BrontëBlog

'I think the Brontë sisters are mad'

2012-01-31T10:09:00.001+01:00

The Red House story (sign the petition here) continues being featured in local newspapers such as the Yorkshire Post:

The world-renowned Brontë Society says the proposal to close Red House Museum at Gomersal is “an act of vandalism on the local tourist industry”.
The society’s former chairman, Richard Wilcocks, said: “A cut like this would cause irreparable damage, and an important part of the heritage of the Spen Valley and the whole country would be lost.
“Red House is of crucial importance not only for those dismissed in the (council’s) official impact statement as ‘Brontë enthusiasts’, a choice of words which implies that they make up a minor group in the same league as train-spotters, but for anyone who believes that the most fitting memorial to Mary Taylor, a highly significant historical figure, not only because of her lifelong friendship with Charlotte Brontë, is the museum situated in her house.
“Perhaps that should be national memorial – let’s move beyond the parochial.”
Director of the Brontë Parsonage at Haworth, Andrew McCarthy, said Red House attracted about 30,000 visitors a year, “quite good for a museum off the beaten track”.
He urged Brontë enthusiasts to write to Kirklees Council.
Councillors will discuss the budget cuts at a meeting on February 22 but members of the public can have their say at a public meeting tonight (from 7pm) at Cleckheaton Town Hall.
A council spokesman said: “Councillors have difficult decisions to make as there is a continuing need to achieve efficiencies from across the whole range of services in the three-year budget plan.
“The proposal to close Red House Museum is one of a large number of measures up for consideration which have been proposed to fill a very big gap in the council’s budget and reduce expenditure. No decision has been made yet.”
Submit views via communication@kirklees.gov.uk
To date over 100 emails and letters have been received.

This is not a 'difficult decision to make'. It's just a silly, self-damaging decision. Good for the 100 letters an emails, though - keep those coming and get as many people as possible to sign the petition.

The story has also reached a national newspaper: the Guardian.

One of the major shrines to the Brontë family is facing closure and sale because of budget cuts and recession – a combination that almost did for its wealthy owner in the days of Charlotte, Emily and Anne.
The Red House in Gomersal, in West Yorkshire's "heavy woollen district", is targeted in provisional savings drawn up by Kirklees district council, which is having to find savings of £64m in what councillors describe as "the most difficult financial landscape in living memory".
The proposal has triggered uproar led by the Brontë Society which is appealing for supporters to lobby the council to change its mind. The Red House, a handsome early Georgian mansion built of brick in the largely millstone grit area between Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Bradford, played a significant part in Charlotte Brontë's youth. [...]
The director of the Brontë Parsonage at Haworth, Andrew McCarthy, said the proposal had come as a shock, along with other suggested cuts including reduced hours at Oakwell Hall, another Kirklees museum that plays an important part in Shirley.
"We appreciate the challenges faced by local authorities in terms of balancing the budgets at the moment but this does seem a pretty drastic step that can be made in haste and repented at leisure," he said. "There are very few buildings which combine Brontë history and Brontë fiction in the way Red House does. It would be a huge loss."
A petition has also been launched to present to the council, which is not controlled by any one party and has seen cross-party negotiations over the coming budget. Kirklees's wellbeing and communities directorate, whose portfolio includes museums, has to make 19% savings from £129m spent last year to £105m. Councillors will decide the issue on 22 February.
Closure of the Red House in September would make a full-year saving of £116,000 with sale of the site an additional, one-off capital receipt, probably of around £750,000. The museum has won a raft of prizes, from Sandford educational awards to Loo of the Year, but drew only 28,602 visitors last year and fewer than 1,000 children in school parties.
Taylor almost lost the house himself in 1826 when his private bank went under without any hope of a government buyout to help it. He recovered by dint of his own efforts and a reputation, also ascribed to Yorke in Shirley, for helping his own workers find alternatives when his mill was forced into lay-offs during a recession. (Martin Wainwright)

The blog Secluded Charm is appalled by the story.

The Telegraph reports adapter Andrew Davies's thoughts on the Brontës:

He told an audience at the Hay Festival in Cartagena, Colombia: “I’ve declined quite a few – never classics. I’m glad nobody has asked me to adapt Wuthering Heights because I think I would make a mess of it. Everybody makes a mess of it. I think the Bronte sisters are mad. [...]" (Anita Singh)

The writer Ruskin Bond seems to have a more favourable opinion. He says to The Hindu,

“I still like going back to old favourites. I read ‘Wuthering Heights' as a boy and loved it. When I picked it up again, many years later, it kept me up all night! I wanted to be a writer even before I finished school. David Copperfield became a role model. I wanted to, like him, run away from home, but I didn't have much pocket money left to do that!” (Sravasti Datta)

This columnist from TIME Magazine hasn't read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall:

It’s dawning on me that the marriage plot, which maps so well onto novels by Austen and the Brontës and George Eliot, is misapplied to Dickens. It is far more productive to think of him as a writer of would-be divorce plots. (Radhika Jones)

The Telegraph also thinks that Jonathan Franzen, despite his battle against ebooks, doesn't know much about them:

I have to admit I don't understand this argument. Does he think that e-publishers will surreptitiously edit classic works? Perhaps sprinkle Beowulf with Starbucks adverts, or weave party political messages subtly into the text of Jane Eyre? In all honesty, I suspect that this is an example of a very clever man using his considerable brainpower to dress up unconscious prejudice in what sounds like reasoned argument. Mr Franzen doesn't like e-books; he prefers reading books. But he can't simply say as much, so he wraps it in a layer of talk about "permanence" and "responsible self-government". There's an analogy somewhere with an octopus squirting out a cloud of ink to cover its escape. (Tom Chivers)

Alt Film Guide comments on tonight's broadcast of Jane Eyre 1944 on TCM (US, see sidebar)

Jane Eyre has been made and remade about a zillion times in the last century or so. Fontaine's version, directed by Robert Stevenson (later of Mary Poppins fame) and co-starring Orson Welles as Rochester, used to be the most famous one. (At least for the time being, Cary Fukunaga's well-received 2011 version starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender has become "the most famous" Jane Eyre movie.) Unfortunately, despite veteran George Barnes' moody cinematography, Stevenson's version isn't nearly as involving as Charlotte Brontë's novel.
Fontaine is okay in the title role, but her heart doesn't seem to be totally in the part. Worse yet, Welles' Rochester comes across as more creepy than brooding. It's too bad that Michael Fassbender wasn't around in the mid-'40s; he'd have been a much more adequate Rochester/Fontaine match. Aldous Huxley, by the way, was one of the film's credited screenwriters. (Andre Soares)

A reader of The Telegraph and Argus comments on installing wind turbines in the Bradford area:

Far from being a ‘blot’ (T&A. January 28), wind turbines could regenerate Bradford.
Of course they should not be planted next to the Cow and Calf or the Bronte Parsonage. Turbines should be at a suitable distance, but near, our built-up areas. [...]
John D Anderson, Bramham Drive, Baildon

The Brussels Brontë Blog posts about Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights. Loud and Little and Cicero (in German) discuss Jane Eyre. Where the Moon Sleeps shows pictures of a gorgeous edition of Shirley.

Wuthering Heights. The Entertainment in Austin

2012-01-31T00:24:00.002+01:00

An alert from the FronteraFest 2012 (Austin, Texas):

Short Fringe 2012
Hyde Park Theatre

January 31, 20:00 h
"Wuthering Heights, The Entertainment."
Lyrics: Diana Prechter, Music: Kent Cole.
Fall in love. Get mad. See ghosts. Original songs and spoken text recapitulate the famous rock-n-roll narrative of Catherine and Heathcliff.

In 2011, Diana Prechter and husband Kent Cole wrote and began performing their original 25 minute song cycle which tells the story of the famous novel written by Emily Brontë, "Wuthering Heights." Using music from across genres, they sing and tell the story as "Wuthering Heights, The Entertainment."

Video: Let's Go Savages!

The song cycle has been performed before at Full English Cafe (Austin) last December 23.

'Haworth still grips your heart and imagination'

2012-01-30T09:19:00.001+01:00

First of all, if you haven't yet signed the Save Red House petition please take a moment to do so. It doesn't mind where you are from, just sign.

The Brontë Parsonage Blog addresses locals on the matter:

A public meeting of the Spen Valley Area Committee of Kirklees Council is scheduled for this Tuesday (31 January) in the Cleckheaton Town Hall, Bradford Road, BD19 3RH at 7pm. As the 'cabinet' meeting of the Council on 7 February is going to be closed to the public, this is one of few chances left to actually speak with councillors in the hope of influencing them to keep the Red House Museum in Gomersal open.
If you can make it, meet at 6.30pm outside the front entrance.

The Daily Mail suggests a trip to 'Emily Bronte's Yorkshire: Dreaming of Heathcliff in the land of fat rascals':

Heathcliff! Heathcliff! I call across the moors but my words are washed away by the wind. I'm halfway up a hill, sitting on a dry-stone wall outside the village of Haworth, reading Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë's only novel and my favourite book when I was a teenager.
At home, a copy of the famous portrait of the three Brontë sisters, painted by their brother Bramwell [sic], was tacked to the wall above my bed. The book echoed all my typical teenage anxieties - young passion, wild dreams and terrible injustices against me. [...]
With the recent release of a new film version, a whole new generation of youngsters has been introduced to the teenage lovers.
Today Haworth buzzes with bakeries selling curd tarts, Yorkshire parkin and scone-type cakes called fat rascals - and there are tea shops stacked with scrumptious treats (try the ginger cake at No10 Teashop near the Fleece Inn). But it's far quieter than it was in Emily's day.
Johnnie Briggs of Brontë Walks told me there were ten working cotton mills and the air would have been thick with smoke. The trade route from Bradford to Lancashire passed through the village and the noise of the traffic on the single main cobbled street must have been deafening. And then there was the smell: there were 790 homes in Haworth but only 64 toilets.
No wonder Emily liked to wander up the path behind the parsonage and across the moors to Top Withins, the crumbling farmhouse on which she based the remote, forlorn Wuthering Heights. Now a place of pilgrimage, these days signposts point the way, even in Japanese, making sure no one gets lost.
There is nothing much left to see except the hint of a ruin. But the landscape is the same - a patchwork of warm browns and dusty pinks cut by grey stone, the heather billowing like a surfing sea, the wind so strong it lifts your skirt and dries your face.
The Bronte parsonage, now a museum, is furnished as it was when the family lived there and attracts 75,000 visitors a year. The red mahogany dining-room table, where the sisters sat and scribbled in their tiny, cramped handwriting, stands in the middle of the dining room.
Against a wall, there's the green horsehair sofa on which Emily died, and in the bedroom, Charlotte's paisley dress, white leather gloves and thigh-high white stockings are on display in a glass cabinet. There's also a school report stating that the author of Jane Eyre 'writes indifferently'.
In the village, the old post office is now a general stationers run by Margaret Hartley, whose family have been in business in the village for more than 350 years.
'My great-great-great-grandad was the postmaster and served the Brontes,' says Margaret, 74. 'And this is the counter that the girls passed their manuscripts over.'
'The girls' is how the people of Haworth refer to Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, as if they were family. [...]
Despite the teeming tourists - and signs advertising Ye Old Brontë Tearooms and Heathcliff Bed and Breakfast - Haworth still grips your heart and imagination. It certainly reminded me of being a dreamy teenager again, staring up at Emily on my bedroom wall. (Dea Birkett)

And The New York Times reviews the Artemis Theatre production Wuthering Heights: Restless Souls:

An elemental wildness runs through “Wuthering Heights, Restless Souls,” Theater Artemis’s spare but impressively theatrical adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel. Though intended for young audiences (13 and up), this production never condescends. Quite the opposite: it can be ferocious, even scary, as it gives physical shape to the bond between Cathy and Heathcliff (Alejandra Theus and Joris Smit, both feral, both terrific).
That bond, of course, was forged in childhood. And this “Wuthering Heights,” which played over the weekend as part of Zoem! New Dutch Theater at the New Victory Theater, is particularly good at showing Cathy and Heathcliff’s almost-savage childhood world — full of taunting and roughhousing that threatens to turn violent or sexual or both — and the porous way it bleeds into the natural world just outside their door. “This is inside,” she tells him, before leading him just a step. “And this is outside.”
The set, a simple wooden platform with a white curtain and a chair or two, contains no scenery that hints at Brontë’s moors. But the director, Floor Huygen, and the sound designers, Florentijn Boddendijk and Remco de Jong, conjure an active landscape using bird and night sounds, branches and twigs, water and wind. In a wonderfully apt coup de théâtre two giant fans — one in each wing — whip up a storm as Cathy and Heathcliff wander. The wind blows around all sorts of detritus and threatens their home behind the white curtain, which flaps around exposing those inside. But it intoxicates Cathy and Heathcliff, who face its power head on, their hands slowly reaching out to clasp together.
The script has been expertly drawn from Brontë’s novel by Jeroen Olyslaegers, who, with Ms. Huygen, has found clear, dramatic ways to render the story. Long segments have minimal dialogue, but the essential passages from the book are here. The show concentrates on the novel’s first half, with the second part sketched in quickly by Nelly (An Hackselmans), the novel’s servant-narrator, who in this telling seems to have a kind of witchy insight into events past, present and future.
The big complaint to be made about this production, which features excellent ensemble work and top-notch stagecraft, is that its New York run included just four performances. It deserves to be seen by more people. (Rachel Saltz)

The Scotsman looks at the life and works of the writer Andrew Lang:

Old Friends was written in 1890 and has a dazzling premise: if literature really did describe the world rather than invent it, why should characters be restricted to their own books? Lang imagines Catherine Morland, Jane Austen’s gothic-obsessed heroine of Northanger Abbey, turning up at Rochester’s house from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Inspector Lecoq from Émile Gaboriau’s then famous series of novels arrests the eponymous Pickwick, with the help of Bucket from Bleak House. It is the beginning of crossover literature, which reaches its heights with works such as Alan Moore’s The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Christine Brooke-Rose’s Textermination, and its pulp incarnation in Pride And Prejudice And Zombies and Android Karenina. (Stuart Kelly)

The Yorkshire Post features the local artist Michele Howarth Rashman:

In fact, she’s beginning to acquire the image of a wild woman of the moors. She was recently described as “a charmingly rustic antidote” to the contemporary London art scene (which begs the question what on earth London art critics think goes on in West Yorkshire). But she is enjoying the fun, not least by insisting on drawing parallels between herself and West Yorkshire’s own weird sisters, the Brontës.
There are parallels. Like the talented girls from Haworth Parsonage, Michelle spends her days engaged in meticulous, minute work (“developing long-sight and a dowager’s hump”) and she has a keen eye, which can get her into trouble (“I do use people I know and it can get a bit tricky”). And while she chooses to base herself in Yorkshire, she exhibits with the best of her London contemporaries. In her case Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin rather than William Makepeace Thackeray. And then there is the family connection. On her father’s side she is a Howarth, but on her mother’s side there are Haworths too.
Parish records show her great-great grandmother was christened by none other than Patrick Brontë and her great-great-great-grandmother is buried in the parsonage graveyard. “I’m virtually a tourist attraction,” she insists happily. (Fiona Russell)

The Bangkok Post makes what we consider an obvious statement (though the likes of V.S. Naipaul may not think so):

Women are by no means the second sex when it comes to writing. Lady Murasaki, Madame de Stael, Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Patricia Cornwell, Pearl Buck are at least as good as their male counterparts. They've penned stories in every genre, from war and peace, love and sex, to murder. (Bernard Trink)

Enduring is reading Jane Eyre and posts basic facts about Charlotte Brontë. Mrs. Jensen's Book Reviews writes about Wuthering Heights.

Brontë Society Gazette. Issue 56

2012-01-30T00:13:00.002+01:00

The latest issue of The Brontë Society Gazette is now out (Issue 56. January 2012. ISSN 1344-5940).

ARTICLES
Winter Greetings by Helen Krispien
My Favourite Brontë... by Sharon Marshall, Val Wiseman and Rachel Lee.
Putting Jane Eyre in context by Emily Waterfield
Letter from the Chairman by Sally McDonald, Chairman of Council
Winning competition entries published
The Brontë Society Conference 2011. Homerton College, Cambridge by Maureen Peeck
Ilkley Literary Festival: The Brontës, Bonnie Greer and Afternoon Tea by Richard Wilcocks
Even in death, is there no certainty? by Bob Duckett
A Modern Brontë rarity by Benjamin L. Clark
Poetry Corner: April at the Parsonage by Dorothy Newsome; Ellis Bell by Adriana Marcorini; Winter by Louise van ProosdijMembership News: NBT's The Brontës by Josephine Smith; News from the Membership Committee by Ruth Battye; New plaque on Anne Brontë's grave by Stephen Whitehead; Noel Christopher Cullington's painting: The Meeting of Waterways; In Memoriam: Thomas Cottam.
Intertextual "telepathy"? by Erik Eriksson.
Parsonage People: Rachel Lee
In defence of Branwell by Judith Bland
Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre by Richard Wilcocks
Post-It: Booking forms for the June AGM weekend 8-12 June 2012, Haworth; "Mrs. Brontë by Angela Crow; The Daphne Carrick Memorial Scholarship, 2012; London and South East Region News by Val Wiseman; New Brontë Group in the York Area.
The Weather Project by Helen Krispien

Only connect

2012-01-29T16:41:00.000+01:00

***Save Red House Petition***

BlogCritics reviews the upcoming The Brontës of Haworth DVD release:

Playwright Christopher Fry's The Brontës of Haworth, a five-episode dramatization of the lives of the 19th century literary sisters and their tortured brother televised in England in 1973 but never shown in the United States will be available in February in a two-disc DVD set from Acorn Media. Beginning with their widowed father's birthday gift to the young Branwell of the set of toy soldiers which became the inspiration for the children's early imaginative efforts as they joined together to create a fictional world modeled on the Byronic romances popular at the time, Fry traces their attempts to make their way in the world, their failures and their success, culminating in the sister's monumental achievement and early deaths. (...)
Clearly it is [Michael] Kitchen and perhaps [Alfred] Burke who are the stars of this production. Perhaps not as oddly as it would seem in a film about the Brontë family, much of the early episodes are concerned with the tragic life of Branwell rather than that of his sisters. He is after all a man haunted by demons beyond his control, the kind of fodder no dramatist can resist. (...)
The DVD runs approximately 260 minutes. The only bonus material it contains is a short prose essay on the Brontë's home in Haworth. (Jack Goodstein)

The Pittsburgh Stage and Screen Examiner also post about the release.

The Sundance screenings of Wuthering Heights 2011 are reviewed:

The book itself, gives you more of a sense of inherent evilness in both Heathcliff and Cathy. While their love might be true and intense, there are no other redeeming qualities in either of them. This rendition does do a great job of showing why Heathcliff becomes so embittered, which is a bit of a departure from the book. I also loved that the director cast unknowns in the lead roles – to me, this is what indie film making should be about. See this movie if you have never been diagnosed with ADD, can sit through three hours of overwrought, but beautiful cinematography, or are a sucker for an original take on an old story. (David J. Fowlie in Keep-it-Reel)

Heights’ spartan brutality is truly haunting. However, it is doomed to collect decidedly negative online feedback. People who go to Brontë films do not want to see something new and different. They want the “Oh, Heathcliff” scene on the moors. This is not that kind of film. It viscerally expresses a host of tactile sensations, de-emphasizing melodramatic plot turns. Despite a comparatively weaker third act, it is a bold work that really stays with you after viewing – but due to its nature, it is only recommended for adventurous, fully informed audiences. (Joe Bendel in Libertas Film Magazine)

The Daily Mail makes a reference to Wide Sargasso Sea in an article about Salman Rushdie and Indian censorship:

Second, a writer's worth to a literary culture is not decided by how prolific she is. Jean Rhys didn't write much - five slim novels. There was a gap of twenty years between her fourth and fifth novels. As it turned out, her last one, Wide Sargasso Sea, was the one that gave her lasting fam.

The Observer complains about the lack of nominations for women directors this year:

All the women. We Need to Talk About Kevin? Wuthering Heights? Bridesmaids? New director Angelina Jolie's excellent Bosnian war drama In the Land of Blood and Honey? Dee Rees and her brilliant, cool, powerful film about black-American lesbian life, Pariah? Kelly Reichardt's neo-western, Meek's Cutoff? Oh, and guess what, Madonna's W.E. is a thousand times better than royal borefest The King's Snooze, in which a man spends two hours overcoming a speech impediment while Helena Bonham Carter looks on. (Bidisha)

A Younger Theatre talks about Josie Long's The Future is Another Place:

A hard message to sell but a vital one, and one which is thankfully underpinned with a wonderfully original comic voice by Long, taking in imagined feuds between the Brontë sisters, and a meeting between Ringo and the other Beatles in which they call him up on ruining their albums by slipping children’s songs in the middle, which had me in hysterics. (Tristan Pate)

Miami Herald reviews Gemma Hardy's The Flight of Gemma Hardy:

Livesey works some sort of magic in The Flight of Gemma Hardy, which is too entertaining to be superfluous, too wise in its understanding of human nature to be a mere retread. Best of all, you don’t have to know Jane Eyre to enjoy it, though it’s clearly an offspring of and tribute to Bronte’s work. (...)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/29/2614173/beloved-classic-jane-eyre-gets.html#storylink=cpy (...()
Livesey fills Gemma’s journey — back to her past in mysterious Iceland, ahead to her future with and without Mr. Sinclair — with revelations, betrayals and surprising friendships and realizations. Gemma longs for a home: “I never meant to be a wanderer,” she says. But: “Perhaps being a wife was not the only choice.” Livesey takes a page from E.M. Forster to impart her message: Only connect. Only connect — with friends, with a lover, with family, with your past — and the whole world opens up before you, just like that. (Connie Ogle)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/29/2614173/beloved-classic-jane-eyre-gets.html#storylink=cpy

The Maine Sunday Telegram talks about yet another author with a Brontë past, Sarah Thomson:

Thomson grew up in the Midwest -- in St. Louis and Madison, Wis. Her world was populated by J.R.R. Tolkien, Lloyd Alexander, Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen. (Bob Keyes)

And The Spectator finds a Brontëite in Gloria di Piero (MP for Ashfield):

She has a soft spot for Wuthering Heights and Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. (...)
Wuthering Heights, in my view the greatest love story ever. My mate Lindsey and I read it on hols in Corfu straight after we'd done our A levels. (Fleur MacDonald)

The Calgary Herald reviews the concert of the Calgary Philarmonic Orchestra with Jeans'N'Classics:

[Jean] Meilleur performs his role of frontman cover-band capably, Leah Salomaa’s take on [Kate Bush's ]Wuthering Heights was quite wonderful, the Jeans musicians delivered a steady stream of rock shadings and quality solos, and the CPO, well, even at half speed they’re still an orchestra that can throw down with the best of them. (Mike Bell)

The New York Post announces that Drew Barrymore will be the co-host of TCM's The Essentials which will schedule Wuthering Heights 1939 in the new season. Also in the Post a brief comment about Jane Eyre 1944 (Monday, 8 p.m., TCM):

Joan Fontaine is Jane Eyre, who in 1800s England, goes straight from an abusive, orphans' charity school to a position as a governess to the ward of rich, gloomy Mr. Rochester (Orson Welles). Although he is above her station in 19th-century English society, she begins to fall for him, and he seemingly begins to have feelings for her as well. Did you really think it would be that easy? From the novel by Charlotte Brontë who, along with her sister, Emily, endured similar conditions at their charity boarding school.

The Sag Harbor Express has an intriguing Brontë reference:

As some of you might remember, I asked for chickens for Christmas, and the universe, not my husband, brought them to me. (...) Needless to say, I now have six fluffy chicks in the basement in a pet shop rabbit cage covered with a packing blanket. Very Jane Eyre. (Paige Patterson)

Raizononline Portal posts about the Brontës (in Portuguese); Jane Eyre 2011 is reviewed on 30diary (in Italian), videosöndag (in Swedish) and Oscar Completist.

LipService's new tour

2012-01-29T02:04:00.000+01:00

The LipService theatre company is touring again the UK with their spoof, Withering Looks:

The Radlett Centre
Withering Looks
28th January

The Curve, Leicester
Withering Looks
7th February

Bedford Corn Exchange
http://www.bedfordcornexchange.co.uk/
Withering Looks
8th February

The Donut Chesterfield
Withering Looks
8th March
International Women's day event

Leeds City Varieties
Withering Looks
9th March

Square Chapel, Halifax
Withering Looks
10th March

Georgian Theatre, RichmondWithering Looks
16th March

Kendal Brewery Arts Centre
Withering Looks
17th March
breweryarts.co.uk

Red House: combining Brontë history and Brontë fiction

2012-01-28T13:09:00.002+01:00

The Red House story is beginning to reach local papers. The Spenborough Guardian reports many locals are against the closure:

Red House – ‘a cultural and educational gem’ – could be lost forever under council plans to sell it off.
Kirklees says closing the award-winning Gomersal museum and moving its exhibits to other museums would save £116,000 over two years.
However the plans have caused anger with critics saying it is yet another example of north Kirklees making the biggest sacrifices.
MP Mike Wood said: “We knew Kirklees was considering reducing the opening hours, and that was bad enough, but to hear they want to close it altogether was a bombshell.
“Red House is a credit to our area, and we cannot sacrifice it in a forlorn attempt to save money at all costs. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. [...]”
Gomersal councillor Lisa Holmes, said she and her Tory ward colleagues would do their utmost to fight the plans.
“It’s an absolute shame,” she said. “I have spoken to the staff who are devastated, not just for their jobs but because they know the vital service it provides. We realise we have massive savings to make, but we will do whatever we can to find an alternative to closure. There is a big challenge ahead of us but we must protect our heritage.”
Vice-chairman of Spen Valley Civic Society Gordon North said: “People cherish Red House and I am sure they will be as disgusted as we are that the one museum in the Spen Valley could go.
“It attracts local, national and international visitors, and it’s not just because of its Brontë links. The Taylor family was incredibly important in the story of the Spen Valley – Mr Taylor was one of the first woollen manufacturers and opened the Bank of Gomersal, while his daughter Mary Taylor was at the forefront of the feminist and equality movements – and you might think that a Labour council might recognise that.”
Red House was bought by the old Spenborough Council in 1969 to be opened as a museum telling the story of the Spen Valley.
Former Spenborough councillor Michael McGowan, who went on to become an MEP, said only last year he had taken a group of visitors from New Zealand to Red House, because of Mary Taylor’s links with their country.
“It’s a fantastic resource, a cultural and educational gem, and we mustn’t lose it,” he said.
The move has also been condemned by Carol Brontë, who first visited Red House as curator of the Brontë Museum in Northern Ireland. Her husband, James Wallace Brontë, is the great-great-grandson of the Rev Patrick Brontë’s youngest brother.
“I’m absolutely devastated,” she said. “Why close this famous tourist destination? It’s a very special place and I would urge Kirklees to think again.”
Brontë Society trustee Stephen Whitehead said: “The Taylor family was so important to Charlotte that she featured them as the Yorkes in Shirley and Briarmains is an exact description of Red House. It is an irreplaceable asset and this is not the way to manage your heritage.”
President of Cleckheaton Rotary Club Bill Stevenson said they had great concerns about the length of time for objections – February 7 – and urged the public to attend Tuesday’s Spen Valley area committee meeting to air their views.
The meeting is at 7pm at the town hall, Cleckheaton.
A spokeswoman for Kirklees said difficult decisions had to be made.
“The proposal to close Red House Museum is one of a large number of measures up for consideration which have been proposed to fill a very big gap in the council’s budget and reduce expenditure,” she said.
No decision has been made yet and people are invited to make their views know by contacting communication@kirklees.gov.uk or Communities and Leisure, Museums and Galleries, The Stables, Ravensknowle Park, Wakefield Road, Dalton, Huddersfield, HD5 8DJ. (Margaret Heward)

The Telegraph and Argus looks at it from a Brontë point of view:

The director of the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth has condemned proposals to close a popular museum with strong connections to the famous literary family.
The future of Red House Museum, Gomersal, will be discussed at Kirklees Council’s Cabinet meeting on February 7 as part of budget talks.
But parsonage director Andrew McCarthy said: “We appreciate the challenges faced by local authorities in terms of balancing the budgets at the moment but it does seem a pretty drastic step that can be made in haste and repented at leisure.” [...]
It is said ‘Briarmains’ – the house Charlotte wrote about in her second novel, Shirley – was based on Red House and some of the characters were thought to have been inspired by the Taylor family.
Mr McCarthy said: “The Taylor family as merchants, bankers and mill-owners did a huge amount to shape that part of the West Riding and they are a great part of the heritage of the area and there is this very strong link with the Brontës, particularly Charlotte.
“She stayed there on many occasions in the 1830s as a guest of her close friends Mary and Martha Taylor.
“There are very few buildings which combine Brontë history and Brontë fiction in the way Red House does. It would be a huge loss.” (Sally Clifford)

Please keep letters/email coming to local authorities (see list in this post) and if you haven't yet, do sign this online petition. And spread the word too!

Another fighting front is the repairs of the Haworth Parish Church. The news of the many initiatives that have been done (and have to be done) to raise the money have crossed borders and are mentioned in quite a good article in El País (Spain):

El organismo público English Heritage se comprometió a donar 120.000 euros para la primera parte del trabajo si la iglesia conseguía recaudar 75.000 euros. El plazo acababa el viernes 20, después de ser prorrogado en un par de ocasiones. "En las últimas horas hemos conseguido el último céntimo del dinero que necesitábamos, hemos conocido que English Heritage nos dará su donación pero también nos han dicho que la obra nos costará 50.000 libras más, una auténtica patada en la boca" explica Peter Mayo - Smith, el párroco anglicano de Haworth. El dinero ha tardado tanto en llegar que el precio de la obra se ha elevado. "English Heritage nos ha dado permiso para comenzar la obra de la parte sur del tejado en primavera pero es nuestra responsabilidad lograr la diferencia con el precio actual y, teniendo en cuenta que hemos tardado más de un año en recolectar 75.000 euros, no las tenemos todas con nosotros. Sin embargo, tengo esperanza y transmito a la comunidad, que tanto ha ayudado. Esto es como una carrera de triatlón. Ya hemos superado la prueba de la natación pero nos quedan el ciclismo y la carrera a pie para dar por concluida la obra". (Maruxa Ruiz del Árbol) (Translation)

Anyway, some things never change, and one is John Mullan's Brontë mentions on his '10 of the best' for the Guardian. Today he looks at nightmares:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Poor Lockwood gets snowed in on a visit to Wuthering Heights and has to stay the night. He dreams that he puts his hand through the bedroom window and has it seized by "the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand". There is a sobbing voice and suddenly a terrifying child's face. It is Cathy, and the rest of the novel is an explanation of this dream.

Strange, though, that he has left out Jane's in Jane Eyre.

This columnist from The Hindu should read the books he mentions before he preaches about their 'social purpose':

Realism and romanticism can be either passive or active. Passive realism usually aims to depict reality truthfully, without preaching anything. The novels of Jane Austen, George Eliot and the Brontë Sisters are examples. In this sense, they are socially neutral. However, sometimes passive realism preaches fatalism, passivity, non-resistance to evil, suffering and humility. (Markandey Katju)

Sure, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to name but one novel is as 'socially neutral' as a book can get.

TIME Magazine wonders,

But why were Victorian writers so into orphans? Oliver set the trend (the novel was eight chapters into its serial run when Victoria was crowned queen, in June of 1837), and then there’s Jane Eyre and Heathcliff and Daniel Deronda and Dickens’ own Pip and Estella, in Great Expectations, to name just a few. (Radhika Jones)

Mainly because there were many of them in real life too.

The Guardian comments on the bookishness of this year's Oscars:

It's not classic novels that attract movie-makers. Of the books turned into nominated films this time, only Michael Morpurgo's War Horse (1982) was not published in the noughties. The others are Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret (filmed as Hugo), Jonathan Safran Foer's 9/11 novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Moneyball by Michael Lewis (the second non-fiction sports title by him in three years to generate a Best Picture nominee, as he also wrote the source of Blind Side), and two debuts, Kaui Hart Hemmings's The Descendants and Kathryn Stockett's The Help. It's the first time for quite a while – conceivably since 1940, when Gone with the Wind won and Wuthering Heights was among the nominees – that versions of two novels by women have been listed for the most coveted Oscar. (John Dugdale)

Too bad Jane Eyre (and Wuthering Heights too, why not) haven't been featured more prominently.

Connect Savannah is fascinated by Michael Fassbender's versatility:

As part of his four-score from 2011, Michael Fassbender turns up in A Dangerous Method as Carl Jung, the Swiss doctor often deemed the father of modern psychology. Watching him tackle Jung as a cautious, conflicted man, it's hard to see the same person who was so brooding in Jane Eyre, so, uh, magnetic in X-Men: First Class, and so raw in Shame. Yes, there's a reason so many of us think Academy Award nominee Michael Fassbender sounds a helluva lot better than, say, Academy Award nominee Jonah Hill. (Matt Brunson)

Film School Rejects on Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights at Sundance:

To see Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, one of my most anticipated films of the festival. A gorgeous visual feast, it’s a sumptuous and sensual film, just heaven on the eyes. Emotionally, though, it’s a toughie – for the sole reason that the characters of Cathy and Heathcliff are awful, selfish, wretched people. Their love story is one of destruction of all kinds, and Arnold rendered it in a way that is true to its source material. (Kate Erbland)

And de Volkskrant (Netherlands) talks about the premiere of the film at the Rotterdam Film Festival (IFFR).

The Chicago Tribune discusses fictionalised biographies:

Or "Charlotte & Emily" (2010) by Jude Morgan, if your curiosity runs to the famous scribbling sisters who turned out"Jane Eyre" and"Wuthering Heights" in between bouts of melancholy. (Julia Keller)

And Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy makes it to The New York Times' Editors' Choice.

THE FLIGHT OF GEMMA HARDY, by Margot Livesey (Harper/HarperCollins, $26.99.) An appealing novel about a young girl that recasts “Jane Eyre.”

The New Zealand Listener sums up a Midsomer Murders episode:

Midsomer Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Midsomer sticks it the the actors: in A Tale of Two Hamlets, an arrogant actor (Charlie Beall) is killed in a summerhouse explosion, and then the director of one of his movies is electrocuted. It seems there’s a feud going in in Upper and Lower Warden over the works of a Victorian male writer called Ellis Bell – which, literary geeks, was the pseudonym of Emily Brontë. (Fiona Rae)

EFE covers the Spanish premiere of Albert Nobbs and lists several films where women are dressed like men. Including Les Soeurs Brontë 1979:

Otros ejemplos destacables los encontramos en "Las hermanas Brontë" (1979), con Isabelle Huppert como una de las célebres escritoras[.] (Carlos Palencia) (Translation)

Las Provincias (Spain) revisits the zombies and mentions a mashup that cannot be other than Wuthering Heights and a Werewolf...and a Zombie Too:

Los zombis, los muertos vivientes, los caminantes putrefactos, demarran a principios de los años 30 con 'La Legión de los hombres sin Alma', de Victor Halpernin. Desde entonces no han parado de crecer y ahora la zombificación es total, completa, rotunda, exitosa, con lo cual sospechamos que están aquí para quedarse pues el género no sólo se ha consolidado en el cine y en la pequeña pantalla ('Walking Dead'), sino que ha saltado al comic y a la literatura, revisionando clásicos como 'Cumbres Borrascosas' o avanzando al galope gracias a norteamericanos como el hijo de Mel Brooks, Max Brooks (véase su 'Guerra mundial Zombi', o a paisanos nuestros como Juan Miguel Aguilera y Javier Negrete. (Translation)

Ginger Generation talks about the Valentino collection in the Paris Fashion Week (in Italian):

La moda italiana chiude in bellezza la settimana della moda parigina. Impalpabile, leggera, sognante: la moda Valentino è tutta un tulle. Abiti dal sapore vittoriano, che sembrano usciti da un romanzo delle sorelle Brontë: colli alti con fiocco, maniche a sbuffo e gonne ampie. (Francesca Parravicini) (Translation)

Michel Vivoux remembers first loves in La Depeche (France):

Soudain, la petite fille se rue sur moi, me serre dans ses bras, me fait un énorme bisou sur la bouche, et me dit un de ces « je t'aime » comme on peut en entendre dans « Les Hauts de Hurlevent » ou autre « Autant en emporte le vent ». (Translation)

Good reviews for the theatre play The Sisters Three: das Leben der Schwestern Brontë performed at the Linzer Posthof theatre:

Die einengende Welt der „Three Sisters“ wurde auch durch die Videoprojektionen (Renate Schuler) und atmosphärische Musik (Willy Hackl) heraufbeschworen. Joachim Rathke hätte in seiner Inszenierung allerdings durchaus mehr auf die Kraft der Literatur vertrauen können. Das erfreulich zahlreich erschienene Publikum war bei der Premiere am Donnerstagabend trotzdem großteils sehr angetan.Vorstellungen. (Birgit Thek in Neues Volskblatt) (Translation)

Eingebettet in zahlreiche Originalzitate aus Briefen, Tagebüchern, Romanen vermischen sich Wirklichkeit und Fiktion, Tragik, aber auch Komik zu einer intensiven Stunde, die in der Regie von Joachim Rathke darstellerisch aus dem Vollen schöpft, manchmal nahe an der Grenze zu Theatralik und Parodie. Das Bühnenbild ersetzen, bis auf Tisch und Stühle, Renate Schulers atmosphärische Videoprojektionen: als Fenster in die Öde, als in den Gedichten viel zitiertes Meer der Seele.
Willy Hackls Klangkulisse unterstreicht die Emotionen, wobei ihm oft ein hartes Pochen genügt, um Beklemmung spürbar zu machen. Langer Applaus für einen fast schon zu intensiven Abend.
Neu und gut also discusses this production. (Karin Schütze in Nachrichten) (Translation)

The Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany) talks about the 250th Anniversary Catalogue of Henry Sotheran Booksellers:

Auch die literarischen Klassiker sind vertreten. Der erste Gedichtband der Brontë-Schwestern, schlicht „Poems“, veröffentlicht noch unter den männlichen Pseudonymen Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, war 1848 ein Misserfolg - und ist heute eine Rarität, die man für 2250 Pfund erhält. (Mareike Hennig) (Translation)

The MocArty RMF Classic (Poland) nominations have been announced. Dario Marianelli's Jane Eyre soundtrack has been nominated for Best Film Music.

Sydsvenskan (Sweden) interviews the author Ingrid Elam:

Vilka mer eller mindre väl dolda fiktioner vill jag lyfta fram? Nyfiket skärskådar hon Charlotte Brontë i ”Jane Eyre” och konstaterar: (Katarina Tornberg) (Translation)

The Times looks at the price of literary manuscript, remarking on the £690,000 recently fetched by Charlotte Brontë's unpublished juvenilia manuscript. Pete Medway posts about an old edition of Wuthering Heights. And the Brontë Sisters shares a picture of a man baptised by Patrick Brontë; Dilettabrizzi reviews Jane Eyre on Paperblog.

Jane Eyre 2.0 in Atlanta

2012-01-28T01:11:00.001+01:00

After being performed in Tokyo and Houston, the revised version of Gordon & Caird's Jane Eyre (or Jane Eyre 2.0 as it is sometimes called) opens this weekend in Atlanta:

Jane Eyre. The Musical

Music & Lyrics by Paul Gordon
Book & Additonal Lyrics by John Caird
Legacy Theatre, Atlanta
January 27th - February 19th, 2012
With:
Katie Mitchell, Stephen Mitchell Brown, Jill Bergeron, Anna Bridgeman, Amy Bridges, Erin Burnett, Alexandra Duncan, Ben Isabel, Erin Lamb, Ed Richardson, Preston Watson, Amanda Wilborn and Hannah Wilkinson.

Romance. Secrets. Haunting. These are the words that might come to mind while taking a walk through the ethereal English moors of the 5-time Tony nominated Broadway musical, Jane Eyre. This musical adaptation of the 19th century novel by Charlotte Brontë features the work of composer lyricist Paul Gordon (Emma) and book-writer/lyricist John Caird (Les Miserables; Children of Eden), whom have granted the Legacy the regional premier of their new version of the show. This is one you will not want to miss.

Broadway World adds:

Mr. Gordon states that “Jane Eyre 2.0 is a leaner and more concise version of the show that played. Broadway in 2001. We have tuned the story and made the production more acceptable for regional theaters around the country to produce. We are very proud of the improvements and changes we have made and hope that audiences will enjoy Charlotte Brontë's moving story of love and forgiveness.” (...)
This version boasts a reduced orchestra from the original New York production as well as new and rewritten music and lyrics. The book has been cut extensively throughout in order to bring focus to the emotional love story between Jane and Rochester. The cast has been reduced to thirteen, with most actors doubling or tripling roles.

The Citizen has further information:

Mark Smith, Artistic Director of the Legacy and Jane Eyre’s director, first approached Gordon and Caird in the Fall of 2010 after having read the article on Playbill.com.
“The musical’s soundtrack has always been one of my favorites. The haunting and memorable melodies, combined with the story’s timeless and enduring themes, made a considerable impression on me. After reading the article, I knew that the Legacy with its intimate, yet grand auditorium could be the perfect place to stage this new version of the show. Mr. Caird and Mr. Gordon were incredibly gracious and excited about the possibility of bringing this version to Atlanta and to the Legacy for its regional premiere.”

A nearly 100 years old sensational story

2012-01-27T15:10:00.002+01:00

First of all, we have set up an online petition to try and save Red House from being closed down and sold. Please do take a moment to sign it here.

A couple of headlines today have made us think that we had gone back in time to 1913 when Charlotte's letters to Constantin Heger were first published. The Telegraph writes 'Charlotte Brontë's lost love letters revealed':

The letters were sent by the Jane Eyre novelist to Professor Constantin Heger, an older man with a wife and children.
Heger tore them up in shock, but they were retrieved from a rubbish bin by his wife who sewed them back together and preserved them.
One, composed in French, reads: "If my master withdraws his friendship from me entirely, I shall be absolutely without hope."
Another, with a postscript written in English, reads: "I must say one word to you in English - I wish I would write to you more cheerful letters, for when I read this over, I find it to be somewhat gloomy - but forgive me my dear master - do not be irritated at my sadness - according to the words of the Bible: 'Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaketh', and truly I find it difficult to be cheerful so long as I think I shall never see you more." [...]
By the time Heger was shown the letters by his daughter on his death bed, Bronte had died age 38 and was a recognised writer. The family decided to keep the correspondence, but the writer's love for Heger was tactfully omited from a biography written by her friend, Elizabeth Gaskell.
Rachel Floss, of the British Library, said: "Having been burnt, sold, cut up and destroyed, it is remarkable that these letters have survived.
"Seeing the torn-up letters with the careful stitches holding them together is remarkably evocative and moving. You get a really vivid sense that they have a story to tell."
Love Letters: 2000 Years of Romance, is published by the British Library and features correspondence from Oscar Wilde, Henry VIII, Rupert Brooke and Lord Nelson.

And the Daily Mail: 'Charlotte Brontë’s lost love letters to married professor were preserved by his wife'

It was a tale of unrequited love that could have been plucked straight from one of her novels.
Charlotte Brontë’s infatuation with her Belgian professor might never have come to light if it were not for the salvaging of her secret love letters.
The papers, written in 1844 when the author was 28, were torn up in shock by the older man, who was married and had children. But perversely, they were later found by his wife in a rubbish bin and sewn back together – possibly to preserve evidence of an indiscretion.
Three of the letters, addressed to Professor Constantin Heger, were composed entirely in French, one saying: ‘If my master withdraws his friendship from me entirely, I shall be absolutely without hope.’
One further letter had a postscript written in English, which is now to be published by the British Library in an anthology of love letters written by historical figures.
It reads: ‘I must say one word to you in English – I wish I would write to you more cheerful letters, for when I read this over, I find it to be somewhat gloomy – but forgive me my dear master – do not be irritated at my sadness – according to the words of the Bible: “Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaketh” and truly I find it difficult to be cheerful so long as I think I shall never see you more.’ [...]
The letters still have the marks where their horrified recipient tore them up or tried to burn them.
Even after his wife had rescued them, Professor Heger tried to dispose of them again when his daughter showed them to him as he lay on his death bed in 1896.
But by this time, Miss Brontë – who had died aged 38 in 1855 – was already seen as an important writer and it was decided they should be preserved. [...]
After Brontë’s death, her friend Elizabeth Gaskell wrote her biography, attempting to bury the story of unrequited love to preserve her honour. The young woman’s reputation would have been ruined had it been well-known that she pursued a man so aggressively.
Love Letters: 2000 Years of Romance, is the first ever anthology to reproduce original love letters in each of the writers’ own hand. (Eleanor Harding)

Just a remark here: the letters were once 'lost' (not exactly lost, just privately owned by the Hegers) but have been in the British Library and widely known since 1913. And anyway we thought the book had been released back in November.

Another book, The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey, continues gathering reviews and being deemed Jane Eyre-inspired. Macleans looks at the connection:

In 1958, at the age of 10, Gemma Hardy is the unwanted ward of her late uncle’s wife. She is sent off to boarding school, where she earns her keep by cooking and cleaning and where she must fend off the abuse of other students. Clever and hard-working, Gemma is not quite 18 when she goes to work as the au pair of an unruly little girl who lives with her uncle, the mysterious Mr. Sinclair, in the Orkneys in Scotland. Despite the differences between Gemma and Sinclair—he is more than twice her age, educated and of means—a strong connection sparks between them. Then Gemma discovers a secret from his past which she cannot abide.
Sound familiar? It should—the story is based quite closely on Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë’s tale of the feisty, wise-beyond-her-years orphan, still widely read more than 150 years after publication. So why reinvent one of the great classics of English literature? Part of Jane Eyre’s brilliance lies in its portrayal of children as both sophisticated and vulnerable emotionally—they “can feel,” Brontë wrote, “but they cannot analyze their feelings.” Livesey’s adaptation brings those feelings into closer relief, granting readers greater intimacy with the beloved character.
While Gemma, like Jane, is remarkably resilient, she is not immune to the confusion and contradictions that live in all young people. When her aunt puts on a rare show of tenderness, Gemma unwittingly melts—“It was so long since anyone had touched me with a semblance of affection.” When her cry for help lands a teacher in trouble, she atones with fervour. Desperate to discover her roots, she betrays a couple to whom she has become close. And on the romance front—this is, above all, a love story—Gemma is idealistic but also red-blooded. Livesey does not shy away from the inherent discomfort in the story’s liaison between a teenager and much-older man, but Jane Eyre fans will not be disappointed—not one ounce of passion is sacrificed. (Dafna Izenberg)

The Christian Science Monitor comments on it as well:

Lonely and having lost her mother, nine-year-old Margot Livesy “fell in love” with “Jane Eyre.” Now, the award-winning Scottish writer transports Charlotte Brontë's classic to 1950s and '60s Scotland in her new novel, The Flight of Gemma Hardy.
While living some 140 years in the future, fierce, justice-demanding Gemma will be instantly recognizable to Brontë's readers. (In this case, she comes with an affinity for birds and an Icelandic back story, having been brought to Scotland by her vicar uncle after her parents die.) The first chapters hew closely to the original: the selfish aunt, the spoiled cousins, the horrible boarding school – check, check, check.
Like Brontë, Livesy attended a Lowood-like establishment, where she “prayed nightly for the school to burn down.” [...]
But if the Orkneys are a satisfying stand-in for Thornfield Hall, occasionally grumpy banker Hugh Sinclair is no Mr. Rochester. Their love affair feels perfunctory – almost a whim on his part. And while a rich 41-year-old male being attracted to a penniless 18-year-old isn't exactly improbable, it's not the stuff that epic romances are made of. It's also really tough to come up with an obstacle to true love that can top a madwoman in the attic. Reader, I didn't want her to marry him.
In a contrast with “Jane Eyre,” where a reader can't wait to get back to Thornfield, the last third of “The Flight of Gemma Hardy” gets even stronger. Livesy deviates a bit more from Brontë's playbook as Gemma makes a place for herself in the world. And while Jane never sat for her O levels, you just know she would have aced them. (Yvonne Zipp)

Hispanic Business reports that Michael Thomas Ford is releasing a new Zombie Austen novel next month:

In Jane Vows Vengeance by Michael Thomas Ford (Ballantine, Feb. 28), our erstwhile gothic gal needs to let her fiancé know that she's not just dead, but undead. She also needs to get away from Lord Byron and Charlotte Brontë -- and who could blame her?

The Star carries a story about three literary sisters... which are not the Brontë sisters:

Sheffield-born siblings Danuta Reah and Penny Grubb are both acclaimed crime authors - with their older sister Sue Knight a published poet - and they each focus on the dark world of crime in their novels.
Now the family are being described as a contemporary version of the ultimate literary dynasty - Yorkshire’s Bronte sisters – as Danuta and Penny prepare for their first joint book signing in Sheffield.
Danuta, of Endcliffe Vale Road, Endcliffe, said: “I wouldn’t want to compare myself with Charlotte Bronte or one of her sisters, these are classic writers, but in a way we’re doing a similar thing.
“Crime fiction looks at darkness in society, the awful things people do to each other, that reaches out to a wide audience like the Brontës did.”
Like the Brontes, the family love the wild moors of their home county and are all talented, with younger brother John Kot an astrophysicist.
Penny, 56, who now lives near Hull, said: “It is a flattering comparison. When we were little we used to play games and write reams. Unfortunately, unlike the Brontë family we didn’t keep that.”

HitFix's In Contention thinks Jane Eyre 2011 deserved a Best Cinematography Oscar nomination:

On balance, it's a sightly enough group of films, though I can't help wishing the branch had shown a little more ingenuity in their choices: this would have been a lovely place to recognize some visually astonishing arthouse items too modest or too tricky to get a foothold in major categories: "Jane Eyre," "Melancholia," "Meek's Cutoff"... take your pick. (Guy Lodge)

The Philadelphia Inquirer also thinks that Jane Eyre deserved more:

Oh well, in the eyes of Oscar, it's the year of the domestic. "Albert Nobbs," "The Help." Which makes it even harder to explain why "Jane Eyre" was overlooked. (Gary Thompson)

A couple of reviews of the film Albert Nobbs mention Mia Wasikowska's Jane. The Sacramento Bee says,

Wasikowska is its lyrical heart. The actress was excellent going through her own stages of repression and rebirth as Jane Eyre earlier this year. . . (Betsy Sharkey)

And according to Times Union,

and Wasikowska proves that the deer in the headlights thing she did in "Jane Eyre" was a performance, not a mannerism. (Mick LaSalle)

The Jerusalem Post has an article on the British Film Festival (February 4-12 at Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv venues).

The opening movie is Andrea Arnold’s new version of Wuthering Heights. It’s a reworking of the beloved Emily Brontë classic, which is meant to shock its audiences as the original book scandalized readers.
Heathcliff is not a Gypsy but a runaway slave from the Caribbean, who uses profanity and fights back when he is called by a racial slur.
Viewers who remember earlier screen versions, notably the Merle Oberon- Laurence Olivier 1939 film directed by William Wyler, should be warned – this isn’t your grandmother’s Wuthering Heights. Arnold is known for her gritty, realistic films Fish Tank and Red Road. (Hannah Brown)

The film The Grey is reviewed by Toro Magazine:

And while we may wish to applaud the filmmaker’s attempt to add some social relevance and substance to an otherwise traditional yarn about the tenacity of the human spirit, there is little to gain by grinding down the action to give each death scene a soulful soliloquy more in keeping with the writings of Emily Brontë than those of Jack London. (Thom Ernst)

The Telegraph and Argus makes a pun on Bradford City's football player Andy Haworth:

With a name like Haworth, City’s “other” on-loan winger should fit in fine in West Yorkshire.
Andy Haworth would certainly love to hit the ‘Wuthering Heights’ as he looks to put a frustrating time at Bury behind him. (Simon Parker)

The Indiana Statesman recommends Wuthering Heights. And Liz Lochhead Scotland's poet laureate would seem inclined to agree with that, judging by this interview in The Herald:

What is your favourite book? Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro, because I'd felt she was being valedictory in her previous one, The View from Castle Rock, but, no, there it was, yet another collection of dazzling short stories, as great as ever. Oh, and Wuthering Heights. Of course.

The New York Times suggests Wuthering Heights: Restless Souls.

The Huffington Post wonders whether you can be addicted to love:

From Romeo and Juliet (underage bride, double suicide) to Wuthering Heights (animal torture, violent death) and Jane Eyre (insane hidden wife, arson), every great love story had two things in common: A healthy dose of suffering and a body count. (Catherine Townsend)

This blogger's favourite novel is Jane Eyre and Pop/Media Explosion looks into what is to be learned about friendship from Jane Eyre. Al borde de un ataque de cine (in Spanish) and Close Caption (in Turkish) review the 2011 film adaptation. Livros e vagalumes is giving away a copy of Wuthering Heights in Portuguese while Queenie and the Dew posts pictures of a 1950s edition of the novel. Subtle Melodrama reviews The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. And Laura's Reviews posts about The Brontës: A Beginner's Guide by Steve Eddy.

Cathy and Heathcliff on 42nd Street

2012-01-27T00:37:00.001+01:00

The Theater Artemis production of Wuthering Heights opens in New York:

Wuthering Heights: Restless Souls
Theater Artemis
’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
The New Victory Theatre, New York, US
January 27 7 pm
January 28 2 pm ; 7 pm
January 29 3pm

Co-produced by Theater Antigone of Kortrijk, Belgium

Edgar and Heathcliff have always been Catherine's whole world, and the battle between her heart and her head consumes her. "Choose, choose, and make peace with your choice," her housemaid Nelly urges her in this fearless stage adaptation of Emily Brontë's sweeping love story. Played on a spare set evoking the wild and mysterious nature of the moors, this contemporary production exposes the timeless nature and inescapable power of the classic novel. "From adolescence to old age: there is not a story that is as famous and universal as that of love that will tear people apart. And this is where the strength of this performance lies, in its appeal across generations." – De Morgen (Belgium)

"Wuthering Heights is drama that grabs onto you and never lets go." – Het Parool - Joukje Akveld

NEW VIC EXTRAS
Zoem! New Dutch Theater Special Exhibit
(Informative display about Dutch productions)

SIGN-INTERPRETED PERFORMANCE
Sun, Jan 29 at 3pm

POST-SHOW TALK-BACK
Sun, Jan 29 at 3pm

FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY
New Vic Studio: Family Workshops
Sat, Jan 28 at 4:30pm

Save Red House

2012-01-26T09:45:00.001+01:00

First of all, we would like to bring to your attention a very important post published by the Brontë Parsonage Blog:

Last week, Kirklees Council made public its budget proposals.
In addition to the recently publicised reduction in the opening times of Museums and Galleries across Kirklees, the proposals now include the complete closure of Red House Museum in Gomersal. If these proposals are passed, Red House would be closed in September and the buildings sold - not necessarily as a museum.
Red House was built in 1660 and was the home of the Taylor Family until 1920. It has important Brontë connections and is now furnished as a home in the 1830s when Charlotte Brontë was a frequent visitor. Red House, the Taylor family and the Spen Valley area were all featured in Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley.
Also on site are the recreated 1830s gardens, the restored Barn which illustrates the numerous Brontë connections in the area and the renovated Cartsheds which houses the 'Spen Valley Stories' gallery.
Last year the site received almost 30,000 visitors and was recently awarded its second Sandford Award for the quality of its heritage educational services for schools. The site is an important asset for Kirklees and local businesses as a tourist destination which attracts visitors from all over the world to the area.
Unlike Council Services which can be cut and reinstated in better economic times, if the proposal to close and sell the site were passed an extremely important part of Spen Valley's heritage would be lost forever. Kirkless Council Impact Statement.
Richard Wilcocks writes:
So the Communities and Leisure Service department of Kirklees Council is recommending that the Red House Museum in Gomersal should be closed down in less than nine months. Just like that! Once again, a local authority is calculating that a short-term capital gain and a removal of dedicated museum staff is going to make up for the loss of one of Kirklees’s few tourist attractions, which is much more than a museum and a learning centre. It could be put on a list of national treasures. It is important not only for those dismissed in the official impact statement as ‘Brontë enthusiasts’ (note that these come after the local businesses in the sentence) but for anyone who believes that the most fitting memorial to Mary Taylor, a highly significant historical figure, not only because of her lifelong friendship with Charlotte Brontë, is the museum situated in her house. Perhaps that should be national memorial – let’s move beyond the parochial.
I well remember a book launch of about a decade ago, held in the Red House grounds: Joan Bellamy, who was at the time a member of Brontë Society Council, had just published More Precious than Rubies, a title which has Mary Taylor, Friend of Charlotte Brontë, Strong Minded Woman underneath it. All present were complimentary about Red House, its exhibitions and the expertise to be found within its red-brick walls, and they were not just being polite. It was described as a great aid for those concerned with education – and if proof is needed that the place is still a great aid, look online at this document. Explaining her title, Joan said that it could easily apply to the museum as well, which she greatly admired.
Now the treasure could be sold off – apparently, one quick-off-the-mark developer has already suggested that the seventeenth century building could be converted into very desirable flats, and that a chic little bistro could be put into it as well.
The Council Cabinet are to meet on 7th February. There is to be no public consultation but they are inviting 'public dialogue'. The whole set of proposals – including overviews of the council spending and the approach of each directorate – is available on the Council website .
Comments can be made on the website, via a local Councillor or by e-mail to consultation@kirklees.gov.uk
Brontë Society Chair Sally McDonald is busy writing letters about this, and plenty of other people (no, you don’t have to be a Society member) are using their keyboards to send emails. You as well? Letters to newspaper editors, protests to local MPs, messages to local radio and television – you could affect the outcome. The list below is not exhaustive, so please include your own contacts. You don’t have to be resident in Kirklees. Or England.
BBC Look North – christa.ackroyd@bbc.co.uk
Calendar – ITV Yorkshire – calendar@itv.com
Radio Leeds – layla.painter@bbc.co.uk
Yorkshire Post – yp.newsdesk@ypn.co.uk
Yorkshire Evening Post – eped@ypn.co.uk
Huddersfield Daily Examiner – editor@examiner.co.uk
Batley & Birstall News – batleyeditorial@ywng.co.uk
News Editor of Spenborough Guardian – Margaret.heward@ywng.co.uk
Mirfield Reporter – dewsburyeditorial@ywng.co.uk
News Team at Morley Observer – Erica.madelin@ypn.co.uk

Please do as Richard suggests: write letters/emails protesting against it and have anyone in the least interested in preserving history do so as well, be they Brontëites or not. It's not just that they are closing down (and selling!!) one precious museum, it's the fact that once they start doing that you never know when they will stop.

Anyway, onto lighter matters. More reactions to the Jane Eyre Oscar nominations (or lack thereof).

The California Literary Review:

Costume Design I just want Jane Eyre to win, partly because the costumes were excellent and partly because it was shamefully overlooked in the Art Direction category. Its prospects would have been grim up against Harry Potter, but even so… (Brett Harrison Davinger)

StarNews Online's Bookmarks:

Even Charlotte Brontë could walk on the runway, were she still with us. The 2011 version of “Jane Eyre,” starring Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska, is in the running for a Best Costume Oscar. (Ben Steelman)

Nicole Kidman joins Meryl Streep in prasing Mia Wasikowska's Jane. From her Official Website:

I just worked with Mia Wasikowska and she is so so talented. Her performance is Jane Eyre is gorgeous. Xo Nic

Reuters quotes from Andrea Arnold's description of her own take on Wuthering Heights:

Andrea Arnold, the delightfully British director of what she called “the cover band version” of "Wuthering Heights." (Jeremy Walker)

Inquirer Lifestyle has an article on 'a foodie's literary adventures':

“A Brontë Kitchen” by Victoria Wright is probably what one can buy at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Yorkshire, England, but I found it in a used book shop. The Parsonage is where the famous literary sisters—Charlotte, Emily and Anne—lived and wrote their novels, using the moors around their home as their bleak setting. It is in the kitchen where they gathered to write and help out their cook as she prepared their meals.
The recipes, however, were gathered from old cookery books of the time. Of course I had to look for Yorkshire pudding and there it was. The procedure asked the cook to “beat the batter with a wooden spoon until your arm aches” and revealed the secret to a good pudding—“a dash of cold water… will turn to steam and make the pudding rise.” (The Bluecoat Press, 1996) (Micky Fenix)

The Irish Echo interviews a Brontëite, the historian Christine Kinealy:

Name three books that are memorable in terms of your reading pleasure.
“Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë (1847) – I love the Brontë sisters’ writings. This is a dark, yet smoldering, example of it. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde (1891) – at his quotable best, but so much more than that. “The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists” by Robert Tressell (1914) – almost 100 years later, the political message remains pertinent. (Peter McDermott)

This columnist from KSL is quite the Brontë enthusiast too:

In my adult life, like meeting good friends, I’ve known the joy of reading. “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Jane Eyre” and “The Man Who Listens to Horses.” (Teri Harman)

MSN India looks at the work of Shilpa Gupta:

Gupta, based in Mumbai, is busy preparing for a solo exhibition at the Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, where she plans to showcase a work titled 'Bell-jar'. This consists of a library of stainless steel books by authors who have written under pseudonyms to either hide their gender as women, like George Elliot and the Brontë sisters, or their religious identity, like Ali and Mino. "It reflects on the idea of hidden authorship and the kind of discrimination that stems from it," says Gupta whose work focuses on the marginal and discriminated sections of society. Her interactive videos, websites, photographs, sound and public performances subversively probe ideas such as desire, religion, and notions of security on the street and on the imagined border. (Georgina Maddox)

The Brooklyn Paper looks at a forthcoming game show on NPR where

Host comedian Ophira Eisenberg tests eager beavers with games such as “Better than Bieber” (contestants fill in the blanks for Justin’s songs) and “Replacement Math” (the total number of Brontë sisters plus the Marx Brothers). (Kate Briquelet)

Which is, of course, quite a tricky question as the actual total number of Brontë sisters would be five but we think in this case they mean only the famous writers, so it's three.

Town Topics mentions the Cathy and Heathcliff image of Dorothy and William Wordsworth created by Frances Wilson in her 2008 biography The Ballad of Dorothy Wilson.

KO Video thinks that this outfit seen on Evanescence's video for My Heart is Broken is

a formal outfit befitting a scene from Wuthering Heights (Mike Petryczkowycz)

Yeah...well... not really.

Les Soeurs Brontë discusses (in French) the film Devotion. Flickr user Inukshuk's images shares a work in progress called Cathy's Path. Wuthering Heights 2011 is reviewed by Media Gulch and Vintagerockchick while Jane Eyre 2011 is the subject on Inside the Secret Window (in Portuguese) and Saucy Salad. Atelier di una lettrice compulsiva (in Italian) writes about the original novel. My Beads...My Art...My Life has put together a Jane Eyre-inspired outfit. Finally, Laura's Reviews interviews Syrie James, author of The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë.

The Brontës in Linz

2012-01-26T01:26:00.002+01:00

The Sisters Three - Das Leben Der Schwestern Brontë is the name of a new theatre production inspired by the Brontës opening today in Linz, Austria:

The Sisters Three - Das Leben Der Schwestern Brontë
Idea/Concept: Daniela Dett and Nora Dirisamer
With Daniela Dett, Nora Dirisamer and Katharina Bigus
Director: Joachim Rathke
Music: Willy Hackl
Stage: Renate Schuler
Linzer Posthof
January 26, 28, 30, 31 20:00 h

Wer kennt sie nicht, die Romane der Schwestern Brontë: "Sturmhöhe", "Jane Eyre" und "Agnes Grey" gehören mit zu den wichtigsten Werken der englischen Literatur. Doch es sind nicht nur ihre Bücher und Gedichte, die uns heute noch faszinieren. Das von Leid und Schicksalsschlägen geprägte Leben dieser drei Frauen selbst ist zum Mythos geworden. Anne (Nora Dirisamer), sanft und unerschrocken, Emily (Daniela Dett), das Naturkind, empfindsam und erbarmungslos und Charlotte (Katharina Bigus), die unter ihrer grauseidenen Schicklichkeit ein stürmisches Herz verbarg - drei Genies, die in Kunst, Sprache und Gedankenwelten Zuflucht suchten, zuhause im Graubereich zwischen Realität und Phantasie.
Wie könnte es gewesen sein? Hören wir hinein in die Einsamkeit des bedrückenden Pfarrhauses in Haworth, erträumen uns ein raues Moor Nordenglands, erleben das Korsett des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts, das Frauen gesellschaftliche und private Entfaltungsmöglichkeiten abschnürte. Setzen uns der unerbittlichen Stille aus, die nur vom Läuten der Totenglocken und vom Klang des schneidenden Westwinds unterbrochen wurde. Tauchen wir ab. Nähern uns an. Erfühlen.
Erleben Sie eine sinnliche Reise und tauchen sie ein in die Welt der Brontës!

Nachrichten publishes an article about the production.

Oscar nominations and snubs

2012-01-25T15:23:00.001+01:00

Let's start with the reactions to the Oscar nominations. First of all, reactions to Michael O'Connor's costume design nomination:

The Contra Costa Times quotes Michael O'Connor as having said,

"I'm absolutely thrilled and delighted to be nominated for my work on 'Jane Eyre.' "

Clothes on Film naturally looks at the nominations in depth, comparing them with other awards nominations such as the BAFTAs or the Costume Designers Guild (Michael O'Connor's work in Jane Eyre is nominated in the Period Film category):

Michael O’Connor for his bleak, deep and meaningful version of Jane Eyre. (Chris Laverty)

HitFix's In Contention:

Best Costume DesignThis is the one category where I was most confident in my predictions: “The Artist,” “The Help,” “Hugo,” “Jane Eyre,” “My Week with Marilyn.” Oops! I’m thrilled Mark Bridges pulled off his first nomination for “The Artist” and that Michael O’Connor earned his second nomination for “Jane Eyre.” It is also delightful, if unsurprising, to see Sandy Powell back in the race for her rich threads on “Hugo.” However, “My Week with Marilyn” and “The Help” were omitted in favor of “Anonymous” and “W.E.” Three films -- “Anonymous,” “Jane Eyre” and “W.E.” -- were not nominated in any other categories. I say good on this branch for looking past the quality of the films in coming to their nominations?
As far as the race for the win is concerned, it seems to me as though the three solo nominees don’t have much of a shot against the two Best Picture frontrunners. Powell’s work is more obviously showy but Bridges’s intricate threads were cited by the BFCA and I think his film will ultimately triumph in the big category. So this could go either way. (Gerard Kennedy)

WIBW:

The past is again present in the Best Costume Design category, from an England Elizabethan ("Anonymous"), Edwardian ("W.E."), and Romantic ("Jane Eyre"), to 1920s Paris ("Hugo") and Hollywood ("The Artist").

And now for the so-called Oscar snubs:

The Philadelphia Inquirer sums it up:

Michael Fassbender had a great year, but came away empty, and his co-star in "Jane Eyre," Mia Wasikowska, was neglected. (Gary Thompson)

My Fox Phoenix:

4. Michael Fassbender for Best Actor in "Shame"
Easily the year's most daring performance and possibly the most intense. His portrayal of a sex addict in New York City combined both the savage and the subtle, a feat which few other actors could pull off. Fassbender had a banner year in 2011 for his additional work in " X-Men: First Class," "Jane Eyre" and "A Dangerous Method." The Los Angeles Film Critics and the Golden Globes saw fit to recognize him - it's truly a shame that the Academy didn't.

The Canberra Times:

Despite an endorsement from Hollywood legend Meryl Streep at the Golden Globe awards recently, Canberra-born Mia Wasikowska failed to pick up a nomination for her starring role in Jane Eyre. Wasikowska was also commended by top US critics for her performance in the new adaptation of the classic Charlotte Brontë novel. (Garry Maddox)

As far as we can see, no one has yet mentioned Dario Marianelli's wonderful soundtrack being left out. Quite a snub, that one too.

Anyway, onto the other recent Brontë film (and also snubbed at film awards like the BAFTAs). Television Without Pity's The Moviefile saw Wuthering Heights 2011 at Sundance:

The wise move would have been to just go home, but because the movie was Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights -- which I've been eager to see since its premiere at Toronto last year -- I sucked up my courage and gripped my seat as the bus drove through the blinding snow, slipping and sliding on the icy roads. We arrived at the theater moments before the movie started and Arnold was on hand to thank us for braving the storm. And may I just say that Wuthering Heights was absolutely worth the trek. A full review can wait for its release later this year courtesy of the good folks at Oscilloscope, but this is the kind of bold adaptation of a classic 19th century novel that I wish the recent Jane Eyre film had been. It's raw and emotional and vibrant in a way that too few period productions are. I can't wait to experience it again, preferably when I'm not exhausted after a day full of movies and junk food. (Ethan Alter)

Female First reviews the DVD (to be released in March) and gives it 5 stars out of 6.

The Yorkshire Post has an article on tourists from abroad coming to walk in Brontë country:

Brontë enthusiasts from as far away as Australia are preparing to make a pilgrimage to West Yorkshire to take in the countryside which inspired the novels.
The literary tourists are being encouraged to make the trip by Bradford businesswoman Helen Broadhead, a historian and Brontë expert.
Ms Broadhead leads Brontë fans on walks to buildings and places that were significant in the lives of the sisters.
After relaunching her website, www.helensheritagewalks.co.uk, she has seen a rise in interest from across the globe.
“I have already received several inquiries from Brontë enthusiasts in the USA and Australia about my guided Brontë walks around Haworth and venues, such as Oakwell Hall, Red House Museum – now, sadly, threatened with closure – and Shibden Hall in Calderdale.
“All these venues have Brontë connections: Oakwell Hall and Red House were used by Charlotte Brontë as models for her houses in Shirley, and it is widely accepted by Brontë scholars that, in her writing of Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë was influenced by the stories and houses she came across during her time at Law Hill School in Southowram, near Shibden Hall.
“It seems that international tourists are not put off by the winter weather. This week I took two Korean ladies, a mother and daughter from New York, on a first ‘Taste of the Moors’ walk.
“The weather had taken a turn for the worse but they felt that the wind and rain only added to the atmosphere.
“The older lady said that her heart started to beat with excitement as she came onto the moors on Penistone Hill.
“Her favourite of the Brontës’ novels was Wuthering Heights, a favourite with many Korean females, her daughter said.”
Ms Broadhead said Haworth needed improved transport links to capitalise on international tourism.

MSNBC actually thinks these walks are a thing of the past:

Fifty years ago, the media’s archetypal American abroad—say, a fedora-topped Jimmy Stewart squiring Doris Day through Marrakesh—inspired adventurous viewers to go and see Morocco for themselves. In this, they were much like the 19th-century English tourists who visited the sites of Brontë novels—distant precursors of the newer, stranger breed that scholars call “media tourists.” (Chris Norris)

Speaking of Brontë walks, The Telegraph and Argus reports on the Stanbury Splash race,

The course, which involves over 1,300ft of climbing, is one of a classic series of races on the Bronte Moors above Haworth organised by Dave and Eileen Woodhead. (Colin Davidson)

More from the Yorkshire Post, as it carries a funny anecdote concerning Gary Verity, Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive:

SOMETIMES it’s hard being in the public eye.
Gary Verity, the chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, has had plenty to celebrate recently.
His team walked away with a world travel award earlier this month, so it’s hardly surprising that his face is becoming well known.
Mr Verity was recently visiting an exclusive club in London, when a woman seemed to recognise him.
Had she perhaps been inspired by his efforts to promote Yorkshire to a global audience? Or perhaps she wanted to say how much she was looking forward to visiting Brontë country?
Sadly, not.
“Aren’t you Hugh Bonneville?” she asked.
Mr Bonneville is, of-course, best known as one of the stars of costume drama Downton Abbey.

Patheos interviews the writer Taylor M. Polites about his forthcoming novel The Rebel Wife:

KAREN: Did you intentionally craft Gus as a more cunning Scarlett O’Hara?
TAYLOR: I wanted Gus to be a great heroine, tragic or heroic, but in the vein of the great women of fiction who always fascinated me. Scarlett O’Hara was definitely a major player in my pantheon of women heroines. But there were so many more, Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina, Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair, Lizzie Eustace from Trollope’s The Eustace Diamonds, Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, even Cathy from Wuthering Heights, Isabel Archer from The Portrait of a Lady, Lily Bart from The House of Mirth. These were women who captivated me, moved me, made me cheer or writhe in frustration. Since The Rebel Wife is set in the South with a female heroine who survived the same upheavals that Scarlett faced, comparisons are inevitable, and I don’t shrink from those either. Gone With the Wind was such an important book to me when I was growing up. I hope The Rebel Wife embraces its best parts and challenges its worst. There are whispers of GWTW throughout the book. I want Augusta and The Rebel Wife to take their place in the tradition of Southern books and Southern heroines. (Karen Spears Zacharias)

Gather has a recap of Jane by Design: 'The Finger Bowl,' Season 1, Episode 4 where

All that talking brings Jane and Billy to school with Billy not having a chance to lay it out for Jane, and then it's too late. Lulu walks up to Billy and kisses him. Jane is gobsmacked, and not a little angry. She feels betrayed and she and Billy exchange dueling wrong summations of the theme of Wuthering Heights. The English teacher is apparently a bit dense and has no idea what is going in. (K Lee)

The following comes from the Guardian's live feed of the Pakistan vs England crciket match:

39th over: Pakistan 103-3 (Azhar Ali 24, Misbah-ul-Haq 1) Azhar leaves another beauty from Broad that seams back a long way and just bounces over the top of off stump. The next ball brings a huge shout for LBW that is turned down by Bruce Oxenford. I thought it was bat first but replays weren't conclusive either way. That was a fine over from Broad. "I'd like to hear – and (this is the important thing) see – Sir Geoffrey doing a rendition of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights, interpreting the emotional plight of Heathcliff and Cathy through dance as well as song," says Sam Jordison. (Andy Bull)

And yet another unexpected Wuthering Heights reference comes from an article on Kim Kardashian on Heckler Spray.

Basically, that’s a lot of soul-searching over a 72-day marriage. The kind of soul-searching that saw the willfully stupid Kim going to the vapid, finance hungry Kardashian family for advice on what to do. It’s like Wuthering Heights or something. (Mof Gimmers)

Babyology makes quite a blunder when introducing the clothes available at Little Bookwormz:

I won’t pretend otherwise, my favourite design is ‘E is for Emily’ – I never tire of the Cathy and Heathcliff drama and the simple, stylised graphic of Emily Brontë is fabulous.

We are sorry to say, though, that that Emily is clearly not Brontë, but Dickinson.

OpEdNews quotes from Jane Eyre:

Tired of being mean? Tired of being on the receiving end of meanness? The nasty trait produces a lot of unnecessary suffering, both for the person who's being mean (the "hell of your own meanness," a character says in Jane Eyre) and for the recipient of the meanness. Meanness is often a compulsive behavior that's difficult to remedy without deeper insight. (Peter Michaelson)

The Book Jotter posts about Jane Eyre while A Classic Case of Madness needs some help with Adèle's French. La bobina writes in Spanish about the 2011 adaptation. Just Can't Know posts about April Lindner's Jane and Moi, Clara et les mots and J'ai pad d'idée write in French about Sheila Kohler's Becoming Jane Eyre. Got Good Reads??? and Jesse's Books post about Wuthering Heights while Laura's Reviews writes about the 1939 adaptation.

Finally a reminder from The Telegraph and Argus:

CALENDAR: The Haworth Couldn’t Wear Less calendar is still for sale. It’s not too late to help locals raise money for Haworth Parish Church Restoration Fund and Bronte Spirit, the Bronte School Room development project. All profits will be divided between the two projects. Calendars are £6 each or £10 for a pair of ‘his’ and ‘hers’ and can be purchased from Haworth Main Street shops or visit their their website www.HaworthCalendar.co.uk, or Twitter @HaworthCalendar. (Kath Gower)

Jane and Mary

2012-01-25T00:24:00.000+01:00

Two alerts for today, January 25:

In Saint Paul, Minnesota. At the University of St Thomas:

The campus community is invited to join this month’s book club discussion hosted by theLuann Dummer Center for Women.
The club will discuss Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, in Room 103, O’Shaughnessy Educational Center.
Even if you have somehow escaped reading this classic, you are still welcome to join in the conversation. Bring your lunch or a beverage. (St. Thomas Bulletin)

In Knoxville, TN:

Brontë Society: Discussion of Mary Taylor; Charlotte Brontë's confidant and life-long friend. 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, Panera Bread 4855 Kingston Pike. Info: 865-681-7261. (Knoxville News)

Is Margaret Thatcher lobbying for Jane Eyre?

2012-01-24T09:08:00.001+01:00

The Oscar nominations are finally being announced today, but we still have a few last-minute guesses, predictions and hopes. EDIT after nominations announcement: according to the nominees list released by the Academy, Jane Eyre 2011 is only nominated for Costume Design (by Michael O'Connor). (And Michael Fassbender has been completely left out of the picture, even if he was a big favourite for his many films!). Picture Source: Frocktalk.

The Sydney Morning Herald is not very hopeful:

Mia Wasikowska was praised in Meryl Streep's acceptance speech at the Golden Globes but seems unlikely to be recognised for her performance in Jane Eyre. (Garry Maddox)

The Ottawa Citizen feels the same way:

Probably not: I’d love to see Mia Wasikowska recognized for her lovely performance in “Jane Eyre,” or Elizabeth Olsen for her electric work in “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” but it seems unlikely. (Moira MacDonald)

We find E! Online's discussion as to how Meryl Streep's nod to Mia Wasikowska in her Golden Globes acceptance speech may or may not help the Jane Eyre actress hilarious:

Streep's shout-out to Wasikowska during The Iron Lady star's Golden Globes speech might have swung some votes the younger actress' way had Oscar voting not closed the Friday before. (And, yes, we know, Streep name-checked Wasikowska's other noteworthy 2011 movie, Jane Eyre, but same difference—the pub came too late, unless, that is, Streep was lobbying for the Aussie behind-the-scenes. And, by the by, if Streep was talking up Wasikowska to her Academy friends, then we take back everything we said about Theron in the Best Actress race, and we hereby give that slot to Wasikowska. How's that for conviction?) (Joal Ryan)

Alt Film Guide thinks that all of Michael Fasbender's stunning performances will be condensed in Shame:

Also, Academy members who enjoyed watching Fassbender in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, or Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre may choose to vote for him in Shame, as — barring an upset of Dennis Hopper-ish proportions — that's Fassbender's only viable Oscar ticket. (Andre Soares)

The Wuthering Heights 2011 screening at Sundance is discussed by Austin Movie Blog:

Saturday saw the U.S. premiere of Andrea Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights.” Anyone who has seen Arnold’s “Red Road” or “Fish Tank” will recognize her unique style in this invigorating take on the classic novel. By shooting the film in a square 4:3 aspect ratio rather than the usual widescreen approach, Arnold eschews the usual David Lean approach to literary adaptation, choosing to focus our attention on the beautifully expressive faces of her non-professional actors rather than the blustery vistas of the English landscape. This film joins Cary Fukunaga’s recent “Jane Eyre” as encouraging examples of what can be done with too often told tales. (Stephen Jannise)

Speaking of films. This is what Syrie James, author of The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, says in an interview on USA Today's Happy Ever After:

Joyce: Before becoming a novelist, you had a successful career writing screenplays for major television networks and studios. Anything we might have heard of? Did you adapt any screenplays from books? Would you consider adapting Forbidden?Syrie: In my years as a screenwriter, I sold 19 scripts to TV and film. Most were TV episodes (such as Starman) and TV movies, including Once in a Lifetime, starring Lindsay Wagner and Barry Bostwick, which I adapted from a novel by Danielle Steel. It originally ran on NBC, and often reruns on the Lifetime Network. I have adapted my Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë novels for the screen, and hope they'll get produced one day. [...]
Joyce: You're a huge fan of Charlotte Brontë. If you had to choose the best film adaptation of Jane Eyre, which one would it be? If you were writing Jane Eyre the screenplay, what aspect would your film have that would be different from the other film adaptations?Syrie: My favorite Jane Eyre adaptation is the 2006 BBC miniseries directed by Susanna White and starring Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens. The script was wonderful, the stars had great chemistry, and the entire production was beautifully filmed. I think it's the only version that properly shows the passion between Jane and Rochester. I'll have to go back and watch it again, but as I recall, my main complaint in that version was that Jane's time spent at Lowood School as a child was too brief. It's an important part of the novel, because it sets up Jane's character — and it was a direct reflection of Charlotte Brontë's personal experience at a similar, horrible school, where two of her sisters died. I admired the structure of the 2011 version from Focus Films, because they found a way, using flashbacks, to effectively tell a long and detailed story in only two hours. However, it ended too abruptly. One of the most romantic parts is when Jane comes back to Rochester at the end, to find him wounded and grieving. There's some wonderful, playful, romantic dialogue in the book there that I'd include if I was doing an adaptation. (Joyce Lamb)

The Times shares a couple of tips on education and reading. For Year 8:

You might be doing your child a disservice by handing down your well-thumbed classics: don’t be sniffy about repackaging aimed at children — for example, Jane Eyre with an introduction by Jacqueline Wilson.

And for Year 9:

Stress that “classics” now were page-turners from the start (Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, Jane Eyre, anything by Jules Verne).

The New Zealand Herald looks at writing and pseudonyms while the Daily Mail reports that Charlotte has been voted 'America's favourite baby name'.

Girls in the Stacks posts about Jane Eyre.

Brontë Literary Contest in Italy

2012-01-24T00:24:00.001+01:00

Maddalena de Leo, author of the recent fictionalised biography of Maria Brontë, Mai più in oscurità has sent us the rules of a new literary contest in Italian:

Keeping the pretty edition of Jane Eyre and other news

2012-01-23T11:17:00.001+01:00

The Sydney Morning Herald thinks that Mia Wasikowska is one of 'Australia's top chances for Oscar nominations' although it is considered a 'long shot'.

If there is a major surprise when the Academy Award nominations are announced early Wednesday morning (AEDT) Australian actress Mia Wasikowska could be the reason.
A few weeks ago the best actress Oscar prospects for the Canberra-born 22-year-old's critically-acclaimed, but quickly forgotten, starring role in Jane Eyre were as healthy as the Costa Concordia cruise ship.
The tide recently turned.
One of Wasikowska's champions, ironically, is the woman most likely to win the best actress Oscar, Meryl Streep.
The US star used a portion of her acceptance speech after winning the Golden Globe last week to remind the world about Wasikowska's performance as Jane Eyre in the new adaptation of the classic Charlotte Bronte novel.
"How about Mia Wasikowska in Jane Eyre?" Streep, a short-priced favourite to win the third Oscar of her career for playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, asked the A-list crowd at the Globes that included many Academy-voting members.
Wasikowska remains at long-shot odds of 100/1 and would have to squeeze out one of the five actresses who appear set to receive nominations: Streep; Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn); Viola Davis (The Help); Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs); and Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin). [...]
Wasikowska is Australia's only chance at picking up an acting nominee. . .

Examiner's Kevin Thomas thinks Jane Eyre might be nominated in the following categories: Best Musical Score and Best Costume Design. And according to him the film would also be a runner-up for Best Art Direction. While The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg only sees it nominated for Best Costume Design although he reckons it should be a contender for Best Musical Score.

And this is how The Daily Beast describes Michael Fassbender's Rochester:

the moody, sideburned Rochester in Jane Eyre (David Ansen)

The Celebrity Cafe takes a look at Michael Fassbender's filmography.

Jane EyreThe classic tale of Jane Eyre has been told over and over again in countless TV and movies. Sometimes it appears that Jane Eyre is a fixture of literature and dramatic arts. Casting Fassbender in this latest edition and adaptation was somewhat controversial. The role of Mr. Rochester has been played by so many actors and it has been believed that Fassbender was too handsome. Despite the criticism the film was able to create a Rochester who had so much broody moods that you forget how handsome his face is. Even in the scene where Fassbender asks Jane if she found handsome you don’t think about what he looks like. This is a good example of why Fassbender's is one of those actors who does not rely on his looks even though he totally could. (Jackie Morrison)

The Huffington Post briefly discusses Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights:

I saw three very impressive films at Sundance yesterday and was reminded why I'm here. The first, Wuthering Heights, helmed by the formidably talented and charming director Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank), was tough and as much of an inundation on the viewers as the blizzard outside. It is a challenging and unapologetic film to say the least, but does everything Indie cinema should in leaving you thinking about it for hours and possibly days. (Liliana Greenfield-Sanders)

Another writer for The Huffington Post is not so thrilled though:

5:10 p.m. My second movie at Sundance is Wuthering Heights, which caused me to have fond memories of my first Sundance movie, Elena. Wuthering Heights is pretty. Wuthering Heights is a really long movie and it feels even longer. There should be a term for this, like the wind chill or heat index: "Wuthering Heights has a running time of 128 minutes, but the length index is going to make it feel more like 140 for all you folks out there." (Mike Ryan)

In the meantime, Variety brings up memories of Wuthering Heights 1939:

The great Sir Laurence Olivier complained in his memoir that his producer, Samuel Goldwyn, was constantly nattering at him over his performance in "Wuthering Heights' and that he rarely heard from his director. (Peter Bart)

The New Hampshire Sentinel Source wonders what to do with the books when you are 'getting rid of stuff'. Here's a problem common to book lovers in general and Brontëites in particular:

I found, as I picked up book after book, that my own history was embedded in the pages. Which edition of “Jane Eyre” would I keep? The pretty one, or the one I had first devoured? The pretty one went in the box. (Sarah Spykman)

This Salon writer doesn't seem to share the love for Jane Eyre, at least not for the main character:

The stress was mounting. One evening, after patiently listening to my jealous wheedling, he left for a reading alone. I pitched “Anna Karenina” at the door, then passed the rest of the night with a bottle of Malbec and one of my very favorites: “Wide Sargasso Sea.” Ever read that one? The heroine gets so crazy over the loss of her husband’s love she sets herself on fire, along with Thornfield Hall, the home of the much less endearing Jane Eyre. (Katie Crouch)

TheIndependent.com has apparently found the reason why people don't enjoy reading Jane Eyre (don't they really?):

There's a reason that people don't generally like reading classic novels like "Jane Eyre" or "The Grapes of Wrath." It's because they've been beaten to death in classrooms across the nation, so that reading them has become a chore, not something to be enjoyed.
As Mark Twain said, "Classic: A book which people praise and don't read." (Olivia Exstrum)

The Sydney Morning Herald paraphrases from Jane Eyre:

Between me and my children there is, to paraphrase Rochester in Jane Eyre, a string: knotted in my chest to another string in their little ribs. Too far apart, for too many days, and it may snap - leaving me ''bleeding inwardly,'' as Rochester puts it. Standard parental love, really. (Damon Young)

It is a while since we last saw a sports chronicle mentioning the Brontës. Well, the Denver Post certainly makes up for the long time:

Alistair Cooke should have been the TV host. Herman Melville could have written the scripts. Think football's version of "Wuthering Heights" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" back to back.
The AFC and NFC championship games Sunday were masterpiece theater. (Woody Paige)

So how was the book? posts about Agnes Grey. And Flickr user JL La Rouge shares a picture of Top Withins.

The Brussels Brontë Blog has a post on an 1855 Jane Eyre play co-written by Alphonse Royer and Victor Lefèvre. Romantique Innocence By Nailah D'arcy writes about the novel and La Piccola Ricamatrice (in Italian) is stitching something inspired by Jane Eyre (to be revealed soon, we hope). Inspired Ground thinks Jane Eyre 2011 has one of the best movie locations of last year and A Girl and a Gun: A Cinematic Blog gives the film 3 1/2 stars.

Finally, BookieMonster is giving away three copies of Jane Eyre 2011.

Mythoi's Heathcliff

2012-01-23T00:20:00.001+01:00

The recent release of the comic book Mythoi Book II: Where the Circle Begins (Art by Jed Soriano & Brian Soriano. Written by James Ninness) is a good excuse to mention that this comic series contains an explicit Wuthering Heights reference. Quoting from the wikipedia:

MYTHOI is a sixty-issue American comic book limited series by writer/creator James Ninness. It was published in 2010 by the Semantink Publishing. Single issues of MYTHOI are released digitally with trades collecting every six issues printed as the issues are completed.
The story follows the journey of five figures from different mythologies as they attempt to save the world from an ominous foe. The group consists "Vito", a child vampire, "Taros", son of the Greek god Ares, "Yuki", a yūrei, "Wiglaf", son of the Cain and heir to Beowulf, and "Touch", a cybernetic assassin from the future. As the five heroes are brought together under varying circumstance, they must learn to work and live together despite their differences. Each character possesses a different set of skills, specific to their root mythology and eventual destiny.

The Panels on Pages review gives us clues of another (familiar) character:

The recipe for Mythoi is simple but ingenious – take the supporting characters from ancient lore and put them in the sandbox of the modern world. The result is something like Ultimates meets Fables, where the son of Ares (yes, Greek god of war, Ares) is brought in to investigate an attack on the President by a pack of werewolves led by Heathcliff (of Wuthering Heights, not the one who ran afoul of the junkyard cats) under the employ of – no, that would be telling. The point is, it’s a fantastic cacophony of fantastic characters brought together by fate in the form of writer James Michael Ninness. The story takes some fun twists and turns as it unfolds, and by the end of Book II, the scene is fairly well set for these characters and their future together. (Jason Kerouac)

The author, James Ninness, says in this interview on Has Boobs, Reads Comics:

For a special story added to the TPB, Ninness and his Editor Benjamin Glibert knew they needed something a little different. “For Heathcliff and Catherine I wanted to do something more in the vein of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It felt write for the setting of the story and the design lends itself well the comic book form,” he said. (Nerdy Bird)

Amazing Film

2012-01-22T11:50:00.000+01:00

Some Sundance reviews of Wuthering Heights 2011 (Picture: Agatha A. Nitecka):

I saw a new version of "Wuthering Heights" by director Andrea Arnold ("Red Road" (still my favorite of hers), "Fish Tank"). It's a beautiful, stark and cruel film, very true to the Emily Brontë novel in combining the rawness of nature with the fickleness of human passion. Arnold chooses to cast Heathcliff as black-skinned, not merely swarthy, and she uses very contemporary cinematography and editing. She also gets remarkable performances out of her child stars, Shannon Beer and Solomon Glave, who fill the roles of young Catherine and Heathcliff with fire and grit. Not to every taste, but very good. (Shawn Levy in The Oregonian)

By positioning Heathcliff as a racial minority in the narrative, Brontë creates a much more complicated story about obsession, bestiality, and revenge than previous adaptations and teenage girls obsessed with the literary character would lead you to believe. Arnold channels the original tone of the novel as she depicts a love story with unsatisfying, unsettling results. (...)
This hopeless, dirty, consumptive world is what makes the book so interesting, and what this adaptation capitalizes on. Arnold has moved away from the hopelessly romantic towards the merely hopeless and in doing so has finally made a version of Wuthering Heights with some depth. There is more to glean from this contemplatively paced (be warned: another way of saying very slow) film than one viewing affords. I look forward to watching and rewatching this film as both a companion piece to an incredible novel, and as a separate work of art, worthy of being considered for its own merits. (Whitney Borup in Film Threat)

"Wuthering Heights" is pretty. "Wuthering Heights" is a really long movie and it feels even longer. There should be a term for this, like the wind chill or heat index: "'Wuthering Heights' has a running time of 128 minutes, but the length index is going to make it feel more like 140 for all you folks out there." (Mike Ryan in Moviefone)

Arnold is a feisty director with a singular vision, and Wuthering Heights is definitely a singular take on Emily Brontë's story. Purists, be warned; this is not the high gothic romance we read in high school. (...)
The movie is long and slow and makes the viewer work to meet it halfway. One could argue that Heathcliff could spend less time peering in Catherine's windows and letting the rain soak him to the bone as he sulks on the moors, but the experience verges on the meditative.
Although it takes place in the eighteenth century, the handheld camera work and quick cut editing gives it a more modern feeling. It is grim and muddy and sometimes utterly mundane, but also beautiful and even sensuous at times. (Jenni Miller in Movies.com)

Everything from Arnold’s casting to her grip on visceral emotion captured through the lens of the camera is to be noted when watching her films. “Wuthering Heights” brings us to a fresh reinvention of the ages-old story of 18th century orphan and his love for a farmer’s daughter. The retelling of “Wuthering Heights” is surely another gem in the upcoming roster at Sundance 2012. (Pouya Asadi in Sound Colour Vibration)

The film has little dialogue, especially in the first half as we watch the young lover's relationship develop, and it has no music soundtrack. Arnold relied on the stark beauty and wildness of the film's location––the western end of Swaledale in North Yorkshire––along with its magnification of natural sounds (the wind on the moors, fingers scraping against bark, etc.), provided by French sound designer Nicholas Becker, to give Bronte's novel the texture and emotion usually provided through a film's script and soundtrack. Dare I say that Arnold has perhaps surpassed the classic story given to us by Brontë through this visual masterpiece.
I do, however, have one gripe: the actors. Making their film debut in Wuthering Heights, the young Heathcliff and Catherine played by Glave and Beer respectively are case perfectly for their roles as adolescent lovers. Beer has an untamed look about her that is exactly as I pictured Catherine to be, and though he says little, Arnold's choice in Glave as Heathcliff (and interpreting Heathcliff's outcast persona as an issue of race) was genius. At the halfway mark, when the characters grow up and the cast is swapped for James Howson (Heathcliff) and Kaya Scodelario (Catherine), and the script becomes more talky, I was a little disappointed by the execution. The last half of the plot is the most tumultuous, full of tragedy, heartbreak, drama, but Scodelario's acting doesn't live up to the novel's characterization of Catherine's insanity. Fist-time actor Howson recites his lines in an almost robotic tone, and though his obsession with Catherine should also be maddening, I felt nothing as he struggled with his emotions.
All in all, this was an amazing film that is worth seeing if only to appreciate the beauty of the Yorkshire countryside and experience a fresh interpretation of a Victorian classic. Even with the story-line liberties taken by Arnold and the so-so acting in the last half, Wuthering Heights is sure to exceed expectations. (Esther Merono in SLUG Magazine)

The Richmond Times-Dispatch talks about Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy:

Margot Livesey, who grew up in the Scottish Highlands where her father taught at a private school for boys, is no stranger to fiction, and her seventh novel, "The Flight of Gemma Hardy," reverberates with some of Livesey's experiences. Gemma, orphaned young, is sent to a boarding school where she is both servant and student. As a young adult, she takes a job as an au pair on the Orkney Islands in a story that pays homage to Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre."

And The Boston Globe reviews it:

Born in Yorkshire in 1816, dead by age 38, Charlotte Brontë left behind a seemingly timeless, improbable oeuvre that longer-lived authors can only envy: two books of poetry and more than a dozen novels, best known among them, written under the pseudonym “Currer Bell,’’ “Jane Eyre.’’ It was clearly admiration, not envy, that moved Scottish-born author Margot Livesey to write an homage to the proto-classic, proto-feminist tale of a female protagonist who suffers but never seeks rescue. (...)
“ ‘The Flight of Gemma Hardy’ is, in my mind, neither my autobiography nor a retelling of Jane Eyre,’’ Livesey has written. “Rather I am writing back to Charlotte Brontë, recasting Jane’s journey to fit my own courageous heroine and the possibilities of her time and place.’’(...)
No spoiler alert required: Neither the stunning plot twists that Livesey supplies, nor her satisfying surprise ending, will be revealed here. What is revealed in “The Flight of Gemma Hardy’’ is an exceptionally well-plotted, well-crafted, innovatively interpreted modern twist on a timeless classic, one that’s sure to delight the multitudes of Brontë fans, and the multitudes of fans that Livesey deserves. (Meredith Maran)

As The Denver Post:

"The Flight of Gemma Hardy" is not so much a reboot of "Jane Eyre" as it is an homage. Margot Livesey sets her version in the middle of the 20th century, after the end of World War II and before the social turbulence of the late 1960s. (...)
"Jane Eyre" is, simplistically, a coming-of-age story and a social criticism set in a Gothic landscape. Livesey owns the soul of the story. Gemma's prickly pride and her "appealing" defiance make it hard to begin, let alone maintain, relationships. She can only come to maturity through a journey that is as introspective as it is challenging; she must experience her own faults before she can have empathy for those of others. (Robin Vidimos)

Girls With Books also posts a review.

HitFix's Guy Lodge publishes his dream Oscar ballot in the crafts fields including several for Jane Eyre 2011:

Best Cinematography: Adriano Goldman, "Jane Eyre"
Blauvelt's yellowed, dust-veiled Oregon Trail vistas in "Meek's Cutoff" make ingenious use of the Academy ratio to imprison its lost characters in their limitless landscape. The film shares with "Jane Eyre" a keen artist's eye for the fleeting, witchy opportunities afforded by natural light, an unaffected sensibility video artist and photographer Har'el takes to more rapturous extremes in her self-shot doc "Bombay Beach."
Best Costume Design: Michael O'Connor, "Jane Eyre"
O'Connor's more Oscar-friendly costuming of "Jane Eyre" weaves unusually precise details of character, class and age into its mile-wide crinoline skirts.
Best Makeup: "Jane Eyre"
[T]he subtext-packed range and wit of the hairstyling in "Jane Eyre".

Best Original Score: Dario Marianelli, "Jane Eyre"
Over in the traditionalist's corner, Marianelli's typically swoony but appropriately reserved work on "Jane Eyre" was a career high[.]

DVD Verdict reviews Jane Campion's The Piano Blu-Ray:

At its best, The Piano plays like the lost masterwork of one of theBrontë sisters. I suppose it can be described as a romance, but it would be moreaccurate to describe it as Romantic. (Clark Douglas)

La Crosse Tribune presents yet another production of The Mystery of Irma Vep at La Croix Black Box Theatre in the FineArts Center at Viterbo University:

“If you’re interested to see how the plots of movies like‘Gaslight,’ ‘Rebecca,’ and ‘Dracula’ combined with the romance ofnovels such as ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Jayne Eyre,’(sic) this is theshow for you,” said production manager Sadie Ward. (Geri Parlin)

AgnosLibertine, Writer's Wavelength and Thursday's Book Orgy post about Wuthering Heights; Dish on Hiatus has visited Haworth and Les Soeurs Brontë (in French) publishes a nice post of Brontë winter scenes.

Fallen Angel

2012-01-22T00:40:00.002+01:00

This is a recently self published book with not many information about (not even a cover):

Fallen Angel
George Newell Hauton
Publisher: George Newell Hauton (10 Dec 2011)
ISBN-10: 0957020503
ISBN-13: 978-0957020504

What we know about it comes from this review on Abigail's Ateliers:

It is a short story of just over a 130 pages long. Its basic plot outline is that for many years, perhaps since her death, the ghost of Charlotte Brontë walks around unseen in Haworth while sleeping at the parsonage. The ghost falls foul of a long dead witch who creates some form of enchantment which means that Charlotte will without warning become visible and real. Charlotte has a brief romantic interlude and eventually is freed from the enchantment and can go back to walking unseen around her home town.

Haworth in literary amber

2012-01-21T18:34:00.000+01:00

The Haworth Parish Church has been able to raise the money for the reparations but it now seems that they need even more.We read on BBC News:

The cost of repairs to the church where the novelist sisters Charlotte and Emily Brontë are buried has unexpectedly risen by up to £50,000.
St Michael and All Angels Parish Church in Haworth, West Yorkshire, had raised the £65,000 needed to secure £100,000 in funding from English Heritage.
But rising costs of building work now means it requires up to £50,000 more.
The roof of the church is badly damaged and water has damaged the original wall paintings.
Discussions are under way to decide whether the offer of an English Heritage grant will still stand.
An English Heritage spokesperson said: "We're disappointed to hear that Haworth Church has met this last minute funding challenge.
"We know how important the repairs to the church are and want to support them as much as possible in getting this fantastic historic church repaired."
John Huxley, secretary at Haworth church, said: "We were overjoyed to learn we had reached the total, then knocked sideways by finding out building costs had gone up by so much.
"The reaction from the public to help raise funds has been absolutely phenomenal."
The church said a meeting would be held on Tuesday to discuss further fundraising options.

The Telegraph & Argus adds:

But as that target was reached yesterday church secretary John Huxley said he received the “gut-wrenching” news that due to escalating building costs it would need tens of thousands of pounds more than it had originally thought.
He said English Heritage was being “very helpful, very supportive and very sympathetic” and was looking at ways it could help. “What was due to be one of the most joyful days in the church’s history has turned very sour,” he said last night.
“This morning we thought we were home and dry. To get this bombshell as the day has gone on has been gut-wrenching.”
Fundraising events and schemes have been organised by residents and people keen to help restore the church, which is the burial place of the Bronte sisters.
They included the production of a “Haworth Couldn’t Wear Less” calendar and the donation of proceeds from the sale of 100 limited editions of a painting of the Bronte sisters by artist Stella Vine.
Mr Huxley said: “A lot of money has come in from well-wishers.
“We have raised something in the region of £40,000 ourselves which is an unbelievable result for a church of our size.
“Once we have got over the disappointment we’ll have to dust ourselves down.
“Where we’ll get the money from I don’t know. We’re just hoping there’s someone out there who can help us.
“Lots of people have been very generous and kind but we’re throwing ourselves on their mercy again.”
Donations can be made online at haworthchurch.co.uk or cheques made payable to ‘Haworth Church Restoration Fund’ can be sent c/o the treasurer to 17 North View Terrace, Haworth, BD22 8HJ. (Tanya O'Rourke)

The Yorkshire Post includes a video.

The Haworth housing development projects are discussed in a very good article in The Telegraph:

There is a Brontë Hotel in Haworth, and a Brontë minicab company, and Ye Olde Brontë Tea Rooms. Not forgetting the Brontë Balti House (free delivery for orders over £6).
Charlotte, Emily and Anne would have been amazed to discover how ubiquitous their family name has become. The sisters were unwitting authors of an industry when, in search of childhood entertainment, they began making up stories, personal histories of the toy soldiers given to their brother Branwell by their father Patrick, perpetual curate of St Michael and All Angels.
The Brontë myth enshrouds Haworth and its overlooking moors even more completely than Shakespeare's does Stratford. This corner of the industrial West Riding is captured in literary amber.
"Haworth expresses the Brontës; the Brontës express Haworth," wrote Virginia Woolf after a visit to the village in 1904. "They fit like a snail to its shell."
Climb the steep, cobbled high street to the parsonage where the family lived and the modern world fades. The churchyard is dark even on a clear blue winter afternoon, its tall, gothic gravestones bent this way and that, blackened, mossy faces recording lives snatched away by consumption, typhoid and malnutrition. Crows mourn overhead, completing the melancholy. Even the Japanese coach parties, up to five a day in the summer, cannot dispel its essential silence.

Haworth may suffer to a degree from chocolate-boxitis, as many British tourist "experiences" do, but the tea and gift shoppes cannot disguise the enduring moodiness of the place. Best to come in bad weather, when the Pennine wind slaps the face and the rain is horizontal.
"If Patrick Brontë walked out of his front door he would recognise the buildings, he would recognise the same field patterns," says John Huxley, chairman of Haworth parish council. "But if he were to go down to the bottom of the village 10 years from now he wouldn't know where the hell he was."
Mr Huxley is talking about a piece of vandalism that could be dreamt up only by the men who, in an earlier incarnation, gave us system-built, high-rise flats and no-go housing estates. Bradford council's planners want to build 600 houses in Haworth, a settlement of 2,500 homes now, surrounding the village with "executive" homes and cheaper, more humble dwellings. Brownfield sites, home to old textile mills, will be used, but green belt also.
Haworth, Britain's second literary tourist attraction after Stratford- upon-Avon, is falling victim to this country's hunger for new homes. Bradford council wants to see 48,500 houses built within its boundaries by 2028 to accommodate a growing population, including immigrants from south Asia and Eastern Europe. Haworth and neighbouring villages in the Worth Valley such as Oakworth, setting for the film The Railway Children, must take their share, say the men in the town hall.
They have government on their side. The Coalition is preparing to tear up 1,300 pages of planning regulations and replace them with just 52 in an attempt to stimulate house building. Following the Telegraph's widely supported Hands Off Our Land campaign, there are signs that ministers are preparing to rebalance the proposals, giving more emphasis to the environment, but there will still be a presumption in favour of sustainable development, whatever that is, and more freedom to build in the green belt.
"If you talk to people in Haworth, they don't like Bradford council," says the Rev Peter Mayo-Smith, Patrick Brontë's successor at St Michael and All Angels. "We are not saying 'No' to any housing. But we are saying, 'be sensible'. If you had a factory making lots of money, would you knock half of it down? Well, this is a tourism factory.
"A lot of people make the mistake of thinking people come solely because of the Brontës. In fact, only about 10 per cent of tourists visit the parsonage. They come for the beauty of the village as a whole."(...)
"From the earliest days there was this myth that the Brontës inhabited a house surrounded by wild moors, living in total isolation," says Andrew McCarthy, director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum. "This was never true because the Worth Valley was an industrial area even then, mainly textiles. The Brontës lived on the dividing line between industry and untamed moorland to the west. You don't have to walk far to enter another world. The fear is that, with more and more housing, this world will disappear in stages." (...)
If built, the executive villas will be visible from the edge of the moors, filling in more of the precious fields around Haworth. Visitors will have more need to look away – there is already plenty of ugly housing from the Sixties surrounding poor Oakworth.
"Six hundred houses in a small place like this is massive," says Mr Huxley. "People coming into the village will be met by executive housing estates. We are an iconic part of the North, and what we look like – the view of the village from across the valley – is absolutely crucial. If we are a tourist destination, we should be respected as such."
English Heritage considers Haworth a village at risk and has offered to pay 80 per cent of the cost of returning shopfronts to their original appearance. That won't make much difference if Haworth ceases to be a village and becomes a commuter town.
"The Brontës as writers are synonymous with landscape," says Mr McCarthy. "They had a deep attachment to this place; they were continually drawn back to this source of inspiration. They would not be happy to see it spoiled."
Plus ça change. In 1879 John Wade, Patrick Brontë's successor, pulled down the old church and rebuilt it, to wails of protest from Brontë admirers. Only the clocktower remains from the Brontës' time, pockmarked by musket balls fired by Patrick to scare away the ravens. Wade was a veritable Brontëphobe, refusing to christen girls Charlotte, Emily or Anne.
Mr Mayo-Smith must fight another battle while fending off developers: finding £1.25 million to repair his weather-beaten church, the south-facing roof of which is taking in water. Criminals have done their bit, stripping lead from the roof three times in the last 18 months.
The vicar finds solace in walks on the moors. The ground is hard with frost, the undergrowth brittle white, as he explains their beauty. A single leaning tree and a signpost (in English and Japanese) break the horizon. "It was May, an awful day. The rain was lashing in from the moors, the wind was strong, and I came up here to pray. It was barren, forlorn, elemental. Wonderful."
Nearby, a henge of books erupts from the ground, stone books, moss-covered sculptures, a tribute to the inspirational power of this lonely expanse.
"My sister Emily loved the moors," wrote Charlotte. "Flowers brighter than the rose bloomed in the blackest of the heath for her; out of a sullen hollow in a livid hillside her mind could make an Eden. She found in the bleak solitude many and dear delights; and not the least and best-loved was – liberty." (Neil Tweedie)

The first reviews of the Sundance screening of Wuthering Heights 2011 are coming:

Look, Emily Brontë's novel is a bad love story full of deplorable characters. It's a brutal vision of love (which, this combined with "Fish Tank" makes Arnold a fascinating person to analyze on that subject) and it's wrought even more brutally here.
But I do like what Arnold has done with it. It's very observational, very visceral. When the narrative catches up with Heathcliff and Catherine later in life, actors James Howson and Kaya Scodelario dance beautifully together. Their younger counterparts, Solomon Glave and Shannon Beer, provide a solid base for the gut-wrenching romance to unfold. Arnold has wisely done away with the extraneous Lockwood character and just plunged the viewer into the streamlined story.
The photography is a bit gimmicky throughout. Many images are beautiful, though a rack focus motif feels unmotivated and overused, while other things, like the blurred POV of teary eyes, come across as too creative for their own good. But I like that there's an experimental stroke throughout. (Kristopher Tapley on HitFix)

And reviews of Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy are being published:

Margot Livesey now pays her own tribute with "The Flight of Gemma Hardy" (Harper, 447 pages, $26.99), which relocates "Jane Eyre" from 19th-century northern England to remote 1960s Scotland. This time our neglected orphan is named Gemma, a native of Iceland being brought up by a nasty aunt and bullying cousins in a manor near Perth. She gains admission to a boarding school, but her life there hardly improves—on scholarship as a "working girl," she spends more time peeling potatoes than attending classes.
It is only when Gemma takes a job as a nanny in the far-off Orkney Islands—"the back of beyond," an incredulous friend calls them—that she begins to perceive a future in which she is loved and valued. There she meets her Mr. Rochester, a "curmudgeonly banker" named Hugh Sinclair, whose courtship both thrills and frightens her.
In Brontë's passionate work, Jane Eyre aches for her own independence but also for a place to call home (one of the book's revelations is that these two needs are not incompatible). On these themes, Ms. Livesey's novel is a somewhat docile revision. Although Gemma is courageous and headstrong, her major interest is in discovering her ancestry and finding a family that accepts her.
But though there are countless points of comparison between the two novels (like Jane, Gemma feels a spiritual affinity for birds, for instance), the nicest thing about "The Flight of Gemma Hardy" is that its story is absorbing on its own terms and does not rely on a close knowledge of the original. (Sam Sacks in the Wall Street Journal)

When Margot Livesey was 9 years old, growing up motherless and lonely in Scotland, a book on her father’s shelf caught her eye: “Jane Eyre.” Livesey’s discovery of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece was transformative. The promised friend between the covers, a character whose indomitable spirit has consoled and inspired readers for over a century and a half, allowed Livesey to understand that “life is change.” “Like Jane’s, my life had changed for the worse,” Livesey wrote in an essay a few years ago, “and like hers, it could also change for the better. Time would, irrevocably, carry me to a new place.”
And back again. “The Flight of Gemma Hardy,” Livesey’s appealing new novel, is, as she has explained, a kind of continued conversation, a “recasting” of both “Jane Eyre” and Livesey’s own childhood. Set mostly in Scotland in the late 1950s and ’60s, the narrative follows the fortunes of a young girl, Gemma Hardy, who is beset by bad luck. Born to a Scottish mother and an Icelandic father, she was orphaned by the age of 3, when she was taken from Iceland to Scotland by her mother’s brother. There her original Icelandic name was discarded. (...)
It isn’t, however, until the final third of the novel, when Gemma, risking her own life, is forced to leave what she loves and act independently, that “The Flight of Gemma Hardy” becomes its most satisfying self. Here Livesey’s reach is extended — she too must leave what she loves — and we stop ticking off her clever updatings of “Jane Eyre,” lulled by the sense that we know just what will happen next.
Gemma’s act is life-altering, and so the geologically complex landscape of Iceland seems a fitting place for her to experience that change. “I saw the twisted black rocks, the pointed shapes of old volcanoes,” Gemma tells us, adding that “the countryside was wilder and emptier than any I had ever seen.” For Gemma, this is strange terrain indeed, and yet some part of her knows it well: it’s where she was conceived, where she was first named and first loved. Only by returning to such archaic places and taking conscious flight from them, Livesey seems to imply, can we hope to marry what we were to what we are, and to find ourselves truly air- (or is it Eyre-?) borne. (Sarah Towers in the New York Times)

The Saturday Monitor (Uganda) discovers Brontëites in every corner. Like Olivia Kaguliro Mulerwa, storyteller and aspiring writer:

As a romantic, I admire the love that Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte) has for Mr Rochester. It is so pure and so real. An unattractive heroine and a troubled man with a complicated past, I can’t think of a more compelling love story. (Beatrice Lamwaka)

Or the actor, author and playwright Robert Leleux in the Huffington Post:

I suppose I always did that anyway. I did that with "Jane Eyre." I wanted to marry Mr. Rochester. When she says, "Reader, I married him," I was so jealous I wanted to kill her. I feel like that's just what little gay boys do.

Or the French writers Guillaume Musso and Annie Ernaux:

Dans ses sources d'inspiration, Musso cite volontiers Emily Brontë, qu'il a « dévorée » à l'âge de quinze ans[.] (Thierry Gandillot in Les Echos) (Translation)

«La littérature n'est pas seulement témoignage. La littérature apporte des modèles d'existence. C'est extrêmement important. J'ai lu très longtemps pour chercher le sens de ma vie, comment je pourrais vivre. J'ai été frappée en relisant, 50 ans plus tard, Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë. J'étais absolument ahurie de voir que beaucoup de choses me sont venues de ce livre. Comment Jane se construit, s'interroge et ne veut dépendre de personne. C'est très beau.» (Chantal Guy in Le Point) (Translation)

The travel section of The Guardian lists several cottages in the Lake District and Yorkshire, including one in Haworth:

Or head to the wild and windy moors of Brontë country – sitting in the Pennines above Haworth is the Brontë Barn (sleeps six, available throughout the peak season, £960), where exposed beams and stonework mix with cool contemporary design. (Catherine Nelson and Isabel Choa)

The York Press talks about the David Hockney's London exhibition: A Bigger Picture which may boost the tourism in East Yorkshire:

They will do now, or so hopes the Country Landowners Association (CLA), which anticipates a tide of tourists in this age of “staycation Britain”, in much the way that All Creatures Great And Small boosted the Dales and all bookish things Brontë furnish the Moors.

A couple of fashion references. The New York Times talks about the latest Comme des Garçons collection:

All these elements felt warmly and securely Comme des Garçons, but perhaps the most appealing thing about the show today was the silhouette: longish and free at the waist, with those full shorts (or knee-length skirts) and, naturally, hairy calves before the splash of pink at the ankles. One impulse was romantic — Jane Eyre, I thought — the other punk. (Cathy Horyn)

It seems that the last collection of Emporio Armani has some Wuthering Heights inspiration:

Un inguaribile romantico che vola al di sopra della moda senza mai esserne condizionato. "Penso a libri come Cime Tempestose o Lady Chatterley e a uomini dall 'aria misteriosa ma che si pongono in modo pacato, mai aggressivo", spiega Armani alla fine della sua sfilata. (Paola Bulbarelli in Il Corriere della Sera) (Translation)

Ha riletto 'Cime tempestose' e 'Il nome della rosa' Giorgio Armani nel tratteggiare il suo uomo romantico che ha una storia dietro e dentro di sé. (Eva Desiderio in Il Quotidiano) (Translation)

Al via allora a cappe dilana, cappelli, mantelle alla Heatchcliff di CimeTempestose, pantaloni morbidi a metà stada tra quelli per farejogging a quelli più classici. (Paola Montanaro in GQ) (Translation)

Giorgio Armani si ispira ad Emily Brontë e al romanticismo poetico di Cime tempestose. La sua è una poesia fatta di eroismo, laddove interpreta con grande stile capi intramontabili come il montgomery, sottolineandone l’affidabilità di Emporio Armani. (Stylosophy) (Translation)

The Millions discusses 'the literary pedigree of Downton Abbey':

We experience the grandeur of Rochester’s Thornfield Hall only through the eyes of Jane Eyre, the governess. Class roles are more fluid in Wuthering Heights, but between Heathcliff and Catherine, one is always on the way up and the other on the way down. (Garth Risk Hallberg)

Grantland lists several great writers who wrote for Hollywood:

Aldous Huxley. He fared pretty well, adapting Brave New World, Ape And Essence, and A Woman's Vengeance from his own work, and contributing to successful versions of Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and the biopic Madame Curie. (Molly Lambert)

Newsday quotes from the new Elizabeth II biography "Elizabeth The Queen" by Sally Bedell Smith:

Throughout her girlhood, Elizabeth had time blocked out each day for "silent reading" of books by Stevenson, Austen, Kipling, the Brontës, Tennyson, Scott, Dickens, Trollope, and others in the standard canon.

The Sunday Herald reviews The Locked Ward by Dennis O'Donnell:

It might have tried to banish the image of the first Mrs Rochester starting fires in Jane Eyre, or Renfield biting down on an insect in Dracula, or Patrick McMurphy staring into space after his lobotomy in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Those images are old ones. But they stick. (Mark Smith)

Bootsnall lists several people's homes turned into museums. Such as the Brontë Parsonage:

The Brontë sisters, much beloved by British and foreign classics lovers alike, live on in the heart of England with the preservation of the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, where the sisters lived, grew up, and were inspired to write their novels. Brontë Country, as the area around the place where they lived is collectively known, features a collection of quaint villages and large expanses of moors such as the ones in which the fictional Heathcliff and Catherine, the protagonists of Wuthering Heights, lived out their passionate love. The Brontë parsonage is maintained by the Brontë society, which endeavours to preserve the possessions of the sisters, as well as the house’s original furnishings. (Denise Pulis)

E!Online makes some Oscar predictions. Michael Fassbender is a clear contender in the Best Actor role for Shame:

Arguably the biggest breakout of the year—appearing in box office blowout comic book stuff like X-Men: First Class to the lovey dovey classical lit adaptation of Jane Eyre—it was for Shame that Fassbender will likely land an Oscar nom. (John Boone and Ted Casablanca)

The Philippines Star interviews the actor Paulo Avelino:

His current major is sharing the lead with Julia Montes and Coco Martin in Walang Hanggan.
Loosely adapted from Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Paulo plays Nathaniel Montenegro, the rich guy who’s hopelessly in love with Katarina Alcantara (Julia Montes), the rich girl who only has eyes for the poor boy, Daniel Valencia (Coco Martin). “My character here is a person who is bulag sa pag-ibig. With Katarina, he’s thinking, ‘I’m not really expecting you to love me. I’m just giving you my love without expecting anything back,’” Paulo says. Ain’t love grand? (Cai Subijano)

Badische Zeitung (Germany) reviews the Matthias Breintenbarg's Wuthering Heights adaptation on stage in Freiburg:

Breitenbach kann sich auf sein Schauspielerquartett verlassen: Mit Verve, mit Spielfreude, manchmal mit einer angemessenen Portion Ironie und Komik meistern Drieschner, Melamed, Albrecht und Happel bei der Premiere die nicht leichte Aufgabe, über 75 Minuten in diesem Stück präsent zu sein. Eine feine Ensembleleistung in einem Stück, das gut neben dem Roman von Emily Brontë bestehen kann, weil es ihn ernst nimmt. Warmer Applaus. (Heidi Ossenberg) (Translation)

Deutschlandradio Kultur (Germany) interviews the Belgian author Jan de Leeuw. We understand his point but we mostly disagree:

Trotzdem bin ich davon überzeugt, dass das Privatleben eines Autors seine Bücher nährt, und dass es ihnen neues Leben verleihen kann. Die Brontë-Schwestern würden wohl kaum noch gelesen werden, wenn wir nicht wüssten, wie sie gelebt haben, in Haworth, und dass sie an Tuberkulose gestorben sind. (Translation)

Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland) talks about Mike Leigh's filmography and mentions "the Brontë motto" in Career Girls 1997:

We "Współlokatorkach" (1997) Katrin Cartlidge i Lynda Steadman grają przyjaciółki ze studiów, które spotykają się po latach w Londynie i przeprowadzają bilans życia. Tworzą kontrastową, dopełniającą się parę: jedna jest "rozważna", druga "romantyczna", jak w powieści Austen. Obie, samotne z wyboru, wywikłały się z nieudanych związków, mają pracę, prezentują się elegancko. Obroniły siebie, ale czy zwyciężyły? Co zostało z ich aspiracji? Co mogą z siebie dać innym? Próbują, jak kiedyś, dla żartu, wróżyć sobie z "Wichrowych wzgórz", otwierając książkę w byle jakim miejscu: "miss Bronte, miss Bronte, czy wkrótce znajdę prawdziwe szczęście?". Palec wskazuje słowo "męka". (Tadeusz Sobolewski) (Translation)

The Ft. Lauderdale Movie Examiner and North West Indiana Times think that Jane Eyre 2011 will be nominated to the Best Costume Design Oscar (the last one also thinks that it has some chances in the Best Edition category); Hoofddorpse Courant (Netherlands) reviews the film; Old-Fashioned Charm posts a Brontë Unscramble Game; the Brontë Sisters discusses the sisters' railway investments; Benalmádena Digital (Spain) talks about a new local book club (Escribir en Femenino) which will open reading the Brontës.

Finally, Laura's Reviews has a guest post (by us), part of the Victorian Challenge 2012.

Air Jane revamped

2012-01-21T01:19:00.002+01:00

Amy Hankins is rewriting her mythical Air Jane webcomic (the first version can be checked here):

AS many of you know, I have long been planning to re-write The True Story of Air Jane. [link] (...)
Well, finally at long last, I bring ya Page Uno!
I always had trouble starting comics. Starting them and ending them. Sometimes I have to think about it for weeks before anything goes down on paper. So I used this idea to start AJ's story here in the re-write.
So sit back, have a taco (or whatever you like) and hear the wild, crazy tale of Air Jane!
This will also appear at DrunkDuck--here is the link: [link]

Meet Air Jane, 19th-century hoop-shootin', wisecrackin', fun-lovin' governess. Her dream is to become a b-ball star, but for now she's governessin' (hey you gotta pay the bills, right? Wait...do governesses have bills? Aw never mind...)A totally wacky, incredibly condensed, and really super dooper altered version of Charlotte Brontë's classic novel.

Dark, deep and conflicting

2012-01-20T09:17:00.001+01:00

Women's Wear Daily features Kaya Scodelario:

By starring in director Andrea Arnold’s adaptation of “Wuthering Heights,” Kaya Scodelario is the latest in a long line of British ingénues to earn her spurs in a period drama.
But the 19-year-old Londoner doesn’t channel the delicate turns of phrase and genteel manners that the genre is known for. Instead, Scodelario gives an emotionally raw performance as Catherine Earnshaw in Arnold’s earthy, rough-hewn adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel. The film, which gets its U.S. premiere this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival, earned much buzz when it premiered in Europe at the Venice Film Festival late last year, with Britain’s Daily Telegraph noting that Scodelario “crackles with flirtatious petulance” in the role.
“For me the whole point of this story is that [Catherine] loves [Heathcliff] so much that it almost kills her — well it does eventually kill her,” says Scodelario, in her soft London accent. “I think a lot of people assume that ‘Wuthering Heights’ is this great love story, but I think the first thing [Arnold] said to me that it wasn’t, it’s very dark, deep and conflicting. It’s very kind of Gothic and a bit f---ed up to be honest.”
Arnold, who is known for gritty films such as “Red Road,” set on a tough Glasgow housing project, places her “Wuthering Heights” on northern England’s punishingly windswept, rainy Yorkshire Moors. While much of the action centers on Catherine and Heathcliff as children, Scodelario and first-time actor James Howson play the older Catherine and Heathcliff, when they reunite after she’s unhappily married to another. (Nina Jones)

Hitfix also includes Wuthering Heights in a Sundance roundup.

The New Zealand Press reviews the film Sione's 2: Unfinished Business:

Modelled on Star Trek 3 (complete with its own form of "klingons"), the story involves a copy of Wuthering Heights, a Maori Hamburger joint, a strip club and a ladies' toilet block. (James Croot)

Agri-View reviews P.D. James's Death Comes to Pemberley where

In some ways James' description of weather and the countryside is reminiscent of the writings of Charlotte and Emily Brontë-darkness, wind, rain, scary sounds, etc. (Joan Sandstadt)

The Independent wonders, 'Where have all the book illustrators gone?' and looks back on a few great illustrators reminding readers of the fact that,

CE Brock illustrated E Nesbit but also Emily Brontë and Walter Scott. (Melanie McDonagh)

The New York Times' The Learning Network shares a few tips on collaborative reading such as:

Gender: Place students in groups by gender for the first part of reading a discussing any book that has both male and female characters. Facilitate both groups’ discussions, noting which characters each talked about, at what length or depth and the emotion or judgment toward them. When the groups are together, point out what each group said to start a discussion. Or, they can read two books back to back – one with exclusively male characters (like “The Lord of the Flies”) or a male protagonist, and the other with entirely female characters or a female protagonist (like “Jane Eyre”) – and share and compare experiences with the text. (Shannon Doyne and Holly Epstein Ojalvo)

The Lewiston/Auburn Sun Journal reports a group of students enjoying a Victorian tea party where

Prior to the tea party, the students immersed themselves in Victorian literature and culture. In addition to reading "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde, students chose between "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen and "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë.

Hipsy's View posts about Jane Eyre 2011 and LoveBooks (in French) writes about Wuthering Heights.

Lyndall Gordon at the Wordsworth Museum

2012-01-20T00:53:00.000+01:00

An alert from the Dove Cottage & The Wordsworth Museum:

Special Event
Arts and Book Festival 2012
Friday 20 - Sunday 22 January

Friday 20 January - at The Wordsworth Hotel

Introduction and welcome
Michael McGregor - 4.35pm

The World Within: The Brontës and Emily Dickinson
Lyndall Gordon - 4.45pm

Katherine Mansfield: The Storyteller
Kathleen Jones - 6.00pm

Whistle
Martin Figura - 9.15pm

(Maria) Branwell Park

2012-01-19T21:28:00.000+01:00

The Moderate Voice discusses the proposed censorship laws SOPA/PIPA and reminds us that piracy wasn't born with the internet - it had been around for a long, long time already:

Ironically, the copyright infringers of the 19th century were headquartered in NYC. Harper Brothers (now HarperCollins, part of the Murdoch empire) “printed pirated copies of works by such British authors as Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë. (Kathy Gill)

Several websites mention Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights as part of the Sundance Film Festival. From ArtInfo:

Andrea Arnold, the British director of the grimly realistic “Red Road” and “Fish Tank,” has a special fascination for furious revenge, which is why her tackling of Cathy and Heathcliff’s brutalizing romance hews close to the spirit of Emily Brontë’s Gothic masterpiece. Arnold aligns their passionate, blighted love with the wildness of the Yorkshire moors, as stark and infested a terrain as the heath in “King Lear,” and peppers the terse exchanges with savage imprecations and the soundtrack with cacophonous nature — howling wind, rain, trees, dogs, insects. If the novel's Heathcliff is of indeterminate origin — it's speculated that he is a Gypsy, Lascar, or an American — Arnold has unambiguously cast black actors in the role, suggesting that he is a victim of racial bigotry rather than class prejudice. Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon wouldn’t believe it possible. (Graham Fuller)

And from Beyond Chron:

“Fish Tank” director Andrea Arnold upends the Emily Brontë classic “Wuthering Heights” with her non-romantic treatment and her casting a black actor as Heathcliff. (Peter Wong)

ComingSoon:

Andrea Arnold's first two films, Red Road and Fish Tank, were terrific, so we're hoping to finally getting around to seeing her take on the literary classic Wuthering Heights. (Edward Douglas)

VueWeekly places the US/Canada premiere in February/March:

Another Scot, Andrea Arnold, sweeps us into her handheld-shot, teenage-cast vision of Wuthering Heights. (Brian Gibson)

The Costume Designers Guild has nominated Jane Eyre 2011 in the Excellence in Period Film Category. Many websites praise Michael Fassbender's performance in Shame and mention his previous Rochester in Jane Eyre 2011, but Socialite Life might be the most... expressive:

I just want to rewatch Jane Eyre over and over and over again. Those eyes…those mutton chops. (Kelly Lynch)

The actor says about this role on NPR:

"I really wanted to focus on ... the fact that Rochester talks on an equal level with the governess alone would have been not good in that time period. That was not the done thing. And the fact that he is a sort of rebel within that, he does not like this social class that he's a part of, and you can see that in his awkwardness when Blanche comes and he's courting her. He finds the people ugly, and the intellectual side of him is there. ... He really needs her more than she needs him. She has the capability of saving him. He's a closed sort of package, because the times he has opened himself up, he's got burnt pretty badly, so he prefers to keep a cold exterior on things and protect himself. ... I saw him as a bipolar character, and I went with that idea."

Easier Property talks about a new development site in Leeds, named Branwell Park, after Maria Branwell:

Redrow is honouring the mother of the Brontë sisters, by naming its latest venture in West Yorkshire in her memory.
The award-winning housebuilder owns an eight acre site off Netherfield Road in Guiseley, where it plans to build 96 homes from its sought-after New Heritage Collection.
The development will be known as Branwell Park, after Maria Branwell, mother of the novelists Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë.
Patsy Aicken, sales director for Redrow Homes (Yorkshire), commented: “At Redrow we are keen to acknowledge the history of the communities in which we build and wherever possible link the names of our developments to the area. Maria Branwell married Rev Patrick Bronte at St Oswald’s Church in Guiseley and given that three of their children are literary greats we wanted to honour the family in this way.”

The Christian Science Monitor lists several novels to be read this 2012, including Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy:

Attention Jane Eyre fans: Margot Livesey's captivating update of Charlotte Brontë's classic takes readers from the Orkney Islands to Iceland and deep into a young woman's difficult romance with a modern-day Mr. Rochester. (January)

Tehelka interviews the author Deborah Baker:

Who are your favourite authors?
Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Virginia Woolf, Dostoyevsky, Pasternak, Tolstoy, and Kafka were my touchstones then. (Gunjan Batra)

Vancouver Straight reviews Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant:

My favourites were the ones that dealt with 15th century peasant romance, St. Francis of Assisi and his birds, cruising with the Brontë sisters, and the strange, unreciprocated bromance between Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe. (Jennie Ramstad)

Minneapolis Pioneer Press talks about Michael Christie's appointment as music director of the Minnesota Opera:

I got onto (Minnesota Opera artistic director) Dale Johnson's radar while I was working with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis," Christie said from Phoenix on Wednesday. "He invited me to come for 'La Traviata,' then 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Silent Night,' and he sat down and talked to me about this search and their wanting to have somebody to work more consistently with the orchestra. (...)
"When I saw the orchestra responding in a certain way during 'La Traviata'," Johnson said Wednesday, "I thought: My goodness, he has such a great rapport with the orchestra. He's never met them before, yet they looked at him with admiration, and all of a sudden that magic happened. And I said: 'I think that we may have found our guy.' And 'Wuthering Heights' was a triumph for him, as was 'Silent Night.' During the workshops for that (a world premiere), he was very clear and caring about what he wanted....He's a new music guy, and that's one of the things that attracted us to him." (Rob Hubbard)

The Smoky Mountain News begins an article on Jane Austen and men by stating,

Of female writers who appeal the least to the young men in my seminars, Jane Austen surely holds first place. Many of these male students can relate to the work of Annie Dillard or Anne Tyler, and more than a few over the years have taken to Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, if only because of Heathcliff and the author’s magnificently wild prose, but none of these young men have evinced, at least publicly, any interest in becoming, as have so many women, members of the Austenite cult. (Jeff Minick)

The New York Times has an article on people gathering to watch Downton Abbey:

A friend brought back a feathery fascinator headpiece, which she now wears for “Downton” viewing parties. The guests are other librarians and teachers who already had a tradition of reading Brontë novels together and formed what they called the Elegant Ladies’ Club (although the viewings now include one man). “We all have the same level of obsession about the show,” she said, “and we like any excuse to dress up.” (Aimee Lee Ball)

Dorchester Report talks about bibs and tuckers:

“Early bibs were somewhat like modern bibs, although they were not specifically used to protect clothing from spills the way they are now. Tuckers were lace pieces, fitted over the bodice-sometimes called ‘pinners’ or ‘modesty pieces’. These came into prominence by the end of the 17th Century. Tuckers are even mentioned in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.” (Barbara McDonough)

The New York Daily News remembers that:

The New York Public Library is “Celebrating 100 Years” of serving the public. On display: the first U.S. Gutenberg Bible, Charlotte Brontë’s desk, John Coltrane’s handwritten music and Charles Dickens’ own copy of “David Copperfield.” 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Free. (Sanna Chu)

Movie City News reviews Raoul Ruiz's posthumous film, Mistérios de Lisboa:

Castelo Branco’s subject was usually mad love among the rich — fertile ground for any novel or film — and his characters fall in love and suffer and plunge into nightmare like Heathcliff and Cathy in “Wuthering Heights,” or Scottie and Madeleine/Judy in Vertigo. (Mike Wilmington)

Ball Don't Lie publishes jokes about the basketball player Earl Barron:

The only demerit of the arrangement, apart from Port Land's reliance on coffee and not tea, was the presence of the spectre of Mr. Gregory Oden, who haunted the hallways like the madwoman in the attic of Miss Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. (Have you read this volume with Mistress Haversham? Miss Brontë is a friendly acquaintance and quite talented, perhaps even more so than her sisters Emily and Anne. I must introduce to the lovely trio upon my return.) (Eric Freeman)

Pinoy Parazzi talks about the Philippine tv-series Walang Hanggan; The Telegraph & Argus publishes that finally The Balcony Tearoom at Moor Lodge in will have a late alcohol licence; Sunshine Stories, booksellersnz and Las Mariposas Producen Huracanes (in Spanish) post about Wuthering Heights; the Brontë Sisters joins the Anne Brontë anniversary celebration; Writer Girl reviews Wuthering Heights 2009; Les Soeurs Brontë (in French) posts about interior and exterior walkings; Like Me Too and Bokdivisionen (in Swedish) post about Jane Eyre and Jediyuth reviews Jane Eyre 2011 in Thai; mtwhitelock uploads a recent picture of Top Withins.

Stella Vine's new portrait

2012-01-19T02:28:00.001+01:00

As we have reported before, the artist Stella Vine has painted a portrait of the Brontës to raise funds for repairs to the St Michael and All Angels Parish Church in Haworth. This is the new portrait:

£150.00
'Charlotte, Emily, and Anne'
Limited Edition Giclee Print
(With a message of thanks on the reverse for the church fund). Edition size: 100

Paper: Hahnemühle archival paper
Approx print size: 44.9cm x 37.5cm (+ border 6cm on each side)

100% of the profit from this print will go to the Haworth Bronte church fund. The church is in urgent need of repair.The painting the print has been made from is 51cm x 61cm, acrylic on canvas, signed and dated on the reverse 2012, with personal message of thanks.
If you are interested in purchasing the painting, again 100% will go to the church fund, please contact Jamie: studio@stellavine.com

You can also donate to the Bronte church here:
http://www.haworthchurch.co.uk

Any amount no matter how small will help, thank you x

The artist will be present at tonight's Look North (BBC1):

Listening 2 Christa Ackroyd & Rev Peter chatting about how Patrick Brontë was a radical social reformer, educated by Wilberforce, cooool.
Filming in the Brontë church for Look North with Christa Ackroyd. http://instagr.am/p/iRFSc/

Haworth: global magnet

2012-01-18T15:26:00.002+01:00

Apparently Haworth is to become a 'global magnet' according to The Telegraph and Argus:

English Heritage has pledged to transform Haworth from a day trip haven into an international tourist destination.
Trevor Mitchell, English Heritage’s Yorkshire and Humber planning director, said the village is one of Bradford’s biggest attractions but claims more should be done to market it as a global tourist attraction.
Mr Mitchell said: “At the moment Haworth isn’t really offering itself to an international audience. It is marketing itself to the people of West Yorkshire on an afternoon out. What Haworth needs is to offer something that appeals to the international tourist who has come for the Brontë connection.
“That is why we are saying we want to work with property owners and Bradford Council to see if we can touch things up a bit.”
Mr Mitchell said English Heritage was making Haworth more of a priority than in the past because it was identified as at risk in 2010.
The organisation has agreed to pay 80 per cent of the costs to repair the Parish Church roof, if match funding can be found, and is offering 80 per cent grants to reinstate original features on shop fronts in Main Street.
It has also encouraged The Old School Room, where the famous Brontë sisters taught, to apply for a grant and a decision is expected to be announced within a month.
Mr Mitchell said: “We know the Old School Room was built by Patrick Bronte and that the Brontë women taught there but actually it isn’t open to the public. Thousands of people walk past it every year and don’t really get to appreciate it.
“It looks a bit down on its luck.Hopefully we will be able to work quite closely with the people at the Old School Room to put a good project together, turn the building around and make it a success.”
Bradford Council’s portfolio holder for regeneration David Green (Wibsey, Lab) admitted more needs to be done to promote tourism in the district.
He said: “There hasn’t been a clear strategy, not just for Haworth but for tourism in particular, for a number of years.
“Places like Haworth, the council run museums and galleries and even the Keighley Bus Museum can all be pulled together and marketed for the benefit of all.” (Kathryn Bradley)

We don't see how a place that already has guide posts in Japanese is only 'marketing itself to the people of West Yorkshire on an afternoon out'.

Coincidentally, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner has a columnist who, in anticipation of a visit from American friends has been

swotting up about Robin Hood (met his end at Kirklees Abbey), the Brontë sisters, of Haworth (I always preferred Branwell) and York (what can you say?) (Denis Kilcommons)

The Yorkshire Post mentions briefly the fact that Stella Vine is working towards helping Haworth church.

The London Evening Standard reports that Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights are both nominated for the same category at the 39th London Evening Standard British Film Awards.spas

Two dramatically different takes on Brontë stories, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, are in contention for the technical honours [...]
LONDON FILM MUSEUM AWARD FOR TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Sean Bobbitt cinematographer, Shame
Paul Davies sound designer, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Maria Djurkovic production designer, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Michael O'Connor costume designer, Jane Eyre
Robbie Ryan cinematographer, Wuthering Heights (Louise Jury)

Jane Eyre 2011 is one of the runners-up on the National Catholic Register's list of best films of 2011.

The Telegraph comments on the fact that Wuthering Heights 2011 has been left out of the BAFTAs:

However, Bafta’s capacity for hipness has its limits, and there was no sign of Andrea Arnold’s bold Wuthering Heights adaptation or the cult gems Weekend and Kill List – and disgracefully, no best actress nod for Olivia Colman in Tyrannosaur either. (Robbie Collin)

A few readers have also remarked on the absence in the comments section of this Guardian article. And Kate Muir from The Times also thinks that the movie deserved at least a nomination for Cinematography.

The Philippine Star reviews Walang Hanggan, a new local take on Wuthering Heights:

Walang Hanggan clearly has the advantage of a bigger cast introduced at the media launch, all of whom have been very visible since on every program on ABS throughout the day promoting the series. The undying love story from three generations is what gives scope and grandeur to the teleserye. During Monday’s opening episode, two generations were quickly introduced, their relationships to one another, and possible encounters in the future.
Imagine having two queens of Philippine Cinema, Susan Roces and Helen Gamboa, playing sisters no less, both involved with the same man (Eddie Gutierrez). One is likely to give in (Susan) and suffer in silence. Helen is the ambitious one, to whom money and stature in society is most important, is married to Eddie who clearly sides with Susan in matters of conflict. Playboy Richard Gomez is the son who has willingly played suitor to Rita Avila for the money she will bring into mama’s wine business. Until he meets Dawn Zulueta, wage earner for their family, falls in love with her and rejects Rita’s offer of love and financial assistance, proposes marriage to Dawn, which aunt Susan has happily aided and abetted, with dad Eddie advising him to follow his heart. But a careless P50-bet with friends during a drinking session is unearthed to destroy this all too perfect love affair. Dawn throws away the infinity ring Richard had given her and the episode ends.
The once real and reel loveteam of Dawn and Richard was thought to be a love story made in heaven. We were present at its making, and its breaking, having been manager to Dawn at that time. We shared her giggles, laughter and tears. Even as both went separate ways to build their own families with spouses welcoming the past loves with warmth and affection, Richard and Dawn continued to represent the consummate loveteam difficult to replace.
Their love story began on the set of Carlitos Siguion Reyna’s Hihintayin Kita sa Langit, and blossomed there. The 1991 movie based on Emily Brontë’s romantic drama Wuthering Heights of star-crossed lovers caught the public’s attention, as well as the School of Inattention’s meticulous Oggs Cruz who gave it a thumbs up. Oggs wrote, “It is an impeccably shot film… It is a fantasy that clearly exploits a nation’s infatuation for larger-than-life struggles, of the downtrodden eventually reversing his fortunes, of victimizers getting their eventual punishment, and of love against all odds. Brontë’s classic work, stripped away of the complexity of its multi-generational narrative, perfectly suits this requirement. Siguion-Reyna shies away from portraying the subtleties of love and instead depicts it in its full grandeur and opulence.”
We have an inkling that Star Cinema might have considered a remake of Hihintayin, perhaps with a happier ending like that of William Wyler’s film version of Wuthering Heights where the ending shows the lovers in happier times traipsing along the hills of Batanes where the film was set. But Carlitos refused to sell the film rights which he confirmed to us. Perhaps, Carlitos knew that Hihintayin had a bright future as a remake. If he had been present at the media launch of Walang Hanggan, he would have been all the more convinced. More so now that the opening episode with the Dawn and Richard’s love story is firmly in place. (Bibsy M. Carballo)

And according to ABS-CBN News,

The pilot episode of ABS-CBN's newest series "Walang Hanggan" ruled the national TV ratings on Monday (January 16).
Based on the latest data of Kantar Media/TNS, the show's pilot episode registered a 32.1% ratings nationwide beating GMA7's "Legacy" with 16.8% TV5's "Glamorosa" which only got 4.9%.

Flavorwire thinks that Wuthering Heights is one of ten 'Famous Pop-Culture Love Triangles Where the Girl Should Have Stayed Single':

Heathcliff, Catherine, and Edgar Linton (Wuthering Heights) Catherine loves violent, unruly Heathcliff, but marries Linton instead for his wealth and status. How does Heathcliff react? By seducing Linton’s sister Isabella as a form of revenge (even though he hates her) which in turn causes Linton to retaliate by disowning Isabella. This upsets Catherine so much that she locks herself in her room, falls ill, and dies in childbirth. At that rate, spinsterhood would probably have been a better option. (Victoria McNally)

Anne Brontë was remembered yesterday by Cultura (in Hungarian) and Thoughts from a Buttonmonger. Day for Night, El templo de tinta (in Spanish), Jediyuth (in Thai) and Не киноман (in Russian) post about Jane Eyre 2011 while Mumblings in an Insane World writes about Wuthering Heights 2011. Doll with a Frown has designed a Jane Eyre book cover 'for fun' and Brainstorm shares a few thoughts on that novel. Poliphilo posts about Villette. Movie Screenshots has uploaded caps from Wuthering Heights 1939.The Book Lover writes in Italian about Juliet Gael's Romancing Miss Brontë. Lena Coakley has taken a test to find out 'which Brontë sibling' she is. Greystone Studios has a Brontë-related comic strip. And the Brontë Weather Project shares an update.

A Brontë Paris

2012-01-18T00:14:00.000+01:00

A very Brontë year in Paris. Although they are still waiting for the French release of Jane Eyre 2011 (next June 6), Jane Eyre 1944 is at the Cinéma Le Champo and now at the Filmothèque du Quartier Latin, André Téchiné's Les Soeurs Brontë 1979 is screened:

La Rétrospective Littérature et Cinéma
L'Ecrivain vu par le cinéma : Les Soeurs Brontë (1979)
Filmothèque du Quartier Latin
January 18, 21:50

A golden year and a BAFTA nomination

2012-01-17T09:29:00.001+01:00

This year's BAFTA shortlist nominations have just been disclosed. It looks like Jane Eyre 2011 has only been nominated for Costume Design (Michael O'Connor).

Coincidentally, according to The Telegraph, a British government report on the film industry

praised low-budget but critically-acclaimed films including Shame, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights. (Anita Singh)

The Guardian cites verbatim from the report:

The report also advocates "market testing where appropriate" – showing unfinished films to audiences and adjusting them according to response.
Smith claimed such initiatives, aimed at boosting commercial success, would not thwart challenging work by British film-makers like Andrea Arnold or Steve McQueen, whose Wuthering Heights and Shame are cited in the report as having contributed to a "golden year" for British film. (Alex Needham)

The Times adds:

[L]ow-budget British film industry seems to have more room for mixed- race casts. Andrea Arnold recently cast a black Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, and Attack the Block brought a teenage John Boyega into the limelight. (Kate Muir)

Another new adaptation of Wuthering Heights (Walang Hanggan) is currently being broadcast in the Philipines. From Business World Online:

Showcasing a powerhouse cast led by seasoned actresses Susan Roces and Helen Gamboa, Walang Hanggan tells the story of undying love that spans three generations, similar to the 1847 novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.
Misses Roces and Gamboa play sisters Virginia and Margaret who compete for the love of one man (played by Eddie Gutierrez).
Then there is the ill-fated love story between the rich guy Marco (Richard Gomez) and the poor woman Emily (Dawn Zulueta).
The tangled love story continues with young sweethearts Daniel (Coco Martin) and Katerina (Julia Montes).
Regina Amigo, the program’s creative manager, said ABS-CBN has pulled out all the stops to make sure Walang Hanggan will be a big TV hit.
"We got the best actors to be in the project. We shot in various locations around the country. We made sure this TV project will be something big for our audiences," Ms. Amigo told reporters last week.
Ms. Roces expressed excitement over the new series. "I’m a fan of soap operas myself, that’s why I’m very happy to be part of it," she said.
Meanwhile, Ms. Zulueta, who appears on this TV project for the first time in more than a decade with Mr. Gomez, takes pride in the narrative. "The story was so great, that it was hard to turn down the role. Everyone can surely relate with the characters’ journey," Ms. Zulueta said.
While Ms. Zulueta and Mr. Gomez rekindle an old onscreen romance, Mr. Martin and Ms. Montes starts a new one as they team up for the first time in this project.
"This is a new challenge for me since this is the first time that I’ll be doing a ‘full love story.’ But I’m getting inspiration from the fact that I’m working with the best actors and actresses of the industry," Mr. Martin said.
Completing the powerhouse cast are Rita Avila, Melissa Ricks, Joem Bascon and Paulo Avelino. Jerry Lopez Sineneng and Trina Dayrit direct the series which will run for at least four months.
Walang Hanggan airs weeknights at 9:30 p.m. on ABS-CBN. (Jeffrey O. Valisno)

Yet another adaptation of Wuthering Heights is mentioned in The New York Times in an article praising Fabio Luisi, the Metropolitan Opera’s principal conductor:

Who would have expected this Italian maestro to be so at home conducting Copland’s jazzy Clarinet Concerto, let alone an aria from “Wuthering Heights,” the only opera by Bernard Herrmann, of “Psycho” fame? (Anthony Tommasini)

A tutor in Cambridge writes in The Boston Globe,

For 40 years I’ve encouraged hundreds of students, lost in thickets of dense prose, unable to muddle through cumbersome classics, to turn to study guides. They offered consolation, an easy way out and a chance to pull the wool over the teacher’s eyes; teachers like Miss Marmet, who heaped scorn on me after catching me with Mickey Spillane’s “I, The Jury’’ when I should have been reading “Jane Eyre.’’ (Ted Sutton)

Natalie in the Wild has uploaded a Jane Eyre illustration. Thoughts from Mill Street and Humo (in Dutch) posts about Jane Eyre 2011.

Anne Brontë's 192nd birthday

2012-01-17T00:08:00.004+01:00

Today marks Anne Brontë's 192nd birthday. She was the only sister not to have one of her works adapted last year. From here we would like to encourage not just regular readers to discover both her novels Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as well as her poetry but also script writers, producers, whoever can do something, to try and discover her potential. Agnes Grey is a quiet little masterpiece and we believe the subject matter of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to be still - and sadly so - relevant today.

192 years after her both Anne Brontë has plenty to say to the world (as she once hoped). It's only a matter now of the world lending her an ear.

Picture: Letter from Anne Brontë to Ellen Nussey, October 4th 1847.

"All of us would be the poorer if this unique building was allowed to collapse"

2012-01-16T16:01:00.001+01:00

Many sites are reporting Meryl Streep's class act when she received her Golden Globe. As Digital Spy reports, she said,

"How about Michelle [Williams], how about Mia Wasikowska in Jane Eyre, fantastic, Tilda [Swinton]... oh, jeez," she continued, naming more of her fellow actresses. (Tara Fowler)

The Celebrity Cafe features Michael Fassbender and this is how his role as Mr Rochester is described:

a virile, handsome and complex Mr. Rochester in the classic Jane Eyre[.] (Jackie Morrison)

More showbiz news, as the Brontës seem to have put on an appearance in Desperate Housewives (Season 8, Episode 11, Who Can Say What's True?"). As summed up by Digital Spy:

Bree calls Renee's breasts the "Brontë sisters". Renee: "Even your boob jokes are repressed." (Catriona Wightman)

We don't know if repressed but the last time we counted them (the sisters) they were three.

The Guardian has a fantastic article in praise of Haworth church:

Lead thieves, time and too much wuthering have been unkind to the parish church of St Michael and All Angels in Haworth. Water is coming through the roof, Victorian wall paintings have been damaged and there is damp in the side chapel dedicated to the three Brontë sisters in the church where their father was parson. The raw Pennine air that scarred and shaped, and – like the stunted firs at Top Withens – probably shortened the lives of Charlotte, Emily and Anne, is now threatening the church itself. Saving churches – in particular 19th century rebuilds – is a contentious business. But without their father's work at Haworth, it would not have been the village and the moors above that enclosed their short lives and provided the passionate setting for their writing. The Brontës' world was always heavy with decay. Haworth church needs to raise £30,000 more by Friday. All of us would be the poorer if this unique building was allowed to collapse.

The Nashville City Paper discusses Classics Illustrated and recalls that,

Only eight female authors were ever adapted: Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, George Eliot, Ouida, Jane Porter, Anna Sewell, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Harriet Beecher Stowe. (Tina LoTufo)

Musings of a Literary Dilettante's Blog discusses Wuthering Heights. Reflections in A Major posts about Helen Burns and The Powell Blog reviews Jane Eyre 1983.

Romantic, Giving Women

2012-01-16T01:34:00.002+01:00

Two new scholar books with Brontë content:

Romantics and Victorians
Nicola J. Watson and Shafquat Towheed
Publication Date: November 2011
Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN: 9781849666244 (paperback)
9781849666237 (hardback)

The second volume in the Reading and Studying Literature series, co-published with the Open University, introduces students to European romanticism and Victorian culture. Each period is discussed in terms of an overarching theme, providing a clear focus for study and discussion and introducing readers to an important theoretical concept in literary studies.European romanticism is approached through a consideration of the evolution of the idea of the romantic author and the romantic inner life, using readings from Wordsworth on Grasmere, Shelley lyric poetry and Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater. The book goes on to explore Victorian culture through a reading of ideas of 'home' and 'abroad', in the work of Emily Brontë, Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson. The featured theoretical concept of this volume is 'the author'.

Contains: Part 2: Home and abroad in the Victorian age, c. 1832-1901: Wuthering Heights (1847) | Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four (1890) | Robert Louis Stevenson, 'The Beach of Falesa' (1892-3)

Giving WomenAlliance and Exchange in Victorian Culture
Jill Rappoport
OUP USA
978-0-19-977260-5 | Hardback | 05 January 2012

Giving Women examines the literary expression and cultural consequences of English women's giving from the 1820s to the First World War. Attending to the dynamic action and reaction of gift exchange in fiction and poetry by Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Christina Rossetti as well as in literary annuals, Salvation Army periodicals, and political pamphlets, Rappoport demonstrates how female authors and fictional protagonists alike mobilized networks outside of marriage and the market. Through giving, women redefined the primary allegiances of their everyday lives, forged public coalitions, and advanced campaigns for abolition, slum reform, eugenics, and suffrage.

Contains:
Chapter 2 Fictions of Reciprocity in Jane Eyre and Aurora Leigh
I. Jane's Inheritance
II. "An[other] Undowered Orphan"
III. Blind Economies

January to December

2012-01-15T11:33:00.000+01:00

The Reading Eagle Press publishes a list of best films of 2011 with Jane Eyre 2011 deserving an honorable mention.

The Telegraph talks about May to December marriages:

The “December” partner can be the woman – think Vivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler; Joan Collins and Percy Gibson – though it mostly happens the other way around (Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng; Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart; Mr Rochester and Jane Eyre). (Sally Williams)

Books Worth Remembering and Hannah Belle's Shelf post about Jane Eyre; The Hot-Doll Pages reviews Jane Eyre 2011; Czytam więc jestem (in Polish) posts about Villette; BOOKS read by KAT reviews Wuthering Heights.

Finally, Les soeurs Brontë (in French) talks about the "newly discovered portraits" of Emily Brontë. She seems to be far less skeptical than we are.

Wuthering Heights opens in Freiburg

2012-01-15T00:29:00.000+01:00

A new adaptation of Wuthering Heights opens today, January 15, in Freiburg, Germany:

Sturmhöhe
Schauspiel nach dem Roman von Emily Brontë

Regie:Matthias Breitenbach
Ausstattung:Nina Hofmann
Dramaturgie:Viola HasselbergFrank AlbrechtLena DrieschnerSteffen HappelIris Melamed

Theater Freiburg - Kammerbühne
January 15, 18, 27 8:00 PM
February 3, 9, 12, 18 8:00 PM
March 2, 4, 9, 17, 24 8:00 PM
April 7 8:00 PM

Heathcliff ist ein Wunschkind der besonderen Art – ein Bastard. Der Vater bringt ihn mit von einer Reise und nimmt ihn auf in seine Familie, in der es schon zwei Kinder gibt. Cathy, die Tochter, entbrennt in Liebe zu Heathcliff, die nicht sein darf, weil er ein »Niemand« ist. Hindley, der Sohn, verliert sich in Hass aus Eifersucht und unlösbaren Machtkonflikten. Heathcliffs Amoklauf beginnt. »Sturmhöhe« erzählt eine Geschichte über die Fragilität der Konstruktion Familie und die unterschwelligen Mechanismen von Lust, Macht und Unterdrückung, die ausbrechen, wenn ein Fremdkörper eindringt und uns mit dem Fremden in uns selbst konfrontiert. Unter einem männlichen Pseudonym veröffentlichte Emily Brontë ihren einzigen (Kult)Roman, bevor sie 1848, gerade einmal 30-jährig verstarb. Der Schauspieler Matthias Breitenbach zeigt seine erste Regiearbeit in Freiburg.

Badische Zeitung publishes an article about the production.

Jane Eyre. Explicit Content

2012-01-14T21:34:00.000+01:00

Keighley News adds some details to the news published yesterday about the English Heritage grand scheme in Haworth:

The organisation is now asking property owners to submit their own ideas for enhancing their shops and creating a more authentic atmosphere for visitors to Main Street.
Wendy Breeze, owner of Mrs Beighton’s Sweet Shop, said: “I think the grant is an excellent idea. All the windows need replacing in the building and we were looking at getting a new shop front.
“It is not a listed building, but it is in a conservation area and anything you have done is expensive.”
Nikki Carroll, owner of Firths, said: “I think this street would benefit from some help to do up the shops. In a recession it is hard to keep going from day to day let alone spending money on putting in sash windows.
“It depends how they stipulate we have to use it, but I am open to suggestions.”
She added that it was time Haworth received some investment. “Haworth is the jewel in the crown from a Yorkshire tourism point of view, but far more money has been invested in Saltaire and Hebden Bridge,” she said.
“I do think the Council should invest more in this village to support the traders because if we are gone what is going to be left?”
The scheme coincides with the completion of work by the Council to help preserve the traditional character of the world-famous Bronte village.
New street furniture, including seats and signposts, have been put in place and natural stone setts and footpaths have been repaired in Main Street. (Alistair Shand)

The Telegraph discusses Kate Bush's importance in British music:

From her dramatic entrance into music in the late Seventies as a precocious but otherwordly teenager unafraid to tackle the male lead in Brontë’s dark drama, to the unexpected release of two albums last year despite being perceived as slow worker, Bush has stubbornly refused to play by the traditional pop rules. (Bernardette McNulty)

The Daily Mail interviews the author Patrick Gale. Not a Brontëite, we are afraid:

Wutherin (sic) Heights. Perhaps it was my fault for having watched the 1939 Olivier/Oberon film version first - which, like most film versions, only covers a chunk of the book - but I never forgave the novel for its flabby structure and multiple endings.Worse, I had no sympathy for the ghastly people at this book's heart. If I'm to be force-fed Brontë, give me Jane Eyre any day! It is much the better novel, complete with horror childhood, roller-coaster plot, madwoman in the attic and the ultimate craggy hero. As for Heathcliff? I'd rather have a cup of tea.

Exactly the opposite of the Chilean author and politician Ernesto Ottone who recommends Wuthering Heights in La Segunda. Or the Italian writer Sara C. Zuccaro who also recommends it in this interview on Paperblog.

And The Independent asks for recent readings to Lynda La Plante:

Holiday reading?
Half of my holiday reading is usually for work. Aside from that I like biographies. I recently read The Crimes of Charlotte Brontë by James Tully, which was fascinating.

We can also think of some adjectives for that book and fascinating is not one of them.

Also in The Independent there is an article about the plan to annex part of Lancashire into the Yorkshire Dales National Park:

Meanwhile, down at Cowan Bridge, a village on the A65 whose claim to fame is as the home of the typhus-ridden school where the Yorkshire-born Brontë sisters were educated, there was acceptance of the plan. (Jonathan Brown)

The California Literary Review has its own list of best and worst films of 2011:

Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre came out around the time that everyone was rushing to see The King’s Speech before the Oscars, and that may explain why it passed virtually unnoticed. It also had an extremely spooky trailer, as though they had taken the Charlotte Brontë classic and gone all Sleepy Hollow with it. It turned out not to be that over-the-top, and in fact is a marvelous adaptation of one of the darkest and weirdest entries in the Victorian reading list. Mia Wasikowska, still waifishly beautiful after her thankless turn in Tim Burton’s disappointing Alice In Wonderland, smolders and suffers at the hands of ill fate on the gorgeous, misty English moors. Before delighting us all as Magneto, Michael Fassbender put in a fine supporting performance as handsome lout Mr. Rochester. (Brett Harrison Davinger)

Blogdecine (in Spanish) also includes the film on its own list. It seems that the film was also mentioned in yesterday's (January 13) Jeopardy! One of the questions was who played Rochester in the latest film adaptation. The Georgia Film Critics Association has nominated Mia Wasikowska for Best Actress of the year.

Idoia Arbillaga says about the film in La Razón (Spain):

Respecto de [Jane Eyre], y eludiendo un posible sesudo contraste con cada elemento narrativo de la novela de Charlotte Brontë, cabe decir que capta el vigor del texto y se ve reforzado por una ambientación, fotografía y unos planos de detalle magníficos. La protagonista logra conmovernos, logra encender la semilla de la fuerza, resolución y capacidad de esfuerzo que toda mujer lleva dentro; en la más íntima esencia de nuestra femineidad, todas somos Jane Eyre. ¿Cómo las hermanas Brontë lograron, en mitad de los páramos de Yorkshire, solteronas y aisladas, escribir obras como ésta, y la inigualable «Cumbres borrascosas»? Sin duda el film reproduce lo esencial de la novela. (Translation)

Michael Fassbender's connection with Jane Eyre was mentioned by the host of the recent 17th annual Critics' Choice Awards:

But in our opinion, it was The Office writer and star Mindy Kaling who stole the show with her mini tribute to Michael Fassbender, who was unfortunately absent.
"I'm sorry, can we just talk about Michael Fassbender for a second? ...Who is this guy? He's sexy for every type of woman," she said while presenting with Community actor Donald Glover. "If you are old fashioned, he was in Jane Eyre, if you are a huge nerd, he was in X-Men, and if you're kind of a weirdo pervert he was in Shame as a sex addict. Where is he? This is why I came here tonight, to meet him!" (Sandie Angulo Chen in iVillage)

And in the Evening London Standard:

Or take Michael Fassbender, an actor who is obviously smart. You'll find him at home in a costume drama such as Jane Eyre as well as indie films such as Shame and Fish Tank: either way he hasn't made a bad movie yet. (Richard Godwin)

Or The Guardian:

He's the go-to guy for any director in search of a square-jawed romantic hero (Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre) a troubled Mitteleuropean visionary (Jung in A Dangerous Method), a nasty seducer of young girls (in Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank) or a fanatical Irish Republican hunger-striker (Hunger). (...)
He constantly mentions his mother Adele in interviews, whether as a Jane Eyre fan whose enthusiasm affected his decision to take the role of Rochester, or as a surprisingly liberal-minded spokesman for male nudity. (John Walsh)

IndieWire's The Playlist also gives an honorable mention to Jane Eyre 2011 on its best-of-2011 list:

Cary Fukunaga’s "Jane Eyre" featuring two rich performances by Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska (who is the greatest and I hope is a huge star one day). (Rodrigo Pérez)

Probably the film will feature in some of the best-of-2012 lists in Belgium. Good reviews in general, published on Cutting Edge, De Standaard (who also runs an article about Michael Fassbender), Knack, Cinenews, Le Soir (plus Michael Fassbender article), La Libre Belgique, and some not so good: Digg, La Dernière Heure and L'Avenir (Luxembourg). A neutral article on Brussel Nieuws.

Last Saturday's The Guardian Prize Crossword contained a Brontë mention:

25 Person from Riga in unpleasant surroundings — is it Brussels? (8) (Araucaria)

Which turns out to be... Villette.

The Montreal Gazette has ideas about how teenagers can read more books:

There's lots of controversy over the fact that Quebec students aren't reading enough books. But maybe that's because, unlike TV and video games, books have no warnings. Anyone can buy them without adult supervision, which makes them unattractive. Books obviously need warnings, too. For instance: "Hamlet: This play contains scenes of lust, sexuality, sword fighting, violence, foul language, suicide and murder most foul."
Similar messages could warn of murder in Crime and Punishment, incest in Macbeth and child abuse in Jane Eyre. To add to the allure, literature should be sold in brown paper wrapping with warnings saying: "Explicit Content - minors must show proof of age before purchase." (Josh Freed)

Jennifer Salway talks about some of her former jobs in the Daily Express:

Meanwhile here's a list of some odd jobs I've done in my time: hair dressers' junior, scene painter, chambermaid, kitchen maid, box-office clerk, barmaid, ice-cream seller, receptionist, governess (my Jane Eyre days but no Mr Rochester, sadly), nanny, teacher, messenger and (many times) waitress.

Sue Arnold reviews The Song of Achilles's audiobook in The Guardian:

How do you persuade anyone under 30 and, more specifically, young men interested only in sport, action movies and hair products (my student son, for instance) to read Homer? By giving them this exciting, sexy, violent Superman version of the Iliad, that's how. Strictly speaking, like Wide Sargasso Sea to Jane Eyre[.]

The Hindu remembers that

Emily Brontë published her weird and artful “Wuthering Heights” when she was 29, a year before she died. (Latha Anantharaman)

Joan Uda at The Helena Independence Record has a new ebook reader:

This year my personal Santa Claus gave me an electronic reader.It’s a cute little thing, about as long and wide as a mass-marketpaperback and weighing about the same. Many download books arefree, so now it has two good dictionaries, a Bible, some classicslike “Pride and Prejudice” and “Jane Eyre” and a few newerinexpensive books.

The North Jersey Record explains how to write a Twilight-like teen romance novel:

"They told me he was bad, but I knew he was sad," sang The Shangri-Las about their outlaw biker in 1964's "Leader of the Pack." They could have been talking about Edward Cullen, the ageless "teen" vampire hero of Stephenie Meyer's 2005 novel "Twilight," credited for jump-starting the "paranormal romance" phenomenon. For that matter, they might have been talking about Heathcliff, the bad-but-sad hero of "Wuthering Heights," who was the 1847 equivalent of a biker or vampire: a – shudder! – gypsy. (Jim Bickerman)

The Toronto Star is talking about a perfume (Calèche by Hermes) but begins the article like this:

In this most serious of months, I find myself reaching for the classics: those pretty reissued paperbacks by Austen and the Brontës, my annual Mitford spree, a dab of Brideshead. (Leanne Delap)

According to Lisa de Moraes from the Washington Post this is how a contemporary Heathcliff would dress. Describing Jeremy Irons:

That’s not easy to pull off when dressed as Emily Brontë’s tortured hero, Heathcliff — rough brown scarf nestled in the neck of a soft white shirt under sturdy brown vest, rough-hewn pants tucked into sturdy boots.

La Tercera (Chile) begins an article about the publication of a Jane Austen derivative with Charlotte Brontë's words about Ms Austen:

Le faltaba "aire", dijo Charlotte Brontë. Le faltaban "cielos azules". Nunca le gustó Orgullo y prejuicio. (Roberto Careaga C.) (Translation)

The Russian director Aleksander Sokurov is interviewed in Wiener Zeitung (Austria):

Wenn Sie Sprache für überschätzt halten, wieso ist Ihr "Faust" dann so stark von den Dialogen geprägt?
Nur schwache Filmemacher haben Angst vor guten Dialogen. Ich empfinde es als Unart unserer Zeit, wenn wir lieber einen Internet-Chat führen als eine gute Unterhaltung. Wenn in meinen Filmen wichtige Dinge verhandelt werden, dann darf dazu gern viel geredet werden. Denken Sie doch an die tollen BBC-Verfilmungen von Charles Dickens oder den Brontë-Schwestern. Da wird ohne Unterlass geredet. Für mich ist das ein Hochgenuss! (Matthias Greuling and Alexandra Zawia) (Translation)

Witchblog, Simply Books, The French Table (in French) and Aus dem Leben eines Bücherwurms (in German) review Jane Eyre 2011; El blog de Gustavo Arengo posts about Charlotte Brontë; Humanities Roundtable has a discussion going on around Wuthering Heights; A Rapariga dos Livros reviews (in Portuguese) a Portuguese translation of Charlotte Brontë's The Spell (O Feitiço).

Steampunk Brontës

2012-01-14T01:17:00.002+01:00

The Sydney Padua webcomic 2D Goggles or The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage last adventure: Vampire Poets features no less than the Brontë sisters. Charlotte and Anne are looking for a missing Emily in London with the help, of course, of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.

I had some considerable anxiety over this episode because the Brontës kind of belong to Kate Beaton now, but Vampire Poets has always started for me with Emily Brontë breaking windows for Babbage’s chart, and that’s just how it had to be! Charlotte Bronte provides a description of her sister in the preface to the 1851 edition of Wuthering Heights; Emily did not in actuality accompany the other two sisters on their well-known visit to London, probably because this is just the sort of thing they were afraid would happen. She succumbed to Poetry at the age of 30.

The published episodes are:
Vampire Poets. Part I
Vampire Poets. Part III

If you are wondering what happens with the second part, the author says:

Pocket Universe sequences often have these unexpected quantum episode jumps.

Now you know.

Practically applicable classics

2012-01-13T15:29:00.002+01:00

The Telegraph and Argus sums up all the goings-on in Haworth village:

The jewel in Bradford’s tourism crown is getting a much needed boost with a host of projects currently underway – but civic leaders say more investment is needed to keep tourists flocking to Haworth.
The historic village is undergoing a major transformation thanks to a project to revamp the picturesque Main Street and a £1.25m restoration appeal to renovate Haworth Parish Church, which is the burial place of the Brontë sisters.
English Heritage is also investing significantly in the village and the church, which it placed on its at risk register in 2010. The organisation has agreed to pay 80 per cent of the costs to repair the parish church roof, subject to match funding being found, and is offering 80 per cent grants to reinstate original features on shop fronts in Main Street.
It is also working with traders to identify cheap ways to improve the town’s appearance, such as removing advertising boards from Main Street.
Haworth Parish Council chairman John Huxley welcomed the boost in activity in the village but says much more investment is needed in future.
He said: “We are making good progress but there is much that still needs to be done. Bradford Council has got a decision to make about Haworth.
“For many years we have heard this phrase that we are the jewel in Bradford’s tourism crown but really and truly we need to understand what they mean by that.
“There needs to be a considerable investment in the village if it is to become an attractive proposition for tour providers.”
One of the biggest bug bears, he says, is parking.
Coun Huxley said: “There isn’t enough parking in the village and we have an issue with clamping at the Changegate car park.
“The people who run events in the village say coach companies are reluctant to come to Haworth because there isn’t an official drop off and pick up point or anywhere for the drivers to rest up.
“I understand what I am saying here will cost the Council some money but such is the pressure on Haworth now from tourism it really does need some investment.
“English Heritage have put their money where their mouth is and come up with 80 per cent funding for projects. I understand the issues the Council is facing but it would be wonderful if it could start providing the remaining 20 per cent when the economy improves in the future.”
Coun Huxley also claims Haworth needs a village manager to co-ordinate projects to improve tourism and preserve heritage. He said he hoped it could be something Bradford Council could provide but suggested the post could be funded by the parish council if there was no alternative.
He said the parish council had also discussed creating a Brontë quarter in and around Church Street with the Parish Church, the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the Old School Room to create a heritage trail for visitors to follow.
But he added the proposals could come to nothing if plans to build almost 1,000 houses in Haworth over the next 17 years, proposed in the council’s draft Local Development Framework, were approved.
“To start changing the landscape will make it difficult to attract investment to Haworth in the future and it will be difficult for Bradford to promote it as a tourist destination,” he said. “We need to take a big overall view of Haworth and a more strategic approach to it.”
The Airedale Partnership has been examining the overall economy in the Worth Valley and Haworth, including tourism, and is working with Haworth Parish Council on a masterplan for the future. The Partnership has helped secure English Heritage grants for the main street and enabled Brontë Parsonage Museum to temporarily have an artist in residence.
Dave Melling, rural programmes coordinator for the partnership, said: “Tourism has been around in Haworth for a long time but we need to take a step back and think about how is that doing at the moment, what can we do to make it better and what can businesses do for themselves.”
Despite the work being undertaken in parts of Haworth, an important part of its heritage still remains under threat. The Old School Room, built by Emily and Charlotte and Anne Brontë’s father Patrick, is in a bad state of repair.
Part of the roof collapsed between Christmas and New Year and the upper section of the building has now been declared unsafe and has been closed to the public.
Despite an upsurge of support for Haworth Parish Church appeal, at least £20,000 still needs to be raised in the next two weeks before English Heritage will release the grant for the first phase of work.
Averil Kenyon, chairman of Brontë Spirit – the committee tasked with saving the Old School Room – said: “The situation is dire now. We are waiting the outcome of a grant application to English Heritage but until we get some funds we can’t do anything with the roof.
“The whole area looks a bit sad at the moment and possibly the Old School Room is the saddest thing in it. If we do manage to improve the building it will have a knock-on effect for the whole area and enhance the visitor experience.”
Ms Kenyon said building owners Haworth Parish Church had given Brontë Spirit one year to begin repairing the building and they had less than seven months left to make progress. She said: “I don’t know what will happen if we don’t get the money. The building will have to be sold off. That would be a great shame.”
The Brontë Parsonage Museum, which is a hugely popular attraction, is also still reeling after it lost out in a bidding battle to get a rare Brontë manuscript which went up for auction last year.
The museum’s collections manager, Ann Dinsdale, says more investment is needed in the village. She said: “We are doing our best here to preserve the parsonage but the village is getting to look quite shabby. I think Haworth will continue to slide in the present economic climate unfortunately. There needs to be an investment commitment and economic masterplan needs to be drawn up but I don’t know if that can happen.”

The Times also takes a look at the housing plans controversy.

Reuters informs that,

"The Descendants," "Moneyball" and "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy" are among the finalists for the USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors both the screenwriter who adapted a literary work and the original author of that work.
"A Dangerous Method" and "Jane Eyre" round out the nominations for the Scripters, which will be presented on February 18 at USC. The nominees were chosen by a 32-person selection committee made up of filmmakers, critics and academics.
"Jane Eyre" was perhaps the most surprising entry on the list, which left off "Hugo," "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," "The Help," "War Horse" and "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," among others.

Is it really so surprising? We will know if Moira Buffini gets the prize next February 18.

Movie City News reviews the film:

It’s in many ways, a faithful movie, one that at least respects its source. But how can you really sympathize in the ways Charlotte wanted us to sympathize with Jane — to admire not her looks, but her brains, her pluck, her persistence, her bravery — when she’s played by a stunner like Wasikowksa, however disguised, however made “mousey?” Poetic license, I guess. (Mike Wilmington)

BBC News wonders about unfinished works:

There's a long list of great authors who have left work unfinished, often because of illness or death. Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, to name but a few. An industry has grown up around them, of so-called "continuators" - writers eager to finish the stories that they began.

Strictly speaking and judging from what's extant today it was only Charlotte who left work unfinished, though.

Some people are a bit narrow-minded. Apparently the question of reading the classics only depends on whether or not they teach you to speak correctly. From Money Marketing:

Ample Financial Services managing director Colin Parkin says this raises the question of whether the subjects being taught are still relevant and says: “I think teachers probably do not have enough time but is what we teach and examine relevant anyway? Reading the classics like Charlotte Brontë might be good for basic education but does it teach children to talk correctly? Time needs to be spent on practically applicable subjects.” (Rachael Adams)

That, of course, depends on your definition of 'practically applicable'. To us, the classics are highly so.

The person writing the cinema listings for The Mirror would sadly seem to agree with the above statement:

WUTHERING HEIGHTS
Cert 15, 129mins *
Starring: Solomon Glave, Shannon Beer
A poor lad is taken in by a wealthy family in this offbeat adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel. This is about as dull as it gets. (David Edwards)

While the Cambridge News suggests a few movies that could comply with David Cameron's suggestion that 'the British film industry should support "commercially successful pictures"'. One of them is:

Jane Eyre's Wuthering Pride and Sensibility. Brontë-Austen smackdown, with Anne Hathaway. (Paul Kirkley)

Which we find truly hilarious.

The answers to the 107th King William's College, 'Isle of Man general knowledge paper, probably the toughest quiz in the world' are now online on the Guardian website. Number 10 is all about Catherines and includes Catherine Earnshaw.

James Howson, our latest Heathcliff, is all over the news for, apparently, 'racially abusing his former girlfriend'. See for instance BBC News. Whereas on the plus side, Mia Wasikowska, our latest Jane Eyre, is reported as being the face of Miu Miu's spring/summer 2012 campaign according to Vogue.

The Celebrity Cafe reviews Kathryn Alice's Releasing a Person: Recover from a Breakup or Divorce CD by stating,

The truth is … if a person was really your soul mate they would never have left. A true soul mate always returns. Just like in the movies. Think of Jane Eyre returning to Mr. Rochester or Catherine and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. These couples could not stay apart. (Jackie Morrison)

Chasing the Light And Real Life is Rubbish post about Jane Eyre 2011; My Daily Adventures in Hong Kong... And More reviews the original novel; Large Yellow Dog Studio has visited Haworth; Ryder Islington's Blog reviews Wuthering Heights; SonnetDreams uploads to YouTube a reading of Emily Brontë's The Night is Darkening.

Emily on Guitar

2012-01-13T01:16:00.000+01:00

This is a song by Alias Guitar / Alisa Gladyseva with lyrics by Emily Brontë. The title of the song is All Day:

Yet another 'Emily Brontë' portrait to be auctioned

2012-01-12T09:22:00.001+01:00

Another so-called Emily Brontë portrait is going under the hammer on February 23rd. According to the Yorkshire Post,

AN oil painting believed to be of author Emily Bronte will be the latest item relating to one of the literary sisters to go under the hammer.
The piece is being sold by Northamptonshire firm JP Humbert Auctioneers after the sale of another painting of the reclusive writer for £23,836 in December. [...]
The hitherto unseen painting of Emily Brontë measures 33cm by 24cm and depicts a pensive-looking Victorian woman, auctioneer Jonathan Humbert said.
Annotated Emily Jane Brontë, it has more unclear writing, possibly an artist’s name or title, he said.
The painting was handed to the auctioneers by a private owner after seeing publicity around the previous portrait, and is expected to fetch at least £3,000.
“I am amazed that this second painting has turned up on our doorstep,” Mr Humbert said.
“One unknown portrait of Emily Brontë is luck enough but two in two months is quite remarkable.
“This painting is definitely mid-19th century and has been attributed to Miss Brontë by the artist at the time of painting.”
The portrait is set to go on sale, unreserved, on February 23 at JP Humbert’s sale room in Towcester, Northants, with a provisional estimate of £3,000-4,000. (Picture source)

The Guardian adds,

For the second time in two months, a previously unknown portrait captioned "Emily Brontë" is to be auctioned, showing the Wuthering Heights author as a winsome but pensive young woman.
Painted in oils and with the subject gazing directly at the artist with clear brown eyes, the picture is less formal and possibly more flattering than the smaller, bonneted study that sold in December for £23,836, exceeding the reserve price of £10,000-£15,000.
Measuring 33 by 24cms (13 by 9.5ins), the painting has been reliably sourced to the mid-19th century and has a note of the subject probably made by the artist around the time of painting. But absolute attribution is unlikely, as has been the case with most supposed Brontë portraits apart from the famous study of the sisters painted in 1835 by their brother, Branwell. [...]
Anything with a Brontë tag appears to sell well, although uncertainty about the authenticity of the latest picture has seen the reserve set at between £3,000 and £4,000. Last month the Haworth Parsonage museum, which has the world's greatest trove of Brontë relics, was outbid by a Paris museum for a miniature magazine made by Charlotte Brontë when she was 14. (Martin Wainwright)

And The Telegraph and Argus reports the Brontë Society's stance:

But an official at the Brontë Society has cast doubt on whether or not the painting is actually of the famous author. [...]
The previously unseen painting depicts a pensive-looking Victorian woman and is annotated Emily Jane Brontë. Ann Dinsdale, collections manager at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth said: “The problem is who would have wanted to paint Emily Brontë, apart from her brother Branwell, who aspired to a career as a portrait artist?”

The auctioneers' press release can be read here. The Times also echoes the news.

The Yorkshire Post also broaches the subject of the fundraising for Haworth church, together with a video.

TOURISTS from all over the world may come to visit it but time is running out for campaigners fighting to save the church where Jane and Emily Brontë lie buried.
Fundraisers at St Michael and All Angels, Haworth, say they just have a handful of days in which to raise the money to guarantee builders can start £1.25 million of vital works to the famed place of worship.
English Heritage has offered £100,000 towards the scheme to repair its badly leaking roof but to secure it fundraisers were told they needed to raise a total of £65,000 in match funding.
And although polite Victorian society, including the Brontës, would no doubt have not approved, these are desperate times.
So well-wishers of the church, agreed to bare almost all in charity calendars to raise thousands of pounds to help the appeal.
By Boxing Day the amount needed was £31,000 but with the calendars selling well, John Huxley, who is spearheading the fundraising, said he thought D-Day - January 20 - was within sight.
“Both men and women of the Worth Valley agreed to take part in calendar shoots entitled Haworth Couldn’t Wear Less - with the male version outselling its female counterpart by a factor of three to one at the moment.
“Overall, we have been overwhelmed by public support though the clock is starting to tick rather urgently.
“We have had donations from as little as £1 to donations of £1,000 and it is all very much appreciated. We have held master classes in cake making, fundraising talks and Haworth Primary School’s gardening club even gave us £500.”
As things stand the fund is still £21,500 shy of its target but Mr Huxley is optimistic the final few days will see his letter box bulging with envelopes stuffed with cash and cheques.
The roof of the church is badly damaged and water leaking through has now damaged the church’s original wall paintings.
Once the roof has been repaired it will be possible to rectify the rest of the damage in a process which is set to take place in phases over several years. Work is also needed to ensure the church meets 21 century standards of worship.
News of its plight prompted celebrated artist Stella Vine to offer to paint a portrait of the Bronte sisters to raise funds for repairs.
Ms Vine, is well-known for portraits of figures ranging from Princess Diana to heroin addict Rachel Whitear
She said she will sell prints of the sisters after being “greatly saddened” to see the church in a “terrible state”.
The new artwork will feature Charlotte, who wrote Jane Eyre, along with Wuthering Heights author Emily and their younger sister Anne, who wrote Agnes Grey. The church has also been targeted by lead thieves three times in the last 18 months. [...]
Mr Huxley said the church had also approached the Bradford Diocese, the Sir George Martin Trust, Ilkley, Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust and the National Churches Trust for help.
“Personally, I had never heard of Stella Vine but we are very, very grateful for her offer and everyone else who has promised help,” he said.
“My main concern at the moment is if we are left with a £15,000 shortfall - that would be a major problem though there is always the possibility that we could apply to English Heritage’s shortfall fund.
“The situation is that we love the fact that this is our church but we also understand it is an iconic feature of Yorkshire tourism and we are looking at making the building last for another 75 years.
“The church treasurer - Averil Kenyon - my partner and myself spend hour upon hour from getting up in the morning to going to sleep at night constantly thinking about how we can reach this total and get on with this vital work.
“And every day brings a fresh cheque or two so I am a lot more optimistic now. We are very pleased with what’s happened and we have all worked very hard to get to this stage and we are going to get through this though it is true that we are nervous with so little time left, that is true - we are nervous. We had a meeting of the Future group on Tuesday and it was very positive.
“The church is open 364 days a year and is very well frequented by tourists including many from Japan and Korea. We also get plenty from Australia and New Zealand and even the Americans are reappearing.”

USA Today asks 'Oscar' not to forget Mia Wasikowska's role as Jane Eyre:

•Mia Wasikowska, Jane Eyre. The Australian-born actress delivers possibly the best portrayal of Charlotte Brontë's heroine. She brings the character to life in a more personal and immediate way, palpably conveying Jane's strength and resolve to surmount her terrible childhood. We believe her capable of powerful, but rigidly contained, passions. She adroitly captures the character's quiet intensity and fierce intelligence. (Claudia Puig)

The Salt Lake Tribune asks film experts to pick three movies they are looking forward to seeing at Sundance.

Omar Moore • Editor, The Popcorn Reel (popcornreel.com).
"Wuthering Heights" (Spotlight) • "I’m curious to see just how much [director Andrea] Arnold, who’s such a talented and distinctive director, stages Brontë’s classic and reshapes it in her own unique language. I think that her sensitivities and the resolute, uncompromising and spirited women at the center of her films (‘Red Road,’ "Fish Tank’) should inform this new film well." (Sean P. Means)

Mike McCahill from The Telegraph thinks 'the twin Cathies of Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights' have been unjustly left out of the BAFTAs.

Cliqueclack comments on the latest episode of Sherlock, The Hounds of Baskerville:

it goes too far into Brontë-esque Gothic whackadoo for my tastes (Julia Hass)

This Port Jefferson Patch columnist is looking forward to reading The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margo Livesey, which

While clearly inspired by Jane Eyre, Gemma’s story remains her own. (Monica Williams)

Amanda Nelson plays literary matchmaker for The Huffington Post:

Jane Eyre and Rhett Butler
Jane has the morality and goodness that Rhett always praised in Melanie. She also has the sass and ferocity of Scarlett, but without the self-centered cattiness. And we all know how much Jane loves a dark, unconventional man with high social standing.

Living & Thriving writes briefly about Jane Eyre. La Petite Feministe Anglaise wonders about Bertha's madness. Books, Belles & Beaux reviews Jude Morgan's Charlotte & Emily (aka The Taste of Sorrow). The Attic shares pictures of Haworth.

Discussions and Readings

2012-01-12T01:43:00.001+01:00

A couple of alerts for today, January 12 and tomorrow January 13:

1. An alert from the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library (Central branch) in Evansville (IN):

Classics Book Discussion: "Villette" by Charlotte Brontë
Thursday, January 12, 20121:00pm - 2:00pmCentral - Conference Room
Join us for discussion of Villette by Charlotte Brontë.
An English teacher struggles to preserve her independent spirit in the face of adverse circumstances.

2. And a staged reading of Wuthering Heights in Seattle, WA:

Novel Workshop Series: Book-It.
Friday, January 13, 2012 7:30 pm
Book-It Repertory Theatre presents its third annual reading series exploring potential new works in The Novel Workshop Series, January 12 – 15, this year in collaboration with the UW School of Drama.

The readings will take place at the Glenn Hughes Penthouse Theatre on the Seattle UW Campus. MFA acting, directing, and design students will perform in these readings that will be developed through intensive workshops and master classes taught by Book-It artists.Four novels have been chosen for this year's series: She's Come Undone, A Little Princess, Wuthering Heights, and The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

On Friday, January 13:Wuthering Heights, by Charlotte Brontë
The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie
Glenn Hughes Penthouse Theatre at the University of Washington

Nominations and Ales

2012-01-11T10:06:00.000+01:00

Guy Lodge on HitFix continues listing her predictions for the Oscars. His ten names list includes Mia Wasikowska:

Mia Wasikowska's 2012 took a flat turn, with neither "Restless" nor "Albert Nobbs" doing much to showcase her delicate gifts, but why have people forgotten that it started with the performance of her already considerable career? As Charlotte Brontë's shy-yet-candid romantic heroine, the Australian ingenue is ideally cast, yet doesn't let that do the work for her: her alternately ordinary and exquisite face is constantly alive with thought and observation, gifting the medium with its loveliest, spikiest Jane yet.

The Gay & Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association has nominated Jane Eyre 2011 to the Best Unsung film of the year. Fortunately the Irish Film & Television Academy has amended one of the most obvious injustices in the recent BAFTAs long lists: Robbie Ryan has been nominated to the Best Cinematography for Wuthering Heights 2011.

Sabotage Times makes a list with "ten real ales":

Bridgehouse Brewery ‘Heathcliff Stout’ 5.0% ABV
I’ve stuck this at the end because it’s not an ale, it’s a stout – but it’s bloody lovely. Brewed in Oxenhope, West Yorkshire, just down the road from Haworth where the character ‘Heathcliff’ was created by Emily Brontë. Rather like ‘Wuthering Heights’, this is dark, moody and very tasty indeed. Bridgehouse Brewery would seem to be a micro-brewery and don’t yet have a fully functioning website, so it’s unlikely to be engulfed by Japanese tourists like Haworth is these days, but if you happen to stumble upon it whilst roaming the bleak moors, make sure you get a pint down you. Unless the ghost of famous booze hound Branwell Brontë has beaten you to it, in which case there may be none left. (Andrew Long)

Speeech Balloons reviews the Wuthering Heights Classical Comics adaptation; Jonny's Daily Movie Review posts about Jane Eyre 1944; Flip Turn and sara-sundries post about Wuthering Heights, the novel; Mr79Flanagan79 posts a brief video of Haworth; 5 minutes for books reviews The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey.

Kate Beaton's Wuthering Heights

2012-01-11T00:17:00.002+01:00

Kate Beaton, author of Hark! A Vagrant continues her Brontë-related cartoons with a series devoted to Wuthering Heights:

Part One
Mr. Lockwood Arrives
Part Two
Childhood of Heathcliff
Part 3
Heathcliff and Cathy Grow Up

The author talks about this new project:

Kate BeatonI had just about given up on ideas for Wuthering Heights until the other day when I stumbled upon a beautifully illustrated version of the book by Fritz Eichenberg. It was two dollars! Unbelievable. His evocative woodcuts spurred me into action!
Because this is such a busy time, and such an intense book to cover, I am breaking the comics into smaller updates! That way you won't be waiting so long for them while I run around town and do all that fancy press and tour stuff. (...)
It's interesting to go this far with a book, over more than one update. I have re-read so many parts of Wuthering Heights in the last while that all the characters are swimming around in my brain like .. brain fish.
Nelly, I AM Heathcliff!

Don't Call it a Chick Flick

2012-01-10T21:33:00.003+01:00

Delano (Luxembourg) presents Jane Eyre 2011 which opens in Luxembourg next January 13:

The film is an honest and visually seductive film, quite faithful to the Gothic romance that, in the words of critic Roger Ebert “attracts us with a deep tidal force.”
Mia Wasikowska stars as the wretched heroine, who suffers misfortune and abuse but rises above all with dignity to end up a wife and mother. Alongside Fassbender, Judi Dench makes a significant contribution as Rochester’s housekeeper, Mrs Fairfax.
Fukunaga brings out the dark side of the novel in what is a slow but impressive film made all the better by its lead actors.

The Spanish Cinema Goya Awards have nominated Jane Eyre 2011 to the Best European Film category:

Lars von Trier’s Melancholia
Roman Polanski’s Carnage
Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist
Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre

The American Society of Cinematographers will release its nominations tomorrow and Guy Lodge on HitFix makes his own predictions:

There are more exciting directions they could go in -- it'd be great to see "Drive," "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," "Jane Eyre" or even "Melancholia" slip in here -- but I'm not sensing much independent spirit on the guilds' part this year.

The Reel Breakdown lists the film as one of the five overlooked films of the year:

In this nearly forgotten Michael Fassbender ("X-Men: First Class") film, the studly Irish actor who generated so much commentary for his full-frontal nudity in "Shame" creates more heat while fully clothed. He plays the tortured Victorian gentleman, Rochester, opposite Mia Wasikowska's plain-Jane governess. Based on the Charlotte Brontë classic, with lush cinematography and gorgeous sets and costumes, this is the ultimate smart girl's romance. Just don't call it a chick flick. (Thelma Adams)

The Montreal Gazette has an article about the visual effects studio Modus FX:

At Modus FX, for example, we have developed expertise in surfaces, such as the trains in Source Code and the water plane in Barney's Version, as well as CG environments and invisible effects, such as when we changed the season from winter to summer for several scenes in Jane Eyre. (Marc Bourbonnais)

The latest episode of Castle (Season 4, Episode 11: Till Death do us Apart) contains a Jane Eyre reference:

A 28-year-old naked jumper named Michael Bailey has landed on a street side fruit cart, having either hurled himself, or been hurled, out of a seventh floor hotel window. He has scratch marks on his back, which prompts Beckett to say, “looks like he did the deed before taking the dive.” Lipstick on the sheets upstairs make that seem likely, and the room booked under the name Jane Eyre give credence to the theory. (Stephanie Krikorian in Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy)

Esposito thinks Lanie is hooking up with her assistant. They go up to the eighth floor and Kevin tells them all about their victim, Michael Bailey. The room was booked by Jane Eyre and paid for in cash. Rick calls the woman a black widow.(Jessica Lefevre on Earsuck)

The Wall Street Journal talks about Bollywood adaptations of Jane Austen and mentions the Brontës:

The brooding Brontë heroes from “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights” have been portrayed by “tragedy king” Dilip Kumar. (Beth Watkins)

In Sangdil 1952 and Dil Diya Dard Liya 1966, respectively.

The Gainsborough Standard is waiting for the local premiere of Wuthering Heights 2011:

Kicking off February will be the latest adaptation of Wuthering Heights by Andrea Arnold.
Starring Solomon Glave and Kaya Scodelario, this is said to be the most realistic adaptation on film of Emily Bronte’s classic novel.
Arnold has aimed for total authenticity - with wind, rain and tragic passion as Heathcliff and his elusive Cathy roam the moors in search of eternal love in a powerful and uncompromising vision.

Slate reviews among others the film Dream House by Jim Sheridan:

Daniel Craig gives a terrific performance as a family man who loses everything; the picture is more a cross between Douglas Sirk and Emily Brontë than a Paranormal Activity-style blockbuster, and how the hell can anyone make money off that? Sadly, these days you can’t. (Stephanie Zacharek)

Playbill publishes the obituary of the press agent Bill Schelble who had a curious anecdote of his infancy:

Born April 11, 1930, in Milwaukee, he became starstruck after his mother took him to see Katharine Hepburn in a touring production of Jane Eyre. (Robert Simonson)

Brendan Tapley discusses masculinity and greef in Slate:

Downton Abbey became a gateway drug. After, I devoured adaptations of even older romantic tales: Dickens’s Bleak House, Little Dorrit, and Nicholas Nickleby. I read with great absorption Brontë’s 600-page novel Jane Eyre. For all the men in these stories, the stakes of love remained high—which made their disappointments like stakes in the heart—but in their grief they never came across as weird, or naive, or effeminate. Rather, there was a dignity, strength, and honor that surrounded their despair because, to the other characters and now to me, they had gone somewhere only the stout of heart can go.

MSBNC publishes an extract from the upcoming biography of the Queen Elizabeth II: "Elizabeth The Queen" by Sally Bedell Smith.

Throughout her girlhood, Elizabeth had time blocked out each day for “silent reading” of books by Stevenson, Austen, Kipling, the Brontës, Tennyson, Scott, Dickens, Trollope, and others in the standard canon.

Wales Online quotes Una Stubbs saying about Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock)

Veteran actress Stubbs said she found her male co-star attractive, and that she liked to "ruffle" up his hair when it was "wild, like Heathcliff". (Sherna Noah)

Katie Crouch writes on Salon about infidelity but makes the following passing reference to Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea:

I pitched “Anna Karenina” at the door, then passed the rest of the night with a bottle of Malbec and one of my very favorites: “Wide Sargasso Sea.” Ever read that one? The heroine gets so crazy over the loss of her husband’s love she sets herself on fire, along with Thornfield Hall, the home of the much less endearing Jane Eyre.

Mostly Reading YA interviews April Lindner, author of Jane:

For folks who don’t have a copy of your book (and therefore can’t read your Author’s Note), can you tell us about your inspiration to rework the classic tale of Jane Eyre?
Sure. I’m addicted to modernizations of literary classics, and have a special fondness for retellings of Pride and Prejudice, but as much as I love Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre has long been my favorite novel. My husband and I were sitting around one night after dinner, and I was lamenting how few modernizations of Jane Eyre had been written recently. (That was a few years ago; it seems a lot more have been written since.) I wondered out loud if the reason might not be how hard it is to recreate the gaping class divide between Jane and Mr. Rochester in present day America. And the moment the words left my lips I realized there was a way to make it work: by making Mr. Rochester a celebrity. Even better, make him a rock star. I knew right away that would be a book I’d want to read so I decided to go one step further and write it myself. (...)
If you could have dinner with 3 fictional characters, which would you choose and why?
The character who immediately popped into my mind is Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. Wouldn’t she be fun to hang out with? I had to work a lot harder to come up with the other two dinner guests, though. I didn’t want to pick him because he seemed such an obvious choice for me, but I have to say Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre because I’d really like to hear Elizabeth Bennett’s opinion of him! (I already know I love him.)

The Spectrum talks about a literary trip to Europe which included the Brontë Parsonage Museum; Elisa's Miscellaneous Musings reviews Agnes Grey; The Attic has visited Haworth and the Parsonage; La Matinée (in Portuguese) reviews Jane Eyre 2011; Ephémère (in French) reviews the original novel; The Brontë Weather Project posts about the moorlands and how the climate change is affecting them; Dawn's Dress Diary discusses one of the gowns of Jane Eyre 1996.

Soon, I'm Heathcliff

2012-01-10T00:05:00.000+01:00

Desy Giuffré, writer of the upcoming Italian novel Io Sono Heathcliff, which finally will be published next March, has alerted us of her new website and blog: Holly Girls where more information about her novel can be found:

Io sono Heathcliff
Desy Giuffré
Fazi Editore

Elena Ray è una ragazza ricca e viziata, la sua apparente superficialità nasconde però le tipiche sofferenze adolescenziali. Damian Ludeschi è un affascinante ladro di strada, amante del pericolo e romantico sognatore, incapace di accettare l’abbandono del padre e di assecondare i voleri di uno zio violento e avido di potere. Le loro vite sembrano non avere nulla in comune, se non fosse per un’antica maledizione che lega entrambi alla vecchia tenuta conosciuta con il nome di Wuthering Heights, e ai loro storici proprietari: Catherine Earnshaw e il suo amato Heathcliff. Abbiamo imparato a conoscerli e ad amarli nel classico senza tempo Cime tempestose, che ha fatto palpitare tanti cuori, e ora li ritroviamo come spiriti disposti a tutto, anche ad appropriarsi delle vite dei due giovani protagonisti pur di avere una seconda possibilità di vivere il loro sfortunato e triste amore. Non sarà il destino a decidere per loro, ma il segreto custodito nell’epitaffio di una tomba, che dà vita al sequel fantasy di una delle storie più amate della letteratura inglese: «Le rocce ne saranno custodi. La brughiera prigione. Finché una Figlia di Sangue non giungerà per ridare il sale alle loro ossa. E la terra non griderà più i loro nomi».

This is the book trailer:

Sherlock à la Heathcliff

2012-01-09T20:52:00.001+01:00

PopMatters reviews Simon Goldhill's Freud's Couch, Scott's Buttock's, Brontë's Grave

So, he amusingly offers up a fetish item for each writer he trails. Sigmund Freud’s couch, obviously, Emily Brontë’s grave; because she grew up in close proximity to a cemetery, presumably, died young and was, well, Victorian. (...)
Next, he ‘seethes’ into Yorkshire on the trail of Emily and her sisters and argues extremely well for the role of novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte’s early biographer, as the one responsible for helping create the Brontë myth. He’s shocked at the closet-sized room Emily occupied and where she did most of her writing before ailing too badly from consumption and dying on the downstairs sofa. (Gabrielle Malcolm)

Maybe he could be more shocked after knowing that Emily's room was downsized in 1850.

The Millions talks about acknowledgments in novels:

There was a time when acknowledgements were brief and rare. There was even a time when dedications sufficed. Charlotte Brontë signed Jane Eyre off to Thackeray, plain and simple, while Anne was even sparer, offering no dedication at all to Agnes Gray (sic). One could argue that the sisters’ need to conceal their identity led them to be circumspect in their gratitude. (Henriette Lazaridis Power)

Fox34 News highlights Michael Fassbender's year:

It started with his note-perfect read on Rochester in "Jane Eyre," which made a dusty classic feel fresh again. (James Eppler)

Dusty? Only in your library...

Salt Lake City Weekly does the same:

Michael Fassbender is almost certainly looking at his first Oscar nomination for his provocative portrayal of a sex addict in Shame—though he’s just as deserving of a nom for the complexity he brought to mutant Magneto in X-Men: First Class and Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre (also from this awards year but already on DVD). (MaryAnn Johanson)

De Standaard (Belgium) talks about the new 2012 films. Including Jane Eyre 2011 which opens in Belgium next January 11:

165 jaar oud is Jane Eyre, maar we krijgen er maar niet genoeg van. Ook al weten we dat de liefde tussen de jonge, deugdzame gouvernante Jane en haar intimiderende, raadselachtige werkgever Edward Rochester geen gewonnen spel heeft, we blijven de roman van Charlotte Brontë lezen en we blijven de film- en tv-bewerkingen bekijken. Na Orson Welles en Joan Fontaine in 1944 en Charlotte Gainsbourg en William Hurt in 1996 is het aan Mia Wasikowska en Michael Fassbender om ons te laten geloven in de weinig sentimentele romance. Beiden zijn in uitstekende vorm. (Niels Ruëll) (Translation)

The Arts Desks complains about the lack of imagination in adapting the same classic novels:

Meanwhile, last autumn the Brontës were also out for yet another jaunt. Jane Eyre this time took the impressive form of Mia Wasikowska, while Wuthering Heights was given the Andrea Arnold treatment. (Jasper Rees)

The Independent reviews Sherlock's episode: The Hounds of Baskerville:

There were some beautiful shots with saturated colours and where movement was sped up to show the passage of time yet nothing really changed. It even became a touch ‘Wuthering Heights’ when Sherlock stood on top of a rock and surveyed the sweeping landscape. All of it conveyed that the moors was a place of the past. (Neela Debnath)

The Dominion Post (New Zealand) is very concerned with the the absence of imagination in child's names:

At my school, even Pakeha kids had names like Ngaire and Ngaio, but today they've been Sophied and Jacked off the list. Which is a pity.
The North Island is littered with Maori Anzacs and Alameins, named after specific New Zealand events rather than Charlotte Brontë characters. (Dave Armstrong)

Weird Affectations, Cinema e Argumento (in Portuguese), El Vuelo de la Lechuza (in Spanish), Pouncer Without Sparky, PopCorn and Movies and FlixCapacitor review Jane Eyre 2011; Neon Mamacita posts a photoshoot inspired by Wuthering Heights; Nora net and Cantinho de Tangerine (in Portuguese) post about Jane Eyre, the novel; The Archives posts a hilarious Wuthering Heights quiz; 50bookchallenge posts about Rachel Ferguson's The Brontës Went to Woolworths; Au Bonheur du Livre (in French) reviews Wuthering Heights.

Herrmann's Wuthering Heights in CD

2012-01-09T00:29:00.000+01:00

The performances of Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering Heights opera in concert at the 2010 Montpellier Festival have been published in CD:

Les Hauts de Hurlevent
Collection Accord - Universal
Enregistré à l’Opéra Berlioz Le Corum, Montpellier, le 14 juillet 2010
3 CD Accord 4764653 – 59’50 + 68’09 + 42’58
Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon 2010
Opéra en 4 actes et un prologue

Livret de Lucille Fletcher
Catherine Earnshaw ... Laura Aikin
Heathcliff ... Boaz Daniel
Hindley Earnshaw... Vincent Le Texier
Nelly Dean ... Hanna Schaer
Edgar Linton ... Yves Saelens
Isabella Linton ... Marianne Crebassa
Joseph ... Jerôme Varnier
Mr Lockwood ... Nicolas Cavallier
Hareton Earnshaw ... Gaspard Ferret

Groupe vocal Opera Junior
Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon
Direction musicale ... Alain Altinoglu

You can read (and listen to samples) an article on qobuz and a review on Forum Opera.

Triple C: Cold, Consumption and Constriction

2012-01-08T11:06:00.001+01:00

Justine Picardie talks about shapewears in The Telegraph:

Within the archives of the Brontë Parsonage Museum are several tiny corsets, belonging to the sisters, and when you see them on a winter's day, as I have done, it seems believable that Anne, Emily and Charlotte died young because of a combination of cold, consumption and constriction. It is the memory of these corsets that prompts me to suggest that January might not be the best month to squeeze oneself into the modern equivalent - now known as 'shapewear' - given that we are already tortured by dismal weather, indigestion and winter viruses. Breathing freely is therefore the only sensible option…

The author Ellis Avery is interviewed in The Miami Herald and briefly talks about the new novel by Margot Livesey: a retelling of Jane Eyre.

I recently read Margot Livesey’s virtuosic new novel, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, which resets Jane Eyre in early 1960s Scotland. As close a retelling as it is a fresh one, it offers the familiar pleasure of rereading Jane Eyre and the thrill of constant suspense: I knew generally was going to happen next, but how was it going to happen? Gemma, like Jane, experiences profound, repeated and multifold homelessness early in life: what’s breathtaking is how Livesey makes the blessings that come Gemma’s way at the end strike us just as rawly as her suffering did in the beginning.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/08/2577033/what-are-you-reading-now.html#storylink=cpy

The Ogden Standard-Examiner talks about the Sundance screening of Wuthering Heights 2011:

“Wuthering Heights,” 3 p.m. Jan. 22. A reinvention of Emily Brontë’s novel of a passionate, destructive love set on the Yorkshire moors of the late 18th century.

Still 2011 lists:

Take for example the "perfectly fine" latest version of Jane Eyre from Cary Fukunaga. There's really nothing wrong with the movie (well, maybe one thing). I gave it four stars and it deserved them well enough, but it was all in all a bit like Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist (2005) -- another "perfectly fine" movie that had the cumulative effect of being just another version of a much-filmed story. The argument, of course, can be lodged that not everyone has seen these earlier versions and I won't dispute that. However, it was a better argument in the days before home video made such versions so accessible. (Ken Hanke in Mountain Xpress)

Film Misery lists the film and Jane Eyre 2011 is #2 in the Romance category of the Golden Tomato Awards.

Almost a month later, The Sunday Mirror covers the news of the Sotheby's auction of the Young Men's Magazine manuscript; The Birghamton Books Examiner talks about Wuthering Heights in movies basically discussing Wuthering Heights 2009 and eagerly waiting for Wuthering Heights 2011; Katren's Reading Diary, this literary life and Brownie Points post about the original novel; Tonårsboken (in Swedish) reviews April Lindner's Jane; Italian Mother Syndrome posts about how "Jane Eyre saved ~~ruined~~ my relationship"; Blue Eyed Night Owl posts about the novel.

Jane Eyre 1944 in France

2012-01-08T00:26:00.000+01:00

Jane Eyre 1944 is on the France movie screens again (since January 4):

Le Champo -Espace Jacques Tati
51 Rue des Ecoles , 75005 Paris

Célèbre adaptation du classique de Charlotte Brontë, « Jane Eyre » de Robert Stevenson est pour la première fois...

Version Originale
séances à 14h | 15h50 | 17h50 | 19h40 | 21h40

Flash Pictures Distributor
Après une enfance triste passée au pensionnat de Lowood, la jeune orpheline Jane Eyre est engagée, à sa majorité, comme gouvernante de la petite Adèle chez le riche Edward Rochester. Edward, homme ombrageux errant dans son immense demeure, ne tarde pas à être sensible aux charmes de Jane qui se sent peu à peu attirée par ce personnage énigmatique. Bientôt, une folle passion s’installe entre eux, jusqu'au moment où Jane apprend que son amoureux est déjà marié et que son épouse est séquestrée au grenier.

Pressbook here.

Several French news outlets talk about this reshowing: Artistik Rezo, toute la culture, il était une fois le cinéma, L'Express...

The BAFTA warning

2012-01-07T18:09:00.000+01:00

The Guardian announces what could be one of the literary events of the year:
May 11.

The British Library exhibition on "British literature and place" will include such treats as the first hand-written and illustrated Alice's Adventures Underground; William Blake's notebooks; JG Ballard's handwritten manuscripts; the "suppressed" chapter from Wind in the Willows; a childhood newspaper written by Virginia Stephen (Woolf) describing a summer visit to a lighthouse and manuscripts of the Brontës, including Jane Eyre.

The Spectator interviews Pamela Nash, MP for Airdrie and Shotts:

Which books do you plan to read next?
I am trying to work my way through the classics that I missed as a teenager, so I have just downloaded Jane Eyre to my iPad. (Fleur MacDonald)

And the Sydney Morning Herald interviews the author Penny Vincenzi:

One of the first adult books the 13-year-old teenager read was Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind and dashing Rhett Butler had a huge influence on Vincenzi's tender romantic sensibilities until Jane Eyre's imperious Mr Rochester usurped him. (Linda Morris)

Adweek talks about Tranh Anh Hung's setting of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood:

Could be like last year's Jane Eyre though, which, while by no means a comprehensive retelling of the book, was quite brilliant. (Stevan Keane)

The film is the Best Remake of the year for the Cape Cod Times.

The Baftas 2012 long list have been published. The final nominations will be known next January 17. Jane Eyre 2011 is featured in Outstanding British Film, Adapted Screenplay (Moira Buffini), Cinematography (Adriano Goldman), Production Design (Will Hughes-Jones), Costume Design (Michael O'Connor whi is the only one to who is in the Chapter selection from Round One), Original Music (Dario Marianelli), Leading Actress (Mia Wasikowska) and Make-Up & Hair. Wuthering Heights 2011 doesn't appear in any category (not even Best Cinematography where was one of the favourites). This fact (and the general weakness of the BAFTA selection) is criticised on HitFix:

Just in case you were wondering, "The Iron Lady" is a better film -- and a better directed film -- than "Shame." Obviously. "Arthur Christmas" and "War Horse" are better British films than "Weekend," "Kill List" and "Wuthering Heights." (...)
These golden truths all come to us courtesy of the BAFTA longlists, an annual preview (or, perhaps more appropriately, warning) of the British Academy's eventual nominations, in which 15 contenders are announced in each category, from which the five nominees will be chosen. Marked with an asterisk are the top choices of the relevant voting branch ("chapter" in BAFTA lingo) in each field -- in a reversal of the Oscar system, the general membership votes on the nominees in each category, while the chapter determines the winner in all categories except Best Film, Foreign Language Film, British Film, Documentary and the acting races. (Guy Lodge)

The Montreal Gazette doesn't seem very interested in the BabyLit books:

Not so the "BabyLit" books that crossed my desk several months ago. Small counting books by Jennifer Adams, with illustrations by Alison Oliver, they strike me as totally ludicrous. What infant could possibly take an interest in Romeo & Juliet (labelled Little Master Shakespeare) or Pride & Prejudice (Little Miss Austen)?
Amazon.ca tells me we can look forward to Jane Eyre: Little Miss Brontë and Alice in Wonderland: Little Master Carroll in February (all published by Gibbs Smith and selling for $10.99 each). (Bernie Goedhart)

The Guardian reviews The Double Shadow by Sally Gardner :

She speaks freely about this now, acting as an ambassador for those with "the condition whose name none of us can spell". She was 14 when she learned to read, by herself, from Wuthering Heights, having been declared "unteachable" by her boarding school. (Mary Hoffman)

The Globe and Mail reviews Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant:

She has great fun with the Brontë sisters, who fret over which male pseudonyms they should adopt in order to publish their novels: Wuthering Heights, by Bruce Punisher; Jane Eyre, by Johnny Guns. (Martin Levin)

Summer readings in El Observador (Uruguay):

La literatura romántica de fines del siglo XIX, es una puerta de entrada a la literatura. Y en ese sentido, las hermanas Brontë, Jane Austen o Edgar Allan Poe son excelentes opciones. (Eleonora Navatta) (Translation)

An alert for tomorrow, January 8 in Minervino Murge (Italy):

Agro di Minervino
Murge Masseria Barbera (Minervino Murge)
L’Evoluzione del Paesaggio
15.30 Visita guidata alla grotta di S. Michele Arcangelo a Minervino Murge (a cura di CEA Ophrys) Lettura di poesie di E. Dickinson e di E. Bronte nella grotta (a cura di Andrea Cramarossa) (Source)

Paperblog interviews the author Chiara Palazzolo:

Possiamo individuare un certo tipo di “scrittura femminile” ottocentesca nelle opere delle Brontë. Oppure leggere la Woolf per analizzare la scrittura al femminile nella prima metà del Novecento, o ancora la Yourcenar per il secondo Novecento. (Rita Charbonnier) (Translation)

Onirik (France) talks about the YA novel Chaque Soir à 11 heures by Malika Ferdjoukh:

Comment ne pas se régaler avec le style de l’auteur, sa manière de rendre les lieux et objets si vivants, l’humour de son héroïne, ses personnages (les relations entre Willa et ses parents sont particulièrement bien traitées), les situations et toutes les références parsemées tout au long du livre, de Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë à Papa-Longues-Jambes de Jean Webster en passant par Jane Austen et tant d’autres ! (Translation)

A reader of Palo Alto Online highlights Jane Eyre 2011 as the best film of the year; Kinokauz (in German) is not so fond of the film; La Tercera (Chile) talks about the screening of the film at the Festival de Cine Las Condes and myFanbase (Germany) reviews it; En plats i bokhyllan (in Swedish), Apprendre... Autrement (in French) posts about the original novel; murray naish reviews Wuthering Heights; I Prefer Reading reviews Shirley; a local government representative has read recently Brontë in Il Giornale di Vicenza (Italy).

The Memoirs of Edward Rochester

2012-01-07T00:05:00.000+01:00

Another retelling of Jane Eyre as seen by Rochester has been published on Kindle and in paperback:

The Memoirs Of Edward Rochester.
Imagine Jane Eyre was written by Edward Rochester
Ken Jones
CreateSpace (November 3, 2011)
ISBN-13: 978-1466423862

Imagine being able to look into the mind of one of the leading male character in the classic book, Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë published her classic work in 1847. Jane Eyre quickly became a top seller with its moodiness and mystery. The shock revelation two thirds of the way through the story is epic, and still astounds people today who do not know the plot.
Edward Rochester is not your common hero in a novel. In fact he is hardly a hero at all.
Rochester is rude and obnoxious to all people who cross his path. The idea that he could woo a poor young orphan girl is quite ridiculous. He is prepared to throw away common morality and custom in his quest to win over Jane Eyre.
This is very hard to understand, even for many modern readers. Despite this, Charlotte Brontë manages to achieve this feat smoothly and cleverly through strong characters and a great story. Brontë was quite brilliant in her writing of her original and unique, classic novel.
But the story is told in the first person of Jane Eyre herself. This works very well and the book is completely coherent as it stands. But many readers are left wondering about the thoughts of the mysterious and strange Edward Rochester. How did he become the man we find in the pages of Jane Eyre? Further, how can he justify his behaviour?
Some of the dialogue In Jane Eyre is hard to comprehend for some readers, because you can’t imagine Rochester’s point of view and his frame of reference. How could he say some of the things he says and yet still profess to love Jane? The Memoirs of Edward Rochester attempts to answer these questions by writing in the first person from his point of view.
You can see into his mind and know what he is thinking. Many scenes have Rochester giving a running commentary to the major conversations with Jane.
This book is written mainly in diary form. It explains the backdrop of Rochester’s life and how he came to be as he is in the story. There are numerous new scenes that help to explain how he thinks and behaves as a person. Many of Brontë’s original scenes are re-written but with a new twist.
For fans of the original novel, Jane Eyre, this book will fill in many of the gaps that Charlotte Brontë left in the story. You will see why Edward Rochester said the words he said and why he said them. More than this you will believe in the original story even more. It will make more sense to you.
For casual readers and literature students alike, this is a valuable resource to better understanding Charlotte Brontë’s original work. You will understand the sweep of the story and the changes in Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester more.

Improving Haworth's look

2012-01-06T11:36:00.000+01:00

BBC News has a couple of stories related to Haworth and the Brontës. Concerning the campaign to raise enough money to repair the roof of the Haworth Parish Church, there is a new and important contribution:

Artist Stella Vine will paint a portrait of the Brontë sisters to raise funds for repairs to the church where Charlotte and Emily are buried.
St Michael and All Angels Parish Church in the Brontës' home town of Haworth, West Yorkshire, has a damaged roof.
The church needs to raise £27,000 by 20 January to secure a further £100,000 in funding from English Heritage.
Vine will sell prints of the sisters after being "greatly saddened" to see the church in a "terrible state".
The new artwork will feature Charlotte, who wrote Jane Eyre, along with Wuthering Heights author Emily and their younger sister Anne, who wrote Agnes Grey. (...)
A limited edition of 100 Brontë prints will be sold for £150 each and the artist said all profits would go to the church fund.

We wonder if Stella Vine is going to paint a NEW portrait or we are talking of selling prints of this other portrait which the artist painted in 200 5.

The other story is about the efforts of Haworth to return Brontë authenticity:

Businesses in the village made famous by the Brontë sisters are being asked to suggest how it could be made a more "authentic" experience for visitors.
English Heritage and Bradford Council are offering grants to recreate "lost" historical features along Main Street in Haworth, West Yorkshire.
In 2010, English Heritage claimed Haworth's traditional character was being eroded by gradual minor changes.
The organisation is offering grants of up to 80% to help selected projects.
English Heritage and Bradford Council have sent out letters to business owners along Main Street, Haworth, inviting them to suggest ideas to enhance their shops.
Historically accurate details such as traditional shop fronts and sash windows could be reintroduced, Bradford Council said.
English Heritage regional director Trevor Mitchell said: "A restored shop on Haworth Main Street will be more attractive to customers and tenants which, in turn, will lead to increased business revenue.
"This project will benefit everyone involved and should result in some exemplary showcase designs for the village."
New street furniture, including seats and signposts, was already in place, and natural stone paving and footpaths had been repaired on Main Street, Bradford Council said.
Councillor David Green, executive member for regeneration and economy, said Haworth was a "special place".
"Improving the look of the village will make it even more attractive to visitors and locals alike," he said.

The Telegraph & Argus also publishes an article in the same direction.

The New Statesman talks about the Byron "type":

Probably the most literary example of that type was written by a woman whose life was as quiet in incident as Byron's was loud. When Emily Brontë made it to the Continent, in 1842, it was to study languages with her sister, and she came home again when her aunt died. She probably died a virgin. And yet Heathcliff may be the best-known Byronic hero in English literature. Wuthering Heights is a standard A-level text and Heathcliff has made his way out of the classroom and into our lives; people keep making films about him (Andrea Arnold's version of the story was released in November).
Like Byron, Brontë has attracted a readership with great interest in her biography, though for different reasons. People like the idea of her isolated, intense, imaginative family life - the literary sisters, the talented but unfulfilled brother, their childhood spent in the company of nature. One way of working out why the Romantic hero remains so popular might be to discover what Brontë and Byron had in common.
The first thing you run into is contradictions. Brontë seemed to live the life of the imagination, Byron the one of experience. Wuthering Heights is thick with nature, but although Byron, like any good Romantic, had a Wordsworth-nature phase and inherited an ancestral pile, Newstead Abbey, as Romantic and run-down as Cathy's home, he is also a very cosmopolitan writer who made the most of high and low society in Venice, London, Athens and Istanbul.
Heathcliff and Byron operate on different planes, but the two have a funny way of blending: the appeal of Mr Darcy is similar to that of Heathcliff, which is strangely similar to the appeal of Lord Byron. What Darcy, Heathcliff, Byron and Harold all have in common is an air of unhappiness. This seems to me what the Romantic hero is selling - the notion that unhappiness is more real than happiness.
Cathy tells Nelly Dean that Heathcliff is "more myself than I am". Which is another way of saying that the real and the true don't just exist: you need access, and Heathcliff gives her access. She also decides not to marry him because Heathcliff would "degrade" her. Instead, she chooses a conventional marriage, which does not make her particularly happy. (Benjamin Markovits)

Karen Koren talks about her New Year’s Eve celebration in The Scotsman:

Being at Bill’s was like spending the celebrations on the set of Wuthering Heights, at no time could we see the sea or the countryside, as the mist was so thick.

A few more 2011 best-of lists:

[T]he year just past also brought an electric new version of Charlotte Brontë's often-adapted Gothic novel “Jane Eyre.” (Brandy McDonnell in The Oklahoman)

Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre is simply the best screen version of the Charlotte Brontë novel. Mia Wasikowska dominates as Jane, but her lengthy conversations with Rochester showed an impressive mixture of intelligence, passion and doubt in Fassbender's troubled master of the house. Without him, I don't think as many viewers would have been so impressed by Wasikowska. (David Thomson in The Guardian)

In the Spring, it was UK/US co-production "Jane Eyre," which managed to rake in $11.2 million stateside for Focus Features. (Peter Knegt in indieWire)

Jane Eyre was filmed, but it was Wuthering Heights which took a radical approach to a familiar classic, although, surprisingly, didn’t arouse as much interest or ire as expected. The Yorkshire moors have never looked so bleak and grim as in Andrea Arnold’s movie featuring a black Heathcliff who went around telling people to eff off. (Steve Pratt in The Northern Echo)

By the way, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) nominations have been announced. Regrettably, Jane Eyre 2011 was ineligible.

On Michael Dirda's article in the Washington Post:

Wuthering Heights is almost all wind and rain and gloom. Jane Austen’s novels often appear to be set in an eternal springtime. By contrast, a sense of the Northern outdoors seems to touch nearly all of Canadian fiction.

Tom Houseman on BoxOfficeProphets thinks that he is really witty but regrettably he is just silly. You can call Jane Eyre many things (good and even bad) but whiny loser is definitely, not one of them:

Probably the most interesting literary character since Jane Eyre (I'm just kidding, Jane Eyre was a whiny loser).

Prova i error (in Catalan, Chocolate Eyes and The Naked Rose post about Jane Eyre 2011.

Haworth, Oxenhope & Stanbury From Old Photographs Volume 2. A Review

2012-01-06T00:03:00.000+01:00

Our thanks to Amberley Publishing for sending us a review copy of this book.

Haworth, Oxenhope & Stanbury From Old Photographs
Volume 2: Trade & Industry
Steven Wood
Amberley Publishing
ISBN: 9781445606699

The second volume of Haworth, Oxenhope and Stanbury from Old Photographs is now out. Bear in mind that the two volumes are merely for publication and that both would read well as a single volume, where the reader would find himself completely immersed in the social aspects of life at Haworth during the last 150-200 years.

The Brontë connection is either tenuous - there aren't many direct references to them⁽¹⁾ - or whole - as it was here that they lived and wrote and much of what is told in the books was a daily matter to them. For instance, this second volume dwells on the mills (and the sad demise many of them have had through the years), which were a key factor of day-to-day life in the Brontës' time, even if much of it doesn't make it into what they wrote about either in fiction or in non-fiction. But many of Patrick's parishioners - those adhering to the Church of England anyway - worked hard at the mills and the Brontë siblings teaching at the Sunday school would have had children whose parents worked at the mills or - worse - children who worked at the mills themselves.

The section on the farms in the area gives an idea of the harsh conditions and - it couldn't be otherwise - Top Withens is featured there with the rest. Steven Wood manages to pique the curiosity of visitors to the place and make the reader, not only wish for a vigorous trek around the area, but for a walk to Top Withens to check whether the word 'dairy' is still there being overlooked by most visitors. (We are certainly guilty of that!)

These two books by Steven Wood may not be directly connected to the Brontës' lives or be key material when it comes to reading up on their lives but they carry out the important work that is to give a sense of place - both visually and descriptively - of Haworth. We all overlook the places that surround us everyday but that doesn't make them any less important as background. It is only because they are so ingrained in our lives that we overlook them so. And thus Steven Wood brings to the forefront much of what the Brontës would see as the same old view, the same old faces, the same old places.

Notes
(1) One of the references comes in the shape of two Brontë pictures of the Brontë (or Bronté as one of them displays on the side) buses, which toured the area from 1926 to 1956.

The Sound of Wuthering Music

2012-01-05T08:28:00.003+01:00

ABS-CBS (Philippines) confirms that the series Walang Hanggan will premiere next January 16:

ABS-CBN's most-awaited series "Walang Hanggan" will finally premiere on January 16 (Monday).
Topbilled by Coco Martin and Julia Montes, "Walang Hanggan" tells the story of true love bound to last forever.
Included in the powerhouse cast are the queens of Philippine cinema Susan Roces and Helen Gamboa and former sweethearts Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta.
Rita Avila, Melissa Ricks, Joem Bascon and Paulo Avelino are also part of the show.
"Walang Hanggan" is a love story that spans three generations. Inspired by the classic "Wuthering Heights," the series is directed by Jerry Lopez Sineneng and Trina Dayrit.
The show's original soundtrack, which features the theme song sung by Gary Valenciano, will soon be available in the market. The album also features classic OPM love songs interpreted by Angeline Quinto, Bugoy Drilon and Liezel Garcia.

Philippine Entertainment Portal gives moredetails:

Released in 1991, Hihintayin Kita sa Langit is a local adaptation of an Emily Jane Brontë classic novel titled Wuthering Heights. The romance drama film was originally shot in scenic Batanes and starred Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta. (...)
Walang Hanggan marks the return of Coco to the small screen after playing the dual roles of Alexander and Javier del Tierro in Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin. Meanwhile, Julia gained fame as the kontrabida Clara in Kapamilya show, Mara Clara. This TV series will also mark the return of Richard Gomez to ABS-CBN and the first time that former Kapuso star Paulo Avelino will be seen on a Kapamilya teleserye. (...)
In a separate interview with ABS-CBN News, Coco admitted that he is a huge fan of the original movie starring Richard and Dawn. "Inspired ito sa Hihintayin Kita Sa Langit. Noong bata ako isa iyon sa mga pelikulang pinanood ko. Hanggang ngayon kapag pinapalabas siya sa TV, talagang pinapanood ko pa rin." (Lyn Luna Montealegre)

Judy Finningan from the Richard and Judy Book Club is interviewed on the Daily Express:

I adore the novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by the British writer Susanna Clarke and I still reread Jane Eyre every couple of years. For me, it is the perfectly told story. (Olivia Buxton)

The absurd cliché that assimilates the Brontës to romantic (no capital R) stuff (what we can call the pink Brontës effect) is behind this comment on Gapers Block listing "Five R. Kelly Songs with Raindrop Sound FX I Discovered in 2011":

The Pied Piper lifts the melody to the childhood classic "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" to morph it into a sex positive ballad about encounters in rain soaked flowerbeds. In a passage the Brontë sisters would approve of Kells promises to make love that will ring wedding bells and conduct symphonies in your head. (Jason Olexa)

The Manitoban reviews Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant:

There are, for instance, segments of the book dedicated to the French Revolution, Dracula, the Great Gatsby, Jane Eyre, Canadian stereotypes and Hamlet, among others. (Ryan Harby)

The Duluth News Tribune talks about a local reciting poetry contest:

Laurel Eyer recite[d] “No Coward Soul is Mine,” by Emily Brontë, during the Poetry Out Loud contest at the Marshall School on Wednesday night in Duluth. Each student had the chance to recite two poems from memory in the competition. (Mike Creger)

Michael Fassbender's busy year deserves all kind of comments which concerning Jane Eyre 2011 say:

[A] smolderingly Byronic Rochester (Kristian Lin in Forth-Wayne Weekly)

Michael Fassbender's trio of 2011 specialty titles -- Cary Fukunaga's "Jane Eyre," Steve McQueen's "Shame" and David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method" -- have all performed quite well considering expectations. "Jane Eyre" is by far the highest of grossing of the three, taking in a robust $11,242,660 for Focus Features back in the spring. (Peter Knegt on IndieWire)

As the year progressed, we got to see Fassbender deliver good performances as Mr. Rochester in “Jane Eyre” and a young and vengeful Magneto in “X-Men: First Class”. (Steve Mesa in Hialeah Movie Examiner)

The Virginian-Pilot 'nominates' the film to Best "Masterpiece Theater" Imitation and Breakthrough Actor of the Year to Michael Fassbender in "Shame" as well as "Jane Eyre," "X-Men: First Class," and the upcoming "A Dangerous Method." The Chicago Journal Topics enters the film in 2011's top 20.

The Sun Star Davao (Philippines) describes Batanes like:

Batanes. If not in any of its ten islands, Basco will do. It's our smallest province (in land area and population) and the northernmost. The place is so Wuthering Heights or Hihintayin Kita sa Langit, if you prefer, and at the same time very Sound of Music with its hills and mountains. (Jinggoy I. Salvador)

We cannot imagine anything more opposed to The Sound of Music than Wuthering Heights.... but if the writer says so.

Sinéad O'Connor's love life is the subject of an article in The Insider:

Like Heathcliff and Catherine, Romeo and Juliet, Miss Piggy and Kermie -- this mortal coil can not part these two great paramours! (Meg Swertlow)

Did the journalist know that Sinéad played Emily Brontë in Wuthering Heights 1992?

Variety mentions the Varese Sarabande's 14-CD Bernard Herrmann at 20th Century Fox which includes Jane Eyre 1944; A Child Grows in Brooklyn recommends (for ages 13 to adult) the Artemis Theater production of Wuthering Heights in New York (by the way, The American Book Center Blog is giving away tickets to the English performance in The Hague, Netherlands); PharaohHazard (YouTube), Books Everyone Can Read, everypassingcar, Ryder Islington's Blog review on YouTube Jane Eyre; Can I Bee posts a nice picture inspired by the novel; Katelyn Snyder's Blog, Renee's Reads post about Wuthering Heights; Parisville posts about Jane Eyre 2011.

Rochester: Consummation

2012-01-05T00:04:00.000+01:00

The second installment of the J.L. Niemann's Rochester Trilogy is already published:

Rochester: Consummation.
The Continuing Story Inspired by Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre
J.L. Niemann
Published:11/23/2011
Trafford Publishing
ISBN:978-1-46690-071-4

The day has arrived for wealthy and worldly Edward Fairfax Rochester to wed young governess Jane Eyre. Their marriage is sure to bring him the peace and happiness he has sought for so many desolate years. A tidy conclusion to his long-standing secret ordeal comes as an additional blessing. However, Edward is far from invulnerable, with threats to his blissful future at every turn, including the jealous Blanche Ingram, unscrupulous Richard Mason, scheming Grace Poole, covetous St. John Rivers, John Eyre’s suspicious attorneys, Edward’s own guilty conscience, and most menacing of all, his certainty that Jane will abandon him if she learns what he has fought for years to keep secret. Will a Jamaican investigation into Bertha Mason’s past finally set him free? Or will the ugly truth become an irrefutable impediment more compelling than Edward and Jane’s love, succeeding to drive her from Thornfield Hall forever?

Free preview.