A despicable act

The news about the theft at the Old Bell Chapel in Thornton is being featured by newspapers all over the globe such as the Libero Quotidiano (Italy) or the New York Daily News Page Views. But it is of course the British press that's discussing the matter more. From BBC News:

Church warden Steven Stanworth said he considered the thefts a desecration of the ground.
He said: "We are proud of our achievements in making Brontë Bell Chapel and surrounding graveyard a place where people can now visit to enjoy its history, beauty and nature.
"It is a historic site and it has been desecrated. This was a despicable and awful crime."
Police patrols were stepped up around the cemetery, opposite St James Church in Thornton Road, after the damage was discovered.
Det Insp Mark Long, from West Yorkshire Police, said: "This is quite clearly a despicable act which will cause great offence in the local community."
Bradford councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, who is responsible for tourism in the area, said history "had been thrown away".

The Daily Mail publishes pictures of the site and further details:

Patrick once described his years in Thornton as 'the happiest in his life', before the family was torn apart by the premature deaths of its literary prodigies.
On Saturday, members of the action group set up to restore the site came along to tend the graveyard - and discovered thousands of pounds of damage.
Thieves had removed two horizontal grave slabs measuring six foot long by three foot wide and four inches thick - which would take four men to lift.
They had also taken slabs from the Brontë Way, a footpath linking points of interest across the moorland that inspired Wuthering Heights.
One of the graves marked the final resting place of tragic John and Mary Pickles and the five children who predeceased them in the 1820s.
The other stone covered the plot of Hannah and James Abbott and their 28-year-old daughter Mary who were all dead by 1828.
The thieves did not touch the actual headstones, but the inscriptions on the slabs were more extensive.
Pieces of York stone had also been removed from the top of 15 other graves.
Coping stones had been ripped from the chapel itself and much of the churchyard footpath torn up. [...]
Churchwarden Steven Stanworth, the mastermind of the chapel restoration, was sickened. [...]
'It is a historic site and it has been desecrated. This was a despicable and awful crime. Thousands of pounds of stone have been stolen and the graves are irreplaceable.
'The thieves probably dumped them in a hedge or threw them over a wall once they realised there were inscriptions which made them identifiable.
'The action group of nine volunteers have put a lot of hard work in and are devastated.
'It is absolutely disgraceful and disgusting. The morons who did this must be sick and have no respect for life, death or social history.'
'We were celebrating 400 years of its history this year and it has taken the edge off it.'
The graveyard was the final resting place of many local worthies before the last plot was filled in 1965.
The gates are left unlocked to allow their ancestors [sic] to pay their respects and for families to enjoy the peace and quiet.
The churchwarden added: 'What has happened has been devastating. The two graves taken are over 200 years old and were irreplaceable. It’s totally sad.
'Local stonemasons have been contacted but they do not hold out much hope of getting them back.'
Police patrols were stepped up around St James' Church on Thornton Road after the damage was discovered.
Detective Inspector Mark Long said: 'This is quite clearly a despicable act which will cause great offence in the local community.
'Police are aware of the theft of Yorkshire stone and these gravestones from the church and have been in contact with officials there.
'Unfortunately, there are no positive lines of inquiry at this time despite investigations.
'So we appeal to anyone who has information and furthermore, to any local stonemasons who are offered what are clearly gravestones to contact us.' (William Cook)

The Independent and Express also cover the story. The Telegraph and Argus finds out more about the families whose stones have been stolen.

The Belfast Telegraph reviews the book: To Call Myself Beloved by Eina McHugh.

The love story, and it is as passionate as anything by fictional greats such as the Brontës, isn’t girl-meets-boy and therefore doesn’t have the normal conclusion. It’s girl-meets-wise psychiatrist and therefore the conclusion is mutual understanding and platonic love rather than anything more physical.

Blog Critics discusses Once Upon a Time's Rumplestiltskin:

You may disagree with me that Once Upon a Time's Rumplestiltskin (the brilliant Robert Carlyle) is a Byronic hero, but I'm pretty sure he is. Rumple is certainly not heroic in the the way most of us use the word, but then again, neither is Wuthering Heights' Heathcliff, and few would dispute his status as a true Byronic!
The Byronic hero is specific archetype in literature of all types. Intelligent and magnetic, melancholy and brooding, isolated and always burdened with significant flaws. He is part of a grand tradition of romantic heroes.
Brooding? Melancholy? With his demented laugh and gleeful menace, that doesn't necessarily sound like our Rumple, at least on the surface. But it seems like a pretty good description of his Storybrooke alter ego Mr. Gold. [...]
The creators of the show Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis the writers, and Carlyle have collaborated to create in Rumplestiltskin a Heathcliff Byronic hero. He is more in the Byronic mold of Heathcliff, the anti-hero of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights than, than he is the softer Edward Rochester of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, but Rumple is in many ways a very classic Byronic hero.
In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is as cruel vengeful as he is wounded and tormented. There is little softness to him as he seeks revenge upon those whom he believes have wronged him, and those whom would keep from him his beloved Cathy. Now that sounds like our Rumple. But like Rumple, Heathcliff doesn't he doesn't start out that way.
An orphan, he is taken in by a kindly man (perhaps his natural father), but soon thereafter, the young boy is treated cruelly. Humiliated, beaten, and kept filthy, his is as trampled upon as anyone might be. The only light in his life is Cathy, the daughter of the Earnshaw household, with whom he makes a pact to love they will love each other into eternity. But she grows up, goes off to become a lady, and he is left alone and in despair. She marries for wealth, and he disappears, off to war, only to return years later a wealthy man, now more educated and powerful than those who so abused him a child. He has returned to claim his lady, but at the same time make those who humiliated him suffer his own hands.
We don't know what has made Rumple into the terrified, defeated man we meet in this week's episode "The Crocodile" whether he's always been that way, or beaten down by circumstance. There is history and backstory here yet to be learned by us, and I wonder about his origins. But it is in this way that his story parallels Heathcliff's.
In the years between Heathcliff fleeing the Earnshaw household and when we meet him again years later, he has acquired not only wealth, but elegant manners and an education. He has become a gentleman. [...]
In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is not redeemed. His bitterness and cruelty to all of those around him, extend into a new generation and haunt him until the day he dies. Rumple's story is not yet completed, of course, and as monstrous as he can be, his love for Baelfire and for Belle humanize him still after so many centuries. It is that humanity, the light that still remains within him that keeps him from complete darkness. (Barbara Barnett)

The Encore Sun Journal reviews The Book Club Play at the Public Theatre, Lewiston.

“The Book Club Play” is good fun for the audience on multiple levels. There is plenty of comedy and it is not necessary to have previous knowledge of the books mentioned. After all, it’s a long list of titles that starts with “Moby Dick” and goes through classics like “Wuthering Heights” and “The Age of Innocence” all to way to the other extreme of the Tarzan books, which were Rob’s favorites in his teen years. (David A. Sargent)

This is how the Mirror describes the (former) couple Katie Price and Leandro Penna:

Like a modern-day Heathcliff and Cathy (he grunts a lot, she’s feisty), Leo and Jordan’s two-year relationship has ebbed and flowed with passion and heartache. (Clemmie Moodie)

The Maz Blog and Lecture de livres (in French) both post about Jane Eyre. The Brontë Weather Project is not enjoying Shirley. Felice's Blog reviews Wuthering Heights 1939 at length. Licking the plate again posts about a weekend spent in Brontë Country.