I’m looking at you, Heathcliff

The Aquila Theatre production of Wuthering Heights comes to Fairfax, VA:

Actor Michael Ring has a special challenge in bringing Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” to life with the Aquila Theatre Company: He’s not only playing two roles, but also both genders.
Ring is playing the dual roles of Hindley Earnshaw and Isabella Linton in the production — a major challenge for him.
“To capture the emotions of a child at first and descending into adulthood is something that has a ton of challenges,” he said. “As well as playing Linton, who is a female character — that required a lot of research for me at least. I had to do quite a bit of research into the character and to portray a girl in that time. It was incredibly difficult.” (Tripp Laino in Fairfax Times)

Stage Whispers reviews another Wuthering Heights production, the Shake & Stir one in Brisbane, Australia:

Nick Skubij has pared down Emily Brontë’s dense Gothic novel to focus on the families and romantic relationships. Ross Balbuziente, with his smouldering Latin good looks, was born to play Heathcliff. In a moment of inspiration the company approached Jerry Connolly to play narrator Nellie Dean. He accepted, and becomes a trump card in this production. (Jay McKee)

The re-opening of Elizabeth Gaskell's house in Manchester in The Guardian:

Charlotte Brontë described it as “a large, cheerful, airy house, quite out of the Manchester smoke”. Now the home of Elizabeth Gaskell, one of the most important and best-loved Victorian novelists, is reopening on Sunday after a multi-million pound refurbishment.
In a painstaking and costly renovation, the Grade II* listed property, pictured right, on the outskirts of Manchester city centre has been brought back to life as it was in the mid-19th daughters. Modern day visitors can walk in the footsteps of Gaskell’s friends, who included Brontë, Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, Harriet Beecher Stowe and the conductor Charles Hallé. (...)
According to Allan, Gaskell’s biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë “was a very difficult thing to get right. She was writing it very soon after Charlotte had died. There was the threat of a libel suit and the whole of the first edition had to be completely withdrawn.” (Helen Nugent)

BBC News adds:

The famous orchestra conductor Charles Hallé gave piano lessons to Elizabeth's daughter Marianne in their drawing room.
Other visitors included the critic John Ruskin and the American author Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. Elizabeth also welcomed her cousins, the Wedgwood pottery manufacturers.
But Jane Eyre author Charlotte Brontë, uncomfortable in large gatherings, hid behind the Gaskells' curtains when their doorbell rang.
Dickens invited Gaskell to contribute to his magazine Household Words and addressed her "Dear Scheherazade", after the storyteller in Arabian Nights. (Rumeana Jahangir)

And The Guardian's Quiz is... well... Do you know who this is?

1. Which novelist wrote the first biography of Charlotte Brontë?

The Telegraph reviews the film Gone Girl by David Fincher:

Suburban noir might be the publishing buzz-word du jour but the genre is nothing new; Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca remains the definitive husband-with-a-secret novel, and that was published in 1938. Jean Rhys’s 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea is a forensic examination of the toxic marriage that overshadows Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and is a brilliant portrayal of a wife by turns misunderstood, neglected and abused until she becomes the madwoman in the attic, the ultimate enemy within. (Erin Kelly)

Debbie Taylor discusses the use of dialect in novels in The Guardian:

Hilary Mantel opted for "dialect lite" in the first two volumes of her Tudor trilogy, layering in vocabulary and syntax with delicate brushstrokes, "so the past just touches the reader on her shoulder as her eyes pass easily over the lines". Sarah Waters took a similar approach in her early historical novels, adding a subtle archaic flavour to the narrative and confining dialect to the dialogue. Indeed, this is a strategy most authors use: Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Andrea Levy all follow Charlotte Brontë's example, when she toned down the dialect in her sister Emily's Wuthering Heights to make it more acceptable to "southerners".

Also in The Guardian a review of the novel The Quick by Lauren Owen:

The first hundred or so pages of Lauren Owen's novel seem to be setting out her stall as a historical novelist, with nods to Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens and a rather vague sense of Victoriana, characterised by balls and grime and hats. (Jane Housham)

Screen Daily interviews the film director Ann Hui:

What is Xiao Hong’s [author of the novel The Golden Era, which Ann Hui has adapted in her latest film] significance to Chinese literature?
She would be somebody like Emily Brontë or Herman Melville – focused on the elemental forces of nature and very poetic. She only wrote three or four novels and the structure is very non-traditional. (Liz Shackleton)

In the Huffington Post Xaque Gruber interviews he Director of the Goethe Institut-Los Angeles, Fareed C. Majari:

XG: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have collectively won Oscar's Best Foreign Language category a total of seven times, and nominated 22 times. This year you have both Austria and Germany's entries in the category - any early predictions?
FCM: Hard to say. Beloved Sisters [Die geliebten Schwestern] certainly appeals to those members of the Academy who like period pieces like the many films based on novels by Jane Austen, Emily Brontë or Thackeray.

Tom Ricks makes a curious Brontë reference in an article on Foreign Policy:

In this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, James McPherson, author of my favorite book on the Civil War, describes his favorite history books. Together, this makes a great reading list for anyone interested in American history. That said, I am surprised he doesn’t like Gibbon. Maybe it is like Wuthering Heights—you just have to read it at a certain age.

Radio Times reviews the film Aventuras de Robinson Crusoe by Luis Buñuel:

Considering what director Luis Buñuel did with Wuthering Heights, this is an astonishingly restrained adaptation of Daniel Defoe's classic castaway tale. Gone is the surrealism one expects of Buñuel, and in its place comes a heartfelt optimism about the salvation of humanity. (David Parkinson)

The Toronto Star interviews the writer Nora Roberts and asks about her favourite books.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
It’s the grandmother of every Gothic novel. The characters: Rochester and Jane and the mad woman in the attic and the atmosphere at Thorndike Hall (sic) — all of it beautifully, beautifully written. I don’t even know how many times I’ve read it. And at the end, she’s back, it’s triumphant. (Deborah Dundas)

London Theatre News interviews the actor Robert Duncan:

You have performed in numerous stage productions. Can you choose two of your favourites and what did you enjoy most about them?
I have always enjoyed Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre. I played that at Theatr Clwyd. That was at the start of my acting career, and I have never forgotten it, as it was my first link with Bill Kenwright, as it was his production. (Neil Cheesman)ç

The Hindu reviews the novel A Town like Ours by Kavery Nambisan:

To reconcile that problem, writers set up a peculiar kind of narrator, the person steeped in the rough life who somehow has the vocabulary and wider perspective to tell the stories. It is the kind of construct we find in old fiction, like Nelly Dean from Wuthering Heights or the flamboyantly criminal Moll Flanders. Nowadays, it seems an unnecessarily elaborate way to get to the stories. Readers are primed to accept them without that explanatory frame. (Lathan Anantharaman) 

The Bellingham Herald reviews Juliet's Nurse by Lois Leveen:

I’ve always been fascinated with the work of writers who have wrested away the secondary creations of another author, adopted them as their own, and fleshed them out to become protagonists in their own stories. Myriad examples abound — among my favorites are Jean Rhys’s exploration of Jane Eyre’s nemesis in “Wide Sargasso Sea”[.] (Barbara Lloyd McMichael)

A couple of Heathcliff sightings. In a review of Dance of the Dark Heart by Julie Hearn in The Guardian:

Dark, moody characters can be very attractive, and few come much darker than Jack Orion, the anti-hero of Julie Hearn’s powerful new YA novel, a tale she has woven from two legends – that of a demon fiddler and of a wedding party that upsets the devil. There’s more than a touch of Heathcliff about Jack, although the brooding bad boy of the moors is a pussycat in comparison. Jack has good looks, loads of charm, talent – and a voice in his head prompting him to commit acts of extraordinary evil. (Tony Bradman)

Bustle talks about the HeForShe campaign. Beginning with the opposite trend:

So often in books and literary culture, we turn the lens toward bad men. It’s not an inconceivable tendency; after all, who doesn’t love to hate a good bad guy? There are meticulous villains, domineering fathers, and volatile, tempestuous lovers (I’m looking at you, Heathcliff) all throughout the pages of lit, contemporary and classic alike. (Adrienne Westenfeld)

La Gazette du Sorcier (France) interviews Matthew Lewis about his attachment to the Brontë biopic project. It seems that for the moment there are no news:

Qu’en est-il du projet The Brontë dans lequel il devait apparaître ?(GdS)
Il espère toujours faire partie du projet, mais il n’a malheureusement pas de nouvelles. Ce qui lui fait dire qu’on fait bien de lui rappeler, pour qu’il pense à en demander. (Translation)

Librópatas (Spain) lists writers' houses to visit in England:

Y puestos a peregrinar, nada mejor que los páramos. The Brontë Parsonage Museum abrió en una época tan temprana como los años 20 y es la casa en Haworth con su padre y el desdichado Branwell. Se puede visitar desde la cocina (en la que Emily estudiaba alemán) hasta las habitaciones de las hermanas o el estudio de su padre clérigo. Puede ser además la excusa perfecta para hacer una ruta por la Inglaterra de las Brontë. (Raquel C. Pico) (Translation)

The Brighouse Echo talks about German students who has visited among other places the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth; a German blog (LovelyBooks) and A Pugly Life review Wuthering Heights; Vonnie's Rading Corner and Lost Generation Reader participate in the Jane Eyre readalong organized by A Night’s Dream of Books and Babbling Books. Michelle Psaltakis reviews Jane Eyre.

The Anglophile Channel uploads a video where the costume designer Andrea Galer talks, among other things, of her work in Jane Eyre 2006. Folklings posts the Out in the Winding, Windy Moors series of pictures.

Read More

Brontë Studies. Volume 39. Issue 3

The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 39, Issue 3, September 2014) is already available online. We provide you with the table of contents and abstracts:

‘Felicitations to the Brontëites’: the 1895 Inaugural Volume of the Brontë Society’s Transactions and Other Publications
pp. 165–177 Author: Pike, Judith E.
Abstract:
The inaugural volume of the Brontë Society’s journal sheds light on the complex relationship the founders had with Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Life of Charlotte Brontë. While Gaskell played an integral role in the Brontës’ legacy, the founders took issue with her disparaging portrayal of Yorkshire, its inhabitants and her austere rendering of Charlotte. The article, ‘Haworth: Home of the Brontës’, acts as a centrepiece for the volume, creating a new composite image of the Brontë Country that invites the Victorian public to see England as not only the birthplace of Shakespeare and Wordsworth but also of the Brontës and to represent Yorkshire as alluring as the Lake District.

Jane Eyre: Jane’s Spiritual Coming of Age
pp. 178–186    Author:  Sexton, Kristi
Abstract:
No doubt Jane Eyre may be characterized as a romance with gothic elements within its pages, but it is also a coming of age story that begins with a young orphan girl and ends with a happily married woman. Other critics see Jane’s journey as a woman’s conflict against an unjust male-dominated world. Although these interpretations are credible, they do not take into consideration Jane’s spiritual condition; but from Gateshead to Thornfield, Jane’s spiritual awakening is foremost in the novel. Through her journey, Jane realizes that she alone must account for her spiritual condition. She no longer needs to rely on man’s authority for her relationship with God. Jane Eyre is novel of one woman’s spiritual pilgrimage.

Supplementary Annotations to Jane Eyre
pp. 187–190       Author: Stenning Edgecombe, Rodney
Abstract:
This article offers annotations to Jane Eyre designed to supplement those provided by Sally Shuttleworth, Stevie Davies and Richard Dunn, the respective Oxford, Penguin and Norton editors of the novel. It advances, inter alia, two Byron quotations relevant to the characterization of Rochester, and also suggests a possible source for Blanche Ingram’s ‘Corsair-song’.

The Presentation of Isabella in Wuthering Heights
pp. 191–201   Author:  Tytler, Graeme
Abstract:
Amid the attention they have bestowed on Isabella in Wuthering Heights over the years, a good many Brontë scholars have tended to regard her simply as a foolish young thing. Such a view of Isabella has doubtless been sustained by knowledge of the humiliations she is subjected to not only by Heathcliff and Catherine but also by some of the other characters portrayed in the novel. That all this, however, argues a somewhat narrow interpretation of Isabella’s presentation derives from our awareness of the development of her character and personality through, among other things, her ability to overcome her anguish as a neglected bride, to associate with her fellow residents at the Heights, and to live her life as a single mother. By way of Isabella, then, we are told a remarkable tale of a naive but fundamentally decent girl of privileged upbringing who eventually turns into a seemingly strong and independent woman.

Family Complexes and Dwelling Plight in Wuthering Heights
pp. 202–212  Author:  Wing-chi Ki, Magdalen
Abstract:
This essay argues that central to Wuthering Heights is the connection between troubled homes and unresolved family complexes — namely, the weaning, intrusion, and Oedipus complexes, leading to the rise of neuroses, psychosis and perversion. Men and women build different spaces in order to dwell, but they often create dwelling plights to perpetuate their ongoing problems. Old Earnshaw negates the paternal custom to construct a house of equity, and this directly prompts an insecure Hindley to establish a house of tyranny. To sideline paternal dominance, Catherine creates for herself different anti-oedipal spaces, only to be bound by a co-dependent love and a love of individuation, and to end up drifting madly in a liminal non-place. To deal with peer rivalry, abandonment rage, and castration threat, Heathcliff becomes a vengeful sadist bent on destroying happy places. Within this overall context, Emily Brontë intends that the new family should seek new ‘contrarian’ ways of thinking and dwelling.

Bringing Portraits Alive: Catherine Paula Han Interviews Andrea Galer, the Costume Designer for Jane Eyre (BBC, 2006)
pp. 213-224  Author:  Han, Catherine Paula
Abstract:
A prominent costume designer, Andrea Galer has contributed to several Brontë adaptations and Brontë-inspired works, most notably Jane Eyre (BBC, 2006). In this interview, she discusses the adaptation and her other work, relating her screen projects to her activism supporting contemporary craft and ethically traded fashion. She recounts her research and design process, offering insights that shed light on costume drama more generally. Her perspective elucidates the theoretical debates surrounding the genre’s authenticity and its representation of the past.

The Brontës in Turkey
pp. 225-231  Author:  Berg, Temma
Abstract:
The Brontës never went to Turkey — but an important conference entitled ‘The Brontë Sisters and their Work’ was held in Ankara in December 2013. Spurred on by the hospitality and intellectual excitement of the event and by the way other sites in Turkey reflected back on the three sisters and their work, I was motivated to write a short essay about the experience.

Mr Lockwood and Mr Latimer: Wuthering Heights and the Ghost of Redgauntlet
pp. 232-238  Author:  Emberson, Ian M.
Abstract:
This article stresses the paramount importance of Sir Walter Scott’s novels to the Brontë family. It goes on to consider the resemblances between the opening scenes of Scott’s Redgauntlet and of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, noting in particular the way in which the characters can be matched up with each other. Finally, it is argued that these opening scenes show a similar combination of humour and mystery.

Ian M. Emberson: a Personal Appreciation
pp. 239-241   Author:  Smith, K. E.

Reviews
pp. 242-248

Read More

A Red Velvet Coat from Jane Eyre 2006

At the Andrea Galer Fashion Store we can find some of her designs for Jane Eyre 2006:

Coat - Red Velvet

Andrea Galer’s collection is ethically produced and is designed to fit the female form flawlessly. Romantically styled timeless designs married with re-occurring themes through the decades to today’s styles and trends. The long red velvet coat completes the most sophisticated of looks.
It has been worn by Christina Cole in Jane Eyre.Stylish and classy
Created in our London based studio.
Modeled here by Tara Fitzgerald

Jane Eyre Tweed Jacket

The Jacket was worn by one of the Dent Twin in Jane Eyre and it beautifully pays homage to the essence of country living.
Available in Harris Tweed.
By appointment at our studio we provide the unique opportunity to choose the style, colour and fabric of your choice
Designed and created in our London based studio.

(Via National Post) 

Read More

Where the Metaphors Get Out of Hand

The London Evening Standard reviews the collective book Road Stories: New Writing Inspired by Exhibition Road, edited by Mary Morris:

In 1851, when she visited the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, Charlotte Brontë remarked that “its grandeur does not consist in one thing but in a unique assemblage of all things”.  (Frances Wilson)

Journalists should refrain themselves from using the Brontës as metaphore if they haven't read any book by them, because sometimes metaphors get out of hand. You know, metaphors are the devil's work. Austin Murphy writes in Sports Illustrated:

With bronze medalist Leonel Suarez producing a huge javelin throw -- his 76.94 meters was the best of the night -- Hardee knew he'd have to put the elbow to the test. With his elbow comprehensively wrapped and trussed as a virgin in a novel by one of the Brontë sisters, he uncorked the third-longest throw of the night, 66.65 meters, and then let loose with a manic celebration.

Dave Astor in The Huffington Post likes to read very contrasted novels among them:

Daphne du Maurier's 1951 My Cousin Rachel (a suspense tale about what Rachel might be up to) followed by Jean Rhys' 1966 Wide Sargasso Sea (which focuses on the "mad" wife of Rochester in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre). Actually, that last pair of books had a little more in common than the first three pairs.

The Washington Post recommends a visit to The Green (on the right) park in Charlotte, North Carolina:

The Green, a 1.5-acre (.6 hectares) downtown park at 435 S. Tryon St., is a literary-themed park with sculptures of giant books, pages and a walkway of sounds. Bright signs mark the intersections of author names, including “Emily” and “Brontë,” ‘’Herman” and “Melville,” and “Alice” and “Walker.”

Another Brontëite, the author Brenda Novak on USA Today's Happy Ever After:

My favorite historical is Jane Eyre. Until I found the shelf of classics at the school library when I was 8, I thought I didn't like to read. Who knew I just didn't care for Dick, Jane or even Spot? Jane Eyre captured my imagination like no other book and is still one of my all-time favorites. (Joyce Lamb)

And Sue Townsend in the Daily Express:

Jane Eyre
This is the first book I read through the night without dropping off to sleep. It was snowing outside, I was freezing cold and my fingers were frozen.
I finished the last chapter walking to school because I had to know how it ended.
It’s such a captivating story and retains your interest on every page.

On Laurel's Open Page, Deanna Sletten explains how:

I have many favorite books and authors. The very first book I fell in love with was Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, then Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

The author Erin Cashman writes on Letters Inside Out:

Four years later I went off to Bates College and majored in English. I wrote my Honors thesis on Hamlet. I fell in love with all different types of literature. I became a big fan of the Lake District poets; I read everything by the Brontë Sisters, Jane Austin (Sic) and George Elliot.

And Shauna Roberts on The Bunny's Review:

What was your favorite book when you were a child/teen?
Jane Eyre. It’s one of the very few books I’ve read more than once. I read it first as an odd, solitary child and found for the first time a heroine I could identify with. I read it next as a teenager and found it quite a different book. And when I read it as an adult, it was a different book yet, and at last I understood why Jane was attracted to Rochester.

The editors and author of Jane Eyre Laid Bare explain their views in the Birmingham Post:

“Whether that is taken to an extreme with someone being powerful over you is a different issue, but I do think falling in love and being out of control is part of a woman’s fantasy.”
Although Sinclair is braced for critics who consider it lazy and unoriginal to mess with a classic, she good-naturedly urges such people to “get over themselves”, and says she has created a “post-modern mash-up”.
“There were lots of different versions of Jane Eyre even in Brontë’s lifetime. This has been going on for ages, and people have been writing fan fiction for years,” she says. “Fifty Shades of Grey began life as Twilight fan fiction, after all.”
Sinclair’s publishers are happy to admit they are looking to capitalise on the current trend.
Wayne Brookes, editor of Jane Eyre Laid Bare, says: “It was vampires and conspiracy thrillers before erotica became the must-have genre.
“If the book-buying public have moved their attentions to erotic fiction, then as a publisher, part of our job is to give the public what they want to read.” (Diana Pilkington)

The Copenhagen Post reviews the film Albert Nobbs:

Despite the transgender subject matter, the approach to this period drama is so classical and the plot so plodding and didactic that it feels ill at ease in this era of post−postmodernist overhauls of the genre (think Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice or Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights). (Mark Walker)

The Khaleej Times (Pakistan) reviews Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips:

If only there were a middle path, a series of imaginative deviations such stories could take. Can’t the women be quirky — like Phoebe from Friends — or crazy/alluring — like Catherine from Wuthering Heights? (Enid Parker) 

El Informador (México) interviews the actress Leticia Huijara:

¿Qué mujeres admiras?—Me conmueven las mujeres del siglo XIX que escribieron sin tener derecho alguno. Virginia Wolf o las hermanas Brontë. (Dolores Tapia)

Easier Travel recommends the Jane Eyre film costumes exhibition at Haddon Hall:

Visitors can see three versions of the costumes worn by Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester, as well as a selection of other outfits and accessories in the three adaptations. The productions, including the 1995 film directed by Franco Zefferelli, the BBC 2006 mini-series starring Ruth Wilson and the latest 2011 film directed by Cary Fukunaga and starring Mia Wasikowska, all feature Haddon Hall as Thornfield Hall.
For the first time Jenny Beavan's designs for the 1995 film are on display alongside the 2011 film's costumes by Michael O'Conner and the TV Mini-series' costumes by John Bright and Andrea Galer. (...)
Janet said: "The exhibition and tour will be fascinating for people who like seeing how the costumes and hall link with the films. The costumes are just lovely to look at and are incredibly detailed."

Elliot's Reading continues reading Wuthering Heights and Ler é a minha praia (in Portuguese) posts about it; fuchsinkind, Tulipanowa Biblioteczka... (in Polish) and pretty providence reviews Jane Eyre; Cinematon, Les Découvertes de Dawn and Le Hibou (in French) reviews the 2011 film version; Bokgrottan (in Swedish) posts about Agnes Grey; chrs_vg posts several caps of Wuthering Heights 2011; Hereweknitagain talks about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall among other books.

Read More

Jane Eyre Costume Exhibition in Haddon Hall

Today, July 28 a new exhibition opens in Haddon Hall:

Jane Eyre Costume Exhibition

Featuring a selection of costumes from the three major adaptations of "Jane Eyre" filmed at Haddon Hall.

Haddon Hall has played the part of Thornfield Hall, home of the brooding Mr Rochester in no less than three adapataions of Charlotte Brontë's classic novel Jane Eyre.

To celebrate this amazing film location hat trick, we are pleased to be able to present to you the costumes from all three versions, which will be on display throughout the house, during normal opening hours.

Normal admission rates apply for this not to be missed opportunity.

Matlock Mercury has more information:

Visitors will be able to see three versions of the costumes worn by Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester, as well as a selection of other outfits and accessories in the three adaptations.
The productions, including the 1995 film directed by Franco Zefferelli, the BBC 2006 mini-series starring Ruth Wilson and the latest 2011 film directed by Cary Fukunaga and starring Mia Wasikowska, all feature Haddon Hall as Thornfield Hall.
For the first time Jenny Beavan’s designs for the 1995 film will be on display alongside the 2011 film’s costumes by Michael O’Conner and the TV mini-series’ costumes by John Bright and Andrea Galer.

Read More

Viva Brontë

1. Our Canadian readers will be happy to know that VIVA will devote this month of November to Brontë and Austen:

AUSTEN AND BRONTË: POETRY AND PROSE MOVIE EVENT
It’s a fiction face off this month with VIVA’s Austen and Bronte: Poetry and Prose movie event, giving viewers screenings of themed films every Sunday throughout November.

Wuthering Heights (1992) premieres Sunday, November 1 at 6:30 p.m.
Pride and Prejudice (2005) airs Sunday, November 1 at 9 p.m.
Jane Eyre (1997) airs Sunday, November 8 at 6:30 p.m.
Emma (1997) airs Sunday, November 8 at 9 p.m.
Wuthering Heights: Part 1 (2008) premieres Sunday, November 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Northanger Abbey (2006) premieres Sunday, November 15 at 9 p.m.
Wuthering Heights: Part 2 (2008) premieres Sunday, November 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Sense and Sensibility (1995) airs Sunday, November 22 at 9 p.m.
Lost in Austen: Part 1 (2008) airs Sunday, November 29 at 7 p.m.
Lost in Austen: Part 2 (2008) airs Sunday, November 29 at 8 p.m.
Lost in Austen: Part 3 (2008) airs Sunday, November 29 at 9 p.m.
Lost in Austen: Part 4 (2008) airs Sunday, November 29 at 10 p.m.

All times ET.

2. And today, November 1, is the closing day for the Andrea Galer: The Craft Of The Costume Designer exhibition at Fenton House.

From Oct 17, Sat & Sun 11am-5pm, Wed-Fri 2pm-5pm, ends Nov 1
Film and television production costumes, from shows including Jane Eyre 2006, Bleak House and Miss Austen Regrets.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights

Read More

"Jane Eyre is the ultimate poisoned chalice"

Do you remember Andrea Galer's (the costume designer of Jane Eyre 2006) The Power of Hands initiative? The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) devotes an interesting article to the project:

Andrea established the Power of Hands Foundation (POHF) to help the women survive and show people their wonderful skill while helping them earn fair prices for their work. In 2008 Power of Hands became a UK registered charity. It also provides marketing expertise and operational support to help the women to create craft products of a type and quality which can help provide them with a sustainable future, while reviving the craft.
At present the POHF has established a workshop in the Galle Fort that provides a clean and safe environment where seven lace makers make lace on a full-time basis. This is also the base for a co-operative society of over eighty lace makers who produce lace in their own homes and visit the workshop regularly to be paid and collect new orders. The foundation is currently being managed by Anusha Liyanage, who has a passion for the craft.
Parallel to the Power of Hands Foundation, Power of Hands Limited has also been established to create a market for the lace in the UK, with the development of ethical fair trade which is the main focus of the project.
“These women have to earn fair trade prices for their work or they have to stop,” emphasises Andrea. Initially Power of Hands Limited targeted costume designers, fashion designers and theatres resulting in Galle lace appearing in productions at the Royal Opera House and on costumes of award winning British films.
Andrea has used Beeralu lace in her costumes for award winning film such as Persuasion, Jane Eyre and Miss Austen Regrets and organized the production of some of the lace and tatting for the major Oscar winning film Golden Age by costume designer Alexandra Byrne.
The POHF lends these lace-makers a much needed hand, but even the foundation is now bringing in fewer orders. Right now they have no orders to give the women, but hopefully the situation will improve soon. As Andrea sees it, “A great deal more needs to be done in design and marketing to hit the global market and provide the women with a safe future”.
POHF also hopes to set up three new craft workshops and training centres, together with a co-operative of at least 100 women for each, in different locations throughout southern Sri Lanka. They seek assistance and support of individuals and organizations willing to lend a hand to make the lives of the craft makers a little easier.
“Power of Hands is not about buying and selling lace,” says Andrea, “but about how the women can utilize their skills.” For more information: www.powerofhandsfoundation.org (Aysha Asseef)

Australian Stage Online presents the new show of the burlesque artist Imogen Kelly, The Undressing Room at the Factory Theatre (Marrickville, Australia):

In a show with a killer soundtrack that moves from the Muppet’s “Mahna Mahna” into “Moon River” and Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” she transforms her body into an expressive canvas through which hilarious narratives take shape. (Helen Barry)

English newspapers seem particularly happy finding Heathcliff lookalikes among their local VIPs. The latest addition is Martin Johnson, England's rugby team manager:

So much for the England manager’s winning theory. Johnson’s favoured mode of dress is the dark, Gordon Brown overcoat and it says much about the man. Both Johnson and Brown are brooding presences in the sense that Heathcliff was, but not many lights seem to be on inside. (Mark Reason in The Telegraph)

The New Zealand Herald reviews the novelette by You're Not a Man Until You've Had a Man (sic) by Bernard Cummings. The reviewer thinks that Charlotte Brontë can be an influence:

Based loosely on a true story and written very much in the style of Charlotte Bronte, the story tells of five intersecting love triangles made up of love-deprived prisoners and overweight but under-sexed guards. (That Guy)

Britmovie Forum asks Zelah Clarke (Jane Eyre in the 1983 BBC miniseries) what happened to her promising career:

Zelah Clarke, 29, starred in the 1983 BBC series opposite Timothy Dalton. He went on to become James Bond - and Zelah, now 55, disappeared without trace. She is married to Francis Ash, an executive BBC producer, and has a 14 year old daughter, Lamorna. They live in West London. She says: Jane Eyre is the ultimate poisoned chalice. Everyone remembers the Mr. Rochesters but no one recalls the Janes. I hoped the role might be a springboard - I got great reviews - but I never thought it would force me to retire.
I had trained as a ballet dancer with Jenny Agutter and Fiona Fullerton, but I discovered I enjoyed acting more. Before Jane Eyre, I had done lots of TV costume dramas, but no lead roles. My first TV role was in the first episode of "Poldark". I spoke the first line - the only one I had! I had also been in the West End musicals, including "Godspell" with Jeremy Irons, and lots of theatre.
I was thrilled when I got the part of Jane.
Tim Dalton was not a superstar then - in fact, I had more TV experience. Tim was lovely - extremely sexy and great fun. He even brought his fishing rod when we filmed in Derbyshire. He wasn't the type to lose his temper, but he got close to it during our marriage scene. The poor actor who rushed in to protest kept fluffing his line. After the seventh take, Tim became cross and started squeezing my hand harder and harder. Eventually, the actor got it right - and Tim fluffed his line. I just fell on the floor laughing.
It was depressing when things suddenly stopped after "Jane Eyre", especially as I couldn't work out why. But then I got married and my life changed. There is something rather undignified about old actors scraping around for work. I would never go back into the theatre. It ruins your social life and breaks up families. When I was younger, it was exciting. I didn't mind going on the road, but not now. I wouldn't mind a part in a TV comedy - I have a secret desire to dress up like Suzi Quatro and sing rock'n'roll - but I am happy being out of it all. If I had not done "Jane Eyre" perhaps I would not have felt I had proved myself. But I did and I have. I saw the series again on video several years ago. It seemed curiously old-fashioned but I was pleased with my performance.
I still keep an agent for voice work and do some things for radio, which fits in well with taking care of my daughter. During my resting periods I became really interested in art. I was in the middle of a course when I fell pregnant, so perhaps I didn't have such a desire to be a famous actress after all. (Arthur Askey)

Berliner Lesezeichen reviews Jane Eyre (in German) (the one with the sheep cover, by the way), Andrewjshields posts a fragment of Anne Carson's The Glass Essay, Una chica chiflada reviews briefly Jennifer Vandever's The Brontë Project, Happy Hour... Somewhere is going to read Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. Movie Moron includes Wuthering Heights 1939 in their Top 20 Romance Movies. Book:Blog discusses Jane Eyre, Passion for Cinema devotes a post to Madhubala, who was a sort of Jane Eyre (Kamal in the film) in the Bollywood 1952 version Sangdil. Abigail709b has uploaded several pictures of Victorian costumes in Brontë country's snowy landscapes. Finally, Eline Marie Renee's Blog has read and loved Wuthering Heights.

EDIT:
The Brontë Parsonage Blog has just posted a very interesting report of the Genius exhibition and the official opening (last Friday, February 13). Richard Wilcocks says:

The Genius exhibition is very impressive, a great improvement on what was there before, and the newly-uncovered window makes a significant difference. There are brief quotes on the walls, displays at appropriate eye-levels, intelligent selection and labelling, increased colour and a sense of airiness. There is also a section for younger children, who are invited to lift little blue lids to see illustrations of what it was like in the mid-nineteenth century. (...)
Bonnie Greer was the guest at the official opening on Friday evening. She said all the right things, wonderfully, after an introduction from Director Andrew McCarthy. She was genuinely overwhelmed by simply standing inside the Parsonage, the place where so much of global literary significance had happened. She mentioned the influence of Patrick, the loving and unusually liberal paterfamilias who had allowed his daughters to read and write so much, and the continuing power of the Sisters: “I read Wuthering Heights at a young age, and if Emily Brontë can have such an effect on a little black girl in Chicago, she can have a big effect on anyone.” (Read more)

Categories: Books, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights

Read More

More nominations and wind chimes

More nominations for Jane Eyre 2006. A few days ago, the producers nominated Jane Eyre and today, it's the Costume Designers Guild's turn:

Noms for the 10th annual Costume Designers Guild Awards were unveiled Wednesday in seven film and TV categories. (...)
Nominations for a miniseries or made-for-television movie went to
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,"
"Jane Eyre" and
"The Starter Wife." (Libby McCarthy in Variety)

The Costume Designers Guild Event will be held on Tuesday February 19th, 2008, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Congratulations to Andrea Galer, a good friend of BrontëBlog, and her team.

On the blogosphere: The Joy of Great Britain posts some Haworth pictures. Seth Eye talks about Jane Eyre 2006 in Italian. Tales of the Nose-Pierce Knitted is not so thrilled after reading Villette. On the other hand, Confessions from an Indiscrinate Book Lover has liked Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey. Inamorada publishes a profile of Emily Brontë in Russian. C.S.E. Cooney posts a scene from a promising Brontë play including wind chimes. Bookstove publishes the following essay:

Jane Eyre: A Perspective by Misplaced Misfit
An essay concerning the personal journeys of both Jane and Mr. Rochester that culminates in both of them discovering what they want and need in each other.

Finally, Is there no sin in it? quotes one of the best deconstructivist (or reconstructivist or whatever) Wuthering Heights comments that we have read:

Wuthering Heights had some relatable characters and some crazy ones, and together, they made for a pretty good book, which, although it was way outside the box in some places, was pretty straightforward.

Check the post if you want to stop your head spinning.

Categories: Agnes Grey, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Villette, Wuthering Heights

Read More

The Brontës hit the red carpet

According to icWales, poet Zoë Brigley will prepare a new Brontë-inspired book after the release of her new book The Secret:

Her next planned project also has a female friendly theme.
“I’d like my next book to be about the Bronte sisters. It’s not formulated yet but I want to write a series of poems working into who they are and the stereotypes surrounding them. I think it will be a real challenge.” (Gemma Roberts)

It sounds like a very interesting project which we hope will turn out great.

Last week Andrea Galer won an Emmy for her Jane Eyre costumes. People Magazine asked her to do the following afterwards:

Four Emmy-nominated costume designers whipped up Emmy looks for their lead characters — just in case they could step through the tube and hit the red carpet.You can see Andrea Galer's beautiful sketch on the left. And here's more information on it:

Costume Designer: Andrea Galer (winner of this year’s Emmy for best costume design)

The two-time Emmy award winner, Andrea Galer, sketched a dress for noted lead Jane Eyre, played by Ruth Wilson, infused with lace, bias cuts, and a deep blood red. “It is central that I link my film work to the present day,” says Galer, who specializes in 19th century costuming. “My work leads you to consider the aims of the writer, Charlotte Bronte, and her passion for Jane Eyre.” Making room for another golden statue, Galer is “delighted to have picked up this award. I am proud.”(Image courtesy of Andrea Galer. Source.)

Don't forget the rest of the Emmy Awards will take place tonight. Fingers crossed Jane Eyre 2006 will win the awards for the two other categories it's nominated for (Direction and Writing)!

On another news, the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch reviews Valerie Martin's Trespass and Wuthering Heights, as usual, is mentioned

Why is Chloe [the main character] so preoccupied with the madness and violence in "Wuthering Heights," the book she is illustrating? (Shirley K. Murray)

Labingi posts about Wuthering Heights as slash and Monday Morning publishes a couple of Brontë-related posts: one on visiting Haworth and the Brontë Parsonage Museum and another one on Haddon Hall, Thornfield Hall in both Zeffirelli's Jane Eyre and Jane Eyre 2006.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Poetry

Read More

Three Emmys for Jane

The Emmy Awards for all things 'creative' (Creative Arts Emmy Awards) took place yesterday. Jane Eyre 2006 was nominated to 7 categories in this area. And the good news is they won 3 of them!

Art Direction for a Miniseries or Movie: "Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre)," PBS.
Clare Andrade, Set Decorator
Grenville Horner, Production Designer
Patrick Rolfe, Art Director

Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special: "Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre): Part 1," PBS.
Sally Crees, Assistant Costume Designer
Andrea Galer, Costume Designer

Hairstyling for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special: "Jane Eyre," PBS.
Fay De Bremaeker , Key Hairstylist
Anne Oldham, Department Head Hairstylist

We would like to congratulate one and all of the winners, but especially Andrea Galer who last year - before Jane Eyre was released - kindly talked to us.

Anne Oldham won the BAFTA for make-up and hairstyle as well.

The awards that haven't gone to Jane Eyre are: Casting, Cinematography, Single-camera Picture Editing and Sound Mixing.

We will find out about the rest of the nominations (Direction and Writing )when the rest of the Emmys take place on September 16. So far, so good!

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV

Read More

Jane Eyre in Fenton House

A new chance to see Andrea Galer's costumes for Jane Eyre 2006 opens today in Fenton House, London. Andrea Galer has been nominated recently for an Emmy for Jane Eyre:

Event	:	Costume exhibition
Venue	:	Fenton House (in London)
Date(s)	:	Wednesday 1 August to Sunday 28 October 2007
Description	:	Costumes from the TV dramas Jane Eyre by designer Andrea Galer
Time(s)	:	Wed, Thur, Fri 2-5pm, Sat, Sun 11am-5pm
Price(s)	:	Normal admission charges apply.
Contact	:	Property 020 7435 3471 fentonhouse@nationaltrust.org.uk

Apparently, there is also a chance to see some of those costumes in Los Angeles:

2nd Annual Art of Outstanding Television Costume Design Exhibition

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the FIDM Museum & Galleries jointly present the exhibition, showcasing a retrospective of television's most memorable costume designs from the past and present. Particularly, the exhibition will salute the work of this year's Emmy®-nominated costume designers and costume supervisors.

From July 31 through September 29, 2007

Viewing times for the free exhibition are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00am until 4:00pm. The FIDM Museum & Galleries will be closed Labor Day Weekend (September 1 through 3, 2007).

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV

Read More

Jane Eyre 2006 Nominated for Nine Emmys

Jane Eyre 2006 has been nominated for 9 Primetime Emmy Awards, including best direction and best writing (but it's not nominated for best miniseries). Regrettably, no actors have been nominated. This is the list of Jane Eyre nominations:

Outstanding Art Direction For A Miniseries, Or Movie
Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre) • PBS • A BBC/WGBH Boston Co-Production
Clare Andrade, Set Decorator
Grenville Horner, Production Designer
Patrick Rolfe, Art Director

Outstanding Casting For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special
Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre) • PBS • A BBC/WGBH Boston Co-Production
Di Carling, Casting Director

Outstanding Cinematography For A Miniseries Or Movie
Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre) • Part 1 • PBS • A BBC/WGBH Boston Co-Production
Mike Eley, Director of Photography

Outstanding Costumes For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special
Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre) • Part 1 • PBS • A BBC/WGBH Boston Co-Production
Sally Crees, Assistant Costume Designer
Andrea Galer, Costume Designer

Outstanding Directing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Dramatic Special
Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre) • PBS • A BBC/WGBH Boston Co-Production
Susanna White, Director

Outstanding Hairstyling For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Special
Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre) • PBS • A BBC/WGBH Boston Co-Production
Fay De Bremaeker , Key Hairstylist
Anne Oldham, Department Head Hairstylist

Outstanding Single-camera Picture Editing For A Miniseries Or A Movie
Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre) • Part 1 • PBS • A BBC/WGBH Boston Co-Production
Jason Krasucki, Editor

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Miniseries Or A Movie
Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre) • Part 1 • PBS • A BBC/WGBH Boston Co-Production
Stuart Hilliker, Re-recording Mixer
Richard Manton, Production Sound Mixer

Outstanding Writing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Dramatic Special
Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre) • Parts 1 & 2 • PBS • A BBC/WGBH Boston Co-Production
Sandy Welch, Adapted by

The winners will be known next September 16.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV

Read More

Brontë books auctions

The Brontë Parsonage Blog begins what we hope will be a series of posts covering the recent June Weekend of the Brontë Society. The first post concerns the auction of Brontë books (with the second edicition of Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë) and Victoria Glendinning's lecture "Writers and their Houses- Why Haworth is Special"

All of the Brontë-related volumes came from the library of the late Arthur D Walker, all of them had his label (with a catalogue reference) on the inside cover, and all the money raised went to the Brontë Society. Each person present was issued with a laminated piece of paper with a number on it, to be raised when a bid was made. (...)
Earlier in the day I had listened to a lecture on writer's homes by Victoria Glendinning (pictured below) - brilliantly entertaining, with insights into her working methods. It is absolutely necessary for a biographer to travel, to soak up atmospheres and appreciate ambiances, to walk slowly around houses, to poke around in garden sheds. (Read more) (Richard Wilcocks)

This review of Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee quotes a Brontë reference in the novel:

Impulse spending on designer clothes, extravagant gifts and a $2,000 first American edition of "Jane Eyre" she [Casey Han, the protagonist] buys out of pity for an aging antiquarian bookseller, leave her "in a perennial state of buyer's remorse." (Heller McAlpin in San Francisco Chronicle)

It's no surprise, because Min Jin Lee happens to be a Brontëite (or at least, a Jane Eyre fan) as her myspace page suggests.

More things. Liz from Noise from the Attic is visiting Haworth and froodnet visits Derbyshire and includes pictures of Andrea Galer's exhibition of Jane Eyre costumes in Haddon Hall.

Categories: Books, Brontë Society, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References

Read More

Costumes and clampers

The Yorkshire Post publishes again about the current exhibition of Andrea Galer's costumes for Jane Eyre 2006 in Haddon Hall (Thornfield Hall in that adaptation):

Picture: Visitors admire some of the silk evening dresses which are on show at Haddon Hall (Chris Lawton).

The corset that caused actress Ruth Wilson so much pain during the making of a BBC production of Jane Eyre has gone on display at the Derbyshire mansion where the classic was filmed.
The tiny 15-inch waist corset, which left the 24-year-old actress with rashes and skin burn, is one of a number of costumes used in the televised adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's famous novel to be exhibited at Haddon Hall.
Miss Wilson, who stared as the orphan governess in the four-part serial, spent 13 weeks on set, filming at the hall. As downtrodden Jane, she spends a lot of her time wearing unflattering cotton smocks, plain, high-neck dresses and full-length skirts.
But underneath each costume she had to wear a restrictive whalebone corset, tailored to give her a traditional Victorian hourglass figure.
Eight costumes are on display throughout the hall including the ill-fated wedding dress, which was made with three detachable skirts and had to be fireproofed to protect the stunt lady while she ran down the corridor in the blazing costume.
A spokesman for the exhibition said: "The end result is that the top on this particular dress is now rather stiff but it was agreed that it would be better to display the original rather than a copy."
There is also Jane's grey governess dress, made from linen and silk, and two costumes worn by Toby Stephens who played Mr Rochester. The costumes were created by award-winning designer Andrea Galer.
The exhibition will run at Haddon Hall until Saturday June 9. (Anna Smith)

From Haddon Hall to Haworth. Several newspapers report about Haworth's rogue clampers:

A car clamper whose intimidatory tactics were said to be driving visitors away from Brontë country narrowly escaped an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) yesterday after he handed in his official badge voluntarily. (...) After the hearing Imelda Marsden, 61, a member of the Brontë Society, said: “These clampers are driving visitors away from Haworth. Even the Prime Minister of New Zealand has been clamped here.” (Russell Jenkins in The Times)

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Haworth, In the News, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV

Read More

Jane Eyre 2006 costumes on display at Haddon Hall

Bakewell Today carries an article on Haddon Hall's current exhibition: the costumes Andrea Galer designed for the most recent adaptation of Jane Eyre. The exhibition opened last Friday May 11 and will run until June 9.

Haddon Hall is currently home to an exciting collection of costumes from last year's BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre filmed in the area.
Eight outfits are on display throughout the hall placed in rooms where they would be most appropriate.
In the banqueting hall Jane's governess dress takes pride of place next to Rochester's everyday outfit.
Jane's ill fated silk chiffon and lace wedding dress is in the great chamber while other sumptuous outfits can be found dotted around.
Designer Angela [sic] Galer said: "The important thing is the script, I look for what will fire me up.
"When you meet the actors you get a better idea of what to do. The actress who played Blanche was very blonde and suited light colours, while Lady Ingram suits darker, more dramatic colours."
Angela [sic] made three different skirts for the wedding dress which is consumed by fire in one dramatic scene.
She said: "Budgets do not really allow for doubles of all the costumes which can be a risky strategy.
"I made three detachable skirts for the wedding dress. In the scene where Bertha set fire to it, one of them was a metre longer.
"The top had to be fireproofed to protect the stunt woman as well and the top of the dress is rather hard now."
Angela said that the costumes had an effect on the actors both physically and mentally.
She said: "As soon as you put on a corset you are forced walk differently, your stance alters.
"Actors behave differently, their deport changes, everything alters. No one dresses up any more, it changes people.
"This particular production was very exciting and the script was really brilliant. It was a particular treat to do, it was a really special thing to do." (Colleen Marples)

Pity the journalist kept calling Andrea Angela, though. But it looks like a fabulous exhibition, especially for the many fans of the series.

Andrea Galer was very kind to BrontëBlog in the past and we would like to wish her all the best once again, especially after the recent break-in at her studio. If you like her work - as we do - we also suggest you take a trip to Bath where her costumes for the latest adaptation of Persuasion are on display at the Jane Austen Centre.

(Picture Source - we are sure many will regret that Toby Stephens is not inside those clothes ;) )

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, In the News, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV

Read More

Bats and thieves

We have posted several times about Andrea Galer's initiative Power of Hands (check these old posts for background information). We read in Hampstead & Highgate Express extremely disturbing and sad news:

Andrea Galer, who famously tailored Richard E Grant's overcoat for the film Withnail and I, has lost months of work and thousands of pounds following the break-in at her studio in Haverstock Hill.
Burglars entered on Friday night and made off with unique samples due to be marketed to leading fashion stores and sold to aid Sri Lankan survivors of the 2004 tsunami.
"Every single item in the collection has gone, about 20 pieces of clothing," said Ms Galer, who set up the Power of Hands Foundation to help Sri Lankan lace makers.
"It constitutes everything I have been working on for the past four months. I have financed this entire project by myself and built it up over two years.
"The clothes were just getting ready to be presented to the big fashion stores.
"Now the whole collection is lost. This project was designed to save lives. It makes me very sad."
Ms Galer's clothes have graced the silver screen for productions including Jane Eyre, Mansfield Park, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Spooks.
Having started out her career 30 years ago in a shop in England's Lane, she has become a leading designer highly sought-after by film and television directors.
As well as designing for the big screen, she is also passionate about helping the traditional Sri Lankan lace makers rebuild their lives following the tsunami disaster.
"I am the only person in the world who is helping this group of people," she added.
"The Power of Hands Foundation is a huge project, and these were the first samples aimed at helping the lace makers rebuild their lives.
"The whole collection has been taken by someone who either doesn't know what they've got their hands on or who is deliberately trying to sabotage the project.
"It looks like a professional job. The door wasn't forced open but may have been opened with a special key." (...)
"All the ladies' items were made from Sri Lankan silk. No arrests have been made at this stage and enquiries are continuing."
If you have information which might help the police, call 020-7404 1212. (Ed Thomas)

We know how much this project meant for Andrea Galer since we interviewed her some months ago. We are deeply sorry for her.

The Yorkshire Evening Post talks about bats surrounding Brookroyd, Ellen Nussey's home:

PLANS to build 13 houses on a plot overlooked by an historic house with Bronte connections could be foiled... by bats!
The little critters have been spotted – allegedly – in the area around Brookroyd House at Birstall, near Batley, the former home of Ellen Nussey, one of Charlotte Bronte's close friends.
A report to the council states: "Development shall not commence until a bat survey has been undertaken." (...)
Brookroyd House has just been sold – the property has a lounge, dining room, cellar and gardens to three sides, detached garage and vacant possession, and was on the market a year ago for £360,000.
Brookroyd House was built in 1780 and is the former home of Charlotte's best friend Ellen Nussey, who is buried in the grounds of nearby St Peter's Church. It has original Georgian floors and fireplaces.
Charlotte was a regular visitor and put the finishing touches to Jane Eyre at the house. (Neil Hudson)

Categories: Brontëana, In the News

Read More

My Mother's Wedding Dress - a review

Justine Picardie generously sent to BrontëBlog a copy of her book My Mother's Wedding Dress, which includes a chapter called 'Charlotte Brontë's Ring'. Justine Picardie is currently working in her book Daphne, scheduled for May 2008.

The complete title of this book is My Mother's Wedding Dress: The Life and Afterlife of Clothes. As you can see at first sight this book has nothing to do with the Brontës. A connection can be found through Charlotte's remaining dresses and complements and other Brontë family items of clothing. That wouldn't be too far fetched. The book, however, is not just about clothes in themselves, but about the events and people they evoke. It's that connection that Justine Picardie uses to write this unique book. Clothes evoke family, friends, writers, books, arts, stories, tales, journeys and, of course, fashion designers and trends.

The premise of the book is very original and varied. What starts as a family memoir threaded together by clothes, develops into much more than that. Brontë mentions are not only confined to the chapter called 'Charlotte Brontë's Ring' but appear everywhere throughout the book, showing Justine Picardie to be the Brontëite that we know her to be. It hardly seems possible that Emily Brontë, known to have said, 'I wish to be as God made me' when her dressing style was scorned at by other, more fashionable, pupils in Brussels features in the same chapter as Karl Lagerfeld. But Justine Picardie makes it not just possible but coherent too.

The Brontë-mentions are on all kinds of subjects and for all types of occasions. Justine Picardie is very familiar with the Brontë story. This is not a book where the Brontës have been made to fit in, rather the opposite. The Brontës drift coherently into Justine Picardie's fabulous gift for story-tealling, inextricably woven into the fabric (to borrow one of the many metaphors aptly used by Ms. Picardie).

Justine Picardie explores connections and themes to their very end. Be it a ring or feather, be it a dress or a colour, she picks at the knot until it finally gives way to a fascinating subject. Said subject is then illustrated by quotations and anecdotes springing from family letters, poems by Emily Dickinson, short stories by Charles Dickens, Gothic settings by Daphne du Maurier or conversations with her former Vogue colleagues, to name just a few.

In 'Scarlet Women' Justine Picardie reflects about the colour red in narratives and looks into Jane Eyre at length. Jane, Bertha, the fire, the red room are all carefully examined in their own context as well as that of fairy tales for instance, leaving readers with questions they might have never even considered but which are suddenly there, unavoidable. My Mother's Wedding Dress was released about a year before Jane Eyre 2006 was broadcast and we know it was Sandy Welch who came up with the idea of Bertha's red scarf and Andrea Galer who made it possible, but Justine Picardie could have come up with the same thing, and we are pretty sure that she must have liked the resource in the series.

And so we get to what we initially thought would be the only Brontë-related chapter in the book. 'Charlotte Brontë's Ring' was a family heirloom that was sadly stolen in a burglary. Justine Picardie, after a conversation with her mother, decided to try to find out how a ring which had supposedly belonged to Charlotte Brontë had ended up in her family. Thanks to the ring, she takes us in a journey through a fascinating piece of family history. Justine Picardie is descended from a, now obscure but not so in her own time, Victorian writer and lecturer called Clara Lucas Balfour. Her journey takes her into Clara Lucas Balfour's carefully kept archives as well as into the Brontë Parsonage Museum, library and storeroom, with no other than Juliet Barker as her guide. Everything in the book comes together when Justine Picardie pauses to read a newly-discovered, incomplete letter written by Charlotte Brontë to an unknown recipient, possibly Mrs Gaskell. BrontëBlog has long cherished this letter and found it extremely easy to relate to what Justine Picardie was feeling, especially after having read the rest of the book.

So did the now-lost family heirloom actually belong to Charlotte Brontë? You have to read the book to find out. We can guarantee that you will love it. Reading this wonderful book is like meeting up with an old friend for a cup of tea while she tells you about her extremely moving and fascinating family history, about her worries and her favourite things, about books and childhood, about fashion and trends, about secrets and discoveries. In short, about everything in life, with the Brontës cropping up in the most unexpected places. By the time you turn the last page you will have been subtly advised on how to dress better and you will feel that glowing feeling you have when you say goodbye to a dear friend after an unforgettable evening.

Categories: Books, Review

Read More

Nearly everything has to do with Jane Eyre

Thanks to this post by The Bookish Kind we are redirected to a youtube video where we can see the behind the scenes of the Radio Times photoshoot of Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens as Jane and Rochester. Lovely, isn't it?

Like Tears in Rain reviews (in Spanish) the film Firelight, which bears a passing resemblance to Jane Eyre. Andrea Galer was in charge of the costume designs, just like she was in Jane Eyre 2006. And BrontëBlog actually asked her about these two projects when we interviewed her last August.

Talking about passing resemblances to Jane Eyre, Trashionista talks about Emily Maguire's debut novel, Taming the Beast, and has this to say about it:

There were parallels drawn with Jane Eyre which, though slightly hard to get a grip on initially, gave the book an interesting focus on unconventional heroines, and a feminist slant. (Luisa Plaja)

And now for the nearly daily dose of Jane Eyre icons. Courtesy this time of waiting4morning.

On another note, the Buffalo News, includes Wuthering Heights in an article entitled The Beauty in the Beast:

One of the greatest love stories ever written is Emily Bronte's gothic romance, "Wuthering Heights." Bronte's immortal Heathcliff, the man who loved his wild Cathy in life and death, has been canonized by hopeless romantics (including myself) as a handsome, brooding hero who was sorely mistreated in his life.
If we look honestly at Heathcliff, he's actually a nasty guy. His vile actions, albeit in the name of love, are beastly. The fact that he could only find peace and love in the afterlife speaks to the ugliness in his soul. Bronte clearly saw the demon in him, describing his eyes as "the clouded windows of hell."
This story was also filmed many times. Heathcliff as beast, however, was best personified with a wild and feral quality by Timothy Dalton in a 1970 film (30 years before he played 007) and with a malicious streak by Ralph Fiennes in 1992. Both men were able to portray the dual nature of Heathcliff - the romantic icon and wicked, scorned lover. (Toni Ruberto)

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Websites, Wuthering Heights

Read More