Spunky Resilience

The New York Times reviews Longbourn by Jo Baker, a new sequel of Pride and Prejudice:

Yet Austen’s great successor, Charlotte Brontë, was baffled by all this admiration. For her, Austen’s work lacked “what throbs fast and full, though hidden, what the blood rushes through, what is the unseen seat of life and sentient target of death.” It’s one of literary history’s most famous misjudgments.
But if Charlotte Brontë had taken up the challenge of a sequel to “Pride and Prejudice,” she might very well have hit upon the sort of broader, more sympathetic point of view Jo Baker has derived from the servants’ quarters. Baker shares some of Brontë’s qualities — a power of description, a feeling for the natural world, a regard for emotional turbulence — and she shows a comfort with the past that allows her to imagine it in a vivid way. (...)
Most of the action is seen through Sarah’s eyes as she grows into self-­awareness and proves to have some of Jane Eyre’s spunky resilience. She plans to better herself: “She bobbed a curtsy, and took her money up to her room, and put it away in her wooden box, along with the previous quarter’s pay. If she could find it, and it was writ in English, she would borrow Heraclitus from the library.”
If part of Baker’s inspiration could have come from Charlotte Brontë, there’s also an aside straight out of “Les Misérables.” (Diane Johnson)

Not going away from Austen, the Daily Mail begins an article about Bath like this:

From Mr Selfridge and Downton Abbey to the many adaptations of Dickens, Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters, millions unite in a love of historical costume dramas.
And for one delightful weekend in late summer, a visit to Bath made me feel as though I'd stepped straight into the film set of an Austen adaptation. (Nick Metcalfe)

Radio Times reviews I Walked with a Zombie 1943:

In her quest to find out, nurse Frances Dee uncovers dark family secrets in cult producer Val Lewton's ingenious reworking of Jane Eyre. Jacques Tourneur's direction creates palpable fear and tension in a typically low-key nightmare from the Lewton fright factory. The lighting, shadows, exotic setting and music all contribute to the immensely disturbing atmosphere, making this stunning piece of poetic horror a classic of the genre. (Alan Jones)

The Cameraman's Revenge also posts a review of the film.

The New York Times also reviews the children book The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud:

Do the Brontës haunt Stroud’s novel, with the Red Room and the name Fairfax wafting in from “Jane Eyre” and Lockwood’s name a revenant from “Wuthering Heights”? If such games appeal to you, stay alert. (Alexandra Mullen)

The Record talks about the new Nobel Prize in literature, Alice Munro:

If you reside in southern Ontario, it is your country, too. And now, thanks to Munro's life's work, it is the world's, an ageless landscape that belongs in the literary atlas alongside Thomas Hardy's Wessex, James Joyce's Dublin, Emily Brontë's Yorkshire and the Mississippi of another Nobel laureate, William Faulkner.

Yorkshire Post complains about no West Yorkshire landscapes having been included in the 50 best English views:

West Yorkshire is unrepresented among his top 50, not even by the alluring bleakness of Top Withens near Haworth, admired world-wide by followers of the Brontë sisters. (Malcolm Baker)

Derbyshire Times describes the harvest festival at Hasland Methodist Church:

The evening ‘Songs of Praise’ service was arranged by members of the church. Senior steward Val Gratton opened the service, and the congregation were invited to choose a favourite hymn. Bernard Offiler read out the hymn ‘Service and Influence’ by Anne Brontë from the old Methodist hymn book, and two pieces of verse were read by Maureen Fidler and Joyce Offiler.

More Anne Brontë. The Times' Pedant talks about double genitives:

The construction is often called a double genitive. It's been standard in English for a long time. Here (with my italics) is Anne Brontë, from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: "Shortly after, they both came up, and she introduced him as Mr. Huntingdon, the son of a late friend of my uncle's." (Oliver Kamm)

The case of Malala Yousafzai is briefly discussed in Birmingham Mail:

She’s not an incarnation of Joan of Arc, Charlotte Brontë or Mrs Pankhurst. Let her and us have a break from each other. (Maureen  Messent)

Broadway World announces another production of The Mystery of Irma Vep in Atlanta (October 24):

The plot is borrowed from Gothic romances such as Daphne de Maurier's "Rebecca"and Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights," with fantastic characters from "penny dreadful" fiction and "C" rated movies tossed in.

Clash Music really likes the new album by Lorde, Pure Heroine:

Now, we’re not saying Lorde is some sort of 21st century Kiwi Brontë, but it doesn’t take long to realise that 16-year-old Ella Yelich-O’Connor is quite the promising poet. (Joe Zadeh)

El País (Spain) talks about androgynous writers:

Una de estas obras destacó sobre las demás por su violenta fuerza dramática: Cumbres borrascosas (1847). Su autor, Ellis Bell, de 29 años, era el hermano de Currer y Acton, con quienes ya había publicado un año antes un libro conjunto de poemas. ¿Quién era Ellis, ese hombre capaz de escribir con tanto arrebato, pasión y poder sexual? Obviamente, nadie en aquella época podía pensar que el autor era una mujer. Se llamaba Emily Brönte (sic), y sus hermanas, Charlotte y Anne. Las hermanas Brönte (sic) se inventaron un seudónimo masculino para superar los sólidos prejuicios de la sociedad, que encadenaba a las mujeres a las labores del hogar. Habían leído a Byron y a Shelley y nada las iba a detener. Emily, que siempre tuvo el aspecto de un efebo o de una ninfa, murió de tuberculosis un año después de la publicación de su única, pero magna obra, a los treinta años. (Silvia Alexandrowitch) (Translation)

Manga Forever (Italy) reviews the comic Superman Solo:

Teddy Kristiansen invece concepisce la storia forse più spiazzante, quella di una missionaria catturata da una tribù di indigeni dalle pessime intenzioni e in possesso di un libro della Brontë. (Sergio L. Duma) (Translation)

Letteratu.it (in Italian) has an article on Emily Brontë;  Haaretz interviews an extraordinary student who also happens to love Jane Eyre;  O Vendedor de Livros (in Portuguese) reviews Wuthering Heights; Beyond the Edge of Adventure posts mainly about its 2009 version; Antonella Iuliano autrice (in Italian) shares two short reviews of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.