Pensez-vous que si Keats n'avait pas rencontré Fanny, son œuvre en aurait été changée ?The film itself is described on Écranlarge as:
Quand on aime, on baisse les armes, on est complètement vulnérable. C'est une sorte de rite de passage. Il faut être ouvert à la souffrance comme à la grâce. Quand Keats rencontre Fanny, il est assez sarcastique à propos de l'amour. Il pense d'abord que Fanny, à cause de son obsession pour la couture et pour la mode, est frivole et ridicule. Mais il apprécie son esprit vif, frondeur. Lorsque Tom, le jeune frère de Keats, meurt, Fanny lui ouvrira alors vraiment son cœur. Fanny, à mes yeux, est un personnage qui se situe plutôt du côté des héroïnes d'Emily Brontë que de celles de Jane Austen. Les personnages de Jane Austen travaillent pour gagner leur vie et trouver de l'affection alors que ceux d'Emily Brontë font preuve, comme Fanny, de beaucoup plus de volonté et de caractère. Fanny, qui n'avait pas un sens pratique, avait une pensée plus magique. Elle était incapable d'embrasser la réalité. On se trompait sur son compte, dans son entourage, tout le monde pensait qu'elle était destinée à faire un riche mariage. Elle a préféré Keats qui était d'une pauvreté absolue. (Emmanuèle Frois) (cut and paste on Google translation )
[F]ilm au romantisme exacerbé que l'on dirait tout droit sortie d'une adaptation d'un des romans des Sœurs Brontë mais aussi et surtout dans la lignée de La leçon de piano Palme d'or ici en 1993. (Jean-Noël Nicolau) (Google translation)Parutions reviews Édith & Yann's Les Hauts de Hurlevent comic:
La société victorienne, ses hiérarchies rigides, ses rudesses… Tout un monde, cruel pour les pauvres et les délaissés. L’histoire des Hauts de Hurlevent est un classique, le récit d’un enfant Heathcliff, adopté par un brave homme, Mr Earnshaw, qui l’a trouvé dans un caniveau et le ramène chez lui. Mais l’enfant de la rue, bohémien à la peau sombre, regard noir et caractère un peu sauvage à apprivoiser, se heurte à la haine d’une partie de sa nouvelle famille et des proches, à commencer par Hindley, le fils de Mr Earnshaw, peu enclin à le considérer comme un frère, et à peine comme un être humain. Entre les deux enfants, le duel ne fait que commencer, alors que Catherine, la soeur d’Hindley, s’amourache peu à peu du petit sauvageon, devenu un beau jeune homme. Mais la vie est cruelle et se charge d’éloigner, un temps, les deux jeunes gens. Catherine se marie “dans son monde” et Heathcliff, à bout d’humiliations, s’enfuit. La vie reprend sur la lande… jusqu’au retour de Heathcliff, assoiffé de justice…The Guardian reviews Elaine Showalter's A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx mentioning of course the previous scholar milestone in her author's career:
Les Hauts de Hurlevent relèvent quasiment du huis clos : une demeure sombre perdue dans une lande, un face-à-face entre deux enfants que tout oppose, une “bonne” (sic.) société hostile à Heathcliff, perclue de préjugés, plus bête que méchante… mais si idiote ! L’adaptation de Yann est édulcorée, mais efficace : en quelques paroles et quelques images, il a su mettre en scène une ambiance, une atmosphère, une époque même. Le graphisme d’Edith peut, dans un premier temps, surprendre, plus enfantin qu’adulte… On se dit que l’ouvrage est quand même un classique, que c’est une histoire sérieuse… une réaction victorienne ? Puis, très vite, le graphisme convainc, par son attention aux détails, aux personnages, aux allures, aux regards échangés. Le style d’Edith ne dénature pas l’histoire, au contraire, il va à l’essentiel, à savoir l’égarement d’un enfant dans un monde brutal de grandes personnes, et confronté à d’autres petits adultes en réduction, déjà imbus de préjugés. Exploitant les aspects psychologiques du roman, Edith a su individualiser chaque personnage, conférer à chacun une épaisseur. Une belle adaptation, fidèle à l’esprit de la collection Ex-Libris. (Gilles Ferragu) (Google translation)
In other words, the women Showalter surveys were all in need of a room of their own. In one sense, this is a familiar story, told not only by Virginia Woolf, but by Showalter herself 30 years ago, in A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing, her pioneering genealogy of British women's fiction within its social, cultural and political contexts. One of the founders of feminist literary theory, Showalter has long insisted that women writers should be taken on their own terms, and joined the chorus of her peers in the 1970s and 80s arguing that many had been unjustly neglected on the basis of their sex. Rebuttals soon followed that these writers had been justly neglected on the basis of merit, and should continue to be neglected. (Sarah Churchwell)A.V. Club reviews the latest installment of Marvel's Cloak & Dagger: Child of Darkness, Child of Light:
They’re odd but resonant characters, locked into a relationship with Catherine-and-Heathcliff levels of angst and determined to save other kids from grim fates, even if they aren’t sure how to go about it without simply killing every criminal they see. (Keith Phipps, Leonard Pierce, Tasha Robinson and Zack Handlen)Another Brontëite: writer Lisa Jackson, who is interviewed in Bookreporter:
Jodie from Commerce City, CO: What are your favorite things to read? Who are some of your favorite authors?Acta Fabula reviews Alain Lescarts's scholar book Splendeurs et misères de la grisette. Évolution d’une figure emblématique:
Lisa Jackson: I read whatever's current and popular. If a book is continually on the bestseller lists, I want to know why. I also read by recommendation. Oh, I have tons of favorite authors. I like Sue Grafton, William Lashner, Harlan Coben, Charlotte Brontë, Steve Martini, Stephen King, Dan Brown, John Grogan, Chris Bohjalian, Sue Monk Kidd, Daphne DuMaurier, Khaled Hosseini, Nelson DeMille, Tami Hoag, Greg Iles, and Dennis Lehane, to name a few.
L’appropriation anglophone de la grisette témoigne de son succès populaire. S’appuyant sur les œuvres de Sterne, de Charlotte Brontë et d’Elizabeth Gaskell, mais aussi sur les comptes-rendus des journaux américains, Alain Lescart montre dans les dernières pages de son livre combien ces écrits contribuent au portrait de la Parisienne en femme romantique, passionnée, aimante, tragique, coquette, futile, superficielle, facile. Mais le personnage permet aussi, comme chez Brontë, de défier la vision classique du mariage et du rôle social des femmes. (Olivier Penot-Lacassagne) (Google translation)Clave digital discusses El amor en los tiempos del cólera by Gabriel García Márquez:
Me recuerda otras grandes y absurdas historias de amor, como la de King Kong, que es quizás la más absurda y tierna de todas, y una de las más trágicas, tan trágica como la del Conde Drácula que persigue y es perseguido por su obsesión más allá de la muerte y de la sangre, algo parecido a lo que ocurre en “Cumbres borrascosas”. (Pedro Conde Sturla) (Google translation)A Wuthering Heights in Rangoon in Foreign Policy Journal, a member of the international jewel thief network Pink Panthers reminds the New York Times of Heathcliff, Fairaudio insists on comparing Soap & Skin and Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights (in German) and an absurd liking of melancholia and (female) readers of Wutheing Heights in El Manifiesto (in Spanish).
The Bafta-winner told MUSE that the new adaptation will feel more “like a western”, with “the wildness and rugged terrain of Yorkshire” acting as the haunting backdrop of the set. With period dramas as ubiquitous as they are, it is difficult to fathom exactly where any vein of originality emerges. Has the traditional image of whistling winds and uncontrollable spirits that preoccupies Wuthering Height’s reputation just been compounded by its recreation as a quasi-Western?Wuthering Heights 2009 is supposed to be broadcast on this side of the Atlantic before the end of the year. What has already arrived is the British edition of A Literature of Their Own. British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing, by Elaine Showalter. Kathryn Hughes questions in the Guardian one of the basic statements made in the book, just like we did some time ago.
At a time when television dominates the novel, it seems that adaptations are never really for lovers of literature, but rather for the television addict desperate for a fusion of superficial passion and death in a short, satisfying shot. TV needs to add something more to the mix.
Perhaps the question of innovation is answered by the modern dynamic that is inevitably introduced when every new drama is produced. “Every historical period production I have ever done will involve a meeting with the producers who without fail will want a modern take on things. I like that, after all you are designing a production not creating a historically correct piece for a museum,” says Roberts. Inspiration for historical costumes seems sternly rooted in the modern day. Roberts continues, “as a designer I think you should be looking at fashion, street and high end, to inform your work in a contemporary way.”
A further source of improvisation is rooted in the actors themselves. Robert emphasizes that the actor’s imput is “vital” for they “after all are being that character”.
Although a modern perspective may prevent audience alienation, Roberts maintains that the themes of the novel remain prominent, and are well-reflected in her designs: “The cultural differences between the two houses was very important.” Roberts sought to emphasise the “delicacy” and “more refined look” of Edgar against the “slightly overdone dandyism of Hindley and his blowsy wife Frances.”
Roberts’ costumes certainly display elements of Cathy Earnshaw’s hardy recklessness, shown by the strong, berry colours, woollen jackets and stout boots that she wears in the first part of the adaptation, when living with Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights. Roberts sees her designs as representing a “wild” and “free” Cathy, until her enforced stay at Thrushcross Grange: “Here I dressed her in pale colours, dainty shoes, her hair is brushed and neat.” Remaining faithful to the literary elements of the book seems paramount to the development of her designs. She adds that Cathy’s “yearning and need for Heathcliff and that life is always there and so I kept elements of her real self by using violently coloured shawls with the delicate dresses.” She sought to emphasise the “pale, dainty elegance of Isabella against Cathy’s bolder look.”
The most challenging transition to display may not be Cathy’s, however, but Heathcliff’s. Just how difficult was it for Roberts to retain Heathcliff’s sinister and unruly nature when he is dressed as a gentleman? Roberts explains that an outfit may be gentlemanly in texture and colour but that Heathcliff “differs from the other characters: the shirt neck [is] often undone, the clothes creased and mud splattered… [he’s] not a man over interested in his appearance.”
From viewing Roberts’ exhibition- the adaption itself is to be aired in the new year - it’s easy to see the balance of historical and literary considerations she’s achieved, with “green figured silk riding coat over acid yellow cotton voile” ensembles as illustrating exactly what Roberts sees as Cathy’s “real self”.
Incorporated amongst the exquisite quaintness of the Brontë parsonage, these outfits present the new adaptation as both Brontë fan-friendly and appealing to a modern television audience. With Roberts admitting that she doesn’t look at any previous adaptations for inspiration, ITV may just have created a production which, unlike Heathcliff, isn’t necessary, but a visual delight nevertheless. (Laura Connor)
Where, she wants to know, is the Yankee Eliot, the Virginian Austen, the mid-western version of the Brontës?Also in the Guardian - Books Blog section - Ben Myers wonders when the great British Gypsy novel will be written/published.
In part answer to her own rhetorical question, Showalter suggests that it may come down to domestic arrangements. "While English women novelists, even those as poor as the Brontës, had servants, American women were expected to clean, cook and sew; even in the south, white women in slave-holding families were trained in domestic arts." In other words, while women in the New World collapsed into bed at night after a drudging 18-hour shift, their British counterparts were able to spend several leisured hours a day honing their literary skills.
This is to misunderstand what servant-keeping entailed for ordinary British households in the middle years of Victoria's reign, the decades that saw the publication of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Adam Bede. Put out of your mind any lingering memory of Upstairs, Downstairs, the 1970s television drama set in a wealthy Edwardian household. While the fictional Bellamy family enjoyed the services of a fleet of servants, from the omnipotent butler Hudson to the kitchen skivvy Ruby, the typical middle-class family of 50 years earlier muddled through with one, perhaps two maids-of-all-work. And, far from lolling in the drawing room whilst other, working-class, women did all the hard work, the mistress of the middle-class household was most likely to be cooking and cleaning alongside her servants. In the days before vacuum cleaners, washing machines and fridges, the daily battle against soot, bedbugs, candle grease and mouldy food was one that lasted pretty much all day and required every hand on deck.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of the Brontës. In 1839 Charlotte wrote wearily to an old schoolfriend, "I manage the ironing, and keep the rooms clean; Emily does the baking, and attends to the kitchen." True, there was an elderly female servant, Tabby Ackroyd, who had been at the parsonage for years, but her increasing frailty made her more of a hindrance than a help. Brontë's first biographer, Mrs Gaskell, describes one occasion when Charlotte was obliged to re-peel some potatoes that the nearly blind Tabby had left in a mangled state. The only Brontë who was excused domestic duties was Branwell, the feckless son who drank himself to an early death without managing to make a single mark on the literary or artistic world. [...]
Arguing away the differences between the daily experiences and expectations of American and British women won't, of course, get you any nearer to answering Showalter's excellent question. Just why did Victorian Britain produce so many great female novelists while their American sisters remained stuttering and even mute? Vague and reductive arguments about differences in national "character" won't do, as Showalter would be the first to admit. There must be something else. But what that is remains a mystery. One thing, though, is certain: it wasn't lack of housework.
More often than not, though, the Gypsy appears as a dark, brooding force, as epitomised by Emily Brontë's portrayal of Heathcliff, the tempestuous and swarthy outsider in Wuthering Heights whose origins are unknown and whose looks are described as "gypsy". As the antagonist in the book, it is Heathcliff – "the black villain" – who upsets the proverbial apple-cart.Author Victoria Hislop continues displaying openly - as it should be - her Brontëiteness. This time in the Daily Mail.
What book first gave you the reading bug?Remember those Twitter summaries of books? It looks like a compilation is forthcoming (The Little Book of Twitter by Tim Collins) and it will include the following 'description' of Wuthering Heights, according to The Sun.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte — it was the first 'grown-up' book I read, at the age of 13, and I was completely captivated by it. I loved the sense of place, the extreme nature of their emotions, the general sense of wildness and the moral complexity of it all. It probably helped, too, that the characters are 'teenagers'.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is described as: “Catherine Earnshaw marries Edgar Lindon but really loves Heathcliff *sigh*.”The list can be tweeted here.
Also the contact point for the notice is a USPS [United States Postal Service] employee with a literary name: Jane Eyre. That’s pretty cool, but a contact named Clarissa Harlowe would have been even cooler on a USPS notice. (Clif Burns)On the blogosphere today is a great day for Emily Brontë: Strangely Poetic and The Long Nineteenth Century discuss two of her poems (although the one posted on the latter, 'Often rebuked, yet always back returning', is also attributed to Charlotte - trying to pass it as Emily's - in some sources), and Kids Book Blog posts about Wuthering Heights.
'The Brontës: A Life in Letters' Edited by Juliet BarkerWhile Book Riot suggests '7 of the Best Books About the History of Women's Writing', including these two:
Juliet Barker's selection of letters reveal the authentic voices of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, as well as their brother, Branwell, and father, Reverend Patrick Brontë. These letters detail the siblings' strange childhood, their years of struggle before their books took the literary world by storm, and the tragically young deaths of several of the Brontës. (Kerri Jarema)
A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Charlotte Brontë to Doris Lessing by Elaine ShowalterAccording to Refinery 29, Jane Eyre is one of '7 Books [...] That Are Much Easier As Audiobooks'.
Elaine Showalter’s immense history of British women’s writing was my introduction to feminist literary criticism. So now you know where to send any complaints and/or plaudits. Unlike a lot of her fellow non-Brit writers, Showalter does a decent job of analysing the way Britain’s unique sexism and classism contributed to and impeded the development of women’s writing. A Literature of Their Own is packed full of interesting insights and by the end you’ll have a reading list long enough to stretch from Land’s End to John O’Groats. [...]
The Madowman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar
In The Madwoman in the Attic, U.S. authors Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar skip right on over the way that sexuality, gender, and class impacted the work of early British writers like Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, George Elliot and Christina Rosetti. They do, however, seed a lot of the literary theories and assumptions about women’s writing that we take for granted today. As a piece of women’s history Madwoman is still an interesting read and worth adding to your collection. (Beulah Maud Devaney)
Listen while: getting ready for bed.La Croix (France) recommends Wuthering Heights among other romantic reads for teenagers.
We're all vaguely familiar with the story of Jane Eyre, but how many of us actually read the novel? Like, properly read it outside the confines of GCSEs and disruptive English classrooms? Not as many of us as you may have been lead to believe. But your fleeting knowledge of the story - Jane is an orphan in northern England, becomes a governess, meets Mr. Rochester and a tragic romance ensues - makes it the perfect accompaniment to an end of day unwind. Also, having Thandie Newton talk you to sleep is never a bad thing. (Jazmin Kopotsha)
Les Hauts de HurleventSpeaking of ages for reading books, The Sydney Morning Herald comments on the list of books by reading age compiled recently by The Washington Post.
Dans les paysages tourmentés du Yorkshire, Catherine et Heathcliff perpétuent leur passion et leur haine d’une génération à l’autre. Les sauvages héros d’Emily Brontë sont loin de ceux qu’on rencontre habituellement dans les histoires d’amour. Mais est-ce bien d’amour qu’il s’agit ? La vengeance et la noirceur dominent dans ce terrible roman, grand classique de la littérature anglaise. (S. J.) (Translation)
You're probably going to argue with their choices, but that's part of the pleasure of it. For example, why no children's classics? But I can't disagree when it comes to The Very Hungry Caterpillar for one-year-olds, or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for eight-year-olds, or Jane Eyre for 16-year-olds, absolutely the ideal age for this book. "Nobody understands you and your terribly unfair life," says The Post. "Reader, you are not alone." (Jane Sullivan)Buxton Advertiser tells about a recent event at Buxton’s Pump Room.
Philip Parkin, of the Arkwright Society, presented working class voices of the industrial revolution. He read extracts from literature about clashes between mill owners and their workers including excerpts from novels by Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell. He also sang songs and poems by mill workers.Observador (Portugal) reports that there's a new Paula Rego exhibition in Cascais. Some of her Jane Eyre artwork is on display.
Catarina Alfaro conseguiu reunir para esta exibição um conjunto de séries e histórias tão fabulosas como sombrias como as Nursery Rhymes/lengalengas infantis da Inglaterra medieval, a série Sem Título sobre o aborto, a que fez sobre o romance Jane Eyre de Charlote Brontë, contos populares portugueses ou, a mais recente, Mutilação Genital Feminina, sobre o ritual tenebroso que persiste em todo o mundo até na Europa. Cada uma delas vale uma visita pois a sua riqueza pictórica, narrativa, simbólica supera a pintura e maneja um conjunto de detalhes de subtilezas, de latências que só a escala de pretos, cinzentos, brancos infinitos ou ocres deixa ver. (Joana Emídio Marques) (Translation)Facce Caso (Italy) has asked students about their recent experience in the Italian equivalent of SATs.
Cosa hai collegato? “Non ho iniziato dalla singola materia, perché ho pensato che quello che i professori avrebbero voluto è che lo studente potesse argomentare prima di collegare tutto un po’ a caso. Diciamo che all’inizio ho parlato di tutto, dalla Sea Watch a Salvini, per almeno cinque minuti o poco più. Poi ho iniziato a collegare. Per Italiano ho scelto Verga, perché ho pensato al riscatto sociale; da lì sono passato a Nietzsche e il superuomo, perché ho sempre pensato al cambiamento. Con storia, è stato più automatico, Hitler, Mussolini e la propaganda e da lì, la prof di italiano mi ha chiesto di D’Annunzio. Latino, il Banchetto di Trimalchione, anche lì il cambiamento di status sociale. Ho concluso poi, in scienze, con le cellule staminali, collegandole con i grandi dibattiti del nostro periodo e per inglese Jane Eyre di Charlotte Brontë”. (Tommaso Fefè) (Translation)The Natchez Democrat features a local graduate whose essay is among the winning entries of the 23rd Annual Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest and who enjoys reading classic novels such as Wuthering Heights.
As the Brontë Parsonage Blog reported a couple of weeks ago, today, June 15, there is a Brontë-related alert at the Courtauld Institute, London, at 7 pm.The Royal Society of LiteratureCategories: Alert, Talks
Monday 15 June: American women writers and the Brontës
Elaine Showalter
Chaired by Ion Trewin
One of the first essays that Virginia Woolf had published, in The Guardian when she was 22, was about a ‘pilgrimage’ to Haworth. She was writing 50 years after the death of the last of the Brontë sisters, Charlotte, but the ‘thrill’ of the bleak Yorkshire vicarage and the sisters’ small relics was vivid and powerful. Haworth had already become a place for pilgrimage not just for British admirers, but also for Americans, many of them writers.
Elaine Showalter discusses the enormous impact of the Brontës – through Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Villette and Mrs Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë – on American women’s writing in the 19th century: writers black and white, novelists and poets, from Emily Dickinson to Sarah Orne Jewett, who used the lives and novels of the Brontës as inspirations for American stories. A professor emerita at Princeton and former chair of the judges of the Man Booker International Prize, Elaine Showalter has just completed a new book, A Jury of Her Peers: American women writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, published by Virago Press in May. Her previous books include A Literature of Their Own: British women novelists from Brontë to Lessing.
The talk will be held, as usual, in the Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre at the Courtauld Institute, Somerset House, WC2, and will begin at 7pm, with doors opening at 6pm. The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception. Free for Fellows and members of the RSL; £8 for non-members; £5 concs.
Elaine Showalter, A Literature of their Own (1978)Singapore Today visits Dublin and talks about the Gate Theatre production of Jane Eyre:
Showalter was the critic who realised that after the breakthroughs of the women's movement in the 1960s a new map of literature was required. More particularly some mapping out of the zone in which women talk to women. Why does Jane Eyre mean more to a woman reader than a man? Or does it? Essentially, Showalter takes Virginia Woolf's "room of one's own" thesis and applies it to fiction. In her career she went on to help frame a whole new syllabus area.
I wanted to check out the Dublin arts scene, so I bought myself a ticket to watch Jane Eyre at the Gate Theatre. (Okay, it was written by Charlotte Brontë, who isn't Irish, but the theatre is!) And who should be playing Jane but Andrea Corr (yes, she of The Corrs fame). This was a particularly light adaptation by Alan Stanford and quite enjoyable; Andrea made a rather uncharacteristically merry Jane, or maybe it was because all I could hear - despite the gravity of the words she was uttering - was just that familiar, high-pitched lilt trilling, "We are so young now, we are so young, so young now ..." (May Seah)IFC lists ten movies that cannot be missed in 2011:
"Wuthering Heights"Delaware County News talks about the recent visit of April Lindner, author of Jane, to the Acamedy of Notre Dame de Namur (Villanova, PA):
Directed by Andrea Arnold
Rising Brit auteur Arnold ("Fish Tank," "Red Road") takes her beautifully gritty aesthetic to the classics, with this reportedly "rawer" take on Emily Brontë's 1847 tale of doomed teenage lovers. The faithful adaptation recently made headlines in the U.K. when it was announced that James Howson, a young black actor with no prior film credits, was cast as Heathcliff. Eighteen-year-old actress Kaya Scodelario (known from Brit TV series "Skins") stars as the ill-fated Catherine Earnshaw. According to The Guardian, key scenes were filmed at Moor Close, "a desolate farmhouse without electricity or running water in the North Yorkshire moors." Sounds glorious! (Anthony Kaufman)
April Lindner, the best-selling author of Jane, visited the Academy of Notre Dame’s Connelly Library on Friday, Dec. 10, to read portions of her book and talk to students about the writing process. Jane, a contemporary retelling of Jane Eyre, poses the question, what if Jane Eyre fell in love with a rock star? More than 50 interested members of the Notre Dame community attended the book talk.Chally on Feministe shares her reading plans for the coming year:
The plan is rereading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, then reading Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox. (Yes, I am a woman of widely varying reading interests.)The Bookworm reviews Alice Hoffman's Here on Earth; La Collezionista di Dettagli posts about Maddalena De Leo's Italian translation of Charlotte Brontë's Henry Hastings; Meu Querido Diario reviews Wuthering Heights (in Portuguese); Simplyjessica's Blog loved reading Jane Eyre and the Brontë Sisters celebrates the anniversary of Maria Branwell and Patrick Brontë's marriage (December 29, 1812).
One of them is the hostel at Haworth, a large Victorian mansion that evokes the era of the Brontë novels. It is among the most popular hostels in Britain with overseas visitors, and after a winter of refurbishment has just reopened.Keighley News also has more information about the new tourist campaign to promote the Pennine areas of West Yorkshire (by the West Yorkshire Tourism Partnership):
Haworth is heavily involved in a new campaign designed to attract visitors to Pennine areas of West Yorkshire.If Novels Could Read is a literary game being played on The Guardian's Book Blog:
Five local authorities – including Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale – have combined to boost short breaks and increase visitor spending in the area.
Pennine Yorkshire, the rural areas of West Yorkshire, will be promoted via a new website, brochure and marketing campaign.
Two pages of the 20-page guide are dedicated to Haworth and Bronte Country, with the guide picking out the Bronte Parsonage as the first destination for many visitors.
Haworth’s cobbled main street, lined with small independent shops, pubs and tearooms, is also brought to the reader’s attention.
The guide goes on to conjure up inspiring images of puffs of white steam rising over the Worth Valley – the first indication of an approaching train on the Keighley and Worth Valley line.
For a special meal out, the Weavers restaurant in Haworth is recommended as a “popular choice”.
And it adds that Haworth’s Cheese Shop offers a choice of a dozen Yorkshire cheeses.
Under the section labelled ‘attractions for all the family’, the guide picks out East Riddlesden Hall, which has been described as a “brooding mansion” by the National Trust.
Liz Tattersley, manager of West Yorkshire Tourism Partnership, said the economic climate could mean more domestic trips being taken, giving the area a “genuine opportunity” to attract more visitors.
She said: “The new website and marketing campaign will capitalise on this, raising the profile of the Pennine Yorkshire region which is personified by open moorland, wooded valleys and a strong industrial heritage.
“Pennine Yorkshire is renowned for attractions, including the World Heritage Site in Saltaire, Haworth and its Bronte associations, Holmfirth and Last of the Summer Wine, plus Hebden Bridge, voted the fourth funkiest place in the world.”
I'd personally love to give Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus to the likes of Ms Bennet – and I bet Becky Sharp would have had a copy to hand, she knew what was what when it came to men. Perhaps the Kama Sutra might help out poor, repressed Jane Eyre, and she'd realise there's more to life than Mr Rochester. And if Juliet had been following The Rules (wait at least three dates before you sleep with him) would it all have gone so wrong? (Alison Flood)A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers From Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx by Elaine Showalter is reviewed in the Washington Post. A couple of Brontë mentions can be spotted:
As a literature professor at Princeton, she helped pioneer feminist criticism in the 1970s with works like "Toward a Feminist Poetics" and "A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists From Brontë to Lessing." (...)The Age takes for granted that Stephenie Meyer's Twilight marks the way to discover the Brontës:
Along the way, Showalter raises complicated questions about how art and social circumstances intersect. Crucially, she shows how many talented female writers were discouraged from developing their abilities or died in childbirth before coming to maturity. The demands of housework were a particular trouble. Fanny Fern -- a flowery novelist and columnist -- put it succinctly when she wrote in the mid-19th century, "I am sick, in an age which produced a Brontë . . . of the prate of men who assert that every woman should be a perfect housekeeper." (In fact, "A Jury of Her Peers" is not only a history of women who wrote books but also of women who hated sewing -- "that interminable thing," as Elizabeth Stoddard called it.) (Meghan O'Rourke)
All of which may not be much help to concerned parents who want to guide their daughters in the direction of Great Literature. But take heart. Dark hero? Demon lover? Impossible, dangerous, even lethal liaison? Across the windswept moors lies the throbbing heart of Bronte territory. Before too long, it might be Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights clutched to your daughter's bosom. (Jane Sullivan)WEBReporter (Czech Republic) announces the upcoming premiere of a new production of Jane Eyre (Jana Eyrová) adapted by Věra Mašková and directed by Peter Gábor at the Divadlo ABC in Prague (April 18):
Městská divadla pražská uvedou další českou premiéru. Tentokrát divákům nabídnou jevištní adaptaci světového bestselleru Jana Eyrová. Známý příběh o zapovězené lásce a děsivém tajemství v režii Petera Gábora bude mít premiéru v Divadle ABC 18. dubna. Příběh hlavní hrdinky je nabitý událostmi, překvapivými dějovými zvraty, silnými emocemi, tedy vším, co má dobrý divadelní titul mít.We can include the Spanish writer Laura Freixas to the Brontëite ranks according to El P
Slavná viktoriánská novela Charlotty Brontëové vypráví pět kapitol ze života Jany – její dětství v Gatesheadu, kde je tyranizována svou tetou, nesnadná léta v Lowoodské škole, její první zkušenost guvernantky na zámku Thornfield, kde se seznamuje s mužem svého srdce – záhadným Edwardem Rochesterem, pobyt v rodině faráře Johna Riverse a konečně happy-end, kdy se znovu setkává s milovaným mužem. Román je částečně autobiografický. Už ve své době si získal velkou oblibu, a neztratil ji ani v dalších staletích.
Jana Eyrová je především příběhem o setkání dvou mimořádných jedinců, dvou lidí, které rozděluje původ, věk, prostředí, lidí, kteří naprosto neodpovídají standardní představě mileneckého páru, a přesto je spojí hluboká náklonnost. Není to prchavá touha, ale skutečné souznění duší, o to tragičtější, že děsivé tajemství z minulosti maří jakoukoli naději na naplnění tohoto vztahu. "Jana Eyrová je ale také příběhem o tom, že každý náš skutek má své důsledky, a že všechny dlouhé stíny našich hříchů padají na naše životy ve chvílích, kdy to nejméně čekáme," řekla autorka scénáře, dramaturgyně Věra Mašková a dodala: "Před vlastní vinou, před vlastním špatným svědomím se nemůžeme schovat, život ve lži nám jednoho dne zhořkne, a tento den nás přinutí zaplatit. Ale Jana Eyrová je i příběhem o tom, že přijmeme-li svoje břemeno, a pokusíme se odčinit svou vinu, máme naději na milosrdný soud."
A čím podle představitelky titulní role Evellyn Pacolákové nejvíc přitahuje příběh Jany Eyrové? "Jednak je to samozřejmě působivý příběh lásky, který se tu odehrává. Ale hodně přitahuje i samotná postava Jany Eyrové – její osobní svoboda, její hledání. V době, kdy se příběh odehrává, byla společnost výrazně rozdělená, byly tu velké kastovní rozdíly mezi vládnoucí vrstvou a služebnictvem. Jana, která pocházela z nedobrých poměrů, odmítá tyto rozdíly brát v úvahu. A z toho vlastně vzniká její – možná nevědomá – vzpoura a její cesta ke svobodě."
Jevištní adaptace Jany Eyrové v Divadle ABC nabídne divákům pohled očima Janiných vzpomínek, což dává možnost nerealistického ztvárnění příběhu, v němž se akcentuje, stejně jako ve vzpomínkách určitý výrazný detail.
V roli Jany se představí nová posila Městských divadel pražských Evellyn Pacoláková. Po studiích na JAMU v Brně nastoupila do angažmá v olomoucké činohře, kde se brzy stala výraznou členkou souboru. O jejím výrazném hereckém talentu svědčí Ceny za nejlepší výkon sezony 2000/2001 (Larisa v inscenaci Bez věna), sezony 2003/2004 (Beatrice v Mnoho povyku pro nic) a především Cena Thalie 2005 pro mladého činoherce do 33 let.
Edward Rochester - Hynek Čermák se kromě divadla se objevuje v nejrůznějších filmových a televizních produkcích, zahrál si například v seriálech Zdivočelá země, Nemocnice na kraji města po dvaceti letech, Rodinná pouta, Poslední sezóna, Agentura Puzzle, Četnické humoresky či Eden. Natočil americký film Wrong Mr. Johnson, kde hrál jednu z hlavních rolí. Je autorem asi padesáti písní, které si sám interpretuje s hudební skupinou Provas. Od puberty se aktivně věnuje sportovnímu létání a dalším adrenalinovým aktivitám. (Barbora Bělinová) (Google translation)
aís:Su proceso de vampirización fue un viaje continuo. Siguió en Inglaterra, donde fue lectora de español, y donde se sumió en la lectura de autores especialmente suculentos para un buen festín que deja poso: las hermanas Brontë, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf... El amor por la Woolf en cierto modo ha transustanciado a la escritora de Al faro en su propia personalidad, pues es la traductora de sus diarios. Y otra mujer, la brasileña Clarice Lispector, es otro de sus alimentos literarios; Freixas escribe ahora su biografía, una manera de vampirizar, también, la vida. (Juan Cruz) (Google translation)A review on Panorama.it of the Italian translation of Fabrice Gaignault's Dictionnaire de littérature à l'usage des snobs : Et (surtout) de ceux qui ne le sont pas (published in 2007) reveals that Branwell Brontë is one of its entries:
Nel dizionario spunta il sempre taciuto Patrick Branwell Bronte, fratello delle ben più note Charlotte, Emily e Anne. (Antonio Carnevale) (Google translation)On the blogosphere, The World of Cheese reviews Wuthering Heights and Jyusan, Nijyusan, Yonjyuni talks about Jane Eyre 2006. Les soeurs Brontë has uploaded robot portraits of Charlotte, Emily and Anne and a post on Lord Byron, the Gondal Lord of Elbë and Heathcliff. SueWeasley has uploaded a Haworth trip video to youtube.
At first the Brontë sisters tried being governesses — a miserable job, but good for mining material for the novels they would write as “brothers,” using masculine-sounding pseudonyms: Currer Bell for Charlotte (Finn Atkins), who wrote “Jane Eyre”; Ellis Bell for Emily (Chloe Pirrie), the author of “Wuthering Heights”; and Acton Bell for Anne (Charlie Murphy), who wrote “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.” Sally Wainwright (“Last Tango in Halifax,” “Happy Valley”) is the force behind this movie about the dutiful daughters of an ailing Yorkshire clergyman (Jonathan Pryce) and the ne’er-do-well sibling, Branwell (Adam Nagaitis), who inspired vivid characters in his sisters’ novels. (Kathryn Shattuck)Northwest Arkansas Democratic Gazette:
Masterpiece presents To Walk Invisible: The Brontë Sisters at 8 p.m. today on AETN. The two-hour film highlights the famous literary siblings who, against all odds, "had their genius for writing romantic novels recognized in a male-dominated 19th-century world."The Times Herald-Record clearly has not done a proper research (check the final paragraph):
The film was written and directed by Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax) and tells the tale of Charlotte, Emily and Anne, the dutiful clergyman's daughters who became the authors of "the most controversial fiction of the 1840s." (...)
Wainwright based the film largely on Charlotte's letters and concentrates on the three-year period "that saw them rise from ordinary, unmarried women, taking care of the household and their widowed father, to the secret authors of the world's most sensational literature."
"I hope people will be entertained and go away wanting to know more about the Brontës," Wainwright added. (Michael Storey)
"Invisible" is a must for Brontë buffs and "Masterpiece" completists, but even they may find some of the dialogue hard to understand.Neal Justin in the Kansas Star-Tribune is no lover of the new production:
At first I thought this was a matter of local dialects falling deaf on American ears, but apparently many British viewers went on social media to complain about muffled audio.
The film includes a peculiar, unfortunate and blessedly short bookending gimmick, depicting the young Brontë children flush with imagination and playing some fantastic board game of their own devising.
It comes off as a desperate effort to attract "Harry Potter" readers. Equally jarring, the film concludes with a contemporary trip to a Brontë museum, where we all end up in the gift shop.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne may have been the most successful sister act in literary history, but their real-life tale isn’t exactly a page turner. It’s hard to come to any other conclusion after watching “To Walk Invisible: The Brontë Sisters,” a well-meaning but tedious biopic that does little to capture the brilliance and personalities of the women behind “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights.” Perhaps director/writer Sally Wainwright purposely churned out a yawner in hopes that viewers would switch off their sets and crack open a classic novel.Also in The Vindicator, Detroit Free Press, East Bay Times, ...
Although their names are largely forgotten, many American writers drew from Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” in the 1850s. And some were successful — very successful.Critic (New Zealand) reviews Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea:
One million copies sold for one novel, “The Wide Wide World” by Susan Warner. Warner had, in fact, started writing her book before “Jane” took the English-reading world by storm. Her sister, Anna, also wrote popular novels and likened the American pair to the Brontë sisters. Between them, they published 21 titles — with most of the money going to pay their father’s debts, writes Elaine Showalter in “A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers From Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx.” (...)
Although “Ruth Hall” was apparently no “Jane Eyre” or “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Fern’s feminism and professionalism, Showalter writes, “cleared the path for Stowe and the new order of women to come.” (Jane Henderson)
This book lives on my bookshelf, in a case, with a plaque underneath: ‘A Modernist Triumph of Femme Freedom’. In 1969, Jean Rhys published Wide Sargasso Sea, a prequel and intervention to Jane Eyre, much like the prequel and intervention of my flatmate telling me I am cunty vomitty person the day after a party. However, where my flatmate sets a house on fire, Rhys burns it to the ground. This novel deconstructs the hysterical woman, especially as portrayed in the ‘feminist’ gothic text Jane Eyre.The Sunday Times reviews the biography Jane Welsh Carlyle and Her Victorian World by Kathy Chamberlain:
Where Bertha in Jane Eyre is an elusive creature, so too is the tumbling narrative of Wide Sargasso Sea. The way the protagonist’s focus sways from the heave and seethe of the Caribbean jungle to her decomposing marriage lends itself to post-post-colonial dialogue. (...)
This is a baffling read and for such a short novel, it is surprisingly dense. Not because of the content, but because of the space that the narrative is meant to occupy. Wide Sargasso Sea alleviates the limitations of Jane Eyre, and celebrates the existence of a) humans and b) women, no matter their mental state, background or role within society. Like a Lana Del Rey song, Wide Sargasso Sea works to validate and celebrate self-indulgent sadness; it is a love letter to the tides of hedonistic apathy, commiserating the vilification of those who suffer loss without need for redemption or forgiveness. Most importantly, Rhys drives for the continuation of the human voice through dissolution to insanity. In short: it’s a good time. (Zoe Taptiklis)
She herself was rumoured to be the author of the pseudonymously published Jane Eyre. She admired Charlotte Brontë, but disliked Jane Austen (“too washy — watergruel”) and said of George Eliot: “She looks Propriety personified. Oh, so slow!” (Paula Byrne)Also in The Sunday Times, an interview with Reed Hastings founder and CEO of Netflix:
As I wait to meet the CEO and founder of Netflix, Reed Hastings, two PRs are talking about how as children they were obsessed with books. “I used to read under the covers so my mum didn’t know,” says one. “Yes, I set fire to a T-shirt using it to dim my bedside light,” says the other. This, they agree, is how people feel about Netflix. A new episode is like the next chapter: gobbling down the Gilmore Girls is the same as piling through Jane Eyre. I’m not sure whether this conversation is for my benefit. (I wouldn’t be surprised.) (Janice Turner)BuzzFeed lists several classical films 'every woman should see'. Including Jane Eyre 1944 where Orson Welles plays one Mr Rotchester, apparently:
Joan Fontaine plays Jane Eyre who works as governess at Mr. Rotchester's home. She falls in love but struggles under numerous circumstances that keep her apart from Mr. Rotchester. (juldarps)Reading is my Superpower interviews the author Barbara Cameron:
Who is your favorite book character from childhood?El Día de Córdoba (Spain) interviews the writer Rodrigo Fresán who thinks that David Lynch could be a perfect director for a Wuthering Heights film:
Barbara: It’s got to be Jane Eyre. I first read the book when I was about twelve and fell in love with her spirit and her loving kindness. I wore out several copies of that book and loved being able to teach it when I later became a college English instructor.
-En la segunda parte tiene gran importancia la familia Brontë y especialmente Cumbres borrascosas, "un libro tóxico y con alto poder de contagio". (Braulio Ortiz)Vivere Pesaro (Italy) vindicates the work of the writer Grazia Deledda:
-Lynch podría hacer una adaptación maravillosa de ese libro. Estamos ante una novela que, es curioso, por el tema y el tono ya resultaba antigua en la fecha en la que aparece, y sin embargo anticipa muchas de las cosas que vendrán después. Todo lo que hicieron las hermanas Brontë es fascinante. A mí me gusta mucho Jane Eyre, pero también otro libro de Charlotte que se llama Villette, y las dos novelas protofeministas de Anne [La inquilina de Wildfell y Agnes Grey]. Lo interesante de Cumbres borrascosas es que puede verse no tanto como una novela de vampiros como de vampirizados: el vampiro pasó, los mordió a todos y los dejó allí. (Translation)
Le sue tematiche hanno un'impronta verista, tenendo conto che la Deledda è una profonda osservatrice della Sardegna antica, dell'interiorizzazione della sua terra. Ne La Madre, la Deledda recupera il significato dell'Isola del mito, di una certa impronta anglosassone come Cime tempestose di Emily Brontë. Ma la Deledda viene definita anche una scrittrice, anche superficiale, estimatrice di Carolina Invernizio. (Paolo Montanari) (Translation)The Readiness is All reviews Wuthering Heights.
Many years later, the power of the written word was once again brought home. During a trip to England to visit our daughter who was attending school, we visited the National Museum in London. I remember standing transfixed before the glass case holding the original copy of my favorite classic. I was not prepared for the emotions I felt seeing Charlotte Bronte's hand written copy of "Jane Eyre."The new book by Elaine Showalter (author of one of the most influential books in feminist literary criticism: A Literature of Their Own. British Women Literature: From Brontë to Lessing, 1977):
Though the 1850s are considered a golden age in American letters, with male luminaries like Whitman, Melville, Thoreau, Emerson and Hawthorne, they were also, as Showalter quotes literary historian David S. Reynolds, the "American Woman's Renaissance," influenced to a large degree by the enormous popularity of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre," published in America in 1848. The increase in "domestic novels" written by women inspired vitriolic reviews and threatened marriages. (Susan Salter Reynolds)The New York Times presents the new production of Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera House which opens next Monday. The production's director David McVicar talks about Leonora, portrayed by the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky:
Too often, Mr. McVicar finds, the character comes onstage as a “poncy lady in a big frock.” To him she is closer to a Brontë heroine on the moors, or to Beethoven’s Leonore in “Fidelio,” who, like this Leonora, will stop at nothing to free her man from prison. (Matthew Gurewitsch)The Chicago Tribune reviews The Women by T.C. Boyle, a fictionalised account of the life of Frank Lloyd Wright who
Outfitted with a cape and cane, popping back and forth between Chicago and Taliesin, his home in Wisconsin, often the transgressive subject on the society page or even front page of the newspapers, he was larger than life and "could have been a figure summoned by the Brontes," quips novelist T.C. Boyle in his treatment of Wright's life, "The Women." (Art Winslow)And we have now a couple of Heathcliff-like British MPs. Sky News selects Andy Burnham:
Straight in at the top, like a Manc version of Heathcliff (the Byronic anti-hero, not the cartoon cat) is Andy "so hot I" Burnham. Beloved of many in the Sky Westminster office, the Culture Sec is a rare exception to GK Chesterton's rule that "All government is an ugly necessity". (Niall Paterson)The other one is our particular Heathcliff of Downing Street:
Gordon Brown, in one of his more unfortunately spun speeches, cast himself as Heathcliff. There is no doubt that in his younger days he cut quite a dash with foreign princesses and the like - although sadly, instead of wandering on moors, he launched himself passionately into endless committee meetings and finance reform. (Jenny Colgan, Alison Flood and John Dugdalein The Guardian)In the same article we find another Brontë reference talking about Sienna Miller:
I don't know much about Sienna Miller - well, that's nonsense, like the rest of the UK I know far too much about her. But she sure is mighty purty, as we can see in this week's Hello! magazine, which shows her dressing up as Natasha Rostova (a brunette, surely?) from War and Peace, as part of a Unicef campaign to fight illiteracy around the world. (...) I'd have liked to have seen a post-smallpox Esther Summerson, or a Bertha Rochester, but there you go. (Jenny Colgan, Alison Flood and John Dugdalein The Guardian)Estense (Ferrara, Italy) announces the exhibition 'Il Sogno di Ofelia' by Beatrice Piva (Centro fisioterapico Il Girasole, until next April 14). Her work is described like this:
Il lavoro di Beatrice Piva si basa sulla sperimentazione di nuove tecniche e sul tema dell'amore unito alla morte, alla passione di tipo romantico-distruttivo che troviamo nelle tragedie di Shakespeare, nei libri delle sorelle Bronte e nell'immaginario romantico-gotico. (Google translation)And we have an alert for tomorrow, February 15, in Avigliano, Italy:
L’Assessorato alla Cultura e un gruppo di giovani studenti hanno organizzato per domenica prossima, alle 17,00, un recital di poesie al teatro comunale incentrando l’iniziativa sul rapporto fra i poeti e la natura. L’iniziativa proporrà brani di Mario Luzi, William Words Worth, Charles Beaudelaire, Charles Bronte, Walt Whitman, Eugenio Montale, Alessandro Baricco e Premiata Forneria Marconi preceduti da introduzioni che illustreranno il mondo poetico degli autori e l’importanza che il tema della natura ha avuto nella loro produzione. Intermezzi musicali accompagneranno la recitazione dei testi con l’obiettivo unitario di sollecitare e stimolare l’attenzione sul rapporto arte-natura. (Atlantide Magazine) (Google translation)Le Monde (France) compares the Loeseth sisters (skiers) to the Brontës:
Reste à savoir maintenant si les soeurs Loeseth atteindront, dans leur domaine, la gloire des soeurs Brontë.LiteraturKritik (in German) explores the connections between Darwin's evolution theory and critical approaches to literature. Quoting from Joseph Carroll's Evolution and Literary Theory:
Carrolls zweites Beispiel ist Emily Brontës Roman "Sturmhöhe": Die Beziehung zwischen der Protagonistin Catherine und ihrem Adoptivbruder Heathcliff zeige zwar Züge einer leidenschaftlichen Verbindung, könne aber nach Westermarck keine wirklich leidenschaftliche Beziehung sein, da Catherine und Heathcliff zusammen aufgewachsen sind. Gegen diese Auffassung hat Alan Richardson in einem Aufsatz zum Inzestmotiv in der englischen Romantik zu Recht eingewandt: "fictional representations just do not work that way. Like dreams, fictive works can bear a number of different relations to the rules and regularities of daily experience, often giving us the inverse of the lived world. If Emily Brontë is at liberty to people the Yorkshire moors with ghosts, why not incestuous foster-siblings as well?" (Katjia Mellmann) (Google translation)The Berliner Literaturkritik reviews Anne Donovan's Being Emily:
Charakteren: der Bruder ist sanftmütig, kümmernd und schwul, die Tante keck und lesbisch, der Vater ein Trunkenbold. Der Titel verweist auf Emily Brontë, berühmte Autorin der „Sturmhöhe“, die es nach Ansicht Fionas auch geschafft hat, Literatur und Hausarbeit unter einen Hut zu bekommen. (Sabine Thieslers) (Google translation)Der Tagesspiele reviews a recent premiere at the Berlinale, Lone Scherfig's An Education. We highlight a Brontë reference:
Ist David vielleicht ein zwiespältiger Verführer wie Rochester aus Charlotte Brontës Roman „Jane Eyre“, über den Jenny glänzende Schulaufsätze schreibt? Oder gar ein Schurke wie Patricia Highsmiths Tom Ripley? (Julian Hanich) (Google translation)Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden) talks about Astrid Lindgren's influences, particularly Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, quoting profusely from John Seelyes's Jane Eyre’s American Daughters: From ”The Wide, Wide World” to ”Anne of Green Gables”:
Utgångspunkten för Seelye är alltså ”Jane Eyre”, ursprungligen utgiven 1847. Vad har Charlotte Brontës mästerverk, än i dag något av en kultbok för tonårsflickor, gemensamt med böckerna om Anne Shirley, för att inte tala om deras svenska förlängning Pippi Långstrump? Alla dessa böcker går att karaktärisera som ett slags Bildungsromaner, med ensamstående hjältinnor, som med egna krafter slår sig fram i världen. (...)And now for some explicit and non-explicit references to this most pink of all days, Valentine's day:
I ett väsentliga avseende skiljer sig ändå ”Jane Eyre” inte bara från L M Montgomerys och Astrid Lindgrens böcker utan också från merparten av sina amerikanska döttrar. Charlotte Brontës roman är en yttring av viktoriansk gotik, en skräckromantik med melodramatiska kryddor i ett däremellan realistiskt flöde. (Read more) (Nalle Valtiala) (Google translation)
William Wordsworth. Emily Bronte. John Donne. Classical works by such poets can be used and offer inspiration. (Joy Brown)The Toronto Star interviews some of the nominees for the U.K.-based Romantic Novel of the Year Award. The article begins with a Brontë&Austen compulsory reference:
Foreplay, not consummation, is the lifeblood of enduring romantic fiction. Whether it's the reconciliation of Jane and Rochester in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre or the battle of wills between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the denouement, no matter how swoon-inducing, is more icing than cake. False starts, tentative advances and even wrenching reversals along the way command the heart's attention. (Vit Wagner)USA Today, The Hagerstown Herald-Mail and The Frederick News Post continue with their infomercial about Nora Roberts' recently inaugurated Inn BoonsBoro:
The room named for Jane and Rochester from Charlotte Bronte¨'s Jane Eyre (Roberts says she has read the book countless times) includes a fainting couch and a free-standing copper tub where guests can soak in heather-scented water. Each room has its own uniquely scented bath gels and lotions, which are produced locally. (Carol Emmott)Michelle Kerns on The Examiner chooses her personal top 5 of the most annoying literary romances and the 5 most inspiringly romantic fictional liaisons. We have a Brontë on each list:
Annoying: 3. Heathcliff and Cathy Earnshaw from Emily Bronte's Wuthering HeightsThat's the problem precisely, the book is not romantic but Romantic.
I hated this book so much I could barely force myself to finish it. I've never understood why readers consider Heathcliff and Cathy's relationship to be so romantic; dysfunctional and destructive seems closer to the mark to me. And who needs enemies when you can count on your supposed devoted lover to do his best to destroy the life of your only child?
Inspiring: 2. Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre20 Minutos (Spain) includes Wuthering Heights in the reading suggestions for a day like today:
For about 10 years, Jane Eyre was my absolute favorite book. It not only featured the first English novel heroine that wasn't beautiful, but a plain little creature that ended up getting everything she wanted on her terms -- atta girl! Jane Eyre contains some of the most delightfully romantic scenes in all of literature. My favorite is the one in which Mr. Rochester pretends to be a fortune-telling gypsy in order to find out what Jane thinks about him. I'm no romance fan, but that scene makes me all giggly.
La trágica historia de amor en los brumosos páramos de Yorkshire entre la apasionada Catherine y el atormentado Heathcliff es sin duda uno de los romances más inolvidables de la literatura de todos los tiempos. (Regina ExLibris) (Google translation)The Independent interviews the known romance author, Penny Jordan. As opposite to many others authors of the genre she doesn't like particularly the Brontës:
My favourite books have never been literary greats. I like those that use words as bricks to build a story. Books about families fascinate me; I loved Sense and Sensibility for the social commentary; the nitty-gritty, the details of everyday life. This is what makes me smile. I don't much enjoy the big drama of the Brontë sisters. (Charlotte Philby)The Philippine Star chooses favourite love teams:
Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta — They only did two films together: Hihintayin Kita sa Langit (where they fell in love with each other) and Saan Ka Man Naroroon (they were already on the brink of breakup by then). To this day, I still swoon (and that rarely happens to me) over their scenes together when I see Hihintayin. I guess it also helped that the photography, music and the basic story (an adaptation of Wuthering Heights) were also beautifully executed and all these contributed to make Hihintayin Kita sa Langit as the most romantic local movie in my book. (Butch Francisco)The Global Post turns to Afghanistan to find love stories in the times of the Taliban:
Aziz was a modern-day Majnoon. He and Shukria fell in love in high school. She was a flashing, dark-eyed beauty, he a brooding Heathcliff type. They were both headed for medical school when the Taliban took over their northern city. (Jean MacKenzie)The Times takes a more serious approach: is love a mental disease?:
There is also a school of thought that insists love is a cultural phenomenon. As the great French cynic La Rochefoucauld said: “People would not fall in love if they had not heard love talked about.” The culture keeps up a rapid-fire bombardment of the power and the glory of romantic love, and yet it seems curious that so many of the Greatest Love Stories Ever Told - Cathy and Heathcliff, Tristan and Isolde, Heloise and Abelard, Lancelot and Guinevere - end in disaster, if not death and carnage. If we were being really sceptical, we might conclude that it is delusional that “in love” should be regarded as the greatest and most time-consuming aspiration of the modern female. (Sara Vine and Tania Kindersley)And the blogosphere and the V-day also bring together some Brontës: Complete & Unabridged, StellaforStar
As well as the Darwin giveaway, the classics publisher received a boost when its edition of D H Lawrence’s infamous novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover appeared on "Eastenders". Bleak House, Cranford and Little Dorrit are also doing well on the back of recent adaptations, and Wordsworth is anticipating adapations [sic] of Frankenstein and Emma later this year, as well as a film about the Bronte sisters. (Catherine Neilan)We sincerely hope that they are also pinning their hopes on the new Wuthering Heights, as the Brontë biopic, from where we stand, looks as remote as ever.
Yet at precisely the same time that layoffs are afflicting the region, when consumer spending is down, and the economy is mired in a recession, used book stores are failing? It doesn't make any sense. Paying a buck for a dog-eared Penguin edition of Jane Eyre is an entertainment bargain. It used to be that used book stores sprouted like mushrooms at every major Metro stop in the city. They were the distressed building owner's best friend: If you couldn't rent a vacant storefront space to, say, the Gap, a used book store could move in its entire inventory, plus cat, and start attracting customers. Secondhand retailers may not pay top-dollar rents, but they keep shoppers on the sidewalk, which helps raise all boats. (Brian Miller)Salon reviews the new book by Elaine Showalter, A Jury of Her Peers. American Women Writers. From Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx:
Why, for example, did Britain produce several women novelists of genius during the 19th century -- Jane Austen, George Eliot and the Brontës, as well as accomplished lesser artists like Elizabeth Gaskell -- while America did not? That question could (and sometimes does) lead to a lot of speculation on the national characters of the English-speaking peoples, but Showalter mentions an equally plausible, practical cause: "While English women novelists, even those as poor as the Brontës, had servants, American women were expected to clean, cook and sew; even in the South, white women in slaveholding families were trained in domestic arts." Quite a few of the short biographical sketches she offers feature women complaining about being compelled by parents to learn to make pies or mend when they would rather write. In 1877, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps made the heroine of her novel, "The Story of Avis," fume, "I hate to make my bed, and I hate, hate to sew chemises, and I hate, hate, hate to go cooking round the kitchen."While we are unable to discuss the matter properly, not knowing much about the Brontës' American counterparts, two things must be said here. The Brontës were poorer than the other women writers mentioned here but they weren't workhouse-poor. They were middle-class. And again while unsure as to how their house chores workloads compare to the American women of the time's, the Brontës were by no means free of responsibilities. They may not have gone down on their knees and scrubbed the floor everyday but they had gentlewomen's tasks as sewing, running the household, the typical parish duties of a parson's daughters, etc. Emily Brontë famously baked bread while studying German and Charlotte Brontë openly declared:
Housework in America has never been an uncomplicated matter. The class system in Britain consigned a certain set of people to this humble labor, while America promised the enterprising among them an opportunity to make something more of their lives. Nevertheless, the cooking and cleaning still had to be done -- especially on the small family farms that were the economic engines of early America -- and so the responsibility for it was transferred from a servant class to the female relatives of the new republic's self-made men. (Laura Miller)
By the way, I have lately discovered I have quite a talent for cleaning, sweeping up hearths, dusting rooms, making beds, etc.; so, if everything else fails, I can turn my hand to that, if anybody will give me good wages for little labour. I won't be a cook; I hate cooking. I won't be a nurserymaid, nor a lady's maid, far less a lady's companion, or a mantua-maker, or a straw-bonnet maker, or a taker-in of plain work. I won't be anything but a housemaid. (15 April 1839)Later in December of that same year:
We are at present, and have been during the last month, rather busy, as, for that space of time, we have been without a servant, except a little girl to run errands. Poor Tabby became so lame that she was at length obliged to leave us. She is residing with her sister, in a little house of her own, which she bought with her savings a year or two since. She is very comfortable, and wants nothing; as she is near we see her very often. In the meantime, Emily and I are sufficiently busy, as you may suppose: I manage the ironing, and keep the rooms clean; Emily does the baking, and attends to the kitchen. We are such odd animals, that we prefer this mode of contrivance to having a new face amongst us. Besides, we do not despair of Tabby's return, and she shall not be supplanted by a stranger in her absence. I excited aunt's wrath very much by burning the clothes, the first time I attempted to iron; but I do better now. Human feelings are queer things; I am much happier black-leading the stoves, making the beds, and sweeping the floors at home, than I should be living like a fine lady anywhere else.So, even if it was temporarily, the Brontës could do - and did - household works as well.
The scholarships are the Sarah Guttesman Lubin Memorial Scholarship and the Donald J. Loff Scholarship for Excellence in English. While both scholarships are for those with an interest in English, each caters to a specific topic in English.And the latest Wuthering Heights is 'working' for the Kansas City Star:
The Sarah Guttesman Lubin Memorial Scholarship is awarded every spring to an undergraduate studying 19th century British and/or American literature. Baruch alumnus Melvin Lubin (’48) created the scholarship to honor his late wife Sarah who passed away in December 2007.
Sarah was very involved in getting young people to enjoy literature, Lubin said. "She was always trying to get young people to read Trollope or Dickens, or the Brontes or Walter Scott, or Mark Twain and Melville, or whatever she was reading at the moment," said Lubin. (Ning Mao)
3. "Masterpiece Classic." I'm not a fan of PBS's long-in-the-tooth British import series, but its current reimaginings of such classics as "Wuthering Heights" and "Little Dorrit" are fresh and even exciting.The novel seems to have worked on the blogosphere as well: Precipice Express writes about it, LitCritique gives it a 3/5 and Babbles of the Critically Sane discusses 'Heathcliff - Monster or Misunderstood?'.
Unless explicitly said
