Emoji free Brontës

Sooke News Mirror and new year resolutions:

You can start with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird and work your way up to Woolf, Brontë, Salinger or Alighieri. You’ll note that none of them have emojis or super heroes but many of then will make you think. (Tim Collins) 

Medium publishes new year resolutions-style of characters from novels:

“Next year I will endeavor to be more honest with my partners about my feelings. And my wife. And my syphilis.”- Edward Rochester from Jane Eyre. (Kyrie Gray)

ScreenRant lists shows similar to Harlots:

The Crimson Petal And The White
Based on a novel of the same name, this four-part miniseries that broadcasted on BBC Two in 2011 takes the element of prostitution and tells a Jane Eyre-type story. Set in the Victorian era, it begins with rich male heir William Rackham who falls in love with a prostitute named Sugar. (Ursula Nizalowski)

Il Corriere della Sera talks about Wuthering Heights and a new Italian translation:

Emily Brontë, l’amore sconvolgente ed estremo di «Cime tempestose».
Moderno e unico, il romanzo della scrittrice inglese (pubblicato in una nuova traduzione Einaudi) continua a parlare ai lettori con la sua forza visionaria.
Catherine e Heathcliff, i protagonisti di Cime tempestose, il romanzo di Emily Brontë nel quale è narrata la storia d’amore più sconvolgente che sia mai stata scritta, hanno diciassette e diciotto anni quando, a circa un terzo del libro, accade il fatto capitale per lo svolgimento dell’intera vicenda. Siamo, alla fine del Settecento, nelle desolate brughiere dello Yorkshire: paludi che d’inverno gelano, colline battute dai venti del nord (del libro è appena uscita la traduzione di Monica Pareschi per Einaudi). Catherine è la figlia del signor Earnshaw, padrone ormai defunto della fattoria chiamata Wuthering Heights: una ex monellaccia scatenata, con un cuore grande; Heathcliff è l’ex trovatello dalla pelle olivastra, nero di capelli, torvo e paziente nei confronti di chi lo maltratta e lo insulta, che il signor Earnshaw ha incontrato nei bassifondi di Liverpool e ha portato con sé nella casa, allevandolo come un figlio. Catherine si è subito affezionata a questo ragazzino ignorante, rozzo e scontroso; Heathcliff l’ha ricambiata col medesimo, morboso affetto.  (Read more) (Giorgio Montefoschi) (Translation)

El Heraldo (Colombia) looks out for books written by women in 2019:

Durante mucho tiempo la producción literaria de mujeres fue omitida. Ahora no podrían pasar desapercibidas: sus voces resuenan más fuerte que nunca.
George Sand, George Eliot y Actor Bell. Ellos nunca existieron. Todos fueron hombres inventados por escritoras que se vieron obligadas a usar seudónimosmasculinos para que sus obras fueran tomadas en serio.
Detrás de esas firmas estaban Amantine Dupin (Indiana, 1832), Mary Ann Evans (Middlemarch: un estudio de la vida de provincia, 1872) y Anne Brontë (La inquilina de Wildfell Hall, 1848). (Ivonne Arroyo) (Translation)

ABC (Spain) talks about Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

Para lo que interesa a la literatura, su reclusión obligada -tres años en Torquay, inválida, enferma y enclaustrada, y otros cinco en Wimpole St., a solas con los libros y con escasas visitas- guarda más relación con su entusiasmo por la antigüedad y las lenguas clásicas que con las medicinas; y, desde luego, cualquiera que se acerque a la obra de Barrett Browning será capaz de distinguir que fue su formación (Homero, Shakespeare, Pope, Milton, Wollstonecraft o C. Brontë, además de los textos bíblicos) lo que acabó dando fruto en su obra, y no las sustancias analgésicas o estupefaciente. (José C. Vales) (Translation)

The Oregonian lists some of the obituaries of the year including William Luce's one (although they still mistake his play on Charlotte Brontë as being about Emily).

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2019. A Brontë year in images

The Best of a Brontë year in images, as usual:

In Art/Exhibitions:

In Books / Audiobooks:

In Memoriam 2019:

In Movies-DVD-TV:

In Music:

In Brontë News :

In Theatre / Dance:

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It should be something special

Powerful literary quotes to inspire you in 2020 according to The Independent:

Charlotte Brontë – Jane Eyre
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” (Roisin O'Connor)

The Guardian makes some predictions for UK theatre in 2020:

Both Roy Alexander Weise and Bryony Shanahan have established themselves as sharp directors – he with Nine Night and The Mountaintop, she with Bitch Boxer and Queens of the Coal Age. Together they plan to make work “with and for the people of Manchester”: Shanahan’s Wuthering Heights at the Exchange should be something special, while a freelance gig finds Weise reviving Roy Williams’ Sucker Punch in London. (Chris Wiegand)

Westworld and the best in Denver's theatre 2019 season:

Best Memorable Comic Moment
Finalists: Geoffrey Kent and Emily Van Fleet, The Moors, Arvada Center Black Box Theatre; Jessica Robblee, The Moors
Winner: Jessica Robblee
There was a remarkable love scene between Geoffrey Kent, playing the Mastiff, and Emily Van Fleet as the Moor Hen in this delightfully demented take-off on the lives of the Brontë sisters. Yes, the Mastiff actually is a dog and the Moor Hen an injured bird. He philosophizes in oddly broken but eloquent sentences; she, memory-challenged, forgets his philosophizing. The two actors played these roles with so much sweetness and depth that you accepted the entire absurd premise — banishing all questions about how they could possibly couple from your mind.
In the same production, Jessica Robblee’s character, Huldey, burst into song for some reason I can’t quite remember. And what a burst. The piece goes from flatly spoken statements through rock to ballad to the kind of chest-deep belt you’d expect from a murderess in the musical Chicago. The rendition by the multi-talented Robblee was so utterly insane, so full of outrageous flourishes and daring drops and rises, that you found yourself taken to fantastic places you’d never imagined before. (Juliet Wittman)

Extra Globo announces an upcoming episode of the Brazilian Bom Sucesso TV series:

Nana (Fabiula Nascimento) e Diogo (Armando Babaioff) vão se transformar em Catherine e Heathcliff, do livro “O morro dos ventos uivantes”, em "Bom sucesso". O sonho acontece na imaginação de Paloma (Grazi Massafera), quando ela está lendo a obra ao lado de Alberto (Antonio Fagundes). No livro, Heathcliff é um homem amargurado por um amor não correspondido, que volta rico e poderoso querendo se vingar de todos que o humilharam. O sonho acontece justamente quando Diogo retorna sedento por se vingar da família Prado Monteiro. (Carla Bittencourt) (Translation)

Önce Vatan Gazetesi (Turkey) interviews the writer Rabia Yılmaz:

Yazarken nelerden esinlenirsiniz? Örnek aldığınız yazar veya şairler var mı? Yazarken okuduğum her kitap, izlediğim her film ve bazen söylenen bir cümle bile bana ilham kaynağı olabiliyor. En büyük hayranı olduğum yazarlar tabii ki J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Emily Brontë ve Stephenie Meyer. Bu yazarların üçünün de çok başarılı olduğu aşikâr; ama bunun yanında başarılarını eserlerle dünyaya duyurdular. Başarılı bir yazar olmak kadar bunu dünyadaki tüm okurlara duyurmak da çok önemli ve zor; ama bu demek değildir ki başarılı olan tüm yazarlar çokça okunur. Tozlu rafların arasında çok az kişi tarafından okunan hazineler biliyorum. Örneğin; en sevdiğim kitap “Uğultulu Tepeler.” Bu söylediğim yazarlar elbetteki benim ilham kaynağım; ama ilham almakla taklit etme arasındaki çizgiyi koruyan biriyim. (Ayşenur Mama) (Translation)

Jonkopings Posten (Sweden) explores how it has been growing up in the 2010s:

Mina tidiga tonårsminnen bär givetvis på både komplexitet och en stark känsla av sökande, för mig utlevd i romantisk 1800-talslitteratur, Mr. Darcy, Heathcliff och Downton Abbeys Matthew Crawley. (Johanna Andersson) (Translation)

Esquire (in Spanish) lists the best graphic novels of 2019:

En un rayo de sol - Tillie Walden - La Cúpula
La jovencísima Tillie Walden se embarca en un ambicioso proyecto de centenares de páginas en el que combina el romance adolescente, la afirmación de género y la aventura espacial, en una suerte de Cumbres Borrascosas futurista. Un trabajo precioso y evocador que amplía las fronteras de la ciencia-ficción tomando lo mejor de la misma. (Álex Serrano) (Translation)

Letras, Libros y Más (in Spanish) reviews the Manga adaptation of Jane Eyre. AnneBrontë.org posts about 'the Mystery Of 2 Sisters, 4 Cousins And 3 Weddings'.

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Sick With Love

The Baltimore Sun describes a local band, The Holy circle like this:

Shoegazy electronic trio The Holy Circle gave drone aficionados something to vibe to when they released “Sick With Love” on Deathbomb Arc records in July. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Erica Burgner-Hannum drew lyrical inspiration from the novel “Wuthering Heights" and its female protagonist. The trio, consisting of Burgner-Hannum, her husband Terence Hannum (who also plays in the metal-infused act Locrian) and Rob Savillo, spent part of summer touring behind that EP—all while balancing full-time job and family responsibilities. (Sameer Rao)

The EP can be found here and the titles of some of the songs and the lyrics clearly show the Wuthering connection:

Sick With Love
by The Holy Circle

1. Moorland Loneliness 01:54
2. Free and Young 05:56
3. Lovely One 06:03
4. Glass 05:35
5. Fever Break 05:57
6. Midnight Hush 01:48
While sacrilege may be the cooler way to rock, The Holy Circle’s angelic approach always lives up to their name. The profane scurries for the shadows on ‘Sick With Love’ as The Holy Circle draw upon the power of all theories of ballad. Yes, shoegaze and drone are checked off, but it is their mastery of sounds reminiscent of Belinda Carlisle, Bonnie Raitt, and Divinyls that truly set them apart. There is nothing unholy here. These are the sacred sounds of revisionist mom rock history. You know, mom rock for goths.

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Inner Turmoil

The Guardian and how the period drama went from 'buttoned up to sexed up":

It was in Wainwright’s skilled northern hands that period drama shifted into the tanking present. Became raw, bleak, true, subversive, funny in the most off-kilter British sense. In To Walk Invisible, her stunning account of the three pinched years in which the Brontë sisters wrote the novels that made them famous, we got a version of then that was viscerally now. There was poverty, alcoholism and not a marriage in sight. Everyone looked cold, all the time. (Chatra Ramaswamy)

The Daily Mail lists Ponden Hall on its best B&B's selection:

Ponden Hall, Yorkshire: With grey stone walls, mullioned windows and flagstone floors, this Elizabethan farmhouse has strong connections to the Brontë sisters. Your effervescent hostess, Julie Akhurst, will tell you that Emily and Charlotte used Ponden’s library — and that in size and style the house is similar to Wuthering Heights itself.
She can point out further historical and literary details in each of three bedrooms, with their raftered ceilings and log stoves. (Martin Symington)

The column of William F.B. O'Reilly in Newsday begins with a Charlotte Brontë quote:

“Consistency, madam, is the first of Christian duties.”
— English novelist and poet Charlotte Brontë

The Daily Bulletin and the quarterback of the Rancho Cucamonga team:

The name on C.J. Stroud’s birth certificate reads “Coleridge Bernard Stroud IV,” which sounds like a character in a Brontë novel. But the most likely place you’d find a pen in the hands of this character is in front of a screen. (Brian Robin)

The last Music by Request playlist on Interlochen IPR Public Radio includes:

 Ola Gjeilo/Emily Brontë, Days of Beauty, Choir of Royal Holloway, 12 Ensemble, Rupert Gough. (Gretchen Carr)

Mashable discusses season two of You:

Time and again, viewers have witnessed Joe's mind-splitting misogyny as he seeks out the perfect, demure woman, incapable of thoughts beyond motherhood and quiet contentedness. Rife with themes of sexism and inner turmoil, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room, Kate Chopin's The Awakening, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein are a far-cry from this version of a woman, but remain some of the most standard selections in women's literature. (Alison Foreman)

ScreenRant lists the best movies of Michael Fassbender, according to IMDb:

Jane Eyre (2003). Fassbender has that rare quality as an actor to feel perfectly suited to stories of any era, which means he's been cast in more than a few period pieces. Jane Eyre is the adaptation of the classic novel by Charlotte Brontë, and stars Mia Wasikowska as a young woman who begins working for the mysterious Mr. Rochester (Fassbender), and begins to learn of his dark secrets. (Colin McCormick)

Tips to make students more creative in their writing on tes:

The trouble with most stories is that they ignore the consumerist society that we live in. Many of the products that we take for granted could have transformed the plots of well-known legends and classics. (...)
And the Earnshaw family would have been so much more comfortable with double glazing at Wuthering Heights – especially when each departure raised such horrendous storms. (Yvonne Williams)

Aish imagines a Jewish version of Jane Eyre:

Jane “Oy Veis” M’Eyre. This four-hanky, sweeping historical romance follows orphan Jane M’Eyre through the hardships she suffers at her cruel aunt’s house, a boarding school, a country manor, the streets where she is homeless, a foreign country, and back to the manor, where she finds her love interest disfigured due to a horrific accident. A staunch heroine who refuses to be defeated by the cruel vicissitudes of society and nature, she learns to deal with calamity after calamity by simply uttering the empowering phrase, Oy veis meir. (Harvey Rachlin)

Página 12 (Argentina) presents the new book by Rodrigo Fresán, La parte recordada:

El volumen no deja de ejercer sus poderes narcotizantes hasta dejar al lector tan suspendido y embriagado como Branwell Brontë, el hermano de Emily Brontë, la única mentora que reconoce Penélope, La Hermana Loca del Escritor (uno de los más adorables personajes fresanianos) luego de una de sus sesiones de láudano, brandy y poesía. Pero el lector de Fresán, a diferencia de Branwell Brontë, emerge de la lectura en un estado de epifanía, porque logró, en términos fresanianos, nada más ni nada menos que captarlo todo. (Laura Ramos) (Translation)

YourTango includes a Charlotte Brontë quote on a list of proposals and wedding vows quotes.

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Wuthering Heights in Helena, MT

Today, December 29, in Helena, MT, Bryan Ferriter's independent feature based in Wuthering Heights will be screened:

Wuthering Heights 2019
Directed by Bryan Ferriter
With Bryan Ferriter, Jasmin Jandreau
Complete cast and crew

December 29, 7:30PM
The MyrnaLoy
15 North Ewing Street
Helena, MT 59601

Helena’s own Bryan Ferriter presents his telling of Wuthering Heights — filmed in and around Helena.

A beautiful and inspiring interpretation of Emily Brontë’s classic English novel, Wuthering Heights. The story tells the saga of Heathcliff, an orphan starving on the streets of Liverpool until he is rescued by Mr. Earnshaw. When he arrives at the Earnshaw family farm, he is introduced to the rest of the Earnshaw family including Cathy, Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter. Cathy and Heathcliff’s meeting begins a haunting tale of love, betrayal, lust, obsession and redemption, which lasts over generations. Following the structure of the novel, the story of Heathcliff and Cathy is told to Lockwood by the faithful Nelly Dean, a housemaid, friend and mother figure to the conflicted characters in this timeless tale.

The film will also enter into 8th annual winter Flathead Lake International Cinemafest (FLIC) in Montana. Char-Koosta News gives further information:

Another standout this year is Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë’s classic tale of undying love and tormented passion, produced and directed by Bryan Ferriter, a Montana native. Bryan, on Wuthering Heights: “I was introduced to this story when I was 21 years old by my friends, Kailey Portsmouth and Jordyn Auvil, (who wrote the screenplay) and after journeying through Europe when I was 24, I read the novel in England and Ireland and knew I needed to tell the story. I was able to, many years later, be in the heartland of Emily Bronte, the author of this incredible and haunting tale of love, passion, vengeance and obsession. I put my hand on the very house she grew up in in Haworth, England and asked for her blessing to find our perfect location for the exterior of Wuthering Heights. Not one hour later we stumbled off the road and miraculously came across Ponden Hall and were granted permission to film at the very Manor that inspired Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange and where Emily spent much of her time writing in that great hall. This film adaptation is for her brilliance and will to bring such a bold story to life in the 19th century. I am excited to share it with the world.” Wuthering Heights, which runs 180 minutes and is nominated for six FLIC awards including Best Picture, screens Sunday, January 26th at 1pm. 

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Unexpected Plot Twists

Max de Halvelang shares in Quartz his new year reading resolution:

Let me start with a confession: I’m a British man in my late 20s, have a literature degree and consider myself a feminist—but until summer 2018, I had never read a Jane Austen novel. Or a Charlotte Brontë novel. Or, indeed, an Emily Brontë novel. 

The Marin Independent Journal presents the new David Austin roses, including the Emily Brontë, of course:

 David Austin Roses are loved for the form and fragrance one expects to see in an antique rose, but come with the expanded color range and repeat flowering found in the modern rose. Fans also appreciate their disease resistance and ability to grow in partial shade.
This month, the company announced three new introductions for spring — ‘Emily Brontë,’ ‘Tottering-by-Gently’ and ‘The Mill on the Floss.’
“These delicate-looking beauties are exceptionally strong shrub roses that bloom their hearts out, early summer till frost,” says Michael Marriott, David Austin Roses’ technical director and senior rosarian in a press release.
“In scent, ‘Emily Brontë’ delivers an unexpected plot twist,” says Marriott, of the pink and apricot bloom, named for the famed English novelist. (P. J. Bremier)

The Times's Cultural Fix with Maureen Lipman:

 The book I couldn’t finish
I asked for Villette by Charlotte Brontë when I won a spoken-word prize at school. It was unreadable then, but maybe I should have another go, 62 years later.

6News WRGB and Newshub review Greta Gerwig's Little Women film:

The pace at which these actors perform, along with the whip-smart and quickened dialogue, creates a bustle and pace to these scenes that resemble some of the best moments of Gilmore Girls more than something like Jane Eyre. (Andrew Auger)

I beg of you, do not drag me out into the town square and throw me into the stocks for this shocking public confession, but I've never really been a paid-up member of the Austen/Alcott/Brontës classic book club, they've just never particularly connected with me.
Until now. (Kate Rodger)

Catholic Citizens interviews Joseph Pierce, series editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions:

The idea and inspiration for the Ignatius Critical Editions came from my experience of using the Norton or Oxford editions of Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights in a course on Romanticism that I was teaching at Ave Maria University. I objected to the nihilistic and deconstructionist critical essays and introductions in these editions, which clearly served warped agendas and did not reflect the views or intentions of the authors of either work. (Kevin Edward White)

We don't object to anyone approaching the novels with a warped-or-not-agenda (and the Ignatius Critical Editions one is as much warped, if not much more, than any other) but we object to the presumption of knowing the intentions of the author.

The Washingtonian looks into several free libraries boxes in the city's neighbourhoods:

Columbia Heights
What was there: Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea; Henry James, The Turn of the Screw.
Which suggests: Based on this ludicrously unscientific research? Columbia Heights is DC’s most literary neighborhood. (Michaela Althouse)

Lecturas (Spain) explains the story of a local minor celebrity that got an edition of Wuthering Heights for he anniversary. Emily and Charlotte Brontë feature in the 101 list of the best books as selected by the readers of Le Monde. A Jane Eyre question is included in the Daily Mail reading Quiz. Whatsonstage confirms that Zoe Spurr will be the lighting designer for the National Theatre production of Wuthering Heights that will be premiered in the Autumn of 2020. Border Mail (Australia) interviews the mayor of Indigo who is revisiting the classics, including the Brontës. The Sisters' Room posts about another Brontë Parsonage treasure: Emily Brontë's comb.

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Marvellous and Mischievous

These days at the British Library in London:

Marvellous and Mischievous: Literature's Young Rebels
Open until Sun 1 Mar 2020

Anyone can be a rebel, whether they are standing up for their beliefs, saving the planet or battling against the odds. See how characters from Pippi Longstocking to Princess Pearl break rules and defy conventions to make the world a better place for others.
Rediscover your favourite characters and the youthful optimism you share with them. Roald Dahl’s handwritten drafts of Matilda sit alongside Quentin Blake’s iconic illustrations, as well as other enduring classics from The Secret Garden to Where the Wild Things Are.
Not all rebels are mischievous rogues, some are spirited survivors. Let the bravery of characters from Azzi in Between and Billy and the Beast inspire you. Or learn the importance of resilience from Oliver Twist, Tracy Beaker and The Midnight Gang.
Before you go, you can start your own adventure too. Dress up as a determined rebel, create your own comic, or take time out in our reading area.
No matter how big or small your acts of rebellion, our motley crew will help you discover your inner rebel and have some fun along the way.

Bookanista and ArtDaily give some more details:

Featuring such perennial favourites as Tracy Beaker, Pippi Longstocking, Jane Eyre and Matilda, as well as new characters including Omar from Planet Omar, Billy from Billy and the Beast and Dirty Bertie, the exhibition shines a light on the Library’s vast collection of children’s literature and explores an array of vibrant characters who break the rules and defy conventions.
Another thing that can be seen is a volume of Child’s First Tales written by the Brontë sisters’ headmaster Reverend William Carus Wilson.

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The mood and tone

The Telegraph & Argus marks one of the local events to be celebrated in Anne Bronté's 200th anniversary, next January 17:

A Bradford venue will be hosting a celebration to mark the 200th Birthday of Anne Bronte.
Anne, author of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, was born in Thornton on January 17 1820.
200 years on, Delius Arts and Cultural Centre on Great Horton Road, will celebrate her contribution to the arts world by costing a celebration of her life and works.
The event, a collaboration between South Square Centre and The Brontë Parsonage Museum, will include an evening of live music, poetry, and dancing. There will be pop up food stalls, arts and crafts from local artists, glitter tattoos, zine making and DJs, with a full line up of acts to be announced in the coming days.
The celebration will run from 6PM to 10:30PM. (Michael Black)

Manchester Evening News lists places near to Manchester you want to visit:

Top Withens and Brontë waterfalls, Hebden Bridge
Discover the ruins of Top Withens, a farmhouse which is said to have been the inspiration for the location of the Earnshaw family home Wuthering Heights in the novel by Emily Brontë. It lies on the Pennine Way, a popular walking route, and is a popular spot with literary tourists.  Breathtaking views from the remains of the farmhouse look out over the stunning countryside and unique landscape.
The surrounding moors make up part of Brontë Country-which also include the Brontë waterfalls - also said to feature in the novel. (Zara Whelan)

Pointe Magazine thinks that the Joffrey Ballet's Jane Eyre production is one of the Standout Performances of 2019:

Joffrey Ballet's Amanda Assucena and Yumi Kanazawa in "Jane Eyre"
The Joffrey Ballet opened its 2019–20 season with Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre, where the title role propelled company dancers Amanda Assucena and Yumi Kanazawa to new heights. Assucena, as Jane, brought impressive complexity to the canonical heroine, who grapples with the strict moral compass of her monastic upbringing and her passionate desires. Viewing a flashback of her childhood, she looked on as Kanazawa commanded the first third of the ballet as Young Jane. Virtuosic in her entanglements with the D-Men—a recurring men's corps that serves as a metaphor for Jane's conflicted emotions—Kanazawa's characterization was aptly naïve and immature, but also wise beyond her years.
A triumph for both ladies, this ballet (which Marston additionally set on American Ballet Theatre last summer) would surely have floundered without their superb acting skills. But it's Kanazawa who gets the true breakout moment, having spent her first few seasons with the Joffrey getting her feet wet in the ensemble. Assucena, by contrast, is accustomed to leading roles, though rarely on opening night. Jane Eyre offered further proof of her deep well of attributes and ability to lead this company. (Lauren Warnecke)

KPBS reviews not so favourably Greta Gerwig's Little Women:

The characters in Alcott’s book drip with goodness and self-sacrifice, and I have to confess, it bores me. I much prefer the flawed and tormented characters of the Brontë sisters or the satiric wit of Jane Austen for women writers published in the same century. (Beth Acommando)

More Little Women. Mashable asks several authors about Louisa May Alcott's novel:

Sara Collins: Perhaps no other character from my beloved childhood texts, apart from Jane Eyre, demonstrated the power of books to encourage radical self-acceptance as well as a refusal to limit myself according to the world’s low expectations for girls like me. I have even, over time, forgiven her for refusing Laurie." (Rachel Thompson)

And The Cinemaholic thinks that Wuthering Heights 1939 is what you need after watching Little Women:

If you have read Emily Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ and want to watch the story unfold on screen, you should definitely opt for the 1939 movie and not the 2005 film, despite the former being in grayscale. The 1939 film perfectly captures the mood and tone of Brontë’s Gothic tale with exceptional cinematography, making it a classic Hollywood production that ought to be watched.(Varun Patel)

Mass Live lists the best concerts of 2019:

John Williams Film Night’ - Tanglewood in Lenox, Aug. 24 (...)
 It was followed by “Reunion" and “To Thornfield” from an often-overlooked Williams work, the score to a 1970 British production of “Jane Eyre,” which starred George C. Scott and Susannah York. (Ray Kelly)

The Summerville Journal Scene interviews local author Cheryl Oliver:

Mary E. Regan: I grew up loving the Nancy Drew mysteries like you, too! What author influenced you the most in your life?
C.O.: There are many authors. In writing “Lakisha of Special Needs”, I could not help but notice a similarity between what my friend’s grandmother went through and that of “Jane Eyre”. In writing “Shana of Dumbarton”, I saw my cousin’s life was similar to Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer”. Each time I interview people, their story reminds me of a book.

Long Island Press recommends a local production of Matilda:

 Based on the beloved Roald Dahl classic, Matilda is the story of an exceptional, seemingly enchanted girl who at 5 years old has read hefty titles as Crime and Punishment and Jane Eyre, and even speaks Russian. (Michelle Gabrielle Centamore)

A blunder made by Clare Balding on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is on the Daily Express:

Clare, 48, was one of three stars taking part in the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Christmas special, with Jeremy Clarkson, 59, to oversee proceedings. The presenting stalwart got off to a great start, but it was a question regarding literature and in particular, the novel Little Women, which got her perplexed. Watching the scenes unfold on the ITV quiz show, viewers pointed out a huge blunder as they asked why an English graduate had been stumped over such a question. (...)
Although she studied English at Newnham College in Cambridge, the journalist was stumped over whether the answer could be Little Women, Northanger Abbey, Jane Eyre or Middlemarch.
The sports presenter had to call on QI creater, John Lloyd and he ended up giving her the wrong answer with Middlemarch, which left viewers in meltdown. (Charlie Milward)

One of the participants in the Cannonball Read 2019 lists Jane Steele among her personal favourites. On Pajiba:

faintingviolet:
Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye - This one is a couple years old at this point, but until I read Jane Eyre I had been putting it off. I love a quality retelling and Faye is absolutely delivering on that front. Jane Steele borrows the form and style of its predecessor and tells another story of a young woman attempting a life of her own, on her own terms. (Mswas Sawsm)

Máxima (Brazil)  recommends books to read in the holidays:

Escrito por Emily Brontë, ‘O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes’ conta a história de Catherine Earnshaw e seu irmão adotivo, Heathcliff. Os dois possuem uma relação intensa, marcada por amor e ódio. Apesar de clássica, a obra promete agradar e surpreender até mesmo os leitores mais modernos. (Translation)

Qué (Spain) announces the return of Jane Eyre 2011 to Netflix next month. AnneBrontë.org posts about 'Cards, Crackers And Music On Christmas Morning'.

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Philippa Gregory on Jane Eyre

Today on BBC Radio 3:

Philippa Gregory on Jane Eyre
The Essay
Open Endings Episode 5 of 5
Fri 27 Dec 2019, 21:45

This Christmas for Radio 3 five leading writers have picked a novel they love, and written an original piece of fiction imagining what happened to the characters after the story ends.
When she first encountered Jane Eyre in the classroom, Philippa Gregory was looking for a love story - between Jane Eyre and the brooding Mr Rochester. Years later, she reads the book very differently.
Join Philippa as she explores the nuances within Charlotte Brontë's classic and writes an original scene, a new ending, for the book.

Producer: Camellia Sinclair

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Eros, the Supernatural and a Library

More recent Brontë scholar papers that have not been featured before on this blog:

The Discourse of the Supernatural in Victorian Novels
Ioana Boghian
Interstudia, 19 (2016), 55-65

The Victorians obsessed over the supernatural. Their fascination with the otherworldly emerges in the literature of the day. Our paper aims at highlighting the presence of the discourse of the imaginary in several Victorian novels (Emily Brontë – Wuthering Heights; Charlotte Brontë – Villette and Jane Eyre; Thomas Hardy – The Return of the Native) and identifying its functions. The paper will approach the discourse of the imaginary and the supernatural from two perspectives: one of the lines of discussion will correlate the use of the imaginary and the supernatural to the characters’ feelings and emotions; the second line of discussion will attempt to correlate the fictional discourse of the imaginary and the supernatural with the Victorian discourse of superstition and religion.

The Library at ‘Thrushcroft Grange’: The Pennine Library of Robert Heaton
Bob Duckett
Library & Information History, 32, (2016) -1-2, 72-87

This article provides an account of the library at Ponden Hall, home of the influential Heaton family for nearly 400 years. Situated close to the Lancashire–Yorkshire border, it was used as a source of reading by the Brontë children in their formative years. The library was formed in the late eighteenth century and sold by auction in 1899. Reconstructing the contents of the library from a badly compiled auctioneer’s catalogue, the author shows how the library reflected the concerns of a landowning gentry family who became entrepreneurs in the textile industry. A journal of Robert Heaton (1726–1794) provides information on how the books were acquired. The possible use of the library by the Brontë family is noted.

Der böse Eros
Dr. Claudia Simone Dorchain:
Aufklärung und Kritik 70(4),  2019

Dr. Claudia Simone Dorchain behandelt in ihrem Essay "Der böse Eros" am Beispiel des Romans "Sturmhöhe" (Wuthering Heights) von Emily Brontë den Eros und seine Wirkungen in der Gesellschaft des 19. (Humanisticher Pressedienst)

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Frances Ha meets Heathcliff

The latest film adaptation of Little Women is reviewed everywhere, with several Brontë references:

Louisa May Alcott, like Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters, wrote with an acute sense of the precarious lives that women have always led. These authors had an enduringly clear-eyed view that our safety and comfort in the world depends heavily on currying the favor of men. Austen’s coping mechanism and chief weapon was humor; the Brontës relied on drama. But Alcott’s strength was in family. (Mary Elizabeth Williams in Salon)

I'd love to now throw every classic novel about women at Greta Gerwig and see what she makes of them all. I bet she'd do something amazing with Wuthering Heights or, I dunno, Little House on the Prairie. Someone make that happen sharpish. (Maryann Johanson in Orlando Weekly) 

La Croix (Belgium) reviews the novel Un dimanche à Ville-d’Avray, de Dominique Barbéris

Ce dimanche d’automne, les deux sœurs sont seules. Installées au jardin, elles échangent les banalités d’usage. Enfants, elles ont partagé dans un appartement trop silencieux une passion pour Thierry La Fronde et Jane Eyre, toutes deux pareillement éprises de Rochester et pour toujours nostalgiques de romantiques courses dans la lande qu’elles n’ont jamais foulée. Leurs existences si différentes les ont résignées, adultes, à renoncer aux vraies conversations. (Corinne Renou-Nativel) (Translation)

Hallelujah Hill reviews the Manga Classics Jane Eyre adaptation.

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Brontësque Yorkshire Liliths of the Moors

Recent Brontë scholar papers that have not been featured before on this blog:

Lilith on the Moors: The Brontë Sisters' Runaway Women
Nora Gilbert
Victorian Review, Volume 42, Number 2, Fall 2016, pp. 273-289

A husband sitting with a shell-shocked expression on his face, an open letter in his hand; two young girls kneeling together in innocent, just-interrupted play; a woman lying prostrate on the floor before them, her arms outstretched, her hands clasped tightly, her head buried in shame and misery. No visual representation of the "fallen woman" narrative is more vividly cautionary than the first panel of Augustus Egg's iconic triptych from 1858, Past and Present . It is this narrative that has monopolized Victorianist discussions of female transgression for the past few decades—discussions that, for all their variance, share the conviction that the Victorians' particular rendering of the fallen woman figure ("not the brazen courtesan of Restoration tradition, nor a casually promiscuous Molly Sea-grim, but a figure of remorse, yearning for forgiveness and compassion") can be read as "symptomatic of some shared, fundamental concern of the time, one of the structural underpinnings for that generation". In the article that follows, I would like to contextualize the conservative, punitive fallen woman trope that has garnered so much critical attention for so long within a more complicated, potentially more liberatory framework, one that includes not only those female characters who rebel against social norms and are condemned to life (or death) in the gutter but also those female characters who rebel against social norms and are set free. I would like, that is, to explore the alternative category of what I will call the "runaway woman" narrative.

Those Wild Yorkshire Girls: Body, Place, and History in the Brontës' Lives and Art
Deborah Denenholz Morse
Victorian Review, Volume 42, Number 2, Fall 2016, pp. 243-250

I will borrow from Dickens and title the three sections of my forum essay "The Ghost of Brontë Scholarship Past"; "The Ghost of Brontë Scholarship Present"—including my own particular hauntings; and "The Ghost of Brontë Scholarship Future," or "How We Might Be the Revenants for Scholars Fifty Years from Now."

On the Brontëesque 
Garrett Stewart
Victorian Review, Volume 42, Number 2, Fall 2016,pp. 234-241

For all their differences, the narrative writing of the Brontë sisters has a kindred intensity and sibling linguistic pitch, drenched in a hyper-attention to diction and metaphor as well as in the dramatized exactions of grammar. Their prose can be patient, even at times throttled, but never slack. And when plot writes one or another heroine into a corner, in some crisis either of her own making or not, a signature force is typically marked in the driven wedge of language itself—and as such. Unlike some Victorian novelists, the Brontës are not just storytellers but writers, risking even the tortuous and awkward rather than sacrificing all to the forward drive of plot. Yet the narrative spell they cast—precisely because of this writerly quality, I would (again) argue—tends to carry well beyond the grain of their individual stylistic texture into what Peter Brooks, in The Melodramatic Imagination (1986), with reference to Henry James rather than the Brontës in his subtitle's stress on the Mode of Excess, has called (in a chapter title) the very "melodrama of consciousness" inherent in the forms of fictional characterization. George Eliot is the obvious precursor for James in this line of thought, this evolutionary model for the contours of thinking itself in fiction, but the Brontës are her own inescapable and more excessive predecessors.

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Nothing quite compares to a classic novel

The Boston Herald and La Presse (in French) review Greta Gerwig's Little Women film:

When asked to name successful women writers, Jo coughs up the Brontë sisters, but oddly no Jane Austen, in spite of the fact that “Little Women” will remind readers of Austen. (James Verniere)

La dramaturge et romancière Fanny Britt confie avoir elle aussi beaucoup admiré ce personnage. « Je ne m’identifiais pas à sa personnalité, mais j’admirais son bagout, sa détermination farouche, son côté tomboy », dit-elle, énumérant, entre autres noms inspirants, les Anne Shirley et Jane Eyre de son enfance. (Sylvia Galipeau) (Translation)

The ultimate classics to read in Christmas, according to Palatinate:

Christmas is the perfect time to embark on a new novel, with the knowledge that you are free from lectures, tutorials and deadlines till January. Nothing quite compares to that of a classic novel, penned by great writers like Dickens, The Brontë’s or Hardy. Christmas is also an opportunity to share your favourite classics with family and friends as gifts, especially if you have a particular favourite. (Abi Akerman)

The Conservative Woman praises English people:

I’m not certain when it began – old movies my parents watched on television, mostly World War ll but sprinkled with pieces such as Gunga Din. Mrs Miniver with the beautiful Greer Garson. These were my introduction to the English.
I became a voracious reader. I discovered Jane Eyre. Then on to the moors with Cathy and Heathcliff. Oh, what stories! The places and characters sounded so exotic. I know now the characters were uniquely English; things about their outlook and their handling of their situations . . . the beginnings of knowing the English. (Audre Myers) 

Le Monde and exceptional women:

De Louise Labé à Emily Dickinson, de Charlotte Brontë à Virginia Woolf, les femmes de lettres, poètes ou romancières, perpétuent, à travers les siècles, l'exception et l'énergie d'une résistance, comme un témoin passé des unes aux autres. (Christophe Averty)(Translation)

Ara (in Catalan) includes an original Christmas tale by Jordi Nopca with a Brontë reference:

Em vaig quedar sense saber-ne el final, però a canvi la meva amiga -que viu a Praga des de fa anys- em va explicar que un temps enrere havia passat una nit a la casa de les germanes Brontë i que va ser una de les experiències més estranyes que havia viscut mai, perquè tota sola, tancada a l’habitació d’Emily, hi havia pogut entrar en contacte abans i tot d’adormir-se, i que al dia següent, quan l’havien col·locat davant la càmera per entrevistar-la -havien de rodar un documental sobre les escriptores- havia provat d’explicar què havia vist entre aquelles quatre parets, però cada vegada que ho intentava notava la llengua enganxant-se-li al paladar com un xiclet. (Translation)

What's with Italian football and Wuthering Heights? Another mention in Il Corriere Dello Sport:

Ighli [Vanucchi] ha messo sempre la spontaneità davanti a tutto: è questa la filosofia di vita che ha ispirato la linea di abbigliamento lanciata dall’ex giocatore, modello e padrone della sua vita. La storia d’amore con l’Empoli è finita con l’amaro in bocca per l’uomo che prende il nome dal protagonista del romanzo “Cime tempestose”, quella col calcio invece continua a 42 anni: all’età in cui conta solo la passione. (Simone LoGiudice) (Translation)

The Seattle Times makes a list of the best films of the decade (and we will not enter the argument about whether the decade is over or not) and includes Jane Eyre 2011. Vanessa's Picks posts about Wuthering Heights (an unforgettable book gift).

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Happy holidays!

One more year, we would like to wish you a happy Christmas. May it be a day full of your favourite things and, this being BrontëBlog, a bit of the Brontës, too. Or a lot.

Our very best Christmas wishes for our readers.

From the play The Brontë Boy (2011)  by Michael Yates:

PATRICK: It is good to have my family about me.
Christmas is a time for families.
CHARLOTTE: I am sure Branwell will be back shortly, father.
EMILY: There is, I believe, some revelry in the village.
The Christmas Eve sort that involves the men.
ANNE: You mean involves strong drink.
CHARLOTTE: But I am sure he will be back tonight.
EMILY: Or early tomorrow. In time for his presents, no
doubt. I am giving him my old copy of A Christmas
Carol. To remind him what Christmas is about.
ANNE: I know the one you  mean. The spine is torn and
you have pencilled many comments in the margins. That
is not much of a Christmas present, Emily. He will think
you are a veritable Jacob Marley.
EMILY: Let him think rather that I am the Spirit of Christmas
Yet to Come. That might do him some good.

Picture Source: A Brontë Sisters Christmas Haworth by Amanda White (Down to Earth Cards)

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Maggie O'Farrell will return to Haworth and other news

Diane Fare's Chapter & Verse monthly column in Keighley News closes the Patrick year and announces Anne's year at the Parsonage:

Patrick's year is drawing to a close, and as much as we’ve enjoyed focusing attention on the ‘father of genius’, we’re all really excited about next year, and we’re full steam ahead with our 2020 planning.
Next year’s programme will shine a light on the life and legacy of the youngest Brontë sister Anne, who in many ways is a more shadowy figure than her sisters, and yet her fiction was decades ahead of its time, so we’re looking forward to exploding some myths about Anne!
Anne’s 200th birthday is on January 17, which is rather inconvenient for us, as the museum is closed during January whilst we carry out conservation and maintenance work and have an early spring clean!
But Anne’s birthday will not pass unmarked, as we’ll be celebrating by previewing our new Anne Brontë exhibition in the Bonnell Room. The rest of the museum will still be under wraps, and so for Anne’s birthday only, admission is free, and all are welcome to visit the exhibition between 10am and 3.30pm.
Just a few days prior to Anne’s birthday, we’ll be screening To Walk Invisible at West Lane Baptist Centre on January 13 at 1pm. In previous years we’ve shown the 1939 Hollywood classic Wuthering Heights and the 1946 biopic Devotion, but this year we thought we’d show the grittier To Walk Invisible, first aired on BBC at the end of 2016. All are welcome, and the screening is free.
On the evening of Anne’s birthday, we’re joining forces with Thornton’s South Square Centre, to celebrate in style at the Delius Art and Cultural Centre in Bradford, at 7.30pm with an exciting line-up of musicians, poets and DJs.
Anne is often thought of as the ‘other Brontë’, less famous than her sisters, but she was a talented novelist, poet, visual artist and musician. This event is inspired by her creativity and promises to be great fun! It is a ‘Pay What You Feel’ event, so there is no set ticket price and no booking required, so just turn up and pay what you want! (...)
Our popular Parsonage Wrapped event takes place on Saturday January 18 at 2pm, where we offer an opportunity to take a peek behind the scenes during the museum’s closed period. You get exclusive access during our busiest time of year, and the chance to experience the museum as you’ve never seen it before. (...)
More next time about our 2020 programme, but I can reveal that we have the brilliant Maggie O’Farrell joining us in June, along with Young Adult author Ruta Sepetys, and in April, Andrew Michael Hurley will be in Haworth discussing his new novel Starve Acre.

The Hartford Courant recommends local upcoming shows for 2020:

Jane Eyre
Feb. 13 to March 15 at Hartford Stage
Elizabeth Williamson, who was associate artistic director at Hartford Stage when Darko Tresnjak ran the place, and has happily stayed on there under new Artistic Director Melia Bensussen, is renowned as a dramaturg (including on the Broadway hit “The Inheritance”), director (including the Hartford Stage productions of “Cloud 9,” “Henry V” and “Seder”) and adaptor/translator (including Hartford Stage’s “La Dispute”). All these skills will be on display when Williamson directs her own new adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s mysterious romance. (Christopher Arnott)

As much as we loathe astrology we quite like this comment of the horoscope section of The Valley Advocate:

When she was 31, Taurus writer Charlotte Brontë finished writing her novel Jane Eyre. She guessed it would have a better chance of getting published if its author was thought to be a man. So she adopted the masculine pen name of Currer Bell and sent the manuscript unsolicited to a London publisher. Less than eight weeks later, her new book was in print. It quickly became a commercial success. I propose that we make Brontë one of your role models for 2020, Taurus. May she inspire you to be audacious in expressing yourself and confident in seeking the help you need to reach your goals. May she embolden you, too, to use ingenious stratagems to support your righteous cause. (Rob Brezsny)

The Huffington Post recommends slow travel by train:

North Yorkshire Moor Railway - Pickering to Whitby
The North York Moors are romance personified. Think Wuthering Heights. Jane Eyre. The Secret Garden. Is there anywhere more ruggedly beautiful? Probably not. So get a train across the moors to see them at their best. Start off in the ancient market town of Pickering on the border of the moors and end your trip in arguably the best seaside town in the UK - ready to climb the 99 steps, eat your weight in soft rock and spend all your money on jet in one of Whitby’s many gothic jewellery and crystal shops. (Miranda Larbi)

Christian Today puts Jane Eyre as an example of soulmates. We are not convinced, but here it is:

Watching the movie Jane Eyre recently, I was moved again at the strength of the power of love in the story. I had read the book many years ago, but the reminder of the story showed me just how far we, as a society, have drifted away from the idea that our God is big enough to create and predestine us to meet our soulmate and so become ‘one’. (Rebecca Moore)

Página 12 (Argentina) discusses the life and work of Norah Borges:

Aunque decía que no necesitaba leer porque entre su marido y su hermano lo habían leído todo, era una gran lectora; leía y en especial releía constantemente, y, como mi tío, prefería decididamente lo inglés: The Wonderful Visit de Wells, Conan Doyle, Katherine Mansfield, Galsworthy, Kim de Kipling, Wilde, los cuentos del padre Brown, Wilkie Collins, Los papeles de Aspern y Otra vuelta de tuerca, Dickens, Drácula (Frankenstein no), las hermanas Brontë, Kangaroo de Lawrence, los cuentos con fantasmas ingleses (“Mrs. Veal”, “Carmilla”), Flush de Virginia Woolf, The Lilac Fairy Book de Andrew Lang… (Miguel de Torre Borges) (Translation)

O Barquinho Cultural (Brazil) is all for female authors:

É claro que essa visão se alterou desde então, algo que não seria possível sem a interferência revolucionária de autoras como Jane Austen e as irmãs Brontë. Todos os livros escritos por Austen são protagonizados por mulheres que quebram os padrões de submissão estabelecidos anteriormente e cujas personalidades diferem entre si, pois cada uma delas tem suas nuances, algo que a escritora soube expressar bem em todas as suas heroínas e outras mulheres que interagem com elas no decorrer da trama. Considerada uma das primeiras obras feministas da história ao abordar a liberdade das mulheres no contexto de uma sociedade patriarcal, o livro “Jane Eyre”, de Charlotte Brontë, além de discutir o papel na sociedade ao qual as mulheres foram obrigadas a ocupar contra a vontade, também questiona outro estereótipo atribuído a elas: a loucura. (Priscila Visconti) (Translation)

The Sisters' Room publishes a post by the Art Historian Elena Lago about the Christmas cards from the Brontës.

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Recent Talks

Some recent talks, meetings or seminars with Brontë-related content:

Annual Meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association 2019
Georgetown, March 2019

A Tradition of Female "novels of formation"? Charlotte Brontë, Virginia Woolf and Margaret Atwood
Leonie Achtnich, Freie Universität Berlin (Free University of Berlin)

Fifteenth Annual Student Conference
Harrisonburg, VA, October 2019

Narrating Jane: Constructing Character(s) in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre
Moderator, Heidi Pennington Alleghany Room, Festival Center
Molly Rickabaugh, Olivia Page and Kate Croxton, “Narrating Jane: Constructing Character(s) in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre"

NEH Summer Seminar on Literary Adaptation (K-12)
Reimagining Jane Eyre and Great Expectations: a NEH Summer Seminar for K-12 Teachers
UC Santa Cruz, 23 June-12 July 2019

Hosted by the Dickens Project at the beautiful campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz, this three-week seminar for middle and high school teachers examines two frequently taught texts—Jane Eyre and Great Expectations—as reimagined and refracted in imitative texts, plays, and films. We will consider the active cultural afterlives of these texts as we explore the pedagogical potential of literary and cinematic adaptations to promote critical thinking and students’ active engagement with literature.
Informed by current and emerging trends in adaptation studies, the seminar explores a wide array of literary rearticulations, from textually “faithful” films to radical narrative realignments: from textual appropriations to cinematic reimaginings, we will revisit Jane Eyre and Great Expectations across a range of media and in a wide variety of guises across the three weeks of the seminar.

2019 Conference for Young Adult Literature Louisiana (CYALL)
November 2019, Shrevport, LA
"Aesthetic Judgement in Jane Eyre and Current YA Fiction"
Hannah Sprawls and Sarah Mazur

Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) General Meeting 2019
Williamsburg, VA, October 4-6

Stormy Sisterhood: Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
Amanda Beverly and Mary Landrum

Jane Austen’s humor, looks at small town life, and quotable characters have stood the test of time; yet, the same can be said for Brontë’s dark interiors and passionate lovers. Who is the better writer? This session hopes to answer that question with an analysis of Northanger Abbey and Jane Eyre.

2019 English Studies Conference
Eastern Illinois University, April 2019
“Reader I Married him”: The Jane Eyre Invasion in the Age of MeToo 
Moderator: Dr. Marjorie Worthington
Audrey Schuetz
“Marriage Idles in the 18th Centenary Compared to Now”
Sam Ward
“‘Reader I Married Him’ and Female Autonomy”
Hannah Wilkes
“Context of Jane Eyre and the #MeToo Movement”

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Exotic Lower Lips

The Guardian reviews Shame on Me. An anatomy of race and belonging by Tessa McWatt:

The adolescent Tessa is reading Jane Eyre (Eyre is her mother’s maiden name). She comes across the description of Rochester’s first wife, the Jamaican creole Bertha Mason, her “lips swelled and dark”. Later a man, kissing Tessa, bites gently on her “exotic” lower lip. (Barbara Taylor)

The memoir is full of this inner tension between the Jane and the Bertha inside the author's upbringing in Guyana with plenty of references to Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea:

I carried a copy of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre in my backpack. I identified with Jane’s orphan status, despite the fact that I was part of a huge, close and connected extended family through my father’s six siblings and my mother’s three brothers, not to mention the legions of aunties, uncles and cousins from Guyana who were not blood relations. But an orphan is someone without a sense of continuity, and that was me — partly because of my confusion about what I was, but also inherent in the writer I was becoming. I identified with Jane’s fiery will in the red room, her desire for independence and her insistence upon the truth. ‘I am no bird,’ she says, ‘and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.’
And so was I.

Insider is visiting Liechtenstein:

Always an avid reader, my first thoughts of the persistent fog was how similar it was to its description in some of my favorite gothic novels, like Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre," Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," Bram Stoker's "Dracula," or even Robert Louis Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde." (Ben Mack)

Orlando Business Journal interviews Alyse Quinn of Big Vision LLC:

What's on my reading list right now: "Jane Eyre." I want to brush up on the classics and have always enjoyed the story. (Anjali Fluker)

The Salisbury Post interviews the new director of Rowan Public Library:

Favorite novel: She’s reread Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” the most. “I’ve read everything Jane Austen has written. You can’t deny how good her writing is.” She has read all the novels by the Brontë sisters, as well. (Deirdre Smith)

Emily Brontë mentioned in an article about the last football game of S.S.C. Napoli in TuttoNapoli (Italy):

Due uomini che passeggiano su un filo molto sottile. Equilibristi alle prese con emozioni divergenti, Insigne e Gattuso si abbracciano al fischio finale. Uno scontro quasi rabbioso, di due cuori nella tormenta, Cime Tempestose che sembrano uscite dalla penna di Emily Brontë. Fili che cercano di ricomporsi, ritrovarsi, per stringere un legame che è l’unica strada da imbeccare per uscire dalla burrasca e ritagliarsi un futuro di maggiore stabilità. (Arturo Minervini) (Translation)

