Hardship, insanity and ghosts

First of all, good news. As if looking forward to the release - scheduled for July - of the Classical Comics edition of Jane Eyre wasn't enough, we have just heard that a Classical Comics edition of Wuthering Heights is being prepared for autumn 2009. Here is the description from their website:

Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte
Emily Bronte's only novel is famous the world over - not least because of Kate Bush's 1978 "tribute song" - but don't let that trivialise this classical masterpiece. Hardship, insanity and ghosts; what more could you want from a book?
Script: Sean M Wilson
Artwork: John M Burns
Available Autumn 2009

It's also nice to see the continuity of the work, as John M Burns is in charge of the Jane Eyre artwork as well, which we like a lot.

On to other topics. John Mullan's Anonymity is still doing the rounds. Mark Ravenhill in his Guardian blog reflects on writers and pseudonyms, and Currer Bell turns up.

The most popular author of his day - Walter Scott - published anonymously, as did his contemporary, Jane Austen. Defoe and Swift were anonymous scribes, and Jane Eyre was first published under the name Currer Bell.

Not only Jane Eyre, but each and every Brontë novel was, even Villette, even if by then Charlotte could no longer keep her real identity a secret.

And courtesy of the Ledger-Enquirer comes one of those mentions where a Brontë reference seems to be added for no reason at all:

Browne, with her sharp wit and gaudy get-up, drew laughs from the 50 or so women (and a few men) gathered Sunday, as she gave a brief talk at a table in front of the historic library's classics section.
Part of her comments came from a reading from a chapter in her latest book, "The Sweet Potato Queens' Guide to Raising Children for Fun and Profit" (Simon and Schuster, $22.95). The reading, however, may have made Jane Eyre blush. It is about boys' fascination with their privates, and her interpretations thereof. (Allison Kennedy)

*sigh*

Before we move on to look at some blogs, we would like to make a parenthesis in the purely Brontë stuff and report that, according to the Guardian, the BBC1 has just announced that we will be watching a new, four-part adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles next autumn. If there is a classic that can't absolutely be altered to tell a rosy story - as was the one of the main arguments of the historical drama fatigue - then that's Tess.

So, blogs. Draydel talks about Jane Eyre 2006 and Pride and Prejudice vs Jane Eyre. Allan Hunter looks into life paths and Jane Eyre. Leituras & Releituras has a post in Portuguese on Wuthering Heights.

And finally a vintage, movie tie-in edition of Wuthering Heights dating from 1939 is for sale at Thomasina's Etsy shop.

Categories: Books, Comics, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights