Heathcliff swoons

The play Brontë: A Portrait of Charlotte is taking a break after tomorrow's show. Broadway Buzz reveals why:

The Alloy Theatre Company’s off-Broadway production of Brontë: A Portrait of Charlotte will close on September 15 due to the recent pregnancy of the solo show’s star, Maxine Linehan. Written by William Luce and directed by Timothy Douglas, Brontë: A Portrait of Charlotte will have played 21 performances at the Actor’s Temple at the time of closing.

USA Today's Happy Ever After interviews Sierra Cartwright, who has penned the Total E-Bound erotic retelling of Jane Eyre.

Justine: How familiar with the book were you beforehand? Sierra: Who hasn't heard of Jane Eyre? It's one of the most breathtakingly complex and rich works of fiction ever penned. It's a book that's stood the test of time and has been made into movies, retelling the tale for modern audiences. I don't pretend to be a scholar, but I am a huge fan of the work. It's the type of book you just want to take on vacation and savor and enjoy. It's one of those rare stories that stays with you long after you read the last page.
Justine: The story is set in the mid 1800s. What, if any, research did you do into the time period? Sierra: I've always been a voracious reader and I love history. As far back as high school, I was taking Advanced Placement history classes. I was born in England, not far from where the Brontës are from, and I've always had a special love for British history. [...]
I didn't just "jump" into the actual writing. It really mattered to me to do a good job — as this story is so beloved. I knew there would be people who were curious about my additions, and were familiar with the story, setting, and time period, so anything I inserted needed to be consistent with how Charlotte Brontë wrote. It was also my intention to keep Jane consistent with the woman Brontë envisioned.
I read about mid-1800s fashion and contraception. Honestly, until I worked on Jane Eyre to add erotic content, I'd never considered the many possible uses there were for a man's cravat. (And it makes me sort of wish they were still in fashion!)
Anachronisms were a concern to me, so I had an assistant who looked up every word that we had any doubts about — using other books from the time period and several different dictionaries. As Brontë was familiar with French and German, when I added a French phrase or two, we found someone who was a native French speaker to verify etymology there, too. Where possible, I used words that Brontë had already used elsewhere in the book. (You should see my paperback copy of the book — sticky notes and highlighted words and sections everywhere. The book looks to be about a decade old!)
The Total-E-Bound staff was also on the lookout, questioning details, asking for clarification, ensuring that everything fit together. (Justine Ashley Costanza)

On the other side of the coin is this columnist from the Kingston EMC, who read the actual Jane Eyre at school.

One would have thought that after that I would have been hooked on reading. Not so. While I enjoyed reading, especially works by Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, which were assigned to me in school, I never really read for pleasure. (Kristen Coughlar)

This Chicago Tribune columnist touches on the same subject:

At the last minute Sunday, I did switch titles. The Nancy Drew cover flashed on the screen behind the library lectern, but I had to explain to the crowd that on re-reading "The Clue in the Crumbling Wall," I'd realized that, seen from the lofty heights of adulthood, it just wasn't very good.
So I read instead from my first "good" book, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë.
But I wouldn't have gotten to "Jane Eyre" if not for Nancy Drew and the potboilers, and when a friend lamented recently that her 14-year-old daughter prefers cheesy books to good ones, I told her not to worry.
There are different paths to learning to love to read, and they're not always the high road. (Mary Schmich)

SvD Kultur reviews in Swedish Dylan LeBlanc's album Cast the Same Old Shadow by making a very perceptive comment on the Brontës along the way.

Och precis som systrarna Brontë bevisar han att personlig erfarenhet inte har något att göra med förmågan att berätta en historia. (Elin Unnes) (Translation)

The Daily Mail has an article on Sebastian Faulks's new book, A Possible Life:

One story riffs on Wuthering Heights when a girl falls in love with the orphan her father adopts; another about a 19th century French serving woman whose one opportunity for passion remains unfulfilled, harks back to Flaubert’s Un Coeur Simple. (John Harding)

Skyscanner (in Italian) lists the Brontë Parsonage Museum among the best writers' houses in the world. Plock Gazeta (in Polish) has a short article on Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights. Hetek (in Hungarian) features a group of 9/11 widows, one of which mentions taking up classics such as Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights with relief. DNA Info New York features a local bookshop where 'attractive antique editions of classics like "Wuthering Heights" [are sold] for $25'. This TV Equals reviewer might benefit from grabbing just any old copy of the novel, to avoid making statements such as this, in a review of The Vampire Diaries:

One thing that won’t be changing is the show’s central love triangle. Damon and Stefan will still be fighting over Elena’s heart, maybe even more so now that forever is on the table thanks to Elena’s vampiric state. The trio get a photo all to themselves, and its fog-tinged setting combined with Dobrev, Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder all being decked out in evening wear, makes it so romantic that even Wuthering Height‘s (sic) gothic hero Heathcliff would swoon.

It is well documented that Heathcliff 'swooned' over the silliest things, you know.

The Briarfield Chronicles discusses at length Juliet Barker's The Brontës. El baúl de los secretos (in Spanish) posts about Wuthering Heights. The Eph Log has written on Wide Sargasso Sea. And finally, good news from the Brontë Weather Project, as the exhibition Hope's Whisper has been extended at the Brontë Parsonage Museum until September 23rd.