Heathcliff's decorum and charm

Keighley News has the latest news concerning the Brontë movie.

The producers of a major new film about the Bronte family say they soon hope to make further progress on casting actors for the key remaining roles.
The film, called The Brontës, is being made by Yorkshire-based Clothworkers Films, and is due to be released in April next year.
Actors’ roles are being chosen by casting director Sarah Leung.
One of the actors announced so far is Matthew Lewis, who will play Branwell Brontë. Mr Lewis is well known for playing the part of Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films.
Director David Anthony Thomas said he was expecting the rest of the selection process to be complete “within the next few months".
“A lot depends on the dynamics and interplay between the Brontës, both as family members and as chief protagonists, so that's where we've been focusing so far,” he said.
“The cast will be announced upon the completion of the casting process.
“The level of interest and anticipation has far surpassed our expectations, and it's unusual for a project at an early stage of development to achieve this level of excitement.
“It is very encouraging, and we look forward to building on this as we release more news over the coming months. We will be sharing our work with the thousands who've been following our progress so far.” (Miran Rahman)

We are certainly looking forward to it!

Jane Eyre 2011 makes it onto FemaleFirst's 'Top 5 Period Novel Adaptations'.

Jane Eyre is one of my favourite books of all time and it has been adapted for big and small screen many times. Jane Eyre is Charlotte Brontë's best-known novel and saw her create one of literature's greatest heroines.
In 2011, Jane Eyre was adapted for the big screen again with Cary Fukunaga, Moira Buffini on writing duties, and Mia Wasikowska & Michael Fassbender cast as Jane Eyre, and Edward Rochester.
First and foremost, it was just perfect casting - Wasikowska is closer to the age of Jane in the book and was able to capture the strength, innocence, and vulnerability of this character perfectly. Fassbender is my favourite depiction of Rochester so far - an intense and flawed man who dominates every scene that he is in.
While Jane Eyre is a story that has been told more times than I care to count, there is something bold, fresh and modern about this adaptation. The fast-paced script and the sweeping cinematography breaths new live into this great tale.
Fukunaga has also told this story in a non-linear manner, which not only makes this feel like a new story, but it also allows the director to put his own stamp on Jane Eyre and the characters. It is one of the best adaptations of this terrific novel that I have seen and is a must for all fans of the book. (Helen Earnshaw)

Flavorwire also brings up the film when discussing the screen adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd.

So why is Vinterberg’s Far From the Madding crowd frustratingly mediocre?
I think it’s because there’s a widespread misapprehension, both in Hollywood and among those of us who consume its products, that it’s nigh on impossible to make an exciting film adaptation of a classic novel. Apparently classic novels, particularly classic 19th-century novels, are boring to today’s audiences. The society they describe looks remarkably different from our own (if only at first glance), and even farther from contemporary pop culture. Everyone speaks formally and wears a corset, and sex is referred to in only the most elliptical fashion. This leaves screenwriters and directors with two options: they can expand inventively on what’s universally appealing in the book they’re adapting (as Cary Fukunaga recently did in his haunting Jane Eyre, or even as Amy Heckerling did with Clueless), or they can make a movie designed to please people who particularly enjoy corsets, chaste love stories, and stilted language. (Judy Berman)

The Advocate reviews the Louisiana State University production of The Book Club Play in which

Jen (Maggie McGurn) is another longtime club member, a bundle of aching loneliness who searches in vain for her Heathcliff, the romantic hero of “Wuthering Heights.” (George Morris)

The Washington Times reviews the book American Vandal: Mark Twain Abroad by Roy Morris, Jr.

If there has ever been a writer whose works speak for themselves — and for him — it is Mark Twain, and nowhere in his oeuvre is that as apparent as in his prodigious travel writings. Critics and fans can dispute whether “Tom Sawyer” or “Huckleberry Finn” is his magnum opus, but his literary fame certainly rests with those twin giants of American fiction. Which of them one prefers in the end comes down to personal taste, as is the case with those twin pillars of the 19th century English novel, “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights.” Of course, they were written by sisters Charlotte and Emily Brontë, while Twain managed to produce both of his seminal works by himself. (Martin Rubin)

Mmmkay.

A Hartford Courant columnist writes about her 'allergic reaction' to modern buzzwords.

But when my students write, "Jane Eyre vocalized her inner emotions to Mr. Rochester" I underline "vocalized" as well as "inner emotions" and insist they write something more text-specific, precise and informative. "What do you mean and why is it important?" is what I usually ask.
By the third rewrite, they usually know what they mean and they know how to say it.
I've learned, after 28 years of teaching, that "vocalize," like "relatable," is a dodge: It is an intellectual sleight of hand. If a student defines a character as "relatable," I ask: Does that mean he's sympathetic, intriguing, recognizable, emotionally complex, cliched, seductive, likable, familiar, accessible or perspicuous? If my student says, "Yeah, that's right — relatable" I know she hasn't done any of the reading. (Gina Barreca)

Someone in the Daily Mail should pick up a copy of Wuthering Heights:

It's a stark contrast to the way children interact with their schoolyard friends today, but it's nothing compared to Robinson's advice on how top treat women in a system that produced men with the kind of decorum and charm that most of us thought only existed in a Brontë novel. (James Dunn)

Heathcliff--that paradigm of 'decorum and charm'.

Librópatas (Spain) has an extensive post on Charlotte Brontë's letters to Monsieur Heger. Quadrapheme posts about sex in Brontë and Faulkner. Pop! Goes the Reader posts a wallpaper inspired by a Jane Eyre quote. Parabola publishes the story The Fallen Angel by Betsy Cornwell which includes several Jane Eyre references.

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IBAR and Europeans

A couple of symposiums beginning today, April 30th, have Brontë connections:

Institute of Black Atlantic Research in association with the Brontë Parsonage Museum Haworth Present

Lost Children: The Black Atlantic and Northern Britain 
An Interdisciplinary Symposium April 30-May 1 (University of Central Lancashire, Preston)

IBAR is proud to announce that it will host a symposium to tie in with the launch of Caryl Phillips new novel The Lost Child, a prequel to Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847). It will echo the historical context and themes of the work discussing black presences across generations in the North from the 1770s to the present. It will be an interdisciplinary symposium which will bring together historians, visual artists, cultural critics and writers. It will discuss The Lost Child in its widest Black Atlantic and Northern British context and highlight links and contexts that enable a variety of other writers and artists including the Brontës to be discussed. This will create dynamic new interpretations of British culture in this rarely heard context of the North and the Black Atlantic. It will include two readings from Caryl Phillips at UCLAN and at the Brontë Parsonage Museum Haworth. The symposium will spend the second afternoon in Haworth and there will be an opportunity to explore Brontë Country with a guided tour from our own Victorian expert Dr. Theresa Saxon.
Our two keynote presenters are Dr. Jessica Moody (University of Portsmouth) an expert on Liverpool and its memory of slavery and Dr. Fionnghuala Sweeney (Newcastle University) an expert on Ireland, Britain and the Black Atlantic.
Visual Artists presenting their work include IBAR’s own Professor Lubaina Himid,
Manchester-based Kooj (Kuljit) Chuhan and Scarborough-born Jade Montserrat.
New York film-maker Sikay Tang will present her film Toby’s Paradise about the sojourn from Liverpool to Shanghai of a Nigerian-born sailor.
Joe Williams (Heritage Corner, Leeds) will perform his solo play, The Fishes of Isis, an insightful portrait of Pablo Fanque, the British-born Victorian circus owner of African origin.  (http://heritagecornerleeds.wix.com/heritage-corner#!).

Other contributors include:
Professor Bénédicte Ledent (University of Liège)
Professor Evelyn O’Callaghan (University of the West Indies)
Professor John McLeod (University of Leeds)
Professor Brian Ward (University of Northumbria)
For the full programme click here 

The Brontë-related events will take place tomorrow, May 1st:

12.20 – 1.20 Visual Arts Panel
Lubaina Himid, UCLan: 'The Memory of Slavery in Northern England – A Visual Map.'
Jade Montserrat, Artist, Scarborough and London: 'Burial, the Brontës and Lost Children, a text and film performance.'
1.20– 2.10 Lunch
2.15 – 3.30 Coaches to Haworth
3.30 – 6.30 Tours in Haworth including sandwich supper
7.00 – 8.30 Reading from The Lost Child from Caryl Phillips, followed by Q & A with Professor Alan Rice (UCLan).

Additional information in The Telegraph & Argus.

And a bit far from Lancashire and Haworth we find another conference:

46th Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) 2015 Convention
Toronto, Canada
April 30-May 3, 2015

Includes the panel (Saturday May 2, 04:45-06:15)

Charlotte Brontë and Europe: Images of Europeans in Her Juvenilia and Novels
Chair: Judith Pike, Salisbury University
Location: Palliser Suite (Media Equipped)
British & Women's and Gender Studies

"Ireland in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette" Julie Donovan, George Washington University
"Frenchness, Irishness, and the Narrative Potential for Representing Female Desire in Charlotte Brontë" Elaine Andrews, Pennsylvania State University
"From French Silk to Moroccan Sandals: Rendering Costumes for Charlotte Brontë’s Early Writings" Leslie Yarmo, Salisbury University
"‘How English is Miss Snowe’? Pink Frocks and a French Clock in Jane Eyre and Villette" Judith Pike, Salisbury University (Source)

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Jane Eyre, Anne Elliot and the Queen of Spain

Writer Rebecca Kelley has penned an article on love stories for Bustle.

Is a love story ever just a love story, though? Take Jane Eyre. After growing up in an orphanage, she sets off to work as a governess at Thornfield, run by the grim and mysterious Mr. Rochester. With an unwavering spirit, she endures hardships and heartaches. Like most great romantic heroines, she faces almost all of her troubles alone. Romantic happiness eludes her until the final pages. If Jane Eyre is not a tale of “solitary self-discovery,” I don’t know what is. It’s difficult to think of a love story that isn’t about self-discovery, or that doesn’t touch on other, wider-reaching issues that say a lot about the culture the character lives in at the time.
I decided that Malcolm and Joanna did want to be more than FWB, but they didn’t want to admit it — to each other, or to themselves. Joanna saw her own parents’ marriage crumble, and she knows the statistics: half of marriages end in divorce. She knows she doesn’t want to lose Malcolm, and she knows how relationships work. Couples are happy for a while, commit to each other, maybe get married, and then they grow apart. They get divorced. Joanna won’t let that happen to her and Malcolm. But she still wants to sleep with him. Friends with benefits, she decides, is the obvious solution to all of these problems.
I don’t remember Elizabeth Bennet or Jane Eyre having quite the same dilemmas, but that’s why I think love stories are so important. Love stories — the ones in which love is the central theme, the main plot line — are capable of saying things about who we are, the way we live today. 

This columnist from Times Union is a fan of Jane Eyre:

3. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë. Like any other mean-spirited gossip with a taste for brilliant sentences, I enjoy the hell out of Austen, but Brontë has my heart. There aren’t many books you can love at 14 and again at 25 and again at 40, and each time anew, not out of nostalgia. (Holly Loth)

Jane Eyre is apparently one of the standard books used for 'bibliotherapy' in order to treat mild to moderatecases of depression, at least according to Body and Soul.

Librópatas (Spain) lists 7 reasons why you should read Jane Austen's Persuasion and the main character of the book, Anne Elliot, is described as similar to Jane Eyre in looking plain. And also in Spain, El Mundo describes the Queen's new look as Jane Eyre-looking too.

Pero mi gozo quedó en el proverbial pozo al ver las variaciones que hacía SM con su 'bob', sobre todo cuando se lo alisaba detrás de las orejas a lo Jane Eyre en su momento de mayor desesperación después de huir de Rochester. Peor aún, con la ayuda de lo que mi abuela llamaba un 'postiche' habían vuelto a fabricarse un nido de gorriones escandinavos a lo heroína de Strindberg. (Carlos García-Calvo) (Translation)

A new literary family in the Lancashire Evening Post.

Michael said: “There’s three of us that write in this house, and with my son’s degree in robotics and mechanics, it’s very likely that he’ll have to do some technical writing in the future.
“We’ve joked that we’re the Brontës of Penwortham!”

Booksblog (Italy) looks at writers' dogs, including the Brontës'. So Many Books, So  Little Time reviews Wuthering Heights.

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Women and Literature

A workshop in Pamplona, Spain with some Brontës:

Taller - Literatura y Mujeres - Civivox CondestableApril 29, May 13, May 27, June 24

Civivox Condestable
19:00 h. to 21:00 h.
Organized by Área de Educación y Cultura - Cultura del Ayuntamiento de Pamplona

Taller sobre literatura y mujeres que se centrará en conocer la tradición literaria femenina, sus temas y el diálogo que las escritoras establecieron con la cultura dominante en cada época.
El programa incluye: "Frankenstein" de Mary Shelley, "Cumbres borrascosas" de Emily Brontë, "Jane Eyre" de Charlotte Brontë y "El Molino de Floss" de George Eliot.

More information on Diario de Navarra.

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Dressing as Jane

First of all, an alert for later today, as seen in Todmorden News.

On April 28, Steve Woods will speak on ‘The History of Wuthering Heights’. The meeting commences at 7.30pm and is held at Todmorden Town Hall. All are welcome.

And the Ilkley Gazette looks at the many events that will make up Bradford’s first literature festival (May 15-24) such as

The district’s literary heritage is explored in Brontë-themed events - including a discussion of race and gender in their writing and a Brontë quiz - and a panel examining the lasting impact of JB Priestley’s writing.

Daily Xtra shares what's to be learned from Anne Lister's diary .

And what if the conditions that made such life possible — a woman of independent means gets just the right kind of education and experience that allows for the articulation of the unashamed “fairer-sex” desire and its satisfaction — produced more than just one case? How many other diaries by other heiresses might have existed? This is the era when Jane Austen is publishing her books, and the Brontës are just round the corner — but just how much are we still in the dark about the love practises of the times? (Lydia Perovic)

Finals are approaching and The Huffington Post lists 'Eleven Ways to Be a Bit Less Bad at Revision':

I wore themed outfits to my A-level examinations: dressing as Jane Eyre for my English exam, and as a cowboy for American History. (Eve Delaney)

HitFix has selected '10 awesome feminist comedy sketches'. the first of which is

1. Carol Burnett is "movie star crazy"One of the enduring treats of "The Carol Burnett Show" is the feminist undertones in many of her sketches. The fact that she's so outlandish and having so much fun is a triumph in itself, but in this sketch, we watch as a tabloid-obsessed wife is chastised by her husband for caring too much about Warren Beatty, Rod Steiger, and other Hollywood icons. How does she handle such criticism? By announcing -- through her favorite movie quotes, including "Mr. Skeffington" and "Wuthering Heights" -- that her boorish husband is too weak to handle her. Very "Born Yesterday," this sketch. (Louis Virtel)

The Brontë Parsonage website announces that they are looking for women named Charlotte born on April 21.

Many visitors to the Museum tell us that they are named after one of the Brontë sisters, so we thought it would be fitting to celebrate Charlotte Brontë's bicentenary next year with women and girls who share her name and her birthday.
Charlottes with a birthday on or around 21 April are invited to contact us at seekingcharlotte@bronte.org.uk.
Not called Charlotte but want to stay in touch with the project? Follow @BronteParsonage #seekingcharlotte on twitter -we'll keep you posted.

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Wuthering Heights in Aberystwyth

The Aberystwyth University 2nd Year Drama students present Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. Adapted and directed by Lucy Gough.

Wuthering Heights
Adapted and Directed by Lucy Gough
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Castle Theatre
April 29th - 7pm
April 30th - 2pm and 7 pm
May 1st - 7 pm

Our production of Wuthering Heights is about angels and demons, heaven and hell, the human and the beast. Despite the boundaries of walls, the outer world of the moor and the inner world of Wuthering Heights constantly break in on each other - just like the inner and outer world of the mind.

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Talking it up for the students

A student teacher writes about her college education in The State Press.

On the night before my first day of college, I lay awake in bed, my stomach twisting with anticipation and my eyes reading the popcorn constellations in my ceiling, looking for a sign of how the next day — and the next four years — would unfold.
My outfit was picked out and laying on the chair. My brand-new Toshiba laptop, my first laptop (rest in peace, old friend) and my high school graduation gift, was powered off and carefully tucked into my bag. My class schedule was printed, and my books, all purchased from the ASU Bookstore (a rookie mistake — always buy them used online), were neatly stacked on my nightstand. One of them was a copy of Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights," a required reading for my English 200 class. I wanted to be an English teacher after I graduated, and I had started reading the novel mid-way through the summer, but my diligence had tapered off because I couldn't understand why there were so many characters named Catherine.
It's been nearly four years since that night. I'm a student teacher at my alma mater high school, and I'm reading "Wuthering Heights," now a favorite of mine, with a senior Humanities class. The students might not have their Catherines straight yet, but they will.
I will graduate with a bachelor's degree in secondary English education in less than a month. [...]
My college experience has been invaluable. This is where I met my best friend. This is where I fell in love for the first time. This is where I had the chance to work with some of the most talented young journalists in my four-year tenure with The State Press. This is where I read the glorious masterpiece that is "Wuthering Heights" (I have to talk it up in case any of those senior Humanities students read this). This is where I learned how to be an educator, and I want to leave the door open for the students who will come after me. (Carly H. Blodgett)

Hinde Pomeraniec looks for the heroine of her generation's sentimental education in La Nación (Argentina).

Si sabe calcular la edad del otro con la mirada, posiblemente adivine que llegó a mi vida, a mis sueños y ambiciones femeninas en el final de mi escuela primaria, justo después de la historia de Jo y sus hermanas en Mujercitas o de Jane Eyre y Cumbres borrascosas.
Solita siempre se permitió mostrar en público debilidades, sufrimientos y hasta problemas económicos
Entre las novelas de Louise May Alcott o las de las hermanas Brontë y Rolando Rivas o Pobre diabla no hubo respiro para mi generación; pasábamos de la colección Robin Hood a los besos apasionados en primer plano como si la escuela de la vida y del amor estuviera signada por esas inevitables estaciones. (Translation)

And a columnist from The Topeka Capital-Journal writes in praise of her book club.

Witty, courageous, forgiving, generous, self-confident and inspirational, the 5:05 Book Club women embody the best qualities of powerful heroines in classic and modern day literature. Jane Eyre could learn a few tips from this ensemble. (Vicki Estes)

Stylist devotes an article to Charlotte Brontë.

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Violent Seizures and Lexic

 A recent thesis and a paper published in a recent conference:

Privately deviant, publicly disciplined: the violent seizure of female narratives in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The Woman in White, and Lady Audley’s Secret
Amanda K. Hand, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 2015

In Victorian England, women were subjects within their patriarchal society. What Anne Brontë, Wilkie Collins, Mary Elizabeth Braddon emphasize and “sensationalize” is the subjugated marriage relationship, violently portraying men forcing their wives into submission. Brontë’s Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Collin’s The Woman in White, and Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret provide examples of men attempting to control the women in their lives. These novels deploy moments of violent seizure to dramatize and critique the inequalities inherent in the strict Victorian marriage laws. However, despite this usurpation of the female narrative, the insurgent testimony of the female voice persists in the mind of the reader. This thesis will examine the Sensation genre, focusing on the female narratives within the three novels. It will argue that the female narrative cannot be shut out or stifled. Once it has been released into the world, it must evoke power and create a culture of change.

The Lexical Characteristics of Jane EyreLiu Chunling
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
2015 International Conference on Social Science and Technology Education (ICCSTE 2015)
Atlantis Press
ISBN:  978-94-62520-60-8
  Jane Eyre is a famous masterpiece of Charlotte Brontë. The novel’s literary achievement is immortal, especially the brilliant language. The description not only brings readers aesthetic pleasure but also hint the fate and emotion of characters. Charlotte’s original description forming a colorful picture makes Jane’s image more perfect and vivid and drives readers to search more for the beauty of the novel and the life. Moreover, Charlotte endows words with indefinite sense and deep connotation. This thesis aims to explore the lexical characteristics on the theory of linguistics.

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The Shoes and the Stuntman

The Salisbury Post reviews the poetry book Watch Where You Walk by Mary Kratt:

There is an extraordinary poem about the slave, Harriet Jacobs, hiding for seven years in order to escape her owner, and a delightful poem about Charlotte Brontë in the voice of her biographer, Elizabeth Gaskell. We meet Gerrude Stein and Virginia Woolf, and closer to home, Anna Huntington, whose powerful animal sculptures grace Brookgreen Garden. (Anthony S. Abbott)

The writer, fashion analyst and Brontëite Justine Picardie talks about British politicians' shoes in The New Statesman . Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Brontë get mentions:

Yet her commitment to women’s rights did not negate her interest in women’s shoes (and men’s, on occasion), including the ones that she saw while visiting the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth. “The natural fate of such things is to die before the body that wore them,” observed Woolf, who found herself curiously touched by the sight of Charlotte Brontë’s shoes, preserved in a glass case along with a thin muslin dress; relics that had “outlived her”.

The Irish Post on York:

York’s an old romantic at heart and that seems to have rubbed off along the way with many a royal wedding taking place in the city. It also boasts two Love Lanes, while just a short drive away is the Yorkshire Moors and the site where Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights.
Taking a leaf out of Kate’s book (‘Heathcliff, it’s me Cathy. Let me in-a-your window’ ) we took in the breath-taking York Minster, northern Europe’s largest Gothic cathedral and home of The Heart of Yorkshire that sits in the Great West Window, in all its stained-glass glory. (Siobhan Breatnach)

The Sunday Times publishes a curious detail in the Poldark-Heathcliff connection:

The exhilarating horse rides along the Cornish clifftops have combined with his muscular torso to make the Poldark star Aidan Turner a hot property.
But while the famous chest belongs to Turner, many of the coastline gallops were actually performed by stuntman Ben Atkinson. (Sanya Burgess)

And Ben Atkinson was indeed  a horse and cart driver in Wuthering Heights 2011. Small world.

Wide Sargasso Sea is a new blog which is defined as  'an analytical examination of the Jean Rhys novel'. This is My Joystick thinks that the development arcs of Kaidan Alenko (from the Mass Effects video game saga) and Jane Eyre are quite similar. Old Hollywood Films reviews Wuthering Heights 1939.

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Bleak Spirit

It seems that Morwenna J. Holman has channeled once again Emily Brontë (the third time in a few years... it seems that Emily is much more prolific dead than alive):

Bleak Spirit
Morwenna J. Holman
Publisher: FeedaRead.com (January 29, 2015)
ISBN-13: 978-1785105166

Bleak Spirit is based on the story of the tragic Brontës with Emily taking centre stage in this novel. Although we enter her mysti
cal world the sadness and futility of her brother's life reaches out to the reader and we alternately rejoice and despair as the family move through the years. Their original poetry has not been used in this book but the verses constructed still evoke those poignant feelings of the moors and the emotional tumult of their lives which transports the reader back to 19th century Yorkshire. For Emily it was always the moors and the hearth of home and in this novel the grimly austere Hawfield is portrayed as the Haworth we know and love. Emily comes out from the shadows in this novel and leaves behind something of the enigma she has been viewed with in other books but still that unique reserve of character and her desire for isolation seal her doom in her final illness. She desired to be as God made her and hence she returns to her mystical world as a free spirit, reunited with the brother she loved so much.

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Brussels Brontë Weekend 2015

The traditional Brussels Brontë Weekend:

25-26 April 2015: Brussels Brontë Weekend

Saturday 25 April 2015
14.00: We will be welcoming two guest speakers this year.
Claire Harman will talk about her new biography of Charlotte Brontë to be published in 2016, the bicentenary of Charlotte’s birth.
There will also be a talk by Bonnie Greer, President of the Brontë Society, writer and well-known TV personality, who’s joining us in Brussels this year.
Do join us for what promises to be a very interesting event.

Sunday 26 April 2015
10.00: Guided walk around Brontë places

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The Innocent

This is  a recent Jane Eyre retelling that was not under our rader until now:

The Innocent: A paranormal retelling of "Jane Eyre"
Candice Raquel Lee
ReaderLee Books
ISBN-13: 978-0991455706 (February 2, 2014)

"I was eaten, plain and simple. It felt like being burned alive, like every cell in my body was exploding. Then everything stopped--my breathing, my heart, my pain. . ."

In this retelling of Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester is an incubus with a touch that can kill.

Cristien LaRoche is terrifying, deceitful, beautiful and deadly. He is a medieval knight, a world-weary monster and a man cursed by his murderous past. He has come for Alexa Wyndham and nothing can sto
p him, not even himself. He knows he should leave her in peace. Alexa is everything he believes he can no longer be, pure, good, and happy, but Cristien has been alone for so long, and she is the only thing he has ever loved.

Alexa Wyndham is a college student out on her own for the first time. She is an innocent in every sense of the word, her views of the world formed from the romantic poetry and literary novels she reads. Alexa thinks love should be a perfect dream. Then an evening out in Manhattan lands her in a feverish nightmare full of deadly supernatural beings. Is Alexa brave enough to see the good man inside the monster and free Cristien from the ageless evil that haunts him? When all the veils are torn down and the truth is revealed, will Alexa rise from the ashes like a phoenix or will love destroy her utterly?

The Innocent is a passionate, poetic, and at times humorous novel about the transformative power of love. It will take the reader on a literary adventure from suffering to redemption, from innocence to heroism. At its heart, The Innocent is an allegory about Love and the immortal Soul.

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Emily Brontë: torturing high schoolers since 1847

Last night was World Book Night and Marie Claire chose a couple of Brontë novels as part of their '10 Books To Empower You In Celebration Of World Book Night'.

1. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Originally published under the pseudonym Currer Bell in 1847, it is hard to believe that Charlotte was only 31 when she finished her feminist masterpiece. Transforming personal experience into spellbinding art, Jane Eyre soars from the first sentence to her last. As Brontë writes, the novel's objective is clear: 'Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.' Her words have lost none of their bite: Jane Eyre is a passionate rejection of patriarchal repression. Jane Eyre sings and she's still unforgettable. [...]
6. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Pre-Raphaelite poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti referred to it at the time as 'a fiend of a book – an incredible monster'. He wasn't the only one who thought so – the overriding response to Emily Brontë's first-and-only novel was one of outrage. Even now, Emily's portrayal of masochistic 'first love' on the wild and untamed moors still shocks and provokes. As ugly as it is beautiful, it is hard to believe this violent tale of sexual obsession was written in 1847. 'I wish I were out of doors. I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free.' Emily's Cathy speaks and we are immediately by her side among the heather 'on those hills'. When Emily writes we still feel her frustrations and they become ours too. (Kat Lister)

Yesterday was also St George's Day, patron saint of England. The Irish Times had an article in praise of the English.

On this St George’s Day, while England goes about its business, too busy to demand a pubic [sic!] holiday, it would be a short-sighted individual indeed who would dismiss the English imagination. Look to Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, or to Auden or Larkin. JRR Tolkien celebrates the English imagination on an epic scale and draws on the Anglo-Saxon literary tradition. The novels of Thomas Hardy or better still his poetry such as his three-volume epic, The Dynasts (1904-1908). In many ways, perhaps through his use of the colloquial, folktale and ballads as well as his love of the Wessex landscape, Hardy is a bastion of melancholic and ultimately doomed Englishness. He is a defining English romantic. (Eileen Battersby)

Saint George is Sant Jordi in Catalonia (Spain), a day for giving books and roses, and the local edition of El País sums up the day as follows:

Però la festa és una festa d'amor, d'amor als llibres, i es dóna per bo tot sacrifici –les cues, l'estretor, la despesa, la dificultat de trobar el títol que es busca o de recordar-lo (“Teniu llibres de Jane Eyre?”)–. És també una festa d'amor a seques. (Jacinto Antón) (Translation)

The National Student reviews Northern Ballet's take on Wuthering Heights giving it 4 stars out of 5.

As the narrative driven piece moves on, we find ourselves watching the now grown up Cathy and Heathcliff (Martha Leebolt and Tobias Batley) dancing on the Yorkshire moors. Leebolt and Batley alike should be praised for their virtuosic ability to tell stories through pointed toes. It seems to serve as a trend with Northern Ballet recently, having also showcased 1984 and The Great Gatsby, both literature greats, in their repertoire. NB blur the boundaries between story and dance.
Though moments of the first half seemed a little slow, they were made up for in an impeccable second half, with the wedding scene stealing the show and documenting just how well Northern Ballet do it. The few slips were forgiven for such a well-choreographed and emotive piece. We see Heathcliff overthrown with power, temptation, intimacy and the ability to seduce and, well, the rest is dance. Hannah Bateman (playing Isabella Linton) is a true centrepiece for the NB, having proved her capabilities as her casted character.
Hironao Takahashi completes the set of soloists in his role of Edgar Linton. Though in the novel, we see a wash away, pathetic version of the character, Takahashi plays on the insecurities and forms a well-rounded and slightly comic character consistently, aided with the trembling hands of his Maids. (Dean Eastmond)

On the Scene Magazine adds:

At the end when all the dancers were taking their bows the room was electric. I clapped solidly for five minutes. My hands were left sore for ages afterward but it was such a stunning performance – I could not help it. (Lily Anderson)

The Southern Daily Echo concludes

From the start of the show’s two acts, we were captivated as sombre music and brooding scenery set the tone of Heathcliff’s anguish as he danced frenetically on the heath, recalling his youth when he and Cathy were once united in joy. By the time the ballet reached its conclusion it was difficult to imagine a more moving production.

An 18-year-old describes the novel as 'heavy' in The Huffington Post and The New York Post would seem to agree with her:

At 29, Emily Brontë published “Wuthering Heights,” which gave her immortality in the form of torturing high schoolers to this day. (Gregory E. Miller)

According to Fucsia (Colombia), Jane Eyre is one of five great heroines of women's literature.

4. Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brönte [sic].
"Querido lector, espero que nunca padezcas lo que yo padecí entonces. Que nunca broten de tus ojos unas lágrimas tan tempestuosas, abrasadoras y dolorosas como las que brotaron de los míos. Que nunca clames al cielo con ruegos tan angustiosos y desesperanzados como los que salieron de mis labios. Que nunca temas ser la causa de la desgracia del que más amas"
La huérfana Jane Eyre es la materialización del personaje destinado a romper con un destino incierto y miserable gracias a su entereza, fortaleza  e inteligencia, cualidades que generalmente se asociaban a los roles masculinos. Una mujer hecha a sí misma, se vale de su educación y coraje para romper con los estereotipos y limitaciones que arrastra la realidad de la pobreza. (Translation)

Jane Eyre is also mentioned in an anecdote in The New Yorker:

Kenji Yoshino, a professor of constitutional law at N.Y.U., writes in his new book, “Speak Now: Marriage Equality on Trial,” that when he and his husband, Ron Stoneham, were getting ready for their wedding, in 2009, they learned that, these days, most couples leave out “that tremulous moment where the officiant states, ‘If any of you can show just cause why these two may not be married, speak now, or else forever hold your peace.’ ” The phrase in its traditional form, from the Book of Common Prayer, is actually “why these two may not be lawfully married,” and it is meant to allow for the discovery of, say, a wife in another town, and not, outside of a romantic comedy, for the groom’s brother to announce that he thinks the groom really loves someone else—or, God forbid, for a filibuster by Ted Cruz. But Yoshino and Stoneham asked Judge Guido Calebresi, who officiated at their very lawful New York wedding, to keep the line in, as “a subtle reminder to ourselves and our guests that many of our fellow citizens felt they had just cause to object to our marriage.” Yoshino adds that he was quite sure no one would jump up, “though I did think wildly of that scene in Jane Eyre, when a stranger declares: ‘The marriage cannot go on.’ ” (Amy Davidson)

The Journal Gazette reveals that soon we will see another stage adaptation of the novel.

To end the season next year, Nichols says she will premiere her original adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre.”
“I was definitely motivated to get it finished once I knew we were going to be moving,” she says. “It gives us the opportunity to do some things like working with two-story sets and the ability to put the aisles where we want them. All of those things were important to me.” (Keiara Carr)

The Pennine Way is 50 years old today and BMC celebrates it by sharing '50 things you (probably) didn't know about the Pennine Way' such as

35. Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse visited by the Pennine Way, is said to have been the inspiration for the Earnshaw family house in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. (Hanna Lindon)

The Times Literary Supplement interviews Caryll Phillips:

 The version of Brontë’s novel that the reader is impelled to recover is no great and doomed tale of love (has romantic love ever really offered an adequate way of accounting for Wuthering Heights?) but one of inheritance and generation, of origins and renewals, of family abuses and misunderstandings played out from father to daughter and mother to son. It is, as Monica Johnson’s miserably curtailed existence suggests, about the problems of growing up and entering an adult life.
Where Brontë deliberately leaves Heathcliff’s racial origins uncertain (picked up from the streets of Liverpool, he is variously described as “a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect”, “a little Lascar [an East Indian sailor], or an American or Spanish castaway”), the legacy of a mixed white and Afro-Caribbean descent is central to Phillips’s reimagining.  (...)
In Wuthering Heights the reader is coaxed from the beginning into reading signs and gathering details into patterns that might prove adequate to explain the mystery at the book’s heart. It is a novel about storytelling, about learning to read, about reading well, and reading as both diversion and salvation. Phillips has found a way to enlist the strange energy of Emily Brontë’s work and redirect it to powerful and surprising effect. (Katryn Sutherland)

William Atkins has also written an article about it in The Guardian.

My own memories of the Pennine Way, it must be said, are not exactly green: I think of the denuded black nightmare of Kinder Scout, eroded to a terrain that seems newly released from a flood; the ankle-turning, ash-toned plateau of Cross Fell, a sudden fog contracting visibility to a metre’s ambit; the bog flats of Brontë Land, tinged blood-red by the stalks of dying cotton grass.

Librópatas (Spain) recommends a Wuthering Heights postcard among other literary ones. The Vivacious Reader posts about Emily Brontë's novel.

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Did Bertha have Huntington Disease?

This is a poster presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology; April 18-25, 2015; Washington, DC.:

Did the "Woman in the Attic" in Jane Eyre have Huntington Disease? 
Elizabeth Coon and Anhar Hassan
Neurology April 6, 2015 vol. 84 no. 14 Supplement S44.005

OBJECTIVE:
To describe features of Huntington disease in Charlotte Brontё’s character, Bertha Mason, in Jane Eyre. 
BACKGROUND: George Huntington’s essay “On Chorea” described adult-onset hereditary chorea in 1872. However, several decades preceding Huntington’s description, familial cases of chorea in children and adults with involuntary movements, speech disturbances, and progressive dementia were published. During this period of enhanced recognition of what is now termed Huntington disease, Charlotte Brontё published Jane Eyre in 1847.
METHODS:
Comparison of Charlotte Brontё’s portrayal of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre with George Huntington’s original description of Huntington disease.
RESULTS:
In Jane Eyre, Brontё features the enigmatic Bertha Mason, known as the “woman in the attic”. Mason had a progressive and familial neuropsychiatric disease with violent movements whose description mirrors the tenets in Huntington’s original essay. One tenet was the “tendency to insanity and suicide.” These behavioral features are prominently featured in Brontё’s text, with descriptions of Mason as a “maniac” with homicidal tendencies who later commits suicide. Mason’s cognitive decline is described as having a “cast of mind common, low, narrow and singularly incapable of being led to anything higher.” Brontё depicts Mason as having abnormal movements, described as wild and animal-like with “convulsive plunges.” Mason’s abnormal movements resemble the description in Huntington’s original essay which is of movements “which gradually increase in violence and variety.”
CONCLUSIONS:
Brontё’s character has a familial disorder with classic motor, cognitive and behavioral features of Huntington disease. This depiction has had implications for the treatment of patients with neuropsychiatric disease. Brontё’s unsympathetic portrayal of Mason’s neuropsychiatric illness has been deplored by literary critics who brought the issue of humane treatment of neuropsychiatric patients into broader view. This insight remains important today as patients with Huntington disease and their families continue to face stigmatization and prejudicial representation.

Elizabeth Coon, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, expands on the theory that Bertha had Huntington’s disease in this video published on Rare Disease Report:

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Not as old as Emily Brontë

Several writers tell The Guardian about the places that inspire them in the UK:

William Atkins on Top Withens near Haworth, West Yorkshire
I’m writing this in a farmhouse on the edge of the moors above Haworth, West Yorkshire. In the woodshed a pellet boiler’s being installed – there’s some concern that its droning will put off the swallows that normally nest there (we spotted the year’s first this afternoon). The lambs are blahing and gargling pitilessly from the adjacent field. “Give over,” I just told them. They arrive late up here, and are still rickety as botched stools.
This morning we took a walk I know pretty well, and which I love as much as any: up the taxing hill behind the house, past the gamekeeper’s cottage and onto the moor. The heather-burning season is over, but in patches the ground is still cindered with its aftermath. Walk east a few miles and the crowns of two trees appear over the moor’s brow, the westernmost specimen beginning to bud. As you walk on, the roofless house they attend comes into view.
These ruins are known to hundreds of thousands, despite their isolation. For they are what is left of Top Withens, the house associated with Wuthering Heights. Those twin trees beside them have always moved me: stalwart sycamores, holding out against the Ural winds – since Emily Brontë’s day, I like to think, though they are not that old. A caravan of tourists braves the hike uphill from the Brontë parsonage three miles away. If it’s “peace” you think you want, follow the Pennine Way south for a mile or so.
Abandon the flagstones and soon you’re in a desert realm. All around is flat and silent bog tinged blood-red by the stalks of cotton grass. And then the wind dies, and stillness occurs, like the slowing of a wheel.
At my feet, three hours later, the woodburner is ticking, and its radiance smarts where I’ve caught the sun.

Keighley News comments on a recent event at the Brontë Parsonage:

An enthusiastic audience of Brontë lovers watched the local premiere of an opera based on Wuthering Heights.
Brontë Parsonage Museum worker Charissa Hutchins organised last Saturday’s performance of extracts from the little-known work.
Bernard Hermann, the American composer of classic film soundtracks like Psycho and Citizen Kane, wrote the opera in the 1940s.
arissa said the concert, performed by herself with several other singers, was very well attended.
She said: “The first half, of operatic scenes, was greatly appreciated by the audience.
“Although the cast had very few rehearsals together, the Wuthering Heights extracts came together very well and all the cast members put in strong performances, both well-acted and well-sung.
“A few audience members made the comment after the show that this was the first opera that they had seen and they now look forward to going to another opera in the near future.”
Half of the proceeds from the concert will be donated to the Brontë Society. (David Knights)

The event warrants another article in the same newspaper:

We had a one-off operatic treat at Haworth Parish Church Hall last Saturday, produced and directed by local soprano Charissa Hutchins.
She pulled together a very talented group of five singers: herself, Louise Jacques, Leon Waksberg, Phil Wilcox and Yvonne Dean.
Gordon Balmforth directed the music from the piano and some rather nice violin obligati were played by Pamela Dimbleby.
In the first half of the evening we enjoyed operatic excerpts delivered with great gusto in a superb display of singing, superbly costumed.
The second half was a rare performance of part of the only opera by Bernard Herrmann, Wuthering Heights from 1951.
Although the music was much less familiar to what we heard in the first half it was performed with great passion and intensity.
I have to congratulate the entire cast and accompanists on their very great effort.
Charissa said afterwards that she hoped one day they would perform the entire opera. This was pure Brontë culture in the hall where Emily taught.
The hall was almost full, perhaps 100 people, and it was good to see in the audience many local musicians, particularly a good number from the local Gilbert and Sullivan society. (Jens Hislop)

Still locally, The Telegraph and Argus has an article on the goings-on within the ranks of the Brontë Society.

Campaigners pushing for the modernisation of the Brontë Society are standing for election to the organisation’s ruling council.
The controversial campaign’s two leaders are among those responding to the society’s call for new blood to fill a ‘skills gap’ on the council.
Success for John Thirlwell and Janice Lee could help drive through far-reaching changes to the way that both the literary society and Brontë Parsonage Museum is run.
Also standing for the ruling council is Haworth vicar, the Reverend Peter Mayo-Smith, who hopes the society will do more to attract tourists to the village.
The Haworth-based Brontë Society, which runs the museum, recently relaxed its rules governing council membership to help fill a shortfall in nominations.
It is understood that at least five of the 12 council members are due to stand down on the annual meeting in June.
Mr Thirlwell this week warned that whoever was elected, it was vital the new-look council responded to concerns raised by the modernisers.
He said key to this would be the findings of a review, currently being carried out, into the structure and governance of the Brontë Society.
Mr Thirlwell said: “The agreement was that we would see the report before going to the annual general meeting in June, so we can have some sensible debate about how the Brontë Society should operate.
“The museum should be a separate entity with a trust running it. We’re hoping the review will give us a way to put a new structure in place.
“We’ve had a lot of support from the people of Haworth saying ‘let’s get the society to work with local people, so that Haworth gains from this literary history’.”
Mr Mayo-Smith, priest in charge at Haworth Parish Church, hopes to bring his past business experience to the council if he is elected.
He also believes Haworth is failing to the most of its tourism potential, and wants the Brontë Parsonage Museum to pack a “harder punch”.
A spokesman for the Brontë Society said a sufficient number of members had put their names forward by April 11, the deadline for nominations, and the aim was to ensure the council had the “best possible skill set”.
The spokesman said membership numbers had risen since the beginning of the year.
Bonnie Greer, president of the Brontë Society: “It’s great that new members are coming forward to join council and we hope that any new members on the Brontë Society Council will continue the work and dedication of the present one.”
“I’m working to help diversify membership and bring on younger members - local, regional, national and international - who are all crucial to the future of the Brontë Society.” (David Knights)

We are not leaving Haworth yet as The Yorkshire Post mentions it in a short article on The Yorkshire part of the Pennine Way.

io9 has selected the 'Top 10 Most Horribly Mistreated First Wives In Gothic Fiction'. Of course one of them is

3. Bertha Antoinetta Mason Rochester from Jane Eyre
Here’s the star of the list. Thanks to high school English class, almost everyone knows Charlotte Brontë‘s most famous book. But here’s a quick review, from the first wife’s point of view. Bertha is rich. Edward Fairfax Rochester needs money. He marries her. She goes insane, in part, Rochester claims, because she was “unchaste.” He locks her in a single room in his attic with a single alcoholic servant to mind her, and then works off his anguish by slutting his way around Europe in an extremely “unchaste” manner. Finally comes back to England with an illegitimate daughter he barely tolerates and keeps Bertha a secret so he can marry the teenage governess he likes to verbally abuse.
The governess finds out about Bertha, and leaves. Eventually Bertha, who has a habit of being a firebug, sets fire to the entire house. Rochester escapes, and is reunited with Jane Eyre, the governess, but is blinded for many years and scarred for the rest of his life.
Lesson: Arson is usually the answer. (Esther Inglis-Arkell)

The Herald Scotland recommends 10 books to mark the anniversary of the publication of Robinson Crusoe on Saturday and one of them is book much mentioned on here when it was first published:

Shutter Island
Dennis Lehane
Written as a gothic homage to the likes of the Brontë sisters, with many a nod to the same genre of films, Lehane's creepy mystery is set in the 1950s when the disappearance of a patient in a hospital for the criminally insane leads investigating officers to make unsettling discoveries. It was later filmed, as the author could have predicted. (Rosemary Goring)

Emily Brontë as literary one-hit wonder in the CT Post.

"Wuthering Heights," by Emily Brontë
Brontë died just a year after "Wuthering Heights" was published, thus never living to see the success of her only novel. She was only 30 at the time of her death, and she believed the local climate and poor sanitary conditions led to her weakened health. "Heights" was her masterpiece and is considered an English classic. (Siobhan Schugmann)

And as a library treasure for writer Anna Moner in the Catalan section of El País (Spain)

els espectres de Catherine Earshaw i Heathcliff que Emily Brontë condemna a vagar pels ermassos de Yorkshire... Un recull de talismans que, en cada visita, a més de proporcionar-me un immens plaer, m’ajuden a bastir mons paral·lels, paradisos artificials, en els quals perdre’m. (Translation)

Revista GQ (Spain) recommends a book for each year of your life.

19 AÑOS: ‘Cumbres borrascosas’, de Emily Brontë
Tú crees que has conocido el amor en su faceta más huracanada, pero aún no sabes nada. Deja que Catherine y Heathcliff te lo cuenten. [...]
34 AÑOS: ‘Jane Eyre’, de Charlotte Brontë
¿Te acuerdas cuando conociste a su hermana en la postadolescente? Pues a ver que te parece la señorita Eyre. También puedes leer a: Anne, sobre todo su poesía. No hace falta que molestes por: Branwell. Aunque seguro que sus hermanas lo querían mucho. (Noel Ceballos) (Translation)

Readers Lane lists and reviews eight modern retellings of Jane Eyre;.

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Gaskell in Madrid

Today, April 23 in Madrid, Spain:

Elizabeth Gaskell, la Contadora de Historias
Por Mª José Coperías, Profesora titular de Filología Inglesa de la Universitat de València.
J23 de abril, 19.00 h.
Auditorio del Museo del Romanticismo (acceso por c/ Beneficencia)

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) es, junto con las hermanas Brontë y George Eliot, una de las novelistas victorianas mejor consideradas. Su vida se caracterizó por contar historias, y Charles Dickens llegó a apodarla “Sherezade”. En su vida privada era una gran conversadora y escribió innumerables cartas llenas de anécdotas.  Publicó seis novelas, entre las que se encuentran Cranford y Norte y Sur (de la que acaba de publicarse una reciente edición en español), una biografía, multitud de relatos e incluso algún ensayo.
Colabora: Editorial Cátedra.

*Actividad dentro de la NOCHE DE LOS LIBROS.

Actividad gratuita. No se requiere reserva previa. Acceso libre hasta completar aforo.  

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Do it for the Brontës!

Keighley News has an article on Charlotte Brontë's birthday celebrations yesterday.

A BBC crew is in Haworth today only hours before the launch of a major Brontë celebration.
Plans for a five-year-long festival to mark the Bronte siblings' 200th birthdays will be launched tonight at the house in Thornton where most of them were born.
Coincidentally, One Show presenter Cerys Matthews is making a short film about the youngest sister, Anne Brontë.
The Brontë200 festival, masterminded by the Brontë Society and the Brontë Parsonage Museum, will last five years.
It will begin next year with Charlotte’s 200th anniversary, followed by Branwell in 2017, Emily in 2018 and Anne in 2020.
The Brontë Society also plans to commemorate the siblings' father Patrick Brontë in 2019, 200 years after he was invited to take up the parson’s role in Haworth.
The launch party, being held on the same day as Charlotte Bronte's 199th birthday, is at Emily’s, in Thornton. It is hosted jointly by proprietor Marc de Luca and staff from the the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
Guests at the party will hear how the Brontë Society intends to ‘bring the Brontës to the world and the world to Yorkshire’ through a series of events, exhibitions and partnership projects. [...]
Matthew Withey, chairman of the Brontë Society Bicentenary Committee, said: “The bicentenaries of the Brontë siblings provide a tremendous opportunity for the Brontë Society to celebrate the legacy of the Brontës across the globe.”
There will be a website, bronte200.org, which will serve as a hub for all events and activities connected to the Bicentennial programme. (David Knights)

A few pictures of the BBC crew can be seen on Ponden Hall's Facebook page as well as on the Brontë Parsonage facebook page.

ITV News lists the bicentenary events as well while Marie Claire celebrated by selecting '12 Inspiring Charlotte Brontë Quotes To Live By'. Also, The Bookseller gives us some of the background of the collection of short stories inspired by Charlotte Brontë to be edited by Tracy Chevalier.

The Borough Press has acquired a collection of short stories inspired by Charlotte Brontë, edited by Tracy Chevalier.
Authors contributing stories for the collection, Reader, I Married Him, include Helen Dunmore, Susan Hill and Emma Donoghue. Each will use Brontë's famous line from Jane Eyre as a starting point for an original story.
Katie Espiner, publisher of The Borough Press, signed world rights in the anthology in a deal with Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown.
The book will be published in spring 2016, marking Charlotte Brontë's bicentenary year. Chevalier is also curating an exhibition at The Brontë Society and Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, where Bronte and her siblings lived.
She said: "Charlotte Brontë emerged from the most unlikely of places – a small parsonage in an isolated Yorkshire village – to become a celebrated author in an era when women were not encouraged to express themselves publicly or to be ambitious. Women writers owe her and her sisters a lot for kicking open that door. I want to celebrate her achievement by giving today’s writers an opportunity to riff on Charlotte’s most famous line. I expect the results to be startling and entertaining!"
Espiner added: "When Tracy first started talking about the anthology, I knew it was something we wanted to publish. Jane Eyre’s words are arguably among the best-known ever spoken in English literature, and I am excited to see the 21st century interpretation these brilliant women will bring."
Today (21st April) is the 199th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë's birth. (Joshua Farrington)

And it looks like next year the celebrations will cross the Atlantic too. Deseret News reports that Hale Center Theater Orem has announced the 2016 season which will include

“Jane Eyre,” a musical adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s classic Gothic romance novel, will run from April 21 to June 4.
The story of Jane, an orphan who grows up in a harsh boarding school and falls in love with her mysterious employer, is a beautiful, triumphant story about faith and forgiveness, Swenson said.
“The play leaves you feeling uplifted and better than when you arrived,” she said, as it shows the beautiful transformations that occur in both Jane and Mr. Rochester’s lives accompanied by “haunting” music.
“What sets this show apart from many musicals are the soaring, musical melodies that demand your attention,” Swenson said. (Ginny Romney)

On to regular news now. Palo Alto Online finds a Brontëite in young writer Kathleen Xue who has just published her debut novel.

Asked what her favorite books were, Xue named "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom, "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë and "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. (Maev Lowe)

While one of the tips given by The Telegraph on going through finals this year is

5. Learn to love exams.
‘What?’, I hear you cry, ‘Surely not – exams are the devils of the academic world!’. On the contrary; our detestation of exams is the real criminal of academia. Exams taken as single entities are the gateways to a flourishing career and study abroad opportunities.
Swan through those gateways, and the world is a more open place for us and our brains. Use exams to show off how excellent you are. Use exams as an opportunity to remember why you chose to study that subject. Fall back in love with the joy of solving equations or re-reading Wuthering Heights and you will perform so much better in the exam hall. (Hilary Bell)

The Telegraph and Argus has an article on the activities that will take place during the Bradford Literature Festival.

Topics to be explored this year will cover everything from ISIS to Islamophobia, Bollywood to the Brontës, comedy to crime, diabetes to doll making, horror to goth and poetry to politics. [...]
Will Self will be offering philosophical insights on particle physics with leading scientist Professor Akram Khan. Former literary editor of The Independent, Boyd Tonkin, will be discussing freedom of speech as well as chairing a number of events as part of a special Brontë-themed weekend. (Kathie Griffiths)

Detroit Theater Examiner includes The Heights by Kathe Koja and Nerve on a list of 'Five shows you don't want to miss' because 'you've not seen anything like it'.

Exclaim reviews the video of the song Don't Take Yourself Away (Instant Nostalgia) by Hawksley Workman:

Described as "one part Brontë, one part John Bender," the new clip brings together the unexpected worlds of Wuthering Heights and The Breakfast Club, with a rebellious-looking Workman delivering the tune against a backdrop of spooky moorlands.
Tied together by the cultural references' shared "brooding gothic angst," the video was directed by Ken Cunningham and serves as an entertaining accompaniment to the theatrical, glam rock-inspired pop song. (Sarah Murphy)

The Record features the Haworth Municipal Library... in New Jersey.

Raising money to run and expand a library has been a daunting challenge since the recession struck, so for a library that serves just 1,100 households, as Haworth’s does, it pays to be creative. When the Friends of the Haworth Library learned in 2012 that a 2,900-square-foot expansion project was facing a budget shortfall of roughly $150,000, the goup  hatched an idea to trade on the borough’s connections to anyone with so much as a hint of fame, and the fact that the town shares a name with Haworth, England — a West Yorkshire village and the home of the Brontë sisters.
“Haworth is such a small town that it felt like we had to go beyond our city limits,” said Beth Potter, president of the Friends organization and one of the architects of the fundraising campaign.
Potter started writing letters to anyone with even a tenuous connection to Haworth or its history: authors who might be fans of the Brontë sisters; the Haworth Furniture Co., based in Holland, Mich.; and the actress Brooke Shields, perhaps Haworth’s most famous ex-resident, who responded by buying a brick.
“I have a cockamamie idea,” one letter opened. “You’re going to change your email address because of me,” read another. “Do it for the Brontës!” concluded a third.
Donations started pouring in. [...]
But perhaps the most fitting donation came from the Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council in West Yorkshire, England, whose members voted unanimously to buy a brick. “From your friends in Haworth, UK,” the inscription will read when the patio is installed sometime in the next few months.
Potter, who has an abiding interest in local history, and other Haworth residents had long assumed that the borough was named for the West Yorkshire home of the Brontë sisters. Their suspicions were confirmed by a line in a 1923 directory that Potter purchased off eBay a few years ago.
John S. Sauzade, an Englewood-based lawyer and railroad financier, came to own much of the land around a railroad station in northern New Jersey in the years leading up to 1872, the directory said. Sauzade, the author of at least two novels, admired the work of Charlotte Brontë, the author of “Jane Eyre,” the directory noted, so he named his railroad station and the surrounding land “Haworth” in her memory.
“I’m sure the Brontë sisters would have totally approved of our support for a library in the ‘new world” John Huxley, the chairman of the Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council, explained in an email. “You never know,” he added, “we might be asking them for help someday!” (Nicholas Pugliese)

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The Smell of Jane Eyre

A curious initiative in Oñati (Basque country, Spain). At the local library:

Lurrinak eta Liburuak
Kata Literarioa
April 22, 19.00
Udal Liburutegian

Disfrutar de una experiencia emocionante, sensorial y diferente en torno al libro, ese es el objetivo de la cata literaria con la que la Biblioteca invitará a descubrir a qué huele una época, un personaje, un obra, un lugar ....a través de un perfume. Tratará de despertar el alma investigadora y los sentidos del lector, en el marco de las celebraciones del Día Internacional del Libro.
«Tenemos muchas palabras para describir otros sentidos y sensaciones, pero el olor parece desafiar las palabras. El sentido del olfato humano no está desarrollado fuertemente y aún así, es rico y profundo, y puede mejorar la forma en la que te comunicas. La literatura se ha fijado muchas veces en los olores, así que pensamos que poner olor a los libros sería una propuesta original para animar a la gente a acercarse a la Biblioteca y la cata que asocia perfumes y libros, un buen formato» explica la responsable del servicio Arantzazu Ibarrondo.
La cita será el miércoles, a las 19.00 horas, y permitirá descubrir los aromas de la novela negra, y degustar, entre otros, pasajes de «Twist» de Harkaitz Cano, «Seda» de Alessandro Baricco, «El amor en los tiempos del cólera» de Gabriel García Márquez, « Jane Eyre» de Charlote Brontë ... y por su puesto «El perfume» de Patrick Süskind.
«Hemos intentado elegir libros que la gente conozca, que aunque no los tenga leídos, sepa cuál podría ser la atmósfera del libro y que evoquen olores diferentes entre ellos. Creemos que será una experiencia distinta y aprenderemos disfrutando» relata Ibarrondo. (Marian González in El Diario Vasco) (Translation)

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Bicentenary minus one

The Western Courier reviews the Western Illinois University’s production of Jane Eyre the musical.

Whitney Willard plays Jane Eyre and her voice is flawless. Throughout the production Willard plays a perfectly witty Jane. This musical has Jane Eyre being a bit more passionate than the books, and it works.
Mr. Rochester, played by Grant Brown, is a comical character, with his stern moments. It is quite a different take on the traditional version.
The play opens with Willard introducing her young life. Her parents pass away from infection and she is shipped off to live with her Aunt and Uncle Reed. Once her uncle passes away, she is left neglected and tormented by her family. Eventually, they send her away to Lowood School for Girls.
Young Jane, played by Shannon Fields, is a passionate ball of fire. All she wants in life is fairness and love. However, her friend Helen teaches her the art of forgiveness.
When Jane grows up, she becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall for a man named Mr. Rochester. That is when Jane’s life changes forever.
The best part of the play by far, and perhaps the main reason I plan on seeing the play again this Wednesday, is when the gypsy comes to Thornfield and tells the fortunes of the residents at the hall. The singing and acting during that performance was spectacular.
Also, Kellie Nolan’s character Bessie is hilarious. She plays such a wonderful comedic relief character, and she could not do a better job. [...]
Western’s production of “Jane Eyre” is fantastic and definitely deserves to be watched over and over until it is gone. (Jessie Sheley)

Chicago Now's Big Words and Little Birds looks into the 'birth of horror' and passes through the Gothic genre.

[S.T.] Joshi states that while Walpole's work served as a basis or a framework for the gothic novel, many gothic writers "consciously departed" from his model, and thus the genre sees works that improve upon and better the elements present in Otranto, from minds such as Ann Radcliffe, Shelley, Poe, Henry James, and the Brontë sisters. (Melissa Baron)

The Galloway Gazette features a forthcoming talk/tour, 'Discovering Crockett’s Galloway' on the novels by SR Crockett and the real-life backgrounds where they were set.

Nowadays SR Crockett is best known for his novel “The Raiders” - his stirring tale of smugglers and gypsies which ranges from Heston Island on the Auchencairn coast to the fastnesses of the Galloway Hills, the Silver Flowe and Loch Neldricken. However Crockett wrote many adventure and romantic tales featuring the history, characters and folklore of Galloway , including sequel and prequel to “The Raiders” – “The Dark o’ the Moon” and “Silver Sand;’ and “Men of the Moss Hags” about the Covenanters and the Killing Times. All of these novels feature lovely, evocative descriptions of the countryside, sometimes using real place names but on other occasions tantalisingly masking the real places with fictional names. Cally has done the work to untangle this and will lead the audience into the world of Crockett’s Galloway from the 17th to 19th century with the aid of extracts from the novels and visual images.
Joan Mitchell. Chair of the festival committee said: “Some novelists have the ability to make the landscape setting an integral part of their story, conjuring up vibrant images of the countryside so that some areas of the country are for ever associated with these writers. Thomas Hardy’s Wessex and the Yorkshire Moors of the Brontë sisters are good examples. SR Crockett, writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, did the same for Galloway but unfortunately his work, which was hugely popular in his time, has fallen out of favour, at least until now when thanks to Cally’s work it is beginning to enjoy a revival.

Coincidentally, there's another Galloway in the news today as The Herald Scotland has George Galloway discuss 'the diverse and controversial Bradford West seat', described as

a constituency where mosques stand alongside churches, derelict mills crumble next to modern apartment blocks, independent shops and businesses line the streets and the famous rugged countryside of the Brontë sisters lies just minutes away from the terraced houses of the city.

Jezebel has an article on the 'doomed' relationship between Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift:

Romeo and Juliet. Heathcliff and Cathy. Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris. Some relationships are doomed from the start.
While most tragic romances are torn apart by feuding families, wars, or the untamable Yorkshire moors, Calvin and Taylor face a very different problem: Calvin is allergic to Taylor Swift’s beloved cats. (Madeleine Davies)

And finally, today is of course Charlotte Brontë's 199 birthday. Her bicentenary minus one and both BBC News and the Yorkshire Post extract from the Brontë Society's press release what to expect next year. Frock Flicks posts about Jane Eyre costumes in films and series. BookRiot has a guest post from Patricia Park, the author of Re Jane: A Novel, a Korean-American retelling of Brontë’s Jane Eyre set in Queens, Brooklyn, and Seoul (forthcoming with Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, Penguin on May 5). Hard Book Habit revisits Jane Eyre.

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Brontë 200

An important press release by the Brontë Society. The first clues of what will be the 2016 Charlotte Brontë's bicentenary:

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Brontë 199

Activities celebrating Charlotte Brontë's 199th birthday in Thornton, Haworth and London:

In Thornton, at Emily's by de Luca Boutique:

In Haworth, at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

April 21st 2015 - April 22nd 2015

To celebrate the 199th birthday of Charlotte Brontë, visitors to the Museum on Tuesday 21 April will have the opportunity to spend some time in the library with Ann Dinsdale, our Collections Manager, and see some of the treasures of our collection at close quarters.
Library sessions will take place at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm.  Although included in the price of admission to the Museum, places are strictly limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.  

In London, at The Trouble's Club:

Bonnie Greer & Judith Watts: Fan Fiction Workshop
April 21 @ 6:45 PM - 8:30 PM

She was a square, looking to find place to settle. He was tall, handsome, educated but kind of lonely, and needed someone to tutor his kid. But all was not as it seemed. In the shady attic corners of the large house, events were taking place that young Adele would certainly not be allowed to see.

Ok, not the greatest writing I admit but what you are reading is Trouble’s terrible attempt at doing fanfiction on Charlotte Brontë ’s Jane Eyre. We think you can probably do better, especially when guided by acclaimed critic and playwright Bonnie Greer and Judith Watts, author and publishing lecturer at Kingston University.

The two will be leading a workshop of fanfiction as a “Gateway to Your Own Voice” They will talk a bit about this new genre – 50 Shades of Grey grew out of Twilight, which name checks another  Brontë great: Emily.  All you need to do is know the plot of Jane Eyre (if you haven’t read the novel, a wikipedia-style précis and a few pages of its dialogue will do) and prepare your pens.

As Bonnie says: “This an empowering exercise. Everybody can write. You just need to begin to explore your own “line”. And you never stop learning. Fan fiction is a great way to begin… and could even become a lucrative career. I’m learning to do it  for pleasure. I think it can really expand the creative voice. I have a lot of respect for FF.”

Bonnie is President of the  Brontë Society, and this is part of her BSide project – aiming to bring their works into the 21st Century… and by extension, all great classics. This is the beginning of the 200th birthday anniversaries – in succession – of Charlotte, (2016) Branwell, Emily and Anne.  “They’re more in our heads than we know. ”

Judith loves the way Fan Fiction fires the imagination. A writer of erotic fiction, she enjoys the freedom it brings (Rochester beds Darcy), and how it brings reading and writing together. Judith is also working on a PhD in the Mills & Boon archives to become a Dr of Desire.

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