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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Happy 194th, Charlotte!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 12:03 am by Cristina in ,    3 comments
Charlotte Brontë celebrates her 194 year among new releases that take her and her work to new audiences: The Taste of Sorrow (or Charlotte and Emily, as it is horribly called in the US) by Jude Morgan, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë by Syrie James, Becoming Jane Eyre by Sheila Kohler, Adele, Grace & Celine. The Other Women of Jane Eyre by Claire Moïse, Rochester. A Novel Inspired by Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre by J. L. Niemann, Reader, I Married Him by Janet Mullany, Jane Slayre by Sherri Browning Erwin, Romancing Miss Brontë by Juliet Gael or Bedlam: The Further Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë by Laura Joh Rowland are enough to cater to all sorts of readers and witness enough to the outstanding personaly of Charlotte Brontë and the lasting value and constant renewwal of her work.

On a more scholarly note, books such as Bluebeard Gothic: Jane Eyre and its Progeny by Heta Pyrhönen or Women Reviewing Women in Nineteenth-Century Britain. The Critical Reception of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, and George Eliot by Joanne Wilkes and courses as the upcoming
Fiction by Victorian Women: George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell...
University of Oxford, Department for Continuing Education
Wed 21 Apr to Fri 2 Jul 2010
Tutor: Mr Andrew Blades
Some of the greatest writers of the Victorian period were women. This course looks at the work of authors such as Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Margaret Oliphant, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon both as representing women’s lives and women’s issues, and as compelling fiction in its own right. Including:
9. Women and wives in Victorian fiction II: The governess - Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
“Jane’s Heirs” [GSC 40508]
University of Notre Dame
Spring 2010
Tutor: Abigail Palko
This course begins with a close reading of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, including a survey of the application of literary theory (feminist, gender, cultural, and Marxist) to the novel. It then surveys the varied film and novel adaptations of Brontë’s novel (including Rebecca, Wide Sargasso Sea, and The Autobiography of My Mother) to interrogate the story’s hold on our imagination one hundred and fifty years later. This course is designed to fulfill the Gender Studies Program’s Humanities and Diversity requirements.
as well as the presence of her books in school syllabus bear witness to the academic importance of her work.

All in all, an author could hardly wish for a better birthday present than to be remembered 194 years after their birth. And if that remembrance serves also to spark creativity, then what else is needed?

Happy birthday, Charlotte!

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3 comments:

  1. ksotikoula4/21/2010 11:37:00 am

    I don't know really what to think of this photograph. Could she be Charlotte Bronte? I mean the woman in the photo may not be a beauty but neither is she so plain that you would notice it (as many have commented on Charlotte's plainness). And then she looks to me older than 38. But again the hairstyling was so different then. I cannot say, for example, than I admire Mrs Gaskell's beauty by her portrait, although she was considered beautiful. Why couldn't somebody make a real portrait of her (as Mary Taylor complained) instead of a gratifying one? She was an author, for God's sake, not a model. I guess that attitude made her feel even plainer.

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  2. Cristina4/21/2010 11:48:00 am

    Well, the concept of beauty changes with the times. What we now think beautiful Victorians might have found ugly, and viceversa. Besides, the portrait is a profile, which in Charlotte's case might have been more suitable, given that many commented on her 'crooked mouth' (but also her beautiful eyes). I think this photograph is widely accepted as depicting Charlotte (things are not quite so clear with the other one (full face), though it's considered likely that it is her too).

    I do find Mrs Gaskell's photograph splendidly beautiful, she looking so regal and imposing and with such an honest, kind face. I really, really love that photograph.

    Author's images today are being photoshopped, I suppose, aren't they? Richmond was a 'photoshopper' ahead of his time, I guess ;) (and the rest of the pictures and engravings inspired by his portrait were just by extreme photoshoppers too).

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  3. Ben Lovegrove4/25/2010 06:04:00 pm

    There is an interesting 2-part documentary about this on youtube, I think the photograph was dated to the 1860s so it's unlikely to be her but there are reasons why it could have been a reprint.

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