Dude Watchin' with the Brontës and Bertha Spears

The Australian has an article about The Huntington Library (in San Marino, California) whose collection contains several Brontë items:

The Huntington also has more than seven million books, manuscripts, photographs, maps and historic documents, from medieval illuminated manuscripts and early editions of Shakespeare to original letters of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Charlotte Bronte and Charles Dickens. About 200 items are on show at any one time. (Julia Patrick)

The Huntington Collection contains correspondence (122 items) (1832-54) mainly to Ellen Nussey and literary MSS (like A peep into a Picture Book (1834) or "On the death of Anne Brontë" (1849)).

The Nashua Telegraph reports a recent lecture by Professor James Kasner (University of New Hampshire) where he explores the links and the literary continuity between Jane Eyre and the Harry Potter saga:

Harry Potter as David Copperfield or Jane Eyre? J.K. Rowling as Charlotte Bronte or Charles Dickens only with a dash of fantasy and a heaping scoop of horror?
Yes, according to James Krasner, an associate professor of English at the University of New Hampshire. Krasner spoke to about 25 people, mostly kids and young adults, at the Rodgers Memorial Library on Thursday about the literary underpinnings of the hugely popular Harry Potter franchise and what about it appeals so strongly to millions of readers and moviegoers around the world.
The novels, most of which are based at an English wizard school called Hogwarts, are a derivative of 19th century novels such as “Jane Eyre” and “David Copperfield,”and a popular British genre of prep school stories, Krasner said.
Like the protagonists in many of those stories, Harry Potter is orphaned a young age and is treated poorly by his adoptive family. Later, he goes off to a secret school where he learns about the wider wizarding world, makes friends, and, through hard work and talent, creates a good life for himself.
“That’s what we want,” Krasner said. “We want Harry to be happy and by the end of the story, that’s what we get.”
Many of Rowling’s characters, including Harry’s stout but less-than charismatic friend, Ron Weasley, and intelligent and stern companion Hermione Granger, along with the vicious potions teacher, Professor Snape, have direct counterparts in older, classic stories, Krasner said.
Harry’s cousin Dudley Dursley sounds a lot like Jane Eyre’s adoptive brother, and Hogwart’s kindly and all-knowing headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, is a reflection of Dr. Strong in “David Copperfield,” he said.
Other similarities come out in Rowling’s themes, Krasner said, specifically that the books revolve around the conflict between the middle class idea that education can improve the lot of anyone willing to work and the aristocratic assumption that pure blood and old bloodlines are a greater benchmark of value.
“This is stuff that we’re all still anxious about,” he said.
But there’s a lot of originality, too, Krasner said, which is one of the reasons so many people like the novels and movies. Another reason is rather simple.
“It’s good. This is really good,” he said. “I read a lot of literature. These books will be around in 200 years. It’s not (William) Faulkner. It’s not ‘Jane Eyre,’ but I do think we’re going to have ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ and ‘Harry Potter.’ ”
Rowling is good – much like Dickens – at telling sprawling, intricate stories with dozens of characters and, in the end, tying them together, Krasner said, which is always a crowd pleaser.
The books are also flashy and entertaining enough for young readers with enough ethically weighty themes, such as class warfare, to suck in teens and adults, he said.
“It’s a book about parents and children that parents can read with their children,” Krasner said. “I think it’s harder, frankly, to present serious issues and be entertaining at the same time. To do that is really extraordinary.” (Joseph G. Cote)

The San Antonio Express-News reviews Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger:

Mrs. Ayers, whose first daughter, Susan, died in the house years earlier, is the next object of torment, and “begins the systematic business of torturing herself to death.” It’s inevitable that romance, of the Brontë variety, rears its painstakingly coiffed head. What seems a likely match for Faraday and Caroline ends, inevitably, as it turns out, “with a queasy mixture of longing and dread.” (Steve Bennett)

The Montreal Gazette reviews White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi. The reviewer is able to link together Perrault, Emily Brontë and Edgar Allan Poe:

Despite the grim subject matter, Oyeyemi has some fun borrowing gothic props from the likes of Snow White, Emily Brontë and, especially, Edgar Allan Poe. (Donna Bailey Nurse)

TV presenter Chris Tarrant confesses his Brontëiteness to the Birmingham Mail:

The Tiswas and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire star named Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs among his favourites.
“I have always read avidly since I was a young boy and now my own son, Toby, is also a very keen reader,” he said.
“I like to see it. I think it’s very healthy. Too many kids spend too much time staring mindlessly at TV screens these days and reading is altogether better for them.
“As a teenager, I became very keen on Thomas Hardy books, the Brontë sisters’ Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre and even Dostoevsky. (Alison Dayani)

The Thurgauer Zeitung (Switzerland) talks about the Guptara Twins and compares them with the Brontës:

Eines Tages, die Zwillinge waren elf, gaben sie einer dieser Welten einen Namen, «Calaspia», bevölkerten sie mit den «Baruen», einem Menschenstamm, der die Emotionen anderer erspüren kann, und mit «Plimpen», elfenähnlichen Zauberwesen, mit einem tapferen Teenager namens Bry Bellyset und einer weisen Matriarchin. Die beiden beschlossen, Calaspia auf Englisch in Romanform zu fassen. Das erinnert natürlich unweigerlich an die englischen Brontë-Schwestern, die sich als Kinder unterm Küchentisch die Welten Angria und Gondal ausdachten, und diese – zumindest in Fragmenten – auch zu Papier brachten. (Simone Meier) (Google translation)

The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger has an article about the Annelies Štrba exhibition at the Bilderbuchmuseum Burg Wissem in Troisdorf, Germany. It seems that the scope of the exhibition is wider that we thought:

Leiterin Maria Linsmann zog es gar in die Heimat der Schwestern, um sich vor Ort in Yorkshire anzusehen, wo diese schon als Kinder mit Geschichten und Zeichnungen ihre Phantasiewelten lebendig werden ließen. Sie stieß auf das Pfarrhaus, in dem die Pfarrerstöchter und ihr Bruder Patrick Branwell aufwuchsen, und auf eine karge fast baumlose Landschaft von eigentümlichem Reiz, die Emily 1836 in „Hoch wogende Heide“ beschrieb“. „Da ich in zur Zeit von Halloween da war, war es da noch schauriger“, erinnert sich Linsmann an den Ausflug. Im Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth stieß sie auf faszinierende wie vielsagende Ausstellungsstücke, auf winzige, von den Mädchen selbst gestaltete Bücher aus dem Einwickelpapier von Zuckerstückchen ebenso wie auf die Peitsche, mit der Vater Patrick Brontë seine Kinder züchtigte. Einige Exponate sind derzeit in Troisdorf zu sehen - und damit erstmals in Deutschland, wie die Leiterin versichert.
„In England gibt es einen unheimlichen Kult um die drei“, hat Linsmann beobachtet, „das können wir in Deutschland kaum nachvollziehen“. Für das Bilderbuchmuseum seien Autorinnen, die schon als Kinder und Jugendliche anfangen zu schreiben, allerdings immer ein Thema.
Ergänzt werden die Exponate neben einigen Manuskripten und Erläuterungen auch durch eine Original-Zeichnung von Balthus, der 1933 Wuthering Heights illustrierte. Vor allem aber kommen in einer zweiten Abteilung meist großformatige Fotografien der Schweizer Künstlerin Anneliese "trba hinzu, die sich ebenfalls von dem berühmten Roman inspirieren ließ. Auf den ersten Blick beunruhigen und verstören die Arbeiten. Die Bilder zeigen junge, in idyllischen Landschaften dahingestreckt liegende Mädchen in romantischen Kleidern, angesichts derer man sich unwillkürlich fragt, ob sie friedlich schlafen, oder ob es sich um Tote handelt. In einer Arbeit wird dieser Eindruck durch die fahle Bässe eines Mädchengesichts noch unterstrichen. Gezielt eingesetzte Unschärfe gibt den Bildern etwas unwirkliches, traumhaftes. Als „eigenwillig und assoziativ“ beschreibt Linsmann diesen Blick auf das Werk der Schwestern. Als Fotomodell dienten der Fotografin die eigenen Töchter. Die Bilder mit ihrer „düsteren und bedrohlichen Atmosphäre“ seien es auch gewesen, die den Anstoß zu dem Brontë-Projekt gaben: Linsmann war in der Kölner Galerie Reckermann auf sie gestoßen.
Wer sich im Bilderbuchmuseum Burg Wissem von ihnen verzaubern lassen will, sollte gleich noch einen Spaziergang durch die nahe gelegene Wahner Heide miteinplanen. (Andreas Helfer) (Google translation)

Paris Match (in French) analyses the Twilight phenomenon and mentions the influence of Wuthering Heights. Le Podcast Journal also offers a French translation of Jane Eyre (by Mme Lesbazeilles Souvestre, 1883) and an audioversion (read by Chantal Magnat). Коммерсантъ (Russia) talks about bankrupts in literature and mentions Shirley.

Sydsvenskan (Sweden) makes what can be probably considered the comparison of the year - Britney Spears as the madwoman in the attic:

I dokumentären "Britney: For the record" från 2008 säger Britney Spears att den hårda bevakningen av hennes privatliv var en anledning till att hon lät håret falla. Hon ville känna sig fri men blev istället gestaltad som den galna kvinnan på vinden.
Kvinnor som likt Britney struntar i allt utmålas ofta som galna. Det är en könsstereotyp som speglas i Charlotte Brontës roman Jane Eyre. Där förälskar sig Mr Rochester i Jane men visar sig vara gift med en sinnessjuk kvinna som är inlåst på vinden. När hon brinner inne slutar boken lyckligt med ett giftermål. Den galna kvinnan utmålas som ett hot mot både könsnormer och äktenskapet. (Google translation)

On the blogosphere, Un libro al día posts about Jane Eyre (in Spanish), Lupus in Flight is listening to the letters of Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen, Le Journal de Fée Bourbonnaise reviews Jane Eyre 1983 (in French) and finally the discovery of the day. Hark! A Vagrant (Katie Beaton) has uploaded a hilarious comic strip: Dude Watchin' with the Brontës that you cannot possibly miss:

Anne why are you writing books about how alcoholic losers ruin people's lives? Don't you see that romanticizing douchey behavior is the proper literary convention in this family! Honestly. (Click here to see the cartoon)

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Brontëana, Humour, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References,