Culturess announces that
PBS released a list of America’s 100 best-loved books in honor of their upcoming series, The Great American Read. Told in eight segments that explore what it means to love literature, book lovers everywhere will want to tune in to this. [...]
What’s missing from the list
It does come as a shock that more classics written by women aren’t featured on the list. Virginia Woolf and Emily Brontë are just two of the significant names missing from the top 100. Are bookworms really not reading and loving Mrs. Dalloway and Wuthering Heights? If Little Women is still breaking the charts, it seems those two should be as well. (Amanda Mullen)
Entertainment Weekly lets us know that
Jane Eyre is on the list.
Up & Coming Weekly reviews a local
production of Jane Eyre by Sweet Tea Shakespeare.
Director Jessica Osnoe and her crew have assembled a cast worthy of bringing this show to life. Jen Pommerenke turns in a delightful performanceas Jane – the humble orphan-turned-governess. Pommerenke brings a unique and quiet charm to the role. Opposite of Pommerenke for most of the production is Richard Adlam’s Edward Rochester. Adlam’s charisma commands attention any time he is onstage.
The rest of the ensemble is a delight as well. Sweet Tea Shakespeare employs an old theater trick called “doubling,” which allows performers to work in multiple roles. This is the case with the rest of the performers in this production, who are all a pleasure in their own right.
Alexcia Thompson (Blanche Ingram/Bertha Mason) plays an essential part in the narrative and is a commanding presence. She brings such commitment to her part as Bertha, the mysterious laughing woman hidden away in the attic of Thornfield Hall, that the audience will inevitably want more of her.
Traycie Kuhm-Zapata (Mrs. Fairfax/Mary Rivers) confidently leans into her position as a source of comedic relief. Gage Long (St. John Rivers/LordIngram/Clergyman) captivates and Annalise Kelly (Adèle Varens/Hannah Smith) is a treat to watch as is Erin Fossa (Mary Ingram/Diana Rivers). Gabe Terry (Richard Mason/Host), who has a unique and rewarding delivery, rounds out this capable ensemble.
According to Osnoe, “Sweet Tea Shakespeare creates a home for beautiful, wondrous storytelling, so ‘Jane Eyre,’ the story of an orphan in search of love and home, makes perfect sense for us.”
Pommerenke agreed: “’Jane Eyre’ is a timeless story that is recognized by so many. To me, both Jane and Rochester find a home in the love and acceptance of each other. But home also comes in the form of redemption, forgiveness and family in this story.”
Long added that working on ‘Jane Eyre’ has been a true pleasure. “I’d have to say, besides working with a passionate cast, my favorite aspect (of this production) would have to be bringing the script to light on stage. With the help of Miss Osnoe, we’re able to bring deeper insight into Brontë’s story. My deepest hope is to connect with an audience, and I get the joy of doing that at every performance.”
It is clear that the entire cast shares in that sentiment. It is a joy to watch the company at Sweet Tea Shakespeare bring this story to life. (Shane Wilson)
Global Times (China) interviews Richard Humphreys, curator of the exhibition Landscapes of the Mind: Masterpieces from Tate Britain (1700-1980), which will run through August 5 at Shanghai Museum.
GT: What role do British landscape paintings play in British culture and how much overlap exists between British paintings and poetry, literature and film?
Humphreys: The landscape is both a background and foreground in British culture; in a small area there is astonishing variety and this has informed powerful feelings of regional identity, from the wild Highlands of Scotland to the gentle waterlines of East Anglia. British literature is unthinkable without landscape. Just consider the Yorkshire of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, or Thomas Hardy's Wessex in Jude the Obscure; the Augustan poetry of James Thomson or William Wordsworth's Lake District. In the 20th century, T.S. Eliot put British (and American) landscapes at the heart of his poem Four Quartets, and in A Glastonbury Romance and other novels, John Cowper Powys made the landscape of western England almost his central character. In film we find exactly the same tendencies: Powell and Pressburger's great wartime film A Canterbury Tale brings the medieval landscape alive in modern times; the extraordinary 1950s horror film Quatermass by Val Guest shows the world of modern science invading and poisoning the idyll of rural Britain; and Michael Reeves' Witchfinder General goes back to the troubled 17th century to show the landscape as a place of dark and satanic forces. (Qi Xijia)
Dazed interviews Michael Pearce, whose latest film is
Beast.
You’ve talked about wanting to create more of a tradition of anti-heroines as opposed to just anti-heroes, could you talk me through that? Michael Pearce: There were a couple of older female-led Hitchcock films, like Shadow Of A Doubt, Suspicion, Marnie, and a film by Claude Chabrol called Le Boucher which influenced Beast. It wasn’t so much the way this film is told, more the aesthetic of it. I was inspired by Badlands or David Lynch or Lynne Ramsay or Jane Campion. It was only through writing the film that I realised most of the anti-heroines I could list were from literature, I couldn’t think of many original film anti-heroines. Lisbeth Salander, Lady Macbeth, Catherine from Wuthering Heights or Carrie, or Amy Dunne – all are films based on books, and I thought that was quite strange culturally. By contrast some of the most interesting characters in film are anti-heroes. Corleone or Travis Bickle, Daniel Plainview, William Munny, there’s such a diversity when it comes to male roles. Original female anti-heroes in cinema are a bit more limited. (Thomas Adam Curry)
The New Indian Express interviews writer Sandeep Narayan.
Your favourite book of all time and why? Could you quote a passage?
I think it would be Wuthering Heights because I read it when I was quite young, it made an impact on me and appealed to the hopeless romantic that I am.
My favourite quote from the book would be “He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
Your favourite fictional character and why?
I think I have one for every mood – Florentino from Love in the Time of Cholera, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, Kunta Kinte from Roots. Pip from Great Expectations, Salim Sinai from Midnight’s children. The list goes on.
The Young Folks has a Q&A with writer Makiia Lucier:
What were your favorite books when you were a young adult? Did that influence your own writing at all? Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre, and The Count of Monte Cristo were favorites. And yes, I think these stories absolutely influenced my writing. I have always loved historical fiction, romantic stories, and adventures, so it’s no surprise that these are the types of books I’ve chosen to write about. (Lauren Wengrovitz)
The Booklist Reader interviews romance writer Christina Dodd.
What is one romance novel do you return to time and again? Jane Eyre. They fell in love, passionately in love as only two kindred souls can do. Everything was against them—society, fortune, morals, that pesky living wife—but they made it work in the long run. (John Charles)
Fabula (France) annoucnces the new release of the book
États de femme. L'identité féminine dans la fiction occidentale by Nathalie Heinich.
Cet état, qui ne s'observe pas semblablement dans la vie commune, est l'équivalent féminin et romanesque du complexe d'Œdipe : comment, maîtresse, prendre la place de la femme mariée ? Comment, seconde épouse, remplacer la première ? Il hante la fiction, noble ou sentimentale, de Charlotte Brontë à Georges Ohnet, d'Honoré de Balzac à Marguerite Duras, de Thomas Hardy à Delly, d'Henry James à Daphné Du Maurier. (Translation)
AZCentral recommends newly-opened restaurants in Phoenix. One of them sounds pretty interesting:
The Novelist
A restaurant-within-a-restaurant, The Novelist opened inside the same space as OHSO Brewery in Gilbert. The dining area is separate from OHSO but shares an entrance with the brewery. You can't miss a huge mural made from books by famous female authors like Charlotte Brontë, J.K. Rowling and Arizona’s own Stephenie Meyer of "Twilight" fame. The Novelist has dimmer lighting, a curated wine selection, elegant main dishes and tapas-style happy hour.
Details: 335 N. Gilbert Road, Gilbert. 602-775-5490, novelistaz.com. (Jennifer McClellan)
Anglotopia has selected the 'Top 10 Things to See and Do in Yorkshire', including
Brontë Parsonage Museum
Perhaps the most prolific literary family in Britain’s history, the Bronte sisters’ history and literary works can be explored at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth. Maintained by the Bronte Society to honor the works of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, it was once the family home as their father was the minister at St. Michael and All Angels Church. The museum provides a wonderful insight into the family’s life and how their experiences shaped works such as Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey, and Wuthering Heights. The museum holds daily talks, guest speakers, and events at the museum, so be sure to check the calendar before your visit. (John Rabon)
The Tour de Yorkshire is almost upon us and so
The Telegraph and Argus has published a stage-by-stage guide.
Sunday, May 6
The Piece Hall in Halifax provides a spectacular location for the start of this decisive stage and the first of six categorised climbs comes on the Côte de Hebden Bridge. The race will head up the cobbled Main Street in Haworth before dropping into Goose Eye for the next punishing ascent. Crossing from Brontë Country into Craven, the route heads through Skipton and the next climb is looming on Barden Moor. (Lee Jones)
Political Theology post about Silence in
Jane Eyre, treating Charlotte Brontë's novel as a sacred text.
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