There are a few tidbits and mentions in the news today as far as Charlotte is concerned:
The
Globe and Mail reports how there are more similarities to embroidery and rock music than meets the eye. The mind that begot this is that of Kathy Spade
whose exhibition opens tonight at the Tracey Lawrence Gallery [...]
Chart is a pictorial display of guitar tabs on about 100 embroidered canvases. [...]
The artist became fascinated by the craft in 1997. "I was reading a lot of gothic novels like Charlotte Bronte's Shirley. A strung-out character is bitten by a dog and starts embroidering obsessively. She was described as weak and silly and Bronte herself thought embroidery was a complete waste of time."Shirley - a gothic novel?! And 'Brontë' didn't think it was a complete waste of time. But try having to embrioder compulsory for everything you wear and perhaps you won't consider it so much a crafty hobby as a burdensome, demanding chore.
TownOnline looks at the most memorable opening lines in literature and - guess what's there?
"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day."- Charlotte Bronte, Jane EyreAnd finally
The Villager reviews a book by Patrice Hannon called Dear Jane Austen: A Heroine’s Guide to Life and Love. The author of this aptly (?) titled books is of this opinion:
Hannon said she was inspired to write the letters because her students were so intrigued by Austen’s realistic portrayal of relationships. As opposed to unrealistic romantic notions often found in novels like “Wuthering Heights” and “Jane Eyre,” Austen championed cynicism and lifelike dialogue, according to Hannon.Unrealistic? Well, just different - different backgrounds, different times, different minds, different books. And as an author and teacher she should be acquainted with the magical word:
fiction. And how realistic is it that most Austen heroines usually end up getting hold of the rich guy, huh? ;) (Just for the record, and before we get called ugly names: we love Jane Austen and are avid readers of
Austenblog).
Categories: Charlotte_Brontë, Jane_Eyre, Shirley, In_the_News, Books
Well, I guess I'll have to keep reading at least to the dog-bite/craft-crazy scene.
ReplyDeleteI've only just reached where Helstone forbids Caroline to see Moore. Still no sign of Shirley. My friend Amanda suggested that maybe "Shirley is me. Or you. Or maybe Shirley is all of us." When we open the book, then, Shirley is there.
That better not be the case, though. Or I'm going to be so mad.
Just read on...
ReplyDeleteI totally missed the Austen smackdown later in this post. Didn't Charlotte say something bitchy about Jane? Something about how Jane's novels felt so claustrophobic and bleak without enough outdoors? (And I'm think, "Char? Hi: remember burning Bertha up in the house and blinding Rochester? Yeah.")
ReplyDeleteAnyway.
Maybe you know better, but I have this theory that Emily wasn't trying to set out to write a "realistic" love story in Wuthering Heights -- that instead she's looking at these insular communities and how they breed romantic disease (if you will).
And as far as realistic in love stories, I think that Villette does realism a lot better than Pride & Prejudice, say, or Sense & Sensibility. (My two favorite Austens are Mansfield Park and Persuasion.)
Yes, Charlotte wasn't exactly thrilled about Jane Austen's work.
ReplyDeleteWH IMO is no more realistic or unrealistic than Austen's novels. By setting it so "isularly" Emily achieves timelessness and focused all attention on the feelings and passions.
You could argue that WH isn't the ultimate romantic (as in romance, not the literary movement with a capital R) some make it to be, though.