Nominations, gay readings and Victorian murder

Today, February 2nd, the 6th Annual New Hampshire Theatre Awards will be revealed. StageCoach's production of Gordon & Caird's musical setting of Jane Eyre (more information on this old post) has several nominations:

Best Musical - Jane Eyre - Stagecoach Productions
Best Costume Design - Jane Eyre - Stagecoach Productions (Kim Spaziani)
Best Music Director - Judy Hayward (Jane Eyre - Stagecoach Productions)
Best Supporting Actress - Musical - Joan Storey (Jane Eyre - Stagecoach Productions)
Best Director - Musical- Tim L'Ecuyer (Jane Eyre - Stagecoach Productions)

The Liverpool Daily Post publishes an article about Liverpool's cultural heritage (as the city is the 2008 European Capital of Culture). Heathcliff's origins are quoted:

As a writer, Nick [Murray (in his recent book So Spirited A Town. Visions and Versions of Liverpool] draws on the city’s literary heritage quoting from Dickens, Emily Bronte (about Heathcliffe), Daniel Defoe, Carl Gustav Jung (whose autobiography mentions a dream in which Liverpool is “the pool of life”), Herman Melville, Matthew Arnold, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Virginia Woolf and many others. There can be no doubt that Liverpool has a fascination for visitors. (David Charters)

The reviewers at The San Antonio Express-News seem to be going through a Brontë phase. They find a Brontë atmosphere in Libba Bray's The Sweet Far Thing:

The most notable aspect of the book is clearly its lush period atmosphere, reminiscent of Brontë and chilling in nature. This is definitely a book best read in the light of day, in a home filled with family. (Genesee Mullin)

And in Sue Miller's The Senator's Wife, echoes of Jane Eyre:

The intrigue here is quiet, very civilized, one might even say, but nonetheless intense. It's on a plane with "Jane Eyre" or one of the less romantic Jane Austen novels, as it is, in many ways, a character study moved forward through mystery and misunderstanding. Even the title alludes to the very proper public façade of Delia — not her private passion and personality. (Jennifer Roolf Laster)

Browne's Blog (on AfterEllen) selects her favourite literary heroines, and gives a gay-oriented reading of some scenes in Shirley and Villette:

2. Shirley Keeldar from Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley (1849)
For a lot of people, a Charlotte Brontë heroine means Jane Eyre. But much as I like Jane, she didn’t capture my heart the way Shirley did. Named for the boy that her parents wanted her to be (Shirley was a male name in Charlotte Brontë’s day), Shirley is supposed to have been partly based on Charlotte’s sister Emily — particularly in her independence and her love for animals.
There are also some intriguing parallels between Shirley and Anne Lister, a real-life nineteenth-century lesbian whose diaries were first published in 1988. Both are Yorkshire landowners who adopt a masculine persona. (Lister was nicknamed ‘Fred’ by an early lover, and she formed a long-term relationship with a woman called Ann Walker, who came to live with her).
Playing on her boy’s name, Shirley refers to herself as “Captain Keeldar,” and at one point tells her governess that if she was a man, “there was not a single fair one in this and the two neighboring parishes, whom she would have felt disposed to request to become Mrs. Keeldar, lady of the manor.”
Some readers might speculate that Shirley changes her mind on this as she gets to know Caroline, the other heroine of the novel, with whom she becomes close friends. Unlike Anne Lister, Shirley is conventionally feminine and beautiful, and she does eventually marry a man (though their engagement makes her strangely nervous). But I still remain partial to the scene where, running with Caroline through a field at night with an urgent message, she gallantly offers to carry her across the narrow plank over a river. Just what any well-mannered gay girl ought to offer to do for her girlfriend.

3. Lucy Snowe from Charlotte Brontë’s Villette (1853)
The heroine of Charlotte Brontë’s last novel, Lucy Snowe is like an older, wiser Jane Eyre, without the fairy-tale ending. Angry, cagey, clever, bitter and searingly sarcastic, she thoroughly offended notions of Victorian womanhood — which, of course, is one of the reasons why I love her.
Like Shirley, her sexuality is also intriguingly ambiguous. She falls in love with the beautiful young Dr. John — who tends the Belgian girls’ school where she works — and also with the irritable professor, M. Paul Emanuel (the idea that any decent woman could fall in love with two men at once was one of the things that horrified Victorian critics). But she also finds herself strangely drawn towards the pretty coquette Ginevra Fanshawe, and admires her employer, Madame Beck, enough to say, “Had I been a gentleman I believe Madame would have found favour in my eyes.” Watching Lucy and Ginevra flirt with each other is, in my opinion, one of the great pleasures of this amazing novel.

Via The Wingéd Elephant we have found a new review of the upcoming The Secret Adentures of Charlotte Brontë by Laura Joh Rowland. It's on Kirkus Reviews, just for subscribers:

Charlotte Bronte is drawn into a web of political intrigue in the latest novel from Laura Joh Rowland, author of the Sano Ichiro series (The Snow Empress).The cherished isolation of Haworth is disturbed when Charlotte receives an alarming letter regarding her publishing career.(...) [Read more but beware spoilers!] A very Victorian murder, the evils of British imperialism and a beloved novelist unite in this appealing literary mystery."

Rhyme & Reason has a post on Daphne du Maurier's The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë, which is more an appreciation of Branwell Brontë than a review of the book. In attesa dell'alba posts about Helen Burns and Jane Eyre in Italian. Zuham has a more extended comment on Jane Eyre too.

Categories: Books, Branwell Brontë, Jane Eyre, References, Shirley, Theatre, Villette, Wuthering Heights