‘Neither the heroine nor hero attracts sympathy’

The Spectator is celebrating its 10,000 issue and has compiled 'a short history of The Spectator’s books and arts pages'.

The ‘somewhat sordid’ Jane Eyre was frostily reviewed in 1847 (‘neither the heroine nor hero attracts sympathy’), and Verdi’s La Traviata received a pasting in 1856, principally for the heroine’s ‘infamous’ morality. (Richard Bratby)

Benjamin Taylor, the author of the memoir Here We Are: My Friendship With Philip Roth writes about it in The Atlantic:

I can’t be the first gay man to have been an older straight man’s mainstay. Philip had searched diligently for a beautiful young woman to see to him as Jane Eyre looked after old Mr. Rochester. What he got instead was me. The degree of attachment surprised us both. Were we lovers? Obviously not. Were we in love? Not exactly. But ours was a conversation neither could have done without. 

Stavanger Aftonbladet (Norway) reviews the book Våroffer by Anders de la Motte.

Charlotte Brontës gotiske romanen «Jane Eyre» fra 1847 av handler om guvernanten Jane og den mystiske slottsherren Rochester som bærer på en dyster hemmelighet. Det er mange elementer i Anders de la Mottes siste roman som får meg til å tenke på nettopp «Jane Eyre». (Marit Egaas) (Translation)

Clarín (Argentina) discusses the books mentioned in Deborah Feldman's Unorthodox: the scandalous rejection of my hasidic roots, recently adapted by Netflix.

Y también lee Jane Eyre, la vida de otra niña huérfana -vive con una tía, Deborah con sus abuelos- que escribió Charlotte Brontë (1847). (Patricia Kolesnicov) (Translation)

The Telegraph lists 'The 30 best live concert albums of all time', including

20. Kate Bush: Before the Dawn (2016)
[...] Largely comprised of material from her Aerial LP, from 2005, and 1986’s blockbusting Hounds Of Love, Before The Dawn is a triple-disc set featuring 29 compositions from a woman who marches only to the beat of her own drum. Needless to say, this means the omission of many of her biggest hits – the chances of her playing Wuthering Heights, for example, were about as likely as David Bowie performing The Laughing Gnome – but the universal praise garnered by her two and a half hour set means that Kate Bush fulfilled all of her obligations in this once-in-a-lifetime deal. (Ian Winwood)

El País (Spain) has 15 writers recommend books and Manuel Vilas recommends Wuthering Heights.