Jayne, Antoinette and Ellis

The Wall Street Journal's Dear Book Lover discusses fan fiction:

Many contemporary fiction writers agree. George R.R. Martin ("A Song of Ice and Fire") dismisses fan fiction as "unauthorized, derivative" work. He argues that it's tough inventing characters whose fate readers care about. Invent your own! Annie Proulx has said that fan fiction inspired by her "Brokeback Mountain" is written by people who don't understand either the original story or intellectual property rights. Anne Rice states simply: "I do not allow fan fiction…. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters."
I'm sympathetic to this point of view. How can you be writing something original if your main character was invented by another writer? But I also remember the jolt of wonder and delight I felt years ago reading Jean Rhys's novel, "Wide Sargasso Sea," when I realized that Antoinette Cosway, the main character, was the girl who would one day marry Mr. Rochester and go mad in his attic at Thornfield. "Wide Sargasso Sea" is a beautiful, original novel. (Cynthia Crossen)

Courrier International (France) is somewhat shocked at the forthcoming Total E-Bound edition of Wuthering Heights à la mummy porn.
Still in France, there are several news outlets reviewing/recommending Jane Eyre 2010: E Vous and TV5 Monde, while L'Express Culture lists three good reasons to love Mia Wasikowska.

Today, July 24th, a day before the film opens in France, The Jersey Journal reports that the Hoboken Public Library

will host a screening tomorrow night of the film “Jane Eyre” for this month’s Cinema at the Library.
The movie follows the story of Jane Eyre as she goes out into the world as a governess. Eyre lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, where she meets the dark master of the house, Mr. Rochester.
Eyre soon finds herself falling in love with her employer after their friendship grows.
While she seems to have finally found happiness at last, Rochester’s terrible secret could destroy it forever.
The screening starts at 5:30 p.m. on the third floor of the library, located at 500 Park Ave. (Travis Fedschun)

Too bad that the Library's own banner lists it as 'Jayne Eyre' though (see image). By the way, El Rincón de Vilmarith (in Spanish) posts about the film.

The Journal (Ireland) reports that Celebrity Mastermind Rick O'Shea got 17 of 21 questions right. One of the wrong answers was one that each and every Brontëite around the world certainly would know:

7. Which famous writer initially published her work under the alias ‘Ellis Bell’? Emily Brontë

The Telegraph has an obituary on historical romance writer EV Thompson.

His first book, Chase the Wind, set the template for a production line that would see a manuscript arriving with his publishers (he was at various times with Macmillan, Sphere and Robert Hale) at the rate of one a year. It told the tale of well-to-do Josh Retallick and his wild-at-heart amour, Miriam, as they plunged through class barriers during excursions across Bodmin Moor. An excerpt gives a flavour of the style:

“Josh! Josh Retallick!
“He turned to see her standing wide-legged on an uneven rock above the gully.
“If you come up to Sharp Tor with me I’ll let you kiss me.
“I don’t want to.” He turned his back on her and walked away.
“You will one day, Josh Retallick. You will one day.”

A West Country Wuthering Heights it was not. 

OkMusik (Italy) features Flea and Patti Smith's Helen Burns; Heavenaly reviews Villette; Snarke posts a poem with references to Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and Emily Brontë; Scots Way Hae! reviews The Flight of Gemma Hardy; Reading on Fire and Original Content post about Withering Tights; Lullaby for Angels (in Portuguese) reviews the original Wuthering Heights; Tor Books is giving away copies of Tina Connolly's Ironskin (which will be released on October); Andres Denkberg publishes on Flickr a Jane Eyre illustration and ChapterChicks reviews the Classical Comics Jane Eyre adaptation on YouTube.

An alert for tomorrow, July 25 at the Penzance Literary Festival:

Date: Wednesday 25th July 2012
Time: 16:00
Morrab Library, Morrab Gardens, Penzance

Angela Crow 'remembers' Branwell Brontë and Dylan Thomas through their poetry and prose. Strikingly similar in many ways, both men had a local connection: Branwell's mother Maria came from Penzance while Dylan was married in Penzance and lived in Newlyn for a time. 

Finally, Melissa has alerted us to a Jane Eyre mention on Pink is the new Blog announcing the upcoming release of the much-awaited second book of this colossus of modern civilization, Justin Bieber.