Last newsround of 2007

You might have seen on our sidebar that a new biography of Arthur Bell Nicholls is scheduled to appear around April 2008. It is written by a family descendant, Alan H. Adamson, as was announced over a year ago by Christine Alexander. Today, Salamander Hill Design posts what could be the definitive cover for this biography and, we must say, it looks really good to us. We like the accompanying description of Arthur Bell Nicholls too:

Few people seeking to avoid the glare of publicity have had more of it turned on them than Arthur Bell Nicholls. (Picture source)

Oh, absolutely! And very bad publicity at that too.

Speaking of descriptions. The BBC News alphabet of the political year includes Prime Minister Gordon Brown as Mrs Rochester of course.

Rochester (Mrs) - Labour MP Frank Field cast doubt on the then chancellor's suitability for the top job, when he said: "Allowing Gordon Brown into No 10 would be like letting Mrs Rochester out of the attic." For those of a literary bent, Mrs Rochester is the loft-bound madwoman in the Charlotte Bronte novel Jane Eyre who goes on to burn down the house, killing herself and blinding her husband. Ouch, Frank.

The Chicago Tribune has an obituary on philanthropist Rhoda Pritzker who belonged to one of Chicago's wealthiest families and died on December 23 at 93. She seems to have been a Brontëite.

Mrs. Pritzker was also famous among her relatives and friends for taking in stray animals.
In 1983, in an interview with the Tribune, Mrs. Pritzker said her terrier, Emily Bronte, and three cats, Lucky, Heidi and Kitty, gave her a sense of peace."
I come home at night, and it's very nice to see eight happy eyes," she said. "They really don't care what you have in a material sense." (Sara Olkon)

The Brontës would have been delighted to have such a fan, of course.

Jane Eyre 2006 is still very successful on the blogosphere. Two Swedish blogs talk about it, given that the first part was broadcast in Sweden only yesterday: Nina Blogg (who also talks about previous adaptations of the novel) and En Boktoks Tankar. Journeys into Submission also comments the original novel, but beware of adult content on that website.

On another note, Cogito Cogito Ergo Sum looks at the similarities between Jane Eyre and Maria Von Trapp from The Sound of Music. This half of BrontëBlog has indeed pondered about this complex similarity in the past too. We say complex because Maria Von Trapp as depicted in the movie is not totally accurate to the real-life Maria but of course is highly similar. Although the similarities with the entirely fictional Jane are sometimes remarkable, we don't think they are there on purpose, although comparison is all too tempting.

Categories: Biography, Books, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Weirdo

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2007. A year in images

Some of what we have read, seen, listened to... in 2007

In books and audiobooks:

In Theatre and Dance:
In Movies, TV, DVDs:
In Music:
Categories: Messages from BB

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Brontë detox

A couple of newspapers remind us of the PBS rerun of Jane Eyre 2006. Firstly, The Enquirer (Cincinnati)

In two weeks, "Masterpiece" will launch its big and (mostly) splendid project of putting all six Jane Austen movies back-to-back. To get us in the mood for plush period pieces, it reruns this lush version of Charlotte Brontë's novel. Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens are made to seem like a very plain Jane and a dashing Rochester. Opposites clash and meet in an involving story. (Mike Hughes)

And secondly, Los Angeles Times:

Thornfield Manor: Ruth Wilson gives an inspired performance as the plucky orphan hired as a governess in "Masterpiece Theatre: Jane Eyre"

The Pioneer Press summarizes the best theatre of 2007 in the Twin Cities area:

"Jane Eyre," produced by the Guthrie Theater
The G's literary, large-scale staging of "Jane Eyre" was such a solid and strong adaptation of a beloved novel that you're almost willing to give the theater a mulligan for the noodle-limp production of "The Great Gatsby" that opened the new building.
The success started with Alan Stanford's scrupulously faithful stage adaptation, which gave us not one but three Janes - the orphaned youngster, the wise matron looking back on her life and the young woman who lives the major events of the play. It continued with John Miller-Stephany's well-measured staging that found the humor, the drama and the pathos of the tale.
And it culminated with a pair of performances by Stacia Rice (in the title role) and Sean Haberle (as the mysterious Mr. Rochester) that gilded and built on the imaginations of countless readers, along with a supporting cast without a weak link. (Dominic P. Papatola)

Louis Wise writes in The Times a satiric piece proposing an 'arts detox' program for 2008:

Think it over: you have the best intentions, but, each year, your cultural diary seems an accumulation of heavy costs, disappointing experiences, long slogs and a sense of déjà vu. So, here are some tips for a 2008 “arts detox”: not to do less, but to do better. (...)
ONE TO AVOID
What can only be described as “moral pornography”. Take the misery memoir, in which it is somehow assumed that the amount of abuse the author received as a child correlates with the quality of their writing. Reader, it does not. The excuse was tired when the Brontës were pulling it, and it is exhausted now.

Well, in our humble opinion... reader, it depends. On the creator's talent, basically.

Finally, a Polish translation of Agnes Grey has been posted here.

Categories: Agnes Grey, In the News, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Theatre, Translations

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Natural History and Zombies

A couple of talks recently presented:

Danielle Coriale
"'Thought Coloured by Feeling': Mill, Brontë, and the Pleasures of Natural History"

Modern Language Association Covention
Chicago, IL
29 December 2007

The Essex LiFTS Ph.D. Conference
University of Essex
5 May 2007
Anne Schroder
'There are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about': Reading Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea as a Zombie Narrative

Jean Rhys's novel Wide Sargasso Sea tells the story of Antoinette Cosway, the first Mrs Rochester, who is destined to die a spectacular death in the flames of Thornfield Hall as prescribed by Charlotte Brontë's earlier novel Jane Eyre. Rhys's narrative ends moments before Antoinette is due to set Thornfield Hall on fire, and readers are forced to consider whether her imminent death is inevitable or whether Rhys's text offers other options. Antoinette herself believes that there are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about, expressing the novel's preoccupation with the boundary between life and death. If Antoinette's 'publicly known' death is not her 'real' death, when does the latter occur? Is it before or after she arrives at Thornfield Hall? And how are we to understand the difference between the two types of death?

This paper addresses these questions by employing the figure of the zombie as a focalizer for the story of Antoinette. The zombie is a living dead who has lost the ability to define itself: raised from the dead by a sorcerer who has stolen its memory and identity, the zombie now becomes the property of the sorcerer. Antoinette is repeatedly compared to a zombie, while other characters show similar symptoms of powerlessness and lack of self-determination. This paper produces a reading of Wide Sargasso Sea which foregrounds the interrelated notions of zombification, possession and dispossession central in the Caribbean voodoo/obeah belief system in which the zombie originates.

Categories: Scholar, Talks, Wide Sargasso Sea

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If Charlotte Brontë had read the Scum manifesto

The Guardian highlights some of the forthcoming novels for 2008. Among them, one that has been already mentioned on BrontëBlog:

Justine Picardie's Daphne (Bloomsbury, March) investigates Daphne du Maurier's fascination with the Brontë sisters' reprobate brother Branwell, in a literary mystery of stolen manuscripts. (Justine Jordan)

The Oklahoman best TV bet for this weekend is the PBS re-airing of Jane Eyre 2006:

SUNDAY
BEST BET
•"Masterpiece Theatre,” 8 p.m., OETA-13.
Did you swoon over Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in "Pride and Prejudice”? Meet Toby Stephens, whose portrayal of Mr. Rochester in this four-part "Jane Eyre” drew raves. Ruth Wilson gives an equally inspired performance as Jane, the plucky orphan he hires as a governess, in what many are calling the best screen take on Charlotte Bronte's classic. Even if Toby's not your type, you'll enjoy it.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reviews the best theatre seen in the Twin Cities area and Alan Stanford's Jane Eyre at the Guthrie Theatre is mentioned:

Outstanding play, larger theaters: Director Peter Rothstein and his cast sharpened Noel Coward's wit in "Private Lives," which bested a provocative "Merchant of Venice" -- both Guthrie productions -- and an incisive "Speed the Plow" at the Jungle. Honorable mentions to "Jane Eyre" and "The Glass Menagerie" at the Guthrie. (Tom Wallace)

And well, we have another Brontë mention in an article by Tanya Gold in The Guardian. Yes, the same person who wrote this and this. It's a pity that Charlotte Brontë gets mixed into this article where Ms Gold plays the missing link between Valerie Solanas and Bridget Jones.

Why does the loneliness never end (© Charlotte Bronte 1855)?

We don't know if Tanya Gold is quoting from Charlotte Brontë or - as is her wont - just making fun of her. In any case it's quite improbable that Charlotte Brontë would have written such a thing in 1855, months into her happy marriage and shortly before her death.

On the blogosphere, Bokmania talks about the upcoming airing of Jane Eyre 2006 in Sweden among other Brontë-related Swedish stuff, CataRomance interviews author Michelle Douglas who chooses Emily Brontë as one of her favourite writers (for her passion). O Muro das Lamentações briefly discusses Wuthering Heights in Portuguese. Girlebooks reviews Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall:

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a story that will stay with you, perhaps requiring subsequent readings. Another common theme among reviewers was astonishment that such an accurate portrayal of marital strife should come from a young woman who never married. (Laura McDonald)

My temporary tree posts a beautiful picture inspired by Wichrowe wzgórza, i.e. Wuthering Heights in Polish.

And finally, a post from The Victorian Peeper about Joshua Cawthra, the Man with Handel on His Monument. Its author, Richard Wilcocks, former chairman of the Brontë Society and current editor of the Brontë Parsonage Blog.

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Books, Branwell Brontë, Brontëites, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Theatre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Wuthering Heights

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Dual English-Arabic Jane Eyre

We present today a dual edition of Jane Eyre in Arabic and English:

Jane Eyre / جين آير
Jane Eyre (Dual E-A) $10.50
Price: $10.50
Language: English-Arabic
Publisher: Dar Al-Bihar/Dar Wa Maktabat Al-Hilal
Year Published: 2007
Pages: 541
ISBN-ISBN13-UPC: 9789953750675

Bilingual English-Arabic version of Jane Eyre'

Dual language books. The English and Arabic pages are facing each other, matching one-on-one with English on the left page, Arabic on the right page. Easy reference for individuals not strong in one of the languages. Well known fiction titles for different interests and levels.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Translations

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Emily Brontë on a wall

BlogCritics comments the PBS new airing of Jane Eyre 2006 (see TV alerts on the sidebar) not very enthusiastically:

Sunday, December 30:
9:00 – 11:00PM
Masterpiece Theatre – "Jane Eyre". Let's face it, this is a classic novel and there has been more than one classic version of the novel put on screen. This version received numerous awards and nominations, though I'll admit to not being a huge fan of it. (Josh Lasser)

The Chicago Tribune reviews Valerie Martin's Trespass and its Wuthering Heights connections are once more pointed out:

Salome embodies a kind of Brontean otherness for Chloe. She is the "odd, dark creature," like the figure of Bronte's Heathcliff, whom Chloe's son, Toby, has "extracted, it now appears, from some refugee swamp and set down before his mother in a perfectly respectable corner of New York." (Laura Ciolkowski)

On the blogosphere: Kirsten Miller, author of Kiki Strike, is interviewed on Little Willow, she chooses Jane Eyre for her all-time favourite books top ten. Gin and Tonic posts a long synopsis of Jane Eyre. Catherine Czerkawska begins posting on Wordarts her complete new novel The Corncracker, which she defines as

I believe it's a good read. It's a love story and I'm not ashamed of that. I'm also not ashamed to confess that it's a Scottish homage to Wuthering Heights, and I've been told that the writing has a touch of Daphne DuMaurier about it. I only wish!

Finally, Emily Brontë on a wall. Literally. In The Warren Reporter we read how an empty blank wall at the Warren County Community College library has been painted with a mural that, among others, includes Emily Brontë.

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights

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Wuthering Heights in the National Film Registry

The Library of Congress has announced the list of 25 films that it has picked up and added to the US National Film Registry this year. Among them, we can find Wuthering Hights 1939. From the National Film Preservation Board press release:

The selections were made as part of a program aimed at preserving the nation’s movie heritage. Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act of 1992, each year the Librarian of Congress, with advice from the National Film Preservation Board, names 25 films to the National Film Registry to be preserved for all time. The films are chosen because they are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. This year’s selections bring to 475 the number of motion pictures in the registry. (...)

Wuthering Heights (1939)
Director William Wyler had great difficulty in convincing Laurence Olivier to leave England to play the part of Heathcliff in this adaptation of Emily Brontë’s work, especially since Olivier’s wife Vivien Leigh was not offered the leading- lady role of Cathy, which went to Merle Oberon. Eventually, Olivier agreed and Leigh, while visiting Olivier during the filming, managed to get a screen test for what became her greatest role: Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind.” Producer Samuel Goldwyn always claimed credit for the film, reportedly once saying: “I made “Wuthering Heights;” Wyler only directed it.” Gregg Toland’s deep-focus cinematography deftly creates the moody, ethereal atmosphere of haunted love in a film universally acclaimed as one of cinema’s great romances.

Categories: Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights

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How to Read Jane Eyre

Blackwell Publishing has recently published a relevant book for the readers of this blog:

How to Read the Victorian Novel
by George Levine (Rutgers University)

Series: How to Study Literature
ISBN: 9781405130561
ISBN10: 1405130563

USA: Nov 2007
Rest of World: Oct 2007
Australia: Dec 2007
200 pages

How to Read the Victorian Novel provides a unique introduction to the genre. Using examples from the classics, like The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Jane Eyre, The Woman in White, and Middlemarch, it demonstrates just how unfamiliar their familiarity is. The book attempts to break free of the sense that the Victorian novel is somehow old fashioned, moralizing, and formally careless by emphasizing the complexity, difficulty, and rare pleasures of the Victorian writers' strenuous efforts both to entertain and to teach; to create serious "art" and to appeal to wide audiences; to respond both to the demands of publishing and also to their own rich imaginative engagement with a world heading into modernity at full speed.

Broad in its scope, the text surveys a wide variety of literary types and explores the cultural and historical developments of the novel form itself. The book also poses a series of "big questions" pertaining to money, capitalism, industry, race, gender, and, at the same time, to formal issues, such as plotting, perspective, and realist representation. In addition, it locates the qualities that give to the great variety of Victorian novels a "family resemblance," the material conditions of their production, their tendency to multiply plots, their obsession with class and money, their problematic handling of gender questions, and their commitment to realist representation.

How to Read the Victorian Novel challenges our comfortable expectations of the genre in order to explore intensively a burgeoning and changing literary form which mirrors a burgeoning and changing society.

Chapter 4 is particularly related to Jane Eyre:

4. Jane, David, and the Bildungsroman

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Scholar, Victorian Era

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The quintessential joie de vivre

BlogCritics Magazine reviews the 28-disc mega-box set A&E Romance Classics Collections 1 and 2 (already mentioned on BrontëBlog). Concerning Jane Eyre 1997, included in the collection, the reviewer says:

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books of all time, and I have seen several filmed adaptations of the novel. To me, Edward Rochester is the quintessential romantic hero (who I discuss further in a Blogcritics article) and I am quite picky about adaptations of the novel. I have always held the BBC version of it with Timothy Dalton as the standard by which all other Jane Eyres must be judged. I found this version, although much abridged from the novel (and BBC production), quite well done, with Samantha Morton’s narration providing cohesion to the story. Ciarán Hinds creates nowhere as complex a Rochester as Dalton but Morton’s Jane Eyre is excellent. (Barbara Barnett)

Creative Loafing lists the 2007 top ten of theatre productions in the Tampa Bay area. The Gorilla Theatre's production of Polly Teale's Jane Eyre is one of them:

6 Jane Eyre. Katherine Michelle Tanner was plain Jane and Shana Perkins was her alter ego, an unnamed beauty who longed to be free of her attic cage, to be allowed the untrammeled expression of all her capacities, female and human. In Polly Teale's adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane acted in front of us and "Bertha" upstairs danced the inner meaning of Jane's behavior, from cowed humility to exultant joie de vivre. The Gorilla Theatre production featured Nancy Cole's intelligent directing, Robin Gordon's thrilling choreography, and the triumphant return to the stage of Ned Averill-Snell as Rochester. Brontë's feminism was exceedingly well served. (Mark E. Leib)

The Daily Star reviews Elif Shafak's The Bastard of Istambul and makes one of those crazy Brontë-meets-whatever references that we love so much:

Elif Shafak was the first writer in Turkey charged with denigrating Turkish identity for the words she put in the mouths and minds of fictional characters. When "The Bastard of Istanbul" was finally published, after the charges against Shafak were dropped, the book turned out to be a rollicking account of adolescent anxiety. Imagine "Wuthering Heights" crossed with Carson McCullers. (Kaelen Wilson-Goldie)

In other news: PJorge, the Spanish translator of Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair, talks about Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre in this interesting post in Spanish. The Music Box reviews Genesis's 1977 album Wind & Wuthering and En Boktoks Tankar posts about Svindlande Höjder, i.e. Wuthering Heights, in Swedish.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References, Theatre, Wuthering Heights

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A Breath of Fresh Eyre - A Review

Editions Rodopi kindly sent us a copy of A Breath of Fresh Eyre. Intertextual and Intermedial Reworkings of Jane Eyre edited by Margarete Rubik and Elke Mettinger-Schartmann. After reading it carefully, this is our review:

A Breath of Fresh Eyre. Intertextual and Intermedial Reworkings of Jane Eyre.
RUBIK, Margarete and Elke METTINGER-SCHARTMANN (Eds.)
Rodopi, Amsterdam/New York, NY, 2007, 418 pp.
Hb: 978-90-420-2212-6
€ 84 / US$ 118

A Breath of Fresh Eyre. Intertextual and Intermedial Reworkings of Jane Eyre is a volume edited by Margarete Rubik and Elke Mettinger-Schartmann consisting of twenty-five papers (plus an introduction and an epilogue) offering, quoting from the backcover, 'a comprehensive collection of reworkings that also takes into account recent novels, plays and works of art that were published after Patsy Stoneman's seminal 1996 study on Brontë Transformations.'⁽¹⁾

The reference to Stoneman's book is, of course, totally fitting but it should be clarified that A Breath of Fresh Eyre cannot be considered a continuation or an extension of Brontë Transformations. Some of the articles cover aspects already mentioned in Stoneman's books and the present volume does not have the cohesion (impossible for obvious reasons) neither the completeness of Stoneman's book.

A book like A Breath of Fresh Eyre can be approached from several perspectives. Judging each contribution separately, analyzing the topics treated and absent or (more ambitiously) tracing a sort of map of the critical state-of-the-art in Brontë studies according to the different approaches used in the contributions to the volume. We will humbly try to cover all of them.

The vast majority of the contributors to this book are scholars from different German or Austrian Universities, a fact not surprising considering that the volume belongs to the Austrian IFAVL collection⁽²⁾. This common background should be taken into account when some common trends of the articles are highlighted.

One of these common trends can be checked in the bibliography of the different papers. Gilbert & Gubar's Madwoman in the Attic is referenced in fourteen out of the twenty-five articles (56%), added to Spivak's Critique of Post-Colonial Reason and other similar approaches (Showalter, Boumelha...). Therefore, it seems that sometimes we are not reading a collection of articles on reworkings of Jane Eyre but of Bertha Mason. The madwoman in the attic's final revenge is to conquer the novel where she was imprisoned. It's also surprising that in a collection such as this one, Stoneman's Brontë Transformations will be just referenced by ten of the authors and Donna Marie Nudd's works or even Lucasta Miller's The Brontë Myth are just testimonially quoted.

Let's enumerate what the topics treated are. After an introduction by Barbara Schaff, Part 1 is devoted to novel adaptations. The subject is widely explored:

Jean Ryhs's Wide Sargasso Sea is discussed in three papers (but appears as an intertext in several others). Arizti discusses the novel in terms of Morson's theory about the ethical representation of time in narrative fiction and Loe uses landscapes to evaluate the internal cohesion and the differences between Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. More interestingly, Müller places himself outside the common post-colonial critical thought (particularly among the different contributors of the book) and argues that

it can be said that, as far as colonialism is concerned, Jane Eyre lacks an intended or unintended subtext. While in the presentation of Rochester there is a subtext, i.e. a blank which can be filled with reference to a Victorian context of specifically male prerogatives in matters of life and sex, colonialism is a gap, a hole or a blind spot in the novel. (...) Modern readers, however, are bound to find such a subtext, which derives from the fact that they read the novel from (...) another ideological position. What Charlotte Brontë is blind to is transparent to them.

Some post-Stoneman's clearly Jane Eyre-inspired novels are discussed: Ines Detmers analyzes Hilary Bailey's Mrs. Rochester: A Sequel to Jane Eyre (1997), D.M. Thomas's Charlotte (2000) and Kimberly A. Bennett's Jane Rochester (2000). D. M. Thomas's novel is also the subject of a paper by Sue Thomas that goes to the limit by identifying Bertha's images through psychoanalytical readings. Mardi McConnochie's Coldwater (2001) is the subject of a very informative article by Maggie Tonkin. Other novels loosely inspired or read through a Jane Eyre narrative are treated in a paper by Ursula Kluwick: Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac, Margaret Drabble's The Waterfall, Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine and Jamica Kincaid's Lucy. The analysis is limited to the exploration of the role of anger in the main character's development.

A series of articles now focuses on the influence of Jane Eyre in several sci-fi and fantasy novels. Jürgen Wehrmann writes an interesting but incomplete⁽³⁾ summary of post-feminist science-fiction novels including Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair. This novel is also the subject of three more articles: Margarete Rubik 'takes a cognitive approach to the text world and Fforde's novel' exploring how Fforde dissolves the frontiers between fact and fiction. Mark Berninger and Katrin Thomas's approach drifts into the kind of critical theory that Fforde himself parodies in the terminology used in his novels⁽⁴⁾. Finally, Juliette Wells looks into the character Jane Eyre as a sort of inspiration for Thursday Next herself.

Part 2 is devoted to Visual Adaptations.

Among them we find three articles devoted to TV and film adaptations. Verenna-Susanna Nungesser compares Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Jane Eyre, both the novels and the movie adaptations (Hithcock's and Stevenson's respectively). Sarah Wootton talks about the Byronic substratum of Rochester and how it appears in some adaptations. The idea is very interesting but lacks completeness in the analysis of the different films treated⁽⁵⁾. Finally, Carol M. Dole's analyzes the functions of child characters in five feature-length films. Although the author justifies the use of only feature-length films and not miniseries, we rather believe that a more complete analysis could be of interest. In general, these articles leave a wide field untouched and the feeling that a lot of critical work remains to be done.

The next series of articles is devoted to adaptations for child readers and illustrations of Jane Eyre novels. Marla Harris 'explores ways of picturing/illustrating Jane Eyre' and explains how to abridge the texts without losing authenticity. Norbert Bachleitner draws a comparison between two Classics Illustrated comic versions of Jane Eyre in 1947 and 1962 and Michaela Braesel discusses four illustrated editions of Jane Eyre (1872, 1897, 1904 and 1905). These three articles provide a very interesting insight into aspects of the Jane Eyre popular heritage, which has not been sufficiently explored. Finally, an article by Aline Ferreira centered on Paula Rego's series of paintings inspired by Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea.

Part 3 is devoted to opera and drama adaptations.

Walter Berhart and Bruno Lessard sign two articles on Michael Berkeley and David Malouf's 2000 opera based on Jane Eyre. Particularly interesting is Lessard's article exploring the intertextual, but also intermedial (interoperal we could say) influences of Berkeley's opera. A couple of articles examines two plays of Polly Teale's Brontë trilogy. Jarmila Mildorf looks into what she calls 'mad intertexuality' in After Mrs Rochester and Kathleen Starck explores Polly Teale's Jane Eyre particularly as a staged version of Gilbert and Gubar's Madwoman in the Attic ideas⁽⁶⁾.

A couple of somewhat disconnected articles close the section. Elke Mettinger-Schartmann talks about John Brougham's 1849 stage melodrama based on Jane Eyre. The play is placed as the antithesis of the abovementioned psychological version by Teale. Brougham's is focused on class differences although calling the reading Marxist is a little bit extreme⁽⁷⁾. Rainer Emig finds curious, but quite forced, connections between Sarah Kane's play Blasted and Jane Eyre in the last article of the section. The epilogue is an article by Michelene Wandor describing her work adapting Jane Eyre for BBC Radio 4 in 1987.

It's difficult to understand why a book that examines so many Jane Eyre recent derivatives, one of the most significant ones of the last decades is not mentioned at all: Paul Gordon and Michael Caird's Broadway musical Jane Eyre (neither the other Jane Eyre musicals, obviously). It's an unforgivable drawback for a book that, irregular as it may be, solidly adds up to the critical body of work of the ever-growing Brontë transformations genre.

(1) Stoneman, Patsy. Brontë Transformations. The Cultural Dissemination of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, Prentice Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1996.
(2) Volume 111. Internationale Forschungen zur Allemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenchaft (IFAVL)
(3) It's hard to say why Sharon Shinn's Jenna Starborn (2002), a more than obvious possibility, is not included or mentioned.
(4) Or even in Jasper Fforde's talks:

"Metafiction. It's one of those grey terms bantered around by people who like to study fiction rather than enjoy it, and use expressions like 'Narrative topography', 'absentation of actuality', 'paradigmatic axis of associations' and 'metaphorical chain of deterritorialised signifiers.' (Science-fiction UPC Award 2007, Conference, 27/11/2007, Jasper Fforde, Thursday Next and Meta Fiction)

(5) Furthermore, it's a pity that the latest BBC adaptation was too recent to be included or discussed.
(6) The last play of the trilogy, Brontë, is also very rich in intertextual allusions not only to Jane Eyre but to other Brontë novels.
(7) The author of the article relies on Stoneman's work in order to date the first performance of the play in 1856. Nevertheless, Stoneman's new book, Jane Eyre on Stage, 1848 -1898, enlarges the information available and quotes from the New York Spirit of The Times giving 1849 as the opening year. On the possible 'revolutionary meaning of the play', Stoneman - in her latest book - says, 'Once again, a lower-class audience is entertained by seeing class enemies mocked, while the play as a whole re-establishes social harmony by focusing on virtuous individuals'.

Categories: Books, Review, Scholar

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Polar Explorers and Pipes

The Times publishes fascinating new discoveries made revising the inventory of the RRS Discovery in the mythical Discovery Expedition (1901-1904) to the Antarctica led by Robert Falcon Scott:

The officers’ library on Discovery was stuffed with fiction, biography and poetry, as well as practical scientific books. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was popular, there were novels by the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and the works of George Meredith. Below deck, the ordinary sailors could read Sheor King Solomon’s Minesby H. Rider Haggard or flick through bound editions of the magazine Punch. (Mike Wade)

It's a funny find since the young Brontës - particularly Emily and Anne - incorporated Captains John Ross and William Edward Parry (Artic explorers) into their juvenilia plays.

Let's finish the Boxing Day (scarce) news with the perfect present for the Brontë aficionado out there. Hurry up, this is an unavoidable (and unspeakable) opportunity:

English Slip Cast Clay Pipe -
Brand new and imported from England - In its own gift box -
This one is Charlotte Bronte -
It is 5" long with a 1.75" tall bowl that's about .75" wide -
With a coated tip

The mysteries of ebay...

Categories: In the News, Jane Eyre, Weirdo

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Scholar survey

Some recent scholar publications:

'In Company of a Gipsy': The 'Gypsy' as Trope in Woolf and Brontë
Author: Bardi, Abby
Critical Survey, Volume 19, Number 1, June 2007 , pp. 40-50(11)

(...) In Villette, too, Gypsies function briefly but significantly as a vehicle for the destabilisation of gender and social roles: references to Gypsies occur during a key episode, Lucy Snowe’s visit to an art gallery where she views Rubens’ painting of Cleopatra. Here, as in Orlando, the Gypsy trope performs an operation in which gender appears to become suddenly unstable. (Read more)

The Female Gothic Subtext:Gender Politics in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper
Author: Pazhavila, Angie
Institution: Seattle University
Publisher: Lethbridge Undergraduate Research Journal (2007)
Abstract:
This essay examines how Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper found, in the conventions of the Gothic genre, a forum in which to address the universality of female suffering, as well as introduce progressive notions for the modification of female conduct. Gothic literature, while allowing the reader to live vicariously through the heroine's ordeals in a world of danger and mystery, also provided women authors with the ideal medium in which to conceal radical critiques of the gender politics of their age. Socialist and humanist values are prevalent in both texts, and while Jane Eyre is an educational novel, aiming to show the reader what happens when the protagonist has integrity, and fights for her rights, The Yellow Wallpaper is a cautionary tale, warning readers of the result when the protagonist does not fight back against those who would oppress her.

And some reviews published:

Beth Newman
Review of Janet Gezari's Last Things: The Poems of Emily Brontë.
The Review of English Studies Advance Access published on November 20, 2007.
doi:10.1093/res/hgm130

Anthony Chennells
Review of Diana Peschier's Nineteenth-Century Anti-Catholic Discourses: The Case of Charlotte Brontë
The Heythrop Journal 48 (5), 811–813.

Categories: Journals, Scholar

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Yoko, let me in

The Telegraph & Argus reminds us of the approaching ending of the temporal exhibitions at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

Bronte fans have a few more days to see the latest temporary exhibitions before the Bronte Parsonage Museum at Haworth closes throughout January for the annual spring clean.
The[sic] Unlucky Book focuses on the scandal surrounding Elizabeth Gaskell's bioigraphy of Charlotte Bronte, author of Jane Eyre.
And Who Were The Brontes explores myths surrounding the family using the sisters' writings and personal possessions and new scientific research.
The museum reopens after Christmas on Friday, from 11am to 5pm. It will be closed from Wednesday, January 2, to Thursday, January 31. (Clive White)

Now for some ghost stuff. Can you imagine John Lennon visiting Yoko Ono à la Cathy-let-me-in in Wuthering Heights? Scotland on Sunday reports Yoko Ono saying just that:

The first time she thought she saw him after he died was "one day when I was half-asleep. I kept being attracted by something at the window. Suddenly I thought, 'Oh, it's John!' and he turned round and said, 'Come on, we've got to go.' And I said, 'I can't come with you now because I have Sean and so much to take care of.' He said, 'Oh yes, I forgot,' and just turned round. And I said, 'Later, not now.' And he said, 'Okay.' It was amazing. Like Cathy in Wuthering Heights, scratching at the window to get to Heathcliff. I do see him once in a while." (Chrissie Iley)

We thought Cathy's role was Paul McCartney's dream. Guess we were wrong.

The Baltimore Sun gives more details about the upcoming opening of the Inn Boonsboro, the hotel that Nora Roberts has restored and revamped:

True to form, Roberts is crafting her new inn as she would her next novel - or, rather, the next six. Each of the inn's six rooms will be themed, from decor down to custom-scented soaps, to a literary couple, including Jane Eyre and her Rochester (gothic), Pride and Prejudice's Elizabeth and Darcy (airier, Regency) and the Thin Man series' Nick and Nora (art deco). Only one room will be devoted to two of the hundreds of characters she herself has created - Eve and Roarke, of the futuristic police procedural series that she writes under the pen name J.D. Robb. (Jean Marbella)

In brief: Hal Boedeker in The Orlando Sentinel selects Jane Eyre Eyre 2006 for his top 2007 miniseries. Blogout talks (in Japanese) about Bernard Herrmann's soundtrack for Jane Eyre 1944.

Finally, a fully Christmas post: The Locust Blossom with Anne Brontë's Music on Christmas Morning.

Categories: Brontë Parsonage Museum, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights

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Happy holidays!

BrontëBlog would like to wish one and all a wonderful Christmas (or any other holiday you celebrate). To let the Brontës into our celebration, we bring you a selection of the beautiful quotes we received for our Christmas contest:

From Michael:
'My dear girl', she said, 'one happy Christmas Eve I dressed and decorated myself, expecting my lover, very soon to be my husband, would come that night to visit me. I sat down to wait. Once more I see that moment - I see the snow-twilight stealing through the window over which the curtain was not dropped, for I designed to watch him ride up the white walk; I see and feel the soft firelight warming me, playing on my silk dress, and fitfully showing me my own young figure in a glass. I see the moon of a calm winter night float full, clear and cold, over the inky mass of shrubbery, and the silvered turf of my grounds. I wait, with some impatience in my pulse, but no doubt in my breast. The flames had died in the fire, but it was a bright mass yet; the moon was mounting high, but she was still visible from the lattice; the clock neared ten; he rarely tarried later than this, but once or twice he had been delayed so long.
(Villette, Chapter IV, by Charlotte Brontë)

From Kat
I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.
(Wuthering Heights, Chapter XXXIV, by Emily Brontë)

From M. Schelling
We feasted that evening as on nectar and ambrosia; and not the least delight of the entertainment was the smile of gratification with which our hostess regarded us, as we satisfied our famished appetites on the delicate fare she liberally supplied.
(Jane Eyre, chapter VIII, by Charlotte Brontë)

From Marybeth
Running through the vestibule, and up-stairs to the drawing-room, there I found Mrs. Bretton--a summer-day in her own person. Had I been twice as cold as I was, her kind kiss and cordial clasp would have warmed me. Inured now for so long a time to rooms with bare boards, black benches, desks, and stoves, the blue saloon seemed to me gorgeous. In its Christmas-like fire alone there was a clear and crimson splendour which quite dazzled me.
(Villette, chapter XXIV, by Charlotte Brontë)

From Hannah
I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward. (Charlotte Brontë to Ellen Nussey , January 15, 1849)

And of course the weekly quote on the sidebar this week and the coming week will be the ones sent by the winners (Amy and Merry) of the two prizes.

A big thank you to everyone who participated - we would have loved to have had a present for everyone.

Have a very merry Christmas!

Picture: Keith Melling

Looking down the steep cobbled main street of Haworth - famous for its Bronte associations. Haworth is not really in the Yorkshire Dales but is not too far away.
From an oil painting.
Signed Limited Edition of 850. 8 x 12 ins. More information, here.

Categories: Messages from BB

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Christmas Dinner

The Halifax Evening Courier proposes a classic quiz for Christmas Eve, who would you invite to your Christmas dinner?

After more than 100 rejections, Todmorden author Linda Green finally saw her dream come true this year with her debut novel published – and within weeks, I Did A Bad Thing soared in the best-selling paperback charts at both Waterstones and Tesco.
Linda, now working on her second novel, has chosen to dine with two authors from very different eras – Emily Bronte and JK Rowling.
"It would be fascinating to hear about how much has changed for women writers since Bronte's day and I'm sure she would be delighted to learn how her work has lived on – and astounded at how much JK Rowling earns today," she says.
"When dinner is finished we could all curl up by the fire and be treated to a mammoth storytelling session for the rest of the day." (Virginia Mason)

(Very) belatedly we would like to report the following words by Paul Gordon in the Jane Eyre Musical forum about the present status of the new version of Jane Eyre. The Musical:

JANE EYRE - getting closer to doing "the new chamber version" next year at a major regional as well. (December 13)

Schlock Treatment talks about Jacquest Tourneur's 1943 reworking of Jane Eyre à la voodoo in I Walk with a Zombie. Speak its Name reviews another (gay) Jane Eyre reworking: The Master of Seacliff by Max Pierce.

There are flashes of Rebecca here, with an obsessed and creepy faithful retainer, touches of Jane Eyre but never so much so to annoy, it was always its own story. (Erastes)

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References

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Brontë Tote Bags

Some months ago we posted about the tote bags project of Pixiechick_sw. Now we can find her Brontë tote bags for sell in her Etsy shop: Little Buttons.

Emily Brontë Tote

This lovely tote is a must for any Emily Bronte fan. It is perfect for packing Wuthering Heights and you favorite journal for an afternoon of writing and reading—my idea of a great afternoon!
The Emily Bronte Tote is made from double reinforced cotton calico with black corduroy sides and bottom. The picture of Emily is a hand-made photo transfer and is framed with heirloom stitching. It is from a portrait of her painted by her brother Branwell. The handles are long and sturdy. I made this bag to last!
The bag is approximately 28” from the base to the top of the handles. The body of the bag is approximately 13” tall and 10” across.

Charlotte Brontë Tote

Categories: Brontëana

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Who is she?

The Guardian reviews the biography John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand by Richard Reeves. The reviewer quotes Charlotte Brontë's opinion of his wife, Harriet Taylor:

There was an innocent, unworldly, always faintly alarming infantile streak in Mill that runs perhaps most strongly through his relationship with Harriet Taylor , the married woman who was by all accounts the only human being he ever truly loved. Judicious and sardonic as his subject, Reeves offers no verdict as to whether or not the two slept together in the 20 years before her husband's death enabled them to marry, or indeed whether Mill's beloved was actually as unpleasant as many of his admirers have maintained. His own effusive tributes to the majesty of her intellect and the infallibility of her judgment seem decidedly less persuasive than Charlotte Bronte's crisp summing-up, based on a feminist article by Mrs Taylor: 'I thought it was the work of a powerful-minded, clear-headed woman, who had a hard, jealous heart, muscles of iron, and nerves of bent leather; of a woman who longed for power and had never felt affection.' (Hilary Spurling)

As a matter of fact, Charlotte Brontë here was describing to Mrs Gaskell (20 September 1851) her thoughts on an article appeared in the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review on the emancipation of women. The article was assumed to be by JS Mill (who was the journal's editor), even though Charlotte at first took it (cleverly) to be by a woman - hence the previous quote. Charlotte herself later on in the same letter continues talking about the author like this:

In short J.S. Mills[sic]'s head is, I daresay -very good- but I feel disposed to scorn his heart.

The New York Post recommends Wuthering Heights 1939 (which airs on TCM at 10:00 AM (ET), check our TV alerts sidebar):

The only novel that Emily Bronte ever wrote became one of the most romantic movies ever made. Bronte tells the tragic story of Cathy, a girl from a good family, and her passion for Heathcliff, a stable boy. Merle Oberon is too gorgeous as Cathy and Laurence Olivier is Heathcliff. Who wouldn't hang out in the stable with Olivier shoeing the horses? (Linda Stasi)

Darkmatters writes a very interesting post on the cinematography of Jane Eyre 1944. Particularly centered on the Helen Burns sickbed scene. Hallucina compares Emily Brontë with Neil Gaiman. And I'm Gonna Say It To...? posts some pictures of Brontë country.

Finally, the Malaysian newspaper The Star carries a story about the trip to the University of Hull of several Malaysian students. They visited Scarborough including Anne Brontë's tomb (picture):

A short walk down the steep castle slopes and another historical site greeted the students at St Mary’s Church. Here they found the tombstone and burial site of Anne Bronte, which drew hushed whispers of “Who is she?” (Sharon Ovinis)

Categories: Anne Brontë, Books, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Jane EyreMovies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights

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Japanese Anne

A newly published scholar approach to Anne Brontë, in Japanese:

アン・ブロンテ
二十一世紀の再評価
(Anne Brontë. A 21st Century revaluation).
by 大田　美和 (Miwa Ota)

• Pages: 175 pages
• Publisher: 中央大学出版部 (2007/11)
• ISBN-10: 4805751657
• ISBN-13: 978-4805751657
• Release Date: 2007/11

The table of contents and further information can be found on the publisher's website. The first chapter deals with Agnes Grey, the second one discusses The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the third one looks at Anne Brontë's second novel from a Wuthering Heights perspective. The fourth chapter is devoted to her poems and the fifth and last one to her letters and diary papers.

Categories: Anne Brontë, Books, Scholar

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Brooding for England

The Telegraph recommends the rerun of Jane Eyre 2006 (we suppose they mean the UKTV Drama repeat, check TV-alerts on our sidebar, because on the ITV1's schedule it doesn't appear):

A welcome repeat of Sandy Welch’s (Mrs Stephen Poliakoff) superb adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel, starring Ruth Wilson as the eponymous plain Jane and Toby Stephens as her Byron-esque bit of rough, Mr Rochester. Skipping over much of the novel’s concentration on Jane’s miserable childhood, this adaptation takes her quickly to Thornfield, where the cat and mouse game between the central characters can commence. Wilson and Stephens simmer enticingly as the frustrated lovers, separated by class, age and wives that go bump in the night. (Mary Evans)

The Times's critic also joins in this recommendation:

Enjoy possibly the best Jane Eyre yet – Ruth Wilson – with Toby Stephens’s Rochester brooding for England. (Gabrielle Starkey)

And Radio Times:

One of the undisputed TV highlights of last year, Susanna White's thoroughly sympathetic version of Charlotte Brontë's much-loved classic delighted even the pickiest viewer. If you missed it (what were you thinking?), here's a chance to see what the fuss was about. Orphan Jane's grim early years are rapidly dispensed with in order to get us to the meat of the story: her dramatic meeting with the dashing Mr Rochester. Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens are splendid in their roles and, even for those who find the pair don't live up to their vision of the characters, there's no denying the screen crackles with sexual tension whenever they're together. Concludes tomorrow. (Jane Rackham)

Today we have a complete set of weird Brontë mentions around: Comic Book Resources reviews The Scream #1 (Written by Peter David, Artwork by Bart Sears & Randy Elliott & Lucas Marangon). Check the comment about this panel:

Danny's in a dream sequence. Notice that the glasses have vanished again. It continues to help indicate a fantasy sequence. . . as if dressing him like Heathcliff from "Wuthering Heights" wasn't enough. (Augie DeBlieck, Jr)

Hollywood Today reviews The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep and makes the following passing comment:

Meanwhile, the boy’s mother Emily Watson is offered her choice of [Ben] Chaplin as the darkly handsome Wuthering Heights working man or the stiff upper lip charmer David Morrissey who plays Captain Hamilton. (Robin Rowe)

We read today in Simon Hoggart's column in The Guardian:

I read Lord Of The Rings when I was 12 and loved it, so I can well understand how an adult would turn away in despair after a couple of chapters, though Sherlock Holmes did surprise me. My own shame is Wuthering Heights, which I have tried three times without success. I gather I am not alone.

We are afraid that probably among the readers of this blog, Mr Hoggart is quite alone.

In The Guardian we also read a review of Rhett Butler's People by Donald Craig where the reviewer mades the following question:

Would Heathcliff's mystique be enhanced if someone offered a day-to-day account of his three-year sabbatical as a businessman? (Alfred Hickling)

In some other news: sometimes quite unexpected Brontëites turn around, check FrontPage Magazine to know who allegedly is an admirer of the Brontës: Muslim Brotherhood member Kamal El Helbawi. Enchanted Darkness briefly talks about Wuthering Heights 1939 and Fairweather Lewis comments the original novel.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights

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Auto-Poetica

A recent scholar book with a Brontë chapter:

Auto-poetica: Representations of the Creative Process in Nineteenth-century British and American Fiction

Edited by Darby Lewes
Lexington Books

The nineteenth-century Künstlerroman self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction--and in doing so, tends toward irony and self-reflection, and prefigures postmodernism. A work of art written about an artist creating a work of art is, in a sense, a novel in which the author is a character. The essays in this collection examine the work of major nineteenth century authors that attempted to merge fiction and reality into a unified whole. These novels paved the way for postmodernists who would use the artist-novel to self-conciously focus on the genre's particular conventions, to parody those conventions in order to accentuate the work's fictionality, and to expose the oppositions between fiction and reality. This collection thus reveals not only material concerns, but the underlying anxieties, drives, and joys, which are so profoundly linked to the creative process.

The section The Sibling Arts: Theory, Painting and Politics contains the essay by Diane Hoeveler: Theories of Creativiy and the Saga of Charlotte Brontë.

Categories: Books, Charlotte Brontë, Scholar

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Brutally Trufhful Style

The Overlook Press Blog posts the Publishers' Weekly review of the upcoming (next March 2008) The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë by Laura Joh Rowland:

"The author of Jane Eyre plays sleuth in this enchanting historical from Rowland, acclaimed for her mystery series set in 17th-century Japan (The Snow Empress, etc.). After the instant success of Jane Eyre and the lesser success of her two sisters’ novels, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, Charlotte Brontë receives a letter from her publisher, George Smith, accusing her of breach of contract: Smith believes the same author penned all three novels, as they each appeared under a pseudonym with the surname Bell. On the train from Haworth to London to meet Smith, Charlotte and sister Anne encounter Isabel White, a mysterious girl who, once in London, is murdered. Charlotte becomes ensnared in a case involving a revenge plot orchestrated by an arch villain shaded with old school orientalism. Brontë fans will delight in Rowland’s portrait of Charlotte, who closely parallels Jane both in personality and station. The men playing opposite Charlotte often echo the character of Edward Rochester, lending an enticing will-they, won’t-they tension to the proceedings."

According to the Daily Star, Ruth Wilson was the second placed woman, just after Billie Piper, on the annual top TV talent list, compiled by industry magazine Broadcast from votes by TV chiefs.

Tulsa World reports about books and movies read in 2007. Wuthering Heights is one of them:

Shelves at bookstores are getting trashier and trashier these days, with tomes about Alist lives in California to false highschool documentations. When it’s hard to fi nd a guaranteed good read, it’s time to turn to the underappreciated classics. Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” is a classic read in purest form. Drama, haunting romance and action, too— Bronte’s creative juices really got flowing. The novel follows the lives of two generations of two different families as they grow old, fall in love and live through the hardships of the mid-1800s. It’s hard not to relate to at least one element of this European classic, be it forbidden love or complicated friendships. Bronte’s brutally truthful style of writing and love for climatic twists and plotlines will have you turning page after page. (Cara Rob, Memorial freshman)

Chez Clarabel posts about the French translations of Charlotte Brontë's Stancliffe's Hotel juvenilia piece and Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey:

Il fut un temps où les jeunes filles rosissaient de confusion, faisaient commerce avec des galants hommes, étaient "rongées par l'affliction, harcelées par l'inquiétude, ou durablement oppressées par des sentiments puissants" et se refugiaient dans la poésie. Un temps où la littérature portait une lettre majuscule, où l'on encensait les sentiments purs, la nature et les vicissitudes de la condition féminine - qu'on soit pauvre ou riche, belle ou laide. Un très, très bon roman, tout en raffinement ! (clarabel76)

Jane Eyre is a passing mention in these two press articles: The Houston Chronicle talks about mental health care:

The issue has remained largely absent from the recent presidential health-care debates. For too many people, "mental illness" conjures images of 19th century asylums and visions of Mrs. Rochester locked away in Jane Eyre. (Jeffrey A. Lieberman)

And in The Washington Post's review of Anne Perry's A Christmas Beginning:

Out of this narrative, a question arises: What about those "gentle" women who couldn't or wouldn't get married in the Victorian Age? They were usually doomed either to become governesses (like Jane Eyre) or hang around the houses of their father or brothers, subsisting on a penurious allowance. (Carolyn See)

Finally, let's highlight that LibriVox has a new Brontë project: The Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.

Categories: Agnes Grey, Audio-Radio, Books, Fiction, Jane Eyre, Juvenilia, Movies-DVD-TV, Poetry, References

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Brontë editions. Update (II)

This time, some recent editions of some rare Brontë-related material:

Charlotte Brontë at Home by Marion Harland (1899)

• ISBN: 1406781088
  
• ISBN-13: 9781406781083
• Format: Paperback, 348pp
• Publisher: Read Books (some other sources Elliott Press)
  
• Pub. Date: September 2007

Immortal Wheat: A Personal Interpretation Mainly in Fictional Form of the Life and Works of the Brontes by Kathleen Wallace (1951)

• ISBN: 0548444641
  
• ISBN-13: 9780548444641
• Format: Paperback, 264pp
• Publisher: Kessinger Publishing Company
• Pub. Date: September 2007

The Three Brontës by May Sinclair (1912)

• ISBN: 140654339X
  
• ISBN-13: 9781406543391
• Format: Paperback, 188pp
• Publisher: Dodo Press
• Pub. Date: September 2007

Categories: Biography, Books, Fiction

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Thursday's tidbits

DVD Talk selects the recent Jane Eyre 1944 edition by Fox Entertainment (at BrontëBlog we made a contest some months ago giving away some copies) among the best 100 DVDs edited this year.

Edward Fairfax Rochester's Love for Jane Eyre continues its retelling of Jane Eyre from Rochester's perspective. Now online: chapter eight: Mrs. Poole's Cold Stone Eyes. Cerita Dari Negri Sebrang briefly comments Jane Eyre 2006. Tasneem Project reflects on Bertha Mason's role in Jane Eyre from a postcolonialist point of view.

Finally, the Russian newspaper Комсомольской правды gives its readers the chance to acquire Jane Eyre with the newspaper (17 to 23 December). More information in this old post of ours.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Translations

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Brontë Translations. Update

Recent Brontë translations:

France

La Recluse de Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

• Publishing : Éditions Phébus (30 november 2007)
• Collection : D'AUJ. ET.
• Language : French
• ISBN-10: 2752903103
• ISBN-13: 978-2752903105

Italy

Cime Tempestose by Emily Brontë
2006
ET Classici
EINAUDI
ISBN 8806181424
Translation by Antonio Meo

Spain

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

ESPASA-CALPE, S.A.
480 pags
Language: Spanish
Paperback
ISBN: 9788467025729
Collection: AUSTRAL 70 AÑOS (ESPASA CALPE)
2007

Categories: Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Translations, Wuthering Heights

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