The impact and setting of conflict for British culture is a theme that has attracted greater interest in recent years, and with the work of Jane Austen being profitably interpreted accordingly. Other authors invite similar coverage. Dickens is not exactly prominent as a writer of empire, but his family was much engaged and his short stories reflect sympathy for veterans. The Brontës and War. Fantasy and Conflict in Charlotte and Branwell Brontë’s Youthful Writings (Palgrave, 2019, £59.99, now in its second edition) by Emma Butcher, a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in English Literature at the University of Leicester, is a valuable work that reflects well on a tradition of scholarship in which relatively overlooked texts and approaches are advanced and considered, rather than tired affirmations about discourse.The legacy of war is seen as playing a major role. Thus, Wellington and Napoleon play an important part in Charlotte’s construction of fictional personalities, as their characteristics and rivalry provide ready-made devices. Butcher demonstrates that the wide-ranging juvenilia of Charlotte and Branwell provide a way into the variety of commentary on war on offer, and also its role in developing their own sensibilities. She argues that their reading and writing captures a cultural variety including celebrity culture, periodicals, and the writings of others such as Burns and Scott on former military episodes, including Flodden, Jacobitism and the Crusades. Branwell was especially interested in Classical warfare, and this provides a valuable guide to the choices he makes and approaches he adopts. Colonial warfare and civil warfare are also discussed. A valuable work that deserves emulation. (Jeremy Black)
[Former Prime Minister of Australia] Julia Gillard told me she read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals and re-read Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. (Troy Bramston)
La vida de las tres hermanas Brönte [sic] –Charlotte, Anne y Emily– empezó y terminó en el condado de Yorkshire. El padre fue rector de Haworth, el pueblo que sirvió de escenario para sus novelas de páramos tormentosos. Charlotte y Emily vivieron durante una temporada en un internado de Bruselas, pero tuvieron que volver al morir su tía. Ambas están enterradas en Haworth, mientras que la tumba de Anne está en Scarborough, un pueblo de la costa del mar del Norte.Freire se declara una apasionada lectora y estudiosa tanto de las hermanas Brönte como de Jane Austen. Les ha dedicado libros, artículos, conferencias, viajes y estudios, pero comenta que con este libro sucede algo especial. "Apareció muy pronto, antes de que la fiebre por Jane Austen llegara a España, y durante años ha estado agotado. Por suerte, los lectores no han dejado de pedirme que lo reeditara. Me pareció una idea preciosa que ahora llegara en formato audiolibro. Que acompañara, literalmente, a los lectores en su quehacer diario. Es un libro ágil y muy directo", sostiene.Su fascinación por estas autoras parte de sus obras, por supuesto, pero también de lo que fueron como personas, algo que también se percibe en sus libros. "Fueron grandes genios literarios, mujeres empobrecidas, solteras (salvo, brevemente, Charlotte), brillantes, profundamente inteligentes y perceptivas. Entendieron lo que no tuvieron ocasión de vivir, intuyeron otras vidas y supusieron un grito de rebeldía en dos sociedades (la de la Regencia y la Victoriana) enormemente ricas y complejas y al mismo tiempo muy restrictivas". (Carmen López) (Translation)
The mastermind Mike Flanagan had given out a major hint about the plot of The Haunting Of Bly Manor Season 3 in the previous season. Screenrant pointed out that the characters talked about a ghost story in the first few minutes of the second season. The guests that came for Flora’s (older) wedding discussed the supposed ghost of a nun in the castle they were in. Flora’s husband went on to say that the castle used to be a convent for a few decades in the 1940s.This story was never discussed again in the show and had no purpose of being mentioned at all. Hence, many fans wonder whether it was a hint for the upcoming season. Surprisingly, the story has a lot in resemblance to Charlotte Brontë’s novel called Villette. The horror novel takes place in a convent and also features a nun. She supposedly buried alive on the convent’s grounds for breaking her vow of chastity. Villette is a critically acclaimed novel and will likely be the perfect choice for The Haunting Of Bly Manor Season 3 (or The Haunting Of The Convent?). (Pheobe)
Emily Blunt. Jamie Dornan. Throw them in Ireland and give them bad Irish accents. Hell lets even throw in Christopher Walken and give him a similarly bad Irish accent. Make them all farmers. Sounds like a good time so far.Okay, now let’s make Emily Blunt wildly in love with her mysterious neighbour Dornan. Sounds hot, sounds romantic, sounds serendipitous. But Dornan doesn’t reciprocate the love at all. Sounds dangerous, sounds aloof, sounds like we’ve got ourselves a main conflict of interest to drive the story.On top of this, Dornan has inherited a family curse, and as the description for the movie reads, has been stung by his father’s plans to sell the family farm. Seems like your typical Wuthering Heights-esque story. So why is everyone going insane over the ending to this movie? (Michael Di Iorio)
Whereas Emily Brontë probably never had a living room with a massive flat-screen TV in one of her novels. (Cormac O'Brien)
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