Emily's rival

Reviews of Lifeline Theatre's Wuthering Heights keep on coming. Here are some excerpts from a review in the Chicago Sun-Times:

But as Lifeline Theatre’s feverish new stage version of the great gothic romance suggests, this tale also can be told with an almost balletic intensity and physicality — and with enough sound and fury, yearning and emotional heat — to verge on the hallucinatory. [...]
Best of all is Cameron Feagin’s exquisite portrayal of Nelly Dean, the enduring and anguished housekeeper who has seen all the insanity and pain of these families. That knowledge permeates Feagin’s honeyed voice and embracing warmth as she serves as the narrator forever attempting to make sense of all the twisted passion she ha witnessed.
Calvit’s adaptation initially confuses the story by attempting to show the two generations in dreamlike tandem, but within a scene or two she deftly sorts everything out.
Alan Donahue’s swirling green set, moodily lit by Sarah Hughey, is splendidly enhanced by Andrew Hansen’s music and sound design. His evocation of a rain-drenched purgatory is so convincing that I had to peek outside the theater at intermission to see if a real thunderstorm had occurred. (Hedy Weiss) (Read the full review)

Speaking of Wuthering Heights, this is how The Regina Leader-Post sums up the classic 1939 film version:

An aristocrat falls in love with her father's stableboy.

Somehow that doesn't sound like Wuthering Heights at all. If Emily Brontë isn't turning and tossing in her grave for that then, according to Monsters and Critics, she

is facing fierce competition from the grave — Snooki is putting pen to paper and publishing her very first book! (Frances Kindon)

Anyway, back to the stage as The Temple Daily Telegram reports the opening of the Temple School Thespians' Jane Eyre.

According to a Daily Express interview, presenter Jayne Middlemiss is quite a Brontëite:

I am currently reading… I’ve just finished Jane Eyre, and before that I read Wuthering Heights. I love classic literature. (Benita Adesuyan)

The Frederick News Post reports that a recent Mid Valley Homemakers meeting included as the

Thought for the Day, a poem by Emily Brontë about fall (Devra Boesch)

We are quite sure that would be Fall, leaves, fall.

And finally, author Alice Walker is quoted by Opelika-Auburn News as saying,

“Virginia Woolf had madness, George Eliot had ostracism, Jane Austen had no privacy, the Brontë Sisters never went anywhere and died young, and Zora Hurston had no money and poor health.” (Mary Belk)

We are sorry to contradict her, but the Brontës did go to places. Travelling to the continent (and Ireland as well, in Charlotte's case) in the 19th-century was quite an achievement.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Theatre, Wuthering Heights

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Jane Eyre in Temple and more

Some Brontë-related amateur theatre productions which open today September 30 or tomorrow October 1:
1. A Jane Eyre student production in Temple, TX:

Temple School Thespians present
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Adapted for the stage by Robert Johanson
Temple High School Auditorium
Temple, TX
September 30, October 1, 2  at 8 p.m.
October 3 at 2 p.m.

This classic novel comes to life on the Temple High School stage as Jane Eyre (Mikah Young) recalls many events in her life. Orphaned as a small child, young Jane (Emma Tolleson) is sent to live with her aunt (Lexie Tankersley) and cousins.Unloved and unwanted, Jane is sent to Lowood School where she meets fellow student Helen Burns (Renuka Jayasinghe). The school's headmaster (Joshua Zepeda) uses school money to fund his opulent lifestyle while his students live in poverty.
After graduation, Jane teaches at Lowood, then becomes governess of Adèle (Brooke McKinney), the ward of Edward Rochester (Spencer Tolleson), master of Thornfield Hall. Jane and her new employer start to develop an affection for each, but Rochester invites a wealthy potential wife (Maddie Kleypas) to stay at his estate. Jane's wedding to Rochester doesn't occur, and she flees Thornfield, forced to sleep outdoors and beg for food.
Taken in by three siblings at Marsh End, the brother (Joel Williams) finds Jane a teaching job at a local charity school, and later asks Jane to become his wife and travel with him to India as a missionary. But past events and the terrible secret of Thornfield Hall haunt her, which she must somehow resolve and find her own personal epiphany.

More information and pictures on The Catalyst.

2. A theatrical mash-up of different classical novels, including Wuthering Heights in Thibodaux, LA:

Thibodaux Playhouse Inc. presents
All the Great Books (Abridged)
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve
314 St. Mary Street
Thibodaux, LA
October 1-2 & 7-9 at 7:30 PM & October 10th at 2PM

The play is directed by Blake Petit
Produced by Daphne Hebert.
With Blake Petit, Paul Cook and Damon Stentz

In a failing public school, three teachers are called upon to re-mediate their class in the great works of literature of all time, from Wuthering Heights through Harry Potter. The audience takes the role of the class. While this silly supposition offers an evening of continuous laughter, the script also invites the audience to recall these timeless books and their own high school experiences.

More information on Houma Today.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Theatre, Wuthering Heights

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Love Lingers On

7h Space Interactive announces the screening of a series of films in Hong Kong which will feature a largely unknown Wuthering Heights adaptation:

The Hong Kong Film Archive (HKFA) will show 12 of Cathay's Mandarin classics, starring Grace Chang, Lucilla You Min, Jeanette Lin Tsui and Julie Yeh Feng, and 10 outstanding Cantonese films directed by Tso Kea to mark the 75th anniversary of the Cathay organisation and its glorious work. The HKFA's new film programme, "It was 75 Years Ago... Celebrating Cathay's Anniversary", will be held from Friday (October 1) to October 31 at the Cinema of the HKFA.

The film in question is Tso Kea's Love Lingers On (1957):

Love Lingers On ("Hun Gui Li Hen Tian" 《魂归离恨天》)

Dir / Scr: Tso Kea Original Story: Emily Brontë
Cast: Cheung Ying, Mui Yee, Chow Kwun-ling, Cheung Ching
1957 / B&W / D Beta / Cantonese / 119min

Tso Kea was adroit in adapting film and literary classics from the West, organically transplanting stories and characters onto Chinese soil and nurturing them to glorious fruition. Love Lingers On is based on the gothic novel Wuthering Heights and Tso shepherds Emily Brontë's tale of profound passion, thwarted love and bitter vengefulness with a perfect balance of broad narrative strokes and delicate orchestration of mise-enscene. He wisely concentrates on the lead characters' simmering mental troubles, greatly enhanced by stars Cheung Ying and Mui Yee, who overcome glaring age differences with their characters to bring life to this saga of vivid emotions.

9/10 (Sat) 7:00pm Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive
30/10 (Sat) 4:30pm * Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

*Post-screening talk with Li Cheuk-to

Amy Alkon in The Orange Country Register begins her article with a Wuthering Heights mention:

Men sometimes make extravagant gestures for love. Heathcliff wandered the moors calling Cathy’s name until he froze to death. King Edward VIII ditched the throne to marry Wallis Simpson. Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as an “elegy in marble” to his late wife. And then there’s your guy, who has yet to spring for sheets, pillowcases, and a headboard.

And Ujala Sehgal also uses Emily Brontë's novel in her article on The Millions:

But what happens if feeling miserable becomes your way of getting closer to the books you love, rather than the books you love enabling you to get closer to your feelings? This is the scenario I’m describing: when you find yourself storming about, banging your head against a tree and bellowing in rage like Heathcliff for Cathy, and a feeling of hideous familiarity overtakes you. “I’ve felt this way before,” you think. Possibly even several times. And that you can’t remember who inspired this, or when, or why, is the most worrisome part of the altogether worrisome situation. Do you love… (what was his name again)? Or do you just love Wuthering Heights?

Canada Postmedia News interviews Nichola Burley (Isabella Linton in Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights) but there's nothing to report:

Q: I hear you've been cast by Andrea Arnold for a new version of Wuthering Heights.
A: I'm really not allowed to speak about that. (Jay Stone)

Rumour has it that the filming has already started. Several members of the crew are already known. Some usual collaborators of Andrea Arnold's participate in this film: Robbie Ryan's photography; Nicolas Chaudeurge's edition; Helen Scott as the production designer and Christopher Wyatt in art direction.

Today's Quizword in The Mirror includes an Anne Brontë-related question:

ACROSS
3 Anne Brontë novel featuring the curate Mr. Weston (5,4)

A post from the Elizabeth Gaskell's Bicentenary Blog Tour is of particular interest to us: Reading, Writing, Working, Playing posts about The Life of Charlotte Brontë and the TV series The Brontës of Haworth 1973 where Mrs Gaskell was portrayed by Barbara Leigh-Hunt as voice-over narrator.

Mental_floss traces the origins of Benjamin Braddock's character in The Graduate to Branwell Brontë's affair with ... Mrs Robinson; Booklady's Booknotes reviews positively April Lindner's Jane. CatDoss999 uploaded to YouTube a performance of a Cathy monologue in Wuthering Heights.

Categories: Biography, Elizabeth Gaskell, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights

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Sloane Hall

Libby Sternberg's Sloane Hall, a reimagination of Jane Eyre set in the Hollywood silver screen age had been just published:

Sloane Hall 
by Libby Sternberg
Five Star, September 2010,
Hardover
ISBN: 9781594149177

The author herself describes her book for BrontëBlog, which will publish a review in the next days:

I conceived of the idea of writing a retelling of Jane Eyre, one of my favorite books, nearly ten years ago. At the time, I merely wanted to recreate—almost for my own reading pleasure—the story that so moved me every time Charlotte Brontë told it to me during my numerous re-readings of the original. I wanted the emotional journey of the book to be fresh again, to feel as if I’d never encountered it.

But as I worked through various iterations of Sloane Hall, I took to heart the advice of an editor who rejected an early version. While praising my writing and storytelling, she also cautioned me that it had to be a fresh story in order to be effective.

She was right. As I’ve noted elsewhere, if people want to read Jane Eyre, they’ll read Jane Eyre. While they might come to a retelling (or “inspired by…” book) expecting to see parallels to the original, they will still want to be surprised and entranced anew by characters they’ve never met or known before.

That’s how Sloane Hall was born, with its new setting, new characters, and, in some fundamental ways, new story. I realized it wasn’t enough just to be clever, throwing in this “tip of the hat” to the original Jane or that subtle homage to Brontë’s storytelling. Cleverness doesn’t ignite emotional responses (except, in some cases, annoyance!). Cleverness doesn’t move readers.

So in Sloane Hall, I explored the characters I’d created and let them lead me down their own paths, while also trying to stay true to Bronte’s emotional arc. I discovered during this journey that one of the things that had bothered me about Jane in the original was that she was almost too forgiving of those who’d wronged her. So in Sloane Hall, John Doyle struggles mightily with the idea of forgiveness. It becomes, in many ways, his transforming journey as he searches for how to bestow it on those who’ve hurt him.

I also thought a great deal about whether contemporary readers experience Jane Eyre in the same way that its nineteenth century readers did. And when I thought I could identify possible differences in those reactions, I sought to recreate what I thought might have been a nineteenth century reader’s emotions.

For example, today’s readers have different sensibilities about mental illness than those in the nineteenth century. Despite calls for mental asylum reform at the time, nineteenth century readers probably viewed Bertha Mason with some measure of scorn and disgust as well as sympathy. I attempted to ignite that same reaction in my handling of the big revelation scene.

Was I successful? I hope so. Some early reviews have been lovely, and I’m hoping that readers will embrace this new story with warmth and affection. It’s published in hardcover now by Five Star/Cengage, an American publisher that markets primarily to libraries. But it’s available through online retailers and will be up in digital format soon for Kindle and other ereader owners.

I’m doing a “virtual book tour” to promote the book by guest blogging at the following sites (sometimes a free book is given away at these visits!):

September 23: Thoughts in Progress: www.masoncanyon.blogspot.com (Topic: a secret in Sloane Hall is revealed)
September 28: www.BooksandNeedlepoint.blogspot.com (Topic: why I chose 1929 Hollywood as the setting for the book)
September 29: BrontëBlog
October 1: www.BookBinge.com
October 6: www.LoveRomancePassion.com
October 11: www.freshfiction.com (Topic: Writing women’s fiction from a male point of view)
October 20: Stuff and Nonsense: http://marlyn-stuff.blogspot.com/

For more on Sloane Hall, Jane Eyre, and old Hollywood, please visit my blog at www.LibbysBooks.wordpress.com! My website is www.LibbysBooks.com. Friend me on Facebook at Libby Sternberg. And do let me know what you think of the book by emailing me at Libby488 (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre

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Elizabeth Gaskell as seen by her friend Charlotte Brontë

Although strictly speaking Elizabeth Gaskell is not BrontëBlog material except in some instances to do with her biography of Charlotte Brontë, the fact that we even have a category under her name speaks volumes as to our admiration for this woman. Her Life of Charlotte Brontë, which is, after all, one of the first - if not the first - modern biographies, may not have been perfect in its development, but it was honourable in its intentions.

Today, September 29th 2010, marks the bicenteneray of her birth and we thought that better than any amount of words we could write ourselves, she would have appreciated the words her friend Charlotte Brontë actually wrote, both to Mrs Gaskell herself and to other friends.

On Mrs Gaskell, the woman, wife, mother and friend:

The letter you forwarded this morning was from Mrs Gaskell--authoress of "Mary Barton": She said I was not to answer it--but I cannot help doing so. Her note brought the tears to my eyes: she is a good--she is a great woman--proud am I that I can touch a cord of sympathy in souls so noble. In Mrs Gaskell's nature--it mournfully pleases me to fancy a remote affinity to my Sister Emily--. . . (to W.S. Williams, 17 November 1849)

After their first meeting,

I was truly glad of her companionship She is a woman of the most genuine talent--of cheerful, pleasing and cordial manners and --I believe--of a kind and good heart. (to Ellen Nussey, 26 August 1850)

Though alone--I am not unhappy; I have a thousand things to be thankful for, and --amongst the rest--that this morning I received a letter from you, and that this evening--I have the privilege of answering it. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 27 August 1850)

My dear Mrs Gaskell,
I dare not but write to you with as little delay as possible. It must be confessed you have an excellent method of spurring to activity any loitering correspondent. Do you know you prove yourself thereby to be somewhat impulsive and very determined? and, indeed, I thought I discerned in you traces of both characteristics during our brief acquaintance in Westmoreland. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 28 March 1851)

I must confess to feeling a little impatience to see you. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 18 June 1851)

The visit to Mrs Gaskell on my way home [...] they were very pleasant [days]. She lives in a large--cheerful airy house, quite out of Manchester Smoke--a garden surrounds it, and as in this hot weather, the windows were kept open--a whispering of leaves and perfume of flowers always pervaded the rooms. Mrs Gaskell herself is a woman of whose conversation and company I should not soon tire--She seems to me kind, clever, animated and unaffected. (to George Smith, 1 July 1851)

Could you manage to convey a small kiss to that dear but dangerous little person--Julia [Gaskell's youngest daughter]? She surreptitiously possessed herself of a minute fraction of my heart, which has been missing ever since I saw her. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 6 August 1851)

What you say of that small sprite Julia amuses me much. I believe you don't know that she has a great deal of her mamma's nature (modified) in her; yet I think you will find she has--as she grows up. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 20 September 1851)

If anybody would tempt me away from home you would, but--just now--from home I must not--will not go. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 6 November 1851)

After you left, the house felt very much as if the shutters had been suddenly closed and the blinds let down. One was sensible during the remainder of the day of a depressing silence, shadow, loss, and want. However, if the going away was sad, the stay was very pleasant and did permanent good. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 25 September 1853)

If it ever should befal you to live a very still lonely life (which I believe it never will, for you are too genial to sink to the obscure lot). . . (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 27 December 1853)

The week I spent in Manchester has impressed me as the very brightest and healthiest I have known for these five years past. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, April 1853)

My dear Mrs Gaskell
Thank you for your letter--: it was as pleasant as a quiet chat, as welcome as spring-showers, as reviving as a friend's visit; in short it was very like a page of "Cranford". (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 9 July 1853)

On Elizabeth Gaskell, the author:

There are parts of "Mary Barton" I shall never dare to read a second time. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 26 September 1850)

I found your note and 'The Moorland Cottage', of which last I have only as yet read the commencement, which I find to be as sweet, as pure, as fresh as an unopened morning daisy. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 4 January 1851)

[Miss Martineau] can never be so charming a woman as Mrs Gaskell--but she is a greater writer. (to George Smith, 4 August 1851)

. . . I have as yet only read three article to wit. Society at Cranford. Love at Cranford. Memory at Cranford. Before reading them I had received a hint as to the authorship which hint gave them special zest. The best is the last--Memory; how good I though it--I must not tell you. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 26 April 1852)

The sketch you give of your work [Ruth] [...] seems to me very noble; and its purpose may be as useful in practical result as it is high and just in theoretical tendency. Such a book may restore hope and energy to many who thought they had forfeited their right to both; and open a clear course for honourable effort to some who deemed that they and all honour had parted company in this world.
Yet--hear my protest!
Why should she die?Why are we to shut up the book weeping?
My heart fails me already at the thought of the pang it will have to undergo. And yet you must follow the impulse of your own inspiration. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 26 April 1852)

I read "Visiting at Cranford" with that sort of pleasure which seems always too brief in its duration: I wished the paper had been twice as long. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 22 May 1852)

As far as I have got in "Ruth"--I think it excels "Mary Barton" for beauty, whatever it does for strength. The descriptions are peculiarly fine. As to the style--I find it such as my soul welcomes. Of the delineation of character I shall be better able to judge when I get to the end, but may say in passing--that Sally, the old servant seems to me "an apple of gold" deserving to be "set in a picture of silver" (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 12 Janueary 1853)

The beauty of "Ruth" seems to me very great. Your style never rose higher nor--I think--have you ever excelled the power of certain passages. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, January 1853)

I have just read "Morton-Hall" Of course I knew whose it was as well as if I had seen the hand, writing it. Capitally and spiritedly told. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, January 1854)

What has appeared [of North & South, serialised] I like well, and better, each fresh number; best of all the last (to-day's). The Subject seems to me difficult. [...] Well--it is good ground, but still rugged for the step of Fiction. [...] It seems to me that you understand well the Genius of the North. Where the Southern Lady and the Northern Mechanic are brought into contrast and contact--I think Nature is well respected. Simple, true and good did I think the last number--clear of artificial trammels of style and thought. (to Elizabeth Gaskell, 30 Setember 1854)

Happy bicentenary, dear Mrs Gaskell.

EDIT: As BBC News reports, here is a nice gift for Mrs Gaskell:

In the week marking the bicentenary of her birth, a unique window panel was unveiled in her honour putting her among the elite of English literature.
Two hundred members of the Gaskell Society were there to commemorate the author of 'Mary Barton' and 'Cranford'.  (...)
The ceremony, short but beautiful in its simplicity, was conducted by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr. John Hall.
The reading chosen from the New Testament, in which Christ tells the people to bring the good news to the poor, I think, truly reflected Elizabeth's great concern for the welfare of the poorest members of society.
After a short address by Jenny Uglow, Gaskell's biographer, the actual dedication took place.
Then, a beautiful wreath of lilies was laid under the window, by Sarah Prince, Elizabeth's great-great-great granddaughter.
Lilies were chosen because Elizabeth was known to her family and friends as "Lily"- a nice touch, I felt, as it reminded us of the humanity of Elizabeth who was a wife and mother, as well as a great writer.
After the prayers and final blessing, we all proceeded over to the historic Westminster School where we enjoyed a celebration drink - I'm sure Elizabeth would have approved!
The afternoon ended with actress Miriam Margolyes, reading excerpts from Gaskell's letters - a reminder of just what an entertaining writer she was."

Categories: Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, Reminder

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"The welcome side-effect of Twilight"

First of all, today a lot of news sites are announcing that they have Mia Wasikowska's first images as Jane Eyre. That's not so - they're only following suit after the Jane Eyre Movie Facebook page uploaded a couple of already-seen images.

Gapers Block reviews Lifeline Theatre's production of Wuthering Heights and concludes:

Lifeline's presentation of Wuthering Heights, as adapted by Christina Calvit and directed by Elise Kauzlaric, is an inticing interpretation that takes a classic work of literature and breaks it down into an entertaining theatre production. (Britany Robinson)

The Guardian has an article in the same vein as one recently published by The Times: 'Is the current craze for Twilight-type books bad for teenagers' brains, or do they help to teach empathy?'

[Maria Nikolajeva, professor of education at Cambridge] adds: "If they read Romeo and Juliet and Wuthering Heights because the back covers say 'Bella's [Twilight protagonist Bella Swan] favourite book', then that's great. Anecdotal evidence from the peak of Pottermania is that it made children come to the library to ask 'have you got more books?' Also, teenagers get confident through reading a novel of 500 pages, and by writing fan fiction or blogs, they also learn to write. That's a welcome side-effect of Twilight." (Lucy Tobin)

As much as the Twilight-looking covers of the classics hurt our eyes, we can't help but agree.

PopWrap - a New York Post blog - also connects vampires and Wuthering Heights.

Case in point: Elena & Damon on "The Vampire Diaries." With the oldest star-crossed obstacle in full effect (the love triangle), we watched as Elena kissed Stefan but came alive around his brother. Yet, there have been monumental setbacks to their inevitable involvement -- I doubt Heathcliff would have snapped Hindley's neck just to enrage Catherine -- letting Da-Lena shippers know it'll be a good long while until their relationship is realized. (Jarett Wieselman)

Daily Dispatch Online reveals that writer Sarah Blake is a Brontëite.

Q: Favourite authors and books?
A: My great influences are Virginia Woolf and the Brontë sisters. I’m currently reading Elizabeth Bowen. I’ve just discovered her and now I’m trying to read all her books. And I also want to read Jonathan Franzen’s new book, Freedom. (Nicolette Scrooby)

As for blogs, Kate Kingsley has written a guest post on Elizabeth Writes where she explains 'Why Jane Eyre Is the Ultimate Teen Romance Novel'. This may be so, but Jane Eyre is so much more than just that that labelling it 'YA' is rather belittling in our opinion. At any rate, the actual novel is reviewed by Tropstylé! (in French) and Azar Objetivo (in Spanish). Fresh Off the Shelf picks Jane and Rochester as one of her favourite book couples. kroshka_moo writes about Wuthering Heights. Mary Jane's Tearoom has been to Haworth and posts some pictures of the place and Taluula's has given a ghostly look to a photograph of the entrance door to Haworth church (which wasn't Patrick Brontë's church, by the way).

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

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New Season of the Contemporary Arts Programme

A press release from the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

BRONTË PARSONAGE MUSEUM LAUNCHES NEW SEASON OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS EVENTS

A new season of contemporary arts events at the Brontë Parsonage Museum launches in October, which will see six months of readings, workshops and activities taking place in Haworth.

The new programme launches on Wednesday 6 October with a reading by novelist Michèle Roberts. Michele is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and will be visiting Haworth to talk about her recent collection of short stories, Mud. The book takes us to nineteenth century Venice, modern-day France and beyond, exploring characters such as the bitter maid taking care of young Adèle – both forced out of Rochester’s home to make way for the passions of Jane Eyre. The talk takes place at the Old Schoolroom, Haworth and tickets are £6 and can be purchased from Arts Officer Jenna Holmes on 01535 640188 / jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk

The season will continue with a range of activities to support the exhibition of paper-cut installations by artist Su Blackwell, on display in the museum until 28 November. Su Blackwell will visit the museum to talk about her work on Thursday 21 October, 7.30pm. There will also be the chance to try paper-cutting techniques at a creative day at the museum on Saturday 23 October. On Saturday 30 October, artist Tracey Bush will lead a practical workshop to create your own detailed paper-cut pieces. Local artist Rachel Lee will run a workshop for children during the half term holidays, on Wednesday 27 October, showing them how to create paper landscapes inspired by the exhibition.

Other authors taking part in the programme are Brontë biographer Juliet Barker, whose landmark book The Brontës will be revised and reissued in November, and former West Yorkshire crime-writer Sophie Hannah who will be making the trip to Haworth to discuss her upcoming new book Lasting Damage in the New Year.

There will also be the special opportunity to watch the 1944 Hollywood version of Jane Eyre on the big screen in Haworth on Friday 18 February, 2011, to celebrate the museum’s recent acquisition of the original screenplay by Aldous Huxley. The film stars Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine.

All the upcoming events are listed on the Bronte Parsonage Museum’s website, and tickets for events can be booked from the Arts Officer: jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188.

Categories: Brontë Parsonage Museum

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Remember Doreen?

The Telegraph and Argus reviews Martin Wainwright's True North.

But the index is rubbish... you won’t find a single reference to the T&A, David Hockney and a lot else. Walt Whitman gets a mention, but not Michael Wharton, the Way Of The World columnist who invented Doreen Brontë, the fourth Brontë sister, and the redoubtable Alderman Foodbotham.
Yet references to both, and much else, abound in the book as the venerable Wainwright wends his way, like a cheerful monk, through the mental and physical landscape of the North, from coast to coast and from Newcastle-on-Tyne to Nottingham (he’s fond of Robin Hood). (Jim Greenhalf)

If you don't remember Doreen, the (made-up) missing Brontë sister, here's more info on her.

Another review with a Brontë mention comes from the Chicago Tribune on Paul Gordon's musical Daddy Long Legs (currently on stage at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts). The reviewer doesn't seem to be too fond of Gordon's previous collaboration with John Caird, Jane Eyre the Musical.

Gordon's sweet and honest music, which avoids the excess of "Jane Eyre" in favor of a musical vocabulary that seems to fit a lively, hopeful young woman who just needs a bit of help with her dreams. (Chris Jones)

Well, we don't find it excessive at all.

On the blogosphere, Wuthering Heights is reviewed by AdoroLivros (in Portuguese) and Mennta (in Spanish). La vie page à page writes about Jane Eyre (in French). And finally, The Elliott Review posts about April Lindner's Jane.

Categories: Books, Humour, Jane Eyre, Music, Weirdo

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Tales of Glass Town, Angria and Gondal

One of the highlights of this Brontë year is without a doubt Christine Alexander's edition of Brontë juvenilia for Oxford University Press:

Tales of Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal
Selected Early Writings
by The Brontës
Edited by Christine Alexander.
Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics)
23 September 2010
640 pages; 1 map; three MS facsimile pages
ISBN13: 978-0-19-282763-0
ISBN10: 0-19-282763-4

In their collaborative early writings, the Brontës created and peopled the most extraordinary fantasy worlds, whose geography and history they elaborated in numerous stories, poems, and plays. Together they invented characters based on heroes and writers such as Wellington, Napoleon, Scott, and Byron, whose feuds, alliances, and love affairs weave an intricate web of social and political intrigue in imaginary colonial lands in Africa and the Pacific Ocean. The writings of Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal are youthful experiments in imitation and parody, wild romance and realistic recording--a playful literary world that they would draw upon for their early and later work. In this generous selection, the early writings of the Brontë's are presented together for the first time. Christine Alexander's Introduction explores the rich imaginative lives of the Brontes, and the tension between their maturing authorship and creative freedom. The edition includes Charlotte Brontë's Roe Head Journal , and Emily and Anne's Diary Papers . The edition also has a key to characters and place, detailed notes, and a map of Glass Town and Angria.

* The only edition to include juvenilia by all four Bronte siblings, this unique volumne highlights the collaborative nature of the early 'plays' of Glass Town that developed into the different sagas of Angria and Gondal.
* The youthful writings of Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell fuelled the talent that went on to produce Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall . This selection enables the reader to experience their collaborative fantasy worlds and developing creative energy.
* The text is a new transcription from the manuscripts, meticulously edited to provide an accessible reading version while maintaining the original idiosyncrasies.
* The Introduction provides a comprehensive overview of the imaginative worlds of the Brontes and their developing writing practices.
* Includes the important autobiographical material, Charlotte's Roe Head Journal and Anne's Diary Papers.
* The texts are supplemented by a key to characters and place, detailed notes, and a map of Glass Town and Angria.

Categories: Books, Juvenilia

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Fosca Mason

The Observer insists on the Bertha Mason analogies in this review of the current Donmar Warehouse production of Stephen Sondheim's Passion:

Roger makes the smallness of her frame and the purity of her voice into an assault and into an appeal. She creeps on like Jane Eyre, in a long mud-coloured dress, with her hair looped back and downcast eyes. She unleashes a few eldritch shrieks and falls to the ground writhing, as if she were Bertha Mason in the attic. She clings to the man she adores as if she were an infant, and fixes him with a carnivorous smile which seems to eat her own tiny face. She's like a voodoo doll. Yet she suddenly lights up and becomes ethereal. (Susannah Clapp)

The Weekly Standard (October 4, 2010, Vol. 16, No. 03) reviews Jude Morgan's Charlotte and Emily (aka The Taste of Sorrow):

What were you thinking, Miss Brontë? (For subscribers only) (Stephanie Green)

The York Press reviews Sarah Freeman's Brontë in Love. BrontëBlog's review will be published in a few days:

The most tragic story Charlotte never told was her own, says the catchline on the cover. Yorkshire journalist Sarah Freeman seeks to set that right, by lifting the lid on the real Charlotte Brontë.
When Charlotte died in 1855, her friend and fellow novelist Elizabeth Gaskell wrote a biography of her that sought to tell the world what a gifted writer it had lost.
And so the book did. But, according to Freeman, it also, in true Victorian style, sought to suppress details of Charlotte’s love life, portraying her in an idealised way as the poor, repressed daughter of a cleric. (...)
The book is written in a slightly breathless, women’s magazine style. But any lovers of the Brontë sisters will find it gripping nonetheless for the glimpses it offers of the real Charlotte Brontë.

The Scotsman reviews Susan Hill's The Small Hand:

For bookseller Adam Snow is indeed in the grip of a haunting: a small, unseen, ghostly child has gripped his hand as he stands outside a derelict Edwardian house. The physical nature of such ethereal encounters terrify us: think of Cathy Earnshaw's ghost in Wuthering Heights, not just tapping at the window pane, but having her ghostly hand dragged across broken glass until it bleeds. (Lesley MacDowell)

Shinie Antony's column on DNA (India) has a couple of weird Brontë references:

If you are a wife, there is no forgetting your strife. The Heathcliff husband is brooding because you burnt his eggs. Harry Potters are trophy hubbies, always out on exciting adventures while you wash the dishes. And when he is back, all wondrous at his own heroic stunts, you put away his cape carefully in the cupboard. (...)
First off, you need a compartmentalised bag you can pick anything out of in a jiffy unless you are with a man who goes for ditsy. In goes the Brontë book you can wave around in public to look cerebral. And the big black sari, which is the desi equivalent of the little black dress. Suits every body type, fat or not.

In The Boston Herald, David Inman answers the question of a reader who asks about Helen Burns in Jane Eyre 1944:

Q: I recently watched one of my favorite old movies, the 1944 version of “Jane Eyre” with Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles. Something keeps bugging me about the identity of an actress in the first part of the movie. There is a young girl who befriends Jane. It looks like a beautiful, young Elizabeth Taylor, but her name is not listed in the credits. Am I mistaken?

A: That’s Taylor, all right. She wasn’t credited because the role is so small and it was only her third film - she also was uncredited in her next film, “The White Cliffs of Dover.” The film after that was “National Velvet,” which made her a star.

On the blogosphere. Posts about Wuthering Heights: Blablabla Aleatório (in Portuguese) and Booklover's Haven; about Jane Eyre: Savidge Reads, There's No Time! (plus Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair); Le Stanze di Alba reviews the Italian translation of Elizabeth Newark's Jane Eyre's Daughter. thomasenqvist uploaded a video of the Brontë bridge. Green-eyed mystic continues posting fragments of Charlotte Brontë's letters. Finally Reading, Writing, Working, Playing takes a look at the 1980 stamp sheet with the Brontë sisters among others.

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

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Individual and Fictional

Two recent books which talk about Jane Eyre (and one of them about Heathcliff too) as referential characters:

The Fictional 100: Ranking the Most Influential Characters in World Literature and Legend
by Lucy Pollard-Gott
# Publisher: iUniverse (January 20, 2010)
# ISBN-10: 1440154392
# ISBN-13: 978-1440154393
Some of the most influential and interesting people in the world are fictional. Sherlock Holmes, Huck Finn, Pinocchio, Anna Karenina, Genji, and Superman, to name a few, may not have walked the Earth (or flown, in Superman's case), but they certainly stride through our lives. They influence us personally: as childhood friends, catalysts to our dreams, or even fantasy lovers. Peruvian author and presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa, for one, confessed to a lifelong passion for Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Characters can change the world. Witness the impact of Solzhenitsyn's Ivan Denisovich, in exposing the conditions of the Soviet Gulag, or Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom, in arousing anti-slavery feeling in America. Words such as quixotic, oedipal, and herculean show how fictional characters permeate our language.
This list of the Fictional 100 ranks the most influential fictional persons in world literature and legend, from all time periods and from all over the world, ranging from Shakespeare's Hamlet [1] to Toni Morrison's Beloved [100]. By tracing characters' varied incarnations in literature, art, music, and film, we gain a sense of their shape-shifting potential in the culture at large. Although not of flesh and blood, fictional characters have a life and history of their own. Meet these diverse and fascinating people. From the brash Hercules to the troubled Holden Caulfield, from the menacing plots of Medea to the misguided schemes of Don Quixote, The Fictional 100 runs the gamut of heroes and villains, young and old, saints and sinners. Ponder them, fall in love with them, learn from their stories the varieties of human experience--let them live in you.

Jane Eyre is number 61.

Reader, I Read It interviews Lucy Pollard-Gott, who happens to be reading a couple of Brontë books not included in her selection.

What are you reading at the moment?
I am savoring Shirley by Charlotte Brontë in tandem with The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by her sister Anne. It is fascinating to compare their voices. Both authors have such acute perceptions of their characters, it is almost painful to watch the characters squirm under the Brontë lens. If I had to cite a contrast, I’d say that Anne, as narrator, has the hotter temper and the sharper tongue! Her subject does lend itself to more outrage.

And the other book is

Novel Characters: A Genealogy
Maria DiBattista
ISBN: 978-1-4051-5951-7
Hardcover
September 2010, Wiley-Blackwell

Novel Characters offers a fascinating and in-depth history of the novelistic character from the “birth of the novel” in Don Quixote, through the great canonical works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the most influential international novels of the present day 

• An original study which offers a unique approach to thinking about and discussing character
• Makes extensive reference to both traditional and more recent and specialized academic studies of the novel
• Provides a critical vocabulary for understanding how the novelistic conception of character has changed over time.
• Examines a broad range of novels, cultures, and periods
• Promotes discussion of how different cultures and times think about human identity, and how the concept of what a character is has changed over time

In Chapter 2: Individuals:

The word individual, whose root sense suggest a psychic resistance to being divided or absorbed into a larger social or cultural composition, thus captures the problematic status of the "person" who wishes to be original or distinguish himself or herself by some special quality. The bildungsroman is a form expressly developed to describe how persons set out to become cultured and successful members of their society and end as individuals. Here are some of the individuals we will meet: Emma, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Middlemarch, Bleak House, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Sons and Lovers, Portrait of a Lady, Madame Bovary.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights

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Mary Jane Mason and the Gypsy

John Mullan doesn't fail. His weekly literary top ten for the Guardian never lacks a Brontë. This time it is ten of the best disguises in literature:

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë
One of the great episodes of transvestism in literature comes when Rochester togs himself up as a Gypsy woman to read the palms of the guests he has invited to Thornfield. Blanche Ingram, Jane's rival for his affections, gets uncomforting news, but Jane is told "the cup of bliss" is going to be offered to her.

It seems that Emer Kenny, from EastEnders, is a Brontëite. From Press Association:

EastEnders star Emer Kenny has revealed her dream role is that of Catherine Earnshaw from Wuthering Heights.
The actress, who plays Zsa Zsa Carter in the soap and also helped pen the web spin-off, EastEnders: E20, is a massive fan of the Emily Brontë novel.
She said: "I've always wanted to play Catherine Earnshaw. I read the book in two days when I was about 10 and have been obsessed with her ever since."
She went on: "She's not a very nice character but I love her and I love that book to death. But there have been so many adaptations that I don't think they'll do it again."

The Telegraph travels around England by country trails. One of them near Wycoller Hall:

Then there’s the tranquil Wycoller Country Park, near Colne – once beloved of the Brontë sisters and referenced in several of their works. Both places offer hire of trampers. (Kevin Coyd)

Nancy Knight from The Baltimore Sun is going to read Clare B. Dunkle's The House of Dead Maids:

I'll be reading a spooky little book by Clare B. Dunkle titled "The House of Dead Maids." It's a prequel to Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" and gives an account of Heathcliff's dark past that "doomed" his future. I'm not a huge fan of the Brontës, but if anyone can attempt to explain why Heathcliff and Cathy were so spectacularly awful to each other and everyone else, I'll give it a shot. (Nancy Knight)

The Huffington Post republishes an essay, In the Absence of Mentors/Monsters: Notes on Writerly Influences by Joyce Carol Oates first published in Narrative Magazine, which mentions Wuthering Heights:

Add to which, in early adolescence, at a time when I borrowed books from the Lockport Public Library each Saturday when my mother drove into town to shop for groceries, such thrilling titles as Henry David Thoreau's "Walden," Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights," Ernest Hemingway's "In Our Time," William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury"--the great books of a more self-consciously literary era in my life.

The Icelandic theatre company Vesturport's production of Kafka's Metamorphosis is described as follows in The Times:

In November, its thrilling Metamorphosis (imagine Jane Eyre’s madwoman in the attic crossed with Spider-Man) opens in New York[.]

Just Press Play reviews the DVD release of The Secret of Moonacre:

Starting with the positives, there were some performances in the film that showed promise. Ioan Gruffudd’s Sir Benjamin was channeling Jane Eyre, ’s Mr. Rochester playing a character who puts up a tough exterior to hide a broken heart. (Rachel Kolb)

On the Box selects a top ten of period pieces. Including:

7. Wuthering Heights.
Not really enough space to fully explain the plot here but it spawned endless sexual fantasies about Kate Bush and the need for social workers.
In a nutshell Heathcliff is an orphan adopted by a rich family who mentally and physically abuse him. He falls for his half sister Cathy, she marries the toff from the next farm, Heathcliff isn’t happy, he runs away, comes back rich, loads of people die, Cathy dies, he does a Fritzl and locks up Cathy’s daughter, he suffers a mental breakdown and starts to see Cathy. He dies.
Oik rating: 5/10 – Heathcliff is found abandoned on the streets of Liverpool but ends up owning Wuthering Heights and Thurcross Hall [sic]. Although Heathcliff is Nouveau Riché [sic], you can’t polish a turd.
Unresolved sexual tension from beyond the grave: 10/10 – Heathcliff suffers a mental breakdown and begins to see Cathy’s ghost, he abandons his life-long vendetta and dies so he can be with her. Some people will do anything to get their leg over. (Joe Mellor)

The Tallahassee Democrat talks about the benefit recital for the Carlisle Floyd House performed yesterday, September 14, at the Monticello Opera House. What we don't know is whether some fragment of his Wuthering Heights opera was played though.

The "little green house" that gave birth to "Susannah" is also where Floyd composed his successful follow-up opera, "Wuthering Heights," as well as his ambitious, virtuosic Sonata for Piano. (Mark Hinson)

Rant! reviews Atreyu's album The Curse. About the song This Flesh A Tomb:

The notion of liebestod has been so beautifully rendered by great writers and composers including Wagner, Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet) and Emily Brontë (Wuthering Heights)

Seculo Diario (Brazil) has an article about important dates in history. Anne Brontë is once again ignored:

Em 1847, as irmãs Brontë publicam seus romances, Jane Eyre (Charlotte), e O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes (Emily). Ambos continuam vivos até hoje, com reedições e adaptações.  A mais famosa versão cinematográfica do belo livro de Emily, com Merle Oberon e Lawrence Olivier, continua na lista dos melhores filmes de todos os tempos.(Wanda Sily) (Microsoft translation)

Tara (Spain) carries an article about the author Yolanda Soler Onís:

Yolanda clarividente y con mirada de gata mimosa y decidida que necesita estar aquí y allá con Celia y las maletas siempre dispuestas para afrontar el vuelo, Yolanda que te guía hacia Hebden Bridge y las Cumbres Borrascosas, que te señala donde reposa Sylvia Plath, en las suaves colinas de las Midlands, entre prados y ríos silenciosos. (Luis León Barreto) (Microsoft translation)

Calabrian politics is discussed on MediterraneonOnline:

[Enzo] Vinci e [Giuseppe] Iaria  non assomigliavano per nulla agli spiriti di Catherine e Heathcliff, di “Cime tempestose”, finalmente liberi di amarsi, e vaganti per la brughiera tenendosi per mano.(Domenico Salvatore) (Microsoft Translation)

Both Märkische Allgemeine (Germany) and Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland) publish articles about the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth Gaskell:

Da sie mit Charlotte Brontë befreundet war, wurde sie nach deren Tod vom Vater der Schriftstellerin gebeten, ihre Biografie zu schreiben. «The Life of Charlotte Brontë» (1857), im Jahr 1995 erstmals in deutscher Übersetzung erschienen (Ars-vivendi-Verlag, nur noch antiquarisch greifbar), gilt als bedeutendste Biografie einer Schriftstellerin des 19. Jahrhunderts – obschon sie es mit der Wahrheit nicht sehr genau nahm. Um das Bild ihrer verstorbenen Freundin als keuscher Frau nicht zu kompromittieren, unterschlug Gaskell Brontës amouröse Affäre mit Monsieur Heger, die sich während deren Zeit in Brüssel ereignet hatte. (Susanne Ostwald) (Microsoft translation)

DeutschlandRadio reviews Szilárd Rubin's Eine beihanhe alltägliche Geschichte:

Vielmehr versieht der Autor in bewährter nationaler Tradition seinen Erzähler mit Melancholie und Sarkasmus und verschafft ihm Trost bei Kierkegaard, Proust, Freud, Kafka, Brontë.  (Microsoft translation)

And  Gießener Zeitung (Germany) publishes a review of Louise de Vilmorin's Julietta:

Es ist ein Liebesroman, der an die Brontë-Schwestern und an Jane Austen denken lässt. In zauberhaft antiquierter Sprache wird eine aus der Zeit gefallene Geschichte erzählt. (Simone Linne) (Microsoft translation)

Cacahuète has read Jane Eyre but is not very impressed (in French); emma_in_oz considers The Professor a poor substitute for Villette; books i done read compares Jane Eyre and Rebecca; Herra Tulitikku discusses Jane Eyre on YouTube (in German). Finally Flickr users takethetoyz and thenikonkid uploaded pictures of North Lees Hall and Wycoller Hall respectively.

Categories: Brontëites, Elizabeth Gaskell, Jane Eyre, Music, Opera, References, The Professor, Villette, Wuthering Heights

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Brontë Society Gazette. Issue 52

The latest issue of The Brontë Society Gazette is now out (Issue 52. September 2010. ISSN 1344-5940).

ARTICLES

AGM Weekend Haworth June 2010 by Sarah Fermi, Doreen Harris and Sally MacDonald
Including an account of the restauration of the Brontë family's cabinet piano:
Rapturous so Divine by Ian Emberson

Letter from the Chairman by Sally McDonald, Chairman of Council

Who provided the Brontë piano? by Christine Went

Analysis of Emily Brontë by Adriana Marcorini, Trieste, Italy.

Annoucement of The Brontë Society's special celebration at Watermen's Hall in the City of London (14 November 2010)

A Reminder: The Brontë Society Literary Competition 2010-2011

Food for Thought by Sara L. Pearson, Trinity Western University, Canada

New England Region Welcomes New Representative by Randall Grimsley, American Chapters Representative

Scottish Representative Steps Down by Sally McDonald

Brussels Brontë Group Weekend 23-25 April 2010 by Emily Waterfield

Categories: Brontë Society, Journals

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"Wuthering Heights still has the power to speak to young people"

Publishers Weekly presents Clare B. Dunkle's blog tour for her newly-published Wuthering Heights prequel: The House of Dead Maids:

What was Heathcliffe [sic] like before he showed up in the pages of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights? Clare B. Dunkle gives readers an answer to that question in The House of Dead Maids, published last week by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. Teen readers and Brontë aficionados can learn more about this prelude to the classic 19th-century novel, and the story behind its creation, by following the author’s 20-stop blog tour, details of which appear on her Web site. Here’s a peek at some of what Dunkle might blog about in the next weeks—as well as a look at the impetus for the tour.
Dunkle’s novel, which centers on a young woman who encounters ghosts of former maids when she becomes nursemaid to the boy who will become Heathcliff, grew out of her lifelong connection to Emily Brontë. The author’s mother, a Brontë scholar, wrote her master’s thesis on Heathcliffe, and Dunkle first read Wuthering Heights at the age of nine.
“I grew up hearing great stories about the lives of the Brontës and I reread Wuthering Heights many times as a child and teen,” she says. “I was fascinated by Heathcliff and bonded with this boy who was unwanted from page one to the very end. I was acutely aware that the boy was already damaged goods before he came into that story, and that interested me very much.” (...)
“As a writer looking around for new projects, I realized that Wuthering Heights was the perfect Victorian novel to introduce to modern readers,” she explains. “It’s gritty and rough around the edges and has no formal or mannered speech. It really was way ahead of its time—Brontë refuses to weigh in and point out who is good and who is bad, and leaves readers to make all those decisions. That’s very empowering for teens and I really believe that the novel still has the power to speak to young people.”
To research The House of Dead Maids, Dunkle visited Yorkshire, touring the Brontë parsonage where Emily lived for much of her life, with the graveyard just feet away from the home. “I also did a lot of biographical reading about the Brontës and read quite a bit of literary criticism,” says the author. “I wanted to get this book right, to make sure I captured the true feel of a Victorian story.” (Sally Lodge)

Today's stop is at Carrie's YA Bookshelf, by the way.

The Times has an article about Michael Berkeley's latest opera, For You, and recalls what happened to his previous one:

Michael Berkeley’s operas seem to attract hiccups. Work on his second opera, Jane Eyre, was delayed after the unfinished manuscript score was stolen from his car boot. (Geoff Brown)

Via The Improper we found out that in an article from Cosmopolitan (France) the journalist suggested Robert Pattinson as a perfect Heathcliff (so original...):

Son sang britannique transparaît encore dans son physique romantique, parfait pour incarner un remake des "Hauts de Hurlevent" ou une adaptation filmée d'un roman de Jane Austen. (Florence Trédez) (Google translation)

Another Bollywood star, Shriya Saran, has a weakness for Brontë and Austen. In the Deccan Chronicle:

Then, I fell for classics like Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Jane Eyre.
I loved books by Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë because of the era they wrote interested me. At a time when most women authors wrote under ghost names, there were a few, who had the courage to come out in the open with the reality and what they felt about society. The characters in these classics are very insightful. Though I loved all the female characters, it’s Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice who stayed in my mind. (Priyanka Bhadani)

The Yorkshire Post talks about films about, or shot in, Yorkshire:

The Railway Children hinted at a lost world of Edwardian innocence that can never be again. Wuthering Heights offered a slice of timeless Victorian gothic. And in Kes, a poor boy from a dysfunctional family sought freedom via a soaring, elegant kestrel. (Tony Earnshaw)

The Plymouth Herald presents the performances of Milan in Plymouth. The popera trio itself say:

"We do things like Wuthering Heights and Bohemian Rhapsody and our grand finale is Nessun Dorma — it's quite a diverse set with full choreographed dance moves, but it hangs together really well." (Clare Robinson)

Another fashion-related Brontë mention. About the New Zealand Fashion Week on TVNZ:

Wuthering Heights and high school balls sprung to mind during Liz Mitchell's show. Sultry cocktail frocks, sensual evening gowns in silk velvets and curvaceous pleated skirts dominated Mitchell's runway. (Anna Gowan & Sophie Lowery)

Wide Sargasso Sea in the New York Times Crossword and a Sims 3 character named Charlotte in honour of our Charlotte on engadget.

Les Brontë à Paris posts in French about John Brown. The Book Case comments on yesterday's discussion on the Guardian Book Blog. Young Journalist posts about Jane Eyre and New Lits 2010 re-imagines a fragment of the novel. Cultural Civilian discusses movies about writers with special attention to Devotion.

And Elizabeth Gaskell's bicentenary (September 29th) is going to be celebrated with a blog tour, all stops and subjects of which are announced on Austenprose. In the meantime, Ellen and Jim Have a Blog, Two posts at length about Gaskell and some of her works.

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

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162

Branwell Brontë died 162 years ago today.

A few days ago, reading Oxford World Classics newly published Tales of Glass Town, Angria and Gondal (Edited by Christine Alexander) (review to come soon), we came across the fragment we used as weekly quote:

It said--Oh all is lost for ever!
All he loves to him is dead
All his hopes of glory fled
All the past is vanished
Save what nought can sever
Ever living memories
That shall haunt him till he dies
With what he can realise
Never Never Never!

Though written 12 years before his own death and in a fictional context, it seemed to fit Branwell's last years perfectly.

And yet - thanks to his sisters - here is his name today, in print and on the internet. He's not forgotten.

EDIT: As Les Brontë à Paris certify.

Categories: Branwell Brontë, Juvenilia, Poetry, Reminder

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The Prayer Book and more

A couple of upcoming Brontë-related talks:

1. In Lancashire, UK:

Friday 24th September 2010 at Whalley Abbey at 7.00 pm
Joint meeting with The Prayer Book Society
Dr Tom Winnifrith will speak on "The Brontës and The Prayer Book." Tickets, inclusive of supper with wine, at £10. For further details, and to place a booking, please contact Neil Inkley on 01772 821676.

 2.  In Weeki Wachee, FL:

Academia Hernando's Fall Lecture Series will be offered from 10 a.m. to noon
Nativity Lutheran Church,
6363 Commercial Way, Weeki Wachee FL 34613
 • Sept. 27: "Charlotte Brontë and Her Sisters," by Bill Schuerle. (St. Petersburg Times)

Categories: Talks

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The Battle of the Brontës

Let's begin with an addition to the cast of Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights. According to the IMDb Nichola Burley is playing Isabella Linton and Steve Evets has been cast as Joseph. (Photo Credits: Red Dawn) EDIT: Curtis Brown also lists him as part of the WH cast.

Imogen Russell Williams has written for the Guardian Book Blog an article - 'How the Brontës divide humanity' - on what she calls the Battle of the Brontës.

In Alison Flood's recent blog about the books she remembers most vividly from school, she mentioned that Jane Eyre bored her, but that the melodrama of Wuthering Heights kept her enthralled. This reminded me of my long-held pet theory about the Battle of the Brontës: everyone who's read both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights is passionately devoted to one book but nose-holdingly repelled by the other. If you want to be particularly contentious, you can divide those who satisfy the basic entry criteria into two types – those drawn to demure, bookish Miss Eyre and those for whom the pyrotechnical hanky-panky between Cathy Earnshaw and black-browed Heathcliff is paramount – and call them Librarians and Rock Stars. Alison is undoubtedly a Rock Star. I, on the other hand, am a Librarian.
A socially-inept only child, precociously devoted to solitary reading and with a wide-ranging, frequently pompous vocabulary, there was no way I wasn't going to adore Jane Eyre, the pale little scrap who introduced me to words like "moiety" and "redolent". But she was also a significant feminist role model, surviving the rigours and humiliations of education at Lowood to become a self-reliant artist and teacher; a grey-clad governess with a secret, banked core of embers, breaking out in occasional white flame to assert her revolutionary right to be respected and loved. It still thrills me to reread Jane's defiance of Rochester [...]
My Librarian loyalties, however, were nearly a deal-breaker for my partner during my first year at university. A hot-blooded northerner with a penchant for Kate Bush, he remained an Emily man to the core, finding Jane's post-mad-wife-revelation flight particulaqrly spineless: "No, really, though, what does she do? Walks for a few miles and then falls down!" Meanwhile, I turned up my nose at the apparently chaotic ordering of Wuthering Heights, and at the fact that I didn't like or identify with any of the characters. [...]
I still detest Cathy Earnshaw – to me she'll always be a selfish prima donna, who "never endeavoured to divert herself with reading, or occupation of any kind"; who deliberately shrills, starves and tantrums herself into the grave, leaving torment behind her. And Heathcliff is an absolute swine. In fact, the only WH character I have much time for is Nelly Dean the nursemaid, who is at least loyal and generally competent (although we only have her word for it and she's a notoriously unreliable narrator). This, naturally, is because I am a Librarian at heart and boringly inclined to favour neatness and productivity over bellowing, breast-beating, and the wilful hanging of inoffensive little dogs. (Click here to read the full article)

Though we generally agree that people tend to like one or the other, it is also our experience that people can like both books (to speak just of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre; there are also Charlotte's other novels or Anne's works), even if they still prefer one over the other. They must be rock star librarians.

And because reading the Brontës is part of growing up for many, there are a few connections to education in today's news items. The Independent reports that 'the Brontës' are approved texts (we wonder which texts in particular, though) for International Baccalaureate. A columnist from The Faster Times worries that computers may 'kill creativity' in children and compares her children's experiences to her own:

Reading Jane Eyre for fun or wandering out in the backyard to make things with leaves seemed like attractive alternatives. Instead, my kids must cope with the siren song of laptops and X-boxes that offer infinite amusements, click click click. (Jennifer king Lindley)

ParentDish has an article on the 'crazy courses' being imparted at some colleges.

Goldman says the unusual courses simply give students an opportunity to apply their academic skills in more fun, "now" contexts.
"For example, a course on 'The Simpsons' might push students to use the same close reading and analytical skills they'd use when writing a paper on 'Jane Eyre' ... but this time, they're applying those modes of analysis to Bart and Lisa and Milhouse," he says. (Mary Beth Sammons)

However, today's 'police blotter' from The Daily News (Lower Columbia) restores (if it was ever lost) our faith in students:

Theft
A 16-year-old Kelso High School boy told police his backpack was stolen from a bus stop at Pacific Avenue and Yew Street Tuesday morning. It contained $200 worth of Magic cards and a school book, "Wuthering Heights."

Never mind that he probably reported it because of his valuable Magic cards in the first place, the important thing here is that he didn't forget to add Wuthering Heights as well. Is he a rock star (see above) in the making?

The San Francisco Chronicle doesn't seem to think of fans of Twilight or the MTV's adaptation of Wuthering Heights as rock stars, judging by the comment on Twilight included in the article '11 teen movies based on classic books'.

9. "Wuthering Heights"
"Twilight" heroes Bella and Edward just love Emily Brontë's novel. That's only half as revolting as MTV's dreadful revamp, starring Mike Vogel as Heath. (Louis Peitzman)

The Galway Advertiser features Irish poet Rita Ann Higgins. She tells how she fell in love with books.

“I was 22 when I had TB,” she says. “I was in a sanatorium and I don’t know if it was the boredom or the cold weather - it was December ‘77 - but I started reading. I never had any interest before. The first two books I read were Animal Farm and Wuthering Heights and after that I thought ‘Books are the way to go’ and from then on I never looked back.” (Kernan Andrews)

The Telegraph and Argus on the Ilkley Literature Festival (beginning October 1st):

Of course, it’s not just the Bronte-esque countryside and afternoon tea which explain the success of the prestigious festival. (Suzy Poole)

Teenreads features a guest post by Clare B. Dunkle (with special attention to Heathcliff) and Largely Unrepeatable posts about Jane Eyre.

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

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