The 10-year-old actress, from Holbrook, is playing Isabella in Wuthering Heights – the classic love story by Emily Bronte.Good advice from the Financial Times's Book Doctor:
Her parents, Clare and David, said they felt" "immensely proud" of their daughter as they watched her filming for the show at a stately home in Yorkshire. (...)
Clare said: "We moved her away from her previous school, where she was being bullied, to Holbrook Primary School for a fresh start, and at the same time she enrolled at the academy. We were delighted when we found out she got the part in Wuthering Heights. It showed how far she has come." (...)
Stephanie said she was not nervous about performing in Wuthering Heights.
"It was exciting and it made me happy," she said. "When I'm older I either want to be a pop star or an actress."
Dear Book Doctor,FilmSchool Rejects reviews I Walked with a Zombie 1943, Bookstack is reading (and enjoying) Syrie James's The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, Ginoconcarisblog briefly posts about Jane Eyre 1996, Reading My Life Away does the same with John Sutherland's Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? and Marlie's Movies reviews Wuthering Heights 1939.
I always compare myself to other people and think how much thinner, younger or better looking they are than me. How can I stop doing this?
SF, by email (...)
Jane Eyre, by contrast, did muse that she was unworthy of the imposing Mr Rochester – but when she found happiness in the end it was not through matching beauty but matching minds that she achieved “perfect concord”. (Rosie Blau)
And now a quick overview of the blogosphere opinions about Wuthering Heights 2009 (check ours here)[T]his twentysomething viewer – and, I should declare, Brontë ignoramus – was reasonably entertained by 90 minutes of Victorian melodrama.The Mirror:
The screenwriter Peter Bowker should be commended for even tackling this complex story of class, revenge and everlasting love denied. The man behind the BBC’s Desperate Romantics took a Stanley knife (literally, he claims) to Brontë’s original, rearranging pages in chronological order before filleting adaptation stumbling blocks, including the entire narrator role of Lockwood. So it was left to the long-suffering housekeeper Nelly (Sarah Lancashire) to guide us through the doomed romance of Catherine Earnshaw and her Heathcliff, a foundling rescued from the streets of Liverpool.
Tom Hardy, who played the frustrated love interest as Robert Dudley in the BBC’s The Virgin Queen, was on typically fine form as Heathcliff. Darker than the skies above the “Heights”, he was at once terrifying and sympathetic, but never drifted into broody caricature. The lesser-known Teesside actress Charlotte Riley was almost his equal as Catherine, and perfectly channelling the girl’s mischievous romanticism. Meanwhile, Burn Gorman stood out among the supporting cast with his suitably reptilian Hindley, the evil step-brother.
But it was in the central love scenes that the adaptation foundered. There were enough furtive exchanges, escalating from a chaste cheek-peck to a full-on make-out session on the moors, but the sparks never really flew. The passion shared by the young protagonists was plain to see but, crucially (especially if you’re a 14-year-old Twilight fan) it was never really felt. (Simon Usborne)
If the ghost of Emily Bronte had appeared on the Yorkshire Moors while they were filming this, she might well have said: "Yes, that's exactly what I was trying to say."The Guardian (not exactly good, but sort of):
The tale concludes tonight with Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley as the doomed lovers. Peter Bowker's adaptation has taken a great tangle of a Gothic novel and turned it into something more like a proper love story, with characters that modern viewers can understand.
Last night, Cathy's head was turned by rich and gentle Edgar, and, before she could snap out of it with her immortal line "I am Heathcliff!", her soulmate had galloped away in a massive sulk.
Three years later, having heard nothing of Heathcliff, Cathy and Edgar were married.
And this is the moment when Heathcliff returns to show off his mysterious new wealth and haircut, and exact revenge on everyone who treated him like scum - starting with Cathy's brother Hindley (Burn Gorman).
As he callously woos Edgar's sister Isabella, to spite Cathy, there are shades of the coldhearted gangster Hardy played in The Take, on Sky. A triumph. (Jane Simon)
First off the blocks was Wuthering Heights (ITV1). Sunday night tends to be period drama night – perhaps because everyone's so depressed that the weekend is nearly over, they want something pretty to look at rather than gritty realism– and with its wild moorland, wild hair and wild romance, the Emily Brontë classic was an ideal season opener.Orange TV Blog:
Having warmed up with two successes already this year, Occupation and Desperate Romantics, writer Peter Bowker has taken few liberties, save the odd elision and some messing about with the timescale. Not that he needed to do that much, as the original already ticks many of the cinematic boxes of flashback and gothic excess. You can't beat a ghostly hand smashing though a window or a deranged Heathcliff digging up Cathy's grave.
And with a strong script and supporting cast of Sarah Lancashire (Nellie), Kevin McNally (Mr Earnshaw) and Andrew Lincoln (Edgar), Wuthering Heights is, for the most part, a class act. The only niggles are Tom Hardy and newcomer Charlotte Riley as Heathcliff and Cathy.
Despite – or perhaps because of – their reputation as two of the greatest doomed lovers in English fiction, it's not easy to make them believable on screen. Much of the drama that brings them together and tears them apart is internalised in Brontë's novel – not much help on screen. So while Hardy spends a lot of his time looking brooding and moody – and does it very well – Riley looks understandably confused. As, indeed, are the viewers.
What's missing is psychological narrative. Here, by the time Heathcliff becomes an adult, you can't see why he doesn't tell feeble Hindley to sod off, instead of mooching about, sulking and allowing himself to be flogged. Similarly, Riley struggles to capture both the obsessive quality of Cathy's love for Heathcliff and her desire for conformity, veering from passionate devotion to rational formality with nothing much in between. She seems more fickle than tormented.
Part of the problem may be that everyone is struggling to cram too much into too little. We all know money's tight these days, but trying to squeeze Wuthering Heights into two 75-minute episodes is a big ask. By my reckoning, we're only up to chapter 10, so how they'll manage the last 24 chapters tonight is anyone's guess. Still, it's worth watching to find out as, despite its faults, it's far less anodyne than many costume dramas. And with its haunting desolation and matching his-and-hers windswept hairdos, the Yorkshire Tourist Board and L'Oréal should be enjoying it, too. (John Crace)
Tom Hardy makes an excellent Heathcliff - mean, moody and ever-so-slightly terrifying. Charlotte Riley is slightly less captivating as Cathy - but then, I think that’s probably how Ms Brontë intended it. And once I’d grown accustomed to seeing Andrew ‘Egg from This Life’ Lincoln playing a middle-aged Victorian man with bushy sideburns, I realised he was perfectly cast as Cathy‘s husband, Edgar Linton. (...)This is an intelligently written, beautifully shot and utterly gripping adaptation[.] (Jane Murphy)Nearesthippie
I've just seen the first episode of Wuthering Heigths! It's amazing! I'm going to have to make sure I see the next one. Wuthering Heights is one of my favourite books, anyone who hasn't read it, I'd recommend that you do.malteeser_muncer (imdb thread):
Every creative team has its own take on what they what to bring to the final production. Personally, i would have liked a few more episodes includedin this series to touch on all phases of the story. We can't have everything, unfortunately. I do believe this version of WH is superior to most: First reason is that this is not a stylised romantic version of WH which so many of past production have been and secondly, it illlustrates the maddeningly passionate love that never dies between Heathcliff and Cathy. I enjoyed immensely it for those reasons.Gu_C on Coffee House chat
I thought it was pretty good. They'll never get it right for everyone, there's just too much in the book, and some things would have to be left out, but it was mostly ok.Unreality Primetime:
Peter Bowker could well have been voted Man Most Likely To Do It Well, and he didn’t disappoint with this adaptation for ITV. (...)BAD
Bowker also took some chances by casting the relatively unknown actress Charlotte Riley in the enormously large historical shoes of Catherine Earnshaw, and although she by no means butchered the role, she wasn’t quite as convincing in it as Tom Hardy was as Heathcliff. His remit of course included much brooding and dark, tragedy inspired madness, but he managed to do it without making it seem clunky.
However, I have one niggle over the Riley-Hardy combo; the on-screen chemistry between them didn’t adequately parlay the written version of Cathy and Heathcliff’s destructive love. That all important spark-that-becomes-an-inferno passion was conspicuous by its absence, but while it didn’t damage the overall effect of this very watchable drama, it didn’t add anything to it either. (Lynn)
The thing is that I liked it. Sarah Lancaster is a superb choice for Nellie Dean, the actress who plays young Cathy does a very good job. Heathcliff did not disappoint. If I hadn’t been a fan of the book, I think I would have found the telling of the story gripping. The fault for me was in its adaptation. (...)Sarahandcocoa:
When I got to the scene where Heathcliff hit the dog with a stone I stopped watching. It wasn’t just because there is nothing in the novel to suggest that Heathcliff at that stage was anything other than the recipient of violent behaviour but also because it is so important that Heathcliff doesn’t approach the Linton entourage at all (he wouldn’t have been welcome) - watching, at first, from a distance to see that Cathy is alright (she would have been accepted) and then rushing home to tell Nellie Dean. I couldn’t imagine how the writer could continue the tale without setting up that dynamic; and demonstrating brutality on Heathcliff’s behalf simply works against the premise in the novel that the actual cruelty lies with the Lintons’ scoring out anything unpalatable to their entitled situation.
Disgusted. Well, ok, not quite disgusted .... just regretful that since they splashed out over 1 million quid to do this production, the chances of an accurate adaptation of Wuthering Heights being filmed in the next decade is zilch. It should have been the BBC. The BBC are capable of seeing an awesome novel and going, "Hey, let's turn this into a TV drama' whereas ITV are only capable of saying, "Do you remember that song by Kate Bush? Let's try and do an adaptation based on that and accredit it to Emily Bronte." The fact they began the adapatation in the middle of the novel. and then they completely wiped out the character of Lockwood and disregarded Nelly Dean's immense role in the novel is unforgivable. Then they made Cathy and Heathcliff into lusty adults rather than ten-year-olds. They forget the magic and the awesomeness of being on the brink of adolescence and the powerful feelings that this can create and so they make the novel about young adults so they can include a bit of sex. No - wrong!GladtobeGrey (imdb thread)
Beautifully shot, lovely, unobtrusive music (for a change), but oh dear, once again so many unnecessary changes to a much loved classic.A Journal of Impossible Things...
Emily Bronte's book begins in 1801 when Mr Lockwood visits the house, has to stay the night and is disturbed by Cathy's ghost. Nellie the housekeeper later tells Lockwood the story of Cathy and Heathcliffe. OK, I can accept Mr Lockwood being cut as we have flashback in film and so this kind of story telling device is unnecessary. Such changes and omissions are of course acceptable but why change the era in which the story was set?
For a starters they got rid of the main narrator, Mr Lockwood, who I believe is an essential character for any adaption, as he is the viewers way into the world of the Earnshaws, Heathcliffs and Lintons. They cut out a considerable amount of classic dialogue, no I'm not saying they should have read the book word for word but, some of the best known and well loved quotes were not included. But the main thing that really irked me was the fact that Cathy and Heathcliff kept KISSING. KISSING. gah! *flails in despair*. The whole point of Cathy and Heathcliff's love is that it is completely beyond any physical boundaries, it is other wordly, it is Romantic not romantic! (...)Rattling on...
Oh, and I'm going to be stoned for this but I hated Tom Hardy's Heathcliff. He was not dark, broody, mysterious, boisterous, cynical, charming or strong enough as I have always percieved Heathcliff to be. Or maybe it was the fact he kept kissing Cathy. And he spoke an awful lot didn't he?
I only made it to the first commercial break in ITV's new adaptation of Wuthering Heights. It were right offul. Like the accents.(...)phantomsopera-1 (imdb thread):
Tom Hardy just didn't wuther my heights as Heathcliff, nowhere near menacing or brooding enough. (...)
And poor Andrew Lincoln as Edgar looked like an escapee from Middle Earth in the side whiskers that had been stuck on.
Nelly was portrayed by Sarah Lancashire. Rent-a-northerner these days. She does the one role, but in different costumes.
I didn't view on. The book is one of those I could read again and again. To see Tom Hardy digging up poor Cathy and cuddling the skeleton was too much. And, yes, of course they'd played fast and loose with the order of the story.
Maybe I'm jaded. Maybe I have great expectations (groan). Maybe I'll stick to reading.
1) The story line was confusing, as in the way they sequenced the novel differently. It started with little catherine meeting heithcliff etc. good thing i read the book otherwise id be confused with it going back and forth.Good and/or Bad:
2) I felt there was no real romance between heathcliff and cathy. Maybe just me i dont know but it just felt bland. Its a tragic love story, and your suppose to feel it and be cheering on for the happy ending at the end but there wasnt enough lovey dovey scenes to make it more heart braking. No real sence of betrayal when cathy goes with edgar.
3) also has anyone noticed? everyone is wearing old fashion costume in the drama but catherines look very modern and fashionable. She's wearing a woollie hat for god sakes! isnt it suppose to be bonnets and hair pins etc. and a bright red coat, which i swore i saw in topshop the other week.
If ITV's take on Wuthering Heights (9pm, Sunday) was an album, it'd be a grower. I watched it, twice. The first time, it left me cold. It seemed oddly empty; soulless, even. And episodic rather than fluid.The Herald (Ireland):
Tom Hardy's much-vaunted Heathcliff looked more like Edward Scissorhands or a minor member of Kasabian than a landowner from the Georgian era. He also spoke like a character from an Armstrong and Miller sketch: that boozy detective with the imaginary engine driver sidekick called Mr Chuffy.
