Charlotte non-plussed, or, Run, Thackeray, run!

Charlotte Brontë was a bit apprehensive when her novels started filtering into her neighbourhood, so we can't help but wonder what her feelings would be on her Jane Eyre's revamp as Jane Slayre reaching the area as well. Read below to see what Ann Dinsdale thinks her reaction to this modified Jane Eyre would be and which she told to The Telegraph & Argus:

It’s enough to wake the undead – Jane Eyre has been re-invented as a Buffy-style vampire slayer in a new horror version of Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel.
In Jane Slayre, by American writer Sherri Browning Erwin, Jane is raised by vampires, her school is run by a voodoo headmaster who turns pupils into zombies, and Mr Rochester’s first wife is a werewolf.
The penultimate chapter, starting with “Reader, I buried him”, has Jane trying to prevent Rochester from turning into a werewolf by tethering him in silver chains and burying him in a shallow grave as a full moon rises.
Described as an ‘affectionate, witty, intelligent monster mash-up’, the book’s cover is a picture of Charlotte Bronte holding a bloody dagger. It is published by Simon & Schuster on Wednesday, April 21 – Charlotte’s birthday.
The latest in a genre of horror versions of literary classics, it follows the success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
In Jane Eyre, Bronte’s heroine is described as ‘poor, obscure, plain and little’. In Jane Slayre she embraces her destiny as a slayer of evil, after her uncle’s ghost reveals her parents’ history as vampire slayers.
She goes to Lowood, where pupils are trained for domestic service by being turned into the walking dead.
Ann Dinsdale, Bronte Parsonage Museum collections manager, hopes Jane Slayre will introduce a new readership to the original novel. “The Brontes’ association with the gothic tradition lends itself to such adaptations,” she said.
“Jane Eyre is a strong, independent character with moral integrity so I can see how they’ve used that aspect of her.
“If it inspires people to read the original, fine.”
She added: “It doesn’t surprise me that it’s being used in such a way; there are literally hundreds of adaptations of the Brontes’ novels, including comic books. It illustrates how much they are part of popular culture, and continue to inspire writers.”
Asked what Charlotte would think of her heroine as a vampire slayer, Miss Dinsdale said: “I think she would be non-plussed.”
WHAT YOU THINK
Adaptations like this are popular with young people. I think it’ll go down a storm with my kids. And anything that will draw young people to the classics and perhaps to read Jane Eyre later must be good. Teacher Sue Long, of Guiseley
I think it’s legitimate to adapt any novel. It’s such a famous and popular book, I don’t think people should be worried about this sort of treatment. Rita Verity, of Main Street, Haworth, a member of Haworth Fairtrade
I think it’s fine to turn a book on its head so it can be appreciated from a different perspective, even if it means putting vampires in there. It has been done successfully to other classics. Louise Langton of The Cheese Place in Haworth
The book should be left as it is – it’s a classic and shouldn’t be interfered with. I’m protective of the Bronte novels. Charlotte is not here to say whether she approves or not so people shouldn’t touch it. Bronte Society member, Kate Walker, of Rochester House Art Gallery (Emma Clayton)

And more books. Women 24 reviews Charlotte Bingham's The Land of Summer:

Emmaline is a stark contrast to other historical heroines who also existed in sexist eras, like Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, who had more spirit and grit or Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina who battles her personal demons with passion. Bingham's heroine is completely dependent on her fiancé and lacks the fortitude expected under the circumstances.

Booktrade.info reports that,

Kate Mills at Orion has pre-empted Essie Fox's debut gothic novel, The Somnambulist, [...]
Kate Mills says: 'I'm a huge fan of the classic Victorian ghost story and Essie Fox has given the genre a delightful twist. From the moment I began to read this, I was desperate to publish it. It's the most vivid and compelling story I've read in a long time, gloriously brooding and atmospheric. Peopled with music hall artistes, laudanum addicts, grieving widows and wicked half-brothers, Essie creates the seething underbelly of Victorian life. It's wonderfully commercial with shades of Sarah Waters and Diane Setterfield, but there are nods to Wilkie Collins and Charlotte Bronte as well. You can tell how much Essie enjoyed writing this story and that enthusiasm is utterly infectious. Everyone at Orion fell under her spell and we're very much looking forward to publishing The Somnambulist in hardcover in Spring 2011.'

Essie Fox blogs at Virtual Victorian, by the way.

The Ironton Tribune says the following about Jennifer Bradbury, author of YA novel Shift.

She began her career as an author with book, rather than pen, in hand, absorbing a wide range of literature from children’s classics to the adult masterpieces such as “Pride and Prejudice” or “Jane Eyre.” (Benita Heath)

And Muskogee Phoenix is inspired by Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair to share a lentil sald recipe.

If you love both literary criticism and detective novels, then meet Thursday Next, detective heroine of Jasper Fforde’s BookWorld, who tracks down bad grammar, mis-readings, and whodunits in the best novels of British literature.
Thursday works for Jurisfiction, a policing agency inside books that seeks to reconcile the author’s intent with the reader’s experience of the novel. The first novel of the series, “The Eyre Affair” (2001) finds Thursday entering the Prose Portal to get inside Charles Dickens’ “Martin Chuzzelwit,” but while there she pursues a criminal into the original text of Jane Eyre, changing the ending for the better to its current dramatic finale. (...)
Thursday is saving the literary world “one lentil at a time.” We can do our part to pump up the Read-O-Meter by hopping into a good book while enjoying some great springtime dishes. (Melony Carey) (Click here for recipe)

The Vine reviews not a book but concert of the band The Jezabels:

Mary is [...] fragile and fierce at once, the perfect instrument to sing of white chariots and dark spectres in her postcards-from-a-Bronte-novel lyrics. (Darryn King)

And now for the weird anecdote of the day, courtesy of Rowan Pelling from The Telegraph:

My life has been immeasurably enriched by the following snippets of biographical detail. [...] Q) What 19th-century writer was so horrified by the visit of an equally celebrated author that he was caught creeping down the back stairs in a bid to escape to his club? A) William Makepeace Thackeray on the occasion of a visit from Charlotte Bronte[.]

Well now, that must have been quite a sight! (Though we must confess to never having heard this anecdote before...)

Suite 101 has an article on 'Revisiting the Gothic and Metaphysical novel—'Wuthering Heights''. Austenesque Reviews writes about Romancing Miss Brontë and The Crowded Leaf posts a teaser from the same novel. BrontëBlog's review will be posted in the coming days, so stay tuned!

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Music, Victorian Era, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights