Charlotte Brontë, stock-broker

Publishers Weekly announces the forthcoming publication of Laura Joh Rowland's Bedlam: The Further Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë (beware of spoilers below if you haven't yet read the first installment, The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë).

Bedlam: The Further Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë Laura Joh Rowland. Overlook, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-1-59020-271-5
Set in 1851, three years after the events in The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë, Rowland's fast-paced second Charlotte Brontë adventure continues to transform the shy author of Jane Eyre into an action heroine. Still pining for John Slade, the rugged spy from the first book whose marriage proposal she refused, Charlotte is stunned to come across John under restraints in Bedlam, the notorious London hospital for the insane. The last she knew John was in Russia on a secret mission. When Charlotte learns the police suspect that John is the Whitechapel Ripper, who's killed and mutilated three prostitutes, she sets out to prove him innocent, despite John's spymaster telling her that he betrayed Britain in Russia. The less than imaginative use of an ur–Jack the Ripper may disappoint those expecting the depth and sophistication of the author's series set in medieval Japan (The Cloud Pavilion, etc.). This historical thriller will likely appeal more to romance fans than Brontë enthusiasts. (June)

Ars Technica quotes from the real Charlotte Brontë talking about her railway shares:

One of the reasons why the boom of the 1830s has been ignored, argues Odlyzko, is because it was overshadowed by the British "Railway Mania" of the 1840s, in which a host of investors lost their shirts, among them computer pioneer Charles Babbage, Charles Darwin, and the novelist Charlotte Brontë, soon to recoup her losses with the success of her novel Jane Eyre.
"When I look at my own case," Brontë wrote to a friend, "and compare it with that of thousands besides—I scarcely see room for a murmer[sic]. Many—very many are—by the late strange Railway system deprived almost of their daily bread."
But the British railroad development boom of the 1830s was different, Odlyzko says. (Matthew Lasar)

The actual quotation comes from a letter Charlotte wrote to George Smith on October 4th, 1849, quoted by Elizabeth Gaskell in her Life of Charlotte Brontë (which will have been published 153 years this Thursday, March 25th)

HeyUGuys has an article on Twilight:

There is something of a tradition in cinema and literature for the devil as romantic lead. Complex, autocratic, cruel men snatching the pure heart of an innocent virgin as it flutters in her chaste chest. Violence has long been synonymous with, and interpreted as, passion and suppression of violence as shorthand for romance. Darcy, Heathcliff, Mr Rochester and Maxim de Winter; all men made remarkable by their imperious manner, disdain for others and sometime cruelty to the great loves of their lives. All made the journey from page to screen unadulterated by modern sensibilities and tastes. (Emily Breen)

The Portland Press Herald reviews the play The Maiden's Prayer and concludes that,

"The Maiden's Prayer" brings out the dramatic raw emotion of relationships and also comically reveals the shallowness that can influence our choices when seeking the romanticized love of "Bronte novels and teenage songs." (April Boyle)

The Reading Eagle reviews a concert by Jane Monheit at Berks Jazz Fest:

[Vince] Mendoza's arrangement of Judy Collins' "Since You've Asked" was the perfect showcase for the Reading Pops. The dark mood brought to mind (thanks to Monheit's onstage patter) if not exactly "Wuthering Heights," then the fog and mist we associate with Hollywood's version of the book. (John Fidler)

We love that the reviewer takes the trouble to make the distinction between book and film adaptation.

On the blogosphere, The Quandry Awaits posts about teaching Wuthering Heights and As good as it gets briefly reviews the Northern Ballet production recently on stage in Sheffield. And finally, The Squeee discusses Rochester by J.L. Niemann.

Categories: Books, Charlotte Brontë, Fiction, Wuthering Heights