Brutally Trufhful Style

The Overlook Press Blog posts the Publishers' Weekly review of the upcoming (next March 2008) The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë by Laura Joh Rowland:

"The author of Jane Eyre plays sleuth in this enchanting historical from Rowland, acclaimed for her mystery series set in 17th-century Japan (The Snow Empress, etc.). After the instant success of Jane Eyre and the lesser success of her two sisters’ novels, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, Charlotte Brontë receives a letter from her publisher, George Smith, accusing her of breach of contract: Smith believes the same author penned all three novels, as they each appeared under a pseudonym with the surname Bell. On the train from Haworth to London to meet Smith, Charlotte and sister Anne encounter Isabel White, a mysterious girl who, once in London, is murdered. Charlotte becomes ensnared in a case involving a revenge plot orchestrated by an arch villain shaded with old school orientalism. Brontë fans will delight in Rowland’s portrait of Charlotte, who closely parallels Jane both in personality and station. The men playing opposite Charlotte often echo the character of Edward Rochester, lending an enticing will-they, won’t-they tension to the proceedings."

According to the Daily Star, Ruth Wilson was the second placed woman, just after Billie Piper, on the annual top TV talent list, compiled by industry magazine Broadcast from votes by TV chiefs.

Tulsa World reports about books and movies read in 2007. Wuthering Heights is one of them:

Shelves at bookstores are getting trashier and trashier these days, with tomes about Alist lives in California to false highschool documentations. When it’s hard to fi nd a guaranteed good read, it’s time to turn to the underappreciated classics. Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” is a classic read in purest form. Drama, haunting romance and action, too— Bronte’s creative juices really got flowing. The novel follows the lives of two generations of two different families as they grow old, fall in love and live through the hardships of the mid-1800s. It’s hard not to relate to at least one element of this European classic, be it forbidden love or complicated friendships. Bronte’s brutally truthful style of writing and love for climatic twists and plotlines will have you turning page after page. (Cara Rob, Memorial freshman)

Chez Clarabel posts about the French translations of Charlotte Brontë's Stancliffe's Hotel juvenilia piece and Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey:

Il fut un temps où les jeunes filles rosissaient de confusion, faisaient commerce avec des galants hommes, étaient "rongées par l'affliction, harcelées par l'inquiétude, ou durablement oppressées par des sentiments puissants" et se refugiaient dans la poésie. Un temps où la littérature portait une lettre majuscule, où l'on encensait les sentiments purs, la nature et les vicissitudes de la condition féminine - qu'on soit pauvre ou riche, belle ou laide. Un très, très bon roman, tout en raffinement ! (clarabel76)

Jane Eyre is a passing mention in these two press articles: The Houston Chronicle talks about mental health care:

The issue has remained largely absent from the recent presidential health-care debates. For too many people, "mental illness" conjures images of 19th century asylums and visions of Mrs. Rochester locked away in Jane Eyre. (Jeffrey A. Lieberman)

And in The Washington Post's review of Anne Perry's A Christmas Beginning:

Out of this narrative, a question arises: What about those "gentle" women who couldn't or wouldn't get married in the Victorian Age? They were usually doomed either to become governesses (like Jane Eyre) or hang around the houses of their father or brothers, subsisting on a penurious allowance. (Carolyn See)

Finally, let's highlight that LibriVox has a new Brontë project: The Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.

Categories: Agnes Grey, Audio-Radio, Books, Fiction, Jane Eyre, Juvenilia, Movies-DVD-TV, Poetry, References