A brooding Brontë is just the thing for an autumn evening, and this latest revival of Charlotte’s Jane Eyre hits the spot with its atmospheric staging. It’s suitably gothic, for sure, but with a modern update. The minimalist set is nothing more than a stack of black bleachers with large speakers on the steps. [...]Here, it’s all done in a highly stylised way. The actors play several characters: we see them as young pupils, clergymen, teachers and servants. At one point, they brilliantly march in unison under dramatic monochrome lighting.The stage changes little – there are the bleachers and then the attic, with the set rotated by the actors. But the way these elements are used is incredible – there’s a striking scene featuring Jane’s bridal veil flowing down the stairs. At one point, the stairs are alight. The speakers glow to reflect the mood, with Jane’s inner monologue projected through them.Olivia Marcus plays Jane Eyre as a down-to-earth Yorkshire woman, all too aware of her plainness. Gabriel Akuwudike makes a commanding Edward Rochester, while Robyn Rose-Li, as Bertha, is mesmerising to watch as she sings, cries and laughs manically in the attic. However, this Victorian portrayal of mental illness is uncomfortable through a modern lens.The first 20 minutes of the show feel rather long – Jane’s miserable life on repeat could have been condensed. But then the pace really picks up. The staging is incredible, and the music works well. At a couple of points, I couldn’t quite hear the dialogue, but it’s a minor point.It’s certainly the year for a Brontë revival, with Emily’s Wuthering Heights taking the box office by storm. Now it’s Charlotte’s turn, with two major theatrical productions of Jane Eyre running. This version makes a compelling case for revisiting the classics, pairing gothic gloom and dark secrets with bold, inventive theatre.
Lily Dyble’s production of Jane Eyre at the Rose Theatre, Kingston neatly avoids all the potential pitfalls of adapting a classic for the stage that many people will have read at school for English Literature GCSE. It doesn’t distract the audience from the heart of the story with lots of period detail and lavish stage effects, nor does it treat the book like a Ming vase – something precious that needs huge caution in the handling, if it is to be done right and avoid disappointing lovers of the original novel. Nor does it go in for all-out subversion and hold the text accountable for attitudes that we now find questionable, thereby spoiling what made it enjoyable in the first place.Dyble fully trusts the text but never takes it as read. She treats Charlotte Brontë’s novel with love and respect, but not reverence. The direction and design have a modern, contemporary look – Khadija Raza’s original and effective costumes are very definitely not 19th-century, but there is absolutely no suggestion that it is set in the present. Above all, this adaptation maintains the spark of the original, very much assisted by the strong chemistry between Olivia Marcus’s Jane and Gabriel Akuwudike’s Rochester.This production is based on an adaptation by Sally Cookson, Mike Akers, and The Original Company that was first performed at National Theatre in 2015. It retains much of Charlotte Brontë’s original text at its most powerful but is far from slavish in its treatment. There is a huge amount of plot to get through, and it is impressive that this treatment never feels rushed or superficial.Anna Yates’ set looks stark and simple. The stage is almost completely filled with a black staircase, containing 10 huge hi-fi speakers that glow with their own light in the darkness and can be moved about to suggest different locations. Any cynical thoughts that this was done purely to provide a cheap, adaptable, but always highly effective set are displaced by some surprises in Act Two (no spoilers here). At moments of crisis, different acoustically adapted voices interrupt one another to depict the overwhelming nature of Jane’s emotions. Composer and Sound Designer Joseff Harris does much to enhance the mood without providing distraction. The doubling of many roles (in some cases tripling) is very appropriate, as the audience is made to see that the memories of her oppressors are very much still alive in Jane’s head.This production gives full weight to the high degree of bullying that Jane experiences, both from her aunt and her family, and then at the ghastly Lowood School, a receiving house for unwanted girls, designed to humiliate and terrorise them into submission but also to train them to be governess fodder (as happened to the three Bronte sisters). The stark power imbalance faced by 19th-century women, especially those with no money of their own, is vividly conveyed, with the pupils reminiscent of the unfortunate women in The Handmaid’s Tale. Remarkably, Jane never sees herself as a victim and doesn’t indulge in feisty defiance for the sake of it. When she takes a stand, it is always on a matter of principle, and she remains rock solid in her determination. Olivia Marcus plays the part with a blunt Yorkshire accent, which is unexpected but absolutely right. [...]The attraction between Olivia Marcus’s Jane and Gabriel Akuwudike’s Rochester is subtly but effectively conveyed. Akuwudike’s Rochester is surprisingly young for someone wounded by a disastrous first marriage. There is a glib and charming shiftiness – but with significant vulnerability underneath - that helpfully makes him less of the cliched brooding romantic hero. Kate Kordel doubles effectively as the bullying Aunt Reed and the kindly Mrs Fairfax. The production gives proper attention to the first Mrs Rochester, vividly played by Robyn Rose-Li, and makes the most of the many resemblances between Brontë’s novel and that other Great Romantic Classic, Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca.The question of how to stage a story as classic as Jane Eyre is always open to debate, whether you are faithful to the original or offer something new and contemporary. While this production is perhaps far less radical than it might have initially seemed on the surface, it is still a nuanced and effective rendition of the classic story. (Patrick Shorrock)
Among the cast, Andrea Gatchalian offers a convincing portrayal of the ailing Helen as well as the irrepressible Adele, Kate Kordel pairs an initially unbending Aunt Reed with a Mrs Fairfax who also comes to see Jane’s qualities over time, and Leo Wan as Mason makes the complexities of this story rather clearer than is sometimes the case.Both central roles are extremely well cast, with Gabriel Akuwudike’s Rochester, despite the RP accent, a wholly convincing anti-hero. Opposite him, Olivia Marcus embodies both the Jane of the book and the rather more forthright and powerful figure of Cookson’s adaptation. Her portrayal is quite rightly the centre of the production and her spirit and determination are totally convincing in this impressive performance.It’s good to see work of this quality being produced by regional theatres, and creatives being given the opportunity to work on mid-scale productions. After playing at Colchester and Kingston, the production tours to Newcastle and Chester. It’s an inventive and absorbing production, well worth seeing if it comes near you. (Chris Abbott)
Olivia Marcus' (Bad Education, These Demons and The Mirror and the Light) portrayal of Jane is wonderfully spot on and a far cry from the comedy acting she presented in Bad Education.And the London-born actor's Yorkshire accent was almost perfect and super fitting for a plot set in West Yorkshire.Marcus should be incredibly proud of hearself in being at the heart of the production and producing a believable portrayal of Jane from childhood (she is only 10 at the start) to becoming a woman.And her depiction of the infamous romance between Jane and Rochester, played by Gabriel Akuwudike (Hamnet and Shetland 10), has the audience both on the edge of their seats in that typical 'will they, won't they ' manner, and swooning when the pair eventually make out.The chemistry between Marcus and the characters is electric and a wonderful depiction of the old-school love story.On that note, Akuwudike plays Rochester excellently, doing a brilliant job of portraying the traditional stoic and mysterious yet oddly charming male love interest that often appears in similar love stories. [...]However, I must say that Andrea Gatchalian, who plays Helen and Adele in Dyble's production, stole the show for me.Beginning the production as Helen before swapping to Rochester's French ward Adèle, I was amazed at Catchalian's ability to make her child characters believable and to mimic the Scottish and French accents that her characters adopt, so perfectly.While her portrayal of Helen almost brought me to tears, the actor's depiction of Adèle was a firm favourite of mine, with her ability to make the audience laugh in a play that explores the power imbalance between men and women of the 19th century and themes of mental health.Another showstopper for me is Robyn Rose-Li, who plays Bertha. Despite having one scene, her dramatic yet heartbreaking monologue depicts Bertha's mental health struggles so authentically that it is almost scary. [...]Dyble's production as a whole is incredible as it intertwines moments of heartache and fear and religious undertones with laughter, friendship, love and musical elements, which to my surprise had me bobbing my shoulders up and down rhythmically, while also exploring themes of mental health and romance as well as following Brontë's feminist plot.
It all begins in February, when Emerald Fennell, whose millennial sensibilities have a unique resonance with the digitally native, released Wuthering Heights. The flashy Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi-fronted film heaved its bosom to more than $240 million at the global box office, along with a rare prize: mainstream popularity. It further proved its cultural credo by becoming a flashpoint on Reddit and Letterboxd, where one review noted: “It's an adaptation that feels like a 14-year-old skimmed the book and jumped to her own conclusions without any true understanding of the novel.” [...]It’s not, necessarily, that the story is fanfiction—though that genre has been part of the Austen and Brontë universes for decades (see the Jane Eyre rewrite The Green Glass Sea [can they mean Wide Sargasso Sea?!] and the Pride & Prejudice inspired Bridget Jones’ Diary). [...]Plus, a whole slew of books. For the Brontës, there’s This Dark Night: Emily Brontë, a Life; Charlotte Brontë’s Life in Clothes, and The Invention of Charlotte Brontë. [...]For the un-indoctrinated, the contrast between the writers—the Regency-era Jane Austen, author of six books, and the Victorian Brontë sisters, who published six novels between them—has deep roots. Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre, once described Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as: “An accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a common-place face.” She concluded, “I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen in their elegant but confined houses.”The two writers never met. Austen died in 1817, the year after the Charlotte, the eldest Brontë, was born, and their books offer markedly different pleasures. The three sisters (Emily and Anne followed Charlotte) wrote Gothic fiction and poetry. Austen satirized upper and upper middle class society’s conventions. Secrets, storms, and the wife in the attic haunt Jane Eyre, while Pride and Prejudice has pompous clergymen and Mr. Collins’s “excellent boiled potatoes.” Austen’s jokes expose the absurdities of courtship and class. Confessions and scandals may momentarily deviate from polite society, but a happily ever after is always a return to the mien. By contrast, the Brontës create worlds far beyond the mannered ton’s scope, both emotionally and geographically.That division is real, but it can also flatten a much broader literary landscape. Writers like Ann Radcliffe and Frances Burney—whose popularity in their own time might be comparable to the fame that Rebecca Yarros or Emily Henry enjoy today—are less likely to appear on a modern reader’s list. Austen and the Brontës, meanwhile, have become shorthand for different kinds of romance: one witty and social, the other dark and intense. The ability to reduce the stories to appealingly simple distinctions may help explain why it travels so well online, but that multi-media popularity is nothing new.In fact, just on the movie front, it’s nearly 90 years old. Pride & Prejudice was first adapted in 1940 with Greer Garson and Lawrence Olivier (a lost television series came two years earlier). The Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine-fronted Jane Eyre came in 1944, and ever since the writers have been constantly in our lives on the screen. [...]The Brontës have their own route into contemporary readers’ lives: Tumblr. Julia Cancilla, a Gen Z writer, found her way to Wuthering Heights through arty accounts on the famously emo social media. She first encountered the novel in quotes and illustrations but didn’t watch any of the film adaptations for a while. “I don’t even know if I really liked it when I first read it, but eventually I did and loved it,” she says. “The Austen stuff, it’s warmer, so it took me longer.” Though Mr. Darcy’s brooding gets to her. [...]In a 2005 New Yorker review of Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice, Anthony Lane described the film as one in which “Jane Austen has been Brontëfied.” He pointed to its windblown, misty romanticism, then wondered whether audiences could still see Austen clearly after centuries in which “the spirit of romance, and the role of the body within it, have evolved out of all recognition.” To him, Joe Wright’s adaptation felt like a collapse of the two genres. The end result was aesthetically unfaithful to the source material. Perhaps that’s true, but looking back, it’s unclear whether that was a feature or a bug. The books don’t merely live on as portals to a different era— though as Subbana’s experience proves, they do that too—they’re constantly rediscovered and remediated though Hollywood, fanfiction, and, now, TikTok. It is not faithfulness to the original that made Jane Austen and the Brontës immortal, it’s their eager adoption by each new generation.All of the new media inspired by the authors this year means that 2026 is a prime moment for Gen Z to have their first young adult understandings of the novel. Hopefully, they will then soon have their own turn to create their own turn to adapt and re-frame the original text. If history is anything to go by, we shouldn't have to wait too long to find out. (Dorothy Scarborough)
Sometimes what you need is the simple thing done well.In a year that's given us aggressively new takes on everything from Homer to Brontë, director Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean) has turned to Jane Austen and boldly dared to do something straightforward. (Boris Jancic)
And I opened my phone to see a critic complimenting the yearning romance as what Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights should have been, which made me realize how much modern filmmaking flattens classic literature about women into just one thing. It all becomes young women in dresses, traipsing through fields and falling in love—nevermind that Jane Austen is no more similar to Emily Brontë than Mel Brooks is to Christopher Nolan. (Caroline Siede)
In early 2026, Wuthering Heights has viewers in a hot debate over whether it’s a good or bad adaptation of Emily Brönte’s [suc] classic novel. While the steamy Jacob Elordi costume drama may be debated over its quality, there are other adaptations of famous books that are far worse. (Brianna Zigler)
Jane Eyre, 1847Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre follows its title character from a difficult childhood to her position as governess at Thornfield Hall, where she becomes drawn to the secretive Mr. Rochester. Jane’s independence and moral conviction shape the novel’s gothic romance, while Thornfield’s hidden history gives the story an undercurrent of suspense. A limited series could let both sides of the story unfold at a deliberate pace.Jane’s determination to claim a life on her own terms helped make her one of literature’s most enduring heroines. Her story still resonates as a coming-of-age drama about class, gender, love, and self-respect.The novel has inspired many film and television adaptations, including a popular BBC miniseries in 2006. A new BBC series starring Aimee Lou Wood as Jane is now in development, giving audiences another chance to see Brontë’s heroine and her gothic world reimagined for television. (Abby Shewmaker)
‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily BrontëEmily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights centres on the turbulent relationship between Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff and Edgar Linton. Their choices create conflicts that extend beyond the original generation, affecting their families and the children who come after them.Like East of Eden, the novel explores the way love, resentment and family loyalty can become difficult to separate. Catherine’s decision to marry Edgar rather than Heathcliff sets in motion a series of consequences that affect both families, while Heathcliff turns his grief and anger into a sustained campaign of revenge. His actions ultimately draw a younger generation into conflicts they did not create.The comparison with Cathy Ames is also useful, although the characters are fundamentally different. Catherine Earnshaw is not defined by the same coldness or manipulation as Cathy, but both women make choices that have profound consequences for the people around them. Wuthering Heights shares with East of Eden an interest in relationships that resist simple definitions of love or hatred, as well as the lasting effects of choices made within one generation. (Chonx Tibajia)
Translated into English by David McKay, the storytelling remains engaging despite the narrative’s length and multiple complex plotlines. Daanje’s narrative style will be instantly recognisable to readers familiar with Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. The book seamlessly channels classical, 19th-century Gothic traditions, weaving together overlapping layers of myth, history, and obsession. (Rishita Misra)
The Great Exhibition of 1851 wasn’t done by halves. It wasn’t value engineered to within an inch of its life and (I’m betting) it didn’t take a month to make a simple decision. That exhibition – designed to set out what this country had and could offer the world – is still referenced in textbooks as an example of Britain leading on the world stage. It was outward looking, but confident in the country’s collective national abilities. Leading thinkers and doers of the day were there. Michael Faraday, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Darwin, Lewis Carroll, Karl Marx and Alfred Tennyson were all in attendance. The perfect blend of science, philosophy and culture, under one giant glass roof of the (at the time, temporary) Crystal Palace. Queen Victoria herself allegedly visited more than 30 times.
From painting the walls of his family home as a child in Germany to creating eye-catching public murals here in west Clare, artist Marcus Vallboehmer has turned a lifelong passion for colour into a successful career.Now living in Farrihy, near Doonbeg, Marcus is the artist behind the striking new mural of Charlotte Brontë on the White Walls in Kilkee, celebrating the famous novelist’s connection to the seaside town.
Summer is also the time for adventure, whether that’s white water rafting or Finnegans Wake. You have energy, Vitamin D and oceans of time. Plus, sun and heat are the enemy of the screen. You can’t doomscroll on a beach.I remember exactly where I was when I first read Wuthering Heights (on a beach in Brittany), Catch-22 (a beach in southern Italy) and The Beach (a pool in Ibiza). Also, the frustration of not being able to escape completely into Emma Cline’s The Girls on a beach in Kerry when my kids were small. And many more.
Before the show, Ashi said he leaned further into the “Wuthering Heights” feeling of his spring effort and thought back to the Surrealist Ball given by Baroness Marie-Hélène de Rothschild in 1972, a soirée with the likes of Salvador Dalí, Princess Grace of Monaco and Audrey Hepburn in attendance. (Lily Templeton)
The question of adapting brilliant literature is not newly raised by this forthcoming limited series. Modern films have proven time and time again that renewed audience interest in their source texts can arise from the adaptive process. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, for example, saw viewers picking up copies of Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece, while Emerald Fennell’s interpretation of Wuthering Heights brought Brontë’s text back off the shelf, be it through inspiration or outrage. The texts didn’t need a spotlight shone on them, but their filmic twins formed a fruitful relationship of engagement between the different media. (Dan Porritt)
Widely considered one of the finest novels ever written, this timeless tale follows a young woman who, after being orphaned at a young age, is sent to a brutal boarding school. 10 years later, she accepts a job as a governess for a young girl, the ward of the enigmatic and brutish master of Thornfield Hall.Slowly but surely, she begins to fall for her erratic employer whilst she also starts uncovering his dark secrets.Directed by Robert Stevenson, best known for helming Disney’s beloved film Mary Poppins, this underrated Gothic romance from the classic Hollywood era stars Joan Fontaine as Jane and Orson Welles as Mr Rochester.Many film fans have claimed over the years that it’s one of the best adaptations of Brontë’s novel to ever be produced. It’s certainly a must-watch for viewers who have devoured recent period romances such as Wuthering Heights and The Other Bennet Sister or can’t wait for the upcoming iterations of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.One 10/10 review from an IMDb user claimed that, while other versions of Jane Eyre are just as breathtaking, fans should “see this to be fully satisfied". (Lucas Hill-Paul)
The film will be on BBC Four next Thursday, July 9, at 23:50 (GMT).
Best Actress - Margot RobbieBest Supporting Actress - Alison Oliver
Sue Ryder is inviting people from across West Yorkshire to take part in the first ever Brontë Pub Walk, a brand‑new event set in the stunning countryside that inspired the world‑famous Brontë sisters.Sponsored by Bulloughs Cleaning Services, the event - taking place on Saturday August 15 at 11am - offers a choice of five or ten‑mile routes, each featuring a series of charming refreshment stops.Walkers will take in Stanbury, Ponden and the outskirts of Oakworth before finishing on the iconic Haworth Main Street. (Hannah Britton)With eight refreshment points on the full route and six on the shorter route, the Brontë Pub Walk is designed to be a relaxed, social day out, perfect for families, groups of friends and workplace teams.
Isn't Iconic probably the most overused and misused word in the English language?
If you’re the type to imagine that literary genius might seep into the stones and the woodwork, England has book-loads of places to go. Jane Austen, the Brontës, Rudyard Kipling, William Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens ... you can visit the homes of them all. (...)From York, take a spin (or the train) to Harrogate for a touch of 18th century spa town elegance, or to Haworth to see the Parsonage home of the Brontë sisters and the moors backdrop that famously inspired Emily’s Wuthering Heights. (Gemma Tipton & Úna McCaffrey)
Anne Brontë.org celebrates the 200th anniversary of Patrick Brontë's gift of twelve wooden soldiers to Branwell in 1826.
A Lancashire village has been named among England’s most underrated spots by travel site Love Exploring.Introducing the list, it said: “England is filled with pretty towns and villages, each with its own unique charm – and while it's easy to be drawn to the more well-known destinations, this often means overlooking hidden gems.“To help you discover these lesser-known treasures, we've selected and ranked what, in our opinion, are the most under-the-radar delights from each of England's 39 historic counties.”Wycoller made the list, ranking in 10th place, and it’s the only spot in Lancashire to be included.Love Exploring says the Lancashire village is a “beautiful hamlet” with links to famous author Charlotte Brontë.It adds: “Although very little of it remains, the beautiful hamlet of Wycoller still has much to offer lovers of the English picturesque.“Largely abandoned in the 19th century, when it was due to be flooded to make way for a reservoir, it now consists mostly of atmospheric ruins, including 16th-century Wycoller Hall (pictured) which is thought to be the inspiration for Ferndean Manor in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.“Nearby Wycoller Beck is a pretty woodland stream crossed by seven ancient bridges, one of which (Clam Bridge) is believed to be over 1,000 years old.”Historic UK said: “This sleepy village now forms part of a beautiful country park.“Wycoller is probably most famous for its Bronte connection.”It adds: “The Brontës lived at Haworth, not far from Wycoller, and Charlotte would have passed through here on her way to Gawthorpe Hall when she went to stay with the Kay-Shuttleworths.“Charlotte’s description of Ferndean Manor when approached from the old coach road fits Wycoller Hall perfectly.” (Katie Collier)
So, perhaps we've spent too many times re-watching Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights adaptation, or accidentally become hyperfixated on that free-climbing couple engaged at the top of the Empire State Building, but one thing's conclusive: Having a crush is cool again. And an out-of-reach one? Even better. (Sophie Thompson)
Jane Eyre, elogio de una mujer insignificanteHay libros que tienen algo de patria chica, lugares a los que regresar con cariño, novelas que, pasado el tiempo, te siguen rondando. Y rara vez sucede que su relectura defraude. Puede ser, en el peor de los casos, que, como aquel paisaje o casa de tu infancia, las dimensiones cambien: aquello parecía entonces más grande, ahora se ve diferente, pero sigue siendo entrañable. Sin embargo, cuando una novela realmente te llama, si notas que te pide volver a leerla, lo que a menudo ocurre es que descubras en ella nuevos encantos. Por eso, habitualmente, la relectura de lo que te conmovió y te reclama suele ser tan agradable. (...) (Translation)(Aurora Pimentel)
Finally, an alert for tomorrow, on BBC Two: Jane Eyre 1944, early in the morning: 9:25 (GMT).
Thu 22 Jan, 2:30pmBrontë Event Space at the Old School RoomJoin us at the Brontë Parsonage Museum for a screening of Hollywood’s 1943 Jane Eyre. Starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine, it’s classic Hollywood: dark and moody, despite the entirely Hollywood-shot locations! Whilst not entirely faithful to the novel, it’s difficult not to be captivated by the performances and to enjoy the gothic romance elements. It’s a must-watch for fans of classic Hollywood!Refreshments will be provided.
Charli XCX, ‘Wuthering Heights’ (Feb. 13)Charli has been known to veer between pure pop and edgier modes, and her soundtrack for Emerald Fennell’s Emily Brontë movie adaptation is surely veering toward the latter, based on the first teased song, a collaboration with Velvet Undergrounder John Cale. So maybe it won’t show up as a meme affecting pop culture and even electoral politics, but even a side project from Ms. XCX is an event, post-“Brat.” (Chris Willman, Jem Aswad, Steven J. Horowitz)
I was scrolling on Instagram when I noticed that my feed was flooded with girls posting their engagement announcements (collaborated with their fiancé ofc), 15-slide carousels of anniversary celebrations (solely photos of him sitting across the table) and seven Instagram story slides recapping HIS birthday — complete with a caption that reads like an automated LinkedIn post written by Emily Brontë. (Emily (Em) Vernem)
1) Jane EyreThis Gothic fiction, one of the most popular period dramas, depicts the story of Jane Eyre from her becoming orphaned at a young age through her adulthood to falling in love with Mr. Rochester. Jane’s life hasn’t been an easy one, as since childhood, she has been tortured by her cousin and her aunt and in school until she became the governess in Thornefield [sic] Hall.She finds herself being attracted to the owner of the estate, but mysterious secrets from Rochester’s past and Jane finding out more about her family lead them away from each other. However, ultimately, they do end up together after several challenges in their lives. (Debashri Roy)
Hay casi una decena de adaptaciones al cine o a la televisión de 'Jane Eyre', el clásico de Charlotte Brontë. Desde la clásica película de 1944 con Joan Fontaine y Orson Welles a la versión de 1996 dirigida por Franco Zeffirelli con Charlotte Gainsbourg y William Hurt, pasando por la famosa serie de 1983 con Timothy Hutton [sic; Dalton], todas se han encontrado con el mismo problema: condensar en pocos minutos la enorme narrativa de Brontë.Pero es esta versión, la más reciente, de 2011, dirigida por Cary Joji Fukunaga ('Sin tiempo para morir', 'Maniac') posiblemente sea la más acertada de todas, la que mejor recoge el espíritu de la escritora y la que capta mejor el ambiente británico de mediados del XIX; todo ello apoyado, sin duda, por un reparto de primera: Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Judy Dench, Sally Field, Jamie Bell...'Jane Eyre' se marcha de Prime Video el próximo lunes 9 de junio y solo quedan siete días para que te deleites con esta exquisita película de época que comienza una noche de tormenta, cuando una joven busca refugio. Le acoge el clérigo John Rivers, que vive con sus hermanas. Mientras Jane (Wasikowska) se repone, recuerda su orfandad, su infancia de penalidades, la vida en un hospicio y la llegada a una casa para ser institutriz de la ahijada del taciturno pero fascinante Edward Rochester (Fassbender), cuyo agrio carácter tiene su causa en secretos no desvelados...Esta versión destaca por su enfoque visual audaz y visceral, que se aleja de las adaptaciones tradicionales. Aunque Fukunaga no era una elección esperada para un drama de época, tras su debut con Sin nombre (centrado en inmigrantes centroamericanos), logra imprimir una intensidad poco habitual en el relato de las penurias de Jane. En lugar de usar voz en off para reflejar la narración en primera persona de la novela de Charlotte Brontë, apuesta por contar la historia a través de imágenes potentes, como el castigo físico a la joven Jane, mostrado con crudeza.La atmósfera del film recuerda a una historia de fantasmas como 'Los otros', especialmente al introducir a Jane en la sombría mansión de Thornfield. La fotografía crea un entorno inquietante, con sombras densas que evocan películas de terror, y la sensación de amenaza se intensifica conforme crece la relación con Rochester. La tensión emocional entre los protagonistas se desarrolla lentamente; tanto Fassbender como Mia Wasikowska, en el papel de Jane, ofrecen interpretaciones contenidas, aunque poco a poco desvelan la profundidad de sus emociones.A pesar de estas virtudes, la película no logra evitar algunos de los problemas habituales en las adaptaciones de la novela. Aunque el guion introduce ajustes estructurales, la trama se resiente hacia el final, cuando las revelaciones se suceden de forma previsible. La cámara se desplaza con inquietud por paisajes agrestes, acompañada por una partitura dramática de Dario Marianelli, pero en lugar de profundizar en la mente de Jane, la película se limita a mostrar sus acciones, dejando cierta distancia emocional con el espectador.La interpretación de Mia Wasikowska es sobria y convincente, mostrando una joven frágil pero tenaz, cuya honestidad e independencia brillan incluso en la adversidad. Fassbender, pese a su atractivo físico, logra dar a Rochester una inquietante ambigüedad que encaja con el personaje. Visualmente, la película es impecable, gracias a la dirección de fotografía, el diseño de producción y, cómo no, el vestuario. Muy recomendable. (Begoña Alonso) (Translation)
Sara Andrade Abad: Siempre te ha gustado viajar. ¿A qué escenarios has recurrido en tus novelas que te gusten especialmente?E.F.:. En mis novelas han aparecido varias ciudades imaginarias, hay un universo propio creado; pero también hay otras que sí están situadas en lugares como Noruega, Londres, España, Inglaterra, Rusia… Es decir, gran parte de los viajes literarios, que yo he llevado a cabo luego, recorren esos escenarios de las novelas. Aparte de eso tengo ensayos biográficos que han hablado de las hermanas Brontë, de Jane Austen, de Virginia Woolf, del rey Arturo, de otras mujeres escritoras y otros autores que completan la oferta viajera que yo llevo a cabo con Viajes azulmarino y con EL PAÍS Viajes. Es decir, que hay una correlación muy estrecha entre lo que he escrito y luego lo que invito a mis viajeros a recorrer o a conocer. Ten en cuenta que tengo 40 libros… [...]S.A.A.: Es curioso porque, a pesar de que pasa el tiempo, Jane Austen y las hermanas Brontë siguen generando interés. De hecho, son dos de tus viajes más demandados con EL PAÍS Viajes…E.F.:. Son autoras clásicas, que han consolidado su obra a escala internacional, que tratan del alma humana más que de historias concretas. Y lo que más me llama la atención de ellas no es lo que más llama la atención a los viajeros. A mí lo que me fascina es el proceso creativo que llevaron porque como autora intento entender de qué forma y por qué escribieron lo que escribieron.S.A.A.: ¿Y qué les interesa conocer a los viajeros?E.F.: Sobre todo la biografía, los amoríos, el salseo [señala, entre risas].S.A.A.: ¿Qué crees que tienen sus obras que conectan con el momento presente?E.F.: En el caso de las Brontë, la pasión. Estamos en un momento en el que la gente se entrega a la autenticidad, y busca que esa autenticidad esté vinculada a la emoción, a la pasión, al entusiasmo. Y en el caso de Jane Austen, la armonía, el equilibrio. Y un cierto entorno, ambiente o atmósfera que se ha generado por lo audiovisual. [...]S.A.A.:¿Qué parte del viaje de Jane Austen y de las hermanas Brontë es tu favorita?E.F.: Hay muchas, yo más que el paisaje voy mirando a los viajeros. A mí lo que de verdad me gusta de esos viajes es el entusiasmo y lo mucho que se conmueven. Sobre todo el de Jane Austen es un viaje muy curativo, un viaje muy iniciático. Cuando estamos, por ejemplo, en la casa museo Jane Austen, que la dejamos para el último día, se remueve mucho cuando ven dónde escribió y dónde vivió. Es fascinante. A mí me gusta mucho también ir a visitar la tumba de su hermana y de su madre, que ya con el tiempo son casi como de mi familia… ¡después de tres libros dedicados!Hay otro momento muy triste en Winchester, porque recorremos el paso entre la casa en que ella murió y la catedral donde está enterrada. De las Brontë siempre destaco que es un viaje de emoción a flor de piel. En estos viajes honramos la cultura y la civilización humana, la música, el cine, el arte, la literatura, el estudio de la razón humana, del ser humano, la medicina, hablamos de filosofía, pero también hablamos de higiene y de cómo vivían en ese momento. (Sara Andrade Abad) (Translation)
Speak Now: Get lost in a dramatic romanceThe energy of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" comes from its independent, determined protagonist Jane, a governess capable of going toe-to-toe with the stubborn, willful Edward Rochester. Her self-determination carries her through a series of wild plot twists that perfectly suit the theatrical feel of "Speak Now." Like Taylor Swift's third album, this is a story with complex men, bold choices, and dramatic declarations. [...]The Tortured Poets Department: Lose yourself to an intense loveTaylor Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department" is a Gothic story of a torrid, consuming love affair gone bad. If you like this album's edgy intensity, then Emily Brontë's dark love story "Wuthering Heights" is the perfect continuation of that vibe. In this classic novel, love takes a dark turn as protagonists Catherine and Heathcliff get swept up in a destructive, obsessive love on the moors of England. (Rose McMackin)
Sarah Gordon’s new play at the National Theatre online is an irreverent retelling of the life and legend of the Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, and the story of the sibling power dynamics that shaped their uneven rise to fame. (Ruth Leon)
Sarah Moss, discussing the need for white literary heroines to be thin, asserts that “Jane Eyre, invited to join dinner parties at Thornfield, skulks in corners black-clad and skinny” (‘Hunger numbed my shame and humiliation’, 24 August). Not so. Jane is not invited to those dinners, as she is the governess. She wears black as an indication of her class status and has to keep out of the way. Starved as a child in an orphanage, she is indeed “little”, as Charlotte Brontë puts it, but is able to recognise her appetite, nipping down the back stairs at Thornfield to forage in the larder for supper for herself and her charge, returning with “a cold chicken, a roll of bread, some tarts”.
A book that I find myself returning to multiple times is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Every time I reread it, I gain new insights into the characters, and their personalities and emotions.
Orson Welles smoulders in this brooding Gothic adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel. Robert Stevenson directs, though Welles’s hand is clear in the casting (Agnes Moorehead), the writing credit for John Houseman (shared with Aldous Huxley) and the score by Bernard Herrmann. Joan Fontaine tries valiantly to look plain as the heroine, and little Elizabeth Taylor glows in her uncredited role as a doomed school friend.
Among other literary greats, Cooke looks to Charlotte Brontë, who in her 1849 novel Shirley tries to capture the magic of female connection: “The minds of the two girls being toned in harmony, often chimed very sweetly together.” Membership in a close-knit group is like “a dance of belonging with no private space in it, all inside-out intimacy,” Lorna Sage says in Bad Blood. (Ceci Browning)
Yet by the time Lady Enid sashays into view, numerous other parodies have already been set into motion in Ludlam’s wicked mockery of the “penny dreadful” style of Victorian England. Sleuthing, sarcophagi, werewolves, vampires, witches, and a Wuthering Heights heath are all mixed into this undeadly brew. Plus the obligatory mummy. (Perry Tannenbaum)
Las hermanas Brontë están presente en el libro, así como Gaskell, Wilde o Collins. También Henry James o Poe, pero "por encima de todos ellos, la gran fuente de inspiración de esta novela es Pío de Baroja. " (Sara Esteban) (Translation)
Daily Mail talks about the upcoming Wuthering Heights project by Emerald Fennell and does what a proper journalist of the current era should do. Look into X for comments of "fans" which as usual are the proverbial collection of gloomy, bitter, and delusional usual suspects. Why on Earth a news media gives them visibility outside the social network ghetto is beyond us. Harper's Bazaar (Mexico), Movie Struckers (Italy) also talk about the project.
While this 1943 film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name may not be on the same level as the 2011 one (especially for audiences who like modern films), the Robert Stevenson picture is certainly worthwhile. As expected, the story centers around the titular character, played by Joan Fontaine, hired by the lord of a mysterious manor house, Edward Rochester (Orson Welles in one of his best roles), and tasked to care for his young daughter.Jane Eyre is a solid adaptation of a classic literary tale, which, like many other great classics on this list, is available to stream for free on the digital platform. Stevenson's black-and-white film's stunning cinematography of the brooding Jane Eyre plays a huge part in what makes it appealing. However, the acting performances — particularly by Fontaine, who brings the heroine to life flawlessly — are also worth a mention. (Daniela Gama)
A comparable alienation initially haunts the governess who arrives at an isolated mansion in the Brontë-spoofing “The Moors.” The mansion’s inhabitants — including two “spinster” sisters (as the cast list calls them), a maid, and a mastiff who falls in love with a moorhen — go on to reveal startling vulnerabilities and execute shocking power plays. (...)An avid reader, Silverman wrote the play fast after being immersed in Charlotte Brontë’s letters. “The way in which Charlotte was talking about isolation and intimacy — and the geography of the place, how it was essentially a character — all of that started infiltrating my mind,” they say. (Celia Wren)
La sala está prácticamente a oscuras. Las figuras de papel solo reciben haces de luz como si fuesen disparos, proyectando sombras alargadas en pisos y paredes. Hay un aire misterioso en la muestraSus esferas de papel, como cascarones de huevos, estallan engendrando estalagmitas y estalactitas que no son el resultado del agua escurriéndose por los minerales de la tierra, sino de trocitos de novelas y poemas. Su materia prima son las palabras y, por eso, el arte en esencia pura. (...)‘Cumbres borrascosas’, una de las novelas favoritas de Flores, está allí, aunque es casi imposible precisar dónde. Y así hay cientos de páginas que se han convertido en una obra distinta a la original y con su propia fuerza. (José Luis Barrera) (Translation)
The Wuthering Heights Red Dress Day celebrations are announced on Glasshouse and Maleny Country News. On the Brussels Brontë Blog we see how Emma Conally-Barklem, a Yorkshire poet, combined a Pink concert with a Charlotte Brontë-inspired tour in Brussels. Pauline, the blog author, guided Emma through Brontë locations, discussing "Villette" and Emma's poetry collection "Hymns from the Sisters," which pays homage to the Brontë sisters.
Anne Brontë: The First Feminist Novelist?In her classic novels, Anne Brontë fearlessly championed women’s issues, challenging not only Victorian social mores but English law and Church of England theology.In just two novels, Anne Brontë took on the plight of governesses and married women’s legal rights (or lack thereof), as well as putting forward her own theory of universal salvation, which, at the time, was considered blasphemous and highly controversial. Yet today, her fame has yet to reach the heights of her two older sisters, Charlotte and Emily. Here, we will look into why that is the case – and why it is an unfair reflection on Anne as a writer – by exploring her life, work, and values. (...)Anne’s reputation, then, has suffered through unfair criticism, neglect, and poor editorial decisions, the effects of which can still be seen in accounts of the Brontë family. However, since the 1990s, biographies of Anne have helped question the narrative of Anne as “the other Brontë” and there has been a concerted effort to reevaluate her work in a manner that recognizes its radical politics. Through her classic novels, Anne Brontë sought to challenge social injustices and to improve the lives of others, and it is as such that she deserves to be remembered. (Catherine Dent)
Paula becomes both the lady of the house and the madwoman in the attic, to borrow a phrase usually applied to Victorian novel Jane Eyre. In Jane Eyre, which, as it so happens, was also turned into a 1944 film, Jane’s stay at Mr. Rochester’s home quickly sees strange things happening. As his governess, she hears noises and voices in the attic, to say nothing of the fire that mysteriously starts in the middle of the night. Later, as she’s set to marry Rochester, there is a scandal at the altar: He is already married. His wife Bertha fell victim to congenital madness, you see, so he kept her locked and hidden in his attic. It was the only thing he could think to do. Jane runs away in the middle of the night, but returns later in the novel. Bertha has since burned the entire house down and died, and Rochester is disabled in the process. Jane agrees to marry him, and they look together toward the future—one that presumably doesn’t end with Jane in the attic.Of course, there’s no guarantee that won’t happen, just as there was never a guarantee that the man Paula quickly married wouldn’t try to drive her to madness. While Gaslight isn’t a straight adaptation, this influence, and the Jane-Bertha dichotomy, plays out in the single character of Paula. She must hold both realities and both experiences because the man she was supposed to be able to trust has thrust them upon her. (Drew Gillis)
Es curioso, además de triste, pensar que encontré una novela como Cumbres borrascosas a los pies de un cubo de basura. Es también poético saber que ese cubo de basura es el que recoge los deshechos de los habitantes de la Casa de las Flores, lugar en el que vivió Neruda, y en cuyos ladrillos se guarda el recuerdo de los encuentros entre los grandes poetas de su generación. Qué habrían pensado ellos al ver una obra, sea cual sea, despreciada hasta el ridículo, solitaria entre la suciedad, anhelando unos ojos que se posasen sobre ella y la salvasen de tan terrible destino. (...)Quizás el cuerpo desalmado que cometió tal injuria no llegó a leer la que sería la mayor obra de Emily Brontë, su única en solitario. Sería alguien que no entendió lo que ella escribió: que “el mundo es para mí una horrenda colección de recuerdos diciéndome que ella existió y yo la he perdido”. En realidad, es reconfortante pensar que leyó esas palabras y no fue capaz de comprenderlas, porque quien las lee y ha experimentado el dolor de una pérdida no puede evitar sentirse herido por el cortante filo de su significado. (...)Pero, el final. Emily Brontë, cómo vas a escribir una combinación de palabras tan bella como lo hiciste en el final de Cumbres borrascosas. Tan sentido, tan sutilmente bello y a la vez tan poco comentado por los críticos. Se han resaltado muchas frases de esta obra, pero nunca la que pone el punto final, y no hay ninguna como esa. Por los mismos motivos éticos que me impiden tirar un libro a la basura, no me permito escribir aquí esas palabras, pues es un final que debe ser leído en exclusiva por el lector que descubra la novela al completo. Solo puedo decir que yo sí me detuve al lado —del libro— bajo el cielo sereno, siguiendo con los ojos el vuelo de las libélulas entre las plantas silvestres y escuchando el rumor de la suave brisa. Aquel que tiró el libro a una basura frente a La Casa de las Flores, sepa que no ha de tener inquietos sueños porque su libro duerme ahora en un lugar tan apacible como el estante más alto de mi librería. (Natalia Loizaga) (Translation)
Ante la imposibilidad de firmar con su nombre, muchas escritoras del pasado se vieron obligadas a buscar formas alternativas de publicación, como es el caso de las hermanas Charlotte, Emily y Anne Brontë, célebres autoras de obras como “Jane Eyre”, “Cumbres Borrascosas” y “La inquilina de Wildfell Hall”, usaban los seudónimos masculinos: Currer, Ellis y Acton Bell.Hacerse pasar por hombre para publicar: un rotundo no negociableEsta elección se debió a lo controversial que podían ser sus temas, que incluían romances desafiantes, alcoholismo y violencia, considerados inmorales para su época. Hoy sus novelas se valoran como obras de arte innovadoras en la historia de la literatura. (Juan Sebastián Ramos) (Translation)
Co-adaptors of Classic Theatre of Maryland's production of "Jane Eyre" Laura Rocklyn and Sally Boyett join Marc for a preview of the brand-new show and the other programming at Classic Theatre of Maryland.
And there are barriers aplenty in 1944’s take on Charlotte Brontë’s brooding Jane Eyre [...] with Joan Fontaine in the title role of a governess smitten with her secretive employer, Edward Rochester (Orson Welles).
Acton Bell. Currer Bell. Ellis Bell. Any of those names ring a bell?They did in 19th-century England, as the authors of Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Acton); Jane Eyre and Shirley (Currer); and Wuthering Heights (Ellis).And there, in the last title, is the giveaway. Acton, Currer and Ellis were pseudonyms for Alice [sic], Charlotte and Emily and the surname Bell for Brontë.But why this disguise? Writing in Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell, a preface to the memorial edition of Wuthering Heights that she had prepared, Currer explains: “We agreed to arrange a small selection of our poems, and, if possible, get them printed.“Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our names under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because — without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called ‘feminine’ — we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the scourge of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise.”This is a magnificent skewering of a critical foible still prevalent today — “the scourge of personality” — and an indictment of the misogyny of the publishing and literary worlds that the Brontës and countless other women writers before and after them encountered. (Darryl Accone)
Swiping right for love would have baffled Mr Rochester but the brooding anti-hero might have found one new dating feature all too familiar. This week, some 170 years after the publication of Jane Eyre, Tinder announced that the dating app would add Matchmaker, which enables parents and friends to scour profiles and recommend a selection for dates. Or, as Tinder put it in words that would have made Charlotte Brontë blanch: bringing “your circle of trust into your dating journey”. (Emma Jacobs)
"Double Indemnity" (1944)Billy Wilder crafted this story of fraud and murder with crime writer Raymond Chandler. Another film that gave the genre a new language, Double Indemnity is a confession by shotty insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) told mostly in flashbacks, detailing his involvement with a killing and cover-up that saw him pose as the dead man on a train. While retrospective scenes were not new to cinema (having been used in the 1939 adaptation of Wuthering Heights to great effect before), this was one of the first instances in a crime story. (Eric Farwell)
Haworth in Yorkshire was the home of the Brontë sisters in the early 19th century and has retained a lot of its historical charm.Between them, the sisters made significant contributions to the world of literature, including famous novels like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.People visit the small village from all over the world as a result - and many feel like they've stepped into the past, with the Brontë Parsonage Museum among the village's best attractions.Yorkshire.com explained: "Home of the famous Brontë sisters, Haworth is an undisputed literary mecca, attracting visitors from all around the world. [...]Yorkshire net wrote about the train and said it could help people "step back in time in the Pennine village of Haworth".They added: "Wander around Haworth’s cobbled streets and lanes, or take a walk on the surrounding moors, including Top Withens, the inspiration for Wuthering Heights, and feel the atmosphere which inspired the Brontës." (Ryan Gray)
“The man who took me under his wing and showed me how to train dogs was a feller called Sam Dyson from Ponden Hall, that was the inspiration for one of the farms in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights owned by Heathcliff.“I remember getting a good bollocking from Sam, he probably took after Heathcliff in that way, but it was because he was a perfectionist. We used to go every night up into the fields and up on the moor. (Chris Berry)
Unlike many writers today, she describes herself as not “a big reader,” preferring instead to listen to her cousins read to her or recount the plotlines of books they’d read. By preferring this oral storytelling over the reading that was valued in school, she later experienced a lot of shame and frustration in writing circles and classes where names of prestigious authors and titles were thrown around and expected to be known.“That’s always the first piece of advice writing instructors give you when you ask how do you become a better writer, to read more,” she explains. “But what if you’ve never been that big of a reader because of language acquisition, learning difficulties, not finding books that reflect you?”, referring to her assigned school reading of books like Wuthering Heights and The Scarlet Letter, both considered classics by white writers. (Sofía Aguilar)
Anne Brontë’s A…… G……. (1847) made an appearance on @BBCOne #Pointless today! Alexander & @richardosman, please know The Anne Brontë Society greatly appreciates you spreading the word!!!
— Anne Brontë Society, Scarborough (@AnneBronteScarb) October 27, 2023
Answer: Agnes Grey pic.twitter.com/f05FnCT9jz
A proposito di “ContemporaneA”, sabato da Bi-BOx Art Space, alle 16, è in programma il primo appuntamento della seconda stagione de “Le Scomposte”: Maria Laura Colmegna terrà una lezione dedicata a Charlotte Brontë attraverso il suo romanzo più famoso, “Jane Eyre”. (Prima Biella) (Translation)
HowarthWhere? The home of the Brontë sisters“The Brontë parsonage museum was the home of the Brontë siblings, including Charlotte, Emily and Anne, who famously wrote classics such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.“The Brontë sisters lived most of their lives in the parsonage in Haworth.“The home is now a museum where visitors can step into the rooms where the sisters wrote their novels and letters, see the clothes they wore and the drawings they once drew.” (Molly Court)
The stark beauty of Yorkshire’s upland moors is the main focus of a new exhibition of work by Leeds-based artist Judith Levin at The Bingley Gallery.These are scenes where you might expect the Brontë sisters, or less romantically perhaps, a trio of Last of The Summer Wine characters to make their appearance.However, the paintings remain uninhabited landscapes where you can imagine the song of the skylark or perhaps, as one visitor commented, the sensation of cold water seeping into your boots. (David Starley)
They are planted on the edge of a once derelict graveyard on what was a old toll road for wool traders travelling in and out of the burgeoning city of Bradford. The overgrown site and it’s hidden past was saved by my lovely friend Steve and is tended by him and his volunteers.That graveyard was beside a simple church, The Old Bell Chapel, where Patrick Brontë came to preach in Thornton 200 years ago with his wife and his two young children. By the time he left a few years later bound for greater things in Haworth, his family had grown with the birth of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Branwell.Before he ventured over the wild moors to his new parish, the Reverend Patrick Brontë planted eight small saplings, each representing himself his wife and his six children. Today they tower over the site of the derelict church ruins. And I love them for all the romance in their story.So why am I telling you this. Because in the next week or so local residents including Steve and myself are launching a campaign to save the humble home where the Bronte sisters were born and lived just a stone’s throw from that graveyard, a little terraced house on Market Street.They plan to open it up to visitors, particularly young people from Bradford and beyond, so they too can learn the valuable lesson the three famous sisters taught us, that no matter where you are born, no matter how humble your origins, with belief, hard work and a refusal to take no for answer you can achieve.Saving the Brontë birthplace won’t change the world. Just like the cutting down one tree won’t end it.But if one young person is inspired by three girls who were laughed at when they said they wanted to become writers but went on to become the greatest literary family in the world tackling such taboo subjects as gender, race and class two centuries ago, then it is worth all the effort and hard work this dedicated band are putting in.And when they launch their community share offer very soon on www.brontebirthplace.com I hope you will join them.At the moment the Brontë birthplace with its blue plaque stands sad, forlorn and empty. The campaigners plan for it to be reopened in time for Bradford’s City of culture in 2025. You will even be able to sleep in the same bedrooms where the girls once dreamed their dreams and sit awhile by the very fireplace besides which they were born.Above all, that little house with all its history needs once more to echo to the sound of creativity and laughter as it did in the days of the Brontës.They were the reason I started writing. They were the reason as a young girl in Bradford I began to realise that there’s more to life than worrying about whether you are dressed in the latest fashion or having a good time, that the pen really is mightier than the sword when I picked up their books. And that we should never be afraid to tackle things we see which are wrong.Sometimes all it takes is preserving a piece of the past to give someone a glimpse of their future. There were never any writers mightier in my book than three little girls born in front of the fireplace in a house in Thornton you probably didn’t even know existed.That little house needs saving for Yorkshire, for the nation but particularly for a much maligned city as it moves towards what could be the greatest year in its cultural history since the Brontës took up their pens. And that, dear readers, as Charlotte once wrote, is a legacy worth preserving. Sometimes a tree is more than just a tree. And a house is more than just a building.
And while “My Brother’s Keeper” could have been called “Wuthering Heights and the Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Werewolves” (along the lines of the Austen send-up “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”), this is not exactly a parody.The book begins with a familiar spooky conceit: A trio of children play a game of make-believe in order to see the dead. In this case the youngsters are Anne, Emily and Branwell Brontë (Charlotte stays at home). In time, the siblings will learn that they may have unwittingly sold their souls to a malevolent spirit that their father accidentally brought over from Ireland to their Yorkshire home, where the apparition seeks to unite itself with its equally powerful (and dead) sister.Years pass until, one day, an adult Emily finds a wounded, grumpy man out on the moors—and so begins the adventure: Alcuin Curzon is a reluctant werewolf, involved against his will in the death of his fiancée. He seeks revenge against a tribe of evil shapeshifters. The previously mentioned evil spirit is their master, keen to collect on the debt owed to him by the Brontës.“My Brother’s Keeper” is at its strongest when deftly mixing real-world biography with the stuff of horror; the Brontës’ father really was from Ireland, born with the surname Brunty, a fact that is important to the plot. The details of the Brontë siblings’ early years are on target: The family was richly imaginative and literate. Even before their celebrated novels, they wrote plays, books and poetry set in a shared fantasy world they invented. The Yorkshire housekeeper, Tabby, who entertains them with local stories of haunts and fairies, is also drawn from biographical fact.But it’s equally delightful to encounter historically accurate details that have nothing to do with the Brontës, such as the complex mechanics of 19th-century firearms—even if Emily seems a little too nonchalant about firing one at bloodthirsty monsters out on the moor.The internecine involvement of English werewolves, one-eyed cyclopes and heathen gods both Roman and Celtic sometimes makes the tale a little cumbersome—but “My Brother’s Keeper” is an eerie period piece perfectly well-suited to darkening October nights. (Liz Braswell)
Forget Heathcliff and Mr Darcy. By far the sexiest hero in 19th-century literature is John Thornton. That’s not just because I like a bit of economics and Thornton embodies capital in a book that offers the best contemporary account of the relations between labour and capital during the Industrial Revolution. It’s also because he is such a useful hero. He doesn’t stomp round the moors being poetic, nor lord it in his inherited pile making slightly sarcastic remarks at visitors. He’s the capable self-made type who confronts violent strikers, mollifies his difficult mother and gets the heroine out of trouble with the law even though he thinks she is involved with another man, all the while barely uttering a word except to tell her he loves her. Adorable. (Emma Duncan)
The Wonderland factual TV series returns to Sky Arts this autumn with an all-new four-part series, Wonderland: Gothic, which explores the phenomenon of ‘Gothic’ and its themes of darkness, emotion, romance, mystery, and menace, and is filled with illustrations from literature, film, art, architecture, and performance.Produced by Odyssey Television, Wonderland: Gothic premieres on Sky Arts at 9pm on November 7th and examines this highly visualised and persistent voice of a counterculture which has resisted and questioned rationality and authority. Represented by works as diverse as Dracula, Wuthering Heights, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Night of the Living Dead, Get Out and the extraordinary paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, Gothic has achieved mass popularity from its inception and feels as modern now as it did at its creation 250 years ago. The legacies of slavery and colonialism haunt the Gothic and the worlds it portrays – the colonizer and the colonised, not least in the historic form of Imperial Gothic and the new emerging forms of Black Gothic.The new four-part documentary series, Wonderland: Gothic combines biography, literary extracts, and interviews with leading academics and film director Tim Burton, together with excerpts from the many books and films made of Gothic work to explore what was behind these well-known Gothic stories.Wonderland: Gothic is written, produced, directed, and features an original orchestral score by Odyssey Television’s Adrian Munsey.Episode OneThis first episode starts with the general characteristics of Gothic and the privileged racial position of the white race. It explores eighteenth-century Gothic which had its roots in a backlash against conformity from wealthy gay or bisexual young men including Horace Walpole, William Beckford, Matthew Lewis, with their renewed interest in both the medieval and in new forms of Gothic architecture.It continues by looking at the influence and continuing traditions of the ‘Female Gothic’ notably Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.Mary Shelley’s remarkable prescience and insight in creating Frankenstein is illustrated together with details of her biography and her interest in the conflicts between nature and nurture.Illustration follows from the work of the three Brontë sisters, the extraordinary character of Heathcliff, the radicalism of Anne Brontë and the life of Rebecca du Maurier and the powerful depiction of Rebecca on film by Alfred Hitchcock.The episode concludes with the interest of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in spiritualism and the Gothic world of The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Along with its "Creepy Cinema" lineups on Tuesday nights, Turner Classic Movies' celebration of the spooky season will also include Friday evenings devoted to films with various gothic themes. It kicks off tonight with several notable movies based on gothic literary classics. Leading things on is 1939's Wuthering Heights, an adaptation of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel, starring Best Actor Oscar nominee Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. Next comes Jane Eyre (1944), another film based on a renowned 1847 novel by a Brontë sister, in this case Charlotte. It's led by Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles.
Huyendo de la agitación de la ciudad, Alba Donati decidió cambiar el rumbo de su vida y regresar a su Lucignana natal, un pueblo de ciento ochenta habitantes en la campiña toscana. Tras lanzar una campaña de crowdfunding y pedir una donación de libros a las editoriales de Italia, en 2019 abrió las puertas de la librería Sopra la Penna. Su día a día transcurre entre recomendaciones de lecturas, pedidos e ideas para hacer de esa cabaña cerca del bosque un lugar único donde, además de las novedades literarias que Alba elige con mimo, el visitante se sumerge en un universo lleno de sorpresas: una estantería pirata para libros olvidados, calcetines con citas de Orgullo y prejuicio, calendarios de Emily Dickinson, o meriendas con un té que lleva el nombre de Charlotte Brontë y una mermelada que sabe a Alicia en el país de las maravillas . Y a su alrededor gravita otro universo: el de los clientes, amigos, ayudantes, vecinos y familiares para los que la librería en la colina, con su hermosa ventana al valle, se ha convertido en una enorme ventana al mundo. (Translation)
WHAT BOOK . . . first gave you the reading bug?Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. During a school trip to visit the family parsonage, I was astonished to see its actual size. In recent times an extension has been added, but I was there when it was in its original state [sic; impossible--the Wade wing has been there since 1874].The wallpaper reminded me of a Laura Ashley design. It was all very neat and tidy, but made me think of lots of questions; some remain unanswered still.You see, in that rather small parsonage, and at the peak of what would have been their formative years, there were three adult women, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, living there.There was also a large overweight cook and cleaner and a 12-year-old helper. The Brontë’s domineering father, Patrick, always ate alone in his study.Then there was the drug-addicted, alcoholic, eccentric brother Branwell. The women remained mostly in the small drawing room writing and studying, where they ate their meals together on a table they always had to clear afterwards.At this time there was no running water and a pump was used in the small yard outside the kitchen.There was also no toilet; a privy was built a short distance from the back kitchen door. So since that school trip, it has been a persistent and subsequent fascination regarding the vivid imagination of all the three women, cloistered together and each writing their incredible novels.And of them all, Emily’s depiction of the wild moors remains my favourite read.
Were there other things that influenced the plot of the book?I can’t help but be really influenced by Shirley Jackson, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” siblings who live alone in this huge house. “Jane Eyre” is thrown in there. It’s very much “Turn of the Screw” with the two very corrupt children. (Jennifer Goldberg)
There have been many attempts to stage Emily Brontë’s seminal novel Wuthering Heights over the years, but the first composer to make an opera out of it was Hollywood film maestro, Bernard Herrmann. The inspiration came almost as soon as he started writing the score for Orson Welles’ 1944 film adaptation. Set to a libretto by his wife Lucille Fletcher, who supplemented text from the novel with some of Brontë’s poetry, it took Herrmann eight years. Even then, he struggled to find a producer and it wasn’t staged until seven years after his death in 1975.Hans Sørensen’s 2011 symphonic treatment – the term suite somehow seems inadequate – honours Hermann’s hefty orchestral demands, including 12 woodwinds, 11 brass, a battery of percussion, two harps and an organ. It also fillets the opera, presenting the story as a kind of ghostly conversation between Cathy and Heathcliff, their voices fading in and out like ships that pass in the night. It’s an effective treatment, relying on swathes of grand and often haunting instrumental music to conjure visions of the moor in all its moods.The pounding timpani and snarling, muted brass of the Prologue melt into the ravishing pastoral themes of the idyllic I have been wandering through the green woods, before turning increasingly passionate for On the moors, on the moors. The lovers’ tangled relations and Cathy’s death are depicted in music of immense power and equally immense pathos. Herrmann’s melodic gift is only matched by his talent for subtle and imaginative orchestration.The Singapore Symphony Orchestra plays magnificently for Mario Venzago and the two singers are masterful. Keri Fuge’s dashing soprano catches Cathy’s air of recklessness and longing, while Roderick Williams’s burnished baritone and way with the text make for a refreshingly pensive Heathcliff. It certainly whets the appetite for a decent recording of the complete opera.The companion work, Echoes for Strings, is an orchestration, also by Sørensen, of Herrmann’s single span, ten-movement string quartet, Echoes. Written in 1965, it’s a brooding yet richly satisfying 20-minute roller-coaster that explores what one can only imagine to be the unhappy recesses of the composer’s mind. The music, which suggests many of his film scores and quotes from at least two, Vertigo and Psycho, is given a superbly structured workout by the Singapore strings, this time under Joshua Tan.Chandos have done their usual first-class SACD engineering t
rick, with well-caught voices enfolded in rich orchestral sound in the Suite and full-bodied tone in Echoes. Outstanding sleeve notes, too, from David Benedict. (Clive Paget)
8 de setembre de 2023 20:00Escenari 2, Moll de la FustaParticipen: Blanca Pujals i Carlota FreixenetCims borrascosos (Emily Brontë), VienaBlanca Pujals i Carlota Freixenet, les dames victorianes del S.XXI, parlen de Cims Borrascosos.
Unless explicitly said
