Yesterday, Valentine's Day,
LitHub put together a list of '30 of the worst couples in literature', including
Heathcliff and Catherine, Wuthering Heights The mutual obsession is out of control here. “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary,” Catherine says. “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don’t talk of our separation again: it is impracticable.” When he loses Catherine for good, Heathcliff becomes pretty evil, seeking to destroy anyone who has crossed him and prevented him from being with his One True Love—plus their children for good measure. For her part, after her death, Catherine haunts Heathcliff until the bitter end. So romantic. [...]
Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester, Jane Eyre Let’s face it: as a love interest, Mr. Rochester sucks. He’s rude, ugly, manipulative, dresses up as a gypsy woman to trick people, and oh right, keeps his first wife Bertha locked in the attic. Because she’s crazy! It’s fine if she’s crazy, right?
Mr. Rochester and Antoinette, Wide Sargasso Sea No, it’s really not fine, and also her name isn’t Bertha.
The Daily Campus, however, lists
Jane Eyre as the feminist choice on a list of 'Five romantic reads'.
The feminist choice: “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte
Brontë’s classic novel “Jane Eyre” rounds out the list as a controversial feminist choice. The 19th century novel follows Jane Eyre through her spiritual, moral and romantic growth. Bronte’s social commentary doubles as an interesting though unusual love story between Jane and Mr. Rochester full of mystery, supernatural elements and poetic language. “Jane Eyre” is a must-read for a romance novel connoisseur. (Alexis Taylor)
Berkeley Squares introduces an article on
Fifty Shades of Grey as follows:
So, February has arrived, traditionally known as the month of love in which couples worldwide celebrate their unity. Love is a real pulling factor for every industry, with literature being no exception. There is no shortage of romantic stories on our bookshelves, and some of the most famous and successful of all stories are about love. Any utterance of Charlotte Brontë or Nicholas Sparks may fire up to reminiscing readers legions of memories about how “that” novel is the best love story ever written. (Joel Sodzi)
A contributor to
Hello Giggles wrote about Valentine's Day and never having been in love.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a romantic — ever since I was young and playing with Barbies. My Aladdin doll would always fall in love with whatever princess doll I liked most at the time. As I got older, I could recite the dialogue from any romantic comedy I could rent at Blockbuster. The fictional romances in classic books — Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, Gatsby and Daisy, Catherine and Heathcliff — have fueled my desire for love since I first read them. With this knowledge base of timeless romances throughout the ages, I always thought love would happen in my life. (Lauren Hedenkamp)
The Guardian recommends watching Andrea Arnold's
Wuthering Heights on Film 4 (UK) tonight.
Film choice
Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold, 2011) 1.20am, Film4
Arnold brings real conviction to her adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic. This is the first version that makes overt the latent suggestion that Heathcliff (played by Solomon Glave as a youth and James Howson when older) is black, emphasising the transgressive nature of his love for Catherine. (Paul Howlett)
And so does
The Times.
Linda's Book Bag interviews writer Claire Dyer.
When you’re not writing, what do you like to read? I read loads of different kinds of books. Having done an MA in Victorian literature, I confess I adore Brontë, Dickens, Eliot, etc.
CBR reviews the book
Gothic Tales of Haunted Love whose
heroine isn’t a Jane Eyre, destined to help him towards moral reform. She has no patience for his bad behavior. And as a black woman from Bermuda, he makes it clear that she doesn’t even register as a prospect to him. If anything, her destiny, if this were a typical gothic romance, is more likely to be Bertha Mason-Rochester, locked in the attic while her shiftless man romances the new governess. But this book starts with a murder — and not hers. (Megan Purdy)
The
Brussels Brontë Blog shares an almost day-by-day of the Brontës in Brussels in February 1842.
Stuff (New Zealand) mentions in passing that Celine Dion's song
It's All Coming Back to Me Now was inspired by
Wuthering Heights.
Vogue (Australia) features the wedding of a girl named Brontë whose mother read a paragraph from
Jane Eyre during the ceremony.
DM Denton, author of
Without the Veil Between, wrote about Anne Brontë and Valentine's day. Finally, on Twitter West Yorkshire Archives celebrated Valentine's Day by sharing an image of Patrick and Maria Brontë's marriage certificate.
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