The Old School Room, saved?

Good news from Haworth. The threat to the Old School Room (more information in previous posts) seems to be overcome, at least for now. Keighley News informs:

An historic Haworth building which was at risk of being sold off to developers has won a reprieve.
Campaigners have been working to save the Old School Room, which is the only building in Haworth to have been designed and constructed by the Rev Patrick Brontë, father of the famous sisters.
The Church Street property is owned by Haworth Parish Church, but it is in urgent need of restoration. Dry rot was discovered in the building’s roof space in June.
A committee called Brontë Spirit has been investigating how to drum up support for the expensive project.
It has been estimated that nearly £1 million is needed to repair and refurbish the roof.
On Monday, a spokesman for the group said: “Following a series of crisis meetings between the church’s parochial council and Brontë Spirit, it was decided last week that enough potential support had been received for the restoration project to continue for the time being.
“At a meeting last Wednesday it was agreed that archaeologist Dr Angela Redmond, one of the current directors of Brontë Spirit, would lead the project, that the planned application for charitable status would continue and that discussions with two organisations are to be explored.”
Dr Redmond, who had been employed by Brontë Spirit when an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund was being advanced in 2008, said: “We believe that the building has a future with a role in the community and that’s something we’ll be exploring in the next few weeks.
“We were concerned that the lack of funds and support were threatening the project. But we’ve been encouraged by our initial discussions with organisations and individuals who want the Old School Room to be restored and remain true to Patrick Brontë’s vision of having a building available for public good.
“We don’t want to say publicly which organisations have been in touch with us because negotiations are at a delicate stage. No doubt if those discussions are successful it will be possible to make appropriate announcements later.”
The Rev Peter Mayo Smith, the priest in charge at Haworth Parish Church, said: “We’re exploring every avenue and, although we recognise that these are not easy economic times, we believe that it could be possible to secure enough grants to enable us to restore and develop the building as a community asset.
“None of us really wanted to sell the building but we have been in real danger of having to take that drastic step. Fortunately, we have been able to step back from that brink.” (Miran Rahman)

MacLeans explains why Emily Brontë will never be so popular as Jane Austen, and why that's a good thing according to the author:

I’ve read Wuthering Heights so many times that it no longer exists as a wholly absorbing fiction for me; it’s more like a memory. Emily Brontë’s first and only novel, an indecorous riot of emotion and event conducted across the windswept Yorkshire moors, occupies a pivotal moment in the history of literature that’s worth remembering.
Brontë, a writer both raw and refined, is as rough on reader expectation as her characters are on each other. With Wuthering Heights, she turns the romance novel—a genre exemplified, albeit in a comic vein, by that other vicar’s daughter Jane Austen—upside down and grinds its cheerful conventions into the muddy heath with the heel of her little black boot.
Austen and Brontë not only divide the English countryside—Austen’s prose is set mainly among the favourably placed pastures of the English gentry, while Brontë’s havoc plays out in howling northern desolation—they divide readers of 19th century literature. Their novels truly reflect boundaries of temperament.
I don’t feel the same mix of affection and admiration for Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, or even my favourite of Austen’s six novels, that lonely heart’s love dream, Persuasion. Brontë’s frontal assault on civility has all but ruined the Austen oeuvre for me. The charms of Pemberley are utterly lost once you’ve attended the lusty dogfight that is Wuthering Heights.
Ironically Brontë’s singular talent as a writer guarantees that she’ll never achieve the same measure of popular success as Jane Austen. More than 160 years after it was published, Wuthering Heights still resists successful adaptation for film or TV.  That hasn’t stopped people from trying, however. (READ MORE) (Flannery Dean)

The Lancaster Guardian is also awaiting eagerly the premiere of Blake Morrison's We Are Three Sisters:

Familiar faces from television will be shining fresh light on the story of the Brontë sisters in a new play at The Dukes this autumn.
Sophia Di Martino – Polly Emmerson in TV’s Casualty – and Warton-based Becky Hindley, who played teacher-turned-stalker Charlotte Hoyle in Coronation Street, will appear in the Northern Broadsides production of We Are Three Sisters from September 27 to October 1. (...)
We Are Three Sisters is written by Skipton-born Blake Morrison who has five plays to his credit but is best known for his two family memoirs and a study of the Jamie Bulger case. 

The Wall Street Journal reviews the biography of the historian Herbert Butterfield: The Life and Thought of Herbert Butterfield by Michael Bentley:

Mr. Bentley also conveys a vivid sense of the man beyond his writings. Butterfield's rise from a working-class upbringing in Oxenhope, Yorkshire, to Cambridge University and a high-flying academic career involved more than the traditional tale of a provincial boy made good. Oxenhope lies in a particularly remote part of Yorkshire, made famous by Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights." The bleak landscape matched a paucity of opportunity and a desolate home life for Butterfield, whose parents lived in a constant state of tension.  (William Anthony Hay)

On the Chicago Tribune's RedEye we read an example of dirty talk which we found particularly engaging:

When making requests in bed, there's something to be said about taking a direct approach, much like your last sentence. It's candid, succinct and even involves a touch of profanity, which we all know is one of the major trappings of hotness, right? Otherwise, dirty talk would sound more like a Brontë novel: "Beg pardon, madam. It would give me great pleasure to wuther your heights." (Anna Pulley)

The Sydney Morning Herald presents the upcoming exhibition Beauty from Nature: the art of the Scott sisters in the Australian Museum:

They were the Brontë sisters of the botanical world. Now their illustrations have taken flight. The paintings by the two Scott sisters [Helena and Harriet] are exquisite, in both artistic delicacy and scientific authenticity. (Steve Meacham)

The same newspaper interviews the Australian Senator, Barnaby Jones:

He finds fiction ''frustrating'' but recently read Wuthering Heights.
Did he like it? ''I couldn't stop crying. I was hopeless,'' he says.
It's impossible to know if he's joking or not. (Jacqueline Maley)

Time Out Chicago reviews the film Brighton Rock by Rowan Joffe: 

Rowan Joffe’s update steals from various films without ever synthesizing its own tone. Transplanted to the ’60s and full of sharp-looking mods riding bikes and rioting, the new Brighton Rock is heavily indebted to 1979’s Quadrophenia. Elsewhere—as when Pinkie holds Rose over a cliff, then embraces her—Joffe appears to be making a gloss on Wuthering Heights. (Vadim Rizov)

The Boston Globe interviews Stevie Nicks about her latest release Dreams which includes a song devoted to Wide Sargasso Sea:

She spreads her patented brand of mystical glitter on everything from the emotional ode to our troops “Soldier’s Angel,’’ featuring Mac compatriot Lindsey Buckingham on guitar and vocals, to the expansive rocker “Wide Sargasso Sea.’’ (Sarah Rodman)

We are a bit late reporting this special pre-screening of Jane Eyre 2011 at Haddon Hall, organised by Volkswagen’s See Film Different:

On Sunday 4th September, in conjunction with Universal Pictures, we’ll be bringing this timeless romantic drama to life with an exclusive pre-release gala screening at one of the film’s key locations - the fortified medieval manor of Haddon Hall. It's one of the oldest manor houses in England, which you'll recognise as Thornfield House in the film.
Along with comfy seating and a great screen, ticket winners can look forward to a private viewing of Haddon Hall and the impressive manor grounds. While we can’t promise strange noises from the attic, we can promise traditional English refreshments compliments of Tudor Kitchens. Guests will also have the opportunity to enjoy a post-screening photography exhibition of original film stills.
Winners will need to ensure they can get to Haddon Hall in Bakewell, Derbyshire on Sunday 4th September. Doors will open at 5.15pm and the event should finish at 10.00pm.
Ticket applications close at midday on Friday 26th August. Entrants will be informed if they have been successful the same day and will be required to confirm attendance by Wednesday 31st August.

Matlock Mercury had also some free tickets.

The Age summarises what is the state of the art in unBrontëiteness:

Two 19th-century British novelists, Charlotte Brontë and Emily Brontë. Just this week my beloved dragged me along to see the movie Jane Eyre, which is based on a book by Charlotte who everyone confuses with Emily which is a name that sounds like Emma which is a book by Jane Austen who I always get mixed up with Jane Eyre which was the movie... (Danny Katz)

 The Charleston Post-Courier has an article about the wonders of reading:

I'm one of those strange souls who enjoy rereading a treasured book. The changes in my life over time give new insight to old reads, especially classics such as "To Kill a Mockingbird," "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," "Heidi" or "Jane Eyre." (Robin Stearns-Lee)

Do you think that the print-on-demand thingies will survive the rise of ebooks? An article in The Salt Lake City Tribune discusses other uses of this kind of machines. Not this one, though:

A customer with a hankering for Jane Eyre, for instance, or A History of Daggett County from the University of Utah’s special collections, downloads a digital file from the Web and in about 15 minutes, Espresso [Book Machine] prints, binds and trims a fresh copy. Cost: $10. (Glen Warchol)

The Saint loves ebooks:

Instead of buying or ordering books like Jane Eyre, The Great Gatsby, and several others, I could have downloaded them all for free and still had the convenience of carrying them around with me like a normal book. (Tabitha Davidson)

PopMatters talks about and with the group The Jezabels:

Leader singer Hayley Mary says, “I was always obsessed with that whole Brontë-esque gothic melodramatic thing Kate Bush did… I love the performance aspect of people like Freddie Mercury, David Bowie and Cyndi Lauper.”

Philipa Ashley interviews Rowan Coleman:

If you were cast away on a desert island and could take one book, movie and album, what would they be?
Oh, hard questions….The book would be Jane Eyre, but absolutely most favourite book.

A new bookclub which will read Jane Eyre in ABCnewspapers; Escape review Wuthering Heights 2009.

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