A free hero

The New Yorker makes an interesting point:

In the classic novel of adoption, the protagonist’s origins are dispensed with or obscured. Heathcliff is discovered parentless on the streets of Liverpool; Oliver Twist is orphaned from infancy. Without parental interference, the hero is free, for better or worse, to form himself. (Alexandra Schwartz)

The Conversation discusses the new ABC (Australia) miniseries The Beautiful Lie, the latest screen adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and warns of the fact that,

To adapt a first person narration from prose to screen is traditionally viewed as problematic: how does the visual storyteller translate first person narration through the apparatus of an all-seeing camera lens? Voiceover is employed sparingly on screen if at all in most instances, even when the text that’s being adapted is a canonical coming of age narrative like Jane Eyre or Great Expectations. (Yvonne Griggs)

Music OMH gives 5 stars to the Britten Sinfonia conducted by Oliver Knussen at Barbican Hall, London.

After the interval, Knussen and the Britten Sinfonia presented a rare Stravinsky piece – his Ode of 1943. This was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky in memory of his wife Natalie, who died the previous year. At just over ten minutes’ long, it is a short piece, and not a great one. In between the mournful Eulogy and Epitaph sections comes a rather incongruous Eclogue that recycles some jolly hunting horn music from a discarded project for a film adaptation of Jane Eyre. Still, it provided Knussen and his players with a warm-up for the tight ensemble playing of Michael Tippett’s Concerto for Orchestra. (John-Pierre Joyce)

Spanish writer Mariluz Villar shares some memories in La región (Spain).

Luego, en 1979, el destino me trajo a Ourense. Durante ese intervalo de tiempo ocurrieron muchas cosas, pero aún buceo feliz en aquella larga etapa de mi vida. “Allí seguíamos aquellas historias escritas por las Hermanas Brontë, Wilkie Collins, De Maurier… Horas creadas por Luisa Alberca, Sautier Casaseca, Marisa Villardefrancos (…), nombres que dejaron huella en el romanticismo de los espíritus sedientos de aventuras y misterios góticos, siempre arrullados por voces maravillosas.” “Se suponía que Juana Ginzo había vertido su última lágrima y Eduardo La Cueva entregaría a María Romero la carta reveladora de la inocencia de Matilde Vilariño”. (R. Puga and A. Outeiriño) (Translation)

The Brontë Parsonage Blog has compiled quotes from reviews of Claire Harman's biography of Charlotte Brontë. The Brontë Sisters discusses a recent review of the book too. AnneBrontë.org has a post on 'The Haworth Graveyard and Martha Brown'.

Here's the finished sand sculpture of Emily Brontë in Bradford. Readinheels reviews Wuthering Heights.