Wuthering Shore

We have a few leftovers from Valentine's Day today. The New York Times' Arts Beat has a few 'Last-Minute Romantic Book Ideas for That Special Someone' suggested by the newspaper staff:

Dwight Garner, New York Times Book Critic: Doomed love; heaving chests; hippity-hop heart palpitations. My pick is unavoidable, a Mac truck of romantic woe coming toward you down the wrong side of the highway: “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë. “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods,” Catherine says. “Time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees — my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath — a source of little visible delight, but necessary.” [...]
Pamela Paul, Children’s Books and Features Editor: Most of what I read is terribly unromantic. But when it comes to love stories, I generally like lots of suffering and near-impossible courtship under dreadful, constrained circumstances: “Anna Karenina,” “Jane Eyre,” “Daniel Deronda.” (John Williams)

The staff at Entertainment Weekly's Shelf Life also weigh in:

To start out, two of my favorites would be Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (passionate and seriously screwed up — just as romance should be, right?) and Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman (an erudite story made accessible by a raw portrait of young love). (Stephan Lee)

The International Business Times recommends 'Valentine’s Day Books for Adults: Romantic Reads for a Good Mood' which include

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Brontë's famous novel is filled with dysfunctional characters who live in an isolated world where there is nothing to do but dig up old conflicts. Almost sounds like "Jersey Shore." (Cristina Merrill)

That would be one big almost.

In The Huffington Post, Dave Astor looks at 'The Cupid-Like Pleasure of Canon Love':

Sometimes, an author's other books don't even come close to the first title one tries. For instance, Charlotte Brontë's Shirley and Villette are good but her Jane Eyre -- one of literature's great love stories -- is much better.

The Huffington Post also discusses fantasy and love stories:

There's a reason that romance has always had a fantasy element. (Think of Odysseus falling in love with the sorceress Circe, who turned his men into swine, or Oberon and Titania deciding the fates of lovers in A Midsummer Night's Dream, or Mr. Rochester asking Jane Eyre if she is one of the fairies). Romance is a sort of magic: it changes our perception of the world, making us believe that we've found the person we are meant to be with, that the two of us are truly one. (Theodora Goss)

Jane Eyre also makes it to Boldsky's 'Top 5 Romantic Books Of All Time':

3. Jane Eyre: Dark and mysterious is love if you ask Charlotte Brontë. She created one of the best love stories of all times with a style typical of the Brontë sisters, sinister. Love between people of different social stations and love that surpasses the boundaries of physical beauty because Mr Rochester is described as ugly and Jane Eyre plain.

Jane and Rochester are also listed as 'Literary Lovers for the Ages' by the WaylandPatch.

The New York Daily News think a movie is a better way of 'impressing your date' and suggests Wuthering Heights 1939:

"Wuthering Heights" (1939)
It's sweep is both inside and outside. Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) travels miles and back again to prove himself worthy to Cathy (Merle Oberon), who marries a dullard (David Niven) rather than be paired with the stable boy. The best of the Brontë sisters' gothic romances makes us wonder how much of ourselves we actually want to see in the people we love. And director William Wyler makes the (set-bound) moors the only place for a romance this big. (Joe Neumaier)

The Carrick Times announces the winners of their 'Wuthering Heights country' break:

Valentine’s Day came early for a Carrick couple after they won a trip to romantic Haworth on the Yorkshire Moors.
The quaint village is the backdrop and inspiration of Emily Brontë’s classic novel, Wuthering Heights.
Richard potter and his partner Donna entered the competition after watching the screening of the current adaptation of Wuthering Heights at the Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast. [...]
Richard said; “We thoroughly enjoyed the recent Wuthering Heights movie at QFT and winning this prize is just the icing on the cake! Wuthering Heights is Donna’s favourite book, so we’re looking forward to immersing ourselves in the lives of Cathy and Healthcliff.
“We’re especially looking forward to staying at Ashmount Country House, which was originally the home of Dr Amos Ingham, the family physician to Charlotte and Patrick Brontë, and de-stress in our private hot-tub after long walks on the wild and windy moors.”

Still locally, The Telegraph and Argus reports that the Brontë Society objects to the Denholme turbine test mast:

The Brontë Society has objected to a test mast bid for a multi-million pound windfarm as developers revealed a new site map larger than the original plans.
Banks Renewables is looking to spend about £12.5 million building up to four turbines on moorland south of Denholme, near Thornton.
A 60m-high test mast will be put up to collect wind data if a planning application is granted ahead of a full application to Bradford Council, expected to be submitted in April.
The society has described the temporary structure as “further pollution of the skyline”.
In a letter of objection to Bradford Council, chairman Sally Macdonald said: “The Brontë Society cannot support the erection of any structure which, even if of a temporary nature, has implications for the future permanent defacement of the views from Haworth moorlands. Haworth and its moorlands have international cultural and historical significance and any proposals which have an adverse impact on this significance are to be disapproved of.” (Marc Meneaud)

Writer Jane Caro tells about her love for books in the Goulburn Post:

“Reading is at the bottom of everything,” Ms Caro said after the floor talk.
“As the world changes around us, a novel reminds us of what stays the same. We can read a Dickens novel or an Austen novel or a Brontë novel that was written more than 100 years ago and we realise what it is to be human. What it is to be human hasn’t changed, it is just the trappings that have changed.” (Tom Sebo)

Apparently education authorities wouldn't agree with that. According to The Telegraph,

Presumably, studying passages from Charles Dickens or Emily Brontë isn’t “inclusive” enough. (Toby Young)

Coincidentally, a columnist from the Yass Tribune recalls reading Wuthering Heights as a teenager:

As a teenager my tastes swung from one extreme to another - Sweet Valley High one week to the morbid and gothic rantings of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights the next. (Karan Gabriel)

A voice recognition software knows more about spelling than many. From Salon:

And he was a literary type, able to spell Charlotte Brontë with the umlaut (aka boom a lot). . . (Mary Grover)

LiveScience says that the Brontë novels are 'escapism' reads:

[Jennifer Yalof, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology] points out that people turn to the past to escape in many ways — from participating in historical re-enactments, to attending Renaissance fairs or even reading books, such as "Jane Eyre" or "Wuthering Heights," depicting bygone eras.
"I believe these opportunities to 'escape' into a historical era hold a different appeal to different individuals," Yalof told LiveScience in an email. (Wynne Parry)

The Cord recommends The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey:

In this retelling of Jane Eyre the characters are imbued with a more modern sensibility — and this time around Mr. Rochester is not a reprehensible misogynist! Livesey’s Gemma remains true to the spirit of Austen and the dark settings of Scotland and the Orkney Islands are perfect backdrops for this classic tale. This is a perfect book to soak in at the beach. (Denoja Kankesan)

The Brontës and fashion, again. From Elle:

So when you listen to Laura Mulleavy backstage after the show talking through the collection, it comes as no surprise to hear her say things like ‘we wanted that feeling of layers and layers of history built over time,’ and  ‘we wanted the girls to look dusty’. She explained how they’d mixed up the tailoring styles of the late 1930s – like the fitted grey/blue jacket with the curvy lapels - with Victoriana – the sinuous long ruffled dresses - and how photographs of the ‘desolate Australian outback’ had first inspired her and sister Kate.
They like large sweeping, open places – last season it was the great American prairies. Perhaps next season, they should take a trip to the North Yorkshire moors, with a copy of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights? Cathy goes punk. Now that’s a Rodarte collection I’d like to see.

The Brownwood High School (Brownwood, TX) announces that Robert Johanson's Jane Eyre will be their choice to the University Interscholastic League:

The spring of the year means U.I.L. contest time and this year the one act play cast and crew will take on the challenges of one of the world’s best known literary classics, ‘Jane Eyre’.

NBC Bay Area's Worth the Drive posts about the FIDM Museum & Galleries 20th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design and includes a picture of Michael O'Connor's costumes for Jane Eyre 2011. The film is reviewed by Daily Mayo, Cinoscar & Rarities (in Spanish) and Romance e non solo... (in Italian). Felice's Journal reviews Jane Eyre 1983. The Brontë Weather Project shares pictures of the moors covered in snow together with a poem by Emily Brontë. La Guerre des éléments posts in French about Wuthering Heights. Jane Eyre - Články posts in Czech about April Lindner's Jane. The Reader Online recommends The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Flickr user r3nn3r has uploaded an 'abstract' image of Jane Eyre and Heart of Kentucky has uploaded a postcard of silent film actress Mabel Croft Ballin as Jane.