And in Dorset, a WEA course about Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea:Colin Dexter and Gabriel Woolf – Morse and More
3.00pm
Colin Dexter is the creator of one of British Television's most intelligent and best loved characters – Inspector Morse, memorably played by John Thaw. Colin will read from his own work, and, as a scholar of classic literature, will be accompanied by one of BBC Radio's great voices, actor Gabriel Woolf, who will read a selection of Colin's favourites, from Hardy and Dickens to Bronte, Housman and, of course, Dylan Thomas. There will also be time for questions from the audience.
The Madwoman in the Attic - Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso SeaCategories: Jane Eyre, Talks, Wide Sargasso Sea
Wide Sargasso Sea explores the gaps and silences in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, giving voice and substance to Bertha Mason. We examine and discuss both novels to trace the paths which lead the passionate Antoinette/Bertha from her home in Jamaica to madness and death.
Course reference: C3518096
Tutor: Bonita Doonan
03 November 2007 to 03 November 2007
Course day(s) and time(s): Sat 10:15. This course will run for 1 sessions of 6 hours each.
Venue information:
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum (Bournemouth)
Russell Cotes Road, East Cliff, Bournemouth, Dorset BH1 3AA
A couple of slightly Brontë related events begin today, June 6:Arena Stage presentsAnd at the Leominster Festival in Leominster, Herefordshire, UK:
The mystery of Irma Vep (more information on previous posts)
Charles Ludlam
directed by Rebecca Bayla Taichman
June 6 through July 13, 2008
in Crystal City, Arlington, VA, US
Charles Ludlam’s hilarious Obie Award winner gleefully ransacks literary, cinematic and pop culture as it satirizes everything from Hitchcock’s Rebecca and Victorian Melodrama to The Mummy's Curse, the Brontës and Shakespeare.
Colin Dexter with Gabriel WoolfMore information on these old posts.
7.30pm The Minster College
“Inspector Morse! author Colin Dexter is a fascinating man like the unforgettable character he created. An avid lover of Wagner’s music, a cryptic crossword wizard, teacher and educationalist, classical scholar, great wit, graduate of Cambridge but lover of Oxford, real ale enthusiast and most of all a man with an encyclopaedic knowledge of and all consuming love for the finest English Literature and Poetry.
Come and hear him read from his own work, juxtaposed with his favourite passages taken from such masters as Hardy, Dickens, Charlotte Bronte and A. E. Housman, read by the actor GABRIEL WOOLF, his “all time favourite BBC Radio Voice.”
Colin Dexter with Gabriel WolfCategories: Talks
Wednesday 10th October 2007, 8pm
Crosby Civic Hall, Main Hall
Colin Dexter, the author of Inspector Morse reads from his own work and analyses some of his favourite passages from such masters as Hardy Dickens, Charlotte Brontë and AE Housman read by the actor Gabriel Wolf his 'all time favourite BBC Radio Voice'.
In 1940, Laurence Olivier and soon-to-be second wife Vivien Leigh arrived at the Academy Awards just months before tying the knot.Merle Oberon, who played Cathy in the adaptation, is mentioned in The Ridgefield Press, where Byron Nilsson - an ex-usher at the Ridgefield Playhouse - reminisces about the 'good old times':
Leigh was riding high from the success of "Gone With the Wind" while Olivier had came to the attention of US audiences with his performance as the brooding Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights."
Olivier would have to wait for his first Academy Award however, losing out to Robert Donat for "Goodbye Mr Chips." Leigh meanwhile won for her legendary performance as Scarlett O'Hara.
For example, Merle Oberon attended a movie there in 1973, a quiet but dazzling event that nonplused me. She still looked as she did in “Wuthering Heights,” and paraded on the arm of a much younger man. Even in the anonymity she sought, she had star presence.As for music, we must mention the a capella version of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights by Not the Midnight Mass again as, according to Art Zone (again),
Tiffin’s rendition of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights later had me sobbing at its sheer haunting beauty. (Christina Kennedy)The Washington Post asks a few (female) writers to pick 'any fictional character in the world' with whom they would spend 'one unbridled night'. Two of them pick the one and only Mr Edward Fairfax Rochester:
Susan Isaacs: You have to ask? Edward Rochester, of course, from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. He's got that quivering-with-barely-suppressed-passion business, but he's also elegant. (A guy has to do more than simply spritz testosterone when the sommelier hands him the wine list.)Meanwhile, Sudha Devi Nayak writes for Express Buzz (India) about a well-known feeling among book-lovers: 'the quiet joy of coming back home'.
Adriana Trigiani agrees: Rochester -- he's a mysterious man on a horse in the English countryside -- sounds like a keeper to me. (Ron Charles)
Out came Emma and Jane Eyre and Billy Bunter with names and dates scribbled on them bringing home the reading pleasures of a whole family. I must reread them for the sake of all of us who thumbed these pages with such excitement and joy.Now for some fun things: the BBC has a quiz on biblical references whose first question is from Jane Eyre:
In the very last line of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, which book of the New Testament are the words "Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus" taken from?If you are a Sagittarius, your horoscope comes with a Brontë mention in the Winipeg Free Press today:
1. Corinthians
2. Colossians
3. Revelation
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)And if you are in the Somerset (UK) area today you might have a plan according to the Somerset Standard:
Lucky Sagittarians are not reading this column today; they're off on vacation somewhere. It's a play day! Romance, love affairs, the arts, the entertainment world, the theatre, movies, sports and all other kinds of playful diversions are calling your name. "Heathcliff!" (Georgia Nicols)
Fans of Inspector Morse and anyone with a taste for classic literature can head for Strode Theatre, in Street, to see and hear from the inimitable Colin Dexter, writer of the Inspector Morse novels, when he visits the theatre on Wednesday. [...]More information about Colin Dexter's readings can be found in previous posts.
He is an avid lover of Wagner's music, a cryptic crossword wizard, teacher and educationalist, classical scholar, great wit, real ale enthusiast and, most of all, a man with an all-consuming love for the finest English literature and poetry.
Colin is also a born entertainer and loves a good tale with a humorous twist. He will read from his own work and talk about his life, work and professional relationships.
In addition, you will hear his favourite passages from such literary greats as Hardy, Dickens, Charlotte Bronte and AE Housman read on stage by the actor Gabriel Woolf, Colin's "all time favourite BBC Radio voice".
Tickets for the talk cost £14.50, concessions £12.50 and are available from the Strode Theatre box office on 01458 442846.
“And when you are in one part of the country you are often asked that, while you are there, could you do this other thing?” Hence his visit to Crosby with Gabriel Wolf, the veteran actor, with whom he often works. [...]Here are the date and venue details:
His Crosby visit will find Dexter talking about other writers like Dickens, Charlotte Bronte and Thomas Hardy with Wolf reading the extracts. (Philip Key)
Crosby Civic Hall: Wednesday, October 10, at 8pm (box office 01704 540011).The Philadelphia Enquirer looks at the eternal question of classic novels - Jane Eyre among them - being compulsory reads at school.
Here are some of the books read by Cherry Hill High School West principal Joseph Meloche, with selected comments. [...]An exhibition on Paula Rego's art has just opened today at the Spanish museum Reina Sofía (Madrid). According to Revista de Arte - Logopress (and the museum's own website) the exhibition will include works from her Jane Eyre series.
12th grade
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte: "It's a hard one for the kids, but we ask them to read it as seniors, and at the level, it's appropriate." (Kristen Graham)
I’m trying to remember the last time I was so deeply moved by a live performance, and I’m not able to come up with anything. Jane Eyre was just stunning.Marcinism posts about deconstructing Jane Eyre:
Having loved Jane Eyre for thirty years (and having written a chapter of my doctoral dissertation on the novel), I was initially a little skeptical about the idea of a three-hour dramatic adaptation. Things that work well on paper don’t always translate well to the stage. And Jane Eyre presents a number of dramatic challenges. First of all, the novel is bleak. The themes are abuse, religious coercion, and a brutal, almost unrelenting loneliness. Besides that, Jane Eyre owes much of its force to Jane’s reflective and imaginative narration–a narrative style that can’t easily be embedded into stage dialogue. And finally, the novel’s love story mostly takes place in the heroine’s head, conveyed through interior monologue, and Rochester’s bullying behavior and gruff language aren’t (on the surface) very love-worthy.
But the Guthrie’s production handled all those obstacles wonderfully. Jane (sensitively portrayed by Stacia Rice) and Rochester (Sean Haberle) have great, funny chemistry. I never expected that Jane Eyre could be funny!
Even better: through the technique of creating an older Jane who comments on the action (like a Greek chorus) and interacts with the younger Jane, Bronte’s beautiful narrative style was able to be preserved. This strategy enabled the performers to showcase some of my favorite passages from the novel–like the sad scene where Jane tells herself to paint a faithful self-portrait and one of her beautiful rival and to place them side-by-side whenever she’s tempted to imagine herself worthy of Rochester.
Yes, the production was bleak. Dark sets, gray colors, restrictive costumes, and lots of repressed emotion. But these elements only made the happy ending all the more cathartic when it finally came. Jane’s crushing loneliness has ended, and she is at last in the arms of a man who knows what it is to suffer and who loves only her.
“Reader,” says the older Jane (just as half of the audience begins to weep), “I married him.”
For example, deconstructive reading of Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte would indicate that while Jane assumes the activities of the traditional woman in opposition to the male characters in the novel, that her ultimate will and power identifies her as strong and not weak. The hierarchies are then upset and begin to unravel. It is important to note however, that the deconstruction of binary oppositions is not a task to endure by the reader or critic, yet the oppositions deconstruct from within the text.Hmmmm... deconstruction - not our cup of tea.
Cathy and Heathcliff and the rest of the Wuthering Heights clan would be the best, though. Of course they would show up on the trashiest show possible. Ricki Lake? Maury Povich? Jerry Springer? I don't know what the latest trainwreck show is, but they'd be on it.Fantastic. But the following, from Tales from the "Liberry", is not less so. What's more, this is real!
shimmer shimmer dream sequence shimmer shimmer
First Edgar would come on, all downtrodden, wearing khaki pants and a French blue shirt, talking about how he loves his wife, but he just doesn't understand her. And (his voice drops with shame) he thinks she might be cheating on him.
"MIGHT BE? Hell fucking yeah I'm cheating on you," Cathy bellows as she enters. She wears a white wife beater over a black bra, and lowrider jeans that showcase the top of her thong and the tramp-stamp tattoo on her lower back that reads HEATHCLIFF.
Heathcliff trails behind her, wearing black, smirking.
Edgar rises to kiss Cathy on the cheek as she evades him to the hoots of the audience. As C & H sit, Isabella comes trailing in wearing mom jeans and a sweatshirt. When she cannot find a chair to sit next to Heathcliff she plops down next to Edgar and begins snivelling into a tissue pulled from her sleeve.
"What are you crying about? You couldn't keep your man, and someone else done got him," Cathy says. "I mean, my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath--a source of little visible delight, but necessary. He's always, always in my mind--not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So step off, biznatch!"
Edgar borrows a Kleenex from Isabella. Heathcliff snickers and gets a pinch of Skoal. The audience hoots and barks.
shimmer shimmer dream sequence shimmer shimmer
SETTING: My "liberry" as a female patron approaches the circ-desk from the direction of our nonfiction section.Categories: Alert, Art-Exhibitions, Humour, Jane Eyre, Scholar, Talks, Theatre, Wuthering Heights
PATRON— Hi. I'm looking for Jane Eyre.
ME— Ah. That will be over in our fiction section, under Brontë.
PATRON— No, I need the biography of her. About her life.
(Pause)
ME— Um... (Pauses again to consider how best to politely break the news to her. Realizes there is no good way. Proceeds...) Jane Eyre is a fictional character in a book written by Charlotte Brontë.
PATRON— (Long pause) Oh. (Long pause) I must have misunderstood.
Unless explicitly said
