Jane giving as good as she gets

The recent publication of William Grimshaw: Living the Christian Life by Paul & Faith Cook,

Living the Christian life
from the original writings of William Grimshaw
Paul & Faith Cook
ISBN: 9780852346914
Evangelical Press

William Grimshaw of Haworth in Yorkshire, born 14 September 1708, was regarded by J C Ryle as one of the three greatest men of the eighteenth century Evangelical Revival; the other two being John Wesley and George Whitefield. And yet he is little known today.
One reason for this is that he left behind no printed sermons - nothing that posterity could read and profit from after his death - or so it was thought until the Methodist historian Frank Baker unearthed four manuscripts which Grimshaw had prepared for publication. Baker used these for his doctoral thesis on Grimshaw, published in 1963, two hundred years after the preacher’s death.
Sometimes preaching up to thirty times a week in towns and villages throughout Yorkshire and beyond, William Grimshaw had little time and perhaps available finance to see his work through the press. On his death at the age of fifty-four, his manuscripts were retained in the family and eventually sold to an earlier Methodist historian, Luke Tyerman. Tyerman arranged for them to be stored in the Methodist archives and a full century would pass before these pithy and wise comments would be rediscovered. Then, surprisingly, they appeared to be lost once more. Anxious to obtain them for my forthcoming biography on William Grimshaw in 1996, I made urgent enquiries regarding them. Eventually they were discovered among unclassified material at the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, passed there from the Hartley Victoria College.

is the subject of an article in The Telegraph & Argus:

A preacher who stamped Haworth’s fame across the north 80 years before the Brontes arrived, is being celebrated in the first published book of his writings.
It has been released to mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of the fiery cleric William Grimshaw, who spent 16 years in the village, from 1742.
His legend is still recalled by some in Haworth, especially his no-nonsense approach to tipplers in the Black Bull, later a favourite haunt of Branwell Bronte. They were said to leap out of the window on his approach.
The Reverend Patrick Bronte, Branwell’s father, did not arrive from Thornton, Bradford, with his brood, including Charlotte, Emily and Anne, until 1820.
Ann Dinsdale, of the Bronte Parsonage museum, said: “Haworth has become very much associated with the Brontes, but the village had already attracted fame a century before because of Grimshaw.
“It’s good to see important new material relating to this largely forgotten figure finally coming to light.’ Preaching up to 30 times a week, Grimshaw kept a ledger with his sins on one side and good deeds on the other, but never had time to publish his work.
But joint author, Faith Cook, unearthed his manuscripts which had been stored among unclassified material at the John Rylands University library in Manchester.
She said: “It was a treasure trove of new information which had hardly been explored apart from by a few academics. It was great – literally an open field for me,”
The result is “William Grimshaw Living the Christian Life” a biography of his life and a collection of his writings.
He was in charge of Haworth church until his death at 54, and he was one of the main figures in the 18th century evangelical revival, his name equal to John Wesley and George Whitfield. It was said his preaching could make a nation tremble.
Starting with a congregation of only 12 when he arrived in the village, the church was later filled with hundreds inside and out.
People would travel miles to hear him preach and at times scaffolding had to be put up in the graveyard to accommodate the thousands..
Mick Lockwood, Minister at Hall Green Baptist Chapel, Haworth, said: “He was mega-famous at the time – hundreds walked miles to hear him preach. What he did was terrific.
“Reading this little book is like taking a short brisk walk on the Haworth moor. It is invigorating and refreshing. A no-nonsense exhortation to Christians, full to the brim of simple wholesome bible food.” (Clive White)

The Birmingham Mail publishes a very positive review of Burns & Corzine Classical Comics adaptation of Jane Eyre:

I've been fortunate enough to view copies of John M Burns's black and white art for this book for well over a year now, and quite a few of the coloured pages too. Every time I see them I come out with the same old line to the people at Classical Comics, "This one's an award-winner - Put it up for as many as you can!" I know I'm like a broken record (that's something they used to make out of vinyl, kids!) but quite frankly I don't care.
John M Burns, for those unaware, is a master craftsman of the comic strip medium. Schooled in our proud British illustrative tradition, perfectly at home on the comic book page as much as the now neglected newspaper comic strip, he is also well versed in both adventure and romance and to some degree both skills are called upon in this graphic novel adaptation.
Period dramas are big news on our terrestrial television stations, and the film world continues to see their currency. It's not just some romantic link for more innocent times, it's the fact that stories of an elder pedigree were put together to work, to be read and enjoyed by as wide a populace that could read.
Personally I have a problem with anything that lingers around the parameters of being a bodice ripper but there you go, each to their own. (...)
Some may find the turns of phrase and colloquialisms in the full version a little hard to grasp - not that the words are difficult but the unfamiliarity of the way they are expressed - and for that reason I can see where the abridged text using more modern expressions could prove the more popular read. However, I much enjoyed the full-bodied text, rich in its language, with Jane giving as good as she gets, thus showing the first flowering of women' s emancipation in an admirable, subtle manner.
These dialogues add tremendously to the humour that can be found deep in this romance, and tragedy.
I'll not give the game away but even as the couple express their love openly tragedy does indeed wait to stab them from the wings. This twist in the tale takes place roughly half way through the story and there are more changes of fortune for Jane before the end of the story.
As the reader will find for themselves from the various supplementary text features at the rear of this book, a substantial amount of the novel's plot was derived from Charlotte Bronte's own ordeals in life, but equally so her own life followed suit with some of the chapters; as if she was either channelling her own future life or living out her own fantasies in the real world.
I have to say the novel itself, as noted before, with its affectations towards subdued bodice ripper romance doesn't always grab me, but the fine persuasive lines of conversation between the action certainly engages my attention and so I forgive the former.
A few points, again, on Mr Burns's art: whether it is the script adaptation or his own presence of style, he reclaims comic book storytelling for storytelling sake. The use of a surprise/shock page ending to induce enthusiasm to turn over to the next page has been taken for granted as a pre-requisite, Burns gives us moments within the page itself that are just a vital, startling and positively rewarding in their artistic merit.
While the fully painted art that is published is admirable, there is a great part of me that wishes this were printed in black and white - while the colour doesn't hide the detail it does disguise the fact that these were drawings created in pencil then ink, with attention to detail in the folds of a curtain as much as the flaring nostrils of a horse. This is not slick work this is consummate drawing with thought and concentration given before a pencil line is delivered. People should be impassioned enough to want to take up drawing themselves, for the sheer pleasure of it as its own reward.
Burns is an artist's artist and doesn't fail to deliver, picture the scene: it's early Sunday evening and the Birmingham International Comics Show 2008 has just finished so there's a handful of comic book creators in need of a stiff drink, once deposited in the nearest city centre public house someone brings out a copy of this book, and it's not me, it's followed swiftly by a chorus of: "I've got that!" from most of the artists gathered. Simply put the book caught their eye at the show and they bought it.. Professionals they were and are, and talented ones too, but the level of expression they had for Classical Comics' Jane Eyre proved that even these seasoned stars paid their venerable due respect to a master of the form.
If this doesn't find its way into graphic novel award nominations some serious questions about why not have to be asked. (Paul Birch)

The Times (South Africa) reviews Catherine Hardwicke's film Twilight and mentions the compulsive Wuthering Heights reference:

He gets a real Wuthering Heights vibe going, which is exactly right because Emily Brontë’s saga of the headstrong Cathy and the brooding Heathcliff is an obvious ancestor of Twilight.

Mark Zimmer begins a review (for Digitally Obsessed) of the extraordinary John M. Stahl's film Leave Her to Heaven with the following (misleading) words:

Two classics of literature, Wuthering Heights and The Count of Monte Cristo are enjoyable to the misanthrope for completely different reasons. In Emily Bronte's novel, it's because all the characters are vile and deserve everything terrible that happens to them; in the Dumas adventure it's the frisson of delight at seeing an utterly Machiavellian plot come together. This classic picture from 20th Century Fox combines these two themes in a memorable vehicle for the stunning Gene Tierney that, while not quite standing up to these literary antecedents, is certainly memorable and vicious in its own right.

The Scotsman interviews Amanda Ryan who was Catherine in the recent Birmingham Repertory Theatre performances of April de Angelis's Wuthering Heights and gives us this (colourful but only mental) image:

When were you last naked in front of another person?
In my dressing room doing a quick change for my last show, Wuthering Heights.

Categories: Books, Comics, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Theatre, Wuthering Heights