Neoluddites

Shirley is not a novel that is frequently mentioned in the news. So reading about it on Libération - a French newspaper - makes it even more exceptional. Apparently there are 'Neoluddites' nowadays and this brings us to the original Luddites.

La révolte luddite sera enterrée, considérée comme réactionnaire par Marx, qui estime que le luddite n’a pas encore appris «à distinguer la machinerie de son utilisation capitaliste, et donc à transférer ses attaques du moyen matériel de production lui-même, à la forme sociale d’exploitation de celui-ci.» Elle sera quand même la source d’inspiration du décor de Shirley, un roman de Charlotte Brontë paru en 1849, qui se déroule au cœur du soulèvement luddite, dans le Yorshire des années 1811-1812. (Frédérique Roussel)

The Luddite revolution would be buried, considered reactionary by Marx, who reckoned that Luddites hadn't yet learned to 'tell machinery from its capitalist use, and thus transfer their attacks from the production material itself to the social form of exploitation of it'. The Luddite revolution would be the background for Shirley, a novel by Charlotte Brontë published in 1849, which takes place in the heart of the Luddite movement - the 1811-1812 Yorkshire.

Excuse our make-do translation.

The Times has an article on Jasper Fforde - making it clear that this is his real name - and his Thursday Next series in general and the much-awaited fifth installment: First Among Sequels. And while we know this is only indirectly Brontë-related we can't help but relay some of it, although if you're a fan like us we suggest you read the whole article.

He started writing in his thirties (he’s now 46) and had completed five books – and received 76 rejections in ten years – before one of them, The Eyre Affair, was published, in 2001. He had almost given up hope.
“I don’t think any agent or publisher ever read any of the books; they looked at the synopsis and said it was too bizarre. I got the feeling I wasn’t ever going to be published. But I was enjoying the writing so much, so I said what the hell, I can do whatever I want, because it didn’t matter, I wasn’t going to be published anyway. So I decided to bung it all in, add all those ideas I had, one sub-plot after another, and after doing that I felt I had a book which really worked, in a way which hadn’t been done before.” The Eyre Affair took off quickly, here and in the US.
There are now five books in his Thursday Next series. The heroine, a literary detective based in contemporary Swindon (though the Crimean War has not yet ended, and dodos are house pets), travels into the contents of famous books to save their characters and plots, and even saves great literature itself from evil enemies.
In The Eyre Affair,Next confronts an arch-villain who has been killing off minor characters in Dickens, then kidnaps Jane Eyre. In Next’s fifth and latest adventure, First Among Sequels, published in early July, she investigates the premature deaths of Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, Pride and Prejudice is turned into a reality show called The Bennets and she meets a fictional Thursday Next – herself from a previous Fforde book.
No such summaries, though, do justice to the sheer inventiveness, wit, complexity, erudition, unexpectedness and originality of the works, nor to their vast repertoire of intricate wordplay and puns. (Players of Monopoly may recognise Landon Parke-Laine.) [...]
In order fully to appreciate his humour, don’t readers need to know a great deal about the fictional characters that inhabit his books? “I did worry about that at the beginning, but now I don’t worry so much. I don’t use really obscure characters. They’re ones people have heard of even if they haven’t read the book. They may not be totally au fait with Jane Eyre, but they know who she is. A lot of people haven’t read Great Expectations, but they know about Miss Havisham and her wedding dress. It doesn’t matter if they don’t catch all the references and allusions. They’ll know enough.” (Marcel Berlins)

Click here to read an excerpt of First Among Sequels.

Changing topics radically, SFist reviews the film Nina's Heavenly Delights.

There were moments when the movie also reminded us of Wuthering Heights. Does anyone remember reading that book and not understanding what the heck the cantankerous groundskeeper Joseph was saying because his narration was written in a thick Yorkshire patois? Well, we have to admit we only understood about 70% of the movie because even though we saw their lips moving and we're sure they were speaking English, some of the dialogue was swallowed up in what we're assuming was a Glaswegian accent. (Rita)

Funny connection.

The Mystery of Irma Vep is compared yet again to Wuthering Heights in the Tribune-Star. Either the influence is very obvious or the reviewers are copying each other.

Wabash Valley theatergoers are likely to see familiar faces in unusual places during the summer season of Crossroads Repertory Theater at Indiana State University.
Beginning tonight, Crossroads kicks off its summer season with “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” and theater lovers may be surprised to read in the program some of the names they commonly associate with St. Mary-of-the-Woods College.
“The Mystery of Irma Vep” is a satirical play written by Charles Ludlum, the late founder of New York City’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company. The play is a campy spoof on Gothic horror films, liberally stealing from well-known film classics such as “Wuthering Heights,” “The Mummy’s Curse” and Alfred Hitchcock’s Academy Award-winning “Rebecca.” Astute audience members may also recognize dialogue Ludlum lifted from Ibsen, Shakespeare, Poe, the Brontës, Omar Khayyam and Oscar Wilde. (Rachel Wedding)

Wuthering Heights - the actual novel - receives an A- on Flaming Geeks. And Harrogate07 briefly reports on a journey to Haworth where they

bought a CD of Wuthering Heights in which Jess appeared as the young Catherine.

This Jess must be Jessica Hennell, who played young Cathy in Wuthering Heights 1992.

Categories: Books, Movies-DVD-TV, Shirley, Theatre, Wuthering Heights