You can literally walk in the footsteps of Charlotte Brontë

Yesterday was Elizabeth Gaskell's 209th birthday. Insider Media featured Ellie Algieri, room hire and wedding coordinator at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in Manchester. She has a point when she says,

If you are looking for a venue to inspire, then there aren’t many places where you can literally walk in the footsteps of Charles Darwin, Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens – and if that isn’t enough to tempt you, we even have replica Victorian clothes for dressing up!

The Berkshire Edge reviews Negroland, a memoir by Margo Jefferson.

She is twenty-five years old and has spent her life studying French and Latin, astronomy and history; reading Spenser, Milton, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Dickens, the Brontës, Emerson, and Stowe … She has socialized with renowned abolitionists, colored and white; she faithfully attends literary lectures and antislavery meetings; she always disparages the occasional poem or essay she contributes to antislavery journals. (Dook Snyder)

Heather is discussed in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.

Famously well-adapted to the Scottish Highlands, whose climate is similar to that of Scandinavia, they clothe the hills (also known as moors) in a way that blends well with dark skies and brooding people. The heath is treated almost like a character in Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights.” (Bonnie Blodgett)

The Independent (Ireland) uses The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis to discuss the recent trend of having real people (the Mitfords, Agatha Christie and now the Brontës) in fictional whodunnits. AnneBrontë.org traces the life of the Brontës' cousin on their mother's side Eliza Kingston.

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Brontë Paper Art

 A few days ago we read in the Express & Star about the work of Jennifer Collier:

Stunning paper art - Jennifer Collier brings treasures from the past to life
From love letters and post cards to sheet music and maps – Jennifer Collier turns papers from the past into intricate pieces of art. (...)
She also creates a lot of items such as shoes, tea cups and lampshades from the popular orange Penguin paperback books and has a collection featuring classics from the Brontë sisters.
“It’s such an iconic design – people adore anything with Penguin orange,” Jennifer tells Weekend.Many of the materials she uses for commissions will spark memories for the owner. It may be a place on a map that has a special meaning for them, a book they have read, personal letters or paperwork such as a birth certificate or an item they have used. (Heather Large)

Some of her most recent work are these Paper Lampshades to be sold at Hawksbys in Haworth.

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Inspiration from Brontë's words

Valdosta Daily Times reviews He Spoke with Authority by Thomas Fellows:

Fellows writes it takes self-confidence to persist and to succeed.
He shares the tale in his latest book, "He Spoke with Authority: Get, Then Give the Advantage of Confidence."
Fellows shares several personal experiences here as well as examples of self-confidence from the movie "Good Will Hunting," the book "To Kill a Mockingbird," the Bible, "Jane Eyre" and others. (Dean Poling)

The Yorkshire Post interviews Andrea Bagan,  managing director of Carat Leeds.

Our open plan office has industrial influences, with lots of natural light and a great view over Greek Street which has an amazing vibe on a sunny day.
The meeting rooms are named after heroes and heroines of Yorkshire including Dame Judi Dench, David Hockney, Helen Sharman and Charlotte Brontë. Each room includes a quote, my favourite being from Brontë: “Neither birth, nor sex forms a limit to genius.” (Greg Wright)

The Guardian publishes an excerpt from James Verini's chronicle of the battle of Mosul, Guilt and Shame. Some former students of the University of Mosul were not fond of the Brontës:

We walked into the English library. Miraculously, the jihadists hadn’t touched it. I read out titles, seeing what caught Karam’s fancy. Lord of the Flies. Didn’t know it. Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man. Maybe he’d read it. Jane Eyre. Boring. Joseph Andrews…
“So boring,” Karam said, which was how he felt about most of the alleged classics he’d been made to read. “We read Wuthering Heights as first years. It’s really boring too. Truly, I think that. And most other students think that as well.”

Il Post (Italy) talks about the new Turkish TV series, the so-called dizi:

Per quanto riguarda i temi trattati, le dizi parlano di molte cose diverse: a volte sono ambientate durante l’impero Ottomano, altre volte ai giorni nostri. Eset, un giovane sceneggiatore e regista turco, ha detto che le trame «sembrano quelle delle storie di Dickens e delle sorelle Brontë» e che quasi sempre ci sono un eroe senza macchia, ma anche un amore impossibile e, spesso, un triangolo amoroso. (Translation)

Love in literary history in Opinión (Bolivia):

Con el cambio de siglo, nace la era victoriana, una Inglaterra moralista, represiva, una vez más entra en juego la literatura como una manera de denunciar a esa sociedad moralista que no daba lugar a jugarse por el deseo, ni tenía en cuenta el placer femenino. Fue tan fuerte esa denuncia social que dio lugar a eximias escritoras como las hermanas Brontë, contribuyendo a la igualdad de la mujer, y uniendo el matrimonio con el amor; o la polémica novela “El amante de lady Chatterley” de D.H. Lawrence, donde por primera vez se habla del orgasmo femenino. (Ivy Paz Kirckheimer) (Translation)

Die Welt (Germany) quotes the writer Michel Houellebecq:

 Houellebecq kommt selbst auf diese Problematik zu sprechen: Das zeitgenössische Leben liefere keine Leidenschaften mehr, wie etwa für Emily Brontë in ihrem Roman „Wuthering Heights“. (Karl Heinz Bohrer) (Translation)

Tidningen Kulturen (Sweden) discusses the work of the artist of Mathias Kristersson:

I en nyckelscen i François Truffauts filmatisering av Bradburys roman “Fahrenheit 451” blir brandmannen Montag avslöjad och han blir tvungen att själv bränna böckerna han samlat på sig. I närbilder ser man bokomslagen och hinner snabbt läsa titlar som ”Moby Dick” av Herman Melville, ”Far och son” av Ivan Turgenjev, ”Plexus” av Henry Miller och ”Jane Eyre” av Charlotte Brontë innan lågorna slukar böckerna. I Mathias Kristerssons fotografier är böckerna däremot anonyma. Det syns inte vilka böcker eller författarnamn som brinner på bålet. Det är inte det enskilda författarnamnet som är intressant utan istället boken som objekt. Titeln på Kristerssons Artists’ book är också “Lorem Ipsum”. (Matthias Jansson) (Translation)

Aslo in Tidningen Kulturen, do you remember the Twilight-like covers of Wuthering Heights that were in vogue a few years ago?

När Harper Collins ånyo gav ut Emily Brontës Wuthering Heights (Svindlande höjder) för några år sedan (för brittiska och amerikanska marknaden) så ser omslagen till denna klassiker helt annorlunda ut än i tidigare versioner. Är det Emily Brontës klassiker eller är det ännu en bok i Twilight-sagan? Svårt att säga för omslaget till Wuthering Heights ger direkt associationer till Twilight-sagan. Svart, rött och vitt i gotisk design. Dessutom har man lagt till texten "Love Never Dies" och en liten röd medalj där man kan läsa "Bella's and Edward's favourite book". Är det helgerån eller inte? Vad skulle Emily själv säga om hon såg det? Antagligen ingenting eftersom hon redan under sin livstid höll en låg profil.
emily2Själv kan jag tycka att det är att gå för långt. Måste även gamla klassiker moderniseras för att tilltala nya läsare och framförallt yngre läsare. Tydligen för resultatet blev omtumlande.
Innan första Twilight-boken kom ut 2005 såldes Wuthering Heights i runt 8.550 exemplar per år i Storbritannien. När Harper Collins gav ut boken igen 2009, med modernt "Twilight"-omslag, såldes boken i 2.634 exemplar under en vecka och 34.023 exemplar totalt över året (enligt Nielsen Bookscan), vilket gjorde den till en av bästsäljarna det året.
Dagens ungdomar, visuella som de är, vana vid sociala medier, TV-serier och filmer kanske behöver något modernt, attraktivt som lockar dem att läsa fler böcker, vare sig det är klassiker eller nyutkomna böcker. Om Twilight-sagan lockar ungdomar att läsa klassiker som Svindlande höjder, så är väl det en bra utveckling. Exemplet tyder på, anser jag, att bokomslaget är bland det viktigaste med en bok. Åtminstone för ungdomar eller de som normalt inte läser så mycket böcker. Att gå från att läsa Twilight-sagan till att läsa Svindlande höjder är att gå rätt väg. Förhoppningsvis ger det mersmak och en önskan att fortsätta läsa klassiker eller moderna romaner. (Lisbeth Ekelöf) (Translation)

Classic Movies Digest reviews Jane Eyre 1944.  CTrent29 Journal posts a photo gallery of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 1996.

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Wuthering Heights 1939 in situ

A very special alert for today, September 29 in Haworth:

Wuthering Heights 1939

See this brilliant screen version of the most romantic novels of all time half hour stroll from the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth.

Sunday, 29th September
Doors: 6.00pm Film: 7.30pm End: 9.30pm
Penistone Moor, West End Cricket Club, enistone Hill, Moorside Lane,Haworth, BD22 9RH

“Heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy.”

Yorkshire’s No1 cinema is coming to Penistone Hill, on Haworth moor, for a one-off screening of the greatest love story ever told. Wuthering Heights.

In this adaptation of the classic Emily Brontë novel set in 19th-century England, wealthy young Cathy Earnshaw shares a loving bond with Heathcliff, a poor childhood friend who now works in her stables. Unfortunately, things become complicated when the affluent Edgar Linton decides to pursue Cathy, and Heathcliff leaves out of resentment. Though Heathcliff returns with a self-made fortune, he realizes he may have lost Cathy in his absence.

Further information in The Telegraph & Argus.

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57 interpretations of Jane Eyre

The Conversation has a fascinating article on Jane Eyre translations and how '57 languages show how different cultures interpret Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel' by the creator of the Prismatic Jane Eyre website, Matthew Reynolds.

This changes how we think about Jane Eyre. What was a thoroughly English book – anchored to Yorkshire and published in 1847 – becomes a multilingual, ever-changing global text, continually putting down roots in different cultures. In Iran there have been 29 translations of Jane Eyre since 1980. When Korean is taught in a school in Vietnam, a translation of Jane Eyre is on the syllabus, as an example of Korean literature.
It also changes how we have to study the novel. I couldn’t hope to grasp Jane Eyre as a global phenomenon by myself, so everything I have found out has been thanks to a group of 43 co-researchers in many different countries, as part of the Prismatic Translation project. [...]
You can see this right away from how the title gets re-moulded into different shapes. In Japanese in 1896 it became Riso Kaijin (An Ideal Lady – translated by Futo Mizutani), in Portuguese in 1941 it was A Paixão de Jane Eyre (The Passion of Jane Eyre – translated by “Mécia”). In Italian in 1958 it became La porta chiusa (The Shut Door – translator unknown) and in Turkish in 2010 it was rendered as Yıllar Sonra Gelen Mutluluk (Happiness Comes After Many Years – translated by Ceren Taştan).
My favourite of these metamorphic titles is the Chinese one invented by Fang Li in 1954 and copied by almost every Chinese translator since: two of the characters that can make a sound like “Jane Eyre” can also mean “simple love” – so the title says both those things together: Jianai.
Even small linguistic details can go through fascinating transformations. Take pronouns. In English, we only have one way of saying “you” in the singular. But even languages that are very close to English, such as French, German or Italian, do something different. They have a distinction between a formal “you” (vous in French) and a more intimate kind of “you” (tu). So in those languages there is the potential for a really important moment in the novel which simply can’t happen in English. Do Jane and Rochester ever call each other “tu”? [...]
The most famous sentence in the novel: “Reader, I married him”, is also one of the most provocative, as translations can help us see. In Slovenian – as researcher Jernej Habjan tells me – it becomes the equivalent of “Reader, we got married”. Meanwhile, all the Persian translations we have seen so far have squashed Jane’s self-assertion – they give the equivalent of: “Reader, he married me”. Even today, Jane Eyre has a radical power. It will generate ever more translations.

As said above, the article is based on the also fascinating website Prismatic Jane Eyre, which we have recommended here before, which has all sorts of resources, from interactive maps (by country and 'density' of translations to time maps) to lists of translated titles and a long etcetera. Well worth your time!

In The Times. author Jessie Burton has selected her 'five best books about... female friendship', including

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)
As a novel that is mainly about a friendless outsider, Jane Eyre is not the most likely candidate for a portrait of feminine friendship. But! Inside this book is one of the most tender, truthful depictions of one girl meeting another, being treated with love and growing as a result. The direness of Jane’s early life is briefly paused when she encounters Helen Burns, a doomed fellow inmate at Lowood School. True, Helen is pious to the point of masochism, but she shows Jane something no one else has: that she is worthy of love and attention. It takes Mr Rochester an aeon to realise this; Helen sees it in an instant. Of course, because she’s in a Brontë novel, Helen is too good to live, and her loss is Jane’s first lesson in true heartbreak.

iNews reviews a new Penguin audiobook of Villette read by actress Charlotte Richie (of Call the Midwife fame), which would 'see the average Brit through eight weeks of cooking'.

I have known a fair few failures in life - from getting 2/100 in a maths exam to having such an appalling sense of direction that I failed to find my own front door last week (I was sober) but the one that plagues me most is being so behind on classic novels.
I spend so much time keeping up with new writing that I’ve neglected Dostoyevsky, Melville and the Brontës. So listening to Call the Midwife actress Charlotte Richie read Charlotte Brontë’s lesser-known novel Villette was a hugely enjoyable experience on my morning commute on trains so packed that I could not stretch out my arms to open a book.
George Elliot called Villette “a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre”, and after hearing the beautiful, bold tale of unrequited love this week, I entirely agree. (Kasia Delgado)

Financial Times reviews the book Dark Skies: A Journey into the Wild Night, by Tiffany Francis.

Rich in literary references — to Tolkien, the Brontës, Edward Thomas, Tove Jansson — Dark Skies is also rippled through with memoir, with Francis exploring the roots of her love for nature in school trips and childhood holidays. (Suzi Feay)

The Telegraph and Argus reveals the team that will lead Bradford's bid to be City of Culture 2025. Executive director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum Kitty Wright is part of it.

Kitty Wright said: “Some of our cultural gems are outside the city centre – the Brontë Parsonage, Salts Mill, Ilkley Literature Festival, South Square Gallery. We are all Bradford – diverse, creative, innovative. This bid will have enormous benefits for people in the wider district.” (Emma Clayton)

The Telegraph and Argus also shows pictures of a

new Bradford themed library inspired by the city's famous buildings and people.
The library features pictures of the district's heroes such as the Brontë sisters; triathlon stars, Alistair Brownlee and Jonathan Brownlee; magician Dynamo and philanthropist Titus Salts. (Natasha Meek)

A wall has a fragment of Charlotte Brontë's famous poem Life on it. ('Rapidly, merrily,/Life's sunny hours flit by,/Gratefully, cheerily,/Enjoy them as they fly!')

The Yorkshire Post features 'the gardeners who look after the grounds of Yorkshire's stately homes'.

Scott Jamieson - Wentworth Woodhouse, Rotherham
[...] One of the delights of Scott's job has been uncovering hidden secrets of the gardens that had almost disappeared from local memory.
One of these discoveries was the contents of the Camellia House, which was built in 1817. The 200-year-old camellia plants had been allowed to grow through the remains of the roof and the building was in a dangerous state before Scott was finally able to access it and survey the species inside.
"The Camellia House is ripe for a project, although it's still in the formative stages. We took some photos of the plants and sent them to Chiswick House in London, which has a collection of camellias. An expert got in touch straight away and asked if she could visit. I was surprised she wanted to see 18 or 19 rather leggy camellias, but when she arrived she gasped and took a step back. She said it was like finding a first edition of Wuthering Heights - they're some of the first generation of camellias ever to have been brought to Britain. (Grace Newton)

RTCG (Montenegro) announces tonight's performance of  Dora Ruzdjak Podolski's Wuthering Heights in the big hall of the Bijelo Polje Cultural Center (8:00 PM). Another alert comes from Torino, Italy:

Torino Spiritualità 2019
Viaggiatori notturni
Teatro Gobetti
Sabato 28 Settembre 2019
Ore 15:00

Si potrebbe dire che la letteratura alterna, al propriovolto diurno, un profilo notturno, per non dire oscuro. Molti scrittori raccontano la parte in luce. Altri si immergono nelle tenebre, scendono nella notte della Storia, esplorano gli abissi più inquietanti dell’animo umano. Céline, Joseph Conrad, Emily Brontë erano grandi viaggiatori notturni. Ma lo è, più inaspettatamente, anche Alice Munro, a cui Nicola Lagioia, scrittore e direttore del Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino, dedica gran parte della sua lezione.

And still one more, in Red Deer, Canada:

FREE Alberta Culture Days Event - Literary Tea PartySaturday, September 28
1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Cronquist House at Bower Ponds, Red Deer, Canada
Come to a tea party with the Brontë Sisters and enjoy free live music and entertainment.
Books and tea go together! This literary tea party with games and literary treats is cosponsored by Red Deer Public Library, PrimeStock Theatre, Central Alberta Refugee Effort, and Red Deer Cultural Heritage Society who operate the Cronquist House.

Variety describes actress Nichola Burley as 'an auspicious presence' in Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights. The Sisters' Room features Branwell's 'A Parody' spooky drawing as part of their 'Treasures from the Brontë Parsonage Museum' series.

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Wuthering Hieghts in Bijelo Polje

A new chance to see the Wuthering Heights production adapted by Stela Mišković:

Orkanski visovi
Directed by Dore Ruždjak Podolski
Adapted by Stela Mišković.
With Miloš Pejović, Ana Vučković, Katarina Krek, Dejan Ivanić, Branka Stanić, Branka Femić Šćekić, Emir Ćatović, Jelena Simić, Danilo Ćelebić, Ognjen Raičević.

Centar za kulturu Bijelo Polje, Montenegro
September 28, 20:00 h

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The Wild and Romantic World of the Brontës in Shellharbour

An alert for today, September 28, in Shellharbour, Australia:

The Wild and Romantic World of the Brontës
Shellharbour Civic Centre - City Library
76 Cygnet Avenue
Shellharbour City Centre, NSW
Australia

Sat., 28 September 2019
10:30 am – 12:30 pm AEST

Enjoy a delicious morning tea while you discover the extraordinary story of the Brontë sisters, with literary expert Susannah Fullerton.

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Heroes and heroines of Yorkshire

Bromsgrove Advertiser reviews Blackeyed Theatre's Jane Eyre at the Festival Theatre, Malvern.

The cast of just five, led by Kelsey Short in the title role and Ben Warwick’s Rochester, really rose to the occasion - capturing all the moods and relaying them with considerable clarity of diction.
Utterly captivating and convincing - especially the relationship that grew between the two leads.
The cast’s exceptional use of the minimal props available to them was a credit to their dexterity and the guidance of director Adrian McDougall and set designer Victoria Spearing, with boxes and benches offering in the mind’s eye long passageways, doors and dark, secretive rooms.
Thornfield is an isolated mansion in England’s north-east and contains a number of apparently unused rooms that become important to the narrative, especially as its gloomy character holds a dark secret.
Jane is possibly before her time as Kelsey Short provides a woman of sterner stuff who can rise to any challenge with an inner fighting spirit.
It may been a male dominated world at the time of Brontë’s 1847 work, but our heroine showed she was quite capable of fighting on, even during her darkest hours.
Great support from Camilla Simson, Eleanor Toms and Oliver Hamilton who filled a variety of roles with Camilla Simson impressing as both the caring Mrs Fairfax and violent Bertha Mason.
Ben Warwick’s Rochester is yet another admirable performance, capturing his tormented soul, depression and malaise, before love is welcomingly rewarded.
Blackeyed Theatre has built a considerable reputation for itself in recent years and this production is without doubt yet another feather in their cap. (Alan Wallcroft)

The New York Times' By the Book interviews Jeanette Winterson.

Are there any classic novels that you only recently read for the first time? Classic novels I haven’t read? Well, there must be some, but when I was growing up in a poor northern working-class town, my mental resource was the public library. Spanning the width of the Carnegie library there was a giant bookcase labeled English Literature in Prose A-Z. I had no one to guide me so I started at A. At the beginning things go well: Austen, Brontës, Conrad, Dickens. Eliot.

The Yorkshire Post features Andrea Bagan, dubbing her 'The boss who finds inspiration from the words of Charlotte Brontë'.

Our open plan office has industrial influences, with lots of natural light and a great view over Greek Street which has an amazing vibe on a sunny day.
The meeting rooms are named after heroes and heroines of Yorkshire including Dame Judi Dench, David Hockney, Helen Sharman and Charlotte Brontë. Each room includes a quote, my favourite being from Brontë: “Neither birth, nor sex forms a limit to genius.” (Greg Wright)

It sounds a bit apocryphal to us, though.

Financial Times is also reminded of Heathcliff by the male protagonist of the stage production of Blood Wedding at the Young Vic.

The bride is promised to a wealthy landowning farmer but she’s in the thrall of Leonardo Felix, a Heathcliff-like figure with long hair, rippling muscles and a wife he doesn’t love. Gavin Drea is magnetic in the role, somehow managing to capture the allure of a rider on horseback as he gallops around the stage, half-suspended from a circus-style aerial strap. (Alice Saville)

Flood Magazine interviews Swedish musician Mikael Åkerfeldt.

I listened to lots of Queen and Kate Bush, actually. “Wuthering Heights”—have you played that in your headphones recently? Oh, man! It’s just, wow, my god! (Dan Epstein)

Kitty marie's reading corner posts about the manga adaptation of Jane Eyre.

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Writing, Tea and Treats with the Brontës

A couple of alerts for today, September 27.

In Haworth:

Parsonage Unwrapped: Writing the BrontësFriday 27 September 2019
19.30 h
Brontë Parsonage Museum

Since the publication of Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë in 1857, countless biographers have researched, detailed and (on occasion) embellished the lives of the Brontë family. Join Principal Curator Ann Dinsdale for an evening considering Gaskell, Leyland, du Maurier, Gérin and Barker and how their perspectives have shaped our understanding of Haworth's most famous family.

Lincoln Book Festival
Tea and Treats with Brontë and TennysonFriday, 27th September
3:00pm
The Collection, Danes Terrace, Lincoln, LN2 1LP

Greats of Victorian literature fall into focus in this two-part afternoon event which explores the career of Alfred Tennyson and his relationship to Victoria and also reveals new research on the mysterious publisher who championed the brilliance of Charlotte Brontë.

Phil Hamlyn Williams
‘The mysterious publisher William Smith Williams has always been the unsung hero of the Brontë story. Not only did he discover Jane Eyre, he was Charlotte Brontë’s friend and supporter. In a fascinating book Smith Williams is at last brought to life thanks to the forensic skills of his great-great-nephew.’ (Rebecca Fraser). Phil is that great-great-nephew and in his book, Charlotte Brontë's Devotee, he describes his quest to find out more about Smith Williams whilst shining a light on the fascinating world of 19th century publishing.
Jim Cheshire
Dr Jim Cheshire will explore the career of Alfred Tennyson and his relationship to Victoria through a guided exploration of letters and images from the unique collections of the Tennyson Research Centre. Fascinating historical objects will be presented to the audience, who will be invited to view manuscript letters and works of art for themselves. Items available will include: letters relating to the death of Prince Albert, Prince Leopold (Victoria’s youngest son) and Tennyson himself; illustrations and photographs relating to Tennyson’s poem Idylls of the King; and sketches and correspondence relating to G. F. Watt’s famous statue of Tennyson.

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Cornish Jane

Worcester News reviews a local performance of Jane Eyre by Blackeyed Theatre which runs until Saturday (September 28).

Skeletal timbers stand stark against a sky full of foreboding, wooden fingers reaching out into the gloom.
There is no doubt that Alan Valentine’s subtle lighting, combined with Victoria Spearing’s haunting set design, make for a marriage made in hell, depressing in the extreme.
And so it’s therefore the absolutely perfect setting for Charlotte Brontë’s tale of a woman who endures constant prejudice and thwarted hopes to finally triumph over all the odds.
Writer Nick Lane has taken this story of struggle and empowerment and made it very much his own. Entirely Gothic from beginning to end, it is only the haunting, pastoral music of George Jennings that leavens this meagre bread. [...]
The couple dance around each other like late summer dragonflies on a pond, oblivious to the fact that time is running out.
Ben Warwick was born to play the role of Rochester, delivering a stupendously mood- marinaded performance, a sort of Teutonic Aidan Turner emerging through the dry ice rather than the Cornish Atlantic breakers.
This is a cast that has no problem with doubling or even trebling up roles, Camilla Simson, Eleanor Toms executing some very finally timed changes.
Oliver Hamilton in particular deftly switches from bully boy John Reed to pious clergyman St John Rivers in the time that it takes to whip on a dog collar.
This superb production by Blackeyed Theatre marks a dramatic milestone and is warmly recommended. (John Phillpott)

The Irish Times reviews the book The Folklore of Cornwall by Ronald James.

Whereas novelist Charlotte Brontë’s Irish origins were partially obscured by her father’s decision to rework the spelling of the family name Prunty, from the Irish Ó Pronntaigh, to Brontë, Ronald James’ reveals her masterpiece Jane Eyre to have had its origins in a Cornish folktale to which she would have had access via her mother’s side of the family who were from Cornwall. This suggestion on James’s part ties within an age-old tradition whereby the motifs and storylines of a selection of the canons of English literature have at various times been attributed to contact with Celtic storytellers – Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is yet another case in point. The same rule of cultural cross-pollination goes for literary works in the English language, then. (Dr Seaghan Mac an tSionnaigh)

Stylist has selected '30 inspirational quotes about strength from literature' including one from Jane Eyre.

“I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils.” (Francesca Brown)

El periódico (Spain) asked 10 writers to pick their favourite books published in Spain by the publishing house Anagrama.

Ancho Mar de los Sargazos
Jean Rhys
Olga Merino
"Llegué a las páginas de 'Ancho mar de los Sargazos' allá por los primeros 90. Una novela corta, limpia y densa, llena de pasadizos, con tres puntos de vista. Me impresionó la mirada de Jean Rhys y sobre todo que le diera voz, al fin, a Antoinette Cosway, la primera mujer de Rochester, la loca encerrada en el desván que prende fuego a la mansión en 'Jane Eyre'. Ambas novelas, la de Rhys y la de Charlotte Brontë, deberían leerse juntas". (Elena Hevia) (Translation)

PopMatters discusses Kathryn Bond Stockton's Making Out.

The points raised can seem oblique, impenetrable, and overwhelming, but a reader's patience will be rewarded. Stockton writes that "…we recognize how the text inside us contributes to meaning's being plural and partial…" She takes us through journeys into Nabokov (Lolita) and Charlotte Brontë (Vilette[sic]), but her narrative is strongest when considering questions of how identities are formed[.] (Christopher John Stephens)

The Stage reviews Yaël Farber's production of Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding at the Young Vic in London.

Moments also descend, oddly, into a kind of paperback bodice-buster with Gavin Drea’s Heathcliff-esque Leonardo, a strapping young man tossing his forelocks and riding a horse bare-chested. (Tim Bano)

Jane Eyre is one of five other books that you should read before falling in love, according to Caras (Mexico). Breathe, write, read posts about Wuthering Heights.

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Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre in Burlington

An alert for tomorrow, September 26, in Burlington, VT:

Glynnis Fawkes & Jason Lutes
Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre & Houdini: The Handcuff King
Phoenix Books, Burlington
Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 6:00pm

Join Glynnis Fawkes and Jason Lutes for a conversation about telling the stories of Charlotte Brontë and Harry Houdini. Charlotte Brontë before Jane Eyre  and Houdini: The Handcuff King - both presented by the Vermont's own Center for Cartoon Studies - are both written for grades 5-9, but all ages will enjoy these vibrant and accessible biographies.

Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is a beloved classic, celebrated today by readers of all ages and revered as a masterwork of literary prowess. But what of the famous writer herself?
Originally published under the pseudonym of Currer Bell, Jane Eyre was born out of a magnificent, vivid imagination, a deep cultivation of skill, and immense personal hardship and tragedy. Charlotte, like her sisters Emily and Anne, was passionate about her work. She sought to cast an empathetic lens on characters often ignored by popular literature of the time, questioning societal assumptions with a sharp intellect and changing forever the landscape of western literature.
With an introduction by Alison Bechdel, Charlotte Brontë before Jane Eyre presents a stunning examination of a woman who battled against the odds to make her voice heard.
Glynnis Fawkes is an Ignatz Award-nominated cartoonist and illustrator living in Burlington, VT. She has worked as an illustrator for archaeological excavations since 1998 on sites in Greece, Crete, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, Syria, and Lebanon. She is currently at work on a book about her first trip to Greece, a draft of which received the MoCCA Arts Festival Award in 2016. Find out more about Glynnis and her work at glynnisfawkes.com.

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A most intensely romantic movie

Leeds List has selected the Brontë Parsonage Museum as one of 'The Best Museums in Yorkshire'.

Brontë Parsonage Museum
Found at the top of Haworth’s cobbled streets, the Brontë Parsonage was home to one of the most famous families in Yorkshire. Still with its 19th century furnishings, it’s now a fully-fledged museum dedicated to the three sisters. Many of the rooms have been preserved, so you can see the desk they wrote their world famous novels at and get a feel for their day-to-day routines. Separate exhibition spaces house their diaries and other personal possessions. Keep an eye out for their ever-changing displays too, which give you a glimpse into what life was like in this secluded village in the Victorian era. (Emma Cooke)

Stuff (New Zealand) recommends 'The most intensely romantic shows and movies on Netflix right now', including

Jane Eyre
This smart and vivid 2011 updating of the classic 1847 gothic romantic drama by Charlotte Brontë features Australian actress Mia Wasikowska (Alice In Wonderland) as Jane and Michael Fassbender (X-Men) as the blighted Edward Rochester, the master of a spooky estate who will eventually be her love interest, but not without a world of trouble on the journey there.
It's a sprawling story that takes in Jane's tragic upbringing and casts her out into a world ridden with secrets, lies and, of course, the stuck-up manners and mores of 19th Century England. (Gary Steel)

Pointe Magazine is giving away a pair of tickets to see The Joffrey Ballet's take on Jane Eyre.
The Scarborough News mentions the fact that Filey has a blue plaque for Charlotte Brontë. The Tribune has an article on 'The Long History Of Hurricanes In The Bahamas', mentioning the fact that there was a mail boat named The Brontës. Yesterday AnneBrontë.org had a post 'In Memory Of Patrick Branwell Brontë'.

Finally, it seems as if The Eyre Guide got to experience  The 413 Project's Jane Eyre at the Grand Tea Room in Escondido thanks to our post about it. We are thrilled when this happens. There's a post about it, too.

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Becoming Jane Eyre in Connecticut

An alert from the WCSU (Danbury, CT) for tomorrow, September 26: 

The Western Connecticut State University Department of English will host a free, public talk by noted author and educator Sheila Kohler on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019. Kohler will discuss “Becoming Jane Eyre: The Interplay of Fact and Fiction in Historical Narrative” at 12:30 p.m. in Room 102 of Warner Hall on the WCSU Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury.

Kohler has authored 10 novels, three volumes of short fiction, a memoir and many essays. She has taught at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence University, Bennington College and Princeton University, and has won the O. Henry Prize twice. Her most recent novel is “Dreaming for Freud,” based on Freud’s “Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria.” Her work has been included in Best American Short Stories and published in 13 countries. Her novel “Cracks” was made into a film with directors Jordan and Ridley Scott, with Eva Green playing Miss G.

WCSU English Department Chair Dr. Shouhua Qi invited Kohler to speak on campus.

“If Jane Eyre is Charlotte Bronte’s soul speaking in her monumental classic novel, ‘Becoming Jane Eyre’ is also soul speaking to soul; it is Sheila Kohler becoming Charlotte Brontë becoming Jane Eyre,” Qi said. “It would be fascinating to listen to the author who put both a tremendous amount of research and her power of imagination to work in creating this marvelous masterpiece.”

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Synonymous with Haworth

First of all, on a day like today in 1848, Branwell Brontë died surrounded by his father and sisters t his home in Haworth.

The Yorkshire Post interviews Frank Cottrell-Boyce, curator of the exhibition How My Light is Spent at the Brontë Parsonage Museum: 

“Our aim was to make something that could be part of your day out at Haworth,” says Cottrell-Boyce whose film credits include Welcome to Sarajevo, Hilary and Jackie, 24 Hour Party People, Millions and A Cock and Bull Story. “We wanted to create an installation that was exciting for anybody – so that everyone from little kids to Brontë scholars could gain something from it.
“I also wanted to find a way of celebrating Patrick. Everyone knows about Charlotte, Emily, Anne – and even Branwell – but Patrick is not really talked about that much. He came from very humble beginnings in impoverished rural Ireland and through his own efforts he managed to get in to Cambridge University; that is something that rarely happens, even today.
Listed Yorkshire mansion that Charlotte Brontë loved to visit has been ‘left to rot’
“He was very learned and knowledgeable but he was also totally engaged with the needs of his community and was a committed campaigner on public health.”
Housed in the cellar, an area of the Parsonage that has never before been open to the public, How My Light is Spent, without wanting to give too much away, is a truly magical, evocative and profoundly moving immersive experience. It features film, spoken word, music, poetry (the title of the installation refers to the Milton sonnet When I Consider How My Light is Spent), elements of theatre and innovative illumination and takes the audience from a place of literal and figurative darkness into light. “I was delighted that we could use the cellar because the Brontës used to play down here as children, so there is that nice connection,” says Cottrell-Boyce. “We wanted to explore darkness and creativity but also think about family relationships and telling those stories.” (Yvette Huddlestone)

Also in The Yorkshire Post, the wonders of Haworth:

Had Patrick Brontë been the offered the perpetual curacy of a church in another West Yorkshire village, then the chances are Haworth wouldn’t be known around the world today.
But he did and now its fame spreads far and wide. The global success of the Brontë sisters - Anne, Charlotte and Emily - has transformed Haworth into a literary mecca that pulls in visitors from as far away as Japan, the US and New Zealand.
The Brontës have, of course, become synonymous with Haworth, but there are plenty of other reasons to visit this tourist hotspot nestled in the hills 10 miles west of Bradford, seen here in all its verdant glory. (Chris Bond)

Urban Matter announces next month's performances of the ballet Jane Eyre by Cathy Marston in Chicago:

Choreographed by Cathy Martson with Jane being portrayed by Amanda Assucena, performances begin October 16th and will run through October 27th. The show has a runtime of 2 hours and 10 minutes with a 20-minute intermission. Tickets range from $35 to $197 and can be purchased online.
The company also provides an added bonus to anyone looking to get a deeper look into the show with three Meet the Artists events during the run. Here, audiences will be able to meet dancers from specific shows and hear their thoughts on the show and the creative process behind it.
Dates for Jane Eyre’s Meet the Artist are Saturday, October 19th, Thursday, October 24th, and Saturday, October 26th. (Megan Mann)

Den of Geek! recommends autumn books:

The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring. (...) This book reminded me of both Jane Eyre and The Haunting of Hill House while also feeling entirely original. It's a debut from Faring, who drew on her own Argentine heritage and her family history in the country when writing the story, and I am eager to see what else this author comes up with.

Screen Daily reviews the film Lynn+Lucy:

The film’s boxy 4.3 ratio was last memorably used in a British film by Andrea Arnold for Wuthering Heights (coincidentally, Leeds-born actress Nichola Burley features in both). (Lee Marshall)

The Oxford Times and heritage railways:

Trains tackling the climb from Keighley to the end of the line at Oxenhope pause for breath at the station sitting below the picturesque village of Haworth, a place of pilgrimage for admirers of the novels written by the Brontë sisters, who lived in the village parsonage, which is now a museum. (William Crossley)

Coming-of-age stories in The Stanford Times:

The protagonist might not have begun wealthy, married, or well-liked — the arc of “rags to riches” becomes more potent if this is the case — but aided by their virtue and talents, they often end this way (or are set-up to end this way, only to be dramatically reverted). We have Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” (1847), which features conscientious Jane, raised as a mistreated orphan at Gateshead. Despite various challenges, she maintains her self-respect and ends her story as a wealthy heiress married to the man she loves. (Shana E. Hadi)

Criterion devotes an article to Laurence Olivier:

The cinema could offer room for more of Olivier’s range, however, and he was offered a chance to display his powers in 1939, playing Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, for the master perfectionist William Wyler. Olivier had not been the first choice for the role, and he was put out that Leigh was not chosen as Cathy, so put out that he bridled at working with Oberon (“we spat at each other,” he recalled) despite their previously simpatico working relationship on Lady X. He growled at Wyler too. When asked to tone down his theatrical flourishes for the camera, Olivier snarled: “I suppose this anaemic little medium can’t stand anything great in size like that.” Wyler knew how to return that fire, though. On one occasion Olivier complained about having repeated himself for seventy-two takes: “I’ve done it calm, I’ve shouted, I’ve done it angry, I’ve done it sad, standing, sitting down, fast, slow—how do you want me to do it?” “Better,” snapped Wyler, providing a punchline that surely Olivier could only envy. And yet, soundstage grizzles aside, Olivier’s performance as Heathcliff is memorably dynamic: ferocious one minute, cool the next. It’s a tempestuous portrayal of a man mistreated by the world, and governed by the fieriest emotions, by love, hate, grief, and revenge. Perhaps the passions of Emily Brontë’s great lover were stoked at least partially by professional acrimony, but we’ll never truly know. We know also that Olivier came to regret his “frightfully pompous . . . overwhelmingly opinionated” behavior during the production, and years later he turned in another great and tender performance for Wyler, as the lovelorn hero of Carrie, a man brought to his knees by love.
Wuthering Heights was a great success, of course, and the following year Olivier triumphed with two more of literature’s most glowering lovers: a smoldering Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and an enigmatic Maxim de Winter in Rebecca. (Pamela Hutchinson)

Nerdly reviews the graphical novels Bloodlust & Bonnets by Emily McGovern:

Considering this is McGovern’s first graphic novel, I’d say she hit it out of the park. It’s really fun, quite peculiar at times, and never stops being entertaining. The setting, the characters and the adventure they go on all create this tapestry of bloodshed and romance. If you know about your Jane Austen’s and Charlotte Brontë’s but enjoy a splash of comical humour and a dollop of pure fantastical adventure, then you’ll eat this up. It’s a bleedin’ hoot. (Chris Cummings)

Fashion Me Now makes the unlikely connection of the island of Milos and Wuthering Heights:

We were staying up in Pollonia which seems to bear the brunt of the pelting warm winds and at times the wind can almost feel a bit oppressive and maddening, to the point you can almost understand the craziness of Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights when they were dealing with those wild winds on the Moors on a daily basis. (Lucy Williams)

Verona-in (Italy) interviews Paola Tonussi, author of the recent essay on Emily Brontë:

Cinzia Inguanta: In questo libro è dato molto spazio al rapporto di Emily Brontë con la natura …
«Il rapporto di Emily con la natura è centrale, è il punto focale da cui irradiano molte delle sue liriche più grandi, è la lente incantata con cui leggere quelle liriche e il suo romanzo, un vertice dei vertici. Emily Brontë scrive un romanzo che è una delle storie più possenti dell’intera letteratura mondiale e lo fa proprio partendo da lì, la natura che vede tutti i giorni, le adorate brughiere dello Yorkshire in cui vive e da cui impara moltissimo, almeno quanto impara dalla messe sterminata di libri che legge. Dalla natura Emily apprende la legge cosmica di sopraffazione delle creature, ogni creatura vivente, apprende il pessimismo cosmico che poi farà da traliccio e filigrana al romanzo: uno dei brani più struggenti e poetici di Wuthering Heights è il momento in cui Catherine parla del nido con gli scheletrini dei piccoli e la madre non può tornare al nido perché Heathcliff ha messo le trappole. Si fa promettere che non ne metterà più e sarà così. La crudeltà della natura è un cuneo nella sofferenza dell’universo, ma non per questo Emily l’ama meno, anzi la guarda con grande lucidità e compassione, altra chiava con cui si può leggere il suo grande romanzo. La creazione di Catherine e Heathcliff avviene molto prima della pubblicazione del romanzo: avviene quando lei ed Anne adolescenti vagano in felice libertà per le brughiere di casa, in ogni stagione dell’anno e con ogni tempo ed Emily intuisce Catherine in un ciuffo di erica – per sempre il suo fiore preferito – e ascolta la voce di Heathcliff in una giornata di vento più forte del solito. Perché c’è sempre vento a Haworth…  Infime mi ripeto, mi piace molto che il nome Heathcliff abbracci in sé due cose della natura che Emily ama sopra le altre e che congiunte formano una specie di simbolo di questo suo lungo, appassionato amore: l’erica, appunto, heath, e le cime, le colline su cui l’erica cresce, faticosamente, e fiorisce porpora da aprile a settembre, cliff». (Read More) (Translation)

Fadima Mooneira posts about Jane Eyre. Five Dials discusses Wide Sargasso Sea.

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Heteronormativity or Nomadology are not Angel-like

New Brontë-related research:

A Norm Critical Approach to Teaching Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre: Exploring Gender, Heteronormativity & Ableism 
Maria Fanourgakis
Magister Degree Project
Stockholm University, 2019

A growing concern in educational institutions is the lack of a unified collegial effort to address issues pertaining to discrimination. The Swedish National Agency of Education (SNAE) has released several reports and articles this past decade (2009, 2010, 2016), in which no significant improvement has been observed in schools with regard to discrimination pertaining to race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability. An important finding illustrated in all reports is that norms are the cardinal reason behind all discriminating conduct. Consequently, to address this problem, SNAE suggests that a norm-critical perspective should be implemented in order to hamper and change such behaviours A core problem, however, is that not all syllabi provide specific examples of how teachers can work with norms in the classroom. Significantly, however, literature has shown to be a valuable gateway to norm-criticism as it provides students with the opportunity to critically assess problems presented in novels with a certain detachment; promoting a more objective attitude and thus a deeper understanding of their own real-life situations. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to provide English teachers with a more concrete point of departure in the discussion of norms by the use of literature, namely Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre (1847). More specifically, this essay critically examines the notions of heteronormativity, gender and ableism to illustrate how hetero-norms, gender-norms and disability-norms are both subverted and challenged in Jane Eyre, often in unexpected ways. The concepts of the ‘male gaze’ and the ‘Other’ are introduced, to demonstrate how this novel may be approached norm-critically in the ambition to avert discriminatory behaviour. To exemplify how the reading of each concept may have positive implications in teaching, I demonstrate how a fusion of
norm-critical pedagogy, critical literacy pedagogy and reader-response theory can be fruitful to foster critical thinking. 

Mobility as a Revolt: Nomadology in Jane Eyre
by Padam Pandey
Devkota Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, July 2019, Vol. 2

This paper seeks to study the rejection of stability that Charlotte Brontë demonstrates in
Jane Eyre. In the light of nomadism and feminism, it tries to show Jane Eyre, a nomad, as a revolutionary character who, through her mobility, challenges the patriarchal values, thereby challenging the whole patriarchal social system. Overpassing the patriarchal limitations and rejecting the imposed social construction of woman, Jane proves herself as a feminist. Since the women of the Victorian period experience only the confinements and restrictions, free mobility was denied, and their world was narrowed down to domestic sphere. Besides, women, in general, have been termed as fragile, submissive, passive, nurturing, emotional and inferior. In such social context of Victorian period, Jane Eyre appears as a rebel. She refuses to be confined within patriarchal boundary, and also denies being a typical Victorian woman. She answers the social stability through her nomadity. By doing so, she protects herself from being socially constructed.

I Am No Angel. Struggles of Identity in Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights
Ulriksen, Cecilia
Master Thesis
The Artic University of Norway

This thesis explores the pressure of identity applied on the two female main characters in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre respectively. It argues that Gender norms, societal expectations and pressure from loved ones try to exert power over Charlotte's and Emily's characters Jane and Catherine, with focus on concepts like lived versus performed identity and the Lord/bondsman dynamic. I explore how Jane is able to preserve her identity through control of the narrative and support of like minded around her, whereas Catherine cannot establish either control or companionship with anyone close to her. As such, Catherine's identity splinters while Jane is given a fulfilling end.

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Catherine Earnshaw explaining 1 Corinthians 13

Your Tango tries to explain the meaning of love and 1 Corinthians 13 by quoting from several sources, including Wuthering Heights.

7. It is not self-seeking.
To love someone or something wholly is not an act of ambition. We all long to love and be loved, but as much as we dream of it and picture it, we cannot manifest or manufacture it.
It is rarely convenient or well-timed. Loving someone isn’t for the betterment of you the one who loves, but it is for the betterment of the one who is loved.
"He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." —Catherine Earnshaw, Wuthering Heights (Kaitlin Kaiser)

ShortList quotes actress Carice Van Houten as saying,

We asked, if she were to combine her two careers and star in a musical biopic, who would she want to give her spin on? “I did a Kate Bush imitation once, for a wedding. You know, Wuthering Heights. I learned the dance for it, too. I have the pictures!”
Heathcliff, it’s me, Carice! Come home… (Rebecca May)

According to an interview in El Mundo (Spain), Spanish so-called celebrity Chabelita picks Wuthering Heights as her favourite book. Vanity Fair (Spain) has an article on the 25th anniversary of the TV show Friends mentioning Phoebe's cyborg Jane Eyre.

Finally, don't forget to check out the Brontë Parsonage on Twitter for pictures and brief accounts of the goings-on at this past weekend's Brontë Festival of Women's Writing.

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A Moorland Celebration

A new exhibition of painting by Judith Levin inspired by the Haworth moors:

A Moorland Celebration

The Bingley Gallery
29B Park Rd, BD16 4BQ Bingley
September 18-October

New Exhibition  'A Moorland Celebration' featuring the wonderfully evocative oils of Judith Levin, wire sculpture by Carol Sterritt and ceramics from The Nettleton Pottery, Lis Holt and Kath Bonson.

We read in The Telegraph & Argus:

Says gallery owner, and artist in residence, David Starley: “There is a long tradition of artists painting moorland, such as Turner and Thomas Girtin.
“Judith is a contemporary painter, whose moorland scenes are exquisite and atmospheric.”
He adds: “The stark beauty of the moors of Yorkshire is well loved by local people and those who visit the county, inspired by sources as diverse as the Brontë novels, the Last of the Summer Wine and television coverage of the Tour de Yorkshire.
“We are looking to celebrate moorland for its beauty and also its importance for carbon capture, and also raise the fact that it is not such a constant resource and is under threat from events such as burning and erosion.” (Helen Mead)

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Few (?) People Actually Read the Brontës

The New York Times reviews Ann Patchett's The Dutch House:

That opening scene is lavish with literary allusions. The motherless child hiding in the curtains is from “Jane Eyre.” Children observing adults from the top of the stairs recalls Henry James’s “What Maisie Knew.” (Parul Sehgal)

Detroit Free Press asks some Detroit Lions football players about the last books they have read:

S C.J. Moore
“Oh, boy. Does the Bible count? I read my — well, that’s a phone, but I have the Bible app and I read that every morning. But besides the Bible, I would have to go way back to senior year in high school. 'Wuthering Heights.' It’s a pretty good story. It’s a long, very long book, and I think there’s an actual movie on it, too. But 'Wuthering Heights' was like the last thing I read.”

Christopher Ackroyd in Keighley News complains about the plans for Keighley Library:

A few weeks ago I wrote on the subject of how the town's library could become a fitting memorial to the late lamented Ian Dewhirst.
With some investment and a little imagination, it could become a technologically modern library for the region as a whole, not just for Keighley itself. (...)
Perhaps we make a little too much of the Brontës, who it seems to me, few people actually read.
Might I suggest we also praise the names of the likes of Sir Swire Smith and Ian Dewhirst? Amen. We owe them a debt.

"Few people actually read the Brontës".... as this 14-year-old blog, updated daily, clearly shows. Despising the Brontës in a eulogy of Ian Dewshirt seems quite odd as the late local historian was quite connected with them. Recently Lori Ann Wark wrote a post about him on Enhanced Classics:

After the lecture, I practically ran up to the podium to ask Ian if he would let me tape an interview with him about the Brontës and Haworth. He was delighted. (...)
I  had been told that Ian was a local historian, not a Brontë scholar. So as the wind kicked up and I struggled to keep the camera steady, I was surprised to hear Ian quoting word for word passages from Wuthering Heights. You haven’t had the full Brontë experience until you hear Wuthering Heights read with a broad Yorkshire accent.

And also Ann Dinsdale in the Brontë Society Gazette (April 2019):

Ian was a much-loved speaker at Brontë Society events, despite the fact he wasn't a great admirer of the Brontës' works and was far more interested in the less familiar writers who lived in Haworth during the Brontë era. 

The Telegraph (India) reviews the film The Zoya Factor:

In the book, Khoda was a “khadoos” who was initially at loggerheads with Zoya and was then involved in a blow hot-blow cold equation with her. The Mills & Boon-styled standoffishness that was second nature to Khoda in the book added to his Heathcliff-ian charm, but the film — in an effort to cram a 450-page read into a two-hour watch — makes Khoda a lovable bloke from the get-go, rendering him largely unidimensional. (Priyanka Roy)

Patheos mentions Jane Eyre:

When I say all this, the critic in me says, “If the message is always there, a rainbow for all to see, then there is no message.” This is as foolish as thinking that a book being always on a shelf, being picked up and read by a woman, the message of that book helping her was not “to her.” If Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre to wrench romance from mere passion, but show how passion, liberty, and law can work together in a woman, then a woman finding Jane Eyre and seeing and finding joy in the message is reading the book aright.
Charlotte Brontë being dead, yet speaks.
God has this advantage over Brontë. He can prompt us, if we are listening, to see what is always there in a new way. (John Mark N. Reynolds)

An alert for Tuesday in the Shelter Island Reporter:

On Tuesday, Sept. 24, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., the Art/Rich Poetry Roundtable of Shelter Island will present a poetry reading at the Shelter Island Library to celebrate the Bicentennial of Walt Whitman’s Birth. (...)
Some of the poets in the collection are John Berryman, Emily Bronte, Gwendolyn Brooks, e.e.cummings, T.S. Eliot, John Keats, Robert Lowell, Pablo Neruda, Rainier Maria Rilke and Wallace Stevens. (Virginia Walker)

The Nation Roar and names:

Jane
That means: God has given/God’s grace
Well-known individuals known as Jane: Jane Austen, Jane Fonda, Jane Seymour.
Initially the identify Jane was a type of John and it was additionally the identify of the primary character in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre all the way in which again within the 19th century nevertheless it’s been round for much longer than that, the identify Jane has been used because the seventh century. (Andy Christensen)

El Correo Vasco (Spain) reviews the Downton Abbey film:

Filmada como si de una estilizada reconstrucción pictórica se tratara, la trama se centra en los cambios que se producen en el seno de la familia Crawley, con ese aire de pavo real tan característico de la aristocracia británica, establecida en el verde condado de Yorkshire (lugar de nacimiento de las inolvidables hermanas Brontë), a comienzos del siglo XX. (Antón Merikaetxeberría) (Translation)

Deutschlandfunk Kultur (Germany) lists the best films of Ralph Fiennes:

Platz 5: „Stürmische Leidenschaft“ von Peter Kosminsky (1992)
Ralph Fiennes als Heathcliff, der als Ziehkind nach „Wuthering Heights“ kommt, das Gut im Hochmoor von Yorkshire, und sich unglücklich in die Tochter des Gutsherren verliebt. Steven Spielberg sah diese Verfilmung von Emily Brontës Klassiker und sagte danach über Ralph Fiennes, der in Spielbergs „Schindlers Liste“ ein Jahre später den KZ-Kommandanten spielte: „Er war absolut brillant. […] In seinen Augen sah ich sexuell Böses, […] es gab Momente von Güte, die über seine Augen huschten und im gleichen Moment in Kälte erstarrten.“ Ralph Fiennes nur in die Augen schauen und dann erstarren, erschauern, sich erschüttern oder sehr tief berühren lassen. (Hartwig Tegeler) (Translation)

Trendencias and novels to read in Autumn:

Cumbres Borrascosas. El amor de Catherine y el atormentado Heathcliff está hecho de los vientos, la lluvia y el barro de los páramos ingleses. Un clima eternamente otoñal en el que esos sombríos y desolados paisaje de Yorkshire se convierten en una metáfora del destino, la obsesión, la pasión y la venganza.
Fue publicada por primera vez en 1847, un año antes de morir su autora, que se vio obligada a ocultar su género publicando bajo seudónimo. Con esta novela rompió por completo con los cánones del decoro que la Inglaterra victoriana exigía a las novelas. Tanto en el tema escogido como en la descripción de los personajes. Sin duda, una de las mayores historias de amor de la literatura. (María Yuste Navarro) (Translation)

Jane Eyre is among the books read by the readers of Listín Diario (Dominican Republic). Windows on Worlds reviews 嵐が丘 (Arashi ga Oka) 1988. Jane Eyre's Library shows a Vietnam edition of the novel. Olga Merino writes about her visit to Haworth moors in El Periódico (Spain).

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Jane Eyre 1970 in Oklahoma

An alert in Bartlesville, OK:

The Bartlesville Area History Museum will show the Victorian era movie “Jane Eyre” during its next "Movie Monday." a brown bag event set for Sept. 23.

The feature will be shown from noon to 1:15 pm at the museum on Monday, Sept. 23 rd. They are located on the fifth floor of City Hall, 401 S. Johnstone Ave.

BAHM Coordinator Jo Crabtree said this 1970 production is set in the north of England during an important historic British period, where the ‘Industrial Revolution’ had begun in the late 18th Century," She said it touches on several social issues concerning women including women’s employment, genteel poverty, education and marriage.
A Tulsa VCI-Entertainment film, “Jane Eyre” is a stirring movie about a mistreated orphan girl who grew into a self-reliant, confident woman with courage and strong values. The journey she took from the time she left Lowood School until the story’s conclusion is remarkable and at times unbelievable. “Jane Eyre” speaks on the themes of love, forgiveness, faith in God and the determination to live out one’s moral convictions, even when it isn’t easy.
According to a 2016 review by Jennifer Anne F. Messing, this version of the movie "is made particularly moving by the excellent performances of George C. Scott, who won an Emmy Award nomination in 1972 for his performance as Mr. Edward Rochester, and Susannah York, who convincingly portrayed Jane Eyre. Their on-screen chemistry, combined with the hauntingly beautiful musical score, the authentic period costumes and the picturesque English countryside settings, make this film a real treat for classic movie lovers."

The Bartlesville Area History Museum is a family friendly facility where admission is free and donations are always welcome. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. (Bartlesville Radio)

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To Boldly Go Where Other Siblings Fear to Tread

The Yorkshire Post interviews Jane Sellars, author and ex-director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

Has Yorkshire influenced your work?
Yorkshire has had a huge influence on my work as an art curator and writer. In my time as director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, I wrote about the Brontës’ own drawings and paintings and when I came to Harrogate I set out to show as many Yorkshire artists as I could, both historic and contemporary, which inspired the exhibition and book Art and Yorkshire: From Turner to Hockney.

The Wall Street Journal reviews the upcoming The Vanished Bride (Brontë Sisters Mystery #1) by Bella Ellis:

Jane Austen stars as a crime solver in a popular series of detective novels by Stephanie Barron. Now the Brontë sisters—Charlotte, Emily and Anne—receive a similar creative makeover in Bella Ellis’s “The Vanished Bride” (Berkley, 293 pages, $26).
It’s 1845. The Brontë siblings (including brother Branwell) are living with their widowed parson father, as the sisters search for the creative outlets that will bring them eventual fame. Branwell, already launched on his descent into dissolution, arrives one afternoon with news of “a most violent murder” in a neighboring town, in a gloomy old house where an acquaintance of the girls works as a servant. At least it seems like a murder: The second wife of a well-to-do man has disappeared, her bedroom soaked in blood. Inspired by a newspaper article describing some new “specially trained and educated” London policemen “using their wit and intellect to search out the guilty,” the sisters resolve to investigate this mystery themselves. They will be “three invisible lady detectors seeking out the truth,” in Anne’s words.
Each of the trio has particular qualities suited for the endeavor. Anne’s empathy and intuition help her imagine events and relationships. Charlotte’s sympathetic manner makes her a great interrogator. Emily’s adventurous streak spurs her to go where other siblings fear to tread. (“I don’t mind danger,” Emily says. “It’s polite conversation I can’t abide.”) Ms. Ellis—writing under a pen name—hews to the biographical facts in fashioning this swift story, while her plot (Gothic touches included) seems suitably Brontë-esque. “The Vanished Bride” is a delight. (Tom Nolan)

The Washington Post reviews the novel The Dutch House by Ann Patchett:

We watch in horror and fascination as Andrea supplants the absent Elna, and Norma moves into Maeve’s room with its curtained window seat — a perfect detail straight from another orphan tale, “Jane Eyre.” (Allegra Goodman)

In The Times, William Leith talks about hypochondria:

Lots of famous people have been hypochondriacs. In his book Tormented Hope, Brian Dillon, himself a sufferer, names Andy Warhol, Marcel Proust, Samuel Johnson and his biographer James Boswell, Florence Nightingale, Charlotte Brontë and Charles Darwin.

The perception of hypochondria has changed quite a bit since the eighteenth century:

 Charlotte Brontë was diagnosed with hypochondria, although her suffering now might be treated more as a psychological break down. (Georgia Lockwood in The Royal Society's History Blog)

Refinery29 reviews the TV series Succession:

Kendall Roy exists in the same tradition of “damaged white man who just needs the love of a good woman” that’s brought us everyone from Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre to Logan Echolls in Veronica Mars. (Leah Carroll)

AV Club talks about the new series Nancy Drew:

The original books rarely traveled much past general thievery, so this Nancy Drew kicks up the crime a notch, starting off with a mysterious murder in Horseshoe Bay (apparently River Heights didn’t have enough Wuthering Heights-worthy cliffs), possibly connected to the town’s own spooky ghost legend, the unimaginatively named Dead Lucy. (Gwen Ihnat)

British biographies in La Razón (Spain):

Elizabeth Gaskell, cuya biografía de Charlotte Brontë es una obra mayor de la literatura del siglo xix, se escribía con Charlotte y visitó a la novelista en Haworth. Si su libro omite muchos hechos —sobre todo la pasión no correspondida y claramente erótica de Brontë por su profesor en Bruselas, Constantin Heger— tiene la ventaja de la proximidad temporal. Nos habla en la voz de su propio tiempo. (Antonio Saborit) (Translation)

Diario de Mallorca (Spain) talks about a recent talk by the writer Annie Ernaux:

Del pasado, de donde se nutre su literatura, también distinguida con otros importantes premios como el Marguerite Duras o el François Mauriac, recordó las lecturas que le dejaron huella, primero Don Quijote, Jane Eyre y los cuentos de Grimm y de Andersen, y progresivamente, las de Stendhal, Camus, Sartre, Kafka y Dostoievski, hasta descubrir que "la literatura ocupaba el primer lugar, como valor superior a todo, incluso como modo de vida". (Gabi Rodas) (Translation)

An upcoming alert on Reggio Sera (Italy):

Che cosa hanno in comune Moana Pozzi, Caterina da Siena, le sorelle Brontë e Zaha Hadid? Grace Jones e Shirley Temple? Che cos’è e come si combatte la sindrome di Ginger Rogers?
Potremo scoprirlo domenica 22 settembre alle 16.30 al Centro internazionale Malaguzzi (non più ai Chiostri di San Pietro per previsto maltempo) durante il colloquio-intervista organizzato dal Comune di Reggio, che Francesca Codeluppi e Sandra Campanini avranno con Michela Murgia e Chiara Tagliaferri, autrici di “Morgana”, il volume appena uscito per Mondadori che propone una carrellata di donne protagoniste dell’emancipazione femminile e che riporta come sottotitolo “Storie di ragazze che tua madre non approverebbe”. All’evento a ingresso gratuito, parteciperà anche l’assessore alla Partecipazione e innovazione Valeria Montanari. (Translation)

Lubimyczytać (Poland) and Lowood School in Jane Eyre:

Chcąc się pozbyć kłopotu, krewna oddaje dziewczynkę do Zakładu Lowood, który jest szkołą dobroczynności publicznej i zakładem wychowawczym sierot. Za pobyt uczennicy w tej placówce uiszczało się piętnaście funtów rocznie opłaty, resztę dopłacali ludzie bogaci i ustosunkowani. Szkoła liczyła osiemdziesiąt uczennic, które ubrane były w jednakowe brązowe suknie z białym kołnierzykiem. Spały w długiej, wspólnej sypialni. Bohaterka książki dzieliła łóżko z nauczycielką młodszych klas panną Miller. (Read more) (Róża Bzowa) (Translation)

Folha de Sao Paulo (Brazil) presents Viagem em Volta de Uma Ervilha by Sofia Nestrovski:

Citando nominalmente ou indiretamente autores de prestigiosa reputação, como Carlos Drummond de Andrade Emily Brontë e T.S. Elliot, Nestrovski, que vem de uma família artística, conheceu mais a si mesma, revisitando seu passado não tão distante. (Matheus Lopes Quirino) (Translation)

The Charleston Gazette-Mail quotes from Emily Brontë's The Blue Bell in an article about 'introducing blue to your garden'. Vulture highlights Patti Smith's Instagram ('the safest place on the internet) and mentions her post on Emily Brontë's birthday. Masdearte.com (in Spanish) compares Géricault's Portrait of Luisa Vernet with Wuthering Heights. 4 Star Films and Classic Movies Digest review Wuthering Heights 1939 and Jane Eyre 1944 respectively. Diana Marin posts about Wuthering Heights 2011 and the uncanny connection with nature.

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