Cheek Magazine (France) reviews Greta Gerwig's take on Little Women:

Le grenier, omniprésent, et les mentions aux sœurs Brontë, rappellent l’essai féministe majeur de Sandra Gilbert et Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic (1979)(littéralement: La Folle dans le grenier), qui théorise non seulement les personnages féminins dans l’histoire de la littérature mais qui analyse aussi la place des autrices à l’ère victorienne. (Pauline Le Gall) (Translation)

TuaCityMag (Italy) includes Wuthering Heights as a book to be read in Christmas:

“Rileggo Cime tempestose ogni Natale, è il mio libro preferito”, lo diceva Sandra Bullock a Ryan Reynolds in una delle più dolci commedie romantiche di Hollywood, “Ricatto d’amore”. Prendiamo ispirazione da lei per parlare di una lettura che stringe insieme passione, gelosia e vendetta realizzando la turbolenta storia d’amore di Heatcliff e Catherine. Un amore che nasce nell’infanzia e cresce più solido e terribile in età adulta, fino a portare i due protagonisti alla pazzia. Intorno ai loro cuori in tumulto il freddo della brughiera inglese dello Yorkshire e il languido paesaggio della dimora di famiglia. Necessario ai sognatori inguaribili, ma sopratutto a chi non lo è più. (Gloria Frezza) (Translation)

The Telegraph & Argus publishes pictures of Haworth's nativity weekend. Milenio (México) recommends Charlotte and Emily Brontë's novels as Christmas gifts. Kino veeb (Estonia) lists Jane Eyre as one of the films that have been remade more often. Minerva Reads reviews a dyslexia-friendly retelling of Jane Eyre that will be published next month. Leituras, vida & paixões reviews the Brazilian edition of The Lost Manuscripts. AnneBrontë.org celebrates Christmas and Emily Brontë.

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The Literature of Prescription

Rita María Martínez, author of the poetry compilation The Jane & Bertha in Me, is one of the finalists in the Pen 2 Paper Creative Writing Competition organized by the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities.
The poem, The Literature of Prescription, can be read here and contains references to Charlotte Brontë's migraines and Robert Southey's (in)famous advice, as you can read in this fragment.

(...) The poet laureate’s infamous advice reminiscent of Dr. Mitchell’s:
The daydreams in which you habitually indulge
are likely to induce a distempered state of mind,
& in proportion as “all the ordinary uses of the world”
seem to you “flat & unprofitable,” you will be unfitted
for them, without becoming fitted for anything else.

Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life,
& it ought not to be. The more she is engaged
in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it . . . .

Charlotte Perkins Gilman renounced the rest cure,
regained her wits, and wrote The Yellow Wallpaper.
Charlotte Brontë followed Southey’s fatherly admonition
selectively, writing as a means of soothing the mind
& elevating it— which is also what the poet prescribed.

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Don't shoot grouses with Mrs Rochester

The Atlantic analyzes the sitcom Frasier, and particularly the 'missing' Maris character: 

That’s not to defend Maris as a character, such as she is. She is not the witch of Wicked, mistold and thus misunderstood. She is certainly not the Mrs. Rochester of Wide Sargasso Sea. Maris, when Frasier does offer revelations about her personality, is selfish; she’s hyperbolic; she’s the kind of person that Frasier, were someone to call in to his radio show with a complaint about her, might describe as “toxic.” (Megan Garber)

The Observer reports that the end of the grouse shooting is in sight in Brontë country:

The Glorious Twelfth may soon be a little quieter in Brontë country. Animal welfare groups are hailing a “landmark” decision by Yorkshire’s largest landowner to review the leasing of its land to grouse shoots.
In addition to potentially spelling the end of shoots on land owned by Yorkshire Water, campaigners say it will improve the biodiversity and sustainability of the moors because gamekeepers will no longer burn heather to create the ideal conditions for the birds, something that can damage the underlying peat.
In a major shift the utility company has confirmed that it will review the leases on 13 areas of moorland it owns – including Haworth Moor, synonymous with the Brontë sisters – when they come up for renewal. (Jamie Doward)

Estadão (Brazil) talks about the local publication of Charlotte Brontë's The Lost Manuscripts:

Obra conta a rocambolesca história do livro que guardava manuscritos de Charlotte Brontë.
Sai no Brasil 'Os Manuscritos Perdidos de Charlotte Brontë', com textos de pesquisadores sobre uma das mais importantes descobertas recentes acerca das irmãs Brontë e muitas imagens. (Maria Fernanda Rodrigues) (Translation)

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Western Feminism, Creole Identity and Jane Eyre on film

Two new Brontë-related papers and a dissertation:

Western Feminism Analysis of Jane Eyre from the Perspective of Equality and Independence
Luo Fei
Atenea, No 524 (2019): Issue 524

The history of a society constructed by men and women should be dominated by men and women. However, in the long process of society, women have been pushed behind the scenes of history, their consciousness has been obscured and their rights have been denied. Men's and women's survival is not accompanied by equal status. Rights are controlled by men, and through tradition, a fixed concept is formed. The protagonist of Jane Eyre, Jane Eyre, dares to oppose oppression, demand independence for equality, and hunger for knowledge. It embodies strong feminist ideas, making it the most representative new female image of the era.This article takes a female and female perspective and re-examines the established female-centered female cultural world, embodying a female-centered female subjective consciousness, and thus opens the feminist feminist literature. By analyzing the feminist elements in the works and analyzing their fundamental female causes, it is helpful to understand the influence of feminism on political, economic, and literary women, and strive to inspire and draw lessons from contemporary women's thinking.

Discourse on Creole Identity: from Ambivalence to Madness Post-Colonial Reading on Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea
Asep Subhan, Didimus E. Turuk
Indonesian Journal of English Language Studies Vol 5, No 1 (2019)

The portrayal of creole identity is presented in several literary works, one of them is in the portrayal of Antoinette Cosway in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea. Antoinette Cosway firstly is the minor character in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. The research traces the link between Antoinette Cosway’s creole identity with her madness. According to Bhabha’s ambivalence theory, creole identity possibly creates a new identity as the result of interrelation between colonizer and colonized. Based on the research, Antoinette Cosway failed to create a new identity and became a madwoman instead. The cause is the complex situation faced by her and the lack of supporting aspects for constructing a new identity. 

And a dissertation:

O romance "Jane Eyre" e as transposições cinematográficas de 1943 e 2011
Golze, Hadassa Grignan
Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, 2019

The present thesis aims to analyze the relationship between Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre (1847) and Robert Stevenson's and Cary Joji Fukunaga's film adaptations of the novel, the former released in 1943 and, the latter, in 2011. Basing our analysis on Robert Stam's (2008) and Linda Hutcheon's (2006) studies on adaptations of literary texts to other media, the focus of this study is the observation of the adaptive mechanisms used to transpose the Victorian romance to the cinema in two different centuries. Adapting a text implies making choices and changes, which gives an individual character to the story told by the film. Therefore, we will analyze in the narrative elements that characterize the Bilgundsroman in the path of the protagonist Jane and the gothic characteristics, within the cinematographic texts, considering the different contexts and meanings attributed by each production when where elaborated their plots.

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