Shirley Country in Danger

Barbara Lumb complains in the Spenborough Guardian about the Local Development Framework plans for the zone:

AT a packed meeting at Roberttown Church on Friday, residents listened with growing dismay to the latest proposals for the Local Development Framework. This involves developing industry on green belt land in the Three Nuns area.
This has been wrongly described as the Cooper Bridge development as part of the strategic development of Huddersfield, not North Kirklees. The area would cover over 50 acres, (bigger than the whole of Oakwell Hall Country Park) and stretch from Cooper Bridge to within 500 metres of Hartshead and Roberttown. It is estimated to attract 3,000 workers.
Apart from the fact that the A62 is not capable of sustaining such a development, it’s obvious to anyone with a sense of history and a love of the environment that the area should be protected, not destroyed. (...)
The site is adjacent to a listed monument, the Dumb Steeple and the listed former Roe Head School on the other – attended by the Brontë sisters and where Charlotte was later a teacher. (...)
It is crossed by the Kirklees Way and the Bronte Way, provides a ‘green lung for the people of Spen and safeguards the rural setting of Hartshead and Roberttown.
It is a special place of pilgrimage for those interested in Luddite History and the Brontës. It is the countryside depicted in Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Shirley, and her description of the view overlooking this beautiful valley slope would be covered by ugly buildings. (...)
I would also urge people to write to the council at Local.development@kirklees.gov.uk and to attend the meeting at Cleckheaton town hall on February 1 at 7pm to discover the plans for the rest of North Kirklees. The deadline has been extended for comments, but only by one week, to February 13.

We are no Luddites at BrontëBlog but as much as we think that progress has to go on we also think that if there are, it seems, not-so-aggressive alternatives in regards to the landscape and the historical heritage, they should be taken into consideration even if they are, in the short term, more costly. We are sure that in the long term it would be worthwhile.

The Times has an article about make-up and heroines:

But there are some heroines, feminist or otherwise, from whom, however impressive, you wouldn’t want to take make-up tips. Jane Eyre, for example. Or Dorothy Parker, despite the rapier wit. And what about Frida Kahlo? (Sarah Vine)

The Scotsman reviews the performances of the play The Breathing House by Peter Arnott at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow:

What his production does achieve, though, is an old-fashioned but impressive sense of narrative movement and energy, particularly well captured in a powerful performance from Toni Frutin as the wonderful Hannah; and as it thunders towards a conclusion worthy of Charlotte Brontë, this fine curiosity of a modern Scottish play seems well worth reviving, not once, but many times. (Joyce MacMillan)

The Globe and Mail makes a very curious use of a Brontë reference in connection to Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper:

He emphasized how proud and happy he is to be leading a team, striking a contrast with the image of Stephen Harper that even his own party seems determined to project – to them, at best, Mr. Harper is mid-novel Heathcliff. (Tabatha Southey)

The Vancouver Sun reviews the latest novel by Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden and mentions her previous and very Brontë-influenced novel Here on Earth:

Her novel Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Brontë's masterpiece Wuthering Heights, and her novel Practical Magic was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. (Tracy Sherlock)

The Ilkley Gazette celebrates the placing of a blue plaque in Menston honouring Lassie's creator Eric Knight:

"I hope the plaque will also help boost tourism and place Menston deservedly on the literary map. Americans flock to see the Brontë house, not knowing that the dog they grew up with from 600 TV episodes had her beginnings but a few miles down the road.”(Jim Jack quoting Greg Christie, biographer of the author)

The Louisville Courier-Journal announces the Louisville performances of Polly Teale's Brontë:

The story of the short, troubles lives of the Brontë sisters. Presented by Finnigan Productions.

Mrs. Hill's Book Blog interviews author Jennifer Trafton:

What about now? Who are your favorite authors now?
I love Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, George MacDonald, Annie Dillard, Wendell Berry, W.B. Yeats, Billy Collins . . . . I like Lewis Carroll even better now than when I was a kid. Some all-time favorite “adult” novels include Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

Another Brontëite is the Spanish author Mariano Antolín Rato who is interviewed by La Nueva España (Spain):

A partir de eso empezaron a interesarme tanto Joyce como los aledaños, y después me salieron los Beat, y descubrí a Faulkner, al que traduje, y la Generación Perdida, que es mi favorita. Después estuve una temporada colgadísimo de la literatura inglesa del XIX. Si me preguntan por la novela que más me gusta digo que es "Cumbres borrascosas", que es probablemente el libro que más veces he leído en mi vida. (J. Morán) (Microsoft translation)

Expresso (Portugal) republishes (from the Brazilian magazine Atual) a review of the novel A Outra by Maria Teresa Pereira

No princípio, vemos como Miss Jessel se predispõe a desempenhar o papel principal, semelhante ao das heroínas dos romances que lia às escondidas do pai ("Jane Eyre" e "O Monte dos Vendavais", com esse Heathcliff capaz de lhe tirar o sono). (José Mário Silva) (Microsoft translation)

Antonio Muñoz Molina is the author of an excellent article in El País (Spain) about the Morgan Library exhibition The Diary: Three Centuries of Private Lives. It begins with Charlotte Brontë's Roe Head Journal:

A la luz de una vela Charlotte Brontë escribe con una letra minúscula en una hoja no mayor que la palma de una mano, una noche de tormenta, y para aprovechar más el papel la letra se va haciendo más diminuta todavía a medida que escribe y llena hasta el filo mismo de la hoja. Es noche cerrada, aunque sólo son las siete. Quizás ve su reflejo en el cristal de la ventana que sacude el viento. Es febrero de 1836, Brontë tiene 19 años y ha empezado a trabajar como maestra en un colegio que es un caserón helado en medio de un páramo. Está agotada después de una jornada de trabajo de doce horas, entre gente ajena y hostil, que le despierta una añoranza infinita de su casa familiar y de sus padres y hermanos. Los rasgos de la escritura son veloces y quebrados: casi podríamos escuchar el roce continuo y entrecortado de la punta de la pluma, que moja de vez en cuando en el tintero. El acto de escribir le parece "un refugio que nadie conoce en esta casa salvo yo misma". El cuarto, la luz de la vela, la soledad, la escritura, le hacen sentirse en un arca que flota sobre las aguas de un mundo tan ajeno a ella como si lo hubiera anegado un diluvio universal.
Pero no sólo escribe por las noches, cuando se encuentra a solas en su cuarto, antes de acostarse. En un aula helada, a primera hora de la mañana, con toda la pesadumbre del comienzo del día gris y de la jornada que le queda por delante, abre un libro de texto y toma un lápiz y quizás mientras los estudiantes hacen algún ejercicio ella escribe con el lápiz en el reverso de una página en blanco, la letra más pequeña todavía, casi como de un mensaje cifrado, y cuenta que no hay fuego en el aula y que está muerta de frío: ese momento me llega intacto como una sensación física cuando miro el viejo libro escolar con tapas de cartón muy gastadas en una vitrina de la Morgan Library y reconozco esa letra, y en ella esa voz tan precozmente llena de literatura y de ambición de vivir. En el interior de las vitrinas, en esta mañana en la que hace en la calle un frío como el que debió de sentir Charlotte Brontë, en las vitrinas de la Morgan Library hay cuadernos abiertos, páginas manuscritas, líneas de tinta o de lápiz desvaídas por el paso de siglos: pero hay sobre todo momentos en el tiempo, fechas exactas recién escritas al comienzo de páginas todavía en blanco, incisiones de vidas igual de visibles que una pisada en la superficie de la Luna. (Microsoft translation)

Clarín (Argentina) has a somewhat sexist comment about how women or men see themselves:

Nunca nos contamos algo que hemos vivido como si se tratara de un documental. Siempre tenemos inclinación por la literatura popular, novelas de aventuras, policiales y románticas. Los hombres nos vemos como héroes de western o películas de Bruce Willis. Las mujeres, quizá como heroínas de películas románticas o novelas de las hermanas Brontë. (Pablo de Santis) (Microsoft translation)

Il Giornale or Il Nord (Italy) announce that Riccardo Nencini's book about Oriana Fallaci, Morirò in Piedi, will be adapted to the screen. It's a good time to remind us of the origins of the title:

Offri caffè e panini dalla finestra della casa del suo medico, dove eravamo quel giorno, alla mia scorta (Nencini è stato più volte minacciato per la sua attività politica, ndr) e mi suggerì tra le righe anche il titolo del libro: Emily Brontë, mi disse, morì sbucciando patate, io invece morirò in piedi». (Tommy Cappellini) (Microsoft translation)

Il Sole (Italy) carries an article about how literary canons change with time:

Molte opere capitali della letteratura hanno in comune la capitale indifferenza che – fuor di cenacolo – le accolse al momento della loro prima uscita. Cime tempestose, La metamorfosi, La coscienza di Zeno, Dalla parte di Swann... (Nicola Lagioia) (Microsoft translation)

Independent (Poland) reviews a Hurts concert in Warsaw:

Po drugiej - "Silver lining"- Theo Hutchcraft rzucił do publiczności trzy białe róże. Zapachniało przez chwilę wczesnymi Depeszami, poetyką z dzieła Emily Brontë, a trochę jak z "Pikniku pod wiszącą skałą"... Wszystko to razem jakoś pasowało do siebie. (Kinowska Joanna) (Microsoft translation)

SudOuest (France) reviews the exhibition Parodies, la bande dessinée au second degré at the Cité internationale de la BD et de l'image (Angoulême). The main guest is Robert Sikoryak and his Crypt of Brontë parody is mentioned.

The hero vs heroine Jane Eyre controversy is mentioned on Current Intelligence; The Gothic Imagination asks for reviewers of Heta Pyrhönen's Bluebeard Gothic: Jane Eyre and Its Progeny; In the open space: God & culture reviews Jane Eyre 2006; Cumbres Borrascosas posts evidently about Wuthering Heights among other novels; Informazioneweb (Italy) mentions Emily Brontë in an article about Facebook; Tiny Library reviews Jane Eyre and Gordon & The Whale offers free tickets for an advance screening of Jane Eyre 2011 in Austin for March 24th (the film will be premiered on March 25th in Austin).

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Brontëana, Brontëites, Comics, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights