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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Feisty women and 'a constant round of trouble at t’mill'

The Black Bull saga continues, as told by The Telegraph and Argus.
Efforts to find a new tenant for historic Haworth pub the Black Bull moved forward with an open day.
Enterprise Inns, which own the Main Street pub, were pleased with the response from potential licensees.
Several people went along to look around and chat.
A spokesman said: “A number of parties expressed an interest. We are actively pursuing these leads and aim for a smooth transition.”
Thursday’s recruitment day followed concern that the Black Bull – the haunt of Branwell Brontë – could close.
The Stage reviews the ongoing radio adaptation of Shirley:
Rachel Joyce, who landed on the Man Booker longlist in 2012 with a novel that began life as a BBC Radio 4 play, takes a leisurely, detailed approach to adapting Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley. The title role is played by Jemima Rooper with the requisite sense of abandon – here is a woman of means who can afford to defy the conventions of 1811. A winsome Joanne Froggatt is her impecunious friend, Caroline.
The background, a constant round of trouble at t’mill, is spelled out by Lesley Sharp as the author. Explaining the problems Luddites posed the textile industry perhaps requires this commentary, but it initially nudges too much into the dramatised scenes. (Moira Petty)
Not Shirley herself, though she's definitely feisty, but other two Brontë heroines make it onto a list of '5 feisty female literary characters' compiled by Impact.
5. Cathy (Wuthering HeightsHer tantrums bring all the boys to the yard. No joke, this feisty fiery woman of Wuthering Heights has pretty much every guy in the novel falling at her feet. And what does she do? She yells at them. Passionate, stubborn and if we’re honest an all-round bad ass chick she keeps both the reader and Heathcliff on the hook with her passionate outbursts and her fiery nature. Sure she has a slightly psychotic side which results in an untimely tragic death that sends Heathcliff on a spiral of revenge and destruction, but hey who doesn’t love the drama?
4. Jane Eyre (Jane EyreThe classic underdog, plain Jane Eyre has to have a place on this list. Quiet and bookish on the surface, but intelligent, passionate and determined at the core, she braves every hardship Emily Brontë (erm???) has to throw at her and eventually claims her independence and Mr Rochester as her own. What a girl.
The Conversation features Henry Handel Richardson’s wonderful The Getting of Wisdom and considers it a bildungsroman just like Jane Eyre.
From David Copperfield to Holden Caulfield, most canonical coming-of-age novels depict boys becoming men. Jane Eyre’s traumatic journey to adulthood is considered a female version of the Bildungsroman, or novel of development. Yet books about girls are most commonly seen as only weighty enough for girls themselves to read. (Michelle Smith)
Female First interviews writer Megan Shepherd and asks her about her early influences.
Who were your favourite reads when you were younger? I read a lot of the classics when I was younger, books like Robinson Crusoe and Wuthering Heights and the Count of Monte Christo. I also loved The Giver by Lowis Lowry, and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. There wasn’t as much young adult literature when I was a teen, so I read plenty of adult fiction as well, like Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. (Lucy Walton)
Lit and Life reviews a Librivox reading of Shirley. The Clothes Make the Girl picks Jane Eyre as one of several strong women. Ramblings of a Janeite recommends the song Farewell, Good Angel from Jane Eyre the Musical.

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