How to obtain a perfect SAT score

Publishers Weekly reports some details about Syrie James's new book, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë:

AVON (from Harper-Collins)
Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë (January, $13.95) by Syrie James reveals the passionate soul of Jane Eyre 's author. 40,000 first printing.

The East African (Uganda) has an article on the internet (it is rather a pre Web 2.0 kind of article preaching about the dangers of too much information) which the professional web surfers will find all too familiar:

It starts with the innocent “googling” of such big topics as Imperialism, Loss, Memory and Art. Soon you are on Rudyard Kipling and Blues music, then to Jungle Book and animation. You are attracted by the personality of Sher Khan, the tiger, but rather than reading the link on Wikipedia, you are seduced by that drawing of Mowgli and the Tiger done by Rudyard’s father, John Lockwood Kipling. Really, was Rudyard’s dad that good an artist? You open a window on him, then recall that Emily Bronte’s novel, Heathcliff, has a Lockwood in it. (David Kaiza)

The Michigan Daily talks about summer reading. The description of The Time Travelers's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger closes with this gratuitous and quite absurd comment:

The novel is touching without being too sappy, tragic while somehow uplifting and never irritating for its strange, sci-fi premise. And, honestly, it's a lot less trouble than Charlotte Bronte. (Ben Vanwagoner)

The Telegraph & Argus publishes an article about Rubina Khan founder of Yarn Spinners Tours which is expanding its business:

Rubina is adding new tours to her regular programme.
She recently successfully organised her first bus tour based on literary shrine Haworth for a group of Bronte enthusiasts from Ireland. (Chris Holland)

The Orange County Register interviews Micca Hecht, who was able to get a perfect SAT score and offers her advice:

I read a lot of books and write down words that I don't know and look them up. In context, they stick a lot better. Out of the books I read, Jane Eyre had the most SAT words. My favorite study guide was the Barron's SAT workbooks which I used to work on speed. Speed is really important.

Elizabeth Gregory writes on Suite101 on Nelly Dean's realiability as a storyteller in an article worth reading. Kate reads books talks about discussing The Tenant of Wildfell Hall at her book club and Les livres chez Miss Cece reviews Jane Eyre in French.

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

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Emma Brown in Indiana

An alert from the Calumet Township, Lake County, Indiana:

Book Buddies is offered at 6:30 p.m. June 30 at the Lake County Public Library's 41st Avenue branch, 3491 W. 41st Ave.

When Charlotte Bronte died in 1855, she left behind a 20-page fragment tentatively titled "Emma." Clare Boylan takes this snippet and runs with it: a young heiress's arrival at a boarding school in the north of England, the discovery that she is not what she seems and her sudden disappearance. Join the group for dessert and an informal discussion of "Emma Brown" by Clare Boylan. (The Northwest Indiana and Illinois Times)

Categories: Alert, Sequels

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Number Fifty

We read on Clare Ruddock's blog about a new audio installation by Katy Merrington that had a preview last June 26 at the Waygood Gallery & Studios (Byker, Newcastle):

Number Fifty.
Two new audio stories.
Thursday 26th June 6pm - 8pm.

I was impressed by Katie's work at Harkers the on Thursday. I unfortunately only had chance to listen to one of her works in which she was discussing the influences on Charlotte Brontes character Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre. (...) Katie presented a single cut out image of old attic room that is illedged to have inspired Bronte, which operated as the only focal point for the viewer/listener as they were drawn into her spoken narrative.

The Newcastle Evening Chronicle publishes the following anecdote with a Brontë twist:

This year we celebrate 100 years of cinema on Tyneside. (...)
Sheila Nilsen, of West Jesmond, has been going to the cinema since she was five years old. (...)
“Once on a date I saw Wuthering Heights, starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. In her dying scene I was completely overcome by the scene and I blew my nose on what I thought was my hanky, but it turned out to be one of my silk gloves. (Ray Marshall)

The Seattle Times reviews briefly the Wide Sargasso Sea 2006 DVD:

Ever wonder about the backstory of Edward Rochester's mentally unhinged first wife? The mystery lady in the attic? So did the incisive British novelist Jean Rhys, whose "Jane Eyre" prequel novel was adapted into a sensuous, explosive BBC film. Now on DVD, it's an R-rated must for Brontë fans. (Misha Berson)

Brontë readers around: Midnight Tea Cup (in Spanish) is reading Jane Eyre. Writing Companion reviews Jennifer Vandever's The Brontë Project. The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reviews the German edition of Ann Dinsdale's The Brontës at Haworth, Die Brontës in Haworth:

Es gibt zwar bereits Dutzende von Biografien und Bildbände über die Bronte-Schwestern, doch der prächtige Band von Ann Dinsdale, Bibliothekarin im Bronte-Museum, und Simon Warner (Fotos) gehört zu den eindrucksvollsten Würdigungen dieser so enorm kreativen Frauen, die sich ihren Weg zur literarischen Anerkennung unter extrem schwierigen Bedingungen als Lehrerinnen oder Gouvernanten mühsam erarbeiten mussten. Abgesehen vom großartigen ästhetischen Reiz historischer Aufnahmen und der stimmungsvollen Landschaftsbilder besticht dieser Band durch seine einfühlsame Akribie. (Peter Münder). Google Translation

By the way, can you imagine Lana Turner playing Cathy in a Hollywood version of Wuthering Heights. It seems highly unlikely, doesn't it? Well, according to some drunk editor of la La Vanguardia (México) she did.

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

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Joubert's Six Poems of Emily Brontë in Tardebigge

A musical alert for today, June 29:

Sunday, 29 June, 3pm
Celebrating English Song Series

Pre-concert talk 2pm to be confirmed.

Duo recital with soprano Patricia Rozario: Gurney, Ireland, Tavener, Ades, Joubert, Britten and Venables.

Six Poems of Emily Brontë, op. 63 (1969)

John Joubert composer

Patricia Rozario soprano
Mark Bebbington piano
St Bartholomew's Church, Tardebigge, Worcs.

Tel: (01527) 872422
email: song@mcgregor-smith.com

The six poems set to music are Harp, Sleep, Oracle, Storm, Caged Bird and Immortality.

Categories: Emily Brontë, Music, Poetry

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The kids will never read Agnes Grey

The San Jose Mercury News publishes a curious story of a nowadays Guy Montag:

With the zeal of a soul-saver, Robert Wright has delved into garbage bins, filled up his minivan and made space in his Willow Glen basement, rescuing books once destined for oblivion.
This week, Wright, 57, rumpled in sweatpants and a T-shirt, rushed to Morrill Middle School after the Berryessa school board had declared 686 library books surplus. The teacher browsed through volumes laid out on tables. He filled boxes until the custodian turned out the lights and chased him out. He returned Friday morning, his triumph mixed with amazement and distress.
" Why get rid of 'The Yearling'? Or 'Leaves of Grass'! How could anybody say there just isn't room for 'Leaves of Grass'?" he asked. "If they were throwing out 'Captain Underpants' I'd understand, but not 'Leaves of Grass!' "
School libraries periodically cull worn, obsolete and sometimes underused books from their collection. In Berryessa, they're pulled from shelves and stamped: "Material is inaccurate. Does not meet district standards. Stereotypes gender or culture."
Sometimes, media technician Jeanne Palmer said, the library has five or six copies of a books - as was the case with "The Witch of Blackbird Pond." Other books, like Anne Bronte's "Agnes Grey," she said, "The kids will never read." She judges that in part by the dust accumulated on top. (Sharon Noguchi)

That's the way literature has to be judged, no doubt. What a shame.

Margot Livesey's The House on Fortune Street is reviewed in the Washington Times (where there can also be read online the first chapter):

But the book's hopefulness has an even deeper source: the continuity of the English literary tradition. All the characters have sincere attachments to canonical British authors, going so far as to travel to their houses to observe how they lived. Sean has his beloved Keats, of course, while Dara often compares herself with Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. (Donna Rifkind)

The Book Reporter reports the appearance of Meg Cabot's The Babble Queen Gets Hitched. We knew that the author was a Brontëite, but her new book actually begins with a Wuthering Heights quote:

Chapter One

Whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same. --- Emily Brontë (1818-1848), British novelist and poet

On the blogosphere: Roxy the Killer offers an ineffable Wuthering Heights analysis in her latest installment of Because You Suck. More literary creation, poetry in this case, Anna E. Evans posts the following on Dreaming in Iambic Pentameter:

A couple of acceptances to report. “Emily Bronte Begins Wuthering Heights” finally found a home in The Delaware Valley Poets Anthology, which will be good for my local profile.

Le Blog de Lorelai (in French) recommends Villette. AnimeGirl's Book Blogging posts about Cara Lockwood's Wuthering High. Finally, if you are reading Jane Eyre right now you may be interested in sharing your thoughts in this Librarything forum.

Categories: Agnes Grey, Books, Jane Eyre, Poetry, References, Villette, Wuthering Heights

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Shirley meets The Professor

A new edition of Shirley and The Professor, published last month by Everyman's Library (Alfred A. Knopft, Random House):

Shirley and The Professor
Written by Charlotte Bronte
Introduction by Rebecca Fraser
Hardcover
Pub Date: May 2008
ISBN: 978-0-307-26821-1 (0-307-26821-7)

These two classic novels, together with Brontë's well-known Jane Eyre and Villette, comprise a magnificent oeuvre, each one a singular achievement of characterization, human understanding, and narrative elegance and drama.

Shirley is the story of a complicated friendship between two very different women: shy and socially constrained Caroline, the poor niece of a tyrannical clergyman; and the independent heiress Shirley, who has both the resources and the spirit to defy convention. The romantic entanglements of the two women with a local mill owner and his penniless brother pit the claims of passion against the boundaries of class and society.

The Professor—the first novel Brontë completed, the last to be published—is both a disturbing love story and the coming-of-age tale of a self-made man. At its center is William Crimsworth, who has come to Brussels to work as an instructor in a school for girls. When he becomes entangled with Zoräide Reuter, a charismatic and brilliantly intellectual woman, the fervor of her feelings threatens both her own engagement and William's chance of finding true love.

Categories: Books, Shirley, The Professor

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Jane sings in Salem

An alert from Salem, Massachussets. From The Salem News:

The Theatre of Light's Student Theatre Ensemble, a community children's theater, will present "Broadway in Salem" with songs and scenes from favorites including "West Side Story," "Beauty and the Beast," "Narnia," and "Jane Eyre," 3 p.m. matinee, St. Peter's Episcopal Church, St. Peter Street, Salem. Dinner Theater at 7 p.m. on Saturday and 4 p.m., matinee on Sunday, June 29. mag08066@gmail.com or 978-922-3092.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Music, Theatre

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Does a Sufi reading of Wuthering Heights prevent anti-social behaviour?

Let's begin with a different reading of Wuthering Heights. It comes from the BanglaDesh newspaper The Daily Star, from an interview to the author Kamila Shamsie:

Ahmede Hussain : Many will argue that novel itself is a western form of expression. We had epic. Is it not so that the history of novel is also the history of the so-called modern man, his crises?

KS: Many can argue that. I find the argument irrelevant. Are novel writers from the non-Western world able to use the novel to look at their own particular nation and its concerns? That's the only important question. The greatness of the novel form lies in the very thing many people find objectionable about it: the looseness of its structure. You can have epic novels. The epic and the novel don't have to be seen as walking different paths. Is Wuthering Heights really about the crisis of modern man? As I see it, the story of Heathcliff and Cathy has more resonances with Sufi concepts of love - losing yourself in the Beloved - than with modernity. But of course in saying that I'm bringing in my reading of non-Western Sufi texts into my reading of Wuthering Heights. And the best novels will always accommodate different ways of reading.

EInsiders.com has a double review of the Wide Sargasso Sea 2006 DVD:

What Jon Ted Wynne says:
I had mixed feelings about this film. The idea is a brilliant one: to investigate the circumstances prior to the events of Jane Eyre and, in addition to making a number of observations about Colonialism, prejudice, and the oppression of women, to flesh out the character of Edward Rochester. (...)
There is much to commend this version. It is strikingly moody, with an omnipresent veil of oppression. While this is appropriate to the story, which the viewer knows will lead to the unhappiness and insanity of its central character, Antoinette—later renamed Bertha, one of the many ways in which she is oppressed—it becomes a little bit tedious in spots. There is simply nothing to relieve the tension.
A significant aspect of this adaptation (possibly following the style of the book) is the emphasis on the initial sexual attraction of Rochester and Antoinette. While not overly graphic, the sex scenes do attempt to be erotic. For this viewer though, they seemed quite unnecessary (as most sex scenes are).
Returning for a moment to the visuals, the one scene that stands out in my mind occurs when Rochester picks up a piece of fruit to eat it, then realizes the fruit is worm-infested. He drops it to the floor and the fruit bursts open, and several worms crawl out. Revolting to look at, the spoiled fruit serves as the perfect metaphor: how something beautiful on the outside is really rotten to the core on the inside. The metaphor applies to Rochester’s view of the country, as well as his and Antoinette’s marriage (which starts off with genuine love then disintegrates into suspicion, cruelty and infidelity), and finally to Antoinette herself: young, beautiful and full of hope, but driven to insanity and, ultimately, to self-destruction.
My biggest concern about this film is the contemporary shooting style. The director applies the camera work of an episode of NYPD Blue and the jump editing of The Bourne Identity to a period story, which has a very disorienting effect. To the director’s credit, this seems an earnest attempt to reflect the teeming, swirling events that doom the couple to mutual hatred and despair, but it comes off, in my opinion, as a conflict of styles that went from being distracting to downright annoying after awhile.
Fortunately Rebecca Hall’s acting is first-rate. Rafe Spall as Rochester is a bit one-note, but Ms. Hall as Antoinette definitely earns the acting accolades here. There is some fine supporting work from the rest of the cast, too, which helps maintain the sinister mood of the film.
Fans of Jane Eyre will find Wide Sargasso Sea interesting and worth watching, but possibly less enlightening than the filmmakers intended. See it and decide for yourself.
What Rhiannon Benedict says:
At the risk of bucking Academia (not my first offence of this nature, I must admit), my first viewing of Wide Sargasso Sea left me completely cold. Hot on the heels of reading zealous reviews and academic accolades for the film as a brilliant prequel to Jane Eyre, I fell immediately and firmly into the trap of comparing the two. I was entirely disappointed and completely failed to see how this modern film could inform classic Charlotte Bronte in any way. Part of the problem, admittedly, was my personal attachment to Timothy Dalton’s 6’2”, green-eyed, brooding characterization of Edward Rochester, purely because, well, he’s Timothy Dalton, what’s not to like? Poor Rafe Spall, an actor I was completely ignorant of, was doomed from the start.
After several days and numerous attempts to write this review, I decided to view it a second time. Measuring the two stories against one another deprives a full appreciation for Wide Sargasso Sea, as the balance is, at least for me, tipped heavily in favour of Charlotte Bronte. I re-approached Jean Rhys’ story, determined to actively not think about Jane Eyre. In allowing the film to speak for itself, I was richly rewarded. The poor second cousin rating from the first viewing was entirely erased. Surprisingly, I also finally found some very real insights that did expand my understanding of Jane Eyre, a novel I have studied to some degree. Now that I have completely contradicted myself, here are some of the treasures unearthed in Wide Sargasso Sea the second time around.
A searing love story set in Colonial Jamaica, Wide Sargasso Sea pulsates with intrigue and lust. Due in large part to brilliance in direction, cinematography and editing, the oppressive, prickly, fever-inducing heat of the island is palpable. The heady aroma of the flowers on the breeze, the thickness of the air, the blazing green foliage, the foreign sounds, the inner turmoil, the confusion and fear - all of it is deftly played to its utmost. The soundscape, without your awareness, surreptitiously slips in and out of a scene, playing the moment to its highest intensity. The play of light against darkness rips secrets from their hiding places and cruelly exposes them. One lover is pushed into darkness in the midst of light, and the other desperately searches for light in the midst of darkness. While there is no such thing as a perfect film, occasionally it is possible to find perfect moments. Wide Sargasso Sea offers more than its fair share.(...)
The key to this prequel is to appreciate it for itself first, then think about its relationship to Jane Eyre afterward. For those unfamiliar with Jane Eyre, watch Wide Sargasso Sea, then watch Jane Eyre. You won’t be disappointed by either of them.

Remember this? The Spenborough Guardian says today:

SPEN Valley Civic Society brought a ray of sunshine to rain-soaked Cleckheaton on Saturday for the fifth birthday celebrations of Savoy Square.

Thankfully the rain held off for most of the proceedings and members of the public joined in the party atmosphere with balloons, displays and entertainment. (...)
Several costumed characters also put in an appearance to highlight the poster commemorating Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley. (Margaret Heward)

The Redditch Standard announces an upcoming new theatrical adaptation of Wuthering Heights that will be performed in September/October at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre:

A brand new stage adaptation of another much-loved classic, Wuthering Heights, brings Emily Bronte’s passionate and spellbinding tale to life. Set on the wild, windswept Yorkshire moors, this physical production by one of the UK’s most innovative dramatists, April De Angelis, will be directed by Indhu Rubasingham. (Andrew Powell)

Georgina McEncroe writes in The Herald Sun about some awful holidays and slips this Jane Eyre reference:

My daughter felt like Jane Eyre. And acted a little like her, too.
I hadn't sent her out to a bleak typhus-ridden charity school, but I had sent her out into the desert.

Nevertheless we don't understand really what acting like Jane Eyre means in this context.

Cinematical Seven talks about rap singers trying to be actors and puts this (very) perturbing question concerning Eminem:

Who's with me on Eminem as MacBeth? Or perhaps as the darkly brooding Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights? Hey, I bet Heathcliff could bust out a rap while wandering the moors in the depths of despair. (Kim Voynar)

Even more perturbing is the following comparison by the Airedale and North Bradford neighbourhood policing team inspector as can be read in Keighley News:

Police community support officers are wearing new head cameras in a bid to tackle anti-social behaviour and domestic violence.
PCSOs are patrolling Keighley wearing the cameras on their heads in the hope that recording footage of crimes will help with prosecutions and preventing offences. (...)
Airedale and North Bradford neighbourhood policing team inspector Mark Allsop said: "In cases of domestic violence sometimes people are afraid of making a complaint against their partner and this camera is one way of picking up evidence.
"When PCSOs visit scenes of domestic violence, where the victim is upset, sometimes it is difficult to describe what you see.
"Our officers might not be wordsmiths like the Brontës but the camera captures that scene and what people's demeanour is like when they get there, which can often be difficult to describe.

The Guardian reviews Seth Lakeman's album Poor Man's Heaven:

His songs also tend to have a slightly bodice-ripping bent, peopled as they are by dashing pirates, fearless highwaymen, Heathcliff types brooding on the moors and, at one particularly imaginative juncture on Poor Man's Heaven, a lifeboatman risking life and limb to rescue a maiden whose hair has become entangled in the rigging of her yacht. (Alexis Petridis)

As for the blogs: Chaosophy discusses they why and wherefore of literary pseudonyms used by women. And Lizzy's Literary Life reviews Anne Donovan's Being Emily.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, References, Shirley, Theatre, Weirdo, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights

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Wuthering Heights in Estonia

An Estonian theatrical adaptation of Wuthering Heights opens today, June 27, in the Tartu county:

Vihurimäe (Wuthering Heights)
Vanemuine Theatre

June 27, 28
July 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
20:00 h

One of the unique masterpieces among the 19th century English literary classics – Wuthering Heights – will be staged in Estonia for the first time. This is a passionate and fateful love story between the demonic Heathcliff and beautiful Catherine Earnshaw which influences the destiny of two squire families over many generations.

Author: Emily Jane Brontë
Dramatiser: J. Davison
Translator: Kersti Unt
Director: Roman Baskin
Stage Designer: Ann Lumiste
Light Designer: Martin Meelandi
In roles: Helena Merzin-Tamm, Marko Matvere, Riho Kütsar, Ott Sepp, Külliki Saldre, Helen Rekkor, Margus Jaanovits, Raivo Adlas

In the beginning of the 19th century a squire returns one evening from a long journey to his manor house in the faraway corner of England bringing along a foundling who was named Heathcliff. The demonic Heathcliff and temperamental Catherine fall passionately in love and in its invincible strength and impossibility this love affair turns out to be the essence and destruction of their life.
According to the Vanemuine drama director, Sven Karja, this summer’s drama production is a lucky coincidence of three ideas which had thus far been contemplated separately. “On one hand there was Brontë’s powerfully visionary novel Wuthering Heights with its mystic currents and monumental characters the production of which had been discussed at the Vanemuine several times. On the other hand there was Roman Baskin, who wanted to direct a story of great passion in the open air in summer. And then there was also Alatskivi Castle in Tartumaa – a place almost undiscovered by the Estonian summer theatre. By the way, Alatskivi Castle was built based on the example of Balmoral Castle in Scotland and as a result could in every way organically interlock with the atmosphere of this old English novel.”

The premiere on 27 June 2008 in the park of Alatskivi Castle in Tartumaa.

A trailer can be seen here. And some articles in the Estonian press: Eesti Ekspress, SL Õhtuleht, Eesti Päevaleht.

Categories: Theatre, Wuthering Heights

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If passion is what you want, read Jane Eyre

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reviews (very) briefly Wide Sargasso Sea 2006 DVD:

Less sensational than the 1993 film version, "Sea" manages to be sensual and harrowing as Antoinette descends into madness.

You'll never guess what is mentioned in a new review of the Arena Stage's performances of The Mystery of Irma Vep:

The three men [Patrick Noonan, Brad dePlanche and John Helsinger], describe the show as a comical blend of such films as "Rebecca," "Wuthering Heights," "Jane Eyre" and "Gaslight," along with such horror films as "The Mummy" and "Dracula. (Jay Handelman in the Sarasota Herald Tribune]

[Brad DePlanche] noted further that Ludlam's work depends heavily on Daphne DuMaurier's novel Rebecca as a source of satire. "People will recognize passages that are almost directly lifted from Rebecca, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights" -- and classic poetry by Lord Byron and Percy Shelley. And he thinks that the play has a serious subtext: "Of course, we want you to laugh; and it's primarily a laughfest. But what we're hoping is that on some level, every bit of humor comes from a very truthful place. ... We're really hoping that you will see three-dimensional, fully fleshed-out characters that have feelings, and hopefully we'll evoke some feelings in you." (Mark E. Leib in Creative Loafing Sarasota)

Playwright Charles Ludlam has borrowed liberally from the classics of the genre. Principal among these is Hitchcock's "Rebecca," but there are also touches of "The Hound of the Baskervilles," "Wuthering Heights," "Count Dracula" and films like "Gaslight" and "The Mummy's Curse." (Lucia Anderson in the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star)

EDIT ---

An audience unfamiliar with “Gone With the Wind,” “Rebecca,” “The Mummy’s Curse,” “Macbeth,” “Deliverance,” “Wuthering Heights,” (if such an audience even exists) would miss the points of reference for Ludlam’s serious business of spinning a ridiculous tale. And where better to begin than with our favorite, heavy-breathing romance-mystery-adventure stories with a touch of the supernatural?(Maggie Lawrence in The Star Exponent)

---

Catherine Townsend writes in her column in The Independent about the wonders of a drama-free relationship:

I feel that I'm in a dilemma: I've read way too many love stories that involve conflict, and this one seems far too easy. But thinking about it, how many of those ended happily? In Wuthering Heights both of the main characters ended up dead, and Jane Eyre only got her man after he was blind and broke.

But the other Independent, the Irish one, carries an article about just the opposite. Why women love bastards... sorry, bad guys. Guess who is mentioned:

Of course, we have seen this for generations reflected on the big screen -- villains we can't help loving, like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, hell, even Mr Big in Sex in the City. (Siobhan Cronin)

Another radically different columnist, John Mark Reynolds on the On Faith Newsweek blog also happens to mention Jane Eyre:

If passion is what you want, read "Jane Eyre".
It is my "borrowed" book, since my wife had to force me to read it. Because she loved it, I opened it out of love's obligation and haven't stopped reading it since.Jane is an antidote to at least two diseases. The book helps those for whom love is a fever justifying wickedness and those who are too cold to know love's importance. Against both excess and defect, Jane posits a romantic vision which hasn't stopped teaching me yet.

Ecataromance interviews Penelope Marzec who can be classified as Brontëite:

What authors inspire you?
PM: I get inspired by well-written books–and in my search for entertaining reads I often try new authors. (...)
However, I continue to read some very old novels and find them delightful. My favorite book will always be Jane Eyre.

Much Madness is Divinest Sense has read Wuthering Heights. History and Women posts about Charlotte Brontë. The Seacost of Bohemia reviews Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. We have no idea what this Vietnamese post says about Jane Eyre. Finally Suite101 begins what they announced as

The first in a series looking at Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights: this article looks at the context of the novel's publication and provides an overview of the plot. (Elizabeth Gregory)

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

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Happy 191th, Branwell!

Branwell Brontë was born in Thornton on a day like today in 1817. Although he would grow up to be known as the black sheep of the Brontë family, it should also be remembered that he actually was the driving force behind the juvenilia, pushing the Brontë girls into the world of writing they would never leave.


For that, and for many more other 'small' achievements he certainly deserves to be remembered.



Categories: Branwell Brontë, Reminder

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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

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Win a signed copy of A Room of Their Own!

** THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED **

Sarah Barrett have generously provided us with an extra signed copy of A Room of Their Own. 80 years of the Brontë Parsonage Museum to give away to one of our readers.

To enter you only have to answer the following question:

Who gave the Haworth Parsonage to the Brontë Society in 1928?

The answer must be sent to our e-mail address: bronteblog (AT) gmail (DOT) com (read that aloud if that doesn't look like an e-mail address to you). Answers will be accepted until July 4 (12 am CET). Winners will be notified by e-mail on the ensuing days. We will accept ONE ANSWER ONLY per participant.

Good luck everyone!

Categories: Brontë Parsonage Museum, Contest

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Villette once again in BBC-7

Starting today, June 25, you can listen to a three-part dramatization of Villette in BBC-7. We published a couple of years ago this post, that now we can republish:

An adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel by James Friel with Joseph Fiennes (Dr. Graham Bretton), Catherine McCormack (Lucy Snowe), Harriet Walter (Madame Beck), James Laurenson (Paul Emmanuel), Keira Knightley (Polly).

Wed 25 Jun, 11:00 - 12:00 60 mins
Lucy Snowe: Lucy Snowe leaves "the wilderness" of England to become "something". Episode 1 of 3.
Thu 26 Jun, 11:00 - 12:00 60 mins
Doctor John: Charlotte Brontë's tale continues as Lucy grapples with matters of the heart, the mind and the spirit. Episode 2 of 3.
Fri 27 Jun, 11:00 - 12:00 60 mins
Monsieur Paul: As Charlotte Brontë's story reaches its conclusion, will love be the answer for Lucy Snowe?. Episode 3 of 3.

The play is also available on CD published by BBC Audiobooks. Of course, you can use the Listen Again service (but just for one week after each episode).

Categories: Audio-Radio,Villette

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Jane Eyre goes to Japan

Classical Comics, which as we have been publishing will publish a Jane Eyre comic adaptation this fall prepares also a Japanese version:

Against the tide of Japanese inspired graphic novels hitting western shores, Classical Comics have signed a deal with Ittosha Incorporated of Japan to translate and publish their series of graphic novel adaptations of literary classics in Japanese.

The influence of Manga on western media art is unquestionable, and the style is hugely popular amongst British teenagers in particular. This trend is not new - even Monet was influenced by Japanese artwork that he saw exhibited in the late nineteenth century. With the popularity of series like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! that have helped form multi-media standards amongst today’s youth, it’s easy to see how the Manga phenomenon has taken hold in the UK.

Although the word “Manga” is merely the Japanese word for comic book art, it has come to represent a style of drawing, typified by abstract features of large eyes and small mouths, so often seen across the globe in today’s media-rich society; which makes this particular deal all-the-more interesting as it goes against the established east-to-west culture flow.
Chairman of Classical Comics, Clive Bryant said,

“Our multiple text versions of well-loved classic literature have already proven to be a huge success around the globe, particularly with students and teachers who welcome this vibrant, colourful way of introducing these wonderful books. Language translations are a natural extension to this. Not only are we exporting Great British literature, but we’re also delivering part of our deep culture at the same time. Just as westerners nd the Japanese culture intriguing, we think that there are many people in Japan who will be equally fascinated by our heritage.”

Terumasa Hirano, Chairman and Executive Editor of Ittosha Inc. added,
“When we first came across the Classical Comics range, we immediately saw the potential for a Japanese translation. While the artwork is very different to what we see over here, that is part of their appeal and helps to deliver these famous stories."

Ittosha Inc will launch the winter 2008 season with the first two Shakespeare books in the series: Henry V and Macbeth. Jane Eyre (Brontë), Frankenstein (Shelley), Great Expectations (Dickens), and A Christmas Carol (Dickens) will follow, as will all of the titles published by Classical Comics in the UK and the US.

Greater Kashmir publish an article about the reliability of narrators in literature. The author of the article knows his Brontës:

For example a Nelly Dean of Wuthering Heights, the novel by Emily Bronte, is unable to understand fully the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine. She is so prejudiced towards Cathrine that she once remarks while catherine is ill:
“She is fainted or dead I thought so much the better. Far better than she should be dead than lingering a burden and a misery maker to all about her”. It is the ideology of Nelly Dean that prompts her to voice her feelings like that and she does not understand Cathrine and Heatcliff (sic) the way we do. (...)
Charlotte Bronte was once asked why she and her sisters resorted to pseudonyms. She replied that it made their work the focus of attention of a critic rather than their personal life which amounts to true literary criticism. (Tanveer Ahmad)

Près de la plume... au coin du feu talks about Wuthering Heights (in French). Incurable Logophilia reviews The Professor:

The novel stands on its own. Taken as a whole, I didn’t find The Professor as well-constructed as Jane Eyre, nor its main characters as fascinating – but broken up into scenes and ideas, it’s a wonderful study. And its supporting cast are quirky and wonderful – Mr. Hunsden, Mlle Reuter, Mr. Pelet. I could see a lot of Rochester in Hunsden.

Categories: Comics, Jane Eyre, References, The Professor, Wuthering Heights

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Wide Sargasso Sea 2006 in DVD

As we informed before, Acorn Media Group releases today, June 24, a Wide Sargasso 2006 in DVD for Region 1:

WIDE SARGASSO SEA

Debuts on DVD June 24, 2008

"Brilliant…compelling…compulsory viewing"—Radio Times (U.K.)
"Wonderful performances"—Observer (U.K.)

Acorn Media announces the June 24, 2008 North American debut of Wide Sargasso Sea, a richly provocative, erotic, and stunning new production of the acclaimed novel by Jean Rhys.

In a story dubbed a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Rhys imagines how Mr. Rochester met and married his first wife and how she wound up as the madwoman in the attic. In early 1800s Jamaica, young Englishman Edward Rochester (Rafe Spall) wins the heart of beautiful Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway (Rebecca Hall). The newlyweds’ ecstatic lust quickly turns to suspicion and betrayal as her world and his disastrously collide. Filmed as a companion piece to the new BBC Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre), this fresh adaptation of Wide Sargasso Sea captures all the sensuality, suspense, and nuance of Rhys’s masterpiece.

In this passionate and heartbreaking love story, the shadowy character created by one brilliant novelist becomes fully realized in the hands of another.

From award-winning director Brendan Maher (The Road from Coorain), Wide Sargasso Sea features rising young stars Rafe Spall (A Room with a View, The Chatterley Affair, Shaun of the Dead) and Rebecca Hall (The Prestige).

The drama aired in the U.K. in October 2006 and is available to U.S. audiences for the first time.

Special Features: Biography of Jean Rhys and cast filmographies.

Headquartered in suburban Washington, D.C., Acorn Media distributes distinctive home video releases to the North American market with a special focus on the best of British television. Acorn’s DVD sets are available from select retailers, catalog companies, and direct from Acorn Media at (888) 870-8047 or www.acornonline.com.

Street: June 24, 2008
SRP: $24.99
DVD Single: Approx. 84 min. - 16:9 widescreen - SDH subtitles

And tomorrow, June 25, Jane Eyre 1996 will be released in Spain by Manga Films:

Interactive Menu,
Scene Selection Menu.
Region 2 (PAL)
Audio: Unknown.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wide Sargasso Sea

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Firm as weeds among stones

The Daily Mail and other newspapers report the results of a survey conducted for Lulu.com by YouGov on so-called 'secret reads'. We have been unable to trace the complete list so we have to go by what the Daily Mail says:

Asked what book they are reading and many adults will come up with the name of some worthy or fashionable volume.
What they are less likely to tell you is that they are enjoying a children's book or a bodice-ripping tale of romance.
But these book are the favourite secret reads of British adults, according to researchers.
A quarter revealed their secret indulgence to be 19th century romances and classics such as Little Women, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.

EDIT: 9. Jane Eyre (top ten list in Times Colonist)

We wonder, though, why these should be secret reads at all. Isn't it supposed to make you look all highbrow and intellectual to state that you read the classics? We are afraid that many people - people who haven't even begun to turn the first page - dismiss them as sort of Mills & Boon volumes. How wrong they are.

Fortunately, there are those who not only aren't ashamed but who also incorporate the classics into their own art. Conceptual artist Barbara Kruger has an installation called 'Another' at UC San Diego which is reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

'Another,' the conceptual artist's installation at UC San Diego, gives passing students something to think about with its use of quotation panels and news tickers embedded in clock faces.Kruger selected the 33 quotes for their ability to speak to the present, though they date from vastly different places and times. Charlotte Brontë opines on the necessity of education to eradicate prejudices, Thomas Mann likens speech to civilization itself and Voltaire warns that "Those who make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." (Leah Ollman)

We can't be 100% sure but we believe the quote will be:

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones. (Jane Eyre, ch. XXIX)

And isn't that true of the secret reads survey as well?

Now for a couple of celebrities. Actress Emma Lung talks to The Sydney Morning Herald and states,

"I have turned down some major parts … parts in established television shows because it isn't what I want to do," she said, adding that her dream role would be in a period drama. "Anything from an Austen or Bronte novel." (Emily Dunn and Elicia Murray)

Given how many Brontë productions are in the works right now she should hurry up and try for a part.

And, without further ado, from getdagoss via PR-Inside:

Reports are coming out that Amy Winehouse is suffering from tuberculosis, more commonly known as TB, and could possibly die if not properly treated. Her doctors say she has been coughing up blood in addition to her weight loss that has almost become legendary - both symptoms of the deadly disease. In literary circles, TB is often debated as a disease that afflicts genius.
Those struck down include the Brontë sisters, D.H. Lawrence, Anton Chekhov, Albert Camus, Honore de Balzac, Dylan Thomas, W. Somerset Maugham, Guy de Maupassant, Molière, George Orwell, and the list goes on and on with the most celebrated names in literature. (Adrian Twist)

Sure, because you get TB depending on your IQ or whatever makes a genius a genius. Now seriously, leaving aside the fact that Charlotte Brontë didn't die from TB, have they even stopped to consider the millions of anonymous people who died - and are still dying - from TB? Really, the 'geniuses' don't amount to much in the midst of those, and it shouldn't be something to be proud of.

As for the blogosphere: Pitite Nou reviews at length and in French The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë by Daphne du Maurier. And The Oscar Completist reviews briefly Wuthering Heights 1939.

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Books, In the News, Jane Eyre, Weirdo

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A Room of Their Own - A Review

A Room of Their Own: 80 Years of the Bronte Parsonage Museum 1928-2008
by Sarah Barrett

Paperback: 24 pages

Publisher: Currerbell Publications (1 Jun 2008)

ISBN-10: 0955932807

ISBN-13: 978-0955932809

2008 marks the 80th anniversary of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, thanks to the generosity of a Haworth millionaire who bought it and gave it to the Brontë Society. To commemorate this fateful event, Sarah Barrett has published an interesting little book: A Room of Their Own: 80 Years of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, 1928-2008.

The book constitutes a unique guide to the Brontë Parsonage Museum through its existence, with particular attention - obviously - to what happened and in which room while their most famous inhabitants resided in it. We are taken from room to room and given very precise and concise accounts of what we know about the room in question. From where Emily Brontë played her piano to which room the Reverend John Wade, who took over after Patrick Brontë's death and Arthur Bell Nicholl's 'dismissal', turned into a breakfast room to where visitors such as Elizabeth Gaskell would have slept.

Sarah Barrett's commentary on each room is both knowledgeable and easily approachable. She has disentagled from the Brontë saga the most pertinent and lively anecdotes that took place while the Brontës lived there, but she also tells much of what happened there afterwards: who lived there and which marks they left. Apart from the room-to-room sections, the book features an informative introduction, a practical chronology of the building, bibliography and brief biographies of family members, servants and visitors. Unfortunately, Arthur Bell Nicholls didn't seem to fit exactly into any of these categories and he has been sadly left out of the picture, although he does feature in the book.

Each room's section opens with a relevant quote which makes the room itself figuratively lit up completely in our imagination. Suddenly the Brontës are living there again, it's so vivid. In addition to that, there is also what in our eyes is one of the highlights of the book: each section includes a historical picture of the room in question, more often than not they are never-seen-before pictures or, at any rate, very rarely seen. How did Charlotte's Room look like in 1987? What was in the kitchen during the 1940s? Where was the Bonnell Collection initially displayed? These and other questions will be intringuing both to regular visitors to the Parsonage who believe they know all its nooks and crannies as well as to occasional visitors who, through keeping in touch with the Brontë story in other ways, feel much closer to this literary shrine than they actually are geographically speaking.

So if you are visiting the Parsonage in this very special year, you would do well to grab a copy of this book at the shop. If you can't make it there but would like to add a copy to your Brontë shelf, you can order it by writing to this email address: cbellpublishers@aol.com. Honestly, this will be as close as it gets to taking the Parsonage - with all its history - home with you.

Categories: Books, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Review

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What Jane Eyre could stomach

The Times carries an article about literacy levels in Scotland and use a Charlotte-to-Charlotte reference:

Rankin has pointed out that he spent much of his childhood reading comics, and it wasn’t until he was older that he progressed to books. But there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of thought about how to encourage children to make the transition from Charlotte Church to Charlotte Bronte. (Gillian Bowditch)

The Huddersfield Daily Examiner proposes a quiz to their readers with a non-trivial Brontë question:

Which English county was Maria Branwell, mother of the Bronte sisters from? (Phil Brown)

The answer at the end of this post :p.

The San Antonio Express-News carries an article about the signs of social decay through the ages. The author seems to have read his Brontës:

The barbarized court of the Lower Roman Empire would have made Caesar Augustus throw up, and I doubt if the fictional Jane Eyre could stomach some social gatherings today. (T.R. Fehrenbach)

Diário de Nordeste (Brazil) interviews Spanish writer Rosa Montero. Her book Historias de Mujeres appears in Brazil:

Retornando no tempo, você escreveu sobre as irmãs Brönte (sic). Elas também foram capazes de tomar as piores atitudes?
São outros exemplos de mulheres fascinantes e de vidas terríveis, acometidas por doenças, falecidas muito jovens. Mulheres geniais, fortes, ambiciosas, complexas. Também gosto de pessoas assim: com certeza foram capazes de cair em erros e paixões, como todos nós, mas não são totalmente obscuras. (Google translation)

Le Devoir has an article (just for subscribers) about Charlotte Brontë and Jean Rhys's possible points in common:

En cherchant un peu, on peut trouver des points de similitude entre les oeuvres de Jean Rhys et de Charlotte Brontë. Ces mondes littéraires, séparés par le temps et la géographie, se rejoignent en partie par la sensibilité exacerbée de leurs créatrices. (Google translation) (Gilles Archanbault)

Le Figaro discovers another Brontëite. French actress Virginie Ledoyen:

Elle dévore aussi avec passion les sœurs Brontë, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, et se verrait bien, en bonne fan de Tanizaki et de Mishima, finir ses jours à Kyoto, en vieille femme hantée par la présence éblouissante du Pavillon d’or. (Google Translation) (Justine Foscari)

The Belgian Weekend interviews Cécile Ladjali whose latest novel Les vies d'Emily Pearl is compared to the Brontës.

Davesdistrictblog posts a nice picture of Haworth's churchyard. Poethead's Weblog discusses Wide Sargasso Sea. In Which our Hero discusses Geraldine Fitzgerald's performance as Isabella in Wuthering Heights 1939.

Answer: Cornwall.

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

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Space and Identity

We have today a recent scholar book in German, with Brontë connections:

Raum und Identität.
Der mutterlose Raum und die weibliche Identität in der Female Gothic Novel.
by Katrin Thomas
WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, Trier 2007.
ISBN 3884768913
ISBN-13 9783884768914

Seit ihrer Entstehung im ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert erfreut sich die gothic novel einer andauernden Beliebtheit sowohl in der wissenschaftlichen Diskussion als auch bei der überwiegend weiblichen Leserschaft. Dass das gothic genre stark von Genrekonventionen geprägt ist, ist dabei hinlänglich bekannt. So wird die tugendhafte Heldin für ihre Standhaftigkeit gegenüber den sexuellen und/oder materiellen Begehrlichkeiten des villain immer mit Aufklärung ihrer wahren Identität, einem stattlichen Erbe und einem liebenden Ehemann belohnt. Eine emanzipatorische Auslegung dieses melodramatischen emplotments fiel besonders der feministischen Literaturwissenschaft schwer, die sich seit den siebziger Jahren verstärkt mit dem Phänomen der female gothic novel auseinandergesetzt hat. Der Umstand, dass viele dieser Gattungskonventionen einen räumlichen Charakter haben, ist bisher allerdings wenig beachtet worden. Auch das weitverbreitete Stilmittel der mutterlosen/verwaisten Heldin kann als räumliche Konvention betrachtet werden, da die Heldin von ihren Eltern getrennt und somit in einen Raum außerhalb der für sie vorgesehenen Lebens- und Erfahrungswelt einer Ehefrau und Mutter verwiesen wird. Der mutterlose Raum wird so ein konstituierendes Element der weiblichen Identität.

Im Mittelpunkt diese Studie steht daher die Analyse dieses mutterlosen Raums unter der Fragestellung des Zusammenhangs von Raum, gender und Identität. Die Arbeit verbindet dabei fächerübergreifend die feministische Literaturtheorie mit der Schnittstelle von gender und Geographie, Anthropologie und Soziologie. Untersucht werden Romane aus dem Genre der female gothic novel, die einen Zeitraum von fast zwei Jahrhunderten umfassen, angefangen bei Charlotte Smith, über Werke von Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Brontë, bis zu Daphne du Maurier und Angela Carter.

A review can be read on Literaturkritik.

Categories: Scholar

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Primmer than Jane Eyre

Howard Jacobson remembers in The Independent a personal anecdote using Jane Eyre in order to make his point:

For me to appear in public with my face unwashed, let alone my tie askew, was a disgrace not to be borne. Imagine Jane Eyre being forced to do a stint lap-dancing at Stringfellows and you will have some idea of the moral revulsion I experienced. Only I was primmer than Jane Eyre.

Today's Zaman reminds us of the figure of the Turkish singer Zeki Müren and describing her cinematographic career slips this Jane Eyre reference:

It is interesting that people in Greece, for example, know one of Müren's best-known songs, "Beklenen Şarkı" (The Long-awaited Song), by heart. So coming across a radio recording of this famous Müren composition brings about nostalgia. One instantly remembers the Jane Eyre-esque scenes in the 1954 film of the same name in which Müren sang this song. The film was the story of a young musician (acted by Müren) becoming famous through the help of a wealthy woman.

Caitlin Moran begins her review of Snowdon and Margaret: Inside a Royal Marriage (Channel 4) for The Times like this:

When I was 13, I made one of the biggest changes of my life. I switched my literary tastes from the romantic novels of the 19th century (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Shirley, Anna Karenina, Far From the Madding Crowd) to the shagging novels of the 20th century (Valley of the Dolls, Bitch and, in particular, the almost literally seminal works of Jilly Cooper).
At the time, I thought that I was making a gigantic mistake, vis-à-vis my formative conceptions of the outside world. In my previous reading matter, I had been dealing with raw, human emotion and struggle - albeit with a higher proportion of house fires and drownings than one would normally expect in the lifetime of a single, unfortunate governess.

Associated Content has a brief essay about Christian Religion in Jane Eyre, The Dragonfly Workshop and Sunnybrook Farm Designs have read Jane Eyre and share a few thoughts on it. Editor Eric is not very impressed by Wuthering Heights. Musings from a Muddy Island reviews Justine Picardie's Daphne. Frisbee discusses Rachel Ferguson's The Brontës Went to Woolworths.

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

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Haworth Shops

We bring you today a local Haworth website, entirely devoted to Haworth Shops, with special attention to some local artists and photographers:

We hope that you enjoy your visit to Haworth's virtual Main Street.

No cream tea's to be had unfortunately; but plenty of unique pieces from local artists and crafts-people, as well as many other top quality goods and services.

Officially launched on 2 February 2008, this site is designed to grow before your very eyes as more sellers take up our virtual units. So if you don't see what you want this time it is well worth a return visit.

Check out the business card section for recommended traders.

We sincerely hope that you enjoy your stay.

In the picture:
The 'Black Bull' public house; favourite haunt of Branwell Bronte ... the black sheep of the world famous Bronte family. (...)
This photograph by acclaimed photographer Ian Palmer shows local artists Sandra and Chris McCarthy with their dogs, Iona & Beamish, enjoying a pint of 'CAMRA' award-winning ale, in front of this historically important venue. (Source)

Categories: Haworth, Websites

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Inverted or not, a snob is a snob

The Arena Stage's performances of The Mystery of Irma Vep continue to generate reviews around:

Ludlum's creation, which borrows with abandon from such varied literary sources as Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca" and Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights," also draws on Victorian melodrama, a long line of horror movies such as "The Mummy's Curse" and "Dracula. There's even a hint of "Gone with the Wind" and "Deliverance," in this lively production directed by Rebecca Bayla Tachman. (Barbara Greiling in The News & Messenger)

Written in 1984, Vep is Ludlam’s campy send-up of Gothic horror films, stealing shamelessly from classics like Wuthering Heights, The Mummy’s Curse and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca. The hilarious result was named one of 1984’s best plays by both Time Magazine and The New York Times and has become one of the most-produced comedies in American theater. (Jeanne Theismann in The Alexandria Times)

The Halifax Courier presents Colin Drury, apparently Columnist of the Year at Regional Press
Awards and top favourite in BrontëBlog's nominations for the stupid comment of the year:

Inverted snob? Absolutely.
One thing I can guarantee I will never want to do before I die is kill my time reading Jane Eyre or watching Gone With The Wind so why even look at a book saying I should?

We wonder if his opinion would be the same if Jane Eyre was quoted on the cover of the British Sea Power's album The Decline of British Sea Power (see article). It's sad to restrict yourself to some self-imposed and arbitrary limits. Your loss.

Monsters & Critics interviews John Landis and Maggie Lawson. The director and main star of the episode In Sickness and In Health from the TV Show Fear Itself. The Blues Brother's director says:

I saw this as an opportunity. I called them. It was hard to work out but for me what’s exciting is this is a showpiece for Maggie Lawson because she’s playing a character so different than the character she plays on Psych and she carries the show. And James [Roday] is not the loveable, lighthearted, wise cracking guy he is on Psych. He’s more like Heathcliff in this one. (Interview by April MacIntyre)

L.A. Weekly reviews the current performances in L.A. of Adam Baum and the Jew Movie by Daniel Goldfarb and slips this enigmatic Brontë reference:

Gar [Garfield Hampson Jr, a character based on the blacklisted Ring Lardner Jr] faces a particularly vexing task: To write a Jewish movie from a non-Jewish perspective, a movie about anti-Semitism that looks like Wuthering Heights, one that can be sold to the heartland rather than to, as Sam sees Gar’s natural audience, “12 Jews in the Bronx” and a few “guilty Reds with gold watches.” (Steven Leigh Morris)

Mary Danielson on First Edition recommends Jane Eyre, Pitite Nou discusses Les Hauts de Hurlevent (Wuthering Heights in French). Finally, Read. Imagine.Talk interviews children's book author Linda Ashman who has a Brontëite past:

When I was a little older, some favorite books were The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Little Women, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, References, Theatre, Wuthering Heights

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