173 years reading Jane Eyre

First of all, today is quite a special day as it marks the anniversary of the publication of Jane Eyre 173 years ago. 

And now for some good news as Keighley News has an article on the welcome funding boosts received recently by the Brontë Society.

The Bronte Society says the £119,200 – received as part of the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund – will support the museum through its traditionally-quieter autumn and winter months and help finance increased digital activity. [...]

“The Covid-19 pandemic has presented us with some of the most challenging circumstances we have ever found ourselves in,” says Trish Gurney, chairman of the Brontë Society’s board of trustees.

“There is still some uncertainty ahead, but the award from the Culture Recovery Fund means we can face the future with more confidence and ensure that we can continue to fulfil our mission to bring the Brontës to the world and the world to Yorkshire.

“We are very grateful to Arts Council England and the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for their award and for the public recognition of our contribution to culture in the UK.”

The Brontë Society has also been raising funds through a Just Giving campaign, which has been boosted with a £25,000 donation from the Charlotte Aitken Trust.

Sebastian Faulkes, chairman of the trust, said: “The trust was set-up with money left in the will of the literary agent Gillon Aitken (1938-2016) in memory of his only child, Charlotte.

“We are delighted to support the Brontë Parsonage Museum appeal. It is the first grant the charity has made and it could not be in a better cause. Haworth is an important part of our literary heritage and it is sobering to think that the Brontë sisters were writing their great novels at roughly the same age that Charlotte Aitken had reached when she died.

“Whatever the temporary restrictions on visitors, we hope the Brontë Society and the Brontë Parsonage Museum will continue to flourish.”

The donation is welcomed by Rebecca Yorke, head of communications at the Bronte Society.

She said: “The generous donation by the Charlotte Aitken Trust is a very welcome boost to our fundraising campaign – and has helped us reach our initial target of £100,000.

“We are very grateful to Sebastian Faulkes and the other trustees. Their support will help us survive this period of crisis and ensure that we can continue to promote the Brontë legacy and support writers and artists working today.” (Alistair Shand)

We certainly invite our readers to scroll down the list of supporters on the Just Giving page as the messages and goodwill of the generous donors are deeply moving and representative of the many lives touched by the Brontë family (there's even a descendant of Sarah Garrs in there). You can still donate while you're at it.

Still locally, The Telegraph and Argus features some of this year's Bradford Halloween celebrations.

Jamie Wardley, from Sand In Your Eye, said: “The pumpkin displays celebrate the quirky cultural history of Bradford. There will be a wild boar rampaging through the city, Bollywood dancers and the Brontë sisters. Let the pumpkins do the talking and put a smile on your face while giving each other plenty of space!” (Daryl Ames)

Yorkshire Life recommends '10 Yorkshire walks near the Pennine Way', including

Haworth

Into the moors of West Yorkshire, we head west to Pennine Way, but take in some of the famous Brontë landmarks such as the Top Withens farmhouse and the waterfalls.

Wall Street Journal reviews Catherine Eaton’s debut film The Sounding.

Catherine Eaton’s “The Sounding,” available on digital platforms starting Oct. 20th, begins with a mystery that gradually deepens rather than resolves, and takes place mainly on a windswept island that could serve as the setting of a Brontë novel, even though it’s somewhere off the American coast at the present time. (Joe Morgenstern)

Daily Mail reviews the Netflix production of  Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca.

It succeeds, as all good Rebecca adaptations should, in reminding us of the great British literary lineage to which the story belongs. The kinship with Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is unmistakable. (Brian Viner)

The Guardian reviews the latest adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla.

This revisionist adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1871 vampire novella joins Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights and Lady Macbeth in the newish tradition of bonnet-free literary adaptations: modern-feeling period films abandoning coy glances for earthy passions and marriage fantasy fulfilment for a harsher portrait of domestic life for women in the past. (Cath Clarke)

More spooky films as according to CBR, 'Crimson Peak Is the Perfect Gothic Romance For Halloween'.

It's very straightforward, letting the viewer use Edith, who's a Jane Eyre-esque fish-out-of-water, as a surrogate to investigate the mysteries. (Brynna Cole)

JoBlo recommends it too:

With echoes of classic stories like Daphne DuMariers Rebecca, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, and even Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Guillermo Del Toro echoes some of the greatest ghost stories of all time and modernizes it for the 21st century. (Alex Maidy)

Scroll (India) tells to the story of how 'Book Fairies spread joy on the Delhi Metro'.

When I started Books on the Delhi Metro in May 2017, I envisioned Delhi as a city of bibliophiles. The idea came to me like a calling. Growing up, I did not have too many books, which were a luxury in our household. My mother, a schoolteacher, would bring home books from the school library. [...]

By 2017, I had planned to give away a few books I had accumulated as gifts. Apart from a few precious Harry Potters and my mother’s copy of Wuthering Heights, I knew I would not read them again. (Shruti Sharma)

SWR2 (Germany) shares the fourth instalment of the podcast about the Brontë sisters accompanied by music based on their works. Tea Leaves and Tweed posts about Jane Eyre.

Finally, Brontë Babe Blog reviews Restless Spirits by Tracy Neis (Rock and Roll Brontës Book 2).