#ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear

Today marks the 201st anniversary of the birth of Charlotte Brontë.
EDIT: Check the National Portrait Gallery's Instagram, Your Story with a list of Charlotte Brontë's quotes, How Stuff Works posts five (rather trivial and tabloid-like) facts bout our author, Mental Floss publishes ten (real) facts, a guest post by Catherine Lowell Bookriot , Un Mondo di Italiani, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Entérate, Gaceta Mexicana...

India Times picks up on a recent Twitter hashtag: #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear.

Charlotte Brontë’s ”Jane Eyre” deciphered the complex variety of critical approaches and significant statements about issues central to women and their lives and let's not even get started about J.K. Rowling, the phenomenal writer, who captured our hearts and our imaginations through the fantastical world of Harry Potter. [...]
Recently twitter had a rather catechising session that got us vis-à-vis with the harsh reality of the literary world. A lot of budding writers shared their experience and the kind of sexist mark that they receive, as they step in this world, presumably boasting of being male dominated.
"Have you considered using a pseudonym so people don't know you're a woman?"
Because it's 1842 & I'm a Brontë. #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear— Emma Olson (@jonesing4words) April 18, 2017 (Shewali Tiwari)

After linking to a controversial article a few days ago discussing why Jane Eyre is not a good role model and after years of reading article after article on why she is a good role model, we think that precisely that is one of the #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear. You don't read articles discussing whether Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist, Bilbo Baggins or Holden Caulfield are good or bad role models, now do you?

On Vox we read why 'The Brontë sisters are the feminist heroes we need in 2017' based on their lives, To Walk Invisible and the theatre play The Moors.

Charlotte Brontë’s 200th birthday was last year, but 2017 is shaping up to be the year of the Brontë sisters regardless. They’ve left the bookshelf to show up onstage and onscreen, and everywhere they go they bring with them allegories of fighting the patriarchy. [...]
What animates the Brontë sisters’ work is a specifically feminine anger in response to their patriarchal society, a feeling of being hunted and trapped and confined and degraded that is peculiar to women of great intelligence and few opportunities and resources.
So you have Jane Eyre kicking and biting as she is tied down and admonished to sit still and be quiet, like a good girl; you have her chafing at her isolation in the schoolroom and remarking, “Women are supposed to be very calm generally, but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer.”
You have Wuthering Heights’ Catherine Earnshaw slapping and pinching and biting like “a rude little savage” out on the moors, and then dressing herself up in a silk gown and pretending to be domesticated so that she can marry well, because she’ll have no money otherwise. You have The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’s Helen resolving to redeem her dissolute husband through love and good works, as a woman should, and finding instead that he has ruined her life.
The Brontë novels are about women who want to be free and who have been trapped by the patriarchy. And luckily for our current cultural moment, the Brontë sisters come with a dissolute brother tailor-made to represent the patriarchy. (Constance Grady) (Read more)

Rotherham Advertiser reviews Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre.

The atmosphere is set by Michael Vale’s design which uses a background of white curtains and a wooden platform, suggesting houses by floating window frames and ladders.
The unfairness and cruelty suffered by orphan Jane in early life is vividly depicted.
The red room in which she is locked is evoked with a flood of scarlet light. Later, real flames flicker up the stage as Rochester’s house burns.
Benji Bower's music — expertly performed by Matthew Churcher, Alex Heane and David Ridley — complements the rich mezzo notes of Melanie Marshall, who stalks the stage as Bertha Mason, Rochester's first wife, the “mad woman in the attic”, who is here given her own voice.
Singing Mad about the Boy works wonderfully well.
Nadia Clifford is totally convincing as Jane, going from child to adult as sturdy and strong as her Lancashire accent, raging against the injustice of it all while displaying the right amount of vulnerability.
Tim Delap’s Rochester displays wit and intelligence, a man changed by the cruel world around him — very much like adventurer Delaney in the recent Taboo TV series.
The rest of the actors play several roles. Hannah Bristow runs about endearingly as Rochester’s ward Adele and movingly portrays tragic schoolgirl Helen Burns.
Paul Mundell is captivating as Rochester’s dog, slapping a leather strap for his tail.
Lynda Rooke perfectly captures the warmth and affection of housekeeper Mrs Fairfax and the cruelty of an unbending Mrs Reeve.
Evelyn Miller revels in the roles of Bessie and St John.
“It’s a girl,” are the first and last words uttered by the whole cast.
A clever device to demonstrate, as Cookson says, a clarion call for equal opportunities. (Phil Turner)

The Star recommends seeing the production as one of 'Ten great things to do'. And Theatre Royal Plymouth is looking forward to welcoming the production at the beginning of May.

Critical Hit reviews the film Fallen:

Meanwhile, in terms of acting, leads Timlin and Irvine strive to present themselves as star-crossed lovers of Brontë or Austen weight, but they’re far too light as performers. (Noelle Adams)

Revista Arcadia (Colombia) reviews the film Mal de pierres.

Así como el amor de Catherine en Cumbres borrascosas se llama Heathcliff -algo así como un páramo acantilado-, así el amado de la heroína romántica de esta película se llama André Sauvage. Lo diré aunque suene muy mal: Andrés Salvaje. Así como en la novela de Brontë hay fantasmas, en esta película también. Quiero decir fantasmas de verdad, presencias más intensas que las presencias reales. (Andrea Mejía) (Translation)

The Conversation has an article on Sylvia Plath:

Part of the reason why we feel such ownership over this material, I would speculate, is correlated not only with our notions of celebrity culture, but also, how far we have invested the Hughes-Plath marriage with paradigms inherited from 19th-century texts (comparisons with Wuthering Heights are fostered by both poets). (Claire Nally)

JuneauEmpire finds a Brontëite in writer Greta McKennan:

Other mystery writers like Diane Mott Davidson (culinary mystery series), Mary Stewart (romantic suspense), and M. M. Kaye (stand-alone mysteries) have inspired Barnhill’s work. Outside of that genre, as a child she enjoyed the “Childhood of Famous Americans” series, and writers Louisa May Alcott and Charlotte Brontë. (Clara Miller)

InfoLibre (Spain) features Jane Eyre.