Literally lost in Jane Eyre

The Telegraph and Argus reports that the future of Mary Taylor's Red House is to be debated at a Council meeting next week.

The move has been prompted following a campaign by supporters, who secured more than 3,000 signatures on a petition underlining the site’s local and international importance. [...]
Last month, the authority confirmed that the building and grounds would be put up for sale, leading to concerns that the site would be given over to housing.
Following action by the Brontë Red House Group (BRHG) the former museum, which was housed within the 19th century Red House mansion on Oxford Road, will be discussed at full council in Huddersfield Town Hall on October 16.
A spokeswoman for the BRHG said: “Thank you to all who signed the petition for Red House, Gomersal.
“We achieved 4,500 signatures in five weeks and have been granted a debate.  One thousand signatures were disallowed because they were from abroad but we still had the 3,000 required for a debate.
“The signatures from abroad confirm that Red House is not just a local heritage site but also of international importance.”
Two years ago the council investigated whether the museum could be the subject of an asset transfer.
Ultimately the building and two others used for exhibitions, workshops and a cafe were not transferred.
A council spokesperson said: “We are in the process of putting the site on the open market and this should happen next year.”
The residents’ petition said the building had been “left it to rot” despite its strong links to Charlotte Brontë, the Luddite movement and Wesleyan non-conformists.
It read: “We ask Kirklees Council to re-instate the Community Bid to Buy so mishandled in 2017.
“Three Asset transfer (bids) were turned down (one only failing by a single point), the Community Bid to Buy was sent to a disbanded group – therefore was ignored.
“Allow the people to show their support for this irreplaceable heritage gem.” (Tony Earnshaw)

We hope something positive will finally come out of this, even if the Council has proved time and time again that they are inexplicably bent on getting rid of this asset.

Norwich Evening News reviews Blackeyed Theatre's production of Jane Eyre.

The set of this adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's classic novel is dominated by the looming presence of the splintered rafters that are the endpoint of the tale's twisting plot.
And in that, Victoria Spearing's set design is a perfect metaphor for the whole production: a framework that, while professionally and considerately built, ultimately lacks guts.
There is nothing glaringly wrong with Kelsey Short's portrayal of the titular hero, but yet it never quite grabs hold of you.
The same goes for Ben Warwick's Rochester, and Camilla Simson, Eleanor Toms, and Oliver Hamilton in their multiple supporting roles. The compact cast aren't given enough meat by Nick Lane's adaptation to build much more than surface vignettes.
They are distracted, with the audience, by over fussy direction that prizes too-clever prop tricks, songs, and music over character acting.
This is a dense story and difficult to fit into a watchable length, making it all the more frustrating that the poetry is too often sacrificed for posey stagecraft.
Brontë's declaration of love - "it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame" - is brutally paraphrased, but we have time for a jig.
There is talent here and many moments to enjoy, but there is too much artifice to elevate it to great art. (James Goffin)

Cup of Jo interviews ballet dancer Isabella Boylston.

What kind of things have gone wrong? I’ve fallen onstage a couple of times, which I actually don’t view as a bad thing, because it means you were really going for it. On the funnier side, I had an episode where my partner and I got completely lost during a 10-minute duet in Jane Eyre and couldn’t remember any of the choreography. We somehow improvised for the entire time and thought we messed up so badly they would just bring in the curtain. (Caroline Donofrio)

According to Laura Freeman writing for The Telegraph, 'we shouldn't be ashamed of literary lying'.

No one lies about not having watched the latest box set. We don’t mumble our shame round the water-cooler because we’ve never seen State of the Union or Mindhunter. Yet, we’ll Pinocchio our way through a book chat for fear of being the philistine who’s never read Wuthering Heights. Why pretend? I’ve never read so much as a page of Balzac, Sartre, Maupassant, Thomas Mann, Herman Melville or Boris Pasternak. But I have read the complete works of Terry Pratchett, Harry Potter, Nigel Molesworth and Messers Asterix and Obelix. Reading time well, and proudly, spent.

Agreed!

Book Riot recommends modern-day books set in boarding schools.

When the Ground is Hard by Malla Nunn
Adele Joubert loves being one of the popular girls at Keziah Christian Academy. But Adele is forced to share a room with Lottie, the school pariah, who doesn’t pray and defies teachers’ orders. As they share a copy of Jane Eyre, Lottie’s gruff exterior and honesty grow on Adele, and Lottie learns to be a little sweeter. Together, they take on bullies and protect each other from the vindictive and prejudiced teachers. Then a boy goes missing on campus and Adele and Lottie must rely on each other to solve the mystery and maybe learn the true meaning of friendship. (Cassie Gutman)

Prospect reviews the book A Biography of Loneliness by Fay Bound Alberti

The first half of A Biography of Loneliness has a literary thrust. But reflections on Wuthering Heights and the Twilight saga eventually give way to trenchant analyses of how social media dupes us with illusory online connectedness, and of our ageing yet youth-obsessed society and the blight of homelessness. (Chris Moss)

The Guardian (Nigeria) wonders whether Anne Carson will win this year's Nobel Prize for Literature (announced tomorrow).

With background in classical languages, comparative literature, anthropology, history, and commercial art, Carson blends ideas and themes from many fields in her writing. Ancient Greek literature, Sappho, Simone Weil, Homer, Virginia Woolf, Emily Brontë, and Thucydides influence her. (Gregory Austin Nwakunor)

A contributor to Refinery29 describes her baby daughter as

[peering] up at me with her serious, searching eyes and furrowed forehead, like a Brontë sister who had washed up in a baby body and did not care for my rhyme, metre or illogical explanation of climate change. (Rachel Heinrichs)

The Nation shares the poem Tenderness by Derrick Austin which includes a reference to Wuthering Heights.