Exogamy, a British theme

John Sutherland thinks in The Times that Kingsley Amis probably wouldn't have liked the latest radio adaptation of Wuthering Heights:

[Kingsley] Amis did not live to have his ears affronted by the BBC embellishment of Emily Brontë’s novel about passion on the moors with “strong expletives”. He would, I think, have responded with a few strong expletives of his own.

Curiously, his son Martin Amis is interviewed in Clarín's Ñ (Argentina):

¿El peso del mundo? Bueno, pero 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. Dicho esto, debo decir que no leo tantas escritoras mujeres como hombres, leo mujeres pero no tantas.  (Diego Salazar) (Translation)

Also in The Times we discover that Lucasta Miller is the editorial director of the newly-created Notting Hill Editions:

If Montaigne’s spirit haunts Notting Hill Editions, it’s because Lucasta Miller, its editorial director (and author of The Brontë Myth) wants that “Montaigne’s word essaie means ‘assay’, ‘trial’ or ‘test’ in the sense of ‘experiment’.

It seems that this is a really Brontë day for The Times. A new reference to the Brontës is also found in this article about the royal wedding:

It’s called exogamy: marriage outside one’s class or place or tribe. It's been called the presiding theme of the literature we Brits produce: Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Brideshead Revisited. (Simon Barnes)

Will Hodgkinson remembers in The Times Kate Bush's debut with Wuthering Heights:

For those of us old enough to remember it, Kate Bush’s performance of Wuthering Heights on Top of the Pops was a life-changing, generationdefining moment. I was 7, and vaguely aware of Top of the Pops as a soppy music show on which adults wore clothes that were too small for them. Then an extremely beautiful, witch-like woman appeared staring directly out of the television and, seemingly, straight at me.(...)
Then you return to the video for Wuthering Heights, which she wrote one moonlit night in 1977, aged 19, as a response to watching a BBC adaption of Emily Brontë’s novel (she got around to reading the book only years later).

The Record talks with the singer and songwriter Sylvia Tyson:

Tyson has always been a reader. When she was younger, she made her way through the great 19th-century novelists Jane Austen and Emily and Charlotte Brontë, in addition to Dickens and Hardy. (Robert Reid)

Los Angeles Times reviews South Riding:

Vacillating between a gothic style that borders on Brontë and an urge to make a political statement about just about everything — women's education, corrupt local politics, the hypocrisy of religious leaders, the clear need for birth control and better sanitation — "South Riding" never finds its real narrative thread. (Mary McNamara)

And the New York Times:

“South Riding” is a trifle by comparison, and Mr. Davies appears to have struggled with the material, which includes a spouse in the attic right out of “Jane Eyre” and an ill-fated horseback ride on a stormy night. (Mike Hale)

In the same newspaper there's an article about Michael Fassbender:

In his most recent film, “Jane Eyre,” Mr. Fassbender played an anguished, sideburned Mr. Rochester, a smoldering hunk of 19th-century passion.

A capsule review of Jane Eyre 2011 in the Calgary Herald:

Jane Eyre Rating 4 out of five
Cary Fukunaga directs this update on the Charlotte Brontë classic with a steady hand and an unflinching eye. Steering clear of melodrama to deliver a relatively matter-of-fact story of Victorian survival.

The film opens in Gainesville, Florida. The local newspaper, The Gainesville Sun says:

In Hollywood, movies made from classic books are like a fresh sheet of bubble wrap or a bowl of ice cream that beckons at midnight: irresistible.

The latest is a new take of “Jane Eyre,” which opens in Gainesville and Ocala theaters today. (Keri Petersen)

An All Things British Party was held in Tulsa with the excuse of the royal wedding. News on 6 (Oklahoma) reports:

In honor of the royal wedding, Circle Cinema held "all things British" Friday, showing Jane Eyre Friday evening and Pink Floyd at midnight. (Lacie Lowry)

On the blogosphere, Jane Eyre 2011 is reviewed by The Pop Can, Red Toenails, Jill the Thrill, Inkwell Inspirations, Rick's Film Reviews, Dust Wrapper ,Celine Cinéma (in French) and Pictureland.

AllVoices publishes love poems and quotes including a couple from Wuthering Heights. The Yorkshire Post has a reminder of present and upcoming activities at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

Catherine Bertola’s haunting sound installation between April 16 and July 8. Visit art.yorkshire.com for her biography.
Intimate after-hours conversaziones throughout May, June and July.
Novelist and playwright Blake Morrison at West Lane Baptist Centre on May 19.
Cult classic Brontë spoof Withering Looks at West Lane Baptist Centre on June 4.
Maya Irgalina’s recital on Emily’s cabinet piano, which has only been played once before in more than 150 years, on June 5.
Brontë Women’s Writing Festival from September 16 to 18.

A cryptic Jane Eyre reference in the Daily Mail describing an interview with Betty Boothroyd, former Speaker of the House of Commons:

At the end of the interview, before Lady B left the studio, Richards asked what she thought about Mr Squeaker Bercow. Her response? She apparently gave 'a nervous laugh'. And then fled.
It is possible her laughter was that of Jane Eyre on being asked about Mr Rochester. (Quentin Letts)

We tend to disagree with USA Today when it is said that

Jane Eyre would love this lush combo of roses, peonies, lily of the valley and magnolia: Chloe Rose Edition Eau de Parfum. It's a romantic feminine floral, but not in a your-mother's-fragrance way. My advice: If you really prefer lace bras, floral dresses, heart-themed jewelry, ballet flats and hand-written notes over studs, stilettos, leather and emails, you'll live in this. (Lois Joy Johnson)

CBS New York recommends a visit to the Morgan Library to see the exhibition The Diary:

While handwritten diaries seem to have become a thing of the past, what is documented in both blank books and blogs seems to be very similar. Get a glimpse into diaries whose intent might have been for them to read by others, rather than just kept to themselves. On view are over 70 books penned by many including Charlotte Brontë, Bob Dylan and Tennessee Williams. (Alyson Schwartz)

Die Welt (Germany) joins in the recommendation:

Wie eine Geheimschrift wirken auch die ameisenkleinen Buchstaben, mit denen Charlotte Bronte, die Autorin von "Jane Eyre", eine Erinnerung an eine stürmische Nacht aufs Papier bannte.   (Hannes Stein) (Translation)

Two references in El País (Spain). First, in an article about Virginia Woolf:

Estudió las condiciones en las que creaban las escasas escritoras que publicaron sus textos antes del siglo XX y recordaba con especial ternura los esfuerzos de las hermanas Brontë o la figura de Jane Austen, la autora de Orgullo y perjuicio quien "se alegraba de que chirriara el gozne de la puerta para poder así esconder el manuscrito de su novela". (Concha Caballero) (Translation)

And Antonio Muñoz Molina in Babelia has visited the Rooms with a View exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum (NY):

Nunca las mujeres tuvieron el derecho a una habitación así, recuerda Woolf: en sus casas de clase media sin muchos recursos, a Jane Austen o las hermanas Brontë no les quedaba más remedio que escribir en medio del barullo de la vida doméstica. (Translation)

La Nueva España (Spain) reviews the novel Deseos by Marina Mayoral:

Ya en la página 33 hay un guiño intertextual importante a la novela de Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre (1847), cuando conocemos el deseo de Consuelo de que el hombre que ama se quede cojo o manco, baje así sus expectativas vitales y se fije en ella, que está dispuesta a cuidarle el resto de su vida. (M.S. Suárez Lafuente) (Translation)

Diario Las Américas talks about feminine and masculine reads:

Cuando a los 12 años comencé a estudiar en Ruston Academy, descubrí que mientras mis compañeras y yo habíamos devorado las novelas de Luisa May Alcott y las hermanas Brontê, los chicos de la clase leían con gusto a Eduardo Salgari. (Uva de Aragón) (Translation)

El Informador (México) remembers how Luis Buñuel complained about producers' demands in Abismos de Pasión 1956:

Se acuerda con sorna de trabajar con actores contratados para otros fines y que tuvo que aceptar obligado por los productores (¡Lilia Prado en Cumbres borrascosas, rebautizada como Abismos de pasión...!) (María Palomar) (Translation)

Parma Today interviews model Jessica Tinelli:

Cosa cerchi nel partner?
Il mio partner deve essere tutto per me. Deve essere parte integrante e fondamentale della mia vita, riempirla, ma anche 'alleggerirla', se necessario. Cerco serenità e vero amore. Quello passionale e totalizzante, che ti sconvolge le giornate. Quello che di notte non dormi e se lui manca, ti manca il fiato. Un amore alla 'Cime tempestose' ((Wuthering Heights di Emily Brontë). (Translation)

Il Foglio (Italy) talks about Liala's opus:

La storia del grande amore era appassionante e salvifica per i sogni spesso infranti delle lettrici, che grazie a Liala riuscivano a sopportare, astraendosene, mariti rozzi e poco eroici, ma raccontava che non sempre andava a finir bene: gli aviatori si schiantavano in volo, le fanciulle in principio devote anche, dopo aver vissuto un po’ nel mondo e averne subito le lusinghe (e magari tradito il marito, incinta, con il suo migliore amico), le ragazze tentate da Hollywood finivano in fondo al lago, troppe colpe da espiare e troppo mal di cuore insomma, come in “Cime Tempestose”, con quel senso infinito di brughiera in cui gridare Heathcliff. (Annalena Benini) (Translation)

Concert & Co (France) reviews a performance by Agnes Obel:

Le public est au paradis quand résonnent comme dans une cathédrale les morceaux à la fois simples et aventureux d'Agnes Obel, sans doute marquée à vie par la musique Kate Bush, Patti Smith et Cat Power, les sensations troubles distillées par Les Hauts de Hurlevent d'Emilie Brontë et les mélodies nourries d'un imaginaire romantique du 19éme siècle...  (Pierre Andrieu) (Translation)

Deutschlandfunk (Germany) reviews Das Leben Kleben by Marina Lewicka:

"Das Leben kleben", so lautet der Titel des neuesten Werkes der englischen Autorin mit ukrainischen Wurzeln Marina Lewycka. Lewycka, heute in Sheffield beheimatet nennt "Das Leben kleben" einen "britischen Landhausroman". Wer dahinter epische Dramen im Stil von Emily Bronte oder Jane Austen erwartet, liegt falsch. "Das Leben kleben" ist die Geschichte zweier Frauen und eines Hauses. (Mortimer Korsch) (Translation)

Film-Dienst reviews the film Como Esquecer:

Hier lässt sie sich von ihrem schwulen Freund Hugo bemuttern, zankt mit der Mitbewohnerin Lisa, schläft mit deren Cousine Helena und schreibt an einer Arbeit über „Wuthering Heights“. (...) Das scheint auch die Regisseurin zu befürchten, die umso entschiedener gegensteuert: Gleich mehrfach nutzt sie das Setting des literaturwissenschaftlichen Seminars für metafiktionale Debatten, die keinen Zweifel lassen: Biografismus geht gar nicht. Nicht bei Virginia Woolf, nicht bei Emily Brontë – und dann auch nicht bei Malu di Martino. (Daniel Benedict) (Translation)

A Peculiar Influence posts about Jane Eyre, the novel, while Ser pensante writes about the the BBC 2006 adaptation in Portuguese. Wuthering Heights is discussed by Park Benches & Bookends and What I have been reading. The Brontë Sisters posts about the people Charlotte Brontë met during her June 1850 stay in London. Onirik reviews Jane by April Lindner (in French).

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