A meeting of the Brontë Country Partnership (BCP) agreed to finance the project with its estimated budget from now until April 2009 - a total of £7,200.Backstage publishes an article about the possible nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Awards (which will be announced next December 20):
The group had agreed it should be targeting older people, women and families.
But acting chairman John Swinburn warned that the organisation's limited budget meant it would be hard to mount three separate campaigns for each of these target markets.
Pam Howorth, chairman of the Haworth Traders Association, pointed out family groups were the most likely to enjoy what Brontë Country had to offer.
She said families mostly included women and elderly people anyway, so it made sense to focus on them in particular.
She said it was important to counter negative media portrayals of Keighley and the poor publicity generated by people's cars being clamped in Haworth's Changegate car park.
She added that contrary to previous arguments the region did not have a diverse range of shops, Haworth's stores should meet the needs of a wide variety of visitors.
However, she said she was disappointed that local people did not always appreciate that these shops were suitable for them, as well as for tourists.
Keighley town councillor Graham Mitchell warned the partnership should be aware of the competition posed by Hebden Bridge.
He said that town also possessed a very eclectic range of shops, all of which were easily accessible as they were not on a steep hill.
The partnership agreed to spend about £1,500 to produce another 20-30,000 cross marketing leaflets.
The leaflets feature artists' impressions of Brontë Country attractions superimposed on a graphic map, designed to direct tourists from one location to another.
BCP secretary Paul Holroyd said the original print run of 10,000 leaflets had proved popular - with 8,000 of these documents distributed to group members and local tourist information centres.
Mr Swinburn said the additional leaflets would be distributed further afield, to draw in tourists who live outside Brontë Country. (Miran Rahman)
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a TV Movie or MiniseriesSeveral newspapers cover the recent death of Ralph Rader, theorist on novels:
Since HBO has imported many English films and miniseries this year, look for a British invasion with Samantha Morton of Longford and Janet McTeer and Penelope Wilton of Five Days as definite contenders. There's also Ruth Wilson of Masterpiece Theatre's Jane Eyre. Two American actors in British productions — Bryce Dallas Howard in HBO's As You Like It and Sharon Gless in BBC Films' The State Within — are dark-horse possibilities. (David Sheward)
He then explored the concept of an "autobiographical core" in fiction, using seminal works from the 18th to the 20th centuries as examples. One example was "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens, who wrote in the novel about the injustices of child labor out of his own experience as a boy working in a factory.Dr. Rader found similar biographical strands in novels by Charlotte Bronte, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and others. (Mary Rourke)FunKy StaR StuDio posts this new cover of a Jane Eyre illustrated by Dona Dunea. As our Romanian is not very good, we don't actually understand if this is really a newly published edition, a project or just... a cover.
Film ClassicsReally worth tuning to. If you're not in Detroit you can listen to it online as well.
Sunday, December 9 from 6 p.m. - 7 p.m., join your host Jack Goggin as he features,“Jane Eyre .” Music from three different movies based on Charlotte Bronte’s masterpiece: the 1944 version (starring Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles) scored by Bernard Herrmann, the 1970 made-for-television adaptation (starring Susannah York and George C. Scott) with music by John Williams, and Franco Zefferelli’s film of 1996, which starred Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt, and was scored by Claudio Capponi and Alessio Vlad.
People will be able to sample fair trade chocolate at the Bronte Parsonage Museum and Bronte Weaving Shed in Haworth this month.The Haworth Village website provides more details on the events.
The venture is part of Haworth’s Fairtrade Fortnight celebrations and will take place for most of the day on Saturday, February 28.
There will be a quiz about fairtrade and Haworth, with entry forms available for collection at the Tourist Information Centre, in Main Street. The winner will receive a hamper of fairtrade goods, donated by Oakworth Co-op.
Also, cafes in Haworth will be serving refreshments made from ethically-purchased ingredients and there will be a fairtrade ‘Chuffin Fair’ at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway’s Oxenhope engine shed at 6.30pm, attended by Bruce Crowther, who launched the nationwide movement of fairtrade towns. He was recently awarded an MBE.
The event will also include a raffle, music and a fashion show.
Rita Verity, of Haworth Fairtrade group, said there were only a limited number of places available for the fair. Anyone interested should call her on (01535) 647776.
Brontë Country should benefit from a marketing campaign designed to raise the profile of Pennine Yorkshire, according to Jackie Bennett, of Bradford Council's tourism department.The easier the better, of course, but you'd think journalists could take a bit of 'research'. We are pretty sure that a lot of tourists/visitors manage to find their way to Haworth from Keighley by bus.
She said this was a joint project between Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale councils, which would also take in Hebden Bridge, Holmfirth, Ilkley and Wharfedale.
She said brochures had been printed and distributed and a new website — pennineyorkshire.com — would be launched early next month.
Mr Mitchell said travel journalists visiting Brontë Country must be kept informed about the area’s public transport.
He was responding to Ms Bennett’s report on recent media interest in the region.
She said a freelance journalist was visiting Haworth for an item on the Brontës for Sky Travel.
In addition to this, she said 12 journalists had visited the village last month as part of the British Guild of Travel Writers annual meeting. Mr Mitchell said these journalists needed to know it was possible to visit Haworth by leaving cars in Keighley, then taking the bus. He said cutting down on the number of cars travelling around made good sense. (Miran Rahman)
A Bronte Country Partnership member said he was frustrated that the latest edition of the Bradford District Visitor Guide did not treat Keighley as a separate destination. [...]Still in the UK, What's On Stage is getting ready for Tamasha's adaptation of Wuthering Heights:
Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury parish councillor Barry Thorne said the guide made little reference to the potential market provided by the disabled.
He said advertising attractions as being accessible to those with physical disabilities did not answer the concerns of the larger numbers of people who had learning disabilities.
“Physical access isn’t the issue for about 70 per cent of people with disabilities,” he added.
He said appropriate training for attraction staff and a statement in the guide explicitly welcoming disabled visitors would go some way towards addressing the problem.
Partnership chairman Samantha Lawson said if amending the guide was difficult due to cost, the BCP might be able to offer some financial support. (Miran Rahman)
Tamasha Theatre Company, formed in 1989 as a partnership between director Kristine Landon-Smith and actor/playwright Sudha Bhuchar, have announced the full cast and tour dates for their 2009 musical adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. The production will tour the UK from 13 March – 20 June and is a Tamasha and Oldham Coliseum co-production in association with the Lyric Hammersmith.On the blogosphere, Flightless Bird writes about Wuthering Heights and Not-So-Gentle Reader gives the 1992 screen adaptation a B+. Boktradition posts about Jane Eyre in Swedish and In depths discusses Jane Eyre's quest for independence.
The hot, scorched desert landscape of Rajasthan is the setting for Tamasha’s evocative musical interpretation of Emily Brontë’s timeless tale of passion, jealousy and revenge. 1770s Rajasthan, with its rigid social hierarchy, inequality of wealth and Victorian influences, is an ideal location for this story of passion corrupted by prevailing social values. In place of the cold moors, the wild scorched expanse of the desert provides a symbolic setting for the doomed love affair of Shakuntala and Krishan (Cathy and Heathcliff from the original novel). Tamasha hope that the musical will fuse a Bollywood cinematic treatment with other more classical elements of a western musical.
For the tour the lovers will be played by Youkti Patel and Pushpinder Chani. They will be supported in the cast by Adeel Akhtar, Shammi Aulakh, Rina Fatania, Anil Kumar, Divian Ladwa, Sheena Patel, Davina Perera, Gary Pillai and Amith Rahman.
The nationwide tour will begin on 13 March at the Oldham Coliseum Theatre and will continue on to venues including Exeter Northcott (7-11 April), Citizens Theatre Glasgow (21-25 April), Northern Stage Newcastle (27-30 May), Nuffield Theatre Southampton (2-6 June), Belgrade Theatre Coventry (9-13 June), Harrogate Theatre (16-20 June). It will also appear for an extended run at London’s Lyric Hammersmith from 29 April until 23 May.
The original concept for the musical was created by Deepak Verma. Kristine Landon-Smith directs while the music is from Felix Cross and Sheema Mukherjee with lyrics by Felix Cross. (Kate Jackson)
People living in Keighley and the Worth Valley are being encouraged to sample attractions on their own doorstep later this month.You can find further information here.
The Brontë Country Partnership (BCP) marketing group is promoting and co-ordinating “Go Local Sunday”, on April 26.
The initiative, first suggested by Keighley Bus Museum chairman Graham Mitchell, will see visitor destinations open their doors for free to local people.
To qualify for entry, people will need to provide proof of residency in BD20, 21 or 22. This can be in the form of a recent utility or council tax bill.
BCP chairman Samantha Lawson said: “It is often the case that people don’t visit the attractions on their doorstep.
“Many of us who are local residents drive past the sites daily and yet have never been inside.
“The free entry represents huge value for money, particularly for families.
“We hope that it will demonstrate the wealth of attractions and things to do in the area while sightseeing, such as walking, shopping and dining.
“And we hope it will show how accessible these activities are for local residents.
“The area also benefits from excellent public transport links, walking routes and the Worth Valley railway, so staying local is environmentally friendly too.”
Among places participating in the day are the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, the Brontë Parsonage, the Museum of Rail Travel, in Ingrow, and East Riddlesden Hall.
The BCP comprises tourist destinations, local councils and providers of visitor accommodation in and around Keighley and Haworth.
Its main aim is to increase the amount of time and money visitors spend in the area. More information on “Go Local Sunday” is available online at visitbrontecountry.com.
Attraction opening times will vary and visitors are advised to check relevant websites or contact their local tourist information centre for details.
The bus museum will be running a service across Keighley linking the destinations free of charge.
A vintage bus will begin operating from Hanover Street, Keighley, at 10.25am and will run until 2.55pm. (Miran Rahman)
Ken’s a snob with nothing to be stuck-up about. His principles are dubious, his questionable morals are justified by the romance he’s learned from Wuthering Heights and he justifies his unhappy indiscretions by always playing away with a Salford version of Lady Macbeth.And this comes straight from the Daily Mail's sex advice column on 'I can't stop obsessing about my very first boyfriend':
You would grumble about his bad habits, the predictability of his sexual technique and his inability to sustain Cathy and Heathcliff style romance. (Rowan Pelling)Honestly, we do think that a lifelong 'Cathy and Heathcliff style romance' might not be all that desirable.
who first dubbed Gordon Brown as Heathcliff, but he also calls him a "wild Highland chief" who "sends hatchet men out to do the work of the tribe." (Sheena Hastings)It looks like the one's multiple facets are equal to the other's description resources.
Mastering The Marquess is a Regency-set historical with Gothic overtones. It’s about a woman determined to save her young sister from incarceration in a madhouse, and the arrogant marquess she must turn to for help. A bit like Jane Austen meets Jane Eyre!
It happened again. And this time in Coronation Street, which as you have probably read in previous posts has a story going on in Brontë country... and well, as you can see in the picture on the right the Haworth misspelling disease has sprung up once again. It happened on last Sunday's episode (Season 51, Episode 89, May 2).ITV has apologised after a Haworth sign used in top soap Coronation Street was misspelt.Not the only TV series with a Brontë reference. The upcoming episode of Gossip Girl (3.21 'Ex-Husbands and Wifes') mentions Wuthering Heights according to Buddy TV:
A shot in Sunday evening’s episode showed a direction sign to “Howarth”.
The scene was as Norris Cole tried to make his escape from an increasingly unstable Mary Taylor. The pair had been sharing a cottage, supposedly in Brontë Country.
An ITV spokesman said: “We can only apologise for the error but we would hope the fact that the area was depicted and talked about in such a positive light would more than make up for this small mistake.”
The company also admitted that although it had looked at possible filming locations in Brontë Country, the shooting was eventually done nearer the Manchester production base.
This week, although there was disappointment at the misspelling of Haworth, many felt that the benefits of the publicity for the area outweighed the downside.
Matt Stroh, chairman of tourism marketing body the Brontë Country Partnership, said: “It is sad that Haworth was misspelt but we can’t be anything but grateful for the coverage the area has received.
“The filming location decision is interesting because one of the issues we have is convincing people that we are not that far from Manchester.”
Serena (Blake Lively) helps Blair (Leighton Meester) pick out an outfit for a first date with someone, and we are shocked to discover that Blair has read Wuthering Heights! (Glenn Diaz)The promo can be seen here.
“Festival of the Immortals” sees two old women standing in a queue for a literary event. They note how their own history – once they drew stocking seams with eyebrow pencils – is absent from the books they have read: “There’s only Mrs Ramsey, and she’s hardly typical”. The conceit about the Immortals (dead writers reified as celebrities) is nicely sustained: “Look, that must be Charlotte Brontë in her bonnet . . . . I was right! She is short”. But it is in the women’s acute observations about literature, its pleasures, oversights (“hardly typical”) and relation to life (“I can’t be read like a book. I’m not dead yet . . . . Things might change”) that we see how fine a writer Simpson has become. (Kate Webb)Vanity Fair interviews singer Suzanne Vega. Another Brontëite:
What are some of your favorite books or even one that you’ve enjoyed recently?And yet another one, writer Alyson Hagy, interviewed on ForeWord Reviews:
For some reason, I’ve been in a Graham Green sort of mood. So, I went back and read The End of the Affair again, and I’m going to try to tackle, once again, The Power and the Glory, although I haven’t yet managed to get all the way through. I love Jane Eyre. I love Anna Karenina. I just finished Women in Love again. I tend to read the older classics more than the modern stuff. (Frank DiGiacomo)
My parents did not read much fiction, yet I was drawn to novels from the beginning. Jane Eyre. The Secret Garden. Dracula. I thought, for a very long time, that all great fiction was set in 19th century England. I also hoped I would live in a castle when I grew up. Wyoming is not quite a castle.The Telegraph gives advises to parents with children doing exams. The final piece of advice sounds a little bit sinister:
And if you can't get away, just pretend, like Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre, that the poor unfortunate upstairs isn't really there. (Marianne Kavanagh)The Herald talks with short film director Scott Graham who will present his latest short film, Native Son, in the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. He says:
I think that I personally quite like bleak, I quite like that sort of Wuthering Heights world and those landscapes. But I’m also trying to instil in them a heart, or just some humanity that people can recognise and feel some kind of connection with. (Teddy Jamieson)Screen Daily interviews Adam Kulick, partner at Goldcrest Capital, one of the producers of Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights movie:
Wuthering Heights is a completely new take on established material. With Andrea [Arnold], this has the potential to open that story to a whole new audience. That’s a really exciting prospect. (Wendy Mitchell)Bristol 24-7 thinks finds some similarities between Marina and the Diamonds and Kate Bush:
Several of her songs bare an uncanny resemblance to Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Running up that Hill’. (Kayla Maratty)Which reminds us of a Facebook campaing to get Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush back into the UK Top 40:
Everyone loves this song, it's absolutely crazy but so haunting at the same time. Join in the group if you like the song or if you intend to join us in downloading it between the 26th and the 31st of July 2010 to get it back into the charts in time for Kate Bush's birthday. (Chris)All About Jazz reviews the latest recording of Ken Greves, The Face Of My Love:
Greves' lover is almost as lonely as Heathcliff but, with classical triumph of human endeavor, settles the score with the demons who threaten to break his spirit. (Raul D'Gama Rose)Au Jour d'Hui talks about the Brontës (in French), Bookworm1858 hated Wuthering Heights. Not exactly the same as the people in the Wuthering Heights Wednesday ring: Fizzy Thoughts, New Century Reading, Lakeside Musing, Book Chatter, Serendipity, Messy Karen, Views from the Page and the Oven, She is Too Fond of Books, Books Like Candy Corn...
They say when trouble comes, close ranks, and so the white people did. But we were not in their ranks. The negroes hated us, too. "You ain't nothing but white cockroach niggers," the young Tia said, stealing my dress as I bathed alone in the lush sensuality of the biblical garden pond.Also in The Guardian we read an article by Elizabeth Gaskell's biographer Jenny Uglow about the English Heritage grant for the rehabilitation of the writer's house in Manchester:
They were all the people in my life - my mother, my brother Pierre and my nurse Christophine - since old Cosway, my father, died five years back when all the old slave-owners left. Some said it was drink, some said madness, but emancipation surely did us no good.
I was a bridesmaid when my mother married Mr Mason, but though he restored us from the steamy undergrowth of our sweaty impoverishment, we could not escape the madness of the post-colonial reinterpretation of Jane Eyre
"Why must I flit from one half-remembered scene to another," I asked, "each more laden than the last with the heavy, humid symbolism of female oppression and neo-Marxist alienation?"
"Because you are a creole, Antoinette," Christophine said, "and I am an old Jamaican negro, steeped in the old ways of obeah." (Read more)
Some good news in glum times. A grant from English Heritage of £260,000 has come just in time to save Elizabeth Gaskell's house in Manchester, which was collapsing with cracked walls, rotten windows and general rot and age. This is just the beginning: the hope is to restore it completely, open it to visitors and recreate the ground-floor rooms as they were in Gaskell's time - there are plenty of photographs - as well as providing space for the local community to use. Gaskell was thrilled when the family moved to 84 Plymouth Grove, Ardwick, Manchester in 1850. "And we've got a house," she wrote to a friend. "Yes! We really have. And if I had neither conscience nor prudence I should be delighted, for it certainly is a beauty." The house was large enough for bedrooms for her four daughters, a study - not a room of her own for Mrs G, but a den for William, Unitarian minister of Cross Street Chapel - and two large downstairs rooms for parties, charades, reading, sewing and, of course, writing. It had attics, kitchens, a scullery, pantry, outhouses and a large garden, where Gaskell planted cabbages as well as flowers. Although she often escaped the Manchester smoke, most of her novels were written here, and her many visitors included Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë, who stayed three times in the "large and cheerful, airy house".Northern Rail has finally clarified its position concerning his refusal to partipate in the Brontë Country Partnership advertising campaign. As read in the Keighley News:
The Italianate house, which is owned by the Manchester Historic Buildings Trust, was built around 1838. It is one of the few survivors of early Victorian villas in Manchester, but for years has been threatened by dry rot and water seeping through the roof, and it has been on English Heritage's at-risk register since 1998. Dame Judi Dench, whose touching portrayal of Miss Matty in the BBC's adaptation of Cranford won a host of new readers for this often underrated classic, cheered the grant for Plymouth Grove: "I am delighted that English Heritage is offering a grant to carry out the work that is needed on Elizabeth Gaskell's house. This is a major historical building and it will be wonderful to see it restored to its former glory."
Northern Rail has expressed regret for any “confusion” over a decision to turn down an advertising design for Brontë Country.The Times talks about possible sequels to the just-published zombie version of Pride and Prejudice:
Members of the Brontë Country Partnership (BCP) reacted angrily last month to news that their proposed design — meant to appear on a pair of railway carriages — had been rejected.
The BCP markets Keighley and Brontë Country as a tourist destination.
It was told last year that Northern Rail was making the passenger carriages available to have images of local tourist attractions emblazoned on them.
The scheme is being funded by the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, the Keighley Town Centre Association, Keighley Town Council and the BCP.
At last month’s BCP meeting, group members said Northern Rail had behaved unprofessionally by not clarifying what type of design it was willing to accept.
Responding this week, a company spokesman said: “We are working with the KTCA to finalise the images and look of the train to promote Keighley and the surrounding area.
“We are sorry for any confusion over the initial design but are confident that the finished train will be a fantastic advert for the town.”
And it won’t be the last: later this year Elton John’s Rocket Pictures begins shooting Pride and Predator, and both Wuthering Heights (Catherine’s ghost gets proactive) and Jane Eyre (not just a madwoman in the attic) are being measured for mash-up potential. (Tom Gatti)Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga continues to appear in the daily newsround: in an article published in Le Point and in a press release promoting Shmoop:
Shmoop (http://www.shmoop.com), a new educational website that aims to make learning fun and relevant for today’s students, christened its new “Book Club” section with the best-selling novel Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. The immensely popular book series spawned a blockbuster motion picture in 2008. Shmoop challenges students, teachers, and librarians to answer the question, “is Twilight great literature, or simply entertainment?” (...)The Washington Post reviews Joe Queenan's Closing Time. A memoir. Remembering his father, the author recalls:
Shmoop also helps students connect Twilight with other great classics, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. “We want to encourage young fans of Twilight to explore other great works of literature that they didn’t even realize they might love,” said Ana [Rowena] McCullough[, VP of Content at Shmoop].
Sober, he could speak with eloquence, and when he wrote the occasional letter to the editor, it sparkled: He "had a touch of the poet; his turn of phrase and choice of words were things of beauty. He had read Charles Dickens, Jack London, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, the Brontës. . . . His jeremiads were, accordingly, laced with poignant imagery, edifying turns of phrase, and a lofty tongue-in-cheek style he may have appropriated from Mark Twain." (Jonathan Yardley)Another review with Brontë mentions can be read in the Los Angeles Times. The novel is All the Living by C.E. Morgan:
This is a book about life force, the precious will to live and all the things that can suck it right out of a person. It is a first novel, and the writing is simply astonishing: The way small movements betray a character, the effects of hard labor, the damaging power of communication withheld. It is the writing of a much older (at times, even world-weary) author. Descriptions of the landscape of the rural South remind a reader of Willa Cather. The characters' utter lack of a sense of entitlement calls to mind Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre." (Susan Salter Reynolds)The Spanish magazine Qué Leer compares the controversial heroine of Sherry Jones's novel The Jewel of Medina to Jane Eyre:
Otra cosa muy distinta es que esa supuesta falta de rigor sea relevante a la hora de juzgar una novela cuyo mayor mérito reside en la invención de una Aisha fascinante, mitad heroína de las Brontë y mitad femme fatale de cine negro, tan deudora de Germaine Greer como de la sensualidad exuberante de Las mil y una noches. (Google Translation)The Argentinian cultural magazine Página 12 reviews a collective exhibition of local photographers at the Museo Sarmiento (Buenos Aires). Talking about the work of Laura Glusman:
Laura Glusman, en esta muestra, por fin ha sido comprendida como lo que es: una fotógrafa con sensibilidad pictórica ante el paisaje, una creadora de ficciones más que de meros registros de lo real. Tanto los reflejos de luz como el particular punto de vista de sus tomas la instalan de lleno en el terreno del paisaje visionario, cargado de un misticismo panteísta cercano al de Emily Brontë en "Cumbres Borrascosas": una espiritualidad secular, inmanentista, a la que Martínez Quijano asocia con la novela gótica. (Beatriz Vignoli) (Google translation)Le Figaro Magazine presents the French translation of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (also translated to Dutch as published in 8Weekly) and Le Point does the same with Mark Crich's Sartre's Sink (which in France is retitled as... ahem... La baignoire de Goethe).
J'ai pu cette semaine découvrir avec un immense plaisir le tome 1 des Hauts de Hurlevents. J'ai été conquise par cet album (dont le scénario est de Yann et les dessins d'Edith). Pourtant, ce n'était pas gagné, j'ai eu des à-prioris négatifs en feuilletant quelques pages. Le style du dessinateur ne me plaisait pas trop au premier abord et puis au final, je dois dire qu'il m'a absolument convaincue !Finally, an alert for tomorrow April 19 in Tampa, Florida:
C'est vrai que l'artiste a un trait un peu particulier mais je trouve qu'il sert plutôt bien l'ambiance ténébreuse du récit.
J'ai été ravie de constater que les personnalités du roman ont été respectées. Ce qui n'est pas toujours le cas des adaptations ciné ou tv ... Je pense notamment à la récente mini-série dans laquelle Catherine semble bien plus sympathique que dans le roman !
Dans la BD, elle est égale à elle-même, caractérielle, passionnée, emportée et méchante aussi, par moments (n'ayons pas peur des mots ! ).
J'ai aussi beaucoup apprécié la palette des couleurs, qui une fois encore, restitue très bien l'aura lugubre et sombre du roman.
Par contre, une petite chose risque de déranger les fans du livre (dont je ne fais pas vraiment partie, je dois admettre que je préfère Charlotte à Emily) ... Le changement narratif me semble un peu étrange. C'est Catherine qui raconte son histoire et non Nelly, la servante et gouvernante. Je ne demande qu'à lire la suite, et découvrir les raisons de ce choix mais je trouve tout de même que c'est un peu surprenant ! (Google translation)
The Upper Tampa Bay Regional Library presents Victorian literature scholar William Scheuerle speaking at a celebration of the 193rd birthday of Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre). Victorian costumes are encouraged; the party is at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the library, 11211 Countryway Blvd., Tampa. (Colette Bancroft in St. Petersburg Times)Categories: Agnes Grey, Alert, Art-Exhibitions, Comics, Elizabeth Gaskell, Haworth, Jane Eyre, References, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights
I give thanks to the books that turn adolescent readers into adult readers. For me, it was one 19th-century novel by a woman, and one 20th-century novel by a man. (...)Pilar Vera in Diario de Cádiz (Spain) also uses Jane Eyre as synonym for the love of books:
But by the time we reach our mid-teens, English teachers up the ante. Two books on their agenda when I was that age included Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath -- both of which made me groan before I cracked their covers. A novel about some oddball governess? A farm family leaving Oklahoma? Bor-r-ring.
Then I read those two books, and my literary landscape was transformed. There was no going back to kid fiction with few nuances and little complexity. Danny Dunn was done.
Though I was a 20th-century American male, I strongly related to the British female protagonist in Brontë's 1847 novel. Jane Eyre somehow transcended time, place, and gender -- like all great literary characters can do. I admired her ethics, intelligence, independence, and self-sufficiency. Plus I was sort of a loner like her, and was from modest economic circumstances like her. (...)
For all the lessons and such in those two books, the Brontë and Steinbeck classics were also darn good reads filled with suspense, pathos, believable dialogue, and flat-out excellent writing. Plus Jane Eyre was and is incredibly romantic.
Decidida a escapar de su inmundo mundo, la pequeña Jane Eyre -huérfana, inoportuna, marisabidilla-, cogía un libro y se acurrucaba tras gruesas cortinas. La única fuerza, la única salvación, estaba en la lectura. Es cierto que las historias pueden salvar vidas. Por eso amamos tanto a los libros, quienes los amamos: somos conscientes de su valor exacto. (Translation)The Atlantic talks about being a writer today:
Though it's rare to make a living on writing, it's becoming increasingly easy to call yourself one. Without any money at all, anyone can publish digitally with the click of a button or, for a price, self-publish a print manuscript. The ecology of authorship has changed dramatically since, say March 1845, when Charlotte Brontë was working as a governess, miserable, and wrote in a letter, "I shall soon be 30 and I have done nothing yet." That was two years before Jane Eyre was published.This is Money discusses how houses which have been featured in films are more interesting for buyers:
The latest version of Wuthering Heights, out now, was shot extensively in three locations in the Yorkshire Dales — Thwaite, Muker and Coverham. (...)The Weekly Standard reviews Freud's Couch, Scott's Buttocks, Brontë's Grave by Simon Goldhill. A controversial view of the Brontë Parsonage:
Typically beautiful National Park villages, the first two are dotted with stone cottages, while Coverham is even smaller. All are full of Dales character.
