Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the Brontë Parsonage museum contains a pair of Native American moccasins which belonged to Charlotte Brontë.
That’s her off the reading list. And I give the Brontë statue outside her old home in Yorkshire a couple more days before some lunatic tears it down.
Charlotte Brontë must fall! (Richard Littlejohn)
"Jane Eyre," a classic novel by Charlotte Brontë, is a great starting point. A story about love and overcoming life’s struggles, "Jane Eyre" employs a rich lexicon while reporting on the plot’s many characters. Thus, this work allows students to prepare for two key types of ACT and SAT reading questions: understanding vocabulary in context and recalling details. (Tiffany Sorensen)
American Ballet Theatre has released a new Orchestral Performance video!
Emily Wong, an ABT Company pianist and member of ABT's Orchestra, plays the Piano Sonata in B flat from Jane Eyre
The piece by Franz Schubert takes place during the final pas de deux of Act I.
Whip-smart, sarcastic and beautiful, Naomi prefers the company of Agatha Christie and Jane Eyre to real-life people. (Anna Stroud)Agatha Christie was real people.
“Beautiful Liar” is a K-pop gothic story. And no, we’re not talking modern goth. The literary Gothic stories such as “Wuthering Heights” or “Frankenstein.” The symbolism alone is enough to make my head spin, but to remember that these are the same guys who gave us “Dynamite“?! It’s mind boggling. (Jess)El cultural (Spain) discusses the use of pseudonyms. There's an interesting post on Penzance and the Brontës on Cornish Story.
Claire O'Callaghan's Emily Brontë Reappraised has been translated into German:Das andere Gesicht der Emily Brontë
Claire O'Callaghan
Dryas Verlag
ISBN 978-3-940258-98-4
July 2020
Emily Brontë nimmt in der englischen Literaturgeschichte eine Sonderstellung ein. Ihr einziger Roman, Sturmhöhen, verzaubert seine Leser seitfast zweihundert Jahren, und die Romanfigur Heathcliff ist möglicherweise der ultimative romantische Held und Schurke. Emily selbst jedoch bleibt rätselhaft, häufig wird sie als schwierig und misanthropisch, als „kein normales Wesen“ dargestellt. Doch trifft es auch zu?
Claire O'Callaghan zeigt in dieser Biografie eine andere Seite von Emily, indem sie ihren feministischen Ansatz, ihre Leidenschaft für die Natur, sowie Kunstwerke untersucht, die von ihr inspiriert wurde.
Sitting in the Brontë Parsonage museum archives are a pair of native American beaded leather moccasins.
Donated in 1983 by a Brontë enthusiast, the shoes arrived accompanied by a note claiming that they had once belonged to Charlotte Brontë and
curators have been puzzled by this ever since. How could they have made their way into the hands of a plain parson’s daughter from Victorian Yorkshire?
Now the mystery has been solved. In a chapter of Charlotte Brontë: Embodiment and the Material World published by Palgrave Macmillan, costume historian Dr Eleanor Houghton has managed to unpick the story. By examining the leather and stitching of the moccasins, as well as delving further into Brontë’s life, Dr Houghton has not only discovered how they first came to Yorkshire, but also their part in Brontë’s most grief-stricken years.
Dr Houghton said: “Any object always has a great deal to tell you . . . and it will speak on so many levels, from its method of manufacture and its composition to why it was made and by whom. Then you can work out how the object has been worn and who might have worn it.”
The leather, she discovered, was not as pliant as hide cured using traditional methods, while the glass beadwork was sewn into place using a paper pattern as a guide. The pattern is still intact and visible on the moccasins.
“Each Native American Indian tribe had their own styles and way of using the materials,” Dr Houghton states. “It is very likely that these particular moccasins were made in the mid- to late-1840s by the Mohawk tribe on the Kahnawake Reserve, near modern-day Montreal.”
This tribe is key to unscrambling the puzzle of how the moccasins ended up in the hands of Charlotte Brontë. “The shoes are so different to anything else Charlotte owned, so it’s very easy to dismiss them. However, we know that the Mohawks sold their items at markets in New York, which is where
the head office of American publishers Harper and Brothers was located,” said Dr Houghton.
She believes the shoes were likely sent to Brontë as a gift by the publishers around 1848, when they were hoping to gain another book deal with her.
This was not unusual; Brontë's own publishers Smith and Elder, who had a close relationship with Harper and Brothers, were also known to have sent her gifts.
Although any concrete evidence of this exchange was destroyed in a disastrous fire at the publisher's New York offices in the 1850s, the next stage of the shoes' story gives further clues. When the author's sister Anne fell fatally ill with tuberculosis, the same disease that had just months earlier killed their brother and sister, Brontë took her to Scarborough in a last-ditch attempt to save her ailing health. It is here that she was separated from her moccasins forever.
Dr Houghton's research has shown that, after Anne's death, Brontë left a box of items, including the shoes, in Scarborough, with instructions for them to be sent back home. Yet this never happened. Instead, the items stood in the same lodging house for years, before being handed down to the landlady's niece and eventually dispersed. The note that reached the Parsonage along with the moccasins in 1983 details the items thought to have been left behind by Brontë.
Among those listed were not only her shoes, but also two other Native American Indian-made items: a pair of very similar moccasins belonging to Anne and a beaded bag. 'The fact there were actually three items, makes it even more likely that the publishers sent them,' Dr Houghton said. 'An item for each of the sisters.'
So yes, Charlotte Brontë really did own such outlandish shoes. What is more, it is likely that they influenced her novel Shirley, which includes references to the Wild West and which she was writing when her sisters fell ill.
'From the wear on the moccasins, it's clear that Brontë was fond of them. Given their date, it is likely she would have had them on as she wrote and nursed her siblings,' said Dr Houghton. 'Victorian shoes and clothing were so restrictive, yet the moccasins were the opposite. During such a tough and sad time, the comfort afforded by the shoes probably mattered a great deal.' [...]
'She's going through a time of loss but is being forced to write a book quickly. She will have searched for something to draw on, and perhaps there were the moccasins, quietly providing both fashionable exoticism and necessary solace.' A poignant ending to a mystifying tale. (Sara Tor)
As someone whose career was teaching and learning from literature, I have lived longer than every author, bar one, I’ve written a book on: Thackeray (died aged 52), Dickens (58), Walter Scott (61), Charlotte Brontë (38), Jane Austen (41), Shakespeare (52), Orwell (46). The exception is Hardy, who walked on through his Wessex countryside, noticing things others didn’t to the age of 87.
