Massively Subversive

The Lancashire Telegraph interviews Nadia Clifford, Jane Eyre in the upcoming touring production of Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre:

Next Saturday, Jane Eyre will open for the first time outside London at the Lowry with Nadia taking on what she admits is her dream role.
“Yes, I suppose I am a sort of Brontë mega fan, which is a bit embarrassing but I might as well admit it,” she laughed.
“Knowing the work of the Brontë sisters so well is a bit of a double-edged sword in a way. Translating your love for the printed work and then giving that character a voice to make it authentically your own is a real challenge.”
Manchester-born Nadia promises that the new co- production by the National Theatre will surprise diehard Brontë fans and newcomers to the work alike. (...)
Nadia’s enthusiasm for bringing Jane Eyre to the stage shines through in our conversation but she readily admits it is a real test for her.
“When you love something so much you really want to honour it,” she said. “But the challenge for me is not to give myself too hard a time.
“The nerdy literary superfan part of me is fighting with the acting side of me.”
Although written nearly 130 years ago, Nadia believes Jane Eyre is a very much a modern heroine.
“A lot of people, even if they haven’t read the novel, have a pretty set idea of who Jane is, “ said Nadia, “They have this perception that it’s all bonnets and heaving bosoms but that’s so far away from what Charlotte Brontë intended.
“She wrote about a woman who is fiercely independent and I want to capture that spirit.
“Jane is a big, bold, warm character and I think that people lose sight of that when they think of this diminutive. softly spoken, odd looking, northern woman, that’s not who she is.
“She was massively subversive for the time. Charlotte Brontë really wrote a subversive manifesto about womanhood and what womanhood was all about.” (John Anson)

The presence of the Flying Scotsman on the KWVR railway line (and particularly in Haworth) triggers this article in The Independent:

In Haworth, down the hill from where the Brontë sisters lived, the town’s tiny train station is packed. The little foot-bridge above the single railway track is groaning with people. It’s 8.30am on Friday, but these aren’t commuters.
There’s an expectant air and a palpable sense of excitement as a white plume is sighted around the corner where the track disappears, followed by a rhythmic chugging as a train hoves into view.
It could be a scene from a period drama, save for the proliferation of smartphones held high to chart the passage of the none other than the Flying Scotsman, surely one of the most famous steam locomotives in the country, along the small platform. (...)
The line is in the midst of two big anniversaries. This month it will be 150 years since the opening ceremony on 13 April 1867. The story goes that it was not necessarily industry that prompted the building of the line, but a visit to Haworth by civil engineer John McLandsborough in 1861, who wanted to pay homage to the home of the Brontë sisters. He was somewhat taken aback that such an important literary landmark wasn’t served by the railways, and his proposal that a line should be established was taken up by the local mill-owners, and in 1862 the railway was incorporated by an act of parliament.
The other big anniversary is the birthday of the railway’s rebirth as a heritage line, which will be celebrated next year, 50 years after it was opened in 1968. It was a very forward-thinking move for the time; interest in the railways was waning and steam was pretty much dead. (Dave Barnett)

The Sunday Post uses Jane Eyre for describing Theresa May's first months as PM:

In Charlotte Brontë’s classic, Mr Rochester tells Jane Eyre their honeymoon will “shine our life long”, that “its beams will only fade over your grave or mine”.
It’s a wonderfully romantic notion. For most people, of course, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows round the clock.
When it comes to politicians, the honeymoon period is usually significantly shorter – traditionally eight to 12 weeks.
But Theresa May – coming up to nine months in office – has enjoyed an unexpectedly lengthy sojourn.
Jeremy Corbyn’s ineptitude has allowed her a gentle ride thus far. (Lindsay Razaq)

Today is the last chance to see I Walked with a Zombie 1942 in a big screen in Stanford. In Stanford Daily:

Lewton’s influences were wide-ranging: from Dostoevski to William Hogarth, from “Jane Eyre” to pulp porn. An unforgettable team of collaborators helped sustain his vision during the trying war years. The director Jacques Tourneur, with a pictorial feel for the unknown. The black actor Darby Jones as the zombie we walk with, the spirit of the slaves who stalk the sugar plantations. The French actress Simone Simon, the face of the displaced Eastern European, of repressed Woman. (Carlos Valladares)

Starry Magazine reviews the new adaptation of Anne of the Green Gables, just Anne:

To its credit, the show has a number of scenes that bring Anne’s feminism to the forefront. We wonder, along with her, why she couldn’t do the farm work they meant to hire a boy for and when the Cuthbert’s bring on local boy Jerry Baynard (Aymeric Jett Montaz), Anne demands he stop working so she can prove herself able on the farm – just as well as any boy. This touch of feminism – along with Anne’s early mention of a fondness for Jane Eyre – feels real and almost a ghostly absence from Montgomery’s books. (Miranda Sajdak)

Pakistan Today discusses women and social norms today:

 It was not before Jane Eyre that a woman was discussed as a strong protagonist. No matter how harsh the setting of the novel and incontrovertibly savage treatment with women was to be narrated, it was by and large described from man’s perspective.  (Aminah Suhail Qureshi)

The Brontës and bodybuilding. Muscular Development has it:

It was July 20 1985 and I was on my way to England’s West Coast Championships being staged in the seaside town of Morecambe. I worked for the British magazine Muscle & Co at the time and for months I’d heard that a bodybuilder from Birmingham was making quite an impression on those observing his progress. His name was Dorian Yates (which I always thought sounded like a character from Wuthering Heights) and he was making his debut in the intermediate class at the aforementioned West Coast soiree. (Peter McDough)

El Día de Córdoba interviews the actress Luz Gabás:

-¿Tiene algún referente literario? ¿Algún libro que le haya cambiado la vida? (Mercè Moreno)
-Muchos, porque desde pequeña leía continuamente. Me han influido algunos escritores anglosajones, especialmente los románticos del siglo XIX. Escritores de cabecera tengo varios. Siempre me han gustado Samuel Beckett, que escribía teatro y novela; las hermanas Brontë; también los americanos, James Fenimore Cooper (El último mohicano), Emerson, cuando hablaba de la vida en los bosques, John Steinbeck con Las uvas de la ira, etc. (Translation)

L'Est Républicain interviews Marguerite C. de Précourt, speaker of several literary talks in France:

 Pour évoquer « la vie de ces écrivains morts, qui appartiennent à notre patrimoine littéraire et sont reconnus en tant que tel », la Nancéienne d’origine parisienne puise dans les biographies, recoupe ses informations, visite des sites internet pour étayer son propos… ou trouver des erreurs ! « Je fais un gros travail de recherche pour sélectionner les informations que j’ai envie de partager avec les autres », justifie la conférencière. Et cela marche : un noyau dur la suit et le groupe s’étoffe au fil des rendez-vous mensuels portant sur les femmes de lettres françaises, les écrivains anglais de l’époque victorienne, les écrivains voyageurs. « La littérature est abordée par l’angle humain et social. C’est novateur et intéressant », dit l’une. « Elle révèle le contexte psychologique, historique, politique de l’époque. On est loin de l’apprentissage scolaire », complète un autre membre de la salle tandis qu’une troisième voix apprécie ces récits, « truffés d’anecdotes ».
En mars, Charlotte Brontë marquée « par une succession de deuils, de souffrances, d’amours malheureuses » a pourtant laissé éclater un talent de poétesse d’abord, d’écrivain ensuite. (P.B.) (Translation)

The writer Amitav Ghosh publishes an essay on Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden) on literature in the times of climate change:

Närvarokänsla är en av romanens stora gåvor. När vi läser George Eliots ”Middlemarch”, Thomas Manns ”Huset Buddenbrook”, Graham Swifts ”Våtmarker” eller den stora bengaliska romanen ”Titash ekti nadir naam” (”A river called Titash”), så träder vi in i deras miljöer tills de börjar framstå som verkliga för oss; vi hittar själva en plats i dem. Eftersom varje miljö är specifik för sig tunnas dess kopplingar till resten av världen oundvikligen ut (exempelvis imperiets nätverk som möjliggjorde de världar som skildrades av Jane Austen och Charlotte Brontë). (Translation)

Critictoo (France) lists several of the best roles of Toby Stephens:

Jane Eyre (2006)
Avant de devenir Flint, on peut dire que le rôle le plus emblématique de la carrière de Toby Stephens sur le petit écran était sans aucun doute celui de M. Rochester dans cette adaptation de Jane Eyre avec Ruth Wilson en tête d’affiche.
Célébrée comme étant l’une des meilleures adaptations, l’acteur incarne ce mythique personnage de la littérature, l’exemple type du héros byronien, aussi passionné qu’imparfait. (Carole) (Translation)