The Wuthering Heights mentality

A contributor to The National Student wrote about the books that changed her life for International Children's Book day yesterday.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre was the first ‘classic’ I read in my early teens. Jane was the perfect heroine and role model for an impressionable and emotional teenager. What I recall most vividly from my first reading was Jane’s uncompromising approach. I loved the line ‘I would always rather be happy than dignified’ – dignified is not something I have much success with as an adult and as a wild haired teen there was no chance! I’ve always been careful to check that future boyfriends didn’t have any crazy exes lurking around, and can’t sit through a wedding ceremony without holding my breath in case someone objects! Most importantly, Jane embodies the value of self- respect, something I needed to be reminded of – she refused to be Rochester’s mistress and turned down the perfectly pleasant St John Rivers knowing he would not make her happy. Girls: don’t settle for less than your worth – and make sure you earn your own money! (Amelia Thorogood)

Il Foglio (Italy) reviews the Italian translation of Sarah Shoemaker's Mr Rochester.

La vita di quel “magnifico personaggio” che prima di affidare il suo cuore a Jane visse l’inferno, non era mai stata raccontata prima. Grazie a questa lettura, come non mai, capirete ancora di più il senso della sua frase cult – “E io ero suo e sempre lo sarei stato” – e sognerete ancora di più. (Giuseppe Fantasia) (Translation)

There seems to be a thing about witches in historical fiction now, so The Telegraph looks at the latest releases.

The Glass Woman (Michael Joseph, £12.99) by Caroline Lea is more straightforwardly Gothic. The tale takes us to Iceland in the late 1680s. Here, too, witchcraft is punishable by death. Rósa is newly married to Jón, a wealthy man whom she fears but who will allow her to send food and firewood to her ailing mother. In return for this match, headstrong Rósa must give up her pagan rune-reading and become meek, silent and obedient – the virtuous Christian wife. Rósa knows that Jón has been married before, that his first wife, Anna, went mad and died. But when she hears movement in the attic, and feels a body move past her in the darkness, she starts to doubt whether Anna is gone at all.
Lea draws upon Jane Eyre, Rebecca and Bluebeard to create an eerie, unsettling atmosphere. (Violet Hudson)

Listverse shares '10 Shakespeare Authorship Theories That Will Surprise You', including this one:

Anne Hathaway
Yes, Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare for 34 years, has been mentioned as the true writer of the Shakespeare legacy. Hathaway, who shares her name with the modern actress, was Shakespeare’s doting wife who bore his children. He makes very little reference to her within his works. But perhaps most famously, he left her his “second best bed” in his will.[3]The evidence for this theory is paper-thin, but little is known about Anne Hathaway. She existed in a time when women would not be published writers. The Brontë sisters all had to publish under male pseudonyms (Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell), so is it entirely unbelievable that Anne Hathaway could have done the same?It’s certainly one of the most outlandish fringe theories that exist in the Shakespeare authorship question. But she was the closest person to him and is put forward for that very reason. Interestingly, there was some social media buzz created in 2018 when people suggested that the actress Anne Hathaway and her husband, Adam Shulman, were the couple reincarnated. (Matthew Garrow)

The Guardian interviews artist  Raqib Shaw.

At 45, Shaw has decided to devote his life to art. “Alex, what does an ageing, good-for-nothing homosexual have to do, my dear? I have to fucking give meaning to something because I’ve never had a partner. I’ve never been in love! I’m not sure that I have great confidence in human relationships. I think one has to be extremely lucky to find the right one, and I don’t think I’m going to spend my time looking for things and pining after them – I would rather make some creative use of my wretched life!” He howls with laughter.
Why not just go on Grindr? “I don’t know my dear, I think I’m too much of a romantic. I think it’s all the damned Victorian literature I read when I was growing up – the Wuthering Heights mentality.” (Alex Needham)

The Times reviews The Confessions of Annie Langton by Sarah Collins:

In her introduction, Collins talks of a childhood in Jamaica reading English classics and wanting to place a Jamaican slave girl at the heart of a gothic romance. This novel is a self-conscious homage to Moll Flanders and Jane Eyre, with lots of gothic tropes thrown in. (Antonia Senior)

Bustle recommends '20 Literary Prints For Your Gallery Walls, All For Under $25', including one of Jane Eyre and another one of Wuthering Heights. Rachel Sutcliffe is now also on YouTube and she's speaking of Anne Brontë.