Superb Gestures of Defiance

The Brontë Society announces some of the first names in next year's Anne Brontë's bicentenary celebrations:

We're thrilled to announce that our creative partner for #Anne2020 is writer, journalist and broadcaster @SamiraAhmedUK. We look forward to welcoming Samira to #Haworth again soon.

Books as the perfect gift on MPR News:

We're betting that there are a lot of us out there who remember getting books as presents back in the day. I definitely remember receiving a copy of Little Women for Christmas when I was about 10 and later, copies of Jane Eyre (still one of my faves), Emma and Pride and Prejudice.  (Karen Grigsby Bates)

The Guardian reviews Genius and Ink: Virginia Wolf on How to Read:

This is never more true than when she is considering the effect of gender. So there’s George Eliot, “the grave lady in her low chair”, punished by overwhelmingly male critics for not being charming – “a quality … held to be supremely desirable in women”. (Eliot’s failing, for Woolf, lay in her heroines, who contained more of the intellectual life force of their creator than she believed their provincial settings could allow.) Or Charlotte Brontë, whose novels are a “superb gesture of defiance”. Or Aurora Leigh, crippled by the limitations imposed on its feminine creator. Calling Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “a masterpiece in embryo” is no idle choice of words. (Aida Edemariam)

Jacqueline Wilson plays it safe when asked by The Times:

 Austen or Brontë? Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë share first place.

Still laughing, reading about this extraordinary Christmas innovation in The Louisville Courier-Journal:

Cindy recently brought home a new artificial Christmas tree complete with one of the world’s most advanced technological marvels: a remote-control that turns the tree’s lights on and off. Do you realize how much marital stress this little fob-thing will alleviate in households across the land? What husband hasn’t crawled into bed late at night, slipped an arm oh-so-gently around his lovely wife only to be met by those fateful words: “Did you remember to turn off the Christmas tree lights?”
In the old days, that meant a resentful trip back to the living room, slithering on the cold floor underneath the huge tree, blindly reaching, reaching, reaching for that elusive fistful of light connections dangerously plugged into one outlet, all the while taking great care not to topple the tree onto himself, precariously balanced as it is on two paperback books (“Jane Eyre” and “The Red Badge of Courage”) placed with geometric precision beneath the tree stand that, for the last 30 years, has been missing one of its three legs. Now, all that angst is eliminated with one press of a button from the relative safety of the recliner. Do we live in a great country or what? (Bob Heleringer)

The Hollywood Reporter talks about Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl legacy:

Though Gone Girl didn't create the idea of an anti-heroine — readers can find similar complex female characters in works such as The Scarlet Letter, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo — the novel sparked a discussion on a non-conforming lead character for a modern time. (Lexy Perez)

A couple of Spanish film magazines contain or will contain Brontë references. Cinemanía announces that its 2020 Calendar will include a picture of Wuthering Heights 1939 celebrating films that won the Oscar to the best cinematography. Dirigido por reviews the DVD release of Les Soeurs Brontë 1979:

André Téchiné organiza una aproximación a las hermanas Brontë después de presentar uno de los trabajos más notables del primer tramo de su filmografía, Barocco (1976), con el que verdaderamente empieza a definir parte de su escritura más reconocible. (...) Las Hermanas Brontë conserva parte del acentuado romanticismo existencialista que singulariza las otras cintas. (Ramón Alfonso) (Translation)

Marie Claire (Spain) recommends a recent Spanish edition of Wuthering Heights:

'Cumbres borrascosas', de Emily Brontë
Ed. Alma
Cumbres borrascosas, de Emily Brontë, una de las tres hermanas Brontë, contiene la quintaesencia de la novela romántica inglesa decimonónica. En sus páginas se suceden los amores apasionados limítrofes con el incesto, los odios agriados que se prolongan durante generaciones, los celos, las apariciones espectrales y las tormentas, todo ello narrado con una fuerza y un brillante retrato de personajes que la han convertido en un clásico imperecedero. (Translation)

Cronache Letterarie (Italy) talks about Charlotte Brontë's Shirley:

Ambientato nello Yorkshire, in Inghilterra, il romanzo si snoda intorno a tre personaggi principali: Shirley, che dà il titolo all’opera, Robert e Caroline, i cui destini sono inscindibilmente legati. Non soltanto una storia d’amore, ma soprattutto un manifesto sociale.
Charlotte figlia del pastore protestante. Charlotte Brontë, autrice dell’indimenticabile Jane Eyre. La sorella di Emily Brontë, conosciuta per l’altrettanto indimenticabile Cime tempestose. Charlotte dello Yorkshire, figlia del suo tempo e autrice di Shirley. (Read more) (Translation)

'Romantic' engagement quotes on Parade include Wuthering Heights;  The Telegraph & Argus announces the somewhat controversial opening of a new 'micropub' in Haworth's Main Street.