Welcome to the Brontë Hotel

The Herald Mail announces that Nora Roberts is building - well, not with her own hands - a historic inn with theme rooms in Boonsboro: the Boone Hotel.

Guests who check in at the historic Boone Hotel when its conversion to Inn Boonsboro is complete might relax in the flashy style of Dashiell Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles, experience Gothic mystery with Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester or enjoy old-world charm reminiscent of Elizabeth and Darcy.
Best-selling author Nora Roberts' dream is to decorate each of the six rooms at the hotel that she and her husband Bruce Wilder are converting to an inn in the style of great romantic fictional couples, including one of her own. [...]
Although nothing has been finalized, Roberts' professional penchant for romantic couples led her to explore borrowing the atmosphere for the inn's rooms from works such as Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," Charlotte Bront's "Jane Eyre" and Hammett's "The Thin Man." [...]
Over at the Boone Hotel, plans call for six bedroom suites - five upstairs and one downstairs that will be handicapped accessible.
"All the rooms will be decorated in the period" of the different romantic fictional couples, Roberts said. "I want them to be inviting and comfortable - atmosphere and comfort will be the key."
To that end she is working with furniture store owner and local historian Doug Bast. Roberts also hopes to include in the rooms some of the items her mother left her. (Marlo Barnhart)

We do hope it will be somehow true to life - could be interesting. We will keep an eye on it.

Another Brontëite today is Helena Bonham Carter. According to The Times,

Nor does she lobby much for parts. Her last effort at being proactive proved a disaster. She wrote a passionate letter to Peter Kosminsky, asking to be seen for Cathy in his 1992 Wuthering Heights (the part went to Juliette Binoche). “Actually, it was more of an essay on the whole of Emily Brontë, and he said, you must come in. I was wearing dungarees – probably not the best thing to wear to an audition for a romantic heroine. I was all wrong, and he was fumbling around, and I said, ‘Come on! What is it?’ He said, ‘Um, I think you’re a bit dumpy, that’s all.’ ” She screeches with laughter. “Luckily, I didn’t hurl myself into bulimia.” (Lesley White)

A place where there seems to be quite a lot of Brontëites as well is Malaysia. The Star held a poll on Malaysia's top 10 favourite works of fiction and Jane Eyre reached position number 8. Villette was also voted but didn't make it to the top ten.

Titles that received single votes predominate the poll. There are 884 of them and they include the classic thriller Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier, children’s book When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson, the queen of crime Agatha Christie’s Endless Night, and Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Bronte’s better-known novel Jane Eyre sits on the eighth spot on the list. (Daphne Lee)

Topsy Turvy has written a post called Rochester as amateur bug collector and why that is a good thing. The post is really interesting and insightful.

Anyway, Jane Eyre 2006 does not make this mistake, and hits all the high points without fumbling. That alone makes it worth watching. I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see a properly done proposal scene, or reunion scene, or Morton interlude. [...]
For an adaptation to be good, it has to add something consonant with the source material but unique. Basically, it has to prove to me why I should be watching Jane Eyre when I could be reading it. (Read more)

And finally a brief history of the Brontës by sheherazade1 - in French.

Categories: Brontëites, In the News, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV