Wuthering Heights covers and a Jane Eyre that never was

It seems that the latest TV adaptation of Jane Eyre generates doubts about what is the right age for Rochester. Some weeks ago we wrote about the age gap between Rochester and Jane Eyre. Now we read in The Times and Star, that Toby Stephens is almost a teenager:

It was Jane Eyre that started it. I have been really enjoying the series on television, except for the fact that the part of Mr Rochester was being played by a boy!

Where was the dark, brooding older man of my young fantasies?

Then it struck me that Mr Rochester has joined the ranks of policemen and doctors and soldiers.

They’re not really any younger than they ever were. It just depends which end of the telescope you are looking through.

If I had been watching the programme at 15, I would probably have thought the television Rochester was dark, brooding and fairly old.

A friend told me once that you know you are getting old when you always fancy the man in charge in a police drama instead of the hot-headed young sidekick.

The Phoenix talks about singer Petra Haden. She toured recently with The Decemberists covering Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights as we posted some time ago.

Petra Haden is making a career out of covering the un-coverable. When she toured as a Decemberist last year, she stopped the show with Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” — a song that hardly anyone, including the stage-shy Bush, has ever done live.

Erm... we know that Ms Bush has made some live renditions of Wuthering Heights. You can listen (and watch) some of them on YouTube, for instance. Including her mythical 1979 Hammersmith Odeon live performance (also published). And, to be complete, we should add that Sarah McLachlan also has a rare live version from a 1987 soundcheck during her Touch tour. It's available on the net, if you check out the usual P2P resources.

The Old Movie Section blog publishes some 1930 articles in movie magazines that comment on a possible Jane Eyre project. In this project, Ann Harding was Jane Eyre. We don't know if this is the same venture that eventually became the 1934's Monogram picture with Victoria Bruce.

2/3/1930 EH Screenographs By Harrison Carroll
A feminine newspaper reporter will be Ann Harding's role in her next picture but one for the Pathe. (...) The flaxen-haired star first is to do a talkie version of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

2/7/1930 Los Angeles Examiner By Louella O. Parsons
It is certainly news that Jane Eyre, favorite novel of our adolescence, is to be made with Ann Harding and her husband, Harry Bannister, in the leads. Charlotte Bronte may have gone well with previous generations, but I am wondering if we can get our young people to sit through a story that, in spite of its popularity, is so ga-ga. Even so, Jane Eyre, John Halifax, Gentleman, and some of those old-timers have been read more than any of our modern novels. People read more years ago.

So Ga-Ga... Ms Parsons was fond of these stupid and gratuitous remarks.

The picture is courtesy of this website.

Finally, 24-Hour museum reminds us that some of Paula Rego's portfolio on Jane Eyre is on exhibition at Rugby Gallery & Museum, as we informed before.

Categories: In_the_News, Jane_Eyre,Movies-DVD-TV, Music,Wuthering_Heights, Art-Exhibitions