Happy 2007!

BrontëBlog would like to thank you all for bearing with us in 2006 and wish everyone all the best for 2007. Let the new year bring plenty of smiles, laughter and - of course - Brontë news and releases.

Categories: Messages from BB

Read More

The have-been's and the will-be's

These are days when we all consider how the year has been for us. The news sites do too, and - continuing with yesterday's 'selection' - here are a few more highlighted events.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette looks into who has been the performer of the year and - though not the winner - they reserve a special mention for Caroline Nicolian in the recent Pittsburgh Point Park University version of Jane Eyre The Musical.

Also: Laurie Klatscher in "The Good Body" (City), Alessa Neeck in "42nd Street" (Pittsburgh CLO), Erika Cuenca in "Opus" (City), Erica Highberg in "Fool
for Love" (Thank You Felix), Chandler Vinton in "Pyretown" (City); Susan McGregor-Laine in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" (Summer Co.); and a pair of Point Park students, Caroline Nicolian in "Jane Eyre" and Kelsey Robinson in "Ragtime." Helena Ruoti's Jocasta in "Oedipus" (Public) may be too small a role to be a lead but it was harrowing.

Also AA Gill, a television critic at The Times Online considers that the latest Jane Eyre has been one of the highlights of the year.

It’s been a funny old year on TV. Most of the drama has happened offscreen in the boardroom, but my highlights included two adapted dramas, the wonderful The Line of Beauty and the sublimely reinvigorated Jane Eyre.

Sublimely reinvigorated sounds really good.

The Observer does the opposite and instead of looking back looks forward at the 'hot lit flicks' opening in 2007.

Tighten those bodices and get ready for some heaving bosoms - this is the year of the literary biopic. From Renee Zellweger as the animal-mad Miss Potter (opens Friday) and Anne Hathaway as Austen in Becoming Jane (9 March) to Michelle Williams as Charlotte in Brontë (filming next year), it seems none of English literature's lovely ladies are unplundered by those canny Americans. Expect plenty of overemphasis on non-existent love lives, swooping vistas of lush countryside and assorted anguish.

Incidentally we suggest that if you want more info on Becoming Jane you visit AustenBlog where they will let you know why it is - in Mags's words - a Made-Up Story.

And finally another Indian Brontëite. Poet Agha Shahid Ali is interviewed in Chowk and this is what he says about one of his poems Snowmen.

I approached the poem "Snowmen", from which these lines are taken as an immediate sensuous apprehension. It was later that I thought of its feminist implications. There are two things hidden in that poem. One is a poem by Wallace Stevens called "The Snowmen". If you read it you won't see the connection but it is there for me. The other is a scene that has haunted me for a long time from Wuthering Heights. The narrator is staying at Heathcliff's house because there has been a terrible storm and the ghost of Katherine [sic] knocks on the window. She says, "I'm cold. Let me in". He opens the window and the glass breaks somehow. He takes the hand of the ghost and rubs it against the glass and there is blood. It's an amazing scene. Talk about magical realism. People think about that novel and they want neat answers. [Bronte's] whole enterprise is that there are no neat answers. But to provide you with a neat answer: I'm thinking about my ancestry and the lost women in this ancestry who we never hear about.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, In the News, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Poetry, Theatre, Wuthering Heights

Read More

The Brontës at the New Yorker

The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker was recently released in paperback. We got this amazing book last Christmas in the hardcover edition and it took us all of a few minutes to insert the accompanying CD on our computer to scan for Brontë cartoons. And lo and behold! There were at least a couple of them, which we bring you today. We are sure they will make you laugh as much as they did us. Still, the rest of the illustrations are so fabulous that we suggest to get hold of the whole book :)

Here's some background on the one where the Brontë sisters are throwing stuff at Paris.

Credits
Picture 1: Jack Ziegler (11/21/1983) Picture 2: Ronald Searle (8/3/1992) .

Categories: Comics, Books

Read More

Jane Eyre Unmasked

Via the Toby Stephens forum, we have heard that January - or at least its beginning - is going to be nearly as Brontesque as last September was.

In perfect chronological order, BBC Four will broadcast the latest screen version of Wide Sargasso Sea on January 6, 21:10-22:35. Then, the following day, January 7, the four episodes of the new Jane Eyre will be shown on the same channel starting at 7 pm, followed by a documentary previously mentioned on BrontëBlog, but not quite as new as these production. The documentary, Charlotte Brontë Unmasked, dates from the year 1994, right after a possible new photograph of Charlotte Brontë was discovered. The debate, however, is still ongoing on whether the woman in the photograph is Charlotte Brontë or not.

What made us flinch was the following description of said documentary:

11:00pm - 11:50pm BBC4
Legendary author Charlotte Bronte was thought to have died unphotographed. But recently, photographs allegedly of Charlotte show a severe, formidable woman, and new biographies portray her as a jealous sister, spiteful daughter and sexual predator. These revelations have proved a shock for fans who see in Charlotte an idealised image of Victorian womanhood. This programme searches for the real woman behind the disputed image.

Sexual predator? It seems that they went to the very end of the opposite direction of Mrs Gaskell's view.

For readers on the other side of the pond, the PBS will be showing the episodes on January 21 and 28. But we advise our readers to watch closely the Weekly TV Alerts on our sidebar for further information as the dates approach.

On another news, The Age has just published a lovely newspaper article by Justine Picardie which appeared in The Telegraph last September. It was related to the exhibition Brontëan Abstracts at the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the visit of two psychics to the Parsonage.

And finally, a new Brontëite joins our ranks. Indian sculptor S. Nandagopal talks to The Hindu about her favourite book.

I also reread my all-time favourite, "Wuthering Heights," which I've always found inspirational. When I went to the U.K., I made it a point to visit Top Withins, trekking up the Yorkshire moors in gumboots through foggy weather to see the ruin which is supposed to have inspired the novel.

Categories: Brontëites, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wide Sargasso Sea

Read More

Folio Society Brontës

Two new Folio Society editions of Brontë-related books appear these months:

The Brontës: A Life in Letters
Juliet Barker

'Oh! Those high, wild, desolate moors, up above the whole world, and the very realms of silence' Mrs Gaskell, after her first visit to Charlotte Brontë in 1853

Haworth parsonage sits above the village on the very edge of the Yorkshire moors. Windswept, treeless and bleakly beautiful, this was the landscape that nourished one of the most remarkable of all literary families, offering unfettered freedom and feeding the rampant imaginations of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Branwell. As children they wrote voraciously, inventing whole worlds of romance and drama. As grown-ups they struggled to earn their living, whether as artist, teacher or governess, before Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall took the literary world by storm.

In A Life in Letters, award-winning biographer Juliet Barker allows the Brontës to tell the story of their triumphs and tragedies in their own words, from their close-knit childhood to their literary triumphs and the griefs that were to follow. Charlotte, vigorous and insightful, is a wonderful letter-writer, Branwell hardly less so, his character laid bare on every page as he shows off to friends or seeks to impress Wordsworth with his literary ambitions. Their mother, who died the year after Anne was born, comes alive in teasing letters to the Rev. Patrick Brontë, 'My dear saucy Pat'; while the well-known tragedy of Branwell's descent into dereliction is the more poignant for Charlotte's heartfelt anguish at his death: 'I weep for the wreck of talent, the ruin of promise.' Their voices - by turns revealing, elusive, gossipy and forthright - along with those of their devoted father, their friends and those who knew them, come alive off the page in this magnificent portrait.

* 448 Pages
* Colour frontispiece and 16 pages of black and white plates
* Size 9½" x 5¾"

And a reedition of the 1964(?) original Folio Society edition of Wuthering Heights:

• 293 Pages
• Wood engravings by Peter Forster
• Size "9" x 5¾"

Categories: Biography, Books, Wuthering_Heights

Read More

A Naturalist view on Jane Eyre and Barkmore Brontë

About readers and small talk...

The Asheville The Citizen-Times publishes an article where George Ellison, naturalist and writer talks about his last readings.

Currently, I’ve been revisiting portions of Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre,” published in 1847. I first read the novel 45 years ago in a college course.

At that time, I concentrated on the Gothic trappings of Bronte’s tale and completely overlooked her descriptive writing. Of late, I’m much more struck by her eye for the British countryside and how the pervasive gloom of rural England in winter matches her main character’s psychological state. (...)

These days, I’m much more captivated by her evocative naturalistic descriptions. A “species of pleasure” is what we all might feel in such a grim setting. I might well think of that phrase while walking down the creek below our house this evening, when “the best winter delight” will reside in “utter solitude and leafless repose.” One way in which we learn to see more clearly and feel more deeply is through reading the impressions of others; especially, when reading someone with Charlotte Bronte’s intensity.

Micheal Heaton on The Cleveland Plain Dealer instructs how to be the king of small-talk.

But if you really want to be the interesting person at a party, I can help. It's not enough to blather on with your memorized fun facts. They need a little "sweetening." Just make sure the new information you're adding to the topic is impossible to fact check. (...)

The Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, were novelists whose books captured the tone of the Victorian mid-1800s. Charlotte wrote "Jane Eyre." Emily wrote "Wuthering Heights." Anne wrote a novel you never heard of, so never mind. All three died of consumption.

Erm ! Not just one, TWO that obviously the journalist has never heard of. The second part is the funny one:

You add that there was a Bronte brother named Barkmore who was drummed out of the family because of his fondness for stamp collecting, then thought to be the height of depravity. Too bad for the sisters Bronte. He went to medical school and became Dr. Barkmore Bronte. He wrote the famous medical text, "Five Easy Ways to Avoid Tuberculosis."

AssociatedContent publishes an article about Emily Brontë. The author, Timothy Sexton, argues that Emily Brontë is probably the most well-known Brontë sister today and tries to explain why Wuthering Heights is still one of the most fascinating novels around.

Emily Bronte is arguably the most famous of the Bronte sisters; certainly only Charlotte gives her any serious competition. Her fame, like Charlotte's, rests primarily upon one single work of fiction, her gothic novel Wuthering Heights. But why should that novel serve to elevate Emily to more fame than Charlotte when her sister's own novel Jane Eyre has retained its popularity alongside Emily's book? Interestingly, the key to Emily's ascension to the near-unanimous acclaim as the premier woman of letters in her family may be found in the keen observation made by Charlotte that Emily had in Wuthering Heights created a novel that was both disturbing and fascinating to the reader simultaneously. (Read more)

More readers. We have found a couple of reviews of books that have been previously mentioned on BrontëBlog. The ubiquitous The Thirteenth Tale by LiteraryFeline. And Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading by Lesley's Book Nook.

And finaly, the curious thing of the day. This blog by a pastor of an Australian Baptist church reports Anne Brontë's Farewell Poem as one of the favourite funeral poems.

Categories: Anne Brontë, Books, Emily Brontë, Humour, Jane Eyre, Poetry, Websites

Read More

Brontë Parsonage News

A couple of things related to the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the Brontë Society that can be of interest to our readers.

First, the Brontë Parsonage Website reminds that these are the last days to visit the Cornelia Parker's Brontëan Abstracts exhibition.

The Bronte Parsonage Museum is open 29, 30 and 31 December (11.00 to 5.00) and 1 January (from 12.00). The Museum is then closed from 2 January reopening on 1 February 2007 with a new exhibition on the Charlotte Bronte and her first biographer Elizabeth Gaskell.

It is the last chance to see Brontean Abstracts, the criticly acclaimed exhibition by Turner Prize nominated artist Cornelia Parker.

The exhibition has been widely praised and includes images of Brontë relics magnified using electron microscopy, as well as video and sound installations featuring a commentary from two psychics whose responses to the Parsonage Parker recorded. The work is displayed throughout the house alongside the museum’s permanent display.

We really look forward to have more information on this exhibition about Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Brontë in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857-2007).

The Brontë Parsonage Blog also informs about a new initiative: Friends of the Brontë Society.

The Friends of the Brontë Society is the name of a group just formed at the Parsonage, made up of staff members. It will be concerned with raising money for the recently-finalised Forward Plan, intended to take the Society and the Parsonage into the Twenty First Century.

Fundraising will be one of the principal concerns of the Society in 2007: plans for a new centre for visitors have been in existence for a long time, needing only a massive injection of funds to make them come true, for example.

The Friends coordinator is Pat Berry. First event is a ceilidh to be held in Haworth on St Patrick's Day in March. More details nearer the date. (Richard)

Categories: Brontë Parsonage Museum, Brontë Society

Read More

The Irish Wuthering Heights Conspiracy

It's not very usual that an article about a Brontë-related research is published in the non-English press. We have found an exception in this article published in El Correo Digital.

The problem is when the journalist decides to give the, in her opinion, dull research a twist and transforms an interesting scholar approach into a radical and revolutionary theory that, literally, brings down everything published before about Wuthering Heights.

Picture source: The author in the room where Emily Brontë wrote her novel (E.C.)

We are talking about Óscar Arnedillo's theory about Wuthering Heights and Ireland that has been published in the most recent Brontë Studies issue:

That Wind from the West
pp. 240-247(8) Author: Arnedillo, Óscar
Abstract
Wuthering Heights is about the knowledge and study of passions and emotions, yet there is more Irish background in Emily's work than generally accepted. In this article parallels are made between the writings of Emily Jane Brontë and some aspects of Irish history. The possibility that Emily made use of different events in Irish history in the composition of her novel are explored, many of which were related to her by uncle James while he was visiting the Parsonage during the time of Irish famine.

The article even suggests that there's a conspiracy against this theory,

«En torno a la obra Brontë existe un gran negocio, y está claro que en Gran Bretaña no interesa que se sepa que hay otra perspectiva que pueda desviar la atención y los beneficios a otros escenarios»
Translation via Babelfish -->Around the Brontës' works a great business exists, and it's clear that in Great Britain it does not interest that another perspective that can turn aside the attention and the benefits to other scenes, could be known

Is it the journalist or Mr. Arnedillo who is talking? We have read his paper in Brontë Studies and although we think that a few of his assertions are a little bit forced, we didn't have the feeling of any conspiracy against them.

There are other puzzling things in the article:

En un manuscrito original menciona la isla de Aran, de Irlanda, y después se cambió por Arrán de Escocia. En otro documento que he visto yo mismo, su hermana habla de volver a Irlanda con su tío James porque lo considera su casa. El nombre de la novela es gaélico irlandés. Incluso he comprobado que en 1845, cuando ella escribe, recibieron la visita de su tío que les contó la hambruna que estaban pasando, bien por sus propios problemas o bien por la imposición inglesa. Todo eso subyace en la novela. Hay que tener en cuenta que Emily pertenecía a una familia conservadora y que no tenía la libertad que tiene ahora una joven, y menos para abordar un tema tabú. Por eso creo que dejó pistas para que el lector las conecte. Pero, como digo, es tal negocio que no interesa que salga a la luz. Vende más mantener el misterio. Se han construido cientos de biografías basadas en falsedades, sin entrar en el fondo. Mi reto es llegar a desmontar -siempre con pruebas- ciento cincuenta años de crítica literaria que no se ajustan a lo que ella cuenta.

Babelfish Translation: In an original manuscript the island of Aran is mentioned, in Ireland, and later it was changed by Arrán of Scotland. In another document that I have seen myself, her sister speaks about returning to Ireland with her uncle James because she considers it her home. The name of the novel is gaelic Irish. I have even verified that in 1845, when she writes, they received the visit of their uncle who told them about the famine that they were suffering, either by its own problems or by the English imposition. All that sublies in the novel. (...)

Well, Aran for Arrán - it has never changed, it depends on how the manuscript of Tales of Islanders is read. The most recent edition, by Christine Alexander no less, reads Arrán. We frankly don't know which letter from Anne the author is referring to is. And, well, the visit of James Brunty in 1845 has been reported previously (for instance by Chitham, whom Mr. Arnedillo thanks in his Brontë Studies article).

Probably we will have to wait until his book is published, Emily Jane Brontë: Libertad en Palabras to know all the details.

More information:

Óscar Arnedillo's Article in El Mundo about Emily Brontë (1999)

Previous book of Óscar Arnedillo: Emily Jane Brontë --todavía el misterio (2002)

Categories: Emily Brontë, In the News, Scholar, Wuthering Heights

Read More

Year reviews and Vaudeville's Villette

The doom of the end-of-the-year days. The review of the year, the best of, the year summarized... Today, we have two mentions.

TimeOut reviews the Best of 2006 in TV and Radio. The recent BBC version appears in the Hits section:

Jane Eyre BBC1. Beautifully adapted, directed and performed, particularly by relative newcomer Ruth Wilson, this was a BBC costume drama that was true to the channel’s finest traditions while bringing in a good deal of the depth and style of ‘Bleak House’

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette does the same but with Theatre in Pittsburgh. After Mrs. Rochester's performances are counted among the best of the year (see this old post for more information)

6. 'AFTER MRS. ROCHESTER 'Polly Teale, Quantum Theatre Quantum's "found" space was the original Carnegie Music Hall in Braddock, its aged and faded grandeur framing a complex, multi-layered biography of British writer Jean Rhys and her mental demons, including the mad woman in the attic of "Jane Eyre." (Christopher Rowson)

More curious things. Variety compares Jane Eyre and the The Wind in the Willows ballet, now in The Royal Opera House, London.

What is it about attics? From "Jane Eyre" to "Edward Scissorhands," storytellers have used dusty rooms at the tops of houses for the unveiling of secrets. And so it is with William Tuckett's dance version of "The Wind in the Willows." (David Benedict)

A recent poll among the British members of Parliament has produced these results:

The nation's politicians are a romantic bunch with MPs voting Casablanca as their favourite film of all time. (...) The Tories were twice as likely as their rivals to choose a romantic film, with many naming Gone With The Wind, La Dolce Vita and Wuthering Heights.

La Dolce Vita a romantic film? Hmmm...

Finally, a new story from the Yuletide 2006 Challenge. Isle of Gramarye presents it like this:

A beautiful turning-on-the-head of Charlotte Bronte's "Villette," focusing most delightfully on the vaudeville. Femslashly and devious.

"I would not be you for a kingdom"

Fandom: Charlotte Bronte - Villette
Written for:
Claire in the Yuletide 2006 Challenge

"Are you fond of a sea voyage?" I asked her.

She was small and slight and pale, a gentlewoman a few years older than myself, in plain mourning clothes. My father had pointed her out to me as suitable company on the journey from London to Dieppe. She did not look interesting -- she was not pretty, and her clothes were shabby -- but she was at least not one of the vulgar steerage passengers.

She looked at me carefully, and said, in a small but distinct voice, "I do not know whether I am fond of a sea voyage: I have never travelled by sea before." (Read more)

Categories: In_the_News, Jane_Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Theatre, Villette, Wide_Sargasso_Sea,

Read More

Wine Swedish Sargasso

Wide Sargasso Sea in Swedish and Wuthering Heights and wine. Two new books for today.

We read in Sydsvenskan how a new Swedish translation of Wide Sargasso Sea appears edited by Modernista. The article summarizes the recent 'history' of the Bertha Mason character. From Charlotte Brontë to Gubar and Gilbert passing by Jean Rhys. A curious thing:

The novel was first published in Swedish in 1989, titled "Den första hustrun" (The First Wife). Now Modernista have released the book again and have given it the more proper title "Sargassohavet" (Sargasso sea).

Details:

• SargassoHavet by Jean Rhys
• Translated by Ingegärd Martinell
• Modernista (November 2006)
• ISBN 91-85453-55-2

The other book that we present today is about the relationship between wine and literature. Emily Brontë is mentioned. There are several wine mentions in Wuthering Heights but of course the first one that comes to mind is: I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind. (Chapter IX)

El cáliz de las letras
Historia del vino en la literatura
Author: Miguel Ángel Muro Munilla
Publisher: Fundación Dinastía Vivanco (2006)
Language: Spanish
ISBN: 8461112830

Categories: Books, Emily Brontë, Translations, Wide Sargasso Sea

Read More

From patrons to Paul McCartney's Cathy

The West Australian reminds us again that Emily Barclay will be Anne Brontë in the biopic Brontë that Angela Workman is preparing:

[Emily Barclay] is proving just as popular overseas. Barclay will begin production on British film Bronte in the new year.

She will play one of the famous Bronte sisters opposite Michelle Williams, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ben Chaplin.

An update (not as encouraging as we would like) of the present status of the Brontë Spirit project (the initiative to protect and develop the Haworth School Room building)

At a meeting in Haworth on 30 November, it was reported that Brontë Spirit was not successful with its People’s Millions application, but had been put down as ‘first reserve’. We were invited to apply again in 2007.

A Business Plan has been drawn up. This will be used by the committee and will be additionally useful when the paperwork for Lottery Funding is dealt with.

A number of companies are being approached for funding for a new promotional booklet, which will be in A5 format and professionally designed.

We are looking for a patron – please send us your ideas. (Richard)

And finally a curious thing. We read on The Beatles Connection about Paul McCartney's ambitions to be Cathy in Wuthering Heights :P. It happened during an interview in the Eamonn Andrews Show (April 11, 1965) at the Teddington Studios-ABC-TV, London. Pictures here. The transcript of the interview can be read here.

PAUL: "We can't act, you know. We're no good."

JOHN: "They do so many cuts, it looks as though we're nearly acting. But we're not."

GEORGE: "Paul's gonna play Cathy in..."

EAMONN: "Wuthering Heights?"

GEORGE: "Yeah, that's right, Paul's Cathy."

PAUL: "Yeah. Wuthering Heights. It's my big ambition. No, but, uhh... We're not good enough as actors 'cuz they get, as John said, they get people around us in the film, and just stick us in in a little bit. Then there's a whole big pile of acting. And it looks as though we can act. But we can't."

Categories: Brontëana, Movies-DVD-TV, Weirdo

Read More

Gender and Reform in Victorian Culture

With some delay we report the presence of a whole panel devoted to Charlotte Brontë in the recent "Gender and Reform in Victorian Culture" conference organized by the Victorians Institute. The meeting was held in the Converse College, Spartanburg, South Carolina (October 20-21, 2006).

Panel 11 - Charlotte Bronte and the Reforming Impulse
Chair: Beth Kramer, New York University

"Vinegar Discourse": The Spinster as "Neutral Man- Woman" in Bronte's Shirley and Gaskell's Cranford
Kay Heath, Virginia State University

Reforming National Identity: Shirley as a Palimpsest Novel
Heather Miner, University of Virginia

Resisting Reform: Charlotte Bronte and the Grounds of Natural History
Danielle Coriale, Brandeis University

But these were not the only Brontë-related contributions in the conference:

Panel 1 - Spaces for Reform: Implications for Narrative

Foreign Lands and Female Spaces: Mary Taylor and Shirley
Victoria Ford, Rice University

Panel 4 - For God and Country: Women's Choices As Illusion or Reality

Serving Two Masters: Signifying Choices in Jane Eyre
Joseph Donica, Bob Jones University

Panel 13 - Embodied Protest

Bystander at the Banquet: Female Consumption and Political Protest in Shirley
Meagan Timney, Dalhousie University

Reforming Beauty in Brontë’s Shirley
Margaret E. Mitchell, University of West Georgia

Panel 14 - Literacy, Lying and Literary Art

Revolutionary Reading: Gender and Reform in Charlotte Bronte
Eric Lorentzen, University of Mary Washington

We think is noticeable that Charlotte Brontë's Shirley has been the subject of a lot of scholar research.

Another contribution was presented on the Fifth Biennial Conference of the International Society for Travel Writing, Roughing It!, Denver, Colorado, September 28-30

Remedying the Self through Travel in Charlotte Bronte’s Villette
Anne Longmuir, Kansas State University

Categories: Scholar, Shirley, Talks

Read More

The Soprano, Heathcliff and Pinky and the Brain

The Boxing Day news come with reviews, Brontëites, books, humour...

The review. The Washington Post reviews John Sutherland's How to Read a Novel. We have already posted about John Sutherland relation with the Brontës and the book also contains some mentions to Jane Eyre.

The Brontëite. The soprano Lisette Oropesa. She is one of the winners of the 2005 Met Auditions and recently made her debut in the Met in Mozart's Idomeneo, re di Creta in a minor role. She is interviewed on Oberon's Grove:

Her favorite...
Book: "WUTHERING HEIGHTS"
Movie: "Also WUTHERING HEIGHTS."

The book. What could be the book/s of the year 2006 ? The Independent asks several critics and authors and the results are here. Of course, Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale is in there, among some others that have been mentioned on this blog.

Scarlett Thomas
If you want rollercoaster prose and a story that feels like it should come with a height-restriction, read Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (Viking).
The House of Orphans by Helen Dunmore (Fig Tree) is a beautifully written meditation on revolution and belonging that's just as compelling as The Siege.

Charlotte Mendelson
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (Orion) was quite the opposite: a colossally enjoyable Brontë-esque bluestocking melodrama.

The sequels. Typos, Gravity and other Mishaps posts about sequels of great novels. The Story of Heathcliff's Journey Back to Wuthering Heights by Lin Haire-sargeant is mentioned.

I also tried, ages ago, to read Heathcliff, a sequel of sorts to Wuthering Heights, only it depicted a story that was never told by Brontë. Like The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes, it's more about the missing years in Heathcliff's life that we don't know about. Unfortunately, I never got through the book. I couldn't make any sense of this pointed humanisation of Heathcliff. Unfortunately, it more or less just lacks consequence. It's a story that doesn't make much of a difference. While it's believable that this, in fact, is the life that Heathcliff lived in those missing years, does it really matter all that much? It cannot possibly alter the rest of Bronte's tale in any possible way, because Bronte has been smart and already told us what happens next. Besides, Bronte's pretty much even offered the plot, and only the narrative is left for Haire-Sargeant to take over. And the problem is both with the fact that she decides to take it over and with the way she takes it over. (Manasi Subramaniam)

The humour. We have discovered, via springgreen, this story included in the Yuletide 2006 challenge. Jane Eyre meets Pinky and the Brain.

Jane Narf
Fandom: Pinky and the Brain
Written for: shaychana in the Yuletide 2006 Challenge

My name is Jane Narf.

I was born in 1820, a harsh time of change in England. There was no place for the white mouse or the lab rat. I had no father or mother, brother or sister. As a pinky, I was raised by my experimenter, Dr. Reed of Gateshead Labs. I do not remember that he ever spoke one kind word to me, unless you count the word food-pellet, which is really two words, isn't it? Do hyphens count?

I completed my education at Lowood Labs during months that, between my admiration for Miss Phar Fig Newton and the deaths of my fellow students due to dietary and disease-prevention research, were a very interesting passage in my life; alas, this is only a thirty-minute story, so we have to skip something.

Have you ever noticed how long sentences can make your head go swirly-whirley? (Read more)

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Humour, Jane Eyre, Sequels

Read More

Jane Eyre read by Juliet Stevenson on the radio

Today, December 26, OneWord Radio airs the first of 52 episodes of Jane Eyre read by Juliet Stevenson. OneWord Radio is a digital station, available via DAB or digital television providers as Freenet in the UK, that is also streamed on the Internet.

The episodes will be aired from Monday to Friday (pay attention to our sidebar TV-alerts section for possible changes) at 01:30 AM, 09:30 AM and 5:30 PM (GMT).

We suppose that this Jane Eyre is the one that Juliet Stevenson recorded in 1996 (?) and that has been re-edited several times. The last(?) time in this 2000 16-CD collection. It has not to be mistaken with this other reading also by Juliet Stevenson but abridged.

Categories: Audio-Radio, Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

Read More

Season's greetings!

BrontëBlog would like to wish you all a very, very happy Christmas (or your celebration of choice) surrounded by your loved ones. May your day be filled with love and laughter.

We would like to thank everybody that has participated on our contest. As usual we would like to have as many books to give as participants but alas !, we have just one. The winner has been emailed and we are pretty sure that Ann Dinsdale's The Brontës of Haworth will make a perfect Christmas present for a Brontëite. As we promised the winner's Christmasy quote is our weekly quote:

"Make haste, Heathcliff!" I said, "the kitchen is so comfortable; and Joseph is upstairs: make haste, and let me dress you smart before Miss Cathy comes out, and then you can sit together, with the whole hearth to yourselves, and have a long chatter till bedtime."

He proceeded with his task and never turned his head toward me.

"Come - are you coming?" I continued.
(Wuthering Heights, Chapter VII, Emily Brontë) from Polly, US.

This is a selection of some of the quotes that we have received on our email:

"How often, while women and girls sit warm at snug firesides their hearts and imaginations are doomed to divorce from the comfort surrounding their persons, forced out by night to wander through dark ways, to dare stress of weather, to contend with the snow blast, to wait at lovely gates and stiles in wildest storms, watching and listening to see and hear the father, the son, the husband coming home."
(Villette, Chapter XXV, Charlotte Brontë from Merry, US)

...Last Christmas I was a bride, with a heart overflowing with present bliss, and full of ardent hopes for the future - though not unmingled with foreboding fears. Now I am a wife: my bliss is sobered, but not destroyed, my hopes diminished, but not departed; my fears increased but not yet thoroughly confirmed.
(The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Chapter XXVIII, Anne Brontë from Maddalena, Italy)

“afterwards I shall go near to ruin you in coals and peat to keep up good fires in every room; and lastly, the two days preceding that on which your sisters are expected will be devoted by Hannah and me to such a beating of eggs, sorting of currants, grating of spices, compounding of Christmas cakes, chopping up of materials for mince-pies, and solemnising of other culinary rites, as words can convey but an inadequate notion of to the uninitiated like you.”
(Jane Eyre, Chapter XXXIV, Charlotte Brontë from Georgina)

"Come, mamma," said he, "by way of compromise, and to secure for us inward as well as outward warmth, let us have a Christmas wassail-cup, and toast Old England here, on the hearth."
(Villette, Chapter XXV, Charlotte Brontë from JaneFan)

"I knew it, I felt it to be the letter of my hope, the fruition of my wish...I experienced a happy feeling - a glad emotion which went warm to my heart, and ran lively through all my veins. For once a hope was realised. I held in my hand a morsel of real solid joy..."
(Villette, Chapter XXI, Charlotte Brontë from Marybeth)

Music I love, but never strain
Could kindle raptures so divine,
So grief assuage, so conquer pain,
And rouse this pensive heart of mine,
As that we hear on Christmas morn,
Upon the wintry breezes born.

(Music on a Christmas morning, Anne Brontë from Geoff, UK)

In the evening I went to the churchyard. It blew bleak as winter - all round was solitary.
(Wuthering Heights, Chapter XXIX, Emily Brontë from Natalia, Holland)

And so on...

Picture, courtesy of Beautiful Britain (source).

Categories: Messages from BB

Read More

More Brontës in Pakistan

Some months ago, the Brontë Parsonage Blog published an article where Richard Wilcocks interviewed Wali Aslam, a Pakistani member of the Brontë Society. He said:

"The Brontës are popular in Pakistan, I think. They are loved there, partly because we live in a 'Victorian' society there, in which women have limited opportunities, where health care is poor and where social status matters a lot. So we relate to the world of the Brontës.

Today, the Brontë news seems to agree with him because there are focused in Pakistan:

The Pakistan Daily Times publishes an article with the memories of the old Lahore by Urdu writer A. Hamid. He explains this anecdote:

I remember the release at Plaza Cinema of the movie Jane Eyre, starring Orsan Wells [sic]. Our actor friend’s review of the movie I can never forget. According to him Jane Eyre was a love story like Heer Ranjha, Laila Majnu and Sohni Mahniwal. “But the director is a fool, he has failed to film the most effective scene from the novel,” he announced.

When we asked how, he declared, throwing out both arms, “When Jane is trapped inside a burning house, her lover Eyre comes running, calling her name. ‘Jane, Jane, my love where are you?’ Jane, who is already half consumed by the flames, replies, ‘Eyre, Eyre, here I am my love.’” Of course, there is no such scene in the novel but the intensity with which our friend played it out was so effective that many of us were overcome.

Jane and her lover Eyre ? That's really something new. This suggests a scholar study of Freudian-protolesbian-dissociative aspects of the novel... at least.

From Lahore to Karachi, where the author of this article is looking for old books without luck until...

Suddenly, on my right, I spotted an antique-looking hardbound with a dirty green cloth cover. It was Wuthering Heights! I took it out and flipped through its yellowed pages. Yes, it smelled nice and looked romantic. Blood rushed into my head. Heart started palpitating, hands shivered, eyes twitched and cheeks reddened. I attempted to conceal my excitement from the gentleman. These booksellers are shrewd people. What if he sensed my excitement and hiked up the price.

But oh! The book was published in 1964. It was not old. (Mayank Austen Soofi on BlogCritics)

And as the Monty Python would say... now for something completely different. The Lady Of The Lake has published some High Resolution pictures of the last Jane Eyre aired by the BBC. We love the one with Jane hands-in-hips and defiant look.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights

Read More

Brontë editions. Update

From time to time we like to post about the new editions of Brontë novels that become available:

Do you remember the (in)famous Bloomsbury editions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights ? Bloomsbury now edit both of them with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice under the name: Younger Readers Classic Christmas Collection.

• Younger Readers Classic Christmas Collection Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; Pride and Prejudice Bronte, Charlotte, Bronte, Emily, Austen, Jane
• Item ID: CBUND00027
• Paperback
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

1st World Library publishes Wuthering Heights (cover on the right):

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: 1st World Library, Ltd (2 Nov 2006)
• ISBN-10: 1421823225

AssistedReadingBooks publishes several editions of Charlotte Brontë's Shirley and Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall:

Shirley Volume 1 & 2 [EasyRead Comfort Edition]

• Paperback: 584 pages (Vol 1) - 472 pages (Vol 2)
• Publisher: Assistedreadingbooks.com Inc (1 Nov 2006)
• ISBN-10: 1425050506 (Vol 1) - 1425051014 (Vol2)

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 1 & 2 [EasyRead Comfort Edition]

Paperback: 392 pages (Vol 1) - 384 pages (Vol 2)
ISBN-10: 1425050689 (Vol 1) - 1425050654 (Vol 2)

There are also EasyRead Editions and EasyRead Large Editions of both books.

The Echo Library has added to its catalogue Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë:

ISBN: 1406831921
Pages: 332
Publisher: Paperbackshop.Co.UK Ltd - Echo Library
Publication date: 01 Nov 2006

IndyPublish is also publishing Patrick Brontë's Cottage Poems:

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Indypublish.com (13 Nov 2006)
• ISBN-10: 1428041222

Categories: Biography, Books, Cottage Poems, Shirley, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Wuthering Heights

Read More

Adèle gets reviewed and Olivier's Heathcliff is remembered

The Scotsman reviews Emma Tennant's The French Dancer's Bastard

Why did Brontë introduce Varens into her novel? She needed a child for Eyre to teach, a reason for her going to Thornfield Hall and meeting Rochester, certainly. But Brontë was also enough of a craftswoman to realise that another intriguing back story for Rochester, besides his stay in the Caribbean, would not only add to the exotic nature of his past, it would add another nail in his coffin of dubious moral values - values that Eyre ultimately restores to him.

Tennant is not happy to rest with Adèle as either plot device or moral counterpoint. As she tells Adèle's story, we see the Paris where she spends her early childhood, a bohemian, artistic Paris that is about as far from industrialising Yorkshire, hemmed in by wild moors, as it is possible to get.

It is here, in this convivial atmosphere, that Adèle lives with her adored mother, Celine, a beautiful actress and performer who flirts with counts and has mime artists and political agitators for friends. The haphazard presence of the dour Englishman, Rochester, who pops up from time to time, disrupts this easygoing life for little Adèle, who doesn't approve of his attentions taking her mother away. But this is nothing compared to the moment when her mother leaves Paris. Adèle is abandoned and only Rochester can look after her now - there's a clear implication that he is the child's true father.

But Adèle never adapts to Yorkshire; the meek little girl obsessed by ribbons and bows that Brontë paints, hides a vengeful, angry child in Tennant's re-visioning. (...) And so it is back to Paris that Adèle runs, after Thornfield Hall is destroyed by fire, returning to a much more politicised city, where her mother's friend, Jenny, introduces her to the feminist cause.

This is an interesting and ingenious twist - Jane Eyre has long been read as a proto-feminist text, full of symbolism about a young girl's adolescence (...) Now Adèle becomes the independent woman, making a living for herself on the high wire ("I was also ecstatic in my new career, neither woman nor child as I swung and pirouetted above the crowd"). This is the time of radical clubs and George Sand, easy to remain ignorant of out in the wilds of the Yorkshire moors. (...)

Fans of Brontë's classic can be assured that Tennant's story - even when she gives new interpretations of well-known events - is a fascinating complement to the great original. (Amy Mathieson)

The Toronto Star interviews director Guillermo Del Toro that is presenting his new film El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth). The Mexican director remembers his first cinematic experience:

Q Wow. I know you've been drawing since you were a child. But do you remember the first movie you saw? (Geoff Pevere)

A I was a very young kid because my mother took me. It was Wuthering Heights – the Laurence Olivier version. It was beautiful, black and white, really dramatic. There was something in it. I slept through half of the movie on my mother's bosom then I woke up and continued watching. There was something sort of dreamlike about it.

It really seems an impacting memory because this is not the first time that he explains this story

Categories: In the News, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights, Sequels

Read More

The Festival of the Immortals presents Charlotte Brontë

The Festival of the Immortals is a short story written by Helen Simpson that is published today, December 23, in The Guardian.

It's a funny story with some Ffordish touches and the guest appearance of Charlotte Brontë, reading Villette, Emily Brontë talking about the incident with the rabid dog and Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Wolf, George Eliot, Shakespeare, Coleridge...well, you name it.

The Festival of Immortals by Helen Simpson

The Daniel Defoe event had just been cancelled, and as a consequence of this the queue for the tea tent was stretching half way round the meadow. Towards the back, shivering slightly this damp October morning, were two women who looked to be somewhere in the early November of their lives.

"Excuse me, but are you going to the next talk?" one of them asked the other, waving a festival brochure at a late lost wasp.

"Who, me?" replied the woman. "Yes. Yes, I am. It's Charlotte Brontë reading from Villette, I believe." (Read more)

And do not forget the illustration by the great Posy Simmonds.

Categories: Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, References

Read More

Jane Eyre re-writings

The last number of the LISA e-journal (Volume IV – n°4 / 2006), edited by the Université de Caen, is devoted to the different re-writings of Jane Eyre. Thanks to Max, from the Brontë list, for bring this to our attention:

LISA
Littératures, Histoire des Idées, Images, Sociétés du Monde Anglophone
Vol. IV, n°4, 2006
Re-Writing Jane Eyre

Introduction by Armelle Parey

The present collection of articles along with a few additional contributions contains the proceedings of a conference held at the university of Caen Basse-Normandie, France in May 2004. Entitled “Jane Eyre, Past and Present”, its aim was to study the posterity of Charlotte Brontë’s novel and/or character since its publication in 1847. That two-thirds of the texts studied in this volume were published in the last decade of the twentieth century attests to the fact that rewriting has become a major feature of British postmodern literature and has consequently elicited an increasing number of articles and symposiums1 . Our aim was to study the process, technique and aims of rewriting through a unique source-text2. The number of rewritings prompted by Charlotte Brontë’s novel made it ideal for the experiment3. Hence this collection has a double aim: as a modest follow up to Patsy Stoneman’s 1996 Brontë Transformations, the present volume also hopes to provide an overview of the evolution of the practice and aims of rewriting. (Read more)

Early Re-Writings

Lucy Snowe: The First Rewriting of Jane Eyre by Élise Ouvrard
Abstract:
While reading Villette, published by Charlotte Brontë in 1853, one cannot help thinking of Jane Eyre, the eponymous heroine of the novel published by the same author in 1847. The link means much more than the thematic and stylistic unity of a writer’s works. Lucy Snowe, the heroine of Villette, constitutes in fact the rewriting of Jane Eyre. Such rewriting is characterized by continuity as can be shown by the physical appearance, the strength of character and the progression of both heroines. However, there would be no interest in reproducing Jane Eyre identically and the outcome of the two novels presents a clear rupture, a rupture which has to be deciphered in order to understand the purpose of Charlotte Brontë in creating the filiation between Lucy Snowe and Jane Eyre.

Daphne Du Maurier's Transformation of Jane Eyre in Rebecca by Bernadette Bertrandias
Abstract:
Cet article examine la transformation, dans Rebecca, du mythos que constitue dans Jane Eyre, la triade Jane/Rochester et Bertha Mason. Si l’autre femme fait figure ici d’obstacle à l’aboutissement de la quête de bonheur et de réalisation de soi de l’héroïne, son élimination opportune rend celui-ci finalement possible. Dans Rebecca, en revanche, la figure fascinante et complexe de l’autre femme est riche d’ambivalence et suscite chez la jeune héroïne narratrice qui l’a remplacée un désir d’exploration, puis d’identification, aboutissant finalement à une appropriation qui lui livrera plein accès à la maîtrise de sa destinée tout comme à son autonomie de sujet écrivant.

Of Father Figures and Gardens: Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea by Anne-Marie Baranowski
Abstract
Though no father actually appears as a character either in Jane Eyre or inWide Sargasso Sea, the father figure looms large in both novels, as a complex, protean and paradoxical entity, playing a crucial part in the fate of the protagonists. Jane Eyre and Antoinette Cosway are orphaned at an early age, Rochester’s father is depicted as remote and insensitive; the surrogate fathers —Antoinette’s stepfather, Jane’s uncles— mostly fail when they try to replace the missing one. Rochester himself is an ambiguous character who appears in both novels as a son, lover and husband on the one side, as a father figure on the other. In Wide Sargasso Sea he acquires through his marriage to the heiress Antoinette Cosway a legal authority which he eventually uses to destroy his wife; in Jane Eyre he first appears as the wealthier, more knowledgeable, stronger character before he discovers a female counterpart who does more than merely hold her ground.
These different aspects of the father figure are closely linked to the motif of the garden which mirrors the inner development of the —mostly— female characters. It is not entirely similar to nature itself, though it is part of it; the latter means in both novels lethal dangers and elemental violence, whereas the garden is a sheltered place. In Wide Sargasso Sea, the debased garden of Coulibri simultaneously conveys a distorted, though by no means untrue reflection of the father figure and a sanctuary from the harshness of the outside world. It also means a place of peace and of simple joys for Jane Eyre, making up for the deprived life at the Lowood boarding school; but contrasting with Coulibri it does not preclude the contact with the outside world which she actually longs for. Hence the garden mirrors the crucial moments and experiences in the lives of both heroines, including love, married life and loss.

“There is always the other side…”: The “Other Women” of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre by Patricia Gott
Abstract
Si Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë se lit essentiellement comme un roman qui recèle un secret en son cœur, le propos de Wide Sargasso Sea de Jean Rhys et de Rebecca de Daphné Du Maurier est en partie de dévoiler les strates qui enveloppent ce secret pour atteindre la vérité que contient Jane Eyre. Alors que Rhys et Du Maurier comblent les lacunes dans l’histoire de la première épouse, apportant des informations auxquelles Brontë se contente de faire allusion quand elle décrit le secret de Rochester & l’existence d’Antoinette / Bertha Mason la folle&, les lecteurs éprouvent des sentiments variés face à ces exemples apparemment innombrables de connivence entre les trois romans. Juxtaposer ces trois textes pour les lire comme un ensemble permet une interprétation plus riche et plus complexe par le biais du syncrétisme qui se met en place.

POST-MODERN RE-WRITINGS

The Story of Heathcliff’s Journey Back to Wuthering Heights by Lin Haire-Sargeant (1992), and a “Two in one” Rewrite by Isabelle Roblin
Abstract
Lin Haire-Sargeant’s 1992 novel The Story of Heathcliff’s Journey Back to Wuthering Heights is typical of the interest shown by contemporary American writers in Victorian novels. It could indeed be classified doubly as a “retro-Victorian novel” since it partly re-writes not only Emily Brontë’s most famous novel, Wuthering Heights, as the title points out, but also, somewhat less obviously, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. We will study in this article how Lin Haire-Sargeant’s attempt at re-writing highlights the usual aims of the retro-Victorian novel: taking advantage of the blanks left by the source novels to propose to the reader a modern critical approach, while at the same time being as faithful as possible to the writing conventions of the 19th century, and suggesting another point of view on a well-known story, through a postmodern mixing of historical and fictive characters.

“And they didn’t live happily ever after”: D.M. Thomas’s Rewriting of the Ending of Jane Eyre in Charlotte by Armelle Parey
Abstract
D.M. Thomas’s rewriting of Jane Eyre in Charlotte (2000) takes the shape of a transformation of the ending which enables the second Mrs Rochester’s story to be continued in the West Indies, thus also acknowledging Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea as another intertext. In order to challenge the narrative and ideological hierarchy of the source text by rewriting its ending, the pastiche defamiliarises it while some chapters set in 1999 move the limits of rewriting and take the reader into a narrative spiral.

Adèle, an “Addled” Version of Jane Eyre? by Claire Bazin
Abstract
Adèle is a rewriting of the story of Jane Eyre published 150 years before. Emma Tennant, who is a specialist in the field of « revisions » puts Adèle, Jane’s young pupil in the Ur-text, in the limelight by giving her a « story of her own », as if she were taking her revenge on the original text which had given her so insignificant a part.

Re-Vision of Jane Eyre as Philosophical Metacomment in the Novels of Anita Brookner by Eileen Williams-Wanquet
Abstract
Although none of Brookner’s twenty-three novels to date actually re-write Jane Eyre as hypotext, Brontë’s novel is part of the pervasive intertextuality of Brookner’s text, addressed here as a monolithic fiction. This omnipresent intertextuality, which is the key to understanding the whole œuvre, serves to define the moral codes followed by the heroine and to make a philosophical metacommentary on contemporary culture. Brookner’s characters read and comment on Jane Eyre, the heroine takes Jane as a role model of virtue and the masculine characters are divided into those who resemble Mr Rochester and those who belong to the same category as St John Rivers. But Brookner’s text is a re-vision of Brontë’s novel, as of other novels set in the tradition of the classic realist text and of romance, which have Cartesian rationalism and Christianity as philosophical underpinnings. Brookner reverses the poetic justice of Jane Eyre, which is re-contextualised to fit a new moral landscape in which God is dead as ultimate justification for virtuous conduct. Whereas Jane Eyre can ultimately be read as a “Victorian romance” which preaches reason in the name of social order, by replacing the traditional happy ending by an unhappy ending in which virtue is punished and by foregrounding the disastrous effects of suppressing passion in the name of reason or self in the name of the other, Brookner announces the end of a philosophical humanistic tradition in which the subject / object or self / other opposition gives rise to a host of binary oppositions, the notion of centre validating the dominance of one of the terms of the hierarchy.

