Emily Brontë swinging from a chandelier

New Brontëites on the block. Australian Stage interviews Burlesque artist Imogen Kelly and asks her about her new show Herstory.

Who else appears in the show, and why have you selected them? The selection came down to which characters I loved the most, but also which ones I could work together in an hour long show. So I chose acts I have either been performing for years or that I have spent years devising in my head. The show opens with a tribute to Hollywood’s leading ladies of the golden era. Again I picked the ones that sang the most in my own heart. Marlene Dietrich, Carmen Miranda, Marilyn Monroe, Cyd Charise (sic), Audrey Hepburn and even a visit from Dorothy. I have chosen two queens, Elizabeth 1st talks about war-mongering and Marie Antoinette talks about the peasants calling her a whore – and then that cake comes out! I also have Emily Brontë who swings from a chandelier and Jackie Kennedy gives her version of the assassination of JFK. I am also trying to squeeze in Emily Davison – a suffragette who threw herself under the king’s horse and of course there is an audience favourite, Princess Di. [...]
Which women throughout history have inspired you the most and why? I am inspired by women who have risen to meet the adversities in their lives. Marlene in Herstory is the old Marlene still touring at the age of 60. Emily Brontë was ill for most of her life, her father was a religious man and she possibly never knew love, yet she wrote Wuthering Heights. (Lee Bemrose)

Emily Brontë wasn't ill for most her life though!

CartoonMag (Italy) interviews writer Lucilla Leone:

Dove hai tratto ispirazione per la creazione della protagonista Allyson Gordon? Non amo le protagoniste femminili troppo emancipate o molto aggressive quando leggo o scrivo. Preferisco una figura docile, una ragazza tranquilla e magari anche piuttosto sprovveduta sulle questioni amorose, proprio come Ally: ingenua e bellissima. Non ottusa assolutamente, ma semplice, come è sempre più difficile incontrarne. Forse Allyson ha qualcosa di Jane Eyre, la protagonista del romanzo della Brontë, semplice e sincera ma con uno spirito forte e orgoglioso. Uno dei personaggi femminili che amo della letteratura classica. (Veronica Lisotti) (Translation)

We are not sure whether young artist Danny Sobor ’15 featured by The Brown Daily Herald is a Brontëite or not.

Last spring, when Sobor and his Sigma Chi fraternity brothers spray-painted a table for their house, a new project, “Swag My Furniture,” took off, Sobor said. The table featured colorful geometric patterns on the legs and an image of a woman holding a burning copy of Jane Eyre. (Elaine Kuckertz)

The Stranger shares an interesting fact about Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea.

[Kate] Zambreno herself. She assembles a legion of women smothered by marriage. In her enthusiasm, her style often devolves into something that feels like notes scratched out on paper in the course of doing research in a library: "Who Are You?—the title of Anna Kavan's haunting inquiry into the loss of the self in marriage. Jean Rhys wished she had thought of the title herself for Wide Sargasso Sea." (Paul Constant)

The Daily Mail mentions the Brontë pseudonyms with a twist:

In the past, female writers such as Charlotte Brontë had to adopt male pen names in order to get their books published. But the tables were turned for former war hero Bill Spence after he wrote a series of romance novels.
The grandfather from Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, was told his books would need to be printed under a feminine moniker if he wanted them to sell - and so his pseudonym Jessica Blair was born.
Bill, 89, has so far written 22 romance novels under the female pen name since his first was published in 1993, with his latest, Silence of the Snow, due out this week. (Lucy Waterlow)

The Seattle Times features Nora Roberts's Inn BoonsBoro and reveals the popularity of the Jane and Rochester room.

It’s a tough choice: Elizabeth and Darcy? Or Jane and Rochester?
Which will it be?
Aargh. I don’t know. Let me think.
“Pride and Prejudice,” well, what a book. I swoon at the thought of that haughty Darcy buckling under for love of the tart-tongued Lizzy Bennet.
But then, “Jane Eyre.” ... All those wind-lashed moors and lowering skies. Those longing looks and brooding stares. That plucky heroine and her tortured hero. Oh, be still my heart. [...]
I confess that I’m not the hugest romance-novel fan (though I have read my share). But I definitely favor romance, so I’m pretty happy to have scored Jane and Rochester, although I’m a little chagrined when innkeeper Ellen Tholen tells me that it’s “probably our most occupied room.” Oh no. Does that mean I have pedestrian tastes?
Of course not! There’s nothing pedestrian about J&R. [...]
After a quick look at the library — gotta come back and have some of that (gratis) Irish whiskey in the crystal decanter! — we finally reach Jane and Rochester. “Welcome home,” Ellen says as she hands us the key. Now that’s nice.
And so is the room, which is spacious and dominated by a lofty four-poster king, at the foot of which stretches a fabulous large fainting couch. Which I plan to spend a lot of time on, maybe thumbing through the copy of “Jane Eyre” thoughtfully placed on the nightstand, or taking in the movie — the corner secretary holds a DVD of the 1943 Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles version; the best! Except that every time I turn around, my husband’s stretched out on the darned thing. Hmmph. Who knew that a man could feel so faint?
Obviously, the room puts him in a dreamy mood, because every chance he gets, he also turns on the fireplace. It’s gas, but it adds to the pretty atmosphere in the low-lit space, and romance is all about atmosphere, isn’t it? Plus, the flames actually throw some good heat; so pleasant on a nippy night. (Zofia Smardz)

The Irish Times reports that (one) Wuthering Heights is for sale.

Wuthering heights, €550,000
Channel your inner Heathcliff and your outer Sarah Beeney with this granite mountain retreat in need of total renovation. Lug na Groagh, a derelict property 8km from Blessington, Co Wicklow, is set on 71 hectares of mainly commercial forestry. The house is a five-minute drive from the shores of Blessington Lake.
Agent: Sherry FitzGerald O'Reilly Naas (Alanna Gallagher)