The Pen and Paper Superweapons

The Ledger-Inquirer is fascinated by the (fake) Brontë Power Dolls ad:

My new favorite superhero is brave, buff and packs a killer copy of “Wuthering Heights.”
I’m serious. The gothic novel will take out any bad guy.
Afraid? You should be.
Blame a recent literary YouTube sensation, a clip that’s a faux commercial for superhero action figures modeled after the Brontë sisters, a group of 19th century writers.
The Brontë trio includes Emily (“Wuthering Heights”), Charlotte (“Jane Eyre”) and Anne (“Agnes Grey”).
As toy superheroes on YouTube — dubbed “Super X-Treme Mega History Heroes” — they flaunt super-disguise mustaches and hurl boomerang books at an evil publisher.
When the situation in Victorian England gets really extreme, the sisters combine all their devices and morph into a dinosaur-like creature strong enough to overtake a boys-only clubhouse.
Naturally, their attack device is called a Brontësaurus.
If the Brontë-inspired action figures were real, I wouldn’t have stolen my brother’s G.I. Joes.
The superhero YouTube commercial is a spoof, but it bolsters the intrigue factor surrounding authors commonly associated with mandatory reading.
Originally, the sisters’ works were published under pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.
The pseudonyms created a veil of mystery that added to the curiosity surrounding their works, according to the Brontë Parsonage Museum and Brontë Society’s website.
The site notes the sisters’ father was a published author of poetry and fiction. When their mother died, her sister took care of the children.
Two Brontë sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died just a few years later. The remaining children stayed at home together and built an imaginary world anchored by inspiration from books and toy soldiers.
Even readers without extensive knowledge of the Brontë sisters’ works will agree it’s rare for a single family to yield so much permanent literary talent.
Emily, Charlotte and Anne deserve their newfound superhero identities.
Heck, they even deserve a follow-up YouTube clip centered on their ability to fend off critics with multi-syllable words.
Through their real lives, the authors continue to remind readers of an enemy-controlling weapon that doesn’t require muscles or a special license.
That tool? A pen and paper, of course. (Sonya Sorich)

The Times talks with actor and now director Robert Cavanah and remembers his appearance as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights 1998:

Robert Cavanah has appeared regularly in British films and television for the best part of two decades, but despite a stint on EastEnders and playing Heathcliff in a television adaptation of Wuthering Heights in the late 1990s, he has never established himself as a household name. (Brian Pendreigh)

Mirrors in Jane Eyre are discussed by Victoria Janssen and Not Now I'm Reading (in Thai), Pastor Jeff's Ramblings post about the novel. The Life (and Lies) of an Inanimate Flying Object gives away a copy of Sherri Browning Erwin's Jane Slayre (deadline: May 20). Paraphernalia vindicates the figure of Anne Brontë. Nwhyte posts briefly about Eric Ruijssenaars's The Pennsionat Revisited. YouTube user 51liviu has uploaded several Haworth/Parsonage videos.

Categories: Anne Brontë, Haworth, Jane Eyre, References