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Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Wednesday, February 05, 2014 10:59 am by Cristina in , , , , ,    No comments
The New York Times wonders, 'How Does the Classic Marriage Plot Stand Up in 2014?'
So while the romantic thinks “happily ever after,” the realist thinks “housefly.” And yet I imagine most of us are simultaneously or alternately romantic and realistic, and consequently able to hold both phrases — both situations — in mind. The audience for the Barbara Cartland romance or the Victorian novel, the Shakespeare comedy or the Hollywood drama wants to see the lovers defeat fate’s cruel or simply mischievous efforts to keep them apart, even if some large fraction of that audience is wondering why the last child-support check hasn’t arrived. Tears well up in my eyes each time I read the end of Heinrich von Kleist’s “Marquise of O” — the Marquise has forgiven her suitor, the impetuous Russian Count F, and “a whole series of young Russians now followed the first” — though I have my doubts about a marriage that began with a rape. How satisfied we are when Jane Eyre weds her Mr. Rochester, however haunted we may remain by the ghost of his mad first wife.
So why do writers as brilliant and perceptive as Kleist and Charlotte Brontë (and of course Jane Austen) seem to come down so unambiguously on the side of “happily ever after”? Is it because they were single? (Brontë married only in the last year of her life.) Because, given the rarity of divorce among their acquaintances, they failed to notice the discordant marriages that may have been even more common in their day than in ours? And why, knowing all that we know now, are we still so pleased and persuaded by happy romantic endings? (Francine Prose)
Connect Savannah interviews writer Alice Hoffman, who considers herself a Wuthering Heights kind of person.
You've said that your book Here on Earth was your homage to your favorite novel, Wuthering Heights. Is this new one your paean to Jane Eyre?
AH: I had a friend who once said you're either a Wuthering Heights person or a Jane Eyre person, and I'm definitely a Wuthering Heights person, not to alienate the Jane Eyre fans [laughs].
I think Jane Eyre is a very interesting book in terms of who you relate to, whether it's Jane or the madwoman in the attic—the "freak." Me, I always identified with the madwoman in the attic. (Jessica Leigh Lebos)
Stylist reviews the English translation of Jane, le renard et moi:
Hailed as moving and magical by critics, the story was created by Quebec-based playwright and illustrator Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault and appeals to children and adults alike with its quirky, touching slant on a beloved literary work.
The New Yorker's Page-Turner discusses the book The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua.
But to advocate this sensible middle ground—to say that success comes from a combination of ambition, humility, and self-discipline—wouldn’t serve the book’s performative purpose, which is to present parents and children as players in à “Wuthering Heights”-like drama of Romantic destruction and transcendence. (Joshua Rothman)
The Calgary Sun reviews the stage production The Huron Bride and describes it as
a tepid, nonsensical ghost story striving to be The Woman in Black or Jane Eyre set in a sawmill in a small Ontario town in the 1800s. (Louis Hobson
BuzzFeed lists the best and worse literary couples:
 BEST: Jane Eyre and Rochester
Secrets are thrilling, especially when they bring lovers closer together.
A contributor to SoloLibri (Italy) is a fan of the Brontës. Book Odyssey posts about Wuthering Heights. Candice's Books writes in French about Jane Eyrotica. Bizarrevictoria recently featured bad Jane Eyre covers, some of which are certainly hilarious. Bristol Culture compares two adverts, the one from the Bristol Old Vic upcoming Jane Eyre production and a government one (curiously very similar);

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