Matilda Eyre

Michaela Zamloot compares Jane Eyre with Roald Dahl's Matilda in The SF Young Adult Literature Examiner:

Unbelievable though it may seem, the line between children’s and adult literature is easily dissolved, proven through the discovery of a connection in the most unlikely of places. It’s time to brush off the Bronte sisters’ anthology, because Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre may have been reincarnated as none other than the children’s classic Matilda, by Roald Dahl. Don’t believe me? Keep reading.
Doubters need look no further into Bronte's celebrated novel than to Jane’s stint at Lowood School. The unchallenged dominance of the tyrannical clergyman Mr. Brocklehurst melts seamlessly into terror-inducing Trunchbull of Crunchem Hall Elementary. Both stories present these formidable adversaries as the source of evil in an otherwise sacred institution, terrorizing their students for no discernible reason. Our small, unassuming heroines are personally wronged by these monsters in ways that reveal surprising insight into the maturation of fear. The ‘adult version’ presents a punishment of public humiliation and the accusation of untruth, while in Dahl’s world children are sent to The Chokey – a broom closet of isolation filled only with darkness and protruding nails. Though the young are terrorized by things they can (or cannot) see and physically feel, adults dread the sight and feeling of others, rather than themselves.
If you believe at age five – as most five-year-olds do – that where there’s good, there’s evil, you’re likely to think the same at age 65. Which brings us to our opposition, in the form of two angelic teachers: Miss Temple and Miss Honey. Gently nurturing and protecting the young protagonists, these women are the embodiment of the caring mother that neither girl possesses. More importantly, they serve as the primary representation of what is highly valued by authors Dahl and Bronte: family. Recurrent almost ad nauseum in Jane Eyre is the belief that familial ties, or relationships to those who are alike (and therefore meant to be together) create an almost magical bond, enabling not only health and happiness, but the ability to subconsciously communicate across long distances. This mystical power takes on a more modern form in Matilda’s telekinetic powers, supposedly caused by diverted excess energy in her enormous brain. The cause lies with her neglectful parents, obtuse to the point of completely missing their daughter’s extraordinary prodigy. Her bond with Miss Honey becomes increasingly familial as Matilda involves herself in the personal problems of her caring teacher, finally resulting in their becoming a legal family when Matilda abandons her own.
In constantly encountering parallels between the two novels, what becomes increasingly apparent is the resemblance between Matilda and Jane themselves. Readers will find them both to be quiet misfits who desire little more than to love and be loved in return. They share a relationship to the literary genre as well: Matilda in her use of books as an escape from the tortures of the real world (ironically, Jane Eyre is mentioned), and Jane, in addition to reading herself, in her need to live a life that is ‘readable’. Throughout the course of the novel, she directly addresses readers, explaining to them that she has omitted or altered portions of her own life in order to increase the narrative appeal. Again, the same values are manifested in ways molded only by an increase in age – not a change in values.

The Washington Post reviews Girl in a Blue Dress. A Novel Inspired by the Life & Marriage of Charles Dickens by Gaynor Arnold:

Arnold's novel seems poised to enact a much-deserved act of feminist revenge, something like Jean Rhys's "Wide Sargasso Sea," which exposed the brutishness of Rochester in "Jane Eyre." But Arnold is ultimately too charitable and too attendant to the historical record for anything like that. "Girl in a Blue Dress" is, among many things, the story of one woman's remarkable resistance to bitterness and the blessings that eventually flow from that spirit. (Ron Charles)

Another Brontë reference comes from The Boston Phoenix. A review of the exhibition Butterfly Flight & Other Stories by Anne Siems in Walker Contemporary (Boston):

She mixes in early American stenciled wall decorations and designs that young girls embroidered into samplers. She sets it all atop dreamy soft-focus landscapes rendered with a golden brown patina that makes the paintings look antique. The combination transforms these influences from just a pastiche into something that feels fresh and sweeps you up like ravishing moments from a Brontë sisters novel. (Greg Cook)

The Fuquay-Varina Independent talks about Joyce Hope's book Joy Comes in the Morning:

Lauren MJ Connelly, published freelance writer and blogger at www.puremama.com, says the book “is destined to become an instant classic. This beautiful novel has the potential for being developed into other forms of media a la the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder or the Brontë sisters.”

Fairweather Lewis posts about Fritz Eichenberg's 1943 illustrations for Wuthering Heights and Addicted to Film mentions several Jane Eyre adaptations.

Categories: Illustrations, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights