An imagined life for her

The Daily Mail continues publishing pictures of the shooting of Frances O'Connor's Emily film. Now, it's a funeral... but whose? Branwell? But Weightman was already dead by then...

Sex Education's Emma Mackey got into character as Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë on Thursday and filmed new scenes at a church in Otley, Yorkshire, for the new biopic.
The actress, 25, wore a long black gown, reminiscent of the Victorian era, as she appeared to star in funeral scenes for the forthcoming film. (..)

On the upcoming project, actress-turned-director Frances, 53, said: 'Emily Brontë's writing is steeped in such passion, feeling, violence, and fierce intelligence – that I've always yearned to know who she really was.  

'Emily is about a rebel and misfit, a young woman daring to form herself, to embrace her true nature, despite the consequences. And, in creating an imagined life for her, I hope Emily Brontë will live again!' 

Tim Haslam of Embankment, who is executive producing and financing the movie, added: 'Frances' storytelling is a breath of fresh air.

'It attracts highly dynamic actors; each performing highly engaging characters, each provocative and just a touch dangerous; certainly, modern and spirited.' (Natasha Hooper)

Hmmm, an imagined life for her... 

Le Monde (France) reviews the recently published Se construire avec patience. Lettres de liberté et de détermination:

Sans doute à cause de mon métissage latino-celte (romantisme fébrile et grands espaces), je fus longtemps plus Emily que Charlotte. Mais Charlotte (1816-1855) a dorénavant ma préférence. Je resitue : le révérend Brontë, souhaitant « distraire et consoler » ses enfants endeuillés (on attrape la tuberculose à cette époque comme on développe une allergie au gluten maintenant – en nettement plus tragique, cela va sans dire), offre douze soldats de bois à son fils et introduit ainsi une infinité de jeux de rôle et d’invention dans la vie de ses enfants. « Matrice de narrations délirantes. » Charlotte convaincra ses sœurs de publier leurs écrits. Les lettres du recueil Se construire avec patience font le portrait de la condition humiliante des femmes dans la société victorienne, dont la seule carrière possible est celle de gouvernante (l’« exaltation égoïste de l’émulation » pourrait les plonger, n’est-ce pas, dans « la folie de négliger [leurs] véritables devoirs en vertu des plaisirs de la création »). Elles esquissent surtout la silhouette d’une femme exaltée, qui fait l’éloge de la sororité et de l’étude, et se révolte contre le naturel de se soumettre. Aucune rouerie, ici ; président seules lucidité ponctuée d’éclats de candeur, spontanéité et obstination proprement insubmersible. « Même une femme seule peut être heureuse », insiste-t-elle. (Véronique Ovaldé) (Translation)

The Telegraph & Argus talks about the Echoes of Thornton project:

Echoes of Thornton combines stories collected from people who lived at South Square with images from the Thornton Antiquarians archive of key buildings now and then. Local artists Lucy Barker and Lucy Courtney-Clegg have turned the images and memories into a series of nostalgic videos and vignettes. (...)
Echos of Thornton is aimed at gently encouraging people outside, ahead of the arts centre re-opening in June. Funded by National Heritage Lottery Fund & Arts Council, it is part of South Square’s three-year programme of heritage activities highlighting Thornton’s industrial heritage, Bronte birthplace and the arts centre’s place as a grassroots cultural venue. (...)
Discovery maps guide visitors around key sites in the village, highlighting properties in the past and present, including the birthplace of the four youngest Brontë siblings, Anne, Emily, Branwell and Charlotte, on Market Street, where they lived before moving to Haworth in 1820. Memories, stories and information about the village and its dwellings can be shared via visitors’ smartphones. (Emma Clayton)

The Yorkshire Post talks about the proposal of Bradford as UK City of Culture 2025:

The bid will be aiming to make the most of the four superstars, as well as the long history of cultural heritage from the area, which includes the Brontë family, David Hockney and JB Priestley. (Jonathan Pritchard)

Shethepeople (India) comments on some poems by Priya Malik:

Just like all other Priya Malik poems, Art Has No Gender questions the disparity of genders. The poet refers to a metaphorical wall in front of a library that reads, “Art has no gender but artists do”. She says that female artists are still considered more female and less artists. Women who choose art as their profession are just as much artists as men. The only difference is men never get questioned about their gender when discussing their profession.

Malik brings in the examples of the Brontë sisters who wrote novels under male pseudonym because their writings weren’t what we consider “feminine”. (Dipanwita) 

The Dewsbury Reporter talks with Eric Brown, Oakwall Hall's site manager in his retirement: 

From tree-planting, dry stone walling and conservation to Oakwell Hall, the Brontes and Gentleman Jack, Eric Brown has seen all that and more during three decades at Kirklees Council. (...)

Eric’s role expanded to take in responsibility for Red House Museum in Gomersal, the home of pioneering adventurer Mary Taylor, a friend of Charlotte Bronte.

Volunteers helped make the gardens, in particular, a beautiful feature but by 2016 financial pressures within the council meant Red House had to close. Dewsbury Museum went too and Eric said: “We were sorry to lose them but there were financial pressures and difficult decisions had to be made. (Martin Shaw)

Nerdist talks about the upcoming DC Comics story Poison Ivy: Thorns:

While the story changed from her original pitch, something that hit with DC was the B-movie tone they saw in the piece. But in their responses Keplinger saw something else. “What I’m hearing from you is less a B-horror movie and more modern Gothic. They were like, ‘Oh yeah, do that.’ It’s a favorite genre of mine. I really pulled from my love of things like Jane Eyre and just a variety of Gothic literature. Especially with reference to things like Sarah Waters books like Fingersmith; queer gothic literature. I wanted to pull that into the modern day and make creepy plants be a part of it.” (Rosie Knight)

The Canberra Times presents the YA novel Waking Romeo:

Canberra-born Kathryn Barker's first novel, In the Skin of a Monster, won the Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel in 2016. Now comes another impressive YA novel Waking Romeo (Allen and Unwin, $19.99). Barker has Romeo and Juliet and Wuthering Heights as her plotline inspiration. In a bleak future world of 2083, in which most of humanity has time-travelled to the future, Jules has survived her suicide pact with Romeo, but he remains in a coma. When handsome time-traveller Ellis arrives, here the Brontë reference, one of only a few who can travel back in time, Jules and Romeo's future will be changed forever. (Colin Steele)

Descopera (Romania) celebrates Charlotte Brontë as a writer 'who influenced many other writers'. 

Charlotte Brontë a fost o romancieră și poetă engleză, cunoscută cel mai bine pentru romanul „Jane Eyre” din 1847. Romanul spune povestea unei tinere guvernante care reușește să depășească anumite dificultăți, iar în același timp rămâne fidelă principiilor sale. Romanul a îmbinat realismul moral cu elemente gotice. Alte romane cunoscute ale lui Charlotte Brontë includ „Shirley” (1849) și „Villette”(1853). (Ioana Matei) (Translation)

La Prensa (Argentina) interviews the writer Carlos Gamerro:

¿Quiso darse un gusto con esta novela?
-Son gustos que uno se da de grande: siempre quise escribir una obra de Shakespeare, y como no me alcanzaba con traducirlas, escribí Cardenio. Siempre quise escribir una novela de las Brontë, Dickens o Melville, así que escribí La jaula de los onas. Andando el tiempo y los capítulos se va convirtiendo en una novela del nneXX: la acción principal arranca en 1888 y llega a 1921, y algunos de los narradores recuerdan los hechos décadas después, estirando el marco temporal hasta los años "70 y tantos al menos. (Translation)

Cultura e Culture (Italy) and Cosmic Latte review Wuthering Heights.  ReReading Jane Eyre posts another entry of the Jane Eyre in Flash Fiction. AnneBronte.org marks the 172nd anniversary of Anne Brontë's funerall with a post on 'The Changing Face Of Anne Brontë’s Headstone'.

The reappearance and upcoming auction of the Honresfeld manuscripts is still appearing in the news: Bama (Hungary),  Infobae (Argentina), La Arena (Argentina), Noroeste (México), RAI News (Italy), ANSA (Italy), Pangea (Italy), ABC (Spain)...