Transfixed before the glass case ~ BrontëBlog

Judy Hinderliter writes in The Ithaca Journal about her literary life experiences and describes one particular event that, we are pretty sure, many of the readers of BrontëBlog and the people behind it who have have been able to visit the British Library in London have experienced:

Many years later, the power of the written word was once again brought home. During a trip to England to visit our daughter who was attending school, we visited the National Museum in London. I remember standing transfixed before the glass case holding the original copy of my favorite classic. I was not prepared for the emotions I felt seeing Charlotte Bronte's hand written copy of "Jane Eyre."

The new book by Elaine Showalter (author of one of the most influential books in feminist literary criticism: A Literature of Their Own. British Women Literature: From Brontë to Lessing, 1977):

A Jury of Her Peers. American Women Writers. From Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx is reviewed on Los Angeles Times. Jane Eyre is mentioned:

Though the 1850s are considered a golden age in American letters, with male luminaries like Whitman, Melville, Thoreau, Emerson and Hawthorne, they were also, as Showalter quotes literary historian David S. Reynolds, the "American Woman's Renaissance," influenced to a large degree by the enormous popularity of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre," published in America in 1848. The increase in "domestic novels" written by women inspired vitriolic reviews and threatened marriages. (Susan Salter Reynolds)

The New York Times presents the new production of Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera House which opens next Monday. The production's director David McVicar talks about Leonora, portrayed by the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky:

Too often, Mr. McVicar finds, the character comes onstage as a “poncy lady in a big frock.” To him she is closer to a Brontë heroine on the moors, or to Beethoven’s Leonore in “Fidelio,” who, like this Leonora, will stop at nothing to free her man from prison. (Matthew Gurewitsch)

The Chicago Tribune reviews The Women by T.C. Boyle, a fictionalised account of the life of Frank Lloyd Wright who

Outfitted with a cape and cane, popping back and forth between Chicago and Taliesin, his home in Wisconsin, often the transgressive subject on the society page or even front page of the newspapers, he was larger than life and "could have been a figure summoned by the Brontes," quips novelist T.C. Boyle in his treatment of Wright's life, "The Women." (Art Winslow)

And we have now a couple of Heathcliff-like British MPs. Sky News selects Andy Burnham:

Straight in at the top, like a Manc version of Heathcliff (the Byronic anti-hero, not the cartoon cat) is Andy "so hot I" Burnham. Beloved of many in the Sky Westminster office, the Culture Sec is a rare exception to GK Chesterton's rule that "All government is an ugly necessity". (Niall Paterson)

The other one is our particular Heathcliff of Downing Street:

Gordon Brown, in one of his more unfortunately spun speeches, cast himself as Heathcliff. There is no doubt that in his younger days he cut quite a dash with foreign princesses and the like - although sadly, instead of wandering on moors, he launched himself passionately into endless committee meetings and finance reform. (Jenny Colgan, Alison Flood and John Dugdalein The Guardian)

In the same article we find another Brontë reference talking about Sienna Miller:

I don't know much about Sienna Miller - well, that's nonsense, like the rest of the UK I know far too much about her. But she sure is mighty purty, as we can see in this week's Hello! magazine, which shows her dressing up as Natasha Rostova (a brunette, surely?) from War and Peace, as part of a Unicef campaign to fight illiteracy around the world. (...) I'd have liked to have seen a post-smallpox Esther Summerson, or a Bertha Rochester, but there you go. (Jenny Colgan, Alison Flood and John Dugdalein The Guardian)

Estense (Ferrara, Italy) announces the exhibition 'Il Sogno di Ofelia' by Beatrice Piva (Centro fisioterapico Il Girasole, until next April 14). Her work is described like this:

Il lavoro di Beatrice Piva si basa sulla sperimentazione di nuove tecniche e sul tema dell'amore unito alla morte, alla passione di tipo romantico-distruttivo che troviamo nelle tragedie di Shakespeare, nei libri delle sorelle Bronte e nell'immaginario romantico-gotico. (Google translation)

And we have an alert for tomorrow, February 15, in Avigliano, Italy:

