Ghostly women and/or sexy witches

Susie Boyt's column in the Financial Times contains the following (retroactive) question:

“Mum, do you think I’m the only person in the world right now reading Jane Eyre in bed wearing a red leotard and yellow socks?”
“Maybe.”

Reader, do you think you are the only person in the world right now reading a post about the Brontës...? We rather think not.

Contactmusic interviews the actor and musician Matt Berry and unearths a curious anecdote with some Brontë-related content:

And what about the album itself? Unlike Opium, which was extremely dark and was based around the 'horrors of the city'-covering subjects such as decadence and debauchery, drugs and sex-Witchazel, although still dark, is about the horrors of the country. 'But it's not just horrors, its kind of melancholic horrors of the country' he explains. In fact he described it on 6 Music as sounding like 'folk from 1978', and the inspiration for the album came from a childhood experience. 'One of the most memorable and frightening things when I was four or five was Kate Bush doing Wuthering Heights. She did it outside, in a forest and she did this thing where she looked straight into the camera and it's the most frightening thing for a kid to see, but it just stuck in my head'. He adds 'I thought the countryside was full of sexy witches like that, and that's what I wanted to base it on'! (Robyn Burrows)

The New York Times reviews BBC's Little Dorrit 2008 and compares Dickens's heroines to the Brontës':

Dickens heroines are rarely spirited or saucy; his world was not populated by the likes of Jane Eyre or Elizabeth Bennett. Mostly, they are closer to the mold of the meek, self-sacrificing girl in “The Old Curiosity Shop,” who drove Oscar Wilde to joke, “One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.” (Alessandra Stanley)

The Albany Herald reviews an old acquaintance of this blog: Diane Setterfeld's The Thirteenth Tale:

Diane Setterfield produced a wonderful debut novel with “The Thirteenth Tale.” Told in the gothic tradition, it reminds the reader of classics such as “Wuthering Heights” and “Jane Eyre.” (Michele Barsom)

El Diario Vasco quotes once again the Brontës as the mothers of so-called chick-lit:

Son dos maneras diferentes de referirse a un género que muchos definen como novelitas románticas, sin más, y que otros comparan a las creaciones de Jane Austen y las Brontë, ni más ni menos. (Elena Sierra) (Google translation)

The Cleveland Plain Dealer talks about the latest book by actress Isabel Gillies, Happens Every Day: An All-Too-True Story. She describes her husband like this:

"Happens Every Day" is Gillies' new memoir about living in one of Oberlin's grandest brick homes, married to the handsomest professor -- "He was Heathcliff with an earring" -- only to have him unceremoniously dump her and their toddler sons for the new instructor in 18th-century English literature. (Karen R. Long)

Recensieweb reviews Mensje van Keulen's Een goed verhaal. Concerning the story Bedevaart, the reviewer says:

In het derde verhaal, ‘Bedevaart’, gebruikt Van Keulen een andere strategie. Hierin draait het niet om een relatie, maar om een individu. Een vrouwelijk hoofdpersonage wordt op de voet gevolgd op haar reis naar het geboortedorp van de gezusters Brontë. Bijna iedere handeling wordt beschreven, en ook haar gevoelens, gedachten en mijmeringen. Toch zorgt ook dit niet voor helderheid. Want nog veel meer vragen blijven nu onbeantwoord: wie is de vrouw? Waarom maakt ze deze reis? Wat verklaart haar handelingen en de volgorde ervan? Die raadselachtigheid wekt geenszins irritatie maar fascineert juist, en het laat tevens zien dat Van Keulen niet slechts een trucje herhaalt, maar steeds bewust kiest voor de verteltechniek die bij een bepaald verhaal of personage past. (Marleen Louter) (Google translation)

A couple of additional Brontë references can be found on Digitalvd in a review of the German DVD release of The Duchess and The Twilight-Wuthering Heights connection is mentioned in this article on the Italian magazine Step1.

The Ghosts Hunters Journal talks about some Bradford "paranormal activity" including the purported ghost of Emily Brontë:

West of Denholme, what is reputed to be the ghost of Emily Bronte has been seen in a pub in Haworth’s Main Street. A ghostly woman wearing a long white dress also thought to be Emily Bronte has been seen walking near the Bronte Falls area of Haworth. These sightings date back some time. The Haworth area is also home to a snow ghost, the ghost of a woman draped in long clothes seen only when it has snowed, her appearance being accompanied by the sound of a galloping horse.

The Long and The Short of It interviews the author Eliza Knight, not mentioned here for the first time:

Eliza has a wide range in her list of favorite authors. "Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is my absolute favorite book" she told me.

Finally, The Temple analyses Rocherster's character.

Categories: Books, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Music, References, Wuthering Heights