But what's most disturbing about Twilight is the sincerity of the greater part of Twihard fandom. They truly believe this is an epic tale of great love; that Bella (whose freesia-scented blood is irresistible to Edward) and her moody sparklepire join the ranks of Romeo and Juliet, Cathy and Heathcliff, Elizabeth and Darcy.The reissue of Victoria Holt's novels by St. Martin's Press is celebrated by The Charleston Post & Courier:
In fact, the only thing Meyer's pairing has in common with any of them is that they are both as boring as R.Ju ("I love you!" "No, I love you!" "I love you more!" "You're my life!", etc) as manipulative and insane as Cathy and Heathcliff ("Dooooon't leeeeeeaaaaaave meeeeeee!") and that, for the majority of Jane Austen's book, Darcy was also a complete and utter jerk. (...)
Well, so what? Though far better writers, Shakespeare, Bronte and Austen were hardly kitchen-sink dramatists. Who didn't read Pride and Prejudice at 16 and swoon when Lizzie done gone and changed that bad boy fo' good?
Twilight may be unrepentingly turgid prose, but it's also a whole lot of fun.
Falling somewhere between classics such as "Jane Eyre" and Gothics such as Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca," Holt novels were often a reader's first foray into romantic suspense. Immensely readable, they also were outrageously addictive. (Rebekah Bradford)The Ventura County Star talks about the Thousand Oaks area filming rules and remembers how Wuthering Heights 1939 (reviewed today on Voir.ca) was shot:
Fifty years ago, the Conejo Valley was a mecca for Hollywood filmmakers.El Correo Gallego talks about the Spanish writer Eugenia Rico, author of Aunque Seamos Malditas, and already present on BrontëBlog before:
Producers used it as a location for such classic films as "Spartacus," "Wuthering Heights," "Sands of Iwo Jima" and "It Happened One Night," and for many television shows. (Rachel McGrath)
Y la flecha, claro, tiene que partir. "Porque tú, Eugenia, dice Xurxo, eres como las Brontë. Lo tuyo tiene mucho de Cumbres Borrascosas que es ese infierno literario incomparable. Esta novela es diferente a todo lo anterior, pero también es una evolución de todo lo anterior. (...)"Página 12 (Argentina) devotes a post to Victorian women friendship (or more than friendship). An excerpt from Jane Eyre is quoted:
Hay un faro y un pueblo de niebla y de noche (Manolo Rivas tiene también sus pueblos de la noche), y eso me recuerda a Virginia Woolf. Pero Eugenia Rico, erre que erre, está más con la Brontë. Con las Brontë. Con la gran tensión dramática de Cumbres Borrascosas y ese romántico dibujo del mal, en estado puro: "me siento atlántica, y las Brontë eran tan atlánticas...". (José Miguel A. Giráldez) (Google translation)
“Apoyé mi cabeza en el hombro de Helen, le rodeé su cintura con mis brazos; ella me abrazó y nos quedamos así en silencio. (...) Tus pequeños pies están helados, acostate y tapate con mi abrigo.” Helen, la amiga de Jane Eyre, está a punto de morir, y esta escena de amor profundo en la novela de Emily Brontë (sic) sella una etapa en la vida de la protagonista que recién entonces saldrá al mundo y se enamorará de su patrón. (Liliana Viola) (Google translation)The point of the article, already quite questionable, would benefit if the author got the name of the writer right.
Internarnos en estos sueños –en estos relatos– supone también entregarnos al universo de remisiones literarias que la serie dispara. Las aventuras de Guille y Belinda es capaz de remitirnos casi física, palpablemente, a ese otro tiempo –la infancia o la adolescencia– en el que muchas mujeres supimos leer esas historias escritas por mujeres acerca del modo en que el deseo, la dicha y el miedo circulan entre mujeres, acerca de sus códigos y sobrentendidos. En este caso –en mi caso– Jane Eyre y los cimbronazos que provoca madurar en un medio áspero. (María Sonia Cristoff) (Google translation)Jennifer's Random Musings interviews author F E Heaton:
What do you like to read?Kirjandus on retk tõe leidmiseks posts about Vihurimäe, Wuthering Heights in Estonian; Read, Meghan, Read is not very enthusiast about Villette.
I like to read classical romance such as Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell and Jane Austen. I don’t really have much time to read though as I’m always writing. I also love to read Manga. I read that quite a lot!
Via Antiques and the Arts we report the following auction of a first edition of Charlotte Brontë's Villette:December 7, 2008 - 12 pmThe Times (South Africa) describes the works of the Australian writer Kathy Lette like this:
Prozzo Auction Gallery
207 North Main St, Rutland VT.
We are pleased to be selling the Library of Charlotte Hunnewell Martin, New York Socialite, Philanthropist and Author, with additions from a local institution, and several other sources.
A terrific range of materials including an exceptional early atlas, a Charlotte Bronte 1st, Melville's Typee 1st ed., Fine Bindings, ephemera, historical volumes, etc.
Partial List: Villette by Currer Bell ( Charlotte Bronte Pseudonym) 1853 Wraps. (Picture source)
In as much as Mary Shelley gave us Gothic fabrication, the Brontës a blistering romantic vista and Jane Austen the minutiae of upper-class domestic felicity, Kathy Lette gives us a blow-by-blow account of the state of contemporary womanhood. (Aspasia Karras)The San Diego Union-Tribune presents Once Again to Zelda by Marlene Wagman-Geller,
a book about books – or, more precisely, a book of the stories behind the dedications in well-known books(.)The dedication of the second edition of Jane Eyre to W.M. Thackeray was controversial as it is well known.
Some classic works qualify: among them, Charlotte Bronte's iconic Romantic novel “Jane Eyre: An Autobiography” (Robert L. Pincus)
[M]ore than 1,000 inmates of Albion Correctional Facility for Women who participated Saturday in the 30th annual Project Joy, sponsored by Women for Human Rights and Dignity (WHRD).The Classic TV History Blog analyzes the Studio One Anthology DVD set, Terres de femmes interviews (in French) the author Cécile Oumhani:
More than 100 civilian volunteers visited the prison to conduct workshops focusing on medical, legal and educational needs, as well as transitional housing.
The inmates also received gift bags that included Christmas cards and envelopes to send loved ones, lotion, socks and books — from Shakespeare to “Wuthering Heights,” said Constance O. Eve, chairwoman and founder of WHRD. (Deidre Williams)
À travers votre jeunesse, avez-vous eu des maîtres, des modèles littéraires ?El Mundo (Spain) presents a new Spanish translation of Willa Carther's Lucy Gayheart. The author is compared to the Brontës:
CO : J’ai toujours tant aimé franchir la barrière des langues en écrivant. J’aimais laisser les volets de ma chambre ouverts et ainsi me réveiller plus tôt pour lire alors que le monde autour de moi était encore calme, silencieux. Il y avait Jane Austen, Emily Brontë. Puis E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf. Il y a eu Albert Camus. (Interview by Romica Draghincescu)
Desde su dialéctica campo/ciudad, desde su cadencia romántica, alguien podría entender a Cather como una moderna heredera estadounidense de las Brönte[sic] o de la Austen. (Álvaro Cortina)El Progreso (Spain) interviews the author Eugenia Rico whose latest novel "Aunque seamos malditas":
Es una vuelta también a los escritores que me han devorado el alma, a los escritores que han sido mi referente, que son además tan galaicos en su mundo imaginario como Allan Poe, las hermanas Brönte[sic], Cunqueiro, Fernández Flórez, Torrente Ballester... (Anxa Correa)It seems that the Spanish journalists have a problem with the position of the umlaut.
The fusion of the romance and vampire genres isn't as unlikely as it might seem. The archetypal romantic hero owes a lot to two characters from Victorian literature: Mr. Rochester in "Jane Eyre" and Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights." The two sisters who wrote those novels, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, were, like most literary women of their time, great admirers of Lord Byron, whose stormy, passionate heroes (based on his own bad self) served as patterns for Rochester and Heathcliff.The Taunton Gazette publishes an article about the upcoming Theatre III's Jane Eyre. The Musical production which we presented yesterday. The author of the article is not really very informed about what she is talking about:
Fans of the Bronte sisters’ novels, your time is now.Bloomberg reviews the current London exhibition Yes I No by Sam Taylor-Wood (more information on previous posts):
Jane Austen has been enjoying her day in sun, about two centuries long and counting.
But now, the other Jane of romantic literature – the equally immortal “Jane Eyre” of Emily Bronte’s pen – still holds her claim among the most, well, romantic heroines of fiction.
She’s more than “note” worthy, as Theatre III of Acton brings to the stage, “Jane Eyre: The Musical,” which – as you probably figured out from the title – is the classic, Gothic love story with singing in it.
And an orchestra, a live orchestra, to be even more romantic.
It’s the practice of Theatre III to open each new drama season with a musical, and when the rights became available to produce “Jane Eyre,” there was an air of serendipity as the drama group prepares for its 54th season.
With Austen enchanting a new generations, it was perhaps inevitable, and only fair, that her literary peers, the Bronte sisters, glean appreciation for their works. (...)
“The show is written in the model of a lot of shows over the past 20 years, the most obvious being ‘Les Miserables,’” said Theatre III publicist Tom Melander.
Like that play, “Jane Eyre: The Musical” reflects contemporary sentiments but strives to stay true to the darkly rich atmosphere of the story’s era.
Melander observed, “The music is meant to convey the story. I think there is a lot of resonance in the style of music as well as the play.” (Margaret Smith)
Upstairs at Mason's Yard, there is a series of photographs of terrain similar to that in Emily Bronte's 19th- century novel ``Wuthering Heights.'' These look a lot like the bleak landscapes minor Victorian painters often turned out (one in the Tate, titled ``The Joyless Winter Day'' by Joseph Farquharson may give you the idea). (Martin Gayford)According to the reviewer of the Newcastle Chronicle, Hayley Westenra's live rendition of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights is
the best version I have heard since the original. (Gordon Barr)In the Spanish press, El Periodista Digital interviews the writer Eugenia Rico who confesses her obsession with the Brontë sisters. The Spanish newspaper Público publishes an article about a controversial study about the discrimination of female sport in the media. The particular votes of some of the members of the Consejo Audiovisual de Andalucía contain a Brontë reference:
¿[Podría] alguien en su sano juicio suscribir una propuesta en los EEUU tendente a matizar, reducir o suprimir las retransmisiones televisivas más vistas y sustituirlas gradualmente por el billar o un poquito de esgrima?". (...)"Con toda probabilidad, pasaría a formar parte, con Jack Nicholson, del reparto de Alguien voló sobre el nido del cuco o, directamente, irse al piso de arriba de Jane Eyre". (Google translation) (Olivia Carballo)El Cultural interviews Margaret Atwood who insists in her economical theory of Wuthering Heights:
Me convertí en victoriana. Ése fue mi campo de estudio en la Universidad, fue la época por excelencia en que las tramas giraron en torno al dinero y la gente estaba empantanada en estallidos de capitalismo. Cumbres borrascosas está guiada por el dinero: Heathcliff gana una fortuna y regresa para comprar la casa a sus anteriores dueños. A Madame Bovary podría haberle ido bastante bien si se hubiera mantenido dentro de su presupuesto. No fue el adulterio, sino las deudas, lo que la hundió. (Google translation)Heliothaumic posts about Jane Eyre and uploads an original illustration. And finally, Oxford reader posts an enthusiast review of Justine Picardie's Daphne.
