Reading Jane Eyre all day long

A nice initiative took place at the Michigan State University as covered by the Lansing State Journal:

[Rachel] Manela and a shifting group of fellow students and professors from the university’s James Madison College had been reading the book to one another for nearly 11 hours. They had just begun its second half.“It’s looking to go pretty late,” said Manela, a sophomore. She had no intention of leaving. “To experience it out loud with other people from beginning to end is just an amazing experience. It’s otherworldly.” (...)
Phillips said patterns have emerged. Books that involve quests work better than those that don’t. Books that can be read in eight or 10 hours aren’t as satisfying as those that take 18 or 20 hours. (...)
What came through in Brontë’s novel was the humor, the piquancy of the dialogue, the wryness of the narrator.Even as students who had devoted a sunny Saturday to the effort sometimes stumbled over the 19th-century vocabulary and interjections of French, they laughed a good deal. (Matthew Miller)

The Sunday Herald talks about an interesting event that will take place next month (April 2) at the Edinburgh International Science Festival:

Bertha Rochester is depicted in Jane Eyre as terrifying to all who hear her mournful cries. "What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell," wrote the novel's author, Charlotte Brontë. "It grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal." It is hardly surprising that Bertha, closeted, secret wife of the charismatic Mr Rochester, made such a lasting impact on readers.
In demonising a woman with psychiatric problems, however, Brontë was guilty of performing what is probably the greatest disservice to mental health in literature. That, certainly, is the view of writer and broadcaster Viv Parry, who has studied the way women and their mental health are portrayed in 19th-century novels, and who next month joins psychiatrist Dr Raj Persaud and St Andrews University lecturer Sarah Dillon at an Edinburgh International Science Festival event titled Madwomen In The Attic. (Rebecca McQuillan)

Sequels and prequels in the Sunday Express:

Any attempt to augment or emulate an established classic will almost certainly risk unfavourable comparisons.
It can sometimes work, however: Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys’s Jane Eyre prequel, revived a decadesdormant career; George MacDonald Fraser’s hugely successful Flashman series ran to a dozen books and correspondingly massive sales. (Martin Newell)

The anonymity of reading on an e-reader is discussed on C-Net:

It seems that sales of female-targeted erotica are pointing up. One report attributes this to the additional privacy offered by tablets. Yes, people think you're reading Jane Eyre, but you're not. (...)
The more enterprising in olden times would have simply bought a paperback of "Jane Eyre," torn out the body, replaced it with "Debbie Gets Her Dues," and then glued the new body to the "Jane Eyre" cover. (Chris Matyszczyk)

frided2 posts on YouTube a stopmotion video inspired by Wuthering Heights; the Brontë Sisters posts about William Weightman.

And finally an interesting Jane Eyre challenge held by Pen and Ink...and maybe some paint...:

Anyway, as I read Chapter 13 I came across the descriptions of three strange pictures which Jane had painted. Mr. Rochester has just met her and he is examining the paintings and trying to learn more about her. I thought it might be quite a challenge for each of us to choose a painting and paint our interpretation of what it might have looked like. (...)
When you complete your painting you can come back here and attach a comment to the Jane Eyre Challenge page (the link is in my right hand column) with a link to the blog page where your painting is posted.