Transcending Melodrama

The monthly column of the Brontë Parsonage in Keighley News reports that

The summer holidays have finally arrived – and the rain! – but we were all cheered by the surprise visit of the actor Gemma Arterton to the museum last week.
Gemma very kindly signed our VIP visitors’ book, and was happy to pose for a quick photo at the front door.
We never know who’s going to drop by, and surprise us! (...)
We have lots of summer activities planned, including free talks and hands-on-history sessions, and our regular Wild Wednesday ‘drop in’ workshops.
Over the course of the next three Wednesdays, there’s the opportunity to create tiny puppets, popup scenes, and felt jewellery.
All workshops are free with admission and you can ‘drop in’ between 11am and 4pm.
On Thursday August 17 why not escape the crowds and Visit the Museum in the evening.
We’re open until 8pm, and as always on our late-night Thursdays, entry after 5.30pm is free to visitors living in the BD22, BD21, BD20 postcode areas and also those living in Thornton.
As I mentioned last month, our meadow behind the Parsonage is now open to the public, so if it ever stops raining, it’s an ideal spot for a picnic.
Our next Parsonage Unwrapped evening is Friday August 25, and this one is a little bit different in that it focuses on A Day in the Life of a Museum Assistant.
If you want to learn more about just what is involved in the care of the collection, and preparing the museum for visitors each morning, then come along to meet the team and gain an intimate glimpse behind the scenes.
Finally, tickets are selling quickly for our Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing, which takes place between September 22 and 24.
We’re delighted to welcome to Haworth best-selling authors Rachel Joyce (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry), Sarah Perry (The Essex Serpent) and award-winning playwright Deborah McAndrew.
We’re hosting workshops on writing for the stage and radio, and are very happy to announce a workshop devised especially for girls aged 12 to 16, led by Young Adult author Liz Flanagan.
So if you have a teenager at home who enjoys devouring Young Adult fiction, and is interested in learning more about the processes involved in the writing of fiction, then they might enjoy this.

Leeds City Magazine reviews the local performances of Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre:

Prepare to be blown away with the stunning reimagined National Theatre’s production of Charlotte Brontë’s classic story Jane Eyre. Having not read or studied the book in school as a lot of people have, but knowing the story, I was completed intrigued to see how this new production would transfix an audience and engage on a prominent level. This was perfectly executed with style and energy from start to finish. (Matt Jameson)

Little Village Magazine, Seattle Gay News review the film Lady Macbeth:

A handheld camera follows her movements on the windswept moor, recalling every effective adaptation of a Brontë novel (most notably Andrea Arnold’s 2011 adaptation of Emily’s Wuthering Heights, but also Cary Fukunaga’s 2011 adaptation of Charlotte’s Jane Eyre). (Leah Vonderheide)

It is a handsomely mounted production, one that flirts with greatness throughout, the final feature a heady mixture of Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Brontë that builds to a shattering climax that's impossible to forget. (Sarah Michelle Fetters)

Bustle has a list of the 'hottest characters in literature':

Mr. Rochester might not be handsome, but he's brooding, rugged, and passionate — and if you forget that he's got a wife locked in the attic, he's also a very caring guy. Reader, I'd like to marry him. (Emma Oulton)

And Bookriot has a must-read list of books about happiness:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. “Jane Eyre takes up the post of governess at Thornfield, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that transcends melodrama to portray a woman’s passionate search for a wider and richer life than Victorian society traditionally allowed.” (Leah Rachel Von Essen)

The Times has a selection of audiobooks:

Jasper Fforde’s quip-a-minute literary fantasies starring the accident-prone but resourceful literary detective Thursday Next are perkily narrated by Gabrielle Kruger. Start with The Eyre Affair (Hodder, 9hr 10min, £14.99), which introduces Thursday, her pet dodo Pickwick and the zany world of a parallel 1985 in which England is still fighting the Crimean War and Thursday is pitted against the criminal mastermind Acheron Hades. Think Monty Python crossed with Alice in Wonderland. (Christina Hardyment)

The documentary Perspectives: The Brilliant Brontë Sisters is going to be broadcast on France TV. Le Figaro talks about it:

 Dans ce documentaire particulièrement brillant, il nous est donné l’occasion de consulter des archives, de découvrir de nombreux dessins de la fratrie. On s’éloigne et nous sommes invités à arpenter les lieux qui ont inspiré Les Hauts de Hurlevent (Wuthering Heights), l’unique roman d’Emily Brontë, disparue prématurément (en 1848), tout comme Anne, la benjamine. Un paysage sauvage et austère, battu par les vents, cadre d’un récit qui explore les versants les plus sombres de la nature humaine. (...)
L’autre intérêt du documentaire est celui porté au frère, poète, peintre, alcoolique tourmenté, et qui sera le premier à mourir de la tuberculose, à 31 ans. C’est Charlotte qui sera la dernière à partir. C’est elle qui forgera la légende noire de cette famille hantée par le génie, modifiant même certains poèmes d’Emily, légende démasquée dans ce documentaire palpitant jusqu’au bout. (Thierry Clermont) (Translation) 

Flash (Portugal) quotes from a Brontë-Heger letter in this column:

 "Sofre-se em silêncio enquanto temos forças para tal e quando as forças nos faltam, falamos sem medir as palavras", escreveu Charlotte Bronte ao seu professor que, segunda consta, amava a sua mulher no mais inviolável estado de fidelidade.
Charlotte foi a irmã mais nova de Emily Bronte. [ERM.... no] A paixão não correspondida aconteceu em Bruxelas, cidade para a qual as irmãs foram enviadas para um curso de Verão do ano de 1844. [Not really, she was in Brussels in two periods in 1842 and 1843-44 (until January)]
Para quem não estiver a localizar as irmãs Bronte, Emily escreveu 'O Monte dos Vendavais' que também foi adaptado para cinema. (Margarida Rebelo Pinto) (Translation)

El País (Spain) remembers Mike Leigh's Career Girls (1997) and his mythical Miss Brontë, Miss Brontë routine:

 El filme arranca cuando Annie viaja a Londres para visitar a Hannah. Compartieron casa cuando una estudiaba psicología y la otra literatura y trataban de adivinar el futuro —ligar o no— utilizando Cumbres borrascosas como si fuera el I Ching, es decir, abriéndolo al azar. (Javier Rodríguez Marcos) (Translation)

La Liberté (Switzerland) reviews the recent French edition of Charlotte Brontë's letters (Lettres choisies de la famille Brontë (1821-1855)). The Inked Path continues exploring Jane Eyre.