Fresh Starts

Several French websites report the death of the actor, writer and director Robert Hossein (1927-2020). In 1979 he acted (as Heathcliff) and directed in a Wuthering Heights production, adapted by Guy Dumur, at the Théâtre Boulogne- Billancourt. Here you can find the complete details.

Embed from Getty Images

Great books for fresh starts in The New European:

Jane Eyre

A novel of fresh starts, the desire for them and the opportunity to make them, for the eponymous Jane and Mr Rochester. As Jane seeks her independence after a challenging upbringing, falling in love with Rochester brings its own challenges, not least that he has his own alarming secret from which he seeks release for a brighter future. (Charlie Connelly)

ABC (Australia) asks several writers about their favourite books:

What rounds out [Andrew] O'Hagan's bookshelf? He says it has to have Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, as well as the novels of Graham Greene and Truman Capote.

"[Those books] just seemed to show a sense of what was possible as a writer." (Hannah Reich)

MyLondon had a last 2020 quiz including this challenging question:

Sisters Anne, Charlotte and Emily were members of which 19th century literary family? (Qasim Peracha)

The Telegraph (India) and books entering public domain:

Such accessibility can have a range of consequences. It may add to the legacy of a book just like Wide Sargasso Sea did for Jane Eyre or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead did for Hamlet; it could also open the door to editions that change the fate of the original text for the worse Scarlett, a sequel to Gone with the Wind must have had the original Scarlett O’Hara turn as red in the face as her name. (Srimoyee Bagchi)

These readers of The Sydney Morning Herald seems to be a bit biased against the Brontës. Poor misguided people:

Silas Marner? Try Wuthering Heights. Pure grim from the first word to the last. A classic portrayal of the psychological condition of the author rather than the subject matter. John Hinde, Millers Point.
Has anybody, anywhere, ever finished Lance Palmer’s The Passage (Letters, December 31)? And I found Moby Dick a fantastic read. I must agree, though, about Wuthering Heights (Letters, December 31). Robert Hosking, Paddington
When I was 15, Jane Eyre was my heroine. At 52, giving it a read before recommending it to my daughter, I discovered that she was a self-righteous, judgmental prig. How could I have been so wrong? Genevieve Milton, Newtown.

The same newspaper reviews The Door and Other Uncanny Tales by Dmetri Kakmi:

This is a collection of contemporary Australian horror stories, of which The Door, a novella about an artist who becomes trapped in a nightmare of his own accidental making, is both the longest and the strongest. The next story, The Boy by the Gate, is a classic ghost story that owes a small debt to Wuthering Heights. (Kerryn Goldsworthy)

Vogue (France) lists the best albums of the year:

Enregistré pendant les premiers mois du confinement, le huitième album de Taylor Swift a créé la surprise avant de se hisser à la tête de nombreux classements en 2020. Les 70 minutes d’écoute de cet album exquis déploient des trésors de textures et de sonorités délicatement évocatrices baignant dans les références littéraires et cinématographiques telles que le film d’Alfred Hitchcock, Fenêtre sur cour (1954) ou le roman de Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre. Folklore est un album résolument chaleureux et intime. (Hattie Collins) (Translation)

Bridgerton slips into 2021:

 Non suonano certo particolarmente inedite le premesse alla base di "Bridgerton" il nuovo fenomeno di Netflix - prodotto da Shonda Rhimes (sì, quella di "Grey's Anatomy") - che porta sul piccolo schermo i temi tipici del romanzo femminile di quegli anni, da "Orgoglio e pregiudizio" fino a "Cime tempestose" senza dimenticare nemmeno "Piccole donne". (Filippo Zanoli in Tio) (Translation)

Wuthering Heights is in the top five bestsellers books of the Amazon Brazil website according to Agorarn. Harper's Bazaar (Italy) reports that Ponden Hall is still on the market.