Oprah reads the classics and other news

The Huffington Post has two Brontë-related articles. The first one is by Suzanne Morrison, who is not too keen on Wuthering Heights (to put it mildly).

If you had asked me in seventh grade -- before my traumatic Tess experience -- what my favorite novel was, I would have told you it was Wuthering Heights. I probably would not have elaborated on my love for that book, however, other than to wistfully sigh, "Heathcliff. Cathy. The moor." Then I probably would have changed the subject. Because, you see, I had never actually read Wuthering Heights. I just liked the idea of it being my favorite book. My best friend's mother, Cheri, said it was her favorite book. Cheri gave great advice and made delicious gefilte fish, so I think I decided I would love Wuthering Heights, too, even if I could never get through it. (Again, I had assumed since it was this great tragic love story that there would be sex. But no. Just the moors and a lot of whining. Or no, wait: a lot of whinging.)
Not long ago, I loitered around the Borders at SeaTac, looking for distraction while waiting for a flight to New York. There was a display of cheap Penguin classics right at the entrance, and I got to thinking that maybe a little nineteenth century would do me good. My eye landed on Wuthering Heights. It seemed to be a sign: I was tired of memoirs, looking for a good novel, a classic, something nourishing that in the future I would want to re-read. It was time, at last, for Wuthering Heights.
I read the first hundred pages on the plane, happy to find the story zipping along, loving the creepy-sad moment when the narrator encounters Cathy's ghost. I even began to think that this would be another Tess, that I would get home, call Cheri, and tell her that she was right: Wuthering Heights really was the greatest novel ever written.
But then, around page 120, something happened. I found myself hating everybody in the book. By page 135, I hated Emily Brontë, too. (Read more)

And the second article is by Michele Somerville:

I'm reminded of a faculty lounge English teacher joke:
Teacher #1: "Have you read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë?"
Teacher #2: "No. I haven't even taught it!"

In connection with both articles - particularly the first - an article from The Boston Globe on Weymouth High School English teacher Matthew Porro comes in handy:

Recently, Porro’s British Lit class has been studying Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre’’ and Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice’’ because he wanted to show the female perspective of that era.
However, the book that has always most captured his excitement and passion is Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,’’ published in 1847.
Few may know that “Wuthering Heights’’ initially was poorly received by the public as it was considered sordid and unnatural in its portrayal of emotional and physical cruelty.
In fact, Brontë went to her grave in 1848 believing her only published novel to be a failure. But after its second printing, in 1850, and with an introduction written by her sister Charlotte, it went on to win great acclaim.
Since then, “Wuthering Heights’’ has continued to divide readers. But Porro loves to share his fascination with the novel. [...]
Even as their love spirals into alcoholism, seduction, and revenge — and Heathcliff eventually descends into madness — Porro finds beauty in the novel’s language and power.
That language can mystify modern readers, Porro says, as when Brontë describes a character “suffering from paroxysms of grief.’’
But the depth of emotion transcends the era. “In current times, we, too, will encounter deeply motivated people like Brontë’s characters,’’ says Porro. He remembers knowing a young wife who was stricken by cancer. Her husband remained at her side, almost counting down their last hours together.
The intensity of their love reminded Porro of the novel “in that the husband was grasping for something, anything, to help deal with the tragedies of life.’’
So Porro recommends young and old read “Wuthering Heights’’ at least once. Some may even want to read it again. (Nancy Harris)

It looks like Oprah Winfrey herself is discovering the Classics - well, Dickens anyway - at least according to Books on TV Examiner:

Oprah Winfrey admitted Monday on The Oprah Winfrey Show that she has never read Charles Dickens. She is about to remedy that omission this holiday season by selecting two Dickens novels as her most recent book club picks.
A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations have been published in a special "Oprah" edition by Penguin just for the occasion. [...]
What viewers may look forward to most with this pick is Oprah Winfrey's reaction to one of the most celebrated authors of the English speaking world. Readers the world over have known Dickens -- how could a self-proclaimed prolific reader like Ms. Winfrey have missed him up until now? One wonders if the same can be true with her reading experience of other nineteenth century British classic authors -- Jane Austen, for instance; or the Brontë sisters? Mary Shelley? (Connie Ann Kirk)

The Houston Community Newspaper doesn't seem too thrilled about 19th-century novels, though. At least not about the baby names coming out of them:

Fortunately, in our estimation, the names on this top 100 list are fairly safe, conservative choices, albeit a bit too 19th Century jolly old England for our taste — Oliver, Grayson and the somewhat- more-risque Liam.
For the girls, the names seem equally bleak — Amelia, Abigail, Olivia — and a few others that sound as if they were plucked from the collective works of the Brontë sisters. (Michael Reed)

Which is funny because as far as we can remember none of those names appear in any Brontë novel. Amelia would be the only one of those names with a Brontë connection: Amelia Taylor (née Ringrose) was a friend of Charlotte Brontë's.

The Southern Reporter comments on the weather:

A very northern English scene – I could have been engulfed by the windswept romance of a Brontë novel; but then again I am in the wrong county – Lancashire, not Yorkshire. Furthermore there is no Heathcliff or Mr Rochester roaming the wilds or speaking in dulcet tones by the fireside.

And The Chronicle of Higher Education blog Arts & Academe is grateful for poetry websites linking poets together:

If I read Plath, I would read Plath. Plath read Dickinson: I would read her; Dickinson read Emily Brontë, and so I’d read her next. And this might bring me round to Agha Shahid Ali, Claudia Rankine, Anne Carson, Susan Howe, Rae Armantrout, and so forth, backward and forward in time, across sensibilities and cultures. I am grateful for the ways these virtual sites invite this kind of exchange by providing a wider, more various, vital, world- and mind-opening lens into poetry and poetics than I might be able to find on my own. (Lisa Russ Spaar)

Regular readers of BrontëBlog will be familiar with ksotikoula from her comments on this blog. Well, she has recently been to Haworth and shares a lot of pictures as well as her experiences on her blog.

Categories: Books, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Poetry, Wuthering Heights