Clamping Doggers

A few Wuthering Heights 2011 reviews are still being published:

Mostly Positive:

Film Pulse:

I do know that this film is the most enjoyable film adaptation of classic literature I have seen, which is a category I’m not very fond of. Hopefully, Andrea Arnold is done with the idea of re-imagining classic works and returns to making the films that feature her own original ideas. Whatever films Arnold ends up making, one hopes that she has the foresight to continue to collaborate with cinematographer Robbie Ryan. Anything featuring the talents of Arnold and Ryan is definitely worth a film lover’s attention. (Kevin)

Creative Loafing:

This won't replace the 1939 Laurence Olivier-Merle Oberon classic as the definitive screen take, but Arnold's atmospheric direction and the stunning camerawork by Robbie Ryan (who's already won several international awards for his lensing here) help counteract against a certain degree of lethargy. (Matt Brunson)

Los Angeles Times presents the film:

But once on board, Arnold's willingness to do something she thought might not work is indicative of the adventuresome, exploratory spirit that runs through all her films. Even her visual style, hand-held camera work captured within a boxy aspect ratio, gives them an unexpected jolt of immediacy. (Mark Olsen 

It seems that the erotic retellings of Brontë classics are not the only hot thing related to the Brontës these days. The Daily Star (not the most trustworthy of sources, we know) reports that Haworth is a favourite spot for dogging and exhibitionism no less. The beginning of the article is unforgettable:

It’s enough to make the Brontë sisters reach for the smelling salts…the landscape that inspired their books is alive with wild sex.
Lust-crazed couples are invading the moors around the picturesque parish of Haworth for bawdy freshair frolics.
Their antics make Catherine Earnshaw’s love for wild-eyed hero Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights look tamer than a tea party at the parsonage where the sisters grew up.
And prim Charlotte Brontë would have been slapped in the stocks if heroine Jane Eyre’s desire for Mr Rochester had led to them bonking in a carriage on a country road above the West Yorkshire tourist trap.
The hill-top village is a magnet for literature lovers from all over the world.
They flock to its cobbled streets to immerse themselves in Haworth’s storybook magic.
But when night falls the deserted country roads and unlit lay-bys lure sexual thrill-seekers. (Bill Francis)

Lower your expectations, though, because the only thing that the article describes is some couples in a car park. The Brontës are not forgotten even then:

The babe then introduced herself as Sam and asked if the reporter wanted to join her on the back seat.
Our man declined her offer and instead turned the conversation to the literary merits of the Brontë sisters, asking Sam, who said she was in her late 20s, if she was a fan of their novels.
Sam told him: “Oh, I love all that.
“I’ve read Wuthering Heights a few times and the thought of being out on the moor with a fella like Heathcliff really gets my blood running.” (...)
Husband Brian, 47, said: “We’ve been touring the area and have visited Haworth to see all the Brontë stuff. “But we love to put on a show outdoors, so when we saw on the internet it was a dogging spot as well, we thought we’d check it out.” (Bill Francis)

The controversial housing development in Brontë country is discussed in the Daily Mail:

The rugged landscape that inspired the classic novel Wuthering Heights is under threat from a £15 million housing development.
A tycoon wants to build 320 homes in the middle of ‘Brontë country’ – a prospect that has alarmed conservationists.
They say the development would be ‘disturbingly close’ to Haworth Moor in West Yorkshire, which was so vividly described in the 19th Century writings of sisters Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë.
It was also the setting for Emily’s doomed love story about Heathcliff and Cathy Earnshaw.
Bradford businessman Perves Abbas, who initially wants 120 homes on land bordering the moor, is to submit a planning application in the next month.
He said: ‘I will take everything into consideration to make sure the local beauty is not lost.’
But Christine Went, heritage and conservation officer for the Brontë Society, said: ‘Large numbers of new houses would bring inappropriate development disturbingly close to the moorland fringes. We have to protect this landscape.’
John Huxley, chairman of the local parish council, added: ‘Anything that has a major impact on the appearance of the village would have an effect on our tourist industry.’
Val Slater, Bradford council’s executive member for planning, said: ‘It is vital that a balance is sought between the need for housing and the preservation of the Bronte heritage landscapes.’ (George Arbuthnott) 

The Independent gives away the top 10 books in the Everyman's Library (which includes Jane Eyre). The same newspaper carries an article about a study which apparently confirms that literary abilities can be inherited. We are rather skeptical after seeing what the report really says:

Researchers from Yale in the US and Moscow State University in Russia launched the study to see whether there was a scientific reason why well-known writers have produced other writers. (...)
"There are also the three venerable Brontë sisters, Henry and William James [the novelist and writer on psychology were brothers], the Cheevers [father, daughter and son], and the Ephrons [both parents were successful screenwriters, and four daughters who are also writers]," say the researchers. (...)
The study analysed the creative writing of 511 children aged eight to 17 and 489 of their mothers and 326 fathers. All the participants wrote stories on particular themes. (...)
Taking into account intelligence and family background, the researchers then calculated the inherited and the environmental elements of creative writing. They found what they describe as a modest but statistically significant familiality and heritability element to creative writing. (Roger Dobson) 

The Times reviews Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England by Sarah Wise

Their most famous representative is fictional — Bertha Mason in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and she is probably untypical, since estimates suggest lunacy was commoner among males than females. (John Carey)

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution talks about the National Book Festival and the poet Natasha Trethewey.

As [Librarian of Congress James H. ] Billington sees it, in a profoundly humane way, she has made heroes and heroines of forgotten Americans. They are often black, usually working class, indelibly Southern. In her words he also sees moments that remind him of the Brontë sisters. He appreciates her compulsion to wrestle with difficult questions of history that have roots in race, law and region. (Rosalind Bentley)

The Scotsman interviews the writer Edna O'Brien:

O’Brien is quite the character; a Brontë heroine come to life. Partly it’s the way she looks. The eyes that permanently glisten with the promise of tears – and indeed, she weeps twice during our long encounter. Then there’s the triumphal arch of eyebrows. The perfectly made-up face. (Chitra Ramaswamy)

The Herald (Ireland) mentions a young Toby Stephens fan:

My 16-year-old daughter thought he was the perfect Mr Rochester -- a role that does require one to talk all proper -- in the BBC's excellent adaptation of Jane Eyre, which is her all-time favourite book. (Pat Stacey)

The latest literary output by Dennis Lehane is analysed in The Boston Globe:

Since “Shutter Island,” his self-professed homage to the Brontës and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” Lehane has indulged in twin fascinations with history and noir. Following “The Given Day,” the first book in the Coughlin series, Lehane edited “Boston Noir,’’ the local installment of Akashic’s location-specific, mystery anthology series, as well as the second volume, due later this season. Last month, HarperCollins released Attica Locke’s “

Blastr is a bit late commenting the smash-up frenzy. Jane Slayre is mentioned:

Jane Slayre, Charlotte Brontë and Sherri Browning Erwin
Brontë’s classic story is chock full of social criticism, and though it’s a window into the era, it can also get a little dull. So, to keep it interesting, Erwin turned her into a vampire-slaying ass-kicker on the side.

Nordlis (Norway) mentions a local singing TV programme where one of the participants sang Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights; a Brontëite in the Lehigh Valley's Morning Call; Estrellas (in Spanish) talks about Mia Wasikowska in Jane Eyre 2011; Le Monde de Miss G (in French) reviews Jane Eyre 2006; Tea and Text reviews Tina Connolly's Ironskin.