À la recherche du Blathering Heights

Lisa Appignanesi, author of Mad, Bad and Sad, talks about Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu in The Independent. She begins the article with a biographical note:

When I started reading, I was swept away. The fact now surprises me. I loved reading, but I was wonderfully ignorant, knew nothing of homosexuality or even sexuality, and hadn't yet reached the age of university pretension. I would read anything and everything: Little Women side by side with Jane Eyre; the latest doctor and nurse romance; a comic or cereal packet.

The Davidson County Dispatch publishes an article by a local high school student about the pleasures of reading a good book:

In my English class, we just finished reading “Jane Eyre.” I feel that it is Jane herself who has brought about my interest in reading, because even though she dealt with many difficult things in her life, she could always find happiness in a good book. (Molly McGee)

The Modesto Bee insists on the same recommendation:

If you are in the mood for a dark, eerie romance and a feminist account of the journey to find oneself, pick up the classic novel "Jane Eyre."
The novel focuses on a young orphan who is constantly oppressed by the people in her surroundings. I immediately got swept up in Jane's trials as she attempts to break social barriers, listen to her heart and discover her true identity.
But don't think this book is only for the women, guys. The novel is a beautiful story about overcoming obstacles that may hold you back, as well as learning how to finally become the person you want to be. (Emily Kay Shrader)

The New York Review of Books reviews several compilations of George Orwell's essays. Commenting one of Orwell's boutades, the reviewer says:

Then there is: "A novelist who simply disregards the major public events of the moment is generally either a footler or a plain idiot." Since this dismisses both novelists of the private life and those who (as was common in the nineteenth century) set their stories a generation or two back, out go Austen, the Brontës, Flaubert, James, and so on, and so on. (Julian Barnes)

Los Angeles Times reviews the current performances of Dracula at the NoHo Arts Center and finds parallels with Heathcliff:

Bram Stoker's 1897 tale of a parasitic undead aristocrat draining the life from hapless middle-class victims has undergone countless plot transfusions over the decades. But it was Frank Langella's 1977 Broadway performance that put the final stake in the coffin of Stoker's original concept, re-envisioning the vampire count as a brooding romantic figure -- a whiter shade of Heathcliff, as it were. (Philip Brandes)

The Economist presents the new book by Elaine Showalter A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. The Independent has an article about Nelson and his (Duke of) Bronte connections.

El Correo (Spain) talks about the author of La vida privada de los Seymour, Itsaso Lozano, who as we have posted is a Brontëite:

Itsaso Lozano escribía por gusto, «por evasión, el placer por crear algo». Profesora de piano, enamorada del campo inglés y de las autoras británicas de finales del siglo XIX -como Jane Austen y las hermanas Brontë (Emily y Charlotte)-, Lozano se planteó seguir el modelo de la 'novela de sentimientos' creado por estas mujeres para su primera obra, que permaneció en un cajón durante cuatro años. (Iñaki Esteban) (Google translation)

El País (Spain) interviews also Itsaso Lozano who says:

Pese a que el jurado que la premió creyó ver en ella algo de Carmen Martín Gaite, esta escritora novel se considera deudora de la literatura femenina anglosajona. "Jeane Austin (sic) y las hermanas Brontë, también Rosamunde Pilcher. Lo que no está editado en castellano lo leo en inglés". (S. López) (Google translation)

Fluctuat traces a history of the X-Men character, Wolverine. Apparently

en 2001, Jenkins et Isanove révèlent le vrai nom de Wolverine (James Howlett) dans la saga Origins qui reste l’un des plus beaux livres associés au personnage. On découvre un Wolverine plus proche de Heathcliff, le héros des Hauts de Hurlevent que d’un superhéros traditionnel. (Google translation) (Benjamin Berton)

Expressen interviews the Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist who reveals that in the autumn he will be part of the cast of a new production of Jane Eyre, but he seems somewhat confused about which sister it was by:

Är du fortfarande anställd på Dramaten?
- Ja, och jag ska tillbaka i höst. Jag ska då ... (här bli han tvungen att viskande konsultera pr-mannen) ... vara med i Emilie Brontës "Jane Eyre". (Cecilia Hagen)(Google translation) (Check also Nöje)

Svenska Dagbladet reviews the theatre play Monsterkabinettet by Malin Axelsson (Stockholms Stadsteater). It seems that the author's inspiration came from Gilbert & Gubar's Madwoman in the attic:

Att det blev en pjäs i gotisk anda föll sig naturligt. Malin Axelsson har alltid gillat den sorts melankoliska gotik som bland annat finns i Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre. Just när hon fick frågan att skriva manus läste hon det litteraturvetenskapliga verket The madwoman in the attic, som med ett feministiskt angreppssätt analyserar Jane Eyre. Hon bestämde sig för att skriva som den galna kvinnan på vinden. (Lina Kalmteg) (Google translation)

Mark McNulty Photography posts a panorama of the Brontë Bridge and surroundings, Mariakäfer reviews (in German) Jane Eyre 1944, Of Cabbages and Kings... suggests what kind of blog the Brontë sisters would have published (hint: Blathering Hights).

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