And no one does it better than the Brontës

Let's start with the now almost-daily dose of To Walk Invisible: if you're curious about the progress of the replicas of the Brontë Parsonage and surroundings on the Haworth moors, do visit this Facebook album by Haworth village, which is regularly updated.

A Bustle columnist has compiled a list of '7 Books I've Never Read (But Pretend I Have) That Make Me Feel Like a Terrible English Major' such as

6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Yeah, yeah, Catherine and Heathcliff and their wild love. I get it, people really like this book. For whatever reason I've neglected to read Wuthering Heights, despite having read a lot of other Victorian novels (including novels by the other Brontë sisters). Am I really missing out on the greatest love story of all time? Honestly, a lot of Victorian love stories all kind of blend together for me. (Shaun Fitzpatrick)

Perhaps that's because he hasn't heard of this reason why you should read Wuthering Heights, courtesy of Lifehacker (India).

Reading makes you Smart
Yeah! That's quite a reason for many, not for the ardent readers though. All classy men and women are fond of reading. You visit a coffee shop and your date finds you with a copy of 'Wuthering Heights', she is bound to come back for another date. Reading makes you street smart and enriches your knowledge on history, cultures, food and travel. (Suchayan Mandal)

Qué Leer (Spain) also mentions Emily's novel in an article about doomed love stories.

Puede suceder a la manera trágica de Heathcliff y Cathy en Cumbres Borrascosas o a la de Edward y Bella en Crepúsculo, dejándonos seducir por la Lolita nabokoviana, por la Lesbia de Catulo o por la Ligeia de Poe. A vuelta de página la posmodernidad no puede sino reconocer que hemos pasado del Ars Amandi a un campo de batalla sitiado por la traición, los celos y hasta la pura biología, donde la fiebre por la posesión que lleva a la violencia de género es compatible con la banalización del sexo, la permisividad aparente y la promiscuidad ambiente. ¿A qué, entonces, la condena de Don Juan? (Álvaro Bermejo) (Translation)

NPR begins a review of Adam Haslett's Imagine Me Gone as follows:

Mental illness has long been a mainstay of literature, from Don Quixote and Jane Eyre to Mrs. Dalloway and Madame Bovary. And why not? It's interesting. Novels like Crime and Punishment and The Catcher in the Rye find cultural insights in the tumult of nonconforming, besieged minds. Others, like Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot and Walker Percy's The Second Coming explore the devastating toll of mental illness on loved ones. (Heller McAlpin)

Ultima Voce (Italy) mentions Rebecca Traister's book All the Single Ladies.

I numeri, del resto, lo attestano sia oltreoceano che da noi, in Italia. C’è un libro, “All the Single Ladies – Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation”, scritto dalla giornalista del New York Times Rebecca Traister che spiega come la fascia di donne adulte single negli Stati Uniti sia sempre più ampia, al punto da superare la percentuale di americane adulte e con marito e da acquisire un certo peso politico in termini di elettorato. Cita Charlotte Brontë l’autrice, per comparare le condizioni di “zitellaggine”. Ai tempi della Brontë, il non avere marito comportava l’esclusione da qualsiasi opportunità economica e sociale. La cosa – secondo la Traister – è iniziata a migliorare man mano che le donne hanno iniziato a ritardare il fatidico sì ai 30 e poi ai 40 anni. (Alessandra Maria) (Translation)

Dread Central asks television writer Kerry Ehrin about the Brontë influences on Bates Motel.

Q: Throughout the series there’s been this overreaching kind of Brontë-esque vibe to the show. The whole series has a bit of a Gothic setting to it. Beyond the Hitchcock mythology and the subject of mental illness, would you say that a large theme within the show kind of reflects on the Brontës’ novels and the idea of loving someone whom you know it isn’t right to love in the way that you love them? Kerry Ehrin: There’s a huge influence… from the very, very beginning… everyone knows it’s Psycho, right, and everyone knows that it’s Hitchcock. And I think because that movie is two hours, you can live with Norman and you can feel for him in those two hours. But… we’re talking about doing 50 hours of these characters. And it is very intensely about these two characters. I don’t know if any two characters have ever done so much screen time on any show, honestly. It’s kind of amazing. So you need people to kind of buy into this love story so that they’re on the ride with them. And nobody does that better than the Brontës. And I actually studied Victorian Lit in college so it was a huge influence on me, and it was I think probably a personal thing to me to really try to pull out that Gothic romantic doomed lovers [theme], but at the same time you desperately want things to work out for them. It’s a larger than life love… and no one does it better than the Brontës. (Debi Moore) 

We have posted before about Bates Motel's Brontë references.

Liz Foster on Nouse discusses Jane Eyre:

Like many book-lovers I am sure, I find that I can look back on my life and recognise certain books which helped to shape the person I am now, and certain characters who remained with me long after reading the final page. Among these, it would be impossible not to include Jane Eyre. What stood out to me at 12 years old, when I first encountered the character Jane, was a certain quality which I shared, but which I had never seen in any great literary figure before.
She was strong, good, witty, intelligent and brave, and yet she was repeatedly overlooked by the majority of the other characters in Charlotte Brontë’s novel. Why? She was an introvert. (Read more)

There's a new article on Jane Eyre on Slate +. Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb interviews Tracy Chevalier and Culture and Anarchy reviews Reader, I Married Him. Bookwitty talks about Jane Eyre retellings.