Tuberculosis in the capital of Fake Britain

The Guardian has a tremendously interesting article on TB and London, which of course mentions the Brontës.

Marguerite Gautier, the consumptive courtesan in La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas (fils), was the prototype: clutching her blood-spotted handkerchief, she burned beneath translucent skin. All my favourite writers, virtually without exception, died or were rumoured to have died from consumption: Keats, Kafka, Chekhov, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Poe, and all three Brontë sisters, plus their brother, Branwell; DH Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Walter Scott, Dostoyevsky, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Orwell. (Frances Wilson)

Except that Charlotte probably died of hyperemesis gravidarum.

ArtsHub (Australia) reviews Gothic at the Arts Centre in Melbourne.

Gothic began with ‘Annabel Lee’, a poem composed by Edgar Allan Poe about the early death of his wife, and ended on the particularly haunting strains of ‘Falling Music’, the theme song of Twin Peaks. In between, running after one another without explanation (luckily there was a program available to refer to later), was a series of short pieces that were in various ways, macabre or troubling, like an almost unrecognisable creepy arrangement of The Cure’sy ‘A Forest’, a composition based on Daphne du Maurier’s short story ‘The Birds’, and spoken words about the death of Brett Whiteley (who overdosed in a motel). A standout highlight were the two vocalists teaming up for Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, inspired of course by Emily Brontë’s novel. There was even a fun and surprising take on ‘Thriller’ … yes that Michael Jackson song.
The musicians and the singers combined offered visceral, emotive, and powerful performances and the accompanying graphics displayed of gothic tropes – blood, ravens, fog, lost and demented souls, bells etc. – were figurative, expressive and metaphorical. (Thuy On)

Le Québec Express reviews the novel Faunes by Christiane Vadnais.

À l’inverse de notre civilisation hyper sophistiquée et dépendante de la modernité, Faunes ramène l’homme à l’état animal, dans le petit village de Shivering Heights, qui n’est pas sans rappeler le Wuthering Heights, [en français Les hauts de Hurlevent] d’Émilie Brontë, un clin d’œil voulu par l’auteure. (Perrine Gruson) (Translation)

El País Smoda (Spain) features illustrator Brianda Fitz-James Stuart.

 “Me gusta mucho la literatura fantástica como Tolkien, Roald Dahl o clásicos como las hermanas Brontë o Flaubert. ¡Italo Calvino me entusiasma! [...]" (Mar Moreno) (Translation)

Indian Express thinks that 'professional reviewers' are more reliable than people's opinions on websites.

All these decades, critics for restaurants, movies, and books existed precisely for this reason. They have a professional duty to be subjective. One presumes somebody drawing a salary as a reviewer will take it more seriously, apply seasoned perspective, and can be trusted to provide neutral analysis. There is still some logic to regular folk reviewing airlines or hotels where services are pretty much standardised. Some of the scathing comments on Goodreads is an indication of what creative people in the arts are up against, now that the majority have a booming voice. Consider a two star review of the classic Wuthering Heights: “Vile people are mean to each other. The End.” The same analogy applies to movies and music as well. Complex storylines and tracks are harder to appreciate, and at the risk of sounding patronising, all cultural judgments can’t be by popular vote. (Leher Kala)

And yet, when it was first published, professional reviewers condemned Wuthering Heights too.

Brontë Babe Blog discusses 'The Young Men’s Magazine and Charlotte Brontë’s Strange Events'. AnneBrontë.org focuses on 'The First Diary Paper Of Anne and Emily Brontë'. Londonist shares an amazing map of 'Fake Britain', showing all sorts of fictional locations around  England, Scotland And Wales, including Wuthering Heights, Wildfell Hall and Thornfield Hall.