The Brontë Parsonage Museum, now in Japanese

Jane Austen Sequel Examiner interviews Jane Slayre author, Sherri Browning Erwin. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

What was your favorite part of incorporating the macabre into Brontë's work?
Erwin: It was a challenge finding places in Jane Eyre to fit new elements that flowed as if they'd always been there, and yet bordered on the ridiculous all at once. I love a challenge. One of my favorite scenes is the one in which young Jane comes into the kitchen to find the cook's entrails spread out among the mutton pies. It's certainly not a scene that someone familiar with the original would expect to find. [...]
Were you nervous about how hardcore Brontë fans would receive your work?
Erwin: Absolutely. I'm still nervous when I get mail. I know how I felt when Pride and Prejudice and Zombies came out. Jane Austen is my favorite author (with apologies to Charlotte Brontë, who still rates very high on my list). I really did not like the idea of people messing with Jane Austen's work. All the sequels and spin offs and then adding zombies? The horror! But I got over it. It simply shows how much people connect with and love Austen's characters. I found my sense of humor. The originals are still there, after all. I can read Jane Austen's work any time, and it is in no way diminished by all the adaptations out there. So why not have a little fun with it?
But I do understand how the purists feel, and I'm always sorry to disappoint a fan of Jane Eyre, which is why I tried so hard to remain true to Brontë's work and I hope that people can give it a chance, maybe read it and realize that it was adapted with great love and care. The greatest compliment is when someone who rates Jane Eyre as a favorite book writes to me and tells me how much they loved Jane Slayre. I've gotten quite a few of those emails, and some amazing reviews. It eases the nerves.
What do you say to critics who feel as though Bronte would be 'spinning in her grave?'
Erwin: I felt a strong connection to Charlotte Brontë when I was writing Jane Slayre. She had a great wit and a fine sense of humor. I feel I got to know her a bit, and I honestly think she would be a little embarrassed by the attention, but very amused and pleased. She couldn't have expected to be so popular with readers all these years after her death. That alone would be quite a surprise to her.
So how would she feel about her work being in the public domain and adapted by others? As an author, I know I would be honored to have such devoted readers, to know that my work has endured over a hundred years. After all that time, to see people bringing new elements in, giving my words new life, what a trip! To think of it happening now, while my words are still fresh, is a little disconcerting. But if my work is celebrated in a hundred years or so, have at it! Jane Eyre will always be a reader favorite, not at all diminished or changed by a new version that draws on the original for inspiration. (Kelly Yanke)

And Jane Austen Sequel Examiner also reviews the novel, giving it 4 out of 5 stars, but warning purists:

There were gruesome action scenes that were completely fun and weird. Bronte is in my heart, just as much as Austen is and I was able to read this book with enjoyment and ease. However, if you know you won't be able to stand having one of your favorite novels altered, I recommend putting this one down.
Those of you up for a gothic adventure, pick up this tale! (Kelly Yanke) (Read more)

According to The Age, Andrea Arnold is among the 'trio of women directors' that Bret Easton Ellis 'will credit'. Commenting on it, Anwyn Crawford concludes,

[Andrea Arnold], too, has won an Oscar, for best live-action short in 2005, and is now set to direct an adaptation of Wuthering Heights, a high-profile project that has been kicking around in pre-production for some time, and has been linked to actresses including Australia's Abbie Cornish.
What will Arnold create from Emily Brontë's fierce novel of passion? At least Brontë is unlikely to haunt Arnold from the grave to complain that she is not sufficiently visually aroused.

The National reviews two recently-released novels, The Bed I Made by Lucie Whitehouse and The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell, and manages to slip a couple of Brontë mentions:

With its persecuted-maiden heroine, desolate seaside setting and revenge-thriller plot, The Bed I Made is a classic example of “domestic gothic” – a tag literary critics have used for years to describe books such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, but that now encompasses a specific type of serious-minded but compelling novel by a specific type of (almost always female) writer: Maggie O’Farrell, Joanna Briscoe, Julie Myerson and Sophie Hannah are key names. [...]
O’Farrell studied English at Cambridge University in the early 1990s and has always been happy with the domestic gothic label. After all, it places her within a tradition of the kind of novels she grew up reading: the Brontës, of course, but also Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s chilling 19th-century chronicle of postnatal depression The Yellow Wallpaper. (Motherhood is the subject of O’Farrell’s new novel, The Hand That First Held Mine.) (John O'Connell)

Closer to (their) home, the Brontë Society continues catering for the nationality - apart from Ensglish-speaking ones - that visits the Brontë Parsonage Museum the most: the Japanese. From the Yorkshire Evening Post:

The enduring love affair that Japanese tourists have with with the Brontës is to be recognised with a new translation of the exhibits at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth.
Thousands of Japanese visitors make the pilgrimage every year to the West Yorkshire village to visit the home of the famous literary family.
Footpath signs in Japanese already reflect the huge numbers of people visiting from Japan.
Now, thanks to a collaboration between the University of Leeds and Kobe city University of Foreign Studies in Japan, the main exhibition notes are to be translated into their language.
Prof Tony Hartley, of the Centre for Translation Services, at the University of Leeds said: "The aim of the project is to help the two museums produce translations of exhibit notes which are interesting and informative, giving the Brontë story in Japanese and the experience of Kobe earthquake survivors in English."
Both museums are due to take delivery of the first batch of translations which will be available through their websites or as leaflets.
[...]
Andrew McCarthy, director of the Parsonage Museum, said the Japanese had a fascination for English literary figures and the Brontës in particular.
"I guess there is culturally a predisposition in Japanese culture to extremity and that is a feature of the Brontë's work," he said.
"The Japanese visitors have a particular interest in Wuthering Heights, which reflects this, rather than Jane Eyre for instance.
"We welcome many Japanese visitors to the museum each year and it will be wonderful to offer them a translation of the narrative thread that runs through the museum and to help visitors place exhibits in the
context of the Brontë story.
"The Japanese groups are an important part of our visitor mix and also contribute greatly to the local economy." (Howard Williamson and Helen Bell)

Blog posts on Wuthering Heights on Unbalanced and White Sky Project. Lit Craze! has written a 'postcolonial apporach to Jane Eyre' and jude_judith82 posts lots of images from the 2006 screen adaptation. Finally, Les Brontë à Paris has translated into French Anne Brontë's 1845 diary paper.

Categories: Books, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Fiction, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights