Vindicating Villette and other news

Rupert Christiansen vindicates Villette in The Telegraph:

Our fascination with the Brontë sisters continues unabated: a new movie version of Jane Eyre is deservedly proving a big hit (with Mia Wasikowska as one of the best Janes ever), and next month sees the release of Andrea Arnold’s version of Wuthering Heights, which also sounds engaging.
But, while both these classics have already been adapted for stage and screen at least 20 times each, the novel that in my view stands as the Brontës’ greatest achievement remains virtually ignored. Charlotte’s Villette is a psychologically dark, erotically intense and profoundly original work, based on the author’s experience of teaching in a school in Catholic Brussels. Kate Millett wrote about it brilliantly in her great Sixties feminist polemic Sexual Politics.
Yet, although it offers obvious dramatic potential, five great leading roles and an atmospheric setting, it has enjoyed only a couple of radio productions and one BBC Two serial in 1970.
Villette is challenging in its moral tone – and much less of a wish-fulfilment fantasy than Jane Eyre – but it offers rich pickings to scriptwriters, actors, designers and directors. I hereby throw down the gauntlet.

Here's hoping someone will pick up that gauntlet!

The Yorkshire Evening Post goes on a trip to the Peak District:

SHE grew up close to the ruggedly beautiful moors above Haworth.
But even Yorkshire lass Charlotte Brontë couldn’t fail to be captivated by the Peak District.
North Lees Hall, in the Derbyshire Peak District, was the inspiration for Thornfield Hall, Mr Rochester’s Gothic manor house in Charlotte’s Jane Eyre.
So it seems fitting that the latest adaptation of the classic story gives a beautiful Derbyshire landmark a starring role.
From the gardens where Jane looks out, to the fireside where she verbally spars with Mr Rochester, watching the new film feels almost like being back inside Haddon Hall, the perfectly preserved house which plays the part of Thornfield in the movie. (Katie Baldwin)

The Phoenix thinks that one of Michael Fassbender's recent roles - including Mr Rochester - is sure to bring him an Oscar nomination.

Yesterday Ryan Murphy wished 'for the days when I can do a Brontë adaptation' and today the San Francisco Chronicle credits the Brontës as one of the influences behind his (and Brad Falchuk's) new show American Horror Story:

Premiering Wednesday on FX, the series - about a family from Boston who moves into an old house in Los Angeles after dad dallies with a young woman who isn't his wife - is a patchwork of influences from such disparate sources as "The Amityville Horror," Diane Arbus photographs, Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Suddenly Last Summer," Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House," the "Scary Movie" franchise, gothic romances by the Brontës and Daphne du Maurier, and whatever overwrought soap opera may be biting the daytime dust this week. (David Wiegand)

The Indian Express reflects:

A reader’s search for an author — a slapdash journey through biographies, memoirs and journals — can be one of the most confounding pursuits in the books world. It often happens after the quiet discovery of a book or the loud entry of a bestseller, when you are left seeking out not only the odds and ends of an author’s writings, but also the odds and ends of the author’s life. That’s when you begin to fetishise the purple heather in the moors of the Brontës and the mangosteen tree under which Vaikom Muhammad Basheer stretched his legs and listened to Saigal. That’s the great, desperate search for the authorly shadow, for anything that bears some approximation to the writer’s life as it was. (Charmy Harikrishnan)

Meanwhile a columnist from the Philippines Inquirer can't believe that a man would dare to read Jane Eyre in public (!):

The stranger beside me pulled out a book from the National Bookstore plastic bag he was carrying. Before I could close my eyes, the title of the book caught my attention and got me smiling. I wondered if a sister or a friend had asked him to buy the book for him because I didn’t think any guy would want to be caught reading “Jane Eyre.”
It is not that I don’t like the book. In fact I like it—love it actually.
When he peeled off the plastic from the book and started scanning it, I couldn’t believe it. I asked myself: Is he going to read it? I mean, for real?!
Unable to control myself, I muttered, “That’s a good book,” and gave him a polite smile. He smiled and asked if I had read the book. I nodded. He asked me another question and our conversation got started. [...]
Then on Monday morning I woke up to the sound of the alarm on my cell phone. I noticed that I had three unread messages. But the one that got me wide awake was from an unknown number and said, “Good morning my Ms. Eliza Bennet. My 1 week leave is over and I’m heading back to the city in a few hours. Inaylola is great so is my progress with Jane Eyre. Any chance you’ll be on the bus today? Anyway, it was more than nice meeting you. Btw, I can’t find you on Facebook. Til next time.” [...]
Maybe that short encounter with him is meant to remain one of the mysteries in my life. Maybe I will meet him again after eight years—or maybe not. Or maybe he will be one of the five people I will meet in heaven. But for now I am convinced that we were just two strangers who happened to be on the same bus and shared a seat. Maybe the effort I spent reading “Jane Eyre” and adoring Mr. Darcy made some sense. (Froila Marie Deniega)

Bookslut reviews Jonathan Yardley's Second Reading: Notable and Neglected Books Revisited where the author claims that

Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca is the "twentieth century's Jane Eyre," making a case for gothic fiction as being something more than pure entertainment. (Geraldine McGowan)

Rolling Stone reviews Zola Jesus's new album by stating that it

could have spelunked into Brontë Sisters silliness, but its churning, creepy urgency proves hard to dismiss (Jon Dolan)

Whatever that means.

The Financial Times briefly remarks on Blake Morrison's We Are Three Sisters generally getting very good reviews. Oh, and do click here if you'd like to buy a discounted copy of the script!

WeHoNews reports Mayor John Duran quoting from Jane Eyre during the announcement of the plan for opening a public library in West Hollywood County and Crosswalk's Daily Strength section quotes from Shirley today.

The Yorkshire Post features fund manager Charles Stanley, whose Leeds office 'acts as manager for a variety of charitable trusts in Yorkshire and works with both the Brontë Society and Ripon Cathedral'.

The Brontë Sisters quotes from a letter from Charlotte Brontë to Ellen Nussey written on October 3rd, 1851. A book that is shut is but a block... recommends The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Inside Film, The Evans Review and The Dish review Jane Eyre 2011.

EDIT: An alert for tomorrow, October 5 in Crofton:

Members of Crofton’s Reading Group meet on Wednesday, October 5 to review the first novels of Charlotte, Emily and Ann (sic) Brontë. (Wakefield Express)