'Heathcliff out-emos even Hamlet'

The Strad shares the world premiere of Cathy Marston's Bertha.

Bertha’, choreographed by Cathy Marston (the brain behind the ROH’s The Cellist) in collaboration with Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet, explores the psyche of Bertha Mason, the love-scorned antagonist of the novel ‘Jane Eyre.’

With a score for violin and handpan, this origin story of ‘the woman in the attic’ marks the latest chapter in Marston’s ongoing exploration of her full-length ballet ‘Jane Eyre’, which the Joffrey debuted in 2019.

Direction: Cathy Marston, Tim Whalen

Choreography/Story: Cathy Marston

Music by Errollyn Wallen, Published by Errollyn Wallen © 2021 All rights reserved

Film Featuring: Joffrey Artists Christine Rocas as Bertha, Dylan Gutierrez as Rochester, Jeraldine Mendoza as Jane Eyre/Young Bertha Score

Performed By: Sara Trickey — Violin, Rosie Bergonzi — Handpan

Music Recorded and Mixed By: Gerry O’Riordan, at The Soundhouse Studios, London Rehearsal Director: Suzanne Lopez Costumes: Patrick Kinmonth Produced By: The Joffrey Ballet, Big Foot Media.

Some contributors to Book Riot shares the assigned reading that changed their lives and one of them has picked

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

I took AP English my Senior year and one of the books we were assigned was Wuthering Heights, and my sweet giddy aunt, I hate that book with a fiery passion. I don’t understand why it’s touted as one of the best love stories because there are absolutely no likable characters in this book. Heathcliff out-emos even Hamlet and Catherine is just the worst. This, plus my feelings against Hamlet and anything that Joyce wrote (just to shame a few) helped me to realize that I can be an awesome English major and still loathe some of the things that are still taught to this day in English classes everywhere. On a positive note, I also read Ellison’s Invisible Man in that class, so it wasn’t all bad.

—PN Hinton

The Corvallis Advocate interviews local writer Kate Hope Day.

TCA: Do you have a favorite book that you would wish everybody had read? 

Day: My favorite Victorian novel is easily “Jane Eyre,” and “In The Quick” is a very loose retelling of “Jane Eyre,” which if you haven’t read [it] recently, it doesn’t matter. You don’t need to know it for the book. But if you are a person that loves “Jane Eyre,” you will get the little Easter eggs in “In The Quick.” I definitely was inspired by that kind of character when I was writing “In The Quick,” that’s sort of the character that you love them, but you can see them making their own lives so difficult just by being who they are. And “Jane Eyre” is always my quintessential example, but [there are] a lot of great ones.  

I think Arthur Less from the novel “Less” definitely falls into this category. From television, “Fleabag” is definitely like that. You’re just sort of shaking your head at her, but also you’re rooting for her, you’re [thinking], “no don’t, don’t do that.”  

So “Jane Eyre” has always been a favorite of mine. And it was a big inspiration for “In The Quick” in terms of the novel that I push into everyone’s hands and say, you know, you’ve got to read this book if you’re a human being. (Sally Lehman)

A columnist from De Volkskrant (Netherlands) shares a conversation about Wide Sargasso Sea with his brother.

Goed punt, zei die. De broers hebben erna nog vaak gedebatteerd of het ook mis kan gaan, als je van tevoren helemaal niks weet. ‘Neem Jean Rhys’, zei ik. ‘Niks verklappen’, zei Mike. ‘Maar ik moet toch een voorbeeld geven?’ ‘Ja, maar zonder iets te verklappen, graag.’ ‘Oké... haar beroemdste boek, Wide Sargasso Sea, gaat verder waar een ander beroemd boek ophoudt.’ ‘Zeg maar één keer hardop welk ander beroemd boek’, onderbrak Mike zijn grote broer, ‘dan lees ik dat wel even eerst, voor ik aan die Jean Zaragoza begin.’ (Lezersvraag: over welk boek hadden de anaaltjes het? De uitgever verloot er weer eentje, de schrijver m/v niet, waarom niet mag ik denk ik niet verklappen.) (Peter Buwalda) (Translation)

Still in the Netherlands NRC features the 1911 novel Een revolverschot by Virginie Loveling.

Steeds zijn er ook andere krachten, is er die onderstroom van duistere elementen die we kennen uit de gothic novels van Ann Radcliffe, Emily Brontë, Mary Shelley en vele andere schrijfsters die het bovennatuurlijke en de horror hebben gebruikt om te kunnen schrijven over de werkelijkheidservaringen van vrouwen. (Manon Uphoff) (Translation)

Ahram Online (Egypt) features Wanas Al-Kotob (‘The Companionship of Books’) by Mahmoud Abdel-Shakour.

Essentially, this 350-page volume is a very generous selection of book reviews. It is generous in terms of the number of titles that Abdel-Shakour decided to introduce to his reader. It is also generous in terms of the diversity of the selection.

Abdel-Shakour divided his book into five sections that go through Egyptian novels, Arab novels, short stories, poetry, and foreign literature and memoires.

The division is safe and sound, but within that division there is perhaps what could be called some subdivisions that might have been all unintentional.

Several of the titles that Abdel-Shakour included in his recent volume relate profoundly to the issue of generations and their moral bonds: the generation who survived the defeat of the 1967 war and the one that lived through the rise and fall of the January 2011 Revolution.

There is Sahar El-Mougy’s ‘Misk Al-Tal’ (‘The Hill’s Musk’), which has two previously coerced literature female characters, Amina of Naguib Mahfouz and Catherine Eranshaw of Emily Bronte, trying to help Mariam to get out of her hopelessness and onto her feet, practically on the eve of the January Revolution. (Dina Ezzat)

Articolo 21 (Italy) features the stage production Gentleman Anne as part of the festival Lecite/Visioni at the Teatro Filodrammatici di Milano.

Figura emblematica, la Lister è al centro delle ricerche letterarie dell’appassionata Joe, che è del resto convinta anche dell’omosessualità delle sorelle Brontë o di Jane Austen. (Amelia Natalia Bulboaca) (Translation)

Metal Hammer has Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt sum up his life in 10 songs.

I was determined to try and make each song a masterpiece so I tried to listen to only masterful music – things like Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights where you’re almost embarrassed to be trying to write guitar parts around it. (Rich Hobson)

World News Mania shares '5 Life Lessons You Can Learn from Classic Literature Books'. Well, perhaps the first life lesson you can learn is to remember which book was written by which author.

Like Jane Austen did with Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Emily Brontë created a strong, self-possessed female protagonist in Jane Eyre who was many years ahead of her time. The book begins with her being punished for not smiling and prancing around like children are supposed to do—but little Jane refuses to fake her emotions.

Throughout the novel Jane faces various trials, but nothing will stop her from going after what she wants. When she leaves Mr. Rochester, she tells him, “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will”. Young readers will aspire to be as unabashedly themselves as Jane. (Paul Willson)

Mangialibri (Italy) posts about Wide Sargasso Sea.