"I could wish she used simpler language"

The Scotsman recovers an extensive interview with Muriel Spark:

If writing came naturally to Muriel Spark - and she insists it did - so did her material. She specialises in paradox, danger, assumption, the Great Unseen. In her stories and novels, even in her biographies of Mary Shelley and Emily Brontë, the air crawls with treachery and half-truths. (...)
Her two biographies, do not forget, researched writers who experienced critical censure much focussed on their sex: Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, had variously been called a "mere sponge who absorbed the ideas of the great men who surrounded her", a cypher of her talented husband and a hysteric, while Emily Brontë hid behind a male pseudonym (as did her sisters) to avoid the double dismissal of her work as not only tragically girly but also unwomanly in her immodest desire to parade it shamelessly before the public. (Janice Galloway)

The famous Norton Conyers secret staircase and the links wh the fictional Thornfield Hall are once again explored by the Daily Mail:

It was Clare Balding’s love of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre that took her to Norton Conyers in North Yorkshire, a manor house owned by the same family since the 17th century and long thought of as a likely inspiration for fictional Thornfield Hall, where Mr Rochester kept his mad wife Bertha confined in an attic.
In 1839, Charlotte was unhappily employed as a governess to a family at Lothersdale, not far away, when she accompanied them on a day trip to view the historic house. ‘I think she’d have been enchanted by its atmosphere,’ Clare explains.
‘It’s easy to imagine this place being Thornfield Hall.’ Maybe it was a loquacious housekeeper who showed the visitors around the house and told them the darkest family legend, the story of a madwoman restrained in the attic back in the 18th century. The present owners of the house are Sir James and Lady Graham. ‘She was known as Mad Mary,’ explains Lady Graham. ‘We don’t know if she was a servant or a member of the family. Anybody considered mad was hidden from view.’
It makes me feel terribly sad being here... it feels so much like a cell, with just a glimpse of the outside world through the window
It was an astonishing discovery at Norton Conyers in 2004 that seemingly supports the Grahams’ claim. A door was discovered behind some solid Edwardian panelling, giving access to a previously unknown staircase. It led to a cramped garret with a small gable window. Could this be the madwoman’s chamber?
‘It makes me feel terribly sad being here,’ says Clare, ‘because it feels so much like a cell, with just a glimpse of the outside world through the window. We’ll never know for sure whether Charlotte Brontë came up here. But I can’t tell you how strange it feels, how eerie to be allowed to wander through these rooms and imagine the screams and the groans of a woman locked away. And to feel the spirit of Charlotte Brontë and, in a way, the ghost of Jane Eyre.’ (Mary Greene)

The Guardian reviews several recent books centered on grief and quotes Charlotte Brontë:

This is Charlotte Brontë (again, no stranger to death, having lost her siblings Branwell, Emily and Anne, all within 18 months), commenting on a bereaved acquaintance in a letter of 1852: "I am sorry for her: I believe she suffers; but I do not much like her style of expressing herself … and I doubt not she is sincere and in earnest when she talks of her 'precious, sainted father'; but I could wish she used simpler language." Brontë, like Woolf and Montaigne, was not amazed by grief, or offended by it. She recognised it for what it was, something (painfully) normal, the thing itself. (Frances Stonor Saunders)

Another book reviewed in The Guardian is Joanna Briscoe's You:

As a 17-year-old [Cecilia] tramped the moors with Mr Dahl, quoting the Brontës and Shakespeare and William Gaddis. Briscoe wants the reader to see this as a meeting of minds, not as James Dahl puts it, "some Humbert Humbert" plundering Cecilia's youth. (Rachel Seiffert)

The Daily Comet tells about an upcoming Nicholls State University English course:

Course titles for the 210 class include “Literature in the Bible,” “New Orleans Literature,” “Sports Literature,” “Literature and the Wilderness,” and “ ‘Twilight’ Series Allusions.” (...)
The course is built around four major works: Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” and William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” (Matthew Albright)

The List reviews Josie Long's performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with The Future is Another Place:

There are some genius moments, particularly a sketch about the Brontë novelists and their unfortunate brother, Branwell, but the comedy tapers out as the strength of Long’s activist feelings come to the fore. (Jonny Ensall)

The San Francisco Chronicle reviews The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh:

This is the story of an orphan rising above her circumstances - "Jane Eyre" for 2011 - and, true to this model, it is also a tortured romance. In another serendipitous twist, fate brings 18-year-old Victoria back together with a boy from her past. He's infinitely patient, he knows about her history with Elizabeth, and he even speaks the language of flowers. While they do hit some bumps on the way to an ending that is not entirely predictable, it's pretty clear from the start that this won't be a tragedy. (Malena Watrous)

What is it now about the film One Day that so many reviews quote the Brontës for different reasons? Now, Comingsoon:

There have been stronger romantic dramas that have done a better job tugging at our heartstrings, and this one works about as well as Focus Features' "Jane Eyre" earlier this year in that it's a genuinely capable film that does its best with source material that may have not been as easy to translate to film as some imagined. (Edward Douglas)

The Sydney Morning Herald is not very convinced about the whole concept of soundtracks to books:

One website, flavorwire.com, has come up with playlists for fictional characters, such as those two famously disaffected teens Holden Caulfield and Harry Potter. (...)
Outside the obvious benefits for books about musicians, I'm not sure if all this adds up to much and I wonder how far people will push into the realms of the ridiculous: will we have playlists for Heathcliff with Wagner, gypsy mazurkas, death metal and Kate Bush? (Jane Sullivan)

Hmmm... Wagner's Tristan und Isolde was used by Luis Buñuel's in his personal Wuthering Heights: Abismos de Pasión. And there are several metal versions of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights...

The Manila Bulletin (Philippines) talks about sequels/prequels/reboots/versions/younameit:

Wide Sargasso Sea. This novel draws the spotlight on the ‘madwoman in the attic’ from Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” Bertha Mason, the wife of Edward Rochester. It tells of her life, from her life in Jamaica to her arranged marriage to an Englishman (unnamed but implied as Rochester) and her descent into madness.

Poor Mojo talks about William Gibson's Zero History telling a personal anecdote with a Brontë reference:

As an undergrad I once got in an argument in class about Wuthering Heights. The prof's claim was that Wuthering Heights was a great novel; my position was that Wuthering Heights was a waste of everyone's fucking time (direct quote, which sorta fills me with shame today), because it had almost nothing to tell any of us (i.e., average undergrads at the University of Michigan in the mid-90s) about our lives and our world--not because of its displacement in time, but because it was entirely concerned with a kind of removed, cloistered aristocracy that simply didn't exist here, where we were, and largely no longer existed in the United States. (dave-o)

The Times prints a story about the return of governesses:

There has been increased demand for governesses in the Jane Eyre mould who can assist with homework, offer extra tutoring and help their charges secure places in highly competitive London day schools. (Fiona Neill)

More DVD/Blu Ray Jane Eyre 2011 mentions or reviews:
National Catholic Register:

Cary Fukunaga’s retelling of Jane Eyre has been hailed as one of the better adaptations of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel. Not having read the novel, nor seen any of the prior adaptations, I can only say I found it compelling and worthwhile — well acted by Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender and memorable in its exploration of the main characters’ moral choices, particularly regarding marriage. (Steven D. Greydanus)

Wichita Falls Times Record (with the ineffable title of "A lot moor to love")

All this mood and aesthetics, plus an emotionally wrought, prideful, determined and generally right-on performance by Mia Wasikowska, and you have an effective piece of filmmaking that will make "Jane Eyre" purists rejoice. While "Jane Eyre's" rough edges have been softened in other films to make its woeful, dark themes more palatable, Fukanaga's artistically hewn, very Gothic version comes as close as it can get to the haunting, near tragic tenor of the book.

Lien Multimedia:

« Jane Eyre » ne réinvente pas le genre, mais est tout de même un film captivant. L’histoire est merveilleusement bien racontée et mise en scène. Les images, paysages, costumes et décors sont magnifiques et l’on ressent bien l’atmosphère et l’ambiance véhiculée. (Serge Roy) (Translation)

Film-Dienst:

Doch die trefflichen Charakterisierungen der Personen allein würden den Film kaum so hoch über frühere Verfilmungen stellen, erwiese sich Fukunaga nicht auch als ein Beschwörer stimmungsvoller Atmosphären, deren Bandbreite von dickensscher Realistik bis zu schauriger Poesie reicht. Dabei verfällt er weder in Opulenz, wie es bei Zeffirelli der Fall ist, noch in die düstere Schauermär, die von Stevenson bevorzugt wurde. Man fühlt sich eher erinnert an David Leans „Great Expectations“. Vor allem Fukunagas Sensibilität im Umgang mit Licht und Schatten – in den nur von Kerzen beleuchteten Innenräumen (Kubrick lässt grüßen) ebenso wie in den von Naturgewalten heimgesuchten Landschaftsszenen – kreiert eine Atmosphäre, die alle Extreme vermeidet und die Geschichte fest in das Gefüge der Zeit verankert. Dabei gelingen ihm Einstellungen von außerordentlicher Schönheit, die oft an die Porträts von Johan Vermeer und die Landschaftsbilder John Constables erinnern. Auch darin ist sein Film vielen vordergründig illustrativen „period pieces“, die ihm vorausgingen, deutlich überlegen. So ergibt es sich, dass ausgerechnet zu einer Zeit, die das Vordergründige und Effektvolle im Film bevorzugt, die ultimative Filmfassung eines ebenso intimen wie für seine Entstehungszeit aufrührerischen Romans in die Kinos kommt, an dem sich bereits mehrere Generationen von Filmemachern mit unterschiedlichem, nie ganz überzeugendem Ergebnis abgearbeitet haben.  (Franz Everschor) (Translation)

Check also Informuji (in Czech).

Obiter Dictum interviews the Baroness Haleh Afshar, professor and life peer in the House of Lords:

“I’d read the book Jane Eyre and realised just how unrealistic my life was. I knew it wasn’t what I wanted; I wanted to stand on my own two feet. So I told my father that I wanted to attend boarding school in England. He agreed, and that summer my parents drove me all the way from Tehran to England.

Review from Here interviews the author Jeanette Baker:

What books have most influenced your life most?
Gone With the Wind, Little Women, Wuthering Heights (...)

Jornal do Comércio (Brazil) reviews Juliet Gael's Romancing Miss Brontë:

Juliet leu todo o trabalho das irmãs Brontë, suas cartas, estudos, biografias, documentos históricos da região e do período em que viveram. Nos pequenos detalhes, nas notas de rodapé e nas entrelinhas das correspondências, principalmente, Juliet encontrou inspiração para criar e romancear a vida da grande narradora. (Jaime Cimenti) (Translation)

Infobarcelona (Spain) talks about an exhibition about the romantic novel which has opened in a local library in Navàs:

La Biblioteca Josep Mas Carreras de Navàs acoge, desde el próximo 18 de agosto, la muestra ‘La novela romántica', con el objeto de reflejar la evolución del género que ha tenido más aceptación popular a lo largo de los años y que ha sido, de hecho, el pionero de la literatura de consumo. (...)
La exposición hace un recorrido por la evolución del género desde la novela ‘Pamela ‘de Samuel Richardson hasta las heroínas de ‘Sexo en Nueva York', se detiene en las obras más famosas del siglo XIX, como las de Jane Austen y las hermanas Brontë[.] (Translation)

L'Express (France) talks about the screenwriter Gilles Taurand who began his collaboration with André Téchiné just after the director premiered Les Soeurs Brontë:

"André sortait de l'échec des Soeurs Brontë, il a eu le sentiment qu'il fallait atteindre un cinéma de dialogue et m'a proposé de passer une épreuve éliminatoire: écrire une scène. Nous nous sommes alors embarqués ensemble dans l'aventure d'Hôtel des Amériques."  (Translation)

Die Welt (Germany) reviews Lorrie Moore A Gate at the Stairs quoting a Brontë reference from the novel:

Am Ende gewinnt das humoristische Element wieder die Oberhand, mit einer Anspielung auf das oft zitierte Schlusskapitel von Charlotte Brontës Roman "Jane Eyre. Die Waise von Lowood". Bei Brontë bekennt die Icherzählerin: "Leser, ich habe ihn geheiratet!", während Moore Tassie, nach einem Annäherungsversuch ihres früheren unsympathischen Arbeitgebers, bekennt: "Teurer Leser, nicht mal einen Kaffee habe ich mit ihm getrunken. Etwas habe ich also doch im Studium gelernt." (Ruth Klüger) (Translation)

Quart (Hungary) compares the singer Kate Nash to the Brontës:

Kate mintha valamelyik Brontë-nővér regényéből lépett volna a színpadra: törékeny, nőies, de nagyon erős és öntudatos is. (Gelegonya Edina) (Translation)

Film Music: The Neglected Art reviews the CD The Music of Michel Legrand, which includes a theme from Wuthering Heights 1970;  houseandbooks shares her thoughts on Jane Eyre; Pipoca Global (in Portuguese) also posts about Charlotte Brontë's novel; ShiniGrace shares some drawings inspired by Jane Eyre 2011; Paperblog (in Italian) posts about Wide Sargasso Sea.

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