Novelists' novelists

The New Republic celebrates Emily Brontë's anniversary with the publication of a 1928 article by Robert Morrs Lovett about 'Emily and her sisters':

The Brontës have always been novelists' novelists, perhaps because their history is novelistic material—the six children in their bleak setting of the Yorkshire moors, their struggle against fate, marked by recurrent death—Maria and Elizabeth dying in childhood—Branwell's fantastic tragedy, the simultaneous illumination of three personalities in Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey, fame and then death once more—Emily, Anne, Charlotte. There was enough in this story in its purely external aspects to challenge a novelist. Mrs. Gaskell was their first biographer. Mrs. Humphry Ward introduced their works in the definitive edition. Then under the more penetrating methods of modern psychology their situation took on a new interest. Miss May Sinclair wrote her enthusiastic study of The Three Brontës.
Now comes Miss Romer Wilson with her version of the sister whose fame, long overshadowed by Jane Eyre and Villette, is now in die ascendant, with Wuthering Heights and the Poems alike revealing a personality so far beyond the usual limits of human nature as to stem miraculous. (Read more)

Griff Rhys Jones talks about his personal crusade against wind farms and solar panels in the Daily Mail:

I first became aware of this in the early Nineties, when I was sent to Bronte country in Yorkshire for a TV programme called Bookworm.
We went out on the moors above Haworth, the setting for Wuthering Heights, and I gawped — because these moors, which are so much a part of British culture and draw tourists from all over the world, were covered in wind turbines.
For the sake of a meagre contribution to the energy grid — enough electricity to power a few hundred houses (and on windless days, not even that) — we had lost an inspiring and world-famous landscape.
Why are we desecrating our country? Is it really necessary? I cannot imagine the French would cover Notre Dame with solar panels. I don’t think the Italians would erect a wind farm in St Peter’s Square.
But if the moors of Wuthering Heights are not safe, then is anywhere in Britain?

Marie Claire lists 15 classic books 'that you have to read at least once':

7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847): If you’ve heard the name Heathcliffe (sic) then you have likely already been introduced to this epic novel. Referred to by some as the 'Romeo and Juliet' of the Yorkshire Moors – Wuthering Heights is not your run-of-the-mill love story, but rather a poignant story of revenge. (Erin Woodward) 

Movie City News reviews the Blu-Ray release of Les Soeurs Brontë:

What sets Téchiné film apart from most other Victorian-era biographies are his precise attention to period detail and ability to discern the spectral auras of his characters and use them as filters for Bruno Nuytten’s camera. The prevailing color scheme, though, is as muted as the clouds that float ominously above the Yorkshire moors, so frequently traversed by Emily. The brooding skies are reflected, as well, in “Wuthering Heights” and “Jane Eyre.” “The Brontë Sisters” also captures the harsh environment created for them by their father, aunts and teachers. As children, the siblings disappeared into imaginary worlds that would inform their poems and novels, which were presented to their first publishers under the pseudonyms of three brothers. The failed romances of Branwell and Charlotte, along with the family’s generally poor health, cast long shadows over much of the film, as well. If this makes “The Brontë Sisters” sound about as a pleasant as a rained-out picnic, well, you may be comforted to know that Téchiné’s original cut timed in at 180 minutes, or an hour longer than the finished product. (Gary Dretzka)

A big blunder on the UK edition of The Huffington Post talking about Kate Bush:

And, back where it all began, 1978 - Dave Gilmour's protegee burst onto the scene and changed it forever, with her interpretation of a Charlotte Brontë (!!) novel... Take it away, KB, and happy birthday.

Entertainment Weekly celebrates the 50th anniversary of Lisa Kudrow with quotes from her character Phoebe in Friends:

33. The moors in Wuthering Heights represent the wildness of Heathcliff’s character. (Hillary Busis)

The New Yorker talks about Borges, who was not very fond of 'female' literature:

But there were things that Borges didn’t see whose invisibility had nothing to do with his physical blindness—things he didn’t see because he wasn’t interested in looking at them. The lecture course in “Professor Borges” doesn’t feature anything written by a woman. It’s a history of English literature that includes no Austen, no Shelley, no Charlotte or Emily Brontë, no Eliot, and no Woolf. (Mark O'Connell)

Yahoo! TV reviews the first episode of The Mill:

Channel 4 has made a bold move into factually-inspired period drama in The Mill, sparing no expense or quality in this four part series. But cliches of industrial revolution TV drama are unavoidable, and however original it aims to be, it is familiar territory already covered thoroughly, and lavishly, in BBC / ITV adaptations of Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë. (Hazel Tsoi-Wiles)

The New York Times thinks the King family (Joe Hill, Tabitha King, Kelly Braffet, Owen King, Stephen King ) can be compared to the Brontës:

The closest comparison would have to be the Brontës, and even they maxed out at a paltry three published novelists, plus one dissipated poet. (Susan Dominus)

Britpopnews describes the band Suede with these cryptic words:

Their latest album, Machineries Of Joy is a creative high, a superbly composed, multi-stylistic tour de force. Beautifully mechanised rhythms sit alongside wind-blasted Brontë-rock cinematics. (Jamie Blanchard) 

Female First interviews the writer Cassandra Parkin:

Who are your favourite reads?
(...) From the past: Jane Austen, W M Thackeray, whatever mad genius wrote “Gawain and the Green Knight”, Charlotte Brontë and F Scott Fitzgerald.

Pittsburgh Historical Fiction Examiner interviews the author Mary Beth Keane:

1. If you could go back in time and be any figure from history, who would it be?
This is a tricky one. (...) I’m tempted to decide to be a Brontë sister – either one – because I love their work, but it seems to me that their fiction was born out of a terrible loneliness. (Interview by Kayla Posney)

Helsingborgs Dagblad (Sweden) asks the writer Frida Skybäck about her personal literary favourites:

Charlotte Brontës hjältinna Jane Eyre från 1847 har med sitt rättvisepatos och sin inre styrka inspirerat generationer av kvinnor och för mig har hon haft en alldeles särskild betydelse. Jane bevisar nämligen att kvinnor på 1800-talet kan fungera som utmärkta förebilder. (...)
I Jane Eyre blir det tydligt hur mycket gemensamt dagens kvinnor har med dåtidens. Även om förutsättningarna kanske skiljer sig åt är själva essensen av livsfrågorna densamma: Hur bevarar man den man är trots alla yttre krav och förväntningar?
Då bokens två manliga huvudkaraktärer erbjuder Jane sin kärlek inser hon att oavsett vem hon väljer innebär det en kompromiss. Ska hon bli Rochesters älskarinna och förlora sin integritet, eller följa med St. John till Indien och uppfylla sitt syfte i livet - att hjälpa andra, men samtidigt gifta sig med någon som hon inte verkligen älskar?
Jane tar den tredje, för de flesta otänkbara vägen och tackar nej till männen.Hon är fast besluten om att vara sann mot sig själv och sina känslor, vad det än innebär, och trots att boken skrevs för mer än 150 år sedan undrar jag om en ung kvinna idag kan finna en bättre förebild än så. (Translation)

El País's Papeles Perdidos (Spain) reviews Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys:

Pocas precuelas hay más atrevidas que Ancho mar de los sargazos (1966), la novela de Jean Rhys, escritora nacida en la colonia inglesa de Dominica en 1890 y fallecida en 1979. Rhys se atrevió a meterse con Jane Eyre (1847), la reverenciada novela de Charlotte Brontë. Al imaginar la historia de Antoinette Cosway, la “loca del ático”, al dotarla de personalidad, Ancho mar de los sargazos le da una respuesta post-colonial a una literatura inglesa que, a lo largo del siglo XIX, tuvo a las colonias del imperio como uno de suspuntos ciegos. (Edmundo Paz Soldán) (Read more) (Translation)

Rubric (Italy) talks about The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin:

Il metodo proposto da Ella Berthoud e Susan Elderkin nel loro manuale di biblioterapia Curarsi con i libri (Sellerio, 384 pagine, in libreria da novembre) in fondo è molto semplice: basta confessare il proprio male ed ecco pronto la terapia romanzesca per guarire. E così, ai mali d’amore ci pensano le opere di Emily Brontë e di Fenoglio, per vincere l’arroganza c’è Jane Austen, al mal di testa trova una soluzione Hemingway e dei massaggi rigeneranti si occupa Murakami. (Rocco Bellantone) (Translation)

Elizabeth Baines announces that Red Room: New Short Stories Inspired by the Brontës is already available to pre-order;  Raths Poesie (in German) and Ya Thing? posts about Jane Eyre; Grande-Caps Movies posts caps of Jane Eyre 1944; Entomology of a Bookworm is preparing a Septemb-Eyre: A Jane Eyre Readalong; Steve Swis uploads to Flickr pictures of the Haworth Moor.