Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. This 1847 classic features the beloved character with a thirst for reading, who finds strength in spirit and explores her self-worth. (Supalee Dalai)
'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Brontë
A book considered greatly ahead of its time, Wuthering Heights made major waves when published thanks to its intense themes. Although it was once a banned book, modern readers know that it’s an important piece of literature. (...)'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte BrontëIf there’s one thing the Brontë sisters could do, it’s writing. Jane Eyre was published just months before Wuthering Heights, making it a great year for the family. Both books have remained lasting favorites among literature fans. (Acacia Deadrick)
Ruefle’s synthetic imagination is delightfully surprising. In My Emily Dickinson she braids the lives (and deaths) of Dickinson, Emily Brontë and Anne Frank to explore the language of loneliness, intimacy, and confinement. Her advice illustrates more than instructs, as in her Short Lecture on Lying which reads, in entirety: ‘In this lecture I only lie three times. This is one of them’. (Vona Groarke)
Or perhaps a twisted non-traditional touch for Wuthering Heights’s Heathcliff under Emerald Fennell? (Anushka Bhattacharya)
«Sono scrittrici come Emily Brontë ad aver cambiato la nostra storia. È nella letteratura di queste donne che si è formato l’immaginario di generazioni di ragazze ed espresso il ribollire dei desideri di emancipazione che ha riscritto il destino delle donne e degli uomini. Sulle pagine di questi libri abbiamo sviluppato il nostro pensiero critico e a queste storie, scritte da donne in tempi in cui non era permesso loro scrivere, che desideriamo tornare ora che siamo adulte».
Le parole di Martina Badiluzzi centrano perfettamente il mondo in cui il suo spettacolo teatrale Cime Tempestose, ispirato al celebre romanzo di Emily Brontë e al debutto lo scorso 19 ottobre, si muove e agisce. Attraverso corpo, testa, codici familiari, ricordi e case.
Lo spettacolo è un omaggio al potere catartico della letteratura, alla magia dell’arte e del teatro e che prosegue e consolida il processo di riscrittura di figure femminili della drammaturga e regista friulana: Cime tempestose è un romanzo complesso e simbolico, scritto di un’autrice cresciuta in una cittadina dello Yorkshire inglese, in epoca vittoriana, sulla soglia della rivoluzione industriale.
Emily tenterà per i primi anni della sua giovinezza di uscire dalla casa paterna ma mai ci riuscirà, preferendo alla civiltà la brughiera, la compagnia degli animali e quella dei fratelli: Charlotte Brontë, autrice di Jane Eyre, Anne Brontë, anche lei scrittrice di successo, e Branwell, pittore.
«Rileggere Cime tempestose da adulte è come tornare a casa. È un rito di passaggio quello a cui Emily Brontë ci sottopone come lettrici, lo sprofondare nelle viscere e nelle oscurità di una storia familiare dolorosa e violenta che si realizza, sul finale, nell’immagine consolante di due amanti senza paura: Cathy e Hareton» sottolinea Badiluzzi.
Lo spettacolo inizia da quei due amanti e da un ritorno a casa: «Le figure che vogliamo in scena non sono più Catherine e Heathcliff (qui interpretati da Arianna Pozzoli e Loris De Luna); gli adattamenti hanno consumato i loro nomi e la critica abusato dei termini romanticismo e passione per raccontare la loro storia. Lasciamo spazio a Cathy e Hareton, la seconda generazione che abita il romanzo. Hareton è il “secondo” Heathcliff, l’ennesimo figlio non desiderato, e Cathy la copia identica della madre – spiega la regista - A questi due giovani è affidato il compito di gestire l’eredità delle proprie famiglie, non solo quella materiale, ma soprattutto quella emotiva. Di trasformare le disuguaglianze sociali, il razzismo e il maschilismo di quel piccolo mondo antico in qualcos’altro. Possono due bambini cresciuti in ristrettezza d’amore, in dinamiche familiari tossiche e violente riuscire ad amarsi?» (Nicoletta Labarile)
We're very pleased to announce Professor Corinne Fowler as our keynote speaker at 2025's Brontë Society Conference.Corinne is the author of 'Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain' and Professor of Colonialism and Heritage at the University of Leicester. In 2020, she co-authored an award-winning audit of peer-reviewed research about National Trust properties’ connections to empire.We're excited to hear from Corinne at next year's conference, as we explore the heritage of place and cultural diversity in and across the Brontës’ lives and works.
That Eric Alper publishes a YouTube video with Kate Bush's vocals in her Wuthering Heights iconic song. The Brontë Sisters Youtube channel explores "Brontë Trees, Myths, and Superstitions: The Secrets of Haworth’s Graveyard".
by Polly TealeNoName Theatre, Hietaniemenkatu 7B, 00100 Helsinki.Weds 20 November 2024 @ 7 pmThurs 21 November 2024 @ 7 pmFri 22 November 2024 @ 7 pmSat 23 November 2024 @ 7 pmSun 24 November 2024 @ 4 pmDirected by – Stephanie Clark & Arnaud PraplanFeaturing– Zachariah Chamberlaine, Lotta Heikkinen, Anna Jortikka, Christian Jull, Pauliina Munukka & Georgia YoungerCostume designer & maker: Maija KoppinenStage manager: Anastasia DiatlovaIn 1845, Branwell Brontë returns home in disgrace, plagued by his addictions. As he descends into alcoholism and insanity, his sisters escape into their own imaginary worlds.Brontë by Polly Teale is a powerful and evocative exploration of the Brontë sisters’ lives from childhood to death, contrasting their literary genius with the struggles they faced in a time when educated women were expected to be governesses rather than poets.Set against the harsh but beautiful landscape of the Yorkshire moors, the play delves into the passions, isolation, and creativity of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, as they wrestle with their inner demons and societal expectations. As their famous works — Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall — come to life, the boundaries between reality and imagination blur.Join us for an intimate, gripping journey into the minds of three of English literature’s most iconic voices.
Maureen Dowd: I agree, Lydia, about flipping the script on classics. They’ve done this for a long time with monsters. John Gardner’s “Grendel” from 1971, took the “Beowulf” story from the monster’s point of view. “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys took “Jane Eyre” from the point of view of the Creole heiress who married Mr. Rochester and became “the madwoman in the attic.”
Jamaica – Wide Sargasso SeaFor untold storiesFor those sun-baked hours when you want to turn back the clock, Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea is the perfect read. Written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and based on the "mad woman in the attic, Rhys delves into the life of the first Mrs. Rochester. Antoinette Conway’s story unfolds from her youth to her tumultuous marriage to Mr. Rochester. While Brontë’s novel is sharply gothic and cold, Rhys’s version simmers and sweats, set in the sultry heat of 1800s Jamaica. There is nothing idyllic about life on the island and the oppressive glare of the relentless sun is palpable in Rhys’s prose. Wide Sargasso Sea is best savoured with the Caribbean horizon as your backdrop, whether reclining on deck with a cooling breeze or docked at a tropical hideaway. (Milly Robinson)
Ahmed Rasheed MajeedJournal of education for modern specialised studies2024, Volume السابع, Issue السابع, Pages 535-551In the exploration of Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights," this research delves into the contribution of male characters to the intricate relationship between love and revenge depicted in the novel. Heathcliff and Edgar Linton are specifically examined as a case study, focusing on their contrasting qualities. Additionally, an overview of Emily Brontë's life and legacy is presented, emphasizing her significance as one of the foremost and influential authors of the 19th century. By dissecting the tightly woven and meticulously crafted plot of "Wuthering Heights," this analysis endeavours to illuminate the timeless themes and dynamics of characters that render the novel a literary masterpiece. the study yields notable findings regarding the involvement of male characters in "Wuthering Heights," concluding that Heathcliff and Edgar Linton embody distinct traits that shape the narrative and contribute to the interplay of love and revenge within the novel.
⦁ Vintage Leather-bound Books: Classic works by authors like Edgar Allan Poe or Emily Brontë. (Matthew Lynch)
This merciful ethos transformed storytelling in the last half of the 20th century with the retconning of established villains. Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) reimagined Charlotte Brontë’s Bertha Mason as a mistreated, wrongly imprisoned Caribbean heiress instead of the violent adulteress in Jane Eyre. John Gardner’s Grendel (1971) recast the monster of Beowulf as a stymied philosopher. In the years since, nearly every classic villain bent on frustrating the happily ever after of a Snow White, Little Mermaid, or Sleeping Beauty has been reconfigured as a misunderstood victim of prejudice or bad luck. (Paul Marchbanks)
Amy Lowell, Collector
Amy Lowell Room, Floor 2
Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA 02138Through Friday, Dec 13, 2024
This exhibition was curated by Leslie A. Morris, Gore Vidal Curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts.
The Brontës were a lifelong interest for Amy Lowell in her collecting. While visiting London in September 1905, Lowell was gifted this miniature manuscript book written by Charlotte Brontë when she was 13. While all the Brontës wrote stories in a tiny format as children, Lowell did not consider these youthful efforts particularly important; as she explained to the dealer Quaritch when he offered her another: “these books are interest ing as specimens rather than as works; and I do not know that I care to spend the money simply to complete the set.” A similar miniature book sold in 2022 for $1.25 million.
Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855). Blackwoods Young Mens Magazine … Edited by the Genius C.B. Autograph manuscript, 1829. MS Lowell 1 (6). Gift of Thomas J. Wise, 1905. (Source: Houghton Library Instagram)
BOOKS: What did you read after “The White Album”?KENNEDY: Turgenev, Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina,” and all of Jane Austen. I didn’t get along with the Brontë sisters. I enjoyed “Jane Eyre” up until she married Mr. Rochester. Then I was having a laugh. I thought “Wuthering Heights” was nuts and not well written. (Amy Sutherland)
Salvage by Dionne BrandBrand, a Trinidadian-born poet and novelist, wears her erudition lightly in this eloquent and witty book of essayistic meditations on English literary classics, teasing out the ways in which novels from Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair” to Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” conceal within their pages the ravages of British colonialism for its Black and Indigenous subjects.
Fish Tank’s snarling, ungovernable Mia, preyed upon by an older man. Wuthering Heights’ wild Heathcliff and Catherine, flinching from violence and licking open wounds. The feral teens of American Honey, scooped up by an unscrupulous pack leader. If there’s a through line to Andrea Arnold films, it’s how close to the animal kingdom – to some ancient shared DNA – her characters feel. Pushing the conceit further, her last film, the 2021 biographical documentary Cow, was about an actual animal. (Kimberley Jones)
‘Wuthering Heights’ – Kate BushWithin the first 30 pages of Emily Brontë’s masterpiece is one of the most effective pieces of horror fiction of the age. Mild-mannered Mr Lockwood, the novel’s narrator, spends a single night in the titular manor and gets accosted by an apparition of its owner’s true love, begging to be let in through the window as he cowers in mortal terror.The 1967 BBC adaptation of the novel shook an 18-year-old Kate Bush (yes, she wrote this when she was 18) so thoroughly that she wrote a song about it in a matter of hours (yes, she wrote in a few hours). That fateful night, she created one of the genuine touchstones of British pop and made her an icon to weirdos and goths everywhere, much like Emily had done a century before. (Will Howard)
The Stockbridge Amateur Dramatic Society presentsBrontëby PollyTealeStockbridge Town Hall28th, 29th and 30th November 2024.There’s a curious mythology that has grown around the Brontë sisters, one that places them in a world of isolation and innocence. The question is often asked; How could three Victorian spinsters, living in the wilds of the Yorkshire moors, possibly have written some of the greatest literature of the English language? Novels written about passion, betrayal, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, social upheaval, madness and domestic violence.Polly Teale’s play, Brontë, currently being rehearsed by Stockbridge Amateur Dramatics Society, addresses and dispels these myths.Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Branwell were all writers, poets, musicians and artists and they lived in a world beset by great social change. From protests and riots against local mill owners to the poverty, deprivation and disease of their close neighbours and then the personal tragedy of the loss of their mother Maria Branwell, aged 38, and their two older sisters, Maria and Elizabeth aged eleven and ten respectively, they were neither isolated nor innocent of the world.Their father Patrick, a vicar, campaigner, abolitionist and educator, encouraged his children to read everything they could lay their hands on. They read great literary works, newspapers of different political hues and the gossip and intrigue of local magazines. His children took inspiration from the exploits of explorers in far flung lands and the battles of Wellington to create incredibly detailed imaginary worlds written in tiny handmade books.https://www.stockbridgeamdrams.org.uk/bronteThe social dictates of the day meant that Branwell, the only son, was given all the opportunities to become a great poet or artist. Upon his shoulders were placed all the hopes and expectations of his family. Whether he didn’t quite have the talent or perhaps the temperament to succeed in his endeavours, he certainly crumbled under their weight. His disastrous sojourn as the tutor of the family of Thorp Green Hall, near York, was the catalyst for a descent into drug and alcohol abuse. The affair he had been conducting for over a year had been discovered. An affair with the mother of the family; the now infamous older woman, Mrs Robinson (yes, that one).The play Brontë revolves around this period of time in 1845 when Anne, having been governess for the Robinsons for five years, promptly resigns and returns to Haworth; shortly to be followed by her brother. The timeline jumps forward and back to explore the influences, experiences, temperaments and compulsions that enabled these three sisters, constrained by the need to earn a living and look after their ageing father, to still find time to write.We can only imagine what the sisters might have achieved had they been afforded the same advantages of their brother. Charlotte whose talent, ambition and determination to be ‘forever known’ was almost all consuming, Emily whose intensity and passion was inspired by nature and the wild world of the moors and Anne, feminist and social firebrand who saw injustice around her and wanted to make the world a better place.
Her parents, whose marriage she fictionalized in “Act of Will” (1986), supported Barbara’s early desire to write, buying her a typewriter when she was 10 and introducing her to literature, opera and the theater. As a teenager, she read Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Thomas Hardy and the French novelist Colette. (Robert D. McFadden)
Her original manuscripts are archived in Leeds University’s Brotherton Library, beside those of the Brontë sisters, whose books Taylor Bradford read as a child. (Casey Cooper-Fiske)
Literary enthusiasts will find Hathersage particularly enchanting, as it houses North Lees Hall, the inspiration for Charlotte Brontë's 'Jane Eyre'. (Phoebe Cornish and Isobel Pankhurst)
5. West Yorkshire: HaworthHaworth, forever tied to the Brontë sisters, inspired canonical novels like Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The village’s cobbled streets preserve its 19th-century grace while its stone-built houses, often constructed from locally quarried gritstone, give the buildings their distinct earthy hue. The neighbouring South Pennine moors – central to Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights – feature wild moors, which in summer are painted purple and green by blooming heather and bilberry. (Sam Long)
by Huang HongyiWorld Literature Studies, 2024, 12(5): 491-496Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea , which has gained recognition as an exceptional and pivotal text in the fields of postcolonial and feminist literature, is widely regarded as the prequel to Charlotte Brontë's classic novel Jane Eyre . Numerous critics have explored the novel's postcolonial, feminist, modernist, and intertextual aspects, emphasizing its significance in these areas of study. However, comparatively fewer studies have delved into the novel's moral values or ethical ideas, which remain a crucial yet underexplored dimension of the text. This paper, guided by the framework of ethical literary criticism, aims to uncover the ethical ideas and moral values embedded within the novel and, through this lens, to investigate the ethical underpinnings of the heroine Antoinette's tragic fate. The primary focus is on deconstructing Antoinette's complex ethical circumstances, her shifting and multifaceted ethical identities, and the series of conflicting ethical choices she makes under the influence of her ethical consciousness. The analysis reveals that Antoinette's tragic fate is largely the result of a series of passive and impulsive decisions, driven by her emotional sensitivities and shaped by the intricate ethical situations imposed by the colonial, racial, and patriarchal structures of her society. Furthermore, the application of ethical literary criticism in this study offers new perspectives on moral understanding, providing valuable ethical insights into social dynamics and self-improvement, which are not only relevant to the novel's context but also applicable to broader societal concerns.
Who is the Yorkshire person that you most admire?The Brontë Sisters, these three talented sisters writing the classics including Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights still have a huge impact on the literary world. You can really see how the Yorkshire countryside impacted their work.
Charlotte BrontëTranslation and notes by Angelo Narváez LeónPrologue María Sonia CristoffBanda Propia EditorasISBN: 978-956-6088-32-5November 2025En 1847, Charlotte Brontë publica «Jane Eyre» con el seudónimo de Currer Bell. No es la primera vez que utiliza ese nombre masculino. Un año antes, junto a sus hermanas Emily y Anne, prepara una antología de poemas, un libro que en un pacto de anonimato firman como Currer, Ellis y Acton Bell, una performance no declarada que les permite pasar de hermanas a hermanos, de escritoras a escritores. El mito en torno a Charlotte, Emily y Anne, las célebres Brontë, las hijas de un pastor anglicano que en plena Inglaterra victoriana escribieron un conjunto de «bestsellers», comenzó a gestarse en su propio tiempo. ¿Quiénes habían escrito esas novelas que parecían desafiar las reglas literarias de la época? ¿Quiénes eran esas reales autorías procedentes de un pequeño pueblo norteño del campo inglés? Persiguiendo las pistas cotidianas, los hilos que componen la formación silenciosa de una obra ineludible, «Caminar invisible. Cartas sobre Jane Eyre, 1847-1854» recopila las cartas que Charlotte Brontë escribe a William Smith Williams y George Smith, sus editores de Smith, Elder & Co. Reúne las sutiles marcas de un intercambio epistolar que rodea la construcción de un nombre propio y la revelación inesperada de una autoría femenina. Expone las negociaciones y vacilaciones de una escritura que apostó por la defensa de la literatura ante el asedio del espacio público y las valoraciones de la crítica. Un libro que, acompañado de la lectura de María Sonia Cristoff, nos sumerge en las tramas del proyecto literario de Charlotte y sus hermanas, en la fuerza de su literatura, y en las interrogantes sobre la visibilidad autoral y de género a la luz de los esquemas contemporáneos.
After breakfast the next morning in the great hall — where polished concrete work surfaces and pale oak panelling, a clever echo of some of the original wainscoting, wrap around a phalanx of modern appliances — we drive to nearby Keighley and catch a steam train into Brontë country. “We’ve nothing fancy,” the conductor warns us, “if you want a cappuccino you’ll have to try the station café”. But we’re not after fancy, and we settle down happily with KitKats and filter coffee as the train huffs and splutters its way through the October sunshine along the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.Twenty minutes later, we disembark and climb uphill through the pretty village of Haworth, past tea rooms and upmarket tat shops, to the Brontë Parsonage Museum. It was in this grey and forbidding house, overlooking the moors, that the talented Brontë sisters, together with their troubled brother Branwell, grew up — and where Emily Brontë wrote her 1847 masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Brontë fans have long flocked to Haworth but since 2021 — when a Friends of the National Libraries campaign raised £15mn to save the Honresfield library (a remarkable private collection of literary artefacts) for the nation — there has been all the more reason to visit. Among the gems from the hoard now on display here are Brontë diaries and poetry manuscripts, and one of the exquisite miniature books that Charlotte wrote as a child. (Roula Khalaf)
Embsay Kirk, Skipton, with ties to Charlotte Brontë for sale at £1.95m
The owner of a derelict former pub in a Bradford village has been refused permission to appeal against a Council decision to make the building safe and bill him for the cost of emergency repairs.
Mohammed Farid now faces paying the £8,000 that Bradford Council says it cost to remove the roof of the former Springfield Hotel, on Market Street in Thornton, after parts of it collapsed into the street.
He must also pay court costs of £3,440.
The building, on the same street as the birthplace of the Brontë sisters, was deemed “dangerous” by Council staff who took the decision to close the road as an emergency measure and to remove the roof in June 2023. (Tony Earnshaw)
Nestled in the rural embrace of the West Pennine Moors, our property of the week certainly has an air of Wuthering Heights about it. ( Saiqa Chaudhari)
Perhaps the most well known group of literary sisters were the Brontë sisters. Which of these novels was not written by a Brontë sister?
Rebecca
Villette
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heighs.
Cumbres Borrascosas y BrasilCon Rosa Alcaraz recordamos uno de los paisajes que aparece en el gran clásico 'Cumbres Borrascosas', publicado en 1847, año en el que Felix Mendelssohn visitó por última vez Inglaterra (pocos meses antes de morir) para interpretar el cuarto concierto para piano de Beethoven. Descubrimos una novedad discográfica que nos lleva hasta Brasil. Se titula 'Faz tempo' y lo publica el quinteto Alvorada. Con esta música aprovechamos para escuchar a Heitor Villa-Lobos dirigiendo a la Orquesta Nacional de Francia en una grabación histórica. (Translation)
External restoration work, including the windows, roof, and exterior painting, has been successfully completed—something you may have already noticed! Now, we’re three weeks into the sensitive restoration of the house’s interior. Each step has been carefully planned to ensure the heritage of this extraordinary home is preserved for generations to come.Restoration work began in September, and since then, we’ve made significant progress. From repairing key structural elements to carefully restoring historical details, it’s been incredible to see the transformation of this iconic houseRecently, work on the scullery floor revealed a remarkable discovery—a flagstone floor original to the house from the time the Brontës lived at 72-74 Market Street. This exciting find offers a glimpse into the past, with restoration already underway using funds from the ongoing Furnish the Brontë Birthplace Appeal.
Edited by Maria HubertUpdated by Andrew Hubert Von StauferThe History PressISBN:9781803997605November 2024The Brontës' Christmas invites you to step back in time and explore the delights of a Victorian Christmas through the eyes of our most beloved authors.While the Brontë family's celebrations weren't the most exuberant, Victorian society cheerfully embraced the newfound idea of Christmas as a time for feasts, decorations, the exchanging of gifts and parlour games.Through a selection of seasonal recipes, letters, poetry and extracts, The Brontës' Christmas meanders back in time to explore long-forgotten customs, including Vessel Maids and furmenty; the spice cake that Charlotte took around to her husband's parishioners; and childhood games enjoyed by the family.This festive season, curl up and experience a Haworth Christmas.
Sandra Gilbert, a poet and professor of literature who co-wrote a landmark analysis of works by 19th-century female writers, “The Madwoman in the Attic,” which reinterpreted characters and images as symbols of feminist discontent, died Nov. 10 at a hospital in Berkeley, California. She was 87.The death, from obstructive pulmonary disease, was announced by her family.The title of the 1979 book — written with Susan Gubar — refers to the fictional Bertha Mason, who was locked away in an isolated room by her husband in Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel “Jane Eyre.” In the end, Bertha Mason sets fire to the home and leaps to her death from the roof.To Dr. Gilbert and Gubar, the tormented life of Bertha represented Brontë’s anguish at the limitations English society placed on women at the time. The two scholars saw similar strains of rebellion in novels by other prominent female writers: Jane Austen attacking conformity with the opiniated and headstrong character Mary Crawford in “Mansfield Park” (1814) and Mary Shelley using “Frankenstein” (1818) as an indictment of a male desire to control nature.“The Madwoman in the Attic” argued that the female authors of the era, including Emily Brontë, the pen-named George Eliot and others, used their characters and descriptions as proxies for defiant feminist messages. Their books, Dr. Gilbert and Gubar concluded, comprised a distinct canon of literature separate from their male contemporaries.Almost immediately, “The Madwoman in the Attic” was widely hailed as a masterwork in literary criticism and became essential reading in feminist scholarship.Maureen Corrigan, the book critic for NPR’s “Fresh Air,” described her “thrilling” discovery of “The Madwoman in the Attic” when she was in graduate school in the early 1980s. “As though you’d been introduced to a secret code in women’s literature, hiding in plain sight,” Corrigan wrote in a 2013 essay for NPR.“The madwoman in literature by women is not merely, as she might be in male literature, an antagonist or foil to the heroine,” wrote Dr. Gilbert and Gubar. “Rather she is usually in some sense the author’s double, an image of her own anxiety and rage.”While “The Madwoman in the Attic” remained a cornerstone of feminist studies, other reviewers saw such shortcomings as Dr. Gilbert and Gubar not fully exploring racism and colonial-era discrimination — particularly the depiction of Bertha Mason as a “creole” from the Caribbean, suggesting a mixed-race background.Dr. Gilbert and Gubar met as professors at Indiana University while riding an elevator in 1973. They put together a syllabus for a joint course the next year on women and literature, seeking common themes from writers ranging from Austen to the 20th-century poetry and prose of Sylvia Plath.Part of the course became the foundation for the 700-page “Madwoman in the Attic.” “It’s incredible to me now that we wrote that big a book so fast,” Dr. Gilbert recalled. “We were ourselves on fire.” (Brian Murphy)
Cuts are culled from witch-themed films such as Häxan (1922), Witchfinder General (1968), Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Witch (2015); Sankey also weaves in bits from Girl, Interrupted (1999), The Snake Pit (1948) and Jane Eyre (1943) that touch on the themes of mental health. All in all, this is a powerful example of a bricolage-like editing technique that relies heavily on exploiting the copyright laws around fair use to create a prismatic, provocative style of cinema that’s very 21st century. (Leslie Felperin)
In 1845 Charlotte Brontë spent three weeks staying with a friend at Hathersage Rectory. It’s widely thought that the characters, stories and brooding Dark Peak landscapes she encountered during her visit inspired her to write Jane Eyre. The George, where we had based ourselves, was a busy coaching inn back in Brontë’s days, and she borrowed the landlord’s name for the fictional village of Morton.Leaving Hathersage on a bright, cold morning, we walked past grand houses in sombre shades of local gritstone. This coarse-grained sandstone has been used for centuries to make millstones for grinding grain, wood pulp and tools, and many hefty wheels still dot the moors. A pleasant, gravelly trail led through pastures above the wooded valley of Hood Brook, the canopy a delicious riot of green, gold, crimson and russet. “It was a fine autumn morning,” Brontë wrote, “the early sun shone serenely on embrowned groves and still green fields.” Hidden in trees to our left, the towering chimneys of Brookfield Hall inspired Jane Eyre’s Vale Hall. Further on, past the peaceful, national park-run campsite, North Lees Hall, built in the 1590s by Robert Eyre, became Thornfield, home of Mr Rochester. (Jen and Sim Benson)
Edited by Raffaella Antinucci and Adrian GrafeForeword by Phillip MalletMcFarland Books2024pISBN: 978-1-4766-9318-7eISBN: 978-1-4766-5409-6The nineteenth-century was a time of accelerated change and stark contradictions. It was marked by stability, advancement and reform, but also by widening inequalities, spiritual crisis and social unrest. Identity and gender came under pressure, religious belief was called into question, and the condition of wo
men and children seemed to belie the much-vaunted idea of progress.Essays in this book explore how these contradictions and concerns are reflected in nineteenth-century literature. In discussing historical figures, characters and plots that are variously vulnerable and/or resilient, the essays reflect the breadth of nineteenth-century literature, from realist and sensational fiction to autobiography and poetry. Besides providing insights into the transfigurative role writing played, both as a means to express vulnerability and as a resilience process, the essays also foster further reflection on two timeless dimensions of the human condition.
As news broke last month of a new Chair at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, the 25-year-old appointee Lucy Powrie—touted as the youngest in its history—said public reactions had been positive, but she assumed not reactions would be so kind in private.“I started to realise that there will be people who look at me and think I’ve been appointed because I’m young,” Powrie told Advisor.The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. Powrie’s journey to becoming Chair began more than a decade ago when, as a teenager, she began recording videos for YouTube.Among the books she read and shared with her growing audience was the Brontë back catalogue. The love of these books blossomed, leading her to join the Brontë Parsonage Society, which runs the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire.Powrie went on to become the Society’s Young Ambassador in 2018, having sent an email to the museum’s comms and marketing lead (and now Director, Rebecca Yorke) explaining her interest in the Brontë and the growing audience of fans.She has since run a Brontë bookclub on YouTube, held in-person events at the museum, and became “an advocate for young people visiting the museum”, which she said was a “dream come true”.Last year Powrie became a trustee of the Society’s board. More recently, as the Society’s former Chair Julian Sladdin stepped down, an opportunity arose to lead the board.“You don’t see many young people as Trustees, or Chair, Vice Chair”, Powrie said.One of the concerns about stepping up to the role of Chair was “maybe I don’t know everything about a specific area”, she explained.“I was aware of the barriers and I just decided I would step over them,” she explained; “it wasn’t like I had designs to climb up [the leadership ladder], but it was something I had to think very carefully about and just go for”.“The biggest barrier to young people finding leading positions in museums is imposter syndrome. For a lot of young people, it wouldn’t occur that you could be on a board or could be involved, boards typically skew older.“There’s also an assumption in welcoming young people onto a board that you have to alienate other demographics, which I don’t think is true.“The point of a board is not that you are one person standing alone. It’s multiple people with a different background and experience all collaborating and providing feedback.”Despite Powrie’s social media following, which runs into the tens of thousands, she does not consider herself an ‘influencer’; not least because she has since established herself as an author in her own right, publishing a series of Young Adult Fiction novels.“I don’t try to influence people to read, I just want people to follow along and share their lives reading as well”, she said.“As a teenager when I visited the museum it was so great, because I walked through the doors and there were people exactly like me, and my age, who loved the Brontës. I’d never seen that anywhere,” she said.Powrie said her approach to creating a following online has been centred around building community and sharing experiences. Her approach as Chair will be much the same.“People are always looking for [community], and they are so passionate about the Brontës. They want to talk about them, they want to share their opinions and theories. We’re talking about women who were born two hundred years ago but feel so relevant.”
Romance novels have a long history in Western culture. From Ovid’s Ars Amatoria to Samuel Richardson’s Georgian Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, to the Gothic sagas of the Brontë sisters and the Victorian social romance of Jane Austen, the genre has shape-shifted along with society. (Melanie Kembrey)
It’s not yet clear who else will be filling out the predictably starry ensemble (personally, I hope Carey Mulligan makes an appearance again, as she has in Fennell’s past two hits, in some bonkers and unexpected role), though we do know that Fennell will be writing and producing as well as directing, and that the film is already in pre-production ahead of a UK-based shoot in 2025. So, I say to my fellow Brontë obsessives: this is not a drill. It’s time to blast Kate Bush and dig out your own battered copy of this literary classic once again. (Radhika Seth)
Hong Chau (The Instigators), Alison Oliver (Saltburn), and Shazad Latif (Magpie, Star Trek: Discovery) have landed the three remaining major roles in Academy Award winner Emerald Fennell’s buzzy Wuthering Heights adaptation for Warner Bros, MRC, and LuckyChap.Sources tell us Chau is playing Nelly Dean, the film’s chief narrator, with Oliver as Isabella Linton. Shazad plays Edgar Linton, a wealthy, aristocratic man who marries Catherine Earnshaw (Margot Robbie). The actors come to the project after Warner Bros snapping it up in a fierce bidding war, with a commitment to a theatrical run with a big P&A spend. As previously announced, LuckyChap’s Robbie and Euphoria‘s Jacob Elordi lead the cast. (Matt Grobar)
A historic property that has Brontë connections goes under the hammer next month – with a £650,000-plus guide price.Kirklees Council is selling the Grade II*-listed former Red House Museum, at Gomersal.Dating back to 1660, the house and grounds are associated with Luddite activities and the Taylor family, particularly Mary, a radical feminist and friend of Charlotte Brontë.Charlotte was a regular guest at the property in the 1830s and gave it a starring role as Briarmains in her novel, Shirley.Bought by Spenborough Council in 1969, the building served as a museum from the early 1970s until it was closed to the public in 2016.The property was then earmarked for a wedding venue and holiday accommodation, but the plan fell through.Kirklees Council announced last year it was looking to dispose of several assets when it was facing a £47m budget deficit, and was hoping to bring in a minimum of £4 million from the various sales.Bought by Spenborough Council in 1969, the building served as a museum from the early 1970s until it was closed to the public in 2016.The property was then earmarked for a wedding venue and holiday accommodation, but the plan fell through.Kirklees Council announced last year it was looking to dispose of several assets when it was facing a £47m budget deficit, and was hoping to bring in a minimum of £4 million from the various sales.“It would make an outstanding family home, as it must have been for generations of the Taylor family, and contains some really exceptional original features, including stained glass windows in the dining room that are described by Charlotte Brontë in Shirley.”He added: “Not surprisingly we have had a great deal of interest from would-be buyers.”Charitable organisation Red House Yorkshire Heritage Trust was formed in November 2019 in the hope of saving the Red House site and its buildings so they could benefit the local community.
Adapted by Chris Bush, based on the novel by Charlotte BrontëDirected by Lucy BettsThe Barn Theatre, Rose Bruford College 21, 22 & 23 November 2024Orphaned, neglected and beaten, Jane Eyre finds a place as governess to Mr Rochester’s ward at Thornfield Hall. She feels she belongs there, a home at last. But there are secrets and noises in the night and Mr Rochester is not all he seems.
Finally, it wouldn’t be a critique of BookTok if we didn’t address the copious thrillers. So as I close out this piece, I’ll leave us with the over-hyped recent thriller trilogy, “The Housemaid” by Freida McFadden.McFadden permeates the subgenre, especially with this novel that narrates ex-criminal Millie’s new job as a housemaid for a wickedly wealthy couple with secrets of their own. And while I didn’t mind “The Housemaid” for all its twists and turns, I can’t help but feel like “the madwoman in the attic” is one of the most overused paradigms.If you’re seeking that supernatural eeriness, you’ll find it in the origin of the trope, “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë. Mysterious voices in the attic, disturbing ghostly movements, female hysteria. Other classics like “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier or “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys, and even contemporary tales like “The Wife Upstairs” by Rachel Hawkins found inspiration from Brontë’s brilliant gothic story. (Kaylee Monahan)
Her work sold in America, receiving praise in the New York Times, which wrote: "With the publication of Precious Bane, a substantial readership came to respect Mary Webb’s quiet genius; and it is for this country classic that she has been remembered ever since.It added: "When she died at the age of 46, literature lost a voice that promised to speak for Shropshire as poignantly as Thomas Hardy had spoken for Wessex and Emily Bronte for Yorkshire." (Joanne Writtle)
Published in 1979, "The Madwoman in the Attic" was more than a scholarly text—it was a radical reinterpretation of female literary expression. Gilbert and Gubar introduced a revolutionary lens through which to view women writers, particularly those of the 19th century like Charlotte and Emily Brontë. They argued that the seemingly "mad" or rebellious female characters in these works were not mere plot devices, but powerful proxies for the authors' own suppressed rage and rebellion against patriarchal constraints.
In their landmark analysis, Gilbert and Gubar saw Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" as a quintessential example of this narrative strategy. Bertha Mason, the infamous "madwoman" locked in the attic, was not just a plot obstacle, but a complex symbolic representation of the protagonist's own thwarted desires and social frustrations. This character became a metaphorical embodiment of the creative and emotional restrictions imposed on women during the Victorian era.
The madwomen and harridans of Brontë, Austen and others were proxies for the authors’ own rage and rebellion, Ms. Gilbert and Ms. Gubar declared. So, too, was Shelley’s “Frankenstein”: her monster, herself. (..)
The book became a feminist blockbuster, joining second-wave feminist classics like Kate Millet’s “Sexual Politics” (1970) and Elaine Showalter’s “A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing” (1977), which traced the legacy of gender discrimination in the arts. (...They thought of calling their course Upstairs, Downstairs, but settled on The Madwoman in the Attic, in homage to the madwoman who haunts Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” otherwise known as the first Mrs. Rochester. The patterns that began to emerge as they taught those works — what they described as a distinct feminine imagination and literary tradition — were thrilling to them. (Penelope Green)
In many articles about students’ reading abilities, there is an overemphasis on students’ disengagement from canonical texts — those traditionally deemed “classics” that all students should read. Works such as “Wuthering Heights,” “Jane Eyre,” “The Iliad,” “Great Expectations” and “Pride and Prejudice” are often heralded as crucial for understanding the human condition and appreciating humanity’s greatest achievements. While these texts can offer valuable insights, they predominately feature white authors and white protagonists, suggesting that only certain humans are worthy of appreciation.When the canon is prioritized, contemporary, diverse and young adult literature, especially works by and about minoritized people, are often overlooked. By emphasizing a narrow selection of texts, we can alienate students who might connect more deeply with stories that reflect their own experiences. By spotlighting white-centric literature from centuries ago, we risk making reading feel irrelevant to students’ lives, further diminishing their motivation to read. (Stephanie R. Toliver)
In her most well-known novel “Wide Sargasso Sea” — the aforementioned prequel to “Jane Eyre” — follows the madwoman of Rochester’s attic before madness. Or, more accurately, the novel closely follows her into madness. A series of tragedies and horrors are lodged into the psyche of Antoinette Cosway since childhood: the prolonged threat of violence against her family, the deterioration of her mother and then a mob’s burning of her home and a brush with death, prevented only by a superstitious sign (a parrot burning to death). Later, living in an abbey, Cosway confesses to a nun “I had a dream I was in hell.” And recalling the image of her worn mother being taken away to an insane asylum, she begins to cry, asking “why, why must such terrible things happen?” The nun offers no consolation, telling her only to “put that dream out of [her] mind” before sadly concluding “we cannot know why the devil must have his little day. (Grant Yoon)
A screening of Jane Eyre will take place at St Thomas’s Church in Goring next Thursday at 10.30am.The romantic drama is based on the 1847 book by Charlotte Brontë where Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowksa) finds her true love in Edward Rochester (Michael Fassbender), the owner of an old mansion. However, Edward has a dark secret which will destroy Jane’s life forever. (Henley Standard)
ARTICLES
Welcome by Sharon Wright, Editor.
Letter from the Chair. Julian Sladdin. Chair of the Brontë Society Board of Trustees.Excloosive. Wot a relief, say Brontë fans by Sharon WrightWhat's in a name? by Sharon WrightWritten in ink and tears by Jenna Gray'a ghoul or a vampire' by Elysia BrownClose-up on the Collection: Friends and neighbour by Ann Dinsdale
June Jolly by Miriam Halahmy
The cash, the lies and 'that woman' by Andrew StodolnyMembership Matters: Welcome / Brontë Society Membership Survey 2024 / Young Brontë Friends / Staying Paperless for the Brontë Society AGM / Stay in Touch / Farewell from me! by Nick Jones, Development OfficerThe Brontë Bookshelf: How would we tell the Brontë story had it never involved Elizabeth Gaskell? by Graham WatsonDirector's Diary by Rebecca Yorke. Director Brontë Society and Brontë Parsonage Museum
La gallega Lucía Lago debuta en la ficción con una novela de misterio, romance y meigas. Con una prosa cuidada y una atmósfera que recuerda a las hermanas Brontë, la escritora nos lleva de viaje por leyendas y escenarios de la costa gallega. (Lara Capelo) (Translation)
Analyzing Character Images in Jane Eyre from the Perspective of Feminism.
Jiaqi Ma,
Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2024) Vol. 7: 84-90Charlotte Brontë is one of the greatest realist female writer in the history of 19th century English literature, as well as Jane Eyre is her famous representative work. Through the perspective of feminism, the article analyzes in depth the characters of Jane Eyre, Rochester, and other female characters, such as Helen Burns and Bertha Mason. The paper also vividly demonstrates the profound influence of feminism on the roles of males and females in the Victorian Era. Jane Eyre explores the ideas of British women's consciousness of equality, independence and their courageous pursuit of love.
Haworth is probably the most cosmopolitan place in Yorkshire – between about 9am and 9pm.The works of sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë have been translated into 60-plus languages and have enchanted readers around the world. That’s not bad for three odd Yorkshire lasses who wrote these now classic novels to amuse themselves as they waited for the internet to be invented.Logically, fans of Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall visit the sisters’ locale to swallow the landscape and village that inspired them. Even outside peak season you can hear conversations in a wide range of foreign languages as well as non -British English. (...)But now there’s another kind of international tourist in Haworth. I ask a couple of young Chinese students on Haworth’s Main Street if they like the Brontës. They look at me puzzled.Following a very short and awkward conversation I realise they’re not here as Brontë fans. In fact, I’m not sure they had hitherto heard of the Brontës.I ascertain they’re from one of the Leeds universities and they’ve come to Haworth because they’ve seen photos of it on social media. I find this odd but apparently it’s pretty common among Generation Z.And as long as they’re spending money and not peeing in people’s doorways and making a din, who cares? (David Himelfield)
The British writer-director Andrea Arnold has worked in American episodic TV (“Transparent,” “I Love Dick,” the entire second season of “Big Little Lies”), and she made a 2011 version of “Wuthering Heights” that’s as stark and storm-tossed as a night on the moors. (Ty Burr)
And at the frillier end of cultural representations of men, the likes of Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights depend more on their ability to smoulder a lady to a crisp with a glance than on their emotional articulacy. (Catherine Bray)
Un dels seus llibres predilectes és Cumbres Borrascosas, una obra que esmenta amb freqüència com la seva favorite. (Dani Serrano) (Transaltion)
This very limited Australian season will mark the commencement of a South East Asian Tour for the production which will see the British company including many of the original London cast members returning to their roles.The lead roles of Heathcliff and Catherine will be played by John Leader and Stephanie Hockley respectively. Sam Archer plays Lockwood/Edgar Linton, Rebecca Collingwood Isabella Linton/Linton Heathcliff, Matthew Churcher as Hindley Earnshaw/Hareton Earnshaw, and Nandi Bhebhe in the role of Leader of the Moors. (...)“How exciting to be bringing our beloved Wuthering Heights to Sydney! Following in the footsteps of my productions of Tristan & Yseult, The Red Shoes and Brief Encounter, I hope Wuthering Heights will capture the heart of Sydney, just as Sydney has captured mine. Prepare for all the drama, humour and hope that you could wish for – I can’t wait to be down under again,” said Emma Rice.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, 1847Is it just us or is this book moving enough to make you run out of the house during a downpour and into your nearest park wearing an impractical long dress? This list wouldn’t be complete without paying homage to Cathy and Heathcliffe, whose impassioned souls roam over the Yorkshire Moors. A tale where the wild heath, the imposing house and the thrashing elements are famously ‘main character energy’. It would only be right to read this while welcoming in the start of a classic British winter. (Sophia Haddad)
Instead of her usual originality, Levy spends a lot of time reflecting on other people’s reflections. We get Levy’s take on Simone de Beauvoir’s take on Violette Leduc. Levy’s take on Elizabeth Hardwick’s take on the Brontë sisters. It’s all a bit meta. (Ceci Browning)
Yorkshire Bylines talks about how The Boggarts – a group of some of the country’s top writers – are crowdfunding to produce an anthology of poetry and prose about bogs:
Give Peat A Chance will be an anthology of prose and poetry by some of the country’s top writers including Amy Liptrot, Alys Fowler, Pascale Petit, David Morley and Rob McFarlane. It aims to create connection and understanding around peatland landscapes like Walshaw Moor, which looms above Howarth (sic), Hebden Bridge and Hardcastle Crags.
Widely thought to be the original Wuthering Heights, it’s a site of special scientific interest and it’s also a bone of contention currently with a proposal to build one of the UK’s largest wind farms attracting a passionate local debate. (Jimmy Andrex)
The 2009 miniseries Wuthering Heights is one of many adaptations of the classic 1847 novel by Emily Brontë. Hardy plays the leading role of Heathcliff, who is raised by the wealthy Earnshaw family. Later in life, he launches a vendetta against them. Heathcliff also falls in love with Cathy, and their romance becomes a danger for everybody around them. Charlotte Riley plays Cathy, Hardy’s now real-life wife, so it’s no surprise that the pair have very believable chemistry. (Alyssa De Leo)
6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëGoverness Jane has overcome a troubled childhood to work for Mr. Rochester.As their mutual attraction spikes, Jane wonders about the secrets he’s hiding at Thornfield Hill.The novel is known for being not only one of the best romantic books but one of the greatest novels of all time. (Alycia McNamara)
Duván’s style combines dreamlike imagery with striking textures and tones, inviting viewers into a reflective and emotional experience. Now based in Besalú, Spain, since 1998, he has showcased his work internationally, fostering a dialogue between diverse cultures and art forms. His initiatives, such as founding the Museum of Art of Armenia and Quindío (MAQUI), further highlight his commitment to the artistic community and cultural preservation.
The painting will be part of the exhibition /Rojo Duván/ at the Chantier Art Gallery (Manuel de Falla 36, Barcelona, Spain) from November 21 until January 10, 2025
A date has been set for when a Grade II* listed former museum with Brontë connections will be auctioned off.Kirklees Council said the Red House, a Georgian mansion in Gomersal, would be listed for sale with Pugh Auctions on 3 December, with a guide price of over £650,000.The property, which was once the home of Charlotte Brontë’s friend Mary Taylor, was previously a museum which closed in 2016 and a plan to turn it into holiday accommodation and wedding venue fell through.Kirklees Council announced it would dispose of several assets to address a £47m deficit last year. The Red House Yorkshire Heritage Trust, formed to try and save the site in 2019, said they were "profoundly saddened" by the decision to sell it.A statement on their Facebook page said they had worked with Communities Together to put forward a bid to purchase the house and gardens with a view to restoring community access, but the council did not accept it."As a result, Red House will now be sold by auction," the group said.“We are profoundly saddened by this outcome and fully understand and share the community’s strong disapproval of the council’s decision.”According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Graham Turner, the council's cabinet member for finance and regeneration, said: "As this building is now surplus to the council’s requirements, it could generate crucial capital funding to help us deliver a better future for Kirklees.”Mary Taylor's family lived at the Red House and she met Charlotte Brontë at Roe Head School in Mirfield and maintained a lifelong friendship with the writer. (Abigail Marlow)
We’re on Main Street in Haworth, a few miles from Keighley. This steep, cobbled thoroughfare was the stomping ground – or in the case of Branwell, staggering ground – of the legendary Brontë family.The literary connection attracts thousands of international visitors to this Pennine high street lined with bookshops, cafes and gift shops. On a crisp but sunny Wednesday, the majority of visitors are British but you can hear the odd conversation in a foreign language.And yet Main Street is a working street with a surprisingly large number of long-established residents. It’s not all holiday rentals after all.Claire and her husband Barry have run Hawksbys, a gallery and craft shop near the top of Main Street, for 23 years. Because of Main Street’s persistent popularity the couple work seven days a week with only sporadic breaks.“When you go out of the village you get a lot of perspective. You realise how beautiful it is. You get that ‘homecoming’ feeling,” says Claire, 43.“You look down the street and you think, how many people have that view?...and it’s so atmospheric.”I ask Claire if she’s a Brontë fan because one shouldn’t assume everyone on Main Street is. “I prefer Jane Austin [sic],” she says and laughs.Down the hill with slightly less of a view is a woman we’ll call Janice. Janice (she doesn’t want to give her real name) is more openly ambivalent.“It’s lovely,” she says before adding cautiously, “I just wish the tourists would be a bit more respectful.” [...]Janice finds some of the international tourists amusing, especially those from parts of the US where a 100-year-old building is considered ‘ancient’.“They think our houses are [film] sets or fascias. They don’t realise they are real houses,” she says.And while Janice doesn’t necessarily love Haworth’s visitors, she has a soft spot for Japanese visitors. The Bronte canon is immensely popular in Japan to the extent signs to the Brontë Waterfall and Top Withens are in Japanese.“You can be shamed by the Japanese tourists; the amount they know about it,” says Janice. (David Himelfield)
Tell us about your new book, Charlotte. Where did the idea come from?The novel is about memory, family secrets and the power of objects. It tells of Charlotte Brontë’s brief marriage to Irishman Arthur Nicholls through the voice of his second wife, Mary. The idea sprang from my interest in the Brontë sisters and their work – they wrote women characters with emotional depth who were independent and resourceful, like themselves. I’ve visited Haworth several times and the museum in the parsonage where they lived is a little jewel.What do you hope this book instils in the reader?For people to realise that Ireland exerted a stronger pull on Charlotte Brontë’s imagination than has necessarily been acknowledged. And that although the Brontës are regarded as jewels in England’s literary canon, they had an important Irish connection which fed into their work. Their father, Patrick, was Irish and fired his children’s imaginations with stories, books and newspapers.What did you learn when writing this book?That in marrying Arthur, Charlotte was reaching out to life and hope. We have a view of the Brontës as doomed, tragic figures but Charlotte was happy with Arthur during their nine months of married life; also, the sisters’ letters show them to be creative, loyal, resilient, witty and sharp observers. They were proto feminists in an era where women were more or less the property of a father or husband. (Sarah Gill)
It’s a story that echoes the power of writing theme Connolly explored in his Lost Things series and, despite a second visit involving Emily Brontë’s Cathy feeling slightly rushed, a worthy addition to his impressive oeuvre. (Pat Carty)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, The Awakening by Kate ChopinI read them quite early on in the album process, and it’s only now I’ve thought about them again. I hadn’t really been exposed through education to feminism. I was in a relationship that wasn’t balanced, and these books showed me women that were fighting for that balance and fighting to be equal. I read them, and they stuck with me. And then I went on with my life. Looking back on those books, what they were about, why they made me feel certain things – it’s so much of the character traits that I really was too afraid to embody myself. When I came to the end of the record and I had finally learned to embody these characteristics, like dignity, independence, sticking to your moral compass despite what society wants, equality in a relationship. Especially with Jane Eyre, she wanted to be seen as an equal and didn’t want to sacrifice her own values. All of these qualities were things I had to learn in the making of this record. And now that I’m finally getting there with those qualities, these books have popped up again in my head. (Konstantinos Pappis)
Helen Mirren once said ‘All you have to do is look like crap on film and everyone thinks you’re a brilliant actress. Actually, all you’ve done is look like crap’. It’s a bold statement, the kind you can only expect from a seasoned professional who’s been around the image-conscious Hollywood block a few times. But although Mirren is nearly eighty, her proclamation is no less resonant nowadays than it was during her days as a young actress. [...]A BBC article hyperbolically entitled ’Wuthering Heights: Hollywood’s worst casting decisions’ (surely that title belongs to James Corden in Cats?) begins with a summary of the novel that reads like a thirteen-year-old’s panicked last-minute copy-and-paste from Wikipedia: ‘Catherine is a teenager who lives on a farm in England in the late-1700s. Heathcliff is a dark-skinned foundling of the same age’. The treatment of Heathcliff’s race as his defining feature in the second sentence comes across as somewhat problematic, and what the rest of this article impeccably (if inadvertently) encapsulates is the problem with movie releases in the Internet epoch, when social media vultures seize on a singular piece of casting information like a freshly killed impala and tear it apart with frightening zeal — without actually having seen the film. The professed motivation behind the freshest feast is that Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie are considered too polished and beautiful to play Emily Brontë’s tortured, gurning, windswept youths. The author expresses this by describing them as ‘impossibly good-looking’, but then fumbles around for something to back up this superficial argument, going on tangents about so-called ‘iPhone face’ (a phenomenon whereby certain actors’ faces look too modern or ‘Instagrammable’ for period dramas) and Heathcliff’s ethnicity (equating the absence of a black actor in the ambiguous role of a traveller to Laurence Olivier playing Othello in blackface). But the beauty argument is an empty critique, as it is patently untrue that glamorous actors cannot play dishevelled or unattractive characters. Were that the case, millions of hair and makeup artists would be out of work. (Daisy Simpson)
