Wide Sargasso Sea is Jane Eyre fan fiction

Film.com reviews the recent DVD edition of Wide Sargasso Sea 2006:

I don't care what anyone says, Wide Sargasso Sea is Jane Eyre fan fiction. Literary critics can play up Jean Rhys's classic 1966 novel however they want: it's a critical re-imagining, it's a feminist takedown, whatever. It can be all those things, it can be a great novel, but it's still fan fiction.
And now it's been made into a second movie (the first one was in 1993), a made-for-the-BBC affair that aired in 2006 and is just out on DVD from Acorn Media. And "affair" is a good word for it: it's a very sexy adaptation of the tale of the doomed romance between Edward Rochester -- yes, Charlotte Bronte's Mr. Rochester -- and Antoinette Cosway in steamy, exotic Jamaica in the 1830s. He's the handsome second son of an aristocratic family forced to make his own way in the world; she's a beautiful heiress with a fat dowry just waiting for some down-on-his-luck second-son aristocrat to come along and take it. After some of the ol' hot-'n'-heavy and a few brief moments of happiness for the sad, innocent, dreamy, Antoinette, can there be anything other than disaster in the making?
You've guessed, haven't you? Antoinette is the first Mrs. Rochester, the madwoman of Thornfield, of course. And Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of how Rochester, the cad, betrayed her and drove her mad (though she might well have been halfway there on her own already), how she ended up being called Bertha, and other deliciously melodramatic Jane Eyre goodness.
Oh, sure, there is indeed all sorts of modern reevaluation of such cultural conundrums as British colonialism in the Caribbean, with a feminist overtone of marriage as a kind of colonialism, and that's all fine and good and lets you pretend you're enjoying this for its high-mindedness. But honestly, we just want to know how Antoinette goes mad, and if there's some good sexy bits along the way, so much the better. Rebecca Hall (she plays the title character in Woody Allen's upcoming film Vicky Cristina Barcelona) as Antoinette is spectacular, drifting through the movie in her nightgown like a specter of herself. Rafe Spall (Hot Fuzz) as Rochester makes a wonderful bastard. And the pair of them have some pretty hot chemistry early on, but it gets even more intriguing later, once their romance starts to fall apart, and then it's all spitting and hissing at each other.
Metaphorically speaking, of course. These folks are British, and this is a British production. There's no actually spitting or hissing. There's a lot of groaning, though. Enjoy. (MaryAnn Johanson)

Publishers Weekly highlights something curious. Wuthering Heights in a retailer mail order catalog:

While I don't exactly live on an Anthropologie-friendly budget, I do sometimes browse the sale rack of the retailer known for its off-beat, elegant clothing inspired by vintage wear, and I do thumb through their mail order catalog whenever one arrives. Their May catalog took me by surprise this year because several pages of it had a "Summer Classics" theme in which EVERY photo showed a female model doing what? READING! And one page in each of five reading-themed spreads includes a quote from some famous work of literature (Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Awakening, Mrs. Dalloway, Wuthering Heights, Ethan Frome). (Alison Morris)

The quote from Wuthering Heights (the final paragraph) can indeed be found on page 29 of the May catalog.

More Magazine recommends Justine Picardie's Daphne for this summer:

Based on the life of Dame Daphne du Maurier (author of the gothic classic Rebecca), the story opens in 1957, when the 50-year-old novelist's marriage is failing. On the verge of a breakdown, she focuses totally on her work, researching the life of Branwell Bronte, tormented brother of the famed literary sisters. The novel simultaneously follows two other protagonists: an editor of the Brontes' manuscripts and a grad student working on a thesis about du Maurier's life. Merging fact and fiction, all three narratives come together brilliantly in the end. (Carmela Ciuraru)

Book Reviews and Author Interviews interviews Ruth Sims. Another Brontëite:

When growing up, did you have a favorite author, book series, or book?
Ruth Sims: I detested Shakespeare in school but fell in love with his tragedies when I got out of school and read them on my own. I’ve always loved the works of John Steinbeck, the Bronte sisters, Jack London, Thomas Hardy.

Weltanschauung goes beyond Terry Eagleton's Marxist reading of the Brontës and publishes a Marxist interpretation of Wuthering Heights. By Moon and Candlelight has read the novel. Off and Running and Pitite Nou (in French) post about Jane Eyre. Finally Linda Lister's blog presents her chamber opera How Clear She Shines! (2002) like this:

How Clear She Shines! (2002)
Music by Linda Lister
Libretto by Linda Lister based on the writings of Anne, Emily and Charlotte Brontë.
Narrated by Charlotte Brontë, How Clear She Shines! is a chamber opera celebrating the accomplishments of her sisters' writings and recounting the tragedies of their early deaths. Charlotte pays tribute to Anne and Emily and also reveals her own strength of character and sisterly devotion.

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Opera, References, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights