20-episode Wuthering Heights and Great Britain's worst year

Michael has been so kind as to forward a link to an article from the Daily Mail. There are no direct Brontë mentions per se, but the article is worth it. 1812 is chosen as the worst year in British history (read the article to see how bad it actually was!) and, of course, 1812 was a key year when it comes to the Luddites.

Violence seemed endemic as the so-called Luddites smashed the new machines that would make cheap cloth for the mill-owners and them redundant.
Troops were called out, the Riot Act was read, and there were armed clashes between rioters and soldiers in the North of England and the Midlands.
Magistrates and mill-owners were ambushed and assaulted or targeted in their homes and their families terrorised.
Some are said to have built-in secret rooms as hiding places, just as the very rich today have "panic rooms" in their homes. (Tony Rennell)

The Luddites feature prominently in Charlotte's novel Shirley, but there's also a non-fiction connection to them. Patrick Brontë's custom of loading his pistol before going to sleep (and discharging it in the morning) dates from this tumultuous year, as he was living in the heart of the Luddite movement at the time. As a clergyman, Patrick Brontë saw his duty to call law and order into this chaos, but couldn't hide his great sympathy for the the plight of the Luddites.

Another item of great interest regardless of its passing Brontë mention is last Saturday's Guardian article on fictional characters and what makes them three-dimensional and believable.

Yesterday we posted a list of Brontë novels available for Amazon's Kindle. However, if you have a Nintendo DS you might be able to read ebooks on it quite soon, according to T3.

Nintendo financial reports don't usually provide riveting reading entertainment. However, the Japanese firm's latest number cruncher has thrown up an all new game, DS Novel.
According to our pals over at CVG, the new game is set to follow in the footsteps of best selling Far East title DS Bungaku Zenshuu, which came chock full of classic Japanese literature.
We reckon a British edition would include a spot of Dickens, some Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters and, er, Jilly Cooper.
If you ask us, the 3-inch screen on the DS is little weeny for that kind of behaviour, but if you don't fancy buying books and the like, surely it's a better alternative than spanking your cash on pricey eReaders.
Whether DS Novel is a hit remains to be seen. But considering Ninty is the king of turning bizarre ideas into multi-million pound industries, we wouldn't be surprised. (Joe Minihane)

Let's take a stroll around the blogosphere now. YoTypeo - in Spanish - has brought to our attention a Mexican TV screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights from 1979 (a year after the BBC adapted the novel too). The main roles were played by Alma Muriel and Gonzalo Vega, directed by Ernesto Alonso and adapted by Ada Campobello. What's striking, though, is the length of the series: it ran for 20 one-hour-long episodes! Apparently, the series wasn't very successful and barely remembered nowadays. In the picture (source) , Gonzalo Vega.

Still on the topic of Wuthering Heights adaptations, Chardie's Angels recommends The Promise as a good Valentine's movie. Many people suggested it last year too.

Dare I Read has a post on dialect in Wuthering Heights. And The Lost Queen's Kingdom has a new set of Jane Eyre 2006 icons.

Finally, Relz Reviewz interviews author A.J. Kiesling. This is her answer when asked for favourite books:

Do you read much yourself? If so, some favourites, please?
I've constantly got my nose in a book. The most amazing recent book I read was The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (a Brit of course…what is it about that English literary heritage?) This is a near-perfect book to me. I both dreaded and delighted to come to its conclusion. I just finished The Rule of Four also, another delightful read by two young American college graduates.
Other favourites: The Starbridge Series by Susan Howatch, Father Melancholy's Daughter by Gail Godwin, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, and my all-time favourites: Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre by the Bronte sisters.

Categories: Brontëites, In the News, Movies-DVD-TV, Patrick Brontë, Shirley, Wuthering Heights