Jane Eyre 2006 at the RTS Awards

One winner and two nomination for Jane Eyre 2006 in the Royal Television Society Craft and Design Awards 2006/2007 Awards:

RTS Craft and Design Awards 2006/2007 were presented on Thursday 29 November 2007 at the Savoy Hotel, Strand, London WC2.

The evening was hosted by Fearne Cotton and Holly Willoughby.

Photography - Drama

Mike Eley Jane Eyre BBC Drama Production/WGBH Boston for BBC One
“Technically skilled, stunning to look at, the winner’s talent was to find the tiny details of character, emotion and story set against a huge landscape of large vistas, castles and buildings. But most importantly his work was always in close sympathy with character.”

Nominees
Damian Bromley Spooks Kudos Film and Television for BBC One
Nick Dance Skins Company Pictures/Storm Dog Films for Channel 4

Sound - Drama

Peter Baldock, Tim White & Cliff Jones 9/11 The Twin Towers Dangerous Films for BBC One of work.”

Nominees
Rudi Buckle, James Feltham & Darren Banks, Hackenbacker Spooks Kudos Film and Television for BBC One

Richard Manton, Stuart Hilliker, Ian Wilkinson & Stephen Griffiths Jane Eyre BBC Drama Production/WGBH Boston for BBC One

Music - Original Score

John Greswell & David Schweitzer Charlie And Lola 2 Tiger Aspect Productions for CBeebies
“Totally new, inspired, varied, incredible and a minor miracle!”

Nominees
Ben Bartlett The Mark Of Cain Red Production Company for Channel 4
Rob Lane Jane Eyre BBC Drama Production/WGBH Boston for BBC One

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV

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Jane Eyre 2006 nominated to the 2007 Satellite Awards

Variety announces the nominations for the 2007 Satellite Awards and we find Jane Eyre 2006 is nominated in three categories.

TELEVISION MINISERIES
"Jane Eyre" (BBC/WGBH)
"The Starter Wife" (USA Network)
"The Company" (TNT)
"Five Days" (HBO)
"The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard" (BBC/Kudos Productions)

ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Ruth Wilson, "Jane Eyre" (PBS/WGBH)
Ellen Burstyn, "Mitch Albom’S For One More Day" (ABC)
Samantha Morton, "Longford" (HBO/Channel 4)
Queen Latifah, "Life Support" (HBO)
Debra Messing, "The Starter Wife" (USA Network)
Sharon Small, "Inspector Lynley Mysteries" (PBS/BBC)

ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Toby Stephens, "Jane Eyre" (BBC)
Jim Broadbent, "Longford" (HBO/Channel 4)
Robert Lindsay, "The Trial Of Tony Blair" (Channel 4)
Aidan Quinn, "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" (HBO)
David Oyelowo, "Five Days" (HBO)
Tom Selleck, "Jesse Stone: Sea Change" (CBS)

The ceremony will be held next December 16. Keep your fingers crossed for Jane Eyre!

Incidentally, the Danish DVD of Jane Eyre 2006 has been recently released and DVD-venner-DK has a competition to win a copy. The question is as easy as in which year was Jane Eyre originally published.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV

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Ready for another play on words on Jane Eyre?

The Town Crier reviews - with the compulsory play on words - the Huntingdon stage version of Jane Eyre.

What hot Eyre - the latest from Huntingdon Drama Club
What a night to remember when Huntingdon Drama Club put on their latest production - Jane Eyre.
Michael Black's direction offered some well cast characters and cleverly introduced some new members of the club.
I particularly enjoyed Jeanette Brown's portrayal of the housekeeper Mrs Fairfax and the innocently, well-rounded performance of Anwen Pugh as Jane Eyre.
I was also impressed by the multi role-playing by most of the cast and the director's efforts to make the transitions seamless.
In particular I would like to give praise to Caroline Harbord's embodiment of the diverse roles she played from the crazed Bertha Mason to the pompous Blanche Ingram.
The period costumes were great and helped place the audience in the right era.
The director made fantastic use of the limited technical facilities at this venue, although I do think they could have developed alternative ways in which to create the play's surrealism.
The recorded hysteric screams of Bertha would have been more haunting coming from the actress herself.
The comical moments in the performance were charming and I principally noted the exaggeration of the pretentious upper class.
My only disagreement with the entire play was the unusual choice of casting lovers Rochester and Jane through father and daughter – Bob and Anwen Pugh.
I truly felt it didn't work on the night and a lot of passionate and intimate moments, depicted in the book, were lost on stage due to the understandable inappropriateness.
All in all it was a well rehearsed piece and the whole audience clearly had an enjoyable evening while showing their dedicated support to the drama club, which is what counts. (Natalie Luckham)

To continue with the stage news, the Farmington Independent reveals an upcoming play in the area:

After this weekend, Halley and the drama department are jumping right into their next project. Auditions are scheduled for Dec. 3 and Dec. 4, from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., for the upcoming one-act play, “Dear Charlotte.”
Based on the story of “Jane Eyre” author Charlotte Brontë, the one-act play has only been produced four times in the United States.
“We’re really excited to have it here,” Halley said.
The drama department will compete in one-act play competitions with “Dear Charlotte,” but Halley promises a public performance in Farmington sometime in January. (Michelle Leonard)

We look forward to hearing more about this. More information about the play on this old post of ours.

Now let's move on to some Wuthering Heights. The book is reviewed by Je me cultive un peu in French and by Meu cantinho in Portuguese. And Sclez lets you know what is - according to her - the only reason to watch the 1992 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is reviewed at length in Spanish by Literatúrate in relation to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which took place last November 25.

Categories: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Theatre, Wuthering Heights

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A Triangle of Women Writers

The latest number of SEL: Studies in English Language 1500-1900 contains an Brontë-related article:

Peterson, Linda H.
Triangulation, Desire, and Discontent in The Life of Charlotte Brontë
SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 - Volume 47, Number 4, Autumn 2007, pp. 901-920

In The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell not only traces the literary career of her subject but also depicts a triangle of women writers based in the north of England and dedicated to the amelioration of social problems. This triangle—including Harriet Martineau as well as Brontë and Gaskell—expresses bonds of attraction and affiliation, yet, as is inevitable in a triangular relationship, also reveals feelings of rivalry, discontent, and difference. At stake in Gaskell’s Life are issues of the woman writer’s cultural authority and literary status and the representation of Brontë as an exemplary woman writer.

Categories: Journals, Scholar

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Sometimes you can know too much

The Washington Post reviews the latest novel by Maggie O'Farrell The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. Although the novel has been previously compared to Jane Eyre, the reviewer now places it side by side with Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea:

Maggie O'Farrell's three previous novels have been respectfully reviewed, but her new one radiates the kind of energy that marks a classic. Think Kate Chopin's The Awakening, Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" or Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea: stories that illuminate the suffering quietly endured by women in polite society. To that list of insightful feminist tales add The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. At the heart of this fantastic new novel is a mystery you want to solve until you start to suspect the truth, and then you read on in a panic, horrified that you may be right. (Ron Charles)

The Minnesota Daily has a passing mention of the recent performances of Jane Eyre at the Guthrie Theatre:

Mojo theater, in essence, is everything that your Jane Eyre at the Guthrie is not- blending and freeze-frying the comic and the tragic, sweeping universal scopes and jaunty, physically aware performers. (Sarah Nicole Miller)

CottonKnickersForAfrica went to the Margaret Drabble talk in Haworth and shares a funny anecdote:

I took a half day’s leave in the afternoon and went to Haworth of Bronte fame to hear a talk by Margaret Drabble the novelist on the influence of the Brontes on her work. She was very good, funny and certainly knows her literature, or so I thought. I went with a retired professor of English Literature, who is a Bronte researcher. ‘Well she was wrong about that bit of Wuthering Heights, it was in the January 2 months before the baby was born that, that happened’. Sometimes you can know too much.

Harukanaru...Yume posts about Wuthering Heights in Thai. Lyza Danger Gardner reviews Jane Eyre. Everyday I Write the Book Blog interviews Min Jin Lee, author of Free Food for Millionaires, who comments once more on her Brontëite background:

Casey can be a somewhat frustrating person. Do you have sympathy for Casey because you share some of her impulses, or does she frustrate you as well?
MJ: Casey can be a frustrating person. I think her behavior is occasionally textbook (psychology) “acting out.” In my vain mind, she was drafted in light of the heroines I loved from the old novels who are stubborn, clever, foolish and spirited—an homage of sorts to Lily Bart (House of Mirth), Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre, Caroline Meeber (Sister Carrie), Dorothea Brooke (Middlemarch), Becky Sharp (Vanity Fair), et al.

Parlez Moi Blog reviews H. The Story of Heathcliff’s Journey Back to Wuthering Heights by Lin Haire-Sargeant (originally published in 1992):

Basically she used the tale-within-a-tale technique to describe a train trip that a fictional Emily Brontë was taking back from France when an ill-fated love affair ended. On the train she encounters a man who tells her about a trip he is taking to visit an old friend on her death bed. Soon he persuades Miss Brontë to read a series of letters sent him by this lady and the fun begins. Of course using such a construct for a novel is extremely clever because you can cover any gaps in credibility with missing pages to letters or letters to another party or simple human error but this story doesn’t really rely on this at all. (Kathleen Valentine)

Finally, on Maggie Robinson means romance:

I rescued this handsome edition of Wuthering Heights (circa 1959, I’m guessing), last checked out in 1995. I think the cover artist had a little “inspiration” from John Singer Sargent’s Madame X. (Maggie Robinson)

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Sequels, Talks, Theatre, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights

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Jane Eyre in Portishead

A new Jane Eyre production opens today, November 29, in Portishead, North Somerset, UK:

Jane Eyre
29 November - 1 December

The Portishead Players' next production will be "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte, adapted for the stage by Charles Vance. Directed by Betty MacGregor, this version of the classic nineteenth century story has been adapted to focus on the love between Jane and Rochester.
The cast of eleven includes Norman Allen, who has acted with Portishead Players for the last 30 years who takes the role of Edward Rochester.
New member Rachel McClary, who has performed with Bristol Light Opera Company since 1998 and who played Maria in a Cardiff production of the "Sound of Music", will appear as Jane Eyre.
Jane arrives at Thornfield Hall to take up the post of governess to Rochester's ward, Adele. However, love and happiness is jeopardised by the discovery of a terrible secret from Rochester's past. It takes a dramatic tragedy to resolve both the secret and the love story.
The play will be staged at the Somerset Hall, Portishead from Thursday 29th November to Saturday 1st December 2007, commencing at 7:30pm each evening.
Tickets cost £7.00 for adults and £6.00 for children and are available from November 12th from Morgan-Westley or Mother Nature in Portishead High Street. Tickets can also be purchased on the door on the evenings of the show.

Picture source: The Weston Mercury.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Theatre

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Brontëite writers

Keris Stainton from Trashionista interviews writer Alison Kervin and asks her about her favourite female heroine.

Your favourite female heroine (if different from above!), and why?
OK … perhaps Cathy in Wuthering Heights because that’s such an incredibly forceful and clever story – narrated by someone totally outside the story and featuring characters in such distress, it has a darkness hanging over it yet still manages to be a vibrant love story. I think it’s an incredible work of fiction … one of those books that grows every time you read it.

Also Spanish writer Espido Freire is interviewed by El Diario de La Rioja about her new book, Soria Moria.

La narrativa de sus admiradas Jane Austen y las hermanas Bronte está muy presente en Soria Moria. ¿De qué modo han influido en su obra?
- Bueno, para comenzar, Jane Austen describió la caza y captura del marido entre las clases altas con una precisión que me ha servido de orientación..., aunque las madres casamenteras de Soria Moria son mucho más feroces y determinadas de lo que la educación de Austen permitiría describir. Las Bronte asoman menos... (Diego Marín A.)
The narrative of your admired writers Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters is noticeable in Soria Moria. In what way have they influenced your work?
- Well, to begin with, Jane Austen described hunting for husbands among the higher classes with such precision that it has helped to guide me, although the matchmaking mothers of Soria Moria are much more fierce and determined than education allowed Austen to describe. The Brontës can't be seen so much.

In Mexico the Diario de Xalapa reports an event scheduled to take place today where guitarist Mauricio Hernández will play Cumbres Borrascosas (Wuthering Heights) composed this year for him by Julio César Oliva.

Pick and Pluck is a really interesting blog where 'words, phrases, sentences, thoughts and quotations [are] taken from the different books and materials I read everyday and have read'. A couple of posts on Villette (one, two) have appeared lately.

Nitafishie has posted an atmospheric drawing of Jane Eyre made by herself. And Life of a Flibbertigibbet writes about Wuthering Heights.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Music, Villette, Wuthering Heights

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Today's alerts

Several alerts for today, 28 November:

From the Brontë Parsonage Museum

Romance Revisited - Margaret Drabble

Novelist, biographer and critic, Margaret Drabble, will be speaking about and reading from her work and discussing the influence of the Brontës.
2.30pm - £3.75 (booking not required)
For futher information contact andrew.mccarthy@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640194

Another alert comes from the University of Dublin, Trinity College:

As the TCD School of English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series continues, we are pleased to announce that the speakers for the final seminar of Michaelmas term are Dr. Melanie Otto and Antoinette Curtin. Details of both papers are as follows:

Dr. Melanie Otto, ‘White Creole or Rebel Slave? The Discourse of Slavery in Jean Rhys’ Voyage in the Dark’

Antoinette Curtin, ‘“Too Alluring to be Strictly Decent”: Physical Beauty in Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century Literature’

In this paper I limit my discussion to a few of the major currents operative in eighteenth and nineteenth-century representations of beauty. I begin with a brief summary of recent sociological theories that support my claim that perceptions of the body and beauty alter throughout time. As the era that saw the birth of aesthetics and the foundations of the novel, the eighteenth century is crucial to my purposes. Supporting my argument with quotations from influential theorists such as William Hogarth and Edmund Burke, and the seminal novels of Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders (1722) and Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740), I discuss some of the most significant similarities between eighteenth-century philosophical and novelistic representations of beauty. These I list as a shared belief in beauty as an objective quality, which can be universally recognised, and a mutual tendency to divide female beauty into a positive and a negative form. I argue that both elements are deeply influential upon the depiction of female beauty throughout the history of the novel. Next, I discuss some of the most significant changes in the representation of beauty in the nineteenth century. Stating my agreement with the arguments of critic Sally Shuttleworth and social historian Roy Porter, I relate the increase of physical description in the Victorian novel to social change. I argue that theorists, such as Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer, used a self-consciously scientific vocabulary and methodology to support a conception of beauty that remained largely grounded in eighteenth-century philosophical ideals. I discuss the impact of the conventional bifurcation of beauty into positive and negative forms upon the work of female novelists, such as Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot. I present Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) as a pivotal moment in the representation of the literary heroine and argue that her attempt to portray beauty as subjective reaches an apotheosis in George Eliot’s depiction of Gwendolen Harleth in Daniel Deronda (1876).

From Bensenville, Illinois:

Bensenville Community Public Library
Book Brunch: Wide Sargasso Sea
Date: Wednesday, November 28
Time: 10:00 a.m.

Description: Join the staff of the Library for Book Brunch on Wednesday, November 28, at 10:00 a.m. to discuss Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Book Brunch meets the fourth Wednesday of the month at 10:00 a.m. Books are available at the library’s circulation desk. For more information, call the Library at (630) 766-4642.

And finally, from Garden City, New York:

The literary groups are still going strong. Sally Richmond 's group will tackle Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" on November 28 th for the G.C. Branch of A.A.U.W. Amy Small will be hostess and Alberta Maggio will be co-hostess.

Categories: Alert,Jane Eyre,Scholar,Talks,Wide Sargasso Sea

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Brontë Mass update

Philip Wilby's Brontë Mass is reviewed in The Times. The review is more positive than yesterday's in The Guardian:

Nothing could be more evocative of Yorkshire than a Brontë Mass – the Latin Mass text mingled with poems by the four Brontë siblings – written by a distinguished Pontefract-born composer and sung by one of the region’s oldest choral societies. What a pity, then, that more of Yorkshire’s musical public didn’t flock to support the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus, which commissioned this big, enjoyable 30-minute choral and orchestral score in memory of a long-standing stalwart who had died unexpectedly. Even in Yorkshire choral societies surely can’t go on churning out the same old oratorios for ever. Yet it seems, sadly, that those bold enough to try something new are condemned to perform to half-empty halls.
The irony is that there is nothing in Philip Wilby’s Brontë Mass to frighten anyone used to such avant-garde composers as Delius, the Walton of Belshazzar’s Feast or the Britten of the War Requiem. Heavens, there’s even a full-blown fugue and a Disneyesque Gloria with probably the longest pedal-point since Brahms’s Requiem.
Wilby’s strength is his old-fashioned craftsmanship, his craggy, astringent, brass-infused climaxes, and his clear and sensible treatment of the words, particularly for the baritone (the intelligent Leigh Melrose). A weakness is his failure to match the ecstatic and otherworldly poetry of the Brontës with equally exalted or mystical music. And despite David Hill’s impassioned conducting, and some alert playing from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the premiere sounded as if it needed another full rehearsal and at least 20 more tenors and basses. But at least there will be a second performance a in April, this time accompanied by the Black Dyke Band, no less. That won’t be a quiet affair. (Richard Morrison)

On the brass band version of the piece, the Yorkshire Post has some additional information:

THE Black Dyke Band are not renowned for tackling a work usually reserved for a symphony orchestra. But the brass band are gearing up for a new work, to be premiered in Leeds, which is written for both a symphony orchestra and brass band. (...)
The Black Dyke Band will perform it next April and on Thursday were at St George's Church, Leeds, to try the band version at the choir's final rehearsal ahead of the concert.
The work has been commissioned in memory of John Brodwell, a late chairman of the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus.
Mr Wilby said: "It was during preliminary discussions with the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus that their Chairman, John Brodwell, died, and in my mind their commission for a new choral work changed into a score in his memory." (Joanne Ginley)

In The Yorkshire Post there is a video with the Black Dyke Band in rehearsal for the Brontë Mass.

Categories: In the News, Music

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The amazing secret life of Brontë news

The Daily Mail has a lengthy article on Mrs Gaskell whose contents are remarkable, specially as articles on Mrs Gaskell go, yet we find the style a tad too gossipy and tabloid-y for our liking, starting by its title: The amazing secret life of Cranford creator Elizabeth Gaskell.

Keighley News reports belatedly the recent acquisition of a Branwell Brontë painting by the Brontë Parsonage Museum (check this old post):

AN OIL painting by Branwell Brontë - of his sister's friend - has been bought by the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
The painting of Maria Taylor, of Manor House, Stanbury, who knew Charlotte Brontë, was purchased for £6,600 at a Bonham's auction. The museum was also successful in bidding for a letter written by Charlotte, author of Jane Eyre, to Maria. It paid £5,280.
Museum librarian Ann Dinsdale said: "We are thrilled to have got both items. The portrait of Maria is particularly special because we already have a painting of her brother Robert which was done by Branwell."
The museum had been helped in the purchases by grants from the Victoria & Albert Museum's purchase fund, from the Art Fund and a donation from a Brontë Society member.
She said it was planned to display both items when the new season opened in February.
The paintings were created by Branwell in his studio in Fountain Street, Bradford, which he had in 1839.
In the 1839 letter to Maria, Charlotte tells her that she can't visit her for a fortnight because she is to holiday in Scarborough - the first time she saw the sea.

A comment has to be made here. Maria Taylor, more an acquaintance than a friend as is described in the article, should not be confused with Mary Taylor.

A Lady's Diversions has written to us announcing her ongoing contest. Check it out:

Every autumn (October, usually---I'm running behind), I re-read one of my favorite novels, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. It is such a passionate, tumultuous novel, which seems to match the changing weather.
This year, I have decided to have a little Wuthering Heights Contest. The prize includes a small, gilt-edged copy of the novel; some loose-leaf Yorkshire Harrogate Tea from my favorite tea shop; and a pair of wristwarmers that I knit.
The contest will end Friday, 30 November, at 3pm, after which I will pick a winner at random. (Lady Jane)

All you have to do to enter is comment on her post. So, what you are waiting for?

Wuthering Heights is also the subject of this entry on poet R.N. Taber's blog that includes a poem of one of his books: Time on Haworth Moor (Love and Human Remains, 2001). Another writer, Eduardo Berti, also posts about the Brontë sisters in his blog, Bertigo (in Spanish).

Let's end this post with this lovely comment published in The Enterprise Ledger:

“There are few rewards in life more pleasant during this holiday season than watching a child sitting on the swing on our broad front porch reading ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte,” said Dr. Jim Powell, director of the Lucile Pierce Family Center in Opp.

Indeed.

Categories: Branwell Brontë, Brontëana, Jane Eyre, Poetry, Wuthering Heights

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Victorian Education

Victorian Education is the subject of two recently published scholar books with some Brontë connections:

1. Reading Victorian Schoolrooms: Childhood and Education in Nineteenth-Century Fiction
Childhood and Education in Nineteenth-Century Fiction
Gargano, Elizabeth

ISBN: 0415980348
Hardback (August 2007)
Routledge

Reading Victorian Schoolrooms examines the numerous schoolroom scenes in nineteenth-century novels during the fraught era of the Victorian education debates. As Gargano argues, the fiction of mainstream and children’s writers such as Dickens, Brontë, and Carroll reflected widespread Victorian anxieties about the rapid institutionalization of education and the shrinking realm of domestic instruction.
As schools increasingly mapped out a schema of time schedules, standardized grades or forms, separate disciplines, and hierarchical architectural spaces, childhood development also came to be seen as regularized and standardized according to clear developmental categories. Yet, Dickens, Brontë, and others did not simply critique or satirize the standardization of school experience. Instead, most portrayed the schoolroom as an unstable site, incorporating both institutional and domestic space.
Drawing on the bildungsroman’s traditional celebration of an individualized, experiential education, numerous novels of school life strove to present the novel itself as a form of domestic education, in contrast to the rigors of institutional instruction. By positioning the novel as a form of domestic education currently under attack, these novelists sought to affirm its value as a form of protest within an increasingly institutionalized society. The figure of the child as an emblem of beleaguered innocence thus became central to the Victorian fictive project.

2. Our Victorian Education
Dinah Birch (University of Liverpool)
Blackwell Publishing (November 2007)
Series: Blackwell Manifestos

This groundbreaking book combines a historical interpretation of Victorian educational debate with a critical overview of contemporary educational thought.
* Traces the roots of contemporary educational practice in the values of Victorian thinking
* Combines detailed consideration of Victorian sources, literary and non-literary, with reflections on their legacy in the 21st century
* Reflects on questions of social class, religion, and gender as the Victorians defined them in relation to educational ideals
* Suggests challenging connections between literary and social history and contemporary dilemmas

In the Table of Contents, we find an explicit Brontë section:

Chapter 3. Teaching Women

Gender and Education
A Generation of Schoolmistresses
Literary Case Studies
The Educated Heart: Charlotte Brontë
Teaching Independence: Ellen Wood
Practical Faith: Elizabeth Sewell
"School-Time": George Eliot
Finding the Way

Categories: Books, Charlotte Brontë, Scholar, Victorian Era

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The Brontë Mass in the news

The Guardian reviews the event that took place last Saturday in Leeds: Brontë Mass by Philip Wilby.

The Brontës are not a family of authors so much as a brand: you can read the books, you can eat the shortbread, and now you can listen to the choral mass, commissioned by the Leeds Philharmonic Chorus from Philip Wilby.
In his programme note, the Pontefract-born composer recalls hearing "this great choir in great Victorian oratorios in this great town hall, so I come to produce something in this great tradition" - which, despite the grating insistence on the greatness of it all, at least gives you an idea of where he is coming from. It's a lavish celebration of Yorkshire amateur music-making, and though the premiere is given here by the distinctly professional Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Wilby has produced a parallel version for brass band.
The work interleaves poems by the Brontës with strophes from the Latin mass. There seems to be no more logical reason for this than there would be for inserting psalms between chapters of Jane Eyre; although the Brontës grew up in a parsonage, there is surprisingly little reference to conventional religion in the sisters' work. Yet the poems are haunted by the spectre of mortality. Wilby rings funereal bells throughout The Autumn Day, in which Charlotte is pursued by a silent nun with a "mask of gloom", while the "feeble faith" of Anne's A Prayer is evoked by a plaintive solo trumpet.
Surprisingly, given that three-quarters of the Brontë children were women, Wilby employs only a baritone soloist. He also gives black-sheep Branwell the final word: at the conclusion of his fragment, Memory, the outstanding baritone Leigh Melrose evokes the mournful whine of an Aeolian harp by floating up to a ghostly falsetto.
David Hill conducts dramatically, and the Philharmonic Chorus sing the Latin Ordinary with full-throated vigour. But it's hard not to feel that the sudden liturgical interruptions belong to a different work altogether. (Alfred Hickling)

Categories: In the News, Music, Poetry

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Jane Eyre borrowing from Family Guy

A couple of sites from Down Under bring news of the reception of Jane Eyre 2006 as the first two episodes were broadcast yesterday. The Sydney Morning Herald reports it as having had 890,000 people glued to their TV sets. Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet, a blog, writes an interesting, insightful review on it.

The Times (South Africa) interviews artist Frances Goodman, who is asked about her favourite book.

What is your favourite book?
That would have to be books, plural. Ian McEwan’s “Atonement”, “Skin” by Joanna Briscoe, Patrick Suskind’s “Perfume”, “Wuthering Heights”.... That’s only scraping the surface; there are many books I love.

Risky Regencies talk to author Syrie James, who has just released her book The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen. She reveals a little more about her forthcoming project.

What's next for you?
I’m busy maintaining my website at http://www.syriejames.com/ … and I'm researching and writing my next book for Avon: a love story for Charlotte Brontë (another one of my favorite writers.) As you can imagine, I’m having a fantastic time “being” Charlotte!

The Dramatic Surgeon adds Jane Eyre: the Musical to its Broadway Gems list. This very encouraging review includes a brief background, several clips, links to lyrics of his favourite songs and not-so-subliminal hints to recommend getting the CD, something we happily endorse.

Also interesting is Vdesigns' post on creating a new edition of Wuthering Heights as an assignment, taking care of everything from text-formatting to the cover design. We must say that we wouldn't hesitate to give this 'new edition' - at least its cover - top marks.

Colours of Life writes about a visit to Haworth and includes info on the place, the siblings, the novels, etc. And Los Libros de Vanadis reviews Jane Eyre - the novel - in Spanish.

Let's finish with a smile, or just plain laughter. E Block Raiders has made up a synopsis of Jane Eyre with bits and pieces taken from the Wikipedia article on Family Guy. A random quote:

Jan…Air
stay-at-home…teacher
well-intentioned … collar worker.
wealthy Protestant socialites
Mr…Rho…sche…stern
who lusts after
overly submissive domestic behaviour
their relationship quickly turns into a traditional marriage

Do read the whole thing!

Categories: Brontëites, Haworth, Humour, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Wuthering Heights

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Charlotte Brontë at Mrs. Dalloway's

An alert for today, November 26, from Berkeley, California:

Mrs Dalloway's Literary & Garden Arts
2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, California 94705.

Monday, November 26, 12:00 noon Judith Thurman reads from Cleopatra's Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $27.50), an exuberant gathering of essays and profiles representing twenty years of Judith Thurman’s celebrated writing, particularly her fascination with human vanity, femininity, and “women’s work”—from haute couture to literature to commanding empires. The subjects are iconic (Jackie, the Brontës, Toni Morrison, Anne Frank) and multifarious (tofu and performance art, pornography and platform shoes, kimonos and bulimia); all inspire dazzling displays of craft, wit, penetration, and intelligence.

Here we find explorations of voracity: hunger for sex, food, experience, and transcendence; see how writers from Flaubert to Nadine Gordimer have engaged with history; meet eminent Victorians and the greats of fashion. Whether reporting on hairstyles, strolling the halls of power, or deftly unpacking novels and their writers, Thurman never fails to provoke, inspire, captivate, and enlighten. Cleopatra’s Nose is an embarrassment of riches from one of our great literary journalists.

Categories: Alert, Talks

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A dangerously partisan but marvellous biography

Tonight, BBC1 will broadcast the second episode of Cranford, and The Independent (Ireland) publishes a nice article about it and Gaskell's life and work:

Seduced by Cranford, I fed my own addiction with the Life of Charlotte Bronte, that flagrantly and dangerously partisan but marvellous biography which I am convinced only a loving and passionate friend could have written. (Mary Leland)

Also tonight, ABC airs the first part (episodes 1 and 2) of last year's big BBC costume drama, i.e. Jane Eyre. Several newspapers publish alerts:

As she has done in 17 previous filmed productions, the young and supposedly plain Jane (Ruth Wilson) makes her escape from life at an orphanage to become the governess at Thornfield Hall. There she is put in charge of the illegitimate daughter of Edward Rochester, the great and moody romantic character created by Charlotte Bronte 160 years ago and played forcefully by Toby Stephens in this superbly seductive adaptation by Sandy Welch, directed by Susanna White for the BBC and WGBH Boston.
This is a fine yet tortuous romance. Though everyone is certain Mr Rochester is about to marry the local beauty Blanche Ingram (Christine Cole), he has become irresistibly drawn to Jane's wit and independence. Plain Jane, did we say? Bronte insisted on that but while it is impossible to place Wilson in this category, the make-up department does scrub her down nicely, particularly during the second escape, when Jane wanders onto the moors after the mysterious Richard Mason (Daniel Pirrie) disrupts her marriage to Mr Rochester at the altar.
There is tragedy, mystery, horror and madness here. It is an exceptional story and though Welch has just two episodes, he stays true to the original.
This handsome version was filmed on location in and around the medieval Haddon Hall in Derbyshire. (Robin Oliver in The Age)

The publishers have released a new edition of Charlotte Bronte's classic novel with the actress Ruth Wilson, in the title role tonight, on the cover.
It would be interesting to know how many viewers go on to buy the book.
The eldest of three Bronte sisters, Charlotte has on occasion been unfavourably compared to her sister, Emily, author of Wuthering Heights; her Jane Eyre, according to one critic, "a romanticised self-portrait".
Yet 160 years after its publication, this story of a Yorkshire orphan who becomes a governess and finds love with a troubled lord has proven one of the most enduring English novels.
Wilson, in her first major role, is a fresh and engaging not-so-plain Jane. Toby Stephens is more mannered and self-conscious as Edward Rochester.
This Jane Eyre might polarise some viewers. Some will marvel at the evocative setting. But others might wonder if the two-hour episode in this two-part series is not too long and the narrative too slowly paced. (Larry Schwartz in Brisbane Times)

By the way, remember Toby Stephens's hair extensions? Well, The Village Voice makes a passing comment in this article:

My affection for Toby Stephens is also based on film, or more properly, television miniseries. A few years ago he played a dashing Kim Philby in Cambridge Spies and a brooding Rochester (with really unfortunate hair) in the latest Jane Eyre adaptation. (Alexis Soloski)

The Baltimore Sun points out the Jane Eyre references in Peter Ackroyd's The Fall of Troy:

Ackroyd weaves these elements together with allusions to Jane Eyre as well as A Midsummer Night's Dream. There are several not-too-subtle references to Charlotte Bronte's Mrs. Rochester vis-a-vis Obermann's Russian wife. (Diane Scharper)

Girlebooks adds Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to its etexts catalogue.

And a new appearance of the Brontës melting pot virus. This time in The Charleston Post & Courier:

And Charlotte Bronte's "Wuthering Heights," which has the tortured love story between Heathcliff and Cathy. (Rebekah Bradford)

Finally, the Spanish newspaper ABC includes an article on the winner of the Spanish National Literature Award: Ana María Matute, who names Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights as one of her favourite books when young. This is not new, however, for she has mentioned it in the past as well.

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

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Thornfield Hall and Mr Rochester got under my skin

The Jacket Copy column of Los Angeles Times contains a story particularly interesting for the readers of this blog:

THE Dublin-based literary magazine the Stinging Fly was founded in 1997 as a venue for new writers from Ireland and around the world. The winter issue, just out, boasts seven pieces of fiction set in such far-flung locales as Los Angeles and Donegal (who says relative location isn't everything?), as well as works by 16 poets and a quartet of book reviews.
Also in the issue is a piece by London literary agent Lucy Luck that details the pleasure she found in reading as a child. Her sense of joy quickly dissipated when she entered secondary school and was subjected to the "reading of 'proper books.' This was very different from the stories I'd been loving -- these were books read for instruction, so that essays could be written. It was all a bit like hard work."
Luckily, "Jane Eyre" got under her skin, and her enthusiasm was rekindled. "Now the written word defines much of my day," she continues, confessing: "Though there is nothing to compare to the thrill of being the first to appreciate a new literary talent, it can be exhausting to only read unpublished books when there are still so many published ones I've not managed to start." (Jacket Copy)

You can read the complete article in the Winter 2007-08 issue of Stinging Fly. The relevant fragment reads:

It was all a bit like hard work. That is, until I was made to read Jane Eyre. I had started out bored by this insipid, irritatingly plain and correct girl, and it was all very old-fashioned. But Thornfield Hall and Mr Rochester got under my skin, and I found myself reading late at night to find how it would end. Once I finished the novel, I reread it, and then I read it again. (Lucy Luck)

Categories: Jane Eyre, Journals

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Past, Present and Future books

The Guardian asks some writers about their favourite Christmas reads in a very Dickensian way: the past, present and future Christmas books. And this is the selection of Monica Ali:

For Christmas past I would choose Jane Eyre (Penguin), because I was given it as a Christmas present when I was 13 and I certainly don't remember anything else I was given that year. For Christmas present, Cormac McCarthy's The Road (Picador), which is a barely endurable reminder of the fragility and beauty of life. For Christmas future, look out for Hanif Kureishi's Something to Tell You (Faber), which I read far too late into last night.

And Anne Enright's:

When I was still at school, a boyfriend gave me Wuthering Heights (Penguin) and The Complete English Poems of John Donne (Penguin) for Christmas. What a fabulous double blow that was to a young girl's heart. Who knew? Up to this point he had merely been good at rugby. I read them over the holiday, thinking that he had, somehow, written them himself - and not only that, but he had done so with me in mind. It made me feel a bit peculiar, this discovery that men have souls, too. Of course, I realised, when we met again, that he had not written them himself, so that was a bit of a letdown. It was not because he had soul, it was because he had such impeccable manners. I had no manners at all, but I was suddenly loopers about Donne. And the moral of the story is: kick it high, but not out of the park.

Jacques Tourneur's 1943 I Walked With a Zombie is one of the movies chosen by The Glittering Eye if he was TCM's guest programmer:

For your late night viewing pleasure how about this creepy, atmospheric gem? Besides the atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife it has several other attractions. It’s a great Val Lewton-Jacques Tourneur picture. It features a solid performance by the gorgeous Frances Dee, IMO one of the most beautiful movie actresses ever. And it shows how material can be adapted in weird and wonderful ways—it’s an adaptation of Jane Eyre.

Isn't it romantic? submits Anna L'Estrange's Return to Wuthering Heights to the judgement of their readers (in Italian). There's also a brief comment of this 1978 sequel.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Sequels

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A Brontë Mass

Today, November 24, an extraordinary event will take place in Leeds. The world premiere of A Brontë Mass, composed by Phillip Wilby:

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Leeds Philharmonic Chorus

David Hill conductor
Leigh Melrose baritone
24/11/2007 7.30pm
Leeds Town Hall

A centenary and a première frame Vaughan Williams’s mystical fifth symphony. The much admired choral conductor David Hill leads the RLPO and Leeds Philharmonic Chorus in a world premiere of Philip Wilby’s Brontë Mass, which incorporates poems by the Brontë family. The programme opens with Vaughan WIlliam’s Toward the Unknown Region, first heard at the Leeds Festival 100 years ago.

Vaughan Williams Toward the Unknown Region
Vaughan Williams Symphony No 5
Wilby Brontë Mass (world première)

Pre-concert talk 6.45pm
Albert Room
Judy Blezzard discusses the evening’s works.
Entry is free to ticket-holders for the concert but space is limited so please arrive early to avoid disappointment.

Philip Wilby introduces the piece like this:

A Brontë Mass
Philip Wilby (2007)
Commissioned in memory of John Brodwell
For David Hill and the Leeds Philharmonic Choir

John Brodwell was well known to many in West Yorkshire, both as a passionately engaged local musician, and as a long-term member of the Leeds legal community. His sudden death in 2003 came as a shock, and this composition has been made as a memorial and celebration of his life, which touched and enhanced so many others. One of John’s major connections was with Woodhouse Grove School, and through it with the work of the Bronte family, and the Yorkshire landscape that they did so much to project onto the national imagination. Thus, working in partnership with the Leeds Philharmonic Committee, I have written this Bronte Mass, combining texts from the Latin Mass Ordinary with four poems by the Bronte children.
The work is divided into two halves; the first is a Memorial, comprising three sections. Charlotte Bronte’s poem ‘The autumn day’ sets a reflective tone at the outset, which is quickly dispelled by a stormy and bell-laden setting of the Sanctus. Anne Bronte’s ‘A Prayer’, with its linked themes of faith and doubt ends this part of the composition, here set for a cappella choir and solo trumpet. The second half is celebratory in tone, opening with Emily’s ‘No Coward Soul’, setting Branwell’s ‘Memory, and concluding with the Latin Gloria. My musical style has been clearly influenced by that great oratorio tradition which John loved, and did so much to promote. As a personality, John was both forthright and determined, and Emily Bronte’s words, which open the second part of my piece, catch something of John’s public persona.

No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven's glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.

Philip Wilby.
Skelton Windmill 2007

Read here the libretto.

More information on the Brontë Parsonage Blog.

Categories: Music, Poetry

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Jane Eyre meets Dr Who

An alert from Bradford for today, November 24.

National Media Museum
Bradford,
West Yorkshire, UK

Terrance Dicks: Three Decades in Television and Beyond

Sat 24 Nov 1pm
Cubby Brocili Cinema

Terrance Dicks is probably best known as script editor of Doctor Who throughout the Jon Pertwee period of the programme and as the author of more than 70 books based on the series. But his work in television stretches from scripts for The Avengers and Crossroads in the early 1960s, through to producing the BBC’s classic Sunday serials of the 1980s.

To coincide with the anniversary weekend of the original Doctor Who series and the publication of a new book about Doctor Who novelisations, Terrance Dicks will be visiting the Museum to discuss his three decades in television and his later work as a children’s author.

The interview will be illustrated with rare photographs from the Museum’s own collection and clips from shows such as The Avengers, Moonbase 3, Space: 1999, Jane Eyre (1983), Oliver Twist, Vanity Fair, and Doctor Who. The discussion will be followed by a screening of all four episodes of Dicks’ 1980 Doctor Who story State of Decay, starring Tom Baker.

Categories: Alert, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV

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Writers can't dance

Some reviews of Brontë-related events around:

The Inland Valley Dailly Bulletin reviews the L.A. performances of Rosanna Gamson's Ravish:

Writers can't dance, but that doesn't mean writers will shut up about it. The fact is, we don't live in a perfect world, and writers never hesitate to tackle topics with which they are wholly unfamiliar.
It's only fair, after all. Dancers overstep their bounds, too, and trespass into the territory of writers. It happens all the time.
The latest example is "Ravish," an hour-long dance program that purports to tell the story of the Bronte sisters and the several novels they wrote during their short lives in 19th-century England. "Ravish" had its premiere a week ago in Los Angeles.
I can tell you that the dancing in the show was utterly sublime. I also can tell you that if the show was to be presented with no descriptions or cues to the audience, as to the subject matter, not a soul would have a clue that it is about the Bronte sisters.
You could pack the room with experts on the Bronte sisters, who are trained to appreciate even the most subtle references, and they would never make the connection.
I'm not a dance expert, but I know what dancers are capable of, and what they are not capable of.
I'm just saying, if you want to put on a dance that attempts to convey some literary meaning, it needs to be of the most painfully obvious sort.
I'm just saying, if you want us to understand that you are retelling the story of "Moby Dick," for example, you better drag a particularly fat dancer onto the stage, and stick a harpoon in him.
I'm just saying.
But remember I'm a writer. The only thing I know how to do, with either foot, is to put it in my mouth. (John Weeks)

The Bromsgrove Standard (and The Redditch Standard) covers the on going Wuthering Heights Two Hats UK tour:

This new adaptation of the Emily Bronte classic has been written by Jane Thornton.
A mysterious orphan who sets two families at odds. A conflict passed down across generations. And a love that lasts beyond death.
Cathy and Heathcliff grow up on the remote Yorkshire moors, soulmates and fellow victims of Cathy's brother. But when a chance mistake sends Heathcliff away, Cathy marries the wrong man..
Blanche McIntyre directs a cast featuring Two Hats regulars Chris Dobson, Emma Cooper and Nick Marshall and newcomers Matt Dudley and Krisha Harman in an intimate evening of story-telling that's suitable for all ages.
And award-winning local composer Darren Scott provides an evocative original score for this production featuring the Coventry-based choir Ensemble 1685. (Andrew Powell)

The Australian premiere of Jane Eyre 2006 is commented on The Sunday Times:

Charlotte Bronte’s romantic novel, Jane Eyre, has been brought to life in this lavish, complex and sexy BBC production.
Georgie Henley, who played Lucy Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia, plays the young Jane and newcomer, Ruth Wilson plays her later in life.
Rochester is played by Toby Stephens (the son of Dame Maggie Smith) who brings smouldering good looks to the role.
The all-star cast includes Francesca Annis as Lady Ingram, Christina Cole as Blanche Ingram,
Lorraine Ashbourne as Mrs Farifax, Pam Ferris as Grace Poole and Tara Fitzgerald as Mrs Reed.
Producer Diederick Santer is immensely proud of this adaptation filmed entirely on location at the historic medieval castle of Haddon Hall, owned by Lord Edward Manners, and other locations across Derbyshire.
“We do one or two of these huge BBC productions every year,” he says.
“The last one was Bleak House and it was a case of what are we going to do next.
“Jane Eyre hadn’t been done well for a while – there was an old fashioned version in the 80’s."
“We decided to tell the story from the beginning when Jane is young and growing up with her mean aunt and being sent to a strict boarding school.
“That is often left out from films.”
Santer explains that the moment they met newcomer Wilson, they knew she was right for the role – they struck gold with her he says.
“Ruth has this composure, this look,” he explains.
“Jane describes herself as plain, but she has to have a look that lures Rochester.
“One moment Ruth has this look that is quite ordinary but then she has moments of extraordinary beauty.
“Ruth just understood the character and became Jane in every way.”
Wilson was cast first as Jane and then the cast producers saw The Chronicles of Narnia and realised that Henley who played Lucy in the film looked life a young Ruth Wilson.
“Finding an actor to play the 35 year-old Rochester, we knew we needed an actor with experience,” says Santer.
“Toby had it all.
“Rochester is every woman’s dream, he has that blend of strength; is an open book of emotions which are raw, he is strong and has warmth and humour.
“It is interesting when you go back and read the book, how funny Rochester is.
“I remember the brooding, broken man which is there – but there is also this man who is a raconteur who can hunt – he is a rounded character.
“We got a lot of flack from people saying that Toby was too young – but in reality Toby was older than the character he was playing.
“He is meant to be so much older than Jane – she is19 to his mid-thirties character.
“It is an incredibly difficult part and a huge challenge for Toby who nailed it.”
There were critics in the UK when it aired a year ago, but settle in for two hours of exceptional viewing over two consecutive Sundays – you’ll be hooked. (Helen Ganska)

And...

Lesertreff now devotes an article to Jane Eyre (in German). Book Club Classics writes about psychological interpretations of Wuthering Heights:

Don’t artists allow the mystery of genius to work its magic without questioning it too much? Now, it is impossible that Emily Bronte sat down with Freud’s The Ego and the Id before embarking on Wuthering Heights since he was born ten years after she had died. Rather, this quiet introvert had apparently observed and understood human nature in its extreme forms and the result are the terrifying, delightful, alluring characters of Heathcliff and Catherine. Now we get the fun of unpacking and exposing just how great she was — whether unintentional (as her sister believed) or not, and the fun of placing modern “lenses” on the psyche of her characters. I guess the point is — does it matter? We should just appreciate her genius and be grateful!!

We couldn't agree more.

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

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Poetic Haworth

Regard poétique sur les travaux de Philippe Pianetti, is a new photographical exhibition opening today, November 23, at the Galerie Sintitulo in Mougins, France. It contains some pictures of the Brontë country:

« Je marche dans le monde. Faire cette expérience m’emmène au croisement de chemins parfois tortueux et difficiles, à la rencontre de lieux où la mémoire est à vif. D’autres lieux semblent plus légers et contemplatifs. »
Philippe Pianetti

"I walk the world. This experience takes me to crossroads which are sometimes crooked, sometimes difficult, in search of the places where the memory is alive. Other places seem less heavy and more contemplative."

===> Regard poétique sur les travaux de Philippe Pianetti,
23 november to 6 december 2007

In the picture: Philippe Pianetti, Digital photography on papier Canson, "Glithering Hill, The wuthering heights west Yorkshire", april 2003, 85x100 cm, private collection.

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Haworth

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The Pendle Connection

Pendle Today publishes an article about three recent publications by Hendon Publishing with Brontë connections. Two of them were already discussed in this previous post. BrontëBlog's review of Ann Dinsdale's The Brontë Connection can be found here:

PENDLE'S links with Haworth and the Brontës have become even stronger, thanks to three books produced by Nelson firm Hendon Publishing.
Haworth is one of Britain's greatest literary pilgrimages, with the Brontë Parsonage Museum at the heart of the tourist attraction.
And with just a few miles of Pennine moorland between us and "Wuthering Heights", it is a popular place for an afternoon out.
Hendon's new books can add interest to a popular venue.
"A Guide to Historic Haworth and the Brontës", written by Mark Ward with support from Ann Dinsdale and Roberts Swindells is a fascinating account of the town and its most famous family, and includes four walks taking in places of interest.
In 70-odd pages, it introduces visitors to local industrial archaeology, social history, geology and geography, architecture and much more.
Of course, the Brontës are at the heart of things. One walk takes in the town's quarry country, a second heads up to "Top Withins", the one-time farm which was the inspiration for "Wuthering Heights", the third covers Brontë territory within the town itself, and the final - brief - walk includes ancient and modern stone carving. It is on sale at £3.99.
Ann Dinsdale, of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, has written the second book - "The Brontë Collection". It includes dozens of pictures from the Brontë past, including Wycoller and its tumbledown hall, which inspired Ferndean Manor. The book ranges from Haworth to other Brontë links across Yorkshire, including Lothersdale, and other places like Manchester, Derbyshire and Scarborough, where Anne Brontë died.
It is a record of the short lives of the sisters, and shows some of the properties where they stayed. It is £4.50.
The final book is not new, but a reprinted version of one of the best records of Wycoller - "Romantic Wycoller - A Haunt of the Brontës" by E. W. Folley.
First published in 1949, it is a "real" history book, avoiding the ghosts and ghoulies that tend to be central to modern books on the village!
Mr Folley was a respected local figure and his book is still a useful guide. And, of course, it proves more connections between Pendle and Britain's best-loved literary family. And it is £2.99.
All three books are available at local bookshops, including the Colne Bookshop in Market Street.

Categories: Books, Brontëana, Haworth

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Brontë hijacked

The Australian premiere of last year's BBC version of Jane Eyre is the reason behind this article in The Courier Mail which once again talks about the 'rivalry' between Janeites and Brontëites:

Bronte is my dad's pin-up girl while I am a Janeite – a Jane Austen fan.
There has been much vigorous and jocular banter between the two of us about the virtues of our adopted heroines.
So I was determined to hijack today's column about Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre with sparkling Austen material.
Even though I am a Janeite I have to admit I really enjoyed the latest version of Jane Eyre (a two-part series starting on the ABC on Sunday at 8.30pm). It was gripping, powerful and intense. Ruth Wilson won a BAFTA nomination as the doe-eyed Jane Eyre while Toby Stephens smoulders as the complex Mr Rochester.
My in-laws were so engrossed they watched the series back-to-back until 1am yesterday.
According to the "Enthusiasts guide to Jane Eyre adaptations", this is the 34th film or television version of Jane Eyre dating back to 1909 and it is one of the best received.
That is enough Bronte talk. Now it is Austen's turn. Bronte had the audacity to complain about Austen's writing: "The Passions are perfectly unknown to her, even to the Feelings she vouchsafes no more than an occasional graceful but distant recognition; too frequent converse with them would but ruffle the elegance of her progress." Ouch!
Austen had been dead about 30 years when Bronte wrote these cutting observations but Austen has had the last laugh because there have been 37 television or film productions inspired by her work or her life including nine this year.
Melodrama queen Bronte may not have understood Austen's depth and subtlety of emotion but obviously millions of fans have. (Fiona Purdon)

And some of them are also fans of the melodrama queen, may we add.

We don't know if Chinese author Jiang Rong can be classified as Janeite but at least has some Brontëite trends. From The Guardian:

"I have a liberal character by nature. It comes from my mother. She liked to travel and we moved house a lot - Shanghai, Wuxi, Nanjing and Beijing. She was exposed to western culture through the films she loved to watch. She took me to the movies every week. We saw Russian, Indian and western films. And she bought me lots of western children's books. We loved to read western novels." Among them were Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. (Jonathan Watts)

The Wuthering Heights Two Hats tour will be in Alcester next November 29th (information on the tour, here) and the Redditch Advertiser carries an article about it:

Picture source: Christopher Dobson (Heathcliff) and Emma Cooper (Catherine Earnshaw).

The play is performed by Two Hats Theatre Company, which has made a splash over the last few years with sell-out shows such as The Servant of Two Masters, One Evening in Russia and Terry Johnson's Hysteria.
The story is a passionate and punchy tale that doesn't lose the novel's epic feel.
It uses five Victorian actors to tell the story and play all the characters.
Juliet Barker, a world authority on the Brontës, said: "Of all the adaptations of Wuthering Heights that I've seen - film or theatre - this was the best."
Newcomers Matthew Dudley and Krisha Harman will take the parts of Edgar and Nelly.
Matthew has just finished playing Earnest in the Crescent Theatre's The Importance of Being Earnest.
Krisha is a native Yorkshirewoman and past roles include Antigone, Juliet and Lady Macbeth.

Seduction at 24 frames per second reviews Mike Leigh's Career Girls with its "Miss Brontë, Miss Brontë" recurring plot device

Another clever bit involves using the novel Wuthering Heights as a Magic 8-Ball of sorts: they address the book by in an operatic manner, saying, "Mizzz Bronte, Mizzz Bronte. . . " and then pop a question, letting the book holder point a finger into the book at a random page and use the resulting word or phrase as an answer. One such exchange is along the lines of: "Mizzz Bronte, Mizzz Bronte, will I find a fella soon?" The answer comes up, ". . . must come. . ." and licentious laughter follows.

Arkhamite talks about Wuthering Heights and The Dish reviews Wide Sargasso Sea:

As an exploration of an underdeveloped character in another novel, Wide Sargasso Sea is profound and thought-provoking, opening the door to broader questions of how the dominant/submissive dynamic permeates many romantic relationships. Without Jane Eyre to hold it up, however, it’s an unfinished novella that trails off without a proper ending to its linear plot.

Curating Discourse talks about Cornelia Parker's Brontëan Abstracts:

Brontëan Abstract functions under the guise of a forensic investigation of the Brontë’s in an attempt to know or understand them more. However, it could equally be claimed that this is not its real function. Parker is instead constructing narratives and possible fictions in the creation of a story that is potentially never-ending. (MFA Curating)

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Theatre, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights

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Spanish Juvenilia

New Spanish translations of Brontë juvenilia have appeared (check this post and links therein for previous ones).

El Hechizo / El Reino de Angria 2 (The Spell)
by Charlotte Brontë
ISBN: 849577237X-978849577237
Translation: Font Paz, Carme
Adaptation: Otero Fuente, Elsa

Mina Laury y el Hotel Stancliffe / El Reino de Angria 3
by Charlotte Brontë

ISBN: 8495772167-978849577216

Categories: Books, Juvenilia, Translations

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Noticing the unnoticed

Cranford is pretty much in the news these days. Some of the articles include mere passing references to Elizabeth Gaskell's friendship with Charlotte Brontë, but sometimes the articles dig a little deeper when it comes to mentioning the Brontës. The Manchester Evening News features Philip Glenister, who plays Mr Carter in the series. At some point Mr Glenister wonders about Elizabeth Gaskell's struggle for popularity nowadays.

"Gaskell was a woman ahead of her time in many respects. A social reformer who believed in equality for women.
"She was also extraordinarily underrated as a novelist compared to the likes of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, so I hope Cranford will help to redress the balance.
"She writes incredibly well, with great wit and pathos about an amazing period in our history, when radical changes were taking place. In that sense, there's a lot of relevance to what's happening in today's society." (Ian Wylie)

Indeed BrontëBlog finds it puzzling as well. As if books were not enough, Mrs Gaskell has three recent adaptations of her works, with North and South being extremely popular even years after being first broadcast. Will Cranford - with its discreet humour and its great cast - finally manage to bring Mrs Gaskell to the forefront of classic authors? We hope so.

Talking about people who tend to pass unnoticed. The Little Professor talks about Branwell Brontë while reviewing Douglas A. Martin's Branwell: A Novel of the Brontë Brother.

I must admit upfront to struggling with the book, in large part because Branwell, like John Polidori (who has unaccountably managed to spawn two novels), is not particularly charming company. He drinks; he takes drugs; he accomplishes virtually nothing; he seduces the Robinson family's young son (in Martin's version, that is). In other words, Branwell manages to simultaneously disappoint his family and the reader. At one level, of course, Martin's Branwell simply reiterates the now-mythologized Branwell's abject position within the Bronte household: the coddled son who disintegrated amongst a family of female geniuses. He is one of the legendary disappointments of British literary history. But in taking Branwell as his subject, Martin develops an anti-Künstlerroman, charting the disintegration of the would-be artist under the weight of his own fantasies of brilliance. (Even the poems Branwell manages to publish are pointedly dispersed among multiple newspapers; he cannot pull himself together, even in volume form.)
One of the most striking things about the novel is its style. Or, to be more precise, its refusal to engage in the kind of pastiche that frequently characterizes the neo-Victorian novel. Martin instead writes stark, minimalist prose, often relying on simple sentences. (A random example: "The color leaves our cheeks towards morning. But why. Why must it" [85].) He eschews the leisurely periods of Victorian prose style, along with the apparently endless paragraphs. Martin goes to the opposite extreme by keeping his paragraphs short, sometimes as short as a single sentence or sentence fragment. Offhand, I cannot remember a single colon or semi-colon, although Martin does use the occasional dash. There is virtually no dialogue; what little dialogue appears is abrupt, sometimes fragmentary, and often rendered in FID. The occasional bursts of speech frequently sit by themselves on the page, as though the characters talk into silence instead of to each other.

The review is very interesting. We suggest you read it in its entirety.

Anne Brontë sadly - and unjustly - qualifies for the 'overlooked person' category as well. But today her Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the subject of a lengthy review in German on Lesertreff.

The Coveted posts samples of Marci Washington's art. She quotes her describing her work as follows:

Marci Washington describes her haunting work as 'It's like I'm illustrating a novel that doesn't exist. If it did, it would probably be a lot like Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, or Bleak House- novels which function as social commentary as well as beautiful romantic epics.'

And finally for the weird, impossible quote of the day. Ben Katner from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer asks one Ambreal Williams (apparently she's 'definitely going down in America's Next Top Model history — but only as the first contestant to be eliminated twice.') the following question:

TVGuide.com: I was really annoyed on your behalf when Tyra said you looked hoochie during the Enrique Iglesias video shoot. They dressed you in a leather shoestring, said you were playing a vampire and put you in a sex dungeon! How were you supposed to slide down that pole, like Jane Eyre? [Answer not relevant.]

Because, you know, Jane Eyre is world-famous for sliding down poles constantly in all manners of puritanical, un-sexy ways.

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Books, Branwell Brontë, Movies-DVD-TV, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Weirdo

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