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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

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.
1:15 am by M. in    No comments
An alert for today, July 31, in Bradford:
Inspired by Landscape  (Watershed Landscape 2010-2012)
Bradford 1 Gallery Studio,
Wednesday 31 July, 1- 2 pm
Artist’s Talk, free drop-in
Ways to the Stone House:
Join artist Simon Warner as he describes Haworth Moor in poetry and photographs.
On the Parsonage Facebook we can find more information:
Simon will explore 20th-century artistic and literary responses to Top Withins, including photographs by Bill Brandt and Fay Godwin, poems by Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, a drawing by Sylvia Plath and a painting by L S Lowry.
The talk is part of Inspired by Landscape, an exhibition from June 22 to August 24, showcasing the work of three visual artists and three writers who were resident with the Watershed Landscape 2010-2012.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Tuesday, July 30, 2013 4:09 pm by M. in , , , ,    No comments
Radio Canada-Montréal announces that Jane, le Renard et Moi by Isabelle Arsenault and Fanny Britt will be a contender for the Pépites 2013 Awards at the Salon du livre et de la presse jeunesse Seine-Saint-Denis under the BD/Manga category (10 years on). The winners will be announced in the last week of November:
Hélène est victime de harcèlement et d'intimidation à son école. Elle trouve refuge dans le monde de Jane Eyre, le premier roman de Charlotte Brontë. Jane, le renard et moi aborde avec justesse ce sujet délicat. Le texte est signé Fanny Britt, et les illustrations, Isabelle Arsenault. Il s'agit d'une première incursion dans la bande dessinée pour les deux auteures.
Auparavant, l'ouvrage avait été mis en nomination pour le prix Bédéis Causa 2013 - Grand prix de la Ville de Québec dans la catégorie du meilleur album de langue française publié au Québec en 2013, et ses auteures ont reçu le prix Bédéis Causa - prix Réal-Fillion de l'auteur québécois, scénariste ou dessinateur s'étant le plus illustré avec son premier album professionnel. (Translation)
The Telegraph & Argus reports the visit of the darts player Bobby George to the Brontë Parsonage:
Darts legend Bobby George had his sights set on a different target during a visit to the area.
He and his wife Marie headed for the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth, one-time home to the famous literary sisters.
And afterwards they enjoyed a pub lunch – where else but at the Black Bull!
Bobby – one of the darts circuit’s most colourful and popular characters, and a TV regular – said: “ We were visiting Bingley and noted that the Brontë museum was nearby. My wife is a fan of 1800s life and the Jane Eyre film so we went along.
“I haven't read the books but I’ve seen the old black and white films. I’m not familiar with the writers, but my wife is.”
Bobby said he was impressed with what he saw and learned about the sisters, whose classic works included Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.
“I was very interested in their short lives and what they achieved but to me they seemed like they didn't have much freedom – we felt for the family,” he said.
“The house was good to see and we were fascinated by their work – tiny books and tiny writing!
“We would definitely return.”
Julie Akhurst, for the parsonage, said: “We were delighted that Bobby enjoyed his visit – a legend of the oche meets legends of the literary world! He is welcome to return anytime.” (Alistair Shand)
In The Telegraph & Argus we read about a new tourist attraction for Brontë country, the Grand Heritage Tour:
A vintage open-top double-deck bus will make two-hour round trips taking in attractions including the Star Centre, police museum, East Riddlesden Hall, Cliffe Castle, the Museum of Rail Travel and the Brontë Parsonage.
Behind the initiative is Visit Bradford (Bradford Council’s tourism department), Keighley Bus Museum Trust and the Brontë Country Tourism Partnership. (Alistair Shand)
The Christian Science Monitor celebrates Emily Brontë's birthday by choosing ten quotes from her novel and poems:
Emily Brontë, one of six children, was born July 30, 1818 in Thornton, Yorkshire, to Patrick and Maria Brontë. Emily was sent away to boarding school when she was six, along with her three elder sisters. It was a nightmare for them all. The terrible conditions at the school would be the death of Maria and Elizabeth while Charlotte would later feature their experiences in her novel, "Jane Eyre."  After the deaths of the two sisters, Charlotte and Emily were brought home. The four remaining Brontë children entertained themselves by reading and creating make-believe worlds. The Brontë's intense collective creativity fostered the writing of two of the greatest classics of English literature – Charlotte's "Jane Eyre" and Emily's own "Wuthering Heights," published in 1847. Today, "Wuthering Heights" remains beloved by readers ranging from literary scholars to "Twlight" fans. 
More birthday celebrations can be found at Notisistema (México), Libreriamo (Italy), Boa Informação (Brazil), Stuff and Nonsense, Tríada Ediciones (Spain), the Brontë SistersEDIT:  Cleared and Ready for Takeoff, A Small Press Life, Pagan Spirits, Abebooks (France), The Roses and Thorns of Life, worldculturalcenter ...

The Brontë Parsonage tweets this picture at the beginning of the first ever Emily Brontë Birthday Excursion.

ArtForum reviews the newly released Les Soeurs Brontë 1979 Blu-Ray:
The intelligent austerity that marks André Téchiné’s underappreciated fourth film, The Brontë Sisters (1979), is a rarity both for the director, whose work, at least since the mid-1990s, has frequently succumbed to voluble hysterics, and the literary biopic, a genre prone to melodrama. That this is a serious meditation on the creators of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, classic texts whose screen adaptations have too often devolved into clamorous Victorian bodice-rippers, makes its hush all the more admirable.
The dominant sound, in fact, is the scratching of fountain pen on paper. Téchiné’s rendering of this genius-glutted family in grim nineteenth-century Haworth, co-scripted with Pascal Bonitzer (a frequent collaborator of Jacques Rivette’s, whose 1985 adaptation of Wuthering Heights he co-wrote), might have been more accurately titled “The Brontë Siblings”: Just as significant as Charlotte (Marie-France Pisier), Emily (Isabelle Adjani), and Anne (Isabelle Huppert) is the sole Brontë brother, Branwell (Pascal Greggory). “Unrecognized, my talent cannot grow. But I’ll be famous,” Branwell writes to his sisters, a boast never realized, his talents squandered by too many nights at the Black Bull Inn, poor object choices (he was in love with his tutee’s mother, the wife of an imperious reverend), and too much laudanum. (...) (Melissa Anderson)
The presence of Jane Austen in the British banknotes has awakened a horde of Austen-haters who from time to time quote from Charlotte Brontë, you know why. Frances Wilson in the Daily Mail:
Mark Twain, author of The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, said that every time he read Pride And Prejudice he wanted to ‘dig up’ Jane Austen and ‘beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone’, and Charlotte Brontë was equally baffled by Austen’s world of superficial emotions and cultivated gardens.
Brontë could find ‘no fresh air’ in Austen, and I know how she feels. It’s not just that Jane Austen reduces romance to credit limits and replaces character analysis with annual allowances. It’s that she’s unkind to well-meaning middle-aged women.
Guess what? We have an article about psedonyms! This one is rather funny because it seems to suggest that Jane Eyre was written by Emily and Wuthering Heights by Charlotte, and Anne Brontë wrote a curious Agnus Gray novel, besides a rather perplexing coda. The New Indian Express:
Though best known for her Little Women series, Louisa May Alcott first wrote suspense short fiction under the pen name A M Barnard. Before publishing Jane Eyre, Agnus (sic) Gray (sic) and Wuthering Heights, the Brontë sisters - Emily, Anne and Charlotte - published a collection of poetry under the names Ellis, Currer and Acton Bell. Interestingly, the Brontë sisters achieved greater success when they published books under their own names. (Shyama Krishna Kumar with inputs from Chetana Divya Vasudev)
The Huffington Post has one of those lists - 10 Books Every Woman Should Read. Or more accurately, 10 Books and Blunders:
Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë (SIC)
One of the most fiercely independent and strong-willed female protagonists in the history of literature, the eponymous heroine, Jane Eyre, could teach us all a thing or two - even now.
Widely regarded as a masterpiece, Jane Eyre is one romance novel you can read without fear of compromising your feminist integrity. (Georgia James)
Chicago Now describes things found in her basement:
6. Copy of Wuthering Heights from high school, with copious annotations and underlinings of romantic passages That is the typical life of the high school girl: you yearn for a Heathcliff, but what you get is a stoner who wears Birkenstocks and a drug rug, and whose idea of a good date night is renting Con Air and watching it while you do his math homework for him. (Jessie Ann)
3:00 am by M. in ,    3 comments
Emily Brontë was born in the village of Thornton on a day like today in 1818, which makes her 195 years old today. After all these years, many questions - probably unanswerable by now - remain regarding both her literary work and her personal life. As is usually the case, this has helped beget a good many and highly diverse theories concerning her: Emily has been an anorexic, she has been in love with a 'Louis Parensell' (a misreading of a poem entitled 'Love's Farewell'), she has been a lesbian, she had an incestous relationship with Branwell, she has been asexual, she has suffered from Peter Pan syndrome, she has been pregnant, she had Asperger, and a long et cetera.

Even her novel and her outstanding poetry have spawned countless essays and theories. And she's rightly called the Sphynx of English Literature for all this.

But we do know that for Emily, her fantasy world of Gondal and the extent to which Wuthering Heights was a part of it, were as real as life itself. Her diary papers show that she hardly noticed the barrier between imagination and reality, famously writing
papa opened the parlour Door and said B gave Branwell a Letter saying here Branwell read this and show it to your Aunt and Charlotte - The Gondals are disc discovering the interior of Gaaldine
Sally mosley is washing in the back kitchin (Emily and Anne's 1834 joint diary paper)
So one thing at least can be said for certain - for Emily Brontë writing was just as necessary as breathing.
To Imagination

When weary with the long day's care,
And earthly change from pain to pain,
And lost and ready to despair,
Thy kind voice calls me back again:
Oh, my true friend! I am not lone,
While thou canst speak with such a tone!
So hopeless is the world without;
The world within I doubly prize;
Thy world, where guile, and hate, and doubt,
And cold suspicion never rise;
Where thou, and I, and Liberty,
Have undisputed sovereignty.
What matters it, that, all around,
Danger, and guilt, and darkness lie,
If but within our bosom's bound
We hold a bright, untroubled sky,
Warm with ten thousand mingled rays
Of suns that know no winter days?
Reason, indeed, may oft complain
For Nature's sad reality,
And tell the suffering heart, how vain
Its cherished dreams must always be;
And Truth may rudely trample down
The flowers of Fancy, newly-blown:
But, thou art ever there, to bring
The hovering vision back, and breathe
New glories o'er the blighted spring,
And call a lovelier Life from Death,
And whisper, with a voice divine,
Of real worlds, as bright as thine.
I trust not to thy phantom bliss,
Yet, still, in evening's quiet hour,
With never-failing thankfulness,
I welcome thee, Benignant Power;
Sure solacer of human cares,
And sweeter hope, when hope despairs!
(Originally Published in 2007)
12:30 am by M. in    No comments
And a special gift for today, Emily Brontë's day, the release of the Blu-ray edition of Les Soeurs Brontë 1979 (for Region A/1):
Les Soeurs Brontë
Director(s): André Téchiné
Writer(s): Pascal Bonitzer (scenario and dialogue), André Téchiné (scenario and dialogue), Jean Gruault (participation)
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Marie-France Pisier; Isabelle Adjani; Pascal Greggory; Patrick Magee
Blu-ray Release Date: 30 July 2013 (USA)
Resolution: 1080p/24
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
Audio Codec: French LPCM 2.0 (48 kHz/24-bit); English Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: English
Studio: Cohen Media Group
Extras:
Les fantômes de Haworth (59:57) (French LPCM Stereo 48 kHz/24-bit ): a documentary by Dominique Maillet on the making of this film. It contains interviews with director Téchiné, co-screenwriter Pascal Bonitzer, and others involved in the creative process, including cast member Pascal Greggory.
Original French theatrical trailer (3:23) (French LPCM Stereo 48 kHz/24-bit)
2013 re-release theatrical trailer (1:42) (English LPCM Stereo 48 kHz/24-bit) // Conversation between film historian Wade Major and Brontë scholar Sue Lonoff de Cuevas.
Blu-rayDefinition reviews the edition:
The Brontë Sisters takes an unvarnished look into mid-19th century life for women who were pursuing unconventional careers as writers. While rather little attention is paid to their actual works, we get a penetrating story of the four siblings, told in French. Director Téchiné took what could have been a rather slight story and with a superb cast, cinematography, and score delivers a masterpiece, marred only by some visual and audio shortcomings, at least when compared to the best current technical standards. Another triumph for the Cohen Film Collection. (Lawrence D. Devoe)
And Blu-ray.com:
With stunning cinematography by Bruno Nuytten (Jean de Florette) and powerful music by Philippe Sarde (Tess), The Brontë Sisters is a richly rewarding film; it's both a step back into history and a startling look at the immediacy of artistic creation.
Denton Record-Chronicle:
The film dutifully evokes Brontë-esque feelings of isolation, despair and loneliness with Bruno Nuytten’s cinematography of the barren moors and endless landscapes of the Brontës’ native Yorkshire. (Boo Allen)

Monday, July 29, 2013

The Telegraph & Argus suggests visits to both the Red House Museum and the Brontë Parsonage Museum:
Red House: Summer Mystery Quiz until September 1 2013 Look for the clues in each room and find the answers to the puzzle All correct answers will go into a prize draw.
Through the Rainbow until October 31 Exhibition showcasing the exquisite art of stain glass making and how it can feature in more than just windows Gardening Club August 6 £10 per session. Booking is essential. If you are aged 8 to 12 and like gardens, then go along and take part in some gardening activities Family Activity Day August 7 Free. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Crafts and activities in the barn Suitable for children aged four and upwards.
BPM: A new collection of photographs and artefacts, on display until the end of this year, reveals the secret life of the building through the stories of those who lived there. Called Heaven Is A Home, it also uses letters, sketches and documents to detail domestic details of the Brontës' residence.
The exhibition complements the Parsonage's recent £60,000 refurbishment.
Emily Brontë's birthday is July 30, and this year the Parsonage is marking it in style for the first time with a special day of walks and tours.
There are just 30 tickets for the day, which boards a steam train from Keighley talks about the Brontës and the railways by Professor Ann Sumner, and railway historian David Pearson.
In Haworth, a vintage bus will take passengers to the Parsonage there’s chance to wander around the meadow with gardener Jenny Whitehead and examine Brontë treasures in the library.
The Arts Desk reviews the new Channel 4 series, The Mill:
As the first episode opened with the tolling of the wake-up bell calling the poor, struggling young workers to another dismal day on the factory floor, it all felt terribly familar. We were back at Lowood school with Jane Eyre, enmeshed in the proles-versus-fatcats class struggle of South Riding, reliving the grinding working class horrors of life in The Village and even getting a flashback to Call the Midwife. We thrilled again to the battle between the wealthy Hardacres and the impoverished Fairchilds in Brass. Perhaps most of all, it was Mrs Gaskell's North and South revisited. (Adam Sweeting)
The Boar recommends some books for the summer:
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
wide sargasso seaRhys takes us on an adventure through the West Indies in the untold tale of Antoinette Mason – the first wife of Edward Rochester and the original madwoman in the attic. Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent beauty and sensuality. After their marriage, however, disturbing rumours begin to circulate which poison her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is inexorably driven towards madness and her husband into the arms of another novel’s heroine. As hauntingly gothic as it’s inspiration Jane Eyre. (Jessica Devine)
The South China Daily Post has an article about the Shanghai Film Museum:
 Although the 70-plus interactive installations are geared towards adults and children, they inadvertently highlight a techy generation gap: in a dubbing exercise it's the half-priced visitors who jostle to perform "Chinese karaoke" to a Jane Eyre film adaptation. Ditto the sound effects and recording areas, which would have allowed visitors to hear the difference in the sound quality of various microphones had they been working. (Charmaine Chan)
Keighley News remembers that
 The “812” Brontë Scenic Bus Tour will operate on all Sundays and Bank Holidays until August 26. They coincide with the arrival of the Keighley and Worth Valley trains at Haworth Station. The buses leave the station at 10.50am, 11.45am, 12.40pm, 2pm. 2.55pm and 3.45pm travelling to The Parsonage, Stanbury, Ponden, Scar Top, Moore Lodge, back to Ponden, Penistone Hill, Marsh Chapel, Sun Street and back to Haworth Station.
LA Classic Music Examiner talks about a recent concert in the Pasadena Muse/ique Summer Nights:
 Muse/qiue presented their second of three summer concerts on Saturday, July 27, 2013, in Pasadena. This family friendly event, took place outside on the lawn of Pasadena's beautiful Cal Tech’s Beckman Auditorium. Parking was plentiful and free. (...)
The evening's program continued with more romantic film scores from movies Jane Eyre, Summer and Smoke, Russia House and Chariots of Fire, from movie composers Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams and Elmer Bernstein. (Ahdda Shur)
Tea at Trianon reviews Jane Eyre 2011 and There Ought to Be Clowns reviews Jane Eyre 2006; The Squee posts a most useful (and even funnier) Jane Eyre Adaptations Flowchart; Haber Turk announces a local broadcast of Jane Eyre 2011 (CNBC-e, 22.00).
12:30 am by M. in ,    No comments
The Ilkley Playhouse production of Wuthering Heights arrives to Cornwall:
Ilkley Playhouse present
Wuthering Heights
adapted by Yvette Huddleston and Walter Swan from Emily Brontë’s novel.
the Minack Theatre
July 29,30,31 August 1,2 at 8 pm  and July 31 & August 2 at 2 pm

Heathcliff and Cathy – the names have entered the popular imagination as icons of passionate and romantic love despite the fact that Catherine Earnshaw is, at times, spiteful, capricious and wilful, a young woman that her servant/companion Nelly Dean wouldn’t wish on any man as his wife. Heathcliff, at different moments in Emily Brontë’s novel, is described as devilish, a murderer, as inhuman yet he has come to be seen as a dark and brooding gothic hero.

This new adaptation explores the complete story of Wuthering Heights from Heathcliff’s arrival on the moors, adopted by the Earnshaws as a child, to his eventual self-willed death in middle age. The depth and ferocity of the love that Heathcliff and Cathy feel for each other is undoubted and hugely significant, so why exactly does Cathy choose to marry local landowner Edgar Linton instead?

Many film or stage versions of the story end with Cathy’s strange and unnecessary demise, neglecting the whole of the second half of the novel which features the next generation – Heathcliff’s son, Cathy’s daughter (also called Cathy) and young Hareton Earnshaw. Here we discover Heathcliff at his most bullying, violent and manipulative, but we also discover another love story that is redemptive, positive and joyful.

Ilkley Playhouse is proud to present a Yorkshire story which still grips its audience today just as powerfully as when it was first conceived at Haworth Parsonage in the 1840s. Its cast of distinctive characters will long endure in the memory.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Sunday, July 28, 2013 11:05 am by M. in , , ,    No comments
This is something you probably didn't expected if you read about The Full Bronte:
A trio of scantily-clad lads is taking the charity world by storm after raking in more than £4,000 in less than a year.
The Full Bronte – brothers Chris and Phil Elrick – and Richard Smith took on their first topless waitering assignment at a charity event for the Manorlands Hospice based at Oxenhope in Keighley.  ( The Telegraph & Argus )
Camilla Long in The Times talks about bitchiness and British bitches and so on:
This is why the original bitch was always Charlotte Brontë, a woman who would slag off Jane Austen entirely without warning, calling her 'incomplete' and 'insensible', which is Victorian for 'vaginismus'.  
Jane Merrick in The Independent gives her opinion on the Austen appearance on the British bank notes:
If it had been my choice for a great female novelist on a tenner, I would have gone for one of the Brontë sisters. I've always preferred the gothic psychological thrillers of Charlotte and Emily to Austen's galloping middle-class froth. But I'm heartily in favour of people called Jane being given prominence, so, all in all, it is a good thing.
Gay News remembers the figure of Peggy Ann Garner:
The year before A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Peggy Ann had played the young Jane in Joan Fontaine/Orson Welles' Jane Eyre. The first 20 minutes of the film is not only the best part of the entire movie but shows the brilliance of the young actress. (An unbilled Elizabeth Taylor is also with Peggy Ann during the brutal scenes at the hideous Lowood institution.)
Peggy Ann Garner simply broke your heart as the poor tormented Jane Eyre. Earlier, Peggy Ann had played in a number of other outstanding films. After her Academy Award, it looked liked the young girl would go on to a brilliant adult career as a major actress. What happened was probably as tragic as anything poor Jane Eyre ever experienced. (Mike McCrann)
The Independent talks about Leicester and multiculturalism:
 And the Asian immigrants from East Africa – affluent professionals and businesspeople – were better equipped to prosper than any before or since. "While others came to Britain from villages in Bengal or Kashmir," says Suleman Nagdi, who arrived from what was then called Rhodesia, "we had been immersed in Britishness – Jane Eyre and all that – from our school days, and that immersion helped us integrate more quickly: we were familiar with the education and legal systems and everything else."
Yorkshire Post tells old stories about teachers:
 There was the one who decided to scare the infants by putting a sheet over his head and wandering around outside their classroom window shouting “WOOO”; the one who wore a green corduroy suit and pretended he hadn’t heard when my mate said, “Why is he wearing a corrugated iron shed?”; the one who ran out of the class weeping every time we started to read Wuthering Heights; the one who brought her guitar into class every day for a whole year but never, ever, played it. (Ian McMillan)
SoloLibri (Italy) reviews Miss Charity by Marie-Aude Murail:
 Il suo è un omaggio, tra gli altri, a Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde e alle sorelle Brontë.
Threepanelbookreview publishes a funny three-panel-review (what else?) of Jane Eyre; look a this beautiful painting by keiana using Jane Eyre as canvas; Mommy Adventures with Ravina interviews the writer Colleen Connally:
What books did you grow up loving? One of my favorites was To Kill a Mockingbird. It still is. I also loved all the classics, including Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.
Both this article about Lucy Caldwell and this review of the latest John Boyne's novel mention the Brontës. Finally, tonight' BBC4 broadcasts again the Sylvia Plath episode of A Poet's Guide to Britain (19.00h):
Sylvia Plath is one of the most popular and influential poets of recent history but her poetry is often overshadowed by her life - the story of her marriage to Ted Hughes, her mental health problems and her tragic suicide at the age of 30. A rich and important area of her work that is often overlooked is the wealth of landscape poetry which she wrote throughout her life, some of the best of which was written about the Yorkshire moors.
Sheers explores this rich seam, which culminated in a poem called Wuthering Heights. It takes its title from Emily Brontë but the content and style is entirely Plath's own remarkable vision of the forbidding Pennine landscape.
Sheers visits the dramatic country around Heptonstall where the newly-married Plath came to meet her in-laws, a world of gothic architecture and fog-soaked landscapes, where the locals have a passion for ghost stories that connect directly with the tales that were told in the kitchen of the Brontë parsonage. His journey eventually leads out onto the high moors and the spectacular ruin known as Top Withens. Here amongst the wind and sheep 'where the grass is beating its head distractedly', Plath found the material for some of her most impressive writing.
The Brontë Society has prepared a whole day of activities celebrating Emily Brontë's anniversary:
Emily Brontë's birthday is July 30, and this year we're marking it in style for the first time with a special day of walks and tours we're calling Emily's Birthday Excursion!

Itinerary
11.30am Gather at Keighley Station on the platform, ready to board the first steam train of the day to Haworth
11.50am The train pulls in and Emily's birthday excursion group boards, to listen to talks about the Brontës and the railways by our Director, Professor Ann Sumner, and railway historian David Pearson
12.10pm Accompanied by 'Emily Brontë' herself, the train heads towards Haworth, as David discusses points of interest along the way, and you can chat with Emily - costume historian Lyn Cunliffe - about what she is wearing
12.28pm Arrive in Haworth, where a vintage bus awaits those who would like a lift to the top of the famous cobbled Main Street. Excursioners are free to wander as they will around Haworth, and enjoy a picnic, or lunch at one of the village's many cafés. The upstairs room of Cobbles and Clay has been reserved for those who wish to eat there.
1.30pm Meet back at the Parsonage, where excursioners will split into two groups: The first group tours the garden and meadow with gardener Jenny Whitehead, to find out more about the Parsonage plants, and what the garden was like in the time of the Brontës.
  The second group will view the special Brontë treasures in our library, together with Collections Manager and local historian Ann Dinsdale, as you go behind the scenes to see some of the items not usually on display to the public.
2.15pm The two groups swap over, so that both have a chance of visiting the library treasures, as well as touring the garden and meadow
2.45pm Both groups depart together for a gentle walk on to the edge of the moors and up on to Penistone Hill, in the company of our Education Officer Sue Newby, on a guided tour of the moorland places the Brontës knew and loved so well
4.30pm The vintage bus picks up excursioners and runs them back to Keighley, taking in a tour of the moors en route, and travelling via Cemetery Road and Tom Stell's seat, then along Hebden Road
circa 5pm Arrive back at Keighley
More information on Keighley News.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Publishers Weekly lists several novels which 'crossed the gender line':
The Professor by Charlotte Brontë -
Moving backward in time to the 1850s, we have Charlotte Brontë’s first novel, for which she was unable to find a publisher until after her second novel, Jane Eyre, became a huge hit. The Professor tells of a young Englishman in Belgium who falls in love with his student, a story that is reprised in a slightly different guise in the romance between Lucy Snowe and Paul Emanuel in Brontë’s Villette. According to Brontë’s biographers, the storyline is derived at least in part from doomed feelings Brontë herself developed for a married professor who taught her when she studied in Belgium, making this an instance where a personal disappointment spurred a work of art—actually two—that would prove to be far more enduring. (Adelle Waldman)
The Toronto Star reviews Hellgoing by Lynn Coady:
As Jan matures into adulthood she substitutes Robo-friendzfor alcohol and identifies with the inebriated 1960s novelist, Jean Rhys, author of Wide Sargasso Sea, a 1966 prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Rhys becomes an invisible character in the story, since Jan constantly reflects on her. (Jennifer Hunter)
And, of course, the pseudonym article of the day:
Authors' pen names have been commonplace since the Brontë sisters used male monikers to escape the patronising prejudices of the day against lady writers. Now they have come under renewed scrutiny because J. K. Rowling has confessed she was the writer of a well-reviewed but modest-selling crime novel, The Cuckoo's Calling, supposedly written by a retired military police investigator called Robert Galbraith. (Jane Sullivan in The Sydney Morning Herald)
The author Laila Lalami talks about her origins in the New York Times:
My mother did not take part in these fictions. She spoke little about her childhood in the orphanage. Sometimes she hummed a French lullaby that one of the nuns taught her. I went to sleep on many a night to the sound of “Au clair de la lune” or “Fais dodo, Colas.” But other times, a wave of resentment welled within her, and she would describe being forced to eat on a dirty table from which chickens were allowed to feed. Naturally I developed an early and lifelong affinity for literary orphans, like Oliver Twist and Jane Eyre. Later, when I became a novelist, orphans and abandoned children turned up in my work, unbidden.
In the East Village Magazine we found an early Brontëite:
When I was about 14, I took a long leave of absence from children's books to discover the great classics of the western world. Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, recommended by a kindred spirit of my own, was my first introduction to plot lines brimming with sticky moral complications. After that, there was no looking back.
I was so taken with the turbulent romance between Edward Rochester and Jane Eyre — two fiercely independent spirits whose passions were great enough to ignite a lightning storm when finally united — that I persuaded my parents to allow me to subscribe to a mail-order book club called the International Collector's Library Literary Master's Series. (Kara Kvasnicka)
Summer houseguests in The Huffington Post:
Just for example, it has been my fate to fall seriously ill just the day after arriving at very old friends' homes, and be rendered incapable of departure, à la Brontë's Catherine and Austen's Marianne. Very bad summerhouse-guest form, altogether, but not to be helped at the time. (Elizabeth Boleman-Herring)
HealthCanal discusses morning sickess during pregnancy aka hypemeresis gravidarum:
Without treatment the condition can be life-threatening. Nineteenth century author Charlotte Brontë died from Hyperemesis Gravidarum.
El Mundo (Spain) discusses the films of Luis Buñuel:
«Porque humo es nuestro aliento, y el pensamiento una centella del latido de nuestro corazón. Extinguido éste, el cuerpo se vuelve ceniza, y el espíritu se disipa como tenue aire... Ninguno de nosotros falte a nuestras orgías, quede por doquier rastro de nuestras liviandades, porque ésta es nuestra porción y nuestra suerte», lee el anciano al niño en 'Abismos de pasión', la adaptación buñueliana de 'Cumbres borrascosas'. La nada de la muerte frente a la liviana certeza de la pasión. El texto pertenece al fragmento, en opinión de Buñuel, más bello de la Biblia: 'El libro de la Sabiduría'. (Luis Martínez) (Translationv)
@BobbyGeorge180 has visited Haworth.
1. In Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, UK
The Roses: Words on Wide Screen Festival
Jane Eyre on Film
Saturday 27 July 2013 at 2pm
The Elmbury Room, Tewkesbury Library, Sun Street, Tewkesbury

In this interactive lecture, scriptwriter and author Elspeth Rushbrook looks at screen adaptations of Charlotte Brontë’s gothic romance over the last 30 years. With clips, stills and seldom seen outtakes, Elspeth follows Jane’s spiritual journey and looks at three seminal characters who only have fleeting film appearances.
In partnership with Tewkesbury Library, Words In Wide Screen shines a light on many different approaches to adapting the written word for the screen. With events taking place in Tewkesbury Library, just next door to The Roses, the series combines a host of film screenings, director talks, lectures and workshops to make this a complete experience for film fans and literature lovers alike.

2. In Colchester, UK
The Minories Galleries
Masters at the Minories
27.07.2013 to 24.08.2013
MA Final Year Students

Work by students graduating from Colchester School of Art’s MA courses: Art, Design and the Book; Contemporary Art and Professional Practice; Sculptural Practice.
Including the work of the Colchester-based book artist Anna Johnson who has produced a Bewick illustrated edition of Jane Eyre. (via Tale-Pieces)

Friday, July 26, 2013

Friday, July 26, 2013 11:14 am by M. in , , ,    No comments
Three Weeks Edinburgh interviews Rebecca Mordan from Scary Little Girls. Their The Full Brontë! Literary Cabaret show will be at the Edinburgh Fringe:
TW: Let’s start with the obvious question: what exactly does a literary cabaret involve?
RM: Our literary cabaret is a mixture of songs, games and Brontë literary references. I hold it all together as the compere, aka Monika, supported by my trusty sidekick – Sharon Andrew – who we usually call Nom de Plume, though in this show she’ll be known as Nom Brannie, after the Brontë mother’s maiden-name Branwell. This is a Cornish name and we make a point of trying to reclaim the Brontës for Cornwall at every opportunity! We use storytelling and daft games to share as much as we can about the Brontës, and our views on how ace they were. Some parts of the show highlight their talent in a very moving way. For example, we put the Emily Brontë poem ‘Remembrance’ to music, which never fails to bring a tear to the eye. But most of the show is us being very, very silly, with lots of banter and interaction between us and the punters. (...)
W: And finally, the all important question: which is your favourite Brontë?
RM: Oh, that question is just too hard! We adore the radical feminist Anne and her ‘Tenant Of Wildfell Hall’. Charlotte would surely be the ultimate big sister and her books are gifts that keep on giving, read after read. And Emily not only created Cathy and Heathcliff and gave us some of the most stunning poetry, but she also painted herself facing backwards in every family portrait! You’ve got to love the uncompromising weirdo! We love them all and their literary contributions, but we can tell you that Monika has spent many happy hours delving around in her Villette. On this subject, though, one thing we do and are planning to do in Edinburgh, is our own street survey designed to decide “Which Brontë Are You?”. We ask people in the street a series of questions and from their answers we work out which Brontë best matches their personality. We can then add up the figures and work out whether Edinburgh is more of a Charlotte, Emily or Anne city!
The Full Brontë! Literary Cabaret’ takes place at Fingers Piano Bar from 3-24 Aug (not 5, 12, 19) at 4.20pm. (Caro Moses)
IndieWire's Shadow and Act makes a bold proposal to film producers:
Maryse Condé's Windward Heights is a beautiful and exotic novel, a passionate reimagining of a torrid liason between two star-crossed lovers of color, torn apart by class and racial oppression.
We’re all aware by now of Andrea Arnold’s latest screen adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel. Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, set for theater release this spring, is the first - of what seems like zillion film adaptations - to reincarnate Heathcliff as a black man; some of us were rather pleasantly surprised at Arnold’s courage in giving the original tale this non-conventional twist. After all, Brontë’s 1848 novel described Heathcliff as “dark-skinned gypsy in aspect.” (...)
Filmmakers and production companies out there reading...any takers? :) Somebody out there please revolutionise the film industry and adapt this novel!! (Vanessa Martinez)
The Guardian reviews Terry Eagleton's How To Read Literature:
Aimed at "readers and students", it is a personable stroll through a predictable canon: Charlotte Brontë, Forster, Keats, Milton, Hardy et al – plus JK Rowling, perhaps thrown in so as not to appear snobbish. The avuncular prof cautions his audience not to read in certain ways (no one cares whether you like the characters or not), and aims to show, through close reading of selected passages of poetry and prose, how to appreciate the best of what's been thought and said. (Steven Poole)
Belinda Webb criticises in The Guardian the choice of Jane Austen for the British £10 notes ('a safe and bland option') and proposes other more feminist choices:
Emily or Charlotte Brontë (mid-1800s)
I've always believed that there are two types of woman – those who root for Austen, and those who prefer their fiction wild, angry and passionate, as written by the Brontës.
The Rowling pseudonym affaire seems to have no end:
The pseudonym, which quite literally means false name, is by no means a new phenomenon and has been around for generations. Famous examples of the practice can be traced back to the infamous Brontë sisters who published their works under the names of men. Of course, we all know now that the Brontë sisters were destined to write some of the most famous period romances of the age; however, at the time, women were not considered able to write novels and were often sidelined by a largely male-dominated medium. While we now know that Emily Brontë was the genius behind Wuthering Heightsand that her sister Charlotte famously wrote Jane Eyre, they were professionally known as Ellis Bell and Currer Bell respectively. (Scott McMullon on So, So Gay)
Glamour lists some old-fashioned names:
There are a lot of Charlotte's in our pop-culture history—Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte York, to name a few—and now Colin Hank's daughter joins the pack. (Anna Moeslein)
Nice that Charlotte goes into the pop-culture category.

The Atlantic Wire discusses the possible plots of the fourth season of Downton Abbey:
Here's Edith—the ugly duckling of the family, the one that got left at the altar—looking rather sexy and cavorting with her married editor beau Michael Gregson. You know, the one with the nutty wife, a lá (sic) Jane Eyre. (Esther Zuckerman) 
DVD Talk reviews The Wolverine:
He is a mutant Heathcliff, a world-saving Lord Byron. No one can best him or tame him, and when they come close, he returns harder and softer, more angry and tortured, than before. (Jamie S. Rich)
Talented reade: a literary journal reviews Wide Sargasso Sea.  
2:12 am by M. in    No comments
Amberley Publishing has just published another pictorial account of the Brontës enriched with the comments of Ann Dinsdale, Collections Manager at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:
In the Footsteps of the Brontës
Mark Davis & Ann Dinsdale
ISBN: 9781445607795
Format: Paperback
Publisher:Amberley Publishing (July 2013)

The lives and works of the celebrated Brontë family are so ingrained in our cultural psyche that we think we know them inside out - but walking in the footsteps of the literary greats and their characters offers a new perspective on their work. Our journey begins in Cambridge with the arrival of the young Patrick Brontë and follows his family's fortunes as they grow up in their home village of Haworth. We see the wild moorland locations that would inspire the haunting Wuthering Heights and the dour schools they attended that would later feature in Jane Eyre. We visit the homes of family and friends that provided the settings for many of their novels and travel with them across the industrial West Riding to York and the coast. This spectacular collection of photographs old and new explores the people and places that the brilliant Brontës knew and loved.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Charlotte Brontë wrote all the Brontës novels. This is the thesis of an upcoming Polish book by Eryk Ostrowski, Charlotte Brontë i jej siostry śpiące (Google Translates it as Charlotte Brontë and her sisters sleeping). Wait a moment... this sounds familiar. Two years ago we posted:
It seems that the conspiracy theory (in the words of Lucasta Miller) of John Malham-Dembleby arguing that all the writings by the Brontës were in fact written by Charlotte and Charlotte alone (Malham-Dembleby published his The Key to the Brontë Works in 1911 and in 1954, his wife published The Confessions of Charlotte Brontë where more of his "extraordinary revelations" were made public) has resurfaced with a freemasonry twist in the ebook world.
We were talking about Charlotte Brontë's ThunderThe Truth Behind Brontë Genius, ebook by Michele Carter (who recently published a fictionalized account as The Brontë Code). But, this Polish contribution to the Big Brontë Conspiracy has extraordinary similarities with both Malham-Dembleby and Carter:
Jeśli w czasie wakacji zabłądzisz czytelniku na smętne wrzosowiska, koniecznie musisz dzierżyć pod pachą pierwszą polską monografię Charlott Brontë. Eryk Ostrowski postara się dowieść, że najstarsza z pisarskiego rodzeństwa jest autorką nie tylko „Dziwnych losów Jane Eyre”, lecz także książek przypisywanych tradycyjnie jej siostrom. (Beata Górska-Szkop on Xiegarnia) (Translation)
The literary magazine Odra published in December 2012 an article (Charlotte Brontë i jej siostry śpiące) by the author. Eryk Ostrowski was also behind a multidisciplinar event based in his own poems devoted to Charlotte Brontë. The event took place last year in Krakow.

If you are interested and fluent in Polish you can listen to Polskie Radio as they will interview him today, July 25 at 20.30 h (local time):
Czy Charlotte Brontë stworzyła legendę o trzech piszących siostrach? Kto w rzeczywistości jest autorem "Wichrowych Wzgórz"? Czy Heathcliff i Katarzyna mogli istnieć naprawdę?

Eryk Ostrowski, poeta i eseista młodego pokolenia, stawia w swojej pracy bardzo odważne tezy, odsłaniając kulisy życia pisarki. Obfitowało ono w liczne dramatyczne wydarzenia. Brontë zadbała, aby wiele z nich nigdy nie dotarło do wiadomości publicznej. Autor ukazuje, w jaki sposób jej osobowość kształtowały skomplikowane relacje z mężczyznami – najpierw z bratem, z którym w latach młodzieńczych dzieliła tożsamość literacką i sympatię do doktryny masońskiej, później z belgijskim nauczycielem, w którym była zakochana, wreszcie z jej wydawcą, którego miała nadzieję poślubić. Stara się też rozwikłać niejasne okoliczności śmierci pisarki i wyjaśnić, czy jest możliwe, jak przypuszczali niektórzy z jej przyjaciół, że Charlotte Brontë została zamordowana…
Na audycję zaprasza Elżbieta Łukomska.
25 lipca (czwartek), godz. 20.30  (Translation)
Bristol Post announces the Bristol Old Vic autumn/winter programme which includes a two-part adaptation of Jane Eyre by Sally Cookson (February 2014).

Felicity James reviews Terry Eagleton's How to Read Literature in Times Higher Education:
Admittedly, a certain nostalgia is evident. “Like clog-dancing,” we learn, literary analysis is “almost dead on its feet”, as if English departments were filled with hapless artisans whittling away at a neglected craft. But if the tone is nostalgic, the prose is energetic and the values consistent: this is, in some ways, a reaffirmation of some key critical ideas, a swift tour of long-beloved books and themes. Heathcliff, for instance, pops up on page one and lurks throughout.
We already published time ago that Jane Austen was the first and final candidate to appear in English banknotes. PopBlend thinks that Charlotte Brontë would not have been pleased:
The woman the bank has chosen is none other than novelist Jane Austen, which would likely be a bummer to the Brontë sisters and George Eliot if they were alive to see the currency. (Jessica Rawden)
The Women's Library relocation to the London School of Economics and Political Science is discussed on Kensington & Chelsea Today:
The Women's Library has a large and exceptionally fine collection of material relating to the lives of women. The collection sheds light on women's century long struggle for equality. It includes over 60,000 books, many pamphlets, periodicals, press cuttings and photographs. The collection also has banners and posters.
Mary Wollstonecraft's 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' is a prized possession as is a first edition of the Brontë's works. (Marian Maitland)
Country Life remembers that there are still a few days left to see Victoria Brookland's A thousand thousand gleaming fires exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:
An exhibition of new drawings xploring the passionate heroine in literature and poery and how women writers have employed the Gothic genre to reveal hidden aspects of our own nature. 6 June - 29 July at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Church Street, Haworth, West Yorkshire, BD22. (Mary Miers)
Reuters reviews the new Wolverine movie:
"The Wolverine" works best in the scenes between Logan and Mariko - readers of the original Marvel Comics know the key role she plays in his life, although they may be surprised that the big-screen Logan speaks not one lick of Japanese - and when the Wolverine fights side by side with psychic Yukio (Rila Fukushima), an impoverished orphan adopted, "Wuthering Heights"-style, as a young girl to be a companion for Mariko. (Alonso Duralde
We found the story of  Ramnath Subramanian, contributor of El Paso Times quite fascinating:
This was Thomas Hardy's land, and the land of the Brontë sisters. I cannot adequately describe the transcendence I felt gadding about the streets of England or walking along the Thames and the Avon.
Then there was the special thrill when a friend drove me to Bradford, West Yorkshire, for a wedding. Howarth (sic), the village where the Brontë sisters lived and wrote, was only a short distance away, and I got my fill of moorlands, charming pathways, and ruins, all of which had informed the writing of "Wuthering Heights" and "Jane Eyre."
The Spectator recomends re-reading this summer:
This is the time to pick up your well-thumbed copy of Dickens, Austen, Hardy, Forster, Eliot (either of them), Brontë, and all those other authors whose black spines glower darkly from your bookcases. (Emily Rhodes)
We suppose there is a joke hidden somewhere here but we don't get it:
It was probably someone like Jane Austin (sic) or Charlotte Brontë or Emily Brontë or their brother Richard Bronte or the science fiction writer and all round great human being Kurt Vonnegut who once said “write what you know”. (Joshua Burt in Sabotage Times)
HP/De Tijd (Netherlands) talks about pseudonyms, you know why:

Ook de zussen Charlotte, Anne en Emily Brontë, bekend van klassiekers als Jane Eyre en Wuthering Heights, publiceerden onder mannelijke pseudoniemen. Als de broers Currer, Acton en Ellis Bell distantieerden ze zich net als Evans en Dupin van het negatieve imago dat vrouwelijke schrijvers rond 1850 hadden. (Lisa Bouyeure) (Translation)
La Huella Digital (Spain) reviews Historia Torcida de la Literatura by Javier Traité:
En contrapartida, se echa en falta un análisis más riguroso de los autores, y es que el concepto “desenfado” no debería estar reñido con la tendencia a la caricaturización de una disciplina (por ejemplo: hablar de Casanova como un pichabrava, tratar con tanta frivolidad Fausto, de Goethe, o pasar de puntillas por el maravilloso Cumbres Borrascosas son matices que nos dejan, como poco, sorprendidos). (Rocío Martínez) (Translation)
BookRiot posted some days ago the results of their '20 Books You Pretend to Have Read' survey. A couple of Brontës are in the list:
15. Jane Eyre (27 mentions)
17. Wuthering Heights (23 mentions)
An student and Jane Eyre reader in The Modesto Bee; Wom*News publishes the following article by Kita Marie Williams, Themes and Characters in Charlotte Brontë’s Novels; No Wasted Ink and Clutter Uncluttered review Jane Eyre and Rosie's Period Journal its 1997 adaptation.
12:30 am by M. in ,    No comments
A theatre alert for today, July 25 in Chester,MA:
Jane Eyre: A Memory, a Fever, a Dream
Staged Reading
Thursday, July 25 – Town Hall Theatre – 5:00pm – Free

An exciting new adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic romance.
Written and Directed by Daniel Elihu Kramer
Featuring CTC favorites Allison McLemore (The Nibroc Trilogy, Turn of the Screw), James Barry (Arms on Fire, Wittenberg), and Kim Stauffer (Crime and Punishment).

Drama for Dinner
featuring cast of Jane Eyre
Thursday, July 25 – Wyld Thyme Restaurant, Chester, MA - 6:45 pm – $100

Immediately after Jane Eyre, join us for our 3rd annual Drama for Dinner – hosted this year in Chester by Wyld Thyme Catering and Restaurant! Tables will be hosted by the cast of Jane Eyre, as well as other CTC luminaries. The evening will begin with an artist reception followed by a multi-course dinner, complete with wine and beer.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The winners of the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense have been announced and Joanne Cambpell Slan's The Jane Eyre Chronicles: Death of a Schoolgirl is the winner in the Historical Romance category:
Historical Romantic Mystery/Suspense
Finalist: Anna Lee Huber for The Anatomist's Wife
Finalist: Andrea Penrose for Recipe For Treason
Finalist: Jillian Stone for A Dangerous Liaison with Detective Lewis
Finalist: Jillian Stone for An Affair with Mr. Kennedy
WINNER: Joanna Campbell Slan for Death of a Schoolgirl: The Jane Eyre Chronicles
Crime Fiction Examiner asks the author about the award and the novel:
As the winner of the 2013 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence, Slan has proven herself. That has not, however, changed the way she sees her writing. “The Daphne is like this huge blessing from an unseen hand. I approached writing historical romance on my knees in fear, trembling and quaking. I kid you not . . . From the moment I conceived the project, I knew I was treading on sacred soil. Brontë was a genius.” The award has, however, affirmed for Slan her status as a writer. “I feel a warm glow inside. A little voice keeps doing a happy dance and yelling, ‘I did it!’ I hope she never settles down.”  (Terry Ambrose)
And J.K. Rowling's nom de plume is still in the news:
When Joanne Rowling found a company to publish her tale of the unique orphan with a lightning scar, they suggested she use her initials to fool readers into believing she was a male writer. Without a middle name, she chose “K” from the other letters in the alphabet to complete her penname, and Joanne joined the ranks of the Brontë sisters, Louisa May Alcott and Mary Ann Evans by masking her gender to hide the fact that she was a female author. (Brittany Taman in Florida Flambeau News)
The Huffington Post publishes a top ten of best book-to-movie adaptations. Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights is chosen:
Directed by British realist, Andrea Arnold, whose previous two films were set on rundown housing estates in Glasgow and London, this 2011 adaptation is as much a departure from Brontë's classic novel as it is from Arnold's previous work.
Omitting the second half of the book, like the previous 1939 adaptation, and eschewing the prominence of Nelly Dean, Arnold's unique take on the romantic drama is brought to life by some powerful performances drawn from a cast of relative newcomers, as well as highly evocative and beautiful cinematography of the bleak and billowing landscape.
Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden) asks local writers for forgotten or not so well-known novels. Ellen Mattson chooses Villette and publishes an enthusiastic vindication:
Vill man sammanfatta det centrala temat i ”Villette” är det just tillvarons uppdelning i skuggvarelser och solskensbarn, en grym ordning som Lucy hanterar på det enda sätt som är möjligt för en fattig, oskön och ensam kvinna i hennes situation och med hennes moraliska resning: genom att acceptera den, genom att applådera den. Tappert ser hon sig själv i spegeln och erkänner att skuggorna passar henne bättre. Hon vet att varje försök att överträda gränsen skulle leda till katastrof – och ändå, när möjligheten erbjuds tar hon den. (...)
Man kan säga att ”Villette” är den osminkade versionen av ”Jane Eyre”, den ocensurerade, sanna versionen. Och om ”Jane Eyre” har en lyskraft som aldrig falnat har ”Villette” något annat, ett mörker så kompakt att det lyser omvänt. Denna höghalsade och långärmade 1800-talsroman är helt enkelt den naknaste bekännelsebok jag någonsin läst. Den är så självutlämnande att det gör ont. Följaktligen har den inte blivit älskad så som den förtjänar och medan den som lever tillräckligt länge säkert kommer att få se ytterligare 17 filmatiseringar av ”Jane Eyre” har ”Villette” bara filmats en enda gång, år 1970. (Translation)
Film1 announces the Dutch TV premiere of Wuthering Heights 2011:
wo 24 juli 20.30 uur - 22.33 uur
do 25 juli 10.25 uur - 12.28 uur
zo 28 juli 11.30 uur - 13.33 uur
Book View Cafe talks about his love for Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (but not for Wuthering Heights); Come pass the borders of what´s real (in Polish) reviews Agnes Grey.
1:33 am by M. in , ,    No comments
The Center for Contemporary Opera (New York) presents the NewOp Week 2013 featuring readings of three operas in progress plus the world premiere of Oration by Line Tjornhoj. One of the operas in progress is Louis Karchin's Jane Eyre:
The Center for Contemporary Opera presents "Jane Eyre" by Louis Karchin

July 24 at 8pm
NYC's Cell Theater, 338 West 23rd Street

Selected from over one hundred submission, CCO is proud to present a workshop production of the opera, "Jane Eyre" by Louis Karchin.

Louis Karchin, American composer, conductor and educator, has composed over 60 works including unaccompanied and chamber music, symphonic works, and opera. His music has been recognized by awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, as well as commissions from the Serge Koussevitzky, Fromm, and Barlow Foundations. Karchin is currently a professor of Music at NYU.

Our outstanding cast and creative team includes:

Jane Eyre ... Marcy Richardson
Rochester ... Scott Joiner
Blanche ... Karen Joilcouer
Bessie ... Jami Leonard
Mrs. Faitfax, Mrs. Ingram ... Sharon Harms
Mr.Mason, Mr.Ingram ... Mark Wilson

Stage Director ... Sarah Mayers
Music Director ... Michael Fennelly
Stage Manager ... Jami Leonard

Preceding the atelier, there will be a short panel discussion with the composer and other distinguished individuals to discuss the work. Following, you are invited to a complimentary reception in order to meet the cast and creative team and offer your feedback as part of our development process.

We are very appreciative to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for their support of the CCO Development Series.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Tehran Times reports the publication of a new Iranian translation of Shirley:
Reza Rezai is translating “Shirley” from Brontë Sisters’ novel collection into Persian.
He has previously rendered other novels of the Brontë Sisters’ collection, which includes “Wuthering Heights”, “Jane Eyre”, “Villette”, “The Professor”, “Agnes Grey” and “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall”, Rezaei told the Persian service of ISNA.
Some of the works have been published by Ney, a leading publisher of literary works in Iran.
Farideh Teimuri provided a Persian translation of “Shirley” in 2010, which was released at the same time by Ekbatan Publications.
China Daily posts some pictures of the recent performances of the Chinese National Theatre's Jane Eyre (as adapted by Yu Rongjun) in Yuzhou:
The Chinese version of the play has been performed 56 times by the National Theatre, since 2009 and has been widely praised by the media and theatre critics, in Beijing.
As the living standards rise, people are less and less likely to frown at the idea of spending hundreds of yuan or more just to appreciate the beauty of stage art. During the two days, there was not a single empty seat in Fuzhou Theatre.
The 160-minute drama used a series of montages, with the audience applauding from time to time.
The Huffington Post (Canada) lists several British recent films to 'channel your inner Brit':
Jane Eyre (2011). Driven from her post at Thornfield House by her love for her brooding employer and his secret past, young governess Jane Eyre reflects on her youth and the events that led her to the misty moors in this artful adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's novel. (Chris Jancelewicz)
Paste Magazine discusses some of the announcements at the San Diego Comic-Con:
During the Cup O’ Joe panel, Marvel announced a sequel to Paul Jenkins and Andy Kubert’s 2001 miniseries, Wolverine: Origin, which revealed the birth of one of the most popular superheroes in fiction. More Emily Brontë than Brian Michael Bendis, the original rustic period piece told the story of a frail adolescent heir named James Howlett who pops some ferocious claws and runs off with a pack of wolves after slaughtering his (possible) father. The sequel — Origin II — will continue the feral adventures of the young aristocrat turned killing machine. (Mark Rozeman & Sean Edgar)
Breaking Travel News describes the Tour de France passing through Yorkshire next year:
The route taken by next year’s event will competitors through some of the great and historic cities of the county, including the Roman walled city of York and Leeds as well as the stunning cathedral city of Ripon, and Sheffield, which is fast becoming known as one of Europe’s great sporting cities.
They’ll wind through the glorious Yorkshire Dales National Park into the quintessential English market town of Harrogate before experiencing the dramatic rise and fall of the Pennines around Brontë country.
The Houston Chronicle interviews Carmela Ciuraru, author of Nom de Plume:
Is there one particularly compelling story behind the nom de plume of a female writer that has stayed with you? What is it?
I admire the courage of women writers like the Brontës and George Eliot, but the story of Alice Sheldon is probably the saddest and the most fascinating story of a female pseudonymous writer. (Maggie Galehouse)
Schaeffer's Ghost on Patheos reviews The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins:
Classic literature doesn’t offer much in the way of strong, single, unattractive heroines. If you’re a reader, it’s ridiculously easy to become persuaded that only attractive people matter—that they’re the only ones who get to have stories. Unattractive people are relegated to the sidelines. (...)
Sure, Jane Eyre is no looker (and I love her for that), but even she winds up paired up with the gruff Mr. Rochester. (Alexis Neal)
Fall No Further interviews the writer Hannah Richell:
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
I remember reading this in Year 8 at school and moaning with everyone else about how boring and dense it was: when I was secretly really enjoying it and identifying a little too much with Jane. I love this book for what it taught me about narrative secrets which are eked out to the reader slowly, for narrative tension and claustrophobia, and for its wonderful view of the importance of equality in relationships.
The Reading Life talks with another writer, Gavin Corbett:
Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights?
Wuthering Heights. If you read Wuthering Heights at an impressionably young age you’ll never get over it. Kate Bush discovered that too.
Vogue Italy gives you clues to imitate the style of the actress Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, including a shirt dress by Stella McCartney inspired by Jane Eyre; Fantastic Miss Eloise (in Spanish) reviews Wuthering Heights; Book-A-Day and A Bit of a Bookworm post about/review Jane Eyre. We have several reviews today: Read. Breath. Relax reviews A Breath of Eyre, Seductive Musings does  Wuthering Nights, Proud Book Nerd finally posts about Black Spring.

And finally, would you like to read The Mist on Brontë Moor by Aviva Orr for free? Check out this Goodreads Giveaway!