Brontë’s neurotic British literary babe

LitHub recommends 'Six Novels That Come Alive', including

The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
And then there’s Jasper Fforde. There is something very, very special about books that employ the kind of education and intelligence and wordsmithery that could be used for a Serious Novel to make people laugh. This series, following the adventures of literary detective Thursday Next in a parallel world where literature is everything and characters come in and out of books, is very special. It’s perhaps the most well-known book of its kind, and so I love that it’s also the most joyful and ridiculous.
While some books invent characters to bring to life, the joy of Fforde’s world is recognizing some of the most loved characters in English Literature and their foibles: on one level, the series is one great, glorious in-joke. It’s far more than that, of course. The Eyre Affair has wild, chaotic fun not only with classic literature but with time, space, and reality; it also celebrates readers’ love of books, explores the boundaries between reality and fiction, and explains the twist at the end of Jane Eyre. Reading as scholarship and reading for enjoyment are indistinguishable here, as they should be: the well-worn academic question of whether Shakespeare wrote his own plays is a recurring joke with a brilliant punch-line. Plus, you get to spend a lot of time with Mr Rochester, which is exactly what you want from a book. (H.G. Parry)

A columnist from the Argus Observer recalls reading the Brontës at school. Not very fondly, though.

Well, it came to pass that tragedy would be heartlessly foisted upon Sister Glenrose’s narrow shoulders in the form of (gasp!) co-ed classes. Yes, that’s right. The smelly, hormonal Philistines from the all-boys Loyola High School across the street unceremoniously invaded the pristine femininity of Sacred Heart. It was enough to cause a major bout of the vapors for Sister Glenrose, but if her duty was to culture the crotch-grabbing troglodytes, she figured the best way to do it was to introduce us to the Bronte sisters.
Well, quite predictably, “Jane Eyre,” didn’t instill culture in us as much as it inspired an intense desire to plant Jane Eyre ankle deep in the moor, and chuck dodgeballs at her head (The fate we had in mind for Heathcliff was much worse. Dodgeballs were too good for him. Heathcliff needed to “suffah!” If you read the book, you know what I mean.).
However, despite the pain Sister Glenrose inflicted with Brontë’s neurotic British literary babes, she did me the huge favor of introducing me to the works of Tennessee Williams. (Craig Carter)

Diario Judío (Mexico) interviews journalist Andrea Durlacher.

 ¿Cuál es ese libro o esos que te impactaron en la vida?
Son muchos, por suerte. Por mi trabajo, hay libros que para mí son como escuelas a las que siempre vuelvo. Siempre está ahí, en primerísimo lugar “En busca del tiempo perdido”, de Proust; aunque en los últimos años vuelvo mucho a “Crimen y castigo”, de Dostoyevski; “Cumbres Borrascosas”, de Bronte; “La mujer justa”, de Marai; así como a cuentos de Cortázar y Bolaño; poemas de Octavio Paz, Pessoa, Vallejo, Juarroz… (Janet Rudman) (Translation)

Lorraine Candy, editor of The Sunday Times, shares what 'to read, watch and visit this summer', saying she's 'enjoying a classic, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys'. The Artifice discusses fan fiction using Wide Sargasso Sea as an example. Your Tango has selected '15 Love Quotes That Prove You're Committed — Even When You're Not Ready To Get Married Yet', including one from Wuthering Heights. AnneBrontë.org shares come colourised pictures connected to the Brontës (well, one of them may or may not be connected to them).