Martha Graham, Emily Brontë, Hillary Clinton, Charlotte Brontë

John Mullan in The Guardian never fails. Ten of the best... cases of blindness:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Jane supernaturally hears Rochester's voice calling her back to Thornfield. She returns to find her former "master" blinded in the fire that has destroyed his house and killed the woman who started it, his maddened wife Bertha. Now Jane can look after him (and marry him).

Also in The Guardian a reminder of the upcoming Polly Teale's Brontë revival by Shared Experience which premieres next week in Oxford:

In theatre's new sharing culture, alliances are being made all over the country as buildings fling open their doors and invite collaborators in. The latest marriage comes between touring company Shared Experience and Oxford Playhouse, and their first co-production comes with this revival of Nancy Meckler's take on Polly Teale's exploration of women and creativity. Set in the Yorkshire parsonage home of the Brontës, where the family's great hope – and only son – Branwell has recently returned in disgrace, the play finds his three sisters – Charlotte, Emily and Anne – beginning to eclipse him as they find their own voices. (Mark Cook & Lyn Gardner)

The New Jersey Star-Ledger reviews the Martha Graham Dance Company Death and Entrances performances at the Lincoln Ceneter:

Longtime admirers may be disturbed by the current version of “Deaths and Entrances” itself, yet even edited and colorized this work is still a masterpiece gripping in every detail.
Though inspired by the life and literature of the Brontë sisters, Graham’s work is all-American. More “Ethan Frome” than “Wuthering Heights,” it is a Spartan dance in which a precious goblet of colored glass must bear all the force of the heroine’s longings. Portrayed with terrific nuance by Miki Orihara, this unnamed heroine (a mix of Graham herself and Emily Brontë) recalls her desperate past. She is torn between the ardor of a Dark Beloved and the ambiguous but less threatening Poetic Beloved, and tortured by the intrigues of her two sisters as they sit beside a chess board that is among several symbolic objects.
When, in a final gesture, Orihara reaches beyond the set that frames the stage in black, Graham signals that by wrestling with her past the heroine has won freedom. (Robert Johnson)

Lauren Lise Baratz-Logsted publishes an article about Hillary Clinton on The Huffington Post which begins like this:

When I was first asked to write a piece on the one woman, living or dead, who has inspired me most as a woman and as a writer, the choice seemed self-servingly obvious: Louisa May Alcott. (...) But then I realized that wouldn't be honest. So immediately I started on a mental list involving The Usual Suspects. For dead ones I had Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë.(...)
Finally, I hit on it, the only woman it could be for me:
Hillary Rodham Clinton. (...)
Maybe An Invitation to the White House and Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets aren't exactly up there, literarily, with Pride & Prejudice and Jane Eyre. But what about the tome of a memoir that is Living History? I've read the thing, and believe me, she's a writer.

The New Straits Times (Malaysia) states the obvious when it says:

You don't need to film Shakespeare's classics or the Brontë sisters' novels to show British-ness.

Del Mar Times begins a local story with a Brontë reference:

“Wuthering Heights” had Catherine and Heathcliff, “Casablanca” had Ilsa and Rick, “The Einhorns” had Mae and Harold — all great love stories that transcend time. (Diane Y. Welch)

The Guardian reviews some audiobooks including one of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee:

And some authors are remembered for only one book, but that's enough if, along with Wuthering Heights, Don Quixote, Doctor Zhivago and this, it becomes a classic. (Sue Arnold)

Los Andes (Argentina) reviews the poetry book El eco de mi madre by Tamara Kamenszain:

Por eso acá participamos, entre acentos latinos varios, de una charla de vecinas en un patio porteño: la chilena Diamela Eltit, la mexicana Coral Bracho y las argentinas Sylvia Molloy y Lucía Laragione, contando cada una su historia y sin perderle el hilo a la novela, “como las hermanas Brontë imaginadas por Virginia Woolf, en medio de la sala de estar”, mate viene, mate va. (Gastón Ortiz Bandes) (Translation)

El Cultural (Spain) reviews the Spanish translation of The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis:

Esa pérdida de la inocencia que él ha leído en las Brontë, nos sugiere Amis, es la misma que sufrirá la sociedad en aquellos años por mor de lo que vino en denominarse “proceso de liberación de la mujer”. (José Antonio Gurpegui) (Translation)

La Tercera (Spain) interviews Martin Amis himself:

Sartre creía que las mujeres no podían ser novelistas porque no llevaban el peso del mundo sobre sus hombros. ¿El peso del mundo? Eso no es verdad, sí lo llevan. Y el mejor novelista de la historia de la literatura inglesa es una mujer, George Elliot. Con Jane Austen pisándole los talones. Y las hermanas Brontë, claro. (Diego Salazar) (Translation)

Il Recensore (Italy) reviews an Italian translation of The Rector's Daughter by Flora Macdonald Mayor and mentions its Jane Eyre references:

The Rector’s Daugther dalla copertina azzurro e oro fu pubblicato dall’Hogarth Press la casa editrice di Leonard e Virginia Woolf nel 1924. L’autrice aveva iniziato a comporre la trama cinque anni prima. Il coraggio di Leonard Woolf fu premiato, perché il romanzo di questa sconosciuta zitella di cinquant’anni riscosse subito successo e fu immediatamente ristampato. La storia di Mary da giovane innamorata del Mr Rochester di Jane Eyre e da adulta persa d’amore per il vicario di Lanchester colpì l’immaginazione dei lettori.(Alessandra Stopini) (Translation)

Roxy FM (Poland) presents a programme about the most important women in history. We find the Brontës on their top fifteen:

Siostry Brontë
introwertyczna, drażliwa Emily, delikatna Anne i niespokojna, poszukująca Charlotte. Wszystkie niezbyt urodziwe, nieefektowne. Wszystkie nadwrażliwe i bezkompromisowe w swej twórczości. Popularność tym pisarkom przyniosło przeciwstawianie się moralnym, społecznym i estetycznym stereotypom epoki wiktoriańskiej. Otwartość w sprawach uczuć, indywidualizm, buntowniczość, to najważniejsze elementy ich pisarstwa. W dzieciństwie osierocone przez matkę, wychowywane przez ciotkę i hipochondrycznego, ekscentrycznego ojca-pastora na plebanii w hrabstwie Yorkshire, otoczonej bezmiarem wrzosowisk, gdzie spędziły niemal całe swoje życie, stworzyły sobie baśniowy świat, w którym rozwijała się ich niepospolita wyobraźnia i talent literacki. (Translation)

Zainab Khawaja's Blog, La professora d'inglese (in Italian), Never a Dull Moment and Jessica's Book Blog and Stuff review Jane Eyre;  Tracy's Space posts about what she has read so far on a Jane Eyre Read-along; Your Move, Dickens reviews (2 out of 5 stars) Agnes Grey; El Universal (Colombia) discusses Virginia Woolf and mentions Emily Brontë several times. Ukranian children who like Jane Eyre on Cxid.

Finally, an alert from East Hampton, NY:

The Brontë Sisters: Emily, Charlotte, and Anne

Join us this Saturday at 5:00pm in East Hampton when Carole Stone, poet and professor of 19th Century literature, explores the sisters' writing and influence.

The BookHampton Winter Lecture Series
Saturday, March 19 at 5:00pm
41 Main Street, East Hampton

Categories: Agnes Grey, Alert, Dance, Jane Eyre, References, Talks, Theatre