Heritage landscape

A couple of national newspapers reports the news about the declined wind turbines in Brontë country. From The Telegraph:

The brooding West Yorkshire countryside that inspired classics such as Wuthering Heights has been protected from plans for more turbines because of the importance of the famous sister writers.
It is believed to be the first time the literary significance of an area has been put before the need for green energy.
It comes as the High Court will this week hear a separate case brought by leading heritage groups hoping to protect historic sites from wind farm development.
Bradford Council has rejected plans for a 15m turbine at Hardnaze Farm, Oxenhope, Keighley, less than two miles from Haworth, where Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë grew up.
Councillors ruled the scheme would do little to boost renewable energy – while creating a blot on Brontë Country. [...]
The area attracts visitors from around the world wanting to see the moorland views that inspired much of the Bronte's finest writing.
Sally McDonald, chairman of The Brontë Society Council, said the decision “gives support to the Brontë Society's argument that this is a special and unique landscape and that this landscape needs to be protected”
“Visitors journey from around the world come to see the wild moors of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and want to see high waving heather – not high waving turbines,” she said.
"I am delighted by this decision and that all future applications will have to take into account 'the importance of the historical and literary associations of the area.
"In making this decision, Bradford acknowledges for the first time the importance of the unique landscape to the area.
Campaigners will now turn their attention to plans for four 328ft turbines flanking each side of the Brontë Way on Thornton Moor.
The planning ruling said: "The proposed development would introduce an incongruous and widely visible vertical element into this sensitive upland landscape, whose historical and literary associations are also central to its wider economic value in tourism terms.
"The proposed turbine would be seen from a number of vantage points and would result in significant harm to the character of the landscape that would outweigh its limited contribution towards overall renewable energy targets."
Brontë Society Heritage and Conservation officer Christine Went said: "It is good they have acknowledged the importance of this heritage landscape, and internationally renowned heritage area.
"A woman who came to Haworth to write about the Brontës recently said 'It's not worth coming here because it's all turbines'." (Tom Whitehead)

Also in the Daily Mail. EDIT: The Brontë Parsonage Facebook corrects the Daily Mail article:

Oh dear, this Daily Mail piece is, sadly, very confused - it's not an application for 15 tubines that was refused, but for a 15-FOOT TURBINE!

More Jane Eyre mentions from Downton Abbey season finale recaps (BEWARE of spoilers!). From Salon:

And, phew, now Edith has a man of her own, and if he’s not quite Austen-ian, at least he’s good and Brontë-esque: Jane Eyre got her happy ending eventually. (Willa Paskin)

From E! Online:

Must be all the fresh air because Edith certainly changes her mind regarding playing Jane Eyre to his Rochester. (Christina Dowling)

From Today's The Clicker:

. . . Edith's new suitor, editor Michael Gregson, who has an insane wife but still dreams of a relationship with Edith, "Jane Eyre" style. (Gael Fashingbauer Cooper)

The Los Angeles Review of Books finds that writer Porochista Khakpour is no longer a fan of Wuthering Heights.

RR: I understand that you’re a fan of Victorian literature, namely Wuthering Heights and works from Melville and Hawthorne. Why these particular authors? And have they influenced your writing and/or writing process?
PK: I used to be, but not so much anymore. Honestly, I love 20th-century American literature the best. Melville is a true love though. Moby-Dick means more to me than almost any novel — it taught me what experimental writing was all about. Faulkner is another one — I read all his works as a teenager and his rhythms, pacing, cadences, everything, are in all of my sentences. He was my greatest teacher. I just love great stylists. Later, James Salter taught me a great deal about how to tell a story without sacrificing the brushstrokes — there is always plot but there is also always art. (Roxanne Naseem Rashedi)

Página 12 (Argentina) finds Emily Brontë an influence in J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy:

Finalmente es, por encima de cualquier otra cosa, un homenaje a la novela victoriana. Rowling recupera el sustrato principal de las novelas de Charles Dickens, Emily Brontë, Thomas Hardy: la relación entre el yo y las presiones de las poderosas ideologías del capitalismo, pero también el compromiso social y político. La petulancia autoritaria de la clase media, su orgullo desmedido, su cinismo enlatado están reflejados en las páginas de Una vacante imprevista casi con la misma vehemencia con que Dickens –especialmente en Oliver Twist y David Copperfield– propinaba una bofetada al Londres encharcado de clase burguesa. (Ariadna Castellarnau) (Translation)

Lissa Bryan writes about 'Finding the Right Word, A Lesson from Emily Brontë'. Becky's Book Reviews and KJB Literature Blog both post about Jane Eyre.