A feminist before the word was even invented

Jane Eyre is one of the 12 literary heroines loved by GoodHousekeeping.

Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë was recently voted the most popular novelist of all time in a survey of British women. Jane Eyre tells the tale of orphan Jane as she goes from abusive childhood to turbulent romance, eventually finding love in the arms of the brooding Mr Rochester. A feminist before the word was even invented, she never lets herself be dominated by a man and, in a very controversial move for the time, she only agrees to marriage once she knows they’ll be equals. (Joanne Finney)

Financial Times discusses sequels and prequels and claims that,

A general rule is that the more brilliant the source, the more likely it is an author will fail, however nobly. One notable exception is Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), which reimagined and liberated a minor character in Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre. In Rhys’s unsettling work, Bertha Mason — Brontë’s “madwoman in the attic” — is a Creole heiress named Antoinette.

Confined by her husband, and longing for freedom, she recalls her early life in Jamaica as she lives out her isolated life in an English country mansion. Wide Sargasso Sea stands as a powerful response to Jane Eyre, exploring hidden colonial histories and offering one of the most extraordinary studies of madness and cruelty in literature. (Nilanjana Roy)

We're not sure we agree with this statement from Politics Home:

There’s much shared ground between the heroines of Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë’s books, and the protagonists of teen romance films like Pretty in Pink, Never Been Kissed, Cinderella Story, The Princess Diaries and What A Girl Wants. These films favour a shy or insecure young woman who is totally unaware of her own intelligence or grace, who usually has an afterschool job in some lowly service position, and would never dream of making a fuss. And of course, in teen rom-coms the heroine would never, ever consider herself to be attractive. Just as often in the 2000s as in the 1800s, the female protagonist would be rewarded for her goodness with the gift of a romance. The only real difference being that in the Austen and Brontë heydey, women were considered ‘good’ if they embodied Christian virtues, whereas in the early millennium the hallmark of character was believing yourself to be unattractive, until one third of the way through the story when the protagonist gets a  make-over and is revealed to be conventionally beautiful. (Rebecca Reid)

Vogue features a wedding at which

two readings were shared: the first from Brontë’s Jane Eyre. “It’s the greatest love story I’ve ever read,” Sarah says. (Alexandra Macon)

Murcia Plaza (Spain) features Netflix's Behind Her Eyes.

En realidad, la serie es una puesta al día del tópico de la loca del desván, que tiene en Jane Eyre, la extraordinaria novela de Charlotte Bronté [sic], su más ajustada representación y que, no en vano, es citada en uno de los diálogos de la serie. En la novela, recordemos, el protagonista tiene encerrada en el desván a su mujer legítima, considerada loca y violenta, y todo se descubre cuando aparece una nueva mujer en su vida, la inocente e ingenua Jane.

El concepto "la loca del desván" (o del ático) fue acuñado en 1979 en The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary, un ensayo muy influyente de las críticas literarias Sandra Gilbert y Susan Gubar. Allí analizan, bajo una perspectiva feminista, Jane Eyre y otros relatos del siglo XIX escritos por mujeres, como Ancho mar de los Sargazos de Jean Rhys o El papel de pared amarillo, de Charlotte Perkins Gilman, y plantean que, mediante esas ‘locas del desván’, las escritoras podían dar rienda suelta a las fantasías de liberación que la mujer victoriana no podía permitirse, de ahí los rasgos de violencia, locura y furia que mostraban esos personajes, cuyo rasgo principal es que son incontrolables. La figura no está solo en libros escritos por mujeres, también la encontramos, sin rasgos negativos, más bien como víctimas, en La dama de blanco, de Wilkie Collins; en el personaje de la señorita Havisham de Grandes esperanzas, de Charles Dickens, o en la Lucy Westenra, la mujer vampirizada en Drácula, de Bram Stoker, que acaba teniendo los rasgos de “la loca del ático”: violenta, sexualmente activa y, sobre todo, incontrolable. [...]

Pues he aquí que tenemos todos estos clichés románticos en el Londres actual: el pobre hombre atrapado en las garras de una malvada mujer obsesionada y una valiente heroína dispuesta a salvarlo por amor, a cargo de personajes más bien poco interesantes e interpretados con cierta desgana. Ojo, espóilers poco dañinos ahora. Aunque estamos en el siglo XXI, también hay una gran mansión que sufre un incendio, como en Jane Eyre o en Rebeca, pero se notan los tiempos actuales en el modo en que intentan sembrar dudas sobre la actitud masculina, en parte en aras del suspense, en parte porque sería difícil sostener algo así hoy. Al fin y al cabo, lo que vemos es un hombre que controla los movimientos de su mujer, su medicación y su fortuna con la coartada de su enfermedad mental (#FreeBritney), mientras está liado con su secretaria. Bonito no es. (Áurea Ortiz Villeta) (Translation)

GoodHousekeeping recommends the ' best self-catering holidays for a UK break after April 12th':

The Studio, Parwich, Derbyshire

This beautiful, detached cottage is set in the heart of Derbyshire and in the perfect location for couples looking to explore the place that inspired various Brontë books. The holiday rental has traditional features including wooden beams, a wood burning stove and a beautiful walled garden – perfect for an evening drink or a cup of tea in the morning sunshine.

Situated in the south of the Peak District National Park, The Studio is just a 30-minute drive away from Chatsworth House, where Jane and Edward Rochester’s first meeting was filmed in the 2011 film adaption of Jane Eyre. (Roshina Jowaheer)

The Yorkshire Post reports that 'house prices in Keighley, Captain Sir Tom Moore's birthplace, are booming'.

One of Keighley’s biggest draws is its railway station with trains to Leeds, Bradford and Skipton. The Brontë moors are on the doorstep and the Dales are just a short drive or train ride away. [...]

Ian Bradbury, Dacre, Son & Hartley’s Aire Valley director and head of its Keighley office, says: [...]

“I think most of the price increase reported by Rightmove has come from the villages and I think the interest in them began with the Tour de France in 2014. I always say that race did more for the Worth Valley than the Brontës and The Railway Children put together.

“When the cyclists came down Main Street in Haworth, the film crews in the helicopters showed the beautiful scenery in the Worth Valley to the world.” (Sharon Dale)

Women writers and pseudonyms in La Nación (Argentina). Wuthering Heights is one of 10 classic love stories that every self-respecting reader should have at home according to El economista (Spain).

Finally, more DeepNostalgia courtesy of the Brontë Parsonage on Twitter:

As promised, we have one more #DeepNostalgia treat to share with you. We present ... Miss Charlotte Brontë pic.twitter.com/9QxeVR7nFN

— Brontë Parsonage (@BronteParsonage) March 5, 2021