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Saturday, December 25, 2021

Saturday, December 25, 2021 12:39 pm by M. in , , , , ,    No comments
 A little bit late but the news of the successful acquisition of the Blavatnik-Honresfield Library crosses the pond and is in the New York Times:
Group Raises $20 Million to Preserve ‘Lost’ Brontë Library
The Honresfield Library, which includes rarely seen manuscripts by the Brontës, Robert Burns, Walter Scott and Jane Austen, will be acquired for the British public. (...)
“A collection of literary treasures of this importance comes around only once in a generation,” Richard Ovenden, the head of the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford, said in a news release earlier this month announcing the deal.
The arrangement, he said, will ensure it is “available to scholars and the wider public, now and long into the future.” (...)
The $20 million came from a number of individual and institutional donors. Half of it came from the philanthropist Leonard Blavatnik, in what the release called the largest ever gift to the United Kingdom by an individual for a literary treasure. (Jennifer Schuessler)
The error in romanticizing Wuthering Heights (you now, lowercase r) is discussed in The Daily Star (Bangladesh):
In popular culture, if not in criticism, Wuthering Heights stands as the tale of love lost in betrayal and a grand reunion in the afterworld. The credit of such interpretation largely goes to the Hollywood movie versions of Emily Brontë's novel, most of which primarily follow the classic 1939 Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon presenting Heathcliff and Catherine as star-crossed lovers, claiming it as the "greatest love-story of our time, or any time." William Wyler, the director, was obviously more interested in making his own version of a great love-story. The title of Wuthering Heights was used to bait the audience and dupe them into believing that they were watching the famous and intriguing story of Heathcliff and Catherine. The movie earned nominations in different categories and won many awards, but it failed miserably to arrest the complexity of the Brontë novel. (...)
The long and short of the matter is that Wuthering Heights as it is romanticized and idolized by most audiences today is not the Wuthering Heights of Emily Brontë—not even the 2011 movie version, which critics find closest to the dreary ambience of the novel. Heathcliff being black brings in racial tension; such adaptations, however, can also make one wonder why all these movies need to focus so much on ghosts, or incorporate foreign elements and delete the childhood of Catherine and Heathcliff. (...)
What is this novel about then? Is it about the class differences leading to a romantic betrayal that Catherine laments during her last days? But shouldn't be the seven months pregnant Catherine be more worried over the child she carries than a lover she is leaving behind? However, we never hear her utter one word of concern over her unborn child. On the contrary, she condemns Heathcliff for caring more for his offspring yet to be born. Some might say that the eighteenth or nineteenth-century British women writers were prudish and hence did not discuss pregnancy. But Wuthering Heights certainly is not a novel written by an uptight miss.  Her Catherine is a farm girl used to seeing the cattle breeding. Moreover, when Heathcliff accuses Catherine of betrayal, he does it in words that suggest that she has given up something elemental and eternal for a passing whim: ". . . misery, and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it." Her action is so terrifying and vehement that it destroys the hopes of a peaceful life both for her and those around her. (Shohana Manzoor)
Susannah Clapp in The Guardian lists the best theatre in 2021:
4. Wuthering Heights
Bristol Old Vic/York Theatre Royal
Emma Rice’s fiery remaking of Brontë.
The Telegraph recommends some walks for the Twixmas days:
Hathersage Flower Meadows, Derbyshire
Colourful in summer, but worth seeing in winter too, particularly in the snow. A walk from Hathersage via the signed public footpath to the left of the outdoors store will take you into the countryside. Head to Birley Farm using either the Ramblers guide or your smartphone. Follow the track between Coggers Lane and Birley Lane to find the Ridgeway Side Hay Meadows. You’re in Brontë country – press on for more. (Judith Woods)
The Independent reviews Motherless Daughters by Hope Edelman:
Motherlessness is not all bad news, argues Edelman. There are some upsides. In a society where female ambition has often been punished by the mother, acting as involuntary policer of the paternalist project, her early removal can open up a wider field of action. Edelman cites a long list of female high achievers who lost their mothers young: George Eliot, the Brontë sisters, Marie Curie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Dorothy Parker, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna. The light she sheds on some of the great women writers is fascinating. (Sarah Gabriel)
The Cinemaholic talks about Emily Dickinson's life and death:
Austin, Sue (Susan) Dickinson, and other close members of her family attended her funeral. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the writer, abolitionist, minister, and soldier who was Dickinson’s epistolary friend, also came to Amherst to pay his respects. He read Emily Brontë’s poem on immortality (‘No Coward Soul Is Mine’) to those who had gathered for the funeral. (Kanika Kumar)
Luxury Lifestyle Magazine recommends British movies in streaming:
Jane Eyre (2011)
Jane Eyre was an orphaned child that was first cruelly abused by her aunt, and is then sent out to a charity school, meeting further abuse. During her stay, she receives an education, eventually taking a job as a governess at the Edward Rochester estate. While Jane and Rochester begin to bond, his dark moods trouble her. When Jane uncovers the dark and terrible secret Rochester is hiding, she flees to the home of St. John Rivers for temporary refuge.
While there are many other British films worthy of a mention, the above is a selection of some of the best that are available to watch now. Whether for a date night or family movie marathon, we are sure there are some that will have you laughing, smiling, and maybe welling up while you watch, which will you choose?
The original novel is a Christmas recommended reading according to Metropolitan Magazine (Italy):
A questa lista non può sfuggire l’unico romanzo di Emily Brontë: “Cime tempestose”. La drammatica storia d’amore a cui si è ispirata Stephenie Mayer per il suo “Twilight”, la cui protagonista, non a caso, ama particolarmente il grande classic. (Debora Troiani) (Translation)

El Siglo (Guatemala) mentions the Charlotte Brontë opinions on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

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