The Wrong Freemason... with a hint of autumn

The Telegraph & Argus talks about the anniversary of the Shirley Lodge in Haworth:

A freemasons lodge whose roots are in Haworth is celebrating its 85th birthday.
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.

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.

NPR Books presents Julier Barker's revised edition of The Brontës:

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.
“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.”

Sandy Thomas salutes the works of Lip Service (particularly Withering Looks) in The Huffington Post:

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.
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.

The Independent reviews the TV show Hunderby:

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. (...)
"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.

WWD recall one of Mia Wasikowska, the latest Jane Eyre on screen, secret passions:

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?
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.

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.

And the tweet of the day comes from the @BronteParsonage:

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.