That trust has now given its blessing to Rhett Butler's People by Daniel McCaig, a respected historical novelist with a white moustache that sits on his lip like the rim of sugar on a mint julep, giving him a resemblance to Colonel Sanders. “Readers will get inside Rhett's head as he meets and courts Scarlett O'Hara in one of the most famous love affairs of all time,” promises a New York Times review quoted on the jacket.The Coventry Telegraph covers briefly the ongoing Cornelia Parker's exhibition Never Endings:
Clearly, the trustees are not great students of the love story. The last place readers want to be is inside a romantic hero's head, of course. Imagine Heathcliff's take on Wuthering Heights. Imagine Mr Darcy's perspective on Elizabeth Bennet. Imagine Maxim de Winter's account of his second marriage. At one point in this book, Rhett Butler wonders if he and Scarlett were lovers in a previous incarnation. No, no, no. (Celia Breyfeld)
A roomful of works from time spent at the Brontë Parsonage Museum shows the writers' possessions in a new light, massively magnified, so a pincushion looks like a swimming pool, and Branwell's wallet like an attractive textile. (Julie Chamberlain)BookStove publishes a short essay on Jane Eyre while Fok! reviews the DVD Dutch edition of Jane Eyre 2006. craig_352 publishes a very nice picture of Top Withens.
The Telegraph devotes a whole article to the coronation of Mr Rochester as the greatest literary hero (or something like it):I always return to Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte's masterpiece -- the greatest psychological novel ever written. I'm always amazed by how much Bronte knew about the human spirit, and I'm in awe of the passion and beauty of the world she created.
He was the second man I fell in love with, was Mr. Rochester. The first was Rhett Butler but that was only because I met him first. Dashing, charming and incredibly sexy as Butler is, Mr. Rochester – and his great dane, Pilot – walked into my life, and blew him out of the water forever.Heathcliff has also made into the top ten:
So it comes as no surprise to me that when surveyed by Mills and Boon, the nation's readers voted Charlotte Bronte's Mr Rochester the most romantic character in literature. The true hero, you see, has to have more than charm and dash. Those things are all very well, and fine for having a flirtation with, but if he is to get a real hold of your heart, then he must hurt it a bit, make it bruise and bleed.
True, heart-stopping, emotion-wrenching, all consuming hero-power comes from a whole range of qualities, not all of them instantly, or even ongoingly, lovable. And Mr. Rochester (isn't it funny how seldom he is referred to as Edward) has unlovable qualities in spades.
But, reader, I loved him (to paraphrase Miss Bronte). It is, of course, terribly important that I met him when I did. When I was extremely young, about thirteen, and first read Jane Eyre, my ideas of love were most innocently and tenderly formed. Had I been older and more experienced, I would given him very short shrift (while probably still going a bit weak at the knees). I would have been shocked by him and what I'd have seen as his appallingly high handed, even brutal, behaviour. He would certainly give a true blue feminist the vapours. But, desperate for love as I was, and so far from finding it for real, how could I not have tumbled helplessly into it with him, with all his brooding, difficult, almost savage complexity? For this is what you want in the man you fall in love with (Rhett Butler lacked such complexity).
From that very first meeting, when Rochester's horse slipped on the ice, and he was unseated, and I was confronted by his dark, unsmiling presence, his "stern features, and heavy brow… his considerable breadth of chest", I was completely in his thrall. I was there, my heart beating wildly, desperate to help him, trying but failing to hold the horse, offering my shoulder (rather sturdier than the frail one of the young governess, Jane Eyre) for him to lean on, hastening to post his letter, hurrying home as he bade me.
I forgave him everything as I read on, his imperious manner, his disdainful treatment of his daughter, the way he toyed with Jane's emotions, like some great dangerous beast, testing and teasing her, even the dangerously wicked and deceitful game he played in encouraging her belief that he was to marry the beautiful Blanche Ingram.
Mr. Rochester was horribly, almost fatally, flawed. He was difficult, and yes, cruel at times. But the thing is that he was so wounded and troubled, trapped in the wretched, life-wrecking mistake of his youth (marrying the beautiful but insane Bertha Mason, the first Mrs Rochester, whom he keeps hidden in his attic). He was so desperately in need of care and tenderness and love himself, how could I – or indeed anyone – fail to respond to that?
The power and beauty of his of language was yet another reason for me to love him, and never more so than when, agonised, he lamented to Jane: "You will not be my comforter, my rescuer?" Having agreed to marry him, she quite understandably changed her mind when she found out about Bertha. But I am not at all sure I would have followed her virtuous example and fled across the icy moor; I might have been easily persuaded to be his comforter and rescuer instead.
But then, had I stayed and not exiled myself as she did, I would never have heard his anguished cry across the moor, in that "known, loved, well remembered voice of Edward Fairfax Rochester" – one of literature's utterly orgasmic moments. (Not that I would have known it as such then.)
And by the book's conclusion, he redeemed himself totally, of course, as I knew he would, in his struggle to save his mad, troublesome, attic-bound wife from the fire that burned his house to the ground. That was born of a great goodness, and of great courage. When all is done, and Jane goes to him at last, she finds him maimed, humbled, his eyesight lost, but his voice and his love unchanged: "I longed for thee, both with soul and flesh…"
Oh, honestly, of course he is literature's most romantic hero. (Penny Vincenzi)
Vengeful, tormented, and passionate foster-brother of his love Catherine Earnshaw. Admirable loyalty to Cathy rather offset by demonic urge to destroy everyone around him. Hinted-at supernatural provenance.The Telegraph & Argus asks Andrew McCarthy for his opinion:
Least likely to say: “Linton? Well, when you put it like that, I can completely see what you see in him…”
Andrew McCarthy, director of the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth, said: “I’m really glad it was a Bronte character who won as opposed to an Austen character. I always find Austen’s characters quite irritating and I think those created by the Brontes, like Mr Rochester and Heathcliff, are more romantic as they are very literary and steeped in Byron.”The Sydney Morning Herald reviews Brian Dillon's Tormented Hope:
A tutor named Constantin Heger, whom Charlotte fell in love with while studying in Brussels in 1842, may have provided her with the inspiration for Mr Rochester, he said.
Mr McCarthy added: “You can’t help but think there’s something of Mr Heger in Rochester but as with any of the Brontes’ Byronic heroes they are more literary constructs and are based on previous literary characters they had read about as much as any real-life characters they had encountered.” (...)
The museum currently has a pair of glasses and a medicine book on display, which belonged to Charlotte’s father, Patrick Bronte, who she accompanied to Manchester where he underwent cataract surgery without anaesthetic.
Mr McCarthy said: “I sometimes wonder whether there’s a bit of Patrick Bronte in Rochester. It could be that something she experienced with her father went into the book as well.” (Hannah Baker)
By the mid-19th century, women such as Charlotte Bronte could also self-diagnose a disease that in its symptoms was perhaps close to what we would today call depression. (...)Susheila Nasta selects ten books that take her on a globe-spanning, literary adventure for The Guardian. Before beginning her selection she mentions Wide Sargasso Sea:
Bronte claimed to have suffered a fit of hypochondria while teaching at Roe Head, Mirfield, West Yorkshire, aged 19. She fell into ''a most dreadful doom'', which she believed had little to do with the sickly and doomed family milieu in which she lived. Rather, Bronte meant by ''hypochondria'' a dismal combination of sorrow, worry and resignation that arose, so she thought, from the fact that she now had no time to write or to think. Later, in Jane Eyre, she had Rochester accuse Jane of hypochondria when she expressed her fears about their planned wedding. In real life Bronte outlived her five siblings.
"Reading is a passport to travel elsewhere. When we enter a story we are often transported beyond known horizons, lifted into a new world, where we begin to think, see and feel the world differently. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys was one of the first books to take me on such a voyage, throwing me into the haunted landscape of Emancipation Jamaica and the hidden Creole history of Bertha, the so-called 'madwoman' in Jane Eyre. 'There is always the other side, always', Rhys tells us, long anticipating John Berger's vision that 'Never again can a story be told as though it were the only one'.Derry News looks at the Gothic elements of Jane Eyre in an article about Halloween literature:
Another classic example is Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, where the main character is again an orphan who suffers an unhappy childhood at the hands of her aunt and cousins. Upon accepting the position of governess to Adele Varens, the ward of the shadowy Mr. Rochester, Jane moves into the mysterious Thornfield Hall. The secrets of the house are dark and deeply hidden and ominously emerge as she encounters strange laughter in the halls and inexplicably haunting events. As Jane grows closer to Mr. Rochester, these secrets are brought fully to light, and threaten to destroy their happiness, and even their very lives. (Kendall Ann Koladish)An alert reader has pointed us to a HBO untitled new drama project written by Amy-Sherman Palladino (Gilmore Girls). The Hollywood Reporter describes it like this:
Sherman-Palladino will write and executive produce the untitled drama, which chronicles the complicated relationship between three adult sisters, all writers sharing the same upper east side apartment building, and their mother, a domineering literary lioness who reserves most of her affections for their ne'er-do-well brother.With the exception of the literary lioness mother it sounds pretty Brontë-ish.
When the band close, following stage invasion and a devastating noise finale, Hettie Heartache's Kate Bush striptease raises the temperature, tapping into adolescent fantasies and capturing the raw mixture of vulnerability and sexual confidence that made Wuthering Heights such a perennial video favourite. Holding her own against a braying audience, Heartache is erotic and creative, lining up with the burlesquers who are unafraid to be imaginative and sexy. (Gareth K. Vile)BroadcastNow quotes Michael Grade, Executive Chairman of ITV talking to the House of Lords Communications Committee:
He admitted to have been disappointed that ITV1’s period drama Wuthering Heights would only just cover its costs. (Robin Parker)The actual meeting can be watched here and this is a home made transcript:
Lord Fowler: You mention Wuthering Heights. I've watched Wuthering Heights and I thought it was extremely good. Will Wuthering Heights cover its costs?FoxBusiness surprises us with a Brontë quote:
Michael Grade: No.
Lord Fowler: So, you're doing it really as a service, arent' you?
Michael Grade: No (...) It will cover its costs and it will make a small profit. Will we get a proper return on the investment? Probably not.
Lord Fowler: So, why are you doing it?
Michael Grade: Because you don't know that ahead of time. You think it will. (...) It is very possible... I'm not up to date how well it's doing in the export market. It may well get a surprise and find that it has sold exceedingly well because British reputation for producing series of that quality (...) We will make a small amount of money but we won't get a proper return.
Charlotte Brontë would probably concur: “Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.” (Nancy Colasurdo)The quote comes from Villette (Chapter XXXVI).
Charlotte Brontë: A Life by Claire Harman (Viking) is a subtle, measured biography, full of insight into Brontë’s fiery intellect as well as the tragic intensity of her experience. Harman is especially good on the period Brontë spent as a pupil and teacher in Brussels and on her transformative relationship with Professor Constantin Héger.The Hindu wonders which literary characters readers would date.
I like the rugged Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre. But, he is too sensitive,” says Diana, who holds a master’s degree in Literature and reads every book in depth, analysing it as if she were still in that literature class. Remember that scene on that first evening in Mr. Rochester’s drawing room? He assumes all sorts of things about Jane, who holds her own. Would you be able to stand up to that? If you can, then Mr. Rochester might be the one for you; never mind the crazy laughter coming from somewhere upstairs. [...]Coincidentally, in The Guardian writer Becca Fitzpatrick admits to being in love with Heathcliff as a teenager. Not anymore though.
What about the irresistible “older hero,” with the “dark,” past? Sometimes, real life versions of these could be bearded professors too old for you or the handsome but married boss. Literature, however, presents the devilishly handsome Rhett Butler from Gone with The Wind, the wealthy and brooding Maxim de Winter from Rebecca and of course the secretive Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre.
They all are sophisticated with amazing social skills. They can also make you feel slightly stupid if you cannot hold their interest. For this, you need not be incredibly beautiful but you have to be innocent and inherently good. Being clever with enough traumatic experiences to give you some depth of character is also a bonus. [...]
Fabulous five: Darcy from Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen): A fabulously wealthy, handsome “proud,” aristocratic gentleman, who proves himself worthy by his actions
Edward Rochester from Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë): A passionate man with a tortured past and secrets to hide
Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë): A brooding, obsessed lover, revengeful and powerful, bordering on the villainous
Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell): A suave, strong, witty and sarcastic man, he is a little crude beneath his veneer of sophistication
Maxim de Winter from Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier): An enigmatic wealthy aristocrat with a tortured past (Vijeta S.N.)
Which authors do you admire? (For me, I’m inspired by you, George Orwell, James Dawson, Harper Lee and Emily Brontë - coming from the Brontë area, there is a lot of inspiration from her.) Oh, the moors! Do you live near Yorkshire? I dreamed of the moors when I was a teen reading Wuthering Heights. I’m inspired by Victoria Holt, Sandra Brown, Nora Roberts, Karen Joy Fowler and Emily Brontë. [...]Lancaster Online reports that the Lancaster Literary Guild is closing its doors after 15 years.
What is your favourite classical book? (I love Animal Farm and To Kill A Mockingbird - pieces of classical gold). Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. As a teen, I was completely in love with Heathcliff. As an adult, he terrifies me. [...]
Brontë or Austen? Depends on my mood. Today? Austen. (Lottie is Dottie)
The guild sponsored successful literary exhibits, including the current one dedicated to playwright Arthur Miller; others have focused on such writers as the Brontës, Sylvia Plath and Harriet Beecher Stowe. (Dan Nephin)Brontë portraits are discussed on AnneBrontë.org. Le Monde de Laure... (in French) reviews Wuthering Heights.
“Spring drew on…and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.” — Charlotte Brontë (Kelsey Pelzer)Greece Reporter puts things into perspective reminding us that our quarantine sufferings among our tons of frozen food and toilet paper, streaming TV and meme-sharing are a bit of a joke when you look at people like 14-year old Ibrahim:
We are living in times of uncertainty. Greece, it seems, is especially so. Ibrahim is one of too many children in Greece who are not yet cared for as they need to be.Some very interesting lessons to learn in Bleak House and Jane Eyre, as the New Yorker reminds us:
“I want to be able to read my books,” he tells me. He pulls out two books from his bag. An
educational text on the benefits of using the waste from brick making for fuel, and a novel.
“I like to read novels,” he says, smiling gently, while his eyes light up as he glances with fondness at his book. I ask him more. He delves into a half hour, chapter-by-chapter, in-depth description of Jane Eyre. He is momentarily a child again, bright-eyed and excited.
“Books transport me, they take me away from this difficult life, they make me feel like I am somewhere else,” he shares. “So, will you spend your next weeks reading?” I ask him, temporarily encouraged and oddly relieved to see this passion inside of him. “No. It is too difficult to read now. I need a quiet place; I need to feel safe,” he explains. My chest clenches and I stay composed for his sake.
How haunting, that this child who has suffered so unimaginably, who loves nothing more than to read novels, is having even that rendered inaccessible. He starts to tell me again of why he loves Jane Eyre and I find myself feeling only love for him. Wanting only the very best for this brilliant, young, shiny human being who continues to endure in such incredibly strong ways. (Michaela Korodimou)
In contrast, Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” published six years before Dickens’s novel, holds lessons not only for slowing the covid-19 crisis but for what could come next. When Jane is ten or eleven, typhus runs rampant at Lowood, the charity school to which she has been consigned by her aunt, who despises her. Lowood is a bleak house; as Jane describes it, “semi-starvation and neglected colds had predisposed most of the pupils to receive infection; forty-five of the eighty girls lay ill at one time.” (The description of life at Lowood echoes the experience that Brontë and her sisters had at the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge.) Some girls “have friends and relations able and willing to remove them from the seat of contagion”; some go home only to die; some die at school, and are buried quickly, “the nature of the malady forbidding delay.” Those that are vulnerable become, during an epidemic, more vulnerable.The coronavirus pandemic is also triggering initiatives for sharing educational content and entertainment. iMore informs that Thandie Newton's Jane Eyre is available for streaming free in Audible:
And for those, such as Jane, who remain well, “Classes were broken up, rules relaxed. The few who continued well were allowed almost unlimited licence.” Some of the most evocative passages of the book describe a child’s magical sense of suddenly being left to her own devices, observing the world. Those running the school are too busy to mete out strictly limited meals: sometimes Jane is just handed “a large piece of cold pie.” It does her good. Parents who are concerned, in this time of closed schools, with maintaining educational normalcy might find something to reflect on in those pages. Epidemics are a time out of time, and perhaps less a moment to worry about screen time. Many families, of course, have more existential concerns. (Amy Davidson Sorkin)
In the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Audible is offering hundreds of titles children ages 0-18 completely free of charge. Divided into four different age groups (Teen, Tween, Elementary, and Littlest Listeners,) these titles have been hand selected by Audible's team of editors specifically to entertain, engage, and even educate young people who are stuck at home because of school closures and quarantine efforts. The selection includes many classics, such as Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. (Casian Holly)Playbill shares that L.A. Theatre Works is also offering free recordings of some of their productions. Like the Christine Calvit adaptation of Jane Eyre:
In a bid to aid educators around the globe—many of whom are now working remotely due to social distancing—L.A. Theatre Works has made available 25 audio recordings of stage plays. Each performed by leading actors of stage and screen, among the titles on offer are Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, Shakespeare's Hamlet, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. (Olivia Clement)More recommendations for quarantines: Story (Serbia) suggests reading Wuthering Heights, Gonzaga Bulletin, The Times (book and TV series), Glamour (France), Bisnis (Indonesia) and Times of India go with Jane Eyre:
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë
Poor but plucky heroine comes out on top. (David Mills)
Jane Eyre 2006
The Ruth Wilson/Toby Stephens version is the most satisfying for romance lovers: Stephens touching, Wilson the perfect foil. Steady, sensible, yet full of life.
Britbox; Amazon, from £5.99 (Helen Hawkins)
"Jane Eyre", de Charlotte Brontë : le plus romantique
Un livre pour les filles que ce Jane Eyre considéré comme un classique ? Tout ça parce qu’il y a de grands sentiments, du drame, du mystère, de la moralité, le tout en costume victorien ? Eh bien oui, et alors ? Orpheline élevée dans internat minable, Jane Eyre est engagée comme gouvernante par le ténébreux Mr Rochester qui s’amourache d’elle et lui propose de l’épouser alors qu’il est déjà marié à une folle échevelée qui fout le feu au manoir. Dans le genre rebondissements digne d’un soap, ce roman se pose là. Mais cette sœur Brontë ( il y en a deux autres) n’est pas la moitié d’une manchote. Si bien que fille ou garçon, on est totalement envoûté(e) par cette histoire et prêt(e) à passer nos nuits dans un manoir gothique ( avec l'équivalent de Rochester en moins vieux). (Erick Grisel) (Translation)
Kita semua punya daftar buku untuk dibaca kan? Ini adalah waktu yang tepat untuk memilih beberapa buku romantis dari daftar yang Anda baca. Ketika hari-hari sepi dan malam panjang, buku klasik tentang kisah cinta yang tak terlupakan seperti Rhett Butler dan Scarlett O 'Hara atau Jane Eyre dan Mr. Rochester dapat menjadi teman terbaik Anda di malam hari. Dan jika Anda ingin membuatnya lebih menarik, Anda dapat bertukar daftar bacaan dengan pasangan Anda. (Krizia Putri Kinanti) (Translation)
We all have our 'books to read' wishlist, right? This is the perfect time to select some romantic books from your to-read list. When the days are lonely and nights are long, a classic on an unforgettable love story like that of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O' Hara or Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester can be your best companion for the evenings.La Vanguardia (Spain) recommends Wide Sargasso Sea:
Puede que ésta sea una de las novelas que con mayor finura capta el alma confundida y la psicología de los caribeños. Como señala el título del libro, el mar de los sargazos –que son una especie de algas que flotan en la superficie- es de una gran amplitud, puesto que su forma ovalada se extiende a lo largo del Atlántico Norte, al suroeste de las Antillas, donde nació la autora de esta novela, Jean Rhys. Para ser exactos, nació en la isla Dominica, una de las islas de Barlovento en el Caribe. La historia es una precuela y recupera a un personaje de una famosísima novela: Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë. Nos explica el pasado de Antoinette Cosway, conocida como Bertha Mason. (Luis Martí) (Translation)Helena de Bres in Point Magazine reminisces about other times of isolation:
Unsurprisingly for a future professor, what got me through the half-year of my childhood shelter-in-place order was reading. Jane Eye, Wuthering Heights, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby, The Woman in White: I raced through them and their many cousins like they were crack.Local Greece celebrities share what they are doing while quarantined in their homes on iPop:
Ποιο αγαπημένο βιβλίο διαβάζεις αυτές τις μέρες;It seems a long time ago, but there was a time when people reviewed theatre plays. Scan publishes a review of the recent Manchester performances of Wuthering Heights.
“Όταν έκλαψε ο Νίτσε” και Wuthering Heights. (Translation)
This was an unconventional love story inspiringly prevailing through the characters’ lives and surviving the many years the couple spent apart. Alex Austin brilliantly captured the wild and untameable- except under his own terms- nature of Heathcliff, leading to a fantastic moment of tension and feeling of unnaturalness when we see him ‘scrub up’ first to try to impress, then to take revenge on Cathy by seducing her sister in law Isabella. (...) The violence and jarring mocking of Heathcliff by his adoptive sibling Hindley was perfectly depicted through revelations of Hindley’s psychotic nature such as his graphic murdering of a pregnant fox. All in all, a spine-chilling and thought-provoking production paying tribute to the original novel. (Beth McMillan)The Daily Mail talks with the biographer Hugo Vickers:
As a child in the Fifties, there were superb serials of great stories on black-and-white television on Sunday evenings.Biddeford-Saco-Old Orchard Beach Courier interviews the director of the Libby Memorial Library in Old Orchard Beach, Lee Koenigs:
I wanted to know more. Thus I read Dickens — Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and The Old Curiosity Shop. I was terrified by an adaptation of Jane Eyre, loved Wuthering Heights, and then I found Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca — and read all of them at prep school before I was 12.
Nancy Florig: What is your favorite book?Movies film in Harrogate in The Harrogate Informer:
(...) Another of my most treasured is “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë.
Jane Eyre (1996)Ansa (Italy) celebrates the 70th anniversary of Jane Eyre 1996's Rochester, William Hurt:
Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” is undoubtedly a classic and has been a favourite with audiences for over a century with there have been over 16 English language versions of the gothic romance. Not one but two versions of this epic tale have been filmed right here in Harrogate in1996 and a TV movie in 1970. The unique collection of rock formations at Brimham Rocks serves as a backdrop for the notable scene of Jane and Rochester’s first meeting when his horse slips on a patch of ice and Rochester falls. Brimham Rocks have also been used as a filming location for “Wuthering Heights” (1970), “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1988) as well as the series “A Woman of Substance” (1984) and “Ivanhoe” (1997).
Nel 1996 William Hurt viene scelto da Franco Zeffirelli per uno dei suoi più ambiziosi progetti internazionali: è il disperato Signor Rochester di "Jane Eyre" dal romanzo di Charlotte Bronte: anche grazie alla sua prova maiuscola quel testo, spesso visto come tanti melodrammi vittoriani nell'ottica di vuoti ed eleganti ritratti in costume, trova la forza originale della scrittrice e il crudo realismo di un'epoca tra luci e ombre. (Giorgio Gosetti) (Translation)Liberal (Greece) has an article about the Brontë Parsonage (with some dubious pictures). Cinco Noticias (Spain) mentions the Brontës as a family of writers.
AN oil painting believed to be of author Emily Bronte will be the latest item relating to one of the literary sisters to go under the hammer.The Guardian adds,
The piece is being sold by Northamptonshire firm JP Humbert Auctioneers after the sale of another painting of the reclusive writer for £23,836 in December. [...]
The hitherto unseen painting of Emily Brontë measures 33cm by 24cm and depicts a pensive-looking Victorian woman, auctioneer Jonathan Humbert said.
Annotated Emily Jane Brontë, it has more unclear writing, possibly an artist’s name or title, he said.
The painting was handed to the auctioneers by a private owner after seeing publicity around the previous portrait, and is expected to fetch at least £3,000.
“I am amazed that this second painting has turned up on our doorstep,” Mr Humbert said.
“One unknown portrait of Emily Brontë is luck enough but two in two months is quite remarkable.
“This painting is definitely mid-19th century and has been attributed to Miss Brontë by the artist at the time of painting.”
The portrait is set to go on sale, unreserved, on February 23 at JP Humbert’s sale room in Towcester, Northants, with a provisional estimate of £3,000-4,000. (Picture source)
For the second time in two months, a previously unknown portrait captioned "Emily Brontë" is to be auctioned, showing the Wuthering Heights author as a winsome but pensive young woman.And The Telegraph and Argus reports the Brontë Society's stance:
Painted in oils and with the subject gazing directly at the artist with clear brown eyes, the picture is less formal and possibly more flattering than the smaller, bonneted study that sold in December for £23,836, exceeding the reserve price of £10,000-£15,000.
Measuring 33 by 24cms (13 by 9.5ins), the painting has been reliably sourced to the mid-19th century and has a note of the subject probably made by the artist around the time of painting. But absolute attribution is unlikely, as has been the case with most supposed Brontë portraits apart from the famous study of the sisters painted in 1835 by their brother, Branwell. [...]
Anything with a Brontë tag appears to sell well, although uncertainty about the authenticity of the latest picture has seen the reserve set at between £3,000 and £4,000. Last month the Haworth Parsonage museum, which has the world's greatest trove of Brontë relics, was outbid by a Paris museum for a miniature magazine made by Charlotte Brontë when she was 14. (Martin Wainwright)
But an official at the Brontë Society has cast doubt on whether or not the painting is actually of the famous author. [...]The auctioneers' press release can be read here. The Times also echoes the news.
The previously unseen painting depicts a pensive-looking Victorian woman and is annotated Emily Jane Brontë. Ann Dinsdale, collections manager at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth said: “The problem is who would have wanted to paint Emily Brontë, apart from her brother Branwell, who aspired to a career as a portrait artist?”
TOURISTS from all over the world may come to visit it but time is running out for campaigners fighting to save the church where Jane and Emily Brontë lie buried.USA Today asks 'Oscar' not to forget Mia Wasikowska's role as Jane Eyre:
Fundraisers at St Michael and All Angels, Haworth, say they just have a handful of days in which to raise the money to guarantee builders can start £1.25 million of vital works to the famed place of worship.
English Heritage has offered £100,000 towards the scheme to repair its badly leaking roof but to secure it fundraisers were told they needed to raise a total of £65,000 in match funding.
And although polite Victorian society, including the Brontës, would no doubt have not approved, these are desperate times.
So well-wishers of the church, agreed to bare almost all in charity calendars to raise thousands of pounds to help the appeal.
By Boxing Day the amount needed was £31,000 but with the calendars selling well, John Huxley, who is spearheading the fundraising, said he thought D-Day - January 20 - was within sight.
“Both men and women of the Worth Valley agreed to take part in calendar shoots entitled Haworth Couldn’t Wear Less - with the male version outselling its female counterpart by a factor of three to one at the moment.
“Overall, we have been overwhelmed by public support though the clock is starting to tick rather urgently.
“We have had donations from as little as £1 to donations of £1,000 and it is all very much appreciated. We have held master classes in cake making, fundraising talks and Haworth Primary School’s gardening club even gave us £500.”
As things stand the fund is still £21,500 shy of its target but Mr Huxley is optimistic the final few days will see his letter box bulging with envelopes stuffed with cash and cheques.
The roof of the church is badly damaged and water leaking through has now damaged the church’s original wall paintings.
Once the roof has been repaired it will be possible to rectify the rest of the damage in a process which is set to take place in phases over several years. Work is also needed to ensure the church meets 21 century standards of worship.
News of its plight prompted celebrated artist Stella Vine to offer to paint a portrait of the Bronte sisters to raise funds for repairs.
Ms Vine, is well-known for portraits of figures ranging from Princess Diana to heroin addict Rachel Whitear
She said she will sell prints of the sisters after being “greatly saddened” to see the church in a “terrible state”.
The new artwork will feature Charlotte, who wrote Jane Eyre, along with Wuthering Heights author Emily and their younger sister Anne, who wrote Agnes Grey. The church has also been targeted by lead thieves three times in the last 18 months. [...]
Mr Huxley said the church had also approached the Bradford Diocese, the Sir George Martin Trust, Ilkley, Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust and the National Churches Trust for help.
“Personally, I had never heard of Stella Vine but we are very, very grateful for her offer and everyone else who has promised help,” he said.
“My main concern at the moment is if we are left with a £15,000 shortfall - that would be a major problem though there is always the possibility that we could apply to English Heritage’s shortfall fund.
“The situation is that we love the fact that this is our church but we also understand it is an iconic feature of Yorkshire tourism and we are looking at making the building last for another 75 years.
“The church treasurer - Averil Kenyon - my partner and myself spend hour upon hour from getting up in the morning to going to sleep at night constantly thinking about how we can reach this total and get on with this vital work.
“And every day brings a fresh cheque or two so I am a lot more optimistic now. We are very pleased with what’s happened and we have all worked very hard to get to this stage and we are going to get through this though it is true that we are nervous with so little time left, that is true - we are nervous. We had a meeting of the Future group on Tuesday and it was very positive.
“The church is open 364 days a year and is very well frequented by tourists including many from Japan and Korea. We also get plenty from Australia and New Zealand and even the Americans are reappearing.”
•Mia Wasikowska, Jane Eyre. The Australian-born actress delivers possibly the best portrayal of Charlotte Brontë's heroine. She brings the character to life in a more personal and immediate way, palpably conveying Jane's strength and resolve to surmount her terrible childhood. We believe her capable of powerful, but rigidly contained, passions. She adroitly captures the character's quiet intensity and fierce intelligence. (Claudia Puig)The Salt Lake Tribune asks film experts to pick three movies they are looking forward to seeing at Sundance.
Omar Moore • Editor, The Popcorn Reel (popcornreel.com).Mike McCahill from The Telegraph thinks 'the twin Cathies of Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights' have been unjustly left out of the BAFTAs.
"Wuthering Heights" (Spotlight) • "I’m curious to see just how much [director Andrea] Arnold, who’s such a talented and distinctive director, stages Brontë’s classic and reshapes it in her own unique language. I think that her sensitivities and the resolute, uncompromising and spirited women at the center of her films (‘Red Road,’ "Fish Tank’) should inform this new film well." (Sean P. Means)
it goes too far into Brontë-esque Gothic whackadoo for my tastes (Julia Hass)This Port Jefferson Patch columnist is looking forward to reading The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margo Livesey, which
While clearly inspired by Jane Eyre, Gemma’s story remains her own. (Monica Williams)Amanda Nelson plays literary matchmaker for The Huffington Post:
Jane Eyre and Rhett ButlerLiving & Thriving writes briefly about Jane Eyre. La Petite Feministe Anglaise wonders about Bertha's madness. Books, Belles & Beaux reviews Jude Morgan's Charlotte & Emily (aka The Taste of Sorrow). The Attic shares pictures of Haworth.
Jane has the morality and goodness that Rhett always praised in Melanie. She also has the sass and ferocity of Scarlett, but without the self-centered cattiness. And we all know how much Jane loves a dark, unconventional man with high social standing.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, has long been one of the favourite pilgrimage sites of English literature buffs, up there with Dove Cottage, Jane Austen’s House and, erm, a luggage trolley wedged into a wall at King’s Cross station. In less turbulent years than this one, some 70,000 people visit the parsonage, which in the 1840s was a formidable fiction factory; it was here that Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall were written.So it is heartening to see that the museum’s crowdfunding campaign, which is aiming to raise emergency funds to make up for some of the revenue lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has at the time of writing achieved more than £70,000 of the £100,000 that the organisation is looking to raise to ensure its survival into 2021. That’s in no small part thanks to a £20,000 donation from the estate of T.S. Eliot, which has long benefited from the royalties it receives from the musical Cats. [...]What the Brontës would have made of Cats is anyone’s guess. Cats they were certainly fans of, though, keeping two at the parsonage – as well as dogs such as Grasper and Flossy, whose collars survive at the museum. As Ellen Nussey wrote in her Reminiscences of Charlotte Brontë: ‘Black “Tom”, the tabby, was everybody’s favourite. It received such gentle treatment it seemed to have lost its cat’s nature, and subsided into luxurious amiability and contentment.’Another cat, Tiger, was painted in watercolour by Emily Brontë in 1845, alongside Keeper, her bull mastiff and Flossy, Anne Brontë’s spaniel. [...]Perhaps the Brontë siblings would have jumped at the chance of West End tickets, after all – and hummed ‘Old Deuteronomy’ and ‘Memory’ all the way back to Haworth. (Rakewell)
Jane EyreJane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë opens on a “dreary November day” and Jane has been banished away from her aunt and cousins while they warm themselves by the fire. She reads while catching glimpses of the scene outside the window.“Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast.”Charlotte Brontë , Jane EyreHer cousins are warming themselves by the fire, but she is not invited. This scene will repeat itself later at her boarding school where the bigger girls stand in the way of the fire. The gusts of wind and unrelenting weather are also a motif throughout the book. The weather symbolizes Jane’s emotions and often foreshadows upcoming events.Jane grows throughout the novel, from an orphaned and isolated girl to a strong woman who understands her own strength. She has weathered the storm. It’s a good lesson for those of us who will have to do so over the coming fall and winter. (Catherine Lanser)
In a striking episode, a zealous mullah arrives in the village, confiscates the family’s entire collection of books and burns them in the village square. With broken hearts, the family watches “as the fire spread to the intertwined lovers Pierre and Natasha, Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, Abelard and Heloise, Tristan and Isolde, Salaman and Absal, Vis and Ramin, Vamegh and Azra, Zohreh and Manuchehr, Shirin and Farhad, Leyli and Majnun, Arthur and Gemma, the Rose and the Little Prince, before they had the chance to smell or kiss each other again, or whisper ‘I love you’ one last time.” (Anushka Hosain)
back to my earnest 14-year-old self when, after nailing most of Agatha Christie and the Brontës, I discovered Alice Walker's The Color Purple.
La du Maurier, che sembra avere come punto di riferimento Charlotte Brontë e il suo “Jane Eyre”, opera qui una fusione tra elementi fiabeschi, avventura gotica e thriller, regalandoci un personaggio, quello della protagonista che parla in prima persona, in grado di rompere lo schema del romanzo vittoriano con le sue fantasie nevrotiche e con le sue domande senza risposta (protagonista a cui, per una vera e propria “sfida stilistica”, la du Maurier decide di non dare un nome…). (Andrea Bernardini) (Translation)Jane Eyre 2011 is one of several films selected by Perfil (Argentina) as movies which make you want to read the books they are based on.
Apart from Rhett [Butler], my other all-time favourite literary romantic heroes are, in no particular order: Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights), Adam Trask (East of Eden), Henry DeTamble (The Time Traveller's Wife), Hamlet, Gatsby (The Great Gatsby), Severus Snape (Harry Potter), Lancelot (Le Morte d'Arthur, thanks to my English lit studies) and going back even further to my childhood...the Beast, from Beauty & The Beast.A recap of a Game of Thrones episode (S3E6) in the Sydney Morning Herald states that (SPOILERS AHEAD!),
Clearly, there is a pattern here. What it is I haven't quite figured out yet. It's not tall, dark and handsome, because Gatsby was blonde and blue-eyed and the Beast was, well, furry and hunchbacked, and seriously grinchy.
But, I think the way that literature has spoilt me for real-life romance is that it has made me set the bar for men and relationships at "impossibly high". I don't want a conventional romance, with roses and poetry by moonlight. I don't want Keats, as beautifully as he writes. I want a man who is as strong as he is smart and soulful, who treats me as an intellectual equal and, most important, as human and flawed as he is, is also loyal and kind and true. With the ability to stay emotionally steadfast to one woman (who happens to be me).
And yes, if I'm being honest, I obviously like men with a bit of a colourful past. Men who are dark horses, so to speak. Reformed bad boys, don't we all secretly crave them? Not too reformed, just enough that they still have the rattlesnake's bite, but without the venom.
Do you think literature has spoilt you for romance? (Karen Tay)
Arya is still in the forest near Riverrun, practising her bow work with the Merry Men, sorry, the Brotherhood. She's good, Anguy tells her, but could be better. This tutorial is interrupted by the arrival of a touring Kate Bush, aka Stannis' right-hand demon spawner Melisandre.While a columnist at The Huffington Post writes:
But the Red Witch doesn't get around to belting out Wuthering Heights, rather, she's here to interrogate Thoros of Myr about his failure to convert Sir Robert Baratheon (Remember him? Fat guy? Liked a drink? Lost a fight with a wild boar?) to the Lord of Light. (Natalie Bochenski)
I think part of the issue is that male-assigned people are expected to behave like men, whatever that means. I am a man (obviously), and although I like having a beer and watching football, I also like to dance to "Wuthering Heights" while pretending I'm Kate Bush. Is that what behaving like a man is? I have no idea, and my belief is that people should behave in any way they choose to, as long as it does no harm to others. I think that's a fair way of thinking, right? (Daniel Browne)The Dayton News reports the results of a local group of dance students, one of which 'performed “Wuthering Heights” and tied for 12th place overall'. Another student featured in Index (Hungary) tells about mentioning Charlotte Brontë among others in an exam.
Infatti anche se con modalità diverse oggi si ripropongono la violenza di genere, come in ”Jane Eyre” , il romanzo di Charlotte Brontë uscito nel 1847,da cui è stato tratto l’omonimo film (Annamaria Franzoni) (Translation)The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page reports that,
Michael Portillo was filming at the Parsonage today for his 'Great British Railway Journeys', talking about links between the Brontës and railways - and it may surprise you to know there are a few. Here's one to start you off: How did Charlotte and Emily fund their trip to study French in Brussels? Answer: with money given them by Aunt Branwell after the sale of her railway stock.Novel Day posts about Jane Eyre and its 2011 adaptation. Daisy Dolls is working on the corset for her Jane Eyre doll.
Actress Mia Wasikowska, portraying Jane Eyre in the latest adaption of the novel, stumbled through the frigid moors in northern England in the film's opening scenes. Wasikowska is soaking wet and her character is on the verge of death. There’s little cinematic trickery in this scene.On WBUR (On Point) we can also listen to another Cary Fukunaga interview:
“They told us they were going to give her a wet suit to wear underneath the costume because it’d be so cold, but as you can tell, her…corset is very tight…so there’s not a lot of space for wet suit,” said director Cary Fukunaga. “They basically gave her what I thought looked like a body condom.”
The teenaged actress nearly suffered hypothermia, but she eagerly kept working on the scene. (...)
Michael O’Conner (sic), who won an Oscar for his work on The Duchess, handled the costumes in the film. The novel is set in the 1830s, but Fukunaga said his adaptation diverges from that time period by moving ahead ten years.
“Neither one of us liked the wardrobe from that era,” he said. “It’s a time of fashion that should have been forgotten; big, poofy sleeves with triangular Valentine card-looking tops and horrendous hairdos.”
Fashion improved greatly in the following decade, he said. (Anthony Karge)
Hollywood loves this story, and its setting on the windswept moors. It’s been put on film 18 times in a hundred years.The conversation contains some blunders though. The worst one is changing the sex of Jean Rhys or saying that Charlotte Brontë never married...
Now, the hot young indie director Cary Fukunaga takes his turn. And it’s terrific.
This hour, On Point: we talk with director Cary Fukunaga about his compelling new “Jane Eyre.” (Tom Ashbrook)
I had the pleasure of chatting with the young, gifted and visionary director as well the super talented Wasikowska and Fassbender about their outstanding performances in the best rendition of Jane Eyre yet.Minnesota Public Radio also has an audio interview with the director. Screencave publishes an interview:
Check out what they had to say about working together on the classic story, challenges onset and other exciting projects in the works. (Jenny Karakaya)
Have you heard peoples reactions to it yet?Jessica Winter in Slate asks herself why there are so many movie adaptations of Jane Eyre, and which one is best? She classifies the adaptations according to the degree of Rochester creepiness (!):
CF: The reviews are just starting to come in. I haven’t even watched it with an audience yet. It was sort of found in the writing, found in the shooting, it was also found and finally defined in post. We kind of went back and forth from different versions of horror or not, and I was kind of fighting to keep more horror in, but I do agree that it was taking away from the relationship. So it was a balance, a balance that was sort of not the lowest common denominator but something where you wanna make sure Jane wasn’t lost and the love wasn’t lost. In the end that was the most important.
The most famous line in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is "Reader, I married him." Depending on the reader, it may also be the most puzzling, given that I is a wealthy young woman and him is a one-eyed, one-handed, pushing-40 grump who proposes to a nanny half his age only to admit at the altar that he's already got a wife and she's locked in his attic. Dreamy! Yet in a 2009 poll by British romance publisher Mills and Boon, readers voted Edward Rochester the "most popular hero in literature," ahead of the likes of Heathcliff, Rhett Butler, and Colin Firth. (...)The Sisterhood comes in defence of Rochester (creepy or not):
However much we might adore him—and in the end, don't we love Rochester because we love Jane?—our hero is, objectively speaking, a bit of a creep. Thus the success or failure of any Jane Eyre (the below list is a mere sampling) hinges on how well the film minimizes its inevitable Creep Factor. (Read more)
He’s hardly a conventional hero and his flaws are deep. But since I’m one of those die-hard feminists who is extremely fond of Rochester and finds his dynamic with Jane compelling, I felt I had to make the case for their love.(...)The Globe and Mail announces the film and the journalist discusses the current value of the novel:
The source of that connection, of the string that ties them together, is their shared position as outcasts. They both hate convention, and they seek refuge from a merciless world in each other. Rochester’s trouble arises from being a second son who was tricked into marrying a woman with a history of insanity in her family. His hand was forced by his family’s relentless need for money. Older and wiser, he now sees right through the hypocrisy of the genteel people who want to associate with him only because of that money. Like the orphaned and abused Jane, he has been beaten down by social rules and exactly like Jane, he has reacted by being caustic and rebellious rather than submissive. They are natural allies. The problem Brontë pinponts, though, is that even with their intense connection Rochester still has power over her due to his gender and social status. Although he loves Jane because she is his equal, he doesn’t know how to not flex his power. (Sarah Seltzer)
In the preface to the second edition of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë took it upon herself to rebuke the “timorous or carping few” who dared to criticize her art.Zap2It compares Joan Fontaine to Mia Wasikowska:
“Conventionality is not morality,” she wrote. “Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last.”
In essence she was saying: If you think my book is offensive, you can stick it up your bloomers.
As it turns out, in the long run, she needn’t have been so defensive. For school children and adult readers the world over, Jane Eyre remains a classic that can be found on class syllabuses, nightstands and well-stocked e-readers to this day. (Leah McLaren)
he women who've played Eyre are as familiar as they are numbered -- both Charlotte Gainsbourg and Samantha Morton have tackled the part -- but none were as iconic as Joan Fontaine in the 1944 version alongside Orson Welles.The San Francisco Gate talks about Cary Fukunaga directing Jane Eyre:
How will young Mia stack up against Fontaine? We've broken down their vital stats, including headgear, in attempt to see who has the edge[.] (Mikey O'Connell)
For his latest project, in lieu of immersive time-travel, presumably the hands-on director's preferred mode of research, Fukunaga lived with "Jane Eyre" - which he hadn't read before he got the job - marking it up with highlighters, pens and Post-its and working with screenwriter Moira Buffini to strike the right balance between the novel's gothic and romantic strains. In an innovative twist, this version begins Jane's story at the end of the book, with Jane looking back on her life, and lacks the often overblown elements of other adaptations, like a puffed-up Orson Welles bellowing "Jane!" over the moors. (Sophie Brickman)Vulture has prepared a montage with other 'already married' scenarios:
Though its latest movie adaptation, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, only hits theaters today, Jane Eyre is such a staple of high-school classrooms (and Masterpiece Theater) that most everyone will know what's coming: a crazy wife, locked in the attic, who shows up just in time to stymie the wedding of Jane to Mr. Rochester. He's already married? Harsh! ... but not uncommon. (Amanda Dobbins and Sarah Frank)Victoriana Magazine discusses the Brontë country tour package contest organised by Focus Features and VisitBritain.
I don’t quite know how to mark Emily Brontë’s 200th birthday a week on Monday. I’d bake a cake or take a bath and read her one and only novel Wuthering Heights, as I used to do every year, but unfortunately the celebrations can only inspire mixed feelings, because they bring memories of my toxic relationship with Heathcliff, her doomed antihero.On a similar vein, Entertainment Weekly interviews the journalist and writer Caitlin Moran:
I like to describe myself as a recovering Heathcliff addict. In fact, he was my gateway drug. After I first read Wuthering Heights at 12, I also fell for Rhett Butler, Rupert Campbell-Black, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Spike and (Hilary Mantel’s) Thomas Cromwell. But none of them was as perfect a literary bad boy as Heathcliff.
Clarissa Cruz: Did something similar happen to you in your own life?Heathcliff as a relationship villain on Ten Daily:
CM: Yes, it happened to me. All the young women that I knew who moved down to London in the ’90s knew there were these vampire-like men, a lot of them famous or in the industry. And you would see them at parties and they would be all charming and dark and charismatic, and you would gradually realize that darkly charming men — there’s a reason we say darkly charming. The problem is that so many male characters in romantic novels are these difficult, f—ed-up guys and it’s down to the women to understand them. Help them and heal them and make them better people. And I wanted to write a story where it’s like, “No, your job is not to go in there and save these dark guys, your job is to go around and tell people to keep away from them.” These days you look at Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre and just say no.
Said people are common in literature – yes, a classic example is Shakespearean devil, Iago. But you might also like to throw into the mix a Mr Wickham, a Heathcliff, even a Christian Grey. (Lisa Portolan)The Daily Mail reviews the upcoming I Am Heathcliff compilation of short stories:
I Am HeathcliffThe Sydney Morning Herald reviews Bohemia Beach by Justine Ettler:
Curated by Kate Mosse (Borough Press £12.99)
Inspired by Wuthering Heights, these tales of toxic relationships, an entirely disturbing episode of stalking and necrophilia, blighted lives and bleak landscapes reveal that contemporary responses to Emily Brontë’s endlessly controversial classic can be equally stark, cruel and shocking.
There are, however, exceptions; Louisa Young’s furious, funny, righteous rant redresses the ‘romantic’ hero myth as she recites the violent misdemeanours of bad boyfriends in Heathcliffs I Have Known.
In the wonderful, wistful One Letter Different by Joanna Cannon, two teenagers head to the moors in silent, secretive communion, while crime writer Sophie Hannah embarks on a musical murder mystery in Only Joseph. (Eithne Farry)
Bohemia Beach is also a pacy read about another young woman's almost terminal adventures in life, sex, art and romance; in addition, Ettler self-consciously frames her narrative in the context of other literary and philosophical tropes – here, Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Freud's notion of a primary trauma. (Rose Lucas)The Telegraph (India) reviews A Secret Sisterhood by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney:
Everyone knows that famous male writers were also great friends. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway - these friendships are firmly ensconced in literary lore. But where are the women in this list of iconic alliances? Were they not friends? Was Jane Austen merely "a cottage-dwelling spinster", Charlotte Brontë "an impassioned roamer of the moors", George Eliot an "isolated thinker" and Virginia Woolf "a melancholic genius"? (Nayantara Mazumder)The Yorkshire Post traces a profile of the poet and writer Mark Connors:
He writes everyday, always early in the morning (“before anybody else is up”) and with his partner Gill Lambert runs a monthly spoken word night, Word Club, at the Chemic Tavern in Leeds. The couple also set up an annual poetry event, Poetry at the Parsonage, in partnership with the Brontë Society. (Yvette Huddleston)Also in The Yorkshire Post:
“Professional Yorkshireman” is a label lazily applied to anyone born in the Broad Acres who has made it down south. Any man that is. For some reason it doesn’t apply to successful women like Jodie Whittaker, Judi Dench and, well, the Brontës. It is a form of insult and implies the chap in question is dour, has a penchant for flat caps and whippets and constantly prattles into a microphone about the wonders of God’s Own County. (Anthony Clavane)RNE Radio 5's (Spain) Preguntas a la Historia tries to explain what is a governess in Charlotte Brontë's fiction:
Preguntas a la Historia - ¿Qué es una governess para Charlotte Brontë? - 19/07/18La Diaria (Uruguay) analyzes the impact of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein:
Ningún escritor muestra la violencia social hacia las governesses como las hermanas Brontë. Las tres habían ejercido esta profesión y novelas como Jane Eyre, escrita por Charlotte en 1847, muestran como mujeres cultivadas son degradadas aunque rechazan ser tratadas como sirvientas. Eran "upper servants" que vivían de su formación y erudición transmitiéndolas a los hijos de familias pudientes.
María Teresa González Mínguez, profesora de Filología Inglesa de la UNED. (Translation)
Atrapada entre la imaginería pop y las limitaciones del cine de terror, hasta la década de 1960 Frankenstein entraba a la academia como un producto menor del Romanticismo. En realidad, para esa época era considerada parte de un subgénero poco prestigiado, el gótico, cuyo núcleo temático, según Harold Bloom, era un conflicto de identidad. Entonces, irrumpió otra mirada. Era la época de la segunda ola del feminismo, que buscaba convertir en igualdad de hecho aquello que el primer feminismo había consagrado por ley. Frankenstein sería capital para la rama literaria de esta renovación teórica (“esa novela fue la veta madre de la crítica feminista”, escribió Diane Long Hoeveler) y tal vez sólo Jane Eyre, de Charlotte Brontë (1847), haya generado tanta variedad de enfoques dentro de lo que dio en llamarse ginocrítica. (JG Lagos) (Translation)La Opinión de Málaga (Spain) has some summer reads for you:
Cumbres BorrascosasDeutschlandfunk (Germany) talks about the differences in the German and English literary canon:
Qué mejor manera que celebrar el 200º aniversario del nacimiento de Emily Brontë que leyendo estos días uno de sus clásicos más universales. Esta novela se ha convertido en la gran obra romántica por excelencia, llegando a inspirar películas, secuelas o incluso canciones. Criticada en su época, 'Cumbres borrascosas' fue un libro adelantado a su tiempo en el que la intensidad y la locura se palpan en cada página. (C.G.) (Translation)
Das zeigt sich auch daran, dass zum Beispiel deutschsprachige Autorinnen sich sehr viel häufiger auf englischsprachige Autorinnen beziehen, zum Beispiel auf Virginia Woolf, eben wie Sie gesagt haben: Auf Jane Austen, auf die Brontë-Schwestern, als auf deutschsprachige Autorinnen, weil es da wirklich so wenige gab. (Veronika Schuchter) (Translation)On Bookes reviews Wide Sargasso Sea. En blogg för bokugglor (in Swedish) discusses Jane Eyre. TV2000 (Italy) will air Jane Eyre 2006 (July 22nd and 29th); Scroll.in publishes images of several Most Wuthering Heights Day Eve celebrations; the Canton Daily Ledger lists several films about writers, featuring Devotion 1946; The Independent (Ireland) mentions the Brontës in an enumeration of 'Romantics'. Popsugar includes a Charlotte Brontë quote in a... wait for it... list of motivational quotes to leave in your kid's lunch box on their first day of school. Ooook. Another random Brontë quote can be read today in La Gazetta dello Sport (Italy).
I'd like to go back to theatre for a bit, maybe more TV," she said.So, film producers out there, now you know.
"Period drama is something I'd really love to do; a Bronte, a Dickens or an Austen or something like that. And who wouldn't want to be in a film?"
It was New Yorker critic Anthony Lane who noticed that Wright’s debut movie, an ambitious take on Pride and Prejudice , felt less like Jane Austen than Charlotte Brontë—the irony was replaced with swooning. Atonement follows the same pattern, taking the incidents of McEwan’s book and staking them to rapturous images of a weeping woman straining for her beloved’s hand, or a man chasing hopelessly after a bus. It’s not an insult to say that both of Wright’s films feel like quality adaptations of Harlequin novels—or at least I don’t intend it as one. But it does suggest that he might have better success with pulpier sources. (Aaron Mesh)Firstly, it wasn't the 'swooning' that brought about the comparisons to the Brontës, mainly because there aren't that many 'swoons' in the Brontë novels. And secondly, it's either the Brontës or Harlequin novels because, you know, they're worlds apart.
Wuthering Heights‘ infamy is for its drama and its tragic love story. On these counts, the film succeeds. But it’s an unmotivated, loose script with a rambling tale and impotent casting that degrade this otherwise mildly satisfying hanky-fest. (Elspeth Haughton)The Age reviews the book Rhett Butler's People, which is a sequel of Gone with the Wind. The reviewer examines sequels which are not part of a series, but - for lack of a better word - a kind of fan-fiction springing from a previous original work.
The sequel industry rarely does justice to readers: it is so easy for sequels to get bogged down in soap-style plotting that ends up being dull, dull, dull. Emma Aiken's leaden Pemberley with its cod-Regency pastichery (Georgette Heyer alone could do it and wisely made up her own stories), all those Flowers in the Attic knock-offs, and such idiocies as Mrs Rochester, the sequel (heaven help us) to Jane Eyre.Actually, the article is a very interesting read on the subject of sequels/prequels.
It's difficult enough to write historical novels without having to extrapolate from others' ideas. Even an intelligent work such as Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea prequel has problems. It's impossible to read as a stand-alone: its divergences from Jane Eyre become irritations just as its congruences with the original make you simply want to go back to Charlotte Bronte. (Juliette Hughes)
Greer has a penchant for embedding literary references in his story. [...] For example, he writes, “Reader, she married me” and “the creature had to stay in the attic” as homages to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. (Chiron)And Professor Meyer writes about a poem by Emily Dickinson supposedly about Charlotte Brontë. Not the well-known one starting All overgrown by cunning moss, but the one starting Title divine--is mine! K. Hoting, the blogger, says:
She makes mention of Charlotte Bronte, as the note in the anthology alerts us, perhaps as a homage to her writing and as a woman author. Royalty amongst her peers.K. Hoting is interested in hearing people's opinions on this, so if you have any ideas, do leave a comment. As far as we're concerned, we've tried our modest Emily Dickinson corner and have found nothing on the matter. (Incidentally, if you like Emily Dickinson, you might like to visit this website as well).
Empress of Calvary -
Royal, all but the Crown -
The following line "Bethrothed, without the Swoon" has me a bit confused. Is she referring to Charlotte marrying not for love? Or in conjunction with her following line, "God gives us Women", she is actually referring to women's union with God as alluded to in her first line.
George Fox University’s theatre department presents its Winter MusicalCast and further information on the George Fox University's blog.
Jane Eyre
Music and Lyrics by: Paul Gordon
Book and Additional Lyrics by: John Caird
Directed by: Rhett Luedtke
Musical Direction by: Maggie Daane
Location: Wood-Mar Auditorium
Jan 31. – Feb. 2 & Feb. 7-9 at 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 3 & Feb. 10 at 2 p.m.
Open captioning available for these performances 2/7, 2/10
This compelling and powerful musical adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece tells the story of Jane Eyre, an orphaned girl antagonized by her aunt and exiled to an orphan school for girls only to suffer more mistreatment. There she meets a young girl who changes her life forever. Later, when Jane becomes the governess of Thornfield Hall, she meets a mysterious and powerful man with a dark secret. Nominated for five Tony Awards, this tale of love, forgiveness and transformation is a gothic romance for all ages.
Unless explicitly said
