How fresh and delightful a 162-year-old love story can be ~ BrontëBlog

Rachel Cusk writes in The Guardian about that diffuse concept baptized as women's writing. Talking about Chekhov's Three Sisters:

Recently, reading Chekhov's Three Sisters, it struck me that the question of female self-expression – let's call it "women's writing" – becomes confused precisely where the attempt is made to concretise it. Chekhov's play is based on aspects of the lives of the Brontë sisters; the three women, Olga, Irina and Masha, suffer not only from the confinement and tedium of provincial life but from something antithetical in their relationship to reality. What they feel is not embodied by what they are. They look back to childhood as a time of edenic simplicity and happiness – as children they did not recognise gender as destiny and limitation – but now all their hopes for accomplishment, for "becoming", have transferred themselves to their brother Andrey. The sisters ponder marriage, love, motherhood, paid work, and yet can find no answer in any of them. It isn't just female powerlessness that causes the difficulty: it is something more, a force that bears a special hostility to the actual. There is nothing they can be or become that will discharge it. This force might be called creativity; what is interesting is Chekhov's decision to omit writing from his representation of the situation, and indeed he is careful to maintain only the lightest connection in the play with the extremity of the Brontës' world. Both the suffering and the writing are transposed into something less tangible and more generalised, something that touches on the nature of woman herself.

Imogen Russell Williams complains about the contents of the back matters of books in The Guardian's Book Blog:

At school, I resented the Longman edition of Jane Eyre, not for its exhaustive background information but for its shepherd's-crook chivvying towards exam-tastic responses. (...)
Without a doubt, the worst back-matter offender I've encountered is Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale, which I enjoyed as a gothic holiday nibble but spat out violently when I got to the back. Highlighting Orion's yen to ensnare book-club buyers in bulk, the reading group notes featured horror after horror, with discussion questions like "I prefer proper endings – do you?" and "Do you believe in tragic fate? Are some families simply doomed?" The book's an assured and well-reviewed first novel, but it savours of hubris to suggest Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Turn of the Screw as "Further Reading".

A couple of news outlets highlight the Penguin edition of Wuthering Heights with the cover of Ruben Toledo: PopMatters and the New York Times.

The Pittsburgh City Paper publishes a review of the PICT performances of Jane Eyre:

What has always endeared me to chick-lit classic Jane Eyre was neither the pluck of Charlotte Brontë's heroine, nor that satisfying triumph of romance. No, it was the jolt I got in Chapter 37, after Jane combs the scraggly hair of Mr. Rochester and tells him, "There, sir, you are redd up and made decent." (See, it's not "Pittsburghese," but the patois of the Scots and border English who settled here.)
Alas, the line doesn't make it into Alan Stanford's 2003 adaptation of the 1847 novel, which tidily compacts the sweep of 12 years of plot into a scant two-and-a-half hours. But this version does make for a most congenial holiday production, courtesy of Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre. Scott Wise's direction manages the large cast smoothly, making few demands upon the audience except to sit back and enjoy. Making the atmosphere perfect is the original music composed, directed and performed by Douglas Levine.
The characters literally walk into and out of the novel, or at least the oversized manuscript fragment that fills much of the stage. Gianni Downs' scene design, using the rocks and boulders of the countryside in the stead of tables and chairs, effectively opens Jane Eyre from a book into a play.
The scope of the story is well handled by three Janes: the child (Jenna Lanz) who suffers her snobbish cousins and the perils of a charity school; the young woman (Allison McLemore) who seeks her place in the world; and an older, wiser Jane (Shelley Delaney), who plumbs the central character's emotions as she narrates her tale.
Jane is a wonderful play for actresses, not only the three aforementioned, but also Kate Young, as a nebby housekeeper; Catherine Moore, deliciously wicked in a series of harridans; and Lisa Ann Goldsmith, both brutal and brutalized as Bertha. The men are almost secondary: Larry John Meyers wonderfully officious in his several roles, and Joel Ripka appropriately priggish as the ascetic missionary wannabe. The versatility of the miscast David Whalen unfortunately does not quite include Rochester's Gothic savagery, which is merely suggested by a roughened voice and a frightful wig.
Brontë aficionados will find a new way to enjoy Jane's story, and newcomers (yes, there did seem to be some in the audience) may discover how fresh and delightful a 162-year-old love story can be. (Michelle Pilecki)

Kirkus Reviews describes as follows the upcoming release of the children book Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore:

Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle meets Sally Gardner's The Red Necklace (2008), with a hint of Jane Eyre thrown in for good measure, in this vivid and rousing debut.

BrontëBlog's Twilight/vampire zone brings a reference today:

The unexpected ways that teens can go from one book to another has been illustrated by the recent surge in interest in Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" at the Westport Library, Lewis noted.
The heroine of the "Twilight" series -- Bella -- reads Bronte with enthusiasm, so the girls who adore the character have been doing likewise.
"They've been getting into 'Romeo and Juliet' too because that is referenced a lot in the 'Twlight' books," she added. (Joe Meyers in the Connecticut Post)

The Guardian makes a list of Christmas books. One of them is Bite: A Vampire Handbook

Of these trivia-packed tomes, my favourite is Kevin Jackson's Bite: A Vampire Handbook (Portobello, £9.99), a witty whirlwind tour of blood-sucking monsters from the Assyrian utukku to Edward Cullen, crammed with all kinds of intriguing and completely useless information: the contents of Bram Stoker's library; the various meetings of Dracula and Sherlock Holmes; and whether Jane Eyre actually saw a vampire. Ideal for any teenage Twilight fan – if only to convince them that they should be watching Buffy instead. (Josh Lacey)

Le Figaro (France) chooses some books by Le Livre de Poche:

Et, l'air de rien, Le Livre de poche se met au goût du jour en utilisant du carton recyclé pour ses élégants coffrets qui se décachettent sur un livre. Emily Bronte, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Milena Agus et Stefan Zweig feront ainsi beaucoup d'effets sous le sapin du salon tout en ayant un impact minime sur la couche d'ozone. Après le poche chic, le poche vert a de l'avenir. (Françoise Dargent) (Google translation)

Finishing this minisection of Christmas gifts ideas, the Philadelphia Inquirer recommends some DVDs:

Last but not least, BBC Video's The Brontë Collection ($29.98) brings to life three masterpieces, Jane Eyre featuring Timothy Dalton; Wuthering Heights starring Ian McShane; and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall featuring Rupert Graves and Tara Fitzgerald.

This same collection is reviewed on PopMatters:

Taken together, they offer an interesting look at how the conventions of television adaptation have changed over the years but the viewer must be prepared for three very different productions in miniseries format (including introductions and closing credits for each episode) which don’t have much in common other than the fact that they were produced by the BBC and are based on source material written by the Brontë sisters.
The rarest gem in The Bronte Collection is the previously-unreleased 1967 BBC production of Wuthering Heights adapted by Hugh Leonard, directed by Peter Sasdy and starring Angela Scoular (Cathy), Ian McShane (Heathcliff) and Drewe Henley (Edgar Linton). It holds great interest for scholars of television history and literary adaptation while casual viewers may find it the least approachable of the three productions in the set.
This Wuthering Heights has a distinctly old-fashioned feel complete, with introductory narrations in the finest Queen’s English while the dramatic black-and-white cinematography works better in the exterior scenes than in the interiors which often seem distorted by tight framing. Somewhat surprisingly, Leonard reconfigures the source material to present the story in chronological order but in another way it’s more faithful to Emily Brontë’s novel than most film versions (including the 1939 William Wyler film starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon) because it follows the characters into the second generation and thus includes the stories of Heathcliff’s and Cathy’s children.
The 1983 Masterpiece Theatre production of Jane Eyre adapted by Alexander Baron, directed by Julian Amyes and starring Zelah Clarke (Jane), Timothy Dalton (Rochester), Sian Pattenden (young Jane) and Andrew Bicknell (Saint John Rivers) will please lovers of Heritage Television although to viewers not familiar with that style the beauty of the presentation may seem out of sync with the gothic elements of Charlotte Brontë’s novel. It runs over five hours in 11 episodes, and sticks closely to the original novel, including many events often omitted from feature film adaptations. The cinematography and attention to period detail are first-rate but dramatic tension is frequently lacking as the actors, particularly Clarke, often seem emotionally unengaged while Dalton is far too handsome and not nearly threatening enough to convince as Rochester.
The 1996 production of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as adapted by Janet Baron and David Nokes and directed by Mike Barker represents only the second screen adaptation of Ann Brontë’s novel (the other was a 1968 BBC miniseries) in comparison to at least 21 film or television versions of Jane Eyre and 15 of Wuthering Heights. The reasons for this relative neglect lie in the novel itself: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is primarily concerned with dramatizing the oppression of women in 19th century England and the domestic violence and child abuse which took place behind the respectable façade of many Victorian marriages. Psychological complexity takes a back seat to social realism and melodrama, limiting the material’s appeal to modern readers.
This adaptation features excellent production values (this series won awards for makeup and hair, production design, camera and original score) but is hampered by the melodramatic nature of the story which depicts the struggles of Helen (Tara Fitzgerald) to free herself and her son from the clutches of an abusive husband (Rupert Graves) and start life anew with the sympathetic Gilbert Markham (Toby Stephens).
The on-screen portrayals of domestic violence sometimes verge on the lurid (marital rape, alcoholic rages) and may upset viewers expecting soothing nostalgia while anyone thinking about showing it in a classroom should be aware than the British Board of Film Censors considers this series unsuitable for viewers under the age of 15. For older students, however, it could be useful in prompting discussions about changing legal and societal attitudes toward women, children and marriage. (Sarah Boslaugh)

Regrettably the review finishes with a highly questionable conclusion:

Although it contains no extras other than English subtitles, The Bronte Collection offers good value (over 11 hours of programming) for those with a strong interest in the material. But because one of the productions (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) is based on a decidedly minor literary work while the other two stake no claim to be the definitive version of their often-adapted source material, this is ultimately a set of greater interest to Anglophiles, scholars of television history, and English teachers looking for something to show their classes than to the general viewing public. (Sarah Boslaugh)

A Brontëite on Cuba Ahora. And Wuz reviews an Italian translation of Elizabeth Taylor's At Mrs Lippincote's and mentions its (many) Brontë references:

Oliver, sette anni, è un bambino atipico – semi infermo nel corpo per una salute molto più che cagionevole, ma brillante nella testa – con il naso perennemente infilato nelle pagine dei libri, unica ragione di vita: le sorelle Brontë e Thomas Hardy sono alcuni tra i suoi autori preferiti. Il suo animo acuto e sensibile e la sua innegabile intelligenza lo rendono, insieme alla piccola compagna di giochi Felicity, il personaggio più riuscito. (Carlotta Vissani) (Google translation)

Fantasy Magazine (Italy) interviews the children's literature author Silvana de Mari:

L’inferno di Dante per la fede nell’uomo, Shakespeare per la fede nel destino, Primo Levi per il dolore, George Orwell per la disperazione, Steinbeck per il furore, Jorge Amado per la ferocia, Jane Austen per il senso del decoro, le sorelle Bronte per l’anticipazione delle teorie psicologiche e Alessandro Manzoni per lo strazio della morte di Cecilia. (Emanuele Manco) (Google translation)

We are quite mystified by this reference in the Italian newspaper La Stampa:

L'orizzonte d'una classe [the British middle class] che i romanzi ottocenteschi di Emily Brontë dipingevano ambiziosa fino alla presunzione, s'è ridimensionato al punto da adattare l'intraprendenza sociale alla sfera domestica, come dimostrano i 500 mila fan del sito rivelazione dell'anno DIY, Do-It-Yourself, fai-da-te, consigli tra consumatori in crisi. (Francesca Paci) (Google translation)

Varese Notizie informs of a curious initiative of the Liceo Classico "E.Cairoli" (Varese, Italy). A calendar where professors impersonate 19th-century literary characters. Including one Jane Eyre that can be checked here.

Two reviews in Literaturkritik (Germany) feature Brontë-related mentions. The first one is Ships in the night. Arno Schmidt's Second Garden of Verses (Edited by Friedhelm Rathjen):

Einige der Autoren, die Schmidt in den 1950er und 1960er-Jahren ihrer Prosa wegen rezipiert, haben auch Gedichte geschrieben (etwa die Geschwister Brontë, Lewis Carroll und auch Edward Bulwer Lytton), und natürlich hat Schmidt mit dem Gesamtwerk solcher Autoren auch die lyrischen Teile zur Kenntnis genommen. (Google translation)

More information about Arno Schmidt's relation with the Brontës can be read in this old post.

The second one is from Die unheimliche Maschine. Rasse und Repräsentation im Weimarer Kino by Tobias Nagl. The reviewer quotes Spivak discussing Brontë:

Unter Berufung auf Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, deren Befund zu Charlotte Bronte „Jane Eyre“ sich „auch mit Blick auf ‚Die Herrin der Welt‘ aufrechterhalten“ lasse, sackt Nagl die in der Serie zweifellos vorhandenen Momente weiblicher Emanzipation ein. (Rolf Löchel) (Google translation)