Charlotte Brontë was a rat

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year, which will be the Year of the Rat (not to be mistaken with the more famous and sung year of the cat!). According to Sun Star Cebu Charlotte Brontë was a Rat by Chinese horoscope standards, something which she probably ignored.

There's plenty of art on different formats today.

Art X world has an article on the forthcoming exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (15 April – 29 June 2008): Blood on Paper: The Art of the Book (more information on this previous post of ours) and whose subject matter is 'the astonishing inventiveness with which the book has been treated by some of the most influential and respected artists of our time'. Thus:

Artists have reacted in different ways to the possibilities offered by books as a means of expression. Powerful interpreters of texts include Balthus and his dramatic illustrations for the narrative of Wuthering Heights (1993) . . .

You can read more about this Balthus connection in previous posts, although he's certainly not the only artist to have been seriously inspired by the Brontës.

The New York Times reviews a totally different kind of exhibition yet the journalist couldn't refrain from writing a quite puzzling metaphor:

Arranged in a long, numbing row, the art was assigned to attic galleries so unlike the large, gorgeous rooms for mainstream paintings downstairs that an outsider couldn’t help wondering if the installation had been intentionally devised as a metaphor (Roma here cast as “Jane Eyre” ’s Bertha Mason in the attic of Hungarian society). (Michael Kimmelman)

Hmmmm... right.

Let's talk about a movie review and an intriguing comparison. Beliefnet reviews The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Heathcliff is briefly mentioned.

This movie may be about one of the most famous outlaws in the days of the Wild West, but it is not a bang-bang shoot-em-up Western. It is a broody psychological Western, a lot of peering out into endless prairie landscapes, as much Ingmar Bergman as John Ford, with a little bit of Heathcliff thrown in. (Nell Minow)

Albeit in French, Heliodore has a lengthy post on the Wuthering Heights Ballet which was on stage in Paris a few months ago. It includes pictures as well.

And finally let's talk about book, of course. The Daily Mail briefly reviews The Heroines by Eileen Favorite.

Anne-Marie's time is taken up with tending to a series of famous literary heroines who mysteriously arrive at her Prairie Bluff Bed and Breakfast, seeking temporary refuge from their tragic destinies.
With a strict policy of non-interference, Anne-Marie makes soup for Scarlett O'Hara, toast for Emma Bovary and offers a sympathetic ear to a distraught Catherine as she debates the respective merits of Heathcliff and Linton. (Eithne Farry)

Normblog posts the results of the poll onthe readers' favourite English-language novelists. Charlotte Brontë makes it to number 10 and Emily to number 32. Several authors received only one vote; among them is Jean Rhys, author of Wide Sargasso Sea, as you know.

First Time Writes shares how it feels to read Jane Eyre for the first time.

And finally an alert for tomorrow - Thursday, February 7th, first day of the new Chinese Year - in Roanoke, Virginia:

The Book Club at Cantos Booksellers is discussing "Wuthering Heights." There's still time to read it. 6 p.m. 342-1000.

Categories: Alert, Art-Exhibitions, Books, Dance, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights