Extraordinary trio of literary talent

The Yorkshire Post interviews Blake Morrison, author of the upcoming theatre play We Are Three Sisters (opening in Halifax next September 9):

Back in the 1960s, even living as close to Haworth as he did, Morrison doesn’t remember any kind of fuss about the Brontës. “Obviously, they’d lived not far away, but I don’t remember either my parents or anyone at the Grammar School making anything of the Brontë connection, the fact that we had this extraordinary trio of literary talent on our doorstep.”
Morrison caught up with Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Villette and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall some years later, and has explored these celebrated tales with scores of MA students on the courses he has taught at Goldsmiths University of London. He had to swot up on the lives, works, loves and letters of the Brontë family many years ago when the composer Howard Goodall approached him to write the book of a stage musical of Wuthering Heights.
“Howard did the songs and Leicester Haymarket (theatre) were keen to produce the show. But the boss left and moved on, policy changed and the new management didn’t want it. I reprinted one ballad I’d written for it, and still have the songs Howard composed. It was disappointing, but there haven’t been many projects that haven’t eventually come to fruition.”
It clearly galls Morrison, although he is too darned nice to say it outright, that of several proposed shows of Wuthering Heights that were doing the rounds at that time, the one that did get produced starred Cliff Richard as Heathcliff. “Cliff Richard! I remember it getting lousy reviews…”
Blake Morrison says there’s a general feeling around that anyone who has a go at staging Wuthering Heights will encounter a default bad attitude from critics. “There’s always been a mocking, sneering thing around them (the Brontës) – which you can only have, I believe, if you don’t understand their novels or their lives.”
Well, undeterred by that, and at the suggestion of a theatre critic friend 10 years ago, Morrison had a go at a play which would examine the lives and aspirations of the Brontë sisters, using the template of Chekhov’s comedic portrait of Russian social disintegration Three Sisters, published in 1900.
“I went away and read the Chekhov and Juliet Barker’s Lives of the Brontës and took lots of notes. We know that Chekhov had read about the Brontës, probably in Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography of Charlotte, and their story was clearly an influence on his play.
“I went through all the parallels and characters… Olga, Masha and Irina in his piece even have a troubled, destructive brother. Chekhov has a doctor and teacher in his play and so does mine.
“There are many similarities, but there are also differences between the two, and the more I worked on it, the further I moved away from the original, so as to avoid misrepresentation of the lives being explored.”
The piece was put aside for a good few years while Morrison worked on poetry, libretti and novels, then a nudge came from Barrie Rutter at Northern Broadsides. The writer had worked with the Halifax-based company on five previous adaptations, and Rutter was keen to see We Are Three Sisters off the shelf and on the stage. So 18 months ago Morrison took up the story again, and rehearsals are now underway for a nationwide tour, with the premiere in Halifax next month.
But why not simply write an original play based on the famous family?
“Many people will think that’s what it is,” says the writer. “But those who know their Chekhov will see the likeness. Using the Chekhov as a template for another, very big, story helps to somehow contain it. It restricts you as a writer and helps you to focus.
“I think there are two or three ways in which it sheds new light on the Brontë story. For a start the grimness of the Brontës’ lives has been exaggerated. There were tragedies, but that didn’t mean they were miserable all the time. There’s a kind of resilience there and a determination to support themselves by writing.
“Also, there’s an impish humour in Charlotte’s letters from time to time that overturns a stereotypical view. I use the humour in the Chekhov to help show that.
“Before the Reverend Nicholls and Charlotte’s marriage there’s no evidence of love interest in the Brontë sisters’ lives, but we know from their work how interested they were in thinking about women, love and marriage. Again, these are subjects helpfully explored in the Chekhov.”
The other thing, says Morrison, is that Haworth is often portrayed as a remote spot where the family were trapped leading narrow lives, when in fact they did travel. And yes, they even heard Paganini play in Keighley. Winters may have been long and brutal, but we know from the nature of their writing that these women’s imagination was limitless.
Morrison thinks some diehard Brontë fans may bristle that he has played with chronology in order to make theatrical sense of his fictional story. However, he feels he has done his best to honour the Brontës by creating real, plausible, sympathetic characters.

The Sun has an 'exclusive' clip of Jane Eyre 2011. The scene where Judi Dench advises Jane Eyre about being too close to Mr Rochester:

Jane Eyre has been the subject of numerous feature films but Dame Judi [Dench] was convinced that the 2011 version had a fresh approach.
She said: "This story has been done many times, but I felt that Cary had quite different, dark ideas about it, ones which I hope will excite people to read the book.
"The novel is quite ambiguous as to who knows what in Thornfield — does Mrs Fairfax know the specifics of the secret of the house? There's this very romantic mystery to the story." (Alison Maloney)

The Muskogee Phoenix reviews The Twelfth Enchantment by David Liss:

Combining Regency Era history with early Gothic-style literature, Liss has penned an easy-flowing novel of polite society, modernization, Gothic horror, and romance rivaling the likes of Jane Austin and the Bronte sisters. (Melony Carey)

Steve Mariotti doesn't know very much about the Brontës when he says in the Huffington Post:

These Maine cottages have incredible private libraries. Right now I am reading the first edition of Edith Wharton's The Mill on the Floss. Many here are of English descent and know their Victorian and Gothic literature well. You have to be up on Jane Austen and on the ball with the Brontë sisters. 

Epicurious has liked the first issue of the magazine Kinfolk:

You'll also find a simple breakfast menu for two, a Summer playlist, tips for creating organic table settings, a tribute to cloth napkins, a Q&A with a florist, and quotes from the likes of Henry David Thoreau, M.F.K. Fisher, Charlotte Brontë, and Winnie the Pooh. (Lauren Salkeld)

The Moment (Nigeria) tells us how Dr. Mercy Ette discovered Jane Eyre:

Here she shares memories of how Jane Eyre, a novel by Charlotte Brontë, moved her to tears when she read it shortly after she arrived at the Union Secondary School, Ibiaku, Akwa Ibom State. Many years after her first encounter with the book, she still gets emotional when she talks about it.
‘One of the most memorable books that I have read is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. I read it in my first week in secondary school. It left such an impression on me that I have not read it again since then. The story moved me so much that I could not stop crying. (...)
Back to Jane Eyre, I think what I found so interesting about it was Jane’s experience at different points in her life. The book is a personal narrative that starts off with Jane Eyre, a 10-year-old orphan, living with her late uncle’s family. Her uncle’s dying wish was that she would be brought up by his wife, but her aunt did not like her. She and her three children abused Jane emotionally and physically. They treated her like a servant.
One day, Jane was locked up in the room where her uncle had died. She panicked when she saw visions of him. Her agony overwhelmed me, and I just could not stop crying. (...)
The book remains memorable for me because the story resonated with me. When I was growing up, I also lived with some family members who did not treat me well. One of my cousins used to beat me whenever he had an opportunity. He threatened to kill me if I ever talked about the abuse. Years later, I asked him: ‘Do you remember how much you abused me when I was a child?’ He apologised and said that it was just a childish thing. When I read Jane Eyre, the story brought back that feeling of being abandoned, rejected and abused.
I was also touched by Jane’s moral courage when she chose to walk away from someone she loved because he was already married. Although that did not mean much to me as a young girl, I thought she was brave.(...)
Although I read it a long time ago, I think that Jane Eyre is one of the most memorable books that I have read.

Some New Zealand news outlets comment on the acceptance of Twilight in the NCEA New Zealand exams:
Auckland Now:

Or you could draw the obvious parallels (which Meyer flags in the book) between Twilight and Wuthering Heights. By the by, Twilight has prompted lots of kids to read Wuthering Heights - sales of the classic are through the roof, thanks to its new Twilight-inspired cover. (Catherine Woulfe)

The Stuff:

Another essay, written in an English exam on making connections between texts, compares the theme of unconditional love in the Twilight book to that in Wuthering Heights, the movie Titanic and Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.

The authors of those essays presumably wouldn't have problems answering this quiz about the Twilight series published in The Guardian:

In Twilight, what book does Bella read in order to make sense of her feelings for Edward?     
Pride and Prejudice  /    Frankenstein  /   Wuthering Heights  /   Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. (Sarah Simmonds)

The Rocky Mountain Collegian asks a terrible question...with an even more terrible answer:

But what do the talentless, frizzy-haired, Charlotte Brontë-loving girls of the world have?
Pole fitness. Oh yeahhh. (Morgan Mayo)

The Reedsburg Times Press gives voice to a teenager with a dream:

Authors are my heroes. The stories of the books I read offer an escape, a chance to slow down and rest for a while. I am not foolish enough to believe that if I complete a book it would ever be published, and if it is somehow miraculously published, I would not expect it to become famous or even that popular. But a girl can dream. As for now, I feel like escaping with Jane Eyre for an hour or two. (Sam Foss)

Unbound, 3 Guys 1 Movie, Zerogenous, Total Film and Commentary Track review Jane Eyre 2011;  Learnin' Curve has uploaded a picture of North Lees Hall; Abigail's Ateliers has designed new (Brontë) gowns and posts some nice pictures wearing them on the moors.


Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Theatre