Aussie sheilas who transcend gender in Irish masterpieces

The San Francisco Chronicle reviews a couple of recent biographies on Louisa May Alcott: Louisa May Alcott A Personal Biography by Susan Cheever and The Alcott Family and Their Search for Utopia by Richard Francis and compares Alcott's narrative to Charlotte Brontë's:

Yes, Alcott wrote "Little Men," but the focus of her fiction is always the female sensibility. Compare it to Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre," for instance, equally a book about the heart and soul of a female figure, and the model to boot for every romance novel written since it appeared more than a century and a half ago. Yet "Jane Eyre" manages to transcend gender in its effect in a way that "Little Women" cannot. Any child unjustly punished can identify fiercely with the opening scene of "Jane Eyre," but the travails of Jo March are those of a tomboy, not a boy. (Martin Rubin)

The Times talks about the upcoming episode of the sitcom Peep Show (Season 7, Episode 3, December 10):

He even agrees to host a book club meeting at his flat, which involves him having to read Wuthering Heights.  Because he has read only one other book in his entire life (Howard Marks’s Mr Nice), he finds it difficult
to concentrate on the written word. According to Mark: “It’s like watching a sheep trying to use an iPhone.” (David Chater)

Both Bookreporter and The Columbus Dispatch review Kate Morton's The Distant Hours:

The good thing about Morton’s work is that she evokes the finest prose traditions and thereby elevates what could have been a jejune romance into something more substantial. She summons the reader’s intensely emotional relationship to books like Jane Eyre and Rebecca (madwomen or -men in attics, great houses going up in flames, and so forth); and her plot devices, frequently more convenient than believable, recall Dickens. (...)
I know that Morton is capable of more than well-crafted diversions. She has the talent (and perhaps needs the courage) to write a less predictable, less derivative book. I’m thinking of novels that draw on the gothic tradition but also transcend it, such as Sarah Waters’s The Little Stranger or Jean Rhys’s stunning Jane Eyre prequel, Wide Sargasso Sea. (Kathy Weissman)

Australian novelist Kate Morton's The Distant Hours sets forth in the footsteps of the Brontës and Daphne du Maurier, then veers into the world of Charles Dickens and ultimately breaks a new trail. (Margaret Quamme)

The Age has an article about a receiver which has a curious Brontë reference:

''Believe me, nothing's beneath the dignity of a guy like that. When I told him to hand over the keys to the Roller he swooned like some sheila in a Brontë novel.'' Rule laughs at this. ''Gasping for breath and wanting me to pity him, you know, loosen his tie like he's got some bona fide health issues instead of just being a crook. I didn't loosen his tie. I was thinking about the mums and dads who were going to lose their houses. (Anson Cameron)

Another curious reference appears in this review of The Boob Tube Show DVD:

Hoping to learn from - and laugh at - their mistakes, the trio takes turns quipping and complaining about everything: the acting; the directing; the truncated, non-sex scene included storylines; the fashions; the figures; the complete and utter lack of sex appeal. In between, we get failed music videos, hardcore history lessons, and enough unrequited longing (Sam for Luna) to make Twilight look like Twilight Wuthering Heights. (Bill Gibron on DVDTalk)

The Boston Globe reviews BBC cop drama Luther:

Her name is Alice, and she is played brilliantly by Ruth Wilson. It’s hard to believe she’s the same actress who was so good as the modest heroine in PBS’s 2007 adaptation of “Jane Eyre.’’ She’s so pale and controlling and evil here. I love her! (Matthew Gilbert)

Collider reviews the Blue Ray edition of The Twilight Saga:

Ultimately, Eclipse is still more love story than horror film: a supernatural Wuthering Heights of the Olympic Peninsula.  Altogether, it’s an intoxicating blend of vampires, werewolves and romance. (Gretchen Vaughn)

The (triple) blunder of the week comes from La Región (Spain) where Ramón Luis Acuña gives Charlotte Bronté (sic) the authorship of Wuthering Heights and considers it a masterpiece of... Irish literature!:

El inolvidable Jonathan Swift, con 'Los viajes de Gulliver', Charlotte Bronté (sic) con 'Cumbres Borrascosas'? Son solo muestras de las incontables obras maestras irlandesas? (Microsoft translation)

Medikforum (Russia) has also an ineffable story about Charlotte, potatoes and furious cleaning (?)...

Шарлотта Бронте, когда писала рукописи, ставила рядом  огромную корзину с картофелем, который она время от времени принималась яростно чистить. Отвлекать ее от этого занятия было чревато – женщина, осатанев от гнева, могла наброситься на побеспокоившего ее, чего, кстати, впоследствии даже не помнила.  (Microsoft translation)

Il Giorno Varese (Italy) talks about the initiative started by the teachers and students of the Liceo Cairoli from Varese: A calendar with pictures by Carlo Meazza who will feature the school's staff at locations inspired by classical novels. Including Wuthering Heights.

Metro (France) interviews Alyson Noël, author The Inmortals saga:

Quel est votre livre et votre auteur préféré? Et votre héros favori ?
J'en aime tellement que c'est difficile de choisir... Mais quand j'étais ado, j'adorais ceux de Judy Blume, JD Salinger et des soeurs Brontë. Mon personnage préféré est Holden Caulfield mais j'aime aussi Heathcliff des "Hauts de Hurlevent". (Microsof translation)

 Valeurs actuelles talks about Somerset Maugham's style:

L’influence de Jules Renard, qui fut son premier maître (il a aussi aimé Fielding, Austen, Stendhal, Dickens, Flaubert, Melville, Emily Brontë, mais à chaque fois ne les a aimés que pour un seul livre), l’a poussé à refuser toute recherche de l’effet, de l’abandon, du joli, de l’original. (Stéphane Denis) (Microsoft translation)

La Montagne (France) talks about yesterday's (December 3) performance in Clermont-Ferrand of the Ballet Jazz Art's dance piece Les Soeurs Brontë (more information on this previous post of ours).

Yzeurespace, vendredi 3 décembre, à 20 h 30
Le ballet dramatique « Les soeurs Brontë » dessine par petites touches impressionnistes l'univers d'une famille, les relations complices et passionnelles des soeurs et du frère amplifiées par une danse à fleur de peau. (Microsoft translation)

Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (Poland) reviews Belinda Bauer's Blacklands:

W gruncie rzeczy nie wiadomo, czy to śmieszne, czy straszne. I niewykluczone, że wszystko razem trudno byłoby strawić, gdyby nie to, że powieść Bauer jest na wskroś angielska. Mamy tu – jak w powieściach sióstr Brontë – słynne wrzosowiska i mroczne postaci od lat zatrute melancholią, może nawet trochę z Dickensowskiej niedoli dziecięcych bohaterów, a całość jest doprawiona szczyptą owego rozbrajającego humoru, na który przepis znają tylko Wyspiarze. (Malwina Wapińska) (Google translation)

Aporrea (in Spanish) compares Wuthering Heights to the Cancún 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference; Clarín (Argentina) also plays with the meaning of the word Cumbre in Spanish. Советская Белоруссия (Belarus) lists Jane Eyre among books which make their readers cry; Wicked Witch posts about Jane Eyre (a book that Kristina King wasn't able to finish); Czytając, oglądając, słuchając... reviews Wuthering Heights 1992 (in Polish); The Lunarismoon Journal posts briefly about Wide Sargasso Sea; November's Autumn talks about Villette.

Categories: Dance, Jane Eyre, References, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights