Shirley was written for, and about, Charlotte's sister, Emily, who was dying as Charlotte wrote the novel.

Like The Professor, Villette and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, produced by the same team, this is an earthy, vivid and poignant re-telling of one of the lesser-known Brontë classics. The scenes of dangerous social unrest and conflict and love are as relevant today as when the novel was published. It's a story of friendship and love, longing and loss. A rollicking good story with plenty of cliffhangers to keep the listener hooked to the very end.

Episodes

March 10
Cousins 1/10 Charlotte Bronte's tale of romantic entanglements set against turbulent times in Yorkshire.
March 11
Caroline Goes Visiting 2/10 Caroline receives an invitation to meet Shirley Keelder, new owner of the manor house.
March 12
Good Works 3/10 Shirley questions Caroline, when she discovers that her friend has lock of Robert's hair.
March 13
Whitsuntide 4/10 Shirley's charity has begun to alleviate the suffering of the poor in Briarfield.
March 14
A Proposal 5/10 The Rioters have stormed Robert's mill, and Shirley and Caroline wait anxiously for news.

Pop-up Brontës that look good on shelves

A curious event took place yesterday, March 7, in Bridport. Bridfem, a gathering of feminists in the Bridport area, celebrated International Women's Day by 'staging' a pop-up play about the Brontë sisters, hosted by Beth Shaw. More details can be found on their Facebook wall.

The Guardian makes a correction to the article where they published a picture of  the wrong Brontë sister:

We had the wrong Brontë sister in an illustration accompanying an item about a debate on the literary merits of Emily Brontë and Jane Austen (The week in books, 1 March, page 5, Review). The picture showed Charlotte Brontë, not Emily.

The Telegraph thinks that the books on your bookshelves can help you sell your house:

Booklovers with teeming shelves should consider packing the majority away and only leave out the best titles. Hardback classics such as Dickens, Austen and Brontë look particularly good on shelves and add character to a home, she said. (Sarah Beeny) 

And if the covers matched the paint on the walls it would be even better, we suppose... The things we have to read.

A traveller writes to The Telegraph with an insightful comment:

Culture does not have to depend on the weather. Walking on the moors above Haworth on a January afternoon, with icy winds gusting, truly brings home the beauty of the landscape and the isolation that the Brontë sisters must have felt. (...) There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes, and culture is dependent on neither.(Brendon McGuire)

Another interesting comment can be read on the Newsweek coverage of the Lahore Literary Festival:

“Women tend to write sex differently from men,” said [Namita] Gokhale, “as they first need to reclaim their bodies from their husbands, their sons, from their family’s honor.” Muneeza Shamsie observed that when commenting on women’s writing, one too often heard about their private lives and wondered if the Brontës would find their sex lives examined and exist in the collective public imagination as sad, unmarried people living on the Moors as male authors. “Someday,” said [Manju] Kapur, “women’s writing will be writing, and men’s writing will be men’s writing.” Amen. (Faiza S. Khan)

Not living Pakistan, The Express Tribune recommends five pictures for a day like today, Women's Day:

Jane EyreAlthough there have been many versions made of this classic novel, the one I personally love is the latest one, released in 2011. The reason is not just because it has been picturised in a better way than its predecessors; it is the way Mia Wasikowska (the actress in Alice in Wonderland) has portrayed the governess-cum-artist and her struggles to find true love that has made me love the story all the more.
Unlike today’s Bollywood romance flicks, Jane Eyre is not about a damsel in distress who is rescued by her knight in shining armour. Jane works her way towards establishing a name for herself after she is orphaned and is made to study in a horrid, catholic school. After she completes her education, she takes up a job as a governess for a rich family, where she meets Fairfax Rochester, the to-be love of her life.
During the course of the movie, Jane finds out that Rochester is already married (spoiler alert: she gets to know about it at the altar, when she and Rochester are about to get married). Even though Rochester insists that the two of them could get married, Jane upholds her principles and leaves. Her strength of character and resilience to follow her ideals is something which women of today should pay heed to. A boyfriend or ‘their man’ shouldn’t be the only focus of their lives. (Faiq Lodhi)

 The Leeds Student publishes a cheat guide to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall:

(...) Ultimately Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a considerably happier and much less melodramatic than anything Brontë’s two older sisters wrote. It has often been hailed as one of the first feminist novels and comments, rather scandalously for the time, on the trials and tribulations of women effectively bound to their husbands legally and socially.

Keighley News reminds readers that the new guidebook to the Brontë Parsonage Museum is already available:

The new guidebook for the Brontë Parsonage Museum is now available.
The 48-page volume, available from the museum in Haworth, is the first to be published since 1998.
It was prepared following last year’s major refurbishment of the historic building, and it has been updated to take into account changes to museum displays of the past 15 years.
The new guidebook also includes the findings from recent research into the history of the Parsonage’s furnishings.
The book, from specialist publisher Scala, includes colour pictures of the building past and present, and the back cover features a painting of a bird of prey by Emily Brontë.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum reopened last month following extensive improvements to its shop and entrance foyer.

And also talks about the half-term holiday activities at the Parsonage:

Events at the Parsonage – which were free with admission to the museum – tied in with a new exhibition, entitled The Brontës and Animals.
This included children made animal finger puppets last Wednesday.
“We got all sorts of creations!” said a Parsonage spokesman.
“Although schools from outside this district were on holiday the previous week, and many of our young visitors tend to be from beyond the local area, we still got quite a few children attend and they seemed to enjoy themselves.”
Other activities included an animal-themed writing event on Thursday and an animal trail.

