Jane Eyre. Explicit Content

Keighley News adds some details to the news published yesterday about the English Heritage grand scheme in Haworth:

The organisation is now asking property owners to submit their own ideas for enhancing their shops and creating a more authentic atmosphere for visitors to Main Street.
Wendy Breeze, owner of Mrs Beighton’s Sweet Shop, said: “I think the grant is an excellent idea. All the windows need replacing in the building and we were looking at getting a new shop front.
“It is not a listed building, but it is in a conservation area and anything you have done is expensive.”
Nikki Carroll, owner of Firths, said: “I think this street would benefit from some help to do up the shops. In a recession it is hard to keep going from day to day let alone spending money on putting in sash windows.
“It depends how they stipulate we have to use it, but I am open to suggestions.”
She added that it was time Haworth received some investment. “Haworth is the jewel in the crown from a Yorkshire tourism point of view, but far more money has been invested in Saltaire and Hebden Bridge,” she said.
“I do think the Council should invest more in this village to support the traders because if we are gone what is going to be left?”
The scheme coincides with the completion of work by the Council to help preserve the traditional character of the world-famous Bronte village.
New street furniture, including seats and signposts, have been put in place and natural stone setts and footpaths have been repaired in Main Street.  (Alistair Shand)

The Telegraph discusses Kate Bush's importance in British music:

From her dramatic entrance into music in the late Seventies as a precocious but otherwordly teenager unafraid to tackle the male lead in Brontë’s dark drama, to the unexpected release of two albums last year despite being perceived as slow worker, Bush has stubbornly refused to play by the traditional pop rules. (Bernardette McNulty)

The Daily Mail interviews the author Patrick Gale. Not a Brontëite, we are afraid:

Wutherin (sic) Heights. Perhaps it was my fault for having watched the 1939 Olivier/Oberon film version first - which, like most film versions, only covers a chunk of the book - but I never forgave the novel for its flabby structure and multiple endings. Worse, I had no sympathy for the ghastly people at this book's heart. If I'm to be force-fed Brontë, give me Jane Eyre any day! It is much the better novel, complete with horror childhood, roller-coaster plot, madwoman in the attic and the ultimate craggy hero. As for Heathcliff? I'd rather have a cup of tea.

Exactly the opposite of the Chilean author and politician Ernesto Ottone who recommends Wuthering Heights in La Segunda. Or the Italian writer Sara C. Zuccaro who also recommends it in this interview on Paperblog.

And The Independent asks for recent readings to Lynda La Plante:

Holiday reading?
Half of my holiday reading is usually for work. Aside from that I like biographies. I recently read The Crimes of Charlotte Brontë by James Tully, which was fascinating.

We can also think of some adjectives for that book and fascinating is not one of them.

Also in The Independent there is an article about the plan to annex part of Lancashire into the Yorkshire Dales National Park:

Meanwhile, down at Cowan Bridge, a village on the A65 whose claim to fame is as the home of the typhus-ridden school where the Yorkshire-born Brontë sisters were educated, there was acceptance of the plan.   (Jonathan Brown)

The California Literary Review has its own list of best and worst films of 2011:

Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre came out around the time that everyone was rushing to see The King’s Speech before the Oscars, and that may explain why it passed virtually unnoticed. It also had an extremely spooky trailer, as though they had taken the Charlotte Brontë classic and gone all Sleepy Hollow with it. It turned out not to be that over-the-top, and in fact is a marvelous adaptation of one of the darkest and weirdest entries in the Victorian reading list. Mia Wasikowska, still waifishly beautiful after her thankless turn in Tim Burton’s disappointing Alice In Wonderland, smolders and suffers at the hands of ill fate on the gorgeous, misty English moors. Before delighting us all as Magneto, Michael Fassbender put in a fine supporting performance as handsome lout Mr. Rochester. (Brett Harrison Davinger)

Blogdecine (in Spanish) also includes the film on its own list. It seems that the film was also mentioned in yesterday's (January 13) Jeopardy! One of the questions was who played Rochester in the latest film adaptation. The Georgia Film Critics Association has nominated Mia Wasikowska for Best Actress of the year.

Idoia Arbillaga says about the film in La Razón (Spain):

Respecto de [Jane Eyre], y eludiendo un posible sesudo contraste con cada elemento narrativo de la novela de Charlotte Brontë, cabe decir que capta el vigor del texto y se ve reforzado por una ambientación, fotografía y unos planos de detalle magníficos. La protagonista logra conmovernos, logra encender la semilla de la fuerza, resolución y capacidad de esfuerzo que toda mujer lleva dentro; en la más íntima esencia de nuestra femineidad, todas somos Jane Eyre. ¿Cómo las hermanas Brontë lograron, en mitad de los páramos de Yorkshire, solteronas y aisladas, escribir obras como ésta, y la inigualable «Cumbres borrascosas»? Sin duda el film reproduce lo esencial de la novela. (Translation)

Michael Fassbender's connection with Jane Eyre was mentioned by the host of the recent 17th annual Critics' Choice Awards:

But in our opinion, it was The Office writer and star Mindy Kaling who stole the show with her mini tribute to Michael Fassbender, who was unfortunately absent.
"I'm sorry, can we just talk about Michael Fassbender for a second? ...Who is this guy? He's sexy for every type of woman," she said while presenting with Community actor Donald Glover. "If you are old fashioned, he was in Jane Eyre, if you are a huge nerd, he was in X-Men, and if you're kind of a weirdo pervert he was in Shame as a sex addict. Where is he? This is why I came here tonight, to meet him!" (Sandie Angulo Chen in iVillage)

And in the Evening London Standard:

Or take Michael Fassbender, an actor who is obviously smart. You'll find him at home in a costume drama such as Jane Eyre as well as indie films such as Shame and Fish Tank: either way he hasn't made a bad movie yet. (Richard Godwin)

Or The Guardian:

He's the go-to guy for any director in search of a square-jawed romantic hero (Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre) a troubled Mitteleuropean visionary (Jung in A Dangerous Method), a nasty seducer of young girls (in Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank) or a fanatical Irish Republican hunger-striker (Hunger). (...)
He constantly mentions his mother Adele in interviews, whether as a Jane Eyre fan whose enthusiasm affected his decision to take the role of Rochester, or as a surprisingly liberal-minded spokesman for male nudity.  (John Walsh)

IndieWire's The Playlist also gives an honorable mention to Jane Eyre 2011 on its best-of-2011 list:

Cary Fukunaga’s "Jane Eyre" featuring two rich performances by Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska (who is the greatest and I hope is a huge star one day). (Rodrigo Pérez)

Probably the film will feature in some of the best-of-2012 lists in Belgium. Good reviews in general, published on Cutting Edge, De Standaard (who also runs an article about Michael Fassbender), Knack, Cinenews, Le Soir (plus Michael Fassbender article), La Libre Belgique, and some not so good: Digg, La Dernière Heure and L'Avenir (Luxembourg). A neutral article on Brussel Nieuws.

Last Saturday's The Guardian Prize Crossword contained a Brontë mention:

25 Person from Riga in unpleasant surroundings — is it Brussels? (8) (Araucaria)

Which turns out to be... Villette.

The Montreal Gazette has ideas about how teenagers can read more books:

There's lots of controversy over the fact that Quebec students aren't reading enough books. But maybe that's because, unlike TV and video games, books have no warnings. Anyone can buy them without adult supervision, which makes them unattractive. Books obviously need warnings, too. For instance: "Hamlet: This play contains scenes of lust, sexuality, sword fighting, violence, foul language, suicide and murder most foul."
Similar messages could warn of murder in Crime and Punishment, incest in Macbeth and child abuse in Jane Eyre. To add to the allure, literature should be sold in brown paper wrapping with warnings saying: "Explicit Content - minors must show proof of age before purchase." (Josh Freed)

Jennifer Salway talks about some of her former jobs in the Daily Express:

Meanwhile here's a list of some odd jobs I've done in my time: hair dressers' junior, scene painter, chambermaid, kitchen maid, box-office clerk, barmaid, ice-cream seller, receptionist, governess (my Jane Eyre days but no Mr Rochester, sadly), nanny, teacher, messenger and (many times) waitress.

Sue Arnold reviews The Song of Achilles's audiobook in The Guardian:

How do you persuade anyone under 30 and, more specifically, young men interested only in sport, action movies and hair products (my student son, for instance) to read Homer? By giving them this exciting, sexy, violent Superman version of the Iliad, that's how. Strictly speaking, like Wide Sargasso Sea to Jane Eyre[.]

The Hindu remembers that

Emily Brontë published her weird and artful “Wuthering Heights” when she was 29, a year before she died. (Latha Anantharaman)

Joan Uda at The Helena Independence Record has a  new ebook reader:

This year my personal Santa Claus gave me an electronic reader. It’s a cute little thing, about as long and wide as a mass-market paperback and weighing about the same. Many download books are free, so now it has two good dictionaries, a Bible, some classics like “Pride and Prejudice” and “Jane Eyre” and a few newer inexpensive books.

The North Jersey Record explains how to write a Twilight-like teen romance novel:

"They told me he was bad, but I knew he was sad," sang The Shangri-Las about their outlaw biker in 1964's "Leader of the Pack." They could have been talking about Edward Cullen, the ageless "teen" vampire hero of Stephenie Meyer's 2005 novel "Twilight," credited for jump-starting the "paranormal romance" phenomenon. For that matter, they might have been talking about Heathcliff, the bad-but-sad hero of "Wuthering Heights," who was the 1847 equivalent of a biker or vampire: a – shudder! – gypsy.  (Jim Bickerman)

The Toronto Star is talking about a perfume (Calèche by Hermes) but begins the article like this:

In this most serious of months, I find myself reaching for the classics: those pretty reissued paperbacks by Austen and the Brontës, my annual Mitford spree, a dab of Brideshead. (Leanne Delap)

According to Lisa de Moraes from the Washington Post this is how a contemporary Heathcliff would dress. Describing Jeremy Irons:

That’s not easy to pull off when dressed as Emily Brontë’s tortured hero, Heathcliff — rough brown scarf nestled in the neck of a soft white shirt under sturdy brown vest, rough-hewn pants tucked into sturdy boots.

La Tercera (Chile) begins an article about the publication of a Jane Austen derivative with Charlotte Brontë's words about Ms Austen:

Le faltaba "aire", dijo Charlotte Brontë. Le faltaban "cielos azules". Nunca le gustó Orgullo y prejuicio. (Roberto Careaga C.) (Translation) 

The Russian director Aleksander Sokurov is interviewed in Wiener Zeitung (Austria):

Wenn Sie Sprache für überschätzt halten, wieso ist Ihr "Faust" dann so stark von den Dialogen geprägt?

Nur schwache Filmemacher haben Angst vor guten Dialogen. Ich empfinde es als Unart unserer Zeit, wenn wir lieber einen Internet-Chat führen als eine gute Unterhaltung. Wenn in meinen Filmen wichtige Dinge verhandelt werden, dann darf dazu gern viel geredet werden. Denken Sie doch an die tollen BBC-Verfilmungen von Charles Dickens oder den Brontë-Schwestern. Da wird ohne Unterlass geredet. Für mich ist das ein Hochgenuss! (Matthias Greuling and Alexandra Zawia) (Translation)

Witchblog, Simply Books, The French Table (in French) and Aus dem Leben eines Bücherwurms (in German) review Jane Eyre 2011;  El blog de Gustavo Arengo posts about Charlotte Brontë;  Humanities Roundtable has a discussion going on around Wuthering Heights; A Rapariga dos Livros reviews (in Portuguese) a Portuguese translation of Charlotte Brontë's The Spell (O Feitiço).