The Times of Malta reviews Andrea Arnold's
Wuthering Heights:
She delivers a Wuthering Heights that is very different from any other version that has graced the screen so far… and there have been quite a few. This adaptation is shorn of all the frills and is fuelled by anger. [...]
With camerawork firmly focused on Heathcliff’s character, Mr Arnold’s film digs deep into his character. Maximum use is made of the cast which mainly comprises first-time actors or newcomers to further amp the raw feel of the picture.
The director shows shades of influence from Terence (sic) Malick in the way the film connects the audience to nature. The Yorkshire setting acts as a protagonist with which the camera seems to be engaging in the form of a love/hate relationship.
The film gives us the chance to ponder on the themes of love and death.
Ms Arnold uses strong images that are more convincing than a thousand words. She delivers a whole compendium of such images that are bound to keep the audience hanging on the precipice. (Johan Galea)
The Moscow News presents the film.
The University of Texas
Cultural Compass blog has a lovely post on Charlotte Brontë's juvenile story
Something about Arthur (with pictures):
Charlotte Brontë wrote “Something About Arthur” at the age of 17 shortly after returning from boarding school. The text is 25 pages long and includes a 42-line poem. It is the story of a struggling artist who battles an arrogant aristocrat for the heart of the heroine, Lady Emily Chalwort. Like many of Charlotte’s juvenilia books, “Something About Arthur” is small enough to fit in one hand, measuring only 5.7 cm by 9.5 cm (2.5 inches by 3 5/8 inches). Charlotte’s handwriting is microscopic and barely legible. [...]
The Ransom Center acquired “Something About Arthur” in 1952 through the Nelda C. and H. J. Lutcher Stark Foundation. Fannie Ratchford, esteemed figure in the Ransom Center’s history, orchestrated the entire affair. Lutcher Stark, who served on the Board of Regents at The University of Texas, pledged his entire library to the university in 1925. Knowing that his library contained a similar Brontë juvenilia piece titled “The Green Dwarf,” Miss Ratchford prompted him to acquire “Something About Arthur” in 1952 when she found it on the market. He did just that. Today both juvenile manuscripts, and Miss Ratchford’s correspondence with Lutcher Stark, can be found in the Ransom Center’s collections. (Kelsey McKinney)
For International Women's Day, the
Daily Pedestrian picks 'five inspiring fictional females in pop culture'. Among them is
Jane Eyre. Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennett was an admirable heroine, but from a vast selection of the awesome gals in historical literary Canons, it's hard to go past Jane Eyre. SPOILER ALERT. Her parents died of typhus and she was forced to live with her bitch of an aunt who physically and emotionally dragged poor pre-teen Jane through the brambles. Later she went to a school run by abusive nuns, where she was shunned and had to endure the death of her one and only friend. But in spite of the supremely crap hand she was dealt she didn't have a melt down and went on to finish school and get hired by a very rich, sexy man who she refuses to hook up with because of her strong principles - even though their sexual chemistry was off the charts! One of the strongest gals in literary history who, deservedly, finds true love.
Lisbeth Salander is also one of them and her childhood is described as follows:
Overcomes a traumatic childhood that makes Jane Eyre's look like the kids from Mary Poppins. . .
A column in
ABC Newspapers also mentions
Jane Eyre:
After seeing the film remake of Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” months ago, I went Eyre bonkers and checked out every remake of a remake of a DVD (redundant, I know) that I could find in the library. I reread the book, which allowed for more imaginative interpretation than the films. And I enjoyed it so.
Anyway, I couldn’t wait to return to “Jane Eyre” at the end of the day to peruse a few more chapters. When I finished reading the book, a certain amount of sadness swept over me. I had lost some (literary) friends. (Elyse Kaner)
Wicked Local Newburyport announces that Margot Livesey will be reading from
The Flight of Gemma Hardy tomorrow, March 9th:
Margot Livesey, who will be reading from her new book, “The Flight of Gemma Hardy” (HarperCollins) at the Jabberwocky Bookshop in Newburyport March 9, possesses that pluck, determination, and undaunted sense of wonder in abundance. And so she dares. [...]
Destined to the be the darling of women’s book groups, “The Flight of Gemma Hardy” is sure to engender countless checklists of plot elements recognized from “Jane Eyre,” along with endless debates about how far an author can safely go in “re-casting” a classic novel. And this is one book that book group members will want to be sure to complete, so they may all weigh in on the ending.
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