The beginning of a beautiful friendship

BookPage reviews My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows.

With this crew of authors at the helm, don’t expect a simple retelling. In the opening pages of My Plain Jane, we meet not only Jane but also her friend Charlotte Brontë, both of whom are students at the infamous Lowood School. As a young aspiring author, Charlotte is working on her “Very-First-Ever-Attempt-at-a-Novel” and thinks Jane will make the perfect heroine in her story.
Jane has the ability to see ghosts, which convinces the very attractive supernatural investigator Alexander Blackwood that she would make a fine addition to his Society for the Relocation of Wayward Spirits. But Jane rejects the job offer and instead sets off to fulfill her destiny by securing the governess position at Rochester’s Thornfield Hall. Off she trots with a ghostly Helen Burns at her side, who proves to be a fantastic comic foil for Jane.
Anyone who loves Brontë’s classic novel will find this supernatural, romantic sendup to be clever and hilarious. At the end of the story, Charlotte reads from her future novel, and Jane approves: “Your readers will eat it up.” Charlotte nervously admits that she doesn’t have any readers yet, but it’s a sure bet she’ll have a lot more after readers finish My Plain Jane. (Deborah Hopkinson)

This book is also the first recommendation on a list of '5 Reads For Fans Of Jane Eyre' on Buzzfeed.

My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows
You may think you know the story of Jane Eyre, where she meets and falls in love with the mysterious Mr. Rochester and they live happily ever after. But does this actually happen? Everything is not what it seems when this classic book gets a new makeover in My Plain Jane. Aspiring author Charlotte Brontë and her ghost-seeing friend Jane Eyre are front and center in this Gothic ghost story full of supernatural mayhem. (Stephanie Andrews)

The list also includes

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Heathcliff has always been in love with Catherine Earnshaw. But when she rejects his love, he turns into a monster. His mission in life is to win her back, but he is slowly losing himself in the process. A love story not like many others, it's a tale of how two people fall apart and discover the dark side of love. (Stephanie Andrews)

Hypable interviews writer Brenda Clough.

Kind of switching gears a little bit — what do you think it is about Victorian literature that still captivates audiences today? Well, you know, the Victorian writers were really the masters of character. They’re the masters of things like… You know, think about Charles Dickens. God, we all still watch A Christmas Carol every single year in December. He was able to create — some of the great storytellers of our language, lived during that period. It’s incredible. They’re finally getting it to where other people other than white people with titles could write books. So you had people like Charlotte Brontë writing Jane Eyre. And you know, finally you could really have books about women’s feelings — you could really get it out there. Finally you were able to get it really real. And so things became much more vividly colored and vividly described. (Karen Rought)

Inspired by Sally Bayley's memoir Girl With Dove: a Life Built by Books, The Times looks into Britain’s 'lost children'.

At 14, inspired by Jane Eyre, Sally stopped eating, escaped to a doctor and asked to be taken into care. (Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson)

Beyond Eden Rock posts about the book too.

Heraldo (Spain) suggests 19th-century novels to read in the summer.

 'Cumbres borrascosas', de Emily Brontë: es la única novela de la autora y, sin embargo, su nombre ha pasado a la historia de la literatura por inmortalizar este clásico inglés con una estructura narrativa sorprendente. Es, al mismo tiempo, historia de amor e historia de odio, pues la novela narra uno de los amores más pasionales y trágicos que se recuerdan con dos personajes inolvidables: Catherine y Heathcliff. (C. I. Z.) (Translation)

In a subscribers-only article, La Nueva España (Spain) interviews Xandru Fernández, who has translated the poetry of Emily Brontë into Spanish:

Lo que más me sorprendió de la poesía de Emily Brontë fue su aliento pagano.
Era poeta porque en su época y su entorno eso era la literatura seria; la dignificación de la novela había empezado, pero no se había consumado. (Tino Pertierra) (Translation)

Comics Kingdom asks several cartoonist about where they find their inspiration.

Source

Stephanie Piro
I find inspiration everywhere, from my family to my cats, my library job, pop culture... you name it! I do a lot of literary-based cartoons, and sometimes I get the odd idea like a lightning strike, where I feel compelled to create something like this "Six Chix" cartoon that combines Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" with the end of the classic film "Casablanca." Who knows where that idea came from? It's always fun to be able to bring a crazy idea to life! (Jen)

The Big Smoke (Australia) has an article on '‘Gatsbying’ and other lit-based dating terms we might have made up', including

Heathcliffing. That someone won't shut up about their ex.

Yesterday both Brontë Babe Blog and AnneBrontë.org celebrated Branwell's birthday.

Finally, more details of Lily Cole's film Balls from the Brontë Parsonage Facebook page: