The Region of Brontë Unlikeness

A new composition inspired by the Brontës is about to be released: Richard Arnest's Haworth Suite. We read the following on the University of Cincinnati website:

For the 20-minute, six-movement Haworth Suite, recorded in May 2007 by the Czech Radio Philharmonic, Arnest took an orchestration out of Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Arnest describes it as “Folk songs and dances from a Yorkshire that never existed, in a style that could only be twenty-first century American.” Part of the development of the piece included several days in Yorkshire, England, immersing himself in the life and environment of the Brontë family.
Haworth Suite was named part of the “Masterworks of the New Era” project for 2007 by ERM Media, to be released fall 2008. For the recording of Haworth Suite, Arnest applied for a grant from the Copland Fund for Music. For an orchestra to record one of his pieces costs Arnest $485 per minute.
“Still, that’s one-quarter to one-eighth of what a record label pays,” he adds.

This new piece is not to be confused with another Haworth Suite (a piece for tuba) by Andrew Duncan, composed in 2002.

The Yorkshire Post interviews Philip Pullman but what we find interesting, to a weblog as ours, is the place where he is interviewed: the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds:

Among the gems on show in the Brotherton Library's hallowed Special Collections room, are childhood stories written by the Brontës and original illustrations by Arthur Ransome for his adventure classic Swallows and Amazons. (Chris Pond)

Indeed. Particularly Branwell Brontë manuscripts, but also a couple of Charlotte's devoirs, the Dear Saucy Pat letter from Maria to Patrick Brontë and her autograph essay The Advantages of Poverty in Religious Concerns, etc. The Brotherton Library is also on the backdrop of Justine Picardie's novel Daphne.

Rivka Galchen publishes The Region of Unlikeness in The New Yorker. The story begins with a Wuthering Heights discussion:

(...)I met Ilan and Jacob by chance. Sitting at the table next to mine in a small Moroccan coffee shop on the Upper West Side, they were discussing “Wuthering Heights,” too loudly, having the kind of reference-laden conversation that unfortunately never fails to attract me. Jacob looked about forty-five; he was overweight, he was munching obsessively on these unappetizing green leaf-shaped cookies, and he kept saying “obviously.” Ilan was good-looking, and he said that the tragedy of Heathcliff was that he was essentially, on account of his lack of property rights, a woman. Jacob then extolled Catherine’s proclaiming, “I am Heathcliff.” Something about passion was said. And about digging up graves. And a bearded young man next to them moved to a more distant table. Jacob and Ilan talked on, unoffended, praising Brontë, and at some point Ilan added, “But since Jane Austen’s usually the token woman on university syllabi, it’s understandable if your average undergraduate has a hard time shaking the idea that women are half-wits, moved only by the terror that a man might not be as rich as he seems.” (...)

DVD Verdict reviews Night Nurse (1931, William A. Wellman) part of the Forbidden Hollywood Collection, 2:

Laura Hart (Barbara Stanwyck, Lady of Burlesque) has just graduated nursing school but her first job has her feeling more like Jane Eyre than Florence Nightingale. Between two sick children, a drunk mom, and a shifty chauffeur (Clark Gable at his oiliest), Laura knows something shady is going on, but can she get anyone to believe her?

Old Fogey publishes a very interesting post analyzing three particular moments of three particular faces that have protrayed recently Jane Eyre: Samantha Morton, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Ruth Wilson. Il Pendolo talks about the gothic elements in Wuthering Heights (in Italian).

Sometimes we found very tangential Brontë references in the most unlikely places: In a Cuban prison or in a discussion with African Christian women:

“Life is so constructed that an event does not, will not, match the expectation,” Charlotte Bronte said, and, judging by what Christian African women have been posting on their blogs, this is a credible statement. (Paula Odhiambo)

Categories: Brontëana, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References