Patience and Thought

Many websites continue announcing that next Thursday, the National Theatre will broadcast Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre on its YouTube channel: 

The acclaimed, inventive adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel is being shown as part of National Theatre at Home, a new initiative screening a selection of much-loved productions from the company for free over the next two months.
The innovative re-imagining of Jane Eyre was a collaboration between the National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic. Almost 170 years after it was written, Charlotte Brontë’s story of the trailblazing Jane is as inspiring as ever, and this bold, dynamic production uncovers one woman’s fight for freedom and fulfilment on her own terms.
From her beginnings as a destitute orphan, spirited Jane Eyre faces life’s obstacles head-on; surviving poverty, injustice and the discovery of bitter betrayal before taking the ultimate decision to follow her heart.
This acclaimed re-imagining of Brontë’s masterpiece was first staged by Bristol Old Vic in 2015 and transferred to the National in the same year with a revival in 2017. It will be shown on the National Theatre’s You Tube channel on Thursday at 7pm. (Emma Clayton in The Telegraph & Argus)

National Theatre of London’s At Home series is bringing world-class productions to your home and you can see a fresh take on Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre.” The story of one woman’s fight for freedom and fulfillment on her own terms is a timeless one, and you’ll be cheering for Jane as she deals with poverty, injustice and the bitter pill of betrayal. (Aimsel Ponti in The Press-Herald)

Spokeswoman Elaine Jones said: “Almost 170 years on, Charlotte Brontë’s story of the trailblazing Jane is as inspiring as ever. This bold and dynamic production uncovers one woman’s fight for freedom and fulfilment on her own terms. (Phil Hewitt in Hastings & St Leonards Observer)

Also in The National (UAE), The Scotsman, Twin Cities Geek, The Cougar Chronicle, Mancunian Matters, Taunton Daily Gazette Startsat60...

Headstuff reviews Isabel Greenberg's Glass Town:

Charlotte, Anne, Emily, and Branwell had no Middle Earth, Westeros, or Earthsea. Many consider their work some of the earliest examples of epic fantasy world building. None of this was meant for publication, and the source material is full of unfinished plots and meandering storylines. For Greenberg’s graphic novel adaptation, she chooses to ignore much of these rough edges of Angria and instead focuses on specific characters, using an older Charlotte Brontë to frame the imaginary world and its creators.
Greenberg interweaves Glass Town with the Brontë’s lives. The imaginary seeping into the real in a beautiful dramatization which Greenberg points out in an opening letter is fictitious, using broad strokes of biographical information. When we meet a middle-aged Charlotte, she is wandering alone along the dull blue coloured moors of Haworth only to be greeted by Glass Town inhabitant Charles Wellesley in his otherworldly mustard yellow coat and dark glasses. The two reminisce. They begin at a funeral with the four Brontë siblings as children, the second funeral they’ve been at in one year, the funeral of their sister Elizabeth who died six weeks after their other sister, Maria. Death hangs over their lives, and so they escape to Glass Town where it has no power.  (...)
Glass Town is a graphic novel that warrants patience and thought. Its deep intersecting worlds create relationships that will delight fans of the Brontës’ work and make others want to read the likes of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It is the only hint of Branwell’s work that we will ever see. It is an adaptation of the raw imaginary world of grief-stricken restless frustrated children, attempting to put Glass Town into context of their lives while creating something utterly original. Charles compares the characters of Glass Town to wind-up toys who will eventually wind down and stop moving, and it appears that Isabel Greenberg has kept them trundling forward for a while longer. (David Tierney)

The Scotsman makes some YA Easter recommendations:

One of the best recently published retellings is Jane Eyre: A Retelling by Tanya Landman (Barrington Stoke, £7.99). A superb adaption of the beloved classic, it beautifully captures the emotion and intense narrative voice of the original. The author has skilfully stripped back the story to the core essentials, cleverly retaining all the cherished scenes and dialogue from the original. For those who love Charlotte Brontë’s original, this is the perfect partner. For those new to the story, it is the perfect introduction. (Hannah Sycamore)

In The Guardian, one book that Mark Haddon doesn't recommend is Wuthering Heights. His loss:

The often soothingly melodramatic plots, yes, but equally the syntax and the cadence – language written by people with more time to write, for an audience with more time to read, or indeed to listen. Eliot, Dickens, Gaskell, the Brontës, Wilkie Collins, Trollope… pretty much anything except Wuthering Heights (why were we so seduced for so long by a dog-strangling sex-abuser?).

Reading to rediscover our empathy in Notre Dame Magazine:

Are we frustrated or sympathetic with Hamlet’s reluctance to avenge his father? When Jane Eyre discovers Mr. Rochester is married, do we urge her to flee Thornfield, or to stay? (Beth Ann Fennelly)

The Irish Times interviews the authors Helena Close and Kate Elizabeth Russell:

Martin Doyle: What was the first book to make an impression on you?
Wuthering Heights. I still love it but it’s no love story.

“It was a gradual thing,” Russell says of arriving at that realisation. “It’s hard to say what my idea of a love story was when I was young. I would have allowed for a lot of darkness and obsession and violence – I mean, look at the Brontë novels. (Tanya Sweeney)

Sabine Ganz recommends Jane Eyre in Volksfreund (Germany):

Auch sie will nur diesen Mann, muss ihn aber wegen ihrer moralischen Prinzipien als – wenn auch unglücklich – Verheirateten abweisen – bis die Lage sich nach einer für beide langen Lei-
densphase wendet.
Der über weite Strecken autobiografische Roman zählt zur Weltliteratur und die Lektüre ist heute lohnender denn je. Zunächst, weil das, was im Jahr seiner Veröffentlichung, 1847, ein Skandal war,
heute als selbstverständlich gilt und die Geschichte modern macht: Eine Frau setzt sich gegenüber männlichen Machtansprüchen zu Wehr, verschafft sich Respekt, geht unbeirrt ihren eigenen Weg und nimmt sich das Recht, ein leidenschaftliches und romantisches Liebesideal zu leben. Dann zählt auch folgende Betrachtung: Während die Erkenntnis der Härte, oft auch Kürze, und der Unbarmherzigkeit des Lebens heutige Leser während der Corona-Pandemie erschrecken mag, war sie früheren Generationen und so auch der Autorin und ihrer Titelheldin stets präsent.
Die intelligente und gefühlsstarke Romanfigur Jane Eyre kennt die Waffen, die dagegen einzusetzen sind. Sie bietet dem Leben und den Männern die Stirn mit Zähigkeit, Eigensinn und Treue gegenüber den eigenen Idealen: Jane Eyre wächst als armes Waisenkind im Haus einer hartherzigen, erwitweten, angeheirateten Tante auf, deren drei Kinder auf sie herabsehen und sie nach dem Vorbild ihrer Mutter schikanieren. (Translation)

Elle (Spain) does the same:

Aparentemente, 'Jane Eyre' es una novela de amor; detrás, se esconde mucho más. Fue la primera obra publicada por una de las hermanas Brontë –aunque la tuvo que firmar con el seudónimo Currer Bell, para evitar los prejuicios por ser mujer– y narra la historia de una joven huérfana que llega a Thornfield Hall, donde es contratada por el orgulloso Edward Rochester, por quien se siente atraída, para cuidar de su hija Adèle. (Begoña Alonso) (Translation)

Wysokie Obcasy (Poland) recommends books in general:

No i zawsze można liczyć na happy end. Jeśli wolisz gotycki romans, dobre są siostry Brontë z ich mrocznymi i gwałtownymi bohaterami, silnymi bohaterkami, ponurymi wrzosowiskami i tajemnicami zamkniętymi na klucz na strychu. (Katarzyna Wężyk) (Translation)

Bookish in the Mitten posts about Jane Eyre. AnneBrontë.org celebrates the life of Charlotte Brontë. Maddalena De Leo posts about Anne Brontë's life as a governess on The Sisters' Room.