Grown Genius in Grief

Charlotte Brontë died on a day like today in 1855 and her death is always one of the most poignant events in the ever poignant Brontë story. If you are in lockdown mode, please consider picking up her works or her biography as a couple of sites recommend today.

Libreriamo (Italy) considers Charlotte Brontë to have been a combative spirit.

Charlotte Brontë, uno spirito combattivo
Charlotte Brontë è stata una scrittrice britannica dell’età vittoriana, la maggiore delle tre sorelle Brontë, nota per il suo romanzo “Jane Eyre”. Per conoscere meglio la scrittrice britannica, vi consigliamo di leggere “Charlotte Brontë. Una vita appassionata” di Lyndall Gordon. Si tratta di una biografia che fa emergere il ritratto di una donna passionale e determinata, in conflitto con i vincoli che il contesto sociale imponeva alle donne. Uno spirito combattivo che la scrittrice stessa tendeva a stemperare e a dissimulare, in omaggio alle convenzioni del tempo. (Translation)

The article continues discussing Villette and we have today another piece of news about the last of the Charlotte Brontë novels. The Chicago Tribune announces the new season of the Looking Glass Theatre where:

Up next is the adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's “Villette” (Feb. 5-Apr. 25, 2021). Artistic associate Sara Gmitter will adapt the novel by the “Jane Eyre” author. The play tells the story of Lucy Snow in Belgium in the 1800s. Ensemble member Tracy Walsh will direct this world premiere. (Hannah Herrera Greenspan)

The Quietus reviews Isabel Greenberg's graphic novel Glass Town:

Glass Town itself is a real imagined place, which is to say, it really was imagined by the Brontë sisters and brother, back when they were growing up and inspiring each other. Charlotte Brontë is the protagonist of the book, accompanied by her creation/alter ego Charles and we first meet her having recently lost her siblings Branwell, Emily and Anne and living in a grey, grief stricken version of their childhood home upon the moors in Haworth. They look back on both the time the child authors spent together and apart at various schools, and most specifically at the stories they told and wrote together of their imagined kingdoms.
Each layer of the story has its own colour scheme but the art throughout is consistently inventive and engaging, playing with the overlapping of reality and fantasy. The inhabitants of Glass Town, much like the Brontë siblings, aren't often very nice to each other, their foundations built on both the joys and tensions of a family growing up so isolated and engaged in "scribblemania". The book works on many levels but perhaps the most powerful is the feeling of a child's imagination at work within the heart and mind of a grown genius in grief. (Jenny Robins)

Adding names to the literary canon in the different Penguin series. In the New York Times:

“It might not be just Dickens, Brontë and Austen all the time first. In many, many people’s minds, it’ll be Audre Lorde. Or it’ll be ‘Passing.’ Or it’ll be ‘The Awakening,’” she said, referring to some of the books that launched the Penguin Vitae series. (Concepción De León)

Brisbane Times lists classic novels adapted for the corona times:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. Stage 3 lockdown protocols were in place. (John Birmingham)

The Conversation tries to find comfort in classic novels in these times:

Jane Eyre
 Jane Eyre fights for what she believes to be right. She stands up to those more powerful than herself, whether it be for her own rights or the good of others.
Orphaned and rejected by her guardian aunt, Jane trains to become a teacher at a charity school and then becomes governess to Adele, the ward of the wealthy and seemingly misanthropic Mr Rochester.
Slowly and unwillingly she falls in love with her master but he has a certain secret in his attic. What will this determined woman do to save herself from the temptations of his love? (Pam Lock)

Skiddle recommends some music live streams:

So before we all become sick of this live stream lark and opt instead to sit in the cupboard under the stairs banging a wooden spoon off the saucepan on our heads while singing 'Wuthering Heights', here's some of our favourite live streamed performances so far...

The New Yorker reviews A Biography of Loneliness: A History of an Emotion by Fay Bound Alberti:

Alberti’s book is a cultural history (she offers an anodyne reading of “Wuthering Heights,” for instance, and another of the letters of Sylvia Plath). But the social history is more interesting, and there the scholarship demonstrates that whatever epidemic of loneliness can be said to exist is very closely associated with living alone. (Jill Lepore) 

25 Years Later discusses Rebecca 1944:

Going back to the omission of details which keeps viewers on the edge of their seat, the opening of the film, rather than center itself on giving the viewer a clue as to who Rebecca might have been, instead centers directly on the house and the mysterious forces that surround it, much like the film Wuthering Heights. (Edwin J. Viera)

RadioWoche (Germany) informs that the radio station WDR-5 has changed its usual schedule for the corona crisis:

 Lesungen aus dem Roman “Jane Eyre” von Charlotte Brontë, montags bis donnerstags 20.04 Uhr. Die Lesung ersetzt den Wiederholungssendeplatz von “Dok 5”, das “Europamagazin”, das “Tischgespräch” sowie die “Funkhausgespräche” bzw. “Stadtgespräche”. (Tom Sprenger) (Translation)

La Stampa (Italy) talks about the Peak District:

Sono villaggi liricamente assottigliati intorno a una main street (dove si affacciano una paio di storici pubs) che si allarga nell'immancabile market place per finire contro una parrocchia isolata ai confini del canovaccio in pietra color miele. Richiamano tutti i luoghi immortalati in "Jane Eyre" da Charlotte Brönte (sic). (Andrea Battaglini) (Translation)

Sohh mentions an Instagram post by the model Vida Guerra quoting Jane Eyre. Starz includes Jane Eyre 2011 in its April catalogue. The Memory Tourist reviews Wuthering Heights 2011. Alan Ayckbourn – The Archivist's Blog posts about a 1956 production of Wuthering Heights (adapted by Joan Winch) in Scarborough.