Brushing up on its Emily Brontë

The Bookseller announces a second Muriel Spark collection by Carcanet:

The series will culminate with The Essence of the Brontës, a new edition of Spark's examination of the Brontës' lives and work, in September 2014. (Caroline Carpenter)

USA Today's Bookish talks about the #ReadWomen2014 initiative and looks at pen names used by women writers:

The Brontë Collection / The Brontë Sisters as Acton, Currer & Ellis Bell
The Brontë sisters, Anne, Charlotte, and Emily preserved their initials with these vaguely male-sounding pen names when they released their 1846 book of poems titled Poems by Acton, Currer & Ellis Bell. Charlotte later wrote that this was partially because the sisters knew that readers were likely to think less highly of a book of poems written by women. As was the case with Louisa May Alcott, this is sort of understandable: Women certainly were not treated as men's equals in the mid-19th century, and the Brontë sisters' reservations may have been justified. (Elizabeth Rowe)

Sian Cain recommends'brilliant classics for young adult readers' in The Guardian:

So, you're a dra matic romantic. The more angsty and drawn out the romance, the better. I totally agree. If you replace "difference in class" with "difference in species", there are quite a few similarities between the romances of old and all the werewolf-vampire-zombies falling for teenage girls now.
For starters, Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre is a bit of vampire. He's aloof, he's charming, he's strapping in a frilly collar. Jane and Mr Rochester are very will-they-won't-they, which is charming and infuriating all at once: the best kind of romance.
And you can't go past Wuthering Heights. Yes, the start can be a slog but the last two thirds are stonkingly good. Packed full of wistful sighing and wandering on moors (if Bella had a handy moor she would have definitely stumbled about miserably on it).

Rosemary Goring discusses houses at the core of books in The Herald:

Evelyn Waugh's evocation of Brideshead, based on the medieval Madresfield Court in Worcestershire, is an unforgettable setting, the mansion embodying the encrusted, tortured and increasingly outdated values of the family it housed. So too Wuthering Heights. One of the eeriest fictional houses, as chilling as the moorland winds that buffet it, its comfortless mood signals all too clearly the story's unhappy end.

The Wells Journal talks about an evening of local entertainment at the Westbury Villa Hall: Westbury Footlights Dramatic Society presenting Poets, Pints and Music Hall. Apparently one of the performances was:

Westbury’s own Victoria Wood, Margaret Haslam, had the audience in stitches with her character giving guided tours around the Brontë Parsonage.

The Australian reviews Samantha Ellis's How to be a Heroine: Or, What I’ve Learned from Reading Too Much:

This journey is begun on the moors beyond Haworth, the Brontës’ home village, when the author’s best friend points out Jane Eyre may be a better role model than Catherine Earnshaw, the cruel and passionate lover of Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. This declaration takes Ellis by surprise, leading to an epiphany that causes her to write this book. “My whole life, I’d been trying to be Cathy when I should have been trying to be Jane.” (Tegan Bennett Daylight)

Bristol Post recommends a late time visit to the Old Vic's Jane Eyre performances:

You are running out of time to see Jane Ayre (sic) at the Old Vic which finishes its run on March 29. The production has been described as a bold and dynamic re-imagining of Brontë's timeless masterpiece. (Tom Morris)

Mint & Wall Street Journal reviews the Nestlé Share Your Goodness spot (broadcast in India):

What are your first thoughts on the campaign?
As a father of two daughters, I was drawn into the film. I was wondering what was going on. The child adoption and the sibling rivalry took me back to my literature days. I remembered Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Heathcliff the rag boy, who was picked by a father of two children from a street on a rainy night, and the cold reception that the children gave him thereafter. The casting of the adopted child in this film is quite interesting and brave—especially in the context of current times where the North-East is in the news for discrimination. It is good they pushed it. (Suneera Tandon)

Now that Kate Bush has announced her first tour in 35 years, Hello Magazine and many other news outlets remember her first one in 1979:

Kate’s first and only tour in 1979 was an extraordinary event that combined music, poetry and theatre.
It followed her introduction to the charts at the age of 20 with the haunting Wuthering Heights which stayed at number one for four weeks, and charted the love affair of Cathy and Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s classic novel of the same name.

The Times, for instance, adds:

A generation inspired by her wild-eyed performance of Wuthering Heights on Top Of The Pops in 1978 is digging out its leotard and brushing up on its Emily Brontë. (Will Hodgkinson)

The Henley Standard talks about the local 21st Henley Youth Festival where

The Bell Book Shop donated copies of Jane Eyre and books about Greek heroes as prizes.

The Marshalltown Times Republican reports the results of the state Poetry Out Loud contest:

Ellen Podhajsky placed fifth in the state's annual Poetry Out Loud contest March 16 at the State Historical Building in Des Moines.
In the two preliminary rounds she recited "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden and "No Coward Soul is Mine" by Emily Brontë.

The weird quote of the week comes from the world of wrestling. Uproxx titles its summary of the week:

The Best And Worst Of Impact Wrestling: Heathcliff, It’s Me, Jeff Hardy (...)
This week on Impact: Two title matches, a break up, and a dude who has done a million drugs and now lives in the rafters and talks like a Kate Bush song. (Danielle Matheson)

The Brattleboro Reformer talks about the Under Capricorn remake:

Helen Simpson’s 1937 Novel "Under Capricorn" became a rare Hitchcock dud when filmed in 1949. A new version was televised in 1982 in two 100-minute segments, and Acorn Media has made the latter available on a two-DVD set. It is worth the watching.
Not for the plot, by any means, which is in some of its aspects a mixture of "Rebecca" and "Jane Eyre." (Keene N.H.)

Libreriamo (Italy) lists several fathers in literature:

Edgar Linton, “Cime tempestose” di Emily Brontё – Nella vicenda turpe e oscura che vede Heathcliff e la sua brama di vendetta assoluti protagonisti, l’affetto che Edgar Linton nutre per la figlia Cathy sembra uno dei pochi sentimenti puri e del tutto positivi. La ragazzina, forse, non trae grande giovamento dall’affetto incondizionato del genitore – visto che cresce viziata e infantile – ma pagherà la sua avventatezza a caro prezzo, e comunque, i padri sono sempre responsabili dell’avventatezza dei figli? (Roberta Turillazzi) (Translation)

Martin Freeman is not a Hedgehog posts about Jane Eyre pros and cons, but mostly pros; The Briarfeld Chronicles reviews Heather Glen's introduction to The Professor (as published in the 1989 Penguin edition); Free Book Friday presents Solsbury Hill and interviews its author; bellsiebooks reviews Sheila Kohler's Becoming Jane Eyre. Worthington Libraries recommends Jane, the Fox and Me. This is a nice gif comparing Jane Eyre 2006 and 2011 by ladymary87 (via fuck yeah jane eyre). And this is a no less nice image of an annotated (including heather) copy of Wuthering Heights.

An alert for today, March 22, in Saltaire:

Yorskhire Brontë Society Group Events
Saltaire World Heritage
Exploring the Salts Mill and James Roberts connection to the Brontë Society

Check the latest Brontë Parsonage tweets if you want to see how they have celebrated the World's Poetry Day.