A Dolls' House and Kate Atkinson

ArtDaily and The Oxford Times report an upcoming auction at Christie's which will include a Brontë-related item:

Christie’s announce that they will offer the fascinating private collection of Roger Warner at South Kensington on 20 and 21 January 2009. One of the most renowned and admired British antique dealers of the 20th century, Roger Warner ran his legendary shop in Burford, Oxfordshire for 50 years between 1936 and 1986, and during this time attracted an impressive list of visitors and customers including Queen Mary, Princess Margaret, Walt Disney, Peter Ustinov, John Fowler, Bruce Chatwin, Christopher Gibbs and the Mitford sisters. In the 1960s and 1970s, he regularly appeared as an expert with Arthur Negus on the BBC’s Going for a Song, the forerunner of The Antiques Roadshow. The auction will offer approximately 700 lots from the private collection of Roger Warner, passionately assembled throughout his lifetime, and is expected to realise in excess of £800,000. (...)
Andrew Waters, Director of the Private collection and Country House sale department, Christie’s: “Christie’s is honoured to have been asked to oversee the auction of Roger Warner’s private collection. Roger’s discernment gave him a legendary reputation and a lasting importance. This auction will open the doors to an astounding treasure trove of fascinating pictures furniture and works of art - the very personal and private collection of a modest but remarkable man.”
Highlights of the auction include William Wordsworth’s desk chair from Rydal Mount, a Dolls House decorated by Charlotte Brontë, a remarkable botanical still life collected by Lawrence Johnston at Hidcote Manor, a Royal Tudor coat of arms from Gillingham Castle, rare Lambeth Delft chargers and Reniassance gold-ground portraits of saints. Further details will be announced at a later date.

We asked Ann Dinsdale, Brontë Society Collections Manager, about the dolls' house and she told us:

It featured in an exhibition in the 1980s and according to the catalogue notes [Roger Warner] put together, he purchased it from the Greenwood family and it was always claimed within the family that the interior had been decorated by Charlotte during her time as governess to the Sidgwicks.

John Mullan in The Guardian talks about a personal favourite of BrontëBlog, Kate Atkinson's first novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum highlighting a Brontë reference:

Ruby's self-destructive adolescent urge to smash her hand through the patio window is explained by her likening of herself to Cathy's ghost in Wuthering Heights.

Kate Atkinson's references to Wuthering Heights are not unusual. In her latest novel, When Will There Be Good News? it can be read:

She had always preferred North and South to Wuthering Heights. All that demented running around the moors, identifying yourself with the scenery, not a good role model for a woman.

The New York Times reviews Diane Johnson's Lulu on Marrakech:

There are some names you can't ignore. When you find them attached to a particular fictional character, you can't assume that blind coincidence prompted the writer's choice. Call your girl-heroine Jane and there may be echoes of Jane Eyre, but the association is not forced on you. And a Cathy does not need to meet a Heathcliff. But the name Lulu? Lulu is a different story. Lulu has a pedigree. Even if the defiant anti-heroine of Frank Wedekind's books isn't at the forefront of your mind as you say the name out loud (your lips will purse, as if you're about to kiss) there's an innocent-yet-louche ring to it. Travel to Marrakesh with Lulu, and you ought to be in for a hell of a ride.
Better, I fear, to stay at home with Cathy and Jane. (Erica Wagner)

The Times interviews Tessa Jowell, UK's Paymaster General and Minister for the Olympics, a Brontëite:

Quickfire five
Jane Eyre or Elizabeth Bennet? Jane Eyre (Alice Thomson and Rachel Sylvester)

Wuthering Heights is one of the recommended books in an article about the local library in The Sudbury Star:

'Wuthering Heights," by Emily Bronte is a wild passionate story that reveals a love between Catherine and Heathcliff so passionate and intense that it outlives the grave. (Kaija Mailloux)

Mary Beth Miles in the Dallas Morning News writes about the joys of reading fiction:

Yes, I could eat along with Diane Mott Davidson's delicious culinary mysteries. And I could pray, though not with the evangelical fervor found in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. And I could love, relishing the unrequited elegance of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

The Spenborough Guardian talks about the 2009 calendar which has been produced by Spen Valley Civic Society:

The calendar, which is in full colour, depicts many historic and outstanding locations in the Spen Valley as well as linking into the society's successful Spen Fame Trail project which commemorates famous local people including the discoverer of oxygen, Joseph Priestley, and sweet manufacturer Toffee Smith.
Among the 12 illustrations are images celebrating the valley's Bronte heritage, historic buildings which the society has helped to save and the valley's manufacturing industry showing the only car manufactured in Cleckheaton, along with the famous Panther motorcycle and the Cleckheaton viaduct. (Margaret Heward).

The Cleveland Plain Dealer talks to several experts about Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga:

The appeal stretches to avid college women who wear "Twilight" T-shirts and jewelry to class, to the mild amusement of professor Sara Hackenberg, who teaches an English course called "The Vampire Tradition" at San Francisco State University.(...)
"Stephenie Meyer has cited 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Jane Eyre' as influences," Hackenberg said, "and certainly Heathcliffe and Mr. Rochester are classic types -- dangerous, magnetic, doomed to hurt the one they love, the Byronic hero. Meyer seems to want to put Edward in that tradition." (Karen R. Long)

The Ampersand interviews author John Connolly. Not a Brontëite but a Bushite with a Brontë twist:

Who wouldn't you mind being stuck in an elevator with?
The singer Kate Bush. I've had a crush on her since childhood. Wuthering Heights was the first single that I ever bought with my own money, but she doesn't write, she doesn't call . . . (Interview by Mark Medley)

The Year of Musical Thinking is not very excited with the Gordon & Caird musical setting of Jane Eyre. Dagelijks iets dagelijks has a long post about the Brontës' works in Dutch. gln555 reviews Wuthering Heights 1939.

And finally an alert for today, October 25. From the Burke County Public Library, Morganton, Nort Carolina:

Villette by Charlotte Bronte will be discussed on Saturday, October 25th at 3:00 in the Morganton Public Library Meeting Room

Categories: Alert, Brontëana, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References, Theatre, Villette, Wuthering Heights