Enduring Popularity

The Japan Times interviews Judith Pascoe, author of On the Bullet Train with Emily Brontë:

So, what is it that endears Emily Bronte’s only novel to the Japanese people? (...)
In contrast, Pascoe set out on an eight-year study of the enduring popularity of “Wuthering Heights” in Japan. Her adventure encompassed four visits to the country, commencing with a stint as a Fulbright teacher of American literature at Japan Women’s University in Tokyo. As ambitious as this is, Pascoe set the bar even higher by determining to learn the Japanese language so she could read “Wuthering Heights” (called “Arashigaoka”) and its various interpretations in the local language.
The result of her peregrination, in which she interrogates casual readers about their attraction to the novel and interviews key figures involved with the various renditions, is chronicled in her book “On the Bullet Train with Emily Brontë.” She weaves her own narrative of attempting to understand Japan, the Japanese and the Japanese language together with her genuine perplexity at the popularity of Emily Brontë’s novel, resulting in a highly readable and enjoyable little book. A Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction allowed her to finish the project, which documents a journey througout which she is flanked by her own cast of characters, including her two daughters, who devour manga and attend Japanese schools, and a very patient husband, who feigns interest whenever Pascoe has a “Wuthering Heights” epiphany. Within the first few pages of the book, readers are all on the bullet train with Judith Pascoe and Emily Brontë. (Amy Chavez) (Read more)

Unbound asks some writers about their favourite female character in literature. Sam Baker, author of The Woman Who Ran chooses:

Helen Graham/Lawrence in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
I am a one-woman Helen Graham promotion machine. Hero of the quietest but by far the most radical of the Brontë classics, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Helen is a woman far ahead of her time. Not only does she leave her abusive alcoholic husband, changing her name and going into hiding, and not just for the sake of her child’s moral and physical wellbeing (which might almost have been socially acceptable in 1848), but for her own soul, but she also painted in oils. Oils! I know! Seriously, it was just about acceptable for a woman of Helen’s station to paint in watercolours at that time, but oils were a strictly masculine pursuit. And she committed the double sin of painting so she had an income in order to facilitate her escape. Whilst Helen’s piety is somewhat jarring 170 years after her inception, everything else about her is utterly contemporary.

St Louis Post-Dispatch reviews the novel Tangerine by Christine Mangan:

Moroccan-set 'Tangerine' combines elements of Tartt, Highsmith and Brontë. (...))
Publicity materials state that Mangan, who has a Ph.D. in British Gothic literature, was most inspired by “Jane Eyre.”  (Holly Silva)

Picayune-Item on life and religion:

Antony and Cleopatra, Tristan and Isolde, Orpheus and Eurydice, Jane Eyre, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert… the “love” list stories seem endless. Perhaps we have our own. There are so many “love” stories, but their hype may exceed their truths. (Fr. Jonathan J. Filkins)

El Heraldo (Honduras) publishes an article about the Brontës:

La singular historia de las hermanas Brontë: Tres mujeres marcadas por una vida peculiar, description.
Algunos seres no desaparecen como gotas en la lluvia sino que dejan un rastro visible. Las Brontë constituyen uno de esos maravillosos casos. (...)
¿Quién no ha oído hablar de novelas como 'Cumbres borrascosas' o 'Jane Eyre'? Quien no haya leído las novelas tal vez haya visto las películas que se rodaron con sus argumentos. Pero en esta ocasión, la historia que vamos a relatar no está sacada de una novela, sino que es la verdadera historia de las personas que escribieron las novelas; en este caso, tres mujeres. Tres mujeres marcadas por una vida peculiar. En medio de un terreno agreste de la campiña inglesa, concretamente en Haworth, Yorkshire, vivía en 1820 el pastor Patrick Brontë, hombre de fe. Un hombre hecho a sí mismo y que dio una educación exquisita y muy ecléctica a todos sus retoños, lo cual, teniendo en cuenta que cinco de sus hijos fueron mujeres, no deja de sorprender. (Translation)

El Periódico (Spain) explores the Victorians:

Ya no era una adolescente pero sí lo bastante joven todavía como para que el libro me atravesara el pecho obligándome a seguir leyendo hasta las tantas con el deslumbramiento de una polilla nocturna. Me refiero a 'Jane Eyre', de Charlotte Brontë, hermana de las también escritoras Anne y Emily. La leí en Londres, en un cuarto realquilado en lo alto de una casa eduardiana tan próxima al estadio del Arsenal que, cuando había partido, los gritos de la hinchada se escuchaban como el fragor de una tormenta de truenos. Mi habitación, con un lavamanos y una ventana de guillotina que daba a un jardín abandonado, me parecía entonces el paraíso aunque hiciera un frío pelón en cuanto el casero apagaba la caldera. Los peldaños de madera crujían a cada paso con un quejido gótico.
¿A qué se debe el 'revival'? Todo vuelve, es cierto; el eterno movimiento pendular.
Embozada bajo el edredón hasta el puente de la nariz, fue allí donde devoré las páginas de aquella montaña rusa emocional a la luz escasa de una bombilla y con el alma en vilo por si a la loca de la novela se le ocurría descender la escalera de caracol con el candelabro en la mano e incendiar la casa entera con la fauna de su inquilinato dentro. El miedo atávico al fuego y la locura. Bertha Mason se llamaba la esposa encerrada en el ático de la mansión de Thornfield, una loca que no estaba tan desquiciada: había perdido la razón con la ayuda del señor Rochester, aunque eso lo comprendí más tarde, en 'Ancho mar de los sargazos', la maravillosa precuela escrita por Jean Rhys.
Es entre la adolescencia y la primera juventud cuando uno se forja los hábitos de lectura, que en mi caso fueron bastante victorianos. Ya venía de los páramos de Yorkshire, de la pasión sobrenatural de 'Cumbres borrascosas', la única novela de Emily Brontë, "árida y nudosa como la raíz del brezo" a decir de su hermana Charlotte. ¿Con cuál de los dos novelones quedarse? Imposible decidir, aunque siempre fui más del "byronismo demoníaco" de Heathcliff —el amor que devora la vida misma— que de la frialdad sádica del señor Rochester. (Olga Merino) (Translation)

Connessi all'Opera (Italy) reviews a production of Lucia di Lammermoor in Trieste:

È l’essenza della psiche e dell’anima di Lucia, la sua fragilità già proiettata in mondo diverso da quello in cui lei agisce e che sfocerà nella follia. Il duetto fra Enrico e Edgardo che apre il terzo atto – in questa edizione giustamente ripristinato, come prassi frequente ormai – non è una sfida a duello, ma un vero uragano che dall’animo dei due protagonisti si propaga nell’orchestra e nelle lande che circondano il castello di Ravenswood, con soluzioni che di lì a poco riprenderà in ben altro modo Wagner nel Die Fliegende Hollander (1843) e che in letteratura ritroviamo ad esempio in Cime tempestose di Emilie Brönte (sic) (1847). (Stefano Bisacchi) (Translation)

Milliyet (Turkey) reviews a current exhibition in Istanbul, The Art of Scent (1889-2012):

 [Chandler] Burr [the curator], Jicky hakkında “Romantizm tamamen duyguların ön planda olduğu, mantığa karşı bir dönem… Esas olan duyguların dışavurumu, limitlere yer yok. Emily Brontë ve Charlotte Brontë’nin edebiyatını düşünün mesela. Jicky de öyle… Bir opera sanatçısı gibi adeta… ” diyor. (Özge Kara) (Translation)

The Charleston Gazette-Mail tells about a participant in the West Virginia Poetry Out Loud competition who read Often rebuked, yet always back returning by Emily Brontë. The Montana Standard Teen of the Month is a Brontëite. Bookriot compiles several Brontë quotes about life, love and loss. Páginas de Cafè (in Spanish) reviews Wuthering Heights. Spring in the Brontë Bell Chapel in Thornton on their Facebook wall.