TWO Derbyshire stately homes will be used to film scenes for a new Hollywood movie.Yesterday's edition of the Derby Telegraph did indeed comment on the goings-on behind the scenes:
Chatsworth and Haddon Hall will both be featured as locations in Jane Eyre, a new production of the classic novel by Charlotte Bronte.
Stars appearing in the film include Dame Judi Dench and Jamie Bell and shooting will take place over the next few weeks.
Yesterday the Derby Telegraph revealed that the movie's stars would be staying near Matlock during some of the filming.
Now Ian Thompson, publicist for Ruby Films, which is producing the film, has confirmed the filming locations.
He said: "Along with Chatsworth and Haddon Hall we are also shooting some scenes in the Derbyshire Dales.
"It's not hard to point the camera somewhere in Derbyshire and for it to look stunning.
"It's the untouched rural beauty of the region and the stately homes that makes it perfect for shooting period films."
In the past, films such as The Wolfman and The Duchess have been shot at Chatsworth, attracting stars such as Benicio Del Toro and Keira Knightley.
James Trevethick, head of house operations at Chatsworth, said: "It's not only a tourism boost to the estate but it celebrates the beauty of the place.
"We are only involved in a few minor scenes but we are always glad to welcome a film crew."
Red House Stables, in Darley Dale, will be providing accommodation for both horses and humans while filming is under way.
Caroline Dale-Leech, owner of Red House Stables, said: "We are catering for up to 16 people and 16 horses and they will be staying over the next few weeks but numbers will vary as filming changes."
HOLLYWOOD stars will be in Derbyshire again as parts of a new adaptation of classic novel Jane Eyre are filmed in the county.And the search is still on for the young and older Heathcliff as well as young Cathy for Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights, as the Gazette & Herald says.
Dame Judi Dench and Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell are among the cast for the new movie.
The locations for filming have yet to be confirmed, but the cast and crew will be staying at a working museum near Matlock while shooting takes place.
Red House Stables, in Darley Dale, will provide accommodation for both horses and humans while filming is under way for the period drama, based on the 19th-century novel by Charlotte Bronte.
The building houses a large collection of original horse-drawn vehicles and equipment and, as a working museum, regularly takes them out on the road.
The size of the collection and working order of the equipment has led to the place developing a growing sideline in providing props and horses for film-makers.
Caroline Dale-Leech, owner of Red House Stables, said it was not the first time the company had worked with a film crew.
She said: "We have been operating as a museum since 1946 and have helped with plenty of films before.
"But we are always happy to accommodate them. Normally they use our horses and carriages in the films but this time they have their own so we will just provide the horses and crew with somewhere to stay. (...)
She said the stables had been involved with film companies since the 1960s.
Over the years, Caroline said they had helped in the making of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the BBC TV version of Pride and Prejudice, films based on DH Lawrence's novels Sons and Lovers and Women in Love and TV show Peak Practice.
She said: "We also do all sorts of promotions and advertising. We have built up a good reputation and it is a unique selling point.
"On the back of our work with films, especially after the BBC's Pride and Prejudice series, we had people from as far as Japan come and visit on tours especially to see us." (...)
Christine Langan, creative director of BBC Films, said: "We're delighted to bring together two such fresh and impressive talents as director Cary Fukunaga and screenwriter Moira Buffini.
"Added to the gorgeous cast Cary has assembled, this is exactly the treatment Charlotte Bronte's evergreen classic Jane Eyre deserves."
FILM-MAKERS are appealing for unknown actors in the region to star in the latest big-screen film to shoot in Yorkshire.An Earnshaw casting Heathcliff... Life's ironies.
A new adaptation of Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights is set to film on location in Yorkshire at the end of May, directed by Oscar and BAFTA-winning director Andrea Arnold.
Skins star Kaya Scodelario will play Catherine Earnshaw, but the role of Heathcliff had yet to be filled.
Now an open casting call has been issued by investors Screen Yorkshire looking for Heathcliffe and younger versions of both central characters.
A spokesman for the film- makers said the Heathcliff they are looking for is, “Male, working class, brooding, 16-21 years old.” Actors auditioning for the role of young Heathcliff must fit the same description, but be aged between 10 and 14.
The young Catherine is described as “10 to 13 years old (strictly no older than 13), pale-skinned, dark-haired, feisty”.
Actors auditioning for the roles do not need any acting experience, but will ideally have a Yorkshire accent and must be available for eight weeks from the end of May.
Auditions take place at Jurys Inn Hotel in Leeds today, at 2pm, and tomorrow, at 9am.
For more details, email Rob Earnshaw at rob@thecastingwebsite.com or phone 01952 458450.
Good To A Fault’s perspective jumps fitfully between the members of the ad hoc family, and some of its best moments are spent following Lorraine’s precocious daughter, Dolly, as she snoops into strangers’ homes and escapes into Jane Eyre and Mistress Masham’s Repose. They’re stories about orphans, but fiction lets her keep her mother’s illness at arms’ length. An Anglican priest who takes an interest in the family has a similar coping mechanism: When his own words fail him, he always has a snatch of poetry ready to substitute. Together, they present a moving portrait of the ways art can function as salve and shield. (Christian William)And The Smith College Sophian discusses R.D. McHattie's Returning to Denver:
I found Returning to Denver difficult to read, its main character undeveloped and therefore unsympathetic - for how can one sympathize with what one does not know? - and its tale only half-coherent, and the coherent half seemed cribbed from other, better novels. The mystery of the Glampers family and their old house was reminiscent of every other "madwoman in the attic" novel ever written, and frankly, I'd rather have Jane Eyre or the mysterious, gruff Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights than the inscrutable Doris. I'd even rather have Jane the obnoxious Mr. Lockwood than the annoyingly repetitious protagonist Diane. (Emily Atkinson)The Galway Advertiser alludes to Joyce Carol Oates's Brontëiteness and CCTV.com mentions Charlotte Brontë as one of the visitors to London's 1851 Great Exhibition.
“We cannot cut our way to recovery!” Gordon responded, with a wince. As he shuddered, knowing that the electorate IS too busy WATCHING EMMERDALE to decipher the minutiae of Keynesian economics, I realised that people are wrong when they say Brown is Rochester from Jane Eyre. Actually he is Rivers, the wracked, obsessive missionary who wants to save the world but dies himself.Nevertheless, Tanya Gold is not so original as the comparison has been done before.
Sad and weird news for a start. Two members of the (horse) cast of Wuthering Heights 2009 were killed in a motorway accident, Castle (picture source, mounted by Andrew Lincoln) and Barbarella. From The Sun:FOUR horses - including two that starred in a recent hit telly movie - were killed on a motorway after scrap metal thieves stole the gates to their field.The Huddersfield Examiner gives more details concerning the Dewsbury Brontë Festival:
Eleven horses escaped and galloped on to the A1(M) when the crooks used oxyacetylene torches to remove two 25ft gates.
Three were mown down and died at the scene. A fourth was found close to death nearby, with two distressed but uninjured horses standing guard over it.
Among the dead animals were Barbarella, 12, and Castle, 15, which both appeared in last month's ITV1 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, starring Tom Hardy.
Barbarella was ridden by Tom, who played Heathcliffe, and Castle by Andrew Lincoln, who played heroine Cathy's husband Edgar. (...)
The other two horses that died were seven-year-old ponies Ozzie and Charlie. Five horses made their way safely back to their field.
Sickened owner Sue Clark, 65, called the crooks "scumbags".
None of the people in five vehicles involved in Sunday's horror was injured but were "extremely shaken".
Police hunting the thieves at Timbertops Equestrian Centre near Wentworth, Pontefract, West Yorks, appealed for information on metal gates offered for sale.
Sue said: "They stole the gates for a few quid and caused the death of four horses. They could have killed people as well." (Alastair Taylor)
DESCENDANTS of the Brontë family will soon be back in Mirfield.The Halifax Evening Courier announces the official opening of the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms at Sowerby Bridge train station. A station with Brontë past:
David Millian is a relation of the Reverend Patrick Brontë’s brother William.
He will visit and stay in Mirfield and revisit his heritage.
Imelda Marsden from the Brontë Society said they will look round north Kirklees where Patrick and his famous literary daughters have connections.
She said: “I’ve been in touch with David since 2000 and it’s nice for him to be able to visit here.
“I’ll be showing him the school and the church which are central to the Brontë story.”
While here, Mr Millian will tour the Red House Museum in Gomersal and Oakwell Hall in Birstall.
He will also see Val Wiseman perform a musical Brontë tribute, Keeping the Flame Alive, at Dewsbury Minster on Friday September 25 at 7.30pm.
The event coincides with the Rev Patrick Brontë arriving in Dewsbury 200 years ago where he was a curate at Dewsbury Minster.
He will meet up with Sarah Brontë’s descendants and visit the Brontë grave at Whitechapel Church in Cleckheaton.
They will also visit the Hollybank Trust at Roe Head, Mirfield, where the Brontë sisters were educated. (Joanne Douglas)
It was the second station for Sowerby Bridge – the first was built in 1840 at the bottom of New Road, and was where Bramwell (sic) Bronte would have worked. (Cathy Neligan)Robert Jones, Jr links Jane Eyre to DC Comics' Wonder-Woman in a review of Secret Six (Issue 13) on Comic Book Resources:
There’s been this discussion of rage over in the main "Wonder Woman" title, and I think I’ve discovered its touchstone. It’s the same rage that was articulated brilliantly (and much to Virginia Woolf’s chagrin) in Charlotte Bronte’s "Jane Eyre." For the woman who is forced to rally against the unassailable forces that oppress her (and they are legion), rage is a weapon to be cherished rather than suppressed.The Age has an article about book-import laws in Australia. We are interested in its beginning:
Many of us love reading books. Some are published authors. A very few write so well, their books are read by generations. Presently, I am addicted (again) to Jane Eyre. (Natalie Hickey)On the Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates) we read an acknowledgement to a former professor for introducing the author to English literature, including Jane Eyre, The Times announces that ITV is seeking legal actions against STV for not airing, among others, Wuthering Heights 2009.
Nestled amid the bleak Pennine moors, overlooking the Worth Valley, lies the quaint hilltop village of Haworth.Those on the other side of the pod might enjoy going on a little pilgrimage (just joking!) to the Charlotte Brontë Villa in Riverdale (NY), which according to The Riverdale Press, is
It’s a picturesque little place, with its cobbled main street, flower-fronted brick houses, cosy restaurants and pretty tearooms, not to mention the rolling hills and vast, lonely countryside that surround it.
And it’s to this place that tens of thousands of tourists make a pilgrimage each year, to follow in the well-trodden footsteps of the world’s most famous literary family, the Brontes.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte wrote most of their classic novels while living in Haworth, when their Northern Irish-born father Patrick was parson at the adjacent Church of St Michael and All Angels.
The trio drew inspiration from their environs, particularly Emily, who looked to the wild and windy moors as the backdrop for her one and only novel, Wuthering Heights.
Today, the old parsonage is a museum, maintained by The Bronte Society. Exhibiting original manuscripts and letters belonging to the sisters and their brother Branwell, as well as furniture, clothes and personal possessions, the museum is a mecca for Bronte devotees from around the globe.
Yet despite its position as the second most popular destination for literary tourists — next only to Stratford-Upon-Avon — Haworth somehow manages to retain its olde-worlde charm.
There’s still a sense of the Brontes’ presence here. Everywhere one looks there is a connection to the family — Villette’s coffee shop, Rochester art gallery, a gift shop called Eyres and Graces, Ye Olde Bronte Tea Rooms, Heathcliffe Mews. Even the local taxi firm, Bronte Cabs, borrows the name.
The October weekend I chose to visit with my friend, Michelle, was off-peak and was fairly quiet. The base for our break was the five-star Ashmount Country, a homely guest house set in beautiful gardens, just a minute’s walk from Main Street and the moors.
Like almost every aspect of Haworth life, there’s a link back to the Brontes. Ashmount once belonged to Dr Amos Ingram, physician to Patrick Bronte and daughter Charlotte, author of Jane Eyre, Villette, Shirley and The Professor.
Charlotte was the last surviving sibling of six and watched, one by one, as her four sisters, Maria, Elizabeth (who both died as children), Emily, Anne and brother Branwell passed away.
Patrick Bronte, who lost his beloved wife from cancer less than a year after moving to Haworth, outlived all his children. Not one of the six lived beyond the age of 40.
Ashmount today cleverly combines the character of a bygone age with modern facilities — much like the village itself.
Our first port of call was the Bronte Parsonage Museum. The old Georgian house, which has been extended since the Brontes lived there, looks onto the graveyard, adding to the ghostly atmosphere. Inside, each room has been laid out as close as possible to what they would have looked like in the Brontes’ day and most of the objects on display actually belonged to the family — the miniscule manuscript books that they made as children, letters, drawings, even Charlotte’s wedding bonnet.
There’s something quite poignant about standing in the same room that Emily penned my favourite novel, Wuthering Heights, and where it is rumoured she breathed her last breath, lying on the sofa in the dining room.
The following day we woke early to begin our trek across the moors, but the heavy downpours put paid to that. Instead, we opted for a ride on the Keighley and Worth Valley steam train, which has been used in numerous films including The Railway Children.
When the rain finally stopped, we took a taxi to the nearby village of Stanbury. Our destination was Top Withins, the remains of an old farmstead high on the moors, which many believe to be the inspiration for Wuthering Heights itself.
Quite a few public footpaths lead out of Haworth and form part of the 43-mile Bronte Way, but the route from Stanbury is shorter, and given the weather conditions that day, a more sensible option.
We had our lunch at the Wuthering Heights pub, situated on the edge of the moors. How could we resist? And then, clad in our walking boots, heavy coats and jumpers, we set off on our journey.
Our path took us high up onto the moors, passing one or two isolated farmhouses that remain there. We by-passed the walk to the Bronte Waterfall and Bridge, and headed on towards Top Withens instead, praying the rain would stay away. It would be no fun to be caught out in a downpour up there, with nowhere to shelter and miles to walk before finding any kind of civilisation.
I expected the moors to be teeming with tourists, but we only met a handful of ramblers on our trek.
I was struck by the beautiful colours of the moorland — golden, green, purple and red — and the rapid changes in the weather.
One moment, the sun flitted across the moors, bathing the countryside in a warm glow, next, the skies turned dark and threatened to spoil our walk.
But it was the strong winds up at Top Withins that really brought home to me just how inspirational these moors were for Emily Bronte. It nearly knocked us off our feet as we battled against it.
In Emily’s classic novel we are told “Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr Heathcliff’s dwelling. ‘Wuthering’ being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather. Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there at all times, indeed, one may guess the power of the north wind blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a few stunted firs at the end of the house.”
These days, only one tree remains by the ruins of the old house, bravely defying the blustery gales. Standing there in eerie silence, looking over the moors, we could almost hear the sound of horses’ hooves galloping up the path or the chatter of farmhands as they set to work at the Heights.
Unfortunately we didn’t see the ghosts of Cathy and Heathcliff wandering the windswept moors and we never made it as far as Ponden Hall, believed to be the inspiration for the Linton’s home, Thrushcross Grange.
With dark clouds gathering ominously overhead, we decided to walk back through the moors to Wuthering Heights, where the host was much more hospitable than his fictional counterpart. But we both agreed we’d come back to Haworth and soon, to continue our Bronte journey.
For anyone who’s ever enjoyed a Bronte novel, or who likes to ramble in the great outdoors, Haworth is definitely worth a visit.
But you don’t have to be a literary know-all or a hill-walker to find this West Yorkshire village a magical place. Like the three Bronte sisters who lived and wrote there, all you need is some romance in your soul and a vivid imagination. (Maureen Coleman)
probably the most interesting apartment building in Riverdale. . .Now seriously, a more interesting visit might be to see the exhibition on Edgar Allan Poe 'From Out That Shadow' is at UT's Ransom Center through January 3rd. And while you are in the Ransom Center you might like to know that...
In fact, the Ransom Center has a fairly extensive hair collection, including the locks of George Washington, Napoleon, Byron, Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Marie Antoinette. (Jeff Salamon in The American-Statesman)And one more thing to do, this one today and only if you are a teenager. As seen in The Contra Costa Times.
Wuthering Heights Book & Movie Event: 6-8:45 p.m. Oct. 29. Teens are invited to discuss the classic book, "Wuthering Heights," by Emily Bronte. Participants will watch the 1992 movie starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes. (At the Concord Library at 2900 Salvio St., Concord. Phone: 925-646-5455)This film is not included, however, in The Brontë Collection, which is reviewed by Edge San Francisco.
Back in 2005, the BBC may have set too high a standard for its period pieces with its five-star production of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, starring the magnificent Gillian Anderson. Even masterpieces like I, Claudius (1976) look a little shabby in comparison. Today’s audiences expect dramas to be gripping from start to finish and, before Bleak House, the BBC didn’t always deliver. So why is it putting The Brontë Collection in its follow-up queue?The band Wolfmother played a version of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights.
Now out on DVD are three BBC adaptations of three novels from Victorian England’s preeminent literary family-Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Even as a period drama, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (2008) is remarkably current in flavor à la Bleak House. Yet the film anthologists curiously culled the 1967 television serial of Wuthering Heights and the 1983 serial of Jane Eyre to stand beside it. Ultimately, "anachronistic" is the only word to describe this newly released collection.
The BBC’s 1967 production of Wuthering Heights is an intriguing film study in that it aligns with the stark, dark realism of the then-current New Wave movement in British cinema, but it also demands more patience than today’s ADD audience may be able to muster. Moreover, it seems to have been filmed live from a rogue hot-air balloon with camera angles sweeping from ground to aerial without warning. On the upside, a young Ian McShane with his perennially brooding charm puts Laurence Olivier’s overly mannered Heathcliff to shame. Likewise, Drew Henley plays the drunkard Hinley to the hilt, mirroring the last days of the Angry Young Men era in British theater.
This BBC collection then makes a quantum leap-sixteen years and several pop-cultural eras forward-to its 1983 production of Jane Eyre. Alexander Morton seems to have devised his pedestrian script with an audience of homebound, crocheting spinsters and widows in mind. All the characters and the heroine herself constantly accuse Jane Eyre of being "passionate," but Zelah Clarke is nothing but dowdy in the role. Also, if they wanted to portray Rochester as a sexy-ugly villain, they shouldn’t have cast an all-out hottie like Timothy Dalton who barely approaches "hideous" even after he winds up a blind burn victim. Meanwhile, the story of the decorous but cruel society drags like an overstuffed laundry bag in the rain.
When we fast-forward to 2008, however, we find The Tenant of Wildfell Hall storming in as the collection’s dark-horse winner. Tara Fitzgerald is grand and alluring as Helen Graham, a reclusive painter who has moved into the derelict Wildfell Hall mansion with her young son. Fiercely possessive of her son and decked out in widow’s weeds, Helen arouses the suspicions of the townspeople who hear on good account that she’s a fallen woman. As they attempt to ostracize her from her new village, Gilbert Markham (Toby Stephens) pursues Helen as his destined mate and comes to discover that she has fled an abusive husband who can’t seem to lay off the sauce or the sluts. While it seems a bit contrived that Gilbert would pine for Helen, who is downright rude to him, the drama’s intrigue and pathos make it a strong successor to 2005’s Bleak House.
If you must watch adaptations of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, there are many worthier candidates for viewing than those represented in The Bronte Collection. Better to save a few bucks and, if at all possible, buy The Tenant of Wildfell Hall separately. (Kyle Thomas Smith)
But the most surprising and unexpected delight of the evening is the encore's Kate Bush cover. Stockdale and his fellow crazy-haired lead guitarist Aiden Nemeth take to the stage with just a mic and guitar to belt out 'Wuthering Heights' to an unsuspecting audience. (Matt Hamm on ClickMusic)The Film Fanatic reviews Jane Eyre 1934 and gives it 3/10 (agreed! But watch it if you can - you'll laugh out loud at just how bad it is). And The Little Professor brings pop culture to Victorian novels and mixes couples' names à la Brangenlina.
And another one from Concord, California:Nell'ambito degli ultimi incontri della rassegna Duemilalibri, una serata d'eccezione a Jerago con Orago: giovedì 29 ottobre, alle 21, il Castello Visconteo di Jerago aprirà i suoi battenti per ospitare Silvio Raffo, protagonista di un appuntamento dedicato alla letteratura gotica e di fantasmi, “Il piacere del terrore”, itinerari di letteratura “gotica” italiana e inglese.L'atmosfera suggestiva della sala dove avverranno le letture sarà preparata da un percorso di fiaccole sul viale d'ingresso al castello, alla maniera delle scenografie di film horror d'antica data. Saranno interpretate le pagine più famose dei classici del genere fantastico (da "Il castello di Otranto"di Horace Walpole a "Jane Eyre" di Charlotte Bronte, a "Giro di vite" di Henry James) fino a giungere alla presentazione degli ultimi tre libri di Raffo, tutti aventi a che fare con il mystery o l'elemento soprannaturale. (Google translation)
Concord LibraryCategories: Alert, Brontëana, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights
Oct 29 (Thu) 6:00PM MOVIE: discuss classic mentoned in Twilight and Evermore: Wuthering Heights, then watch the Wuthering Heights movie.
The Knaresborough Post reports that Holy Trinity Church at Little Ouseburn - the church Anne attended while working for the Robinson family - will be open for viewing as part of the Heritage Open Days. As part of this year's Heritage Open Days, two churches in Knaresbrough and Ouseburn will be open for viewing in this area. [...]To read more about the Anne Brontë connection, click here.
Heritage Open Days are held every September in towns and cities throughout England and celebrate architecture and culture by allowing visitors free access to interesting properties. The weekend started in 1994 and is now England's biggest and most popular vountary cultural event. Last year it attracted around a million visitors. [...]
Holy Trinity Church in Little Ouseburn is also open at the weekend on both Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13 from 10am till 4pm as part of the Heritage Weekend.
The Grade I building is set in a conservation area overlooking parkland and has historic links with St Bega, Fountains Abbey, the Civil War, Anne Bronte, the Newby Ferry Disaster and the Canadian Airforce.
Mentioned in the Doomsday book, much of the history of the building since Norman times can be read in the structure itself.
A DVD will be playing by Jim Lang of English Heritage plus visitors can enjoy displays of documents and photos gathered through the years.
Attendants will be on hand to answer any queries.
Coffee and cakes will be available on Saturday along with preserves and cards to buy.
The Grade II listed Thompson Family Mausoleum and Undercroft will also be open. (Picture source)
By the mid-19th century, women such as Charlotte Brontë could also self-diagnose a disease that in its symptoms was perhaps close to what we would today call depression. [...]And from The Irish Times:
Charlotte Bronte: Author
Brontë claimed to have suffered a fit of hypochondria while teaching at Roe Head, Mirfield, West Yorkshire, aged 19. She fell into "a most dreadful doom", which she believed had little to do with the sickly and doomed family milieu in which she lived. Rather, Brontë meant by "hypochondria" a dismal combination of sorrow, worry and resignation that arose, so she thought, from the fact that she now had no time to write or to think. Later, in 'Jane Eyre', she had Rochester accuse Jane of hypochondria when she expressed her fears about their planned wedding. In real life Brontë outlived her five siblings.
It explores, through the stories of James Boswell, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale, Daniel Paul Schreber, Alice James, Marcel Proust, Glenn Gould and Andy Warhol, the relationship between mind and body, and the terror of being ill. [...]The 'lifetime of Charlotte Brontë' actually took place in the 19th century.
It became quite fashionable in the 18th century during the lifetime of Charlotte Brontë when it was known as the “English malady”. “It becomes a marker of sensitivity,” says Dillon. “That is long gone. It has a psychological and moralised meaning today which we disapprove of.” (Conor Pope)
One of the Bronte sisters, Emily Bronte, wrote but one book, Wuthering Heights, but it became a literary classic and had its name bestowed on broodmares in New Zealand, the dam of the great galloper Battle Heights and ancestress of many other fine gallopers, and England, a remote relation of Moti.Always a - erm - fascinating subject, those Brontës.
The English Wuthering Heights was from Anne Bronte, a Fair Trial mare out of Charlotte Bronte, the names of Emily sisters and the seventh and eighth dams of Moti.
Charlotte Bronte was a half-sister to Florence Dombey, dam of Felcrag (GB), grandam of Dickens (Aust) (won the VRC C.B. Fisher Plate, Linlithgow Stakes, STC Rawson Stakes; second Victoria Derby and third AJC Derby) and third dam of Dickens (IRE) (a leading English stayer who won the Goodwood Cup and Yorkshire Cup). (Brian Russell)
A LIVESEY DISCUSSIONCategories: Alert, Anne Brontë, Books, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights
Acclaimed writer Margot Livesey leads a discussion about one of her 19th-century predecessors, Charlotte Bronte, and her classic novel "Jane Eyre," tonight at 7 at Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut St., Newtonville.
From early childhood, I've loved books about underdogs, where heroines only triumph after they've paid their dues. Nancy Drew didn't speak to me: Rich and omnicapable, her life bore no resemblance to my own. She could not compare with Jo March, Anne of Green Gables or Jane Eyre. Call me perverse, but I've always identified with heroines who suffer before they succeed.You can listen to the programme here and read a transcript here.
I used to reread the opening chapters of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, which detail the heroine's privations at home and at school, like a glutton. They were reassuring: You knew a promised land lay on the far side of misery.
Jane Eyre was such an important part of my private world that when a friend told me, "You have to read the Wide Sargasso Sea," by Jean Rhys, I refused at first to look at it. A prequel to Jane Eyre, Rhys' 1966 novel tells the life of Mr. Rochester's first wife, the notorious Madwoman in the Attic.
In a narrative that alternates between Rochester's voice and that of the Creole woman he marries and destroys, we experience the beauty and the history of the Indies. Like the islands themselves, Rhys' story seems to pour out of her with a heart-choking urgency. But the narrative is tightly controlled, each word carefully chosen. Rhys wrote and rewrote it for almost two decades: It's the distillation of her life and craft.
After reading this novel, we come to know Jane Eyre's Madwoman as a woman who's made mad by the bewildering white and male world in which she loses everything: her home, her beauty and, above all, her identity.
I have mixed feelings about so-called vampire novels — books that depend on someone else's creation for their life. Shakespeare stole story lines without compunction. Lesser mortals retell Hamlet or Othello in a thousand different guises. Most vampire books make me impatient: I think to myself, take a chance, invent something of your own.
But I had a completely different reaction to Wide Sargasso Sea.
Rhys grew up in the West Indies and came to England as a young woman. She was a protege and lover of Ford Madox Ford in the 1920s, when she wrote a number of acclaimed novels.
Wide Sargasso Sea knits the colonial Indies to England, for Rhys as well as for the reader. Rhys makes you understand that the Madwoman in the Attic isn't Bronte's swollen, drunken avatar of passion. She's a Creole, a woman of mixed European and African descent, like Rhys herself. The author understands how Europeans imagined West Indians — as sensual, almost animal in their passions. After reading this novel, we come to know Jane Eyre's Madwoman as a woman who's made mad by the bewildering white and male world in which she loses everything: her home, her beauty and, above all, her identity.
Ford said of Rhys that she had "a terrifying instinct for stating the case of the underdog." Nowhere does she do it more powerfully than in Wide Sargasso Sea, nowhere is her prose more supple, more assured than here. It's the kind of book that makes me despair of ever mastering my craft. You must read it. (Sara Paretsky)
The inspiration for the Izzy Lane Spring/Summer 2010 Collection starts with the soft fine Shetland wool spun from rescued sheep, undyed in its multitude of natural colors, from the rust moorit, and blue-grey katmoget. The garments are as fine as cashmere and woven into a light summer cloth in Victorian mills, with patchworks and furrows of different patterns inspired by the Wuthering Heights landscapes of the Yorkshire Dales. Cropped 40's silhouette skirts matched with edgy Wensleydale knits in candy colors paired with kneelength boots made from faux snake and faux croc, all approved by the Vegetarian Society.The Altrusa Daily Press talks to local Brontëites:
Escanaba Altrusa Club member Denise Boyle was asked the following questions:
1) What is your favorite of all the books you've read and why?
One of my favorite books is "Jane Eyre," by Charlotte Bronte. It made me appreciate how far we have come as women in this century, yet it reinforces timeless values that we bring to ourselves by our actions or lack of actions.
2) What is the book about?
A gothic romance, it starts with Jane as a defiant, passionate little girl who refuses to let anyone crush her spirit, despite the cruelty she endures. We follow her life as a governess for a French girl, Adele. Many strange things happen there. She falls in love with her employer, who is very shallow and aristocratic. She is offered a new life after she flees her wedding. However, some things are hard to leave behind.
Daily Press Staff Writer Laura Mead was asked to answer the following questions:Virtual Form Guide talks about the Brontë horses family tree. Quite disturbing to read:
1.) What is your favorite of all the books you've read, and why?
My favorite book is"Jane Eyre," because the message of the story is about faith, perseverance and hope in life. It also had the most affect on me. It made me believe I could get through hard times and come out stronger.
2.)What is the book about?
The book begins when Jane Eyre is a child - an orphan who lives with relatives that treat her as an inferior and abuse her physically and mentally. Through school she is able to escape her living environment. She goes on to become a governess of a young girl who has been adopted by a wealthy man named Rochester. Jane realizes she is in love with Rochester, but because of her status she is not considered a fit wife. A series of events transpires, and a long, horrible journey, Jane rediscovers love and the goodness of life.
Dashing displays in recent weeks by the Gai Waterhouse trained Gooree bred and raced 5-year-old mare Moti, now winner of seven of 12 starts following success in the $100,000 Mona Lisa Stakes on Friday's Wyong Cup program, adds another chapter in the tales emanating from the Bronte sisters, icon literary figures of the 1800s.Finally, Youtube channel JustAudio2008 uploads a reading of Anne Brontë's The Bluebell and the Wall Street Journal reviews R. Sikoryak's Masterpiece Comics.
One of them, Emily Bronte, wrote but one book, Wuthering Heights, but it became a literary classic and had its name bestowed on broodmares in New Zealand, the dam of the great galloper Battle Heights and ancestress of many other fine gallopers, and England, a remote relation of Moti.
The English Wuthering Heights was from Anne Bronte, a Fair Trial mare out of Charlotte Bronte, the names of Emily sisters and the seventh and eighth dams of Moti.
Charlotte Bronte was a half-sister to Florence Dombey, dam of Felcrag (GB), grandam of Dickens (Aust) (won the VRC C.B. Fisher Plate, Linlithgow Stakes, STC Rawson Stakes; second Victoria Derby and third AJC Derby) and third dam of Dickens (IRE) (a leading English stayer who won the Goodwood Cup and Yorkshire Cup). (Brian Russell)
L.M.C., 49, loves 19th century author Charlotte Brontë so much she dresses as the famous author all the time - even while doing her supermarket shopping. (...)The Daily Mail (and The Daily Express) is also carrying the story with some more pictures (the McDonald's one included) and a few more comments:
L.M. started dressing as the famous author - who penned classic novel Jane Eyre, which was recently turned into a Hollywood blockbuster - three years ago.
She said: "I love the works of all the Brontë sisters, and really wanted to encourage other people to find out more about them.
"I started dressing as Charlotte around Haworth, to point tourists in the right direction to the Bronte house.
"Now I love my costumes so much it's hard to take them off!"
L.M. has forked out a whopping £4,000 fashioning more than 50 incredible period costumes.
She added: "I dress as Charlotte because the other Brontës were quite young when they died and I'm 49.
"But I feel I'm more like Emily because she loved the Yorkshire moors and animals.
"I love taking our dogs for long walks on the moors and it always reminds me of Wuthering Heights and Heathcliff.
"I tend to do my shopping in costume, and people love seeing me around.
"I went into Sainsbury's in jeans once, and the checkout girl told me to go home and come back as Charlotte. (...)
"I still pick Becky up but she doesn't seem to notice, never mind care, that I'm dressed as Charlotte Brontë. I think she thinks it's funny!"
"My husband has also been very supportive of me - I couldn't do any of it without him; he is my Mr Rochester."
She said: 'My family have been really supportive and John even takes pictures for my Bronte website of me in costume in the hills of Brontë Country. (Lauren Paxman)L.M.C. herself posts about the articles and the (most of them) stupid comments that have been published all around.
It is a good job that Dylan, a stunt horse, is an unflappable character.The Race (a The Hollywood Reporter's blog) updates its predictions about the upcoming Oscars. Mia Wasikowska and Dario Marianelli (Best Original Score) are not in the top five possible nominees, but there are listed as major threats. Michael O'Connor seems a sure bet in the Best Costume Design category.
Carrying a cameraman across the moors, who sat facing the horse’s tail so that he could film as they went along, was all in a day’s work for this horse.
On this occasion the work in question was for the film Wuthering Heights. (...)
The Atkinsons were asked to supply a total of nine horses for the film Wuthering Heights, much of which was filmed near Hawes.
“The horses were based at Ferdy Murphy’s racing yard at West Witton and the facilities were brilliant,” said Mark. “Andrea Arnold, the director, was so supportive and it was a really good experience.”
They spent three months working on the film. At one point, the conditions underfoot were so muddy and uneven that they decided the only way to film Cathy and Heathcliff riding across the moors would be to put the cameraman, who had never ridden, on horseback.
I like Lynne Ramsay [the director of ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’] too, and Andrea Arnold.’ When I mention that Arnold has just released a low-budget, defiantly auteurist version of ‘Wuthering Heights’, his ears prick up. ‘Oh, really?’A Yorkshire Post reader defends Andrea Arnold's film after reading the (very) bad review of the newspaper:
This might be a phone conversation, but I’m sure he was reaching for pen and paper. It’s an arresting image: Martin Scorsese, packing to travel to London, readying himself to premiere ‘Hugo’ in London and Paris, but scribbling down on a scrap of paper that he must remember to catch up with a radical new British version of ‘Wuthering Heights’ when – if – he ever manages to find a spare hour or two. (Dave Calhoun)
Don't be put off. Tony Earnshaw’s total drubbing of Andrea Arnold’s rendition of Wuthering Heights is too tough (Yorkshire Post, November 7).The Mirfield Reporter reports that the fight to save Shirley Country is still going on:
See it for yourself. Visually it is incredibly beautiful, you are part of it, in the atmospheric shifting moorland mist, the strange light of which makes the colour sing. You can smell the sodden moss and peat. The brilliance of the close-ups of flora and fauna and the vast panorama of Swaledale. (...)
Did it capture the essence of that towering novel, which soars because of its narrative rather than its dialogue? You decide – take an open mind and go and see it.( From: Hilary Bunt, Monklow Moor, Harrogate.)
Kirklees Council would be wrong to put forward a site of enormous historical significance for an industrial development that would dwarf the White Rose Centre.Unreality TV talks about the latest installment of UK's X-Factor:
That was the message from people protesting against plans for a 42-hectare business development at Cooper Bridge.
They had their say at the start of a meeting on Wednesday – but councillors agreed to set aside the land on the Mirfield border for development.
The site is currently popular with walkers and is cherished by many for its historical ties to the Luddites and the Brontë family.
Campaigners held placards outside Huddersfield Town Hall before the meeting, calling on councillors to ‘Keep Roberttown and Hartshead rural’.
Dressed in a white flowing dressed and backed by a stage backed by giant bay window she [Amelia Lily] looked like she was about to launch into a Kate Bush number luckily Wuthering Heights wasn’t on the agenda (Lisa McGarry)Simon Heffer begins an article in Standpoint like this:
When I was a child in the 1960s the favoured period for nostalgia was the Victorian age, in all its manifestations. A Dickens or a Brontë serialisation seemed to be on television every Sunday.The Free-Lance Star publishes a curious (and regrettably more usual than it seems) story:
George Newman recently came across this sentence as he copy edited a book review:Clash Music chooses a Sonic Youth playlist:
"Madeleine ultimately decides that she's going to go to graduate school and study the great Victorian novels of Austen and Eyre, because, unlike real life, they almost always have a marriage plot and a happy ending."
Before I tell you what changes George made to that sentence, let me say that I put the unedited sentence up on my blog on fredericksburg.com and asked readers to take a crack at it.
Several suggested rewording "going to go to graduate school and study" or removing commas.
Maybe the sentence could have been worded better, but the real problems were the two easily checkable errors of fact.
George checked them--because it occurred to George that he should check them.
First, who is this supposed author named "Eyre"? There is a famous character named Jane Eyre, in a book by Charlotte Brontë.
Second, Jane Austen was a Victorian? No, she was not. She wrote in the Regency era, predating Queen Victoria's rule.
George changed the sentence to save us from a spate of angry letters from the literarily inclined.
As published, it read: "Madeleine ultimately decides that she's going to go to graduate school and study the great novels of Austen and Brontë, because, unlike real life, they almost always have a marriage plot and a happy ending." (Laura Moyer)
I Love You Golden Blue - Sonic NurseThe Arts Desk reviews the performances of Matilda, The Musical at the Cambridge Theatre:
In my opinion Sonic Nurse is the ultimate hit record of Sonic Youth. Every track is so nicely composed, and the production is more crisp and in-your-face than a lot of the other records. This song is just darn graceful, and Kim Gordon sings like some sort of fallen angel from the hinterlands. The lyrics seem to capture a universal feeling of loss, and for me Kim Gordon enacts the gothic world of Emily Brontë with this song.
Precocious beyond her years, she’s read Brontë, Jane Austen, Lord of the Rings and many more classics by the time she arrives in the class of the sympathetic Miss Honey at Crunchem. (Carole Woddis)The amateur DJ Anna Conray talks about her failsafe floor-fillers in NME:
'Wuthering Heights’ by Kate Bush (I realised that this was failsafe when a man decided to physically take hold of my hand and propose afterwards).The Yorker, Casteluzzo, SİNEMASKOP (in Turkish) and La Sala de Cine and Monky (both in Spanish) talk about Jane Eyre 2011; Languid Prattle reviews We Are Three Sisters; Tanta Coisa! (in Portuguese) is beginning a Brontë challenge; Owl Tell You About It loved re-reading Jane Eyre; The Art of Leo and Diane Dillon posts a 1969 cover of Jane Eyre; David Nguyen and captainBLIGH review Wuthering Heights 2011 and A Girl Walks into a Bookstore... posts about the original novel.
The handwriting of the Bronte family has been analysed to give new insights into their personalities and behaviours.Not far from Haworth, the Halifax Evening Courier reports a scheme for the old station ticket office to become a pub. That's all very well, but this puzzles us:
The study by a graphologist forms part of the new contemporary arts programme at the Bronte Parsonage Museum.
Visitors to the Haworth museum will be able to use the findings to "read" the Brontes' writings in new ways.
The findings of graphologist Diane Simpson will be revealed alongside the Victor Buta's exhibition Alter Ego, Running February 6-March 31.
Victor has produced a series of abstract paintings based on Bronte handwriting and signatures.
Diane Simpson will visit the museum on February 14 to talk about graphology and analyze visitors' own handwriting.
The next event is on November 12 at the Old Schoolroom, Haworth, when novelist Maggie Farrell will talk with writer and poet James Nash.
They will discuss Maggie's latest novel The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, which has been compared with Jane Eyre.
The book portrays a woman edited out of her family history and explores the themes of sanity and madness.
Award-winning Maggie has acknowledged the influence of the Brontes on her work. (David Knights)
The ticket office, built in 1876 and famous as the workplace of Branwell Bronte, is being turned into a licensed cafe called The Jubilee Refreshment Rooms, named after the last class of steam locomotive to operate in Calderdale. (Joe Shute)It puzzles us mainly because by 1876 poor Branwell had been dead and buried for 28 years. It is true, though, that Branwell worked as assistant and clerk at the Sowerby Bridge train station between September 1840 and April 1841. We have been unable to find specific mentions of the ticket office, but the information regarding the train station is confusing as well. According to the Brontë Encyclopedia,
It was during [Branwell's] time there that the present station was under construction.Which would be all very well, if the Wikipedia entry for Sowerby Bridge railway station didn't point out that:
The original station was opened on the 5 October 1840 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway Company. It was severely damaged by fire in October 1978 and demolished by British Rail in 1980. The current station, which is not on the original site, was built in 1981.So it is true that Branwell started work there just before the new station opened, but the current station is not the one Branwell knew. Where the ticket office enters into all this we don't really know.
Manley's grandmother could be a character out of Brontë. With her passionate, somewhat untamed nature, she could even be a Brontë. She was born Edna Swithenbank in Dorset in 1900 and raised in Cornwall on the rocky shores of St. Ives Bay in a community that clung to its Celtic traditions.The Times reviews the latest British Library release:
Her father was a Methodist minister who had met her mulatto mother in Jamaica where he served for a while as a missionary. Edna adored him. Claustrophobic indoors with her eight brothers and sisters, she often joined him for long walks on the moors while he contemplated his sermons.
After the war Edna attended art school and fell in love with her Jamaican first cousin, Norman Washington Manley, the prize-winning athlete and Rhodes Scholar. The couple married and resettled in Jamaica where he became a political leader and she became a mentor to a group of young artists. She encouraged them to discard irrelevant British traditions and express their island experience. (Donna Bailey Nurse)
two new three-CD sets, one of British and one of American writers, talking about life, literature and their work.Like us, Christopher Hart misses some never-to-be-heard-again voices, such as the Brontës':
Unfortunately, only a few female writers are represented, since the best of them — Jane Austen, the Brontës, George Eliot — lived before the advent of voice recording.It is always amusing to recall that according to Mary Taylor, when she and Charlotte first met, Charlotte 'spoke with a strong Irish accent'. And Ellen Nussey said of Anne Brontë's singing voice that it was 'weak, but very sweet in tone'.
a gothic romp pitched somewhere between The Masque of the Red Death, The Seventh Seal and Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, with a bit of Bronte and Burton thrown in for grand guignol.Also, Evolution of a White Hair reviews Wuthering Heights.
There was an innocent, unworldly, always faintly alarming infantile streak in Mill that runs perhaps most strongly through his relationship with Harriet Taylor , the married woman who was by all accounts the only human being he ever truly loved. Judicious and sardonic as his subject, Reeves offers no verdict as to whether or not the two slept together in the 20 years before her husband's death enabled them to marry, or indeed whether Mill's beloved was actually as unpleasant as many of his admirers have maintained. His own effusive tributes to the majesty of her intellect and the infallibility of her judgment seem decidedly less persuasive than Charlotte Bronte's crisp summing-up, based on a feminist article by Mrs Taylor: 'I thought it was the work of a powerful-minded, clear-headed woman, who had a hard, jealous heart, muscles of iron, and nerves of bent leather; of a woman who longed for power and had never felt affection.' (Hilary Spurling)As a matter of fact, Charlotte Brontë here was describing to Mrs Gaskell (20 September 1851) her thoughts on an article appeared in the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review on the emancipation of women. The article was assumed to be by JS Mill (who was the journal's editor), even though Charlotte at first took it (cleverly) to be by a woman - hence the previous quote. Charlotte herself later on in the same letter continues talking about the author like this:
In short J.S. Mills[sic]'s head is, I daresay -very good- but I feel disposed to scorn his heart.The New York Post recommends Wuthering Heights 1939 (which airs on TCM at 10:00 AM (ET), check our TV alerts sidebar):
The only novel that Emily Bronte ever wrote became one of the most romantic movies ever made. Bronte tells the tragic story of Cathy, a girl from a good family, and her passion for Heathcliff, a stable boy. Merle Oberon is too gorgeous as Cathy and Laurence Olivier is Heathcliff. Who wouldn't hang out in the stable with Olivier shoeing the horses? (Linda Stasi)Darkmatters writes a very interesting post on the cinematography of Jane Eyre 1944. Particularly centered on the Helen Burns sickbed scene. Hallucina compares Emily Brontë with Neil Gaiman. And I'm Gonna Say It To...? posts some pictures of Brontë country.
A short walk down the steep castle slopes and another historical site greeted the students at St Mary’s Church. Here they found the tombstone and burial site of Anne Bronte, which drew hushed whispers of “Who is she?” (Sharon Ovinis)Categories: Anne Brontë, Books, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Jane EyreMovies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights
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)
Today on the net:I've just had an email to tell me that I'll be pencilling a 144 page comics adaptation/ graphic novel version of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Going to the Birmingham Comics Show was worth it, after all, then, as my own mysterious benefactor met me at the con. This means I am now a proper, professional artist. This also means I can give up my crappy day job. This also means I'll be spending my Christmas researching mid-19th century clothes and practising drawing horses, oh, and reading the source material. (...) The picture is my prelim of Thornfield Hall.On the same post we have discovered this sketch/parody extracted from the BBC program Shooting Stars: Jane Hairs.
The peak of socialist ideology dawned during the industrial revolution when class divisions were constructed to rule the labor force. Charlotte Bronte places the protagonist, Jane Eyre, in the position between lower and upper class to critique social injustices. This world Bronte has created for her is polluted with tyranny, disease, deception, and a false sense of the afterlife. (...) The novel Jane Eyre exposes the tyranny of a capitalist society as the young woman meets with a variety of characters from a number of backgrounds and classes. These characters are doomed by their environments established by class division. (Read more)
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