Gothic mansions

We are beginning to see some lukewarm (to put it mildly) reviews of the forthcoming adaptation of Rebecca available for streaming on Netflix from October 21st. From Los Angeles Times:

Talk about beloved predecessors! The Hitchcock film, peerlessly acted by Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier and Judith Anderson, is widely considered definitive, but it has never struck me as sacrosanct. Not unlike “Jane Eyre,” its partner in oft-adapted Gothic romance, “Rebecca” is durable enough to withstand and even reward multiple interpretations. Who wouldn’t dream of going to Manderley again? (Justin Chang)

From Chicago Tribune:

Nobody and nothing seems remotely real; the digital trickery complementing the English and French location work ventures perilously near live-action-Disney-remake territory. The ingrained class resentments are handled so broadly, the actors don’t have a chance. Except Scott Thomas.

“Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?” Danvers murmurs with fire (foreshadowing!) in her eyes, goading the second Mrs. de Winter. The line belongs to du Maurier; the bones of the story remain hers as well. Watching Wheatley’s version of “Rebecca,” it’s hard to care about where that question might be leading. The author’s obvious Brontë inspirations, “Jane Eyre” (Charlotte) and “Wuthering Heights” (Emily), remain for some of us more a matter of admiration than ardor. The Hitchcock version of “Rebecca,” same thing. (Michael Phillips)

SyFyWire looks at Gothic mansions:

Ghosts are just as versatile as humans when it comes to the homes they take up residence in. Real estate can be just as daunting for the dead as it is for the living, so haunted houses come in all shapes and sizes. There isn't a certain historical grade or building age cutoff for malevolent spirits. Suburbs are desirable, but secrets that linger in older buildings are formidable. A mainstay of the genre is the Gothic mansion, which provided the location for scares long before cinema in novels by Emily Brontë and Edgar Allan Poe short stories. A once-impressive building is now in a state of disarray, and the creaking and dilapidated condition only adds to the frightening visage. While the estate is likely lacking funds, the rich history provides a wealth of spooky material in drumming up scares for the residents, visiting guests, and the audience. (Emma Fraser)

Similarly, Nerdist reviews The Haunting of Bly Manor.

Gothic romance has enchanted us with yarns about naive women and the dangerous, wealthy men who lure them in since the 1800s. Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor takes the structure and atmosphere that stories like Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, and Jane Eyre established and makes subtle shifts. These shifts subvert the genre. They broaden the idea of who deserves love, what it means to be loved, and who gets to be at the center of a love story. (Rosie Knight)

More enlightening as to what Dark Academia is from The Tab:

Dark academia’s seminal text is Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, it’s where loads of TikTok users get inspiration from. Other dark academia books include Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, If We Were Villains by M.L.Rio and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. (Lydia Venn)

The Times reviews Red Comet by Heather Clark, a new biography of Sylvia Plath, describing Ted Hughes as

Her Heathcliff, her brooding, handsome, “hunky” poet of the Yorkshire moors (“Ted Huge” was one nickname). (Laura Freeman)

SWR2 (Germany) shares the third instalment of the podcast about the Brontë sisters accompanied by music based on their works.