Richard Dunn is Professor of English at the University of Washington, with a particular interest in Victorian literature, particularly the Brontës and Dickens. He is the editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Jane Eyre (3rd edition, 2001). ( Read page 99) (...)The Houston Chronicle insists on the Brontëite nature of writer Kiran Desai:
This passage's opposing images of dark and gloomy interior and expansive, moon and star-lit external world present one of the novel's many linkings of Jane's human nature with the larger natural world. Though here she is recalled to earth by the striking of a clock, her story will continue to present moments when heartfelt imaginative views inspire her very pictorial writing. For example, early in her life at Thornfield, Rochester critiques powerful and unconventional scenes Jane had drawn earlier as student and teacher. Ultimately, in her famous account of receiving a call from the far-distant Rochester, she describes it as a night-scene and characterizes it as "the work of nature. She was roused, and did -- no miracle -- but her best." (Read more)
As a kid she read voraciously — "the house was full of books," she said. She published her first story at age 9. At 12 she read the Brontë sisters and remembers telling herself, if writers can deploy language with such power, I want to be a writer. (Johnny Hanson)Finally we mention a couple more of Brontë-related things today. The Distant Dream talks about Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey and on Patria's site you can find some pictures of his trip to Haworth.
Well, glamorising wouldn't be the right word...THE Bronte sisters were quite affluent, according to new scientific evidence.
This is contrary to the commonly held belief the famous writers led lives of drudgery and loneliness in bleak Yorkshire.
DNA samples of hair taken from Charlotte, Emily and Anne reveal they ate a healthy diet with plenty of vegetables and protein.
This dispels the myth their tyrannical father, Reverend Patrick Bronte, forced them to live on potatoes.
Scientists at Bradford University tested samples of hair, taken in 1820, now on display at the Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorks.It is believed the myths surrounding the Brontes' lifestyle may stem from Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of Charlotte, glamorising her achievements
asburgh House Hotel and its Charlotte Brontë room (in the picture) with bear included:In each of the 12 rooms is a bear dressed as a famous writer: for example William Wordsworth in jacket and daffodil, and Charlotte Bronte in a dress made to match a portrait of her hanging in the Tate Gallery. (N. Stone)
Overall, the page suggests complex interactions between characters of very different motivations and moral attitudes, played out in dramatic and vivid language and promising unpredictable developments. If you read on, you are likely to get deeply involved; you will have to try to solve puzzles and to make judgements, in situations which raise fierce emotions.Finally some reviews: The Orlando Weekly qualifies Jane Eyre 1944 as a mediocre movie (its qualities as a Jane Eyre adaptation can be argued, but its quality as a movie certainly not, in the humble opinion of this half of BrontëBlog):
Jane Eyre lines up the defense for the mediocre movie, with two commentaries from cast members, film historians and a Welles biographer, but the Men Behind Jane Eyre supplement, following the career trajectories of Stevenson and Welles before and after the film, says little about the movie. (John Thomason)And this Portuguese blog talks about O Morro Dos Ventos Uivantes, i.e. Wuthering Heights in Portuguese.
Meanwhile, if you're feeling inspired by Justine Picardie's talk on Daphne Du Maurier's fascination with Branwell Brontë and want to learn more about the area's most famous literary family, you could head over the moors to visit the Brontë Parsonage at Haworth. You might even bump into your very own Heathcliff. (Amber Pearson)More Branwell references. Also in The Daily Mail we found a review of Captivated: J.
M. Barrie, The Du Mauriers And The Dark Side Of Neverland by Piers Dudgeon:Conspiracy theories don't come much loopier than this. (...)Excuse the long quote, but the Branwell mention needed a bit of context.
Piers Dudgeon's big theory is that J.M. Barrie, the melancholic creator of Peter Pan, was 'an interloper, a psychological controller, a perpetrator of evil' whose diabolic hypnotic powers continued to ruin other people's lives way beyond his own death. Barrie, he contends, not only killed his own brother but was responsible for the deaths of half the boys who helped him write Peter Pan and even for the death of Scott of the Antarctic. As if this were not enough, 'he brought many of the du Mauriers to destruction' too. (...)
Yet in Margaret Forster's definitive biography of Daphne [du Maurier], J.M. Barrie is mentioned on just eight pages out of 425. So in the absence of proof connecting the two, Dudgeon sifts through all Daphne's fiction, only to find that - hey presto! - every villain is in fact J. M. Barrie in disguise.
Of a book of her short stories, he explains that 'every one ... is about disillusionment and treachery, Barrie's treachery'. How odd that her actual biographer failed to spot Barrie in a single one of them! He even sees Daphne's biography of Branwell Bronte as a coded attack on Barrie: 'Go to The Infernal World Of Branwell Bronte for a biography of Branwell and you may be disappointed, but go to it knowing that Daphne had just come out of a major breakdown over J. M. Barrie's destruction of her family, and you will be enthralled.' Like all seasoned conspiracy-theorists, Dudgeon can spot his villain around every corner, his fingerprint on every corpse. (Craig Brown)
As good as the 1993 theatrical version was, it disappointed me on several levels. The Jamaican scenery was breathtaking and the acting was adequate enough; still, it seemed to me the director depended more on sex instead of the powerful themes in Rhys' novel. She touches upon racism, colonialism, and (most importantly) identity, while also carefully crafting two complex characters struggling with a union doomed from the start. Antoinette is an outcast, receiving prejudice not only from the white European settlers but also the black Jamaicans who label her as a "white cockroach." This 2006 adaptation puts complete faith in the narrative and surpasses the 1993 version in practically every way.Charlotte Stretch from The Guardian's Book Blog uses the page 69 test (although we actually thought it was the page 99 test) with Wuthering Heights:Screenwriter Stephen Greenhorn has condensed the original text in meticulous fashion, making it flow naturally, with nothing feeling forced. Sure, he largely ignores Parts I (summarizing Antoinette's childhood) and III (Bertha's burning of Thornton Hall) to focus on the marriage gone sour due to outside forces. While there are allusions to voodoo and black magic, Greenhorn is more concerned with the patriarchal, racist society and how it destroys Antoinette's growing happiness and fuels Edward's suspicions—the dramatic crux which drives Rhys' story. He and director Brendan Maher (both veterans of British TV) craft an eloquent adaptation which beautifully mixes faithfulness and dramatization, with neither element compromising the other.
Beyond that, this version of Wide Sargasso Sea is worth watching for the rich performances alone. Rafe (son of Timothy) Spall makes an excellent Rochester, a man without emotion or remorse, who feels the need to take control of his supposedly sick wife. He smiles rarely, giving the character an intense arc, motivated by male power and misplaced musings. Also matching him are the minor—but no less crucial—contributions by Sosanya and Burroughs as the Jamaican housekeepers. Sosanya, especially, gives Christophine just the right amount of concern and empathy, pushing Antoinette to dodge Edward's psychological clutches.
The film's real revelation is Rebecca Hall, however. First off, she eclipses Karina Lombard's somewhat stiff interpretation of Antoinette in the John Duigan version, which failed to exhibit the character's lost innocence and mental deterioration in a satisfying way. Secondly, Hall not only looks the part but lives it, resulting in a devastating performance which pulls out all the emotional stops. You understand her, empathize with her, and ultimately root for her; Hall's final moments solidify a genuine talent which demands attention. High profile directors Christopher Nolan and Woody Allen have already taken notice; in fact, she will play the one of the two title roles in the latter's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, coming out later this year.
This BBC version of Wide Sargasso Sea is given the digital treatment by Acorn Media. Sporting a 1.85 anamorphic print, the picture looks fine for the most part. The director occasionally misuses the lighting, making some scenes darker than necessary; still, the film is easy on the eyes, with some lush colors scattered throughout. Audio-wise, we are treated to a DD 2.0 track. Dialogue is easily heard and Nina Humphrey's score is appropriately pulse-pounding. Subtitles are provided in English only. Special features are unfortunately-if expectedly-minimal, with a biography of Jean Rhys and some cast filmographies as the only goodies. (Christopher Kulik)
Heathcliff, returning after three years' absence, visits Catherine and Edgar.Let's begin now with some weird comparisons. First, iVillage thinks that the couple of characters from Swingtown are the new Cathy and Heathcliff:
There's no doubt about it: the cracks in the page 69 theory are definitely beginning to show. It's partly down to my own lack of foresight - by choosing a Wordsworth edition (known for cramming as many words as possible on to a page, thus keeping the whole thing short and, more importantly, cheap to produce), I've actually opened the book at what appears to be quite a crucial point in the story. My earlier - slightly rash - assertion that this wouldn't matter seems to have been rather premature. Still, without actually having read the novel, it's amazing how closely I can detect the sexual tension between Cathy and Heathcliff. Edgar, clearly a particularly unwelcome third wheel, makes the whole thing even more compellingly unbearable. All in all I'm feeling quite privileged to be present at such an important moment, although a small part of me does wish I'd turned up a bit earlier.
I can't deny having detected a couple of major holes in McLuhan's hypothesis. For one thing, it seems that choosing the right edition does, after all, make a difference - sometimes. Furthermore, it's not always easy to feel an instant connection with a book if you weren't around for the first 68 pages. But despite these flaws, I've decided to stick with my page 69s; as tasters of things to come, I think they've served their purpose pretty well.
Of course, if you're still not convinced, I suggest you carry out a similar experiment. In fact, I'd like to throw this open to the floor: I want everyone reading this to go away, examine a page 69, and come back to report your findings...
Ah, Susan and Roger. Not since Heathcliff and whats-her-face out on the moors has there been such a dithering, fate-tossed non-couple.Another TV review with a lovely Brontë reference comes from The Guardian's TV blog:
There is some elementary Latin ("Regina mea!") and contemporary Italian ("So! You call me because the fire in your loins is lit once more!") and, as the catacomb fills with gas, a lot of coughing as if we were in for another adaptation of the Brontës. (Nancy Banks-Smith)But things can get worse, as we read in The Chicago Tribune about Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea:
It's not clear if Rajaa Alsanea's first novel, "Girls of Riyadh," was banned in Saudi Arabia because it became a Middle East best seller or if it became a best seller because it was banned. (...)If comparing the Brontë Sisters with Carrie Bradshaw and Co. was not perturbing enough, take a deep breath and check out this news item about Britney Spears's possible comeback. From ABC News:
In this country [US], the book has been promoted as a kind of "Sex and the City," Saudi-style. It isn't, unless you consider the Bronte sisters to be "Sex and the City" Victorian-style. (Tom Hundley)
She wants a good timeWe are speechless. Maybe some alcohol will help us forget. But then again maybe not:
No need to rewind
She needs to really really find what she wants
She lands on both feet
Won't take a back seat
There's a brave new girl
And she's comin' out tonight
It's no Fiona Apple or Emily Bronte. But the lyrics to Britney Spears' "Brave New Girl," a song she put out in 2003, years before her life spiraled out of control, may finally be coming true now. (Sheila Marikar)
When I take a sip of our Wine of the Week, La Crema 2006 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($34), a single image comes to mind.
There's a tall thin well-dressed man with dark hair. He's sitting on a rock on the edge of the sea at twilight, his right elbow resting on his knee, his chin nestled in his hand. There's a band of pale gold stretching along the horizon, and as you shift your gaze upwards, the sky darkens in beautiful degrees of blue. A breeze lifts his hair and as it does, you can suddenly hear his thoughts: Brooding memories of distant love, now out of reach.
He's more Heathcliff than, say, Mr. Darcy, more Bryan Ferry than David Bowie, more Gary Cooper than Cary Grant. My inclination is to get to know him, and so I take another sip. (Michele Anna Jordan in The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat)
In the summer of 1839, Charlotte Brontë, then working as a governess in Skipton, Yorkshire, wrote to her friend Ellen Nussey about her holiday plans. At the age of 23, she said, she'd never been to the coast, never seen a beach, never clapped eyes on rolling waves. The prospect of doing so, on a proposed trip to Bridlington, was intensely exciting: "The idea of seeing the sea – of being near it – watching its changes by sunrise, sunset, moonlight and noonday – in calm, perhaps in storm – fills and satisfies my mind. I shall be discontented at nothing." Did she feel a big anticlimax on finally clapping eyes on the briny? Not at all. According to Ms Nussey, she "was quite overpowered, she could not speak until she had shed some tears ... her eyes were red and swollen, she was still trembling ... for the remainder of the day she was very quiet, subdued and exhausted."Check this previous post for more precise information about the aforementioned quote.
Gordon Brown claimed to identify with Heathcliff, Emily Brontë's complex Byronic brooder, but frankly appeared more short-tempered than saturnine. (Judith Woods)The Wall Street Journal reviews The Wave Watcher's Companion by Gavin Pretor-Pinney:
Allusions to Robert Burns and Emily Brontë share space with the film maker Jacques Tati and the movie "When Harry Met Sally" (the scene where Harry tells a friend about his failing marriage as both men compulsively do "the wave" at a baseball game). (Jennifer Ouellette)The Daily O'Collegian challenges one recurrent romantic fantasy:
Our culture insists on telling women to believe one whopping fallacy: a man can change with the love of a good woman.Unthinkable? gives a Brontë example in an article about Kindle:
Novels such as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, movies as diverse as Rebel without a Cause and The Breakfast Club and reality shows such as Dad Camp and Tool Academy sell this falsehood. (Karen Sisk)
All I can say is that somewhere at Amazon there is a graph showing how many of everything they can se ll if the price of the Kindle gets reduced to $99, and then watch these numbers explode. Even a cheapskate like me will buy a Kindle at that price just to read Jane Eyre and the like.(US Chick)Regrettably Bessie A. Winn-Afeku (in The Huffington Post) will not have a good memory of Jane Eyre (Kindle reading or not):
I spent so much time writing thesis papers about Jane Eyre I never wanted to write for fun.Marie Claire talks about the London boutique Apartment C which apparently has curious new initiatives:
The venue also provides guests with the option of listening to romantic readings, given by a wandering handsome waiter, ranging from classics such as Wuthering Heights to the wonderfully trashy Love machine by Jacqueline Suzanne.We think that Colin Sokolowski doesn't qualify to enter our Brontëite ranks:
What was your first favorite book?A retired teacher and Brontëite in Fort Mill Times, Touring Old Blighty visits Brontë country, No Charge Bookbunch posts about Romancing Miss Brontë, Reading at the Moonlight reviews Rachel Ferguson's The Brontës Went to Woolworths (in Spanish), jill_rg asks for help in the interpretation of a scene of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Breakfast at Lucie's and La vie page à page... review Agnes Grey in French, Eygam who cried Wolf reviews Wuthering Heights in Czech and Les Brontë à Paris posts about Patrick Brontë's Cottage Poems in French.
Either Lord of the Flies or Of Mice and Men. I seem to recall they were among the first books I actually didn’t fake book reports on for my ninth-grade English class (unlike Wuthering Heights). (Jodi Chromey in Minnesota Reads)
There's something special about owning an original handwritten manuscript, but if a John Steinbeck fragment or Charlotte Brontë's 'Little Book' are out of reach then Handwritten: Remarkable People on the Page is the next best thing.The book is divided into sections, The Tudor Court, Poets and Novelists, Scientists, Reformers, Friends and Rivals, Travellers and Adventurers (good to see Mary Kingsley and Gertrude Bell included here), Composers, Writers for Children, Spies and Detectives, Familes, Scribes and Calligraphers, and, with one all to himself, Samuel Pepys. For each of the 79 entries (though encompassing 99 people), original examples of the writer's handwriting are accompanied by a short explanatory essay from Professor Lesley Smith, Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, all of which are intelligently and accessibly written."The less it is part of everyday life, the more the appeal of the handwritten grows," writes Smith in her introduction. "Perhaps that won’t be so for the born-digital generations, but for those of us who remember when not all writing was typing, texting or social media, the pleasure – or not – of recognizing a familiar script is deep and immediate. The close relation of the script to its writer provides a particular thrill." (Alex Johnson)
2.“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte BrontëPublished in 1847, this classic gothic novel is one of the most famous romance stories, and the gloomy English countryside setting feels perfect for fall. The plot follows Jane Eyre as she grows up an orphan and eventually becomes a governess at the mysterious Thornfield Hall. There she meets the brooding Mr. Rochester who she eventually falls in love with, although their romance is not without its complications as secrets and dark histories begin to be revealed. “Jane Eyre” was ahead of its time and still makes the perfect fall read today if you’re looking for something mysterious, dark and romantic. (Grace Giger)
“The Lady Maid’s Bell” by Edith WhartonIn this gothic ghost story, Alice Hartley takes a job as a lady-maid, yet is confused by what awaits her at the house: a mystery about the women who took the job before her and an odd insistence from her employer to neglect the traditional bells used to ring for maids. The story also explores the unhappy domestic dynamics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which can be scary in their own right.This story has the intrigue and thrill of classic gothic novels, such as “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë, but in a condensed length. You will be hooked from the narrator’s first glimpse of a strange woman who she insists was not a figment of her imagination, to the ominously unraveling history of the strange, and perhaps haunted, house. (Morgan Hausback)
Fennell has also played with genre expectations: this is a period drama, but set in the Noughties. Thanks to a note-perfect soundtrack comprising the decade’s big indie-band and pop hits, featuring BlocParty, Arcade Fire and Flo Rida, it thunders along (and has an equal-parts exhilarating and embarrassing Proustian effect on those of us who celebrated school-exam results then). Fennell herself was a fresher at Oxford at the time, so it is a world she remembers intricately. "But also, in the classic Gothic structure – Wuthering Heights, Brideshead –somebody is recalling something major that happened in the past, so I needed some distance to flash back to," she says. "And wherever you are sitting in time, 15 years back from that point always seems horribly uncool. It’s not historic, it’s not yet retro, and it hasn’t yet come round again in an ironic fashion. It seemed a pleasingly uncomfortable, and funny, place to set the story." (Charlotte Brook)
Angry women have always had a cultural presence. From Classical depictions of Medusa to the 17th century’s “Judith beheading Holofernes” to the 19th century’s Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Brontë to today’s Florence Pugh, there has always been art that does justice to the complexity of female emotion. What has changed, however, is the mainstream acceptance. (Rachel Oliver)
The free-admission event is being held in the Old School Room, Church Street, on Saturday, November 11, and Sunday, November 12, from 10am to 4pm.There will be 17 artisan makers, from this area and other parts of Yorkshire, who will be spotlighting and selling their wares.A wide range of goods will be on offer.Behind the initiative are Brontë Bitch, which produces a merchandise range inspired by the famous literary family, and Haworth & Yorkshire Creatives.A spokesperson said: "We are thrilled to be introducing some new creatives at the event, giving them a platform to shine, whilst also welcoming back some of our talented regulars and favourites."We urge people to support their independents – shop local, and visit their online shops." [...]The Old School Room, between the parish church and parsonage, is synonymous with the Brontës.Opened in 1832, the recently-refurbished building was constructed by Patrick Brontë and the whole family taught there.The makers' market is the latest in a series at the venue, and the last of the year. (Alistair Shand)
The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 38, Issue 2, April 2013) is already available online. We provide you with the table of contents and abstracts:Editorial
pp. iii Author: Adams, Amber M.
A Map: Plotting 300 Pages of `Longitude' Against 300 Years of `Latitude' to Elucidate the Nested Narratives of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights pp. 93-110(18) Author: Boyce, Conal
Abstract:
The centrepiece of this essay is non-verbal: a full-page graphic (p. 96) that portrays the first three levels of Emily Brontë’s nested narratives. Its two-dimensional space is defined in one direction by the 300 pages of her novel and in the other by its 300-year span. Dates: in working out the infrastructure for the graphic, we review many of the traditional dates assigned to events in Wuthering Heights, and find a few that might bear revision. In a second graphic (p. 99), we provide a new representation of the Earnshaw/ Linton genealogy, employing a ‘timeless topological’ approach. Expanding on a minor theme in Paglia’s 1991 Wuthering Heights essay, we also explore the many shades of humour in the novel, the majority of which are either too subtle or too outrageous to be perceived as humour on the first reading.
Ireland, Africa and Love in Emily Brontë's Gondal Poems
pp. 111-125(15) Author: Heywood, Christopher
Abstract:
In 1919 Marion H. Spielmann published a short seven-page article entitled ‘The Inner History of the Brontë-Heger Letters’. This article claims to offer the true background facts to the four letters written by Charlotte Brontë to Constantin Heger in 1844‐45. It has been much quoted in studies on the Brontës, but has rarely been subject to critical analysis. In our essay we argue that many of the claims Spielmann makes in his article are difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile with true historical facts. A careful revision of Spielmann’s article is long overdue, for it is the only inner history we have of the letters. If his article is as unreliable as we claim it to be, then the history of these letters, among the most important biographical documents in the entire Brontë story, will have to be radically reconsidered.
