Yours is...realistic

The Guardian talks about the new National Theatre premiere, Underdog: The Other Other Brontë and particularly about the director Natalie Ibu:

Natalie Ibu is about to make her National Theatre debut directing a new play about the Brontë sisters, but the Kardashians keep creeping in. “I’m constantly comparing them, because they’re the ultimate disruptors – and they’re also three sisters with a brother that no one really remembers. We may not like what they stand for, but they are successful and exquisite at what they do,” she says.

Ibu is well aware that some will see this as an appalling slight against the 19th-century daughters of a country clergyman, who disrupted the canon by producing some of the most important novels in the English language. She means no disrespect, either to them or to those who know and revere their work, “but the idea that we can’t talk about the Kardashians in the same breath as the Brontës I find deeply offensive,” she says. “Our audiences are cultural consumers who go wherever they find something they like. I want them to be fans of theatre in the way that they’re a fan of Harry Styles.”

It’s Monday morning on the week before rehearsals proper begin, and a day of pre-production consultations lies ahead for Ibu, who strolls in from her Airbnb clutching a takeaway coffee. Underdog: The Other Other Brontë was brought to her attention after it won Sarah Gordon the Nick Darke playwriting award in 2020. And though it was very different to Ibu’s usual work – including a recent hit show for young people, Protest, she thought: “Yes, we have to do this.” It is a co-production with Northern Stage, where Ibu has been artistic director for the last three years.

The underdog is Anne Brontë, who died at just 29 having never quite achieved the success of her two older sisters. The play explores the role that sibling rivalry played in her eclipse, particularly with Charlotte, who altered Emily’s poetry, and is known to have suppressed Anne’s novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall for years by vetoing a second print run after the first edition sold out.

In a key scene, Anne berates her sister for gazumping her novel Agnes Grey with Jane Eyre. “Charlotte has this great line, ‘I’m telling you, the novels could not be more different. Mine is strange and gothic and intense. Yours is … realistic.’ She is creating a narrative that excuses what she’s done. But it also makes an important point: that male writers tread over the same ground, with endless stories about kings, and no one questions them. So why can two women not write in the same space?” (...)

People with an established relationship with the Brontës are welcome, she says, but it’s also for the 17-year-old girl who thinks they have nothing to say to her.

“My own relationship with the Brontës began with this play – I’m very honest about that,” she adds. (Claire Armitstead)

Fine Books Magazine also reports the premiere. 

The 32789 publishes the list of the selected plays for the upcoming 7th Annual Florida Festival of New Musicals:

In Emily’s Words (adapted from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights): This original musical tells the story of English novelist Emily Brontë as she writes Wuthering Heights. Despite having little worldly experience, she created a sweeping melodrama that has left a legacy nearly two hundred years after her death. Book, music and lyrics by Jessy Tomsko.

Pakistan Observer talks about tuberculosis in literature:

Examples include works by John Keats, Charlotte Brontë, Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Mann, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, who portrayed either their own experiences of suffering from tuberculosis or faced the loss of friends and family due to this disease. These writers’ prolific creative power and simultaneous experience of TB lent currency to the belief that the disease was somehow connected with literary genius and artistic craft. (Dr Ayesha Ashraf)

Books about imaginary characters and mystery in The Mary Sue:

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Another book where characters can jump right in to other fictional worlds, The Eyre Affair is a metatextual novel set in an alternate reality where advanced genetic engineering has brought extinct creatures back to life, Imperial Russia has been at war with England for more than a century, and various specialist police forces handle weird and metaphysical crimes. Literature is an important part of this society, with gang wars breaking out over Shakespeare, and in the midst of this, literary detective Thursday Next must enter Jane Eyre to rescue the kidnapped Jane, as well as several of her own relatives who are being held hostage by her former professor Acheron Hades, who is now a Moriarty-style villain. (Siobhan Ball)

The Simon Fraser University's Department of English organized recently and English Network Relaunch Party with Quiz included:

Alumni and students then teamed up for English literature and SFU trivia. Could you answer some of the questions that stumped them?

What is the name of Mr. Rochester's house in Jane Eyre? (Rebecca Saloustros)

Multiversity Comics reviews Webtoon's Children of the Night by yuugi:

Since this is a Victorian-era gothic romance, we start with our heroine, a bookish young lady named Elizabeth (Beth, for short). She would much rather stay in her room and read “Wuthering Heights” than endure her mother’s constant criticism.  (Mel Lake)

The Mirror and The Sun share a list of thee 40 most inspirational books which includes Wuthering Heights. Curiously, Times Now News also shares their list of literary classics that fail modern readers and guess what, Wuthering Heights also is there:

A tale of intense passion and revenge set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire moors, this novel features complex characters entangled in destructive relationships. Despite its undiminished emotional intensity, modern readers may find it challenging to empathize with the extreme behaviours and toxic dynamics presented, potentially detracting from the novel's enduring appeal. 

Espresso is rather exaggerated including Wuthering Heights 1992 in a  list of the most disastrous book-to-screen adaptations ever:

Emily Brontë’s only novel is a monument of English and world literature. The big-screen adaptation attempts to summarize a story that takes place over 30 years and three generations in the space of less than two hours, clearly not enough time to do justice to Heathcliff’s personality and amorous obsession. Critics have also pointed out a lack of emotion that’s sure to confound readers of this powerful tale of love and revenge. (Dina Blewagi)

Stylenest has a guide for visiting Yorkhsire in Easter:

Brontë Country

At its heart is the Brontë Parsonage Museum, the preserved former home of the Brontë family. There, visitors can not only learn more about these famous authors’ lives but also explore the quaint town of Haworth. Nearby, open countryside and steep hills carve a truly captivating landscape. It’s easy to get lost in your imagination in Brontë country. (Charlie Bloom)

Trade Show News Network interviews  Kitty Ratcliffe, president of Explore St. Louis:

Lisa Plummer Savas: What advice would you give to the next generations of female leaders in the events industry?

K.R.: Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre, who kept her identity as a female a secret in order to get her novel published, is credited with the famous quote, “Look twice before you leap.” The meaning is often misunderstood – many think she is cautioning against taking a leap, but that’s not what she said. She said to leap, but just gauge the distance first. 

Indeed. The quote comes from Shirley (Chapter IX). 

Today's The Times Daily Quiz includes a Brontë-related question:

The 2000 Broadway musical of which Charlotte Brontë novel features the songs Forgiveness and Sweet Liberty? (Olav Bjortomt)

GMA News Online (Philippines)  reports Kapuso series you can watch on Netflix:

 "The World Between Us" is about an orphan boy who falls in love with the daughter of the family who takes him in. However, they face many obstacles to their love.

Based on the English novel "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë, it stars Alden Richards, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Tom Rodriguez, Sid Lucero, Jaclyn Jose, Dina Bonnevie, Kelley Day, and more. (Marisse Panaligan)