Heathcliff, Amy Winehouse, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone and more, all in just one post

The New York Times talks about In His Sights by Kate Brennan. A terrible and real story of a woman stalked for more than ten years. An unexpected and shocking Brontë reference comes out:

Ms. Brennan, then a 41-year-old college writing teacher and Brontë scholar in a biggish city in the Midwest (its real name is not hard to guess from the book), met Paul, a freelance photographer, in 1991 at a party and was impressed by his worldliness. (Andy Newman)

San Jose's Metroactive reviews Wide Sargasso Sea 2006:

Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre has proven so enduring a story that a new adaptation emerges every few years, mostly recently, in 2006, from the BBC with Toby Stephens as brooding Rochester. And thanks to Jean Rhys, the characters even have backstories. Her 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea imagines the early days of Rochester in Jamaica, where he marries his first wife, who later languishes in the tower at Moor House setting fires and keening. This 2006 version of Sargasso, also from the BBC, stars Rafe Spall (from Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, and son of actor Timothy) as the callow Edward Rochester, who visits the English colony of Jamaica in the early years of the 19th century and is smitten by a Creole woman, Antoinette (Rebecca Hall, soon to be seen in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona). After some moments of ecstasy, their marriage goes sour. Trapped in a remote, dilapidated plantation, surrounded by cranky, spying servants who mutter about voodoo, Edward and Antoinette bicker incessantly. When a local Iago type whispers some dirt from Antoinette's past into the young man's ear, he becomes obsessed with the possibility that his wife's family is cursed. The romance between the leads never really convinces, either in their early passion or their later bouts of hatred, and the story ends somewhat abruptly. (Michael S. Gant)

Several UK regional papers announce that apparently, the new Wuthering Heights stage adaptation (by April De Angelis) to be premiered next September at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre will also be performed during the Autumn season of the Chichester Festival Theatre:

Also coming up in the season will be Amanda Ryan – police officer Verity in Channel 4’s hit drama Shameless – starring as Cathy in a stage version of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (November 12-15).
Bronte’s only novel has been adapted for the stage by award-winning playwright April de Angelis – the story of the wildly-passionate but doomed love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. (Shoreham Herald quoting from The Chichester Observer)

The Age says in an article about the choreographer Natalie Weir:

She is working on a version of Wuthering Heights for the Queensland company. (Jo Roberts)

We suppose that she is working on her already-presented Wuthering Heights dance piece which has been featured on BrontëBlog previously.

Emily Hill from The Guardian is the hero of today's post. She is able to link together Amy Winehouse, Heathcliff, Leonard Cohen and Nina Simone... a titanic achievement:

If there were a Desert Island Discs collection of the most love-livid ballads, at least one of Winehouse's "poor me, pour me another drink" wails would be on there. For those of you, right now, feeling like Heathcliff without Cathy, like Winehouse without her Blake incarcerated or Michael Barrymore without a TV show, you could perhaps start out wallowing in Leonard Cohen's Bird on a Wire, cry headlong into Nina Simone's I've Got It Bad and That Ain't Good, but at some point you'd owe it to that cad Cupid to steam into Winehouse's Wake Up Alone.

The Little Professor posts about Maryse Condé Wuthering Heights retelling: Windward Heights. BookPaths briefly mentions the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Blog de Libros talks about Jane Eyre (in Spanish). Top Cine 10 devotes a post to Wuthering Heights 1939 (in Portuguese). Somewhere Quiet is reading Jane Eyre and South in Winter has just finished it. A Lancashire Lass Dreaming has some icons of Jane Eyre 2006.

Finally, the Brontë Parsonage Blog posts information about a project to celebrate an important anniversary to be celebrated next year in Dewsbury:

Patrick Brontë arrived in Dewsbury on 5 December 1809. To celebrate this event there will be special services in Dewsbury Minster on 6 December 2009. Dewsbury wishes to involve the Brontë Society and so a meeting was arranged in the Minster on 28 July 2008. (Read more)

Categories: Books, Dance, Movies-DVD-TV, Patrick Brontë, Theatre, Weirdo, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights