Shabby-Chic Malady

Financial Times reviews the Birmingham Royal Ballet performances of The Nutcracker at the Royal Albert Hall:

[John] Macfarlane’s shabby-chic costumes have worn well, although it remained a puzzle that little Clara’s mother should be in crimson décolleté while her guests were all buttoned into half-mourning like extras from a Brontë adaptation — the perils of “smart casual”, I suppose. (Louise Levene)

The Guardian announces what 2018 will bring in dance:

Jane Eyre
This is a fully deserved UK tour for Cathy Marston’s 2016 adaptation of the Brontë classic, danced by Northern Ballet. Marston reveals a novelist’s eye for detail in the layering of her heroine’s ironic, intractable, angry, clever and passionate character. With a vocabulary that feels freshly minted, she advances the narrative through Jane’s trials and tribulations to the spirited independence with which she becomes Mrs Rochester. (Judith Mackrell)

WhatsonTV interviews the actor Tony Audenshow, 'Bob Hope' in Emmerdale:

Soaplife: How will he win her round?
TA: “The trust has gone so he is going to have to fight very very hard to get that back. He has an idea to win her over with a grand gesture. Doug helps him out with this treasure trail type thing, based on when they got together and it was all about Wuthering Heights. He knows Brenda loves literature and it is all based on that, he takes it to a special place.”

Radio Arabella (Austria) announces also local events in theatre:

Ein Highlight für alle Musicalfans ist die Premiere des Broadway-Musicals Jane Eyre beim Musicalfrühling in Gmunden. Erzählt wird die romantische, wie auch dramatische Geschichte der jungen Jane Eyre, die nach einer schweren Kindheit eine Stelle als Gouvernante annimmt und sich in ihren Arbeitgeber verliebt. (Translation)

Hyperallergic reviews the book Consumptive Chick: A History of Beauty, Fashion and Disease by Carolyn A. Day:

“Consumption, I am aware, is a flattering malady,” wrote Charlotte Brontë in 1849. But, she continued in regards to her sister, “Anne’s illness has of late assumed a less alarming character than it had in the beginning: the hectic is allayed; the cough gives a more frequent reprieve. Could I but believe she would live two years — a year longer, I should be thankful: I dreaded the terrors of the swift messenger which snatched Emily from us, as it seemed, in a few days.” [February 1st, 1849, to W.S. Williams]
Anne would die in 1849, at the age of 29; Emily had died in 1848, at the age of 30, both from what is now recognized as tuberculosis. But why was such a deadly fate ever considered “flattering,” as Charlotte noted? The strange entwining of the symptoms of tuberculosis with women’s fashion in the late 18th to mid-19th centuries is explored in Carolyn A. Day’s Consumptive Chic: A History of Beauty, Fashion, and Disease, recently released by Bloomsbury Academic. (Allison Meier)

Indianapolis Monthly interviews the actor Tim Hunt:

Which type of role do you prefer? (Sarah Bahr)
If you’d asked me five or seven years ago if I’d ever see myself playing a role like this, I would’ve said no way—it’s so far removed from anything I’ve ever tried. But in the past year, I’ve played a pretty broad spectrum. I did a drag queen in La Cage aux Folles. I’ve played Edward Rochester, who is the epitome of the masculine, chauvinistic straight male, in Jane Eyre. And I’ve played a snail. So I appreciate having the opportunity to play such a broad array of characters.

Romantic classics in NRK (Norway):

 5. «Stormfulle høyder» av Emily Brontë
Om du kun forbinder «Stormfulle høyder» – på engelsk «Wuthering Heights» – med Kate Bushs låt, kan det være lurt å bruke fire minutter på denne podkasten. På bildet: Top Whitens, nær Haworth i West Yorkshire, England. Stedet som inspirerte forfatteren.
Den fattige gutten Heathcliff blir hentet til en rik herregårdseier for å arbeide, og blir sjelevenn med husets datter Catherine. Men når Catherine blir voksen gifter hun seg med naboen som har høyere status. Det klarer ikke Heathcliff å tilgi henne.
6. «Jane Eyre» av Charlotte Brontë
Romanen er fra 1847 av den engelske forfatteren Charlotte Brontë, først utgitt under pseudonymet Currer Bell. Romanen skildrer en foreldreløs kvinnes oppvekst og voksenliv. Høres det gøy ut? Du hører forfatter og litteraturviter Janne Stigen Drangsholt sammen med programlederne i P1-programmet Utakt, Øystein Kvindesland og Bjørn Olav Skjæveland.
Foreldreløse Jane vokser opp hos en følelseskald tante og blir plassert på en fattigslig skole. Når hun vokser til får hun jobb som guvernante – eller privatlærer – på en herregård. Hun forelsker seg i husverten. (Translation)

Maud Casey explores the worlds of Henry James and Jean Rhys on Literary Hub:

Still, it’s important to understand that Rhys was a consummate craftswoman. So much so, by the way, that she held a grudge against her editor for years, accusing her of publishing her most famous novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, before it was finished. Why wasn’t it finished? There were, Rhys believed, two unnecessary words still in the manuscript: thenand quite.

Curiously enough, Wide Sargasso Sea is also mentioned on a By Common Consent post about the Book of Moses I (LDS Church):

Point-of-view shifts are actually always a big deal in narrative theory. Authors sometimes shift the point of view within a work to deepen the readers’ experience (think of The Sound and the Fury or The Brothers Karamazov). These shifts always mean things. It is much more obvious when a new author tells a familiar story from a different perspective. This happens a lot in modern novels, like John Gardner’s Grendel (Beowulf) and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea (Jane Eyre). (Michael Austin)

Nothing new in The Telegraph & Argus chronicle of the last Brontë Society Lily Cole controversy. La Verdad (Spain) lists books for young readers, including Damas Oscuras. Kitaplarim Olmadan Asla (in Turkish) posts about Jane Eyre.