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Friday, July 31, 2009

Friday, July 31, 2009 1:34 pm by M. in ,    No comments
Another review of Denise Giardina's Emily's Ghost appears in the Mountain Express:
Giardina’s book is wonderfully dark and engaging, from its opening pages where Emily—whose plain speech and get-on-with-it-in-the-face-of-certain-disaster demeanor renders her an unwitting Goth princess—announces to her father that she’s dying. And follows that bombshell with the statement that she won’t be passing away too soon because “I have another book to write.”
Thus, the reader enters the complicated (if not terribly complex) world of Emily, her sisters Charlotte and Anne, brother Bramwell (sic), their father the Reverend Patrick Brontë and Patrick’s newly-appointed assistant, clergyman William Weightman.
Of course, other than family names and the completed novel Wuthering Heights, little is known of Emily. That there ever was another novel is a matter of great speculation, but beyond the collected poems of Emily and her sisters, no other writing of the author—who died at age 30—has been found. Giardina doesn’t let this stop her.
While Giardina’s speculations (the abuse the Brontë sisters suffered at boarding school, the harshness of their life as daughters of a clergyman in a small, impoverished village, their impetus for writing and the nature of their unpublished works and—perhaps most titillating—Emily’s relationship with William Weightman) aren’t without scholarly merit (in her introduction Giardina explains she’s read a number of Brontë biographies and met with biographers, librarians and record keepers), Giardina certainly took liberties. And that’s good: Fiction allows for that. What Giardina offers is a fully realized and terrifically human Emily Brontë, one who relishes solitude, cares little for social niceties and whose tempestuous moods call to mind her Wuthering anti hero Heathcliff.
Giardina’s main character is a mixture of puritan sensibility (“Emily did not understand the games men and women played. Flirting was as incomprehensible as Mandarin. What was it for? she wondered. To win the companionship of a creature who was not half so interesting as the dog.”) and unapologetic recluse (“She preferred the company of rough folk, when she wanted company at all. The poor of Haworth did not care if she did not keep to a social calendar. Only the better sort, the mill owners and their families, had any expectations, and they had long been disappointed in Emily Brontë.”). Whether or not there is any degree of accuracy in this description is sure to be a point of argument among academicians—yet to have such a complete picture of Emily is, if difficult to fully embrace, an enticing prospect.
But Giardina doesn’t stop with Emily. Ghost explores the familial relations around Emily (“Weightman noted that while in most families the women retired to another room, not to be seen again, that was not the state of affairs at the parsonage. Patrick, far from the overbearing paterfamilias, was often the most quiet of all. Clearly the old man admired his children and their intellect, and wished to allow them their scope.”) as well as Emily’s connection to the place she lived, her community and her station in life. Likely, as an author herself, Giardina was fascinated with what would compel a never-married 19th century woman to turn to literature. Was it a relief from a drab and rote existence? Was it her way to leave a mark on the word? Was she so moved by the English moors and the swirling dramas of love and loss played out around her that she sought to make sense of all of this through prose?
Of course we can’t know, but the Emily brought to life in Giardina’s Ghost is a compelling (and ultimately tragic) possibility. (Ali Marshall)
The author will read from her novel at Malaprop’s (Asheville, NC) on Saturday, August 1. The 7 p.m. event is free and includes a wine and cheese reception and on Saturday, August 8 (11am) at McIntyre’s Fine Books (Pittsboro, NC). More tour dates here.

A Girl Walks into a Bookstore... reviews Syrie James's The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë and compares it with Denise Giardina's novel:
I can’t help but compare this book to another that’s recently been published: Emily’s Ghost, by Denise Giardina, about Charlotte’s sister Emily. Giardina does a better job of describing the bleakness of the Yorkshire moors, but the story that Syrie James presents here is a little bit more interesting. Nonetheless, both novels are equally enjoyable.
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On Keighley News Robin Jackson, chairman of the Haworth Village Association complains about the lack of manpower in staging community group efforts:
Mr Jackson said: “We have a manpower problem when it comes to staging events.
“The last 60s weekend fell on very few shoulders.
“Despite our success we’ve very few bodies. There is some doubt as to whether we can run this (60s) weekend next year. This is the last year we can stage things in an amateur way — we are going to have to make sure all events are properly stewarded.”
He said he and his colleagues were mainly looking for volunteers to carry out simple tasks such as erecting gazebos, putting up bunting or stewarding crowds. (Miran Rahman)
More Brontë country news. The Halifax Evening Courier and the Hebden Bridge Times talk about the efforts to promote local heritage:
It will also be possible to study the influence of authors such as Ted Hughes and the Brontes, the development of roads, railways and canals by following trails covering such things as the ancient Erringden Deer Park and the Sowerby Ramble. (Michael Peel)
The Daily Mail talks about literary homes and mentions the Brontë Parsonage:
Aficionados make a pilgrimage to the West Yorkshire parsonage where Emily Bronte created her brooding characters with their tempestuous passions played out on windswept moors.
Jane Austen's house, Chawton, Hampshire, United Kingdom
But homes such as these are not just tourist attractions, many more are in private hands or on the market. (Gwenda Brophy)
Another Brontë somewhat decontextualised reference appears in the Religion blog of the The Times:
One of the first recipients of a grant was the Rev Patrick Bronte, Rector of Haworth, who was able to employ Rev Arthur Nicholls as curate as a result. Mr Nicholls went on to marry Charlotte Bronte who mentions the charity on the first page of her novel Shirley. The charity's objective today remains what is was then, to see the church equipped to cope with rapidly changing social circumstances. (Ruth Gledhill)
Glasswerk interviews the rock band Young Guns. Vocals Gustav Woods turns out to be an unexpected Brontëite:
You won't be writing any concept albums just yet
--No(laughs).That Lit sensibility’s just there in my make-up, along with being a front-man. I think I’m still trying to figure out my voice as a lyricist, which goes back to the point about us being a young band. We’re evolving. But the inspiration definitely comes from the combination of art bearing on life in a way hopefully the words and sounds express. Though I certainly used to read a lot of classic world literature. At one point around 16, I was also really into that emotive Bronte style- Wuthering Heights, Romanticism. There’s still an element of that in the songs. (Martin)
The New York Post blog PopWrap also unveils Kelly Clarkson's Brontëiteness:
An avid reader, Kelly says her favorite book is "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte. (Jarett)
The Telegraph reviews Martin Stannard's biography of Muriel Spark and mentions her tempestuous relationship with Derek Stanford, co-author of Emily Brontë: Her Life and Work.
Seymour, Sergeant and Stanford were clearly terrified of Spark, and she had soon fallen out with all three as well as everyone else at the Poetry Society, where she lost her job. She suffered a breakdown, brought on by diet pills, in which she found satanic coded messages throughout her edition of TS Eliot. Meanwhile, her relationship with Derek Stanford, with whom she collaborated on books about Wordsworth and Emily Brontë, was in its usual state of crisis. (Frances Wilson)
Britney posts about Wuthering Heights (in Dutch), Flickers recommends Wuthering Heights 1939, Honeydripper Blog talks about Wuthering Heights 2003. Finally a post to be savoured: Joseph Grinton's In Emily's Chair.

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12:05 am by M. in ,    No comments
The Annual Brontë Society Conference begins today July 31:
The Bronte Society 2009 Conference
Men in the Brontë's Lives - Influences, Publishers, Critics and Characters

Friday 31st July - Sunday 2nd August
University of York

The general image of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte is one based soundly on Branwell's painting, exhibited permanently in the National Gallery: three unmarried sisters gaze at us, famous for their novels and the seclusion of their lives and attracting devotees as much for the one as the other. But the evidence shows clearly that these young women were far from solitary and that they were influenced by a good number of men. This is not to belittle their achievement, but rather to delve honestly into the influences that formed their work.

Our speakers are of the very highest proven calibre in research, publication and originality. We are indeed fortunate to have people who are prepared to cross the world to be with us, as well as those closer at hand who are prepared to give the Society yet more of their time and kindness.

The cost of the Conference is £299, which includes all lectures, bed and breakfast and all meals, including the Gala Dinner on Friday night and the Conference Dinner on the Saturday. Coffee and tea will be served between sessions and there will be a bookshop attached to the lecture hall selling both books by the lecturers and Bronte books. Accommodation will be in single ensuite rooms; spouses, partners and friends will be placed next to each other.

A fine venue, a memorable conference, a city steeped in history!
The list of speakers is truly impressive:
Our speakers are led by Professor Christine Alexander, of the University of New South Wales, who will explore the influence of the men on whom the Brontës modelled their Juvenilia heroes. Professor Margaret Smith, editor of the Letters of Charlotte Brontë, will talk about William Smith Williams and George Smith, and Jane Sellars, who co-authored The Art of the Brontës with Christine Alexander, will consider the influence that Branwell and his famous painting has had. Dr Paul Edmondson of the Shakespeare Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon, explores the influence of Shakespeare on Anne Brontë, and Professor Michael O’Neill, of Durham University, a poet himself and expert on Romanticism, will look at the influence of Byron and Shelley on Emily’s work. Lucasta Miller, author of The Brontë Myth, takes it further to look at the role the men play, and Dr Richard Mullan, editor of the Contemporary Review, is a Thackeray expert who well understands Charlotte’s dedication of Jane Eyre.
Professor Sue Lonoff, editor and translator of The Belgian Letters, is travelling from Harvard to consider M Heger, and Professor Miriam Bailin of Washington University in Missouri will also cross the pond to talk about G H Lewes. Professor John Mullen, of London University and Guardian columnist, will look at anonymity in Currer, Acton and Ellis Bell, and Dr Patsy
Stoneman
, the Society’s own academic and Emeritus Reader at Hull, makes Heathcliff her new subject. Robert and Margaret Cochrane, Arthur Bell Nicholls’ tireless researchers, present Charlotte’s husband, and Dudley Green, quondam Chairman of the Society and Patrick expert, considers genetic and personal influences. What riches!
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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Thursday, July 30, 2009 2:19 pm by Cristina in , , , , ,    No comments
Emily's 191st birthday celebrations online have begun:

Finding Dulcinea looks at her life and accomplishments ( a word which - in its 19th century context - Emily would have loathed):
“Emily Brontë wrote so little in her short life that it is difficult to appraise her work ... One point is generally agreed upon: that in both her prose and poetry there is ... a rare power,” said British poetry scholar Paul Lieder. Tuberculosis claimed her at age 30, but her sole novel, “Wuthering Heights,” and single volume of poetry made Emily Brontë an integral member of the Western literary canon. (Rachel Balik) (Read more)
The Halifax Reader takes a look at the fiction inspired by this 'independent, spirited young woman' and her family:
July 30th is Emily Bronte's birth anniversary. Would this independent, spirited young woman ever have suspected her one novel would have had such a legacy? Not only are all the Brontes' characters of enduring interest, but the Brontes themselves lived lives which have continued to fascinate us two hundred years later.
Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights have inspired a number of examples of Fanfiction. Branwell, Charlotte, Emily and Anne have been the inspiration for novels, sometimes speculating about lesser known parts of their lives, and sometimes transporting them through time. (Maureen)
And Proporta is celebrating with a discount:
Emily Bronte is a giant name in English Literature, even though she only published one novel, and died when she was just 30 years old. It helps, of course, that the sole novel was Wuthering Heights, and the passionate romance and dark, menacing hero of that book have made it, and its author an immortal part of British culture. Whether it’s Laurence Olivier’s turn as a brooding Heathcliff, or just a crazy song by Kate Bush, Emily’s characters live on in our imaginations, and, less happily perhaps, our GCSE syllabuses.
Emily would have been 191 this July 30th, and to celebrate this great lady’s life Proporta would like to give 15% off to all customers on her birthday. Simply type in the code ELLISBELL on the cart page to claim your discount. Tall, dark and handsome strangers are, unfortunately, not included...
*Please note that this offer is only available on Thursday 30th July 2009 and only on orders of Proporta branded hardware purchased from http://www.proporta.com/.
EDIT: More celebrations: Risky Regencies, Cultuurspectrum (in Dutch), The Internet Writing Workshop, the Brontë Sisters, and Lady Lazarus.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati Literature Examiner studies men and women from different points of view, one of them being Wuthering Heights.
Moving forward, it is necessary to spend some time with Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, as not only was Bronte one of the first prominent female novelists, but moreover, she had a firm grasp on the prodigious male-female archetype—that is, the androgynous aspects of human beings. She states effervescently, “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath—a source of little visible delight, but necessary…I am Heathcliff—he’s always, always in my mind—not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself—but, as my own being…”(Bronte, 1995, p. 82). In this short monologue, Emily’s character, Catherine, admits that her love for Heathcliff is vital to her sustained existence. In essence, he embodies the ideal masculine compliment for her effeminate being, and in so doing, is regarded by her own self to be her lifeline—her companion for all things that require the transcendence of merely the singular male or the singular female. Alone, these two entities are moribund and desolate, desperately seeking an equalizer for their particular sex. Hence, Bronte resembles the female archetype, Aphrodite, in that not only is her novel highly sexual, but both Bronte’s character and Bronte’s own life moved on a path toward self-actualization. Victoria Schmidt (2001) asserts in reference to Aphrodite, “Her biggest motivator is self-actualization….She needs love, connection and creativity to be happy” (p. 25). In sum, Bronte’s animated nature and need for a sexual partner and life companion is best characterized by her obsession with her character, Heathcliff. (Kyle Reynolds)
And The Telegraph (Calcutta) looks at famous threesomes.
Theirs was a love that knew no boundaries. They grew up together and were nearly inseparable. Till of course she decided to marry Edgar Linton. Heathcliff stormed away leaving Catherine to suffer while Edgar picked up the pieces. How can one not like a man who’s not around to pick up the pieces? So the story stands thus — Catherine and Edgar, Heathcliff and Isabella. And Heathcliff and Catherine. Where’s the trio? We don’t know. We’re still confused! And as if that wasn’t enough, there is Catherine’s assertion that she and Heathcliff were one person. Is that two people or one? Help!
Articlesbase has an article by Nicholas Raven on '"A Doll's House" and "Wuthering Heights", an investigation into setting'.

News Blaze talks about Ernest Dempsey's The Blue Fairy and other tales of transcendence:
Janet Grace Riehl (Village Wisdom) said, "There is something about the somberness of his search for moral principles that reminds me of Victorian poets such as Tennyson, Bronte, Kipling, and Hardy writing in the 19th century. Bringing these themes into 21st century views is an interesting task."
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette discusses love letters and brings up a fragment from on of Charlotte's famous passionate letters to her Brussels professor Constantin Heger:
Another note that probably should have met with an open flame is this one from Charlotte Bronte to a married professor who doesn't seem to have returned her affection:
"Monsieur, the poor have not need of much to sustain them -- they ask only for the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table. … Nor do I, either, need much affection from those I love. I should not know what to do with a friendship entire and complete -- I am not used to it. But you showed me of yore a little interest … and I hold on to the maintenance of that little interest -- I hold on to it as I would hold on to life."
Whoa, girl, you'll melt his spectacles.
You may remember Charlotte Bronte as the author of "Jane Eyre," a book about a girl with a self-esteem deficiency and a passion for her brooding employer, who tries to marry her even though he already has a crazy wife who burns the house down and blinds him. Breaking up is hard to do. (Samantha Bennett)
The San Francisco Chronicle wonders whether a pill can help make you more intelligent and had us laughing out loud at the following:
I snag a prescription, pop a 100 mg pill, and await the emergence of my inner Brontë sister. (Joanne Chen)
And finally this is what the blogs bring us today: Mariakäfer (in German) is not very favourable to the process of adapting classics to children, mentioning the recent Real Reads editions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Joy writes about Jane Eyre, Anna Winberg Knows Good Books (in Swedish) has just got a volume of the collected novels of the Brontë sisters and Celtic Twilight reviews (in French) Daphne du Maurier's The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë (or Le Monde infernal de Branwell Brontë in its French translation).

