A literary bad boy and his eccentric creator

The Independent looks at strange sleeping habits of famous people and twists a well-known habit of the Brontës into fitting just eccentric Emily.

Novelist Emily Brontë walked around in circles until she fell asleep.
The 19th-century novelist and poet suffered from insomnia, and she would walk around her dining room table until she felt tired enough to fall asleep. (Emmie Martin)

The all three did that and in the end, it was Charlotte who ended up keeping the habit by herself.

If you are a fan of Jasper Fforde's (and you should be), The Guardian announces there will soon be a webchat with him.

The author of The Eyre Affair is coming in to chat about everything from Charlotte Brontë to comedy writing and will answer your questions in a live webchat from 1pm BST on Tuesday 3 May
As the author of The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde is an ideal guest to discuss this month’s Reading Group subject, Jane Eyre. Fforde’s debut novel provides a fine commentary on Rochester and friends – and some quite brilliant explanations for some of the odder elements and coincidences in Brontë’s plot. If you want an alternative theory about why Bertha died and how Rochester managed to get Jane to go and find him after the fire, this is the book to look at.
There is also much more to ask this prolific and talented writer at 1pm BST on 3 May. The Eyre Affair is only the first book of seven (so far) starring the literary detective Thursday Next, a series Fforde himself has described as “fantasy spread thick, deep, and silly”. That’s a pretty decent summary, except for the fact that it downplays how clever these books can be, and how many smart questions they raise about the way novels are put together and our own expectations when reading. (Sam Jordison)

The University of Toronto wonders,

Can that treasured copy of Jane Eyre inform current debates about sexual consent on campus? You bet, argues Elissa Gurman (department of English).

While IOL (South Africa) discusses how customers treat waiters.

Then there are the chefs, who are often charming alcoholics outside of work, but become knife-wielding maniacs in the kitchen. Ivan was one such cook - a mild, cardigan-wearing man who read Charlotte Brontë and owned two Yorkshire terriers. While setting up in the evenings, we would discuss the merits of corsets and the marvel of daffodils. But once behind the stove, he yelled and screamed and clattered and thumped and called me names that were decidedly un-Victorian. Then, after work, we would share a bottle of Blanc fume and talk about Jane Eyre, and he would apologise for having called me rude names. (Helen Walne)

The Wall Street Journal mentions Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering Heights opera.

Dorothy Herrmann, one of the composer’s daughters, spoke in between, injecting robust humor into her unvarnished reminiscences of life with father. She mentioned that he initially loathed “Psycho,” “until it became a cult classic. Then, he couldn’t say enough good things about it.” She also discussed his one opera, “Wuthering Heights,” a passion project that went unstaged in his lifetime and was recorded only at his own expense. (Its belated premiere came in 1982, in Portland, Ore.; its most recent U.S. revival was in 2011, in Minneapolis.) (David Mermelstein)

While iDiva looks at 'literary bad boys' such as

5. Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights
There isn't much good Heathcliff does in the book. From strangling dogs to digging up the rotting corpse of his adopted sister and possible lover, he isn't too likable. But there is a reprehensible element to him that makes him attractive. The dark-skinned Heathcliff is considered as a misguided Romeo by many, but at the same time he is also a monster. I guess, most of us just can't resist the bad boy charm. (Ainee Nizami)

Kristianstadsbladet (Sweden) celebrates Charlotte's bicentenary. The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page shares lots of pictures of the celebrations too. Early Bird Books reviews Juliet Barker's The Brontës.  Aleksandra Podstawka posts on the Brussels Brontë Blog about loneliness in Brussels. She Reads Books reviews Jane Steele. Suko's Notebook reviews Rita Maria Martinez's The Jane and Bertha in Me. The European Studies Blog from the British Library has published a post:

Although the British Library is rightly proud of its unique collection of manuscripts relating to Charlotte Brontë, including the four letters which inspired Chrissie Gittins’s poetry collection Professor Héger’s Daughter, its European collections also contain a number of volumes which reflect the worldwide reputation which this modest and retiring author achieved after her premature death in 1837 (sic!). (Susan Halstead)

Finally, Tom Gauld's Cultural Cartoon in The Guardian is devoted to Jane Eyre: