Don’t you feel like an idiot having to ask questions like that?

The Bookseller discusses the deal for publication of the upcoming book by Eleanor Houghton:

Icon Books has scooped up the rights to cultural historian Eleanor Houghton’s biography of Charlotte Brontë, Material Witness, which explores the famous author’s life through her surviving clothing. 

Ellen Conlon, senior commissioning editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Liza DeBlock at Mushens Entertainment, in an exclusive submission, for publication in June 2024. Meanwhile, audio rights have been sold to W F Howes. 

The publisher said: “Although nearly 170 years have passed since Charlotte Brontë died, witnesses to her life still survive. This innovative biography finally gives voice to the dresses, corsets, bonnets, shawls and many other garments that were present as she penned the first lines of Jane Eyre, as she walked the cobbled streets of Haworth with her sisters, as she dined with William Makepeace Thackeray at his home in London or as she joined Arthur Bell Nicholls at the altar in the summer of 1854. Powerful as their stories are, their testimonies have remained unheard – until today.”  (...)

Houghton said: “I am delighted to be working with Icon Books on Material Witness: Charlotte Brontë’s Life Through Clothes. As the astonishing secrets hidden within her surviving wardrobe are revealed, a real, raw, three-dimensional woman emerges – one who shatters myths and challenges our long-held preconceptions of this beloved author.” (Sian Bayley)

The Yorkshire Post has an opinion column on the 5G mast blocking in Haworth:

And so news in the historic Brontë village of Haworth that a superfast 5G connection to online networks has been blocked will be the cause of understandable frustration to those who see access to a faster, more reliable digital world as something of a lifeline, be that to their business or themselves.

At almost 60ft tall, their concerns are understandable and those who know the value of protecting places such as Haworth from anything detrimental to their character, identity and beauty should not be demonised but celebrated as guardians of something that, once gone, cannot be retrieved.

The challenge is, then, to ensure good people who can generate vibrancy, prosperity and a sense of community are not chased away by what they may well see as a Luddite mentality hell-bent on freezing people and places in time. Conversations must continue if compromise is to be found.

Girls' Life and books to read this Christmas:

A Vintage Christmas 

If you're drowning in finals, last-minute Christmas shopping and holiday parties but still want to get some winter reading in, try this poetry and short story collection. With work from well-known authors including Louisa May Alcott, L.M. Montgomery, Mark Twain, Anne Brontë and more, this compilation of short and sweet Christmas pieces is the perfect pick-me-up when rushing between activities. You'll be transported into an old-timey world of crackling fires and magical moments in no time!

We're big fans of editor Bob Gottlieb after reading this interview in Vulture:

Editors, as any editor can tell you, live in the shadow of their writers, reacting quietly behind the scenes, unheralded and little known. This is, evidently, how Gottlieb prefers it. “This glorification of editors, of which I have been an extreme example, is not a wholesome thing,” he once told The Paris Review. “The editor’s relationship to a book should be an invisible one,” he said then and believes today. “The last thing anyone reading Jane Eyre would want to know, for example, is that I had convinced Charlotte Brontë that the first Mrs. Rochester should go up in flames.” He insists editing is neither an art nor a craft. It’s just “what I do,” he says. “I’m not an abstract thinker. I don’t think, really — I just react, which is what editors are supposed to do.” When I tried to press him further, he waved me away. “Don’t you feel like an idiot having to ask questions like that?” (Matthew Schneier)

Limelight reviews Emily:

O’Connor’s fantasy about Emily offers a generous version of how she could have experienced her life, and how that life, though horrendously short (she died from tuberculosis at the age of 30), might have inspired her to write her classic work. 

What we often forget when we watch these period dramas is just how spectacularly young these artists were. This film captures Emily’s youth and sense of the future, without slipping into sentimentality or saccharine palettes. A handful of scenes have the trappings of horror – a brilliant device that elevates the movie to new emotional heights.

Nanu Segal’s spellbinding cinematography recalls the ethereal sensibilities of classic, English period dramas, while Abel Korzeniowski’s soundtrack captures the tumultuous verve of the young characters. 

The film has the offbeat spareness of Terence Davies’ A Quiet Passion (2016) about American poet Emily Dickinson, and the delirious exuberance of Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice (2005), culminating in a singular resonant statement of its own. 

The film ends where it began, with Emily lying down, moments away from death, answering her sister Charlotte’s throbbing question: “How did you write Wuthering Heights?”

“I took my pen and put it to paper,” Emily replies, breathlessly. (Jessie Tu)

Screendaily interviews some anonymous BAFTA awards voters trying to highlight early favourites:

Producer 1, female, Bafta voter

What has caught your eye so far?

Emily succeeded in capturing the Brontës and energy of Wuthering Heights — an unexpectedly inventive and thrilling debut from veteran actor Frances O’Connor with a fantastic lead performance from Emma Mackey. 

Baz'art (France) reviews the film as seen at the Royal Film Festival. 

BFI publishes the obituary of the film director Mike Hodges. Talking about his film Get Carter:

Hodges wrote the screenplay with Ian Hendry in mind, as he was trying to break away from the caperishness of The Italian Job (1969). However, Michael Caine readily bought into the notion of thriller as social autopsy and brought a sombrely pitiless pathos to what he later claimed “was like Charles Dickens meets Emily Brontë, written by Edgar Wallace”. (David Parkinson)

Stylecaster associates zodiac signs with novels... not really different from associating different detergent brands with books:

Capricorn

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Capricorns are famous for being hardworking, disciplined and determined to get the job done. But how do you think they got that way? Capricorn energy is so motivated and entrepreneurial because it’s a zodiac sign that is often accompanied with abandonment and hardship. Jane Eyre is an orphan who has been let down by all her caretakers, but her strength of spirit always her to remain resilient and to take care of herself better than many in her situation would. The themes surrounding this novel are peak Capricorn, as the story of a woman overcoming the worst odds will inspire anyone to grit their teeth and rise to the occasion. (Roya Backlund)

FNAC's L'Éclaireur recommends the manga adaptation of Jane Eyre:

Jane Eyre, Lee SunNeko, d’après Charlotte Brontë (Nobi Nobi)
Toujours dans la collection « Les Classiques en manga », retrouvez l’adaptation réussie du premier roman et (déjà) chef d’œuvre de Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre.
L’histoire romantico-gothique de cette orpheline très tôt livrée aux sombres vicissitudes de l’existence mais dont la détermination et l’indépendance de caractère pousseront la jeune femme à chercher le bonheur coûte que coûte. (Simon) (Translation)

The best of the year for the Göteborgs-Posten (Sweden) includes the film Emily:

Hur är det möjligt att göra en så här slätstruken film om en så mytomspunnen, härligt okonventionell författare som Emily Brontë? (Translation)

More lists. This one is of Belgian books in 2022, via Humo (in Flemish Dutch): 

‘Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris’ - Anjet Daanje ★★★★½

De Nederlandse beschrijft in de vorm van aantekeningen, essays, necrologieën en brieven een hele stoet aan personages, wier levensdraden samenkomen in de knoop die Eliza May Drayden heet, Daanjes versie van Emily Brontë. Veel kans om zich aan de passanten te hechten krijgt de lezer niet – de dood is alomtegenwoordig, en iedere kennismaking is een aangekondigd afscheid. Toch is het geen log boek. Daanje schrijft heel precies en houdt de aandacht vast met haar gracieuze, serene stijl. Een bijzonder boek en de terechte winnaar van de Boekenbon Literatuurprijs.

Babelia (El País) (Spain) suggests book gifts:

 “Le gusta Cumbres Borrascosas”: El retrato de Dorian Gray, de Oscar Wilde. Ingenio y mala onda a partes iguales. La eterna juventud por la tremenda. Como en nuestros días. (Javier Rodriguez Marcos) (Translation)

Coolt (Spain) interviews the writer Sara Mesa:

Alejandro Lingenti: ¿Cómo fue su primer acercamiento a la literatura? ¿Cuál fue el primer libro que le produjo un impacto de esos que dejan huella? 
S.M.: De niña solo leía. Leía muchísimo, y era para mí una forma de escape, de consuelo, de gozo. Leía intuitivamente, sin programa y, por supuesto, sin ningún plan de convertirme en escritora, eso vino mucho después. Me cuesta decir un solo libro que haya generado ese impacto. En mi caso fue una suma de libros, una mezcla rara entre la que había tebeos, novelas de Agatha Christie y algunos otros libros que me removieron por dentro, intensamente, como Cumbres borrascosas o Crimen y castigo, aunque apenas los entendiera. (Tran-lation)

Sarah from Too Many Damn Books (via Literary Hub) lists Wuthering Heights among Top Books Read in 2022 From the Past. Final thoughts on Charlotte Bronte and Arthur Bell Nicholl's Honeymoon, 1854.