Maria Branwell dutifully worked through piles of schoolboy mending, wondering when she could escape back home to the society balls and cosmopolitan bustle of Regency Penzance.
She had left Cornwall in the warm west of England and headed north to help her aunt and uncle at their new Methodist boarding school in windswept Yorkshire.
It was an adventure and she liked her cousin Jane, but chores at rural Woodhouse Grove School were a long way from what she was used to.
She missed the Penzance Ladies Book Club and fashionable soirees at the Assembly Rooms.
Then, a long-limbed, red-haired stranger strode up to the door in June 1812, carrying a staff like a moorland Moses, and everything changed.
The Rev. Patrick Brontë was a friend of Jane’s fiancé, William Morgan, and arrived to test the pupils. Instead, he got a lesson in love.
Patrick was tall, and Maria was tiny. He was from poor Irish farming stock and she was “perfectly my own mistress” with an income from her late father, a gentleman merchant. (Read more)
Goldenplec Music News reviews the recent concert of The Unthanks in Dublin:
The Unthanks are appearing tonight to showcase a series of settings of Emily Brontë poems, composed at the Brontë parsonage on the recently-restored piano played by Emily during her lifetime. But there’s nothing of the tea-and-scones whiff of English Heritage about them: they’re resolutely modern, in places recalling Philip Glass or Max Richter, and their repetitive minor-key melodies work well with Brontë’s opaque but insistently rhythmic verse.
‘Lines’ is the apotheosis of that marriage of older verse and more modern music. It’s 7 minutes of allusive lyrics over a melody that circles around itself like a recurring dream, the sisters singing at times in unison, at times echoing each other in call-and-response, and at times breaking apart into close, keening harmonies. It’s genuinely moving.
Those close harmonies have been a feature of the Unthanks since their earliest days, and though they’re undeniably pretty, they’ve never distracted from the unflinching candour of the group’s songs. After the Brontë cycle, they sing pieces from across their back catalogue: recent songs from first world war writers, from their settings of words by Nick Drake’s mother, Molly, and from other recordings of the last decade.
The narratives in those earlier tunes often revolve around the straitened lives of the English poor, featuring fishermen who drown at sea, or heartbreakingly in ‘The Testimony Of Patience Kershaw’, a teenage mineworker, degraded and derided by the men she toils with but all too aware she has no other routes open to her. As another outsider voice whose humanity needs reasserting, Brontë is a perfect fit. (Eanna Cunnane)
Mental health issues in literature in
The Hindu:
One fictional woman remains a potent symbol of madness: Bertha Mason, Edward Rochester’s first wife in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), locked up in the attic by her husband as he courts a timid governess. Jane, herself labelled wicked and wayward all her life, describes her rival thus: “What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face.” It was more than a century later that Caribbean writer Jean Rhys humanised Bertha Mason from an ‘it’ in Wide Sargasso Sea (1966). (Anjali Thomas)
Best nannies in literature in
The Guardian:
Ever since Jane Eyre, the idea of a young woman entering a strange and possibly dangerous household has haunted our imaginations; as a witness to a family’s most private moments who is halfway between servant and confidante, she is the ideal spy for an author. (Amanda Craig)
Literary destinations on
Family Travel...but why the teens' category?
Wuthering Heights – Yorkshire Moors, England
Call out for Heathcliff as you wander the wind-beaten moors of North Yorkshire. The Brontë sisters grew up in the small mill town of Haworth and surrounds. There is no doubt that the atmospheric outdoors inspired their famous gothic romances. The Brontë Parsonage Museum was their house and now contains their letters, manuscripts and early editions. (Sophie Cullen)
W Magazine interviews actress and director Maggie Gyllenhaal:
Kristen Bateman: What books are on your bedside table?
M.G.: I am reading Jane Eyre, which I've never read! Even though I was a literature major in college. I have huge gaps. I became curious about the book because I saw a couple of scenes from Cary Fukunaga’s movie and I just picked it up and started reading it and I love it. I read all of the Rachel Cusk trilogy. I loved that. In two days. And, the new Elena Ferrante novel is coming out soon. I’m very excited for that.
Apparently, Scorpio movies are a thing, and
Wuthering Heights 2011 is one of them according to
That Shelf:
Andrea Arnold’s gothic romance Wuthering Heights is rife with Scorpio energy, especially intense love between Catherine and Heathcliff that survives even death. Arnold’s directing relies heavily on exploring the sensory experience of her characters. Heathcliff, like Christian Grey, is the brooding Scorpion romantic hero who ultimately becomes bitter with his quest for vengeance. Scorpios take note! (Dare Moats)
El País (Spain) recommends a literary trip to Yorkshire in general and Haworth in particular:
Para llegar a Haworth (West Yorkshire), lo más fácil es tomar, en Mánchester o en Leeds, uno de los muchos trenes que van hasta Hebden Bridge, y en la propia estación, el llamado Brontë Bus, que tarda algo más de media hora y que nos deja muy cerca de la casa museo de las hermanas (el Brontë Parsonage Museum). Cuando el autobús empieza a subir, serpenteando por una carretera local, el paisaje es de una belleza abrumadora. (...)
¿Es esta Cumbres Borrascosas, una de las mansiones que se describen en la famosa obra homónima de Emily Brontë?, es lo primero que nos preguntamos al entrar en el Parsonage. Pues sí y no, porque, aunque tiene mucho que ver, en realidad Emily se inspiró en un cobertizo de un lugar llamado Top Withens, a casi cinco kilómetros de allí, y que es hoy parte del recorrido por los parajes de las Brontë. Pues sí y no, porque, aunque tiene mucho que ver, en realidad Emily se inspiró en un cobertizo de un lugar llamado Top Withens, a casi cinco kilómetros de allí, y que es hoy parte del recorrido por los parajes de las Brontë.
Huyendo de las rígidas ataduras de la Inglaterra victoriana, en la casa que es hoy museo se recluyeron las hermanas para escribir obras que ya son clásicos como Jane Eyre o Cumbres borrascosas. Las habitaciones se han conservado tal y como estaban, de modo que el visitante se puede imaginar a sus moradores a lo largo del tiempo: las niñas jugando en el office, Emily pelando patatas en la cocina o practicando escalas en el piano, o Charlotte vistiéndose para su boda. Y es que el misterio que ejerce el Parsonage en el visitante tiene mucho que ver con la narrativa doméstica en torno a la cual se articulan los objetos, los muebles y las estancias: el cuarto de los juegos es el mismo en el que la Emily adulta dormía, y donde se cree que salvó a su hermano Branwell de un incendio; junto a esta habitación está el lugar donde el reverendo Patrick Brontë tuvo que lidiar con el delirium tremens de su hijo; el comedor en el que Charlotte, Emily y Anne caminaban en torno a la mesa redonda, discutiendo los planes del día, es también la estancia que contiene el sofá en el que murió Emily, y la verja que Charlotte cruzó para contraer matrimonio es también la verja a través de la cual fue transportado su ataúd el día de su entierro. Siguen ahí también objetos originales: la copia del famoso retrato realizado por Branwell—el original se conserva en la National Portrait Gallery de Londres— de Anne, Emily y Charlotte; cartas a medio escribir, un tintero, una taza de té, un periódico sobre el escritorio del reverendo, unos trapos de cocina, los dibujos de Branwell, el piano, una cama con dosel o unas lámparas de aceite que nos meten de sopetón en el ambiente. (Cristina Sánchez-Andrade) (Read more) (Translation)
Also in
El País, an article about the writer Mariana Enríquez:
Devorar, en realidad, todo aquello que obsesiona a su autora, que ha ido tejiendo una obra particularísima en la que la historia de Argentina se vuelve tenebrosa pesadilla alimentada por un intenso gótico que le debe tanto a Sobre héroes y tumbas, de Ernesto Sabato, como a Cumbres borrascosas, de Emily Brönte (sic), y al poeta maldito Arthur Rimbaud. (Laura Fernández) (Translation)
IndieHoy (in Spanish) about the writer Tamara Tenenbaum:
Tamara leía mucho cuando era pequeña, le encantaban las novelas del siglo XIX y su extraña forma de expresar lo que la gente sentía. A partir de Cumbres borrascosas de Emily Brontë, comprendió la sutileza de la literatura y de la potencia de lo no dicho. (Juanpa Barbero) (Translation)
35 Milímetros (Spain) lists some Bollywood literary adaptations:
Dil Diya Dard Liya (1966), Abdul Rashid Kardar y Dilip Kumar
Protagonizado por los actores de la Edad de Oro Bollywoodiense, Waheeda Rehman y Dilip Kumar, esta película es una adaptación de Cumbres Borrascosas, trágica novela de Emily Brontë.
Shankar es adoptado tras ser el único superviviente en un accidente de barco. Ramesh, su nuevo hermano, lo detesta. Por el contrario, entabla una relación de amistad con su hermana adoptiva, Roopa, que posteriormente se transformará en un apasionado romance. (Sara Granero) (Translation)
65ymás (Spain) interviews the writer Patricia Betancourt:
Antonio Castillejo: ¿Por qué ha querido situar su novela entre el Madrid y San Sebastián de principios del siglo XX?
P.B..: Porque todo gira en torno a un personaje que vivió en esa época, pasiones ocultas, presa y libre a la vez y amante de la naturaleza, de la hípica, cacerías... que pasó por España y por Inglaterra. Además esa época me encanta. Me encanta el romanticismo, leer. He crecido con las novelas de Jane Austen, con las Cumbres borrascosas de Emily Brontë… Esas lecturas en las que los escritores del XIX describen de manera magistral la huella del amor; realmente me cautivaron y me siguen cautivando. He querido describir el mundo alrededor del personaje. (Translation)
Mais CM (Portugal) quotes the (in)famous Southey advice to Charlotte Brontë:
Veja-se, por fim, o que sucedeu no caso das irmãs Brontë. Eis o que Southey disse a Charlotte, quando esta lhe mencionou a intenção de publicar uns poemas: "A Literatura não pode ser uma ocupação feminina nem o deveria ser. Quanto melhor estiver a mulher a cumprir os seus deveres no lar, menos tempo terá para o fazer, o que não contribuirá nem para a sua realização nem para um seu passatempo." Ela não desanimou, mas teve de aceitar que ‘Jane Eyre’ fosse publicado sob um pseudónimo masculino, o mesmo tendo sucedido no caso da irmã Emily, que nos deixou ‘O Monte dos Vendavais’, o mais admirável romance do século XIX. Esforçámo-nos, lutámos e vencemos. Os machistas que se cuidem. (Maria Filomena Mónica) (Translation)
Villette is on Patti Smith's list of all-time favourite books as published on
Far Out. A recent reading of
Wuthering Heights in Manzanillo, Colombia is mentioned by
Colima Noticias. Screenwriter Russell T. Davis picked Kate Bush's
Wuthering Heights in
Desert Island Records,
Out in Perth says.
Brontë Lusjes (in Dutch) posts a couple of clips of the film
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society with Brontë mentions. The
Brontë Babe Blog supports
the campaign to bring one of the Brontës' little books to the Parsonage.
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