The Inquirer (Philippines) and unrealistic standards in love:
My 13-year-old self once swore she wouldn’t settle for anyone who wouldn’t love her the same way Mr. Rochester loved Jane Eyre. These teen years, really, they’re an era of folly, of giggles at the smoldering heroes of Austen and the Brontë sisters. More than Disney and its sanitized happy-ever-afters, these authors have ruined real guys for me.
As I got older, I learned to laugh at those days. Was there really a time in my life when I crushed so hard on a fictional man who kept his mentally ill wife in the attic while he flirted with another girl? Also, no, I wouldn’t want a Heathcliff digging up my grave to give my festering bones a hug because he misses me, thank you very much. What was I thinking? (Amalia Airiz A. Casta)
The Telegraph (India) has something to add:
One cannot look for logic in such passing affections — though in retrospect there is a disturbing pattern. Pass the popcorn.
At some point I gave my heart to Heathcliff. Yes, yes, Heathcliff Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights. His menacing ways, dark and brooding looks, his cruelty towards Linton, his elemental love for Catherine Earnshaw made him irresistible. Imagining I was the first Catherine, I would take a candelabra to the balcony and thrusting unlit candle into the broad daylight cry out, “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.” (Upala Sen)
Read and think on
Palatinate:
It’s like the time-old phrase ‘it’s all about quality, not quantity’. But honestly, with reading, I think it really is. It’s about taking that one paragraph from Jane Eyre which you absolutely love, which you already know off-by-heart, and reading it again and again, just because it makes you happy. Or even better, just because it makes you think. It makes you think about how to construct a sentence, how to convey your emotions in writing or about how Brontë wrote the female ‘plain Jane’ character and propelled her to new heights, forging an all new kind of heroine in literature. Of course, I’m referring to this passage: “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have as much soul as you, – and full as much heart!”. (Lotte Hall)
The Brontës are mentioned some way or other in many articles about the International Women's Day. On pen names:
Antaranews,
Deia (Spain); Great films directed by women, including
Wuthering Heights 2011 in
The Irish Times; great novels written by women in
Diario del Cauca (Colombia); a review of Lyndall Gordon's
Outsiders which mentions Emily Brontë in
La Opinión de Zamora (Spain);
Pangea quotes Virginia Woolf; Indian women authors revealing their inspirations in
The Times of India:
Author Kiran Manral has penned books in various genres including romance, thriller and parenting. Sharing her thoughts on writers who have inspired her, she revealed that she has two favourite authors for different reasons. "I like Charlotte Brontë for 'Jane Eyre'. She was probably the first feminist character and her story read very real. Before reading her book, I didn't realise that women can be strong, independent and not just pretty." (Surabhi Rawat)
The Indian Express quotes a speech by poet and playwright Lemn Sissay:
“Jane Eyre was adopted, Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights was an orphan, Harry Potter was a foster child, Superman was adopted, Cinderella was kinship fostered by her sisters, Rapunzel had no parent. We are front and centre of popular culture. There’s something special, something specifically deep about the experiences of young people who are without family and I want others to see that,” he says, with great animation.
San Mateo Daily Journal thinks that if you find something hard probably don't deserve trying:
Yet somehow high school English classes stick to books like “Jane Eyre” and “The Scarlet Letter,” causing teachers to lose the interest of their students in the weeds of old-fashioned rhetoric. While I enjoyed these books, at times reading them felt more like a tedious task than an enjoyable activity. (Amelia Harris)
Winnipeg Free Press reviews
Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel Lavery
Then there’s the combination of the book’s title — a quote from The Simpsons’ inept lawyer Lionel Hutz — and the cover illustration, a baroque-style painting of a man who looks as if he is pondering whether it is time to mount his horse and gallop wildly across the moors, à la Heathcliff. (Jill Wilson)
Northern Soul reviews the poetry book
The Anatomical Venus by Helen Ivory:
In The Parlour Maid, the ‘I’ of the poem is evidently a gentleman of means reporting on the strange behaviour of a domestic servant. There’s an echo of Charlotte Brontë’s madwoman in the attic, only the parlour maid in question is a mad woman of the kitchen, unravelling in each stanza as she goes about her daily chores. (Mark Connors)
The Telegraph & Argus highlights the publication of a new visitor's guide:
The guide, which encompasses the whole of the Bradford district, from the city centre to Haworth and Brontë Country, Ilkley and Saltaire, is packed with ideas of where to go, what to see and where to eat.
The guide, which has been supported by Bradford’s place marketing group and Bradford BID, is also available online at visitbradford.com/visitor-information. (Michael Black)
The Daily Express recaps some of the recent events in
Coronation Street:
Most recent, ITV viewers were horrified when Geoff killed Yasmeen’s beloved pet chicken Charlotte Brontë and then roasted her for their dinner that night. (Rebecca Miller)
La Opinión de Málaga (Spain) reviews
Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg:
Con una gran capacidad para ubicar al lector en los dos universos, Greenberg pilota la novela a través de unas ilustraciones de estilo sencillo y naíf, saltando ágilmente del mundo real –en el que Charlotte debe marchar a la escuela Roe Head para continuar su formación, Bramwell (sic) empieza a coquetear con el alcohol y la relación fraternal empieza a tambalearse– al imaginario, donde los hermanos se erigen como los cuatro genios sobre los que recae el devenir de su querida Ciudad de Cristal.
El talento del que emanan tantos enredos acaba por seducir, no solo al lector sino a la propia Charlotte, que deberá decidir en qué realidad prefiere quedarse. (Ana I. Montañez) (Translation)
The Trame library in Bologna tries to be resilient in these coronavirus times (paraphrasing here García Márquez). In
Il Corriere Della Sera:
«Vengo per continuare a coltivare le relazioni con la libreria. Come al bar si sta a un metro di distanza, lo si può fare anche qui».
Così, gli incontri non si fermano. (...)Né tantomeno per quello programmato il 30, quando Paola Tonussi presenterà il suo Emily Brontë, improntato sull’immaginazione visionaria della grande scrittrice. (Paola Gabrielli) (Translation)
The Stuff (New Zealand) mentions that on the bookshelves of the music studio where Electric Eden records their stuff, there is a copy of
Wuthering Heights.
Daydreamreader posts about
Jane Eyre.
El Blog Perdido de Laura (in Spanish) reviews
A Secret Sisterhood by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney.
Mes Carnets de Lecture (in French) posts about
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Les Soeurs Brontë (in French) mentions the publication of
Quel Brontë êtes-vous ? by Anna Feissel-Leibovici.
Finally,
The Guardian has a reminder that today, March 8:
On Radio 3 at 1pm today (then on BBC Sounds), seven very different composers present a movement each of a newly commissioned a cappella choral work entitled Seven Ages of Woman, to mark International Women’s Day. Each composer represents her own decade, from Helena Paish in her teens to Rhian Samuel in her 70s, with texts ranging from Charlotte Brontë to Marina Tsvetaeva – all sung by the always reliable BBC Singers.
0 comments:
Post a Comment