A woman struggling against patriarchal forces

Pune Mirror (India) recommends Wide Sargasso Sea.

What it is: A novel written predominantly from the perspective of Bertha from Charlotte Bronte’s widely circulated novel, Jane Eyre. Rhys retells the life of Bertha, one of the most famous ‘mad’ women of literature, and traces her life on an isolated Jamaican island, starting from her childhood till her eventual suicide.
Why I like it: Rhys examines the life of a woman largely accepted to be ‘mad’ from a feminist and post-colonial lens. By situating Bertha’s life in a highly oppressive setting she shows how it is convenient to label women ‘crazy’ if they even attempt to question the oppression they face. The novel gives rise to a tension in the readers’ mind as they try to make sense of her position as the descendant of a slave owner and at the same time, as a woman struggling against patriarchal forces. (Purvi Rajpuria)

3am magazine interviews artist Katya Grokhovsky.

3:AM: What are some of your biggest influences, early and current?KG: When I was a child, nature and literature inspired me the most, I was a quiet observer of the world around me, brewing, stewing ideas of my future, daydreaming for hours, sketching, contemplating. I was always an avid reader, having grown up with a librarian mother, surrounded by books, always a stack by my bedside. Writers have hugely impacted my development and a way of thought; I loved Nabokov, Bulgakov, Dostoevsky, Virginia Woolf, and George Sand, Bronte sisters. (Jana Astanov)

Inspired by the stage adaptation of Jane Eyre currently in Madrid, El Mundo (Spain) has an article on Charlotte Brontë.

La vehemencia y la indignación de Jane, que no renuncia a protestar y a devolver los golpes para construir y hacer respetar su dignidad como persona, está muy presente en el montaje de Carme Portaceli, en el Teatro Español, un montaje que subraya el potencial feminista de una extensa obra romántica, novelesca al máximo. La directora logra condensar la melodramática peripecia de Jane, ofrece un brillante espectáculo escénico y saca buen partido de sus actores, especialmente de Ariadna Gil, omnipresente y titánica. (Manuel Hidalgo) (Translation)

In Touch uses Jane Eyre to expand on the virtue of patience.

Euringer's Wuthering Heights

The new album by Euringer (Mindless Self Indulgence's Jimmy Urine's new project) contains a cover of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights:

Metropolis Records

[H]is rendition of Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ will be stuck in your head for days! (Rai Jayne Hearse on Vulture Hound)

Read More

Bleakness Plus Siliness and Fun

Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday reviews local exhibitions in Port-of-Spain:

Roberta Stoddard, a Jamaican, resident in Trinidad since 1999, is showing over 30 paintings, mostly to do with death, in a show called The Tear Catcher.
Though they are dark, black and somewhat supernatural, they carry warmth and hope – a strange thing to say about death – rather than a chilling, sinister edge. They’re not like looking at a Francis Bacon, I tell her as she takes me around the room.
Sleepwalkers, a vast work, depicts the characters from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, with Stoddard’s own great-grandfather, a preacher, marrying the ill-fated couple, Mr Rochester and Antoinette.
“Brontë, who did not have the knowledge of this space, made Rochester one-dimensional. He was gruff but non-threatening, but Rhys writes him as a bit of a misogynist and possibly a racist. And these are the truths that we grapple with here in the region,” Stoddard explains.
“The woman of mixed heritage. Spanish Town, Jamaica. That’s me,” she says, referring to her Antoinette. (Joshua Surtees)

Newsday lists the 21 best horror films of the 21st century:

Crimson Peak (2015) An aspiring author (Mia Wasikowska) marries a doomed aristocrat (Tom Hiddleston) and moves into his decrepit mansion. An exceptionally vivid Gothic romance, part Poe and part Brontë, from Guillermo del Toro. (Rafer Guzmán)

Literature inspiring music in The Boar:

When the topic of songs about books arises, ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Kate Bush is usually the most common song to come to mind. It truly is a wonderful song, with Bush’s high vocals lingering in the back of the mind any time the title Wuthering Heights is mentioned. However, I believe this is what makes the song of value. Renowned for its bleakness, Bush adds an element of silliness and fun to Emily Brontë’s tale. Combined with the music video, a true masterpiece, I’m sure it can’t only be my A-level days which were spiced up by Bush and her weird dancing. Aside from its silliness, it also provides a very basic outline of the second half of the plot, covering Cathy’s key characteristics of loneliness and jealousy. (Steph Campbell)

Javier Marías in El País (Spain) is not interested in contemporary fiction based on personal experiences:

Pero cada vez que leo sobre la aparición de una nueva maravilla “disfuncional” o de las características descritas, echo de menos a los autores que inventaban historias apasionantes con un estilo ambicioso, no pedante ni lacrimógeno, y además no procuraban dar lástima, sino mostrar las ambigüedades y complejidades de la vida y de las personas: a Conrad, a Faulkner, a Dinesen, a Nabokov, a Flaubert, a Brontë, a Pushkin, a Melville. Y hasta a Shakespeare y a Cervantes, por lejos que vayan quedando. (Translation)

Tele13 (Chile) and how to become a (great) writer:

Nada garantiza que te conviertas en el próximo Jorge Luis Borges o Emily Brontë, pero si tienes una historia que contar y lo quieres hacer por escrito, aquí encontrarás unas recomendaciones que te ayudarán a hacerlo. (Translation)

More writing advice on Letteratitudine (Italy):

La signorina Eyre si trova in un luogo sconosciuto e ha motivo di essere molto apprensiva. La descrizione che fa della stanza d’albergo, mentre lei dà conto di essere seduta davanti al camino probabilmente tremante, giova a rasserenarla rendendole l’ambiente familiare. Non scandisce stavolta il tempo che passa, ma la tensione che cresce, contro la quale l’io narrante si premunisce elencando e descrivendo gli oggetti circostanti allo scopo di prenderne possesso e sentirli vicini, così come chiede di fare anche al lettore. (Massimo Maugeri) (Translation)

The Non Solus Blog of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign highlights some of the rare books on the collection:

Significantly impacting the genre of prose fiction, Jane Eyre, originally subtitled An Autobiography, was first appeared on October 16th, 1847 under the pen name Currer Bell. Speculation over the author’s identity and the novelty of a book commenting on issues such as religion, class, and sexuality from a woman’s point of view and written in an intimate first-person narrative made Jane Eyre an immediate commercial success. Despite the popularity of the book, several contemporary critics were concerned about the social commentary of Charlotte Brontë’s work, with The Quarter Literary Review describing Jane Eyre as “pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition” in 1848.[1] Although she wrote two other novels, Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853), Charlotte Brontë literary career was cut short by her early death at age 38 due to tuberculosis in 1855, leaving Jane Eyre as the primary evidence of her lasting influence on the formation of the modern novel. [Shelfmark:  823 B78j1847] (Katie Funderberg, Xena Becker, and Kellie Clinton)

Read More

Margaret Smith. In Memoriam

We were shocked to learn that Margaret Smith died in January 2018 and no obituary has been written (as far as we know) about her. Just a brief paragraph in the April issue of the Brontë Society Gazette (and which, for some reason, slipped our radar) and a passing mention by the funeral services makes hardly justice to one of the most important Brontë scholars of the 20th century, if not of all time.

Margaret Middleton Smith (née Brammer) was born in 1931 at South Anston in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Her long relationship with the Brontës began with her very own M.A. thesis on Charlotte Brontë's The Professor. Later on, she joined the Clarendon Press, under the general editorship of the late Professor Ian Jack, and edited scholar editions of Jane Eyre (with Jane Jack) in 1969 and Shirley (1979), Villette (1984) and The Professor (1987) with Herbert Rosengarten. This last work provided her with a British Academy Award in 1989.

In 2003 she co-edited, with Christine Alexander, the monumental Oxford Companion to the Brontës which has just been republished in a new Anniversary Edition. It is worth quoting from Claire Harman's new preface:

This book, first published in 2003, catalogues and describes the lives and works of these perennially fascinating authors superbly well and has already become a classic work of reference. when I was writing about Charlotte Brontë in 2012-19, I found it so invaluable that I bought two copies, one for each address. It is both authoritative and intriguing, encyclopedic and delightful; along with the substantial essays you'd expect on the separate writers and their major works, you'll find shorter entries on individual poems, narratives, and even drafts, masses of information about friends, and associates, pithy and well chosen articles on the topical, historical, and geographical background of the Brontës' lives, as well as maps, chronologies, family trees, and a wonderfully wide selection of miscellaneous items about their reading, their pets, their heroes, their clothes, their artworks. (...)
This book is the best possible guide to those worlds, and all Brontë fans and scholars owe a debt of gratitude to those who have gathered, edited, and composed the vast amount of information its covers contain. The most authoritative editions and sources have been used, the most rational criteria applied; whether seeking to check a fact, follow a lead, or simply refresh a memory, it will never fail to entertain, instruct and intrigue. 

But, of course, her most important contribution to Brontë scholarship is her minutely, precise and definitive edition of The Letters of Charlotte Brontë in three volumes:

The Letters of Charlotte Brontë: Volume I: 1829-1847: With a Selection of Letters by Family and Friends: 1829-47 Vol 1  (1995)
The Letters of Charlotte Brontë: Volume II: 1848-1851: With a Selection of Letters by Family and Friends: 1848-1851 Vol 2 (2000)
The Letters of Charlotte Brontë: Volume III: 1852 - 1855: With a Selection of Letters by Family and Friends: 1852-1855 Vol 3 (2004)

In 2007 a selection of the letters was published: Selected Letters of Charlotte Brontë, which also appeared in paperback in 2010, with a new introduction by Janet Gezari.

She also contributed to Brontë Studies / Brontë Society Transactions:

George Smith, Prince of Publishers, and William Smith Williams, Volume 36, 2011 - Issue 1, Pages 75-84
Professor Ian Jack, Brontë Studies, Volume 34, 2009 - Issue 2, Page 162
Professor Kathleen Tillotson, 1906–2001, Volume 27, 2002 - Issue 1, Pages 68-69
A Window on the World: Charlotte Brontë's Correspondence with her Publishers, Volume 21, 1996 - Issue 7, Pages 339-356
Newly Acquired Brontë Letters, Transcriptions and Notes, Volume 21, 1996 - Issue 7, Pages 323-336
Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell in Society, with J. A. V. Chapple, Volume 21, 1995 - Issue 5, Pages 161-167
Charlotte Brontë’s Letters, Volume 20, 1990 - Issue 1, Pages 39-42
A Reconstructed Letter, Margaret Smith, Volume 20, 1990 - Issue 1, Pages 42-47
‘A Warlike Correspondence’: More Letters From Harriet Martineau, Volume 18, 1985 - Issue 5, Pages 392-397
The Manuscripts of Charlotte Brontë’s Novels, Brontë Society Transactions, Volume 18, 1983 - Issue 3, Pages 189-205

At the Literary Luncheon of the Brontë Society held in Birmingham on 3 April 2004, she presented

Charlotte Brontë's Letters: The Editing Adventure (Brontë Studies, 29:3, 199-207) which as the title suggests was a kind of summary of the ten-year process of editing the Charlotte Brontë's letters. It makes a fascinating read and quoting from it is the right way to close this certainly insufficient but sincere eulogy:

The close scrutiny that editing involves can make it an emotional experience as well as an intellectual challenge. But, though more often than not I have been working alone, in the physical sense, I have had wonderful support from fellow Brontë enthusiasts and scholars, who have gladly shared their knowledge and expertise with me.

Read More

Spiky Conversations

The Quad-City Times talks about the Literary Heroines exhibition in Davenport, IA:

As staffers at Davenport's Putnam Museum prepared for a board of directors meeting late last year, they set out several items from storage that aren't often seen.
They included an 1828 wedding dress worn by an ancestor of the Putnams — the family that established the museum.
A woman attending the board meeting noted that the dress was from the time period of Charlotte Brontë's novel, "Jane Eyre," and said she'd often wondered how characters in that story dressed. (Alma Gaul)

The York Press is listing the York Civic Trust Plaques and today is the turn of The George Inn in Coney Street:

The inn's most famous guests, however - at least as far as the people of today are concerned - were undoubtedly Charlotte Brontë and her sister Anne. With their friend Ellen Nussey they were travelling from Haworth to Scarborough for the sake of Anne's health, and stayed at The George on the night of May 24/25, 1849. (Stephen Lewis)

The Virginia-Pilot reminds us that

 PBS’ Great American Read will wind up Tuesday with a live broadcast (8 p.m., PBS) in which “America’s best-loved novel” is identified, after several weeks of voting. The 10 finalists (alphabetically speaking): “Charlotte's Web,” the “Chronicles of Narnia” series, “Gone with the Wind,” the Harry Potter series, “Jane Eyre,” “Little Women,” the “Lord of the Rings” series, the Outlander series,” “Pride and Prejudice” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.” (Erica J. Smith)

The Australian reviews Girl, Balancing & Other Stories by Helen Dunmore:

Other stories involve John Donne, Keats and Grace Poole, the housekeeper in Jane Eyre, as well as people — especially older people, and women — usually overlooked. (Felicity Plunkett)

Wired talks about the re-edition of several scientific classics putting them in context with literature in general:

“If we think about it from the point of view of literature in general, I would ask myself why we should be interested in the first edition of Alice in Wonderland, Jane Eyre or Anna Karenina?” says Anton. “Reading the work as it was written by its author transports us to how they imagined it while writing it, how the author chose each of the words and not others.” (Sarah Scoles)

iNews highlights some night activities at the British museums:

Spooky Storytelling
West Yorkshire
Explore the atmospheric Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth by candlelight. Residents of the parsonage will share ghost stories and local superstitions. Thurs, 5.30pm-8pm, adults £8.50. children £4, free if you live in certain local postcodes, bronte.org.uk 

Vulture Hound reviews the latest album of Jimmy Urine, Euringer:

And that’s without mentioning the sickly, extreme Believed eighties-ness of The Doobie Brothers cover ‘What a Fool Believes’ and his rendition of Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ will be stuck in your head for days! (Rai Jayne Hearse)

The Live Mirror recommends The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera:

The novel is written by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera. Miss Prim is entering the house of landed gentry in one of those awkward ‘not quite family, not quite staff’ roles such as librarian or governess. Like one of Gaskell’s or Brontë’s heroines she engages in spiky slightly confrontational conversations with her employer. Gentle, thought-provoking and really one of those books that you will think about for a long while. (Saumya Gourisaria)

The Courier interviews the new artistic director at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Elizabeth Newman:

Ask Elizabeth about the writers who inspire her and the flood gates open. “Oh so many,” she enthuses. “Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Shakespeare, the Restoration writers, John Donne, William Blake. I adore remarkable novelists like Elizabeth Gaskell, Jane Austen, the Brontës, JM Barrie, Thomas Hardy, TS Eliot. I’m in awe of writers who have the capacity to transform, to distil an idea into a few words. They are just awesome. (Caroline Lindsay)

Motorcycle routes in Alaska on Rider:

Dalton Highway
I’d somehow curried favor with Lady Luck again, as an uncharacteristically dry Dalton Highway guided us for a glorious 248 miles. Gliding along a good dirt road from Fairbanks to Wiseman, we were just 12 miles from Coldfoot–the last place to gas up and the halfway point to Prudhoe Bay.
The landscape took on a raw, peculiar beauty with a bleak “Wuthering Heights” quality.  (Lisa Morris)

Playground (in Spanish) reviews the Spanish translation of How to Suppress Women's Writing by Joanna Russ:

Más bien al contrario: en Monstruas y centauras, el texto autobiográfico que acaba de publicar Marta Sanz, la madrileña explica haber sufrido el mismo tipo de violencias estructurales —heteropatriarcales— que denuncian los testimonios Anne Finch, Charlotte Brontë, Kate Wilhem, Adrienne Rich o Sylvia Plath en Cómo acabar con la escritura de las mujeres. (...)
"Lo escribió ella, pero alguien la ayudó (Robert Browning, Branwell Brontë, Su propio 'lado masculino')" (...)
Joanna Russ demuestra que tras la estructura del "lo escribió ella, pero..." no hay simple maledicencia, prejuicios sin consecuencias. (...)
"Cuando estoy enseñando mis lecciones o cosiendo", reconocía Charlotte Bronttë, "preferiría estar leyendo o escribiendo; pero intento negarme a mí misma". (Eudald Espluga) (Translation)

Tomos y Grapas (in Spanish) presents the Spanish edition of  Jane by Aline McKenna and Ramon K. Perez

Se nos presenta una libre actualización de Jane Eyre, el clásico escrito por Charlotte Brontë. En este caso será la joven Jane quien viajará a Nueva York para cuidar de una niña con una extraña familia. Un thriller romántico aderezado por el espectacular y delicado trabajo de Ramón Pérez. (Alfredo Matarranz) (Translation)

A recent Emily Brontë celebration took place in Avilés (Spain), La Nueva España talks about it:

Escritoras como Leonor López de Córdoba, Juana Manso, Oliva de Sabuco, Delmira Agustini o Beatriz Bernal son, desde ayer, un poco más conocidas para el público juvenil al haber protagonizado sus textos la sesión del Club de Lectura "Una habitación propia", celebrada en la Factoría Cultural. Al acto, que conmemoraba el 200.º aniversario del nacimiento de Emily Brontë, se sumaron alumnos de Bachillerato del colegio Paula Frassinetti, autores del blog "Redescubriendo autoras". (...)
La jornada, para la cual algunas asistentes vistieron modelos de la época de la autora de "Cumbres borrascosas", comenzó con un pequeña representación teatral a cargo de cuatro habituales del club de lectura que promueve la concejalía de Igualdad. Ofrecieron una historia en la que mostraron a las tres hermanas Brontë (Charlotte, Emily y Anne), poetas y novelistas que en principio firmaban sus obras con seudónimo. (C.G. Menéndez) (Translation)

The intention is good, but please check your sources. We read in El Economista (Spain):

Lo de que detrás de cada gran hombre hay una gran mujer fue, literalmente, cierto. Bajo el seudónimo de J. T. Je-roy, Currer Bell, J. K. Rowling, George Eliot, Gauthier o Ferrán Caballero nacían algunas de las obras más aclamadas de la literatura universal como, entre muchas otras, Cumbres borrascosas, Harry Potter, Claudine o el Molino de Floss. Detrás de cada una de estas firmas masculinas había una mujer, que por prohibiciones de la época o de las editoriales, presiones de sus esposos o, simplemente, porque sabían que si utilizaban su nombre real sus obras no se tomarían en serio, tuvieron que enmascarar su identidad. (Cecilia Moya) (Translation)

Perú21 (in Spanish) interviews the playwright Mariana de Althaus:

Y cuando llegamos para esta entrevista, interrumpimos la lectura de Cumbres borrascosas, de Emily Brontë, en la mesa de un café barranquino. (...)
“He escrito y dirigido 16 obras de teatro. Cuando no es el teatro, leo. Estoy leyendo Cumbres borrascosas, que no lo había leído hasta ahora. Tengo muy poco tiempo para leer, por eso no veo series. Felizmente, hasta ahora no he resbalado en Netflix (risas)”.  (Mijail Palacios) (Translation)

Il Corriere della Sera (Italy) interviews the writer Anna Todd:

Roberta Scorranese: Che cosa leggeva?
«Romanzi, anche classici, come Cime tempestose. In fondo, i miei libri hanno una forma non tradizionale, però l’intreccio è sempre quello e rispecchia i codici delle novelle romantiche». (Translation)

Noticias de Guipuzkoa (in Spanish) and others talk about the Euskadi Literature Awards. The winner of the Euskera Translation category was Irene Aldasoro for Gailur Ekaiztsuak (Wuthering Heights). Tiempo21 (Cuba) mentions the screening of Wuthering Heights 1992 in the Cinemazul Festival. Cinemarodrigo (in Portuguese) posts about I Walked with a Zombie 1943. The Sisters' Room posts about The Hawthorn: Barraclough’s house in Haworth. The Japanese Brontë Society Blog briefly posts about their recent 2018 Convention.

Read More

Rita Maria Martinez reading in Pinecrest, FL

An alert for today October 20 in Pinecrest, FL:

Authors Showcase Series
Books & Books at Suniland, Pinecrest, FL
October 20, 2018
6:00 PM

With Rita Fidler Dorn and Rita Maria Martínez (author of The Jane and Bertha in Me)

Read More

Brontë Society Gazette. Issue 76, September 2018

The latest issue of The Brontë Society Gazette is now out (Issue 76. September 2018. ISSN 1344-5940).

ARTICLES

Wecolme by Rebecca Yorke, Brontë Society Head of Communication and Marketing
Letter from the Chair by John Thirlwell, Chair of the Brontë Society
Our Summer Festival Weekend by Diane Fare, Audience Development Officer
Meet the Trustee: Helen Meller
Close-Up on the Collection: Ancona and a very rare envolope by Sarah Laycock, Curator, Brontë Parsonage Museum
Lily Cole's Balls and the Foundling Museum Collection
The Brontë Bookshelf
- On the Bullet Train with Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights in Japan by Judith Pascoe by Belinda Hakes
-  Emily Jane Brontë and Her Music by John Hennessy 
Emily's Birthday Weekend. 27-30 July 2018 
Storm in a Teacup: The birth of Arashi no ie / Stormy House by Judith Adams
Meet the Trustee:  David Broadley, Chair of the Governance Comittee
Membership Matters:   Welcome / Tips to help you get the most out of your membership /Other Developments / Dates for your Diary / Emily Brontë Celebraated at Westminster Abbey
An interview with Rachel Joyce

Read More

Charlotte vs Emily at the Rochdale Literature Festival

An alert for today, October 20:

Rochdale Literature & Ideas Festival
Sophie Franklin and Claire O’Callaghan – Charlotte versus Emily
Saturday, 20 October 2018
Time: 2pm-3pm Venue: Number One Riverside

Which of the Brontës do you prefer? Join us for an afternoon of discussion around the famous siblings, as authors Sophie Franklin and Claire O’Callaghan take a detailed look at the talented sisters.
Young academic Sophie Franklin’s Charlotte Brontë Revisited, examines Charlotte’s private world of convention, rebellion and imagination, and how they shaped her life, writing and obsessions – including the paranormal, nature, feminism and politics.
Emily Brontë Reappraised: A view from the 21st Century, by Claire O’Callaghan, conjures a new image of Emily and rehabilitates her personal reputation. Dr O’Callaghan claims that the characterisation of Emily as an ‘oddball’ is undeserved. She would probably fit better in modern society, where independent, unconventional women are more likely to be celebrated.

Read More

The not at all Romantic deaths of the Brontës

We are somewhat confused by this discussion on TB and the Brontë family on The Conversation.

Bizarrely, the idea that Branwell Brontë had sex with his sister Emily appears to have been more palatable than the idea that he might have given her tuberculosis – or that the infection might have passed to Anne from either sibling. Those documenting the lives of the Brontës since the late 19th century have been curiously reluctant to acknowledge this fact.
Branwell, Emily, and Anne all died from various forms of tuberculosis between September 1848 and May 1849. All three had lived together at Haworth Parsonage in Yorkshire with their sister Charlotte (who managed to last until 1855 when she too succumbed to tuberculosis). Branwell and Emily died there, and Anne died on a final trip to Scarborough, where she is buried.
We know today that tuberculosis is contagious, and particularly so between family members living in close quarters. Yet the idea that one Brontë sibling might have infected or been infected by another still seems to be taboo in Brontë biography and adaptation.
Only Claire Harman’s biography of Charlotte Brontë (2015) and Beth Torgerson’s Reading The Brontë Body (2005) have suggested the possibility of infection, even briefly. So how and why has contagion largely been written out of the story of Branwell’s, Emily’s and Anne’s deaths? [...]
In 1947 alone, Ernest Raymond, Laura L Hinkley and Phyllis Bentley all told a story which stressed Branwell’s alcoholism, Emily’s grief, and Anne meekly following her two siblings to the grave. These biographers, and many more in the late 1940s and the 1950s, stressed both weather and emotion as causes of death. They created an aura of predestined tragedy around the Brontës which proved difficult to displace in the years which followed.
Films and TV dramas showed the same causes for the Brontës’ deaths. Granada TV’s The Brontës of Haworth (1973) has Branwell’s burial immediately followed by Emily clasping the table as a whistling wind comes in through the parsonage door. She coughs, sickens and dies, and Anne quietly follows.
Andre Téchiné’s Les Sœurs Brontë (1979) portrays an unusually close relationship between Branwell and Emily throughout. So when Branwell dies, Emily is emotionally, not bacterially, infected. She puts on his coat and sobs until her sobs become coughs. She is soon on her deathbed refusing the doctor, while Anne stands timidly in the hallway, meekly taking her own medicine from a spoon.
In 2016, BBC Two’s documentary Being the Brontës described the sisters’ “frail bodies” giving up on them “so young,” again suggesting a kind of fatalism about their deaths. Carl Barnes’s brilliantly funny musical Wasted, however, seems to deliberately reference the sheer absurdity of so much death in one family. Branwell is handed copies of his sisters’ published works and then immediately dies. Emily sings that she is a “Goth before my time” and then dies. Anne laments a miserable life in which she has never been touched by a desiring hand – and then dies. [...]
Sally Wainwright’s To Walk Invisible (2016) also invited us to contemplate the Brontës with Yorkshire accents, and a swearing, drug-addled Branwell. There seems to be space now for a less reverential, Romanticised approach to the siblings. Perhaps it is time to accept that the Brontës didn’t die from melancholy, weather, or death wishes, but because they were infected with bacteria.
A drama or biography which allowed this possibility would open up some fascinating new ways to think about the Brontës and their work. I’ve written elsewhere about the importance of contagion theories and the rabies virus in Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley, but there is still more to be said about contagion, disease, and the Brontës.
All three sisters wrote about “consumptive” characters, from Jane Eyre’s Helen Burns to Wuthering Heights’s Frances Hindley to Agnes Grey’s labourer Mark Wood. Widening our understanding of tuberculosis in the lives of these extraordinary women would help us to read their novels afresh. (Jo Waugh)

It is obvious for anyone reading the Brontë story that the quick succession of the deaths of Branwell, Emily and Anne has to do with TB and contagion among the family members. Biographies may hint at other causes contributing to their deaths but it is fairly obvious that TB was the main cause (even if Branwell's death certificate states phthisis instead of the more usual consumption as TB was commonly referred to). In fact, the subject of the family's latent TB has been discussed at least once if not several times in Brontë Studies by doctors. See for instance Brontë Studies volume 27, part 2, July 2002, which includes the article 'Tuberculosis and the Brontë family' by Doctor W. H. Helm and which begins

It is almost certain that four of the Brontë children died of tuberculosis. . . 

The article goes on to discuss whether the Brontës may have all been infected since Cowan Bridge days. It was later on, when their immune systems were compromised for other reasons, that the disease actually surfaced. So the 'Romantic' death may be used for obvious reasons in creative accounts of their lives (and why not?), but in serious texts it has always been taken for granted that they died of TB, maybe exacerbated by other causes.

La razón (Spain) reviews the Madrid performances of Carme Portaceli's Jane Eyre.

Sin embargo, solo puede uno aplaudir admirado la ágil y concisa versión que ha realizado Ana María Ricart a partir del prolijo argumento original. Jugando a la analepsis y al monólogo interior, con mucho tino para que la claridad expositiva no se resienta, las tribulaciones de esta mujer -tremendamente libre si tenemos en cuenta la época en que fue escrita la obra-, que busca la dignidad y el sentido de su propio destino contraviniendo muchas veces lo que espera de ella la sociedad, discurren en este montaje, bajo la batuta de Portaceli, con encomiable ritmo y firmeza. En aras de no fracturar el inexorable sentido narrativo de la trama, la directora se apoya en la útil y minimalista escenografía de Anna Alcubierre para aportar un verdadero sentido de continuidad en el movimiento de los personajes y en el sobresaliente manejo de las abundantes transiciones, que se reducen a un leve respiro cuando conviene o que se convierten, por el contrario, en auténticas y completas “escenas-puente”. Asimismo, el uso de la eficaz música compuesta por Clara Peya facilita el necesario viaje imaginario que ha de realizar el espectador por el espacio y el tiempo para seguir cómodamente la vida de un personaje genial que, sin embargo, no necesitaba al final de la obra, porque ya nos había quedado muy claro con todo lo visto hasta ahí, soltar al patio de butacas el discurso de marras sobre lo que quieren o no quieren las mujeres. (Raúl Losánez) (Translation)

We had somehow guessed that the review had been written by a man *eye roll*

Metro echoes the rather pointless debate on the This Morning TV programme triggered by Keira Knightley banning her daughter from watching Disney's Cinderella and The Little Mermaid.

This prompted another outcry from Schofield, who remarked: ‘But you’re messing with tradition. You’re fiddling about with that. ‘When are you going to stop? Are you going to think, “actually you know what I’m not sure we like Brontë and the relationship between men and women because that was very much of a time then. I’m not sure that we’re happy with Jane Austen and her relationship with men and women and who was the strongest, who was the weakest, so let’s go back and erase all our literary history.”’ (Adam Starkey)

Daily Mail comments on Knightley's decision too:

Where would it end? Would the KK (Keira and Kristen [Bell]) ban Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice (Keira starred as Elizabeth Bennet in a 2005 film adaptation) or Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, which both feature women who are, ultimately, redeemed and made happy by wealthy men? (Jan Moir)

Now let's discuss why Ms Moir's parents banned her from reading Pride & Prejudice and Jane Eyre as she obviously hasn't ever read them!

El Español (Spain) highlights the fact that many still view women writers as secondary to men writers.

Y hay más: “[Cada hombre que] dedicó dos párrafos a especular sobre el cuerpo de una autora o de un autor trans en lo que se supone que era una reseña sobre su obra, cada profesor que usa las letras de Kanye West en una conferencia para demostrar que está en la onda pero cuyos programas de las asignaturas son totalmente blancos, cada hombre que se ha referido a una Brontë, a Emily Dickinson o a James Baldwin como escritores menores: todos ellos están aquí”. (Lorena G. Maldonado) (Translation)

Real Simple recommends '8 Essential Movies for People Who Love Books' such as

6 Devotion (1946)
This Golden Age classic is led by Hollywood legends Ida Lupino, Olivia de Havilland, and Nancy Coleman. Based on Theodore Reeves’ fictional story, Devotion centers on Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë as they wrestle with both their novels and their love lives. Filled with romance, conflict, and an overall appreciation of books, this film is the perfect blend of classic literature and classic cinema. (Samantha Ladwig)

Reader's Digest has compiled the spookiest ghost story from each state and there's

Indiana: The ghost of Stepp Cemetery
Near Bloomington, the Stepp Cemetery is the home to many hauntings, the creepiest of which involves a Wuthering Heights-style melodrama, in which a woman, who lost her husband to a terrible mining accident becomes obsessed with caring for her daughter. Then 20 years later, the daughter is killed in a terrible automobile accident. The grieving mother is said to haunt the cemetery where both her husband and only daughter are buried. (Lauren Cahn)

This Wall Street Journal columnist is not a fan of leaf blowers:

As a teacher, I frequently hear the drone of leaf blowers from within my classroom. The noise is distracting enough while trying to discuss Brontë or Tolstoy, but outside, where I often eat lunch under the treetops, the nonstop noise seems to broadcast a dire warning: These pristine grounds come at a terrible price. (Adrienne Bernhard)

