Older literature is fraught with infectious diseases and pandemics

The Guardian Reading Group is debating which book to read in April.

There are plenty of things we want to avoid spreading at the moment – but at least we can share a little joy. So for this month’s reading group, tell us about a book that makes you feel good, makes you feel close to the human being that wrote it or otherwise gives you that glow of happiness.
My natural cynical disposition would normally be wary of going so mushy, but right now my feeling on that is: bite me. (Or at least, whatever the safe, social-distancing equivalent may be.) It’s also worth saying that the book you love doesn’t have to be a straightforward feelgood read. For instance, I get that lovely glow when I read the famous opening sentence of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson: “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.” I love his willingness to transgress, to speak uncomfortable truths and to indulge in dangerous behaviours so we don’t have to. And a scan of my shelves revealed which books brought out that inner sigh: Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and even Proust. I’d never want to claim that the French genius is an easy read, but I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to hug a fictional character harder or stronger than when poor old Marcel relates his sadness at his grandmother’s death … (Sam Jordison)

While The Post and Courier looks at how 'film and fiction have portrayed outbreaks'.

“Older literature is fraught with references to infectious diseases and pandemics,” Wray says. “‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Brontë is peppered with references to tuberculosis, which was one of the big outbreaks of the 18th and 19th centuries as industrialization played out and people started living together in confined spaces. This was the scourge of 18th-century Europe. Of course, one of my favorites is ‘A Christmas Carol’, everyone’s always wondering what happened to Tiny Tim and it turns out that he had tuberculous spondylitis, which is a clinical manifestation of TB that we still see today.”
Wray’s classical literature references hold a little more weight to them in how true they are to the actual social impacts of an outbreak. Emily Brontë’s older sister Maria died from a typhoid outbreak in 1825 and Charles Dickens (who wrote “A Christmas Carol”) was known to have seen disease-stricken poverty in 19th-century England firsthand. The more popular, modern movie examples are where Wray points to inaccuracy. (Alex Peeples)

Kids' Book Review features Tanya Landman's retelling of Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre is my all-time favourite piece of classic literature. Reading it again without the stilted Victorian English gave me great pleasure.
Even if you have read Jane Eyre, this edition will delight. I’m convinced that young readers who have avoided approaching any works of literature, now will embrace them and perhaps reach for the originals for comparison. I’m hoping that other classic titles will follow in a similar vein so that the beauty of those writings reaches a wider audience.
Themes of love, bullying, poverty and personal restoration are plaited together in this moving retelling. (Anastasia Gonis)

Ouest France (France) recommends reading a classic novel during lockdown.

Un classique
Son troisième choix s’est porté sur un classique. « C’est le bon moment. On a tous, chez nous, ce livre qu’on n’a jamais pris le temps de lire et d’ouvrir. J’ai tout de suite pensé à Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë. » (Charlotte Bahuon) (Translation)

Trendencias (Spain) also recommends it:

Jane Eyre es la obra que consagró el éxito fulminante de Charlotte Brontë. Tiene los ingredientes de una novela gótica pero, al mismo tiempo, sobrepasa las convenciones del género. En ella, Jane nos muestra un nuevo modo de descubrir la realidad y la acompañamos en un viaje hacia la autenticidad.
Dueña de un singular temperamento desde una complicada infancia como huérfana, primero a cargo de una tía poco cariñosa y después en la escuela Lowood, Jane Eyre logra un puesto de institutriz para educar a la hija del señor Rochester. Poco a poco, el amor irá tejiendo su red entre ellos, pero la casa y la vida de este hombre guardan un estremecedor y terrible misterio. (María Yuste Navarro) (Translation)

Mashable recommends ''90s and '00s period dramas' as 'the most soothing form of escapism'.

One lunchtime, while putting back some returned videos, I spotted a dusty box set with the words Jane Eyre sprawled across its case in an old-timey font.
It was a 1983 BBC adaptation starring Timothy Dalton as Mr Rochester and Zelah Clarke as the eponymous heroine, Jane Eyre. I took it home and watched it over and over again until the tape nearly wore out. It was during this time of watching, rewinding, and repeating that I experienced a kind of cultural awakening. I found something that could bring me boundless comfort in times of great change, upheaval, and distress: period dramas.
Watching Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester's tortured and tumultuous love affair unfold on screen was not just a minor distraction for my Awkward Phase, it presented a whole other world to get fully immersed and lost in. Sitting cross-legged on my living room floor with my eyes transfixed on the dark and dingy halls of Thornfield Hall (that's Mr Rochester's gothic abode), I had found an escape. [....]
At university, I fell under a deep and lifetime-enduring Brontë spell. I got through student dating dramas by delving deep into Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff's torrid and never-to-be love affair in Wuthering Heights. I became intimately acquainted with the 1992 movie adaptation starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes. My love life — snogging fellow students on sticky dance floors in grimy nightclubs — scarcely compared to the romance unfurling itself on the craggy Yorkshire moors, wreaking mass devastation. Pro tip: Watch the 2009 adaptation of Wuthering Heights to see a young and long-haired Tom Hardy playing Heathcliff. A vastly underrated Brontë classic is Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall — the 1996 BBC adaptation starring Toby Stephens and Tara Fitzgerald is a real treat. (Rachel Thompson)

Screen Rant ranks Jamie Bell's top 10 movies according to their IMDb scores.

4/10
Jane Eyre (2011) - 7.3
This adaptation of the famous Charlotte Brontë novel has Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender in the titular roles. The movie centers on Jane and flashes back and forth between her childhood and her life as a governess where she meets Edward Fairfax Rochester (Fassbender).
Jamie Bell plays St. John Rivers, who welcome Jane into his and his sisters' house at a low point of her life. For the most part, reviewers praised this adaptation of the iconic work. If period pieces are your thing, this is definitely one to check out. (Kristen Palamara)

ActuaLitté (France) discusses many screen adaptations of Jane Eyre.

Revista Gentleman (Spain) continues misquoting from Agnes Grey on the subject of emigrating to the US. It's not a quote from the novel but a quote from an introduction to a Spanish edition.