Where the Metaphors Get Out of Hand

The London Evening Standard reviews the collective book Road Stories: New Writing Inspired by Exhibition Road, edited by Mary Morris:

In 1851, when she visited the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, Charlotte Brontë remarked that “its grandeur does not consist in one thing but in a unique assemblage of all things”.  (Frances Wilson)

Journalists should refrain themselves from using the Brontës as metaphore if they haven't read any book by them, because sometimes metaphors get out of hand. You know, metaphors are the devil's work. Austin Murphy writes in Sports Illustrated:

With bronze medalist Leonel Suarez producing a huge javelin throw -- his 76.94 meters was the best of the night -- Hardee knew he'd have to put the elbow to the test. With his elbow comprehensively wrapped and trussed as a virgin in a novel by one of the Brontë sisters, he uncorked the third-longest throw of the night, 66.65 meters, and then let loose with a manic celebration.

Dave Astor in The Huffington Post likes to read very contrasted novels among them:

Daphne du Maurier's 1951 My Cousin Rachel (a suspense tale about what Rachel might be up to) followed by Jean Rhys' 1966 Wide Sargasso Sea (which focuses on the "mad" wife of Rochester in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre). Actually, that last pair of books had a little more in common than the first three pairs.

The Washington Post recommends a visit to The Green (on the right) park in Charlotte, North Carolina:

The Green, a 1.5-acre (.6 hectares) downtown park at 435 S. Tryon St., is a literary-themed park with sculptures of giant books, pages and a walkway of sounds. Bright signs mark the intersections of author names, including “Emily” and “Brontë,” ‘’Herman” and “Melville,” and “Alice” and “Walker.”

Another Brontëite, the author Brenda Novak on USA Today's Happy Ever After:

My favorite historical is Jane Eyre. Until I found the shelf of classics at the school library when I was 8, I thought I didn't like to read. Who knew I just didn't care for Dick, Jane or even Spot? Jane Eyre captured my imagination like no other book and is still one of my all-time favorites. (Joyce Lamb)

And Sue Townsend in the Daily Express:

Jane Eyre
This is the first book I read through the night without dropping off to sleep. It was snowing outside, I was freezing cold and my fingers were frozen.
I finished the last chapter walking to school because I had to know how it ended.
It’s such a captivating story and retains your interest on every page.

On Laurel's Open Page, Deanna Sletten explains how:

I have many favorite books and authors. The very first book I fell in love with was Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, then Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

The author Erin Cashman writes on Letters Inside Out:

Four years later I went off to Bates College and majored in English. I wrote my Honors thesis on Hamlet. I fell in love with all different types of literature. I became a big fan of the Lake District poets; I read everything by the Brontë Sisters, Jane Austin (Sic) and George Elliot.

And Shauna Roberts on The Bunny's Review:

What was your favorite book when you were a child/teen?
Jane Eyre. It’s one of the very few books I’ve read more than once. I read it first as an odd, solitary child and found for the first time a heroine I could identify with. I read it next as a teenager and found it quite a different book. And when I read it as an adult, it was a different book yet, and at last I understood why Jane was attracted to Rochester.

The editors and author of Jane Eyre Laid Bare explain their views in the Birmingham Post:

“Whether that is taken to an extreme with someone being powerful over you is a different issue, but I do think falling in love and being out of control is part of a woman’s fantasy.”
Although Sinclair is braced for critics who consider it lazy and unoriginal to mess with a classic, she good-naturedly urges such people to “get over themselves”, and says she has created a “post-modern mash-up”.
“There were lots of different versions of Jane Eyre even in Brontë’s lifetime. This has been going on for ages, and people have been writing fan fiction for years,” she says. “Fifty Shades of Grey began life as Twilight fan fiction, after all.”
Sinclair’s publishers are happy to admit they are looking to capitalise on the current trend.
Wayne Brookes, editor of Jane Eyre Laid Bare, says: “It was vampires and conspiracy thrillers before erotica became the must-have genre.
“If the book-buying public have moved their attentions to erotic fiction, then as a publisher, part of our job is to give the public what they want to read.” (Diana Pilkington)

The Copenhagen Post reviews the film Albert Nobbs:

Despite the transgender subject matter, the approach to this period drama is so classical and the plot so plodding and didactic that it feels ill at ease in this era of post−postmodernist overhauls of the genre (think Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice or Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights). (Mark Walker)

The Khaleej Times (Pakistan) reviews Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips:

If only there were a middle path, a series of imaginative deviations such stories could take. Can’t the women be quirky — like Phoebe from Friends — or crazy/alluring — like Catherine from Wuthering Heights? (Enid Parker) 

El Informador (México) interviews the actress Leticia Huijara:

¿Qué mujeres admiras?—Me conmueven las mujeres del siglo XIX que escribieron sin tener derecho alguno. Virginia Wolf o las hermanas Brontë. (Dolores Tapia)

Easier Travel recommends the Jane Eyre film costumes exhibition at Haddon Hall:

Visitors can see three versions of the costumes worn by Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester, as well as a selection of other outfits and accessories in the three adaptations. The productions, including the 1995 film directed by Franco Zefferelli, the BBC 2006 mini-series starring Ruth Wilson and the latest 2011 film directed by Cary Fukunaga and starring Mia Wasikowska, all feature Haddon Hall as Thornfield Hall.
For the first time Jenny Beavan's designs for the 1995 film are on display alongside the 2011 film's costumes by Michael O'Conner and the TV Mini-series' costumes by John Bright and Andrea Galer. (...)
Janet said: "The exhibition and tour will be fascinating for people who like seeing how the costumes and hall link with the films. The costumes are just lovely to look at and are incredibly detailed."

Elliot's Reading continues reading Wuthering Heights and Ler é a minha praia (in Portuguese) posts about it; fuchsinkind, Tulipanowa Biblioteczka... (in Polish) and pretty providence reviews Jane Eyre; Cinematon, Les Découvertes de Dawn and Le Hibou (in French) reviews the 2011 film version; Bokgrottan (in Swedish) posts about Agnes Grey; chrs_vg posts several caps of Wuthering Heights 2011; Hereweknitagain talks about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall among other books.