Read More

Truly Yours, C.B. in Wellington

Alison Neil's Truly Yours, C.B. will be performed tomorrow, October 20, in Wellington, UK:

Wellington Town Council Festival
Truly Yours, C.B.
by Alison Neil
October 20 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm £12.50
Charlton School
Apley Avenue
Wellington, Telford TF1 3DX United Kingd
om

Determined, brilliant and romantic, Charlotte tells her story of passion and duty, triumph and tragedy, and above all – love.
Devoted to her strange and unworldly family, Charlotte Brontë was also wildly ambitious. Whilst remaining a self-effacing and dutiful daughter, abiding by all the restrictions of early Victorian life, she managed the incredible feat of becoming a hugely famous novelist. The instant success of Jane Eyre, Shirley and Villette found her mixing with the literary giants of the age.
The joy of literary success was tempered by the scandalous fall of her brother Branwell, and a succession of family disasters. Charlotte’s own life, however, had an extraordinary, happy twist at the end.
The Brontë family’s story has captivated the imagination for a century and a half. Alison Neil’s portrayal of the life of Charlotte Brontë – using many of Charlotte’s own words – provides an exceptional theatrical treat.
Alison has become well known for her portrayal of characters from history. You can learn more from her web site at : www.alisonneil.co.uk

Read More

Are you saying it’s [...] not okay for me to read Jane Eyre in public?

The Guardian features winner of Man Booker Prize Anna Burns and her novel Milkman.

The novel started with her teenage narrator, 18-year-old “middle sister”, who has a “deviant” habit of walking while reading, something she shares with the author. “I’d go into a shop or a cafe or a pub and someone would say: ‘Oh, you’re that girl who walks and reads.’ I used to think: ‘This is something to comment on?’ I wanted to write about why would people comment on that.” In the novel, middle sister asks longest friend: “Are you saying it’s okay to go around with Semtex but not okay for me to read Jane Eyre in public?” “Semtex isn’t unusual. It’s to be expected,” longest friend replies. (Lisa Allardice)

The Reviews Hub has a review of the Oldham Coliseum performance of Lip Service's Withering Looks.

Fox and Ryding could read the telephone book and have an audience tittering. They are playing two  enthusiastic if shambolic historical reenactors, Audrey and Olivia, whose performances are constantly interrupted by their own petty disagreements, not to mention the need to keep things relevant to the GCSE students they presume to be in the audience. Flipping into and out of character as Charlotte and Emily Brontë, they build up a picture of their subjects which is appropriately confusing, peppered with anachronisms, blighted by the lack of Anne – who ‘just popped out for a cup of sugar’, they keep reassuring us, because of budget cuts – and otherwise delightfully silly.
As for Audrey and Olivia’s take on the Brontës’ writings, it is equally incomplete and distorted. These works of romantic grandeur are conveyed using everything from tabletop puppetry to song-and-dance routines, and the bleak moors, said to be haunted by lost souls, are brought to life in a characteristically irreverent style. The whole show is a cocktail of ideas and skits, tied together by the scenes in which Audrey and Olivia come ‘out of character’ and speak directly to their audience to clarify points or try and flog their ‘authentic Brontë’ merchandise. (Lizz Clark)

Herald reviews the first English translation of the Argentinian book Personas en la sala, translated as People in the room, by Norah Lange.

Lange has indicated that she started writing this novel after seeing a reproduction of a portrait of the Brontë sisters painted by their brother Branwell, who originally included himself in the portrait but later painted himself out (though leaving a ghostly trace). Given this inspiration, People in the Room could be considered a very imaginative, extended, and daring work of ekphrasis, and it’s interesting to see the protagonist also frequently referring to the three women as lifeless sculptures, or portraits, or even eerie ceramic dolls.

Insider recommends '11 audiobooks you should be listening to immediately', including

Thandie Newton gives new life to "Jane Eyre."
The book has 7,816 customer reviews and almost five stars. Amazon
If you missed out on reading "Jane Eyre" in high school, you'll definitely want to take advantage of the audiobook version which was released in honor of author Charlotte Bronte's 200th birthday. The story is read by actress Thandie Newton, who breathes new life into the classic love story about a woman able to find love in the midst of adversity.
Newton told Audible that narrating the audiobook gave her a new perspective on the story. While she respects Brontë's progressive ideas about women's rights that are reflected in the book, her experience helped Newton appreciate being a modern woman with the freedom to make choices. (Angela Johnson)

Jezebel's Pictorial discusses 'How Bluebeard Became the Definitive Fairy Tale of Our Era'.

The story of Bluebeard is central to gothic romance, haunting the halls of all those spooky houses that loom large in the popular imagination. Bluebeard reappears, for example, in Jane Eyre, which makes specific reference to the tale in creating its aura of eerie domestic wrongness: “I, by drift of groping, found the outlet from the attic, and proceeded to descend the narrow garret staircase,” Charlotte Brontë wrote in Jane’s voice. “I lingered in the long passage to which this led, separating the front and back rooms of the third storey: narrow, low, and dim, with only one little window at the far end, and looking, with its two rows of small black doors all shut, like a corridor in some Bluebeard’s castle.” It’s no coincidence that Rochester has a secret chamber where he stores away a secret wife. And rather than mounting a heroic rescue, her brother is stabbed for his fraternal troubles.
In turn, perhaps Jane Eyre’s most influential descendent in terms of 20th-century popular culture is Daphne du Maurier’s perpetually bestselling Rebecca, about a shy frump who marries a rich man and is carried off to his stately English home. Her Cinderella romance abruptly ends when she finds herself confronted at every turn with the lurid specter of his first wife Rebecca. She died under mysterious circumstances that everybody references but nobody seems willing to explain, leaving the heroine—who’s never named—to unravel the awful truth that her husband is the kind of man who murders his wives. But it’s okay, the reader may conclude, because Rebecca was far from perfect. She was vindictive, evil, and manipulative. (Kelly Faircloth)

The Telegraph and Argus looks back on the life and works of local artist Percy Monkman who 'saw beauty in Bradford'.

Percy Monkman often recalled the time he was painting in Brontë country and a small boy asked him, “What are you doing it for?” (Emma Clayton)

Newton Daily News features a local exhibition: Literary Heroines: Their Times, Their Fashions at Davenport’s Putnam Museum.

As staffers at Davenport’s Putnam Museum prepared for a board of directors meeting late last year, they set out several items from storage that aren’t often seen.
They included an 1828 wedding dress worn by an ancestor of the Putnams — the family that established the museum.
A woman attending the board meeting noted that the dress was from the time period of Charlotte Brontë’s novel, “Jane Eyre,” and said she’d often wondered how characters in that story dressed.
It was at that moment that Putnam president and CEO Kim Findlay realized she had an idea for an exhibit[.]

Cine y libertad (in Spanish) features discusses the Spanish edition of Jane by Aline Brosh McKenna.

Read More

Frances Brody in Haworth

Tomorrow, October 19, in  Haworth:

Cobbles and Clay
Friday 19th October – 7pm
Meet the author: Frances Brody – £5

Frances Brody discusses her latest novel, A Snapshot of Murder, (set in Haworth!) with Ann Dinsdale, Curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

Read More

Warriors are now rising up

The Guardian comments on the fact that British writers are doing so well in the Great American Read.

From Jane Eyre to Pride and Prejudice, a clutch of very British books have emerged as frontrunners for the title of the US’s best-loved novel, as a public poll that has seen millions cast their votes draws to a close. [...]
With just days to go before voting closes on 18 October, PBS has revealed the current top 10. These include Harper Lee’s seminal novel of racism in the American south, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Margaret Mitchell’s sweeping historical romance, Gone With the Wind, set against the backdrop of the American civil war. Two classic American children’s stories also make the final 10: Louisa May Alcott’s story of the March sisters, Little Women, and EB White’s tear-jerking tale of a pig and a spider, Charlotte’s Web.
But competing with these are some of Britain’s most beloved stories: Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series. Two of the UK’s most popular children’s series, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books and CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, are also in the running. (Alison Flood)

Our Auckland (New Zealand) shows off its (unexpected) Brontë heritage.

Auckland is a long way from the wild moors of Yorkshire where Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë lived and wrote, but their first published work is part of the Heritage Collections at Auckland Libraries.
Currently, on display at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero - Central City Library is an extremely rare copy of the only collaborative work by the Brontë sisters – Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (Pseudonyms for Charlotte, Emily and Anne respectively). [...]
The copy now sitting in our Auckland library once belonged to Auckland lawyer and art patron Edmond Mackechnie, and was donated to Auckland Libraries by his widow in November 1902. It sits alongside Shirley, Charlotte’s second novel published in 1849.
Jane Wild, Manager of Auckland Libraries’ Heritage Collections is excited by the books on display. “Poems is a compelling example of the scope and value of our heritage collections,” she says.
“We have extraordinary items from all over the world, which have survived against the odds. It’s wonderful that Aucklanders have such a valuable collection right on their doorstep and we are committed to showcasing these treasures.”
The books will be on display until the end of October in the Reading Room on level 2 of the Central City Library as part of the Real Gold Case which features rare items every month from the treasures book Real Gold published in 2007 with support from the Auckland Library Heritage Trust.

IN (India) wonders 'What ties Jane Eyre to today's #MeToo Movement?'

Back to #MeToo - remember when Mr Rochester falls off his horse the first time he sees Jane? Jane gracefully helps the gentleman up. Upon learning that Jane will be the governess to his ward, back at his residence, Rochester, arrogantly, teases Jane of bewitching his horse that he fell off from. Sounds like a #MeToo incident right there. That isn't even the end of Rochester's tale - how can we forget his mad wife locked in the attic. The character spun an entire feminist literary canon: the madwoman in the attic. Speak up and you'll be considered crazy.
That is exactly what is happening in the ongoing #MeToo movement. Women are calling out predators living comfortable lives and, in turn, are being subjected humiliating questions about their own character. "Why did you allow him to stay over?" "Why didn't you slap him and walk out of the office?" "Why didn't you report it sooner?"
Warriors are now rising up, just like the mad woman in the attic and lighting fires that will leave nothing but ashes to the ground in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Just like Jane Eyre stood up to Mr Rochester and all the other men that followed in the novel. After all, Literature started and Civilisation followed. (Almas Khateeb)

Público (Spain) interviews actress Ariadna Gil about her role as Jane Eyre in Carme Portaceli's take on the novel.

Una mujer con la fuerza de Eyre, ¿nace o se hace? Eyre tiene mucho de Charlotte Brontë. Como su personaje, la autora tuvo una vida muy complicada; su madre murió, sus hermanas también lo hicieron, su hermano cae en el alcoholismo y ella estuvo internada. La fuerza de Charlotte tiene mucho que ver con las circunstancias que le tocaron vivir, todo eso fue curtiendo su carácter. También creo que hay gente que tiene esa pulsión rebelde o contestataria y en cambio existe otra más tendente a la adaptación o la sumisión.
Incluso en el amor Eyre reivindica su independencia y libertad... Hay gente que por suerte nunca tiene que reclamar una injusticia, luchar por algo o renunciar a determinadas cosas por principios. Pero hay mucha otra que sí se tiene que enfrentar a cosas muy duras como el abandono o el maltrato. Creo que en ese sentido Eyre es un reflejo de Charlotte, de cómo ella también sufrió el desamor, el rechazo de la persona que amaba. Se dice que utilizó pseudónimo porque no podía firmar con nombre de mujer, pero no era eso, lo que sucede es que no quería ser juzgada como una mujer novelista porque eso en aquella época era un hándicap. (Juan Losa) (Translation)

The Irish Echo interviews writer Sue Hubbard.

What book changed your life? Different books at different times: “Memoires of a Dutiful Daughter,” by Simone de Beauvoir. “Austerlitz,” by W.G. Sebald. “Wuthering Heights,” by Emily Brontë; “Jude the Obscure,” by Thomas Hardy. (Peter McDermott)

Ara (in Catalan) interviews writer Santiago Posteguillo, winner of the Premio Planeta 2018.

Es va llicenciar en lingüística, és doctor en filologia anglesa i és professor titular a la Universitat Jaume I de Castelló. ¿Té gaire temps per escriure? El trec d’on sigui. Les hores mortes, els caps de setmana, les vacances... Dilluns, el dia que vaig venir a recollir el Planeta, vaig fer quatre hores de classe, de nou del matí a una del migdia. Vaig parlar de Jane Eyre, de Charlotte Brontë i del Juli Cèsar de Shakespeare. (Jordi Nopca) (Translation)

Tranås Tidning (Sweden) tells about a recent afternoon tea at a local library during which the Brontë sisters were discussed.

Under måndagskvällen berättade makarna Anna-Karin Malmström Ehrling och Per Ove Ehrling, från Sandviken, om de tre brittiska författarnas liv och levnadsöden.
Systrarna Brontë tog avstånd från den av samhället sanktionerade normen för kvinnlighet. De ville bland annat kunna försörja sig själva.
Kvällen kom att handla om systrarnas personliga förhållanden, deras kamp för självständighet och om författarsystrarnas böcker.
– Det är böcker som håller för läsning än i dag, säger Christine Åström.
De båda föreläsarna är översättare med ett gemensamt intresse för Systrarna Brontë. Tillsammans har paret översatt tre av Charlotte Brontës romaner och gett ut en översatt bok, Systrarna Brontës värld, om de tre brittiska författarsystrarna.
– När vi fick erbjudandet om att ha föreläsningen här på biblioteket tänkte jag att det kunde vara trevligt med ett engelskt koncept rakt igenom hela kvällen. Sagt och gjort, vi bakade scones, skaffade sylt, kokade te och dukade upp med gammaldags koppar med rosor på, berättar Christine Åström. (Jenny Henningsson) (Translation)

Read More

Angria & Gondal in Celle

An alert for today, October 17 in Celle, Lower Saxony, Germany:

A reading of the 1960 radio essay by Arno Schmidt, Angria & Gondal. Der Traum der taubengrauen Schwestern:

Angria & Gondal - Der Traum der taubengrauen Schwestern
Mi 17.10. 20:00 Uhr
Turmbühne, Schlosstheater, Celle

Die Schwestern Brontë haben längst ihren festen Platz in der englischen Literatur, speziell Emily Brontës Roman „Wuthering Heights“ (Sturmhöhen) von 1847 ist, glühend in dunkler Leidenschaft, eine der ganz großen Dichtungen der Weltliteratur. Bereits als Kinder schufen sie ein Fantasy-Reich, dessen Geschichte sie sich jahrelang auf Tausenden von Seiten ausmalten.
1960 hat Arno Schmidt in einem seiner Rundfunk-Dialoge Leben und Werk der Geschwister seinen Hörern nahegebracht und einen Einblick in das „Längere Gedankenspiel“ ihrer Kindheit gegeben. Der sonst oft zynische Autor, der mit einem Nebensatz Dichterfürsten stürzt, zeigt sich hier von einer ungewohnten Seite: mitfühlend, verehrend, liebevoll.

Read More

Not the usual three Brontës

Atlas Obscura features the secondhand bookshop Barter Books, home of the Keep Calm and Carry On trend, and its writers mural.

Today, Barter Books occupies the former station entrance, Parcel Room, central island, and outbound platform. A model train runs continuously at head height between the shelves. The monumental Famous Writers mural by local artist Peter Dodd was unveiled in 2001 and depicts 33 lifesize portraits of writers including Charlotte Brontë, Toni Morrison, Angela Carter, Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Parker, Walt Whitman, James Joyce, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Source

Actually, the mural shows three Brontës, though not the ones you would expect. Artist Peter Dodd himself has written about the mural on Barter Books own website.

