Different Gytrash

Exploring words in Jane Eyre on the Oxford University Press blog looking into the Gytrash/guytrash.

One of them is guytrash “goblin; specter.” The word occurs in Jane Eyre. The idea that trash here is a variant of thurse is Scott’s, and it looks convincing. In Chapter 12 of Charlotte Brontë’s novel, the goblin is described so: “…a great dog, whose black and white color made him a distinct object against the trees. It was exactly one mask of Bessie’s Gytrash (sic)—a lion-like creature with long hair and a huge head; it passed me however, quietly enough, not staying to look up, with strange pretercanine eyes, in the face, as I half expected it would. The horse followed—a tall steed and on its back a rider….” After all, the figure turned out not to be G(u)ytrash, and the most frightening part of the description is the word pretercanine, most likely Brontë’s coinage on the analogy of preternatural (so “beyond what one could expect from a dog’s eyes”). (Anatoly Liberman)

On Female First, dress historian and author Lucy Adlington picks her 'Top 10 Novels For Fashion Lovers'.

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë (1847)
Jane Eyre is one of those classic novels which gives something new each time you read it.  There are plentiful references to clothes throughout the book, all giving insight into characters and emotions.  While early Victorian fashions seem demure and restraining they, like Jane’s calm exterior, can hide passionate souls.  From Jane’s drab school uniform, to the ravaged lace of her wedding veil, clothes show mood… and madness.  I particularly like Jane’s adoption of black and grey for daily wear. Seemingly sensible, it actually becomes a colour of possibility and quality, in contrast to the peacock colours of more gaudy characters. Add a brooding Mr Rochester and you’ve all the elements for intelligent escapism.

Gears of Biz recommends '10 Books Like ‘Good Omens’ To Read While You Wait The Upcoming Miniseries', including Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair.

What Good Omens does for the Bible, Jasper Fforde does for all of English literature. The Eyre Affair is set in a slightly different universe from our own, where people watch Richard III like it’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Thursday Next is employed as a literary detective. Everything changes for Thursday, though, when she discovers her ability to actually jump into books, and soon she’s on the case tracking down the kidnapper of Jane Eyre. (Bill Cooke)

A columnist from Deseret News discusses motherhood and creativity.

Before having kids, I worried about the tug between my creative endeavors and being a mother. After all, my favorite female writers, the Jane Austens and Willa Cathers and Brontë sisters of the world, led famously childless lives. While things have certainly advanced since the Victorian era, there is a still the tug between creativity and mothering. Even as a teenager, I had the habit of flipping to the author’s bio of each book I read, just to see how many children she had. (Tiffany Gee Lewis)

The Gainesville Sun features the Gainesville Orchestra's opening show for the 2017 season, "From the Mediterranean Sea to the German Alps".

[...] other pieces will include Francis Poulenc’s Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano [...]
Poulenc’s trio brings the audience to the German Alps, Haile said. It’s a “very passionate, very sweeping” piece that resembles romantic dramas like “Wuthering Heights” and “Jane Eyre.” (Paige Fry)

From First Page to Last has a Q&A with writer Claire Evans:

6. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life which book would it be?Wuthering Heights. Without a doubt. It’s probably the book I have read the most – maybe 10 times at various stages of my life. I think there is something elusive about it, something unknowable. Every time I read it I promise myself I will really concentrate, find what I’m missing, but then I get swept along and have to accept there are no more clues to be had. Emily Brontë is top of the list of women I would like to talk to in the afterlife – if there was one. I think if I could understand her, I would finally understand this book. But then maybe I’d find it less compelling. I don’t know. I think it’s a masterpiece by the way – THE masterpiece of novel writing. Just writing this makes me want to read it again.

Writergurlny features Isabella Linton. Paperblog reviews Ángeles Caso's Todo ese fuego in Spanish. And more on Branwell Brontë and Wordsworth’s Lake District on the Brussels Brontë Blog.