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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

The Victorian Period: Literary Traces and Developments

On Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 12:30 am by M. in , , , , , ,    No comments
A new ebook in Portuguese with an interesting Brontë-related contributions:
Edited by Sandra Sirangelo Maggio and Valter Henrique de Castro Fritsch
Editora Zouk
ISBN: 978-65-5778-130-2

O Período Vitoriano: rastros literários e desdobramentos, edited by researchers Sandra Sirangelo Maggio and Valter Henrique Fritsch, delves deeply into the intricate web of Victorian literature, revealing its nuances and complexities amidst the social, political, and cultural context of the 19th century British society.
This collection offers a meticulous approach to the works and themes that characterized the literature of the time, featuring renowned authors such as Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, and Mary Shelley. With twenty-four chapters rigorously developed by prominent researchers, the work highlights the role of literature as a faithful mirror of the tensions and contradictions of Victorian society.
Each chapter constitutes a window into a distinct aspect of Victorian literature, investigating from philosophical and moral issues to the nuances of the novel and the gothic. The authors explore adaptations, derivative fiction, and themes that resonate in contemporary literature, cinema, and other forms of artistic expression.
The result of a collaboration between the Postgraduate Program in Letters at UFRGS and Editora Zouk, this work transcends the merely academic scope, constituting an invitation to intellectual reflection through the corridors of Victorian literature, where the past dialogues in a captivating and elucidating way with the present.
The book contains the chapters:
A reinvenção de Jane Eyre no graphic novel Jane, de Aline Brosh McKenna 
by Débora Almeida de Oliveira 
Marionette: o entrelugar da mulher crioula em Wide Sargasso Sea 
by Deborah Mondadori Simionato and Marcela Zaccaro Chisté
The influence of water and air in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre 
by Caroline Navarrina de Moura 
A coloniser’s trauma and possible dialogues in Villette
by Alan Noronha 

Monday, March 18, 2024

Monday, March 18, 2024 7:22 am by Cristina in , ,    No comments
BuzzFeed asked its community to name so.called overrated books and one of the contributors said
13. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
"I'm 150% convinced you have to be of a certain age to read and enjoy this book. It's like 19th century Twilight. I tried to read it in my 20s and couldn't see how Heathcliff (who is a raging a*hole) has stuck in our cultural consciousness as a dashing romantic hero."
—lobsterlemonlime (Elizabeth Cotton)
The way of listing stuff is getting ever more and more random and so today The Times of India lists '10 iconic literary quotes under 10 words' and one of them is 'I am no bird; and no net ensnares me' from Jane Eyre.

For St Patrick's Day and Patrick Brontë's birthday yesterday, AnneBrontë.org posted about 'Patrick Bronte’s Beginnings In Drumballyroney'.
12:37 am by M. in ,    No comments
The new (double) issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 48  Issue 4,  October 2023) has been available online for a while. We (belatedly) provide you with the table of contents and abstracts:
Editorial Introductioo
pp. 277-281 Author: Sarah E. Fanning & Claire O’Callaghan

Literary Art and Moral Instruction in the Novels of Anne Brontë
pp. 282-295  Author: Marianne Thormählen
Abstract:
In her own time, Anne Brontë the writer was regarded as inferior to the two older “Bells”, largely because of the perceived slightness of her first novel and the alleged coarseness and brutality of her second. For the next hundred years, it was accepted that she was a pale second-rater in relation to her sisters. That image has now been discarded; but the notion that Anne Brontë was not quite her sisters’ equal as a literary artist lingers, influenced by the resistance of recent generations of critics to what they perceive as moral messages in literature. This keynote address argues that Anne Brontë the novelist was in no way inferior to Charlotte and Emily as a writer of fiction. It draws attention to the skills displayed by Anne Brontë in respect of characterisation, realistic observation, psychological acumen, style and idiom, nuance in the analysis of human behaviour and even – somewhat unexpectedly, given the frequently expressed criticisms of the construction of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) – narrative structure. The discussion ends with a tribute to Anne Brontë’s success in making readers keep turning the pages.

Singing from the Margins: Anne Brontë’s Surprising Poetic Afterlife
pp 296-308 Author: Sara L. Pearson
Abstract
Anne Brontë was the only hymn-writer in her family, and her hymns have had a successful afterlife in multiple hymnals from 1858 to 1997. Her hymns have been used by a variety of religious denominations and sects, in numerous countries, among various groups of people, from children to university students to the sick and suffering. Although Charlotte Brontë’s selection of poems for the 1850 reissue of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was responsible for the publication of five of Anne’s seven published hymns, it was Anne’s own sensitivity to hymnody as a means of exploring religious faith that ensured her successful afterlife as a hymn writer.Footnote1 Various digital and Internet resources such as Google Books, www.hymnary.org, and YouTube have made it possible to discover more about Anne as a hymn-writer, including the fact that her hymn ‘Believe not those who say’ has appeared in over sixty hymnals. This article provides an overview of the afterlife of Anne Brontë’s hymns with the hope of prompting further investigation into this topic.Footnote

‘Is Childhood Then so All-Divine?’: Representations of Childhood in the Poetry of Anne Brontë
pp. 309-323 Author: Ciara Glasscott
Abstract:
Despite the increasing criticism of her traditional critical and cultural reputation as the “third Brontë” in recent years, the underestimation of Anne Brontë’s philosophical and political engagement remains tenacious. This is especially relevant when it comes to scholarly work on her poetry, where biographical and/or religious critical frameworks dominate. By contrast, this article is interested in Brontë’s poetic intervention in Victorian debates surrounding political and aesthetic conceptions of the child and childhood. Brontë simultaneously deploys and subverts traditionally Romantic imagery, interrogating this mode most explicitly in later poems such as ‘Memory’, ‘Dreams’ and ‘Z-’s Dream’. In these mature pieces, Brontë undercuts the more conventional presentation of such topics in her earlier poems with a self-reflexive meditation on the authenticity of nostalgic visions. Therefore, Brontë’s engagement with childhood becomes more vexed over time, mirroring the more realist representation of childhood in her novels. However, Brontë’s poetic work also reveals a deeper and more conflicted identification with the Romantic aesthetic of childhood than one might imagine the writer of Agnes Grey (1847) could possess, providing access to a more complete picture of Brontë’s position on these essential questions of innocence, nostalgia and childhood.

The Neo-Victorian Feminist Afterlife of Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) in Sam Baker’s The Woman Who Ran (2016)
pp. 324-335 Author: Julia Snyckers & Jeanne Ellis
Abstract:
Anne Brontë’s deliberate exposition in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall of gendered violence as the consequence of the structurally embedded sexism in the Victorian patriarchal socio-legal system is a daring example of feminist critique that was ahead of its time. This article examines the afterlife of Brontë’s feminism in Sam Baker’s The Woman Who Ran (2016), a neo-Victorian domestic noir thriller which re(dis)covers and repurposes Brontë’s novel for contemporary women readers. Baker uncovers the ongoing crisis of domestic violence and sexism in professional spheres that persist despite the progress achieved by Western feminist movements to secure women’s rights in the last century. We argue that The Woman Who Ran demonstrates just how generative Anne Brontë’s writing remains for conceptualising feminist issues in the twenty-first century.
 
Plotting the Governess: The Lessons of Agnes Grey
pp. 336-346 Author: Phillippa Janu
Abstract:
The journey undertaken by the Victorian governess in the nineteenth-century novel is frequently aligned with the developmental narrative of the Bildungsroman. However, this article explores how the demands of instruction and surveillance, and the expectation that the governess is simultaneously authoritative and submissive, limit her growth and that of her pupils. An examination of Anne Brontë’s depiction of the repetitive and prosaic work of teaching in her 1847 novel Agnes Grey reveals that in demanding the critical engagement of the reader, the novel resists any expectation that either text or teacher are inherent repositories of knowledge. Finally, I argue that the rich development of the governess that is characteristic to the Bildungsroman can also be located in the marriage plot.

‘Free from Soil’: The Curation of Anne Brontë
pp. 347-358 Author: Jessica Lewis
Abstract:
Famously described by her sister Charlotte as ‘long-suffering, self-denying, reflective, and intelligent, a constitutional reserve and taciturnity placed and kept her in the shade’, Anne Brontë has been consistently filtered through her eldest sister. This article suggests the notion of Brontë as a figure of curation, in acknowledging Charlotte Brontë’s personal agenda in the writing of the 1850 ‘Biographical notice of Ellis and Acton Bell’. With the intention of softening and feminising her sisters’ reputations, Charlotte’s (re)writing of Anne has been long accepted into Brontë lore. This article explores the consequences of the ‘Notice’ and its significance in the posthumous reception of Anne’s work as mainly autobiographical. It suggests that Anne Brontë’s enduring image as the meek, mild, moralist is a result of Charlotte’s careful and conscious curation, and explores the influence of this image on her literary legacy.

News

The Anne Brontë Society: Changing the Narrative
pp  359-361 Author: Lauren Bruce

Editorial - Reviews Section

Editorial. Reviews Section
p 362 Author: Carolyne Van Der Meer

Book Reviews


pp 363-364 Author: Bob Duckett

pp. 364-365 Author: Sarah Powell

pp. 366-367 Author: Rose Dawn Gant

pp. 367-368 Author: Bob Ducket

pp 369-384 Author:  Sara L. Pearson, Peter Cook & James Ogden
Abstract:
This reading list is an annotated bibliography of scholarly and critical work on the Brontës published in 2021. We have attempted to compile a comprehensive list of resources by consulting the MLA International Bibliography, Academic Search Complete, and the Brontë Blog (http://bronteblog.blogspot.com). Book chapters and scholarly articles on the Brontës are included except those articles published in Brontë Studies. Entire books on the Brontës are in the reviews section of this journal. The author’s initials in brackets are provided after each annotation.

Call for Articles: Brontë Studies Special Issue: The Brontës and the Wild
pp 385-386 Guest Editor: Dr Amber Pouliot

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Sunday, March 17, 2024 11:06 am by M. in , , , , ,    No comments
Cosmopolitan lists feminist literary characters "that smash the patriarchy";
Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre
"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will," says Jane in Jane Eyre. Jane invented the narrative of ‘independent women’. Throughout the story, Jane makes choices that defy societal expectations. She refuses to be a submissive governess, walks away from a loveless marriage proposal, and prioritises her own well-being and happiness. She's a role model for anyone who's ever felt like they don't fit in or who dares to dream of a life beyond what society expects. (Reva Lakhmani)
The Sunday Times begins an article about the most valuable house names like this:
From Wuthering Heights to Pride and Prejudice and even TV sitcoms like To the Manor Born, novelists, historians and film-makers have for hundreds of years been seduced by the romance of manor houses. (David Byers)

The Jane Eyre production in Moline is featured in the local news. Check this clip on 6KWQC.  

The Lexington Herald-Leader talks about a local cocktail bar that plays a speakeasy pretending to be a bookstore with a secret door entrance and all:
The favorite cocktail at the bar, according to Ryan Camenisch, is the Jane Eyre, which is Earl Grey infused gin, cherry blossom syrup, blueberry purdo, lime and sparkling wine for $18. (Janet Patton)
A letter to the Irish Independent mentions Charlotte Brontë:
To underline the magnificence of the Clare coast around Kilkee, it is worth quoting the noted English writer Charlotte Brontë, who spent her honeymoon there in 1854: “Such a wild iron-bound coast — with such an ocean-view as I had not yet seen and such battling of waves with rocks as I had never imagined.”
Brontë wrote to a friend while staying in Kilkee, and apparently these lines were probably written only a couple of hundred metres from where the sewage plant is proposed to be located. It remains as stunning to this day. (Ronan Leo Tynan)
Diario de Sevilla (Spain) interviews the writer Mariana Sández:
Para la escritura de La vida en miniatura me resultó especialmente provechosa la lectura del libro Hijas escritoras, de Maggie Lane, quien traza distintos perfiles biográficos de autoras inglesas en relación con sus padres. A menudo estas relaciones comparten patrones similares, en los que los padres representan para sus hijas escritoras tanto un motivo de inspiración como de sometimiento. Esto se ve de manera clara, por ejemplo, en la biografía de las hermanas Brontë: sus padres lo apostaron todo al único hermano varón, lo mandaron a estudiar a Oxford y a Cambridge desatendiendo a sus hijas y el hermano no se dedicó más que a beber. Pues bien, este mismo padre que dejó a sus hijas de lado fue una gran inspiración para las Brontë a la hora de escribir. Lo mismo podemos decir de Beatrix Potter, por ejemplo. (Pablo Bujalance) (Translation)
Trendencias (Spain) and books that will hook you:
La épica historia de Catherine y Heathcliff, situada en los sombríos y desolados páramos de Yorkshire, constituye una asombrosa visión metafísica del destino, la obsesión, la pasión y la venganza. Con ella, Emily Brontë, que la publicó bajo un seudónimo masculino, rompió por completo con los cánones del decoro que la Inglaterra victoriana exigía en toda novela, tanto en el tema escogido como en la descripción de los personajes. La singularidad de su estructura narrativa y la fuerza de su lenguaje la convirtieron en una de las obras más perdurables e influyentes de la historia de la literatura. (María Yuste) (Translation)

Infobae (Argentina) reviews the latest novel by Jorge Fernández Díaz, Cora, and lists 'strong women' in literature, mentioning Catherine Earnshaw. European Writers Tour lists Heathcliffs all around. A 'happy' Charlotte Brontë quote is listed in this 'happy thoughts' list on Today.

2:07 am by M. in ,    No comments
The 2015 book Todo Ese Fuego by Ángeles Caso has been translated into Italian:
Ángeles Caso
Translator: Claudia Tarolo
Illustrator: Alice Barberini
Marcos y Marcos
ISBN: 9788892941564

“Guardate noi, invece, povere donne, costrette a scrivere di nascosto, a pubblicare sotto pseudonimo, a nascondere tutto questo fuoco dentro di noi, mascherando come ladre il desiderio e la furia. Guardateci stirare, cucinare, cucire, spazzare i pavimenti, cercando di rubare minuti, secondi, alla vita che scorre veloce per poter scavare lì dentro, nella brace che arde nelle nostre teste”.
Crescono isolate, senza madre, in una canonica ai margini della brughiera. Soprattutto sono donne, e nell’Inghilterra vittoriana le donne devono solo sposarsi e fare figli. Sottomissione e bellezza, possibilmente un degno patrimonio, servono a conquistarsi un buon partito. Charlotte, Emily e Anne Brontë non sono certo ricche, la loro bellezza non rispetta i canoni dell’epoca; di sottomettersi a un uomo, poi, neanche a parlarne. Nutrono, per di più, una strana passione. Fin da bambine, ogni pomeriggio nella piccola sala da pranzo della canonica, tirano fuori gli scrittoi, affilano le penne e scrivono. Non si fermano qui; le tre sorelle Brontë, senza nessuna protezione, contro tutto, riescono a pubblicare. E quando pubblicano, sfondano. Non è un successo passeggero: Jane Eyre e Cime tempestose restano tra i romanzi fondamentali della letteratura mondiale. La signora di Wildfell Hall è un romanzo scandalosamente femminista, sempre più apprezzato.
The publishes have organized a campaign under the name  "La rivoluzione delle sorelle Brontë" which aims to generate interest and discussion around the novel by encouraging readers to read and discuss the book together, either through social media using the hashtag #thebrontërevolution or by joining local reading groups being organized.
The campaign highlights how remarkable it was for the three Brontë sisters, living in repressed circumstances in 19th-century Yorkshire, to produce iconic literary works that defied gender norms and literary conventions of their era. Their writing is portrayed as a liberating creative "fire" within them.
As part of the promotion, the publisher is offering free notebooks inspired by the Brontë sisters as gifts with the purchase of the novel at participating bookstores. There are also plans for the author, Ángeles Caso, to tour Italy in late March to meet readers. 

Further information: Oggi.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Saturday, March 16, 2024 10:58 am by Cristina in , , ,    No comments
The Telegraph and Argus congratulates Haworth's bookshop Wave of Nostalgia on its British Book Awards win.
Wave of Nostalgia, based in Main Street, Haworth, was named Independent Bookshop of the Year for the north in this year's British Book Awards, selected by the Bookseller magazine.
Located in the home of the Brontë sisters, the bookshop aims to be the "home of strong women".
Owner Diane Park is delighted with the top award. 
She said: "It's been the best ever year for Wave of Nostalgia, one in which we met so many fantastic customers new and old, introduced brilliant authors to our little community and received such tremendous feedback. 
"To cap it all, we are amazed and excited to find out we're north of England winner in these awards. 
"It's a huge accolade, particularly as there so many fantastic bookshops in our region. 
"It's really very special and we'd like to thank everyone who has helped us to achieve this in only our third year as booksellers."
A spokesperson for the British Book Awards  said of Wave of Nostalgia: "The north England winner is a tiny shop in a village - Haworth in Yorkshire - that has several other places to buy books. 
"Yet it grew sales by a quarter in 2023, through outstanding booksellers and range selection, attractive displays and big author events. 
"Social media helped online sales soar. 
"'Best bookshop ever', said one customer."
Wave of Nostalgia will now go on to compete with eight other bookshops around the UK and Ireland for the overall Independent Bookshop of the Year Award.
If it wins that, it will also be in the running to be win the title of Book Retailer of the Year.
The final winners will be announced at the British Book Awards ceremony in London on May 13.  (Michael Broomhead)
Times of India lists several 'Baby names inspired by Heroines of English classics' and both Jane and Catherine get a mention.
An alert for March 17 in Staunton, VA:
American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Playhouse, 10 S Market St, Staunton, VA 24401, USA
MARCH
17, 11AM – 1:15PM

Join author Rachel Cantor at the beautiful American Shakespeare Center as she reads from her new novel, Half-Life of a Stolen Sister, an innovative revisioning of the Brontë family’s lives. Her reading will be interspersed with exciting, imaginative performances from Wuthering Heights by actors of the Staunton organization The Off Center.

Afterward, Staunton Books and Tea on 34 East Beverley Street hosts book sales and a signing, as well as a cake celebrating the Bronte patriarch’s 246th birthday. The ASC is presenting Pride & Prejudice at 2:00PM, so you’ll have enjoy a fun-filled, literary, historically-theatrical day!

The Virginia Festival of the Book Preview Events bring authors across the state before the main Festival in Charlottesville on March 20–24. Preview events are sponsored by Michelle and David Baldacci.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Our Quad Cities News features the production of Jane Eyre the Musical opening today in Moline.
“This is the biggest production we have brought to the Black Box stage,” said director Lora Adams, BBT artistic director and co-founder.
There are 14 in the cast (pared from the original version of 34 characters). Each performer (except Martin and Urbaitis) plays multiple parts, with ensemble and at least one named role. [...]
“It’s brilliant the way Lora has it set up, because anyone who’s offstage is behind the scrim and they can all sing,” music director Amy Trimble said this week. “It’s a beautiful way of maximizing a small cast in a big production, where we need voices.”
Trimble – who’s married to Urbaitis, whom she met putting on a Music Guild show in 2016 – brought the idea of doing “Jane Eyre” to Adams. She previously music directed “Clue” (when Urbaitis was Professor Plum) and “I Love You Because” at BBT, pre-pandemic.
Trimble fell in love with the sweeping, dramatic music of “Jane Eyre” before it was on Broadway, in a Canadian recording, after it was her favorite novel of all time.
“It has over 24 years, a couple times a year I would just need my soul filled with music and its songs just always did it,” she said Tuesday. “I have found it’s one that I go back to…It has so many songs, they’re simple and complex – which is exactly like the story and exactly like our set.”
She remembers having an abridged, illustrated “Jane Eyre” when she was in 3rd grade, and also has seen several filmed versions.
“There’s a romantic in all of us,” Adams said. “Especially when it’s hard to come by. Not every relationship you’re in works out.”
She greatly admires how modern Jane is in speaking her mind and that she finds her happy ending.
There’s a beautiful contrast between bigger-than-life Blanche (played by Shelley Cooper) and Jane, Trimble said.
Blanche is a rival for Rochester to Jane, and Martin loves the story being focused on women. At the start of the show, Jane is constrained by society and years to be free, after being a captive bird.
“She’s thrust into the world, forced to be strong and independent,” Martin said. “She always cares and has that soft spot inside her, but she has to be strong and independent to keep herself safe and make sure that she survives her circumstances, able to push through, see the world, and find her purpose.”
Trimble and her mother owned and operated WaterMark Corners in downtown Moline, which closed Feb. 10 after 25 years in business. “Jane Eyre” helped Trimble to recover during the transition.
“We started rehearsals in January and I would leave work emotionally exhausted,” she said. “It would be two and a half hours later, and it was the most beautiful, heartwarming experience. It came so easily – I know the show so well, I just knew it in an intimate way.”
“It was absolutely therapeutic,” Trimble said. “It really gave me like, during rehearsal for two and a half hours a night, nothing else existed. Very rarely does that happen.” (Jonathan Turner)
Apropos of the new book James by Percival Everett, The Economist wonders about the latest craze for retellings.
So begins “James”, a novel by Percival Everett that reimagines Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from Jim’s perspective. Mr Everett, a professor of English literature at the University of Southern California, is known for producing genre-defying works, ranging from a satire of the publishing industry that inspired the film “American Fiction” to a murder mystery about lynchings in the American South. (“The Trees” was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2022.)
In retelling Twain’s classic American tale with a twist, Mr Everett joins a long tradition of writers who have dragged marginalised characters into the centre of new (old) tales. The modern trend began with “Wide Sargasso Sea” (1966), when Jean Rhys gave a voice to Mr Rochester’s wife, the “madwoman in the attic”, from “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë.
The Guardian also lists Wide Sargasso Sea as one of 'Five of the best books inspired by classic novels'.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
A passionate, feminist prequel to Jane Eyre, Rhys’s final novel gives a voice to the madwoman in the attic. Before she became Bertha Mason, Rochester’s first wife was we learn, the beautiful, troubled Antoinette Cosway. Dramatic and painterly, Rhys’s narrative captures the beauties of the landscape of Jamaica, Cosway’s childhood home, as well as the ugliness of historical guilt and complicity. Groundbreaking on its publication in 1966, Wide Sargasso Sea has lost none of its charge. (Sophie Ratcliffe)
The New York Time asks bookish questions to writer Kate Zambreno.
What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you?
Probably revealing that I devoured the romances when I was too young to understand them — “Gone With the Wind,” “Wuthering Heights.”
The Irish Times features comedian Frank Skinner.
Now 67 years young, the West Midlands native – who became a household name during the heady days of 1990s lad culture and Three Lions – loosely frames his new show around the idea that however much he reaches for loftier artistic goals, the juvenile “knob jokes” somehow always find him.
The former English literature scholar likens them evocatively to Catherine shouting “let me in!” at the windows in Wuthering Heights. “That’s what knob jokes are like in my life,” he laments.
It is a clever conceit that enables him to litter the show with his beloved smutty jokes, while approaching the material in a more thoughtful way in keeping with the times. (Aoife Moriarty)
Her Canberra features the new stage production After Rebecca and interviews the playwright behind it, Emma Gibson.
What inspired you to write “After Rebecca”? 
I’m a big reader and was raised on the classics. Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca is (was?!) one of my favourite books, alongside Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre – so I am drawn to atmospheric, gothic novels. (Ginger Gorman)
The New York Times reviews the documentary Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus.
Included in the musical selections are some numbers that Sakamoto hadn’t previously performed as solo piano arrangements, like “The Wuthering Heights” (composed as the theme for the 1992 film). (Alissa Wilkinson)
Jane Eyre is recommended in the latest episode of The New Yorker's podcast Critics at Large. Brussels Brontë Blog has a post on a recent talk on The Brontës and fake news.
12:37 am by M. in    No comments
A new production of Jane Eyre: The Musical by Gordon & Caird  beings today, March 15, in Moline:
Friday, March 15, through Friday, March 29
Musica & Lyrics: Michael Go
rdoj, Aspir fu 
Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL

Starring as Jane is Kierra Lynn and Joe Urbanitis as Rochester. Other roles include Shelley Cooper (Blanche/Miss Scatchard); Daniel Williams (St. John Rivers); Karen LeFebere (Mrs. Fairfax); Stephanie Perry (Mrs. Reed/Lady Ingram); Eden Myers (Helen Burns/Adelle); Em Foster (Young Jane/Louise Ingram); Kirsten Myers (Vicar/Col. Dent); Abby Berg (Bertha); Jacob Berg (John Reed/Lord Ingram); Doug Kutzli (Mr. Brocklehurst/Robert); Heather Lueder (Grace Poole); Tyler Henning (Mason.)

Music Director is Amy Trimble, and Stage Director/Designer is Lora Adams.

Further information in River Cities' Reader., thecity1.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Thursday, March 14, 2024 7:33 am by Cristina in , , , ,    No comments
Theatre Weekly shares a first look at Underdog: The Other, Other Brontë at National Theatre in rehearsal.
The National Theatre and Northern Stage today released rehearsal images for Sarah Gordon’s new play Underdog: The Other Other Brontë, an irreverent retelling of the lives and legend of English literature’s famed sisters – the Brontës – playing the Dorfman theatre from 27 March to 25 May.
A co-production with Northern Stage, helmed by their Artistic Director Natalie Ibu (The White Card) in her National Theatre directing debut, this play is about sisterhood, jealousy, the power of words and the sibling dynamics that shaped the Brontë’s uneven rise to fame.
The show stars Rhiannon Clements (Hollyoaks), Adele James (Queen Cleopatra) and Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones) as the Brontës, alongside Nick Blakeley, Julian Moore-Cook, Adam Donaldson, Kwaku Mills and James Phoon.   
The creative team, led by director Natalie Ibu, includes set and costume designer Grace Smart, lighting designer Zoe Spurr, associate lighting designer Charlotte Burton, sound designer Alexandra Faye Braithwaite, movement director Ingrid Mackinnon, fight director Haruka Kuroda, associate movement director Ana Beatriz Meireles, casting director Naomi Downham and staff director Natasha Haws.
Underdog: The Other Other Brontë is playing in the Dorfman theatre from 27 March until 25 May, with press night on 4 April.
In The Week, writer Rebecca Serle says that,
'The Catcher in the Rye' by J.D. Salinger (1951)
Alongside Wuthering Heights, this is one of the two novels that made me want to be a writer.
The Tech Edvocate lists 'The 10 Best Romance Thrillers of All Time' and one of them is
8.”Wuthering Heights” (1939) –A tragic love story based on Emily Brontë’s novel of the same name. It explores obsessive love that transcends death between the doomed Catherine and Heathcliff. (Matthew Lynch)
2:18 am by M. in , ,    No comments
An alert from Haworth (and also online) for today, March 14:
A Thursday Talk at the Brontë Parsonage Museum
March 14th 2024 02:00pm - 02:45pm
Brontë Event Space at the Old School Room
“In her deep mourning dress….her fine eyes blazing with meaning, and her sensible face indicating a habit of self-control… she seemed a perfect household image”– Harriet Martineau’s Daily News Obituary, 6 April 1855
Following on from last year’s talk on Charlotte and Celebrity, this talk will focus on how the legacy of the Brontë family was created and how authentic a view this provided. The process began with Charlotte’s curation of Emily and Anne’s literary output, but is most strongly associated with Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) which shaped decisively not only how Charlotte was perceived but also her father, her husband, her brother and significant figures associated with the Brontës, such as Carus Wilson and Lydia Robinson. This often-mythical view will be compared to the perceptions of those who knew or met Charlotte and her family, including Ellen Nussey, George Smith and the people of Haworth.

This event will take place at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth. Can't make it in person? No problem! We will be running an online version of this Thursday Talk the same day. Book for the online version of this event here.
And another alert, this one strictly virtual, for today, March 14: 
Evening Lecture/Seminar

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights from 1847 is one of the most celebrated novels in 19th-century literature. Joseph Luzzi, professor of literature at Bard College, reveals the novel’s defining qualities and characteristics, with a focus on its Romantic elements, dazzling mix of the supernatural and natural, and construction of compelling characters such as Heathcliff and Catherine. Luzzi also discusses the different modes of storytelling Brontë employs in a work that seamlessly

Via Smithsonian Magazine

blends a variety of storytelling techniques and sophisticated literary devices.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Wednesday, March 13, 2024 7:31 am by Cristina in , , ,    No comments
BBC News reports that Haworth bookshop Wave of Nostalgia has been named the best independent bookshop in the north of England.
Wave of Nostalgia won the British Book Awards Independent Bookshop of the Year competition for the north, selected by publishing magazine the Bookseller.
Owner Diane Park said it had been the "best year ever" for the shop.
"It's a huge accolade, particularly as there so many fantastic bookshops in our region," she said.
Wave of Nostalgia will compete with eight other bookshops from around the UK and Ireland for the overall Independent Bookshop of the Year Award.
If they win that they will also be in the running to be named Book Retailer of the Year title.
The final winners will be announced at the British Book Awards ceremony in London on 13 May.
Wave of Nostalgia opened on Haworth's main cobbled street in 2013, just a stone's throw away from the Bronte Parsonage Museum, and sold handmade clothes as well as gifts and books.
It became a specialist, affiliated bookshop in 2021, after the coronavirus lockdown meant making made-to-measure clothes problematic.
The shop is themed on strong women, conservation and LGBTQ+.
"Our stock is designed by inspiring women, some local, some further afield but all in the UK," Ms Park said.
She said the award was "really very special and we'd like to thank everyone who has helped us to achieve this in only our third year as booksellers."
The British Book Awards, established in 1990, aims to highlight authors and illustrators, and the industry which brings them to readers.
They are judged by leading industry experts, authors, journalists and celebrities and are regarded as "the BAFTAs of the book trade". (Julia Bryson)
The good news is also shared by The Yorkshire Post.

The Women's Prize podcast Bookshelfie features Dame Jacqueline Wilson, who picks five favourite books including
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë 
I read just the first paragraph, and it immediately gripped me, it was about a little girl, it was written in the first person, she was fed up, and it was raining. And then as I read on, she has these horrible cousins, particularly that the eldest boy, and they bully her, it was far sort of stronger meat than the sort of thing that you came across in children’s books. And I was just fascinated.
Collider recommends '17 Great Old Hollywood Movies to Watch for Free on YouTube' and one of them is
15 'Jane Eyre' (1943)
Directed by Robert Stevenson
While this 1943 film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name may not be on the same level as the 2011 one (especially for audiences who like modern films), the Robert Stevenson picture is certainly worthwhile. As expected, the story centers around the titular character, played by Joan Fontaine, hired by the lord of a mysterious manor house, Edward Rochester (Orson Welles in one of his best roles), and tasked to care for his young daughter.
Jane Eyre is a solid adaptation of a classic literary tale, which, like many other great classics on this list, is available to stream for free on the digital platform. Stevenson's black-and-white film's stunning cinematography of the brooding Jane Eyre plays a huge part in what makes it appealing. However, the acting performances — particularly by Fontaine, who brings the heroine to life flawlessly — are also worth a mention. (Daniela Gama)
Express reports that Hathersage has been named the most underrated village in the UK.
According to Visit Peak District and Derbyshire, the village has a “rich historical, industrial, and literary associations”.
They added: “It inspired author Charlotte Brontë when writing ‘Jane Eyre’, and nearby North Lees Hall was visited several times by the author in 1845, becoming the main inspiration for Thornfield Hall. (Christopher Sharp)
12:30 am by M. in , ,    No comments
An alert for today, March 13 in Marseille, France:
4ᵉ édition du Festival Femmes Droits sur Mars
March 13 14h30 to 16h30
CMA Madon 5ᵉ

Romancière et poétesse anglaise, “Les hauts de Hurlevent”, son unique roman, est considéré comme un classique de la littérature anglaise et mondiale. Cette causerie sera animée par Jehan Armagnac (Président du Club des Poètes de Marseille).


Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Tuesday, March 12, 2024 7:22 am by Cristina in , ,    No comments
A contributor to Her Campus lists several ''easy' novels to get into classic literature and one of them is
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
No classic literature list would be complete without a Brontë novel… except a transition classics list. I wouldn’t say this is that easy or fun to read, and, while it’s a beautifully haunting love story, it’s not the same energy or as fun as an Austen. (Malayna Chang)
Prestige has an article on 'The most expensive Oscar statuettes ever sold at an auction'.
William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights’ Oscar statuette
In 1939, Director William Wyler adapted Emily Brontë’s famed novel Wuthering Heights into a film, casting legends like Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff and Merle Oberon as Cathy. The film won high praise for its fantastic scoring and cinematography, receiving an Oscar for the latter. In 2012, Wuthering Heights’ Oscar for Best Cinematography was put up for auction, fetching USD 226,876. It was the only Academy Award won by the classic film which marked the Golden era of filmmaking. (Surabhi Redcar)
12:30 am by M. in , ,    No comments
The first (well, technically the second because the very first one was already released some weeks ago) installment of the Brontë Parsonage podcast is already available. An interview with the author Rowan Coleman, aka Bella Ellis, in which she chooses Anne Brontë's pebble collection as her favourite item in the Brontë Parsonage Museum collection:

Monday, March 11, 2024

Monday, March 11, 2024 7:18 am by Cristina in , ,    No comments
TV Insider ranks the '15 Best Masterpiece Shows' and one of them is
Jane Eyre
2006
Before screenwriter Sandy Welch adapted the aforementioned Emma for the BBC, she brought this Charlotte Brontë story to the network, with Ruth Wilson making a breakout turn as the titular governess with a troublesome past. “A lavish production in all the right ways — script, cast, direction, location, details — this is a perfect literary adaptation,” one IMDb user rhapsodized. (Dan Clarendon)
Yesterday was Mother's Day in the UK and so AnneBrontë.org paid tribute to Maria Brontë née Branwell.
12:59 am by M. in , ,    No comments
An online alert for next Thursday, March 14:
March 14, 18h30 – 19h30
Musée de la Ville de Bruxelles
Webinar in English

Discover the fascinating history of the Brontë sisters in Brussels.
Dive into an overlooked chapter of literary history with the Brussels City Museum. This Thursday, March 14th, our speaker will reveal the captivating story of Charlotte and Emily Brontë's life in Brussels!
Join us for an exclusive webinar where Helen MacEwan, author, and Brontë sisters enthusiast, unveils the secrets of their Belgian odyssey. From their transformative experiences at the Héger-Parent boarding school for young ladies, Helen sheds light on the importance of the Belgian capital for the two sisters.
Don't miss this opportunity to stroll the cobblestone streets of Brussels, and explore some lesser-known aspects of the Brontës' history and the Belgian capital with Helen MacEwan as your guide!

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Sunday, March 10, 2024 11:26 am by M. in , , , ,    No comments
Both Cinescopia (Spain) and Vogue (Italy) have lists of the best films with Juliette Binoche:
10 – Wuthering Heights (Peter Kosminsky, 1992)
La readaptación de Cumbres Borrascosas a lado de un debutante Ralph Fiennes no tendría en su momento mucha suerte hacía con la crítica y audiencia, sin embargo con el tiempo se haría de cierto culto y recordación gracias precisamente a la gran química entre los protagonistas, Binoche en especial, un poco más experimentada y captando la sensibilidad trágica de Catherine en lo que firmemente es un gran registro dramático por parte de ambos. Quizá no le haga justicia plena ni al libro ni a la adaptación clásica de Laurence Olivier, pero es eficiente y permitió a Binoche la internacionalización (y a Fiennes un tremendo debut actoral). (El FETT) (Translation)
#2 - Cime tempestose (1992)
Nell'adattamento di Peter Kosminsky del capolavoro di Emily Brontë del 1847, Juliette Binoche interpreta Catherine Earnshaw, una delle eroine più famose della letteratura del XIX secolo. Da bambina, viene travolta dall'arrivo di uno zingaro, Heathcliff, adottato dal padrone della tenuta di Cime Tempestose. Da adulti, l'amore inconfessato tra i due protagonisti si trasforma gradualmente in odio distruttivo. (Manon Garrigues & Giacomo Aricò) (Translation)
A passing Brontë mention in an article in The New York Times about the writings of Elspeth Barker:
But other critics, and prize committees, liked the book, for which the phrase “mordantly funny” might have been coined, and over the years it has found a devoted audience, among women especially, some of the same who also savor the work of the Brontë sisters and the castle books of Shirley Jackson and Dodie Smith. (Alexandra Jacobs)
Yahoo! Entertainment explores "Pride & Prejudice and the evolution of the female gaze on screen":
Romance novels and period dramas have also given way to Byronic heroes, men who have gloomy personalities but are capable of strong passion towards their romantic interest. Characters like Heathcliff in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights serve as an apt example of this, and these kinds of characters are also ones that serve the female gaze well in cinema. (Roxy Simons)

The Deep Dive talks about the latest edition of Jeopardy! where this question appeared:

We didn’t get this one, and we’d wager that most of the audience playing at home didn’t either. They’re looking for “Rochester”, a love interest of the titular protagonist in 1847 Charlotte Brontë novel Jane Eyre, which is one of those books that everybody knows about, but nobody ever reads. (Braden Maccke)

People has a list of the upcoming 2024 Romantasy novels:
'An Education in Malice' by S. T. Gibson
This one’s for the dark academia girlies who devoured Ninth House and The Atlas Six. An isolated women’s college, a Gothic aesthetic that would make the Brontë sisters proud, an all-consuming passion between sapphic academic rivals…what’s not to like here? Light a candle to maximize the moody vibes and dive in. (Lizz Schumer)
Collider talks about the new Apple TV series: The Essex Serpent:
Their minds connect as fundamentally as their souls, a trope that recalls Gothic classics like Jane Eyre and makes their romance all the more pulse-racing. (Kelcie Mattson)
News Shopper vindicates the Bexleu origins of Kate Bush. Valencia Plaza (Spain) also vindicates the Gothic importance of her music:
En su introducción a la edición que Valdemar publicó en 2004 de Cumbres Borrascosas, el crítico de cine Antonio José Navarro afirmaba que la novela de Emily Brontë representa “la rebelión del Mal contra el Bien, la rebelión del Maldito, del paria, hacia un universo que lo ha condenado arbitrariamente a la infelicidad más absoluta”. Ciento cincuenta años después de la publicación de este clásico de la literatura gótica surgió en Inglaterra una corriente musical que celebraba fantasías tenebrosas frente a una realidad aterradora. (...)
Mi única duda es si en esa lista no debería estar también la fabulosa Kate Bush. Con solamente dieciocho años grabó una canción que en tres minutos capturaba la tormenta pasional de Cumbres borrascosas, claro preámbulo del álbum Hounds of Love, aparecido en 1985, que era pura literatura gótica hecha música. (Rafa Cervera) (Translation)
La Stampa (Italy) reviews the novel Notte di Vento Che Passa by Milena Agus:
L’ingenua studentessa lo vede come un eroe senza macchia e senza paura, ce lo descrive attingendo alla sua biblioteca: «Sembra uscito da Cime tempestose, o da Jane Eyre, o forse da un film western. Va a cavallo e quando gli dici qualcosa lui controbatte con due parole, poi si gira di spalle e se ne va, proprio come un pistolero senza nome. Ma forse, ora che lo conosco meglio, mi sembra assomigli a Konstantin Levin in Anna Karenina». (Mario Baudino) (Translation)

Vanguardia (México) and La Capital (Argentina) mention the Brontë pseudonyms. 

2:06 am by M. in ,    No comments
This weekend and the next, the Traveling Players are performing a Jane Eyre adaptation in Tysons, Virginia:
Adapted by Christine Davey from the novel by Charlotte Brontë
Tysons Corner Center, 
1961 Chain Bridge Rd, Tysons, VA 22102, United States

March 9, 10, 16, 17 at 7pm

Jane Eyre is the story of a young woman discovering the freedom of an independent life. The narrative follows Jane through her difficult youth with a tyrant aunt and mean cousins, to her education at Lowood Institution, to her work as governess for the enigmatic and mysterious Mr. Rochester.  Adapted from the rich and remarkable novel by Charlotte Brontë, this theatrical re-imagining sparkles with life, love, and energy.
A story ahead of its time, Jane Eyre sparkles with grand ensemble moments while also venturing into stark, domestic drama.

EDIT: More information on Get Out Loudoun, InsideNova, Rappahannock News, Get Out Loudoun...

Saturday, March 09, 2024

The Yorkshire Post's Village of the Week is Thornton.
Although Thornton, six miles west of Bradford but heading towards the hills, was mentioned in The Domesday Book, there is little mention of a simple life of agriculture and country ways.
Thornton derives from Old English and means a thorn tree at a farm or settlement but it is the onset of industrialisation and the development of mills, factory and a more urban way to live that Thornton found its way.
Its elevation, poor soils, isolation from major transport routes, and rainfall of more than 34 inches a year limited farm production. [...]
The Bell Tower is also worth a look for those interested in Thornton in days gone by.
Prior to the construction of the current parish church, St James’, The original ancient church of St James was known locally as the Bell Chapel.
It was built between 1587 and 1612, but underwent many alterations in the years leading up to the appointment of Patrick Brontë as parson in March 1815.
We will come back to him but when the new church opened in 1872, the Bell Tower became disused and fell into a state of disrepair with little of it remaining. [...]
It is also extremely popular with visitors, tourists and literary fans.
Little did three sisters know that novels and poems they wrote in West Yorkshire would propel them to stratospheric fame after their deaths.
Patrick Brontë became the parish priest at Thornton in 1815 and it was in a house in the village that the famous sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne, along with brother Patrick were born before they left in 1820, when their father was appointed curate at Haworth.
The property went up for sale last year after the current owner, surveyor Mark de Luca, who bought it in 2013, decided it was unviable to re-open the Brontë-themed coffee bar, Emily’s, that he had been running from the building after the business suffered losses during Covid.
Brontë Birthplace Ltd supporters had tried to buy it before the de Lucas moved in, but had a £300,000 offer accepted on the terraced house that was built in 1802.
It has had many commercial uses over the years – including as a restaurant and a butcher’s shop – and although the crime novelist Barbara Whitehead restored the property and ran a small museum in the 1990s, she sold up in 2007 and died four years later.
Brontë Birthplace Ltd will restore the house and open it as a community and educational space where young people in particular can seek inspiration from the three writing sisters.
It is fitting that, as they used their works to write about social injustice and discrimination on the grounds of gender, race, poverty and background, then, that a lot of the effort that has gone into obtaining the house has been made possible by Bradford becoming the UK’s City of Culture for 2025.
School children will be invited to take part in an education programme when they can visit the birthplace, enter into age-appropriate learning and be inspired by the three sisters who were told they couldn’t, yet did. (Emma Ryan)
Hindustan Times interviews Karen Powell, author of Fifteen Wild Decembers.
What drew you to write a novel based on the Brontë sisters and Branwell?
Wuthering Heights was the first adult novel I ever read, given to me by my mother from her precious set of Collectors’ Editions that sat on the mantelpiece in our family home. After that, I read Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and then, over the next few years, books by Anne Brontë and Jane Austen. So, long before I ever thought of myself as a writer, the Brontës – and the 19th century novel – were part of my DNA.
I began writing in my early thirties, about the same time that I moved to Yorkshire. I now lived within travelling distance of the Brontë Parsonage Museum – once the Brontë family home – at Haworth, in the South Pennines. The setting of the house is incredibly atmospheric, situated at the top of the steep village with wild moorland rising directly behind, and the museum is so wonderfully curated that you might imagine the family had just stepped out for a walk, or to attend a service at the church where the Reverend Patrick Brontë, the children’s father, preached; that Emily and her siblings might wander back in at any moment. I found myself drawn to Haworth over and over again, my fascination with the lives lived within the walls of the parsonage growing. How was it possible, I wondered, that some of the most remarkable novels in the English language came to be written in this remote village far from London literary circles, in this little dining room overlooking the windswept graveyard and the church; in secret.
Why did you particularly choose to write in Emily’s voice?
From the very beginning, I was enthralled by Emily’s only novel, mesmerized by the punishing landscape and the half-savage, ungovernable characters that inhabit the pages of Wuthering Heights. At 13, I’d never read anything like it, still haven’t, though it is now some decades since my mother first put the book into my hands. When I finished the novel, I turned back to the beginning to read the Introduction. I learned that Emily Brontë was the daughter of an Anglican clergyman, that she lived almost all of life in isolated Haworth before her death at the age of 30. Emily never married or had any known romantic connections. Reserved to the point of silence in company, she had no friendships and barely mixed outside of her own family. Even as a teenager I sensed an intriguing disconnect between that sequestered existence and a novel so passionate and shocking that it scandalized Victorian society, and still has the power to shock even today. I love the work of all three sisters but feel emotionally drawn to Emily’s untamed spirit, intrigued too by the apparent gaps in the narrative of her life.
What kind of research did you do for the book?
I reread all the novels, immersed myself too in Emily’s wonderful poetry, then spent many months absorbing information about the family and the period from the wealth of biographical texts available. I made notes, drew up a timeline of their respective movements, questioned certain interpretations of events. At an early stage it became clear that much of what we know about the Brontës comes through the prism of Charlotte, Emily’s elder sister. Charlotte was a prolific letter writer and formed friendships beyond the family. She was the only one of the siblings to move in literary circles too, which resulted in Elizabeth Gaskell’s somewhat sensationalized Life of Charlotte Brontë (Mrs Gaskell was a novelist after all!). I needed to strip Charlotte’s voice from the narrative, to turn down the volume on the other chatter in the room and attune myself to Emily’s austere, uncompromising, sometimes imperious, occasionally playful voice. (Arunima Mazumdar) (Read more)
The Irish Times interviews writer Carys Davies.
“I think all those other things I do, like gardening and knitting, I go to them because you’re always guaranteed a result. I remember reading that Charlotte Brontë enjoyed cleaning and that just spoke to me so much because if I can’t write this novel I’ll go and clean the windows!” (Edel Coffey)
Well, not exactly. In a letter, she simply listed what she could do if she had to.

The Age features writer Jasper Fforde.
Fforde’s career trajectory has been an interesting one. He was 39 when his first book, The Eyre Affair, was published. Prior to writing, he was working in the film industry as a focus puller, his credits including The Mask of Zorro, Entrapment and GoldenEye. [...]
After deciding to turn his hand to writing, Fforde spent 12 years having his manuscripts rejected before the publication of The Eyre Affair in 2001 allowed him to become an author full-time. The dedication at the front of his first novel reads: “For my father … Who never knew I was to be published but would have been most proud nonetheless – and not a little surprised.” (Elizabeth Flux)
Theatre Weekly interviews James Phoon who stars in Underdog: The Other, Other Brontë, 'an irreverent retelling of the life and legend of the Brontë sisters' at the Dorfman Theatre (27 March – 25 May 2024)
You’re appearing in Underdog: The Other, Other Brontë at The National Theatre, how would you describe this new play?
Firstly, it is a lot of fun! Underdog is a vibrant retelling of the Brontë’s own story, told through Charlotte’s lens. Whether you are an avid fan, or totally new to them as I was, Underdog welcomes you in and takes you on the journey of support, competition and ambition of these icons.[...]
You’re playing Branwell Brontë, tell us a little about the character and what you love about the role?
Branwell is someone who does everything too hotly. He’s incredibly passionate, and determined, but doesn’t quite understand how to navigate the world. He’s someone who is constantly grasping at what the world expects of him, and whenever he gets a taste of success – it slips through his fingers. It’s tragic. He represents the ways in which the expectations of a patriarchal society are also damaging to the men who live within it.
How do you think audiences will react to this irreverent retelling of the lives and legend of the Brontë sisters?
I hope they feel that warm buzz of siblings who are rallying around each other. I hope they’re outraged by the small-minded hurdles they have to constantly leap over. And I hope that they leave thinking, “woah, these were some incredible women!” [...]
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see Underdog: The Other, Other Brontë?
Come to laugh, to fall in love with these trailblazers, and to see how feminism and the wider fight for equality are not new concepts in the 21st century! (Greg Stewart)
Reader's Digest selects '8 Of the most beautiful Ryuichi Sakamoto film scores' and one of them is
Wuthering Heights
For its sweeping, soulful adaptation, director Peter Kosminsky recruited Sakamoto to write a classical score befitting the infamous love story. Known for its beautiful and haunting tone, Sakamoto’s music is a fan favourite. Difficult to come by in the UK, the score has garnered an almost cult following among film, and specifically Sakamoto, fans. “Sweeping” is an oft-used term for historical epics, but that certainly rings true for both the film and the music, with an elegant, elegiac set of tracks making up for the film’s soundtrack.
The Tech Advocate recommends the '10 Best Movie and TV Adaptations of Gothic Novels' and two of them are
2.”Jane Eyre” (2011)– Cary Fukunaga’s version of Charlotte Brontë’s enduring novel features magnetic performances and a chilling atmosphere befitting Thornfield Hall’s dark secrets. [...]
5.”Wuthering Heights” (2011)– Andrea Arnold’s raw adaptation brings Emily Brontë’s passionate and stormy tale to life with gritty realism. (Matthew Lynch)
Wide Sargasso Sea was one of Luxembourg Times' picks for International Women's Day.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
A fascinating retelling and imagined prequel of the infamous “woman in the attic” from Jane Eyre. Rhys’ incisive prose examines colonial power relations and gender inequalities in this novel mostly set in the lush Caribbean. The protagonist Antoinette Cosway’s life is portrayed as a dramatic unfurling throughout which she struggles for autonomy until the end. (Natalia Pikna)