Worst of all, writer Peter Bowker had played fast and loose with the structure of the novel. Characters were dumped. Scenes disappeared. Entirely new ones appeared in their place.
So, in the long, long list of Wuthering Heights adaptations, the best thing to say about this one was that it was another.
But then the nagging doubts set in. Bowker is a respected screenwriter. Director Coky Giedroyc has a Bafta on her mantelpiece. Hardy is a fine actor, and leads a strong cast. And ITV have clearly lavished some cash on the production.
If anyone was going to have got it wrong here, it was going to be me, not that lot. So I watched it again, just to make sure.
Sure enough, I had got it wrong. Second time around, Wuthering Heights was better than I credited. Yes, they've mucked about with the framework of the plot, but we shouldn't be precious: it's okay to tinker, as long as the story isn't weakened.
Hardy's performance was subtler than I'd noticed, too. And Charlotte Riley, as Cathy, brought a sparkle to the role.
She is actually northern, too, which may be a first.
Even the opening, when a restless camera swoops over the darkened moors to the sound of Siouxsie and the Banshees-style thumpy drumming, didn't seem quite so daft.
And Andrew Lincoln, as calm, mannered Edgar Linton – the flipside of stormy Heathcliff – delivered a solid performance.
He did that thing, though. That acting thing. The one he always does, when he breathes in sharply halfway through a line, and pulls a face like he's fighting flatulence.
Most distracting.
Admittedly, it's more than 30 years since I read Bronte's book, but I'm pretty sure it didn't begin with Cathy's ghostly grey hand crashing through the window of Heathcliff's tormented dreams and then take an age to reel back to the beginning. Ironically, it was only when Bowker stopped reimagining, about 30 minutes in, and let Emily Bronte's imagination take over, that Wuthering Heights began to work.Categories: Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights
A lot of it has to do with great casting. Tom Hardy makes a striking Heathcliff. His transformation from brooding, feral young romantic to bitter, twisted middle-aged man is wholly convincing.
Elfin-faced Charlotte Riley's Cathy -- so often wan and watery in previous adaptations -- is sexy and feisty enough to make you believe why Heathcliff would yearn for her to "come back" from beyond the grave.
It still looks too Sunday-night-pretty, though. Wuthering Heights concludes tonight. (Pat Stacey)
The Wuthering Heights 2009 broadcast in the UK is generating a huge quantity of comments and messages on Twitter. So many in fact that Wuthering Heights is right now a Twitter Trending Topic. You can check several of them in the channel #wutheringheights or just looking at the widget on our sidebar.yx37029 Surprising myself - I'm absolutely loving wuthering heights on ITV1Bad Ones
Anneli76 I watched Wuthering heights part 1 .... very good
ChristinaMCFLYx wow wuthering heights was really good :) cant wait for tomorrows part
Karina4449 Wuthering Heights got great right at the end! *waiting for tomorrow's episode*
82Bless Wuthering heights adaptation is pretty damn awesome, 1st half is easy its all about the love of Heathcliff and what a muppet Cathy is
kateydoll Wuthering Heights was amazing.
WestEndDreamer Wuthering Heights adaptation is brilliant! Interesting that its not a Cathy perspective...
adam_apathy Well, Wuthering Heights was really good. I thought it was beautifully adapted if a little unconventionally adapted.
rachaelblogs I loved Wuthering Heights loved it! Andrew Lincoln is a long time love! Can't wait until tomorrow's instalment.
OotSandShamen Ooh, Wuthering Heights was rather good. Looking forward to tomorrow's.
ChelseaLalor Watching Wuthering Heights on Utv and actually liking it!
Jayalay is actually liking this version of wuthering heights a lot, even though the bf says it's boring. book adaptations aren't all bad! :)
thisisnix thinks wuthering heights drama is pretty epic.. just loving watching it right now. - I want to read the novel.
JaneLMcGrath Kind of enjoyed Wuthering Heights on ITV but it was a bit too light and breezy - needs a bit more darkness. Tom Hardy is very good though.
i_am_a_shark oh my days, wuthering heights was rather amazing, have to be reading that book, like now!!!
lisjennings Had forgotten quite how much wuthering heights makes me cry.
WhySo_Serious Watching Wuthering Heights, tis pretty good.
thedreamergeo No Duh. That has got to be the best adaptation of "Wuthering Heights" I have seen. Word.
MarkDWestwood Is watching Wuthering Heights, reluctantly, is secretly enjoying it!
BexiAddz Well ITV have made a shit adaptation of Wuthering Heights, damn them :@Categories: Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights
doristeal wuthering heights - disappointing!
keltzy That was not a good Wuthering Heights - ITV seriously you couldnt invest in a decent wig? Try that old geezer in Paddinton Green next time.
hellololla A primeira parte de Wuthering Heights na ITV acabou de acabar. Estou desapontada.
mscyd1 What have they done to Wuthering Heights? Such a good cast. Such a mess of script. Did they read the book?
A15H4 *yawn* so dull... Not watching the concluding part of Wuthering Heights next week!
BrianHeys Not sure about the first episode of Wuthering Heights. Very confusing if you're not familiar with the story. I bet many people turned off.
matthewhn63 The Wuthering Heights remake is such a let down.. :(
Eliza23 Is it just me or is Wuthering Heights not as good as it should be? It's lacking something
shyamkapur RT @isabelle80 Wuthering Heights (ITV) a disappointment. Whoever messed with the plot that much needs a slap.
sarahdobbs Arghhhhhhhhhhh. They've just screwed up THE scene in Wuthering Heights. It's almost impressive how badly they fluffed it.
TV has endlessly adapted Emily Bronte’s only novel, but we can’t remember any previous versions.Wales on Sunday also presents the production. But the journalist seems to believe that Wuthering Heights is an Austen-like comedy:
What does that say? Tonight’s modern adaptation jazzes up the gothic tale by injecting passion and a proper love triangle.
Rising star Tom Hardy brings his usual intensity to the role of Heathcliff, while Charlotte Riley is a conflicted Cathy, torn between Heathcliff and Andrew Lincoln’s handsome Edgar Linton. Concludes tomorrow.
IF you’ve recently watched Tom Hardy busting heads, taking drugs and being bang out of order in the likes of Bronson and The Take, you might find it a little difficult to imagine him as the romantic hero in Emily Bronte’s classic petticoat ruffling drama, featuring Charlotte Riley. However, it’s unlikely we’ll see his Heathcliff coming home ratted from the boozer to kick in Cathy’s front door, call her a “silly bleedin’ mare,” before whacking her old man square in the boat race.The thing is that it will not be so unlikely to see Heathcliff do that.
