There are so many graves to visit

We have reported several times before Patti Smith's passion for Charlotte Brontë. The Observer interviews the songwriter and poet who says the following:

As human beings, I find them interesting and they teach me a lot. I don't drive, I don't use a cell phone. But my kids have taught me how to use a computer. They have helped to shepherd me into the 21st century because this is not my century. (...)
It's not my time but I'm certainly happy to be alive. There's always something to look forward to. I don't watch TV, I don't even own one, but I'm always looking for a new book or film. My sister loves Charlotte Brontë. We are like the Brontë sisters in our own way. For almost a decade, we've had this plan to go to Charlotte Brontë country wearing matching brown, boiled wool dresses. We're going to get nice steamer coats, the brown dresses, our notebooks and cameras and go visit the moors. And there are so many graves to visit, too. (Interview by Amy Raphael)

Another Charlotte Brontë follower seems to be the actress Catherine Deneuve who is interviewed in the Russian newspaper Труд:

Хотя в детстве и молодости я больше любила английские романы, особенно Шарлотту Бронте, чем французские. Google translation->
Although when I was younger, I loved more English novels, especially Charlotte Bronte, than the French ones. (Interview by Заозерская Анжелика)

Los Angeles Times reviews John Mullan's Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature now published in the US:

In "Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature," John Mullan cites a whole pantheon of illustrious names. Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and George Meredith concealed their identities, sometimes with a pseudonym. So did Laurence Sterne, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding and Alexander Pope. (Richard Eder)

Newsday reviews the young adults novel Little Audrey by Ruth White:

She takes refuge in reading ("Jane Eyre" is a favorite) and savors the happy moments: when Daddy takes down his guitar to sing; when Mommy sends each girl to a different neighbor to bring home the ingredients for a cake. (Tom Beer)

We are afraid that Charles B. Pierce, columnist of The Boston Globe, will never join our ranks as he is a firm contender to the Best Show-off of Militant Illiteracy:

Rest assured, I'm not one of those culture-warrior types who's going to look at the course you teach at Bates College -- Red Sox Nation: Baseball and American Culture -- and rage against the decline of standards, the dumbing-down of academia, and the general lack of respect paid now to the Bronte sisters. (Heck, to me, forcing anyone born after 1907 to read Wuthering Heights is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.)

Probably an ugly fastball head accident is the cause of the present state of the journalist. A pity.

Fortunately, Chris Bancells is not afraid of breaking the Geneva Conventions and publishes his second part of the BlogCritics review of Wuthering Heights. An overall positive one with some nuances.

At the end of things, I think this book is a worthwhile read, but not truly compelling. While there is a fascinating level of complexity, and it certainly bucks the trend of other Victorian novels I've read (which, I'll be the first to admit, is not many), there are simply too many unanswered questions. Too much of Heatcliff's life and thoughts goes unrevealed.

On the blogosphere, Voyager...Lire (in French) posts about Jane Eyre and Nexus Torch Archives posts about Marriage as a Critique on Victorian Gender Roles in Jane Eyre.

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, References, Wuthering Heights