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  • Behind the Glass: A Parsonage Podcast
    With... Adam Sargant - It's our last episode of series 1!!! Expect ghost, ghouls and lots of laughs as we round off the series with Adam Sargant, AKA Haunted Haworth. We'll be...
    4 days ago

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Is there a pop-up version of Jane Eyre?

Sunday, October 29, 2006 10:19 am by Cristina   6 comments
First of all, a newly-discovered Brontëite joins the ranks. Sue Townsend, author of the Adrian Mole series among others confesses in an interview:

What was your favourite childhood book?
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and William And The Outlaws by Richmal Crompton.
It's not a childhood book though. And the Victorians would cringe to hear people consider it so.

Which authors do you admire most?
Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Evelyn Waugh, PG Wodehouse, John Updike, Richard Ford, Kingsley Amis, Charlotte Brontë, Raymond Carver, Thackeray, Mrs Gaskell, Charles Dickens, Timothy Mo, John le Carré, Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Paul Bailey, Alan Bennett, Simon Armitage, Shakespeare, GK Chesterton, Orwell, Tom Paine, Oscar Wilde, EM Forster, Samuel Johnson, George Elliot, Flann O'Brien...
In case you got lost in that sea of names, she mentioned not only Charlotte Brontë but also others connected to her and the Brontës, Mrs Gaskell and Thackeray, for instance.

Which books have you been unable to finish?
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.
That made us laugh! BrontëBlog is split in two when it comes to this book and since it's me posting I will applaud :P

And now for something she says which is totally unrelated to the Brontës but which we liked a lot:
Bookmark or page-fold?
I would sooner pull my own toenails out than turn the corner of a page.
All of this and her love for pop-up books has made us like Ms Townsend very much :)

Old news, we know, but The Thirteenth Tale is still doing its neverending round of reviews. This time it travels to Ohio.

Critics have invoked Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and the works of Wilkie Collins in describing the style of the dark and disturbing story that unfolds about writer Vida Winter's dysfunctional family. [...]
"Setterfield is not riffing on Hamlet, she is riffing on the Brontes and du Maurier, so the book is very accessible.''

She herself commented on the Brontë influence on her book a few days ago.

And today there's another article on fanfiction and the Brontës are, as usual, used as examples of early fanfic writers.

In the 19th Century, the Bronte sisters wrote fan fiction about the Duke of Wellington.

And not just him actually.

And finally the funny thing of the day. Want to sell a house and don't know how to get round to it? Well, take a leaf of the Lily White owners' book!
The Parochial House in Broadfield, Co Kildare would make the perfect backdrop for a Jane Eyre-type costume drama - just add Jeremy Irons as a smouldering Rochester (and perhaps yours truly as Jane). [...]
And all of this just a few minutes from the M4 motorway and within easy reach of Dublin City. Jeremy Irons is all very well folks, but believe me, this is the original period fantasy.

Hmmm... Jeremy Irons as Mr Rochester? We don't really think so.

Oh, and just a reminder today that it's Aunt Branwell's anniversary. Perhaps one of the most shadowy and overlooked figures in Brontë biographies.

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6 comments:

  1. pennyforyourdreams10/31/2006 11:03:00 pm

    I love Sue Townsend's books, she nearly always has a Jane Eyre reference in each of her Adrian Mole books.

    Grace Poole for instance pops up as an arsonist in Adrian's aunts prison, she sends him a toothbrush holder for his birthday, but alas never gets to visit him as she doesn't get her parole because she sets fire to the arts room!

    In the most recent book, Adrian's bookclub reads Jane Eyre and Mr.Rochester is, in a roundabout way described, thus: Adrian on his friend Nigel (who is going blind, incidentally like Sue Townsend herself): "I hope he doesn't turn into one of those bitter blind people, like Mr. Rochester".

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  2. Anonymous11/01/2006 10:07:00 am

    Thank you for that, Penny! I loved the Grace Poole bit :D

    I love it when I come across the Brontës and/or their characters in any other book I happen to read.

    Is Sue Townsend going blind, then? How sad.

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  3. pennyforyourdreams11/01/2006 08:42:00 pm

    Yes, diabetic retinopathy is causing her blindness. Very sad indeed, but thankfully she is still writing!

    It's really lovely to be enjoying a book (I highly recommend Adrian Mole) and then come across a reference that means nothing to the idle reader, but a lot to you.

    And on the subject of page turning, it pains me to even contemplate such a sacrilege!

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  4. Anonymous11/01/2006 09:17:00 pm

    Coincidentally, I was reading today how Borges became blind too but wrote half of his literary production when he was completely blind. So it's tremendously sad, but not career-ending.

    Oh, don't get me started on how much it hurts to see the state of some books in the public transport.

    I make a mental note of checking out Adrian Mole. I have seen the books a hundred times at the bookshop but next time I'll consider it more carefully. Thanks for the recommendation, Penny.

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  5. pennyforyourdreams11/01/2006 11:19:00 pm

    I'd hate to be blind and unable to read, it's one of my worst nightmares.

    Start Adrian Mole in chronological order: "The Secret Diary..." first and then "The Growing Pains...", they are the best two of the series, in my humble and not particularly exalted opinion.

    I did lend my copy to a friend after I told her she ought to have read it. She hated it and didn't finish. I got my revenge by telling her about the mad woman in the attic in JE, another book she hasn't read. Yes, I know I'm evil...

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  6. Anonymous11/02/2006 06:49:00 pm

    You *are* evil! :P But I know how frustrating it is when you love a book so much and people won't even give it a chance, especially when you can tell they will like it.

    Thank you for the guidance in the order!

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