Never enough Brontës

The Telegraph and Argus reviews the book In The Footsteps of the Brontës by Mark Davis and Ann Dinsdale.

A few months ago, I took a call from an irate reader who wanted to sound off about the frequency with which the Brontë sisters featured in the paper.
I was reminded of his Friday lunchtime fulminations when looking through In The Footsteps Of The Brontës, a book of contrasting pictures and extended captions by Haworth photographer Mark Davis and Ann Dinsdale, collections manager at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
If that gentleman should skim this, let me assure him that this latest addition to the library of Brontë books – out just in time for his Christmas stocking – focuses on the places that Anne, Charlotte and Emily knew, rather than the books they wrote.
Each one of the 90 pages contains two or more images, most of them photographs, showing past and present. The book’s front cover, repeated inside, shows the parsonage at Haworth. In the first picture, the nine front windows are curtained, whereas in the second they have been replaced by blinds.
Neither picture reveals the place as the Brontë family knew it. To get an idea of that, you have to turn the page for a monotone picture of the parsonage, without the end extension that was added after the Brontës were dead.
Intriguingly, this photograph, showing three men in stovepipe hats, two women and a girl, recalls an early photograph of the parsonage during the Brontës’ lifetime that was published years ago in a newspaper colour supplement.
The tantalising suggestion was the young women in the picture were the three sisters and that the sad-looking lanky figure in the big hat was their brother Branwell.
If that photograph was evidence of anything, it was that the life, the legend, of the Bronte family continues to fascinate probably more than anything any of them wrote, Wuthering Heights included. (Jim Greenhalf) (Read more)

We don't think that 'irate reader' will be the one posing this question to Mr Know-It-All in the York Dispatch.

Q: I would like to read all the novels by the Bronte sisters. Where can I get a list? -- F.L., Mesa, Ariz.A: All together, the literary sisters wrote seven novels. Emily wrote "Wuthering Heights"; Anne wrote "Agnes Grey" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall"; and Charlotte wrote "Jane Eyre," "The Professor," "Villette" and www.myriadtheatreproductions.com"Shirley."
There were six Bronte children -- five girls and one boy, though the two oldest sisters died as children.
For many years, the sisters wrote under the pen names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, retaining their actual initials. (Gary Clothier)

BFMTV (France) features the book La mort des grands hommes by Isabelle Bricard.

Si nombre de femmes et d'hommes célèbres sont morts de maladie comme les sœurs Brontë, d'autres ont péri de faim comme l'écrivain Nicolas Gogol, qui, sous l'emprise d'un religieux, se soumit à un jeûne mortel. Quant à Machiavel, il avala, semble-t-il, trop de pilules purgatives à l'aloès. (Anne-Laure Baulme) (Translation)

Still in France, Le Figaro reviews the exhibition Anywhere, Anywhere Out of the World at the Palais de Tokyo.

L'âme du spectateur est invitée à quitter le temps d'un instant son enveloppe charnelle. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, complice de Philippe Parreno, apporte son aide dans cette escapade avec sa Bibliothèque clandestine, parfaite pour filer à l'anglaise entre les livres de Charlotte Brontë et de Bret Easton Ellis. (Mathieu Rollinger)

PolicyMic shares 'Powerful Life Lessons From a Six-Time Jeopardy Champion Who Lost it All'.

By 3:55 p.m., things had started to turn sour. My timing was way off; my mind was growing cloudy. My legs were starting to ache.
I would read the category — “Writing Teams,” for example. I would read the clue — “Glass Town is an imaginary place in the early collaborations of this famous trio of sisters.” I would come up with my response before Alex finished reading the clue — the Brontës, of course. I would do a split second confidence check of my response to make sure I felt comfortable buzzing in. I would prime my thumb, careful not to buzz in too early and risk being locked out. I would wait for precisely the right second, attuning myself to the crisp cadence of Alex’s voice and then mash down on the black plastic signaling device that was nestled snugly in my sweaty palm, clicking away repeatedly with my thumb.
And then, I would slam into a brick wall. My competitor would ring in before me with the right answer. Alex would give him a pleased nod, or smoothly say, “That’s right,” or give him an emphatic “Yes!” (Jared Hall)

Vintage Vinyl News comments on Morrisey's Autobiography:

The first book ever published by Penguin Classics, normally the domain of Jane Austin, Emily Bronte and Oscar Wilde, that was not previously published has hit the top of the book charts, even outselling the latest Bridget Jones novel which was expected to be a long-term number 1. 

Winnipeg Free Press announced something that took place last night (sorry we are a bit late reporting it!).

And for something completely different, head down to the Manitoba Conservatory of Music and Arts for a Halloween lunchtime concert Friday at noon. Voice teacher and tenor Dr. Martin Wilson will do his best to scare you with excerpts from popular musical theatre shows.
"I've chosen pieces that play up the Halloween theme. I'll sing songs from Phantom of the Opera, Jekyll and Hyde, The Secret Garden and some Sondheim shows, Sweeney Todd and Company, as a middle-aged man with commitment issues. That could be the scariest of all," Wilson said with a laugh.
Also planned is a number from Jane Eyre, right after Rochester has been blinded.
"It has lots of pathos," Wilson explained. (Gwenda Nemerofsky)

Esther's Narrative suggests: 'OMG Everyone Go Out and Read Anne Brontë RIGHT NOW' with which we wholeheartedly agree. The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page shows a 'watercolour still life of wild roses' by Charlotte Brontë.