The Hindu interviews the author Sally Gardner:

Gardner learned to read at 14. She attended a school for children with behavioural problems (long shut now) even though she had a learning disability. She remembers the day when the words on the page suddenly fell into place and sentences grew into stories. “I was in this funny little hut with a tin roof. It was raining very very hard. And there was one boy on the floor screaming. The noise level was beyond anything I could cope with. I just wanted to be gone. To be out of this place. I remember picking up this book (it was Wuthering Heights) and looking at it, and starting to read it with my finger on the words and suddenly realised that everything had gone quiet. I was on the moors, it was snowing, it was very frightening. And I was no longer in the school.” (Nandini Nair)

Colette Bancroft begins an article in the Tampa Bay Times like this:

For those of us who are mad for books, that love most likely first struck in childhood.
Whether it was a picture book lovingly (and repeatedly) read to us by parents or the first books we read ourselves that expanded our minds into other times, places and lives (for me: Little Women and Jane Eyre), the beloved books of our childhood can have memorable and lasting impact.

Manchester Evening News lists inspirational Greater Manchester women. Including Elizabeth Gaskell:

One of the most famous writers of her era, Gaskell penned the rollicking Victorian novels North and South, Cranford and Mary Barton as well as the biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë. She spent most of her childhood in Knutsford before settling in Ardwick. (Emily Heward)

The Globe and Mail on characters that outlive their authors:

The author is dead – which is darned convenient if you’re planning to muck with his characters.
In 1967, the French critic Roland Barthes published his now-famous essay The Death of the Author, calling for literary criticism freed from considerations of the author’s biography and intentions. The same year, Jean Rhys won the W.H. Smith Award for her newly published novel Wide Sargasso Sea. A prequel to Jane Eyre, it revealed Mr. Rochester’s mad wife to be a Creole heiress caught between black Jamaica and white Europe, and driven insane by the domineering Englishman she is forced to marry.
Today, Wide Sargasso Sea is considered a quintessential example of the literary riches that can be generated when you liberate a text from its author. It’s a post-modern classic.Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, not so much. (Kate Taylor)

Tim Lott writes in The Guardian about class mobility:

Now my children have completed the pincer movement, for they are dyed–in-the-wool middle class. They correct me on my improper emphases in words such as "piano" and "theatre". Their accents are elegantly classless – a profoundly middle-class trait. They were improperly smuggled into church schools, brought up on a diet of Wuthering Heights and virgin olive oil. They will visit an art gallery as naturally as I would have visited a council estate in the hope of scoring speed.

7NewsDenver mentions the Brontë pseudonyms:

Louisa May Alcott published as A.M. Barnard, Mary Ann Evans under the name of George Eliot, and the Brontë sisters (Ann (sic), Charlotte and Emily) under the names Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell. (Katie Leone)

Bustle includes Virginia Woolf's comment on Emily Brontë in A Room of One's Own in an article about women writers on womanhood:

When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even of a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet, of some mute and inglorious Jane Austen, some Emily Bronte who dashed her brains out on the moor or mopped and mowed about the highways crazed with the torture that her gift had put her to. Indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman. (Molly Labell)

We don't know if Wuthering Heights is a maudit novel. We'd rather think not. But Doracino Naves on Diário da Manhã (Brazil) disagrees:

Na literatura existem algumas obras consideradas malditas. A gente poderia falar sobre dezenas delas. Lembro-me de uma: O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes, história de amor criada por Emile Jane Brontë, que chocou a sociedade inglesa da metade do século dezenove. Essa obra prima contém romance e suspense numa história instigante. Uma poesia de Dickinson para compreender a alma da autora: “Suaves caem os sons do Éden/Em seu ouvido absorto/Ó que entardecer no céu/Quando Brontë lá chegou!”. Sombrio! (Translation)

La Bottega di Hamlin (Italy) lists ten literary heroines:

Eroina femminile per eccellenza, Jane Eyre rappresenta il trionfo del buon senso e dell'intelligenza femminili, da preferire al lato estetico. Orfana, educata in un istituto, trova lavoro a Thornfield Hall, dimora del conte di Rochester, di cui s'innamora, ricambiata. Diversi gli adattamenti cinematografici, tra cui ricordiamo quello di Franco Zeffirelli nel '96, con protagonisti Charlotte Gainsbourg e William Hunt, e quello del 2011 di Cary Fukunaga con Mia Wasikowska e Michael Fassbender. (Translation)

Faenza Notizie (Italy) reports an event celebrating International Women's Day with a Brontë connection:

Per celebrare la Festa della Donna, oggi sabato 8 marzo, il Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza, alle 21, all'interno del percorso espositivo dedicato ad "Arturo Martini. Armonie, figure tra mito e realtà" in allestimento al MIC fino al 30 marzo, le dedica una sorta di visita guidata commentata dalla lettura di poesie. (...)
Per "corrispondenza di amorosi sensi" la visita ad alcuni selezionati pezzi di Arturo Marini sarà abbinata ad una poesia, da Jacques Prévert ad Alda Merini, da Anne Brontë ad Aldo Palazzeschi, da Wislawa Szymborska a Pablo Neruda, dalla quasi sconosciuta Drita Como fino ai giapponesi Racconti di Ise (IX - XII secolo). (Translation)

Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden) reviews the theatre piece Svarta djuret sorg by Anja Hilling which apparently uses Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights:

Den form Hilling valt gör att såväl roller som skådespelare blir anonyma. Skeendet återberättas men gestaltas inte psykologiskt. Ensemblen blir ett galleri röster men aldrig personer. Sofia Pekkaris Miranda berör dock starkt när hon fantastiskt och känsligt sjunger Kate Bushs ”Wuthering heights”. Thomas Hanzon gör skickligt sin Paul som en man som flyr till det praktiska men till slut konfronterar bristen på mening. (Lars Ring) (Translation)

Le Figaro (France) describes like this the Alexander McQueen collection at the Paris Fashion Week:

Au moment où la - très belle - saison parisienne semblait se satisfaire de vêtements chics et subversifs, arrive Alexander McQueen et sa mélancolie gracieuse. Dans une atmosphère de lande brumeuse digne des Hauts de Hurlevent, où se tiendrait un concours de beauté entre jolies jeunes filles et vilaines sorcières, ce défilé s’inscrit d’emblée comme un moment de poésie à part. Avec Sarah Burton, la sensualité couture de McQueen demeure en tout point remarquable. (Godfrey Deeny) (Translation)

Exactly the same as New York Magazine:

Sara Burton's collection for Alexander McQueen moved through a wild, mossy lonely landscape inspired by the moorlands of Wuthering Heights. This dress, with its emerald frayed flocking and emerald fur underskirt, seemed to blend indestinguishably with the mossy runway. (Veronica Misako Gledhill and Rebecca Ramsey)

A former copy-editor of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel and Brontëite; Literature Frenzy! reviews Wuthering Heights; Quattro passi sulle nuvole (in Italian) reviews Jane Eyre.

In China, Muted Roles and Silence

More recent (or not so recent but never previously reported on this blog) Brontë scholar works:

The Popularity of Jane Eyre in China
Qinghong Wu, Lu Huang
Literature Compass, Volume 8, Issue 8, pages 554–567, August 2011

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre has gradually achieved a great popularity among Chinese readers from its first introduction into China in 1917 to the 1980s when China introduced an open door policy. Therefore, millions of copies of various versions of the novel have been sold in China in the past 30 years. Though the interpretations of the novel change under different political and social circumstances, it is always fascinating to readers and academic scholars in China, for it not only possesses a literary and aesthetic charm of its own, but also has rich thematic meanings and implied moral teachings somewhat similar to traditional Chinese ethics, and gives Chinese readers resonance to life. It is so well appreciated by Chinese readers that it is recommended by the Chinese national education department as one of the fundamental compulsory reading books for primary and middle school students. In fact, it seems to have melt into the Chinese culture and may have far-reaching influence in China.

Acting Towards a “True” Identity: The Many (Muted) Roles of Villette’s Lucy Snowe
Ryan Crider
Feminist Studies in English Literature, Volume 19, Issue 1, pages 35-64, 2011

This paper examines the use of theatrical elements in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette. I argue that only through a series of decidedly theatrical narrative “performances” within the novel is Lucy Snowe, as both spectator and participant, able to emerge psychologically from the repression that initially dominates her character. In addition, contextualizing my  wn  nalysis within and extending upon a generation of existing research into the theatricality of Villette, I emonstrate the extent to which these performances and the “role” of independence Lucy eventually assumes reveal a subversive, feminist impulse behind the novel’s construction. The novel’s theatricality becomes coded to a predominantly feminist sentiment as Lucy learns to wield her performative powers.
However, one must avoid a simple dichotomy between repression and performance. As John Kucich writes of Lucy’s narration, in a Victorian sense “expression and repression cooperate and enhance each other by being identically opposed to direct self?revelation.”
Kucich’s psychological approach to Lucy’s character and narrative performativity is fundamental to my argument. The works of other critics who have written specifically about theatricality in Brontë’s novels, including Joseph Litvak and Lisa Surridge, also help provide
an important framework for my essay, particularly in the attention to prevailing Victorian attitudes toward the theatre.

"That Traitor Tongue": Detrimental Speech and Desirable Silence in "Villette"
Murphy, Patricia
Victorian Institute Journal, Volume 38, pages 23-52, 2010
Presents literary criticism of the book "Villette" by Charlotte Brontë. The author focuses on speech and silence in the novel, theorizing that silence is a way to challenging limitations on female language seen in conduct manuals regulating the conversation of Victorian women. The author posits that the character Lucy Snowe uses her silence to mask her insufficiencies in language and exert power over other characters. Conduct books, Lucy's issues with language, and female desire are discussed.

Heathcliff, role model, will teach you about love

Part of the celebrations of World Book Day yesterday at The Guardian included listing the 10 best teen reads. Jane Eyre made it to number 10 but also:

[Books that will] Teach you about love
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Forever by Judy Blume
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (Imogen Russell Williams)

Stylist looks at the top 10 books most read in the world. Unfortunately, the list doesn't include any work by the Brontës.

Our favourite books include Jane Eyre, Are You There God? It's Me Margaret and The Joy Luck Club. But just because we've read Charlotte Brontë's classic over 100 times, that doesn't mean the rest of the world has.

The South Wales Argus also mentions the celebrations at a local school where

Years 7 to 9 enjoyed Storycraft tutorials on the World Book Day website, had a go at some creative writing using Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights as inspiration and some enjoyed a multimedia lesson on Sherlock Holmes taught by the man himself.

The Daily Mail reviews Sally Cooksoon's Jane Eyre and sums up the production as 'mesmerising' as well as giving it 4 out of 5 stars.

You can watch period drama with celebrity actors on telly, but for guts and passion you can’t beat this long, elemental two-part adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s tome.
Part one, in which our Jane is born, orphaned, beaten, bereaved and jilted, is two and a half hours. Part two, in which her passions boil over and demand impossible satisfaction, is a mere two.
But if Sally Cookson’s thoughtful and insistently intense production takes its time, it’s worth it.
Her show has many strong features, but most remarkable is Benji Bower’s music, which is reminiscent of such diverse sounds as Elgar, Philip Glass, Brian Eno, Portishead and English folk, with big cinema sound inbetween.
More remarkably, it’s played centre stage by a live band, and threaded through with Melanie Marshall’s strange, plangent singing.
The acting enchants as surely as the music. It’s easy to be mesmerised by Madeleine Worrall’s Jane. She is sometimes rigid with defiance and passion.
She squeezes her fists and knits her brow from vexed childhood, through thwarted womanhood all the way to her romantic transfiguration.
Felix Hayes is no slouch either as Rochester.
He may never play Mr Darcy, with his groggy baritone and birds’ nest hair. He is sarcastic and grumpy — but he has a dry wit and you come to love him as much as Craig Edwards, who plays his loyal dog.
Indeed, Edwards nearly steals the show, bounding about the stage and beating the ground with the riding crop that is his tail.
This is, though, an ensemble production coming to life in collective endeavour. It is challenging, needs patience, but this plain Jane Eyre is rich in proud simplicity. (Patrick Marmion)

Bristol 24-7 reviews the production too.

Much of the dialogue from the novel is used in the script however it never seems clunky or archaic, testimony to the undoubted skills and talents of cast and creators. An innovation which works particularly well in this production is the use of music. At times the music is incidental to the action and dialogue and simply expresses the emotions felt by the characters. At others the music is centre stage, none more so than when the outstanding soprano Melanie Marshall soundtracks Jane’s realisation of her feeling for Rochester by singing Noel Coward’s ‘Mad About The Boy’. This synergy of music and action is perfectly realised and controlled throughout the production.
The small cast of ten frequently double up or treble up in the roles, Victorian literature is hardly known for being under populated yet all of the characters portrayed on stage are convincing and beautifully acted. [...]
Unlike previous cinematic or theatrical adaptations of Jane Eyre it is a pleasant change to see Rochester portrayed as a flawed, drily amusing and damaged man rather than a saturnine love god who’s a bit sarcastic and looks good in riding breeches. Felix Hayes brings Rochester to life and is a compelling stage presence and certainly has the ability to play the romantic hero.
Though the undoubted star of the show is Madeleine Worrall who plays Jane Eyre, plays is perhaps too light a description. She inhabits the role and convinces at all times, even when portraying Jane a a baby.
Many Victorian heroines were prissy and annoying do-gooders, thankfully in this production due to Madeleine Worrall’s range and ability as well as the script, at no point does Jane irritate or do you wish she’d just buck her ideas up. Worrall captures Jane’s resilience, sense of justice and quick brain well and convinces you that Jane will invariably survive. Even when Jane is lovelorn and despairing after Rochester declares his interest in the frivolous and avaricious Blanche Ingram, you still believe she will cope with this and grow as a person.
A superb production which should be a must see for anyone who enjoys superb, groundbreaking and imaginative theatre. (Lou Trimby)

Libreriamo (Italy) is inspired by several women authors in anticipation of International Women's Day tomorrow.

Le Sorelle Brönte [sic] – Quando si parla di scrittrici del 1800 è impossibile non citare le tre sorelle Brönte, Charlotte, Emily e Anne. I romanzi che pubblicarono uno ciascuna nel 1847 - “Jane Eyre”, “Cime tempestose” e “Agnes Grey”, sono diventati dei veri e propri classici. Le sorelle sono state accomunate, oltre che dalla vena artistica, anche dalla brevità dell’esistenza: nessuna, infatti, è arrivata alla vecchiaia. (Roberta Turillazzi) (Translation)

Has Heathcliff ever actually been considered a role model? This columnist from The Globe and Mail thinks so:

Let’s consider some terrible role models in literary history: Antigone – lousy role model. Hamlet – very bad role model. Frankenstein – hugely problematic presentation of science. Heathcliff – a brutish failure. Anna Karenina – awful role model. Emma Bovary – absolutely terrible role model. Those are terrible works, all of them: all lacking in empowerment. We should in theory have no need to read them. (Russell Smith)

Papermag describes Marc Jacobs' new ad campaign starring Miley Cyrus as

very Emily Brontë-meets-Annette Funicello, no? (Elizabeth Thompson)

According to The Telegraph and Argus thinks are looking up for the Red House Museum:

The future is looking brighter for a museum threatened with closure.
Council cuts had threatened the future of Red House Museum in Oxford Road, Gomersal, but the establishment of a Friends Group, to help support the historic home, and the recruitment of two new staff look set to secure its future.
The museum, referred to as ‘Briarmains’ in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Shirley, also has a successful gardening team who contributed to last year’s best garden in bloom award. The voluntary group meets from 1pm to 4pm on Tuesdays.
Future events include a Mother’s Day family-themed celebration running from 1pm to 4pm on Sunday, March 30, in the barn and in the museum. Booking is essential.
For more information about the event or to get involved with the museum, call (01274) 335100.

Classic FM lists great classical music inspired by literature. Including Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering Heights:

Movie music legend Bernard Herrmann chose 'Wuthering Heights' as the subject of his only opera. He wrote it between 1943 and 1951, recorded it in full in 1966, but it had to wait until April 2011, the centenary of Herrmann's birth, for a complete theatrical performance. Although largely unknown, the composer's wife said it was 'perhaps the closest to his talent and heart'.

Peace Love Books posts about Wuthering Heights.

Freedom vs Fragmentation

The University of Durham prepares a one-day conference the International Women’s Day, 8th March 2014: 'Literary Dolls: The Female Textual Body from the 19th Century to Now'

Key Note Speakers:
• Winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Jane Smiley
• Professor Jo Phoenix, University of Durham
• Dr Kate MacDonald, University of Ghent

Kyle Barton (Iowa University), Freedom through Fragmentation: Rosamund Marriott Watson and Feminist Mastery. 
Helena Michie has stated that “Victorian novels are frequently about women’s hands,” yet little
critical attention has been directed toward the instances in Victorian literature in which those hands are disconnected from the body. The violence of Victorian synecdoche, present in the concept of giving one’s hand in marriage, isolates the entire identity of a woman in a single appendage which can then be “given to,” or, rather, taken possession of by another. Nineteenth-century literary depictions of the amputation of women’s hands engage with this rhetorical violence. In Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Lockwood attempts to amputate Catherine’s hand in his dream, acting out his already-glimpsed marital desires and anxieties; and in George Meredith’s The Egoist, Clara Middleton mentally severs her hand from the rest of her bodily identity, in an attempt to preserve a section of herself while still “giving” her fiancé what the culture has determined she owes him of her body and identity.

This fragmentation of the female body operates most subversively and revolutionarily, though, in Rosamund Marriott Watson’s fin-de-siècle poem, “A Ballad of the Were-Wolf.” Through a close reading of this poem, incorporating feminist criticism and psychoanalytic theory, I will examine the thematic and formal methods through which Watson depicts the unleashing of female autonomy and bodily mastery through bodily fragmentation. When the farmer in the poem literalizes the synecdochal signification of his wife’s hand by cutting it off, he also unknowingly frees her body from those connotations. Through corporeal fragmentation, the fracturing induced through rhetoric heals and wholeness of identity emerges as all the previously shattered pieces re-connect. Language is a well-known assaulter of women; in her poem, Watson formally and philosophically labors to use the system against itself. Ultimately, she achieves the same mastery over language as her werewolf wife does over the patriarchal figure of the husband. 

Siobhan Harper (Durham University), The Healthy Female Body and the Mid-Victorian Novel. 

The female textual body in the nineteenth century is so frequently framed as ill and unhealthy, given  the propensity of Victorian authors to write illness, that these female textual bodies are rarely, if ever,  discussed in terms of their health. Interestingly, this trend occurs with male textual bodies as well;  however, it is the female characters’ textual illnesses that are most frequently and comprehensively scrutinised.

Healthy female bodies are clearly present within the fiction of the mid-nineteenth century, but critical interest has tended to centre on representations of bodies and minds that depart from healthy, normative models, rather than on these healthy models themselves. The healthy female bodies depicted within these novels are directly and indirectly contrasted with both healthy and unhealthy male bodies, unhealthy female bodies, and indeed their own bodies when they (almost inevitably) succumb to illness or become unhealthy. Furthermore, the contrast between the healthy female body and the healthy male body takes on a new aspect when that healthy male is a doctor. Health is implicitly and explicitly connected with agency and power, which is in turn inevitably connected with gender, but the healthy female textual body is also crucially presented as attractive and is therefore objectified – a phenomenon made particularly evident when that healthy body is contrasted with other unhealthy characters or their own (formerly or yet-to-be) unhealthy selves.

Through consideration of a number of novels by Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Elizabeth
Gaskell, this paper will explore the cultural meanings associated with the Victorian ideal of health in relation to the female body, with particular reference to the fictional representation of female bodies, and the norms and anxieties that cohered around them in the period. 

The CCTV camera Charlotte Brontë didn't plant

The Telegraph and Argus reports that the Brontë Society has received a reasonable complaint from a Haworth resident.

A CCTV camera which has been fastened to a tree said to have been planted by Charlotte Brontë needs ditching because it “stands out like a sore thumb”, says a museum visitor.
Justin Ponter thinks the equipment, in the grounds of the Bronte Parsonage Museum, Haworth, looks ugly and plans to put his concerns to English Heritage. His complaints have already sparked an investigation by the Brontë Society.
Mr Ponter, of Sun Street, Haworth, spotted the camera attached to a tree in the parsonage’s garden last week.
He said he was amazed that such an intrusive camera had been given planning permission in such a historic area.
“This is a Cypress-pine, which is one of a pair said to have been planted by Charlotte Brontë and her husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls, as part of their wedding celebrations in the summer of 1854,” he said.
The CCTV system comprises of a cable running up the tree trunk, connected to an electrical box and the camera, which is trained on the parsonage museum’s main entrance.
“It stands out like a sore thumb, and this is right outside a grade one listed building in a historic area,” said Mr Ponter.
“If this really is the tree that Charlotte planted with her husband then there’s no way that camera should stay there.”
A spokesman for the Brontë Society said: “We take seriously any concerns made to us about such matters. We will be carrying out our own investigations.”

Australian Stage reviews the Australian Shakespeare Company's stage production of Wuthering Heights.

Emily Brontë’s classic tale of Heathcliff and Cathy has been brought to life once again, this time by the creative team at The Australian Shakespeare Company. Set amongst the stunning gardens of Ripponlea Mansion, the scenery adds another element to this tragic story of unrequited love, and the cast make full use of the surroundings, allowing the story to have a more playful narrative.
Traditionally set amongst the British moors, some of the intensity and urgency is lost as the gardens are far too beautiful to evoke any sort of fear of the environment.
However, the talented cast created a sense of imminent danger through solid performances. Michael Wahr as the tortured Heathcliff was perfectly cast in his role as he crawled his way out from under the thumb of Hindley (James Harvy). and into society as a gentleman. Both dashing and slightly terrifying, Wahr managed to keep the audience in the palm of his hand, even when he was doing the most despicable things.
Ciume Lochner as his partner in crime and great love, Cathy, played up to the characters bratty nature and twisted Heathcliff, Hindley and Edgar (Spencer Scholz) around her little finger with her adorably frustrating behaviour.
While the cast were solid, director Greg Carroll has tinkered with the original plot, and the purists out there will not be too accepting of these changes to the beloved story.
Regarded as some of the most passionate lovers of all time Wahr and Lochner maintain Cathy and Heathcliff’s sexual chemistry throughout the production. However, the remaining ensemble is also highly charged and for Wuthering Heights fans, the concept of Edgar passionately kissing Cathy or Hindley and Francis (Rain Fuller) in a steamy embrace is absurd.
There is a lot to like about this production, the gorgeous setting, the timing of the darkness of the plot being entwined with the darkening night sky, wonderful costuming and incredible lighting that brings out the desperation and sadness of Brontë’s characters. (Heather Bloom)

The Huffington Post lists '11 male book characters who aren’t as nice as they first seem to be'. Among them is

St. John - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: St. John is even more terrifying than the average Nice Guy. Jane’s forbidding cousin, a minister and aspiring missionary, believes he’s owed her hand in marriage because their union will serve God’s purpose. St. John sees Jane as perfectly suited to the missionary life, and so he declares: “You shall be mine: I claim you -- not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign’s service.” Sure... but when Jane offers to go as his cousin rather than as his wife, he attempts to guilt her into marrying him instead, saying “Either our union must be consecrated and sealed by marriage, or it cannot exist ... It is the cause of God I advocate ... I cannot accept on His behalf a divided allegiance.” St. John claims to be nothing but a vessel for God’s will, but he’s using his moral authority as a minister to manipulate a woman into marrying him against her own wishes. Not so saintly, St. John. (Claire Fallon)

The Huffington Post also mentions a 1999 poetry anthology which includes a poem by Emily Brontë (we suppose it's Sleep Brings No Joy To Me).

It's often been said that insomnia and creativity goes hand in hand.
Acquainted with the Night: Insomnia Poems (edited by Lisa Russ Spaar) is a collection of over eighty poems by famous poets and writers like Walt Whitman, Emily Brontë and Robert Frost, all inspired by sleepless nights. (Aly Walansky)

Female First interviews writer Lucy Lawrie about her novel Tiny Acts of Love.

How much has your degree in English Literature helped you to write this book?Some of the works I studied (Emily Dickinson’s poetry for example) shaped the way I saw everything from that point on.  Others, like Charlotte Brontë’s novels, I just fell in love with. (Lucy Walton)

Socialist Worker mentions the early influences of Invisible Man author Ralph Ellison.

His early literary influences were European and Russian classics--Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. (Bill Mullen)

BBC Culture wonders if re-reading is the 'ultimate guilty pleasure' (pleasure - absolutely. But why guilty?) and mentions Brontëite writer Samantha Ellis

Playwright Samantha Ellis has clocked up even more time with Wuthering Heights. She was 12 when she first read Emily Brontë’s gothic romance, and without fail, she’s returned to it annually in the run-up to her birthday. This year when she will turn 39 might just be the first time that she skips it, but only because all those re-readings have now inspired a book, How to Be a Heroine. (Hephzibah Anderson)

The Frisky lists '15 Things That Deserve A Second Chance'. One of which is

14. The book that you couldn’t get through your sophomore year of English. The specter of your tattered copy of Wuthering Heights will haunt you forever until you finish it. (Ami Angelowicz and Winona Dimeo-Ediger)

Vulture gives readers reasons why they should 'be into' Cary Fukunaga. We wholeheartedly agree with this one:

He "gets" the Brontës.Or he gets Charlotte, anyway. If you have not yet seen his 2010 [sic] Jane Eyre — starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender — then lock yourself away in an attic and do so immediately. It is sensitive and lovely, like Fukunaga himself. Also, you have to give him credit for being so early on the Michael Fassbender train. (Amanda Dobbins)

The International Business Times also saw traces of Wuthering Heights in Alexander McQueen's Autumn/Winter 2014 collection.

Sarah Burton's show for Alexander McQueen seemed to be channeling scenes from Wuthering Heights, set on an emotive green heath. (David Sim)

Mis películas y series (in Spanish) posts about Jane Eyre 2006. Don't miss the sneak peak a the Brontë Parsonage new room guide on their Facebook page! Also, Jenny Whitehead writes about the goings-on in the Brontë Parsonage garden during the first two months of the year.

My Mr Rochester 5

L.K. Rigel's My Mr. Rochester fifth (and final) installment has just been published:

My Mr. Rochester 5
L.K. Rigel
Publisher: Beastie Press (March 1, 2014)

The classic Gothic tale set in a future utopia, retold in five episodes.

After the Second War Between the States,  the New Patriots broke away to form New Judah, a country founded on biblical principals and rejection of high technology. My Mr. Rochester takes place two generations after the Great Secession.

Episode 5: After Mr. Rochester's ghastly betrayal, Jane flees Thornfield and finds a home, career, family, and independence she's always wanted. But when a handsome and righteous young man offers a respectable but loveless marriage, Jane can't forget her former master.

Jane's dreams of Rochester invade her waking hours and drive her back to Thornfield where she finds more than the Hall in ruins. To reclaim the man she loves, she'll have to risk everything she's fought so hard to win.

Wonderful neighbours

Author Joanne Harris, a Yorkshirewoman herself, writers about the wonderful literary heritage of Yorkshire in the National Post.

The fact is, I like it here. And when my London friends come to stay, they are often astonished by what they find. Yorkshire is amazingly diverse, rich in heritage and culture. My neighbours, among many, are: the Brontës; Sylvia Plath; David Hockney; Ted Hughes; Alan Bennett; Bruce Chatwin; W.H. Auden; Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. 

The Mountain Xpress features Amy Greene. whose first novel Bloodroot was described as

a Southern Appalachian Wuthering Heights (Rich Rennicks)

Lane Hill House asks writer Anita Higman about the inspiration behind her novel Home at Last.

The inspiration came from watching the latest movie version of Jane Eyre over and over and over. I love that story. I read Jane Eyre a few months ago, and I was truly awed by Charlotte Brontë’s writing. I high recommend it if you’ve never read this masterpiece.

Lo Spazio Bianco (Italy) interviews Marianna Martino, who collaborated with Sicks in the creation of a digital graphic novel adaptation of Jane Eyre.

L’anno scorso avete iniziato a pubblicare la collana “I Bignè” sorta di bignami letterari a fumetti, illustrati da Sicks, giovane artista romana. Da cosa è scaturita l’idea di questa iniziativa e com’è stata accolta dal pubblico? I Bignè sono stati un modo per testare, pian piano, se c’era interesse a leggere fumetti in formato digitale. C’era. C’è. Conta che i primi titoli (Orgoglio e pregiudizio, La sirenetta e Jane Eyre) sono dedicati a un pubblico prettamente femminile e ricorda che Jane Austen non passa mai di moda, quindi la risposta è stata davvero molto, molto positiva. (David Padovani) (Translation)

The Spanish writer Olivia Ardey seems to be quite a fan of Jane Eyre, at least according to this interview from Hola's El Primer Marcapáginas (Spain).

P.- ¿Cuáles son tus libros de referencia, esos títulos imprescindibles a los que siempre volverías? R.-Los cuentos que me acompañaron durante la infancia y a los que debo mi pasión por el género corto, de los Grimm, Andersen, Alphonse Daudet, Selma Lagerloff y Oscar Wilde. El libro que siempre está en mi mesilla de noche, desde hace más de 30 años, es “Jane Eyre” de Charlotte Brönte [sic]; cada vez que lo releo descubro algo nuevo en la novela y los personajes. (Pedro Brotini Villa) (Translation)

Third Sector clarifies that 'Investment is more complex now than in the time of Jane Eyre'.

In times gone by, Mr Rochester (in the novel Jane Eyre) would use government debt 'consols' as the safe and, for most, only practical investment. The Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 allowed larger numbers of companies to be incorporated - heralding an era when everyone could share in the rewards and risks of investment. Over time we seemed to have more confidence that a reasonable return could be achieved with low risk - but this has not been the case over recent years. So how should a charity decide to invest, and is it worth paying an investment manager? (Peter Gotham)

This is what the Business of Fashion thinks of Alexander McQueen's Autumn/Winter 2014 collection:

The first thought that popped into the mind upon seeing the set for the Autumn/Winter 2014 Alexander McQueen show was the film Wuthering Heights and the cold wind-swept Yorkshire Moors. While that thought didn’t exactly pan out in the show, the dark romantic sentiments did. (Jessica Michault)

Don't miss the curatorial intern at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Lauren Livesey, on BBC Radio Leeds (starting at 1 hour 49 minutes) on the Wonderful West Yorkshire section of he Martin Kelner programme (via the Brontë Parsonage Facebook page). The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page also reminds readers that spring is just around the corner as evidenced by the snowdrops in bloom in the Parsonage garden.

Mulholland Drive! That's Where I was Going! posts a Wuthering Heights 1939 gif.

Jane Eyre in Tucson

A school production of Willis Hall's Jane Eyre premieres tomorrow March 6 in Tucson, Arizona:

CDO Theater Presents:
Jane Eyre
By Willis Hall, based on the Charlotte Bronte novel
March 6 & 7, 2014 7:00 p.m.

Canyon del Oro High School
25 W. Calle Concordia
Welsh Little Theater

(Via Arizona Daily Star)

“I don’t think we’ll see anything better than that this year”

People in Haworth are worried over the future of the Black Bull, according to The Telegraph and Argus.

A change of tenant at an iconic Brontë pub has prompted fears over its future.
Owners Enterprise Inns acted to quash rumours that the beloved watering hole in Haworth was in danger of closing.
Spokesman Amy Dolphin said the Bull, a regular haunt of Brontë brother Branwell in the 19th century, was popular with both locals and tourists.
She said the Midlands-based company was actively seeking an experienced publican to take over the pub from its existing tenant.
The Black Bull lies at the top of Main Street, in front of the parish church where the Brontë sisters’ father Patrick was minister.
Concern over the pub’s future was sparked at the weekend by the appearance of a “to let” sign outside.
Graham Smith, who runs the Brontë Media website, tweeted that there was a “very real danger” the Black Bull could be Haworth’s first pub closure.
Brontë fans on both sides of the Atlantic added their fears about the pub’s future.
Amy Dolphin yesterday said: “The Black Bull has a loyal local trade and benefits from being a destination pub for the tourists.
“We are actively recruiting for an experienced publican with the ability and ambition to develop this traditional community pub.”
Councillor Rebecca Poulsen (Con, Worth Valley), described the recruitment drive as “very positive”.
She said: “The Black Bull is a historic building and the residents are concerned because of its links to the Brontës.
“People visit for the history, but tourists don’t come all the time and it needs to attract local people too.
“There’s a lot of competition in that part of Main Street, it has to be a combination of good food, drink and service.”
John Huxley, chairman of Haworth, Stanbury and Cross Roads Parish Council, hoped a new tenant could be found.
But he added: “The pub trade is in a very parlous state. It must be a very difficult way to earn a living.
“The Black Bull is part of Haworth’s history and an integral part of the tourist offer. We want to keep its historic links, but provide excellence for the village.”
Enterprise Inns plans to hold an open day for prospective tenants this Thursday from noon to 1pm.

Guide 2 Bristol reviews Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre:

The cast also have to span the years, there are just 10 of them, including three musicians, and almost everyone has to portray several characters, of varying ages and genders, and in the case of Craig Edwards, even take on canine characteristics. It is testament to their talent and skill that they do so without any confusion. As Jane, Madelaine Worrall is perfectly cast and I really enjoyed watching her intelligence, ambition, frustration and vulnerability; you just find yourself wanting the best for her.
Actually, the entire acting cast delivered perfect performances, so rather than picking out any other individuals I will instead give equal praise to Craig Edwards, Laura Elphinstone, Felix Hayes, Melanie Marshall, Simone Saunders and Maggie Tagney.
The music is very much an integral part of the show, composed by Benji Bower and performed live on stage by him, his brother Will, and Phil King, it creates the perfect audio backdrop and, particularly when the vocal talents of Melanie Marshall are added to the mix, it is quite hauntingly beautiful. Incorporated into the score are new, very different, versions of Noel Coward’s Mad About the Boy and Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, both of which were spot on for the moments in which they were performed and very enjoyable to listen to. [...]
By the end of Part One on Wednesday I felt exhausted, it was intense to watch, but I couldn’t wait to see how the story unfolded in Part Two. When that ended, with the cast rewarded by a standing ovation (rare enough at the Bristol Old Vic to really mean something), I was speechless for some time, just wanting to replay some of the scenes in my mind, but when I did speak it was to comment that “I don’t think we’ll see anything better than that this year”.

The Huffington Post interviews writer Jacqueline Bishop about her first novel The River's Song.

In so far as my first published novel--The River's Song--is concerned, I started to think about the novel after I had written and published a short story called "Brown Girl in The Ring." Looking back now, in fact, I see that that short story, "Brown Girl In The Ring," was influenced by Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea. In Wide Sargasso Sea you have the delicate sensitive Antoinette, who is being hurt, at the beginning of the novel, by the very environment of the Caribbean in which she lives. A playmate is summoned for Antoinette in the form of Tia. But Tia, a black girl, is presented as unfeeling. Indeed she can walk barefoot and bare-head in the hot Jamaican sun, without feeling any pain. But I knew that this was wrong, I knew that Tia, could and did in fact feel pain and so in that short story I wanted to talk back to Jean Rhys who herself was talking back to Charlotte Brontë in the novel Jane Eyre. Like Jean Rhys I too felt the need to set the record straight about the "maligned mad woman in the attic." I wanted in fact to say to both Jean Rhys and Jane Eyre here is another side of the story, the story that neither of you are seeking to tell. And so I wrote "Brown Girl In The Ring" to tell the other half of the story, which the great poet Lorna Goodison has written, that some of us must tell. (Loren Kleinman)

El Faro Digital (Spain) finds a Brontëite in writer Sagar Prakash Khatnani:

–¿Cuales son sus escritores referentes y novelas de cabecera?
–Me apasiona la literatura británica clásica: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Henry Fielding, Elizabeth Gaskell, las hermanas Brontë... pero si hay un libro que me marcó fue  Gandhi, de Louis Fischer. (Olav Orts) (Translation)

The Huffington Post also interviews another writer, who is rather an antiBrontëite: Walter Kirn.

Which classic have you not yet read? Do you intend to read it?
My mother used to push Wuthering Heights on me as a boy, and I sensed from her breathy description of the story that it would make me laugh. I have no plans to find out if this is true.

We guess he won't be taking up The Millions' recommendation about good reads for March, one of which is precisely Wuthering Heights.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)
In the early morning of March 20, a “puny, seven months’ child” named Catherine is born; later that morning her sickly mother, Catherine, dies, and her true love, Heathcliff, dashes his savage brow against a tree in fury and sorrow. Sixteen years later, young Cathy celebrates her birthday with a ramble on the moors, where she meets that same Heathcliff and Brontë’s tightly wound drama turns inward once again. (Tom Nissley)

The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page shows the book of music Anne Brontë compiled while working as a governess at Thorp Green.

The Birds of the Brontës

We suppose that Emily Dickinson will be pleased to know about this alert taking place today March 4 in her home town:

Naturalists and Novelists: The Birds of the Brontës
David Spector, Ornithologist
Tuesday, March 4, 7pm-8:30pm
Hitchcock Center for the Environment, Amherst, MA

David Spector, an ornithologist with a specialty in birds in literature, will discuss the birds in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. How does information about a bird flow from scientific discovery, via environmental education, to use in a literary masterpiece? How can attention to the birds in novels reveal conversations between sisters, and how might such conversations continue long after authors' deaths? Learn how natural history knowledge can deepen understanding and appreciation of literature. FREE • Registration required.

(Via Daily Hampshire Gazette) 

Charlotte Brontë takes up residence at The House at the End of Hope Street

It's a slow news day today in Brontëland.

My Edmonds News recommends the book The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna Van Praag.

Overwhelmed by life, a magical house offers a 99-night reprieve to women who need an oasis to sort out their way. Why 99? It’s just enough time to transform a life, but not too much time so you’ll procrastinate. At the end of Hope Street, an enchanted house can appear just in time for a distraught young woman. The house is kept up by a beautiful, older woman named Peggy who has lived there her whole life. And there are other residents as well. There is a group of unforgettable literary figures, and a few other meaningful ghosts as well, who counsel and coach the women. Women including Virginia Woolf, George Elliot, Charlotte Brontë and Florence Nightingale, and other notables provide inspiring ideas about how to dream again and change your life. (Wendy Kendall)

The Williamsport Sun-Gazette talks to a local professor who

is not an expert on the Brontë sisters, but "Wuthering Heights," by Emily Brontë is exactly the kind of book that drew her to English in the first place. (Jessica Aunkst)