Walking the moors is an adventure

The aftermath of the American release of Jane Eyre 2011 is awakening the interest in visiting Yorkshire. And particularly Haworth. The New York Daily News offers some advice:

The writing Brontës were deeply influenced by the moors surrounding the village of Haworth, where they lived most of their brief lives.
A visit to Haworth today is as near as you can come to stepping back 150 years — and well worth the journey. Brontë Country is relatively unspoiled and truly striking.
In addition to the Brontë Parsonage Museum (the family's former home) and imposing churchyard complete with very spooky gravestones, Haworth's cobblestoned main street is lined with curiosity shops, teahouses, B&Bs, food and sweet shops, and public houses including the Kings Arms and the Black Bull with centuries of colorful history.
There is a lovely park to stroll through and even a steam railway with a station right out of a "Masterpiece Theatre" production.
Walking the moors is an adventure. Top Withens, thought to be the inspiration
for "Wuthering Heights," is about 4 miles from Haworth. Remember to wear sturdy walking shoes, stick to the paths and keep an eye on the weather, which can change on a dime.
Accommodations in Haworth are reasonable by British standards and most include a traditional Yorkshire breakfast. With bacon, pork sausages, eggs, black pudding, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, fried bread and strong Yorkshire tea who needs lunch? (Karen Jones)

Lidovky (Czech Republic) seconds the idea:

Sestry Brontëovy
Drsná příroda yorkshirských vřesovišť i poněkud pochmurné dětství přineslo sestrám Charlotte, Emily a Anne Brontëovým zvláštní schopnost vyjádřit své pohnuté emoce v knihách, které patří v britské literatuře k nejpůsobivějším. Až se budete potulovat po vřesovišti kolem BrontĎ Parsonage Museum v Haworthu, možná pochopíte, kde se vzaly všechny ty silné vášně z rozervaných duší a jak souvisejí se zvláštním tichem zdejší syrové přírody.
Milovníkům Brontëových muzeum představuje jejich život a práci, korespondenci i životní příběhy, v bohatě zásobeném obchůdku nakoupíte knihy i kuriózní suvenýry.  (Štěpánka Strouhalová) (Translation)

Financial Times reviews  Morning, Noon and Night: Finding the Meaning of Life’s Stages Through Books, by Arnold Weinstein:

This book is a discussion of how and why “stories of growing up and growing old extend who we are”. It is a claim that seems at once self-evident and grandiose: what can the experience of Hamlet and Lear, Heathcliff and Jane Eyre, have to do with our more mundane lives? (Penelope Lively)

The Sunday Book Review of the New York Post includes a minireview of Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry:

But the throbbing heart of the story is right out of “Jane Eyre,” with Troy installed as the boy’s guardian in the Tudor mansion of his powerfully attractive father while the police diligently search (everywhere but the attic) for his missing wife. (Marilyn Stasio)

The Liverpool Echo talks about Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights song:

Kate Bush was just 18 when she wrote this musical version of Emily Brontë’s classic love story.
Sung from the point of view of the novel’s doomed heroine Catherine Earnshaw, taking lines directly from the book, it launched Bush and her trademark high-pitched voice, sounding almost a fraction of a semi-tone out of tune, onto the world stage.
Bush claimed she wrote the song in a matter of hours after watching a film version of the novel starring latter-day James Bond Timothy Dalton and Judy Cornwell.
The song’s tinkling top end of the scale piano riffs give a sense of the wind rushing over the Yorkshire moors, before launching into a heavy bass and drum backing that is rounded off with a fantastic electric guitar solo from Ian Bairnson, who was best known for his work with the Alan Parsons Project. (...)
Wuthering Heights was number one in seven countries, including Britain, Australia, Belgium, Italy and France.
It remains to this date Bush’s most successful song and was covered in 1990 by Arena singer Pat Benatar. (Jade Wright)

The Boston Globe describes Celtic Woman's performances:

When we see these lovely ladies on Public Television specials we feel like we’ve been transported to Wuthering Heights — must be the special effects. (June Wulff)

The New York Press reviews the film Red Riding Hood:

Instead of going beyond Meyers, beyond Bram Stoker, beyond the Bronte Sisters and the Brothers Grimm, Hardwicke is forced to retrace steps that Neil Jordan made with The Company of Wolves, his marvelous 1985 “Little Red Riding Hood” tale (which was, in fact, an improvement on Angela Carter’s postmodern feminist-lit The Bloody Chamber).  (Armond White)

On Yentha (India) we read the following:

There’s a reason Virginia Woolfe (sic) said long back that if a woman is to pursue her dream of being a writer, she needs ‘a room of one’s own’. If every woman who nurses this dream actually found the time and space to do it, I am pretty sure that all bestseller lists would be filled up by women writers sooner than you can say ‘The Brontë Sisters’, not to speak of the Nobel, Booker, Jnanapeetam and Pulitzer prize roll calls. (Kochu Varthamanam)

The University Times (Ireland) has an article about the Trinity’s Knit Society that begins with some male stereotypes:

I am a male. I struggle at cooking. I struggle at ironing. I struggle at Jane Eyre. (Peter Twomey)

Hollywood.com suggests the following 'sexed-up' description of Jane Eyre:

Jane’s tough as nails. She’s been tortured her whole life. She’s been told she’s no good. She’s lost anything she’s ever loved. But when she breaks out on her own, she finds a man who’s just as un-tamable as she is. Rochester’s smoldering magnetism is irresistible, but he’s hiding a dark and terrible secret SO unforgivable, SO terrifying, that it may just rip them apart forever. (Kelsea Stahler)

Buzzle has an article on the wonders of reading:

Ahhh Jane Eyre… Charlotte Brontë was an amazing storyteller I tell you. Not only was the plot in the story as tight as a drum, the romance was so sweet. What an emotional rollercoaster. The build-up of their love was soft and touching, there were twists to keep you turning the page. Jane loved Rochester and he loved her too but the gap between them made a happy ever after unattainable. Then there was the issue of the mad woman in the attic. I ended up reading these books several times in the following years. This was my ‘aha’ moment with reading. I knew I would never stop. (Myne Whitman)

The Telegraph makes a Wuthering Heights reference in article about gardening:

The site is 860ft high, but now cocooned against the wind by the green walls. Ilkley Moor, famed for its bleak and windswept moments in Wuthering Heights, is two miles up the road. The garden has been driven by creativity, not cash. (Bunny Guinness)

Tercera (Spain) interviews Martin Amis:

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)

A classic blunder: La Vanguardia (Spain) changes Charlotte for Emily when attributing Jane Eyre. Qué Leer (Spain) devotes an article to George Eliot that begins as follows:

George Eliot no tiene la popularidad de Jane Austen, ni el aura enigmática de las Brontë, ni la condición icónica de Virginia Woolf. (Translation)

Several Italian outlets signal the donation of 400 letters by Giuseppe Mazzini (one of the fathers of modern Italy) to the Italian government. Many outlets highlight the fact that he seemed to like Emily Brontë:

Ancora Finelli: «Le missive sono ricchissime di indicazioni dettagliate sulle letture di Mazzini. Da Dumas padre (praticamente tutto) alle sorelle Brontë, con lui che insiste varie volte per avere Cime tempestose. (Translation)

Wake Up News (Italy) talks about women literature:

Non si può non pensare alle sorelle Brontë – Charlotte, Emily e Anne – vissute nell’Inghilterra vittoriana e autrici di opere divenute classici. Le tre sorelle iniziarono a firmare i propri scritti con pseudonimi maschili, temendo il pregiudizio che all’epoca intrappolava l’espressione artistica femminile, ma nonostante questo Jane Eyre, Cime tempestose e Agnes Grey ottennero un gran successo, anche se la critica si divise in due nell’accogliere il meraviglioso romanzo di Emily, forse perché – contrariamente alle opere delle sorelle le cui protagoniste sono donne remissive e incastrate dalla struttura sociale vittoriana, sebbene non prive di forza di carattere e intelligenza – presenta un personaggio femminile volitivo e caparbio, un’eroina ben più moderna dell’epoca in cui le Brontë vissero. (Francesca Dorothy) (Translation)

Frizzifrizzi (Italy) has an article about Hunter S. Thompson:

Ogni paese produce i suoi artisti. Ogni cultura fabbrica i suoi poeti, i suoi narratori, i suoi cineasti, i pittori, i critici, i bastiancontrari, i comici, gli zerbini (serve una certa forma d’arte anche per quello)…
Da noi non sarebbero possibili un Melville, un Poe, una Brontë (figurati tre!), un Pynchon o un Bukowski, e i (numerosi) tentativi di emulazione puzzano di brodaglia quanto un reparto geriatria dell’ospedale, roba che te ne accorgi anche senza aver mai letto un libro in vita tua.
Ma soprattutto non abbiamo mai avuto né avremo mai un Hunter S. Thompson. (Simone Sbarbati) (Translation)

BSC News Magazine (France) interviews author Stéphanie Des Horts:

Vous êtes une spécialiste de Shakespeare, de Jane Austen: vous placez-vous dans la veine de la littérature anglaise ?
Oui, même si la litterature américaine me charme tout autant. Je suis portée depuis longtemps par les écrivains anglais. Les sœurs Brontë ont été à l’origine de tout, Emily surtout. Quand vous pensez que cette jeune fille n’a rien vu d’autre que le presbytère d’Haworth et la lande alentours et qu’elle a pu concevoir le personnage d’Heathclif, c’est incroyable. (Translation)

Elizabeth Sternberg, author of Sloane Hall, publishes a fascinating article about Jane Eyre adaptations on Istoria Books. Associated Content does the same thing in a less ambitious article. Her book self is reading the novel and David Bowie and Diet Coke posts about it; Faith- when you thought you had more posts a Wuthering Heights-inspired poem; My Book Addiction interviews Carole Gill:

Are there any writers out there that have inspired you?
Daphne DuMaurier was the first and the most lasting source of inspiration. I remember reading Rebecca and discussing it with my friend. We were probably 12 or so. We read passages to each other and something clicked in me. Then I read more of her novels. Then of course the Brontës came along: Charlotte and Emily and their magnificent novels, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

Popped Density reviews Hurlevent 1985; Miss Scissorhands praises Jane Eyre 2006.

Categories: Brontëites, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References, Wuthering Heights