Upping the sexuality quotient of Wuthering Heights

More tidbits about the new Wuthering Heights TV series (scheduled for next January 18 and 25 on PBS):

A new "Wuthering Heights," airing Jan. 18 and 25, is a marvelous retelling of Emily Bronte's classic tale of all-consuming, twisted love. Heathcliff has never looked so good nor so demented as played by Tom Hardy; Catherine Earnshaw (Charlotte Riley) has never been so complicated, endearing and maddening. This production, thanks mostly to British hunk Hardy, has upped the sexuality quotient of the Bronte piece. (Joanne Ostrow in The Denver Post)

The Washington Times reviews Jim Harrison's The English Major:

And then there's Marybelle. "In my ten years of teaching I had only three students I truly wanted to keep in touch with and Marybelle was number one. We had corresponded every few months for the past twenty-five years about the ups and downs of life. Marybelle could get as excited about pistils and stamens as she was about the novels of the Bronte sisters and the poetry of Walt Whitman.["] (John Greenya)

The Canadian Oxford Review talks about the wonders of Yorkshire:

The beautiful and dramatic county of Yorkshire is composed of romantic moorland, pretty villages, lively cities and grand sweeping coastlines. Known in Britain as "God's own country", visitors can explore the stunning scenery and historic sights that make this region distinctive and charming.
Lovers of literature will be tempted to follow the footsteps of their favourite authors and poets. This windswept land of heather and wild moors was the inspiration for the classic works of the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne. You can tour the Parsonage, home to the Bronte family, and see the sofa upon which Emily died; Charlotte's work-basket just as she left it; and the books, barely an inch square, that the children wrote in secret. (Julia Bryan)

Gene Jannuzzi publishes his personal list of re-readings (or as he says, one last visit to his favourite books) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Now let us dip briefly into the 19th century. There are a few visits I might manage there, if not for a full dinner, then for tea with one sugar, and a scone. Those few are Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" and her sister Charlotte's "Jane Eyre"; Stendahl's "The Charterhouse of Parma" and "The Red and the Black;" and the short stories and plays of Anton Chekhov. That leaves me un-Dickensed, un-Trolloped and un-Balzaced. So be it. I'm finished with them.

The Telegraph complains about how central figures in the canon of English literature are no longer being featured in GCSE papers. Wuthering Heights included:

"Once it was 'Hamlet or King Lear', now it is 'the poems of Wordsworth or Carol Ann Duffy' - and it is easier to teach Duffy than Wordsworth, I'm the King of the Castle than Wuthering Heights," she said. (Julie Henry)

Sky News interviews Chinese tycoon Liu Ja who has created his all-English mansion in the outskirsts of Beijing:

He said: "When I was young I read Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre and it really sparked my imagination. I loved the big houses and the big lawns." (Peter Sharp)

The Brazilian Diário do Nordeste remembers the prodigious 1939 Hollywood year and mentions William Wyler's Wuthering Heights:

Na versão para o cinema do romance de Emily Brontë, “O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes”, o talentoso diretor William Wyler simplificou o aspecto gótico e sombrio do texto original, embora com extrema competência, mas isso lhe valeu restrições da crítica, embora o filme se tenha imortalizado como uma das mais populares transposições cinematográficas de uma obra literária. (José Augusto Lopes) (Google translation)

Miss Kira's Library posts briefly about Agnes Grey and Suite 101 publishes an article about Gothic in Bronte's Wuthering Heights: Mystery and Supernatural in Bronte's Great Romance by Elizabeth Gregory. Finally, Jim Clark has uploaded a poem animation of Emily Brontë's Remembrance on YouTube, albeit the 'animated speaker' is not Emily but Charlotte.

Categories: Agnes Grey, Haworth, In the News, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights