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Wednesday, January 04, 2017

Wednesday, January 04, 2017 8:44 am by M. in , , , ,    No comments
 The Boston Standard liked To Walk Invisible but would have preferred a less abrupt ending:
The reverse was so of To Walk Invisible (BBC1), a dramatisation of the life of the Brontë sisters. Whilst their collective novels continue to revel in screen adaptations, the lives of the three semi-reclusive sisters gets far less attention. It was a shame. This was a great production, but alas came to an abrupt end as the editor, being reminded of its two-hour time slot, chopped the ending and lazily finished the story in captions. They died. The end. A mini-series would have been the better option. (James Waller-Davies)
Peter Hill from the Daily Express continues the holy mumbling crusade:
Did you watch the programme about the Brontë sisters last week and were you baffled most of the time? The BBC had lots of complaints about mumbling but it wasn’t just that.
The actors spoke at such a rate and often so quietly that it sounded more like gargling.
That was a shame because despite these drawbacks the reconstruction of life in miserable Haworth was brilliant. It could just have been even better.
We have already said that we don't think that 'lots of complaints' is a very precise term (there is an even larger 'lots of not complaints'). We have seen the production several times and we have to say that we don't see the mumbling/gargling point whatsoever.

Mastering the Victorian reviews the production in positive terms, in particular, its treatment of Branwell Brontë.

This columnist of the Times-Leader has good New Year's resolutions:
I confess that I tend to be a lazy reader, and have avoided some of the classics.
Although reading Grisham might teach me a bit about the law, this year I want to read Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Charlotte Brontë, even C.S. Lewis. (Geri Gibbons)
The Hays Daily News has a problem with its sources:
It’s winter. Days are short, nights are cold; unusually nice afternoon and rain instead of snow. We have three months to wonder what the weather will be like until March 20, the first day of spring.
When I read this quote by Charlotte Brontë, I found a reason to be glad we have winter. “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant. If we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” (Opal Flinn)
Well, you know, it's a nice quote but not by Charlotte. It's by Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672).

Literary pilgrimages in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
Maureen Vance of Minneapolis leapt at the chance to walk Stanage Edge in the United Kingdom, a setting in one of her favorite books, Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre.
“I wouldn’t say there was a single part of the hike that made me think, ‘Yes! This is exactly like the book,’ ” Vance said. “Rather, the experience of stomping around the muddy English countryside on a cool day made Jane’s experience in the story much more visceral.” (Kim Ode)
Stanage Edge is not a setting of Jane Eyre per se. It is a location used at the beginning of Jane Eyre 2011 when Jane is walking under the rain on the moors.

The Murphys (Cullen, Cait and Finn) are three siblings each publishing a book this year. Let's call them the Brontës! Greenwich Time informs:
“It wasn’t, say, like the Brontës, where the siblings created an incredibly complex fantasy world. But my parents did value reading. There were always lots of books around, and television viewing was limited. Trips to the library were a regular event. Finally, both my parents were themselves enthusiastic readers, so we grew up in that kind of atmosphere,” [Cait] said. (Robert Marchand)
The second machine age is coming and The Smithsonian is calling for new Luddites:
The plight of the unemployed workers even attracted the attention of Charlotte Brontë, who wrote them into her novel Shirley. “The throes of a sort of moral earthquake,” she noted, “were felt heaving under the hills of the northern counties.” (Clive Thompson)
Ozy has a quite arbitrary Brontë mention in an article about fox hunting with no killing:
This noncompetitive sport, with its complicated jumps and forest obstacles, is all about the art of the ride. Brought over to North America by European immigrants, the hunt is replete with history and formality. The dress code reads like Charlotte Brontë: “The gentleman member’s coat is scarlet, round corned, single-breasted frock coat of melton cloth, with forest-green collar.” (Jimmy Jeong)
We loved this Jane Eyre tribute by France Corbel on SparkLife. Maximumpop posts one of those quizzes where you find out your literary heroine: "Elizabeth Bennet to Jane Eyre, which classic literature heroine are you?". The What Should I Read Next podcast included a chat about Jane Eyre.

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