Once again: Jane Eyre is not chick-lit

Australian newspaper The Age, while reviewing Alex Miller's latest book, Landscape of Farewell, describes the author's style as

Alex Miller's novels combine to an unusual degree realism and inwardness. In fact, you could argue that his novels extend the tradition of English ghost stories: The Woman in White and Wuthering Heights; even The Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. The past haunts Miller's characters and his stories puzzle out the mystery of that haunting. They are strange, extreme novels. Yet, in the ghost story tradition, Miller creates narrators whose detached intelligence holds these fantastical elements in a close and precisely imagined world. (Lisa Gorton)

Trashionista interviews writer Anna Blundy, whose latest book is called Neat Vodka. She tries to pass Jane Eyre as a chick-lit read. And as you well know she's not the first to do so. Fortunately in this case, the interviewer Keris Stainton adds that Jane Eyre is not chick-lit.

Your favourite chick-lit book?
Does Jane Eyre count? Anna Karenina? [Um ... I'd say no - Keris]
Otherwise I like the big fat old ones – Jackie Collins and Pearls (who wrote that?). [Celia Brayfield - Keris]

Cinekklesia looks at the subject of film adaptations of the classics, and strangely enough (when it comes to this half of BrontëBlog anyway) puzzles us when the blogger defends Joe Wright's recent take on Pride and Prejudice and states that he likes it better than the book itself. But to report what matters to us:

We watched adaptations of Joyce, Woolf, and Conrad novels, more recent attempts at works by Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen, and a particularly salacious rendering of D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers which had the audience rolling with laughter. Almost without exception, my students joyfully ripped these films to shreds--deigning to recognize the occasional narrative threads captured accurately on screen, but expending most of their energy in an effort to expose the films' various shortcomings. [...]
It is extremely rare for cinema to capture so faithfully the tone, character dynamics, and plot minutiae of a canonical nineteenth-century novel. Nothing comparable exists for any of the Brontë sisters' work: every adaptation of Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights has heavily abridged the storyline and abandoned numerous secondary characters. (Paul Marchbanks)

Even though Mr Marchbanks does seem to know what he's talking about, we must beg to differ or, at least, to take a different look at the subject. While this half of BrontëBlog finds herself usually disappointed in screen adaptations of novels, she acknowledges that the totally different format makes it difficult to cater to everyone when it comes to adapt. Because after all the word we use is ADAPT, not copy or translate. Thus, the scriptwriter and director have some claim to change things for whatever reason, even if we don't agree at all. And also novels that have been too literally adapted are not usually to our taste either. The perfect balance and harmony are hard to find and, as is the case with the aforementioned version of Pride and Prejudice, are hardly ever common ground for fans of the novels.

Mistress of All Evil posts a funny 'explanation' (or rather, enactment) of why Jane Eyre is no Nancy Drew. BookStove has written a most interesting characterisation of Heathcliff. And we have been pleasantly surprised to find a couple of posts on Anne Brontë on the blogosphere today. Loma Loma Loma declares her love for Anne Brontë by posting an excerpt from The Tenat of Wildfell Hall. The last pages of this very book are also posted in their Spanish version in Últimas Páginas.

And finally we must welcome a new blog paying tribute to the Brontës: Los Páramos de Charlotte wants to share all things Brontë in Spanish.

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Websites, Wuthering Heights