I love the literature as well - particularly the Brontë sisters. Wuthering Heights is probably my favourite novel of all time. (Hayley Richardson)
6/10 Jane Eyre (7.3)
This 2011 adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's novel of the same name is eerie and beautiful to watch. Mia Wasikowska breathes life into Jane Eyre and performs it with the tenderness, sensitivity, and sharpness that the role requires. Michael Fassbender plays the Byronic hero Edward Rochester with the rugged charm the role calls for. Their performance and chemistry turn this slow story into a very moving one. Viewers will be in a dilemma to root for their getting-together considering Rochester's ex-wife Bertha Mason as well. (Vdevi)
Literature should be the forum to explore competing cultural mores like this, testing them by the fire of a writer’s pen. Novelists from Emily Brontë to Miles Franklin and Philip Roth have used fiction to prick pretensions and mock insincerity. Yet fiction is dangerous territory for a writer in an era when a literal reading of their words trumps literary conventions. Once an author could place uncomfortable thoughts in a character’s head. But as novelist Lionel Shriver told me last week: “It’s now a little dangerous to express any non-orthodox opinion or statement, even in novels, even through the voices of characters.” (Nick Cater)
A Brontë cuff bracelet at the Etsy shop Jezebelcharms:Literary Book Cuff Bracelet(Via Damn Yam!)
Charlotte Brontë Chapter Novel - Jane Eyre Quote
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you. Jane Eyre to Mr Rochester
An extract from the chapter which features Jane's declaration that she can no longer be with Mr Rochester now she knows he is married. I've taken sections of 19th century imagery of the chapter that particular quote is from and finished it in a beautiful burnt red (not quite burgundy). The words pop from the beautiful patina of brass underneath the artwork. This design of literary cuff will be just like having a copy of Jane Eyre always with you !
The brass cuff is easily adjustable to customize the fit to your wrist by using slight pressure once on and the materials and methods used to create each cuff give the artwork a translucent finish so you w
ill see the patina of the brass underneath. The brass will change patina over time to a beautiful and unique shade and this is completely natural.
● Material - Brass (alloy of zinc and copper)
● Finish - Non waterproof but splash proof
● Dimensions - 1.5"/38mm high - 5.5"/140mm inside length - 1.5"/38mm opening (adjustable)
● One size fits wrist sizes from 5.5"/140mm to 7.5"/191mm
● Handmade in Dorset, England, Great Britain
Unsurprisingly, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre has been adapted to film many times, and here are 10 of its best film translations of all time, ranked.Kera News interviews the author Silvia Moreno-García:
Charlotte Brontë's most popular work, Jane Eyre, published in 1847, has been adapted many times and in numerous ways. The novel's discussion of Christianity, social class, feminism, and romance caused ripples when it was published that have lasted until today. Despite taking place in Victorian England, the story of a young woman's journey towards independence and love is timeless. (Madilyn Ivey)
Scott Simon: Her cousin Catalina has married Virgil, the British heir of a silver fortune. Maybe we should say a former silver fortune. An impertinent question - so Catalina married her husband without ever seeing where he lived?Le Soir (Belgium) recommends Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own:
SMG: Yes, he went to Mexico City, and they met there. It was a bit of a whirlwind romance. And then he kind of sold her this bill of goods. I guess she said it was a kind of romantic, old place. And Catalina is a bit of a romantic. She read books, like "Wuthering Heights" or "Jane Eyre," so it all sounded OK to her in theory. But once she got there she seems to have a different opinion about the place.
Lorsqu'elles se retirent et écrivent, ce n'est pas toujours Austen ou Brontë, nous dit Woolf, mais elles y gagnent d'autres pièces, de monnaie cette fois, sonnantes et émancipatrices. (Alain Lallemand) (Translation)El Espectador (Colombia) explores everyday spaces in lockdown:
Una ventana es inmutable. A pesar de que lo que se vea a través de ella cambie a cada segundo, el vano sigue inmóvil y permanece así eternamente. Es curioso, las de Emily Brontë en Cumbres borrascosas o la ventana con balcón de Romeo y Julieta son estructuras casi intocables y, de lejos, puntos de partida como pocos. Imágenes universales que sirven para contar la misma historia. Retazos arquitectónicos de obras que terminan por convertirse en símbolo. (Nicolás Rocha Cortés) (Translation)Mi Ciudad Real (Spain) reviews La dueña del mar by Esther Ginés:
Sostengo que la Literatura con mayúsculas ha muerto y ha dejado paso a una literatura ínfima de consumo playero o invernal a rebufo de los premios y las promociones, o sea, la betsellerización, ese fenómeno imparable, que salvo excepciones, que las hay, pervive sobre las cenizas de la Gran Literatura. Los libros ya no son hitos que jalonan la historia cultural del hombre –La Ilíada, Hamlet, Cumbres Borrascosas, Don Quijote, Ulises, Pedro Páramo, Santuario, La regenta, La peste, Cien años de soledad… por citar algunos al vuelo- sino superventas de márqueting, carne de series… o no son nada. (Manolo Valero) (Translation)Télam (Argentina) and love in the corona times:
Cuando pienso en el amor, en esa palabra tan densa y rimbombante, no pienso solamente en las parejas que tuve, o en las parejas que conozco: de hecho, ni siquiera empiezo pensando en eso. Lo primero que me viene a la mente son besos de telenovela, Lo que el viento se llevó, Cumbres borrascosas, y recién después esa versión siempre más prosaica, gastada por la cotidianidad y las contradicciones, de la vida real; y no creo ser la única. (Tamara Tenenbaum) (Translation)Clarín (Argentina) talks about Anne Carson:
En El ensayo de vidrio –un poemario del que la traductora Sandra Toro hizo una muy buena versión en su blog El Placard– retoma esa idea; esta vez, al evocar a Emily Brontë.(*) Sadly lost in translation is the fact that Anne Carson spelt 'watcher' as 'whacher', which is how Emily endearingly misspelt it. The Spanish translation doesn't reflect that at all.
En el silencio que la autora de Cumbres borrascosas construyó a su alrededor subyace, según Carson, una cualidad de observadora. “Observaba los barrotes del tiempo, que rompió./ Observaba el corazón pobre del mundo,/ abierto de par en par”, escribe. Y agrega: “Ser una observadora no es una elección./ No hay dónde escaparse de eso/ ni saliente a la que trepar, como un nadador/ que al atardecer sale del/ agua sacudiéndose las gotas”. (Ivana Romero) (Translation)
Heathcliff aus Emily Brontës „Sturmhöhe“ hätte mit seiner Aura eines windgepeitschten Leidenschaftsdämons durchaus das Zeug zur schwulen Ikone. Francis Lees Spielfilmdebüt „God's Own Country“ teilt sich mit Brontës literarischem Klassiker zumindest das Yorkshire-Setting. (Andrey Arnold) (Translation)Marie Claire and Blasting News (both in Italy) quote Charlotte Brontë in articles about engagement rings and a horoscope.
Literary Candles in Uncommon Goods:Literary Candles
Created by Callie Meaney
Transport yourself to Alice in Wonderland's madcap tea party, Sherlock Holmes' study, Jane Eyre's ambrosial rose garden, or an ivy-filled escape out of Pride & Prejudice with Callie Meaney's bookish candles. Named for the locations in literary classics, these soy candles evoke the book's most memorable moments as they ignite your imagination. Custom blended fragrances let you get lost in a book by adding an irresistible new layer of intrigue. Choose from four, fantastic fragrances. Hand-poured in Valley Stream, New York.
Jane Eyre/Thornfield Garden: Roses and rain water
Made from glass, cotton, soy wax, fragrance oil
3.75" H x 2.75" dia.; 12 oz.
Another favourite place is Haworth where we always visit the Brontë Museum and walk up on the wild moors above the village.According to The Canberra Times, 'some books don't make good films'.
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights is a tougher nut to crack: its wildness and strangeness have been tamed, lest it seem overly melodramatic. The 1939 film with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon is good, but it's not quite the book (or even the half of the story the film covers). (Ron Cerabona)Speaking of films, The Irish Times features actress Emma Mackey and mentions her future role as Emily Brontë.
9. A bibliophile, Weaver’s favorite books include classics like The Picture of Dorian Grey and Wuthering Heights, as well as contemporary classics, like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and American Gods. (Andrea Wolanin)In The Sydney Morning Herald, writer Leah Swann shares the four books that changed her, including
Jane EyreLos Angeles Times features Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novel, Mexican Gothic.
Charlotte Brontë
With its chilling mystery, gothic atmosphere, visceral writing, social commentary, religious critique, host of adversaries, ethical dilemmas and subplots, I found this story of how Jane – a "free human being with an independent will" – falls for the magnetic Rochester and then chooses near-starvation over bigamy to be a fascinating and enlightening demonstration of how character is shaped by conscience.
But Moreno-Garcia isn’t just rattling off genre signifiers. The author’s postcolonial spin on the gothic tradition evokes the usual suspects: Daphne du Maurier, Emily Brontë, Mary Shelley, even Anne [sic] Radcliffe. Like those authors, Moreno-Garcia works in a tradition in which chills and thrills tap into elemental cultural fears — runaway science, carnal passion. But to these she adds a more politically inflected horror, both ancient and timely: A racist will to power. (Bethanne Patrick)A BBC News contributor recommends the art installation The Visitors.
What I had just seen was wonderful: a romantic work of art with the spirit of a Brontë novel; made by the Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson and eight of his arty mates from Reykjavik. They were each stationed in a separate room of a down-at-heel mansion as they sung in synch a lament ("Once again I fall into my feminine ways") written by Ragnar's ex-wife, the poet Ásdis Sif Gunnarsdóttir.Romper recommends baby names with a literary twist such as
If the work is ever installed near you, check it out (you can watch it on YouTube but it's not the same). The piece is called The Visitors, a homage to Abba's last studio album by an artist who credits the band as an influence. (Will Gompertz)
1. HeathcliffSilver Petticoat Review lists '10 Fantastic Reasons to Watch the 1983 Jane Eyre Adaptation'. On the Brontë blogosphere, both Brontë Babe Blog and AnneBrontë.org celebrated Branwell Brontë's birthday yesterday.
The perfect name for the brooding baby who loves to toddle through the wild, endless moors. This of course comes from the Emily Brontë classic Wuthering Heights, about the tragic love affair between Catherine and the dark, tortured Heathcliff. It means, well, "cliff near a heath", and it's a name that inspires drama and passion. Or if your baby is way more chill than all that, you can just call him "Cliff". (Alice Emory)
Thorp GreenThe New European has reached its 200th issue and mentions bicentenaries, claiming that,
I sit, this evening, far away,
From all I used to know,
And nought reminds my soul to-day
Of happy long ago.
Unwelcome cares, unthought-of fears,
Around my room arise;
I seek for suns of former years
But clouds o'ercast my skies.
Yes-Memory, wherefore does thy voice
Bring old times back to view,
As thou wouldst bid me not rejoice
In thoughts and prospects new?
I'll thank thee, Memory, in the hour
When troubled thoughts are mine-
For thou, like suns in April's shower,
On shadowy scenes wilt shine.
I'll thank thee when approaching death
Would quench life's feeble ember,
For thou wouldst even renew my breath
With thy sweet word 'Remember'!
Cultural bicentennials, like that of Emily Brontë two years ago, tend to be marked with retrospectives, readings and exhibitions, which are all very nice – but perhaps a bit niche. (Liz Gerard)The Emily Brontë reference is so random. It's Anne's bicentenary this year and it would have sounded less vague.
One such neoformalist is literary scholar Caroline Levine, who defines form as “an arrangement of elements—an ordering, patterning, or shaping.” This broad definition includes “social arrangements,” meaning that forms are “the stuff of politics,” and thus formal devices in a novel such as Jane Eyre can be read in conjunction with the structures of institutions in the fictional world of the novel; Lowood School, with its disciplinary regime and its “semicircles, timed durations, and ladders of achievement” is a matter of form, too. (Sven Lütticken)The News (Pakistan) shares literary recipes such as
Seed cake from Jane EyreNews Letter recommends 'ten of the best shows to watch at home' including:
“Having invited Helen and me to approach the table, and placed before each of us a cup of tea with one delicious but thin morsel of toast, she got up, unlocked a drawer, and taking from it a parcel wrapped in paper, disclosed presently to our eyes a good-sized seed-cake.”
Seed cake is a very traditional Victorian recipe. Baked like a normal cake it is infused with caraway seeds, commonly used in British-styled baked goods, but not readily available in grocery stores. But you can still make it with other kinds of seeds. Just use that regular pound cake batter recipe and replace some flour (around 3 tbsp) with flax seeds, crushed pumpkin or sunflower seeds, or sprinkle some black sesame seeds for texture. Play around and make it your own seed cake to eat while you reread Jane Eyre! (SG)
Wasted, Southwark Playhouse, streaming now, freeCrunchyroll recommends the work and anime adaptations of manga artist Takako Shimura.
Through the lens of a rock documentary, Wasted gives an access-all-areas account of the struggles, heartbreaks and triumphs of the three Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and their brother Branwell. Brought up in a remote, poverty-stricken town in Yorkshire, without money or opportunity, they fought ill-health, unrequited love and family feuds to write some of the most celebrated literature including Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Never afraid to rebel against expectations, the lives behind the pages expose a struggling, squabbling, ferociously driven, drug-fuelled crash and burn trajectory from obscurity to celebrity and ultimately to their untimely deaths. It’s coupled with a rock score from the award-winning Christopher Ash.
Where to watch: southwarkplayhouse.co.uk (Peter Ormerod)
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights is a classic novel all about tragic love. Sweet Blue Flowers is a similar story: sensitive and bookish Fumi Manjōme comes to the world-changing realization she is a girl who likes girls. And her dear childhood friend, Akira "Acchan" Okudaira, who attends the prestige Fujigaya Girls Academy, doesn’t have the slightest clue. Fumi is tall and has a soft voice; Akira is short and can be heard from miles away. Set in historical and beautiful Kamakura, Sweet Blue Flowers has a cozy literary vibe that reminds me of curling up with Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women as a kid. Literature itself is a recurring theme throughout the series — with Wuthering Heights and The Little Prince constantly referenced, it’s hard not to feel like this high school puppy love tale has something bigger to say about the world at large. (Blake Planty)The Guardian announces that Aunt Nellie’s Diary, an unfinished story by Louisa May Alcott, is to be published for the first time.
Alcott would write her first novel, The Inheritance, the same year. The story of an Italian orphan who discovers that her inheritance is the English estate on which she is a paid companion, it was not published until 1997. Together with Aunt Nellie’s Diary, it is part of what Alcott described in her journals as her sentimental period. “I fancy ‘lurid things’, if true and strong also,” Alcott wrote of her literary influences at the time – Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, Charlotte Brontë and Nathaniel Hawthorne. “Aunt Nellie’s Diary shows hints of that love of darker fiction,” writes Shealy in an introduction to the tale. (Alison Flood)The Artifice has an article on 'Wuthering Heights and its Many Genres'. And finally, this month's treasure from the Brontë Parsonage Museum on The Sisters' Room is the 1834 portrait of Anne done by Charlotte.
A (digital) alert from the new (online) Bradford Literature Festival:Anne Brontë and the Gothic: Writing Workshop with Michael Stewart
Friday, 26th June 2020 | 9:00 am
For ages 11-18+
Bradford-based author of Ill Will, Michael Stewart leads a workshop on writing your very own Gothic story. Using Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as a focal point, Michael will explore Gothic tropes and themes and explain how you can use these in your own story.
Funded by the Emerald Foundation, events focus on the theme of the Gothic novel and local contemporary authors explore the idea of “write where you are”. Content is suitable for students in KS3, KS4 or A/S & A level and can be used as an introduction to the gothic genre, or to deepen and widen contextual awareness and understanding.
An online event for today, June 26, at the Felixtowe Book Festival:Author Ruth Dugdall and librarian & book lover Liz Rastrick would like to invite you to a birthday party.(Via East Anglian Daly Press and AnneBrontë.org)
Happy Birthday Anne Brontë! With Nick Holland
26/06/2020 - 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
ZOOM (ID: 858 5444 7275).
Our main focus will be Nick’s latest book Crave the Rose: Anne Brontë at 200. He is also the author of In Search of Anne Brontë. We will discuss both books, and there will be the opportunity to comment and ask Nick questions, but if you have read neither book please don’t let that dissuade you from joining us!
We are delighted that museums in the UK have been given permission to open from early July.Also on Twitter, with a lovely video of the garden looking luscious.
Here at the Parsonage, we are busy putting everything into place so that we can open our doors and welcome you back.
We can't tell you exactly when that will be just yet, but please watch this space for further announcements and pre-booking information.
This contributor to Vox should perhaps reread the Brontë novels, particularly Wuthering Heights and Villette.Here at the Parsonage, we are busy putting everything in place so that we can welcome you back. We don't have a reopening date just yet, but we'll share it with you just as soon as we do! In the meantime, enjoy the garden. Isn't it beautiful? #Haworth pic.twitter.com/dSLcOL8eEc— Brontë Parsonage (@BronteParsonage) June 24, 2020
But beyond the inarguable dollar value of the genre, it is also a distinct art form, one that revolves around a central love story and ends happily, either with a “happily ever after” or with a “happy for now.” By that definition, romance novels are as old as the English novel itself.The Oprah Magazine shares an excerpt from Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic.
In fact, the two at times were interchangeable. Books by Jane Austen and the Brontës in the 19th century tended to revolve around romantic love stories and — crucially for the genre — they have happy endings. (Constance Grady)
“And you, what have you been up to? Don’t think I haven’t noticed you hardly write. Have you been pretending you live on a windswept moor, like in Wuthering Heights?” Noemí asked. Catalina had worn out the pages of that book.La Nación (Argentina) recommends 10 films based on novels written by women, including
“No. It’s the house. The house takes most of my time,” Catalina said, extending a hand and touching the velvet draperies. (Michelle Hart)
Jane Eyre (Cary Joji Fukunaga, 2011)Onirik (France) reviews the book Brexit Romance by Clémentine Beauvais and recommends suitable background music.
Novela emblema del romanticismo inglés del siglo XIX, signada por la sombra de la tragedia que envolvió para siempre al linaje de las hermanas Brönte [sic] , Jane Eyre se gestó a partir de los recuerdos de institutriz de Charlotte, de su imaginería adolescente de amores imposibles, de su escritura madura y vital. La versión del director Cary Joji Fukunaga es una de las más certeras en el retrato de esa pasión gótica y turbulenta que une a la joven Jane y al misterioso Edward Rochester. Su puesta en escena es exuberante sin ser barroca, su narrativa es intensa sin ahogar la idealización propia del relato. Y los ecos fantasmales que persiguen a Jane desde su infancia, que la siguen desde su escondite en la chimenea de su tía hasta los bosques que rodean la mansión del señor Rochester, encuentran la mejor expresión en los tonos opacos de Fukunaga, en el rostro extrañado de Mia Wasikowska que brinda a Jane Eyre su destino de grandeza en la tradición romántica. (Paula Vázquez Prieto) (Translation)
Pour suivre les aventures de Justine, conceptrice d’une agence matrimoniale d’un nouveau genre, anti-Brexit, n’oubliez pas de mettre vos écouteurs et de lancer la playlist du roman, aussi originale qu’éclectique : de Wuthering Heights de Kate Bush à Starmania, en passant par Françoise Hardy ou Queen, le régal est total. (Claire) (Translation)
There Was No Possibility of Taking a Walk That Day
A Collection of Poems from the 2020 COVID-19 Lockdown by the Members of A Walk Around the Brontë Table
Edited by Kay Adkins
ISBN: 979-8649400206
June 2020
In Spring of 2020 much of the world went into Lockdown to control the pandemic spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus. The members of a Facebook Group dedicated to the literary Brontë Sisters captured this experience in poems to preserve the memories of this unique and uniquely shared global experience. Inspiration from the Brontë family's life experience and their recurring themes of isolation and strength of character soar through these personal accounts and tributes to a family of unlikely authors who continue to impact us 200 and more years after their births.
Novelist and university professor Sahar al-Mougy waltzes between different times and places effortlessly in her latest novel [Misk al-Tal (Musk of the Hill)]. A thorough reflection of life, its three main characters move forward in a sort of harmonious chaos. Despite being fiction, she explains, the main characters of the novel reflect the background of the novelist. Amina, taken from the Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz, Catherine, taken from UK novelist Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and Mariam, a modern day psychiatrist, these women were often the topic of studies on al-Mougy's own creative journey. (Amira El-Noshokaty)The Newton Kansan echoes the Bethel College Thresher Awards which were announced virtually:
Presenting a Thresher Award in English to Justice Flint, of Wichita, professor Brad Born said Flint "demonstrate(d) a unique combination of intellectual vigor, creative thinking and deep engagement with literature. Her formal written scholarship has been exceptional."Dave Stewart shares his personal playlist on Spin, which includes:
In the prospectus for her senior thesis, on "Christian Independence in Jane Eyre," Flint "promised that her scholarship would foreground ‘the theological commitment of its author and the surprising ways in which her heroine negotiates the tensions of being a gifted and independent-minded woman who is also devout and sincere in her faith,’ " Born said. "Those words aptly describe Justice herself."
“Wide Sargasso Sea” – Stevie NicksIn case you are wondering, the title of this post comes from the lyrics of that very nice song, greatly underappreciated.
A song I wrote with Stevie in her house whilst making her album In Your Dreams. That whole experience would need a novel to explain.
‘Rebecca’Le Monde (France) explores the world of English embroidery:
Oh, hi again, Hitchcock. This movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture and it’s easy to see why. Rebecca leans into the whole “haunted memory of a dude’s first wife low-key haunts his new wife” trope (similar to Jane Austen’s Jane Eyre (MEGASIC)), and the plot is absolutely wild.
Aujourd’hui, la broderie anglaise est chantée par de nombreux créateurs : blouse, chemisier, robe de jour façon déshabillé ou robe de poupée grandeur nature, la toilette d’antan refait surface comme un hommage à ces femmes des XIXe et XXe siècles à la sensibilité éprouvée par la prose émancipatrice de Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë ou Virginia Woolf. (Gonzague Dupleix) (Translation)Artistik Rezo (France) interviews the musical artist Zita Garnier:
Tamika Couedor: Si vous deviez être un album lequel seriez-vous ?Latestly (India) lists a Charlotte Brontë quote on a compilation of 'positive quotes of happiness'. Several websites announce that Jane Eyre 2011 will available next month on HBO Max.
Z.G.: Si je devais être un album je serais un mix entre l’album Musicology de Prince, AS I AM d’Alicia Keys, et Wuthering Heights de Kate Bush. Un peu de Human Nature de Michael Jackson mais ça c’est une chanson, mais si ma personnalité pouvais être un album ça serait vraiment Musicology. (Translation)
Rare autograph letter by Charlotte Bronte to her closest friend Ellen Nussey, written when Charlotte was just 18 years old, exhibiting a style later to be found in her literary works - £65,000.
Charlotte Brontë
Autograph letter signed to Ellen Nussey.
[Haworth], 13 March 1835
£65,000.00
Rare very early and long autograph letter written by the teenaged Charlotte to her closest friend Ellen Nussey.
Description
Single large sheet (220 x 375 mm; 8.75 x 14.75 ins), folded to create four pages. With manuscript address and dated postmark on address panel. Simply framed with an engraving by John Sartain after the classic portrait of Brontë by George Richmond.
Condition
Usual folds, a few small chips at edges not affecting text, very good.
Bibliography
Published in Margaret Smith, ed., The Letters of Charlotte Brontë, Volume I, 1829-1847, p. 136. There is one sentence ("I hope Mary is quite well...") that is not in the printed text.
Notes
The letter written when Charlotte was just short of her 19th birthday is a wonderful harbinger of her mature literary style, beginning with an almost poetic expression of her feelings for Nussey before transitioning to an effective setting of scene and an amusing character study, then moving on to politics, expressing her strong anti-Whig sentiments. At the time of this letter, "Charlotte's fondness for Ellen Nussey was becoming extreme; Charlotte was desolate when Ellen was away from her home in nearby Birstall, hated to be separated from her, and longed for her return" (Smith). The letter is clearly self-consciously literary and at some level performative, as she explains near the end of the letter: "Now Ellen, laugh heartily at all this rodomontade, but you have brought it on yourself, don't you remember telling me to write such letters to you as I write to Mary Taylor? Here's a specimen; hereafter should follow a long disquisition on books, but I'll spare you that."
"Ellen Nussey first met her lifelong friend Charlotte Brontë in January 1831 at Miss Wooler's school Roe Head, Mirfield, where they were both pupils. Ellen was 13 and Charlotte 14... Ellen was a steady, conscientious and reliable friend for Charlotte, and the Reverend Patrick Brontë approved their friendship. Visiting the Parsonage often, she was soon also a friend of Anne and Emily. It was during her time at Roe Head that she began her correspondence with Charlotte, which lasted until the end of Charlotte's life, and which is responsible for so much of what we know today of Charlotte's life."
"Ellen's brother Henry asked Charlotte to marry him in March 1839, but she gracefully refused his suit... Ellen's friendship with Charlotte survived her brother's rejection, and 10 years later she was one of only two friends Charlotte asked to accompany her and Anne on what was to be Anne's last trip to Scarborough, where she died. Ellen's presence was a huge comfort to Charlotte at what was an agonisingly difficult time in her life."
"Charlotte also asked Ellen to be one of her two witnesses when, in June 1854, she married her father's curate Arthur Bell Nicholls. Ellen was not enthusiastic about the marriage it is believed she had imagined herself and Charlotte living as spinster friends into old age yet she did appear as a witness, and remained Charlotte's friend until her death nine months later in March 1855" (The Brontë Society / Brontë Parsonage Museum).
Many of Ellen Nussey's letters were used by Mrs Gaskell as the basis for her important biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857). Arthur Bell Nicholls asked Ellen to destroy them after Charlotte's death, but Ellen refused. Nussey, who never had any children, sold most of Charlotte's letters before her death in 1897.
Charlotte Brontë's early letters offer a "terrifying look of life seen from the inside, as we are confronted by the inability of Charlotte Brontë, the bored, lonely, poverty-stricken victim of 19th-century bourgeois mores, to realise that she was Charlotte Brontë, the self-sufficient writer who fused grand passion with a quiet vernacular. Because she kept that world completely hidden from her main correspondent, her school friend Ellen Nussey, we become keenly aware of the disjunction between her social and inner life" (Natasha Walter, "The passionate governess - Charlotte Brontë's letters reveal a struggle between spirit and obedience", The Guardian, 21 July 1995). Although Charlotte's letters to Nussey "tell us little, at this stage, of Charlotte's secret world of imagination, shared only with her family,... their style was joyfully experimental and varied, precocious in its forays into rough satire, elaborately picturesque description, or dramatic dialogue, and full of echoes of their reading" (Margaret Smith, ed., The Letters of Charlotte Brontë, Volume I, 1829-1847). "Even if much of Charlotte's heart is left out of these letters, what we find instead is a lucid development of style and tone as she creates the peculiar voice that rooted Jane Eyre and Lucy Snowe so securely in reality" (Walter, ibid.).
The text reads in full: "Dear Ellen, I suppose by this time you will be expecting to hear from me. You did not fix any precise period when I should write, so I hope you will not be very angry on the score of delay, &c. Well, here I am, as completely separated from you as if a hundred instead of seventeen miles intervened between us. I can neither hear you, nor see you, nor feel you, you are become a mere thought, an unsubstantial impression on the memory which, however, is happily incapable of erasure. My journey home was rather melancholy, and would have been very much so, but for the presence and conversation of my worthy companion. I found Kelly a very intelligent man and really not unlike Cato (you will understand the allusion). He told me the adventures of his sailor's life, his shipwreck, and the hurricane he had witnessed in the West Indies, with a much better flow of language than many of far greater pretensions are masters of. I thought he appeared a little dismayed by the wildness of the country round Haworth, and I imagine he has carried back a pretty report of it. He was very inquisitive, and asked several questions respecting the names of places, directions of roads, &c., which I could not answer. I fancy he thought me very stupid. What do you think of the course Politics are taking? I make this inquiry because I now think you have a wholesome interest in the matter, formerly you did not care greatly about it. Baines you see is triumphant. Wretch! I am a hearty hater, and if there is any one I thoroughly abhor, it is that man. But the opposition is divided, red hots, and luke warms; and the Duke (his excellence the Duke) and Sir Robert Peel show no sign of insecurity, though they have already been twice beat; so "courage, mon amie." Heaven defend the right! as the old chevaliers used to say, before they joined battle. Now Ellen, laugh heartily at all this rodomontade, but you have brought it on yourself, don't you remember telling me to write such letters to you as I write to Mary Taylor? Here's a specimen; hereafter should follow a long disquisition on books, but I'll spare you that. Give my best and sincerest love to your mother and sisters. I hope Mary crossed out in ink is quite well by this time kiss Sarah crossed out in ink for me, and ???? particularly to her. Every soul in this house unites with me in best wishes to yourself. I am, dear Ellen, Thy friend, signed Charlotte. P. S. Did Kelly request you to send the umbrella I left to the Bull's Head Inn, Bradford? Our carrier called for it on Thursday but it was not there. I suppose the people of the Inn have lost it. Happily it was of no great value, so it does not much signify."
The remote, now-ruined West Yorkshire farmhouse is said to have been the inspiration for Emily Brontë’s renowned novel Wuthering Heights.If the coronavirus pandemic was not enough, the Brontë Parsonage Museum faces another challenge for its future reopening. We read in The Telegraph & Argus:
Every year thousands of visitors to Haworth, where the Bronte sisters once lived, make their way from the village to see the site.
According to tourism organisation Visit Bradford, such is the attraction to Japanese literary tourists that some footpath signs in the area include directions in Japanese.
A Brontë Society plaque, dated 1964, was placed at the site in response to “many inquiries” about the farmhouse’s reported association with the Earnshaw family home in Emily’s Wuthering Heights.
It reads: “The buildings, even when complete, bore no resemblance to the house she described but the situation may have been in her mind when she wrote of the moorland setting on the heights.”
The location is one of many Brontë attractions in the area, including the Brontë Waterfalls and the Brontë Bridge, considered to be one of the sisters’ favourite places. (Laura Reid)
The Brontë Parsonage Museum’s recovery after coronavirus could be badly affected by the closure of the main road between Oxenhope and Hebden Bridge, warn bosses.Some news outlets talk about how the Emily Brontë biopic film project is being presented at the virtual Cannes Film Market:
The Brontë Society fears the 20-week improvement programme on the A6033 Hebden Bridge Road will hinder its plans to attract visitors from the Calder Valley and across the North West.
The society points out many museum visitors reach Hebden Bridge by train then continue to Haworth on the bus, which will not run across the moors while the road is closed.
The society spoke this week as a parish council chairman raised concerns that the closure would stop people crossing the moors to reach work – including residents on the Hebden Bridge side who run businesses in Haworth and Keighley. (...)
The Brontë Parsonage Museum has been closed since the beginning of lockdown, in a year when it hoped to attract many visitors interested in the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anne Brontë.
A spokesman said: “We fully understand that improvements need to be made to the A6033, but we are concerned that the timing of them, and the length of time that the road will be fully closed, will have an adverse effect on visitor numbers during the late summer and early autumn.
“We expect the recovery from the effects of lockdown to be slow, and the disruption caused by this work will further hamper our plans to attract visitors from the upper Calder Valley and beyond, including those who arrive in Hebden Bridge by train and then continue their journey to Haworth by bus.” (David Knights)
Embankment Films is handling Emily, a biopic on the early life Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë, starring Emma Mackey, Joe Alwyn, Fionn Whitehead and Emily Beecham.
The producers are David Barron, Piers Tempest, Jo Bamford and Arenamedia’s Robert Connolly and Robert Patterson. The aim is to shoot in Yorkshire in the first quarter of 2021. (Don Groves in IF)
Emily – Emma Mackey, Joe Alwyn, Fionn Whitehead and Emily Beecham will star in Emily, Golden Globe-nominated actress Frances O’Connor’s directorial debut about the early life of Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë. Producers are Harry Potter producer David Barron, Piers Tempest and Jo Bamford’s Tempo Productions with Robert Connolly and Robert Patterson of Arenamedia. Embankment will handle world sales. (Andrea Wiseman, Tom Grater in Deadline)The Conversation on ways to build a writing collaboration:
Although new writers such as the Brontë siblings may collaborate, the practice seems to fall away with age, perhaps because writing relationships can be as fraught as familial ones, with as many pitfalls to navigate. (Alexis Brown)RealScreen informs that
AMC Networks’ SVOD service Acorn TV, meanwhile, has picked up the rights to a package of literary and UK-focused programming that includes Blakeway Productions’ Brilliant Brontë Sisters (1 x 48 minutes) and The Genius of Roald Dahl (1 x 48 minutes), as well as What Larks! Productions’ Narnia’s Lost Poet: The Secret Lives and Loves of CS Lewis (1 x 59 minutes). (Daniele Alcinii)Verily Magazine reviews a free Librivox recording of Jane Eyre:
Jane Eyre (Elizabeth Klett)But Why Tho? reviews Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-García:
In my experience, it is hardest to find a quality audiobook for books that are in the public domain. Why? Since publishers do not have to pay copyright fees to adapt these titles, just about anyone can record an audiobook; the result is that some versions are subpar, either because the recording quality is poor or the narrator is less experienced. The silver lining is that these books often can be found for free.
I must have listened to a dozen samples of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre before I found a narrator I liked. Klett has a light British accent that really brings the book to life, and she reads the book so naturally. Jane Eyre is a great read but it can be hard to get through the first few painful chapters about Jane’s childhood. I don’t think I would have made it through if it weren’t for Klett’s lovely narration! And since the recording is done by LibriVox, it is in the public domain, and available to download for free. (Monica Burke)
In an ominous letter, Noemí’s cousin Catalina details that High Place has ghosts and that she is in danger. Like most haunted house stories, the novel is atmospheric but subverts this with its self-awareness. Mexican Gothic has constant references to classic gothic literature from authors Mary Shelley and Emily Brontë and reading Moreno-Garcia’s full embrace of the camp and romanticism in her exposition was delightful.Coast Community News interviews Kim Reardon, book reviewer:
Ross Barry: Ok, now for the ultimate question: What has been your favourite book so far?A brief Brontë mention in a New Yorker article on Crime and Punishment:
Kim: Well, firstly, my favourite book of all time is Jane Eyre. I think it always will be.
Dostoyevsky’s writing about the subservient status of women was as outraged as anything the Brontës had produced, with the Russian additive of persistent violence. (David Denby)Alone and booming. Mary Ann D'Urso in The Boston Globe:
Living alone since my early 20s, I had imagined that by my 30s, I would have a romantic Jane ending — Austen or Eyre.Allociné (France) lists literary adaptations on Amazon like Wuthering Heights 1992:
Les Hauts de Hurlevent, oeuvre unique d’Emily Brontë, est considérée comme un ouvrage majeur de la littérature romantique. Son récit insolite et ses personnages sombres ont toujours intrigué les cinéastes, donnant lieu à plus d’une dizaine d’adaptations entre 1920 et 2015. Si la plupart se concentre sur la première génération des personnages, la version de Peter Kosminsky, avec en tête d’affiche Ralph Fiennes et Juliette Binoche, peut se vanter de couvrir les quarante années qui s’écoulent dans le roman. On y suit l’évolution de Heathcliff, un jeune garçon pauvre et esseulé, recueilli par un gentilhomme qui l’invite à venir vivre avec lui, son fils et sa fille. Néanmoins, son arrivée dans le foyer suscite rapidement la jalousie et la haine de son frère d'adoption, Hinley (sic) , tandis que sa soeur, Cathy, tombe amoureuse de lui. A la mort du patriarche, Heathcliff se retrouve sous la domination de Hinley (sic again) et doit regarder Cathy accepter un mariage de raison avec un autre. En plus d'être très fidèle au roman, le film est acclamé pour sa bande-originale signée Ryuichi Sakamoto, ces décors et l’interprétation torturée de Ralph Fiennes. (Manon Maroufi) (Translation)La Hora Digital (Spain) quotes Emily Brontë's No Coward Soul is Mine in an article about local politics. A verse that takes a new meaning in these times:
No coward soul is mineDer Tagesspiegel (Germany) reminds us of the pre-pandemic world and hotels, room service, those strange delights:
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere
I see Heaven's glories shine
And Faith shines equal arming me from Fear
In Ponden Hall zum Beispiel, wo schon die Brontë Sisters zu Besuch waren, setzt man sich an den liebevoll gedeckten Holztisch und wird bedient. Die ausgedehnten Morgenmahlzeiten im B&B, ein Gang nach dem anderen, die Gespräche mit Gastgebern und anderen Urlaubern gehören zu meinen schönsten Urlaubserinnerungen. Dabei habe ich mehr über England erfahren als aus manchen Büchern. (Susanne Kippenberger) (Translation)According to Libreriamo (Italy) and pseudoscience, Virgo readers have to read Wuthering Heights these days:
Il romanzo da leggere secondo l’oroscopo dell’estate: “Cime tempestose” di Emily Brontë. Un grande classico da leggere e rileggere è l’unico romanzo scritto dall’autrice a metà dell’800, che le è bastato a renderla una delle scrittrici più famose della storia. Questo libro narra la storia di Heathcliff, del suo amore per Catherine e di come questa passione finisca per distruggere entrambi. Infatti, elementi quali la gelosia e la vendetta hanno un ruolo centrale nello sviluppo della trama, che scatena effetti negativi sugli individui. (Loredana Galiano) (Translation)Another, more serious, Italian article can be read on Rolling Stone on the music of Kate Bush:
A qualcuno potrebbe sembrare una cantante come tante degli anni ’70/80. «Kate Bush? Ah, quella di Cime tempestose… ma è ancora viva?». Non solo è viva e vegeta ma, anche se l’attività discografica non è una delle sue priorità da quasi trent’anni, il suo contributo alla musica moderna è stato enorme. E poi no, Kate Bush non è solo quella di Wuthering Heights, ma quella di una serie di album che hanno contribuito a definirla come una super artista, una che canta e suona divinamente, una compositrice notevole, nonché una sperimentatrice senza confini. E un’ottima ballerina che nei rari spettacoli dal vivo ha sfoggiato costumi e coreografie di un’originalità fantascientifica, in anticipo su tutti.Denník N (Slovakia) and expectations in relationships:
(...)
Kate Bush è solo Kate Bush. Una che a 14 anni scrive una roba come Wuthering Heights e che a 20 se ne esce con un disco come The Kick Inside non ha bisogno di essere la versione femminile di nessuno. (Fabio Zuffanti) (Translation)
Keď som bola na základnej škole, mala som vo veľa veciach jasno. Nemám na mysli iba dátumy bitiek či značky prvkov periodickej tabuľky, ale napríklad aj moje predstavy o živote. Vedela som, že sa budem živiť ako spisovateľka, a že môj osudový partner bude lojálny ako Gilbert Blythe, tajomný ako pán Rochester, vášnivý ako Heathcliff a povznesene inteligentný ako pán Darcy. (Tatiana Carova) (Translation)Picture this Post reviews Wuthering Heights 2011. SCW1842 shares a photo gallery of Wuthering Heights 1992.
We have received some bad news from the Brussels Brontë Group as one of its founding members, Maureen Peeck O'Toole (1935-2020), passed away on June 13th. Here's what they have sent us about her.I have just heard the sad news that Maureen Peeck O’Toole (born Maureen O’Toole in Bradford in 1935, married to Joan Peeck, a professor of psychology at the University of Utrecht) died on 13 June; she had been ill for some time. Maureen taught English language and literature at Utrecht university and was the author of a book on Emily Brontë’s poetry, Aspects of Lyric in the Poetry of Emily Brontë (1988).Maureen Peeck’s self-portrait 2007
Some of you will remember Maureen from the early days of our Group. She was one of a group of members from the Netherlands who were involved in setting up the group (others were Eric Ruijssenaars, author of Charlotte Brontë’s Promised Land: the Pensionnat Heger and other Brontë Places in Brussels; Selina Busch, who designed our first website; and Marcia Zaaijer, another founder member who still attends our meetings, all the way from Rotterdam).
Maureen gave her time, ideas and knowledge to the Brussels Brontë Group. She was one of our first speakers. In the attached photos you can see her taking part in some readings from Villette she organised for our first ever Christmas lunch (in 2007) and giving a talk to our group in February 2011 on Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (our celebration of Anne Brontë this year in Brussels has of course been postponed due to the coronavirus). You can read on our blog about two of the events in which Maureen was involved:
http://brusselsbronte.blogspot.com/2007/04/bront-weekend-in-brussels-21-22-april.html
http://brusselsbronte.blogspot.com/2011/02/afternoon-with-anne-bronte.html
As well as in Brussels, some of us regularly met up with Maureen at Brontë Society weekends in Haworth. She was young in spirit, down-to-earth and good company. For years she used to take groups of her students from Utrecht to stay with her in a holiday cottage she rented near Haworth, so as to tell them about the Brontës in situ. Below you can read a little piece she wrote for our website in 2007, when we posted pieces about some of our earliest members. We will miss her.
Best regards,
Helen MacEwan
Brussels Brontë Group
www.thebrusselsbrontegroup.org
My name is Maureen Peeck (born Maureen O'Toole). As you will gather I am of Irish ancestry. I am a Brit, born and bred in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Bradford is about 8 miles from Haworth and I went there many a time as a girl. The whole area around the big, then industrial, city of Bradford was lovely countryside, mostly moorland and we were forever off to Shipley Glen, Ilkley or Haworth moors, or hitch-hiking to the Dales or the Lakes. However I married a Dutchman and went to live in the Netherlands! Living abroad makes one more aware of one's own background, culture and language, I find.EDIT: Check the Brussels Brontë Blog for further information.
