I have to say that I felt this movie to be a rather uninspired retelling of Wuthering Heights. I hardly ever think that movies are too short, but that was certainly the case for this film. It was as though the director cut out important scenes just to make sure that the movie came in at a decent running time or something. The whole thing felt rushed and disjointed.No, it does not fare very well in this review.
Furthermore, I did not like the casting choices for the lead roles. Ralph Fiennes, while a talented actor, is not Heathcliff material. Heathcliff is supposed to be a complete brute who is barely in control of his passions. Fiennes played it way too calm, and that particular interpretation of the role left me scratching my head in wonder. Binoche wasn’t any better as Catherine, and the two of them just didn’t have any chemistry whatsoever on the screen.
The best thing that I can say about Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is that it was watchable. For that, I give it 5.5 stars out of 19.
[T]here are a few things that are problematic right from the start. I never really felt the intensity between the two leads, except when they were exchanging bodily fluids, there was never an instance that stood up in my opinion that i can consider "life altering" between the two. The light house scenes where a bit too cheesy, and Locsin was irritating to say the least. She hasn't have the slightest clue that Guiterrez is having a hard time carrying her in his back. It had a bit of A Very Long Engagement mixed into the bag, in that film, I understand the circumstances, Audrey Totou being a crippled needs to be carried by Gaspard Ulliel, but in this film, Locsin is just being a sore, no wonder, Guiterrez left her in the film.Aarti reviews The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (the novel, not the BBC production) and gives it 5/10
It was very difficult for me to find anyone in this novel to like. Which, I suppose, isn't that big of a deal as it appears fairly obvious that Bronte did not write this novel to create a story about interesting characters, but that she wrote it to hone the point (AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN) that alcoholism is bad and the way to happiness lies in finding God. None of the characters evolve during the story; they're the same at the end as they were at the beginning. And they are all so completely black and white that it isn't hard to guess their reactions to anything that happens.That Helen, for instance, doesn't evolve as a character is up for debate, though.
So, admittedly, I didn't particularly like this book. I give it five stars because I think it is a very brave book, and an important book, and one that shook a great many foundations of Victorian England. However ... I wish that the characters were fleshed out a bit more, or at least a little bit more likable. I also wish that Victorians weren't so obsesed with the diary format- I didn't enjoy being in Lydia Gwilt's head in Armadale, and I didn't like the extended stay in Helen Graham's head here in Tenant, either.
Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre ends its season with one of the most-produced comedies in U.S. history, “The Mystery of Irma Vep.” This outrageously hilarious spoof by Charles Ludlam, the late founder of New York City’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company, will run from Friday, July 14 through Sept. 3.Meanwhile, The Scotsman looks at muses and their history.
“The Mystery of Irma Vep” is a campy tribute to gothic horror films, liberally stealing from well-known film classics like “Wuthering Heights,” “The Mummy’s Curse” and Alfred Hitchcock’s Academy Award-winning “Rebecca.” Two of South Florida’s favorite actors play all of the play’s eight characters, racing through a literal quick-change marathon complete with werewolves, vampires and damsels in distress. Combine all that with crazy plot twists (two characters travel from England to Egypt to inspect a mummy), and “The Mystery of Irma Vep” guarantees fun for everyone. [...]
Tickets may be purchased through the box office at (305) 444-9293, Ticketmaster at (305) 358-5885, or on line at www.actorsplayhouse.org.
A muse is used regularly by many well-known male artists. However, there are few instances where female artists have turned men into muses. The few examples include Charlotte Brontë's unrequited yearning for the married Monsieur Constantin Heger, her tutor, who became the model for Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre and for Paul Emmanuel in Villette, and Emily Dickinson's passion for her unidentified "Master" to whom she addressed some of her most fevered poems. (Alice Wyllie)And finally thanks to s-c-littleton from the Jane Eyre 2006 IMDb boards, we have found out that Woman magazine is carrying out a survey trying to find out who is the most popular romantic hero: Mr Rochester (played by Toby Stephens) or Mr Darcy (played by Colin Firth). You can vote for your particular choice through this e-mail address: Jackie_TheEditor@ipcmedia.com
Categories: Charlotte Brontë, Movies-DVD-TV, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Theatre, Wuthering HeightsEaster activities at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth include a celebration of the 198th anniversary of Charlotte’s birth on Bank Holiday Monday.Also in The Telegraph & Argus, Steven Wood presents his new book Haworth, Oxenhope & Stanbury from old maps:
Visitors can find out more about her life with talks from members of staff throughout the Parsonage – including a talk from Executive Director Ann Sumner on the Brontë connection to the railways, which highlights the new display in Branwell’s Studio and follows on from our appearance on Michael Portillo’s Great British Railway Journeys.
There is also a rare opportunity to view some of Charlotte’s possessions, letters and manuscripts up close, as Collections Manager Ann Dinsdale takes visitors behind the scenes in the research library at 11am, 12pm and 1pm (free to museum visitors, though numbers are restricted so booking essential – contact susan.newby@bronte.org.uk or call (01535) 640185.
Haworth historian Steven Wood has turned from photographs to maps for his latest book.The Telegraph publishes a travel guide to Yorkshire:
He has gathered almost 100 old maps revealing various aspects of the Haworth, Oxenhope and Stanbury areas.
The paperback follows Steven’s two previous books for the same publisher, Amberley, containing 600 historic photographs of the villages.
Haworth, Oxenhope and Stanbury From Old Maps features informative maps dating from 1610 to 1937.
They range from Ordnance Survey and County maps to Board of Health plans, the Haworth tithe map and church, waterworks, railway and road plans.
The Haworth Village House Repopulation Plan is republished over several pages, showing the names of every family in every household in the village in 1856, including the Reverend Patrick Brontë.
A spokesman for Amberley Publishing said the repopulation plan provided the most detailed view ever of the Haworth that the Brontës knew.
She added: “Between them, the maps and the accompanying text reveal many details of the history of Haworth and its neighbouring villages.
“They can also serve as a guide to the use of maps in local history studies.”
There is a hugely impressive arts scene, with the Hepworth Wakefield (01924 247360; hepworthwakefield.org) and Yorkshire Sculpture Park (01924 832631; ysp.co.uk) enjoying fabulous reputations, not to mention the annual film festivals in Sheffield and Leeds. Poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath stalked the moors of the Calder Valley while this, don’t forget, is Brontë country too. (Joe Shute)A new review of the Rosemary Branch's Jane Eyre production on Camden Review:
Helen Tennison adapts and directs this production with real sensitivity.The Mirror lists several interesting facts about the Peak District National Park:
She uses a combination of inventive visuals and a flexible farmhouse set to conjure up an expansive sense of space so that the forces of nature are strongly evoked. Actors clamber in and out of windows and hidden doors to convey the characters’ thirst for freedom, while bold lighting changes accompanied by haunting projections and music work to conjure up the passage of time and Cathy’s spirit. Cathy’s haunting scenes – moments that can easily appear overdone, absurd even – are well handled. (Caroline David)
Castleton, Baslow, Eyam and Hathersage are all worth a visit too, with the latter playing a large part in Charlotte Brontë's iconic novel Jane Eyre - North Lees Hall, which is on the outskirts, was used as the model for Mr Rochester's home Thornfield Hall. (Ben Burrows)The New York Times reviews a NY performance of The Mystery of Irma Vep:
If Charlotte Brontë were to spend an afternoon bingeing on Hammer horror flicks, medicinal sherry and Jiffy Pop, perhaps she could dream up a tale as delirious as that of “Irma Vep.” Most likely not. This 1984 script, which originally starred Ludlam and his partner Everett Quinton, plays out on Mandacrest, a sinister and remote English estate. (Alexis Soloski)TheaterMania adds:
With its joyful embrace of melodramatic theater and cinema, it's easy to see why. Irma Vep borrows freely from Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, Wuthering Heights, Shakespeare, Victorian penny dreadfuls, and the entire canon of American vampire, mummy, and werewolf movies. (Zachary Scott)Vulture discusses Val Lewton's horror films:
In Cat People, a woman is convinced that she has a curse on her that will turn her into a deadly panther whenever she has any strong emotions; I Walked With a Zombie is as much influenced by Jane Eyre as it is by anything to do with zombies. (Bilge Ebiri)Philip Galanes recommends Jane Eyre against bullying in The New York Times:
Ignore your step-cousin when she’s mean (she may move on to another mark) and make a beeline for someone you trust. It helps to talk. And pack a copy of “Jane Eyre” for your trip. Jane was bullied as a girl, too. But, boy, does she come out on top.The Burnley Citizen celebrates the repairs plan to save Spenser House in Hurstwood:
The house and hall were also used in 1996 by the BBC for the film version of Anne Brontë’s ‘Tenant of Wildfell Hall’, when the stair balustrades were replaced with painted plywood to resemble barley twist spindles. (Peter Magill)Première (France) talks about ruins and books. And Top Withins is featured:
Le photographe Pete Barnes est l’un des rares professionnels à avoir photographié cette ruine pas sexy pour deux sous et qui pourrait être le bâtiment ayant inspiré le célèbre manoir des Hauts de Hurlevent, le roman star d’Emily Brönte (sic). Pour les fétichistes du roman, le lieu se situe en haut d’une colline baptisée Top Withens, à l’écart du petit village de Haworth, à proximité de Bradford. L’association du lieu au personnage d’Heathcliff a fait de Wuthering Heights (l’endroit) un lieu symbolique des passions romantiques et de l’aveuglement amoureux.A.V. Club interviews the musician Dan Wilson:
La maison est sombre, immense, délabrée, rendue sinistre par les ravages de la passion dévorante et de la haine meurtrière. (Benjamin Berton) (Translation)
Do you have a favorite song of all time? (...)BuzzFeed interviews the actress Erika Christensen about her role as Cathy in Wuthering Heights 2003:
“Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush is amazing. I like songs that have operatic emotions. (Marah Eakin)
You were in a musical version of Wuthering Heights that was on MTV.The Good Men Project has a Brontë mention:
EC: You’re right. These are so random.
I know! With Katherine Heigl and Mike Vogel, who’s on Under the Dome.
EC: One of the things that I really liked about that is I got to sing, which I always hoped would come into play, because that’s how I grew up. (Kate Aurthur)
A third date was in the planning stage when I received an email, one I felt Charlotte Brontë might have sent if computers were available in the 19th century. “My deceit has caught up to me, and I can never see you again.” (Al Deluise)Motorsport (Germany) follows the Ireland rally that tomorrow, April 19, will pass through Patrick Brontë country:
The second leg on Saturday consists of eight tests. The highlight is the 29 km long "Brontë Homeland" route.Debiutext Magazyn (Poland) posts about Wuthering Heights; Aspirin and Boku-Maru reviews Jane Eyre; Litreactor thinks, poor fellow, that Jane Eyre sucks.
This test is named after Patrick Brontë, father of the famous novel writers Emily, Charlotte and Anne. (Gerald Dirnbeck) (Translation)
At the Google-owned YouTube, there is the YouTube Screening Room, which every two weeks, adds four new films — mostly independent works — to the site. Hulu, the joint creation of NBC Universal and News Corp., has hundreds of films available for stream, from "Basic Instinct" to "Wuthering Heights." (Jake Coyle)Another Wuthering Heights adaptation, Studio One's 1950 one with Charlton Heston recently released on DVD is reviewed on EInsiders:
Although most of us are attuned to having seen Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon in the classic Bronte tale of "Wuthering Heights", did you ever think you would get the chance to see it performed by the late, great Charlton Heston? It, too, is included here; and while Mr. Heston would not have been my first choice to play the lovesick Heathcliff, it is a treat to see him in a role that is far removed from any other he ever played. (Frank Cifaldi).McSweeney's publishes an analysis of fifty years of popular songs condensed into single sentences, including Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights:
I'm an 18th-century fictional character and I want to do it with another 18th-century fictional character. (Marc Haynes)Curiously, you will find that all the other forty-nine songs have basically the same summary.
Harmon has been a big fan of 19th century English authors Jane Austin and the Bronte sisters since she was 15.Louis Nowra talks about love and passion in literature in The Australian. The Brontë sisters, as an abstract object, are referenced:
There are several novels by Colette that are beautiful studies of the complicated dance of emotions men and women go through when they fall in love, and the Bronte sisters describe brilliantly how a woman is attracted to a demon lover. But there are few others that immediately come to mind as significant works written about the love between a man and a woman.PR Week-UK makes a reference to the Heathcliffgate:
Brown is an arrogant, angry man who has surrounded himself with attending courtiers. He considers himself complicated in a good way, the brooding academic, recently comparing himself to Bronte's Heathcliff. He resembles more the sinister farm hand Jud Fry in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma. (Tara Hamilton-Miller)Pegasus News informs about a new production of Charles Ludlum's The Mystery of Irma Vep in Azle, TX:
The Mystery of Irma Vep, presented by Azle Arts Association's Popcorn Players. The Mystery of Irma Vep is a campy tribute to Gothic horror films, liberally stealing from well-known film classics like Wuthering Heights, The Mummy's Curse and Alfred Hitchcock's Academy Award-winning Rebecca. Literary detectives will also recognize dialogue lifted from Ibsen, Shakespeare, Poe, the Bront*s, Omar Khayyam, and Oscar Wilde. (Shawn Parikh)The New York Times mentions the web Booksthatmakeyoudumb and gives the following (disturbing) preview:
A look at Griffith’s “books that make you dumb” project is here: booksthatmakeyoudumb.virgil.gr. A preview: “The Book of Mormon” apparently doesn’t make us as dumb as “Wuthering Heights.” (Virginia Heffernan)We already posted about this funny site here.
The good news? Director Catherine Hardwicke knows it's cheesy, and she does what she can to contain the fromage. "Twilight" is packed with wry, understated humor, and Hardwicke gets lively, authentic performances from her young cast, even when they're standing on northwestern U.S. moors and saying Bronte-ish stuff like, "That was the first night I dreamt of Edward Cullen." Yes, she says "dreamt." (Chris Hewitt in St Paul Pioneer Press)
"It's so superficial, so much more about that vampires make pretty boys and pretty young women. They're beautiful and have this romance around them, the frills and the lace and the trappings of the vampire that have more to do with Meyer's interest in things like the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen's 'Emma.' (Chris Garcia in Austin American-Statesman quoting Thomas Garza, chairman of the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas)
Thankfully, Hardwicke tossed some interesting character actors into the mix — notably Anna Kendrick from “Camp,” now all grown up with the décolletage to prove it — to imbue the second bananas with some spark for the few moments they can pull focus from Jane Eyre Lite and The 100-Year-Old Virgin. (Alonso Duralde in MSNBC)
Also, characters Edward and Bella have conversations about classics they're studying in their high school literature courses - books like “Wuthering Heights” and plays like Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet.” This has inspired some students to check these classics out of the library, [Sue] Johnston said. (Russ Keen in Aberdeen American News)
Got what, you say? Well, that "Twilight" isn't about special effects or horror, for a start. It's a Gothic romance reconceived for 21st-century teens. Bella Swan (played by Kristen Stewart) is the new girl in Forks, Washington, where she's moved in with her dad. Forks may not be Wuthering Heights, but it's wild, and it's wet, and her lab partner in biology class has a Heathcliff-Darcy-Rochester thing going for him. When she sits down beside Edward, he looks like he wants to throw up. (...)
The second half is more tongue in cheek, closer to "Buffy" than the Brontes. A vampire baseball game? The pure Bella doesn't even get to first base. (Tom Charity in CNN)
[Robert] Pattinson[, Edward in the film based on Twilight,] believes that it is Edward's gentlemanliness that compares him to the likes of classic characters Heathcliff and Mr. Darcy, and that these men are so well responded to because of their chivalrousness-not to mention dashing good looks. (Jess Herbine in Drexel University Triangle)
Thus was born the incarnation of the vampire as a sort of undead Heathcliff, a mysterious, tormented alpha male. That opened the Pandora's casket from which issued a thousand fanged lotharios. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
Forbidden love, ancient curse, teenage lust and repressed urges are given a heightened quality that make them luridly palpable. Heathcliff had his moors, and "Twilight" has the Pacific Northwest, whose monochromatic skies, fog-shrouded vistas and verdant rainforest, accented by shafts of sunlight, are the visually dreamlike expression of the characters' stormy longings. (Duane Dudek in The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel)
Did the girls giggle because they found Edward impossibly good-looking? Or because he looks flat-out ridiculous? I couldn't tell you, because this Edward Cullen, with his brooding eyes and mile-high blond quiff, is both. Part Elvis, part Simon Le Bon, and a direct descendant of both Heathcliff and the Leader of the Pack, the movie version of Edward Cullen -- who's 17 going on 1,700 -- is a pure pop creation, a fantasy who's taken up temporary residence in the body of an actor. When this Edward speaks haltingly to the love of his (eternal) life, new girl at school Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), his diction is stiff, Victorian. (Stephanie Zacharek in Salon)The blogosphere today brings an essay linking Jane Eyre and Kant's Categorial Imperative, courtesy of The Writings of Joel David Harrison, a brief post (in Swedish) about Wuthering Heights 1998 on Matkonster & livsmönster, a post about the original Emily Brontë's novel on Eagleton Book Notes, an Anne Brontë sampler made by Horas Buenas (in Spanish) and a brief review of Classical Comics's Jane Eyre on brochettes:
In terms of editing, I feel that they did a pretty good job- I don't think anything important from the original was left out, and generally the book was fast paced and kept the reader engaged. There were a few times where I felt that a bit of background information should have been given, as I think the jumps between certain scenes may have been a bit abrupt for someone not familiar with the material. Still, I think this is an excellent way of introducing someone to a classic who is reluctant to tackle the lenghty original, and it may even encourage them to read the actual novel after this.Categories: Brontëites, Comics, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Theatre, Wuthering Heights
Charlotte Brontë left several tantalising fragments when she died during pregnancy in 1855. The Story of Willie Ellin (1853) is partly narrated by a non-human entity that cryptically describes itself as an outgrowth of an ancient burial ground. The victimised child, William Ellin, shares his name with an adult character in a fragment by Brontë called Emma, set in a girls’ boarding school, which WM Thackeray printed in the Cornhill magazine in 1860.Day after Day Bustle makes new lists which usually include the Brontës somehow. Even when the list is about New York books:
Brontë is at her most astringently witty in Emma, describing her mercenary schoolmistresses as “not much less shallow than the china saucer which held their teacups”. The mystery surrounding a new girl who arrives at the school with trunkloads of luxurious clothes, and whose father subsequently vanishes, may have inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess (1905). The elegant idler Ellin, meanwhile, emerges as a sort of proto-Peter Wimsey as he undertakes to investigate the disappearance – having perhaps, the narrator muses, “something of the amateur detective in him”.
Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1848) inspired a notable 20th-century novel that never was – Adela: A Romance, in which Angela Carter planned further adventures for Rochester’s ward, Adèle. In a 1991 note written the year before she died from cancer aged 51, and described in a memoir by her friend Susannah Clapp, Carter suggested that her renamed Adela would grow up to seduce Rochester (later revealed to be her father), and be reunited in Paris with her mother, a dancer turned Communard revolutionary. (Jenny McAuley)
Re Jane by Patricia ParkThe New York Times interviews the writer (and living SF/Fantasy legend) Ursula K. Le Guin:
In this modern adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel, Jane’s trying to escape her strict Korean upbringing in Queens, and salvation (her Thornfield Hall, if you will) is a Brooklyn family seeking an au pair. The "madwoman in the attic" is her boss — a women’s studies professor stressing over securing tenure. Jane's search for independence and belonging is set against a background of a city in flux that is taking in 9/11 and its aftermath, and the gradual creep of gentrification. (Lauren Hossack)
What books do you find yourself returning to again and again?The Bay Area Reporter explores the figure, mainly his gay side, of Charles Ludlam, author of The Mystery of Irma Vep:
Let’s arbitrarily limit it to poetry, which we have so far ignored. Housman, Shelley, Yeats, Hardy, Brontë, Rilke — for starters.
In the case of The Mystery of Irma Vep, by far the biggest commercial success of his career, Ludlam looked to B movies about mummies, vampires, and werewolves, as well as to more upper-crust fare such as Rebecca and Wuthering Heights for this deconstruction-celebration. But while many of Ludlam's plays were shoestring epics, Irma Vep made do with just two actors – albeit playing eight (or more) characters of alternating genders involving 35 quick costume changes. (Richard Dodds)Lília Azevedo in Diário da Manhã (Brazil) is thrilled with Wuthering Heights:
(...) Emily nos faz sentir com seus personagens como as circunstâncias nos transformar ou fazem aflorar o que temos de melhor ou pior, Catherine fará escolhas egoístas mediante esta situação, a mágoa recíproca entre eles só é superada pelo amor desesperado que sentem um pelo outro e pela compreensão de como se pertencem, para o bem ou para o mal.The writer Carlos Zanón admits to his anglophilia in El Periódico (Spain):
Nào estamos falando de uma história melosa (com o perdão do termo), em que os personagens fazem tudo para ficarem juntos e as circunstâncias e os outros só atrapalham. Ao longo da trama outras figuram que compartilham desta história, são arrastadas no turbilhão de sentimentos de Heathcliff e Catherine, da tenacidade egoísta dela, da obstinação dele. Há vingança, ódio, sofrimento em uma história crua e ao mesmo tempo poética. É impossível ler este livro sem parar para pensar na verdadeira natureza dos sentimentos humanos. (Translation)
La literatura me ganó no por esos libros odiosos de Los Hollister sino por tropezarme con Lord Byron y su Childe-Harold, los poetas niñatos suicidas, Wilde, Oxford y Cambridge, los educados asesinatos en casas de reposo de Agatha Christie y el revolcarse sobre la colina mojada de lluvia del salvaje Heathcliff y Catherine. (Translation)Hufvudstadsbladet (Finland) reviews an Uppsala production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya:
Uppsala stadsteaters föreställning blir min fjärde Morbror Vanja-uppsättning det här året. Efter två finska varianter som lämnat originaltexten orörd och mig tämligen oberörd är det uppfriskande att se en föreställning som faktiskt vågar föra dialog med samtiden. Bearbetningen leker friskt med Tjechovs språk och teman och talar med författare som Emily Brontë – allt sker i en levande svensk översättning av Staffan Skott. (Isabella Rothberg) (Translation)lifeboxset (Spain) makes a list of books you should read before finishing college:
Jane Eyre.Fox Home reviews The Brontë Cabinet by Deborah Lutz. Is Show Time has a post on Wuthering Heights and its adaptations. The July update of the Parsonage Garden news is online.
El libro perfecto para definir lo que significa crecer. Sigue a Jane en sus cambios de la infancia a la adolescencia y es ideal para esos momentos de fin de la universidad. (Translation)
The earlier review is quoted in a brilliant study by John Mullan, Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature, in which context Ferrante’s reticence and the avid response to it look far more like a return to literary convention than a rebuke to celebrity culture. As with Charlotte Brontë, it was a matter of time, given the sales and adulation, before Elena Ferrante was identified. (...)The New Statesman:
In his time, Thackeray was not above biographical speculation. “I have been exceedingly moved and pleased by Jane Eyre. It is a woman’s writing, but whose?” The English reading world, Elizabeth Gaskell wrote in her biography of Brontë, “was in a ferment to discover the unknown author.” (Catherine Bennett)
Although I sympathise with the desire for privacy, I cannot quite bring myself to join the outrage over the revelation of the true identity of the Italian novelist Elena Ferrante. Speculation about successful artists and who they “really are” goes back at least to the Brontës, whose identity emerged in considerably less time than the two decades that Ferrante kept hers a secret. (Peter Wilby)And The Hindu (India):
Some women writers wrote under male pseudonyms in order to avoid prejudice associated with their gender. Charlotte Brontë said the Brontë sisters thought their “mode of writing and thinking was not what is called ‘feminine’...” And because publishers simply wouldn’t allow Richard Bachmann to turn out books at such a frenetic pace, he adopted the name Stephen King. (Radhika Santhanam)Or DNA (India):
The world of books and publishing has not been very accepting of women writers — the reason Mary Ann Evans chose to publish as George Eliot, Charlotte and Emily Brontë (initially) as Charles and Acton Bell, respectively, not to forget Joanne Rowling as JK Rowling and Robert Galbraith. (Gargi Gupta)Ripley & Heanor News links the Peak District and Jane Eyre:
Charlotte Brontë knew the Peak District well, as in 1845 she stayed there when she visited a friend Ellen Nussey, at the rectory in Hathersage. Ellen’s brother Henry was the vicar there.
She arrived at The George Hotel coaching inn and during her visit the history and buildings of the area started her creative thoughts flowing.
Eyre is a common name in these parts and when Charlotte was here she visited North Lees Hall, on the outskirts of Hathersage, which was owned by the Eyre family at that time.
No doubt she also frequented the beautiful old Hathersage Church too, where many Eyre gravestones populate the churchyard.
Thornfield Hall – Mr Rochester’s home in the story – is very likely to have been based on North Lees Hall. ‘Thorn’ is an anagram of North and ‘lees’ means pastures or fields.
Jane’s description of Rochester’s place in the novel fits North Lees too: “Three stories high, of proportions not vast, though considerable – a gentleman’s residence, not a nobleman’s seat – battlements round the top gave it a picturesque look.”
When making this epic tale into film and television adaptations, many nearby locations have been used. The 2011 film version used North Lees Hall, as well as Chatsworth House, Darley Dale, Froggatt, Stanage Edge, Hathersage Moor and White Edge Lodge. This version used Haddon Hall as Thornfield Hall.
In Charlotte’s story, Rochester’s house is burned down by his secret wife hidden in the attic. To portray Thornfield Hall after the fire, Haddon had a ‘stunt double’ in the film – the ruins of Wingfield Manor.
So maybe you can decide for yourself where you can most picture Jane and Rochester succumbing to Cupid’s darts – Haddon or North Lees? Both are certainly settings made for romance.
In Arnold’s adaption of Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” (2011), a semi-feral Cathy licks the blood from Heathcliff’s wounds after he’s been beaten for misbehavior. (...)In Radio Times, Alison Graham loves 'uncomplicated' romances:
While shooting her Brontë adaptation, Arnold went through a period of wearing long black coats. (Sophie Elmhirst)
I love big blustery tales of windswept adoration and bewitched glances. As a girl I adored Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre and like every daft Yorkshire youngster before and since I ran around murky moors on school trips yelling “Heathcliff! Heathcliff!”Well, we find Wuhering Heights and Jane Eyre pretty complicated as romances, though.
Key quoteAs a matter of fact the article is an Address delivered at Haworth, October 7th, 1905, in commemoration of the Fiftieth year after the death of Charlotte Bronte, by Mr. Ernest de Selincourt, M.A., of Oxford University (Brontë Society Transactions Vol. 2 , Iss. 15,1906).
“Their writings had a unique, priceless quality among novelists, which sprang from the passionate intensity of inward experiences and bore an essentially lyrical character.”
A Mr de Selincourt, of Oxford, speaking about Charlotte and Emily Brontë. (‘The Genius of the Brontës’, News in brief, p4)
Funnier than “Irma Vep”? Chris Flieller is on record opining that Neville’s play is funnier than Charles Ludlam’s “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” which sends up Daphne DuMaurier’s “Rebecca” as well as Shakespeare, both Brontë sisters, Poe, Victorian melodrama and gothic thrillers. (Mike Fischer)Les Inrocks (France) talks about Michael Fassbender's filmography:
Jane Eyre, de Cary Fukunaga (2011) : un amant épris d’absoluFranciscanmom reviews the second part of Erin McCole Cupp's Jane_E. Friendless Orphan: Nameless.
Avec ce film en costumes adapté du roman de Charlotte Brontë, l’un des monuments de la littérature anglaise, par signé Cary Fukunaga, qui réalisera plus tard la première saison de True Détective, Michael Fassbender se glisse dans les habits du mystérieux et tourmenté Edward Rochester. La mise en scène ne prend ni le parti de la transposition académique du texte, ni celui de la modernisation à outrance, naviguant dans un entre-deux fragile au plus près des corps de ses interprètes, comme pour scruter leurs esprits épris d’absolu et leurs âmes enflammées. Fassbender règne dans son manoir en prince gothique tour à tour charmeur et manipulateur, traînant un corps légèrement voûté, comme affaibli par le poids du destin – tragique, comme à son habitude. (Alexandre Buyukodabas) (Translation)
Who are your literary influences?Helen Dunmore reviews Grace McCleen's novel, The Professor of Poetry in The Times:
Virginia Woolf, Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, Emily and Charlotte Brontë, WG Sebald, Emily Dickinson, TS Eliot, Walt Whitman, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Franz Kafka. (Anna Metcalfe)
Any novel about a highly intelligent, sensitive and physically unprepossessing orphaned girl who finds her deepest fulfilment within the relationship of teacher and pupil must recall Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece, Villette. Brontë dramatises the eroticism of the mind, fiercely separated from that of the body and yet saturated with the tastes, smells, colours and dark dazzle of a strange city.Frankly, this Rowling-pseudonym-ohmyGod-soliketheBrontës frenzy in the press is becoming a bit tiresome:
Then it's on to a wide-ranging discussion of pseudonyms, inspired by J.K. Rowling's recent acknowledgement that she'd secretly written a recent book, The Cuckoo's Calling, under the name Robert Galbraith. We talk Stephen King, Alan Smithee, Garth Brooks, GWAR, the Brontë Sisters (yeah, yeah, another discussion of GWAR and the Brontë Sisters), Anne Rice, Harlan Ellison and many points in between — and pause to discuss what separates a pseudonym from a character from a disguise. (Stephen Thompson on NHPR)
The tradition of pseudonymity reached its peak in the 19th century, when women such as the Brontë sisters inhabited male identities (as the Bell brothers, Acton, Currer, and Ellis) not just for their works to be taken seriously, but to be published at all. Marian Evans, intense and cerebral, became George Eliot because she despised what she considered "silly novels by lady novelists." (Carmela Ciuraru in the Wall Street Journal)
There are plenty of reasons that authors seek to disguise their true selves. Mary Ann Evans wrote under the pen name George Eliot because she knew that men had a better chance of getting published in Victorian England than women. For the same reason, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë began by writing as Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. (H Grimes in Gulf Daily News)
Then again, "JK Rowling" was itself a kind of pseudonym. Just as, 165 years ago, the Brontë sisters first published as Acton, Ellis and Currer Bell to dodge the unladylike taint of authorship, so for the Potter series she drew a veil over Joanne to bypass the reluctance of young male readers to pick up girly books. (Boyd Tonkin in The Independent)
His post, entitled “How I Discovered Gender Discrimination,” reminded me of female authors who have used initials and male pen names to cover up their gender, feeling that both publishers and readers are more likely to welcome something written by a man.
To name just a few: P.D. James (Phyllis Dorothy James); George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans); Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë). (Judy Molland on Care2)
Among the most famous writers to publish under male pseudonyms are the Brontë sisters, who used the names Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell. Charlotte Brontë’s nominis umbra created quite a frisson in the 1840s as avid Jane Eyre fans — never believing in Currer Bell’s existence — sought to discover “his” identity. (Catherine Judd in The Conversation)By the way, the latest article includes this description of Rowling's Harry Potter saga:
JK Rowling had struck gold with her Harry Potter series, and deservedly so. Her unique amalgamation of Dickens, Lewis Carroll, George McDonald and Arthurian legend, with a touch of Jane Eyre and The Hobbit, offers the kind of rich and deeply satisfying escapist literature that we have come to expect from the best British writers.Fay Observer announces an event in Fayetteville, NC:
West Regional Branch Library is hosting a new book club just for romantics. "Rhapsody in Print" will begin by focusing primarily on historical and paranormal romances. These two categories make up the fastest growing areas in romance literature today. (...=Financial Times talks about the moors, 'far from barren landscapes':
While paranormal romance may be thought of as a more modern theme, some of the older literature, such as Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights," deals with love from beyond the grave. (...)
"Rhapsody in Print" meets at 7 p.m. at West Regional Library, 7469 Century Circle, every fourth Thursday evening, beginning this week. Just bring your favorite romance novel and join in. The first meeting will include some fun get-to-know-you activities, as well as lively discussions. (Billie Norman)
Upland heath is a landscape of contradictions. The literary and cinematic world have long revelled in their dark side: the blasted, barren heath immortalised in Wuthering Heights, the murderous moor of The Hound of the Baskervilles, and the pitch black terror of An American Werewolf in London. (Matthew Wilson)The Chicago Tribune discusses the books you haven't read (and probably you never will):
Bloggers, including The Paris Review editor Lorin Stein, have tackled the issue with bracing honesty.The New York Times reviews the Sag Harbor performances of The Mystery of Irma Vep:
Stein, who never made it through "Jane Eyre," agrees that our literary omissions may say more about us than the books we've actually read. (Nara Schoenberg)
With nods to “Rebecca” and “Wuthering Heights,” among other predecessors, “Irma Vep” focuses on the young Lady Enid Hillcrest (Mr. Greenspan), the second wife of Lord Edgar Hillcrest (Mr. Aulino), whose first wife, Irma Vep, was supposedly killed by a werewolf. (Aileen Jacobson)If you feel like fighting with some Rochester-haters, we suggest a visit to the comments sections of this article on The Gloss; Natura (in Romanian) posts about Jane Eyre.
La révolte luddite sera enterrée, considérée comme réactionnaire par Marx, qui estime que le luddite n’a pas encore appris «à distinguer la machinerie de son utilisation capitaliste, et donc à transférer ses attaques du moyen matériel de production lui-même, à la forme sociale d’exploitation de celui-ci.» Elle sera quand même la source d’inspiration du décor de Shirley, un roman de Charlotte Brontë paru en 1849, qui se déroule au cœur du soulèvement luddite, dans le Yorshire des années 1811-1812. (Frédérique Roussel)Excuse our make-do translation.
The Luddite revolution would be buried, considered reactionary by Marx, who reckoned that Luddites hadn't yet learned to 'tell machinery from its capitalist use, and thus transfer their attacks from the production material itself to the social form of exploitation of it'. The Luddite revolution would be the background for Shirley, a novel by Charlotte Brontë published in 1849, which takes place in the heart of the Luddite movement - the 1811-1812 Yorkshire.
He started writing in his thirties (he’s now 46) and had completed five books – and received 76 rejections in ten years – before one of them, The Eyre Affair, was published, in 2001. He had almost given up hope.Click here to read an excerpt of First Among Sequels.
“I don’t think any agent or publisher ever read any of the books; they looked at the synopsis and said it was too bizarre. I got the feeling I wasn’t ever going to be published. But I was enjoying the writing so much, so I said what the hell, I can do whatever I want, because it didn’t matter, I wasn’t going to be published anyway. So I decided to bung it all in, add all those ideas I had, one sub-plot after another, and after doing that I felt I had a book which really worked, in a way which hadn’t been done before.” The Eyre Affair took off quickly, here and in the US.
There are now five books in his Thursday Next series. The heroine, a literary detective based in contemporary Swindon (though the Crimean War has not yet ended, and dodos are house pets), travels into the contents of famous books to save their characters and plots, and even saves great literature itself from evil enemies.
In The Eyre Affair,Next confronts an arch-villain who has been killing off minor characters in Dickens, then kidnaps Jane Eyre. In Next’s fifth and latest adventure, First Among Sequels, published in early July, she investigates the premature deaths of Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, Pride and Prejudice is turned into a reality show called The Bennets and she meets a fictional Thursday Next – herself from a previous Fforde book.
No such summaries, though, do justice to the sheer inventiveness, wit, complexity, erudition, unexpectedness and originality of the works, nor to their vast repertoire of intricate wordplay and puns. (Players of Monopoly may recognise Landon Parke-Laine.) [...]
In order fully to appreciate his humour, don’t readers need to know a great deal about the fictional characters that inhabit his books? “I did worry about that at the beginning, but now I don’t worry so much. I don’t use really obscure characters. They’re ones people have heard of even if they haven’t read the book. They may not be totally au fait with Jane Eyre, but they know who she is. A lot of people haven’t read Great Expectations, but they know about Miss Havisham and her wedding dress. It doesn’t matter if they don’t catch all the references and allusions. They’ll know enough.” (Marcel Berlins)
There were moments when the movie also reminded us of Wuthering Heights. Does anyone remember reading that book and not understanding what the heck the cantankerous groundskeeper Joseph was saying because his narration was written in a thick Yorkshire patois? Well, we have to admit we only understood about 70% of the movie because even though we saw their lips moving and we're sure they were speaking English, some of the dialogue was swallowed up in what we're assuming was a Glaswegian accent. (Rita)Funny connection.
Wabash Valley theatergoers are likely to see familiar faces in unusual places during the summer season of Crossroads Repertory Theater at Indiana State University.Wuthering Heights - the actual novel - receives an A- on Flaming Geeks. And Harrogate07 briefly reports on a journey to Haworth where they
Beginning tonight, Crossroads kicks off its summer season with “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” and theater lovers may be surprised to read in the program some of the names they commonly associate with St. Mary-of-the-Woods College.
“The Mystery of Irma Vep” is a satirical play written by Charles Ludlum, the late founder of New York City’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company. The play is a campy spoof on Gothic horror films, liberally stealing from well-known film classics such as “Wuthering Heights,” “The Mummy’s Curse” and Alfred Hitchcock’s Academy Award-winning “Rebecca.” Astute audience members may also recognize dialogue Ludlum lifted from Ibsen, Shakespeare, Poe, the Brontës, Omar Khayyam and Oscar Wilde. (Rachel Wedding)
bought a CD of Wuthering Heights in which Jess appeared as the young Catherine.This Jess must be Jessica Hennell, who played young Cathy in Wuthering Heights 1992.
What book would you give a 15 year old?The Boston Globe presents the upcoming performances (November 7-22) o
Jane Eyre, because it’s such generous literature, an easy, juicy, emotionally-stirring page-turner that can make a reader of anyone. I can’t wait to give it to my son when he’s 15, or younger maybe. This is a long way off. He’s only 14 months old, but I imagine him reading it, home from school with a touch of fever, maybe. In pajamas, with just a faint flush to his cheeks, like Jane Eyre herself, that healthy flush that fever, or Victorian orphandom, gives, and not wanting me to bug him because he’s totally absorbed in Bronte, and decides thereafter that big novels are actually more fun than skateboarding or whatever else he’s gotten himself into by that point, god forbid. (Interview by Mark Medley)
f Gordon & Caird's Jane Eyre. The Musical by the Theatre III Company.The cool interior of a West Acton church has been transformed into the cold and brooding landscape of Victorian England. Actors and actresses form a somber backdrop in period outfits of charcoal, black, and ivory. Dressed like a drab brown wren, Jane Eyre (Lindsay Holland) sings of her desire for a brighter life, despite all evidence that she is destined for a colorless existence.More upcoming theatre performances: The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review announces another production of Charles Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep at the Open Stage Theatre in Pittsburgh that opens today October 30:
Bit by bit, color and passion appear. First in the form of a new employer, vermilion-clad Mrs. Fairfax (Perry Allison) and a pupil, Adele (Kaliegh Ronan), splendid in blond ringlets and sky blue frock. And then the young governess encounters that bad-boy Byronic hero, Edward Fairfax Rochester (Ben DiScipio), a dark cloak shading his light suit.
Thus Theatre III in West Acton presents the story of one of the most famous heroines in English literature in "Jane Eyre: The Musical" which opens Nov. 7.
It's no small task.
"The cast has put in an enormous amount of time," said musical director Gina Naggar during a recent rehearsal. "It's a beautiful show. It's a really passionate show. It's a dark show."
And yet, it's a show with light as well as shadow, with its themes of love, sacrifice, and independence.
"Every time I hear the music I cry," said DiScipio, with a laugh and distinctly un-Rochester-like honesty. "It is very touching."
Indeed, cast members speak of how much they adore the music - which is important as the production is very ambitious for a community theater. There are about dozen principal singers and a large chorus who all have to tackle complicated, often discordant music.
"We've had to rely a lot on body language," said director Shawn Cannon. "You have to be able - in this small theater - to get across the emotion of what [the characters] are trying to say. Especially in that period in England, they never really said what they meant, so sometimes you have to do a lot of body language. Character development is really huge in this; there's so much background."
Based on the 1847 novel by Charlotte Brontë, the musical features the music and lyrics of Paul Gordon and book by John Caird; it premiered on Broadway on Dec. 3, 2000, and ran for 209 performances.
The Theatre III production features Eva Ricci as a poignant, young Jane; Ben Adams as her nasty cousin, John Reed; Patricia Lawrence as the equally nasty Mrs. Reed; Jeff Adams as the sanctimonious schoolmaster, Brocklehurst; Miranda Gelch as the saintly Helen Burns; and Jared Forsyth as the handsome yet passionless St. John Rivers. Casting was difficult as a record 88 persons auditioned for about 30 acting slots, said Mary O'Loughlin, the company's executive producer.
"We had to turn away some gorgeous voices," O'Loughlin said.
The musical's plot is rife with Gothic imagery: a hero with a secret and a mad woman locked in an attic, for example. It deals with issues that may startle modern sensibilities, "not the least of which, Rochester is 20 years older than Jane," DiScipio noted.
Above all, Jane Eyre is a love story between two opposites; the unworldly, naive governess and the world-weary, cynical playboy.
"There's something about the theme of redemption he sees in her," DiScipio said. "She acts as his confessor."
And yet Jane more than holds her own. "She is so virtuous and so conservative, but she does play with him a little bit. And I think he finds that exciting," he said. (Stephanie Schorow)
The company begins its season-long celebration of American comedy with the late Charles Ludlam's tour-de-force farce, "The Mystery of Irma Vep."And The Brontës.nl announces a new Dutch theatre play which will be premiered next year (October 1, 2009) by the Toneelgroep Dorst Company: De Brontë Sisters by Matin Van Veldhuizen. With Petra Laseur, Trudy de Jong, Elsje de Wijn en Theo De Groot. Directed by Kees Hulst and with costumes by Yan Tax. More information here. EDIT (22/11/08): Interview with Elsje de Wijn on ED.nl.
Two actors play all the characters -- male and female -- in this campy romp through melodrama, mummy movies and vampire flicks. The script is peppered with bits of plot from and allusions to the works of Alfred Hitchcock, the Bronte sisters and William Shakespeare.
Open Stage artistic director David M. Maslow will direct the production, which features actors Dean Novotny and Robert O'Toole.
"Irma Vep" begins tonight and runs through Nov. 15 with performances at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, except for the 10 p.m. performance this Friday, 2 p.m. Sundays, 7 p.m. Monday and 2 p.m. Nov. 15.
Open Stage Theatre is at 2835 Smallman St., Strip District, but the entrance is from the free parking lot in the rear of the building. (Alice T. Carter)
NOT since Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre has there been such a secret in the attic.The reference is explicit as we read in The Dominion Post (New Zealand):
The captive in Coronation Street (ITV1) isn’t mad, she’s hopping mad. Rosie Webster hasn’t taken kindly to being locked up by former lover, crazed cabby John Stape, in his dead grandmother’s house.
I loved Rosie's line about needing a shrink till she's 70 to get over her abduction and her empathy for Mr Rochester's wife in Jane Eyre, which John wants her to read in an attempt to do a remake of Educating Rita. (John Bowron)Jill Parkin writes in the Daily Mail about white lies we tell our children and we have these paragraphs quite amusing:
There's one set of white lies I still use even though my children are in their teens and take no notice. I can't help myself; it's these ancestral Yorkshire voices in my head.The Times and the Evening Standard talk about For You, the new opera by Michael Berkeley (who in 1992 premiered his own operatic setting of Jane Eyre):
A daughter goes out in a plunging neckline and I come over all Wuthering Heights. 'You'll catch your death going out like that on a day like this,' I say, portentously, scarcely stopping myself from adding: 'Mark my words, young Catherine Earnshaw.'
As for going to bed with damp hair, I know it won't really give them water on the brain, but somehow my father takes over my powers of speech and I just have to say it, even if it's under my breath. They take no notice, of course.
They snap back with some witticism, like: 'Why not consumption?'
Must every Michael Berkeley opera be born with an accompanying drama off-stage? Nine years ago his half-completed score for Jane Eyre was stolen and never recovered; it had to be rewritten virtually from scratch. This year, the first performances of Music Theatre Wales’s For You, his collaboration with Ian McEwan and the author’s first libretto, were cancelled when the singer playing the antihero withdrew at the last minute. (...)On the blogosphere, Note Songs has visited Haworth.
But if For You has a faultline, then it’s how this macabre short story finds its connection to Berkeley’s score. Jane Eyre was close-focus and tightly written; so, too, is For You. (Neil Fisher in The Times)
Executive director of The Brontë Society, Professor Ann Sumner, will welcome top television journalist Kirsty Wark to the Ilkley Literary Festival on Saturday, October 19.Yorkshire Post talks with Charlotte Cory concerning her exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:
The day includes two events on the subject of ‘Brontë’. The first event is for The Brontë Society Literary Lunch, where Kirsty Wark will discuss with Ruth Pitt the books that influenced her. On the same day at 4.45pm at King’s Hall, Kirsty Wark will also discuss with Ann Sumner her admiration of the Brontë novels and the significance of landscape in her debut novel to be published next year.
Artist and novelist Charlotte Cory’s latest exhibition creates a surreal world where Victorian men and women become anthropomorphic animals.Keighley News celebrates the fact that Haworth has been taken off the English Heritage 'at risk' list:
But rather than being drawn or painted from the artist’s imagination, the images are made by using computer technology to seamlessly merge early photographs with images of taxidermied animals.
“There’s a parallel between taxidermy and photography – they’re both about preserving a likeness – so there seems to be something very natural about merging the two together,” says Cory. (...)
Cory read Jane Eyre as a 10-year-old and has been fascinated by the Brontës since. “It took me 18 months of bullying my parents to take me to the Brontë Parsonage,” says Charlotte.
“We went on the way to the Lake District from London, and I’ve never forgotten it .
“It’s lodged in my mind. I went back years later and realised it had informed so many of my tastes and interests. I’d never quite got over the experience.” (Jon Cronshaw)
And last week, as revealed in the Keighley News, Haworth was finally taken off the ‘at risk’ list.The Telegraph lists the ten most dramatic deaths in fiction:
One of the Main Street shops that took part in the restoration was Mrs Beighton’s Sweet Shop, which had its frontage returned to how it would have looked more than a century ago. The work was funded by the shop’s owners, Bradford Council and English Heritage.
Business owner, Alan Breeze, said: “I’m over the moon with how the shop looks.
“It could be one of the most photographed shops in Haworth – so many people want their pictures taken outside it, so we must have done something right!”
Brontë Society chairman, Sally McDonald, said: “That Haworth has been taken off the ‘at risk’ register is a credit to what has been achieved by English Heritage, everyone in the village and Bradford Council in recent years.”
English Heritage’s regional director for planning, Trevor Mitchell, visited Haworth in August, when he urged businesses and local organisations to keep up the good work and maintain Haworth as the “window to Yorkshire”.
After last week’s announcement, he said: “The turnaround was very quick, and I think that was because of the very active local community.
“Putting Haworth on the register was a necessary thing to do – at the time, it looked like it was getting worse. Now it looks like it’s getting better, and we’re optimistic it will keep getting better.
“It is good news the council has announced it will carry out a new conservation area appraisal. That will help decide what still needs to be done. We certainly think advertising signs is a big issue that needs dealing with.” (Miran Rahman)
5. Catherine Earnshaw in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847)IndieWire's The Playlist talks with Michael Fassbender about 12 Years a Slave. The actor who was considered to be Heathcliff in the Wuthering Heights project that finally became Andrea Arnold's film knows his Brontës:
Self-imposed incarceration and starvation is a particularly slow and excruciating way to expire, even if you do find yourself in the throes of delirium. Love hurts, Catherine, but is haunting your beloved Heathcliff until his death really the best way to appease your suffering? (Rachel Thompson)
"Look at Heathcliff and Cathy in 'Wuthering Heights,' " Fassbender continued. "Would you consider them to be in love? Do you think she's in love with him? Don't you think there can be two people in love where one person is either more in love, or has a higher position of power than the other person? It doesn't always mean it's going to be pretty. It doesn't mean that the feeling isn't one of love. But it's just how it manifests itself physically. For me, it's love, but what you do with it is something else." Still, he conceded, "She's not in love with him." (Jen Vineyard)The Independent talks about the improbable Walter Bagehot Country:
Organisers insist they are not seeking to claim Bagehot for Langport in the manner that Stratford Upon Avon allies itself with Shakespeare or the West Yorkshire village of Howarth (sic) embraces the Brontës. Instead, they want to gently remind the world of their most famous son’s achievements. (Cahal Milmo)The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has a most practical approach to Emily Brontë's overquoted fall poems:
“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree,” wrote English novelist and poet Emily Brontë. Obviously in the aftermath of fall's grandeur, she never spent hours on end raking leaves. (Bob Pellegrino)The Citizen presents a local production (in Newnan, GA) of The Mystery of Irma Vep:
In “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” author Charles Ludlam satirizes Gothic romance novels, pulp fiction, and horror movies. But he doesn’t stop there. With two actors playing eight different roles and changing costumes 35 times, Ludlam is also laughing at the entire craft of theatrical production. The plot is borrowed from Gothic romances such as Daphne de Maurier’s “Rebecca”and Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” with fantastic characters from “penny dreadful” fiction and “C” rated movies tossed in. (...)Sky Tyne and Wear has a curious story with a tiny Brontë link:
“The Mystery of Irma Vep” opens at Newnan Theatre Company on October 24 and runs through November 3. Ticket prices are $8 for children, $12 for seniors and students, and $14 for adults.
Martineau Guest House in Tynemouth is one of four hospitality businesses to have been shortlisted for best Bed and Breakfast/Guest House Accommodation of the Year in the prestigious North East England Tourism Awards 2013. (...)Xinhua News talks about the economical results of the Shanghai Ballet experience adapting and exporting a Jane Eyre ballet:
The Grade II listed guest house on Tynemouth’s picturesque Front Street is so named because famed Victorian social theorist, novelist and journalist Harriet Martineau – whose fourth great grandniece is Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge – lived there for five years from 1840 whilst convalescing from a serious illness.
Credited with being England’s first female journalist she wrote many of her most important novels at the Georgian house and was visited by among others Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens.
As one of China's leading troupes, the Shanghai Ballet has tasted the sweetness of overseas success. "Our adaptation of 'Jane Eyre' has been staged five times in England since its debut in November 2012, with a revenue of about 50,000 yuan (8,205 U.S. dollars) for each performance," said He Dong, production manager with the troupe.Still in China. Jane Eyre as a role model for communist disidents?
This points to the value of investment in this field. "We spent more than 4 million yuan on the adaptation of 'Jane Eyre,' but the cost was recovered within a year," according to He.
Members [of the party] are mostly passive at meetings, she says. When officials read statements by party leaders, “We comment how wise they are. Always very wise. But they are very dull. No real business is conducted.” After Ms. Liu graduated, her father helped her to obtain her first job. “I knew he could do that,” she says. But she didn’t like it: “I read and reread the novel ‘Jane Eyre.’ Like her, I wanted to be myself.” (Rowan Callick in the Wall Street Journal)The Chattanooga Times Free Press describes a local trivial night:
As trivia jockey Marc Michael announces that the Brontë sisters were Emily, Charlotte and Anne, an exuberant “Yeah, baby!” bursts out of Savannah Mazda and her right arm swings into the air for a fist pump. (Susan Pierce)ABC Ramp Up describes disability in S/F and fantasy:
But the big difference I see is in the way men and women handle their altered mental states: the men go for power, whether that's taking over the colony or taking over the universe Voldemort style, and the women retreat from it, almost literally swapping Jane Eyre's attic hideaway for a spaceship hold or space prison. Men also tend to go mad in 'logical' ways: they succumb to the idea that science or machinery will solve their problems (Cybermen, Frankenstein's monster) while women are overwhelmed by emotional concerns or a lack of power. (Leah Hobson)Die Welt (Germany) reviews the German translation of Gail Parent's Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York:
Man denke an Jane Austens Miss Benning oder Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre: Immer sind es sich von vorherrschenden gesellschaftlichen Verhältnissen emanzipierende Frauen. (Nadine Hemgesberg) (Translation)An Italian X Factor participant and Brontëite on blogosfere. The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page reminds its followers that North Lees Hall may have been the model for Thornfield Hall.
I recently wrote a tiny book set in a former Portuguese colony in Asia, and self-published it on Amazon under an unrecognisable name. Part of me wants my family and friends to know that I wrote it, and part of me does not. What should I do?The Yorkshire Post looks into the new houseo f the artist and interior designer Judy Sale in Brontë country:
It wouldn’t make any difference whether you use a pseudonym or not if you are neither famous nor an established good writer. All three of the Brontë sisters used male pen names because at that time, women were not allowed to publish books, incredible though this may sound. (...) I doubt, however, that your literary merits would come up to the measure of the likes of the Brontë sisters, Eliot or Carroll, so don’t worry about it. It will make no difference to you.
She chose Brontë country because she had a friend there and had never lived in Yorkshire before. Her first property was a quaint cottage on the Main Street, which she renovated. It was too small to store her work and it was dark so she sold it and bought a house that was lighter and bigger. It’s a complete departure from her usual choice of home. A relatively new four-bedroom townhouse, it looks like all the others on the row. (Sharon Dale)The Globe and Mail reviews YA novels. Like Jonathan Auxier's The Night Gardener:
Skewing a bit older (and maybe a bit scarier) than middle grade, it is much more a fable about avarice and the inherent goodness in storytelling than anything else, and more Sleepy Hollow and Jane Eyre than Harry Potter. (Lauren Bride)The Grimsby Telegraph covers this year's Cleethorpes Festival Of Music And Words:
First place went to classics enthusiast Carlissa Daniels, of King Edward VI Grammar School, in Louth, who read from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – scoring an impressive 90.This Human Events reflection is one of a kind. We had to read it a couple of times to realise it was not a joke:
The young person trained by good books to look at the reality of things will be armed against the sophomoric skeptic. (...) He might reply, “Do I need to wait for a sociologist to do a study to prove to me that children should play outside?” Of course they should grow up with a married mother and father. He sees in his mind’s eye Oliver Twist and the Dodger and the rest of the rabble of boys, huddling in the condemned building with Fagin, who teaches them to steal, and who secretly turns them over to hanging when he’s through with them. He sees Jane Eyre, and Esther Summerson, and Tom Jones. (Anthony Esolen)Do we have to remember the whole bunch of novels (good and not good) about dysfunctional families?
Good news for anyone who prefers a lit movie to a Bravo marathon on lazy Saturdays—this adaptation of the Brontë classic is now available, and it stars Michael Fassbender. We repeat: Michael Fassbender. (Megan Angelo)Cover Media interviews the actress Hannah Arterton.
"I think I'd like to do a period piece, like a proper Brontë sisters kind of thing, with that combination of romanticism and darkness," she revealed.The Berkshire Eagle presents a local production of The Mystery of Irma Vep:
"I remember watching Samantha Morton's Jane Eyre: I was absolutely terrified but also enthralled. I love that it's about love but also really scary."
Written and first performed by Ludlam for his Ridiculous Theatre Company in 1984, "The Mystery of Irma Vep" is a gloriously freewheeling theatrical pastiche involving vampires, werewolves, mummies, apparitions, mysterious appearances and reappearances that shamelessly evokes Daphne DuMaurier, Alfred Hitchcock, the Brontës, Arthur Conan Doyle, Shakespeare, B-movie thrillers and contemporary and Edwardian pulp-fiction. And, oh yes, it is also a love story. (Jeffrey Borak)Carmilla (Italy) interviews Monica Pareschi who translated this recent Italian Jane Eyre translation:
A proposito della collana di Neri Pozza?El Peruano (Perú) talks about the novels of Julio Meza Díez:
I primi tre titoli della collana, quelli già usciti, sono stati scelti in modo molto idiosincratico e, diciamo, affettivo. Jane Eyre è un libro che ho letto in diverse età della vita, e ogni volta mi ha parlato in modo diverso. (...) Per quanto riguarda il futuro, insisterò con le Brontë, tutte e tre[.] (Roberto Sturm) (Translation)
El crítico Carlos Morales Falcón dice, por su parte, que Solo un punto “es una novela de descripción ágil y ajustada, narrada desde una discreta lejanía, cómplice y cruel en su presentación de la subjetividad de los personajes”.Pasarán las horas (in Spanish) reviews Wuthering Heights; Kate's Book Life posts about April Linder's Jane; Leo Beaudrou uploads a Pocket Books 1939 Wuthering Heights cover by Isador N. Steinberg. Colin Gould uploads pictures of Wycoller Hall.
La etapa escolar puede ser agradable o traumática, dependiendo de los factores que la animen. La literatura universal es rica en este tema, tratado por diversos autores como Dickens, Brontë y Twain, entre muchos más. (Luz María Crevoisier) (Translation)
