Celebrating Intelligence

Torontoist reviews the musical Matilda by Tim Minchin:

Up until now, 2016 has been a banner year for ignorance—see: the Trump candidacy, Britain’s exit from the EU—so it’s a refreshing treat to encounter a musical that celebrates intelligence, learning, logic, creativity, and a strong sense of right and wrong. All of which qualities are embodied in one feisty five-year-old rebel named Matilda. (...)
Matilda’s head certainly has more than the typical allotment of brains. Lavender (Riley O’Donnell), her self-appointed new best friend at Crunchem Hall school, believes Matilda has so much grey matter it might come pouring out of her ears, and vows to be there to catch it. Matilda, you see, is a human calculator and a voracious bookworm who has already devoured such classics as Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, Jane Eyre, and Crime and Punishment—the latter, in the original Russian. (Martin Morrow)

Rachel Cooke reviews in The Guardian the recent biography of the Yorkshire Ripper, Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son by Gordon Burn:

Occasionally, Burn quotes Elizabeth Gaskell, who passed through Bingley on her way to see Charlotte Brontë, and with good reason: the town remains inescapably Victorian, a liminal place hunkered between the heavy industry that caused it to grow, and the countryside that still bounds it.

Many websites are announcing the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, next July 16th. For instance, Creative Loafing in Atlanta or Broadsheet in Melbourne:

This Saturday, July 16, out on the wiley, windy moors of Candler Park, hundreds of Kate Bush admirers will gather to re-enact the music video for her classic single “Wuthering Heights.” Attendees are encouraged to dress “as Kate as they feel” (in a red dress, black belt, green eyeshadow, the works) and to arrive early to practice the steps to the video’s whimsical, free form dance routine. However, it is by no means necessary for participants to master the choreography. “It’s like a lot of goofy faces and spinning around, it doesn’t really matter if you know the dance,” says Kim Manning, one of the event’s coordinators. “We’ll call out the moves as we go, so people really shouldn’t be intimidated by needing to practice or really knowing it well, unless that’s what they’re into.” (Emily Kinzer)

There will be events in Montreal, Brighton, Atlanta, Sydney, Tel Aviv, London ,  Berlin, Uppsala, Malmö, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Oslo, Hobart, Adelaide, Amsterdam, Brisbane and Melbourne.

USA Today reviews several romance novels:

Gothic romances have a long and respected pedigree. Jane Eyre features most of the elements that mark such a story. Wuthering Heights has more than a few. (...)
In Etiquette With the Devil, heroine Clara Dawson always followed the rules, until one terrifying night when her inheritance is stolen and the man responsible is left for dead. (...)
“I first pitched this novel as Jane Eyre but with spies. I consider this a Gothic romance, but I think readers who prefer the classic Gothic romances may consider it a historical romance with strong Gothic elements, which I can also understand,” [Rebecca Paula, the author] said. (Madeline Hunter)

Mainfatti (Italy) presents a programme on Rai5 about English literature:

La campagna inglese è stata spesso protagonista della grande letteratura inglese dell'Ottocento. Poeti e romanzieri, da Jane Austen alle sorelle Brontë, a Thomas Hardy e William Wordsworth hanno scelto di viverci e di raccontarla nelle loro opere. (Translation)

Il Vescovado (Italy) talks about a couple of novels of Licia Giaquinto. One of them is La Lanara:

Per sfuggire al suo destino Adelina attraverserà "paesi, boschi e campagne", finché non giungerà in vista di un grande e magnifico palazzo: vi entrerà come l'ultima delle sguattere e - sorta di funebre, allucinata Jane Eyre, schiava amorevole e possessiva fino al delitto - servirà e accudirà con assoluta, cieca fedeltà il signore di quel luogo. (Translation)

Le Livroscope! (in French) reviews The Professor, part of the A Walk on the Moors Challenge;  the Brussels Brontë Blog now turns to Hungary in its search for Villette and The Professor translation; Les Soeurs Brontë (in French) has a 'numerological' approach to number three and the Brontës.