Bookshelf companions

In case you are planning a trip to Haworth in the coming weeks, don't forget about the works being carried out in Church Street. Here's a reminder from The Telegraph and Argus:

Work has begun on relaying and repairing stone setts close to the Brontës’ former home.
The scheme in Church Street, Haworth, situated by the Parsonage Museum, is expected to take about three weeks to complete.
The street has been shut to through traffic but the contractors, who are working for Bradford Council, aim to reopen it at weekends.
Residents with a permit to park in Church Street are able to use the museum car park.
Councillor Val Slater, the council’s executive member for planning, transport and highways, said: “Haworth attracts visitors from across the world thanks to its special character and links to the Brontë sisters.
“This work should make the area between Main Street, the church and the Parsonage even more appealing and will, together with improvements to other parts of Main Street, benefit the village for years to come.”

The Sop discusses practical vs classical education.

When we learn to both read and read literature, we take ourselves on a ride through life. We learn about new things, see human behavior " the good and the bad " and become more aware of our world. Bring the characters in an Emily Brontë novel out of the 1800s and their lives, struggles, loves and events are not too different from today`s. Their characters are us " we are them. Why must we go through betrayal to know that it is painful and a better life lesson may be to choose our life and love partners more carefully? (Jay Forte)  

The Portland Mercury's Blogtown shares a confirmation email from Better World Books written by the purchased book itself.

I can't wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person. Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months sandwiched between Jane Eyre (drama queen) and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Jane was an upgrade from that stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol' brewmaster have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am? (Alison Hallett)

The Buffalo News reviews the new series Bates Motel:

Later on, he [Norman Bates] alludes to the script of “Jane Eyre” – the Joan Fontaine/Orson Welles version – and Mama Norma gets the reference immediately. Film geeks both, then. (Jeff Simon)

Time selects the 1993 adaptation of Wide Sargasso Sea as one of '10 Unexpectedly Satisfying Movie Prequels'.

Based on Jean Rhys’ novel, John Duigan’s film traces the events that preceded the dark secret at the heart of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, specifically, how madwoman-in-the-attic Bertha came to be locked away in her ashamed husband Rochester’s gloomy mansion. The cause of her madness, according to Wide Sargasso Sea, was colonialism. In this prequel, she’s a Creole heiress in Jamaica who is fixed up in an arranged marriage with a British gentleman. Their life in Jamaica is idyllic at first, but eventually, the marriage (and her sanity) crumbles under the combined weight of island sensuality (Rochester falls hard for the island’s temptations), planter-class power dynamics, and both spouses’ complicated feelings about race.
The movie echoes these points, made in the book, though its chief focus is on the couple’s torrid sexuality. Steamy scenes between stars Karina Lombard and Nathaniel Parker resulted in an NC-17 rating (there’s also a slightly less steamy R-rated cut). The result may play like an extra-classy piece of slash fiction, but the film works on its own terms, perhaps because its protagonists seem so very far removed from the characters as we’ve come to know them in Jane Eyre. (Gary Susman)

The accompanying clip, however, belongs to the 2006 adaptation.

Fox News reports that E L James, of Fifty Shades of Grey fame, will publish a writing guide (!). Rightly recalled are these words from the New York Times' Sunday Review:

Similarly, The New York Times’ Sunday Review writer wrote back in May that “James writes like a Brontë devoid of talent.”

eNews Park Forest shares the results of a Poetry Out Loud competition where a poem by Emily Brontë was recited. The Brontë Parsonage links on Twitter to an audio interview with Ann Dinsdale (Collections' Manager at the Brontë Parsonage Museum) and to an article on a 1910 film adaptation of Jane Eyre. Kuatiañe'ê posts about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Because We're Curious writes about Wuthering Heights while SnOOp imagines what Heathcliff's home would look like. Tournezlespages's Blog writes in French about the 1995 book La vision du mal chez les soeurs Brontë by Claire Bazin.