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