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| An edition of Charlotte's juvenilia with her copy of William Finden's The Maid of Saragoza from Finden’s Landscape and Portrait Illustrations of Lord Byron’s Life and Works. |
If you like poetry let it be first rate, Milton, Shakespeare, Thomson, Goldsmith Pope (if you will though I don't admire him) Scott, Byron, Camp[b]ell, Wordsworth and Southey Now Ellen don't be startled at the names of Shakespeare, and Byron. Both these were great Men and their works are like themselves, You will know how to chuse the good and avoid the evil, the finest passages are always the purest, the bad are invariably revolting you will never wish to read them over twice, Omit the Comedies of Shakespeare and the Don Juan, perhaps the Cain of Byron though the latter is a magnificent Poem and read the rest fearlessly
All too soon he would be dead, leaving behind brokenhearted friends and lovers but also a new literary archetype: the proud, moodily introspective and sexually magnetic Byronic hero, half Apollo, half Satan. Examples range from Alexandre Dumas’s dark avenger, the Count of Monte Cristo, and Emily Bronte’s tempestuous Heathcliff to the myriad bad boys and brooding heroes of modern romance novels. (Michael Dirda)
After five years in Bude, Cornwall, Rhys moved to Cheriton Fitzpaine in 1960, and it was there that she returned to the public eye as a writer, most notably with Wild [sic] Sargasso Sea. Written as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Wild [sic] Sargasso Sea imagines the background to Mr Rochester's marriage from the point of view of his wife, later the 'madwoman in the attic'.The book won the WH Smith Literary Award in 1967, and has grown in reputation ever since, including being named by Time as one of the '100 best English-language novels since 1923. It was included on the 'Big Jubilee Read' list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected in 2022 to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
This weekend in Brussels, the Brussels Brontë Group April Weekend is held:
Talks
Saturday 20 April 2024 (morning)Université Saint-Louis, Rue du Marais 119, Brussels.10.00 Talk by Valerie Sanders: ‘The Brontës go to Woolworth’s: clothes and shopping in the Bronte novels’
The title of this talk is taken from Rachel Ferguson’s 1931 novel of the same name, in which the characters do indeed imagine what Charlotte and Emily might buy in the famous cut-price store. Professor Sanders will explore the themes of clothes and shopping, both in Charlotte Brontë’s letters and in her novels: not just the famous pink dress in Villette and Mr Rochester’s lavish shopping for Jane Eyre’s trousseau, but also Caroline Helstone’s attempts to refine Hortense Moore’s dress, and Charlotte’s own resistance to wedding dress advice.
Professor Valerie Sanders is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Hull in Yorkshire, the city where she was born and educated. She is a return speaker, having given us a talk in 2011. Specializing in nineteenth-century life writing, including studies of fatherhood and sibling relationships, her research interests include Charlotte Brontë’s friend Harriet Martineau and the novelist Margaret Oliphant, of whom she has written a biography. Recently she contributed to the volume of essays ‘Charlotte Brontë, Embodiment and the Material World’. She is currently a Trustee of the Brontë Society.
11.30 Talk by Octavia Cox: ‘Anne Brontë and the Sea’
‘The sea was my delight … It was delightful to me at all times and seasons, but especially in the wild commotion of a rough sea-breeze, and in the brilliant freshness of a summer morning … Refreshed, delighted, invigorated, I walked along, forgetting all my cares, feeling as if I had wings to my feet…’ (Agnes Grey)
Anne Brontë loved Scarborough, which was then a luxurious seaside spa resort; it was there to which she travelled in her final days, and there where she is buried. It has been said that that what the moors were to Emily the sea was to Anne: a soul-enlivening physical space, and an inspiring imaginative one. The sea and seaside feature importantly in Anne’s two novels, Agnes Grey (as we can see from the beautiful quotation above) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, as well as in her poetry. In this talk, Dr Octavia Cox will explore the symbolism of Anne’s sea imagery as a key element in her works.
Octavia Cox is a lecturer at Keble College, University of Oxford. She teaches courses for the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education on the Brontës, Jane Austen and other nineteenth-century writers including George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Trollope, Dickens and Hardy. Her first monograph, Alexander Pope in the Romantic Age, is due to be published soon and she is also researching a book on how Jane Austen plays with, challenges, and subverts genre conventions within her fiction.
Guided walk
Sunday 21 April 2024
10.00-12.00. Guided walk around Brontë places in Brussels in the Place Royale area. Registration essential.
The mad have long haunted the borderlands of our fiction. Consider the attic-bound wife in “Jane Eyre,” the deluded ranters of Dostoevsky and Gogol, or all of Kleist’s lunatics, driven crazy by their dogged adherence to absurd principles. These figures can be comic or tragic, jesters or men who have fooled themselves into believing they’re the kings. All destabilize the reality of a narrative, injecting a dangerous dose of irrationality into circumstances otherwise defined by decorum and rigorous self-interest. (Robert Rubsam)
After mentioning the brief yet tragic life of Shakespeare's fictional sister, Woolf proceeds to delve into the experiences of women writers throughout English history, extending beyond Shakespeare's era. I was delighted and filled with anticipation upon encountering familiar names such as Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, and George Eliot — writers whose works I had read during my teenage years and later delved into during my university studies. (Lee Nan-hee)
A place in Yorkshire that makes you smile?Haworth. I have always loved that quirky little village, especially after Christmas when it was quiet and foggy. I used to skive off work and drive there and wish I lived there. So in my mid-twenties, I upped sticks and moved there, hoping to be bitten by a Brontë muse. Living a village life informed my writing so much and I met so many wonderful people and had very happy times. I was married there and had my children. Whenever I go back, I visualise myself riding a horse on Sunday morning hacks through the heather on the moors and at the time it felt as close to heaven as I was ever going to get. [...]A Yorkshire view that inspires?I’m back in Haworth for this one. The ruins of Top Withens sent shivers down my spine when I first saw it and for anyone who is a fan of the Brontës, it is impossible not to believe you are staring at the ruins of Wuthering Heights which inspired such a powerful piece of writing. I think that Brontë muse bit me after all. (Kathryn Armstrong)
organized by the Banagher Brontë GroupApril 19-21April 19, 7.00pmBack Lounge of Corrigan’s Corner PubAn Evening with Charlotte Brontë devised specifically for the Banagher Brontë Group by Michael and Christine O’Dowd
April 20Crank House11.00 am Falling in Love with Arthur by Joanne Wilcocks12.00pm Currer Bell's Silent Years 1852-1855 by Pauline Clooney2.30 pm The Art of Branwell Brontë by Maebh O’ReganThe Early Days of the B.B.G. short film by created by Maebh and Seanie O’ReganApril 2111.00am Walk from Saint Paul’s Church on the Hill to Cuba to look at the remains of the Royal School of BanagherNicola Daly’s guest house, Charlotte’s Way
12.30pm Coffee and Tea.The Banagher Brontë Group so far by James Scully.
Get a first look at Alley Theatre's production Jane Eyre in all-new video. Directed by Eleanor Holdridge (Ken Ludwig's Lend Me A Soprano), this timeless tale of love, resilience, and self-discovery comes to life in Elizabeth Williamson's stage adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's classic novel.The cast of Jane Eyre includes Alley's Resident Acting Company members Chris Hutchison as Edward Fairfax Rochester, Melissa Molano as Jane Eyre, Melissa Pritchett as Grace Poole/ Mary Ingram/ Bessie, and Todd Waite as John/ Colonel Dent/ Mr Carter/ Mr Wood. (Joshua Wright)
RD: How has your own writing been inspired by the rich literary heritage of the north? Do you have a particular favourite northern author?JH: I live close to Haworth, and I’ve always been an admirer of the Brontë sisters, especially Emily: her intense connection with the landscape, her fearless subversion of tradition, her uncanny perception.I first read Wuthering Heights when I was 15, and have re-read it every five years or so since, rediscovering it anew at different stages of life experience.
Wuthering HeightsBy Charlotte Brontë [sic]If you like a slow burn, this is for you. Set in the moors of England, this chilly, wondrous atmosphere is warmly lit by the affection of two children- one that spans into the rest of their lives. Set in the early 1800s, the protagonists Catherine and Heathcliff face social, religious and racial persecution that drives them apart. Wuthering Heights is regarded as one of the pillars of literature, although it is Brontë’s only published novel. With iconic quotes like, “If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn into a mighty stranger.” Your heart will be turning with every page of the book. (Eliana Burns)
‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte BrontëA classic for a reason, I have to imagine Jane Eyre’s twist shocked audiences in the eighteenth century just as much as it shocks modern readers. A twist that inspired an entire spin off novel (read ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ by Jean Rhys afterwards), it will keep you guessing up to the end.Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again? And what are the dark presences lurking around Thornfield Hall? (Lulu McKenna)
A Thursday Talk at the Brontë Parsonage MuseumThursday 18 April, 2pmBrontë Event Space at the Old School RoomThis talk looks at what art was being made during the 19th century, specifically by female artists. We’ll discuss how important art was to the Brontës' lives, and how the Brontës utilised art in the novels Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Company member Chris Hutchison scores two firsts in the Alley Theatre production of Jane Eyre, now on stage. It's the first time he's playing Edward Rochester and perhaps more impressively, the first time he's been set on fire on stage. [...]As for Rochester, Hutchison is definitely of two minds about him, first noting what a complex character he is to play. Rochester, of course, lies to Jane right up until their marriage ceremony is broken up by the brother of Rochester's first wife, Bertha, who, as it turns out, is alive and locked into the attic upstairs because of her worsening and sometimes violent mental illness."He's just incredibly complex," Hutchison says of playing Rochester. "There's so many different ways to take the novel now. Through the lens of when it was written. Through the lens of a feminist awakening of the 20th century."No matter what, whether you come down on the side of him being a good guy or a not so good guy, he's a delight to explore as an actor — the layers, the secrets that he's keeping, the ability to compartmentalize and his genuine ability to fall in love and want to try to make a life for him and Jane. And to be able to exist in the world with some normalcy."Hutchison compared Rochester to Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights written by Charlotte's sister Emily. "Both men have secrets that make it impossible for them to engage fully in the world. They live in kind of two worlds and they incapable of fully existing in one or the other."While saying that he is not one of those actors who defend every character that they play, Hutchison adds, however "I think that my way this adaptation is set up and my way into this character is to believe in the love story, believe that he cares about Jane and Jane cares about him. And to have that be the starting point."So whatever his flaws and faults he is able to be genuine in this place. I think I come down on the side of having some sympathy for him while recognizing his failures and weaknesses and rooting for he and Jane to be able to have some kind of normalcy and to love each other fully." [...]"One of the things that struck me re-reading the novel how epic the novel feels in terms of its emotional breath and the journeys of these characters through their stories," Hutchison says. " It all happens inside 50 square miles of remote English countryside with very few players. But somehow there's this whole world that's created inside this quiet, rural corner of the planet."Although the stage adaptation does not show Thornfield Hall burning to the ground, there is still fire on stage, Hutchison says. "There is fire depicted in the play. Bertha, the wife, tries to set me on fire. It’s a really cool effect. People really think it looks beautiful."Asked why he thinks audiences will welcome this production, Hutchison says:"In this sort of Bridgerton world, this Sense and Sensibility world, we're kind of in a moment for that. I think the Brontë sisters and this novel in particular is such a monumental achievement in that realm. The language is there. It's a great novel with great chunks of text that are beautiful to speak." (Margaret Downing)
The Brontë Myth, by Lucasta MillerIn this brilliant biography, Lucasta Miller seeks to dispel the myths which have emerged over the decades regarding Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë. Miller weaves in her personal experiences as a writer and journalist in order to reveal the innate paradox at the heart of biography writing, all the while teaching us about the lives of the Brontë sisters. Indeed, it’s no wonder her work has been described as a ‘metabiography’. (Saskia Kemsley)
by Paul Gordon & John CairnMusical direction by Judith SheltonTheater direction by Rouba PalmerApril 18-217:00 p.m., Thursday-Saturday; 2:30 p.m., SundayMemorial City Hall, 110 E. Houston St., Marshall, TX
Further information can be found in The Marshall News Messenger.
Underdog: The Other Other Brontë is part of another new theatrical surge: remaking the idea of what were once considered bonneted authors. Isobel McArthur’s Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) squinnied at Jane Austen’s heroines from the servants’ point of view; Zoe Cooper recently detected a queer strain in Northanger Abbey.Sarah Gordon’s new play takes on the Brontë sisters: their lives rather than the works. Thirteen years ago, Northern Broadsides and Blake Morrison put a Chekhovian spin on parsonage life in We Are Three Sisters. Gordon’s emphasis is plainer: the restrictions of the times (which required the authors to publish under male names) are cudgelled home but the sensibility is utterly 21st-century: knowing and no-holds-barred.Charlotte, legs planted firmly apart in her scarlet dress, commands sister Anne to stop writing “this shit”. Her biographer Elizabeth Gaskell bustles in like a pantomime dame. Sibling rivalry is at full roar with Charlotte nicking Anne’s novel idea. A gaudy lineup of literary figures in whiskers and top hats caper self-importantly. Charlotte climbs into a glass case to be exhibited.Natalie Ibu’s strenuously comic production gets lively perfs from Rhiannon Clements as Anne, dubbed a mouse but wild with her pen, Adele James as vibrant Emily, and Gemma Whelan as domineering Charlotte (who also gets a kicking in the 2022 film Emily). It’s a relief to be free of wuthering and piety. Yet where in this mechanical modernisation is the imaginative power that makes the sisters worth attending to? These Brontës are not other enough. (Susannah Clapp)
All three sisters were radical and controversial for their time. The Brontë’s works have been studied for centuries for their progressive and strong female protagonists and due to the sisters’ pioneering success as female writers in the Victorian Era. Each of their books were commended upon publication before becoming subject to controversy once people started to suspect that the authors, who wrote under the male pseudonyms of the ‘Bell Brothers’, were in fact women. The themes tackled in the sisters’ works were said to be “unseemly” for women. Jane Eyre’s desire for independence and freedom challenged expectations of female behaviour in the 19th century, and the immoral, vengeful love between Heathcliff and Cathy (Wuthering Heights) was similarly criticised. But it was Anne’s novel, with its focus on domestic abuse and marital violence, that caused the greatest stir amongst Victorian readerships. Critics deemed Tenant coarse and vulgar, with Charlotte Brontë calling her sister’s novel “an entire mistake”[1]. Tensions between the eldest and youngest sister were explored within the National Theatre’s play, explaining how Anne’s works were regularly undermined by her sister, leading to Charlotte taking Anne’s work out of publication after her death. Attitudes towards Anne’s work and the diminishment of her talent explains why her novels are less well-known than those of her sisters.Despite the criticism, Anne remained steadfast, reflecting her headstrong character. In the preface of Tenant, she wrote ‘I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be […] I am at a loss to conceive […] why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.’. Anne’s clearly evident strength and fight for respect contradict persisting depictions of her as the quiet, passive, and ladylike sister. Modern day feminists have recognised the power of the youngest sister’s writing in its exposition of the misogyny and abuse which women were subject to at the time. Her novels are being studied more today, finally receiving the recognition that they deserve as perhaps the most radical works of the Brontë sisters. If you too want to discover more about the lesser known Brontë, head to the National Theatre before the 25th of May to witness a breathtaking depiction of the sisters’ lives. Or even better, give Anne’s novels a read and decide for yourself: what do you think of the Other Other Brontë’s works? (Grace Moran)
She felt better on the train, the first of the day, claiming her forward-facing window-seat with table: the dream. Now she was an executive, laying out her laptop, pen and notepad, charging her devices unnecessarily, because this was the key to surviving in the wild, charging devices and using a toilet whenever the chance arose. She laid out her ancient copy of Wuthering Heights, which she’d brought to get in the mood, and now the train crawled out into the light, emerging behind the terraces of Mornington Crescent, an address that still retained an atmosphere of old kitchen-sink films, sad, shabby love stories, the kind she’d aspired to when she’d first moved to the city. She saw closed shutters and grimy curtains, imagined new lovers slumbering in rented rooms. Then, above the terraces, came a knife of brilliant blue and she felt sorry for anyone who was still in bed.
9 'Jane Eyre' (2011)Director: Cary FukunagaNext up, also starring the talented Wasikowska, is Cary Fukunaga's adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name. Jane Eyre follows the titular character as she becomes a governess, ending up meeting the cold and abrupt Mr. Edward Rochester (Michael Fassbender) at her new position at Thornfield Hall. As the bond between the two grows, Jane finds herself falling for Rochester. But will his terrible secret destroy their relationship forever?Not mentioning Jane Eyre on such a list would be a huge omission; like its source material, Fukunaga's film is delightfully Gothic and Victorian, featuring religion, supernatural encounters, obscure secrets, and spirituality, in addition to its message about gender roles, society, and class. Jane Eyre may not be a note-perfect period drama, but it is a great effort in the Gothic subgenre. [...]4 'Wuthering Heights' (1939)Director: William WylerThis eight-time Academy Award-nominated feature by William Wyler has captured the attention of many, and understandably so. Adapted from the Emily Brontë novel of the same name, Wuthering Heights tells the tale of two lovers, Cathy and Heathcliff (played by Merle Oberon and Sir Lawrence Olivier respectively) who are forced to go separate ways due to prejudice and circumstances. At some point in their adult life, however, their paths cross again when Heathcliff returns with a self-made fortune. However, he realizes he may have lost Cathy in his absence.Wuthering Heights is often regarded as a masterpiece in romantic filmmaking, with many people still believing it stands the test of time today. It's not difficult to grasp that, just like the book it was based on, Wyler's film is an essential Gothic romance movie, especially when considering all the supernatural elements that it utilizes, such as ghosts and hallucinations, and the eerie, atmospheric scenario the story is set in. (Daniela Gama)
In 1964 she played Cathy in a Televisa adaptation of the Emily Brontë's novel: Cumbres Borrascosas. Fifty-nine thirty-minute long episodes, no less. Pablo Palomino did the adaptation and Manuel López Ochoa played Heathcliff. The producer was Ernesto Alonso.
Now the modest terraced house, on Market Street, is in public ownership, thanks to a crowdfunding project attracting more than 700 investors. Brontë Birthplace Limited has raised over £650,000 from the share offer and grants from Bradford 2025 and the Government’s Levelling Up fund. The plan is to turn the Grade 2* listed building into an education centre and literary retreat, with a community cafe and holiday let allowing visitors to stay in the Brontës’ bedrooms.The restoration will start in coming weeks and the Bronte Birthplace is due to open in January 2025 - Bradford’s year as UK City of Culture. It is, says Steve Stanworth, vice chair of Brontë Birthplace Limited, the “missing piece of the Bronteëstory jigsaw”.“This was a vibrant family home, with six children and all the hustle and bustle,” says Steve. “Walking in here, you feel over 200 years of history. We’re not turning it into a museum with roped-off areas. We want people to be immersed in the house where the Brontës lived as a young family. It’s a hands-on experience. We have big plans for education, book launches, workshops and talks. It will be a place of interest to schools, universities, writers, artists and Brontë scholars, and also somewhere to come and sit by the fire with a coffee or stop for a night and soak up the atmosphere.”Steve runs the Brontë Bell Chapel, where Patrick Brontë preached from 1815-1820. “Patrick was fond of Thornton, and Thornton was fond of him. He said his ‘happiest days’ were here. In this house the family was together, before Maria and the two girls died. Our aim is to re-create the feel of that happy family home.”The house has had a chequered past: after the Brontës left it was a butcher’s shop, later a small museum and more recently a cafe, Emily’s. Saving the house, which has been empty for four years, is the culmination of a 10-year dream and a two-year campaign. “This was a humble home but a house of ambition,” says committee member Christa Ackroyd. “It was from here that three girls overcame barriers to succeed on a worldwide stage. We’ll say to children who come here, ‘Stand by this fireplace, where those girls were born, and you too can have ambition. From a humble home, greatness can spring.”Adds Christa: “I was adopted and when I came to Bradford, aged 10, I felt a bit rootless. My father took me to the Brontë Parsonage and told me about the ‘three Bradford girls who made their own way’. He said, ‘You can be anything you want’. That started my passion for the Brontës, and it has stayed with me. (Emma Clayton)
It’s entertaining and it made me realize I’ve been reading romances for longer than I can remember, even if they weren’t always classified as such.I’m not the first to point out that if Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and Emily Brontë were publishing today, their books would be called Romances — and the “lady novelists” would likely be able to negotiate a better fee than exploitive publishers gave them 200 years ago. (Chris Hewitt)
Like Perez, Rockwood School District sophomore Brooke O’Dell most frequently runs into blocked websites when doing homework. Sometimes she can’t access PDFs she wants to read. Her workaround is to pull out her phone, find the webpage using her own cellular data, navigate to the file she wants, email it to herself, and then go back to her school-issued Chromebook to open it. When it’s website text she’s interested in, O’Dell uses the Google Drive app on her phone to copy-and-paste text into a Google Doc that she can later access from her Chromebook. She recently had to do this while working on a literary criticism project about the book “Jane Eyre.” (Tara García Mathewson)
Resourceful girl in the land of the free.
“You won’t find a book. I mean the Bible will have to be removed, of course, but also Scarlet Letter, Jane Eyre, all the classics, all Shakespeare, any biology books,” Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville, said. We are talking about having our school libraries remove almost all of their materials now.” (Chuck Morris)
Land of the Brave. You know.
Reading Lessons, Carol AthertonHow can a Victorian poem help teenagers understand YouTube misogyny? Can Jane Eyre encourage us to speak out? What can Lady Macbeth teach us about empathy? Should our expectations for our future be any greater than Pip’s? And why is it so important to make space for these conversations in the first place?
Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea is a postcolonial prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s classic Jane Eyre. The short novel dismantles the trope of ‘mad woman in the attic’ by depicting the years of trauma and mistreatment that drive Antoinette, the protagonist, to madness. Here, we see a dark, cold side of Jane Eyre’s hero Edward Rochester. (Saachi Gupta)
Brande Victorian: How did you find Norma's house?J.C.: We probably scouted over two dozen houses looking for Norma's, and the second I walked onto the property of this one, I was like, "This is it." It had this sort of Wuthering Heights vibe with the romantic Ivy growing over the house. We had assigned a certain style of architecture that we wanted for each of the women.
Robert and Lea talk about Kazuo Ishiguro and George Orwell. Rob then reads his account of travels in the Philippines in his story ‘The Road To Wuthering Heights’. A literary quiz follows and finally Lea reads her mystical story ‘Moriac’.
Hay algo tremendamente gustoso en la lectura de dramas familiares de la novela canónica como pueden serlo Cumbres borrascosas o Anna Karenina porque, a este lado de la realidad, esa amalgama de cabronadas que se hacen entre hermanos, esposos o cuñados nos calma por un rato el ansia de insultar a los seres más despreciables de nuestra estirpe. (Luna Miguel) (Translation)
Il Libraio (Italy) explores the life and works of Charlotte Brontë. You can watch now Wuthering Heights 2011 for free on FranceTV if you're geolocated in France. The selection of films bears the name "Du roman à l'écran".
This floral fabulousness from Pink Desert really revs up a wardrobe! It's ideal for a family photoshoot, dinner rendezvous, or a fun night out. The light green hue will have your wardrobe feeling like autumn! So be the star of the show in THE WUTHERING HEIGHTS DRESS IN FALL FLORAL!
In a typically kick-ass Northern Stage production, director Natalie Ibu brings the women to vivid, raucous life with the simplest theatrical elements: a wild garden that rises to reveal a bare stage beneath, music hall knockabout, coconut halves for horses hooves and audience engagement.“What’s your favourite Brontë novel?” challenges scarlet-clad Charlotte (Gemma Whelan) on her entrance as we wonder whether to risk saying Wuthering Heights instead of Jane Eyre.After their brother Branwell’s (James Phoon) death, Charlotte’s bullies youngest sister Anne (Rhiannon Clements) without mercy, belittling her attempt at being a governess for the ghastly children of the local gentry.Meanwhile, Emily (Adele James) acts as mediator between the two. They act out parts of their novels to each other - the sequence dramatising Anne’s torrid Gothic romance The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is hilarious.The real test comes when the London publishers react to the idea that women are capable of writing commercially viable novels.Arresting performances from Whelan as the deeply unsympathetic Charlotte, Clements as the independent-but-withdrawn Anne and James as the stoical Emily keep Gordon’s spirited play alight.It uncovers the flesh and blood females behind the Brontë myth while interrogating entrenched patriarchy in a broad satire punctuated with amusing anachronistic dialogue.It left me aching to get my hands on a copy of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall asap. (Neil Norman)
But over a century ago, Emily Brontë crafted a new language around fictional first loves, one that wasn’t so frothy, one that was muscular and angry. Set on the wild moorland, Wuthering Heights follows Cathy and Heathcliff across 30 years as they traverse the craggy hills and valleys of North Yorkshire. They grow into and around one another like thistles spurting up, constricting until any life is choked out, thick and heady enough to block out the sunny promise of “happily ever after.”Cathy and Heathcliff are shorthand for a kind of unruly, death-defying epic love—grittier and muddier than Romeo and Juliet, more animalistic than Darcy and Elizabeth. William Wyler’s 1939 adaptation of Wuthering Heights knows of their larger-than-life reputation, crafting something worthy of its otherworldly size. Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier are a perfect blend of unsubtle choices as Cathy and Heathcliff; both performers are unafraid of facing one another, eyes swimming, locked in the intensity of the moment (and all the Cathy-Heathcliff moments that have come before).Midway through this film, Heathcliff is the soot-covered outcast, lumbering around Wuthering Heights, working for free. Cathy is doll-like and delicate, no longer the maddeningly confident young girl. When her abusive brother Hindley (Hugh Williams) leaves the house, she dashes outside, galloping past Heathcliff, fixed on the sky and sinking into the horizon. He looks up, and the corners of his mouth are pinned to his ears, his brow is lifted, his cumbersome frame suddenly light. They are children again, channeling the younger performers we first saw play the characters. For a brief, flashing moment, Olivier even looks like Rex Downing (the younger Heathcliff), nimble and slight, all crunched features and teeth. Maybe they are not submitting to time. Maybe time is submitting to them.In one of the book’s most famous lines, Cathy reflects on their tempestuous dynamic: “He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” It is the line that launched a thousand—probably more like a million—ships (e.g. Etsy tote bags and notebooks for moody teenagers newly acquainted with classic literature). It is also ominous, a cryptically designed warning. Pronouns are positioned in concentric patterns—“our” is sandwiched between “he” and “I” because that is the shape of their relationship. They are brought together only to push apart. It has been read as a romantic declaration, but really it is a bit of gothic foreshadowing. From this point on, their fate is sealed, and it is up to filmmakers to ascertain the “whatever” Cathy speaks of; every subsequent version of this story is dedicated to defining the new texture of this ugly love.In her controversial 2011 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, Andrea Arnold uses her brand of stark naturalism to ground Cathy and Heathcliff’s love in the muck and mire of the English countryside. In her retelling, this is the feel of their love: Grimy and seeping, stuck underneath their fingernails and behind their ears. Wyler argues that there is something inkier, darker that gurgles between them. While Arnold largely discounts the actual structure of Wuthering Heights, investing in its wild surroundings, the 1939 version locks much of the plot within the shadowy structure itself, confining action to musty corners. Throughout, love is the force unforgivingly bearing down on the couple, keeping them locked in the dark. [...]Wuthering Heights’ legacy stretches forward in fascinating ways, not just ensuring that a style of gothic love story remains in vogue, but encouraging fiction to blur the lines between romance and horror. Wyler intimately understands this oxymoron, embodying it in markedly simple ways, through employing skilled actors and crafting real sets. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera (and the subsequent Joel Schumacher film) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (and the subsequent Francis Ford Coppola film) both frame a love triangle that veers wildly between sex and romance, day and night, death and life.Despite its misgivings, Twilight feels like the most obvious inheritor of Cathy and Heathcliff’s legacy. Wuthering Heights is described as Bella’s favorite book, a text she fervently refers back to (while author Stephanie Meyer labeled Wuthering Heights as an explicit influence on the third book, Eclipse). The series imagined what it would mean if someone you loved wanted to kill you, making the ugly, potent relationship between a relationship’s end and beginning explicit. And through an excessive amount of blood and a moody, blue-tinted filter, the films made this dynamic gory, garish and near.Wuthering Heights has a long and prickly onscreen history, affirming and reiterating its cultural staying power. Hollywood has been refitting this story for different formats, diluting and reemphasizing the violence that simmers beneath depending on the era and the audience. For Brontë and her interpreters, the thrill of young love is a sensation to fear rather than yearn for. (Anna McKibbin)
The throbbing pulse of Imelda’s interiority evokes other fictional heroines. She could be Clarissa Dalloway or even Jane Eyre, with their whirring minds and gleaming filaments of thoughts, moods, utterances. (Radhika Oberoi)
Condé also reimagined Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights as Windward Heights (published in 1995 as La Migration des Coeurs, and the translation in 1998), transposing the action to Cuba and her native Guadeloupe. (Louise Hardwick)
Singer Lily Fontaine has post-punk’s natural knack for witty, whimsical lyrics that still manage to say something: about politics, race, regional inequality, the climate crisis, you name it, even if the band themselves are less hard to define by genre. On The World’s Biggest Paving Slab, she powers through a list of Northern names who once made the news, for good or bad (Charlotte Brontë, the Life on Mars actor John Simm, a BNP terrorist who was arrested in Leeds in 2006). Fontaine leans into the obvious wink of the track’s metaphor about living life in the background (or should I say underfoot) before eventually having enough: “Watch your f—ing feet!” she warns. (Neil McCormick and Poppie Platt)
TourAdapted by Laura TurnerDirected by Antony LawChapterhouse Theatre Company is proud to present Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë’s savage tale of love, obsession, and revenge on the wild Yorkshire moors. When orphaned Heathcliff is adopted by th
e Earnshaws, he falls deeply in love with their free-spirited daughter Catherine, but love on the moors is not as simple as it seems and their union leaves a trail of devastation in its wake. Can Catherine and Heathcliff’s love endure, or will forces beyond their control tear them apart?
Saturday 13th , 14 April 7.30pm Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre, St. John's Road, Buxton
Monday 15th April, 7.30pm Tamworth Assembly Rooms
Tuesday 16th April 7.30pm Watersmeet Theatre, High St, Rickmansworth
Friday 17th April 7.30pm Louth Riverhead Theatre Victoria Rd, Louth
Plans to build houses in an area made famous by the Bronte sisters have been refused.An application had been submitted for three homes on land off Pasture Avenue in Oakworth, which lies within an area known as Bronte Country.However, planners said the development would "harm" the conservation area it sat within.Building the homes would result in a "loss of openness, with no corresponding public benefit" to outweigh that harm, they added. [...]The area known as Bronte Country includes locations associated with the famous literary sisters who lived in Thornton, Bradford, before moving to their more famous home at the parsonage in Haworth.Bronte Country is centred on Haworth, but covers a broad stretch of land which inspired many of the sisters' novels. (Chris Young)
The first book I remember reading:I have little memory of my early childhood. I know I learned to read using the Janet and John books but I can’t remember the experience. However, I definitely remember reading Wuthering Heights when I was about ten years old. Ghost Catherine appearing at the bedroom window kept me up at night with the terrors! (Ellie Forbes)
Jangly guitars undergird album opener “Albatross”, a bright and catchy indie rock number that gives way to the rigidly metered guitar riffs of “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab”, an amusing and punchy single built around a knowingly contrived metaphor. “I am the world’s biggest paving slab/ So watch your f***ing feet,” sings Fontaine on the song, which also namechecks a somewhat random smattering of proper nouns from Up North: the actor John Simm; the BNP terrorist arrested on Talbot Street; Charlotte Brontë. (Louis Chilton)
Alley Theatre presents
Jane Eyreby Elizabeth WilliamsonAdapted from the novel by Charlotte BrontëApril 12-May 5Hubbard StageAlley Theatre, 615 Texas Ave, Houston, TX 77002,Directed by Eleanor HoldridgeWith Chris Hutchison as Edward Fairfax Rochester, Melissa Molano as Jane Eyre, Melissa Pritchett as Grace Poole/ Mary Ingram/ B
essie, and Todd Waite as John/ Colonel Dent/ Mr Carter/ Mr Wood, Susan Koozin as Mrs Fairfax/ Lady Ingram/ Mrs Reed/ Bertha, Joy Yvonne Jones as Leah/ Blanche Ingram/ Diana Rivers, Ana Karen Miramontes Loya as Adele/ Young Jane, and Gabriel Regojo as Mr Mason/ John Reed/ St John Rivers.
Adapted by Elizabeth Williamson from the beloved classic novel by Charlotte Brontë, this play follows the heroine who struggles for freedom and fulfillment on her own terms. She survives a childhood as an orphan and confronts poverty, injustice, and the discovery of a bitter betrayal, before she makes the ultimate decision to follow her heart.
“What’s your favourite Brontë novel?” demands Gemma Whelan’s Charlotte Brontë at the outset of Underdog, bouncing through the National Theatre’s Dorfman auditorium, grabbing selfies with spectators and chatting away, secure in the knowledge that in any audience for a Brontë drama, most will have read Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë), many will have read Wuthering Heights (Emily) and a few will have read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne).And that’s the pecking order, right? But is it? And, if so, why? Sarah Gordon remixes the Brontë story to craft a funny, bubbling, bolshie play about sisterhood, feminism, creativity and fame. It’s mightily entertaining if, in the end, limited by its style.From the get-go, Gordon’s drama is tongue-in-cheek about its own role as biography. “There may be some mistakes in this little revision,” admits Charlotte (after getting in a quick dig at Jane Austen for being on a banknote). In her account, the three Brontë sisters stride about the Howarth parsonage in full skirts and hefty boots, speaking in broad Yorkshire accents, expressing themselves in robustly anachronistic terms and jostling for publication in a world where the gatekeepers are all men.Charlotte’s contention is that in such an unequal society only a few women can push through, so it’s going to have to be her who becomes the much-discussed literary idol — whatever that means for the others.While the talk is of supporting one another, then, it’s Charlotte who dominates, claiming that it’s she who is the dedicated writer. In her depiction, Emily is frank and forthright and Anne, the youngest, is a meek little mouse. But Anne — the “other other Brontë” of the title — keeps kicking against this portrayal. “I am only small as your little sister,” she protests. “Nowhere else.”It’s Anne who comes up with idea of male pseudonyms, Anne who first writes a novel about a governess, Anne who is the most radical and has a runaway success with her shocking The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (which depicts domestic violence and alcoholism). So when we see Charlotte suppress a reprint of the novel after her sister’s death, is that to protect Anne’s reputation? Or is it jealousy?Anne is beautifully played by Rhiannon Clements as a gentle soul possessed of a strong will, passionate social conscience and fierce intelligence. Whelan’s Charlotte is a joy: funny, brusque, nakedly ambitious and not afraid to look mean. “I hope you won’t all judge me too harshly,” she implores of the audience. Adele James plays Emily as a woman of ferocious integrity, but her character is disappointingly sidelined.In Natalie Ibu’s enjoyable staging (a co-production with Northern Stage), a comic chorus plays all the men as caricatures — pompous publishers, smug critics and self-important authors. Period drama is witheringly satirised: an agonisingly slow journey is conducted at crawling pace using two large coach wheels and a pair of coconuts.The play’s comic style doesn’t allow, however, for a more nuanced examination of the pertinent questions it poses about the glass ceiling, about competition for recognition and about cultural gatekeepers. Meanwhile we rather lose sight of real quality of the Brontë sisters’ writing and achievement. But as Anne (who pleasingly gets the final word) says: “We must constantly re-examine in order to move forward.” (Sarah Hemming)
More silenced women at the National Theatre. Underdog: The Other Other Brontë is the puzzling title of a new satire by Sarah Gordon. This too uses the sketch-show format and it opens with Gemma Whelan, as Charlotte Brontë, prancing around the auditorium and bawling questions at the crowd. ‘What’s your favourite Brontë quote?’ she yells. ‘The End,’ offered someone.Fans of the Brontës should avoid this show because it lacks historical detail and it deliberately sets out to be superficial and childish. In the opening scene the three sisters snarl and curse at each other like letterless brutes stuck in a youth detention centre. Branwell, the drunkard, makes a brief appearance and after being drenched with a bucket of water he’s kicked off stage again. Later he dies, unlamented. In this play, as in most modern scripts, the male characters are presented as either rotters or rapists. No other conception of masculinity exists.And the emotional texture never varies as the sisters caper about like shrieking TikTok divas waging rancorous battles for recognition and royalty fees. Quiet and self-effacing Ann, played by the beautiful Rhiannon Clements, is by far the most attractive member of the clan. Charlotte and Emily (Adele James) come across as a pair of foul-mouthed fishwives who make the Spice Girls seem sophisticated.Someone should have questioned the wisdom of hiring actresses to impersonate great novelists and to stand on the stage of the National Theatre effing and blinding at the audience. This tedious act of defamation belongs in the bin. Or, failing that, in the Radio 4 early-evening comedy slot. (Lloyd Evans)
I was sad to learn of the death of Lynne Reid Banks (Obituaries, 5 April). Although I loved The L-Shaped Room and the subsequent film – in spite of her misgivings – her novel Dark Quartet led me to an obsession with the Brontë sisters after a visit to Haworth. [...]John AllisonWarwick
Top WithensDistance: 10.7kmTop Withens is a ruined farmhouse up on the “wily, windy moors” that is said to have been the inspiration for Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Whether that’s fact or fiction, this walk through Brontë country, where the young women lived and worked, is so well known outside of the UK to warrant signage in Japanese – but the crowds tend to stop at the Brontë waterfall. Push on to the tops for views over the moors.Best time to walk: Try and avoid wet days as it can get boggy. The cloud can move in quickly, so don’t leave without a map and compass. Bright days are popular, but a moody day feels absolutely in keeping with the essence of the Brontës. (Joanna Whitehead)
with Pauline VallanceApr 11 at 7:00PM - 8:30PMThe Old School RoomOne woman show about the world famous Brontë Sisters, featuring original songs....and a kicking bonnet!Singer/songwriter Pauline Vallance has turned her lifelong obsession with the Bronte Sisters into this entertaining and informative show. How would they cope with modern day celebrity? What would they make of the TV and film adaptations of their books? What did they really think about Jane Austen? All this, plus original songs, a harp and a kicking bonnet.
The weekend will open on Friday, April 19, at 7pm with a premiére of An Evening with Charlotte Brontë devised specifically for the Banagher Brontë Group by Michael and Christine O’Dowd. The venue for this event is the Back Lounge of Corrigan’s Corner Pub. Seating is limited so come early to secure comfort. This presentation uses colourful slides to look at the works of Charlotte’s favourite writers, particularly Tom Moore and Robbie Burns. Scripts and lyrics will recall the songs and poems of her great favourites, many of which are familiar and still resonate in our ears today. As this is something of a gala occasion those choosing to come in their vintage finery are encouraged to do so. Registration is from 6.30pm, costs €10 and covers admission to all events over the weekend.All events on Saturday will be held in Crank House starting at 11am with Joanne Wilcock’s talk called Falling in Love with Arthur. Joanne will explore the different opinions and feelings people had and still have about Charlotte Brontë’s husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls. She recalls how those who initially had negative views had been won over by his more positive aspects. So how will you be at the end of this presentation, on Team Arthur or elsewhere?At midday Pauline Clooney will present Currer Bell's Silent Years 1852-1855, an examination of Charlotte Brontë's paths to publication and her attitude to a writing life, and how, consequently, this attitude illuminates her creative silence from 1852 until her death in 1855.After lunch, at 2.30 p.m Maebh O’Regan will present The Art of Branwell Brontë. From their earliest years the Brontës were passionate about art and were particularly inspired by the wood engravings of Thomas Bewick. Branwell showed great promise as a portrait artist but he felt his true vocation was in literary composition and often his artistic skills were used for humorous sketches in letters to friends.This will be followed by The Early Days of the B.B.G. short film by created by Maebh and Seanie O’Regan capturing some historic (and otherwise) moments of the early days of the Banagher Brontë Group. The day’s events will conclude with a short amble from Crank House up the Main Street to view the various works of art and displays in local shop windows which have been created by local artists and Brontë enthusiasts finishing with a close look at Sheila Hough’s portraits in Johnny Hough’s musical pub.Proceedings will resume on Sunday morning at 11am. with a short walk from Saint Paul’s Church on the Hill to Cuba to look at the remains of the Royal School of Banagher. Matters will draw to a close with coffees and teas in Nicola Daly’s guest house, Charlotte’s Way, at 12.30pm. Here James Scully will give a brief reappraisal of the group’s progress so far, underlining the need for firmer structures and tighter organisation for the rest of the year.
The first Mrs Rochester from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, the original "madwoman in the attic", is another meditation on this subject. On the surface, she is beyond rationality—a terrifying, mindless creature, stripped of language and humanity, standing in the way of Jane and Mr Rochester's happily ever after.But then, if you'd been imprisoned far from your home, with an unsympathetic husband and little warmth or comfort for years, wouldn't you be desperate and frenzied too? (Wide Sargasso Sea, a novel that explicitly tells Bertha's story, is well worth a read.)And yet, once again, despite the way in which she is denied a voice, Mrs Rochester "speaks" throughout the book anyway. While the fire that she sets at its conclusion can be viewed as yet another unhinged act, for me, it is more representative that sometimes simply enduring can be an act of courage. And that sometimes, what little agency we have left leaves us with no "good" choices. (Kate Townshend)
Bitterthorn by Kat DunnEvery 50 years, a dark witch takes a new companion, never to be seen again. This time, 20 years-old Mina volunteers; her future looks bleak either way, but at least here she has agency in her decision. She travels to a fantastic German gothic castle, where doors open to random seasons and moments in the past. The witch’s only request: that she doesn’t visit her tower. A stunning meditation on loneliness, with nods to Jane Eyre, Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent and Naomi Novik’s Uprooted. (Lucie Goulet)
Jane Eyre, The Musical
April 11-April 20 | 7:30 pm – 9:00 pmBillingsley Theatre S-23-117, Tigerville, SC 29688, USA
Charlotte Bronte’s classic gothic romance is brought to life in this musical adaptation, which follows independent, passionate governess Jane Eyre through her harsh childhood through her employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall.
There, she meets the mysterious and magnetic Edward Fairfax Rochester. Though drawn to each other, they are haunted by the ghosts of Rochester’s past, which threaten any possibility of future love or happiness for either. Ultimately, Jane and Rochester discover the power of forgiveness and faith to guide them through the tangled skeins of their lives.
