"All my heart is yours, sir: it belongs to you; and with you it would remain, were fate to exile the rest of me from your presence forever."The Cleveland Plain Dealer reviews The Ballad of Tom Dooley by Sharyn McCrumb:
Kate Sylvester showed her SS12/13 collection 'All My Heart' starring her muse - a Jane Eyre heroine - in doily prints, punchwork leather collars, tweed shorts suits, and flowing silk satin gowns, amongst the rock and roll setting of Golden Dawn.
The ladylike collection had the 19th century Bronte Babes time-travelling to the Ponsonby bar for this, the last of the five Marr Factory shows put on by Stephen Marr and Hallertau.
I would personally wear every piece in this collection (okay maybe with something underneath...) as they were perfect for everything from work to parties to lounging around. Perhaps not the gym - Charlotte Brontë never went to the gym - but I'm pretty sure she went to a few afternoon teas and there were plenty of dresses to take tea in.
Hair by Stephen Marr didn't take a pretty-pretty, literal take on Jane Eyre but instead had a dishevelled beauty, with back-combed hair giving height to the crown and worn long down the back. Perhaps they were depicting Jane fleeing Thornfield in the middle of the night after discovering Mr Rochester was married? (Megan Robinson. Photography Kevin Robinson)
Told in the reminiscences of Pauline and Zeb Vance, who defended Dula in court, the story puts a new twist on a mystery that reviewers compared to "Wuthering Heights." (Donna Marchetti)Fraser Petrick in The Whig explores his personal story:
A few awkward and miserable years later I learned that Grade 13 was not all it was cracked up to be. I became cool, yes, but in my eyes only, and only bookishly. I had read Orwell, Huxley and Salinger (when I was supposed to be reading Hardy, Brontë and sanitized drivel such as “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree”).
Książka Anne Brontë pełna subtelności, czasem wzniosłości dziś niemal nie do przyjęcia i ostatecznego morału – najważniejsza jest miłość i zacna kobieta na pewno ją spotka, jest dziś – niestety – czytadłem, choć nie można jej odmówić rzetelnego opisania tego mikroświata w jakim żyły wówczas kobiety. Niestety, talentem i wyobraźnią nie dorównała swoim siostrom. (Maria Kolesiewicz) (Translation)Milenio (México) discusses the love for reading:
Años después mi padre escondía en su cuarto – biblioteca, en el cual los libreros recorrían paredes del piso al techo y a todo lo ancho, algunos como Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë o Adiós a las armas de Ernest Hemingway porque – según el- aun yo no tenía edad para leerlos. En complicidad nocturna lograba descubrirlos para acabarlos rápidamente, y en algún momento fui consciente de que fue mi familia, y no la escuela, quien me llevó a amar irremediablemente la lectura y el olor de los libros de estantes. (Viky James) (Translation)Business Mirror (Philippines) talks about the works of the director Carlos Siguion-Reyna and mentions
His Hihintayin Kita sa Langit was Brontë’s Wuthering Heights made more epic. It earned him an Urian Award. (Dean De La Paz)Hollywood.com sings the praisesof Tom Hardy, the actor:
He can go from bashing heads in RocknRolla to staring wistfully upon the moors in Wuthering Heights. "He's got this tough guy/soft heart thing going on. I mean, hello, he was in Wuthering Heights! And that video of him rapping with a baby! It makes my brain hurt," adds [Jenni] Miller. (Kelsea Stahler)The Briarfield Chronicles speculates about how Shirley might have turned out if Anne Brontë had not been ill and died, which of course affected Charlotte's writing deeply. By the way, are you interested in Shirley fanfiction?
I would write a fanfiction, only I could never do justice to Charlotte Brontë. Anyway very few people are interested in Shirley so it wouldn't generate a fandom. Everyone is into Jane Eyre (sigh) and only two fanfics on Villette at Yuletide. Now that's a great fanfic website. Fanfic writers of Shirley would preferably be well-read in Romantic poetry, something few of us can aspire to.Des Livres en Folie (in French) reviews Agnes Grey; moje podróże (in Polish) and Harleyquine post about Jane Eyre; Kulturalnie (in Polish) reviews Jane Eyre 2006; Jenny's Journey has visited Haworth; La Bibliothèque La Régence en ligne reviews in French Sheila Kohler's Becoming Jane Eyre; I Eat the Books!!! interviews Tina Connolly, author of Ironskin.
So what do you think?
A curious new Jane Eyre adaptation with theatre and dance elements opens today in Irvine, CA: Counter-Balance Theatre presents
Jane Eyre
August 31 at 8pm
September 1 at 2pm and 8pm
Fall Preview in Irvine, CA
Edison Theatre’s Ovations series at Washington University in St. Louis, MO
8 p.m. Friday, September 7
8 p.m. Saturday, September 8
Known for her stunning theatrical hybrids, Annie Loui brings her movement theater sensibilities to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.
In this production, seven actors play all manner of characters, animals, architecture and furniture. The text is taken directly from Bronte's Jane Eyre. The medium through which the story is told is entirely contemporary, blending contact dance with minimalist design within a fusion of realism and expressionism that results in something entirely its own.A sneak preview of the production can be seen here:
Via Kultiversum (Germany) we have discovered this curious production of Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville in Switzerland (at the Wasserschloss Hallwyl - Production: Regina Army / Sets: Andrea Marion Menziger) which has quite a few Brontë surprises in the settings, as you can see in the picture:Seit 2003 wird das Wasserschloss Hallwyl im Kanton Aargau alle drei Jahre zur Kulisse einer Operninszenierung. Diesmal stehen für den «Barbiere di Siviglia» Bücher auf der Bühne, zwei, drei, vier Meter hoch: Brontës «Jane Eyre» und «The Professor», Austens «Sense and Sensibility», dazu als abgründiger Einschub die «Medea» des Euripides (Reclam-Ausgabe). (Translation)Curiously it was Rossini's opera that Charlotte (and Anne) Brontë went to see in July 1848 accompanied by her publisher George Smith at the old Covent Garden in London.
[Joyce] Idema [ SFO's director of press and public relations ] rejects any rumors that Chaslin is leaving because the Santa Fe Opera refused to produce Wuthering Heights."As a matter of fact, he was quite clear about that," Idema says. "I once said to him, 'Maybe we should do your opera.' He said, 'No, no, no! Not while I’m conductor.'...That had nothing to do with [his departure]." (Alexa Schirtzinger)Brad Bevet on Rope of Silicon is not too thrilled about the US premiere of Wuthering Heights 2011:
Also getting a limited release is Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights (...) From what I've gathered about both, neither seem to be my alley. Arnold's adaptation of Brontë sounds very minimalist and esoteric[.]This article on Cool Age (India) is a good example of modern Luddites:
What happened to the good old reading habits? People now have access to ebooks, and kindle readers and the good old ink on paper is dying! Arundhati Sharma from Sri Venkateswara College argues that the books these days are highly priced, tough to find compared to the easily available ebooks. I grudgingly admit that the points she made are valid but nothing compares to curling up with a tattered copy of an old classic and letting the sweet smell transport you to Brontë moors! (Vernika Awal)USA Today remembers something quite obvious that, however, needs to be remembered:
In the romance world, the plot is an eternal trope - hello Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre (fortune adjusted for inflation) - in the same way mystery writers and their fans never tire of plots revolving around crazed serial killers with determined detectives hot on the trail. (Deirdre Donahue)The New Zealand Herald talks about Kate Sylvester's new collection:
Kate Sylvester, whose show is tomorrow night, wanted to move her collection's initial idea along. The original romantic notion of Jane Eyre running off with her lover to live happily ever after in the South of France had yielded a pretty Victorian-inspired look, developed in conjunction with her long-time stylist, Karen Inderbitzen-Waller, who explains: "We've adapted the look. We've done the look-book, the campaign, a little film on it, and now this." This is a more dishevelled look, reflecting that the show is an evening event in a bar, rather than pitched at trade buyers.We are still laughing after reading this review on SFX of the James Bond movie The Living Daylights (1987) with Timothy Dalton (who has been both Rochester and Heathcliff in Jane Eyre 1983 and Wuthering Heights 1970 respectively) playing Bond:
Yes, there are moments when he plays it like Heathcliff confronted by a particularly confounding tax return[.] (Nick Setchfield)This writer at The Rochester Post-Bulletin reminisces about her school years:
Mr. Dyrud, my 12th-grade literature teacher, was so enthusiastic about Emily Brontë’s "Wuthering Heights" — diagraming the novel’s plot on the board with wild, chalk-dusty swipes of his arm — that I’d go to bed early at night just to curl up with the next chapter. (Jennifer Koski)
Bohaterka przetrwa te próby i doczeka się nagrody, jednak nad jej historią, mimo pokrzepiającego happy endu, unosi się aura smutku. Nie ma tu wielkich namiętności, jest precyzyjnie i nie bez ironii sportretowana codzienność wczesnowiktoriańskiej prowincji oraz niewesołe, a miejscami drapieżne studium charakterów – widać, że Anne Brontë, która sama była przez kilka lat guwernantką, szkicowała je z natury... (...)Pasje i fascynacje mola książkowego...nie tylko literackie... and Zakurzona Pólka (in Polish) also review Agnes Grey.
Postać Helen Huntingdon wykracza poza konwencje epoki: młoda kobieta wypowiada wojnę obowiązującym regułom, decyduje się uciec od męża, zabierając ze sobą synka, by uchronić go przed deprawacją. Jest to zresztą jedyna droga w świecie, w którym małżeństwo oznacza dla kobiety „zaprzedanie się w niewolę” (to cytat!). Wagi symbolu nabiera scena, w której Arthur na oczach bezsilnej żony demonstracyjnie pali w kominku jej przybory malarskie i szkice... I choć Helen pozostaje do końca postacią nieznośnie wręcz szlachetną, a jej cnota doczeka się ziemskiej nagrody, w chwili ukazania się powieść Anne Brontë wywołała u wielu zgorszenie. Dziś nadal warta jest lektury, podobnie jak dzieła dwóch sławniejszych sióstr. (Translation)
Una cámara sobria, unas iluminaciones matizadas, un tono intimista y unos decorados sin excesivos barroquismos, ayudan a degustar 'Jane Eyre' sin complejos. Asimismo, la creación de una atmósfera gótica contribuye al éxito de la empresa, sensible y nada folletinesca. Porque la elegante ironía de su máximo responsable, la ternura con que contempla a sus protagonistas y la conmovedora forma con que estos son encarnados por la actriz australiana, de ascendencia polaca, Mia Wasikowska (la pudimos ver en 'Alicia en el país de las maravillas') y el actor irlandés, de ascendencia alemana, Michael Fassbender (al que ahora mismo podemos admirar en 'Prometheus') convierten a la película en una notable reflexión sobre la dificultad de amar y ser amado. (Antón Merikaetxebarria) (Translate)Artezblai discusses music in the stage:
Actualmente en la creación de cine y teatro está plenamente asumido que la música resulta crucial cuando se trata de tocar el lado emotivo del espectador. Tanto que incluso no habiendo música en sentido estricto, muchos creadores utilizan los sonidos con la delicadeza con la que se compone una banda sonora. En cine un ejemplo admirable es la última película de Andrea Arnold, una versión contemporánea de "Cumbres borrascosas", cuya música está hecha de vientos de montaña y de las respiraciones de los personajes. (Borja Ruiz) (Translation)Rattling On... posts pictures of a visit to Haworth; Silver Pencils has read Jane Eyre; ShelbyLee is daydreaming... reviews now Jane Eyre 1983; poetictouch2012 uploads to YouTube a reading of Fall, Leaves, Fall.
Cime Tempestose
Publisher: Ronin Manga
Collection: Letteratura coi manga - N° 1
Illustrator: Hiromi Iwashita
ISBN: 9788874714421
208 pages, B/W
• Un volume autoconclusivo che adatta in forma di manga il classico della letteratura di Emily Brönte (sic) "Wuthering Heights", già trasposto in innumerevoli versioni cinematografiche – tra le quali una diretta da Luis Buñuel –, sceneggiati radiofonici e televisivi, in un musical, e nell'omonima canzone di successo che lanciò Kate Bush al suo debutto.
• Quando il signor Earnshaw rientra a casa da Liverpool portando con sé un ragazzo orfano di nome Heathcliff, non immagina minimamente di aver dato il via a una catena di eventi che porteranno Cime Tempestose, la sua tetra proprietà, a diventare il teatro di una sconvolgente storia di rancore e vendetta.
And this article on Comics Alliance reviews the eighth issue of the cult comic Solo by Teddy Kristiansen and Steven T. Seagle (originally published in December 2005). The comic ended with a nice Wuthering Heights reference (which regrettably the reviewers are not able to appreciate):Sean Witzke: I didn't have any real problem with the actual lettering except in this story, where it felt completely out-of-sync with the rest of the book, and the story itself. In the stories further into the issue I really didn't feel the noticeable "oh god what were they thinking?" in this section. Of course in the scheme of garbage Solo lettering it's actually okay? I guess. Of course it's the story where the printed and read word is of the utmost importance, because Bronte sisters soothe the savage... wait.. no, great English literature works for even non-English speaking... no... attractive white women reading is... no, I'll get it...Your lost, Mr Seneca.
(...)
Matt Seneca: SO BLACK METAL. This thing feels like pure folly on Seagle's part -- putting together a terrible story which operates on the pretext that words and narrative hold undreamed of powers, only to be completely shown up by some of the best looking comics art I can think of. The only thing really worthwhile about this comic is the pictures, which see Kristiansen cutting out probably 95% of the amount of linework that make up typical comic book pictures, implying light and shade with beautifully vague bits of spotted peach and ochre tones, and shooting what lines do remain on the page through with zigzagging Panter-style modulation. It's stunning stuff, a kind of cartooned version of high Impressionism that really doesn't look like anything else out there -- breathtakingly subtle and precise artwork that still carries a big sense of the childlike about it. All the comics need to look like this, guys. I'd rather look at the warpaint patterns on the African natives' heads in this as they chopped me into pieces with an axe than listen to Steven Seagle read me Wuthering Heights by a roaring campfire any day, or read Wuthering Heights at all for that matter. There's no doubt where real power lies by the end of this thing, and it isn't where the dude writing the comic thinks.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë are world renown for their novels. However, few know the story of the fourth Brontë sister, Evelyn.The Republican convention in Tampa gets a Brontë mention in The Guardian:
Though nothing of her original work remains, it was said that Evelyn also exhibited considerable talent with the written word, and in her early years was considered a prodigy.
Because they regarded her as a threat to their own considerable reputations, the older Brontës eventually lured Evelyn from Haworth Parsonage into a nearby wood where they strangled her slowly by feeding her slightly dampened pages from her own manuscripts.
They then removed her liver, cooked it over a small wood fire and enjoyed the results with a touch of red wine and some fava beans.
Remarkably, the Brontë sisters continue today to serve the literary world, in recent years providing in composite a model for Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter. (Mark Couhig)
This storm, as well as providing political journalists with the most obvious pathetic fallacy and metaphor since Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights, is both practically and historically awkward for Romney. (Hadley Freeman)Martha's Vineyard a setting from a Brontë novel? According to Vineyard Gazette it could be:
As the calender flips toward fall, heralding the end of summer and what are some are calling a profitable season, local business leaders want people to know that there is life past Labor Day. There are hotel rooms and cottages to be had (at cheaper rates), and books to buy for cooler but quieter days at the beach.Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden) reviews the latest album by Dylan LeBlanc:
“We almost don’t want to let them know about the secret of September,” said Sarah Nixon, the owner of the Menemsha Inn, the Beach Plum Inn, and the Home Port restaurant in Chilmark.
“Because we all think it’s freezing cold and wet and remote,” said Robin Kirk, the chief operating officer for Scout Hotel and Resort Management, which owns the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown. “It’s actually romantic, haunting, special, a wonderful place of escape. Which if you use the right words . . . ”
“Brontë sisters novels,” finished Dawn Braasch, the owner of the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven. (Sarah Brown)
Dylan LeBlanc – Muscle Shoals-sonen som började skriva låtar som elvaåring – har aldrig behövt växa upp. Han föddes gammal. Och precis som systrarna Brontë bevisar han att personlig erfarenhet inte har något att göra med förmågan att berätta en historia. (Elin Unnes) (Translation)Télam (Argentina) presents the book El Club de las Necrológicas by Marcelo Birmajer:
"Dentro de toda una melange de géneros, por sobre todo es una novela de amor: podemos hablar de `Madame Bovary`, `Ana Karenina`, `Cumbres Borrascosas`, `El amor en los tiempos de cólera`, muy distintas unas de otras, pero todas son novelas de amor, reafirma el autor de "Un crimen secundario", "El alma al diablo", "Tres mosqueteros" y "La despedida". (Mora Cordeu) (Translation)La República (Perú) announces that Charlotte Brontë's The Professor is one of the books that will be 'purged' from the Arequipa city library as it has not been read in thirty years (the copy is in English, so this is not altogether unexpected); Pieuvre announces that the Québec premiere of Wuthering Heights 2011 will be next September 5; Kaya Scodelario, Cathy in that adaptation, is on the cover of Wonderland Magazine September/October issue; Bazar d'Améloche (in French) and On The Road (in Italian) review Wuthering Heights; Ivebeenreadinglately posts about Juliet Barker's The Brontës; Pocketblogg (in Swedish) likes Agnes Grey; Niebiańskie pióro (in Polish) reviews the other Anne novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; Emi Dreams Up (in French) and We're Bookaholics! (in Portuguese) post about Jane Eyre; H de Humanidades (in Spanish) posts about the Brontës; The Morning Hangover and Cheiro Livros (in Portuguese but confusing the director) review Jane Eyre 2011; OrangeFaerieDust briefly posts about The Flight of Gemma Hardy.
Ironskin
Tina Connolly
Tor Books
On Sale Date: October 2, 2012
ISBN: 9780765330598
Jane Eliot wears an iron mask.
It's the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain -- the ironskin.
When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation" -- a child born during the Great War -- Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help.
Teaching the unruly Dorie suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn't expect to fall for the girl's father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey.
Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life -- and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.
Black Spring
Alison Croggon
ISBN: 9781921977480
Imprint: Walker Books Aust
Distributor: Harper Collins Distribution Services for Australia and New Zealand
Release Date: October 1, 2012
Lina is enchanting, vibrant but wilful. And her eyes betray her for what she truly is a witch. With her childhood companion, Damek, she has grown up privileged and spoilt and the pair are devoted to each other to the point of obsession. But times are changing. Vendetta is coming. And tragedy is stalking the halls of the Red House. A stunning new novel by Alison Croggon, inspired by the Gothic classic Wuthering Heights.
Wish You Were Eyre (Mother-Daughter Book Club #6)
Heather Vogel Frederick
Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
ISBN-13: 9781442430648
Release Date: October 23, 2012
It’s a dream come true for Megan, who’s jet-setting to Paris for Fashion Week with Gigi. Meanwhile, back in Concord, Mrs. Wong decides to run for mayor, so Emma and Stewart team up to make her campaign a success. Jess and Cassidy are also hoping for victories, Jess in the a cappella finals with the MadriGals and Cassidy in the national hockey championships with her teammates. In the midst of it all, the girls—along with their Wyoming pen pals, who drop in for a visit over Spring Break—dive into Charlotte Brontë’s classic Jane Eyre. Some real life romance follows, as Becca may have found a Mr. Rochester of her own.
And then there’s the matter of a certain wedding. The book club girls, their families, the British Berkeley brothers, and even Stinkerbelle will be attending the ceremony, which means there might be some bumps before the bride waltzes down the aisle….
Catherine
April Lindner
Poppy
ISBN-13: 978-0316196925
Release Date: January 2, 2013
True love never dies in this modern retelling of one of literature’s most haunting star-crossed romances, Wuthering Heights.Catherine is tired of struggling musicians befriending her just so they can get a gig at her Dad’s famous Manhattan club, The Underground. Then she meets mysterious Hence, an unbelievably passionate and talented musician on the brink of success. As their relationship grows, both are swept away in a fiery romance. But when their love is tested by a cruel whim of fate, will pride keep them apart?
Chelsea has always believed that her mom died of a brief illness, until she finds a letter her dad has kept from her for years—a letter from her mom, Catherine, who didn’t die: She disappeared. Driven by unanswered questions, Chelsea sets out to look for her—starting with the return address on the letter: The Underground.
Told in two voices, twenty years apart, Catherine interweaves a timeless forbidden romance with a compelling modern mystery.
The Mist on Brontë Moor
Aviva Orr
WiDo Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1937178260
Release Date: January 8, 2013
When fifteen-year-old Heather Jane Bell is diagnosed with alopecia and her hair starts falling out in clumps, she wants nothing more than to escape her home in London and disappear off the face of the earth.
Heather gets her wish when her concerned parents send her to stay with her great-aunt in West Yorkshire. But shortly after she arrives, she becomes lost on the moors and is swept through the mist back to the year 1833. There she encounters fifteen-year-old Emily Brontë and is given refuge in the Brontë Parsonage.
Unaware of her host family’s genius and future fame, Heather struggles to cope with alopecia amongst strangers in a world completely foreign to her. While Heather finds comfort and strength in her growing friendship with Emily and in the embrace of the close-knit Brontë family, her emotions are stretched to the limit when she falls for Emily’s brilliant but troubled brother, Branwell.
Will Heather return to the comforts and conveniences of the twenty-first century? Or will she choose love and remain in the harsh world of nineteenth-century Haworth?
A freemasons lodge whose roots are in Haworth is celebrating its 85th birthday.There's something wrong here as Patrick Brontë was not a member of the Lodge. It was Branwell Brontë, who was admitted in 1836. As far as we can tell, he was not exactly a secretary neither. He acted as secretary in a reunion (13th September 1836, according to Winifred Gérin's biography). Might the writer be confusing the Three Graces Lodge with the Temperance Society? EDIT: Not the first ones no notice the blunder.
Shirley Lodge No 4978 was founded in the Brontë village and named after a novel by one of the famous literary sisters, Charlotte.
The group was set-up after an existing well-subscribed Haworth lodge, the Lodge of the Three Graces No 408, decided another was needed to cope with numbers.
It is now based at the masonic hall in Charles Street, Bingley. The Brontë siblings’ father, Patrick, was a member and secretary of the Three Graces for a short time in the mid 19th century.
A history of the Bronte family is based on years of research and correspondence by each family member, challenging traditionally accepted portraits of the patriarchal Patrick and revealing Charlotte's ruthless nature, in a revised edition that incorporates the newest research.Maureen Corrigan discusses the book in On Fresh Air from WHYY:
Juliet Barker has released a new edition of her landmark 1994 biography, The Brontës. Critic Maureen Corrigan says that even the 136 pages of footnotes are "thrilling," as readers are taken "deeper into the everyday realities" of the Brontës' "strange world."
(...) For roughly a century and a half, the Brontës have been the subject of biographies that, much like poor Branwell's painting, cover up more than they reveal. When Barker's monumental family biography of the Brontës was published in 1994, it was as though a skilled restorer had come along to work on the group portrait, gently rubbing off the lurid colors of myth and gossip, and revealing the bones of truth underneath. (Read more)The Yorkshire Post talks with Eve Sinclair about her erotic retelling Jane Eyre Laid Bare:
“Even though I enjoyed writing it, it was very much about doing a serious take on it,” says Sinclair, who published her version of the 1847 classic with Pan Macmillan. “We’ve taken Charlotte Brontë’s text and changed it very little. We’ve just enhanced what’s already there. It was very obvious to me where to put the sex scenes in and I’ve added them in Brontë’s tone.Sandy Thomas salutes the works of Lip Service (particularly Withering Looks) in The Huffington Post:
“I studied the novel at school and then I did a dissertation on the eroticism between Jane Eyre and Rochester for my English degree. There must have been hundreds of thousands of people who have written essays about the subject, so there’s something there.
“There was a mash-up of Pride and Prejudice with zombies, which I read with great interest. I thought that if they can get away with the undead ripping off the characters’ faces, sex isn’t going to do any harm. Then Fifty Shades came about and I thought, ‘Right, let’s do it now’.”
Fans of the original might dispute Sinclair’s use of the word “enhance”. Jane’s childhood, a key part of the original has been axed entirely. Instead, the reworked novel opens with the heroine arriving at Thornfield Hall where her sexual desires are at once awakened by Mr Rochester.
Sinclair doesn’t stop there. Instead of a mad wife in the attic, it later transpires that Rochester is grooming Jane on behalf of a dominatrix he keeps hidden up there.
Fifty Shades of Grey author EL James has had all sorts of criticism aimed at her, with many claiming the book is misogynist in its portrayal of female subservience. Much the same complaints could be levelled at Sinclair, but ever since the book was published she has insisted that despite her additions Jane Eyre remains a credible role model.
“After Jane discovers what Rochester is up to, she decides to call it quits. My last line is, “Reader, I left him”, because I felt very strongly that she was being controlled. But I don’t think there is anything wrong with charting a woman falling love, and that feeling of powerlessness.
“When that is taken to an extreme it’s a different matter, but I do think falling in love and being out of control is part of a woman’s fantasy. Those who think it lazy and unoriginal to mess with a classic should get over themselves. There were lots of different versions of Jane Eyre even in Brontë’s own lifetime.”
In 1989 Glenn and I were driving around the Yorkshire Dales, and we visited Haworth (the home of the Brontë sisters). The Brontës grew up in a parsonage next to a large, very grim cemetery. Oh, and the moors. The windy heather filled moors. The moors are right there, on display, in full view. You can actually see the couch that Anne died on. And Emily or Charlotte's dress is on display. They were TINY.The Independent reviews the TV show Hunderby:
And they all died..... quite young. How could someone turn their lives into a comedy?
Well, Maggie and Sue did. BRILLIANTLY.
I really have never laughed so much at a play in my life! When we got back to Minnesota we'd often talk about 'Withering Looks' and how funny it was.
Hunderby, thankfully, did what it was supposed to. A spoofy period comedy drama whose plot seems like a cross between Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, it might have gone the way of so many previous period spoofs like it, and sunk. It did the opposite. (Arifa Akbar)The Belfast Telegraph talks about this bizarre (and embarrassing) phenomena which is Fifty Shades of Grey:
[E.L.] James has even been accused of copying the classics and modelling her lead character Christian Grey on Jane Eyre's dark brooding Mr Rochester or Catherine's tormented Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. But no matter what the debates, it is first-time English novelist 49-year-old James who is laughing all the way to the bank.This article on Al Bawaba about the Lebanese writer Mahmoud Said which leads us to an unknown to us Wuthering Heights adaptation of the seventies:
In 1970, Said even found fame in Morocco and North Africa when he played the leading role in the television series The Lost Man, adapted from Emily Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights. “This series, which was in classical Arabic, was a big step for me, especially after it was shown on Moroccan and North African TV, where people received it so well because they were familiar with the original novel. When I visited the region, people would call me by my character’s name, Gharib...I was stuck with this name for a long time, even here in Lebanon.”Connecticut College welcomes the new students on campus:
"There were nearly 18 applicants for each place in the class, so each student's presence here is an accomplishment of significant merit," Martha Merrill '84, dean of admission and financial aid , told students and their parents at a welcome assembly. (...)WWD recall one of Mia Wasikowska, the latest Jane Eyre on screen, secret passions:
"Your first and last names create some interesting patterns," she told them. "We have leaders of a sort with a Marshall, King (and his Castillo), Sargent, Bishop and a Dean … You are literary and deep with a Robinson, Wolfe, Fitzgerald, Burns, Scribner and Irving, along with my favorite philosopher, Schroeder. Following the literary theme, we have a Charlotte and a Brontë, a Laurence and Arabia, a Primrose but no Katniss and a Watson but no Holmes.
