The very first feminist and the most well-written character ever

Bernard Herrmann would be proud to see that more news outlets celebrating his centenary are mentioning his Wuthering Heights opera. Such as NPR's Deceptive Cadence:

Still, Herrmann seemed bitter that he was never taken seriously enough as both a composer and conductor of serious, non-film music. Both his opera, based on Wuthering Heights, and his cantata, Moby Dick, never won the support he desired. Perhaps that contributed to his reputation as hot-tempered and abrasive. (Tom Huizenga)

Or Legacy.com:

Herrmann would also work with Welles on The Magnificent Ambersons, an experience that both men would regret. Welles didn’t get final cut and RKO trimmed over 40 minutes from the film and reshot the ending. They also edited Herrmann’s score so heavily he insisted his name be removed from the credits. Parts of the excised music were later repurposed in the score for an opera version of Wuthering Heights.

And from birthdays unfortunately to deaths. Variety reports that child star Edith Fellows passed away on June 26th:

[She] also appeared in popular feature films including 1931's "Huckleberry Finn," staring Junior Durkin and Jackie Coogan; the 1934 version of "Jane Eyre"; and 1935 Claudette Colbert-Melvyn Douglas farce "She Married Her Boss." (Carmel Dagan)

She played Adèle. EDIT: Another obituary in the New York Times, The Independent.

And yet another obituary: The Telegraph mourns the death of actress Margaret Tyzack who died on June 25th.

She went into repertory in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, making her first stage appearance as a bystander in Shaw's Pygmalion in 1951. For the next two years she performed as a "character juvenile" in a play a week for 48 weeks a year. She regarded this apprenticeship as the foundation of her later career, though she could remember being so exhausted that in Wuthering Heights she found herself momentarily too tired to speak.

The New York Times features a house in Nantucket:

At school, back home in Philadelphia, Ms. Lefevre was immersed in the literature of the 19th century — Hardy, Brontë, Melville. In this house, it was easy to believe she was part of that world. She imagined stories from the house’s past, that the back staircase led to “an insane wife, hidden away, her meals smuggled up the stairs,” as she writes in a book she hopes to publish. (Joyce Wadler)

The Yorkshire Evening Post finds a Brontëite in the grandmother behind the charity Kidz in Kampz.

[Favourite] Book: Jane Eyre. In my opinion Charlotte Brontë was the very first feminist. (Madge Davey)

And In This Week (Utah) has a profile of a local 'Cocktail Server/Bartender':

Who do you think is sexy? [...] Oh, and Heathcliff, the most well-written character ever. (Autumn Thatcher)

Both The New York Times and The Prague Post confirm that Judi Dench will be at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival tomorrow (July 1st) introducing the first screening of Jane Eyre 2011.

The film is also recommended by The Saratogian and the high school journal Pirate Press. Condemnedmovies also posts about it. Páginas com Memória writes in Portuguese about the novel and -Veni Vidi Vici- writes ion Spanish about Wuthering Heights.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Opera, Wuthering Heights

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Dickinson and Rhys

Recently published scholarship

Gary Lee Stonum
Emily's Heathcliff: Metaphysical Love in Dickinson and Brontë
The Emily Dickinson Journal - Volume 20, Number 1, 2011, pp. 22-33

Abstract:

Emily Brontë in Wuthering Heights and Emily Dickinson throughout her writing both imagine romantic love in an extreme form, one belonging to the literary tradition studied by Denis de Rougemont and characterized by René Girard as metaphysical. The intensity of such love is measured and usually enhanced by the obstacles it faces from social and religious authority. Like Heathcliff and Catherine's, Dickinson's lovers find their very being in one another, but when they are separated by death the survivor can only yearn for a reunion in the afterlife. Brontë explicitly and Dickinson suggestively but less consistently imagine this reunion as the resumption of a childhood experience at once edenic and rebellious. The result in both writers is a three-part narrative arc: childhood bliss, adult separation and agony, sublime reunion.

Shakti Jaising
Who is Christophine?: The Good Black Servant and the Contradictions of (Racial) Liberalism
MFS Modern Fiction Studies - Volume 56, Number 4, Winter 2010, pp. 815-836

In a special PMLA issue on “Comparative Racialization,” Shu-Mei Shih argues that “Even though South Asia-based postcolonial theory has geared us to the study of colonialism and its consequent postcolonial complexities, it has also long held a strongly ambivalent relation to race studies” (1347). Whether or not we agree with Shih’s characterization of the ambivalence toward race studies within “South Asia-based postcolonial theory,” her essay correctly points to an unfortunate divide between scholarship on race and postcoloniality. Aiming to bridge this divide, this paper revisits an ongoing debate among postcolonial scholars on the racial politics of a celebrated anticolonial text, Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Although a beneficiary of this debate, I argue that what is missing from the conversation is a more robust engagement with the limits and contradictions of Wide Sargasso Sea’s liberalism. By reading Rhys’s 1966 novel...

Categories: Scholar, Scholar

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Happy 100th, Mr Herrmann

Because of her filmography full of literary adaptations we knew that Romola Garai liked literature, but what we didn't know was the following, relayed by the London Evening Standard:

The passion for the 19th century is deep-rooted: when she was a teenager, she became obsessed with Jane Eyre and painted her bedroom dark green to look like a library.
"I never saw that world or the people in it as being innately different. I would see adaptations of novels and feel like people were acting oddly in them. I always thought that was weird and wrong. If you're interested in playing strong female parts, a lot of those are in period TV. Then I just acted like I thought people behaved." (Richard Godwin)

We wonder if she has a favourite Jane Eyre adaptation? Lagniappe covers the 'worst' and 'best' literary adptations and Jane Eyre makes it to both categories:

"Jane Eyre.” This novel gets its own Best and Worst category, since it has been adapted so many times for TV and film. Worst is a toss up between the William Hurt version from 1997 and the Timothy Dalton (1983) one, because I just really hate Timothy Dalton. The production values in both are equally dreadful. I prefer the Orson Welles/ Joan Fontaine option from 1943 because she’s just so angelic and he’s Orson Welles. Still haven’t seen the most recent one, but I’m willing to give it a chance. (Asia Frey)

And of course Bernard Herrmann was a very Brontë composer. Today, June 29th, marks the centenary of his birth and news outlets celebrate it with articles such as this one from the Wall Street Journal:

Bernard Herrmann may be best known for his memorable contributions to classic films, including his rousing overture to "North by Northwest," the shower scene in "Psycho," the romantic themes of "Vertigo," the eerie electronic music in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and the desolate blues of "Taxi Driver." He might have preferred to be celebrated for his opera "Wuthering Heights," symphonies and cantatas such as "Moby Dick," and other concert works. According to the film composer John Williams, Herrmann's greatest ambition was to be recognized as a conductor. (Jim Fusilli)

The Minnesota Opera recently staged that same opera and today they share an audio programme: A Celebration of His Life and Music.

