The stairs and the wrong Brontës

Keighley News reports the award received by the creators of the new musical Wasted:

A new rock musical about the Brontë siblings was this week honoured in the Kevin Spacey Foundation Artists of Choice awards.
Wasted, which will receive a ‘work in progress’performance at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds in October, was named UK Musical Theatre winner.
Wasted is described as the remarkable true story of four young people with huge passions and amazing dreams.
A spokesman said: “Misfit kids from a Yorkshire village yearn to be heard, find fame beyond their wildest hopes and die tragically young.
“It is full of energy, emotion and humour, with songs inspired by their shocking, controversial genius. Wasted is the Brontës as you have never seen them before.” (David Knights)

The Bookseller republishes the news of the acquisition by the Brontë Society of the copy of Robert Southey’s The Remains of Henry Kirke White that belonged to Mrs Maria Brontë, including annotations by the Brontë children and unpublished material by Charlotte Brontë. (check this December post) and adds:

Members of the Brontë Society were allowed to view the book at their annual summer festival held last month in June. It is currently available to view as part of the "Treasures Tours" organised by the museum and is due to go on public display at the Parsonage in 2017.  (Katherine Cowdrey)

Daily O tries to anwer why Elizabeth Bennet remains Jane Austen's most powerful heroine. Regrettably the Brontë reference comes with a blunder:

Even today, Elizabeth Bennet with her wit, humour, intelligence and defiance, strikes a deep chord with modern women like myself.
Yes, I now prefer trials of a troubled yet self-sustaining individual like Emily Brontë's (!!!!) Jane Eyre over her.
But Ms Bennet was also unconventional in her own way, portrayed as more conservative and traditional than Ms Eyre but still different enough in 1813 when the book was first published and she was formally introduced to the world. (Twisha Chandra)

Fortunately(?), the blunder is compensated but yet another one, this time in Female First:

The English countryside is the heartland of romantic fiction. Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet found love surrounded by the beauty of Hertfordshire in Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte Brontë's (!!!) Catherine Earnshaw was swept off her feet by Heathcliff on the Yorkshire Moors in Wuthering Heights and even Gilly Cooper set all her steamy stories in the Cotswolds.

Science Daily highlights a recent article on reading fiction and mental health:

It's assumed that reading fiction is good for your mental health, but evidence linking Jane Eyre or Anna Karenina to a broadened mind has been mostly anecdotal. In a Review published on July 19 in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, a psychologist-novelist delves into that issue, arguing that reading or watching narratives may encourage empathy. By exploring the inner lives of characters on the page, readers can form ideas about others' emotions, motives, and ideas, off the page.

The actual paper can be read here:  Oatley, K. Fiction: Simulation of Social Worlds. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2016 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.06.002

We cannot but love the awesome DIY painted stairs as published on Metro:

Propping up the bottom of the pile sit three weighty classics – Wuthering Heights, Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, and Moby Dick. Because you need something to anchor that towering stack. (Alison Lynch)

Picture:  Pippa Branham/Facebook

Broadway World publishes a minibio of the playwright Brynne Frauenhoffer who is developing a Jane Eyre adaptation:

Brynne Frauenhoffer is a recent graduate from the University of Oklahoma, now living in Chicago. Her play Synchronicity will soon be workshopped at Salt Lake Acting Company; she is currently developing an adaptation of Jane Eyre for Adapt Theatre Company, and will have a play in the Snapshots 10-Minute Play Festival at 20% Theatre Company Chicago.

The Washingtonian reviews the novel The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close:

As Tolstoy’s old adage proves, unhappiness is the bedrock of much of great literature. Without discontent we wouldn’t have his Anna Karenina, or Jane Eyre, or Lily Bart, or Clarissa Dalloway, or Isabel Archer—miserable, fascinating women. A joyful protagonist doesn’t hold much interest. But those women, along with thousands of other literary mopes, are impressive feats because they explore and study their pain, seeking to alleviate it or even to compound it. Their thoughts spin barbed circles around their fates. They wrestle with the choices that will define their psyches. They grow. Beth does not. (Hillary Kelly)

Khmer Times (Cambodia) reviews Wuthering Heights:

I totally enjoyed this gripping book―if skipping work and meals just to finish it count as “enjoying.” I would recommend this book to anyone who craves a solo vacation yet can’t afford to get away. The lonely moors, and Heathcliff’s strange life story, will make a perfect trip for you. (Seak Sokcheng)

The Express Tribune (Pakistan) reports the re-opening of the British Council library in Karachi:

The library also houses four meeting rooms, where 20 people can gather for group-based discussions. The rooms are named after famous personalities such as poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, artist Sadequain and writers Roald Dahl and the Brontë sisters. (Saadia Qamar) 

A Brontë reference on Beaut.ie:

Part of me wishes I could walk around with my hand fan and just be done with it, but no matter how hard I try it’s just not the same, and I’m not sure how convinced people would be if I said I was auditioning for a part in Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. (Sarah Jane)

Der Freitag (in German) has a funny article with an appearance of the period drama (Brontë) cough:

Downton Abbey – das Hörspiel wäre genial für lange Fahrten mit dem Landrover durch die Moore der Maul- und Klauenseuche, der hustenden Brontë-Schwestern wie der rosa Trainingsanzüge tragenden Vicky Pollards (ein dralles Mädchen aus Little Britain,das stets „Aber ja, aber nein, aber ja, aber nein“ sagt).

Eastern Daily Press announces that the National Theatre's Jane Eyre 2017 tour will come to the Norwich Theatre Royal in July 2017; The Library Ladies review Jane Steele.