ADAPTATIONS

Jane Air: The Heroine as Caged Bird in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca by Paul Marchbanks
Abstract
Dans le quatrième chapitre de son ouvrage intitulé Brontë Transformations (1996), Patsy Stoneman révèle l’importance des reprises et transformations dont a fait l’objet Jane Eyre (1847) de Charlotte Brontë dans diverses pièces de théâtre, romans et films depuis sa publication initiale. L’un des avatars les plus intéressants mentionné par P. Stoneman est Rebecca d’Alfred Hitchcock (1940) d’après le roman à succès éponyme de Daphné Du Maurier paru en 1938. Parmi les nombreux éléments communs au roman de Brontë et au film d’Hitchcock figurent l’héroïne orpheline consciente de son physique ordinaire, un personnage masculin maussade doté d’une épouse “présente-absente” et une intendante dont le tempérament influence l’atmosphère du manoir dans lequel l’héroïne réside temporairement. Un autre point commun, plus difficile à déceler car profondément intégré à chaque œuvre, est le portrait de l’héroïne en oiseau prisonnier. Ce(tte) subtile trope/métaphore mérite d’être remarqué(e) car non seulement l’image constitue un lien entre les deux œuvres mais elle permet aussi, dans ses diverses manifestations, de les différencier. Tandis que dans Jane Eyre, l’image de l’oiseau apparaît chaque fois que Jane s’échappe d’un lieu qui l’emprisonne, celle de la cage s’avère être l’élément dominant dans le film d’Hitchcock, imposant finalement des limites infranchissables à la liberté de l’héroïne.

The spectre of an “empty bed”: Debbie Shewell’s More Than One Antoinette by Sue Thomas
Abstract
La pièce de théâtre gothique de Debbie Shewell intitulée More Than One Antoinette fut présentée à Londres en 1990 au Young Vic Studio par la troupe féministe britannique Monstrous Regiment. Cette pièce propose une révision de deux textes: Jane Eyre et Wide Sargasso Sea. Elle tente d’instaurer un dialogue critique entre les deux histoires afin d’aborder la question du sujet féministe britannique contemporain.Reprenant l’argument de Judith Halberstam selon lequel « la littérature de l’horreur » a la « faculté de transformer les combats politiques en états mentaux » et de « brouiller la distinction entre les deux », cet article examine le regard critique que pose Debbie Shewell sur Charlotte Brontë et Jean Rhys et analyse la portée et les conséquences de l’interprétation psychologique que fait Debbie Shewell de Bertha Mason Rochester et de sa relation avec Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre by Michael Berkeley and David Malouf: The Operatic Rewriting of a Great Classic English Novel by Jean-Philippe Heberlé
Abstract
This article discusses Michael Berkeley’s opera Jane Eyre. Premiered on June 30, 2000 by Music Theatre Wales at the Cheltenham International Festival of Music, this opera is based on the novel by Charlotte Brontë and the libretto is written by the Australian poet, novelist, playwright and librettist, David Malouf. It was risky and daring to try to adapt this famous and long novel for the stage. We will particularly focus on the similarities and differences between the novel and the opera as well as on the strategies used both by David Malouf and Michael Berkeley to adapt it. Through the analysis of the similarities we will see how Michael Berkeley set to music some of the great themes and elements of the novel: passion, a sense of entrapment, the “Gothic” atmosphere. On the other hand, the analysis of the discrepancies between the novel and the opera as they appear in both the libretto and the music will lead us to a modern apprehension of the characterization of madness as well as of the metafictional dimension of the rewriting of Jane Eyre by David Malouf and Michael Berkeley.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Journals, Scholar, Sequels, Wide Sargasso Sea

Read More

Where the Wright Brothers meet Starksy & Hutch

Passing by China, Israel and the blogosphere.

A charming story is published in Shanghai Daily:

I find it ironic that my interest in literature was first piqued in a place where reading fiction was considered a waste of time.
Back in 1990s Shanghai, a promising and intelligent youth would read nothing but math and science prep books. And yet, as trends go, there are always a few stragglers. (...)
I am very lucky to live in a Chinese-American family where the pleasure in reading is enthusiastically encouraged. (...)
But I have fallen in love with the insightful charm of "Pride and Prejudice," the passion of "Anna Karenina," and the melancholy diction of "Jane Eyre." (Lu Yiren)

This reviewer of Haaretz has a very vague idea, as a matter of fact he has no idea at all, of Charlotte's Brontë's works:

In the classic novels of marriage, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte instruct their female readers how to find a proper match, which will combine love with an improvement of their social and economic standing. (Alit Karp)

This article on American Heritage about the Wright Brothers, the flying pioneers, compares the family background of the Brontë sisters and the Wright Brothers:

The Wrights were the stuff of Sinclair Lewis, seasoned with dashes of Thornton Wilder and the Brontë sisters: solidly Midwestern products rooted in mainstream, small-town, agrarian-oriented WASP culture. Their father, Milton Wright, an unbending and contentious bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, came from old Puritan English and Dutch stock. He had married a shy, studious woman, Susan Koerner, of German-Swiss roots; from this union came seven children, five of whom, four brothers and a sister, survived into adulthood. (Richard P. Hallion)

If you have found this comment weird, wait to read this Starsky & Hutch fan-fiction story that mentions not only Wuthering Heights, but even the whole family, Anne and Branwell included !

We also highlight this post about the on going Hungarian theatrical performances of Jane Eyre that we presented some days ago.

Categories: In the News, Weirdo

Read More

Brontë School Productions

We report some school productions that have been performed or are being performed with a Brontë relation.

In the Sacramento Country Day School, Sacramento, California, Brontë is the December High School play. We don't know if this Brontë is Polly Teale's play.

December 7, 8, 9 7pm
December 10 4 pm
January 5 8:15 pm
January 6 7:00 pm

In the Capilano College, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,a performance of Jane Eyre. The Musical was held last December 15. Gillian Barber, Theatre Co-Ordinator, told us:

We did do Jane Eyre, but it was a classroom production, so wasn't publicized on any of our sites. It was a terrific production to work on, and the students learned a huge amount about the period and about Charlotte Bronte.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Music, Theatre

Read More