Breathing a Book Deep

It seems that finally the time is come. After many previous articles reporting the opening to visitors of Norton Conyers, the Yorkshire Post publishes an article that summarises the many and complicated reforms undertaken by their proprietors and announces that later this month the house will be open to visitors:

A hidden staircase leading to the “madwoman in the attic” which is thought to have inspired the novelist Charlotte Brontë will go on public view for the first time later this month.
The writer is believed to have visited Norton Conyers in 1839, seen the attics, and heard the family legend of “Mad Mary” who was secretly confined to an end room, as far away as possible from the rest of the house.
When Brontë wrote her 1847 classic Jane Eyre, she created the character of Edward Rochester’s Creole first wife who he locks away in the upper floors of his sprawling manor “three storeys high, of proportions not vast though considerable: a gentleman’s manor house” - which owners Sir James and Lady Graham say perfectly sums up the exterior of the house, near Ripon.
The house reopens for just a week from July 19 to July 26, and there is expected to be high demand to see the fruit of extensive repair and conservation work, which has seen the house closed to the public for the last eight years.

The Ilkley Gazette covers educational activities at the Ilkley Grammar School:

Students at Ilkley Grammar School have been busy entering and claiming prizes in language competitions this week. (...)
The girls have (...) also carried out some creative tasks including making a shrine to Charlotte Brontë and a Mayan Calendar based on Ilkley. (Claire Lomax)

The Guardian reviews The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson:

This book just made me very, very sad. The Sky is Everywhere is an incredibly beautifully written book that shocked me completely. I didn’t know that such an amazing book existed.
In the wake of her sister’s sudden death, Wuthering Heights-obsessed Lennie is left reeling. Suddenly finding she has nobody to turn to, she finds herself secluded and drowning in sorrow. (Lucy Lloyd)

Barbados Today talks about the 'sargassum' phenomena which is related to global warming:

If anyone had mentioned “sargassum” in a conversation with the average Caribbean person up to about five years ago, perhaps this unusual word would have immediately triggered an expression of bewilderment.
“Sarga what?” would have been a most likely response. The exception, of course, would have been someone who had read the 1966 post-colonial novel Wide Sargasso Sea by the Dominica-born, British author Jean Rhys.
In contrast, just about everyone in this region today is in some way familiar with the word because it speaks directly to a new Caribbean experience. Instead of bewilderment, mention of “sargassum” now brings expressions of frustration and, in some cases, helplessness.
Since the brown seaweed, indigenous to the Sargasso Sea close to Bermuda, started washing up on our shores from about five years ago, it has become a nightmare for the region.

The Canberra Times reviews the new film version of Madame Bovary:

In terms of setting, performance and design, the film is well constructed, with a sense of poise. Wasikowska has the fragile beauty to play tragic heroines, and she has visited the 19th century impressively before in Jane Eyre. (Paul Byrnes)

Nikki Gemell shares a beautiful story about bookstores in The Australian:

A cherished memory: My father taking me into Coddingtons in Wollongong after I’d won a book voucher in primary school. A coal mining man, who’d left school at 16 to go down the pit, this wasn’t his usual milieu and he didn’t know what should be bought; but just knew it had to be something special. Which meant leather-bound, because that was “proper”. Shyly he asked the lady behind the counter for help, and after a lingering conversation she picked out Jane Eyre. I’d never heard of it. I breathed that book deep for many years, and it rests beside my bed now. Coddingtons is long gone, but the feeling that I’d found “my place” in that store has never faded, and I still get a little thrum of a thrill when I chance across a good bookshop in whatever city I’m in.

Martha Petteys complains in the Glenn Falls Post-Star about her husband's zombie-obsessed film tastes:

“Oh yeah, it’s better than a story about a crazy woman locked in an attic,” hubby fired back.
That’s all he’s got on me — “Jane Eyre.” If I bust on his movie choices, he brings up “Jane Eyre.” Every time. I’ve got an arsenal of vampires, witches and time-traveling combat nurses to hit him with. He’s got classic literature.

The 1840s British Railway Mania bubble is discussed in Finanz und Wirtschaft (Switzerland):

Nach den ersten Erfolgen mit neuen Bahnlinien kennt das Land kein Halten mehr. Zwischen 1843 und 1845 autorisiert das Parlament den Bau von 13 000 Kilometern Eisenbahn, Pläne für mindestens 16 000 weitere Kilometer stehen in Arbeit. Die Finanzierung stellt kein Problem dar: Dutzende Fachzeitschriften kommen auf den Markt, vom «Railway Express» bis zur «Railway Review», in denen Aktienemissionen beworben werden. Die Investition in Bahngesellschaften wird zum Volkssport, an dem sich auch Prominenz wie Charles Darwin, John Stuart Mill sowie Emily und Anne Brontë beteiligt. (Mark Dittli) (Translation)

The book of the week on Librópatas (Spain) is Agnes Grey:

Cuando se habla de las hermanas Brontë, se suele hablar siempre de Charlotte – que fue la más famosa en su momento – y de Emily – cuyas Cumbres borrascosas levantan pasiones – y se suele dejar un poco en la oscuridad a Anne, la hermana más pequeña, a pesar de que sus historias merecen nuestra atención por derecho propio. A diferencias de sus hermanas, que escribían historias de amores románticos y en los que se veía el mundo de la forma apasionada que en el fondo correspondía al momento, Anne Brontë escribió historias mucho más pegadas a la realidad y en las que los comportamientos extremos no se explican por la pasión del momento. En La inquilina de Wildfell Hall, Anne habla por ejemplo del alcoholismo y sus efectos y lo hace de una forma realista, sin dejarse llevar por justificarlo basándose en pasiones del pasado ni nada similar. Eso hace que algunos críticos estén recuperando – y reivindicando – a Anne. Y, por ello, porque Anne Brontë merece nuestra atención y que la veamos como algo más que una de las tres hermanas, hoy nuestro libro de la semana es su primera novela, Agnes Grey. (Raquel C. Pico) (Translation)

The Hereford Times presents the Chapterhouse Theatre's performances of Jane Eyre at Hampton Court Castle on Thursday, July 16.