(...) If Charlotte is all culture, all humanity, then Emily is all passion, all animality. Charlotte is compelled by animals’ helplessness; Emily is lured by their “fierce, wild, intractability.” Gaskell’s Emily is otherworldly, more animal than human, a woman who embraces the unfettered passions of nature’s inhabitants. If Emily, like Keeper, is an animal, then their relationship is one of animalistic kinship, formed in canine hierarchy, not human empathy. Emily’s animal justice might seem unfathomable to cultured urbanites, but Keeper understood. She alone spoke his language.You can also read the Gawker discussion about the article.
What if we took Charlotte’s hints and Gaskell’s animal metaphor and ran with it? What if we thought of Emily as animalistic? What if we situated her intellectual life outside the drab walls of Haworth and let her loose inside the animal kingdom? In that space, a very different Emily Brontë emerges, a writer who is deeply uncomfortable with the cultural order, reveling instead in her deep affinity for the animals of the wilds. (Read more) (Stassa Edwards)
Your holiday will begin with a private coach trip that takes you to the quaint Yorkshire village of Haworth where the cobbled streets and alleyways helped inspire the Brontë sisters to write Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.The Yorkshire Post highlights the release of a 'quirky' tourist guide to Yorkshire with the Tour in mind:
First-time visitors to Yorkshire are being pointed in the direction of Keighley and to Chapeltown in Leeds in a slightly quirky guide to the county’s heritage tourism sites.Wharfedale & Aireborough Observer insists on the Tour's visit:
Managers at the Heritage Lottery Fund have drawn up a ‘top 20’ guide to Yorkshire for those visiting for the Tour de France on July 5 and 6. (...)
Meanwhile, a Banksy-style street artist has been creating a stir with life-size stencils depicting famous folk on buildings across West and South Yorkshire. Bristol-based ‘Stewy’ depict David Hockney, Jarvis Cocker, Sylvia Plath and the Brontë sisters.
The work appeared on the Tour de France route with the blessing of building owners. (Andrew Robinson)
"While the Grand Départ has attracted attention, it is the world-class attractions and hospitality that make visitors stay longer and keep coming back - places like the National Media Museum, City Park, the Alhambra, Brontë Country, Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and many more really play a part in this.Ham & High recommends tomorrow's literary talk in London:
“The Tour is estimated to inject £100 million into Yorkshire’s economy. Its value for business is immense."
Mr Darcy and Mr Rochester – two heart-throb characters penned by Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë – have long represented the epitome of the romantic hero. But what would they really have been like to live with?Country Life summarises recent sales and auctions:
A panel of writers, novelists and broadcasters debates the desirability – and horrors – of these two characters and whether they will always be better left on the page.
The panel includes author Lilian Pizzichini, Guardian journalist Tanya Gold, professor of English at University College London John Mullan, and novelist Fay Weldon. Chaired by broadcaster Melvyn Bragg. (Paul Wright)
On May 19, a book and manuscript auction at Bloomsbury featured a complete set of first editions of the Brontë sisters' novels, sent for sale from America. Estimated to £80,000, the set reached £111,600. (Huon Mallalieu)The New Yorker's Page-Turner interviews the author Rebecca Curtis:
Are there ghost stories that you’re particularly fond of, either by other writers or ones you’ve heard by the campfire?The Independent talks about the exhibition The Wonder of Birds at the Norwich Castle Museum:
I love ghost stories. As a kid, I read collections of ghost stories. I loved “Wait Till Martin Comes,” for example, which is about a man taking refuge in an old hut and getting his head bitten off by the largest of a series of three black cats that appear. I loved the Headless Horseman—stuff like that—and Grimm’s Fairy Tales, which are ghosty, in that many feature “spirits” who appear and harm or help out. I love classic ghost novels like “Wuthering Heights,” “Dracula,” “The Turn of the Screw,” and of course Shakespeare’s ghosty plays. (Willing Davidson)
More taxidermied birds peer down from high ledges throughout the exhibition, seemingly accusing us humans from beyond the grave. There is a plump-breasted white cockatoo, a blue and gold macaw, a domestic turkey, a chicken, and a magnificent Berwick’s Swan, named after the Enlightenment natural history author Thomas Bewick, whose History of British Birds (1804) became a classic. It is read by a young Jane Eyre in the first chapter of Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 novel. A 19th-century edition of Bewick’s book is displayed here. (Zoe Pilger)The Boston Herald celebrates the release of the Acorn Classic Drama Collection on DVD which includes Jane Eyre 1997:
Samantha Morton tops almost any list of the world’s greatest English-speaking actors and she is wonderful as Jane Eyre, as is the better known Kate Beckinsale as Austen’s meddlesome Emma. (Stephen Schaefer)She has been called a mystic, Asperger-like, lesbian, incestous, anorexic (and in this same post animal-lover and animal-abuser)... asexual is not the most far-edged we have read:
What do T.E. Lawrence, Isaac Newton, Janeane Garofalo, and Emily Brontë have in common? They identify and identified as asexuals. Like these people, I am also asexual. (Katrina Trask on The Peak)Kaite Welsh in The Huffington Post doesn't like the 'reading-is-sexy' type of literary advertisement:
Men aren't the target of this misplaced, cross-brand advertising campaign because it's assumed that they read, they don't need to wear it on their sleeve or across their tits. For every Scrabble tile cufflink, there are hundreds of bracelets quoting Jane Eyre and earrings with quotes from Pride and Prejudice and the real kicker -- the A Room of Her Own tea-towel. Somehow, I don't think the kitchen was the room Virginia was talking about.The Telegraph interviews Cheryl Hickman, artistic director of the Opera on the Avalon:
Newfoundland has unique characteristics that attract established composers and directors, she believes, including weather that we might consider lousy, but to some, offers a mysterious, “Wuthering Heights” feel. (Tara Bradbury)Le Vif (Belgium) begins an article about summer festivals like this
Manon, 23 ans, évoque davantage une héroïne d'Emily Brontë (Les Hauts de Hurlevent) que la festivalière tout-terrain standard. (Philippe Cornet) (Translation)Ziarul de iaşi (Romania) announces that next July 26, they will give a Romanian translation of Jane Eyre with the newspaper; The News & Observer traces an exclusive book club between a father and a daughter which began with a reading of Wide Sargasso Sea; Homo Literatus (in Portuguese) posts about Anne Brontë; Thany's Thoughts reviews Jane by April Lindner and Jane Eyre 2011; Pa(i)ge Turners has not enjoyed fully a re-reading of Jane Eyre; Prickiga Paula Och Böckerna (in Swedish) posts about Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault's Jane, the Fox and Me; the Brontë Parsonage tweets this 1836 drawing by Charlotte Brontë, The Cross of Rivaulx.
The Ultimate Romantic Hero:Darcy or Rochester?
with Fay Weldon, Grainne Maguire, Lilian Pizzichini & Professor John Mullan. Chaired by Melvyn Bragg
London Jewish Cultural Center
Wednesday 25 June 2014, 8pm
£12 in advance (£15 on the door)
Darcy and Rochester represent the epitome of the romantic hero. But what would they really have been like to live with? Are they better on the page? We debate the desirability - and the horror - of two of the greatest figures in English literature.
Melvyn Bragg has edited, produced and presented a wealth of award-winning documentaries and programmes across the cultural spectrum.
Grainne Maguire is a stand up comedian, comedy writer and columnist. She writes for the Evening Standard and the Independent.
Fay Weldon CBE, is a novelist, screenwriter and essayist, whose work over the decades has been translated into most world languages. Her novels include, most notably, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Puffball, She May Not Leave, Chalcot Crescent and Kehua! She has recently enjoyed success with the publication of her Edwardian trilogy: Habits of the House, Long Live the King and The New Countess. Her novels and stories serve as despatches from the ever changing battleground between the sexes. The least didactic of contemporary chroniclers, she is one of the few authors whose every new novel or story provokes discussion, surprise and argument.
Lilian Pizzichini is a writer and journalist. Her first book, Dead Men's Wages, about her conman grandfather, won the 2002 Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for Non-fiction. Her second, The Blue Hour: A Portrait of Jean Rhys, was published in 2009 to critical acclaim. Her latest book is Music Night at the Apollo: A Memoir of Drifting published by Bloomsbury in April 2014. Lilian has also been writer-in-residence in prisons. She has taught at universities and is a Creative Writing Mentor and Coach.
Professor John Mullan is a Professor of English at University College London. He specialises in 18th century fiction. He is currently working on the 18th-century section of the new Oxford English Literary History.
For Charlotte Brontë, attacks of what she called hypochondria, but we might characterize as depressive breakdowns, helped abbreviate the teaching career she loathed -- in large part because it left her so little time to indulge her imagination or write -- and two stints studying in Brussels.Exeter Express & Echo sums up another much-mentioned book: The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys by Lilian Pizzichini.
Once back home, Brontë channeled her distress into her writing. Dillon sheds new light on two of her lesser novels, "The Professor" and "Villette," by examining them in relation to their author's health issues. (Heller McAlpin)
When the romance ended, Rhys returned to England and in 1927 her first short story collection was published. A string of critically-acclaimed novels followed during the 1930s. But she did not publish another again until Wide Sargasso Sea. It took her nine years to compile her "prequel" to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, which tells the early life of Mr Rochester's mad wife, Bertha, in the West Indies.And Surrey Mirror reports the forthcoming performance of a Kate Bush tribute band, Hounds of Love:
With the blessing and personal involvement of her former tour manager and Kate herself, Hounds of Love is the first time that a live interpretation of her music has been toured in the UK. [...]Another county, Yorkshire, and its number of visitors are the subject of a proud-to-be-from-Yorkshire article in The Telegraph and Argus. Culture 24 lets visitors know that the Brontë Parsonage Museum is now refurbished and reopened.
"Without attempting to emulate the voice of Kate Bush, Josie finds the expression to communicate Kate's songs with impressive, passionate sympathy. They get fantastic reviews wherever they play."
Expect hits such as Wuthering Heights, Babooshka, The Big Sky, Wow and Running Up The Hill.
Get a taste of them on Youtube – www.youtube.com/user/HoundsofLoveBand.
Hounds of Love – the music of Kate Bush, presented by Acoustic Sussex, Chequer Mead Arts Centre, East Grinstead, Thursday, February 11, 8pm, £12 (£10), 01342 302000.
Think Brontemania and you’re likely to think of a windswept parsonage standing against bleak moorland, overlooking the cobbled streets of Haworth. The Brontes’ former home has been a museum for more than 80 years, and attracts thousands of visitors from around the world.Also The Telegraph and Argus reports that East Riddleden Hall will be open to the public as part of this year's Heritage Open Days:
Numbers have been boosted by the ITV adaptation of Emily Bronte’s classic Wuthering Heights, shown last week. Costumes from the drama, including dresses worn by actress Charlotte Riley as Cathy and a long black coat worn by Tom Hardy as Heathcliff, are on display at the museum until the end of the year.
But the Bronte trail doesn’t just lead to Haworth. The literary family left a mark across the district, from Thornton, where the sisters’ birthplace stands in Market Street, to Apperley Bridge, where Charlotte taught, to the Spen Valley, which provided much of the inspiration for her novel, Shirley.
In the TV adaptation of Wuthering Heights, also starring Andrew Lincoln and Sarah Lancashire, both East Riddlesden Hall and Oakwell Hall had a starring role as the Earnshaw family’s moorland home.
Exterior shots of East Riddlesden’s imposing facade were featured, and filming at Oakwell Hall took place in the kitchen, with its huge stone fireplace, parlour, wood-panelled dining-room, used as Mr Earnshaw’s study, the painted chamber and a servant’s room upstairs. Artefacts from the TV drama currently on display at Oakwell Hall include a signed script, a portrait of Cathy, a headboard carved with the names Cathy and Heathcliff, and the deeds to Wuthering Heights which Heathcliff made a drunken Hindley sign.
There was already a Bronte connection to Oakwell Hall long before the Wuthering Heights film crew rolled up. Charlotte Bronte visited the house in the 19th century and it was the inspiration for Fieldhead in Shirley.
Built in 1583, the manor house is set out as it would have been in the 1690s, when it was home to the Batt family. A mix of original and reproduction furnishings provide an insight into late 17th century life. Outside, dotted around a pretty courtyard, is a visitor centre, shop, cafe and ‘Discover Oakwell’ gallery.
The house is set in 110 acres of country park, with delightful walks, nature trails, a period garden and a wildlife area.
Over at Gomersal, an 1830s former cloth merchant’s home, Red House, also has a Bronte link. The home of Charlotte’s friend Mary Taylor, it is featured as Briarmains in Shirley.
“There was no splendour, but taste was everywhere,” wrote Charlotte about the pretty red-brick house, which looks much as it did in her day. Each room brings you closer to the 1830s, from the elegant parlour to the stone-flagged kitchen with its old range and jelly moulds, to the stained glass windows, described in the novel. Charlotte’s Spen connections and friendship with Mary are explored in an exhibition in the barn.
Wandering around the Parsonage Museum, with the sound of crows outside, there’s a fascinating flavour of the Brontes’ domestic and creative lives.
Items on display include Charlotte’s writing materials and their father Patrick’s magnifying glass.
Pre-booked guided tours allow visitors to see treasures from the Bronte Society’s world-famous collections not always on display, including miniature books, made from sugar paper stitched together, which the siblings created as children.
Outdoor activities include guided walks around Haworth, starting in the Parsonage garden, which remains pretty much as it was during the Brontes’ time. A Cyprus Pine tree has grown from saplings planted by Charlotte acquired on honeymoon in Ireland.
Peter Bowker, screenwriter of ITV’s Wuthering Heights, will be at West Lane Baptist Church, Haworth, on September 24 to talk about the process of adapting a classic novel for television.
Next Saturday, novellist Barbara Taylor Bradford will be at Haworth’s Old Schoolroom talking about her love of the Brontes.
Factfile The Bronte Parsonage Museum, Haworth, is open from April to September, 10am-5.30pm and October to March, 11am-5pm. For more, ring (01535) 642323 or bronte.org Oakwell Hall, Nutter Lane, Birstall, is open weekdays, 11am-5pm, and Saturdays and Sundays, noon-5pm. Ring (01924) 326240 or visit kirklees.gov.uk East Riddlesden Hall, Bradford Road, Riddlesden, is open Saturday to Wednesday, 11am-5pm. Ring (01535) 607075 or visit eastriddlesdenhall.co.uk Red House Museum, Oxford Road, Gomersal, is open Monday to Friday, 11am-5pm and Saturdays and Sundays, noon-5pm. Ring (01274) 335100. (Emma Clayton)
East Riddlesden Hall, near Keighley, owned by the National Trust, was one of eight of the charity’s Yorkshire properties taking part in Heritage Open Days programme.Don't forget that Holy Trinity Church at Little Ouseburn - the church Anne attended while working for the Robinson family - will also be open as part of the same initiative.
The 17th century manor house, which has a country garden, grass maze and duck pond, also has links to the Civil War and was the location for the 1992 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights. (Hannah Baker)
SIR – Haworth is a lovely place, I go there often. There’s nothing better than strolling up Main Street to the Bronte Parsonage, and then back down to The Fleece, where on a nice afternoon one can sit outside with a pint of Timmy Taylors, chill out, and watch the world go by.After all this (excepting the hateful clamper, of course), the following article from the Keighley News is hardly surprising, is it?
Just one thing spoils it. Why can’t Bradford Council replace the modern imitation gas lamp, opposite the pub, with a genuine ‘proper’ Victorian gas lamp (adapted to electric of course).
For a few hundred quid it would look much better and more in keeping with the street.
Just one more thing while talking of improvements; get rid of the wheel-clamping ‘Dick Turpin’ – he gives Haworth a bad name.
I Dickinson, Cooper Lane, Horton Bank Top
Keighley and Haworth are helping Yorkshire in its role as one of the most popular tourist destinations in the UK.A town on the other side of the pond - in Texas - also has a Brontë connection, according to the San Angelo Standard Times:
Bradford district comes out as a top spot in a visitor survey which reveals how the county is bucking tourism trends.
And the Brontë Parsonage Museum and Keighley and Worth Valley Railway are among the tourist hotspots.
The city and surrounding area was praised for its “good atmosphere”.
The majority of visitors — 84 per cent — planned to attend museums or other cultural attractions, according to the survey.
Almost 11,000 people visiting the county were quizzed about their opinions, between May 2008 and April this year.
The survey was funded by Yorkshire Forward and managed by Welcome to Yorkshire.
Its aim was to give a breakdown of visitor habits and the results revealed high scores for feeling welcome, customer service and atmosphere and value for money.
Bradford was said to be full of character and had lovely countryside and the Haworth area was good for walking and visiting.
Jim Shipley, of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, said the survey was in line with what the heritage line was experiencing.
“We have noticed that the number of visitors midweek is higher — last year we suffered a drop,” he said. “And there is a distinct increase in the number of foreign visitors. All this is very gratifying. Keeping visitors and ensuring they return involves giving them extra value when they get here — not just a trip on a steam locomotive.”
Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “This is the first time that such in-depth visitor information has been collated.
“Headline results show that 96 per cent of visitors would recommend to a friend and 88 per cent are likely to return, which is excellent.”
Folklore has it that the town of Bronte was named after the author of “Wuthering Heights” when it was founded in the 1880s. . . (Laurel L. Scott)Western Mail reviews The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys by Lilian Pizzichini.
She left the Caribbean in 1907 for a convent school in England, already by this time a lover of the works of Dickens and the Brontes. [...]The Monthly Review discusses 'a new edition of Jonah Raskin’s The Mythology of Imperialism: A Revolutionary Critique of British Literature and Society in the Modern Age', making a brief reference to Emily Brontë.
But it was Wide Sargasso Sea, published in 1966 after she spent many years as a recluse in Devon, which is best remembered.
The book was written as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 classic Jane Eyre.
In the novel, set in the Caribbean, Rhys invents a dark and disturbing history for the unfortunate first bride of Edward Rochester, known as Bertha Mason.
Pizzichini said: “Written more than 40 years ago, Wide Sargasso Sea clearly mined Rhys’s memories of life in the lush backwaters and steamy heat of Dominica in her attempt to explain how Bronte’s dishevelled figure locked in the attic came to lose her mind.”
Bethan Jenkins, Plaid Cymru AM for South Wales West, has listed Wide Sargasso Sea as one of her favourite books. She described it as a “strong critique of colonialism with a vibrant feminist edge”. (Robin Turner)
As a big fan of Victorian novels, even the stay-at-home kind, I’m tempted to object that some of what Raskin says about the Victorians (not all of which is negative—he does see important virtues in Dickens, Emily Bronte, and even George Eliot) is tendentiously arranged to make the contrasting case for the modernists who came afterward. Is there too much resolution in the endings of Victorian novels? Well, maybe, but it depends on how good you are at recognizing loose ends, so to speak, that carry the logic of the novel beyond its final distribution of reward and punishment. These novels invest a lot of energy in issues that they cannot finally resolve, and that they all but admit they cannot resolve. In this sense, they do what Raskin’s book also does: teach readers to recognize the contradictions in their lives by following out the contradictions lived by literary characters, even if no one can imagine any immediate or likely resolution to those contradictions. (Bruce Robbins)And it looks like we're in for another ride in the 'Austen-meets-Brontë' review type, as shown by this article from The Telegraph on the BBC's forthcoming Emma adaptation.
Producers seem to believe that passion is good and appeals to modern audiences, while emotional restraint is a distortion of natural impulses therefore bad. Perhaps this is what is behind the new BBC adaptation. It sounds as if what they're going to create is a strange kind of hybrid: Austen crossed with the Brontes or Bridget Jones in a bonnet.Crafty people on the blogs today: Love and Friendship has created several Jane Eyre 2006 icons and Carol's Crafty Creations has pictures of her Wuthering Heights quilt.
In some ways the aim to make Emma alive and readable is laudable but you have to work out how much you can change Austen for it to still be Austen. (Judith Hawley)
THE delights of Oakwell Hall will be seen on TV later this month when ITV1 screens a new, two part adaptation of Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights.The Guardian has an interesting article about Paula Rego which mentions in passing her Jane Eyre series:
The Elizabethan manor house at Birstall was one of several locations used for filming the Mammoth Screen production which stars Tom Hardy as Heathcliff and Charlotte Riley as Cathy. It also features Sarah Lancashire and Andrew Lincoln.
The museum was closed to the public for the whole of July last year to allow a film crew to transform the historic house into Wuthering Heights. That included redressing rooms and adding props and atmospheric lighting.
Now, a year later, Kirklees Museum staff, who were on hand throughout the filming, are eager to see the part Oakwell plays in the drama.“Oakwell is popular as a historic film location but this was by far the biggest production to involve the site,” said Deborah Marsland, Kirklees Museums operations manager. (...)
“It was very exciting having the film crew here and it will be interesting to see how much of Oakwell Hall we can recognise. “Many of the museum’s historic items of furniture, ornaments, paintings and wall hangings had to be removed for safekeeping to allow the crew to prepare their sets.”
“Staff rubbed shoulders with the stars and got a real behind-the-scenes insight into the making of a major drama. But it wasn’t as glamorous as expected.
“It sounds like endless fun but the days were long and fairly tedious – and you had to be very quiet,” said collections assistant Linda Levick.
Joanne Catlow, Museums and Galleries education manager, had to spend an evening sitting in a ‘set’ in Oakwell’s Great Hall.
“The windows were blacked out and there was a coffin sitting in the middle of the room. It was very spooky,” she said.
Staff also saw tricks of the trade – a specially-made latex kitchen floor to avoid injury to the actors during a fight scene and when Heathcliff was having his infamous tantrums; and the use of identical twin babies to play Cathy as a baby, both of whom had to be squeezed into original gowns worn by much smaller 18th century babies.
Museum staff also experienced the end of filming celebrations. When the director uttered those famous words “It’s a wrap”, the sound engineers flooded Oakwell’s Great Hall with the sound of Kate Bush’s hit single Wuthering Heights.
An exhibition linked to the filming of Wuthering Heights will be going on display at Oakwell Hall in September. (Val Javin)
Much of her work is directly inspired by literature, from Brontë's Jane Eyre to Kafka's The Metamorphosis to Martin McDonagh's play The Pillowman. (Simon Hattenstone)Another of Paula Rego's inspirations, and as a matter of fact the one that brought her to Jane Eyre, is Wide Sargasso Sea. The latest biography about its author, Jean Rhys (Lilian Pizzichini's The Blue Hour) is also reviewed in The Guardian by no other than Elaine Showalter herself:
Ezra Pound's cruel "Portrait d'une Femme" uncannily foretells the life of Jean Rhys: "Your mind and you are our Sargasso Sea, / London has swept about you these score years, / And bright ships left you this or that in fee." Like Pound's femme, Rhys was a passive and exotic temptress, who hoarded fragments of the literary and artistic demi-monde she inhabited. But unlike Pound's siren, who has finally "nothing that is quite your own", Rhys was an artist who managed to survive poverty, alcoholism, loneliness, mental depression and physical dilapidation, and produce one great novel, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), a prequel to Jane Eyre which tells the story from the viewpoint of the first Mrs Rochester, as well as four other fine novels, short stories and an unfinished memoir.UIT in Brabant (Netherlands) presents the October performances of Wuthering Heights by the Artemis Theater Company:
Schuilt er in ieder van ons een Heathcliff en valt deze te temmen? Wuthering Heights is bekend van de vele verfilmingen, bewerkingen en songteksten. In de voorstelling van Artemis speelt een groep veelbelovende jonge acteurs dit indringende toneelstuk.This comment in The Independent (Ireland) mixes a good point with a deeply wrong one. Guess what's what:
Cathy en haar broer Patrick wonen op het afgelegen landgoed Woeste Hoogten, waar het leven zich in alle vredigheid en harmonie afspeelt. De harmonie wordt flink verstoord wanneer Heathcliff in hun leven verschijnt. Dit weeskind brengt tweespalt in het gesloten gezin. Patrick haat hem direct en Cathy sluit hem in haar hart. Wanneer Cathy uiteindelijk toch kiest voor de fijnzinnige Edgar, verdwijnt Heathcliff uit haar leven. Maar niet voor goed…
De chaos die zijn terugkeer veroorzaakt sleurt alle bewoners van de Woeste Hoogten mee de diepte in. (Google translation)
I have met people who start to shake with fear at the mention of Wuthering Heights because they had such a bad experience with it at school. I read it a couple of years ago for the radio show book club. It's a tough little read and probably a girls' book in reality but it was worth looking at and the film with Laurence Olivier is a melodramatic treat (and that's before I even mention Kate Bush). It seems a shame that a whole generation of people will end up hating that book due to an uninterested teacher or a poorly thought out curriculum.The New York Times reviews Valerie Martin's new novel, The Confessions of Edward Day. Faithful readers of BrontëBlog will remember the Wuthering Heights references in her previous novel Trespass but what the NYT reviewer quotes is not from this novel but from what is, still today, her best known novel Mary Reilly:
In fact the novel “Mary Reilly” is so riveting, in a “Jane Eyre” kind of way, that when I misplaced it halfway through, I was in psychic pain until I located it again. (Laurie Winer)
El autor, además, acude al argumento de Jane Eyre en una maniobra inteligente y sutil que proporciona la clave de diversos enigmas. (Jorge de Cominges) (Google translation)
Originally exhibited at London's prestigious White Cube, Sam Taylor-Wood's Ghosts photographic series is here resized to find its remote cultural home amid the Brontë paraphernalia of west Yorkshire's Haworth. Shot on the bleak moorlands near Top Withens, the setting for Emily Brontë's wonderfully moody novel Wuthering Heights, Taylor-Wood's landscapes are deceptively simple and direct. While avoiding over-emphasising the moody romanticism, they achieve a rare atmospheric resonance. There are few artworks in any medium that are as grounded in a particular landscape as Wuthering Heights, and Taylor-Wood's series here pays fitting on-site homage to the fact. (Robert Clark)The Globe and Mail recommends summer reads. Aislinn Hunter has a very original and Brontëite proposal:
My favourite books of letters are Letters: Summer 1926, by Boris Pasternak, Marina Tsvetayeva and Rainer Maria Rilke; Paula Modersohn-Becker: The Letters and Journals, by German Expressionist Modersohn-Becker, edited by Günter Busch and Liselotte Von Reinken; The Gonne-Yeats Letters, 1893-1938, by Maud Gonne and William Butler Yeats, edited by Anna MacBride White; and the three-volume (epic) set of Charlotte Brontë's correspondence, which brings Haworth and the family's day-to-day habits to life.Heather Vogel Frederick writes in The Christian Science Monitor about her literary trip searching for Jane Austen. It mentions Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West by Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon
a “book-lover’s Baedeker,” full of detailed travel advice, commentary, and anecdotes about the authors profiled.The New York Times revies Lilian Pizzichini's The Blue Hour:
Co-author Schmidt clued me on the fact that that what I was doing – a writer tailing another writer – was actually nothing new.
“A lot of writers were literary travelers,” she informed me. “Nathaniel Hawthorne visited Sir Walter Scott’s castle in Scotland, and Louisa May Alcott toured Dickensian sites when she went to London.” Edith Wharton and Henry James toured literary landmarks as well and once “visited George Sand’s chateau together.”
An avid aficionado of this brand of travel herself, Schmidt’s favorite destination is Bronte country. “I loved Wuthering Heights, and for me, the moors were as much a part of the story as the characters,” she says.
“Wide Sargasso Sea,” a prequel to “Jane Eyre” that brought Jean Rhys fame in her late 70s, was the product of hard-won wisdom about how a fragile psyche can be crushed by the habits of dominance and submission between men and women, and between Europe and its colonies. As with Rhys’s four other novels, it was written during snatches of diligence amid episodes of paralyzing depression and alcoholic rage. (Mick Sussman)The Times reviews the TV series True Blood:
Obviously and understandably, at this point, many people will be having an automatic embarrassment-reaction to the subject of vampires. Even the superlative work done on Buffy the Vampire Slayer has failed to quell many people’s default Vampire Alarm. “Vampires are strictly for overweight teenage girls, into gallimaufry with capes,” they will tut. “It’s all just Wuthering Heights with silly teeth. It’s not proper drama. Proper drama is about corrupt cops shouting at each other in parked cars, or divorcing couples shouting at each other in hallways. Vampires are just the default metaphor of the over-excited.” (Caitlin Moran)The Elk River Star News revies a local production of the musical The Secret Garden by Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon:
“The Secret Garden” is a daunting musical, one few community theaters are willing to tackle.The Guardian explores some of the activities that the National Trust offers. Including visiting Belton House which was Gateshead Hall in Jane Eyre 2006:
Elk River Community Theatre (ERCT) loves a challenge, and will present this tale of mystery, misery, dreams, lost love and redemption, set in a spooky mansion on the Yorkshire moors in the early 1900s, beginning Friday at Zabee Theater.
“This play does not get done often. The vocals and theatrics are demanding and the sets are complex,” said Eileen Bowersox, who’s both directing and playing a role,
Bowersox and fellow actors viewed this play in another metro area theater and left “totally confused,” but she is confident the ERCT can pull it together.
“This play has some light moments but also some very intense scenes,” she said. “This is not fluff. We want to showcase our acting and singing talents.”
Noting the ghostly figures and moving sets, she quips: “This is like Harry Potter meets Wuthering Heights.” (Bruce Strand)
At Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal in North Yorkshire, the It's a Monk's Life guided tour invites you to dress up in robes and learn about the daily life of a monk, while at Belton House in Lincolnshire children and parents can dress up like Victorians to explore the house, which has seen filming for Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and Tom Jones within its walls.The couple Ryan Gosling-Rachel McAdams is qualified by the National Post as
Canada's answer to Heathcliff and Catherine swooshed off to differing orbits. (Shinan Govani)The Book Reporter interviews author Stephen L. Carter, whose latest book is Jericho's Fall:
Q: Jericho's house, Stone Heights, is itself a character in this novel, one with its own secrets and surprises. It harks back to such stories as WUTHERING HEIGHTS or REBECCA or an Agatha Christie mystery where the physical setting is as much a character as the people. Did you have any of those stories in mind as you wrote this?Pakistan Views interviews actress and director Savera Nadeem:
SLC: Oh, yes. I remember reading Thomas Hardy as a teenager, and being fascinated by the way that the house or the pond or the moor was always brooding over the action. Here, I had in effect two "physical" characters, the house itself, and the mountains that surround both Stone Heights and the town of Bethel. By the way, the town of Bethel is fictitious, but of course bears a biblical relation to Jericho.
Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are my favourite books of all time. They are works of the highest order,” Savera fondly reveals.ClicRBS (Brazil) selects Wuthering Heights 1939 as a 'crying' film:
O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes (Wuthering Heighs) – o magnífico William Wyler dirige com maestria esta história de amor, ódio e vingança, baseado no romance de Emily Brontë. Clássico obrigatório para os amantes de cinema. O filme conta a trágica histórica de Heathclif, um jovem pobre que enriquece e decide se vingar de todos os que o humilharam. Será que sua sede de vingança é tanta que nem mesmo o amor pela bela donzela Cathy será capaz de apagar seu ódio? O final....? Quem anda não sabe, que vá assistir. Mas por favor, o clássico de 39. (Ju Lessa) (Google translation)El Diario Vasco (Spain) interviews author Claudia Casanova:
Ella se crió leyendo a «Walter Scott, Dumas, Flaubert, las Brontë. Los clásicos y los románticos. Más que por mi trabajo de editora, que ayuda, escribo como lo hago por mis lecturas de siempre», asegura. (Elena Sierra) (Google translation)Lourdes Ortiz talks in El Diario Montañés (Spain) about Simone de Beauvoir and her Brontëiteness:
La escritora también recordó lo dura que fue la parisina con sus contemporáneas, a las que acusaba de seguir siendo «dependientes» aunque escribieran o pintaran. «No le interesaban sus colegas, a las que en general despreciaba. Sólo salvaba a Virginia Wolf y a Brönte (sic)». (Violeta Santiago) (Google translation)A couple more of German papers contain articles about the Annelies Štrba exhibition at the Bilderbuchmuseum Burg Wissem in Troisdorf, Germany:
Das Licht ist diffus, die Farben entstammen einem Reich, das nicht von dieser Welt zu sein scheint, das irgendwo unter Wasser oder mitten in einem wunderlichen Dschungel liegt.
Die Stimmung lässt sich am ehesten als märchenhaft bis schaurig beschreiben. So wie die Schweizer Fotografin Annelies ?trba ihre ätherischen Mädchen im Märchenwald inszeniert, so stellt man sich die Fantasiewelt der Brontë-Schwestern im Heidemoor von Yorkshire vor. Erst recht die zwischen Idylle und Albtraum oszillierende Stimmung in Emily Brontës Klassiker "Wuthering Heights" ("Sturmhöhe", 1847) findet in trbas opulenten Farbfotografien ihren kongenialen Gegenpart.
Service Bilderbuchmuseum Burg Wissem, Troisdorf; bis 6. September. Di-So 11-17 Uhr.
Mit dem Foto-Projekt "My Life Dreams" ist die Schweizerin im Bilderbuchmuseum Burg Wissem zu Gast, das beim Komplex "Rotkäppchen und der böse Wolf" um die Ecke die wundersame Welt der Brontës zelebriert. Den Anfang machen Fotos und Dokumente aus der Sammlung des Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth. Porträts zeigen die zarten Gesichter von Charlotte und Emily, die mit geschicktem Strich 1829 eine Ringdrossel zeichnete oder den Hund "Keeper" im Aquarell verewigte.
Eine hübsche Landschaft mit Kirche erscheint auf einem Blatt der jüngsten Brontë-Schwester Anne, ein winziges Büchlein, über dessen Inhalt nur Spekulationen möglich sind, war einst im Besitz von Charlotte. Und wenn es um die Interpretation geht, muss der Name Balthus fallen, der mit einem Schuss Lolita-Erotik 1933 "Wuthering Heights" illustrierte. Tatsächlich findet sich in der Ausstellung ein Druck des großen Balthus.
So ganz unberührt von einer latent erotischen Aufladung sind auch Annelies ?trbas Bilder nicht, auch die Darstellung der jungen Mädchen als somnambule, in einem Zwischenzustand zwischen Traum und Tod treibende Wesen erinnert an Balthus. Den Plot zu ?trbas Bildessays aber hat Emily Brontë selbst in ihrem Roman geschrieben: "Ich habe in meinem Leben schon Träume gehabt, die mich immer wieder verfolgt und meine Ansichten verändert haben. Sie haben mich durchdrungen, wie man Wasser mit Wein mischt, und meinem Denken eine andere Farbe gegeben."
Annelies trba setzt solche Texte in fließende, atmosphärische Bilder um, ähnlich wie bei den Studien aus ihrem engsten Familienkreis, den Porträts und Städtebildern, die sie schon auf der ganzen Welt ausgestellt hat, und die eine Autorin einmal als "Innenaugenbilder" bezeichnete. "My Life Dreams" verwischt die Grenzen zwischen Fotografie und Malerei im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes und reizt sämtliche Möglichkeiten und Tricks digitaler Bildbearbeitung aus. Ein schaurig-schönes Fantasy-Abenteuer. (Thomas Kliemann in General-Anzeiger) (Google translation)
Winzig wie eine Babyhand ist das Buch, das in einer Vitrine liegt. Die kleine Häkelschrift ist nicht zu entziffern. Wird hier vielleicht von den Königreichen Angria und Gondal erzählt? In diesen imaginierten Rückzugsort nämlich flüchteten die Geschwister Brontë als Kinder. Ihre Erzählungen hielten sie in selbst gemachten „Zeitungen“ fest; vielleicht auch in jenem Büchlein, das sie aus Zuckerpapier bastelten.Martin Stannard, who has spent 15 years researching Muriel Spark's authorised biography, publishes an interesting article in The Guardian. A couple of passing mentions to Muriel Spark's book about Emily Brontë (Emily Brontë. Her Life and Work, published in 1953 with Derek Stanford) appear. Vandalism in St Mary's churchyard (Scarborough), home to Anne Bronte's grave, is reported in Scarborough Evening News. Fortunately, Anne's tomb has not been affected, The Weekly Standard reviews Elaine Showalter's A Jury of Her Peers. American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. DotGolf (in Italy) traces bizarre comparisons between Wuthering Heights and Tom Watson 1977 Open Championship victory.
Heute ist es eine bibliophile Kostbarkeit, zu bewundern in der Schau „My Life Dreams“ im Bilderbuchmuseum auf Burg Wissem - mit Zeichnungen und literarischen Zeugnissen von Anne, Charlotte und Emily. Direktorin Maria Linsmann konnte diese kleine Auswahl aus dem Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth ausleihen. Und musste dafür eine Pilgerreise nach Yorkshire antreten. Denn das Institut verleiht seine Schätze nur ungern, gilt es doch, die Aura des Brontë-Pfarrhauses zu hüten, die Fans aus aller Welt heilig ist.
Alles ist an seinem Platz: die Möbel, der Stickrahmen und auch die Peitsche, mit der die Kinder von ihrem Vater geschlagen worden sind. Landschaftsskizzen, eine Zeichnung des Haushundes, Manuskripte und Porträts der Geschwister gewähren einen intimen Einblick in das Drama der begabten Kinder, mit dem sich vor allem ein Name verbindet: „Wuthering Heights“, Emilys düsteres Werk um Liebe, Demütigung, Eifersucht und Rache.
In den Bann dieses viktorianischen Seelenromans ließ sich auch die Fotografin Annelies "trba (Jg. 1947) ziehen, die den größten Teil der Schau bestreitet. Ätherische Frauen- und vor allem Mädchenfiguren inszeniert sie in Landschaften von tranceartiger, surrealer Farbigkeit. Türkisblau wallt der Nebel einer Alice im Wunderland entgegen, die im weißen Rüschenkleid durch einen violetten Tannenwald wandelt. Doch oft liegen die Heldinnen mit geschlossenen Augen da, eingebettet ins Moos der nordenglischen Nebellandschaft oder wie Schneewittchen eingesargt in die Gletscher von Annelies "trbas Schweizer Heimat. Ihre eigenen Töchter und Enkelinnen haben vor der Kamera posiert. Durch Vergrößerung, malerische Unschärfe und handwerkliche Manipulation werden die Lichtbilder in eine Sphäre jenseits des Privaten gerückt, die zwischen bedrohtem Idyll und sanftem Horror changiert.
Mag zuweilen die Grenze zum arg Gefälligen gestreift werden, so fasziniert doch das Gespür Annelies "trbas für Stimmungsräume. Wie giftgelbe Fanale leuchten die Narzissen auf dem nächtlichen Friedhof von Haworth; und im geisterhaften Pfarrhaus stellen wir uns die Dichterin Emily Brontë vor: „sitzt allein an ihrem Fenster / wo der Abend sich verlor / böiger Winde böse Ahnung / flitzt durch grauen Wolkenflor“. (Annette Schroeder in Kölnische Rundschau) (Google translation)
But these analogies gradually become stretched and overly literal, with biotech shares being compared to the guy who “wears a lab coat and protective eyewear during business hours”, telecoms shares to men who are “always on the phone, the internet” and the enterprise collapses entirely when the authors compare art and other collectable investments to “ahh, the dreamy, mysterious artist. The dark horse. Jane Eyre’s Heathcliff.” There’s a book called Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Brontë. There’s also a book called Wuthering Heights written by Emily Brontë. The latter, when I last read it, featured a character called Heathcliff. But, if memory serves, Jane Eyre and Heathcliff have never featured in the same major literary work. [...]Fortunately, other people are capable of remembering who's in which book. The Mormon Times carries an article on Sister Ann M. Dibb:
But the Heathcliff/Jane Eyre clanger is a symptom of a bigger intellectual problem with Flirting with Finance: ultimately, romance and investment are completely dissimilar. And to compare them (to make another comparison) is like drawing an analogy between Michael Jackson’s discography and the output of a Midlands sponge factory. (Sathnam Sanghera)
One of her favorite examples of virtue is the character Jane Eyre, when she refuses to marry Mr. Rochester after she finds out his first wife is still alive. "It is because she is a virtuous woman" that she stays true to the laws of God, Sister Dibb said. (Christine Rappleye)And it is one of our favourite examples of Jane Eyre's versatility and how it will be considered religious, not religious, Christian, unChristian, etc.
As a reader, Wennick said she likes many types of books, including classics such as “Jane Eyre” and “Oliver Twist.” (Andrew Schotz)We wonder if due to that Nora Roberts will treat her to a night at her inn's Jane Eyre room.
Not so long ago, high schoolers had to lug heavy beach bags brimming with tomes by Bronte, Steinbeck, and Tolstoy. These days, they’re more likely to carry sprightly fare by contemporary authors like Dan Brown, Mitch Albom, and Bill Bryson.A Brontë reference in the Washington Times review of Richard Flanagan's Wanting:
With apologies to Kafka, the summer reading list is undergoing a metamorphosis.
While area schools constantly tweak their lists and debate what deserves a spot, a consensus is growing that students should be enticed to read, even if that leads them to books that haven’t yet stood the test of time.
So instead of reading about Heathcliff’s romantic misfortune at Wuthering Heights circa 1800, students can laugh over Bryson’s present-day attempt to conquer the Appalachian Trail, while riffing on his hiking buddy’s more annoying habits. (Lisa Kocian)
Given her faith in continuous improvement, it is perhaps not surprising that she hit on the idea of adopting an aboriginal child and educating it like an English child to prove that aborigines can be brought into the modern world. She chooses Mathinna, who charms almost everyone with her spritely spontaneity. But while spriteliness appeals, it is not what is required, so Lady Jane subjects Mathinna to the kind of Victorian education shown in Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre." (Claire Hopley)Bloomberg interviews writer (and Brontëite) Alice Hoffman:
Zinta Lundborg: What’s your reaction to being described as a “magical” writer?Los Angeles Times reviews Jean Rhys's biography The Blue Hour by Lilian Pizzichini:
Hoffman: I like to write about real people in mythic ways because I see them that way. The tradition of literature is magic, whether it’s fairy tales or Kafka, Shakespeare or the Brontes, and the whole idea of realism is a new and not-so- interesting idea.
Rhys was thought to be dead, but she was living, precariously, the town drunk in constant squabbles with her neighbors and with her third husband, Max. The news that she was alive reached the ears of a sympathetic publisher who in 1958 signed her to finish the novel she was working on. When her masterpiece, "Wide Sargasso Sea," was published in 1966, and her four previous novels returned to print, she was hailed as the great lost writer of prewar England -- indeed, one of the finest and most original writers of the century. (...)The Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka) talks with the actress Anarkali Akarsha who mentions her role as Jane Eyre in the local TV production Kula Kumariya (2007):
Pizzichini seems bored by Rhys' post-"Wide Sargasso Sea" life as an irascible demi-celebrity (nightclub impresario George Melly compared her to a septuagenarian Johnny Rotten in a pink wig). But her book -- more a "portrait" of Rhys than a full-blown biography -- largely achieves its aim: to "present the fact of Rhys's life in such a way that the reader is left with an impression of what it was like to have lived such a life." (Eric Banks)
The actress with a charming personality chose ‘Iti Pahan’ by Somaratna Dissanayaka, ‘Arunoda Kalapaya’ by Senesh Bandara Dissanayake and Bermin Fernando’s ‘Kulakumari’ (playing her favourite Jane Eyre) as tele-dramas which made an impact among her fans. (Jatila Karawita)Stacy's Bookblog posts about Jane Eyre 2006, The World According to Sam and Searching My Soul (in Greek) talk about Charlotte Brontë's novel.
Wuthering Heights ***The writer of this production, Deepak Verma is interviewed on Kirk Originals Eyewear:
Following the success of Bride and Prejudice, loosely adapted from Jane Austen's novel, it was only a matter of time before one of the Brontë sisters was given the Bollywood treatment.
Tamasha, a theatre company which has already had success with productions like East is East, decided on Wuthering Heights, taking the action from the Yorkshire moors to the desert of Rajastan, swapping the snobbery of Victorian England for the caste system of India and including a few songs and dance numbers on the way.
The result is very much a Brontë-lite production. Cathy is the headstrong Shakuntala, Heathcliff the street urchin Krishan, but both lack the original intensity and as their love story turns to tragedy, there's a distinct lack of emotional impact.
Certainly there is a lot of room from improvement. The score is occasionally woeful, the acting at times a little wooden and the lack of a big Bollywood number at the end is unforgivable
However, it's a production which is also easy on the eye. The choreography is seamless, the set, if someone has managed to fix an erratic door, simple and beautiful and the story, which makes no claims to be a faithful adaptation, entertains from start to finish.
For all the minor flaws, the real problem for Tamasha may well be the theatre in which they decided to premiere their new show.
In a town as wealthy as Harrogate, there's really no excuse that its only theatre has been allowed to become an unloved museum piece.
Buildings like it are costly to maintain, but even when it has had the cash, it seems to have spent it unwisely. Whichever bright spark decided turquoise velvet seats were just the thing to sit against the traditional plush red colour scheme has hopefully now exited stage left. Sadly, against this backdrop of chipped plaster and an auditorium which is as hot as Mumbai, a sumptuous Bollywood production can only ever sit uncomfortably. (Sarah Freeman)
Did you just wake up one morning and decide to write and direct a Bollywood style musical?Opera News reviews the recent Midsummer Night by Kate Royal and makes the following statement (with which this half of BrontëBlog cannot agree more):
No! I’ve always been fascinated by the character of Heathcliff. He was the “outsider” who had to work ten times as hard as all those around him – like me in a way.
Why did you pick Emily Brontes ‘Wuthering Heights?’ instead of, lets say, Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’?
Mainly for the Heathcliff’s character. Also, Jane Austen is not passionate of dark enough for me.
Have you ever been to Yorkshire Moors?
No – but doing Bronte Goes to Bollywood has given me a real yurning to go and explore the Moors.
Are you a romantic at heart?
Yes. Very much!
Do you think Emily Bronte would give ‘Bronte Goes to Bollywood’ the thumbs up?
Yes. Its loyal to the characters and their journeys – and we are all very affectionate towards the story.
Bollywood film productions are usually BIG affairs. Did you find it easy to translate into a live stage performance?
No. It was a long process but with the collaboration of the Tamasha Theatre Company and lots of research we have a fabulous project on our hands.
The stage version is a great success. Is that why you headed off to the Oscars earlier this year? Is there a film version in the pipeline?
Yes there is. It’s only at the “talking about” stage at the moment so who knows!
Listening to Royal's fine performances of Britten's tower scene from The Turn of the Screw, the magnificent "At the haunted end of the day," from Walton's Troilus and Cressida, and "I have dreamt," Cathy's moving aria from Bernard Herrmann's woefully underperformed Wuthering Heights, one can't help but be reminded of a time when those who were in the business of presenting new opera put the music first. If the audiences weren't always there for them, if the academic establishment was too busy castigating them because they weren't serialists to notice that they were producing some really fine music — well, the composers shouldn't be blamed. (Brian Kellow)The Mirror interviews ITV boss Peter Fincham who says the following about the period drama ITV crisis:
In these tough financial times, drama is a harder genre to commit to at the levels we have been used to as it's so expensive to make (Heartbeat, The Royal and Primeval have been axed while a planned adaptation of A Passage to India was also canned). But we will do more period drama. Wuthering Heights will be shown later this year and I had a meeting yesterday about an important new period drama series. (Nicola Methven)As Kelly pointed out on a previous post it is rather strange that Wuthering Heights 2009 appearance on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK is apparently scheduled for next September 7th when everything seems to point to a later British airing.
There is verisimilitude in the book's form as well, with an intricacy and sentimentality worthy of Dickens; alternating narrators reminiscent of a Brontë; and a satirical eye as sharp as Thackeray's. (Melissa Katsoulis)The Basingstoke Gazette reviews the Basingstoke comedy night at Jan Jack’s latest Laughter House in The Red Lion Hotel, Basingstoke. One of the participants is the Irish Grainne McGuire whose routine includes an Emily Brontë impersonation:
The Irish Grainne McGuire had a chummy style and ironic wit, and created wonderful image of Emily Bronte writing letters in praise of people she hated when she was drunk.Christopher Caldwell talks about copyright issues and sequels (still following the recent Salinger affaire) in The Financial Times:
Many novels deploy other writers’ characters: John Gardner’s Grendel, Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (a spin-off of Jane Eyre), the late George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman series, which draws from Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown’s Schooldays, and Charlie Higson’s Young Bond books, to name just a few.It seems that Kristina Foden-Vencil, from the Oregon Public Broadcasting News, cannot be considered a Brontëite as can be deduced from this comment on the English, Baby! website:
It’s different from the English lessons you might remember at school. But that’s the point. It’s meant to be fun and perhaps a little more engaging than Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre.’Exactly the opposite of Tara Entwistle-Clark from the Boston Books Examiner who chooses Wuthering Heights for her summer reading recommendation list:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: Twilight fans! This is for you. Here is the original story of the bad boy and the woman who loves him, despite all of the forces of the world around them working against them.And the author Hazel Statham, who is interviewed on Blogcritics Books:
What is your favorite book at the present?El Diario Vasco interviews author Tamara Cadena. Another Brontëite (romantic, no capital R, faction):
Can I cheat and tell you my three favorite books? At 16 I found Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and it has remained my absolute favorite throughout the years. Then came Georgette Heyer’s These Old Shades, and more recently Laura Kinsale’s Flowers From The Storm. These three books are my main ‘comfort’ reads and have traveled all over the world with me as well as into hospital on several occasions. They’re very well traveled books and I have more than one copy of each of them. (Dorothy Thompson)
Y mira que si nos ponemos a hablar de 'Cumbres borrascosas'.In La Nación (Argentina), Juana Libedinsky comments on the recent edition of Wuthering Heights targeted to Twilight fans connecting it with the recent casting of Ed Westwick as Heathcliff:
- Por Dios, ¡me muero! De hecho, que sentí morir cuando un compañero de trabajo me dijo después de leer mi novela: «De ahora en adelante tú serás mi Emily Brönte». ¿Te lo puedes imaginar? ¡Me estaba comparando con la escritora de una historia de amor que atraviesa no sólo el tiempo sino la frontera entre la vida y la muerte.
- Heatchliff y Cathy... Son de los nuestros, ¿verdad?
- Para siempre. Te lo repito, me fascina esa capacidad de decidir que la pasión que te quemaba por dentro cuando estabas viva te seguirá quemando después de muerta. (Begoña Del Teso) (Google translation)
Si uno se acerca a la estantería de best sellers de literatura adolescente, entre los libros de la serie de vampiros Crepúsculo -el gran éxito de Stephenie Meyer, fenómeno cultural que fue comparado con el de Harry Potter-, aparece una novedad que realmente a muchos pone los pelos de punta: Cumbres borrascosas , presentado con un diseño gráfico en negro y colorado, con letras góticas para que parezca parte del conjunto de libros de Meyer cuyas tapas son en ese estilo.Nu.nl finds Brontë echoes in C.E. Morgan's All The Living:
Para que no haya ninguna duda sobre la estrecha relación, en la imagen de la portada se aclara: "¡El libro preferido de Edward y Bella!", en referencia a los protagonistas de Crepúsculo , que citan frases del clásico de Emily Brontë en la tercera entrega de la historia de amor entre el joven Nosferatu y la adolescente del noroeste norteamericano.
Si bien Meyer misma confesó inspirarse en el clásico, y Bella puede ser vista debatiéndose entre Edward y Jacob (el hombre lobo confiable) de la misma manera que Cathy se siente tironeada entre Edgar (el candidato que prefiere su familia) y Heathcliff (a quien consideran diabólico), puede ser difícil ver parecidos reales. Aun así la maniobra publicitaria, que comenzó en Francia y que ahora se ha trasladado del otro lado del Canal de la Mancha, ha resultado increíblemente efectiva. Según The Guardian, las ventas de Cumbres? ( Les Hauts de Hurlevent ) aumentaron en un 50% en el país galo desde que, el año pasado, se lo ubicó en las librerías junto a los libros de Crepúsculo y continúan en ascenso. En el país de origen de las hermanas Brontë, el efecto no fue tan marcado, pero los vendedores aseguran que Crepúsculo ha despertado un renovado interés por el gótico victoriano.
Todo esto se enmarca, naturalmente, dentro del debate de cómo acercar los clásicos a los adolescentes. Poco tiempo atrás, un autor contaba que su interés por la literatura había despuntado al encontrar un estante alto en el que sus padres habían intentado poner fuera de su alcance El amante de Lady Chatterley , Trópico de Cáncer y demás obras subidas de tono. Aseguraba que de haber estado La guerra y la paz allí lo hubiera leído también, porque nada despierta más el interés que lo que parece prohibido.
Sin embargo, la forma más tradicional de todas de acercar un clásico a los adolescentes (o las adolescentes) ya está también puesta en marcha respecto a Cumbres borrascosas . Hollywood ha anunciado una nueva versión en la pantalla grande con el galán de la serie televisiva "Gossip girl" (sobre un sofisticado secundario de chicos ricos neoyorquinos) en el papel del salvaje Heathcliff de los lúgubres páramos de Yorkshire. (Google translation)
En Aloma staat qua gevoelsleven beslist op één lijn met personages uit het werk van Jane Austen of de gezusters Brönte ― zij als een Jane Eyre en Orren als Rochester. (Google translation)The Frisky begins an article about YA novels and teen series like this:
There’s lots of literary esteem to be held for classic coming-of-age stories like Little Women or Jane Eyre. (Leonora Epstein)Jane Eyre is, of course, much more than a coming-of-age story, but we get the point.
In the spirit of wresting back control of her destiny, perhaps it's time she pitched some new Aniston projects to the studios:On blogs: Cup-Bound and Scalding (the blog of Sian Griffiths whose first novel Borrowed Horses, still unpublished, is a contemporary retelling of Jane Eyre) posts a poem inspired by Jane Eyre. Precisely, Simplicitas has read Charlotte Brontë's novel. Finally, Maud Newton reviews Lilian Pizzichini's The Blue Hour on The Second Pass.
Jane Eyre in Malibu
Brad Rochester locks his raven-haired, tattooed and quite mad former lover in the attic and rekindles his romance with Jen Eyre, the governess with lovely hair whom he stupidly jilted in favour of the lady in the loft. (Julia Raeside)
A photograph of the father of the Brontë sisters, lost to the literary and art world since it was auctioned in 1898, has been discovered at a provincial antiques fair and will be sold by Surrey fine art auctioneer Ewbank Clarke Gammon Wellers. The sale is on June 24-25.That book by Alice Law which will be thrown in with the photograph should be quite a fun thing to read, as Alice Law firmly believed that Branwell Brontë had at best worked alongside Emily in the creation of Wuthering Heights, at worst written it all himself only to have it stolen by Emily. Another book by Alice Law, a biography of Branwell published in 1923, can be found on the Internet Archive.
The faded sepia photograph of the Rev Patrick Brontë. still in its original oval gilt frame, was uncovered among papers in an old Ilford film box. With it was a dog-eared copy of the 1898 auction catalogue for the dispersal of “The Museum of Brontë Relics” conducted in The Strand by Sotheby Wilkinson and Hodge. The portrait photograph had previously been on display along with other Brontë mementoes at the Temperance tearooms in Haworth, in Yorkshire where the family lived.
A foreword to the 1898 sale catalogue reads: “A large proportion of these relics was given by members of the Brontë family at various times to William Brown (father of Mr Robinson Brown), Sexton at Haworth Church during 20 years of the Rev P Brontë’s incumbency, and to his niece Martha Brown, who for many years lived in the Brontë family. Those relics which were not inherited from these relatives by Mr Robinson Brown, he acquired from Mr A Gledhill, Keithley; Miss Nussey; Mr W Scruton, Bradford and others; a few were purchased by him in the locality.”
A further note reads that the collection of 107 lots was to be offered for sale in one lot with a reserve price. It adds: “If this sum be not realised, it will then be sold in detail as catalogued”. The latter course was taken.
It is not known how much was raised by the sale of the photograph, which was Lot 105 in the catalogue, but the sale was not well received. In her book “Strange World of the Brontës” (Sigma Leisure 2001) author Marie Campbell states that when Robinson Brown’s Museum of Brontë Relics closed, it had been hoped to sell the treasures at the Chicago Exhibition “… but it was not to be. A further attempt to auction 107 lots was made on Saturday 2 July 1898 at Sotheby’s. Even this failed to attract many serious bidders. Amongst the effects that didn’t receive a bid at all were J.H. Thompson’s oil portrait of Charlotte [Brontë] and her doll’s cradle. The Brontë Society spent just under £20 on the day, purchasing several Brontë mementoes. An unfinished counterpane worked by all three sisters was knocked down for £1.2s (£1.10), a signed watercolour of Anne’s pet dog Flossy for £12, a lock Charlotte’s of hair belonging to Martha Brown and taken after her [Charlotte’s] death cost £1.14s (£1.70), while yet another fetched double that amount”.
An inscription on the reverse of the portrait, which was presumably the original museum description, reads: “Rev P Brontë; Various relics including an oval photograph framed and glazed, a small china blue and white plate often used by him and a sword stick. The photograph was owned by Martha Brown and was bought from the Ratcliffes from whom came also the plate. The swordstick is accompanied by a framed certificate from C Stansfield who sold it to Mr Dixon. It was given by Mr Brontë to John Hudson the elder of Haworth who repaired Mr Brontë's boots for many years and was bought by Stansfield from John Hudson the Younger his son”.
The copy of the1898 auction catalogue is being offered with the photograph, as is a copy of “Emily Jane Brontë and the authorship of Wuthering Heights” by Alice Law a book published by the Old Parsonage Press. The lot is estimated at £400-600.
Patrick Brontë (1777-1861) was born in Emdale, Drumballyroney, County Down, the eldest of 10 children. His father was an agricultural labourer and the boy was originally apprenticed to a blacksmith and also later to a draper and a weaver. However, largely self-taught, he became a teacher and subsequently gained a place to study theology at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1806.
It is interesting to note that it was around this time that Patrick changed his surname from the Irish Brunty and various theories have been given for the reason. It has been suggested he simply wanted to hide his humble origins, while others think his classical training persuaded him to adopt the name with a dieresis – the two dots over the “e” – to highlight the second syllable as in the Greek. In Greek mythology, brontes means thunder and was the name of one of the three Cyclops.
He was ordained into the Church of England in 1807 and married Maria Branwell at Guiseley Church in 1812. His famous daughters Maria was born in 1814, Elizabeth in 1815 and Charlotte in 1816, Emily in 1818 and Anne in 1820, He also had a son Patrick Branwell, born in 1817. In 1820, Patrick was appointed perpetual curate of Haworth. He died there in 1861 at the age of 84, having outlived his wife and all six children.
Viewing for the Summer sale of fine art and antiques at Ewbank Clarke Gammon Wellers is on Saturday June 20 from 10am to 2pm; Monday June 22 from 10am to 5pm and Tuesday June 23 from 10am to 8pm. There will also be viewing on each sale day from 9.30-10am.
The sale catalogue with all lots illustrated will also be available for viewing on the Internet at www.ewbankauctions.co.uk a week prior to the sale. For further information, please contact the auctioneers on 01483 223101.
If it's tipping downCharlotte Brontë visited the area - which is, after all, also known as Shirley Country - often, but we are not so sure about her visiting Oakwell Hall itself so often, though, as it was a girls' school in her time and she didn't teach or study there.
Oakwell Hall country park, with its Elizabethan manor house, is 30 minutes' drive away. It was often visited by Charlotte Brontë, and was the inspiration for Fieldhead, the heroine's home in her novel Shirley. oakwellhallcountrypark.co.uk
Of the 33 per cent of towns to escape censure [villages branded as clones], Hebden Bridge, in the Yorkshire Pennines, scored the highest for best retaining its individual character. The four other towns with the most distinctive high streets in Britain are Peebles and Bo'ness in Scotland, Normanton in West Yorkshire, and Frodsham in Cheshire.We are not leaving Yorkshire yet, as the Ripon Gazette is warming up for when Tamasha's Wuthering Heights arrives in Harrogate next June 16.
Duncan McKie, who owns Pot Stop, a cook shop on Hebden Bridge's high street, said: "Shop-keeping here is how it was years ago. We give old-fashioned service - something that's lacking in the big chains."
The tourist office recommends shopping and walking as the top two pursuits in the old mill town, which is in the heart of Bronte country. Any visitor glancing out of the tourist office's front door won't see a single chain store. Instead, quirky boutiques await, from a fair trade shop (known locally as "that hippie shop") selling ethnic goods and a kitchenware shop, to a country tailor for all your hunting, shooting and walking needs. (Susie Mesure)
EMILY Brontë meets Bollywood in the world premiere of a show which is taking place at Harrogate Theatre.The New Zealand Listener takes a quick look at Wuthering Heights adaptations when announcing that the 2009 miniseries will be broadcast there next Sunday, June 14.
The acclaimed Tamasha group will be bringing their new musical adaptation of the classic novel Wuthering Heights to the town, combining all the thrilling drama, dance and enchanting music of classic Indian cinema.
Brontë's timeless tale of passion, jealousy and revenge will be relocated from the wilds of the Yorkshire Moors to the sun-scorched desert of Rajasthan as Shakuntala (Cathy), the fiery and headstrong daughter of spice merchant Singh, falls for Krishan (Heathcliff), the wily street urchin from Bombay that Singh brings home after a trip to market.
With this version of Wuthering Heights, Tamasha retain the dark and brooding atmosphere of the original novel, while seeking to create a fresh musical style with a fusion between a Bollywood cinematic treatment and other more classical elements of a western musical. Wuthering Heights follows Tamasha's previous large-scale populist productions, East is East, Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral, and Strictly Dandia.
To celebrate the world premiere production, Harrogate Theatre, in association with Punch Records, will transform their foyer and bars to house two visually stunning exhibitions, Soho Road to the Punjab and Bollywood Stills – Style, Sweat, Glamour.
Soho Road to the Punjab maps 50 years of bhangra music, culture and style in UK, while Bollywood Stills – Style, Sweat, Glamour explores the use of photo stills in Bollywood film publicity, drawing on the large 'Action Stills' archives from Kamat Foto Flash in Mumbai, India.
Wuthering Heights will be at Harrogate Theatre from Tuesday to Saturday, June 16 to 20. Tickets cost £11 to £15 with concessions available from the Box Office on 01423 502 116.
The exhibitions run from Monday, June 1 to Friday, July 31. Admission is free.
A brand new production of the classic story of doomed love.Heathcliff has won a new 'title', according to the Brisbane Times:
The earliest film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s only novel, Wuthering Heights, was made by prolific British director AV Bramble in 1920. Then came the famous 1939 version with an all-star cast of Laurence Olivier, David Niven and Merle Oberon. Since then, there have been French, Japanese and Filipino versions, operas, stage plays and musicals, including one narrated by, of all people, Ray Winstone. Let’s not forget, although some might wish to, Kate Bush’s wailing debut single in 1978. Cliff Richard played Heathcliff in a musical in 1996. There is a Monty Python sketch entitled The Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights.
And still the adaptations arrive – a film next year will star Gemma Arterton and Ed Westwick – which implies one of two things: either the story still fascinates 162 years after it was published (in a 2007 poll, British readers voted it the greatest love story of all time), or the adaptations aren’t getting it right.
So how does the latest television version of Wuthering Heights (TV1, Sunday, 8.30pm) measure up? The Brits are yet to pass judgment, as this two-parter hasn’t screened there yet due to the financial chaos at ITV. It has screened in the US, however, where one reviewer said that the performances of Tom Hardy, Charlotte Riley, Burn Gorman and Andrew Lincoln were “compelling”. The reviewer did think that director Corky Giedroyc (Elizabeth I) “goes over-the-top gothic at every opportunity”, but a story of love, jealousy, madness, alcoholism, ghosts on the moor and cruelty to children is no time to hold back on the gothic, surely. And the brooding. Especially the brooding. (Fiona Rae)
Sandra Yates, chairwoman of the Sydney Writers' Festival, nominates Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights as literature's greatest bounder. . . (Conrad Walters)StaticGirl is slowly uploading her very own comic adaptation of Wuthering Heights to ComicSpace. So far there are five pages in total: here's the latest one.
Unless explicitly said
