The Grumpy Rochester and the Kind St John

The Daily Journal selects the 2011 best films so far:

"Jane Eyre" -- Mia Wasikowska is Charlotte Brontë's title character opposite Michael Fassbender's Edward Rochester in this sumptuous adaptation. Judi Dench brings warmth to Mrs. Fairfax, while Sally Hawkins, Simon McBurney and Jaime Bell bring a cold, austere touch to Mrs. Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst and St. John Rivers, respectively. Handsomely filmed by director Cary Fukunaga, those behind the forthcoming "Wuthering Heights" should consider the gauntlet thrown. (Joanne Thornborough)

The Daily Mail discusses how romance between two people that are too different never works and blah blah blah. The usual tabloid stuff. The author of the article tries to make a point with Jane Eyre but she cannot be more wrong:

Would Jane Eyre have been quite so romantic if she’d muttered ‘that Edward Rochester’s a grumpy so-and-so’, and stuck with the man who was really right for her, the kindly Christian missionary? (Flic Everett)

Any person that has read the novel knows clearly why St John was not right for her... furthermore, St John can be described as many things, but...  kind?

Remember this?

We have several publications that also misrepresent the Brontës as Mills & Boon-like romance literature. Everything comes from an article by Susan Quilliam in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health (J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 2011;37:179-181: “He seized her in his manly arms and bent his lips to hers…”. The surprising impact that romantic novels have on our work (Read it here).

It seems that Daisy Goodwin takes it personally and replies in The Times:

If class action suits had been around at the time of the Brontës, I am sure that the sisters would have been sued for misleading vulnerable young women into believing that love does indeed conquer all, that spirit will talk to spirit across time and space, and that, as with Cathy and Heathcliff, true love was eternal. Charlotte Brontë should be held to account for writing “Reader, I married him”, when really a responsible novelist would have said, “Reader, I thought long and hard  about the importance of working at a relationship when things get tough and I have decided to marry Mr Rochester even though he has lost a hand and is practically blind. At least I know he won’t stray.”

According to The Spectator, reading Jane Eyre while you are in France is not a good idea (we wonder if this remains 'true' if you are French and want to read it):

While I don’t in any way wish to detract from English literature, there does seem something rather perverse about reading Middlemarch in Spain, Bleak House in India, or Jane Eyre in France. It’s rather like scoffing a greasy full English breakfast in a sunny piazza in Florence: delicious and enjoyable, yet also horribly inappropriate. (Emily Rhodes)

The edges of Shakespeare's biography are discussed in the Guardian's Northener's Blog which, nevertheless, slips in a Brontë mention:

Prof Francis O'Gorman, from the University of Leeds, is fascinated by the idea of the real and imagined on the edges of writers' biographies. He says: (...)
"The possible secret wife of the poet Andrew Marvell, and the possible lovers of the novelist Emily Brontë—a writer about whom we know almost nothing definite—are others. These are intriguing, compelling, puzzles." (Martin Hickes)

 Forbes publishes a top ten of books for the fashion set:

Cleopatra’s Nose: 39 Varieties Of Desire, Judith Thurman – Thurman is one of my all-time favorite writers. Her reporting skills are exceptional, as is her sense of story, timing, cadence and style.
Here Thurman writes about the outlaws, vagabonds, artists and visionaries with whom any self-respecting person should be familiar: Diane Arbus, Coco Chanel, Cleopatra, Anne Frank, Leni Riefenstahl, Charlotte Brontë, Vanessa Beecroft, Elsa Schiaparelli and Madame de Pompadour. She quotes Richard Avedon on Jean Cocteau and makes Jackie Onassis and Marie Antoinette compelling again, despite the ubiquity of them both. (Hannah Elliott)

Rutgers Today tries to deconstruct chick-lit:

“Abolitionist literature has tropes that we can now look at and see chick lit reflected in,” Grodstein says. “Same with the Brontë sisters, and Jane Austen. But these are also books that critics and readers would agree have great literary merit, and I don’t think their modern incarnations would have the same credibility.” (Fredda Sacharow)

This high school student celebrates the Harry Potter saga, but goes a bit too far in our opinon. In phillyBurbs:

We should remain faithful to the series that has meant so much to our lives, just as many generations before were faithful to Shakespeare and the Brontë sisters. (Michelle Corr)

Felix Taylor in The Independent will also miss the saga:

Rowling’s writing isn’t as brilliant as some more illustrious authors, but if you’re looking for brilliant writing, go away and read a Brontë novel. 

And We Got This Covered:

I have read each book at least twice, and Prisoner of Azkaban (far and away the finest Potter book) many more times than that, they are comfortable relaxants to get away from more heavy going works that an English student like myself is required to study. Trust me there is no better antidote to Jane Eyre than a Harry Potter novel. (Will Chadwick)

Take it easy people, the Brontës are not the problem here.

The Prague Post informs about the Prague Summer Program:

The Prague Summer Program is a monthlong series of workshops for poets, fiction writers and photographers hosted by Western Michigan University and Charles University, offering aspiring American writers and a few talented students from Charles University the opportunity to spend a month in Prague studying with a group of world-class literary figures, including this year 2010 National Book Award-winner Jaimy Gordon, poet Pamela Uschuk, Stuart Dybek, Pavel Šrut and Ivan Klíma, among many others. (...)
Each year, the program has a distinct theme, and this summer is no different. Taking a cue from a line in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Katrovas has decided to focus on "Writers' and Writing's Relations to Music." (...)
It is the fact of literature's aural dimension that links it to music; all other comparisons between the arts are merely synesthetic," he adds. "Who reads Wuthering Heights and doesn't hear Beethoven?  (Stephan Delbos)

Westerly News announces an upcoming screening of Jane Eyre 2011 (July 29th) in British Columbia, Canada; Emily Brontë is listed as a not very prolific writer (!) in Twin Cities Daily Planet; the Brussels Brontë Blog reports a Brontë day of activities in New York with Eric Ruijssenaars (including some information about Villette 1970); czytając, słuchając, oglądając (in Polish) reviews the recent Polish translation of Shirley; Team Rochester vs Team Heathcliff is Kay Woodward's contribution on the Wuthering Hearts blog tour on The Squeee, another post and a review are also available in I Want To Read That; Écran de Projections reviews Jane Eyre 1997 (in French) and Bookeater/Booklover does the same with Jane Eyre 2006 (in Portuguese);  Lit Lovers & Corset Laces comments and ranks several Jane Eyre adaptations (number one: Jane Eyre 2011); Armchair Archives reviews Wuthering Heights; The red red robin goes blog blog blogging along posts about Villette.

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