The BBC is world renowned for its lavish costume dramas, which in recent years have taken in everything from Bleak House and Cranford to Sense and Sensibility and Little Dorrit.The Toronto Star publishes an article about next July The Wayfarer's Brontë Trail:
But viewers who have become accustomed to the constant stream of adaptations will soon have to live without the bonnets and breeches, as the corporation is to move away from traditional 19th century costume dramas in favour of a grittier look at the period and a new focus on other historical eras.
This change, which follows the appointment of a new head of drama commissioning at the BBC, will mean that in future there will be less of the types of serials that have characterised the corporation's output over recent years, such as Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Lark Rise to Candleford, Oliver Twist, Jane Eyre, Daniel Deronda and Pride and Prejudice.
In their place the BBC is planning more period dramas along the lines of this week's The Diary of Anne Frank and the remake of John Buchan's spy novel, The 39 Steps, which aired over Christmas. (Leigh Holmwood)
Walking holiday specialist The Wayfarers has introduced two new options to its "Girlfriend Getaways" lineup for 2009.The Yorkshire Post publishes another reminder of an upcoming event: the auction of the Roger Warner collection at Christie's:
Designed for the adventurous female traveller and mothers and daughters, the tours have been developed around achievements of famous authors and one famous architect. The two new "walks" include all meals, accommodations, transfers and gratuities.
"The Brontë Trail" (July 26-31) is a six-day, five-night trek set in Britain's Brontë Country where participants will get a sense of the creative inspiration nurtured here as they explore Yorkshire's Haworth Village and several locations from Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.
Beginning in Haworth and ending in Chatsworth, this walk of 13 to 19 kilometres per day is priced at $3,695 (U.S.) per person, double occupancy. (Greg Coates)
Antique dealer Roger Warner's collection demonstrates his ecleticism of taste and lifelong passion for amassing treasures, of which he never tired.David Baddiel publishes his last column in The Times and wonders how to say goodbye properly:
His private customers included Queen Mary, Princess Margaret, Walt Disney, the wife of the novelist Graham Greene, Christopher Fry, Peter Ustinov and the Mitford sisters. He contributed to museum collections, including Temple Newsam, in Leeds, and his treasures included a dolls' house reputedly redecorated by Charlotte Brontë. (Joanne Ginley)
The only ones I can call to mind quickly, besides the two already mentioned (which you of course will have recognised as the closing lines of The Great Gatsby and Ulysses, respectively) are Emily Brontë wondering “how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth” in Wuthering Heights, Tristram Shandy's mum asking “what is all this story about?” and being told “A COCK AND A BULL ... and one of the best of its kind I ever heard”, and Marlow, at the end of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, staring, naturally, into “the heart of an immense darkness”.Also in The Times, a review by Frances Wilson of Edna O'Brien's Byron in Love:
The contradictions that Byron contained are summed up by the adjective Byronic, which O'Brien defines as being related to “excess, diabolical deeds and rebelliousness”. The term, as with most things to do with Byron, is more complicated than O'Brien will allow: Byronic can mean either wild and uncouth, like Heathcliff, or suave and slick, like Dracula.Mint (India) reviews Socialism is Great! by Lijia Zhang:
At one factory propaganda session, a political instructor catches her reading Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre hidden under a copy of The People’s Daily. (Anil Penna)The Scotsman talks about sequels and the most important one in the Brontë universe appears:
SEQUELS to literary classics tend to be most successful when the authors have a free hand to take the story further, as Jean Rhys did with Jane Eyre in Wide Sargasso Sea. But literary estates are often unwilling to agree to go too far from the original, as Alice Randall was accused of doing in The Wind Done Gone, her rewriting of Gone with the Wind. (David Robinson)And orphans are the subject of this article in the Worthington Daily Globe:
We used to read of orphans and the abuse of orphans in our literature classes. Oliver Twist was an orphan. Jane Eyre was an orphan. Huckleberry Finn lived as an orphan. (Ray Crippen)Cartas famosas de la historia posts a couple of Charlotte Brontë's letters to Monsieur Heger, translated into Spanish and Ex Libris publishes a brief biography of Emily Brontë.
A new exhibition is being held at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, the former home of the family, curated by writer and Brontë Fan Tracy Chevalier, the museum’s creative partner for 2016. The exhibition, entitled Charlotte Great And Small will include exhibits from her life, with several new acquisitions. Chevalier has also edited a collection of short stories written by international women writers and inspired by Charlotte Brontë called Reader, I Married Him.Tracy Chevalier is interviewed by The Yorkshire Post:
“I have long loved Charlotte Brontë and am thrilled to be involved in the celebration of her bicentenary,” revealed Chevalier, “The Parsonage is a unique house; it’s incredible to see the place where so much creativity arose. I’m hoping to sprinkle some surprises in amongst the dresses and writing desks – including a Twitter tour of the house and exhibition, and even a knitted Jane Eyre!”
Chevalier is joined by novelist Grace McCleen as this year’s writer in residence and children’s author Jacqueline Wilson as an Ambassador for Charlotte in 2016, and both will visit the Parsonage Museum later in the year.
Celebrations of the bicentenary will focus around the 200th anniversary of her birth with talks on Charlotte’s life at the museum with displays of letters, manuscripts and personal possessions from the collection. There will also be talks throughout the celebratory year, including support for GCSE students studying Charlotte’s novel Jane Eyre with talks, hands-on activities and more.
There’ll be a birthday party with tea, cake, and promised surprises art the Old School Room where Charlotte once taught, and a wreath laying ceremony for invited guests the day after at Westminster Abbey.
Later in the year there will be lectures in May from Brontë biographers Juliet Barker and Claire Harman, the Great Charlotte Brontë Debate in June, including contributions from writer Maggie O’Farrell, and a Bicentenary Conference in Manchester in August with a keynote speech from Germaine Greer.
The University of Bradford will also be launching a free eBook version of Jane Eyre in April as part of their Diversity Festival which will include a special cover designed by one lucky staff or student member who won the competition to submit their photos and designs.
Further afield there are elements of the Museum’s collection on display at the National Portrait Gallery until April, which will then move over to New York and a version of Jane Eyre performed by the National Ballet in May, plus a televised Brontë-themed drama To Walk Invisible on the BBC in autumn.
Further Brontë celebrations will continue over the next few years as part of Brontë200 with the bicentenary of Branwell in 2017, Emily in 2018 and Anne in 2020, with 2019 given over to Patrick Bronte, their father, 200 years after he became the parson at Haworth.
“The bicentenaries of the Brontë siblings provide a tremendous opportunity for the Society to celebrate the legacy of the Brontës across the globe,” said John Thirlwell of the Brontë Society Council. “We recognise that arts organisations, museums and individuals will want to help us mark these special anniversaries and are excited about building new partnerships and reaching new audiences during the five-year programme. We look forward to welcoming the world to Haworth during 2016.” (Philip Lickley)
Novelist Tracy Chevalier was approached 18 months ago by the Brontë Parsonage Museum with a special request. “I think I said ‘yes’ by return email – I didn’t even have to think about it, I knew I wanted to do it,” she says. (...)Have you checked your attic lately? Batley & Birstall News publishes an appeal to look for a copy or info of the 1921 film adaptation of Shirley:
he says she immediately came up with lots of suggestions, admitting that she had to be reined in a little. “I had about a million ideas,” she laughs. “And some of them have happened.”
The exhibition Charlotte Great and Small, curated by Chevalier, opened at the museum earlier this month and contrasts Charlotte’s relatively closeted domestic life with her huge ambition and the boundless possibilities of her intellect and literary imagination.
“I first came up to look around the Parsonage on a rainy day in November 2014,” says Chevalier when we meet at the Parsonage shortly before the opening. “And I have been up several times since. It is wonderful to be here – I’ve spent time walking on the moors and around town. I’ve really immersed myself in the world of the Brontës, reading biographies where I found out more about Charlotte and the family – Anne was the quiet one, Emily the strange one and Charlotte the serious one – and I spent a whole year re-reading the novels.”
She has also had time to look through the museum’s precious collection of objects and artefacts. On her initial visit to the Parsonage, Chevalier says there was one thing that immediately struck her – and it was to do with scale. “What I noticed right away was how small the house felt and the rooms within the house,” she says. “When you think that there was their father Patrick, their aunt, the four children and two servants all living in this relatively small house. Then I discovered that Charlotte herself was physically really tiny and, of course, the miniscule books that the siblings created as children, which we are all so fascinated by. I responded to all that and it gave me the idea to focus on those small things, but also to look at opening up Charlotte’s emotional and intellectual landscape, which was huge. You notice that in Jane Eyre – Jane is small but she has this incredible passion.” (Read more)
The big-screen adaptation of Charlotte’s book Shirley was filmed around Oakwell Hall in 1921 and the silent black-and-white movie released in cinemas the following year.A couple of reviews of the upcoming The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell:
Now staff from the modern-day museum at the Birstall stately home are hoping to track down a copy as they prepare to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the author’s birth.
So far, they have been unable to find a recording of the film, which was directed by A V Bramble and starred Clive Brook, one of the leading British actors of the day who later became a Hollywood star with Paramount Pictures.
Other cast members were Carlotta Breese, Elizabeth Irving and Mabel Terry-Lewis.
Shirley, published in 1849, was set in the Spen Valley and tells the story of the Luddite uprising in the local textile mills.
Oakwell Hall is the fictional Fieldhead, home of the book’s main character, and Red House in Gomersal also features.
The work was inspired by Charlotte’s father’s time spent as the vicar of nearby Hartshead Church, as well as her own friendships in the area.
At the time, local residents were recruited as extras to appear in the film, and Joanne Catlow from Kirklees Museums and Galleries is hoping that some of their relatives may still be living locally.
“We have many events planned to commemorate the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth and it would be wonderful if we could find some information about the film version of Shirley,” she said.
“Despite many searches, we have been unable to trace a copy of the film, however, we know that many local people acted as extras in the film and therefore there may be photographs, letters, diary records or even a script still in existence somewhere.
If anyone has any information about the film, we would love to hear from them.”
If anyone can provide any information about the 1921 film version of Shirley, has a relative that took part in it or can help trace any remaining copies they can contact Joanne by email on joanne.catlow@kirklees.gov.uk or contact 01484 221000.
Brontë. One word conjures up so many images. Cathy and Heathcliff roaming the Yorkshire moors in the twisted tale of love and revenge that is Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre's passion for Mr Rochester in the eponymous gothic classic.
Emily and Charlotte are the Brontë sisters revered by so many for their masterpieces. This year, thousands more words will be written about two of the daughters of Patrick, an Anglican clergyman from Co Down, because 2016 is the 200th anniversary of Charlotte's birth and so is being celebrated as the year of the Brontës.
But what of their younger sibling, Anne, the third author in this talented family? To the unenlightened, she seems pale, colourless even, compared to her siblings with their passionate outpourings. But in her entertaining debut novel, The Madwoman Upstairs, Catherine Lowell casts Anne in a very different light. (...)
Lowell researched the Brontës as part of her thesis and she has fallen under their intoxicating spell, interspersing her novel with homages to their work. But it is equally clear that she feels sorry for poor, neglected Anne, overshadowed by her brilliant, creative sisters.
The Madwoman in the Attic is an intriguing, entertaining debut, which doesn't easily fit into any one genre, thanks to Lowell's somewhat sarcastic style. Samantha could be a Brontë heroine, the lonely girl hoping that understanding her illustrious ancestors will fill the gap in her heart - and bring back her father.
Ironically, though, for a book that focuses so much on what authors really mean and how to read a novel - both Samantha's father and her tutor try to teach her this skill - it is best enjoyed without delving too deeply. There are no hidden meanings here, just a reminder of the brilliance of the Brontës. (Rowena Walsh in The Irish Independent )
Like generations of young girls, I read Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" and sister Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" and fell in love with Jane's Mr. Rochester and Cathy's Heathcliff. So, with great anticipation, I began reading debut novelist Catherine Lowell's "The Madwoman Upstairs," whose title refers to Bertha Mason, the crazed wife whom Mr. Rochester kept hidden in his attic. It's also a nod to the book's brooding protagonist, who resides in a tower room at the University of Oxford.The Star Tribune reviews the US edition of Claire Harman's Charlotte Brontë biography:
Lowell delivers a smart, clever and properly Gothic novel about American Samantha Whipple, who at 20 is the only surviving relative of Patrick Brontë, the father of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and, of course, their bad boy brother, Branwell.
"The Madwoman Upstairs" takes place mostly in modern-day Oxford, where Samantha is studying literature.
Employing her vast knowledge of the works of the Brontë sisters and her superb storytelling skills, Lowell creates in Samantha a woman as lonely and alone in the world as Jane Eyre. (...)
Among the joys of this book — and there are many — are the discussions Samantha has with herself and with James about the Brontë canon, particularly "Jane Eyre," "Wuthering Heights" and, surprisingly and delightfully, the lesser works of Anne Brontë, "Agnes Grey" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall." (...)
Deftly, Lowell combines a rollicking treasure hunt with a wickedly dark story of what it means to feel alone in the world.
It's Lowell's voice of authenticity in all matters Brontë that empowers "The Madwoman Upstairs." She does such a magnificent job evoking the sisters' lives and writings that, like me, you may pluck that dusty copy of "Jane Eyre" off the bookshelf and begin falling in love with Mr. Rochester all over again. (Carol Memmott in the Minnesota Star Tribune)
More than 150 years after the publication of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre," popular culture is still fascinated with the novel's heroine. The plain yet passionate governess born of Brontë's imagination has spawned films, parodies, spinoffs, sequels, T-shirts, scented candles, jewelry and at least one board book. But how much is known about the author herself?The Irish Independent also explores our ongoing fascination with Jane Eyre:
Biographer Claire Harman ("Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World") takes on the story of the multitalented and tragic Charlotte Brontë and her extended family in a meticulous history beginning with the early origins of the Brontë name and ending with the 20th-century dissolution of the Brontës' possessions.
Harman utilizes a chronological format, tracing the Brontë family's growth and, as they lost children and the Brontë mother, decline throughout Charlotte's early years. (...)
"Do you … find it easy when you sit down to write," Brontë wrote to fellow author Elizabeth Gaskell, "to isolate yourself from all those ties and their sweet associations — [so] as to be quite your own woman — uninfluenced, unswayed by the consciousness of how your work may affect other minds?" While it may not be necessary for every fan of "Jane Eyre" to read Harman's biography of its famous author, it does bring a better understanding of the woman behind the girl who has captured so many hearts. (Meganne Fabrega)
And then, 200 years ago this April, one of the world's first proto-feminists was born and, by extension, one of the feistiest and independent literary heroines. At the age of 31, Charlotte Brontë published her most enduring work, Jane Eyre, under the name Currer Bell. The novel would birth a most "intemperate and unpaved chaste" heroine in the form if its titular character. History would deem the book, which chronicles the emotions and experiences of a women on the cusp of moral and spiritual awakening, as a revolutionary work of fiction. Brontë, in turn, has been called "the first historian of the private consciousness" and a literary fore-sister of the likes of James Joyce and Marcel Proust.More Irish newspapers, the Irish Examiner reviews Sam Baker's The Woman Who Ran:
Jane Eyre swims against the tide in a number of ways - after a brutal and loveless childhood, she is principled and sceptical. It also quickly becomes clear that she has not blossomed into a stirring beauty. Initially, she fights for Mr Rochester's affections alongside his fiancee Blanche Ingram, who is beautiful and talented (if unkind) in ways that Jane isn't. Jane's plainness becomes a sizeable obstacle in her life as she is denied compassion, affection and sympathy time and time again. Her lack of beauty keeps her in a lowly place that she needs to fight her way out of. It doesn't take much imagination to look at the portrait of Brontë and see the image of Jane herself, and it's impossible not to see Brontë's own ideas of inner beauty and self-perception peer through. (...)
Brontë and Austen may have gone against the tide with heroines that weren't immediately pleasing to the eye, but it quickly becomes clear that there was indeed a method to their madness. Beauty may well be a literary staple as old as the hills, but those with much more lurking beneath the surface will easily last through the ages. (Tanya Sweeney)
The Woman Who Ran is a clever modernisation of Anne Brontë’s feminist classic The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall, that is intriguing to start and utterly gripping towards the end.Lindsay Faye talks about her upcoming Jane Steele in Publishers Weekly:
Helen is without a doubt the standout feature of the novel; multi-dimensional and resilient, she makes the ideal feminist heroine for the modern-day reader.
Sam Baker manages to masterfully unravel a story of trauma, abuse, and devastation to expose the need to confront painful truths in order to rebuild and survive. (Erin Bateman)
When I set out to write Jane Steele, it was out of a profound respect for Jane Eyre. The fact that the protagonist has to survive a wretched boarding school becomes much more resonant when you understand that Charlotte Brontë lost two sisters whose health was ruined by a similar establishment. She didn’t sit down and sip a cup of tea about it. She didn’t take a turn in her garden about it. She wrote a novel about it, invented a pen name so that her gender could be masked, and captured many, many hearts with her fearlessness and wild Gothic prose.The Telegraph has already found a 'new' E.L. James, L.S. Hilton:
Certainly she is no innocent, submissive Anastasia Steele, the heroine of Grey. Instead, Judith is an assertive self-made woman, with an Oxbridge degree and an upmarket job in a prestigious London auction house (think Sotheby’s or Bonham’s) who knows what she wants – socially, sexually, financially – and sets out to get it. If Anastasia nods back to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Judith is William Thackeray’s Becky Sharp reborn. (Victoria Lambert)The Express Tribune interviews the children author Rukhsana Khan:
She recalled Lord of the Rings and Daughter of the Nile as some of her best reads. “I got into fantasy reading, then came across some really bad fantasy, which made me just hate it,” she said, making a face at the mention. Jane Eyre, Jane Austen novels and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain remain her favourite novels from childhood.And Caixin Online talks about another author, Lijia Zhang:
Lijia Zhang burst onto the international literary scene in 2008 with a memoir about her rebellious journey from disillusioned factory worker who spearheaded a walkout in support of the Tiananmen Square demonstrators in 1989 to becoming a writer and journalist. Her first book, Socialism is Great! A Worker's Memoir of the New China, published by Atlas & Co., describes how she dreamed of escaping the stultifying routine of factory life, while reading Jane Eyre hidden within the folds of The People's Daily. The book has since been translated into seven languages. (Catherine Sutherland)Wilmslow.co.uk announces an upcoming performance of Publick Transport's We Are Brontë. Operation100books posts about Jane Eyre.
Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life by Samantha Ellis, book review: A deeply sympathetic and interesting re-evaluation of a woman ahead of her time.This Guardian article on the severe weather warnings for Yorkshire and Humber is illustrated with a snowy picture of the path to the Brontë Falls in Haworth.
Samantha Ellis turns her attention to the youngest of the Brontë sisters, Anne, in her latest book, and realises she wasn't as meek as she was presented, after reading a sprightly letter the author wrote five weeks before she died, aged 29. (...)
As such, Take Courage is as much an account of Ellis’s own discovery of Anne's work as it is that of her subject’s life, and herein lies the book's unique appeal. Ellis – who is, it should be noted, as intelligent and perceptive a reader as she is an evocative storyteller – truly writes from the heart, which isn’t to say she hasn’t done her research. She has. But if you’re looking for a run-of-the-mill scholarly biography heavy with footnotes, this isn’t what Take Courage is. (Lucy Scholes)
5) Wuthering Heights (Brontë): I like the Gothic nature of this twisted romance, but too many pages are spent describing characters’ treks on foot through the desolate moors. The novel’s tedious length could easily be cut in half if the characters simply drove their station wagons (Subarus, if they want to remain angsty and outdoorsy). (Aaron Widmar)RadioTimes interviews the author Jilly Cooper:
Mount! took her six years to write and Leo, who had Parkinson’s for 13 years, died three years ago. Several of the characters in the book are based on carers who looked after them. “God, they were wonderful, they were such friends. It’s so brave because they come over from South Africa or Zimbabwe and send their money back home. It must be frightening looking after a slightly crazy old lady in a big house – like Jane Eyre, really – but they’re just brilliant.” (Liz Hoggard)Bookbub recommends winter reads:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëCuddlebuggery reviews the recent Jane Eyre audiobook read by Thandie Newton:
The young orphan Jane Eyre inhabits a fragile position. Born to a good family but with no wealth of her own, Jane is sent to live with her uncle’s family — an arrangement that turns sour when he dies — and then to Lowood, a punitive and tyrannically run boarding school for girls. As she matures into adulthood, Jane’s fiery spirit and independence grow more acute, as does her sensitivity to the world around her. Now governess of the secluded Thornfield Hall, the first place she has ever really felt at home, Jane falls in love with the passionate and impulsive Edward Rochester, master of the house. Just when it seems her luck has finally changed, Jane discovers the secret of the attic — a terrible revelation that threatens to destroy her dreams of happiness forever.
Narrated in the unforgettable voice of its remarkable heroine, Jane Eyre is a timeless tale of heartbreak, mystery, and romance that shines a brilliant light into the dark corners of Victorian society. (Amy Brady)
Thandie Newton’s narration was even better than I expected. Her voice brought the novel to life and at times, I could have sworn several different people narrated instead of just her. It was very apparent that she had a healthy amount of respect for the novel, and her reading, imparted the same into me. It felt like her voice said, “These words are amazing, this prose is magic, this story enchanting. I’m thrilled to be reading them to you. Let’s bask in in Brontë’s brilliance together.” Who could say no to that? I was very impressed and believe listening to this version was the best decision for me. I never was once bored because Newton demanded all my attention. (Steph Sinclair)The Spectator reviews Not Just Jane: Rediscovering Seven Amazing Women Writers Who Transformed British Literature by Shelley DeWees:
Shelley DeWees has written a book about the lives of ‘seven amazing women writers who transformed British literature’. She ingenuously confesses that when she started out, she only really knew of five female British authors between 1800 and 1940: Jane Austen, two Brontës, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf. (I suppose she had heard of a third Brontë, but still…).By the way, we don't agree with the title of the article. No writer is justly 'forgotten'. In any case, there are writers who are not worth a vindication.
According to “Socialism is Great!”, Nanjing-born Zhang spent political study sessions reading a copy of Jane Eyre hidden inside a People’s Daily, in order to learn English and in a wry comment on the usefulness of these meetings. But one longs for the judicious brevity of, say, Chuck Palahniuk, rather than a Victorian sensibility that can seem rather too much in love with novel-writing. (Mike Cormack)Fresh Fiction interviews the author Barbara Claypole White:
Yona Zeldis McDonough: Which authors have influenced you most?Fairy Folklore talks about changelings in literature:
BCW: That’s a tough question because every novel I read influences me. The three writers who’ve had the greatest impact are probably Jodi Picoult, Marian Keyes, and Denyse Devlin. Jodi Picoult pushes me outside my comfort zone as a reader, which is where I want to be as a writer. Plus, who doesn’t want to write like Jodi? Marian Keyes taught me you could tackle dark subjects with humor, and Denyse Devlin showed me how to peel back the layers of a relationship. Oh, and I have to give a shout-out to Charlotte Brontë, because in my opinion you can learn everything you need to know about writing fiction by reading Jane Eyre Best. Novel. Ever.
Likewise, in literature, a sinister note may intrude. The tempestuous Heathcliff, in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, is often accused of being a changeling. When he is first brought home, Ellen Dean is inclined to put him out on the landing in the hope he will have vanished by morning. Ideas springing from an older, darker mythology of fairies still lingered.Bahnreads recommends reading Jane Eyre. Charlotte Fiehn posts a positive review of To Walk Invisible. The last Christmas of the Red House Museum can be revisited in this post by Vesna Armstrong Photography. So nice as it is sad (and bitter, thinking in the stupid short sight of some local governments).
A portrait of Patrick Brontë, whose daughters Emily, Charlotte and Anne wrote some of the most celebrated novels in the English literary canon, is to be returned to its rightful place in the family's former home after going missing for more than a century.The author Sarah Zettel is a bit confused mentioning Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on BSCReview:
Four weeks ago, The Independent reported that the rare picture, which had not been seen since being sold by the Museum of Brontë Relics in 1898, was discovered in a cardboard box at a Midlands antique fair, in its original gilt frame.
On Wednesday, it was sold by an auction house in Surrey for £1,476 – more than double its estimated value. The buyer, who called in her bids by phone and saw off competition from a London antique dealer, is from the south of England, and she had read about the portrait in The Independent.
She has decided to donate it to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, west Yorkshire, after reading that its directors could not afford to bid themselves. The woman, an office worker in her early 60s, wished to remain anonymous, but in an email to this newspaper she explained her motivations for buying the portrait.
"My husband saw the article in The Independent initially and, knowing my interest in the Brontës, drew it to my attention," she wrote. "Having read the article, which I found very interesting, the photograph seemed to say 'buy me', and I just thought it would be nice to own a piece of Brontë memorabilia – if I could afford it.
"I am a Brontë fan, particularly of Charlotte, but I'm not manic about it. I then checked [the auction house] website and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed wrong for the photograph to be in private hands, it should be back at the Parsonage where it belonged, so I decided that if I were successful, I would donate it to the museum.
"I must say that I was pushed to my financial limit to get the photograph, but the surprise and delight of the lady to whom I spoke at the museum was well worth it."
The woman added that she hoped to return the portrait to the museum in a few weeks. Andrew McCarthy, the museum's director, said he was "absolutely delighted" to hear it would soon be hanging in its rightful place in the Parsonage.
"We do get a lot of support from people in a lot of different ways, but usually it's from members of the Brontë Society who we know care about the family's heritage," he said. "When this kind of thing happens it's particularly gratifying, because it's an act of kindness from someone who just read about this picture and realised they could do something to help us, and she's really made a big difference."
Elizabeth Gaskell, in her 1857 biography of Charlotte Brontë, described the Rev Brontë as a "strange" and"half-mad" man who was "not naturally fond of children". In the portrait he is gazing into the distance with haughty austerity. (Chris Green)
In Shaman Drum I found an Anne Bronte novel, a genuine early feminist work that her more famous sister Charlotte had tried to stop from being published.It is true that Charlotte Brontë stated that she didn't much like Anne's second work, but it's untrue that she tried to stop it from being published. What she actually did is not give it to her own editors, Smith, Elder & Co. for republication after Emily and Anne were dead, in 1850, partly because Thomas Newby still owned the copyright to it. Instead she gave them Agnes Grey to publish in a single volume with Wuthering Heights, neither of whose copyrights - it was decided - belonged to Newby.
Give them entertainment. Interpret the assignments they give you in the strangest ways possible. Brighten their lives with analyses of Jane Eyre's prediction of the nuclear arms race; expand their realms of thinking by debating with them the literary manifestations of Shakespeare's desire to exterminate the human race and repopulate the Earth with small rabbits.Lijia Zhang's Socialism is Great! is recommend by the New York Times Paperback Row:
Ladies and gentlemen, these kind teachers put up with mindless, poorly worded droning of identical themes for years _ the least you can do is provide them the enjoyment of having a genuine lunatic in one of their classes. (Jessie Matus)
This coming-of-age memoir, written in fluent English (Zhang taught herself by reading “Jane Eyre” during political study sessions), traces a life of resistance and personal struggle. (Elsa Dixler)ReadJunk interviews Bruce Campbell. The actor talks about his character in Burn Notice, Sam Axe:
What is something people don’t know about Sam Axe?We have a new category: a virtual Brontëite.
[Sam] reads a lot. He reads fiction, because it takes away from the reality; and that his favorite book is Wuthering Heights. That Sam is a secret romantic. That’s all I can reveal. I’ll have to kill you if I tell you more. (Adam Coozer)
Wild-eyed, bushy-haired fellow on moors causes havoc with local females. If you haven't time to read it, listen to song of same name.Il Sussidiario (Italy) talks about Stephenie Meyer's New Moon and guess who is referenced:
Un unione tra i due che ha quasi del soprannaturale (non a caso in Eclipse sarà citato Cime tempestose di Emily Brönte, in cui i protagonisti Heathcliff e Catherine sembrano indissolubili, nella vita come dopo la morte). Un “oltre” le loro stesse volontà cui debbono piegarsi. E che non li tradisce mai. Troppo metafisico per quello che in fondo è il racconto del primo vero amore di due ragazzi? (Eva Anelli) (Google translation)Televizier.nl and TV-Visie publish information about the airing of Jane Eyre 2006 on Nederland 2.
The Argus has an article on a temporary exhibition at the County Museum, Dundalk, Ireland.The first [exhibition] celebrates the county’s connection to Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte in the exhibition ‘The Reverend Patrick Bronte: A Life In Ireland’.If you are in the area you may be interested in going. It runs until the end of August and admission is free. The museum's website has pictures of its temporal exhibitions and a couple from Patrick's can be seen.
The Bronte sisters’ grandfather, Hugh, lived in the Boyne Valley, near Drogheda until the age of 16 when he ran way to the lime kilns at Mount Pleasant and it was here that he met his future wife Alice McCrory. Hugh’s reputation as a storyteller of renown and it is sometime said that this gift was passed on to his renowned grand-daughters.
The exhibition concentrates for the most part on the life experiences of one of Hugh’s children, Patrick, father of Charlotte, Emily and Anne, and his life in the south Down area.
The Stirrup restaurant in the Brontë Village of Howarth, West Yorkshire, has been sold to a London restaurateur after attracting international interest.That's not all for Brontë Country today: the Harrogate Advertiser has an article on local artist Clifford William Blakey whose work can be currently seen at Anstey Galleries (Harrogate, UK).
Created from three former weavers’ cottages, the restaurant lies in the village’s narrow cobbled Main Street close to Howarth Parsonage, where the Brontë family lived between 1820 and 1861.
Howarth, on the eastern slope of the Pennine moors in the Worth Valley, is within easy walking distance of Howarth Moors, the Brontë Waterfalls and Top Withens farm (the inspiration for Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights).
The restaurant can seat up to 40 diners across two dining rooms.
The building is made from Yorkshire stone with mullioned stone window frames, period-style sash windows and a cottage-style décor inside with beamed ceilings and two open fireplaces.
For the owners, there is three-bedroom accommodation on the first floor along with a private garden and rockery to the rear.
New owner, Polly Costin from Wanstead, previously ran a restaurant in London for 14 years serving modern European cuisine.
The Leeds office of Christie + Co sold the freehold off a guide price of £345,000.on behalf of Jane and Frank Parkin, who have run the restaurant since 1965. (Angela Frewin)
The Dales, with hilly horizons and stone walls, outcrops of trees and rivers are the stuff of dreams to Clifford and to follow this round to Penistone and the Bronte Country stirred up all the romantic ideas which flow through his work.On a different - but still visual - format, Flickr user stevec77 has uploaded a beautiful set of pictures from Brontë Country as well - highly worth looking at.
Clifford said: “The inspiration for all my work comes from the ever changing relationship between the weather, light, land and sea.
“Yorkshire had everything I was looking for when I planned this exhibition of paintings.
“The coastline, for example, is rich with high clifftops, rugged seas, small fishing villages and I have witnessed some dramatic skies there that would be the envy of anywhere in the world.
“Moving inland across the North Yorkshire Moors there is an ever shifting array of colour through the seasons, from the burnt moorland of spring and early summer to the beautiful heather clad hills of late summer.
“Painting in such places is a real challenge and a joy.”
Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche made a brief visit to Shibden Hall to film scenes for Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights in 1991 – the first movie to attempt to tackle the entirety of the novel.The book is officially released today and next Monday at 7pm Tony Earnshaw will be at The Viaduct Cafe, Dean Clough, Halifax, for a talk-and-signing session organised by Fred Wade Books.
"I enjoyed the challenge of playing a character as dark as Heathcliff – you have to bring your own darkness to it," revealed Fiennes. "I'd like to have gone even further with it."
One might expect the detail surrounding such productions to have been lost in the mists of time until one embraces the ordinary folk who found themselves gently press-ganged into taking part.
Thus it was the humble movie extras that provided some of the cornerstones in building a composite picture of Yorkshire's film heritage, along with intriguing photographs and snapshots of the films themselves.
With the support of various editors and archivists we trawled through newspaper picture libraries, unearthing images that had not been seen for more than half a century. Many of the images from Room at the Top were provided by the Courier, along with an image of Fiennes and Binoche at Shibden Hall surrounded by the paraphernalia of filmmaking.
Jill Santoriello will be making her Broadway debut by bringing the French Revolution to life. Santoriello is the book writer, composer and lyricist for the show, a project she began working on more than 20 years ago.Jane Eyre. The Musical Rochester, James Barbour, features in this musical, which begins previous on August 19 and opens on September 18. Not the first time that Santoriello's Dickens adaptation is featured on BrontëBlog.
“I had already written a really, really terrible ‘Wuthering Heights’ musical, and my brother convinced me, go somewhere else with that because everyone's dead at the end. It's just depressing, you need to have something positive,” said Santoriello. “So I looked around for another story that would be equally romantic and epic and have all those passions that I found so intriguing as a teenager. And I read ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ and I fell in love with it.” (Shazia Khan)
Again, she writes in the book: "My 'Dear John' letter to him was more or less a copy of Jane's confession to Mr Rochester. I wished I was more beautiful, I said, better educated, and of better social standing. But my spirit was equal to his, and I wanted to be treated as an equal. If I wasn't as important to him as he to me, I just had to give him up." [...]And if a governess is mentioned a reference to Jane Eyre is cumpolsury. The Telegraph reviews the film (based on the book of the same title by Winifred Watson, published in 1938) Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.
"Traditionally, a person was defined by relationships, and the individual didn't have a place," she says. "In my own transformation, Jane Eyre played an important part. The book struck a chord."
Zhang says that she was viewed as an ugly child, partly because she had dark skin, something perceived to be "almost a crime". (Rowan Callick)
It's never been easy being a governess in an English novel: from Jane Eyre onwards, such a heroine is traditionally as drab as a sparrow and only a sacking away from penury. In Miss Pettrigrew Lives for a Day (PG), adapted from Winifred Watson's 1938 novel, Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) is no different. (Jenny McCartney)And finally the blog Valleys of the Mind reviews Villette and Popgeezer describes Twilight as the 'Jane Eyre' for the Hannah Montana generation (sic).
Limitations, too, whether deliberately or involuntarily taken on, open people’s awareness to mortal frailty and the majesty there is in living with it. At the end of the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, the imposing and romantic Rochester is made “blind and a cripple” in a massive fire that destroyed his manor, Thornfield. When Jane returns to him after a year-long estrangement and sees the scar on his forehead and “mere stump” where his hand once was, she says to Rochester that, contrary to his concern that his wounds are repellent, she “is in danger of loving you too well for all this.” He confesses that his injuries have forced him to give up vain pride in his strength. Although he welcomes her “ministry,” their two bodies become shelter for each other: she sits on his knee as they talk in the woods, and later he uses her shoulder as “prop and guide” as they head home.Xomba also uses Jane Eyre for didactic purposes in an article entitled 'How Jane Eyre is a Role Model for Post-Modern Girls'.
I would not wish blindness or loss of limb or chronic illness on anyone as a real-life lesson in vulnerability. There are other ways to put one’s self in another person’s shoes or wheelchair, and these include film, literature, personal accounts, and honest conversation. The virtual world — if enlarged by all the attributes that comprise variation in the human form — might also offer us a partial entrance. (Jane Kokernak)
The opening omits Austen’s famous first line describing her heroine as “handsome, clever and rich.” Instead, in a few quick visual strokes, it paints a Brontë-like tableau of 19th-century hard knocks. (The screenwriter, Sandy Welch, also wrote a recent “Jane Eyre.” ) (Alessandra Stanley)More pop culture, as the Galway City Tribune writes once more about singer Albert Niland.
Shortly after that, his live solo acoustic recording of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights gained him national prominence on the airwaves.You can listen to his cover here.
But Lijia was a free spirit to a fault — and ambitious to boot. She first exercised rebellion by soaking up as much Western culture and literature as possible, such as secretly reading Jane Eyre and Great Expectations, and eventually through forbidden meetings with lovers (recounted in such frank detail that one hopes at least some were given pseudonyms). (David Forsmark)And The Times Literary Supplement reviews Incest and Influence: The private life of bourgeois England by Adam Kuper and focuses again today on the subject of marriage between cousins.
'Cumbres borrascosas', una historia de amor apasionante y de la que se han rodado varios filmes, es la segunda entrega de la colección 'Libros bilingües de película', que Trome publica para que refuerces tus conocimientos del idioma inglés. La podrás adquirir este viernes a solo 5 soles, más el cupón de descuento. (Google translation)Categories: Alert, Books, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Theatre, Wuthering Heights
The Lebanese Daily Star reviews the exhibition Creation of The Creator by Leila Kanso in the Al-Mada Gallery in Beirut, Lebanon (until next April 25). It contains a piece entitled Wuthering Heights (in the picture(?), source):Any art exhibition that includes a painting entitled "Wuthering Heights" might be expected to yield a heady sense of emotion and corporeality. Emily Bronte's classic Victorian gothic novel is a tale of fierce passion set among the moors of Yorkshire, one whose exploration of the darker side of humanity retains the ability to shock 161 years after its publication.More artists with Wuthering Heights inspiration. La la La la La talks with Robert Godfrey, narrative painter.
However, the tone of the exhibition at hand - Leila Kanso's "Creation of The Creator" - is not as dark as the title of this particular oil-on-canvas piece would suggest. Nor, indeed, is the subject matter of the painting itself. Just as Bronte's novel offers conflicting aspects of Cathy and Heathcliffe's destructive but loving relationship, Kanso's "Wuthering Heights" reflects powerful emotion with thick, red strokes that contrast with a graceful female form evocative of elegance and sensitivity. (Laura Wilkinson)
The second series I had just concluded was Queer Dreams in respect of Emily Bronte and the ninth chapter of Wuthering Heights.Joanne Harris is interviewed in the Yorkshire Post. Her love for Wuthering Heights (check previous post) is highlighted:
Name your favourite Yorkshire book/author/artistThe International Herald Tribune reviews Socialism is Great! A Worker's Memoir of the New China by Lijia Zhang, where it can read the following:
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë. An astonishing novel on so many levels, and which I think conveys the landscape and atmosphere of the Yorkshire moors better than any other work in fiction.
She also taught herself English by listening to the music of the Carpenters and devouring classic English novels. During interminable political study sessions, she read "Jane Eyre," hiding it behind The People's Daily. (Joseph Kahn)The Bolton News announces some of the local activities related to the celebration of the national year of reading. In June we have a Charlotte Brontë meets S/F event:
LIBRARIES in Bolton are ready to spring into action to celebrate the national year of reading.The South Bend Tribune begins its chronicle of the conference “A Festival of Our Own: Women Writers at Notre Dame University" (next April 15 and 16) with a mention to the Brontës:
People will be encouraged to read every month, with events running from April until December. (...)
June will cover "Reading Escapes", comparing science fiction to the escapism of Jane Austin [sic] or Charlotte Bronte. (Saiga Chaudhary)
Women writers have come a long way since the days when the Brontë sisters used the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell to publish “Jane Eyre,” “Wuthering Heights” and “Agnes Grey,” respectively. (Jeremy D. Bonfiglio)On the blogosphere some reactions to yesterday's news about Natalie Portman's casting as Cathy in the new Wuthering Heights film project. Some generally positive ones (check this imdb thread or the comments on Comingsoon.net) and some clearly very negative, for instance The Egalitarian Bookworm.
As a result, the story is more passionate, more personal and intimate than it could’ve been if it had been told in third person. The reader isn’t certain that these characters are completely honest with themselves but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that they care so passionately.
In the end, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Oxford World’s Classics)offers a satisfying read, even 160 years later. (M.D. Benoit)
Ready When You Are, C.B. is also thrilled with Anne Brontë's second novel. So much so that after reading the discussion on dovegreyreader, he has decided to organize a giveaway of novels by the sisters (The Tenant, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are the chosen ones). The post contains also a nice account of his visit to Haworth.
By the way, Storyteller Inc. has published two parts of a story with the name The Tenant of Wilde Hall.
Good news about the number of visitors in the Brontë Parsonage Museum. From The Telegraph & Argus:Tourist hotspots in the district are bucking the recession as they report an increase in visitors.EDIT: Also in Keighley News.
So far this summer, East Riddlesden Hall in Keighley is one of the best performing National Trust properties in Yorkshire.
And both the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway and the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth are recording improved tourist figures. (...)
A National Trust spokesman said: “All our properties are up on visitors and East Riddlesden Hall is one of our best performing sites in Yorkshire with an increase of 21 per cent on last year.
“People are staying at home and our feedback from visitors shows they are looking to do things near to home and they are making re-visits.”
The increase reflects a similar rise announced by English Heritage, which said in the first quarter of the financial year, its sites have reported a 25 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.
Andrew McCarthy, director of the Bronte Parsonage Museum, said: “We are significantly up in the first half of this year on last year – ten per cent in May and June.
“We have to work a lot harder, especially in the recession, to give good value for money and, as well as visiting the museum, visitors can get involved in art and crafts, enjoy theatrical performances, poetry reading and picnics.” (Clive White)
16-year-old Zhang(...) [,o]n her own, she takes to studying English, and reading Jane Eyre and other English literary classics on the sly. (Jon Santiago)Free e-books is the subject of this article on the St Louis Literature Examiner. Talking about Project Gutenberg it says
The top 100 downloaded ebooks include Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, the Kama Sutra, The Art of War, Frankenstein, and Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Audios available include Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Dracula, books of the Bible, and various famous poems. (Linda Austin)As a matter of fact, Wuthering Heights reached the 33rd place last month and Jane Eyre was the 26th.
ACTORS running off with co-stars is nothing new - and now TOM HARDY and CHARLOTTE RILEY have fallen prey to this showbiz trap.Now you know.
Tom has left girlfriend Rachael Speed - mum to his baby Louis - to be with Charlotte.
The couple met on the set of ITV costume drama Wuthering Heights.
He plays a fiery Heathcliff to her Cathy.
They then starred in Sky One's recent crime drama The Take.
A source said: "The sparks flew from the moment they met but both of them tried hard to keep their feelings under wraps.
"But they were spending so much time together that in the end it was impossible to ignore their feelings."
In his latest effort, he sweeps the aura of romantic legend away from Charlotte, Emily, and Anne and examines who they were as writers and as people, working separately and together. The Taste of Sorrow is a masterful work, written with admiration, deep understanding, and imaginative skill while remaining faithful to the historical record. It’s totally engrossing as well, the only downside being that it may spoil the enjoyment of other fictional accounts. (Sarah)A Brontë country mention in an article about British tourism on Payson Roundup, LeadingChurch comments about a sermon by Dr. Timothy J. Keller, Waiting and Living by Faith, which makes extensive quotes from Jane Eyre, The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse reviews I Walked with a Zombie 1943, Wuthering Expectations talks about "Belgium-bashers": Baudelaire and Charlotte Brontë. Flickr user Brimac the 2nd uploads a picture of Top Withens. Finally Distant Memories summarises several Wuthering Heights adaptations.
The Kilburn Times talks about the redevelopment of South Kilburn Estate project (Brent, West London) which includes a so-called Brontë House:An announcement on whether this next phase of regeneration - and the future demolition of Austin (sic), Fielding and Bronte Houses - is expected in February next year. (Will Davis)This Brontë House
is an 18 storey tower block on the South Kilburn Estate in Brent, West London. It was approved in 1969 and is 51m tall. (Ukhousing Wiki)A picture of this (gloomy) building can be found here (Picture credits: Nicobobinus).
Alternative universities, train marathons to the north, unfaithful lovers and faith-inspiring literary works (Charlotte Bronte underpins an unforgettable scene, which I won't spoil), all feature along the way. (John D. Van Fleet)The Memphis Commercial Appeal recovers local memories, one of them involves a performance of Jane Eyre:
125 years ago: 1883Picture: Charlotte Thompson as Jane Eyre (Source: NYPL Digital Gallery)
Mme. Modjeska, one of the greatest actresses of the times, will open her engagement at Leubrie's Theater tomorrow with a matinee on Christmas also scheduled. Tonight Charlotte Thompson and her company will close their engagement at the theater with their presentation of "Jane Eyre."
The 1884 programme for the Star Theatre, New York, plays down any link even with the novel and places its emphasis on comedy.The Guardian includes a Brontë choice in one of its 2008 in books quiz question:
11. Who paid £1.95m for a limited edition?The correct answer is not Brontë but... well, we'll let you play.
1. The British Museum, which bought one of Charlotte Brontë's Angria fantasies, which she wrote in miniature handmade copies as a child
2. Bond producer Cubby Broccoli, who bought copy 007 from a run of 10 copies of the latest Bond sequel, packaged in a secret compartment of a specially customised Aston Martin
3. “The number one fan” of Candace Bushnell's original manuscript for Sex and the City
4. Amazon bought a hand-written copy of JK Rowling's disappointing Harry Potter follow-up at a charity auction
(John Crace)
Book and tickets competitionNorth Yorkshire Advertiser also features the production and Nadia Clifford, who plays Jane, and Tim Delap, who plays Mr Rochester and others.
Courtesy of the Grand Opera House and the National Theatre, What's On has two prizes to be won. First prize is a copy of Charlotte Brontë’s novel and two tickets to the opening night of Jane Eyre in York on May 22 at 7.30pm; second prize is a pair of tickets for the same performance.
Question: Where was Sally Cookson's production of Jane Eyre first staged?
Send your answer, with your name, address and daytime phone number, either on a postcard to Charles Hutchinson, Jane Eyre Competition, The Press, 84-86 Walmgate, York, YO1 9YN, or by emailing charles.hutchinson@nqyne.co.uk, marked Jane Eyre Competition, by next Friday. Usual competition rules apply. (Charles Hutchinson)
Nadia Clifford has booked all her “digs” for the six-month tour of Sally Cookson's energetic and imaginative new adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre [...]Chichester Observer also has an article about the production.
"This will be my first tour so I'm really excited about seeing a lot of the places we're going to that I've not been before. I'm up to seeing a lot more of the country because I've never had a chance to travel."
The tour will bring the Manchester born and bred actress to York Grand Opera House in May and Newcastle Theatre Royal in July in the title role. Nadia remains on stage throughout the ensemble piece which is played out on a multi-tiered set with most of the cast playing a variety of characters.
Nadia knew from the start that the production was going to be full-on as her audition was far from ordinary. "Often people will see you for ten or 15 minutes and then you're out the door. Sally really works with you, mining the text in that original audition. That's great because it allows you to play and be free. My first audition was the scene in which Jane is ten years old. Sally said, 'go for it'," explains Nadia during a break in rehearsals.
"There have been a few days where the magnitude of what the show is going to be for me has hit home. It's exciting and I really am relishing the challenge but emotionally and physically I have to pace myself and make sure I get enough sleep. I'm eating well, I'm 'juicing' like crazy, I'm running. Just really looking after myself.
"I don't leave the stage. I'm the only person on stage for the entirety of the show. All my costume changes are on stage. We're hoping it will be thrilling for the audience, but it's a bit like being an athlete in training. We have a movement director with us every day, a voice person, a composer, a fight director, Sally the director, and an assistant director. They're aware how taxing it is." [...]
Nadia has read Jane Eyre several times, first aged 14 when she "completely and utterly loved it". Her love of Shakespeare, drama and writing put her in the minority at school and she identified with Jane "and the idea of having a world in your head and making up stories". At 23, she read the book again and got even more out of it because of the richness of the language and the way Brontë shows the landscape, an important part and another character in the story.
Being Northern (from Lancashire) Nadia is aware of the responsibility to get the Yorkshire accent right, seeking vocal help from friends from the region. She knows how important the voice is as someone who won their first role in a school production at the age of five because "I had the loudest voice and was the smallest in the class".
Tim Delap also went through a rigorous audition process before being cast as Rochester. He'd heard "amazing things" of the production at Bristol Old Vic and later the National Theatre, but not had the chance to see it.
"It was the most rigorous audition process I've been through. It's such an ensemble show with movement and choral work as well as the big emotional scenes that Jane and Rochester have together. Rochester is quite a physical character so Sally just wanted to put me through my paces at the initial audition. I had two or three recalls, then we paired up with different Janes to see how we worked together. Nadia and I were chosen as the pair."
Tim also gets to play other characters and animals. "It's nice not having to focus on Rochester all the time, but come in playing a little brat, then playing a girl at the school and just being part of the ensemble. It's thrilling and a rollercoaster because it's non-stop. You're constantly playing different characters. It's unlike anything I've done before but thrilling." [...]
"Charlotte Brontë's voice is incredibly strong and unique and powerful. It's a brilliant feminist novel about equal rights and the show really puts that across well. Also the love story of Jane and Rochester is not your average love story. There is a real meeting of minds. He's this wealthy, very troubled landowner who has this dark secret and has treated his mentally ill wife in a very dubious way.
"Jane meets him and confronts him. She stands up to him and that changes him. It's a fascinating relationship. Jane doesn't want to get married for the sake of it. Actually she fights against marriage because she doesn't want to be a kept woman. The novel is modern in many ways."
It’s weird that a prickly old maid can describe us with such prescience and poignancy. But she did, and she’s not the only one. Emily Dickinson, Emily Brontë and Flannery O’Connor have all had their moments on the big or small screen since the start of the year. Our current world is different from theirs, but these secluded, single women can still speak so precisely and powerfully to our lives. (Nancy Ritter)On the Oxford University Press Blog, Carol Dyhouse, author of Heartthrobs: A History of Women and Desire, discusses 'Heartthrobs and happy endings'.
We don’t lack literary heartthrob types who bring heartache rather than happy endings. Think of Heathcliff – an exemplar of dark passion, but full of brutality towards women and dogs. Emily Brontë makes Heathcliff himself sneer at Isabella as deluded for making him into a ‘hero of romance’, and for feeling soft-hearted about him. Or think of Charlotte Brontë’s Mr Rochester. A potential bigamist, who becomes eligible only when he’s nearly burned to death along with his mad wife. There’s a kind of happy ending, but Rochester’s injuries are serious, and Jane has to take on the heavy duties of carer, even though this gives her some kind of power over him.NRJ (France) discusses set texts by women writers and considers Wuthering Heights an easy read for teenagers.
A l’inverse, il existe des auteures plus abordables, et dont l’importance dans la littérature n’est pas à remettre en cause. Elles sont aussi bien plus susceptibles de plaire aux adolescents. On peut par exemple citer Emily Brontë et Les Hauts de Hurlevent. . . (Translation)Speaking of teenagers and Wuthering Heights, Tiroler Tageszeitung (Austria) reviews the film Siebzehn in which
Paula (Elisabeth Wabitsch) schickt an ihre Freunde ein Foto von einem Kuchen neben der DVD einer Verfilmung von Emily Brontës „Sturmhöhe“ und schon kuschelt und weint man zu dritt in Paulas Bett über Cathys tragische Liebesgeschichte mit Heathcliff. (Translation)The New York Times reviews Stéphane Brizé's film Une Vie, based on a novel by Guy de Maupassant, and finds that its protagonist
is at once a captive of cruel circumstances and a willful, intelligent human being. Her kinship with other 19th-century fictional heroines — Emma Bovary, Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina — is evident. She suffers, but she also reads, thinks and desires, and strives to find a zone of freedom within boundaries dictated by fate and society. (A.O. Scott)Zeit Online (Germany) wonders whether sports and writing are compatible.
Die Wahrnehmung, dass Schriftstellerinnen falsch (nämlich zu verzärtelt und gebrechlich) auf die Welt gekommen sind, wurzelt übrigens im Viktorianismus, der Epoche, in welcher Männer den Sport als erlaubten Schutz vor Übergewicht und Langeweile entdeckten: Während man sich an Jane Austen oder die Brontë-Schwestern als im Siechtum Schreibende erinnert (und sie an Universitäten immer noch gerne als solche unterrichtet), ist Lord Byron trotz Klumpfuß der boxende Poet, der außerdem die Dardanellen durchschwommen hat. (Tijan Sila) (Translation)Paste Magazine reviews the game Prey and finds nothing new under the sun:
On one hand, that fear of what is next feels very much like something in the vein of the Bioshock or Silent Hill franchises. That is to say that the way the game presented its partial information (and the revelation that it was partial) felt very familiar to me, a person who has played all of these games that are getting referenced. On the other hand, and this is the important one, all of those methods date back to 19th century novels like Jane Eyre and The Woman In White and 20th century films like Psycho and The Conversation. The history of the thriller and all of its information control is long and varied within every other medium, and the release of Prey might be the time to fully grab that genre term and wrangle it for the videogames world. (Cameron Kunzelman)The Tablet finds an unexpected 'barometer of British political life' in Keighley and accompanies an article about it with this illustration:
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In recent years, the voters of Keighley have always elected an MP of the winning party so, given the latest polls, Labour’s man faces an uphill battle. But there are factors in his favourLa Vanguardia (Spain) tells about an initiative in Madrid through which locals can vote for the books they want to see in their libraries. Wuthering Heights is said to have been voted among other classics. Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany) lists Charlotte Brontë among other authors mentioned in the works of writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón.
Tucked away along the banks of the Pennine river Worth in the heart of Brontë country, Keighley is an unlikely barometer of British political life. Its stone chapels, Victorian terraces and old mills speak of socialism and Methodism, not the language of focus groups and spin doctors. But over many decades, “Keethli” (as it is pronounced) has sent an MP of the majority party to Westminster. Whoever wins here usually wins the country. (Paul Routledge)
