Lucidity of Madness

Charlotte Brontë's flattering words about TB appear again in an article in The Indian Express:

Some believed that tuberculosis was even caused by too much thinking or, well, excessive dancing. “TB was thought to come from too much passion, afflicting the reckless and sensual,” Susan Sontag has written in “Illness as a metaphor.” Given all this, it is not really surprising that a lot of people went out of their way to look as if they suffered from tuberculosis. Long dresses with high waists that stressed the thinness of the person wearing them were the rage. Necklines and backs dipped to display (often) bony shoulders. People painted their faces white and applied lip colour for the “consumption look.” Even the great writer Charlotte Brontë referred to it as a “flattering malady.” (Nimish Dubey)

Another columnist in The Indian Times also mentions the Brontës:

It is not the hero Heathcliff we always hear in Wuthering Heights, but Lockwood, the tenant and narrator. (Shinie Antony)

Nerd Daily interviews the writer Elisabeth Thomas

Beth Mowbray: There are many elements woven together in Catherine House — a Gothic feel in a non-traditional private school setting, plenty of suspense, and the conundrum that is coming-of-age, just to name a few. Aside from your experience at Yale as discussed above, what other influences led to the idea for this novel?
Growing up, I liked classic Gothic novels like Jane Eyre, Rebecca, and Frankenstein, and fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast and Bluebeard. With Catherine House, I wanted to play with some of the tropes from those stories—the haunted houses and damsels in distress, the strange labs with dangerous secrets—but create something that felt contemporary, lively, and realistic in its own twisted way.

Daily Titan and theatrical makeup careers:

Events in our early life often foreshadow the future. For Samantha McCabe, an advanced theatrical makeup student, her passion for makeup started when she was three years old. And, to no surprise, she loved Halloween. (...)
McCabe has worked on several successful CSUF theatre productions, including “Beauty and the Beast,”  “Jane Eyre” and “The Moors.”
Designing “Jane Eyre” was the most challenging for her because of the need to be historically accurate, she said.
“The other difficulties designing “Jane Eyre” was needing to seamlessly blend their natural hair with their wigs is really tough. Picking hair colors that complimented their skin tones but also making sure that the wigs fit the actor and are comfortable, and making sure that the intricate designs that I put in them are durable for the quick changes,” McCabe said.
“The Moors” was her favorite project. She said she enjoyed the creative freedom the director gave her, as she designed all the hair and makeup for the show.
“I just had full range to really step outside of the box and just be completely creative with it,” McCabe said.  (Anthony Robledo)

Emily Brontë has not divinised human love but humanised divine love, according to La Repubblica (Italy):

Se qualcuno confonde i romanzi d'amore con la letteratura sentimentale, per signorine, deve leggere quella che è forse la più grande storia d'amore mai scritta, "Cime tempestose". Vedrà che l'amore, quello vero, l'amore supremo, è una potenza terribile. Che ustiona tutto quello che tocca, che distrugge case, oggetti, persone e anime, che varca il tempo, che varca la morte. Heatcliff, un demone sofferente e straziato, per vent'anni insegue la morta Catherine, il suo spettro? Il suo fantasma? Le sue stesse mani ghiacciate? In una progressione di delirio che qui, per la prima volta, trova modo di esprimersi. Ma è stata Catherine, ancora in vita, a definire con la lucidità della follia l'essenza del legame che li lega. (Gian Arturo Ferrari) (Translation)

Público (Spain) interviews the molecular biologist María Blanco:

Henrique Mariño: Antes existían, si bien no llegaban a padecerlas porque, como usted señalaba, muchas personas fallecían al nacer, por una infección o en una guerra.
Claro. Ahora la incidencia y la proyección de estas enfermedades está aumentando porque proporcionalmente cada vez hay más gente mayor. Fíjate en escritores famosos como Lord Byron, quien murió a los treinta y seis años aquejado de una fiebre, o en Emily Brontë, víctima de una tuberculosis a los treinta. (Translation)

Le Soir (Belgium) mentions Jane Eyre:

Il se sent plus proche de la colère vengeresse du comte de Monte-Cristo, de la vaillante assurance de Jane Eyre. (Jean-Claude Vantroyen) (Translation)

El Heraldo (Colombia) mentions a curious fact:

En límites con los barrios San Martín y Pescaíto, adyacente al puerto marítimo y a un costado de la Vía Alterna está Villa Tabla, barrio popular de Santa Marta con aproximadamente 1.800 habitantes. (...) Un vecino, Carlos Sarmiento, dijo que le gustaba más el nombre que le habían denominado en sus inicios, ‘Cumbres Borrascosas’, como la famosa novela de Emily Brontë. Afirma que el progreso del barrio ha sido casi poco, pero lo que más los aflige es la falta de agua potable. (Agustín Iguarán) (Translation)

Biblioblog Evere (in French) posts about Les Soeurs Brontë by Laura El Makki. Le Petit Monde de Clem and Les Pingouins Amoureux (both in French) reviews Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, respectively. Octagon's Theatre Crazy Patchwork Design Challenge uses fabric from their Jane Eyre production.

Finally, a musical alert for today, May 17:

 Songs Our Mothers Taught Us’ on Facebook
“Songs Our Mothers Taught Us” will be livestreamed at 3 p.m. today on Facebook.
The recital, thrice postponed, will feature Pamela Howland, Steinway artist, with her daughter Andrea Howland on vocals.
They will perform an American spiritual, Schumann’s “A Woman’s Life and Loves,” an aria from “Wuthering Heights,” Dvorak’s “Gypsy Songs,” and Howland’s solo piano pieces “Three Scenes from Poland.” (Lynn Felder in Winston-Salem Journal)