Reviews are in for Northern Ballet's premiere of Jane Eyre in Doncaster. The Guardian gives it 4 stars out of 5.Early reviewers of Jane Eyre complained that Charlotte Brontë’s protagonist was impossible to like. Ironic, intractable, angry and culpably plain, Jane stood stubbornly apart from the blueprint of Victorian femininity. It’s a tribute to Cathy Marston, in her new work for Northern Ballet, that she’s choreographed a Jane who is similarly emancipated from the conventional tropes of the ballet heroine.The Reviews Hub gives it 4 out of 5 stars too.
Dividing the role between young and adult Jane, Marston shows a novelist’s touch in building the layers of her character. Antoinette Brooks-Daw is superb in the early scenes, both frozen and furious, and Marston’s choreography vibrates with suggestive detail. As Jane battles against her bullying Aunt Reed, her jagged, sideways jump, her bullishly lowered head, her pummelling fists convey not only her volcanic temper but also her quickness of mind.
Antoinette Brooks-Daw as Young Jane and Matthew Koon as John. Photograph: Emma Kauldhar
Those fists remain Jane’s leitmotif even when she’s grown up – clenched quietly behind her back as she resists a hostile world. Marston does nothing by rote, each detail feels specially minted, from the ritualistic gesture with which Jane encloses her face, as if protecting her independence of mind, to the slow, poignant dip into plié as she pirouettes towards Rochester and first feels the inexorable tug of sexual passion.
Dreda Blow’s performance builds steadily, a moving combination of turbulence and reserve and she has a fine partner in Javier Torres’ Rochester, who manages to convey some of the sheer sardonic force of his character’s presence. There’s a moment when Rochester, lounging in his chair, bars Jane’s exit with his outstretched foot and even in 2016 it feels like a dangerous breach of social taboo.
Marston’s ballet succeeds where it matters most: in the creation of her lovers. She gets excellent support from Philip Feeney’s score – a subtle and very danceable blend of original and 19th-century music – and also from Patrick Kinmonth’s set, with its lively delineations of domestic interiors and wild moorland. Marston’s handling of Brontë’s framing narrative is at its best when most economical: the chorus of slate-scratching pupils at Lowood school; the symbolic frieze of dancers at Rochester’s party. (Judith Mackrell) (Read more)
As opposed to traditional ballet, the works of Northern Ballet rely heavily on characterisation and narrative. In the case of Jane Eyre, there is a lot of narrative to convey and at times, this appears to be a hindrance. Although the company manages to deliver their story without too much of a check-list feel as they work their way through the long story, due to the constraints of the piece there feels to be no real climax, no contrast. The story is essentially played out in a series of pas-de-deux and the lack of corp-de-ballet is a noticeable loss. However, the piece really comes into its own during the ensemble performances; the orphans producing some effectively stylized sequences in the schoolhouse scenes.The Yorkshire Post is enthusiastic about it:
Dreda Blow portrays Brontë’s most famous heroine to perfection. Jane’s turmoil and innermost thoughts are played out in carefully crafted and beautifully executed movements. There is a sensitivity to Blow’s portrayal, highlighting the fragility of the character who turns out to be a strong feminist, ultimately rescuing herself. The performance is enhanced by Cathy Marston’s addition of the ‘D-Men’, characters the choreographer has created to incorporate more male dancers into the piece, representing the demons in Jane’s mind and the men who have deserted her.
At times, this gives an abstract interpretation to the piece. The storytelling being less conventional with much use made of symbolism. There are some real strengths within the piece: the effective fire scene, which adds an injection of drama, where Mr. Rochester attempts to save his wife; the wedding, which highlights the contrast of Jane in her virginal white dress against the deranged wife in her devilish red dress; the morphing of young Jane into older Jane; the abstract hills in the background, a constant reminder of the wilderness associated with the Brontë’s writing. Although the dancing itself is beautiful, with a very powerful pairing between Jane and her love interest Mr. Rochester (the perfectly cast Javier Torres), which borders on contemporary dance and has a real intensity to it, there may not be enough to satisfy the hard-core traditionalists.
However, this new direction is welcomed (especially if the sell-out run is anything to go by) and Northern Ballet is very much at the forefront in securing a place for the future of ballet. If by taking on a new approach and diversifying in order to secure funding, which allows the development of original works such as this then it must be applauded and be given a chance to continue. (Beverley Haigh)
What we get here, and it is admirably done, is a series of mood shifts, at times almost forensic, but they tell the story perfectly, and (apart from Ms. Blow’s consistently watchable interpretation) if you had to pick a moment that demonstrates what a fine company Northern are, and how it encourages their dancers, then it would be Victoria Sibson’s breath-taking solo as Bertha Mason meets her tragic end. This is edge of the seat stuff and a production that deserves to be kept in repertoire for many years to come.The Guardian's Children's Books section lists '10 songs you didn't know were inspired by literature', the first of which is
Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush is inspired by Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontëPatricia Park's Re Jane is on The New York Times' list of new paperbacks to check out. Elena Reads Books vlogs about Jane Eyre. La Gata en el Desván (in Spanish) reviews Anna Casanovas's Herbarium.
Perhaps the most famous song with literary references, Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights relays the tale of Emily Brontë’s gothic novel of the same name. Told through the point of view of Catherine during a ghostly visit to her old house, she calls to her lover, Heathcliff, to let her in through the window. Kate Bush’s operatic voice and quirky dancing conveys the eerie spirit of the scene from chapter three of Wuthering Heights when she is seen by the new tenant, Mr Lockwood.
Fun fact: Kate Bush and Emily Brontë share the same birthday. (Kuba Shand-Baptiste)
At the beginning of the course, I did quite enjoy Of Mice and Men, but a year down the line I ended up slamming my head on the table many a time as I thought about the pain of reading Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights or Romeo and Juliet and having to analyse the characters and themes. I didn’t want to read about Cathy and Heathcliff’s destructive relationship or tragic Shakespearean lovers; I wanted something exciting, something to make me think instead of wanting to cry every time I opened the pages. (WordsareLife)Garuyo (Mexico) would love to see an actual flesh-and-blood Heathcliff.
2. Heathcliff / Cumbres borrascosasLos Angeles Review of Books features Elizabeth Strout's My Name is Lucy Barton.
Logró convertirse en todo un millonario y, según la escritora Emily Brontë, él es alguien muy tosco casi sin sentimientos. Ajá, ahí su encanto: Heathcliff es el hombre “imposible y rudo” que queremos enamorar. Todo un reto. (Claudia Aguilar) (Translation)
We know Lucy through her longing, through her hunger, much as we know her namesake in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette. Just who she is — the mystery behind the name and the desire — haunts the pages and the reader of Strout’s newest novel.The Millions is looking forward to Dana Spiotta’s new book, Innocent and Others, and quotes her as saying
Names always take prominence in Strout’s works (consider the titles The Burgess Boys, Olive Kitteridge, Amy and Isabelle), and Lucy Barton is no exception. Nineteenth-century in cadence, evoking George Eliot, Wilkie Collins, and Charlotte Brontë, Lucy Barton literally means “light from the barley farm.” Indeed. (Katherine Montwieler)
This year, since I am reaching the milestone of what is optimistically referred to as “middle age,” I want to return to those books that I read so long ago. From The Red and the Black and Jane Eyre to Manchild in the Promised Land and The Basketball Diaries. And many more books that I remember loving. Will I still love them? They are the same of course, but maybe it will be a measure of how much I have changed. What I now think is engaging and moving and beautiful. What I think is funny. What I think is true (with all my experience as a person and a reader). Or maybe not, maybe my connection to these books of my youth will be exactly the same. I wonder if my young self will be in those pages, waiting for me. (Edan Lepucki)Cine Vue reviews the film The Lure which
is directed with such brio, with the air of a Gothic musical romance - it's a disco-era Wuthering Heights - and Kuba Kijowski's colourful photography really stands out. (Ed Frankl)Le Monde (France) is also reminded of Wuthering Heights when looking at Ann Demeulemeester's Autumn/winter 2016 for men.
Il y a aussi un peu du Heathcliff des Hauts de Hurlevent dans cet homme-là avec une touche de Marquis de Sade : une personnalité complexe qui saura se défendre dans le monde d’aujourd’hui. (Carine Bizet) (Translation)Melanie Reid mentions Charlotte Brontë in her column in The Times. Daily Kos has a Jane Eyre comic strip. Revista GQ (Spain) interviews writer Irvine Welsh, who is said to be a fan of the Brontë sisters. 24 Dash reports HearFirst, a 'Lancashire-based company, which delivers a full range of equality, Deaf and disability related training courses to organisations across the UK', as having 'already secured a number of new clients including Brontë Parsonage Museum'. MoviePilot comments on the composite sketches of literary characters but makes a muddle of showing Mia Wasikowska as an apt lookalike for Jane Eyre's sketch. Booksploitation reviews Patricia Park's Re Jane.
A new chance to see the Wuthering Heights "adults-only" adaptation by Julia Holewińska and Kuba Kowalski, first premiered in Warsow, Poland in 2012:Wichrowe Wzgórza
Teatr Studio im. St. I. Witkiewicza
Warszawa
26.10.2014 19:00
27.10.2014 19:00
28.10.2014 19:30
Adapted by Julia Holewińska and Kuba Kowalski
Directed by Kuba Kowalski
With Monika Obara / Lena Frankiewicz , Natalia Rybicka, Anna Smołowik, Miron Jagniewski, Marcin Januszkiewicz, Krzysztof Koła , Wojciech Solarz, Wojciech Żołądkowicz and Lena Frankiewicz
Hollywood zobaczyło w Wichrowych wzgórzach materiał na wielki melodramat, opowieść o tragicznej miłości w efektownej scenerii ponurych wrzosowisk. Adaptując powieść na potrzeby filmu uproszczano jej wymowę, uładzano bohaterów, wreszcie amputowano jej kluczową drugą część – banalizując w ten sposób arcydzieło Emily Brontë. (...) Próbujemy z Julią Holewińską spojrzeć na Wichrowe Wzgórza jak na swoistą „encyklopedię miłości”. Brontë zawarła w swojej powieści niezliczoną ilość wzorców miłosnych relacji, od tych bratersko-siostrzanych, poprzez miłość rodzicielską i synowską, koncentrując się wreszcie na związkach kochanków. Dokonując wiwisekcji uczuć stawia swoją główną bohaterkę Katarzynę przed fundamentalnym wyborem między tym, co racjonalne, kontrolowane, gwarantujące rozwój, ale i stawiające wzajemne ograniczenia, a tym, co irracjonalne, niebezpieczne, twórcze, ale i autodestrukcyjne. Relacja Katarzyny i Heathcliffa, najistotniejsza zarówno w powieści jak i naszej adaptacji, to utopijna wizja miłosnego związku funkcjonującego poza jakimkolwiek kontekstem kulturowym: uczucie łączące przybrane rodzeństwo wymyka się klasyfikacji, istnieje poza językiem czy konwenansem, jest gwałtowne, nie uznaje kompromisów, jest wreszcie niebezpieczne i destrukcyjne.
Brontë Society chairman Sally McDonald said: “It is regrettable if they’ve attended in those costumes. It casts a shadow over the weekend.” (Chris Riches)There is even a petition online, sponsored by Hathaways of Haworth, to to ban the use of nazi insignia and the wearing of SS uniforms. Fortunately, some newspapers also feature some of the real stuff: The Telegraph & Argus, for instance. The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page also publishes a couple of pictures (here and here).
Hvad læser du?The Independent (Ireland) reviews Love is the Easy Bit by Mary Grehan:
Jeg læser Bade romaner, krimier og biografier. Min yndlingsbog er af Stormfulde Højder Emily Brontë. Det er en Mørk stories mere der handler om om hævn end kærlighed, og er mit album faktisk meget inspireret af den. (Translation)
Before Twilight divided female readers into Team Edward and Team Jacob, there was Wuthering Heights, in which Cathy was presented with a similar choice between the dependable, safe Edgar Linton and the dangerous, sexy bad boy Heathcliff.On Wanderlust Rachel Ricks tells the following anecdote:
Being only 11, the daughter of Sylvia, the narrator of Mary Grehan's debut novel, is too young to have read Emily Brontë's classic Victorian romance[.] (Eilis O'Hanlon)
Of all the books I have read in my life, I can remember the physical book as well as – or even as part of – the actual story. I remember my 1970s series of Famous Five books that lined my childhood bookcase; the big old hardback copy of Peter Pan and Wendy with its colour plates; and then I remember my first borrowed copy of Wuthering Heights; and, for me, A Room with a View will always be associated with a sturdy hardback borrowed from the library that I got sand between all the pages as I read it on the beach one summer between college years.The Star has a recommendation for today, May 20:
Brontë Walk, around Hathersage led by Paul Eyre, relaxed, 4m walk will follow in the footsteps of Jane Eyre, taking in locations associated with the title character of Charlotte Brontë’s most famous novel. Meet at 10.30am outside the George Hotel, Main Rd, Hathersage, S32 1BB. Contact Paul Eyre tel. 01709 838673/ 07753 982954/ paul.eyre@oddfellows.co.uk for more details.SanLeandroPatch informs about a local screening of Wuthering Heights 2011 (June 8); e-teatr.pl mentions the performance of Julia Holewińska and Kuba Kowalski's Wuthering Heights adaptation at the Kaliskich Spotkanich Teatralnych Festival; Loud and Little is reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Covered with Flour is doing a #Villettealong; Blog extrem de personal si incredibil de subiectiv de subiectiv (in Romanian) reviews Jane Eyre.
Arnold, 51, loved the book as a teenager: “It always stuck with me. I’ve always been drawn to the complexity and dark heart of the story.”Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland) reviews the recent stage adaptation of Wuthering Heights adapted and directed by Julia Holewińska and Kuba Kowalski.
So when she heard a new film version was heading into production, she felt a twinge of jealousy. But as luck would have it, the film’s original director left the project, and out of the blue, Arnold was asked to take over. The project already had momentum, and she had only 18 months to write a script, find actors and complete filming.
But the tight schedule didn’t bother her: “Sometimes it’s good to move fast, because you have to use your instincts. I think some of the best decisions are made that way. When you have too much time to think about things, you can get too safe, and that can lead to the wrong thing.” [...]
The true test of the cast and crew’s stamina came when Arnold decided to shoot the entire film on the moors, a move that brings a visceral immediacy to the story. Unlike any other adaptation of Bronte’s novel, Arnold makes the mud, wind and rain elemental to the storytelling.
“I’m very interested in nature and the way it connects with us, and also the way that it’s very selfish and brutal as well,” Arnold says. “So I knew it was going to be a difficult shoot, but it was so much more difficult than anyone imagined.”
It’s obvious through her films that Arnold is drawn to the darker side of life. “I don’t deliberately seek it,” she explains. “It just seems to be what comes out.” (Mary Houlihan)
Spektakl Kowalskiego i Holewińskiej wyraża tęsknotę za tym, co brudne, ukryte, nieświadome, ale autentyczne. W dzisiejszym poukładanym świecie, który jest jeszcze bardziej ogarnięty obsesją czystości i kontroli niż epoka wiktoriańska, taka podróż w to skarb. (Roman Pawłowski) (Translation)Cogo seems to have a condensed version of the review in English:
Emotion and strong visual imagery are at the heart of the new version of “Wuthering Heights” based on Emily Brontë’s book. After so many movie adaptations, which may be called bland, the passionate, strong and gripping spectacle shown in Teatr Studio in Warsaw, may be a surprise.Express & Star opens the review of the new TV series Last Tango in Halifax as follows:
The scene is divided in half, just as the reality Heathcliff and Cathy existed in. There is the white, almost hospital-like feel of the rich Victorian house, and on the other side the dirt of Heathcliff’s base element. One side engaged in pleasant conversations, tea-drinking and reading books, the other full of curses and potatoes with vodka. The actors do a wonderful job playing with this contrast and using it to express their feelings and passions.
The Brontë sisters knew only too well that the breath-taking Yorkshire moors were the perfect backdrop to a romantic tale.Tell that about the landscape to people fighting against ever-spreading wind farms, though.
Two hundred years later and the dramatic landscape has not changed a jot, but the protagonists haven’t quite got the youth and vitality of Heathcliff and Catherine. (Becky Woods)
Classic literary figures from William Wordsworth and George Eliot to Charlotte Brontë and Arthur Conan Doyle have all paid tribute to the landscape.Benno Barnard writes in Knack (Belgium) about a trip to England and his thoughts on the drawing of Anne Brontë's spaniel Flossy.
VrijdagThe Edinburgh Journal discusses society's attitude towards mental health:
De pastorie van de Brontës in Haworth ligt iets te ver uit de route, want Joy wil nog winkelen in ons beminde Rye. ‘Aan hun achterdeur begonnen de Moors, maar aan de voorkant lag een ellendig stadje, met zesduizend inwoners of zo. Je deelde de plee met twintig gezinnen. Af en toe sijpelde er grondvocht van het kerkhof in het drinkwater en gingen er weer zoveel mensen dood.’ Dit vertel ik Joy aan de ontbijttafel in het Waterton Park Hotel, boven toast en marmelade en spiegeleieren en spek en witte bonen in tomatensaus en zeven soorten ontbijtgranen en thee en koffie en toast en zelfgemaakte aardbeienjam en andere restanten van het Britse imperium. ‘Maar de Brontës hadden een eigen plee. Geen badkamer, zoveel decadentie was nu ook weer niet nodig. Maar wel een plee. Zie je nu hoe verstandig je eraan doet in een pastorie opgevoed te worden?’
Vrijdagavond
Emily Brontë kon ook goed tekenen. Op een aquarel van haar hand – lang toegeschreven aan Charlotte – rent de hond van Anne, de derde zus, in het jaar 1843 over de hei achter een vogel aan. Van weinig honden wordt de naam overgeleverd, maar deze spaniel heette Flossy, dat weten we. Hij is een en al onweerstaanbare opgewekte hersenloosheid; het verlangen van de wolf naar prooi is als hooibroei in hem aanwezig, maar na tienduizend jaar tot speelsheid gedomesticeerd. De lucht is gelig, met een paarse weerschijn van de grond erdoorheen. De apocalyps is al een beetje aangebroken boven Flossy zijn kop. De staart wappert in een hard geworden wapperen, de oren waaien achter hem weg in een gestremd wegwaaien. Twaalf jaar later is alleen vader Brontë nog in leven. De hond gaat als op een na laatste heen, alleen Charlotte overleeft hem nog een jaar. Hij sterft een ouderdomsdood. De drie zussen en hun broer Branwell sterven aan de negentiende eeuw. (Translation)
Modern society is getting kinder towards mental illness (see Charlotte Brontë's novels) and with iconic figures like Stephen Fry speaking out about their own experience, the taboo is finally dissolving. (Claire Mckay)Truth be told though, even Charlotte Brontë regretted having made too much of a monster of Bertha later on.
She could have started a salon or even taught embroidery and crochet classes, but obviously it wasn’t the money she was looking for. Says the avid reader, “I read Jane Eyre and my first Danielle Steel here. My love for books made me buy the library from Thaathaa in 2002 and keep it going when others were closing shop.” (Soma Basu)Metro London looks at the rise of erotic book clubs:
[Sex writer Betty Herbert's Mucky Book Club] also doesn’t focus on contemporary erotica. Instead, it is ‘very much about quality literature that happens to turn us on’. Continuing this theme, Herbert’s next event, on December 13, hones in on the new flood of sexed-up classics, such as Jane Eyre Laid Bare, and asks whether the original novels are sexier anyway. (Kate Hutchinson)SugarScape looks at Florence + the Machine's Lover to Lover video which apparently has
got a bit of a Heathcliff and Cathy vibe going on when she strolls about in a misty field and seems to be a pretty emotional video to match the whacking great track. (Linds Foley)Lili escreve reviews in Portuguese The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It Would Crumble discusses Dario Marianelli's Jane Eyre 2011 OST. Midgehole Dave has uploaded to Flickr a few recent pictures of Haworth. Sally Jenkins, writer posts about to have "a bit of Brontë luck".
Vitalis Woonzorggroep presents
Jane Eyre
Director Ivo van Megen
Parktheater Eindhoven
November 16,17,18,20,21 at 19.00 h
Hoogbejaarden spelen liefdesverhaal naar onsterfelijke heldin van Brontë.
Het Parktheater gaat een unieke samenwerking aan met Vitalis WoonZorggroep, waarbij de kracht van ouderen voorop staat. Hoogbejaarde bewoners van Vitalis Wilgenhof brengen, samen met zelfstandig wonende ouderen uit Eindhoven, de toneelvoorstelling ‘Jane Eyre’.
Het stuk is gebaseerd op de gelijknamige, wereldberoemde roman van Charlotte Brontë over de gouvernante Jane Eyre. De liefde tussen Jane Eyre en haar broodheer Mister Rochester wordt gedwarsboomd door nachtelijke schaduwen op het behang en angstschreeuwen vanuit een torenkamer.
‘Jane Eyre’ belooft een hoogromantisch kostuumdrama te worden met een raspaard, fluitketels en een vlammenzee. En een stoet aan krankzinnige vrouwen uit de wereldliteratuur: Madame Bovary, Lady Macbeth, Ophelia en Medea. Is dat niet ook de angst voor het bejaardenhuis? De gruwel van dementie?
Wichrowe WzgórzaMore information on Wiadomości24 or Fakty Interia.
Adapted and Directed by Julia Holewińska and Kuba Kowalski
Stage Katarzyna Stochalska
Music Piotr Maciejewski
Live Music Bartek Tyciński
Choreography Izabela Chlewińska
With Monika Obara , Natalia Rybicka, Anna Smołowik, Miron Jagniewski, Marcin Januszkiewicz, Krzysztof Koła, Wojciech Solarz and Wojciech Żołądkowicz.
Teatr Studio
16,17,18 November 2012 at 19.00 h
17, 23 November 2012 15.00 h
19 November 2012 20.30 h
Hollywood zobaczyło w Wichrowych wzgórzach materiał na wielki melodramat, opowieść o tragicznej miłości w efektownej scenerii ponurych wrzosowisk. Adaptując powieść na potrzeby filmu uproszczano jej wymowę, uładzano bohaterów, wreszcie amputowano jej kluczową drugą część – banalizując w ten sposób arcydzieło Emily Brontë. (...) Próbujemy z Julią Holewińską spojrzeć na Wichrowe Wzgórza jak na swoistą „encyklopedię miłości”. Brontë zawarła w swojej powieści niezliczoną ilość wzorców miłosnych relacji, od tych bratersko-siostrzanych, poprzez miłość rodzicielską i synowską, koncentrując się wreszcie na związkach kochanków. Dokonując wiwisekcji uczuć stawia swoją główną bohaterkę Katarzynę przed fundamentalnym wyborem między tym, co racjonalne, kontrolowane, gwarantujące rozwój, ale i stawiające wzajemne ograniczenia, a tym, co irracjonalne, niebezpieczne, twórcze, ale i autodestrukcyjne. Relacja Katarzyny i Heathcliffa, najistotniejsza zarówno w powieści jak i naszej adaptacji, to utopijna wizja miłosnego związku funkcjonującego poza jakimkolwiek kontekstem kulturowym: uczucie łączące przybrane rodzeństwo wymyka się klasyfikacji, istnieje poza językiem czy konwenansem, jest gwałtowne, nie uznaje kompromisów, jest wreszcie niebezpieczne i destrukcyjne.
Thieves have struck again in Thornton pinching yet more Yorkshire Stone just metres away from the house where the Brontë sisters were born.The Yorkshire Post talks about the general heritage problem:
The theft of seven flagstones from the pathway outside 78 Market Street was discovered by Steven Stanworth, the chairman of the Brontë Birthplace Trust 2012, as he gave an interview in Market Street on Wednesday.
Mr Stanworth blasted the vandals, claiming they must be part of an organised gang after three gravestones were taken from the Old Bell Chapel, which also has Brontë links, last week. Mr Stanworth, also the church warden at the Chapel, said yet another part of the district’s history had been taken away.
“The community need to take notice and be vigilant and not just in quiet areas. Market Street is the main thoroughfare through Thornton and anything suspicious needs reporting,” he said. (Dolores Cowburne)
However, at some point in the last week, most likely in the middle of the night, the 400-year-old Yorkshire chapel where the Brontë sisters were baptised became a scene of crime.A few months ago we echoed the words of Patrick Brontë fighting against the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act commenting on some events in the most recent Irish elections. Tanya Gold writes in The Guardian about the new coalition plans to reform the welfare system and we feel as if have heard this story before. Will we ever learn?
The evidence suggest this was no mindless act of vandalism. With centuries-old gravestones ripped up from the cemetery, along with stones from the chapel walls and a nearby footpath, it appeared a carefully planned operation. (...)
The Alliance to Reduce Crime Against Heritage (Arch) was set up to assess the impact of crime on some of the country’s valuable assets and its early findings suggest the problem is worse than anyone first thought.
According to ARCH’s most recent figures, more than 70,000 listed buildings were targeted by criminals last year, with the number of incidents estimated at around 200 a day.
And Yorkshire, where more than a fifth of properties have been damaged, is worryingly near the top of the league. Following the theft of stone from St James’ Church in Thornton, Ann Dinsdale, acting director of the Brontë Society, said: “I just don’t know how you go about educating people that this is a part of their heritage they are destroying.” It’s a problem Chief Inspector Mark Harrison hopes ARCH will help to address. (Sarah Freeman)
This week Iain Duncan Smith, who deports himself with the grave charity of Jane Eyre's Mr Brocklehurst doing harm to do good, suggested limiting child benefit to the first two children if the parents are unemployed. If you work, his idea goes, you are helped; if you don't, you are punished, even as hundreds chase every job. To support this dull demonisation of poverty, he conjured the usual monsters, so voters might forget he is actually attacking them. Out came the nightmare visions of millions of feckless parents having children out of spite, which entirely ignores the truth that the poor, when in work, work harder than anyone, for fewer rewards.Publishers Weekly presents the new edition of Rotten Reviews Redux, edited by Bill Henderson which includes the infamous North British Review of Wuthering Heights in 1847:
"Here all the faults of Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Brontë) are magnified a thousand fold, and the only consolation which we have in reflecting upon it is that it will never be generally read." -James Lorimer, North British Review, 1847, on Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.Triangle publishes a negative review of Wuthering Heights 2001:
But in this case, curiously enough, the effect is the opposite. The grunts and howls seem every bit as mannered as the florid diction of Olivier and Oberon, perhaps even more so. Their artifice, like Bronte’s own, was overt, whereas Arnold strives to disguise hers in the trappings of authenticity. And as a result, the impact – the grandeur, the art – of “Wuthering Heights” is diminished. (A.O.Scott)The Brisbane Times mentions the Victorian concerns about childless women:
About the same time, Edward Gibbon talked about single English women as "growing thin, pale, listless and cross", and William Thackeray, in a private letter, described the author Charlotte Brontë as wanting a ''Tomkins'' to rescue her from terminal spinsterhood. ''But you see she is a little bit of a creature without a penny worth of good looks, thirty years old I should think, buried in the country and eating up her own heart there, and no Tomkins will come,'' he wrote. (Jacqueline Maley)
Choose a favourite author and say why you admire her/himDave Astor discusses rich men in literature in The Huffington Post:
They change from week to week... But stalwarts include Emily Brontë, Willa Cather, MR James and TS Eliot.
Then there are the upper-class characters a reader has mixed or negative feelings about. For instance, Rochester in Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece Jane Eyre is basically a good man who had become embittered, but he does possess some arrogant "I want what I want" tendencies.The New York Times reviews San Miguel by T. Coraghessan Boyle:
Fanciful, novel-reading, artistic Edith, who misses her piano and dance lessons and pines for her friends back in San Francisco, compares the island to “Wuthering Heights.” “Only where’s my Heathcliff?” (Tatjana Soli)The Scotsman reviews Inconvenient People by Sarah Wise
Charlotte Brontë’s first Mrs Rochester; Wilkie Collins’ Woman in White … Victorian society was stalked by the spectre of the “madwoman in the attic”. And, still more alarmingly, by that of the sane woman branded mad for no other reason than her nervous anxiety, her feisty independence, or her wealth. In fact, this fascinating book makes clear, it was at least as likely to be a man who was “put away”, given that inherited property invariably followed the male line. (Michael Kerrigan)Financial Times reports that goth is back in fashion:
Black lace looked more demure on covered-up gowns at Valentino (think Jane Eyre) while a cobweb-lace knit at Helmut Lang suggested spiders had taken over the atelier. (Carola Long)The Times talks about the visit of the Queen Elizabeth II to the BFI:
Yesterday, the Queen was still marching on, in a purple velvet hat and coat, with gold buttons, taking a tour of the BFI Reuben Library and the Mediatheque before settling into the cinema with the crowd.The National Post reviews Camille Paglia’s Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars:
She watched a clip reel from great British films, featuring the occasional bare bottom. The cuts included Psycho, The Life of Brian, Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights and Riachard Ayoade's Submanrine. The final clip was, appropriately, from The King's Speech. (Kate Muir)
In Glittering Images, she ends her survey with George Lucas. It is true, as Paglia maintains, that the bridging of art and technology is an important aspect of much late-20-century art and Lucas is a master of this. Despite all the gadgetry in Star Wars, however, there’s a hollowness to the series — despite, or perhaps because of — Lucas’s immersing himself in studies of mythology by writers such as Joseph Campbell and James Frazer. These authorities were meant to help him design his own myth. “He constructed a vast, original, self-referential mythology like that of James Macpherson’s pseudo-Celtic Ossian poems, which swept Europe in the late eighteenth century, or the Angria and Gondal story cycle spun by the Bronte children,” Paglia writes. (Philip Marchand)Rzeczpospolita (Poland) presents a new Wuthering Heigths theatre adaptation (by Julia Holewińska) that will open in Warsow next November 17:
Na pewno wcześniej swoją wersję „Wichrowych Wzgórz" pokażą tam Julia Holewińska i Kuba Kowalski. Hollywood zobaczył w powieści Emily Brontë materiał na wielki melodramat, opowieść o tragicznej miłości w efektownej scenerii ponurych wrzosowisk. – My próbujemy spojrzeć na „Wichrowe Wzgórza" jak na swoistą encyklopedię miłości. Brontë zawarła w swojej powieści niezliczoną ilość wzorców miłosnych relacji, od tych bratersko-siostrzanych, poprzez miłość rodzicielską i synowską, koncentrując się wreszcie na związkach kochanków – mówi Kowalski. Czytanie na nowo klasyki to specjalność nowej dyrektor teatru Agnieszki Glińskiej. Jak wyjdzie to teatralnej młodzieży? (Jacek Tomczuk) (Translation)Indian Ruminations interviews the poet Aiswarya T. Anish:
Who is your favorite author/poet and work? Can you tell us whyyou consider it so?The Spenborough Guardian celebrates the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the Spen Valley Historical Society which, as readers of this blog know, is very much involved with the Red House Museum and the restoration of the preservation of Rydings at Birstall which was the old home of Ellen Nussey.
I love classics, and the work of Thomas Hardy, Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens. They have beautiful imagery and they feel so real. Looking at modern writing and the old ones, we can learn a lot. (Christina Anna Alex)
The Dance COLEctive (TLC) is celebrating their 10th anniversary with the premiere of "Written on the Body" and other dance works at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Parkway, Chicago.
