Stark, sweeping landscapes of darkness

The upcoming events at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Keighley News:

We’re in the midst of our closed period, which is the time of year when the museum gets a ‘deep clean’.
Every object – big and small – from teaspoons to tables – is carefully examined for signs of deterioration and then very carefully cleaned.
It’s an exciting time in the museum, particularly for those for whom this is their first experience of the closed period.
Deputy museum managers Pete Dilley and David Sweeney both joined the museum this year, and so I asked them to describe their favourite ‘find’ of the closed period.
Both mentioned the signature ‘C Brontë 1853’ inscribed under the dining room table.
Is it really Charlotte’s signature? Some believe so, but our Principal Curator Ann Dinsdale thinks not, asking the sensible question, why on earth would she sign the underside of a table?!
Perhaps the carpenter who made the table (the appropriately named William Wood) inscribed it with the name of his customer? A mystery it seems!
Despite being closed for January, our shop is open, we have a daily short talk at noon, and we have programmed some events for our closed period.
The final event, taking place on Saturday 2 February, is our popular ‘Winter Wander’ storytelling walk.
In 2019 we’re marking the life and legacy of the Reverend Patrick Brontë, the inspiring and unconventional father of the famous Brontë sisters and a remarkable campaigner and reformer in his own right, and this walk will uncover the stories and secrets of the village Mr Brontë would have known.
You might run into local characters like the sexton John Brown or Aunt Branwell, or even visiting health inspector Mr Babbage, as our Museum Guides share their stories of the extraordinary Mr Brontë.
The walk is approximately 45 minutes, and you can book for 11am or 2pm; tickets cost £6/£4. Meet outside the Old School Room, Church Street, and please book in advance at www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on or call 01535 640192.
We reopen to the public on Monday February for, and are looking forward to revealing our new exhibition entitled ‘Patrick Brontë: In Sickness and in Health’.
The exhibition explores how illness, poor health and death plagued Patrick’s life; not to mention the life of his parishioners.
Haworth in the time of the Brontës was comparable with some of the unhealthiest districts of London, and Patrick campaigned relentlessly for improvements to public health.
With this in mind, later in the year we will be launching a community project aimed at discovering what Haworth was like when the Brontë family arrived in early 1820.
The Brontës make the area unique and worth celebrating, and this is an opportunity for individuals, families, schools, community groups, and local businesses to get together and do so! (Diane Fare)

New year's resolutions in Lake Country News Chronicle:

In my defense, I have been challenging myself to read through more difficult books. I noticed, back in 2016, that although I considered myself a fan of writers such as Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte Brontë, Mary Shelley and the like, I'd read remarkably little by them.
I'd seen plays by Wilde and Brontë, read a few short stories by Poe and knew enough to refer to Frankenstein as the doctor and not the monster. But I hadn't taken the time to read them myself. (Teri Cadeau)

Chicago Reader reviews the film Cold War:

Their tempestuous union, their ceaseless longing for each other—even when, out of expedience, they enter different partnerships—puts them in the company of such mad lovers in Romantic literature as Catherine and Heathcliff in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and the obsessed suitor in Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther. (Andrea Gronvall)

The Australian reviews Darkness: A Cultural History by Nina Edwards and mentions

Emily Brontë and her stark, sweeping landscapes of darkness, literal and figurative.

A recent speech by Jeremy Wright, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport made a rather out of place Brontë mention:

The exciting growth of digital culture means that our traditional creative institutions have been able to reach new global audiences, for example through live streams of theatre productions.
But they bring huge benefits to our tourism and heritage sectors as well, when people decide that they want to come here and see it for themselves.
One in five visitors to London go to the British Museum.
One Ed Sheeran track is thought to be responsible for 100,000 extra visitors to Framlingham Castle.
And Downton Abbey has helped Highclere Castle, Sherlock Baker Street, and Emily Brontë the moors of West Yorkshire. Our culture and our heritage reinforce each other.

Pitchfork publishes articles on several Kate Bush's albums. Talking about The Kick Inside:

That reasoning underpinned Bush’s first battle with EMI, who wanted to release the romp “James and the Cold Gun” as her first single. Bush knew it had to be the randy metaphysical torch song “Wuthering Heights,” and she was right: It knocked ABBA off the UK No. 1 spot. She soon intruded on British life to the degree that she was subject to unkind TV parodies. (...)
What made Bush’s writing truly radical was the angles she could take on female desire without ever resorting to submissiveness. “Wuthering Heights” is menacing melodrama and ectoplasmic empowerment. (Laura Snapes)

News.com.au interviews the author Tea Cooper:

What books influenced you as a writer?
As a child, at boarding school, books became a form of escape. I grew up on Rosemary Sutcliffe’s books, a hefty dose of Mary Stewart and my favourite ‘gothic’ novels. I can remember trembling under the blankets as I read Rebecca by torchlight, falling madly in love with Heathcliff and being convinced poor mad Bertha was locked in the attics above the dormitory and we’d all perish in flames.

Literary baby names in Bebés y Más (in Spanish):

Carlota, por la escritora Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë, autora de 'Jane Eyre', es una de las tres hermanas Brontë que se dedicaron a la literatura en una época en la que ser escritor era "cosa de hombres" y publicaron sus obras bajo seudónimos masculinos. Fue la única de las hermanas que logró ver en vida el éxito de su trabajo literario.

Catalina, por Catherine Earnshaw de 'Cumbres Borrascosas'
Catherine Earnshaw es la protagonista femenina de esta novela clásica de Emily Brontë, quien la describe como una mujer llena de energía, pero caprichosa, haciéndola un personaje que no nos deja indiferentes. (Lucy Ortega) (Translation)

Diario de Sevilla reviews How to Suppress Women's Writing by Joanna Russ:

En 1837, una década antes de que Jane Eyre viera la luz, Charlotte Brontë envió sus versos al entonces célebre poeta Robert Southey, y la respuesta fue tajante: "La literatura no puede ser un asunto que ocupe la vida de una mujer". (...)
En su investigación, Russ analiza los diferentes mecanismos con los que la sociedad ha puesto freno a las mujeres que se atrevieron a crear: rechazando que ellas fueran las autoras, asumiendo finalmente que lo eran pero juzgando indecente e inapropiada su osadía, asegurándose de que un éxito concreto no era sino un logro aislado en una trayectoria que no merecía más atención -Charlotte Brontë podía trascender con Jane Eyre, de acuerdo, pero que el olvido sepultara sus otras obras, Shirley y Villette-, vetando a esas voces la inclusión en alguna antología… (...)
Cuando Cumbres borrascosas se publicó, sin que se revelara la autoría, los críticos dictaminaron que el tema principal era "la representación de la crueldad, la brutalidad, la violencia"; cuando se supo ya la identidad de Emily Brontë, en la segunda edición, las reseñas resaltaron "el mágico poder sexual del héroe", un héroe que además sufría, en el desarrollo de la novela, un lamentable proceso de "feminización". (Braulio Ortiz) (Translation)

Spiegel (Germany) reviews the film Mary of the Scots:

Die Präsenz von nicht-weißen Darstellerinnen und Darstellern im Ensemble folgt dagegen einer anderen Logik. Hier knüpft Regiedebütantin Rourke, die bislang am Donmar Warehouse Theater in London inszeniert hat, an Filme wie Andrea Arnolds "Wuthering Heights" oder Amma Asantes "Belle" an, die ebenfalls an einer genaueren Repräsentation von People of Colour in historischen Stoffen gearbeitet haben. (Hannah Pilarczyk) (Translation)

An alert for tonight in Gascogne, France:

Nuit de la lecture - Bibliothèque du Grand Auch
January 19, 20:30 h
Joëlle Martin, vice-présidente en charge de la culture et du tourisme du Grand Auch Cœur de Gascogne, précise : «Lydie Salvayre a reçu le prix Goncourt pour Pas pleurer, où elle nous plonge dans cette période de la guerre d'Espagne, elle qui est fille de réfugiés espagnols. Mais elle lira 7 femmes, accompagnée de Marianne Basler, une actrice et comédienne qui a notamment tourné avec Jacques Rivette et Jean-Pierre Mocky.»
Vanessa Soubiran complète : «Il s'agit de sept portraits d'écrivaines, comme Virginia Woolf, Emily Brontë, Colette… Des femmes passionnées, qui ont pour point commun, en dehors de Colette, d'avoir eu un rapport tragique à l'existence.» (Gaëtane Rohr in La Depêche) (Translation)

Siempre! (México) quotes from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall;  The Mercury News reviews A German Officer in Occupied Paris: The War Journals, 1941-1945 by Ernst Junger and mentions how the author read a Brontës biography in the occupation. Love quotes, including one by Emily, in Donne Sul Web (Italy). Zimbio describes Wuthering Heights 2011 as 'haunting'. Random Thoughts cooks with Jane Eyre. EruditoriumPress posts about Kate Buh's Wuthering Heights song.