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Saturday, May 11, 2013

Saturday, May 11, 2013 4:38 pm by M. in , , , ,    No comments
Keighley News gives more details about the Brontë Society appeal for bringing to Haworth an unpublished manuscript by Charlotte Brontë, L'Amour Filial:
The Brontë Society is seeking help raising funds to buy the work, a homework essay written by Charlotte for the man she loved.
The society was told in December of the previously unknown piece, which is in private ownership.
A single-page document, written in French on both sides, it was assigned as homework by Charlotte’s teacher, Monsieur Constantin Heger, at the Pensionnat Heger school he and his wife ran in Brussels. Heger has added his corrections to the work.(...)
The Bronte Society declined to say how much it needed to buy the manuscript, entitled L’Amour Filial, but said it had already been “generously supported” by the Victoria & Albert Purchase Fund and the Friends of National Libraries.
Society chairman, Sally McDonald, said: “The fact this work is unpublished adds enormously to its significance. We are delighted to launch this appeal and thank all those who have so far contributed.”
Visit bronte.org.uk to make a donation.
Visiting Yorkshire to have an Austen experience? Odd... In Lancashire Evening Post:
Jenny Simpson gets all Jane Austen literary on a trip to the west Yorkshire countryside in the Brontë countryside
Yorkshire is perhaps best known as Brontë country, thanks to its literary links to the famous novelist sisters.
However, the charming Wentbridge House Hotel definitely sparks thoughts of Jane Austen, rather than Jane Eyre, with all its stately home charms and carefully cultivated grounds.
Dave Astor talks about clothing in literature in The Huffington Post:
Also admirable is the down-to-earth title character in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, who refuses to dress like a wealthy woman after getting engaged to the rich Rochester -- a big contrast to the finery worn by Blanche Ingram, the shallow snob Rochester was supposedly interested in. Jane even wears modest attire to her fateful wedding ceremony.
And the Jane Eyre scene featuring a certain main character dressed as a fortune-teller exemplifies how clothing can be used as a disguise in literature.
It wasn't the case with Jane, but one's income usually affects the way a character dresses. There are few better examples of that than in the Mark Twain role-reversal novels The Prince and the Pauper and Pudd'nhead Wilson. If a rich person looks poor and a poor person looks rich, clothes are a big cue for buying into that mistaken identity.
Western Morning News talks about the new ITV show, Country Host Sunday (Sunday, 8:25 AM):
Food reporters Ed Baines, Stacie Stewart and Claire Richards will explore some of Britain's best foods throughout the three regions. Larry Lamb will present a strand of heritage walks, exploring the worlds of Brontë, Shakespeare and Agatha Christie.
Isabelle Hardman criticises Michael Gove's words about what teenagers should read. In The Telegraph:
He opened his speech by asking: “You come home to find your 17-year-old daughter engrossed in a book. Which would delight you more – if it were Twilight or Middlemarch?” He rather created the impression that he doesn’t just want the nation’s children to be stretched while they are at school, he also wants them to be automatons who, when not reading Eliot, have their noses buried in Budget speeches from yesteryear. (...) Most parents would surely be thrilled to see their child reading any book, rather than being slumped in front of the television. And if Stephenie Meyer gives a teenager their first taste of a well-spun story, then they’ve got a better chance of picking up a Gove-approved book later on. They can’t, after all, read the same four Twilight novels over and over again for the rest of their lives (can they?). Meyer might lead nicely to a 19th-century novella in which a man drinks a potion that transforms him into quite a different character altogether. Or if frustrated romance is the thing after four volumes of teenagers flaring their nostrils at one another, surely Jane Eyre’s silent anguish over Mr Rochester might suit?
She continues in The Spectator:
In the most recent year for which we have figures almost 280,000 candidates studied a novel – one novel – for the AQA GCSE. The overwhelming majority – more than 190,000 – studied Of Mice and Men. The overwhelming majority of the rest studied other 20th century texts including works such as the Lord of the Flies which – we should note – are considered appropriate for primary children in the best schools. The numbers studying novels written before 1900 are tiny in comparison – 1,236 studied Pride and Prejudice, 285 Far From The Madding Crowd and 187 Wuthering Heights. Added together that is fewer than 2,000 candidates – less than 1 per cent of the total.
The Guardian makes a  list of incongrous book covers, including Wuthering Heights à la Twilight:
By cashing in on the popularity of Twilight, you could argue that publishers are bringing the gothic novel to a brand new, young audience, but if these readers are expecting a tedious virgin of female protagonist Cathy then they’ll be sorely disappointed. Yes, there’s Sexy Heathcliff, but despite a spot of possible necrophilia, there isn’t a vampire in sight, though I did always imagine him as having rather pouty lips. (Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett)
Fearnet quotes again the Bates Motel Jane Eyre quote:
And if you taught him well, your son will recite this little portion of Jane Eyre: “Mom, you're everything. Everything to me. And I don't ever want to live in a world without you. You're my family... my whole family, my whole... my whole life, my own self. You always have been. It's like there's a cord between our hearts.” (Alyse Wax)
Greenwich Citizen reviews the Greenwich Choral Society concert where Shafer Mahoney's Three Brontë Sisters was played:
To close the relatively brief first half of the program we heard "Three Brontë Songs" by Shafer Mahoney. Mahoney's music was charismatic and filled with relaxed confidence and tonal goals that were both clever and focused. The GCS presented the music with conviction but occasionally blurred the delicate rhythms. The first movement, "This shall be thy lullaby," had a theme so catchy that I overheard two people humming it during intermission. The composer was present and the piece was well received.
BudgetTravel classifies Brontë country as one of the most famous "pop-culture" (?) destinations:
The Brontë sisters' Yorkshire. If you're barmy about the Brontës, then Yorkshire—lovingly known as Brontë country—is unbeatable. It's this land of windswept heather and moor-ish wilderness which inspired Charlotte, Emily, and Anne to create their famed novels Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey. Its bleak plains are every bit as bewitching. (Sophie Grackowski)
Diario de Cádiz (Spain) quotes the writer Luz Gabás saying:
Los días de pesadilla de Poe se traducían en pesadillas -continuó Gabás-. Bram Stoker pasó en cama los siete primeros años de su vida, durante los cuales su madre se dedicó a contarle historias de fantasmas. Mientras que las Brontë, en el ambiente lúgubre y limitado de Haworth, escribieron novelas llenas de intensidad y pasión..." (Pilar Vera) (Translation
The Independent offers advice for the perfect screenplay:
The volume of stories that end in union and/or marriage suggests that stories provide a template for healthy procreation. From the earliest folk tales to modern rom-coms the same message proliferates – only on achieving harmony as an individual will one be rewarded with sexual congress. From ET to When Harry Met Sally – the same story skeleton in which boys learn to become men is apparent. From The Taming of the Shrew to Jane Eyre the same process is visible for girls, as they slough off their juvenile flaws and grow into women. (John Yorke)
TV Zoom (Italy) gives the audience of yesterday's TV in Italy:
Iris ne ha raccolti 441 mila con l’1,61% di share con on air la pellicola Jane Eyre di Franco Zeffirelli, con Charlotte Gainsbourg e William Hurt nel cast. (Emanuele Bruno) (Translation)
Claudia Puig (from USA Today) considers Jane Eyre 2011 as one of the best film adaptations of a novel. Tiny Library posts about Wuthering Heights. MusicAndFantasy shares a musical arrangement of Come, Walk with Me, by Emily Brontë. More on the corset for the Jane Eyre Doll by Daisy Dolls.

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