Ruthless glamour

A couple of Brontëites to begin with. The New York Times has an article on a recently published biography on Ralph Ellison by Arnold Rampersad.

He read the moderns and was especially attracted to three 19th-century classics, “Crime and Punishment,” “Wuthering Heights” and “Jude the Obscure” — each featuring, as Rampersad notes, “a misunderstood young man, ambitious, tormented, transgressive.” These books would directly influence “Invisible Man.” (Brent Staples)

The Financial Times features a short article written by author Carole Morin on her favourite book, Wuthering Heights.

It was always dark when I walked to the library, eyes peeled for paedophiles. Crawling under the shelf to the adult section, I sneaked a copy of Wuthering Heights under my white fur coat.
Immediately addicted, I read it under my Indian blanket as my brother wheezed in the bunk above. Every night I hoped Heathcliff would come and steal me.
At first glance, Emily Bronte’s moor seemed different from the urban landscape of my childhood.
But darkness, sudden death and ruthless glamour make it more than an attraction of opposites.
The strain of being the only rich family in the street, when Mother got her mitts into Grandfather’s money, meant I was too good to be seen in the library again. Wuthering Heights remained hidden under my bed, a dusty secret.
Each time I read it, the story seems different. But the book stays the same, it’s me that changes. Reading, though, remains for me a pleasure of the night.

Wuthering Heights is the object of several reviews today. Jota Matias - in Portuguese - and Classic Book Club both post about it. Classic Book Club is immersed in the Brontë novels, because they also review The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - which is the reviewer's favourite Brontë novel - and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Blogging for a good book reviews Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, including a funny little summary of Jane Eyre. On another format, the brand-new DVD of Jane Eyre 1944 is reviewed over at DVD Talk.

Creatively Girt uses Jane Eyre as a springboard and writes a fanfic based on it, which makes for a nice - though sad - read.

Art Passion - in French - briefly summarises the life of Branwell Brontë starting with his famous pillar portrait.

And we find from Bend Weekly:

Miniature books have played a role in the lives and careers of a number of important historic figures. [...] the Bronte sisters, as young girls, constructed books in miniature (Linda Rosenkrantz)

The Brontë sisters and their brother too. The main reason behind this would be that paper was quite expensive back then, though they loved to have the luxury of the privacy provided by this minute script that couldn't be read by Papa and Aunt Branwell. Patrick Brontë famously gave their children a larger notebook to write in proper size and not ruin their eyesight, as they did.

And finally a great article - though not strictly Brontë-related, except for some passing mentions - from The Telegraph and Argus.

A forgotten story of tragedy and heartache, which would have stirred the imagination of Emily Bronte, has been unearthed by school children. [...]
Guided by historian and writer Malcolm Hanson, they discovered the solitary gravestone of Emma Riley in a corner of Oakworth Church yard.
What they read on the epitaph gave them a new insight into the way people lived in 1860s Oakworth.
Emma died on September 10 1868, aged 32, and her epitaph tells how she was wooed by a "spoiler with fair words on his tongue", abandoned - possibly in pregnancy - before giving birth to a baby and then pining to her death.
"Emma is not even given a surname on the stone. It is only ten years later when her parents die and they are buried in the same grave that we find she is called Riley," said Mr Hanson.
"I was stunned when I read it," he says.
"It says so much about the prejudices of those times and how stigmatised woman like Emma were.
"It looks like she was cast out by her family and died of a broken heart.
"Emily Bronte would have found it fascinating. There is something Gothic about it - it reminds me so much of Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. (Clive White)

Tragically, however, this kind of thing wasn't so unusual as could be imagined. Victorians seemed to turn a blind eye on the subject of fallen women, or the motives bringing them to their fall. Proof of this is the uproar caused by the publication of Mrs Gaskell's Ruth in 1853. (Incidentally, Villette was supposed to have been published on the same date, but Charlotte Brontë - despite the publicity, etc. - asked her publishers to move her date four days ahead to give Mrs Gaskell's Ruth the spotlight).

"The children now want to uncover the life of this poor young woman. Perhaps we will be able to change after 140 years a few Victorian wrongs. She might even still have relatives here."
The next port of call will be Oakworth Church archives where they hope to find a record of Emma's death, he said.
Meanwhile, the children have been out cleaning up the gravestone which languishes in a far corner of the church yard.
They hope eventually to "adopt" it and look after its upkeep.
Katie Pickles, eight, of Oakworth, said. "It's a very sad story. The man who left her was mean and horrible."
"It wasn't very nice that they didn't put all her name on the stone," said nine year-old Sophie Marshall.
The Oakworth heritage trail, which will eventually become part of a published series of trails around Keighley, includes its links with the Bronte sisters of Haworth and the story of the making of the classic film, The Railway Children.
And it reveals Oakworth had its own nationwide claim to fame even before the Brontes.
At Lane Ends, in 1781, was born a baby, Isaac Butterfield, who was championed as the fattest child in the world.
At 20 months he was three feet tall and eight stones in weight and was showcased in London. He died at the age of 12. (Clive White)

We don't know which story is sadder.

Categories: Branwell Brontë, Brontëites, Fiction, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Wuthering Heights