L’Assessorato alla Cultura e un gruppo di giovani studenti hanno organizzato per domenica prossima, alle 17,00, un recital di poesie al teatro comunale incentrando l’iniziativa sul rapporto fra i poeti e la natura. L’iniziativa proporrà brani di Mario Luzi, William Words Worth, Charles Beaudelaire, Charles Bronte, Walt Whitman, Eugenio Montale, Alessandro Baricco e Premiata Forneria Marconi preceduti da introduzioni che illustreranno il mondo poetico degli autori e l’importanza che il tema della natura ha avuto nella loro produzione. Intermezzi musicali accompagneranno la recitazione dei testi con l’obiettivo unitario di sollecitare e stimolare l’attenzione sul rapporto arte-natura. (Atlantide Magazine) (Google translation)

Le Monde (France) compares the Loeseth sisters (skiers) to the Brontës:

Reste à savoir maintenant si les soeurs Loeseth atteindront, dans leur domaine, la gloire des soeurs Brontë.

LiteraturKritik (in German) explores the connections between Darwin's evolution theory and critical approaches to literature. Quoting from Joseph Carroll's Evolution and Literary Theory:

Carrolls zweites Beispiel ist Emily Brontës Roman "Sturmhöhe": Die Beziehung zwischen der Protagonistin Catherine und ihrem Adoptivbruder Heathcliff zeige zwar Züge einer leidenschaftlichen Verbindung, könne aber nach Westermarck keine wirklich leidenschaftliche Beziehung sein, da Catherine und Heathcliff zusammen aufgewachsen sind. Gegen diese Auffassung hat Alan Richardson in einem Aufsatz zum Inzestmotiv in der englischen Romantik zu Recht eingewandt: "fictional representations just do not work that way. Like dreams, fictive works can bear a number of different relations to the rules and regularities of daily experience, often giving us the inverse of the lived world. If Emily Brontë is at liberty to people the Yorkshire moors with ghosts, why not incestuous foster-siblings as well?" (Katjia Mellmann) (Google translation)

The Berliner Literaturkritik reviews Anne Donovan's Being Emily:

Charakteren: der Bruder ist sanftmütig, kümmernd und schwul, die Tante keck und lesbisch, der Vater ein Trunkenbold. Der Titel verweist auf Emily Brontë, berühmte Autorin der „Sturmhöhe“, die es nach Ansicht Fionas auch geschafft hat, Literatur und Hausarbeit unter einen Hut zu bekommen. (Sabine Thieslers) (Google translation)

Der Tagesspiele reviews a recent premiere at the Berlinale, Lone Scherfig's An Education. We highlight a Brontë reference:

Ist David vielleicht ein zwiespältiger Verführer wie Rochester aus Charlotte Brontës Roman „Jane Eyre“, über den Jenny glänzende Schulaufsätze schreibt? Oder gar ein Schurke wie Patricia Highsmiths Tom Ripley? (Julian Hanich) (Google translation)

Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden) talks about Astrid Lindgren's influences, particularly Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, quoting profusely from John Seelyes's Jane Eyre’s American Daughters: From ”The Wide, Wide World” to ”Anne of Green Gables”:

Utgångspunkten för Seelye är alltså ”Jane Eyre”, ursprungligen utgiven 1847. Vad har Charlotte Brontës mästerverk, än i dag något av en kultbok för tonårsflickor, gemensamt med böckerna om Anne Shirley, för att inte tala om deras svenska förlängning Pippi Långstrump? Alla dessa böcker går att karaktärisera som ett slags Bildungsromaner, med ensamstående hjältinnor, som med egna krafter slår sig fram i världen. (...)
I ett väsentliga avseende skiljer sig ändå ”Jane Eyre” inte bara från L M Montgomerys och Astrid Lindgrens böcker utan också från merparten av sina amerikanska döttrar. Charlotte Brontës roman är en yttring av viktoriansk gotik, en skräckromantik med melodramatiska kryddor i ett däremellan realistiskt flöde. (Read more) (Nalle Valtiala) (Google translation)

And now for some explicit and non-explicit references to this most pink of all days, Valentine's day:

The Findlay Courier suggests Valentine's literary presents:

William Wordsworth. Emily Bronte. John Donne. Classical works by such poets can be used and offer inspiration. (Joy Brown)

The Toronto Star interviews some of the nominees for the U.K.-based Romantic Novel of the Year Award. The article begins with a Brontë&Austen compulsory reference:

Foreplay, not consummation, is the lifeblood of enduring romantic fiction. Whether it's the reconciliation of Jane and Rochester in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre or the battle of wills between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the denouement, no matter how swoon-inducing, is more icing than cake. False starts, tentative advances and even wrenching reversals along the way command the heart's attention. (Vit Wagner)

USA Today, The Hagerstown Herald-Mail and The Frederick News Post continue with their infomercial about Nora Roberts' recently inaugurated Inn BoonsBoro:

The room named for Jane and Rochester from Charlotte Bronte¨'s Jane Eyre (Roberts says she has read the book countless times) includes a fainting couch and a free-standing copper tub where guests can soak in heather-scented water. Each room has its own uniquely scented bath gels and lotions, which are produced locally. (Carol Emmott)

Michelle Kerns on The Examiner chooses her personal top 5 of the most annoying literary romances and the 5 most inspiringly romantic fictional liaisons. We have a Brontë on each list:

Annoying: 3. Heathcliff and Cathy Earnshaw from Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

I hated this book so much I could barely force myself to finish it. I've never understood why readers consider Heathcliff and Cathy's relationship to be so romantic; dysfunctional and destructive seems closer to the mark to me. And who needs enemies when you can count on your supposed devoted lover to do his best to destroy the life of your only child?

That's the problem precisely, the book is not romantic but Romantic.

Inspiring: 2. Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

For about 10 years, Jane Eyre was my absolute favorite book. It not only featured the first English novel heroine that wasn't beautiful, but a plain little creature that ended up getting everything she wanted on her terms -- atta girl! Jane Eyre contains some of the most delightfully romantic scenes in all of literature. My favorite is the one in which Mr. Rochester pretends to be a fortune-telling gypsy in order to find out what Jane thinks about him. I'm no romance fan, but that scene makes me all giggly.

20 Minutos (Spain) includes Wuthering Heights in the reading suggestions for a day like today:

La trágica historia de amor en los brumosos páramos de Yorkshire entre la apasionada Catherine y el atormentado Heathcliff es sin duda uno de los romances más inolvidables de la literatura de todos los tiempos. (Regina ExLibris) (Google translation)

The Independent interviews the known romance author, Penny Jordan. As opposite to many others authors of the genre she doesn't like particularly the Brontës:

My favourite books have never been literary greats. I like those that use words as bricks to build a story. Books about families fascinate me; I loved Sense and Sensibility for the social commentary; the nitty-gritty, the details of everyday life. This is what makes me smile. I don't much enjoy the big drama of the Brontë sisters. (Charlotte Philby)

The Philippine Star chooses favourite love teams:

Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta — They only did two films together: Hihintayin Kita sa Langit (where they fell in love with each other) and Saan Ka Man Naroroon (they were already on the brink of breakup by then). To this day, I still swoon (and that rarely happens to me) over their scenes together when I see Hihintayin. I guess it also helped that the photography, music and the basic story (an adaptation of Wuthering Heights) were also beautifully executed and all these contributed to make Hihintayin Kita sa Langit as the most romantic local movie in my book. (Butch Francisco)

The Global Post turns to Afghanistan to find love stories in the times of the Taliban:

Aziz was a modern-day Majnoon. He and Shukria fell in love in high school. She was a flashing, dark-eyed beauty, he a brooding Heathcliff type. They were both headed for medical school when the Taliban took over their northern city. (Jean MacKenzie)

The Times takes a more serious approach: is love a mental disease?:

There is also a school of thought that insists love is a cultural phenomenon. As the great French cynic La Rochefoucauld said: “People would not fall in love if they had not heard love talked about.” The culture keeps up a rapid-fire bombardment of the power and the glory of romantic love, and yet it seems curious that so many of the Greatest Love Stories Ever Told - Cathy and Heathcliff, Tristan and Isolde, Heloise and Abelard, Lancelot and Guinevere - end in disaster, if not death and carnage. If we were being really sceptical, we might conclude that it is delusional that “in love” should be regarded as the greatest and most time-consuming aspiration of the modern female. (Sara Vine and Tania Kindersley)