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.