I had to have at least one Brontë, didn't I? The cruel choice for me being between Charlotte and Emily, with Charlotte finally winning the day. More easily identifiable. Plus, I decided, Emily would probably have hated being up there in the public eye, whereas Charlotte, if off by herself, might have quite liked it. (Not that both Emily and Anne aren't represented, however; Emily's faithful bull mastiff, Keeper, is at Charlotte's feet, along with Anne's Blenheim spaniel, Flossie.)

Richmondshire Today reviews We Are Brontë, at the Georgian Theatre Royal.

It’s not quite clear what “We Are Brontë” is. It’s a play, but not strictly a fictional/dramatic piece. It’s more of a hugely absurdist send-up (and homage) of the works of the Yorkshire Brontë sisters, with a bit of meta-analysis of theatre in general (and lots of breaking of the fourth wall).
Angus Barr and Sarah Corbett play characters. Who they are actually playing is rather undefined and fluid: “We are all the characters in all the Brontë stories.” Both appeared on stage in rather gothic costume and wigs, giving them a suitably wind-tangled look, as if they have just descended from a Yorkshire moor above Haworth. Sarah Corbett’s face is a picture: how many hours are spent practicing in front of a mirror those waggling eyes and other odd and slightly alarming facial expressions?
There is no specific narrative or characters, only slightly impressionistic sequences to illustrate a general mood gained from the reading of the books. These were accompanied by some extremely inventive uses of lighting and the props and scenery: who can ever forget somebody working their way through a pile of doorway “furniture” to provide appropriate sound effects for the opening of a big old creaky door? Knocker, bolt, chain, lock and key, and door handle. (Guy Carpenter)

The Guardian reports that we may expect an Amy Winehouse biopic.

The family of Amy Winehouse has signed a deal to make a biopic about the late singer. Monumental Pictures’ Alison Owen – mother to Lily and Alfie Allen – and Debra Hayward will produce the film. [...]
Owen and Hayward affirmed their commitment to telling the stories of “amazing women, both real and fictional”, such as Queen Elizabeth I, Bridget Jones, Jane Eyre and Mary Poppins author PL Travers. (Laura Snapes)

For some reason, The Times' readers are discussing why electric toothbrushes are never seen on the screen.

Graham Etheridge is right. I have watched Vanity Fair, Pride and Prejudice, Oliver Twist, Jane Eyre and Cranford and I have never seen a character use an electric toothbrush.
Robin Dickson

Writer Espido Freire discusses the Brontës on Spanish radio station Cadena Ser. Books & Candies posts about Jane Eyre. The Brussels Brontë Blog shares 'The Brontë Brussels Calendar' for September 1842.

Finally, an alert for today in Auburn, NY:

Noon Tuesday, Oct. 16: The Tea and Tales Book Club will discuss "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë

Read More

What is a Classic? Jane Eyre on Croatian TV

Što je klasik? (What is a classic?) is an HRT3 (Croatian TV) programme that this week will be devoted to Jane Eyre:

Neprikladno je bilo da je tako strastven roman napisala žena, no ta činjenica ne samo da nije spriječila ljude da ga čitaju, nego ih je zaintrigirala da ga čitaju još više.
Kako je roman 'Jane Eyre' odmah po objavljivanju postigao izniman uspjeh, ali i izazvao javnu sablazan? Upravo je ta 'neprikladnost', odnosno autorski potpis jedne žene, povećala njegovu popularnost.
Pogledajte ulomak iz romana u režiji ekipe emisije Što je klasik?:
Zašto je baš taj roman autorice Charlotte Brontë jedan od najutjecajnijih engleskih romana svih vremena, u emisiji Što je klasik? govorila je anglistica, profesorica Tatjana Jukić. Emisiju Što je klasik? emitiramo utorkom na HRT3, a pratiti je možete na Facebooku i multimedijskoj usluzi HRTi. (Translation)

Read More

Jane Eyre's Hathersage

The Telegraph has compiled a 'definitive guide to Britain's best villages', including

Derbyshire
Designer: Hathersage
This historic village is nestled in the Peak District's Hope Valley, and is associated with literary figures such as Charlotte Brontë. Nearby North Lees Hall is thought to have inspired Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre, and the grave of Robin Hood's right-hand man Little John is in the churchyard. (Anna White)

The Huffington Post (Spain) reviews the Madrid performances of Carme Portaceli's Jane Eyre.

Aunque es el cuerpo y la voz de Ariadna Gil, que hace de Jane Eyre, vestida de negro, la que con su presencia y su estar en escena va poniendo, metafóricamente hablando, las comas, los puntos y comas, los signos de admiración y los interrogantes de esta narración. E incluso los acentos. Signos de puntuación necesarios y significativos en toda obra que como esta, pretende tener un sentido.
Frente a los que Abel Folk, como Rochester, va colocando los versos sueltos de esta historia de amor, los versos que mueven y conmueven a la espectadora e igualmente al espectador. Como lo hacen con Jane Eyre, a la que los prejuicios, en forma de inamovibles principios, se agarra para sostenerse en pie. Para mantenerse.
Personaje rebelde que mantiene la sempiterna lucha moderna entre razón y corazón. Entre lo razonablemente bueno frente a lo deseablemente bueno. Lucha en la que se debaten las personas, incluso ahora, que se dice que estamos de vuelta de todo. Más cuando se habla de eso tan frágil, que tanto se rompe (a tenor de las estadísticas) como es el amor. Preguntas tan difíciles de responder como son las de ¿qué quiero? y ¿a quién quiero? que no se refieren a la orientación sexual de cada cual, sino a personas concretas que nos rodean. Pues el amor, tal y como lo cuenta esta novela romántica, no es para nada instrumental. ¿Que qué es? Un ámbito (im)posible de libertad, de igualdad y de responsabilidad. Emocionante ¿no? (Antonio Hernández Nieto) (Translation)

Apparently, it's Women Writers' Day in Spain and a couple of websites mention the Brontës, and particularly Emily's bicentenary.

La celebración este año del bicentenario del nacimiento de Emily Brontë ha inspirado el título de la actividad con la que Avilés celebrará el Día de las Escritoras: 'Té con las hermanas Brontë: rebeldes y transgresoras'.
La actividad consistirá en la lectura de breves fragmentos de textos escritos por autoras, propuestos por la Biblioteca Nacional. Se leerán fragmentos de Juana Manso, Carmen de Burgos, Delmira Agustini, Victoria Ocampo, Magda Donato, Idea Vilariño, Ana María Matute, Carmen Martín Gaite, Josefina Aldecoa, Alejandra Pizarnik, Esther Tusquets y Teresa de Jesús. (Cope) (Translation)

A pesar de los muchos nombres de escritoras que los especialistas conocen y estudian anteriores al siglo XIX,​ rara vez aparecen mencionadas en los manuales de estudio y ni siquiera en los programas de historia literaria de la universidad en España. En el siglo XIX, gran parte de las mujeres escritoras tenían que publicar con un seudónimo de hombre para ser tomadas en serio. Émily(sic) Brontë y sus hermanas fueron muestra manifiesta de ello. Cumbres Borrascosas fue publicada bajo el seudónimo de "Ellis Bell" ningún editor se atrevía a publicar, pues consideraban que ellas solamente escribían novelas de corte romántico.​ (Zamora News) (Translation)

Le Figaro (France) interviews artist Paula Rego mentioning in passing her Jane Eyre work. Rachel Sutcliffe reviews Samantha Ellis's biography of Anne, Take Courage, and finds the same fault with it that we did. AnneBrontë.org interviews DM Denton about her book Without The Veil Between, Anne Brontë: A Fine And Subtle Spirit.

Read More

Implicit and Explicit Wasted Space

More recent scholar Brontë-related works:

Wasted Space: The Suffering Female Body in the Works of Emily and Charlotte Brontë
by Sarah Pearce
Flinders University

This thesis presents an analysis of the suffering female body in Jane Eyre (1847) and Villette (1853) by Charlotte Brontë and Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë. In so doing, I uncover those aspects of female subjectivity, both in the Victorian era, and more broadly throughout history, that are written on the suffering bodies of the protagonists. Both authors use the Gothic, particularly Gothic space, to explore experiences of imprisonment, oppression and intrusion, demonstrating the myriad ways in which the Victorian world affects and imposes upon the female literary body, causing it to suffer. The suffering female body is shown to be an acquiescent body, which manifests as the result of normative Victorian social and literary gender formations. Conversely, the pathological behaviours and suffering bodies exhibited by the protagonists may also be viewed as forms of nonconformity or rebellion: the female body is shown to be a disruptive and eruptive force, capable of deviant communication and outright rebellion. Finally, I look to genre in order to understand the possibilities imagined for female corporeality by Emily and Charlotte Brontë. Though each author gestures simultaneously toward both conformity to and subversion of Victorian discourse and ideology, I suggest that it is in their relationship with the Gothic and realist modes that Emily and Charlotte Brontë are most subversive and innovative. Through illustrating the omnipresence of the Gothic and the constant pushing back of the Gothic mode against the realist text, they demonstrate the way in which realism is not spacious enough for female Victorian writers, or for female bodies.

O Implicito e o explicito e suas simbologias na obra 'O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes' de Emily Brontë
by Marllon Vinicius Rebouças Padilha
Anais do Simpósio Nacional de Estudos da Linguagem, Vol 2 (2018)

O interesse pelo livro “O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes” de “Emily Bronte” se deu pela intensa carga psicológica e pela alta dose de elementos implícitos e simbólicos que a obra apresenta, talvez pela época de composição da narrativa ou pelo estilo da autora. Sendo assim, a pesquisa tem como aporte teórico metodológico as obras da Teoria e Crítica Literária e os estudos desenvolvidos pelo teórico Carl Jung no seu livro “O homem seus Símbolos”, pois a narrativa de Bronte tem como principal característica a sua intensidade em nível psicológico e linguístico / literario. Sendo assim, esta pesquisa visa abordar a explicitação dos sentimentos e a construção de personagens incomuns para o tempo da autora, escancarando defeitos de caráter e problemas de educação relacionados a construtos sociais, gerando toda uma tensão ainda viva no romance e trata-se de uma violenta e profunda história de amor. Para isso será lido a obra citada, analisando os personagens fortes e intrigantes, Catherine e Heathcliff que se tornaram quase entidades, símbolos do amor intenso que dilacera o coração e sobrevive além do tempo e da morte. Como já foi salientado é um estudo baseado na crítica e teoria literária, salientando o quanto a obra sempre foi bem conhecida. O Romance foi escrito em 1847, e recebeu inúmeras críticas no início do século XIX devido a intensidade julgada abusiva para aquele tempo, mesmo assim tornando-se um clássico inglês e admirado até hoje, é um romance que traz ao leitor questionamentos e sentimentos conflitantes. Falando sobre amor que ultrapassa os limites da morte. É uma obra que lida muito com os sentimentos humanos. Espera-se que ao concluir a pesquisa, que os personagens tenham o emocional trabalhado e comportamentos justificados e conceituados. Gerando assim um artigo que será divulgado em outros eventos. Teóricos como Jung (???), Moisés (1998), Eagleton (2000) entre outros serão fundamentais para essa pesquisa.

Read More

Bleaker but Exciting

Quad City Times talks about the origins of the Literary Heroines exhibition in Iowa:

A woman attending the board meeting noted that the dress was from the time period of of Charlotte Brontë's novel, "Jane Eyre," and said she'd often wondered how characters in that story dressed.

Yorkshire Post has an article on the newly published: Irreplaceable. A History of England in 100 Places:

 Here in Yorkshire, a Quaker meeting house near Ilkley, Scarborough’s Grand Hotel and a former steel research laboratory in Sheffield get equal billing with the more predictable Brontë Parsonage in Haworth and Fountains Abbey.

A country walk as described in The York Press:

Before arriving at the hall look behind and to the north where there are lovely long distance views towards the Dales. Turn right at foot of Tewitt Hall's lane and enjoy the views the other way, into the bleaker but exciting Brontë moors.(Jonathan Smith)

The Herald Sun is also concerned the dangers of Heathcliff and Mr. Darcy:

Personally, I blame the Emily Brontës and Jane Austens of the world. Many generations of young women have grown up pining for Heathcliff and Mr Darcy, dark brooding men with volatile tempers and complicated ways of showing affection.

The apppeal of bad boys in The News Mail:

 "I think she saw him like a motherless boy," says Nina of her mother's do-gooder approach. "She was helping him get his HSC. He liked poetry and they had that shared interest while she was helping rebuild his life. She called it the Kathy (sic) and Heathcliff romance."
However, anyone who's read Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights will know that despite hoping beyond hope, in the end, it's clear Heathcliff doesn't have any redeeming qualities-and neither did Nina's dad. (Jessica Leahy)

hvg (Hungary) interviews the actress Rujder Vivien:

Kamaszkorom legelején olvastam Charlotte Brontëtol a Jane Eyre-t, bár nálam A lowoodiárva cim alatt futott. Érzésekben, szerelemben, vàgyakban az sokat hozzám tett. Filmek közül az Egy gésa emlékiratai nagy hatañst gyakorolt rám, 16 és 18 éves korom között nagyon soksztor láttam.(Varga Ferenc) (Translation) 

Smorgasbord interviews the writer Jaye Marie:

Welcome Jaye and perhaps we could start by finding out what you consider to be your favourite Book
As a child, I was a prolific reader. I would read anything, including several things I shouldn’t have. When I was in the hospital with appendicitis, I read every book in the ward.
The one book that still haunts me, is an illustrated copy of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.
The story enthralled me, but it was the beautiful illustrations that filled my dreams. They brought the story to life so well, that the nightmares in Jane Eyre’s life quickly haunted my dreams too. I have tried to find another copy of this book, as the drawings were exquisite, but so far I haven’t managed to track one down.

Free Online Orlando talks about a local production of The Mystery of Irma Vep. Cross Examing Crime reviews Miss Hogg and the Brontë Murders (1956) by Austin Lee.

Read More

Child Neglect, Hermeneutics and Postcolonial Feminism

Recent scholar Brontë-related works:

The depiction of orphanhood and child neglect with their impacts on the protagonists of The Lost Child and Wuthering Heights
by Jacob Stanjura
Advisor: Tereza Topolovská
September 2018

This bachelor thesis focuses on the depiction of the psychological impacts of orphanhood and child neglect on the protagonists of The Lost Child and Wuthering Heights. The theoretical part introduces the two authors, Caryl Phillips and Emily Brontë, whose works are to be discussed, as well as it analyses the psychological research conducted on orphaned and neglected children. The practical part then offers an interpretation of the two novels with its relevance to the emotional instability evinced by orphaned and neglected children.

Wuthering Heights in Context: Hermeneutic Singularity in Traditions of Narrative
by María Valero Redondo
Advisor: Julián Jiménez Heffernan
Universidad de Córdoba, UCOPress

Re-Imagining the Victorian Classics: Postcolonial Feminist Rewritings of Emily Brontë
by Yannel Celestrin
Advisor: Martha Schoolman
Florida International University, 2018

Through a post-structural lens, I will focus on the Caribbean, specifically Cuba, Guadeloupe, Marie-Galante, and Roseau, and how the history of colonialism impacted these islands. As the primary text of my thesis begins during the Cuban War of Independence of the 1890s, I will use this timeframe as the starting point of my analysis. In my thesis, I will compare Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Maryse Condé’s Windward Heights. Specifically, I will examine Condé’s processes of reimagining and rewriting Brontë’s narrative by deconstructing the notions of history, race, gender, and class. I will also explore ways in which Condé disrupts the hegemonic and linear notions of narrative temporality in an attempt to unsilence the voices of colonized subjects. I argue that Condé’s work is a significant contribution to the practice of rewriting as well as to the canon of Caribbean literary history. I argue that the very process of rewriting is a powerful mode of resistance against colonizing powers and hegemonic discourse.

Read More