Electra, Satan and the Brontës

If only we have to give credit to the people behind Total E-Bound for the extraordinary marketing campaign they have orchestrated. The Clandestine Books collection is discussed (mainly in negative terms, but discussed anyway) in almost every news source around the globe. New articles appear today in Time, Belfast Telegraph, CBC News, Vulture, MSN,  A.V. Club, Le Nouvel Observateur, even Jimmy Kimmel jokes about it...

The Washington Post reviews the musical satire The Brontës by Dizzy Miss Lizzie:
Picture by Paul Gillis (Source)

Set to the bluegrass and rock-inflected compositions of Steve McWilliams and Debra Buonaccorsi, “The Brontës” is an impressive vehicle on which to travel into Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s imagination. In fact, at under 90 minutes, the production and its a cast of nine — several of whom do double duty as band members — hardly exhaust an audience’s appetite for the juicy amusements they brandish.
Mind you, I saw “The Brontës” under a sweltering tent on a blistering afternoon, when you could have poached a salmon on a bare seat. Yes, I wanted to escape the oppressive atmosphere, but not even under the threat of imminent heat stroke did I consider missing a moment. Thanks to directors Rick Hammerly and Buonaccorsi and a cadre of marvelous actor-entertainers — among them, Dani Stoller, Matthew Schleigh, Laura Keena and Buonaccorsi herself — cool was the prevailing theatrical front.
These four performers play the Brontës, with Stoller as Emily (author of “Wuthering Heights”) and Buonaccorsi portraying Charlotte (“Jane Eyre”). Through a dozen songs (and a series of, yes, artful metaphors), family troubles spill out, premature deaths are recounted and plots of famous novels reenacted. The tragic epiphany of the disappointed Anne Brontë is hauntingly rendered by Keena in the show’s most resonant number, “Anne’s Song,” while Schleigh brings charm and technical skill to the rock ballad “God Knows.” (Peter Marks)

Another burlesque piece inspired by the Brontës in another Fringe Festival. Send in the Girls Burlesque is preparing A Brontë Burlesque for the Edmonton Fringe Festival (August 16-26) (via Edmonton Journal):

Did you hear about the Brontës? The four Brontë children (Charlotte, Anne, Em and Branwell) have sold their souls to team up with Satan and that murderous bitch, Electra. 

BBC News informs about the opening of the new visitor centre at Abbotsford House, home of Walter Scott:

The opening date has been set for a new visitor centre at Sir Walter Scott's former home in the Borders.

The facility at Abbotsford House will open on 20 August - allowing the public to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Charles Dickens.
The centre contains an "interpretation area" charting Scott's life, influences and literary and cultural legacy.
It will also include objects, books and works of art - many of which will be on display for the first time.
Among the items going on show are old visitors books, which including names such as Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Charlotte Brontë and former US President Ulysses S Grant.

Charlotte Brontë visited Abbotsford House in July 1850, during a brief Scottish holiday.

Stuart Evers selects a top ten of houses in literature for The Guardian:

Thrushcross Grange in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The scene in which Cathy and Heathcliff first come across their well-to-do-neighbours' house has remained, for me, one of its most enduring images. The Heights is a working farm, a place of labour; the Grange is about leisure, luxury, relaxation. In such a colourless and blasted narrative, the deep crimsons and golds of the Grange's decorations show class divisions in an unsubtle yet highly effective manner. Heathcliff's return and ownership – yet lack of residence – of the place also serves to show home, unlike wealth or status, as a place even more difficult to escape.

The Spenborough Guardian talks about the recent Spen Valley Scout and Guide Field Day:

The Scouts and Guides then welcomed the Rev Brunel James, Nick Marriott and Kenneth Tune who had walked the 18 miles to the event from Haworth.
Their Brontë walk began at 6am and they arrived in time for the Field Day opening celebrations.
Mr James, who is vicar at St John’s, Whitechapel and St Luke’s, said: “We walked the 18 miles home along the Brontë Way, dodging various overflowing streams swollen by recent record-breaking rainfalls.
“We were given a special welcome by Scout President, Mike Terry, as funds raised will help renovate church premises used by local uniformed groups.”

Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland) reviews Wuthering Heights 2011:

Konsequent folgt Arnolds Inszenierung der Sichtweise ihres Protagonisten: Wie er von aussen in Räume blickt, die ihm verschlossen bleiben; mit welchen Augen er die herb-schöne Landschaft Yorkshires sieht, die ihm vermutlich aufgrund seiner Herkunft sehr fremd erscheint; wie anziehend das wilde Haar und der verlockende Nacken der vor ihm auf dem Pferd sitzenden Cathy sind. Das Kameraauge folgt ihm über die Heide, als er weggeht, und nimmt ihn, in einem gekonnten Schnitt, bei seiner Rückkehr Jahre später wieder auf – ohne dass die vergangene Zeit je beleuchtet würde. Ungemeine Sorgfalt haben Arnold und der Kameramann Robbie Ryan auf Details gelegt, sich Zeit genommen, Verrichtungen der Hände sowie naturalistische Einzelheiten – Insekten, Federn, Blätter und Gräser – ins Bild zu fassen. Bewusst gesetzte Schärfen und Unschärfen verstärken den Eindruck des subjektiven Empfindens ebenso wie Panoramaaufnahmen der erhabenen, schroffen Landschaft, die zum Erlebnisraum und zur Keimstelle der Liebe zwischen Heathcliff und Cathy wird. (Susanne Ostwald) (Translation)

Rope of Silicon confirms that the US premiere of the film will be next October 5 with a limited release.

Subtitled Online talks about the Shinji Sōmai retrospective that took place at the Edinburgh Film Festival 2012:

A productive year [1985], Yuki no dansho – jonetsu was the third film Sōmai shot in 1985. Thematically, the film channels the essence of a Jane Austen or Brontë Sister’s novel – the tale of a young orphan girl who escapes her tyrannical guardian and finds stability in the form of a caring bachelor, Yūichi (Takaaki Enoki).  (Ellis McGlone)

Golf and the Brontës, unlikely combination:

Royal Lytham has 206 bunkers, 17 alone on the par-4 18th, which finishes in front of a gabled clubhouse straight out of Brontë novel.  (Art Spander in Newsday)

A curious metaphore in the Jonathan on Arts Guardian Blog:

The Olympics is a festival of bodies, not brains. It is not going to be a rich and inspiring time for art lovers. It is going to be the triumph of sport. Which is fine, great, but why dress it up as culture? A dance in the sky is not Wuthering Heights.  (Jonathan Jones)

Examiner recommends some classic films based on classic novels. For instance, Wuthering Heights 1939:

Truly a beautiful version of the classic novel that was written my Emily Brontë and it's about the love and pain of Cathy Earshaw and Heathcliff. Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff is perfect, he gives an emotional performance.  (Kellie Haulotte)

The Brentwood Gazette presents the Wuthering Heights performances by the Myriad Theatre in Ingatestone;  20 Minutos (Spain) traces a profile of the great Bette Davis and remembers how she was one of the first choices for Cathy in what later became Wuthering Heights 1939; Le Figaro (France) is a bit too optimistic, we think:

Adieu trilogies sci-fi, contes de sorciers et sagas de vampires, bonjour histoires tristes et femmes lucides. Jane Eyre cet été, Anna Karenine, Les Hauts de Hurlevent et Madame Bovary pour 2013… Après les comics pour geeks, les romans d’héroïnes se mangeront-ils à la sauce blockbusters ? (Marion Galy-Ramounot) (Translation)

The Australian Literature Review interviews the writer Charlaine Harris:

Who is one of your favourite fictional characters and what makes that character stand out to you?
Jane Eyre, because she was such an oddity for her time. She’s not subservient or pretty, she’s a talented artist, and she has an unbreakable spirit and amazing morals.

Manga Maniac Café talks with another author, Julie Reece:

Manga Maniac Café] If you had to pick one book that turned you on to reading, which would it be?
[Julie Reece] Jane Eyre, quickly followed by her sister’s book, Wuthering heights. The heroes in both had my pre-adolescent heart swooning. They also set a high bar for every boy I would ever date afterward! Sorry. I blame the Brontës!

The Book Project and Efeito dos Livros (in Portuguese) post about Wuthering Heights;  Literature, eh? discusses Bertha Mason's character and Thoughts on Books, au delà des livres (in French), Vá se for ler! (in Portuguese) and Nyra Escribiendo (in Spanish) post about the novel, Jane Eyre; Les Soeurs Brontë (in French) remembers the recent Brontë Garden in the Chelsea Flower Show;  Killer Characters talks about Joanna Campbell Slan's Death of a Schoorgirl. The Jane Eyre Chronicles; Lit and Life reviews The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Literary Explorations does the same with A Breath of Eyre and The Book Scout with Dark Companion.