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Friday, September 30, 2022

Friday, September 30, 2022 7:54 am by Cristina in , , , , ,    No comments
BBC Culture recommends '11 of the best films to watch this October' and one of them is
2. Emily
The star of Mansfield Park and The Importance of Being Earnest, Frances O'Connor would have been a shoo-in to play Emily Brontë if someone had made a biopic of the author 20 years ago. Instead, O'Connor has written and directed a Brontë biopic herself, and cast Emma Mackey (Sex Education) in the lead role. How did the shiest and most repressed of the three sisters come to write the passionate Wuthering Heights? O'Connor's acclaimed directorial debut suggests that Emily's hedonistic brother Bramwell (Fionn Whitehead) and a handsome local priest (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) might have had something to do with it. "Shot with breath-taking beauty and acted with extraordinary emotion and grace," says Christopher Schobert at The Film Stage, "this exploration of the life and development of Emily Brontë is tremendously enveloping… O'Connor, who also scripted, adroitly manages the feat of making a 19th-Century period piece burst with contemporary feeling."
Released on 14 October in the UK and Ireland, and 28 October in Turkey
Why Now recommends it, too.
Emily / October 7 [sic]
Emily is Frances O’Connor’s directorial debut and examines the life of writer Emily Brontë. Sex Education’s Emma Mackey stars as the titular Emily, who’s life was cut short at the age of 30 after she wrote Wuthering Heights. Mackey’s sublime turn is supported by Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Fionn Whitehead and Gemma Jones. (Maria Lattila)
While Ouest France reviews the film after it was screened as part of the Dinard Festival du Film Britannique (Festival of British Cinema).
Ne vous attendez pas à un énième biopic sur la vie d’un monument de la littérature anglaise. Emily, de l’actrice devenue réalisatrice australienne Frances O’Connor, est un premier film très réussi sur la vie imaginaire d’Emily Brontë.
Sous les traits de l’excellente actrice Emma Mackey (Sex Education, Mort sur le Nil, Eiffel…), Emily revêt un caractère rebelle, provocateur loin des attentes de sa communauté religieuse et de sa condition de femme du début du XIXe. Imaginiez-vous qu’elle portait la formule Freedom of thought (liberté de penser) tatouée sur l’avant-bras ?
Dans les landes du Yorkshire loin desquelles elle étouffe, l’autrice des Hauts de Hurlevent se construit à travers ses relations avec son père dont elle cherche la fierté, ses liens tumultueux avec ses sœurs Charlotte et Anne, la fascination dangereuse pour son frère Branwell, mais surtout son amour passionné mais interdit pour Weightman.
De ses premiers poèmes à la découverte de l’opium, Emily transgresse, elle s’émancipe et devient la femme libre qu’elle a décidé d’être.
En suivant son héroïne solitaire courant sous la pluie, Frances O’Connor livre un bouleversant portrait de femme, qui résonne très fort aujourd’hui. Un film d’époque si moderne… (E. C.) (Translation)
An adaptation of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own is going on stage at the Phoenix Theatre in Bordon (Hampshire, UK) on October 19, at 7.30pm and Liphook Herald advertises it as follows:
Take a wry, amusing and incisive trip through the history of literature, feminism and gender. Meet Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, Aphra Behn and Shakespeare’s sister, Judith. Travel to the far-flung future of 2028. But whatever you do, keep off the grass. (Paul Coates)
Hertfordshire Mercury has an article on the short-sightedness of the Stevenage Borough Council which is planning to build a car park and toilet block in the Forster Country fields - which were made famous worldwide by local author E.M. Forster.
Stevenage residents were shocked to discover this month that the plans now brought for further approval by the Council. The plans include extensive construction to landscape the natural meadows, and to tarmac over them with a road, a major car park and a large toilet block, as well as adding gravel paths and bollards and an electrical grounding tower.
Chairman of the Friends of Forster Country campaigning group John Spiers is hugely disappointed and claimed that Stevenage Borough Council have laid the "final nail" to end local heritage in the Herts town.
John said: “You wouldn’t find a council building a car park on the West Yorkshire moors of Wuthering Heights or the Dorset vales of Tess of the D’Urbervilles. We are pained and baffled by Stevenage council’s failure to love Forster Country. (Cameron Rutherford)
Well, never say never given the appallingly low degree of reliability of councils in general when it comes to these things. 
12:30 am by M. in    No comments
Today, September 30, a new chance to see the production of the company El Desván de los Deseos La Senda Que Deja el Aire by Cristina Pérez:
V Certamen de Teatro "Villa de Frigiliana"
September 30, 20.30 h
Casa del Apero, Frigiliana, Málaga, Spain
We read on the company's Facebook wall:
Bertha y Jane ya preparan las maletas porque se van a Málaga con "La senda que deja el aire" Qué de cosas bonitas nos está dando este espectáculo. Certamen de Teatro de Frigiliana (Málaga) Viernes 30 de Septiembre a las 20:30 horas. ¡Toda la ilusión! El Desván de los Deseos.

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Thursday, September 29, 2022 11:19 am by Cristina in , , , ,    No comments
Craven Herald & Pioneer features a forthcoming local exhibition whose jewel in the crown will be a dress from the film Emily.
The star of the show at a new exhibition in Skipton will be a dress worn by the actor in a new film based on the life of author and poet Emily Brontë.
Every Leaf Speaks Bliss to Me: Emily, the moors, and the landscape of creative Craven at Skipton Town Hall will look at the world of creativity inspired by the landscape of the area.
Drawing on a history going back centuries, the exhibition, which runs from October 8 until Christmas, explores film, literature, photography, music, visual arts and dance created in, and inspired by, the wild beauty of the Dales.
And, at the heart of the exhibition, and lending its name to the title, is a central display showcasing exclusive items from the soon to be released Warner Brothers film Emily, staring French-British actor Sex Education's Emma Mackey.
Based on the life of Emily Brontë, the writer of Wuthering Heights, who died aged just 30 and who lived at Haworth, the film is produced by Piers Tempest, who lives near Skipton. [...]
Made by Academy Award winning costume designer, Michael O’Connor - and seen in the film’s official trailer - the dress will be displayed alongside film stills and behind-the-scenes interviews with cast and crew. [...]
The exhibition will delve into the creative process behind the film and some of its filming locations in Craven. Other examples of the landscape weaving its magic into creative practice will be displayed, drawing on Craven Museum’s extensive collections of fine art, natural history, literature and music to tell the tale.
Danielle Daglan, Craven District Council's cultural services manager, said: "We are absolutely delighted to have been gifted this beautiful costume from a fantastic film about the iconic literary great that was Emily Brontë, the donation inspired us to delve deeper into Emily’s history and the wider story of how the landscape inspires creative process, allowing us to bring together a unique combination of art forms to create a more immersive exhibition.
"We are very grateful to Piers Tempest and to Warner Bros UK for the donation, as well as their enthusiasm and support during the development of the exhibition."
Piers Tempest, who gave the dress to the museum following the completion of the film, said: "The countryside that Emily Brontë was brought up in was undoubtedly hugely influential and intrinsic to her work and we wanted to very much reflect this in our film, and really hope that the landscape in Craven inspires visitors to the exhibition as much as it inspired us."
Councillor Simon Myers, chairman of Craven District Council, said: “I am delighted that the release of this tremendous film based on the life of one of our local literary legends has inspired this great exhibition. Our landscape has inspired much creativity over the centuries and increasingly film and television producers are bringing business to Craven. It is really great to see Emily collaborating with Craven District Council to mount this unique exhibition. It’s a real ‘first’ for Craven.”
Every Leaf Speaks Bliss to Me: Emily, the moors, and the landscape of creative Craven will open on Saturday, October 8 and run until December 23. The exhibition gallery is free to enter and is open Monday to Saturday between 9.30am and 4.30pm. (Lesley Tate)

The recently released TV series This England contains a Brontë reference in its first episode:

This England
Episode 1

Written by Michael Winterbottom and Kieron Quirke

Carrie  Symonds: I'm not going back to hide away, upstairs in that flat. The madwoman in the attic.
Boris Johnson: Mrs Rochester. (Via The Scotsman)

Harper's Bazaar recommends 'The 15 Best Books for Spooky Season' and one of them is
'Reluctant Immortals' by Gwendolyn Kiste
Imagine Dracula’s Lucy Westerna and Jane Eyre’s Bertha Mason as undead immortals residing in California during 1967’s Summer of Love. That’s exactly the world conjured up by Kiste’s new novel—but when they learn that Dracula and Mr. Rochester have themselves resurfaced in San Francisco, the wronged women must join forces to face their (literal) past demons. (Keely Weiss)
The Mary Sue reviews the film The Invitation.
What follows is a film that, up until the final 15-20 minutes, is a gothic film with shades of Dracula, Crimson Peak, Tess of the D’Urbyvilles [sic], and Brontë vibes. (Princess Weekes)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles, or sorry: 'Tess of the D’Urbyvilles' looks a bit strange in there.
12:30 am by M. in ,    No comments
A concert with music inspired by Emily Brontë:
Friday 30 september
13.00 – 14.00
Biblioteket i Tyresö centrum, Östangränd 7, Stockholm

Sofie Livebrant and Lisa Långbacka perform poems set
to music by Emily Brontë, the British author of the book "Wuthering Heights".

Composer, musician and artist Sofie Livebrant offers a narrative performance about Emily Brontë in which she performs her musical settings of her poems. She has the musician Lisa Långbacka with her. Together, they will also perform songs that Sofie set to music with lyrics by Dickinson, Boye and Winterson. 
The concert is part of the series Music for everyday life in collaboration with Music Center Öst and Kulturens.
Further information on Sofie Livebrant's visit to Haworth here.

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Wednesday, September 28, 2022 10:24 am by Cristina in , , , , ,    No comments
The Yale Review has an article on Hilary Mantel highlighting her originality.
Writing in the London Review of Books about abdominal surgery in middle age, she notes that her spiral-stitched wound makes her look like a manuscript, and she comically compares herself to a fading young Brontë sister: “Over the next hours, days, nurses speak to each other in swift acronyms, or else form sentences you might have heard in Haworth: ‘Her lungs are filling up.’” (Brian Dillon)
Joe (Ireland) lists 'the must-watch movies coming to cinemas in October' and one of them is
EMILY - 14 Oct
Acclaimed actor Frances O’Connor makes her directorial debut with this biopic of much-loved author Emily Bronte, here played by Emma Mackey. Early word has been nothing short of spectacular. (Rory Cashin)
The New York Times features actor and comedian Suzy Nakamura.
8. The Morgan and British Libraries I like when you can see manuscripts or pieces of paper. In the British Library, you can see Jane Austen’s writing desk. In the Morgan, you can see the Brontë sisters’ tiny, tiny, tiny writing. It connects me to the writers and humanizes them. Charles Dickens is sort of like a god, but to see something that makes him accessible is just so thrilling to me. (Kathryn Shattuck)
LOL with Hilary Rose in The Times:
I’m jealous of the jewellery designer Theo Fennell, who joins the pantheon of people with memorable school reports. One of his apparently read, “Fennell’s nose and the grindstone have again not met this year,” putting his report up there in my estimation with Charlotte Brontë’s (”she writes indifferently”), Gary Lineker’s (“devote less time to sport if you want to be a success”) and Jilly Cooper’s (“Jilly set herself an extremely low standard, which she failed to maintain”).
The Chronicle (Duke University) discusses the use of school.
Thus, school teaches you how to think. Not what to think, but how to think. Do I wish that more people were aware that the capital of Canada is Ottawa, not Vancouver, or that Charlotte Brontë, not Emily Brontë, wrote Jane Eyre? Of course, I’d love if America’s level of general knowledge of literature, history, or just about the world was more proficient, but I do not think that it is equivalent to trashing the entire education system. (Linda Cao)
Fashion and literature in Harper's Bazaar (Italy).
Quando uno scrittore riesce a far viaggiare in mondi paralleli i suoi lettori, e a farli affezionare ai personaggi raccontati tra le pagine, tanto da generare nostalgia quando un libro finisce, ha raggiunto un obiettivo non da poco. Se poi addirittura gli stessi personaggi di fantasia arrivano a ispirare gli abiti delle collezioni di moda in tutto il mondo, la missione e' davvero compiuta. Le sorelle Brontë, Mary Shelley, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde sono solo alcuni fra gli autori che sono riusciti a creare dei personaggi che hanno ispirato decine di designer di moda per le proprie collezioni. (Valentina Mariani) (Translation)
12:30 am by M. in ,    No comments
A new B.A. dissertation:
by Mark Scerri
L-Università ta' Malta, 2022

The aim of this dissertation is to approach Wuthering Heights from different literary conventions and genres, to attempt at classifying and positioning Emily Brontë within some literary movement. The introduction will delve into the reception of the novel at the time of its publication and briefly assimilating it to other Victorian novels. Certain theories and essays will be introduced as a framework for the dissertation. The first chapter splits into two subchapters analyzing Wuthering Heights through a Romantic and Gothic lens, and how both these genres have had an influence on Brontë and the novel. The second chapter will subsequently involve Realism and Modernism which will split akin to the first chapter and show the avant-garde side of Brontë. In that chapter the novel will be viewed from a perspective that came after the author’s time and her influence on these movements will be exhibited. There will be a small section on a particular affect she had on Postmodernism. These two chapters will provide the different angles that one might view Emily Brontë from, which will ultimately lead to the conclusion vis-à-vis her position as a writer and whether she can be classified or not.

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Tuesday, September 27, 2022 8:04 am by Cristina in ,    No comments
Tanya Gold writes about Hilary Mantel for Evening Standard.
I met Hilary Mantel in 2013 in Clapham. She was working with the Royal Shakespeare Company to turn Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies into plays.
I had marvelled at her prose, of course. When I read Wolf Hall it spooled out, as if she was inexhaustible. I kept saying, “It’s better than Jane Eyre”. (A book by a similarly almost-thwarted female artist filled with sensibility. Both Brontë and Mantel were told not to write for their health as young women.)
The Bookseller features Diane Park, owner of the lovely bookshop Wave of Nostalgia in Haworth.
"As the home of the Brontës, Haworth is the home of strong women, so my shop reflects that. All the books are curated by me. I live and breathe books and I want my shop to be where I can share my discoveries. The heart of the shop is the round table piled high with brilliant books and topped with fresh flowers. Like the famous sisters up the road, walking around their table, we walk around here talking about books and life, life and books. I don’t only stock women writers, though. I welcome authors that share my world view. Also, I don’t only stock big names and bestsellers. If I enjoy a book, it’s in."
"More local people found us during lockdown and grew to appreciate the wealth of independent shops on their doorstep. We aren’t just for the tourists. We also have people returning from all over the world. They come because of the Brontë connection and tend to be naturally drawn to bookshops. At the moment, the cost-of-living crisis is impacting everything from the cost of paper, transport and print to how much money people have spare for books.
"However social media has really brought customers to the shop, and Strange Woman by Stephanie Shields (The Sheep Shed Press) is flying off the shelves. I have taught myself how to make Instagram my shop’s friend, so when I have guest authors—such as Benjamin Myers, Rob Cowen, Rowan Coleman, Sharon Wright—I make little films to post."
"I am growing my poetry section, which feeds the monthly Poetry Curious events. Our guest poets have included James Nash, Rosie Garland and Michael Stewart. We do a monthly Poetry Curious event: it’s free, and designed to introduce more people to poetry. We have book signings in the shop and author talks at local venues and I’m thinking about creating my own space." (Ruth Comerford)
12:30 am by M. in    No comments
A new M.A. thesis recently defended:
Natali Keramati, Georgetown University
June 2022

My intention for this thesis has been to examine the physical scarring of select Victorian female literary characters in order to understand how they portray the historical and cultural causes and effects of the damaged mid-nineteenth century woman. This exploration furthered my appreciation of scarring’s significant nuanced connections between scars marked by the literal (often, from smallpox) and metaphorical (often, behavioral and aesthetic aberrations from Victorian feminine ideals). While not initially surprised that Victorian society enabled the patriarchy to abhor and alienate literally and metaphysically deformed women, I uncovered some startling new understandings of the scarred woman as the freak. As a result, this thesis is a study of the scarred woman in Victorian novels as essentially both disgusting and desirable, so determined by the institutions through which the body was imaged and produced. It identifies this scarred woman as a freak show, emanating from her cultural objectification in Victorian Britain. By analyzing the literal and metaphorical scarring of these women in their specific historical context, my thesis argues that the scarred Victorian woman societally constructed as the other appears in the works of Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë to both fascinate and repel the reader. Scarred women violate Victorian ideals of feminine morality and beauty aesthetics, as suggested by the fairy tale with its notion of masculine protection as well as the norms of purity demanded by the idealized “Angel in the House.” As the entrapped scarred woman weirdly transforms into an object of both desire and repulsion, she consequently becomes 

Monday, September 26, 2022

Monday, September 26, 2022 11:03 am by M. in , , ,    No comments
Collider lists the best must-read classic novels:
Jane Eyre tells the story of an orphaned child who has felt like she didn't belong anywhere her entire life. When she is hired by arrogant and disdainful Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle, Jane finds herself falling deeply in love—what she doesn 't know, of course, is that there's a huge secret surrounding the place.
Shining a light on overcoming oppression as well as patriarchal domination, which are things Jane struggles against, Charlotte Brontë's incredible novel easily earns a spot in this list of most memorable classics. (Daniela Gama)
Slate challenges the idea that good writers cannot be mothers:
In A Room of One’s Own (1929), Virginia Woolf argued that, historically, successful women writers have not been mothers. Of Jane Austen, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, and George Eliot, she noted, “not one of them had a child.” (Karen Bourrier and John Brosz)
Bright Side shares an A.I. reconstruction of how Jane Eyre could look like in real life. They use the Stable Diffusion software and the results are peculiar:
Charlotte Brontë describes Jane Eyre as a girl with hazel hair, green eyes, and an elfin look. Picture credits:© CC0 1.0, © Stable Diffusion 
Hogwarts Professor discusses the latest novel by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) Ink Black Heart:
That ‘blindness’ being noted, I will say that I was still struck by the obscurity of the poets whose work was the source of the Ink Black Heart epigraphs. I love Samuel Taylor Coleridge but I had never heard of Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, a distant relation, generations removed. In addition to Rosetti, Browning, and Dickinson, I had heard of only Charlotte Bronte and Mary Tighe. I expect this is true of most of our readers; I suspect, too, that familiarizing us with these women poets, obscure and neglected even if ‘well-known,’ and with their perspective and concerns was no small part of their selection. (John)
WJSM's With Respect with Sarah Shoemaker:
John’s guest this week is Sarah Shoemaker, author of a new book, Chlldren of the Catastrophe, a novel of families caught in the brutal war between the Greeks and the Turks in 1920. They also chat about her previous book, Mr. Rochester, Sarah’s thoughtful look at the entire life of the male protagonist in Jane Eyre, Mr.Rochester.
Libby Purves publishes an article in The Times devoted to the recently deceased Hilary Mantel and we cannot agree more when she says:
The past is a foreign country and sometimes we need to go there. Of course not only new fiction takes us on this journey into understanding: contemporaneous novels and plays do it, even those from more recent history. It is rewarding to be drawn, by anyone from Ibsen to Dorothy L Sayers, into 19th or early 20th-century conflicts in attitudes to war, the role of women and changes in working life. It is refreshing to withhold incredulity and accept why people, at that time, acted as they did. There is no nourishment in the timeless ignorant-student question “Why didn’t Jane Eyre just get a proper job?” or in shaking your head disapprovingly at people whose cultural trap was structurally different to the one we inhabit.
Rolling Stone (France) announces that Frances O'Connor's Emily will be in competition at the Dinard Festival du Film Britannique (September 28th-October 2nd:
Une relecture du destin d’Emily Brontë au-delà des Hauts de Hurlevent, le roman qui en fera une icône de la littérature anglaise. Du grand classique en perspective, mais avec Emma Mackey, ce qui change tout ! (Translation)

AnneBrontë.org posts about Charlotte Brontë On The Death Of Branwell Brontë.

12:55 am by M. in , ,    No comments

 A new Brontë-related scholarly publication:

hukurova Zamira Shodiyevna, Xudayorova Iroda Nizamiddinovna. Faculty of Roman-German Philology Karshi State University
European Journal of Innovation in Nonformal Education. Volume 2, No 9 | September - 2022

Charlotte’s novels all represent Charlotte’s struggle to balance Reason and Passion, while not becoming overcome by either. Lucy Snowe’s story is affected and altered by the fact that she fights against her nature and her passionate inclinations. This too ties into her desire to stay hidden in shadow. Desperately she tries to stifle the part of herself that yearns for more, focusing on the necessity of “knocking on the head” her longings and desires. She fears the deeper parts within herself, which is one of the most tragic aspects of the book, for it alters her life and the person she

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Broadway World reviews the Geva Theatre Jane Eyre production in Rochester, New York. Fortunately, it seems that the reviewer this time didn't go to see the piece with a hidden agenda:
In addition to being a well-adapted piece of theatre, Geva's "Jane Eyre" is also well-acted, particularly by the show's leads. Sadler and Beitzel share authentic, palpable stage chemistry that often is missing in a play's romantic leads, leaving a gaping hollowness that distracts the audience and fails to provide cohesion to the rest of the narrative. Their mastery of their craft and the characters makes for a show that--despite its 2.5-hour, dialogue-heavy runtime---is exciting, seductive, and emotional. (Colin Fleming-Stumpf)
The Spectator (Australia) comments on the recent death of the film director Jean-Luc Godard:
He still lives but in a very different world. There are no more cars to smash up like in Week-end. It is all Teslas now. Imagine a film where they are all unplugged… Not as fun or romantic as the series of vignettes that work through class struggle and figures from literature and history, such as Louis Anotine de Saint-Just and Emily Brontë. (Lana Starkey)
Tagesspiegel (Germany) reviews the German translation of Yann & Édith's Les Hauts de Hurlevent comic:
Die Kolorierung dominieren daher düstere, gedeckte Farben, ein blaustichiges Olivgrün etwa, ein senffarbenes Gelb, ein schmutziges Braun. Nur gelegentlich hellt sich das Gesamtbild auf, wird bunter, aber nie wirklich farbenfroh - stets ein Indiz, dass den Hauptfiguren vorübergehend so etwas wie Glück, Zufriedenheit, Ruhe beschieden ist, bevor die Leidenschaften, die unerfüllte Liebe, die abgewiesene Zuneigung, die gekränkte Eitelkeit und ja, auch die Trink- und Spielsucht, wieder überhand nehmen. (Andreas Konrad) (Translation)
Bula Revista (Brazil) discusses the writer and mystic Arthur Machen: 
Machen nasceu no País de Gales. Na juventude, mudou-se para Londres, onde trabalhou como jornalista, tradutor e escritor. Desde pequeno, na seleta biblioteca de seu pai, Machen desenvolveu o gosto pela leitura de obras que pendiam para temas sombrios e decadentistas de autores como as irmãs Brontë e Thomas De Quincey. (Rodrigo Kmiecik) (Translation)´
This comment on La Verdad (Spain) is plain and simple not true. Not even fake. Just wrong:
Tras 'Cumbres borrascosas', Emily Brontë dejó de lado la escritura de novelas porque no pudo soportar el ensañamiento de los críticos de la época. (Ana Ballabriga) (Translation)
Diario de Sevilla (Spain) interviews the writer and lawyer Aurora López Güeto about her book about Pontius Pilate:
Luis Sánchez-Moliní: Fascinante.
A.L.G.: El sueño de Claudia [Prócula] ha servido de inspiración para muchos. Charlotte Brontë tiene un poema sobre ella y, en la Dama Oscura, de Shakespeare aparece como protagonista. (Translation)

The poem is, of course, Pilate's Wife's Dream (1846). 

Optima Magazine (Italy) reviews the album Vodevo Magia by the band Verdena:
Ascoltato in cuffia, Volevo Magia dei Verdena nasconde suoni buttati lì di sottecchi che quasi fanno venire fuori canzoni chiuse in soffitta come la Bertha Mason di Jane Eyre. (Luca Mastinu) (Translation)
Dream! Alcalá (Spain) presents the upcoming edition (October 1st) of the HUL(Q) (¡Hostia, un Libro!) Festival which this year includes a very special inflatable castle, ¡El Hostiódromo!:
De esta manera, lo que en el mítico concurso japonés eran ‘las zamburguesas’, aquí pasarán a ser ‘Las uvas de la ira’, mientras que las rampas imposibles se convertirán en ‘Cumbres borrascosas’ y los saltos y toboganes presagiarán la ‘Crónica de una muerte anunciada’. (Translation)
El Español (Spain) recommends Lady Macbeth 2016:
Esa mujer, la absoluta protagonista de esta historia, y presente en todas las escenas, era Florence Pugh en su debut en la gran pantalla. Una interpretación impresionante que subyuga la cámara en una película que puede describirse como una versión hitchcockiana de Cumbres borrascosas. (Valentina Morillo) (Translation)
Noticias de Álava (Spain) interviews the writer Abril Camino:
Rosana Lakunza: ¿Puede ser que a los hombres les dé más pudor ahondar en el universo de los sentimientos?
A.C.: Creo que los tiros van por ahí. Hay una cierta masculinidad tóxica muy enraizada desde hace siglos que hace que los hombres rehúyan la ficción sentimental. Y la verdad, no sé por qué. Muchos de los grandes clásicos de la literatura hablan de amor, de sentimientos: Ana Karerina, Cumbres borrascosas y un montón de grandes títulos más. Pero ahora, las novelas románticas contemporáneas no son un género que les resulte atractivo a los hombres. (Translation)
La Izquierda Diario (Argentina) quotes the writer Mariana Enríquez as saying:
“Todo empezó con la literatura, antes que con la música. De ahí vienen los temas que se reiteran en mí. En mi casa había una colección de libros que se llamaba Club Burguera. Como ya era obsesiva, los leía por orden. El primero era A sangre fría, de Truman Capote. Pero lo primero que me impresionó fue Cumbres Borrascosas de Emily Brontë”. (Cecilia Rodríguez) (Translation)
Bilan (Switzerland) reviews a Johan Heinrich Füssli exhibition in Zurich:
Il a aussi fallu renoncer au contexte et à la postérité. Ils se voient limités au petit film introductif. C’est dommage. Cette Angleterre hallucinée, qui deviendra plus tard celle des «Hauts du Hurlevent» et de «Jane Eyre», mériterait de se voir une fois présentée à Paris. Et il serait bon de montrer les liens de Füssli avec le surréalisme et, davantage encore, l’«heroic fantasy» actuelle, dont il constitue un des pères ou grands-pères. (Étienne Dumont) (Translation)
 Adevărul (Romania) has a general quiz with a Brontë--related question. Finally a virtual alert for today, September 25:
Picture Book Biographies for Storytime!
Sunday 9/25 at 1:00PM EST
Join Books of Wonder for this inspiring virtual panel that covers the remarkable lives and misadventures of true innovators!
With, among others, Anne Doherty author of The Brontës: The Fantastically Feminist (and Totally True) Story of the Astonishing Author
12:30 am by M. in    No comments
There are plenty of firms out there that some way or other use the Brontës names. Even in the gardening business:

The formation of Bronte Heritage Collection® and its product range is the culmination of a desire to provide gardening essentials that are trusted, provide exceptional results and are presented as a premium collection for your customers.
In our industry, growth is crucial in two senses. It matters that Bronte Heritage Collection® provide your customers with a range that yields the best results in their gardens. We’re also devoted to providing you products that allow you to grow through our partnership programme. Our objective is to become a trusted and reliable name in your customer’s homes, encompassing a wide spectrum of products and allowing them to complete every task in the garden. Exponential growth for you, unrivalled growth for your customer.

Saturday, September 24, 2022

Today marks the 174th anniversary of the death of Branwell Brontë.

The Yorkshire Post features the Brontë Festival of Women's Writing taking place this weekend in Haworth organised by the Brontë Society.
Sassy Holmes is programme officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.The festival, which launched last night and runs through this weekend, was born as a "linchpin" to support community voices, she said.
It features new female artists and those who might embody that same Brontë spirit.
"The Brontës did push boundaries and were quite daring in what they did, challenging traditional narratives," she said.
"They believed in themselves. They had so much passion for artistic practice."
To keep writing, to question ideas around religion and the patriarchy, was a "bold" thing for the Brontës to do in the 1800s, she said.
"The women of the festival are doing that today. That is what the festival embodies."
The festival, now in its 11th year, ties in with a 2022 exhibition at Haworth's Brontë Parsonage Museum – Defying Expectations.
Co-created by historical consultant Dr Eleanor Houghton, it focuses on the remarkable garments and accessories worn by Charlotte Brontë. [...]
This is the first time the festival has been hybrid, with almost all sessions both in person and online through Zoom, email and Youtube.
It brings Haworth to the world, as well as the world to Haworth said Ms Holmes, capturing contemporary voices.
She added: "The festival itself is defying expectations, supporting not just artists and poets but so many different events.
"It just speaks to the way the Brontës were. They pushed boundaries with their work, knowing that female writers weren't accepted at the time. They believed in themselves. They had so much passion for artistic practice. We are taking the ethos of that.” (Ruby Kitchen)
The Yorkshire Evening Post suggests '7 things to do within a short train ride from Leeds' and one of them is
Brontë Parsonage Museum
Just a 25 minute train ride from Leeds train station you’ll find the Brontë Parsonage, where perhaps Yorkshire’s most well known authors stem from.
This is the birthplace of sisters Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë, who went on to write some of England’s most influential books like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Windfell Hall.
The parsonage is now a museum visited by more than hundred thousand tourists every year, and is a must see for anyone interested in Yorkshire’s rich history.
It is highly recommended to book a ticket in advance to avoid disappointment on arrival.
How to get there:
A 25 minute train ride from Leeds train station to Keighley, followed by a bus to Haworth gets you straight there. The Museum is at the top of Main Street, right behind the parish church. (Dennis Morton)
Also at the top of Main Street is Haworth Steam Brewing Company recommended by The Telegraph and Argus.
The pub is popular with both locals and visitors to the village, famous for its Brontë connections. Benches outside are usually occupied with people enjoying a drink while watching the world go by.
“We are dog-friendly too, so people stop off when out for a walk.” (Helen Mead)
'The 20 Most-Anticipated Films of the Season' in The Atlantic and Emily is one of them.
Emily (TBA)
Brontë purists, look away. The writer-director Frances O’Connor has, with this reimagining of Emily Brontë’s short life, invented a bodice-ripping, opium-filled coming-of-age saga that captures the author’s spirit, if not her biographical truth. No, Emily (played by Sex Education’s Emma Mackey) probably never, um, serviced a hunky clergyman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) after French lessons, but Wuthering Heights is, after all, a dangerous text of moral complexity. Emily, with its shots of breathtaking vistas and scenes that hint at supernatural forces, matches that book’s haunted air. The film bursts with an imagination as unconventional as the author herself. (Shirley Li)
The Irish Times recommends it too:
Emily
Directed by Frances O’Connor
Word is excellent on this biopic of Emily Brontë starring the charismatic Emma Mackey in the title role and featuring Alexandra Dowling as Charlotte and Amelia Gething as Anne. The respected actor Frances O’Connor makes her directorial debut with a film largely shot in the Brontës’ native Yorkshire. Expect wild and windy moors.
Opens October 14th (Donald Clarke)
A contributor to LitHub discusses it among the highs and lows of this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Some things are said in this article about the actual Emily Brontë that are simply not true, though
Emily
When the trailer for Frances O’Connor’s Emily was released back in August, the actress-turned-director gave the Radio Times an interview in which she said this of the film’s subject, 19th-century novelist Emily Brontë: “She’s very assured in who she is, and very real, like 100% authentic real.” Upon the premiere of the film at TIFF, she told Screen’s Jeremy Kay, “Like Emily, she’s (star Emma Mackey) very authentic as a person.” And at the screening I attended a few days after the premiere, in her introduction to the eager audience, O’Connor said of her Brontë passion, “She was so authentically herself, and she was just herself.”
Well alright! What hasn’t already been said about the Brontës in the dozens if not hundreds of adaptations of their work and accounts of their lives? Generally, Charlotte is depicted as uptight, prodigious, and intense; Emily is depicted as passionate, rebellious, and anti-social; and Anne isn’t depicted much at all. That holds firm for O’Connor’s Emily, only its portrait of the second youngest sister has been updated to emphasize the Wuthering Heights author’s… authenticity.
O’Connor’s Emily is simplified and normalized to a degree that makes her recognizable only as a cliche.
Putting aside whatever it means for a mentally ill 19th-century consumptive and fan fiction enthusiast to be “authentic,” Emily does not deserve our ridicule. Does it deserve an audience? Sure. With its tiresome yet in vogue soundtrack of benzo’d out 80s pop covers, its cast of hot, Netflix-looking actors and actual Netflix actors, and all the talk of “finding your voice” and “beautiful scars,” it will fit right in on the platform where it was pre-bought to stream: Amazon Prime. Perhaps Emily does deserve some ridicule. But what it also merits—for it isn’t an entirely worthless inquiry into the life of a famous eccentric—is some honest criticism.
If, like me, you’re still smarting from the bummer of Josephine Decker and Elisabeth Moss’s Shirley Jackson biopic—or really if you’ve seen any film about an author released since Jane Campion’s bar-setting Janet Frame biopic An Angel at My Table in 1990—you’re used to the disappointment of seeing an absolute weirdo you’ve loved your whole life envisioned as a runway model with some facial quirks who didn’t like to go to parties. Why it’s so hard to represent famous intellectuals for who they really were is not a question for Frances O’Connor alone, but it’s particularly dismaying seeing this treatment applied to the likes of Emily Brontë.
For the uninitiated, Brontë once cauterized her own wound with a red-hot poker. She reportedly strangled a dog to death with her bare hands [sic; no, she didn't]. She wrote poetry that verged on the pornographic [sic; did she?], she was a shut-in, likely anorexic [sic], deeply, deeply troubled [sic], but bright, brilliant, with an incendiary voice that took her years to harness. O’Connor’s Emily isn’t dissimilar from this portrait, but she’s simplified and normalized to a degree that makes her recognizable only as a cliche.
And strangely, in this explicitly feminist telling of her life, in which Emily and Branwell (Fionn Whitehead) literally shout “FREEDOM OF THOUGHT!” off a cliff in one scene, Emily’s story is packaged around her broken relationship with the dashing county parson William Weightman (Oliver Jackson Cohen).
When an author’s book is part of the national common core reading list, you can’t really give a watered-down version of their life the “at least it will get young people interested in them!” kudo. Instead, Emily gets thrown atop the Brontë media heap with the generous but passionless commendation: why not. (Ryan Coleman)
The Spectator (Australia) quotes Charlotte Brontë's opinion of Harriet Taylor Mill.
Harriet Taylor Mill (1807-58), now mainly known for her years-long affair with John Stuart Mill, whom she married upon the death of her husband, was a radical feminist whom Charlotte Bronte described, after reading her essay on female enfranchisement, as ‘a woman who longed for power and had never felt affection’ (qtd in Reeves, John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand, p. 272). (Janice Fiamengo)
It's not quite so clear-cut as that and Charlotte's thoughts are actually quite elaborate. Elizabeth Gaskell quoted it in her biography and Charlotte was writing under the impression that it was written by John Stuart Mill rather than Harriet Taylor Mill (Victorian times...).
I think the writer forgets there is such a thing as self-sacrificing love and disinterested devotion. When I first read the paper, I thought it was the work of a powerful-minded, clear-headed woman, who had a hard, jealous heart, muscles of iron, and nerves of bend leather; of a woman who longed for power, and had never felt affection. To many women affection is sweet, and power conquered indifferent - though we all like influence won. I believe J. S. Mill would make a hard, dry, dismal world of it; and yet he speaks admirable sense through a great portion of his article - especially when he says, that if there be a natural unfitness in women for men's employment, there is no need to make laws on the subject; leave all careers open; let them try; those who ought to succeed will succeed, or, at least, will have a fair chance - the incapable will fall back into their right place. He likewise disposes of the 'maternity' question very neatly. In short, J. S. Mill's head is, I dare say, very good, but I feel disposed to scorn his heart. (Charlotte Brontë to Elizabeth Gaskell, September 20th, 1851)
Book Riot discusses how the atrocious overturning of Roe vs Wade may influence book trends. The article starts by looking back:
Women have of course written books throughout history, and the best ones reflected the difficult realities of the time. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë focused on a woman making her way through the world with limited options. (Julia Rittenberg)
About Manchester speaks about finding solace in literary things in these dark times.
To the boy who will settle to his studies, literature is a fire escape in the sky. And with heritage engulfing the city in recent times there’s now a notion of Mancunian literature – a body of fiction and poetry set in our beloved home place. Come to think of it, not a week passes by without The Mill unearthing some lost genius poet, the City of Literature tweeting its lovely selfies, the Gaskell House trying to keep up with the Brontës, and the ghost of Anthony Burgess reminding us in some small way of the reputational dividend in being a dead writer with a few quid in the bank. (Danny Moran)
VilaWeb (in Catalan) features the Catalan translation of Joanna Russ's How to Suppress Women's Writing.
Les germanes Brontë, que van començar publicant amb pseudònims, en realitat no van escriure els seus llibres, sinó que van ser obra del germà. La novel·la Jane Eyre, de Charlotte Brontë i publicada amb el pseudònim de Currer Bell, seria una obra mestra si l’hagués escrit un home, però en mans d’una dona era escandalosa i desagradable. [...]
El 1850, amb la segona edició, se’n va revelar l’autoria: Ellis Bell era Emily Brontë. I llavors Cims borrascosos va passar a ser una història d’amor l’estranyesa de la qual era un “reflex de la vida estrafeta que voldria dur l’autora, més aviat aïllada i austera”. I Brontë era “un ocellet que batia les ales contra els barrots de la seva gàbia”. I novament, el menyspreu de crítics que consideraven que ho havia escrit de manera involuntària, que l’obra se li havia escapat de les mans. Perquè, és clar, una dona no pot escriure sobre la maldat com un barquer rude de Yorkshire, diu Russ. (Bel Zaballa) (Translation)
100% Vosges (France) asks writer Amélie Nothomb about her sister Juliette, who's also a writer.
Votre sœur Juliette écrit également. Elle vient de sortir un livre sur sa passion pour le cheval, et a déjà signé plusieurs ouvrages, dont des livres pour enfants. Ce don commun pour l’écriture, constitue-t-il une façon de communier ensemble ?
C’est une célébration. Bon, j’adorerais que nous soyons les sœurs Brontë, mais c’est quand même magnifique de voir un si beau lien. Et puis, je dois aussi le dire, c’est grâce à ma sœur que j’écris. Quand nous étions petites, c’est elle qui écrivait, moi pas. Elle était ma grande sœur, aussi tout ce qu’elle faisait était sensationnel. Et c’est grâce au fait qu’elle écrivait que j’ai su qu’écrire c’était bien ! (Jordane Rommevaux) (Translation)
Le devoir (Canada) reviews the book Quand viendra l’aube by Dominique Fortier.
 De son écriture raffinée, l’autrice signe avec Quand viendra l’aube une réflexion émouvante et nuancée sur le deuil, la création et le pouvoir de la nature sur celle-ci. Si elle fait appel aux voix d’Emily Dickinson, de William Faulkner et de Pierre Ronsard, on ne peut s’empêcher de penser aux oeuvres de Virginia Woolf et d’Emily Brontë tant l’écho des vagues, le mugissement du vent et les nuits d’orage à répétition s’y font tour à tour obsédants et enveloppants. (Manon Dumais) (Translation)
De Morgen (Belgium) interviews Tania Van de Vondel from the bookshop Paard van Troje in Ghent.
Welk succes had u niet zien aankomen?
“Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris van Anjet Daanje, ­momenteel helemaal bovenaan in onze top tien. Het is een historische roman die een ode brengt aan het werk van Emily Brontë en meer dan anderhalve eeuw geschiedenis overspant. Niemand had dat zien aankomen. Wij hadden het boek niet eens ingekocht. Het begon met een bestelling, en daarna nog een en nog een, en zo ging de bal aan het rollen. Nu staat Daanje zelfs op de longlist van de Boekenbon Literatuurprijs.” (Marnix Verplancke) (Translation)
News Letter features Florence + The Machine:
Florence Welch, 36, is the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the indie rock group whose superb debut studio album, Lungs (2009), which proffered such seminal tracks as Dog Days, Howl, Kiss with a Fist and Cosmic Love, full of slowly-building-to-rapt-cresecendo riffs and lapidary poetic lyrics, introduced the singer as a whirling dervish of indie-pop, almost a newbie Patti Smith-style performer of soulful, sensitive-yet-fierce energy who pens lyrics with a clear literary sensibility, as in Welch, whose mother is a professor of literature, clearly knows her Brontë from her Bryon [sic]. (Joanne Savage)
Esquire (Spain) has selected several quotes on disappointment and one of them is from chapter XXXVI of Villette:
Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation. 
12:45 am by M. in ,    No comments
A guided walk in Brussels organised by the Brussels Brontë Group, part of the Bruxelles Journées du Matrimoine 2022:
September 24, 10:00-11:30 Chapelle Royale  

Cette visite guidée dans le centre de Bruxelles met en lumière le lien fascinant entre Bruxelles et les écrivaines à succès Emily et Charlotte Brontë. Ces autrices de classiques, tels que “Les Hauts de Hurlevent”, “Jane Eyre” et “Villette”, ont vécu à Bruxelles en 1842-43. Au cours de cette visite historique, vous aurez un large aperçu de la vie des sœurs dans la capitale belge de l'époque et découvrirez des lieux de la ville qu'elles connaissaient et la manière dont ils on changés.
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In Emily's Words is being presented this weekend in East Lansing, Michigan:
ĭmáGen
Pasant Theatre
Wharton Center for Performing Arts, 750 E Shaw Ln, East Lansing, MI 48824, EE. UU
Presented by MSU College of Arts and Letters’ Department of Theatre and MSUFCU Institute for Arts & Creativity at Wharton Center.

Book, Music & Lyrics by Jessy Tomsko
Guest Directed by Susanna Wolk
Guest Music Direction by Keiji Ishiguri

This year’s new musical in development, In Emily’s Words tells the story of English novelist Emily Brontë as she is writing the beloved tale of troubled love, Wuthering Heights. This new musical explores her journey as a female writer in the 1840’s, battling illness and adversity, while crafting the sweeping story that has left a legacy nearly 200 years after her death. This new musical features Hamilton cast member Jonathan Christopher and more Broadway talent on the same stage with MSU musical theatre students and local high school actors.
In its ninth year, the 2022 ĭmáGen staged concert is a collaboration with the Wharton Center for Arts & Creativity supported by MSU Federal Credit Union and Michigan State University’s College of Arts & Letters’ Department of Theatre. This new musical, still in development, will feature Broadway talent on the same stage with MSU musical theatre students and local high school actors.
Fox47 News has some additional information:
A collaboration of local high school students, Michigan State University students in the ImaGen program and the help of some broadway stars makes up the cast of the new musical "In Emily's Words."
“I've been writing this show for about two and a half years,” said composer and writer Jessy Tomsko. “We are putting on its feet for the first time, a new musical that I have written called 'In Emily's words,' which is about Emily Bronte's process to write Wuthering Heights.” (...)
“It's a story about imagination, and creativity and finding your story, and you know, kind of using your ideas and your creativity to walk the path of immortality as Emily Bronte did," Tomsko said. (Mikayla Temple)

Friday, September 23, 2022

Friday, September 23, 2022 7:35 am by Cristina in , , ,    No comments
Rochester City Newspaper is this close to cancelling Jane Eyre in a review of the Geva Theatre Center stage production.
“Jane Eyre” at Geva Theatre Center, directed and adapted by new Artistic Director Elizabeth Williamson, takes Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel seriously – to a fault.
The set is sparse, and the play opens with only a spotlight on the desk where Jane writes the story that she dictates directly to the audience. Of course, it’s not her full life story. This production abridges the 600-page novel, chopping out Jane’s childhood and a hundred pages of character development to start when she moves to Thornfield to become a governess under Mr. Rochester’s employment.
Jane addresses the audience with direct quotes so often that at times the play feels like an enhanced audiobook. With the exception of vibrant and puffy period dresses, designed by Ilona Somogyi, much of the world-building and action is left to the audience’s imagination. Sliding panels and a rotating turntable slowly bring out furniture that hints at rooms around Thornfield or the garden outside. Major plot moments—like Rochester falling off a horse when he first sees Jane, or a midnight fire in a bedroom—happen behind a large wooden panel while the audience waits for Jane to narrate what we’ve missed.
It’s a huge testimony to Helen Sadler, who stars as Jane with phenomenal stamina, that this production manages to be engaging. Sadler plays Jane less as the moralistic introvert of the novel and more like an Elizabeth Bennett: feisty, clever, confident, and quick. Mr. Rochester, played by Robert Beitzel, physically towers over her, but she commands attention as the focal point of the show. The show reaches its high points when Sadler gets full rein of Brontë’s iconic language, proclaiming “I am no bird, and no net ensnares me,” and “Do you think because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?”
Sadler and Beitzel are well supported by an ensemble that plays over a dozen side characters, appearing in short bursts before moving on to the next role. The actors capture each role so convincingly that one needs to check the program to confirm it was Awesta Zarif who plays both the snobby Blanche Ingram and the ominous Grace Poole, or Grayson DeJesus who embodies both righteously angry Mr. Mason and the gently earnest St. John Rivers.
The cast does a fine job of bringing Charlotte Brontë’s characters to life, but doing so only highlights how inappropriate this narrative is in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement. This is certainly not to fault Charlotte Brontë for failing to anticipate the needs and sensibilities of audiences long after her death. However, one should question the decision to launch a theatrical season with outdated depictions of romance and madness.
Mr. Rochester is a walking red flag of a suitor. He spends over two hours manipulating emotions, disregarding women and their feelings, threatening violence, gaslighting Jane, deflecting responsibility, bullying his employees, and enacting a racist stereotype. When called out for lying, he immediately rationalizes his dishonesty, usually by blaming others. Beitzel plays him with a boyish charm and playful innocence that borders on sociopathic.
The show revels in the lush language of Rochester’s courtship to Jane, as well as the novel’s Gothic elements, with offstage manic laughter, fog and candles, and haunting strings. The source of this impending horror? Mr. Rochester’s first wife, the madwoman in the attic. She makes a dramatic appearance in the second act, played with an animalistic ferocity by Felicity Jones Latta. Given a broader cultural understanding of mental health, it’s deeply off-putting to see a mentally ill woman portrayed as an inhuman threat. Once her purpose as a spooky thrill ends, she’s quickly brushed aside while her husband cries in a fetal position about how wretched he is because his plan to travel to colonized Jamaica and marry for money backfired.
In the end, when Jane conveniently acquires a fortune and connections, she returns to Mr. Rochester on her own terms. Women often struggle to stay away from their abusers. Sadler performs the famous line “Reader, I married him!” with gusto, and the audience swoons and applauds. The true horror of “Jane Eyre” is not the traumatized woman in the attic, but the man who put her there. Too bad the production doesn’t know it. (Katherine Varga)
Maybe next time send someone who understands the concept of historical context rather than 'how inappropriate this narrative is in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement'? 

Glam recommends '15 Spooky Reads To Get Into The Halloween Spirit' including
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
Fans of gothic horror will love Rachel Hawkins' debut adult fiction novel "The Wife Upstairs." This clever reimagining of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" follows the rags-to-riches saga of 20-something Jane, a petty thief with a difficult past who longs for security and to have what she feels she's due (via Book Reporter). Jane makes her living walking dogs for the wealthy residents of Thornfield Estates, a southern gated community brimming with Stepford-like insincerity and charm. Jane quickly falls for the recently widowed Eddie Rochester, despite the rumors surrounding his famous wife's disappearance. As Jane and Eddie's lives become further intertwined, it becomes impossible for Jane to ignore some obvious truths about her new beau, or to keep out of the attic.
"The Wife Upstairs" is a masterful tale of horror, suspense, and romance that reads at an alarmingly quick pace (via Southern Review of Books). Its thrilling domestic noir plot contrasts with a genuine study of the lives of traumatized men and women, and what they will or won't do for love. (Kaitlynn Boot)
Fall, leaves, fall, makes it into Metro's celebration of autumn.
12:30 am by M. in    No comments
The 2022 edition of the Brontë Festival of Women's Writing opens today, September 23. These are both  the in person and online programmes:
In PersonWelcome to our 2022 Bronte Festival of Women's Writing; Defying Expectations!

The Brontë Sisters were bold, daring and wrote stories that surprised the world. This year’s festival celebrates female writers and artists who create work which pushes boundaries. From poetry workshops and Q&A’s to live music and more, we’re thrilled to present a festival that welcomes exciting female voices from across the country.

What’s more, this year’s festival is hybrid, which means you can join us in person in Haworth or online from wherever in the world you are.


Friday 23 September
 
Saturday 24 September
 

Sunday 25 September
 
11-3 - Creative Workshop for all the family

Online
 
Friday 23 September
6- 7- In Conversation with Patricia Park- pre-recorded Zoom and Q&A document
 
Saturday 24 September
10- 10:50 - Nicole Joseph: Fight for your right to write – Live Zoom workshop
10- 10:50 - Anna Doherty: How to write inspiring children’s literature - pre-recorded Zoom and presentation
11:20 – 12:20- In conversation with author Emily Itami: The Female Protagonist- Live streamed event
1:10 – 2:10 - Anna Doherty: Illustration workshop for all- Resource pack sent
2:45- 4:15- Sarah-Joy Ford: Banner Making with the Brontë Sisters; Make Your Own Feminist Banner- Resource pack sent
4:45- 6 - Monika Radojevic: Poetry reading and Feminist Invoicing – Live streamed event
7:30-9 ‘Wuthering Heights’: Alexandra Braithwaite, Sophie Galpin and Beckie Wilkie live in concert- Live streamed event
Sunday 25 September
4:30-6- Cooking and Writing with Rosemary Schrager: The Last Supper- Pre recorded zoom sent

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Thursday, September 22, 2022 7:53 am by Cristina in , , , , , ,    No comments
Book Riot recommends '12 Standout YA Standalone Sci-Fi Books' and one of them is
Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne 
Are you ready for a Jane Eyre retelling…in space?! Stella lives aboard a spaceship orbiting an uninhabitable Earth. She has dreams of leaving her ship and going anywhere else — so when she’s given a chance to be a governess aboard a private ship, she eagerly accepts. It’s aboard the Rochester that she meets Captain Hugo and sparks fly. The more Stella learns about a potential plot to kill Hugo, the more she becomes suspicious of his true role aboard the Rochester. (Kate Krug)
NME (and many others) report Taylor Swift's approach to lyrics.
Swift went on to describe how she writes lyrics, explaining she breaks them down into three distinct genre categories – “quill”, “fountain pen” and “glitter gel” – based on which writing implement she imagines having in her hand when writing them down.
“Quill” lyrics, she said, are songs written if the words and phrasings used are “antiquated”, if she was “inspired to write it after reading Charlotte Brontë or after watching a movie where everyone is wearing poet shirts and corsets”. Swift went on to recite a section of lyrics from ‘Ivy’, taken from 2020’s ‘Evermore’, as an example of such lyrics. (Alex Gallagher)
Volume One features the 1934 book So Stood I by Jane Culver.
 In 1934, a book was released in New York that caused quite a stir in the Eau Claire community.
So Stood I by Jane Culver was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1934. Culver, who was known as Mary Jane in Eau Claire circles, spent the first 18 years of her life in the city. [...]
It took her four years to write So Stood I. She said that many Eau Claire residents might recognize themselves in the book, but I never could find any accounts of people who did so. 
This was her first novel, which she wrote using the stream-of-consciousness method made famous by James Joyce. The title of the book was taken from one of Emily Brontë’s poems. (Diana Peterson)
The poem is My Comforter.

'Fall, leaves, fall' by Emily Brontë is one of 40 Instagram captions for autumn shared by Distractify.
12:30 am by M. in ,    No comments

An alert for today, September 22, in Madera, Italy:
Second Edition of "Scrittori Allo Specchio"
Museo Archaelogico Nazionale  "D. Ridola" - Via Ridola, 24, Matera
Thursday 22 September,  18:30

Cime tempestose di Emily Brontë 
“Tra influenze presenti e suggestioni del passato” a cura di Monica Pareschi
Via Giornalemio. Sassilive gives further information:
“Tra influenze presenti e suggestioni del passato” è il titolo del penultimo appuntamento della rassegna “Scrittori allo specchio”,organizzata e promossa dall’associazione Amabili Confini. L’incontro verrà introdotto da Selena Andrisani esarà dedicato al romanzo Cime Tempestose di Emily Brontë, in un monologo condotto dalla traduttrice Monica Pareschi. In caso di maltempo si svolgerà nella sala convegni. (Translation)

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

The cast for the US premiere of Emma Rice’s Wuthering Heights has been announced and is reported by West End Best Friend.
The co-production with the National Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and York Theatre Royal, in association with Berkeley Repertory Theater, makes its US première at St Ann’s Warehouse, New York, on 14 October, before touring to Berkeley Repertory Theater, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts and Chicago Shakespeare Theater, with more dates to be announced.
For the New York leg of the tour, Rice directs Sam Archer (Wise Children, The Old Vic/UK tour).as Lockwood/Edgar Linton, Steph Elstob (Edward Scissorhands, Sadler’s Wells) as understudy, Nandi Bhebhe (Bagdad Cafe, The Old Vic) as The Yorkshire Moor, Katy Ellis as swing, Lloyd Gorman (Whistle Down The Wind, Watermill Theatre) as Mr Earnshaw/Robert, TJ Holmes (One Man, Two Guvnors, UK tour) as Dr Kenneth, Jordan Laviniere (All That, King’s Head Theatre) as Zillah, Lucy McCormick (Life: LIVE!, Battersea Arts Centre) as Catherine, Katy Owen (Wise Children, The Old Vic/UK tour) as Isabella Linton/Linton Heathcliff, Tama Phethean (The Great Christmas Feast, The Lost Estate) as Hindley Earnshaw/Hareton Earnshaw, Eleanor Sutton (Jane Eyre, Stephen Joseph Theatre/New Vic) as Frances Earnshaw/Young Cathy, and Liam Tamne (The Prince of Egypt, West End) as Heathcliff, with music performed by Sid Goldsmith, Pat Moran and Jeevan Singh.
Joining the cast from Berkeley Rep onwards are Georgia Bruce (Fisherman’s Friends, UK tour) as Isabella Linton/Linton Heathcliff, Leah Brotherhead (Gulliver’s Travels, Unicorn Theatre) as Catherine, Ricardo Castro (Fame – The Musical, Tyrone Jackson Theatre) as Jonathan and Katy Ellis (Malory Towers, Wise Children) as Zillah, with Jordan Laviniere taking on the role of The Yorkshire Moor. [...]
The production features set and costume design by Vicki Mortimer, sound and video by Simon Baker, composition by Ian Ross, lighting by Jai Morjaria, and movement and choreography by Etta Murfitt. (Jenny Ell)
Also on Playbill.

That Shelf reviews Frances O'Connor's Emily:
Platform’s opening night selection set a good bar for the competition. Emily, the directorial debut of actor Frances O’Connor, offered an unexpectedly unconventional Brontë biopic. The film imagines the love story that inspired Brontë to pen her classic Wuthering Heights, but O’Connor doesn’t opt for the Gothic romance one might assume is behind the tale. Instead, this is the story of Emily Brontë told with a nod and a wink. O’Connor seems more indebted to Fleabag than to previous takes on the Brontë classic. Emma Mackay plays Brontë with a beguiling, mirthful charm. She’s very aware of the camera in the way Phoebe Waller-Bridge breaks the fourth wall with a knowing smirk. Emily is a delight that captures the essence of a book, an author, and a woman while reinventing all three anew. One hopes to see more from O’Connor behind the camera after this ravishing debut. (Pat Mullen)
Evening Standard recommends the film among other 'films you need to watch in autumn 2022'.
Emily
Brontë fans will be very closely watching this biopic of their heroine Emily, starring Sex Education’s Emma Mackey, which follows the author in the leadup to her masterpiece, Wuthering Heights. Early signs are good for Frances O’Connell’s film, with rave reviews from Venice [Toronto, actually].
Oct 14 (Nancy Durrant)
The Glasgow Guardian has an article on where to start with the classics.
Albeit polarising, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is another classic from the same era that holds a special place in my heart. My heart, that is. It’s dark and depressing - something I merit in a Gothic novel - and might just make you cry, either from misery or exhaustion, but beware, one GoodReads individual is fabled to have lost all desire for reading because of this book… (Leah Hart)
Locus interviews musician Hiron Ennes about their debut novel Leech.
Leech has been described as a combination of Gothic horror and science fiction. What works in the Gothic tradition influenced you, and what’s the appeal of Gothic fiction in the 21st century?
I’m a sucker for the classics. In middle school I was very much into Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Phantom of the Opera—creepy houses and candelabras and the pathologically dysfunctional ruling class. I’ve seen Leech compared to Wuthering Heights, but I think the Brontë-ness might be aesthetic for the most part. 
La Izquierda Diario (Argentina) features writer Mariana Enríquez who has been a great fan of Wuthering Heights for decades now.
“Todo empezó con la literatura, antes que con la música. De ahí vienen los temas que se reiteran en mí. En mi casa había una colección de libros que se llamaba Club Bruguera. Como ya era obsesiva, los leía por orden. El primero era A sangre fría, de Truman Capote. Pero lo primero que me impresionó fue Cumbres Borrascosas de Emily Brontë”. La autora leyó un pasaje que inspiró una escena de Nuestra parte de noche. “Lo leí cuando tenía 9 años y terminó en algo que escribí a los cuarenta y pico”. (Cecilia Rodríguez) (Translation)
Cuba Información discusses the Western literary canon and its traditional treatment of women writers.
En 1848, Percy Edwin Whipple escribiría una crítica de Jane Eyre para el North American Review. En dicho texto, Whipple defendería la idea de que la novela había sido escrita por dos personas, un hermano y una hermana, puesto que “existen detalles en los pensamientos y en las emociones de la mente de una mujer que… a menudo pasan desapercibidas a las escritoras”. [...]
Las escasas consagradas, que, pese a todo, han sido reconocidas como parte de «lOs» Grandes, corren el riesgo de que se distorsione su éxito. Es posible que la Academia haga uso del mito del logro aislado, — o en otras palabras — que afirme que, de la totalidad de obras de una escritora (cualquiera que fuere), únicamente es importante estudiar una novela, o un puñado de poemas, pues, el resto se considera desechable. De Mary Shelley Frankenstein, y no El último hombre. De Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre, mas no Villette.
La premisa de que «pocas bastan», no solo se aplica al estudio y reconocimiento de sus escritos, sino también a la inserción de autoras en antologías literarias. Habitualmente, el porciento de nombres femeninos en las compilaciones es ínfimo. (Lari Perez Rodriguez) (Translation)
An estimate from a Book Riot contributor:
While fairy tales and Pride and Prejudice (and a few other 19th century classics like Jane Eyre and Little Women) probably count for a good 75 percent of the most prominent retellings in romance. . . (Jessica Pryde)
Les inrockuptibles (France) finds echoes of Jane Eyre in the film Don’t Worry Darling.
Toute la belle vibration du film – trop flashy, trop fort, trop “tout”, comme si l’aliénation féminine devait se payer en retour par une certaine idée du mauvais goût – tient à cette folie curieuse qui pousse le personnage de Florence Pugh (parfaite), héritière des héroïnes gothiques classiques, à forcer les portes qu’elle n’auraient jamais dû franchir, sur le même modèle que les épouses d’abord dociles de Barbe bleue et du Secret derrière la porte, en passant par Jane Eyre ou Rebecca. C’est ce travail de fouille et d’investigation furieuse qui va casser la composition en spirale de Don’t Worry Darling – manière de dénoncer ces vies conditionnées de desperate housewives tournant en rond. (Translation)
Duna (Chile) reads a Spanish translation of an 1849 letter by Charlotte Brontë.