Kind of a Wicked for Jane Eyre

The New York Times reviews Electric Eden by Rob Young:

At its frequent best, though, “Electric Eden” is a lucid and patriotic guided tour, as vigorous as one of Heathcliff’s strolls across the moors. “Britain’s literature, poetry, art and music abounds in secret gardens, wonderlands, paradises lost, postponed or regained,” he writes, before announcing some of them: Avalon, Xanadu, Arden, Narnia, Elidor, Utopia. (Dwight Garner)

Also in the New York Times, Alastair Macaulay is a perfect example of the dangers of generalising:

Since the chief subject of the 19th-century novel, from “Wuthering Heights” to “Anna Karenina,” is adultery, we shouldn’t be surprised that many of the heroes of ballets of the same era cheat on their fiancées.

Well, it may be the chief subject of Anna Karenina... but it is not the chief subject, at all, of Wuthering Heights. As a matter of fact it's not even a subject.

In the Hartford Courant, Laurance Cohen talks about Jane Eyre 2011:

And then, my wife drags me off to see the 187th version of "Jane Eyre," where, once again, wealthy, weird Brits go on and on about not very much. Jane is a bit plain, but she's pretty well educated and sufficiently idiosyncratic to appeal to Mr. Rochester, who must have had one of those big old trust funds, because I wouldn't trust him to change the oil in my car. (Laurance Cohen & Gina Barreca)

L'Express (France) talks about Mia Wasikowska and about Jane Eyre (which will be released in France next September 7):

Le public américain découvre Jane Eyre, l'adaptation du célèbre roman de Charlotte Brontë par Cary Fukunaga (Sin nombre). En grande adoratrice du livre, Mia Wasikowska s'est tout de suite proposée pour en tenir le rôle titre et a même renoncé à jouer dans Sleeping beauty, présenté aujourd'hui à Cannes en compétition, pour faire partie de l'aventure. Fukunaga a eu raison de lui dire oui. Car la modernité de sa mise en scène - sans jamais trahir l'oeuvre - se révèle en adéquation parfaite avec le jeu subtil, intense et léger à la fois de sa comédienne. (Thierry Chèze) (Translation)

Le Monde (France) adds:

Après le tournage de Restless, Mia Wasikowska s'est plongée dans la lecture de classiques. Parmi eux, Jane Eyre. Elle a demandé à son agent si une nouvelle adaptation au cinéma du roman de Charlotte Brontë était en projet. Souhait exaucé avec le film de Cary Fukunaga, dans lequel elle a obtenu le rôle-titre. "Je rêvais de remettre un corset, pour le serrer encore davantage", dit-elle. Là encore, elle a fait des photos. La sortie en France du film est prévue en septembre.  (Samuel Blumenfeld) (Translation)

The Times talks about how fiction precedes social advances:

And it’s not just gay progress that happens in this way: 24 had a black president before America did. Jane Eyre was a feminist before Germaine Greer was born. The film A Trip to the Moon landed humans there in 1902. (Caitlin Moran)

The Times also talks about Michael Fassbender and the 'aroused horse' anecdote is again mentioned:

He relishes acquiring a new talent for a part, like riding for Jane Eyre (where filming was delayed because every time Fassbender mounted his horse it got an erection). (Janice Turner)

The Baton Rouge Advocate reviews Morning, Noon, and Night: Finding the Meaning of Life's Stages Through Books by Arnold Weinstein:

The author explores core emotions in the classics. Who could ever imagine Huck Finn old? he wonders. Or Jane Eyre for that matter? Or Lear young? Weinstein is struck by how youth and age are so detached in literature, “spheres that could never touch or interact.” (Andrew Burstein)

The Columbia Book Examiner reviews Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea:

Part Carribean Gothic and part character study, Wide Sargasso Sea is a novel of the consequences of hate, and what it means to love without trust. Kind of a Wicked for Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea has definitely earned its place on Time Magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Novels. (Read more) (Sean Chumley)

The Toronto Star interviews Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein.

This was the new behaviour of a guy who, until the whole memory game came along, hadn’t been particularly obsessive or hyper-competitive about anything. Nor was anyone dazzled by his memory: the only things he remembered about Wuthering Heights were that he had read it in high school and there was a character named Heathcliff.  (Kenneth Kidd)

Philebrity is a bit minsinformed about what novel is the basis of the film Cracks by Jordan Scott:

Here, Scott directs an adaptation of Sheila Kohler‘s Becoming Jane Eyre, in which an alluring diving teacher is somehow hell-bent on mindfucking (at the very least) the entire student body.

Of course the novel adapted is Cracks. 

Runcorn and Widnes World discusses the building of the Lewis Carroll Centre in Daresbur. Among the projects of the Centre is the following:

“It will also link in with specialist literature tours for the Brontës and Beatrix Potter.” (Barbara Jordan)

Toronto Life carries an article about V, a local vintage shop where

No stone has been left unturned, nor will any be for future themes—1961 copies of Brontë books with family trees pencilled in the margins lie about, Union Pacific Railroad ads from 1944 double as art, and a crafty installation of gardening necessities by right-hand woman Maggie Garot served as the centerpiece we’ll be sad to see go. (Paul Aguirre-Livingstone)

The Toronto Star remembers that

Keats, Shelley, Emily Brontë had all lived, written and died before age 30. (Jim Coyle)

The Sussex Express has an anouncement:

Can you name that author of Winnie the Pooh? Or the Brontë sisters? Or the book that starts “Call me Ishmael”? Anyone who can answer ‘yes’ to any of these questions should get ready to test their knowledge at a special book-lovers quiz night sponsored by the award-winning Much Ado Books of Alfriston.

Diário do Pará (Brazil) reviews the film Como Esquecer, and the Brontë references turn up again:

Baseado no livro “Como Esquecer: Anotações Quase Inglesas”, de Myriam Campelo, o drama é repleto de citações literárias (Cassandra Rios, Virgínia Woolf, Emily Brontë). É curioso observar como a diretora trabalha o tempo de reflexão (à dor) de Júlia, Hugo e Lisa, que podem partilhar suas tragédias amorosas, mas não partilham os seus desejos e apostas futuras. (Translation)

Pronto (Argentina) talks about the Argentinian edition of The Brontë Project by Jennifer Vandever:

En este genial debut literario, Jennifer Vandever, nos presenta a Sara Frost, una joven profesora universitaria que busca las cartas de amor perdidas de Charlotte Brontë. Sin embargo, hasta el momento, esto no ha dado resultados en su carrera profesional, y menos aún desde que Claire Vigee, glamourosa y autorreferencial especialista en Lady Di, ha logrado introducir sus hazañas mediáticas en el solemne mundo universitario… (Translation)

Clarín (Argentina) mentions Jane Eyre in an article about boarding schools:

Las novelas de internados siempre ejercieron un efecto mórbido en mi imaginación. Si dejamos de lado los internados de niñas, es decir, si logramos olvidar por un momento la escuela para hijas de clérigos pobres de Jane Eyre , el internado de niños pertenece a Charles Dickens, o, mejor dicho, a David Copperfield y su escuela de Salem.  (Translation)

EveryEye (Italy) interviews the teen actress Naomi Scott:

Quali altri libri hai letto che ti sono piaciuti?
Ho adorato Il buio oltre la siepe (To Kill a Mockingbird), Il colore viola (The Color Purple) e L'occhio più azzurro (The Bluest Eye) di Toni Morrison. Questi sono libri veramente meravigliosi. Ora sto leggendo Jane Eyre, perché sto cerando di leggere più libri classici, ma non sono andata molto avanti, quindi ancora non posso dire se mi sia piaciuto o meno. (Luca Rosati) (Translation)

Voir (Canada) reviews the album Last by The Unthanks:

Rachel et Becky Unthank font des chansons comme les soeurs Brontë s'adonnaient au roman: nichées dans la tradition britannique du genre, en déployant une prestance, un panache et une austérité qui n'entravent en rien le torrent des sentiments et une certaine propension au tragique. (Marie-Hélène Poitras) (Translation)

France-Antilles reports that some scenes of Jane Eyre were performed at the Lycée général et technologique de Baimbridge (Guadaloupe) as part of the Journée des Langues Vivantes Étrangères. 


Several Hungarian news outlets report the Golden Book Awards 2010 (Aranykönyv 2010). Wuthering Heights was the most voted novel in the category of Foreign Classic Authors.

Underwire and WNYC Radio show some of the highlights of the upcoming New York Public Library Centennial exhibition (May 14-December 31), including Charlotte Brontë's desk. RTT News mentions the Wide Sargasso Sea song in the last album by Stevie Nicks; Kirill reviews Jane Eyre 2011 and Les Livres de Mélodie (in French) does the same with the original novel; Make Me Blush posts about Wuthering Heights 2009; Char Palmer devotes a post to Wide Sargasso Sea.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Theatre, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights