Comfortable with the Dark

The Yorkshire Evening Post talks about Oakwell Hall (which has survived the shameful axing of public museum resources by the Kirklees Council):

The hall dates back to the 15th century and has a rich history, having been involved in the English Civic War, not to mention its Brontë connections. (...)
Hunni [Hindley-Maggs] also has connections to the Brontë family. Indeed, listening to her talk on the phone, it is almost as though the people she references died only a short time ago. “There’s also the Brontë chair,” she begins, casually. George Edward Hindley-Maggs’ father was Dr Oliver Maggs, who was the medical officer for Howarth. Branwell Brontë had paid the landlady of The Black Bull for board and lodgings (and a bar bill) by giving her some furniture and she in turn paid Dr Maggs with the same for his services - that furniture then ended up at Oakwell Hall and was that which was later removed. (Neil Hudson)

The Mercury Filey & Hunmamby highlights a portrait of Mary Bean by an unknown artist now part of the Scarborough Collections:

Somewhat reminiscent of the famous portrait of the Brontë sisters painted by their father Patrick, this 19th century painting portrays a woman called Mary Bean.
But where the three Brontë girls are shown in rather dowdy day clothes, Mary Bean is an altogether more glamorous proposition: a symphony in scarlet in a low-cut velvet evening gown with billowing sleeves, her hair held aloft by what appears to be a tortoiseshell comb. 

The Telegraph reviews The Invention of Angela Carter. A Biography by Edmund Gordon:

Some time in the early Sixties, Angela Carter was asked to name her favourite women writers. She presumed the person meant – and it’s characteristic of Carter to have thought there was any ambiguity in the question – writers with “a specifically feminine sensibility”.
“I said Emily Brontë, who’s pure butch,” she later wrote to a friend, “and cursed myself afterwards because the greatest feminine writer who’s ever lived is Dostoevsky, followed closely by Herman Melville.” (Gaby Wood)

Curiously, The Guardian quotes Angela Carter in a 1966 article on Bob Dylan which mentions Wuthering Heights:

He began to jerk into life when the group came on in the second half and the noise bit began. This Dylan is clanging and vulgar, neon and plastic and, at the same time, blackly, bleakly romantic. And exhilarating, akin to reading The Dunciad or a strip cartoon version of Wuthering Heights while riding a roller coaster.

The Hindu goes deep into the fetishism of books:

Where are the sighs of satisfaction on sighting the Vintage Classics cover of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, the simplicity of the heroine reflected in the simplicity of the font (Baskerville) and the simplicity of the image (the silhouetted profile of a woman; so attuned is this visual to Jane’s self-descriptions, which suggest she’d be more comfortable with the dark... I am poor, obscure, plain, and little... I am your plain, Quakerish governess...)? (Baradwaj Rangan)

Another Indian newspaper, the Daily Pioneer reviews A Book of Light by Jerry Pinto:

And it does so without any romanticisation of mental disorders. English literature has given us characters suffering from psychological challenges who will forever be etched in our memories and continue to unsettle us — from Virginia Woolf’s Septimus Smith to Charlotte Brontë’s Bertha Mason. (Ananya Borgohain)

The Dunkirk Observer has visited the National Portrait Gallery in London:

I purposely sought out the portrait of Emily Brontë and her sisters, which are sadly, in very poor condition. In fact, I walked right by the portrait of Emily and had to ask later where it might be. It is protected in a glass case, a rendering hardly bigger than a postcard. (Robyn Near)

Alt Daily interviews Gazelle Amber Valentine from the band Jucifer:

Who were some of your female role models (in music and otherwise? (Evey Stoner)
I didn’t really think about female role models growing up, (...) That said, whenever I noticed women who appeared strong and intelligent and had something unique about them, I was impressed and wanted to be that kind of individual when I grew up. Tina Turner, Dolly Parton and Deborah Harry were some of the music women I loved. In literature, I was really into Emily Brontë.

Niner Times reviews Andrea Arnold's American Honey:

I was introduced to Arnold’s work in her 2011 adaption of Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” starring Kaya Scodelario. Arnold’s stark approach to the classic material breathed a new, sometimes ugly light into it, with a focus on silence (the film lacked a musical score) and verbal communication, the film was a beautifully realized piece of work. (Hunter Heilman)

National Review links together the Elena Ferrante case, the obsession with cultural appropriation and the tyranny of the politically correct:

It’s also insulting to the abilities of truly great storytellers. Did Shakespeare have nothing worth saying about women’s experience, or Emily Brontë about men’s experience? Do we really think imagination is limited by what a writer has personally experienced, and that nothing can be learned by observing others, by contemplating their approach to life and their actions? (Katrina Trinko)

Bay Weekly thinks Crimson Peak:

An astounding tribute to the Gothic genre, Crimson Peak pulls threads and themes from famous works such as Jane Eyre and Rebecca. (Diana Beechener)

The Guardian interviews the singer Melanie Chisholm:

What is your earliest memory? (Rosanna Greenstreet)
Aged three, in a cake shop, hearing Wuthering Heights on the radio.

Norrköpings Tidningar (in Swedish) reviews the novel Blåst! by Eva-Marie Liffner:

Det är Ned som är berättarrösten för det mesta, en sprudlande berättare som kastar sig mellan skilda tider, platser och verkligheter. I andra lägen kan det vara Bran, mindre känd bror till sina författande systrar Emily, Charlotte och Anne, som för ordet. Han berättar om en barndom fylld av fantasilekar och magi.
Det gäller att hänga med när Eva-Marie Liffner rör sig mellan syskonen Brontës karga hedar, franska slagfält och gränderna i de mindre fina kvarteren i Oxford. En hund dyker upp. En hund försvinner. En kvinna anländer på motorcykel, eller är det en hertig på ett skepp? (...)
Ett gammal lånekort till Oxfords bibliotek Bodleian visar sig ha kopplingar till såväl Johnnie T som i Tolkien, som till Brontëbarnens hemliga Underjord. Finns i själva verket Gondal? ( Susanne Sterner) (Translation)

El Punt Avui (in Catalan) reviews the Spanish translation of Jane, le renard et moi by Isabelle Arsenault and Fanny Britt:

La protagonista de la història és Hélène, una noia que és víctima d'assetjament escolar. El seu refugi és la lectura. Concretament la novel·la Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë. Hélène se sent molt identificada amb el personatge de la Brontë. Tècnicament, les escenes que il·lustren la novel·la tenen un cromatisme diferent. A mesura que avança la narració, i la força de Jane Eyre s'incorpora amb més intensitat al relat principal, el grafisme diferenciat de les dues narracions paral·leles va confluint en una proposta gràfica i cromàtica híbrida. Fins i tot, la guineu, que apareix en la novel·la de Brontë com un element decoratiu, pren forma d'animal dissecat en el despatx del senyor Rochester, amo i després pretendent de Jane Eyre. La guineu pren vida, ni que sigui de manera fantasiosa a la vida d'Hélène i esdevé per un instant un dels pocs companys gratificants de la seva vida. (Jaume Vidal and Xavier Roca) (Translation)

HelenPollardWrites talks about the recent appearance of Tracy Chevalier at the Ilkley Literature Festival; stewartstaffordblog discusses the influence of Wuthering Heights on vampire and popular culture; Kağıttan Dünyam (in Turkish) posts about the Brontës.