Obsession

Keighley News reports a musical event that will take place next June 16th:

Branwell’s Flute and Hardy’s Hornpipe takes place at St Mary's, Oxenhope, on Friday, June 16, at 7.30pm.

Tunes contained in Branwell Brontë’s Flutebook will be performed, together with traditional airs collected by author Thomas Hardy and his family.

Flautist will be Peter Harrison and presenter Julia Elliott, who will explain the music.

"The evening is recommended for anyone who enjoys traditional and folk music and all who are interested in Branwell Brontë’s tempestuous life and his love of music," said a spokesperson. "The church has close connections to the Brontë family." (Alistair Shand)

Brisbane Times reviews the novel Kathy George's Estella:

Feminist fiction can revisit and refocus the lens on literary classics and sometimes, as with Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre that illuminates the perspective of “the madwoman in the attic”, these novels become classics in turn. Kathy George’s latest gives voice to Estella from Great Expectations. (Cameron Woodhead and Steven Carroll)

The Verge on derivative works:

Derivative work is valuable and a longstanding tradition. Shakespeare didn’t come up with the plot for Hamlet; it’s based on a 12th-century work called Historia Danica. The absolute teen-girl classic Clueless is based on Jane Austen’s Emma. The Wind Done Gone and Wide Sargasso Sea are based on Gone With the Wind and Jane Eyre, respectively. Arguably all literary criticism is derivative work, as it requires the existence of some other work to interpret. (Elizabeth Lopatto)

The Shaw Local Times talks about B movies:

“I Walked With a Zombie” (1943)
This is “Jane Eyre,” in the Caribbean, with zombies.
Yup, that about sums it up. “Zombie” was made with an almost non-existent budget, in just a couple of weeks, as part of producer Val Lewton’s series of films for RKO Pictures. It features downright gorgeous cinematography, a phenomenal use of shadows and lighting and a soundtrack that gets right down into your bones.
The gothic romance and themes of obsession are interwoven around powerful depictions of Haitian Vodou and slavery, but the film’s greatest legacy is Carrefour (Darby Jones), one of the most striking and memorable zombies in all of cinema. (Angie Barry)

Ben Dowell in The Times makes an interesting point:

The strange thing is, mixing bonnets with contemporary music, swears and critiques of colonialism seems to be the establishment way these days and traditionalist gainsayers represent a minority taste as far as most TV executives are concerned.  (...) What would be truly radical would be to make a straight 20-part BBC teatime adaptation of Jane Eyre complete with hair buns and a cast of home counties Rada graduates.

Bustle interviews the writer Susanna Kaysen:

Susanna Leach: My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh is a prominent example of it, or anything by Sally Rooney, but Girl, Interrupted is often mentioned as the pioneer of this subgenre.

S.K.: I've read Ottessa's book, I've read all of Sally Rooney's books. The Year of Rest and Relaxation I found really horrifying, but I think it was meant to be very disturbing. But I don't see them at all as connected to what I wrote. I guess they’re connected in the sense that they [focus on the] difficulties of growing up as a woman, what it’s to be a woman in her early 20s. But [novels often ask], “How am I supposed to live?” Isn't Jane Eyre, “How am I supposed to live? I can't live as a governess. I just can't stand it.”

Letralia (Spain) interviews the author Adolfo García Ortega:

Karen Lentini Gómez: ¿Qué atributos posee Jane Eyre para ser su heroína preferida?

A.G.O.: Admiro especialmente a su autora, Charlotte Brontë. Hay un retrato suyo en mi mesa. Y admiro su novela Jane Eyre porque es de las primeras novelas en las que la heroína construye su vida con decisión e independencia, resistiendo y superando los obstáculos y hallando en sus propias ideas y reflexiones un camino a seguir en tiempos en que los hombres, de manera realmente absurda y estúpida, regían las vidas de las mujeres. Jane es una mujer que llega a comprender al hombre sin renunciar a sus propios logros, grandes o pequeños, como mujer que se empodera. La lectura de esta novela influyó mucho en la literatura posterior británica, sobre todo de corte realista y social como la de Dickens, y también en Karl Marx. Jane Eyre es una figura mítica de la literatura, sin duda alguna. (Translation)

Sceneweb (France) mentions one of the current projects of the theatre director Anne Monfort:

Avec sa complice Judith Henry, elle prépare une adaptation des Hauts de Hurlevent d’Emily Brontë, en dialogue avec la réécriture de Maryse Condé, La migration des cœurs. (Translation)

A mention of the Brontës pseudonyms in El Colombiano (Colombia). A spelling bee winner and Brontëite in The Statesman. "You Make Me Happy" quotes, including one by Charlotte, in Pinkvilla. We read in Esquire about a trivia night at The Yacht Club in Denver which included a question about the authorship of Jane Eyre.