(Maria) Branwell Park

The Moderate Voice discusses the proposed censorship laws SOPA/PIPA and reminds us that piracy wasn't born with the internet - it had been around for a long, long time already:

Ironically, the copyright infringers of the 19th century were headquartered in NYC.  Harper Brothers (now HarperCollins, part of the Murdoch empire) “printed pirated copies of works by such British authors as Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë. (Kathy Gill)

Several websites mention Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights as part of the Sundance Film Festival. From ArtInfo:

Andrea Arnold, the British director of the grimly realistic “Red Road” and “Fish Tank,” has a special fascination for furious revenge, which is why her tackling of Cathy and Heathcliff’s brutalizing romance hews close to the spirit of Emily Brontë’s Gothic masterpiece. Arnold aligns their passionate, blighted love with the wildness of the Yorkshire moors, as stark and infested a terrain as the heath in “King Lear,” and peppers the terse exchanges with savage imprecations and the soundtrack with cacophonous nature — howling wind, rain, trees, dogs, insects. If the novel's Heathcliff is of indeterminate origin — it's speculated that he is a Gypsy, Lascar, or an American — Arnold has unambiguously cast black actors in the role, suggesting that he is a victim of racial bigotry rather than class prejudice. Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon wouldn’t believe it possible. (Graham Fuller)

And from Beyond Chron:

“Fish Tank” director Andrea Arnold upends the Emily Brontë classic “Wuthering Heights” with her non-romantic treatment and her casting a black actor as Heathcliff. (Peter Wong)

ComingSoon:

Andrea Arnold's first two films, Red Road and Fish Tank, were terrific, so we're hoping to finally getting around to seeing her take on the literary classic Wuthering Heights. (Edward Douglas)

VueWeekly places the US/Canada premiere in February/March:

Another Scot, Andrea Arnold, sweeps us into her handheld-shot, teenage-cast vision of Wuthering Heights.  (Brian Gibson)

The Costume Designers Guild has nominated Jane Eyre 2011 in the Excellence in Period Film Category. Many websites praise Michael Fassbender's performance in Shame and mention his previous Rochester in Jane Eyre 2011, but Socialite Life might be the most... expressive:

I just want to rewatch Jane Eyre over and over and over again.  Those eyes…those mutton chops. (Kelly Lynch)

The actor says about this role on NPR:

"I really wanted to focus on ... the fact that Rochester talks on an equal level with the governess alone would have been not good in that time period. That was not the done thing. And the fact that he is a sort of rebel within that, he does not like this social class that he's a part of, and you can see that in his awkwardness when Blanche comes and he's courting her. He finds the people ugly, and the intellectual side of him is there. ... He really needs her more than she needs him. She has the capability of saving him. He's a closed sort of package, because the times he has opened himself up, he's got burnt pretty badly, so he prefers to keep a cold exterior on things and protect himself. ... I saw him as a bipolar character, and I went with that idea."

Easier Property talks about a new development site in Leeds, named Branwell Park, after Maria Branwell:

Redrow is honouring the mother of the Brontë sisters, by naming its latest venture in West Yorkshire in her memory.
The award-winning housebuilder owns an eight acre site off Netherfield Road in Guiseley, where it plans to build 96 homes from its sought-after New Heritage Collection.
The development will be known as Branwell Park, after Maria Branwell, mother of the novelists Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë.
Patsy Aicken, sales director for Redrow Homes (Yorkshire), commented: “At Redrow we are keen to acknowledge the history of the communities in which we build and wherever possible link the names of our developments to the area. Maria Branwell married Rev Patrick Bronte at St Oswald’s Church in Guiseley and given that three of their children are literary greats we wanted to honour the family in this way.”

The Christian Science Monitor lists several novels to be read this 2012, including Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy:

Attention Jane Eyre fans: Margot Livesey's captivating update of Charlotte Brontë's classic takes readers from the Orkney Islands to Iceland and deep into a young woman's difficult romance with a modern-day Mr. Rochester. (January)

Tehelka interviews the author Deborah Baker:

Who are your favourite authors?
Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Virginia Woolf, Dostoyevsky, Pasternak, Tolstoy, and Kafka were my touchstones then. (Gunjan Batra)

Vancouver Straight reviews Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant:

My favourites were the ones that dealt with 15th century peasant romance, St. Francis of Assisi and his birds, cruising with the Brontë sisters, and the strange, unreciprocated bromance between Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe.  (Jennie Ramstad)

Minneapolis Pioneer Press talks about Michael Christie's appointment as music director of the Minnesota Opera:

I got onto (Minnesota Opera artistic director) Dale Johnson's radar while I was working with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis," Christie said from Phoenix on Wednesday. "He invited me to come for 'La Traviata,' then 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Silent Night,' and he sat down and talked to me about this search and their wanting to have somebody to work more consistently with the orchestra. (...)
"When I saw the orchestra responding in a certain way during 'La Traviata'," Johnson said Wednesday, "I thought: My goodness, he has such a great rapport with the orchestra. He's never met them before, yet they looked at him with admiration, and all of a sudden that magic happened. And I said: 'I think that we may have found our guy.' And 'Wuthering Heights' was a triumph for him, as was 'Silent Night.' During the workshops for that (a world premiere), he was very clear and caring about what he wanted....He's a new music guy, and that's one of the things that attracted us to him." (Rob Hubbard)

The Smoky Mountain News begins an article on Jane Austen and men by stating,

Of female writers who appeal the least to the young men in my seminars, Jane Austen surely holds first place. Many of these male students can relate to the work of Annie Dillard or Anne Tyler, and more than a few over the years have taken to Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, if only because of Heathcliff and the author’s magnificently wild prose, but none of these young men have evinced, at least publicly, any interest in becoming, as have so many women, members of the Austenite cult. (Jeff Minick)

The New York Times has an article on people gathering to watch Downton Abbey:

A friend brought back a feathery fascinator headpiece, which she now wears for “Downton” viewing parties. The guests are other librarians and teachers who already had a tradition of reading Brontë novels together and formed what they called the Elegant Ladies’ Club (although the viewings now include one man). “We all have the same level of obsession about the show,” she said, “and we like any excuse to dress up.” (Aimee Lee Ball)

Dorchester Report talks about bibs and tuckers:

“Early bibs were somewhat like modern bibs, although they were not specifically used to protect clothing from spills the way they are now. Tuckers were lace pieces, fitted over the bodice-sometimes called ‘pinners’ or ‘modesty pieces’. These came into prominence by the end of the 17th Century. Tuckers are even mentioned in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.” (Barbara McDonough)

The New York Daily News remembers that:

The New York Public Library is “Celebrating 100 Years” of serving the public. On display: the first U.S. Gutenberg Bible, Charlotte Brontë’s desk, John Coltrane’s handwritten music and Charles Dickens’ own copy of “David Copperfield.” 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Free. (Sanna Chu)

Movie City News reviews Raoul Ruiz's posthumous film, Mistérios de Lisboa:

Castelo Branco’s subject was usually mad love among the rich — fertile ground for any novel or film — and his characters fall in love and suffer and plunge into nightmare like Heathcliff and Cathy in “Wuthering Heights,” or Scottie and Madeleine/Judy in Vertigo.  (Mike Wilmington)

Ball Don't Lie publishes jokes about the basketball player Earl Barron:

The only demerit of the arrangement, apart from Port Land's reliance on coffee and not tea, was the presence of the spectre of Mr. Gregory Oden, who haunted the hallways like the madwoman in the attic of Miss Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. (Have you read this volume with Mistress Haversham? Miss Brontë is a friendly acquaintance and quite talented, perhaps even more so than her sisters Emily and Anne. I must introduce to the lovely trio upon my return.) (Eric Freeman)

Pinoy Parazzi talks about the Philippine tv-series Walang Hanggan; The Telegraph & Argus publishes that finally The Balcony Tearoom at Moor Lodge in will have a late alcohol licence; Sunshine Stories, booksellersnz and Las Mariposas Producen Huracanes (in Spanish) post about Wuthering Heights; the Brontë Sisters joins the Anne Brontë anniversary celebration; Writer Girl reviews Wuthering Heights 2009; Les Soeurs Brontë (in French) posts about interior and exterior walkings; Like Me Too and Bokdivisionen (in Swedish) post about Jane Eyre and Jediyuth reviews Jane Eyre 2011 in Thai; mtwhitelock uploads a recent picture of Top Withins.