Semblance of Calm

The influence of the Brontë Society extends beyond its own territory:

A pilgrimage has been made to pay respects to Nuneaton's most famous daughter.
Members of the George Eliot Fellowship travelled to Highgate Cemetery in London.
It is where novelist George Eliot, who put Nuneaton on the world literary map, is buried.
Armed with gardening tools, the members weeded the area around the grave. (...)
"Last year, the Bronte Society posted a message on our Facebook page about the grave which galvanised us into organising a working party to carry out the duties." (Nuneaton News)

Mallory Ortberg, author of Texts from Jane Eyre, publishes in The Toast a short tidbit of her introduction to Villette to be published with the Harper Perennial new edition of the novel this September:

 During my first time reading Villette, I was taken in by Lucy Snowe’s semblance of calm entirely; when she finally admitted to having loved, and loved passionately, I was absolutely floored. The second time I read Villette, I was absolutely astonished that she had managed to convince me for even a second that she wasn’t in love. There is something thrilling, something that induces gratitude in me, about the privilege of spending so much time with Lucy Snowe’s singular mind, of hearing her thoughts, of slowly gaining hard-fought access to the innermost rooms of her soul. The third time I read Villette, I realized I kept a place for her in my heart too, a place of near-infinite capacity. I have suffered at her hands, but I am glad to have been held by them.

The Irish Times has its own views on The Guardian's 100 best novels in English list:

Jane Eyre is great but so is Villette. Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence is her best-known novel, partly thanks to the great movie – which drew my attention to Edith Wharton for the first time in my life. But The House of Mirth is the book I’d pick, of her fantastic oeuvre, and several appear on my list of favourite books of all time. I think his selection of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure is correct, but again, several of Hardy’s novels deserve a place. Missing altogether? Anne Brontë is always left out, but Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, if less polished than the novels of her sisters, deserve a place on any list of nineteenth-century novels. (Martin Doyle)

A wtf article in Edmonton Journal: back-to-school fashion tips:

Signature pieces: I don’t follow trends. I wear a lot of skirts and dresses, anything I can move in comfortably, and I like florals and colour. My favourite accessory is a Storiarts infinity scarf, with a passage on it from Jane Eyre. (Chris Standring quoting Julia Stanski)

Burlington County Times on summer readings à la binge:

As I had loved reading “Pride and Prejudice” for school, I decided to venture into a similar vein with “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë. While I preferred Austen’s classic, I pitied Jane’s childhood abuse and her struggle with Mr. Rochester. (Claire Smith)

WMRA talks about school summer reading lists:

So I have noticed that a lot of schools are moving toward including nonfiction and, particularly, memoirs on their required lists. You know, there are still a lot of classics. There's still "Wuthering Heights," and there are still Dickens'. But more and more, you're starting to see books that are recent and that are about real people's lives. (Kathryn Vanarendonk)

Libertad Digital (Spain) recommends Emilia Pardo Bazán's Los Pazos de Ulloa:

Los Pazos de Ulloa es una muy sólida novela realista, con gran maestría psicológica y ambiental, muy inteligentemente planteada. En su sombría grandeza, recuerda Cumbres borrascosas y presagia las Comedias bárbaras de Valle-Inclán. (Andrés Amorós) (Translation)

A radio interview with  Mark & Kristin Wheeler, directors of the Jane Eyre. The Musical production in New Salem on WUIS. The Huddersfield Daily Examiner posts a reminder of the upcoming  Brontë Festival of Women's Writing in Haworth. The Silver Petticoat Review compares Jane Eyre 2011 and 1996 versions.