The relevance of Jane Eyre

Paul Whitington compares recent Austen adaptations with Brontë ones in The Independent (Ireland) and reaches misled conclusions. Although we can more or less accept (though not agree with) the first one:

The fascination with Austen seems unstoppable, and it's interesting to contrast the fortunes of her novels with adaptations of the work of her near contemporaries, the Brontës.
Back in August, for instance, ITV screened a two-part adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, starring Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley. And while it was not without its qualities, it highlights the near-impossibility of turning Brontë's wildly gothic novel into a successful and coherent drama.
Thus far, Wuthering Heights has resisted all attempts to capture its atmosphere satisfactorily on film,

But the other one is simply wrong:

and while Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre has been more successfully adapted, it remains a period piece, a gothic romance with little relevance to today.

As any BrontëBlog reader can easily see day after day, Jane Eyre is VERY much present today and has a huge relevance.

A new review of Brian Dillon's Tormented Hope is reviewed in The Independent (Ireland):

As he scrutinises the illnesses of nine famous hypochondriacs -- Andy Warhol, Marcel Proust, Florence Nightingale, Glenn Gould, Charles Darwin, Charlotte Bronte, James Boswell, Alice James and Daniel Paul Schreber -- he is constantly trying to explain them by the light of that far from simple sentence. "You're only imagining it" is, after all, a mysterious concept, not least when you ask why humans should want to imagine being sick.

And in the Guardian:

Charlotte Brontë's hypochondria, he shows, was displaced on to Lucy Snowe or Jane Eyre, and how Proust's was an essential aspect of his art. Dillon is a self-confessed hypochondriac and his conclusion that "the power of imagination . . . is in itself a kind of pathology" has profound implications for literature. (Ian Pindar)

The Newspaper Tree (El Paso) announces the screening of Jane Eyre 1944 at the Film Salon at Trinity-First (check our sidebar for more details):

The Film Salon at Trinity-First continues its Orson Welles series with a presentation of the 1944 romantic melodrama Jane Eyre, at 7:30pm, Saturday, October 3. (...)
The Film Salon at Trinity-First meets the first Saturday of every month at 7:30pm in the Resler Hall Chapel (use the Montanan Avenue entrance). A nursery is provided with two days advanced reservations. All screenings are Free. 915-533-2674.
For more on the history and programs of The Film Salon, logon it our website at www.filmsalon.org

Allen Abel relates for The Globe and Mail a funny/scary anecdote from his days in China which has an unexpected Jane Eyre reference, Sarah Waters traces a profile of Angela Carter in the Guardian reminding us of her unfinished project:

At the time of her death, apparently, she was working on a sequel to Jane Eyre. I would have loved to have been able to read it.

The Hollywood Reporter informs about the death of Jewell Jordan, who was Merle Oberon's stunt in Wuthering Heights 1939:

Jewell Jordan Mason, who was Luise Rainer's stunt double for her Oscar-winning performance in 1937's "The Good Earth" and Merle Oberon's on "Wuthering Heights" two years later, died Sept. 24 in Camarillo, Calif. She was 92. (Mike Barnes)

We read in the New Zealand Herald how Hayley Westenra is not the only kiwi singing Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights, Miriam Clancy has her own version:

With that she launches into Wuthering Heights, the Kate Bush hit, expertly navigating its vocal acrobatics. Soon Clancy has Cathy fogging up Heathcliff's windows all over again.

Wuthering Heights can be used as a concept to review whatever you want: a romantic Filipino movie or an exhibition in New York of Austé:

Black cats, castles, forest huts and malnourished trees are often sighted on the horizon, rendered in calligraphic, folk-art flourishes. Titles in a “Wuthering Heights” tone contribute to the mood: “From This, No One Will Save Me!” (Roberta Smith in The New York Times)

Diario Sur (Spain) talks about femmes and hommes fatales:

En lo que respecta a 'l'homme fatal', si bien no se ha incidido tanto en su presencia en la literatura universal, sí que se encuentra en ella y no de modo esporádico, y tal vez habría que preguntarse por qué su existencia se ha tratado de un modo diferente a la de su variante femenina. Por no retroceder demasiado en el tiempo ¿Qué hay del Heathcliff de 'Cumbres borrascosas' y de la mayoría de los héroes de Byron e incluso del James Bond de Ian Fleming? (María Teresa Lezcano) (Bing translation)

We read in El Norte de Castilla (Spain) about Ana María Matute and Ángeles Caso's talk at the Segovia Hay Festival. It is well known the passion for Wuthering Heights of the author of Paraíso Inhabitado:

Sí dejó caer durante su charla algunas de esas lecturas casi sagradas para un escritor: Tolstoi, Dostoievski, Proust -al que adjudicó una sensibilidad femenina a la hora de escribir, para disgusto de un oyente- Flaubert... Ángeles Caso echó aquí una mano: «Sé que la encanta una novela por la que compartimos admiración: 'Cumbres borrascosas'». (Angélica Tanarro) (Bing translation)

Techinsight (Japan) finds echoes of Wuthering Heights in the Hiroyuki Nakano film Tajomaru (2009). Books, Comics, Writing and Other Misc Meanderings and Every Day is a Miracle post about Jane Eyre (this last one also reviews Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair), The Feminist Texican has been seduced by Ruben Toledo's new cover for Wuthering Heights, Bella's Bookshelf discusses briefly the influence of Jane Eyre in the Twilight saga, Horas Buenas has finished Charlotte Brontë's sampler and Doveygreyreader has received a very nice and Brontëan birthday gift.

Let's finish with a competition going on in Radio Times (just for UK residents):

We've got three copies of the DVD to give away, as well as a Philips portable DVD player worth £80 for one lucky winner, courtesy of ITV DVD!
For your chance to win, just correctly answer the multiple-choice questions opposite. The closing date is Thursday 15 October.
Please note that this competition is open to UK residents aged 18 or over only.

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