Thematic Functions of Fire in Wuthering Heights
pp. 126-136(11) Author: Tytler, Graeme
Abstract:
One aspect of Wuthering Heights that deserves critical attention is the role and function of fire throughout the narrative. Prominent among references to this element are those underlining the utility of fires, fireplaces and their appurtenances in northern domestic life all the year round. But as well as sustaining the realism of Emily’s novel, some such references can be seen to be symbolically integral both to the presentation of Heathcliff and Catherine as individuals and to their problematic love story. Noteworthy, too, are some of the ways in which fireplaces play their part in the characterization of Hindley, Frances, Isabella and Linton Heathcliff. But though a reference to fire, including candlelight, tends to have a negative connotation, the author remains none the less mindful of the fireplace or hearth as a source of well-being, and nowhere more delightfully than through her delineation of the relationship between Cathy and Hareton.
Letter from a Father on Earth to his Child in her Grave
pp. 137-138(2) Author: Brontë, Branwell
Branwell Brontë and T. S. Eliot, April Rain and Aching Memories: History of a Reading?
pp. 139-144(6) Author: Tonussi, Paola
Abstract:
In literary history it can happen that different sensibilities may produce novels or poems which recall one another, or hint to one another. This brief outline points out how a celebrated twentieth-century poet, T. S. Eliot, may have read one of Branwell Brontë’s late poems of despair, and from this he may perhaps have taken some inspiration for his own lines, now considered almost a symbol of modernist poetry, the renowned incipit of ‘The Waste Land’.
The Destroying Angel of Tempest': the Sea in Villette
pp. 145-156(12) Author: Swann, Mandy
Abstract:
In Charlotte Brontë’s Villette, the sea represents the repressed intellectual power, romantic fantasies, resentment and fury of Lucy Snowe. Ocean images in Villette are entrenched within the ideological and iconographical heritage of Homer and the Bible. In the Odyssey and the Bible the sea is associated with dichotomous extremes of beauty and hideousness, gentleness and violence, and salvation and punishment. Charlotte’s seas of feminine desire and intellect reflect these dichotomous extremes. With Homeric echoes, Charlotte uses ocean imagery to depict the excesses of passion, insanity and hopelessness that result from the complete liberty of female emotion and intellect. Yet, with biblical echoes, she also uses ocean imagery to create the Christian framework she establishes in order to control these excesses. Ultimately, Charlotte makes the sea in this novel the cognate for human suffering, which she presents as simultaneously ugly, intolerable and exquisite.
The Depiction of Trauma and its Effect on Character Development in the Brontë Fiction
pp. 157-168(12) Author: Morris, Patrick
Abstract:
The novels written by the Brontë sisters remain popular today and as authors they are highly regarded for their ability to express powerful emotions in their characters. This article analyses the portrayal of trauma in the form of child abuse and domestic violence in three key texts: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë. The authors’ intuitive understanding of trauma, both in its realistic depiction and its effect on character development is detailed with reference to modern psychological insights and recent literature on the psychological impact of trauma.
The Rioters' Yell in Shirley
pp. 169-172(4) Author: Nussey, John
Abstract:
This article gives background and context to the episode of the rioters’ yell in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Shirley, and considers how she may have known of it. It was edited from notes of the late John Nussey by Bob Duckett.
Reviews
pp. 173-180(8)
`Did Charlotte Brontë write “Kitty Bell“?': A Second Response to Christopher Heywood
pp. 181-181(1) Author: Stoneman, Patsyº
When a reader is brought up short five of six times per page by finding words where he least expected them, the result must be a sense of disquiet.
Equally misleading, and perhaps more serious, is Peters' general refusal to distinguish between the art and the life: her tendency to employ material from the novels and juvenilia as if it were factual biographical evidence. (...)A simplistic psychological approach permits this impressionistic treatment of "real people" and fictional characters. Peters does not venture beneath the surface of her subjects' psyches any more than she has to.
Margot Peters' Unquiet Soul (1975) succeeds where Moglen fails because Peters recognizes both the feminist, pyschosexual implications of Charlotte's fate and the very personal, unique elements of her life. Peters, indeed, is the tme descendent of Mrs. Gaskell, retaining her predecessor's affection and understanding for her subject while using the insights to be gained from reassessing Charlotte's life from a modern point of view.
Charlotte Brontë's life and art were both an eloquent protest against the cruel and frustrating limitations imposed upon women and a triumph over them. Seen from this angle, the facts of her life fall into a new pattern, and it is this pattern that these pages propose to explore.
Bonhams 1793 will auction next April 10th an autograph manuscript poem by Charlotte Brontë:10 Apr 2013 13:00 BST London, New Bond Street
The Roy Davids Collection. Part III. Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets. Volume I: A-K
Lot 62:
Autograph Manuscript Poem Written in Her Minuscule Hand Signed 'C. Brontë'dated by her 14 December 1829 and with the autograph note 'from the Young Mans Intelligencer', on a small slip of paper (c. 3 x 3 inches, formerly part of the address leaf of a letter - on the verso survive 'Miss Br' and 'Rev' with a hand-inscribed postal rate), [Haworth Rectory], 14 December 1829I've been wandering in the greenwoodsAnd mid flowery smiling plainsI've been listening to the dark floodsTo the thrushes thrilling strainsI have gathered the pale primroseAnd the purple violet sweetI've been where the Asphodel growsAnd where lives the red deer fleet.I've been to the distant mountain,To the silver singing rillBy the crystal murmering mountain,And the shady verdant hill.I've been where the poplar is springingFrom the fair Inamelled groundWhere the nightingale is singingWith a solemn plaintive sound.
The printed version in The Poems of Charlotte Brontë was taken from this manuscript when it was in the possession of Robert Barrett of Kenilworth, Illinois. Winnifrith provided punctuation not in the manuscript, altered the spelling of 'Inamelled' and gave 'Asphodel' a lower case initial letter. The precocious Brontë children produced family literary magazines, in imitation of Blackwood's, written in minuscule hands, 'The Young Man's Intelligencer' being one of the 'Glass Town' publications. Branwell was editor until July 1829 when he handed over to Charlotte. The hand has been authenticated by the Brontë Society and Dr Christine Alexander (for a full discussion of the early manuscripts see her Early Writings).
Juliet Barker explains that it was probably the expense and shortage of supply of paper that led to the tiny writing adopted by the Brontë children -- 'they developed a minuscule hand, designed to look like bookprint, which allowed them to write many more words to the page. The writing cannot be read without a magnifying glass but as all the young Brontës were shortsighted, this would not have been so much of a problem to them. The tiny hand also had the advantage of being illegible to their father and aunt, so the children enjoyed the delicious thrill knowing that the contents of their little books were a secret shared only among themselves.' The present manuscript is written on the recto of an address leaf addressed to Miss Br[ontë].
This poem is one of her earliest (which date from July to December 1829). In all she wrote about 200 and in 1836, when she wrote to Southey asking for his opinion of her talents, she told him that she wished 'to be for ever known' as a poetess. Southey infamously told her she possessed 'in no inconsiderable degree...the faculty of verse... But it is not with a view to distinction that you should cultivate this talent, if you consult your own happiness.'
Poetical Manuscripts by Charlotte Brontë are extremely rare; only two others have been sold at auction in forty years or more. This may be the last poem by her in private hands - the two others known to have been owned by an individual were sold for $62,500 at the William Self sale on 4 December 2009, lot 13, by Christie's in New York (both formerly Arthur Houghton, sold Christie's London 1979) and are likely to be in institutional hands now. Another was recorded as unlocated by Rosenbaum and White (Brc 69) in 1990 and one is presumed (though without any knowledge) to still be in the possession of the descendants of Sir Alfred J. Law (BrC 99). Otherwise all the other known manuscripts are in institutional collections. The main repository for Brontë manuscripts is at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth; the Morgan Library also has substantial holdings.
Provenance: Barrett Collection, Kenilworth, Illinois.
References: Juliet Barker, The Brontës, 1994; The Poems of Charlotte Brontë, edited by Tom Winnifrith, 1984; Christine Alexander, The Early Writings of Charlotte Brontë, 1983; Christine Alexander and Margaret Smith, The Oxford Companion to the Brontës, 2003; Index of English Literary Manuscripts, Volume IV, 1800-1900, Part I, compiled by Barbara Rosenbaum and Pamela White, BrC 37.
Estimate: £40,000 - 45,000
US$ 61,000 - 69,000
€46,000 - 52,000
Today’s Poem of the Day, by Emily Brontë (1818–1848) seems consonant somehow, in tone, with its author’s one novel, “Wuthering Heights.” This is a strange impression, perhaps, to derive from a poem that, like Monday’s poem by the twentieth-century poet Siegfriend Sassoon, opens on a scene of beauty and peace that “Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere.”A character blundering into this scene, so neatly set out in plainspoken common-meter quatrains, might be forgiven for expecting to find refreshment and rebirth in the limpid moonlight, the sheltering shadows of the trees. Instead what he finds, in the third stanza, is a corpse, albeit a beautiful one, like the John Everett Millais painting of the drowned Ophelia. What begins in Romantic impulse ends in a highly aestheticized pathos. (Joseph Bottum)
Art, in this LK-99-driven world, evolved into a sensory immersion. Imagine being enveloped by a Brontë novel, feeling the Yorkshire winds, or stepping onto the stage of a Shakespearean saga,, longer confin., ed to the canvas or screen, art installations enveloped audiences in tapestries of emotion, sound, and tangible experiences. Museums transformed from silent galleries into vibrant, evolving realms of interactive creativity. (Lewis Kaler) (Translation)
VoI suppose for most readers The Crimson Petal, a Victorian pastiche with its echo of Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot and Trollope, remans his masterpiece. Yet it is more than a pastiche, though evidently it couldn’t escape echoes of the great Victorians. (Allan Massie)
Jane EyreExplorez les mystères sombres et envoûtants de Thornfield Hall aux côtés de Jane Eyre. Plongez dans l’atmosphère gothique de ce récit. Où une gouvernante orpheline défie les conventions sociales et trouve l’amour au cœur de l’adversité. Le lien entre Jane et le ténébreux Mr. Rochester est magnétiquement intense. Créant une dynamique de passion et de secrets révélés.À travers cette histoire captivante, Charlotte Brontë explore les notions de classe, de genre et d’identité, vous laissant accroché à chaque page. (Yvy Cousteau) (Translation)
Jane Eyre 1944Adaptación de la célebre novela de Charlotte Brontë con un reparto de lujo, encabezado por Joan Fontaine y Orson Welles (que 3 años antes había estrenado su ópera prima "Ciudadano Kane"), sobre la profunda historia de amor de una institutriz y un rico heredero que se verá truncada por un trágico acontecimiento del pasado de éste. (Translation)
Lavart (Greece) publishes a comprehensive article on Jane Eyre (novel and adaptations). A very young reader of Jane Eyre on Éva Magazin (Hungary).
Peril, loneliness, an uncertain future, are not oppressive evils, so long as the frame is healthy and the faculties are employed; so long, especially, as Liberty lends us her wings, and Hope guides us by her star. (Charlotte Brontë in Villette, Chapter VI)This is the quote that a columnist of Granada Hoy (Spain) chooses to comment on his ninth day of quarantine.
Leo: Emily Brontë, Wuthering HeightsRutgers-Camden News goes highbrow:
Yes, that’s right, this is the time to reread Wuthering Heights. This is the time for heartbreaking, earth-shattering romance. If you’re not having it, at least you should be reading about it. You should also be listening to Kate Bush’s iconic “Wuthering Heights” and doing karaoke to it in your apartment. Both Kate Bush and Emily Brontë are Leos. Leos are passionate and completely unable to restrain themselves when they are into someone. They will not be subtle! We need this kind of energy now. We need hot Leos. (Also, please make sure to text your Leo friends the most during quarantine. They’re starving for attention.) (Astro Poets)
Lauren Grodstein, professor of English and director of the MFA in Creative Writing programLynne Tillman in LitHub:
If you’re feeling highbrow in your isolation, I’d recommend A True Novel by Minae Mizumura, which is a deeply engrossing 800-page Japanese novel based loosely on Wuthering Heights. And if you’d rather go low, a truly guilty pleasure is the “Crime Junkie” podcast, which dives deep into the most sordid murder cases of the past hundred years. (Stefanie Charles)
I look at my books, shelves overwhelmed, actually I watch them, I am their guardian. I read this, that, Natalia Ginzburg, Lyndall Gordon on Charlotte Brontë and Virginia Woolf, a book on spies. Books live for me to read, books are alive when they are read, but mostly I fail them, and they rebuke me.But... as The Toronto Star says: you can do nothing at all. And there's no shame in it:
According to the army of social media influencers who appear to be battling it out for the title of “Most Productive Person in the Time of Coronavirus,” there are so many more interesting things one can do in quarantine besides avoid illness.Babygaga and spring names for babies:
For example, you can learn to crochet. You can do 100 squats a day. You can grow tomatoes in your backyard. You can read “Jane Eyre,” read your partner’s palms or learn 10 ways to wrap a sarong. (Emma Teitel)
Heath: (...) The name is also linked to Heathcliff of Emily Brontë's famous novel, Wuthering Heights. (Kristy Law)The Orange Country Register has some news on the cancellation of the Jane Eyre production at the California State University Fullerton:
[Dale] Merrill had some good news this week for theater students and anyone else who was looking forward to the spring productions. Most of the shows that were canceled will be presented in the fall with as many of the original cast members as possible — and a holiday production will be added to the mix.Dark thoughts for dark days in Il Manifesto (Italy):
Senior Gabrielle Adner, the lead in CSUF’s production of “Jane Eyre: The Musical,” has indicated she will return to the role in the fall as a guest artist. (Susan Gill Vardon)
Nel libro Storia del buio (Il Saggiatore, pp. 294, euro 27, traduzione di A. Ricci), la giornalista Nina Edwards prova a indagare questo nodo ponendo le basi per una storia culturale dell’oscurità in un tragitto ad ampio spettro di rimandi a zig zag tra arte e filosofia, fisica e psicanalisi, letteratura e biologia. Da William Shakespeare a Ursula Le Guin, passando per Joseph Conrad e Charlotte Brontë, Edwards arriva alla storia sociale del sonno di Roger Ekirch, agli scritti di Jung sull’ombra, agli studi di Martin Bureau sui buchi neri, fino all’invenzione del Vantablack, una sostanza applicabile alle superfici in grado di assorbire il 99,6% della luce, utilizzata per scopi militari e di recente anche artistici – come nel caso dello scultore Anish Kapoor, che ha voluto ricreare un ambiente tanto scuro da far perdere il senso dello spazio, del tempo, di sé. (Claudia Bruno) (Translation)France Culture and the great classics of European literature:
1. Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë (10 x 24 min)Telegraf (Serbia) shares some anecdotes about the filming of Wuthering Heights 1939. A passing mention to the Brontës and Wuthering Heights in Die Welt (Germany). Open Book Story posts about Charlotte Brontë as a preacher.
En 1847, Charlotte Brontë publie, sous un nom d’emprunt masculin Currer Bell, son roman le plus célèbre : Jane Eyre. Présenté comme l’autobiographie du personnage éponyme, ce roman connaît un succès immédiat dans l’Angleterre victorienne, alors même que son héroïne, résolument moderne, ne cesse de se montrer insoumise, de revendiquer son indépendance, et de remettre en question les normes et les préjugés de son époque. Personnage hors du commun, Jane Eyre est aujourd’hui considérée comme une féministe avant l’heure. (Translation)
It's a daunting thing, adapting one of the most beloved novels in the world. Jane Eyre is a lifelong friend to many people. Like all great classics, it reveals different things at every reading. I would not have attempted it had I not loved the novel so much myself. I thought it an irresistible opportunity to introduce the book to those who have not yet had the pleasure and to make the familiar fresh and alive to those who have.Enlightening, isn't it?
That's not to say I didn't lose sleep, sitting down to distill its 700 pages into a hopefully vivid, actor-friendly 99-page screenplay.
Jane Eyre is the orphan who manages to sustain herself without family, without money and without love. She has been told that she is ugly and full of wickedness. Yet she values herself. She is not meekly accepting of her lot. She feels injustice keenly. She is quietly defiant. She holds, for a girl of her time, quite radical ideas about equality. It is her courage, wit and her wry humour that makes us love Jane Eyre.
This fiery, lonely spirit finds herself in the middle of a Gothic thriller. She is employed as a governess by Edward Fairfax Rochester. Thus begins one of the greatest romances ever written. All these elements must be honoured in an adaptation; the book's still urgent politics, the Gothic haunted house and the complexity of the love story. I threw myself in, relying on instinct as much as anything, trying not to get bogged down with the book's critical heritage. Faithfully adapting all the major scenes, I soon realised that the structure of the book would not translate to film. The year that Jane spends with the Rivers family is very important, but in a film it comes 20 minutes away from the end - a terrible time to start introducing major new characters. So I put it at the top. It gave me the ability to jump from her present to her past; to be selective with the way I told the story - just as memory is selective.
I wanted to honour Charlotte Brontë's poetic language. I modernised slightly but tried to keep true to Jane and Rochester's wonderful articulacy. These two people fascinate each other with words. They talk each other into love. One of the scenes I am most proud of is their first at Rochester's fireside, beautifully played by Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. Some of the lines are Brontë's and some are mine. I think the skill of the adaptor is to make the joins invisible.
But a screenplay must be more than just dialogue. I thought of Jane Eyre the artist; how vividly she sees and describes her world. I tried to give the script a strong visual flavour. This was taken up and enriched admirably by Cary Fukanaga (sic) our director and Adriano Goldman our cinematographer. I love the film's harsh winter beauty, the use of natural light and the way expression is trusted to tell the story. The shape of each character is defined by Michael O'Connor's superb costumes and the emotional journey heightened by Dario Marinelli's score. I was especially delighted that it was shot in Derbyshire, a landscape I know and love, where Charlotte Brontë wrote much of the book.
There are many omissions in this adaptation. But I hope it is true to the spirit of the book. I remember the impact Jane Eyre had on me when I first read it in my teens. It is my teenage self I was writing for. We felt it very important to cast an actress as young as Jane herself. Mia was just 19 when the film was shot. She captures perfectly that brave young mind, that undaunted spirit who manages to value herself despite the damage she has suffered and who teaches us to cry, "equal, as we are!"
Ann Dinsdale, collections manager at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, cast doubt on whether the photograph is of the three sisters. She said: “We do get contacted regularly by people who have discovered images or portraits they believe may be the Brontës. The thing you have to bear in mind is why would anyone have wanted to paint or photograph them at that time?Entertainment Focus has a short piece on Jean Rhys's brand-new blue plaque in London:
“They weren’t famous and were relatively poor women. There’s no reference in any surviving correspondence to a group photograph of the sisters.
“We would all love to know what the Brontës looked like and the fact that there are only a few portraits in existence makes you want to know what they look like.”
Arguably most commonly known amongst ‘feminist’ and ‘post-colonial’ literary circles, Wide Sargasso Sea was written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and centers on the marginalized and voiceless Creole character of the ‘mad’ Mrs Rochester. Rhys explores the possible life story that is denied to the character in Bronte’s original whilst raising questions over the societal constructs of such characters as female and colonial subjects.The Guardian reviews a live show by Veronica Falls:
In her article for The Telegraph, Rhys’ biographer, Caroline Angier, gives her view on the unveiling of the plaque and questions whether it marks the end to Rhys’ obscurity to which she sadly states ‘Nothing has changed’. (Samantha Feeney)
The Falls' songs delve into pop's tradition of death ballads typified by Ricky Valance's Tell Laura I Love Her and Terry Jacks' Seasons in the Sun. It's a beguiling mix, exemplified by Beachy Head's suicide pop and Bad Feeling, spiky pop with Brontë-esque melodrama. (Dave Simpson)Silicon India lists '7 outstanding female investors'. Among them is Geraldine Weiss who
heeded the advice of the late Brontë sisters and sort of disguised her name. She started publishing her articles under the name of "G. Weiss." People though it was a man writing and Weiss’ newsletter soared high. It was not before the mid 70s that she revealed her identity, that too after a successful track record.The Brontë Weather Project posts about Top Withens. STPben reviews Jane Eyre and Jellibat has drawn Jane. Boring & mundane stories which are poorly written is reading Wuthering Heights. Helen's Photomania Blog has pictures of Haworth's churchyard here and here.
Every time I hear someone describe Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights as a “romance,” I die a little inside. It’s a portrait of dysfunction, abuse, codependency, and revenge. Which, sure, I guess is romantic in its own way, but c’mon: Heathcliff and Catherine are the Sid and Nancy of the moors. (Maybe too many people got suckered in by Kate Bush’s diaphanous sinuosity in her video for “Wuthering Heights.”)Emma Rice’s adaptation (which she also directs) for Britain’s Wise Children in this Chicago Shakespeare WorldStage presentation leans unapologetically into the wildness and rage of the feral lovers. [...]Over nearly three hours, Rice’s kinetic ensemble breathes life into these doomed figures, aided by a chorus known as the Moors, replacing the narrative function of housekeeper Nelly Dean in the original. (Jordan Laviniere, the leader of the Moors, is a particularly hypnotic figure.) It’s a smart choice, letting us know that the wild land itself keeps the secrets of the doomed humans who trod upon it.Vicki Mortimer’s set and costume designs capture the paradoxical starkness and wildness of the landscape; Laviniere’s chorus leader wears bright colors and a headdress of blossoms and brambles, but the action is set against a dark stage with minimal scenery, except for flats representing Wuthering Heights and the Linton estate of Thrushcross Grange. (The closed doors and windows suggest the suffocating poisonous air trapped inside.) For furniture, there’s mostly just a sculptural pile of chairs—reminders of the people who are no longer alive to occupy them. The three-piece band (with occasional assists from other ensemble members), led by Pat Moran, delivers composer Ian Ross’s original music with gusto.There is a void at the heart of this pitiless tale, and the production, despite skillful use of whimsical puppets and clever props, leans into the nihilism, harshness, and brutality of the story right until the glimpse of hope at the end. But Rice’s staging also leavens the proceedings with moments of absurdist grim humor. (Whenever TJ Holmes’s harried doctor shows up, you know there’s going to be another name on a chalkboard. Which, come to think of it, isn’t so much absurd as it is realist, given the tubercular times.)Most importantly, she never lets us forget that the love of Catherine and Heathcliff, no matter its roots in childlike innocence, grew tangled and toxic, strangling all in its path. At the performance I saw, understudies Katy Ellis and Ricardo Castro played the roles with more passion than tenderness. It’s the right choice in a production that, underneath its postmodern concept, understands Emily Brontë’s near-pitiless story to its bones. (Kerry Reid)
As I left the theater after a marathon of almost three hours trapped within the walls of Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” I heard a few audience members grumbling that it was supposed to be romantic. They had read the book; it read as a romance, not a tragedy. This is, in a nutshell, why I hate the book “Wuthering Heights.” Brontë’s work was taken as a love story when it’s a more complex narrative about trauma. For over 150 years, this story, like “Phantom of the Opera,” has been thrown around in popular culture as if it were a love for the ages between Catherine and Heathcliff. In reality, Heathcliff is repugnant, Catherine clearly has post-traumatic stress disorder, and ninety-five percent of the characters are insufferable.All that said, though I will forever loathe the book, this is an inventive and gorgeous retelling. [...]At the performance I attended, several cast members were replaced with understudies. Although we had a different Catherine (Katy Ellis) and Heathcliff (Ricardo Castro), the cast as a whole was impeccable. As a play with music, the entire ensemble had to be gifted storytellers. Rice’s direction allowed each cast member to play to their individual talents, transforming this story from page to stage. For none is that more true than Georgia Bruce, whose portrayal of both Isabella Linton and Little Linton stole the show with every scene. Bruce’s comedy was exactly the levity this play needed. Frankly, it could do with a bit more self-deprecation, like the first song in act two, and take itself less seriously.Brontë knew what she was doing when she named her novel “Wuthering Heights.” The winds are a character in themselves throughout this play though the real tempests are the relationships within. If you’re looking for a love story, you’re looking in the wrong place. If you want a thorough examination of trauma, toxic relationships and cycle-breaking, come pay a visit to “Wuthering Heights.” Or if, like me, you detested the book, give this show a try. Perhaps you’ll walk away with a deeper appreciation for Brontë’s work—or at least for the astounding performances. (Amanda Finn)
[WHAT BOOK] …left you cold?It’s hard when there’s a classic novel that everyone loves, and then you try it and really struggle. Mine is Wuthering Heights. They do say that it all depends what age you are when you read a novel, what your circumstances are when it enters your imagination. For me, I loved Jane Eyre, and probably always will.I prefer its relative restraint and sense of progress and intimacy with the main character, compared with the unremitting gloom and madness of Wuthering Heights. Everyone is so over the top and it’s so bleak. It was a bit of a trudge for me.
has some very lovely gothic vibes as it is partial set in Yorkshire. You’ll definitely be feeling like you’re in Wuthering Heights, except you can expect a Happily Ever After for this couple! (Nicole Bossio)
11. Emily (Frances O’Connor; Feb. 17)A highlight at TIFF, about which Christopher Schobert said in his review, “Emily, the directorial debut for Mansfield Park and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence star Frances O’Connor, is one of the more remarkably assured first efforts in recent memory. Shot with breathtaking beauty and acted with extraordinary emotion and grace, this exploration of the life and development of Emily Brontë is tremendously enveloping. Emily looks deep into Brontë’s life story for evidence of what that really means. While it is unclear how much of the film is historically accurate and how much is conjecture, O’Connor’s account of the author of Wuthering Heights feels respectful and well-reasoned.” (Jordan Raup)
. . . the 10-day event, which gets underway Friday with a gala screening of the Emily Brontë biographical drama, Emily.Festival director Kathy Kay said she expects to hear raves about the literary-themed film by Golden Globe nominee Frances O’Connor, as champions of the festival have always supported films from the U.K., she said. “We never have an over-arching theme for the festival, what we try and do is talk to our audience about what has been successful here and what people really enjoy. We steer along that way.” (Mike Devlin)
4. She once visited Haworth, home of the Brontë family.In 1904, Woolf, aged 22, took a trip to Haworth, the West Yorkshire village where Charlotte, Emily, and the other Brontës spent their formative years. Though the family home itself wouldn’t become a museum until the late 1920s, the Brontë Society had been running a museum in town since 1895; and Brontë fans had been making pilgrimages to Haworth even while Charlotte was still alive (she died in 1855).Woolf wrote about her visit in an essay published in The Guardian, an early draft of which is featured in the NYPL exhibition. In it, she interrogates the merits of literary tourism, deeming that “The curiosity is only legitimate when the house of a great writer or the country in which it is set adds something to our understanding of his books.” She decided that Haworth fit the bill: “Haworth expresses the Brontës; the Brontës express Haworth; they fit like a snail to its shell.” (Ellen Gutoskey)
Everyone loves a hero character, a protagonist that is relatable yet extraordinary: think Katniss Everdeen, Harry Potter, Jane Eyre. These characters are fun to read, yes, it’s why they sell, but why not try something a little bit different? (Jessie Burchett)
Progressive political and creative figures pepper his text. They range from infamous Newcastle council leader T Dan Smith and legendary Manchester record producer and promoter Tony Wilson to musicians and writers such as Delia Derbyshire, Emily Brontë, DH Lawrence and many others who dreamt, composed and built a different north. (John McTernan)
4. Wuthering Heights by Kate BushEmily Bronte wrote “Wuthering Heights” and Bush penned a song with a similar title after watching the last ten minutes of a BBC mini-series of the book’s adaptation. Bush got inspired to read the book after watching the series so she could get the right background of the story. The singer penned the lyrics in 1977 during a full moon, and within one sitting at a piano, she was done. The song became the first in the UK to be a no. 1 hit written and performed by a female artiste. (Linda Giantino)
After the first shocks of the divorce, some writers, thinkers and artists were asked to write essays for a book titled Goodbye Europe. It was published in 2017. Rereading it recently, I realised that not only did Brexit betray all our futures, it erased the past too. Shakespeare set his plays in Rome, Venice and France; Charlotte and Emily Bronte taught English in Belgium and spoke perfect French; Byron wandered across the continent and lived happily in Sintra in Portugal; Turner loved and painted the landscapes of Italy. Their artistic souls could not be contained within little England. (Yasmin Alibhai-Brown)
A Keighley charity which provides much needed support for people with cancer is preparing an important fundraising walk for its activities this autumn.The Newcastle Chronicle reports the return to England of the only known sketchbook of Thomas Bewick:
Keighley and Airedale Cancer Support is based in New Devonshire House and one of its members, Clare Taylor, is organising a "Withens Welly Walk". (...)
The trek takes place on Saturday November 11, with participants meeting at the Old Sun Hotel, 79 West Lane, Haworth.
There will be two route options. The first is a 7.6 mile walk to Top Withens and back and the second a shorter five-mile walk to the Brontë Waterfalls and back. (Miran Rahman)
The only known sketchbook of the celebrated Northumbrian engraver and naturalist Thomas Bewick has come home after surfacing in San Francisco in the United States. (...)The New York Times asks several journalists and authors about 'what they learnt from horror movies':
The event will be the launch of a new book which reproduces the sketches, with a commentary by leading Bewick scholar and author Nigel Tattersfield, who will be attending. Thomas Bewick: The Sketchbook 1792-99, is published by London antiquarian booksellers Jarndyce at £85 in a limited edition of 200 copies, and has been designed by another prominent Bewick authority, Iain Bain.(...)
A History of British Birds came in two volumes, on land birds and water birds, and is repeatedly mentioned in Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre. (Tony Henderson)
I love how often horror-movie monsters can become allegorical stand-ins for what scares us. Back in high school, I came across the 1943 movie “I Walked With a Zombie,” and was floored by how this suspense movie dealt with repression, fear and racism. It caught my attention because my family is from a Caribbean island, and I grew up with stories about Santería.The Australian discusses the current Man Booker Prize Shortlist, including:
Loosely based on “Jane Eyre,” the movie follows a nurse who is hired to care for the catatonic wife of a wealthy sugar plantation owner in the Caribbean. “I Walked With a Zombie” is upfront about the island’s tragic history of slavery and the slave trade, even as some of its white characters would rather minimize their unsavory past to focus on the romantic melodrama. (Mónica Castillo)
Despite the outward differences between the two books, Elmet draws some of its energy from the same questions about national identity and nationhood that animate Autumn, taking its title from the ancient kingdom that was celebrated by Ted Hughes in The Remains of Elmet, as well as invoking the Brontës and others. (James Bradley)Princeton Times links together WalMart Stores, Jane Eyre and Dracula:
Just last week, I trotted out to purchase fabric. I have been commissioned to create capes for a trip to the local Renaissance Fair. The college teen offered my sewing skills to her friends, and now, I am making crushed-velvet capes for several. I can't really remember when a good cape wasn't in style, though. We had Halloween capes growing up. Count von Count, from Sesame Street has a really, cool cape. All the Dracula movies have capes. Heroines from the Jane Eyre movies have capes in which to pine and swoon. (Fawn Musick)The Sunday Times discusses the latest poetry collection by Jackie Kay, Bantam:
There are poems about war, and our memories of war, channelled through memorials and family stories. There are verses about bereavement, the Brontës, about Brexit, and some very funny lines dedicated to Nigel Farage. (Mike Wade)The Irish Times reviews the novel Devil's Day by Andrew Michael Hurley:
In the same way that Emily Brontë allowed the Yorkshire moors to become a character unto themselves in Wuthering Heights, Hurley’s depiction of the hills and grasslands of Lancashire takes on an anthropomorphic quality, representing a place removed from the outside world, a timeless land with its own rules and laws.BroadwayWorld interviews David Armstrong, director of The Secret Garden, now being performed in Houston:
What was your approach for staging a brand new staging of The Secret Garden? (Alan Henry)BT.com lists several of the Gunpowder filming locations, including:
The design team and I were inspired by the gothic aspects of the original novel. Frances Hodgson Burnett was consciously echoing Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and other gothic stories.
Fans of Wuthering Heights may recognise East Riddlesden Hall (below), a Grade I-listed National Trust-owned property in Keighley, West Yorkshire. The hall has foundations dating as far back as 973 and was used in adaptations of Wuthering Heights in both 1992 and again in 2009. The National Trust took over the deeds of the site in 1934. (Chris Laker)Steinbach opens an article about the Mennonite Heritage Village (Manitoba, Canada) with an Anne Brontë quote from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall:
“A light wind swept over the corn, and all of nature laughed in the sunshine.” - Anne BrontëLa Verdad (Spain) interviews several local writers on the role of women in literature:
El Día de las Escritoras impulsado por la BNE -se festeja el primer lunes posterior al 15 de octubre, onomástica de Santa Teresa de Jesús-, piensan las autoras murcianas, reunidas por 'La Verdad', es una apuesta importante en la lucha por la visibilidad de aquellas autoras olvidadas, pero no debe ser un acto puntual, sino una constante que hay que convertir, apunta Cerezo, en «cotidianeidad». «Hemos avanzado bastante desde las hermanas Brontë, pero queda todavía mucho por hacer», cree [Dionisia] García. (Rosa Martínez) (Translation)And Enpositivo (in Spanish) lists books written by women that should be read by men:
Jane Eyre (1847) – Charlotte BrontëFrom First Page to Last interviews the writer Carol Lovekin:
Mientras en el siglo XIX la figura de la mujer huérfana, soltera y trabajadora siempre era descrita desde la visión paternalista, Charlotte Brontë desvela otra realidad vivida directamente desde la parte femenina. Se ambienta en la Inglaterra victoriana y muestra cómo esta figura en realidad era luchadora y valiente, y no desvalida y victimista. (Aiste Bereckyte) (Translation)
If you could only read one book for the rest of your life which book would it be?The Doctor Who Companion lists several of Peter Davison's guest appearances, including his Lockwood in Wuthering Heights 1998. Guaripete, needabook and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books review the Aline McKenna & Ramón Pérez's Jane graphic novel. Littlebutfierce7 reviews the National Theatre's performances of Jane Eyre.
Wow! Now that is a question! It’s a choice between Jane Eyre and To Kill a Mockingbird. Ideally it would be something by Virginia Woolf – who I admire beyond rubies – but goodness me, she had a thing about paragraphs (the lack thereof!) I’d go blind if all I had to read for the rest of my life was Mrs Dalloway – marvellous though it is.