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12:05 am by Cristina in , ,    No comments
Emily Jane Brontë was born on a day like today and 191 years after that she continues to impress, amaze and interest readers all over the world. Her intriguing personality, her mastery of poetry and prose make her a very prominent figure in 2009. Her only novel, Wuthering Heights, fascinates readers and gains one new adaptation after another, thereby living endless new lives and touching different lives.

We still wonder what Emily- the so-called sphinx of English literature would make of all that. We do, however, know that we are very happy for her.

As an example of all that, we bring you - and her - an intriguing portrait of her by Chinese poet and calligrapher Huang Xiang and American artist William Rock. We guess the surrounding Chinese text is a poem by Emily, though we can't tell which, which is a shame. The portrait is part of the Century Mountain Project and must have been painted some time between 2006-2009, along with many, many more remarkable portraits of other relevant people, which we sincerely suggest to take a look at.

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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Wednesday, July 29, 2009 12:46 pm by M. in , , , ,    No comments
The Telegraph publishes today this most mysterious of Brontë references in an article about the Port Eliot Festival:
There was a time when "The Season" meant a hectic dash between such time-honoured loci as Ascot, Henley and Glyndebourne. Nowadays there's an alternative trajectory: Glastonbury, Latitude and last weekend's Port Eliot Festival at St Germans on the Cornish coast. I was at Port Eliot to conduct a "love workshop" with the novelist Maria Alvarez. Think Oprah crossed with Wuthering Heights, and you'll be on the right track. (Rowan Pelling)
We're afraid we're on no track at all.

Stephen L. Carter's Jericho's Fall is reviewed in Los Angeles Times:
Thus, Jericho's baronial house, Stone Heights, and the peaks that loom all around, brood over the story line in the fashion of Brontë's and Hardy's houses and landscapes. Similarly, biblical references abound. (Tim Rutten)
The Statesman (India) talks about Indian versions or retellings of several classical novels. Like Dil Diya Dard Liya 1966:
Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights was turned into a Bollywood movie in Dil Dia Dard Lia in the early sixties, tragedy king Dilip Kumar playing the Hindi speaking lead role in place of the original Heathcliffe (sic). (Subrata Chowdhury)
Apparently Wuthering Heights is also one of the '100 best beach books ever', number 76 to be precise, according to the audience of NPR.

On the blogosphere, Savidge Reads has just finished Jude Morgan's The Taste of Sorrow:
I will say it is absolutely wonderfully written. I found it hard to tear myself away from the book and in fact spent a whole day in bed with it (well I did have swine flu too, had it been the weekend I would have made some excuse). Morgan brings to life the three famous sisters and their different character traits. Charlotte who is strong minded, yet fearful, independent yet nervous. Emily is quite cunning and dark and often compared to a cat. Anne the baby of the family who is quite quiet and meek and yet has a lot going on in her head and once you get to know her is much wiser than her years. Branwell and his downfall are of course there but at the heart of it this is very much a book about Emily, Anne and Charlotte… and now I want to run off and read all of their books.
Stuff I've Read, Reveries & Ruminations and Gee Whiz all post about Jane Eyre while Nonplussed and Natterings of the Mind write about Wuthering Heights.

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We are very grateful to Real Reads for sending us two review copies of the following books.
Wuthering Heights
by Gill Tavner
Vanessa Lubach (Illustrator)

# Paperback: 64 pages
# Publisher: Real Reads (30 Jul 2009)
# ISBN-10: 190623020X
# ISBN-13: 978-1906230203
Jane Eyre
by Gill Tavner
Vanessa Lubach (Illustrator)

# Paperback: 64 pages
# Publisher: Real Reads (30 Jul 2009)
# ISBN-10: 1906230218
# ISBN-13: 978-1906230210


What's the best way to introduce children to classic literature? This is a recurring topic which each generation resurfaces and one which inevitably generates confronted positions. Is it better to quote from the original without adapting? Is an abridged version which reshapes the original language to each new group of potential readers most advisable? Is it better to completely modernise the settings and situations? Or maybe a visual approach (via comic or with illustrations à la page) can be more successful? In recent years we have seen examples of all these approaches(1) some of them more accomplished than others but all of them sharing a common goal: bringing the classics to future readers.

The Real Reads collection is one more of these attempts. It consists in brief illustrated retellings (some 50 pages and 20 illustrations plus the cover in a dustjacket, addressed to children 8-13 years old) of widely known English classics by Jane Austen(2), Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare and, of course, the Brontë sisters among others. Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights are unsurprisingly the choices. Each Real Read contains the following sections: The Characters with a brief summary of each character and an appropriate illustration, The Story were the illustrated retelling can be read and a final section: Taking the Things Further where a call to read the real thing is made, Filling the Void highlights the main points of the original narrative that have been skipped or altered, Back in Time briefly places the author and the book in its time, Finding out More suggests books, films or websites and Food for Thought offers prompts to start a discussion about the book.

Both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are retold by Gill Tavner and illustrated by Vanessa Lubach. Gill Tavner says on the RealReads website:
I have long thought that there must be a way of making the qualities of ‘classics’ accessible to most readers, but I was unconvinced that abridging was the answer. As a mother of two young children, I have endured the pain of reading abridged fairy tales and Disney films. These often machine-gun the reader with a list of events. Rarely do they offer the reader an opportunity to develop interest in or appreciation of varied vocabulary, style or themes. Do abridged versions need to be like this? Surely there is a way to make an abridged version an enjoyable and enriching rather than simply informative reading experience? Surely this is an important distinction if we aim to nurture keen, confident readers?
Surely. And Gill Tavner tries hard to retell the novels preserving some of the original language or structure. This is considerably better achieved in Jane Eyre than Wuthering Heights. The complicated structure of Emily Brontë's masterpiece is so inextricably weaved into to the novel itself than any attempt to alleviate it is doomed to fail. The machine-gun effect that Ms Tavner alludes to it in the aforementioned text is very hard to get around. Jane Eyre, however, stands the abridging/adapting process much better. The bare bones are there and some of the feeling of Charlotte Brontë's writing can be glimpsed. It is remarkable that Ms Tavner has managed to get Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfied, Moor House and Ferndean... in 50 pages! Of course, the pace is too fast and there's no psychological depth in the characters but this is the unavoidable price to pay in an approach such as this one.

Vanessa Lubach is in charge of the illustrations. This is not the first time she approaches these novels. Recently, she also created the list of Characters of the Worth Press editions (check our review here) and of course some of her previous creations have been recovered for the present editions. Only Rochester's depiction presents a clear change in tone(3). Helen Burns or Adèle Varens also present minor changes. Vanessa Lubach's drawings are in colour pencil with a watercolour underwash in many of her illustrations. This gives a naïf tone that works well with the children stages of both novels and not so well with the rest of it. A mention should be made, nevertheless, to the excellent first illustration of Wuthering Heights with Lockwood fighting in the snow to arrive to Wuthering Heights.

Concerning the final section, the constant reminding of the necessity of reading the original novel to be able to have the full experience is remarkable. The contextualising sections are just testimonial but even so it's unforgivable that Haworth is, once again, wrongly and consistently spelt Howarth and the bibliography and webs selected are highly improvable. There's a wide selection of possible Brontë biographies (fictionalised or not) available for children and, frankly, quoting the wikipedia as a possible visiting website is, to put it mildly, a bit poor. The Food for Thought section is hardly useful to teachers and educators but this seems to be on its way to being solved as some schemes of work for primary teachers have been released on their website. Not for the Brontë titles yet, but they promise more releases.

Notes
(1) You can check our section of reviews to see some of the titles: Classical Comics' Jane Eyre, Graffex Comic Adaptations of both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights for instance. And new ones are announced as the Classical Comics' Wuthering Heights or Jane Airhead by Kay Woodward.
(2) A very interesting interview with Gill Tavner about her Jane Austen Real Reads adaptations can be read on AustenProse.
(3) A softened version in this case, as the WorthPress characterisation was more in accordance to a Mary Shelley novel than a Charlotte Brontë one. It's also a good choice to obviate Bertha from the characters list as it will give too many clues to new Jane Eyre readers.

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Reader and friend of BrontëBlog's Stephanie has alerted us to the existence of yet another Jane Eyre retelling to be published, Jane by April Lindner. From Publishers Marketplace:
Julie Scheina at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers has bought English professor April Lindner's debut YA novel Jane, for the Poppy imprint. The story is a contemporary retelling of Jane Eyre, in which a Sarah Lawrence dropout-turned-nanny falls in love with her employer, an iconic rock star on the brink of a comeback. Publication is set for fall 2010. Amy Williams of McCormick & Williams Literary Agency did the deal for world rights.
Ruben Toledo's new covers for Penguin Classics, including Wuthering Heights, are discussed today in the New York Times:
Was Heathcliff — the wild child of Wuthering Heights — a 19th-century emo boy? (...) On Aug. 25, to coordinate with New York’s Fashion Week, Penguin Classics will unveil three paperback hits from youthquakes past, updated with stylish new covers by Ruben Toledo. (If you read DailyCandy.com, you’ll recognize Toledo’s playful watercolors of gamines and hipsters — angular of frame and tangy with Pixy Stix splashes of color.) (...)
Toledo’s covetable, contrasty covers look like Belle and Sebastian albums, or ads for Steve Madden shoes. The minx he’s drawn for the cover of Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” is dressed as dramatically as an Olsen twin and has feline eyes big as saucers, their murky blue irises mirrored in the moor behind her. Heathcliff lurks on the book’s back, brooding and thick-browed as the vampire heartthrob Edward Cullen. (...)
Will this sleek trio of high-concept literary accessories end up in the hands of hipsters on the L train, come August? And can their design turn screen-fed millennials who’ve only watched Austen, Brontë and Hawthorne at the movies into readers who appreciate them on the printed page, too? Let’s hope so. There’s nothing wrong with bringing novelty to publishing; the best works will always transcend any fashion statement; and the word “novel,” after all, derives from the Latin novus, for “new.” Besides, even a very old book is new to someone who’s never read it before. (Liesl Schillinger)
Flavorwire seems also very excited with these new designs.

Huliq News talks about the exhibition These Days: Elegies for Modern Times (April 2009-February 2010) at the Massachussets Museum of Modern Art which includes works by Sam Taylor-Wood that are now in exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:
Massachusetts Museum Of Contemporary Art runs an exhibition named 'These Days: Elegies for Modern Times' through Feb 28, 2010, at Building 4, Second floor. (...)
Selections from Taylor-Wood's photo-graphic series, Ghosts and After Dark, are also on view. In Ghosts Taylor-Wood takes on Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights by photographing the moors in Yorkshire, England, in the harshness of winter to speak of Bronte's themes of thwarted love and suffering.
About.com reviews A Journey Into a Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg.
An insane wife hidden and locked away in the attic was the mystery at the heart of the classic Jane Eyre. As a plot device, the mentally ill Bertha served as the obstacle to Jane and Rochester’s happiness and would conveniently die by her own hand to insure they’d end up together in true love-story fashion.
But who was Bertha?
What led to her being locked away?
What was her story? (Laura Sternberg)
Discussing Nicholas Sarkozy's recent problems with jogging, the Telegraph can't help but appeal to the Heathcliffgate:
That triviality is central to British politics is self-evident. Gordon Brown used to be credited – at least by the more fanciful of his admirers – with the brooding good looks of a Heathcliff. Now the Prime Minister just looks tired: grey of hair, slack of jaw, baggy of eye, a man starting to feel his age. (Max Davidson)
Bookin' with Bingo interviews author Emilie Richards:
What books would you say have made the biggest impression on you, especially starting out?
As a child I read everything I could get my hands on. I basically swept through our small public library and read indiscriminately. I loved Jane Eyre and Gone with the Wind and other popular novels about strong women overcoming incredible obstacles. I think it’s clear that theme left an indelible impression on my work.
And The Book Butterfly interviews author Alyson Noël:
If you could dive into any novel and become one of the characters for the day, what novel would you choose?
I’d choose WUTHERING HEIGHTS so I could be Catherine and skip the whole “social advancement” stage, tell Heathcliff I love him, and alleviate a whole lot of suffering! But then it wouldn’t be WUTHERING HEIGHTS anymore would it? So maybe not.
New posts on The Valve about Villette. The Portuguese blog Cuidadocomodalmata also posts about Charlotte Brontë's book. Among Books and Novel Reviewer recommend Jane Eyre, Livre du Jour discusses Agnes Grey. The Sims3 blog A Legendary Legacy includes Anne Brontë's Farewell in its latest installment.

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12:03 am by M. in    No comments
A press release from the Brontë Parsonage Museum:
FREE LOCAL RESIDENTS’ ADMISSION TO BRONTË PARSONAGE LAUNCHES DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Admission to the Brontë Parsonage Museum will be free to local residents on Saturday 8 August.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum was recently awarded £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support an exciting new development project. The project will focus on renewing the presentation of the historic rooms of the Parsonage with new interpretation for visitors, young and old; new object cases and displays, and a programme of events for local people to come and find out more about the museum and get involved in the project.

This programme will kick off on Saturday 8 August when local residents of BD20, 21 & 22 will be able to visit the museum completely free of charge. All that’s needed is a recent utility bill or other official proof of address which can be shown at the museum entrance. Visitors will have the chance to look around the Parsonage, see the museum’s newly refurbished exhibition area and two new exhibitions; Sex Drugs & Literature, focusing on the Brontës’ reprobate brother, Branwell, and Ghosts, a series of moorland photographs by artist Sam Taylor-Wood. In addition there will also be an opportunity for locals to make suggestions about what changes they’d like to see in the museum through a visitor survey.

There will also be special open evenings at the museum on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 23 September when locals can enjoy a guided tour around the Parsonage, visit the museum’s Library, see some Brontë treasures at close quarters and discus with staff displays for 2010 focusing on Haworth in the Brontës’ time. Places will be limited for these evenings and so booking is required. To book for these events, please contact the museum on 01535 640192/ sonia.boocock@bronte.org.uk

This is a great opportunity for local people to come along and enjoy a free visit to the museum and also for us to find out a bit more about what locals think of the museum. This project will help us include more about the history of Haworth in the museum’s presentation but also involve the local community of today

Andrew McCarthy
Director
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Monday, July 27, 2009

Monday, July 27, 2009 6:42 pm by M. in , , , ,    No comments
Now that the swine flu is big news, the Financial Times talks about the diseases of Victorian times:
One cannot avoid illness, just as one cannot avoid life. And, as Jane Austen reminds us in Emma, “Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.”
Austen and her contemporaries also now remind us how many more diseases were life-threatening in the 19th century. In Louisa M Alcott’s Little Women Beth March narrowly survives scarlet fever – though her heart is weakened. Fred gets through typhoid in Middlemarch, but his treatment causes a rift between two local doctors. In Jane Eyre consumption proves fatal; cholera kills in The Painted Veil. (Rosie Blau)
Carolyn Hitt writes The Western Mail about the risks of imitating romantic movies/novels:
Yes, Charlotte Bronte’s uber-male is brooding, enigmatic and has a granite-faced beauty. But he also keeps his nutty, pyromaniac ex in the loft extension.
Kind of detracts from his dating potential.
The Halifax Courier reports about the £50,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund received by the Pennine Inheritance Project which includes projects related to the Brontës:
The trails which the Inheritance Project team is trying to develop link with public transport and existing public rights of way.
Each is being carefully designed to cover subjects such as work and religion, art and culture, the impact of the textile industry, power in the landscape, philanthropists, authors such as Ted Hughes and the Brontes, the development of roads, railways and canals. (Michael Peel)
The Indian actress Roshni Chopra is interviewed in the New Kerala and seems a bit confused about who's the author and who's the character:
Which bookish character do you identify with?
I love Emily Brontë of ‘Wuthering Heights’ and also, Estella in ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens.
Bitten by Books interviews author Annette Blair:
BBB: Do you find it difficult to switch between paranormal and straight romance/historical romance?
AB: Sometimes when I’m switching between the mysteries, in first person where I’m the sleuth, I have a hard time moving back to third person stories where both hero and heroine have a point of view. As for switching between contemporaries and historicals, I tend to switch my television and movie habits, too, to help me get a feel for the language. (...) For Regency romances I go back to my first loves, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Sense and Sensibility, etc.
Jane Austen's World reviews positively Syrie James's The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë:
For fans of biographical tales and romance, Syrie’s story of Charlotte offers it all: longing and yearning, struggle and success, the searing pain of immeasurable loss, and the happiness of a love that came unbidden and unsought. I did not want this story to end. (Vic)
And Feminist Review does the same with Denise Giardina's Emily's Ghost:
The challenge in writing a novel about a historical figure is presenting the facts in story form with a freshness that allows the reader to forget what they already know, or at the least push it to the side. Ms. Giardiana accomplishes this with ease. I found her characters believable and endearing. In her capable hands, Emily and her sisters come to life. I was swept away by the story and only posed one question: why did the book have to come to an end? (Ann Hite)
A 1930’s illustrated hardback of Wuthering Heights in the West Palm Beach Literature Examiner, Zuzu Concept recommends the novel (in Romanian), The Rocky Horror Picture Blog complains about the Wuthering Heights edition targeted to Twilight fans, Honey, put down the harpoon! posts about Jane Eyre.

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12:06 am by M. in ,    No comments
We present today a book that will appeal to fans of Gothic Tales, Victorian literature or feminist writing. An anthology of supernatural tales written by an impressive list of authors: Emily Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary E. Braddon, Charlotte Riddell, Mary E. Penn, Louisa Baldwin, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Violet Quirk, Edith Nesbit, George Elliot and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.
The Darker Sex
Edited by Mike Ashley
Peter Owen Publishers
July 2009
# ISBN 978 0 7206 1335 3
# Fiction
# paperback
# £9.99


Ghosts, precognition, suicide and the afterlife are all themes to be found in these thrilling stories by some of the greatest Victorian women writers from both Britain and the USA. Horace Walpole may have started the Gothic-fiction movement, but it was three women who popularized it –Clara Reeve, Mary Shelley and Anne Radcliffe. Victorian women proved they had a talent for creating dark, sensational and horrifying tales of the supernatural, and this anthology showcases some of the best and most representative work by female writers of the time, including Emily Brontë, Mary Braddon, George Eliot and Edith Nesbit, as well as Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte
Riddell, Louisa Baldwin, Mary Penn, Violet Quirk and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.

Editor Mike Ashley provides valuable insight into the authors’ lives and contextualizes each story –every one of which still has the ability to shock and frighten –and shows how Victorian women perfected and developed the Gothic genre.

MIKE ASHLEY is a British bibliographer, author and editor of science fiction, mystery and fantasy. He is well known for editing the Mammoth Bookseries of short-story anthologies. He won the Edgar Award for The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction. He lives
in Kent, England.
Emily Brontë's tale is one of her Belgian devoirs: Le Palais de la Mort (1842) in the translation by Sue Lonoff (The Palace of Death) published in The Belgian Essays.

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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Sunday, July 26, 2009 10:39 am by M. in , , , , , , ,    3 comments
The new book by Denise Giardina, Emily's Ghost, is receiving some attention in the US regional media:

The Asheville Citizen-Times has a ravishing review:
‘If given the chance to go abroad,” Emily Brontë says in Denise Giardina's new novel, “Emily's Ghost,” she'd “choose the American frontier, perhaps the mountains of Virginia or the Carolinas.”
In imagining the life of the “Wuthering Heights” author, Giardina makes more than a geographical connection to Southern Appalachia. Her heroine and the curate with whom she falls in love — William Weightman — are deeply attached to oppressed miners and weavers, as are the heroes of others of her novels.
Giardina's 1987 novel, “Storming Heaven,” has become a classic about Southern Appalachia, depicting the deadly repression of unionizing mine workers at Blair Mountain in 1921. Her subsequent novel, “The Unquiet Earth,” remained in West Virginia-Kentucky territory, following her characters through to the 1990s and strip mining.
The making of romance
“I want to tell a story that has people turning the page,” Giardina said in an interview with the Citizen-Times. She connects her subjects “to classic types of literature — romance, adventure, or people taking stands.”
Romance exerts an irresistible pull in “Emily's Ghost” as two people unlikely to find mates — Weightman, a man on a mission; and Emily, an uncompromising idealist — slowly discover that they can be themselves with each other.
They operate in an environment we know well: Haworth, the Brontë family's working class parsonage on the moors — the basis of Emily's “Wuthering Heights” and Charlotte Bronte's “Jane Eyre.” So there's that fun. Pre-published Charlotte is portrayed as one who hurts people in her defense of propriety.
Memorable characters
Right from the start, Giardina creates a character in Emily that is powerfully direct.
When a nose-rubbing headmistress punishes Emily's sister Elizabeth for being slow, Emily asks the teacher “if her nose was not so long because she pulled on it.”
And when the 6-year-old sees the headmistress pull her consumptive sister, Maria Brontë, out of bed, she bites the woman in the calf.
“I'd been interested in the Brontës since before I could read,” Giardina said “because my mother had these editions of ‘Wuthering Heights' and ‘Jane Eyre,' and I used to look at the pictures. As I grew older, I read every single biography I could get my hands on.”
You'll want to go read or re-read “Wuthering Heights” after reading Giardina's tale.
The lost novel
You will not be able to read Emily Brontë's second novel — and last, because she died of consumption — because of what happened to it.
“Heaven and Earth,” a story about a minister who champions workers, is lost. We know there had been such a manuscript, Giardina says, because a letter from a publisher had been found in Emily's desk after her death, saying “he was looking forward to receiving her next novel.”
You can see how much “Emily's Ghost” is a work of the imagination. So much has to be filled in, including the second novel's fate.
Believing
Giardina imagines a conversation between Weightman, three Brontë sisters and Mr. Dury, the minister from the town in which Weightman had just given a lecture.
Anne Brontë springs the sisters' test question on Dury: “What do you think of the possibility of universal salvation?”
“You mean that everyone would go to Heaven? ... Preposterous!” Dury cries. “Why bother to be a good Christian?”
“Is that the reason one is a good Christian?” Emily asks.
Giardina's style is to include a lot of dialogue, such as the above, and it has to be made up. “I ought to write a play,” Giardina muses, referring to one of her strengths, being a ventriloquist for voices from various places and periods.
Giardina has given readers a great favor, a gateway to the world of the Brontës that is as contemporary as any day's most impressive believers. (Rob Neufeld)
Another good review comes from Deseret News:
Author Denise Giardina celebrates the Bronte in her work "Emily's Ghost: A Novel of the Bronte Sisters." Dreams, disappointments, triumphs and lost loves all come to the fore in this fictionalized account of their lives.
Death is no stranger to the three youngest Bronte sisters, who have already lost their mother. But that doesn't make things easier when their two oldest sisters die from consumption.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne take the losses hard but are grateful they can return home from the horrible Clergy Daughter's School. At school, discipline rules the day. At home, however, freethinking and creativity are encouraged.
The sisters live in the parish of Haworth in northern England with their widowed father, the curate, an aunt and, on occasion, their brother, Branwell.
Plain in looks and lacking wealth, the sisters have no real chance of marriage and are forced to seek out other ways of securing their futures. While Charlotte holds out hope for romance and true love, Anne seeks work as a governess. Emily, who has no desire to marry or teach, remains at home with her father, doing her part to help people in the village who are struggling to eke out a living.
When a young clergyman named William Weightman comes to serve as their father's assistant, the sisters find themselves in new territory. Charlotte and Anne are taken with the dashing man, but it's quiet Emily who catches his eye.
And it's Emily who is at the center of this tale. As an adult, Emily defies conventions, roaming the moors at night and conversing with spirits she's known since her days at boarding school. While most find her behavior odd, William finds it intriguing. Over time, the two form a bond that even death cannot break.
"Emily's Ghost" is an intimate look at the Bronte family, and though fictionalized, many of the events did in fact happen. While readers should keep in mind that this is a romanticized novel, one can't help but get caught up in the daily lives of these fascinating women.
Here, Charlotte, Emily and Anne become individuals. As the author of "Wuthering Heights," Emily's passion and disregard for some conventions are perfectly in line. However, the persnickety, prim and somewhat prudish characterization of Charlotte makes one wonder how such a person could produce "Jane Eyre."
Giardina gracefully captures the essence of the time period, adopting pacing and style while maintaining her own voice. She transports the readers to mystical moors with ease, making the time and place feel as familiar as our own.
"Emily's Ghost" is a captivating novel that tugs at the heartstrings. Perhaps not on par with the novels written by the Bronte, it has a timeless feel that will call to Bronte fans, as well as devotees of gothic novels. (Jessica Harrison)
And the Sunday Gazette-Mail has a very interesting Q&A with the author:
Q: Which book did you initially like better -- "Jane Eyre" or "Wuthering Heights"?
A: I read "Jane Eyre" first and enjoyed it a lot. It does have unique features such as the madwoman in the attic and Rochester's blindness, but it also has a conventional happy ending. When I read "Wuthering Heights" I thought "Jane Eyre" too conventional in comparison. "Wuthering Heights" is unique, there is nothing like it. Heathcliff digging up Cathy's grave -- oh my goodness. That's not just romance, that's obsession. "Jane Eyre" is trifling in comparison. It doesn't haunt in nearly the same way as "Wuthering Heights."

Q: Why did you pick Emily to focus on rather than Charlotte or Anne?
A: I knew all along I would not focus on Charlotte, since she has been the center of attention for much too long. I did consider Anne, who is often forgotten, and unjustly so. But when I plotted out the timelines of the Brontës' lives, I realized Anne was gone for most of the time, employed as a governess. And Emily was right there in Haworth in the middle of the action. So I went with her, and I'm glad I did.

Q: I didn't like Charlotte very much. Do you?
A: Charlotte has many good points. She was the force, I think, in getting the Brontë sisters published and noticed. Because she wanted so desperately to be known outside Haworth, she was the one who ensured the Brontë sisters would indeed be known. Given the restrictions on women in her day, I think she deserves a great deal of credit for pushing against that. Having said that, I think she also should be criticized for her unfortunate attempts to control her sisters' legacy. I've shown that in my novel, so I don't want to go into great detail. But overall, I do like Charlotte. She was stuck in her time period, and she made the most she could of it.

Q: You have said "Emily's Ghost" is connected with your earlier work. In what way?
A: Both "Storming Heaven" and "The Unquiet Earth" were strongly influenced by "Wuthering Heights." In "Storming Heaven" I give a tip of the hat to Emily Brontë early on, in Carrie Bishop's first monologue when she mentions "Wuthering Heights." The end of "Storming Heaven" is also a reversion of "Wuthering Heights." "The Unquiet Earth" is my own version of "Wuthering Heights." All the main characters are based upon the characters in "Wuthering Heights." My Web site, www.denisegiardina.com, describes which characters are which.

Q: You also said you relied on original research -- such as?
A: I'm not sure what this question refers to. I always try to stay as close to the original sources as possible (historically) if that's what you mean. Primary sources, as historians call them. As opposed to relying on what historians call secondary sources, which are accounts that come after the lives of the people being studied. So I focus on primary sources as much as possible in my research.

Q: What evidence is there that Emily was working on a second novel?
A: They have found a paper in a desk, probably Emily's though possibly Anne's, from their publisher, saying he is glad the new novel is almost finished and he looks forward to publishing it. Since Anne already had a new novel ("Tenant of Wildfell Hall"), it is likely the note refers to Emily's novel. And yet there is no inkling what happened to it. Some Brontë scholars suggest Emily destroyed it herself. As a novelist, I find that highly unlikely. Other Brontë scholars suggest Charlotte destroyed Emily's work. Thus the ending of my book.

Q: I noticed that the nasty policeman was named Massey. Were there any other similar zingers that I overlooked?
A: I don't think so. I did want to get that one in. Massey is evil and deserves any zingers in that regard.

Q: Did William Wilberforce really sponsor the Rev. Patrick Brontë to Cambridge?
A: Yes.

Q: There's a swipe at Jane Austen in your book. Don't you like my favorite author?
A: Actually I love Jane Austen. Especially "Pride and Prejudice," "Sense and Sensibility" and "Persuasion." But the Brontës didn't particularly like her (there is a mention in Charlotte's letters to that affect). I think Austen was, for them, an earlier generation and so seen as kind of stodgy. And even for Charlotte, she was too staid and conventional. It's sort of like people my age (Baby Boomers) rebelling against our parents. I think the Brontës saw Austen as too old-fashioned.

Q: Was it hard to get published in the mid-19th century? Or was it like today where so many people pay to have their book published?
A: It was common to pay to get published back then, sort of like online publishing today. The Brontës did pay to get their poems published, and Emily and Anne paid to have their novels published. However Charlotte decided to take "Jane Eyre" to someone who would publish without being paid ahead of time. That was kicking against the grain of her time, but it proved a wise move.

Q: The curator William Weightman seems to me a difficult character to develop. If you make him too appealing, he's one-dimensional; invest him with the wrong flaws, and Emily wouldn't have loved him. Your thoughts, please.
A: First the facts -- William Weightman seems to have been dearly loved by his parishioners. Patrick Brontë eulogized him after his death, and made that clear. There is also a plaque in Haworth church, which says the same (which Branwell Brontë probably wrote). I tried to show the man who deserved these accolades. And yes, that may make him too "good." I don't know what to do about that, to be honest. I have known good men like that, so I know they exist. I also know they have flaws, which I have tried to show. But I hope he comes across as a human being.

Q: How did you come up with the ambiguous title "Emily's Ghost"?
A: I began to realize that there are lots of ghosts in the novel. The ghosts Emily thinks about as a child, her sisters who die, the dead who are buried under her house, and then those who continue to die throughout the novel. I thought it would also be ambiguous. Is Emily the ghost? Or are there others? I thought the title would make people think.
Martin Stannard, author of the upcoming Muriel Spark: The Biography, talks about the biographee in The Times and mentions an anecdote involving Muriel Spark's book about Emily Brontë:
“This is the archive just acquired by the National Library of Scotland. They were delighted. Quite a coup for them.” She fished out a dog-eared folder marked with a date in the 1950s. “In those days”, she said, “I had to try to write a biog­raphy of Emily Brontë and care for my child on £50. It wasn’t much.” She often spoke of her early poverty.
The Chicago Tribune talks about books and their readers:
My copy of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" is the paperback Scholastic Book Services edition that I've owned since 6th grade, featuring a bleak, moody, blue-and-gray cover. (Julia Keller)
Carlene Bauer, author of Not That Kind of Girl, talks in the New York Post about her personal experiences with a Brontë reference:
I did, however, have a crush. A boy like Heathcliff from "Wuthering Heights," who dressed in dark clothes and wore Chuck Taylors. He was Godless with a capital 'g' -- he liked Nine Inch Nails! -- and seemed to embody sin.
Gunonglaut posts about Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights, Million Dollar Way compares Wuthering Heights structure with the TV Series Cold Case, there's a Jane Eyre 2006 Icontest going on Livejournal. Finally alert reader Annarita alerts us to the existence of several Brontë poems animations on poetryanimations's Youtube channel: Emily Brontë's Remembrance, Anne Brontë's O God! If this indeed be all and Charlotte Brontë's Mementos.

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12:12 am by M. in ,    No comments
A new biofiction book on the Brontës will be released next July 27:
Emily's Ghost
By Denise Giardina

First published 27 July, 2009.
Hardback by W.W.Norton, 384pp
ISBN-10: 039306915X
ISBN-13: 978-0393069150


Synopsis

A lustrous, beautifully written reimagining of the Brontë family — and of Emily Brontë's passionate engagement with life.

Enigmatic, intelligent, and fiercely independent, Emily Brontë refuses to bow to the conventions of her day: she is distrustful of marriage, prefers freedom above all else, and walks alone at night on the moors above the isolated rural village of Haworth, Yorkshire.

But Emily's life, along with the rest of the Brontë family, is turned upside down with the arrival of an idealistic clergyman named William Weightman. Weightman champions poor mill workers' rights, mingles with radical labor agitators, and captivates Haworth — and the Brontës especially — with his energy and charm.

An improbable friendship between Weightman and Emily develops into a fiery but unconsummated love affair. And when tragedy strikes, the relationship continues, like the love story at the heart of Emily's beloved novel Wuthering Heights, beyond the grave.

Background

The Bronte sisters have haunted me since before I could read. My mother, when she was young in 1942 and finally in possession of a salary, spent her precious money to buy editions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights illustrated by the evocative engravings of Fritz Eichenberg. As a nonliterate five-year-old I studied the illustrations and tried to tell a story about them. I don't recall my own imaginings. But I have connected ever since.

This novel was conceived in an electric moment. I was lying in bed after a speaking engagement at Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I lulled myself toward sleep by reading a fine book called The Bronte Myth by Lucasta Miller. Miller pointed out that no one had written a serious novel about the Brontes, and suggested Peter Ackroyd or A.S. Byatt might make the attempt. I sat up straight in bed. No, no, no, I thought. I should write that book!

I knew this because I had already done much of the research, reading every Bronte biography I could get my hands on. But mostly because two of my novels, Storming Heaven and The Unquiet Earth, are connected to Wuthering Heights. In Storming Heaven, narrator Carrie Bishop opens by declaring that she has read Wuthering Heights.
"I loved it, just for the name of it, even before I read it. It has the sound of a lost and precious place, Wuthering Heights. I learned from that book that love and hate are not puny things. Nor are they opposed. Everything in this world that is calculating and bloodless wars against them both, wars against all flesh and blood, earth and water."
The end of Storming Heaven is an inversion of the close of Wuthering Heights, with its speculation about "how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth." In Storming Heaven, with its story of oppression in the coalfields of West Virginia, "no one could ever imagine a quiet slumber for the dead in that earth."

The sequel, The Unquiet Earth, continues this theme and is even more intentionally connected to Emily Bronte's novel. It is, in fact, a retelling whose characters match its predecessor. So Heathcliff is Dillon Freeman, and on — the first Cathy/Rachel, the second Cathy/Jackie, both Lockwood and Hareton/Tom Kolwiecki, Nelly Dean/Hassel Day, Edgar Linton/Arthur Lee Sizemore, Joseph/Doyle Ray Lloyd, Hindley/Uncle Brigham Lloyd. A hint is dropped early in the novel — Dillon and Rachel watch the Olivier version of Wuthering Heights in their local movie theater in the West Virginia coalfields. And of course, there is the title.

I consider Emily's Ghost to be the third book of a trilogy.
An excerpt can be read here.

Stay tuned to BrontëBlog for a review of this book in the coming weeks!

Denise Giardina's Tour:
Monday, July 27 6:00 PM Taylor Books Annex Gallery (Charleston, WV)
Wednesday, July 29 7:00 PM Barnes & Noble (Morgantown, WV)
Friday, July 31 6:30 PM Carpe Librum Booksellers (Knoxville, TN)
Saturday, August 1 7:00 PM Malaprop's Bookstore (Asheville, NC)
Saturday, August 8 11:00 AM McIntyre's (Pittsboro, NC)
Saturday, August 8 3:00 PM The Country Bookshop (Southern Pines, NC)
Monday, August 10 7:00 PM Regulator Bookshop (Durham, NC)
Tuesday, August 11 7:30 PM Quail Ridge Books (Raleigh, NC)
Monday, August 17 7:00 PM Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Lexington, KY)
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Saturday, July 25, 2009

Saturday, July 25, 2009 12:04 pm by M. in , , ,    No comments
The Telegraph talks about the autumn ITV season and highlights Wuthering Heights 2009:
Tom Hardy, 31, will play the passionate Heathcliff who falls in love with his childhood friend Cathy, played by Charlotte Riley, 27, in an adaptation of Emily Bronte's classic love story.
The pair recently starred in Martina Cole's crime drama The Take, on Sky1, which was set in the criminal underworld of London's East End.
By contrast, the actors have been reunited on the Yorkshire moors in a two part costume drama, which will be shown on ITV1 later this year as part of the broadcaster's autumn schedule. (Urmee Khan)
The Yorkshire Post centers on Charlotte Riley and gives a date for the broadcast, the August Bank Holiday weekend:
Charlotte Riley plays Cathy in television's new take on Wuthering Heights. She comes from Yorkshire and so must be well-versed in the book and its many film manifestations. Right? Wrong.
"Sorry, but it had completely passed me by," she says. "I'd not picked up the book, nor had I seen any of the screen versions. I knew vaguely about it, but I'd never come into proper contact with it. So the very first time that I knew the story well was when my agent sent me the screenplay by Peter Bowker.
"On picking it up, I was completely sold on it. I went in and did one audition, and then I did one screen test, and that was that. I was on board – thank God. So I came to it completely afresh.
"I think that that was a great help. I formed my own opinions of Cathy from Peter's script, and not from the previous work of others. When I'd thumbed through his interpretation and when I'd found my own way as Cathy, I went and read the book several times."
Charlotte discovered that Wuthering Heights is not a gentle novel nor an easy read. "Basically it's about people being very cruel towards each other. It's about revenge, and hate. There are no grey areas. The damage that is done to Heathcliff as a child and as a young man affects the next generation, and he is determined that it does. Where did Emily Brontë get it all from – a girl brought up in a parsonage?
"Then I watched as many versions as I could lay my hands on. I think that the best one for me was, oddly enough, a French version set in the 1920s, which was visually very attractive and interesting. The Juliette Binoche film of not so long ago isn't my favourite. I wasn't actually looking at who was playing Cathy, to be honest, I was looking at the atmosphere, the colours, the way that the story came across on the screen."
Charlotte has no doubts about the story's relevance today. "At its core it is all about an obsessional love affair that starts in Cathy and Heathcliff's teens. I think we've all had one of those at some point in our lives, when you have such a crush on someone else that your life seems to be taken over completely. I can relate to that."
Charlotte, 28, is single and shares with a group of girl friends in a "big London house". When she finally found herself in front of the cameras for Wuthering Heights, "I felt that it was a bit like a singer doing a cover version of a great and much-loved song. You have to give it your best shot, and your own interpretation to make it work. To make it your own."
Her co-star, as Heathcliff is Tom Hardy. Where Cathy and Heathcliff had years to forge their passion, Charlotte and Tom had a few days to get to know each other.
"It really wasn't that long. I thought that it was about two weeks, but I was told the other day that my memory was playing tricks and that it was only about four or five days. The chemistry was there immediately. I like Tom a lot, and since we made Wuthering Heights we've made The Take together, and that has a very explicit scene in it, a rape. It was made easier to do because Tom and I already had an understanding because of Heights.
"He is genuinely one of the most generous actors that I have ever encountered. One of the first scenes that we did in Heights was Cathy and Heathcliff's meeting in the barn. Tom kept on turning me gently this way and that and I wondered what he was up to.
"When the director shouted 'cut', Tom said, 'Charlotte, sorry about that, but you weren't facing the camera, and it's your scene, and your face has to be there to be seen', which was lovely of him.
"Love scenes are probably the worst things that you can ever do for a camera. There's nothing remotely romantic or sexy about them. You have to make sure that the camera angle is correct, that your hair isn't going to tumble forwards and into your face or mouth, so many things. You want to do it so well. In essence it's all deeply embarrassing."
Whatever Emily Brontës' fictional intent, Charlotte has her own view of the characters' relationship. "Did they get it together? Of course they did. As soon as they were teenagers…up on the moors all day in each other's company, for year after year? For five years at least they were together like wild things, so they must have been at it like… well, like hormonally charged teenagers. Something must have happened, the characters seem so sexually alert."
Peter Bowker has taken some liberties with the book in his script, but Charlotte defends him. "There's a lot of child cruelty in Emily's novel, lots of lashings and floggings and beatings, and it is rather sadistic at times. We couldn't put much of that on the screen in the way that Emily wrote it, the NSPCC would have been outraged.
"There's a lot of black humour, too. I suppose the scene that might get some people going is where Heathcliff goes to Cathy's grave almost 20 years after her death and digs up her coffin. He crawls into the space
and holds her rotted corpse – which he believes in his own deranged mind is the Cathy that he's just laid to rest.
"That imagery is actually in Emily Brontë's original. Heathcliff hints at one point that he held her while she was dead, but still warm.
That's a bit gruesome, isn't it?
"It was a harrowing scene to film for me – they dug a grave, a hole, for the box, and then I had to lie in that. Then they put the rotting planking of the coffin on top, and threw earth on it. I was completely buried. And since I am claustrophobic, it wasn't nice at all.
"My eyes were tightly shut and it was very scary, very nasty being buried alive."
The two-parter was shot in Yorkshire last summer. "We finished at about eight-thirty or nine thirty at night and then generally it was back to our hotel in Leeds and a shower and sitting learning the lines for the next day.
"There were a few occasions when Tom, and Andrew Lincoln (who plays Cathy's husband Edgar) and I went out for dinner with a few others. You have to let your hair down a little sometimes.
"I think that the worst thing about the shoot were the midges that discovered our flesh during that summer. One weekend we all disappeared for a day or so. The actors came back and we saw the crew, in that couple of days, had found protective clothing – hats and netting and whatever. We were all still exposed, bare skin, and they were standing around dressed like aliens.
"There's no weather cover insurance these days, so you just keep on going whatever happens. If
you can't shoot scenes outdoors, you move rapidly to interiors.
"There's not a single second wasted."
Switching locations could be quite arduous.
"They're all over the place – Oakwell Hall in Birstall, East Riddlesden Hall in Keighley, Braham Park, Stockeld Park near Wetherby, Arncliffe, Halton Gill.
"As with most filming, you see the exterior of a place, and the interior isn't always the same one – so therewas a lot of travelling for us all. I don't think that one stood out as a favourite, they were all stunningly beautiful in their own way."
She believes that she can identify with Cathy, at least in some ways.
"For a start, I am from that area, well, from Teesside. I am also a bit of a tomboy, and I do like the countryside, and escaping in to it. I like my freedom, and enjoying the outdoors."
ITV's new take on Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights will be shown over the August Bank Holiday weekend. (Phil Penfold)
The Faster Times talks about James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon and its Brontë references:
And there are other peculiarities. Shangri-la, it turns out, is not really Tibetan at all. It was founded by a wandering Frenchman called Perrault in the 18th century who lived to an amazing age and founded the monastery’s collection of classical music and world classics. Then we discover that the High Lama himself is a Bronte scholar, a fan of Wuthering Heights, no less. (Lawrence Osborne)
These are the references:
One white-haired and benevolent-looking person, for instance, asked Conway, after a little conversation, if he were interested in the Brontës. Conway said he was, to some extent, and the other replied: "You see, when I was a curate in the West Riding during the 'forties, I once visited Haworth and stayed at the Parsonage. Since coming here I've made a study of the whole Brontë problem--indeed, I'm writing a book on the subject. Perhaps you might care to go over it with me sometime?" (Chapter 9)

But this kind of thing was not for them all, nor for any of them always; there were many tideless channels in which they dived in mere waywardness, retrieving, like Briac, fragments of old tunes, or like the English ex-curate, a new theory about Wuthering Heights. (Chapter 10)
YoZone reviews Édith & Yann's Hurlevent (Volume 1) comic:
Cette collection Ex-libris est décidément pleine de (bonnes) surprises. Dirigée par Jean David Morvan et proposant des adaptations d’écrits célèbres, elle offre une palette large et diversifiée de styles.
Entre le réalisme de “Double Assassinat dans la rue Morgue”, le zoomorphisme des “Enfants du Capitaine Grant” et le superbe dessin stylisé de ce premier volume des “Hauts de Hurlevent”, il y a de quoi contenter tous les goûts. Pour ma part, j’aurais tendance à préférer le style des deux derniers au réalisme de l’adaptation de Poe, qui se limite trop pour moi à l’illustration pure du récit et n’y confère pas d’ambiance ni d’interprétation particulière.
Le point fort de cette revisite du roman d’Emily Brontë, c’est l’atmosphère singulière que les couleurs et les dessins d’Édith créent. Les dominantes vert-de-gris, les ciels chargés et les intérieurs sombres mettent en avant un décor de landes sauvages et reflètent le caractère ombrageux des protagonistes.
La couleur directe donne de l’ampleur aux paysages, le grain du papier et les coups de crayons leurs confèrent un charme particulier.
Le scénario met l’accent sur les personnages, l’un des composants primordiaux du roman. En effet, leur noirceur et leur emportement ont choqué plus d’un lecteur lors de sa parution en 1847.
On accroche très rapidement au récit que Yann a su résumer par des moments clefs. De fait, on saisit l’essentiel de la trame et l’on peut sans mal ressentir une certaine empathie pour les acteurs principaux de cette histoire.
La coupure entre les deux volumes arrivent au bon moment et on ne peut qu’attendre la suite, impatient de connaître le dénouement de cet enchevêtrement sentimental.
Voici donc un premier tome franchement accrocheur, que ce soit dans sa mise en image ou dans son adaptation scénaristique. Connaisseur ou non de l’œuvre originelle, le récit est accessible à tous et sait trouver un intérêt. Une bonne surprise. (Myriam Bouchet) (Google translation)
More Twilight-Wuthering Heights links in Málaga Hoy and Mega24 (Argentina) and Le Figaro (France).

More romance and Wuthering Heights in the Romance Novel Examiner, Magia e Romance talks about Wuthering Heights (in Portuguese), a Jane Eyre doll on My Byrd House, das_kanischem posts some pictures of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights book foldings.

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