Following Charlotte's clues

Historical Novel Society talks with Jane Stubbs, author of Thornfield Hall:

“I did not choose to retell Jane Eyre,” she says. “It chose me.” In her years teaching Jane Eyre in secondary schools, Stubbs says that the relationship between Jane and Mrs. Fairfax puzzled both her and her students. The childless housekeeper is so motherly toward the orphaned governess, yet she doesn’t warn Jane that Mr. Rochester’s marriage proposal is a sham. “Mrs. Fairfax’s behaviour shows she’s in turmoil when the engagement is announced,” Stubbs explains. “She fails to congratulate Jane, she has to consult her bible and she suddenly talks of her late husband, the parson. I felt that Charlotte Brontë was giving the reader a series of clues and I could not resist following them.”
Although Thornfield Hall delves deep into the mystery of Bertha Mason, the first Mrs. Rochester, it is utterly different in tone and scope from Jean Rhys’s haunting novel, The Wide Sargasso Sea. “Jean Rhys took liberties with the original I would not dare to take,” says Stubbs. “She moved the characters to Dominica, she changed their names. Her book drips with sensuality and tropical heat. It’s a long way from the bracing air of Yorkshire.” (Mary Sharratt) (Read more)

The Sunday Times describes some new trends for heroines in novels to be released in 2015:

Last year, Samantha Ellisearned warm reviews for her nonfiction book How to Be a Heroine (Or, What I’ve Learnt from Reading Too Much). Melding memoir, travelogue and criticism, its character study of literary heroines romped from Wuthering Heights in Haworth to LA’s Valley of the Dolls. (Patricia Nicol)

Gaffa (Denmark) talks about the song Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding, included in the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack:

Ellie Goulding har skrevet en sang til den kommende film "Fifty Shades Of Gray", en filmatisering af husmor-smæk-i-måsen-romanen som har taget verden med storm. Det er måske ikke Kate Bushs "Wuthering Heights", når det kommer til beskrivelsen af stormfuld kærlighed, men det er dog Goulding, når hun er bedst. (Kristoffer Veirum) (Translation)

An Outside Review  reviews Jane Eyre; Abrazando Libros (in Spanish) posts about Wuthering Heights; Pink Indle didn't love Jane Eyre 2011;  My Suicidal Tendencies has curious posting: Jane Eyre 1944 reduced to 24 seconds.