If Jane Eyre was living in our time, She'd Really Thrive

Another Jane Eyre tidbit from Mia Wasikowska in one of the many interviews she is giving presenting The Kids Are All Right. From The Globe and Mail:

She’s the title character in Jane Eyre, due out later this year, directed by Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre) and co-starring Michael Fassbender (Hunger). “There were certain moments on set where I’d go, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ ” Wasikowska said. “You can’t believe you’ve been trusted with a character like Jane Eyre, and you want to do her justice. In the novel, she’s 18, but she’s always been played by older actresses. It’s kind of fun to play her as a teenager, with these insane responsibilities. If she was living in our time, she’d really thrive.” (Johanna Schneller)

The Irish Times asks several writers about good novel endings. Tishani Doshi says:

But what I really love are intoxicating endings; endings that leave you with an aftertaste, an essence of the book. Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez are all modern-day masters in this regard, but my favourite is probably Emily Brontë in Wuthering Heights : “I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.” (Sinéad Gleeson)

Art Daily announces that Sam Taylor-Wood's Ghosts series will be exhibited in Brooklyn in October:

Sam Taylor-Wood’s 2008 photographic exploration of the Yorkshire moors, Ghosts, is the latest exhibition in the Herstory Gallery of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. On view from October 30, 2010, through August 14, 2011, the series was inspired by Emily Brontë’s classic Victorian novel, Wuthering Heights, and its legendary atmospheric descriptions of the bleak, wild landscape.
For many years, Taylor-Wood kept a country house in the same West Yorkshire region where Emily Brontë and her famous literary and artistic family lived. Drawing inspiration from the Brontë sisters’ gothic romantic fiction, the artist followed the footpath from the stone parsonage where the Brontës lived and died up across the moors to Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse and the alleged setting of Wuthering Heights. In her photographs, she captures the stark and haunting character of the windswept moors and gray skies surrounding the area of Top Withens.

Curiously, the ending was something that 1 Million Words in a blog review didn't like.

Book Reporter reviews Martin Amis's novel The Pregnant Widow:

Surrounded by this sexually-charged atmosphere, Keith spends his summer reading classic novels about love, romance and (heavily-veiled) sex, from Richardson’s 18th-century classic PAMELA to the works of Austen, the Brontë sisters, Eliot and Dickens. In each one, he absorbs something of the message of the sexual politics of years past, even as he tries --- and often fails --- to interpret those of his own time. (Norah Piehl)

The success of Marvel comics' adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and the new release of Sense and Sensibility points to the possibility of a Marvel Jane Eyre according to Keri Luna in the LA Geek Culture Examiner:

When asked if we can expect to see Mr. Knightley gently scolding his Emma, or Jane Eyre falling for Mr. Rochester in a Marvel Illustrated comic anytime soon, Macchio admits they are waiting to see how the hardcover book of Sense and Sensibility will be received, but if there is an audience, he added, “Why not?”

SecondAct lists several one-hit literary wonders. Including our Emily of course:

Emily Brontë, who died in 1848 of tuberculosis, a year after the publication of her only novel, the innovative Wuthering Heights. (Patrick J. Kiger)

The Times talks about Sofi Oksanen who seems to think that the only remarkable female artists around are the Brontës:

She then became fascinated with art history and world history, and remembers trying to find out why there were so few great women artists. As for literature, “We can be happy about the Brontë sisters but that’s about it,” she says. She views herself as part of a strong female literary heritage in Finland, though (“Half of our successful authors are women, so you don’t feel on the margins”) and is strikingly matter-of-fact about the success of her novel. (Viv Groskop)

El Periódico de Aragón (Spain) is a strong contender to the blunder of the year:

Esa miss Bennet del título es una de las heroínas de Jane Eyre en Orgullo y prejuicio, la hermana que en la historia original había quedado un tanto oscurecida frente al protagonismo emocional de las dos Bennet más brillantes, Elisabeth y Jane. (Google translation) (Juan Bolea)

Público (Spain) recommends Minae Mizumura's A Real Novel for this summer:

Y luego está ese libro de 700 páginas que no pesa en la maleta. Se trata de Una novela real, de la japonesa Minae Mizumura. "Una visión posmoderna de Cumbres Borrascosas", dice la argentina Gabriela Cabezón, autora de la excelente La Virgen cabeza. Amor, humor o sangre. El verbo es el mismo: disfrutar. (Paula Corroto) (Google translation)

Our Twilight zone today comes from Italy:

Rispetto alle cronache di Vampiri di Anne Rice (l'autrice, per intendersi, del best seller Intervista con il vampiro), i non morti della Mayer non respirano l'atmosfera gotica e mortifera di una torrida Louisiana, ma si accontentano di un romanticismo d'accatto che profuma più di Federico Moccia che di Cime Tempestose, tanto per citare uno dei libri preferiti da Edward Cullen. (Lord Maxwell in MoviEye.it) (Google translation)

More Moccia than Brontë seems approppriate for Twilight.

Известий (Russia) interviews Julie Andrews who says she read the Brontës when she was a child:

и: Какие книги вы сами читали в детстве?
эндрюс: Мой отец был учителем литературы и формировал мои вкусы. Впервые в книжный магазин он привел меня, когда мне было около девяти лет. И книжка, которую мы в тот раз купили, навсегда осталась в моем сердце. Это сказочная повесть "Маленькие серые человечки" - о трех гномах, отправившихся на поиски своего пропавшего брата. И, безусловно, Чарльз Диккенс, Джейн Остин, сестры Бронте, словом, английская классическая литература. (Вита Рамм) (Google translation)

The Denver Post publishes an excerpt from The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman which contains a Wuthering Heights reference, Laura's Reviews completes (and summarises) the All About the Brontës Challenge with a review of Jane Eyre 1970. Mundo Cretino posts about Wuthering Heights 1939 (in Spanish). Pink Fuzzy Slipper Writers also talks about Emily Brontë's novel. Breezy Originals shares her pictures of a trip to Brontë Country.

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Brontëites, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights