The Brontës in Korea

The Pillar Portrait is travelling to Korea as reported by iNews.

The National Museum of Korea exhibition, which opens on Friday, features famous works from the NPG’s permanent collection that have not been shown outside of the UK since their acquisition, including Sir Anthony van Dyck’s last self-portrait.

The 78 works on show at the first major exhibition dedicated to Western Portraiture in Seoul include portraits of Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Isaac Newton, David Beckham and Malala Yousafzai, together with the first picture to enter the Gallery’s Collection, the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare. (Adam Sherwin)

The Telegraph (India) has an article on how 'Gothic architecture, in all its magnificence, has enchanted the literary imagination for centuries'.

Charlotte Brontë, too, is said to have visited two manor houses in England — the first owner of one of these, North Lees Hall, was reportedly considered a ‘lunatic’ and locked up in the attic — which provided the blueprints for Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre. (Sohini Chakraborty)

This contributor to News & Record leafs through a January 1945 copy of Life magazine.

Free copies of “Wuthering Heights” and “Jane Eyre” were offered if you joined the Book of the Month Club — or you could join by purchasing Ernie Pyle’s “Brave Men” for $3. (Harry Thetford)

The List turns to a 'body language expert' to look into 'William & Kate's Anniversary Video'. Judging by this detail we wouldn't think it's very reliable:

The video's landscape (as shot by British filmmaker Will Warr) would be reminiscent of the untamed countryside that Charlotte Bronte describes in "Wuthering Heights," except that the video is so chock-full of love that it can't be gloomy. (Hanna Claeson)

Plumas atómicas (México) lists several women writers who had to use pseudonyms.

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Cast of Emily

 Some of the names attached to the Frances O'Connor Emily project:

The costume designer Michael O'Connor is not unfamiliar with the Brontës as he also worked on Jane Eyre 2011.

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First look at Emma Mackey as Emily Brontë

(Michael Wharley)

After several quiet days on the Brontë news front, we have this today: a first look at Emma Mackey as Emily Brontë. From Variety:

Flying high after two Academy Awards for “The Father,” which it produced and sold, London-based Embankment has unveiled a first look photo of “Sex Education” star Emma Mackey in “Emily,” as well as robust early pre-sales on the feature, an Emily Brontë origin story. [...]

News of first major territories sold, including much of Europe, comes as “Emily” begins principal photography. The film marks the writer-director feature debut of actor Frances O’Connor, a double Golden Globe nominee for her performances in “Madame Bovary” and “Missing.”

First major territory deals have been struck with significant distributors and also take in one multi-territory deal — both signs of the film’s perceived market potential.

Warner Bros., for instance, has closed the U.K. while Wild Bunch has clinched France, Germany and Switzerland, as well as Italy and Spain through its subsidiaries, BIM and Vertigo.

Portugal (Nos), Benelux (Cineart), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Greece (Spentzos), Israel (United King), the Middle East (Front Row), South Africa (Filmfinity), and Australia and New Zealand (Madman) have also been licensed.

Joining Mackey and Fionn Whitehead (“Dunkirk,” “Voyagers”) in what Embankment describes as a “cast of vibrant young British talent” are Oliver Jackson-Cohen (“The Invisible Man,” “The Haunting of Hill House”), Alexandra Dowling (“The Musketeers”), Amelia Gething (“The Spanish Princess”), as well as BAFTA nominee Gemma Jones (“Ammonite,” “Rocketman”) and Adrian Dunbar (“Line of Duty”).

The first look captures Mackey as Brontë, a young woman alert to life standing against a background which looks very much like a sweeping Yorkshire moor.

Describing Brontë’s “transformative, inspiring and exhilarating journey to womanhood,” Embankment said Wednesday, the film will “brim with energy — intimately capturing the emotional intensity and adrenalin of youth, with all its messy honesty, heartbreak, humor and fearlessness; matched by the scale of our stunning locations,” O’Connor added.

“Frances’ storytelling is a breath of fresh air – attracting highly dynamic actors; each performing highly engaging characters, each provocative and just a touch dangerous; certainly, modern and spirited,” said Embankment’s Tim Haslam. (John Hopewell)

Daily Mail describes the picture for us:

Sex Education's Emma Mackey looked worlds away from her edgy character Maeve Wiley as a first look at her titular role in Emily Brontë biopic has been revealed.

In a newly-released image, the actress, 25 - who scooped her first BAFTA nomination for her Netflix comedy on Wednesday - wore a Victorian-style dress and opted for minimal make-up as she stood in a field.

Marking Frances O'Connor's directorial debut, Emily - which is yet to have a release date - will follow the story of the famous author, best known for her iconic novel Wuthering Heights. (Rianne Addo)

The news has made it onto quite a few sites such as Deadline, Elle (Poland) or The Hollywood Reporter.

Onto more future projects as Leinster Express (Ireland) reports that local writer Pauline Clooney will be publishing a Brontë-related book.

Her debut novel, Charlotte and Arthur, reimagining Charlotte Brontë’s honeymoon in Ireland in 1854, will be published by Merdog Books, October 2021. 

The Christian Science Monitor reviews Helen Oyeyemi's new novel Peaces.

She infuses the tale with references to music, photography, and painting, and with cultural touch points as seemingly random as the Brontë Sisters, the Beach Boys, and Converse sneakers. (Joan Gaylord)

La Tercera (Chile) mentions a poet who read the Brontës when she was a teenager.

Por su lado, la poeta Victoria Ramírez Mansilla (29), señala que también fue una lectura influyente para ella: “La leí en la adolescencia y creo que en cierto sentido ha marcado a una generación. En mi caso fue una entrada para leer a otros poetas. Hubo un tiempo en el colegio donde leí a varios escritores argentinos como Sábato, Cortázar, Silvina Ocampo, y también mucho a las hermanas Brontë, y en esa línea más oscura llegué a Pizarnik”. (Pablo Retamal N.) (Translation)

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Writing Maternity

This is a new scholar book with Brontë-related content:

Writing Maternity
Medicine, Anxiety, Rhetoric, and Genre

by Dara Rossman Regaignon

The Ohio State University Press

ISBN: 978-0-8142-1469-5

When did mothers start worrying so much? Why do they keep worrying so? Writing Maternity: Medicine, Anxiety, Rhetoric, and Genre answers these questions by identifying the nineteenth-century rhetorical origins of maternal anxiety, inviting readers to think about worrying not as something individual mothers do but as an affect that since Victorian times has defined middle-class motherhood itself. In this book, Dara Rossman Regaignon offers the first comprehensive study of child-rearing advice literature from early-nineteenth-century Britain and argues that the historical emergence of that genre catalyzed a durable shift in which maternal care was identified as maternal anxiety. Tracing the rhetorical circulation of this affect from advice literature through the memoirs of Mary Martha Sherwood (1775–1851) and Catharine Tait (1819–1878), as well as fiction by Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, the Brontës, and Charlotte Mary Yonge, Regaignon gives maternal anxiety a literary-rhetorical history. She does this by bringing concepts such as uptake and genre ecology into literary studies from rhetorical genre theory, making a case for a mobile and culturally influential notion of genre. Examining specific case studies on child death, paid childcare, and infant doping, among others, Regaignon argues that the ideology of nurturing motherhood was predicated upon the rhetorical cultivation of maternal anxiety—which has had significant consequences for the experience of motherhood and maternal feeling. 

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Both Jane and Bertha can wear Nap Dresses

Harper's Bazaar has a long, long article on 'The story behind the Nap Dress and the woman who made it go viral'. The Nap Dress is described as follows:

The Nap Dress could be worn by both a less sanctimonious Jane Eyre and a better-understood Bertha Mason. (Haley Mlotek)

Wyborcza (Poland) features the 2006 adaptation of Jane Eyre.

Twórczynie „Jane Eyre” pozwoliły bohaterom zakochać się w sobie w sposób romantyczny i wzniosły, ale rozbiły patos oraz ckliwość humorem. Jane i Rochester uwielbiają sobie docinać i robią to z wdziękiem.

Poza tym White i Welch zachowały społecznie zaangażowany charakter książki, bez nachalnego moralizowania. Położyły nacisk na kwestię wychowywania dzieci bez przemocy i na feministyczny wydźwięk. (Kalina Mróz) (Translation)

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Communication Strategies of Warning

 A new article about the (Brontë) communication strategies:

Communication Strategies of Warning in Novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Fadlul Rahman, Santi Kurniati

Jurnal Arbitrer,  Vol 8, No 1 (2021)

Jane Eyre’s novel was published in 1847 written by (Charlotte, 1983), in the early years of the Victorian period. This research sample is all of the communication strategies of warning that find in the novel Jane Eyre. It can be informed of dialogue between characters or inform of phrases and words related to politeness and communication strategies (Brown & Levinson, 1987). The results show that each character of Jane Eyre can be different from one to another in delivering a warning statement. They tend to give greetings before warning their addressee to respect the addressee, give information or advice toward the addressee, or impose the addressee with a threatening word. Based on basis finding data from 65 forms of speech acts of warning, it is concluded that Brown and Levinson’s communication strategies exist in the way of characters’ communication in warning their hearer. The strategies are classified into four strategies; bald on the record appear 8 times or 12,3%, positive politeness appears 32 times or 46,2%, negative politeness appears 18 times or 28,6%, and off the record appear 7 times 10,7%. Positive politeness strategy is the most frequent strategy used by characters with the elaboration of several sub-strategies. The sub- strategy most often used is to give reason 7 times or 10.7%.

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Understanding the Brontës up on the moors

The Telegraph and Argus features the forthcoming book by Michael Stuart, Walking the Invisible: Following in the Brontes’ Footsteps, out on June 24th.

Walking the Invisible, by Michael Stewart, follows the Brontë Stones trail, taking a series of walks through landscapes and buildings familiar to the family and investigating the geographical and social features that shaped their lives and writing. The book also compares the times they lived in with the present.

Michael, who lives in Thornton, where Emily, Charlotte, Anne and Branwell Brontë were born, became captivated by the Brontës after he left school and discovered a copy of Wuthering Heights in a library. “I never encountered the works of the Brontës at school. We were told we weren’t bright enough,” he said. [...]

“Up on the moors, I had a profound understanding of the texts. I started to connect with their writings in a visceral way,” said Michael. “It was like I had discovered another layer, and I sank further in. The words and the moors were one.”

Walking the Invisible - a “literary study of the social and natural history that has inspired writers and walkers, and the writings of a family that have touched readers for generations” - takes in landmarks such as Thornton’s Old Bell Chapel where Patrick Brontë was a curate, the grand residence said to be an inspiration for Mr Rochester’s house in Jane Eyre, backdrops to Branwell’s affair with an older married woman, the brooding moorland where the sisters roamed, and the beautiful stones engraved with words of contemporary female writers - Kate Bush, Jeanette Winterson, Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay - in tribute to the Brontes.

Michael came up with the idea for the four Brontë Stones, installed in 2018 in places where the sisters walked, and he leads guided tours of the trails for visitors from around the world. (Emma Clayton)

Book Riot lists musicals based on books including Paul Gordon and John Caird's Jane Eyre. The Musical.

Jane Eyre

Based on: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

There have been multiple music-based productions about Jane Eyre, the timeless tale of a woman and her weird, wife-napping boyfriend. The 2000 musical ran on Broadway for six months. I doubt its failure was because of the ableism and racism of the second act, but maybe it was one of those signs from God Jane likes to sing about.

Songs to Listen To: They all sound kind of the same? “Perfectly Nice” almost manages to do something. I liked “Secret Soul” and “Sirens,” but maybe that’s just because I like counterpoint. (Eileen Gonzalez)

We don't agree at all and, despite its lack of success, we do like it. As for 'the ableism and racism of the second act', well, that must have come from the book, right?

Vanitatis (Spain) features writer Espido Freire.

Vanguardista, pues, en el mundo de las escritoras influencers y 360, también ha participado como guía exclusiva para grupos reducidos en viajes para conocer mejor a figuras literarias como Jane Austen –de cuya vida y obra es toda una experta–, James Joyce o las hermanas Brontë. (Jorge C. Parcero) (Translation)

More on writer Samantha Ellis from the Brussels Brontë Blog.

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Virgule

The March issue of the French literary magazine Virgule was devoted to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre:

Virgule No 193 (March 2021)

Jane Eyre, un roman de Charlotte Brontë

Éditions Faton
ISSN : 9771760230006

En mars, Virgule vous propose un grand dossier sur Jane Eyre, un célèbre roman de Charlotte Brontë. Une biographie complète le dossier et vous présente les sœurs Brontë, grandes poétesses et romancières du XIXe siècle. Grâce au mode d’emploi, le passé simple n’aura plus de secrets pour vous ! Au sommaire de ce numéro également : un mot à adopter avec la SPM – féru –, le coin lecture, le courrier, les actus, les jeux et les BD !

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On Charlotte

La Repubblica (Italy) features Girl with Dove writer Sally Bayley.

Tutto quello che ho scoperto lo devo a Miss Marple e poi a Jane Eyre. Dopo aver scoperto Jane Eyre, niente è stato più come prima… Quando leggi un libro come Jane Eyre, cominci a vedere delle cose, piccoli frammenti di questo o quello che ti sfrecciano davanti agli occhi come stelle. (Ilaria Zaffino) (Translation)

AnneBrontë.org celebrated Charlotte Brontë's birthday by sharing statements from various contemporaries.

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Why She Wrote

A graphic collection just
published:

Why She Wrote
A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers
by Hannah K. Chapman and Lauren Burke

Illustrated by Kaley Bales

Chronicle Books

ISBN: 9781797202099

April 2021

In Why She Wrote, dive into the fascinating, unexpected, and inspiring stories behind the greatest women writers in the English language.

This compelling graphic collection features 18 women—including Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Anne Lister, and more—and asks a simple question: in a time when being a woman writer often meant being undervalued, overlooked, or pigeonholed, why did she write?

Why did Jane Austen struggle to write for five years before her first novel was ever published? How did Edith Maude Eaton's writing change the narrative around Chinese immigrant workers in North America? Why did the Brontë sisters choose to write under male pennames, and Anne Lister write her personal diaries in code?

Learn about women writers from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, from familiar favorites to those who have undeservedly fallen into obscurity, and their often untold histories, including:

• The forgotten mother of the Gothic genre

• The unexpected success of Little Women

• The diaries of the "first modern lesbian"

• The lawsuit to protect Little Lord Fauntleroy

• The personal account of a mastectomy in 1811

• Austen's struggles with writer's block

• And much, much more!

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Not Messing Around

 The Chattanooga Times Free Press reviews The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames by Justine Cowan:

Reading "The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames" is like discovering that a 20th-century suburban mom grew up in the bleak Lowood School from Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre." That it also invokes "Oliver Twist" is unsurprising, since Dickens lived near the Foundling Hospital and was a benefactor. Cowan compares the school's environment to Margaret Atwood's dystopian "The Handmaid's Tale." (Jane Marcellus)

Leeds Live carries a story about the fascinating case of the Gibbons twins:

As well as prolific writers were also apparently voracious readers consuming works by DH Lawrence, Oscar Wilde, Dylan Thomas, Emily Brontë, Mary Shelley and many more. (Jason Evans & Alex Grove)

Redbook Magazine lists period times 'that will take you back':

Wuthering Heights 2011

This newish adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel is as rainy and sleepy as the setting — and Andrea Arnold went on to direct American Honey, several episodes of Transparent, and much of the second season of Big Little Lies. She does not mess around. (Leah Marilla Thomas)

And FilmFare (India) reminisces about the Madhubala-Dilip Kumar films:

The duo then did Sangdil (1952), which was an adaptation of Jane Eyre and Amar (1954), which was a psychological drama revolving around crime, guilt and redemption.

Literary one-hit wonders in Galería (Uruguay): 

La libertad de la soledad. Jorge Luis Borges catalogó Cumbres borrascosas como "tan extrema e inclasificable como pudiera serlo Moby Dick". Fue publicada en 1848 bajo el seudónimo masculino de Ellis Bell, y recibida con desconcierto por los críticos de la época, que la encontraban salvaje. Narra una historia de amor entre venganzas, odio, traiciones y sadomasoquismo. Lo que nadie podría imaginar en aquella época era que detrás de esta obra estaba Emily Brontë, una joven que la biógrafa Winifred Gérin describió como retraída, intolerante, malhumorada, enigmática y para nada sociable. Tal vez la soledad y el aislamiento fueron lo que la llevó a escribir despojada de cualquier tipo de influencia, y a lograr una obra única para la época.

Junto a sus hermanas Charlotte y Anne, Emily creó mundos de ficción que hasta hoy se conservan en muchos de sus cuadernos escritos a mano. Durante la juventud, las hermanas publicaron poemas y novelas, siempre bajo seudónimos masculinos. "No nos gustaba declararnos mujeres, porque teníamos la vaga impresión de que las autoras podían ser vistas con prejuicios", dijo una vez Charlotte.

Emily no llegó a ser testigo del verdadero éxito de su novela, que con el tiempo fue no solo comprendida y aclamada, sino también considerada como una de las más importantes de la época victoriana. La escritora murió a los 30 años de tuberculosis. Pero su única obra -que además fue llevada al cine varias veces- es inmortal. (María Inés Fiordelmondo) (Translation)

Politiken (Denmark) reviews the novel Jeg Hedder Folkví by Maria Hesselager:

Hesselagers skildring af den ødelæggende intimitet mellem Folkví og Áslakr minder mig om den evige og grusomme kærlighed mellem Catherine og Heathcliff i Emily Brontës gotiske romanklassiker 'Stormfulde højder' eller om de brutale, ubehjælpsomme og dog ømme relationer, som den svenske forfatter Birgitta Trotzig maner frem i sit forfatterskab, som er så fuldt af prisgivne eksistenser. (Benedicte Gui de Thurah Huang) (Translation)

The writer Carmen Boullosa says in Milenio (México):

 “No sé si un libro me hizo escritora –sé que no, que me hizo escritora un dolor y una herida–, pero si es por fantasear pienso que fue Cumbres borrascosas, y que me di a la caza de lo que yo sabía siempre se me habría de escapar”. (Jesús Alejo Santiago) (Translation)

Marseille News (France) and songs based on books:

Bien sûr, ce n’était pas la première fois que Bush était attiré par une voix féminine dans un roman classique. Son premier single, «Wuthering Heights» de 1978, est sorti alors que Bush n’avait que 19 ans, et a raconté l’histoire d’Emily Brontë en 1847 en seulement quatre minutes et demie. Avec sa vidéo inoubliable, le single est sans effort en tête des charts britanniques. Présentant Bush comme un talent idiosyncratique avec une vision du monde unique, «Wuthering Heights» reste sans doute la chanson définitive basée sur la littérature. (Translation)

A mention in Urban Fusions (France):

À l’époque, les maisons de campagne étaient très prisées par la noblesse. L’idée derrière la maison de campagne était d’échapper aux problèmes de la ville animée (Londres) pour prendre un bol d’air frais. Dans de nombreux romans historiques classiques comme « Jane Eyre » ou « L’importance d’être constant », les maisons de campagne sont souvent mentionnées en tant que repaire de loisirs ou gardiennes des secrets de famille. (Translation)

Adevarul (Romania) includes a Brontë question in a culture quiz. Le Temps (Switzerland) carries the story of the Thornton council housing plan threatening Brontë country. Lands Uncharted and The Romance Bloke post about Jane Eyre. Writing in Obscurity reviews Wuthering Heights. Jane Eyre's Library (in Spanish) lists several books in Spanish about the Brontës.

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Upcoming Jane Eyre adaptation online workshop

Tomorrow, April 26, a reading of an upcoming production of Jane Eyre will take place:

Jane Eyre
Monday, April 26 from 7:00pm-10:00pm
Live Virtual Theatre Event
Philadelphia Artists' Collective

From the creative team behind Tiny Dynamite's The Complete Works of Jane Austen (Abridged), This fresh, inventive adaptation will bring the beloved classic novel to new life onstage!

After a childhood of hardship but also hard-won lessons, Jane Eyre becomes the governess at a gloomy, isolated estate called Thornfield Hall. There she encounters peculiar servants, unsettling secrets, and the enigmatic master of the house, Mr. Rochester. Introverted but fiercely brave, Jane defies expectations of class and position by falling in love with Mr. Rochester. But the painful mysteries of Thornfield and its master may make happiness there impossible. Jane Eyre is a sweeping, heart-rending story of romance, independence, and the conquering spirit of a brave young woman.

This one night reading event is the culmination of a workshop on this adaptation that will be produced as a co-production with Drexel University in the Spring of 2022.

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Lies and the Brontës

This is a new self-published book, exploring a personal family history with some Brontë-Brussels connections which are quite emphasized in the title:

Lies and the Brontës
The Quest for the Jenkins Family
Monica Kendall

Silverwood Books

ISBN: 9781800420052

April 2021

Radical insights into Charlotte Brontë’s vital two years in Brussels (1842–3)

The Jenkins family knew the Brontës in Brussels and West Yorkshire. Eager to learn about them, their descendant read the Brontë biographies, and discovered that no one had researched this family, and, worse, that what was written was fabricated, with one biographer copying another, embroidering, even making up dialogue.

Yet Mrs Gaskell had deliberately sought out Mrs Jenkins when researching her famous Life of Charlotte. If it had not been for Mrs Jenkins, Charlotte would never have gone to Brussels, never met M. Heger. There would be no Villette, no Jane Eyre.

This book purges the lies and identifies one of Charlotte’s characters for the first time. It reveals a thrumming wire that connects Byron to Trollope to Henry James, and gives further evidence of the adultery of William Wordsworth’s eldest son. Above all, it gives a radical new perspective on the inspiration for Charlotte’s novels and those vital two years she spent in Brussels.

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Jane Eyre 2011, an influence on Netflix's Shadow and Bone

Cosmopolitan interviews actress Jessie Mei Li from Netflix’s latest fantasy series, Shadow and Bone.

Another big change from the books is the relationship between Alina and General Kirigan. Alina has so much more agency in the show.

Exactly. Rather than the plot happening to Alina, the writers made sure that she made the decisions throughout the story, which was just such a smart move. We need to see her making these choices.

So when things turn more intimate and more romantic, Alina's the one who kind of makes the first move, and that was important. Ben Barnes refers to it as sort of a yin and yang. They see parts of themselves in each other. But on top of that, I think given the nature of him being much older and having the power in the situation, we still need to believe that they are equals. So her making that first move, and even just the scenes earlier on in the series where she talks to him in a more confident way than she talks to other people was really important. I think they feel this connection and she does seem to be comfortable around him from quite early on, in this weird way.

How do you channel that on-screen?

Our director had loads of references for us in terms of relationships. Me and Ben watched Jane Eyre with Michael Fassbender. That relationship between Jane and Rochester, it was very influential because it's a similar thing. He needs her and she needs him. So we watched that with some Indian takeaway in the first week. (Jessica Toomer)

Actor Ben Barnes also mentions the influence of Jane Eyre 2011 in an article in Entertainment Weekly.

Other influences Barnes pulled from range from Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs ("that stillness and intrigue and mystery of him") to Rochester in Jane Eyre ("a coldness to him but there's a romantic in him"). (Nick Romano)

It's been a while since we had an unexpected Brontë reference in the sports section. From the rugby column in The Irish Times:

When the Racing flanker Baptiste Chouzenoux made obvious shoulder contact to the head of a Bordeaux player, referee Matthew Carley commenced an extraordinary exchange with his TMO, that more resembled an emotionally torn dialogue between Heathcliff and Catherine from Wuthering Heights. (Matt Williams)

El Popular (Peru) credits the Brontë sisters, among other women writers, with changing the history of literature.

5.- Las Hermanas Brontë

Charlotte, Anne y Emily Bronte fueron tres hermanas novelistas de origen británico, quienes tuvieron que cambiar sus nombres a seudónimos masculinos para poder publicar sus obras. Emily es la autora de la popular novela Cumbres Borrascosas (1847) y Charlotte de Jane Eyre (1847).

Son un gran referente en la lucha por los derechos de la mujer. Tuvieron la idea de crear una escuela para niñas y sus libros tratan temas sobre las relaciones prohibidas, el maltrato físico y el alcoholismo. (Translation)

While Traveler (Spain) looks into the early days of well-known classics such as Jane Eyre.

'Jane Eyre', de Charlotte Brontë

La mañana del 19 de octubre de 1847 fue lanzada la crítica del periódico inglés The Atlas de un libro llamado Jane Eyre.

El crítico alababa la frescura de la obra y su capacidad para profundizar en los sentimientos de la juventud, pero la pregunta que flotaba por toda Inglaterra hacía alusión a la identidad del “autor”.

En un momento en el que el mundo editorial era copado principalmente por hombres, Charlotte Brontë adoptó el seudónimo masculino de Currer Bell (sus hermanas, Emily y Anne, se llamaban Ellis y Acton, respectivamente), para publicar una de las primeras novelas feministas de la historia.

O según muchos, una autobiografía encubierta que fundía a su autora con aquel personaje de conducta independiente y solitaria. (Alberto Piernas Medina) (Translation)

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Authorship, Omnipotence, and Charlotte Brontë

A new scholarly book with Brontë-related content:

Virtual Play and the Victorian Novel
The Ethics and Aesthetics of Fictional Experience
by Timothy Gao, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Cambirdge University Press

Part of Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture

ISBN: 9781108837163

April 2021

Pondering the town he had invented in his novels, Anthony Trollope had 'so realised the place, and the people, and the facts' of Barset that 'the pavement of the city ways are familiar to my footsteps'. After his novels end, William Thackeray wonders where his characters now live, and misses their conversation. How can we understand the novel as a form of artificial reality? Timothy Gao proposes a history of virtual realities, stemming from the imaginary worlds created by novelists like Trollope, Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, and Charles Dickens. Departing from established historical or didactic understandings of Victorian fiction, Virtual Play and the Victorian Novel recovers the period's fascination with imagined places, people, and facts. This text provides a short history of virtual experiences in literature, four studies of major novelists, and an innovative approach for scholars and students to interpret realist fictions and fictional realities from before the digital age. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

"Authorship, Omnipotence, and Charlotte Brontë" is the title of the second chapter.

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Jane Eyre and paratext

The Scotsman mentions Gérard Genette's paratext theory.

There is a concept in literary theory called “paratext.” It sounds daunting, especially when defined by Gérard Genette as “a fringe of the printed text which in reality controls one’s whole reading of the text.” Basically, though, it’s as simple as pie. You might remember a novel that begins “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.” But were you reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë or were you reading “Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. [in gothic type]. Edited by Currer Bell”, as the novel was originally published? (Stuart Kelly)

NYU News features the book A Good Time to be Born: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future by journalist and pediatrician Perri Klass.

In addition to mining writings about these real-life historical tragedies, Klass also looks to popular literature from the past—think Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charlotte Bronte, and even Mark Twain—for clues about cultural norms around childhood death. (Eileen Reynolds)

The Elm brings attention to a new paper connected to Jane Eyre.

The 2020-2021 school year comes to an end in three weeks, and after a stressful virtual year, many seniors can finally relax before graduating from Washington College. 

Senior Natasha Slaby recently turned in their English Senior Capstone Eexperince which is “about escape and return to abusive space in ‘Jane Eyre,’ specifically looking at how emotional and physical freedom are related to each other.”

Slaby said that they chose the topic because of their interest in psychology and because “[they] noticed that there was this large blind spot in psychoanalysis and trauma writing in regards to how space is utilized in stories that showcase trauma and domestic abuse, such as ‘Jane Eyre.’”

“’Jane Eyre’ is really personal to me — it was the first classic novel I ever read, and it was what got me interested in reading as a kid,” Slaby said.

Not only did Slaby’s SCE mean a lot to them, they said they had a bit of trouble finally letting it go. 

“I don’t miss writing and editing it – or the stress of having to put so much time into it – but I do feel like there is so much more to be said about and around my topic. I like to joke that if I go to get my master’s, or Ph.D. I’ll just expand upon what I’ve already written. Or that I’ll write a whole book about my SCE, with expansions of course, because there is just so much to talk about in it that I really couldn’t include because it was too off-topic,” Slaby said. (Emma Russell)

La Voz de Galicia (Spain) reports on a recent activity carried out by local high school students.

El resultado fue una jornada distendida en la que surgieron nombres procedentes de todo tipo de mundos, lugares y disciplinas, expuestos en algunos casos de modo performativo. La vida de las hermanas Bronte y en concreto la de Emily, escritora de Cumbres Borrascosas; la dualidad y estrecha relación interpretable entre Mary Shelley —célebre autora de Frankenstein— y la mangaka Hiromu Arakawa —creadora de la serie de manga y anime, FullMetal Alchemist—; una exposición revestida de simbología anarquista, sobre la política y teórica del anarquismo Federica Montseny y sus avances en materia de igualdad de género y feminismo; o la leyenda de una pirata irlandesa llamada Grania O’Malley que, según se cuenta, quería viajar a España. (Javier G. Sobrado) (Translation)

Caitlin Moran's column in The Times has a couple of Brontë mentions:

 Now, obviously, there’s a copyright issue here. Personally, I am hugely aggrieved on behalf of the person at M&S who invented the original Colin the Caterpillar. Unless this person also invented Percy Pig, Colin the Caterpillar stands as their great masterwork: their West End Girls; their Wuthering Heights.

Sure, great art can inspire other artists — there are dozens of bands influenced by the Pet Shop Boys or Kate Bush — but in the case of Colin, for others to go right ahead and make a chocolate caterpillar with a name beginning with “C” is like if, in 1984, another synth duo called the Pet Food Boys had sprung up; or if another crazy lady in a nightie had rocked up with a song called Wuthering Tights. About tights. Just make it a chocolate snake cake, you no-imagination-having sons of bitches! Or a sausage dog! To go full caterpillar is just, at the end of the day, a full-scale legal provocation.

Woman (Spain) interviews poet Olga Novo.

¿Qué mujeres escritoras están entre tus referentes?

Rosalía de Castro, Emily Dickinson, Luz Pozo Garza, las hermanas Brontë, Olga Orozco, Xohana Torres, Safo, Virginia Woolf, Joyce Mansour, Delmira Agustini, Sylvia Plath, Anaïs Nin, Blanca Varela, María Zambrano, Carmen Blanco… Y todas las narradoras orales de la tradición ágrafa que ha llegado hasta mi madre cantando romances tradicionales, cantares de ciego y coplas populares. (Isabel Loscertales) (Translation)

It's Book Day in Spain today and Aleteia has a bookshop owner recommend books to give:

«Los clásicos han superado la piedra de toque del tiempo. Tolstoi, Dostoyevski, Shakespeare… Son autores que han descubierto qué hay en el alma humana. Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë…» [...]

«Este año hay reediciones de clásicos como «Jane Eyre» con portadas muy atractivas o ediciones juveniles.» (Dolors Massot) (Translation)

Catalunya Radio's programme El búnquer (in Catalan) had a little (apparently humorous) bit on Charlotte Brontë and TB.

Finally, Brussels Brontë Blog posts about a recent talk by Samantha Ellis on 'Why Anne Brontë didn’t go to Brussels and why it matters'.

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Politeness Strategy

New scholar research published on the Brontës:

Series:Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Educational Development and Quality Assurance (ICED-QA 2020)

Politeness Strategy in Directive and Expressive Utterances as Found in Jane Eyre Movie

Yalmiadi, Yossy Iddris

This study discusses politeness strategies in directive and expressive speech, which are found in the Jane Eyre movie. The study is aimed at observing politeness strategies in conveying the intention or purpose of the speaker. The data are taken from the Jane Eyre movie. They are then collected through the observational method with note taking technique. The research sample consisted of 24 directive and expressive utterances containing politeness strategies. By using the theory proposed by Brown and Levinson about politeness strategies. Data are analyzed. From 24 dialogues, the writer found 33 data that contain politeness strategies. The results of the analysis are presented using the theory by Sudaryanto. The result of the data analysis shows that all kinds of politeness strategies occur in this movie. Based on the 24 dialogues studied, the writer finds that negative politeness strategies occur the most, namely 13 times, while positive politeness strategies occur 12 times, bald on record 4 times, and off record 5 times

From “Haworth Churchyard” to “Courage”: Emily Brontë Perceived by Matthew Arnold
Jingjing Zhao
The Explicator, DOI: 10.1080/00144940.2021.1891015 (2021)

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The kind of guy who might read Wuthering Heights and decide it needed amping up a little

Source

A lovely project to celebrate the links with the Brontës is being carried out in Thornton as reported by The Telegraph and Argus.

The Brontë Zines - quaint booklets packed with facts and puzzles about the literary sisters’ lives and work - have been created by local artist Rosie McAndrew and are being distributed in Thornton, where the world-famous family lived before Haworth.

The project is part of a cultural programme promoting Thornton as the Brontes’ birthplace. In March 2020 South Square Centre in the village received National Lottery Heritage funding for a capital refurbishment and a three-year programme of activities highlighting local industrial heritage, the Bronte birthplace and South Square’s history as a grassroots arts centre.

Rosie worked with the centre on creating the Bronte Zines, initially released in the first lockdown. Now, to celebrate Charlotte Bronte’s 205th birthday today, they are re-launched.

“We originally created them in the first lockdown of March 2020; we distributed them around the village to care homes and residential living as a way to keep connected with our community,” said the centre’s programme manager Alice Withers. “We have re-launched them this month to celebrate Charlotte’s birthday and the gradual re-opening of the centre to the public.”

Added Rosie: “A Zine is basically a publication of original or appropriated texts and images. They usually have a very small circulation and are works with minority interest - obviously the Brontes have a world-wide interest so these were a delight to create. The project combined my love of pop culture and illustration with heritage and education - knowing what we know about Charlotte we’re pretty sure she’d approve!”

The Zines will also be available at the centre when it re-opens with exhibitions on June 4. (Emma Clayton)

Several sites mourn the death of songwriter Jim Steinman. From The Guardian:

In 1989, the NME interviewed Jim Steinman. The late journalist Steven Wells found him on fine, very Jim Steinman-ish form. He was presiding over a video shoot for a single by his new project Pandora’s Box, directed by Ken Russell, a man who shared Steinman’s zero-tolerance policy towards subtlety and good taste. Amid Russell’s exploding motorbikes, white horses surrounded by fire, and S&M gear-clad dancers gyrating on top of a tomb, Steinman offered his thoughts on current rock (U2 were “the most boring group in the world”) and dished scandalous gossip about the artists he’d worked with. He also announced that the Pandora’s Box album had been inspired by a scene in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights where Heathcliffe [sic] exhumed Cathy’s corpse and “danced with it on the beach in the cold moonlight”. It should be added that this scene seems to have existed entirely in Steinman’s head – nothing like it happens in Brontë’s book. But then, Jim Steinman seemed very much the kind of guy who might read Wuthering Heights and decide it needed amping up a little. (Alexis Petridis)

Music Radar quotes Steinman's take on the whole thing, which is obviously priceless.

"This isn't the Wuthering Heights of Kate Bush—that little fanciful Wuthering Heights," Steinman said of the original, somewhat grim inspiration for the song. "The scene they always cut out is the scene when Heathcliff digs up Catherine's body and dances in the moonlight and on the beach with it. I think you can't get much more operatic or passionate than that. 

"I was trying to write a song about dead things coming to life," Steinman reasoned. "I was trying to write a song about being enslaved and obsessed by love, not just enchanted and happy with it. It was about the dark side of love; about the ability to be resurrected by it... I just tried to put everything I could into it, and I'm real proud of it. (Rob Laing)

The best bit is where he says 'the scene they always cut out'. Yeah, even Emily Brontë cut it out, go figure!

The Grammy Awards recommends 10 of his songs and describes It's All Coming Back to Me Now as follows:

The song's thundering lyrics inspired by Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights and over-the-top production, including the sound of clattering drums, is classic Steinman: boisterous and bubbling with passion. "I was trying to write a song about dead things coming to life," Steinman wrote about the song. "I was trying to write a song about being enslaved and obsessed by love, not just enchanted and happy with it. It was about the dark side of love and about the extraordinary ability to be resurrected by it once dead." (Rob LeDonne)

A contributor to Jezebel can't understand what all the fuss is about in the whole 'let's alter the displays at Jane Austen’s House to reflect the ‘colonial context’' controversy in the UK and cautions critics not to read Jane Eyre.

I would beseech any and all UK tabloid writers or readers outraged at this shocking Austen revelation to either never read Jane Eyre or close the book when you get to the part where Jane leaves Lowood because you are going to be fucking livid when you find out what Rochester’s got in that attic. (Emily Alford)

We don't really see her point, though, because the post-colonial readings of Jane Eyre are not exactly marginal, not particularly new.

Spoiler (in Spanish) lists some adaptations based on the Brontë novels. Libreriamo (Italy) features Jane Eyre. The Sisters' Room shares '7 facts about Charlotte Brontë'.

Finally, a reminder from the Brontë Parsonage Museum on Twitter:

Last chance to buy tickets for tonight's online Brontë Lounge event with Moira Buffini, the screenwriter behind 2011's "Jane Eyre" film, starring Michael Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska & Brontë Society President Dame Judi Dench. £6, starting at 7.30pm https://t.co/O6y8ACyQJU

— Brontë Parsonage (@BronteParsonage) April 22, 2021

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Moira Buffini and Withering Looks

 A double streaming alert for today, April 22:

1. The Brontë Lounge : Moira Buffini

April 22, 7:30 PM
An evening with the writer of the 2011 film of "Jane Eyre"

April’s Brontë Lounge guest is writer, playwright and showrunner Moira Buffini.
In this zoom event, taking place the day after Charlotte Brontë's 205th birthday, Moira will talk to our host Helen Meller about the process of adaptation, and how she wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed 2011 film of Jane Eyre, which was directed by Cary Fukunaga and starred Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender.

2.  Withering Looks by Lipservice Theatre (A Streamed Event)

Pocklington Arts Centre

April 22, 7:30 PM

Commissioned by the Brontë Parsonage Museum, LipService Theatre perform scenes from their award-winning comedy Withering Looks, filmed in the ACTUAL parsonage where the Brontë sisters wrote their ACTUAL books ACTUALLY! With additional material filmed in and around Haworth village and on the wild and windswept moors in sub-zero temperatures!

The film explores a day in the life of the Brontë sisters, well two of them, Anne’s just popped out for a cup of sugar. And in true Attenborough style there is additional footage of the making of the film. This special showing is to celebrate Pocklington Arts Centre 21st anniversary. Maggie and Sue from LipService will introduce the film live on Zoom and there will be a live Q&A at the end.

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Heathcliff in rollerblades

First of all, Keighley News has a lovely article/slideshow for Charlotte Brontë's birthday with pictures of 'some of the places around Haworth which inspired Charlotte and her sisters' both historical and recent. In these days of travel bans and quarantines, they are a joy to see. Don't miss it.

Polskie Radio (Poland) and Monopoli (Greece) also have celebratory articles on Charlotte with special reference to Jane Eyre. And the Brontë Parsonage Museum shared this on Twitter:

"Spring drew on ... and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps." Charlotte Brontë, "Jane Eyre"

Charlotte Brontë was born #OTD in 1816 pic.twitter.com/YsHR42hUme

— Brontë Parsonage (@BronteParsonage) April 21, 2021

The Scarborough News look at recent proposals to try and boost tourism in the area.

Other ideas included the promotion of walking routes and the area’s historic nature, such as its links to Anne Brontë. (Carl Gavaghan)

Dance Magazine interviews director-choreographer Cathy Marston and asks her about the atrocious review her Jane Eyre got in The New York Times a few years ago.

Dance and language also intersect in criticism. The New York Times published a strong response to Jane Eyre by Gia Kourlas. What strategies have you developed to support the press in its assessment of your work?

The New York Times review is actually the only review I've knowingly not read. It was a huge thing, ABT premiering Jane Eyre at the Met. I had two very close friends there and they both told me, "Don't read it." I mean, I got the gist—it sounded awful. When you read reviews, a turn of phrase can linger and leave a bitter taste in the mouth, even if you disagree. (Zachary Whittenburg)

The Yorkshire Post has an article on the filming locations used during the shooting of the second season of Gentleman Jack.

The cast have also ventured to Brontë Country for scenes at Penistone Hill Country Park near Haworth, and the real-life country home of Anne's schoolfriend and lover Isabella Norcliffe, Langton Hall near Malton, has also been used. Isabella, played by Joanna Scanlan, is introduced as a character in the new series. (Grace Newton)

Looper recommends Heartbreak High, a ''90s Australian Teen Drama You Can Binge On Netflix'.

Heartbreak High even had its own Zack Morris. His name was Bogdan Drazic, played by actor Callan Mulvey. The character was a rebellious misfit introduced during the show's fifth season with a skater style, class-clown proclivities, and an eyebrow ring. The Guardian called him "Heathcliff in rollerblades." (Helen A. Lee)

New York Post reports the death of songwriter Jim Steinman (1947-2021):

The enigmatic songwriter was known for drawing inspiration from the arts. His song “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” most famously performed by French-Canadian icon Dion in 1996, was said to be inspired by Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights.” Critics hailed Dion’s recording as a “highlight” of her English-language music career, undoubtedly paving the way for her global, decade-spanning success. (Hannah Sparks)

Finally, Book(ish) has an article on why 'Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ is the best literature-inspired song on everyone’s playlist'.

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Charlotte Brontë's 205th birthday

It's 205 years since the birth of Charlotte Brontë in Thornton. We have a couple of celebratory plans to suggest.

First of all, those of you near Haworth do remember that while the Brontë Parsonage is sadly still closed, the shop is now open and welcoming buyers. So do pop by if you're in the area. If you're elsewhere in the world do remember that the online shop is open 24/7. It's a nice way of doing a little something for the Brontë Parsonage Museum during this difficult time.

And now for the second plan, accessible wherever you are in the world too.

Flock Theatre's Jane Eyre, produced as a Zoom film and released in November 2020, is available for free streaming on YouTube. This new adaptation by Julie Butters, which supplements live-action performances with shadow puppetry, has garnered more than 3,000 views since its release.

Whatever you do, we hope you find a little moment to think of Charlotte on her birthday.

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Heathcliff and the Great Hunger

A contributor to The Telegraph thinks that 'Altering the displays at Jane Austen’s House to reflect the ‘colonial context’ of her era is a distraction from the brilliance of her work'.

But Austen was not a political campaigner: her social commentary is subtle. In fact, there’s something perverse about people who are supposed to be guardians of her work playing at right-on politics. She was a lover of all things conservative: her stories reveal the inner workings of bourgeois society, and the desperate lengths to which people will go to maintain some semblance of status quo. Austen’s women, rebellious as they may seem, always end up finding their own way of fitting into the jigsaw of society. Contrast Charlotte Brontë’s heroine (and mine), who appears 34 years later. What Jane Austen finds unappealing – passion, rule-breaking and attitude – are exactly the things that Jane Eyre seeks. [...]

Fascinating things can come about by delving into the hidden context of a work – Terry Eagleton’s Heathcliff and the Great Hunger is a wonderful hypothesis about Emily Brontë’s anti-hero being an Irish Famine refugee. But there is a difference between learning about the conditions in which a work is created, and allowing external factors to dominate our understanding of it. (Ella Whelan)

We can't force our favourite writers into being something that we don't know they were. It may sound cliché, but times were different. 

Not leaving Jane Austen yet as Looper recommends 'Movies To Watch If You Like Pride And Prejudice' including

Jane Eyre (2011)

Charlotte Brontë published what is often considered her magnum opus, Jane Eyre, in 1847. Much like Austen's works, Jane Eyre has been the subject of more than one adaptation over the years, from silent films beginning as early as 1910 to the first feature film version in 1934. More recently, it was adapted for the screen by Moira Buffini for director Cary Joji Fukunaga's 2011 adaptation, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. 

Jane (Wasikowska), a woman with a traumatic past, lands a job as a governess at Edward Rochester's (Fassbender) estate. Despite Rochester's frequent mood swings, the two bond and begin to fall for each other. But Rochester has a dark secret. Upon discovering it, Jane runs away from his home and their potential romance.

The 2011 movie has been labeled an ultra-faithful adaptation of the classic work, which only strengthens the film overall. It has even been deemed the best of all Jane Eyre adaptations. As Cinemaficionados details in their review, "This Jane Eyre adaptation far surpasses any of the previous film versions by benefiting from a master execution by director Cary Fukunaga." Fukunaga's direction is aided by the stars' alluring, stormy, and irresistible performances. This film isn't just one Austen fans should check out — it's recommended for all cinephiles. (Nikki Munoz)

Republic World recommends it for fans of Titanic, too.

Jane Eyre

The 2011 romantic drama film was directed by Cary Fukunaga. The movie features Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. It is based on Charlotte Brontë's 1987 novel of the same name and the screenplay is given by Moira Buffini. The story revolves around Jane Eyre who runs away from Thornfield Hall and finds herself alone on the moors. She is then taken care of by St John Rivers' sisters. The duration of the movie is 120 minutes. (Ruchi Chandrawanshi)

Nerds and beyond describes Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak as

A Gothic romance that serves as del Toro’s love letter to stories like Rebecca, The Haunting of Hill House, Jane Eyre, and The Turn of the Screw, Crimson Peak was never given the praise it was due upon its release. Horror fans adored it, judging from its many wins and nominations at the Saturn Awards that year including Best Picture. (Jules)

Diacritik (France) interviews Anna Feissel-Leibovici, author of last year's Quelle Brontë êtes-vous ?

Pour Emily, la lande fut son atelier ; elle en y façonna Heathcliff, son héros, dont le nom est un mélange de bruyères et de falaises. Et elle inventa une histoire d’amour immortel entre deux enfants, une histoire indissociable du paysage dans lequel elle se déroule.

Charlotte avait une méthode bien à elle pour suppléer à ce que la vie ne lui avait pas appris : elle fermait les yeux et tentait de l’imaginer aussi longtemps que nécessaire, après quoi elle l’écrivait. Elle commença Jane Eyre, dans la quasi obscurité qu’exigeait l’état de son père, tout juste opéré des yeux ; elle l’avait accompagné en tant que garde-malade dans une ville qu’elle ne connaissait pas et qu’elle ne chercha pas à connaître. Son manuscrit débutait justement ainsi : « Il ne fallait pas songer à sortir ce jour- là. »

Quant à Anne, elle ne voyait pas pourquoi recourir à l’imagination, quand elle avait tout ce qu’il fallait sous la main, la déchéance de son frère, par exemple, devenu dépendant de l’opium et de l’alcool. Elle écrivit La Recluse de Wildfell Hall, un roman encore mal connu du public, qui la révéla comme une vraie féministe avant la date. (Olivier Steiner) (Translation)

Capturing Your Confidence posts about Wuthering Heights.

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A Wuthering Heights day walk

 An alert for tomorrow, April 22:

A Wuthering Heights day walk

by Large Outdoors

In a nutshell: 

 A cracking, moderately challenging day walk that takes you on a literary journey. 

Contrasting scenery including an historic village, moorland, wooded ravines and waterfalls. 

A day filled with friendly banter, bad jokes and questions about the Brontës that we don’t know the answer to!

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Persuasion: that Jane Eyre movie

Seren reports on a recent 'Evening with Sally Wainwright'.

On 12th March 2021, I attended a panel talk hosted by Holly Lynch, MP for Halifax in conversation with Sally Wainwright, a prolific screenwriter well known for her work on TV over the past two decades. [...]

While her most recent drama has brought the life of 19th century lesbian Anne Lister into the public consciousness, she has had to tackle with issues of dramatizing history and representing real life figures from the past. With this comes a responsibility, which she finds daunting when portraying other historical figures such as the Bronte’s in her drama To Walk Invisible, and the pressures of fidelity and fair representation. While there are stark parallels in attitudes towards women then and now, Sally’s programmes all have a connection in their Yorkshire settings. She confessed that this was not an intentional decision, and the landscape of her native Halifax has been appreciated in a new way through the portrayal of it in her series. Often it’s as attractive for her viewers as her storylines and characters, and the shared affinity for the town between herself and Holly proves it plays a huge part in her success. Wainwright claims to write about women who she’d like to be, such as landowners, ground-breaking novelists and policewomen by recognising these experiences through shared stories. The conversation went on to discuss how her shows have had a huge impact on the Calderdale district, bringing a boost in tourism and the economy as viewers have been inspired to flock to the real landscape seen on screen (with an added reveal of the first episode of Happy Valley Series 3 being greenlit!) (James Tanner)

Oh the shame if this interview had been face to face! We are still blushing by proxy. Deadline interviews Oscar-nominated costume designer Alexandra Byrne and asks her:

DEADLINE: You mentioned your past work on a different Jane Eyre movie, Persuasion. How much inspiration do you think you took from that into Emma? (Ryan Fleming)

Oh dear.

Staff reading recommendations on Hudson Star-Observer include

Reporter Rachel Fergus 

"Agnes Grey" by Anne Brontë

Anne Brontë, Charlotte and Emily Brontë’s younger sister, is often overlooked when people talk about the Brontë sisters. Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre” and Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” are both set firmly in English literature’s canon. but Anne’s work is for some reason often left out, which is a shame.

“Agnes Grey” follows the titular character as she works as a governess for the Bloomfield family and later the Murray family. Throughout her time working, Agnes begins to learn about herself and what she wants in life. The plot sounds simple but the novel moves quickly and keeps the reader entertained. 

The thing that I love most about this book is the commentary that Anne makes about gender and the environment. Though she wrote in the 1840s, Anne argues for gender equality and the importance of protecting the natural world. Brontë’s critiques on human destruction of nature is even more potent now than when she lived. 

Anne Brontë only published one other book, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,” is also generations ahead of its time. In it, Brontë writes powerfully about abusive relationships and women’s rights. I highly recommend both of Anne’s novels.

AnneBrontë.org has a post on 'The Branwell Journeys To Yorkshire'.

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Why Anne Brontë didn’t go to Brussels

Tomorrow, April 20, a Zoom event organized by the Brussels Brontë Group:

Tuesday 20 April at 20.00

Why Anne Brontë didn’t go to Brussels and why it matters

Talk by Samantha Ellis

Anne Brontë has always been overshadowed by her two elder sisters. To celebrate her bicentenary we have invited Samantha Ellis, the writer who had done so much to bring Anne into the limelight and highlight her strengths both as a person and writer.

Samantha Ellis’ Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life (2017) takes a personal, poignant and surprising journey into the life and work of ‘the other Brontë sister’, viewing her as a brave, strongly feminist writer well ahead of her time – and her more celebrated siblings – with much to teach us today about how to find our way in the world.

Samantha, a British writer, playwright and journalist, is also the author of How to be a Heroine (2014).

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Emily (not Charlotte) and Charlotte (not Emily)

The Pilot reviews The Diabolical Bones by Bella Ellis:

The Brontë sisters, Anne, Emily and Charlotte, are busy with their own literary pursuits, both poetry and the idea of writing a novel. But since that doesn’t keep them busy enough, they’ve started their own little detective agency.

When their housekeeper shares the news that a set of old bones has been found bricked up inside Scar Top House, nothing will do but that the sisters look into it at the request of Liston Bradshaw. They aren’t afraid of the rumors that Liston’s father, Clifton Bradshaw, owner of the house, has sold his should to the devil (although he is a hard man).

It seems pretty cut-and-dry since the skeleton was found in Bradshaw’s house, but the young women are nothing if not thorough in their quest.

Ellis does a great job of giving the historical facts about the Brontë family good play, alternating chapters among the sisters. (Faye Dasen)

This Emily Brontë link in Cumbria is a little bit tenuous. Lancashire Live says:

Cumbria has some of the most historic homes in the country - here are just some of the incredible properties for sale including homes with links to William Wordsworth and Emily Brontë. (...)

Fountain House, Kirkby Lonsdale

£885,000 (Guide price)

Rev William Carus Wilson, a prominent figure in the area, added the Georgian front section in 1830.

The reverend founded Clergy Daughter’s School at nearby Cowan Bridge, where the novelist Charlotte Brontë was a pupil.

The school and the Rev Wilson were said to have provided Charlotte with inspiration for the Lowood school and tyrannical headmaster in her 1847 masterpiece Jane Eyre. (Catherine Mackinley)

John Sutherland presents in The Telegraph his new book Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me:

 So what exactly did she mean by “producing” me? She did so by passing on her belief as to what an engagement with books really meant. Stay amateur; don’t professionalise yourself. What matters is your love of great literature, not processing it. If that means not publishing (like her), so be it. Work out a small shelf’s length of authors who really mean something to you. Most of what I have published, over the last half century, is on authors borrowed from Monica’s shelf: Thomas Hardy, pre-eminently, Thackeray, Scott, Trollope, Emily (not Charlotte) Brontë. Jane Austen she thought prissy. I part company with her there.

The Daily Pioneer (India) on tales of heritage:

 Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a wonderful cameo on the traditional Christmas spirit. Similarly, Sense and Sensibility by Austen profiles the Victorian custom of older men marrying young girls. Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights is all about how social class creates conflicts among its characters. (Sutapa Basu)

Il Manifesto (Italy) carries an article about the persistence of the interest in the Brontës:

Un mare, anzi un oceano, di carte – biografie, saggi critici, nuove edizioni, traduzioni, film – circonda il magico arcipelago brontiano: Anne, Emily, Charlotte. Lontane dalla modernità e perciò così attraenti. I loro versi allucinati, tardo-romantici forse pre-imagisti, misteriosi e incantatòri hanno il fascino dei lieder. Non ci chiedono di essere capiti, ma di sentire con loro. Per merito del padre, il reverendo Patrick Brontë della canonica di Haworth, bello, dominante, solitario, conosciamo le adolescenziali aspirazioni delle loro brevi esistenze. Morirono di tubercolosi – come già la madre e le due sorelline più giovani – a circa trent’anni Anne e Emily, Charlotte a trentotto. (Read more) (Viola Papetti) (Translation)

The Huffington Post (Spain) lists the influences on Pilar Quintana's novel Los Abismos:

Los ecos que acompañaron a Pilar Quintana durante la escritura fueron los de Rebeca, de Daphne Du Maurier, de 1938, que luego se haría popular por la adaptación cinematográfica de Alfred Hitchcock, en 1940. Junto a ella, muy cerca, Cumbres borrascosas, de Emily Brontë. “Son dos novelas que me impresionaron en mi adolescencia. Ese gótico de amores infelices con niebla”, confiesa Quintana. (Winston Manrique Sabogal)

Culturopoing (France) reviews the film The Nightingale:

 Format 4/3, photographie épurée, gros plans et cadres frontaux, la cinéaste impose immédiatement une mise en scène sèche et précise, rappelant la Andrea Arnold des Hauts de Hurlevent dans son traitement moderne apposé à un film d’époque. Jennifer Kent, marque ainsi une évolution assez radicale après Mister Babadook, autant qu’elle s’affirme par la même occasion. (Vincent Nicolet and Jean-François Dickeli) (Translation)

Extra (Ireland) describes the younger Ian Bailey as a 'handsome Heathcliff-like poet'. On ReReading Jane Eyre Luccia Gray continues her Jane Eyre in Flash Fiction posts.

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