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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Thursday, July 26, 2012 4:50 pm by M. in , , , , , , ,    No comments
School Library Journal interviews Seán Michael Scott, author of the script adaptation of the Classical Comics version of Wuthering Heights who announces that the book has been shortlisted for the Stan Lee Excelsior Award:
How valuable are librarians at getting the word out about your work?
SMW: Very important, libraries and librarians are crucial, and getting even more so recently with graphic novels. In fact right now a good example of that is happening. My Wuthering Heights book has been shortlisted in the Stan Lee Excelsior Awards, which is an exciting new
award scheme where readers aged 11-16 choose the winner from eight shortlisted books held in their school library. In the process they, of course, read the eight books, and give some considered opinion on the merits of each—a good way for libraries to encourage reading and analytical thinking. This is organized by the libraries of around 170 schools in the UK.
Also on SLJ we found a review of Marta Acosta's Dark Companion:
I was so swept away by the Gothic (aided by wonder epigraphs at the start of each chapter, taken from various early Gothic books), that I missed the most obvious thing in the world. Dark Companion is a spin (a wildly delicious supernatural paranormal spin) on Jane Eyre. Once I realized (and by “realized” I mean, “read a blog post at the author’s website“), I was doubly impressed with Dark Companion. (NetGalley)
Russell Smith in The Globe and Mail gives his two cents about the greyshading of classics like Jane Eyre:
The sex scenes in the neo-Austen and neo-Brontë books are pleasingly frank and uninhibited, but still tend to climax in the clichés of the mommy-porn genre. The predictable “earth-shattering” release after every act owes a lot to the limited vocabulary and sexual experience of one E.L. James. (...)
The publisher and its fans protest that they had had their idea long before E.L. James’s success, and that there has been erotically explicit romance fiction aimed at women for many years. Their detractors are of course enraged that these canonical works have been bastardized. They say quite rightly that the lack of sexual contact between the characters in say Charlotte Brontë – the repression, you might call it – is not a result of mere archaic prudery but crucial to the plot. The story is very much about them not having sex. 
Female First also has an article about it.

The Craven Herald & Pioneer publishes the obituary of Lewis Charles Branston, tangentially related to the Brontës as
[h]is great grandfather, the Rev William Cartman, was headmaster of Ermysted’s Grammar School and curate at Skipton Parish Church. He often took services at Haworth for his friend Patrick Brontë and he officiated at the funerals of both Patrick and Charlotte Brontë.
BBC News presents this year's Booker Prize. One of the members of the jury has a Brontë past:
Bharat Tandon specialises in teaching British and US literature while Birch has a background in Victorian literature and is an expert on Charles Dickens and the Brontë sisters.
The Economist talks about the presentation of a new treatment for tuberculosis and mentions one of the most famous victims of the disease:
In the rich world TB conjures images of an ailing John Keats or Emily Brontë. In poor countries it remains a very real problem. (C.H.)
Australian Financial Review discusses the Fifty Shades saga:
For Fifty Shades, like Twilight, it is better never to have dipped into gothic romance, for instance. Not that there’s anything wrong, or new, about riffs on the genre. Jane Austen was producing them as a kid, culminating in Northanger Abbey. Charlotte Brontë followed suit in her late masterpiece Villette, a fond leave-taking of the genre that fuelled her fiction. (Brook Turner)
Examiner interviews the writer Sarah Bowen:
What three novels could you read over and over?
Brontë's ‘Wuthering Heights’, A. S. Byatt’s ‘Possession’, Peter Carey’s ‘Oscar and Lucinda’. I do like a good love story. (Kayla Posney)
And Colloquy by Diantha talks with Kathleen S. Allen:
Who are three of your favorite authors? Books?
I have eclectic taste in books. I love classics, science fiction, young adult (all genres), steampunk, fantasy, mystery, horror (zombie books are my craze right now), and paranormal. I wrote a mash up of Jane Eyre and vampires called Thornfield Manor I put up on fanfiction.net (in case anyone is interested).
More reviews and comments related to the French premiere of Jane Eyre 2011:
Positive:
Valeurs Actuelles:
S’il a voulu en effet souligner les côtés gothiques d’un récit qu’il tire vers l’onirisme, il sait ne pas aller trop loin, et son film, remarquablement écrit et dialogué, est d’une belle tenue littéraire qui rend justice au roman de Charlotte Brontë. À cette mise en scène élégante et ample répondent deux acteurs d’un charisme fascinant, romanesques à souhait. (Laurent Dandrieu) (Translation)
Onirik:
Malgré quelques raccourcis, quelques détails mis de côté, et des personnages secondaires presque transparents (sauf le personnage de Saint-John Rivers, interprété par l’excellent Jamie Bell, découvert dans Billy Elliot), ce film de Cary Fukunaga, finalement très personnel, est une brillante adaptation, dans la lignée de Tess de Roman Polanski. (Claire Saim) (Translation)
L'Express:
Du coup, on peut légitimement se poser la question de l'utilité d'une version supplémentaire, d'autant qu'elle respecte à la lettre ce classique de la littérature mélo... Et c'est justement là tout l'intérêt de la chose: pour une fois, on a droit à l'ambiance quasi fantastique et franchement gothique de l'oeuvre, au service d'un discours moins guimauve qu'il n'y paraît. (Christophe Carrière) (Translation)
Lukewarm:

Premiere:
Si on n’attendait pas le réalisateur de l’efficace Sin nombre aux commandes de cette production britannique en costumes, la présence de Mia Wasikowska et Michael Fassbender est moins surprenante. Leur aura d’acteurs à la mode ne les empêche pas de bien faire leur boulot et l’ensemble se tient. Il manque juste au film la fougue qui rendrait le projet indispensable et le sortirait de la routine des honnêtes adaptations d’oeuvres tombées dans le domaine public. (Translation)
Les InRocks:
Cette adaptation de Jane Eyre est irréprochable sur un point : son casting, idéal. Mia Wasikowska, l’un des plus beaux visages du cinéma américain actuel, apporte à son personnage de jeune gouvernante troublée par son maître ténébreux toute la finesse et la candeur de son jeu. Michael Fassbender s’impose lui aussi comme une évidence en donnant à l’irascible Rochester la dose de testostérone nécessaire pour érotiser la violence et la peur. Dommage que la mise en scène, académique et ultraléchée, proche du cinéma de Jane Campion, ne soit pas tout à fait à leur hauteur. (Amélie Dubois) (Translation)
Melty:
Rien d’inepte dans ce Jane Eyre, esthétiquement plutôt réussi, mais ce beau livre d’images laisse pourtant de marbre. (nadianeg) (Translation)
Cinoche:
Compétent, oui d'accord. Mais à quoi bon si on ne propose rien qui ne surpasse en intérêt ce que le livre proposait déjà? Suffit de (re)lire le livre, qui risque d'être plus satisfaisant dans à peu près tous les cas, parce que plus complet, plus fidèle à la vision de l'auteur, plus inscrit, sans doute, dans son époque. Mais pourquoi voir un film qui ressemble à tant d'autres films?  (Karl Filion) (Translation)
***
Télé-Loisiers explains how the film performed yesterday at the box-office:
En deuxième position, mais loin derrière tout de même, on retrouve Jane Eyre. Le roman de Charlotte Brontë maintes fois adapté à l'écran continue d'attirer du monde, puisque 846 spectateurs se sont amassés à la première séance de ce mercredi. La sauce a déjà pris dans le passé, pas étonnant que l'adaptation de Cary Joji Fukunaga prenne une nouvelle fois. Le plus cette fois ? Le côté ombrageux et gothique qui plane sur le film et le duo Mia Wasikowska et Michael Fassbender qui fonctionne à merveille. (Translation)
L'Union gives the authorship of Jane Eyre to Emily. Really, is so hard to check if you are not sure? L'Express compares point by point Jane Eyre 1996 and Jane Eyre 2011. More articles and reviews on Natulus, Glamour, Têtu, 24 Matins, Ninapeople,

Pelop (Greece) reviews the novel Η Λάμψη Στα Μοναχικά Της Μάτια by Christos Petropoulos Patrinou:
«Η Λάμψη Στα Μοναχικά Της Μάτια» διαδραματίζεται στις γειτονιές και στα ''ανεμοδαρμένα ύψη'' γύρω από την Πάτρα και μας θυμίζει το παλιό καλό κάμπινγκ της Κυλλήνης.
Στο γοτθικό μοτίβο που όρισαν συγγραφείς όπως η Emily Brontë και η Mary Shelley, το μυθιστόρημα του Χρήστου Πετρόπουλου περιέχει όλα τα στοιχεία που θα μπορούσε να περιμένει κανείς από μια τέτοια σκοτεινή ερωτική ιστορία: Σφοδρούς έρωτες, τραγικούς θανάτους, τρομακτικά δρώμενα σε απόμερα σκοτεινά μέρη, κεραυνούς και αστραπές, φαντάσματα από το παρελθόν, υπερφυσικά στοιχεία και άφθονο μυστήριο. (Translation)
Oakdale Patch suggests a visit to the library to grab some Brontë book;  New Zealand Listener confirms that Wuthering Heights 2011 will be screened at the NZ International Film Festival (July-November);La Razón (Spain) reviews the book Guía Literaria de Londres by Joan Eloi Roca which includes Charlotte Brontë describing the 1851 London Great Exhibition.

The Last Piece posts a funny/witty/stupid/dull (choose what you prefer) story with Branwell Brontë as main character; we liked better the story posted by ksotikoula: George Smith meets Professor Heger; don't rain on mondays has another story, inspired by Jane Eyre; Thoughts on Books, posts about Wuthering Heights; Könyvfalók (in Hungarian) posts about Jane Eyre; Badea Ioana Liviana (in Romanian) talks about Villette; Get a Spine is excited after having bought a Fritz Echeinberg illustrated copy of Wuthering Heights.

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