The book has really got everything

Esther Lombardi on About.com is fascinated by Jane Eyre and Charlotte Brontë:

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 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... 

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:

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.
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

The New York Times' Arts Beat lists books that are set in or around schools:

Julie Bloom, Culture Desk Editor
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)

ThreeWeekEdinburgh reviews The History Girls' show:

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. (...)
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.

Expect more articles about Haddon Hall in the near future...

We are no experts in the intricacies of Indian politics but we suppose this comment on First Post about the Marathi politician Raj Thackeray is ironic:

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?
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 (...)

Another author, Jane Gray is interviewed on Layered Pages:

What books have most influenced your life?
Aside from the obvious classics like Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Rebecca etc. I tend to like books with a strong female lead.  

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.

And the tweet of the day, courtesy of @liana_rae:

You know you're bsing when you compare Jane Eyre to Andie in Pretty in Pink.... Haha