Swapping with the Brontës

The Brontë Sisters. Image: Beth Walrond

The Skinny talks about the Brontës with the excuse of the upcoming University of Liverpool workshops: Revisiting the Brontës (28th January 2015 and 25th February 2015):

So where do the Brontës come in? Well, while the sisters weren’t dying their underarm hair turquoise or tweeting against misogyny, modern feminists might find a surprising amount in common with the sentiments of the literary trio.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë grew up in Yorkshire in the early 19th century. Middle-class women were then expected to marry well, reproduce, and oversee the household and their progeny – all while sitting primly in corseted subservience. Intellectual and physical pursuits were deemed the preserve of men, as were strong emotions and passions. For the Brontës, writing provided a release from this stifling environment, as the independent heroines of their novels resisted or succumbed to passions and fought to control their own destinies.
Such was sexism ingrained in the 19th-century publishing industry that all three women wrote under male pseudonyms – as Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, respectively – to increase the chances of their manuscripts being published. Two centuries later, feminists are still railing against sexism in publishing, pointing out – rather accurately – that ‘women’s writing’ is not a genre. (Read more)

The latest episode of Last Tango in Halifax (Season 3, Episode 2) featured a discussion about the first US edition of Wuthering Heights attributed to the wrong sister, courtesy of the writing of Sally Wainwright. Pictures of the library scene here.

Bustle tries to guess whether you are a bibliophile:

8. You would love to travel far and wide to look at books and the homes of the people who write them.
I’ve gone far, far out of my way to visit places like Haworth (home of the Brontë family in West Yorkshire) and Prince Edward Island (home Lucy Maud Montgomery and the Anne books). There is something powerful in seeing where my favorite books were written, and in seeing great authors’ own books. Because, naturally, great writers tend to be bibliophiles themselves. (Lara Rutherford-Morrison)

Carrick Times interviews a local entrepreneur who says:

If you could swap places with anyone who would it be and why?
I don’t know that I would want to swap with anyone however there is an eclectic mix of people I admire for many reasons. This list would include the singers Sarah McLachlan and Eva Cassidy; the writers Victoria Hyslop and of course Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters.

In USA Today, William Morrow describes the novel Wildalone by Krassi Zourkova like this:

In this enchanting and darkly imaginative debut novel full of myth, magic, romance, and mystery, a Princeton freshman is drawn into a love triangle with two enigmatic brothers, and discovers terrifying secrets about her family and herself—a bewitching blend of Twilight, The Secret History, Jane Eyre, and A Discovery of Witches.

BBC Radio 5 interviews the photographer Gered Mankovitz:

From the Rolling Stones to Kate Bush, photographer Gered Mankovitz has captured some of the most iconic images of rock and roll stars.
He was also the man who persuaded the "exquisite" Kate Bush to wear the famous pink leotard on the cover of 'Wuthering Heights'.

We rather like this list of the things that Lesmarie Velez, the marketing director for the Brevard Symphony Orchestra, loves as published in Florida Today:

"I'm a music nerd, a Whovian, a steampunk, anything pretty much sci-fi I love," the avid cosplayer tells me.
The list of things she likes goes on: Marvel Universe, movies, classic books, "Jane Eyre," Jane Austen, "Breakfast at Tiffany's," comic book conventions, "Star Trek," "Star Wars" ... (Jennifer Sangalang)

Intelligo (Italy) announces some of the most awaited exhibitions in Rome:

Alle Scuderie del Quirinale, Roma, adottobre, arriverà Balthus: genio del Novecento, le influenze nel suo lavoro sono innumerevoli: gli scritti di Emily Brontë, (ha illustrato con disegni a penna su carta il romanzo Cime Tempestose), gli scritti e le fotografie di Lewis Carroll, e poi i dipinti di Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Joseph Reinhardt, Ingres, Goya, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Courbet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, ecc. (Orietta Giorgio) (Translation)

The memories of a nude model in Svenska Yle (Finland):

Det var ett tungt jobb minns jag. Jag stod sex timmar per dag, fem dagar i veckan. Ett pass varade tjugo minuter, jag vred upp en äggklocka. Sedan var det paus i tio minuter. Då drog jag på mig morgonrocken och läste vidare i Wuthering Heights eller någon annan roman. Jag läste ganska mycket skönlitteratur det här året. Kanske var det tack vare det dödstråkiga ståendet jag började studera litteraturvetenskap? (Charlotte Sundström) (Translation)

The Scotsman is also considering Claire Harman's upcoming Charlotte Brontë biography as one of the books of 2015;  La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre (in Italian) contains a story which makes a reference to Heathcliff and Catherine; The Storyteller didn't like Wuthering Heights;  Books, Yo has a more positive opinion with a quite original review; The World of my Green Heart has re-read with great pleasure Jane Eyre. And don't forget to take a look to the last memes, like this one, of fuck yeah jane eyre's Jane Eyre month. Nuvem literária (in Portuguese) reviews Shirley.