I taught English Literature for many years at Utrecht University until my retirement. Of course I have often given courses on the Brontës, and done research in this field. I am particularly interested in Emily Brontë as a poet and her place in the canon of English poetry.
I now teach part-time at the University, this time giving courses to older people. I continue to give Brontë courses and in this way I keep abreast of what is going on in Brontë matters which I find very stimulating.
The literary candles, from Uncommon Goods, come in four different scents, each based on a specific setting from a book.This contributor to La República (Ecuador) lists her favourite writers before discovering Kate Morton.
[...]
Thornfield Garden, from Jane Eyre, smells simply like roses and rain water. (Mia Nakaji Monnier)
Luego llegaron a mi vida las adorables hermanas Brontë, y eso fue la locura, para terminar amando a J.K. Rowland [sic], lo que me convierte, a mi juicio, en un alma afín a Kate Morton: ambas tenemos solo hermanas mujeres, compartimos la pasión por Inglaterra y sus novelistas, así como el sentimiento de lo gótico y la atracción por la flema inglesa, que tan a menudo oculta intensas pasiones. (María Rosa Jurado) (Translation)Funny how you can get the name of one of your favourite writers wrong though.
Skyline is the new book of short stories by Annalisa Bruni:SkylineThe first story is Eyre vs Brontë and is briefly described on Io Donna:
Annalisa Bruni
CLEUP Editrice
ISBN: 9788854952317
2020
Eyre vs Brontë, il racconto scelto per aprire la raccolta, da solo vale tutto il libro: la protagonista Jane Eyre si ribella al destino scelto dalla scrittrice Charlotte Brontë. In un’aula di tribunale Jane fa valere le sue ragioni. Ma perde perché, come conclude Annalisa Bruni, veneziana d’origine, «il destino dei personaggi di carta è come quello degli uomini: non cambia». (Michaela K. Bellisario)In the Preface, Francesca Vicentini says:
Da Eyre vs Brontë, il racconto scelto per aprire la raccolta, originale dissertazione su un pilastro della letteratura, Jane Eyre di Charlotte Brontë. Come le sarà venuto in mente di mettere una contro l’altra in scena l’eroina di un romanzo e la sua autrice? Ecco qui ‘il senso’ di Annalisa per il racconto. E per il colpo di scena, che poi di ogni racconto è il cuore pulsante.
Nella sezione Biografia, dai diciassette lavori scrutinati sono stati scelti: Emily Brontë, di Paola Tonussi (Salerno), Margaret Thatcher. Biografia della donna e della politica, di Elisabetta Rosaspina (Mondadori) e Miss Rosselli, di Renzo Paris (Neri Pozza). (Lieta Zanatta) (Translation)More awards. The Connecticut Critics Circle have announced the nominations for the best regional theatre in this abbreviated season. There are two Jane Eyre nominations:
Helen Sadler – Actress, “Jane Eyre,” Hartford Stage.La Voz de Galicia (Spain) talks about Anne Carson being awarded the Literature Princess of Asturias Award:
Isabella Byrd – Lighting Design, “Mlima’s Tale,” Westport Country Playhouse and “Jane Eyre,” Hartford Stage.
Son las cumbres borrascosas de Anne Carson. Admiradora de Emily Brontë, la canadiense que ha ganado el Princesa de Asturias de las Letras 2020 despeja el tedio de lo prosaico, aleja el pensamiento de la vía rápida, rompe la tontería poética que se ha ido haciendo con un público y un estante en librerías con más eslóganes sensibles que sentido del verso. (Ana Abelenda) (Translation)La Razón talks about resilience through the reading of The Great Gatsby:
¿Qué significa resiliencia? Sencillamente, la capacidad de, en la desgracia, encontrar el camino para seguir adelante. Imaginemos a alguien como el gran Gatsby, el misterioso milonario de la novela de Francis Scott Fitzgerald. Su obsesión por Daisy, su viejo amor de juventud, es hasta cierto modo una patología, una antítesis romántica. Como en “Cumbres borrascosas”, un Gatsby joven sin nada que ofrecer se marcha del lado de su presunto amor para hacerse rico y ser digno de ella. (Carlos Sala) (Translation)Literature professor Gerhard Lauer is an enthusiast of popular teenage literary platforms like Wattpad. He is interviewed on SRF (Germany):
Beschränkt sich das auf Teenager-Genres oder führt Wattpad die Jugendlichen auch hin zur klassischen, etablierten Literatur?Toute la Culture (France) reiews Les Saisons by Maurice Pons:
Es ist mit Sicherheit Jugendkultur. Aber verblüffenderweise kommt man von der Teen Fiction auch zu den Klassikern. Diese Klassiker sind dann etwa Jane Austen oder die Brontë-Schwestern. Oder für die deutschsprachige Literatur Hermann Hesse, der dort sehr populär ist und auch viel kommentiert wird. (Translation)
Cette étrangeté fait penser à Kafka, ce voyage final à La Horde du contrevent d’Alain Damasio, cette laideur métamorphosée en beauté à Baudelaire, ce climat hostile aux Hauts de Hurlevent, etc. Tout se mélange pour donner naissance à un cauchemar que seul Siméon, parce qu’il vient d’ailleurs, parce qu’il est poète, peut transformer en rêve. Un autre monde est peut-être possible. (Julien Coquet) (Translation)Le Journal du Dimanche reviews Au coeur d'un été tout en or by Anne Serra:
Ainsi, l'écrivaine tente d'imaginer, dans Irène et moi, un temps "qui n'existe pas", qui ne serait "ni simple, ni composé, ni imparfait", mais aurait "d'autres qualités, d'autres caractéristiques, que la langue ne sait pas". Ainsi ses proches prennent-ils parfois l'apparence de personnages de roman ou d'acteurs : Charles devient Renny Whiteoak dans la saga des Jalna ou le Heathcliff des Hauts de Hurlevent, une cousine semble "sortir d'un film d'Hitchcock" et l'amie Lottie a le sourire d'Audrey Hepburn dans Diamants sur canapé. (Laëtitia Favro) (Translation)La Vanguardia (Spain) talks about the publication of the novel Malasangre by Helena Tur:
Apicultores, hidalgos, contrabandistas, huérfanas, aldeanos, carlistas e isabelinos campan en un relato que bebe de Jane Austen o Charlotte Brontë y cuya salida a la venta se ha producido el pasado día 18 tras aplazarse en abril por la pandemia de coronavirus. (Translation)A Charlotte Brontë quote on Attualità (Italy). Adoption Stories mentions Jane Eyre.
Places to Go is a special feature that The Reader is bringing to you in the hope that it may provide some inspiration on how we can spend our time at home during lockdown. We will be posting extracts from stories which highlight special moments of travel and adventure for you to enjoy. This week Lisa Spurgin shares her thoughts on Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.
