Witty Jane

Yorkshire Live shares some lovely pictures from the filming of The Railway Children in Haworth (and around) in 1970.

Framtida (Norway) reports that writer Ane Barmen was surprised when she actually laughed reading Jane Eyre.

Samstundes var ho overraska over kor laust latteren sat med vittige Jane Eyre, og vart tankefull av Velkommen til dyrehagen. (Bente Kristin Rundereim Kjøllesdal) (Translation)

Rio Negro (Argentina) has a strange (and partly incorrect) way of writing about the deaths of the Brontë sisters.

De hecho muchos artistas románticos murieron por tisis, como el músico Fredrick Chopin o los poetas Bécquer, Novalis, Keats, el pintor Modigliani y el curioso caso de las tres hermanas Brontë (una de ellas escribió “Cumbres borrascosas”). (Translation)

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A Room of One's Own on BBC Radio 4

This is a new radio dramatisation of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, giving voice to Charlotte Brontë herself:

BBC Radio 4 - May 31, 15:00 h
Electric Decade
A Room of One's Own

Virginia Woolf's funny, provoking and insightful feminist text on female creativity dramatised for radio by Linda Marshall Griffiths.
Part of Electric Decade: classic titles that influenced and characterised the 1920's.
Woman.....Indira Varma
Mary Seton / Charlotte Brontë .....Jenny Platt (in the picture)
Judith Shakespeare / Jane Austen / Mary Carmichael ..... Anjli Mohindra
William Shakespeare / Nick Green .....Sacha Dhawan
Trevelyan / Shakespeare's Father .....Colin Tierney
Directed by Nadia Molinari
BBC Radio Drama North Production

It is 1928, a woman is asked to talk of women and writing. In the university town of 'Oxbridge' she is refused entry to the gardens and library and discovers the poverty of the one female college there. She searches the British Museum library for proof that women even existed in history.
"Literature is impoverished beyond our counting by the doors that have been shut upon women."
She imagines what would have happened if Shakespeare had had a sister and imagines conversations with the great British female novelists.
"Who shall measure the heat and violence of a poet's heart when caught and tangled in a woman's body?"
She reflects on the difficulties that face the female writer and proposes a different kind of life.
A Room of One’s Own is one of the greatest feminist polemics of the twentieth century, but also a narrative of beauty, humour and humanity. Its case is for the existence of female writers and its proof is in the genius of its writer.
A Room of One's Own was recorded during lockdown with actors and production team all in rooms of their own.

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Chucky in Thornfield Hall, the lost Shirley Jackson novel?

If you didn't know already, The New Yorker clarifies:

The title of Josephine Decker’s new film, “Shirley,” refers neither to the novel of that name by Charlotte Brontë nor, in a slightly different vein, to Shirley Temple, whose dimple-powered career now seems beyond belief, but to the author Shirley Jackson. (Anthony Lane)

Secret Manchester lists several places to go for a staycation (if you live there, of course):

Haworth
Best known as Brontë Country, Haworth is the birthplace of the famous Brontë sisters, providing the novelists with masses of inspiration for classics such as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. The town itself retains its traditional form, with curious little shops to explore. Further afield, however, you can explore the Brontë moors and Top Withens walk (which was the real life backdrop to Wuthering Heights). There are some incredibly relaxing spots to stay during your trip, from luxury campsites to cosy hotels within the town, which is the perfect gateway to other popular Yorkshire destinations such as Harrogate and Ilkley. (Laura Rogan)

Rocket Miner discusses how mistakes and misfortunes can be embedded into a work of art:

Dr. Weatherhead told of owning his own Persian rug given to him by an Arab sheik. The rug has a yellow irregularity in it. He prizes this irregularity as proof, evidence of the rug’s value. He says that it shows it was not made by machine in a carpet factory.
One day, he asked a young Persian rug maker apprentice, studying in England, “What happens when a boy makes a mistake?”
The apprentice answered him, “Quite often, the artist does not make the boy take out the wrong color. If he is a great enough artist, he weaves the mistake into the pattern.”
Those words sent me on a journey. Think of Milton’s blindness, Alexander Pope’s grotesque deformity, Keats and Emily Brontë’s tuberculosis, Emerson and Tennyson’s chronic infections, Swinburne and Flaubert’s epilepsy, and the neuralgia of Gamaliel Bradford and Charles Dickens. There is hardly a sound body in the roster of the world’s most distinguished writers. Often each distinguished writer bears a spiritual anguish within. (Pastor Richard P. Carlson)

Tomorrow, May 31, on BBC Radio 4, according to The Times:

Electric Decade: A Room of One’s Own
BBC Radio 4, 3pm
“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write,” Virginia Woolf said in a speech delivered to the women of Cambridge in 1928. The lecture was published as an extended essay in 1929, and the award-winning writer Linda Marshall Griffiths has turned Woolf’s classic political text into a funny and thought-provoking play. Indira Varma plays “Woman” (Woolf), musing on women and writing, and imagining scenarios such as what might have happened if Shakespeare had a sister, as well as conversations with the great British female novelists, including Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen. (Ben Dowell)

Modern Diplomacy  and the consequences of alcoholism:

People stopped coming to visit and I stopped having friends come over because mummy needed to rest. At least that was what I told myself. One day she yelled and screamed, cursed, pulled the sheets off the bed as if she was a mad woman. And then I began to look for her in the books I read. I called her Mrs. Rochester when I read Jane Eyre. I watched, observed and learned. Her imprint marked me like my father’s old books and divided us forever.  (Abigail George)

Marie Claire discusses how much dating in social distancing times resembles an Austen novel:

If you think that all this space is something of a buzzkill, well, you’re not the first to come to that conclusion. “People might say Jane lacks passion,”  [Dr. Natasha] Duquette said, referencing a Charlotte Brontë quote about Jane: “The passions are perfectly unknown to her; she rejects even a speaking acquaintance with that stormy sisterhood.” Duquette takes issue with this characterization. “The boundaries of propriety do not suppress desire but increase desire.” (Jessica M. Goldtein)

Did you know that Grace Zabriskie's character in Child's Play 2 was named after Grace Poole from Jane Eyre? Screenrant talks about it:

When it came time to casting Grace Poole, Karen Black and Mary Steenburgen were considered for the role. In the end, Grace Zabriskie was cast in the role named after a mysterious character in the novel Jane Eyre. (Jake Dee)

Shock Ya! reviews the documentary Screened Out in a very okboomerish way:

Imagine guys and gals in college assigned to read “Jane Eyre” but glancing every ten minutes at the phone when hearing the buzz or ring or theme song from “Gone with the Wind.” As one talking head advises, multi-tasking does not work.
Among the gems delivered from the documentary which I was watching on my computer when I could have been re-reading “Jane Eyre,” is the concept of intermittent rewards. (Harvey Karten)

Interlochen Public Radio misses the local library:

Yes, I have books at home, shelves of them. But mostly, they are books I’ve already read and reread. Desperate, I’ve been rereading them again. I even grabbed “Jane Eyre” off the shelf and dove in—still captivated by the tale I know by heart. But Reader, she married him and the story ends. (Karen Anderson)

TV shows that can be used for homeschooling on i-news:

Jane Eyre, BritBox
There have been at least 20 film and TV versions of Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic love story, and the BBC’s four-part 2006 adaptation is one of the best, as well as being faithful enough in characters and plot to assist those reading the book in school or university. Toby Stephens may be a tad underwhelming as Rochester, but, making her television debut, Ruth Wilson makes a hugely affecting Jane. (Gerald Gilbert)

Indica News discusses misogyny in India:

In feudal society, small scale and middle peasant farming shackled women, tied them to their individual households, and narrowed their outlook. They were practically slaves of their husbands, who often beat them cruelly. On marriage, their property often passed to their husbands, as we note in Emile (sic) Brontë’s novel `Wuthering Heights’. (Justice Markandey Katju)

Hertfordshire Mercury has a list of questions if you want to prepare for the many mandatory quizzes in these confinement times:

29. Which Brontë sister wrote ‘Jane Eyre’? (Matthew Smith) 

The same level of difficulty on this list by the Hull Daily Mail:

 1. Who wrote Wuthering Heights? (Sophie Corcoran)

Bookmarks interviews the writer Lara Prior-Palmer:

BM: Classic book on your To Be Read pile?
LPP: Wuthering Heights, what a dazzling first page. I drink the sentences, put the book down, and forget I’m reading it. Perhaps I don’t feel the need to continue because so many people have done the work for me?

Ultima Voce (Italy) and pseudonyms in literature:

Scrittrici donne che usano l’anonimato e gli pseudonimi maschili: tentativo di difesa o di sfida?
Le sorelle Brontë
Currer Bell, Ellis Bell e Acton Bell sono gli pseudonimi maschili usati rispettivamente da Charlotte, Emily e Anne Brontë, utilizzati soprattutto per scappare dai pregiudizi dell’epoca ottocentesca. (Asia Baldini) (Translation)

La Stampa (Italy) reviews the TV series Valeria:

L'aspirazione della serie è indagare la donna è i suoi impulsi come le grandi 'detective' della letteratura e in parte riesce, qua e là compaiono indizi chiari: all'inizio Val tenta di scrivere con davanti il dorso di «Jane Eyre» il capolavoro della Brontë su maturazione e indipendenza della donna. (Fiorella Minervino) (Translation)

Barometern (Sweden) asks its book panel cases of good film book adaptations:

 Jag måste även framhålla min favorit inom den skönlitterära genren som har filmatiserats och det är Jane Eyre av Charlotte Brontë. (Ia Sellerberg) (Translation)

Diario de Córdoba (Spain) reviews the book Outsiders: Five Women Writers Who Changed the World:

Emily Brönte (sic) , cuya familia nunca se sintió acogida en Harworth, Yorkshire, y que sufrió violencia física e inanición en el internado de Cown Bridge, nos presenta en Cumbres Borrascosas un escenario tenso donde aflora la violencia doméstica y la pasión incontrolada representada por el personaje masculino Hearhcliff (sic), en medio de una naturaleza abrupta y furiosa. Emily adquiere una percepción del mundo exterior como si se tratara de un escenario demasiado violento y extremo, lo que la llevará a aislarse para encontrar la plenitud espiritual. (Pilar Muñoz Aguilar) (Translation)

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Mental Illness and the Supernatural

A recent MA thesis:

“Is [he] a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil?”: The Influence of Culture Versus Experience on the Brontë Sisters’ Perception of Mental Illness
Catrina May Mehltretter
Liberty University, April 2020

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë each presented a different perspective on mental illness within their novels. The primary reason for this difference in perspective can be found in their different responses to their brother Branwell’s poor mental state. As Branwell’s health deteriorated mentally and physically, his sisters ended up becoming his primary caregivers, giving them a unique insight into mental illness that would have been unusual for the time period, given the tendency to send any mentally ill family members away to asylums. Still, this shared experience impacted each of the sisters differently, likely due to the different relationship each of them had with their brother as well as the way they responded to the cultural influences, which then affected the way they portrayed mental illness in their novels: Charlotte, though once the closest to Branwell, held an outdated, unfavorable opinion of mental illness, presenting those afflicted as animalistic in nature in her fiction; Anne took a more religious approach, viewing addiction as a result of a fallen moral state; whereas Emily showed the humanity of the mentally ill and the reasons behind their mental deterioration, all while maintaining hope for rehabilitation.

And an English Honors thesis:

A World Ruled By Unknowns: The Psychological Effects of the Supernatural and Natural Worlds in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights
Jordan Cymrot
City University of New York
2020

Emily Brontë (1818-1848) wrote Wuthering Heights in 1847 at a point of collision between Romantic thought and Victorian ideals. Her novel exemplifies a developed and deliberate effort to represent a world ruled by forces out of one’s control, the most evident example of this being the supernatural force that overtakes the novel. In her precise focus on the language and natural landscape that bind this novel together, her characters emerge as representative of the psychological complexity produced by the coexistence of the mundane and the extraordinary. My thesis focuses on the effects of the natural landscape and the forces that at times control it, but I also look at the psychological effects that these forces have on, in particular, the novel’s two main characters: Cathy and Heathcliff. Emily Brontë immersed these two characters in the natural world, highlighting their triumphs and tumultuous love. In better understanding this connection, I first look at the power behind nature, the supernatural forces governed by a Romantic aesthetic concept known as the sublime. After situating this novel in its literary historical context, I continue to move my analysis closer to the characters,  ooking specifically at Cathy and Heathcliff and showing both their individual and shared relationships with the natural world and the supernatural. I conclude in my last chapter of this thesis by returning to nature, revealing it to be a character as well. Overall, I read Brontë’s only novel as both grounded in its historical context (in its perpetuation of Romantic ideals and aesthetics) and forward-thinking in its imagining of new possibilities for engaging with the world.

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Charlotte's moccasins and Jenny Agutter's red flannel petticoat

Remember the news about Emily's biopic? Well, it was said then that Joe Alwyn would play Emily’s 'conflicted lover' but according to Backstage

 the project has also bagged Joe Alwyn as William Weightman (Laurence Cook)

We sincerely hope that they are not repurposing the thoroughly charming William Weightman as Emily's 'conflicted lover'.

Backstage also adds:

Currently in pre-production, Emily is scheduled to film in Yorkshire in early 2021 and casting director Fiona Weir is attached and casting now. (Laurence Cook)

We still ask: where is Anne?

The Yorkshire Post reports that the film adaptation of The Railway children turns 50 this year but the planned celebrations, which involved the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, have been cancelled. However, you can celebrate by helping them.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of The Railway Children hitting the big screen.
The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, which operates the line and stations which featured in the film, had planned events to coincide with the milestone – before the coronavirus pandemic plunged the organisation’s future into uncertainty.
Jenny Agutter, who shot to fame following her appearance as Bobby in the 1970 film, has encouraged people to donate to the Worth Saving appeal, to ensure the line’s continued operation.
She said: “I have many fond memories of working at Haworth and Oakworth and along that wonderful railway line.
“Like many others I find that steam trains hold a fascination for me.
“Since the filming, I have returned for visits and love seeing the beautifully restored and cared-for engines and travelling in the old carriages.
“Because of the present situation, people have been unable to visit the Worth Valley Railway. Now without support, this treasure of a place may not survive.
“After all the care and hard work, much of it voluntary, that has gone towards making this such a special place it would be a loss for us, for our children and for future generations, if it were to close.
“Fifty years on I am waving my red flannel petticoat, metaphorically, hoping it will make people aware of the need to give support now, so we can look forward to returning to the Worth Valley Railway in the years to come”.
Her sentiments are shared by Christopher Witty who played Jim, the boy runner the children rescued in the railway tunnel.
He said: “We were all so looking forward to coming back to Oakworth this summer to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the making of the film but due to the current situation we all find ourselves in, that cannot be possible.
“We hope that when life returns to normal, and everyone both young and old are safe and well, we can return to help promote all that is good with the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and the film that has been so successful and endearing to our lives.”
The railway has said that sustained closure for months on end “threatens our very existence” and is trying to raise £200,000 to keep afloat “in the form you enjoyed it”.
So far, £140,000 has been raised. Matt Stroh, KWVR Society chairman, said: ‘These are unprecedented times for the Bronte Country line.
“The Worth Saving appeal has been launched to ask for donations from the railway’s supporters and those from far and wide who love steam locomotives and want to be able to relive the past into the future.”
He added: “We have had a good response and are now over half way to our target, but we desperately need a final push.” (John Blow)

Buzzfeed News lists Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia among other 'Summer Must-Reads For Fantasy Lovers'.

This is a must-read for fans of gothic writers like the Brontës, Daphne du Maurier, and Shirley Jackson, and also for those who enjoy the feminist, surreal fiction of Carmen Maria Machado. (Margaret Kingsbury)

Daily Maverick (South Africa) features Philani Dladla's autobiography The Pavement Bookworm.

Philani Dladla, who has written his autobiography, The Pavement Bookworm, was given his first book at the age of 11, for his birthday.
The gift, his first-ever birthday present, came from Joseph Castyline – an elderly man whom his mother worked for as a caregiver in his home-town of Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal. [...]
Castyline died a year after that. But, true to his word, he left to Dladla his entire collection of books, in the region of 500. Dladla says the bounty included the work of authors such as Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, Friedrich Nietzsche, Zakes Mda and Bantu Steve Biko. (Yanga Sibembe)

Cinematographe (Italy) recommends Jane Eyre 1986 as it can be seen on Iris TV tonight: (May 29, 23:14).

Interesting Literature shares a short analysis of Emily Brontë's poem 'To a Wreath of Snow'. Empire-Advance (Canada) features an 1899 copy of the complete Brontë novels belonging to Virden Pioneer Home Museum.

Yesterday, AnneBrontë.org marked the anniversary of the death of Anne Brontë with a celebration of her life.

Finally, in a new instalment of Treasures from the Brontë Parsonage Museum, The Sisters' Room shows the intriguing suede moccasins owned by Charlotte Brontë and supposedly 'left at the guesthouse in Scarborough where Anne died'. The display at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in 2017 only said that they had been purchased in Scarborough at the time of Anne's death.

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Letters in French

 A new translation just published in France:

Lettres choisies de la famille Brontë
Édition et trad. de l'anglais par Constance Lacroix
Préface de Laura El Makki
Gallimard
Collection Folio classique (n° 6795)
ISBN : 9782072853029
28-05-2020

Voici une famille hors norme, qui a produit quatre écrivains, tous fauchés en plein vol (morts avant quarante ans), soudés autour du père, vivant et créant ensemble, entre mélancolie et humour noir. Face aux drames des jours sombres, le clan fait bloc. Face à la difficulté d’être une femme qui écrit, les sœurs Brontë publient d’abord sous pseudonyme masculin (Charlotte, Jane Eyre ; Emily, Les Hauts de Hurlevent), souhaitant que leurs livres les consolent du destin, rendent possible l’amour et soient assez puissants pour enlever au lecteur tout désir d’en connaître l’auteur. Leur succès en a décidé autrement. Leur vœu d’invisibilité est aujourd’hui rompu, leur idée de l’intime nous est devenue étrangère. Il est temps de reconnaître qu’une œuvre embrasse aussi tout ce qui lui a permis de surgir. Cette correspondance passionnante en est la preuve. Sur les mille lettres échangées par le père et les quatre enfants, entre 1821 (mort de la mère) et 1855 (mort de Charlotte), cette édition en retient trois cent dix. On entre dans ce recueil sur la pointe des pieds, comme si quelqu’un, en ouvrant une porte dérobée, nous faisait signe de nous approcher et nous rendait témoins de l’extraordinaire force de vie qui anime ces cinq êtres : le désir de prendre son envol, d’aimer, d’écrire – de vivre malgré tout.

Both Fabula and Onirik discuss the book.

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'I long to do some good in the world'

From the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

'I long to do some good in the world...before I leave it. I have many schemes in my head for future practise.' A few of the last words written by #AnneBronte, who died #otd 1849. The Museum remains closed, but we look forward to celebrating Anne with you soon. #TakeCourage pic.twitter.com/UYjEg38nyB

— Brontë Parsonage (@BronteParsonage) May 28, 2020

The Stage recommends several little-known musicals to discover during lockdown. One of them is Wasted.

But it’s not all classics. Carl Miller and Christopher Ash’s Brontë sisters rock musical (yes, you read that correctly) Wasted is streaming on Southwark Playhouse’s site. Here’s your opportunity to agree/disagree with our reviewer Tim Bano, who wrote: “It’s brilliant to see something so brash and bizarre, existing completely on its own terms.” (David Benedict)

A contributor to The Harvard Press chose books of 'intrigue and romance set in an isolated old house with secrets of its own' as lockdown reads.

Maybe it started with “Wuthering Heights,” this fascination with big, old houses—preferably British—that hold romance and suspense. I have a picture in my head of a large, dark, mysterious house set high on the moors. As wild as the house is its inhabitant Heathcliffe (sic)—a brooding man, whose anger and love are of an unnatural intensity. A climactic scene occurs at an open window. (Carlene Phillips)

LitHub explores the role played by Thomas Wentworth Higginson in Emily Dickinson's literary career and recalls the fat that

When she died in 1886, he traveled to Amherst to read an Emily Brontë poem at her funeral. (Martha Ackmann)

It is thought that Emily Dickinson herself had requested he read that poem.

London Review of Books discusses Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner.

Marriage was still her destiny and it arrived in the form of Colin Tennant, son and heir of the immensely wealthy second Baron Glenconner. Tall and ‘terribly handsome’, he appealed to a woman whose teenage idol was Heathcliff. (Rosemary Hill)

Flaunt interviews singer Gianna Isabella.

What books are you reading? I’m reading the classics right now. It’s more Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, etc. Currently I’m reading a suspenseful horror book called Baby Teeth, I’m also reading Jane Eyre. (Shirley Ju)

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171 without Anne Brontë

We started Anne's bicentenary year so full of hope for her. Her bicentenary would crown the previous bicentenaries and the world would finally get to know and love Anne and her work. And yet 2020 had other plans for all of us.

We are still hopeful that next year she will get the celebrations and recognition she deserves, which she has deserved for the best part of these 200 years.

Today is the anniversary of her death in Scarborough and we will appropriate her last words to Charlotte because they come in handy for her unexpectedly ghastly bicentenary.

'Take courage, Charlotte, take courage'

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100 years since the first film adaptation of Wuthering Heights

The Yorkshire Post has an article on the search for the lost first film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, which now turns a hundred years old.

And 2020 marks 100 years since the first motion picture version of the story, inspired by Top Withens, was released.
But, despite the best efforts of archivists, nobody in the modern age is likely to ever see it. The movie, shot in Haworth, is considered a “lost film” and there are no known surviving copies.
Ann Dinsdale, head curator at the Brontë Parsonage, said: “The film has not survived, unfortunately. We’ve gone to quite a lot of trouble trawling film archives across the world.”
The attraction last made a public appeal for information about the film about 15 years ago, which produced a number of still images, and a few years ago a detailed original screenplay by Eliot Stannard – a mentor to Alfred Hitchcock – was discovered.
“So if anybody out there does have it, we would love to know more.”
The film differs from many other versions because it was a more comprehensive telling of the novel, she said. “There was a real attempt to capture the whole novel. They told the whole story, featuring both generations.
“Quite often film adaptions end at the point where Cathy dies but this covers the second generation as well – they employed three actors to play Heathcliffe [sic].” [...]
And it may have been the first film shoot in Haworth, the picturesque Bradford village which is now no stranger to camera crews.
Ms Dinsdale said: “There are all these amazing photographs. (Some show) the film crew walking out on the moors in Haworth and carrying the child actors.
“The village is just teeming with people who’ve turned out to see what would have been a really big event in Haworth, potentially the first film crew that were to have come to Haworth.”
It came at a time after the First World War when the British film industry was trying to “fight back against a tide of American film,” said Ms Dinsdale. (John Blow)

It also includes an opinion column discussing the matter as well.

Yet, a century after the first motion picture of the alluring story was broadcast, the plot thickens as the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth try and seek a copy of what they are calling the ‘lost film’.
Not only would this help to add another chapter to the Brontë family’s already priceless legacy, but it would also represent a piece of cinematic history.
This was one of the first productions after the signing of the Armistice to mark the end of the First World War and came at a time when the British film industry was trying to assert itself against the Americans.
Given the interest that there was in Haworth at the time, judging by archive photographs, there’s every likelihood that the film would, a century, on be just as gripping as Wuthering Heights itself.

Scifi Pulse reviews the comic Adler #2.

Synopsis: After uniting some of the most famous heroines of the Victorian age including Jane Eyre, Miss Havisham, and Marie Curie, Irene Adler must finally come face-to-face with Sherlock Holmes’s greatest nemesis, Moriarty! [...]
Writer Lavie Tidhar continues the story in such a way that you are totally sucked in. I loved how she recaps the first issue via Jane Eyre’s diary entries about her initial meeting with Adler and the adventure they had together. It was very much like Dr. Watson’s diary entries regarding his friend Sherlock Holmes, which makes sense given that Adler is in this instance the female version of Holmes, who also happens to be the only woman to ever get the better of Holmes. (Ian Cullen)

Coincidentally, Cherwell discusses film adaptations.

Classics like Jane Eyre, Frankenstein and an endless list of others have been reimagined innumerable times. We keep on doing it and keep on watching them, because it is guaranteed that each one will be different, at least subtly. (Amber Haslam)

La Huella Digital (Spain) reviews the Spanish translation of Isabel Greenberg's Glass Town.

La Ciudad de Cristal es un bellísimo libro ilustrado sobre la vida de las Brontë y sobre las ficciones que crearon en los primeros años, antes de componer sus obras individuales.  La ficción se intercala en la realidad y, junto a personajes como Charles, realizamos un recorrido por la existencia de Charlotte, Emily y Anne, desde el año 1825 hasta 1847. Esa fusión de elementos enriquece el conocimiento del lector, que no solo descubre las alegrías y desventuras de las hermanas, sino que halla algunas invenciones de sus primeros escritos.
La obra de Greenberg fluctúa entre un presente y un pasado, entre la fantasía y la realidad, entre la dignificación y la reivindicación de las hermanas Brontë. Ellas muestran una lucidez extraordinaria y contemplan y reflexionan sobre las distinciones de género, siendo mujeres  en la Gran Bretaña del siglo XIX, y de etnia, a través de Quashia Quamina. La Ciudad de Cristal se muestra como un espacio imaginario al que se puede viajar cuando se desee o necesite, a pesar del conflicto que allí se desarrolla. Las ilustraciones son generalmente oscuras, predominando los tonos granate, anaranjado, mostaza, negro, gris y azul oscuro: grises y negros para los diálogos entre Charlotte y su personaje Charles Wellesley, y matices más coloridos para las historias creadas por los cuatro hermanos.
Branwell,  el hermano, adquiere cierta relevancia en esta obra, desde las primeras historias que escribe hasta sus peores momentos, trazando la autora la evolución que vivió y cómo se plasmó en sus familiares. Uno de los logros de este libro ilustrado es la capacidad de fantasear con los pensamientos de las Brontë y sus inquietudes: el temor ante la enfermedad acechante, el deseo de aprender, la necesidad de contar historias, la dificultad de ser mujer (como señala Emily: “Quien fuera hombre para tener el mundo a sus pies”)…  También resulta muy interesante el reflejo de las experiencias de Charlotte en Roe Head y en su posterior empleo como maestra, mientras los personajes de su inventiva le persiguen de día y de noche.
Este universo imaginario fue el faro que iluminó la creatividad de las hermanas Brontë durante años y así lo refleja la ilustradora en su obra. Por tanto, dejémonos guiar por La Ciudad de Cristal de Isabel Greenberg  y descubramos a Charlotte, Emily y Anne. (Elena de Pablos Trigo) (Translation)

The City College Times asks several students about the first thing they will do once quarantine is over.

Patience Bixby
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” ― Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre”
This quote will describe me quite accurately after quarantine is done.

Bibliotherapy on RTBF (Belgium):

Pour les chagrins d’amour : Jane Eyre, de Charlotte Brontë, pour ne pas tenter de "recoller votre cœur brisé en compromettant votre intégrité." (Lucy Dricot) (Translation)

Libero Pensiero (Italy) mentions the fact that the Brontës had to use pseudonyms while Ultima Voce (also from Italy) mentions Heathcliff and Cathy as a literary couple.

Finally, new Brontë-inspired music on Brontë Babe Blog.

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Literary Lover's Box Set

The complete novels of the Brontës in a minibook format in the company of Shakespeare and Austen:

Literary Lover's Box Set
William Shakespeare: The Complete Plays in One Sitting
Jane Austen: The Complete Novels in One Sitting
The Brontës: The Complete Novels in One Sitting
Edited by Running Press
ISBN-13: 9780762469420
 April 7th 2020

This charming mini box set includes 3 of our classic mini books for this special slipcase edition
These compact books contain comprehensive summaries of the complete plays of William Shakespeare, the complete novels of Jane Austen, and the complete novels of the Brontë sisters. The books also include character profiles and illustrations, sure to entertain literary lovers everywhere.

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The thrusting 19th century had Heathcliff and Ivanhoe

The Telegraph has an article on the 'chaotic making' of the 1986 film The Labyrinth.

Bowie, as ever, was hipper to this than anyone else, which is why he slipped in a reference to The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. And perhaps that’s why Labyrinth has lived on: it’s a rare Hollywood movie that takes seriously the experience of being a young woman finding her way in the world.
“We’re not looking at reality, we’re inside this girl’s head,” said Froud, asked about Bowie’s aerodynamic jodhpurs. “There are references to all sorts of things in his costume. There’s the danger of a leather boy in his leather jacket, which also has a reference to the armour of a certain type of German knight in it; there are references to Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights; and the tight trousers are a reference to ballet dancers.
“He’s an amalgam of the inner fantasies of this girl. Everyone always talks about Bowie’s pervy pants, but there was a reason for it all! It has a surface that’s fairly light, but then every so often you go: ‘Oh, my God! How did we get away with that?’” (Ed Power)

Pontefract & Castleford Express features a play exploring the life of Lady Catherine Milnes Gaskell, a champion of social justice in early 20th century Wakefield.

“By 1891 Lady Catherine was an established published essayist exploring the complex lives of women which were, unsurprisingly, received with some hostility by a male dominated press,” she says. “By the time of her death in 1935 she shared the same publishers as George Gissing and the Brontë Sisters and had published nine books and a host of articles and essays.” (Laura Reid)

The Arts Fuse reviews Here We Are: My Friendship with Philip Roth by Benjamin Taylor.

“I can’t be the first gay man to have been an older straight man’s mainstay,” Taylor writes in one of his infrequent characterizations of the nature of their relationship. “Philip had searched diligently for a beautiful young woman to see to him as Jane Eyre looked after old Mr. Rochester. What he got instead was me. The degree of attachment surprised us both. Were we lovers? Obviously not. Were we in love? Not exactly. Sufficient to say that ours was a conversation neither could have done without.” (Helen Epstein)

Hypeness (Brazil) features the work of artist Edmund Dulac (who illustrated all the Brontë novels).

Após concluir a faculdade de direito, ele foi à Paris estudar artes e foi aí que tudo começou. Quando tinha apenas 22 anos, ele foi contratado pela editora J. M. Dent para ilustrar Jane Eyre. O sucesso foi tanto que ele começou a ser chamado para ilustrar diversos clássicos da época. Seu currículo é extenso e possui a edição original de ‘A Bela Adormecida’, e até mesmo William Shakespeare. (Gabriela Glette) (Translation)

Metro has an A-level student tell about the actual disappointment of not having to go through them.

Seven weeks later, I’m still struggling with the idea that I won’t be sitting my final exams. All those countless hours stressing about the importance of language in Wuthering Heights, and trying to memorise the names of what felt like thousands upon thousands of sociologists: all gone to waste. (Charlie Davis)

While on the other side of the Atlantic, The Imaginative Conservative writes in defence of homeschooling.

Instead of flashy technologies hoping (and failing) to hold the attention of children, I am interested in a slow and faithful plodding through Jane Eyre so my children can see how character is truly made. (Allison Burr)

We don't see Brontëites at the end of that.

According to Vogue, 'The Pandemic Has Ushered In A Golden Era For Nerds'.

If you subscribe to the theory that every era gets the romantic leads it deserves – the thrusting 19th century had Heathcliff and Ivanhoe; the ’80s had Hasselhoff and Pammy bouncing down the beach; Brexit produced Jodie Comer’s Villanelle, a globetrotting assassin in couture – then 2020 is all about nerds. Normal People, the last programme to be completed before lockdown, stars a couple of simpering Irish nerds, Connell and Marianne, who quote Doris Lessing to each other before having at it like a couple of goats. Forget fancying murderers or even Hugh Grant’s character in Bridget Jones. (Ed Cumming)

Auralcrave (Italy) features Wuthering Heights.

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Falling Short

A new scholar book with Brontë-related content:

Falling Short 
The Bildungsroman and the Crisis of Self-Fashioning
Aleksandar Stević
University of Virginia Press
ISBN 9780813944036
30 Apr 2020

A paradox haunts the bildungsroman: few protagonists successfully complete the process of maturation and socialization that ostensibly defines the form. From the despondent endings of Dickens’s Great Expectations and Meredith’s The Ordeal of Richard Feverel to the suicide of Balzac’s Lucien de Rubempré and the demise of Eliot’s Maggie and Tom Tulliver, the nineteenth-century bildungsroman offers narratives of failure, paralysis, and destruction: goals cannot be achieved, identities are impossible to forge, and the narrative of socialization routinely crumbles. Examining the novels of Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Henry James, Samuel Butler, James Joyce, and Marcel Proust, Falling Short reveals not only a crisis of character development but also a crisis of plotting and narrative structure.
From the inception of literary realism in the 1830s to the height of modernism a century later, the bildungsroman presents itself as a key symptom of modern Europe’s inability to envision either coherent subjectivity or successful socialization. Rather than articulating an arc of personal development, Stević argues, the bildungsroman tends to condemn its heroes to failure because our modern understanding of both individual subjectivity and social success remains riddled with contradictions. Placing primary texts in conversation with the central historical debates of their time, Falling Short offers a revisionist history of the realist and modernist bildungsroman, unearthing the neglected role of defeat in the history of the genre.

Includes the chapter: Charlotte Brontë and the Governess as a Liberal Subject.

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When Alanis Morissette saved Jane Eyre

Times Square Chronicles brings back memories (and pictures) of the opening night of Jane Eyre the Musical in 2000.

Jane Eyre was a musical drama with music and lyrics by composer-lyricist Paul Gordon and a book by John Caird, based on the 1847 novel by Charlotte Brontë. The musical premiered on Broadway in 2000.
The musical debuted on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on November 9, 2000, with an official opening on December 10, 2000 and closed on June 10, 2001 after 36 previews and 209 performances. Marla Schaffel, who played the title character, won a Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award (in a tie with Christine Ebersole) for her performance. The production was directed by John Caird and Scott Schwartz, choreography by Jayne Paterson, set designer by John Napier, costumes by Andreane Neofitou, and lighting by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer. Days after the Tony Award nominations were announced, a closing date of May 20 was announced. Alanis Morissette, a friend of Paul Gordon’s, bought $150,000 worth of tickets to the musical and donated them to various charity groups. This would allow the show to be open past the Tony Award telecast, although the show closed a week after. (Genevieve Rafter Keddy)

Interesting Literature recommends '10 Eighteenth-Century Novels Everyone Should Read' because

Although it was the nineteenth century when the novel arguably came into its own, with novelists like Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, George Eliot, and the Brontë sisters writing novels that are still widely read and studied today, the eighteenth century was the age in which the novel emerged as a real force in writing and publishing.

AnneBrontë.org discusses 'The Brontës And The East Coast Resorts'

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Katherine Press and Susan Jameson reading the Brontës

Two readings (in an audiobook format) of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are available from BBC Sounds:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
38 Chapters (2019)

Charlotte Brontë’s intimate and disquieting coming of age classic about secrets and lies.
Read by Katherine Press.
Produced by Anne Bunting.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
34 Chapters (2019)

Emily Brontë's tempestuous tale of passions, betrayal and retribution on the wild moors.
Read by Susan Jameson.
Produced by Ross Burman.

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How Brontë got me to care so much about Cathy and Heathcliff

The Emily Brontë biopic project that we reported a few days ago is still very much on the news: Cosmopolitan, Vogue Spain, Cineséries, IGN Greece, Haber365. La Verdad, IBC World News, Cinemanía...

Scarlett Rowe pays homage to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on Varsity:

When Anne Brontë’s novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, was first published in the summer of 1848, it created quite a stir. In her preface to the second edition, Anne (going under the pseudonym ‘Acton Bell’) addressed accusations that her writing contained ‘a morbid love’ of ‘coarse’ and ‘brutal’ matters: namely, a painfully detailed account of the abusive relationship between Helen and Arthur Huntington. Such a deeply personal (and partially female) narrative amounted to a sort of social blasphemy at the time.
‘I may have gone too far,’ Anne explains to her Victorian readers in the preface. So far, so good for the egos of her most avid critics. Fortunately, however, their initial victory is short lived, for Anne quickly expresses her wish for there to be a ‘less...delicate concealment of facts’ in the social sphere. Facts, for example, of normalised domestic abuse and widespread marital misery. Anne further adds that ‘such characters’ as the estranged wives and irresponsible husbands explored in her novel do exist, whether readers like it or not. In a daring demonstration of defiance, Anne refuses to apologise for her exploration of controversial themes. ‘Be it understood,’ she informs readers, ’when I feel it my duty to speak an unpalatable truth… I will speak it.’ Ouch. (Read more)

This is Colossal explores the creative process of the artist Monica Rohan:

Often drawing from texts she’s reading—Charlotte Brontë’s Villette is one—the artist imbues fictional tales into her works. “I’m interested in when real life and fiction bleed into one another. I’ve always been an avid reader, but happily, nowadays I can read and paint at the same time thanks to audio-books. Often whatever I’m reading filters through into titles for works and indirectly into the paintings themselves,” she says. (Grace Ebert) 

The Telegraph interviews the actor and writer, Robert Webb who lists Wuthering Heights being one of the most important books in his life:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë I read this when I had the flu once and I still don't know how Brontë got me to care so much about Cathy and Heathcliff who, let's face it, are the kind of couple you'd move house to avoid.

This is Anfield claims that

‘If onlys’ can turn into painful soliloquies that twist and turn the soul inside out until there is no wriggle room left. Emily Brontë was probably not thinking about football when she wrote: “Thoughts are tyrants that return again and again to torment us.”

Probably not as Emily Brontë never wrote that. It was Anne Devlin in her script for Wuthering Heights 1992.

The Telegraph & Argus urges people to plan their holidays for when the pandemic will be over:

Dream about future visits to Haworth by listening to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre on the BBC Sounds app or watching Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights on the BFI Player. (Mark Stanford)

The Indian Express echoes the National Library miniature books initiative:

Children in Britain have something new to look forward to while in lockdown. The British Library has asked the nation’s children to follow the footsteps of author Charlotte Brontë and come up with their own miniature books in lockdown. It is believed that Brontë had written a miniature book containing a short story for her sister Anne. She had even stitched the book herself when she was all of 12 years old. But this was only among the many others she wrote with her siblings, for their toy soldiers to read. It is believed the initiative will be a part of the online “National Library of Miniature Books for the toy world”.

The Daily Mail talks with and about the journalist and broadcaster, Anita Rani:

She grew up in the suburbs of Bradford not far from the Yorkshire moors, with her parents, who ran a successful clothes manufacturing company, and her younger brother Kuldeep. ‘The two of us would go off on our bikes and you’d be in the countryside before you know it,’ she recalls. ‘Brontë country, Ilkley Moor, Baildon Moor… it just felt like an extension of my life. (Francesca Babb)

Patheos's Religion Prof is excited about a new journal on historical research:

 In Master and Servant, the historian Carolyn Steedman documents the everyday experience of Phoebe Beatson, a single, illiterate, female domestic employee in the eighteenth century. While Steedman employs the protocols of social history to locate Phoebe in her world by drawing on extant records of working-class life and the papers left behind by her employer, she also utilizes Nelly Dean, the housekeeper in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, as an instrument for imaginatively reconstructing Phoebe’s interiority. (James F. McGrath)

Cambridge News has an easy question for you:

13. In which novel does the heroine finally marry Mr. Rochester? (Lauren Brown)

The New York Times publishes the obituary of the opera singer John Macurdy:

He continued to sing with that company and elsewhere, including the Santa Fe Opera, where in 1958 he appeared as Mr. Earnshaw in the world premiere of Carlisle Floyd’s “Wuthering Heights.”

Evoke reviews the TV series Normal People:

Yes, we can flippantly say it’s the TV sensation of 2020, but I don’t think we should underestimate its value. Alongside the outpouring of affection to Marianne and Connell, on a level that even the staunchest Wuthering Heights devotees would struggle to match, there is a whole lot of public sharing. A sharing of memories, of firsts, of formative teenage experiences and of similar traumas inflicted while navigating those difficult years of early adulthood. (Jess O'Sullivan)

Digital Trends (Spain) lists romantic movies on Netflix:

Este clásico de 1992, dirigido por James Ivory, presenta actuaciones destacadas de los icónicos actores Anthony Hopkins y Emma Thompson. Al explorar las diversas clases sociales de la Inglaterra victoriana, esta historia sigue a tres familias que luchan por dejar su huella en el mundo. Mientras tanto, el creciente amor entre Margaret (Thompson) y Henry (Hopkins) amenaza con transformarse en un escándalo. Si eres fanático de la novelista Charlotte Brontë, esta historia de amor victoriano es para ti. (Translation)

La Vanguardia (Spain) has a Sunday literary quiz:

Las asombrosas Brontë
Las tres hermanas Brontë se criaron sin madre y se quedaron solteras en la casa de su padre, pastor anglicano. Mientras horneaban el pan y atendían a su hermano alcoholizado, estudiaban alemán o escribían poesías en secreto. Charlotte le mandó algunas para su consideración a un autor de cierta consideración en la época, cuyo nombre todo el mundo ha olvidado, que le respondió: “La literatura no tiene razón de ser en la vida de una mujer”. Pero las hermanas Brontë no se rendían fácilmente. Publicaron juntas en 1846 su primer libro, donde reunieron poemas de las tres, firmado con los seudónimos masculinos Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) y Acton (Anne) y el apellido ficticio que utilizaron para publicar sus obras posteriores:
1. Bell
2. Harris
3. Pebbles
4. Wordsworth  (Profesor Iturbe) (Translation)

La Repubblica (Italy) quotes Chiara Gamberale saying

Ai Dialoghi ne parlo prendendo spunto da un poeta surrealista rumeno, Gherasim Luca, e da Cime tempestose, il mio romanzo d'amore preferito" anticipa la scrittrice, che il 25 giugno esce con un libro scritto durante il lockdown, Come il mare in un bicchiere (Feltrinelli). (Translation)

Europa Sur (Spain) thinks that the president of Madrid has a Jane Eyre air:

En estas difíciles circunstancias, Ayuso ha demostrado carácter y energía suficiente para mantener su compromiso con el destino de los madrileños, una forma de ser que la equipara a la peripecia vital de Jane Eyre, una muchacha rebelde y contestataria que Charlotte Brönte (sic) convirtió en precursora del feminismo. (Translation) 

We can confirm that the umlaut sickness (quite prevalent in some Spanish journalists) is not related to the use of psychoactive drugs, we're not so sure about the rest of the article.

CinqueW News (Italy) interviews the writer Sunny Valerio:

Sarebbe un po’ presuntuoso dire che possiedo delle caratteristiche di tratteggio tute mie, inimitabili. Potrei dirlo se fossi Jane Austen, o Charlotte Brontë, ma credo che l’ammirazione che proprio queste due autrici mi suscitano, abbia una grande influenza sulla mia scrittura dal sapore un po’ antico e gotico. (Translation)

Adevarul (Romania) has another quiz with some Brontës on it. Letralia's Papeles de la Pandemia also mentions the Brontës. Mes Lectures Classiques (in French) reviews Jane Eyre. Granma (Cuba) recommends reading Wuthering Heights in the lockdown. Radio Perfil (Argentina) talks about Jane Eye 2011. Studenti (Italy) publishes a Wuthering Heights mind map.

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Selling Out Weary Women

A couple of Brontë-related presentations at the (virtual) John Hopkins University Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium: 

Selling Out: The Market as Autonomy in Brontë's Jane Eyre
Zuzu Tadeushuk, Wesleyan University
2020 JHU Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium.306

This paper draws on the anthropological literature on gift economies to reconsider the way Charlotte Brontë imagines the possibilities for women's commercial mobility in Victorian England. Specifically, it examines the overlap of gift and commercial economies in "Jane Eyre," investigating Jane's reliance on commerce as the source of her independence. It is the commercial marketplace that first takes Jane from Lowood and places her at Thornfield as a governess, and which later enables her to live autonomously as a school mistress in Morton. Reviewing pivotal commercial scenes in the text--such as the bridal shopping spree that makes Jane "burn with annoyance" and Jane's distribution of her inheritance among the cousins she feels indebted to. I examine the ways that gifts and commodities blend in this novel, and suggest that Jane deftly manipulates their convergence in order to avoid being converted into a sort of bride-commodity herself. Jane is only able to surrender herself to the gift economy of marriage, I conclude, after her inheritance permanently establishes her as a commercial actor in her own right. Money, this novel uncynically affirms, is one of the few tools able to transcend social prejudice and constraint.

Weary Women: Victorian Women and the Navigation of Space-less-ness 
Emily Alexander
2020 JHU Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium. 326.

Literary critics often emphasize the importance of physical space and privacy in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret, and George Eliot's Middlemarch. Critic Liana F. Piehler argues private physical spaces serve as a sanctuary from the patriarchal structures of the novel, providing the female protagonist room to think clearly. New historical literary critics including Karen Chase, Michael Levenson, and Elizabeth Langland show how evolving dynamics within Victorian society led to a growing public interest in the secrets of the private sphere--the sphere where women reigned--penetrating even the most intimate spaces. Tracing a pattern of patriarchal infringements on women's private spaces within these novels, however, I argue the physical privacy each character finds is mere illusion. It is only when they enter the liminal psychological space created in the borders of sleep--the process of falling asleep or waking from--where protagonists can obtain a true privacy, process her circumstances, and escape oppressive structures pervading societal and literary spaces in the nineteenth century, that something like true privacy can be found.

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Haworth's cobbled Main Street is silent

Many sites from all over the world are still reporting yesterday's announcement of an Emily Brontë biopic. But since all of them are basically repeating the same thing, we will skip them until there's something new or at least some new insight into it.

The Sun features Haworth and its traders.

Tourism centres like the village of Haworth are struggling under lockdown.
Literature fans usually flock to the place where the Brontë sisters wrote their classics, and also for the breathtaking scenery of the Yorkshire Moors.
Now its cobbled Main Street is silent. Here, in a snapshot of the independent high street, we speak to traders about how they are faring — and their hopes and fears for the future. (Kate Jackson)

Do read the full article if you can because, if you've ever been to Haworth, you will have in all likelihood stopped at these places.

Vulture can't wait to read Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Picture the spooky Victorian mansion where a Brontë heroine or a Sarah Waters character used to live, and transport it to a remote mountainside in Mexico in 1950, and you have Mexican Gothic. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s twisty new horror novel follows vibrant heroine Noemi Taboada who leaves her life as a debutante to check on her newly married cousin, Catalina, who has been sending some alarming letters home. Catalina has married into a creepy old English family who once ran a silver mine in the neighboring village, and who now live an isolated existence in High Place, a dark and dreary estate that lacks electricity but has an appropriately misty graveyard. Is Catalina being poisoned or haunted by ghosts or has she simply gone mad from living at High Place or all of the above? Moreno-Garcia puts a new spin on a pleasantly familiar trope as Noemi learns more about her cousin’s eugenics-obsessed in-laws and their dark secrets. (Hillary Kelly)

The Hot Corn (Italy) features Franco Zeffirelli's Jane Eyre, which was on Italian TV recently.

Un grande classico della letteratura inglese dell’Ottocento è una di quelle storie a cui magari molti danno poco credito, complici quei pregiudizi che vedono il romanzo e i suoi simili come delle semplici e tragiche storie d’amore. Ma stiamo parlando di Jane Eyre, uscito nel 1847, un romanzo di formazione che è una storia d’amore, sì, ma tutto fuorché semplice. Piena di ricche e profonde emozioni, è prima di tutto un grande appello all’emancipazione femminile. Le vicende che dall’asilo di Lowood portano Jane a diventare la governante in casa Rochester e i sogni di un amore che pian piano si rivela impossibile sono il pretesto per mostrare il coraggio e l’intelligenza di una donna capace di andare oltre le apparenze alla ricerca di rapporti veri. «Vi ho detto che sono indipendente, signore, così come ricca: sono padrona di me stessa», proclama la giovane antieroina. (Ileana Dugato) (Translation)

Cinematographe (Italy) reviews it too.

Zeffirelli coglie la voce di Charlotte Brontë ed è in grado di parlare non solo a chi ama il romanzo ma anche a chi non lo ha mai letto, a chi è attratto dai racconti inanellati e intrecciati (la storia della piccola Jane, quella della grande Jane, quella d’amore tra il ricco e la povera, la rinascita di chi non aveva alcuna possibilità) che poi si sciolgono e si accomodano. I due protagonisti sono complessi, bruschi, impulsivi, e sembrano avere molto a che fare con il cinema di Franco Zeffirelli. Il regista segue e insegue Edward e Jane, il loro avvicinarsi e allontanarsi, fin dalla prima volta in cui si vedono si innamorano, lo si capisce subito, nonostante le differenze, le ombre, o forse proprio per tutto questo. Il dramma del matrimonio precedente di Rochester, la nascita della piccola Adele, sembra combaciare con quello della vita di Jane, rimasta sola da piccolissima e non voluta né dalla zia né dai cugini. [...]
Jane Eyre è un film segnato da una narrazione semplice e fluida, che porta al cinema una versione che sa catturare lo spettatore immergendolo nel bel mezzo del gorgo drammatico di Jane. L’opera di Zeffirelli riesce a raccontare Jane, il suo amore per Rochester, i suoi squarci nel cuore, i baci e gli sguardi tra loro, la comparsa di quella donna nascosta che sembra la strega cattiva delle favole ma che in realtà è solo una bambina egoista e sofferente per i suoi pensieri tristi. (Eleonora Degrassi) (Translation)

Actress Julie Hesmondhalgh shares her culture fix in The Times:

The best gig of my life. Patti Smith at Burnley Mechanics, a tiny little space in east Lancashire. When we saw in the brochure that she would be performing there — the auditorium holds about 100 — we checked and double-checked because we were sure it must be a tribute act, but no, it was the One and Only over doing a tiny acoustic tour, starting at the Brontë parsonage and then at some little venues in the vicinity. I was there with my husband and daughter and my besties, and my dad hadn’t long died, and when she sang her lullaby The Jackson Song, I had something near to what I would describe as a spiritual experience. She touched something deep inside me that night.

The Bay Bridged comments on Twine, the long awaited single from Santa Cruz folk band MAJK.

Both technical and tasteful, "Twine" is a melancholic, baroque-esque ballad. Featuring a vulnerability and conviction with its bewitching play of legato vocals and strings over a warm bed of rich finger-picked guitar, it would be the ideal soundtrack to Wuthering Heights. (Daniel Talamantes)

This Evening Express columnist didn't enjoy the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's Normal People.

However, after finding the first episode a bit slow, the second began with a blast of sexual antics that fair had me peekin’ through my fingers. Too much long-forgotten information. I had to fast-forward.
Trying to be trendy, I persisted but it didn’t work.
Couldna stick the heroine. Nae great for a tear-jerkin’ romance. Like taking a dislike to Jane Eyre. (Moreen Simpson)

By Nuria Riaza

Time Out (Spain) shows the beautiful poster created by artist Nuria Riaza for this year's Feria del Libro de Madrid.

La pieza es obra de la ilustradora Nuria Riaza, que ha apelado "a la lectura y la escritura como símbolos de futuro y empoderamiento". Su dibujo, que se replicará en innumerables formatos del 2 al 18 de octubre en el Paseo de Coches del Retiro, es también una reivindicación en favor de "tantas mujeres, de antes y ahora, sin una habitación propia". Su referencia a Virginia Wolf [sic] es obvia. Sin embargo, la artista ha encontrado la inspiración tanto en la artesanía de sus propias abuelas como en el legado de nombres tan importantes como Mary Ann Evans, las hermanas Brontë, Louisa May Alcott, Violet Paget, Karen Blixen, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, Cecilia Böhl de Faber, Caterina Albert, Amantine Dupin o J. K. Rowling. (Gorka Elorrieta) (Translation)

El Correo (Spain) discusses literary misanthropes.

La misantropía es recurrente en las novelas románticas. La encarna Edmundo Dantés, de Alejandro Dumas, injustamente encarcelado y reconvertido en el justiciero, sombrío y solitario Conde de Montecristo en busca de venganza. También la quiere el resentido Heathcliff de 'Cumbres borrascosas', de Emily Brontë, que vive para el desquite de su amor perdido. (Luisa Idoate) (Translation)

The Eyre Guide reviews Jane by Aline Brosh McKenna.

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The best translation of Wuthering Heights

A few days ago the Gregor Von Rezzori book festival made public the award for the best translation into Italian to Monica Pareschi:

Gregor Von Rezzori Award
Città di Firenze
XIV Edition
The prize for the best translation into Italian has been assigned by Andrea Landolfi to:
Monica Pareschi for her translation of Cime Tempestose (Wuthering Heights) by Emily Brontë (Einaudi)

 (Via ANSA)

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Emily Brontë biopic on the way

Breaking news today: it looks like an Emily Brontë biopic is in the making! Many, many sites are echoing the news, but here's what The Hollywood Reporter says:

Source

Sex Education star Emma Mackey has nabbed the lead role in Emily, Frances O’Connor’s directorial debut about the early years of Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë.
Embankment is handling world sales on the project, which will be introduced to buyers at the upcoming Cannes virtual market.
The ensemble cast also includes Joe Alwyn, Fionn Whitehead and Emily Beecham. Alwyn will play Emily’s conflicted lover; Whitehead will portray Branwell Brontë, Emily’s inspiring but self-destructive brother; and Beecham will play Emily's sister and fellow author Charlotte Brontë.
Wuthering Heights was first published in the mid-1800s and revolves around the doomed love affair between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. O'Connor, who starred in Mansfield Park (1999), will direct Emily based on her own screenplay.
"Emily Brontë’s work and words are full of passion, feeling, violence and fierce intelligence," O'Connor said Thursday in a statement. "In creating an imagined life for Emily, she will live again for our audience. Her story is about a young woman daring to form herself, to embrace her true nature, despite the consequences. ... I am so excited to work with such a thrilling, talented, young cast; luminous, intelligent, and spirited."
Production on Emily is set to start in Britain's Yorkshire region in early 2021. Producer credits are shared between David Barron, Piers Tempest and Jo Bamford of Tempo Productions and Robert Connolly and Robert Patterson of Arenamedia.

Rest of the announced cast. Clockwise: Charlotte,
'Emily’s conflicted lover' and Branwell

Added Barron in his own statement: "We are going to produce a movie of significant ambition, for audiences to enjoy and celebrate the scale of Emily Brontë’s own magnificent imagination.” (Etan Vlessing)

More from Variety:

O’Connor said: “Emily Brontë’s work and words are full of passion, feeling, violence, and fierce intelligence. In creating an imagined life for Emily, she will live again for our audience. Her story is about a young woman daring to form herself, to embrace her true nature, despite the consequences. Emily is, in fact, a love letter to women today, especially young women, a calling to them to challenge themselves to connect with their authentic voice and potential.” [...]
Principal photography will start in the first quarter of next year in Yorkshire, U.K. [...]
“Emily” is produced by David Barron [who said] “We are going to produce a movie of significant ambition – for audiences to enjoy and celebrate the scale of Emily Brontë’s own magnificent imagination.”
Embankment’s Tim Haslam said: “We really admire Frances’ expertise for combining highly refreshing and emotional storytelling with detailed research and nuanced observation and we celebrate her as a new voice of cinema.”
Embankment is placing worldwide sales and distribution for a 2022 release. (Leo Barraclough)

Many, many more sites are relaying the news, but basically, that's all the info we have so far. Given that no actress has been named for Anne we wonder whether she will even appear. Anyway, we do hope it will come to happen as we are duly intrigued.

Anyway, onto our regular newsround now. Penguin recommends the 'greatest walks in literature' and one of them is

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Just how many hours did Cathy and Heathcliff (and their ghosts) spend walking the moors in search of each other? Many, many hours is the answer. Emily Bronte's descriptions of the Yorkshire moors as the bleak but atmospheric setting for the tragic love affair evoke a real sense of place. So popular is the setting of Bronte's novel that there are dozens of websites offering information on how to walk the landscape of Wuthering Heights. One to add to the list after lockdown (unless you're lucky enough to live near the moors).

The Digital Fix reviews the novel Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia.

With heavy referencing from Dracula, The Fall of the House of Usher and a whole range of Edgar Allan Poe works, SIlvia Moreno-Garcia really leaves no Victorian Gothic novel unmined, overtly referencing Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, but also referencing The Yellow Wallpaper as an indication of madness. (Noel Megahey)

The Nerd Daily reviews Thornhill by Pam Smy.

For fans of We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, Thornill is a graphic novel that you will be devour in one sitting. With some lovely nods to classic literature, such as The Secret Garden or Jane Eyre, Pam Smy is able to portray that decaying loneliness of some of the greatest pieces of literature, while being able to appeal to people who would rather enjoy a piece of current times. Don’t be afraid to meet the ghost of Thornhill, because it is the only soul that will not haunt your nightmares. After all, all we ever want is a true friend we can cherish and who loves us back. (Ankara C)

Onirik (France) interviews Anna Feissel-Leibovici, author of Quel Brontë êtes-vous ?

Onirik : Bonjour Anna, pouvez-vous en quelques mots, présenter votre parcours, qu’est-ce qui vous a amenée à écrire ce livre ? Anna Feissel-Leibovici  : Je suis devenue psychanalyste après avoir fait de longues études de lettres classiques. Ce sont deux disciplines qui s’accordent très bien et se nourrissent l’une de l’autre. Freud disait que les écrivains précèdent les psychanalystes dans l’art d’éclairer les énigmes de la psyché humaine, et que leurs œuvres ont pour eux valeur d’enseignement. J’étais déjà autrice de deux livres de psychanalyse, mais j’avais le désir d’écrire quelque chose de purement littéraire. Le temps passait, lorsque j’ai rencontré les Brontë. Je parle des personnes, plus encore que de leurs œuvres. Je n’ai plus pu les quitter.
C’est ma « Brontëmania » qui m’a poussée à écrire un livre pour me dégager d’une passion qui devenait un peu trop prenante. Pendant plusieurs années, je n’ai plus lu que leurs romans ou bien les biographies qui leur étaient consacrées. C’était une expérience étrange, mais tellement agréable, que je risquais de me complaire dans le monde où je vivais avec ceux qui étaient devenus mes sisters and brother. Il est devenu clair, à un moment, qu’il me fallait percer la bulle en faisant quelque chose de ce que j’avais vécu dans leur compagnie. Leur fréquentation avait eu des effets sur ma vie. Je ne voulais pas écrire une biographie de plus- il y en a déjà tant et d’excellentes-, mais un livre qui puise autant dans la vie des Brontë que dans la mienne et qui relate mon aventure avec eux.
Le moment qui a toutefois été déterminant fut celui où j’ai découvert que les enfants Brontë avaient tous les quatre été des enfants écrivains, et cela bien avant que les sisters ne deviennent les autrices de chefs-d’œuvre inoubliables. Les Juvenilia, ou œuvres de jeunesse, comptent plus de pages à elles seules que tous les romans des sisters réunis. Elles sont écrites d’une écriture minuscule impossible à déchiffrer à l’œil nu. Ce sont les chroniques de « Verdopolis », le monde imaginaire très élaboré que les jeunes Brontë inventèrent et firent vivre d’abord tous les quatre, avant qu’Emily et Anne ne prennent leur indépendance en créant leur propre royaume, « Gondal ». C’était un merveilleux remède contre la solitude dans laquelle vivaient les sisters and brother, qui avaient perdu leur mère très tôt et dont le père était lui-même de nature solitaire, outre le fait qu’il était occupé par ses ouailles et ses sermons. (Claire Saim) (Translation)

The Yorkshire Post has something really terrible (but sadly true) to say about the uncertain future of BBC Four.

The Covid-19 crisis has created a £125m hole in its funding. And – when it comes to budget cuts – live drama performances, documentaries about the Brontës and Bach concerts will always be deemed more dispensable than bland reality shows, terrible cross-dressing sitcoms and the enormous salaries of high-profile, high-earning presenters. (Anthony Clavane)

O Liberal (Brazil) recommends hopeful books for students to read during the pandemic, including Jane Eyre. While Time magazine features a student who's reading exactly that.

Finally, today is World Goth Day according to Republic World, so a fitting day for the Emily announcement.

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