First of all, a couple of updates from the Brontë Parsonage Museum on Twitter,
South China Morning Post reviews the new retelling of
Jane Eyre by Tanya Landman.
It’s a good time to read this story of distance, abandonment and isolation. Brontë herself lived a fairly isolated life with her brother and two sisters in a remote vicarage. Each of the sisters wrote novels which they published under false male names. Jane Eyre is perhaps the best known.
However, it’s not the easiest novel for contemporary readers to tackle. It was very much of its time, full of the dense, heavy prose and complex plots that Victorian readers were used to. Tanya Landman’s repackaging is a thoughtful and reader-friendly retelling that retains the heart, plot and passion of the original. But where many simplified versions of classics hack away chunks of the original text, this is a fluid, fluent work in its own right.
Landman is an impeccable writer of no-nonsense English, as her own award-winning YA novels show. She won a Carnegie medal for her 2014 novel Buffalo Soldier, and been shortlisted for awards such as the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Jane’s narration is central to the story, and it is in safe hands: Landman in no way waters down her determination, fierce independence and intelligence.
First-time readers will be quickly caught up in this retelling. The mystery of who or what is causing the commotion in the attic is even more gripping here than it is in the original.
Jane Eyre is also one of the world’s great romances, where the love of a good woman thaws the hard heart of one of literature’s classic brooding male creations. Jane’s unselfish devotion to the dark figure of Mr Rochester might seem a bit out-of-step with modern expectations, but that doesn’t slow the story, as it flies along to its famous final words.
In Landman, Jane has found the perfect translator to introduce her to modern teen readers. (John Millen)
Largs & Millport News lists '10 classic novels you always meant to read' such as
6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
You can totally listen to the Kate Bush song, but the book is even better. Wuthering Heights is ostensibly a love story between Cathy and Heathcliff, but don’t expect a romcom.
Instead, it’s a dark tale of obsession, desire and revenge. Heathcliff is adopted into a wealthy family but is soon reduced to the status of servant and runs away when Cathy marries someone else. Years later, he returns to wreak his revenge.
The Daily Mail recommends
Poems to Fall in Love with, chosen and illustrated by Chris Riddell
[...]
His choices range from classic names such as Byron, Shelley, Emily Brontë and Yeats to popular modern voices including Kit Wright, Wendy Cope and Carol Ann Duffy. (Bel Mooney)
Comic Book interviews writer Laura Marks and artist Kelley Jones about their
Daphne Byrne #4.
ComicBook: I’ve referenced in my reviews that Daphne Byrne embodies some of the literature of its setting and period, featuring some strong Romantic tendencies. Are there any cultural works that you’ve found to be a strong influence or touchstone while crafting the series? Marks: Kelley and I both work really hard to get the period details right. We found early on that we had a shared love of 19th century ghost stories, by M.R. James and the rest. I’ve always loved the uncanny weirdness of the Brontë sisters. And the specific Old New York setting is inspired by Henry James and Edith Wharton — and by a lot of the architecture I see every day in Brooklyn. Arthur Conan Doyle’s History of Spiritualism was a fun resource, too.
Jones: I want it to be a seen as a dark fairy tale. I imagine it as if it had been a Hammer film directed by Terence Fisher, and try to put that to paper. (Chase Magnett)
The American Reporter reviews
The Black Butterfly.
The theatrical performance, part 1 by Eva Rojano.
My verdict is, though, than more than just a copy paste of Pretty woman, the Black Butterfly is reminiscent of Paul Verhoeven’s underrated and mostly dusty Showgirls from 1995, by exposing in a gritty way the problems that women that opt to a life of open sexuality in exchange of money can bring into their already, complicated lives. So no, this book is not really a romantic tale a la Charlotte Brontë and Serena is in no way a Jane Eyre, but a different kind of ‘sex heroine’ that has managed to overcome the scarcities of her own life…well, maybe so a Jane Eyre of these modern sinful times. (Richard Brown)
The American Interest discusses the Netflix series
Unorthodox and the memoir on which it's based,
Unorthodox. The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman.
In the book, Feldman recounts her gradual awakening, beginning with clandestine readings of Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre, and Little Women—stories that not only provided her with strong female role models but also helped her understand that there was a world outside the ultra-Orthodox enclave. Feldman also describes how she, like Esty, suffered through painful sex in the early days of her arranged marriage, felt completely stifled not just by her husband but also by his intrusive family, and finally managed to mobilize the resources and wherewithal to leave.
Pop Culture Times is looking forward to the second season of
Taboo starring Tom Hardy whose
character mirrors the majority of typical male figures from Heathcliff, Oedipus to Hannibal Lecter. (Manya Mehta)
BBC Radio 4 suggests listening to 'The classic novels you never got around to reading' such as
Wuthering Heights.
Deutschlandfunk (Germany) features
Jane Eyre.
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