Punk and Mistresses

Lauren Hutton recalls for The Guardian memories of her relationship with Malcolm McLaren:

Every night he had to sit in the corner of the sitting room on a chamber pot while her sisters read to him from the novels of the Brontës and Dickens. That's where he got his love for Fagin and the Artful Dodger. Those were his really formative influences.

The Telegraph reviews Mistresses: A History of the Other Woman by Elizabeth Abbott:

A section of Mistresses is devoted to the great fallen women of literature, Anna Karenina, Hester Prynne, and Lara in Dr Zhivago. Even Jane Eyre herself, Abbott reminds us, only narrowly missed such a fate. 'That man had nearly made me his mistress,’ Jane says of the bigamous Rochester. 'I must be ice and rock to him.’ 'Hiring a mistress’, Rochester agrees, 'is the next worst thing to buying a slave.’ (Frances Wilson)

EDIT: As ksotikoula has pointed out below, the actual quote is Rochester's:

"Not in your sense of the word, but in mine you are scheming to destroy me.  You have as good as said that I am a married man--as a married man you will shun me, keep out of my way: just now you have refused to kiss me.  You intend to make yourself a complete stranger to me: to live under this roof only as Adèle's governess; if ever I say a friendly word to you, if ever a friendly feeling inclines you again to me, you will say,--'That man had nearly made me his mistress: I must be ice and rock to him;' and ice and rock you will accordingly become."  (Chapter XXVII)

The Deccan Herald (India) reviews the novel Othappu-the scent of the other side by Sara Joseph, translated by Valson Thampu:

She wants only to come home and teach at her father’s school. Even that is too much for her brothers to grant. But Margalitha also rejects the dirt and chaos surrounding her rescuer, Rebekka. After nights and days of wandering, in passages strongly reminiscent of Jane Eyre, she finds refuge with Augustine, but she will not serve the people directly, as he does. (Latha Anantharaman)

El Cerrito Patch helps with Christmas shopping and uses imaginatively an Emily Brontë quote from Wuthering Heights:

Emily Brontë wrote that a good heart will help you to a bonny face — but a trip to Foley and Bonny will leave you a very well-turned out man or woman. (Christina Van Horn)

Spanish writer Javier Marías in his column in El País Semanal (Spain) mentions his personal affinities with Emily Brontë:

Tan distintas son entre sí como los hombres llegan a ser opuestos, y no serán pocas las que se sientan más próximas a algunos de éstos que a tantas de su propio sexo, como yo me siento más cercano, como escritor -o eso quisiera-, a Isak Dinesen, Emily Brontë, Rebecca West, Ajmátova, Catherine Mansfield, Hannah Arendt, Flannery O'Connor, Patricia Highsmith o Alice Munro que a Cela o Zola, Bukowski o Philip Roth. (Microsoft translation)

The Sunday Times publishes the answers to last week's Bookwise Quiz, typo included:

Last week's answers: 1. Jayne Eyre (sic) (Brontë)

 Miss Moon's Musings lists Jane Eyre among her favourite books.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, References, Wuthering Heights