Stellar Protagonist

Bristol 24/7 reviews Sally Cookson's adaptation of Jane Eyre, now back in Bristol:

Drawing most successfully on such lines from its source, Jane Eyre returns to BOV where it was conceived and devised, after its much-lauded season at London's National Theatre (now its co-producers). There, the show underwent a nip-and-tuck from its original epic two-parter into a more compact 210 minutes. Having seen it in two parts (albeit in the wrong order), I can't say that this production has suffered at all. It didn't miss the trimmed 45 minutes, even though that's an eternity in terms of theatrical real-time: a successful vanishing trick. (Rina Vergano)

The odyssey of Javed Bhatti completing a double run of the Pennine Way on grough:

Bhatti completed The Montane Spine Race early last Saturday and spent a few hours recuperating in Kirk Yetholm before turning round to attempt the full 431km (268-mile) route again, this time southwards.
grough caught up with the runner as he approached Top Withins on the West Yorkshire moors, reputed setting for Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights. Appropriately, he was in high spirits as he tackled the penultimate day of his two-week-plus challenge.
He said: “I’m feeling really good. I’m really enjoying it, it’s getting better and better at the moment. We had a cold start, sunshine, a little bit of wind but that’s quite pleasant.”

A reader of The Telegraph vindicates the pride of being English:

Britain has much to be proud of. It is the land of Chaucer, Shakespeare, the Brontës, Newton, Churchill, the Beatles, Elgar, J K Rowling and Adele. This is where the Industrial Revolution and the world wide web originated, and we created the Commonwealth, the Scout Movement and the Salvation Army. (Nicholas Young)

Fiona Wood talks about her novel Cloudwish among other things on news.com.au:

The following year, I created Vân Uoc Phan, a minor character in Wildlife, my second novel. (Vân Uoc now takes centre stage in my new novel, Cloudwish. She gets to do plenty and has the thumbs up from Jo.)
When Jo was in year eight, we read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Even though the classics aren’t universally popular with secondary school students, Jane Eyre is one of my favourite books and I was confident I was offering a good read, with a stellar protagonist. So I have to admit I was a little disappointed when we started the book; Jo read with understandable hesitation as she encountered a seemingly nonstop stream of unfamiliar vocabulary. It seemed those sentences were longer than I remembered.

Télérama (France) recommends the recent France Culture radio adaptation of Jane Eyre:

La réalisation de Juliette Heymann est fine, la musique discrète mais évocatrice, les bruitages de Patrick Martinache subtils et forts — l'auditeur est complètement immergé dans une bagarre entre Jane et son cousin, ou se sent doucement frôlé par Jane et Edward lorsqu'ils se déclarent. Surtout, l'interprétation de Julie-Marie Parmentier est impeccable : sa diction claire, sa voix fraîche lui permettent d'adopter un timbre tantôt ­enfantin, tantôt plus mature. Toujours convaincant. (Laurence Le Saux) (Translation)

Público (Portugal) quotes António Lobo Antunes as saying:

Se me perguntar qual é a maior escritora portuguesa, respondo-lhe que é a Agustina [Bessa-Luís], não tenho a menor dúvida. Mas há mais. A madame de la Fayette, que escreveu La Princesse de Clèves, Mme de Sévigny, a grande epistológrafa, a Emily Brontë (estava a dizer maravilhas do Monte dos Vendavais e o George Steiner a torcer o nariz, e tinha razão, é uma escrita histérica...). (Rui Cardoso Martins) (Translation)

An article about Ebba Witt-Brattström published in Sydsvenskan (Sweden) quotes from the recent New Yorker article by Adelle Waldmaan on the ideal marriage according to literature:

I essän ”The Ideal Marriage, According to Novels”, som nyligen publicerades i The New Yorker, skriver författaren Adelle Waldman om vad som skiljer manliga och kvinnliga författares sätt att skildra kärlek.
Romanfigurer skapade av kvinnor, menar hon, och hänvisar till såväl Jane Austen och Charlotte Brontë som Elena Ferrante, är upptagna och intresserade av sina älskades hjärnor. De söker efter en partner som de kan känna samhörighet med, inte bara sett till attraktion och känslor. De eftersträvar intellektuell och moralisk jämställdhet. (Filip Yifter-Svensson ) ( Translation)

Die Welt (Germany) announces a Hamburg screening of the National Theatre production of Jane Eyre:

Wer Cary Fukunages grandiose "Jane Eyre"-Verfilmung mit Mia Wasikowska und Michael Fassbender von 2011 im Kino gesehen hat, weiß, dass der Stoff der viktorianischen Romanvorlage von Charlotte Brontë auch heute noch alles andere als verstaubt, pathetisch oder gar kitschig ist, wenn die Inszenierung stimmig ist. Dies ist auch der Regisseurin Sally Cockson mit ihrer Bühnenadaption am Londoner National Theatre gelungen, Cocksons "Jane Eyre" wird von der britischen Presse einhellig gefeiert. (Translation)

Región de Murcia (Spain) interviews the writer Pilar Pedraza:

¿Y por qué a menudo se ponían seudónimos masculinos?
Pues no tanto para tapar su identidad femenina como para preservar su libertad. George Sand, George Eliot, Vernon Lee… muchas de ellas escribieron con nombres de hombre, sí. Pero todo el mundo sabía quiénes eran. Quiero decirte que a veces se exagera y se victimiza algo que, en realidad, debería ser reivindicado. Porque Jane Austen o las Brontë estaban en el mercado. Vivían de la pluma. Había un público lector de mujeres y había mujeres ilustradas, que iban a conferencias, que estaban en los círculos de escritores y artistas. Y esto no hay que ignorarlo. Ni caer en el victimismo. Y poner de manifiesto que las mujeres no siempre han estado en la carbonera o en el rincón de la casa. Las mujeres del pasado no vivían en ningún limbo infernal, ni es verdad que no pintaran nada en la sociedad. Sí que pintaban. Y en la literatura, bastante. (José Miguel Vilar-Bou) (Translation)

A Howorth (!) sighting in the North-West Evening Mail; Cinque Cose Belle (in Italian) quotes from Wuthering Heights; Public Books reviews Patricia Park's Re Jane; AnneBronte.org posts a nice Anne Brontë beginner's guide infography.