Wise Children's Wuthering Heights: worth putting yourself through anxiety

The New York Times is somewhat (and perhaps rightly) shocked that UK theatres have been allowed to open without restrictions of any kind.

Unlike on Broadway, theatregoers in England are not required to wear masks in their seats or be fully vaccinated. Instead, it’s up to each venue to decide what they require. Most West End venues are asking for proof of vaccination or a negative test result at the door, but some smaller venues don’t. Spectators are also encouraged to wear masks, but many choose not to, even as the number of virus cases in Britain steadily grows.

How are theater fans feeling about this new normal? Has the pandemic changed what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it?

We spoke to seven other theater enthusiasts to find out. These are edited extracts from those conversations. [...]

Jane Duffus, 43, author

Pre-COVID, I used to go to the theater all the time. But tomorrow is my first trip. I’m going to see “Wuthering Heights” at the Bristol Old Vic, and I specifically booked it as it’s socially distanced. We’re lucky where I live, a few theaters are still doing distanced performances.

I just haven’t been ready until now. I went to an event in August, and it really freaked me out: about 400 people, no distancing, and I was one of only about six people wearing a mask. A few days later, a friend texted me to say they had COVID. I didn’t feel remotely relaxed. Every time I heard a cough … It was a lot.

I picked “Wuthering Heights,” as I love Wise Children, the company doing it. If you’re going to put yourself through anxiety, it should be something you know you’ll enjoy. (Alex Marshall)

Tor reviews Lauren Blackwood's Within These Wicked Walls.

Within These Wicked Walls, Lauren Blackwood’s debut YA fantasy novel, is marketed as an Ethiopian-inspired imagining of Jane Eyre. The description fits, but I’d argue that it doesn’t do the book justice—there are elements of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, yes, but Within These Wicked Walls is its own story, one that has magic and heartache as well as romance. (Vanessa Armstrong)

Locus recommends it among other new releases.

Blackwood, Lauren: Within These Wicked Walls [...]

Young-adult dark fantasy novel, an Ethiopian-inspired retelling of Jane Eyre. An exorcist needing a patron takes a job with the difficult eccentric Magnus Rochester, who is under a horrifying curse.

Ein Presswire reviews Jacqueline Garcia’s romance mystery novel Decay of Sorrow.

Jacqueline Garcia’s Decay of Sorrow has the hallmarks of a gothic romance novel: a distressed heroine, Byronic male figure, secondary love interest and spectral visitationsin the main setting of the narrative. Far from an imitation of classics like Jane Eyre and Rebecca, Garcia’s picturesque, fluid writing style paired with her personal twists on the aforementioned themes raises her novel to a whole new level — worthy and relevant in today’s dating culture. (Dana Reyes)

Times of India lists 'Six memorable homes in literature' and one of them is

Mr. Rochester's Thornfield Hall

Thornfield Hall is a fictional location in the 1847 novel 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Brontë. It is the home of the male romantic lead, Edward Fairfax Rochester, where much of the action takes place. An isolated mansion of unspecified size, the house has a number of apparently unused rooms that become important to the narrative during the Bertha Mason episodes. Haddon Hall, an English country house on the River Wye near Bakewell, Derbyshire, has been used to depict Thornfield on several occasions.

Roger Ebert looks into the horror films of Val Lewton:

This also happened to Lewton, who was given titles—not actual scripts, mind you—like “Cat People” and told to make those titles into feature films. In “The Bad and the Beautiful” we see Shields and his director (Barry Sullivan) finding art in this cheap job they’d previously not cared about (it’s worth noting that, at least in my opinion, “Doom of the Cat Men” sounds like a much better film than any of the ones Shields is actually passionate about). But this is what Lewton, a Russian-Jewish émigré who began his career as a writer of relatively realistic novels, did constantly—in the case of “I Walked With a Zombie” (1943), Lewton, director Tourneur, and screenwriters Wray and Curt Siodmak chose to use that title to create a kind of Voodoo riff on “Jane Eyre.” (Bill Ryan)

La nouvelle république (France) reports on its book club's return.

 L’une a fait part d’une redécouverte, Les Hauts de Hurlevent, d’Emily Brontë, un classique de la littérature anglaise du 19e siècle. « Un luxe de détails… On voit les personnages vivre dans des conditions tellement étroites. J’ai pris beaucoup de plaisir à le relire. » (Translation)