Putting naughtiness into books

The Telegraph traces a profile of Elizabeth Gaskell as a perfect prelude for the airing tonight, November 18, of the first episode of five-part Cranford BBC adaptation.

The lavish five-part series is tipped to become the most watched costume drama since Pride and Prejudice 12 years ago, but while Jane Austen and her 19th-century contemporaries, George Eliot and the Bronte sisters, bask in imperishable fame, Mrs Gaskell remains largely unknown to the public.
This hardly seems fair; for while Austen may have penned more polished satires, and it is hard to beat the Brontes for breathless bouts of passion, Elizabeth's legacy not only transcends both literature and genre, but speaks with deadly effect of the big issues - sex, inequality, social alienation - that trouble us still. (...)
She pioneered what might be called the reality novel, wrote one of the greatest of all biographies, and mapped the pathologies of the emerging working class more accurately than Marx or Engels. So why isn't she more famous?
"She ought to be," says Joan Leach, secretary of the Gaskell Society. "I've complained to the BBC in the past about Jane Austen always being on, and Elizabeth being ignored. At least it's changing. There's a big revival going on now. I think we can see her now as a very modern woman - an early multi-tasker, who worked, raised a family, involved herself in the community - and she understood people well and recognised how change affected their lives." (...)
Pondering her relationship with Charlotte Bronte, the celebrated biography of whom she completed in 1857, she wrote: "The difference between Miss Bronte and me is that she puts all her naughtiness into her books, and I put all my goodness into mine. My books are so much better than I am that I often feel ashamed of having written them, as if I were a hypocrite." (William Langley)

As a matter of fact the quote is not exact. It comes from a letter from Mrs Gaskell to Lady Kay-Shuttleworth (April 7, 1853) and verbatim it says:

The difference between Miss Brontë and me is that she puts all her naughtiness into her books, and I put all my goodness into mine. I am sure she works off a great deal that is morbid into her writing, and out of her life; and my books are so much better than I am that I often feel ashamed of having written them and as if I were a hypocrite.

The letter then goes on to discuss Villette.

Mezzo-soprano Jane Irwin chooses her favourite musical moments for The Scotsman. One of them is:

WUTHERING HEIGHTS
Kate Bush
I must have been about 10 when I first saw Kate Bush on Top Of The Pops. It was so unlike anything I'd ever heard. She is a complete individual. All these years later I still love to listen to her music. I chose this track because I love literature, I've visited Howarth [sic] and have obviously read Wuthering Heights.

The Age interviews a former Jane Eyre, Charlotte Gainsbourg. According to the journalist she returns to this in one of her latest films, Nuovomondo:

In Nuovomondo (aka The Golden Door), she's back doing the Jane Eyre thing, playing a turn-of-the-century Englishwoman with a secret sorrow. (Andrew Pulver)

Jane a turn-of-the-century woman? That's new.

The blogosphere is always full of surprises. Have you ever imagined how could the story of Jane Eyre from Rochester's perspective be? Well, this blog is a possible answer:

Edward Fairfax Rochester's Love for Jane Eyre

We all know the story of Jane Eyre's love for Edward Fairfax Rochester, the moody and mysterious master of Thornfield Hall-- but what about Rochester when he came upon Jane in Hay Lane that dark afternoon in 1837? (True Janian Reply)

Sword of Gryffíndor continues the discussions on the Heathcliff/Snape literary similarities:

The fundamental difference I see between Snape and Heathcliff is that Bronte seems to have set her story in a world devoid of God altogether. The only references to the Christian religion in the book paint a picture of judgmental hypocrites, and the only tangible picture of afterlife are frightening ghosts who conjure visions of bleeding on a window sill, and walk the moors at night. Perhaps Bronte meant to tell us that she believes Heathcliff’s reunion with Cathy was his redemption; perhaps, indeed, it was. But Rowling gives us a bigger picture than that. Snape comes to realize the value of self-sacrificial love itself through his love of Lily. Heathcliff seems to be eternally united to the obsession that made him such a villain to begin with. (Travis Prinzi)

More things: Chips and Ale reviews Jane Eyre 1944, Tea at Tranion does the same with Wuthering Heights 1939. Finally, Pralineries briefly comments Shirley in French.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Shirley, Websites, Wuthering Heights