Wuthering Heights with an American accent

Keighley News reports on the latest volunteer work on the Old School Rooms at Haworth.

A team from Leeds Building Society’s Bradford branch spent a day volunteering at the Haworth Old School Room.
Three colleagues from the Bank Street branch, alongside regional manager Chris Ord, helped trustees with the general upkeep of the building, with jobs including cleaning, painting and gardening.
They took advantage of the society’s volunteering scheme which allows all employees a day’s paid leave annually to help a good cause of their choice.
Averil Kenyon, chairman of the charity Brontë Spirit, which manages the Old School Room, said: “Brontë Spirit would like to thank the Leeds Building Society volunteers for all their hard work and enthusiasm.
“Their weeding and sweeping work has made a huge difference to the look of the area – it now looks tidy, clean and cared for.
"The volunteers have started the process of painting the windows which look so much better and this progress will encourage others to finish the job. Their visit has also given a boost to the trustees trying to save this building.” (Alistair Shand)

According to the Daily Mail, 'US listeners prefer British accents to their own' when it comes to audiobooks.

Californian Shane Yule, 32, who lives in Harrow, north-west London, said the results did not surprise him.
‘The British accent is easier on the ear,’ he added.
‘If you’re listening to Oliver Twist or Wuthering Heights you don’t want it being narrated in an American accent. It would sound odd, even to us.’

Wicked Local Scituate features Australian writer Janet Parson.

Parsons’ own inspirations come from her love of fantasy, and her own childhood.
“Writers like C.S Lewis, Enid Blyton, Daphne du Maurier, and most importantly E.B White’s ‘Charlotte’s Web’ captivated me when I was growing up,” she said, “as well as literary greats such as Shakespeare, Tolkien, Dickens, Hardy, Emerson, Thoreau and Emily Brontë.” (Ruth Thompson)

Diario de Cádiz (Spain) features another Brontëite writer, Belén Martínez.

Y ella lo sabe bien porque es una lectora empedernida desde que era muy niña. "Leía casi todo lo que me caía en mis manos. Mi madre temía llevarme a una librería porque me compraba un libro y me lo zampaba esa misma tarde y ya quería otro. Pero no me atrevería a hablar de influencias. Me marcó mucho Michael Ende y he disfrutado mucho leyendo a las hermanas Brontë o a Jane Austen, pero no creo que en mis novelas haya nada de ninguna de ellas". (Pedro Ingelmo) (Translation)

Womenews (Italy) has an article on the book Alla ricerca di Mr Darcy by Giovanna Pezzuoli.

Il cambio di scena, che è prima di tutto un cambio di scena sociale a cui l’immaginario offre una nuova voce, si trova nelle pagine delle sorelle Brontë. Jane Eyre, di Charlotte, e soprattutto Cime tempestose di Emily Brontë. Altro che ragione, un amore impossibile per motivi di classe che porta alla distruzione e alla vendetta. Heathcliff è l’opposto di Darcy, scrive Giovanna Pezzuoli: «Quando irrompe la passione, in altre parole, il rapporto d’amore non ha più il contenimento del rispetto reciproco mentre si sgretola l’esigenza di uno scambio alla pari…È l’anticamera dei comportamenti ossessivi, della gelosia folle, non più temperata da quell’ironia e quell’autocontrollo che così splendidamente sapevano rappresentare i personaggi di Jane Austen».
Completa il libro una filmografia completa delle opere visive dai libri da Jane Austen, più le varie realizzazioni da Jane Eyre e Cime Tempestose. Una chicca preziosa. (Bia Sarasini) (Translation)

Cinephilia & Beyond discusses the Peter Weir's 1985 film Witness.

The never-realized love affair between Harrison Ford’s cop and Kelly McGillis’ Amish widow is handled with subtlety, grace and realism. Instead of pleasing the broad audience with a sweaty, wheat-covered, sticky sex scene in the dark corner of the barn, Weir opted for a gentle, Jane Eyre-like, Victorian approach to romance: everything’s in the eyes, the passion and chemistry come not from an exposed breast, but from the gaze. And the sexual tension between the beautiful widow and her handsome guest is palpable to the degree of being an extra character in the film: all achieved by adhering to very strict rules and uncharacteristic restraint. “In (the old) days, there was considerable film censorship, so movie makers had to be very inventive in the way they showed sexual attraction. It resulted in some wonderfully romantic films. What I’ve done is reimpose the Hays Code on myself,” said Weir.

The Saturday Reader posts about Jane Eyre. AnneBrontë.org has a post on 'The Brontës And The Art Of Writing'.