by Carolyn Burns Bass. Illustrated by Colleen Deignan. Cover artist: Nicole M. SantiagoRiver Blue PressISBN: 9781681570884The Brontë Sisters grew up on the moors of England, running through the open landscape and filling it with people and stories from their imaginations. The three Victorian Era authors gave rise to a new wave of female authors by publishing their popular books first under male pseudonyms, then using their real names when their books became successes.The three sisters kept each other company and formed a writing troupe that would create some of the most influential and memorable works of their time. Poems like ‘No Coward Soul is Mine’ by Emily, novels like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey by Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, respectively.Follow along in the footsteps of the Brontë family, including home life, life upon the moors, schooling, romance, and publishing success.“I’ve been a fan of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre for almost half a century, and a fan of the books by her sisters Emily and Anne for almost as long. But until reading All About the Brontë Sisters by Carolyn Burns Bass, I never knew so many fascinating details about their lives. This is a great intro to turn young readers into fans but also a great companion for young readers who are already fans. And the illustrations by Colleen Deignan really bring the story to life. Highly recommended.” ~ Lauren Baratz-Logsted, author of I Love You, Michael Collins and The Sisters 8 series
Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëAlso in The Guardian a reminder of the upcoming Polly Teale's Brontë revival by Shared Experience which premieres next week in Oxford:
Jane supernaturally hears Rochester's voice calling her back to Thornfield. She returns to find her former "master" blinded in the fire that has destroyed his house and killed the woman who started it, his maddened wife Bertha. Now Jane can look after him (and marry him).
In theatre's new sharing culture, alliances are being made all over the country as buildings fling open their doors and invite collaborators in. The latest marriage comes between touring company Shared Experience and Oxford Playhouse, and their first co-production comes with this revival of Nancy Meckler's take on Polly Teale's exploration of women and creativity. Set in the Yorkshire parsonage home of the Brontës, where the family's great hope – and only son – Branwell has recently returned in disgrace, the play finds his three sisters – Charlotte, Emily and Anne – beginning to eclipse him as they find their own voices. (Mark Cook & Lyn Gardner)The New Jersey Star-Ledger reviews the Martha Graham Dance Company Death and Entrances performances at the Lincoln Ceneter:
Longtime admirers may be disturbed by the current version of “Deaths and Entrances” itself, yet even edited and colorized this work is still a masterpiece gripping in every detail.Lauren Lise Baratz-Logsted publishes an article about Hillary Clinton on The Huffington Post which begins like this:
Though inspired by the life and literature of the Brontë sisters, Graham’s work is all-American. More “Ethan Frome” than “Wuthering Heights,” it is a Spartan dance in which a precious goblet of colored glass must bear all the force of the heroine’s longings. Portrayed with terrific nuance by Miki Orihara, this unnamed heroine (a mix of Graham herself and Emily Brontë) recalls her desperate past. She is torn between the ardor of a Dark Beloved and the ambiguous but less threatening Poetic Beloved, and tortured by the intrigues of her two sisters as they sit beside a chess board that is among several symbolic objects.
When, in a final gesture, Orihara reaches beyond the set that frames the stage in black, Graham signals that by wrestling with her past the heroine has won freedom. (Robert Johnson)
When I was first asked to write a piece on the one woman, living or dead, who has inspired me most as a woman and as a writer, the choice seemed self-servingly obvious: Louisa May Alcott. (...) But then I realized that wouldn't be honest. So immediately I started on a mental list involving The Usual Suspects. For dead ones I had Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë.(...)The New Straits Times (Malaysia) states the obvious when it says:
Finally, I hit on it, the only woman it could be for me:
Hillary Rodham Clinton. (...)
Maybe An Invitation to the White House and Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets aren't exactly up there, literarily, with Pride & Prejudice and Jane Eyre. But what about the tome of a memoir that is Living History? I've read the thing, and believe me, she's a writer.
You don't need to film Shakespeare's classics or the Brontë sisters' novels to show British-ness.Del Mar Times begins a local story with a Brontë reference:
“Wuthering Heights” had Catherine and Heathcliff, “Casablanca” had Ilsa and Rick, “The Einhorns” had Mae and Harold — all great love stories that transcend time. (Diane Y. Welch)The Guardian reviews some audiobooks including one of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee:
And some authors are remembered for only one book, but that's enough if, along with Wuthering Heights, Don Quixote, Doctor Zhivago and this, it becomes a classic. (Sue Arnold)Los Andes (Argentina) reviews the poetry book El eco de mi madre by Tamara Kamenszain:
Por eso acá participamos, entre acentos latinos varios, de una charla de vecinas en un patio porteño: la chilena Diamela Eltit, la mexicana Coral Bracho y las argentinas Sylvia Molloy y Lucía Laragione, contando cada una su historia y sin perderle el hilo a la novela, “como las hermanas Brontë imaginadas por Virginia Woolf, en medio de la sala de estar”, mate viene, mate va. (Gastón Ortiz Bandes) (Translation)El Cultural (Spain) reviews the Spanish translation of The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis:
Esa pérdida de la inocencia que él ha leído en las Brontë, nos sugiere Amis, es la misma que sufrirá la sociedad en aquellos años por mor de lo que vino en denominarse “proceso de liberación de la mujer”. (José Antonio Gurpegui) (Translation)La Tercera (Spain) interviews Martin Amis himself:
Sartre creía que las mujeres no podían ser novelistas porque no llevaban el peso del mundo sobre sus hombros. ¿El peso del mundo? Eso no es verdad, sí lo llevan. Y el mejor novelista de la historia de la literatura inglesa es una mujer, George Elliot. Con Jane Austen pisándole los talones. Y las hermanas Brontë, claro. (Diego Salazar) (Translation)Il Recensore (Italy) reviews an Italian translation of The Rector's Daughter by Flora Macdonald Mayor and mentions its Jane Eyre references:
The Rector’s Daugther dalla copertina azzurro e oro fu pubblicato dall’Hogarth Press la casa editrice di Leonard e Virginia Woolf nel 1924. L’autrice aveva iniziato a comporre la trama cinque anni prima. Il coraggio di Leonard Woolf fu premiato, perché il romanzo di questa sconosciuta zitella di cinquant’anni riscosse subito successo e fu immediatamente ristampato. La storia di Mary da giovane innamorata del Mr Rochester di Jane Eyre e da adulta persa d’amore per il vicario di Lanchester colpì l’immaginazione dei lettori.(Alessandra Stopini) (Translation)Roxy FM (Poland) presents a programme about the most important women in history. We find the Brontës on their top fifteen:
Siostry BrontëZainab Khawaja's Blog, La professora d'inglese (in Italian), Never a Dull Moment and Jessica's Book Blog and Stuff review Jane Eyre; Tracy's Space posts about what she has read so far on a Jane Eyre Read-along; Your Move, Dickens reviews (2 out of 5 stars) Agnes Grey; El Universal (Colombia) discusses Virginia Woolf and mentions Emily Brontë several times. Ukranian children who like Jane Eyre on Cxid.
introwertyczna, drażliwa Emily, delikatna Anne i niespokojna, poszukująca Charlotte. Wszystkie niezbyt urodziwe, nieefektowne. Wszystkie nadwrażliwe i bezkompromisowe w swej twórczości. Popularność tym pisarkom przyniosło przeciwstawianie się moralnym, społecznym i estetycznym stereotypom epoki wiktoriańskiej. Otwartość w sprawach uczuć, indywidualizm, buntowniczość, to najważniejsze elementy ich pisarstwa. W dzieciństwie osierocone przez matkę, wychowywane przez ciotkę i hipochondrycznego, ekscentrycznego ojca-pastora na plebanii w hrabstwie Yorkshire, otoczonej bezmiarem wrzosowisk, gdzie spędziły niemal całe swoje życie, stworzyły sobie baśniowy świat, w którym rozwijała się ich niepospolita wyobraźnia i talent literacki. (Translation)
The Brontë Sisters: Emily, Charlotte, and AnneCategories: Agnes Grey, Alert, Dance, Jane Eyre, References, Talks, Theatre
Join us this Saturday at 5:00pm in East Hampton when Carole Stone, poet and professor of 19th Century literature, explores the sisters' writing and influence.
The BookHampton Winter Lecture Series
Saturday, March 19 at 5:00pm
41 Main Street, East Hampton
The Dolley Madison Club of Madison voted unanimously to donate 24 books to the Rockingham County Library at a meeting that also heard Mrs. W.T. Lanten talk about the life of Charlotte Bronte. (Jack Scism)The Twilight phenomenon arrives in Sri Lanka, Brontë mentions included:
Still, she [Stephanie Meyer] was compelled to continue the story of the young couple. She named the boy Edward, after Charlotte Bronte’s Mr. Rochester and Jane Austen’s Mr. Ferrars and the girl Isabella – a name she had reserved for the daughter she never had. (Smriti Daniel in The Sri Lanka Sunday Times)The Independent talks about young Hollywood actors and Ed Westwick and his attachment to a Wuthering Heights film project is mentioned:
He is due to tackle the ultimate romantic lead, Heathcliff, in Wuthering Heights next year. (Kate Youde)Probably the author of this article on Lemondrop will cry with joy after reading the previous news as she chooses Heathcliff among the (verbatim) literary characters we'd totally sleep with:
Heathcliff, "Wuthering Heights." So brooding. So dark. So smoldering sexy. Even if he went all bipolar on us, let's be honest: Crazies are the best in bed. (Andrea Zimmerman)The most recent Cathy on film/TV, Catherine Riley is also the subject of an article in The Times:
Her Cathy in the recent television adaptation of Wuthering Heights is spirited and complex, her large, expressive eyes overflowing with torment as she is torn between her one true love and her choice of comfort and safety. (...)As you can see on our sidebar, Wuthering Heights 1939 will be broadcast on TCM today, November 15. The New York Post describes the film like this:
Studying clowning in Paris is, of course, another thing that rising stars don’t do. She even opted for it in the face of American excitement over her role in Wuthering Heights, perhaps because of the uncomfortable side effects. “Wuthering Heights came out in America in January, and I made the mistake of going online.” She shudders. “That messed my head up for a week. I don't look at anything now. Some people were actually complaining that I looked too clean and that my skin was too good for Cathy. The internet just gives me anxiety, and it doesn’t do anything for my wellbeing. If you hear nice things about you, it’s not good for you. If you hear bad things, it’s not good for you.” (Stephen Armstrong)
Emily Bronte’s tale of Cathy and Heathcliff (Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier), a gentleman farmer’s daughter and the orphan boy he takes in. The two grow up as soulmates — until Cathy’s brother becomes lord of the manor, and makes Heathcliff a stable boy. Cathy marries rich but lives to regret it when hunky Heathcliff returns as a rich man and Cathy’s stuck with stuffy. (Linda Stasi)The Scotsman degrades Gordon Brown from Heathcliff to Dobby (the house-elf):
Once a brooding Heathcliff – in his own estimation at least – he now seems to have more in common with the hapless and self-loathing house elf Dobby in the Harry Potter books. (Dani Garavelli)Another Heathcliff having a hard time is Martin Johnson, England's rugby team manager:
Who would have thought that Martin Johnson, old beetle-browed Heathcliff himself, would turn into the master of mirth. You see Johnno had spent all afternoon biting his fingernails, hiding his head in his hands and generally behaving like a tortured adolescent when he came up with a one-liner for the ages. (Mark Reason in The Telegraph)We already knew that the author Lauren Baratz-Logsted was a Brontëite. Reality Bites. . . Fiction Does It Better! confirms it:
Can you tell us some of your favorite books?A Brontëite in The Allentown Morning Call, The Valve approaches Wuthering Heights (among others) from Claude Lévi-Strauss work on myth. Le Projet d'Amour posts about Hurlevent 1985 with several stills. Jucus' Home reviews Wuthering Heights (in Hungarian, Üvöltő szelek) and Bahía Salitre (in Spanish) posts about her love for the novel. Fickle Words talks about Villette. Iconzicons posts icons from Jane Eyre 1997.
Some of my favorite YA authors are Lisa McMann, Alyson Noel, A.S. King, Laurie Halse Anderson, Sarah Dessen and Ellen Hopkins. I also love the classics, particularly those written by Austen and the Brontes.
Here is Charlotte Brontë's “autograph fair copy” of Jane Eyre, from 1847. As Howard notes, in her biography, Elizabeth Gaskell described Charlotte's “clear, legible, delicate traced writing” - see for yourself.There it is, indeed. And what a pleasure it is to stand in front of it too.
While Tan does have favorite books that she returns to often — "Jane Eyre" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" were two she mentioned — she doesn't spend much time studying her own novels. (Amy Matthew)We wonder if half of the paddock of the Japanese Grand Prix can be considered as Brontëites after reading the following on Autosport:
The paddock divided into two separate camps immediately after the Japanese Grand Prix. Half of it decamped down to Tokyo for a few evenings of karaoke (Wuthering Heights will never be the same again), while the other half made an early trip to Shanghai for some end of season shopping. (Jonathan Noble)Probably not Brontëites, but it makes for a priceless image all the same, doesn't it?
Intisar (Aadya Bedi), an attractive woman from a progressive family, skipped school the day Hussein visited out of fear she might scream at him, "How many years of my life are you going to steal from me?'' She loves Emily Bronte and dreams of riding a bicycle through Baghdad, cooking French dinners and taking her family skiing. (Dave Shiflett)The East African has an interesting article on the novel (as a genre) and Africa. The article says that during colonialism,
You studied only Charles Dickens or Shakespeare or the Bronte sisters and not Cervantes or Maupassant or Jose Maria de Eca de Queiros (generally considered to be the greatest Portuguese writer in the realist style) if you lived in a English colony. (David Kaiza)And finally it looks like the Haworth clampers have gone too far according to The Telegraph and Argus:
The outspoken former Speaker of the House of Commons was today set to deliver a stinging attack in the House of Lords against notorious car clampers who put the Denver boot into the life peer’s visit to Haworth.Hopefully this will be the turning point in this matter.
Baroness Betty Boothroyd – famous for taking no nonsense when she was the first woman Speaker – took a trip to Bronte country and she fell victim to clampers.
The firm’s owners, who have been vilified in the past for over-zealousness, did not realise they had taken a celebrity scalp on their Changegate car park.
Friends of Baroness Boothroyd said she was now planning to raise the matter of clamping in the House of Lords, possibly today. And Bradford’s Labour Group leader, Councillor Ian Greenwood, today said the practice of unscrupulous car clamping was “legalised extortion” which damaged the image of the Bradford district.
Baroness Boothroyd, 78, took the trip with her close friend Jean Megahy on Saturday.
The Dewsbury-born politician was visiting Mrs Megahy following the funeral of her husband, Tom, a retired MEP and the first leader of Kirklees Council.
The women parked at the Changegate car park and left a ticket in Mrs Megahy’s vehicle, but returned to find the car clamped by a man employed by the Carstoppers firm which is contracted to operate there.
Although the ticket had time remaining on it, it had fallen face down on the dashboard, and because the clamper was unable to see the information, the women had to pay a £75 fine. Signs state that all tickets must be displayed face up. Carstoppers, winner of the RAC Dick Turpin Award for the nation’s worst clamper in 2003, has been criticised for its strict policy before.
When Mrs Megahy had pulled up at the car park it was pouring with rain. She paid to park for an hour and returned about ten minutes early. She said: “I must admit, in an effort to get somewhere dry I didn’t read the signs properly but the ticket was due to run out at 4.52pm and he released the clamp at 4.45pm after much ado. He was very abrupt. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the clamp, we begged him to take it off.”
Mrs Megahy said she was making a written appeal against the fine to car park owner Ted Evans. Coun Greenwood said he would be writing to the Council to urge that cases like Baroness Boothroyd’s should not be tolerated. He said: “People should be treated always with courtesy and I think the Council and its partners should do something to stop the unreasonable behaviour of the people running these car parks.
“Both the ladies were visitors to the district, the sort of people we wish to see in the district.”
Car park owner Mr Evans said: “The ticket expiry time was not on show. She had a ticket, I accept that. The situation is that the man who looks after the car park doesn’t know what time they are due to leave. It’s pay and display and they didn’t display.”
The man who clamped the car did not know who Betty Boothroyd was, said Mr Evans. He said: “He didn’t know her and it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway.” (Ben Barnett)
Hmph... poor Diederick Santer.Now PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" has a two-parter.
Here is a popular British heroine. She's "Jane, plain Jane, nothing but trouble," says Rebecca Eaton, the "Masterpiece Theatre" chief.Jane lacks status, family, money and height. "She is the underdog," says Ruth Wilson, who plays her. "Brits love underdogs." Wilson, 25, was also an underdog, virtually unknown when she landed the role.
That required some self-deprecation. In the book, Jane describes herself as "poor, plain and little."
There's something universal there, Eaton says. "Every girl knows that feeling of being not the prettiest girl in class, not the liveliest person in the room."
That's easy to get to, Wilson says. "Wearing no make-up and a horrible hairdo, you feel like her."But that's just part of Jane Eyre. She's alternately shy and outspoken, subservient
and spirited, plain and radiant."Like every person, she's full of contradictions," Wilson says. "What's interesting is her journey." (...)
(...) Edward Rochester. Bronte uses such words as "dark," "stern," "heavy brow" and "ireful and thwarted"; filmmakers prefer cute. So this time the role went to Toby Stephens, a leading-man-type on British TV.
"He's very good-looking ... which really makes my job incredibly easy," Wilson
says.The film linked an unknown Jane with a well-known (in England) Rochester and some past "Masterpiece" stars. Tara Fitzgerald plays Jane's cruel aunt; Francesca Annis plays Lady Ingram, determined to be Rochester's mother-in-law.
There have been at least 17 other "Jane Eyre" films, but this was one of the first to be completely in the hands of women. That included the director, the screenwriter and the three executive producers.
And virtually all of this was filmed in actual locations, not on sets.
"You forget how beautiful Britain is," says Wilson, who lives in London and grew up in its suburbs. The filming took her to Bronte turf, with sprawling landscapes, tiny cottages, an old school and a grand mansion. (Mike Hughes in The Shreveport Times)
Lauren Baratz-Logsted, the author of Angel's Choice or How Nancy Drew Saved My Life, is the other writer interviewed:Would you care to share your list of ten favorite books?Well, this is a kind of fluid answer. As in these are the ten I think of right now. (...)
Jane Eyre (never fails to be hard, bracing and new)
What are your ten favorite books of all time?This is not at all surprising because she is a reader of this blog.
This could change tomorrow, but since you're asking me today: (...) Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte.
The genre has gained serious momentum in recent years. Once copyright laws have yellowed with age anyone can have a go at disinterring the corpse of a fictional randee and making it dance to their particular tune.
Works by the Brontes and Jane Austen are favourites, with one website listing 17 sequels and spin-offs to Pride and Prejudice alone.
Philip Womack, from the Literary Review, said: "It is incredibly hard to effectively write something like this. "There is simply no way of stepping back into the mindset of someone from the 18th or 19th Century.Very true. But some novels do manage to come as close as possible to it. Others - well - fall short of having the servant microwave the meals :P
"These books seem to be written because either the authors feel an irresistible draw to the characters or simply there is an undeniable demand from the public." The results, while often popular, have received mixed responses. Scarlett attracted reviews such as "Frankly, it's damnable", while Jean Rhys's The Wide Sargasso Sea - a prequel to Jane Eyre - won awards and praise in equal measure.Some of these prequels/sequels sometimes belong to the realm of fan fiction. And the opposite is true as well, some fan fiction belongs in the world of published books.
Emma Tennant is arguably the queen of the historical spin-off, having written books inspired by Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Wuthering eights.You can read more about Emma Tennant's new book if you scroll down a few posts or - more easily - by clicking on this link.
She has just completed The French Dancer's Bastard, which also revisits Jane Eyre.
For her the reason for the classic sequel is simple. "It's about characters. There hasn't been a really powerful literary character written in decades. "These figures from the classics have such depth and potential that there is a need to find out more about them.
"It's a mistake to take on the task if you don't have a deep personal feeling for the book and its people and that feeling is what you have to tap into."
She also rejects any suggestion readers are annoyed about familiar books being rewritten.
Unless explicitly said
