Perfectly Executed Content

Pittsburgh City Paper recommends the PICT performances of Jane Eyre:

Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre revolutionized fiction with its coming-of-age story told from a female perspective. Tonight, PICT Classic Theatre continues its production of the 19th-century classic. The work was adapted from Brontë’s novel by PICT artistic and executive director Alan Stanford. His dramatization was originally commissioned by the Gate Theatre, in Dublin, and has also been performed at The Guthrie Theater, in Minneapolis. The show features Karen Baum in the title role, Paul Bernardo as Mr. Rochester, and James FitzGerald as Mr. Brocklehurst; Stanford directs.

Harper's Magazine discusses A View of the Empire at Sunset, by Caryl Phillips:

In 1939, three years after they’d traveled together to Dominica—Rhys’s first return visit in nearly thirty years—Tilden Smith gave her a copy of Jane Eyre, which she had last read as a girl. Rhys’s ideas for a story set wholly in the West Indies began to coalesce: she soon produced half of a manuscript, provisionally titled “Le Revenant,” which he typed up from her chaotic notes. But then they had one of their periodic arguments, and to spite him Rhys burned the typescript. Like Mrs. Rochester, the urtext of Rhys’s masterpiece “perished in the flames,” in the words of its Penguin editor, Angela Smith. It’s a sad anecdote, and all the more pitiful for what it reveals of Rhys’s self-destructive masochism. It is also, as Smith intuits, an apt metaphor for the writing of this particular book, which is so intimately concerned with the space between “sanity and madness, expectation and fulfilment.” The Sargasso Sea, which lies between Europe and the West Indies, is, Smith reminds us, “difficult to navigate, like the human situations in the novel.” Or the human situations in Rhys’s own life, for that matter. (Elizabeth Lowry)

New Westminster Review mentions some books 'for reads that celebrate and empower women':

Finally, some fiction titles featuring powerful and unconventional female characters include Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, The Colour Purple by Alice Walker, Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. (Jenny Zhang)

Calgary Herald interviews the actress Ma-Anne Dionisio:

“I read books like Jane Eyre and Nancy Drew but missed out on The Secret Garden,” she says. “When I was offered the role, I immediately read the novel to find out who Martha was. She is a generous, authentic person who wears her heart on her sleeve. (Louis B. Hobson)

The Daily Mail does the same with Katherine Parkinson:

Recently read? Jane Eyre. I wept reading it. I reacted against my mum being an English teacher by not reading many classics, but recently I thought that’s a bit sad, and I am loving discovering them. (Charlotte Pearson Meathven)

Big Stamp of Approval reviews the Sheffield performances of Northern Ballet's Jane Eyre:

There are some really touching moments in the two hour performance, evoking emotions in the viewer and almost taking your heart for a dance on stage with theirs. The unison scenes are just outstanding, so together and impeccable.
Hats off to Cathy Marston, choreographer, for this masterpiece. She should feel super satisfied that the portrayal of the relationships and lovers on the stage is transparent and easy to dissect.
The ballet is not one to be missed and if you can get to see it, you won’t be disappointed; if you like ballet and every second of a performance filled with perfectly executed content, this one is for you. (Sophie Wilson)

Today on BBC Radio4 (April 15, 06:05AM and 11:30PM):

Something Understood
The Teacher's Art
Something Understood
Mark Tully explores the very best of teachers - and the very worst - through fiction, philosophy and memoirs, considering the essential attributes of a great teacher and the formative influence teachers can have throughout our lives.
He talks to former teacher Kabir Shaikh, who, as Director of Education for UNRWA/UNESCO, has also been responsible for providing education for half a million Palestinian refugee children in the Middle East.
There are readings from the works of Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë and poet Carl Dennis, and music is provided by Carl Orff, Aaron Copland and Japanese Taiko drummer Joji Hirota.
The readers are Cyril Nri, Emma Pallant and Francis Cadder.
Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling

El País (Spain) publishes the obituary of the writer Sergio Pitol:

Sergio fue el amigo con el que conversaba noche tras noche, con quien intercambiábamos textos y chismes, criticábamos a los amigos; el amigo con quien hablaba de nuestros proyectos y viajes, de política, con el que iba a la ópera, con quien tanto viajé, con quien compartí decisivas amistades, Carlos Monsiváis, Luz del Amo, Luis Prieto, Tito Monterroso, Luis y Lya Cardoza y Aragón, Mario Bellatin, con el que veía películas clásicas que le fascinaban como Ser o no ser de Lubitsch, un amigo con quien discutía de literatura, de Emily Brontë y sus Cumbres borrascosas, quien, alguna vez me confesó, había sido fundamental para construir la estructura de sus novelas: “… en mi formación, una obra decisiva, el modelo perfecto para estructurar una novela, una escritura oblicua. Cuando la leí, me interesó extraordinariamente esa forma de construir una novela a través de un laberinto de relatos, de filtros, que le impidan al lector saber con exactitud lo que está ocurriendo… pero más, que la novela quede de tal modo abierta que un lector más o menos adiestrado pueda irla interpretando, armando, hasta crear su propia novela”. (Margo Glantz) (Translation)

Zócalo (México) reviews  Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls:

De Frida Kahlo a Jane Goodall (claro que se acuerdan de ella, es la investigadora de primates), de Coco Chanel a Nina Simone (buenísima cantante, ¿ya la escucharon?), de las hermanas Brontë (todas escritoras) a Marie Curie, este libro narra las extraordinarias vidas de cien mujeres valientes. Además, cuenta con las ilustraciones de sesenta artistas de todo el mundo. (Allegra Márquez Estrada) (Translation)

La Nación (Argentina) misquotes Jane Eyre:

En Jane Eyre, la novela de Charlotte Brontë, la protagonista dice: "Tú no eres tus heridas". Es una frase medicinal. (Ivonne Bordelois) (Translation)

Medicinal it could be (and also pinterest-like, self-help board), but not from Jane Eyre (probably from a bad Spanish translation of this):

“It is a pity to see it; and a pity to see your eyes—and the scar of fire on your forehead: and the worst of it is, one is in danger of loving you too well for all this; and making too much of you.” (Chapter XXXVII)

Postimees (Estonia) and other Estonian newspapers quote Hanno Pevkur, chairman of the Estonian Reform Party quoting Charlotte Brontë:

Ka briti kirjanik ja luuletaja Charlotte Brontë on öelnud - elu on liiga lühike, et viha pidada või ülekohut meeles hoida. (Translation)

Trouw (Netherlands) reviews the novel Devil's Day by Andrew Michael Hurley:

‘Duivelsdag’ is een roman zoals ze alleen in Engeland geschreven kunnen worden, hedendaags en traditioneel ineen. Je proeft er de geest van Emily Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ in, maar ook die van het werk van de onterecht vergeten John Cowper Powys: de aarde en de natuur met haar magische krachten waar de naar redelijkheid en beheersing strevende mens mee worstelt. (Rob Schouten) (Translation)

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog interviews the writer K.D. Dowdall:

At age twelve, I discovered Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and for several years, I was Jane Eyre, in my imagination. It wasn’t far from the true. My family had fallen on hard times. Experiencing poverty is something one never forgets. It would not be my life story.

In the Quiet reviews Wuthering Heights.