Emily Brontë's incredible perversity

John Sutherland talks about Monica Jones after the publication of Philip Larkin's Letters to Monica (edited by Anthony Thwaite) in The Times:

My first sight of Monica was at a first-year lecture on Wuthering Heights. She swept in, dressed to the nines under her now rather tatty Oxford gown, slammed down a Timex alarm clock on the lectern and tore into Emily Brontë for the woman’s incredible perversity in giving so many characters the same Christian and surnames: who on earth could make sense of all those Lintons, Catherines and Earnshaws? Wholly inconsiderate. It was very funny (and meant to be).

Not the first time he recalls this anecdote.

Also in The Times we found this vindication of Thomas Hardy:

Sensibly, Tamara Drewe focuses on the romantic comedy (the current film version in particular), but Hardy’s second novel [Far from the Madding Crowd] is a far stranger, more eccentric work. Few writers of rom-coms would, for instance, think to include a scene in which the half-mad heroine unscrews the lid of a coffin to discover the corpse of a baby.  Rather than pastoral romance, these later scenes owe something to the Gothic sensibility of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Even in this sunniest of novels, sexual obsession, madness and murder are never far away.

Blast Magazine talks about the Boston Books Festival's lineup which includes Edward Hirsch:

Edward Hirsch credits Emily Brontë for his love of poetry. (Jess Huckins)

Lisa Ramirez from the Times Herald-Record doesn't like Wuthering Heights:

However, there are a few books that have been banned from my personal library. Here's my black list: (...)
"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë: Because I've read it repeatedly, and it makes me madder and madder and madder. I mean, what is it with that Cathy person?

The University of North Carolina-Greesboro has a nice initiative to celebrate promotions of staff:

Starting in 2006, the University Libraries and the Office of the Provost came up with a fresh way to recognize and celebrate faculty who achieve tenure and/or promotion. Each newly tenured or promoted faculty member selects a book for the library’s collection that is then bookplated to commemorate her or his achievement. Faculty members are asked to write a brief statement about their choice. (Michelle Hines)

In 2007, Dr. Jie Hu chose Jane Eyre:

The book Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is one of my favorite novels. When I read it many years ago, I was impressed by the beautiful language and the dramatic plot, and I was deeply touched by the heroine Jane Eyre. The moral duty, spirituality, independence, and forgiveness embodied in Jane Eyre are inspiring. It is a book worth reading.

Ottawa Centretown News reviews the film Never Let Me Go:

Hailsham. It sounds like the setting of a novel by a Brontë sister, and as the first scenes of idyllic boarding-school life unfold that doesn’t seem so far off the mark. (Corcoran Conn-Grant)

We didn't know that magazine editor and fashion victim/icon Isabella Blow was fond of Jane Eyre quotes. In the Wall Street Journal:

Isabella Blow (1958-2007) certainly risks becoming a fashion footnote, remembered as a social gadabout (she once said that she needed publicity "like Jane Eyre needed Mrs. Rochester") and as the magazine editor who discovered the designer Alexander McQueen and the models Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl.

Associated Content suggests ways to get over creative block:

Choose two characters from literature and write about them having to spend time together.
If Elizabeth Bennett and Jane Eyre had to share a carriage ride, would they get along? (Charity Hendrix)

Keighley News reports the latest meeting of the Brontë Country Partnership which is trying to recruite more organisations and at the same time retaining membershing of important associations  the Haworth Village Association.

Chicago Theater Blog describes the current production of Wuthering Heights in the Lifeline Theatre as disappointing:

Certainly, no one who isn’t already a fan of the Brontë will become one as a result of this very screechy play, in which the characters are constantly yelling at one another. (To be fair, some of that is straight out of Emily Brontë melodrama — but it’s not comfortable to hear.)
Stylized. dancelike sequences add nothing to our understanding of the story and only take up time and slow the action. So much of the script and Elise Kauzlaric direction get in the way, that it’s hard to tell whether the cast does a good job or not.
Alan Donahue’s platform set captures little of the vastness of the Yorkshire moors and the up and down slide of the window and door become tiresome quickly.
If you’re an avid fan of the novel, you might want to see this. If not, skip it. (Leah A. Zeldes)

Pipoca Moderna reviews a recent Brazilian film Como Esquecer with several Wuthering Heights explicit mentions:

Do roteiro escrito por cinco pessoas sobram personagem (a péssima Natália Lage entra e sai de cena sem um propósito narrativo), situações inverossímeis (todo o diálogo a respeito da separação de bens entre homoafetivos é constrangedor) e um excesso de citações a “O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes”, clássico gótico de Emily Brontë. (Andy Malafaya) (Microsoft translation)

La Información (Spain) talks about the success of the Spanish translation of Cold Comfort Farm:

La estructura del libro de Stella Gibbons funciona, porque atraviesa los tópicos de la novela sentimental de Emily Brontë o Jane Austen, y saca a flote los prejuicios sexuales masculinos, buenos territorios comunes de los que la autora se ríe sin piedad. (David González) (Microsoft translation)

Velvet (Hungary) publishes a list of romantic novels. Jane Eyre makes an appearance:

A legtöbben ezt a regényt ajánlották a kommentekben a legjobbak közé. “Számomra felülmúlhatatlan” - mondta róla libra121. Charlotte Brontë regénye 1847-ben jelent meg, és Clarimonde szerint fő erényei közé tartozik, hogy “egyaránt szól a szerelemben és a hivatásban is önmegvalósító nőről”. (Eivissa) (Google translation)

An Ukranian librarian with a fondness for Jane Eyre in  Кочегарка.  Gazelles on Crack and Sara Louise Wheeler review Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Rongeuse des Livres (in French) posts about Wuthering Heights.

Categories: Brontëites, Haworth, Jane Eyre, References, Theatre, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights