Obsessed with Wuthering Heights

The Telegraph and Argus features the book Come into the House which consists of

ten shortlisted entries from a competition, run by Corazon Books in partnership with The Historic Houses Association, to write a short story either inspired by or set in a historic house. [...]
HHA homes and gardens have been inspiring authors for centuries. Literary links include Norton Conyers, near Ripon, Yorkshire (winner of HHA’s Restoration Award 2014), which Charlotte Brontë is known to have visited and whose attic is said to have inspired the story of the “madwoman” in Jane Eyre. (Emma Clayton)

The Guardian reviews the YA novel The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson which is about

seventeen year old Lennie Walker - she is obsessed with Wuthering Heights, plays the clarinet and is a total band geek. She is also prone to scattering her poems all over town since her sister Bailey died four weeks ago.  (Thedauntlessbookthief)

Paste Magazine has selected '24 Perfect Songs for Book Lovers' and of course one of them is

4. “Wuthering Heights” – Kate Bush
Kate Bush writes from the perspective of Emily Brontë’s character Catherine Earnshaw in her unique take on the classic novel Wuthering Heights. An incredibly smart and weird tune (like Bush herself), the poppy chorus doesn’t hide the sadness that fills the literary lyric, “Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy. Come home. I’m so cold.” (Laura Stanley)

Blog Critics reviews Poldark:

But we soon learn that Ross is far from Emily Brontë’s anti-hero of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff, too, had grown up going to war, hoping to win back the heart and hand of his Cathy, but Heathcliff’s scheme was dangerous and far darker. Our Ross Poldark is the anti-Heathcliff. Although he is an aristocrat, he is a friend to his workers, feeling a deep responsibility to care for the tenants working his land, and the vulnerable in the disintegrating mining culture of Cornwall. He mourns the loss of his deepest love, even contemplating moving to London to avoid her, lest her reputation be smeared, and his cousin be cuckolded. (Barbara Barnett)

A columnist from The Jewish Chronicle writes about Saul Bellow and recalls the fact that,

I first read Bellow's masterpiece, Herzog, for A Level long ago. We had battled through Jane Austen, Jane Eyre and all the other Janes and then came to our last set text. One of our teachers refused to teach it because it was not proper English. (David Herman)

The Brontë Parsonage Blog has a post on Caroline Lamb, writer, producer, artistic director with the Dangerous to Know Theatre Company based in Manchester and a Brontëite. Betsy reads books reviews Jane Re by Patricia Park.  Thenewalphabet briefly posts on Jane Eyre 2011. Patheos reviews Jane Eyre's Sisters by Jody Gentian Bower.

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Deconstructing Spivak

This is a scholar approach to the (scholar) approaches of Gayatri Spivak, a cornerstone of the postcolonial readings of Jane Eyre:

Gayatri Spivak
Deconstruction and the Ethics of Postcolonial Literary Interpretation
Ola Abdalkafor
Cambridge Scholar Publihers
ISBN-13: 978-1-4438-7467-0
May 2015

How does Spivak approach the signs the madwoman in the attic, the good black servant, the monster and the “wholly Other”? What is the basis of Spivak’s ethics of interpretation and what are her main tools? Gayatri Spivak: Deconstruction and the Ethics of Postcolonial Literary Interpretation is an ambitious and compelling critical work which answers various questions surrounding one of the most notoriously difficult literary theorists in our times. This book is an in-depth study of Spivak’s readings of a cluster of canonical and peripheral literary texts covering Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, Frankenstein, Foe and “Pterodactyl.” It divides Spivak’s literary theoretical practice into two phases; the first is de Manian and the second is Derridean. However, the book also shows that these two phases are not clearly independent from each other; rather, there are continuities between them. The theory resulting from these two phases can be described as affirmative postcolonial literary interpretation: Derridean in spirit but de Manian in technique. The book also meticulously defines Spivak’s position within the thought of Derrida, de Man and western feminists and reveals the possibilities available for readers who wish to ethically approach and interpret the sign of the “wholly Other,” which reaches in its scope “the native subaltern female.” Analysing Spivak’s literary interpretation as such, this book offers insights to postcolonial readers and provides them with new tools, such as “learning from below,” useful for reading not literature only, but also contemporary political, cultural and social issues from new perspectives.

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Toppling Heathcliff

First of all, today June 29th marks the 160th anniversary of Charlotte and Arthur Bell Nicholls' wedding.

The Telegraph discusses siblings:

Cain and Abel got sibling relationships off to a bad start. Since then, for every Brontë family, sat writing around the Haworth parsonage table together, there is a Margaret Drabble and AS Byatt, who’ve been on almost permanent non-speakers since they were children. (Glenda Cooper)

Beware of spoilers in this commentary of the adaptation of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell on Den of Geek:

Fittingly, the last word went to everybody’s favourite: Childermass (who, after that speech on the North’s hearts and minds has toppled Heathcliff from the top spot on Yorkshire’s list of literary brooding heroes). Enzo Cilenti took us right back to the start, to the snowy streets of York and its Society of Magicians. (Louisa Mello)

El Confidencial (Spain) discusses writers' homes. Gossip Press lists eight Reasons Why Jane Eyre Is Not The Ideal Victorian Woman (i.e." being beautiful, sophisticated, and obedient to her husband").

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The Rime of Jane and Mr. Rochester

A recent poetry book containing a Brontë-related poem:

The Poetry of Freddie Davis Noti and Naomi Davis Blackwell 
by Freddie Davis Noti and Naomi Davis Blackwell
RoseDog Books (April 27, 2015)
ISBN-13: 978-1480962064

Sisters Freddie Davis Noti and Naomi Davis Blackwell were avid readers of the classics. Naomi was a devoted lover of Charlotte Brontë, especially the celebrated novel Jane Eyre. In her adult years she began composing her long narrative poem The Rime of Jane and Mr. Rochester. She spent several years writing and perfecting it and ended with an emotionally rewarding work of beauty.
After the death of Naomi in 2005, Freddie was inspired to write two short odes and a longer poem about her.
Freddie wanted both her poems and Naomi’s The Rime of Jane and Mr. Rochester published for other lovers
of classic poetry to enjoy.

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Illuminating and unexpected

The Yorkshire Post interviews  Judy Finnigan (from the Richard & Judy show):

“I think it’s just me. I’ve always liked Gothic novels – one of my favourite novels is Jane Eyre – and the way the Brontës wrote, and I love Daphne du Maurier. And for that, you need the power of landscape, whether it’s Yorkshire or whether it’s Cornwall, which means a great deal to me and where I find it relatively easier to write than anywhere else.

The Times Higher Education reviews Deborah Lutz's The Brontë Cabinet:

The various items (including letters, walking sticks and twined bracelets of hair) are gathered like talismans, and duly perform some sort of magic, transporting readers into the domestic life of the Brontës. Lutz immerses us in their mundane material reality and distils an understanding of their work that is almost always illuminating and unexpected. (...)
Sewing, domestic and ornamental, has its part both in the Brontës’ lives and in their novels, and it is to Lutz’s immense credit that she acknowledges how the intensely felt life of many women, not just the remarkable Brontës, found ways to be expressed. This is a fine book, rich, immersive and illuminating, glowing with the life of the Brontës and their wild genius. (Shahidha Bari)

Hello! Magazine talks about the importance of being named Charlotte:

Other than the young royal, the most famous British Charlotte is most likely Charlotte Brontë, who wrote Jane Eyre. (Rachel Elbaum)

The Star (Malaysia) has visited the British Library's Treasure Gallery:

Next to this was a handwritten, corrected draft from 1838 of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 manuscript of Jane Eyre showing deletions and revisions she had made to the text.

El Litoral (Argentina) lists several July anniversaries by women:

1818: Nace Emily Bronte, novelista británica, autora de “Cumbres borrascosas”, considerada un clásico de la literatura inglesa. Llevó una vida casi monástica, cultivando la literatura junto a sus hermanos, pero -dada la época-, ocultando su condición femenina tras un seudónimo. Murió en 1848, a los 30 años, de tuberculosis y sin saber la repercusión que su única obra le iba a dar a través del tiempo. (Translation)

The Brussels Brontë Blog posts about the Brussels meeting of the Brontë Society Waterloo excursion last June 20.

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Enhanced Jane

Lori War from Enhanced Classics alerts us of the upcoming release of the Enhanced Jane Eyre:

Enhanced Classics has grown out of the belief that to really understand a classic work, you have to get to know the person who was compelled to write the story.

With an Enhanced Classic readers can curl up with a novel while also learning about the author. Editions include a variety of media to blend information about the author within the novel--video interviews with respected scholars, slide shows relevant to the storyline or the author’s life, audio of music from the era, definitions of period words or translations of dialects, complete bibliographies and references. All information is meticulously researched and inserted into the text of the novel at appropriate times, such as when an explanation may be needed, so as not to disrupt the reading experience.

The first Enhanced Classics edition is Jane Eyre: An Autobiography. In this edition you will find video interviews with the Brontë Parsonage curator, Victorian scholars, translation of French dialogue, slide shows of paintings and woodcuts mentioned in the story, illustrations of the book from various years and editions and an interactive map of Haworth from the time of the Brontës:

Anne Dinsdale
Collections Manager
Brontë Parsonage Museum
Author of many books on the BrontësSandra Gilbert
Distinguished Professor of English Emerita
Unversity of California, Davis
Author of Madwoman in the AtticSandramgilbert.comJaqueline Padgett
Associate Professor of English
Trinity College, Washington, DC

So find a comfy chair, travel back in time with Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester and get to know Charlotte. I hope you enjoy the experience.

Check the Enhanced Classics Facebook for more information.

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Original and Unconventional

Deborah Lutz's The Brontë Cabinet is reviewed by The Herald:

For some reason, however, as with Jane Austen, these writers attract a degree of biographical attention that borders on the besotted. American academic Deborah Lutz is well aware that she is treading on a path deeply rutted by the passage of thousands before her: "A whole library could be filled with books published on the Brontës, many of them so excellent that one feels there need be no more." But, undaunted, she proceeds, her aim being to illuminate these writers through their belongings. "There has been little writing on most of these artefacts," she assures us, "on some not a jot." What follows are nine chapters each devoted to a household item that offers a keyhole into the way these women thought, behaved and wrote. (...)
With each of her objects, Lutz broadens her scope from their immediate relevance to the Brontës to bring in the wider world. Thus, in talking about a gnarled walnut walking stick which the sisters may or may not have used on their vigorous daily walks in the moors, she expands into a discussion of the almost revolutionary aspect of women of their class walking alone in this period. Such digressions also have the virtue of removing us from the sometimes suffocating Brontë household. Above all, they shed light on the age itself, which did so much to shape this remarkable trio, original and unconventional though they were. (Rosemary Goring)

and The Christian Science Monitor:

Gentle reader, beware: The Brontë Cabinet is no ordinary biography. Anyone wanting direct narration of the Brontë sisters’ lives should look elsewhere. Those who do read this book will follow the Brontës but will also be redirected into shadowy spaces where bodies have left stains, feet have passed, and locks of hair have been hoarded.
In these pursuits, Deborah Lutz is a bit like a 19th-century medium gathering the objects of the dead at a séance. She gathers and interprets the objects, actions, and landscapes that inflected a family of authors, of women, of nineteenth-century thinkers. Her auguries turn on things as varied as potato peelings, dog collars, albums, sewing boxes, and hiking trails. She investigates the places where objects provoke an almost physical sense of encounter. She reads things to see what they might tell her about life and about literature. This is to say, she leaps between objects and disciplines to craft an unusual cultural history – not just about a family of authors but about reading itself. (Read more) (Tess Taylor)

The book is recommended as a summer read by Lancaster Online:

3. “The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects” by Deborah Lutz: A Victorian scholar illuminates the lives of the Brontë sisters through their possessions. A wonderful read for anyone who loved “Jane Eyre” or “Wuthering Heights.”

The Independent reviews The Not-Dead and the Saved and Other Stories by Kate Clanchy

In “Brunty Country” an aviator-wearing literary agent seeks out the Brontës on the Yorkshire moors, and while the story might prompt a guffaw from those in the business the tone is a little too knowing. Then again, the image of Charlotte Brontë appearing at the door with her hair “embalmed into a bun” is enough to forgive all – even the reference to an Emily Brontë All Saints collaboration. (Matilda Bathurst)

Bryony Gordon in The Telegraph may not be channeling the right person:

But I’m not sure that is entirely true. I think the reason people’s comments irk me is that they have an element of truth. So I resolve to spend the evening being nothing but demure – ha! – and lovely. I channel my inner Charlotte Brontë, wherever the hell she is.

NPR Books discusses  romantic heroes:

You see, my idea of romance hero — which was imprinted on my brain before my brain was fully formed — is Heathcliff. You know, the guy from Wuthering Heights who spends his life chasing his beloved Cathy all over the moor?
The only problem is, I reread Wuthering Heights a couple of years ago, and to my horror I realized that the Heathcliff is downright mean. He is so obsessed with Cathy that he thinks it's okay to ruin everyone else he knows. He's not just abusive — he's a complete jerk.
"I'm sorry, Heathcliff fans, but it's true," says Carrie Sessarego, author of Pride, Prejudice and Popcorn. "He's a fascinating jerk, he's a mesmerizing jerk — but there's never really a point where he says, 'Ya know, maybe I shouldn't have been such a jerk.'" (Lynn Neary)

Two Haworth residents have visited the Haworth in New Jersey. As reported in Keighley News:

A brick forming part of the grounds of an expanded library in Haworth has been paid for by Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council.
But this library is a very long way from Haworth, West Yorkshire!
The library is in the small suburb of Haworth New Jersey, in the United States, which was named after the original town in Yorkshire by a fan of the Brontë sisters. (Miran Rahman)

 The Mirror talks about The Angel & The Cad by Geraldine Roberts:

Geraldine calls him [William Wellesley Pole] a cross between Heathcliff from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, and says if ever her book becomes a film Poldark’s Aiden Turner is perfect to play him. (Rachel Bletchly)

Crafty twins in The Belfast Telegraph:

With their porcelain skin and calm, otherworldly demeanour, twin sisters Julie and Lauren Scott could have stepped out of the covers of a Victorian Gothic novel by Dickens or the Brontë sisters.  (Stephanie Bell)

This salutatorian speech in the West Essex Regional School has a Brontë reference. As published in New Jersey Hills:

In my favorite novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë, Jane says, “I am a free human being with an independent will”. As we, the class of 2015, make our way into the world, we must exercise this free will to better ourselves and our community. (Isabelle de Brabanter)

 Movies in the Square is an initiative by the Glade Spring Library, Glade Spring, VA:

“Wuthering Heights” is slated to be shown Tuesday, June 30 at 2 p.m. Part of the library’s Book to Film series, this is William Wyler’s version of the book by Emily Brontë. (SWVa Today)

The Conway Daily Sun talks about the Bernie Sanders Democratic campaign for the nomination:

Yet the Clinton campaign must deal with the factors that make all those hearts flutter there by the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire or by the Raccoon River in Iowa, for Sanders, who by appearance — floppy white hair, rumpled suit — does not exactly possess the raw materials (or the raw energy) that customarily make the masses swoon. He's no Edward Rochester of "Jane Eyre," nor even Heathcliff of "Wuthering Heights."

Not much coastline (abyssal or not) in the Brontës novels, but El Periódico (Guatemala) seems a bit oblivious of it:

Los escritores de ayer fueron atraídos por el ambiente natural que formaba parte de su identidad. Los escribas de su tiempo hablaron de sus grandes ríos, o de mares donde surcó Ulises, o los paisajes que dieron paso al espíritu pionero en todos los continentes. Allí los bosques de Alemania sirviendo de escenario a los cuentos de los Hermanos Grimm. O los abismos costeros ingleses, dando mayor dramatismo a Cumbres Borrascosas o a Jane Eyre. (Fernando González Davison) (Translation)

Check out the Brontea Tree in the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival:

 This tree, decorated for the #HBAF by The Brontë Society is just our cup of tea! Find it in Holme Street, Hebden Bridge. Bronte Parsonage Museum. #HBAF — in Hebden Bridge.

And don't forget the new set of pictures uploaded by the Brontë Bell Chapel Facebook Group in Thornton.

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Patrick MacNee.In Memoriam

Mostly remembered for his John Steed in the mythical spy-fi British series The Avengers (1961-69), Patrick MacNee (1922-2015), he was also linked to the Brontës after life in TV with two of the first BBC productions which featured the Brontës or their works:

The Brontës
BBC Television, 2 November 1947 20.30

A play by Alfred Sangster
The action takes place in the parlour at Haworth Parsonage, the salon of the Pensionnat Heger, the offices of Smith, Elder and Co., Cornhill, London, and covers a period from 1841 to 1860.
In the apocryphal meeting of Charlotte and Anne with Thackeray and Lewes, the author hopes to be forgiven for juggling a little with the dates of some of the publications referred to.

Author: Alfred Sangster
Producer: Harold Clayton
The Rev Patrick Bronte: W.E. Holloway
Charlotte Brontë: Barbara Mullen
Emily Brontë: Jean Forbes-Robertson
Anne Brontë: Dorothy Gordon
Miss Branwell: Winifred Willard
Tabitha: Marie Ault
Branwell Brontë: Hugh Burden
Rev William Weightman: Patrick Macnee
Mme Heger: Nuna Davey
Monsieur Heger: Sydney Tafler
William M. Thackeray: William Wightman
George Henry Lewes: Oliver Burt
George Smith: Derek Elphinstone
W. S. Williams: Charles Lloyd Pack
Office Boy: Michael Dear
Rev Arthur Bell Nicholls: R. Stuart Lindsell
Miss Wooler: Josephine Middleton

Wuthering Heights
BBC Television, 7 March 1948 20.30

Author: Emily Brontë
Dramatisation by: John Davison
Additional dialogue by: Alfred Sangster
Adapted for television and produced by: George More O'Ferrall

Heathcliff: Kieron Moore
Catherine Earnshaw: Katharine Blake
Ellen Dean: Christine Lindsay
Edgar Linton: Patrick MacNee
Hindley Earnshaw: Andre Morell
Joseph: Alfred Sangster
Isabella Linton: Annabel Maule
Catherine Linton: Vivian Pickles
Hareton Earnshaw: Douglas Hurn

Curiously, Barbara Mullen who played Charlotte Brontë in the The Brontës 1947, played Jane Eyre in a  September 29, 1948 broadcast of a Helen Jerome adaptation of the novel.

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The Silent Wild

A new exhibition opens today at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

The Silent Wild: Diane Howse
Visual Art Exhibition

June 27th 2015  - September 28th 2015

We read and write in silence. Lines on a page soundlessly evoke whole worlds of meaning, and these silent words have an extraordinary power to conjure sound, noise and commotion. This exhibition by Diane Howse uses text, performance, film and sound to explore the sonic landscapes within the Brontës’ texts.
Diane Howse is based in Yorkshire and works as both an artist and curator. She is interested in creating new possibilities for presenting work in alternative locations and has shown work in many different and sometimes unexpected locations. The project is delivered in association with a team of creatives: filmmaker Adam Baroukh, choreographer Carolyn Choa, poet Thomas A. Clark, calligrapher Gigi Leung and musician and sound artist Lemma Redda.
Exhibition free with admission to the Museum.

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Jane Eyre in Silicon Valley

MPR News' The Thread Book Club recommends Patricia Park's Re Jane.

Patricia Park joined MPR News' Kerri Miller to discuss her new book: "Re Jane." It's a modern retelling of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre," but with its own distinctive modern flare. Park recasts Jane as a first generation Korean-American in New York City, struggling to find her place.
"It does draw from my background," Park said. "I was born and raised in Flushing, Queens, and there's a large Korean community there. I didn't know I was American until I was 17 despite the fact that I had a blue passport. Everything was all Korean, all the time. This is the environment which Jane Re also grows up in — there's a sense of: What are you?"

You can listen to the story as well.

Cape Gazette talks to writer Nicole Julienne Hall, who has created a classic 'romantic hero' in her book Finding Sophia.

The book follows Annasophia Warren, a spirited young woman who has grown up in Lewes and experiences falling in love for the first time when she meets Robert, a Rehoboth boy whom the author wrote to be a romantic hero.
"If you look at 'Gone with the Wind' or 'Jane Eyre', those classic novels," Hall said, "There's certain characteristics that male characters embody. They tend to be wealthy, they are confident, and have a strong presence. Frequently they tease the heroine, so that’s how I wrote Robert." (Molly MacMillan)

Business World comments on the TV series Silicon Valley and apparently,

Though it is couched in dick jokes, Silicon Valley is a classic coming-of-age story, like Jane Eyre or Great Expectations. (Jessica Zafra)

Librópatas (Spain) considers Heathcliff and Cathy one of several literary couples which couldn't be but should have been.

Catherine y Heathcliff – Cumbres borrascosas
No sabía si meterlos en esta lista, porque técnicamente, estuvieron juntos para siempre, sino físicamente, sí en alma y corazón, que es lo que importa, al menos en este caso. Ahora bien, todos sabemos que si Catherine no hubiera sido tan desdeñosa con Heathcliff, si no se hubiese casado con Edgar, si hubiese reconocido su amor mutuo y correspondido, hubieran tenido una vida más larga y feliz, y nos hubiéramos ahorrado la sed de venganza y la semilla de la maldad perpetuándose Cumbres borrascosas adelante. Nos hubiesemos quedado sin una novela maravillosa, eso también. (Cristina Domínguez) (Translation)

Divinity's Mujercitas (Spain) categorises women:

•    Las que saben quien es Heathcliff y las que no.
•    Las que preferían a Heathcliff y las que no. (Nuria Labari) (Translation)

Yahoo! Finanzas (Spain) lists several families who squandered their fortunes such as the Hartfords.

Aspirante a escritor y amante de las artes, pero pésimo en los negocios, Huntington Hartford se embarcó en varios proyectos fallidos, entre ellos un garaje de estacionamientos automatizados en Manhattan, un instituto de caligrafía, una agencia de modelos y su propia y desastrosa adaptación teatral de "Jane Eyre", recordó The New York Times en su obituario en 2008. (Benjamin R. García) (Translation)

Military Technologies shares a recent speech on the future of food and farming by the Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss.

Only last year, we launched a campaign in New York celebrating the British countryside. Its timeless beauty is recognised around the world, celebrated by artists and writers from Constable to the Brontës, from David Hockney to Antony Gormley. For centuries, this has made it a place people want to live.

In The Guardian, readers recommend songs based on books and Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights is obviously mentioned, albeit - interestingly - just in passing. Hickey Picks – Young Adult Readers Advisory posts about April Lindner's Catherine. Liminal Scratch Pad is the blog of Kassy Skoretz, who plays Jane Eyre in an upcoming (August) production of Polly Teale's Jane Eyre in Providence, RI.

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Walking Moorland and Reading Percy

The Dissolution of Percy walking/reading tour arrives to Haworth today, June 26:

The Dissolution of PercyCobbles and Clay
Friday 26 June 6.00pm
IndieGoGo Crowdfunding

This November, Dangerous To Know brings The Dissolution of Percy, the story of the final few years in the life of Branwell Brontë, to the stage in Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. This summer, Caroline Lamb – Emily Brontë in the ambitious new work – will travel on foot across over 130 miles of Yorkshire moorland, Lakeland fells and Northern cityscapes to deliver performed readings of poetry and prose by the most famous family in the history of English Literature, along with new work inspired by their lives and pieces lovingly donated by kind friends, colleagues and members of the audience!
On the 198th anniversary of Branwell’s birth, Caroline will be at Cobbles and Clay in famous Haworth, the town that the Brontë family famously called home for their entire lives.
To follow her journey or donate a piece of work to be read, take a look at the company’s blog here: www.dangeroustoknow.org or follow us on Twitter: @DTKManc (#nocowardsoulismine)

The route so far:

The Black Cock Inn, Broughton-in-Furness – Saturday 20th June – 14:00pm
Kendal Library, Kendal – Sunday 21st June – 12:00pm
Cowan Bridge Village Hall, Cowan Bridge – Sunday 21st June – 19:00pm
Halifax Central Library, Halifax – Tuesday 23rd June – 17:30pm
The Cardigan Centre, Leeds – Wednesday 24th June – 20:00pm
The New Inn, Thornton – Thursday 25th June – 20:00pm
Cobbles and Clay, Haworth – Friday 26th June – 18:00pm
Sowerby Bridge Library, Sowerby Bridge – Saturday 27th June – 14:00pm
The Kings Arms Theatre, Salford – Wednesday 8th July – 7:30pm

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Anne's time

Did you catch this last night? From Keighley News:

A BBC film about Anne Brontë will be shown on TV tonight as part of the popular One Show.
A crew from the flagship news magazine show led by presenter Cerys Matthews visited Haworth in April.
Cerys, a roving cultural reporter, dropped into the Brontë Parsonage Museum, a film that Ponden Hall and stayed at The Fleece in Main Street. The main subject of the short film is Anne Brontë and her novel The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall.
The filming came on the same day the Brontë Parsonage Museum launched a major Brontë celebration.
Museum spokesman Rebecca Yorke said: “It was a lovely coincidence for us that it was Charlotte Brontë’s 199th birthday - it added to the 'buzz' of the day.”
Cerys Matthews is a musician, author and broadcaster, who writes a column for the Guardian newspaper and presents an award-winning radio show on BBC6 every Sunday. [...]
The museum this afternoon tweeted that the One Show film would be screened tonight at 7pm. (David Knights)

And The Telegraph and Argus has great news for Anne Brontë as well:

Brontë expert Ann Dinsdale is putting the spotlight on the least-famous Brontë sister Anne.
Ann, who works at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, has written and presented a new DVD entitled Anne Brontë: The Final Journey.
The film, created with Haworth man James Hutton, who runs Bay Video Productions, focuses on the last few months of Anne’s life.
The pair filmed in York and Scarborough as well as Haworth as they followed in the footsteps of Charlotte and Emily’s younger sister.
Ann said: “Anne was the youngest member of the Brontë family who is usually seen as having lived her life in the shadow of her sisters.”[...]
Ann Dinsdale is the collections manager for the Brontë Society at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, while James’s mother Joanna Hutton was the museum curator in the 1960s.
James and his sister Sarah, who was also involved in filming the DVD, grew up at the Parsonage.
James started making documentary videos in 2006 when he worked with writer Norman Scoles on A History of Robin Hood's Bay.
James said: “This sold so well that in 2007, we produced A Haworth History Trail which was again released on DVD.[...]
Anne Brontë: The Final Journey will be sold in the shop at the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Visit bayvideoproductions.co.uk to buy any of the Bay Video Productions DVDs. (David Knights)

Smoky Mountain News features Haworth.

It’s 4:30 in the morning, Sunday June 18, and I stood a few moments ago on the cobbled street outside the Old White Line Inn. I slept poorly; the gentleman in Room 12 across the hall wakened me with ursine snoring, and “nature’s soft nurse” left the room. Grabbing my computer bag, I headed to the hotel lobby, where only the ticking of the clock in the hall interrupts the stillness.
Workmen laid the cobbles on the street I just mentioned in 1755. It is an ancient thoroughfare, and up and down this hill have passed Norman knights, Anglo-Saxon warriors, Viking raiders, Celtic traders, Roman legionaries, and heaven knows who else. Not another human soul is on this street so early this damp morning, and as I linger here, drumming up the ghosts of a Roman soldier or a medieval monk takes little imagination. As a native told me yesterday, Haworth is magical, and after two days here, I am inclined to agree with him.
Haworth (pronounced Ha-worth) sits atop a steep hill here in the Moors. The buildings are made of millstone grit, a workable stone used for construction in nearly all the buildings in the surrounding valleys and hills. The locals even made their rooftops from this stone, with the roof tiles about an inch thick.
Wherever you go in Haworth, you either climb or descend; to make the haul from the railway station a mile away left me in a sweat. By day, the streets of Haworth are lively with tourists, but by six in the evening they belong to the locals, who jam the pubs up and down the street with thumping karaoke music, louder catcalls and oaths, and raucous laughter. Just down the street on this wet morning roosters have begun crowing, and soon the sheep will begin bleating and rummaging about for breakfast. (Jeff Minick) (Read more)

Still locally, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner has selected the '10 top Yorkshire parks for the summer holidays'.

1. Oakwell Hall and Country Park
Tucked away in Birstall, Oakwell Hall is a sprawling country park boasting woodland trails, pretty picnic areas and lots of wide open fields for football, rounders and cricket (all three of which you'll probably see being played in summer).
There's also an adventure playground and two educational visitor centres where youngsters can learn about the different wildlife that live in the park's woodlands and ponds.
The historic hall - popular with Brontë fans, as it was the inspiration for Fieldhead in Charlotte Brontë's Shirley - recreates life in the Elizabethan era, while the nearby barn hosts craft sessions and other fun activities.
An onsite cafe serves hot and cold food, drinks, cakes and ice creams - but there's plenty of space to enjoy a picnic too.
Did you know? Oakwell Hall supposedly has a resident ghost - William Batt, who owned the house in 1684. (Samantha Robinson)

More summer plans, regardless of your location. Deborah Lutz's The Brontë Cabinet is recommended as a summer read by Fine Books & Collections magazine:

As Paula Byrne did with The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things, published in 2013, Lutz shapes her narrative not as a ‘cradle to grave’ biography of the Brontës, but instead targets nine objects that reveal, through facts and extracts from the sisters’ fiction, something meaningful about their lives and passions. For example, Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell, all obsessive scribblers and crafters, used whatever paper scraps they had on hand to create tiny manuscript books. Lutz writes, “these children wanted to be bookmakers.” Their little magazines were not only communal play, but creative rehearsal for future novels. Branwell’s walking stick is the focus of a chapter on the Brontës’ “near-daily” engagement with their physical environment, the Yorkshire moors, and Emily’s wild side. An engraved brass dog collar, a seemingly unlikely artifact to mine in a literary biography, provides the fodder for an enlightening chapter on the family’s pets, the “cult of the pet” in Victorian England, and bizarre incidents of dognapping at the time. Desks, sewing “workboxes,” mourning jewelry made with hair--Lutz allows her research to bloom from each object in such an engaging and intelligent way that one hopes this archeological approach to biography, akin to material culture, flourishes. (Rebecca Rego Barry)

And Patricia Park's Re Jane is recommended as a beach read by Good Times:

Patricia Park’s charming debut novel, Re Jane, leaps off the pages of perennial classic Jane Eyre into territory all its own. Instead of English moors, we journey from Queens to Brooklyn to Korea and back with a heroine who is spirited, orphaned, and half Korean. With truths to tell about love, identity, and fitting in, Re Jane is the 21st century story of colliding cultures, stumbling blocks, and one young woman who manages to shake off other people’s expectations in pursuit of her best sense of self. (Wendy Mayer-Lochtefeld)

The novel is also reviewed (focusing on the Korean topic) on KoreanAm.

Life Hacker suggests taking it easy during the summer and recalls the fact that,

creative minds across generations like Tennyson, Keats, Brontë, Dickinson, and Shakespeare all wax rhapsodic about the rejuvenating beauty of summer, and how it’s a special time of year for developing your creativity. (Alan Henry)

Oh dear, Jean Rhys must be turning in her grave. According to The Huffington Post,

Like Jean Rhys, author of the classic Jane Eyre spinoff Wide Sargasso Sea, E.L. James has tasked herself with the job of writing an entire novel explaining the vantage point of a misunderstood character: Christian Grey, the wealthy, dominant protagonist of her own Fifty Shades franchise. (Claire Fallon and Maddie Crum)

Bustle lists several 'Controlling And Manipulative Relationship Signs' and makes it clear that,

We have centuries of romantic literature and other art — from Wuthering Heights to Twilight — telling us that real relationships are all about obsession; that real love is all-consuming, and that people who are truly in love have no boundaries or separate lives. But while all that obsession may make for an absorbing romance novel plot, in real life, control, manipulation and obsession aren’t signs of true, passionate love — they are signs that your partner is controlling and manipulative. (Gabrielle Moss)

Variety reviews the film The Village.

Seemingly incapable of grasping that her progressive values might register as offensive here, Amy bridles at being introduced as Nika’s “wife” — indeed, they’ve come here in hopes of repairing a shaky relationship well short of marital commitment. A photographer, she snaps shots of locals without much thought as to their ease at being snapped, particularly when it comes to dashing, mute “widow’s son” Kopale (Tornike Gogrichiani), a shunned figure who frequently surfaces out of the blue like some moody Caucasus Heathcliff — but his intentions may be more sinister than passionate. (Dennis Harvey)

Express and Radio Times both look at house names in the UK.

The Royal Mail analysed its database of all 29.3 million UK addresses and produced a list of the top 50 most popular house names. Downton's Highclere Castle (the place where Downton is shot) was the highest scoring TV residence, with 188 houses sharing the real-life name of the ITV Abbey. [...]
Poldark mania appears to have taken hold in the housing market too, with Ross Poldark’s, Nampara cottage found at 116 addresses across the country.
They're all small fry compared to the rather popular Toad Hall (496) and Thornfield from Jane Eyre (311), but it's a sure sign that TV and film are influencing our daily lives. (Sarah Doran)

La Stampa (Italy) has an article on Branwell Brontë. And Nonfiction (France) thinks that Emily Brontë died after having burned her papers. Readers Lane lists several (very) recent Wuthering Heights retellings. The Vintage Twins have visited Haworth and the  Parsonage.

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Jane Re in Minnesota

Today, June 25, on Minnesota Public Radio:

For June's edition of The Thread Book Club, we're bringing in a pre-eminent polar explorer to discuss an inventive new twist on an old classic.
This month's book is "Re Jane" by Patricia Park. Explorer Ann Bancroft will join us in the studio on June 25 as we talk to Park about her debut novel, which turns Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" on its head.

Park remakes Brontë's classic for the 21st century with her inspired retelling, centered on a young Korean-American girl trying to make her way in New York City. Jane Re, eager to move out of her family's home in Queens, takes an au pair gig with a well-to-do, progressive couple in Brooklyn.
Fans of Brontë's original can imagine where the story goes from there, but Park's book is a delight whether or not you've read the classic. Brontë is just a launching pad for Park — "Re Jane" takes off into entirely fresh and unexplored places.
Speaking of unexplored places, Bancroft knows a thing or two about those. She is the first known woman in history to cross the ice to both the North and South Poles.
Read "Re Jane" along with us and tune in on Thursday, June 25 as Park, Bancroft and MPR News' Kerri Miller discuss the book.
Share your questions for The Thread Book Club with @thethreadmpr and we'll ask them in the studio.

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Playing Solitaire and not wearing enough clothes

Game Rant presents... Regency Solitary and it's exactly what the name implies:

Regency Solitaire is like if a Jane Eyre-inspired visual novel met Solitaire, but somehow managed to be more entertaining, elegant, and engaging than any Solitaire game you’ve ever played. (Melissa Loomis)

The Huffington Post gives ideas to authors about how to kill your characters without bloodshed:

Not wearing enough clothes in the middle of winter on the moors near Haworth, UK, near the ruined home said to have inspired Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë. (LJ Charleston)

The Guardian reviews The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson:

The Sky is Everywhere is about Lennie Walker, who loves Wuthering Heights, plays the clarinet, and recently lost her sister Bailey. She expresses her feelings through poems, which she leaves throughout the town for no one to read. Lennie finds it hard to share her feelings with anyone, and she cant let go of Bailey. (Laura, thespecialone)

Big Gay Picture Show reviews the Blu-Ray edition of Fifty Shades of Grey:

Indeed, it’s much like the people who pine for Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights under the presumption that because he’s damaged and occasionally sweet, that makes up for the fact he is a violent, nasty brute. In Fifty Shades, for much of the time it’s presented that the only thing Christian has to offer Ana is money and looking gorgeous, and that she has to essentially give up her freedom and be miserable most of the time to get that. (Tim Isaac)

The Wharfedale & Aireborough Observer announces some of the participants in the upcoming Ilkley Literature Festival (October):

New York based critically acclaimed Caryl Phillips will be presenting his 11th novel, The Lost Child, inspired by Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and set against the Leeds cityscape of his childhood. (Claire Lomax)

The Conversation talks with the writer Sofie Laguna:

In adopting a male pseudonym Miles Franklin joined writers such as Henry Handel Richardson, George Eliot and George Sand who all published under male pen names in an attempt to conceal their true gender.
Even the Brontës published under male pseudonyms in their lifetime. Charlotte became Currer Bell, Anne became Acton Bell and Emily became Ellis Bell. (Camilla Nelson)

A veteran reader in NolaVie:

The funny part is that I could pick up a copy of Jane Eyre, open it to any page and tell you what happened in the previous chapter. But then I first read it at the age of 12, probably four more times over the years and saw every movie or TV show made of the novel. (Bettye Anding)

This obituary of the composer James Horner, published in the New York Daily News mentions the power of music in film:

The composer brought together teenage poetry and age-old angst, star-crossed sensualism and the depth of classic movie love themes. Like the music for "Wuthering Heights," "Romeo & Juliet," "Love Story," "A Man and a Woman" and "Summer of '42," Horner's "Titanic" music didn't run from the unabashed emotion it needed to create. Instead, it embraced it, and in doing so owned the tragic canvas the movie needed. (Joe Neumaier)

Penn News talks about a very particular student of its university:

“When I first started studying literature, it took me a while to be able to read something outside of crime novels,” says Morgan. “There’s a certain way that crime fiction follows. There’s a pattern, there’s a template that most crime fiction has, whereas Jane Eyre doesn’t. So, it took me a while to get adjusted to reading that type of high literature.” (Jeanne Long)

WVTF has an article about Meursault, contre-enquête, the sequel of Marcel Camus's L'Étranger, by Kamel Daoud:

But over the past half century, actual fiction writers have enjoyed lifting characters from famous books and fleshing out their lives — you know, Jean Rhys telling the back story of Rochester's mad wife from Jane Eyre in Wide Sargasso Sea, or Tom Stoppard making bleak comedy out of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet. (John Powers)

La Semaine (France) reviews the latest film adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd:

Les bonnes soupes se font-elles pour autant dans les vieux pots ? Il n'en reste pas moins vrai que Thomas Hardy, immense romancier anglais dixneuviémard, peut inspirer des films très regardables à l'instar des sœurs Brontë ou de Jane Austen qui constituent d'intarissables sources scénaristiques pour le cinéma «so british». (Fernand-Joseph Meyer) (Translation)

The film is one of the listed as best films so far of 2015 by Time Magazine:

Carrie Mulligan's gutsy Bathsheba gets swept off her feet like the best of her 19th century romantic peers, but without their usual histrionics - somewhere between Lean In and  Wuthering Heights. (Sarah Begley)

Notizie (Italy) explores books for fourteen years old girls:

Torniamo ai grandi classici: per chi cerca, oltre ad una storia d’amore, un fondo introspettivo, può diventare interessante Cime tempestose di Emily Brönte (sic), dove gelosia e spirito di vendetta distruggono le vite degli individui, oppure si può appassionare alle donne-eroine di Jane Austen (in Ragione e sentimento, Orgoglio e pregiudizio,Emma) o alla tragica vicenda di tradimenti che consuma le protagoniste di Madame Bovary di Flaubert e Anna Karenina di Tolstoj. (Translation)

Südkurier reviews the performances of Gespenster sind auch nur Menschen by Tom Müller in Kandern, Germany. This sort of Irma Vep-ish piece has a character with a Brontë twist:

Der Theaterprofi Müller versteht es auch als Komödienautor geschickt, die Zuschauer bis in die späten Abendstunden, wenn es empfindlich kühl wird auf der Burg, bei Laune zu halten. Sein Stück und seine Inszenierung haben pointierten Dialog- und Wortwitz, die Figuren sind humorvoll bis spleenig-skurril gezeichnet, oft auch lustvoll parodistisch überzeichnet, und sogar literarische Anspielungen sind im Plot versteckt – angefangen vom Diener mit dem klangvollen Namen Heathcliff, frei nach dem Helden aus Emily Brontës „Sturmhöhe“, bis zu dem Kriminologen und Gespensterjäger Dr. Watson. (Roswitha Frey) (Translation)

Patheos (and also here) reviews Jane Eyre’s Sisters by Jody Gentian Bower. Dieter Falk explains in Rheinischen Post (in German) the structure of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights song. 8Asians reviews Patricia Park's Re Jane.

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We are Brontë

Opening tomorrow, June 25, in Exeter, this promises to be a funny take on the Brontës:

We Are Brontë
Publik Transport Company

Times: Jun 25-27, 7.30pm
Venue: The Bike Shed Theatre,162-163 Fore Street,Exeter,EX4 3AT

We Are Brontë is a piece of comic visual theatre inspired by the real and imaginery worlds of Yorkshire’s literary siblings, presented in Publick Transport’s irreverent style. Physical theatre collides with clowning and improvisation as two performers deconstruct not only gothic themes of love, madness, repression and revenge, but also themselves. Part play, part enquiry into the act of putting on a play, this promises to be no ordinary Brontë adaptation.

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Painting her portrait

A Bustle writer has selected the '8 Books That Made [Her] Want To Be An English Major'. Jane Eyre is first on the list.

I remember reading Charlotte Brontë’s gothic classic Jane Eyre when I was 14 and feeling enveloped and challenged by it, but also incredibly entertained. It was an experience I’d never gotten from any other book, even the ones I’d really liked, and it marked the beginning of my love and fascination for the written word. Since then there have been many, many more books that have deepened my respect and love for all genres of literature, and ultimately compelled me to major in English. It would probably take me the space of an entire novel to write about all of them, so for now I’ll just list the stars. Here are eight books that made me want to major in English — if you’re a fellow book lover, maybe you’ll relate.
1. Jane Eyre. Obviously, as I said above, this work of fiction was the one that really kicked off my desire to major in English. It’s incredibly well written, and everything from the dreary, English setting to the creepy mystery of Mr. Rochester and his weird marriage made me love reading this novel. But I also really liked seeing an independent, single, female character written in what was historically not a great time for women. (Elizabeth Enochs)

Broadway World has composer Paul Gordon tell the back story of five of his songs such as

"Painting Her Portrait" - Jane Eyre
"In 1993, I found myself sitting in John Caird's backyard as he was looking over my first draft of Jane Eyre, holding a menacing red pencil while he corrected my spelling. He basically liked what I had done but felt there was a song missing. It was the moment when Jane first hears that Mr. Rochester is to become engaged to Blanche Ingram. John suggested there should be a song that would allow the audience to experience Jane's low self-esteem as she compares herself to her beautiful rival. I sat down to write the song the next day and I took a direct quote from the novel, 'I'm painting my portrait, an absolute likeness,' and the melody and lyrics came to me as quickly as any song I've ever written. I played the song immediately for my friend Nell Balaban (who later went on to play Grace Poole in the original Broadway production) and I was met with instant approval. The next day I worked on the song a little more and played it again for Nell. She pointed out that a night's sleep had altered my beginning melody that I loved so much, without my realizing it. Luckily Nell has great ears and I was able to re-instate the original melody. The song remains one of my favorites because it reflects musically the agony Jane is feeling in this moment. Similar to the agony I felt when John Caird was correcting my spelling." (Pat Cerasaro)

The Huffington Post suggests being a patron of your own art.

Charlotte Brontë was a poorly paid governess who not only used her money to pay for her writing career but used her experiences as a governess for her characters of Jane Eyre and Villette. (Kristen Houghton) 

Technically though, it was the money their aunt had left them in her will that was initially used for the sisters' self-publication of their book of poems.

Who needs to think? is posting about Jane Eyre.

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Deborah Lutz and The Brontë Cabinet

Professor Deborah Lutz discusses
 the Brontë sisters with Amy Cherry,
presenting the book at The Strand, NY (May 2015)

Deborah Lutz is presenting her book The Brontë Cabinet in several places in the US. For instance, tomorrow June 24, she will be in Boulder, CO:

Deborah Lutz -- "The Brontë Cabinet"
Deborah Lutz will speak about and sign her new book, The Brontë Cabinet, on Wednesday, June 24th at 7:30pm
Boulder Book Store

About the Book:
In this unique biography of a literary family that has enthralled readers for nearly two centuries, Victorian literature scholar Deborah Lutz illuminates the fascinating lives of the Brontës through the things they wore, stitched, wrote on, and inscribed. By unfolding the histories of the meaningful objects in their family home in Haworth, The Brontë Cabinet  immerses readers in a recreation of the sisters' daily lives while moving us chronologically forward through the major biographical events.

Vouchers to attend are $5 and are good for $5 off the author’s featured book or a purchase the day of the event. Vouchers can be purchased in advance, over the phone, or at the door. Readers Guild Members can reserve seats for any in-store event.

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The Truth According to Willa

More Poldark mentions from across the pond. This time from The New York Times' ArtsBeat:

“Masterpiece” fans rejoice! “Poldark” is here to upend your “Downton Abbey”-formed notions of trans-Atlantic costume dramas. A remake of the treasured show from the 1970s, based on the novels by Winston Graham, “Poldark” is far from typical fare. The servants are toothless and may have lice, the masters’ estates sit on ruined mining land and the childhood sweethearts are doomed. Brawls, dogfighting and gambling prove key features of the first episode alone, and no one sits and discusses matters over tea. In short, it’s more Brontë than Austen. (Sarah Seltzer)

Or Variety:

Much in the vein of “Wuthering Heights,” the series mixes class distinctions and romance, offering the kind of classy soap that should help keep Anglophiles’ cockles happily warmed between now and more “Downton Abbey.” (Brian Lowry)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was a book that was sort of tailor-made for Brontëites and it looks as if the new novel by its co-author Annie Barrows, The Truth According to Us, caters to them as well. Seattle Times reviews it:

In a novel full of richly drawn, memorable characters, bright, feisty Willa is the standout. She’s proud to be “a natural-born sneak” at the service of her neighbor friend’s “army” against a group of rival kids. When she’s not sneaking around, Willa is reading. She considers “Jane Eyre” “the best book in the world” and has surreptitiously read Minnerva and Mae’s copy of “Gone with the Wind” “ ’bout twenty” times. (Agnes Torres Al-Shibibi)

Stage Whispers reviews the Hobart Theatre Jane Eyre production:

A clever, warm empathetic, satisfying production, worth seeing - and an excuse to re-read Jane Eyre. (Merlene Abbott)

Been There, Read That reviews Wuthering Heights.

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The Music of Paul Gordon in New York

If you are around New York tomorrow, June 23, and you are a fan of Jane Eyre. The Musical, you are really lucky:

The Music of Paul Gordon
feat. Sarah Stiles, Jeremy Kushnier, & more

54 Below
Tue, Jun 23   9:30pm Doors 8:45pm

Join us for an evening featuring the music of Tony Award-nominated composer Paul Gordon.Featuring Broadway Artists:
Jeremy Kushnier (Jesus Christ Superstar, Footloose)
Sarah Stiles (Avenue Q, On a Clear Day, Into The Woods)
Andrew Samonsky (Hunchback of Notre Dame, Edwin Drood, Scandalous)
Christy Altomare (Mamma Mia)Clarke Thorell (Annie, Hairspray)
Abby Mueller (Kinky Boots, Joseph…Dreamcoat)
Lianne Marie Dobbs (White Christmas, Emma)
Dani Marcus (Emma, Vanities)
Performers subject to change.
Music Direction: Laura Bergquist
Directed by:  Nell Balaban
Produced by:  Larry Lelli

54 presents an evening of beautiful music written by Tony Award-nominated composer/lyricist Paul Gordon. Filled with love, longing, heartbreak and humor, songs will be selected from Paul’s vast array of musicals such as Jane Eyre, Emma, Daddy Long Legs, Sense and Sensibility, and The Front.  They will be performed by some of Broadway’s finest talent, for a fun-filled night of his widely-skilled writing, which contains elements of pop, classical, rock, and swing.  Certain to be a night full of great music and surprises that all musical theatre lovers will enjoy.

Paul Gordon was nominated for a 2001 Tony Award for his score to the musical Jane Eyre.  He won a 2009 Ovation award for music/lyrics to Daddy Long Legs and won the 2007 Bay Area Critics Circle Award for his libretto to the musical Emma, developed by TheatreWorks and later staged at The Old Globe Theatre.  Daddy Long Legs, written with and directed by John Caird and developed by the Rubicon Theatre Company, has had productions all over the world including London, Canada and Tokyo and will make its New York debut in the fall of 2015. Sense and Sensibility will have its world premiere in the spring of 2015 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.  His pop musical Analog and Vinyl, a 2013 NAMT Festival selection, had its first production at the Weston Playhouse in 2014.  The world premiere of Little Miss Scrooge, written with and directed by John Caird, is slated for Christmas of 2015. His other shows include: Being Earnest, Death: The Musical, The Front, and The Sportswriter.

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Reading Under a Blazing Sun

The Sunday Express is concerned about the growing heritage stone theft and reminds us of the Thornton theft:

Thefts have reached an “epidemic” level with slabs, some of which date back to Roman times, being ripped up from churches, graveyards and pavements across Britain.
Even gravestones are disappearing, including those from a Grade II listed chapel at Thornton, near Bradford, where the Brontë sisters were baptised. (Caroline Wheeler)

The Times reviews Deborah Lutz's The Brontë Cabinet:

"The dog, an oversized bull terrier, was powerful and aggressive and most of the inhabitants of the parsonage were terrified of him. He had an unpleasant habit of lunging at people’s throats as well as stretching himself out on clean bedspreads, much to the chagrin of the scrupulous housekeeper who threatened to banish him from the house unless he changed his ways." (Read more) (Paula Byrne)

The Telegraph talks about Thackeray's Vanity Fair and its Waterloo inspiration:

The modern conception of Thackeray is as a sort of public school old boy: the portly, outdated father of slapstick. But readers of his time appreciated his subtlety and sensitivity. Charlotte Brontë called him “a Titan… a purely original mind,” and praised the “sane energy” of his writing. (Jonathan McAloon)

The Star Tribune talks about British Landmark Trust's Tixall Gatehouse:

Within a roughly two-hour drive of Tixall we could have explored the Brontë sisters’ parsonage at Haworth, popping up in the middle of the bleak town cemetery. (Raphael Kadushin)

The Independent (Ireland) lists several of the best of the worst Fifty Shades lines:

"But why England? I ask her. 'It's the home of Shakespeare, Austen, the Brontë sisters, Thomas Hardy. I'd like to see the places that inspired those people to write such wonderful books.' It's obvious this is her first love. Books." (...)
"She's an incurable romantic who loves the English classics. But then so do I, for different reasons. I don't have any Jane Austen first editions, or Brontës, for that matter, but I do have two Thomas Hardys." 

The Sydney Morning Herald reviews The Simple Act of Reading, edited by Debra Adelaide:

A common thread is the ecstatic thrill of being transported into other (more exotic) worlds; David Malouf's first meeting with Jane Eyre was so deeply felt that he was acutely sensitive to the frosty cold of Rochester's Thornfield mansion even as he was reading the novel under a blazing sun ("What extraordinary creatures we are that we can be, on the same occasion, in two quite different places …") (Thuy On)

Scroll.in (India) on college admission interviews:

After a happy childhood of little or no serious reading (unless you think that comics like Tinkle,Champak and Asterix belong in the same company as Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Muktibodh), I was stumped by a pointed question during my interview to study English at St Stephen’s. “But you haven’t really read any of the classics. Why do you think you’ll read them now?” I did not have a satisfactory answer to give then, and I don’t think I have one today. But in true Delhi jugaad spirit, I had borrowed and quickly read Jane Eyre two weeks before my interview. Of course they never asked me anything about it. Having established the fact that I didn’t read books, they wanted to know what did I do with my time? (Mridula Koshi)

Culture Map-Houston thinks that Poldark will also be a US success:

He does dark and brooding so well. That long dark curly hair and sexy stubble – he’s a 21st century Heathcliff. (Clifford Pugh)

Sunday's Zaman (Turkey) reviews the Secret in the Attic series by LA Peacock:

In “Jane Eyre,” Mr. Rochester had a truly scary secret in his attic, and one that was to put a stop to his marrying his beloved Jane. The secret in Uncle Harry's attic is much less sinister. In the dark and among all the dust is an old trunk. This trunk contains historical items and a time-compass. (Marion James)

Le Nouvel Observateur talks about Laura Ingalls Wilder:

Alors que sa mère s’évertuait à lui répéter qu’une « femme bien élevée n’attire jamais l’attention sur elle », Laura Ingalls Wilder a finalement captivé l’attention de milliers de lecteurs, et de nombreux critiques la placent en tête des héroïnes littéraires aux côtés de Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë et Colette. (Fanny André) (Translation)

Blasting News (Spain) lists five books that your sons have to read. Including Jane Eyre:

Aunque un poco extensa para el ojo juvenil, "Jane Eyre" es una novela llevadera y lo suficientemente fragmentada como para no atorar a los lectores jóvenes. Particularmente aconsejable para las niñas entrando en la adolescencia, esta "novela de aprendizaje" cuenta la historia de la joven Jane desde que es una pequeña, que concluye en que la única forma de evitar ir al infierno es no morir, hasta que se convierte en una adulta curiosa e inteligente. Así, Jane Eyre nos da una mirada en primera persona sobre el laborioso proceso de convertirse en adulto. (...)
Además, Jane Eyre abarca una particular concepción de las relaciones de pareja, en las cuales la igualdad, el cariño, la reciprocidad y el compañerismo deben ser primordiales, y en las que jamás debe haber una atadura que prevenga el alejamiento, cuando una de las partes se vea dañada. (Laura Fernández Storari) (Translation)

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Jane Eyre Brazilian Week

This is Jane Eyre week on Universia Brasil (#semanajaneeyre on Twitter and on Facebook):

O clássico de Brontë é uma autobiografia ficcional, que conta a história da personagem principal, Jane Eyre, órfã de pai e mãe, que vive de favor com seu tio. Após o falecimento do tio, Jane é enviada para um internato, em meio ao descaso de sua tia, que não gostava dela, Jane passa a perseguir o caminho em busca da liberdade e da independência. Após passar de aluna a professora na mesma instituição onde estudou, Jane se torna preceptora da jovem Adéle, pupila protegida do misterioso Mr. Edward Rochester. Quando o caminho de Jane e Rochester se cruzam, tem início uma história de romance entre as duas personagens.
A narrativa da obra pode ser considerada de vanguarda, sobretudo em um período em que asmulheres ainda enfrentavam grandes preconceitos ao lutarem por sua independência. Embora possua elementos góticos, como o clima de mistério, ambientação em castelos e tragicidade, o livro não se encaixa nesta época literária. (Translation)

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Sneak a peek at their inner lives

Sudhamahi Regunathan, in The Hindu, draws attention to Prof. John Bowen’s Wuthering Heights discussions in the British Library series Discovering Literature: Romantics and Victorians:

The videos from British Library are short but deep enough to transport you to the world of literature. For instance, anyone who has read “Wuthering Heights” will remember its haunting landscape. There is a video which actually takes you to the Moors and Prof. John Bowen from University of York talks to you as you see the landscape you once saw sketched by words.

The Telegraph and The Independent review Deborah Lutz's The Brontë Cabinet:

"Thing theory” is on the march. What began as a branch of literary criticism has become a fashion in biography: out with the ancestors and in with the chamber pots. I don’t suppose the birth-to-death approach to “life-writing” has vanished forever, but for the moment we may have to wade through a scholarly sourcing of the wood from which first the cradle and then the coffin were fashioned.
Deborah Lutz in The Brontë Cabinet doesn’t altogether eschew chronology, but her fix on stuff over story does obscure the drama of the siblings dying and books being born. Her narrative is cluttered with objects as various as a portable writing desk and a bracelet made of Emily and Anne Brontë’s hair. She is never uninteresting about unfamiliar aspects of Victorian material culture, from the fascination with boxes within boxes to scandals surrounding fraudulent mourning jewellery. Her method is to travel some distance from the Brontës and then loop back again via a reference to a scene in one of the novels: Louis Moore in Shirley swooning over the contents of the heroine's unlocked desk or Nelly Dean determinedly adding Edgar Linton’s hair to Heathcliff’s in the locket around Catherine’s neck. (Read more) (Claudia FitzHerbert) 

There’s something hugely appealing about tracing the expansiveness of a life through the tininess of an object. It’s not just that the most insignificant thing can become deeply meaningful; its existence can also be a way of linking the art and the life in a way that biography is sometimes wary of doing. In her consideration of objects such as the desk box and the miniature, hand-made book, Lutz makes connections that are effective and often full of enjoyable speculation. (...)
Emily’s even more ambiguous sexuality is teased out through the walking stick. Lutz cannot be sure that Emily even used one, but she links this item to Emily’s status as a “renegade woman”, out walking the moors alone when only the most daring women would dream of doing such a thing. Lutz stresses that Emily was given the nickname “the Major”, because of her “assertive, masculine ways”, and in her chapter on Emily’s dog, Keeper, assesses Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights through this double sexual identity (hinting that Heathcliff, in wanting to absorb Cathy, could be both male and female. Was this an expression of Emily’s own desire?).
This is a fun as well as a scholarly way to examine the art and the life. Innocuous objects take on erotic implications when linked with the body, as she shows with the miniature hand-made books: printed paper had different uses in the Brontë era, even recycled as toilet paper. There are tragic overtones, too: the crafting of such tiny books after the deaths in childhood of Maria and Elizabeth became a “kind of consolation”, as though the body of the book could replace the body of the now-absent sister. In looking at the Brontës through their most precious possessions, Lutz lets us sneak a peek at their inner lives as well as their outer ones, in a sympathetic and informative way. (Lesley McDowell)

Helen Dunmore praises the pleasure of perusing a real book in The Guardian:

We understand other languages, even if we do not speak them. We live in 16th-century London, or Hogwarts. We run on the moors with Cathy and Heathcliff. We are watched by Big Brother, and sense our own weakness in the face of implacable totalitarianism. 

NJ.com announces a filming in town which can be of interest to our readers:

Rakesh Baruah, a student in the Columbia University MFA program, will be completing his MFA thesis by making a short film comedy titled, "Ms. Bula Banerjee" at the Cranford Public Library, and library members have a chance to be part of it.
Aparna Nancherla (FX, Comedy Central, NPR, Conan) stars as Bula Banerjee, a librarian whose dream is to establish the Bronte Sisters as the paragons of Young Adult fiction. One day, Lydia, a corporate consultant hired by the state, shows up with the mission of increasing the library's bottom line. Her solution? Less Brontë Sisters and more Young Adult fiction that's hot; more circulation means more overdue fines. Bula takes a stand, but Lydia's charisma beguiles the rest of the library staff. Bula must make a choice: quit, or go down fighting for the library she loves. (...)
The shooting will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., on Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12, and Saturday and Sunday, July 18 and 19, when the library is closed. Even if only come for one day, Baruah and his crew would love to have you be a part of the story. To be included, email slfilmcasting@gmail.com. Be sure to indicate the days and hours of your availablility.

We read in La Nación (Argentina) about the death of the actor Sergio Renán (1933-2015), and a very preliminary idea that the playwright Alejandro Tantanian was exploring:

Anteanoche, Tantanian me contó que se había quedado pensando en todo aquello. Le llevó tiempo poder imaginar una propuesta hasta que se lo imaginó como el padre de las hermanas Brontë (familia clave de la literatura inglesa del siglo XIX) en una especie de monólogo, para montar en un teatro alternativo. Todo esto, me dice, se lo cuenta en un correo electrónico enviado a principio del año pasado. (...)
Luego de agradecerle la propuesta, la propia elección del material de las Brontë, la carta termina así: "¿Qué puedo decirte? Con mi voz anterior, con entusiasmo me incorporaría al proyecto. Hoy...sólo me parece una expresión de deseos. Esperemos". (Alejandro Cruz) (Translation)

Not the first time that Sergio Renán approached the Brontës. He was the director of a TV series in 1970 for Canal 7 adapting great novels: "Las grandes novelas", including Wuthering Heights. Regrettably the original tapes were reused later and we have not even able to trace a picture of the production:

EPISODIO: "Cumbres Borrascosas"
AUTORÍA Emily Brontë
ADAPTACIÓN Mario Mactas and Mario Sábato
ELENCO: Héctor Alterio, Aldo Barbero, Luis Brandoni, Pablo Codevilla, Ulises Dumont, Juana Hidalgo, Zulema Katz, Onofre Lovero ,Gianni Lunadei, Leonor Manso, Bertha Roth, Elena Tasisto, María Valenzuela, Walter Vidarte
PUESTA EN ESCENA: Sergio Renán
DIRECCIÓN: Marcelo Domínguez
DIRECCIÓN GENERAL: Sergio Renán

Eve Chase remembers in The Guardian the 'olden days' (that is the 70s and 80s) and how books shaped her education:

When things got really bad – bullied at school, forced to share the dampest, smallest bedroom with your most annoying brother – well, at least you weren’t at Gateshead Hall with poor Jane Eyre.

The San Francisco Book Review publishes a review (by a very young reader) of Jane Eagland's The World Within:

Eagland does an excellent job of developing Emily’s character - the reader feels for her emotions even when they are irrational. It is very interesting to read the book and then research the real Emily Brontë, as many of the events recounted in the book actually happened. Readers of Wuthering Heights or of the other Brontë’s works will likely find it interesting to read Eagland’s take on the mysterious Brontë sisters.  (Faith, Age 11)

John Clark, actor in a local production The Mystery of Irma Vep (Port Townsend, WA) talks about the piece in Peninsula Daily News:

“It spoofs so many favorite genres,” he said: classic love stories like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre along with the Hitchcock and the guys in drag. Buster Keaton-style comedy and literary references coexist in the script. (Diane Urbani De La Paz)

This article is on a serious topic but judging from this anecdote written in the Pioneer Press we don't think the author could be one of our readers:

I felt guilty when I got scolded by a nun in front of the class for not reading "Jane Eyre" as part of a book assignment.
"I just did not have the time to read it, Sister," I remember saying. I fibbed. I did not want to admit that I found the book to be boring and girlish.  (Ruben Rosario)

The Crawley and Horley Observer talks with Mandy Watson from Cloudbusting, a Kate Bush tribute band:

“And even now, when I say to people what I do, they often give me their terrible impersonation of Wuthering Heights because it has been satirised so many times! But I guess it was because she was just so different, so exciting.” (...)
“She has taken me on such a journey with her music, so many milestones in my life, and there she was, smiling and waving. People came away saying it was a shame she didn’t do Wuthering Heights, but what she did do was amazing.” (Phil Hewitt)

Profil (Austria) discusses whether the Pirelli calendar is sexist and has a curious comparison going on:

Aus der aktuellen Perspektive der sexuellen Schrankenlosigkeit betrachtet, die längst auch den Mainstram erfasst hat, erscheint der Inhalt des opulenten Fotobands mit dem schlichten Titel „Pirelli“ so sexistisch wie am heimeligen Kaminfeuer getätigte Stickarbeiten der Brontë-Schwestern. (Angelika Hager) (Translation)

El Norte de Castilla (Spain) has a curious Brontë reference in an article about a local football club:

Pues sí, una vez más en Guijuelo la película que se vive es por un lado un drama, más cercano a las intrigas familiares del tipo de ‘Cumbres Borrascosas’ o del misterio oscuro más propio de ‘El Nombre de la Rosa’, que a lo que debería de ser una oda a la alegría y al divertimento productivo, tanto económico como deportivo. (Damián Martín)

Fasano Live covers the presentation of the book Dimmi che credi al destino by Luca Bianchini:

Questo libro è un inno alla bellezza della cultura, è la storia di una libreria che è come se mettesse in mostra i suoi libri migliori e solleticasse il desiderio del lettore di divorarli tutti. Luca Bianchini cita “Anna Karenina”, “Cime tempestose”, versi di Montale con estrema libertà e naturalezza, intrecciando la storia di Ornella e degli amici che vi gravitano intorno alla nostra. Perché credere al destino può sembrare fatalista, ma a volte è l’unica salvezza possibile. (Ilaria Potenza) (Translation)

Cessarine uploads pictures of Haworth and the Parsonage on Flickr.

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