Straight has a review of Juliet Barker's revised edition of her biography The Brontës:

As a huge Brontë fan–I read Jane Eyre at least twice a year–I was thrilled to discover this monumental tome. First published in 1994, The Brontës was subsequently republished in 2010, surely an indicator of how much more information had become available since the original publication date. [...]
I find it interesting to note that the entire timeline of The Brontës is measured against the life of one of the people it covers the least: the father, Patrick. The Brontë patriarch was born in 1777 and died in 1861, outliving his wife and all of his outstandingly gifted children. In a family where illness was a fairly commonplace occurrence even from childhood, the fact that this was not unexpected does not lessen the sadness and prematurity of it.
As much as I enjoyed The Brontës, I found I had to strategically read it over the course of a couple of months, if only to give my wrists a break from a reading-induced case of carpal tunnel syndrome. Still though, whatever discomfort I felt was a small price to pay for so much insight into what was and is one of my favourite literary families. (Jennie Ramstad)

Another book reviewed today is Carmela Ciuraru's Nom de Plume by The Jewish Daily Forward's The Arty Semite.

“Nom De Plume” never feels gimmicky, though, because pseudonyms reveal a lot about an author’s relationship to identity. As in the case of the Brontë sisters (who originally published as Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell), Aurore Dupin (George Sand) or Marian Evans (George Eliot), pseudonyms were a necessity for women who wanted their work to be taken seriously. (Daniella Wexler)

Terri Peterson Smith, the new Minnesota Reads reviewer seems to be a Brontëite:

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? Who?
Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre. A guy who is wealthy, passionate, and has some sort of dark secret. . . you can’t beat that. Later, I read Wide Sargasso Sea, which tells the story from the viewpoint of Mrs. Rochester, the wife he has locked in the attic. He doesn’t come off so well. (Jodi Chromey)

Jane Eyre also makes it into Flavorwire's 10 Inappropriate Literary Character Crushes:

Jane Eyre from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
Neither of this novel’s romantic leads is depicted as conventionally attractive. But (perhaps because of the book’s largely female readership) we tend to hear a lot of people confessing that they find moody Rochester sexy. Well, why not Jane, too? Although she famously describes herself as “poor, obscure, plain, and little,” we think she’s got a lot to offer — for one thing, she’s an excellent conversationalist. And there are few things more attractive than her no-bullshit attitude. (Judy Berman)

The Guardian wonders why China loves Shakeapeare and notes that one of his main translators into Chinese also translated Wuthering Heights.

The Brontë Sisters celebrates Charlotte and Arthur Bell Nicholls's wedding day on a day like today in 1854. There are blog posts on Jane Eyre today on Musings of an Academic Fangirl and On Writing. And posts on Wuthering Heights on The Bookworm's Blog and Meia Palavra (in Portuguese). QueerBlog (in Italian) seems to take it for granted that Branwell Brontë was gay because of Douglas A. Martin's 2005 book. Anne Brontë's Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day read by Charles Bice has been uploaded to YouTube by wimabi.

Categories: Audio-Radio, Biography, Books, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Opera, Wuthering Heights

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Cloth-bound Brontës

A couple of cloth-bound Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are published this month:

Jane Eyre
Michael O'Mara Books
Charlotte Brontë
Price: £9.99 (Hardback)
Publication Date: 2 June 2011
ISBN: 978-1-84317-571-1

Reader, I Married Him.
A beautiful new cloth-bound edition of the much-loved classic novel.Jane's journey - from the privations of her unhappy home and Lowood School to the mysteries of Mr Rochester's attic - have entranced generations of readers. Charlotte Brontë's seminal novel comments eloquently on society, duty, love and madness, while touching the heart.

Wuthering Heights
Michael O'Mara Books
Emily Brontë
Price: £9.99 (Hardback)
Publication Date: 2 June 2011
ISBN: 978-1-84317-572-8

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same . . .
A beautiful new cloth-bound edition of the much-loved classic novel.
Emily Brontë's only novel tells the tragic tale of the tempestuous love affair between Catherine and the brooding Heathcliff. The timeless story unfolds against the black backdrop of the Yorkshire Moors, and has haunted generations of readers

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights

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Students who read Jamie Oliver and doctors who read Jane Eyre

In the Guardian, Stuart Walton discusses the very interesting topic of 'Literary life after death'and concludes:

The debate about whether we ought or ought not to have been allowed to read [Kafka's] The Trial is in one sense wholly pointless, for reasons to do with horses and stable doors. Its appearance reminds us that authors are not the only arbiters of their work, and that the grave robs them, brutally enough, of any rights over its fate. Better that than dwelling on the image of Charlotte Brontë stuffing what remained of Emily's papers on to the Haworth Parsonage fire.

Although the image is vivid enough and rather likely, we'd rather state in Charlotte's defence that it is not known who destroyed Emily's papers. It may have been Emily herself, an image which is poignant enough too.

The London Evening Standard is outraged to discover that

Exams now typically include extracts from, say, a Jamie Oliver book or a British Heart Foundation pamphlet rather than anything literary, and schools echo these implicit priorities. "Teachers are required to introduce many more different kinds of texts and time pressure means you can't do the whole of, say, Jane Eyre, in class." (Susannah Herbert)

And yet also today the Grimsby Telegraph reports that

In addition, it is now possible to study for a Master of Arts degree in medicine and literature; investigating the interaction between the two disciplines. After all, some of the world's greatest authors knew a thing or two about what being human really entails.
Think, for example, of the works of Emily Brontë (Wuthering Heights), Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Tolstoy (Anna Karenina), Thomas Hardy (The Woodlanders), Charles Dickens (Bleak House), Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre) and DH Lawrence (Women In Love). The list is endless.
All these authors explored the emotional depths of humanity; that is why their works have found a lasting place in our collective souls; their characters are reflections of what it is to be human; to be you and me in all our times of trial and happiness. So next time you wonder whether your GP is up-to-date, don't ask which medical journals he or she is reading; ask whether your GP has recently read a classical novel. If the answer is "yes", you may have found a doctor who understands what being human is all about. (Dr Robert M Jaggs-Fowler)

We're totally on board with the idea.

AOL MyDaily discusses chicklit and the classics:

I find it annoying enough when snobbish types knock this incredibly popular, lucrative genre, the chick lit haters who seem to think us ladies are incapable of not confusing modern chick lit with the love-and-marriage of Jane Austen or the explosive passion of Wuthering Heights, but I am truly amazed by this attack. Personally I love to read all sorts, as I'm sure you do. The fact that I'm the chick lit critic at the Daily Mail does not mean I don't rush out to buy the latest Philip Roth or Jonathan Franzen. (Sara Lawrence)

We don't find it annoying when people 'read all sorts'. What we find annoying is people who consider Jane Austen or the Brontës 'the grandmas of chicklit' and things like that. Read whatever you like but know what you're reading.

Yesterday we had the 'description' of a modern Heathcliff and today we seem to have another take on the subject, courtesy of The Frisky:

Brit-Lit Gents
Examples:
David Copperfield from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Dr. Frankenstein from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
There is no doubt that these dudes are interested in conventional beauty, but they are looking for a little something extra, too – and lifelong familiarity seems to fit the bill. Indeed, one shared quality of the romances of each aforementioned novel is the fact that the romantic lead fell for the lady he was raised alongside as virtual siblings. Even David Copperfield, who originally married hot bimbo Dora, got bored with her pretty quickly and was encouraged by her untimely death to pursue sister-figure Agnes, his true love. Chances are, if you are reading this, you have already missed the boat on being raised in the same household as the object of your sexual desire. Your next best bet is probably to contract tuberculosis, which is sure to coax him into your bed when he finds your rosy flush and hacking cough impossible to resist. Unfortunately, this strategy will lead to your early demise. (Natalie Shure)

And if The Telegraph is to be believed Daniel Craig is a modern Heathcliff too:

It is important to keep in mind that, pugnaciously handsome as he is, Daniel Craig only became quite this desirable once he became James Bond. Yet while we might know with the sensible part of our brains that Weisz has actually bagged a 43-year old father-of-one who went to school in West Kirby, somehow this does not alter our secret conviction that she just married 007. We know that their honeymoon will be spent with him abseiling in through the hotel window, bearing a vodka Martini and sporting the brooding countenance of Heathcliff. (She will, of course, be both shaken and stirred.) (Jojo Moyes)

The Times wonders whether it is heroic or cowardly to hide behind a pseudonym:

But when the choice is between a false name or silence, anonymity becomes a necessary deceit. Middlemarch and Jane Eyre were published under male names because that was the way to be heard. (Ben Macintyre)

On Writing posts about Jane Eyre and February discusses Wide Sargasso Sea.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights

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Wuthering Lunchtime

An alert from Loughborough, Leicestershire:

Literature at Lunchtime: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
28th June 2011 - 12 noon
Presented in The Victoria Room

Our highly popular series of lunchtime lectures on great works of literature are brought to you by Dr Jane Mackay. A graduate of three universities, Jane’s obvious love for her subject, penetrating insight, wit, warmth and humanity continue to enthral.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Emily never lived to know that the world would think her only novel one of the great literary masterpieces. This is a chaotic and unremittingly violent book with no character to admire and a landscape that will etch itself into your memory. Based on a true story of an orphan who grew up to ruin his adopted family, come and enjoy a unique experience.

Categories: Alert, Talks, Wuthering Heights

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So-called modern Heathcliffs and other news

The Yorkshire Post features a bed & breakfast that may be a good stop for a Brontëite:

BROOK House, Ogden, home of Look North presenter Christa Ackroyd and husband Chris where they also run a bed and breakfast business. [...]
She and Chris came up with the idea of a Brontë-inspired B&B as their Georgian house at Ogden Water above Halifax looks on to the moors and is close to Haworth. The Brontës, she says, have been her passion since she was nine when her ambition was to live in a cottage in Haworth. She is a mastermind on the literary sisters and has devised a Secret Brontë Tour for guests.
“We take them to the Lord Nelson in Luddenden where Branwell used to drink and to Low Hill where Emily was a governess and lots of other places that aren’t in the usual tourist trail. Chris would really love to have an old bus one day so we can do trips for guests and other tourists.” [...]
Her favourite shopping haunts are Haworth, Hebden Bridge and the Mytholmroyd flea market, which is the first Sunday of every month. This is where she picks up her favourite old glassware. She also collects modern pieces from Gillies Jones Glass in Rosedale and it all has its set place. [...]
Almost all the food is bought from local farm shops and bakeries. “We wanted to support local businesses and guests like it. We did our homework on how to run a B&B. We always stay in them ourselves when we go away, rather than hotels. We also had amazing support from Welcome to Yorkshire and the Haworth Village Association.”
The three letting bedrooms all have Brontë books and DVDs and have been painstakingly designed with feature bathrooms, including a luxurious en-suite with a rain bath.

It looks like a few readers of the Huffington Post may do well to stay there, as they have voted for Jane Eyre among their favourite literary heroines.

Jane Eyre was picked by many readers, and we can see why. Though she was extremely mistreated as a child, she never let it destroy her self-worth. She maintains conviction throughout the novel, and always remains positive despite all her misfortunes. At a time when women's options were limited, Jane Eyre manages to independently establish a comfortable living for herself. She also rejects Mr. Rochester despite loving him when she believes that he has committed a misdeed, proving her courage and strength.

The Orange County Register describes the 'modern Heathcliff':

OK, so maybe the underlying problem here is the idea of a "soul-mate."
Thank you, Emily Brontë! Our modern O-Heathcliff-my-Heathcliff moons about his parents' house well into his thirties and doesn’t have what we boring fuddy-duddies call a j-o-b. Instead of a poet’s blouse, our modern Heathcliff sports a tight, v-neck T-shirt. Instead of writing sonnets he likes to sit outside coffee shops strumming his ukulele. He may talk about things like sustainable living in lieu of actually earning one. I don't see what's so attractive about these Heathcliffs, but apparently, I just don't get it. (Elizabeth Esther)

So. Apparently the old Heathcliff wrote sonnets.

An Associated Content article celebrates Branwell's birthday (yesterday, June 26th) and Abigail's Ateliers feels the need to 'defend' Aunt Branwell. Storytelling & Me posts about Jane Eyre, Écran de Projections writes in French about the 1996 adaptation, The Snarky Victorian reviews the 2011 take on the novel and Shep shares a few scans of Mia Wasikowska posing as Jane for Lula Magazine.

Categories: Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights

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When You Hear Emily's Voice

Yesterday, June 26, the 4th Tim Williams Award - When You Hear My Voice took place and a song with lyrics by Emily Brontë was included. Regrettably we have been unable to find which poem was chosen or who the composer was. Last year, the composer Rachel Lyske put music to Charlotte Brontë's Presentiment.

Sunday, June 26 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Cochrane Theatre
Southampton Row
City of London, United Kingdom
Created By LSW - London Shakespeare Workout, Christine Donald, Ludovico Lucchesi Palli

An evening where 21 vibrant British composers present the debut of 24 original songs with lyrics drawn from classical/established texts not originally intended to be sung.
Lyrics range from the pens of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and Christina Rossetti to William Blake, Sir Noel Coward, Emily Brontë and Aleksandr Pushkin; from Tennessee Williams to an original composition created in and around a written fragment left by Anne Boleyn.
This programme is being recorded for a 'Musical Talk' podcast.

Categories: Music, Poetry

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Jane Eyre as your muse

The Boston Globe interviews the writer Jennifer Haigh:

BOOKS: Did you start reading those at a young age?
HAIGH: I started reading intensely at 12 or 13. I grew up in a small town miles away from a bookstore so all my reading material came from the public library. Mostly what was there were donated books. There was a disproportionate share of 19th-century books. I read Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, and Tolstoy. (Amy Sutherland)

The Herald Sun (Australia) talks about the latest album by Stevie Nicks, In Your Dreams:

The rocking Wide Sargasso Sea is based on the 1966 novel by Jean Rhys, written as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. (Sally Browne)

Publishers Marketplace posts about a new book deal with some Brontë references: The Angels' Share by Rayme Waters:

The Angels' Share is the story of Cinnamon Monday, a girl born into the 1970's Northern California counterculture looking up the wrong end of the American Dream. Her family, originally owners of a great Nob Hill hotel, have suffered a reversal of fortune. Her parents are hippies without reliable income and have fallen into drug and alcohol dependence. After nearly dying of meth addiction, Cinnamon finds work at a small Sonoma County winery and rebuilds her life through her resilience, courage, and with a little help from Jane Eyre as her muse.

The Sydney Morning Herald finds a remarkable coincidence between J.K. Rowling and the Brontës:

Rowling, who, like the Bronte sisters, once lived next door to a graveyard, began writing six months before her own mother died of multiple sclerosis.

Vicky Ward describes in the Daily Mail her wedding dress in the eighties like this (you are advised not to read the rest of the article, it's a bit pathetic):

So I wore white tights. White tights? Did I think I was in a Charles Dickens novel? The shoes had square heels. I must have been channelling Jane Eyre.

Associated Press talks about the Lanvin spring-summer 2012's men fashion collection:

Its models like modern-day Heathcliffs racing breathlessly across the moors in billowing silks and lustrous microfibers, Lanvin delivered a ravishing spring-summer 2012 menswear collection that tapped into the raw emotion of "Wuthering Heights." (Jenny Barchfield)

The Independent devotes an article to Alexander Baron, who wrote the 1983 dramatisation of Jane Eyre; a Watertown local librarian and Brontëite in Watertown TAB; Confessions of a Teenage Film Buff and The Story Girl review Jane Eyre 2011; book coasters compares Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennet; Dancing Under the Stars reviews Wuthering Heights.

Finally, we would like to congratulate Erin Blakemore for her recent Colorado Book Award in the General Nonfiction section with her book The Heroine's Bookshelf.

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

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TH 3000 in Bari

A few days ago, the play TH 3000 (more information on previous posts) by Teresa Conforti was performed in Bari, Italy:

SPETTACOLANDO 2011
WED. June 22  Teatro Forma – Bari    h 20,15

Spettacolando  Festival dei giovani talenti è una performance d'arte diretta da Teresa Conforti organizzata dal Sipario impegnato da 20 anni nella promozione artistica.
Nuove  leve  dello spettacolo, giovani che vorrebbero calcare il palcoscenico e non solo!
Circa una ventina di giovani attori che si cimenteranno in 2 atti unici : un  dramma e una commedia .
La manifestazione di  quest'anno si apre con la prima di TH 3000 di Teresa Conforti, seguirà Fiasco a Broadway sempre di Teresa Conforti   .
Ma non solo teatro ... nel foyer sarà possibile ammirare l'istallazione TH 3000: uno sguardo  sul futuro con , video e dipinti ' futuristi' a cura degli artisti dell'associazione Lacarvella di Trani: il prof Pietro Romano Mattarrese, Luigi Pomarico, Antonio Russo, Mariablu Scaringella, Leonardo Cosmai, Mariacristina Valletti.  Uno spettacolo che si completa attraverso le contaminazioni di diversi linguaggi   artistici.
Introdurrà la manifestazione il Dott. Alejandro De Marzo.

TH 3000 ( sinossi ). Ipotetica società dell’anno 3000. Gli uomini vivono in una sorta di stato ibrido con l’eliminazione del dolore umano, l’allungamento della vita e la sconfitta di malattie mortali. Uno scienziato ha costruito un percorso virtuale, una realtà parallela dove nella fortezza di Thornfield Hall si rivive nel 1834 l’esperienza emozionale della pazzia, dell’adulterio e dell’omicidio, attraverso i personaggi di Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre) e Jean Rhys (Wide Sargasso Sea). I luoghi della fortezza diventano percorsi emozionali dell’inconscio collettivo. Nel primo atto la cella è luogo del nonsense, della pazzia (la segregazione di Antoniette da parte di Rochester nella torre del castello); nel secondo atto il tribunale è il luogo del senso, della razionalità (il processo di Rochester) delle testimonianze, dei percorsi alternativi, degli alibi. Un gioco di specchi. Come nella realtà le aspettative si capovolgono ed è il pubblico ad operare una scelta... e subito si inizia una nuova partita. (Translation)

Categories: Theatre

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Tell me all about Jane Eyre

John Mullan's Ten of the best in the Guardian has a Brontë among his best foundlings in literature:

Heathcliff
A dark-skinned child is found on the streets of Liverpool by Mr Earnshaw, who takes him back to his Yorkshire home (adoption laws being looser in those days). The home is Wuthering Heights and the child is named Heathcliff. Earnshaw's son, Hindley, grows to hate the interloper; his daughter Catherine to love him. In Emily Brontë's novel, the introduction of this foundling stirs a brew of terrible passions.

The Telegraph visits Paula Rego's studio:

She picks up a small, furry animal dressed in a Victorian nightdress. 'Jane Eyre’s monkey,’ she says affectionately. At least, I think that’s what she says. (Mick Brown)

The Times looks for ten reason to love Thackeray (in the year of the bicentenary of his birth):

Many Victorian readers would have nodded in agreement. Certainly Charlotte Brontë who, in her preface to Jane Eyre, hailed the author of Vanity Fair as a writer of biblical status — praise that even Thackeray found a trifle overblown. (John Sutherland)

The Lancaster Guardian presents the upcoming performances of LipService's Withering Looks in Lancaster:

Britain’s favourite literary lunatics, are back with their cult Bronte spoof Withering Looks.
The classic comic duo, Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding, just couldn’t resist the urge to dust off their crinolines, wear flattering bonnets and sit at rained-lashed windows in a pale and decorative manner.
Lancastrians can share in the silliness when the pair perform at the Lancaster Grand at 7.30pm on Thursday, June 30.
Withering Looks takes an “authentic” look at the lives and works of the Brontë sisters – well, two of them actually – Anne’s just popped out for a cup of sugar.
Peopled with many of the characters we know and love, Maggie and Sue move effortlessly from frock to frock coat.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune describes the relatively unknown Brownie Lake as:

For longtime lovers of Harriet, Calhoun and Isles, learning of a fourth sibling in Minneapolis' famous Chain of Lakes is like discovering another Brontë sister or musketeer. (Kristin Tillotson)

National Geographic reviews the book The Translator by Daoud Hari:

However, unlike his siblings, Hari is given an opportunity to pursue his education beyond the village and tells of falling in love with the classics of English literature such as Jane Eyre and Oliver Twist. (Cathy Hunter)

Variety speculates about which films could be nominated in next year's awards now that we are in the middle of the 2011:

Focus' "Beginners" has gotten a lot of attention (especially for Christopher Plummer), and other films seem like possibilities in a few categories, including "Jane Eyre" and "Hanna" (both Focus)[.] (Timothy M. Gray)

ResponseSource publishes a list of comments "overheard in a bookshop":

Customer: Do you have a copy of Jane Eyre?
Bookseller: Actually, I just sold that this morning, sorry!
Customer : Oh. Have you read it?
Bookseller: Yep, it’s one of my favourite books.
Customer: Oh great (sits down), could you tell me all about it? I have an essay to write on it by tomorrow.

The Guardian asks its readers about their favourite song, photograph, recipe... One of them chooses Kathy's song by Paul Simon describing it like this:

I couldn't stop listening to the song. Simon's tumbling guitar and delicate vocal are tinged with sadness, but the final line offers hope. It became clear that, while the loneliness and Heathcliff-like yearning I felt were hard, it was the love I knew was there that stopped me quitting. I had someone who loved me for me. (Jamie Emmott)

In The Guardian Zoe Williams reviews several books related to feminism in the 21st century and among them the upcoming Aftermath by Rachel Cusk is mentioned.

Not since we met Heathcliff have readers been presented with an anti-hero whose grudges are so intricately prosecuted.

Spitalfields Life posts some anecdotes of Cornhill (City of London) including the origins of the carved mahogany doors in 32 Cornhill:

Yet a pair of carved mahogany doors, designed by the sculptor Walter Gilbert in 1939 at 32 Cornhill – opposite the old pump – bring episodes from this rich past alive in eight graceful tableaux. (...)
Gilbert’s elegant reliefs appeal to me for the laconic humour that observes the cool autocracy of King Lucius and the sullen obedience of his architects, and for the sense of human detail that emphasises W. M. Thackeray’s curls at his collar in the meeting with Anne and Charlotte Brontë at the offices of their publisher Smith, Elder & Co. In each instance, history is given depth by an awareness of social politics and the selection of telling detail. (gentle author)

RTVE (Spain) has a digital interview with the writer Silvia Grijalba:

Mis gustos en el arte en general son muy eclécticos. Igual que en esta novela hablo de jazz, de Cole Porter, del Son Cubano, de Xavier Cugat o del danzón, me gusta la Velvet Underground, Bowie, John CAge o SAtie. En la literatura igual. Esta novela podría estar en la onda de Jane Austen, las hermanas Brontë, Thomas Hardy o Los Restos del Día de Ishiguro, pero también me encanta Thomas Mann, Nick Hornby, Hanif Kureishi, Jane Bowles... (Translation)

The author is also interviewed in El Mundo (Spain):

P (Alberto Ojeda).- Es una novela que sale por completo de sus registros habituales, muy contemporáneos, muy undergrounds...
R.-Es verdad. Pero es otra faceta mía igual de importante. Yo adoro la literatura de las hermanas Brontë, de Jane Austen, las películas de James Ivory..., en las que hay pasión y transgresión. (Translation)

Le Figaro (France) makes a summer reads selection. Including Kate Morton's The Distant Hours:

Mais Edie Burchill est plus encore fascinée de découvrir que ces surprenantes créatures tout droit sorties du monde de Charlotte Brontë sont les filles de l'auteur de La Véridique Histoire de l'homme de boue, un conte qui a enchanté son enfance. (Translation)

and Florence Warsden's House on the Marsh:

Une jeune fille embauchée comme institutrice par un riche campagnard découvre une maison étrange et malsaine au bord d'un marais, cède insensiblement au charme ambigu de son employeur, et se trouve plongée au milieu des secrets d'une famille, et d'un couple : on aura reconnu un schéma cher à nombre de romancières anglaises, de Charlotte Brontë à Daphné Du Maurier.  (Translation)

Jane Eyre 2011 has been premiered in Norway and several local media are reviewing the film. Almost all of them quite positively:
Aftenbladet is not convinced with Michael Fassbender:

Men utstråler virkelig Michael Fassbender en slik erotisk dragning i rollen som rike Herr Rochester at vi overbevises om at den fattige guvernanten Jane faller for ham? For meg blir det mer en påstand at han er så tiltrekkende – i stedet for at vi blekner og smelter i kinomørket og så å si flytter inn i ungpikens stormfulle følelser. Her skulle John Malkovich vært, for å si det slik.
Men regissør Cary Fukunaga gjør mye visuelt bra, ikke minst ved å kullkaste kronologien i starten og flette storslåtte bilder fra Janes flukt over øde fjellandskap sammen med tilbakeblikk til hennes traumatiske barndom. De tidsriktige, kostymetunge scenene der småjenter oppdras med brutalitet er knappe, men presise i sin skildring av oppdragelsesidealer vi fryser på ryggen av. Barneskuespillerne er utmerkede – ikke minst i en tragisk, betagende scene med Janes eneste venninne. (Kristin Aalen) (Translation)

Exactly the opposite of VG Nett:

Fassbender stjeler så mye av showet her at selv klasseskuespillere som Judi Dench havner litt i skyggen. Han veksler så sømløst mellom desillusjonert machomann og desperat stormforelsket at han nærmest suger deg til kinolerretet. Ikke uten grunn er han et av de heteste navnene i Hollywood for tiden. Fryktinngytende bra - som denne filmen. (Øystein David Johansen) (Translation)

Oslopuls:

Jane og Rochester skal være et umake par, som her. Ikke desto mindre må det gnistre mellom dem. Fassbender gjør hva han kan for å etablere den erotiske tonen, men han når ikke frem til Wasikowska, eller hun makter ikke å avsløre spenningene i Janes tilbakeholdte seksualitet. Å være forelsket på film er vanskeligere enn hva vi tror i 2011. (Translation)

btno loves it:

De stemningsmessige og visuelle kontrastene er essensielle i filmen, og for filmens tiltrekningskraft. Kontrasten mellom en affektert kultur og en vill natur. Vekslingen fra mystikk og uhygge til tungt erotisk ladet romantikk. Fra panoreringer over Derbyshires storslåtte landskap til lette, tette bilder i en blomstrende hage, filmet med håndholdt kamera slik at de minner om glade videoshots fra vår egen tid. Bildene er nesten taktile. Vinden gjennom blafrende gardiner kan omtrent føles på huden. (Jan Stian Vold) (Translation)

Nordlys recommends it:

Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre fra 1847 har blitt en besnærende vakker og velspilt film fra 2011. Uten å miste noe av sin kraft. Denne anbefales på det varmeste.

Sterk femmer. (Tord Olander Pedersen) (Translation)

Side 2:

«Jane Eyre» passer best for folk som liker romantiske filmer. Foretrekker du fart og spenning på lerretet, vil du muligens synes filmen er kjedelig. Men er du av den romantiske typen, vil du få en av årets bedre filmopplevelser av «Jane Eyre». (Jorunn Egeland) (Translation)

Hamar Dagblad:

Men bak eleganse og fremragende tidskoloritt, ser jeg en film som handler vel så mye om kvinnefrigjøring og følelsesmessig og intellektuell likestilling mellom kjønnene. Og det i en tid da dette var lite påaktet, for å si det forsiktig. (Svein Kristiansen) (Translation)

Fædrelandsvennen:

Samtidig er filmen tro mot romanens tidsbilde og dens klare persontegninger, og den gjengir de engelske øde heder på en nesten stofflig måte. Regissør Fukunaga makter å gi oss fritt utsyn, rent fysisk, samtidig som en føler seg innestengt og avmektig. Han gir oss både ytre og indre landskaper, med andre ord.  (Knut Holt) (Translation)

Tønsberg Blad:

Filmen fremstår faktisk på mange måter som Jane Eyre selv: alvorlig, oppriktig og inderlig. Og helt nydelig. (Ellen Andrea) (Translation)

Montages:

Fukunaga har kanskje ingen ambisjoner om å fornye en klassiker med sin versjon av Jane Eyre, men tilfører mer enn nok av både nerve og kreativitet til at den hører hjemme blant de beste i sin sjanger fra de senere år. Og skulle du tilfeldigvis tilhøre gruppen som ikke takler periodedrama av det godslige, kaklende slaget, bør du ihvertfall ta turen – dette er akkurat det motsatte! (Eirik Smidesan Slåen) (Translation)

Vårtoland:

Hun er en Jane å tro på, og en å ville ligne, slik historien om Jane Eyre alltid vil spille på dype strenger hos kvinnelige lesere og seere. Vi tror på henne som en kvinne som har utholdt lidelse og renset sin sjel, en som ikke kan gå på akkord med det hun mener er rett. Og vi tror på hennes trofaste kjærlighet. Slik blir dette Janes film, en fortelling om mot, oppofrelse og ekte skjønnhet, av det slaget som kommer innenfra. (Liv Riiser) (Translation)

artactu asks the artist Françoise Larouge quotes Emily Brontë as one of her inspirations. KSL (Utah) includes Jane Eyre in a Great Classics Read top ten and Flavorwire includes the Brontës in a list of writers who died too early; Daria DiGiovanni loves Wuthering Heights 1939; bookersatz, Awkward Moment, Alius et Idem (in Italian) and The Romance Bookie review Jane Eyre; Ecran de projections does the same with Jane Eyre 2006 (in French); both Leituras Brontëanas (in Portuguese) and For the Love of Lit... review Jane Eyre 1970; Labour law and Later and The Restless Critic have seen the latest Jane Eyre film adaptation. ViViCool (Italy) posts about the original novel. Flickr user JPrince42graphy has uploaded pictures of Top Withins and the Haworth moors.

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Humour, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Theatre, Wuthering Heights

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Michel Legrand and the Cinema

The recently released DVD Michel Legrand and the Cinema contains a live performance of his theme for Wuthering Heights 1970:

Michel Legrand and the Cinema
François Goetghebur (Director)
Live from Paris 2009, Salle Playel
Performers: Orchestre National D’Ile de France/Michael Legrand; Partrick Fiori, Liane Foly, Maurane, Catherine Michel, Mario Pelchat, Helen Segara
Studio: Arthaus Musik 101 549 [5/31/11]
Video: 1.77:1 for 16:9 color
Audio: French & English PCM Stereo
Subtitles: French, English, German
No region code
Extras: “Le Grand Michel” - Behind the Scenes feature - Interviews with Michel Legrand and other performers plus rehearsal footage of the concert (54 minutes)
Length: 161 minutes (with extras)

Review on Audiophile Audition.

Categories: Music, Wuthering Heights

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Captain Heathcliff

First of all, great news for those who haven't got themselves a copy of Libby Sternberg's Sloane Hall yet. As she herself wrote to let us know,

my novel Sloane Hall is being offered for a limited time for 99 cents in E-Book format. It's part of the Istoria Books Gift of Summer Reading sale.

The book is available here.

The Wuthering Heights video game project seems to be quite interesting for some news outlets. G4TV, Kotaku and Geekology all echo the news.

In the meantime, the Telegraph-Journal sticks to the novel's more traditional 'usage' as a school read.

In an article for The Independent, Margaret Drabble finds traces of Heathcliff in Jules Verne's Captain Nemo:

The flying fish and sharks and giant squid of Verne's novel entranced me. I was in love with Captain Nemo, the brooding cultured misanthrope of the deeps, who combined the romantic qualities of Heathcliff and Byron with the ruthlessness of Macbeth.

The Times discusses boarding schools:

Just as they weren't ever like Malory Towers, perhaps they are no longer like those in Jane Eyre or Nicholas Nickleby either. (Sarah Ebner)

Hopefully not, although Carus Wilson's new school is still standing and functioning as a boarding school.

Acuadoiro posts in Portuguese about Jane Eyre and, also in Portuguese, Cinema e Argumento discusses Dario Marianelli's soundtrack for the 2011 adaptation.

Categories: Alert, Books, Jane Eyre, Software, Wuthering Heights

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Jane Eyre in Oklahoma

A student production of the Gordon & Caird's Jane Eyre musical is premiered today, June 24 in Moore, Oklahoma:

ArtWorks Academy presents
Jane Eyre. A Musical Drama
Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College

The cast for Jane Eyre features our Senior Production Company class, which includes students in 7th-12th grade. The schoolgirls, Young Jane and Adèle will be played by girls in 3rd-7th grade.

The complete cast can be found here.

The performances will be held at Hillsdale College in Moore, OK. Performance times are as follows:

Friday, June 24 at 7:00 pm
Saturday, June 25 at 2:00 pm
Saturday, June 25 at 7:00 pm
Sunday, June 26 at 2:00 pm

A series of videos of the rehearsals can be found on YouTube.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Music, Theatre

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Bloggers on a Jane Eyre mission

IndieWire's The Playlist discusses how soon is too soon to start picking candidates for the Oscars giving fans of Jane Eyre 2011 a mission along the way:

The only chance that a March release like “Jane Eyre” has is if Oscar bloggers keep bringing it up across the year. (Oliver Lyttelton)

So now you know what to do.

Associated Press - via Forbes - celebrates 25 years of the PBS Masterpiece series being led by Rebecca Eaton.

Research found the series had a fusty, veddy-proper image in some eyes, while the word "Theatre" in its title felt old-fashioned, even off-putting. The mixed bag of programs from week to week also struck some viewers as confusing.
"You might watch Jane Tennison one week and Jane Austen the next week, and then Jane Eyre," Eaton recalls. (Frazier Moore)

Carmela Ciuraru's Nom de Plume is featured by USA Today which highlights several names mentioned in it, such as the Brontës/Bells:

Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell (real names: Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë). "We did not like to declare ourselves women," Charlotte later wrote about assuming masculine names, because "we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice." (Bob Minzesheimer)

The Wall Street Journal reviews the book as well while the Wall Street Jounal's Speakeasy takes a look at writing families:

There are several other sibling-writer examples out there, though apart from the four Ephron sisters and the three Brontës, they seem to mostly come in pairs – David and Amy Sedaris, Dominick and John Gregory Dunne, Geoffrey and Tobias Wolff for instance – which likely speaks to the wisdom handed down through most large families regarding acceptable ways one can earn a living. (Tod Goldberg)

The Daily Mail tries to track the reading progression to romance novels, but we don't really agree with it:

When Justine Elizabeth was a little girl, her mother would read her fairy tales.
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White — Justine would listen to them all and go to bed dreaming of a world where she was a princess and Prince Charming would take her away to a magic palace.
As she got older, her reading moved on to Wuthering Heights, Pride And Prejudice and Romeo And Juliet. They didn’t always have happy endings, but there was always passionate, explosive love.
Now a 24-year-old advertising executive living in London, Justine still loves getting under the covers with anything from Jackie Collins to Cecilia Ahern, Mills & Boon to the Twilight books. (Marianne Power)

Well, we must say reading Wuthering Heights doesn't take you automatically to Mills&Boon, etc.

The Sheffield Telegraph mentions just how influential artist John Martin was on the young Brontës while Town Topics discusses the literary influences of Kate Bush:

What sets Kate apart, among many other things, is that, to my knowledge, she’s the first singer songwriter in the so-called pop world to make her debut by channeling a classic of English literature. She accomplishes this in her song from 1978, “Wuthering Heights,” by becoming, in effect, one of the most fascinating female characters in the canon, Cathy Earnshaw. Bush and Brontë were both born on July 30, by the way, Emily in 1818, Kate in 1958, so a feeling of kinship on the singer’s part is all but inevitable.
You might think Emily Brontë would turn over in her grave to hear this audacious 19-year-old girl, born Catherine (and called Cathy while growing up), dare to reduce her novel to a Top 40 song (the best selling single in England for four weeks). More likely, Emily would admire her birthmate’s achievement in bringing the mythic essence of the book to life in music, most boldly and passionately in the chilling moment when “wuthering wuthering Wuthering Heights” soars into “Heathcliffe [sic], it’s me, Cathy, come home/I’m so cold, let me in your window.” (Stuart Mitchner)

As we said at the beginning of this post, bloggers now seem to have a mission and both Unabashedly Becky and Votaries of Horror (albeit not very enthusiastically) post about Jane Eyre 2011. A Successful Reader writes about the original novel. And Gratis et Amore posts about Wuthering Heights in Catalan.

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

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Yorkshire Parish Records Digitised

The Telegraph & Argus reports that the West Yorkshire Archive Service is now available via Ancestry.co.uk (which unfortunately and quite frustratingly requires a subscription to see the complete document). The Brontës' parish records are there too, of course.

Details of some of the district’s most famous sons and daughters can be accessed via the internet as part of a new online archive.
More than eight million Yorkshire parish records, spanning almost 500 years, have been digitised by family history website Ancestry.co.uk and the West Yorkshire Archive Service and are available online from today.
The records detail baptisms, marriages and burials which took place in hundreds of West Yorkshire parishes between 1538 and 1980.
They include the baptisms of Charlotte Brontë and her siblings, who were born in the parish of Thornton between 1816 and 1820. The famous author’s burial record is also listed following her premature death at the age of 38. (Hannah Baker)

Picture: Charlotte Brontë's marriage certificate (1854).

The Yorkshire Post and the Yorkshire Evening Post also cover the story.  EDIT: Also, The Ilkley Gazette, Keighley News, Halifax Courier.

Categories: Brontëana

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Big-screen Brontës

It's all about the movies today. Same Same (Australia) reviews Jane Eyre 2011:

What I think makes this particular version of Jane Eyre stand out from the rest is an impeccable aesthetic and a fantastically strong cast.
Australia’s own Mia Wasikowska really does drive this film, the strength of her performance as Jane Eyre is only complimented by her fantastic supporting cast. Michael Fassbender as quite a dreamy Mr. Rochester and Dame Judi Dench as Mrs. Fairfax are just two of the highlights. Dench, as you would expect, effortlessly steals every scene she’s in. [...]
While many may be wary to lend themselves to the most recent in a slew of adaptations, Fukanaga really does compliment his source material with a beautiful version of a timeless story. (mjw88)

And IndieWire's The Playlist includes the film among 'the best films of 2011... so far'.

“Jane Eyre”—When it was announced that “Sin Nombre” director Cary Fukunaga was going to be adapting a dusty Charlotte Brontë novel that was already been made for both the big and small screen multiple times we were both excited and nervous. Would it be another fussy period movie or would Fukunaga make good on the promise of his feature film debut? Well, with Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska leading the way, Fukunaga’s film is deliriously sensual, with an electric current running through the unlikely tale of romance unlike any of its previous incarnations. Fassbender and Wasikowska make it look too easy, and let’s hope the spring release date doesn’t mean it’s forgotten when the end of the year rolls round. (Kevin Jagernauth)

Nouse (UK) is looking forward to seeing the film this autumn.

Bridesmaids is nevertheless part of a summer, (with the exception of Harry Potter), set to be dominated as always by American movies. But I can’t help but be more excited by some of the British movies that are coming this Autumn: We Need To Talk About Kevin, Jane Eyre, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy. Make sure that the books all three of those are based on are on your summer reading list. (Michael Allard)

The Derbyshire Times has useful info for tourists wanting to visit the area where the latest Jane Eyre was shot:

Derbyshire’s Peak District and the county’s beauty spots are continuing to feature in movies which are boosting tourism and business in the region.
Visit Peak District and Derbyshire tourism board revealed how famous historic buildings and landscapes are to be showcased in a new cinematic version of Jane Eyre.
The movie starring Jamie Bell and Dame Judi Dench is due for UK release on September 9 and features Haddon Hall, Wingfield Manor, Stanage Edge and Edale.
Film buffs will also be able to enjoy outdoor showings of movies in fantastic Derbyshire settings this summer and track down film locations thanks to a visitor guide.
Visit Peak’s marketing chief David Thornton said: “Film generates a lot of interest in the region from well-known hits like Pride and Prejudice and The Damned United.” [...]
Locations for local movies are listed with www.visitbritain.com and in Visit Peak’s 2011 Visitor Guide available via www.visitpeakdistrict.com.

Another IndieWire blog, Women and Hollywood, has a post on 'Films to Watch for This Fall on the Film Fest Circuit: The Women'. The list includes Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights:

”Wuthering Heights,” directed by Andrea Arnold
A departure from her “Red Road” and “Fish Tank,” British director Andrea Arnold is back with her Emily Brontë adaptation “Wuthering Heights.” Starring unknown actors Kaya Scodelario, James Howson and Oliver Milburn, the film concluded principal photography last November. With Arnold behind it, the film promises to put a unique spin on the gothic classic and should provide any festival with a definite touch of class. [Peter Knegt] (Melissa Silverstein)

The Independent reviews 'last night's TV' which included the documentary For Neda:

It seems Neda wasn't an acquiescent member of the compulsory nunnery that Iran became after the revolution, arguing about what she was entitled to wear to school, and ignoring the regime's literary prohibitions against such dangerously inflammatory texts as Wuthering Heights. (Tom Sutcliffe)

And once again, echoes of Jane Eyre are found in the South Korean film Hanyo (The Housemaid), which is now reviewed by the Baltimore City Paper:

The imperiled governess is a staple of melodramatic plotting going back to Jane Eyre, but 2010 found it still surprisingly lively and adaptable in the South Korean film The Housemaid. (Lee Gardner)

In a discussion on anonymity and pseudonyms, the Brisbane Times mentions the Brontës.

Books by their Story and Pustoaica scrie (in Romanian) post about Jane Eyre. Miss Danni (in Portuguese) didn't like the 2006 BBC adaptation of the novel. Les Soeurs Brontë (in French) keeps on listing Jane Eyre's daughters. Number three is Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes. My Reading Room briefly recommends Wuthering Heights. And Miss Grammarian reviews Rachel Ferguson's The Brontës Went to Woolworths.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights

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Tim Fish's Wuthering Heights

Some years ago we posted about the frustrated project of a comic adaptation of Wuthering Heights by the comic book author and artist Tim Fish. Now the author himself announces on his blog how an excerpt of his work will be available in the upcoming Seven Stories Press' anthology The Graphic Canon, Volume 2. From Pride and Prejudice to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Edited by Russ Kick and scheduled to appear in July 2012.

I am now ready—and quite pleased—to announce that I will have a graphic excerpt of Emily Brontë's Wuuthering Heights in Seven Stories Press' anthology The Graphic Canon.
Fish-philes will remember I pitched this to Marvel—without success—for their classics line. Though disappointed, that pitch lead to both the Iron Man and Northstar stories published in 2010 (for those who don't remember, read the post by clicking the tag).
Enter Seven Stories, Googling around for the novel, and saw my post announcing my disappointment. One thing leads to another, and I have signed a contract to produce a short excerpt of the story in graphic novel form.
Yay!
And that's an understatement. It's one of my favorite books. I can't wait to get going on it.

Picture Source.

Categories: Comics, Wuthering Heights

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Who wants to be a Brontëite?

SBS Television tells us a bit more about the reception of Jane Eyre 2011 in Australia as part of the Sydney Film Festival:

Among the programming coups were Tabloid (a new Errol Morris documentary is always an event) and the new Jane Eyre, which turned out to be a triumph – as bleakly Gothic and windswept as required, with Mia Wasikowska a magnetically intense and properly young-looking Jane, and Michael Fassbender suitably glowering as Rochester. Having Wasikowska as a guest was a plus. (Lynden Barber)

A reader of the Abilene News-Reporter recommends the film to those who don't want to 'to cover your eyes and ears' while seeing a movie.

As far as we know, the newest and 'suitably glowering' Rochester, didn't encounter the same troubles as his predecessor Orson Welles who, according to the Guardian's Tanya Gold,

When he made Jane Eyre he was so fat he had to wear a corset.

Apart from having the forthcoming Wuthering Heights film to look forward to, we might as well end up looking forward to a Wuthering Heights video game, as Metro reports that,

There are currently talks between developers and Sony to adapt other classic novels such as Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.
[Simon] Meek [from Tern Digital] added: 'We don't want to touch the beauty of reading. This is not trying to do away with books. We know what books look like on screen, in the theatre, in print, so how do they look on gaming platforms? That's never been done before.'

That might make it a bit more appealing to all those students struggling with it, such as those described by The New York Times's The 6th Floor as

the kind of person, though, who preferred the “Wuthering Heights” Cliffs Notes to the all-night reading experience before the exam (Matt Bai)

The Kirkland Reporter suggests reading Wuthering Heights as a 'fun way to improve your teen’s SAT score during summer'. Which brings us to more summer reading lists as those mentioned by the MerrimackPatch or this 'un-suggestion' from a summer reading list seen on Business Insider:

Ham on Rye by Bukowski. I happen to think this is the greatest American novel ever written. Not sure why it’s not taught in high school literature classes while meanwhile the un-aborted Brontë Sisters/Jane Austen (aren’t they all the same creature?) continue to bore generation after generation of people out of reading. (James Altucher)

Entertainment Online's The Awful Truth would seem to agree:

Well, that's definitely not literature you'd get from boring old Charlotte Brontë! (Ted Casablanca)

Fortunately - we think - that is a snarky comment after quoting the Pulitzer-deserving prose of Khloé Kardashian.

Well, on to other books now. Carmela Ciuraru, author of Nom de Plume, has written an article on pseudonyms for The Huffington Post and also has her book reviewed by The Millions.

Ciuraru chooses, curating 18 of these pseudonymous authors in 16 tidy sketches that shed light on the many and various motivations for pseudonymous writing. The book is a good exhibit across space, time, and material, combining the old standards (Blair/Orwell, Brontë/Bell) with some less well-known names (Sheldon/Tiptree, Pessoa/Campos et al.). Ciuraru sifted through biographies and autobiographies and published works, and here she synthesizes her research nicely. She has a gift for organizing and presenting information and an ear for the money quote from a novel or letter. (Lydia Kiesling)

The JC reviews Natasha Solomons's The Novel In The Viola and mentions its Jane Eyre influences:

The novel is full of references to romantic fiction, especially Jane Eyre: a passionate young woman who against all odds finds love and happiness in a forbidding country house.
But this has none of Brontë's beautiful writing and is indeed closer to "chick lit". (David Herman)

Rebecca Walker's words on her mother Alice Walker continue causing reactions. She is quoted by Dagblog as stating,

I was 16 when I found a now-famous poem she wrote comparing me to various calamities that struck and impeded the lives of other women writers. Virginia Woolf was mentally ill and the Brontës died prematurely. My mother had me - a 'delightful distraction', but a calamity nevertheless. I found that a huge shock and very upsetting. (Orion)

The Fuquay-Varina Independent suggests travelling by books. One of the suggested reads/journeys is Wide Sargasso Sea:

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (The Caribbean)
In a prequel to Jane Eyre, Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway lives in Dominica and Jamaica in the 1830s before she travels to England, becomes Mrs. Rochester and goes mad.

Coincidentally, Music OMH reviews Stevie Nicks's album In Your Dreams and mentions her Wide Sargasso Sea-inspired song:

Combined with the second track, the Landslide-esque For What It’s Worth, it makes up a perfect duo to draw you in to the album. On some of what follows (My Heart, Italian Summer, Wide Sargasso Sea) the poetics of her anguished heart can get quite repetitive within the lyrics, and the music arrangements can be so laid back as to be barely there. In these moments it’s a good job Nicks’ voice is the main instrument here; to imagine the majority of these songs working for literally anybody else is hard. (Farah Ishaq)

And now for a question that could have made millionaires (well, send them on their way to becoming so) of hundreds of Brontëites/Austenites. Bloomfield Life reports:

Bloomfield resident Monika Pollick, 48, made it to the fifth question on ABC's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" June 17 before picking an incorrect answer. She walked away with $1,000. [...]
Question Five, under the category "Woman of Words," was as follows: Which of the following is the title of an annual journal issued by the Jane Austen Society of North America? A: Eyre Letter; B: The Middlemarch; C: Persuasions; or D: Wuthering Writes.
Pollick guessed Eyre Letter but the answer was Persuasions. (Jeff Frankel)

Well - duh!

Now for a couple of alerts. The Ottawa Morning reviews the play Every Story Ever Told, on stage until June 25th as part of the Ottawa Fringe Festival.

Written and performed by Ryan Gladstone from Vancouver. This fellow is quite amazing, He is part stand up comic, part mime, part professor of comparative literature, popular culture, of theories of Narrativity, and he is also a very smooth actor. He did hilarious capsules of War and Peace, Great Expectations, Cinderella, Carmen, Greek classics, Tales of the Arabian Nights, the Brontë sisters, and really horrible authentic versions of Grims fairy tales. (Alvina Ruprecht)

And an alert for later today, at 8 pm local time, the Classical Minnesota Public Radio will look

at some of the films of 1939: Gone With the Wind, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, Of Mice and Men, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and The Wizard of Oz. (Marianne Combs)

Click here for further info.

A Reader's Nook posts about Jane Eyre and A Book Blog. Period. reviews April Lindner's Jane.

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

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