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Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Several actors share their memories of Franco Zeffirelli in The Guardian and Jeremy Irons says,
We talked about filming Wuthering Heights as we stayed with him in Positano. My wife Sinéad had just finished a film with him. He was a generous host. (Chris Wiegand)
So he would have filmed both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights if that plan had succeeded.

Homes & Property reports that the Thurland Wing of Thurland Castle is for sale (£1.1 million). But here's the thing: they turn the traumatic walks to and from church of a very young and unhappy Charlotte Brontë at Cowan Bridge into this:
Buy a castle and a Lordship:original ballroom and rose garden of Lancashire castle visited by Charlotte Brontë for sale [....]
The Jane Eyre author and art critic John Ruskin were among famous visitors to the property, nestled between the Lake District and the the Yorkshire Dales. [...]
On the edge of the village of Tunstall and nestled between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, the property is set in 10 acres of grounds that Charlotte Brontë, the author of Jane Eyre, regularly walked through. [...]
Charlotte Brontë frequently visited the house on her way to and from church while she was studying nearby in Leck. (Aneira Davies and Simon Lee)
And there's the magic of not giving a damn for actual facts for you.

Dance Enthusiast reviews Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre:
Patrick Kinmonth’s elegant set conjures the book’s gothic gloom. With scribbles and streaks careening across their dark fabric, curtains and scrims tighten the Metropolitan Opera stage to a more intimate environment. Depending on how the light hits, they suggest everything from the blackboards of Lowood (a Dickensian boarding school) to the bleak moors that Jane roams after discovering Mr. Rochester, her employer and paramour, is already married.
Spare arrangements of seating relate power to position. The schoolgirls of Lowood perch on stools, the seat of which lifts to produce a desk. At Thornfield Hall, where Jane works as a governess, an imposing chair for Mr. Rochester rests stage right. After his wife burns down the manor, leaving him blind and broken-spirited, all that remains of the chair is a burned-out metal skeleton.
If only the other elements conspired to be as haunting. Philip Feeney’s score pulls from Schubert and both Mendelssohns yet never extends beyond bland symphonic swells. Unlike the best dance music, whose melodies burrow deep inside you, this barely registers.
Marston’s choreography is equally undistinguished. Moments — the tick-tock precision of Lowood’s students as they sup and study, a posh bash of waltzing gentlepeople — do resonate. Yet they’re swept up in an endless eddy of swirling movements that all look the same. The many pas de deux between Jane and Mr. Rochester fail to capture the lovers’ ardor (too much clutching at and whirling around each other), and their “bantering” is depicted through the extension of a pointed foot at a 45° angle. Although the intent may be to indicate a sharp, candid wit, the effect is vulgar, like they want to trip someone.
In dance, a mediocre vision can be saved, even elevated, by its performers. I fear the cast I saw (there were three) demonstrated unfamiliarity with the source material. As Jane, Isabella Boylston looks the part more than she acts it, emphasizing technical flash over reeling emotion. This is better than Thomas Forster (Mr. Rochester) who performs as if he’s in an entirely different ballet. Though tall, he moves small, seldom manifesting the outsized snarl and passion of one of literature’s most romantic leads.
While many of the secondary roles last a handful of minutes, some performers imbue them with nuance and sensitivity. Playing Mr. Rochester’s deranged wife, Cassandra Trenary uses the Mary Wigman-esque gesticulations to hint at a troubled spirit worthy of our sympathy. Hee Seo appears all too briefly as the kittenish socialite Blanche Ingram; the way she inclines her head says more than any fancy phrase could. Duncan Lyle takes the zealous missionary St. John Rivers who wants to marry Jane for practical reasons and infuses him with grace.
Whether you appreciate these portrayals may depend on your ability to follow the plot, which Marston refuses to compress. With seventeen named characters, eleven scenes, and two Janes (Skylar Brandt plays Jane as a young girl), and one in media res opening, befuddlement seems inevitable. I itched to take a red pen and excise all the needless exposition because what Jane Eyre needs is more and better attention to the inner lives of its protagonists.
Jane, in particular, gets a raw deal. Instead of unpacking the heroine’s rich psychology through her actions, Marston employs a male corps called the D-Men (the D is for demons and death). The men dash around her, throw her to the floor, and hoist her skyward. Often, Jane stands motionless as they billow about, like dancing footmen in a Disney movie. (Erin Bomboy)
Book Riot has recommendations for 'Every Extroverted Myers-Briggs Type'.
ENFJ (EXTRAVERSION + INTUITION + FEELING + JUDGING): THE PROTAGONIST PERSONALITY
JANE EYRE BY CHARLOTTE BRONTË
Protagonists are firm believers of the people, radiating authenticity, concern, and altruism. If something needs to be said, they are the first ones unafraid to stand up and speak up. Jane Eyre is that kind of heroine. With a strong moral compass, she stands her ground even when it is the hardest thing she has to do. Her love for Mr. Rochester goes beyond obstacles in a classic romance we all love. (Laura Melgão)
Also on Book Riot, a contributor shares how Thomas Hardy helped her process trauma.
Tess immediately became one of my new favorite books. I don’t think I’ve ever related so much to a 19th century heroine, even Jane Eyre or Lizzie Bennet. Hardy’s compassion and grasp of his female protagonist’s psychology seems incredibly progressive for a male, Victorian novelist. (Grace LaPointe)
Tass asks writer Diane Setterfield about her influences:
The writers who have inspired me include the Brontës, Wilkie Collins and Dickens, but I think I learned a lot about style from French nineteenth and twentieth century writers such as André Gide. he most obvious influences are not always the deepest ones, and I frequently suspect there are echoes in my own adult books of the books I loved as a child.  Foremost among these was a beautiful ghost story about childhood loneliness called When Marnie Was There, by Joan G Robinson. 
Cambridge Network has an article on one of Charles Dickens's lesser-known works: Martin Guzzlewit.
Professor McWilliam continued: “When we think of the 1840s, we think of the publication of major novels such as Jane Eyre and Vanity Fair.  The reality is that many readers were as likely to be consuming shockers issued by Lloyd such as Ada the Betrayed.  The publisher told his illustrators, tasked with knocking out lurid pictures to accompany his publications: ‘There must be blood...much more blood!’”
Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland) reviews the book Die Launen der Liebe. Wahre Geschichten von Büchern und Leidenschaften by Markus Gasser.
Gassers Geschichten steigen aus einem Nebelmeer des Kitsches und der Adjektive auf. Eine «ehebrecherische Liebäugelei», ein «räudiger Februarsamstag» und «prallgliedrige Leiber» passen zu den Rasereien, unter denen Schriftsteller offenbar von Berufs wegen leiden. Man muss nur schauen, wie sie schreiben. Emily Brontë verfasst ihren Roman «Wuthering Heights» mit Herzblut und Energie: Sie «durchlöchert vor Erregung mit der Federspitze das Papier». Wenn ein Schriftsteller – in diesem Fall E. M. Foster – einmal nicht weiterweiss, dann heisst es: «Hier stockte ihm die Feder.» Ist er dagegen wie Paul Bowles schon morgens voller Tatendrang, findet Markus Gasser auch dafür die richtigen Worte: «Er erwachte mit einem ‹Yallah› auf der Zunge.»  (Paul Jandl) (Translation)
The Times goes in search of 'The best summer party dresses for 2019'. The writer says about one type:
... but that may just be because I feel like a grumpy drag-queen Bo Peep whenever I try them on — less Laura Ashley, more Wuthering Heights. (Harriet Walker)
Faintly Familiar posts about Jane Eyre 1944. Jactionary reviews Nelly Dean by Alison Case.

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