Crappy Sillyness

The Telegraph and Argus has bad news for Haworth:

Haworth, home of the Brontës, comes in for some withering slights while Bradford is given a drubbing in nominations to find the worst places in Britain to live for a new book.
The new edition of Crap Towns is due for release next year to mark the tenth anniversary of the first publication of the tongue-in-cheek guide and the editors have been collecting suggestions from unhappy residents of villages, towns and cities across the UK. [...]
he editors will choose from the nominations which towns make it into the final 50. The nomination for Haworth, from someone describing themselves as “Branwell” (the only brother in the Brontë clan) reads: “With mislaid sentimentality we thank Haworth for giving us the Brontë sisters. Really we should be cursing the place for killing them so young. It was Haworth’s unsanitary conditions and hard living that did for them.”
And there are more up-to-date complaints: “The main street is flooded instead with tourists eager to sift through the sisters’ remains. Every other street and building bears their stamp: Heathcliff Mews, The Brontë Bridge, Brontë Cottage B&B, the beautiful (but sadly now derelict) Brontë cinema, the Branwell Brontë tea rooms (also defunct). Brontë biscuits, Brontë fleeces, Brontë flagstones, Brontë toffee. The town has become a theme park, profiting from the very lives it stole." [...]
Andrew McCarthy, director of the Bronte Parsonage museum, said: “I think ‘Branwell’ is trying to be amusing, so this isn’t something that we’re taking very seriously, especially since it will probably be seen by very few people and influence even fewer. It’s a fairly predictable and lazy take on Haworth.
“I think Branwell’s portrayal of Haworth is slightly disingenuous and it’s interesting to note that quite a few of the buildings bearing the Brontë name that he mentions are either no longer there or are made up. That makes me wonder if ‘Branwell’ is somebody who hasn’t been to Haworth recently, maybe a Southerner with a prejudice against the North.” (David Barnett)

We wholeheartedly agree with Andrew McCarthy when he says 'Branwell' is 'trying' to be funny. And failing too. The complete article can be read here.

ÜberBrontëite John Mullan is back with one of his '10 of the best...' in the Guardian. Conflagrations today:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane hears an extra-sensory summons from Mr Rochester and returns to Thornfield to find it "a blackened ruin". Having set the house ablaze, mad Mrs Rochester got on to the roof, her long black hair "streaming against the flames". Rochester was blinded trying to rescue her.

YA author Gabrielle Williams picks the books that changed her for The Sydney Morning Herald.

Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
Kate Bush made Wuthering Heights required reading for every teenager worth her salt back in my day, which makes me think maybe I should get Kimbra and Gotye to write a song called Beatle Meets Destiny or The Reluctant Hallelujah (must speak to Penguin's marketing department so they can organise this). Wuthering Heights is darkly gothic - a masterly piece of writing.

Erica Wagner writes about summer reads in The Times:

However, rain aside, we’ve tried as ever to come up with a something-for-everyone list of reading matter, though it’s easier for me to imagine you curled into a window ledge with a downpour beating against the glass — just like our friend Jane Eyre — than stretched out on a sunlounger. Never mind: reading makes its own weather.

The Times also interviews the singer Estelle Swaray:

Because of e-mail and Skype, it lends itself to being able to court the person. You time talking and communicating as human beings, not just, ‘Well, I’m going to sleep with them tonight and never see them again’.” It’s like all the passionate letter-writing in Brontë novels, she decides. (Ben Machell)

Strange that this New York Times article of a few days ago is being reposted and echoed in newspapers all over the world, which instead opt for reposting the old HarperCollins Twilight lookalike cover for Wuthering Heights. See for instance The Christian Science Monitor or CBS News. At least The Economic Times and Smart Planet have got it right.

Something else much in the news lately: E L James and her Fifty Shades of Grey. Vanessa Thorpe wonders in the Guardian why it turns British women on.

After all, the plot is so singlemindedly titillating that it makes the unconventional "modern" relationships that leaven Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy read like Charlotte Brontë in comparison.

The Daily Mail discusses the trilogy as well:

The story, or what there is of it, is about a 21-year-old virgin called Anastasia Steele who goes to interview a hugely successful businessman for a U.S. student magazine. ‘My mouth goes dry looking at him . . . he’s freaking hot.’
So it’s not Lord Sugar, then. In fact, his name is Christian Grey, and, what’s more, he’s cultured. He has always wanted to go to England, he tells Anastasia, because ‘it’s the home of Shakespeare, Austen, the Brontë sisters, Thomas Hardy. I’d like to see the places that inspired those people to write such wondërful books’, he explains, as though the reader has all the time in the world. (Craig Brown)

And that of course leads to the forthcoming Jane Eyre Laid Bare, mentioned by The Joplin Globe.

Coincidentally - or not - Salon discusses men in books, calling Mr Rochester a 'brooding babe for the ages'.

Going further back, there is Charlotte Brontë’s smoldering Mr. Rochester. He is a prototype of the brooding, inscrutable male. According to Jane Eyre, he is “peculiar.” He is “very changeful and abrupt.” When the book first appeared, a contemporary reviewer remarked, “Imagine a novel … with a middle-aged ruffian for a hero.” I can’t help it, there is great appeal in this — all those fun layers of defenses to hack through. The thrill of potential rejection. Yes, he is a gruff, self-absorbed narcissist, but eventually he’s revealed to be loyal, passionate and suitably tormented by his dark nature. And he falls for Jane, who is both headstrong and plain! (Janet Steen)

Libros en la hierba (in Spanish) reviews Jane Eyre; The Orange County Readers Advisory posts about different books inspired by Charlotte Brontë's novel; Le Book Blog and Many Media Musings post about Wuthering Heights; Books and Chocolate reviews Agnes Grey; The Lost Entwife posts about Wide Sargasso Sea; 

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Brontë relics - A review

Our thanks to the Brontë Parsonage Museum for sending us a review copy of this catalogue.

Brontë Relics: A Collection History
Ann Dinsdale, Sarah Laycock and Julie Akhurst
Brontë Society Publications
ISBN: 978-1-903007-15-0, 48pp, 2012

In the past we have repeatedly written our wish for a history of the Brontë Parsonage collection and in a strangely positive take on the 'careful what you wish for' warning, we have got not just that but also a a temporary exhibition on the subject right at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

The exhibition catalogue, a collaborative work by Ann Dinsdale, Sarah Laycock and Julie Akhurst, traces the history of the Brontëana items kept there, starting with Charlotte's widower Arthur Bell Nicholls right up to the latest auctions.

It of course includes a chapter on the notorious T. J. Wise, who tricked both Arthur Bell Nicholls and Ellen Nussey into thinking that by selling him their cherished items they would eventually end up in a national museum, not spread all over the world, mutilated and misattributed for decades to come (and indeed many unsolved questions and lost manuscripts today originated there).

Throughout the catalogue there are are lots of great-quality pictures both from the Parsonage collection of Brontëana and from the photography archives. But to us the most striking of all would be the one in black and white showing Martha Brown's sister Tabitha in old age displaying her Brontëana. The picture was described to us by Ann Dinsdale as 'pure Haworth' and it would seem to be exactly that.

The catalogue is a typical Brontë Society publication: good quality paper and a close attention to details.

It's also a fascinating, entertaining read and a great companion to the actual exhibition, particularly for those who are interested in the subject but won't be able to attend. It's funny how, say, a kitchen candle holder can have, not just a history, but be passed down the generations as a highly valuable and meaningful relic. And for those of us who think that Brontëana should be where it belongs, it's terribly exciting to read about the collection taking shape over the decades up until now when it can rightly boast of being the largest collection of Brontëana in the world. As it should.

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'Nice is different than good'

ABC News seems to have been inspired by yesterday's New York Times article on modern-looking covers for the classics:

Jane Eyre, Heathcliff and the Dashwood sisters are painted like modern fashion sketches on the covers of new editions of the Brontë and Jane Austen classics published by Splinter, an imprint of Sterling Publishing aimed at young readers.
A new edition of “Wuthering Heights” published by Harper Teen, an imprint of Harper Collins, goes so far as to include an endorsement from two of the “Twilight” characters.
“Bella & Edward’s Favorite Book,” reads the blurb on the cover of the novel first published in 1847.
And it works. A representative of Harper Teen says that edition of “Wuthering Heights” sold more copies than the average new release for young readers, and no authors or agents to be paid. (Nils Kongshaug)

While Lyndsay Faye, author of The Gods of Gotham, goes a little deeper in an interview by Scientific American's Literally Psyched.

MK: Your book touches on the tricky psychological relationship between religion and morality—one that is currently being explored in an experimental setting but that has been under investigation in a literary one for far longer. How have your views on the topic developed or changed, if at all, as a result of your writing? LF: I don’t think my views have altered, but I do think that my innate opinions on the subject are obvious within my work.  Those opinions were best expressed by Charlotte Brontë in her introduction to the second edition of Jane Eyre, a direct response to criticism of that highly spiritual novel: “Conventionality is not morality.  Self-righteousness is not religion.”  Take the character of Valentine Wilde as the most obvious example—nothing about him is conventionally religious, but he’s arguably the character with the clearest, simplest, most honest moral code as regards his own belief system.  As Stephen Sondheim classically put it, nice is different than good.  Valentine Wilde is not nice, and neither is Sherlock Holmes, for that matter.  But both men possess an uncompromising attitude toward their individual ideas of justice, both know their own mind, and both would stop at nothing to protect what matters most to them.  They are self-sacrificing.  In my book, self-sacrifice is far more moral than is judgment or censure. (Maria Konnikova)

Wuthering Heights is the subject of posts on Un libro cada día (in Spanish), Luis Bermudes and bacaan b.zee (in Malay with a couple of paragraphs in English). Musings of a Bookworm discusses 'freedom through expression' in Jane Eyre.

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Hope's Whisper booklet

From the Brontë Weather Project blog we notice the publication of this companion to the Hope's Whisper exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

Hope's Whisper
The Brontë Weather Project by
Rebecca Chesney

There's a little publication to accompany the exhibition Hope's Whisper at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

It's A5 size and 16 colour pages - and each is hand stamped on the cover.
Jenna Holmes, the Arts Officer for the Bronte Parsonage Museum, has written a forward and it has images throughout showing most of the artwork in the exhibition.

They are for sale in the Museum shop for £3 - a bargain!

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Too Victorian indeed

The New York Times highlights these covers for new editions of classics, such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

Teenagers are still reading the classics. They just don’t want them to look so, well, classic.
That is the theory of publishers who are wrapping books like “Emma” and “Jane Eyre” in new covers: provocative, modern jackets in bold shades of scarlet and lime green that are explicitly aimed at teenagers raised on “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games.”
The new versions are cutting edge replacements for the traditional (read: stuffy, boring) covers that have been a trademark of the classics for decades, those familiar, dour depictions of women wearing frilly clothing. In their place are images like the one of Romeo in stubble and a tight white tank top on a new Penguin edition of “Romeo and Juliet.” [...]
After the “Twilight” books by Stephenie Meyer became a sensation, paranormal romances boomed. In the last several years, the “Hunger Games” trilogy has inspired dozens of dystopian novels.
Some of the redesigned jackets are clearly inspired by the “Twilight” series. HarperCollins released a cover for “Wuthering Heights” with a stark black background, a close-up of a red rose and an inscription that reads, “Bella & Edward’s favorite book.” (Critics sneered that it was a “Twilight” rip-off.) [...]
Sales of some young-adult versions have been strong. The HarperCollins edition of “Wuthering Heights” has sold 125,000 copies since it was released in 2009, an extraordinary number that sent the book back to the best-seller lists.[...]
Now the new versions of the classics are fighting for space on the young-adult shelves of bookstores. In a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan last week, a display featured four new editions of novels by Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters alongside more contemporary offerings of paranormal romances. (Upstairs in the adult-fiction section, more traditional versions of the classics were lined up on the shelves.)
At the Book Revue bookstore in Huntington, N.Y., new versions of the classics have sold briskly, surprising the store’s owner, Julie Klein.
“I wasn’t sure they would sell at all, to be honest,” she said. “As a bookseller, I appreciate the classics and I love when I can sell them to a new generation. Anything that gets kids to look at them.”
In March, Splinter, an imprint of Sterling Publishing, began releasing its Classic Lines series, paperback editions of classic novels with French flaps and delicate illustrations on the jackets that have the appearance of watercolors. For the artwork, the publisher hired Sara Singh, a Manhattan-based fashion illustrator.
“My challenge was to make something that’s classic look appealing to tweens,” she said. Referring to the covers, she added, “We wanted to make them fashionable and beautiful, with bright colors and handwritten text.”
Alli Brydon, the editor of the series, dismissed more traditional covers as too “Victorian” and “old-fashioned” for teenagers. On the jacket of a classic edition of “Jane Eyre” in Barnes & Noble, for instance, a woman is staring mournfully into the distance, her skin nearly the same yellowish hue as the wall behind her, a black coat hiding her neck.
“It doesn’t show her brazen qualities, and it doesn’t show her bravery,” said Ms. Brydon, who oversaw a Classic Lines cover for the novel featuring a bright purple sketch of the book’s heroine with her chin held up jauntily. “A lot of the old covers don’t convey some of the feminist ideas that the books hold.” [...]
Tess Jagger-Wells, a 15-year-old high school sophomore from San Rafael, Calif., said she counted “Jane Eyre” among her favorite books, a story she loved for its old-fashioned, “charming” moments that “you had to wait for — they weren’t just handed to you.”
For classics like that and “Pride and Prejudice,” Tess said she preferred her hardcover editions with their flowery covers to the more modern versions.
“It’s fun to have the originals in your house to look at and show people,” she said. “It kind of goes with the feeling of the classic as something that’s treasured, something that you want to keep. The new covers make the books look like cheap romance novels.” (Julie Bosman)

We actually like these covers, but while generally - well - on the 'classic' side, there have been a few bold covers of the Brontë novels in recent years such as Rubén Toledo's Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights or Dame Darcy's Jane Eyre.

Regardless of its cover, OpEdNews recommends Shirley and sees its relevance today:

Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley is a must read for people interested in the topics of: economic justice; Occupy Wall Street ideas; women's social history; feminism; war and peace; and charity. Brontë's second published book, coming on the heels of the success of her Jane Eyre, is another masterpiece, full of drama and surprises, with some radical politics, and an extra heroine thrown into the mix.
Why haven't many people heard of this book? One set of reasons can be traced to the structure of the book, while another set of reasons relates to suppression due to the political climate of the 1840's, when it was published, through to today. [...]
Another political tension with this book, is that it explores, in a thoughtful and layered way, the battle between the businesspeople of the industrial revolution versus the Luddites and the Frame-Breakers. Luddites (some of whom were Frame-Breakers) rejected the new technology of the industrial revolution. Frame-Breakers broke the machinery of the mills as part of their rebellion.
By exploring this historical crisis and moral, the book could become a handbook for people immersed in struggle. It explores strategic and moral questions such as: Is violence justified in political struggle? Which group, class, or government entity should be responsible for taking care of the poor in times of economic upheaval? Should the rich help the poor, and why?  Should church people involve themselves in the politics of justice? What are important communication and public relations strategies for groups in struggle?
In addition to these wider social and political plot lines, there are also heartfelt, people-centered plot lines. There is a family with roots in Belgium who tries to assimilate (or not) into English culture. There are Yorkshire characters from every background and class. And, the story contains many sets of lovers. Brontë even shares old love stories, played out until death, that arise from the many character sketches in the book.
The book truly has "something for everyone", as it includes romance, politics, business, war, and personal struggle. And, if you are a devotee of Jane Eyre, it seems only fair to give Charlotte Brontë a second chance to win you over with a good book. Charlotte Brontë's Shirley is truly an overlooked masterpiece, full of wisdom, fascinating characters, and dramatic entertainment. (Kimberly Wilder)

More on the Brontëiteness of folk singer Emily Jane White in SF Weekly.

White grew up in Ft. Bragg, a small town in Northern California. She didn't have Internet access, and the family owned no television. This isolation allowed her to develop her own singular style when she started writing lyrics. "I read a lot of books and poetry growing up: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Jane Brontë, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Toni Morrison. Lyrically, I'm not influenced by songwriters and musicians, but by poets and authors. I was writing my own piano songs in high school, but I was very shy. I didn't perform any of my own songs, even for my friends, until I was in college. [...]" (J. Poet)

In an article on writing about Africa for The Huffington Post, Malla Nunn reminisces about her mother's reading:

My mother, a former English teacher, was thrilled to have an author daughter. Books had transported her from a mud-brick shack in Swaziland to Mark Twain's Mississippi River and Emily Brontë's Yorkshire Moors.

PJ media editor Bridget Johnson discusses Fifty Shades of Grey on NPR:

Johnson: Well, you know, I think a lot of it goes to the draw that women have towards stories about two tormented souls finding each other, because it actually nudges on a deeper level that life, including the picture-perfect family, isn't always so picture-perfect. But, you know, what was really interesting was that in this Washington Post review of this book it kind of likened it to "Jane Eyre." But, you know, Jane Eyre had a really strong pro-woman theme that, you know, transcended, you know, all the S&M stuff, you know, where Mr. Rochester was really only worthy of her love until he atoned for his sins of the past and their passion was actually rooted in tenderness and forgiveness. So I don't know if it's a matter of, you know, being drawn to this sort of tormented theme but then kind of going off course to something that doesn't have any meaning.

Jean De Wolf writes about this year's AGM on the Brussels Brontë Blog. Jane Eyre is reviewed by A Tub of Jelly Beans and goodbookscents while The Northman Business writes in Portuguese about the 2011 adaptation. Movie Classics discusses Wuthering Heights 1939 and Filmoteca ámbar writes in Spanish about Wuthering Heights 2011.

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Victoria Hislop in Haworth

A press release from the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

Bestselling novelist Victoria Hislop to visit Haworth

Thursday 5 July 2012, 7.30pm

Bestselling novelist Victoria Hislop will be visiting Haworth next week to read from and discuss her work and latest novel, The Thread. The event takes place on the evening of Thursday 5 July at 7.30pm at the West Lane Baptist Centre in Haworth, and forms part of the Brontë Parsonage Museum’s contemporary arts programme.

Victoria Hislop’s first two novels, The Island and The Return, were Sunday Times number one bestsellers and have been translated into more than twenty languages. She won the Newcomer of the Year at the Galaxy British Book Awards 2007 and the Richard & Judy Summer Read competition. Her third novel, The Thread was published in November 2011. Victoria Hislop is a great admirer of the Brontës, especially Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and she has written the introduction for the White’s edition of the novel. She has previously described Wuthering Heights as “the book that changed me…it woke me up”.

Tickets for the event cost £6 and can be booked from the Brontë Parsonage Museum:jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188

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Childhood favourites and Jane Eyre atmospheres

The Daily Record asks a few writers about their favourite childhood reads.

Carole Matthews, author of Summer Daydreams
I was always an avid reader as a child and worked my way through the classics such as Black Beauty, Jane Eyre and Little Women. It was when I was about 13 and read Catcher in the Rye that I first felt that a book really moved me.

More writers, as Michael Williams presents his book The Three du Maurier Sisters: Daphne, Angela And Jeanne in the Western Morning News.

In researching The Three du Maurier Sisters: Daphne, Angela And Jeanne, I revisited My Cousin Rachel, her last historical novel set in Cornwall with its Jane Eyre atmosphere and Rachel coming across as a truly mysterious character. It must be one of the best fictional volumes to have grown in the rich landscape of Cornish literature – a classic study in jealousy.
Kits Browning told me that his mother liked to "tease her readers" and there may be something of that in this 1951 novel. We could argue all day and all night about Rachel's motives. One thing is beyond debate, that Dame Daphne will never die. She lives on in her stories and in our imagination.

Yahoo! News discusses the storytelling in Wuthering Heights in a review of the season 4 finale of Castle.

Storytelling has held an ideal of a death being needed to progress a new life for a character. In "Wuthering Heights," for example, Mr. Lockwood would not have gained his new life without learning the story of the departed Catherine and how Heathcliff died inside when she passed. (L. Vincent Poupard)

And Jane Eyre Laid Bare keeps on cropping up, such as in this article in The Hindu.

Yesterday, Tom Winnifrith (son of Brontë scholar Tom Winnifrith) and The Brontë Sisters celebrated Branwell's birthday. Reader's Reach posts about Jane Eyre and Heroines with Hearts picks it as one of her favourite books.

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Jane Eyre DVD in Spain

The Jane Eyre 2011 DVD and Blu-Ray are released in Spain today, June 27:

Jane Eyre
A Contracorriente Films

Extras: Audio Commentary by Cary Fukunaga subtitled
Deleted Scenes
Original Soundtrack

A Contracorriente Films el próximo día 27 de junio editara en el formato Blu-Ray y DVD la cinta Jane Eyre. Cinta que obtuvo una nominación a los Oscar en la categoría de Mejor Vestuario y consiguió estar nominada a los Premios Goya como Mejor Película Europea.

La cinta fue dirigida por Cary Fukunaga, ademas esta cinta cuenta con un reparto lleno de jóvenes promesas actuales como lo son Mia Wasikowska y Michael Fassbender. Ademas podemos ver a Jamie Bell, Judi Dench y Sally Hawkins.

La cinta nos cuenta la historia de la inmortal Charlotte Brontë, con esta adaptación cinematográfica la obra literaria se ha definido por parte de la critica como “un clásico para la futura nueva generación”.

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The lady in the attic

A teenager reviews Wide Sargasso Sea for the Guardian:

In all honesty, this book has left me a little baffled with many questions continuing to go around my head. In fact, I feel like now I need to find a book telling me about her mother's history and how she ended up alone having to marry a man that made her mad.
Is this book saying that love leaves us all crazy and desperate, where we only find out the things we are told? It makes it seem that not telling somebody something is a lie and that we are wrong for doing it. But at the same time, the characters finding things out is what makes them crazy, because they know the truth and know too much. If I could ask the author, I think I would need to know which idea she is trying to plant in the readers mind.
Overall, I'm glad I got it from the charity shop, quite let down and I feel that the story could have been more in depth and done the lady in the attic that Charlotte Brontë created a bit more justice, than what is presented in this short book.
I don't think I'd read it again, but if you have questions about the lady in the attic, give it a read; you may find it different to me and it may resolve all your queries - but for me it didn't hit the mark. (Dannii)

The Spokesman-Review finds a Brontëite in writer Sharma Shields.

Q. Who are the writers who inspired you?
A. As a kid, I read and reread two books: the collected works of Hans Christian Andersen and D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. As an English literature major at UW, I fell in love with the classics: “Wuthering Heights,” “Frankenstein,” the longer novels of Tolstoy, anything James Joyce (except for “Finnegan’s Wake,” which was a bit too dense for me). (Carolyn Lamberson)

Variety reports that the 2011 screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights will be part of the Munich Film Festival (29 June - 7 July).

In addition to Spotlight, which presents major international premieres and discoveries, other new sections include [...] CineMasters, which screens works by established international filmmakers like Andrea Arnold's "Wuthering Heights" and Leos Carax's Cannes player "Holy Motors." (Ed Meza)

Hollywood.com shares '5 Things to Know About Mia Wasikowska', one of which is the fact that

She's an avid (and good!) photographer. In fact, a picture she took of her Jane Eyre co-star Jamie Bell, and director Cary Fukunaga, was a finalist in an Australian photo competition.

Quisiera ser amanda writes in Spanish about the BBC 2006 adaptation of Jane Eyre.

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Happy 195th, Branwell!

We don't mean to fall back on the drunk-brother stereotype but 195 seems like a special birthday and we thought we'd treat him to a few drinks at his favourite pub (pictured), The Black Bull, right around the corner from his home. Even his old chair would be there waiting for him.

We'd be not so worse off either. You would only have to remember how imaginative he was in order to enjoy his tall tales.

Cheers, Branwell!

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Euro 2012 Brontës

The Radio Times complains on behalf of 'Euro 2012 widows':

At times like these, in the thick of a major football tournament, television becomes one great big Haworth Parsonage. The women are Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë, sitting in front of the fire sewing tassels on to hearthrugs, while the men are Patrick and Branwell, leaning on the fireplace and looking important as they twist their moustaches and dominate the living room.
We, the ladies, might occasionally go out on to the moors in our big dresses as we rail against the patriarchy before spitting consumptive blood into our hankies and returning home to write bleak, brilliant and enduringly successful novels. Yes, that's why the Brontë sisters wrote Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; because there was nothing on the telly that they wanted to watch. Meanwhile Patrick and Branwell were toasting their toes by the fire as England drew one-all with France. (Alison Graham)

Hilary Robinson discusses classic authors and social networks on The Huffington Post.

We may freak at the suggestion of chopping Tolstoy up into digestible megabytes, we may balk at the thought of Scrooge and Hamlet opening Twitter accounts and we may laugh at the thought of Mr Bumble teasing the reader with his very own Facebook page while Jamie Oliver offers a more tempting alternative to a bowl of gruel, but let's not forget Emily Brontë already has 57,842 'likes' on her Facebook page, and who's to say that Shakespeare would object to being the 'Blogging Bard' - if "all the world's a stage" as he says - I'm sure, if he were here today, that would include the laptop as well.

More classics in unexpected places, as The Sun quotes 'pin-up' Amy Childs:

“I love reading about everything. I’ve never read any Shakespeare – I like true stories and gangster books. I’m really fascinated by why people do things like that.
“I like shocking people because I love reading. I’ve read Jane Eyre and I love Martina Cole and Kimberley Chambers.” (Colin Robertson)

KQED includes Wuthering Heights among the summer reading suggestions for 13-year-olds.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Oh romance on the heath! This was actually one of my two favorite books in eighth grade (see below for my first favorite). I partially blame my continued belief in the power of unrequited love on this book. (Lizzy Acker)

Nigerian literature on AlertNet:

One of the exhibits was a poem about the legend of Bayajidda. This ageless traditional folklore, like that of Wuthering Heights or Romeo and Juliet in the western world, has always been taught in schools across Nigeria. Bayajidda was a prince who fled Baghdad and travelled across Africa with numerous warriors. He settled in Daura, a town in modern day northern Nigeria, where the people suffered from a crisis of lack of access to safe water.
When Bayajidda arrived in Daura, he asked an old woman for water. She informed him that they could only draw water from the well once a week when Sarki, the serpent guarding the well, would allow them access. Bayajidda set out for the well where he killed and beheaded the serpent that had terrorised the people of the town and restricted their access to water. Bayajidda’s bravery ensured the people of Daura had daily access to the water in the well, and for his heroics, Bayajidda bagged the hand of the local queen, Magajiya Daurama, in marriage. (Dr Michael Ojo)

The Scriptorium posts in French about Wuthering Heights. Benjamin Hall discusses Jane Eyre while Leituras Brontëanas (in Portuguese) dislikes the idea of the forthcoming erotic retelling of the novel.

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Italian Scholarship

Italian Brontë scholarship (a republication of the original book published in 1978):

Lo spazio narrante
Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Sylvia Plath
Ginevra Bompiani
Et Al. Edizioni
ISBN 978-88-6463-070-0
2012

Tre studi magistrali su tre scrittrici molto note e molto lette, due romanziere inglesi e una poetessa americana: Jane Austen, Il romanzo e il labirinto; Emily Brontë, Al di là del racconto; Sylvia Plath, Le figure del mito.
Tre scrittrici lontanissime tra loro. Quel che accomuna gli studi è il criterio con il quale le diverse opere sono state avvicinate da Ginevra Bompiani, un approccio che crea tra di esse nuove differenze e insospettate somiglianze.
Al centro dell’indagine la struttura spaziale interna a ogni opera, che permette di far luce su qualcosa che l’opera nascondeva: l’inconfondibile mondo di ognuna delle tre scrittrici, che prende forma nel particolare spazio narrativo della sua opera.
'Senza la curiosità del re, non avremmo le mille e una storia di Sherazade. Fra la voce narrante e il desiderio di ascoltare si stabilisce una tensione, una distanza, in cui germina la storia. Questa tensione, questa distanza, è la prima struttura spaziale dell’opera narrativa.'
Anche in opere in cui la tensione tra voce narrante, ascoltatore e narrazione, è meno visibile che nelle Mille e una notte o nel Decamerone, il gioco tra gli spazi distinti in cui si collocano continua a essere in realtà una delle strutture nascoste della narrazione. In questo modo, attraverso la ricostruzione del loro spazio narrante, Ginevra Bompiani riesce a illuminare aspetti altrimenti opachi delle opere.
Ginevra Bompiani, studiosa e traduttrice di letteratura e filosofia, è autrice di romanzi (di prossima pubblicazione con et al. L'età dell'argento) e di saggi, tra i quali L’attesa (et al. 2011). Nel 2002 ha fondato con Roberta Einaudi la casa editrice nottetempo.

EDIT: L'Avvenire adds:

Per chi non lo ricordasse, Ginevra è proprio la figlia del grande Valentino editore, e però ha fatto la sua strada per conto suo, insegnando letteratura inglese all'Università di Siena e, da qualche anno, dirigendo la casa editrice Nottetempo. Da anglista, Ginevra Bompiani ha ristampato Lo spazio narrante, (et.al/Edizioni, pp. 176, euro 14), tre profili molto incisivi di altrettante scrittici di vertigini quali Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Sylvia Plath. È la riproposta, pari pari, ma senza illustrazioni, del saggio pubblicato da La Tartaruga nel 1978, data conservata anche nella prefazione della nuova edizione. Sono tre saggi che diventano racconto, sempre in forza della scrittura. Un esempio, a proposito del tormentato rapporto di Sylvia Plath con il marito, il poeta Ted Hughes: «È proprio la forza di Hughes, della loro unione nascente e soprattutto la forza segreta di Sylvia e la possibilità, temibile, in cui per la prima volta crede, di essere tutta se stessa, a spaventarla. È la liberazione dell'eccesso, costretto dalla Forma a mangiare se stesso dentro alla sua gabbia, a provocare il grido insieme di paura e di sollievo, come il grido del gigante che si sprigiona dalla bottiglia». (Cesare Cavalleri)

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No Punchline Possible

The Independent (Ireland) gives its opinion about the upcoming erotic retelling of Jane Eyre:

If she were alive today, Charlotte Brontë would be screaming down the phone to her high-powered lawyers. As it is, she'll just have to make do with turning furiously in her grave.
The second-most-famous Brontë sister's very prim and proper romance Jane Eyre has just been given a saucy makeover that's widely expected to dislodge the racy Fifty Shades series from the top of the bestsellers when it hits the stores in August.
It has been retitled Jane Eyre Laid Bare, and there is already strong betting on what bodice-ripping liberties will be taken with the famous line: "Reader, I married him."
Describing herself as a fan on a mission to tune in a modern audience to a good thing, the author Eve Sinclair insists: "I have changed very little of Brontë's original to retell the timeless story of a young girl falling for an unattainable older man and getting out of her depth in a sensual world she cannot control."
"The idea is genius," gushed a director at the publishers Pan Macmillan, as he would. Others might argue that by the same logic the movie porn industry has been a hotbed of genius for decades, churning out such 'reimaginings' as Flesh Gordon, Moby's Dick and a million more. (Damian Corless)

The Toronto Star adds:

Jane Eyre Laid Bare is the next big thing in the wave of dirty, mommy-pornish fan fiction/public domain novels (Just FYI: there's no punchline possible in a world where a novel called Pride & Prejudice: Hidden Lusts exists. Not that I'd know anything about that book. – ed.) 

The Napa Valley Register looks into traditional English Pubs including

Old Silent Inn in Stanbury, Haworth, West Yorkshire
Located in rugged Brontë country of West Yorkshire where the sheep outnumber people by 10 to one, the Old Silent Inn is a fine example of what a country pub (and inn) does best. (Bob Ecker)

Eight Nights a Week reviews the Sydney performances of Polly Teale's Jane Eyre; B+ Movie Blog talks about the movies nominated to the 1939 Oscar awards including Wuthering Heights 1939; Serkan Salman Kişisel Web Sitesi posts about Jane Eyre 2011 in Turkish; zumbooks reviews (in Italian) Romancing Miss Brontë.

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German Agnes

A new German translation of Agnes Grey has just been published:

Agnes Grey
Anne Brontë
Newly translated, with an afterword and notes by Michaela Messner
320 Pages
dtv
ISBN 978-3-423-.14101-7
May 2012

Agnes Grey, Tochter eines Pfarrers, lebt abgeschieden mit ihren Eltern und Geschwistern in Nordengland. Als ihre Familie alle finanziellen Mittel verliert, entschließt sich Agnes, als Gouvernante zu arbeiten. Die verwöhnten Kinder reicher Eltern machen es der jungen Frau nicht leicht, in der neuen Umgebung Fuß zu fassen. Und auch die zarten Liebesbande mit Edward Weston stehen unter keinem guten Stern ...

Anne Brontës erster Roman weist zahlreiche Parallelen zum Leben der Autorin auf. Die sehr persönlichen Bezüge verleihen ihrem Romandebüt Tiefe, Leidenschaft und Gefühl.

Mit umfangreichem Anhang, Nachwort und Zeittafel.

A very positive and curious review of the novel can be read on The Berliner Morgenpost:

Nun ist "Agnes Grey", der Erstling der englischen Schriftstellerin, neu übersetzt erschienen und in verschiedener Hinsicht eine interessante Entdeckung. Anne Brontë hatte selbst einige Jahre als Gouvernante gearbeitet und daher ist anzunehmen, dass ihr Debüt stark autobiografisch gefärbt ist. Es ist virtuos erzählt, überraschend kurzweilig und auf kuriose Weise zeitlos, obgleich der knochenharte Job einer Gouvernante nur halbherzig in diesen Tagen durch eine Super-Nanny ersetzt wurde. Auf der ernsteren Ebene schildert der Roman die qualvolle Desillusionierung einer jungen Frau und ihren alltäglichen Kampf darum, moralische Maßstäbe in einer feindlichen Umwelt aufrechtzuerhalten. Er beklagt die Verkommenheit der Jugend, also ein echter Klassiker in der Auseinandersetzung der Generationen, und hat, wie sich die Ich-Erzählerin Agnes Grey immer weiter in Rage redet, eine durchgehend charmante und auch komische Seite (obwohl ich wirklich nicht weiß, ob das so beabsichtigt war). (...)
Man könnte an dieser Stelle das Übliche schreiben, wonach es nun endlich an der Zeit wäre, die jüngste der Brontë-Schwestern zu entdecken und mit dem moralischen Appell an die potenzielle Leserschaft schließen. Man kann aber auch die Verlage bitten, Anne Brontë und die anderen Schriftstellerinnen der Romantik und der Viktorianischen Epoche aus der leicht angestaubten Ecke der rosa verpackten, ältlichen Damenliteratur zu befreien und mit moderner Optik sie einem neuem (männlichen! jungen!!) Publikum schmackhaft zu machen. Was hiermit geschehen ist. (Matthias Wulff) (Translation)

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Yoga and Jane

The Wall Street Journal follows the work of the photographer Ourit Ben-Haim:

The free-lance photographer creates surreptitious portraits of the New York riders as they turn their book pages, publishing the results on her website.
Ms. Ben-Haim has captured a teenage boy with a gold chain flipping through "A Wrinkle in Time," a yoga devotee consumed in "Jane Eyre," a young woman sharing headphones with a friend while immersed in "The Iliad." (Jackie Bischof)

Her work, including the yoga devotee and Brontëite picture can be found on her blog Underground New York Public Library.

GB Book Club announces Ben Hecht's House Party next June 25 in Chicago:

With such titles as "Scarface," "Some Like it Hot," Wuthering Heights," and "A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago," on his resume Ben Hecht is one big name. And he, like many other similarly prestigious men and women of the pen, spent much of his early career writing right here in Chicago. Ben Hecht's House Party, set to take place next week, on June 27 at 7pm, in the writer's former Hyde Park home at 5210 S. Kenwood Ave., is no doubt one of the more unique events you'll have an opportunity to attend in the foreseeable future. And perhaps the last opportunity of its kind as the house is about to return to private residence status.  (Claire Glass)

Keighley News talks about Rebecca Chesney's Hope's Whisper exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

Artist Rebecca Chesney has produced a series of screen prints relating weather patterns to key dates during the literary sisters’ lives.
As part of her research, she read letters and novels by the Brontës and examined local historical weather records, cross-referencing those with present-day data she obtained by installing a digital weather station at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

She also worked with a group of “weather collectors” at Haworth Primary School.
Rebecca analysed the number of times each Brontë sister described a particular type of weather in their novels, to identify the elements that each most frequently drew upon – Charlotte precipitation, Emily wind and Anne sunshine. This research formed the basis of The Three Bells sculpture, which will be exhibited in the parsonage garden. Bell was the sisters’ writing name.
And the weather was frequently mentioned in the sisters’ personal correspondence.
Charlotte’s references to the changing weather became more urgent in her letters throughout 1848 and 1849 as she lost her three siblings one by one to consumption. It was hoped that the milder climate of Scarborough might help to improve Anne Brontë’s condition, but it was not to be, and she died there in May 1849.

Paste Magazine presents the video for Sun Kil Moon's Black Kite:

The six-minute video is basically a sequence of greyscale footage of Wuthering Heights-ish natural landscapes with some special effects placed on top. It’s a soothing—and, again, emotionally heavy—experience. (Lane Billings)

Tim Mickleburgh remembers his holidays back in the seventies in the Grimsby Telegraph:

The following year we were at Scarborough, and a now closed guest house called "The Cliff".
Putting was one of my favourite leisure activities, while we went up Oliver's Mount and took photos by Anne Brontë's grave.
Though whether that was in 1970 or 1971 I can't be sure, as we stayed in Scarborough the following year also, and in the same place.

San Francisco Chronicle lists best love stories in film since 1968 including Jane Eyre 2011 (number 45):

Michael Fassbender  as Mr. Rochester and Mia Wasikowska  as Jane Eyre in the romantic drama Jane Eyre, a Focus Features release directed by Cary Fukunaga.

The Seatlle Post-Intelligencer lists romantic films before 1968 and  tangentially mentions Wuthering Heights 1939:

Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier in on the night Leigh won an Oscar for "Gone With The Wind," Feb. 29, 1940. Count this picture as standing for Leigh in "Waterloo Bridge" and Olivier for "Wuthering Heights." (Mick LaSalle)

Boyd Ronkin gives his opinion about the announced erotic retelling of Jane Eyre in The Independent:

Just when we thought that the post-Fifty Shades of Grey spurt of erotica could not get much sillier comes news of Jane Eyre Laid Bare, a debut novel by Eve Sinclair which its author calls "an erotic version of my favourite classic". As if the original by Charlotte Brontë (pictured) were not one of the most sulphurously sexy works of fiction ever. As if a dose of pulp could compete with everything that readers have done with Jane and Rochester in their imaginations since 1847. Perhaps we need a counter-trend: chaste versions of erotic classics. How about Lady Chatterley's Neighbour, in which a polite gamekeeper discusses the dire effects of industrialisation with his employer over an innocent pot of Earl Grey?

The Minnesota Public Radio announces the rebroadcast of Wrapped Up in Books in The Current Presents where

[Andy] Scheiber brings both a book-lover's and a songwriter's perspective, helping make connections from artists like Blur, Bob Dylan and the Strokes to such writers as John Keats, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Aldous Huxley. We even find a song that was inspired by William Shakespeare and Charlotte Brontë.
Check out the entire playlist by tuning in to the rebroadcast of "Wrapped Up in Books" on The Current Presents, this Sunday, June 24, at 9 p.m. (Luke Taylor)

The Guardian has a quiz with rain in literature. Do you remember this scene?

A livid, vivid spark leapt out of a cloud at which I was looking, and there was a crack, a crash, and a close rattling peal; and I thought only of hiding my dazzled eyes against Mr X’s shoulder. The rain rushed down.  He hurried me up the walk, through the grounds, and into the house; but we were quite wet before we could pass the threshold.” Whose romantic moment is interrupted by a storm? 

ActuCine (France) presents the French trailer (in VOST) of  Jane Eyre 2011 (French premier: July 25, 2012). The (hilarious) French poster (where Michael Fassbender seems to play Jane Eyre's role) can be seen here and on the right.

Books4fun reviews both Jane Eyre 1970 and Jane Eyre 1973; Becky's Book Reviews posts about Jane Eyre 2011; Angieville is waiting anxiously for the release of April Lindner's Catherine (January 2013); this post on stuff your eyes with wonder is now being reblogged on tumblr.

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Miriam Margolyes reads the Brontës

A recently published selection of poems from the Brontës read by Miriam Margoyles and Barnaby Edwards:

The Brontës - Selected Poems
Read by Miriam Margolyes and Barnaby Edwards
Duration 88 minutes
Released 2011
Textbook Stuff
Format Unabridged MP3 Download

'The poems are often the fruit of their big gestures, their brimming hearts and earthquake heartbreaks' - Michael Schmidt

INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING POEMS

Emily Brontë: A.E. and R.C.; Death; A Death Scene; Fall, Leaves, Fall; Hope; I am the only being whose doom; If grief for grief can touch thee; Love is like the wild rose briar; The night is darkening round me; No coward soul is mine; The Old Stoic; The Prisoner; Remembrance; Song: The linnet in the rocky dells; Song to A.A.

Charlotte Brontë: The Autumn day its course has run; Life; On the Death of Anne Brontë; On the Death of Emily Jane Brontë; Parting.

Anne Brontë: Appeal; In Memory of a Happy Day in February;Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day; Lines Written at Thorp Green; To Cowper.

Patrick Branwell Brontë: Augusta; Death Triumphant;Epistle From a Father to a Child in Her Grave; Lines; The man who will not know another; Memory; Now - but one moment, let me stay; O God! while I in pleasure's wiles; O Thou, whose beams were most withdrawn; Oh, all our cares; On Caroline; Peaceful Death and Painful Life; Penmaenmawr; Thorp Green; To Sestius.

BONUS MATERIAL: Elizabeth Gaskell on Charlotte Brontë (an extract from Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell, read by Barnaby Edwards)

Emily Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, Anne Brontë and Patrick Branwell Brontë (four musical interludes by Howard Carter)

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Self-publish like the Brontës

Australian Stage reviews Polly Teale's Jane Eyre at Dictrict 01, Darlinghurst:

I really wanted to like this production. Jane Eyre is one of my favourite books: I have owned, in my life, about seven different copies of it. I was also really looking forward to seeing theatre at District 01, an exciting theatre space in Darlinghurst I'd never previously visited. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. This production of Jane Eyre was melodramatic, awkward, and sorely in need of the services of an editor and a dramaturg.
There was clearly a very particular vision that this production was trying to convey. It portrayed Bertha (Rochester's mad first wife, played here by Beth Aubrey) as the sublimated dark side of Jane (Laura Huxley). While I don't subscribe to this reading of the text myself, it's certainly a valid one, and I have no argument with theatrical productions of canonical texts trying to apply readings in this way. In this play, however, it was done without any subtlety or elegance. The opening scene of the play, in which Jane fights with her cousin and aunt and is thrown into the red room as punishment, was done with both Huxley and Aubrey playing the role of Jane. It was awkward, confusing, and bizarre. Afterwards, Bertha continued to haunt Jane like a dark shadow. In some places, it was effective, but largely, the device was killed by overuse. It was a heavy handed approach to a delicate dynamic, and it meant that the character of Bertha was allowed no textual autonomy: reduced, instead, to a shadow of Jane. It made her subsequent actions (like setting Rochester on fire) extremely perplexing. When Bertha is allowed to be Bertha, this makes sense. When she is half-Bertha, half-Jane's-dark-side, it becomes much more confusing.
Some of the blame for this confusion can be laid at the door of the script, which was very unwieldly. However, I felt there were some deeper interpretive problems which probably came from the direction. Bertha was not the only character compromised – Jane herself suffered from it. Not only did transferring her rage to Bertha rob her of complexity, Huxley played Jane with eyes eternally downcast, far too submissive for the woman who memorably cries, "do you think that because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have just as much soul as you – and full as much heart!" The onstage chemistry between Huxley and Eli King, who played Rochester, was also sorely lacking, which meant that their (considerably sexed-up – Jane Eyre's sex dreams were certainly not in the book!) relationship rang somewhat hollow, especially in the second act. Jane Eyre is a text where passion bubbles below the surface, desperate lives being lived in the subtext, making the moments where it erupts much more powerful. There was no understanding of this demonstrated: frequent outward displays of passion undermined the impact of the moments which really are supposed to be intensely passionate. (Jodi McAlister) (read more)

Cornucopia Press, 'dedicated to helping unrecognized authors self-publish and promote their work', is quite ambitious in a press release:

We empower writers to join the ranks of authors like the Brontë sisters, Willa Cather, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Wolf [sic] and James Joyce, all of whom self-published at one point in their careers. 

The Keighley News reports Andrew McCarthy's goodbye. Women 24 comments on the forthcoming Jane Eyre Laid Bare.

The Brontë Weather Project features the 3 Bells piece of work. The Brussels Brontë Blog has a post on the recent AGM weekend. The Pie Bookery writes about Jane Eyre 2011. Quirkyreader is enjoying The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Flickr user Model Career has created a Wuthering Heights-inspired image.

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Brontë Museum Director to take up new role in Bradford

A press release from the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

Brontë Museum Director to take up new role in Bradford

It has been announced that Director at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Andrew McCarthy, will soon be leaving Haworth to take up a new position with Artworks Creative Communities in Bradford.

Andrew has been based at the Parsonage for fourteen years; as Education Officer, Audience Development Manager and Deputy Director, eventually being appointed museum Director in July 2008. He initially developed the museum’s education programme and was responsible for several large scale arts education projects in Haworth including The Wind on the Moors, involving four Bradford ‘link’ schools from diverse communities in the city, working with a librettist, composer and professional team of musicians to create a new opera based on the Brontës’ lives which was performed at St Michael & All Angels Church.

Andrew was also responsible for initiating the museum’s contemporary arts programme which launched in 2006 with an exhibition of work by the British, Turner-prize nominated artist, Cornelia Parker, who was commissioned to create new work in response to the museum and its collection. The programme, which has received funding support from Arts Council England and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, has brought many well established writers and artists to Haworth in recent years, as well as giving opportunities to emerging, regional creative talent. The programme includes regular readings and events with visiting authors (including an annual Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing). There are also workshops, drop-in activities and special projects, aimed at encouraging visitors to respond to the museum through creative activity, and residencies with writers and artists working with community groups.

As Director, Andrew also delivered a phased programme of development at the museum which saw a major refurbishment of its main exhibition space, and a Heritage Lottery Funded project to re-case, redisplay and re-interpret the museum’s collection in the historic rooms of the house. This programme is due to be completed in January 2013 when the Parsonage will be redecorated following an extensive programme of decorative archaeological analysis aimed at reinstating a more authentic Brontë decorative scheme.

During his time as Director, the museum’s collection has grown significantly, visitor numbers have increased, and despite the challenging economic environment, the past three years have seen the museum deliver successive operating surpluses, after a long period of financial instability.

Andrew McCarthy has achieved a great deal during his time with the Brontë Society and will leave the Parsonage Museum and its public programmes in a position of strength going forward. The Society wishes Andrew every success in his new post with Artworks. Andrew is passionate about improving access to the arts and whilst he will be sorely missed we are delighted to think we might look forward to potential collaborations between the Bronte Parsonage Museum and Artworks in the future. (Sally McDonald – Chairman of the Brontë Society)

Andrew will be leaving Haworth in July to take up the role of Operations Director with Bradford based Artworks Creative Communities. Artworks, now based at the Delius Arts & Cultural Centre in Great Horton Road, was established in 1998 and has developed a significant regional reputation for innovative projects that use creativity as a force for change. Working with professional artists and in partnership with communities, organizations and businesses, Artworks develop and deliver exciting projects that use participation in the arts as a tool to inspire, connect and engage those who tend to be excluded from participation in culture and the arts.

The Artworks Team is greatly looking forward to welcoming Andrew to his new post just in time to help us celebrate our one year anniversary of moving into the Delius Arts & Cultural Centre. Andrew’s dedication to the arts is evident through his work with the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the legacy he will leave there. (Estelle Cooper – Artworks Creative Communities)

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The rise of 'mummy porn' vs the fall of the Women's Library

We are very sad to hear the following from the Morning Star:

The coalition's cuts are reducing access to all forms of education and knowledge, from universities to libraries, for the less affluent.
Only last month we were treated to the unedifying spectacle of a dawn raid on Kensal Rise library ordered by Brent Council, in which it was stripped of its books to scupper resistance to selling it off. Police even removed the wall-plaque commemorating Mark Twain, who donated the library to the public over 100 years ago, in the middle of the night as if to erase all evidence of the building's purpose.
Now the spotlight is on the Women's Library in Castle Street, east London. In March London Metropolitan University announced plans to "unload" its special collections, which include the Women's Library and the TUC archives as a cost-cutting measure.
The archives got a temporary reprieve thanks to the efforts of the TUC itself. But the Women's Library must find a new home - a big ask in straitened economic times - or it will be reduced to opening just one day a week. In the longer term it seems probable that the university wants to get its hands on its very valuable building. [...]
The library's collections do show just what can happen when the ladies get uppity - they trace the history of the British suffrage campaign from John Stuart Mill's 1866 letter to Parliament calling for votes for women to a congratulatory letter from the prime minister to Millicent Fawcett when women finally got the vote six decades later.
In 2011 the unique nature of the collection was acknowledged when the library was included in Unesco's Memory of the World Register.
It was established in 1926 as the Library of the London Society for Women's Service headed by Fawcett, beginning with a mere three shelves.
Librarian Vera Douie was appointed in 1926 and developed the collections beyond all recognition over the next 40 years.
The library aimed not just to commemorate and preserve the history of the suffrage movement, but to provide up-to-date information on the status of women, particularly in terms of their employment.
Members included working women as well as writers and intellectuals from Virginia Woolf to Rose Macaulay. Both women attended its events and donated materials and funds.
It holds first editions not only of Woolf but of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, the Brontë sisters and George Eliot. (Louise Raw)

Outrageous and short-sighted are two of the many and not at all positive adjectives that come to mind right now.

Anyway, on to lighter matters as the forthcoming Jane Eyre Laid Bare has even reached Perez Hilton's ears. Here some suggestions for retellings along the same lines:

What other books will be remade for the seXXXy book trend?
A Tale of Two Tittays? The Not-So Secret Garden? Wuthering Peen? LOL!
Gawd, we hope not!

And speaking of mash-ups, Screenrant has a slideshow on '30 Literary Mash-Ups Crazier Than ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’' which includes a few Brontë-related books such as Jane Slayre (8/29), Wuthering Heights and a Werewolf... and a Zombie Too (20/29), The Eyre Affair (really?) (24/29) and Wuthering Bites (29/29).

Wauwatosa Now looks at zomebie-related activities:

"Blood soaked survival horror" is now a business opportunity. In Reading, UK, you can participate in an interactive zombie attack in an empty mall. Four hours of terror in spooky environments for only $189.
Now, I'm sure the first thought that comes to your mind is Northridge Mall. And the second, Sydney Hih. But wait: what about the Eschweiler buildings right here in Wauwatosa? Since the developers can't see beyond apartments, perhaps we can think more creatively for them. And so I offer this idea. No charge. You're welcome.
(It's true, the builidngs, with their Gothic swagger, are more suited for a Jane Eyre experience. When it comes to zombie soul-lessness, nothing beats a shopping mall.) (Christine McLaughlin)

The Globe and Mail thinks that

Last year was good for girls: Bridesmaids, The Help, Soul Surfer, Hanna, Sucker Punch, The Iron Lady, Jane Eyre, Friends With Kids and Young Adult all performed well at the box office, and were all about women. (Kate Carraway)

While IFC Fix loves the Joe Wight - Keira Knightley combo and has a suggestion.

This [Anna Karenina] is Knightley and Wright’s third time working together, following their collaborations on “Pride & Prejudice” and “Atonement.” We’ll call these three films their classic literature trilogy, as all three are period pieces based on novels that have become famous in their own rights. Except the tone of each project gets darker with each film they make, despite the fact that Knightley and Wright seem to trust each other more the longer they work together. What next, an adaptation of “Wuthering Heights”? Okay, that would actually be pretty awesome. (Terri Schwartz)

The Belfast Telegraph on Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights:

Or what says 'here' more than the glorious eccentricity of Wuthering Heights, instantly recognisable from those first notes? (Gail Walker)

Most of the people who have walked to Anne Brontë's grave in Scarborough will be familiar with the aptly-named Paradise Street nearby. Here's an article from the Yorkshire Post on its new lights.
The Telegraph and Argus features Rebecca Chesney's exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum opening tomorrow.

Vulpes Libris wonders who actually penned the poem Often rebuked, yet always back returning - a highly recommended read. An Armchair by the Sea reviews The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Ipsa Legit posts in Italian about Juliet Gael's Romancing Miss Brontë.

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Precocious Children and Childish Adults

A new scholar book that is being published this month:

Precocious Children and Childish Adults
Age Inversion in Victorian Literature
Claudia Nelson
John Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 9781421405346
Format: Hardback

Especially evident in Victorian-era writings is a rhetorical tendency to liken adults to children and children to adults. Claudia Nelson examines this literary phenomenon and explores the ways in which writers discussed the child-adult relationship during this period.

Though far from ubiquitous, the terms "child-woman," "child-man," and "old-fashioned child" appear often enough in Victorian writings to prompt critical questions about the motivations and meanings of such generational border crossings. Nelson carefully considers the use of these terms and connects invocations of age inversion to developments in post-Darwinian scientific thinking and attitudes about gender roles, social class, sexuality, power, and economic mobility.

She brilliantly analyzes canonical works of Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, William Makepeace Thackeray, Bram Stoker, and Robert Louis Stevenson alongside lesser-known writings to demonstrate the diversity of literary age inversion and its profound influence on Victorian culture.

By considering the full context of Victorian age inversion, Precocious Children and Childish Adults illuminates the complicated pattern of anxiety and desire that creates such ambiguity in the writings of the time. Scholars of Victorian literature and culture, as well as readers interested in children's literature, childhood studies, and gender studies, will welcome this excellent work from a major figure in the field.

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What is it about the Brontës that encourages such curious speculations?

The Guardian's The Northerner Blog features artist Stella Vine.

Vine has now made her base in London but still takes regular trips back north. Earlier this year she created a portrait of Anne, Charlotte & Emily Brontë and generously gave of 100 prints of the work to be sold for £150 each in aid of the repair of the roof of the Brontës' local church in Haworth, St Michael's and All Angels, where Charlotte and Emily Brontë are buried, and where their father, the Rev Patrick Brontë, served as perpetual curate for over 40 years, if not perpetuity. (Alan Sykes)

And the Fifty Shades of Grey/Jane Eyre Laid Bare saga continues doing the round of newspapers, such as the Mirror today.

And in August, literature fans will be leaving the country as Jane Eyre Laid Bare is published.
Author Eve Sinclair describes it as “an erotic version of my favourite classic” and it’s set to be huge (“Reader, I mounted him”, presumably).

Oh No They Didn't! is tired of this new 'genre' already.

This post by Robert Armitage on the New York Public Library blog is a very good antidote:

Over the last few months, I have read all seven novels, many of the poems, and selected bits of juvenilia by the three Brontë sisters — as well as several biographies, odds and ends of literary criticism, and a fascinating volume about the Brontë legend, which over the years has sometimes overshadowed the facts of their lives.
Right now I feel as if I know them as well as I know my own friends and family. I suspect that I would enjoy hanging around the Brontës' dining room table of an evening, discussing books, talking over current events, and being catty about the Haworth neighbors. I would probably not be at the Black Bull Tavern, drinking gin with dissolute brother Branwell — since I know nothing good would come of that relationship. While I'd like to think that their clergyman father, Patrick, would enjoy my company (as long as the subject of religion did not come up), he would certainly not regard a poor librarian as a suitable match for any of his talented daughters.
What is it about the Brontës that encourages such curious speculations? (Read more)

Here's a pre-exhibition update from the Brontë Weather Project. Un blog de época writes in Spanish about Branwell Brontë. And, also in Spanish, Más allá del amor posts about Jane Eyre.

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Polly Teale's Jane Eyre in Sydney

A production of Polly Teale's Jane Eyre opens today, June 20, in Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia:

Virtue of Necessity presents

Jane Eyre
by Polly Teale
District 01

74-76b Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia

Thurs 21 June — Sat 14 July 2012
Preview: Wednesday 20 June 7.30pm

Director: Fiona Pulford
Designer: Anya Tamsin
Starring: Beth Aubrey, Coralie Bywater, Ryan Gibson, Laura Huxley, Eli King, Cheryl Ward & Tallay Wickham

Poor, obscure and plain, Jane Eyre begins life as a lonely orphan in the household of her hateful aunt. Despite the oppression she endures at home, and the torture of boarding school, Jane manages to just emerge with her integrity and passionate spirit unbroken but locked up in the attic of her imagination lives a woman so passionate, so full of longing, she must be guarded night and day for fear of the havoc she would wreak. When she finds work as a governess in a mysterious mansion, it seems she has finally met her match with the darkly fascinating Mr Rochester. But Thornfield Hall contains an explosive secret – one that could keep Jane and Rochester apart forever.

Adapted from one of the world’s most beloved novels, Jane Eyre is a startlingly modern blend of passion, romance, mystery, and suspense.

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British Brontës

All very British today as the Global Times focuses on the British films being screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival (16-24 June):

British films make a strong showing at this year's Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF, June 16 to 24). The seven films being screened are Wuthering Heights (2011), Fish Tank (2009), Another Year (2010), We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011), Nowhere Boy (2009) and My Week with Marilyn (2011) and I, Anna (2012) (Hu Bei)

While Intelligencer has a few British reading suggestions:

Many of the most popular and enduring classics come to us from the pens of British writers. If the thought of reading a classic fills you with memories of high school English class, banish those thoughts and read a great British author. You can spend time with the spirited Miss Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice; walk through  Cranford with the village ladies in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford Chronicles; or wander on a windy moor with Cathy Earnshaw in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Lose yourself in the world of these beloved authors and their timeless characters. (Ann Nicol) 

A Room of One's Own discusses The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Books-Silence is giving away a copy of the Polish edition of the novel. A Girl and her Books and Écribouille (in French) post about Jane Eyre. I Like These Books reviews Eve Marie Mont's A Breath of Eyre.

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Marriage, Freedom, and the Individual

Routledge republishes Shirley Foster's 1985 book Victorian Women's Fiction:

Victorian Women's Fiction
Marriage, Freedom, and the Individual
Shirley Foster
ISBN: 9780415524117
Format: Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd (5th Juny, 2012)

Focusing on the ways in which female novelists have, in their creative work, challenged or scrutinised contemporary assumptions about their own sex, this book's critical interest in women’s fiction shows how mid-nineteenth-century women writers confront the conflict between the pressures of matrimonial ideologies and the often more attractive alternative of single or professional life. In arguing that the tensions and dualities of their work represent the honest confrontation of their own ambivalence rather than attempted conformity to convention, it calls for a fresh look at patterns of imaginative representation in Victorian women’s literature.
Making extensive use of letters and non-fiction, this study relates the opinions expressed there to the themes and methods of the fictional narratives. The first chapter outlines the social and ideological framework within which the authors were writing; the subsequent five chapters deal with the individual novelists, Craik, Charlotte Brontë, Sewell, Gaskell, and Eliot, examining the works of each and also pointing to the similarities between them, thus suggesting a shared female ‘voice’.
Dealing with minor writers as well as better-known figures, it opens up new areas of critical investigation, claiming not only that many nineteenth-century female novelists have been undeservedly neglected but also that the major ones are further illuminated by being considered alongside their less familiar contemporaries.

Chapter 3 is Charlotte Brontë: A Vision of Duality.

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