Edward Scissorhands as the 'madwoman in the attic'

Book Riot has selected '9 of the Best Recent Vampire Reads' including

John Eyre by Mimi Matthews

We all love a Jane Eyre retelling, especially when that retelling mixes in elements of Dracula. It’s the ultimate Victorian Gothic mash-up. When John Eyre comes to Thornfield Hall to become a tutor to two strange young boys, he has no idea what he’s in for. The house is dark and the strange sounds he hears throughout the night leave him wondering if Thornfield is secretly haunted. Then there are the strange creatures he keeps seeing on the moor. And that silver mist that seems ever-present. (Emily Martin)

While a contributor to PopMatters shares ' 5 Gen X Films That Shaped [Her] Goth Goth Heart'.

3. Edward Scissorhands – Tim Burton (1990)

I know this is another Burton film, but I want you to understand how groundbreaking work like his seemed to me while growing up in the bible belt. I was hooked and this one, my friends, is a Promethean gothic romance. As I watched it again recently, I found the parallels between Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein fairly obvious, but remember, I had not yet read these stories when I first saw this film. I was 13-years-old. [...]

If this were Jane Eyre, Edward would be the “madwoman in the attic”. If you’ve never read the fabulous book of literary criticism of the same name written by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, I highly recommend it. Essentially, Edward Scissorhands is a commentary about how dominant cultures mistreat “outcasts” and “others”. It looks into ethics and nature versus nurture, much like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein does. We see the crumbling house trope in the castle of course, but Gothicism also loves to gaze on a “freak” in judgment leaving the reader to ask the ever-present question—who is the real monster? (Beth Gilstrap)

America magazine on the Western canon:

Of course, some people worry that what this means in practice is not bothering to pay attention to Zulu writers because we already have Tolstoy. I am not endorsing that. We should by all means read smart, interesting authors no matter where they come from. The “Western canon” itself is always expanding; two hundred years ago, we literally could not have assigned Jane Eyre or The Great Gatsby as coursework. But we have to start somewhere, and we have to reckon with the civilization we find ourselves in and the history it has bequeathed to us, if we seriously intend to lead intelligent and virtuous lives in it. The Western canon gives us a point of reference, no matter where we go from there. (Jeremy Tate)

Le Devoir (Canada) reviews Amélie Nothomb's Premier sang:

Aux prises avec ses jeunes oncles et tantes, contraint au mode de vie immonde de ces aristocrates désargentés, Paddy ferait pleurer de compassion la petite Jane Eyre et le pauvre Oliver Twist. « Une tornade de grands enfants envahit le dortoir. Ils me parurent effroyablement nombreux, tant ils étaient bruyants, remuants et résolus à écumer les visiteurs. Montés en graine, maigres, violents, vêtus de haillons, les enfants Nothomb m’aperçurent et se jetèrent sur moi comme une meute de chiens sur un gibier. » (Manon Dumais) (Translation)

According to Le Devoir, heroines created by Jane Austen and Emily Brontë are completely interchangeable.

Pendant qu’elle est encore jeune et belle, elle veut aussi se prouver qu’elle peut séduire comme une héroïne de Jane Austen ou d’Emily Brontë. (Manon Dumais) (Translation)

BBC News has an article on how 'West Yorkshire influences the fashion world'.

Sarah Burton, creative director of Alexander McQueen, said the famous Brontë sisters of Haworth were the inspiration for a dress in the 2019 autumn/winter collection. The long skirt and fitted bodice was evocative of a "Brontë heroine, wandering the Yorkshire moors". (Rebecca Woods)

My London features Filey:

The village is so tranquil that author Charlotte Brontë made several trips there in the mid 1800s in a bid to improve her health.

“In June 1852 she wrote to her father: 'The sea is very grand. Yesterday it was a somewhat unusually high tide - and I stood about an hour on the cliffs yesterday afternoon - watching the tumbling in of great tawny turbid waves - that make the whole shore white with foam and filled the air with a sound hollower and deeper than thunder'.” (Sam Ormiston)

A columnist from The Telegraph discusses Nicole Kidman's career:

Admittedly, I haven’t watched the film for which Nicole Kidman won her Oscar: The Hours, in which she played the writer Virginia Woolf. But that’s because it’s a film in which Nicole Kidman plays the writer Virginia Woolf. I’m not going to watch that. I’d watch Nicole Kidman playing Charlotte Brontë or Joyce Grenfell. I’d watch Julia Roberts playing Virginia Woolf. But Nicole Kidman playing Virginia Woolf would be, for me, an arduous combination. It would be all rhubarb and no custard.

No, not rhubarb. Bad example. I actively dislike rhubarb. I in no way dislike Nicole Kidman. However, I can’t say the same about Virginia Woolf. I’d like to claw back every minute that I spent wading through To the Lighthouse. (And that was a long time, although it seemed longer.) Kidman is no Woolf. So perhaps it’s more like all rhubarb and a glass of water. Or squash. Something that’s just kind of fine. (Victoria Coren Mitchell)

Well, Nicole Kidman playing Charlotte Brontë would be quite strange.

NME asks actor/musician about the soundtrack of his life.

The first song I remember hearing

Kate Bush – ‘Wuthering Heights’

“It would’ve been on the radio and it caught my attention because of how it sounded. Then I saw it on the TV, and it was 50 times more powerful because of how she looked. As a four-year-old I fancied her, but she frightened the shit out of me.”

A Brontës-in-the-wall appearance in the latest season of Sex Education (Season 3, Episode 2):

Finally, members of the Brontë Society may be interested in finding out about the new board of trustees.