Wasikowska reportedly had a pocket sewn into one of her costumes on the set of 2011’s “Jane Eyre” so she could always carry her small digital camera. Her portrait of the film’s director, Cary Fukunaga, and costar Jamie Bell was short-listed for the National Photographic Portrait Prize at Australia’s National Portrait Gallery last year. But she is noncommittal about exhibiting her work. “Maybe one time, for sure — when I have some time,” she says. (Joelle Diderich)Capital New York is excited about the premiere of Wuthering Heights 2011:
Of the season’s lit-comp crop, I’m most excited about Wuthering Heights (October 5), as told from the fascinating, unnervingly erotic perspective of Scottish director Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank). Like Cary Fukunaga’s earthy re-imagining of Jane Eyre last year, this production puts a classic in the hands of a singular and unconventional talent. A cast of unknowns (including James Howson and Kaya Scodelario as Heathcliff and Catherine) and a dreamy, forbidding trailer confirm Arnold’s determination to find something new roiling out there on the moors. (Michelle Orange)The Book Connoisseur interviews the author Lynne Catwell:
What was your favorite book when you were a child/teen?Dynamic Diaries posts about the Brontës; Beth Pensinger compares Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights through flower arrangements; Classical Terrific (in German) and A Little Reading post about Wuthering Heights; Elizabeth Baines posts about Wide Sargasso Sea as seen by her group reading; Shelbylee is daydreaming... (in French) and Lilie scrive (in Portuguese) reviews Jane Eyre 2011; Speculations of a Teenage Girl hated Wuthering Heights 2011 and onyanserat (in Swedish) liked it a bit better; kani4ever (in French) posts about the original novel.
I loved Little Women until I read Jane Eyre when I was in eighth grade. Mr. Rochester proved to be a lot sexier than Mr. Bhaer.
Haworth is golden with a hint of autumn today - perfect for an end-of-summer visit. We're still showing costumes from the new Jane Eyre film.
New audiobooks. In English:Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë.
Read by Judi Pennington, with music by Kevin MacLeod.
Cherry Hill Publishing
After living a miserable life with her aunt, ten year old orphan Jane Eyre is sent to Lowood, a boarding school for poor children, but within her petite frame and simple manner lies a heart full of passion and spirit. Jane learns to hide her temper, but the injustices of the world still burn in her soul. At the age of eighteen, she takes a job as governess in the home of Edward Rochester, but soon realizes that there is something odd in the house and regularly sees shadowy figures and hears voices. As she and her new employer develop a deep affection for each other, the secret of the Rochester household threatens to keep them apart.
CD / MP3 versions
And in Swedish:Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëNya ljudböcker på Malmö stadsbibliotek talks about this new release.
Narrator: Katarina Ewerlöf
Tanslator: Gun-Britt Sundström
18 CD
Svenska Ljud Classica
ISBN: 978-91-86023-22-5
”Jane Eyre” publicerades första gången 1847 under pseudonymen Currer Bell. Bakom namnet dolde sig en författarinna som skulle bli en av den engelska litteraturens stora klassiker: Charlotte Brontë. Till senare upplagor var hon inte längre dold bakom ett hen-anynomt namn, utan framträdde som den första betydande författarinnan i en systerskara på tre. Lillasyster Emily utkom strax efter med sin storslagna ”Svindlande höjder” under syskonpseudonymen Ellis Bell och yngsta systern följde familjetraditionen när hon gav ut sitt förstlingsverk ”Agnes Grey” i namnet Acton Bell.”Jane Eyre” räknas idag som ett av de viktigaste litterära verken från 1800-talet och som en feministisk föregångare. Författad i en tid när kvinnliga författare sågs med oblida ögon.
And with dusty old episodes of Last of the Summer Wine, films like Brassed Off and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights often providing the entire foundations for a non-Yorkshireman’s view of Yorkshire, it’s easy to see how you might have acquired a rather bizarre (and often quite misguided) view of our great county. (...)Deccan Chronicle (India) talks about local 'book trekkers':
Hop on a different train and you can be running up the beautiful sandy beaches of Scarborough and Whitby or testing out your hottest Kate Bush-style dance moves on Heathcliff’s ‘wild and windy moors’ near Haworth- what more could you want? (Katharine Wootton)
If rummaging through dusty shelves of timeless tomes and diving into suspect corners of mothballs and rotting papyrus, constitutes your idea of a fun time, you are probably one among the breed of the city’s burgeoning book trekkers. (...)Kevin Maher defends in The Times American actors in period films:
For some, book trekking is a respite from run-of-the-mill malls visits and club hopping. Student Rishika Karnad says, “I got into book trekking when, once, my friends dragged me along to shop. I was so bored, I wandered into every bookstore on that street and had such a ball, I decided to do it more often. There are about ten of us now, and we’ve managed to unearth some amazing titles. We’ve found 50 year-old prints of Jane Austin and Emily Brontë.” (Anusha Vincent)
Speaking of movies, great to hear the Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes sound off during the week about American actors. The Yanks, apparently, cannot “do” period roles. “The US has the actors in the world but they are a very contemporary race,” he reportedly said. This theory is interesting , but utter rubbish. (See, I do know everything about movies). From Montgomery Clift in The Heiress to Orson Welles in Jane Eyre to John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons to Holly Hunter in The Piano, some of the greatest period performances ever have been American.The Chronicle (Duke University) uses the Brontës to open an article:
Last week, I had to double-check my surroundings to make sure I hadn’t slipped through some time warp into the 19th century, because that would be the only explanation for Rep. Todd Akin’s comments. (...)Le Journal du Dimanche (France) traces a profile of the editor Isabelle Laffont:
By all indications, the first week of law school had not pushed me so far over the edge that I had landed among the Brontë sisters, Charles Dickens and the Brothers Grimm. (Joline Doedens)
La maison maternelle d’Hendaye se profile, vacances aux longues journées alanguies en compagnie de Jane Eyre et ses douces larmes étrangement réconfortantes ; des Hauts de Hurlevent et leurs élans exaltés ; de Jane Austen et son réalisme mordant ; d’Alexandre Dumas (62 volumes dans la bibliothèque Nelson), ses cavalcades infinies, ses séduisants mousquetaires. (Patrice Trapier) (Translation)Andilit interviews the writer Ed Cyzewski. Not a Brontëite:
What are three of your all-time favorite books? Why do you love those?The Briarfield Chronicles explores how Charlotte Brontë incorporated aspects of her own life and personality into her characters (with special attention to some of her unfinished works); New York City Reflections reviews the Brontë. A portrait of Charlotte New York performances; A sail, a sail! has visited Haworth; Tiffany's Bookshelf reviews the upcoming children book The Brontë Sisters by Catherine Reef; Moje zaczytanie and Popularna klasyka (both in Polish) posts about Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey, respectively; Au Bonheur du Livre (in French) and We must become the change we want to see reviews Jane Eyre; It's Never Enough talks about Jane Slayre; Le Blog de l'École des Lettres and C vu par moi (both in French) reviews Jane Eyre 2011; Bookish Whimsy reviews Joan Sowards's Chocolate Roses.
(...) For sheer pleasure, it’s tough to beat Cold Comfort Farm. It’s sweet revenge for having to deal with Wuthering Heights and those insufferable lovers Heathcliffe (sic) and Catherine.
One of the stars of the present Proms season is the violinist Nicola Benedetti, who will appear at the Last Night of the Proms next week. These days releases a new album which has an unexpected Jane Eyre-related theme:The Silver ViolinThe Times reviews the album:
The Violin at the Movies
Decca Classics
Nicola Benedetti, violin
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Directed by Kyrill Karabits
Dario Marianelli
10. My Edward & I (from "Jayne Eyre") (sic!!) 4:57
Piano: Alexei Grynyuk
Music directly written for the movies is in the minority, but we get the potent themes from Schindler’s List and Ladies in Lavender, and a feeble dribble from the 2011 Jane Eyre. (Geoff Brown)
Museum arts officer Jenna Holmes said: “The Brontës were pioneering women writers, so it’s fitting that the museum should explore their legacy and showcase the work of both high profile and emerging women writers working today.The Minneapolis Star Tribune reviews Juliet Barker's US edition of her revised The Brontës book. The review is unusually harsh:
“The festival is going from strength to strength and we hope that people will come along and join us, either to listen to our great line-up of speakers, or to try their own hand at creative writing.”
Festival activities will take place at different locations in Haworth, and tickets can be booked from the museum by contacting jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk or calling (01535) 640188. (Miran Rahman)
Of course, Juliet Barker is one of the supreme authorities on the Brontës. And it is fascinating to watch her correct and add to the record. But too often she is an absolutist. Thus she doubts that Anne's poetry is autobiographical because Emily was writing similar lines at the same time. Why does it have to be either/or? Why does Barker continually ask questions that are really putdowns of previous biographers? No doubt, there has been bad work done on the Brontës, and that needs to be shown up. But the result is that Barker herself sometimes narrows rather than expands our sense of who these complex figures were.Christian Today presents the book Unshaken and Unseduced: The Place of Dignity in a Young Woman's Choices by Rosalie de Rosset:
Treat this book as an exceptionally well informed -- indeed, encyclopedic -- authority. But do not for a moment think that this is the Brontë Bible, or the last word on the subject. (Carl Rollyson)
Dr de Rosset has just published a new book, “Unshaken and Unseduced”, that is challenging Christian women to reject “cotton-candy” novels for the more rewarding classics of English literature. Her book is peppered with quotes from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.This vision of Jane Eyre contrasts with this comment in The Times of India:
What is it about these characters Dr de Rosset so admires? The heroines have “dignity”, she enthuses.
“Everywhere I go, Christian and non-Christian women absolutely love Elizabeth Bennett and Jane Eyre. But that stands in such contradiction to their behaviour, to their demeanour, and to what they end up expecting as goals and outcomes of their lives,” she laments.
“It seems to me that what every woman really wants is a D’Arcy and Rochester, but what they don’t understand is that coming up with men like that involves who you are too.”
She explains further: “It is the very restraint Jane Eyre has and the very ability she has to turn Rochester down when it’s not appropriate for her to be with him. She waits it out. And it’s Elizabeth’s ability to assess D’Arcy and say ‘there are things I don’t like about you at all’.”
Sadly, whilst many women aspire to be like Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennett, in real life – with all its temptations and distractions – many women just “don’t think it’s doable”, Dr de Rosset says, and they “let their standards slip”.
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre shows how we may have to sacrifice our values at times for love. (Nona Walia)
Heathcliff is wilder than the moors. But can the Wuthering Heights hero hold his own against the paperback, e-reader, smartphone and audiobook? (...)The Brontës inspire in many different and unexpected ways. Consider the children book series Nanny Piggins by R.A. Spratt. In The Age:
Wuthering Heights is one of the greatest love stories ever told. Every time I read it, I discover something I had previously missed – an undercurrent, a quote. So I couldn’t think of a better way to judge four reading platforms. Armed with a paperback, Kindle, my phone and an audiobook on my laptop and iPod, I set out to see if the new devices were any good. Here’s how it went… (Read more)
From Emily Brontë and Anthony Trollope, she took the idea of the self-conscious narrator who interrupts the narrative to defray nervous tension whenever Nanny Piggins's misadventures backfire. (Linda Morris)Montclair Times interviews the local writer Lisa Verge Higgins:
What book can you pick up and delight in rereading each time?The Baltimore Sun talks about the paralympic athlete Tatyana McFadden:
"Wuthering Heights." (Jacqueline Cutler)
Her back-story reads like something out of "Jane Eyre" or "Anne of Green Gables." She was born with spina bifida in St. Petersburg, Russia. Paralyzed from the waist down, she was abandoned by her parents in a dreary orphanage. (Kevin Cowherd)Anthony Carew (Music.com.au's Film Carew) really liked Wuthering Heights 2011 as seen at the MIFF Festival:
One of the great radical adaptations of canonical classic lit, Arnold razes Emily Brontë’s book to the ground; scattering the words to the wind, and leaving only the savage landscapes of rural Yorkshire in the 19th century. It’s a film whose darkness, corporeality, and brutal weather stand at odds with every BBC-period-piece cliché.ksotikoula has posted a reply (Reasons for milder sexuality in Charlotte Brontë's novels after Jane Eyre) to this previous post on The Briarfield Chronicles; Atunci şi acum (in Romanian) and Michael Kamakana reviews Jane Eyre; the reader devotes a post to Wuthering Heights; Le Coin de Joelle (in French), Yksi luku vielä... (in Finnish), Blog Games & Movies (in Portuguese) and Running to Stand Still review Jane Eyre 2011; La città dei libri sognati (in Italian) posts about Bianca Pitzorno's La bambinaia Francese.
More recent Brontë-art inspiredMarc Ludena
Waiting for Heathcliff
Painting inspired by “Wuthering Heights.”
Oil on wine box
Holly Kendall has created a couple of cover arts inspired by Wuthering Heights:The concept was to be inspired by the soft and harsh tale of ' Wuthering Heights ' by Emily Brontë. A story of trapped love and dark human nature.
H is for Heathcliff From Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.Another book cover design by Amyisla Mccombie (left).
At the Westbury Theatre in the Arts Barns, Fringe Theatre Adventures holds over seven shows.Financial Times interviews the writer Anita Desai:
A Brontë Burlesque, Aug. 31 (10 p.m.) and Sept. 1. (5 p.m.)
What book changed your life?Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. I’d never before read a book with such power. It was the language that really swept me off my feet. (Rosalind Sykes)The Naples Florida Weekly reviews JoanneCampbell Slan's Death of a Schoolgirl:
As Ms. Slan elaborates her story, she builds a credible sense of place. Her descriptions of architecture, décor, clothing, transportation, sanitation, meals and manners ring true, yet she wisely avoids overdoing them. Distinctions of social class are important to the novel’s time and place, as they were in the source novel by Ms. Brontë, and Ms. Slan handles these matters with authority. (Phil Jason)The book is also reviewed on The Season.
John Cheever’s short stories have lost their hypnotic power after repeated readings, perhaps because of his fixation on a social class in which I have no interest; William Trevor’s stories, on the other hand, have not. Madame Bovary, after four readings, still seems to me to be the greatest novel ever written, though I have only read War and Peace once. Le Père Goriot never ceases to amaze, nor does Jane Eyre.Jezebel has an article about the difference in the perception of oral sex in France and the US, but what really amused us was this introduction:
"What is it about Americans and la pipe?" asked my Parisian friend Anne* in between puffs of Marlboro. I stopped and looked at her, perplexed. La pipe is French slang for "fellatio." (...)
*not her real name. She's named for a different Brontë sister. (Chloe S. Angyal)
Eliza Mowe’s audition for X Factor is due to be screened, after she caught the eye with her town crier costume.An alert from Brontë Country. In The Telegraph & Argus:
“It was an amazing, thrilling and surreal experience,” said Eliza, who performed the high-pitched song Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush.
“I felt like a wailing cat,” she said. “I didn’t want to make a fool of myself, so I sang it in a lower key. But I kept my dignity.”
A wide range of activities and events are on offer across the district for families looking for some fun this bank holiday weekend. (...)According to the Bradford Council website:
Helen’s Heritage Walks will be hosting a 90-minute walk around Haworth village and the moors complete with readings from Wuthering Heights from 2pm to 3.30pm on Saturday. Meet at West Lane, Haworth. Tickets are £6 for adults, £3 for children.
A Taste of the Moors - a 90 minute walk around Haworth village and the moors with readings from Wuthering Heights. Rough, but well-used, moorland tracks. Walking shoes/boots are recommended.The Times talks about the TV series Hunderby:
A young maiden (Alexandra Roach) is shipwrecked off the coast of England in 1830. After being brought back to life by the dashing Dr Foggerty (Rufus Jones), she marries a loathsome country pastor (Alex MacQueen) and ends up re-living the story of Rebecca. The writer Julia Davis, who also plays the twisted housekeeper obsessed with the memory of her late mistress, describes Hunderby as a comedy period drama” rather than satire, but in truth it works best as a spoof. It is an extended and inspired sketch composed of every cliché and minutely observed detail from a thousand adaptations of Austen, Brontë and Du Maurier — to which is added a bracing dose of Davis’s pitch-black humour. (David Chater)The same newspaper has an article about Howard Jacobson. His youth years are mentioned:
My first lecture was to 700 people — and I loved it!” He heaped Leavisite [for Q.D. Leavis] scorn on Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Wuthering Heights, and gained an easy reputation as an iconoclast. (Lynn Barber)Emma in Oz compares Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; this last book is reviewed on W świecie książek (in Polish) and the first one on Lace Vintage Book Reviews and Go-Go-Rama; Audrey's Reviews posts about Villette; BitchMedia's Retropop argues that Charlotte Brontë would have liked Kelly Clarkson (sic); NonSoloGiappone (in Italian) reviews on YouTube Agnes Grey; Pink Chanel Suit compares Heathcliff and Snape.
Some recent examples of artists inspired by the Brontës:an English artist living in Spain, painting and collaging in naive style, with a special affinity with Sussex and Derbyshire.She has made several Brontë Parsonage collages like this one, this one or this other one. On the right hand side you can see her latest work:
Not sure if it's any good but it's what I've had in mind for a while: re-interpreting my collages (which after all are themselves interpretations) in paint. But in this case (and possibly others) pared back and darker.
I daresay it wouldn't do to go back to a photograph and compare this finished article wth the actual building. But then it isn't meant to be a faithful reproduction. Just a spartan and naive echo of Haworth Parsonage.
An interpretation of an interpretation. A dream of a dream. Never mind Shakespeare, now I'm veering into Freud. Though in fact I do remember reading, many years ago and possibly in a preface to Wuthering Heights, about the enormous significance of windows and doors in the Brontës' work.
Elmer Paisley is a Cleveland artist who posted this illustration (left) on his tumblr a few months ago:“Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë. Watercolor and colored pencil.Rotopolpress publishes a Nadine Redlich illustration (right) inspired by Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights video.
One of my favourite books. I tried to capture the sweeping, melodramatic atmosphere of the novel.
Jane Eyre is still a great favorite to readers around the world. And, it's no wonder! The young girl is a compelling heroine, painted into a life of ignoble misery. She has the infamous evil stepmother (represented by her miserly aunt, the cruel (and unkind) tormentors (her cousins). She even has elements of the supernatural. Early on, she feared ghosts and that fear would be transformed into a terrible pyromaniac-madwoman.The discussion Austen vs Brontë always gives some good headlines. The Yorkshire Post covers the upcoming Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing (August 31-September 2) which will, among other thigs, feature an Austen-Brontë discussion:
The book has really got everything: controversy, tragedy, abuse, self-sacrifice, psychological manipulation, and so much more.
With the ever-deepening and evolving state of Jane's emotional and physical state, the novel offers something for nearly every romantic-minded reader. And, our study of Jane Eyre becomes ever more fascinating when we consider the origins of the work...
Claire Harman, in her book Jane’s Fame, says that Charlotte Brontë’s comments on Austen did affect the latter’s reputation for a time. Yet today both writers have never been more popular, and each has heavily influenced contemporary culture – from Mills and Boon to Zombie novels, from Bridget Jones to Bollywood.The New York Times' Arts Beat lists books that are set in or around schools:
Austen’s stories seem to lend themselves more easily to (countless) TV adaptations, while Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, with its wild rugged countryside which features so heavily almost as another character in the narrative, begs the scope of the big screen.
As part of the third Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Claire Harman and novelists Helen Simpson and Tiffany Murray will debate whether Austen or the Brontës have had the greatest influence on modern fiction.
The audience will be invited to join in what promises to be a lively discussion about these pioneering female writers. At the end they will be asked to choose whose work they would take to their mythical desert island.
An independent observer who is well qualified to take a dispassionate view of this “face-off” between the writers is Harriet Guest, professor of English literature at York University. She believes that, notwithstanding Charlotte’s lack of enthusiasm for her renowned predecessor, the Brontë sisters’ writing was definitely influenced by Austen’s.
“I suppose they benefited from the way she used language to describe the intensity of inner feelings and build up a view of personality through these insights.
“Austen in turn drew on what others had done or were doing. Her novels focus on what goes on between people rather than events in the world. She’s interested in creating a comedy of manners where nothing much happens. It’s all about the articulation of emotions and thoughts. This ‘interiority’ was new and marked her out from other writers. It also influenced many who came afterwards.
“The greatest contrast between the Brontës and Austen is probably in comparing her novels with Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,” says the professor. “It deals in what, to Austen, would have been unspeakable events – the heroine marries a drunk with not enough to do. She shuts the bedroom door on him and he takes revenge by corrupting her son and committing adultery in their house. It was considered hugely scandalous at the time, partly because it was written by an unmarried woman.
“The Brontës’ work was much more operatic than Austen’s and there was a wild realism about them. Austen’s later novels did, however, show an interest in war and empire and depicted her women more in relation to the world at large.”
But in Wuthering Heights, “a dynastic story set in two houses”, there are parallels with the works of Austen, says Prof Guest. “Of course the Brontës painted on a much broader canvas. They also explored such issues as race and Empire.”
Would she consider either the Brontës of Jane Austen as feminist writers?
“I find it hard to see Jane Austen as anything other than a conservative writer – but even then, at the centre of all her work are women and their ability to understand human nature in some deeply intuitive way. They are the ones who hold the world together.
“The Brontë sisters, by the very nature of the kind of fierce, sexy and ambitious stories they wrote, were feminist. In their work it’s not so much about the direction of the plot but the strong feeling of their ambition.”
Writer Helen Simpson, who’ll be taking part in the Austen/Brontës debate, pins her colours to the mast quite categorically regarding the influence of Austen and what she calls “life in rooms” – via novels made compelling through the accuracy of her prose, her wit and the truth of her observations about human nature and relationships.
Discovering Austen as a teenager Simpson realised “writing didn’t have to be full of action. Life was important without lots of plot and people hitting each other.”
Stormy Sisterhood: Jane Austen versus the Brontës will be held at West Lane Baptist Church, Haworth at 7.30pm in Saturday, September 1, 01535 640188, jenna.holmes@bronte.or.uk
Julie Bloom, Culture Desk EditorThreeWeekEdinburgh reviews The History Girls' show:
I read it several times. “Totto-Chan” also sparked a dive into other books about girls who do bad things/get sent away—“Jane Eyre, ” “A Little Princess,” the LM. Mongtomerys, etc. — a perennially favorite theme. (John Williams)
Taking up the Python schtick of funny voices, eccentric characters and kooky animated inserts, The History Girls are a crack team of female sketch comedians who could and should be a great success. Giving their summary of things so far – mainly focused on the latter half of the last millennium – the theatrically-trained trio are completely engaging; even the slightly weaker sketches in the final third are fun to watch, thanks to the ladies’ brilliant acting and killer moves. All the team are given ample opportunity to shine individually, but as a group their take on the Brontë sisters is truly sublime – I’ll never be able to read ‘Wuthering Heights’ in the same way. Silly, brilliant, historically inaccurate fun.The Huffington Post talks about a literary-themed wedding:
There will be place mats made from pages of books (discarded ones, we hope) containing love stories, including "Emma," "Jane Eyre" and "Bridget Jones's Diary." (via Shelf Awareness )Alson on The Huffington Post an article about film locations in the Peak District. Including, of course, Haddon Hall:
The first movie, Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall, was made here in 1924 with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and filming has continued ever since. Lady Jane Grey, The Princess Bride, Jane Eyre, The Other Boleyn Girl and, of course, Pride and Prejudice are just some of the many films that have used this location. (Rupert Parker)The Derbyshire Times talks about a curious initiative by the Peak District turist board:
Official tourist board Visit Peak District & Derbyshire joined forces with VisitEngland to host a film-themed fact-finding weekend for a wide variety of media representatives from both home and abroad as the international media paused for breath between the London Olympics 2012 and the Paralympics. (...)Expect more articles about Haddon Hall in the near future...
Highlights were visits to Chatsworth (believed to be the inspiration for Mr. Darcy’s home Pemberley), Kedleston Hall (venue for last Saturday’s outdoor screening of the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley) and Haddon Hall (location for the Inn at Lambton in the 2005 and also for numerous other films and TV series, including three versions of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
The less discerning might think he is an inhuman, unfeeling, self-centred monster. Then again, so are some of literature’s sexiest leading men. Raj could be our very own Heathcliff, for instance. Thrown out of the warm home of his uncle, cast aside for his cousin, Raj too had to find his own way as an outsider. He too is driven by revenge for being shunned as an outsider, left out in the cold by his Shiv Sena clan. He will make his presence felt come Congress or Shiv Sena. His hatred – for outsiders, the Shiv Sena, the Congress, laws, ethics, humanity – is as strong as his determination to rule Maharashtra and take his rightful place on the throne. (Rajyasree Sen)am New York anticipates the fall premiere of Wuthering Heights 2011; Half Moon Bay Review recalls the childhood years:
I loved stories about Florence Nightingale and Sister Kenny and their selfless devotion to healing and caring for the sick and stories about long-suffering girls who persevered and overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles like “Jane Eyre,” “Elsie Dinsmore” and “Little Women.” (Janet Orumchian)Clarín's Ñ Magazine (Argentina) talks about adoption in films:
Hasta que una nueva realidad social, la adopción, ha generado un tema que, aunque ya se trataba en algunos clásicos (de Edipo a Cumbres borrascosas), sólo ahora se convierte en una verdadera corriente. (Laura Freixas) (Translation)The Sweet Bookshelf interviews the writer Terri Bruce:
What are some of your favorite books?Another author, Jane Gray is interviewed on Layered Pages:
Oh, there are so many wonderful books in the world, it’s so hard to pick! It’s hard to name just a few but here goes: I tend to like classics—Ivanhoe, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Idylls of the King (...)
What books have most influenced your life?And something for the fanfic lovers, Making Light recommends this Firefly/Jane Eyre fanfic story: Jayne Eyre (no, that's not a typo); Shakespeare4Me has visited Haworth; the Brontë Sisters posts about the Brontë moors; The Profit of Books and Dans notre petite bulle (in French) review Wuthering Heights (by the way, Unputdownables is preparing a read-along with Emily Brontë's book); Brain Fart Films and Nourritures Spiritualles (in French) post about Jane Eyre 2011; Read Now Sleep Later gives away an ARC copy of Dark Companion signed by the author.
Aside from the obvious classics like Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Rebecca etc. I tend to like books with a strong female lead.
You know you're bsing when you compare Jane Eyre to Andie in Pretty in Pink.... Haha
