Wild Passion vs Tea and Sandwiches

The Hindustan Times announces that a theatre adaption of Villette will be performed in the upcoming Ithaka Literary Festival, organized by the English department at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, India:

Ithaka’s platter of plays offers a wide variety right from Victorian settings of Charlotte Brontë’s Villette to the theatre of the absurd with Harold Pinter’s Hot House. Each of the plays in the festival is an adaptation of the original play, novel or short story. (Apeksha Vora)

The Wall Street Journal has an article about Jane Austen's popularity among younger generations:

Jennifer Potter, 24, a member of JASNA's New York chapter, says Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" feels antiquated. She finds Jane Austen's writing more relevant to her life. "Marrying for money, crazy parents, dating—these are all basic themes," Ms. Potter said, sipping tea near the sandwich table at a recent Austen meeting that drew 200 members.  (Arden Dale and Mary Pilon)

Paraphrasing Oscar Hammerstein II ... Austenites and Brontëites should be friends. Territory folks should stick together, territory folks should all be pals...

The Scotsman interviews the TV and radio presenter Gloria Hunniford:

Who is your favourite fictional character?
Cathy from Wuthering Heights for the wild passion involved. I would like to be a passionate character.

The solution of The Guardian's Genius Crossword (Number 89) has a Jane Eyre reference:

Down 2 Jane's school to copy Brer Fox (3,3)
Solution: lie low (Lowood) [Jane Eyre's school for orphans] (Araucaria)

The New York Magazine chooses The Five Biggest Nontraditional Leading Men Right Now and a couple of the chosen names have Brontë associations: Tom Hardy was Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights 2009 and Michael Fassbender will be Rochester in Jane Eyre 2011. The UU World Magazine vindicates the work of one of most famous Unitarians, Elizabeth Gaskell:

Gaskell stirred up more serious trouble with a biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë, which Brontë’s father asked her to write. She apparently repeated statements made by family members about others and avoided a libel suit only with a retraction and withdrawal of the second edition. (Kimberly French)

Victorian Hauntings wants to see Devotion 1946 (a film that that will be broadcast in US next Wednesday, December 8, on TCM, see sidebar for details). The Brontë Parsonage Blog reviews Sarah Freeman's Brontë in Love with special attention to some of their factual errors.

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Elizabeth Gaskell, Fiction, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Theatre, Villette, Wuthering Heights