Genius born of hardship and rock

Being (or not) defined by your gender in The Sydney Morning Herald:

In the 19th century, when women were not allowed to go to university, or have a career and remain respectable, they developed strategies in order to be taken seriously. The Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, first published their writings under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, and Mary Anne Evans is better known to this day as George Eliot. Only when their success was established did they reveal their gender. Another strategy, still employed today, is to only use one's initials, like J.K. Rowling. (Maureen Matthews)

100 places where the past seems to linger on The Sunday Times:

72. The Brontë Parsonage, Haworth, West Yorkshire. 1820: Home of the Brontë sisters, genius born of hardship and rock.

Cary Fukunaga's works in The Stuff:

Fukunaga is eager to point out he wasn't the first filmmaker to direct an entire series - he cites Tom Hooper's John Adams as an earlier example. But having endured the painful process of reducing Jane Eyre into a two-hour feature, he craves a larger canvas.
"I love David Lean's films, and larger epics just don't have a place anymore in cinemas," he says. (Meredith Blake)

The Guardian reviews the audio drama Get Carter:

Audio fiction is a day-to-day job at the BBC, of course, and thus can be rather mundane. So I was pleasantly surprised by last week’s 15 Minute Drama: five dramatic interpretations of Angela Carter’s feminist fairytales. This is tricky stuff to put on radio. Carter is so literary and dramatic that an audio version can easily collapse into ridiculousness. But these dramas are made by Olivia Hetreed, who wrote the wonderful screenplay for Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, and they are fantastic: atmospheric, scary, gripping, wild. Perhaps I’m not such a stick-in-the-mud after all. (Miranda Sawyer)

Doppiozero (Italy) is all about loving chestnuts. Quoting Jane Eyre, of course:

Dicevamo degli inglesi che ne hanno presto capito e goduto i pregi; nella loro letteratura alberi e fiori han sempre un posto di riguardo. L’ippocastano ha il suo nel romanzo di Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre: è sulla panca circolare sotto l’ippocastano gigante del parco della tenuta di Thornfield che Jane e Mr Rochester si siedono per il colloquio che si crede d’addio e sfocia, invece, in una dichiarazione d’amore. Ma i segreti di Mr Rochester incombono sulle volontà e sui desideri di entrambi, e l’albero scelto come testimone di fede promessa diviene annuncio di una separazione e di una rovina prossima, di un amore che va purificato con un fuoco che non sarà quello della passione. (Angela Borghesi) (Translation)

Our Daily Bread opens an article with a Wuthering Heights (via Joseph) quote. Head to Head, Heart to Heart talks about Charlotte Brontë's responses to critiques as a writer; Redgal Musings reviews My Plain Jane; the Brontë Babe Blog reviews Charlotte Brontë's Emma.

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Afternoon Tea with Jane Eyre in San Antonio

The Afternoon Tea series of films at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in San Antonio, TX screens Jane Eyre 2011 today, September 30:

Hot Tea & Hot Times W/ Mia Wasikowska & Michael Fassbender
Jane Eyre (2011)
Directed by Cary Fukunaga
$21.65, Sun Sept 30, 1pm, Alamo Drafthouse Park North (618 NW Loop 410) & Stone Oak (22806 Hwy. 281 N.), (210) 677-8500,

When Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre, girlfriend was not messing around. This 19th century masterpiece explores everything from feminism to religion through the eyes of Jane Eyre, a woman who has known great suffering and poverty. Fortunately for her, she also gets to know the tortured Mr. Rochester, and an epic, thrilling romance ensues.
Haunting and intense, this novel is perfectly adapted for the screen by the 2011 film starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, who threatens to set every scene on fire with his smoldering. Add in Judi Dench and the winsome Jamie Bell, and you've got a stunning display of cinema that would've given Charlotte Brontë goosebumps.
Join us for this marvelously melancholy Afternoon Tea, as we feast on treats, sip on tea, swoon over Rochester and root for Jane to finally achieve happiness.
Your ticket includes three servings of tea as well as a plate of the following treats:

Apple Cinnamon Scone
Truffled Deviled Eggs
Goat Cheese & Raspberry Tart

Via San Antonio Current.

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The tip-top point of our lives

Keighley News reports an upcoming and musical alert. Next October 8, in Ponden Hall:

The poetry and music of Emily Brontë will be brought to life in a historic house linked to her work.
Haworth soprano singer Charissa Hutchins, speaker Alexandra Lesley and pianist Gordon Balmforth will give a recital on Monday, October 8 at Ponden Hall, near Stanbury. (...)
The recital comprises a selection of Emily's poems from the very early 'High Waving Heather' to 'The Prisoner' of late 1845, and ends with a short extract from Wuthering Heights.
They will be coupled with songs and piano solos. Manuscripts for all but one of the pieces were owned by Emily. The programme has been devised by John Hennessy, author of the recently-published Emily Jane Brontë and Her Music.
The recital will be at 11.30am. Tickets cost £12.50 and must be booked in advance by calling 01535 648608.  (David Knights)

More Brontë alerts from the Parsonage for the upcoming days. Including a new audio installation for and by children. In The Telegraph & Argus:

Sounds like Heathcliff in an innovative new attraction at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth.
Keighley schoolchildren have created an audio installation inspired by the anti-hero of Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights.
The Outsider, which can be heard at the museum from October 25 to January 1, features sounds recorded by children from several schools.
They worked last year at the Parsonage with artist and researcher Rachel Emily Taylor, exploring ideas of a ‘ contemporary Heathcliff’.
Taylor recorded the children reading poetry about being in the landscape, which has been shaped into an audio installation of ‘clock chimes’.
The chimes are reminiscent of various scenes from Wuthering Heights, as well as the children’s feelings about aspects of their own lives.
The chimes include Lockwood’s four-hour journey between Wuthering Heights and the Grange, the routine of the contemporary classroom, the strictness of Heathcliff’s treatment, and how the children felt out on the moors.
The launch of the audio installation coincides with the October half-term when the museum will host family activities and the annual Museums at Night.
Wild Wednesdays will adopt the theme Monstrous Masks on October 24 and 31 from 11am to 4pm, when children can make masks inspired by Wuthering Heights and transform themselves just in time for Halloween.
A spokesman said: “Whether it’s the eerie face of a ghost waif at the window, or Heathcliff at his most diabolical, faces can be scary things in Emily’s writing!”
There are more chills at the museum’s monthly Late Night Thursday on October 25, tying in with Museums at Night and featuring Spooky Storytelling. (David Knights)

The Times quotes Charlotte Brontë on prudish censorship:

Why a string of asterisks plainly denoting a word should be considered less offensive than the word itself is a mystery. As Charlotte Brontë wrote: “The practice of hinting by single letters those expletives with which profane and violent people are wont to garnish their discourse, strikes me as a proceeding which, however well meant, is weak and futile. I cannot tell what good it does — what feeling it spares — what horror it conceals.” (Ben Macintyre)

On the 208th anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth Gaskell, Claire Harman reviews in The Guardian, Mrs Gaskel & Me by Nell Stevens:

Readers of Bleaker House, Stevens’s 2017 dashing debut, will recognise the tone and the ingenuity of this, and imagine they recognise the heroine too, at a different stage of her young adult life. Bleaker House was a fictionalised memoir about “Nell” going to the Falkland Islands to write a novel; Mrs Gaskell & Me is about “Nell”, a love-sick postgraduate, struggling to write a thesis about Gaskell. She weaves her story of thwarted scholarship and thwarted love (for an unresponsive friend called Max) through that of Gaskell leaving Manchester for Rome in 1857, just before the publication of her controversial Life of Charlotte Brontë. Gaskell was fleeing possible critical backlash against her book and successfully forgot her troubles (for a while) among the artists and writers who had gathered around the American sculptor William Wetmore Story – including Harriet Hosmer, the Brownings, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Charles Eliot Norton. Rome remained Gaskell’s ideal, and those months of freedom and excitement “the tip-top point of our lives”.

The Irish Times also publishes a review:

The narrative alternates between Stevens and Gaskell, and Gaskell’s story is told in the second person: “You hurled your biography of Charlotte into the world like a grenade, and ran away just as fast as you could.” This could have been massively grating; it’s a testimony to the charm and skill of Stevens’s writing, as well as what feels like genuine intimacy between her and her subject, that it never is.
The Charlotte in question was, of course, Gaskell’s friend Charlotte Brontë. In 1857, just before the publication of the biography, Gaskell left Manchester’s dark satanic mills for the sunny, exciting streets of Rome, where she joined a vibrant community of artists and writers and met a younger man, the American Charles Eliot Norton, who would become hugely important to her. They saw each other constantly in Rome, and remained in regular contact afterwards. (Anna Carey)

Female First has some autumn destinations for you:

Haworth, Yorkshire Dales
Known as the home of the rugged moorland that inspired Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, this picturesque place has been described as the village that time forgot, with its myriad of antiques shops, alleyways and cobbled streets.
This Yorkshire Dales destination can be enjoyed whatever the weather. Moody skies only add to the drama of the moors and the Brontë waterfall is a wonderful sight come rain or shine.

The writer Stacy Gregg chooses Wuthering Heights as one of the best books she never wrote in The Stuff:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Originally I think I picked this book up because I love the Kate Bush song, but then I fell in love with Cathy and the moors and the dark, miserablism of Emily Brontë's romantic perspective. I have a personal theory that people are divided into two types in life: Heathcliffs and Lintons. I'm definitely a Heathcliff – hardy and stoic, willing to suck it up and never complain and I have little time for the Lintons of the world who contract tuberculosis from a simple walk in the winter rain and then fall upon their death beds, floccillating and whining. Die already. (Jay Kristoff)

The Quint (India) interviews the writer Shweta Bachchan-Nanda:

Her interest for writing was extremely personal and was not known by even close family members. “I didn’t really share it with anyone so nobody really guided me in that sense. But I was always a reader and have especially enjoyed the classics like Charles Dickens, the Bronte sisters, but my favourite is Jane Austen,” she said excitedly. This is just the beginning for her and she looks forward to writing more, and is already working on her next book. (Nandakumar Rammohan) 

And IWMBuzz talks with an Indian TV actress, Sonarika Badhoria:

So what does love mean to her? “I am a hopeless incurably romantic. I have grown up on Wuthering Heights, The Bridges of Madison County and watching Dil Toh Pagal Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hain. However, in today’s time that level of love is rarely found. You seldom get unconditional love in current times.”

This letter to the editor in The Times makes us smile:

With two lovely children added to the collection and named after prominent female authors (the Brontë sisters), my librarian-husband has installed in them a love of reading, specifically the gothic novel, and the Dewey decimal system. (Arlene Lauder)

The Hindustan Times (India) has an article about World Heart Day:

Authors like the Brontë sisters, Charles Dickens, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Leo Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Haruki Murakami; chick-lit writers like Sophie Kinsella have given us enough food for thought on the topic of love. (Saumya Sharma)

A late journalist and Brontëite of the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Daniel Bach said his sister devoured every kind of writing there was, from pulpy sci-fi to Shakespeare. At the time of her death on April 20, 2016, she had shelves lined with thousands of books, and an old foot locker with some romance novels stashed away in it.
“She had 15 copies of ‘Jane Eyre’ from different eras,” Daniel Bach said. “She had 10 Kindles, and they were completely full.” (Henry Brean) 

Newtuscia (Italy) celebrates belatedly Emily Brontë's anniversary:

Autrice di 188 poesie e di numerose opere giovanili, Emily scrisse solo Cime tempestose, indiscusso capolavoro. Al suo apparire fu accolto come scandaloso, colossale, ma anche violento, gradevole, amorale, cupo, volgare nel linguaggio, sconnesso, confuso, incoerente, terrificante, inumano e del tutto privo d’arte. È comunque potente, coinvolgente e non si può negare che turbi gli animi. Nessuno sembrava leggere la storia raccontata da Emily: tra le pagine del romanzo tutti cercavano qualcos’altro che corrispondesse alle loro aspettative. Nessuno sembrava capirne niente. La stessa Charlotte, discutendo con l’editore del romanzo della sorella, alludeva ad un suo strano e cupo potere capace di produrre scene che, più che attrarre, stupiscono. Le critiche scoraggiarono Emily rendendola insicura riguardo a opere successive (pare stesse scrivendo una seconda opera della quale però non si ha nessuna traccia). I recensori si preoccuparono di avvertire i gentiluomini di non farlo leggere né a mogli né a sorelle, tantomeno alle figlie adolescenti. (Gaetano Alaimo) (Translation)

We don't totally get this reference in the Croatian magazine Prvi, but we guess it is not good:

“Ne bih nikada odjenula haljinu na volane. Ne, ne mogu ja to. To je jednostavno toliko ženski kliše, ono u stilu Jane Eyre. To je dijametralno suprotno od onoga što se meni sviđa. Ja sam, ono, Berlin, underground, crno, koža, dugačke jednostavne linije, minimalizam… E, ali isto tako sam rekla da ne volim cvjetni uzorak pa sam prošlo ljeto kupovala sve u cvjetnom uzorku! (Duška Jurić) (Translation)

El Periódico (Spain) describes the film Lady Macbeth like this:

Lady Macbeth es una original combinación entre una novela con aroma clásico tipo Jane Eyre, una trama de cine negro como El cartero siempre llama dos veces y drama erótico en la línea de El amante de Lady Chatterley. (Eduardo de Vicente) (Translation)

Il Sicilia explains the Bronte (in Sicily)-Nelson-Brontë connections:

L’ultima curiosità riguarda, invece, il legame di Bronte con le sorelle Charlotte, autrice di “Jane Eyre”, Emily di “Cime tempestose” e Anne di “Agnes Grey”. Per scoprirla bisogna tornare di nuovo a Horatio Nelson e alla grande eco che ebbe in patria il suo essere diventato Duca di Bronte. Fu questo il motivo per cui Patrick Brunty, padre delle scrittrici, nutrendo grandissima ammirazione per l’ammiraglio, decise di modificare il suo cognome in Brontë, con la dieresi sopra la “e” affinché gli inglesi non ne storpiassero la pronuncia. (Giusi Patti Holmes) (Translation)

The RCF radio programme Au Pied de la Lettre (in French) recommends

Il y a 170 ans jour pour jour, le 24 septembre 1848, Branwell Brontë succombait à la maladie. Le frère terrible, artiste maudit, a pourtant inspiré ses sœurs, Anne, Charlotte et Emily - les deux dernières, à qui on doit "Jane Eyre" et "Les Hauts de Hurlevent" comptent parmi les plus grands noms de la littérature anglaise. Quel rôle exactement a joué Branwell Brontë dans la création de ces œuvres ? Dans les années 50, Daphné Du Maurier s'est emparée de la question et a écrit "Le monde infernal de Branwell Brontë" que les éditions La Table Ronde rééditent cette année.

Animal Político (México) reviews To Walk Invisible;  Charlotte's Library reviews My Plain Jane.

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Brontë Studies. Volume 43, Issue 4

The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 43 Issue 4, September 2018) is already available online. We provide you with the table of contents and abstracts:

Editorial
pp. 271-272 Author: Amber A. Adams

An Anne Brontë Whodunit
pp. 273-283  Author: Lonoff, Sue
Abstract:
Only a few of Anne Brontë’s writings with her signature survive. Among them is a first edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall that also includes pencilled notes. At some point this three-volume edition became not one but two ‘author’s own copies’, although neither owner was aware that the volumes Anne signed had been separated and sold as sets with other unsigned volumes. This article examines questions that arise from the discovery of their division: whether all of the signatures are genuine, how the signed volumes came to be split up, and above all why Anne’s putting her name to this copy of Tenant matters.

The Several Stages of Gondal
pp.284-299  Author: Chitham, Edward
Abstract: 
The poetic fragments relating to Gondal and Gaaldine, the imaginary countries of Emily and Anne Brontë, have been considered to imply a coherent whole, and efforts have been made to construct a possible narrative round these fragments, with a few other names of places and characters. This article will assert that there were three or more distinguishable phases in the creation of Gondal, reminding readers that the queen of Gondal, ‘A. G. A.’, lasted only four years of the eleven or more of its existence.

Rooms in Wuthering Heights
pp. 300-310 Author: Tytler, Graeme
Abstract: 
One striking aspect of Wuthering Heights is the use of rooms as settings for, or backgrounds to, most of the actions or situations described by its various narrators. Thus, as well as being made aware of the social difference between the two principal domiciles through references to particular rooms and buildings, we note, for example, the thematic role played by the oak-panelled closet at the Heights and by the drawing room at the Grange, just as we see frequent mention of chambers or bedrooms, usually with ominous implications. The rooms most often referred to, however, are the Heights sitting room and parlour, the Grange library and parlour, and, above all, the kitchen, which, though the humblest room in both households, is undoubtedly the most interesting for being the space in which all kinds of human behaviour, ranging from the near tragic to the utterly comical, take place.

Blurring Boundaries and a Generic Matrix in Jane Eyre’s ‘Political Unconscious’
pp. 311-322  Author: Robab Khosravi
Abstract: 
In The Political Unconscious, Fredric Jameson regards genres as ‘literary institutions’, arguing that genres are political and a reflection of the socio-historical circumstances. Earlier in Marxism and Form, Jameson had proposed that the key aspect of a text is its form and that content is only secondary to form. In this sense, interpretation is inseparable from literary form — and all interpretation is historical. This paper attempts to map Jane Eyre’s ‘political unconscious’ to suggest that the novel’s generic elasticity — its elaborate fusion of Gothic transgression, romance dialectics and echoes of autobiography and Bildungsroman — is the hidden and coded manifestation of a utopian imagination. In effect, Jane Eyre incorporates a technique of montage and a (subsequent) collapse of generic boundaries, because the text’s political unconscious dreams of a disintegration of class boundaries. It is often argued that the concept of genre is no longer relevant in our postmodern context, as postmodern texts are characterized by a tendency to transgress generic boundaries. This paper considers the theoretical implications of such transgression for an interpretation of Jane Eyre’s generic affiliations.

‘A brilliancy of their own’: Female Art, Beauty and Sexuality in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
pp. 323-334  Author: Ioannou, Maria
Abstract: 
This article studies the portraits of Rosamond Oliver and Blanche Ingram in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, to argue that, first, the portraits participate in the nineteenth-century dialogue about women in art and, second, capture Jane’s convictions on the theme of sexual love. This is especially so in the case of Rosamond’s miniature, which comes at a point where Jane has resolved to choose a sexual union rather than a loveless marriage. In an important sense, Jane is Rosamond; the subject (artist) identifies with the object (model) in an equation of female beauty with agency and capacity for sexual feeling.

Candles at the Time of the Brontë Novels
pp. 335-340 Author: Clifford Jones, J.
Abstract:
Candle usage in the Brontë novels is examined. Factors in the interpretation include the types of candles in use at the period, especially beeswax candles and tallow candles. Scientific principles are invoked in descriptions of the burning behaviour of the respective candle types. The practice of candle ‘snuffing’, which features several times in the novels, is explained. The need for economy in the use of candles is evident in two of the novels, and this is linked to the Candle Tax.

Miscellany
A Brontë Reading List: Part 9
pp. 341-355 Author:  James Ogden, Peter Cook & Sara L. Pearson
Abstract:
This list is part of an annotated bibliography of scholarly and critical work. The earlier parts were published in Brontë Studies, 32.2 (July 2007), 33.3 (November 2008), 34.3 (November 2009), 36.4 (November 2011), 37.3 (September 2012), 39.1 (January 2014), 41.3 (2016) and 42.4 (November 2017). The present part covers work published in 2015.

Reviews
Brontë Transformations: The Cultural Dissemination of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights
pp. 356-357  Author: Cook, Peter

Emily Jane Brontë and her Music
pp. 357-360 Author: Duckett, Bob

Ill Will: The Untold Story of Heathcliff
pp. 360-362  Author: Duckett, Bob

Elmet
pp.362-364 Author: Cook, Peter

In the Footsteps of Emily Brontë: A Catalogue of the Art Work of Percy J. Smith, Emily Brontë and Wuthering Heights.
pp.365-367 Author:  Van Der Meer, Carolyne

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Wuthering Heights: tragi-porn?

The Telegraph mocks a mistake in an essay from an 'essay mill' by making an even bigger mistake.

At one point, the essay referred to Mr Brocklehurst, the sadistic boarding school teacher in Jane Austen’s Jane Eyre, as ‘Mr Blocklehurst’, and labelled Oliver Twist as ‘Oliver Twists’. (Luke Mintz)

It's a bad day for fact-checking over at The Telegraph, as it lists Emily Brontë as an insomniac who walked in circles to conjure up sleep.

Emily Brontë
19th century British writers evidently suffered with their sleep, and there was no shortage of strange methods to combat sleep deprivation. For the author of Wuthering Heights, the best way to beat insomnia was to continuously walk in circles until tiredness kicked in. (Tomé Morrissy-Swan)

And this is how an 'English major' sums up Jane Eyre humorously on The Peak.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
700 out of the book’s 800 pages are detailed descriptions of curtains. The rest is about a narcissist who locks his wife in the attic and hits on a girl who is 20 years younger than him. Spoiler alert: a burning house falls on him so he ends up looking like Mad-Eye Moody. (Natasha Tar)

Historian Antony Beevor is not a fan of Wuthering Heights according to an interview in the Daily Mail.

[What book] ... left you cold? Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. I hated the place, I hated the shouting and over-the-top emotions, in fact, I felt no sympathy for any of the characters. I also hated the bleak and windswept countryside, which was even worse than Thomas Hardy’s Egdon Heath, and that really is saying something. All in all, the book struck me as tragi-porn, and the product of an obsessive and very unhappy mind, which is perhaps no surprise when reading of the Brontës’ family life.

The Nation looks back on Rachel Cusk's bibliography.

In these years [mid-1990s], she also wrote a comic novel, The Country Life, which drew on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. (Maggie Doherty)

My Random Musings interviews writer Riana Everly.

9 Who is your favourite author? This is like asking a parent which is her favourite child. Um… all of them?  Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Ngaio Marsh, Isaac Asimov, A.S. Byatt… and that’s not getting into the playwrights like Shakespeare, Sheridan, Shaw, Wilde… there too many brilliant writers out there to choose. (Debbie)

This is how The Student Life begins an article on The Book of M. by Peng Shepherd.

I have come to realize that a lot of great literature plays with figurative shadows. William Shakespeare infringes on his reader’s chaste loyalty in “The Winter’s Tale” by brewing a shadow plot of incest underneath the direct story, while Brontë thought it best to blunt a facet of Jane Eyre’s psyche — her passion — and light it ablaze in her ‘character double,’ Bertha, who lives literally and figuratively in Jane’s shadow.
Shadows, reflective of the obvious, are perhaps the essence of literature, conveying precisely what should be read between the lines. (Tarini Sipahimalani)

The Spectator has a lovely article on Hebden Bridge.

One day we drove over the moors to Oxenhope, and caught the steam train to Oakworth, where they filmed The Railway Children. On the way back we stopped off at Haworth to see the parsonage where the Brontë sisters lived and the church where their father preached. Back in Hebden Bridge we had a slap up meal in the Tibetan Kitchen. My son and I both had bellyache, but only because we ate so much. (William Cook)

Paul Butler Novelist tells about the influence of Wide Sargasso Sea on his novel The Widow’s Fire. Net Noticias (Mexico) reviews To Walk Invisible. Autostraddle shares a short story which includes quotes from Wuthering Heights.

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I Am Heathcliff at the Small Wonder Festival

Today, at the Small Wonder Short Story Festival:

I Am Heathcliff
Juno Dawson, Louise Doughty, Kate Mosse
Friday 28 Sep 4:00PM at Charleston

Explore new stories written in response to Emily Brontë’s masterpiece of passion and obsession – Wuthering Heights.  

In her bicentenary year, we celebrate Emily Brontë with readings from new stories inspired by the enduring power of Wuthering Heights. Kate Mosse, author of six novels including Labyrinth, part of the multi-million selling ‘Languedoc’ trilogy, and most recently The Burning Chambers, discusses her curation of the project 170 years since the classic’s publication.
Kate will be in conversation with contributors Juno Dawson, author of seven novels for young adults as well as non-fiction titles This Book is Gay and The Gender Games; and Louise Doughty, whose eight novels include Black Water and number-one bestseller Apple Tree Yard, which was made into a four part BBC1 adaptation starring Emily Watson.

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The Woman Question at the Parsonage

An alert for today, September 28, at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

Parsonage Unwrapped: The Woman Question
Exclusive evening event
September 28th 2018 07:30pm - 09:00pm

2018 is the centenary of partial female suffrage, and our Parsonage Unwrapped event in September focuses on what it would have been like to be a working woman in the nineteenth century. The Brontë sisters knew from a young age that they would have to earn a living and were educated to become governesses and teachers, while the Brontë servant Martha Brown had barely left her teens before she began working as a servant to the Brontë family. This evening explores the working lives of the women of the Parsonage, and how they operated within the constraints and expectations of the age.

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The Haworth visitor information centre faces closure

Bad news from the Haworth visitor information centre reported by The Telegraph and Argus.

Negotiations to keep Haworth’s Visitor Information Centre open by transferring it from Bradford Council to the Brontë Society have ended without success.
The news, confirmed by Bradford Council, was greeted with dismay by councillors who have been told there is no prospect of saving the facility.
Cllr Sarah Ferriby, Bradford’s portfolio holder for environment, sport and culture, said: [...]
“But despite everybody’s best efforts, sadly it wasn’t to be in Haworth’s case. It’s not always straightforward or viable to transfer services, as the Government pulls its funding. We want to thank the Brontë Society for their interest and for trying to make it happen.”
Worth Valley councillor Rebecca Poulsen responded: “Haworth Visitor Information Centre (VIC) is likely to now face closure. As ward councillors, we’re shocked and very concerned about how this will impact on tourism.
“The VIC provides a central source of information for visitors and is manned by knowledgeable, helpful staff. Tourism is a key Worth Valley revenue earner, but Bradford Council are again targeting services to support tourism.
“Businesses and jobs rely on tourists. We’ve been told for the last year that talks over the future of the VIC were positive and progressing well. It was a shock to be told these talks have ended without agreement.
“We understand budgets are under pressure but supporting tourism generates jobs and revenue so it’s short sighted to cut support to tourism.
“Haworth is the busiest VIC, yet Bradford VIC is staying open. Surely support to visitors should be where visitors actually go, not just in the city centre?”
“We’ll be asking urgent questions about the future of Haworth VIC. The area is Bradford district’s ‘Jewel in the Crown’ and the council needs to recognise this.”
Cllr David Mahon, chairman of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council, said: “As a council we were surprised and really disappointed to learn the talks over Haworth VIC had ended unsuccessfully.
“The centre is an important part of the village, and I understand it’s the busiest visitor information centre in Bradford district. It will be very sad to lose it.” (Miran Rahman)

We are saddened to hear that as it does seem a very shortsighted decision. We can only hope it will be saved from closure at the eleventh hour.

And more from Haworth and its public toilets, also in The Telegraph and Argus.

The public toilet block in Haworth Central Park will be closed for repair work for about five weeks from October 1.
Councillor David Mahon, chairman of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council, informed colleagues of the closure at the parish council’s latest full meeting yesterday evening. (Sept 24)
“Both the men’s and ladies’ toilets will be stripped out and put back together,” he said.
He added that two toilets in the block at the Bronte Parsonage Museum Car Park were currently out of action due to damage.
And he said that when he went to lock up the men’s toilets in the car park on Sunday afternoon (Sept 23) he found them flooded.
However, Cllr Mahon said members of the public were continuing to contribute to the honesty boxes to help pay for the toilets’ ongoing upkeep.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer reviews Book-It Repertory Theatre's take on Jane Eyre.

As in all of Book-It’s shows, Beckman has the actors speak both the book’s narrative sections and dialogue. It’s an unusual technique that often – but not always – gives us a good sense of the original written version, and that is the case with this “Jane Eyre.” More so than the films and the other theatrical productions this “Jane Eyre” takes us into the heart of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece.
In some Book-It shows the blend of narration and dialogue can be awkward but not so with “Jane Eyre.” Beckman melds the two so skillfully that everything feels like dialogue, enabling the words and the action to move along so seamlessly that we remain totally involved in the story and the characterizations from start to finish.
Brontë wrote “Jane Eyre” as Jane’s first-person narrative and in order for a production to be totally successful the actor playing Jane must compel us from the very first scenes. While Mi Kang as Jane managed the words sufficiently (although her diction was often muddy) she didn’t bring passion and commitment to the role; although the script had Kang frequently using “I,” it felt more like she was recounting the story in the third person. What’s more Kang offered a one-note performance; despite a lifetime of challenging adventures her Jane seemed essentially the same person at play’s end as she was at the beginning.
The same could be said of Ross Destiche as Mr. Rochester. The dashing Destiche made it easy to believe that Jane could fall in love with him but was less convincing in Rochester’s declarations of love for Jane. Destiche also has an annoying habit of dropping the last syllables of his words, taking some of the emotional steam out of his performance. He and Kang had virtually no physical chemistry so that ultimately it was hard to believe the depth of the feeling between Jane and Rochester.
Despite these weaknesses, this “Jane Eyre” is engaging and moving. That’s due partly to Beckman but also to the supporting actors, each of whom plays a range of roles. In particular, Marty Mukhalian is as believable as Jane’s nasty Aunt Reed as she is Rochester’s kindly housekeeper; Ian Bond offers a tour de force performance as Rochester’s dog (his barks are totally convincing) and Jane’s awful cousin Reed (along with various other characters); and Ayo Tushinde breaks our heart as Jane’s best childhood friend, then makes us detest her arrogant, judgmental country gentlewoman.
As usual Book-It’s production team works magic with the Center House Theater’s tiny stage area making this company one of Seattle’s most appealing, original and excellent troupes. (Alice Kaderlan)

Vulture has actress Rose Byrne select her 10 favourite books and one of them is

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Rhys had the daring idea to give life to the the lady in the attic of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. An erotic, evocative, sumptuous, and beautiful voice liberating Antoinette.

USA Today's Happy Ever After has writers Anna Todd and Colleen Hoover talk about books.

Colleen: If you had to choose one book to read for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Anna: The Bronze Horseman. Wait … Wuthering Heights. Ugh … this is hard. (Joyce Lamb)

Cosmopolitan recommends 'The 12 Novels Every Woman Should Read Before Turning 30', and one of them is

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
The Victorian era novels you read for school are great—Dickens and Brontë are fundamental. But when you’re ready to encounter a new take on that buttoned-up era, turn to the historical fiction of Sarah Waters. (Maris Kreizman)

On Gay Star News Paul Thorn writes about his book Diary of a Modern Consumptive.

The inspiration behind the book is the work of ‘consumptive’ writers now long gone: John Keats, the Brontë sisters, D.H. Lawrence, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Orwell and Katherine Mansfield.

Folha de São Paulo (Brazil) shares the impressions of London in 1987 of Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante, including W.M. Thackeray's house, which Charlotte Brontë famously visited. Jane Eyre's Library shows a Brazilian edition of Jane Eyre. AnneBrontë.org has a post on 'Hathersage, Jane Eyre and the Brontës'.

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Courageous and free

A new edition of a Spanish book with a Brontë-related chapter and new illustrations:

Nosotras. Historias de mujeres y algo más
Rosa Montero
Illustrations by María Herrero
Alfaguara
ISBN: 9788420489179

Este libro no es un libro solo para mujeres, de la misma manera que el feminismo no es solo cosa de chicas. Estamos cambiando el mundo, estamos destruyendo estereotipos milenarios, y es evidente que si se altera el papel social femenino, es porque también muda el papel de los hombres.
»Incluye el texto original de Historias de mujeres, publicado hace veinticuatro años, y añade noventa nuevos pequeños retratos, una ojeada rápida desde la antigüedad hasta nuestros días que nos permite atisbar la compleja riqueza de la aportación femenina a la vida común. Porque hay una historia que no está en la historia y que solo se puede rescatar aguzando el oído y escuchando el susurro de las mujeres. La porción invisible del iceberg de protagonistas silenciadas empieza a emerger ahora, y tiene unas dimensiones colosales. Ha habido mujeres en todas las épocas haciendo cosas memorables. No hay un solo campo social, artístico o del conocimiento en el que no hayamos destacado. Y se trata de un pasado que nos han robado a todos.
»Pero tenemos que hacer algo más que cambiar la visión del pasado: es esencial que también cambiemos la visión del presente. La manera en que nos miramos a nosotras mismas. El mundo, nos decían y nos decíamos, es así. Pero no. Resulta que el mundo no es así. El futuro está aquí, el futuro es hoy y lo estamos construyendo hombres y mujeres. Por primera vez estamos todos. Aunque, para ello, también debamos abandonar nosotras muchos prejuicios sexistas. Así es que, hermanas, abramos nuestras fauces de dragonas y escupamos fuego.»
Rosa Montero

Reviews can be found on El Imparcial, El País, etc...

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Scandalising Victorians

Craven Herald and Pioneer goes walking on the Haworth moors.

I have always been inspired by the wild moors of the Pennines and can fully understand how the three Brontë Sisters were inspired to write their often gloomy but world-famous novels. They lived in Haworth and this offers a base for this walk, full of interest.
It is possible to park in Haworth and set off from the car park near the Brontë Parsonage. I tend to take the car on to the minor road at the north of Penistone Hill. It shortens the walk and avoids some road walking. Just beyond the cemetery on your left is some parking, leave the car and carry on westwards towards the moors. After crossing a road follow a lane westwards with a dry stone wall on your right signposted to the Brontë Waterfall. Almost immediately you will notice the sandy element of the lane (soon becoming a track) which is a legacy of the hard sandstone bedrock. Further on it becomes like a beach in places!
The track continues for one mile before dropping gradually in to a small river bed and an idyllic picnic spot. Here is one of the favourite spots for the Brontë sisters to walk to. On entering this little enclave there is a large stone, the Brontë seat, to the left and a few metres uphill is the Brontë waterfall. Directly ahead is the Brontë Bridge. (Continue reading)

More on Brontë places on a list of 'Four beautiful railway lines that escaped Beeching's axe at the 11th hour' published by The Telegraph.

The Hope Valley Line
The train pulls out of Sheffield, speeds past parks and retail parks, reaches the city’s outer suburbs, and plunges into the Totley tunnel. Three-and-a-half miles later, it emerges into another world.
Opening out on either side is a panorama of the Derbyshire Peak District, some of Britain’s most exhilarating walking country. On the left are high, bald moors; on the right the handsome village of Hathersage, full of associations with Charlotte Brontë and Robin Hood’s Little John, reputedly buried in the churchyard up on the hill. The landscape is spectacular at any time of year, but in winter, covered with an eiderdown of snow, it takes on a Brueghelesque character. (Stephen McClarence)

Radio Times reviews the second episode of Lucy Worsley's A Very British Romance.

In the second episode of her jolly series about the birth of romance, Worsley is in Victorian clothes of various types as she explores the era’s love of mawkish romance and chivalry.
The Victorians embraced torrid tales of adultery and fallen women, and maudlin stories of death and romance. But the stench of cheap flowers was blown away by one Charlotte Brontë and her atypical heroine Jane Eyre, a plain girl who falls for a difficult older man. It was a partnership of spirited equals, and it scandalised some readers. (Alison Graham)

More TV as Time lists '15 Things You Might Have Missed in Netflix's Maniac' such as

Cary Fukunaga gets self referential
In a brief shot of James’ interactive porn collection in episode three, Fukunaga pokes fun at his past work as a director. James owns copies of “Jane Derrier” (Jane Eyre), “Beasts of Urination” (Beasts of No Nation), “Sin Number 3” (Sin Nombre) and “True Erection” (True Detective). (Eliana Dockterman)

Shepherd Express reports that Florentine Opera will open the 2018-2019 season with Carlisle Floyd’s 2016 opera Prince of Players and describes his Wuthering Heights as follows:

The Milwaukee company has also staged Floyd’s Wuthering Heights, a tenderly romantic work inspired by the subdued intensity of the famous novel. It was recorded on a prize-winning CD based upon a 2011 Florentine performance. (Steve Spice)

Forbes has selected 'The Best Collections From New York Fashion Week Spring 2019'. About Mara Hoffman's collection:

The models—who came in every size, race and age—stood against a backdrop of cream-colored drapes, which was peppered with soil, shrubs and bouquets of lilies and roses. Some danced to the music of a live jazz band playing in the corner. Others stood and sat regally, displaying the clothes in a way they called to mind images of Wide Sargasso Sea. Indeed, there was a definite Caribbean vibe to the overall presentation. (Barry Samaha)

Stil (Serbia and Kosovo) features the Brontë family.

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Withering Looks on Tour again

A brand new tour with Withering Looks by the LipService Theatre Company:

Withering Looks takes an “authentic” look at
the lives and works of the Brontë sisters – well, two of them actually, Anne’s just popped out for a cup of sugar. Peopled with many of the characters we know and love, Maggie and Sue move effortlessly from frock to frock coat.

New Wolsey, Ipswich
26th & 27th September
27th matinee audio described and BSL interpreted

Stamford Arts Centre, Stamford
28th September

Mumford Theatre, Cambridge
29th September

The Atkinson, Southport
5th October

Preston Charter Theatre, Preston
9th October

Coronation Hall, Ulverston
12th October

Oldham Coliseum, Oldham
16th-20th October
Matinees Weds & Sat

Swindon Arts Centre, Swindon
25th October

Howden Shire Hall, Howden
26th October

Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis
6th November

Lighthouse Poole, Dorset
7th November

Cygnet Theatre, Exeter
8th November

Palace Theatre, Paignton
9th November

Newbury Corn Exchange, Newbury
15th November

Theatre Royal, Dumfries
26th January 2019

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Wuthering Heights 1939 in Murcia

An alert for today, September 26 in Murcia (Spain).

A special screening of Wuthering Heights 1939:

Semana Internacional de las Letras
Cumbres borrascosasFilmoteca Región de Murcia26 de septiembre de 2018 / 21.30 horas
Sala A
Cumbres borrascosas  (Wuthering heights, William Wyler, 1939) EEUU.103’. VOSE

Presented by Juan Manuel de Prada.

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Mrs Gaskell's anxiety

Bustle recommends '11 Novels Inspired By 'Jane Eyre' To Pick Up Instead Of Re-Reading Charlotte Bronte's Classic For The Tenth Time' (why not?).

Perhaps it's because I was named after Charlotte Brontë, or because I was particularly plain and morose as a teen, but I have always loved Jane Eyre. I love the melodrama and the gothic sense of impending doom. I love Jane and her stubborn independence. I love the deeply problematic romance with moody, unhelpful Mr. Rochester. I think it's vitally important to discuss the book's toxic British imperialism (and, to a lesser degree, its violently anti-French sentiments). And I think that it's a story worth revisiting today. Here are a few novels for Jane Eyre fans to read, from retellings to deconstructions to brilliant fanfictions.
These books look at Jane through both a lens of nostalgia and a lens of critique. Because yes, on the one hand, Jane is the forebearer to many of our well-written female protagonists today. She gets to be romantic and smart, average-looking and cynical, and she doesn't get married off to the rich asshole until she proves that she can be perfectly happy on her own. But on the other hand... Mr. Rochester and Jane don't exactly have the healthiest of relationships. And there's that whole wife-in-the-attic thing. So here are a few books that reinvent the Jane Eyre story, for fans and critics alike: (Charlotte Ahlin) (Read more)

Pan MacMillan shares an article by author Nell Stevens on 'anxiety, nonfiction and Mrs Gaskell and Me'.

“I am writing as if I were in famous spirits, and I think I am so angry that I am almost merry in my bitterness, if you know that state of feeling; but I have cried more since I came home than I ever did in the same space of time before; and never needed kind words so much,-- & no one gives me them. I did so try to tell the truth, & I believe now I hit as near the truth as anyone could do.”
This is from a letter by the Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, written in 1857 after the publication of her biography of Charlotte Brontë. She had been travelling in Rome, and came home to find that her The Life of Charlotte Brontë had caused an uproar. To say the book was poorly received is an understatement: lawsuits were threatened, angry letters were published in newspapers, and Mrs Gaskell’s solicitor had issued public retractions in her name without her knowledge. Powerful figures felt she had portrayed them unfairly and demanded heavy edits. Snarky articles were published about the book and its author’s failings. People Mrs Gaskell had never even heard of wrote her “sheets of angry abuse” claiming she had misrepresented them in the book. It was the kind of reception all authors dread: a hostile readership, abusive responses, public condemnation. [...]
 “I am in despair about ‘the public’,” Mrs Gaskell wrote. “For some reason they seem to say such bitter & hard things about me, & one never comes to an end of them.” Reading about the reaction to The Life of Charlotte Brontë was like reading a description of my own fears for my book: the angry letters might be replaced by angry tweets, but their effect would be the same. But reading about Mrs Gaskell’s response to it all, her fury, her energy, the way she fought and worked and recovered, was like a how-to guide for dealing with my anxieties. [...]
And even now that I have finished work on Mrs Gaskell and Me, she continues to advise me. “In the future,” Mrs Gaskell wrote, in the aftermath of the Charlotte Brontë furore, “I intend to confine myself to lies (i.e. fiction). It is safer.” And for all that I have loved spending time with Mrs Gaskell in my book, and for all that I am grateful to the people in my own life who have allowed me to write about them over the course of two memoirs, I shall follow Mrs Gaskell in this, too. My next book will be a novel.

On Her (Ireland), a columnist quotes from Wuthering Heights:

Whenever I feel disillusioned with romance (or indeed life) I'll turn to Brontë:
'He shall never know that I love him: and that, not because he's handsome but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same'.Yep, I quoted Wuthering Heights of a Monday and I'm not even sorry. In my defence, I'm attempting to inject some romance into our lives. . . (Niamh Maher)

More on romance, as Derbyshire Live lists 'Nine of Derbyshire's most romantic places for a wedding proposal'

Winnats Pass
West of Castleton, Winnats Pass is a collapsed limestone cavern which offers one of the most dramatic landscapes in the Peak District, thanks to its steep valley-like structure. Rugged and raw, the High Peak always delivers that Brontë sisters feeling. Author Charlotte Brontë visited nearby Hathersage in 1845 an it played a part in her famous novel Jane Eyre. (Jill Gallone)

An article for those in search of their 'steam dream rail trail' in the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Beauty abounds along scenic routes from rolling dales and vales, through rugged moorland to spectacular coastline, coach transfers taking strain between steam locomotive engine trips, with free time afforded to enjoy delights, many and varied, of such welcome stop-offs as gentrified Harrogate, gothic Whitby, medieval York and full Brontë Haworth, all glistening gems in White Rose crown. Where to go: Keighley and Worth Valley Railway has witnessed much evolution since industrial revolution saw it serve Heavy Woollen District's mushrooming mill trade. Five miles of track have been backdrop, not only for Jenny Agutter's Bobbie Waterbury and co, but also such small and big screen blockbusters as Peaky Blinders, The Great Train Robbery and Testament of Youth. Without coming over all trainspotter, the service today retains four signal boxes, two tunnels, two level crossings, turntable, assorted viaducts and bridges, all serving six stations. [...]
Haworth is all about the Brontës. From burgers to beer, this Fairtrade Village in Worth Valley fold of the Pennines celebrates its literary status among assorted antiquarian and souvenir shops, restaurants, tea rooms and inns, including Black Bull, where brother Branwell's decline into alcoholism and opium addiction allegedly began. But his sisters are true stars, book worms making a bee line for former family home that is Parsonage Museum, grade one listed building celebrating Charlotte, Emily and Anne's prowess with the pen and lasting legacy. (Chris Page)

Channel News Asia goes on a literary tour of the UK.

Most of my favourite literary spots were, however, outside of London. I saw the Gothic novels I had inhaled as a teenager come alive in Yorkshire, where the Bronte sisters lived and produced their most famous creations, including Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. (Hon Jing Yi)

AnneBrontë.org has a post on the death of Branwell.

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Ambushed in the Sargasso Sea

Some alerts for today in Australia and New York:

Melbourne Fringe Festival
Adapt Productions presents
Ambushed25 September 2018 – 30 September 2018
Venue: Chapel Off Chapel 12 Little Chapel St, Prahran VIC 3181, Australia

Tuesday to Thursday - 7.30pm
Saturday - 8.00pm
Sunday - 3.00pm & 5.30pm

A surprising new Australian musical for the dreamy, the damaged and the dysfunctional.
At the centre of the story is Angela, a single mother with two children. Her daughter Kat is a confident, strident young woman starting university whilst her son Tom is deeply reflective and uncertain of the wider world outside the home. A cheeky trio playing multiple roles guide the characters and the audience through this entertaining tale.
Angela feels she met her soulmate in high school and has never shaken off the belief that if she looks to the universe for signs, then the universe will bring him back to her.
She is starting to question her life as her two children start exploring their own views on love and the family.
A poignant but uplifting comedy this fresh musical queries the romantic notion of soulmates, using Kate Bush’s iconic song ‘Wuthering Heights’ as an unexpected decision-making guide.

Via Kate Bush News.

In Ravena, NY:

RCS Community Library
95 Main St, Ravena, NY 12143

Last Tuesday Books
September 25, 2018 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

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From Violent Drunks to Writing Inspirations

Let's begin this post with a reminder of the 170th anniversary of the tragic death of Branwell Brontë. Yellow Advertiser does not forget it:

1848: Branwell Brontë, brother of the Brontë sisters, died. He was the inspiration for the violent drunk, Hindley Earnshaw, in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847).

The Japan Times carries an article about the My-Year-In-Japan type of books:

In “On the Bullet Train with Emily Brontë,” Judith Pascoe fills her year in Japan with interviews and sleuthing to gauge the effect of English author Emily Brontë on Japanese culture. Her exploits delve into Japan’s eccentricity, absurdity and its flair for pastiche, while exposing the literary side of a country deep into anime and “boys love” manga. (Amy Chavez)

The Weekly Standard reviews the film A Simple Favor:

Director Paul Feig is telling us at the outset that his movie is a jape and that we’re not to take what happens all that seriously—even though there are disappearances and corpses and fires at Gothic manses straight out of Jane Eyre. (John Podhoretz). 

(Brontë) words and music in Skipton. The Telegraph & Argus informs of an upcoming event in October:

The event, focusing on the legendary literary sisters from Haworth, takes place as part of the national Family Learning Festival.
The evening, at Skipton Library on October 12, starts at 7pm. It is one of a series of events being held at libraries across North Yorkshire throughout the month. (Alistair Shand)

Richmond Times-Dispatch covers Virginia's 7th congressional district elections:

“My experience teaching Shakespeare and Brontë in Northern Virginia to a bunch of embassy kids is really not relevant to my run for Congress,” she [Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat candidate] said. (Patrick Wilson)

Dewezet (Germany) reviews  Die Geschwister Brontë as seen in Hämelschenburg, Germany, a few days ago:

Ihre frühen Lebensjahre waren nicht das, was heute unter einer schönen Kindheit verstanden wird. Mehr ertragend als erlebend wachsen sie im viktorianischen England, auf den unwirtlichen Höhen des Yorkshire Moors und in der räumlichen wie finanziellen Enge bei Reverend Brontë in Harworth auf. (...)
Es war der vorletzte Abend der Reihe „Beziehungen“ im Rahmen des diesjährigen Literaturfestes Niedersachsen. Unter dem Titel „Die Geschwister Brontë – eine lebenslange Beziehung“ erzählten die Schauspielerinnen Sonja Beißwenger, Johanna Krumstroh, Katharina Spierung und ihr männlicher Kollege Henning Nöhren aus dem Leben der Vier, lasen Passagen aus der Brontë-Biografie von Elsemarie Maletzke ebenso vor wie aus den Werken selbst. Sie taten es in Mimik und stimmlicher Modulation einfühlsam und höchst überzeugend. Nebenher sorgten sie auch für die vergnügliche Facette der – übrigens ausverkauften – Veranstaltung, zum Beispiel als Katharina Spiering und Henning Nöhren ihr Publikum mit dem szenisch vorgetragenen „Der Poetaster“, ergötzten. (Burkhard Reimer) (Translation)

Trendencias (in Spanish) is all for Victorian fashion:

Protagonistas de una novela de Emily Brontë.
La moda rescata tendencias del pasado y esta vez echa la vista hacia atrás para presentar (de nuevo) el estilo victoriano. Las Semanas de la Moda han sido el mejor escenario para mostrar cómo llevar blusas cerradas, con volumen y volantes que te van a convertir en una de las protagonistas de Emily Brontë. (Charlie) (Translation)

Well, as the number of female characters in Emily Brontë's novel is rather limited (nor are they particularly well-dressed) this claim seems a bit odd. Unless you don't know what you are talking about which, of course, is not what is going on at all.

UOL (Brazil) recalls Cary Fukunaga directing Jane Eyre 2011:

Paradoxalmente, o próximo projeto de Fukunaga foi "Jane Eyre", adaptação do livro de Charlotte Brontë sobre uma jovem governanta (Mia Wasikowska) que acaba se apaixonando pelo patrão (Michael Fassbender) na Inglaterra do século XIX. Mais uma vez, o diretor brigou com o estúdio para filmar tudo em locação.
Fukunaga queria rodar o filme nas colinas e vales do norte da Inglaterra, com suas árvores retorcidas pelo vento e seus casarões empoeirados. Tudo para destacar uma parte "sombria" do livro de Brontë que não havia sido abordada em outras adaptações. "Os diretores sempre trataram 'Jane Eyre' como um romance de época, mas ele não é só isso", comentou ao "Movieline". (Caio Coletti) (Translation)

Basler Zeitung (Switzerland) interviews the author Jennifer Clement:

Bücher, die gesellschaftlich etwas bewegt haben: «Oliver Twist» führte dazu, dass Gesetze zur Kinderarbeit geändert wurden. Die Bücher von Jane Austen und Charlotte Brontë änderten die Eigentumsrechte zugunsten von Frauen – ich habe gerade ein kleines Haus in Mexiko gekauft und heimlich Austen und Brontë dafür gedankt, dass mir das möglich ist. In Frankreich hat Victor Hugos «Les Misérables» dazu geführt, das man Armut mit anderen Augen angesehen hat...  (Markus Wüest) (Translation)

Awesome Gang interviews the writer Maria Johnson:

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My favourite author & book is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. It was probably reading Jane Eyre several times when I was growing up that inspired me to want to take writing more seriously.

Excelsior (México) vindicates Julio Castillo, who directed the TV telenovela Encadenados in 1988 (180 episodes loosely based on Wuthering Heights). Melissa Joulwan's Well Fed visits Leeds and takes the KWVR train up to Haworth. Recenzje zwykłej czytelniczki (in Polish) reviews My Plain Jane. Anne Brontë.org posts on Maria Brontë and her manuscript  The Advantages of Poverty in Religious Concerns.

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Emily Brontë A Recital of Her Poetry and Her Music

A recital of  poetry and music in a couple of weeks at Ponden Hall:

Emily Brontë
A Recital of Her Poetry and Her Music
Ponden Hall
Monday 8th October 2018
11.30am
Tickets £12.50
Advance booking is essential – Telephone 01535 648608 – with payment at the door

Presented by John Hennessy

Charissa Hutchens (Soprano)
Alexandra Lesley (Speaker)
Gordon Balmforth (Piano)

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Changing the Rules

The Argus announces one of the panels at the upcoming Small Wonder Festival at Charleston:

Heathcliff, the brooding anti-hero of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, has gone down in history as the epitome of romantic love – thanks in part to cinema and theatre .
Yet that is so far from what his creator intended, and is in fact a misreading of the book, as the foreword by author Kate Mosse to a new collection of short stories, explains.
I am Heathcliff, the opening event at this year’s Small Wonder festival, dissects the influence Heathcliff and Brontë’s novel has had on literature. This collection of specially commissioned stories inspired by Wuthering Heights and curated by Kate Mosse celebrates the bicentenary of Emily Brontë’s birth. It is a collection which takes a long hard look at the reality which was Heathcliff through a range of mostly contemporary stories.
Kate Mosse, author of six novels including the multi-million selling Languedoc trilogy, in her foreword to the collection, describes how her own reading of Heathcliff through the decades has changed her perception of him and his relationship with Cathy. From what began as a romantic love story – albeit one of violence and anger – she sees now the monumental nature of the writing .
That it is no domestic story of romance but is about the nature of life, love and the universe.
“Not only did she change the rules of what was acceptable for a woman to write,” Mosse says, “ but there is a total absence of any explicit condemnation of Heathcliff’s conduct.”
Two contributors to the collection of stories, Louise Doughty and Juno Dawson, will read from their work and discuss how the anthology came about.
Louise Doughty, author of eight novels including the number one bestseller Apple Tree Yard, sets her story Terminus in a bleak and wintery Brighton where Maria has fled from a violent partner.
The comparisons with Heathcliff are there of course, but when her partner Matthew tracks Maria down, I wondered whether she had actually wanted to be found.
“No” says Louise “She’s terrified of Matthew and when he finds her she feels an overwhelming sense of inevitability. She is so broken down by circumstance that it is hard for her to resist.”
Did Maria feel somehow responsible for the way Matthew had treated her? I ask.
“A lot of people in difficult relationships get into the habit of self blame and believe they can redeem a difficult man if they love him enough,” she says.
And what of the relationship between Heathcliff and Cathy? I wonder.
“She was every bit as wild as he was, “ she says. “Emily Brontë is quite clear on that.”
And like Kate Mosse she believes that to romanticise their love is a misreading of the book.
To hear more about the enigma of Heathcliff, book a ticket for this event through Charleston.org.uk/smallwonder or telephone 01323 815150. 

Books about the ocean on Star2:

Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys (1966)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is one of my favourite Gothic novels, and Rhys’ counterpoint to it is brilliant, telling the story of Mr Rochester’s marriage from the POV of his mad wife locked up in the attic. Rhys brings an anti-colonial and feminist lens to Jane Eyre, while telling a story that is dark, complex and tragic. (Sharmilla Ganesan)

Rodrigo Fresán on Página 12 (Argentina) replies to a recent article by Alex Clark, Why have novelists stopped making things up?:

Semanas atrás, en un artículo en The Guardian, Alan (sic) Clark se preguntaba ya desde el titular “¿Por qué los novelistas han dejado de inventar cosas?” Y, a continuación, muchas líneas para intentar responder paseándose por los ejemplos claros de aquello que ahora se conoce como Auto-Ficción o Literatura del Yo. Y que, por prepotencia de lo supuestamente novedoso, opta por ignorar antecedentes clarísimos como —por quedarnos sólo en lo anglosajón— los de Kurt Vonnegut, Philip Roth, Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac & Co., Henry Roth, Thomas Wolfe, Jean Rhys, Marcel Proust para no irse demasiado lejos rumbo a las hermanas Brontë, Charles Dickens y buena parte de la novelística del siglo XIX, para concentrarse en el aquí nomás y en el ahora mismo. (Translation)

Okezone (in Malay) recommends romantic novels:

Jane Eyre.  Novel karya Charlotte Brontë ini mengisahkan tentang seorang anak yatim piatu yang jatuh cinta dengan gurunya sendiri. Para pembaca akan dibuat penasaran tentang rahasia yang disembunyikan di Thornfield Hall, dan apa yang dilakukan Jane saat ia mengungkap masa lalu Rochester yang kelam. (Dimas Andhika Fikri) (Translation)

Adevarul (Romania) has a quiz with a Brontë question; a local Brontëite on the Parry Sound North Star.

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Post-genetic queerness

A couple of recent Brontë-related dissertations:

Study of the “post genetic”: Emily Brontë’s “EJB” notebook, 1844 to the present
Author: Ayrton, Patricia Anne
University of Edinburgh

Emily Brontë began transcription of two poetry notebooks in February 1844. The title of one, ‘Gondal Poems’ is self-explanatory in its content and focus. But the  purpose of the second, simply headed ‘EJB. Transcribed Febuary [sic] 1844’ has never been fully explored. It has not been recognised as a discrete piece of work,  nor has it been printed in a complete edition of Emily’s work with the exact text, and in the sequence in which she created it. In this thesis I ask what Emily’s composition of her EJB notebook reveals about her as a writer and thinker, and why readers have never had the opportunity to read the poems in the context that she created for them. Chapter One examines the critical history of the poems, and here I describe  the ‘lexicon’ created by Charlotte Brontë, Emily’s first posthumous editor, through  which much of Emily’s work is still interpreted. I propose that the continued use of  elements of this ‘lexicon’ impedes a recognition of Emily as a rigorous intellectual  and thinker. In Chapter Two I show how a sequential reading of the EJB poems places her within her contemporary intellectual world. I propose that her purposeful creation of the notebook provides evidence of an engagement with the philosophies and literature of early nineteenth-century Europe, and reveals not only a profound understanding of the thought-systems of the time, but also a capacity to use those systems to develop a unique philosophy through poetry, a philosophy which she then employed in her creation of Wuthering Heights. The EJB holograph is not currently available for examination but this investigation is supported by my own transcription of the notebook which is based on a set of photographs taken over eighty years ago. Chapters Three, Four and Five are supported by a series of ‘post genetic’ diagrams which describe the textual development of the poems from the first publication of fifteen of them in 1846, to the most recent collected edition published in 1995. These chapters elucidate the effects of the activities and decisions of the editors, collectors and scholars who have influenced the texts and the presentations of the poems since the beginnings of transcription in 1844. This thesis proposes that in creating her EJB notebook Emily constructed a discrete piece of work which should stand alone as evidence of her distinctive philosophical engagement with her contemporary intellectual world. It demands a new vocabulary through which to interpret Emily and her work, and it requires an end to the ‘lexicon’ which has shaped Emily Brontë scholarship since her death in 1848. The evidence presented in this thesis supports the need for a new and definitive edition of Emily’s poems, and particularly for a contextual presentation of the EJB notebook. This will enable a new conception of her as a systematic, methodical and abstract thinker, a philosopher-poet who has engaged with some of the foremost ideas of the early nineteenth-century.

"A poet, a solitary": Emily Brontë—Queerness, Quietness, and Solitude
Claire O'Callaghan
Victorians: A Journal of Culture and Literature, Number 134, Winter 2018
The Ohio State University Press

Emily Brontë is often remembered for her extreme reserve and was clearly an atypical woman for her time. Although she was a figure who struggled within the conventional social fabric, rarely does empathy find a place in writings about her. This paper revisits some of the popular and dominant conceptions of Emily’s reserve and seeks to find a more productive—even compassionate—way of understanding her preference for solitude. Emily’s writings—especially her poems, provide such an opportunity to do so. While recognizing the negative and undoubtedly painful expressions of emotion in Emily’s oeuvre, the analysis argues that more positive insights into Emily’s desire for solitude can equally be found in her writing. Accordingly, drawing on queer theoretical sources, the paper posits a revised reading of this “difficult” Brontë that seeks to open alternative possibilities for understanding Emily’s introverted nature.

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Like a Brontë struggling with an iPhone

Several news outlets talk about the new TV series Maniac, directed by the ubiquitous Cary Fukunaga:

“If you take [my first film] ‘Sin Nombre’ and [2011 film] ‘Jane Eyre,’ they’re quite similar actually, even though one was written by Charlotte Brontë in the 1840s and one is a contemporary story taking place now,” he says. “Really it’s about being an orphan in the world and composite families, that’s the line there. I wasn’t an orphan, but exploring this idea of composite families was interesting to me at that time period.” (Lauren Sarner in The New York Post)

In addition to evidence against Fukunaga’s alleged tendency not to play well with others, the marvelous, dizzy Maniac serves as a reminder that the director—who intentionally chose to follow the raw and gritty world of immigration and gang violence in Sin Nombre with the high-collared period romance of Jane Eyre—really can do anything. (Joanna Robinson in Vanity Fair)

And as directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the genius (and newly minted James Bond director) behind everything from the wonderful 2011 Jane Eyre to the visuals of the first season of True Detective, those moments really land. (Todd VanDerWerff in Vox)

Cinéaste prometteur, avec son premier film Sin Nombre qui avait fait forte impression au Festival du cinéma américain de Deauville et sa délicate et gothique adaptation de Jane Eyre, le réalisateur américain au port de mannequin a explosé sur le petit écran avec le poisseux True Detective de HBO. (Constance Jamet in Le Figaro) (Translation)

GeekDad is ecstatic about Bibliophile. An Illustrated Miscellany:

If you’re looking to revisit some old favorites or are looking for future reading recommendations, Bibliophile is a fun book to have. It includes plenty of inspiring book stacks organized by theme, a special look at different editions of Pride and Prejudice, profiles of dozens of independent bookstores, book recommendations from writers and other book-related folks, and plenty of information about libraries. Here are some of my personal takeaways from the recommended reading stacks:
(...)
Do you inhale everything British from the 1800s including Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre? Have you given George Eliot’s Middlemarch a try? (Jenny Bristol)

Just think about it. On The Lincolnite:

It’s often said that ‘everyone has a book in them’ but, for a variety of reasons, those initial sparks of inspiration sometimes never make it beyond a hastily jotted note. It’s easy to forget that those initial ideas form the foundations of great writing. Just think how different the landscape of literature would look if the Brontës had kept their ideas to themselves. (Jason Whittaker)

An insider chronicle of the Cheltenham Literature Festival by Caitlin Moran in The Times:

Therefore, when you suddenly see, say, Hanif Kureishi, walking around the Port Eliot Festival, with his legs, eating a stuffed courgette flower, and banging his head on a dangling sign that reads “Home Made Fudge”, it’s like seeing a Brontë struggling with an iPhone.

 The literary preferences of the Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon on iNews:

She also listed many other books that had influenced her, from classics such as Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to more contemporary works. (Chris Green)

Rebecca Lenkiewicz, the screenwriter of Colette, reminisces about her childhood books in Talkhouse:

Among the other literary facts I garnered at the time were that George Eliot was, in fact, a woman – I wanted to draw a mustache on her portrait. And that the Brontë sisters also pretended to be men; Currer, Bell and Co., they sounded like a bank. And this was all to help them publish their books. I must have been around 10 when I found out these things, and I thought the swapping of sexes was some sort of cavalier game. Now in my forties, I look back to that time when I had scant idea of the battles these women had fought to be recognized as writers, their utter bravery to sit down and make work.

The Daily Mail quotes Yoko Ono on John Lennon and herself:

After nearly five years of being together, night and day, the myth of perfect love the couple had woven around themselves — ‘like Cathy and Heathcliff’ as Yoko liked to say in reference to Wuthering Heights — had been shattered. (Ray Connolly)

The Washington Times reviews Behemoth by Joshua B. Freeman:

Charles Dickens spent an entire day visiting America’s biggest cotton manufacturer in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1842. One of the main characters in Charlotte Brontë’s “Shirley” (1849) is Robert Moore, a mill owner who treats his machinery better than his employees. William Blake used the term “dark Satanic Mills” in 1804 in the preface to his famous poem, “Milton.” Friedrich Engels “provided some of the most graphic descriptions we have of the miserable living conditions of English factory workers” before he wrote “The Communist Manifesto” (1848) with Karl Marx. (Michael Taube)

Publishers Weekly reviews the English translation of Les Gouvernantes, The Governesses, by Anne Serre:

Serre’s first work to be translated into English is a hypnotic tale of three governesses and the sensuous education they provide. Roaming the country estate of a staid married couple, Monsieur and Madame Austeur, Inès, Laura, and Eléonore are not exactly Jane Eyre types.

NME interviews Matty Healy from The 1975s, who talks about the recording of their new album:

The process of making ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’ began, in earnest, in Northampton, in a studio Matty had scoped out on a now-abandoned attempt to work with Skepta, a collaboration first mooted when they met at the NME Awards in 2016. Northampton, bringing to mind shoe factories and motorway service stations, feels a world away from this LA idyll, but the band settled in there for six months and Matty found the beauty in the place.
“It’s near where all the Spice Girls live and shit like that, it’s well nice, proper countryside, dogs everywhere, horses,” he says. “Very, very kind of Heathcliff vibes.” (Dan Stubbs)

NRC Handelsblad (Netherlands) complains about the treatment of Dutch classics as compared to how the English take care of their classics:

Het Verenigd Koninkrijk is misschien wel het land met de meeste open schrijvershuizen, en die worden druk bezocht. De vijf voormalige woonhuizen van Shakespeare trekken 750.000 bezoekers per jaar, het Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth bijna 80.000. Het hele dorp daar staat in het teken van de zusters Brontë en het is bijna onmogelijk er weg te komen zonder Brontë-sjaaltje, -pen, -waaier of -paraplu. (Maritha Mathijsen) (Translation)

A participant in a Spanish reality show turns to be an unlikely Brontëite, Isa Pantoja. On Telecinco:

Isa nos desvela que su libro favorito es Cumbres borrascosas y le encanta la obra de Jane Austen o Emily Brontë, y que en general le gusta la literatura inglesa, que ha estudiado desde los 10 años. (José Luis Viruete) (Translation)

Bilan (France) loves Balthus's Wuthering Heights-inspired paintings:

Magnifiques du reste, comme «La toilette de Cathy» inspirée des «Hauts du Hurlevent». Antoinette y fait sa première apparition en muse dénudée. (Etienne Dumont) (Translation)

Bridget Whelan, writer interviews the poet Ann Perrin:

I love autobiographies and am also reading Take Courage Anne Brontë and the Art of Life by Samantha Ellis.

The Loewe Classics Wuthering Heights edition featured on Vogue (Spain); Your Tango lists a Jane Eyre quote among 'beautiful i love you quotes'. Gazzetta di Parma (in Italian) celebrates the 40th anniversary of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. Bookblurbs posts about Jane Eyre and The Eyre Affair. Zatracona w słowach (in Polish) reviews My Plain Jane.

Finally you can listen to Selene Chillia and Serena di Battista (aka The Sisters' Room) and authors of E Sognai di Cime Tempestose on RAI Radio 2, Ovunque6:

Due ragazze italiane e la passione per un capolavoro della letteratura: andiamo a zonzo nella brughiera di Cime tempestose con un libro che è anche una guida di viaggio.

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