Reviewing

The EWU student newspaper, The Easterner, reviews a recent talk given by Beth Torgersen as we published some days ago.

Beth Torgerson, assistant professor of English at Eastern was the first of three faculty presenters in a series entitled Contemporary Issues in Feminist Research. Torgerson discussed her book, Reading the Bronte Body: Disease, Desire and the Constraints of Culture.
To write the book, she researched Victorian medical material and history, as well as the literary work of the three Bronte sisters; Anne, Emily and Charlotte. According to Torgerson, the three sisters were actually part of an eight person family which suffered great loss due to disease.
They lost their mother when the oldest, Charlotte, was only seven to what is now believed to have been ovarian cancer. The family lost their two youngest sisters to consumption (tuberculosis) when the girls were very young. Anne, Emily and their brother Branwell, died in their 30s and Charlotte died six years later in 1856. In fact, Patrick Bronte, the father of the family, outlived the rest of the family, passing away at 84.
According to Torgerson, it was more amazing that the siblings lived so long, not that they died so young, considering the living conditions of the time. Because of their early exposure to disease and death, the Brontes' work is permeated by representations of disease. Torgerson also said that during the Brontes' lifetime, 41 percent of children died by the age of six, and the average life expectancy was 25 years old.
"Death and disease were routine occurrences in Victorian life," she said, adding that "[The Brontes'] perception of death and disease impacted their writing." (...) (Tessa Schilter)

Today the blogosphere is full of reviews in different languages. Mia's BookList continues reviewing Brontë novels. This time is Villette. Brontë adaptations are also reviewed: 2006 Jane Eyre is discussed on this French blog (a pure merveille), 1944 Jane Eyre on this Italian blog (with comparisons with Zeffirelli's version). Finally we have even a Hungarian review of 1939 Wuthering Heights.

The weird selection of the day comes from Japundit, where this Japanese TV-series (Hana Yori Dango) is described like:

Picture Jane Austen meets Jane Eyre meets your irrepresible plucky Japanese heroine. (Marie Mockett)

Whatever.

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