Least Hospitable Terrain?

The news of the sale of the Brontë Birthplace and the inaction of the local Council are reaching the national press. We read in The Independent:

A blow for Brontë fans. The house where Anne, Emily, Charlotte and Branwell were born and raised has been sold for a bargain price to an unknown buyer, even though Brontë fans were planning to buy it. The terraced house in Thornton, Yorkshire, where the Brontë family lived for five years before moving to Haworth in 1820, was sold to a couple for £120,000, gazumping the Brontë Birthplace Trust, who had been hoping to convert it into a museum. Bradford Council turned down their application for funding, saying it wouldn't be a good use of money in these austere times. But all is not lost: another Brontë house is also up for sale. Ponden Hall, high up on the moors, is thought to have been the model for Thrushcross Grange in Wuthering Heights, and is Grade II* listed, with eight bedrooms. Trouble is, the asking price is a meaty £950,000. I think we know the council's answer to that. (Matthew Bell)

Barbara Taylor Bradford defends Kate Middleton from the recent attacks by Hilary Mantel in The Telegraph:

Hilary recommended that Kate read Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. I don’t know what Kate has read. It is making assumptions, of course, that she hasn’t read anything. On the other hand, here is a woman who has a good education and was an excellent student. So I wouldn’t presume to suggest Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Gone with the Wind or, indeed, Wolf Hall. It’s making an assumption that Kate has not read books. That is the awful thing we do – and one of the points Hilary was making.

The Sunday Times talks about Mia Wasikowska's career and mentions, of course, her Jane Eyre:

Instead, she makes do with being brilliant in films such as The Kids Are All Right and the recent Jane Eyre. She was so good in the latter, Meryl Streep even name-checked her in her last Golden Globes speech. (Giles Hattersley) 

The Independent briefly reviews the Great Expectations 2012 DVD:

Unlike the recent, more daring deconstructions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, Mike Newell's Great Expectations is close to being a scene-by-scene translation of the novel. (Nicholas Barber)

Female First interviews the writer Susanna Jones:

What is your favourite novel?
It changes but, if I had to pick one, it would be Jane Eyre. My favourite contemporary novel is probably The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. I've read it so many times and it never fails to move and fascinate me. (Lucy Walton)

We have a weird reference today. A Brontë reference in the Materials Handling World Magazine:

[Andy Kaye] is championing the NOVUS project together with University of Huddersfield Senior Lecturer in transport, David Leach, This fine Yorkshire institution is in an area which has a few logistical centuries of supply chain nightmares to resolve with canals that caught fire, trains that were wrecked and road infrastructures over some of the UK's least hospitable terrain better suited to the wild imaginings of Wuthering Heights than 40' articulated trunkers. The perfect birth place for a new focused qualification. (Paul Casebourne)

Mymovies.it reviews Anna Karenina 2012 and quotes from Tolstoi himself:

Fra le eroine a lui vicine nel tempo Tolstoj citava Jane Eyre di Charlotte Brönte (sic) e Carmen di Mérimée. Jane ha il coraggio di mettere in discussione il proprio amore perché l'uomo che ama le ha mentito. Dunque rispetto e parità. Carmen non ama più José, si è innamorata di Lucas. Sa che sarà uccisa da José, ma difende la facoltà di cambiare idea. (Translation)

Die Welt talks about the German publication of Elizabeth Taylor's A Game of Hide and Seek:

Als sich Elizabeth Bowen im Frühjahr 1951 den neuen Roman ihrer englischen Kollegin Elizabeth Taylor rezensierte, hielt sie mit ihrer Begeisterung nicht hinterm Berg. Sie stellte "Versteckspiel" in eine Reihe mit Jane Austens "Überredung" und Emily Brontës "Sturmhöhe". Und wer Taylors Roman jetzt erstmals in Bettina Abarbanells nuancierter Übersetzung liest, kann Bowen nicht widersprechen. (Rainer Moritz) (Translation)

Heavenly Wordliness posts about the Brontës; Kate Shrewsday posts about Charlotte Brontë and phrenology; Tiers & Tiaras presents a Jane Eyre-inspired Wedding Cake.