From Guantánamo to Siberia

The Fordham University website reports a recent talk by the author Mary Higgins Clark where she stated:

The author said that her religion and her Jesuit education have contributed to her decision to keep graphic sex and violence out of her work, yet not abandon passion and suspense.
"I think Alfred Hitchcock movies were classics of suspense, yet nobody was blown up,” she said. “And books like Wuthering Heights throb with passion. You can have passion without the graphic descriptions that make you feel as if you’ve stumbled into someone’s physical exam.” (Janet Sassi)

If some of the first reviewers of Wuthering Heights knew now that Emily Brontë's novel would qualify as the embodiment of the good taste, they simply wouldn't believe it. But they would probably be even more shocked by the following news published today in The Independent. The context? An interview with Moazzam Begg, ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee:

In Guantanamo, I asked the Americans if it was possible to study but they said, "No, the most we can get you is Dickens and the Brontës." The only other offer was mind-numbing Danielle Steele books. It was even worse than for convicted criminals, who would be given access to study – but nobody in Guantanamo Bay was ever convicted or even charged with a crime. (Jonathan Sale)

Lire publishes (in French) a column focused on Emily, not exclusively our Emily... but all the Emilys:

Le bonheur est moins flagrant chez Emily, la plus inquiétante des soeurs Brontë. Sur les âpres landes du Yorkshire, cette âme sauvage a imaginé extases et secrètes communions avec un amant chimérique, avant de mourir poitrinaire à l'âge de 30 ans. (Gérard Oberlé)

And finally, more Jane Eyre-inspired dolls. This time directly from Кемерово (Siberia). Check this article (in Russian) from the Siberian Business Portal.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, References, Weirdo