Bracing, all the same

The Bolton News presents the upcoming (next March 17th) The Brontës: Reimagined; Reappraised; Revisited event:

The work of the 19th Century literary sisters, The Brontës, will feature in a creative festival event next month.
"The Brontës: Reimagined; Reappraised; Revisited" will take place online on Wednesday, March 17 at 6.30pm with two authors of the famous sisters set to discuss their lives and their novels.
"A View From the 21st Century" Brontë biographies Dr Sophie Franklin and Adelle Hay will give their insights at the event, organised by Bolton Library and Museum Services and Saraband Press.
Questions may be debated such as "who was the real Charlotte Brontë?" and "was Emily a woman ahead of her time?"
"Why has Anne been endlessly sidelined?" and "which is the greatest Brontë novel of all?" may be discussed.
The event, which is free to book, is part of the New Words Festival, a joint online book festival celebrating the partnership between the Time to Read network.
It is funded by the Arts Council England.
To book to receive a link on Zoom visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-brontes-reimagined-reappraised-revisited-tickets-141039848985. (James Mutch)

Insider looks at the best British films of the last decade:

Wuthering Heights (2011)

Andrea Arnold's unconventional re-imagining of Emily Brontë's classic novel strips away all the period-drama clichés we are accustomed to seeing when any Brontë is hauled over to the big-screen to create an immersive and incredibly daring drama that pushes beyond the well-known love story of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliffe (sic).
Instead, Arnold uses the love between the two young northerners who are split by rank; and, most prominently in Arnold's adaptation, race to create a movie that offers up all the gothic spirit of the novel alongside the even darker history of British imperialism. (Zac Ntim)

The Sunday Times selects it as one of the films on next week's TV:

Wuthering Heights (Film4, Wednesday, 12.50am)

The director Andrea Arnold, who made her name with social-realist dramas such as 2009’s Fish Tank, emphasises rough textures in this Emily Brontë adaptation, bringing us in close to Heathcliff and Catherine (James Howson and Kaya Scodelario) and their windswept world. Despite this immediacy, the pair’s inner lives remain a bit too distant from us, but the film is bracing, all the same. (2011) (Edward Porter)

Discover Bradford with new walking tours according to The Telegraph & Argus:

Bradford BID has launched a series of safe walking tours to help people rediscover their city centre and keep active during lockdown.

The BID has teamed up with the award-winning high street app LoyalFree to develop the walking trails. (...)

The app has also digitised Bradford in Blue Plaque Trails, allowing residents to discover some remarkable – and, sometimes, surprising – sites of international significance. Do you know, for instance, where Bradford’s original Old Manor House stood? Or where the Brontë sisters’ brother used to live and work? (Felicity Macnamara)

First Post (India) talks about Nancy Drew, the series:

While acknowledging Nancy Drew’s privilege as a rich white girl as well as author Sara Paretsky’s critique of the racial attitudes reinforced by novels like The Secret of the Old Clock, Johnson defends Drew against some of the criticism from critics in the 80s and 90s — most of them, Johnson argued, were reading the regressive latter-day rewrites and not Mildred Benson’s 1930s second-wave feminist texts. Johnson also reminds us of the narrative value of Nancy being motherless, since the heroines of Charlotte Brontë et al benefitted greatly from not having a mother tell them how to behave, when to curtsy and which male excesses to tolerate in perpetuity.  (Aditya Mani Jha)

Your Decommissioning News reviews the film Phantom Thread:

When, on the same evening, he takes the young woman to the hut, instead of making love, he makes her try to put on a dress, with the help of Cyril, who has appeared who knows where. Then, Alma finds himself in a position as Jane Eyre and Cheb M.I am De Winter, N. Rebecca : Fond of a man older than her, surrounded by female ghosts (here, Woodcock’s mother), guarded by a dragon. Alma embarks on a ruthless campaign to turn Woodcock’s infatuation into engagement. (Lawrence Reid)

Friuli (Italy) interviews the writer Andrea Nagele:

Andrea Ioime: Quali autori, non solo ‘gialli, l’hanno influenzata?
“Tanti: alcuni sono citati anche nei mei libri, come Jane Austen e le sorelle Brontë. Ma adoro anche James Joyce, Italo Svevo, Donna Tartt, Ernest Hemingway, Peter Handke e i drammi di Shakespeare”. (Translation)

Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland) interviews professor and author Emilie Pine:

Und ich fand zum Beispiel Jane Eyre von Charlotte Brontë, ein einsames Kind, das irgendwie überlebt. Oder Jeanette Wintersons autobiografischen Roman «Orangen sind nicht die einzige Frucht». Auch hier ein Kind, das irgendwie nicht passte, von der eigenen Familie abgelehnt wurde – und seinen eigenen Weg finden musste. (Peer Teuwsen)

Nius (Spain) talks about the resurgence of the English governess. The mention is not really very accurate but ok, we guess: 

Las tres hermanas Brönte (sic) fueron las que mejor describieron el sentimiento de las institutrices en sus libros bajo el reinado de la reina Victoria. La mayor de las hermanas, Charlotte, trabajo como institutriz en 1839 y llegó a escribir “odio y aborrezco el simple pensamiento de ser institutriz”. Más tarde aprovechó su experiencia para definir a sus personajes como Jane Eyre que también trabajaron como institutriz. Pero ella dotó a esas mujeres de una fuerza y de una determinación que escapaban del patrón de aquella época y del concepto que se tenía de ellas. (Daniel Postico) (Translation)

L'Incorrect (France) talks about the author Maximilien Friche:

Exilé loin de sa patrie normande, c’est à Toulouse qu’il grandit,« dans les rues en lacis » duquel il aime se perdre, s’enfermant « entre midi et deux dans l’église de la Dalbade pour mettre [s]es tripes sur l’autel », avant de pousser jusqu’ « au cloître des Jacobins (c’était gratuit pour les jeunes), pour écrire dans [s]a tête ». Une adolescence comme il se doit, torturée par le monde et consolée par l’Esprit. Rodolphe-Maximilien n’aimait pas lire, et c’est bien étrange. Jusqu’à ce qu’il tombe à 14 ans sur Les Hauts de Hurlevent. Rodolphe-Maximilien n’était pas spécialement pratiquant, et c’est bien étrange.  (Jacques De Guillebon) (Translation)

All About English Literature posts a character analysis of Heathcliff.