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Friday, August 31, 2012

Thread covers the Kate Sylvester fashion show:
"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."
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)
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reviews The Ballad of Tom Dooley by Sharyn McCrumb:
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”).
What we cannot understand is why you can't read Salinger and Brontë, for instance. We did and love them both (and Hardy and Orwell, by the way).
  Dziennika Wschodniego (Poland) reviews Agnes Grey:
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.
So what do you think?
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.

6 comments:

  1. In Margaret Smith's "The Letters of Charlotte Bronte Volume I" it says Elizabeth Seton-Gordon bequeathed "mote than ninety" letters from Charlotte to George Smith to the Bronte Museum. There are only 82 in the three volumes of letters. Have the rest been published somewhere? If so, where? I hope for an answer. Luv Lubker

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  2. Hi there,

    Looking at what Margaret Smith actually says, 'more than ninety letters to George Smith or his publishing house', that would include the initial generally addressed letters, letters to George Smith himself and letters to James Taylor and William Smith Williams.

    How did you count those 82 letters? Those addressed to any of those (or did you just count those addressed to George Smith?) and currently kept at the BPM?

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  3. Ok, I just counted all the letters to George Smith everywhere. I've been reading a lot about Charlotte and George Smith lately and wanted to make sure I was missing anything.

    The little socks that Charlotte made for Mrs. Smith are there too? Is it known if any descendents of George Smith are still alive?

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  4. There is an anecdote apparently told by George Smith's daughter to Anne Thackeray that George Smith proposed to Charlotte. Where is this letter (if it does exist) and what does it say?

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  5. Anonymous - I think the little socks you are referring to are stored at the BPM, as per their collection records online: http://bronte.adlibsoft.com/detail.aspx#2847 No picture though, and it should be lovely to see them.

    Don't really know about George Smith descendants alive, sorry.

    Caroline Helstone - where did you read about the proposal? We know that Lyndall Gordon claims that Wemyss Reid says that Ellen told him that George Smith had proposed to Charlotte though we have been unable to find such a thing in Wemyss Reid's Monograph or Memories. George Smith himself in later years would deny that he was ever 'in love' with Charlotte Brontë, although both Charlotte and Mrs Smith seemed to believe/sense he was.

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  6. Luv Lubker says she read about the proposal somewhere but can't find it on ksotikoula's blog. I was wondering whether there has been a letter to circumstantiate it.

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