No corner of their lives left uncovered

The Telegraph and Argus reviews Anne Crow's The Brontës And Their Poetry.

It seems that hardly a week goes by without a book about the Brontës landing on my desk, leading me to wonder if there could be any corner of their lives left uncovered.
The word ‘poetry’ in the title of Anne Crow’s book about Haworth’s literary giants led me to read on. [...]
This is a rich collection of Brontë poetry, containing a good selection of poems from each writer. The book begins with a chronology of historic events – national, international and Bronte-related – from 1777 to 1861, the years of Patrick’s birth and death, and the poems are set out in the context of the Brontës’ lives.
The pages are illustrated with photographs of buildings and landscapes that inspired the Brontës and pencil drawings depicting rural life at the time. “As far as I know, there is no similar book that concentrates on the poetry written by the four siblings and their father,” says Anne Crow.
“I have tried to make it interesting to those who already love the novels written by the three famous sisters, as well as to tourists who may know very little about the family.”
The book is a fascinating introduction to the Brontës’ poetry, particularly the poems by Patrick which are now out of print.
It was while at Dewsbury Parish Church that Patrick started sending his poetry off for publication. A long poem, Winter Night Meditations, was published anonymously in 1810, and he later adapted it and included it in Cottage Poems, a volume of poetry aimed at ordinary people. Patrick’s religious beliefs and compassion for the poor is reflected in his poetry, although some of it reads like a sermon in which he attempts to offer poverty-stricken parishioners consolation that they will find glory after death.
In Epistle To The Labouring Poor, part of the Cottage Poems collection, he writes: “All you who turn the sturdy soil, Or ply the loom with daily toil, And lowly on through life turmoil for scanty fare … kindly read what I impart; ’tis meant to ward off Satan’s dart.”
One of Branwell’s poems, written after the death of his older sister Elizabeth, is particularly moving. Using a narrator called Harriet, who is mourning the death of a sister, he writes: “They came – they pressed the coffin lid above my Caroline, And then I felt forever hid my sister’s face from mine! There was one moment’s wildered start – one pang remembered well – When first from my unhardened heart the tears of anguish fell.”
You’d need a heart of stone not to be moved by the verse that must have come from his own grief.
A gem of a book for anyone interested in the Brontës, poetry or our social history. (Emma Clayton)

PopMatters reviews the 1958 film Home Before Dark and wonders whether it might have a Brontë reference:

(Can the name Charlotte Bron be intended as a play on Brontë, perhaps a comment of what Jane Eyre’s marriage to Rochester might be like?) (Michael Barrett)

Creative Loafing doesn't agree with Gone with the Wind winning the best picture category in the 1939 Oscars ceremony:

But the sad fact is that the film is out of its league when viewed against its competition for best picture: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, and Ninotchka are enduring classics in their genres, and masterpieces by renowned directors, while literary adaptations Of Mice and Men and Wuthering Heights feel fresher than the pre-determined cyclorama craft of GWTW. (Gabe Wardell)

The Independent has an article on the London Fashion Week entitled 'Breath of fresh Eyre at London Fashion Week'. More is said about Giles Deacon's collection and the governess theme:

"I suppose I just like the innocent but feisty Brontë governess and the mad woman in the attic as well," the designer Giles Deacon said of his autumn collection, the high point of last week's London season.
"Austere, not austerity. I thought about the 19th-century obsession with female hysteria: buttoned up but at the same time with something completely wild lurking underneath."
In their ultra-strict, black tailoring – waists were cinched to evoke the Belle Epoque line – worn with high-collared white shirts and styled to resemble nothing more than consumptive Victorian maidens, models may indeed have stepped straight out of Jane Eyre were it not for an opulence, and even outright decadence, very much in evidence alongside. Acid-stripped peacock feathers, inky black goat fur, fine Swiss lace, crystal embroideries, and print inspired by Delaroche's unashamedly romanticised painting, The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, and European Art Nouveau were all the stuff of the haute couture atelier, handled by this designer with both imagination and the perfect degree of restraint. [...]
It was therefore not entirely surprising that Meadham Kirchhoff's show was played out to a soundtrack straight out of Psycho. If Giles Deacon's uptight governess is sexually wanton at heart, then here were the young protégés she would most like to teach. (Susannah Frankel)

The Irish Times comments on the election 2011:

No doubt Enda Kenny’s apparent coldness was only a stratagem. The temporary estrangement between the two parties looked less like Heathcliff and Cathy – doomed by their different social backgrounds – and more like Napoleon and Josephine. If it didn’t happen last night, they’ll probably get it together it today. (Frank McNally)

Les Soeurs Brontë posts in French about Emily Brontë's 'inner landscapes'. Askeladden posts about Jane Eyre 1997 in Norwegian. And Wuthering Heights is discussed by Noughts and Crosses and Me and My Dream of Doing Nothing (on the 1939 adaptation). The YouTube channel poetryanimations has a couple of non-Emily Brontë images reading two of her poems: The Prisoner and In the earth—the earth—thou shalt be laid.

Finally, on the subject of Web 2.0. we would like to bring our readers' attention to the lower part of our sidebar, where you can now find a DeviantArt widget, displaying the latest Jane Eyre- and Wuthering Heights-inspired creations to be found there. Worth taking a look.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Messages from BB, Movies-DVD-TV, Poetry, References, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights