Thelma, Louise, Bridget, Jane...

The Knutsford Guardian covers last Sunday's opening for visitors of Elizabeth Gaskell's house:

THE HOUSE where Elizabeth Gaskell wrote most of her novels was opened to the public after the success of the BBC's adaptation of Cranford.
Plymouth Grove in Manchester is normally closed during winter.
But the group, which raises money to preserve the home, was inundated with inquiries from viewers who wanted to tour the property.
So the house was opened on a Sunday for an exhibition of Victorian costumes and a slide-show about Knutsford.
Gaskell Society founder and Knutsford historian Joan Leach operated the projector and helped to organise the fund-raising event.
"We've been very pleased at the interest," she said.
"There was a waiting list so we'll probably have to do it again in a few weeks' time." (...)
The Manchester Historic Buildings Trust is raising £2.3million for restoration work at the property, which opens once a month in summer. (Adam Morson)

And as in a previous news item, Elizabeth Gaskell continues playing ouija at Plymouth Grove because:

Elizabeth Gaskell lived at Plymouth Grove for 15 years and entertained Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte and John Ruskin there. (Adam Morson)

In The Sunday Times Helen Davies and friends travel to Yorkshire on a motorhome:

We are on a motorhome mini-break in Yorkshire: Thelma and Louise meet the Brontë sisters. We’re here to have an adventure, catch up on gossip and eat our body weight in cake. (...)
This is proper Romance and we continue the theme with a trip to Haworth parsonage and the Brontë museum, spending as much time buying soap as gallivanting up on the moors.

Now for some tiny Brontë references in a couple of US theatre plays. The Kansas City Star covers Stories My Grandmother Told Me by Ted Swindley:

Swindley, 56, absorbed her stories from childhood — stories about her Jane Eyre-like encounter with a crazy man as a young bride, morality tales intended to keep young Ted on the “right track,” funny stories, macabre stories, stories of faith. (Robert Trussell)

And Broadway World reviews Henry James's The Turn of the Screw adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, now at Everyman Theatre (Baltimore):

The Woman's stiff, completely black dress, floor length and long sleeved brings to mind Jane Eyre and the like, and suggests a severity that is in sharp contrast to The Woman's character. The Man, dressed in formal 19th century tuxedo garb, suggests any number of things – a wealthy man, a proper young boy, an undertaker… (James Howard)

Euan Ferguson writes in The Observer about the pleasure of loneliness, and suggests who could be happy on their own and who couldn't:

You can, as I say, divide them up. I can imagine Gordon happy on his own, but not Dave. Humphrys but not Naughtie. Nigella but not Jamie. Jane Eyre but not Bridget Jones. Jon Snow but not (of course) Rageh Omar.

Some blogs. Brontë Information briefly comments Robert and Louise Barnard's A Brontë Encyclopedia in Swedish. L'arte dello scrivere...forse reviews Bianca Pitzorno's La Bambinaia Francese in Italian (more information on this Jane Eyre spin-off on this old post.)

Un libro scritto in modo semplice e chiaro, adatto a tutti, ma in particolare a coloro che hanno amato il romanzo Jane Eyre. (weirde) Translate this.

Emmes Bøger posts a cover of a "mothed" Pan Classics edition of Jane Eyre. Fantascopía reviews in Spanish Wuthering Heights 1939 and displays a nice collection of several posters. The Hair Schweedahts is reading Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and her opinion is not very enthusiastic.

Finally, The Independent (Ireland) publishes an article about an Irish designer, Matt Moody, who apparently has some Brontë-like designs. We have been unable to trace any of them, though.

This time last year, Matt burst into my consciousness when he featured in photographer Sarah Doyle's Wuthering Heights shoot, with his fabulous Bronte-esque, dramatic pieces.

Categories: Elizabeth Gaskell, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Sequels, Theatre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Wuthering Heights