'All within me became narrowed to my lot'

Miranda Seymour, author of I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys, recommends where and how to start with her work in The Guardian.

Most people know Jean Rhys as the author of Wide Sargasso Sea, a title often featured on school and university reading lists. But that prequel to Jane Eyre was actually the Dominica-born author’s last book, and there are riches in store for those who haven’t yet explored the rest of her work. [...]

But those new to Rhys will enjoy discussing Wide Sargasso Sea, the heartbreaking prequel to Jane Eyre which was published in 1966. Rhys was 76 and had almost given up hope of literary recognition until it won the WH Smith literary award and she was propelled into the limelight. Set in Jamaica and on another unnamed Caribbean island, Sargasso draws on Rhys’s intense memories of Dominica, where she told friends that she wanted to be buried, “under a flamboyant tree”. And that – if you really want to understand what made Jean Rhys the great writer she would become – is where to go and look for her.

The Guardian also reviews the memoir Agoraphobia by Graham Caveney.

Given the pain he has been through, he’d be entitled to a measure of anger. But his book is bright and funny, and full of telling quotes, whether culled from others (Charlotte Brontë’s Villette: “All within me became narrowed to my lot”) (Blake Morrison)

The Baffler reviews Letters to Gwen John by Celia Paul.

Born in Trivandrum (now Thiruvananthapuram), India in 1959, the daughter of Christian missionaries, Paul returned to England at a young age and grew up with her four sisters in southwest England. They spent time in Yorkshire, not far from the milieu of the Brontës: another set of provincial sisters and a recent preoccupation of Paul’s work, from her haunting portraits of Charlotte and Emily (reproduced in Letters to Gwen John), to her view of “The Brontë Parsonage (with Charlotte’s Pine and Emily’s Path to the Moors)” from 2017. Such landscapes had spurred her artistic imagination from a young age. [...]

Another significant difference between Paul and John is that the latter—like the Brontës, like Virginia Woolf, like Jane Austen, like “all the women I revere”—never had children. (Victoria Baena)

Nottinghamshire Live reviews Wise Children's Wuthering Heights at Nottingham's Theatre Royal.

Nottingham-raised Emma Rice's adaptation of Wuthering Heights is a thoroughly enjoyable, funny and accessible take on Emile Brontë's classic novel. The production showing at Nottingham's Theatre Royal expresses the madness of the tale on stage, while providing comic relief, catchy songs and gripping narrative.

Lucy McCormick captures the childlike hyperactivity and excitement of Catherine, as the first half takes the audience through her relationship with her adopted brother, Heathcliff (Liam Tamne), and how, despite their romantic interest in each other, obstacles keep them apart.

Behind the stage is a large screen, often in greyscale and always showing dull colours, which added to the gothic nature of the tale. The stage is cluttered with chairs and other props, all used to show the disorderly nature of this strange love story.

Death is a key theme in Wuthering Heights and is expressed in a minimalistic fashion by an eccentrically dressed Dr Kenneth (Craig Johnson) walking across stage with the deceased name written on a blackboard. Explainers like this helped show the more unclear aspects of the narrative often seen in works of classic literature.

At one point the narrative voice of The Moor (Nandi Bhebhe) has to address the audience to tell them some years had past, as the rest of the cast say, "you could have mentioned that". Other moments of comedy came as the story continued, particularly Katy Owen's depiction of Isabella Linton and Little Linton, which had the audience in hysterics.

Owen pranced around the stage as Isabella and often moped across the floor as Little Linton. Her jokes and silly voices were side-splitting and at times stole the show. Some of the actors played more than one character and the way the production used minimal personnel to create a range of voices was interesting, particularly how children were shown. This was done using puppets, propped up by a member of the cast, and helped show the different points in time effectively and abstractly. (Adam Laver)

La Nueva España (Spain) reports that tonight at Teatro Jovellanos (Gijón) there's the play La senda que deja el aire.

Personajes como Jane Eyre y Bertha Mason son una prueba fehaciente de que la gran literatura trasciende a su propia época. Y en este caso, a su propia autora, cuya enorme generosidad hizo que colocase a su criatura por delante de ella misma, dejando atrás su propia identidad, escondiéndose bajo un seudónimo masculino en un tiempo difícil para ser mujer y escritora.

La propia autora Jean Rhys, que desarrolló en la novela titulada 'Ancho mar de los Sargazos', ya en el Siglo XX, el personaje de Bertha Mason, fue cautivada en su adolescencia por la novela Jane Eyre y fue siendo ya adulta que decide escribir este brillante texto, que supone una precuela perfecta para terminar de magnificar la obra de Charlotte Brontë. (Translation)

Showbiz CheatSheet recommends '10 Shows Like ‘Sanditon’ to Watch After Season 2' and one of them is

‘Jane Eyre’

We don’t think he’s keeping a mad wife in the attic, but Alexander Colbourne (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) was still giving us serious Mr. Rochester vibes in Sanditon Season 2. Revisit the original story of an orphaned governess falling for her brooding employer in this 2006 miniseries adaptation of Jane Eyre. Ruth Wilson plays Jane and Toby Stephens plays Mr. Rochester. (Megan Elliott)

Artribune (Italy) interviews writer Ginevra Bompiani.

Che importanza ha per te il genius loci nel tuo lavoro?

Il primo saggio che ho scritto si chiamava Lo spazio narrante, e parlava del ruolo dello spazio nelle opere di due scrittrici inglesi (Emily Brontë e Jane Austen) e una poetessa americana (Sylvia Plath). Quindi lo spazio mi è sempre sembrato un elemento narrativo importante. Ma per me lo spazio è soprattutto un luogo, il luogo che lo guarda, e cioè la finestra. Ho sempre cercato di scrivere davanti a una finestra, e lo faccio ancora, sebbene sia una posizione sbagliata per la luce; praticamente scrivo abbagliata dallo spazio sopra uno schermo in ombra. Ho sempre pensato, rispetto alle scrittrici e agli scrittori di cui ho parlato, che trovassero le metafore dietro le finestre. Lo dicevo in quel libro: la brughiera, il villaggio, il giardino offrivano il materiale immaginario. Le metafore sono una forma di genius loci. Quello appunto che si osserva stando alla finestra. (Ludovico Pratesi) (Translation)

Independent (Ireland) discusses the wonders of handwriting inspired by Charlotte Brontë's little book while The Telegraph and Argus and Keighley News report the future return home of the little book.