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Thursday, December 31, 2020

Thursday, December 31, 2020 11:09 am by Cristina in , , , ,    No comments
Crime Fiction Lover reviews The Diabolical Bones by Bella Ellis.
If, like the author, you are a Brontë fan with a love of the gothic then The Diabolical Bones will thrill you. If you admire the Brontë’s works but prefer your mysteries to be more realistic, you may be overwhelmed at times by the melodrama and descriptions of pagan practices to banish evil.
These concerns are redeemed for the latter group of readers, as it turns out that the sisters are pursuing someone completely deranged and wicked, who has been using the folklore and superstition to manipulate the sisters and prey on the locals.
Like the Victorian novelists, the book reveals the social horrors of the day, from desperate child poverty to prejudice against Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine. The squabbles of the siblings are charming and witty and lift the mood. Their characters are well drawn with bossy Charlotte, logical and fearless Emily and intuitive and insightful Anne. They make a splendid team of sleuths. 
It’s rollicking gothic fun and it is worth putting on your stout shoes and bonnet for an imaginative adventure across the midwinter moors. There will be more to come in the mystery series, written by author Rowan Coleman using her pseudonym inspired by Emily Brontë’s pen name Ellis Bell. (Catherine Turnbull)
Parade celebrates PBS Masterpiece's 50th anniversary.
It is through Masterpiece that TV audiences have largely come to know the plays of William Shakespeare; the novels of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters; the detective stories of Agatha Christie; adaptations of more recent historical classics like Wolf Hall; and written-for-TV phenomena such as Prime Suspect, Victoria and, most famously, Downton Abbey. (Will Lawrence)
Arab News reviews Netflix's Bridgerton.
However, beyond this, “Bridgerton” comes off as a shallow piece of fiction that outweighs itself with style, not substance, because so much of it is all about how a woman looks.
We have had Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters, who also spoke about these, but gave their stories something solid for us to reflect upon long after we stopped turning the pages. (Gautaman Bhaskaran)
Daily Mail features Sheila Hancock who is now Dame Sheila Hancock.
She was married to Inspector Morse actor Thaw until his death, also from oesophageal cancer, in 2002. [...]
Dame Sheila wrote movingly about her relationship with Thaw in the 2004 dual biography The Two Of Us, which reflected on the couple's 28-year marriage and his battles with alcoholism and depression.
Speaking after his death, the star revealed that she begged her husband not to die, pleading with him not to leave her. 
The actress said the love they shared was so strong that it bordered on 'obsessive', and said that neither she nor John could ever imagine being apart from each other.
Dame Sheila made the admission to Radio Times magazine as she compared her and John's love to tragic lovers Cathy and Heathcliff in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights
She said: 'If you have ever known that obsessive love, which sometimes makes it difficult to be together but impossible to be apart, you can identify with the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff.' (Bhvishya Patel)
Le bleu du miroir writes in French about Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights 2011.
12:30 am by M. in    No comments
A Brontë year (and quite a year it has been) in images. As you can imagine not so many things as other years, but we still had some months of (old) normality and several more of  (new) anormality:

In Art/Exhibitions:



In Books / Audiobooks:


In Memoriam 2020:


In Movies-DVD-TV:



In Music:



In Theatre / Dance :



In Brontë News:


Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Keighley News presents John Hennessy's A Brontë Quizbook, first published on this blog at the beginning of the pandemic:
A quizbook has been published to help raise money for the Brontë Society’s Covid fund.
A Brontë Quizbook contains 400 questions to test people’s knowledge of Haworth’s famous literary family – their lives, writings and environment.
The book has been collated by John Hennessy, a member of the Brontë Society.
He has donated all copies to the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth, for sale in the shop when it reopens and online.
Originally the questions were carried via the Brontë Blog in 12 separate quizzes.
“I wrote the set of quizzes at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis,” said Mr Hennessy.
“Now picture questions have been added and everything collated into book form.
“Every penny from sales will go into the society’s Covid fund.”
The book is published by WK Publishing and sells for £7.50, plus postage and packing for copies bought online.
The museum is currently closed but copies can be obtained at bronte.org.uk/bronte-shop/miscellaneous/627/a-bronte-quiz-book. (Alistair Shand)
The New Yorker explores Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway:
In 1916, Virginia Woolf wrote about a peculiarity that runs through all real works of art. The books of certain writers (she was speaking of Charlotte Brontë at the time) seem to shape-shift with each reading. The plot might become comfortingly familiar, but the emotional revelations within it change. Scenes once passed over as unimportant begin to prickle with new meaning, as if time itself had been the missing ingredient for understanding them. (Jennifer Offill)
Chronicles Magazine looks at Jane Eyre from a very specific angle and perspective:
Because many sexual mores have been thrown out the window, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is a refreshing reminder that commitment to sound, moral principles—particularly in matters of marriage and sex—pays off in the end. Postmodern society would likely call Brontë’s title character a prude, but the positive effects of Jane’s moral uprightness and patience are hard to argue with. (Annie Holmquist)
The Bishop of Bradford in The Telegraph & Argus reflects on 2020 and reminds us of the fact that
2020 is the 200th anniversary of the Brontë family’s arrival at Haworth Parsonage – a village where thousands died, poisoned by unclean water until an improvement campaign led by Revd Patrick Brontë forced the authorities to put in new water pipes. (Rt Revd Toby Howarth)
Things to do (hopefully) in Manchester next year, according to Manchester Evening News:
 Spring 2021 will see the opening of a new chapter for Elizabeth Gaskell’s House with the public launch of the celebrated author’s bedroom - recreated to reflect how it would have looked when she lived at the property.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s bedroom will add a new dimension to the visitor experience, revealing more of her character and life as an author in Victorian times. 
The grade II* listed property was restored in 2014, enabling visitors to discover how Elizabeth lived, where she wrote some of her most famous novels, where she entertained guests, including Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens, and the gardens she cherished. (Zara Whelan)
Otakukart recommends period romances currently on Netflix:
Jane Eyre (2011). Based on one of Charlotte Brontë’s epics, this 2011 remake of her beloved novel is everything fancy, fun, and incredible. Having Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, and Jamie Bell in the lead roles, it portrays the story of a young governess named Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowska) who begins to develop a romantic bond with her boss Edward Rochester (Fassbender). Later on, she discovers that he is concealing a terrible secret inside him, which leads to a massive turn in the story. 
The Washington Post discusses the consequences of The Great Gatsby entering public domain:
There are abiding challenges with any try to enhance — or compete with — a revered textual content. The nervousness of affect can set off hysterical pastiche or castrate an creator’s creativity. But the greatest examples are neither parody nor fan fiction. Consider, as an example, “Wide Sargasso Sea,” Jean Rhys’s feminist interrogation of “Jane Eyre,” or “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” Tom Stoppard’s existential response to “Hamlet.” Both supply one thing ignited however not delimited by their supply. (Ron Charles)
Jessie Stephens on Mamamia thinks that
There's nothing worse than a book snob who thinks you should just re-read Jane Eyre until you die. 
We agree, there are other Bontë books as well.

Travel+Leisure lists locations on the TV series The Crown:
Wrotham Park might look a bit familiar – its film and TV credits are almost as long as the Queen’s Honours List. Highlights include "Bridget Jones’s Diary," "Gosford Park," "Vanity Fair," and "Jane Eyre" – and the good news is that the Palladian mansion is now available for private hire (dinner party for 120 guests anyone?) (Jonathan Thompson)
Thrillist lists some TV shows coming in 2021:
The Nevers
HBO
Joss Whedon created this HBO drama about Victorian women with supernatural powers—think Buffy meets, I don't know, the Brontës—but, embroiled in controversy, left the project in November after the season's 10 episodes wrapped. Olivia Williams, Laura Donnelly, and Ann Skelly play three of the so-called Nevers, while Nick Frost, Tom Riley, and Denis O'Hare also turn up.
Londra News (Italy) would love (who wouldn't?) to visit Yorkshire in 2021: 
Questa era anche la zona delle sorelle Brontë, celebri per i loro romanzi ambientati quasi sempre in Yorkshire. La loro zona viene ora chiamata Brontë Country e offre molto da vedere, se volete visitare lo Yorkshire non perdetela. (Lauren S Ambir) (Translation)
Ouest-France (France) presents the latest novel by Françoise du Clairais, Nionikan:
 « C’est un roman construit à partir de faits réels qui vous fera voyager, dans le temps et dans l’histoire, de Tahiti à la Nouvelle-Calédonie, jusqu’aux rives de la Loire, ce grand fleuve qui intimide », explique l’auteure. Il s’agit bien de témoignages, « loyalistes contre indépendantistes », où se mêlent l’amour pour la Nouvelle-Calédonie et l’amour romantique, à l’image des héroïnes du XIXe siècle. Un peu des Hauts de Hurlevent, d’Emily Brontë, avec en fond sonore, le tube de Kate Bush, Wuthering Heights, succès de 1978. (Translation)

Vnexpress (Vietnam) talks about Yorkshire. The Canal Educativo (Cuba) is airing Jane Eyre 2006 this week. Missmesmerized reviews The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins.

Two recent Brontë derivatives:
Moltinus 
ISBN : 978-2-490972-36-4

À Londres, les éditeurs leur font la cour et les invitent à rencontrer la société littéraire en s’imprégnant de culture — n’est-ce pas dans la capitale que celle-ci domine et rayonne, grâce aux découvertes dans tout l’Empire colonial britannique de la reine Victoria ? Au muséum, le public se passionne pour les mystères de l’égyptologie, la nouvelle science antique, dont la momie est sans conteste le phénomène le plus fascinant. On chuchote sous le manteau que les savants dissimulent de sombres histoires à son propos, aux détails macabres…
April 3, 2020

1800's Batman? No, no this is something much much better that'll hopefully make English class's classics less petrifying. This grand-slam detective novel set in 1800's London talks about Jane Eyre, the famed Charlotte Brontë heroine, now a super-sleuth collaborating with other characters from classical fiction from far and wide to take down London's organized crime ring.

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Tuesday, December 29, 2020 11:55 am by Cristina in , , , , , , ,    No comments
The New York Times wonders why it took so long to adapt a 'mass-market romance book' such as Bridgerton.
But like it or not, romance novels sell, just not to film or television. “Hollywood would rather do the 48th “Pride and Prejudice,” Julia Quinn, the author of the Bridgerton novels, said. (“Don’t get me wrong,” she added. “I’m here for those.”) Canonized as classics, novels by Austen and the Brontë sisters have a cultural cachet and unimpeachable literary value that drugstore romance lacks. (Alexis Soloski)
Entertainment (Ireland) recommends 6 shows to watch after the ubiquitous Bridgerton, including
Jane Eyre
Moving back to costume dramas - and book adaptations - briefly, the 2011 version of 'Jane Eyre' is excellent. Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender give impressive performances as the literary icons of Jane Eyre and Rochester. Additionally, the direction of Cary Joji Fukunaga (who would go on to land the latest Jame Bond gig, 'No Time to Die') proves tense, taut and atmospheric. (Deirdre Molumby)
The Irish Times discusses 'The exceptionalism of daughters of the Irish clergymen'.
It is 30 years since the death of Thekla Beere, one of the outstanding women in 20th-century Ireland. It is 50 years since the establishment of the First Commission on the Status of Women which was chaired by Beere and which represented a giant step forward on the path to equality for women, beginning with equal pay for equal work. [...]
Three years after Beere’s death, Hilda Tweedy, in a letter to TK Whitaker, said that she might attempt a biography of Beere. She said, “I first met Thekla when I was 11 years old, just after she returned from America, having completed the Rockefeller scholarship. We shared the same background, we were both clergymen’s daughters, educated at Alexandra School and College.”
In the event Tweedy did not achieve that goal but a fine biography of Beere was written by Anna Bryson. The title No Coward Soul is drawn from Emily Bronte, herself the daughter of an Irish Anglican clergyman. (Finola Kennedy)
L'actualité (France) recommends some holiday reads including
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë
Il y en a tellement ! Puisqu’il faut choisir, le roman Jane Eyre, de Charlotte Brontë. Je l’ai lu cent fois, en français et en anglais, et j’ai vu toutes les adaptations cinématographiques. Pour moi, c’est une des plus belles histoires d’amour de la littérature, et c’est aussi une ode à l’affirmation des femmes. (Marie-Hélène Proulx) (Translation)
Madras Courier discusses Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca and Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation.
Considered one of the most popular gothic classics, Rebecca is also presented to be a rewriting of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. The comparisons between the two novels are unavoidable. First: the second Mrs de Winter is haunted by Rebecca just as Jane is haunted by Bertha Rochester, differences notwithstanding. Second: the burning down of Manderley mirrors burning down of Thornfield Hall. Above all, the theme of jealousy and inadequacy, felt by the unnamed protagonist in Rebecca and Jane in Jane Eyre, is pervasive in both the novels. (Harshita Murarka)
El sol de Tampico (Mexico) interviews writer Paula Castiglioni.
¿Las escritoras de género policial leen y escriben historias de amor?
Yo creo que sí. Me viene a la mente María Inés Krimer, la reina del policial argentino. Sus protagonistas son mujeres fuertes que en medio de sus investigaciones, siempre se hacen un huequito para el amor. Y si no hay amor, no le hacen caso a un touch and go.
En mi caso, nunca fui lectora del género romántico-romántico, tipo Corín Tellado o sus nuevas versiones un poco más sofisticadas. Amo a las hermanas Brontë y a Jane Austen, sí. Las historias de Shannon Hale, como “Austenland” o “The actor and the housewife”, me parecen preciosas. Me gusta lo romántico como condimento de otro tipo de historia. (Juan Carlos Velarde) (Translation)
A contributor to Hawaii Tribune Herald read Wuthering Heights as sci-fi when young.
Some people love sci-fi, but I am not among them. During my early years in Hilo, when I had to read fiction such as “Little House on the Prairie” and “Wuthering Heights,” I saw these novels as science fiction because they revealed strange and alien worlds that I didn’t care to inhabit.
Ragusa News (Italy) provides options for what to wear on New Year's Eve. One of them is a 1,555 euro dress by Simone Rocha.
Lo stile appartiene alle protagoniste dei romanzi delle sorelle Bronte, reso personale e contestualizzato con i cambiamenti della società contemporanea. Ecco allora che il vestito proposto si contestualizza e si sposa perfettamente con il colletto di Melampo: orlo asimmetrico, di media lunghezza, presenta degli inserti trasparenti lungo tutto l'abito senza maniche, uno scollo rotondo e una chiusura con zip posteriore. Emily Brontë approved. (Translation)
We're sorry to say that Emily Brontë wouldn't remotely approve of spending 1,555 euros on a party dress.

The last treasure from the Brontë Parsonage of the year on The Sisters' Room is Anne Brontë's bloodstained handkerchief.
12:37 am by M. in ,    No comments
 Jane Eyre has been translated into many languages... including Cornish:
by Charlotte Brontë
Illustrated by Edmund H Garrett, E.M. Wimperis
Translated by Nicholas Williams
Evertype (November 1, 2020)
ISBN-13 : 978-1782012788

Yth yw an novel gerys dâ-ma ow whythra an bêwnans a venyn yonk dhyworth hy floholeth yêyn hag anwhek bys in hy devedhyans dhe oos leundevys ha'n egydnans a'y herensa dhown rag Mêster Rochester, perhednek Hel Thornfield. I'n descrefans a'n hapnyansow ha'n prederow wàr jy usy worth aga sewya, yma an pooslev wàr an dysplegyans lent a aswonvos moral ha spyrysek Jane; yth yw pùb wharvedhyans paintys in mes dre grefter o kyns an lyver-ma an negys a brydydhieth. Jane Eyre, an novel, a jaunjyas yn tien an art a screfa. Charlotte Brontë re beu henwys "kensa istoryan a brederow an golon," hag indelha yth yw hy an ragresores a screforyon kepar ha Marcel Proust ha James Joyce. Yma brusyans socyal dhe redya i'n lyver kefrÿs hag in y gres warneth fast a ewnhenseth Cristyon. Yma lies crytycor ow consydra an novel-ma dhe vos fest avauncys rag y oos, dre rêson a natur dybarow Jane hy honen hag inwedh awos an fordh may ma dyghtys ino classygieth, carnalyta, crejyans ha femynystieth avarr. 

Monday, December 28, 2020

Monday, December 28, 2020 10:51 am by Cristina in , , , , ,    No comments
The Big Bradford Quiz of the Year in The Telegraph and Argus had a Brontë-related question:
1) Thornton arts hub South Square Centre was taken into community ownership back in January 2020. What is the village also famous for?
ANSWER = Thornton is the Birthplace of the Brontë sisters (Emma Clayton)
The San Diego Union-Tribune picks the best theatre in 2020.
Best non-local streamed theater
[...]
Runner-up: National Theatre Live’s “Jane Eyre,” reimagined with a jungle gym set and fire effects by director Sally Cookson, was thrilling and visceral. (Pam Kragen)
The Independent looks forward to the new books to be released in 2021.
CJ Carey’s Widowland (Quercus, June) is an inventive feminist dystopian novel set in a 1950s Nazi-ruled Britain. Rose, who works at the Ministry of Culture, is tasked with rewriting literature to correct the views of the past, including making Jane Eyre more submissive and Dorothea Brooke less intelligent. (Martin Chilton)
A contributor to Little Atoms discusses the work of Irish writer Eimear McBride:
Let me draw another comparison with Virginia Woolf, who writes in a powerful essay on narrative voice in the Brontës’ writing, “the self-centred and self-limited writers have a power denied the more Catholic and broad-minded. Their impressions are close-packed and strongly stamped between their narrow walls. Nothing issues from their words which has not been marked with their own impress.” I’m not for a second suggesting Eimear McBride is self-centred, only that she, like Woolf, understands her own voice – its preoccupations and complexities – and wields it with powerful intent through the characters in her novels. (Jan Carson)
The National (Scotland) sings the praises of England before pointing out what's arguably wrong with it.
The English language: its convoluted history, generous vocabulary and manifold accents. Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, Kipling. Charles Dickens, Benjamin Zephaniah, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy and CS Lewis. Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice. Agatha Christie. Winnie-the-Pooh, Thomas the Tank Engine and Postman Pat. The Secret Garden, Brambley Hedge, Terry Pratchett. The distinctly English humour of Monty Python, Blackadder, Fawlty Towers and Alan Partridge. (Dr Elliot Bulmer)
Far Out Magazine ranks Kate Bush's albums:
5. The Kick Inside (1978)
When the 19-year-old Kate Bush finally got the chance to release her debut album, The Kick Inside back in 1978, there wasn’t a single consumer who knew what was about to hit them. Starring her breakthrough song ‘Wuthering Heights,’ the album was built around Bush’s illustrious lyrical style.
“I was lucky to be able to express myself as much as I did,” said the star, still gasping for more room to breathe. “I would like to learn enough of the technical side of things to be able to produce my own stuff eventually.” She would achieve this goal, and so much more.
Not as complete as some of her other work, The Kick Inside was the kick in the gut the machismo world of music needed.
When you add on to this that ‘Wuthering Heights’ was the first song to hit number one that had been both written and performed by a female artist, it’s hard to see this record as anything but a victory. (Jack Whatley)
12:33 am by M. in , ,    No comments

A new chance to watch the 2016 National Theatre production of Jane Eyre (you can read our review here):

28 Dec 10:00pm

Charlotte Brontë's classic masterpiece is reimagined onstage in a collaboration between the National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic.

Directed by Sally Cookson
With Madeleine Worrall and Felix Hayes


Sunday, December 27, 2020

 The Telegraph & Argus includes two questions in its Big Bradford Quiz:
1) Thornton arts hub South Square Centre was taken into community ownership back in January 2020. What is the village also famous for?
A) Birthplace of JB Priestley
B) Birthplace of Zayn Malik
C) Birthplace of the Brontë Sisters (...)

8) Bradford’s North Parade had a boost in August with the opening of two independent bars - Crafted, and Boar & Fable. Which artistic Bradfordian once had a creative studio next to the street?
A) Frederick Delius
B) David Hockney
C) Branwell Brontë (Emma Clayton)
Still in Bradford, The Telegraph & Argus tries to sell optimism:
The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth will benefit from an emergency grant of £119,200. It comes as the Brontë Society, gearing up to mark the bicentenary of Anne Brontë’s birth in 2020, was forced to close the museum for the longest period in its 92-year history. Missing the income from its usual 70,000-plus worldwide visitors, this famous attraction will now be secure through winter, serving audiences through digital activity. (Emma Clayton)
The Sunday Times lists the best observations of the year by its readers:
Belittled women
Grant Tucker says that the Brontë sisters “toiled and gossiped” at their home. Does he mean “wrote novels”? No wonder the siblings used masculine pseudonyms. (Cathy Beck, Burton-in-Lonsdale, North Yorkshire(
Wisconsin State Journal interviews the author Margot Peters:
 They purchased the house, built in 1888, for $24,000 with the proceeds from her book “Unquiet Soul,” a biography of the English novelist and poet Charlotte Bronte. Peters’ house is now assessed at $379,000. (Barry Adams)

The Times recommends next week's broadcast of the National Theatre's Jane Eyre production on Sky Arts:

Sally Cookson's vivid adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's novel shows what can be achieved with a small, dynamic cast, a fierce leading lady (Madeleine Worrall)  and a hard-working set. It is no substitute for live performance, but when did you last put the kettle on during a three-hour play? (Helen Stewart)
Politico publishes a compilation of 2020 obituaries including Olivia de Havilland and Alex Trebek:
 Personally, it enabled her two more decades on screen, in roles as varied as Charlotte Brontë in Devotion (1946) and a mental patient in the movie based on Mary Jane Ward’s autobiographical novel The Snake Pit (1947). In the end, de Havilland enjoyed a career as long as that of Katharine Hepburn. (Carrie Rickey)
He was a Canadian ex-pat and Francophone who drove a Dodge Ram and guzzled diet soda; he evangelized for the Home Depot while favoring East Yorkshire, the site of the Brontë family home, as a vacation spot. (Derek Robertson)
Hull Live recommends walks around East Yorkshire:
Paull
There is a walk which barely takes out of Hull but transports you to a unique world of bleak beauty.
Paull is a place of contradictions. The village would not look out of place set in the heart of the Wolds yet all around it are sprawling industrial chemical plants and ports.
Stare out into Paull Holme Strays and it is as if civilisation must be miles away but turn your head and there are busy ports aplenty.
The bleakness rivals the Yorkshire Moors of Brontë country except it backs on to the murky waters of the Humber. (James Campbell)
More Bridgerton mentions:
 Arduo che catturi i seguaci di Jane Austen, delle Brontë o delle superbe poesie di Emily Dickinson. Un giudizio? Frivola commedia con un buon evolversi di impulsi, passioni ed eventi di episodio in episodio; niente abissi dell'anima o sfide epocali, mentre si accenna solo a solo a Wellington nelle campagne napoleoniche. (Fiorella Minervino in La Stampa) (Translation)

Entre les mésaventures burlesques de la famille Featherington et les ragots colportés par la chroniqueuse du carnet mondain de la saison, Lady Whistledown, la série pousse les idées de la femme victorienne, notamment celle dépeinte dans les multiples œuvres de Jane Austen ou de Charlotte Brontë, au-delà de la simple introduction et éducation à l’amour. (Asma El Mardi in Brain Damaged) (Translation)

 ¿Cómo vas a bostezar ante un Londres seudovictoriano con una reina de Inglaterra negra y duques con rastas? Ni Kenneth Branagh hasta arriba de sangría tras releer Cumbres borrascosas en Benidorm habría ido tan lejos. (Sergio del Molino in El País) (Translation)

Entertainment Weekly asks for more romance series adaptations:
A Secrets of Charlotte Street series would offer audiences something like Jane Eyre blended with Hulu’s Harlots, infusing the Gothic genre and its obsession with “subversion” with sex positive mores that titillate and provoke in equal measure. (Maureen Lee Lenker)
The Yorkshire Post celebrates the film adaptation of The Railway Children:
They take in a host of locations used during filming, including, at Oxenhope, the family home Three Chimneys (actually Bents House) and at Haworth, the doctor’s house (the Brontë Parsonage), the butcher’s shop (now the tourist information centre), the ironmonger’s shop (a cottage off Main Street) and also the base for the film crew (the Fleece Inn). (Sebastian Oake)
James Dacre explains in The Sunday Times the terrible consequences of the COVID crisis on the theatre scene:
March. The team for our co-production of Wuthering Heights is travelling south to embark on rehearsals with our partner venue, the Nuffield Southampton Theatres, which was voted regional theatre of the year a few seasons ago. With the government announcement on March 20 that all theatres must close, the rehearsals are cancelled before they’ve begun. Within two short months, the Nuffield will have filed for insolvency.
The Guardian tries too hard to save something of 2020:
The original disco ran for several months, but [Sophie] Ellis-Bextor brought it back in October to celebrate Halloween. Her son Kit turned up in a black dress and bear mask: “I was singing Wuthering Heights to him, and he looked like a little reverent bear and I thought, ‘He’s my Heathcliff and I’m Cathy… this is mental!’” But then that was the point, to offer something daft and carefree to help people escape the anxiety-inducing hum of the news in 2020. (Jessica Murray, Toby Moses, Tim Jonze, Sirin Kale, Micha Frazer-Carroll and Vanessa Kisuule)
1:27 am by M. in , ,    No comments
The latest issue of the literary journal Semicolon includes a Jane Eyre-inspired story:
Semicolon
Issue 4 - October 2020 

by Eleanor Howell

And we have also a scholar paper around Bertha:
Minghua Yao
International Journal of Literature and Arts. Vol. 8, No. 5, 2020, pp. 292-297

Love and revenge are eternal motifs in literature, on which numerous renowned works are written in almost all times. In this paper, two characters, namely Medea in Euripides’ Medea and Bertha Mason in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, are chosen to explore the female images in love and revenge stories. Seen from the perspective of feminism, their images are undeniably special and even subversive in comparison with common female characters. A prominent revelation of it lies in their independence from their male spouses named Jason and Rochester respectively. With the superiority in power, Medea and Mason are able to extricate themselves largely from the reliance of their husbands, thus gaining the courage to pursue their happiness in love as well as the determination to defend their dignity by taking revenge. However, limitations do exist due to the male dominance in the patriarchal society. For one thing, the depersonalization of women under male’s visual angle has made Medea and Mason turned into men’s tools, which has predestined the tragic ending of their love; for another, the dominant status of male discourse has victimized them. In the society where men firmly grasp the power of discourse, their voices are “muted” and their acts of revenge “magnified” to the extreme. Consequently, in reflection of their love and revenge tragedies, Medea and Bertha Mason are both subversive characters and unfortunate victims in a male dominating world.

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Saturday, December 26, 2020 10:54 am by Cristina in , , , , , ,    No comments
The Journal (Ireland) looks back on how Covid-19 affected Irish bookshops.
Looking at their sales showed Kenny’s staff that there were certain trends over the past few months.
“In the early months of Covid, particularly the first lockdown when people were at home and the schools were closed, we saw a lot of educational books for children,” said Kenny. “We sold an awful lot of classics and we noticed there was definitely a trend – people were buying Ulysses, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Wuthering Heights. Those books you might read at some point in your life, and this was the point people were choosing to read them.” (Aoife Barry)
Screen Rant ranks all Wuthering Heights according to IMDb.
Like many classic novels, Wuthering Heights has been adapted many times over the years. As one of the most famous love stories of all time, the source material continues to draw storytellers in with the challenge of adapting a story that has yet to be done with acclaim.
Part of the challenge of bringing Brontë's story to screen is the sprawling nature of the novel, both in terms of space and time. The story follows two families over two generations, and the heroine dies halfway through, making for an unusual narrative. Despite being far from a feel-good story, people are still falling in love with it to this day. (Read more) (Madilyn Ivey)
Writer Julia Quinn reflects on the Netflix adaptation of Bridgerton in Entertainment Weekly.
"Truly, I never thought this would happen to me. And I never thought it would happen to anyone because nobody was adapting romance novels, historical, or really even contemporary for screen other than Hallmark movies," she tells EW. "If somebody was going to do a period piece, they wanted to do another adaptation of Jane Austen or one of the Brontë sisters. Those are all wonderful, but the historical romance novels that are being written today are a little bit different. And there's a huge market for them. I don't think it's at all surprising that the person who would realize that would be Shonda Rhimes." (Maureen Lee Lenker)
Infobae (Argentina) shares an excerpt from the Spanish translation of Leslie Kern's Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World.
De ninguna manera soy la primera escritora feminista que ha llamado la atención sobre esto. Existe una importante tradición de mujeres que escribieron sobre la vida urbana (como Charlotte Brontë en Villette), de mujeres que defendieron las necesidades de las mujeres urbanas (como Ida B. Wells y Jane Addams, activistas y reformadoras sociales estadounidenses), y de mujeres que se pusieron a diseñar sus propias casas, barrios y ciudades (como Catharine Beecher y Melusina Fay Peirce). (Translation)
La Nación (Argentina) celebrates Henry Miller's birthday and reminds readers of the fact that early copies of Tropic of Cancer were sold with Jane Eyre covers as the book had been banned in the United States.
Para su comercialización, su tapa era reemplazada por Jane Eyre, el clásico de Charlotte Brontë. (Translation)
Daily Mail shares some beautiful pictures of Yorkshire by Alec Scott, including one of Haworth.
2:33 am by M. in , ,    No comments
A few months ago, Charlie Rauh released his album The Bluebell with music inspired by the poems of Emily and Anne Brontë. Acoustic Guitar talks about that release:
Almost exactly a year ago, on Christmas night of 2019, Charlie Rauh was visiting the home in Virginia where he had learned to play guitar as a teenager. When his family went to sleep, he set up a studio in the dining room and used his Collings Baby 1 Mh to record The Bluebell (Destiny Records), a collection of solo acoustic guitar miniatures inspired by the poetry of Emily Brontë and her younger sister Anne. After he completed the album, Rauh started wondering about an instrument whose voice would be even better suited to the album’s unique sound world, and he worked with Collings to make that a reality. “We hatched the idea of a parlor guitar that would specifically accommodate my light touch, while having a warm tone and projection,” he says. (Adam Perlmutter)
The same article also mentions that:
Rauh recently used his new guitar in filming a video for The Bluebell’s “Faith Shines Equal Arming Me From Fear,” transcribed below [here], a piece that takes its name from a line in Emily Brontë’s poem “No Coward Soul Is Mine.” “In this particular lullaby I wanted to capture the spirit of Emily—a deeply rooted confidence combined with an always wandering, searching, and adventurous soul,” Rauh says.

Friday, December 25, 2020

Friday, December 25, 2020 1:04 pm by M. in , , , , , , ,    No comments
Buzzfeed asks you to be honest in this poll:
Everyone Lies About Reading These 20 Books — How Many Have You Actually Read? (...)
Have you truly, genuinely read the Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë? 
No - 67% 46.7K votes
Yes - 33% 22.6K votes (Angelica Martinez)
Time Magazine and The Great Gatsby entering public domain next year:
When the copyright for Fitzgerald’s classic novel of greed, desire and betrayal expires, anyone will be able to publish the book and adapt it without permission from his literary estate, which has controlled the text for the 80 years since his death. That freedom could yield works that add to Gatsby’s legacy—see what Wide Sargasso Sea did for Jane Eyre—or it could open the door to editions that change the text for the worse. (Annabel Gutterman)
Favourite winter walks in The Times
Stanage Edge, Derbyshire
How hard is it? 7½ miles; moderate; field paths, steep ascent to Stanage Edge, rocky rim walk
Visit Little John’s giant grave in St Michael’s churchyard, then walk north to North Lees Hall, which Charlotte Brontë used it as the setting for Thornfield in Jane Eyre. (Christopher Somerville)
Open Democracy talks about the usually terrible fate of tortured protagonists:
It was there from the outset, of course, the Spanish hellfire reserved for Tirso de Molina’s Don Juan, and immortalised in the title of Mozart’s opera, Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni, though the effect is somewhat undermined after so much glorious music by the vindictive little closing fugue that restores order though not much else to nearly everyone who survives; there too, in [the Earl of ]Rochester’s deathbed renunciation of libertinism and conversion to Anglican Christianity turned into a hugely popular pamphlet of the time by his mother and her chaplain, Gilbert Burnet. Nor does it end there. Fast forward to the ruin that Charlotte Brontë was willing to inflict on her Rochester, Emily on her Heathcliff, or the thrashing to within an inch of his life that Eugene Wrayburn undergoes for Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend, the terrible remorse of a stricken Eugene Onegin, or de Winter of the soul endured by the aristocratic hero (and adoring heroine) of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. (Rosemary Bechler)
Film School Rejects explores the filmography of Ruth Wilson. On Jane Eyre 2006:
To say that the disparities between Suburban Shootout and the 2006 serial adaptation of the famed Charlotte Brontë novel are stark would be a severe understatement. Jane Eyre, produced as four hour-long episodes on the BBC, is one of the most accessible takes on the Victorian classic purely because of Wilson’s emphatic performance as the title character.
Here, we follow the tragic life of the eponymous orphan Jane. As a child, she first suffers intense abuse from her adoptive family before being sent to train as a governess at the equally harsh Lowood Hall. Years later, the intelligent and quietly spirited Jane finds employment at the enigmatic Thornton Hall, a post which forces her to confront ghosts of the past.
The miniseries leans into the horror-tinged elements of Brontë’s book, and there is hardly anyone more capable of embodying multifaceted hauntedness than Wilson. Jane’s characteristic plainness impeccably translates through the actress’s quiet reserve. Her impression of the quintessential outcast heroine is unassuming and wholly natural without lacking in charisma and quirk.
Furthermore, Wilson showcases perfect chemistry with the series’ iteration of Edward Rochester (Toby Stephens). Given that Jane Eyre frequently oscillates between more static, languid conversational scenes and depictions of intense emotional turmoil, she does so by making such dramatic differences go virtually unnoticed. Wilson expresses such sound inner resolve while contending with her character’s fragility as she struggles with the concept of love in all of its forms. The audience has no choice but to feel every palpable shift in Jane’s evolving persona. (Sheryl Oh)
iNews on Bridgerton:
 “When I think about this period I think of Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Mary Shelley – the time was all about women stepping forward into literature and taking up space that hadn’t been afforded before,” says [Regé-Jean] Page.
Pajiba lists the best books of 2020: 
Mexican Gothic did exactly what it said on the tin by creating a lush gothic melodrama with heavy notes of Crimson Peak and the sisters Brontë. (Kayleigh Donaldson and Dustin Rowles)
De Groene Amsterdammer (Netherlands) recommends the latest episode of Boeken FM Kerstspecial, devoted to the Brontës:
Te gast is niemand minder dan schrijver en journalist Marja Pruis. Joost, Ellen en Marja praten over misschien wel de bekendste zussen uit de literatuurgeschiedenis, de gezusters Brontë. Ellen weidt uit over haar favoriete werk - Wuthering Heights van Emily en Marja praat over Charlottes Jane Eyre
El Imparcial (México) and the importance of the novel genre:
Por ejemplo, si se quiere saber cuál es la mejor novela del siglo XIX, hay muchas candidatas: La guerra y la paz de Leon Tolstoi, Cumbres borrascosas de Emily Bronte, Historia de dos ciudades de Charles Dickens, Moby Dick de Herman Melville, Frankenstein de Mary Shelley o Madame Bovary de Gustave Stendhal, para nombrar las primeras que se me vienen a la mente. Pero creo, como muchos otros lectores, que la novela que ejemplifica, con amplitud de miras y en tono épico, esa centuria mejor que ninguna otra es Los miserables (1862) de Víctor Hugo. (Gabriel Trujillo) (Translation)
Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany) reviews the new adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small:
 Einer Fahrt von einem seltsam verwaisten Glasgower Bahnhof aus folgt Ausgesetztheit im ländlichen Nirgendwo, fast wie Jane Eyre im Moor, und eine Ankunft im strömenden Regen bei dem nun eher granteligen statt spleenigen Junggesellen Farnon (Samuel West) und einer sichtlich frischer wirkenden Haushälterin Mrs. Hall (Anna Madeley). (Ursula Scheer) (Translation)
Marianne (France) and the bests music albums of 2020:
Folklore - Taylor Swift (...)
 Qui d'autre qu'elle, dans la pop-culture actuelle, peut se targuer de se hisser en haut des tops avec des références à Jane Eyre et Hemingway ? (Alexandra Saviana) (Translation)
An unexpected Emily Brontë's poetry reference in InfoLibre (in Spanish). Motivational quotes, including one by Charlotte, on Women's Web. AnneBrontë.org celebrates Christmas with some curious Victorian Christmas cards, including one by Ellen Nussey to Charlotte Brontë.

Finally, bardessdmdenton shares a post with quotes from her Without the Veil Between, Anne Bronte: A Fine and Subtle Spirit novel and the guest appearance of the one and only Mick Armitage (one of the true pioneers in this Brontë 2.0 business with his foundational The Scarborough Connection website) performing at the piano two songs from Anne Brontë's Music Book.

12:30 am by M. in    No comments

Fifteen years ago, in our very first year online we celebrated our first Christmas with Anne Brontë's Music on Christmas Morning. Fifteen wild Decembers later we find ourselves in a completely different world but Anne's words resonate even more:

Music on Christmas morning
Music I love-­but ne'er a strain
Could kindle raptures so divine,
So grief assuage, so conquer pain,
And rouse this pensive heart of mine;
As that we hear on Christmas morn,
Upon the wintry breezes borne.
 
Though darkness still her empire keep,
And hours must pass, ere morning break;
From troubled dreams, or slumbers deep,
That music kindly bids us wake:
It calls us, with an angel's voice,
To wake, and worship, and rejoice.
 
To greet with joy the glorious morn,
Which angels welcomed long ago,
When our redeeming Lord was born,
To bring the light of Heaven below;
The powers of darkness to dispel,
And rescue Earth from death and hell.
 
While listening to that sacred strain,
My raptured spirit soars on high;
I seem to hear those songs again
Resounding through the open sky,
That kindled such divine delight,
In those who watched their flocks by night.
 
With them, I celebrate His birth;
Glory to God, in highest Heaven,
Good will to men, and peace on Earth,
To us a Savior King is given;
Our God is come to claim His own,
And Satan's power is overthrown!
 
A sinless God, for sinful men,
Descends to suffer and to bleed;
Hell must renounce its empire then;
The price is paid, the world is freed,
And Satan's self must now confess,
That Christ has earned a right to bless.
 
Now holy peace may smile from heaven,
And heavenly truth from earth shall spring:
The captive's galling bonds are riven,
For our Redeemer is our King;
And He that gave His blood for men
Will lead us home to God again
(Anne Brontë)

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Thursday, December 24, 2020 11:42 am by M. in , , , , , ,    No comments
The writer Alice Taylor's desert island novels in The Irish Examiner:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: “We were about 40 miles from Cork city and going into Cork was like going to New York today. It was a voyage. I remember going to Woolworth’s and buying Jane Eyre. It cost 1/6. We used the money we earned from picking potatoes and thinning turnips. They were amazing women, the Brontës. I went to the Brontë Country, for an RTÉ documentary, I loved it.”
Far Out Magazine explores the music of Kate Bush:
Kate Bush has written some of the stranger pieces of pop gold in memory. The acclaimed singer isn’t just a supreme vocalist capable of voicebox gymnastics, she is also an expert songwriter. Making her debut with ‘Wuthering Heights’ a song inspired by the literary work of the same name by Emily Brontë, Bush scored a number one to become the first female artist to have written and performed a number one song. (Jack Whatley)
One of the most anticipated books of 2021 according to Newsweek is:
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
 A delightfully surprising and suspenseful twist on Jane Eyre centers around an enchanting and mysterious widower, Eddie, and a broke dog walker, Jane, fated to meet in a gated community in Birmingham, Alabama. (Juliana Rose Pignataro)
The Times recommends the streaming of Jane Eyre by the Blackeyed Theatre:
The spring and autumn lockdowns put paid to the live version of Blackeyed Theatre’s adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel, but it has resurfaced as a streaming venture. In Adrian McDougall’s production — recorded at the Wilde Theatre in Bracknell, Berkshire — Kelsey Short plays Jane, while Ben Warwick is the brooding, distant Mr Rochester. In a drama where most of the members of the cast play multiple roles, George Jennings’s music becomes almost a character in its own right. Available at blackeyedtheatre.co.uk until February 28, 2021
The Irish Times reviews After We Collided, the film: 
“It’s a story you’ve heard before. Passed down from the Greeks, through Shakespeare, the Brontës, Jane Austen. It’s the story of a young girl exploring her independence, free from the bonds of her oppressive parents. And promised to a boy she clearly does not love. (Tara Brady)
 Mike Flanagan's Easter eggs and references seem to be intended as a precursor for what's to come in the future of his movie and TV projects. For example, Flanagan included a story in the very beginning of The Haunting Of Bly Manor that alludes to The Haunting season 3 taking inspiration from Charlotte Brontë's Villette. While it is entirely possible that he won't take this route in the future, it is unlikely that anything he includes is unimportant or won't factor in to a later project. (Marian Phillips)
UOL (Brazil) lists best-selling 'romances' in the electronic literary business:
 "Único romance da escritora inglesa Emily Bronte, 'O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes' retrata uma trágica história de amor e obsessão em que os personagens principais são a obstinada e geniosa Catherine Earnshaw e seu irmão adotivo, Heathcliff. Grosseiro, humilhado e rejeitado, ele guarda apenas rancor no coração, mas tem com Catherine um relacionamento marcado por amor e, ao mesmo tempo, ódio. Essa ligação perdura mesmo com o casamento de Catherine com Edgar Linton." (Translation)
The Bridgerton daily dose, courtesy of Netflix's marketing machine:
Cuando uno piensa en las hermanas Brontë o en Emily Dickinson siempre vienen a la cabeza imágenes de grandes explanadas verdes al borde de acantilados, elegantes mansiones de color beige y largos vestidos sobre enaguas y corsés. La serie «Downton Abbey» fue una buena oportunidad para disfrutar de esta época tan dada a las novelas de mediodía. Hasta ese momento, ninguna serie de época había llegado al streaming, aunque en los catálogos de las plataformas ya circulaban películas como Orgullo o prejuicio o Jane Eyre. (Levante. El Mercantil Valenciano) (Translation)

Il fatto che questo immaginario passaggio storico venga esplicitato brevemente in un dialogo rende il tutto più sensato, ma resta una fragile giustificazione per una serie che non problematizza nulla (al contrario di ciò che fece Andrea Arnold quando cambiò l’etnia di Heathcliff nel suo Cime tempestose), e forza la Storia sia per fini d’immagine sia per ripararsi da eventuali critiche. (Lorenzo Pedrazzi in Screenweek) (Translation)

Il Libraio (Italy) publishes a literary horoscope (sigh). Apparently, Wuthering Heights is Taurus, whatever that means:
 È Catherine di Cime tempestose la stella polare dei Toro per il 2021. Sappiamo che chi è nato sotto questo segno ha spesso la tendenza a mostrarsi testardo e incrollabile nelle proprie convinzioni, ma proprio per questo noi li sfidiamo a lasciarsi andare a un animo più selvaggio e istintivo, e a riconnettersi con la natura, vera protagonista del romanzo di Emily Brontë. La sorella adottiva di Heathcliff, infatti, è uno spirito inafferrabile e a volte sconsiderato, che non ha mai paura delle conseguenze delle proprie azioni. Lasciatevi andare anche voi a un atteggiamento più aperto e autentico. E anche se all’orizzonte si possono intravedere tempeste, non preoccupatevi: la libertà vale molto più di un po’ di pioggia. (Translation)
Improving your language on Taz (Germany):
 Die Schönheit und die Wahrheit von Honoré de Balzac und Marcel Proust, von Emily Brontë und Jane Austen und vieler, vieler anderer. Die Sprache ihrer Romane ist historisch, sie braucht Bildung, und solche Romane brauchen Ausdauer. (Katrin Seddig) (Translation)
Glossy (Serbia) and reading classic novels this season:
Džejn Ejr – Šarlot Brontë
Još jedan itekako poznat klasik. Roman prati priču siromašne Džejn Ejr, koja uprkos svim nemilosrdnim životnim situacijama, uspeva da se školuje i dobija posao guvernante. A onda po prvi put spoznaje i doživljava ljubav. Nepredvidivi gospodin Ročester očigledno ima tajne koje mogu da razbiju snove o ljubavi. Šarlot Brontë je na vrsan način prikazala kako je izgledala ljubav tog doba. (Translation)
Écran Large (France) publishes its selection of the best series of the year. Including Normal People.
 Mais à coups de séquences remarquables de précision, en nous immergeant dans les sentiments orageux de ses deux héros, l’œuvre renoue avec la tradition des grands écrits romantiques britanniques du XIXe siècle. Il y a du Jane Austen qui bruisse dans ce récit, avec le souffle puissant des Hauts de Hurlevent. (Geoffrey Crété) (Translation)

Do you remember Villa Charlotte Brontë in the Bronx? Curbed publishes another article about it. Everyday Power shares quotes of Jane Eyre about 'love, beauty, and independence'.

12:51 am by M. in , ,    No comments
A new critical study about Wide Sargasso Sea has just been published:
Wide Sargasso Sea at 50
Editors: Savory, Elaine, Johnson, Erica L. (Eds.)
Palgrave MacMillan
ISBN 978-3-030-28222-6

This book revisits Jean Rhys’s ground-breaking 1966 novel to explore its cultural and artistic influence in the areas of not only literature and literary criticism, but fashion design, visual art, and the theatre as well. Building on symposia that were held in London and New York in 2016 in honour of the novel’s half-century, this collection demonstrates just how timely Rhys’s insights into colonial history, sexual relations, and aesthetics continue to be.  The chapters include an extensive interview with novelist Caryl Phillips, who in 2018 published a novel about Rhys’s life, an account of how Wide Sargasso Sea can be read through the lens of the #MeToo Movement, a clothing line inspired by the novel, and new critical directions. As both a celebration and scholarly evaluation, the collection shows how enduring Rhys’s novel is in its continuing literary influence and social commentary. 

The table of contents is the following:
Introduction to Wide Sargasso Sea at 50 ... Savory, Elaine (et al.)
Interview with Caryl Phillips ... Savory, Elaine
Interview with Chrisila Maida ... Savory, Elaine

Infamous Daughters: A Capsule Collection Inspired by Wide Sargasso Sea ... Roccanova, Alexa
Wide Sargasso Sea Then and Now: Reading Jean Rhys à la mode ... Oliver, Sophie
After Mrs Rochester: On Portraying Jean Rhys Onstage ... Quick, Diana

Interview with James Thackara ... Savory, Elaine

Who Writes for the Trees?: Wide Sargasso Sea, the Dominican Forest, and Its Parrots ... Paravisini-Gebert, Lizabeth
Jean Rhys Getting the “Feel” of the West Indies in Wide Sargasso Sea ... Thomas, Sue
“Broken Parts”: Wide Sargasso Sea and the Poetics of Caribbean Modernism ... Emery, Mary Lou
#Metoo in Wide Sargasso Sea ... Mardorossian, Carine
The Lineaments of Life and Death: Desire, Sexuality and Manhood in Wide Sargasso Sea ... Savory, Elaine
Vulnerability and Authenticity: The Wisdom of Wide Sargasso Sea ... Cook, Katy
“I so wanted to hand Emma a copy of Wide Sargasso Sea”: Wide Sargasso Sea and Contemporary Re-workings of Jane Eyre ... Mirmohamadi, Kylie
Encryption as Transmission: The Secret Gardens of Wide Sargasso Sea ... Moran, Patricia (et al.)
Burning Down Her Master’s House (Again): Marlon James Responds to Jean Rhys ... Spyra, Ania

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

You can watch yesterday's episode of For the Love of Britain (S01E04) devoted to Yorkshire on the ITV hub:
Narrated by Julie Walters, the programme invites us to take a great escape into our great outdoors, unearthing our country’s hidden gems as well as exploring its most celebrated treasures.. In this episode we visit the place locals call ‘God’s own county’, Yorkshire.
Julia Bradbury follows in the footsteps of one of our most famous literary families, the Brontës, exploring the windswept moors. Robson Green sings shanties in the seaside resort of Whitby. Ore Oduba hits the challenging Coast to Coast walking trail near the market town of Richmond. And deep in the Dales, Ade Edmondson will be our guide on the Malham Circuit, one Yorkshire’s best-loved hikes.
The Hindu interviews the writer Anna Todd:
Abhilasha Unnikrishnan: You found your love for books and writing at a very young age, who were your favourite authors growing up?
I have been an avid reader since I can remember and started really loving to read through Harry Potter. I remember waiting to check the books out at my school library as they were released. I also loved classic literature, Jane Austen, The Brontë Sisters, Hemingway. My love for reading really bloomed from them and it definitely shaped the way I write characters and plotlines. Everyone loves a classic trope.
Still in India, She The People asks several female writers about her favourite novel:
Alka Joshi
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre: An orphan without money, charm or looks, Jane manifests something far more dear and in short supply: integrity, introspection, and intelligence. She is as unflinchingly honest with herself as with others. And for all her prickly, unsentimental nature, Jane does not withhold compassion when it’s warranted. (Deepshikha Chakravarti)
tes looks into Romantic poets for solace in these trying times:
 3. Emily Brontë
“I welcome thee, Benignant Power;
Sure solacer of human cares,
And sweeter hope, when hope despairs!”

When there’s not much pleasure to be taken in the real world, why not do as the Brontë sisters did so well and immerse ourselves in the imaginary world?
The Brontë sisters revelled in their imaginary kingdom, Gondal, where their toy soldiers resided. But the poetry that stands from this period shows not just remains of the fictional world of Gondal, but also allegorical tales and expressions of lived experience.
With Netflix’s stock price up massively from last year and sales of puzzles and board games soaring, people are looking at ways to escape reality in 2020 and, in doing so, may actually be making some sense of these unprecedented times.
It’s amazing what we can do with an active mind and a dull life. (Charlotte Brunton)
The Boonville Daily News describes a local Christmas event:
Bunceton Federated Church held its Christmas program Dec. 20. Youth read poems and played music that went along with the scripture the Rev. Tad Schuldt presented.
Jenna Elliott read a poem by Anne Brontë entitled "Music on Christmas Morning." (Sarah Kuschell)
Old Town Alexandria Patch announces the upcoming (who knows when) opening of a local restaurant: 
The restaurant is named after Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century mathematician who contributed to the development of the world's first mechanical computer. The interior will feature original art of Ada, her father, the poet Lord Byron, and other key figures like Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Emily and Charlotte Brontë. The interior has 162 seats with floor-to-ceiling windows providing views of the Potomac River. The patio has 105 seats. (Emily Leayman)

Original? 

The Radio Times General Quiz includes a Brontë question:
Name all five Brontë sisters.
The Article tries to find some good things in 2020:
 The National Theatre put on a season of their best recent productions – NT Live – on YouTube to remind viewers of the joys of live theatre. The range was thrilling, but perhaps most striking was the number of powerful female performances: Rattigan’s Deep Blue Sea with Helen McCrory, Gillian Anderson in Streetcar, Sally Cookson’s Jane Eyre, Simon Godwin’s thrilling Twelfth Night with Tamsin Greg as Malvolia and Phoebe Fox as Olivia. (David Herman)
The Atlanta-Journal Constitution interviews the singer Caylee Hammack:
Melissa Ruggieri: What have you been listening to?
C.H.: A lot of Kate Bush. I found (her 1978 debut single) “Wuthering Heights” one day, and I saw the video and was like, what the hell is this? It sucked me in, even though it was my least favorite (Emily) Brontë book. 
 And now a selection of Bridgerton comments:
Bridgerton, which is the first show released on Netflix produced by Shonda Rhimes after her headline-making exclusive deal with the company, is set in the early-1800s period known as the Regency, during the Austen-Brontë stretch of time when English society's structure was rigid, corsets were tight, and marriage was the Number One priority of any woman considered of age. (Emma Stefansky in Thrillist)

Esse par improvável é um clichê da literatura, mas funciona muito bem na série: Daphne e Simon têm ótima química em cena, inclusive em momentos quentes que você não vê, nem de longe, nos livros de Jane Austen ou das irmãs Brontë (Beatriz Amendola in Splash (Brazil)) (Translation)

 Alla faccia di Jane Eyre, l'Inghilterra di Bridgerton è un tripudio di abiti nelle più svariate palette pastello e tonalità acide che sembrano rubate alle confezioni di pastiglie Leone. (Giada Borioli in Grazia (Italy)) (Translation)

Norrländska Socialdemokraten (NSD) (in Swedish) celebrates Anne Brontë's anniversary:
Yngsta systern Brontë skakade om viktorianer. De tre systrarna Brontë skapade några av den brittiska litteraturens klassiker. Yngst var Anne, vars 200-årsminne firas det här året. 
Systrarna växte upp i en prästgård i Yorkshire och omgivna av det karga hedlandskapet skapade de sina passionerade storverk. Äldsta systern Charlotte blev berömd för ”Jane Eyre”, utgiven 1847. Näst äldsta systern Emily gjorde samtidigt succé med ”Svindlande höjder”. Lillasyster Anne släppte debutromanen ”Agnes Grey” samma år, , men hamnade lite i skymundan. Hon hade skrivit klart berättelsen några år tidigare, men eftersom den kom ut först efter ”Jane Eyre” blev den bara betraktad som en blek kopia. (Read more) (Translation)
Marianne (France) vindicates Middlemarch by George Elliot:
En France, Mona Ozouf vient de remettre cette auteure au premier plan où la situaient Proust et Gide. Son brillant essai d’histoire littéraire, L’autre George, à la rencontre de George Eliot se réfère à George Sand, comparse en admiration réciproque et en féminisme pionnier. Il est à noter que l’une et l’autre, comme aussi les sœurs Brontë, durent avoir recours à des pseudonymes masculins ou sans connotation de genre. Autre symptôme d’époque : en 1880 George Eliot en dépit de sa notoriété n’eut pas droit d’être enterrée au « Coin des poètes » en l’abbaye de Westminster comme le fut son illustre contemporain, Charles Dickens ; elle ne perdit rien au change puisqu’elle le fut auprès de l’homme auquel elle survécut de peu, « son » George.
Cette Angleterre victorienne nous pose encore une autre grande question culturelle : si l’on ajoute les Sœurs Brontë et Austen, pour ne mentionner qu’elles, comment se fait-il que ces deux générations de femmes, pour la plupart mortes à l’âge où les écrivains accèdent à la maturité humaine, aient produit une telle moisson d’œuvres, aussi fortes que Les Hauts de Hurlevent, Jane Eyre, Orgueil et préjugés, Persuasion… C’est comme si, et Virginia Woolf émettra l’hypothèse, de la place où elles étaient reléguées et depuis leur coin de table de famille, elles avaient tiré un poste d’observation d’autant plus éclairant sur l’humanité qu’elles la voyaient défiler sans que celle-ci les vît. (Jean-Philippe Domecq) (Translation)
 Prenzlauer Berg (Germany) recommends audiobooks:
Und stieß auf den WDR-Hörspielspeicher, in dem sich lauter Geschichten für Erwachsene befinden. Von Krimi über Literarisches bis hin zu gesellschaftskritischen Features ist alles dabei und bietet genügend Auswahl, um das Kopfkino einzuschalten. Mein Favorit? Emily Brontës Klassiker Sturmhöhe – in ganze 32 Folgen. Liegen bleiben kann ich dabei auch. (Translation)

Via the Brontës Sisters we have come across this virtual tour of Elizabeth Gaskell's house