On hating Jane Eyre and liking Elizabeth Bennet

The Times has an article on Judi Dench being appointed Honorary President of the Brontë Society.

Next time Dame Judi Dench drives up to West Yorkshire, she should pack her copy of Wuthering Heights. Only the savage psychodrama of a Brontë novel could be an adequate preparation for taking over at the most bitterly divided fan club in Britain.
Under any normal circumstances, the appointment of a celebrated actress to the honorary presidency of a literary charity would barely trouble the local newspapers.
Yet the Brontë Society is no ordinary charity. (Oliver Moody) (Read more)

The Roanoke Times reviews Claire Harman's biography of Charlotte Brontë.

I once resolved to visit the graves of English writers Samuel Johnson, Emily Dickinson and the Brontë sisters. I made it to the first two. Perhaps reading this fine biography is not a bad substitute for the third. (Hilbert Campbell)

A columnist from Vox claims that, 'Jane Eyre is prickly, judgmental, and totally unlikeable. I love her'.

Prickly, judgmental Jane Eyre, the protagonist of the Charlotte Brontë novel of the same name, is not, perhaps, the most intrinsically lovable heroine of all time, or even of the 19th century.
She doesn’t have the sparkle and charm of Pride and Prejudice's Lizzie Bennet or Emma's Emma Woodhouse, or the tragicomic idealism of Middlemarch's Dorothea Brooke. When presented with a piteous, neglected child, Jane might allow that she’s rather fond of the poor thing, but she’ll also make a point of noting that the child is not particularly bright.
So when I asked the rest of the Vox culture staff if we should do something on Jane Eyre for Charlotte Brontë's 200th birthday on April 21, it wasn't really a surprise that two of my co-workers said in unison, "I hate Jane Eyre."
But I have loved Jane and her cool self-righteousness profoundly since the first time I read Jane Eyre at 16.
Jane Eyre already expects everyone to hate her
My admiration would probably confuse Jane. She never knows what to do when someone likes her, but she’s used to being despised. (Constance Grady) (Read more)

And right on cue, four authors tell the Daily Mail about their love for Elizabeth Bennet. Joanne Harris wishes,

If only I'd read Pride And Prejudice at school, instead of Jane Eyre, then I might have found the words to let him down politely - although, for that, he would have had to have been capable of understanding them.

In an interview in The Guardian, author Rick Riordan makes an interesting point about teenagers and reading:

Though the bad ones can put you off for ever…
I think there are two strains that run through the tradition of children’s literature in particular. One is the high-minded approach. I literally had parents say to me, my 13-year-old should be reading the Brontës – why are you giving them this? I love literature, but I think it does more harm than good to focus on what we think is important rather than trying to make books a conversation with children. My belief is if they do get interested in reading whatever it is, there is a chance they will read Jane Eyre at some point in their life. (Tim Adams)

The Guardian also reviews Noonday by Pat Barker.

Barker’s decision to situate Noonday, the final instalment in this second trilogy, during the blitz, is thus a bold one, although perhaps not as bold as the introduction of a new character bearing the name of Jane Eyre’s madwoman in the attic, Bertha Mason. Grossly overweight, a former prostitute, Barker’s Bertha now subsists as a medium: “She mightn’t have been much use giving birth to the living, but my God she was a dab hand giving birth to the dead.” (Stephanie Cross)

The Brussels Brontë Blog tells about their evening with Charlotte Brontë on April 16th. A couple of videos about the upcoming Northern Ballet Jane Eyre production deserve been seen:  preview and interviews with Cathy Marston and Hannah Bateman and a Behind the Scenes. RHVS Reports posts aabout Selfish Love in Wuthering Heights and The Great Gatsby; Diary of an Eccentric reviews The Jane and Bertha in Me by Rosa Maria Martinez; This scenery is evergreen reviews Jane Eyre. Juntado más letras (in Spanish) talks about Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea.