Is Emily Brontë spinning in her grave?

David Barnett poses the following question in The Guardian concerning the Twilight-oriented Wuthering Heights covers:

Quick quiz for fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series of young adult vampire novels: What is Bella's favourite book?
If you said Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, then give yourself a point. I, too, will give myself a point for knowing this, although I confess I cheated: I haven't read Twilight or any of its sequels, nor have I seen the film, and I don't have the faintest clue who Bella is. I do know what her favourite read is, though, because a cover for a new edition of Wuthering Heights tells me so.
Novels getting a makeover because of a TV or movie adaptation is nothing new, though this is perhaps the first time I've ever seen a classic of English literature get re-branded because it is the favourite book of a character in another work of fiction.
And it isn't just the metaphysical endorsement from Twilight's Bella … the new edition of Wuthering Heights, from Harper, borrows the contemporary Gothic design style of Meyer's successful series. The American edition, coming in October, re-presents the Brontë novel with a cover comprising a black background and blood-red rose, while the UK edition opts for a tender white bloom, and the very vampiric cover blurb: Love Never Dies.
Should we be appalled, or approving of this latest move? Those of us who find ourselves shaking our heads and muttering, "Dreadful, dreadful", are possibly marvelling at the chutzpah of those who would make an enduring classic such as Wuthering Heights (they're still making telly out of it, 160-odd years on) into a pale imitation of a mass-market publishing phenomenon aimed at adolescent girls.
Those of us who don't find it too offensive may be ruminating on all the extra sales that Wuthering Heights might pick up thanks to Meyer's championing of it, and on the young readers who might otherwise not have been exposed to the Brontë novel – at least one blogger is reading her way through all the classic novels namechecked in the Twilight books, and reporting back on her blog, Bella's Bookshelf. (...)
Quite what Emily Brontë would make of it all is anyone's guess, although she would probably be quite gratified to actually have her name on the latest editions of Wuthering Heights – like her sisters, in her early career she adopted a male-sounding name, Ellis Bell, to overcome the prejudice against women writers. There's a fair chance, though, that she might be spinning in her grave at the thought that her work is best marketed with the intimation that it is a pale imitation of Stephenie Meyer. And that's not a course of action which is to be encouraged, given the latest publishing fad for mashing up classic texts, re-inventing them as gory horror stories, and flogging them to the Twilight generation.

On a side note, though, we don't agree that Emily would be 'quite gratified to actually have her name on the latest editions of Wuthering Heights'. She was quite angry when she found out that Charlotte's editors had found out that she, too, was a woman. She wanted to keep her privacy first and foremost.

The Daily Mail also recommends Jude Morgan's The Taste of Sorrow:

The tragedy of the Bronte family is so well documented that you might be forgiven for asking: why another book? But, seemingly effortlessly, Jude Morgan breathes such life and vigour into his characters and their stories that you are totally drawn into their world.
It is all there: the dreadful loss of their mother and older sisters; Branwell's descent into drunkenness and debauchery; the hopelessness of the plight of un-monied, unmarried women.
But there is also much love, and somehow Charlotte, Emily and Anne found the wherewithal to fight against the odds until their own lives were cut so short. This aptly named book is totally compelling - I cannot commend it enough. (Katy Stevenson)

The Evening Standard talks about the night of the 1000 ukuleles at the Proms. A rendition of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain was performed:

And in a surreal encore, hundreds of brightly coloured ukuleles were waved as band leader George Hinchliffe sang Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. (Felix Allen)

EDIT: Also in The Herald:

In a finale paying tribute to the “Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire”, the group played a special version of Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush led by south Yorkshire native George Hinchcliffe.

The Proms version can be listened to on the BBC iPlayer website (around 1 hour 12 minutes into the concert).

The Telegraph & Argus has a reminder of a curious anniversary:

25 years ago: Bradford farmer Arthur Brown discovered that the old stones in his back garden were from the Old Bell Chapel where the Bronte sisters were christened.

The Burnley Express has an article about the Brontë moors:

They are, however, landscapes with distinct moods. It was perhaps the Bronte sisters over at Haworth who saw the romantic side of these hard uplands, and found inspiration in the wind-swept heather-clad moorlands. Inadvertantly they created a tourism boom in the 19th Century, and even today Haworth bustles with visitors on sunny days, all keen to swig tea, eat scones and jam and soak up the Bronte atmosphere. Few will probably have read Wuthering Heights, but most will have at least some idea of the characters of Heathcliff and Cathy. (...)
Heathers make great garden plants, too. Tough as old boots they provide year round evergreen colour with green or golden foliage. Flowers are white or pink, and provide easy low maintenance ground coverage, about 9in. high.
Their needs are simple. Avoid shady sites and composts containing lime and they will thrive. Our local soils tend to be neutral or slightly acid and in these they will prosper. In tubs use the lime-free 'Ericaceous' composts. They will give years of low maintenance colour. I can't promise you the solitude of the moors, the lonely call of the curlew or a visit from Heathcliff (thank goodness), but I can promise you easy-care, hardworking little plants that will stand up to the worst that the elements can throw at them. (Phil Calvert)

Gwenavilasblog talks about Jane Eyre 1997 and Stars Don't Fade about Jane Eyre 1983 (in Finnish), small steps to glory concentrates on Jane Eyre's vocabulary. We also find a post about Emily Brontë on Lumea mea (in Romanian) and a review of Wuthering Heights on The Thumbed Page. Finally, El ventanuco de Ucedaman provides us with a set of pictures of a recent trip to Haworth (in Spanish).

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