Now [Bubla] Basu is fielding requests to teach other texts, including Ian McEwan’s Atonement and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Shakespeare, however, will remain at the heart of her work. “Shakespeare grows with you; it grew with me,” says Basu. “Shakespeare is riveting, Shakespeare is Shakespeare.” (Bhavya Dore)Multimedia distractions in The Straits Times:
My books sit quietly, but Netflix messages me insistently. "Netflix tonight?" said Thursday's nagging e-mail. I'm pathetic, I actually peeked. Jane Eyre? Seriously? But if not the movies then I'm e-mailing after work, rifling through texts, skating through the possible benefits of owning Greenland. Am I smarter for all this? Of course not. More informed is not the same as well-informed, says my friend Mihir sagely, and then returns to iTunes. (Rohit Brijnath)Revisiting the classics in The Gleaner (Jamaica):
In some ways, Anton Nimblett, author of the seventeen short stories in Now/After, is reminiscent of Jean Rhys. There are at least four stories – ‘Perseverance Village’, ‘Something Promised’, ‘In This Night Air’ and ‘Spouter Inn’ – where we see the fan, who is also the author, telling the backstories of novels that have served as influences and influencers of his art.Shemazing recommends How to Fail by Elizabeth Day:
Like Rhys, who, through Wide Sargasso Sea, tells the backstory of Bertha in Jane Eyre, Nimblett further develops Ishmael in Moby Dick. (Ann-Margaret Lim)
Brooklyn, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Wuthering Heights are up their with my all time favourites, but it is one of my most recent reads that completely changed the way I think about my life.Superguida (Italy) and other websites anounce that Jane Eyre 2011 is on Paramount Network Italy tonight (21.15 h). My Interdimensional Chaos reviews the recent Jane Eyre Manga adaptation. Bookstr lists several Wuthering Heights memes.
That book is How To Fail by journalist Elizabeth Day. (Kat O'Connor)
“Resolute, Wild, Free”: Women’s Leisure and Avian Ecologies in Jane Eyre
by Robyn Miller, Auburn University
Nineteenth Century Gender Studies, Issue 15.2 (Summer 2019)
Present within the women’s domain of the parlor as both darling pets and objects to be
collected, birds unsurprisingly migrated from the domestic sphere into Victorian women’s literature. Indeed, their presence within the latter served the ideological work of making domestic arrangements seem natural, often drawing upon natural history and socially accepted leisure activities to reinforce an idealized domesticity. Though many nineteenth-century texts widely use birds as a representation of domesticity, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is an especially rich site for examining avian ecologies in women’s leisure due to its innumerable references to Thomas Bewick’s A History of British Birds (1831), a natural history text. The connection between Jane Eyre and Bewick’s A History of British Birds has been widely discussed by past scholarship, though often with a focus on this intersection between natural history and fiction as symbolic. The bird imagery is primarily interpreted as a glimpse into Jane’s desire for freedom, Bertha Mason’s wildness, or Rochester’s raptor-like, controlling nature. While such scholarship is important, there has not yet been any analysis that explores how the inclusion of A History of British Birds speaks to natural history’s role within the rituals of nineteenth-century leisure and how natural history’s adaptation into leisure impacted biodiversity. When read with an ecocritical eye, Jane Eyre—and its abundant references to Thomas Bewick—provides insight into how the availability of natural history texts within the Victorian household reinforced both birds’ and women’s place within the domestic sphere, often at the cost of avian biodiversity.
"Father Figures in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: Brontë's Perspective on Victorian Era Masculinity"
by King, Mary Grace
The Criterion: Vol. 2019 , Article 7
Anne Brontë presents two different depictions of fatherhood in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall that correspond to different expressions of masculinity. Anne Brontë comments on masculinity in the Victorian Era by presenting these different examples in the characters of Mr. Markham and Mr. Huntingdon as they interact with Arthur, Helen’s son. Both men display masculine traits as viewed by Victorian Era thought, but these traits vary between manly virtue (dignity and honesty) and manly vice (drinking and swearing). Furthermore, Brontë depicts patterns of abusive masculinity in the character Mr. Huntingdon in his interactions with Arthur as his biological father while also depicting nurturing behavior in Mr. Markham, despite such behavior being regarded as typically feminine. Mr. Markham shares no blood ties with Arthur, but his care for Helen includes his care for her son. Brontë illustrates how Mr. Markham’s relationship with Arthur is much more wholesome and beneficial to the boy than Mr. Huntingdon’s relationship with Arthur, insinuating that healthy fatherhood requires more than just typically masculine traits or biological relations. From all this, I glean that Brontë is commenting on Victorian Era family ideals alongside the ideals of masculinity. In the dynamics she creates between father figures and Arthur, Brontë shows how easy it is for the family structure, so idealized by her contemporary society, to be abused when male authority has free reign. But she also illustrates how it is possible to have a slightly less conventional family structure that, while looking quite different than most lauded family arrangements of the Victorian Era, actually works as well as (if not better than) the typical domestic ideal.
The Guardian publishes the obituary of the actress Freda Dowie (1928-2019) who played Aunt Branwell in The Brontës of Haworth 1973.It was an unwritten law of postwar Britain that all large parks should contain a commissioned Henry Moore sculpture and, as chance would have it, Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic – a gathering of new poet laureate Simon Armitage’s own bulging file of commissioned work – features a series of “Henry Moore Poems”.We Are Green Bay announces the upcoming performances of Jen Silverman's The Moors in Sturgeon Bay, WI:
From the outset of his career Armitage’s great exemplar has been a fellow Yorkshireman – Ted Hughes – but that laureate approached the commissioned poem in a very different spirit. He rose to the challenge of hymning the Queen Mother by painting her, in Rain Charm for the Duchy, as godmother of the salmon. Armitage by contrast opens a sequence on Branwell Brontë by comparing him
to Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba. (David Wheatley)
Isadoora Theatre Company will present its second production of the 2019 season, Jen Silverman’s “The Moors,” starting next week.And Crain's Chicago Business reports the October performances of Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre in Chicago:
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 30-31; 2 p.m. Sept. 1; 7:30 p.m. Sept. 6-7; and 2 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Inside/Out Theatre at the Margaret Lockwood Gallery, Michigan and S. 7th St.
Directing is Richard Carlson. In the cast are Margi Diny, Haley Ebinal, Donna Johnson, Amanda Sallinen, Katie Schroeder and Vance Toivonen.
According to a press release: Two sisters and a dog live out their lives on the bleak English moors, dreaming of love and power. The arrival of a hapless governess and a moor-hen set all three on a strange and dangerous path.
“The Moors” is a dark comedy about love, desperation and visibility. Things are not what they seem. (Warren Gerds)
Jane EyreKeighley News reports some of the sites that can be visited in the upcoming Open Heritage Days:
Oct. 16-27 | Joffrey Ballet | Auditorium Theatre
Readers of a certain sensibility are mad for Jane Austen, but the Brontës run a close second when it comes to storms of the heart. Emily's "Wuthering Heights" may be the most cherished (thanks, in part, to the film version starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon), but Charlotte's "Jane Eyre" is a deeply satisfying tempest of dark romanticism, too. British choreographer Cathy Marston has demonstrated a penchant for fashioning ballets from literature ("Lolita," "Dangerous Liaisons"), and with Jane Eyre, she's taken on a character who would never (and doesn't) don a tutu. (Thomas Connors)
St Gabriel’s Church, Stanbury, will open its doors on September 21 from 10am to 4.30pm. The 19th century schoolroom, used for worship by modern-day villagers, was built by the Rev Patrick Brontë and contains an 18th century pulpit from Haworth Parish Church. (David Knights)The Philadelphia Inquirer and what to do in Philadelphia this week:
Fonthill Castle Beer FestivalScreen Rant lists some of the most memorable lines from the sitcom Frasier:
Doylestown’s own Wuthering Heights-esque estate, Fonthill Castle — a concrete behemoth that blends medieval, Gothic and Byzantine architecture, with Moravian tiles thrown in for good measure — lightens it up with a beer festival.
"You've got a vulnerable woman and an unstable man in a gothic mansion on a rainy night! The only thing missing is someone shouting 'Heathcliff!' across the moors!"Bookreporter reviews The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea:
It takes the series seven long seasons to finally get Niles and Daphne into a romantic relationship with one another, but as early as the first season, the series presents opportunities for the two to get into plenty of romantic trouble together. The first season episode, "A Mid-Winter's Night Dream," finds Daphne and Niles trapped alone in the middle of a storm at Niles's home.
And predictably, this scenario sends Frasier into hysteria, ranting and raving about the Wuthering Heights romanticism of all that is going on, and his need to stop all that could happen - even if it means running across the metaphorical moors, screaming in the rain for the two of them to stop. (Katerina Daley)
In the tradition of Jane Eyre and Rebecca comes The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea, in which a young woman follows her new husband to his remote home on the Icelandic coast in the 1680s, where she faces dark secrets surrounding the death of his first wife amidst a foreboding landscape and the superstitions of the local villagers.La Nación (Argentina) mentions the story of the Charlotte Brontë mourning ring (with a blunder):
Un anillo. Adentro de la caja había eso: un anillo de metal. La mujer pasó días tratando de ordenar el legado del último de sus suegros y las cajas heredadas ya se habían convertido en su pesadilla. No era para menos: cada una estaba cerrada con llave y las llaves -las contó- no solo eran centenarias, sino también centenares. Tuvo suerte: después de un par de intentos una caja se abrió y ahí estaba el anillo con una inscripción interna: Brontë, marzo de 1855. Demasiado tentador como para no seguir investigando. Dio así con un dispositivo de apertura y descubrió -adentro del anillo, pegada al metal- una trenza de pelo y -afuera del anillo- una historia notable. Aquella sortija sería, según los expertos, parte de la joyería funeraria que rodeó la muerte de la autora de Cumbres borrascosas (!). En esos días, conservar los cabellos del muerto amado era de rigor. Existía, además, un código de materiales: si la muerta era una virgen, los anillos eran de esmalte; si se trataba de un niño o niña, se usaban perlas. Cada muerte exigía las joyas adecuadas.Público (Spain) talks about George Eliot:
La anécdota del anillo de Charlotte Brontë habla, entre otras tantas cosas, de nuestra relación con el pasado por obra y gracia de los objetos. (Fernanda Sánchez) (Translation)
George Eliot, seudónimo de Mary Anne Evans (1819-1880), la más cultivada intelectualmente de entre los novelistas de la época victoriana, no fue la única en tener algún nexo con la poesía romántica. Otros novelistas contemporáneos suyos también tuvieron esa misma influencia: Dickens, de William Blake; las hermanas Brontë, de Walter Scott; y concretamente Emily, en Cumbres Borrascosas, de Lord Byron, por ejemplo; sobre todo cuando no hubo ningún tipo de fractura entre el romanticismo y la época victoriana. (José Antonio Ricondo) (Translation)Cubaencuentro (Cuba) interviews the writer Dolores Labarcena:
Carlos Espinosa Domínguez: ¿Qué libro te gustaría haber escrito?Number 9 reviews the Edinburgh performances of Cathy: A Retelling of Wuthering Heights. Shanna Swendson posts 'In Defense of Jane Eyre'. Fuego Helado (in Spanish) reviews Wuthering Heights.
Cumbres Borrascosas. (Translation)
The Library hosts a gathering of the Brontë Book Club at 11 a.m. to discuss “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' (Shelter Island Reporter)
August 24 2019 Saturday, 8:00 PMIncludes:
Tanglewood
Koussevitzky Music Shed - Lenox, MA
Long established as one of Tanglewood’s most anticipated and beloved evenings, John Williams’ Film Night returns on Saturday, August 24, with George and Roberta Berry Boston Pops Conductor Laureate John Williams introducing the festive evening, which features the Boston Pops and conductor David Newman performing a program celebrating the music of Hollywood and more.
Two selections from “Jane Eyre”(Via The Berkshire Eagle)
Reunion—To Thornfield
Victorians Institute
Consuming the Victorians
November 2018
Asheville, NC
Panel: What’s Eating Charlotte Brontë?
“I could not eat”: Consuming and Being Consumed in Jane Eyre by Margee Husemann (Carolina Day School)
“Famished Thought”: Nourishing the Mind in Villette by Gretchen Braun (Furman University)
The Face of the Mind: Sight and Brontë’s The Professor by Rochelle Davis (University of Tennessee, Knoxville)
WriterCon 2019
Writers' Conference - University of Wisconsin, Parkview
May 2019
Senior Seminar Presentations
Vanessa Acuna, Maddie Bellow, Mason Bloom, Bailey Crawford, Destiny Crespo, Naomi Dornfield, Byron Dowse, Amy Frier, Adam Gadzala, Alyssa Goroski, Ken Holm, Marissa Johnson, Kimmy Kittelson, Ashley Pelczynski, Caleb Ramos, Sydney Schoone, Morgan Underhill, Hollace Villarreal, and Josie Ziemann
In conjunction with ENGL 416/469/495, Major British Authors/Women as Writers & Characters/Seminar in Literature, students will address novels written by the Brontë sisters and some "hot topics" that come with the novels. Should Jane Eyre have ended the way it did? What does Heathcliff's race have to do with his experiences? Should Helen have settled for her husband? This discussion panel will be highly interactive--encouraging arguments, opinions, and rage from the audience--as together you explore why the Brontë novels are still relevant today!
Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience Conference 2019
Newcastle University
Monday 29th July
‘Creation’ Parallel Sessions: Processes of Creation and Engagement
Lynn Setterington
Sew Near - Sew Far
This paper examines the creation of a transitory stitched-based monument commissioned as part of Meeting Point, in which the pseudonymous autographs of the Brontë sisters are writ large in the landscape that inspired much of their literary genius. The fleeting land-based signature artwork, created for the Brontë Parsonage Museum in West Yorkshire, re-presents and reunites the siblings
with the outdoors. Indeed, the signature quilt, a cloth made up of sewn autographs which originated in the Westward migration underpins the methodology in this practice-based enquiry. This sites specific artwork on the moors above Haworth offers a different lens with which to interpret memory, and in bringing together the three famous signatures with that of local people who donated their sewn autographs to the initiative, new and shared narratives emerge. In addition, this soft, tactile, fleeting memorial offers a counter-narrative to the ubiquitous, fixed and hard commemorations, and raises awareness of the poor visibility of women authors of the nineteenth century.
The stance is that of the artist/designer immersed in embroidery-driven ways of working and making known how this female-centred practice encourages empathetic understanding and help break down barriers of them and us, is intertwined in this study. Indeed, the reach of this endeavour which embraces different audiences including hikers, leisure tourists and online viewers highlights the scope of such alternative, haptic strategies. The knowledge and expertise of the embroiderer with her tacit understanding of collaborative working, also enabled groups such as Talk – English, an organisation teaching English to new citizens to participate and share in the project. As a result the lives and work of the Brontë sisters was disseminated to yet another, different audience. For as educational reformer John Dewey, (1934) acknowledges, ‘the experience of making and encountering the object [is] the real work of art’.
Tuesday 30th July
‘Encounters’ Parallel Sessions: Impact and Reception
Dr Amber Pouliot & Serena Partridge
Fake News and Mourning Shoes: The Challenges of Art Installation in the Writer’s House Museum
Between 2016 and 2017, the Brontë Parsonage Museum presented Charlotte Great and Small, a contemporary arts exhibition exploring ‘the contrast between Charlotte’s constricted life and her huge ambition’. This paper focuses on the polarized reception of Serena Partridge’s contribution, ‘Accessories’. Partridge’s work, which I have termed pseudo-relics – a nightcap embroidered with constellations; a pair of mourning shoes allegedly embroidered with Emily’s hair; gloves embroidered with a map of Charlotte’s travels – were intended to resemble real relics in the Parsonage Museum. Exhibiting them in a display case with mock museum labels, Partridge sought to productively ‘blur the boundaries between fact and fiction’; the objects encouraged visitors to explore counterfactual possibilities and reconceptualize their understanding of Brontëan experience, crystalized by Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Life of Charlotte Brontë. Like the neo-Victorian novel, ‘Accessories’ self-reflexively draws attention to the constructedness and contingency of the historical record. But as Ann Heilmann and Mark Llewellyn observe, neo-Victorian fiction may be differently experienced depending on the reader’s knowledge of Victorian literature and its conventions, and my interpretation, as a Victorianist and Brontë specialist, differed significantly from the experiences of visitors who felt ‘duped’ on discovering the accessories were not relics. Visitors’ willingness to believe in the authenticity of Partridge’s (clearly-labelled) art is epitomized by an article reporting as fact that ‘Charlotte Bronte repaired her shoes with her dead sibling’s hair’.This paper considers the particular challenges of historically-inflected art installation in the BPM, especially in the context of the Brontë myth and the age of fake news.
One of the most iconic pieces of English literature will leap off the page when shake & stir theatre co's new stage adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre blazes into Queensland Performing Arts Centre's (QPAC) Cremorne Theatre from 18 October to 9 November.Over Sixty interviews the writer Kate Forsyth:
Co-adapted by shake & stir co-Artistic Directors Nelle Lee and Nick Skubij, this retelling of Brontë's gothic tale of a spirited orphan in search of love, family and a sense of belonging will see Michael Futcher direct an award-winning cast including Lee as Jane, alongside Helen Howard and Anthony Standish. (...)
The production will also feature original music written and performed live on stage by multi ARIA Award-winner and frontwoman of The Superjesus, Sarah McLeod, who will compose for theatre for the first time.
"Sarah is representing the mystery in Jane Eyre, which if you have read the book, makes up a very important part of the action. She is playing two characters, which live somewhat on the edge of the natural world. Through her music and these characters, she will be a big factor in helping us create the right atmosphere," said Lee. (...)
"As far as I'm concerned, Charlotte Brontë has given us one of the most charming yet sophisticated novels of the 19th century. With Jane, she gave us a typically unconventional heroine and managed to blend many of the most popular literature styles into one captivating story."
Joanita Wibowo: What book do you think is underrated?The Times and publisher's rejections or misguided reviews:
K.F.: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë.
(....) J.W.: Which author(s) – living or deceased – would you most like to have dinner with?
K.F.: The Brontë sisters.
It would be fitting. And Mr Faber will know that disasters in editorial commissioning and reviews do happen. Of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a critic wrote: “We fancy that any real child will be more puzzled than amused by this stiff, overwrought story.” Of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, one contemporary reader lamented that it was a “crude and morbid story . . . that will never be generally read”. The editor of an American journal more recently rejected a short story from an English writer with the brusque message: “I’m sorry, Mr Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language”.The Irish Times reviews the film Crawl by Alexandre Aja:
It certainly helps that the film is staffed by Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper, two terrific actors who ought to be much bigger stars than they are. Have you seen her Catherine in Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights? (Tara Brady)The Telegraph & Argus talks about the death of pop stars as we knew them:
I remember my dad muttering behind his newspaper when Buster Bloodvessel came bounding on the telly, and my mum going on about that weird girl with frizzy hair screeching Wuthering Heights. I’d never seen, or heard, anything like Kate Bush before, and watching her on TOTP the first time was seminal. (Emma Clayton)Les Échos (France) prepares the 'literary' rentrée with songs:
Devenir d'emblée un classique, c'est bien sûr ce à quoi rêvent tous les auteurs de premier roman. Les Hauts de Hurlevent d'Emily Brontë, auquel Bush rendit hommage en 1978, fut toutefois aussi son dernier. (Henri Gibier) (Translation)BirGün (Turkey) recommends Wide Sargasso Sea:
Kitap: Geniş, Geniş Bir Deniz- Jean Rhys (1982)Keighley News reports of a couple of activities concerning the twinning of Haworth and Macchu Picchu (Peru) that will take place the coming weeks at the Old School Room, near the Brontë Parsonage Museum. The Good Men Project quotes Emily Brontë in a sceptics vs believers discussion. Crosswalk quotes Charlotte Brontë on honeymoons (and disappointments).
Charlotte Brontë’nin ünlü eseri Jane Eyre (1847) hâlâ hafızanızdaysa, bu kitabı da okumalısınız. Kitaptaki “çatı katındaki deli kadının” ilham verdiği kitap, deliliği, kadınlığı, geçmişi ve eksik bırakılanları irdeler. Kronolojik olarak ilk kitaptan öncesini anlatır, bu nedenle bitirdiğinizde hikâyeler yapboz parçaları gibi birleşecektir. Kitapta anlatılan ilişkiler ve günümüzdeki yansımaları mutlaka okunmaya değer. (Translation)
Another Brontë-related production now being performed at the Edinburgh Fringe:Eleventh Hour Theatre Company presents
More Myself Than I Am
Written and Directed by Rebecca Vines
With Maddie Dunn, Max Thomas, Izzy Moulding and Maddie Chapman.
August 19-26
Riddle's Court, PQA Venues
A vivid exploration of how three sheltered young women from a remote Yorkshire parsonage created some of the most raw, violent and passionate literary works of all time. Charlotte: the ambitious dreamer. Emily: the intense loner. Anne: the gentle, would-be social reformer. The Brontë sisters fought their geography, sex, and status to become published authors: only to be then consumed with cruel rapidity by the tuberculosis which haunted their family.
It takes a little while to get used to it all – everyone’s dressed in white, the housekeeper Nelly (Susannah Greenow) as well as her employer Hindley (Oscar George Copper), the central character Cathy (Emma Torrens) as well as her love interests Edgar (Joseph Folley) and Heathcliff (Samuel Terry). Having suspended disbelief (I kept a straight face at not having period costumes, but struggled to do so at the sight of plastic water bottles, this show being set in the early nineteenth century), there were times when the performance started to feel like a play with songs rather than a musical, such was the extent of spoken word scenes between musical numbers.Another Fringe Brontë-related production is Eleventh Hour Theatre's More Myself Than I Am. Deadline reviews it:
But when these characters do sing, to borrow an advertising strapline from a popular beverage, good things come to those who wait. The harmonies are easy on the ear, and while this isn’t, for the most part, a musical with much choreography – Cathy seems to spend more time lying down than dancing – the solo numbers are a delight, even when expressing feelings and emotions of sorrow, pain and despair. Hindley’s love of alcohol is portrayed well, as is his penchant for gambling; the latter works in Heathcliff’s favour. The former is a moment of comic relief, with Copper’s Hindley parading around energetically.
Unfortunately this production turned out to be more like The Professor than Jane Eyre.More reviews. Richmondshire Today talks about The History Wardrobe's Gothic for Girls:
The play follows the four Brontë siblings as they search for meaningful employment and personal fulfilment outside their father’s austere Northern parsonage.
Unsung brother Branwell was the family’s golden child. Professional success is quickly followed by death and eventually only Charlotte survives into her late thirties.
The actors do well with the material they are given and their attempts to make the sisters seem more independent from each other were noticeable. Anyone who is unfamiliar with the Brontë’s lives will appreciate this incredibly well-researched production.
The enthusiastic but aimless plot mirrors the siblings’ confused search for fulfilment but unfortunately this does not make for a very entertaining production. Passages of dull exposition are interspersed with occasional periods of shouting. (...)
The costumes and sets were patchy but this can be expected forgiven for any low-budget Fringe production. With the exception of a distractingly fake-looking wig the authenticity of the props and costumes to the era reflected a degree of care which shows a real affection for the play’s subjects.
The title, a line from Cathy’s passionate description of her relationship with Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, overall does not describe this ambitious but under-developed play. (Heather Simmons)
Lucy [Adlington] moved the presentation (lecture seems the wrong word when it’s done in costume) further into the 19th century, with Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters added in. It’s all fascinating stuff, honestly. But I am also wondering how all this segues into Gothic fashion in any specific way. (Guy Carpenter)The Telegraph and the most sterile of questions, which is better: Yorkshire or Lancashire?:
The cobbled streets of Haworth are a mecca for Brontë devotees while Salt's Mill, in the model Victorian mill-town of Saltaire, displays possibly the world's greatest public collection of Hockney's work – and it's free. (Helen Pickles and Cathy Toogood)The Logical Indian and mental illness in literature:
Culturess reviews the film Ready or Not:“What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face.”In Charlotte Brontë’s novel, this is how Jane Eyre describes Mr Rochester’s wife Bertha, a woman with an unknown hereditary mental illness, who has been locked up in an attic for ten years. Back in Victorian England, locking away the ‘insane’ was not uncommon or unheard of. In fact, it was often considered a kinder way to treat someone suffering from such an illness, rather than sending them to an asylum. One of the most significant features of the novel is Bertha’s ‘madness’, and its imagery defines society’s perception of mental illness – characterised by stigma, shame and lack of concern. (Sumanti Sen & Sayantani Nath)
Grace’s high-necked wedding dress makes you feel as if you’re watching a 1940 Gothic drama in the vein of Jane Eyre (or riding Disney’s Haunted Mansion). This timelessness hits at the core of the film’s point involving the history and old-world feelings that the wealthy maintain. (Kristen Lopez)The Bennington Banner and rich people:
One of the major political parties has a devotion to them that ranks with the passion between Cathy and Heathcliff. Donald Trump has built his theme park persona on being the living embodiment of unbridled wealth in much the same way that Walt Disney made Mickey Mouse the symbol of his entertainment empire. I'm sure that there are other similarities that can be drawn between Donald and Mickey, but I won't do it here. (Alden Graves)The Somerville Times reviews the poetry chapbook Dreadsummer by Eliot Cardinaux:
First, the title: Dreadsummer. Before I’d read a single poem, the title bespoke (to me) some call of the wild, a terrible loss, a subject matter emotionally wrenching, like Heathcliff and Catherine’s tragic love. And I was wrong, but I was close. (Doug Holder)Trinidad and Tobago Newsday talks about a local exhibition:
Cultural diversity through the literary arts from the region is on display at the National Library from August 19-30. The exhibition, Award Winning Caribbean Authors, is a collaborative effort of the National Library and Information System Authority (Nalis) and the Bocas Lit Fest for Carifesta XIV. (...)Electric Lit and novels about disappearing:
The novel Wide Sargasso Sea, which brought Dominica’s Jean Rhys international fame, is also showcased. (Veela Mungal)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë:France Culture (France) announces a new radio adaptation of Wuthering Heights in 2020:
I can’t find a woman in literature before Jane Eyre who runs away as she does. That woman must exist somewhere in the world’s literature, but so far in my reading, Jane is the first, and her act is one of such power. Her choice—to live up to her moral code or to stay with the man she loves, despite his indiscretion—does not leave this steadfast and independent woman a choice. She casts out alone, and never mind that she ends up with him—those few days of her wandering the windswept landscape, hungry and alone, are some of the bravest I’ve read. (Abi Maxwell)
Juliette Heymann (...)Punchline Gloucester announces the local performances of the Chapterhouse Theatre Company production of Wuthering Heights. Liv's Books & Light reviews Jane Eyre. Pousse de Ginkgo (in French) posts about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Devenue réalisatrice en 2010, tout en continuant parallèlement les adaptations, elle a mis en ondes de nombreuses fictions pour France Inter et surtout France Culture: L’Ile Saline de Daniel Danis, Le Daguet de Nicole Caligaris, Rien ne s’oppose à la nuit de Delphine De Vigan, Marilyn, dernières séances de Michel Schneider, Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë… ainsi que des cycles Yoko Ogawa et Laurent Gaudé. Elle travaille actuellement sur l’adaptation des Hauts de Hurlevent d’Emily Brontë, qu’elle réalisera en 2020.
Picture Source“It was more difficult than I thought to write music based on a plot that’s already been written,” she admits. “I usually tend to just improvise and create a melody out of that, but it was actually quite fun to take on the challenge.”
Kwon has been playing piano since the age of five, and has grown up creating and composing at the keyboard whenever could. When she took “Victorian Literature in Britain” last year, Kwon felt compelled to delve more into Jane Eyre, crediting her professor, Dr. Linda Gill, with her interest, saying Dr. Gill “can transform boring rocks into blooming, fragrant flowers in her classes.”
As she contemplated her senior thesis, Kwon hit upon a unique idea: “I thought it would be fun to connect my English major side with my musical side,” she says.
She was right.
On Thursday, Nov. 29, Kwon performed her original composition for professors, classmates, and other interested parties. It was her final presentation of her Honors program, in the choir room in Paulin Hall.
The composition has five movements, representing the five main themes Kwon determined through several readings of the novel: Gateshead Hall, Lowood School, Thornfield, the Moor House, and Ferndean.
“Jane Eyre is a passionate bildungsroman that weaves romance into a continual questioning of gender, class roles, and a plethora of other societal issues,” Kwon explains. “Because there are so many ideas, it’s pretty impossible to squish every single piece of rhetorical commentary into a ten-minute piano piece, but I tried to outline the five main themes of the novel as the focus of my composition.”
Along with her composition and performance, Kwon also produced a 12-page thesis paper. While preparing these final products, Kwon read Jane Eyre more times than she can count, and spent hours painstakingly placing her composition into MuseScore to create printed sheet music.
“Interestingly enough, I gathered the same emotions and themes every time I read it,” she says. “I had been hoping to discover different emotional notes with different readings, but because my viewpoint was limited, I was able to create more literary analyses each time instead of musical analyses.”
Kwon says her end goal was to ultimately create a piece she could say accurately depicts her interpretation of Jane Eyre.
“As I worked on my project, I think I ended up hoping to prove words and music are two completely different topics,” she recalls, “but they can be connected through parallel emotions. I think I was able to do that—and hopefully my audience agreed with me!” (Becky St. Clair)
The Misfits Theatre Company has announced the presentation of the New York premiere of The Heroine Chronicles' (London, UK) site-specific production of Oh Heroine How I Love You!, written and directed by Callie Nestleroth, performed and composed by Sara Page.Deccan Chronicle talks about 'gifted' children:
Originally developed in partnership with Camden Libraries with the additional support of Unity Theatre Trust and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, performances of Oh Heroine How I Love You! will begin on Saturday, September 7 at 8pm (for a limited engagement through September 15, 2019) in multiple locations at Jefferson Market Library (425 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10011 at W 10th Street).
Experience historic Jefferson Market Library transform with The Heroine Chronicles' production created specifically for library spaces, Oh Heroine How I Love You! Join the world of Cathy Earnshaw (Sara Page), the heroine from Emily Brontë's classic tale Wuthering Heights, and be taken by her on a journey that goes beyond the confines of her book. Whether from the many film adaptations, or Kate Bush's singular song, Cathy and Heathcliff are infamous characters. But do we ever consider the effect they have on their author, or those who learn their story?
A ghostly character, Cathy's grasp on reality is fraught. Be taken along for the ride as she wanders lost on the Yorkshire Moors, and catapults between her worlds created in adaptation. As you experience Wuthering Heights come to life around you, will assisting Cathy actually end up helping her author, Emily Brontë?
[Sukhnidh] Kaur, who is an Economic-Psychology major from St. Xaviers’, Mumbai, says that she got the opportunity to research and study more on this topic due to her background in psychology. “I realised that I had actually read about people, whether it’s the Brontë sisters or Da Vinci, who are just not like other people. I studied more about it and understood that it is a real thing and not just an idea in the air. It has a strong neurobiological basis,” she adds. According to Kaur, research about giftedness has taken place in other countries and acceleration programmes for gifted kids are also in place but India does not have anything like that. (Imana Bhattacharya)Beyond Chron explores the works of Jean-Pierre Léaud:
Yet “Weekend”’s drily absurd moments wind up having the tang of graveyard humor given more serious occurrences in the film. Dead people are treated as a survival resource, whether it takes the form of cannibalism or having the corpses from car crashes looted for necessities. The grim fate bestowed on philosopher Charlotte Brontë shows that the free play of the mind has no purchase in the mentality of the acquisition-minded. If anything, Godard’s fictional world mocks France’s egalitarian motto of “equality, liberty, fraternity” by showing it means in practice looking for ways to get even slightly ahead of one’s neighbors. (Peter Wong)
The next performance of Carter Plays for POTS after "The Crucible" will be "Ollantay," a Spanish performance created to better represent Native American history. The final performance of the year will highlight 19th century feminism with "Jane Eyre." (Ava Eucker)The Los Angeles Review of Books posts about Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key:
The secrets locked away behind an attic door calls to mind another Victorian Gothic nanny — Jane Eyre — and, like Jane, Rowan will discover that what she doesn’t know could hurt her. (Karen Brissette)Criterioncast announces the September 2019 schedule of The Criterion Channel which includes a Starring Laurence Olivier series which includes Wuthering Heights 1939. From page to stage – and everything in between interviews with Nick Lane about his adaptation of Jane Eyre for Blackeyed Theatre.
The Eyre Guide discovered a recent Chinese film that is described in several western webs as a "Modern retelling of the Brontë romance but in the world of modern IT technologies."简爱之约 (Jane Eyre) (2019)The reality, as the Eyre Guide finds out, is that the connection with Charlotte Brontë's novel is very loose and tenous. Just a couple of mentions of the obsession of one of the female leads with finding a "Mr Rochester" and maybe some Blanche Ingram/Rochester/Jane Eyre triangle hints here and there.
Directed and Written by Zhang Tianyu
Cast
Haibo Chang
Zhao Feiyan
Gavin Gao
Wang Wei
值得注意的是，这部《简爱之约》与英国作家夏洛特.勃朗特的代表作《简爱》，同名，是由于其部分剧情借鉴改编《简爱》,为我们呈现出一场交叉着爱情、事业、欲望的商战，展现了一场初心和利益的精彩较量，旨在反应社会现实，激励步履不停的你不忘初心，继续前行。Google Translation:
It is worth noting that this "Jane's Covenant" and the British writer Charlotte Brontë's representative work "Jane Eyre", the same name, is due to part of the plot to draw on the adaptation of "Jane Eyre", presenting us a The commercial warfare that crosses love, career, and desire shows a wonderful contest of initial intentions and interests. It aims to reflect the social reality and encourages you to keep on moving forward.Check The Eyre Guide post for further information.
The life of Patrick Brontë will be celebrated in song next month during two concerts in Haworth.Also in the Keighley News:
Brontë writer John Hennessy is organising the events to raise money for the Haworth Parish Church rewiring fund and the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
Passionately Fond of Oratorio will be held on Friday September 6 in Haworth Parish Church with soloists Charissa Hutchins (soprano), James Hutton (baritone), Gordon Balmforth (organ) and Jon Scully (trumpet).
The following evening will see A Celebration in Words and Music at the West Lane Baptist Church, with Alexandra Lesley (speaker) and John Hennessy (speaker and piano).
Both concerts will begin at 7.30pm, and payment on the door for each is £10 for adults and £5 for under 18s.
John is the author of the book Emily Brontë and Her Music.
He is organising the concerts to tie in with the Brontë Parsonage Museum’s year of celebrations for the 200th anniversary of Patrick Brontë being offered the post of Haworth minister. (David Knights)
Zafar Ali said it had been a “huge honour and privilege” to serve as the Lord Mayor of Bradford.Still locally, in The Telegraph & Argus:
He attended around 1,200 engagements in every part of the district and beyond.
And he visited places he’d never been to before – including, he admits, some right on the doorstep!
“I’d never had the chance previously to visit the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth – although it’s just up the road!” said Cllr Ali. “I was invited there twice.
The Neighbourhood Developing Plan submission plan was this month sent to Bradford Council, and if it is approved by City Hall there will be referendum among local residents to decide whether it should be officially adopted.The Mirror and some reality-pseudo-celebrities news:
In a joint statement, parish council chairman David Mahon and NDP steering group chairman Tito Arana highlighted the “distinctive character” of each village.
They said: “Haworth with its association with the Brontë family, and also the Worth Valley Railway, has become a significant tourist attraction and needs to retain its historic charm. (Alistair Shand)
Love Island's Lucie Donlan and Joe Garratt ran frolicking through a field for what could be one of the most cringeworthy photoshoots ever.England's country life (and the Brexit threat) in the Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany):
The couple, who are back together after she coupled up with someone else when he was dumped from the Island, held hands and ran through a grassy field, looking like they were recreating a scene from classic novel Wuthering Heights.
Joe, 23, went all Heathcliff as he left his white shirt open to reveal his chiselled abs, and let the wind tussle his curly hair. (Vicki Newman)
Das Geheimnis des englischen Landlebens liegt nun darin, dass es ganz und gar aus literarischen Überhöhungen und imaginierten Bildern zusammengesetzt ist, von den Romanen Jane Austens bis zu den Provinzepen des Viktorianers Anthony Trollope, von den Brontë-Schwestern bis zu „Mord im Pfarrhaus“ von Agatha Christie oder, wenn’s denn wirklich sein muss, auch den zu Dutzenden verfilmten Bestsellern von Rosamunde Pilcher. (Paul Ingendaay) (Translation)Prince Albert and Queen Victoria's relationship is discussed on Coburger Tageblatt (Germany):
Dass eine tiefe Harmonie in dieser royalen Ehe bestand, dürfte unter anderem auch auf beider Kunstsinn beruht haben, der sich nicht nur auf gemeinsames Zeichnen und gegenseitiges Vorlesen, zum Beispiel aus Büchern von Charlotte Brontë und Charles Dickens, beschränkte. (...)
Ein Blick hinter die Palastmauern offenbart, dass es auch in dieser sonst so harmonischen Ehe gelegentlich kriselte. Und gleichzeitig werden Szenen einer Ehe aus dem Literaturtopf des 19. Jahrhunderts anhand von Passagen aus "Jane Eyre" von Charlotte Brontë und "Ein idealer Gatte" von Oskar Wilde vorgeführt. (Translation)
Secret Maps
A Wild Wednesday workshop:
August 21st 2019 11:00am - 04:00pm
Join us on any Wednesday in the summer holidays for our free drop-in craft workshops. Activities run 11am-4pm and are free with admission to the Museum.
Secret Maps
The Brontës made a few journeys in their lives, but their most exciting voyages were always those of their imaginations. They created fantasy kingdoms from looking at maps and reading tales of travel and they populated these worlds with outlandish characters who began life as a set of toy soldiers.
Emily Brontë sätter ord på den rasande kärlekenNew Statesman reviews the show Everything I See I Swallow as performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival:
Min Klassiker.
Det finns böcker som förändrar vårt sätt att tänka eller som berör oss på ett djupare plan. I kulturredaktionens serie "Min klassiker" berättar åtta skribenter om författarskap som har varit betydelsefulla i deras liv. Johanna Andersson väljer att återvända till klassikern "Svindlande höjder" av Emily Brontë, en bok som hon läste för första gången som 13-åring.
Emily Brontë växte upp i byn Bradford, bara några mil från Yorkshire nationalpark i England – en miljö som i hög grad liknade den "Svindlande höjder" utspelar sig i. (Translation)
Finally, they agree with Charlotte Brontë’s understanding – “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will” – and they become bound to one another’s trust. They unravel rope around each other, and rely on their balanced weights to keep the routine seamless. Both finally on the same rope, Olivia helps her mother climb up above her, in a fierce depiction of strength and elegance. (Ellen Peirson-Hagger)The Circus Diaries also posts a review:
This climax is preceeded by a battle of quotes, where each character reaches for various feminist thinkers, from Margaret Atwood to Story of O, from Jane Eyre to Beyoncé. (Stav Meishar)The upcoming Brontë Festival of Women's Writing (September 20-22 in Haworth) is highlighted in Woman & Home:
The Brontë sisters were a literary tour de force in the 19th Century, with novels such as Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Emily’s Wuthering Heights continuing to have an impact on the written work of both male and female authors into the present day.Music Radar interviews Del Palmer, former bassist of Kate Bush:
And to pay homage to this, the Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing is taking place from September 20th – September 22nd at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire with the event featuring a packed programme of talks, including some themes which have dominated headlines in 2019.
#MeToo, Time’s Up & Violence Against Women will see Bridget Lawless and Rachel Marsh discuss issues raised by the recently launched Staunch Prize – of which Lawless is the founder – which aims to draw attention to ‘the excessive amount of violence towards women in fiction’.
Common People with Kit de Waal – who has guest curated the festival and compiled Common People – Katy Massey, Julie Noble and Cathy Rentzenbrink will talk about the pioneering, crowd-funded anthology of the same name which features thirty-two essays, poems and pieces of personal memoir from well-known and as-yet-published writers from working-class backgrounds from the length and breadth of the UK.
De Waal said, “It’s never been more important to hear the voices of working class women who manage to write, despite the barriers of time and money and society’s attitude towards literary spaces and the right to be heard.
“But we also write because of the barriers, because we push against them and find in that struggle a unique voice, our take on the world.
“We have tried to include as many diverse interests as possible in our programme, and we hope everyone will find something that speaks to them.” (Miriam Habtesellasie)
Richard Purden: What were your early impressions of Kate back then?D.P.: “I thought ‘Where does this girl get all her energy from?’ She would be up at the crack of dawn, and she didn’t stop from that point onwards. She would travel into London for dance classes, come home and sing, then play and work on the music. When I was completely knackered and had to sleep, she would still be working on Wuthering Heights at two o’clock in the morning - to the point where we would get complaining letters from the neighbours. Up until 1979, she was absolutely full of energy and so driven to get her work out there.Kerrang! interviews Peter Murphy, from the band Bauhaus:
Gothic novels like Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein dealt with a lot of staring into the sea, reflecting on unrequited love, and the enormous, extraordinary pain of being mortal. To truly be “goth” is to understand the sheer darkness and power of one’s own feelings. (Cat Jones)En Son Haber (Turkey) has a list of world classics:
Uğultulu TepelerÖlümünden bir yıl önce bitirdiği Uğultulu Tepeler'deki kişilerin yalnızca hayal ürünü kişiler olmadığı, Brontë'nin çevresindeki gerçek kişilerden derin izler taşıdığı da bir gerçektir. Sevgi, kin, nefret, öç alma tutkusu gibi güçlü duygularla örülü bu gençlik öyküsü, patladı patlayacak bir cinsellikle doludur. Daha otuz yaşındayken veremden ölen, son derece duyarlı, hiç evlenmemiş bu genç kadın yazar, tüm canlılığıyla bu romanda vardır. Okuyanın yaşına, deneyimlerine ve duyarlılığına göre değişkenlik gösteren, farklı zamanlarda okunduğunda değişik tatlar veren, tekrar tekrar okuma isteği uyandıran bir başyapıt. (...)Buzz webzine (France) offers advice to follow the 'prairie' fashion:
Jane EyreXIX. yüzyıl İngilteresi'nde, her türlü tutuculuğun kol gezdiği Victoria döneminde geçen Jane Eyre, birçoklarınca kadın hak ve özgürlüklerine sahip çıkan ilk romanlardan biri olarak kabul edilir. Yazarı Charlotte Brontë'nin yaşamından izler de taşıyan roman, hayatın sillesini yiyen yapayalnız bir genç kızın güçlü bir kadına dönüşmesinin öyküsüdür. (Özel İçerik) (Translation)
Bien choisir sa robe « prairie » : les matièresThe Brontës and phrenology is the subject of this week's post on AnneBrontë.org.
Pour coller à la tendance mode automne/hiver 2019, on conserve les matières vaporeuses tout en délicatesse et en transparence qui ont fait le succès de la robe prairie pendant l’été, mais on la choisit à manches longues avec un col montant histoire de ne pas mourir de froid. Ce n’est pas parce qu’on se déguise en Jane Eyre qu’on est obligées d’attraper la pneumonie aussi. (Marie B.) (Translation)
Accepting Adèle in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
Alexandra Valint
Dickens Studies Annual, 47 (2016), 201-11
Adèle, Jane Eyre’s pupil in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, is often caricaturized by critics as a shallow flirt and mini-Blanche, even though, throughout the novel, Adèle is spirited, affectionate, and obliging. Although critics often suggest that Jane is disappointed in or apathetic towards Adèle, I argue that Jane sincerely cares for her student. While critics liken Adèle to Céline and Blanche, Adèle actually resembles Jane—both are orphaned, speak French and English, are described as “foreigners,” espouse skepticism, and exercise their artistic talents. In line with scholarship that shows female friendship’s centrality in Victorian literature, I draw attention to the warm friendship between Adèle and Jane and show how their friendship paves the way for Jane and Rochester’s friendship-turned-romance. Adèle, while like Jane, never serves as a simple double for her or as a mere mechanism for the novel’s central romance. Both Jane and Rochester, at times, problematically project their own selves and pasts onto Adèle, which the novel critiques by revealing the self-centered motives behind such attempts and by highlighting the gap between the faulty projections and the real Adèle. More broadly, my focus on Adèle, one of the novel’s main child characters, points to the novel’s acceptance of children’s worldliness and its critique of the Romantic child.
Charlotte Brontë: A Bicentenary BibliographyAnd a chapter of the book:
Sara L. Pearson
Dickens Studies Annual, 47 (2016), 353-87
This essay seeks to achieve two goals: to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth with a survey of scholarship on her life and works, and to bring together Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens through a summary of critical work that engages with both authors in tandem. The essay begins by examining these scholarly perspectives on Brontë and Dickens before turning to a résumé of classic and cutting-edge work on Charlotte Brontë, organized according to categories that have also been the focus of recent Dickens review essays in Dickens Studies Annual. Of necessity, this summary has been highly selective, including the most important ground-breaking works from the past as well as the highlights of recent studies from 2011 to 2015. The categories are as follows: Biographies and Biographical Criticism; Primary Sources and Reference Works; Influences and Intertextualities; Space and Place; Psychology; Gender; Capitalism, Industry, the Material World; Religion; Style and Narrative; Adaptation, Afterlives, and Performance; Transatlanticism; Bodies, Illness, and Disability Studies; Victorian Print Culture; and Global Brontë.
Nathaniel Hawthorne in the College Classroom:
Contexts, Materials, and Approaches
Christopher Diller and Samuel Coale (Eds.)
Edward Everett Root
ISBN 9781912224197
Four hours of Beatrix Potter, 10 hours of Marcel Proust, or 72 hours of Sherlock Holmes. How about every single word of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and George Eliot’s Silas Marner? Sound overwhelming? Radio bosses clearly think not – so much so they have commissioned a plethora of literary adaptations to delight growing numbers of fans of “the long listen”. (...)The Guardian interviews the writer Louise Doughty:
Radio 4 listeners will be able to tune in later this year to a series of 20 unabridged classics, from Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights to The War of the Worlds by HG Wells and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped. The works, which will be available to stream on the BBC Sounds app at the end of the month, also include Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle. (Nosheen Iqbal)
Hannah Beckerman: Which writers have most influenced your own writing?L.D.: In terms of contemporary fiction, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and Toni Morrison. Also 19th-century writers: the Brontë sisters in particular, and Dickens. The idea of the big, fat complicated story is what’s influenced me most.Paste Magazine reviews the film The Uninvited 1944 by Lewis Allen:
H.B.: Which literary figures – dead or alive – would you most like to meet?L.D.: The Brontës, but they can leave Branwell at home. I’d like to tell Emily that even though Wuthering Heights got really bad reviews and was compared very unfavourably with Jane Eyre, now people consider it superior. And I’d like to beg her not to destroy her second novel.
It was no small thing, then, that The Uninvited tells a tale that incontrovertibly challenges its characters’ deeply held assumptions on the nature of life and death. It’s a gothic tale with allusions to the likes of Jane Eyre and The Fall of the House of Usher, concerning a young woman’s return to the house where her mother died under mysterious circumstances. (Jim Vorel)Kate Weinberg in the Daily Mail revisits her own story:
It wasn’t the books that seemed to fill the vacuum of a missing parent, it was the characters in them. I identified with the heroines, especially the orphans and misfits. I cried in coming-of-age novels such as Jane Eyre and The Catcher in the Rye as I never seemed to cry in real life.Movietele (Italy) presents the novel Orgoglio e Pregiudizio Bookclub by Georgia Hill:
Una zona protetta dove le tre protagoniste, aiutate anche dalle torte zuccherose di Millie, potranno parlare di romanzi rosa, di thriller e anche di amore e di se stesse. E, dopotutto, un club del libro che apre i battenti con Cime Tempestose di Emily Brontë ha tutte le chiavi per il successo. (Erika Pomella) (Translation)Libri e Lettura reviews Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys:
“Wide Sargasso Sea”, “Il mare dei Sargassi” romanzo del 1966 è il suo successo letterario; prequel di Jane Eyre dove la scrittrice si immagina la vita – e la follia – della giovane Antoinette Cosway la famosa moglie del Rochester di Jane Eyre, denominata nel romanzo della Brontë. Grazie a questo libro le sarà assegnato – quasi ottantenne – il WH Smith Literary Award e il romanzo aprirà il filone della letteratura postcoloniale. (Ornella Feletti) (Translation)A Jane Eyre mention in a story published in El Periódico (Spain). Bookstr shares 'seven spectacular Jane Eyre memes':
Jane Eyre is a wonderful, compelling book. It’s also silly, competitive, and bonkers insulting. Let’s make it even sillier with the best the nonsense internet has to offer. (Kali Norris)Also on Bookstr, fictional schools even worse than the one you went to:
Lowood Institute (Jane Eyre)
Jane Eyre is sent to Lowood Institution as a punishment from her cruel aunt, Sarah Reed.
If the starvation, cruel discipline, and threadbare clothes weren’t punishment enough, holding on to your best friend desperately as she dies of consumption probably fits the bill.
Students attending this school today are definitely gonna want to get vaccinated before the school year starts. (Mae Rapp)
Literary Emporium has a whole Brontë gifts collection. We just mention three of them:Jane Eyre Enamel Pin - Gothic Literature Collection
Make your pin game strong with our Jane Eyre inspired enamel pin badge. The perfect literature themed gift for a book lover.
Part of our Gothic Literature collection, this black and silver enamel pin takes inspiration from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.
'I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.'
To make it extra special, each pin arrives on a silver foiled backing card – making it the perfect gift for any book lover. Or why not treat yourself?
Made from durable hard enamel, this bookish pin will sit perfectly on your denim jacket, lapel or rucksack.
The perfect gift for any bookworm who loves a spot of classic literature.
Jane Eyre T-Shirt
A loose fit unisex t-shirt screen printed with an inspiring quote from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. The perfect slogan tee for a book lover.
'I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.'
This design has been screen printed in the South West of England, onto a soft, light grey t-shirt. The relaxed fit top is a comfy, yet stylish item of clothing and makes a great literature themed gift for a book lover.
Model wears a size small and sleeves have been rolled back to style.
Via Bookriot.Jane Eyre Birdcage Necklace
Presented on a beautiful postcard with a Jane Eyre quote, this silver charm necklace is an intricate birdcage design.
The necklace is the perfect literary gift for classic book fans and a unique nod to the wonderful work of Charlotte Brontë.
The quote on the postcard reads ‘I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.’
The necklace is beautifully presented and comes gift wrapped in brown paper and string.
It opens with the Brontës, not just the sisters but Branwell too, that “pestilence” of the family who still draws too much attention. (When Winifred Gérin wrote her biographies, Branwell’s came second, before the greatest geniuses of the family, Emily and Charlotte.)The Weekend Australian explores Yorkshire:
Hardwick reminds us that the Brontë sisters wrote not out of romantic high-mindedness but from a “practical, industrious, ambitious cast of mind”. She is particularly interested in the “brilliant, troubling force” of the much-misunderstood Wuthering Heights, by which even Charlotte was perplexed.
After Emily’s death she wrote: “Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know: I scarcely think it is.” If she had lived to see Cliff Richard’s portrayal in his 1996 musical Heathcliff, all doubt might have fled.
The most mouth-watering section is three essays grouped as Victims and Victors, concerning Zelda Fitzgerald, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf. Fitzgerald is presented not as the Branwell Brontë of the jazz age but a tragic figure of thwarted intent. (John Self)
Over hill and daleAnd The National Student explores culture in Bradford:
The Brontës loom large in Yorkshire but there’s plenty of other history to uncover. (...)
We call into Haworth, where the Brontës lived in later life. It is Monday and the town is quiet after the weekend crowds. Many cafes are in recovery mode and closed, so there’s a cheerful throng in the ones that are open. Photographs and paintings in a small art gallery show the stark beauty and drama of the countryside that inspired the landscape of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Emily’s Wuthering Heights. The Brontë Parsonage where the family lived was acquired in 1928 by The Brontë Society and has a rich collection, much of which came from Philadelphia author and publisher Henry Houston Bonnell. The society’s website reports that Emily had a brief moment teaching at Miss Patchett’s School in Halifax. She left, “reportedly having told her pupils she preferred the school dog to any of them”. (Jane Sandilands)
It’s well-known that the West Yorkshire hills have inspired some of our most beloved literature - from the Brontës to Ted Hughes. Jump in the car or on the B2 Brontë Bus (yes, it’s a thing) from Bradford Interchange to Haworth, where you can spend a delightful day learning about Brontë history at the Parsonage, uncovering the inspiration for Wuthering Heights at Top Withens, and drinking hot chocolate in cafes set on picturesque, steeply cobbled streets.City Girl Network reviews the Wuthering Heights performances at the Brighton Open Air Theatre:
If you’re into the mythology that surrounds Ted Hughes and his ill-fated wife Sylvia Plath, you can also cross the moors to Heptonstall, where you’ll find a small museum that’s dedicated to the area’s most poetic son (sorry Branwell.) (Lucy Miller)
The cast of 11 was given no easy task of doubling up on characters: a real exercise in their flexibility and skill as performers. But, this particular production from Identity Theatre Company boasted a strong and talented cast, with every actor balancing the darkness of the script with its moments of sharp and sarcastic humour extremely well. (Lois Zoppi)She also interviews Kane Magee, Heathcliff in the production:
I gathered and watched as much source material as I could. I watched most adaptations of Wuthering Heights; I got the book. A lot of Heathcliff’s life is discussed on the Internet. Where did he come from? What happened to him when he was young? Where did he go for three years and get all that money?Jason Manford and British holidays in The Mirror:
There’s always been that air of supernatural to him, like he’s a devil. Everyone thinks Wuthering Heights is a romantic love story and it’s definitely not. It’s a story of betrayal, torment and revenge, Heathcliff is the essence of that. He is not a nice person and the things he does in exacting his revenge are beyond awful. (...)
However, I wanted people to sympathise with him. I believed everything he did came from a place of pain. Cathy drove him to do what he did; if she hadn’t betrayed him then events would have played out so differently, and maybe they would have lived happily ever after. But, this is not a love story. I could feel empathy towards the character because I had a lot of bad stuff happen when I was young that has always stayed with me, much like him. But, I try and use it positively in my work.
You know, it’s said that when Charlotte Brontë first saw the sea at Bridlington Beach, she was so overcome with emotion she burst into tears.And now, the impossible happening. A positive story about teens and the Internet. The miracle happens in Wyoming Public Media:
I’ve a feeling a similar thing might happen to my kids when I tell them that’s where we are going on holiday next year, but for entirely different reasons. I can’t wait!
And writers have always shared their work with each other. Consider the Brontë siblings, writing stories and plays to entertain each other over long lonely nights on the English moors. Those stories gave birth to Heathcliffe (sic) and Jane Eyre. But now, people can share their work and get feedback and talk craft even if they didn't grow up in a writerly household. Even if they live in a small town. Even if they've never met anyone else who carries a notebook everywhere they go. And eventually, their creative incubation online can pay off in real life. (Erin Jones)East Anglian Daily Times announces the new regional theatre season:
Fans of classic literature will also be treated to a staged production of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre which has been described as a Gothic masterpiece. The new stage adaptation by Blackeyed Theatre is designed to capture the novel's brooding and intensely powerful atmosphere. Jane Eyre is a moving and unforgettable portrayal of one woman's quest for equality and freedom, and is rightly regarded as one of the great triumphs of storytelling. Jane Eyre is on stage November 14-16. (Andrew Clarke)Claire Allan recommends summer reads in News Letter:
The most beautiful book I’ve read this summer, and perhaps this year, is The Girl At the Window from English writer Rowan Coleman, who has become a must-read author for me.Anna Murphy wears that Zara dress for The Times:
The book is set against the backdrop of Ponden Hall, where Emily Brontë penned most of Wuthering Heights, and it is an exquisitely written story of love, loss, hope and strength – with a ghostly twist or two.
Take one slightly Victorian dress, long of skirt and puffy of sleeve. Splice with disco razzle-dazzle. The end result might be summed up with one of two words, each beginning with N.Paste Magazine reviews the Jacques Tourneur masterpiece I Walked with a Zombie 1943:
Now is the first word, as in very, very now. Nonsensical might be the second, if you take the view that a frock that is one part Jane Eyre to one part Saturday Night Fever is a peculiar notion indeed. Though a lot of women clearly believe this is a garment that’s not nonsensical: it’s currently selling, and selling hard, at Zara.
It combines the beautiful black-and-white cinematography of Tourneur with a story partially cribbed from the bones of Jane Eyre to create a work that feels entirely unique, suffused with death and mystery. As one character says, looking out at the sea: “That luminous water. It takes its gleam from millions of tiny dead bodies, the glitter of putrescence.” (Jim Vorel)The Scotsman reviews the Reuben Kaye show at the Edinburgh Fringe:
The sequins and smut come flying at such a pace, and the mash-ups of, say, ZZ Top and Kurt Weill, command the attention such that you barely notice the growing roster of cultural references peppering Kaye’s material – a glance at the Brontës here, a cute disquisition on Berlini there – or indeed the increasingly barbed doses of social critique. (Ben Walters)Financial Times reviews Rebel Writers. The Accidental Feminists by Celia Breyfield:
Brayfield’s equally illuminating book homes in on the late 1950s and early 1960s, revealing that Delaney wasn’t the only one showing that female experience was about more than just falling in love. Hot on her heels came Edna O’Brien (The Country Girls), Lynne Reid Banks (The L-Shaped Room), Charlotte Bingham (Coronet Among the Weeds), Nell Dunn (Up the Junction and Poor Cow), Virginia Ironside (Chelsea Bird) and Margaret Forster (Georgy Girl). “Not since the Brontës had a group of writers been united by such a burning need to tell the truth about what it was like to be a girl,” Brayfield contends. (Lucy Scholes)The Hub lists the Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees:
When the Ground is Hard by Malla NunnThings only midlife homeowners know according to The Telegraph:
Throughout the story Adele and Lottie spend a lot of time reading and discussing Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, which may be a gateway to the classic for teen readers. This is also a title that would pair nicely with Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime in both tone and treatment of systemic racism. (Jodi Kruse)
Sash windows are so charming. Until they start giving it the full Wuthering Heights, complete with death rattle and Arctic breeze that ripples along the cur- tains. (Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan)El Peruano (Perú) and one-novel-writers:
En primer lugar, recordemos a cuatro autoras cuya obra completa se limita a un único libro: Emily Brontë y su Cumbres borrascosas, un clásico de la literatura anglosajona a pesar de que inicialmente desconcertó a los críticos. Ella murió en 1848 a los 30 años. (José Luis Vargas Sifuentes) (Translation)Dziennik Zachodni (Poland) reviews the novel El Bosque Sabe Tu Nombre by Alaitz Leceaga:
Wydawca na okładce porównuje powieść hiszpańskiej autorki do książek sióstr Brontë. I faktycznie „Las zna twoje imię” ma ten sam klimat. (...) Ale Alaitz Leceaga nie kopiuje ani sióstr Brontë, ani Mitchell. Autorka ma swój styl, wykreowała wciągającą historię, która spodoba się miłośnikom powieści obyczajowych, thrillerów i fantastyki. (Mara Olecha-Lisiecka) (Translation)La Provincia (Argentina) interviews the writer Fernando Krapp:
Télem: Son muy impactantes las vidas de las sobrevivientes de la bomba atómica y la historia familiar de Pepa Hoshi, habitante en ese pueblo casi desértico del sur mendocino.Blitz (Portugal) interviews Patti Smith:
- F.K.: La historia de la Pepa Hoshi es una novela aparte. Y por eso es tan relevante en el libro, tan extensa. Tiene todos los condimentos para una novela del siglo XIX al estilo de Charlote Brontë. (Translation)
Lia Pereira: É verdade que os livros desempenharam um papel importante na sua sobrevivência, como escreve no livro Just Kids?Milenio (México) interviews standup comedian Gon Curiel:
P.S.: Sempre adorei livros e tinha olho para escolhê-los. Desde criança que compreendi a sua beleza. A certa altura, nos anos 50, muitas pessoas queriam livrar-se dos seus livros e [vendiam] primeiras edições de grandes escritores! Livros lindos, com lindas encadernações... Vias o “Moby Dick”, o “Jane Eyre”, o Robert Louis Stevenson. (Translation)
Carlos Vega: ¿Cuál es el libro que lo marcó?
G.C.: Wuthering heights (Cumbres borrascosas), de Emily Brontë, tiene un personaje protagónico que se llama Heathcliff que es un monstruo, pero también es humano y lo acompañas a lo largo de su vida. Para mí es lo más impactante que he leído, porque descubres que por más villano que seas, siempre hay un ser humano detrás con emociones, con traumas, experiencias, etcétera. (Translation)
