Pilgrimages to writers' houses

Writer Phoebe Wynne shares 'Seven things I want my readers to know about me' on Female First.

6. I love to visit writers’ and artists’ houses. I think I’m trying to soothe my imposter [sic] syndrome, as if I can seek out inspiration, calm, creativity from these places, as if there are vibes I can absorb and borrow and put into my own work. Sometimes my visits feel like pilgrimages. I’m lucky to have been to many places, but my list is still very long! My favourite has been the Brontë family home in Yorkshire, I love everything about the three Brontë sisters.

Wide Sargasso Sea is one of several 'Classics that still resonate' according to Rutland Herald.

Wide Sargasso Sea

By Jean Rhys

This is actually the response to another classic, Jane Eyre. It tells the story of a marginalized character from the earlier novel: The first wife, brought to England from her native West Indies and locked away as the prototypical “madwoman in the attic.” I recommend reading them together, especially if you’re not familiar with the original, but much prefer the newer book myself. (Randal Smathers)

London Review of Books discusses the memoir Here We Are: My Friendship with Philip Roth by Benjamin Taylor.

‘Philip had searched diligently for a beautiful young woman to see to him as Jane Eyre looked after old Mr Rochester,’ Benjamin Taylor writes in his memoir, Here We Are. ‘What he got instead was me.’ Taylor was young, goyish and gay, all of which Roth was not. ‘I can’t be the first gay man to have been an older straight man’s mainstay,’ Taylor writes, but the ‘degree of attachment surprised us both. Were we lovers? Obviously not. Were we in love? Not exactly. Sufficient to say that ours was a conversation neither could have done without.’ They watched movies together, dined at dumpy restaurants (of one such dump, Roth joked, ‘a rat in a tuxedo greets you at the door’), attended concerts at Lincoln Centre. Their movie tastes were not aligned. ‘What do you see in all this Hollywood dreck, Ben?’ Roth wanted to know, ‘And why are you gay men so beguiled by Bette Davis?’ Yeah, Ben, what gives? Roth: ‘You don’t look twice at Ava Gardner, who was, to put it mildly, more attractive. She had an enduring sexiness, even in London. In the 1980s. When I had her.’ When I had her: how the phrase just rolls off the wrist. Memories of Ava weren’t enough to warm Roth on winter nights, as the string of candidates for the role of Jane Eyre dwindled to one. (James Wolcott)

Images recommends '5 Pakistani picks on Netflix' including

Zindagi Gulzar Hai: a more real portrayal of marriage

Netflix doesn't have many options for Pakistani serials but that's not why we're choosing Zindagi Gulzar Hai. Yes, the show sanctified a middle class dupatta-clad girl while villainising the upper class girls in western attire. The good girl/bad girl dichotomy, however, failed to erase the complexities that animate out of this binary.

With a Jane Eyre-esque earnestness, the good girl pursues a career, lives apart from her husband, and carves a space, where her being is not policed by men. Viewers see the very real struggle of a middle-class girl coming to terms with marriage to a man she doesn't seem to completely like in the beginning.

The show enthralled audiences in India and on-screen couple Kashaf (Sanam Saeed) and Zaroun (Fawwad Khan) became the subjects of adoration and amazement.

Faro de Vigo (in Galician) quotes the opening lines of several classics including Wuthering Heights.