Expiate like Jane Eyre

The Peterborough Telegraph reviews The Brontës of Dunwich Heath... and Cliff.

The bookish Jane (Laura Corbett) wants to write and flourish, but lacks inspiration and stimulus. Her sibling, the delightful Mad Cath (Sophie Reid), is a singer extraordinaire with a passion for performance.
The sea has already taken their mother - or so we think - and it is up to their father, Gilbert Brontë (Harry Waller), to save his church from the sea and the village from Parliament. Perhaps the answers lie with Sir Fred (Cameron Johnson) the mysterious landowner. Or Rochester the brooding bad lad with an outrageous reputation - and a mad woman in the attic?
Cue more than two hours of adventure and wordplay, and lyrics treading the line between seedy, silly and sublime. The virtues of coconut oil for straightening a banana, and love at first sight in the intense glare of the hothouse were deliciously lewd and lascivious: “Would you hand-pollinate my Zucchini please.”
Songs are accompanied by the ukulele, and even two recorders played through the nose by Clare Hawes, who assumes most of the ‘menial roles’ in the production, as well as the ghost.
All five participants swap costumes to take on several roles, with a particular shout-out to 6’7” tall Cameron’s ‘Mrs Rochester’, in a fruity cocktail of a dress.
The studio begs for external participation; willing victims in the audience became babysitters (including yours truly), wives and then ex-wives), shrubs, and even firemen.
We even had a smidgeon of Cliff Richard, and a curiously touching duet between Sir Fred and the Brontës’ deceased mother, in frightening falsetto.
I generally leave Eastern Angles productions marvelling at the interesting slants on established works or views.
This was enjoyable, but did feel quite aimless at times; no production should be predictable, but I did feel a little bewildered on more than one occasion.
It also could have done with the odd judicious snip here and there - I found my attention wandering a couple of times, and that’s a rare and uncomfortable sensation for an EA production. (John Baker)

The Independent looks at far we have come since Charlotte Brontë's portrayal of the madwoman in the attic.

For a long time, the mentally ill were dumb and mute in literature. Inarticulacy surrounded those lumped together as Bedlamites: Jane Eyre’s classic “madwoman” in the attic, for instance, served as little more than a plot device, a thing to fear and loathe that got in the way of a Gothic romance. [...]
Since Jane Eyre, we have been re-told the story from the perspective of Rochester’s wife. Many more contemporary stories of mental illness have been, and are being, written as non-fiction and memoir rather than as fiction though. (Arifa Akbar)

The Keighley News lists what Keighley community radio station Jam on Top will be programming in the near future:

The Internet broadcaster will return with popular shows like Spinky’s 70s, Best of British, Brontë Beats and You Know You’re From Keighley When.

We wonder if those are 'our' Brontës, but then again it's usually safe to assume so, because as the Oxford Student says,

Moving on from bizarre games to culture, I was surprised recently to read in an article that Yorkshire has produced very few writers. As far as I’m concerned that assumption is entirely false: as well as being the birth place of Ted Hughes, Alan Bennet, Tony Harrison and W. H. Auden, Yorkshire is most famous for being the home of the Brontë sisters. The dark moors of Wuthering Heights are a very real setting, and the Parsonage the three sisters grew up in can now be visited as a museum. (Adam Leonard)

According to The Statesman (India) the proper way to go about an expiation is to do it the Jane Eyre way:

But she didn't feel forgiven. It was an attempt to expiate but too flitting to be à la Jane Eyre! (Tapan Chatterjee)

And we are sorry we are a day late reporting a talk that took place last night. As seen in the Hebden Bridge Times:

a talk by David Glover on “The Brontës in Calderdale”, which starts at 7.30pm (doors open at 7pm).

Out Of The Best Books posts about Jane Eyre and 500 películas, ya no sé cuántos días... México writes in Spanish about the 2011 adaptation. A Jane Eyre Hairstyle spotted on the Examiner. Urban Earthworm reviews Wuthering Heights.

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A Red Velvet Coat from Jane Eyre 2006

At the Andrea Galer Fashion Store we can find some of her designs for Jane Eyre 2006:

Coat - Red Velvet

Andrea Galer’s collection is ethically produced and is designed to fit the female form flawlessly. Romantically styled timeless designs married with re-occurring themes through the decades to today’s styles and trends. The long red velvet coat completes the most sophisticated of looks.
It has been worn by Christina Cole in Jane Eyre.Stylish and classy
Created in our London based studio.
Modeled here by Tara Fitzgerald

Jane Eyre Tweed Jacket

The Jacket was worn by one of the Dent Twin in Jane Eyre and it beautifully pays homage to the essence of country living.
Available in Harris Tweed.
By appointment at our studio we provide the unique opportunity to choose the style, colour and fabric of your choice
Designed and created in our London based studio.

(Via National Post) 

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Mina Laury in Ukraine

Here's a Brontë-related tiny detail connected to current world news. The Globe and Mail reports that the 'Ukrainian opposition movement has its own library':

And tucked away in a corner of the basement is the Bisovetskyis’ library. The shelves, donated by a friend, are neatly lined with detective stories, travel guides, National Geographic magazines, children’s books, philosophy texts and classics such as Mina Laury by Charlotte Brontë, in English. All the books have been donated in the past few days and a couple of librarians stopped by to organize everything.
The couple can barely keep up with the demand for the books and the amount of donations. Their selection now includes books in Ukrainian, English, Russian and Turkish, and each is stamped “Maidan Library.” Books can be taken out for any length of time and borrowers get a candy when they bring them back. “We needed some incentive,” said Mr. Bisovetskyi. (Paul Waldie)

We don't know about Mina Laury being a classic, though.

In the meantime, a reader of the Corriere della Sera questions the methods of teaching English in Italy by wondering,

Letture consigliate, rivedibili: a un 16 maschio Jane Eyre può davvero interessare? (Luca Marchi) (Translation)

And we wonder back, why not?

Gazeta (Poland) looks at a recent translation of Wuthering Heights. The Misfortune of Knowing writes about the novel as well and The Revision Ward posts about the WH family tree. Overthinking it has an article on Jane Eyre and recent 'fantasy monster mash-ups'. Les soeurs Brontë posts in French about the Brontës' piano. Leituras Brontëanas reviews Juliet Gael's Romancing Miss Brontë in Portuguese. Dollsome-does-tumblr posts a collage comparing Jane Eyre 2011 and The Autobiography of Jane Eyre.

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Jane merges with Bewick

Flight from Gateshead Hall I

A post on Stephanie Vegh's blog has alerted us about the work of this artist as related to Jane Eyre. The drawings were part of the Wildness Between the Lines exhibition in Leeds and later they were part of the Stephanie Vegh – Scratchings: Talon, Sting and Claw at the Nathaniel Hughson Art Gallery in Hamilton, Ontario:

Scratchings: Talon, Sting and Claw is a collection of detailed and intensive drawings by Hamilton artist Stephanie Vegh that rework book illustrations to create a new perspective on the past. This engaging show brings together new work with a growing body that has shown in Toronto and internationally.
Scratchings explores the often devastating impact of overlooking sensitive natural populations. From the bees that pollinate our crops to the rats of ancient infestations, Vegh’s work discusses how these tiny creatures shape human history through their presence or absence in our lives.
“While playful in the spirit of an idle student’s textbook scratchings, my drawings in found history books reveal a serious stake in these interventions,” says Vegh. “My labour-intensive articulation of diminutive subjects at an excessive scale in relation to their illustrated environments subverts the logic of these books, forcing a fusion between their history and my own.”
Taken as swarms, these bees and rats have the capacity to itch at our anxieties and unsettle us with their fleeting and chaotic movement through space. Recent drawings combine various bird species with the words and imagery of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre emphasizing the influence that these creatures exert on the human imagination, both as metaphors for our own character and uneasy intruders in the comfort of our domestic delusions.

In the artist's words:

This started as an entirely desperate measure – I had a long-standing invitation from the Leeds College of Art & Design to contribute to a curatorial project on the Brontë sisters and no time to conceive of how to tackle that literary legacy – but the time at Gibraltar Point was also a great object lesson in creating unstructured space  to relax the mind and give ideas time to evolve. (...) Most studio days ended with extended breaks on the sand, reading and re-reading the works of Charlotte, Emily and Anne while, quite significantly as it turned out, watching flocks of birds sail past.
The prevalence of birds in the writings of the Brontë sisters was inescapable, so much so that I was compelled to return to mainland TO on one of those spontaneous ferry trips on a wild goose chase (sorry) for a copy of Bewick’s History of British Birds, the library tome/bludgeoning weapon referenced in the first chapter of Jane Eyre. When I discovered the perfect facsimile edition in the attic shelves of the first used bookstore I tried, I decided it had to be a good sign. Creative direction acquired, I restocked my beer supply to celebrate and retreated back to the island for several satisfying days of dissecting that book and
reassembling its pages into hybrid fragments. (...)
After all this revision and erasure, I finally had the foundations from which to illustrate the characters of Jane Eyre. Jane’s descriptions of each character (herself included) are fused into Bewick’s ornithological observations thanks to much character counting and patience with a crow quill pen, while the final touch of a watercolour bird in flight painted on scraps from the destroyed book and carved into place in the finished work helped relieve my (and I suspect, Jane’s) claustrophobia in the face of Bewick’s parade of strangely obedient flightless birds.

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Married for a while

Redding's HamletHub picks '7 Bitter Literary Characters'. One of which is

Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë. I've never quite understood the appeal of Heathcliff as a romantic hero. He's tempestuous, vengeful, and just mean, really. What is it with the bad boys? Anyone? (Sally Allen)

SoFeminine includes the Brontës on a list of women who never married yet managed to change the world (?). And yes, we know, there's the tiny detail of Charlotte actually having been married:

They’re mostly noted for being three young sisters who were ironically one of the countries most successful writers, at a time when women were NOT allowed to be. While Charlotte Brontë married for a while, Anne died unmarried, at the age of 29 and Emily also remained unmarried. 

'Married for a while' makes it sound as if she had got a divorce after a while. Of course, given the tone of the article, it is surprising that it doesn't say something along the lines of, 'see, the only one who got married ended up dead because of it, so there'.

The Argus lists 'Ten things you didn't know about Stanmer Park', one of which may be recalled by many Brontëites out there.

10. A bid to enter the Guiness World Records with a mass Kate Bush dance performance last year failed - because officials said the song chosen, Wuthering Heights, was not iconic enough. 

The Milions retitles Jane Eyre in true Upworthy style:

This Guy Didn’t Tell His New Governess About His Secret Ex-Wife In The Attic. What Happened Next Really Burned Him Up. (Janet Potter)

The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page shows curatorial intern Mari Elliott resetting the dining room. Leatherboundpounds compares Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. The Toast posts about the Brontës and a visit to Haworth and Brontë country.

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Tea with the Brontës

A very curious alert for today, January 29, from London at The Gilbert Scott Cocktail and Restaurant at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel:

Tea with the Brontës (January 29-February 12)

Experience the ultimate Yorkshire Afternoon Tea in our most fantastical of Victorian settings. Devised by General Manager and chef, Chantelle Nicholson and cult artist and creator of Visitoriana, Charlotte Cory, this traditional Yorkshire Victorian tea is a tribute to the famous writing sisters.

Charlotte Cory’s exhibition “Capturing the Brontës”, is an imaginative, witty and informative exploration of the family and the history of early photography, drawing on the Victorian craze for collecting cartes des visite – portraits once produced in their millions and now discarded. The exhibition has been in situ at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth in Yorkshire and will be available as an exclusive preview at The Gilbert Scott before it continues its journey to the Long & Ryle Gallery
(February 5-28).

Teatime featured large in the lives of the Brontes scribbling their famous novels in their secluded Parsonage. The Brontë themed tea will include Pontefract liquorice and chocolate cupcakes, Yorkshire Parkin (from an original recipe devised by the Bronte’s faithful servant Tabby), Wensleydale and pickle sandwiches in honour of the Brontë’s love of the Lake District, and Yorkshire puddings with mash and gravy as cooked by Emily Brontë, an ardent cook who would stir the puddings between penning paragraphs of Wuthering Heights.

The inaugural Brontë tea will launch on January 29th at 3pm with talks given by Charlotte and Brontë Society Executive Director, Ann Sumner, followed by the unveiling of the exhibition as it arrives in London. Interesting and informative, irreverent and anachronistic but above all as DELICIOUS as anything you would expect from the superb Marcus Wareing restaurant, this tea will delight Brontë fans and Victorian buffs alike. The discussion is free with any afternoon tea booked (£25 per person or £33 with a Victorian gin cocktail).

The Brontes themselves would have been fascinated by the setting at St Pancras Railway Station, they were wildly excited by the coming of the railways, the internet revolution of their times. Branwell, their little known brother, went to work on the railways, he was very proud of his job but spent too much time doodling and writing poetry. Emily Brontë famously traded shares in the railway and the last surviving sister, and only member of this brilliant Yorkshire family to enjoy literary fame in their life time, Charlotte Brontë took advantage of the new railway to come down to London to“enjoy life as a literary lioness”.

The tea will run from the 29th of January until the 12th of February and booking is essential; for more details or to make a reservation please call 0207 278 3888 or click here.

And at the other side of the ocean, in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil:

O Teatro Universitário Federal do Amazonas (Tufam) reúne quatro cenas na peça “Os solitários”. Duas delas adaptam trechos de obras de Clarice Lispector e Emily Brontë, e as demais são resultados de oficinas – caso da experimental “Diálogo da carne”, em que um açougueiro “conversa” com a peça de carne que está prestes a cortar. (Jony Clay Borges on acritica) (Translation)

"Os solitários"January 29 20h,
Auditório Javari, da Faculdade de Tecnologia, Setor Norte da Universidade.
UFAM, Manaus.

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Distinctly wintry Wuthering Heights

A columnist from the Chicago Tribune is looking for books to ward off the cold weather.

So how about a nice literary warm-up?
Cold weather is famously prime for cozy reading. The reader recommendation site Goodreads.com offers a list of "Best Books to Read When the Snow is Falling."
However, many of the suggestions — "The Snow Child," "A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)," "Wuthering Heights" — sound distinctly wintry. (Barbara Brotman)

While the World Socialist Website quotes Karl Marx on the fiction writers of his time:

Dickens was an immensely honest, searching and scathing critic of many aspects of society, as well as an endlessly lively, amusing chronicler of life itself, in all its dimensions. Dickens introduced a new, plebeian element—modern street life, popular city life—to the novel, and literature was never the same.
His enormous contribution to culture was appreciated by the most perceptive minds of his time. The most perceptive mind of that epoch belonged to Karl Marx, who in 1854, in the New York Tribune, included Charles Dickens, along with William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell, in that “splendid brotherhood of fiction-writers in England, whose graphic and eloquent pages have issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together.” (“The English Middle Class,” 1854) (David Walsh)

Arts Council England looks into the upcoming Bristol Old Vic Jane Eyre production:

An epic new production of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, devised by director Sally Cookson and an ensemble cast of ten actors and musicians, is premiering at National portfolio organisation Bristol Old Vic next month. 

Candice's Books posts in French about Villette. Culture Poppe is holding a board discussion on Jane Eyre. Audios y eBooks comments briefly in Spanish on Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë. The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page shows an 'unfinished study of Flossy (1840-45), by either Charlotte or Anne Brontë (attribution uncertain).' as part of their series on animals at the Parsonage in the run up to the opening of the new exhibition 'The Brontës and Animals'.

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Jane and Edward Discussing in Winnipeg

Today, January 28, at the Winnipeg Public Library:

Tuesday, January 28, 12:10 pm

The two leads in Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s new production, Jennifer Dzialoszynski (Jane Eyre) and Tim Campbell (Edward Rochester), will discuss playing the classic romantic couple.

Tim Campbell and Jennifer Dzialoszynski.
 Photo by Bruce Monk

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" I say, the Yorkshire Moors, and you will say, Wuthering Heights"

The Telegraph reports that the Haworth Parish Church News is 'stopping the presses after 115 years'.

Church leaders fear the writing is on the wall for traditional church magazines after one of the oldest in the country closes after more than 100 years.
For more than 150 years, England's parish rags were first port of call for anyone wanting the latest gossip or date of the next WI meeting.
But now they are falling victim to the digital age and one of the oldest, the parish magazine at the Brontës former home of Haworth, West Yorkshire, flourished in the aftermath of the sisters' literary legacy, is to close. [...]
Only 200 copies of each edition of the Haworth magazine were printed – and half were usually thrown away.
Haworth vicar Rev Peter Mayo-Smith said: "It is costing us a lot of money and like all organisations we have to make hard decisions about spending."
No one really knew how old the magazine was and its roots could extend back to the Brontes, he said, adding: "We have to take into account the Bronte connection.

Now onto a very different subject, as the Times of India discusses authors and their pseudonyms:

Art imitates life, they say. Literature, therefore, reflects gender disparity and discrimination prevalent in a society. Author and poet Suniti Namjoshi said that the "fissures" have been evident from the time of the Romantic era in the 1800s.
"The Brontë sisters, despite their brilliant literary work, had to use male pseudonyms to submit their manuscripts. Among recent writers, J K Rowling had to ensure her name sounded 'asexual' after her publishers told her it wouldn't be popular among boys if the author was a woman. So yes, gender prejudice is a traditional orthodoxy and continues even in contemporary literature," said Namjoshi.

The Star (Malaysia) looks at 'popular young adult authors', such as Stephenie Meyer.

Meyer claimed that the vampire love story was inspired by a famous forbidden love of another generation, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

An article on an anthology of Toronto, The Stories That Are Great Within Us, has The Star (Canada) quote Eudora Welty:

Stories are always bound up in “the local, the real, the present, the ordinary day-to-day of human experience,” Welty wrote. Tales are born where we live, and usually told, one way or another, about how we do it.
“The internal reason for that is surely that feelings are are bound up in place,” Welty said. “The human mind is a mass of associations — associations more poetic than the actual. I say, the Yorkshire Moors, and you will say, Wuthering Heights . . .
“Location is the crossroads of circumstance, the proving ground of ‘What happened? Who’s here? Who’s coming?’ — and that is the heart’s field.” (Jim Coyle)

Reading Rainbow posts about Jane Eyre. Bizarre Victoria lists several bad (or not so) Jane Eyre book covers.

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Life at Lowood in Minnesota

Today, January 27, in Crookston, Minnesota, a public performance of Jane Eyre: Life at Lowood the one-act-piece by Robert Johanson

The Crookston High School Theatre Department will, once again, be participating in the Minnesota State One Act Play Competition. This year's entry, "Jane Eyre: Life at Lowood," tells the tale of one of classic literature's greatest-known and most-adored heroines. Within a time limit of 35 minutes, the group of high school students will construe and portray through different scenes Ms. Eyre's difficult childhood, from growing up an orphan with her repugnant aunt and nasty cousins, to being sent to a harsh boarding school with an arrogant headmaster, to growing up and realizing her true calling in life.

The cast and crew of Jane Eyre, led by director Beth Carlson, will hold a public performance of their contest piece on Monday, Jan. 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the Crookston High School Auditorium. Admission is a free-will offering. (Torrie Greer (who also plays Jane Eyre in the production)  in Crookston Times)

The same piece will also be performed in Hinckley,MN:

February 1, 2014~February 8, 2014
Hinckley-Finlayson High School
PO Box 308
Hinckley , MN , 55037 US

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She Adores Jane

The Telegraph & Argus talks about the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway-Brontë Parsonage Museum new plans:

We are now working much more closely with the Brontë Parsonage than we have ever done before, and as a result, they have agreed to make a financial contribution to the operation of the school holidays heritage bus service that links the Railway and Main Street, which I hope many of you will enjoy.
Their funding means we can extend the current weekday operation to Sundays in the summer, providing an appropriately vintage connection between the railway and the Parsonage. We will also be working with them to celebrate the connections between the Brontës and the railways, marking Charlotte’s birthday on April 21 and Emily’s on July 30 with special events.
This Brontë railway connection was also mentioned on the recent BBC Great British Railway Journeys episode, which covered Haworth, Oakworth and – more briefly – Keighley, as Michael Portillo travelled down the valley. (Matt Stroh)

Ruth Scurr reviews positively Samantha Ellis's How To Be a Heroine in The Telegraph:

Following a pilgrimage in her mid-thirties to see the ruined farmhouse that inspired Wuthering Heights, and a disagreement with her best friend as to whether Emily Brontë’s Cathy Earnshaw or Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is the better role model, Ellis decided to reread the books that shaped her. Would she still admire her heroines, or had they led her astray?

The Asheville's Citizen-Times reviews the English translation of Jane, le Renard et Moi by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault:

The story is that of Hélène. Perhaps 11 years old, Hélène, for reasons unknown to the reader — or perhaps for no reason at all — is an outcast at school.
The other girls write mean things about Hélène on the bathroom walls. They make fun of her weight. They say she stinks. To cope, Hélène keeps her eyes downcast and stays quiet.
The only bright spot in her life is that she is reading “Jane Eyre” for the first time. She adores it.
The story is told from Hélène’s point of view. Occasionally, she interrupts the narrative about her life with references to what she has just read in “Jane Eyre.”
Hélène, wanting to believe there is something heroic about herself, searches for similarities between herself and Jane. She finds none — at first. A dreaded school camping trip proves to be pivotal for Hélène. She has a chance encounter with a fox, and she makes a friend.
The intensely dramatic, sometimes surreal illustrations are as integral to the story as the text. The illustrations were done in mixed media — pencil, color crayon, gouache, ink and watercolor.
During the parts of the story where Hélène describes her life at school, the illustrations are black, gray and white. The people looked pinched and there is a lot of dramatic, scratchy shading.
When Hélène describes what she is reading in “Jane Eyre,” the illustrations bloom with color. The people look more polished. Still, the differences are subtle, lending the overall work a sense of visual continuity.
“Jane, the Fox and Me” was translated into English from the French “Jane, le Renard et Moi” by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou. The writing is precise. Each conversation, thought and remark has bearing on the story. Hélène’s intense internal dilemma is captured with poignancy and authenticity.
In the end, “Jane, the Fox and Me” is about an ordinary little girl who is made the outcast of her peers. Gradually, with the passage of time, self-realization and development of a support network outside of school, Hélène reaches a happier place in her life.
Hélène is an Every-girl. Young readers, especially tweens, will empathize with Hélène’s plight. (Jennifer Prince)

Andrew Martin writes in The Telegraph about the death of humility as a virtue:

[Oscar] Wilde was challenging the inhibitions of society, and a modest character is, admittedly, sometimes an oppressed character. This is true of many of Dickens’s simpering women. Charlotte Brontë described Esther Summerson of Bleak House (“I have not by any means a quick understanding”) as “weak and twaddling”, and she is actually one of Dickens’s more interesting females. Enshrinement of humility also offers the temptation of simulating that quality, hence Uriah Heep: “ 'Be ’umble, Uriah,’ says father to me, 'and you’ll get on.’ ”

Also in The Telegraph we found this interview with BT Sport Action Woman of the Year, Rachel Atherton:

Epecifically the two elder brothers she lives with in a miasma of testosterone and bike oil. Both are competitors, Dan in enduro and Gee as a world champion downhiller himself. They build tracks in Snowdonia National Park. For fun, they race motorbikes. From some descriptions, it sounds like Wuthering Heights on wheels. (Sue Mott)

The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) talks about Daphne du Maurier:

The story goes from strength to strength as she created the unknown character of Rebecca. It is a romantic story and actually quite similar in its Gothic character to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. (Christopher Ondaatje)

Many French news outlets comment on yesterday's episode of The Voice and a cover of  Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights:

Nous passons à une audition 100% à l'aveugle. Et on découvre une voix pas très identifiable sur "Wuthering Heights". Bon, on parie sur un homme... Si c'est vocalement intéressant, personne ne se retourne. Les coachs se déchirent : Jenifer pense que c'est une fille, Mika un garçon. "On l'a écouté(e) chanter et on n'a pas appuyé" s'étonne Florent. Face à un problème technique (qu'on ne mentionne pas à l'antenne bien sûr, the show must go on), Garou et Florent finissent par décrocher eux-mêmes le rideau pour découvrir Fabien, sosie physique de Julien Doré. (Translation)

The Sunday Times mentions the Brontë Sisters in connection with an article about the Lake District; Journal of a Bookworm reviews Jane Eyre; Emily Mai loves this Jane Eyre cover but we don't know what she will think about this one on Freakin' Sweet Book Covers; Jill's Daily Book Review posts about Agnes Grey; disputation talks about Terry Eagleton's Myths of Power.

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Wuthering Heights and the God of Small Things

A new book published in India compares Wuthering Heights and Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things:

Wuthering Heights and the God of Small Things: Thematic/Stylistic Comparison
Lata Marina Varghese
Yking Books, 2013
ISBN : 9789382532095

Literatures of the world did not evolve in isolation from one another. The act of comparing national literatures originated long before it was established as an academic domain. Every literary study is necessarily comparatist to some extent. Comparative literature not only embraces the transnational multilingual and global aspects of literary texts but moves across time periods genres and other forms of human expressions to explore the unexplored terrrains of human imagination. Comparison a common and widespread human activity may be used to indicate affinity, tradition or influence. In literature affinity consists in resemblances in style, structure, mood of idea between two or more works which may necessarily have no other connection. Tradition or convention consists in resemblances between works that form part of a large group of similar works held together by a common historical chronological or formal bond. Influence represents a direct effect upon one literary work caused by a preceding one.

Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. Thematics and stylistics in fiction. 2. Wuthering heights: thematic/stylistic study. 3. The God of small things: thematic/stylistic study. 4. Narrative techniques in wuthering heights and the God of small things. 5. Wuthering heights and the God of small things: thematic/stylistic comparison. 6. Conclusion. Bibliography.

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The Red Penthouse is Too Provincial

The Peterborough Telegraph announces that Simon Egerton's The Brontës of Dunwich Heath.. and Cliff will be at the Key Theatre in Peterborough from January 28 to February 1 (dates and times):

Directed by Eastern Angles’ founder and Artistic Director, Ivan Cutting, ‘The Brontës of Dunwich Heath...and Cliff’ takes an irreverent look at the literary world of the Brontë sisters.
An alternative to the traditional Christmas panto, the production will be an off-the-wall interpretation of Brontë family life incorporating witty wordplay, quick-fire comedy and costume changes and Kate Bush inspired music.
Tuesday, 28 January - Saturday, 1st February at 7.30pm (plus a matinee at 2.30pm on Thursday and Saturday).

Another 'irreverent' take on the Brontës is A Brontë Burlesque, now performed in Edmonton, Canada and reviewed on the Edmonton Journal,

In the first scene of A Brontë Burlesque, the ghosts of English literature’s most famous sibling act flicker in front of one of them — the dying author of Jane Eyre. To the strains of Sweet Dreams Are Made of This.
The concept of a Brontë burlesque is so seductively kooky, on the surface, that this artful, dark and strangely dramatic Send In The Girls production may take you by surprise. That’s what happened to me. (...)
The Bronte sisters are a case study in repression. They were so buttoned-up in life — by time and gender — they published under male aliases. But, as the Romantic weirdness of their novels and poetry reveal, there’s tumult under the placid surfaces of 19th-century country life in a vicar’s family. It drove their brother Branwell, underachiever painter and poet, to drink and drugs. It drives Charlotte (Jane Eyre), Anne (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall), and even the reluctant Emily (Wuthering Heights) to cross the gender divide and publish their work — and in terms of this show, to get down, get sexy, and take it off.
The Brontë sisters dancing in their knickers? “It’s time for Charlotte, Anne and Emily Brontë to meet the world,” says the most forceful Charlotte, who tends to take the lead in such matters. As a metaphor for revelation, this risks sounding too obvious or literal-minded to contemporary ears to be more than cheeky. But A Brontë Burlesque is cleverly orchestrated — in the script’s weave of flashbacks, its burlesque choreography (Andrea Gilborn) that’s sometimes about uncovering and sometimes about donning articles of clothing, its anachronistic score of songs from Radiohead or Peaches (assembled by director Lana Michelle Hughes).
Hughes’s production is visually striking. Designers Tessa Stamp (set, costumes) and Matt Schuurman (video) create lovely sepia interiors — libraries, boudoirs, interactive group portraits. The lighting sources are draped chandeliers and footlights. And since A Brontë Burlesque is a haunting, shadows play on the walls, and come to life. Stamp’s costumes are a cunning, allusive mixture of corsetry and veils.
The performances are startlingly committed to the characters. Samantha Duff makes a wry, commanding Charlotte, who finds herself at the end of life racked by guilt. Delia Barnett is Anne, the tart-tongued and competitive one with a grievance. And Chorley is memorably tortured as the shy Emily, whose strange creativity conceals a terrible secret. Chris W. Cook is excellent as Branwell, whose cocky playfulness turns sour as he’s outstripped (literally and figuratively) by his sisters.
Chorley’s script, which unfolds in banter that turns to bicker, is occasionally overwritten, though in this it may be taking its cue directly from the Brontës themselves, who are no hoarders of ink. But there’s verbal wit aplenty, too. “It’s very Dickens of us,” says Charlotte, visited by the ghosts of her siblings and forced to relive crucial life moments. “Perhaps I’ll wake up and it’ll be Christmas Day.” (Liz Nicholls)

and in The Edmonton Sun:

After a splendidly gothic opening, featuring shadows, flashing lights, silhouettes, crashing thunder and strange noises, playwright Ellen Chorley gets down to telling of the tragic lives of the Brontë clan. They started off as children telling each other stories and, in a blood vow, to stay “together until we die.” (...)
Interesting stuff given a high intensity delivery by the cast, all of whom have a long list of theatrical credits. Lana Michelle Hughes’ highly stylized production is aided by her own resourceful sound design and Matt Schuurman’s inventive video effects. I particularly liked his creepy formal Victorian family portrait on the wall that keeps changing in reaction to what is happening on stage.
I’m not quite so sure about the marriage to the bump and grind. Chorley’s play is high romantic goth — the essence of heaving bosoms and dark familial passions. Burlesque is based on come-hither glances, a seductive fourth-wall breaking commitment to carnal pleasures yet to come. The actors have to make a huge reach and, in essence, change character. I know, it’s probably like in a musical where the performer is so carried away by emotion that mere words are no longer enough and they have to break into song. But to me, the transformation demands too much. The cast gives it all they’ve got (and they sure got the moves — choreography by Andrea Gilborn) although the stripping, despite their abandon on stage, remains quite discreet. (Colin MacLean)

The Globe and Mail interviews the writer Alastair MacLeod:

I always liked to read, and when I started writing seriously, I was in the United States, and I was doing a dissertation on 19th-century British novels, on Thomas Hardy. And two or three things happened there: I liked 19th-century British work, and I liked Thomas Hardy, and I liked D.H. Lawrence, and I liked Emily Brontë. And I liked the fact that they were not from fashionable places: They were not from London. Emily Brontë was too far north, Thomas Hardy was too far south.

The New York Times analyses the Thug-Notes on Classics website. One of its latest additions was Wuthering Heights:

In 1848, a reviewer for Graham’s Magazine described “Wuthering Heights” as “a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors, such as we might suppose a person, inspired by a mixture of brandy and gunpowder, might write for the edification of fifth-rate blackguards.” Presumably, this grumpy writer would have cared even less for the Thug Notes version.
That Emily Brontë novel is among the latest subjects tackled on Thug-Notes.com, a website where fine literature is reduced to its hip-hop essence. (Neil Genzlinger)

The American Prospect reviews Rebecca Lead's My Life in Middlemarch:

But it also appeals to the vanity of that “certain kind” of woman who, as Mary Gordon noted, draws immense satisfaction from her identification with Middlemarch. Few nineteenth-century heroines resonate with this woman like Dorothea Brooke. Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina are too rash; Becky Sharp too conniving; Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennett too provincial; Tess Durbeyfield too pathetic. (Amelia Thompson-Deveaux)

Flavorwire on dog lovers and writers:

Literature has its dog lovers: John Steinbeck wrote about traveling with Charlie, Virginia Woolf found comfort in dogs throughout her life, preferring mixed breeds to purebreds, and Emily Brontë was so fond of her dogs that she used to sketch pictures of them. (Jason Diamond)

The Sequoyah County Times is thrilled about the return of Downton Abbey:

Downton Abbey” began its fourth season on PBS this month making a lot of Anglophiles happy. We, the people of “Jane Eyre” and Jane Austin (sic), have long waited for the new episodes. It’s not a book, but one of its creators, Julian Fellowes, was reading “To Marry an English Lord” when he came up with Lady Cora (played by Elizabeth McGovern) who is my favorite character in the family saga. (Dee Ann Ritter)

A clever Jane Eyre reference in this Yahoo! Homes article about a Manhattan penthouse for rent:

Here's the All-Red, All-Velvet Room on Your Must-Have List
This Manhattan penthouse is no stranger to NYC real estate obsessives, as it's been glimmering on the rental market (asking a wide-eyed $25K a month), for more than a few months now. More relevantly, with an all-velvet red room to give Jane Eyre fans and former movie theater employees the wiggins, the penthouse is something to remember. (Amy Schellenbaum)

Blake Morrison writes in The Guardian about what kind of poetry and literature inspires David Hockney:

And according to his biographer, Christopher Simon Sykes, Hockney was an avid reader – "everything from Biggles to the Brontës, the local classics to Dickens".

Female First interviews the writer Catalina Dudka:

You have been a book lovers since your can remember so who are your favourite?
My favourite book of all time is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, closely followed by all the Sherlock Holmes adventures written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I have read those stories over and over again. (Interviewed by Lucy Walton)

Nicky Peacok-Author interviews yet another author, Jennifer Harlow:

If you had a time machine, what era would you like to visit and why?
I’d go meet Charlotte Brontë. I’ve been obsessed with her for years and read every biography I could find. I’d just want to meet her. See what her life was really like. So if I had a time machine, I’d get my stalker on.

The New Jersey Record mentions the Twilight Time Blu-Ray release of Jane Eyre 1944:

Charlotte Brontë's gothic romance about the impoverished governess (Joan Fontaine) and the mercurial Edward Rochester (Orson Welles) is brought to the screen with all of its intensity and wildness intact. The crisp Blu-ray transfer accentuates the beauty of George Barnes' ("Rebecca") black and white cinematography and brings clarity to the haunting score by Bernard Herrmann. "Jane Eyre" is darker than you might remember it, with unexpected death, cruelty and madness seemingly lurking around every corner. Extras: featurettes and commentaries.

The Oxford Student gives you tips to overcome January blues:

For the especially athletic I recommend a dance-along to Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”: because taking yourself less seriously is almost always a good thing. (Roxana S. Gojjat)

Gazeta Poznań (Poland) interviews the literary critic Dr. Maciej Duda:

Brontë lepsze niż Sienkiewicz
Po dyplomie Duda poszedł na filologię polską. Pierwsze trzy lata się nudził. Nie pasjonowała go literatura staropolska, renesans ani barok. Ciekawie zrobiło się dopiero, gdy pojawiła się współczesność i omówienia tekstów teoretyków literatury.
Wtedy Duda zetknął się z prof. Ewą Kraskowską, specjalistką od krytyki feministycznej. Upewnił się, że nie ma nic zdrożnego w tym, że zawsze wolał książki sióstr Brontë od Sienkiewicza. W literaturze interesowały go odbicia rzeczywistości. Jego praca magisterska o "Prze-pisywaniu kobiet" dotyczyła różnych sposobów przedstawiania kobiet w najnowszej literaturze polskiej (Natalia Mazur) (Translation)

Publishers Weekly posts a list of the worst jobs in books. The shortlist includes being a governess in Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey; tportal (Croatia) announces the broadcasts of Jane Eyre 2011 on KinoTV (February 3, 20:30 h; February 4 04:00 h); Life with Literature and Postcards from Purgatory post about Wuthering Heights; grande-caps posts more caps of the webseries The Autobiography of Jane Eyre.

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The Weatherin'

The Fire This Time Festival is a theatre festival  (now in its fifth edition) in The Bowery, New York:

The African American experience is not represented solely by one voice or one style. Horse Trade Theater Group will present THE FIRE THIS TIME FESTIVAL, a platform for talented early-career playwrights of African and African American descent to explore new voices, styles and challenging new directions for 21st century performing arts, and move beyond common ideas of what's possible in "black theater."
The festival's core production is a short play festival, presenting new work by the featured playwrights.

One of the short plays presented is Jonathan Payne's The Weatherin' which is 'loosely based on Wuthering Heights'. The author of the play read it on high school and immediately felt a connection with it as he says in this interview by Kevin R. Free.

The Kraine Theater, 85 E. 4th St.
January 21 - February 3

The Weatherin'by Jonathan Payne
Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz
"History's a ghost. We just choose to forget. It'll remind ya, though. One time to another, my time to your time...Forty years ago it was...Night I cross that river...somebody died..."

(Via The Villager)

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Pure Yorkshire

For some reason, the Sherman Oaks Film Examiner reviews Jane Eyre 2011 now. The film is given 5 stars out of 5, so this is clearly a case of good things coming to those who wait.

This version of "Jane Eyre" works very well because it has rock solid performances by the two leads. Mia Wasikowska does an excellent job showing how Jane is haunted by her past. Michael Fassbender is also great. His character is also haunted by his past. He is cold at first, but he ultimately falls for Jane.
The cinematography is looks amazing. It is often dark, which reflects the mood of the film. The movie deserved its Oscar nomination for Costume Design. These costumes are a significant component of the film's process. Jane and Rochester are initially in dark, tight and restrictive costumes. Like their clothing, the characters have no flexibility. When circumstances change, their ensembles, still true to the time period and their circumstances, are less structured, indicating their liberation from the past.
This film ranks among the best versions of "Jane Eyre." (Daniel Smith)

The Blackpool Gazette recommends the BBC One series Silent Witness, on which

DS Sally Kirchner (Morven Christie) believes the prime suspect is unsympathetic Simon Turner (Alex Hassell), a married man and the baby’s father who compares the conception to a drunken liaison rather than to ‘Wuthering Heights’.

The Orlando Sentinel features the theatre production Spank! which is a parody of 50 Shades of Grey.

The show's three actors each took a stab at reading James' book, which topped best-seller lists, spawned two sequels and inspired a movie scheduled to debut next year. Their reaction to the breathless prose is mixed:
"I just ate all three of them up like a sex sandwich," says Andrea Canny. "You get the sex fantasy and you get the completely unattainable relationship … like Heathcliff and Catherine." (Matthew J. Palm)

A columnist from The Telegraph looks back on her diary-writing habit:

Later in my teenage years I adopted a florid, adjectival style – half Emily Brontë, half Just 17 – with which to chronicle the ups and downs of adolescent love. I can hardly bear to read the description of losing my virginity, let alone inflict it on innocent readers. But if I tell you that it contains the words “quash”, “lest” and “swirling profundity”, you will understand something of my retrospective agony. (Jemima Lewis)

The Star has an article on the typically-Yorkshire condiment Henderson's Relish.

Its orange and black bottle has featured on the front cover of the illustrious New Statesman magazine as a testament to all things Northern, alongside Dame Judi Dench, Morecambe and Wise, a flat cap and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. (Christa Ackroyd)

El País (Uruguay) features the French neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik and his study of traumatic childhood events.

Aunque Cyrulnik no menciona a las hermanas Brontë, ellas son un caso doble: niñas huérfanas de madre, con un padre durísimo, también fueron internadas en escuelas miserables donde se las maltrató y desnutrió. (Andrea Blanqué) (Translation)

He doesn't mention the Brontë sisters because they actually had a loving father.

An inmate who has read many classics, including Jane Eyre, in The Huffington Post. Diamonds and Coal reviews the Cozy Classics Jane Eyre edition.

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Love, Mystery and Misery

A recent scholar book approaching Jane Eyre:

Love, Mystery and Misery
Feeling in Gothic Fiction
Coral Ann Howells

Published: 07-11-2013
ISBN: 9781472509666
Bloomsbury Academic
Series: Bloomsbury Academic Collections: English Literary Criticism

The current Gothic revival in literature and film encourages us to look again to the earliest Gothic novels written beween 1790 and 1820, when Gothic was the most popular kind of fiction in England. Dr. Howells proposes a radical reassessment of these novels to emphasize their importance as experiments in imaginative writing. Her object, the study of feeling, is central to Gothic, for its spell consists in the feelings it arouses and exercises. As pseudo-historical fantasy, Gothic fiction embodies contemporary neuroses, especially sexual fears and repressions, which run right through it and are basic to its conventions. This study traces the effort to articulate these disconcerting emotions in symbol, incident, landscape and architecture. The chronological design suggests developments in Gothic, from the initial explorations of Mrs Radcliffe and M.G. Lewis, through the Minerva Press novelists and Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey", to new directions taken by C.R. Maturin in "Melmoth the Wanderer" and later by Charlotte Brontë whose "Jane Eyre", arguably the finest of Gothic novels, places the earlier experiments in perspective.

Chapter VII is devoted to Jane Eyre.

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Jane Eyre: electrifying

The Edmonton Journal features A Brontë Burlesque:

Under the non-literary rallying cry “take it off!”, A Brontë Burlesque takes us into the buttoned-up world of the cloistered English family that gave the world Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë), Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë), The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Brontë), and in the case of their boozehound brother Branwell, a whole passel of poems and paintings. The troupe, and the script by Ellen Chorley, are all about “theatricalizing” burlesque, marrying its flamboyant performance style (and ’80s dance hits) to narrative impulses.
“Each burlesque number has its own little story,” says Samantha Duff, the willowy University of Alberta acting grad who makes her burlesque debut as Charlotte. “And that’s what burlesque is. As opposed to just stripping and dancing, there’s a mini-story; there’s motivation for taking off your clothes.” Shakespeare, indoors and out, both in Edmonton and her hometown of Calgary, has pride of place in the Duff resumé. A Brontë Burlesque is way outside the world of doublet-and-hose and iambic pentameter.
“This is me climbing Everest,” she grins. “Way out of my comfort box, and that was something I was looking for.” Having a character to play when you’re taking your clothes off is a great boost to the comfort level, Duff reports. [...]
So, why are the literary luminaries of the 19th-century English novel dancing in their knickers to Florence and the Machine and Radiohead? The context has something to do with peeling back the constraints of female ambition and respectability in the period. A certain detectable “feminist outlook” in Jane Eyre first twigged Chorley to the idea. “A woman’s place in society,” plus “a family life with a lot of secrets” — these are notions that lend themselves to peeling off layers.
All three sisters used male pseudonyms when they published, which explains why they wear ties in the show. Chorley explains that “when Anne starts to remove clothing, the scene is about the discovery of a secret notebook, and her finally revealing her work to us. It’s all about freeing yourself from baggage.”
Branwell, the only guy in the crowd, is “a bit of a sad-sack,” says Cook cheerfully of the underachiever sibling he plays. “He had a problem with booze, and with the success of his sisters, and over the course of the show that tears the family apart. “Al, our stage manager (Al Gadowsky) calls him ‘our gentleman’,” laughs Chorley. “We girls call him ‘our brute’.”
“I was interested in the combination of Brontës and burlesque as a really interesting way to experiment with intimacy,” says Chorley. Burlesque is a style element that gives the story “a heightened reality.” Cook knows a lot about the heightening and shrinking of reality in showbiz from his non-theatre job as host of a karaoke bar. “A lot of this show is memory, a fever dream. So burlesque works wonderfully.” (Liz Nicholls)

Female First interviews romance writer Caitlin Ricci.

You are a voracious reader so who are your favourites? [...]
Another well-loved book on my shelf is Jane Eyre. This was the first romance that I ever read and it spawned a love of classic romances. (Lucy Walton)

This columnist from The Garden Island comments on so-called romantic novels:

I’m not great on romantic novels — they’re a little too sweets for my taste — but tales of heroes and heroines and ‘extraordinary or mysterious’ events can be considered romantic, too. Remember Gone with the Wind and Wuthering Heights? Who in the world could ever forget Heathcliff? (Bettejo Dux)

Salon discusses whether you can make kids love books based on cultural critic Natasha Vargas-Cooper's recent assertion 'that it was a bad idea to assign novels to high school students'.

 But “Jane Eyre”! Vargas-Cooper describes Charlotte and Emily as “those damnable Brontë sisters” who “were shoved down my throat.” But “Jane Eyre” electrified me. I instantly recognized that Charlotte’s novel was not a romance, but the story of a young woman — powerless, friendless and despised — who nevertheless seizes her own destiny and happiness by sheer strength of character. It’s hard for me to imagine a teenager who wouldn’t respond to such a narrative, but it seems that “Jane Eyre” did not do the trick for Vargas-Cooper, while Joan Didion (whose cool, affectless prose would have annoyed my adolescent self) might have.
Vargas-Cooper partly blames inadequate teachers at the “overcrowded, underfunded” schools of her youth for putting her off novels until her early 20s, and several readers who disagreed with her piece did, too. I’m not so sure. Yes, an inspired teacher can open up the treasure chest of a great book for her students, but that wasn’t how I came to love “Jane Eyre.” I have no memory at all of any classroom discussion or exercises pertaining to the book. I just read it, the way most people read novels, all by myself. I knew this was my book, that it was somehow about me and bigger than me at the same time. All the teacher had to do was put it in my hands and “Jane Eyre” did all the work. (Laura Miller)

The Warner Cable News features Everyman's Library.

Today, Alfred Knopf and Random House have acquired the rights to the brand and titles, and they've proven faithful stewards of this remarkable legacy. Thanks to Everyman's Library, any book lover can acquire, usually for around $20, the most beautiful, lovingly made editions of the works of the Brontë sisters, George Eliot, Edith Wharton, William Thackeray, Jane Austen, Stendhal, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Mann, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Cormac McCarthy, Salman Rushdie and on and on and on. (Sohrab Ahmari)

This columnist from Town Topics found also good editions of the novels even cheaper:at an even cheaper price:

Strindberg’s autobiographical novel, The Inferno, cost me the equivalent of 50 cents at the Wise Owl, which was located just around the corner from a 17th-century alms house. Although Bristol had a number of browsable secondhand stores in the 1970s — from the magnificent George’s at the top of the Park Street hill to the lowly George’s on the Christmas Steps — my favorite was the Wise Owl, a paradise of “quaint and curious volumes,” most of them reasonably priced. It was there that I found an illustrated set of the Brontës, a copy of the works of Milton the size of a package of cigarettes, and an equally charismatic volume from the same year (1837), Daniel Defoe’s History of the Devil. (Stuart Mitchner)

The Belfast Telegraph looks at several courses to be given at Stranmillis University College.

For those enthralled with the children of the Vicar of Haworth, Dr Sophie Hillan offers a short course on the Brontë sisters. As Sophie observes: "We all know the Brontës. Or do we?"
This course looks at their novels in the context of their lives at the lonely parsonage on the moors and considers the background influence of their Co Down-born father, Patrick. (Dr Eamon Phoenix)

Business Day (South Africa) seems to have a theory concerning box office results. Speaking of the film Jack Ryan: Shadow Pursuit:

Whether the lack of a preview was a ploy or was instructed by Hollywood, due care should be taken, given the history of movies bearing the main character’s name falling short of readers’ expectations, the most recent examples being Jack Reacher, John Carter, Julius Caesar and Jane Eyre. (Phillip Altbeker)

For the Epoch Times, Emily Brontë seems to have been a confirmed 'asexual'. The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page has posts on Emily Brontë's short stay at Law Hill and the influence Lord Byron had on the Brontës. The Urban Romantic reviews Wuthering Heights. Tony's Reading List posts about Minae Mizumura's A Real Novel.

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Jane Eyre in Louisville and all-Jane live webcast

A new production of Jane Eyre opens today, January 23, in Louisville, KY:

Walden Theatre is proud to present the 2014 Yum! Family Series Cornerstone Classic production…
Jane Eyre
by Christina Calvit
adapted from the novel written by Charlotte Brontë
directed by Alec Volz

Jan 23-Feb 1
EVENINGS: Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 7:30pm
MATINEES: Saturdays at 2:00pm

A young governess rises from an unforgiving childhood to find stability and love at the unsettling manor Thornfield. But a terrible revelation burns it all away, forcing her to salvage her life and expectations from the ashes.

Also tomorrow a live webcast by Julie Klassen, presenting her new novel and celebrating all things Jane (from Austen to Eyre):

Best-selling author Julie Klassen will be hosting a Kindle Fire HDX giveaway and a live webcast event (1/23) to celebrate the release of her latest novel, The Dancing Master. Filled with mystery and romance,The Dancing Master brings to life the social graces of ladies and gentlemen hoping to make a “good match” in Regency England.

One winner will receive:
A Kindle Fire HDX
The Dancing Master by Julie Klassen
Winner will be announced at the “All Things Jane (from Austen to Eyre)” Live Webcast Event on January 23rd. Connect with Julie for an evening of book chat, trivia, laughter, and more! Julie will also be taking questions from the audience and giving away books, Jane Austen and Jane Eyre DVDs, fun “Jane” merchandise, and gift certificates throughout the evening.
So grab your copy of The Dancing Master and join Julie and friends on the evening of January 23rd for a chance to connect and make some new friends. (If you haven’t read the book, don’t let that stop you from coming!)

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Miserable people or romantic ideal?

The New York Daily News' Page Views has 'A brief guide to faking your way through literary classics when you haven't actually read them'. Here's how you fake having read Wuthering Heights:

1. “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë
The gist: Miserable people make each other miserable while brooding in the moors. (Moors as in the land. Not as in “Othello.”)
The real summary for your non-reading pleasure: Healthcliff and Catherine grow up together, fall in love, but can’t be together because of Reasons, so they spend the rest of their natural lives mentally torturing each other and everyone around them. Obviously this does not end with death. The cycle of miserable people making each other miserable continues down the line to future generations. (Lauren C. Sarner)

Six well-known people write briefly about love in The Wall Street Journal. Here's Elaine Stritch's idea of romantic love:

I definitely think of myself as a romantic—without a doubt in the world. I can't believe how romantic I am. It's terrifying! When I saw Gone with the Wind, I didn't get out of bed for two days. And Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights? That's my idea of romance.

On a similar note, BooksBlog (Italy) recommends several books for Valentine's Day:

Da molti considerato un capolavoro, “Jane Eyre”, romanzo autobiografico di Charlotte Bronte, è una storia d’amore che va oltre ogni convenzione dell’epoca e fornisce un assaggio alle prime lotte di emancipazione femminile. Restando in famiglia, tra i grandi classici rientra anche “Cime tempestose”, della sorella Emily. (Angela Iannone) (Translation)

Still in Italy, a columnist from La Reppublica recalls how her grandmother sparked her love for reading by giving her, among others, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

Judy (of Richard and Judy fame) is interviewed by Ahlan! (UAE).

What's your fave book? Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. I re-read it evey year. (Sarah Swain)

The London Evening Standard reviews Hanif Kureishi’s novel The Last Word which may or may not be a fictionalised biography of writer VS Naipaul.

Mamoon’s shocking rudeness about other writers and inferior people sounds exactly like Naipaul too. “With his sarcasm, superiority, scrupulosity and argumentative persistence, Mamoon had made hard men, and, in particular — his forte — numerous good-hearted, well-read women weep”, we learn. “He didn’t want to be deprived of the jouissance of racism just because he had brown skin and had suffered it himself” — and his assessments of other writers are “more like road rage than literary criticism”. Just so.
The only woman writer Mamoon likes is the Caribbean-born Jean Rhys, about whom Naipaul wrote an admiring essay — “She’s the only female writer in English you’d want to sleep with. Otherwise it’s just Brontës. Eliot, Woolf, Murdoch! Can you imagine cunnilingus with any of them?” (David Sexton)

Picture source

The Journal reviews The Craven Heifer hotel at Addingham in West Yorkshire. It seems like one of the rooms is dedicated to Heathcliff:

It has always been difficult for me to settle on a main course when dining out, especially when faced with a menu as tempting as the one at the Craven Heifer in Addingham (and you wouldn't believe how difficult it was finding a Wuthering Heights quote to spoil).
A Brontë quote seemed fitting, though, with The Craven Heifer residing in the birthplace of Yorkshire's most famous literary family, and having one of the seven bedrooms dedicated to Heathcliff from Emily Brontë's classic novel. (John Lowdon)

The Misfortune of Knowing discusses whether Heathcliff is a man or a devil. Places of Fancy tries to locate Thornfield Hall. ITV3 announces the airing tonight of Jane Eyre 1997.

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My Mr Rochester 4

And here it comes, the fourth part of L.K. Rigel's My Mr. Rochester:

My Mr. Rochester 4 (Jane Eyre Retold)
LK Rigel
Publisher: Beastie Press (January 20, 2014)

The classic Gothic tale set in a future utopia, retold in five episodes.

Episode 4: Mr. Rochester draws Jane closer, using physical intimacy to strip away her defenses. She finds herself more dependent on him every day ~ but is it love or mere desire that binds them?

Jane feels increasingly overpowered by Rochester's personality and will. When the devastating secret of Thornfield Hall is exposed, she may not be able to save herself.

Caution: Episode 4 contains steamy sexual scenes.

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Did Charlotte Brontë write 'chick noir'?

The Jewish Chronicle features Samantha Ellis and her book How To Be a Heroine.

Samantha Ellis can pinpoint the exact moment when the idea for her literary memoir How To Be a Heroine came into her head.
She was on a visit to Brontë country with her friend, Emma. Ellis's favourite Brontë character had always been Cathy Earnshaw in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights: "I was genuinely surprised and shocked that Emma was championing [Charlotte Brontë's] Jane Eyre. She said Cathy was 'silly'. That started me off re-reading Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and lots of other books, too."
The journey that started on a hill in Yorkshire eventually led to How To Be a Heroine, a re-evaluation of Ellis's fictional female role models, from The Little Mermaid through Anne of Green Gables to Elizabeth Bennett "and, of course, Jane Eyre." Each chapter deals with a different character and tells how she has influenced Ellis's life. [...]
And Jane Eyre? Ellis remembered her as dull but on re-reading the novel she found herself agreeing with her friend's assessment. "Now I see that she is independent, she knows her own mind, she lives according to her conscience and she is not scared of being clever in front of men. She's definitely ahead of her time." (Simon Round)

The New Indian Express has interviewed young writer Nirmita Sarma, whose pen name is Cyril Cliffette.

Why do you choose to have a pen name? (Cyril Cliffette)
It has always been my wish to write since the time I was a child, and the first book I ever read in the abridged as well as the unabridged versions was Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Brontë under her pen name, Currer Bell. It had the androgynous feel to it. As during her time society was oppressive towards women, she had to take up a mysterious pen name to reach out to the masses. In my case, it is not so.
This book is from the point of view of a feminine protagonist, but most of my other books are from a masculine point of view. Having a pen name lets me write outside the boundaries my name sets for me in society. (Debasree Purkayastha)

The Independent (Ireland) uses the new novel by Natalie Young to discuss the so-called 'chick noir' genre:

"I think there's always been a tradition of psychological suspense emerging from the domestic sphere -- from the secrets concealed in marriages and relationships," says literary agent Will Francis of Janklow & Nesbit, who represents Natalie Young. "It's not a new thing: Patricia Highsmith, Daphne Du Maurier, Charlotte Brontë if you go back far enough." (Jon Stock)

Yle (Finland) wonders why readers enjoy reading about their fictional counterparts. One of the novels mentioned is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer where the Brontës are referenced many, many times.

Vulture likens the current story of  Downton Abbey's Lady Edith to Jane Eyre once again while ABC's Laboratorio de estilo (Spain) describes the new autumn-winter collection by fashion designer Thom Browne as 'Jane Eyre's step-brother meets a creature from outer space'.

Crave Online reminds readers that football is not 'a Jane Eyre novel' (!). Just in case you were getting both mixed up, you know.

Neither folks were “classy” during a hard fought game. Sometimes some incivilities come out. That is why we have referees — to prevent things from getting out of control. But, let’s be honest, internet folks — this isn’t a Jane Eyre novel. This is football with the hitting and the blood and the tackling. Sometimes, mean things are said. (Brian Reddoch)

Los archivos del Valhalla writes in Spanish about Jane Eyre while Borderline and Acqua e limone post, respectively and both in Italian, about Jane Eyre 2011 and 2006. Also in Italian, Antonella Iuliano reviews Villette. The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page shows a picture of the old Haworth church, the ones the Brontës knew.

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Brontë Burlesque in Edmonton

The Brontë Burlesque returns to Edmonton today, January 21:

A Brontë Burlesque
by Ellen Chorley

Presented by Send in the Girls Burlesque at The Roxy Theatre.

January 21 - February 2, 2014
Previews Jan. 21 & 22
Opening January 23

Blood is thicker than ink. On the last night of her life, Charlotte Brontë - writer of Jane Eyre - is visited by her dead siblings, Emily Brontë (Wuthering Heights), Anne Brontë (Agnes Grey), and Branwell Bronte. Merging burlesque with theatre to share the secret lives of these sister novelists.

Also in Canada, another Brontë alert for today, January 21:

Winnipeg Public LibraryMillennium Library, Carol Shields Auditorium

Tuesday, January 21, 12:10 pm: Vanessa Warne (Associate Professor and Graduate Chair in the Department of English, Film and Theatre at the University of Manitoba) will discuss Jane Eyre and what may explain it’s continuing popularity.

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