Jane Eyre's house [sic!]

Two newspapers review Brian Dillon's Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives, Charlotte Brontë being one of them, as you know. From The Independent:

Here is Charlotte Brontë, laid low with fashionable hypochondria, but genuinely laid genuinely low, suffering "advanced torment [which] in its most dramatic and richly-imagined forms seems even to have defined a late version of the Gothic imagination and a vision of the creative temperament stymied, isolated or in exile". (Michael Bywater)

And from The Telegraph:

By Brontë’s day it had become a form of depression. She worried about her health since her four sisters had died young – Maria and Elizabeth from typhoid, Anne and Emily from consumption. For Freud it was a neurosis with sexual connotations, a “state of being in love with one’s own illness”. (Cassandra Jardine)

Here's another review. In this case of Gaile Petursson-Hiley’s dance piece Brontë. Winnipeg Uptown Magazine gives it an A-.

Lives of quiet desperation often speak volumes. Winnipeg choreographer Gaile Petursson-Hiley gave voice to Victorian-era sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, whose brooding, windswept novels such as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre lit her imagination and inspired her newest full length production, Brontë.
The abstract contemporary work opened at the Rachel Browne Theatre for a three-show run, Sept. 18 through 20, performed by a strong company of dancers: Kristin Haight, James Phillips, Brock Adams, Kathleen Price Hiley and Darby Gibbs. The 62-minute show also featured an evocative lighting design by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Robert Mravnik, as well as the choreographer's own ruffled costumes and a set design consisting of stacks of antiquated books that rose out of the stage like tombstones.
The long-time Winnipeg dancer is well known for her imaginative, earlier works such as Cherry Blossom Pink (2002) and her last major show, Faeries (2006), produced by the company she co-founded with Stephanie Ballard. Her latest creation takes viewers on a darker, more intense journey right into the heart of Victoriana, where unbridled passion always lurks just below the surface.
Once the more introspective show heats up, its layers of multiple perspectives intrigue by blurring the line between reality and fiction. Petursson-Hiley's artful attention to subtle detail - such as Gibbs dreamily resting her head on a stack of books during Haight's and Phillips' stormy duet - suddenly shifts the focus and challenges whether you are witnessing emotional truths or merely hazy characters born from the Brontës' (and choreographer's) fertile imaginations.
A riveting duet between Phillips and Adams crackles with the intensity of a Spanish bullfight as their relationship morphs between sparring rivals and simpatico partners. Seeing Adams poignantly cradling Phillips like a Pietà figure near the end underscores the testosterone-fueled tension with heartrending tenderness, as does a later solo by Phillips that evokes the expressive poetry of a soliloquy. Petursson-Hiley does not shy away from gritty emotion, but embraces it in all its colours and endless complexities.
The omnipresent texts are imaginatively incorporated throughout the non-narrative work, used alternatively as stepping-stones and skates, or slammed together to punctuate the choreographer's angular movement vocabulary like raw exclamation points.
Perhaps the most potent image in Brontë is the dancers inscribing lines in thin air like cryptic messages in a bottle. It's as if the medium becomes the message itself. Our task is not to interpret the literal meaning of the words, Petursson-Hiley seems to suggest, but rather to wonder at the power of creativity that allowed three Victorian women to ultimately endure - and transcend - their all too bleak and gloomy lives. (Holly Harris)

The Syracuse New Times has an article on the work of 19th-century artist James E. Freeman, currently on display at Munson-Williams-Proctor (Utica, NY).

But at the height of his abilities, Freeman seemed to fade from American thought. He continued to live and work in Italy, but capricious American tastes in art did not fully value the “cult of sensibility.” Similarly, works by authors Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters were brushed aside as sentimental fluff at the time.

We don't know about Freeman, but we are very sorry to say that in some circles Jane Austen and the Brontës are still dismissed as exactly that.

Which might or might not lead to the following not-so-uncommon mistake seen in Pique News Magazine:

Lucky me, I got to stay with old friend, bon vivant and former long-time Whistlerite, Jan Gavin, at her charming home surrounded by an even more charming garden in Hampshire. It was fascinating to meander through Jane Eyre's house nearby... (Glenda Bartosh)

We confess to having thought for a few secons of some sort of fake, theme-park-y Jane Eyre house until of course it dawned on us that Hampshire is where Jane AUSTEN's house is. And isn't it sad to actually 'meander' through a place and not be even capable of remembering its - famous - 'owner's' name?

Another blunder of sorts is thankfully not made but reported by The American Spectator:

Class time was mostly a call-and-response between a droning professor and a chorus of furious notebook scribbles, occasionally interrupted by an eager-beaver who once raised his hand and referred to Heathcliff as "an African-American." (Alec Mouhibian)

On the blogosphere, Blogging for Books reviews Wuthering Heights and Ángeles de Cenizas (in Spanish) selects it as book of the week. Just Like in the Movies writes about Wuthering Heights "1972" (it's actually 1970, the one with Timothy Dalton as Heathcliff)) and its kitchen. Little Changes for a Lazy Lady posts about Jane Eyre. BookNAround reviews Syrie James's The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë. The Bookish Kind recommends a book on the Brontës called The World of the Brontës by Jane O'Neill. And finally, Cara Lockwood - author, among others, of Wuthering High - is interviewed by Bring Back Bard:

3. What did you do to make the characters your own?
Heathcliff (from Wuthering Heights) has always fascinated me as a character. In Emily Bronte's book, he is pretty much a villian who seeks revenge on those who have wronged him. But I always found his character tragic. His revenge, after all, is fueled by heartbreak. It's the loss of his true love Catherine that makes him ruthless. I was really interested in the idea of trying to redeem him. He has a great capacity to love, is fiercely loyal and a great survivor. So in Wuthering High, I gave him the opportunity to make different choices. The result, I think, is that he's a very strong, very compelling romantic hero.

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Charlotte Brontë, Dance, Jane Eyre, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights