Knutsford vs Haworth. The ultimate battle

According to the Knutsford Guardian we are on the verge of a Gaskell vs Brontë war:

The Gaskell Society said the town just needed to do more to promote its links to the story's author.
"I don't see why it shouldn't be like Haworth, said Judith Rees who runs the Gaskell Society's website.
"I'm sure there could be something similar done for Elizabeth Gaskell."
The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, tells the story of the three sisters - Charlotte, Emily and Anne - who became literary legends, and welcomes about 90,000 visitors every year.
Knutsford has failed to capitalise as much on its links to Mrs Gaskell.
But Mrs Rees believes the town could offer even more to visitors than Haworth does.
However, she said Knutsford would have to forge better links to the author's former home - Plymouth Grove - in Manchester.
"People could easily get from here to see that," she said.
Hundreds of people visited Plymouth Grove after Cranford attracted almost eight million viewers for each episode of the BBC One drama.
But Mrs Rees, 54, said it would take a joint effort by the Gaskell Society, Knutsford Heritage Centre and traders for the town to benefit from the programme's success. "I guess some sort of committee would have to be set up," she said.
"It's just about getting heads together."
Local historian Joan Leach and the heritage centre both work to promote Mrs Gaskell's links to Knutsford.
But Mrs Rees fears the town's tourism could suffer when Mrs Leach is no longer able to provide information and tours.
"Joan works tirelessly," she said. "She and the heritage centre keep Elizabeth Gaskell in people's minds.
"But what will happen when Joan isn't there any more?"
There are several sites in Knutsford that are linked to Mrs Gaskell.
She lived with her aunt for many years in Gaskell Avenue.
Parts of her novels were also based on buildings in the town centre.
The store in Princess Street that now houses Oddbins was the inspiration for Miss Matty's teashop in Cranford.
Mrs Gaskell's grave can also be found at the Brook Street Unitarian Chapel.
But Mrs Rees said the town still did too little to promote such links nationally.
"A lot of people who visit wouldn't normally associate the town with Elizabeth Gaskell," she said.
Mrs Rees studied Mrs Gaskell during the second year of her English degree at the University of Manchester.
She joined the Gaskell Society as part of her research and became so involved she recently helped set up its new website www.gaskellsociety.co.uk (Andrew McCreaddie)

Much as we like Mrs Gaskell, we know where our loyalties lie :P. Check Virtual Knutsford for more information. In the picture, Brook Street Chapel, where Elizabeth Gaskell is buried. (Source)

24Hour Museum and The Telegraph & Argus announce Annelies Štrba August's exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, as a part of the Contemporary Arts Program. Some months ago we already posted about Štrba's Wuthering Heights influences.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum has been awarded a grant of £17,000 by the Arts Council to commission a new body of work by Swiss artist Annelies Strba.
The project, which forms part of the museum’s contemporary arts programme, will culminate in an exhibition of new work to be displayed within the period rooms of the Brontë Parsonage Museum in August 2008.
A highly respected lens-based artist, Strba will produce digitally manipulated photographic images inspired by the Brontës and the parsonage.
"This project will build on our reputation for bold visual arts projects, allowing museum visitors to experience the Brontës in new ways and hopefully attract new audiences here too," said Jenna Holmes, Arts Officer at the Parsonage. "The grant will also give us the opportunity to acquire some of the work produced as a permanent addition to the collection."
Strba’s work has been inspired by a diverse range of locations and subjects, including her own life in Melide, Switzerland; the earthquake-stricken city of Kobe; the gloom of Auschwitz; the Cottingley Fairies and she has already produced work inspired by the Brontë landscape.
Her work will go on display at the Brontë Parsonage Museum from August 1 until October 31 2008. (24 Museum Staff)

Chinese author Jiang Rong connection with Jane Eyre is mentioned again in this review of his novel of Wolf Totem:

To escape Beijing, Jiang volunteered for the grassland rather than a military camp, hoping his two trunks of books --including "Jane Eyre'' and "Call of the Wild'' -- wouldn't be confiscated. (Barbara Koh in Bloomberg)

Salon reviews Jonathan Coe's The Rain Before It Falls and finds the Wuthering Heights inside it:

"The Rain Before It Falls" owes something to "Wuthering Heights" by way of the 1930s British novelist Rosamond Lehmann, in that the story comes to us largely third-hand, narrated to an outsider by a dead woman, and is a tale of children who seem destined to repeat and relive the sins and sufferings of their parents. (Laura Miller)

SiouxWire interviews artist Marci Washington. Her views on the Brontë novels have been featured previously on BrontëBlog:

SIOUXFIRE: You’ve cited fiction and history as important sources of inspiration. What is the last piece of fiction you read and what did you think about it? And what period of history intrigues you?
MARCI: I love the French Revolution and Edwardian England. I love turn of the century turbulence and the gross reality of people’s good intentions. I love how the fiction of these time periods reveals the anxieties and social conditions of the time. I also just love a good story- history and fiction are both full of really great stories with ulterior motives.
Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Bleak House are all really great stories, but also pretty pointed social commentary. Their ability to have a critical comment relies completely on their ability to draw you into the story with romance, mystery and drama.

A Work in Progress is preparing herself to read Justine Picardie's Daphne and A Chainless Soul has read Laura Joh Rowland's The Secret Advetures of Charlotte Brontë (our review seems to be highly influential...). 365 Days of the Dead reviews Jacques Tourneur's zombie à la Brontë movie: I Walked with a Zombie (1943). Old Fogey discusses the relationship between Jane Eyre and Mrs Reed. Feiviola has uploaded a couple of clips (1 and 2) of Jane Eyre 1970. Several comments about Wuthering Heights: Live My Life, She's too fond of books (who for some reason calls it Wurthering Heights), Radio Nowhere.

Finally, a columnist of the Daily Mail is the winner of this month's bad taste Brontë quote:

From the family next door, a brood afflicted by galloping consumption who dropped off the perch with the regularity of sub-normal Brontes, we heard regular midnight yells of "Who's in bed with his boots on?" and "Who's put rabbit bones under the pillow?" (Keith Waterhouse)

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Books, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Brontëites, Elizabeth Gaskell, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights