Lucy Snowe looking at a painting ~ BrontëBlog

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Lucy Snowe looking at a painting

Saturday, November 14, 2009 10:31 am by M. in Brontëites, Elizabeth Gaskell, Music, References, Theatre, Villette, Wuthering Heights No comments

Today The Guardian brings several allusions to the Brontës:

John Mullan lists several examples of ekphrasis (the recreation in words of a work of art):

Villette by Charlotte Brontë Lucy Snowe, Brontë's narrator, visits an art gallery in Villette (aka Brussels) and encounters The Cleopatra: a large portrait of a voluptuous woman ("that wealth of muscle, that affluence of flesh") whose clothes are becoming detached from her. She sits looking at the painting and watching the respectable bourgeois "art lovers" relishing its near-pornographic allure.

The newspaper recovers the article published 144 years ago (November 14th, 1865) covering the death of Elizabeth Gaskell:

But her greatest work and that by which she will be longest known, is her "Life of Charlotte Brontë", of which it has been said that no biography has equalled it since Boswell's "Johnson". In the earlier editions of this now standard work, some personal references were made which created much discussion, and which were omitted from subsequent editions. (compiled by John Ezard)

The Twilight fever (now that the second film is about to be premiered) is also featured in the same newspaper today:

One unlikely beneficiary has been Emily Brontë – a paperback edition of Wuthering Heights with a Twilight-themed cover was been Waterstones' bestselling classic for months." (Helen Pidd)

But the fever reaches The Vancouver Sun as well:

The Twilight stories are more romance than horror; Stephenie Meyer references Wuthering Heights and Romeo and Juliet, not Dracula or Rice's Vampire Chronicles. (Gisele Baxter)

And also the Independent where Michael Sheen (or the journalist) seems to have lost perspective:

And if he sounds star struck by Stephenie Meyer, author of the book series, well, he is, comparing her to the Brontës and Jane Austen. "The utter desolation she is able to capture in New Moon, I experienced it. She really gets to the heart of the devastation of losing a first love. As we get older we all tend to maybe trivialise our own feelings and experiences at that age because society and culture does that to us. But I remember it. I remember people saying, 'Oh, he's just a 13-or 14-year-old boy. What does he know? He'll grow up and grow out of it'."(Lesley O'Toole)

And even to Estadao (Brazil):

Quem já leu Lua Nova, o segundo livro da saga Crepúsculo, sabe que nas últimas páginas do livro Edward e Bella, que formam o casal protagonista, discutem por que ela está lendo O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes, de Emily Bronte. O livro é um dos clássicos da literatura inglesa, mas Edward contesta que o casal de amantes, Heathcliff e Catherine, seja colocado no mesmo plano de Romeu e Julieta e Elizabeth e Darcy (de Orgulho e Preconceito), como representações do romantismo. Edward contesta Bella, dizendo que a história de O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes é de ódio, não é amor. (Luiz Carlos Merten) (Google translation)

The Washington City Paper talks about songs based on literary works:

“Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush: The first single by the fey, experimental pop singer, which in 1978 made her, at 19 even, the first woman to both record and write a No. 1 single in the U.K. (This after her label wanted to introduce the singer with a safer song, but relented. Go lit!) She penned the song after watching a movie adaptation of Emily Brontë’s tragic novel, which has bedeviled AP Language classes ever since its 1846 publication (OK, it took a few years for it to enter curricula). As weird as it is, the song is pretty restrained for Bush, who continues to make great, challenging music but is utterly to blame for nonsensical ’80s videos like Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” (Jonathan L. Fischer)

Another Brontëite on Bookreporter - the author Susan Wiggs:

Q: Who is your favorite fictional heroine?
SW: Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh --- she inspired me to be a writer. Jo March from Little Women --- another writer who never gave up. And Jane Eyre, who never gave up on love.

Qué Leer (Spain) interviews Argentinian writer Rodrigo Fresán:

La etiqueta de escritor pop, por el contrario, no es algo que le moleste ni, mucho menos, le desagrade, aunque su literatura, además del pop, también se nutre de autores como George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Marcel Proust, Laurence Sterne, Emily Brontë y siguen las firmas, y de discos de los Beatles y de letras de Bob Dylan y de películas como 2001: Una Odisea del Espacio y Qué bello es vivir. “Tengo bastante bien leído todo el siglo XIX y todo el siglo XVIII. No soy el típico escritor ‘joven’ que está en contra del establishment literario o de los maestros clásicos de la literatura, sino casi todo lo contrario”. (Diego Gándara) (Google translation)

A press note published on Tara (Canary Islands, Spain) is one of the best examples of lazy journalism and ignorance. It covers the visit of the writer Luis León Barreto to Brontë country:

A lo largo de una semana el autor visitó las ciudades de Mánchester, Liverpool, Birmigham y Leeds, además del célebre pueblecito Hebden Bridge, donde vivieron las hermanas Brönte (!!!), autoras de la célebre novela Cumbres borrascosas (!!!). (Google translation)

El Diario Montañés (Spain) reviews the comic Sambre by Yslaire:

Desde 'Cumbres borrascosas' a 'Los miserables', la impronta de los escritores decimonónicos más representativos está presente en esta obra de cuyo primer volumen firma el guión Balac, pseudónimo de Yann Lepennetier. (Yexus) (Google translation)

Le Monde also links together Florence & The Machine and the Brontës:

Mais si elle jongle aussi avec les octaves, cette jeune et jolie brune en short latex semble plus inspirée par les fêtes foraines que par les soeurs Brontë. (Stéphane Davet) (Google translation)

De Standaard (Belgium) reviews the Woeste Hoogten performances by Theater Artemis:

Maar ik wil ze allebei!' Actrice Alejandra Theus stampvoet en jengelt tegelijk, uit haar blik spreekt zowel pijn als verontwaardiging. Ze speelt Cathy, het hoofdpersonage van Woeste hoogten. Haar tragiek is dat ze veiligheid vond bij haar rijke, verfijnde man Edgar, maar erg gehecht blijft aan Heathcliff, zo'n beetje de bosversie van Kurt Cobain. Cathy wil ze allebei, zo snuift ze in de schoot van de huishoudster en vervangmoeder Nelly (An Hackselmans). (Read more)
(Wouter Hillaert) (Google translation)