Climate change, Emily Brontë and women in Mexican jails

Shall we begin with a couple of Brontëites? Anne Rice's Brontëiteness is of course well-documented but the Financial Times adds to its archives.

What books changed your life?
Great Expectations by Dickens and Jane Eyre by Brontë had a profound influence. I’m not sure any book has ever changed my life. (Anna Metcalfe)

Writer Ahmed Faiyaz also mentions the influence of the Brontës (and Dickens as well, just like Anne Rice above) on Daily News & Analysis India.

He names Charles Dickens, Emily Brontë and Haruki Murakami amongst his favourite writers. He also compares his character Ruheen Oberoi to that of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
“Jane Eyre and the difficult circumstances she faces in her life to finally achieve happiness and peace was definitely an inspiration for this book [Another Chance],” says Faiyaz. (Banylla Kharkongor)

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Roberta Lowing's forthcoming novel will also have Brontë echoes.

She has taken a year off to write full-time and is working on a second book. This one lumps together ideas about climate change with Emily Brontë and women in Mexican jails. "I know, I know," she says. "But it all fits together, I promise." (Louise Schwartzkoff)

Sebastian Faulks is quoted by the Trivandrum News on the topic of sequels:

“People don’t care about the sequels to the works of authors who are no more. We are certainly not interested to know what happened to Jane Eyre or Elizabeth Bennet; though I’d love to write on what could have happened to Mr. Darcy whom I have thought of been suffering from clinical depression throughout,” he replies flippantly to the question raised by one of the participants on account of his Bond novel Devil May Care. (Shradha S)

Well, judging from the amount of sequels, prequels, retellings and mashups we have seen lately we would say that readers - or publishers anyway - do care about them.

The Independent (Ireland) is not too thrilled - to put it mildly - about Alan Alan Stanford's adaptation of Jane Eyre at the Gate Theatre in Dublin.

IT'S seven years since the Gate staged Alan Stanford's adaptation of Jane Eyre as its Christmas piece. The revival has the weaknesses of the original, but lacks its strengths.
The subtleties and intricacies of Charlotte Brontë's book are missing -- an inevitable problem with transposing any Victorian text to the stage: it leaves us with the bare bones of the narrative but without the ethical and sexual dilemmas of the original. That was partly counterbalanced in the 2003 production by Dawn Bradfield's performance in the title role. But she has been replaced this time around by Andrea Corr, who unfortunately seems to have absolutely no empathy with the role, its context, or its period.
There is no sense of dilemma, no sense of frightened courage, and above all no demure probity underlying the steadfastness of "little Miss Eyre". Corr's Jane is a wooden, sour figure, her performance one-dimensional in emotion, cadence, and appearance; the voice is shrill and unvarying, the facial expression a rictus grin most of the time, and the body language without chemistry.
Stephen Brennan as Rochester battles valiantly to make a connection, but there is little he can do, leaving you wondering why he didn't settle for the flighty Blanche Ingram, vulgar fortune-hunter though she is.
Deirdre Donnelly plays the middle-aged Jane/Narrator, and makes her a placid, slightly wry matron; and of the support cast, Fiona Bell in a variety of roles, and Barbara Brennan as Mrs Fairfax come off best in expressing the spirit of Victoriana.
And while it may seem unfair to criticise the children in the cast since they are not professionals, one would have thought that an audition trawl through school drama classes could have found a few who could be heard.
Bruno Schwengl's extremely low-budget set from the original production is lit without inspiration by James McConnell.
Sadly, there is no Christmas sparkle on offer in this extremely lacklustre production (even though Stanford's direction is rather redolent of pantomime). It will certainly do nothing to lift anyone's seasonal spirits. (Emer O'Kelly)

Victoria Gendinning's words on how non-fiction publishers mostly want biographies of the same people time and time again are echoed by The Bookseller and the London Evening Standard.

The Newton Patch reports the fire that has burnt to the ground the main residence at Zoar Ridge Stables (Sandy Hook, CT) which apparently was

"like Wuthering Heights," with features that include a fireplace in every room and access to a wrap-around first-floor porch. (Hoa Nguyen)

And the Western Mail (Wales) jokes about 'what you could buy with Severn Crossing toll cash' (which apparently is about to 'rise to £5.70'). Here's one of the suggestions:

Women with a Gothic bent might delight in the purchase of a Victorian Shrug Jacket. For the cost of five journeys over the estuary you could be clad in this internet-available garment with a “Mandarin-edged collar and deep frilled cuffs” and in your own personal Brontë drama. (David Williamson)

Here it is, in case anyone does feel like indulging in a bit of 'own personal Brontë drama'.

Via IMDb user Glacier571-3 we have found out that the fansite MichaelFassbender.org has uploaded a few screencaps from the Jane Eyre 2011 trailer. Olde-fashioned has also been inspired to create a few icons. Miss Daydream has loved Jane Eyre and Debbie's Book Bag has enjoyed the Readable Classics edition of the novel.

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Sequels, Theatre, Weirdo