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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Thursday, February 26, 2015 10:29 am by Cristina in , , , , ,    No comments
A couple of Victorian fellow writers to begin with today. The Wall Street Journal has an article on Anthony Trollope and admits the fact that,
During his lifetime, Trollope was a prolific and popular writer, the author of 47 novels. His literary reputation, however, never soared quite to the heights of that of Charles Dickens, George Eliot and the Brontë sisters. His ranking has been on the rise in recent years, though, and the publication of “The Duke’s Children” in its original text should help keep that momentum going. (Melanie Kirkpatrick)
While Bustle lists '20 Forgotten, Overlooked Classics By Women Writers Everyone Should Read'. One of them is Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell:
Fun fact: Elizabeth Gaskell was good friends with Charlotte Brontë — she even wrote Brontë’s biography. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when those two got to chatting about plot structures and character development. Despite being significantly less well known, Gaskell was a brilliant novelist in her own right. Her ironic, sometimes even mocking, depictions of society’s rigid, often ridiculous, rules, give her work a delicious, unexpected edge, particularly in this novel.
Gaskell definitely had a subversive streak, and it elevates her work from charming and sweet, to grown-up and fascinating. (Erin Enders)
Speaking of subversive streaks, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall makes it into Flavorwrire's staff picks.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë and The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
I am reading books by two writers who rhyme; Anne Brontë and Elena Ferrante. I’m re-reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the third Brontë sister’s blisteringly feminist critique of an abusive marriage, widely seen as a rejoinder to her sisters’ romanticizing of controlling Byronic hero types. The novel is told in nested narrative (letters within journals within letters) which makes the narrative feel really clever and self-aware. Meanwhile, I’ve just begun Book 2 of Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels (The Story of a New Name). Everything everyone says is spot-on; the overall story tightens its grip the further you travel with these characters who start to feel like your own friends, enemies, and love interests. — (Sarah Seltzer, Editor-at-Large)
Quoted selects the 'top 10 cars in fiction' and recalls that,
Even before the motor vehicle, we saw vehicles of the time acting as status symbols. Consider Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre: Upon deciding he will take a wife, Rochester, the owner of the estate where Jane is a nanny of sorts, goes to buy a carriage for his pursuit, and makes sure it represents him well as a man who comes from money. Seeking Jane’s help, he pleads, “You must see the carriage, Jane, and tell me if you don’t think it will suit Mrs. Rochester exactly.” (Hanne Keiling)
Somewhat remotely related to Jane Eyre as well but sadly missing from the list, we would suggest Thursday Next's (the heroine of Jasper Fforde's series of books) Speedster.

PopMatters reviews Minae Mizumura's A True Novel:
If you have heard of Minae Mizumura’s A True Novel at all, it’s likely for one of two reasons: Either because it has been loosely inspired by Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (Mizumura makes a reference in the beginning of the novel to “the desire to emulate being the basis of all art”) or because of its unusual structure. A True Novel is a “nested” novel which, over its 855 pages, unpeels like a giant onion.
There never seems to be a clearly delineated point in this narrative—which centers on a grimly self-made Japanese man, the handsome and Heathcliffian, Taro Azuma—when the story actually “starts”, in the way one expects a traditional novel to begin. In fact, the novel commences with a 165-page prologue by a fictionalized version of the author, who positions the story she is about to tell as “true” and introduces the reader to Taro during the period when she knew him, as a chauffeur working in the US in the ‘60s. [...]
The story that follows, narrated by Fumiko through the filter of Yusuke’s memory, centers on Fumiko, Taro, and Yoko, the Cathy-like young woman with whom Taro grows up, loves, is rejected by, and, after her marriage to someone else, has an affair with. Fumiko’s own relationship with the younger Taro is somewhat ambiguous through most of the story, and while reading those portions of the narrative indirectly narrated by Fumiko, one would do well to bear in mind that, in Japanese novels just as in Western ones, the narrator is not always to be entirely trusted. (Michael Antman)
Télérama (France) remarks on the influence Jane Eyre had on Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca while Jolie (Germany) selects the novel as one of the most beautiful love stories.
Jane Eyre von Charlotte Brontë
Noch ein Klassiker, der wirklich das Lesen wert ist. Die Verfasserin dieses Artikels hat "Jane Eyre" von Charlotte Brontë an einem Tag gelesen, weil es sie so fesselte. Heulattacke inklusive. Eine Liebesgeschichte, wie sie heute auch noch geschehen könnte. Junges Mädchen verliebt sich Hals über Kopf in ihren Chef und damit beginnen die Irrungen und Wirrungen. (Nadine Lang) (Translation)
Current interviews Beth Bellemere, who 'is presenting a program on her “Downton Abbey” adventures at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 1, at the Scarborough Public Library (Maine)'.
Q: What do you plan to talk about during your presentation at the library?
A: I will start with a fun questionnaire focusing on what the castle looks like now and its history, as well as some of the more interesting aspects of the house and grounds, such as the follies placed in many different locations throughout the property.
I’ve also done a lot of reading around the show and will be talking a little bit about why Julian Fellowes chose Yorkshire as the location for the house, even though that’s not where it is in reality.
I think Yorkshire might have been chosen because a lot of the most popular literature of the 18th and 19th centuries, such as the books written by the Brontë sisters, was based in Yorkshire, in the north of England. (Kate Irish Collins)
Now for some fashion. Vanity Fair (Italy) on the 'greasy wave' as shown by several fashion designers.
Tsumori Chisato
Lo styling è dichiaratamente ispirato all'istitutrice Jane Eyre protagonista dell'omonimo romanzo scritto da Charlotte Brontë: raccolto casto con la riga perfettamente nel mezzo ma con un finish più definito e lucido sulle due bande laterali ondulate che incorniciano la fronte. (Eleonora Negri) (Translation)
Vogue (Spain) makes one of those 'never-read-the-novel' kind of comments:
Con una estética juvenil que coge como referencia la estética británica clásica, Gucci actualiza su silueta. Mientras que su predecesora y compañera, Frida Giannini, pretendía continuar en cierto modo el legado sexy de Tom Ford, Michele propone una era con prendas suaves que acarician la piel. Ha sido un desfile interesante y fresco con el que la firma se despide del glamour y abraza una nueva sensibilidad. Pero no hay lugar para la nostalgia (o sí, pero únicamente para la que añorar los años 70 o el allure que envuelve la obra de Jane Eyre). (Beatriz de Asís) (Translation)
But the blunder of the day comes from Vogue UK (EDIT: It has been corrected now). It's not the first time we see it, but it never ever fails to make us laugh out loud:
"I love Jane Eyre," said the designer [Alessandro Michele], referring to the heroine of Jane Austen's best-known novel. (Suzy Menkes)
Finally, the Brontë Parsonage Museum Facebook page surprises us with the fact that Samantha Ellis (author of How To Be A Heroine) is 'doing research for her forthcoming book about Anne Brontë'. CSJL Literary Jewelry and Aanna Greer are discussing Jane Eyre.

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