The Delicate Feminine Fingers of the Brontës

The Guardian interviews the comedian Bridget Christie:

Further encouragement to write a feminist show came from an anti-feminist writing implement. “I was in Ryman and I saw them on the counter: A Bic for Her. I asked the assistant: ‘What are these? Have they been selling well?’ She said: ‘No, we think they’re a bit silly.’ So I bought six packets and thought I could use them in some way.”
This purchase led her to pen a riff on how the Brontë sisters got all those novels written before the invention of a special pen to fit their delicate feminine fingers. Christie apologises that, not having brought her bag to the cafe, she doesn’t have any lady biros with her but, apparently, they are chunky although light, and have a rubber pad to prevent pressure calluses. (Mark Lawson)

The Washington Post reviews The Language of Houses by Alison Lurie:

The tone of Alison Lurie’s “The Language of Houses” is light and breezy. “A small Greek temple or a New England church is simple and formal, like the greeting, ‘How do you do?’ ” she writes. “A log cabin or a bus shelter, on the other hand, is simple and informal, the architectural equivalent of ‘Hi there.’ ” Her 1981 book, “The Language of Clothes,” directed a similar lens at fashion; her 1984 novel, “Foreign Affairs,” won the Pulitzer for fiction. Not surprisingly, there’s a literary bent to her latest undertaking, with allusions to the work of Charlotte Brontë, Tom Wolfe, Joyce Carol Oates and Michael Lewis, whose decision to rent a seven-bedroom, $13,000-a-month New Orleans mansion at the height of the real estate boom gave him personal insight into the American penchant for overspending on a dream home. (Eric Wills)

The New Yorker talks about new covers for classics. It mentions the recent Penguin Wuthering Heights edition with a cover by Ruben Toledo:

It is possible and desirable to create cheeky modern covers for classics. Penguin itself has done so beautifully with its Graphic Deluxe editions, which feature covers drawn by noted illustrators and cartoonists. The new designs make the old books look like hip, vital collectibles, but they also convey something essential about the work of literature inside. The artist Ruben Toledo’s cover for “Wuthering Heights,” for example, which is edged by windswept tree branches like black lace, has the panache of a fashion drawing. (Margaret Talbot)

The Independent discusses the power of anonymity:

Throughout history, anonymity or pseudonymity has had many uses – whether hiding rebels from the gaze of the authorities (remember “I am Spartacus!”?) or allowing the likes of Jane Austen (“By a Lady”) and the Brontë sisters (“Acton, Ellis and Currer Bell”) an entrée into the male world of literature. (Boyd Tonkin)

The Hindu discusses a new trend on Facebook:

Over the past couple of days, people have started naming 10 books that ‘left a lasting impression on them’ and then tagging friends, asking them to do the same. If you’re tagged, you need to post your list of 10 books, before tagging more friends — and so on. So far, all the usual suspects have featured, from the Brontë sisters, to J.R.R. Tolkien and Paulo Coelho. Bringing up the Indian side, Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth seem the most popular. 

We read on The Tyee:

Good stuff is thin on the ground at the moment, which is why we return over and over again to Heathcliff and Cathy, Rochester and Jane Eyre, even Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight, with two of the most physically blessed humans on the planet (George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez) eyeballing each other's assets. (Dorothy Woodend)

Jacqueline Wilson chooses her six favourite literary orphans in The Times. And Jane Eyre, of course, features in the selection.

Le Nouvel Observateur interviews Augustin Trapenard, editor of Emily Brontë's Devoirs de Bruxelles and several Brontë papers:

"Je n'ai pas d'autres religions que la littérature", ajoute-t-il, convoquant cette fois les textes sacrés qui ont changé sa vie : "les Hauts de Hurlevent" d'Emily Brontë (objet de sa thèse), "le Bruit et la Fureur", de Faulkner, "Tendre est la nuit" et "Gatsby le magnifique", de Fitzgerald. Il a tatoué sur lui une phrase de "Gatsby". (Alexandre Le Dollec) (Translation)

El Correo (Perú) talks about the exhibition La Mujer de Bellocq by Patricia Villanueva:

Mitad humana, mitad animal. Objeto de deseo e instinto asesino. La lucha eterna entre civilización y barbarie encarnada en un ser que batalla entre dos mundos. Inspirada en la serie de fotografías de Storyville (1912) de E.J. Bellocq, las novelas de Jean Rhys y Charlotte Brontë, la Metamorfosis de Ovidio y su amor eterno por los cuervos, Villanueva crea una oscura leyenda acerca del instinto de sobrevivencia, del amor, de la existencia sin testigos y del deseo de sentirse vivo en los ojos del otro. (Translation)

Worldwide Branding's Contributing Authors traces a profile of Brontë scholar Christine Alexander; Carcanet Blog announces the upcoming release of The Essence of the Brontës by Muriel Spark; Paranoias RiKanna (in Spanish) and Gator Book Chom post about Jane Eyre; Auxiliary Memory reviews Wide Sargasso Sea.