There are rumours that at least one key part of the film differs substantially from the text

Total Film talks about David Fincher's new project, a biography of Dorothea Lange being written by Angela Workman:

Angela Workman (the writer behind the upcoming Brontë) is currently scribbling away at the script, with documentary maker Leslie Dektor set to direct. (Matt Maytum)

Last we heard about Angela Workman's Brontë was in April 2010.

Empire thinks that Wuthering Heights 2011 is one of the must-see films of Venezia's Film Festival:

Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold, UK)
Secrecy, as they always say, surrounds the third film by Andrea Arnold, director of two great films (Red Road, Fish Tank) and an Oscar-winning short (Wasp). So little is known about this project that only the poster offers any suggestion that Emily Brontë's classic novel will be given the period treatment. In other areas, all bets are off, as Arnold has brought her usual streetwise eye to casting and there are rumours that at least one key part of the film differs substantially from the text. (Damon Wise)

The Star (Malaysia) reviews Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks:

At times, reading is a pleasure so particular that it can only be compared to the pleasure of reading another book. More than once Bethia’s way of talking and observing, her urge to be good, her indignation at the suffering she and others are made to endure bring back vivid memories of Jane Eyre. (Amy De Kanter)

Now that the film has opened in several countries and the Region 1 DVD is imminent (let's not talk about other available albeit illegal options), new film clips are not so exciting as they were. Nevertheless, The Hollywood News prepares the UK premiere of the film with this new clip and The Vine publishes some new and not so new images with the Australian release in mind.

We read this personal remembrance by author Maile Meloy in the New York Times:

When I was 10, growing up in Montana, I wanted a 10-speed bicycle, and my father made me a deal. I could have a new bike if I read 10 classic novels and wrote reports on them. I was a malleable kid with no negotiating power, so we went to the library and made a list.
We chose “Jane Eyre,” “Tom Sawyer,” “Wuthering Heights,” “The Scarlet Letter” and “The Sword in the Stone.” I took “Moby Dick” off the shelf at home, but very quickly put it back. Then I decided to add “Silas Marner” by George Eliot because it was very short, and had a picture of a little girl on the front. But that was misleading, and I got bogged down, and petitioned for “Little Women” to count toward the list instead.(...)
People also ask if I remember the bike books. I remember the ghostly branches scraping the window in “Wuthering Heights,” but otherwise it’s like asking if I remember the water in a pool I swam across when I was 10. The Brontë sisters’ sentences washing over me may have done me some good, but the books themselves are like barely remembered dreams. 

The Huddersfield Daily Examiner doesn't think that Amy Winehouse's influence on music could be comparable to Kate Bush's:

Nothing sounded remotely like Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights when it topped the charts in 1978. Bush, who was 20 at the time, went on to produce a string of ever challenging yet popular records.  (David Himelfield)

The Times Tribune makes an elegy of dying bookstores (Borders in this case) killed by the ebook star:

As I scanned the stacks, stocked with Twain, Dickens, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Nabokov, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Shakespeare, Orwell, Fitzgerald, Wilde, Eliot, Joyce, Swift, Shaw, Yeats, Wolfe, Austen, Bronte, Potter, O'Connor and countless others who committed their classic creations to paper, I couldn't help but wonder how this happened. (Chris Kelly)

The Ames Tribune discusses good films based on good books:

Wuthering Heights” (1939) is the first and finest dramatization of Emily Brontë’s passionate love story. The desolate Yorkshire moors provide the setting for the star-crossed romance of Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) and Cathy (Merle Oberon). Laurence Olivier said the director of this film, William Wyler, taught him how to act for the screen, and his powerful performance dominates this beautifully made Gothic romance classic. (Michael G. Quinn)

Asha Sahni posts about the Brontës in Bella Online; Cathrines Blog (in Danish) reviews Wuthering Heights.

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

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Recent Dissertations (I)

Recent Brontë scholarship:

The discourse of confession and the rhetoric of the devil unnatural attraction and gender instability in Wuthering Heights and The Master of Ballantrae 
DeFalco, Dana.
2011
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011.
Abstract:
Often overlooked in the nineteenth century Gothic novel are the complicated social issues existing within the text. In Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Master of Ballantrae, the authors each create villains who represent the preoccupation with appropriate sexuality and conventional gender roles existing in Victorian England. Brontë's Heathcliff and Stevenson's James Durie embody all that is immoral and non-normative in society with their depraved behavior ; however, because of the authors' craftiness with language, the authors, through their villains, manage to magnetize the other characters and subsequently emasculate those men in the text who emulate the Victorian ideal of masculinity. By focusing their novels on the plight of the Other and his disruption to the homogeneous rules regarding sexuality and gender in the nineteenth century, both authors articulate a profound understanding of the societal fears regarding these issues existing in their time.

The mirror image : the representation of social roles for women in novels by Charlotte Brontë, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and Jean Rhys
Muda, Geertruida Elisabeth
2011
Thesis: Groningen : University Library Groningen

Throughout literary history women have made use of stereotypical images to represent women in their work. The most notable images in the nineteenth century were the “Angel in the House” and the “Monster.” Yet, rather than using these images as a stereotype, woman writers during the period 1849-1930 employed them to write novels with a double layer of meaning. On the one hand, these stories present a narrative that seems to confirm traditional role expectations in relation to women, but on the other hand the stories also question these roles and present alternatives. It is especially through the mirroring of the “angel” and “monster” images that women have achieved this ambiguity (and, possibly, subversion). By representing and mirroring both socially acceptable and deviant behavior, female authors were able to depict the still repressive tendencies of patriarchy.
My research in this context has been twofold. First, I wanted to examine how exactly woman writers used these images in their texts. For this purpose, I selected four novels by four distinct female authors, Shirley by Charlotte Brontë, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, and After Leaving Mr Mackenzie by Jean Rhys. Both the likeness and the differences in the use of the various images make these novels interesting “case studies.” A conceptual frame and an examination of the contemporary social context presented the basis for this examination; the four novels were subsequently examined to test my theses.
Through the use of such narrative techniques, contemporary readers obtained a clear impression of the valid norms and social roles for women, but they were also presented with alternatives. The second part of my research consists of an examination of the contemporary reviews that were published immediately after the appearance of each novel. A thorough examination of such contemporary reviews shows that the early readers did indeed pick up the various layers of meaning in these novels and that the use of the mirroring technique worked well as a consciousness-raising device.

"This Heretic Narrative" : de-centering the subject in Charlotte Brontë's "Villette" Picchi-Dobson, Vita Monette.
Reed College (Portland, Or.); Division of Literature and Languages.; English Dept.
2011
Contents: Advisor, Maureen Harkin.

Screening Jane Eyre : gender and the construction of character on film
Wisner, Sarah Jean
Honors project-Smith College, Northampton, Mass., 2011.
Date: 2011-06-02

Categories: Scholar

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Nelly, I am a Dalek

The screening at the Sarajevo Film Festival of Jane Eyre 2011 was followed by no less that 3000 people according to Balkan Insight:

Nearly 3,000 people attended the open-air screening of director Cary Fukunaga's "Jane Eyre" at the Sarajevo Film Festival on Wednesday night.
The following morning, Fukunaga and actor Michael Fassbender, who plays Lord Rochester, sat with fans and journalists at a "Coffee with..." session to discuss the film.
Both men talked about their backgrounds, and how they came to work together on "Jane Eyre." (...)
"Cary is a smart and precise director," he said. "It was great working with him, and I am delighted with what we've done with 'Jane Eyre.'"
Fukunaga talked about his early work making music spots, and his interest in "Jane Eyre."
“I wanted to adapt something, and my sister and mother love Charlotte Brontë," he said. "It was because of them that I made this movie." (Naida Balic)

An interview with the director and Michael Fassbender can be read on the festival's website. By the way, according to Movieman, the film will open in Germany next December 1st and Dziennik informs that the Polish release will be next October 14th. The Czech one was yesterday and the local press is reviewing the film:

Bylo by asi možné spekulovat o tom, jak moc klasická látka přidusila mladého režiséra a sebrala mu větší tvůrčí odvahu. Jana Eyrová není nic víc než filmařsky vybrané převyprávění povinné četby, které však navzdory kultivovanosti a úctě k tradici nepůsobí mrtvě a muzeálně. Na rozdíl od některých předešlých filmových verzí nelpí jen na milostné linii, ale účelně odkazuje na pochmurnost gotických románů. I přes přiměřenou spokojenost a respekt k Fukunagově vypravěčské grácii si však stále nejsem jistý, zda se podobný typ snímku nehodí spíše jako ozdoba zasloužilého filmařského důchodu.  (Vit Schmarc in Radiowave) (Translation)

Check other reviews on Topzine (which has the dubious honour of being the only one which considers Dario Marianelli's excellent music...boring!), iDNES,  filmserver, Novinky, Týden and Aktuálně. E15 interviews Cary Fukunaga and Volny traces profiles of both Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender.

IndieWire's The Playlist talks about the awards chances of Wuthering Heights 2011:

Andrea Arnold‘s excellent films to date, “Red Road” and “Fish Tank,” haven’t really been Oscar material; gritty British dramas, mostly star-free, dealing with tough subject matter. But you may not remember that Arnold already has an Oscar: her 2003 film “Wasp” won the Best Live-Action Short Film award at the 2005 ceremony. She’s also got two BAFTAs as well, so it’s not like she’s unfamiliar to the red carpet. Her new film isn’t really on Oscar-prognosticator’s radars, thanks to a basically unknown cast, but it does, of course, adapt the classic novel by Emily Brontë, and has made it to the screen many times before, the 1939 version with Laurence Olivier picking up eight Oscar nominations. It’s in the official competition at Venice, which bodes well, and has Film4 behind it, who had awards success with “Slumdog Millionaire” a few years back. If it turns out to be exceptional—and we’re expecting that from Arnold—all it’ll take is a swift pick up by someone like Focus (whose other Brontë flick, “Jane Eyre,” unfortunately looks unlikely to get the necessary traction, considering its March release) and the film could become a major player, given that it’s source material is far more Oscar-friendly than, say “Fish Tank” was. (Oliver Lyttleton)

SugarScope interviews the author Alyxandra Harvey:

What are your own favourite spooky books or films?
I don’t like gory horror movies and I can’t watch most of the really terrifying ghost films either. I’d just lie awake at night and freak myself right out since I live in a gently haunted house. But I do love ghostly moments, such as in Wuthering Heights when Heathcliff leans out the window yelling for Cathy to haunt him. It's just lovely.  (cari3232)

The New York Times reviews the London production of The Village Bike by Penelope Skinner:

But more important, perhaps, “The Village Bike” is about a subject that when it’s been addressed on stage (or film, for that matter) of late it has usually been presented with a wink, a smirk or a life-affirming (but still comic) roar. That’s pure sexual desire as experienced by a woman. And not as in a transcendent “Wuthering Heights” kind of passion. I’m talking about basic biological impulses that drive women to not think – at least not with their heads. (Ben Brantley)

The Wall Street Journal reviews the biography A Book of Secrets by Michael Holroy but reminds us of his second book, a biography of Lytton Strachey:

Strachey was the great liberator of biography, developing a style that took possession of its subjects. His pointillism, his reduction of "eminent Victorians" to a series of images that fixed them firmly in the popular imagination, rescued biography from its 19th-century imprisonment inside its subjects' own words. If you read Elizabeth Gaskell's 1857 biography of Charlotte Brontë, for example, you see how much she is shackled to quoting, at length, her subject's letters, a process that turns biographer into factotum. (Carl Rollyson)

The Liverpool Echo discusses the sale of a Grade II cottage in the area:

You could almost imagine Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë or, indeed, any of the other romantic writers, perched by the window or sitting on the front lawn. (Janet Tansley)

The Royal International Horse Show is presented like this in The Times:

Live equestrianism Today, 2pm, Sky Sports 4: Miniature horses (think Escalado), women riding side-saddle (think Wuthering Heights) and the Sky Sports Speed Classic (don’t touch that remote) at the Royal International Horse Show[.] (Rick Broadbent)

La Gaceta (Spain) talks about the architecture of Comillas:

Con un palacete inglés tan excéntrico como el del duque, que parece un caserón de novela de las Brontë, conviven viviendas indianas[.] (Jorge Bustos) (Translation)

The column of Antonio Muñoz Molina in El País (Spain) includes a Brontë reference:

La intrépida Jane Eyre es tan la Cenicienta como la Pretty Woman de Julia Roberts o aquellas "reinas por un día" que hacían llorar a nuestras madres y a nuestras vecinas en los remotos concursos de la televisión en blanco y negro. (Translation)

Der Westen (Germany) presents the trilogy Der schwarze Lord by Andrea Mertz:

Literarische Vorbilder sind Frank Schätzing, aber auch englische Klassiker wie Jane Austen, die Brontë-Schwestern und Shakespeare. „Zuletzt habe ich das Buch ,Weiblich, ledig, untot’ gelesen, ein Vampir-Roman im Sex-and-the-City-Stil“, erzählt Mertz. (Pia Maranca) (Translation)

Notimex and Cadena 3 (picture source) mention the last performances of the Espinosa & Israilevich Cumbres Borrascosas musical en Córdoba (Argentina). Julie Wimmer selects Jane Eyre on her personal top five on Associated Content; Oasis de Lettres (in French) reviews Wuthering Heights; Portland Book Review posts about Jane Slayre; The Alumnae Theatre Company's Blog is posting about the current rehearsals of an upcoming production of Polly Teale's After Mrs. Rochester.

Finally, Tanaudel posts on Flickr a self-explanatory Wuthering Daleks image.

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

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Happy birthday, Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë was born on a day like today in 1818. Critics have always wondered what in her upbringing may have given way to her one and only novel, her masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Speculations and theories apart, we are pretty sure that nothing would have come of it without an imagination that knew no boundaries.

Such is the strength of her story that 193 after her birth it continues to touch and reach to people all over the world. And a whole new 'generation' of readers is about to get to it soon as Andrea Arnold's new take on Wuthering Heights reaches big screens all over the world in the coming months.

Picture:
Martin Williamson
'Top Withens - Wuthering Heights'
Acrylic on canvas
60cm x 60cm

EDIT: Other blogs and websites paying homage to Emily Brontë: Bridgette Booth, For Books' Sake, Man of La Book, The Canadian Press, Norwich Bulletin, My Love-Haunted Heart, simply audioblog, Readersforum's blog, the Brontë Sisters, 51liviu, Diario di Pensieri Persi (in Italian)...

Categories: Emily Brontë, Reminder

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A Cheerful Sort of Gal, by Yorkshire standards

The Yorkshire Evening Post asks if there still exists the Yorkshire identity:

“We have so much here that we want to be connected with in terms of heritage – the Dales, the Pennines, Brontë country, abbies, cathedrals – and that’s all married with the modernity and style of a city like Leeds. There is a very real sense of pride that you don’t get with other counties[says Kevin Grady, head of Leeds Civic Society.]

Probably this Harvard student would agree with that:

Finally, feet planted firmly on top of the cove, I took in the miles of green countryside rolling away beneath me. Gorgeous as it was, the most striking perception atop Malham Cove is not visual but auditory. The wind isn’t quite a howl—it’s more of a mournful shriek, punctuated by eerie spells of silence and the bleating of lambs. It’s a scene straight out of Wuthering Heights, and by the time I started my descent, I believed that Emily Brontë must have been, by Yorkshire countryside standards, a cheerful sort of gal.  (Jorge A. Araya in The Crimson Harvard)

The Southern Reporter talks about melancholia and quotes Charlotte Brontë:

Charlotte Brontë wrote of her sister Emily’s poems, “I thought them condensed and terse, vigorous and genuine. To my ear, they had also a peculiar music – wild, melancholy, and elevating.”

Upwood Park is the subject of an article on Out & About:

Upwood Park is pleasantly situated close to the Yorkshire Dales National Park and one mile from the Brontë village of Haworth and the Worth Valley Steam Railway.(...)
Haworth is situated on the eastern slope of the Pennines. The Brontës arrived at the village in 1820 with a procession of seven carts and one covered wagon leading up the Main Street (then known as Kirkgate) and finishing at Haworth Parsonage. (Mike Cowton)

Jane Eyre has been presented at the Melbourne International Film Festival 2011:

JANE EYRE (M) (120 min)
Sun 24 Jul 6:30 PM Greater Union Cinema 6
JANE EYRE (M) (120 min)Fri 29 Jul 9:00 PM Greater Union Cinema 3

The Sydney Morning Herald and Twitch recommends it:

The film is beautifully shot, though it’s recommended you rug up to see this one at the movies. The filmmakers decided to play up the Gothic elements of Brontë’s novel and the blue hues and scenes of driving rain on the stony moors will make you shiver in your seat. (Simone Mitchell)

Mia Wasikowska plays Jane Eyre with both determination and meekness. She juggles the dual role of this complicated woman with ease, and depicts her as a broken character, sometimes despondent and often unwilling, but still conscientious in her values and morals. (...)
Michael Fassbender, brilliant as always, gives a brooding performance as Mr. Rochester master of the house. He is extremely sarcastic, cynical, bitter, direct and blunt, and this is all captured in his first encounter with Jane. The complexity of his relationship with her is captured perfectly. (...)
Not your typical period drama, Jane Eyre combines the best of the book and Fukunaga's own focus on strong emotions to deliver a completely satisfying and evocative film. (Kwenton Bellette)

A few Czech websites (the film opens today in the Czech Republic) also review the film:

Problém, který s Janu Eyrovou ale mám je nějaký silnější moment, který dle mého názoru snímek postrádá. Možná je to záměr a tvůrci schválně opouštějí od srdceryvných scén, ale pokud se jedná o tak slavnou knihu, která se učí na středních školách, chtělo to látce dodat nějaký ten moment navíc, protože jinak film působí jako dobře odvyprávěná podívaná, která se vás ale nijak emocionálně nedotkne. Postavám to možná přejete, ale nějaký pevnější vztah si k nim nevybudujete. Možná je to tím, že se tak nějak pořád vypráví a propracovanost se dostane jenom samotné Janě, ale například Rochester si svou minulost nebo jakoukoliv motivaci jenom vymluví. Postavám prostě chybí pevnější uchopení a osobitější charakter.  Zda se tvůrci drželi předlohy nebo ne vám nepovím, ale Jana Eyrová i tak zvládá vyprávět její příběh v nadprůměrném snímku, který Fukunaga dokázal mistrně zrežírovat. Skvělá práce s kamerou, výborní herci, atmosféra nebo dobré vystihnutí doby posouvají snímek mezi ty lepší filmy tohoto roku, ale málo propracované postavy a absence emotivnějších momentů mu chybí k zařazení mezi ty nejlepší.  (Langsuyar gives 7/10 on Tipnafilm) (Translation)

Každopádně právě kvůli hercům a spoustě romantizujícím kompozicím skvělé kamery se Jana Eyrová vyplatí. Maximálně využít potenciál předlohy z doby pozdního romantismu a přitom totálně potlačit červenoknihovní podbízivost – to je umění.

Jana Eyrová prostě funguje ve všech směrech. Takhle by měla vypadat každá filmová adaptace klasiky. (Totalfilm) (Translation)

The Hindu talks about The Bible as a book:

My professor pointed me to the King James because that was the translation Thomas Hardy and Charlotte Brontë read. (Latha Anantharaman)

The Leonard Lopate Show (WNYC) interviews

Elaine Charnov, director of education, programming and exhibitions at the New York Public Library, talks about the exhibition “Celebrating 100 Years,” which includes artifacts belonging to literary giants such as William Shakespeare, Charlotte Brontë, and Jorge Luis Borges along with historically important items from the Age of Discovery to the creation of the Soviet Union, World War II, the Civil Rights movement, and the AIDS crisis. The exhibition is organized into four thematic sections: Observation, Contemplation, Society, and Creativity, and is on view through December 31.

MacLeans analyses the evolution of the Masterpiece Theatre programme:

The home of classics such as Traffik and The Jewel in the Crown looked and felt dated. Though it was showing acclaimed dramas such as Bleak House, viewers labelled it their “grandparents’ TV.” Making matters worse was a scheduling schizophrenia: a Brontë period drama would be followed by a contemporary thriller like Prime Suspect and then a Hercule Poirot cozy mystery. (Patricia Treble)

The Reading Eagle reviews the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's production of Hamlet:

Mairin Lee (Elizabeth Bennet in "Pride") is unrecognizable as Ophelia, Hamlet's hapless love. She is the consummate Victorian madwoman, right out of "Jane Eyre," and you can see the exact moment when her mind starts to go. (Susan Pleé?a)

Playbill announces the death of the actress Jane White who played Bertha in a 1958 Broadway production of Jane Eyre (written by Huntington Hartford); Litro posts about the Brontës.

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

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Jane Eyre in Interlochen

Gordon & Caird's Jane Eyre is performed at Interlochen, MI:

Interlochen Center of the Arts
Jane Eyre
HS Repertory Theatre Production
Saturday, July 30, 2011 - 7:00pm
Sunday, July 31, 2011 - 1:30pm
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 - 7:00pm
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - 7:00pm

Categories: Jane Eyre, Music, Theatre

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Cruel yet compelling

The other 2011 Brontë film, Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre, is reviewed in The Prague Post:

Though Fukunaga has rearranged the narrative - rather than beginning with her childhood, the film opens with Jane (Mia Wasikowska) fleeing over the Yorkshire Moors and collapsing outside the house of clergyman St. John Rivers (Jamie Bell) - Jane Eyre employs few gimmicks. Bronte's novel is depicted with the conservatism of someone who's afraid to fiddle too much with the original. Rather than being governed by overstylized cinematography, then, it is characters alone that drive the narrative. (...)
One strand that's definitely undercooked is Jane Eyre's horror element: bedrooms mysteriously set ablaze and house visitors being stabbed as they sleep. Though this is all covered, it's not pronounced enough and therefore not horrific enough. Here is a rare case of a movie that could actually do with more melodrama: orchestral blasts, punch-drunk camera angles, the occasional demonic screech. (...)
As a story in its own right, Jane Eyre remains in vibrant health. Though its rebellious lead doesn't sparkle quite so uniquely anymore, Jane is still a vividly alluring character, which Wasikowska realizes to stunning effect. Fukunaga's no-nonsense approach doesn't mar Bronte's novel per se, but neither does it add anything innovative of its own. It lacks the "wow" factor that would place it in the league of great literary adaptations like Lean's Great Expectations and Hitchcock's Rebecca. (Will Noble)

The Guardian thinks that the movie is Oscar material with an obvious handicap:

Once Hollywood's starlet-du-jour Mia Wasikowska signed up to this adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s novel, it immediately shot into the award-bait category. And with Michael Fassbender opposite her, as the mysterious Mr Rochester, there's potential for both to make their major-gong breakthrough. But the early release (March 2011 in the US; we're waiting until the autumn over here) says that there's little confidence in it building enough momentum to win anything. (Henry Barnes, Catherine Shoard, Andrew Pulver and Xan Brooks)

The film opens next August 11th in Australia and several newspapers offer double movie passes (picture).

 BT Life recommends the film as family entertainment:

A little something for the more bookish among us. This new adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s gothic classic has a strong pedigree – it stars up-and-comer Mia Wasikowska as Jane, Judi Dench as Mrs Fairfax, Michael Fassbender as Rochester and Jamie Bell as Rivers, and the director is Cary Joji Fukunaga. (Tim Guest)

AVN presents the DVD edition of Eternal like this:

From Charlotte Brontë and Shakespeare to television's The Ghost Whisperer, paranormal activity has fueled the romance genre for centuries.

Westender reviews the latest film by Michael Winterbottom, The Trip:

The Trip also serves as a surprisingly deft character study of (the fictional) Coogan. Self-conscious and confrontational, he betrays his vulnerability through weary asides (“Everything’s exhausting at our age”) and unlikely confessions (he finds ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All” profoundly moving). In order to justify his suspect decisions and behaviour, he attempts to pass himself off as a Byronic hero. In turn, we come to see the irascible Coogan much like he views Wuthering Heights’ Heathcliff: “Cruel yet compelling.” 

The Portland Mercury alerts to a tribute concert to Kate Bush where local bands will play covers from Kate's repertoire, including Wuthering Heights (Onesongfortoday posts about one of its covers, the one by Angra). Tonight at Holocene (8:30 PM); Illuusioita reviews The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in Finnish.


Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Wuthering Heights

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Venice and First Look to Heathcliff

It's been finally confirmed that Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights is on the official selection for competition of the 68th Venice Film Festival (31st August to 10th September 2011):

ANDREA ARNOLD - WUTHERING HEIGHTS
UK, 128'
Kaya Scodelario, Nichola Burley, Steve Evets, Oliver Milburn 

Not only that. The film's UK distributor Artificial Eye has released the first picture of James Howson as Heathcliff as you can see above. Artificial Eye's Press release:

Artificial Eye is delighted to announce Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights will have its World Premiere at this year’s 68th Venice International Film Festival. Wuthering Heights is Academy Award®-winning writer-director Andrea Arnold‘s third feature following the BAFTA® award winning, Fish Tank and Cannes Jury Prize winning Red Road. Wuthering Heights is produced by Robert Bernstein and Douglas Rae of Ecosse Films and Kevin Loader of Free Range Films with Executive Producer Tessa Ross for Film4. Wuthering Heights was developed and co-funded by the Lottery through the UK Film Council’s film funds. Film4, Goldcrest and Screen Yorkshire are co-financiers and international sales are handled by HanWay Films.
A Yorkshire hill farmer on a visit to Liverpool finds a homeless boy on the streets. He takes him home to live as part of his family on the isolated Yorkshire moors where the boy forges an obsessive relationship with the farmer’s daughter.
Based on the novel by Emily Brontë and adapted for the screen by Andrea Arnold and Olivia Hetreed, Wuthering Heights stars newcomer James Howson as “Heathcliff” and Kaya Scodelario (Skins) as “Cathy” alongside Steve Evets (“Joseph”), Oliver Milburn (“Mr Linton”), and Nicola Burley (“Isabella Linton”). Arnold is joined by long-time creative collaborators, Director of Photography, Robbie Ryan BSC and Editor, Nicolas Chaudeurge.

IndieWire's Shadow and Act says:

It features the first non-white actor to play the lead male role (aka Heathcliff) in the dozen or so times the literary work has been adapted for both the big and small screens. (...)
The ethnicity of the character Heathcliff, who’s really the heart of the novel, has been the subject of some debate amongst academics; author of the original work, Brontë, describes Heathcliff as a “dark-skinned gypsy in aspect and a little lascar” - lascar being a 17th century term used to describe sailors from India or Southeast Asia. Throughout the book, the darkness of his skin is emphasized, though once he’s described as not being a “regular black.” Another character suggests him to be of some Chinese ancestry.
Brontë, unfortunately doesn’t give enough for us to be certain of Heathcliff’s ethnic origins, however, if anything, I think we could all probably agree that one thing he isn’t is Caucasian - not strictly so anyway. He’s likely of mixed heritage - although just about every previous actor who’s played the character on film has pretty much been white - Laurence Olivier, Timothy Dalton, and Ralph Fiennes, notably. So, the casting of Howson may actually be closer to what Brontë had in mind when she penned her opus.
Regardless, he’s playing the part.
The Andrea Arnold film, which was initially announced earlier last year (although it had been in the works since 2008, passing from one set of actors/directors to another, before landing in Arnold’s hands), was shot in secrecy. In fact, the casting of Howson was kept concealed throughout the production… until the announcement last fall when the film was going into post-production. No one outside of the film’s crew, and likely the Venice Film Festival’s curators, has seen anything of the film - not a still image, no footage, nothing.  (tambay)

Check also Rope of Silicon.

Thanks to the anonymous comment who pointed us in the direction of Channel Four's Twitter/ Facebook.

Photo credit: Agatha A. Nitecka

EDIT: Reactions: HeyUGuys!,  Montreal Gazette, The Guardian, DIY...

Categories: Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering_Heights

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Janes in Poland and Greece

Jane Eyre 2006 has been published in Poland:

Jane Eyre (2 DVD)

Publisher: Best Film
Release date: 7 April 2011
Duration: 330 min
Picture format: 16:9
Sound: DD 2.0, English, Polish Lector
Languages: DD 2.0 English, DD 2.0 Polish
Polish subtitles

Epicka opowieśc o miłości, kłamstwach i ukrywanej namiętności...

Odcinek 1.
Sierota Jane Eyre przeżywszy nieszczęśliwe dzieciństwo marzy o nowych doświadczeniach. Przyjmuje posadę guwernantki w Thornfield Hall, gdzie opiekuje się pełną życia francuską dziewczynką o imieniu Adele. Jane  wkrótce zaczyna czuć, że zakochuje się w ponurym i zapalczywym panu domu - Rochesterze. Udaje się go jej ocalić z przerażającego pożaru i odkrywa, że za murami Thornfield Hall kryje się wiele niesamowitych tajemnic.

Odcinek 2.
Jane wraca znad łoża śmierci ciotki i odkrywa, że pan Rochester zaleca się do pięknej Blanche Ingram. Okazuje się, że to jednak Jane jest naprawdę bliska panu Rochesterowi. Gdy wszystko zdaje się szczęśliwie
układać i zbliża się data ślubu, zza oceanu przybywa tajemniczy gość, ujawniając przeszłość pana domu i uniemożliwiając małżeństwo. Jane odchodzi. Nie mając grosza przy duszy, znajduje schronienie u pastora i
jego rodziny. Tam odkrywa także głęboko ukrywaną tajemnicę własnej przeszłości.

And the Jane Eyre Real Reads edition for young readers has been translated to Greek:

Τζέιν Έιρ
Charlotte Brontë
Translator: Κάντζολα - Σαμπατάκου Βεατρίκη
Artist : Vanessa Lubach
Adaptation : Gill Tavner
Publisher :  Σαββάλας
Year of issue : 2011
ISBN : 960-493-048-6
Pages : 79

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Translations

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Pumping Iron and Tea Part(ies)

Several newspapers carry the news of the death of the British actress Sheila Burrell (1922-2011) (see The Telegraph, The Times or The Guardian, for instance). On this blog we remember her for her small role in Jane Eyre 1996 as Lady Eshton (picture).

The World Book Night organisers (the next edition will be 23rd April 2012) have asked readers to nominate their top ten most beloved books. The list of the top 100 has been released and includes:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Selected by 209 people.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Selected by 161 people.

It's almost a year until the next Olympic Games in London and The Independent publishes how various athletes are preparing themselves. Like Zoe Smith, weightlifter:

"I was struggling with my A-levels and my training. Obviously, they're both very important, but I thought, 'I've only got one shot at the Olympics in my home country; why not give it my all?' So I decided to put my studies on hold for a while, just until after the Games, and concentrate completely on weightlifting for a year. Hopefully, I can give a great performance at the Games and then I'll probably continue with my studies."

Smith had been studying A-level English literature, French and art at Townley Grammar School in Bexleyheath in Kent. Instead of poring over Jane Eyre and The Importance of Being Earnest, she has been pumping iron next door to Brontë Country on the campus of Leeds Metropolitan University. (Simon Turnbull)

We are not really sure if Charlotte Brontë would like to be in this company but in the Washington Examiner we read (context: you know the Allen vs Wasserman Schultz controversy),

That is indistinguishable in tone from the writings of Brontë and Austen, as in: "Your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike."
The world would be a better place (and much, much more literate) if there were more people like Allen West and Charlotte Brontë. It would be a better place, too, if every department of race/gender studies were shut down immediately, and every "professor" therein put to work cleaning toilets. (Noemie Emery)

Fascinating oximoron, indeed as gender and postcolonial studies mark one of the most important critical reappraisals of Charlotte's works. Really, we don't see Charlotte in the Tea Party frontline. And please, stop to compare the original, witty and incisive prose of Charlotte Brontë with the amorphous carbon copy of Mr West. Enough is enough.

Another sweeter Tea Party has been held in Fremantle, Australia:

Jane Eyre Tea Party
Celebrate the release of the new film adaptation of Jane Eyre at Fremantle Library. Join us for a luscious morning tea with scones, jam and cream. Dress for the occasion, enjoy selected readings by Marlish Glorie and test your knowledge: prizes courtesy of Universal Pictures International Australasia. RSVP required.

Pictures of the event can be found here.

The Void reviews the film Captain America saying

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is peevish, a word culled from Wuthering Heights to describe the kind of Brooklyn guy who gets beaten up in every alleyway in town and has a list of ailments longer than his arm preventing his enrolment in the WWII US war effort. (Johnny Messias)

Certainly, peevish is used in Wuthering Heights but also in Dickens, Fielding, Washington Irving, George Eliot or Shakespeare.

Hey You Guys.co.uk! talks about the upcoming British release of Jane Eyre 2011; Deadline Hollywood seems convinced that the Wuthering Heights 2011 will be at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival, but the film is not yet in the published lineup:

A good number of the Toronto titles will have first premiered at Venice, likely including Steve McQueen's (Hunger) second film, Shame, and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights, which both have some Oscar potential, at least on paper. (Pete Hammond)

E-Verse Radio considers Wuthering Heights 1939 one of the top five worst adaptations of a classic book.

Categories: In the News, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights

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Wuthering Heights Classical Comics Samples

Classical Comics Wuthering Heights adaptation will finally be available at the end of next month (August 31). If you are curious eight preview pages have been released both in the original text and quick text versions.

Script Adaptation: Sean M. Wilson
Artwork: John M. Burns
Lettering: Jim Campbell




Categories: Comics, Wuthering Heights

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Emily Brontë's Romantic Bard

Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights likely presence at the Venice Film Festival is mentioned in several media:

"Wuthering Heights" (Andrea Arnold)
Lowdown: A new take on Emily Brontë's romantic bard from the groundbreaking director of "Fish Tank" and "Red Road." (Gregory Ellwood in HitFix)

The Lido will also see an unusually strong U.K. presence consisting of Swedish helmer Tomas Alfredson's John Le Carre adaptation "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," from Blighty's Working Title; Andrea Arnold's "Wuthering Heights"; and Steve McQueen's "Shame," all previously tipped. (Nick Vivarelli in Variety)

 And Alt Film Guide.

Emily Brontë died too soon according to The Denver Post:

Emily Brontë. Although I didn't love reading “Wuthering Heights” in high school, I wish she had lived long enough to write more books. (Jayne Gest)

One of the many adaptations of her only novel is considered by The Philippines Star as one of the 25 most memorable films:

Hihintayin Kita sa Langit, 1991, Carlitos Siguion-Reyna. An adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, this well-written, well-photographed, well-scored melodrama looks well in Philippine setting. With the tandem of Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta and fine support from Jackielou Blanco, Eric Quizon and Michael de Mesa, it set a standard for “quality,” first-rate moviemaking hereabouts. (Mario A. Hernando)

The Guardian talks about a movie theatre in Jerusalem, Lev Smadar, where curiously enough Jane Eyre 2011 is being screened; Projectredhotmama and Three girls in a book (in French) review the film; another high school reading list which includes Jane Eyre in Holmdel Patch; My Bookshelf: Reading the Classics has read the novel and TheWittyGirl (on YouTube) and Le blog de Caro (in French) review it;  Period Movie Box reviews Jane Eyre 1996; Gothic Soul Mind & Heart, Cat Loves Yarn... and Scifi ands The North Orchard post about Wuthering Heights; luca.dorico posts a Heathcliff-inspired drawing on Flickr.

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

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Carlisle Floyd's Wuthering Heights in 2012

With a prologue (last summer in Montpellier), 2011 marks the rediscovery of Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering Heights with the performances given at the Minnesota Opera. Regrettably the 2012 coda that was announced in the American Symphony Orchestra 2011/2012 season with a Carnegie Hall (NY) concert performance of the opera has been cancelled and replaced by Franz Schmid's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

But 2012 can still be a Brontë operatic year. The Mittelsächsisches Theater (Freiburg, Germany) new season includes a production of Carlisle Floyd's 1958 Wuthering Heights opera. At this point nothing is known about cast or director, but the premiere is scheduled for February 11.

Categories: Music, Opera, Wuthering Heights

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Wuthering Venice?

Next Thursday the Venice Film Festival will disclose its full line-up. As we have published before rumour has it that Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights will be there. Screen Daily seems to confirm it:

The 68th Venice Film Festival, which will announce its full lineup this Thursday, is shaping up to be a powerhouse event, with a competition lineup expected to include three keenly awaited UK titles - Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights and Steve McQueen’s Shame. (...)
Arnold’s Wuthering Heights - her third feature - features UK TV actress Kaya Scodelario as Cathy and unknown black actor James Howson as Heathcliff. (Mike Goodridge)

Variety reviews the Brazilian film Como Esquecer which contains Wuthering Heights references as we have posted several times before:

An evocative, unsentimental character study, helmer Malu de Martino's "So Hard to Forget" focuses on an English professor who completely shuts down after being dumped by her longtime lesbian lover. Despite her quasi-poetic musings and constant references to "Wuthering Heights," Martino's heroine is nobody's idea of a romantic: Dour and self-centered, she's unrecognizable as the laughing, curly-haired sprite she appears to be in flashbacks. Implicitly imprisoned within its protag's consciousness, the pic's purview widens almost imperceptibly as she is reluctantly drawn back into the world of the living. Results could blossom in gay and femme-centered venues. (Ronnie Scheib)

Screen Junkies lists Wide Sargasso Sea (1992? 2006?) as one of its ten sexy romance movies:

“Wide Sargasso Sea” is a foreboding mixture of colonialism and erotic obsession. Based on the novel of the same title, “Wide Sargasso Sea” takes place in the Caribbean during the 19th century and is a prequel to “Jane Eyre.” A sexy and romantic relationship develops between an English man and native woman that gives way to lustful encounters. (breakstudios)

Words, Scribbles and Passion interviews the author Gervase Phinn:

Much of your work is anecdotal, so could I just ask: How important is experiences when it comes to writing?
There’s a view that the Brontë’s were closeted away in some vicarage in Howarth (sic). That they never saw anything or did anything and they had this brilliant imagination. Well that’s not true. They were quite widely travelled, who were very interested in people. And when they entered the house, Patrick Brontë, the father, invited many different people. I think, my view is, you have to be very observational. You have to have different experiences.

The Times lists several writers/musicians/artists who died young and includes Anne Brontë (29) on the list.  The Times-Picayune lists Mia Wasikowska's as one of the best performances of this half-year in its Oscar Minor Nominations while Filmfan (in Czech) announces the upcoming premiere of the film in the Czech Republic, next July 28th. Peachy Reviews takes a look at the 1944 adaptation and Leituras Brontëanas does the same with Jane Eyre 1983 (in Portuguese). Week Journal has posted a few pictures about reading her novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in Czech.Michael R. Allen publishes on Associated Content an article about the "Gothic Elements in Wuthering Heights"; Heroes and Hearbreakers suggests Toby Stephens's Rochester as a Professor X partenaire in an improbable Romantic Heroes meet Superheroes universe; Cocktail Hour is re-reading Wuthering Heights and Era Uma Vez and Things I love both post about the novel in Portuguese as well. Finally, the Brontë Sisters discusses Emily Brontë's religious beliefs.


Categories: Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights

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Miss Elliott and the Eldritch

Via The Squeee where a positive review can be read we have discovered this curious Jane Eyre derivative that has been recently self-published:

Miss Elliott and the Eldritch
By Laura Gayle Neubert
Published July 8, 2011
Pages 74
Lulu Press
File Format PDF
File Size 5.9 MB

Alone and haunted by her past, the indomitable Jane Eyre finds herself confronted not only by secrets within herself, but by Eldritch horrors from unfathomable realms. Will she be able to survive the horrors of these beasts and rescue her love Edward Rochester from madness...or worse? Part Brontë and part H.P. Lovecraft, this is a combination not to be missed, and a tale not to be forgotten.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre

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Staggeringly good picture

Tulsa World summarises the semester's film premieres:

"Jane Eyre": My only four-star review of the year belongs to the swooning and heartbreak of the latest take on Charlotte Brontë's book, a film that makes the class-system drama feel more alive than ever. Rarely do movies grasp such depth of emotion as does this staggeringly good picture. Young Mia Wasikowska as Jane and Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester must be remembered at Academy Award time. (DVD release Aug. 16) (Michael Smith)

The Guardian remembers a production of Chekhov's Dear Uncle in Scarborough and mentions the upcoming We Are Three Sisters production in Halifax:

Anton Chekhov's characters, like so many of their compatriots these days, it seems, are relocating to these shores. This autumn, his Three Sisters will be shifting to the Brontë Parsonage museum in Haworth for Blake Morrison's latest Northern Broadsides adaptation, while his Uncle Vanya has already been comfortably resettled in Ennerdale, thanks to Alan Ayckbourn. (Clare Brennan)

The Omaha World-Herald talks about the Brontë Festival in Omaha:

Actress Jill Anderson's one-woman show "Brontë,"  in which she plays early 19th century author Charlotte Brontë ("Jane Eyre"), sold out its entire run of July performances. Anderson added a show Saturday that also sold out. Four more dates, Aug. 3-6, have been added since. Performances are at 7 p.m.
Anderson said lectures and panel discussions related to the Brontës, as well as dramatic readings from their works, have also been popular, drawing upwards of 50 people to a drawing room at the castle home at 40th and Davenport Streets.
Another dramatic reading and discussion of Emily Brontë takes place today at 5 p.m., and a seminar on "Wuthering Heights" will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Information: 402-595-2199.

A local Brontëite in Bowling Green Daily News; The Boston Reader has read Jane Eyre on her iPhone and My Book Journal talks briefly about it; Fifty Books Project reviews Wuthering Heights; Love & Lilac has been to Haworth.

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

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Miss Portuguese Brontë

Via Leituras Brontëanas, we have discovered that Juliet Gael's Romancing Miss Brontë has been translated to Portuguese and published in Brazil:

Miss Brontë
Juliet Gael
Larousse
ISBN: 9788576358596

Charlotte Brontë passou a infância na lúgubre Haworth, uma pequena vila em Yorkshire, Inglaterra, criando com os irmãos histórias de um mundo imaginário. Anos mais tarde, usaria a mesma inspiração para escrever célebres obras, entre elas a primorosa Jane Eyre.
Apesar do crescente sucesso e da aclamação da crítica, Charlotte almejava algo mais. Integrar-se à glamourosa Londres e conhecer celebridades do mundo literário não era suficiente para preencher o vazio que corroia sua alma.
Quando tudo parecia sem sentido, o destino abriu-lhe um novo caminho. Arthur Bell Nicholls, presbítero de Haworth, que nutria em segredo um genuíno sentimento de amor por Charlotte, começou a cortejá-la. Com tantos embates encerrados no passado, Charlotte acreditava que agora, enfim, a felicidade estaria ao seu alcance.

Categories: Books, Translations

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An oil in canvas with a person in a silly bonnet

We are intrigued by this auction held today in Kennebuck, Maine, at JJ Keating Auctions:

Saturday, July 23 @ 10:00 A.M.
Garden Statuary, Home furnishings sold @9:30 A.M.
J.J. Keating’s Auction Gallery
Route 1 North, Kennebunk, Maine

We will have a fine blend of European & Oriental selections all through the day. This exceptional auction features Biedermeier furniture, an exceptional serpentine period commode, European silver, & fine accessories from the family of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last Emperor of Germany & King of Prussia. He was also the grandson of Queen Victoria and related to many kings and princes of Europe. The complementary Estates from prominent Portland & Kennebunk homes will make a sale not to be missed by Collectors and Decorators Alike!

It includes:

Paintings & Prints: Jacobus Bakhuyzen, Frederick Matzow, J. Bristol (attr.) landscapes; Signed o/b matador paintings;  Early Religious paintings ooc, o/b, etc.; Early ooc of gentleman scholar; Lucius W. Hitchcock (attr.) o/b “Portrait after Velasquez”;  Brontë sisters ooc;

As there is no image in the catalogue we don't know exactly what that Brontë sisters oil on canvas really is.

Laurence Cohen & Gina Barreca's column for the Hartford Courant contains a Brontë reference:

The Brontë sisters, Emily, Anne, Charlotte, published as Ellis, Acton and Currer Bell; when critics discovered they were sisters, they insisted their books were actually written by their dissolute brother Branwell because — and here's logic for you — no women could have written so much or so well.

This is a Times & Transcript article about reading, "once a luxury, now a nerd thing":

If you think about it, go back to the time in which any of the classics were originally published. When Sense and Sensibility or Jane Eyre or the Prince and the Pauper were originally released, they were the main form of entertainment to many. In a world without television and Internet, reading was one of the only ways a person could entertain herself of her own accord.  (Isabelle Agnew)

Blogcritics doesn't seem to understand the point of novel adaptations:

But reading a book requires us to conjure faces and feelings in our own imagination, subject to no person except ourselves. I have resisted watching the new Jane Eyre thus far, to avoid replacing the Mr. Rochester in my head with [Michael Fassbender]. (Anna Meade)

Several websites talk about the Imogen Poots's new role in Greetings from Tim Buckley and mention her performance as Blanche Ingram in Jane Eyre 2011:

The actress impressed in last year’s “Solitary Man” and this year, she was made her presence known in two period pieces, the criminally underseen Jordan Scott film “Cracks” and Cary Fukunaga‘s gothic “Jane Eyre.” (Kevin Jagernauth on Indiewire)

Aside from having the worst name in recent history, Poots recently appeared in Michael Fassbender's Jane Eyre as a person in a silly bonnet. (Anna Breslaw on ...ology)

Trashionista interviews the author Sasha Wagstaff:

What is your favourite book?
In terms of serious literature, Wuthering Heights is one of my favourites - I read it in three hours and I love the tortured love story between Cathy and Heathcliff. 

And Suzy Turner talks to the writer Mysti Parker:

Have you ever read a book that made you think 'wow'? If so, what book was it and why did it have such an effect on you?
There are so, so many…but I’ll have to say Jane Eyre. It’s been one of the few books that I can honestly say spurred my love of romance and romantic suspense. I was enamored with the timeless love between two soul mates set amongst the dark, twisted plot. 

The Staffordshire Sentinel talks about a local staging of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor:

Based on Sir Walter Scott's historical novel of feuding Scottish clans, forbidden love and enforced marriage, the story foreshadows gothic classics such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Fall of the House of Usher.

The Stage discusses UK black actors' lack of opportunities:

An upcoming film of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights will also cast a black Heathcliff (James Howson) in a role traditionally played by white actors (even though the novel hints that Heathcliff may not be white). (Ben Dowell)

La Nación (Argentina) reviews Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger:

En el relato de Waters resuena una mezcla de decadentismo y melodrama que recupera lo mejor de la narrativa de las hermanas Brontë, particularmente Cumbres borrascosas , y evoca, sin titubeos, a Rebecca , de Daphne du Maurier. (Armando Capalbo) (Translation)

And Revista Arcadia:

Otro rasgo distintivo de las obras de Waters es su gusto por imitar o hacer alusiones a obras literarias representativas del tiempo en el que sitúa sus propias historias. Así, las novelas victorianas toman préstamos de las tramas de Wilkie Collins, serpentean como los novelones de Charles Dickens y ofrecen escenas cuya propiedad podrían reclamar legítimamente las hermanas Brontë. (Alberto De Brigard) (Translation)

And Página 12 (Argentina):

De ahí el gran triunfo de El ocupante: es una novela sobre la caída de una clase social, la decadencia de lo que los ingleses llaman “la casa de campo”, pero también es una cita al gótico, a Poe, a las Brönte (sic), a los fantasmas de Henry James.  (Rodrigo Fresán) (Translation)

Periodista Digital (Spain) discusses the possible winners of the local reality show Supervivientes:

¿Por qué no debería ganar? Por que le ha echado mucho cuento al asunto. [Sonia] Monroy lleva mucho camino andado, sabe lo que el público quiere ver, pero se ha pasado con el drama y con su papel de heroína de 'Cumbres borrascosas'. (Sergio Espí) (Translation)

Le Figaro (France) reviews the film The Trip:

Et se prend pour ­Heathcliff au beau milieu des landes du Yorkshire, à quelques encablures de Haworth, le village des sœurs Brontë. (Emanuèle Frois) (Translation)

According to this press release the work of the photographer Thomas Devaux has a bit from the Brontës:

Son oeuvre mêlerait plutôt l’univers de Jack L’éventreur à celui de Jane Austen et des soeurs Brontë, en passant par celui du film Les Autres, d’Alejandro Amenábar. (Translation)

Les Inrocks (France) talks about pseudonyms:

Au début du XIXe siècle, c'est en masquant leur féminité que les soeurs Brontë s'inventent une destinée, Anne, Charlotte et Emily devenant respectivement Acton, Currer et Ellis Bell - ce qui évitera aux débordements de violence physique et psychique des Hauts de Hurlevent d'être associés à une fille de pasteur irlandais. (Bruno Juffin) (Translation)

Digital Fernsehen (Germany) recommends Jane Eyre 2006 now being broadcast on the Passion TV (see sidebar):

Die Serie erreichte bei ihrer Ausstrahlung in Großbritannien bis zu 28 Prozent Marktanteil und mehr als sieben Millionen Zuschauer. Sie erhielt mehrere Preise, darunter drei Emmys für Produktionsdesign, Kostüme und Hairstyling.  (Kai Dittmann) (Translation)

PressRepublica (Poland) reviews the recent Polish translation of Shirley and has a giveaway of three copies of the book:

Dalej zapewnia nas, że jej powieść jest "Rzeczą tak nieromantyczną, jak poniedziałkowy poranek, gdy wszyscy posiadający miejsce pracy mają obowiązek powstać i do niej się udać." Pisarka opowiada o czasach dla twardzieli, jej bohaterowie tłumią porywy serca i miłosne westchnienia, by sprostać konwenansom.
Choć wrzosowiska północnej Anglii i czas wojen napoleońskich napawają nasze serca melancholią, nie warto tęsknić za tamtą epoką. Na 640 stronicach swojej powieści Brontë uczy nas dlaczego. Główna bohaterka Shirley zakochana jest w Luisie, guwernerze pracującym u jej wuja. Ich miłość łączy się przede wszystkim z bólem i rozczarowaniem. Mężczyzna nie przyznaje się, że też ją kocha, ponieważ jest biedny i zbyt ambitny by zdradzić swoje uczucia.
A może nic się nie zmieniło i lęk przed miłością jest niezależny od epoki? Nadal dobrze się mają osoby, które nie ulegają emocjom i konsekwentnie realizują swój plan, tak ja pan Helstone:
"Pan Helstone - wówczas wikary w Briarfield - również pokochał Mary, a w każdym razie sobie ją upodobał. Choć uroda anioła przysporzyła jej kilku innych adoratorów, to właśnie on został wybrany z tego grona. Nie darzył jej tak płomiennym uczuciem jak pan Yorke, nie podporządkował jej się z taką czcią, z jaką robili to inni. Widząc ją w bardziej rzeczywistym świetle niż rywale, Helstone zawładnął nią tak, jak władał sobą i jego pierwsze oświadczyny zostały przyjęte."
Tym, którzy kochają szczerze, pozostaje bunt i nadzieja na lepsze czasy:
"Pan Yorke odparł, że absolutnie wierzy w Sąd Ostateczny. Jak inaczej wszyscy ci bezecnicy, którzy bezkarnie łamią niewinne dusze, nadużywają niezasłużonych przywilejów, odejmują chleb od ust biednym, terroryzują ludzi niskiego stanu i nadskakują bogaczom, mieliby dostać to na co zasłużyli?"
"Shirley" Charlotte Brontë jest idealną lekturą na leniwe wakacyjne wieczory, szczególnie wtedy kiedy jest się na urlopie i można zaczytać się do rana, a potem odsypiać zarwaną noc na plaży, ciesząc się, że tym razem nie jest to "poniedziałkowy poranek, gdy wszyscy posiadający miejsce pracy mają obowiązek powstać i do niej się udać." (Translation)

The Book Worm reviews briefly Clare B. Dunkle's The House of Dead Maids;  Louis Carlo Lim reviews Wuthering Heights (a book that Jenaissance is not able to understand/enjoy).

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

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