Branwell's Corner

The Brontë Parsonage Museum opens again today. The museum's Facebook page lets us see the gorgeous poster for Branwell's exhibition and on the museum's Twitter we see the last touches to Anne's costume from To Walk Invisible and the first visitors of the season.

Coincidentally, for some reason, these two pictures from 1963 and a similar date have turned up on today's news round and we find them worth sharing. They are by Eileen Ganly and show a 'Still Life of Emily Brontë's Belongings' and 'Branwell Brontë's Corner at the 'Black Bull''.

AmReading has selected '12 Literary Classics Reinvented As Stunning Graphic Novels' and two of them are Brontë-related:

1. Masterpiece Comics by R. Sikoryak
If you don’t know where to start when it comes to the classics, this book is a great launching pad. Sikoryak parodies the gamut, from Dante to Brontë. [...]
6. Jane Eyre The Graphic Novel by Charlotte Brontë adapted by Amy Corzine, illustrated by John M. Burns and Terry Wiley
A team of talented artists, working with Classical Comics, collaborated to make this beautiful adaptation of one of Brontë’s most enduring works. (Trish Parsons)

Repubblica (Italy) features actress Alba Rohrwacher, who reads Jane Eyre in a new Italian audiobook.

“Leggi una pagina e quella pagina già esiste, a prescindere dalla volontà che tu vuoi imporre a quel testo. La letteratura è più forte, fa di te un tramite per esistere”, dice Alba Rohrwacher in una pausa in sala di registrazione, di fronte alle telecamere che Emons ha voluto puntarle addosso per sapere che cosa del romanzo l’abbia stregata.
Non che sia stato facile. All’inizio quella ragazza maltrattata dalla zia, umiliata nel terribile collegio dove studiava per diventare insegnante, un luogo da incubo simile al collegio dove due delle sorelle della Brontë furono sterminate ancora bambine dalla febbre tifoide, l’aveva persino irritata: “La sua integrità, il suo restare fedele a se stessa, il suo andare avanti senza spostarsi mai, in alcuni momenti mi ha fatto rabbia, quella integrità sembrava trasformarsi in ottusità, volevo dirle cedi, dimentica… E invece aveva ragione lei, proprio comportandosi così è riuscita a coronare il suo sogno d’amore”.
Dopo seicento pagine Alba Rohrwacher, come le milioni di lettrici che ancora sospirano insieme a Jane Eyre per Rochester, uomo selvaggio ed enigmatico, con un terribile segreto nascosto nelle stanze dell’attico della casa, finisce con il dire: “Ho fatto questa traversata oceanica insieme a Jane e mi sono riconosciuta in lei. A cosa può aspirare una donna? A credere fortemente in qualche cosa e passando attraverso un oceano di dolori, peripezie e rinunce, arrivare a ottenere ciò che si è sognato all’inizio della propria avventura”. (Stefania Parmeggiani) (Translation)

There is also a video interview with the actress.

Times Square Chronicles tells about a recent event based on this concept:

Take about a dozen of the freshest faces and emerging talents on the Windy City musical theater scene and have them revisit the entire 2001 Broadway season songbook in concert. [...]
While Suessical was a hit that year, the next show featured was decidedly not. Jane Eyre the Musical brought Charlotte Brontë’s most popular character to life in a musical drama that played just 36 previews and 209 performances. While this show struggled to find an audience, for one night “Sirens” was lovingly revisited by Lauren Paris  & Matthew Hunter. (Stephen Best)

Which we still find unfair, by the way.

Still on the stage, GoodTimes reviews Jewel Theatre Company’s The Book Club Play:

Rounding out the club is Jen (Sierra Jolene, in a sweet, wistful performance), a shy bookworm type with a surprisingly scandalous past who’s never gotten over her childhood crush on Heathcliff. (Lisa Jensen)

More from the stage as The News-Press features Lab Theater's 'Burn This'.

“Burn This” is special, she says, partly because it was one of the first U.S. plays to feature an openly gay character.
“No one writes outsiders as well as Wilson,” she says. “His characters are fully dimensional and flawed. They are real and layered.
“He is such a literate playwright. In this play there are references to Chekhov, Nordic myths, Wagner, Norman Mailer, John Waters, Puccini, Springsteen, Wuthering Heights and Poe. He doesn't tie things up in pretty boxes. He leaves you guessing.” (Charles Runnells)

The National (Arab Emirates) has an article on 'one of the most cherished literary treasures of the Arab world': the Mu‘allaqāt.

Comprising around 571 abyat (lines), the Muaallaqat were composed by accomplished authors of the pre-Islamic era, including: Imru’ Al Qays, the wandering king; Tarafa, a pleasure-seeking youth; Zuhayr, a moralist; Antara, a black knight and Heathcliff-like romantic hero; the centenarian Labid; grief-stricken knight Amr ibn Kulthum, a regicide who laments over loss and grief; and Al Harith Ibn Hillizah, a leper who offers a tribal commentary.
Together, they offer insight into a colourful and forgotten time. (Rym Ghazal)

The Times has an obituary for The Dowager Marchioness of Anglesey, who

was born Elizabeth Shirley Vaughan Morgan in 1924, being named after Charlotte Brontë’s heroine.

And the sexist remark of the day comes from Portland Tribune. Behold:

Portland Public Schools boys are still significantly less likely to graduate high school in four years than their female counterparts. [...]
Physical activity is a huge part of boys' learning and processing, agrees Janet Allison, a Portland-based consultant.
Allison says teachers need gender-specific training on what boys need to succeed. A former elementary teacher, she found success having recess before desk lessons, providing hands-on activities, using clear behavior expectations and clear explanations of why this is relevant to boys, as well as an understanding that certain concepts — such as emotions and human relationships — are going to be more difficult. For example, boys may struggle much more with "Wuthering Heights" than they would with a sports biography, but that doesn't mean they aren't good at reading. (Shasta Kearns Moore)

Daisy Does Reviews posts about Wuthering Heights.