The most memorable in this odd social menagerie are the arrogant Sean, the wily Leo and the mad Ursula, who spoke volubly of “her past incarnations, which included an iron-age priestess, Charlotte Brontë and a peasant girl who’d died in a workhouse”. (Somak Ghoshal)The new album by P.J. Harvey, White Chalk, is reviewed in Onda Rock (in Italian)
. Apparently the new look of the singer and the songs have some Brontë-ish qualities:Qualcuno ha definito il nuovo look di Polly Jean Harvey “à-la sorelle Bronte” e il suono di “White Chalk” evoca in qualche modo i paesaggi notturni e aspri descritti in “Cime Tempestose” e quelli nebbiosi e uggiosi presenti in “Jane Eyre”. “White Chalk” contiene brani che potrebbero piacere molto a Charlotte e Emily. (Magda di Genova)Nefret's Blog reviews the 1996 BBC production of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in German. Life, so Far posts some pictures and interesting thoughts about Haworth:
Babelfish translation -> Someone has defined new look of Polly Jean Harvey "à la Bronte sisters" and the sound of "White Chalk" evokes in some way the nocturnal and sour landscapes described in "Wuthering Heights" and those foggy and rainy present in "Jane Eyre". "White Chalk" contains pieces that could appeal to Charlotte and Emily.
But life in Haworth is slowly changing. Neighbouring supermarkets are making life difficult for shops in the village. There is a sweets shop a few doors away from the bookstore that has been there even when Margaret was a child, but according to Joe, he and his friends would probably go to Spar for their sweets. (Chris)Categories: Books, Haworth, Music, References
Why did you decide to write your next novel about Charlotte Brontë?CNN.com devotes its Mental Floss section to "Real life plot twists of famous authors". An improbable starry-eyed Charlotte Brontë makes an appearance:
The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë [due in March 2008] is a historical suspense novel that gives the real-life author the adventure that she always craved but never really had, even though she did lead an interesting life. This is my tribute to her and my love of Victorian literature. It may be the start of a new series; I’m waiting to see how well this one does. I have two more Sano books to finish before I can do anything else, and the Brontë book was extremely long in the making. I love the character and the period, and have a lot of ideas about where I’d like to go with this. (Interview by Leonard Picker)
Starry-eyed? Is the journalist suffering from an overdose of Flanders talk?Charlotte Brontë may have been the author of the romantic classic Jane Eyre, but she was not well served by love herself. In fact, it more or less killed her.
In June of 1854, a starry-eyed Bronte married her father's curate and soon became pregnant. During her pregnancy, she fell ill, and according to her earliest biographer, Elizabeth Gaskell, she was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness."
The elder Bronte sister's nausea was so overwhelming, in fact, that the author couldn't eat or even smell food without becoming violently ill. On March 31, 1855, a dehydrated, malnourished and severely exhausted Charlotte Bronte died at the age of 38. (Diane Mapes)
Writing is communication, and as readers we look for certain indicators to help us construct meaning. If we read, “John took Jane Eyre to bed,” we may infer from the italics that the name refers to the title of a work rather than someone he met at a nightclub—even if we have never heard of Charlotte Brontë. (Alan Warhaftig)Not a particularly good choice for an article complaining of bad punctuation. The punctuation of the Brontës in general was, at best, erratic. Charlotte, in fact, was quite happy that Smith, Elder & Co. corrected her manuscripts:
I have to thank you for punctuating the sheets before sending them to me as I found the task very puzzling - and besides I consider your mode of punctuation a great deal more correct and rational than my own. (CB to Messrs Smith, Elder & Co., 24 September 1847)Some days ago we already posted about the presumptive Brontë influences of the latest PJ Harvey's work: White Chalk. The Manchester Evening News follows this trend but goes further and mentions even Wuthering Heights. The question is: the reviewer quotes Wuthering Heights because he thinks that PJ Harvey's music is really influenced by Emily Brontë's novel or just because it's the only thing that remotely sounds like Gothic and Brontë?
In shifting direction with vocal, Harvey has replaced the rock-and-roll harlot personae once heard circa Stories From The City and Uh Hur Her with an angelic and at times haunting Chanteuse - a storytelling vocal that creates the album’s ethereal charm: part Victorian séance and part Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. (Steve Baker)Wuthering Heights also appears in a review of the film Blind (2007) published by Variety:
True love really is blind in Tamar van den Dop's Victorian era fairy tale about the relationship of a fierce sightless youth and his equally strong willed albino companion. Combining the unhinged romanticism of "Wuthering Heights" with leitmotifs from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," overwrought "Blind" frequently over-reaches, but nevertheless reps a confidant calling card for the debuting Dutch feature helmer. (Alissa Simon)A pity that Wuthering Heights is settled mainly in the 18th Century, nothing to do with Victorian times. But who cares?
Utställningen "Mad woman in the attic" (Galna kvinnor på vinden) är en litterär metafor för Charlotte Brontës klassiska roman "Jane Eyre" från 1847. Metaforen associerar till hur kreativa kvinnor kunde betraktas som galna eller opassande och också som metafor för kvinnors styrka, ilska eller sexualitet som hölls tillbaka i det patriarkala samhället. Här träffar vi de båda konstnärerna på "vinden" och utställningen är uppbyggd som en vindsmiljö där man hittar saker efterhand. Saker som verkar glömda sedan länge. (Bengt Valentinsson)The exhibition has used the 'madwoman in the attic' metaphor to include a collection of women's art.
El grueso de la película se rodará en Inglaterra. Confirma al deseo de la productora, se buscarán parajes similares a los utilizados en el clásico Cumbres borrascosas. Los interiores se rodarán en Barcelona. Se baraja un presupuesto "modesto" de unos tres millones de euros y, fiel a la trayectoria de esta productora nacida seis años atrás, será una coproducción internacional entre España y el Reino Unido. El rodaje podría comenzar en septiembre del 2008 y el estreno, un año después. (Lourdes Durán)Most of the film will be shot in England, where the novel is set. They want places like those 'used in the classic novel Wuthering Heights'. Shooting will start in September 2008 and the film will probably open a year after that.
-La suya es una novela gótica. ¿A lo «Jane Eyre» o «Cumbres borrascosas»?When asked whether this is a gothic novel à la Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights she says that the novel's main goal is entertainment, both for her when she wrote it and for the reader. It's a mystery novel set in the USA. Some cousins spend the summer at their grandfather's and then...
-Sobre todo se trata de una novela de entretenimiento, una historia que escribí para divertirme y con la intención de que quien la leyera también se divierta. Se trata de una historia criminal llena de misterio. La historia se desarrolla en los Estados Unidos, unos primos pasan un verano en casa de su abuelo y entonces... No voy a contar nada más, ¿no le parece? (S. Fernández)
The owner of a major Hebden Bridge tourist attraction is taking her business out of Calderdale because of parking restrictions.The Guardian has an article on Diederick Santer, producer of Jane Eyre 2006 and current producer of classic soap opera EastEnders.
Sharon Pickard, 54, is the owner of Bronte Boats, which brings 18,000 visitors to the town every year.
She put her life savings into setting up the canal cruise firm in 2005, but says this year the coaches that bring in her customers have been banned from parking in Hebden Bridge centre.
Ms Pickard, of Sowerby Bridge, claims this has made business impossible and is taking her thriving tourist attraction to Leeds. (Joe Shute)
This is PJ Harvey's Bronte sisters album, a set of chilling ballads sung by a woman locked away in the attic in Jane Eyre or lost out on the moor in the middle of the night in Wuthering Heights. (Dan DeLuca)From Casket of Dreams:
Harvey appears to have mutated now into a Bronte, as her album cover proves: her strange, manly beauty is reminiscent of Charlotte Gainsbourg in Jane Eyre, and the profile shot reminds me of portraits of Emily. That’s why the 33 version of White Chalk seems to show her hand: it’s the nasty dream submerged under the record, the lover mutating into the beloved, destroying herself in the process. It’s Jane becoming Rochester; Cathy becoming Heathcliff; alienated, lonely woman becoming demonic Byronic man.Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Books, In the News, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Wuthering Heights
A country hotel originally built as the residence of Charlotte Brontë’s doctor has gone on the market. Ashmount, in the author’s home village of Haworth, has a five-star rating and dates back to 1870, when Dr Amos Ingham was the first owner. The villa, which has stained glass windows, is situated on Mytholmes Lane, just five minutes from the Brontë family parsonage. The property was built after Dr Ingham, the village surgeon, tended both Charlotte and her father Patrick before their deaths in 1855 and 1861. He is believed to have been the source of the story about the only Brontë son, Branwell, setting fire to his own bed while drunk. The doctor was present when Charlotte died. Leisure property specialists Fleurets are marketing Ashmount’s freehold with an asking price of £650,000 after its current owners put it up for sale due to ill health. The luxury hotel has eight guest bedrooms - including the chamber once occupied by the doctor - three of which are spa suites with whirlpool baths and hot tubs. There is a private apartment for the owners, dining and breakfast rooms, a residents’ lounge and extensive gardens. Nick Thomas from the Fleurets Leeds office said: “Ashmount is a successful, luxury operation with plenty of repeat and regular custom. It also offers new owners the opportunity of continuing to run the business along established lines, or to explore the potential to increase trade with non-resident dining. Furthermore, there is lapsed planning permission to add a conservatory and an additional ground floor letting bedroom.” (Grace Newton)Bdaily has more information for potential buyers.
If Thomas Hardy’s literary genius brings the West County to life and Charles Dickens evokes Victorian England, then surely Yorkshire’s strongest literary connection must be with the Brontë family. And we continue to heap praise upon these three seemingly innocuous sisters, described by their publisher as ‘rather quaintly dressed little ladies, pale faced and anxious looking’.The Oxford Eagle is unfair to Jane Eyre, expecting her to be satisfied with the burnt porridge served at Lowood.
Anyone lucky enough to visit their former home, Haworth Parsonage, will probably concede that it still seems to possess their ghosts. You can imagine them rattling away, discussing ideas at the parlour table and playing with their toy soldiers in the bedroom. Since their deaths, the Brontës’ home has remained virtually untouched, which makes the atmosphere even more suffocating, verging on sinister, but also totally thrilling. [...]
I recently read a wonderful new book on the Brontës called A Life in Letters by Juliet Barker. Despite being over 400 pages long, I finished it in two days. It’s an incredible collection of personal letters, making their long deceased voices come to life. I was surprised to find that rather than being the shy wallflower who hid behind her writing desk in the parsonage, Charlotte stormed down to London together with her sister Anne to convince her publisher that the Brontë novels were written by three separate people rather than just one person.
Charlotte took a shine to her handsome publisher George Smith, though he sadly said of her: ‘It may seem strange that the possession of genius did not lift her above the weakness of an excessive anxiety about her personal appearance; but I believe that she would have given all her genius and her fame to have been beautiful.’
I’m currently a quarter of the way through writing my first novel and I can’t explain what a hard slog it is. I find it very difficult to imagine how those women managed to be such prolific authors in a world where they had to create pseudonyms, Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell and, during their lifetime, only took brief trips away, being mainly based at the imposing but stifling parsonage. But, as well as being inspired by the stunning, if often bleak countryside, a few unrequited relationships and the loss of family members at a young age, I think the family also shared intense and joyful relationships full of love and adoration. And their legacy is bound to live on for another 200 years. I even named my own daughter Brontë after Yorkshire’s greatest literary family. (Lisa Byrne)
Jane Eyre, who seemed dissatisfied with any food put before her, once found grudging satisfaction with these berries while out on the moor one day: “I saw ripe bilberries gleaming here and there, like jet beads in the heath: I gathered a handful and ate them with the bread. My hunger, sharp before, was, if not satisfied, appeased by this hermit’s meal.” (European blueberries were slightly different from ours and were usually referred to as bilberries.) (Taylor Watkins)She wasn't dissatisfied if the food was worth it. Case in point from chapter VIII:
Having invited Helen and me to approach the table, and placed before each of us a cup of tea with one delicious but thin morsel of toast, she got up, unlocked a drawer, and taking from it a parcel wrapped in paper, disclosed presently to our eyes a good-sized seed-cake.Reviews of PJ Harvey's works tend to include Brontë mentions as Town Topics has noticed:
“I meant to give each of you some of this to take with you,” said she, “but as there is so little toast, you must have it now,” and she proceeded to cut slices with a generous hand.
We feasted that evening as on nectar and ambrosia; and not the least delight of the entertainment was the smile of gratification with which our hostess regarded us, as we satisfied our famished appetites on the delicate fare she liberally supplied.
The Brontë ConnectionThe Sentinel shares a Wuthering Heights book trailer made by local high-school students.
One reason I’m thinking of Emily Brontë is that my first listenings to Hope Six coincided with a rereading of Wuthering Heights. More than that, it’s because Harvey’s vocal hovers like an eerie act of nature above the subtly incantatory “River Anacostia” as the poet takes over from singing reporter poetry with lines like “A small red sun makes way for night, trails away like a tail light.” I wish the real-life residents of Anacostia who find Harvey’s depiction of their down-and-out neighborhood unfair could hear the rapture in her voice when she sings “Oh my Anacostia, do not sigh, do not weep” as if she were mourning the broken heart of her homeland.
I’m not the first to read Wuthering Heights into PJ Harvey. A November 2000 review in Vanity Fair dubbing her “the Emily Brontë of rock’n’roll” found her music similarly “foreboding, intricately designed, and, at times, just a little out of control.” It was also noted that Polly Jean, like Emily, “grew up in the English countryside — in a hamlet just outside of Yeovil.” (Stuart Mitchner)
The new book by Bruce Mayer, Heroes: The Champions of Our Literary Imagination, is presented on the CBC Radio website (Words at Large). One of the heroines is our Jane:English literature academic and broadcaster Bruce Meyer gives new insights into the heroes who inspire us in his new book Heroes: The Champions of Our Literary Imagination (HarperCollins Canada). Meyer is best known to CBC Radio listeners for his frequent contributions on book-related subjects. In his latest work, he gives readers a new perspective on their favourite literary heroes, ranging from Superman to Dante. (...)The PJ Harvey Brontë frenzy with her new new album White Chalk still lingers on. Based, as far as we can read in the articles, basically on her white frock dress. From the New York Magazine:Here are the top ten heroes from some key works of the Western literary imagination. I hope this list will spark some thoughts about who you consider to be heroes and what constitutes that honorable title.
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte’s great 19th-century heroine is a do-it-yourself individual who rises from the ashes of her meagre, miserable life to become the mistress of a great estate. She is a Disney movie waiting to happen, a true-to-life Cinderella.
"It seems like so long I played in New York — ages, really," PJ Harvey remarked to a sold-out crowd at the Beacon Theatre last night. Looking like one of the Brontë sisters in a white frock dress, the indie rocker, now almost 40 (!), performed a motley mix of songs to a reverential crowd at her only scheduled show on the East Coast. (Sadia Latifi)The Mystery of Irma Vep is another well-known usual suspect in the Brontë news. The Tacoma News Tribune reviews the current performances of Charles Ludlam's play at the Centerstage’s Knutzen Family Theater in Tacoma:
Written by the incomparable Charles Ludlam, founder of The Ridiculous Theatrical Company in New York, the play is patterned after Alfred Hitchcock’s gothic horror film “Rebecca” and is liberally sprinkled with literary references ranging from Poe to Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde, with further reference to films such as “Wuthering Heights” and “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”The Sioux City Journal provides the funny/surrealist quote of the day:
The Coors site features a closeup of a beer next to a book on the bar. Why these people aren’t swilling, they’re taking a study break. I can’t see the title of the book but I’m sure it’s either “Wuthering Heights” or microbiology. Or both. “Look, Heathcliff, mitochondria. I shall never love you.” (Dave Yoder)Finally, we would like to congratulate Doris Lessing on receiving the Literature Nobel Prize and remind our readers that there's a book connecting her to the Brontës: Elaine Showalter's A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing, published in 1998.
[T]his Saturday, September 29, he presents one of the fringe events held at the town’s St Margaret’s Church Hall at 6 pm.Indeed, his talk could be the same one he gave at last year's Brontë Conference and which can now be read in the latest issue of Brontë Studies as it has the same title.
He gives a talk called The Likeness of a Kingly Crown: John Milton’s Influence on Charlotte Bronte. Ian has a life-long interest in the work of the Brontes and is the author of many articles on the subject.
This talk develops themes from his 2005 Bronte Society publication Pilgrims From Loneliness: An Interpretation of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Vilette - the strong influence of John Milton’s writing on Charlotte Bronte.
Imagination makes us aware of limitless possibilities. How many of us haven't pondered the concept of infinity or imagined the possibility of time travel? In one of her poems Emily Bronte likens imagination to a constant companion, but I prefer to think of it as a built-in entertainment system. (Alexandra Adornetto)The full poem can be read here.
Presented in full-screen, both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre come housed in individual slimline snap cases, and are in turn jointly housed in an attractive, single cardboard slipcase. Jane Eyre’s bonus features include interviews with the cast and crew, a small collection of deleted scenes, hour-long audio commentaries for two of the episodes, and trailers from the program’s original British broadcast on BBC. [...] B+ (Movies) B- (Disc)This answers the questions BrontëBlog readers had regarding the Brontë Collection, though we had already been told by the WGBH Customer Care Center that Jane Eyre did indeed include the deleted scenes as well as the rest of the extras included on the original British DVD (unlike on the PBS DVD)
The precocious Matilda in the eponymous novel by Roald Dahl has read, by age four years and three months, all the children's books in the local library, so the perspicacious librarian, Mrs Phelps, gives her Great Expectations. Matilda never looks back, and by age four years and nine months has added to Dickens books by Bronte, Austen, Hardy, Kipling, Wells, Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Greene and Orwell. (Pam Macintyre)Indeed, Matilda read Jane Eyre 'under Mrs Phelp's watchful and compassionate eye'.
The film has some interesting aspects: Geoff Burton's cinematography brings out the lush Jamaican setting and Stewart Copeland's score is atmospheric. But Wide Sargasso Sea falls away in the second half, unable to build on the unsettling ambience that has been created. A young Naomi Watts has a small role as an expatriate English girl. (Philippa Hawker)Romancing the Tome posts about film adaptations of books:
To me, and most of the Romancing the Tome audience no doubt, the answer is clear: in an industry dominated by male producers and directors, there are few realistic depictions of women onscreen.Completely changing topics, we now have one more horse for our Brontë imaginary stables: Wuthering Heights, according to Racing and Sports.
That's the gap that literary adaptations fill so well. It's no wonder that we look forward to BBC adaptations of books like North and South and Jane Eyre and Hollywood movies like Pride and Prejudice and the Merchant-Ivory oeuvre. These are the kind of stories that have strong, interesting female protagonists, and are told from a uniquely female point of view. The gorgeous heroes of these tomes orbit around the heroines and are sex symbols for viewers. This is a welcome reversal of how most Hollywood movies work, with a fleshed-out hero and a secondary heroine who often exists to pout and look pretty.
Plus, even literary adaptations where women are not the central protagonist, frequently deal with historical oppression and restriction of women's roles. Screenplays about contemporary women's dilemmas like the mommy wars, reproductive rights and the wage gap most likely have little to no appeal for the big studios. Can you imagine one of these head honchos getting excited about a film about a harried working mom who's neither a victim nor a ball-busting bitch? Me neither. (Sarah Seltzer)
In the 1970s the mare that lifted the family out of mediocrity was one whose background suggested she was unworthy at the time of the name bestowed on her, Wuthering Heights.[...]Let's open a musical section now. Online Opinion says the following of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights song.
She never raced and when she was 10 Douglas did a deal with his friend Bill Brown and arranged to mate Wuthering Heights with the beautifully bred but modest importation Battle-Waggon.
The result from Battle-Waggon's first crop was a colt who impressed Brown so little that he accepted only $260 when he offered him at a sale.
The buyer was none other than Douglas and he was rewarded for his faith in the son of Wuthering Heights as he became one of great stayers in Australasia in the1970s under the name of Battle Heights. (Brian Russell)
Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” is a better choice. It changed the structure of popular music, lifted the standards of lyric writing and produced one of the strangest dance sequences in a video. Ever. (Tara Brabazon)That's a fan!
she was dressed in this white victorian style dress - which seemed straight of of 'wuthering heights' (the same one on the cover of her latest album - probably not the most comfortable thing to wear while rocking out)The post includes several videos where PJ Harvey can be seen performing in that very dress.
ZOUNDS! Such is the joy induced within my heaving bosom by Cranford that I fear the onset of a nervous eclipse requiring the medicinal administration of a compound. Fiddlesticks to dreary serialisations of Jane Eyre! A pox upon overwrought small-screen re-workings of Pride and Prejudice! Huzzah, huzzah and thrice huzzah for Cranford!A review of PJ Harvey's album White Chalk has lagged behind the heyday of the White-Chalk-is-a-Brontë-album fad. From Telegram:
Harvey makes a final stroll atop the Dorset Cliffs of her native homeland on the Celtic-flavored title track, “White Chalk.” Sounding like she sprung to life out of an Emily Bronte novel, Harvey has all the rich characteristics of a classic Gothic heroine. With her ghostlike voice fading in and out, Harvey foreshadows her fate in the lines, “And I know there chalk hills will rot my bones.” (Craig Semon)On the blogosphere today: To have and to hold reviews Wuthering Heights in French. As do Textual Frigate and Eclectic Reader, who also writes about Jane Urquhart's Changing Heaven in another post. Literatura e seus mistérios writes a long post in Portuguese about Emily Brontë, which includes several translations of her poems into Portuguese. Vox Audita Perrit, Literra Scripta Manet writes about Jane Eyre 2006 and forthcoming screenings of more adaptations by the BBC. Kay's Bookshelf has written about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Finally El turista despistado writes in Spanish about the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontëBut then The Irish Times features Kenny’s Bookshop in Galway.
You’d be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t read this classic book (or, at least, seen the period drama adaptations). Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, which was written in secret in 1845, is a classic, passionate love story that’s been retold many times. Take note: Emily, a biopic on the British author, is set to hit our screens in 2021. (Susan Devaney)
“As soon as we closed the door, our library business stopped because all the university libraries closed at the same time,” says Sarah Kenny. “But at the same time, our online orders went up almost overnight. Fiction was the absolute biggest increase. Everything from current best-selling fiction to a lot of classics.Book Riot has selected 'Your Summer of Great YA Horror Books', including
“Books that people had maybe intended to read someday but never got around to. So there was big demand for titles like Ulysses or War and Peace and Jane Austen’s novels and Wuthering Heights. (Keith Duggan)
Thornhill by Pam Smy: This hybrid novel, combining art and narrative, is about a haunted house and it’s set in two timelines: 1982 and 2017. It’s packed with the tropes of horror, including creepy dolls and ghosts, while remaining a deliciously modern gothic tale. A good pitch for this one might be Jane Eyre meets The Secret Garden. Smy uses a dark palate for the art, adding another level of the spookiness to the book. (Kelly Jensen)UDiscoverMusic features singer/songwriter PJ Harvey.
Harvey’s seventh LP, 2007’s White Chalk, was, however, her most radical record to date. Eschewing virtually all vestiges of her guitar-based alt.rock sound, the LP presented a set of mournful, intimate, piano-based songs that Harvey sang in a voice pitched higher than her usual range. Streaked with British folk and gothic horror, it featured remarkable compositions such as the Emily Bronte-esque ‘The Devil’ and the eerie ‘When Under Ether’, and concluded with a blood-curdling shriek on closing track ‘The Mountain’. Though the album was arguably Harvey’s most challenging yet, it again wowed the critics and sold well, going silver in the UK (where it peaked at No.11) and also reaching No/65 on the US Billboard 200.We do indeed recall a lot of reviews comparing it to the Brontës at the time.
Just when you think you’ve seen all the Jane Eyre adaptations you possibly could, director Cary Fukunaga makes a solid film that will have audiences hooked despite their obvious familiarity with the story. (...)The film will be screened at the Sarajevo Film Festival next July 27th and 28th. Booktopia Blog is waiting for the Australian release of the film, So You Want to Be a Priest... posts a review and The Loveliest Tragedies posts several icons.
In Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre, Fassbender adds an element of sheer masculine attraction to the cold wit and gothic demeanour of Rochester. Fassbender does not try to imitate anyone, and succeeds in leaving his individual mark on the character. More importantly, he does not overshadow Jane, the heroine of our story, and gives ample space to Wasikowska who does justice to the much-imagined Jane Eyre.
So pined a mournful Heathcliff in the 1992 adaptation of Emily Brontë's immortal Wuthering Heights. Poor things, it can't be easy falling in love with a foster sibling, not even when they look like Ralph Fiennes or Juliette Binoche.My Life in Scraps posts also about the film.
In fact, Heathcliff takes it so badly he adds a new dimension to head-banging: it's said that Fiennes, in his feature film debut, demanded a scene from the book in which the frustrated woodsman hits his head against a tree be included.
He performed so well, he drew blood.
Although some critics felt the same way about Peter Kosminsky's curious direction (that included Sinead O'Connor's narration and a script that ran to the novel's dreary, bitter end), Wuthering Heights has fared reasonably well over time.
The stunning Yorkshire backdrops keep audiences' attention but the hook is Fiennes' The English Patient co-star Binoche who brings a luminous presence to the younger Catherine.
Handsome and unaffected, Wuthering Heights remains worth a look. (Colin Fraser)
–– Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.The Tampa Tribune reviews Withering Tights with special attention to the Brontë references:
Set against the lush backdrop of 1830s Jamaica, Rhys’ powerful, haunting masterpiece was inspired by her fascination with the first Mrs. Rochester, the mad wife in the attic in Charlotte Brontë ’s Jane Eyre . (The movie adaptation is also available.) (Maureen Curry)
"Withering Tights" is also dedicated to "Em, Chazza and Anne Brontë," who first introduced the world to the pleasures of moaning about on the moors in the throes of passion and/or borderline personality disorders. As the brochure for Dother Hall, the local performing arts academy puts it, "think 'Wuthering Heights' but with more acting and dancing and less freezing to death on the moors." (...)Glen Ducan's The Last Werewolf is reviewed by The Columbus Dispatch:
The Bronte references are equally spry and irreverent (in contrast to most of the recent crop of literary updates and inspired-bys that crowd the YA bookshelf). Tallulah's first view of her new school calls up images of Jane Eyre's Thornfield Hall, not least because the roof is on fire. There is even a long-haired person of mystery capering about in the flames, whom Tallulah immediately dubs Mrs. Rochester. The name sticks, even thought the figure turns out to be Bob, the ex-roadie turned handyman/sound tech. Even more inspired are the Hinchcliff brothers, a trio of aspiring rock stars whose youngest member, Cain, mumbles his way into the hearts of half the female population. (Amanda Sellet)
Duncan packs in as many literary allusions per page as any English major could want: Look for a macabre twist on the most famous line of Jane Eyre, as well as nods to T.S. Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Herman Melville, Susan Sontag, Joseph Conrad, Dante, Keats and Nabokov. (Margaret Quamme)John Sutherland discusses the alleged racism of W.M. Thackeray on OUPblog:
When we first encounter George Osborne and Dobbin, they are just back from the West Indies. What was their regiment doing? Protecting the British interest in sugar cane production in the Caribbean possessions of the Crown (it is, incidentally, the same crop which enriches Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre and the Bertram family in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park; the English were addicted to sugar in their tea and cakes).
Harry is Frodo, Voldemort is Darth Vader and Snape is Heathcliff (as in Heathcliff the brooding and tortured romantic Brontë hero, not Heathcliff the lazy ginger cat who liked to eat all the time. Although, I suppose that could be Ron.) (Lisa Ramirez)The Independent (Ireland) describes P.J. Harvey as follows:
There can't be too many female artists who sing with such Sylvia Plath skin-flaying pain and Emily Brontë candour about their turbulent romantic life (she allegedly had a nervous breakdown at around the release of Rid Of Me due to the pressure of making the album). But then there were never too many female artists like PJ Harvey to begin with. (Barry Egan)Off the Beaten Track posts about Anne Brontë with particular attention to her tomb in Scarborough; Bokstödet reviews Jane Eyre; Mermaids Closet posts about Jane Eyre 1996; Meandering Thoughts recommends visiting the Brontë Parsonage Museum; Jedz, táncz i cztaj posts about several adaptations of Jane Eyre in Polish; Word for Teens includes Rochester among Her Ridiculous Romantic Book Obsessions; Mister Oy posts on Flickr several pictures of Brontë country.
Stage, screen and radio star Maxine Peake will visit Haworth on Saturday to perform readings of Charlotte Brontë’s novels Jane Eyre and Villette.West End Wilma announces a new UK tour of National Theatre's Jane Eyre production in 2017:
The actress will read at The Great Charlotte Brontë Debate, a highlight of this year’s Brontë Society summer festival weekend.
A panel of writers, including biographer Claire Harman and novelist Joanne Harris, will form two teams each championing one of Charlotte’s best-known novels.
The discussion will be chaired by Brontë Parsonage Museum Creative Partner 2016, novelist Tracy Chevalier and accompanied by selected readings from both books, which will be read by Maxine.
Arts officer Jenna Holmes said: “2016 is a very exciting year for the museum, and this event is one of the highlights of Charlotte Brontë’s bicentenary programme.
“We have a passionate panel of writers to champion ‘Team Jane’ or ‘Team Lucy’ led by our Creative Partner Tracy Chevalier, and a performance by Maxine Peake will make it a very special evening indeed. We’re absolutely delighted that she is able to join us.” (David Knights)
The National Theatre has announced details of its upcoming tour of Sally Cookson’s energetic and imaginative new adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece Jane Eyre.The Wall Street Journal reviews the latest Jane Austen adaptation, Love & Friendship by Whit Stillman:
The highly acclaimed co-production between the National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic opens at The Lowry in Salford on 8 April and will continue its journey around the country to Aylesbury, Plymouth, Southampton, Edinburgh, Woking, Glasgow, Canterbury, Cardiff, Milton Keynes, Leeds, Aberdeen and Birmingham. Further cities and venues to be announced.
This is a very significant time to be announcing the tour, as 2016 marks the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth and 2017 is the 170th anniversary of when Jane Eyre was first published.
It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that there are two types of people when it comes to love. The first belong to the school of Brontë, named for the 19th-century English sisters whose dark, romantic novels (Exhibit A: “Wuthering Heights”) send the message to women to seek their soul mates in psychos like Heathcliff.The Irish Times reviews the novel Foxlowe by Eleanor Wasserberg:
At the opposite end stands Jane Austen. (...)
Mr. Stillman is speaking during a visit to New York City over a plate of ham and eggs at the Plaza Hotel. While sipping his coffee, he likens the Brontë-Austen clash to “an early 19th century gang war between the Jets and the Sharks.” Charlotte Brontë, he notes, “was one of Jane Austen’s fiercest critics.”
In sharp contrast to the works of the Brontë sisters, Austen’s fiction champions the head over the heart. It follows that her heroines are perceptive, intelligent and, as we would say today, low-maintenance. (William McGurn)
Of all the themes that we recognise as belonging to the Gothic tradition, secrecy is perhaps the most enduring and indispensable. Ever since Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, the ur-text of the genre, crumbling manors have harboured their locked rooms. Whether they held a captive (as in Jane Eyre), an appalling secret (as in The Bloody Chamber) or nothing at all (as in Northanger Abbey), what was inside them was of secondary importance. What mattered, as any resolute heroine would tell you, was getting hold of the keys. (Paraic O'Donnell)BBC asks several writers at the Hay Festival about their favourite books:
Maxine PeakeThe Hollywood Reporter reviews the film So B. It:
My favourite book of all time is Wuthering Heights. Not particularly original but it was the first book I read that really turned me on to literature, and I just loved the romance and the mysticism and the spookiness of it. And I just think how evocative it was of the Yorkshire landscape.
Bernadette, whose agoraphobia keeps her inside their apartment, has awakened Heidi’s interest in literature, and some of their favorites are 19th century novels like Jane Eyre. But the novel that So B. It most closely resembles is Oliver Twist, the tale of a lost orphan boy gradually uncovering the truth of his privileged family background. (Stephen Farber)Bustle on songs every bookworm should love:
11. "Wuthering Heights" by Kate BushYahoo News! remembers a curious story told by Harriet Beecher Stowe:
Ah, beautiful and strange, Kate Bush captures the spirit of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights in this cool song. (Melissa Ragsdale)
Stowe was a fervent Christian with a strong interest in spiritualism, whereas [Georges] Eliot had turned her back on organised religion. When the American author claimed to have been visited by the ghost of Charlotte Brontë—a forebear whom both authors deeply admired—Eliot made her skepticism clear: ‘Whether rightly or not’, she told her friend, the episode struck her as ‘enormously improbable‘. (Emma Claire Sweeney)Journal de Millau (France) presents a local conference:
Ces questions vous intéressent ? Vous aimez votre région et êtes passionnés par l’Histoire et le mystère ? Alors, la Galerie A Capell’Art vous attend ce samedi 11 juin à 18h afin d’écouter les histoires passionnantes de Christian Doumergue, ce documentaliste, chercheur et conférencier avide d’aventure et de mystère.Người Việt (Vietnam) reviews some local book releases and comments on how some books need some time to be appreciated:
Agé de 39 ans, Christian Doumergue sillonne depuis plusieurs années les routes de France à la poursuite des secrets de notre pays, n’hésitant pas à aller sur le terrain, dans des entreprises parfois dignes d’un véritable Indiana Jones, afin de retrouver ces «mystérieuses connexions» qui le hantent depuis longtemps. Après un double cursus universitaire en histoire des arts, puis en lettres, Christian Doumergue, très attiré par la littérature romantique française et anglaise, consacrera son mémoire de fin d’études aux remarquables sœurs Brontë, l’occasion de découvrir les grands auteurs du XIXe et de s’adonner au «virus» de la recherche documentaire. (Elida Fabre) (Translation)
Thế mà ngày nay, bức“Hoa Diên Vỹ” (Irises, 1889) được bán với giá mấy chục triệu đô! Cùng số phận hẩm hiu với Van Gogh là nữ văn hào Emily Brontë, tác giả cuốn”Đỉnh Gió Hú” (Wuthering Heights, 1847) khi xuất bản đã không được độc giả hưởng ứng ngay mà phải chờ đến cả trăm năm sau mới có lời khen. Ngày nay, tác phẩm duy nhất này của bà trở thành một tuyệt tác của thế giới, được mọi người, mọi nơi công nhận! (Ngọc Cường) (Translation)Trendencias (Spain) on summer reads:
Herbarium. Las Flores de Gideon by Anna CasanovasLibération interviews the film director Arthur Harari:
Anna Casanovas le da al género romántico una vuelta de tuerca con esta fascinante novela ambientada en Oxford, con una protagonista que había dejado su ciudad natal presa de un oscuro secreto y que regresa para ver a su abuela, enferma de Alzhéimer. Allí descubrirá que su padre ha estado investigando sobre unas ilustraciones conectadas con Jane Eyre; que su abuela, que podría saber algo al respecto, no puede ayudarla, y que la única persona que puede hacerlo, un profesor de la universidad de Oxford, no puede ni quiere estar a su lado. Amor y misterio se concentran en estas páginas que te van a atrapar quieras o no. (Puri Ruiz) (Translation)
Après avoir fréquenté le milieu fermé des diamantaires anversois pour nourrir son scénario, Harari reconnaît avoir «pioché un peu partout» : Shakespeare, la mythologie, les Hauts de Hurlevent, les mélos de Douglas Sirk. (Clémentine Gallot) (Translation)Tribune de Genève (Switzerland) announces the next season of the Théâtre du Grütli which includes a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights:
Enfin, pour la fin d’avril, l’ambitieux élan de Camille Giacobino en direction des romantiques Hauts de Hurlevent qu’Emily Brontë pourrait bien s’avérer avoir écrits spécialement pour elle.? (Katia Berger) (Translation)Telérama (France) reviews a recent concert of PJ Harvey:
A présent, pour elle, c’est le saxo ou rien. Telle est PJ Harvey, déterminée, pas du genre à céder à la facilité. On pourrait se sentir frustré, on est juste plus respectueux encore de son intégrité. Pour les deux titres revisités de To bring you my love (Down by the water, avec ses cordes de violon piquées suivant une version incandescente de la chanson titre), elle va chercher au plus profond d’elle-même son chant de blues woman des Hauts de Hurlevent. Elle gronde, hurle, gémit. En une heure trente, elle a tout donné, tout dit. (Hugo Cassavetti) (Translation)9colonne (Italy) quotes the writer Michela Murgia vindicating the novels of Grazia Deledda:
Deledda invece ha scritto opere che Murgia considera sulla stessa lunghezza d’onda della narrativa europea: “Canne al vento e Cime tempestose sono due libri del tutto analoghi, per linguaggio, per trama, per temi, per visione”. (PO /Red) (Translation)Falter (Austria) reviews a new German translation of Wuthering Heights:
Leidenschaft schafft LeidenA Writer's Life has visited Haworth, Brontë country and Ponden Hall; Lit Crit and Wit posts about Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea; Linnet Moss continues analyzing Jane Eyre on page and screen. On this post, it is discussed Blanche Ingram and The Gypsy scene. Onirik briefly talks about Jane Eyre 1996. From My Mental Library reviews Robert Barnard's The Case of the Missing Brontë. the Sisters' Room talks about the April 28 event at which Charlotte Brontë's bicentenary was celebrated in Rome. Impressions Chosen from Another Time (in Italian) is rereading Jane Eyre.
Emily Brontës „Sturmhöhe“ ist einer der irrsten Romane der Weltliteratur und soeben neu übersetzt worden
Eine 29-jährige Frau, die von der Welt außerhalb des heimatlichen Yorkshire nicht viel gesehen hat, die als extrem introvertiert und eigenbrötlerisch beschrieben wird und nach allem, was man weiß, nie verliebt gewesen ist, geschweige denn erotische Erfahrungen gesammelt hätte, veröffentlicht im Jahr 1847 unter Pseudonym einen Roman, der als eine der größten Liebesgeschichten aller Zeiten ins kollektive Gedächtnis eingehen wird. (Klaus Nüchtern) (Translation)
I once read a description of Polly Jean Harvey as “just a girl who fancies a bit of drama,” which made me laugh, because of course she’s the spiritual kin of Sarah Bernhardt and Catherine of “Wuthering Heights,” this tiny pale girl with a mass of black hair who’s evidently possessed by daemons or faeries. (Gregory Cowles)The San Diego Reader Weekly interviews ordinary people about their current reads. Today it's one Jeff Cooke's turn. He's reading Breaking Dawn, from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga and a couple of questions end up being Wuthering Heights-related:
Compare it to other books you’ve read.BlogCritics Magazine reviews Jane Eyre, the novel, and finishes with the following recommendation:
“Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights — two star-crossed lovers, that kind of deal. I love the gothic aspect of Wuthering Heights, how Katherine falls in love with two men and they’re both really bad for her, but both really necessary at certain points in her life. There are two characters in the Twilight series, Edward and Jacob, who are both in love with Bella, and she’s in love with them, but in different ways. She’s really deeply in love with Edward, and then she loves Jacob in a best-friend kind of way. I like Jacob — he’s a good, stand-up guy, and so I’m kind of rooting for her to get with him in the end.”
Who is your favorite character in Wuthering Heights? In Twilight?
“Probably Heathcliff. He’s very brooding, very damaged, very difficult to be around. He kind of reminds me of myself. In Twilight, Bella, because she’s very brooding, very confused, very difficult to be around sometimes.” (Sonia Eliot)
I won't spoil it for you. You've just got to get a copy and read it for yourself. Yet, even those who have already read it must do so again --very soon -- before spring comes and ruins the atmosphere! (Marcia Wilwerding)We sort of agree, but we also must say that Jane Eyre is such a good book that it will bear any season.
A school where all three of the Brontë sisters taught has undergone a £150,000 restoration.The Old School Room in Haworth was built by the literary trio's father, Patrick, in 1832 and, in 1854, played host to Charlotte's wedding reception.Now used as a community hall, a three-month project to repair the 191-year-old roof has been completed.Alex Ross-Shaw, from Bradford Council, said the work would help preserve the district's literary heritage.Work to repair and insulate the roof was funded by a £130,000 grant from Keighley Towns Fund, with additional funding from the Bernard Sunley Foundation and Pilgrim Trust.Mr Ross-Shaw said: "The Old School Room is a very important building not just for Haworth but also for the nation."It's a crucial part of the district's literary heritage, as well as a community hub and I am delighted that money from the Keighley Towns Fund has been able to secure and protect the fabric of the building well into the future." (...)Averil Kenyon, chair of The Brontë Spirit charity, which manages and maintains the building, said: "The building is Grade Two listed so it was important that all the work kept the integrity of the building while ensuring it's in the best condition to continue as a thriving village hall at the heart of the community."
EmilyFictionalizing the real life of an author so it better resembles their most famous work is a tricky proposition. It often can play as aggressively twee (Becoming Jane) or too satisfied with its winks and asides (Shakespeare in Love). So Frances O’Connor’s moody and effecting directorial debut, Emily, is something of a unicorn. Without a trace of irony or hauteur, the film walks the line between biopic and wish fulfillment while examining the life of Emily Brontë through as Gothic and forlorn a lens as the one she used in Wuthering Heights.A breakout showcase for actress Emma Mackey, Emily lives happily in the gloomy cynicism that the middle Brontë sister found ever so invigorating. Hers is a life of poetry by tombstones and stolen kisses by flickering candlelight; it’s also of a gushing romantic heart that’s kept smothered by the religious mores of her day, as well as the far more earthy human vices of jealousy, cruelty, and selfishness. Emily, her brother, and her illicit lover (an easily corruptible vicar, no less!), make for a bizarre kind of emotional love triangle that proves as vampiric as the cold gaze of Heathcliff on the moors. What a refreshingly bleak, and authentically Gothic, slice of romanticism. (David Crow)
Desimartini mentions Emma Mackey's role in the film.
Vous connaissez peut-être ses sœurs, Charlotte et Emily, monuments de la littérature anglaise, mais moins la plus jeune de la fratrie, Anne. Eclipsée par le génie des deux autres, Anne Brontë fut pourtant une romancière audacieuse, aux idées très modernes. (...)Parmi ses autres inspirations, Anne Brontë est très influencée par la religion qui tient une place importante dans son écriture. L’éducation donnée par sa tante, une méthodiste convaincue, a trouvé un écho particulier en elle. “Elle croyait en le salut universel pour les pécheurs quels qu’ils soient. Même pour Arthur Huntingdon, le personnage débauché, atroce, de La locataire de Wildfell Hall*, elle croit que tout aussi endurci qu’il soit comme pécheur, il peut espérer le salut universel*”, précise la chercheuse. (Auriane Guerithault)(Translation)
One could argue, justifiably, that it was not until I reread Jane Eyre in college that I fully appreciated it. But Charlotte Brontë’s book was not wasted on me, even as a precocious third grader reading well above her grade level. I read Jane Eyre at precisely the right time, because it was less important to understand the nuances of the book as it was to feed my desire: my desire to read as much as I possibly could, my desire to know the world, my desire to read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. I had read a classic and felt special to now be a member of the world of serious readers. (Jocelyn Ruggiero)
What do you remember from your childhood?[...] When I was seven years old, my father passed away. After that, WW II and the German occupation followed, bringing four dark and difficult years. I remember the bombings vividly. We faced hunger and sadness, black despair. To block out any light, we covered the windows with black paper. To obtain some cheese and wheat for us to eat, my mother would travel to the villages and sell her bracelets and rings.Fortunately, the storm eventually passed, and better times were on the horizon. Our education during those years was very limited, so when the war ended, we eagerly immersed ourselves in learning. At that time, we had a magazine in circulation that serialised works by great authors such as Victor Hugo, Emily Brontë, Shakespeare, and more. I would eagerly await the release of each issue, eager to read the next installment. Through reading, I received a tremendous education. May that magazine continue to inspire others. (Vassilios Nicolaos Vitsilogiannis)
More than 90 new homes to be built on Chatteris Meadow compared to 'something out of Jane Eyre (...) Campaigners including Lawrence Weetman and Kirsty Pattison spoke against the development at FDC’s planning meeting, highlighting the loss of the space for local people. Mr Weetman likened the meadow, which was once a public park, to something out of Jane Eyre or Mansfield Park. (Joanna Taylor)
After an initial failed attempt by the headmaster to have Vedant shipped off to his parents, it is decided that he must simply be kept hidden from public view — like Jane Eyre’s attic-dwelling metaphor — in the hope that his creepy antics don’t derail the reunion. (Rohan Naahar)
Y de hecho ésa es la mayor virtud de esta novela: la de lograr una síntesis funcional y moderna de Emily Brontë, Patricia Highsmith y la novela romántica actual. (Luis Artigue) (Translation)
L'enfance ("Autumn Term"), celle décrite dans les tableaux de John Millais - autre symboliste anglais, vient faire irruption dans des morceaux comme "Seem and I" qui débute comme une comptine ou "A Child's Question, July" qui évoque une formule kabbalistique, la voix changeante de Harvey rappelant parfois Kate Bush.Pas de "Hauts de Hurlevent" ni de "Wuthering Heights" ici, mais, délivré délicatement, un nuancier de jolis gris qui s'étirent jusqu'au noir et au blanc. (Bernard Roisin) (Translation)
It has been a while since we reported some fashion news with a Brontë alibi. Now we have them back, and with a vengeance. According to Fashion Wire Daily, the new bridal collection of Monique Lhuillier could belong to Jane Eyre's wardrobe:For Lhuillier's Spring 2008 bridal collection, shown in the heart of New York's Chelsea gallery district on Sunday, October 21, she presented a wide offering of airy, intellectual gowns with subtle Victorian influences that one could picture modern day versions of Jane Eyre characters wearing on their wedding day. On several gowns, silk chiffon was gathered into cloud-like folds and layers, a Lhuillier signature. (Renata Espinosa)Judging from the pictures provided (one of them on the right: Model walks the runway at the Monique Lhuillier Fall 2008 bridal show in New York on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2007. (Fashion Wire Daily/Grant Lamos IV) Source) we have our doubts that Jane could wear something like that. But, maybe PJ Harvey can be interested...
This is the story of Almeda Roth, a little known Victorian poetess-spinster who lives in a small Canadian town. She resides on the respectable Dufferin Street but her back gate opens onto the edge of a boghole, an area known locally as the Pearl Street Swamp. "(...) The woman of the Pearl Street Swamp is to Almeda what Bertha is to Jane Eyre: her alter ego, her nemesis, but also the agent for Almeda's new, painful insight.Also in The Guardian, Sarah Kinson interviews Barbara Taylor-Bradford who once again (she appeared in the BBC4 documentary Reader, I Married Him) reveals her Brontëiteness:
What was your favourite book as a child?Finally, let's congratulate the Brontë Parsonage Blog on its new look, including a new banner. And let us also suggest a visit to The Book Depository where they offer you the chance to download a free and unabridged downloadable audiobook of Jane Austen's Persuasion read by Greta Scacchi. A unique opportunity.
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens, when I was about nine. I was fascinated by Little Nell. Then when I was 12 or 13, I fell in love with the Brontës, especially Wuthering Heights. But at that age, I didn't understand that it was a book about revenge rather than a great love story.
Definitely, Maybe is a new romantic comedy, directed by Adam Brooks, premiered last Friday in the UK (and next February 14 in the US) that contains a curious Jane Eyre reference according to The Times:Is the young Will destined to be with his blonde college sweetheart (Elizabeth Banks)? The kooky redhead with a Jane Eyre fixation (Isla Fisher)? Or the dark-haired writer (Rachel Weisz) to whom he gets engaged? (Edward Porter)What's that fixation? The Latino Review gives further details:
The third love of Reynolds' life is none other than Isla Fisher, that wacky nymph from "Wedding Crashers" and the bearer of Borat's child in real life. As a member of Clinton's campaign, she and Reynolds begin a relationship that develops out of sarcastic observations of each other and blossoms into friendship. In a sub-plot that's bound to resurface several times throughout the picture, she has a large collection of copies of Jane Eyre, searching for that lost book her father gave her as a child that featured a memorable dedication. Naturally, when it looks like she and Reynolds may hook up, the other is single while one is unavailable. (Ron Henriques)Larry Wilson in The Pasadena Star-News analyzes the list of Books that make you dumb:
Caltech student Virgil Griffith has put together a silly, intricate, fun and wildly misleading list called Books that make you dumb that's causing a stir on the Web. By correlating the "10 favorite books" section college kids list on their Facebook pages with their schools' average SAT scores, Griffith comes up with the crazy correlative that reading tomes that turn up more often on lists from, well, less selective schools than his own will make a gal or fella stupid. (...)The list is curious to look at, as a kind of academic exercise on pointless but funny statistic calculation, and a couple of Brontës are included:
Jane Eyre ranks 13 out of 100.The Age interviews PJ Harvey and the reasons behind her latest album White Chalk (which was featured on BrontëBlog quite often some months ago). More Hardy country than Brontë country it seems:
Average SAT 1133 + 16.82
Popularity Rank 23 out of 100
#Schools with book 63
Wuthering Heights ranks 70 out of 100.
Average SAT 1012 + 41.396
Popularity Rank 51 out of 100
#Schools with book 13
Anywhere from the bleak farmland of Anna Karenina to the "unquiet slumber" of Wuthering Heights to any number of macabre folk ballads. But there's little doubt that the songwriter's heart was anchored in the Thomas Hardy country beneath her feet, at least for some of the key songs. (Michael Dwyer)The Philippine Sunday Enquirer has another list with the 12 most romantic places in the Philippines and surprisingly one of them is related to Wuthering Heights:
4. Cape Engaño off the Babuyan ChannelCategories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References, Wuthering Heights
“One of the most romantic spots in the country due to its isolation. It straddles both the Pacific Ocean and the Babuyan Channel and is a very ‘Wuthering Heights’ setting. The lighthouse at the tip of Palaui Island has a spectacular view of both bodies of water. Best time to visit is after a storm when the waves crash on the rocks below. Camping on this windswept island, with the ruins of a century-old lighthouse and with just the bare essentials, makes for a truly romantic escape.”—Manuel Maximo L.C. Noche, author, “Lonely Sentinels”; asst. professor, UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts. (
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