A touchstone

Many, many sites mourn the death of writer and editor Diana Athill at 101. Here are some of those referring to her 'help' with Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea.

She found professional satisfaction, at least, in her work as an editor — first at Allan Wingate, the publishing house begun by Mr. Deutsch after the war, and later at his eponymous house.
At André Deutsch, she was midwife to Ms. Rhys’s novel “Wide Sargasso Sea.” With Ms. Athill’s hand-holding, Ms. Rhys — brilliant, fragile, alcoholic and living in impoverished obscurity — finished the book after nine years of struggle. A reworking of “Jane Eyre” from the perspective of Mr. Rochester’s mad wife, it was published in 1966 to great acclaim and remains a touchstone. (Margalit Fox in The New York Times)

Her dedication to her authors was legendary. She was responsible for coaxing Rhys’s great novel Wide Sargasso Sea out of her. Athill’s efforts, over many years, to nurture Rhys and her work are described with great understanding and sympathy in Stet. Of Rhys, she wrote of “the existence within a person so incompetent and so given to muddle and disaster – even to destruction – of an artist as strong as steel”. (Polly Pattullo in The Guardian)

Its editorial decisions were guided in large part by Ms. Athill, who was known for her deft touch with manuscripts and authors who also included Jack Kerouac, Molly Keane and Jean Rhys, who was struggling with alcoholism and debt when Ms. Athill helped her complete her 1966 masterpiece, “Wide Sargasso Sea.” (Harrison Smith in The Washington Post)

A short novel, Don't Look at Me Like That, came soon after in 1967, but she then stopped writing for another 20 years when she went back to editing full time.
This included working alongside Jean Rhys on Wide Sargasso Sea. (BBC News)

Born during an air raid in 1917, Athill led a remarkable life. She studied English at Oxford and went onto work for the BBC Overseas Service during World War II, before helping Andre Deutsch set up his eponymous publishing house where she worked for the next five decades. Here, she 'nannied' Jean Rhys as she wrote Wide Sargasso Sea and helped VS Naipaul after his depressions. She is also credited with helping to launch Margaret Atwood's literary career, after she fell in love with her first book, The Edible Woman. (Ella Alexander in Harpers Bazaar)

The Guardian reviews Diane Setterfield's new novel, Once Upon a River.

Setterfield’s bestselling debut, The Thirteenth Tale, was a fusion of the 19th-century sensation novel with the modern-gothic morbidity of early Ian McEwan. Its intricate plot involved incestuous gentry languishing in a decrepit country house; an evil twin; murder, ghosts and references to Jane Eyre; and lashings of stories within stories. Once Upon a River is a considerably more wholesome affair. The primary characters are all good people, drawn in bold strokes without much shading; the influence here seems more Dickens than Brontë, albeit without the comic brio. (Laura Miller)

In a review of The Lost Properties of Love by Sophie Ratcliffe, The Guardian also refers to the latest trend in memoir-writing.

There is a trend at the moment for books in which swotty women consult classic literature to help them through the growing pains of middle age. Helen Macdonald is the obvious example here, with her bereavement, her return to her childhood passion for the writing of TH White and, of course, her hawk. Others have turned to Anne Brontë to palliate spinsterhood, to George Eliot to negotiate stepmotherhood, while one writer has used Elizabeth Gaskell to self-medicate a romantic heartbreak. (Kathryn Hughes)

PopMatters reviews the novel Housegirl by Michael Donkor.

The reader might see elements of Jane Eyre in Belinda's life as a sort of governess in the house with Amma, but Housegirl has no need to concern itself with a Mr. Rochester to save our heroine from her situation. The novel is about the power of women and the love that surrounds them, however it's perceived. (Christopher John Stephens)

Wuthering Heights is one of '10 approachable must-read classics' selected by Big Think.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Published just a year after Emily Brontë's death, Wuthering Heights would go on to become the archetype of the doomed romance. Continuing and ascending past the dark prince himself, Lord Byron, Brontë weaved a tremendous classic in the Gothic strain of literature. The tormented love and grief between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw has become a model for many great works since.
Written during the Victorian era, the characters and authorship of this book explores behavior that would have certainly made a Victorian blush to say the least. Brontë created an eerie and obsessive love story that transcended its time and genre. (Mike Colagrossi)

Post Magazine finds a Wuthering Heights enthusiast in Chinese-American Fei-Fei Li, 'an expert in deep learning who helped rewrite Google’s ethics rules, wants more women and minorities in artificial intelligence'.

Fei-Fei Li grew up in Chengdu, Sichuan province. She was a lonely, brainy kid and an avid reader. Her family was a bit unusual: in a culture that didn’t prize pets, her father brought her a puppy. Her mother, who had come from an intellec­tual background, encouraged her to read Jane Eyre. (“Emily is my favourite Brontë,” Li says. “Wuthering Heights.”) (Jessi Hempel)

El Punt Avui (in Catalan) recommends the Barcelona performances of Carme Portaceli's Jane Eyre while commenting on Paula Rego's works inspired by the novel.

Tanmateix, l’adaptació d’Anna Maria Ricart, en complicitat amb la directora, no deixa de projectar una certa ombra damunt del personatge de Rochester i, encara que d’una manera una mica histriònica, li concedeix la paraula a la “boja” perquè expliqui com Rochester va exercir-hi un colonialisme masclista començant per canviar el seu nom (d’Antoniette a Bertha) i enduent-se-la de Jamaica cap a les seves terres angleses. El protagonisme, però, evidentment recau en Jane Eyre per remarcar-hi precisament el traç amb què Charlotte Brontë va dibuixar-la com una dona insubmisa a les restriccions imposades com a tal i amb un desig de llibertat i de coneixement que fa que, amb tot i contra tot, vagi construint la seva identitat amb fermesa. Per encarnar-la, hi ha una Ariadna Gil immensa que sembla haver trobat en el personatge de Jane Eyre l’oportunitat d’exhibir plenament els seus recursos interpretatius en la seva maduresa com a actriu. Només per veure com Ariadna és Jane ja paga la pena anar al Lliure de Gràcia, aquest teatre al qual sempre torno amb l’emoció de poder-hi convocar tants bons records. (Imma Merino) (Translation)

We find it very base for auctioneers to put confusing information in their auctions' catalogues. Antiques Trade Gazette highlights this item going under the hammer soon:

This George III rim lock, believed to have originated at Ponden Hall, home of the Brontë sisters, has an estimate of £100-200 in Mellors & Kirk’s auction of the Harold Ward Collection on February 6-7. (Frances Allitt)

The blunder is not their fault, though they could have checked the information. If we go to Mellors & Kirk’s catalogue for this auction, this is what we find:

Lot 262
Brontë Sisters. A George III Brass Door Rimlock Tradiotionally Believed To Have Originated At Ponden Hall, Near  Hawarth, Late 18TH C with handles and bolt,
11cm h, 20cm l
Estimate: £100 - 200

Misinformation aplenty.

The Sisters' Room has announced that from now on, on the last Friday of each month, they will publish 'special contents curated by the experts of the museum'. This month's is Anne's last letter. Read. Eat. Sleep. Repeat posts about Wuthering Heights. The Smart Set has an article on 'Gender, new media, and the denunciation of 21st-century fame hunger' that mentions, among others, Charlotte Brontë, Robert Southey and Miley Cyrus.