Yorkshire Icons

The Dalesman is looking for the greatest Yorkshire icons. The Brontës are, of course, one of the possible choices:

There are many icons of Yorkshire – from brass bands to flat caps and from the Brownlee brothers to the Brontë sisters – but which best sum up the county? To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Dalesman, we’re asking readers to help us select the 75 greatest Yorkshire icons. And we’d like you to help by picking your top ten.
It’s a tough choice, as the county has many icons. They can be people (real and fictional), places, foodstuffs, films, landmarks, buildings, companies, books… in fact just about anything that screams “Yorkshire” to you.
It could be Swaledale sheep and Brian Blessed or those great Yorkshire inventions the tension-spoked wheel and stainless steel. Or perhaps it is the Yorkshire dialect and a good old cup of tea. Or could it be the chorus of On Ilkla Moor Baht ’at and a perfectly risen Yorkshire pudding? The choice is yours.
You can cast your vote online on this page, or if you’d prefer, you can post or email your choices to us. Email your ten icons of Yorkshire to editorial@dalesman.co.uk, or write them down clearly on a piece of paper, or on the back of a postcard, and send them to Icons of Yorkshire, Dalesman, The Water Mill, Broughton Hall, Skipton, Yorkshire BD23 3AG.
If you’d like to briefly explain why you made your choices, you’re more than welcome to send us an accompanying paragraph or two. All votes will be collated and the top 75 will be revealed in Dalesman. The closing date for votes is 25 January 2014. Remember you may only choose TEN icons and they do not have to feature on the list below, however frivolous and/or offensive suggestions will not be counted.

The New Yorker on housemaids in literature:

[Virginia] Woolf wasn’t the only one to “blue-pencil” out the servants. While literature is filled with famous governesses—Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Thackeray’s Becky Sharp, and the unnamed narrator in James’s “The Turn of the Screw,” to name a few—the same isn’t true for housemaids. (...) [Jo] Baker’s novel [Longbourn]  goes beyond escapist fantasy, drawing subtle comparisons between past and present. Much as Jean Rhys’s reimagining of “Jane Eyre” through a postcolonial perspective became popular in the late nineteen-sixties, when “Wide Sargasso Sea” was published, so is Baker’s class-conscious reconsideration of “Pride and Prejudice” representative of our own time. (Ruth Margalit)

The Derby Telegraph runs an article about James Beresford and Sons in Belper, head stone manufacturers:

Many of them are relics of TV shows, commissioned by film companies to accompany programmes such as Peak Practice, whose production team was based up the road in Belper at the East Mill during the height of its popularity.
There are also memorial stones created for use during Jane Eyre, which was shot in Derbyshire. (Zena Hawley)

Joanna Molloy in Capital New York addresses a letter to the new major, Bill de Blasio:

But even with the whole neighborhood rooting for you, it can get pretty pretty lonely way up there in Gracie Mansion, where the wind whips down from Hell Gate like a draft from the moors of Wuthering Heights.

Scholars & Rogues has The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in its 2014 reading list:

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Brontë. The most important of the youngest Brontë sister’s works. Some critics think this may be the greatest of all the works by this talented family.

Examiner interviews the author Heather Webb:

What three novels could you read over and over?
I’m not a big re-reader. There are just so many great books out there. I do, however, love my copies of "Wuthering Heights", "Pride and Prejudice", and "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon.

The Yalsa Hub talks with another author, Cat Winter:

Were you inspired by any other literary lovers, by chance?
Yes, definitely. As a teenager I devoured classic Gothic novels, such as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. 

O Estado de São Paulo reviews the Brazilian DVD edition of Les Soeurs Brontë:

Roland Barthes - o próprio - foi um entusiasta de primeira hora de André Téchiné. Apoiou-o assim que o crítico virou cineasta, e a tal ponto que aceitou ser ator em As Irmãs Brontë, que a Versátil está resgatando em DVD no País. (...)
É um dos mistérios da literatura. Como as três filhas de um austero reverendo inglês do começo do século 19 se converteram nas irmãs mais cultuadas da história dos livros. Como, a despeito de sua rígida educação, Emily, Charlotte e Anne falaram do amor/paixão e exploraram áreas sombrias da natureza humana sem nunca ter saído de casa.
Charlotte ainda teve uma experiência como professora na Bélgica, mas as irmãs viveram confinadas em Haworth, numa casa pequena cuja frente se abria para o cemitério do lugar. O filme de Téchiné fornece uma pista. (Translation) 

Jornal de Hoje (Brazil) talks about a couple of young local writers:

Embora ainda bem jovem, Ana Clara [Bezerra] não se limitou a ler livros voltados par adolescentes. “Eu até li Meg Cabot, só que o gênero não me atrai”, confessa. E desde cedo preferiu leituras mais complexas. Aos 11 anos leu O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes, de Emily Brontë, logo após entrou no universo de Graciliano Ramos com o livro Os Sertões e hoje está terminando de ler Os Miseráveis, de Victor Hugo. (Eduardo Siqueira) (Translation)

Culturopoing (France) reviews Byzantium by Neil Jordan:

Qu'on ne se méprenne pas, Byzantium offre un romantisme bien plus intime que flamboyant, à travers deux portraits de femmes sœurs des héroïnes de Brontë aussi différentes que complémentaires, deux incarnations de la féminité antithétiques. (Translation)

Do you want a complete Wuthering Heights metaphor in an article about ski? Done. In Olimpia Azzurra (Italy):

Le cime tempestose che i campioni del ciclismo mondiale hanno dovuto affrontare lo scorso maggio sono state tormentate tanto quanto l’amore di Heathcliff per la sua Catherine, ed in quei frangenti persino la minaccia incombente di doping, squalifiche più o meno recenti, delusioni che spesso hanno colpito il mondo dei velocipedisti, fa largo alla fascinazione estatica per un trionfo che ha dell’incredibile. (Chiara Mastrosani) (Translation)

Several Italian websites recommend Jane Eyre 2011 as it is aired tonight on Rai 3 (21.05 h); Efecto Sinérgico (Spain) posts about Wuthering Heights and some of its film/TV adaptations; Vicktoritza (in Romanian) reviews Agnes Grey; Picture Me Reading has loved the English translation of Jane, le Renard et Moi.