The Brontës Got There First, and did it Better

Louder than War recommends a visit to the Underneath the Stars Festival in Cawthorne, Barnsley:

The Unthanks, on Saturday (August 3), are sure to be a firm favourite, bringing together the exquisite voices and musicianship of Tyneside sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank, and the arrangements and writing of Adrian McNally. The recent Lines trilogy of albums, with its themes of the Hull trawler disaster, the First World War, and the poems of Emily Bronte, demonstrates their incredible musical ambition. Definitely not to be missed. (Gareth Allen)

The Halifax Courier publishes a list of blue plaques in and around Halifax:

 2. Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë has her own blue plaque in Calderdale which is located on Law Hill House, Southowram, where she lived when she taught at Elizabeth Patchetts school for girls. (Abigail Kellet)

The Daily Mail reviews Three Women by Lisa Taddeo:

Taddeo has attempted, like Gay Talese before her, to capture something in the zeitgeist. ‘I believe that their stories conjure desire as it is right now, the beast of it, the glory and the brutality,’ she concludes. But, if you take away the videos and the text messages, the stories of these three women are as old as time – stories of female yearning and male indifference. Better, I would have thought, to read Flaubert or the Brontës, who got there first, and did it better. (Craig Brown)

Gulf Times interviews the Qatari writer Kummam al-Maadeed

“Besides fantasy stories, I have read classic English writers such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austin, Charlotte Brontë etc. It was necessary to advance my language and writing style. Jane Eyre is my favourite classic English novel.” (Mudassir Raja)

Shawnee Mission Post recommends a local production of Tim Minchin's Matilda:

Based on the 1988 book by Roald Dahl, “Matilda” tells the story of Matilda Wormwood, a 5-year-old who already knows her times-tables and loves to read everything from “Jane Eyre” to Dostoevsky. (Jay Senter)

Variety interviews the film director Angus Gibson:

I’m not a fan of popcorn violence. I think violence should be disturbing. I would choose, if I represent violence, for it to affect the viewer. I can’t watch “John Wick” or whatever. It’s beyond me. I’m bored by it. I think it’s partly in me. Many of the narratives I am drawn to are dark—whether it’s “Wuthering Heights” to “Pulp Fiction.” Not exclusively. There’s much that is light and beautiful that I like as well. And I would like to think that all the films I make will not be like this. But we are a violent society. (Christopher Vourlias)

Dawn (Pakistan) reviews Vernon Hall and other Stories by Sana Pirzada:

However, as William Shakespeare noted, the course of true love never does run smoothly and, in true Jane Eyre style, Eleanor is left abandoned with nothing but the lacy white wedding dress she has on to keep her company. (Nadya Chishty-Mujahid)

Boloji (India) explores the work of Taslima Nasreen:

As revealed in Robert Southey's famous letter to Charlotte Brontë , the bias in the West against women indulging in creative activity was very strong: “Literature is not the business of a women’s life and it can not be.’’ We have now come a very long way from the initial stage when women writers had to wage a long drawn-our battle for recognition of their literary talent. (Rashmi Bajaj)

La Nación (Argentina) seems to forget that the Brontës first published their novels with pseudonyms:

Hace dos siglos, cuando publicó Frankenstein, mito decisivo de la modernidad, Mary Shelley prefirió no poner su nombre: salió como anónimo. Poco más tarde la nada sumisa Amantine Dupin prefirió firmar como George Sand: sabía que sin adoptar un seudónimo masculino (y a veces camuflarse con ropas de hombre) nadie le iba a prestar atención a sus libros. La británica George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) era más parroquial, pero sospechaba lo mismo. A Emily Dickinson ni siquiera se le cruzó por la cabeza publicar sus versos: fue póstuma. Las apasionadas -y aisladas- hermanas Brontë son una de las excepciones. (Pedro B. Rey) (Translation)

La Tercera (Chile) interviews Carolina Torrealba the Undersecretary of Science Ministry of Science:

Tengo el sueño de dedicarme a la lectura. En un momento estuve muy cerca de estudiar Literatura. Fue una herencia materna. Tenía pasión hasta por el olor a libro. Leía de todo. Ahora estoy releyendo los clásicos. En este momento estoy volviendo a Cumbres Borrascosas. (Fredi Velásquez Ojeda) (Translation)

Utusan Online (Malaysia) deals with film adaptations:

Contohnya, pemilihan aktor kulit hitam memegang watak Heathcliff dalam adaptasi novel Emile Bronte, Wuthering Heights (2011) adalah salah satu contoh penyesuaian kontemporari yang signifikan terhadap karya-karya adaptasi sinema Britain. (Dr. Norman Yusoff) (Translation)

Dagens Nyheter (Sweden) publishes an article about the recent Most Wuthering Heights Day celebrations in Uppsala. Krapuul (in Dutch) posts about Kate Bush's song. To the Best of our Knowledge publishes an account of Wide Sargasso Sea by Margaret Atwood. On the Brontë Society website, an account of May and June in the Parsonage Garden.