The perfect excuse for a third copy of Jane Eyre

Seven Days shares a lovely video of Glynnis Fawkes and her Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre book.

Charlotte Brontë and her siblings left a permanent mark on literature and are perfect fodder for a graphic novel. Burlington cartoonist Glynnis Fawkes spent a year and a half distilling Charlotte’s early life into comics for Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre. We spent an afternoon at Glynnis’ home studio to discuss her work, including her recently released diary and memoir collection, Persephone’s Garden. (Eva Sollberger)

Coincidentally, Life of a Simple Reader takes part in the related book tour, including a giveaway.

The Coast News Group reviews 413 Project’s Jane Eyre.

One thing I’ll say about the experience of watching 413 Project Theater’s adaptation of “Jane Eyre” at the Grand Tea Room in Escondido was that actually sitting down to watch the play was an experience unlike any other.
Immediately upon entering, the audience was escorted into the 19th-century-style dining room, where plates were arrayed with plenty of hors d’oeuvres, spring salad, finger sandwiches and blackberry goat cheese toasts, et cetera. For drinks, there were a few varieties of tea, water and champagne with raspberries dunked into their golden depths.
The three dining room tables were arranged in a rough square surrounding the “stage,” which was essentially a rug in front of a fireplace, about the size of a small room, maybe 8 by 10 or so feet, not counting other areas of the dining chamber the cast took advantage of.
Such a confining dramatic space gives the experience of watching the unfolding story with a sense of spatial intimacy, but if you are seated inwards towards the “stage” space, you cannot help but wonder if an actor might accidentally bump into you. [...]
Jane is played by Hunter Thiers, whose performance focuses on Jane’s emotional vulnerability; she often stares at the floor and speaks softly, yet she is still outspokenly determined and assertive when it comes to her own goals. Thiers often serves as the play’s narrator, as she delivers exposition from Jane during transitions between scenes, a clever way to distract the audience from the other actors as they move props in the darkness. Also, she does a dynamite English accent.
Robin Thompson plays Rochester in a loud, boisterous way, whilst also playing up the character’s playful side, propping his feet up and clapping a wounded man’s shoulder. His routine as the disguised Rochester playing at being some sort of fortune-teller is especially amusing, when you consider the fact that he’s an actor playing a character playing another character — with a “granny voice” no less. And props to the man for being able to pull off such pointy sideburns so well.
The rest of the play’s adult cast pull double duty in multiple roles, from named characters to ensemble ones. The actresses who play the Ingrams and the Rivers — Kelly Saunders and Sophia Wright — pull off different accents to maintain the illusion. Fellow Rivers portrayer Grayson Lea, as John, is openly uncouth, and Lea’s performance welcomes you to dislike such an openly sordid individual.
The play also utilized a soundtrack score and non-Thiers narration, which both worked for it, and against it. The selection of music added a lot to the play’s mood and atmosphere, but the audio cut out altogether frequently, which was a bit distracting, but not experience-ruining by any means.
413’s “Jane Eyre” at the Grand Tea Room gives you as close of a viewing experience as you are likely to get without being “on stage” yourself, with plenty of tasty confections to try while you watch a 19th-century romance unfold. (Alex Wehrung)

A contributor to Church Times loves the stamp on books bought in the Brontë Parsonage shop. We do, too.

My reasons for purchase ranged from British embarrassment (the shop did not have the book I was looking for, but I didn’t feel that I could leave empty-handed) to brazen tourism (the Brontë Museum gift shop stamps all books with “Bought in the Brontë Parsonage”; if that isn’t a good excuse for a third copy of Jane Eyre, I don’t know what is). (Amy Scott Robinson)

The Boston Globe reviews Ann Patchett's The Dutch House.

From the outset, Ann Patchett’s intricate and alluring new novel, “The Dutch House,” announces its enriching relationship to two literary classics: Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” and Dickens’ “Great Expectations.”
All three novels are retrospective fictional autobiographies narrated by middle-aged people and tell the story of how orphans make their way in the world, forging their identity in the face of meddling and cruel relatives, social pressures and constraints, self-doubt and human limitation. And all feature imposing and mysterious houses, are filled with references to fairy tales, explore the idea of paradise lost and regained, and ruminate on memory’s shaping power. (Priscilla Gilman)

Refinery29 discusses Netflix's show Marianne.

Madame Daugeron is Marianne’s first human host. Later on in the show, Marianne adopts other forms. (In the finale, for example, Marianne reveals herself to be a sleep-deprived Emily Brontë heroine in a black lace dress, a large crow, and a floating demon inspired by the Babadook, all in the short span of 40 minutes.) (Elena Nicolaou)

Anglotopia shares an American student's trip to Whitby in Yorkshire.

The trip out was via a Northern train, which meant it stopped about every five to ten minutes at some little station, and made a curious turn at Battersby, just as we came into the North York Moors National Park.  The train pulled in at Battersby just fine, but it is a single line in and out, so the train backed out, and went backwards the rest of the way across the moors and into Whitby.  The one thing I can say is that the moors are indeed beautiful.  Wuthering Heights played significantly in the readings that made me love England, and so finally going across the ‘wild and windy moors’ (sorry, Kate Bush) was most enjoyable. (David Johnson)

OK Diario (Spain) shares some quotes by Emily Brontë. Finally, an alert from Sheffield:

Sheffield Senior Crier
25 Cook Road
Sheffield, MA 01257
Forbidden Passion: Friday, September 20th @ 1 PM, Joyce Hawkins will conduct a conversation on “Forbidden Passion Jane Eyre”. This talk will focus on Charlotte Brontë’s use of Gothic elements to portray the forces forewarning Jayne against her forbidden marriage to Mr. Rochester.  (The Berkshire Eagle)