The Ghosts read Wuthering Heights

The Irish Times interviews Mia Gallagher:

They affect me the way works of the frightening and the fantastical have affected me since I was a child. That weird 1920s black-and-white movie I glimpsed on the telly, where a body got stretched so thin it became a worm; Maupassant’s Le Horla (read, bad idea, at age 9); Heathcliff’s Cathy tapping the midnight window of Wuthering Heights; Barney’s legs sliced through, bone and all, by a spinning wire in RTÉ’s Strumpet City; and, most recently, Jeff Vandermeer’s strange, creepily urgent sci-fi novel Annihilation.

Boston Herald reviews the film The Handmaiden:

In part one of a 2 1⁄2-hour, three-part film, we meet the eponymous young and beautiful servant Sook-hee (Tae-ri Kim), who will be renamed Tamako, Japanese-style (and learn to speak Japanese), when she arrives at her master’s mansion. If you are reminded of “Rebecca” and “Jane Eyre” in these scenes, and of Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” as Sook-hee takes leave of the band of mostly female pickpockets and cutpurses she has grown up with, you are not alone. (James Verniere)

Palatinate visted the Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal:

But my most prized souvenir was neither a Spanish book (as perhaps it should have been) nor the picture-perfect photo that everyone else was trying to capture, but instead a beautiful collector’s version of Brontë’s Wuthering Heights – one of my favourites – from the English language section. Miniature, striking, with a deep burgundy cover and pages lined with gold, I couldn’t resist. And now, sitting on my shelf in rainy Durham, I have my own piece of this truly remarkable bookshop. Not that it could really be forgotten. (Rebecca Holland) 

The Brown Lady is a local ghost haunting Chowan University. The News & Observer describes her:

Students take note. She’s sitting in that empty chair at the back of history class, taking notes with a quill. She’s up late reading “Wuthering Heights” in the common room. She’s dropping pre-calculus because she’s carrying a D-average at the mid-term and she needs to keep her scholarship. (Josh Shaffer)

ABC reviews the latest book of poems by Pere Gimferrer, No en mis días:

«Wuthering Heighs» (“Cumbres borrascosas”) llama la atención por la novela homónima de Brontë, pero alude al PSOE: «No darán sepultura al Sabbat de Suresnes», escribe: «Si no mencionaba Suresnes, no quedaba clara mi crítica. Fue el congreso fundacional del felipismo del que todavía no hemos salido. Todos los males del socialismo actual vienen de Suresnes». (Sergi Doria) (Translation)

Tracey-anne's Wordpress Blog posts about Wuthering Heights. Scrawl Across the World has visited Haworth. The Aroma of Books reviews Katherine Reay's The Brontë Plot. Ghosts and the Brontës on Nick Holland's Anne Brontë blog.

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Norman Sherry. In Memoriam

The Telegraph and others reports the death of the biographer and novelist Norman Sherry (1925-2016). He was mainly known as the biographer of Graham Greene, but he also published monographies on other authors like Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad and the Brontës:

Charlotte and Emily Brontë
Norman Sherry
Evans Brothers Ltd
Literature in Perspective
ISBN: 978-0237350246
August 1968

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The Bride of Murdery Heights

And we have a spooky Brontë-themed Halloween performance out there. In New York:

The Bride of Murdery Heights
Wednesday, October 19 2016
9:30pm
UCBT Chelsea
307 W. 26th St, New York, NY 10001
Director: Caitlin Bitzegaio
Writers: Erin Fenton, Aimee Lutkin, Jaime Lutz
Cast:  Erin Fenton, Aimee Lutkin, Jaime Lutz,  Kelsey Bailey, Tessa Hersh, Jon Monje, Alexis Pereira, Alexis Rhiannon, Cian Smith.

In this spooky, sexy tale of the Regency era, three sisters must find husbands on the night of Lord Darkcastle's ball or be doomed to a fate worse than death: spinsterhood.

DNA Info gives some furhter details:

A Halloween-themed Upright Citizens Brigade show is offering a "spooky" comedic take on Gothic romances penned by the likes of Charlotte Brontë and Daphne du Maurier.
In "The Bride of Murdery Heights," three sisters based on authors Charlotte, Anne and Emily Brontë attend a ball thrown by the Mr. Rochester-esque Lord Darkcastle in the fictional village of Dunfordthirethistletonthwaite, explained writer and cast member Jaime Lutz, 26. (...)
"When we talked, we found out we all loved these old Gothic romance books," Lutz said. "The narrative is kind of…a riff on 'Jane Eyre,' and characters from other Gothic romances, too." (...)
The character Lutz plays — based on Emily Brontë — is "always at the risk of dying… [and] irresistible to men in sort of a 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl' way," she said.
But viewers don’t have to be fans of the 19th century authors to enjoy the show, Lutz noted.
"Gothic romances are everywhere — they’re basically the early prototypes for haunted-house movies," she said. "We do have a lot of specific jokes that people who are fans of the Brontës will get, but they’re sort of just like icing on top of the cake." (Maya Rajamani)

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The Brontës on Film in Harrogate

An alert for today, October 31th at the Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate:

The Brontës on Film: Gallery Talk by Ann Dinsdale
31 October @ 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Discover how the novels of the Brontë family have been adapted for film and television, from 1930’s Hollywood classics to contemporary TV productions, with each interpretation bringing its own flavour to the original stories.

Ann Dinsdale, Curator of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, and Jane Sellars, Curator of the Mercer Art Gallery discuss some of the filming projects they have experienced at Haworth and reveal the role this unique museum has played working with set and costume designers, researchers and directors. Booking is required – please contact the Mercer Art Gallery to reserve your place.

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Everything’s in that book

The Guardian reviews The Visiting Privilege by Joy Williams:

In an unexpected burst of enthusiasm in The Trouble With Being Born, EM Cioran declares that everything by Emily Brontë “has the capacity to overwhelm me. Haworth is my Mecca.”
I feel the same about the American writer Joy Williams, it’s just that this Mecca is not so easy to locate. Now 72, she seems to spend her time in Key West, Tucson and points in between. The stories drift all over the US, with occasional forays south of the border. In one set in Tallahassee, Florida, a young woman called Audrey is telling her friend Tommy about Wuthering Heights. “Everything’s in that book,” she says. To which Tommy replies: “Tell me the whole book.” That, I guess, is what I’m supposed to do here. But how to tell the whole of a 500-page collection of stories spanning more than 40 years? Especially when I really want to just exclaim, “Oh, Oh, OH!” in a state of steadily mounting rapture. (Geoff Dyer)

Impact Magazine lists graphic Gothic novels:

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre is a novella for those who are less keen on violence and gore. It contains more of the basic conventions of the Gothic genre, such as the setting in a castle called ‘Thornfield’ and a few supernatural events, such as Jane’s uncle haunting her from the dead.
Another selling point for the novel is that it challenges patriarchal society at the time. So this is also a novel for the feminists. It’s a ghost story without the blood and violence. What’s not to like? (Emma Heasman)

Some Strictly Come Dancing trivia now. The Telegraph discusses the latest episode:

Bruno [Tonioli] says "you went Cumberbatch on me, very Wuthering Heights, some WD40 on the hips will do the trick". (Michael Hogan)

And Digital Spy:

Bruno: "You definitely embraced your dramatic persona. It was like Heathcliff and Cathy reunited, a Wuthering Heights for this one last dance. I love seeing that, I really do. Coming out of your shell as a performer. Just a little bit of WD40 on the hips and that'll do the trick." (Sam Warner)

DNA (India) may be a bit exaggerated telling that Junhui Lee is the next J.K. Rowling, just saying:

JK Rowling's Harry Potter inspired her to become an author and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, which she used to improve her vocabulary, gave her words to express her ideas to satisfaction. "It's the first time I read the unabridged version of a classic novel," she admits. (Pooja Buhla)

The Guardian (Trinidad and Tobago) gives you tips for your Victorian wedding:

Stationery—In your invitations and programmes, perhaps use quotes from poets and writers from the Victorian era, some of the more popular ones were: Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Lewis Carroll, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti and Rudyard Kipling. (Simone Sant-Ghuran)

El Mundo, El Español and Diario de Sevilla interview the poem Pere Gimferrer discussing his new book No en mis días which includes a poem called Wuthering Heights:

Algunos textos de No en mis días están entre los mejores poemas del Gimferrer de la última década. Destaca Cumbres borrascosas, denso, cargado de referencias, donde la España de hoy es atravesada desde una ironía que toma cuerpo también en la escritura de este creador. «Es una pieza de 2014, pero paradójicamente aquello que ocurría entonces se ha ido convirtiendo en un anuncio de lo que sucedió después.  (Antonio Lucas) (Translation)

Pero eso lo cuento en un poema sobre los inicios de la descomposición del PSOE que tenías marcado ahí y que se llamaría en español 'Cumbres borrascosas' [Wuthering Heights]. Pero no sé esto por qué te interesa...  (Mariano Gasparet) (Translation)

Como trasfondo, se perfila una realidad política que incomoda al autor pero que afronta en versos esquivos. "No darán sepultura al sabbat de Suresnes. / Necesitan vivir como no muertos", dice en Wuthering Heights, una pieza en la que parece aludir al congreso que el PSOE celebró en 1974 en el exilio. "La realidad está al menos en dos poemas que están en el libro", afirmaba el pasado miércoles en Madrid, "y en alguno que se ha quedado fuera. Sería largo de explicar, pero mi postura es que no creo que haya nadie que en los últimos meses haya quedado satisfecho con la actuación de los partidos que podían haber arreglado la situación". (Braulio Ortiz) (Translation)

Angersmag (in French) reviews the film Mal de Pierres:

Poussée par un trop-plein d'amour, elle poursuit de ses assiduités son professeur de littérature qui n'aura qu'un livre à lui offrir en retour : « Les Hauts de Hurlevent », une histoire d'amour absolu s'il en est. La scène se rejouera un peu plus tard avec le souffreteux André. (Florence Vasca) (Translation)

An alert from Polish TV. The programme Literatura na trzeźwo in the Telewizja Republika will discuss among others Wuthering Heights, today at 7.00PM. The Recovering Knowing It All posts about Emily Brontë's poem The Night is Darkening Round Me.

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Wild & Blast

Two new books with Brontë-related content published both in Sweden and Australia:

Blåst!
by Eva-Marie Liffner
Natur&Kultur
ISBN: 9789127149366

Four rectory children and a dog running across a windy moor. It's a strange place, where imagination reigns and everything you write poetry can become a reality. A moorland where a shy girl can be both Duke and navigators.

In another time, follow the soldier Shaw the narrow road between life and death, lost in a war no one understands. 'The Great War' is called by those who were, like all other war hidden in this vast - a struggle that makes funeral pyres of an entire world.

Imagination, ingenuity and forgotten language gray keys is what opens the gates between the worlds - the landscape of "Wuthering Heights" or "Death's underground ports" (?).

Eva-Marie Liffners fifth novel, "Blåst!" Brontë's about the kids, it's about a soldier lost in the First World War, but mainly it is a story about the power of imagination and the ability to overcome forgetfulness as well as death. In a surprising way she weaves together the siblings Brontë fantastic worlds of JRR Tolkien, a hundred years later. "Blown!" is a tribute to literature's ability to blur the boundaries between dream and waking, between now and then. (Translated via Google Translator)

Wild Island 
Jennifer Livett
Allen & Unwin
ISBN:  9781760113834

A brilliant debut novel that provides an alternative ending to Jane Eyre in Van Diemen's Land.
'My name is Harriet Adair, and forty years ago on that ship I was Jane Eyre's companion. That voyage also brought me friendship with another intrepid Jane: Lady Franklin. Her husband, Sir John, the Arctic Lion, was Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land during the six turbulent years when Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester had good reason to be closely interested in the island.'
Harriet Adair has come to Van Diemen's Land with Mrs Anna Rochester, who is recovering from years of imprisonment in the attic of 'Thornfield Hall'. Sent to the colony by Jane and Rochester, they are searching for the truth about Anna's past, trying to unearth long-buried secrets.
Captain Charles O'Hara Booth, Commandant of Port Arthur Penal Settlement, fears some secrets of his own will be discovered when Sir John Franklin replaces Colonel Arthur as Governor. Franklin and his wife Jane arrive in Hobart Town to find the colony is run by a clique of Arthur's former army officers who have no intention of relinquishing their power.
This dazzling modern recreation of a nineteenth century novel ingeniously entwines Jane Eyre's iconic love story with Sir John Franklin's great tale of exploration and empire. A brilliant and historically accurate depiction of Van Diemen's Land society in the 1800s, as well as a vivid portrayal of the human cost of colonisation, Wild Island shows us that fiction and history are not so different after all. Each story, whether it be truth or fiction, is shaped by its teller.

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An important contribution to the repertoire

Francine Prose publishes a nice article in the New York Review of Books about the Morgan Library exhibition Charlotte Brontë. An Independent Will:

What the Brontës Made
Even those who think they know all there is to know about the Brontë family will likely be surprised by many of the documents and artifacts included in “Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will,” currently on view at New York’s Morgan Library. Many of these revelations have to do with size and scale, with the contrast between the breadth and depth of Charlotte Brontë’s imagination and her physical delicacy, between the forcefulness of her and her siblings’ prose and the neat, astonishingly miniscule handwriting (not unlike Robert Walser’s microscript) in which she, Emily, and their brother Branwell penned their early work.
The first thing we see, on entering the gallery, is a glass case containing one of Charlotte Brontë’s dresses and a pair of her shoes, objects that make us acutely aware—more effectively than any description or photograph of these items could—of how diminutive (by modern standards) this strong and resilient woman was. Tiny books and magazines, including a copy of a satirical play about the art of writing, The Poetaster, that Charlotte wrote when she was fourteen, offer a view of the way in which the Brontë children saw writing as an imaginative game; to them, these miniature, handmade volumes—meticulously printed, and in some cases illustrated with watercolors—were, essentially, toys. Included also is the manuscript of a poem that Emily Brontë wrote when she was nineteen, a work of three hundred words, divided in forty-six lines, on a page that is only ten centimeters tall. (Read more)

BachTrack reviews very positively both John Joubert's Jane Eyre opera premiere and the performance of the soprano April Frederick:

Joubert's music has frequently drawn on great works of literature, and the choice of Jane Eyre as an operatic subject perfectly suited his wont as a composer to explore the human condition "in line with the Enlightenment idea of theatre as a 'School of Morals'" – an ethos of which Brontë herself would have approved. Woods describes the opera as "a score of translucent beauty, in which the music is not only worthy of the original text but seems absolutely of and from it". Indeed, the wonderfully affinitive word-setting lends a great emotional potency to Brontë's epic drama; the use of speech inflections in the vocal lines, the rhythmic stresses, the musical motifs of the characters: all are meticulously crafted, compellingly drawing the listener in to the progressive psychology of the musical narrative.
Joubert's style is essentially one of diatonic lyricism, but the score's vividly colourful and lush palette made powerful use of syncopation and dissonance in evoking atmospheres of tension and portent as well as illuminating the dichotomies within Brontë's characters, notably in the depiction of the conflicted Jane, through wide leaps and use of the leitmotif 7th in her soprano line. April Fredrick navigated the angularity of the title role with steel in an astonishing and luminous performance; a more impassioned embodiment of the character was hard to imagine. (...)
 In the presence of the composer, there was added poignancy in the standing ovation, and a feeling that something of real value had taken place: an important contribution to the repertoire, deserving of a place on the world opera stage.  (Pamela Nash)

Do not miss, by the way, April Frederick's blog where she describes vividly her experience creating and performing her role.

More reviews:

Joubert’s music is harmonically attractive and his orchestration subtle. There is also wit, with echoes of the operatic music of Janáček, Britten, Stravinsky and Wagner (to name but a few) evident fleetingly, and intentionally so in their contexts. It would certainly bear repeated listening – and indeed some of the scenes for the two protagonists could be excerpted.
The parts of Jane and Rochester are imaginatively written. Jane’s lines start out being rather declamatory where she announces her departure from Mr Brocklehurst’s school. As she grows in self-confidence and her romantic nature is revealed her lines become far more impassioned. April Fredrick captured the development of the character well, and made all the words tell. Her voice is warm and attractive across a wide range and the resolve of the character shone through. David Stout’s brooding Rochester was also impressive, and his incisive and mellifluous voice was shown at its appreciable best. He and Fredrick blended well, particularly in the final reflective encounter with its open ending. The other singers all performed their limited roles well – Mark Milhofer standing out as Richard Mason and the Reverend Rivers in two nicely delineated cameos. Kenneth Woods conducted with aplomb, and the recording is much looked forward to. (Alexander Campbell in Classical Source)

Highlights of Joubert’s score for me included the two interludes that separate the three scenes of Act I. Written in Brittenesque manner. The first was suggestive at times of the role of Grace Poole (not an included character) and the strange noises coming from the top floor of Thornfield Hall; the second, after the fire, provided the perfect transition between speculation as to the destinies of Jane and Mr Rochester, and the forthcoming events in the garden. Indeed, as the attraction between the two main characters blossoms, the tension in the music gives way to a sumptuous obligatory love duet – simple, transparent and highly effective. (Geoff Read in Seen and Heard International)

The Wall Street Journal reviews Not Just Jane by Shelley DeWees:

A few years ago, Shelley DeWees realized that the bookshelf symbolizing her love of British literature had some gaps: “I had virtually no idea what existed between Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre; or, for that matter, between Jane Eyre and Middlemarch; or Middlemarch and Mrs. Dalloway. . . . There had to have been other British women writing and publishing alongside [the authors she knew], and I decided to find out who they were, what they wrote about, and why their work was missing from my bookcase and from our cultural curricula.” (...)
It is highly probable that anyone still reading this piece has never heard of most, or possibly any, of these women, but some might have read (or seen television adaptations of Braddon’s “Lady Audley’s Secret” (1862) or Dinah Mulock Craik’s “John Halifax, Gentleman” (1856). Ms. DeWees is indignant at this state of affairs. To her, it seems unfair that Austen and the Brontës, “a sisterhood of reclusive, scribbling parsons’ daughters,” are still read, when these seven writers are not “canonized.” (...)
She praises Dinah Craik’s very fine novel “Olive” (1850) at the expense of “Jane Eyre” (1847), perhaps not realizing that it was written as a “conservative” response to Charlotte Brontë’s book: The crippled heroine Olive exhibits quiet Christian patience, unlike the almost “heathen” (as she calls herself) Jane. (...)
In my 30 years of specializing in this period, I have in fact read 16 works by these women, and I have learned a good deal. But I have also learned something about what makes Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot—well, Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot. Ms. DeWees doesn’t consider that precisely what she so admires about the women whose work she champions is what dates them. These women were better than average at describing political crises, fashionable causes, and the frustrations of women facing serious social and legal barriers—consequently, as those particular political crises passed and women had more choices and fashions changed, their work was superseded. It no longer speaks directly to us.
Insofar as Austen and Brontë wrote about how to identify the right person to marry, one of the most important decisions we still make, their novels remain timely. But in fact they were not writing solely or even mostly about marriage but rather about the interior struggle to forge an authentic identity in relation to the world. As long as there are women and men involved in that quest, the witty, judicious, profound, passionate voices of these great, great authoresses will speak to us. (Alexandra Mullen)

The Independent talks about the new TV series Good Girls Revolt:

As a result of the pressure brought to bear by the lawsuits, they also got to participate in writer training programmes, although some women were still so insecure after years of being second-tier staffers that they would turn in their work for review under pseudonyms.Lucy Howard became Emily Brontë. But she would leave Brontë behind. (Hank Stuever)

It's kind of funny that Emily Brontë was used as a pseudonym when the real one published under pseudonym her only novel.

The Times on John Banville's words on writers making bad fathers:

From Shakespeare’s King Lear and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights to Mr Wormwood in Matilda and Jack Torrance in The Shining, literature is full of terrible fathers. But do writers also make bad dads?
John Banville, the Booker Prize-winning Irish novelist, has faced a backlash from fellow authors for declaring that they do, asserting that most would “sell their children” for a good turn of phrase. (Kaya Burgess)

Also in The Times Melissa Harrison writes about the year's turning and mentions Emily Brontë, and John Sutherland reviews The Dark Circle by Linda Grant:

Romanticised as the poets’ disease (Keats, Emily Brontë, Orwell, et al), tuberculosis principally ravaged the unsanitary lower classes, cramped in hutch and hovel housing, sharing beds (...)

The Cap Times reviews The Handmaiden by Park Chan-Wook:

The film starts off with a setup familiar in Gothic fiction, from “Jane Eyre” to “Crimson Peak.” (Rob Thomas)

The Globe and Mail reviews the English translation of Pilátus (Iza's Ballad) by Magda Szabó:

This sort of psychological and emotional access is, short of clairvoyance, otherwise unimaginable with another person; even our loved ones we can only know so well, but Jane Eyre tells us everything. (Pasha Malla)

Technique explores how it is to learning to love reading again:

Slowly, I have made my way back. I started with long-form journalism and slowly moved forward. I am midway through “Wuthering Heights” (which I basically skimmed when I was supposed to read it in high school) and five chapters into Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.” (Harsha Sridhar)

Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish) interviews the writer Jamaica Kincaid:

Jamaica Kincaid: Jag brukade leka att jag var Charlotte Brontë (...)
Jag ville inte att mina föräldrar skulle veta att jag skrev. Jag trodde inte heller att jag skulle lyckas, men jag ville så gärna skriva. Jag hade gjort det sedan jag var liten, bara sju år. Då låtsades jag att jag var Charlotte Brontë och skrev hennes böcker. (Maria Schottenius) (Translation)

VLT (also in Swedish) also talks about the Caribbean writer:

I nya "Se nu då", som är Jamaica Kincaids första roman på tio år, handlar det om familjens upplösning. Med långa ironiska meningar och referenser till Jane Eyre, Outkast och grekisk mytologi skildrar hon paret Mr och Mrs Sweet. Han är en uppburen kompositör medan hon "kom med bananbåten". Distansen mellan dem växer, liksom Mr Sweets förakt. (Translation)

L'Intellettuale Dissidente (in Italian) puts David Lynch and Emily Brontë together in the same article:

Se per alcuni l’urto creativo prende forma da uno stato di animo malinconico, per altri la fonte della creazione è da rintracciare in un ascolto perpetuo al richiamo operato dall’inquietudine.
“Solo gli inquieti sanno come è difficile sopravvivere alla tempesta e non poter vivere senza”.
Quella della scrittrice e poetessa inglese Emily Brontë, si leva come una delle descrizioni più fedeli di tale stato di animo. (Isabella Cesarini) (Translation)

Can you imagine a Wuthering Heights reimagined by David Lynch?

Ara (in Catalan) reviews Jane, le renard et moi;

Perquè la Jane del títol no és altra que Jane Eyre, l’heroïna de Charlotte Brontë: “És el millor llibre que he llegit a la vida, i això que només vaig per la meitat”, ens explica l’Hélène, que devora unes pàgines que li serveixen d’escut i consol contra la crueltat dels altres nens. (Xavi Serra) (Translation)

Le Temps (in French) reviews The Sacrifice by Joyce Carol Oates:

En quelques chapitres, «Sacrifice» concentre tout l’art de celle qu’on appelle «la quatrième sœur Brontë»: une moraliste à la fois visionnaire et terriblement efficace, capable de partir d’un simple fait divers pour donner à voir les failles et les blessures les plus douloureuses de l’Amérique. (André Clavel) (Translation)

Le Devoir (in French) talks about Les Bons Débarras, theatre adaptation of the 1980 film by the director Frédéric Dubois:

Le metteur en scène poursuit : « Ces personnages continuent aussi de nous dire, et c’est extraordinaire, que la poésie est là, à côté de nous, et que si on abdique, on ne la voit plus. On a besoin de poésie ! Manon lit Les hauts de Hurlevent ; elle va y chercher tout un vocabulaire, une manière de voir le monde. Les bons débarras est en fait presque un calque du roman d’Emily Brontë. Ce que cela nous dit, c’est que, s’il n’y a pas d’équilibre entre le quotidien et le sublime, on meurt. » (Translation)

Observator Cultural (in Romanian) is happy to present a new Romanian translation of Jane Eyre:

Nu mai puțin celebre sînt Charlotte Brontë și Jane Eyre, eroina romanului ei din …1847. Nu aș fi zis. Dacă stau să mă gîndesc cum arăta literatura română la acea dată, devin visătoare. Dar mă duc cu gîndul la pereții Voronețului și ai Suceviței, la turlele Dragomirnei, la apus de soare, sau la coloanele în torsadă de la Văcăreștii Mavrocordaților, și echilibrez impresiile de moment. Jane Eyre: aproape 600 de pagini ale unui roman, cu o dedicaţie pentru Thackeray! – nu cred că am știut pînă azi; se poate trăi și fără aceast detaliu, se poate trăi fără multe, şi fără Jane Eyre… Dar parcă devine mai luminoasă și de suportat viața, oricum ar fi ea, după lectura unei cărți bune şi încurajaţi de forța, încrederea în bine și frumos, devotamentul, răbdarea și frumusețea lăuntrică ale unei femei precum Jane Eyre. Emană energie pozitivă, cum se spune azi, debordantă. O ediție nouă Jane Eyre (Editura Litera, 2016, o traducere mai veche de Paul B. Marian și D. Mazilu, o alta nouă de Mirella Acsente, în ediția din 2015, de la Editura Corint, ar merita o confruntare, măcar pentru un seminar dedicat traducerilor) se găseşte acum în librării. Într-o colecție, „Cele mai frumoase romane de dragoste“, care poate stîrni zîmbete superioare. Abia aștept să recitesc Roșu și negru,Amantul doamnei Chatterley sau Mîndrie și prejudecată. (Cristina Manole) (Translation)

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Gérin and Scary Storytelling In Louisiana

An alert from Bath for today, October 29:

Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution presents
Winifred Gérin: Biographer of the Brontës and Gaskell
by Helen MacEwan
29 October 2016, 2.30pm

Winifred Gérin had a fascinating life, unknown up to now. She was the biographer of the four Brontë siblings, and of Elizabeth Gaskell. She was the most famous Brontë biographer of her day, and is best known for moving to Haworth for 10 years to research.

In Haworth:

Museums at Night: Scary Storytelling
October 29th 2016 06:30pm - 08:00pm

Come and explore the atmospheric rooms of the Parsonage by candlelight. Listen to the grandfather clock strike the hour and hear the creaks and sounds made by the historic house after dark. Residents of the Parsonage will share ghost stories and village superstitions - make sure you bring a grown-up to hold your hand!
This event is free to all visitors providing proof of residence in the BD22, BD21 and BD20 postcode areas and also to those living in Thornton, birthplaces of the Brontës. Usual admissions prices apply to all other visitors. Pre-booking not required.

And finally in Baton Rouge, LA:

Louisiana Book Festival
October 29, 3:15 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.
State Capitol, House Committee Room 1
Lecture: Charlotte Brontë and the Crazy Genius Family
by Christina Vella

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Soaring rapturously

The Telegraph reviews John Joubert's Jane Eyre opera and gives it 4 out of 5 stars.

Recorded live at this world premiere concert performance by the English Symphony Orchestra in Birmingham, it is proof again of Joubert’s distinctive voice, and a reminder that there is much more to his music than those deservedly well-loved carols. [...]
Completed nearly 20 years ago, his Charlotte Brontë opera has undergone revision and tightening to emerge in the two-act form heard here. Kenneth Birkin’s libretto distills the emotional essence of the novel – rather than its epic sweep and detail – taking a selective “scenes from” approach. It works hauntingly well, although amid a series of mostly intimate duets, the sudden ballooning of the cast in the wedding scene not only feels like something out of a different work but might prove an obstacle to opera houses looking to stage the piece. [...]
In the title role, April Fredrick sang with a lyrically gleaming soprano, soaring rapturously on Joubert’s singer-friendly lines. David Stout supplied virile tone as Rochester, and Mark Milhofer was incisive as the repressed Revd St John Rivers. Kenneth Woods conducted a well-prepared performance that ought on disc to win new admirers for the operatic Joubert. British opera companies have all too shabbily ignored his work, but American houses – often receptive to big literary adaptations – might take note. (John Allison)

Music Web International has an article on the recording of the opera as well as some impressions of the evening.

•  None of the singers were impassive. Facial acting was very much the order of the day. All most expressively done.
•  The music was full of engagement and I enjoyed it enormously. It is torrid at times, often tense and characterised by lapping motifs. Mine are crude first impressions but the music reminded me at times of RVW, more often of Walton's Troilus and Cressida. In fact there were several instances where Walton's soundworld seemed to have lodged strongly whether in echoes of the First Symphony or of the crashing impacts heard in Belshazzar's Feast (Act II sc. 2).
•  It's a very passionate work and full of heart. There were many very telling moments. These included the way the French Horn three or four times echoes the singers, the sea-swell motion of the string writing and the impression of waves of emotion crashing against obdurate cliff landscapes, the tragic-furious march at the send of Act I Sc. 2, the almost tangible green-leaf outdoor imagery in Act I Sc. 3 as articulated by the orchestra and Jane, trickily intricate rhythms (Act II sc. 2) and the final Act II sc. 3 - an extended (slightly too long for its material, I thought) lyrical essay: nothing emotionally hectoring, bird-song evoked, the voices of Rochester and Jane echoed by the French horn and finishing in something close to a Delian glow rather than a stompingly obvious Puccinian blast. (Rob Barnett)

Blackmore Vale Magazine reviews another production of Jane Eyre: produced by Ferndown Drama at Barrington Theatre.

Clearly this group were confident they could pull it off - and they do, overcoming some additional hurdles in the process.
Their much respected director Kevin Dicker died half way through rehearsals, which was a huge sadness to the company. Fortunately Paul Marcus, a very experienced director stepped into the breach.
And Phoenix Musical Society came forward to lend Victorian costumes as Ferndown Drama has no collection of its own. [...]
The leading roles of Jane (Polly Ashness) and Rochester ( Jon-Michael Lindsey) are taken by actors who are also members of Bournemouth Shakespeare Players, and neither disappoint.
Polly has just the right measure of humility, yet strength of character, whilst Jon-Michael has the audience in the palm of his hand as his initial steely surface gives way to a huge depth of humanity and vulnerability. [...]Helen Kuster is calm and homely as the kindly housekeeper Mrs Fairfax and Leah Jane portrays the 12-year-old Adele with an abundance of exuberance.
The other six members of the cast have relatively small roles - Vicki Milner, Martin Winchester, Kirsty Dixon, Cliff Baker, Bob Johnson and Rebecca Christie - but all contribute well to this moving production.
It runs until the end of this week, so do go along for an atmospheric play that is well acted and directed. (Marilyn Barber)

Ekathimerini mentions briefly Greek theatre director Yiannis Kalavrianos's next project.

Next, the Greek director is set to begin work on a new project based on Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights.” The State Theater of Northern Greece production is scheduled to go on stage in February. (Iota Sykka)

Economist's Prospero celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Wide Sargasso Sea.

Yet the extraordinary style of “Wide Sargasso Sea” is as impressive as its content. Lyrical and evocative, Rhys’s language conjures a landscape while giving us a glimpse of Antoinette’s state of mind (“overgrown…and a smell of dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell”). It also reveals Rochester’s unease and growing hatred of everything that belongs to Antoinette’s world, precisely because its pull is intense and threatening. For him, that same landscape has “too much blue, too much purple, too much green”. A language of sensory overload accompanies his growing paranoia about marriage and masculinity; he convinces himself that his father, Antoinette’s step-father and her step-brother are all laughing at him for marrying “spoiled goods”.
Rhys’s novel takes these familiar characters and fleshes them out. Both Rochester and Antoinette emerge from “Wide Sargasso Sea” as psychologically complex characters; in “Jane Eyre”, Rochester is portrayed as a noble misanthrope and “Bertha” the two-dimensional “madwoman in the attic”. Rhys’ scene-setting language creates characters that evoke the madness and damage of desiring ownership over a person, be it for marriage, sex, power or colonial exploitation. In the case of “Wide Sargasso Sea”, it is a heady mix of all. (S.J.)

A columnist at BookRiot has selected Jane Steele as part of her 'Lady-Rage Reading List for This Year's Election'.

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
This one was everywhere, I feel, a while ago and for good reason. If you read the original Jane Eyre and thought there should be some more murdering, then man, this is for you. This is about a Jane Eyre who strikes back; when she finds herself in situations where she is backed into a corner, she defends herself and the people she loves. I think it is cathartic to read. Because yes, she does have to come to terms with her actions, but there is some kind of emotional resonance in today’s political climate. I think this is also relevant because there’s a throughline in this about how the Sikh butler that Mr. Thornfield employs is untrustworthy because he isn’t you know, white and English. Hmmmmmm. (Sonja Palmer)

Samantha Ellis's How to Be a Heroine is one of '7 Books About Books You Should Be Reading' according to Reading Group Center.

How to Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis
“An honest and open-hearted book by someone whose life has been informed and enriched by her reading.” —Susan Hill, The Times (London)
While debating literature’s greatest heroines with her best friend, thirtysomething playwright Samantha Ellis has a revelation—her whole life, she’s been trying to be Cathy Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights when she should have been trying to be Jane Eyre. With this discovery, she embarks on a retrospective look at the literary ladies—the characters and the writers—whom she has loved since childhood. From early obsessions with the March sisters to her later idolization of Sylvia Plath, Ellis evaluates how her heroines stack up today.

Another review of Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese Oneill seems to think that Jane Austen was a Victorian lady. We are beginning to worry lest the mistake lies with the book itself and not just the reviews of it. From the Daily Mail:

To demonstrate the readers the difference between the realities of life in the Victorian era, and the glossy image created in fiction, Therese starts the book by inviting readers on a journey back in time to the days romanticized by the likes of Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and of course all the filmmakers of the many period films and TV shows on offer today. (Valerie Siebert)

Writer Daphne Merkin tells Time about her childhood:

I escaped into books, identifying wildly with surly but dashing characters like Heathcliff, and discussed my various suicidal and homicidal urges with a comprehending red-bearded therapist. 

And this columnist from LitHub tells about her first encounter with Anne Shirley, who soon

joined ranks with the coterie of fictional odd girls—Jane Eyre, Matilda, Jo March—who kept my neurotic, lonely heart company. L.M. Montgomery, like so many of my favorite authors, begot a heroine who transcended her narrative. (Rachel Vorona Cote)

Elle (France) Shares a conversation between film director Nicole Garcia and psychoanalyst  Anne Dufourmantelle about the former's film Mal de pierres.

Nicole Garcia. Gabrielle veut être vue et lue par un homme. Je pouvais avoir le même désir : être lue mieux que je ne peux le faire moi-même, découverte et reconnaissante de cela.
Anne Dufourmantelle. Vous dites que votre héroïne veut être lue, et il est frappant qu'elle éprouve du désir pour deux hommes, qui, chacun, débute la relation en lui offrant un livre. L'instituteur lui fait lire « Les Hauts de Hurlevent », d'Emily Brontë, et le lieutenant Sauvage, « Propos sur le bonheur » d'Alain. Dans les deux cas, les deux hommes perçoivent dans cette jeune fille simple une personne en intelligence avec eux. Et, à chaque fois, cela embrase ses sens. Tandis qu'elle regarde à peine son mari, amoureux d'elle, qui lui construit des maisons comme autant de ventres où se lover ! (Translation)

Io Donna (Italy) discusses women in history:

Ma si chiamano anche Currer, Atton [sic] ed Ellis Bell, le donne di Cazzullo, e sono tre fratelli che in un anno pubblicano tre romanzi: Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey e Cime tempestose. Naturalmente, in realtà, si tratta di tre pseudonimi scelti dalle autrici perché i loro libri risultassero credibili. Era il 1847, penserete voi, i tempi sono cambiati: ma bisognerebbe chiedere al noto intellettuale di cui sopra se, oggi, leggerebbe un romanzo scritto da una tale Charlotte, Anne o Emily Brontë senza prima sentire il bisogno di “inquadrarla” attraverso il padre o il marito. (Chiara Gamberale) (Translation)

A new installment of the Brontës as fashionistas (!). According to The Carousel, Carla Zampatti's AW17 collection

evoked thoughts of a bygone era, think Cathy wandering the moors in Wuthering heights with a velvet cape billowing behind her, or Keira Knightley in the famous library scene from the film version of Ian McEwan’s ‘Atonement’ dressed in a slinky gold gown rather than the emerald green. A hint of period drama combined with her own modern stylish flair. (Bianca Spendlove)

A 'Dream Home in the English Countryside' in Vogue:

“It’s the perfect spot to build a house,” announced the realtor.
The idea horrified me. I didn’t have a grand design in me. And, in any case, I wanted to live in an old house, not a new one. The truth was, I was a bit of an old-house snob: Like many English people, I have always attached a great deal of romance and nostalgia to ancient buildings. A childhood spent in a medieval farmhouse, combined with an addiction to such novels as Wuthering Heights, Brideshead Revisited, and Rebecca, had given me the warped view that only old dwellings had atmosphere. (Plum Sykes)

Diario Vasco (Spain) interviews a local librarian who works towards promoting literature written by women and who's a fan of Jane Eyre. Newsminer announces the '26th annual Dead Writers Party' tonight, in which Emily Brontë herself could be one of the attendants. Infolibre (Spain) reviews Jane, le renard et moi.

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Kim Breiburg's Jane Eyre Musical in Moscow

The Kim Breitburg Jane Eyre musical returns to the Moscow stage for a new series of performances:

Джейн Эйр (Jane Eyre)
Music: Kim Breitburg
Libretto and verses: Karen Kavaleryan
Director: Alina Cevik
The cast: Olga Kozlova, Anna Podsvirova Maxim Novikov, Viacheslav nobility, Alexander Markelov, Alexander Golubev, Elena Soshnikov Svetlana Krinitskaya

Московская оперетта (Moscow Operetta Theatre)
October 28,2016 19:00
November 9, 2016 19:00
December 6, 2016 19:00
January 8, 2017, 13:00, 19:00

«Джен Эйр» - красочный и современный спектакль, который продолжает замечательные традиции музыкального театра, объединяющего в своем репертуаре оперетты «Летучая мышь», «Мистер Икс», «Бал в Savoy» и многие другие, а также классические и современные мюзиклы «Цезарь и Клеопатра», «Моя прекрасная леди», «Хелло, Долли!», «Фанфан-Тюльпан», «Монте-Кристо», «Граф Орлов»…

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Charlotte Brontë, the artist

Today October 28, in Haworth:

Museums at Night: Charlotte Brontë, the artist
A Parsonage Unwrapped special event
October 28, 7.30PM

Charlotte Brontë was an accomplished artist and considered a career in art before she turned to writing. Join Jane Sellars, Curator of Harrogate's Mercer Art Gallery and co-author of The Art of the Brontës, to discover the art of Charlotte Brontë in this Museums at Night special event.

And in Norfolk, CT:

Norfolk Library Book Group with Mark Scarbrough will discuss Charlotte Brontë's, Jane Eyre (1847), chapters 21-38 on Friday, October 28 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m

In his blog, Mark poses the question: Is Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre? and he answers that question with eloquence: "It’s relatively easy to read an author’s life back into her or his work. But it’s mostly a deception, if not a logic fault, particularly for works written in the Romantic Era (around 1800) and following. A powerfully imaginative work—what we would consider a great work of Western literature—has one significant hallmark: it creates a world unto itself. It so encapsulates experience and indeed the essence of what it is to be human that it makes its own rules, creates its own time, and spins a fabric of reality to suit itself. The author’s life is finally (and at best) tangential to the work." 

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Anne Brontë was angry as hell

The Guardian reviews the premiere of John Joubert's Jane Eyre opera and gives it 3 stars out of 5.

It’s hard to imagine Jane Eyre working convincingly on stage – the size of the cast, with 16 named roles, most only appearing in a single scene, isn’t very practical either. But as a timely reminder of the melodic strengths and potency of Joubert’s music this fine performance, with April Fredrick as Jane, David Stout as Rochester and Mark Milhofer as the Reverend St John Rivers, certainly did the trick. (Andrew Clements)

Source

Here's one more for the collectors, as Yorkshire Post announces the launch of a special edition liqueur to mark the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth.

The limited edition Charlotte’s Reserve drink has been handmade by local craftsmen using a secret recipe to evoke the rugged Haworth moors which the writer and her sisters called home. [...]
Charlotte’s Reserve, which comes in a 20cl bottle presented in a box designed to look like a leather-bound book from the 18th century, is a bramble and creamy caramel liqueur sweetened with wildflower honey and jasmine. “Liqueurs have a bit of an image problem with the modern consumer and are often consigned to the back of the drinks cupboard to be brought out at Christmas. But it’s my mission to raise awareness of these drinks as a versatile ingredient in cocktails. The fruity liqueur mixes perfectly with champagne and with mixers to make a refreshing cocktail and works really well with chocolate,” said Sir James, who lives at Birstwith Hall in North Yorkshire. “We’re working with the hospitality industry throughout the UK and overseas to demonstrate this to younger consumers through a series of exclusive recipes.” [...]
Charlotte’s Reserve costs £19.99, with a percentage of the proceeds from sales going to the Brontë Society to ensure the upkeep of the family’s legacy.

BookRiot has an article on 'Anne Brontë, Anger, and the Resonance of Assault in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall'.

Anne Brontë was angry as hell.
Two weeks ago, on a whim and the kind of Brontë kick that good, gloomy autumn weather often inspires in me, I decided to reread The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I hadn’t read it in years but within minutes of cracking the pages, I was struck by this fact all over again: Anne Brontë was angry. Her reputation as the least interesting and exciting of the Brontë sisters, the piety of her novels, and the contemporary accounts of her as mild, meek, and gentle obscure this fact, but she was.
Anne Brontë’s anger is evident in virtually every page of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, her second, final, and most famous novel. In it she depicts, with what was for the time, graphic detail, the physical decline of a debauched rake and the emotional and psychological abuses he inflicts. She exposes how a bad marriages to a bad man can trap, subjugate and oppress a woman. She excoriates a society that is fraught with dangers and seeks only to keep them in the dark. (Maddie Rodriguez) (Read more)

The Scotsman laments the many unfinished projects left behind by Angela Carter.

One of the melancholy aspects of such a detailed work is the number of projects which came to nothing – her opera based on Woolf’s Orlando, the novel she was planning before her death using characters from Charlotte Brontë, a production of Wedekind’s Lulu – but this is balanced by sensitive readings of the less-well known of her works. (Stuart Kelly)

La razón (Spain) reviews discusses the work of poet Pere Gimferrer.

Es éste un libro justificadamente complejo, pero no hermético o impenetrable. El lector debe desechar una comprensión realista, narrativa, lineal, ni mucho menos íntegra, de unos textos que alientan con una significación propia bajo el código de una fluencia poética hecha de obsesivas fijaciones temáticas, un exquisito ritmo interior y un tono nada complaciente, repleto de veladas alusiones críticas a nuestra contemporaneidad; basta leer un poema como «Dióscuros» para encontrar el rechazo de un europeísmo condicionado por oscuros intereses económicos; o «Wuthering Heights», en borrascosa alusión a los acomodaticios bandazos ideológicos de cierta partitocracia política. (Jesús Ferrer) (Translation)

The Telegraph has a creative suggestion for Bonnie Greer:

The outspoken Chicago-born critic and playwright Bonnie Greer made headlines last summer when she resigned as president of the Brontë Society after a period of disagreement that culminated in her reportedly banging a Jimmy Choo shoe on the table at the AGM to keep order.
There’s probably an amusing play in that, and Greer is not above turning moments of her life into art: she turned her 2009 Question Time face-off with the BNP’s then leader Nick Griffin into an opera. (Dominic Cavendish)

The Guardian discusses women artists in history and begins the article with a reference to Charlotte Brontë's own artistic work, which we think would make her really proud.

One of the most unsettling works of art I have seen for a long time is a small sketch in a school atlas that was identified last year as a self-portrait by the young Charlotte Brontë. Why is it so unsettling? Because of the talent it shows. Could she have been an artist as well as a great writer – and how many other talented women have found their ability to draw trivialised or suppressed through the centuries?
Brontë found her voice in literature, of course, as did her sisters, while her brother Branwell tried to become a professional artist. Why was it the boy, in this brilliant family, who got to call himself an artist? And why is it that while women have often been able to pick up a pen and become great writers, visual art was an almost entirely male preserve before modern times? (Jonathan Jones)

Yorkshire Post has an article on Halloween, Haworth and Wycoller Hall.

To my knowledge there is no evidence the Brontë sisters were witches, yet it is to Haworth that many people go at Halloween to celebrate - if that’s the right word - ghosts, ghouls and all things evil.
For sure, there are references to witches in Wuthering Heights, and at one point Mr Rochester muses on how Jane Eyre exerts “witchery” over him, but the reason Haworth claims to be the centre of Yorkshire’s Halloween season is simply one of geography.
On the other side of the so-called Brontë Moors stands the ruin of Wycoller Hall, said to have been the inspiration of Rochester’s Ferndean Manor, and it is in the area known as Pendle Witch Country, where in the early 17th century 12 people were found guilty of witchcraft after Britain’s most famous witch trial. To this day, every Halloween they manage to spread their black magic - in the form of astute marketing - to the Haworth side of the Pennines. (Read more)

On the other side of the pond, Town Topics recommends the current exhibition on Charlotte Brontë at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York.

Next morning it’s only a short walk to the Yorkshire moors and Haworth where the Brontë sisters are in residence at the Morgan Library and Museum. In New York, there’s still and always room for Anyone and Everyone, any time and every time. (Stuart Mitchner)

The Boston Globe reviews André Téchiné's film Quand on a 17 ans.

It’s not enough that Thomas (Corentin Fila) is a biracial kid in an all-white community. He is also adopted, has a Heathcliff-like personality, and must commute for three hours every day from his family’s marginal dairy farm in the mountains to school smelling, probably, of manure and hay. He has a sick mother and is confused about his sexual identity. (Peter Keough)

More celebrations of Dark Shadows 50th anniversary mentioning the Brontës' works. Den of Geek! interviews actress Lara Parker.

Do you have a particular favorite period in Dark Shadows, any particular favorite time line? Well, I think the 1795, the triangle. The romance with Barnabas and Josette and Angelique, I think that was probably the best story. That was a really good story because there was no way out of it. There was no way to resolve it. There was unrequited love on all three parts. They worked in a little Julia Hoffman, she was also in love with Barnabas. That was my favorite period sure.
Of course, I always wanted to play the heroine. I didn’t want to be the heavy. I wanted to be the ingénue I wanted to be the one Barnabas was in love with. So, in the end, Dan Curtis gave me the part, Catherine in Wuthering Heights, the very last months of the show. But it was boring. It wasn’t nearly as interesting as the Angelique and Barnabas story. (Tony Sokol)

Slate discusses whether it's okay to own books that you will never read:

Is there something just a little bit gauche about displaying books in one’s home that one isn’t actually reading, and has no intention of reading? I have no intention of consuming The Brontës at Haworth or The Woman’s Day Book of American Needlework cover to cover, but nor are they fraudulent representations of my interests. Is it acceptable to treat books as decor, a representation of one’s aesthetic aspirations rather than one’s intellectual biography? What is the normal approach to displaying books in one’s home? (Ruth Graham)

Sasstrology seems to think that Heathcliff was a Scorpio:

Have you ever wanted someone to obsess over you? (Think Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights.) If so, you’ve got to get with a Scorpio. (Michelle Suzanne)

Helen MacEwan writes on the Brussels Brontë Blog about a couple of recent talks on the Brontës by Blake Morrison and Monica Wallace. On Facebook the Brontë Parsonage Museum shares a picture of Charlotte's Ambassador, Dame Jacqueline Wilson visiting the library at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

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The Brontë Phenomenon in Daun

An alert from Daun, Germany:

„Fünfhundert Pfund im Jahr und ein eigenes Zimmer“ – Die englischen Schriftstellerinnen Anne, Emily und Charlotte Brontë
Kinopalast Vulkaneifel, Daun
27.10.2016,18:30 h

Talk by Caroline Rezazada + Screening of Wuthering Heights 2009.

More information on Volksfreund.

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Emily Brontë's revolt

Salon talks to author Therese Oneill about her book Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage and Manners.

Why did you choose to focus your first book on the lives of Victorian women, especially relatively privileged ones? The privileged ones are the ones who get the movies made about them and the books about them: Austen, Jane Eyre, the Brontë sisters. They are the ones that women, at least white women, Western women, tend to fantasize that they are. So I figured that was the fantasy that needed the piss taken out of it.
I like to think of it like puzzle pieces missing. You have this great, awesome puzzle, but you get it all done — all 2,000 pieces — except you are missing part of the cat’s fur and the duck’s bill and stuff. And I wanted my job to be digging in the sofa cushions and find the parts that Grandma lost and put them back in and try to fill in those gaps. Because this stuff didn’t get written down much, and it’s part of history and it interconnects everything else together. (Amanda Marcotte)

(Except for the fact that Jane Austen died 20 years before Queen Victoria was crowned queen. Actually, she died even before Queen Victoria was born!)

The Washington Post features Lynn Povich and her book The Good Girls Revolt,which is about the lawsuit filed in the 1970s by her and fellow women employees of Newsweek against the magazine.

As a result of the pressure brought to bear by the lawsuits, they also got to participate in writer training programs, although some women were still so insecure after years of being second-tier staffers that they would turn in their work for review under pseudonyms.
Lucy Howard became Emily Brontë.
But she would leave Brontë behind. Howard went on to have a 39-year career at Newsweek, serving in the Washington bureau and eventually being promoted to senior writer.
Might the transformation of a good girl who hid behind the name of a 19th-century novelist to “Lucy Howard, senior writer,” have happened without a lawsuit concocted in a ladies’ bathroom?
Howard has no doubt about the answer to that question: “No way in the world.” (Manuel Roig-Franzia)

Push Square reviews the video game Farming Simulator 17 in which apparently,

Working through the evening only for the sun to rise on a misty morning will make you feel all Wuthering Heights. (Sammy Barker)

Writer Cassandra Parkin sounds like a Brontëite in this interview by Linda's Book Bag. The Daily Geekette recommends Wuthering Heights 1992 as a Halloween film. Bookmarked posts about the original novel. Readers Lane reviews briefly 10 retellings of Jane Eyre.

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Jane Eyre in Ferndown

An amateur production of Charles Vance's Jane Eyre opens today, October 26, in Ferndown:

Ferndown Drama presents
Jane EyreAdapted by Charles Vance
Directed by Kevin Dicker

Barrington Theatre,
26th-29th October 2016, 7.45pm

The October production (October 26th - October 29th 2016) will be Charlotte Brontë's 'Jane Eyre' , adapted by Charles Vance.
This production was to have been directed by Kevin Dicker. Sadly Kevin passed away mid September, and Paul Marcus has kindly agreed to take over.

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Jacqueline WIlson at the Parsonage

An alert from the Brontë Parsonage Museum for today, October 26:

Jacqueline WilsonOur Ambassador for Charlotte returns to Haworth
October 26, 2pm
West Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth

One of the nation's favourite authors, Jacqueline Wilson, visits Haworth to read from and talk about her work.
Jacqueline Wilson wrote her first 'novel' when she was nine years old. She has since gone on to write over one hundred books, creating enduring characters such as the famous Tracy Beaker. Her books are loved and cherished by young readers all over the world, and have won numerous prizes including the Children's Book of the Year, the Smarties Medal and the Children's Book Award. In 2002 Jacqueline was awarded the OBE for services to literacy in schools and from 2005 to 2007 she was Children's Laureate. In 2008 she became Dame Jacqueline Wilson.
Jacqueline Wilson is also a great admirer of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and is working with the Brontë Society as an Ambassador for Charlotte during 2016.

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Jane Eyre recommended by Harper Lee, Wuthering Heights recommended by Bella Swan

AL.com tells about a handwritten letter by Harper Lee in which she recommends some books including Jane Eyre.

Source

A trio of handwritten letters from Lee are up for auction as part of Lelands.com "The Greatest Auction." The promotion runs through Oct. 28. The letters are from the mid-1990s and include book recommendations. The reserve price of $300 has already been exceeded; as of publication, the high bid is $399.30.
A peek at the images on Lelands.com reveals Lee's picks include everything by Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" and "The History of Henry Esmond" and "Vanity Fair," both by William Makepeace Thackeray. (Carla Jean Whitley)

We are sure that she understood the novel better than this columnist from Business Mirror.

Classic English author of the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë, wrote: “Better to be without logic than without feeling.” That is fitting, since no one in her iconic book makes any decisions based on logic and common sense but virtually always on “feelings”. (John Mangun)

He seems to have missed the bit where Jane flees Thornfield.

The Guardian has a Crossword Blog and today it mentions the name of the Brontës and its diaeresis.

In the Telegraph Toughie, MynoT is getting technical:
25ac Mark policeman getting series recast (8)
[ abbrev. for a police rank + anagram (‘recast’) of SERIES ]
[ DI + ERESIS ]
Ah, yes: the DIERESIS, or DIÆRESIS, or as the Guardian prefers it, via Collins, DIAERESIS, a word that tempts us to adorn it with itself.
In this paper, we find it in BRONTË, but not in NAIVE; in NOËL Coward but never in NOEL Edmonds. In general, it seems to be present here in names of people who themselves used diaereses, but never as a warning about how to pronounce the second of some pair of vowels.
Not so at the New Yorker, where there is no danger of readers reading NAÏVE as sounding like “knave”; likewise COÖPERATE and even REËLECT, due to a ruling in the magazine’s youth that CO-OPERATE and RE-ELECT would apparently look ridiculous. (Alan Connor)

John Joubert's Jane Eyre opera premiere in Birmingham is one of the pick of the week's concerts in The Guardian:

John Joubert’s opera receives its professional premiere, in concert, with Kenneth Woods conducting the English Symphony Orchestra. The performance is being recorded for release next spring to mark the composer’s 90th birthday. (Andrew Clements)

Another auction, as Brides reports that

fans of the [Twilight saga movies] can buy themselves a piece of that vampire-filled big day as a collection of original Twilight memorabilia is now up for auction! [...]
The public can place their bids online, in-person, or by phone for items such as Bella's engagement ring (which is expected to fetch between $3,000 and $5,000), Edward Cullen's journal, Bella's copy of Wuthering Heights, (Jamie Cuccinelli)

Source

And so here it is:

Lot #: 295
Bella Swan’s Wuthering Heights
Bella Swan’s Wuthering Heights book from The Twilight Saga: New Moon. This book screen matches to the book seen on Bella’s desk as she printed a photograph of Edward.
The book features a decorative paperback cover. A favorite book of Bella’s, the book shows intentional wear and bends to the cover and corners, but remains in good condition. Dimensions: 4 ½” x 6 ¾” x 1” (11 cm x 17 cm x 3 cm)
Estimate: $400 - 600

Otros Cines (Spain) reviews the film A Quiet Passion, featuring the life of Emily Dickinson. Apparently,

La última película de Terence Davies es una pièce d’époque, un retrato de la poeta Emily Dickinson, considerada una de o la más grande de las poetas de los Estados Unidos, contemporánea de las inglesas Jane Austen y las hermanas Brontë, aludidas en el film. (Josefina Sartora) (Translation)

Jane Austen died in 1817, and Charlotte Brontë was born in 1816, Emily in 1818 and Anne in 1820, so they were hardly contemporary writers. Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 and Emily Brontë died in 1848, Anne Brontë in 1849 and Charlotte Brontë in 1855. Only five poems written by Emily Dickinson before 1858 seem to exist, her most creative years spanning 1861-1865. So again, hardly contemporary writers.

The Brontë Society Facebook page shares pictures of a walk between Cowan Bridge (Lowood in Jane Eyre) and the church where the little girls went each Sunday regardless of the weather conditions. A Cup of Wittea posts about Jane Eyre. The Brussels Brontë Blog looks into the German editions of The Professor.

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John Joubert's Jane Eyre World Premiere

The first professional performance (albeit in a concert form) and recording of John Joubert's Jane Eyre opera (1987-1997) takes place today, October 25th in Birmingham:

Jane Eyre. The Opera
by John Joubert
An Opera in Two Acts
Space  Ruddock Hall
King Edward's School & King Edward VI High School
Edgbaston Park Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2UA
7:30 PM Tuesday, 25 October 2016

A concert performance by English Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Kenneth Woods
recorded live by SOMM Recordings

Please join us for a pre concert talk at 6.30pm

April Fredrick as Jane Eyre, soprano
David Stout as Rochester, baritone
with full supporting cast

Since its first publication in 1847, Charlotte Brontë’s fatalistic masterpiece Jane Eyre has inspired countless re-readings and retellings. Now, marking Brontë’s 200th  anniversary and his own 90 th  birthday, the revered British composer John Joubert will finally see the world premiere concert and recording of Jane Eyre, his long-awaited third opera. The unforgettable tale of an obsessive love threatened by an unutterable secret, the opera has been more than 20 years in the gestation. It is, says conductor Kenneth Woods, “Joubert’s undoubted magnum opus”.

With a single public showing as an amateur production some years ago, Joubert has since substantially revised it for this official world premiere, but the idea had taken root as far back as 1969. That’s when, while writing his song-cycle, Six Poems Of Emily Brontë, he was drawn into the world of the Brontë sisters and, inexorably, Jane Eyre. The result is a major operatic work, with a score of translucent beauty, of foreboding; suffused with a sense of the destiny that may hold terrors, may hold love – but may not be withheld.

More information at the ESO website and on Seen and Heard International.

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