Befriend your inner Bertha Mason

The Navhind Times (India) has an article on Anne Brontë:

Anne Brontë wanted to write the truth, about people and society. It was a risky thing to do in the 1840s, especially for a woman, when Victorian-era respectability established a strict code of social conduct. Anything which challenged the morality and respectability of the times (or the appearance of it) was regarded with disapproval. And Anne – whose birth bicentenary was on January 17 – was determined to look beyond appearances. She paid dearly for it, often lost under the shadow of the literary genius of her better known sisters – Charlotte and Emily – whose works ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’, are regarded as classics. But Anne, unlike her sisters, couldn’t, or wouldn’t, look at life and people through the prism of romance. Take for example, ‘The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall’, her second novel, published in 1848. [...]
Unlike Rochester in ‘Jane Eyre’ and Heathcliff in ‘Wuthering Heights’, Anne doesn’t give Arthur Huntingdon the excuse of a mad wife or an all-consuming passion to explain his fall. Neither does she allow Helen to break down in tears or resign to her fate. Helen not only does nothing to hide her contempt of her husband, but, once she becomes aware of his cheating, tries to leave him. When she can’t, for her husband “wasn’t going to be made the talk of the country for your fastidious caprices”, Helen makes it clear that no real conjugal relationship will exist between them anymore. (Poulomi Banerjee)

The Times reviews Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride.

I admired the visceral energy of [A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing (2013)], but preferred McBride’s 2016 novel The Lesser Bohemians, a love story about an 18-year-old Irish drama student and an older English actor set in mid-1990s London. It read like a sexy, neomodernist Jane Eyre, and the moment I finished it I wanted to start reading it again.
I can’t say the same about McBride’s third novel. (Johanna Thomas-Corr)

The Courier deems Patrick Brontë pretentious for changing the spelling of his surname.

But let me point to the celebrated, and very English, Charlotte Brontë (and her sisters) who have a two-syllable name with the double dot above their e. The story goes that their father’s birth name was Brunty, but he pretentiously adopted a more exotic name. You’d have to agree that “the Brunty sisters” doesn’t sound so classic author-like.
And that is the way I regard people who use these diacritical marks: their umlauts, circumflexes, macrons and cedillas. They are being pretentious. (Steve Finan)

According to Daily Mail, 'Experts reveal EVERYONE has an 'inner madwoman' who questions their actions and leaves them feeling unworthy'.

The concept was born from the literary character of Bertha Mason, Mr Rochester's insane wife in the Charlotte Brontë''s class Jane Eyre, who he moved to Thornfield Hall and locked in a room.
[Twin sisters Dr Emily and Amelia Nagoski] argue the best way to prevent this inner voice from becoming destructive - as Bertha Mason becomes in the novel - is to 'befriend' her as a way to relive the daily internal battle and better cope with stress that comes your way. [...]
Who is 'the madwoman in the attic'?
Bertha Mason is a fictional character in Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre.
In the novel, she is described as the violently insane first wife of Edward Rochester, who moved her to Thornfield Hall and locked her in a room on the third floor.
Rochester travels abroad to forget his horrible marriage.
However, Bertha manages to escape, causing havoc in the house: starting a fire in Mr Rochester's bed and biting and stabbing her visiting brother.
Rochester's marriage to Bertha eventually stands in the way of his marrying Jane, who is unaware of Bertha's existence and whom he truly loves.
Bertha dies after throwing herself off the roof, leaving her husband free to marry Jane. (Claire Toureille)

Random Jottings celebrated Anne Brontë's bicentenary.

Finally, an alert for later today via Londonist:

MEET THE AUTHOR: This month's Gothic Book Club has a special guest in the form of author Sharon Wright. She discusses her new book, The Mother Of The Brontës, a biography of the Cornish gentlewoman Maria Branwell, and her unlikely romance which resulted in the births of the Brontë sisters. Strawberry Hill House (Twickenham), free, book ahead, 7.30pm-9pm