Still, might liven things up a bit around all them posh landed gentry types with their cream teas. (Nathan Bevan)
IF you want passion, brooding intensity and powerful acting, look no further than a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights.Now for another Wuthering Heights: The Ecosse Project now with GemmaArterton and Ed Westwick in the cast. Probably you will remember that for a time Michael Fassbender was the chosen Heathcliff. The actor is interviewed in The Times about his role in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds as Lt Archie Hicox and tells how the cast was made:
It’s one of the greatest love stories ever written or brought to the screen.
And this two-parter, shown on consecutive nights, is well worth a look thanks to fresh writing and a great cast. (Roz Laws)
“When I got to the audition in Berlin, Quentin and I chatted for a bit. Then he said, ‘Okay, let’s take a look at Hicox.’ I was, like, ‘What about Landa?’ And he goes, ‘Well, I cast my Landa on Tuesday.’ ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Yeah, I’m sure, man.’ Then there was a pause, and he goes, ‘Look, man, any guy that gets cast as Heathcliff is not f***ing German enough to play my Landa, all right?’ [Tarantino knew Fassbender had been cast in a putative remake of the Emily Brontë classic.] And I thought, ‘I’m not going to argue with Quentin Tarantino about who he wants to cast, that’s for sure.’” (Christopher Goodwin)Daphne Lee talks about the Twilight-Wuthering Heights cover affaire in The Star (Malaysia). She doesn't seem to like the book very much. Poor woman, not everybody is prepared to like the masterpiece that is Wuthering Heights.
Finally, has anyone actually bought Wuthering Heights (by Emily Bronte) because it’s the favourite book of Bella Swan, the heroine of the Twilight series? Or, has anyone bought it thanks to its new Twilight-inspired cover?Anyway, you know that Wuthering Heights is really popular when you see a totally gratuitous reference to it out of the blue in horse races news:
Once upon a time, I chose to buy an edition of Room with a View because its cover featured a movie still of Julian Sands and Helena Bonham Carter. So, I totally understand why a teenager might see (and buy) the new edition Wuthering Heights as Twilight merchandise.
However, in my opinion, not even a diamond-encrusted, gold-tooled cover would change the fact that Wuthering Heights is a terrible book. I would buy it if it came with a cover made from a blood-stained window-pane though. Wet earth, a coffin and a severed arm would be a plus. Of course.
When the trial started the next day, then the news emerged of a second failed drugs test, it was easy to believe Heathcliff would depart Wuthering Heights for the last time. (David Walsh in The Times)The Guardian reviews The Act of Love by Howard Jacobson and quotes one of its characters as saying:
Felix [Quinn] observes that books such as Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina straddle the divide between "tragedy and penny dreadful". (Mary Fitzgerald)We are pretty sure that Edgar Linton or Hindley Earnshaw would certainly agree that this article in the Daily Telegraph (Australia) makes a good description of Heathcliff: a giant cockroach (literally). Annina TeaTime posts about Haddon Hall mentioning its use as location for both Jane Eyre 1996 and Jane Eyre 2006. The Absurd Heroine complains about why the same Brontë novels get adapted time and time again. 花､ふんふん♪ talks about Wuthering Heights 1992 in Japanese and Trying to Break Free posts about the original novel in Portuguese. The Squeee is recording a Jane Eyre audiobook. She has posted the first chapter and asks for opinions.
Nesbitt, Jennifer P. "Rum Histories: Decolonizing the Narratives of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Flint Anchor."And some other maybe not so scholar but also interesting: An excellent post on It was Evening all Afternoon and a painting by Heather L. Young inspired by the novel:
Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Fall 2007), 309-330.
Russell II, Keith A. “‘Now Every Word She Said Was Echoed, Echoed Lodly in My Head’: Christophine’s Language and Refractive Space in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea”
Journal of Narrative Theory, Volume 37, Number 1 (Winter 2007) pp. 87-103
Christophine's provocative role in Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea has generated a tremendous quantity of inquiry: the turn to Christophine arose largely out of debate over Spivak's watershed essay "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism" from 1985. Spivak ignited a firestorm in Rhys criticism with her oft-quoted passage: Christophine is tangential to this narrative. She cannot be contained by a novel which rewrites a canonical English text within the European novelistic tradition in the interest of the white Creole rather than the native. No perspective critical of imperialism can turn the Other into a self, because the project of imperialism has always already historically refracted what might have been the absolutely Other into a domesticated Other that consolidates the imperialist self. (253) It is difficult to find an analysis of Christophine since 1985 that does not use Spivak as a point of entry...
Inspiration for this painting came from the book, Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys.
"After Mr. Mason clipped his wings he grew very bad tempered, and though he would sit quietly on my mother's shoulder, he darted at everyone who came near her and pecked their feet." --Wide Sargasso Sea
Charlotte, a former pupil at Teesside High School in Eaglescliffe, said: “It’s funny that it’s going out now. It’s unusual. We filmed it over a year ago now, and I’ve done lots of other projects since then.Scarborough's claim to fame in Wuthering Heights 2009 is not so glamorous, but it has its charm... in a way. We introduce you to some of the most obscure stars of this production: Yo-Yo and Tallula (a nude picture here)
“I hope my family, friends and other people enjoy it and that it lives up to the book, and people who like the book will like it as much as the book.” (...)
She will be taking a break from her hectic schedule to return to Teesside next week.
“I’m coming up to see my mum and dad and my niece and nephew, and my friends.
“I try to get up at least once a month and next week will be nice,” she said. (Joanna Desira)
A LOCAL farm stepped in to provide some of the more unusual extras for the latest television adaptation of Wuthering Heights. The production of the Emily Bronte classic, which will be screened on ITV1 over two nights this weekend, was given a helping hand by Foston-on-the-Wolds farmer John Johnston.The Wales Western Mail has also something to say about the adaptation:
He took animals, including a Tamworth pig called Yo-yo and a Gloucestershire Old Spot sow called Tallula, from his Cruckley Animal Farm along to Littondale in the Yorkshire Dales after his agent was approached by the producers. (James Hanley in the Scarborough Evening News)
With an impressive cast that also includes Sarah Lancashire as Nelly, the servant who gets caught up in her employers' complicated love lives, this looks set to prove that the BBC doesn't have the monopoly on great period dramas. (Karen Price)The Huddersfield Daily Examiner explores the Brontë connections of Hathersage:
Inside the church we discover Hathersage also has a Bronte connection. We’d noticed that a certain Eyre family seemed to have more graves than any other. What we didn’t know is that Charlotte Bronte had also noticed this and chose the family name for her most famous book.The Weekly Standard reviews Scottish Men of Letters and the New Public Sphere, 1802-1834 by Barton Swaim and reminds us of one of the most important influences on the Brontës' writing:
In fact, Hathersage is awash with Bronte connections, however tenuous. Our hotel, once owned by a member of the Eyre family, claims to have attracted Charlotte through its doors while she was visiting friends at the vicarage. Hathersage appears in Jane Eyre as the village of Morton.
The next day we pass Mr Rochester’s home (North Lees Hall) one of many, many beautiful old houses that dot the hillsides. The sun is blazing down and we have no need of cutlery factories, craft shops, folk museums or celebrity graves because we’re enjoying the glorious Derbyshire countryside. (Hilarie Stelfox)
Books were expensive during and immediately after the Napoleonic wars. New print technologies, meanwhile, meant that journals could be produced at greater speed and in greater numbers than ever before. The result was that, after 1800, and for at least three decades, it was the periodical, not the hardback, that dominated literary discourse. All the great Victorian writers--the Brontë sisters, Charles Dickens, George Eliot--learned their strokes by swimming in the mighty river of print journalism. (Sara Lodge)Susan Straight writes a very interesting article in the New York Times about the problems of judging the books not by their covers but by their Accelerated Reading Points:
How can we really measure this passage about Helen Burns, the companion in “Jane Eyre” who will shortly die of tuberculosis? “. . . a beauty neither of fine color, nor long eyelash, nor penciled brow, but of meaning, of movement, of radiance. Then her soul sat on her lips, and language flowed.”On other lists, we notice Jane Eyre much more valued (39 points) than Wuthering Heights (just 25). It seems that no other Brontë novels are worthy of points.
“Jane Eyre” is worth 33 points.
A big factor in the craze for learning English was the pre-Olympic drive to make China more international, when even taxi drivers learned a couple of words of English. In the bookshops, you can still learn English the traditional way, reading texts such as Wuthering Heights, but you can also use books featuring scenes from Friends. (The Independent)The Edinburgh Evening News reviews the recent performances of Averse to Personal Publicity. A Tribute to the Brontës at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival:
The Bronte sisters are the subject of this year's tribute to famous authors from Edinburgh's Mercators theatre company. Now in its eighth year, the Mercators' format is not so much a drama but a marginally dramatised lecture, presented as a rehearsed reading in fancy dress – with the occasional foray into the performance of a scene from the novels. It is interesting enough, but you would probably get a better and more entertaining understanding of the sisters on Wikipedia. (Thom Dibdin)Expresso (Portugal) has an article about the upcoming opening of Paula Rego's Museum in Cascais (Portugal). It seems that her Jane Eyre series is not there yet, but it will be:
A sequência de salas mais pequenas vai incluir desenhos preparatórios para o Jardim de Crivelli, da National Gallery, desenhos preparatórios para o ciclo da Vida da Virgem da Capela do Palácio de Belém e três trabalhos a pastel da mesma série. Para um segundo momento ficará a série do "Peter Pan", bem como "Jane Eyre". A obra gravada é constituída por 257 gravuras. Como os três espaços disponíveis são relativamente exíguos, está assegurada a rotatividade das obras, o que será, de resto, uma componente essencial de toda a área da exposição permanente. (Valdemar Cruz) (Bing translation)Brontë holiday references in El País (Spain):
El amor: parecería que el mar le es más favorable, con el cuerpo libre, la extensión horizontal de la playa y la relajación de las costumbres. Por no hablar de las casitas de las barcas. Pero la montaña ofrece la complicidad del bosque, el interés de lo rural tan glosado por Lady Chatterley y el ejemplo eterno de Cumbres borrascosas. En fin, ¿por qué diablos habríamos de elegir entre Lord Jim y Heathcliff? Mar y montaña. (Jacinto Antón) (Bing translation)We have a Brontëite as president of Texas State University:
Allen Reed: What is your favorite book?And another one is the Italian author Alessandra Di Gregorio as it is revealed in an interview on Libri e scrittori:
Denise Trauth: I was an English major as an undergrad, and I love reading novels. In college, I loved reading The Brontë sisters and today I like early-American literature, Louisa May Alcott. It’s hard to pick one book because I’m always reading a book. (The University Star)
Quali sono i suoi libri del cuore?And even another one: Еленой Овчинниковой, who happens to be Miss Ryazan. Read it here. Look at her pictures looking, certainly, for Wuthering Heights.
(...) I Malavoglia e tutte le novelle di Giovanni Verga. I libri di Jack London, di Swift, delle sorelle Bronte[.] (Bing translation)
De titel van een recente roman over het leven van de schrijfsters, The Taste of Sorrow (De smaak van verdriet), bewijst de blijvende invloed van Gaskells portret. De ondertitel luidt: ‘De Brontës – de zussen die geleden hebben en de passie die hen redde.’ Gelukkig is de roman geslaagder dan zijn bombastische ondertitel. (...)More news from the Netherlands. Both Literair Nederland and Vecht Journaal have articles or mentions to the upcoming (October) performances of Matin Veldhuizen's De Brontë Sisters by the Toneelgroep Dorst.
The Taste of Sorrow geeft geen antwoord op deze vragen. Morgan stelt ze zelfs niet. Zijn Charlotte is een tikkeltje zieliger en braver dan ik me haar voorstel, maar alles bij elkaar biedt deze roman een uiterst leesbare versie van een fascinerende geschiedenis die ongetwijfeld niet voor het laatst is verteld. (Kristien Hemmerechts) (Google translation)
Au début du récit, son ami veut offrir à Kamo une bicyclette qui a survécu à la guerre, mais il la refuse, il refuse de faire du vélo. Il en a peur. Kamo habite chez son ami parce que sa mère est partie en voyage pendant quelques mois, pour retrouver ses sources. Kamo surmonte sa peur du vélo et peu de temps après, lui et son ami décide d’aller voir, tard dans la nuit, une adaptation de SON livre préféré, Les Hauts de Hurlevent. Mais il va beaucoup trop vite sur son vélo... (Nance) (Google translation)The Austrian Boerse Express describes Florence Welch from Florence + The Machine using the Brontës:
Manchmal scheint es, als diene die aparte Rothaarige als Wunschbild, auf das Produzenten und Kritiker ihre liebsten Ideen und Interpretationsmuster hängen können: Als "präraffaelitische Schönheit" wurde Welch bezeichnet, und manche Texte könnten in ihrer Dramatik gar die Brontë - Schwestern antanzen lassen. (Michael Huber) (Google translation)Maybe the journalist read this article on the Belgian De Morgen, reviewing one of the Florence+The Machine concerts:
'Dog Days Are Over' werd -tot grote verbazing van de groep- meegescandeerd door de uitpuilende tent, terwijl het sensuele 'My Boy Builts Coffins' dan weer de romantische wereld van Emily Brontë in herinnering bracht. (Bart Steenhaut) (Google translation)Weltexpress (Germany) publishes a review of Marie Reich's film Summertime Blues. A Wuthering Heights reference pops up in one of the characters:
Bei literarischen Werken verflüchtigt sich Alex Sprachschwäche, darum kennt er Karl Marx auf englisch und ließt Emily Brontes “Wuthering Heights” im Original. (Hugo Veit) (Google translation)Categories: Books, Brontëites, Comics, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References, Theatre, Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is constantly reappearing in new or old formats. Two more examples:Wuthering Heights (Puffin Classics relaunch)And a German edition from Anaconda Verlag:
Emily Brontë
Introduction by - S. E. Hinton
ISBN : 9780141326696
Puffin Classic
Paperback
06 Aug 2009
8 - 12 years
Heathcliff, an orphan, is raised by Mr Earnshaw as one of his own children. Hindley despises him but wild Cathy becomes his constant companion, and he falls deeply in love with her. When she will not marry him, Heathcliff's terrible vengeance ruins them all - but still his and Cathy's love will not die . . .
A story of doomed love and revenge with a brilliant new introduction from the author of The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton.
Sturmhöhe
Emily Brontë
# Gebundene Ausgabe: 398 Seiten
# Verlag: Anaconda (31. Juli 2009)
# Sprache: Deutsch
# ISBN-10: 3866474318
# ISBN-13: 978-3866474314
Teenage readers of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight fantasy books have been flocking to buy Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, because it is the central character's favourite book.The Guardian insists on the matter:
In Eclipse, the third book in Meyer's series, Bella Swan, the chaste love of vampire Edward Cullen, makes repeated references to Brontë’s masterpiece.
She compares the vampire to turbulent Heathcliff as she quotes Brontë’s heroine Cathy.
"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger," she tells Edward.
Sarah Clarke, children's books buyer for Waterstone's, said: "By highlighting Wuthering Heights in her novels, Stephenie Meyer has introduced Emily Brontë to the Twilight generation."
HarperCollins, the publisher, has even printed a new "gothic" jacket for Wuthering Heights - similar to the look of Meyer's books - to attract her fans.
It has sold more than 10,000 copies in Waterstone's booksellers stores since May, more than twice as many as the traditional Penguin Classics edition.
A spokesman for the chain said it was the first time Wuthering Heights had topped its classic books chart since it started compiling such figures in 1998. It has been number one in the classics chart for four months.
Simon Robertson, the company's classics buyer, said: "I don’t think a vampire’s recommendation has ever sent a book to number one before."
The surge underlines how important Meyer now is in the British book market. Her four Twilight books were the four best selling books of the first six months of 2009, selling more than 1.8 million copies in total. (Stephen Adams)
Teenage fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series have sent Wuthering Heights – the favourite novel of the books' hero and heroine – soaring to the top of the classics bestseller charts.Other news outlets mirror these news: Christian Science Monitor or ANI News.
A new edition of the novel, repackaged in a similar style to Meyer's Twilight books – black cover, white flower, tagline "love never dies" – was released in May this year, and has already sold more than 10,000 copies in the UK, nearly twice as many as the traditional Penguin Classic edition, making it Waterstone's bestselling classic.
"Love the Twilight books? Then you'll adore Wuthering Heights, one of the greatest love stories ever told," gushes the book chain's synopsis of Emily Brontë's novel. "Cathy and Heathcliff, childhood friends, are cruelly separated by class, fate and the actions of others. But uniting them is something even stronger: an all-consuming passion that sweeps away everything that comes between them. Even death!"
Meyer's human heroine Bella and her vampire hero Edward cite the 1847 novel as their favourite book; Bella even quotes Cathy speaking about Heathcliff, saying of Edward that "if all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger".
Just as Cathy is torn between Edgar and Heathcliff, so is Bella the centre of a love triangle between Edward and Jacob the werewolf.
"Wuthering Heights is of course a steady seller, but it's usually Pride and Prejudice, or whichever classic has recently been adapted for film or TV that is at the top. I don't think a vampire's recommendation has ever sent a book to number one before," said Waterstone's classics buyer Simon Robertson.
The novel might be flying off the shelves, but readers posting reviews on Waterstone's website weren't entirely impressed by Brontë's writing. Giving it just one star, Hayley Mears wrote that "I was really disappointed when reading this book, it's made to believe to be one of the greatest love stories ever told and I found only five pages out of the whole book about there love and the rest filled with bitterness and pain and other peoples stories". Another reviewer wondered if the book was "in old english or mordern understandable english?" "if so i want it but it sounds like it's just the original version with a different cover," she wrote. (Alison Flood)
"By that time, most of the audience had left. Suddenly, my mother said, 'Look!' There was a woman dressed like Emily Bronte with ringlets and an austere gown standing on her own on the edge of the circle. I remember thinking it was odd she was wearing period clothes. Then, she looked back at us and walked through a door. (Giles Taylor, actor)A couple of blogs for today: Melanie's Musings posts about Wuthering Heights 1998. And Love Romances & More reviews Syrie James's The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë.
Screenwriter Peter Bowker, a man who can do no wrong after Occupation and Desperate Romantics, puts his hand in the lions' cage with a two-part dramatisation of the most-beloved romantic novel in English literature. Doubtless Emily Bronte devotees will give him a pasting for not sticking rigidly to every single word she wrote, but ignore them - they don't own Wuthering Heights and this is a superb, magnetic piece of drama. Bowker's skill is in making something fresh and vibrant out of a novel that's been parodied (Monty Python), sung about (Kate Bush), turned into sappy films (the 1992 Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche version) and is familiar even to people who haven't read it. It helps, too, that the casting of this new two-part version is nigh-on perfect. Tom Hardy isn't a caricatured, beetle-browed, snarling Heathcliff - he's a hard, cruel man torn apart by an overwhelming love. And Charlotte Riley as Catherine isn't the winsome wet blanket of legend, she's a strong, spirited woman who loves to destruction. The concluding part is tomorrow at 9:00pm. (Alison Graham)And the Daily Mail talks about the production, interviews Charlotte Riley and talks about the alleged romance between Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy:
I hadn't met Tom before, so after the first day of rehearsals I thought, as we are going to fall so madly, deeply in love, we had better get to know each other,' says Charlotte.In the Yorkshire Post we came across two Wuthering Heights 2009 articles. In the first one, Justine Gaunt talks about Stockeld Park, one of the series locations:
'So I went up to him as he was rummaging in his car boot and said: "What are you up to, then?" He turned around and suddenly he wasn't Heathcliff any more. He morphed into the role he'd played before that, changing his whole being into Charles Bronson, Britain's most dangerous prisoner!
''I thought: "Oh God, what have I got myself into?" I found out later that Tom switches that role on and off all the time - mainly for other people's entertainment.'
But the cups of tea did the trick, and soon they were sharing a car most days on the way to the film locations on the rugged Yorkshire moors.
'We had a lot of chemistry, even though we didn't have the same taste in music. In the car I'd have to listen to his gangsta rap - Charles Bronson again. I never quite got over his extraordinary transformation.'
They were thrown together again for Sky1's gritty crime drama The Take, shown earlier this year. One of the most harrowing scenes was when she is raped by Hardy's character.
'Because we'd worked on Wuthering Heights - when the love scene was really passionate - we had a good shorthand between us and knew what we were doing. But as well as we knew each other, it had to be handled with delicacy and trust.'
Naturally, there has been gossip and speculation about whether their onscreen partnership has developed into a real romance, and one newspaper reported that Hardy had even left Rachael Speed, the mother of his baby son Louis, for Charlotte.
The story has also circulated on the internet, but Charlotte insists it is not true. 'I share a flat in West London with three other girls,' she says. 'There is no man in my life.' (...)
Writer Peter Bowker has reworked Bronte's story, introducing a scene verging on sado-masochism where Heathcliff as an adopted orphan is brutally whipped by the wealthy snob Hindley (Burn Gorman).
Bowker has also put in a scene in which Heathcliff takes Hindley's fortune through a card game and there is a passionate love-making scene on screen between Heathcliff and Cathy.
'It's funny, because people always ask about the love scenes, but the last thing they are is romantic or sexual', says Charlotte. 'Andrew Lincoln, who plays Edgar Linton, the man she marries, and I had quite a good laugh doing ours.
'But half the time you have to get angles right so you're thinking about the technical stuff and making sure your hair's not going in your mouth. You're very rarely thinking about anything to do with passion. Either that or you're nervous.
'Andrew and I made a pact to just go for it and in the first take we gave far too much. After that, the embarrassment was out there and it was much easier to do it.' (...)
Looking back on Wuthering Heights, Charlotte says: 'It was fun, but very hard work and the pressure was particularly great as it was my first big role.
'Because it was all very emotional, when I'd finished the job I was drained. I went on holiday with my family to Portugal, where I slept pretty much the entire week.' (David Wigg)
Yorkshire viewers tuning in this weekend to ITV's new version of Wuthering Heights, starring Charlotte Riley, Tom Hardy and Andrew Lincoln, may recognise a local landscape.Nick Ahad went to the Bradford premiere of the first episode and talks about it in the second article:
It's not on the rugged moorland of Haworth but on the gentler green pastures near Wetherby where you will find the 2,000-acre Stockeld Park estate. At its heart is a beautifully proportioned 18th century, James Paine-designed country house. It's here that Peter and Susie Grant live with their family.
On the subject of Wuthering Heights, Susie Grant describes the filming experience (despite at one stage finding film crews in her precious flower beds) as "a delight". "My overriding memory is of Andrew Lincoln striding up the drive in his greatcoat, incongruously with headphones in his ears, listening to his MP3"
Stockeld Park is a grand country house built in the style of a classic Palladian villa. But it also needs to operate as a warm, bright and welcoming family home for the busy Grant family.
It is the light-filled qualities of the house that come across in the two-part film of Emily Brontë's classic book, says Susie Grant. (...)
Much of the filming for Wuthering Heights took place in the drawing room and library, and Susie says her greatest admiration is reserved for the prop team. They photographed everything in the rooms they used, removed the family furniture, dressed the rooms with absolute attention to detail to make sure they were accurate to period and then, after filming, replaced everything exactly as it was in those initial photographs.
Should I admit this? Go on then, confession time. I've never read Wuthering Heights. I've tried to get through it about eight times at the last count, but (heresy, I know) for me it leaves a lot to be desired.The journalist also interviews Peter Bowker. You can listen to the interview here. The blog of the National Media Museum in Bradford completes this information with pictures of the event and even a podcast.
Don't get me wrong, the story is truly magnificent, but I find the writing a little turgid. Like I say, however, the story is wonderful. Although the novel still occupies the "will get round to reading when I have the time" pile at home, I have seen several versions of the story. (...)
Earlier this week, I was treated to a preview of the new ITV1 two-part adaptation, which airs this Sunday and Monday.
Made by Mammoth Screen, with a screenplay from BAFTA-winning writer Peter Bowker, it is a fantastic piece of film-making. The premiere screening took place in Bradford at the National Media Museum, the first big "film event" since the announcement last month that Bradford had won the bid to become UNESCO's first City of Film. (...)
This latest Wuthering Heights, with a brilliant turn from Tom Hardy as the haunted Heathcliff, was filmed in all sorts of locations, including Oakwell Hall in Birstall, East Riddlesden Hall, near Keighley and Bramham Park, near Leeds. I was filled with great pride when I heard Londoner Michele Buck, producer on the film, say that Yorkshire was the most "straightforward" place to film she has found in the UK.
The buzz in Bradford on Tuesday made me wonder. With productions as high quality as this allied to the city's new status, perhaps Bradford can build a new industry around film – and if this new Wuthering Heights is anything to go by, it's in with a good chance. It's so good I'm about to give the book another go.
A YOUNG Barnsley actor will appear in a TV adaptation of the Bronte classic 'Wuthering Heights" this weekend.Categories: In the News, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights
Baz Bradshaw, 12, plays the young Edgar Linton who later goes on to marry Cathy Earnshaw in the play which is screened on ITV on Sunday.
Baz of Harold Avenue, Lundwood, initially went to audition as an extra through his links with agency Tykes 2000 but producers liked him so much they picked him out to play one of the central characters.
Mum Rachel said: "It was a bit of a long shot but he was absolutely over the moon because he had his own caravan with his name on it instead of being on a bus with the other extras. (Emma Spencer)
By Gwen HymanOhio University Press/Swallow Press
296 pages • 6 × 9 in.May 2009• Hardcover: 978-0-8214-1853-6• Paperback: 978-0-8214-1854-3Making a Man: Gentlemanly Appetites in the Nineteenth-Century British Novel addresses the role of food, drink, and drugs in the conspicuously consuming nineteenth century in order to explore the question of what makes a man of a certain class in novels of the period. Gwen Hyman analyzes the rituals of dining room, drawing room, opium den, and cocaine lab, and the ways in which these alimentary behaviors make, unmake, and remake the gentlemanly body.
Making a Man makes use of food history and theory, literary criticism, anthropology, gender theory, economics, and social criticism to read gentlemanly consumers from Mr. Woodhouse, the gruel eater in Jane Austen's Emma, through the vampire and the men who hunt in Bram Stoker's Dracula. In Anne Brontë's Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Wilkie Collins's Law and the Lady, Hyman contends, the gentleman is delineated and revealed through his cravings, his feasting and fasting. Hyman argues that appetite is a crucial means of casting light on the elusive identity of the gentleman, a figure who is the embodiment of power and yet is hardly embodied in Victorian literature.Chapter 2, "An infernal fire in my veins", Drink and be Merry is devoted to Anne Brontë's
Get prepared for a blubfest as the latest adaptation of Emily Brontë's epic tale arrives on the small screen this Sunday and Monday on ITV1.The New Statesman poses a question:
The drama has a stellar cast, including Tom Hardy as Heathcliff, Charlotte Riley as Cathy, Sarah Lancashire as Nelly and Andrew Lincoln as Edgar. (Sarah Wallis)
Will Tom Hardy snarl or simmer as Heathcliff? New adaptation. (Rachel Cooke)The Yorkshire Evening Post goes a little further explaining how the economical crisis has also arrived to the Heights:
I was interested in some of the comments in particular.... "Screen Yorkshire's valuable investment and productive support along with the fantastic crew and facilities in the region" and Hugo Heppell's comment "We hope this production will further cement Yorkshire's reputation in the top destination in the UK for location drama."The Telegraph & Argus goes to Ann Dinsdale, collections manager at the Parsonage:
What a pity that several of the 'fantastic crew' i.e. the editing/ post production team at Yorkshire Television, who worked on Wuthering Heights along with many other excellent drama programmes, are no longer employed in the region, if still in the industry, thanks to the untimely loss of almost 200 jobs in June this year.
The team at YTV were creative, talented and dedicated . What a shame more could not have been done to secure their jobs in the region. Yorkshire needs its own properly-funded film and post production facility. I look forward to watching Wuthering Heights but there will be a part of me thinking of those, whose names will appear in the credits, who no longer have a secure future and may never again be privileged to work on such excellent productions. (Glynis Dickson, email)
“It fits into different settings and has been translated into at least 26 different languages,” she says. “It’s a fascinating book, a huge life-changing novel. It’s part of popular culture, inspiring countless interpretations.”And also in the Telegraph & Argus there's an article on the exhibition of costumes at the Brontë Parsonage. Picture: Jenna Holmes admires the costume worn by actress Charlotte Riley (Source):
Ann says the romantic appeal of Heathcliff is largely down to films, and she hopes the new TV drama will present a more rounded version.
“He’s one of the darkest characters in literature, he’s brutal, violent, cruel, vindictive,” she says. “But there’s a romantic ideal of him, based on films. I hated the 1939 film. It’s largely responsible for the romantic gloss cast over the novel. “A lot of films tend to end with Cathy’s death, but it’s only when you cover the whole story that you get a rounded view of Heathcliff. In later years he’s abusive, broken and middle-aged. He’s not an attractive, brooding young man anymore.” (...)
Peter [Bowker] will visit the Bronte Parsonage Museum in October to talk about the process of adapting a classic novel for television.
And next month Leeds-born best-selling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford will be at the Old Schoolroom, Haworth, talking about her love of the Brontes with arts critic and journalist Danuta Kean. (Emma Clayton)
Bronte Parsonage Museum arts officer Jenna Holmes admires the costume worn by actress Charlotte Riley as she plays Cathy in the latest small-screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights.Another exhibition at the Parsonage, Sam Taylor-Wood's Ghosts is the subject of an article in The Moment (New York Times blog):
Costumes from the two-part drama, which hits the screens on ITV on Sunday and Monday at 9pm, can be seen in the period rooms of the museum at Haworth, the home of the Bronte family including Emily who wrote the Wuthering Heights novel. The costumes also include the outfit worn by actor Tom Hardy who plays Heathcliff.
Visitors can also see details of upcoming events with writer and pundit Bonnie Greer and Leeds-born best-selling author Barbara Taylor Bradford.
The passionate, maddening love between Heathcliff and Catherine in Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” has long been fodder for many artists, from Albert Camus to Death Cab for Cutie. Recently, the photographer Sam Taylor-Wood has expanded the Victorian novel’s influence by shooting the very place that inspired Brontë: the area near the village of Haworth in West Yorkshire. For many years, Taylor-Wood — who shared a country house in the region with her then husband, the art dealer Jay Jopling — photographed the wind-swept lands of heather and moors, and ominous gray skies. In the series, “Ghosts,” which is on display at the Bronte Parsonage Museum through Nov. 2, Taylor-Wood has created romantic, melancholic reflections offset by simple beauty — gray skies, spidery trees, the odd ram — giving a redemptive quality to a harsh landscape. (Marina Cashdan)Another NYT Blog, Paper Cuts, gives voice to John Williams (editor of Second Pass) to select his favourite bookish playlist:
Wuthering Heights, Kate Bush, Pat Benatar and a thousand others. Like the Cure’s Smith, Bush was a teenager when she wrote this, and it was her debut single. But this is a literary adaptation of a very different sort: There’s dewy sentiment lacquered all over it. In a voice so high that LP listeners must have frequently checked to make sure the turntable speed was correct, Bush sings, “How could you leave me / When I needed to possess you? / I hated you / I loved you, too.” The verses just about drown you, but the melody of the chorus provides a lifeline of beauty (“Heathcliff, it’s me, your Cathy / I’ve come home”), and that might be the reason so many performers have been inspired to cover it, from Pat Benatar to the punk band White Flag to Hybrid Kids, whose jokey version from 1979 is both awfully strange and strangely awful. (Joke or not, the vocals sound like a drunken pirate singing reggae at a karaoke night — not pleasant.) (Blake Wilson)Michelle Kerns continues her biased gender-oriented book preferences in the Book Examiner. Now for women:
You love and adore Charlotte Bronte; he won't touch your copy of Jane Eyre regardless of your pleas. (...)Sarah Schmelling, author of Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float mentions the Brontës in an article in The Huffington Post:
75 books every woman should read (...)
9. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
15. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
33. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Or, how about a translation of The Canterbury Tales--which is actually quite raunchy, any Apatow lover would revel in the fart jokes--without having to memorize the Whan that Aprille? Or any Shakespeare play. The Brontës: yes, Heathcliff and Rochester still hold up.Grey Area reviews the radio adaptation Jane Eyre 1994 (recently on BBC7), the original novel is the subject of this post on Totally Tina. För nöjes skull posts about Wuthering Heights in Norwegian and Cheerful Cynicism about Wuthering Heights 1939. Eyrial likes Charlotte Brontë stuff.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum was recently awarded £50000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund to support an exciting programme of developments that will take place at the museum in January 2010. This blog is a forum for people in and around Haworth to keep up to date with the project, and make comments and suggestions.Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Music, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights
The free local residents day on Saturday 8 August was a great success with 270 local people taking advantage of the offer, almost half of whom were first time visitors to the museum. (...)
Remember if you are intersested in having a more in depth opportunity to give us your input and are able to attend either of our residents evenings on 15 and 23 September, please contact Andrew McCarthy on andrew.mccarthy@bronte.org.uk
