Legacies and Afterlives

The Chester Chronicle features the new book Charlotte Brontë, Legacies and Afterlives by Amber K. Regis and Deborah Wynne.

The front cover is also a University of Chester production, having been designed by Dr Simon Grennan, research fellow in the department of art and design.
This volume of essays has been compiled as a response to Charlotte Brontë’s bicentenary and offers a timely reflection on the persistent fascination of Brontë’s life and work.
The essays cover the period from her first publication in 1847 to the 21st century and explain why her work has endured in so many different forms and contexts.
Charlotte Brontë, Legacies and Afterlives analyses the intriguing afterlives of characters such as Jane Eyre and Rochester in neo-Victorian fiction, cinema, television, radio, the stage and, more recently, on the web.
From obituaries to vlogs, from stage to screen, from novels to erotic makeovers, it takes a fresh look at 150 years of engagement with one of the best-loved novelists of the Victorian period.
A further University of Chester connection is that one of the chapters has been written by Dr Louisa Yates, director of research and collections at Gladstone’s Library, Hawarden and a visiting lecturer in English at the University of Chester.
Professor Wynne said: “The impulse motivating the current volume of essays stems from the question of why Charlotte Brontë’s work continues to be so widely read. We are also asking why her characters have endured in so many different forms and cultural contexts.
“Visitors come from all around the world to visit the Brontë Parsonage Museum and it is clear that Charlotte Brontë is a cultural phenomenon which continues to evolve, as do her literary legacies.
“The book’s contributors come from many universities and we bring the story of Charlotte’s afterlife and legacy up to 2017. (Leah Jones)

Geek.com reviews Aline Brosh McKenna's Jane.

Aline Brosh McKenna doesn’t just recreate the story of Jane Eyre but instantly makes it her own. She sets Jane’s goals threading her wants, feelings, desires, ups, and downs throughout the story. McKenna’s approach to the novel fascinated and inspired me. In particular, the way we see life through the very private and secret life of Jane herself. Jane is a woman that is coming into her own and profound within her thoughts. She observes, which McKenna makes a huge part of the story for a fantastic reason. It connects to her art and her way of dealing with others.
Another captivating part of Jane is following our leading lady through her journey of becoming her woman. We witness her finally not being alone and what that comes with. She forms her own chosen family and makes moral decisions as she figures out whats right and wrong, good and evil and so on. The original novel deals with this theme as well, but McKenna takes it a little deeper. She brings it into the new age, especially as she tries to figure out her aspirations and dreams through her art and job.
Ramón K. Pérez is an absolute craftsman of an artist. I can honestly say, without a shadow of a doubt, that I was blown away by Pérez pages for this graphic novel. Jane is a remarkable work of art that reads personal and feels personal through the art. He takes Jane’s perspective and observations, bringing you fully into her point of view. He brings that feeling and frame of mind not only within in the art but the colors Irma Kniivila provides with his assistance. They lace the graphic novel with a combination of arresting moody, but rich, warm colors. It creates a perfect balance for the story as a whole. It even amps up the romance brewing between Jane and Mr. Rochester so well. [...]
Jane is a lovely and out of this world inspired adaptation of the original novel. It’s natural, sensible and above all else, true to itself. (Insha Fitzpatrick)

And another Jane Eyre retelling on Vox: YA novel Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore.

If you’re a fan of gothic great house books, you know there are only a few directions for Jane, Unlimited to go in. There’s the Jane Eyre direction, where the heroine wins the love of the saturnine master of the house, only to be briefly foiled by his still-living ex-wife. There’s the Rebecca direction, where the heroine wins the love of the saturnine master of the house, only to be briefly foiled by his dead ex-wife. Or, if you really want to stretch, there’s the Northanger Abbey direction, where the whole story turns out to be the product of the heroine’s over-active imagination.
But Jane, Unlimited romps joyously over all of these expectations. Why pick one road, it demands, when you could pick all of them? Having spent its first 84 pages providing Jane with a plethora of potential mysteries to investigate, the narrative pivots on a single moment of decision and then spins out from there into several parallel timelines, unraveling what might ensue from every choice she makes.
One decision leads Jane into a spy thriller. Another takes her into a gothic horror story. Another into a space opera. There are more. (Constance Grady)

And Publishers' Weekly has a Q&A with the author:

This novel also contains a lot of allusions to many classic novels, most notably Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. Well, if the main character was going to have all these different kinds of adventures, I realized the setting was going to be really important because it would be the backdrop against which all these adventures would be set—almost like how the setting of a video game lays a foundation for what the game will be like. So once I decided that Jane was an orphan and that most of the story would take place inside a house, it had to be a strange, isolated house where a lot of odd things could be going on. And once I settled on that I couldn’t help but think of Rebecca. And then how could I have a house of mystery without some Jane Eyre references? And then something else prompted me to include Winnie-the-Pooh, and Dr. Who, and Vermeer. What was I thinking? It sounds ridiculous. (Sue Corbett)

Hull Daily Mail reviews Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre.

The actor playing Jane is incredibly versatile, as are the rest of the cast, but she effortlessly eased from playing a ten-year-old orphan into a well-versed governess with her own independence. [...]
With a live band on stage and haunting operatic vocals from a surprise character, it was the music that really added to the drama of the story.
With Mad About The Boy and Crazy slowed down and performed at pivotal parts, the modern additions fit well with the 170-year-old tale.
With the first screech of a baby, I was unsure whether the play would be too thespian for my taste. However, within a couple of scenes I was drawn in and the three hours seemed to zoom by.
The standing ovation at the end is testament to what a wonderful play this is, but with swapped gender roles and the odd swear word, do not expect a typical retelling of this classic story. (Hannah Robinson)

The Huddersfield Daily Examiner has author Alan Titterington speak about Branwell Brontë.

Branwell Brontë has unfairly gone down in history as a drunken drug-taker says an author who has researched his life.
This year marks 200 since Branwell’s birth in 1817 and Calderdale writer Alan Titterington says Branwell was a highly talented man who brought out the creativity in his famous sisters.
He said: “Usually in the shadow of his more famous literary sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne, Branwell is increasingly recognised as a major driving influence of their creativity from childhood.
“Remembered more for a dissolute life of alcohol and opium abuse, he was nevertheless the first to be published (poetry in the Halifax Guardian) and his achievements were less than his sisters not just because he lacked their application but because of the sheer diversity of his talents. It was also Branwell that encouraged his sisters to write novels rather than the less profitable poetry.”
Alan says Branwell was poet, portrait painter, church organist, Greek classicist and in possession of an unusual skill to write in both Greek and Latin simultaneously using both hands for which he won bets in pubs around Halifax, including the since-demolished Talbot public house in the adjacent Woolshops, frequented by Piece Hall traders and visitors alike on market days.
Branwell recorded a friendship with businessman John Titterington in his Luddenden diaries, painted portraits of him and his wife Mary and visited his friend on market days at the Halifax Piece Hall where John and his father Eli and his brothers traded from room 63 in the Rustick gallery.
Thomas Titterington, John’s grandfather, an original tenant at the Piece Hall, opened his room for business at 43 Rustick on the very first day of trading at the market on January 1, 1779. Blondin’s Ice Cream Parlour now occupies this space.
In honour of both Branwell’s birthday celebrations and specifically in memory of the original Piece Hall tenant Thomas Titterington, his great-great-great-great-great-great granddaughters Niamh, Erin and Ruby Titterington have been invited to open trading on October 7 by ringing the Piece Hall bell at 10am.
The girls’ grandfather Alan has re-imagined events from 1848 in his novel St John in the Wilderness which includes capturing the essential flavour of the times on trading days at the Piece Hall as well as Branwell and the Brontë family. The eponymous John of the title, disinherited by his own father, goes on to be incarcerated in the debtors’ prison at the notorious York Castle from where he relates the story of his eventful life.
Number 63 Rustick is today trading as Spogs and Spices. (Andrew Hirst)

More on the Brontë Society taking over the Haworth Visitor Information Centre in Keighley News.

Councillor Gary Swallow, chairman of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council, said: "The end of the information centre, as proposed by Bradford Council, would have been a great loss to the tourist industry in Haworth.
"And it would have jeopardised our viability as a tourist centre.
"So I'm delighted that this is going to be run by the Brontë Society. We wish them well and if they need any assistance or advice in future as a parish council we'd be more than willing to work with them."
Worth Valley ward councillor Rebecca Poulsen said: "While it's a shame that it's got to this stage, I think it can and will work and I'll support the society to make it a success.
"Losing the VIC completely would have been absolutely abysmal for this area, so I think this is the best outcome we could have hoped for." (Miran Rahman)

Still locally, Yorkshire Evening Post features Nancy Barrett, who aims to make 'the arts more accessible to those on low incomes'.

“Creative Scene was an ideal project for me. We are based in Dewsbury and it’s a town that I genuinely find fascinating. [...]
“This is a historic and really diverse part of Yorkshire. I associate it very much as the traditional ‘West Riding’; it’s full of history like the Luddite Riots, shoddy and mungo production, endless Brontë-connections and some really beautiful landscapes too, not to mention fine historic house and walled gardens and handsome town centres." (Alison Bellamy)