Confidence

Yesterday was - as you will know - International Women's Day. Trashionista compiled a list of the best women authors of all time.

Charlotte Brontë
Eldest of the Brontë sisters and author of Jane Eyre.

Emily Bronte
Author of Wuthering Heights and sister of Charlotte.

We rather miss Anne in there. Given the day it was, Anne Brontë would have been a proper addition to the list, since she proved she cared about women issues very much.

Anne is remembered, however, on Poetic Petals: A poem a day, where her poem Confidence is quoted.

Brontëana talks about Thomas Crowell's illustrations in the 1890 edition of Jane Eyre. Three of these illustrations can be found here.

Sam Jordison, who writes the Book Blog for The Guardian wonders whether classics can be page-turners and viceversa. His conclusion?

For myself, I can think of plenty of books that I'd say are thoroughly "unputdownable" as well as profound and beautiful. I tore through Hemingway the first time I read him, couldn't stop reading Wuthering Heights as a teenager and even now I have to physically stop myself from too often picking up A Dance To The Music Of Time, so I can savour its pleasures for just a little longer.

A couple of Swedish newspapers have recently talked about two Brontë-related books. Västerbottens Folkblad reviewed the new Swedish edition of Sargassohavet (Wide Sargasso Sea) and Kristianstads Bladet casually talked about Var är Jane Eyre (The Eyre Affair) with two of the librarians of Östra Göinge.

Finally, Say Anything Syndrome review a recent performance of Los Campesinos! and comment this:

Don't Tell Me To Do The Math(s) contains the lyric "if only you could give your life to literature just DON'T READ JANE EYRE!" This lyric was explained by Gareth Campesinos! at the gig where I saw them previously: "this song is actually about my favourite book, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, and if you've read the book you'll understand that this lyric isn't actually about hating Jane Eyre. We hold nothing against that book. *laughs* Though I do think all the Bronte sisters were slags!" If that interests you, then read about how the BronteBlog took offense to the lyric, and Gareth's subsequent explanation, here.

Let us just say that we didn't actually take offense. We don't need everyone to love the Brontës, you know (their loss if they don't). If anything, we found the line amusing. And anyway, the explanation was more than enough to make us understand where it came from. Now calling the Brontë sisters slags... :P

Categories: Anne Brontë, Books, Jane Eyre, Music, Poetry, Translations, Wuthering Heights