A wee bit spooky

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and the mentions of those 'oh-so-romantic Brontës' are on the rise. Kerre Woodham picks her favourite love stories for Scoop:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte / Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte [...]
Take your pick really from any of these classic love stories, so long as you have at least one of them on your shelves. Personally, I always found Emily Bronte’s gothic tale of love and obsession just a wee bit spooky. Love stories for me have to have some happiness, and Heathcliff and Catherine’s torture of one another is too cruel to truly be considered love. If Heathcliff had been roaming the moors bellowing for Cathy in this day and age, he’d have had a restraining order slapped on him before his gruel had cooled on the kitchen table. Still, there are many academics who consider this one of the greatest love stories ever told, and who am I to argue? I preferred Jane Eyre because in this romantic novel, Jane is able to rise above her station of orphan and governess and marry the lord of the manor, and poor unhappy Mr Rochester is saved through her love.

The Gloucester County Times has an article along the same lines:

There's nothing like a good love story, especially one with a happy ending. Take Romeo and Juliet, Catherine and Heathcliff, Jack and Rose they're all pretty good, but nothing tugs at the heartstrings any better than the story of a Harry meeting a Sally and living happily ever after. (Kaelin O'Connell)

Fortunately both articles admit that Wuthering Heights might not be such a lovey-dovey kind of love story after all.

The Newcastle Sunday Sun reviews Alas, I Cannot Swim, the latest album by Laura Marling, a self-confessed Brontëite:

Ghosts tells the tale of two lovers, both haunted by “The ghosts that broke my heart before I met you”. It’s a story in a song, something that makes you listen closely, and I can see radio picking up on it in a big way this year. Equally shiver-inducing is Old Stone, filled with imagery of desperate people screaming each other’s names in the pouring rain . . . it’s all very Heathcliff. (Ken Oxley)

There are more Brontëites out there today. LookBooks talks to author Polly Shulman who mentions Charlotte Brontë among her many - and varied - favourite writers. Jennifer's Random Musings speaks to another author, Sophia Johnson, who chooses Jane Eyre as the one book she would save from destruction.

There's a new stage version of The Mystery of Irma Vep (University of Alabama, Allen Bales Theatre) and of course we are once again reminded of its literary influences by The Crimson White:

The play features eight characters but was written to be performed by only two actors who take on roles in both genders.
"The play also spoofs other classic literature like 'Wuthering Heights,' 'Frankenstein,' Shakespeare and others," Mantovani [play's director] said. (Laura Pitts)

Talking about Wuthering Heights spoofs, The Oleander Garden posts a 'Wuthering Heights for Dummies'. We wonder, though, whether calling Lockwood Lockheed is intentional. We don't think so, and it rather adds to the initial confusion of the novel. Otherwise it's very funny.

Jane Eyre on the blogosphere today: Bookstove has written a detailed analysis of the characters of Jane Eyre (here and here). Blogger Party (Lorianna's blog) picks Jane Eyre 1983 (starring Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton) as 'the best movie version of Jane Eyre'.

Victoria Oldham reviews on Suite101 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

And the Europe Travel Blog posts briefly about Haworth, unavoidably mentioning the approach of Valentine's Day, of course.

Categories: Brontëites, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Theatre, Wuthering Heights