In the thrall of Brontë’s brooding masterpiece

The Daily Star (Bangladesh) has a nice (although a bit unaccurate) article on a visit to Haworth and the Parsonage:

Around 2014, while working on my dissertation on Emily Brontë, I suddenly realized that it was rather strange that I had never been to Yorkshire. I had never walked around the dark heath, I had never seen the heather bloom, I did not even know how exactly the air in the moor of Heathcliff and Catherine smelled like. So, right after the spring semester ended that year I boarded a plane to visit a load of literary places. And you can guess, Haworth was on top of my list. I was mostly depending on my best friend Nausheen's knowledge of England and in due time found myself on a bus headed to Keighley.
A local bus dropped us off at 8:30 in the morning at a kind of crossroad at the edge of a park, perhaps half a mile away from the famous Haworth parsonage. It was the end of May and still quite cold. Nausheen did not seem much bothered by the weather. But I was pretty much shivering and also had developed a fever. We asked somebody which way to go, and they said that the parsonage wouldn't open until 10. Perhaps, we could have some breakfast then?  We walked up and down a charming cobblestone street with little cafes, pubs, and gift shops, but unfortunately, nothing was open yet. I had goose bumps when I wondered if the Brontë sisters walked by the same street.  The local people have preserved the town as of old days. This was indeed a pilgrimage for the Brontë fans.
Finally, we located a small convenience store and got a loaf of fruit bread. I got some steaming coffee for my sore throat and we sat down on a decorative boulder to have our breakfast. Then we walked up the hill to the Brontë Parsonage, and were greeted in the churchyard by a friendly black cat which came and rubbed at our legs. There were not many visitors yet and the house was indeed a museum with various items on display. I could not help smiling at the size of Charlotte's gown—she must have been petite. Emily's room was the smallest in the house as it was originally children's nursery. I had intended to take a look at the archives of the Brontës, but unfortunately, they were kept under lock and key and the Brontë Society that was responsible for looking after the place, exerted a high fee if anybody wanted to examine them. (??????) We had earlier visited the Keats House in Hampstead which allowed visitors to look at the archives free of cost. Hence I was somewhat disappointed at the turn of things. Still, we spent half the day walking around the house and the adjacent graveyard. I could not believe that I was really walking by the house where Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were written. (Read more) (Sohana Manzoor)

The Northern Echo also suggests a visit to Haworth, but looking for The Railway Children instead of the Brontës:

This walk, rather than tracing the history of the Brontës, explores the village and nearby lands of Haworth which provided the setting for the Railway Children film in 1970.
Start the walk in the centre of Haworth. Nearby is the Brontë Parsonage museum and church which is worth a visit on the return. From the centre of Haworth head down the cobbled street. Opposite the Fleece pub turn left down a steep lane heading towards Haworth rail station. Cross the main road but after 200 metres turn left before reaching the station. Turn right and then left through a gate and follow the surfaced path across Haworth Park. Turn left after a gate at the east end of the park and then right on to Mytholmes Lane. Follow the road for nearly ½ a mile to a garage on your right. Here go through a gate on to a footpath. 

Broadway World reviews the Austrian cast recording of the Gordon & Caird Jane Eyre musical:

This recording is of the 2018 Austrian production, which had a limited run earlier this year at stadttheater Gmunden. Starring Elisabeth Sikora and Yngve Gåsøy Romdal. Directed by Markus Olzinger, with Caspar Richter serving as musical director.
This is the first recording of the entire score. It is presented complete with all dialogue intact, reminiscent of the London recording of Jason Robert Brown's Parade, the big difference is that it is recorded live.
All the tiny imperfections are present, such as coughing in the audience, sounds of the orchestra turning pages and some minor performance mistakes by the cast. Most notably the harmonies sung by the children during the end of Kinder von Gott /Children of God. But all these minor imperfections are a natural part of a live recording and gives a truer sense of an actual performance.
Both the English recordings of the score has a running time of just over 1 hour, while this double disc edition has close to 2,5 hour of music. And there is plenty of music here that is not present on past releases. To finally get the entire score recorded is fantastic.
There are three performers that need to be accentuated in this review. The first being Elisabeth Sikora, who gives a strong warm portrayal of Jane Eyre. Her voice is soft yet powerful when it is called for in the the higher register. Yngve Gåsøy Romdal is Edward Rochester to wonderful effect. He has a very soothing timbre in his voice, and sounds very much as the man betrayed by his feelings, but who falls for his governesses and discovers the meaning of true love. Finally, Carin Filipcic is a welcomed comical releif in all this gloom. A very fun Mrs. Mrs. Fairfax.
Since all dialogue is included this recording sounds like an audio drama, and this adds to the experience. This recording does not surpass the Broadway Cast recording in quality, but it is a great addition for its completeness and that it is live. (Christian Ranke)

The Hindu reviews I Am Heathcliff, curated by Kate Mosse:

 ‘I am Heathcliff’: ‘Wuthering Heights’ characters in a modern setting
The violence that rages through Wuthering Heights includes child abuse and neglect, whippings and beatings, perhaps even marital rape. And yet it is celebrated as a story of undying passion that knows no gender, as exemplified in Catherine’s anguished cry, “I am Heathcliff”, where she claims an absolute oneness with the man she loves. This cry resonates in multiple registers in this collection of short storied curated by Kate Mosse to mark the bicentennial year of the birth of Emily Brontë (1818-1848).
For those of us who are already in the thrall of Brontë’s brooding masterpiece, we don’t need to be told by Mosse that the characters are both ‘Familiar Friends” and archetypes. What is interesting is how very varied their treatment has been at the hands of the authors featured here. Part of these writers’ challenge has been to re-imagine the Brontë oeuvre in a modern setting. As the title suggests, many of the short stories focus on the question, “Who is Heathcliff?” — his centrality to the novel itself is underlined when Catherine confesses to her nurse and confidante, Nelly Dean, “He’s always, always in my mind; not as a pleasure, any more that I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.” (Geeta Doctor)

The Cleveland Jewish News publishes their very own CJN Theatre awards:

Best Design – Lighting and Sound
Benjamin Gantose (lighting)/Carlton Guc (sound)
"Jane Eyre”
Cleveland Musical Theatre
Any stage version of a weighty, timeworn Victorian novel is likely to come up comparatively short in terms of content, context and authorial voice.  Such complex storytelling is not easy to capture in the short form typical of live theater. To compensate, the new streamlined rendition of Paul Gordon and John Caird’s musical “Jane Eyre” – which received its world premiere by Cleveland Musical Theatre, a recently-formed professional production company – saturated the stage with extraordinary and ominous theatricality courtesy of impressive stagecraft.  Benjamin Gantose’s gothic lighting design was instrumental in capturing the tenor of Eyre’s memories, resulting in a dark, delicate and disarming musical.  (Bob Abelman)

The Irish Examiner publishes a guide to Cork in winter which includes

the spot where Charlotte Brontë on her honeymoon stood to get a better view of Shandon’s Bells.

A Christmas memoir by Martina Evans in The Irish Times:

I read the Bible (badly and sketchily) to understand my heroes better: Emily Dickinson, Mahalia Jackson, Hank Williams, Emily Brontë, William Blake, Rosetta Tharpe, Gillian Welch are only a few. The bible is everywhere in Western culture.

Newcastle Magazine reviews the novel The Standing Water by David Castleton:

Probably best described as quality fiction with a gothic edge, The Standing Water – though thoroughly modern – recalls the dark authoritarianism found in Dickens, the rural bleakness of Thomas Hardy, and the murderous tensions and manic cruelties of the Brontës. (Joe Shield)

People's World reviews the Pawel Pawlikowski film Cold War:

Wiktor and Zula’s affair is a case study of “They can’t live together but can’t live without each other.” It’s that whole “Oh Cathy!” “Oh Heathcliff!” syndrome that dates at least as far back as Emily Brontë’s 1847 Wuthering Heights. (Ed Rampell)

Northjersey.com talks about the story of Bill Crain:

During his time in jail, Crain is hoping to read Henry David Thoreau’s journals about nature, Albert Einstein’s autobiography and other books by Jane Goodall, Charlotte Bronte and Rachel Carson – all in preparation for a book he is writing. (Mike Kelly)

Mannheimer Morgen (Germany) talks about the Christmas concert of the Matthias-Grünewald-Gymnasium in the Tauberbischofsheim Martinskirche:

Mit dem elegischen „Wintersong“ präsentierten die Nachwuchssängerinnen ein von Audrey Snyder vertontes Gedicht der englischen Autorin Emily Brontë. (feu) (Translation)

Main Post and Main-Echo (Germany) talks about the performance of Jane Eyre by the White Horse Theater company at the Balthasar Neumann High School in Munich:

Für die elfte Jahrgangsstufe wurde in der Bibliothek das Stück „Jane Eyre“ zum Besten gegeben. Der Roman von Charlotte Bronte, zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht 1847 – und inzwischen unzählige Male verfilmt - ist eine Autobiographie und handelt von der jungen Engländerin Jane Eyre. Die Waise wird in das Internat Lowood geschickt, wo sie bis zu ihrem 18. Lebensjahr bleibt. Sie gibt ein Inserat auf und tritt eine Stellung als Gouvernante für ein französisches Mädchen auf Thornfield Hall an, wo sie sich in den Hausherrn Mr. Rochester verliebt, der ihre Liebe erwidert und Jane Eyre zu seiner Frau machen will. Doch Rochester hat ein Geheimnis: Er hält seine psychisch kranke Frau in Thornfield gefangen. Nach zahlreichen Diskussionen, einer Flucht von Jane Eyre, einem Brand in Thornfield Hall, der Erblindung von Rochester und dem Tod seiner Ehefrau, stimmt Jane einer Eheschließung zu. (Translation)

Maryse Condé in La Nación (Argentina):

Insular. Porque su obra ha sido apenas traducida al español y porque fue su marido quien, harto de los argumentos espirales de tantas casas editoras, llevó y aún transporta las novelas de su esposa al idioma de Emily Brontë. Fue aquella inglesa de las tierras de York, desde sus borrascosas cumbres, la autora que inspiró a una jovencita descalza en la arena cálida de una playa del Caribe. (Laura Ventura) (Translation)

A sort of Brontë-related Christmas celebration in Saint-Cyprien, France:

Concert "Un Noël à Hurlevent". Ce mercredi [December 19], de 18 h 30 à 20 h, salle Escaro (mairie), village, l’école municipale de musique propose de célébrer Noël sur la colline balayée par les vents du nord, où la poétesse anglaise avait situé son roman "Les hauts de Hurlevent". Le répertoire romantique sera par conséquent mis à l’honneur, mais les noëls vocaux et instrumentaux apporteront la touche chaleureuse indispensable à cette période de l’année. Entrée libre sans réservation. (L'Indépendant) (Translation)

Libération (France) reviews the film The Bookshop by Isabel Coixet:

La désuétude et les poncifs visuels dominent, alors que se succèdent les paysages de lande fouettée par les vagues, façon les Hauts de Hurlevent, et les plans éculés sur le visage d’Emily Mortimer humant avec extase le parfum de ses livres. (Sandra Onana) (Translation)

Culturopoing (France) reviews the BD Le Visiteur de Minuit by Marie-Aude Murail / Christel Espié:

Cette peinture d’atmosphère inspirée par le romantisme anglais pousse à rêver qu’elle adapte un jour un roman noir – qui sait, Melmoth  ou Les hauts de Hurlevent – tant elle est douée pour les jeux d’ombre, le mystère des pièces, le mouvement des drapés. (Olivier Rossignot) (Translation)

Io Donna (Italy) reviews the TV series L'amica geniale:

La ragazza salta fuori dalle pagine del libro e dallo schermo (a proposito, il 2018 è il bicentenario della nascita di Emily Brontë, e mi viene in mente un’altra ‘bambina ribelle’ indomita e cattiva, Catherine Earnshaw in Cime Tempestose). (Alessandra Quattrocchi) (Translation)

Fanpage (Italy) recommends reading Wuthering Heights in 2019:

Cime tempestose (Emily Brontë): scritto nel 1857, si tratta di uno dei romanzi più esemplificativi della narrativa romantica d'oltremanica. Le sue atmosfere cupe e drammatiche, i personaggi vittima della loro insoddisfazione, la natura che urla prepotentemente la propria supremazia: Emily Brontë ha scritto un libro eccezionale, che è ancora oggi uno dei principali esempi di scrittura femminile "nera". (Translation)

Die Welt (Germany) interviews the literary critic (and new member of the Nobel Prize jury) Mikaela Blomqvist:

 Emily Brontë: „Sturmhöhe“
Ich stamme aus keiner sonderlich kulturinteressierten Familie, aber es gab viele Bücher bei uns zu Hause. Eine willkürliche Auswahl, meine Eltern hatten bei Weitem nicht alles gelesen. Mit zwölf fand ich in einem etwas versteckten Regal eine Klassikerserie, in der „Sturmhöhe“ enthalten war. Heathcliffs und Catherines Liebe, ihrer beider Einsamkeit und Rohheit korrespondierten unmittelbar mit meinem eigenen Innenleben und, wie ich vermute, dem schwierigen Übergang vom Kind zum Erwachsenen, an dessen Schwelle ich stand.
In Schweden wird zurzeit eine Debatte über Kunst und Repräsentation geführt. Es geht um den Anspruch, sich in Literatur sehr konkret widerspiegeln zu können. Ich kam schon früh auf den Trichter, dass Literatur nicht so funktioniert. Ein Mädchen in geborgenen, kleinbürgerlichen Verhältnissen in Göteborg kann sich nämlich durchaus in zwei halb toten 19.-Jahrhundert-Seelen in der englischen Heidelandschaft wiedererkennen. (Translation)

Espalha Factos (in Portuguese) quotes from Anne Brontë's Music on Christmas Morning poem; The Digital Fix reviews the blu-ray edition of Quatermass and the Pit and remembers how the 1953 Nigel Kneale Wuthering Heights TV adaptation is sadly lost. The Accrington Observer publishes the obituary of he professor (and occasional Brontë lecturer) Cliff Astin.