The Brontës' paracosm

Happy World Book Day! About Manchester celebrates by listing 'a collection of  literary-themed breaks that couples and families can enjoy across the UK once travel is permitted'.

Brontë book fans – including Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre

The Studio – Parwich, Derbyshire Dales

Sleeps: Two

Price: Seven nights from £437

This beautiful, detached cottage is set in the heart of Derbyshire and is ideally located for couples looking to explore the locations which inspired various Brontë books, including the literary classic Jane Eyre.

The property boasts 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 cottage 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. (Alan Brown)

Both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights make it onto the list of '10 books by women authors to celebrate Women’s History Month' compiled by News 12 New Jersey.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre possesses neither the great beauty nor entrancing charm that her fictional predecessors used to make their way in the world. Instead, Jane relies upon her powers of diligence and perception, conducting herself with dignity animated by passion. [...]

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë's only novel endures as a work of tremendous and far-reaching influence. 

While C|net recommends celebrating by watching To Walk Invisible.

To Walk Invisible: The Brontë Sisters

I've often had romantic notions of writers of yore meandering through their days, dreaming of their next story while sipping tea and taking walks through their estates. To watch this 2016 film and learn the brutal reality the Brontë sisters faced is a true wakeup call. 

Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë struggled in ways I cannot fathom. They were poor and isolated. Their alcoholic brother drained their family financially and emotionally. And they faced a publishing world that had zero interest in women authors. Yet they wrote and published (under male pseudonyms) some of the greatest works of English literature: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. This film is simultaneously haunting and inspiring. (Natalie Weinstein)

Palatinate highlights the life and work of Jean Rhys, who

is best known for Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), based on the life of Bertha Mason, a character first found in Jane Eyre. In reclaiming the famous ‘madwoman in the attic’, Rhys offers a postcolonial, feminist critique of Bertha’s original depiction – of this, she said ‘I thought I’d try to write her a life’. Rhys’ novel draws upon her own life living as an outsider – between 1939 and 1966, she lived in poverty and fell out of sight to such an extent that she was presumed dead. Perhaps in reviving Brontë’s Bertha Mason in a new image, she was in fact resurrecting her own self and creative talent. Her reflections on imperialism, power and identity in this novel are intertwined effortlessly with a flowing, liminal prose, unique to Rhys. In her unfinished autobiography, published posthumously, she poses the reflection – ‘I am a stranger and I always will be, and after all I didn’t really care’. Rhys’ life was complex and tragic, but her uncompromising, thoughtful literature remains relevant to this day. (Millicent Stott)

The Sydney Morning Herald lists Charlotte Brontë among other writers wise beyond their years.

[Amanda] Gorman is a strong counterpoint to the idea that only artists of a certain age have anything to say, anything worth reading, anything to stand the test of time. Just because an artist is young doesn’t mean she hasn’t done a lot of living, nor have a lot of wisdom, courage or talent to share. She’s not alone.

Tara June Winch’s first novel, Swallow the Air, was published in 2006 when she was 23, and won several Australian literary awards. Winch remains one of my favourite authors. Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote her first standout novel, Purple Hibiscus, in 2003 at the age of 26. Zadie Smith’s staggering White Teeth was published when she was 25. This isn’t a new phenomenon. Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre in 1847, aged 31. The list goes on. (Caro Llewellyn)

A contributor to BookRiot reflects on 'rereading and the self'.

It isn’t only about the book, though. Rereading has, over the years, become a way for me to measure changes in myself. When I could no longer read Twilight with the pure joy I used to, or when I finally understood the grief portrayed in Wuthering Heights, I found that I had changed. I paid attention to different things. I found joy in books I hadn’t expected and could no longer return to old favorites with the same amount of enthusiasm. (Sarah Rahman)

Slash Film discusses WandaVision and reminds its readers of the fact that,

There’s a word for a highly detailed imaginary world – it’s called a paracosm. Paracosms are complex worlds with their own set of well-established rules. Worlds that don’t actually exist but still feel completely real, especially to the creator. The Brontë siblings had their own paracosms – fantasy kingdoms they created and shared with each other. Middle-earth is a paracosm. So is Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. The list goes on and on, and the causes of paracosms are numerous – boredom and entertainment are at the top. (Chris Evangelista)

Europa Press (Spain) reports that a new stage production called La senda que deja el aire is a

"rendido tributo a los inmortales personajes de Jane Eyre y Bertha Mason, creados por Charlotte Brontë, cuya atmósfera desarrolló posteriormente Jean Rhys, quienes sirven como catalizador de un cúmulo de emociones, contrastes o dudas a través de los que se analiza la condición humana y, en concreto, el papel de las mujeres en un mundo que tal vez siga sin pertenecerles." (Translation)

The Cinema Graph discusses Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights.