Shaving with the Brontës

OnMilwaukee discovers a local high school history teacher who also makes (and sells) artisan shaving soaps named after his literary favourites. His Etsy shop is The Shave Library and yes, there is a Brontë soap:

Brontë Edition Shaving Soap from The Shave Library.

Every edition of The Shave Library Soap has been scented to the unique characteristics of famous writers. The Brontë edition includes oils of Honeysuckle and Lilac. Scented like spring flowers, the Brontë edition is great for both men and women.

The Orange County Cappies Awards (to local student theatre productions) have been released. There's an award for the St Margaret's Episcopal School production of Jane Eyre. The Musical:

Costumes: Blakely Collier, St. Margaret's Episcopal School, Jane Eyre

The Asheville Citizen-Times interviews the author Sharyn McCrumb who finds Wuthering Heights echoes in her new novel The Devil Amongst The Lawyers:

Q: How does it come together?
A: I've got all these characters in my head … and all of a sudden I realize that it corresponds perfectly to Wuthering Heights.
Heathcliff and Catherine are Ann and Tom. Catherine Earnshaw married Edgar Linton to better herself, and that would be James Melton. He's a wagon maker with a farm. Ann got married at 14 to get away from her drunken mother, which leaves the person everybody thinks is so important as Isabella Linton, the girl that Heathcliff marries just to annoy Catherine. (Rob Neufeld)

A nice article by Jonathan Raban in the New York Times about that very American rite of passage and “go away to college” contains a Jane Eyre anecdote:

I lunched. I visited a bookstore. My daughter’s absence was a hollow hard to fill. Hours passed. I saw that the new adaptation of “Jane Eyre” was playing at a cinema just across from the motel, and for the first time in years I went to a movie in the afternoon. A life of desolation on the rainswept Yorkshire moors was a fine distraction, but it ended too soon, and I came out of the theater dazed by California sunshine and the prospect of more hours to fill.

The Charleston Post & Courier reviews the latest book by Sandra M. Gilbert: Rereading Women: Thirty Years of Exploring Our Literary Tradition:

Whether she's writing about Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot or her own youthful self ("I wore lipstick, shaved my legs, wept in the pantry"), Gilbert is tuned in to patterns of captivity; she has a story to tell of women who write themselves out of tight spaces. (Catherine Holmes)

Finally, an alert from the Sacramento Public Library:

Notable Books: Jane Eyre
Now is your chance to get to the heart of great literature. Each featured novel or play in this series will be read over two months, giving you a chance to read it in depth. For each book, a scholar who specializes in the book's genre will both introduce the text and return the following month to lead the book discussion; additional trained leaders will guide small discussion groups. To enhance your understanding of the story, guest speakers or performers will give presentations on topics relevant to each book.
Finally, read the classics the way you’ve always wanted to. No tuition. No term papers. No tests.
Today's program:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
First, Professor Emeritus David Bell of Sacramento State University will give a talk titled "'Poor and Obscure, Small and Plain': Comparing Jane Eyre with the Heroines of Jane Austen." This introduction will include biographical information and will cover such matters as female education, religion, and the importance of children in Brontë's novel.
Then Professor Jason Gieger of Sacramento State University will present "'Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know': the Gothic Hero and the Influence of Lord Byron on Jane Eyre." He will discuss Byron's heroes and compare the 18th-century Gothic which Austen makes fun of in Northanger Abbey with the Brontës' new Gothic.

Categories: Alert, Jane Eyre, References, Talks, Theatre, Weirdo