Jane and I were meant to be

 This quite a sordid story, the kind that fits so well in the Daily Mail:

A millionaire businessman who bought a boarding school so he could abuse pupils on his country estate with links to the Brontë family has been jailed for three years and three months.He had appointed himself 'Provost' of £37,000 a year Queen Ethelburgers School, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire. 

He then stunned parents by mothballing the building and moving the pupils into a new school on his own country estate at Thorpe Underwood Hall, Ouseburn, near York. (...)

Thorpe Underwood Hall, dating from 1912, stands close to the site of the old Thorpe Green Hall, which had been destroyed by fire at the end of the 19th century, and which is remembered now for its connection to the Brontë family.

Anne Bronte lived at Thorpe Green as governess to the Robinson family. She was joined by her brother Branwell, but his time there was to precipitate the crisis that led to his death.

One of Martin's business addresses was the Monk's House which was the home of Branwell while he was tutor to the Robinsons' son. (Katie Feehan)

The Boston Globe interviews Vanessa Zoltan, author of Praying With Jane Eyre: Reflections on Reading as a Sacred Practice:

Vanessa Zoltan is a trailblazer in the spheres of religion as well as literary criticism. A self-proclaimed “atheist Jew” chaplain, she explains in her new book, “Praying With Jane Eyre: Reflections on Reading as a Sacred Practice,” that ritualistic deep analysis of your favorite novels (or even TV shows) can be a form of prayer.

She came to her realization while studying at the Harvard Divinity School and feeling a lack of connection with traditional religious texts. Zoltan wondered if she could forge a similar type of meaning-making from a rigorous analysis of Charlotte Brontë's “Jane Eyre,” working with a mentor and peers to treat one of her favorite books as sacred. (...)

Q. Why did you decide to focus this book on “Jane Eyre”?
A. In my childhood, my mom kept telling me I was too young for “Jane Eyre,” so when she finally gave it to me for my 14th birthday, I couldn’t wait to read it. In Judaism, we would say “beshert” — Jane and I were meant to be. Or, as Rochester would say, it was meant to be my “best earthly companion.” I read it again in college and in my mid 20s, and I haven’t put it down since. It enchanted me.
Q. I loved it, but it’s been a while since I read it. What about it is so continually enchanting?
A. It’s a book that is messy enough that it can meet you wherever you are in your life. I used to think it was a book about true love — Rochester and Jane can hear each other’s voices across hundreds of miles. But now I see it as a book that’s entirely about resistance. The start of chapter two is, “I resisted all the way.” It’s passionate enough and weird enough that you can have this complicated conversation with it. (...)

Q. The book includes serious considerations of your Jewish history and ancestry, and the fact that all four of your grandparents were in the Holocaust. How did you decide how to approach that?

A. (...) The way for me to look directly at the horrors that they went through was through “Jane Eyre.” It’s like a solar eclipse — it’s too strong to look directly at it. If I actually contemplated what they went through, I think it would so thoroughly devastate me, and it would be futile. And so I have to look at it through one of those cut-out things for an eclipse — the cardboard cutout for me is “Jane Eyre.” (Gina Tomaine)

The Wharfedale & Aireborough Observer publishes some photographs of St. Oswald's Church:

Among those who have shared a connection with the church over the centuries perhaps the most famous are the Brontës.

On December 29 in1812 the Rev Patrick Brontë married Maria Branwell at St Oswalds Church. Their daughters - Charlotte, Emily and Anne - became internationally renowned literary figures.

The important part played by St Oswald’s Church in the Brontë family story can be seen in a plaque in the building which reads: “At this rail on Monday 29th Dec. 1812 Patrick Brontë Minister of Hartshead was married to Maria Branwell. Among the most famous writers of our country are numbered their three daughters Charlotte, Emily and Anne.” (Annette McIntyre)

Nius Diario (Spain) interviews the writer Silvia Moreno-García:

Juan Carlos Flores: Noemí, la protagonista [of Mexican Gothic], en su esfuerzo por ayudar a una prima atrapada en un casa que oculta horrores sufre discriminación por su raza e incluso violencia sexual.
S.M-G.: La novela trata de poner al día lo que ocurre ahora con las diferencias de poder. Lo que pasa cuando presentas a una protagonista que no es blanca en un mundo de blancos y cómo esas interacciones pueden llevar a conflictos. En mucha de la literatura gótica existía violencia sexual. Pero no se solía abordar directamente. En clásicos como Jane Eyre, el marido tiene a su mujer encerrada en el ático. Él dice que está loca, pero la realidad es que hay una mujer que está encerrada en el ático y que no está recibiendo cuidados médicos. Eso es un tipo de abuso y no, como a veces la literatura gótica lo representa, algo romántico. Yo quería abordarlo de otra manera. Mostrarlo directamente, sin ambigüedades y que quedaran claros los abusos. (Translation)

El Cultural (Spain) reviews a new translation of Virginia Woolf's Genius and Ink:

El libro se abre con un artículo de 1916 acerca de la literatura de Charlotte Brontë (Yorkshire, 1816-1855), a propósito de la cercanía del centenario de su nacimiento. Woolf afirma que Hamlet y que también la obra de Brontë, aunque “salvando las distancias” con Shakespeare, tienen el don de la mutación. Y es esa capacidad de cambiar, continúa, la cualidad común que se encuentra en las verdaderas obras de arte, “como si la savia de la vida corriera por sus hojas”. (Begoña Méndez) (Translation)

Quadratin (México) recalls how Dickens or the Brontës already talk about child abuse:

Escritoras de gran talento como las inglesas Bronte abordaron los temas. Cumbres Borrascosas de Emily, describe el efecto de la orfandad infantil en el protagonista Heathcliff y su hermana Charlote, en Jane Eyre (Alianza Editorial 2012) relata la vida en un orfanato y el trato cruel que daban los responsables religiosos. (Teresa Gil) (Translation)

BonCulture (Italy) reviews Hedera by Ernesto Anderle, Irene Bruno, Nicolò Targhetta and Eugenio Belgrado:

Tutto si svolge a Dartmoor, un piccolo paese immerso nella campagna inglese, nel 1826. Qui si è trasferito l’ombroso dottor Norland, che per reminiscenze letterarie ricorda il coriaceo  Mr. Rochester del romanzo Jane Eyre. Stessa scontrosità, stessi demoni, il dottore è un medico legale e un giorno si imbatte nel cadavere di Edith Wilson. (Michela Conoscitore) (Translation)

Elle (Italy) publishes an article about the auction of the Honresfeld collection. Anne Brontë.org posts about Love and Marriage in the Brontë novels.