L'ingratitude

Exciting news told by the Guardian:

A long-lost short story written by Charlotte Brontë for a married man with whom she fell in love is to be published for the first time after being found in a Belgian museum a century after it was last heard of.
The tale, written in grammatically erratic French and entitled L'Ingratitude, is the first-known piece of homework set for Brontë by Constantin Heger, a Belgian tutor who taught both her and her sister Emily, and is believed to have inspired such ardour in the elder sibling that she drew on their relationship for her novel Villette.
Brian Bracken, a Brussels-based archivist and Brontë expert, found the manuscript in the Musée Royal de Mariemont. He said the short story had been last heard of in 1913, when it was given to a wealthy Belgian collector by Heger's son, Paul. The London Review of Books (LRB) is to publish the story in full on its website on Wednesday and in its paper edition on Thursday.
"It was finished a month after Charlotte arrived in Brussels and is the first known devoir [piece of homework] of 30 the sisters would write for Heger," writes Bracken in the LRB. "It contains a number of mistakes, mainly misspellings and incorrect tenses … he [Heger] often returned their essays drastically revised – sadly, there are no comments on this copy of L'Ingratitude."
The fable-like story is dated 16 March 1842 and is about a thoughtless young rat who escapes his father's protective care in search of adventure in the countryside and comes to a sorry end. The tale contrasts the solemn paternal devotion of the father with the reckless abandon of his "ingrate" offspring.
Bracken believes it could well have been based on the works of the celebrated French fabulist, La Fontaine.
"By all accounts a gifted and dedicated teacher, [Heger] gave Emily and Charlotte homework … based on texts by authors they had studied in class," he writes. "They were to compose essays in French that echoed these models, and could choose their own subject matter."
After her first stay in Brussels was brought to an abrupt halt in November 1842 by the death of her aunt, Brontë returned to the city the following year to become an English teacher at the boarding house run by Heger's wife, Claire Zoë Parent. She left for good in 1844, "worn out", writes Bracken, "by her infatuation with Heger, and his wife's hostility towards her."
Brontë's feelings were made public when, in 1913, Paul Heger gave permission for four letters she wrote from Yorkshire to her teacher to be published. (Lizzy Davies)

The London Book Review website doesn't seem to have the story online yet, but we will keep an eye out for it. The Telegraph echoes the news and the Brussels Brontë Blog has a post about it too:

The manuscript was found in the Musée Royal de Mariemont, near Charleroi, along with some other Brontë related papers. In 1915 Paul Heger had given them to Raoul Warocqué, a wealthy collector. He also managed to acquire letters from, for instance, Rembrandt, Mozart and Erasmus.
For many decades these papers were accessible to anyone, but it was a fairly coincidental finding by Brian that led to this great discovery.
Special thanks go to Sue Lonoff, the expert on the Brussels devoirs, who also provided the translation of the manuscript.

EDIT: the devoir is now online at the London Review of Books website, together with the history of its provenance and a picture (source).

Un Rat, las de la vie des villes, et des cours; (car il avait joué son rôle aux palais des rois et aux salons des grand seigneurs) un rat, que l’expérience avait rendu sage, enfin, un rat qui de courtisan était devenu philosophe, s’était retiré à sa maison de campagne (un trou dans le tronc d’un grand ormeau) où il vivait en ermite et dévouait tout son temps et tous ses soins à l’éducation de son fils unique. (Read more; includes English translation by Sue Lonoff).

 The Guardian also features the British Library exhibition Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands where

every item here will connect to another in some way and the best thing is, sometimes the connections will be obvious – Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath to the Brontes say – and sometimes they won't, like Ballard and Chesterton. (Mark Brown)

The Wuthering Heights 1939 Oscar has now been auctioned and, as Reuters reports,

Citizen Kane cinematographer Gregg Toland’s 1939 Oscar for his work in Wuthering Heights was sold for $226,876. In 2004, Hantman’s sold the Academy Award for $27,500.

William Boyd talks to the Irish Times:

“It’s very important for a novelist to retain a level of ignorance about what he or she does. You have to keep that in order to take risks, or make a fool of yourself, or shock people, or fall flat on your face, you know? Too much self-knowledge gets in the way. I taught English for years, so I know how to do it: but I don’t analyse myself in the way I would analyse, say, Emily Brontë.” He shakes his head in mock horror at the very idea. “Better that I don’t analyse it too thoroughly. If I’m too aware it might inhibit me in my next novel.” (Arminta Wallace)

Another writer also mentions Wuthering Heights today: Drew Thies on the Wake Forest University News Center:

Thies says that while he once thought the morbidity and violence in Bronte’s Wuthering Heights served only to jar the audience, he now understands that there is a deeper psychological desire behind it.
“There is something profound about studying such subject matter in a country that not only can lay claim to some of the greatest authors in this tradition, but also seems to be, much more so than in the States, eternally imbued with morbidity,” says Thies. “From the buildings – many of which out-date our own nation’s founding – to the graveyards whose permanent residents number in the hundreds of thousands, England, for all its rich countryside and jibes about tea and crumpets, is perhaps the best place to pursue that fulfilling curiosity with the morbid which Professor Wilson described so well.” (Katie Neal)

And don't miss the picture of him reading Wuthering Heights which goes with the article.

Tag Tuesday has made a Wuthering Heights-inspired tag.

Oblivion and more

A couple of alerts:

1. An exhibition opens next Friday, March 2 in the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

The Garden of OblivionBrontë Parsonage Museum
Fri 2 Mar 2012 - Thu 5 Apr 2012
Franklin is an artist based in Brussels, Belgium, and has spent many years creating a body of intricate drawings inspired by the Brontës’ lives and works. Franklin has used brush, pencil, pen and china-ink to create this series of detailed drawings, each work taking months to complete.
The small-scale works are layered with symbolism, taking inspiration from the Brontës’ imaginative and spiritual world. Franklin’s work draws heavily on poetry and literature, and has been exhibited in Belgium, including Musee Arts et Marges, Brussels and Ermitage Saint Hadelin, Belgium.
Exhibition free with admission to the museum.

2. A book talk in Cappaqua, New York:

The Chappaqua Library19th Century LiteratureWorkshops
February 29, 7 p.m.
The Chappaqua Library is holding a 19th century literature workshop at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The workshop will be led by English teacher Jacqueline Reichman and will focus on chapters one through 23 of "Jane Eyre." The event is free and open to the public. (Source: The Daily Chappaquan)

The stone setts on which the Brontës trod

A couple of news items from Haworth. First of all, the Yorkshire Post has an article on the works on stone setts on Main Street:

The stone setts on which the Brontës trod are being dug up, repaired and relaid.
Thousands of cobbles on historic Haworth Main Street are being repaired by Bradford Council.
The work, which began yesterday, is the final phase of a £600,000 project to preserve the character of the village, the former home of the Brontës and a major visitor attraction.
The latest phase of the scheme will cover the length of Main Street between The Old White Lion Hotel and The Fleece pub and is expected to last until the summer.
Last year new seats, direction posts and planters were installed in the village.
Main Street will be closed in short sections while the work is carried out.
Pedestrians will be allowed access at all times.
The road will be reopened at weekends and no work will be carried out on bank holidays.

And albeit tangentially the notorious Haworth clamper is back in the news in this article from BBC News.

Margot Livesey, author of the Jane Eyre retelling The Flight of Gemma Hardy, writes about the Brontës on The Millions:

Judging by the dresses on display at the Brontë Museum, Charlotte Bronte was less than five feet tall but, like her famous heroine Jane Eyre, she was the opposite of meek. When she was ten years old her brother, Branwell, appeared at her bedroom door with a box of toy soldiers he’d just been given by their father. Charlotte immediately seized a soldier and named him the Duke of Wellington. Her sisters, Emily and Anne, followed suit, naming their soldiers Gravey and the Waiting Boy. Together the four siblings appointed themselves the Genii and dispatched the soldiers to the Glass Town confederacy in Africa. Later Emily and Anne developed the country of Gondal while Charlotte and Branwell created Angria. All four wrote about these imaginary kingdoms. Their passionate juvenilia, much of it according to the Brontë Museum Guide repetitive and poorly spelled, paved the way for the novels we cherish. (Read more)

The Campus discusses why literature is important

For the more historic students, literature offers fine insight into human history first hand. Such examples of this are Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Both of these books were written in the same time period that they were based off of, which was about late 1700′s early 1800′s. [...]
Lastly, for any student, literature develops critical thinking skills.
The reader can observe from multiple points of view and is allowed to freely develop ideas about the plot and characters. Readers can be skeptical about actions taken by the characters or of plot points.
For example: “When Jane found out about Mr. Rochester’s secret, why did she run away?” By critically thinking about this question, the reader gains insight to who exactly Jane Eyre is, why she takes this action, and whether, for the time, it was a wise action or not. Readers are allowed to come to their own conclusions about symbolism, plot devices and characterization within stories as well.
As critical thinking is sharpened by literature, those skills can be used to solve everyday life problems, allow a person to see different points of view and call into question set standards. (Brooke Batchelor)

According to Flavorwire, Wuthering Heights is one of ten 'Fantastic Novels with Disappointing Endings':

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
No one’s denying that Wuthering Heights is one of the most powerful — not to mention visceral — love stories of all time. The story of Heathcliff and Catherine is one of longing and obsession and even sadism. The meat of the novel follows their endlessly frustrating romance and its repercussions, and is as utterly addictive as any escapist paperback you’ve ever read. It also makes you forget that the book is told from the point of view of a narrator, Lockwood, who’s at a pretty far remove from the main characters. Slogging through the first three chapters, about his stay at Wuthering Heights, isn’t difficult, but Lockwood also gets the last word in yet another trio of chapters. Sure, it includes the death of Heathcliff, but since he’s been dead for all intents and purposes for quite a while by the time his heart stops beating, this section is slow going. And don’t even get us started on that kicker… (Judy Berman)

Pink Villa reports that the actress Kulraj Randhawa recently

caught up on Hollywood classics available in the library of their hotel.
"The library was amazing and had a really good collection of classic Hollywood films. I got to see many films like 'Godfather', 'Gone With the Wind', 'Wuthering Heights' and 'It's A Wonderful Life' all over again after my shoots," said Kulraj who started her career on the small screen with the comedy show "Kareena Kareena".

The Flight of Gemma Hardy is reviewed by Book Clutter and The Book Stop. The Aftermath of You posts about Jane Eyre and Saucy Dolls has created a Jane Eyre doll. Livros, letras e metas writes in Portuguese about Wuthering Heights.

Plushy Jane

(Via Eyresses)

There are some very creative people out there. We have been pleasantly surprised by this Plushy Jane Eyre, which is both sweet and hilarious.

We suggest you take a thorough look at the full tumblr. Who would have thought that Rochester would be so well-played by a lion and a cute sheep would make such a lovely Jane. Their over-the-teacups conversations are brilliant.

Mr Rochester: Caregiver

Well, Michael O'Conner didn't get to carry his Best Costume Design Oscar home, but Jane Eyre has been awarded by ThirdAge with a Caregiving Oscar.

Jane Eyre – One of the most romantic books and a popular book-to-film property (the Brontë sisters run a close second to Jane Austen in terms of moviemakers going back to the classic well for content),  Mia Wasikowska plays our beloved Jane, while Michael Fassbender gives us a smoldering Mr. Rochester.   Both Jane and Rochester are caregivers -- Jane cares first for a childhood friend, Helen, who dies of consumption, and then for her dying aunt while Rochester cares for a mentally ill wife. (Sherri Snelling)

Well, it's one thing that Rochester didn't get rid of Bertha but saying he 'cared' for her it's giving him way too much credit for having his wife locked up in an attic room.

Anyway, The Daily Californian is still thinking that Jane Eyre was snubbed at the actual Oscars.

The Telegraph and Argus looks at local attractions to 'be proud of':

As well as the Alhambra and St George’s theatres, the city [Bradford] has a number of galleries, the industrial museum, and, within a few miles, Brontë country and the Dales.

This Bethesda Magazine columnist had a dream:

In the summer of 2010, I moved into the parsonage at Brookmont Church in Bethesda. The church had been looking for a long-term renter who would treat the house as her own; I’d been looking for a place in Brookmont and had always wanted to live in a parsonage as the Brontë sisters had. (Louisa Jaggar)

Laura Miller reviews Jeanette Winterson's Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? on Salon:

When Jeanette Winterson was a child — a redheaded scrap of a thing, as fierce and self-willed as Jane Eyre but readier with her fists — she went to a school concert at Christmastime with her parents. “Is that your mum?” someone asked her. “Mostly,” was her reply. 

I'm Coming Out! posts about Jane Eyre 2011. Wuthering Heights is discussed by A Book Crazy, Jane Austen Lovin' Gal and Meredith Kendall. I'd So Rather Be Reading posts about the 2009 adaptation of the novel. Jane Eyre's Daughter is reviewed in Italian by La collezionista di dettagli.

French Brontë (II)

More French Brontë material recently published:

1. An audiobook:

Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë
Read by : Mélodie Richard
Éditions Thélème
Publication: 2012-01-24
2 CD MP 3  (21:30 h)

Jane Eyre est un roman sur fond autobiographique écrit en 1847 par Charlotte Brontë, sœur d’Émily Brontë, l’auteur des Hauts de Hurlevent.
Jane, orpheline recueillie par sa tante Mme Reed, est maltraitée puis envoyée à l’internat. À dix huit ans, elle devient la préceptrice d’Adèle, pupille de M. Rochester. Commence alors une histoire d’amour impossible entre cet homme de quarante ans hanté par un lourd secret et Jane, qui finit par apprendre la vérité, et s’enfuit. Ce roman, qui met à mal le stéréotype de la femme victorienne – car ce n’est qu’une fois affranchie de la domination des hommes que l’héroïne pourra pleinement vivre sa vie et son amour – a connu un franc succès dès sa parution. C’est aujourd’hui un incontournable du patrimoine littéraire britannique.

 2. A bilingual edition of some of Emily Brontë's poems:

Cahiers de poèmes [Poche]
Emily Brontë
Translated by Claire Malroux
Points Poesie (23/02/2012)
ISBN-13: 978-2757826201

La poésie d’Emily Brontë, par sa force retenue, sa vertu exploratrice et son ampleur imaginative, occupe une place à part entière au sein du romantisme anglais. Ce recueil regroupe les poèmes qu’Emily elle-même souhaitait conserver ; ils forment le noyau de son œuvre, éclairant toute son activité créatrice.
 Emily Jane Brontë, née en 1818, est une poétesse et romancière britannique, sœur de Charlotte et Anne Brontë. Les Hauts de Hurlevent (Wuthering Heights), son unique roman, est considéré comme un classique de la littérature anglaise. Elle est décédée à 30 ans, en 1848.

A person like yourself

The Washington Post publishes a (not very good) review of Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy:

The first time I read “Jane Eyre,” I was 32 and teaching it to an energetic class of high school freshmen. After months of male-oriented fare such as “The Odyssey,” “A Separate Peace” and “Lord of the Flies,” most of the girls soaked up this stirring story of a young woman’s struggles, but predictably the boys cried, “Unjust! Unjust!” Revolt was a dangerous possibility (and I knew I’d be the Piggy character). I either had to persuade these guys to enjoy Charlotte Brontë’s Victorian classic or risk losing control of the class entirely.
Reader, I taught them.
The key was emphasizing Jane’s righteous fury and the plot’s outrageous melodrama. Those same elements must have appealed to Margot Livesey when she first read the novel at the age of 9 while sitting in a room that looked over the Scottish moors. (What 9-year-old doesn’t like a good Bil­dungs­roman?) In a brief preface to “The Flight of Gemma Hardy,” the writer notes that her childhood bore an eerie resemblance to Jane’s: She was poor and lonely. She was sent to an all-girls school where the other students bullied her. She prayed nightly for the place to burn down.
Now, approaching 60, with six novels behind her, Livesey has recast Brontë’s novel in the mid-20th century. She claims that “The Flight of Gemma Hardy” is “neither my autobiography nor a retelling of ‘Jane Eyre,’ ” but that’s a little like saying Mr. Rochester is not a married man. In fact, large swaths of “Gemma Hardy” track “Jane Eyre” closely. “Small and plain” as she may be, that original girl is a tough act to follow. (...)
The larger problem, though, is that Gemma is a plainer plain Jane. She rails and she rages, but she never attains the volcanic fury of her predecessor, which, after all, is what makes Jane so hypnotic. (...)
By modulating all those elements of Brontë’s classic, Livesey has produced a novel that’s far more reasonable, but what more withering thing could someone say about a well-written story? The thunderstorm romance that crashes through “Jane Eyre” is about as disruptive in these pages as a passing cloud. The sizzling eroticism of the 1847 novel makes the tepidness of this modern book’s sexuality all the more baffling. (...)
When an author dons the mantle of a classic, it’s not unreasonable to expect her to reanimate it in some significant way. There’s nothing jarring or silly about this homage (for that, see Sherri Browning Erwin’s “Jane Slayre” with a werewolf bride in the attic), but for all of Live­sey’s intelligent and graceful storytelling, she keeps Gemma Hardy’s flight too close to the ground. (Ron Charles)

The writer Hilary Mantel remembers when she read Jane Eyre for The Times:

“Jane Eyre, which I read when I was 10, seems to be a self-validating text for women who will go on to be writers. Jane is an observer and accused of being unchildlike. It may be the first time you meet a person like yourself between the covers of a book." (Stephen Amidon)

Oscar comments and/or predictions:

[T]he best costume Oscar is another category difficult to predict. I am picking “Hugo.” However, I think “Jane Eyre” or “Anonymous” could win this.  (Dustin Chase in Galveston Daily News)

Michael O’Connor, in his second go at the award, which he won his first time around, is up for his Victorian period costumes for Jane Eyre.  (Robert Janjigian in Palm Beach Daily News)

Sandy Powell has won three of these, but the enormity and beauty of her work on "Hugo" should triumph again, especially since Oscar voters love this movie about movies but won't have many chances to reward it in the big categories.
Will win: "Hugo"
Should win: "Jane Eyre" (Chris Hewitt in Pioneer Press)

And QMI Agency,  El Paso Times, Playbill...

Film.com interviews an anonymous Academy member:

Anyone you were sad to see not receive a nomination? (...)
I thought Mia Wasikowska captured Jane Eyre more effectively and beautifully than all the other versions of a story that seems to be filmed every five years like clockwork. (...)
Where are we likely to see an upset?
The best I can do is answer how I voted differently than what has been predicted, Like Jane Eyre for costumes, War Horse in the sound categories (I mean come on, it’s got war AND horses), Hugo in cinematography, and of course most of the big awards. (...) Jane Eyre featured period costumes you believed those characters got up and put on that morning, it wasn’t just creating a bunch of various costumes of a particular era. (Loquaciousmuse)

Las Vegas Review-Journal gives its own Terry Awards to performances ignored by the Oscar:

Fassbender demonstrated on-screen power playing characters as varied as the furious future Magneto in "X-Men: First Class," "Jane Eyre's" stormy Mr. Rochester and "A Dangerous Method's" pioneer psychiatrist Carl Jung. And, most notably, Fassbender bared both body and soul in "Shame," creating a haunting portrait of a self-destructive sex addict that ranks among the year's most searing. (Carol Cling)

Àlex Gorina in the Guía del Ocio Barcelona (Spain) also misses Mia Wasikowska:

Hay errores históricos: el de Michael Fassbender por Shame o Mia Wasikowska por Jane Eyre, donde faltan también los decorados.

The Independent publishes a list of marriage proposals:

Mr Rochester's proposal to Jane Eyre is blunt and to the point: "Poor and obscure as you are ... please accept me as your husband! I must have you for my own."

Seacoast Online presents an upcoming local production of the Lanford Wilson's piece Burn This comparing it to the Brontës:

"I was just musing on this yesterday, its appeal," says [Ken] Stephens, who directs the show. " 'Burn This' looks back at the Brontë sisters. ...; We see these smart and innocent women like in Jane Eyre thrown into situations and dealing with these very complex guys and we root for them." (Jeanné McCartin)

Intellectual Property Brief discusses the copyright of fictional characters:

Popular characters are adaptable characters; they are characters which are easy for most to relate to. Heathcliff of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights or complex Fitzwilliam Darcy in Austen’ Pride and Prejudice may respectively be tortured (Heathcliff wins here) and complex. Yet they both embody general ideas, including the struggle of adapting to different social circles of one’s own. An idea to which a consequential number of people can transfer and adapt to their own experiences. Those character traits would likely not be copyrightable.  (Caroline Gousse)

La Motte's Blog posts about Wuthering Heights;  The Eater of Books (in Portuguese) reviews Jane Eyre; Vom Lesen und vom Schreiben (in German) reviews The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; theSkinnyStiletto and Spoiling w/out warning (in Portuguese) post about Jane Eyre 2011; .... Musings of a Book Lover reviews April Lindner's Jane; Danielle Sloan uploads a Wuthering Heights-inspired set of pictures to Flickr.

And finally a last-minute alert from BBC News:

The former home of Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell is opening to the public as part of a history event.
The Cranford author lived in the Grade II listed villa in Plymouth Grove, Victoria Park, Manchester, from 1850 until her death in 1865.
It is open to visitors on Sunday for the Manchester Histories Festival, which aims to reveal new and hidden histories across Greater Manchester.
The house, which was restored in 2010, will be open until 16:00 GMT.
Gaskell wrote most of her novels in the house and authors including Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte are known to have visited and stayed there.
Festival visitors can see slide shows and listen to readings from Mrs Gaskells' novels and letters.

French Brontë (I)

Les Hauts de Hurle-Vent
Marigold Bobbio , Emily Brontë , Hélène Potelet (Series Editor), Georges Decote (Series Editor)
Publisher : Hatier (24 August 2011)
Classiques Hatier Oeuvres & Thèmes
ISBN-13: 978-2218954405

Une terrible histoire d'amour et de vengeance dans un paysage sauvage de l'Angleterre... : M. Earnshaw, père d'Hindley et Catherine, adopte Heathcliff, un jeune orphelin. Heathcliff tombe amoureux de Catherine tandis qu'une rivalité s'instaure entre lui et Hindley...

L'édition Oeuvres & thèmes
Type : Oeuvre en extraits
L'appareil pédagogique comprend :
- des repères sur le contexte et le genre
- un questionnaire pour chaque texte, avec des "petites leçons" sur les notions en jeu
- des textes échos pour construire une culture littéraire
- des reproductions variées permettant un travail en lien avec l'histoire des arts

Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë

Editeur : Archipoche (5 October 2011)
Collection : Bibliothèque du collectionneur
ISBN-13: 978-2352872535

Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë
Translated by Sylvère Monod
Editeur : Pocket (5 January 2012)

Le destin dramatique de Charlotte Brontë transparaît dans l'histoire de son héroïne Jane Eyre, en rupture avec le puritanisme victorien de son époque. Orpheline maltraitée, sans fortune et sans beauté, Jane entre comme gouvernante au manoir de Thornfield, pour s'éprendre du ténébreux Rochester, le maître des lieux. Entraînés par une passion sensuelle et une égale exigence morale, ils envisagent bientôt le mariage. Mais une présence mystérieuse hante ce domaine perdu entre landes et bruyères. Qui est cette femme, cette « folle » recluse dans une mansarde de Thornfield, qui menace leur union ? En plein XIXe siècle, dans l'Angleterre victorienne qui voit s'éteindre les sombres lumières du roman gothique et s'étioler les vapeurs du spleen romantique, Charlotte Brontë incarne l'audacieux combat des femmes prêtes à se battre pour leur indépendance et leur liberté.

Jane Eyre crashes after seeing Mr Rochester's enormous. . .

BBC News reports that at long last the most important part of the Haworth Main Street cobbles replacement is going to take place:

Thousands of stone setts, or cobbles, are to be re-laid in a West Yorkshire village.

The work begins on Monday on Haworth Main Street and is the last piece of a £600,000 refurbishment in the home of the Brontë family.
The famous literary family moved to Haworth in 1820 where the Reverend Patrick Brontë was appointed Curate of Haworth.
Thousands of tourists walk the steep hill running through the village.
Bradford Council said the renovations will maintain the historical character of the village
The road will be closed in short sections as the work is carried out, although pedestrian access will be possible at all times.
The work is expected to last until the summer but the road will be re-opened over weekends and there will be no work on bank holidays.

Also on BBC News we read the results of the latest "Emily Brontë portrait" auction. Unsurprisingly, the auctioneers announce yet another Brontë portrait to be auctioned in April:

A portrait believed to be of the author Emily Brontë was sold for £4,600 at a Northamptonshire auctioneers.

The 33cm by 24cm (13in x 9.5in) oil painting went under the hammer in Towcester on Thursday.
Auctioneer JP Humbert said it had attracted a moderate amount of interest after a previous sale of another painting.
The auction house sold that portrait of the reclusive writer for £23,836 in December.
This latest painting, which is annotated 'Emily Jane Brontë', was estimated to fetch between £5,000 and £8,000.
Auctioneer Jonathan Humbert said: "We have another Brontë painting which we will put up for auction in April and we are hoping to make it three out of three."

AutoStraddle interviews the members of the art collective All the Cunning Stunts. One of them, Marnie Slater makes the following rather enigmatic statement:

Marnie:  Hehe. I think Rachel [O'Neill]  for sure hand-washes her laundry more often than all the Brontë sisters combined.  (Effing Dykes)

Sarah Pyles remembers in The Huffington Post her love of reading:

As I grew older, my love of reading continued. I think I must have read Little Women over 15 times as a teenager. Other favourites included Jane Eyre, Emma and The Outsiders.

 And more Oscar predictions:

Best Costume Design. Another very tricky category. The traditional pick would be Anonymous, because it's a lavish period piece. My friend Howard calls this the Most Costumes award. But that movie truly was anonymous in every sense and has been so thoroughly forgotten it seems unlikely. And when you think of Hugo, the costumes do not come to mind. That means it's down to the glamour of The Artist versus the realism of Jane Eyre. Glamour wins every time. Mind you, the Costume guild gave it to Madonna's movie W./E., which is also period and very glamorous. And this category has been willfully offbeat for the past 10 years. Still, that's not how voters think when they're voting; that's just how we think when we're trying to predict how voters think. Michael O'Connor of Jane Eyre won before and that never hurts. But I'm sticking with the "obvious" choice of The Artist.  (Michael Giltz in The Huffington Post)

In a relatively quiet year for British cinema at the Oscars, the nation can still turn to that reliable standby, the best costume design award, for a little welling-up of patriotic pride. Four out of the last five winners have been British, and two of them – Sandy Powell and Michael O'Connor – are in the running this time. O'Connor is up for Jane Eyre, but the smart money is on Powell, for her work on Martin Scorsese's early-cinema fantasy Hugo.  (Andrew Pulver in The Guardian)

And the winner is: Hugo. This is an especially tricky category, and it's not impossible for an impressive period piece with no other nominations like Jane Eyre to swoop in here. But Hugo's Sandy Powell has won this award three times and seems well poised to do it again. This is one of the tightest races in the technical categories, though, so many other things are possible.  (Katie Rich on CinemaBlend)

The world’s largest costume supplier, Angels has provided a selection of clothing and accessories for all four films nominated for best costume design at this year’s Oscars — “W.E.,” “Hugo,” “Jane Eyre” and “Anonymous.” (WWD)

The lush set designs that characterized both critical darling Jane Eyre and less-well-received Anonymous provided appropriately rich backdrops for the examination of such weighty subjects as love and art. In Eyre, the opulence that Jane encounters at Rochester’s estate serves as a deliberate contrast to her forlorn upbringing.   (The Globe and Mail)

Em Jane Eyre, a indumentária tem o estilo da era vitoriana e ajuda a compor o clima sombrio do filme, além de ser um marcador da evolução da personagem Jane Eyre. Os vestidos escuros e de tecidos rústicos vão dando lugar a peças mais claras à medida em que a própria personagem se transforma ao longo da trama, abandona a aura de tristeza e solidão, se apaixona e ainda se torna uma rica herdeira. Tudo muito eficiente, mas não faz brilhar os olhos. (Pollyana Teixeira in  Mundo Ela) (Translation)

Poi viene Jane Eyre, un film i costumi sono perfette macchine di significazione: basta dargli un’occhiata e lo spettatore capisce lo stato sociale del personaggio, il suo percorso emotivo, la sua età. C’è anche una grande attenzione ai dettagli (come si evince da certi cappelli), al peso storico dei materiali e alcuni momenti di lirismo creativo. I costumi di Jane Eyre sono per noi anche migliori di quelli favolosi che Michael O’Connor ha realizzato per The Duchess (per cui ha già vinto un Oscar) eppure l’Academy non si sofferma su certe sottigliezze e pensa piuttosto come un PR, assegnando premi più al film che ai suoi singoli componenti.  (Emanuele Lugli on Vogue.it) (Translation)

The Huffington Post also discusses films with no Oscar endorsement:

Jane Eyre. You've probably heard a lot about German / Irish actor Michael Fassbender lately. Mostly I'm sure about his enormous penis, which is on prominent display in his Golden Globe-nominated performance in Shame. But before that he was very memorable as a young Magneto in X-Men First Class, and before that he turned in an impressive and sexy performance as the cold and distant Rochester to Mia Wasikowska's Jane Eyre. Directed with moody gothic chilliness by Cary Fukunaga, this adaptation never feels boring or austere. This is technically another cheat because it did get an Oscar nomination for best Costume Design, but it is much better than just a well-costumed period drama.  (Bill Augustin)

Why has Jane Eyre no more nominations? The Daily Californian says what we already know:

If “Jane Eyre” had opened in the fall instead of in March, Mia Wasikowska would probably have earned a very deserving nomination.  (Braulio Ramirez)

The Seattle Times joins in the recognition.

IndieWire's The Playlist mentions her partenaire:

Best Actor - Michael Fassbender - "Shame"
It's become something of a tradition for the best performance of the year to get overlooked by the Academy, and that's exactly how we thought of Michael Fassbender as Brandon in "Shame."(...) The actor put in several excellent performances in the last year (he easily could have managed a nomination for "Jane Eyre" too), but this is the one that will be remembered as putting him into the big leagues.  (Oliver Lyttelton)

ContraCosta Times has some alternative nominations:

Most Tragic Ruins

The great smoking hulk that once was Thornfield Hall in "Jane Eyre" again reminds us to deal with that crazy woman in the attic before things get out of hand. (Kathryn Pritchett)

Like The Times:

Best Use of Mud: Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights. Here the mud was brilliantly deployed and liberally splattered on characters, on animals and across locations, both inside and out. The mud not only suggested the hardships of life on the moors in early 19th-century Yorkshire, but it also gave you something to look at when the acting of the older kids started to get a bit rubbish in the second half. (Kevin Maher)

The Phoenix Film Industry Examiner interviews Cary Fukunaga about the origins of the film:

“I would say I found ‘Jane Eyre’, I was thinking about adapting the novel on my own while I was waiting for ‘Sin Nombre’ to get made. I was thinking about other scripts to write, I had just finished another adaptation and was thinking about other stories of my youth and Bob Stevenson’s version of Jane Eyre was one of my favorites and thought it would be a great adaptation. 
But it didn’t happen (with a chuckle); I got busy with ‘Sin Nombre’.  While I was promoting ‘Sin Nombre’, I found out that the BBC had a ‘Jane’ on their slat and I wanted to find out what their take on it was!  So I asked to read it, liked the script, and I asked to meet the producer and the screenwriter Moira Buffini!  They liked me and my approach to the story, and, I liked them so I said ‘Let’s make this movie. That’s how it happened!” (Stan Robinson)

The New York Times reviews By Blood by Ellen Ullman:

And literature would be bereft without the love triangle in all its variations — one party dead (“Rebecca”), oblivious (“Othello”), mad (“Jane Eyre”) or a pile of old letters (“The Aspern Papers”).  (Parul Sehgal)

The Guardian interviews the writer Reggie Nadelson:

Who's your favourite writer?
Philip Roth … but only one? Can I have Graham Greene, Salman Rushdie and Charlotte Brontë, please (Only for Jane Eyre).

Keighley News informs about a local accident with some bizarre Brontë connections:

The driver of the other vehicle, Haworth man Ellison Moore, who works for Haworth-based haulage JVM, escaped injury.
He had been driving his vehicle -- named "Jane Eyre" -- back home towards Keighley after dropping off a load in Manchester. (David Knights)

Outlook India publishes a satirical piece about P.D. James:

There are still queries on why I wrote Death Comes to Pemberley, a sort of sequel to Pride and Prejudice. In media interviews, I said I loved Jane Austen and her Pemberley and why not stage a murder among familiar scenario and characters. I got some weird feedback though. Like why not murder off the arrogant Darcy and let ‘smarty pants’ Elizabeth Bennett solve the crime. Or get the idiot Mr Collins bashed on the head and killed, with the post-mortem revealing a total absence of brains!
But here, I can reveal the real reason. I was getting a bit tired of my longstanding hero, Adam Dalgliesh, who was getting on my nerves. I got him married off in my last book, his faithful assistant Kate Miskin will no longer sigh after him and perhaps his poetic faculties had also dimmed. Mind you, he had been with me since 1962 and had he been in real police service would have retired long back. Will I do murder sequels of more classics? Here too suggestions poured in. ‘Murder at the Orphanage’ (Oliver Twist), ‘The Guillotine Killings’ (A Tale of Two Cities), ‘Descending Heights’ (Wuthering Heights) and so on. Let me think about this. (V. Gangadhar)

Vernon Morning Star reviews a local concert of the electronic duo Chairlift:

The rain and mist of the dark English moors have drifted across the Atlantic to Brooklyn, once home to Sweathogs like Barbarino and Horseshack. (...) Illusion is made concrete as the Brontës are dropped off in front of the pizzeria.  (Dean Gordon-Smith)

Financial Times reviews the novel The Prisoner of Paradise by Romesh Gunesekera:

The Prisoner of Paradise is a delightful study in method writing, an affectionate, playful tribute to Lalla-Rookh, Jane Austen, the Brontës and the historical romance itself. (Susan Elderkin)

Simon Schama shares personal memories also on Financial Times:

So the fit between being British and being Jewish seemed to my parents, and to their two children to whom they had given the very British names of Simon and Tessa, utterly natural, beshert even – historically fated. As well as Dickens and Shakespeare on the bookshelf at home, there was Fielding, George Eliot, Austen, the Brontës, Hardy, Wells and (a special passion of Arthur’s who spoke as if he had known him personally) anything written by GB Shaw.

An alert from the Concord Journal:

Margot Livesey will be at the Concord Bookshop on Sunday to read from, answer questions and sign copies of her new novel, “The Flight of Gemma Hardy.” At once an homage to and a variation on the beloved classic “Jane Eyre,” Livesey’s take on an iron-willed orphan girl, determined to find her place in the world despite the odds stacked against her, is set in Scotland in the early 1960s.
Like many readers, Livesey says she first fell in love with “Jane Eyre” as a child, relating to Jane’s plight because of her own childhood unhappiness — details of which she has incorporated into Gemma’s story.
“I have reread Jane Eyre a number of times since my first passionate reading and my understanding of the novel has shifted with each experience,” Livesey writes. “Like most readers I was initially riveted by the discovery of Bertha in the attic, but on rereading I saw that Jane had a larger part in her own fate than I had first understood….The Flight of Gemma Hardy is, in my mind, neither my autobiography nor a retelling of Jane Eyre. Rather I am writing back to Charlotte Brontë, recasting Jane’s journey to fit my own courageous heroine and the possibilities of her time and place. And like Brontë I am, of course, stealing from my own life.”

Publishers Weekly talks about Jeannette Winterson:

Winterson’s mined the circumstances of her young life for her fiction, notably her first, hugely successful novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (U.K.’s Pandora Press 1985). But while she’s written novels, nonfiction, children’s books, and screenplays since then, she never expected she would write a memoir. It was discovering her adoption papers that “compelled her to start the journey” to find her mother. “I believed that my mother was dead,” Winterson says unapologetically. “Where do you think I got my information? The arch fiction writer, Mrs. Winterson. I thought, ‘if she can make up the ending of Jane Eyre, she can sure invent a dead mother.’ ”  (Louisa Ermelino)

Carlos Colón writes a moving obituary of his own mother in el Diario de Sevilla (Spain):

Por eso lloro Rebeca en el Llorens una noche de marzo de 1943; una jovencita de 16 años leyendo Cumbres borrascosas en la edición Crisol de Aguilar, sentada en el cierro de una casa de la plaza de Argüelles[.] (Translation)

Il Corriere della Sera (Italy) talks about Orhan Pamuk's views on literature:

Gli sembra di sognare: vede il mondo cogli occhi dei personaggi di Cime tempestose o di Anna Karenina ; passeggia nei paesaggi che essi frequentano. (Citati Pietro) (Translation)

Coopération (Switzerland) interviews the journalist Nathalie Ducommun:

Et j’aime me replonger dans des livres qui m’ont marquée, comme «Voyage au bout de la nuit» de Céline ou «Jane Eyre» de Charlotte Brontë.»  (Didier Neto) (Translation)

The Berliner Morgenpost (Germany) lists several famous sisters, including the Brontës. Maria Ripenberg at the Upsala Nya Tidning (Sweden) is a truly Brontëite:

Till den riktiga hyllan skulle jag t ex köpa Charlotte Brontës reade bladvändarklassiker Jane Eyre. Om jag inte redan ägde den alltså, och dessutom hade läst den två gånger. Likaså skulle jag satsa på Hjalmar Söderbergs Den allvarsamma leken – en roman som sannerligen förtjänar omläsning. (Translation)

The Times reviews Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton;  Nekultura (Czech Republic), Review Every Day and Los calcetines no tienen glamour (in Spanish) review Jane Eyre 2011; hourglassphilosophies, La Petite Charmande de Prose (in French) and Books Anna Recommends post about the original novel; Parenthetical Views and elledoubleyouu do the same with Wuthering Heights; the Brontë Parsonage Blog gives information on yesterday's Gothic from the Brontës to Twilight conference; fearless... posts a poem inspired by Wuthering Heights; Abigails reviews Jane Slayre; Without an Art? doesn't like at all Villette.

A Dress and a Book

1. A Brontë dress on Toujours Toi-Family Affairs Fall/Winter 2011 Collection:

Brontë
...you spend this rainy day holed up at the legendary "Loos" bar in Vienna, sitting in a corner of the green art deco couches, reading the collected poems of e.e.cummings ..."
Wear the Brontë dress with your golden 30ies pumps or black creepers. You’ll always feel like you have somewhere special to go even if it’s just returning your unread books to the library.
"Cause it's cold outside, when you coming home cause it's hot inside, isn't that enough" -Crystal Castles

More pictures here.

2. And the last installment of Cara Lockwood's Bard Academy Series which features, as the other novels of the series, Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw:

A Tale of Two Proms
Cara Lockwood
TKA Distribution (December 11, 2011) (Kindle)

It was the best of prom, it was the worst of prom.

Miranda Tate returns for her senior year at Bard Academy and she is counting on two things: Prom with her boyfriend, Heathcliff, and then graduation from the haunted boarding school where fictional characters come to life. Fate, however, has other plans.
When Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff's long-lost love, appears on campus, suddenly everything she thought she knew about Heathcliff is changed forever. Catherine seems determined to win Heathcliff back, even if that means destroying Bard Academy and banishing its ghostly teachers - for good.
Miranda and her friends face their most daunting challenge, yet, which will take them for the first time inside the classics that have powered their mysterious boarding school. It's up to them to save Bard Academy - and prom. Can Miranda change her destiny and Heathcliff's? Or is this one story that was written in the stars?

An Oscar of one's own

Business Insider reports that you can now have your very own Wuthering Heights 1939 Oscar.

Nate D. Sanders is auctioning off 15 used Oscar statuettes dating back to 1931. [...]
Among the awards up for grab include the only Oscars awarded to "Citizen Kane" and "Wuthering Heights" (Kirsten Acuna)

The Nate D. Sanders website has more information (picture source):

Oscar won for the 1939 classic film, "Wuthering Heights," given to Gregg Toland for Black and White Cinematography, the only Academy Award that "Wuthering Heights" took home. Samuel Goldwyn produced and William Wyler directed the film, adapted to the screen from the Emily Bronte novel of the same name. Laurence Olivier, Miles Mander, Flora Robson, and Merle Oberon starred. This was the only Oscar won by Gregg Toland, though he earned nominations numerous times, including once for his work on "Citizen Kane," which owes much of its status as a frontrunner in visual style innovation to Toland's contribution of deep-focus techniques. Gold-plated statue standing on a film reel measures 10.5" tall, and 12" tall when the base is included. Base diameter measures 5.25" and total award weighs 7 pounds 5 ounces. The plaque on the base reads, "Academy First Award / To / Gregg Toland / For Black-and-White Cinematography of / 'Wuthering Heights'". Minor scratching to gold plating with a chip to reel center. A stunning tribute to "Wuthering Heights" and Toland in near fine condition.

As of now, there are four bids and the current bid is $72,890. There are four days left.

And speaking of the Oscars, more Best Costume Design predictions, this time from the Los Angeles Times' The Envelope:

And the winner is … “The Artist.” Those “W.E.” and “Anonymous” screeners remain at the bottom of the stack. “Jane Eyre”? Eh. Not exactly eye-popping. So it’s between the tuxedos and flapper chic of “The Artist” and all those fun silent-movie costumes and period Parisians in “Hugo.” We bet voters go for the glamour. (Glenn Whipp)

The Albany Democrat Herald doesn't wholly agree:

Costume design: “The Artist.” But a win for either “Hugo” or even “Jane Eyre” isn’t inconceivable. (Mike McInally)

The New York Times features the exhibition Shakespeare’s Sisters: Voices of English and European Women Writers, 1500-1700 at the Folger Shakespeare Library and quotes from Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own:

It is far easier, she suggests, to find “some Emily Brontë who dashed her brains out on the moor” than one who “blazes out” of obscurity. (Edward Rothstein)

The Pittsburgh Morning Sun has an article on St. Mary's Colgan Scholars Bowl Team, one of whose members is

seriously considering forcing himself to read “Wuthering Heights.” (Nikki Patrick)

Perhaps John McCain should have done the same thing because as The Washington Post remembers

McCain was on “Jeopardy!” back in 1964, when he screwed up a Final Jeopardy! question about Heathcliff, from Emily Brontë’s novel “Wuthering Heights,” (Lisa de Moraes)

The Brontë Weather Project posts about looking at the manuscripts of Emily Brontës poems. Book Light Graveyard posts about Jane Eyre and YAL Book Briefs writes about April Lindner's Jane.

William Luce's Brontë in Rochester

Additional performances of Meredith Powell's one-woman-show Brontë (by William Luce) at the MUCC in Rochester, NY:
Picture Source: Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
Credits: Annette Dragon

John W. Borek Presents
William Luce’s Brontë
Feb 24 7:30 pm
Feb 25 7:30 pm
MUCCC 142 Atlantic Avenue, Rochester, New York 14607 

“An immaculate work of theater.”- Los Angeles Times

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.

With Meredith Powell
Direction Michael H. Arve

Meredith Powell of Irondequoit, NY is Charlotte Brontë the most dominant and ambitious of the Brontës. In this play by William Luce, the author of The Belle of Amherst, we meet Charlotte just as she is returning from London following success of her most famous novel, Jane Eyre.

Meredith Powell is an award winning actor and director who has been working in Rochester theatre and film for over a decade. She has been recognized by the Theatre Association of New York State (TANYS) for excellence in both ensemble and solo acting work (Thea Elvested, Hedda Gabler, 2009) and excellence in directing (Macbeth, 2010). She’s been cast in a wide variety of roles over the years and has worked with a number of theatres in the city both on and off stage, including John W. Borek Presents, GRRC, Method Machine, Blackfriars Theatre, The Shakespeare Players, Out of Pocket Productions and The Penfield Players.

EDIT: And a Gothic conference at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

A horror of great darkness: Gothic from the Brontës to Twilight


The Brontë Parsonage Museum is pleased to present a varied one day conference for AS and A2 students, exploring the relationship between the Brontës and Gothic, and how the genre continues to influence contemporary culture. This conference will be particularly relevant to the AQA Literature B syllabus, but will be invaluable to all students wishing to gain a broader critical perspective on both 19th cent literature, and the understanding of genre.

10.30 am-11.00am Infernal Worlds
A short introduction about the Brontës lives and early Gothic influences.
11.00am-11.50am Gothic Space and Gothic Bodies: Love, Landscape and Identity in Wuthering Heights. (Dr Sue Chaplin, University of Leeds)
12.00 noon – 1.00pm Lunch
1.00pm-1.45pm Parsonage and Museum visit.
2.00pm-2.50pm Contemporary Hauntings A look at Gothic’s continuing influence on all aspects of popular culture, from fashion to film.
(Dr Catherine Spooner, Lancaster University)
3.00pm-3.50pm Conjuring Fiends: A workshop on creative writing in the Gothic genre. (Anne Caldwell, published poet, Bolton University)
4.00pm-4.30pm Twilight Tour of Haworth Churchyard: If you dare!

House Developments, Entrance Fees commented by Karl Marx

The February 22nd Kirklees Council meeting has ratified the decision of keeping the Red House museum open:

Cllr [Mehboon] Khan said that there was cross party agreement to keep Red House museum open, and the council will now look to innovative ways of funding this proposal.

One of these proposals could be to introduce an admission charge. The Huddersfield  Daily Examiner confirms:

Visitors to a Brontë-linked tourist attraction could have to pay entrance fees for the first time.
Councillors will decide next week whether to introduce admission charges at Red House Museum in Gomersal.
Last year 28,602 people visited the home, which was owned by cloth merchants the Taylors in the 1830s.
Daughter Mary was friends with Charlotte Brontë, who featured Red House as “Briarmains” in her novel Shirley.

Earlier this year Kirklees Council officials suggested closing the tourist attraction to save £116,000 a year.
But politicians have promised to try to keep Red House open by charging for admission.
The council’s Labour cabinet will decide next week whether to introduce the entrance fees.
Under the plan, adults would pay £3.50, children £1.50 and a family ticket would cost £8.50. Kirklees Passport holders would be eligible for a 50% discount.
Season tickets would also be available allowing unlimited visits to Red House and nearby Oakwell Hall in Birstall – which also has links to Charlotte Brontë.
The passes would cost £6 for adults, £2.50 for children and £14.50 for families, with a 50% discount for Kirklees Passport holders.
Admission charges are already in place at Oakwell Hall, with adult visitors paying £2.50, children £1 and families £6.
The stately home also features in the novel Shirley, where it appears as “Fieldhead”.
Kirklees officers believe the admission charges at Red House will generate £20,000 a year – though the visitor numbers could drop by 6,000 a year.
Council officials believe the admission charges could be a success.
A report to the Kirklees cabinet reads: “Red House has a high ratio of adult visitors who comprise 70% of the audience. Its Brontë connections help to draw tourists and day visitors as well as local visitors.
“Red House is therefore relatively well-placed to accommodate admission charges given the profile of its visitors and the wider interest generated by its Brontë connections.”
The Labour cabinet will consider the plan at its meeting at Huddersfield Town Hall from 4pm on Tuesday.
Admission charges would begin on April 1. (Barry Gibson)

Additional information in the same Huddersfield Daily Examiner or BBC News.

Another controversial local issue was the building of 38 houses on Haworth. The Bradford Council has approved the petition.The Telegraph & Argus reports:

Proposals to build 38 homes on a field in Haworth were passed by councillors yesterday. The Telegraph . Bradford Council’s Keighley Area Planning Panel agreed to give permission to Skipton Properties to build on land south of Lees Mill, Shuttle Fold.
Planning officers had recommended the application be approved, but 34 people objected.
Speaking as an objector at the panel’s meeting, Andy Quarmby said: “This application shows no understanding of the semi-rural nature of this area.
“This field has a real value as it stands and no amount of extra funding will get that back when it’s gone.”

Applicant’s agent Jo Steel responded that none of the statutory bodies the planners had consulted had objected to the scheme.
He added the development would contribute to a need for affordable housing.
In the subsequent vote the panel passed the proposals by four votes in favour to one against. (Miran Rahman)

The complete report can be read here (starting on page 22).

Stylelist interviews Michael O'Connor, costume designer of Jane Eyre 2011 and Oscar nominee:

What was the inspiration behind “Jane Eyre?”
The inspiration is her character, the challenge is making a woman from that time look stylish today, while still looking simple. She’s sort of a “thinking” Jane, so it was about looking and finding paintings of women in simple costumes at the time. And notes from Emily Dickinson, things like that. I just thought, "How would we make something exciting in all black?" So, instead of black, she could be in dark grey, and it could show more of the style, or detail. The original costumes were a great inspiration. I looked at them and was like, "Oh my God. How did they do it?" I was trying to recreate it really, without, you know, replicating.
Do you feel like it’s more challenging to work on a film where people have read the book and have an idea of how “Jane Eyre” should look?
I think it is, unless the script is designed to run away from the vision of the book. I think in this case, the original source of material is crucial, really, to what we were trying to do. So for me, although the characters are being described as sort of plain and simple, I didn't want to make them not plain and not simple. The character doesn’t have to be exact, but you don't want them to be unrecognizable. It's about achieving the spirit of the character, I think.
How do you bring a contemporary aesthetic to the period costumes?
It's challenging because people are looking at the actors, they know the actors and know that they are real people, so you can’t kind of over-encumber them with lots of fuss. The key is in the details, like Jane’s sleeves are probably tighter than they would have been, or adjusting the fabrics. It's not an exact replica of what Jane would have worn. If she had great big, puffy sleeves or something, I feel that would be inappropriate.
What was it like working with the stars, Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender and Judi Dench, on the film?
Well, I don’t think many women want to wear a corset everyday of their lives, but that is what Mia had to do to get the right shape. I’m sure Michael doesn’t want to wear trousers cut quite so high with braces and skirted coat and scarves around his neck. And likewise, I don’t think Judi Dench really wants to be so buttoned up. I know with Judi, we could’ve gone further over-the-top with her, but I know that she wouldn’t have felt correct like that. So even though it was a dialogue with all of the actors about those things, but you know, really, Mia has to be congratulated because she tolerated all of it everyday, without a single complaint.
Were there any things you did to make the corsets more comfortable?
Not really. It’d be great if you could, but for them to do their work, it has to be constructed in a certain way. If they’re not, they won’t last half a day. It’d just be like a flannel or an old rag. And I know when Mia put it on, she was feeling - she was becoming Jane as it were, so it helps the character. It’s quite a relief to take it off, as I’m sure she’ll tell you. (Sarah Leon)

Guy Lodge on HitFix continues his crusade pro-Jane Eyre 2011 here and here:

They've singled out outstanding technical elements in such Oscar-disadvantaged films as "Jane Eyre" and "Drive." 

Michael O'Connor, both my prediction and my personal pick for the Costume Design Oscar[.]

GoldDerby publishes his predictions for the Costume Design Oscar. Jane Eyre 2011 is second in the bets:

Michael O'Connor ("Jane Eyre") won his only previous Oscar race for his designs for "The Duchess" in 2008. This adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Gothic novel requried costumes for both the wealthy and the working class and his attention to detail was much praised.  (Paul Sheehan)

CBS Minnesota thinks Michael O'Connor will be the winner:

Hard to say for sure, because this is the one category where period frocks tend to usurp pockets of support. I’ll play the law of averages and say Jane Eyre sneaks away with this one.  (Eric Henderson)

NBC Chicago is not so sure:

While “The Artist” deserves mention if only for creating a vivid textural palette in black-and-white, the real battle is between “Jane Eyre” and “Anonymous.” While the attention to detail in “Jane Eyre” is staggering, from the undergarments to the slightly worn approach to the characters’ attire, the fact of the matter is British royal dramas and epically ridiculous collars have dominated this award of late: "Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” “The Young Victoria,” and “The Duchess” and last year’s “Alice in Wonderland." (Scott Ross)

CBS News complains about

It's crazy that Michael Fassbender was not nominated for something (preferably "Jane Eyre"), and Brad Pitt should be nominated for "The Tree of Life," not "Moneyball."  (David Thomson)

World Socialist Web talks about the Dickens bicentenary and quotes Karl Marx:

As Marx noted of Dickens, Thackeray, Charlotte Brontë and Gaskell, their descriptions showed the small-minded brutality of this parasitic layer of the middle class, “full of presumption, affectation, petty tyranny and ignorance…the civilised world have confirmed their verdict with the damning epigram that it has fixed to this class that ‘they are servile to those above, and tyrannical to those beneath them’ ”. (John Clayton and Paul Bond)

The quote comes from the article The English Middle Class, published in the New-York Tribune, 1 August 1854.

Salon discusses the presumed death of chick-lit and mentions other short-life pop-fiction genres:

These were gothics, a subgenre of romantic suspense, which was (sort of) a subgenre of romance. (Also: The gothic is not to be confused with the venerable literary mode referred to as the Gothic.) Taking their pattern from original works like Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” and Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca,” the drugstore paperback gothics were highly formulaic tales of shy young women who came to work in stately manors full of strange doings and ominous secrets. These novels were once a mainstay of the pulp market, and publishers churned them out.  (Laura Miller)

Moneylife shares the love for words:

I am also old school. Dickens lives within, as does Trollope and Austen and Hardy and Brontë and Lawrence and Collins and Chesterton and Joyce and Proust, all the way down to Wodehouse. I eat slower when it comes to words and descriptions, preferring to masticate like a ruminant scholar rather than swallow whole. I am more ungulate than reptile. (V Shantakumar)

Pride Source reviews the theatre play Snowbound by Margaret Edwartowsky:

Suffice it to say that if everyone dies, there would be no second act. In act two, those who survive act one face the consequences - and the future. This is where things get almost embarrassingly contrived. Nineteenth-Century novelists like Thomas Hardy or the Brontë sisters could pull off embarrassingly contrived; 21st-Century playwrights, not so much.  (Martin F. Kohn)

The News-Gazette remembers student days:

I remember sophomore year, "Jane Eyre" was a suggested, but not required, text. I think I was the only person in my class to devour the whole thing.  (Meg Dickinson)

The Stuff (New Zealand) compares Brisbane's weather to a Brontë novel:

With Brisbane intent on recreating weather conditions routinely featured in a Brontë novel, Melbourne offered welcome respite from the rain.  (Danielle Crown)

We are not so sure Charlotte Brontë would be happy being included as an example serving to vindicate that St Margaret Clitherow (a Catholic martyr) deserves recognition by the Britons. On Catholic Herald:

But in the age of feminism, sexual equality and equal opportunities and when the faces of the feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft, and the Brontë sisters are included in commemorative collections alongside Odette, it is a pity that a woman of shining virtue and surpassing courage, St Margaret Clitherow, is not among them. (Francis Phillips)

The Drum (Australia) talks about the resignation of the Australian Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd:

Mr Rudd has indeed stayed substantially silent on the issue over the last month. But to believe "staying silent" and "staying out of it" are synonymous is to believe that Mrs Rochester wasn't that big a deal in Jane Eyre.  (Eleanor Gordon-Smith)

BBC News covers the story of the 'new' Emily Brontë portrait which is going to be auctioned today, February 23; Science Friday talks about the origins of the term tuberculosis and mentions the Brontës; Salerosa (in Greek), Notes from a She-Hermit and Inseparable post about Wuthering Heights; la Biblioteca Pública Arroyo de la Miel (in Spanish) posts about Jane Eyre;  CineBlog and The Pope's Picks review Jane Eyre 2011.

Lucas Gillet's Emily Brontë's songbook

A darker wave (using the poem Sleep brings no rest to me) is the title of a project by the songwriter and bassist Lucas Gillet which features Emily Brontë's poems. Several songs can be listened on his MySpace website (Watch for a bird, Cold is my Heart, A priceless friend) and others in a live version as performed at the Studio de l'Ermitage (Paris, January 25th): Castle Wood (with Sandrine Monlezun), In Summer's Blaze, In Bliss, Heavy Hangs the Raindrop, Journey Onward, A Darker Wave).


Lucas Gillet - A darker wave (song) por lucasgillet