House buyers there are often in search of the Wuthering Heights farmhouse on top of a hill, with ‘views forever’, according to Brian Carlise, of J.R. Hopper. (Mark Hughes-Morgan)
But year after year, tens of thousands of tourists visit the five shrines on his tour—the homes-turned-museums of Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth, the Brontës, William Shakespeare, and Sigmund Freud—in search of some insight or connection. So if Goldhill starts off skeptical of these pilgrimages, he also has reason to take them seriously. (...)In all likelihood Charlotte Brontë wouldn't appreciate her clothes being on display (and Arthur Bell Nicholls certainly wouldn't) but truth be said the Parsonage is highly considerate with what it shows. No real underwear ever (are stockings underwear?) goes on display, even if it exists (see our review of Katrina Naomi's Charlotte Brontë's Corset).
The Brontë estate in Yorkshire reveals the dark side of writers’ homes, and not just because of all the moors. The Brontë sisters tend to attract hysterical fans—“going to Haworth feels like joining a cult”—and the museum at Haworth Parsonage certainly reflects a certain obsessiveness, which forces Goldhill to confront the voyeurism of his mission. In Charlotte Brontë’s room, her very shoes and stockings are part of the exhibit: “What Victorian woman, let alone the cripplingly shy Charlotte, would want her used underwear on display? It is also Goldhill’s misfortune to have brought as his traveling companion a friend who once saw the original manuscript of Jane Eyre in the British Library. This friend finds nothing at Haworth Parsonage half as moving as beholding the page where Charlotte first set down “Reader, I married him" which leaves Goldhill wondering if the sisters’ intimate belongings have been exposed not only tastelessly but pointlessly. (Helen Rittelmeyer)
Her real drive to biography, it seems, came out of her first reading of Jane Eyre. It fired her imagination, she said: ''I could not read enough about the Brontë sisters and their harsh life in that parsonage.'' (Jane Sullivan)The Dayton Daily News mentions the pen name of Charlotte Brontë:
Shakespeare’s champions act as if it’s inconceivable that anyone would write under a pseudonym. Tell that to Mary Anne Evans, still known to the world as George Eliot; or to Charlotte Brontë, who originally published as Currer Bell. (Mary McCarty)Contatto News (Italy) reviews Elizabeth Newark's Jane Eyre's Daughter:
In conclusione, credo che questo libro non sia affatto consigliabile, credo che lasci un’onta nel cuore del lettore che non potrà mai evitare di paragonarlo alla bellezza non solo della storia, ma anche stilistica, del capolavoro di Charlotte. Risultati di vendita di questo romanzo possono risultare per l’affetto che ci lega a quella giovane indifesa e forte al contempo, che era la nostra adorata Jane Eyre, quella reale, quella pura della Brontee, e non madre snaturata descritta dalla Newark. (Translation)Keighley News reports a recent meeting of the Brontë Country Partnership looking for new initiatives to promote tourism in the Brontë country. Sink into a Good Book... reviews Wide Sargasso Sea; Love, Romance, Passion reviews Sharon Kendrick's The Forbidden Wife; the Brontë Sisters lists some links about Branwell Brontë and Luddenden Foot; lift up the shades, turn off the lights posts about Branwell Brontë; Nadando en tinta (in Spanish) reviews Wuthering Heights; Melodee Writes, Leopard-Skin-Pill-Box-Hat, The Spider's House, New Empress, Assistant Blog, CineHouse, Alternate Takes and Bad Grammar post about the Wuthering Heights 2011 adaptation; Mia's Musings and Wirtualna Polska and Gazeta Płock (in Polish) posts about Jane Eyre 2011. By the way, several Spanish websites publish the trailer of the film (which reveals far too much of the story, so much that it is not a trailer but a summary). And the German news outlets also publish several articles and reviews: Monsters & Critics, Oberhessische Presse, Net Tribune and Aviva-Berlin. Such a Litwit compares Brontë and Austen.
Kirklees Council has suggested joining forces with Bradford Council to market attractions connected with the Brontë family.The aforementioned brochure is probably this one. We wonder why it has taken them so long to figure out that it's better to collaborate than to work separately.
Jacqui Bennet, of Bradford Council’s tourism marketing department, showed fellow Brontë Country Partnership (BCP) members a brochure produced by Kirklees Council documenting Charlotte Brontë’s Spen Valley links.
She said it was important to try to break down administrative boundaries when marketing the Brontës to people visiting Yorkshire.
BCP chairman Samantha Lawson said if the partnership was to make a financial contribution to a joint marketing initiative it would need a clearer idea of the budget.
Ms Bennet said there was no question of the BCP being expected to spend all or most of its annual budget on such a project.
Robin Jackson, of the Haworth Traders Association, said he didn’t see how the partnership could harm Haworth.
“This would promote Brontë Country so it’s not going to take business away from us,” he said. (Miran Rahman)
The poet and novelist Charlotte Bronte once wrote, "The gilding of the Indian summer mellowed the pastures far and wide. The russet woods stood ripe to be stripped, but were yet full of leaf."By the way, the quote comes from Shirley (Chapter XXVII).
Bronte would have loved the Belleville Harvest Fest as a warm orange sun gently cascaded the hundreds of festival- goers in attendance with clear skies and 60-degree temperatures.(...)
While the agrarian way of life is quickly disintegrating in the tri- community, every Harvest Fest brings the beauty of Bronte's pastoral ode to the season back to life. (William Zilke in Belleville View)
In his years at RKO, Lewton never unearthed a single Transylvanian count or long-dead Egyptian mummy. Yet he mixed the undead with "Jane Eyre" to create "I Walked With a Zombie," turned "The Rake's Progress" into the madness of "Bedlam," and uncovered modern Manhattan covens in "The 7th Victim." (Stephen Whitty)The Then and Now section of The Times evokes a 1981 TLS article by Hermione Lee which briefly mentions Villette:
There is also, in a very different way, a muted feminism underlying Ann Schlee's quiet, elegant, exact novel Rhine Journey. This very subtly sets in a historical framework – an English family "doing" the Rhine in 1851 – the confined existence, the struggle for independence and the sexual fantasies of an unmarried woman in her late thirties. Her name is Charlotte, and the novel lovingly invokes Charlotte Bronte's Villette. But to describe this as merely a delicate period piece is not enough: the workings of Charlotte's imagination are deep and unsettling.Interestingly enough, Charlotte Brontë herself once tentatively planned a Rhine escapade with her publisher George Smith (and his family, of course!).
On the right stands headmaster Jonas Bradley, local chronicler, lantern-lecturer, early member of the Brontë Society, president of the Haworth Ramblers and pioneer of school nature study, who used to take his classes out into the countryside.(Ian Dewhirst)On the blogosphere: Jane Eyre is discussed on Gavin Steyn's reading, The Blogging Mum has reconciled herself with the novel and The Lighthouse at Alexandria posts a lengthy, interesting review of it. The Danville Public Library Book Club (Danville, Illinois) will discuss Jane Eyre today, October 23:
The Danville Public Library Book Club will discuss Charlotte Bronte’s classic Jane Eyre at its meeting on October 23. The discussion will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the second floor Conference Room of the library. Copies of the book are available to be borrowed for free through the library’s interlibrary loan service or to be purchased from the Checkout Desk through a special arrangement with the Village Mall Waldenbooks.The Story Siren interviews Cara Lockwood, author of the Wuthering High series. Without entering into the quality (or lack thereof) of those novels, it's quite shocking to read the following:
What were you like as a teen?We know Charlotte was not particularly fond of Heathcliff (at least publicly), but probably his actual creator, Emily, will take issue with Ms Lockwood's words. We don't want to be cruel and we sincerely hope this is a mistake made by the person who typed the interview.
I was what I call a "lit nerd" - someone who couldn't get enough of English class. I loved to read anything and everything. I loved Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte. "Tale of Two Cities" and "Pride and Prejudice" are still two of my favorite books. (...)
Who is your favorite character of the series to write and why?
Heathcliff, hands down. I've always had a soft spot for Heathcliff. In Wuthering Heights, he's an abused orphan who against all odds makes a name for himself. He's tough and tenacious, and above all, has a clear understanding of his feelings for Catherine. Of course, in that novel, he's also primarily a villian. After he has his heart broken, he seeks revenge on pretty much everybody around him, whether they were cupable or not. You could argue that he's just essentially a bad person, but I always felt that his broken heart made him vindictive and mean. In Bard Academy, he hasn't yet had his heart broken. He still has hope for love, and because of that, the purer, better parts of his nature come through. I'm sure if Charlotte Bronte were alive she would take issue with my interpretation of Heathcliff, but I like the idea of giving him a second chance. At Bard Academy, he's got a chance for redemption.
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| Source: Brontë Parsonage Facebook Wall |
MISS | Roy Voss | 07 June - 20 July 2014, South Square GalleryThe South Square Gallery Blog gives more information:
Brontë Parsonage Museum (until September)
MISS is a two-part commission that takes the form of an exhibition in South Square Gallery and sited artworks located around the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
In the gallery a theatrically over-sized backdrop cuts diagonally across the first space, emphasising the domestic scale and feel of the room. The painted image is a kind of landscape, but with the appearance of a ubiquitous brick wall – landscape as wall, wall as backdrop - and has an available back and front. An ornamental bouquet of flowers, elevated by a simple stand, becomes a standard lamp, with its bare bulb labouring against the back of the canvas like a diminutive sun. Beyond this a sculpture of a doorframe suggests movement from one physical or psychological place to another and signals a shift in scale in the second space.
In response to the Brontë Country landscape and its recognition as a visitor destination, found postcards are utilised in a series of small collages. Each collage has a word cut from the back of a posted postcard, which has then been reinserted so that it appears within the picture on the front, becoming an accomplice or a foil to the image.
In contrast to the work exhibited in the gallery, where the landscape is artificially imagined within the confines of the interior, Voss uses the Parsonage as a site for subtle interventions set within the dramatic backdrop of Brontë Country. Inspired by the context of the parsonage, three steel signs of varying sizes are sited in and around the Parsonage’s grounds, each spelling out the word MISS. Although the work appears direct, the word being simply a title that suggests singleness or youth, the word also suggests a longing for someone or something; there is an idea of missing the three Brontë Misses.
MISS is the latest in a series of annual commissions, developed in partnership with the Brontë Parsonage Museum, which provides the opportunity for artists to engage with the context of the surrounding landscape.
Giving the heavy significance Voss places on the single word within his work during the site visit I asked him to expand on the significance of the word ‘Miss’:
‘Given we are in Brontë country, there is an idea of missing the three Misses. Miss is simply a title that suggests singleness or youth. It could also suggest a longing for someone or something, but it has several other meanings of course: To not hit a target, to fail to be somewhere, to overlook or not comprehend something, to not take a chance, to fall short.’
Voss’ signs will be made from untreated steel which will gradually begin to rust, so as to form a kind of physical proof of the weather, rather than being weatherproof. It is possible to draw links between the literary work of the Brontë sisters and Voss signs, as the Brönte sisters’ work are heavily influenced by the dramatic, unruly nature of the Moor’s weather. I think his choice of material is particularly fitting for the context of the piece, when you consider the surrounding industries located on Thornton Road. As I travel to South Square and drive through the outskirts of Bradford up to Thornton I pass many industrial builders yards and steel works. By locating manufactured steel structures directly in to the picturesque rural landscape, I see in Voss’ work the connotations of the historical landscape of the area; a history of industry and manufacturing in the heart of the picturesque Yorkshire countryside.
A new bid has been launched to protect moorland which inspired literary classics and draws visitors from across the world.Campaigners are pressing for the Brontë moors above Haworth to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status.The initiative comes amid growing fears for the future of the world-famous landscape, which includes Top Withens – reputedly the inspiration for the setting of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.A 41-turbine wind farm is planned on the uplands between Brontë Country and Calderdale, which opponents say would be an "ecological disaster" – destroying peatland and threatening already-endangered wildlife – and a "cultural tragedy".Stronger Together, a coalition of organisations, is fighting the Calderdale Energy Park scheme.Amongst those campaigning is the Friends of Brontë Country, which is pursuing the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation."Appraising World Heritage Site status is a very demanding process but if developers 'win' the Brontë moors will no longer exist," says a spokesperson."Destroying this unique moorland would not only be an ecological disaster, it would be a cultural tragedy."This is one of the last places in the world where you can step into the pages of a novel like Wuthering Heights and still find the landscape intact."The coalition says Walshaw Moor – which stretches from above Haworth towards Hebden Bridge – has protections in place, but that more needs to be done.A spokesperson says: "Walshaw Moor is designated as both a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area due to its rare peatland habitat and red-listed bird species. Yet despite these legal protections, developers are pushing ahead with plans that would see wind turbines erected on this fragile terrain."We are urging the public to sign a petition to Parliament, at petition.parliament.uk/petitions/701290, calling for a ban on wind farm development on protected peatland."The campaign is also seeking support for amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to strengthen protections for peatland in England."We're not anti-renewables, but we must place wind farms in appropriate locations."The Brontë Society has also pledged its commitment to protecting the moorland.Rebecca Yorke, director of the society and the Bronte Parsonage Museum, says: "The society has a long-standing interest in the moorland surrounding Haworth, and is committed to its protection."The South Pennines is the only upland area in England without national park status, or any other region-wide designation which would ensure its unique ecological habitats and characteristic built heritage are preserved for future generations."Top Withens, intrinsically linked to Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, was once on the National Heritage List for England. The Brontë Society, in partnership with other concerned parties, will strive to regain protection for this iconic literary landmark and the moors which surround it."Calderdale Wind Farm Ltd – which is behind the Calderdale Energy Park proposal – says the scheme would be capable of generating enough electricity to power the equivalent of around 250,000 homes and reduce CO2 emissions nationally by about 354,000 tonnes each year.A spokesperson adds: "Calderdale Energy Park presents a key opportunity to support the UK Government’s net zero targets, particularly given the strong wind resource at Walshaw Moor. The work carried out to date recognises that the scheme would result in some environmental impacts and includes measures to mitigate these and deliver enhancements across areas of the Walshaw Moor estate." (Alistair Shand)
Too Much is one of those rare gems, with characters destined to stay with you for life and have the same impact.Meg Stalter stars as Jessica, who’s reeling from the end of a relationship. She’s moved back in with three generations of single women – and her nephew – at their family home in New York.Increasingly isolated after a brutal breakup, her only solution is to accept a job in London and start over in solitude, imagining herself as a Brontë sister… in Hackney.The estate she moves to isn’t quite the Downton Abbey she’d pictured – it’s a council estate in Hoxton. (Adam Miller)
The plot of many a corseted period drama on which Jessica, the main character and narrator of Lena Dunham’s new Netflix series Too Much, has built her image of England goes something like this: An ingénue finds herself in a new environment, where she — clumsily, unpreparedly, authentically — falls in love with a distinguished gentleman who loves her back despite her “poor connections” and her faults. Often, this story is set on a picturesque estate, somewhere huge and stately with plenty of corners perfect for running into your prospective lover. This is how it goes for Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy; it’s how it goes for Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. The stories of their romance have endured over centuries because they are beautifully crafted, yes, but also because, like all romances, they are fantasies. They are stories in which a person’s essence, their inalienable magnetism, can transcend the constraints of society, custom, and ego. Part of what makes Lizzy Bennet so attractive is that Mr. Darcy tries to resist her pull.Too Much is explicit about its influences: Jessica, who constantly refers to Jane Austen novels, is a foreigner in a new environment, open to being fallen in love with despite her kookiness. She’s jaded enough by her recent breakup to avoid the ingénue label, but because this is a show from Lena Dunham, she is unflinchingly sincere, a quality well-matched to Megan Stalter’s earnestness. (Rafaela Bassili)
We meet our heroine Jessica (Stalter) in New York, where she’s had an upsetting break-up. She uses a garden gnome to break in to the flat she used to live in with her ex-boyfriend Zev (Michael Zegen), and finds him asleep beside his hot new girlfriend Wendy, a knitwear influencer played with perfect drollness by Emily Ratajkowski. Jessica, who isn’t soothed by Wendy’s therapy up-speak (“I want to hold space for how you’re feeling”), flees to ensure she doesn’t get arrested. Soon after this humiliating debacle, she moves to London.Like Dunham, Jessica is an Anglophile: she’s seen Spice World “nine times” and loves Wuthering Heights. (Leaf Arbuthnot)
Not everyone knows that the Brontës, England’s most accomplished literary family, were actually half Irish. Anne, Emily and Charlotte were raised by Patrick Brontë, a strict father who was born in Co. Down on St. Patrick’s Day, 1777, and who maintained his close ties to the nation all of his life.GateHouse News Service interviews Eve-Marie Mont, author A Breath of Eyre:
That’s why this week’s news that an Irish actress is set headline an Off Broadway revival of a famous play about Charlotte Brontë is so welcome.
Beginning on May 3, Irish actress Maxine Linehan will step into the role of Charlotte Brontë, the most celebrated of all three sisters. It’s the first revival of William Luce’s 'Brontë: A Portrait of Charlotte' since 1983 and it will play at Theater 511 in New York City. (...)
Linehan’s an ideal pick to embody the fiery Charlotte, whose independence of mind and spirit shocked her own age. It’s for Charlotte's bracing clarity of her thought, her refusal to be relegated to someone else’s limiting ideas of what a women is or should be, and for her startling eloquence when it comes to matters of the heart that she has remained as relevant now as the day she first picked up her pen. (...)
“I originally read the play in one sitting and I just felt crazy parallels to my own life. I knew about Charlotte Brontë, but in recent months doing research I’ve discovered she was completely ahead of her time as a feminist as a writer. I want to share all this with the audiences." (Cahir O'Doherty)
Q. Be honest: Did your interest in Rochester partially inspire this story?The New York Times reviews The Right-Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman:
A. Well, maybe just a little. … Seriously, I know of few Jane Eyre fans who didn’t have a crush on Rochester at some point in their lives. Sure, some women get over their attraction to a brooding, romantic hero, but for me, Rochester still has tremendous appeal, which I think translates well into young adult literature. Girls will always be drawn to the mysterious bad boy who hides a vulnerable side. My protagonist has several stand-ins for Rochester in her real life — one of them, her English teacher — but it isn’t until she actually meets Rochester in the flesh that that she begins to give up her desire for an unattainable hero and open her eyes to the real love that may be standing right in front of her. (...)
Q. In “A Breath of Eyre,” you actually take the reader to the brink of changing the ending to “Jane Eyre.” Gutsy, considering the thousands of devoted Jane Eyre fans. What made you decide to trespass on what to some is hallowed ground?
A. Honestly, this did scare me a bit, but that scene you’re speaking of is so vital to Emma’s growth that I knew it was right for her story. And I made it very clear that while Jane still gets her happy ending, Emma has to tear herself out of Jane’s story in order to find her own.
Q. What emotional well did you draw from for “A Breath of Eyre”?
A. I’ve heard from some readers of “A Breath of Eyre” that they were surprised by how serious the story gets at times — they were expecting a more light-hearted romp through Victorian England and a little forbidden romance with Rochester. And believe meR, I love those escapist stories, too, but I guess I use my fiction to explore my fears and to try and make sense of the world and my place in it as Emma does. Jane Eyre treads on a lot of thorny issues like identity, abandonment, class, gender, morality, autonomy. I wanted to echo some of those themes in a modern context. For this book in particular, I drew on my own sense of loneliness and insecurity as an adolescent — a time in which I knew deep down I had something important to say but hadn’t yet gained the confidence to think anyone would listen. (DA Kentner)
Constructed, “Wuthering Heights” style, as a succession of narratives told to Edward Mason by Miss Mary and her employees on his daylong tour of the Retreat, “The Right-Hand Shore” represents an outing of some of America’s most troubled ghosts. (Fernanda Eberstadt)Pipe Dream mocks the lyrics of Carly Ray Jepsen's Call Me Maybe:
I’ve read John Milton and Bill Shakespeare. I’ve studied Jane Austen and Emily Brontë, Chaucer, Salinger, Hesse and Rowling.Another student newspaper, The Maneater jokes about Heathcliff and Economy classes:
No matter how critically successful the work of the aforementioned authors may be, all pale in comparison to the lyrical brilliance and cultural importance of Carly Rae Jepsen’s autobiographical account of love at first sight, “Call Me Maybe.” (Jason Blackman)
If that bully Economics has mistreated you in your scary new campus home, revenge won’t gain you any compassion. If you’re mourning the loss of an academic scholarship, will snarky comments really help you cycle through the five stages of grief any faster? Probably not. Will they change a teacher set in his or her ways? Doubtful. Do teachers even read those things? Open to interpretation.Keighley News announces some of the events to take place at the next Keighley Festival (July 6-13):
Before you walk away from that completed evaluation form, before the wickedly triumphant feeling fades and you’re left wallowing in your own sorrows, consider Heathcliff’s precedent. Schemes of revenge, even if they succeed, yield little more than wasted effort and renewed sorrow. (Claire Landsbaum)
There will also be a chance to walk in the footsteps of the Brontës, challenge a table tennis-playing robot, sail model boats on Keighley Tarn, and explore Utley Victorian Cemetery There will be community days in several areas including Haworth, Bracken Bank and Thwaites. (David Knights)The latest 2012 Go Local Sunday is featured by Keighley News:
The 2012 Go Local Sunday event featured eight different venues. The day was organised by the Brontë Country Partnership, which markets Keighley and Brontë Country to visitors. (...)The Huddersfield Daily Examiner remembers that the Old Estate Office at Kirklees Hall is on the market but doesn't seem to remember who wrote Shirley and visited Kirklees Hall:
Ann Dinsdale, collections manager at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, said: “We had 236 local people take advantage of the day. That’s about par with previous years even though it wasn’t a great day weather-wise, which would have put quite a few people off.” (Miran Rahman)
The hall is also mentioned in Emily Brontë’s (sic) famous classic, Shirley, and Ms Brontë was a visitor to Kirklees Hall.The Globe and Mail talks about Donald Trump's controversial (putting it mildly) ideas and the Brontë country wind farm plans are mentioned:
Its garden was designed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, the creativity behind 170 gardens surrounding the finest country houses and estates in Britain.
The five-bedroomed Old Estate House is listed for sale with Boultons on John William Street. (Joanne Douglas)
Apart from Mr. Trump's fight, the highest-profile wind-farm contretemps is happening on “the wild and windy moor” (as Kate Bush sang) where Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw fell in love. A 60-metre high test mast will soon go up near Top Withens, the ruined house set in desolate moorland that inspired Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. The Brontë Parsonage Museum, located in the house where Emily, Charlotte and their siblings grew up, joined the campaign against the mast, which it fears could lead to the construction of four giant wind turbines.Susie Boyt makes a Brontë reference on her Financial Times column:
“One of the things that draws people here is the landscape,” said Andrew McCarthy, director of the museum, which hosts 80,000 visitors a year. “People do want to go out onto the moors and experience the wilderness that the Brontës knew. The proliferation of wind turbines within that landscape is at odds with that.” (Elizabeth Renzetti)
Did Oliver Twist, when enjoying his later life prosperity, eschew a roast beef dinner for a bowl of wholesome workhouse gruel? You betcha! Was Jane Eyre, when redecorating, ever half-tempted to paint her bedroom red? You never know. Friends will seek their glamorous absent fathers in the men they choose and feel utterly disheartened in the same old soothing way. It’s perfectly normal.The Foster's Daily Democrat presents the work of 16-year-old Catherine Geiger:
Also this month Geiger was notified of her placement in the NH Semi-Finalist for Letters About Literature 2012. This is co-sponsored by Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library in Concord. Her letter to Emily Brontë about Wuthering Heights is one of 45 selected as a state semi-finalist from 736 entries received from New Hampshire students in the competition. Catherine enjoyed the experience of "writing back" to an author whose work inspired her.The Saturday Monitor (Uganda) chooses Jane Eyre as an all-time favourite book:
This is one book I can read over and over without tiring. Its descriptive nature is what has made me love it. All the Brontë sisters have a way of using description but for me Charlotte beats them all. She does it with such ease that you may think it’s the easiest style and anyone can do it. (Sharon M. Omurungi)The Sydney Morning Herald reviews Colm Tóibín's New Ways To Kill Your Mother: Writers and Their Families:
New Ways To Kill Your Mother: Writers and Their Families is a collection of essays in criticism, rather more biographical than literary in their emphasis. Toibin's concern is how writers cope with their parents. The opening chapter, ''Jane Austen, Henry James and the Death of the Mother'', is the densest, and an exhilarating take on the history of the novel. In broad terms, its argument is that the novel charted the movement away from the familial and tribal mindset towards the creation and fostering of the individual consciousness. You couldn't have mothers in the novel; they crimped and suffocated. You had aunts. They were at arm's length and might be encouraging or might be a pest but they wouldn't cast too heavy a shadow on the blossoming heroine (and it usually was a heroine); consider Jane Austen or Jane Eyre. (Gerard Windsor)ORF (Austria) reviews Wuthering Heights 2011:
Dazwischen standen Monate des mühsamen Drehs im Schlamm, mit einer Gruppe von größtenteils - wie stets bei Arnold - Laiendarstellern. Genau auf diese Weise kann man Bronte näher kommen: zarte Seelen in einer harten Landschaft. Der Film wird der Literaturvorlage so gerecht, wie es eben möglich ist, auch wenn man zwischendurch gemeinsam mit den Charakteren ein wenig verzweifeln mag in diesem hügeligen, depressiven Teletubbyland. (Simon Hadler) (Translation)Dziennik (Poland) reviews the recent first Polish translation of Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall:
Ale "Lokatorka Wildfiell Hall" to również powieść o tym, jak dużą krzywdę może wyrządzić plotka i bezpodstawne pomówienie. W czasach, w których powstają specjalne media o tematyce plotkarskiej a internet stanowi doskonałe pole do tego typu praktyk, problem poruszony przez Annę Brontë zdaje się być jeszcze bardziej aktualnym. (Anna Sobańda) (Translation)El Periódico de Extremadura (Spain) briefly reviews Jane Eyre 2011; the Chipping Campden Literature Festival, includes a screening of Wuthering Heights 1939 next May 2 (via Gloucestershire Echo); Rope of Silicon announces that Wuthering Heights 2011 will be screened at the upcoming Seattle International Film Festival (incidentally, the film will also be screened at the Maryland Film Festival, May 3-6); the film gets reviewed on L'Étoile and Filmsbloggurin; Anna's Words reviews in Romanian Agnes Grey; alivre-ouvert (in French) posts about Jane Eyre and Kirjavinkit (in Finnish), vintage bluebell about Wuthering Heights; The Squeee tries to be equanimous with Michelle Carter's Charlotte Brontë's Thunder; ReelMusic Online posts about Bernard Herrmann's Jane Eyre 1944 score; col underhill uploads a Top Withins picture to Flickr. Finally, we recommend a visit to the Brontë Parsonage Blog which has recently changed its layout.
Unless explicitly said
