A couple of scholar books with Brontë content:Dress Culture in Late Victorian Women's Fiction Literacy, Textiles, and Activism
Christine Bayles Kortsch, Eastern University, USA
* Imprint: Ashgate
* Illustrations: Includes 18 b&w illustrations
* Published: November 2009
* Format: 234 x 156 mm
* Extent: 212 pages
* Binding: Hardback
* ISBN: 978-0-7546-6510-6
In her immensely readable and richly documented book, Christine Bayles Kortsch asks us to shift our understanding of late Victorian literary culture by examining its inextricable relationship with the material culture of dress and sewing. Even as the Education Acts of 1870, 1880, and 1891 extended the privilege of print literacy to greater numbers of the populace, stitching samplers continued to be a way of acculturating girls in both print literacy and what Kortsch terms "dress culture." Kortsch explores nineteenth-century women's education, sewing and needlework, mainstream fashion, alternative dress movements, working-class labor in the textile industry, and forms of social activism, showing how dual literacy in dress and print cultures linked women writers with their readers.
Focusing on Victorian novels written between 1870 and 1900, Kortsch examines fiction by writers such as Olive Schreiner, Ella Hepworth Dixon, Margaret Oliphant, Sarah Grand, and Gertrude Dix, with attention to influential predecessors like Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë, and George Eliot. Periodicals, with their juxtaposition of journalism, fiction, and articles on dress and sewing are particularly fertile sites for exploring the close linkages between print and dress cultures. Informed by her examinations of costume collections in British and American museums, Kortsch's book broadens our view of New Woman fiction and its relationship both to dress culture and to contemporary women's fiction.
The Gothic, Postcolonialism and OthernessThe Brontë chapter has a title not to be forgotten: Heathcliff as Terrorist (Chapter 3). If you want to know Tabish Khair's approach is useful to read these previous posts.
Ghosts from Elsewhere
Tabish Khair
Palgrave Macmillan
04 Nov 2009
9780230234062
208 pages
Starting with a re-examination of the role of the colonial/racial Other in mainstream Gothic (colonial) fiction, this book goes on to engage with the problem of narrating the 'subaltern' in the post-colonial context. It engages with the problems of representing 'difference' in lucid conceptual terms, with much attention to primary texts, and highlights the strengths and weaknesses of colonial discourses as well as postcolonialist attempts to 'write back.' While providing rich readings of Conrad, Kipling, Melville, Emily Brontë, Erna Brodber, Jean Rhys and others, it offers new perspectives on Otherness, difference and identity, re-examines the role of emotions in literature, and suggests productive ways of engaging with contemporary global and postcolonial issues.
I have many favorite moments in literature. Manto’s Toba Tek Singh stuck in no-man’s land; Brontë’s Heathcliff wrenching open the window and soliciting Cathy’s ghost to enter. (Margherita Stantica)Another author interviewed, Jacqueline West on Minnesota Reads:
Let’s say Fahrenheit 451 comes to life, which book would you become in order to save it from annihilation?Daemon's Books reviews Bite Me: A Love Story by Christopher Moore and quotes from the novel:
It might be easiest for me to pick something like Jane Eyre (which I already have half-memorized, thanks to that Victorian-obsessed adolescence), but if I had to embody one book in a Fahrenheit 451 sort of world, I would probably choose Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan.
Abby: “I was clearly born in the wrong time. I should have been born in Wuthering Heights times. Although if I was Cathy, I would have hunted down that Heathcliff guy and beat him with a riding crop like a sado-hooker with his Black Card on file. Just sayin’.Associated Content has an article vindicating Jane Eyre 2006; This is Gloucestershire announces the death of actress and writer Betty Paul who debuted as Adèle in 1936; Scrawled in Blue is reading Jane Eyre and thomasenqvist uploads to YouTube a video visiting Haworth and the Parsonage.
A book that means a lot to youThe San Francisco Chronicle reviews Trespass by Valerie Martin, whose reference to Wuthering Heights has been mentioned in the past, and points this connection as well.
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, among others. A great book, but you probably need to be non-European to read it fully. (Lakshmi Indrasimhan)
The idea of the outsider, the poacher, echoes in Chloe's richly described work illustrating "Wuthering Heights." Heathcliff, the outsider of Brontë's novel, becomes symbolic of Chloe's own crumbling universe. Brendan reflects after a particularly vicious confrontation between mother and son over Salome:And precisely talking about illustrating Wuthering Heights! The Hooded Utilitarian posts this information concerning Dame Darcy:
"She feels her territory has been invaded and she is under attack. She wants to throw the intruders out, go back to the way things were, but this, she must realize, is not an option, and so she's panicked. They have a poacher and they have a pregnant soon-to-be daughter-in-law; the outsiders are insiders now, staking their claims." (Lee Thomas)
Dame Darcy, on the other hand, was born to illustrate Jane Eyre. Her stylized, twisted bodies perfectly capture the novel’s air of choked and stifled passion. The book is filled with great drawings, but I think my favorite is an illustration in which Jane kneels before Rochester, who is cross-dressing as a gypsy. His hand is inches from her face, her giant almond eyes seem frozen, as does the fire behind her. A mermaid tschotskes sits almost mockingly on the mantel above her head. The whole image throbs with mystery, unhealthy dominance, and repressed sex. It’s as masterful as one of Berni Wrightson’s classic drawings for Frankenstein — and I can’t think of higher praise. In an online interview, Darcy said she’d like to try *Wuthering Heights* next. Hopefully Viking will continue to demonstrate its good taste by paying her to do so.BrontëBlog liked her Jane Eyre artwork very much and also hopes Viking will take her at her word.
In this way and in others Lispector’s novels resemble those of Jean Rhys, another writer displaced by geography and death of family, with her ellipsis and beautiful phrasing, with narrators who move through relationships and rooms with a wild unhappiness at their perceived encagement.The Hindu talks about political fiction:
Rhys’s “Wide Sargasso Sea” is thought to be the answer to the mysterious wife locked in the upper reaches of the mansion where Jane Eyre is brought to live. The narrator begins as a child growing up on a remote Caribbean island, isolated from her insane mother, wandering the landscape in the same fierce lyric way as Lispector’s characters. Continents apart Rhys and Lispector occupy the same tonal spaces. (Susan Straight)
For me the best political writing has always been that which neither confines itself to politics as a separate sphere nor dissolves it into the realm of the private. Because, it is in the nature of politics to pervade private experiences and vice versa. After all, human beings are reflexive social animals: we live with others as well as in ourselves. For me this has been the charm of such supposedly apolitical novels as Emily Brönte’s (sic) Wuthering Heights and Stendhal’s Le Rouge et le Noir, where in very different ways the politics of class, gender and difference shape the seemingly “private” narratives of love. (Tabish Kahir)Diário de Marilia (Brazil) recommends a local screening of Jane Eyre 2011. The same film is presented in El País (Uruguay):
La crítica ha elogiado en Inglaterra y en Estados Unidos la calidad del film, su recreación de un melodrama que incluye pasión, locura, incendio y ceguera, pero sobre todo ha destacado la labor de su pareja de intérpretes. (Jorge Abbondanza) (Translation)El Mundo about the Little Black Dress:
[H]ago repaso de los modelos que más me han impactado desde que a Coco Chanel se le ocurrió convertirlo en tendencia después de una infancia oscura de 'cumbres borrascosas' en un internado al puro estilo Emily Brontë y/o Jane Eyre. (Beatriz Miranda) (Translation)We wonder which boarding school Emily Brontë wrote about.
Una tarde, esperando a Buñuel, me atrevo a mirar atrás de los libros de teléfono. No me asombra lo que encuentro. El egoísta de Meredith, 'Cumbres borrascosas' de Brontë, 'Tess D'Uberviles' (sic) y 'Jude el oscuro', ambas de Thomas Hardy. Lo confiesa Luis: son las novelas que le hubiese gustado filmar". (Roberto Rondero) (Translation)
La crítica literaria destacó asimismo la presencia de un ser terrible, a la manera de Heathcliff de Cumbres borrascosas, dentro de la novela y que corresponde al mayor de los hermanos que aparecen enfrentados a lo largo de las 161 páginas de Brama. (Josué P. Camacho) (Translation)
Y qué decir de Billy Bud (sic), el marinero protagonista de la novela de Herman Melville, o de Catherine y Heathcliff, los amantes de Cumbres borrascosas. ¿De verdad querríamos parecernos a ellos? Nos gustan las historias tristes, porque nos permiten conjurar nuestros propios temores y realizar a través suyo lo que tal vez en nuestra propia vida no nos atrevimos a hacer, pero algo muy distinto es querer que nos pasen a nosotros. (Translation)Página 12 (Argentina) discusses the books by Aurora Venturini:
“El tornado” [included in Cuentos de Mi Madrastra (1997)] es un cuento gótico protagonizado por dos gatos llamados Heathcliff y Cathy, como los protagonistas de Cumbres borrascosas de Emily Brontë. (Mariana Enríquez) (Translation)Stella Gibbons is going through a revival in Spain and Koult reviews the Spanish translation of Westwood:
Margaret es una mujer educada, sabia, conocedora de la historia; no obstante, sigue siendo una mujer, con las mismas presiones con respecto al matrimonio, los hijos o el hogar que la Elisabeth Bennet de Orgullo y prejuicio o la Catherine Earnshaw de Cumbres Borrascosas. (Arancha Rodríguez) (Translation)Leiweb (Italy) interviews de Irish journalist Kathleen MacMahon:
E quali autrici, in particolare, le piacciono di più?Il Sole (Italy) talks about stories of dark romanticism and mentions Wuthering Heights 2011:
«Sono cresciuta con i romanzi di Jane Austen e delle sorelle Brontë, che non smetto mai di rileggere. (Teresa Mancini) (Translation)
Molto cinema recente si è dedicato ai sentimenti dell'età di soglia. Rimangono vivide le immagini di Cime tempestose di Andrea Arnold, in cui Heathcliff è un ragazzo nero, che soffoca l'impotenza della sua passione per Catherine nello sfiorarsi da vertigine di tessuti e stoffe o in una lotta di corpi fanciulleschi nella terra, come se la sensualità non capisse bene dove affondare. (Cristina Battocletti) (Translation)Ansa (Italy) reviews the novel La Notte alle Mie Spalle by Giampaolo Simi which contains a Wuthering Heights reference:
E il tramite, il grimaldello che riuscira' ad aprirgli quella porta sara' la letteratura, la lettura come scoperta e conoscenza, sara' il romanzo ''Cime tempestose'', del cui protagonista Heathcliff prende il nome in rete per non farsi riconoscere e alla cui lettura convince la figlia. (Paolo Petroni) (Translation)Ваши новости interviews Patricia Barbuiani, director of the play Three Sisters performed in Veliky Novgorod:
– Как Вы считаете, сегодня Чехов актуален?Qué Leer (in Spanish) publishes an article about the Brontë sisters with the usual facts and trivia; BQB:Beth Quinn Barnard is reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; Fascinating--History, Les Livres d'Aline (both in French) and Bibliophilia review Wuthering Heights; For Book's Sake has discovered the (in)famous The Crimes of Charlotte Brontë by James Tully; the Brontë Sisters posts about Vashti's character in Villette; girltherapy reviews Jane Eyre; Writing 'bout Reading has read April Lindner's Jane; Le Projet d'Amour tries to picture Catherine; Roger Walker-Dack's 5 Minute Movie Guide posts about Wuthering Heights 2011.
– В его «Трех сестрах» речь идет о человеческой изоляции, и это я считаю невероятно актуальным сегодня. У Чехова каждая сестра живет в своем собственном мире, несмотря на то, что они все вместе пытаются выжить. Но это выживание выглядит так, как будто каждая живет для себя. Это относится и к героиням сказки «Золушка», одна из которых не родная сестра. А сестры Бронте, наоборот, были очень близки и всегда помогали друг другу. (Арина Попова) (Translation)
Forget stuffy Victorian customs; Mr. Darcy, Mr. Rochester, and Captain Nemo have been taking lessons from Christian Grey of "Fifty Shades" fame in the latest example of erotica-obsession to hit stores. (Husna Haq)And the Calgary Herald remembers that E.L. James herself said
James has cited Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre) and her sister Emily (Wuthering Heights) as literary influences.More about the Fifty Shades book in the Ottawa Citizen:
Men and women’s sexual fantasies are essentially different. That is obvious in the difference between porn and romance. Men want visual cues. Women want stories. Jane Austen was the master of all of the cues, except she wrote with a higher level of sophistication. Jane Eyre pushed the same buttons. (Joanne Laucius)We will be nice and not think that the journalist thinks that Jane Eyre is an author like Jane Austen.
Tapping into the craze for all things erotica, thanks to the sustained popularity of E.L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, Skyhorse Publishing is launching a line of books it says combines "literary class and erotic steam." The books will be eroticized mash-ups of classic novels, and the first title, Jane Eyrotica, by Charlotte Brontë and Karena Rose, will hit in November.DVDfr reviews the French edition of Les Soeurs Brontë 1979:
Jane Eyrotica, Skyhorse says, will delve into the "hidden sexual nature" of the relationship between the central characters of Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, namely Jane and Mr. Rochester. Elaborating on the book, Skyhorse said: "Jane’s unbridled lusts and fantasies, and Mr. Rochester’s kinky fetishes, will be sure to leave you aching for more!" The second book in the series, Fifty Shades of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde and Audrey Ember, is also scheduled for November, and Skyhorse will be rushing both titles, originally slated for early 2013, into stores for the 2012 holiday season.
En réalisant un film sur les Brontë en français, Téchiné ne prétend pas au réalisme mais cherche la vraisemblance. Une fois adoptée cette démarche de stylisation, aussi bien dans la bande-son retravaillée que dans l’image stylisée (magnifique photo signée Bruno Nuytten), le charme et l’émotion du film commencent à effleurer sans que l’on puisse s’y attendre. Si Isabelle Huppert est la plus effacée du lot, Marie-France Pisier prête son immense sensibilité à Charlotte, Isabelle Adjani apporte à Emily la fougue et la modernité de son jeu, tandis que Pascal Greggory, dos vouté comme le voulait André Téchiné, restitue de manière déchirante la déchéance psychologique et physique du personnage de Branwell.Female First interviews the author Monica McInerney:
Les Soeurs Brontë est un film unique dans la filmographie d’André Téchiné. Les sentiments sont simples mais le traitement adopté mérite toute l’attention du spectateur, même plus de trente ans après. (Sabrina Piazzi) (Translation)
Who are your favourite reads?The Baltimore Sun publishes the obituary of the Professor and author Cynthia Earl Kerman:
My childhood favourites were The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit and Little Women by Louisa M Alcott. As an adult, I’ve loved the stories of Charlotte Brontë, Adriana Trigiani, John le Carre, JK Rowling, Roddy Doyle, Garrison Keillor, Clare Chambers, Laurie Graham, Anne Tyler, Jane Austen, Ian Fleming, Philip Pullman, Tana French…
Dr. Kerman became a professor of English language and literature at Villa Julie College, now Stevenson University. Family members said she liked the writings of Charlotte Brontë and Henry James. She retired in 1985. (Jacques Kelly)The New York Post Paperback Row lists Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy:
Set mostly in Scotland in the late 1950s and ’60s, this novel shrewdly recasts both “Jane Eyre” and Livesey’s own childhood, tracing the fortunes of a young girl whose orphanhood is only the beginning of her bad luck.Libby Sternberg, author of Sloane Hall, talks about the romance novel formula on Hot Air:
What is the romance formula? Read Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë’s classic. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, obstacles keep them apart, they finally express their affection, a Black Moment occurs that seems to divide them forever, until at last they make their way to the HEA (romance-speak for “happily ever after”).The Wall Street Journal on evil characters in literature:
The author can also draw upon psychological affinities, as in Stendhal's "The Red and the Black," where Julien Sorel is a man driven by his low social origins and high ambitions, and also trapped by them. Or Heathcliff in Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights": If he is harsh and vindictive with some characters, he is also someone capable of much love and thwarted in it by circumstances beyond his control. (Tabish Khair)Die Welt (Germany) discusses the important role of manor houses in English novels:
Wo stünde die Literatur ohne das englische Herrenhaus? Am Abgrund.Gesellschaftskomödie, Drama, Schauerroman und Krimi wären ohne die Mitwirkung gotischer Backsteinfassaden, ohne Zinnen, Turm, Salon und Billardzimmer vom Aussterben bedroht. Mr. Darcy ohne Pemberley, Mr. de Winter ohne Manderley, Mr. Rochester ohne Thornfield Hall? - (...) Vermutlich hätten Evelyn Waugh, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier und Charlotte Brontë keine Feder gerührt ohne das Bild eines englischen Herrenhauses vor dem inneren Auge. (Else Maletzke) (Translation)Also in Die Welt, Wieland Freund explains why he writes book for children:
Früher nämlich bestieg ich den Idiotenhügel, der damals noch kein literarischer war, nach der Schule. Zufall, aber in mein Spielzimmer führten auch zwei Treppen hinauf. Angria und Gondal hießen die Fantasiereiche der spielenden Kinder Brontë, aus denen die Schwestern Brontë wurden, die als Romanautorinnen nicht auf den Idiotenhügel, sondern auf den Helikon stiegen. (Translation)Aquatique and A Literary Odyssey review Agnes Grey; Stuff I'm Reading posts about Shirley; Had Emily Brontë a schizoid personality? Les Soeurs Brontë (in French) discusses it; Boekie's Book Reviews posts about April Lindner's Jane; Prefer-Books (in French) and Ars Docedci review Jane Eyre; La Ragazza Dagli Occhi Verdi (in Italian) and Singularidades de uma Ruïva (in Portuguese) post about Wuthering Heights; The Magic Orange Platic Bird Said..., Sans Grand Interêt and Grandeur Nature (all in French) and Under My Skin (in Turkish) review Jane Eyre 2011.
Club de lectura Las Mujeres en el Ático "Jane Eyre"
Fecha: Sábado 28 de julio de 2012
Hora: 4:00 p.m.
Lugar: Librería Casa Tomada, Bogotá
Dirigirá la sesión Mónica Roesel, candidata a Maestría en literatura y especialista en las obras de la hermanas Brönte. (sic) (Macondo Literario)
WHILE I’m getting ready for work in the morning I listen to the TV news.Michelle Cannon in the West Palm Beach Literary Examiner doesn't mention the exhibition but taking into account the title of her article (Pain, sado-masochism and sex in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre) we are pretty sure she would love it.
This week I tuned in just in time to hear the words ‘lewd’ and ‘Brontë’ in the same sentence which made me pause, mascara brush in hand.
But the item was about Branwell Brontë, the man frequently portrayed as the ‘black sheep’ of the literary family.
It made me think about how much the world has changed because if poor Branwell – who was seriously overshadowed by his more famous and conventional sisters – had lived today he would have found the world much more accepting of his art, drug addiction, sexual adventuring and alcoholism. One generation’s black sheep is another’s celebrity.
His ‘lewd’ drawings and poems which have, until now, remained under wraps at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, would have been the stuff of Victorian scandal, but barely worthy of a raised eyebrow in the 21st Century. It is thought that he produced many more, shall we say, ‘naughty’ sketches, but they were probably destroyed by someone who, most likely, needed a hefty snort of sal volatile after discovering them.
The personal life of the least well-known Brontë is currently being explored in an exhibition, Sex, Drugs and Literature: The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë at the newly-refurbished Brontë Parsonage in Haworth. It reveals a tortured genius who bore the brunt of his father’s expectations – being the only boy – and was a published writer long before Charlotte or Emily. He died from tuberculosis at the age of just 31 after a decline into alcoholism and opium addiction.
His sisters might have been shocked to learn that their brother was a pornographer but today he would have been embraced by an art community that can’t get enough of people like Tracey Emin whose latest exhibition, Those Who Suffer Love, includes a film animation of a sexual act.
The careers of Branwell and our Tracey illustrate quite nicely just how much the moral pendulum of society has swung in a century and a half. It’s not that the Victorians knew nothing about pornography or sexual titillation, it’s just that such interests remained underground and frowned upon. Prostitution was probably more widespread then than it is now, but no-one was given thousands of pounds for unmade beds with condoms or scratchy drawings of private parts.
We have become tolerant of, even immune to, the decadent art world; so much so that artists continually strive to find something new, something different or something shocking in order to become famous.
Tracey’s work seeks to bust the last of society’s taboos which is not necessarily a bad thing except that she appears to be something of a one-subject wonder. She uses art as a confessional, revealing the sort of things that most of us would be too embarrassed to admit. She says that until fairly recently sex was a major driving force and an obsessional theme for her work.
No-one wants to go back to the hypocritical era of the Brontës – whose surname was actually Brunty and changed by their Irish father to the more impressive umlauted version – but I can’t help thinking that just maybe we’ve taken a step too far in the opposite direction. Having pushed the boundaries of art and decency to their absolute limit, it certainly begs the question of what will come next. Or will the jaded public simply be subjected to the same tired old themes in an endless loop, like an Emin animation? (Hilarie Stelfox)
While many people consider the Victorian era a time of prudish behavior that revolved around following decorum, Charlotte Brontë stepped outside of this stereotype in her writing with her beloved classic, Jane Eyre. The novel is filled with subtle sexual nuances as it focuses on the relationship between Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester.Tabish Kair writes in Mint (India) about rediscovering Wuthering Heights:
Jane, a poor orphan governess, comes to work for the wealthy bachelor Mr. Rochester as a teacher to his young charge, Adele. Mystery and secrets surround their budding, sado-masochistic romance. Elements of the gothic infiltrate the plot, which is narrated in first person by Jane. Rochester is a complex, seemingly cruel character who thrives on causing Jane emotional pain by threatening to marry the beautiful Miss Ingram and constantly battering her self-esteem. Jane responds to these cruel actions by threatening to leave Rochester’s home, creating an intense, tension-filled power struggle between these two beautifully-written characters. She is torn between her physical desire to remain close to Rochester and her psychological need for distance from him.
The Bronte's home in Haworth, England
Jane’s need for distance tends to dominate her desire for closeness, and this internal conflict is reproduced externally in her relationship with Rochester, with Rochester’s desire for physical proximity conflicting with Jane’s desire for distance. These internal and external power struggles create a healthy sense of tension necessary both to Jane and to her relationship with Rochester because it prevents either of them from being fully satisfied, and ensures that both remain in a perpetual state of self-inflicted suffering.
The suffering these characters impose on themselves and each other is necessary for the preservation of desires, which would be destroyed by fulfillment. The novel allows readers to gain a greater understanding of how the pain of unfulfilled desires becomes synonymous with pleasure, and the beneficial role pain, tension and unfulfilled desires plays for these characters.
When I first read Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights in high school, I found Heathcliff and Catherine nauseating: Their great love was too close to the romanticism I was then growing out of, and the “metaphysics” of the novel irked the rationalist and teenage agnostic in me. Rereading the novel some years ago, I discovered a new world (and text) altogether. I discovered a work of undoubted genius and immense complexity. Since then I have gone back to the novel once again (in the process of writing a forthcoming book on the Gothic and post-colonialism), and I have come away with my admiration doubled.The SF GLBT Examiner interviews author Alex Jeffers, another Brontëite:
What is it that makes Wuthering Heights so exceptional?
There are many reasons. But for me, Wuthering Heights is essentially about terror, arising from fear of the other. Remember the scene where Lockwood has a nightmare about the dead Catherine, a “waif-ghost”, trying to enter his room from a window unlatched by the storm? Lockwood writes that “terror made me cruel”: He rubs the “creature’s” wrist on the broken glass pane until it bleeds. But still the “ghost” maintains its “tenacious grip”, maddening him with fear.
The terror of this scene is intricately connected with displacement. Lockwood is a traveller; Catherine is displaced, banished from her family house and love. Heathcliff, the house’s current owner, is displaced, having usurped the house but only by using the legal and social rules that left him (and Catherine) on the margins. Significantly, Heathcliff’s terrorizing route out of the margins and into brutal power leaves him displaced more deeply—estranged from his “true self”, Catherine, whose “waif-ghost” doesn’t respond to his entreaties.
This narrative of terror and otherness is not explicit in the novel; it has to be read between the lines. This is inevitable, given the nature of otherness. In the last count, it is not the narrative power or even the structure of Wuthering Heights that fascinates me, but its tendency to narrate at a tangent. This tendency is lacking in many acclaimed novels, which are premised on excessive transparency, an easy consumption of “stories” floating like dead fish on the surface of the text.
Q: Who are the authors who most influence you, both in your early career and now?More Brontëites are to be found in the list of valedictorians and salutatorians of local NC public high schools as published in The Robesonian.
A: The strongest early influences, still marking my prose and approach to the work, would probably be science-fiction writers Samuel R Delany and Joanna Russ—I only found out years later both were gay. I read the Alexandria Quartet at an impressionable age and am aware of the heavy shadow of Lawrence Durrell on a lot of my work. I can only hope to have been benignly influenced by Charlotte and Anne Brontë (Emily not so much), Samuel Richardson, Elizabeth Bowen, Alice Munro, William Trevor, Robert Ferro, Orhan Pamuk, among many. (Alan Chin)
Ismael tiene un lado oscuro y es ahí donde yo puyo. Así mismo, te diré que La casa del cementerio tiene todos los elementos de la novela confesión; como tal, los cinco años de ausencia de Ismael son un préstamo a Cumbres borrascosas (Emily Bronte): tal como ignoramos de dónde llega Heathcliff y dónde está cuando desaparece, yo presento a ese Ismael desaparecido que regresa "convertido", y yo no quise contar cómo había cambiado. (Jochy Herrera) (Google translation)It's not usual to quote the Brontës not only as writers but as writers and artists. Novelist and poet Fernando del Paso does it in El Occidental (Mexico):
En la exposición se reúne una serie de dibujos en los que prevalece la técnica mixta (tinta china, tintas de colores y wash) todos son sobre papel (cartulina Bristol). Después añadió que en la historia ha habido escritores que pintaron o dibujaron "el caso clásico sería William Blake, tenemos a Edgar Allan Poe, un retratista magnífico, a las hermanas Brönte (sic), a Jean Cocteau, Federico García Lorca, Henry Miller, William Faulkner... no cabe duda que del escritor, la materia prima es el papel". (Blanca Eunice Castillo) (Google translation)A usual confusion concerning the birthplace of the Brontës is to assume that they were born in Haworth forgetting that the actual birthplace was Thornton. Nevertheless this is the first time we read that someone says that the Brontës were born... at Saltaire (!). In easier.com:
Or even visit the set of TV’s ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ and what’s more, Pennine Yorkshire boasts the World Heritage site of Saltaire and is the birthplace of the acclaimed Brontë sisters.An Unlikely Heroine reviews Tamasha's Wuthering Heights performances in Coventry, Mark Binmore posts a writing inspired by Wuthering Heights and Tickle Juice is posting her very own Jane Eyre comic adaptation (here you can find Chapter 1 and Chapter 2).
Many will know how the tale proceeds, but through Arnold’s eyes the story feels immediate and visceral. Once again displaying her skill with non-professional actors, Arnold’s version of Wuthering Heights is palpably, powerfully emotive. (Alice Tynan)Television Without Pity:
Finally arriving on U.S. screens a full year after its international debut, Andrea Arnold's new version of Emily Brontë's oft-filmed 19th-century tale of romantic obsession is a stunner -- one of the most vividly realized and boldly original adaptations of an established literary classic to come along in recent memory. (...)Blu-ray.com:
At a time when so many page-to-screen adaptations are content to be overly literal books on film, Arnold has made a full-blooded cinematic experience out of her source material, one that makes you feel like you're discovering the novel for the first time. (Ethan Alter)
Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights” is a sensorial experience, with documentary-style cinematography emphasizing the immediacy of the moment, while the sound design preserves the tempestuous weather of the land. Violence is also constant, from the emotional kind that cripples Heathcliff in the second half, to more visceral sequences of animal slaughter (fair warning for those sensitive to such matters). There’s not a single rosy moment or loving embrace in the entire picture, creating an ambiance of dread and death that’s fascinating to see unfold, even in an absurdly overlong feature as this. However, it’s difficult to fault Arnold for her habitual need to linger. With such spellbinding landscapes to photograph and a story in need of a fresh approach, her blistering version of “Wuthering Heights” earns its right to stay past its welcome. (Brian Orndorf)Boxoffice.com:
This Wuthering Heights trades the costumes and customs of a conventional period piece for fleeting sensory experiences. Arnold is less interested in the anthropology of teacups and collars than in the wonder and magnetism Emily Brontë's book. (Sara Maria Vizcarrondo)Time Out Los Angeles:
This weird, yearning movie could become beloved to many, just as the novel has been. (Joshua Rothkopf)Just Press Play:
The moodiness of the film is further illustrated by the lack of musical score. Sound designer Nicholas Becker uses the diegetic—or natural—sounds as the film’s “soundtrack.” The howling of the wind, the creaking of the trees, the yelping of the dogs, even the wetness of the kisses—all of these increase the intensity and tone of the film. This, combined with images of the barren and cruel—and often striking—landscape, truly pulls the audience into the story and world of Wuthering Heights.3 1/2 stars from Awards Circuit:
This adaptation brings new insight into the story of Wuthering Heights and will urge viewers to pick up the book and read it again, searching for this intense and dark world that they missed when they read it in high school. Arnold set out to create a new take on this beloved classic, and that’s exactly what she has done. The film has a slow pace that emphasizes that this is about more than just plot; this film is a character study of the classic figure of Heathcliff. Fans of Emily Brontë’s novel—or fans of period pieces in general—should enjoy this nuanced exploration of the novel and its themes. (John Keith)
Between the awe-inspiring cinematography, Andrea Arnold’s authorial consistency as a filmmaker following her two feature films, and the precision of the screenplay to only use the most appropriate parts of Brontë’s novel to create this masterful revision makes Wuthering Heights not just the best classic film adaptation since Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre, but also one of the best films of 2012 thus far. If Andrea Arnold keeps accelerating at the pace she’s going, she’ll one day stand toe-to-toe with great visual auteurs like Béla Tarr and Terence Malick. (Joseph Braverman)
Arnold’s decision to use only doc-style handheld footage adds a sense of urgency, bringing to life the emotional reality of the characters. The approach is fresh and cinematographer Robbie Ryan pays meticulous attention to detail, beautifully capturing extreme closeups most notably during the emotional and physical violence the ensues. Through close attention he captures the beauty of the remote corner of Yorkshire while working with the same aspect ratio he used on Arnold’s Fish Tank. The film is shot on high-definition video and a palette of abundant browns, lifeless greens and various shades of blues. Frequent close ups of birds and insects bring to mind the films of Terrence Malick, and apart from a non-source song by indie group Mumford & Sons (that plays over the last minute and end credits), the pic is scored only by the constant wind, thunder, rain and other natural sounds. Arnold regular Nicolas Chaudeurge’s editing is impeccable, with the second half of the film cutting back and forth between images of Heathcliff and Cathy in the past and present. The matching shots throughout constantly enforce themes of birth, death and rebirth, ultimately showing how closely linked together love and death are in the novel. More importantly the editing manages to condense enough material for a mini series into the film’s two hour running time.Film Monthly:
Wuthering Heights has been adapted numerous times, with both Luis Buñuel and Jacques Rivette filtering the story through their own individual personalities and surroundings. Arnold’s work can be placed on the same level as it is her most mature yet, making Cary Fukunaga’s Charlotte Brontë adaptation, Jane Eyre, pale in comparison. Like it or not, give credit to Arnold for adapting the original source material to her very own distinct vision, a visual poem that almost doesn’t feel like a period film at all. (Ricky D)
Wuthering Heights is a beautifully filmed interpretation of Ms. Brontë’s classic story, strongly acted by a cast of relative unknowns and supporting actors, but the most standout of them all is Kaya Scodelario of the BBC version of Skins and the recent film Clash of the Titans. (Del Harvey)The Perpetual Present gives it 4 out of 5 stars.
Some people will be thrilled by Andrea Arnold’s raw and daring reimagining of “Wuthering Heights” – and you can count me among them – and other people will be irritated or massively bored. But whatever you make of it, this movie isn’t like any British costume drama you’ve ever seen before. Arnold, the Scottish filmmaker whose previous work includes the gritty urban thriller “Red Road” and the intense sexual melodrama “Fish Tank,” isn’t going after Emily Brontë’s classic romance in some spirit of avant-gardism or postmodernism or anything like that. If anything, this is a pre-modern, stripped-down “Wuthering Heights,” an attempt to dig through the pages and pages of florid melodrama back to the elemental truths of life and love on the damp and frigid Yorkshire moors.Newark Star-Ledger:
Considerable attention has been paid to the fact that Arnold has cast two actors of Afro-Caribbean heritage to play Heathcliff, the archetypal tortured romantic hero of Brontë’s novel. (Solomon Glave plays the foundling Heathcliff, in the early portion of the story, and the supremely handsome James Howson plays the adult gentleman who returns to reclaim his lost love.) But that only seems like a bizarre contemporary twist if you go by the film and TV versions, in which we’ve only seen white actors like Laurence Olivier, Ralph Fiennes or Tom Hardy take on the role. I mean, maybe Arnold has some political or cultural agenda about how Britain has always been a polyglot society, long before the era of immigration, but also maybe not. Fact is, in Brontë’s book, Heathcliff is pretty clearly not white, and what’s more he’s a character who befuddles the racial distinctions of the day. (Andrew O'Hehir) (Read more)
This is what the movies do -- they think in pictures.Boston Phoenix:
Arnold's "Wuthering Heights" is very much a picture-driven movie, although I suspect it may disappoint some fans of the book -- or, at least, fans of the feverishly romantic 1939 movie with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. (Stephen Whitty)
Grim natural beauty abounds, but so does natural cruelty, like the casual slaughter of animals, including puppies hung from a fence. Arnold is equally ruthless with Brontë's prose; little survives her reduction of this epic of doomed love to stark images and fragmented dialogue. Only in casting does her version falter; James Howson as the older Heathcliff and Kaya Scodelario as Cathy fade in the overwhelming moors. (Peter Keough)
With an elaborate plot that naturally lends itself to melodrama, Arnold’s version downplays some of the difficult confrontational scenes, and instead relies more on the forlorn glance of the actors, a visual catalog of the weather (the grassy nature shots are reminiscent of a Terrence Malick film), and most disturbingly, voyeuristic scenes from Heathcliff’s perspective that undercut the action with a violent tension. As he lurks around, a palpable sense of hatred builds up inside of him, and that hatred seems to transfer itself onto everything around him.Film Journal:
There is very little dialogue throughout the film, but through detailed atmospheric shots and subtle psychological gestures, a number of complex emotions are conveyed. Although some of the scenes lack a conventionally fulfilling sense of drama, and the evocations of nature seem a bit excessive at times, Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights” roughly and often beautifully captures the atmosphere of the novel and sometimes the inner lives of its characters. Her film reproduces the erotic and violent tension that Bataille celebrated in the novel, and also what Charlotte Brontë wrote in the 1850 preface of her sister’s novel, that it was “hewn in a wild workshop, with simple tools, out of homely materials.” (Tynan Kogane)
Soon enough we get used to the visually compelling, instant metaphor for being downtrodden, and it hardly matters. Less topical and sensationalistic is the director’s surprisingly faithful, even extended use of the novel’s window motif: being both shut in and out, showing Cathy’s need to get back home to the Heights, the yearning for nature, the soul escaping the body, and of course the set-piece when outsiders Cathy and Heathcliff first watch the civilized Lintons through a glass plane. Even the redoubtable adult Heathcliff gets stuck under a window as a waiting suitor.Blouin Artinfo's Movie Journal:
Yet the film’s most breathtakingly original contribution shows characters looking through peepholes as they probably existed in 19th-century farmhouses and estates, and members of the underclass watching their “betters” from afar. The child Heathcliff peers nonplussed at a sexual coupling in the muck; from the same spot he later watches the result of that mating: Hareton’s birth. The pale eye of the formerly saccharine Isabella (the effective Nichola Burley) glints spitefully through a wall crack, spying on Heathcliff’s torment at Cathy’s death. Whether the director or DP Robby Ryan came up with this “peeking" motif is hard to say; Ryan did win an award at the Venice Film Festival.
A few unfortunate bits break the film’s one-note intensity. Cathy and Heathcliff’s initials on the Heights’ wall look kindergarten-ish, not nostalgic. A curse spat out at the landed gentry by the child Heathcliff is both anachronistic and awkward. Nevertheless, our view of Wuthering Heights is now permanently changed, as Cathy says, like wine coloring water. (Marsha McCreadie)
Things are somewhat normalized when, signaled by a burst of white light, some years pass and the runaway Heathcliff returns as a gentleman (James Howson). Cathy, who has married the rich, milquetoast neighbor Edgar Linton (James Northcote), has been similarly transformed into a lady (Kaya Scodelario). A sense of semi-civilization and conventional story-telling settles over the proceedings which, elliptical no longer, are, at this point, far closer to Goldwyn movie than Brontë novel. Arnold keeps some gas in the tank for a full-throttle closer but it’s an unavoidable observation that her “Wuthering Heights”, no less than Brontë’s, is a work that falls off drastically in its second act.The New York Post gives it 2 1/2 stars out of 4:
Still, the characters are prone to an unlikely but programmatic lack of propriety and Arnold is able to maintain the novel’s essential violence and cruelty. A great admirer of “Wuthering Heights,” Camille Paglia described it as “a catalog of chthonian horrors,” while characterizing the ill-fated lovers, Catherine and Heathcliff, as “self-maiming priests of a pagan cult of unmaternal stormy nature.” The French surrealists admired Wuthering Heights for its unflinching evocation of l’amour fou, along with a cruelty that reminded them of the “divine” Marquis de Sade. This too is a movie with a bite. (J. Hoberman)
But if you can handle the glacial pacing and lack of dialogue, there is a certain squirmy satisfaction to watching this well-worn story of love, cruelty and madness play out minus the long-winded speeches and romantic catharsis. There are no heroes, and discomfort reigns: Heathcliff is an angry time bomb, Cathy is a capricious bitch and everyone seems like they could use a good pair of mittens and a warm hat. (Sara Stewart)Next Projection:
83/100 ~ Great. This Wuthering Heights is an imperfect telling, but one so well-suited to the screen, so slavishly dedicated to its characters and their love, so striking in the stark depth of its images and the pronounced passion of its feelings, that its failings are quick to recede into the all-encompassing fog. (Ronan Doyle)Women's e-news:
Andrea Arnold's cinematic version of Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" presents the classic novel's bleak landscape and cruel human interactions in great and uncompromising detail. By casting a black actor (James Howson) as Heathcliff, Arnold highlights the class (and, now, racial) prejudice inherent to the well-known story. With brilliant performances and starkly beautiful cinematography, the film is likely to become a classic in its own right. (Jennifer Merin)Reeling Reviews:
The adapted screenplay, which relies far more heavily on visuals than words to tell this classic tale, is also a bold original.Reel Talk:
"Wuthering Heights" is a dark tale of class and passion and unrequited love fairly curdled into anguished hatred. It pulsates with life as it descends into madness and death. Somehow, I think Kate Bush would approve. (Laura Clifford)
The film focusing on Heathcliff, and through and with him on Cathy, the novel’s ironic framing in conventional snooper Lockwood’s diary around housekeeper Ellen “Nelly” Dean’s (Simone Jackson) tale-bearing, is sacrificed. The vision remains the dark hero’s as interpreted by the filmmaker. The doomed amour is beyond words or images, best left to the imagination of each reader of the printed pages. Taciturn, brooding and using nature to suggest what is inexpressible, this brave take is an interesting look at a classic for the few, but may be too “inner” concentrated for the many. (Donald Levit)MSN Movies
Arnold's measured approach to the narrative, which sometimes seems to privilege conveying environment over actually moving the story forward, results in a film that is always interesting but never entirely compelling. To the extent that Heathcliff's climactic acts of desperation seem indicative more of pathology than immortal passion. Which maybe they "really" were/are, but that kind of defeats the purpose of why "Wuthering Heights" was written in the first place, I dare say. (Glenn Kenny)Mostly negative
Brontë purists might find it difficult to accept this pared-down,shaky-cam interpretation, different as it is from the novel and the 1939 film classic starring Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon. Arnold has a fresh idea in examining the outsider status of Heathcliff and in casting actors who were closer to the ages of young Heathcliff and Catherine.New York Times:
But the problem arises in the jarring juxtaposition of farm animals (which are often brutally slaughtered or otherwise cruelly treated) and humans. The needless repetition of key scenes amid the intrusive handheld camerawork of cinematographer Robbie Ryan are more distracting than illuminating. Equally troublesome is the lack of chemistry between the two leads. A scene meant to convey their budding passion, in which Cathy licks blood from Heathcliff's scarred and beaten back, seems more off-putting then erotic.
As they age, more mature actors bearing little resemblance to their younger counterparts step in to play them. As adults, Heathcliff (James Howson) and Catherine (Kaya Scodelario) must wrestle with their powerful affection. But neither their time apart, while Heathcliff goes off to make his fortune, nor her marriage to the wealthy Edgar Linton (Jonny Powell), diminish their mutual obsession.
Although meant to be naturalistic and emotionally resonant, this latest Wuthering Heights comes off tedious, soggy and passionless. (Claudia Puig)
[A]n admirable, frustrating attempt to strip away the novel’s inherited “classic” status and restore its raw and earthy passion. (...)Vulture:
The jump cuts, off-kilter angles and hurtling hand-held camerawork; the guttural stammerings of the actors; and the ambient muck of the production design are signs of what has become a familiar aesthetic agenda. These techniques are meant to create a sense of immediacy, a supremely powerful naturalism.
But in this case, curiously enough, the effect is the opposite. The grunts and howls seem every bit as mannered as the florid diction of Olivier and Oberon, perhaps even more so. Their artifice, like Brontë’s own, was overt, whereas Ms. Arnold strives to disguise hers in the trappings of authenticity. And as a result, the impact — the grandeur, the art — of “Wuthering Heights” is diminished. (A.O. Scott)
I shouldn’t blame the actress when it’s hard even to focus on her. Emily Brontë’s prose is more rough-hewn than her sister’s, but Arnold’s attempt at a similar sort of emotional rawness ends up, ironically, distancing the audience. The cameraman is so into their scenes — he must have taken Method acting classes — that it’s as if Heathcliff and Cathy only see each other in motion. Claire Denis can bring off this sort of expressionist style, and Paul Thomas Anderson gets it more than halfway in The Master. But Arnold’s other films were essentially realistic, nudged into a subtle expressionism by her female protagonists’ gradual loss of self-control. Here, she comes off as a flounderer. The random physical detail — a shot of a moth or the back of Cathy’s puffy dress as Heathcliff rides behind her on horseback — just looks odd. Thinking back a week after seeing Wuthering Heights, I remember the moth and those windy moors and Cathy’s brother hurling the N-word. I remember a branch tapping on the window (Cathy’s ghost?) and the agony of the lovers’ separation — their writhing and head-banging. I just never got the part where they fell in love. (David Edelstein)Edge on the Net:
At two hours and eight minutes, "Wuthering Heights" is a bit of a struggle to get through. While I can appreciate the cinematography by Robbie Ryan BSC and how Arnold handled the actors - many of whom had never even acted before (Beer and Glave are both terrific), ultimately it’s a story for which I lost any feeling. The entire affair is dirty, wet and cold so in many ways, it’s just unpleasant. If I had felt for these characters, it wouldn’t have mattered. But ultimately I didn’t and thus, I wouldn’t recommend spending time getting to know them only to have them turn out to be jerks. (Kevin Taft)Negative
This “Heights,” with its lovely but bratty lovers, lack of depth and trendy aesthetic, seems geared exclusively towards adolescents. (Miriam Bale)New York Film Critics Online, ShowBiz Forum:
While some critics will find much to praise in Arnold’s version of the English classic, doubtless finding a breakthrough version that might better appeal to a modern audience and a forceful depiction of wild, but doomed passion, several factors work against the film. One is the 4:3 aspect ratio, turning the story into a near-square rather than the rectangular shape that TV viewers are accustomed to. This leads to impressions that are even more claustrophobic than previous incarnations have been. Another is the dialect, which is barely understandable (only the Scottish such as in “Trainspotting” would be more muddled). Given the nature of the heavily accented dialogue, it’s a blessing that Arnold chose to let the visuals tell most of the story, inserting the spoken word only for incomplete sentences and exclamations and what amounts more or less to throat clearing.Spirituality and Practice:
Yet a third flaw, multiple problems, in fact, is Robbie Ryan’s cinematography coupled with Nicolas Chaudeurge’s editing, which relegate most of the scenes to near darkness and the fights depicted with the stereotypical moving camera likely to cause audience members to wonder who is dealing what cuts and bruises to whom. (Harvey Karten)
You've heard of sports events called off on account of darkness? Well that should have happened to this irritating and wrong-headed approach to a literary classic. (Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat)SBS (Australia):
Most of the interminable 129 minutes consists of an unrelenting saga of misery, pain and suffering, interspersed with tediously repetitive close-ups of birds, insects, animals, cobwebs, nettles and mud. (Don GrovesThe Sydney Morning Herald has a non-committal article on it (the film opens in Australia next Thursday) and Yahoo!'s Movietalk interviews Andrea Arnold:
JC: What was the hardest scene you had to shoot?Filmmaker Magazine interviews her as well:
AA: The stuff out on the crag was really hard because it was in the middle of nowhere and we had to walk miles with the equipment through really thick heather. There were holes in the ground and people kept falling down. Those days were hard. The weather was hard, too. It snowed. Actually, I'm glad it snowed. It was the last day at the heights and Robbie Ryan, the cinematographer, said he was going to have a mud fight with me. I knew I was going to lose because he's stronger than me. I was going to end up with my face in the mud, which I wouldn't mind but it was full of sheep poo, which would not have been nice. I was really dreading it. I knew he was going to do it. And then it snowed and it all iced over and it was too dangerous, so I got away with it. [Laughs] I was really happy it snowed.
JC: So are you ever going to do another period film?
AA: No. I don't want to do that anymore. Thank you very much. (Jonathan Crow) (Read more)
Filmmaker: But like most of those adaptations, you choose to focus almost solely on the first half of the book. Why was that?The Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer today says:
Arnold: A few reasons. It was an instinctive decision. I joined this film when it already had some momentum; it was already in development. That was a strange thing for me because normally I start my films from scratch. So I joined something that had a bit of a life already, there had been various actors attached, directors, there was a script. So when I first joined, it already had this life and I didn’t feel like I could just disregard those things, but in the end what I did do was start again on the script from scratch. By the time I started again, there was this momentum to make the film fast. I partly believe in working fast because I think when you work fast you make instinctive decisions and I find that those decisions are often better than the ones you think about too much. I try to retain an instinctive element to what I do as a filmmaker, even though it’s one of the least instinctive mediums that there is because everything takes so long and…
Filmmaker: It’s so collaborative.
Arnold: Yes, there’s collaboration, there’s a lot of money involved, people want to be cared for, people want to be safe, so there’s a lot of thought, a lot of meetings, a lot of discussion involved and sometimes I think that can take away from something being alive, so I partly believe in doing things fast, so I went for it thinking, “This is a very famous book to be adapting in a hurry, but I’m going to go for it and see what happens.”
It was just an instinctive choice to end it where I did. I reread it a couple of times. I love the second half of the book, I think it’s great, I love that it comes full circle and concludes with Heathcliff’s death. It makes it feel complete. Watching my film, it may feel less complete. But I knew in terms of the type of filmmaking I like to do, looking at details and so on, it was just too much for a film. I haven’t seen any of the TV series versions, except for the Laurence Olivier one. If you’re doing TV, you have lots of hours and you can maybe get involved in doing the whole book, but for a film I wasn’t trying to do the whole book, I was trying to capture the essence of it.
When I first started writing it, I wrote it as a contemporary story. I had Earnshaw come across the moors in a car with a foster boy. (Brandon Harris) (Read more)
"Mildred had been working in our household for five years and all of a sudden we were alone in the guest house. When Mildred gave birth the following August, she named the baby Joseph." As narrative ellipses go, it's not quite up there with "Reader, I married him", but it nips at Charlotte Brontë's heels. (Hadley Freeman)The Brooklyn Rail interviews writer Tabish Khair who states,
I am not a political writer in the sense of writing protest literature or any kind of programmatic text. I think one can only talk of good writing and bad writing, but I also believe that good writing is always political in the larger sense. After all, to be political in the larger sense is to be aware of how human beings respond to each other and socio-political organisms, like states or established religion, in their daily lives, and how can one write good literature without this awareness? Politics in that sense is part of the way we deal with each other and all that exists around us, including nature. Such supposedly apolitical novels as Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights or Mark Twain’s or Stendhal’s novels are deeply political in that sense, and perhaps more so than some obviously “political” literature. (Seb Doubinsky)Above a Wuthering Heights review mentioned the fact that the novel was widely praised and liked by the surrealists, Cuarto Poder's Detrás del sol mentions it too:
Hay dos libros del siglo XIX que se disputan el honor de incidir como pocos en la sutil perversión de las relaciones humanas. Ni que decir tiene que los dos están relacionados con el amor. Uno de ellos, Cumbres borrascosas, de Emily Brontë, publicada bajo el pseudónimo de Ellis Bell, es un producto extraordinario del Romanticismo donde una solitaria mujer que parecía conocer nada de la vida, imaginó en un páramo cubierto de lluvia y viento, no podía ser de otra manera, una bárbara, espléndida e intensa historia de pasión con el demonio dibujado en la sombra: la pasión entre Cathy Eamshaw y Heathcliff , su hermano adoptivo, ha seducido de tal manera el imaginario del siglo XX que gentes como Luis Buñuel llegaron a profesar un culto extremado por esa historia que anunció los arrebatos del surrealismo. (Juan Ángel Juristo) (Translation)The Telegraph has an obituary on children's literature writer Helen Nicoll.
When her mother became ill, she bought her an early Sony Walkman and an audio version of Jane Eyre. Appalled to discover it had been radically abridged, her mother refused to listen to it. So in 1983, with £15,000 of Meg and Mog royalties, Helen founded Cover to Cover, determined to produce unabridged classics. It became a ground-breaking audiobook company.The Camden New Journal shares Howard Jacobson's thoughts on books, bookshops and libraries.
She invited the actress Patricia Routledge to stay and they recorded the whole of Wuthering Heights in 10 days. With her insight into what pleased the young she concentrated on the A-level curriculum: “Teenagers don’t want the bother of reading Mansfield Park,” she noted, “they would rather lie in bed and have it read to them.”
In Zoo Time he explores confrontations with reading groups telling authors they can’t identify with their characters.
“I have had this said to me,” recalled Jacobson.”Every writer living has had it said to them.
“And when anybody says that you want to kill them. You want to kill them because it is irrelevant whether you want to identify with someone in a novel. It can be wonderful. There are wonderful reading experiences when you think I am Jane Eyre.
“But you can’t demand that because books do something else. You can’t demand that the characters in a novel be likeable. That’s the other thing you get – I didn’t like the characters in your novels. So bloody what! (Gerald Isaaman)
Alice Walker: I want very much for you to feel for whoever I’m talking about, or whatever I’m talking about. Because it is only by empathy being aroused that we change. That is the power of writing. I’ve experienced exactly what you’re saying, reading other writers. I remember the book I first had that experience with was Jane Eyre, being right there with Jane, and understanding, yes, we have to change these horrible institutions where they abuse children. Today, I’m the supporter of an orphanage in Kenya. And one of the reasons comes from having been so moved by reading about Jane at Lowood. (Valerie Schloredt)
I wonder too how we’ll ever share these classics after? I might mention Jane Eyre to someone in passing.
“My favourite part is when they’re in the garden walking when he’s just arrived back.”
“Oh, just after he’s had his tongue down her throat in the library?” they’ll say.
“That’s not in the book Charlotte Brontë wrote!”
There’s Charlotte Brontë recommending the moors above Hathersage (“calm prospect and pleasant fresh air”). (Colin Drury)This is Somerset's Council_Spoke says something similar:
The area's pre-historic stone circles, Roman garrisons and wild beauty have produced strong literary echoes – from inspiring Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and romantic or gothic fiction from Charlotte Brontë and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, right up to present-day novelists like Hilary Mantel.The issue of the Brontë birthplace is reaching the newspapers. The Yorkshire Post reports that,
A campaign has been launched to buy the birthplace of the Brontës and restore it to its former glory.The Telegraph and Argus also covers the story:
The house in Market Street in the village of Thornton, Bradford, was the birthplace of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Branwell before the family moved to Haworth.
Once run as a museum, the house is now unoccupied and thought to have suffered from flooding – but villagers are keen to see its place in the lives of the famous literary family secured for future generations.
Thornton and Allerton councillor, Valerie Binney, who is among those spearheading the campaign, said: “It’s our heritage. Patrick Brontë and his wife lived in that house – he was the vicar of Thornton. We think if we can bring it back to how it was it will regenerate Market Street. If we could get someone to back us and buy it we could then find someone to be the curator and maybe live there – you could get someone who is really interested in the Brontës.”
In the late 1990s the house was bought and restored by the novelist Barbara Whitehead who opened it up as a museum before having to sell the property in 2007.
Councillor Binney said: “When Barbara Whitehead had it we had volunteer guides and opened it up two or three times a week and we had lots of tourists coming to see the Brontës’ birthplace. We want to bring it back to how it was because it is very good for the village.
“I would say it would not cost more than £150,000 to buy. It’s not a fortune by today’s standards.”
The newly-formed Brontë Birthplace Trust (2012) hopes to attract enough funding to buy the property.
Christine Went, heritage and conservation officer for the Brontë Society, said: “We are very much in support of any viable attempt to buy and restore the building.
“As a charity, we cannot involve ourselves with other charities other than moral support but we certainly wish the group well.”
Coun Binney said last night’s meeting was to discuss ways of getting people interested in buying the property.The same journal also remembers that
She said: “We want to raise the money to buy it and bring it back as it should be, the Bronte birthplace for tourists.
“It would be marvellous if we could raise enough money to buy it. It is such a shame it was sold to someone who then rented it out. We are in the early stages of trying to get funding. It’s quite something to have a house where the Brontës were born in the village, and is something worth preserving.”
Michael Stewart, a writer, who lives close to the museum, said: “When Barbara Whitehead ran it as a museum we had coachloads of Japanese, American and European tourists coming to have lunch in the village and the place was booming.
“She restored the house to how it was when the Brontës lived there in 1815.”
Anyone interested in the property can contact Coun Binney on 07730 304349. (Steve Wright)
Tonight, Michae Morpurgol talks about his work at Haworth’s West Lane Baptist Centre, from 7pm, as part of the Bronte Parsonage’s contemporary arts programme. (Emma Clayton)
Unless explicitly said
