Three Bells in Iowa

A new bookshop is about to open in Mason City, IA with a very special name. KIMT3 reports:

Three Bells Books, described as a small and community-focused independent bookshop, is scheduled to open in downtown Mason City in early November.  (...)

Three Bells Books is named after the Brontë sisters, a trio of Victorian-era English authors who all wrote under the pseudonymous last name of Bell.  Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, for example, are some of the family’s most famous works.

“I want to create a warm, welcoming place where all these bookworms can browse, read, get to know each other, and have fun with book culture,” says [Molly] Angstman.  “Reading is traditionally a solitary activity, but it doesn’t have to be!” (Mike Bunge)

RetroNews (France) publishes a captivating exploration of the press reception surrounding the initial French translation of Wuthering Heights.

Morte à seulement trente ans, Emily Brontë signa en 1847 l’un des chefs-d’œuvre de la littérature britannique, Les Hauts de Hurlevent. Traduit chez nous en 1892, le roman fascina la critique française, étonnée qu’une jeune fille ayant vécu isolée dans les landes du Yorkshire ait pu imaginer une histoire aussi sulfureuse. (Pierre Ancery) (Translation)

Variety lists Taylor Swift's best bonus tracks. Including Dear Reader: 

But if you identify with her more as a kind of wise and sage but never really satisfied loner, then “Dear Reader” is the album-closer for you. Fortunately, between the standard edition and deluxe editions, we get to choose the true finale, or, better yet, alternate between them. This particular capper is a lush, mellow, gauzy number that contains multitudes, as Walt Whitman would say. For starters, is Swift thinking of advice columnists or Charlotte Brontë and “Jane Eyre” with that promising title? Can it be both? (Chris Willman)

Cosmopolitan publishes a list of new movies 'based-on-true-stories'. In the case of Emily is more of the loosely-based variety: 

Emily is a biopic about Emily Brontë, the author of the 1847 novel Wuthering Heights and the sister of writers Anne and Charlotte Brontë who died at only 30. Part fiction, the movie focuses on a love story between Emily (Emma Mackey) and William Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), Emily’s writing, and her relationship with her sisters. (Lia Beck)

Otago Daily Times reviews  Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead:

Demon Copperhead is just the latest in the trend of contemporary authors reinterpreting classic tales. James Joyce’s Ulysses is perhaps the most famous instance of this, but others include Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea (a reinterpretation of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre), Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein (inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein), and Madeline Miller’s Circe. (...)

They are a form of fan fiction, an act of creation-within-creation, a palimpsest of narratives and authorial intent. When done well, such stories allow readers to access classic tales and themes in the context of the present day, without being put off by unfamiliar writing styles. As with Wide Sargasso Sea, they also provide reader insight into the lives of sidelined characters, upending preconceived ideas of heroes and villains, right and wrong. (Jean Balchin)

El Placer de la Lectura (Spain) recommends novels written by women:

Cumbres Borrascosas, de Emily Brontë, una de las tres hermanas Brontë, contiene la quintaesencia de la novela romántica inglesa decimonónica. En sus páginas se suceden los amores apasionados limítrofes con el incesto, los odios agriados que se prolongan durante generaciones, los celos, las apariciones espectrales y las tormentas, todo ello narrado con una fuerza y un brillante retrato de personajes que la han convertido en un clásico imperecedero. (Translation)

Mara Goyet in Le Monde (France) makes a not really very accurate Brontë remark: 

Les livres, comme les liquides de vapotage, les chips ou les yaourts, ont des saveurs. On n’y retrouve pas « tarte tatin », « mojito » ou « fraise gariguette », mais des essences plus subtiles. Il y a les livres parfum « étés adolescents » (les sœurs Brontë, Stendhal), « genoux écorchés » (la série de romans Le Club des cinq) ou « première partie du bachot » (Malraux). (Translation)

Soundvenue (Denmark) reviews the film Irgendwann werden wir uns alles erzählen by Emily Atef:

Den grove huleboer Henner virker nemlig som er en slags parodi på en voldsparat, forpint, selvironiforladt, hårrivende og følelsesmæssigt afstumpet førsteelsker fra et Charlotte Brontë-værk. (Luna Ehlers) (Translation)

A quote by Charlotte Brontë in an article about sleep in Choteau Acantha.  Great British Life mentions Charlotte Brontë as one of the attendants of the Great Exhibition of 1851. O Petróleo (Brazil) includes an Emily Brontë quote in a list of literary love quotes. The Japan Brontë Association Blog posts the dates and poster of the upcoming 38th Japanese Brontë Society Convention (October 21).

 Finally, an alert for tomorrow, August 11 (17.30 PM), at the  Librairie les Cyclamens (33 rue Jules Jeanneney 70300 Luxeuil-les-Bains):

Conférence et discussion autour des Brontë, une épopée victorienne.

Un voyage au cœur de la littérature anglaise du 19ème siècle et la découverte d'une fratrie d'exception : les Brontë dont on connait les sœurs, Charlotte (Jane Eyre), Emily (Les Hauts de Hurlevent) et Anne (La recluse de Wildfell Hall) mais dont le frère a aussi été une figure importante : Brandwell (sic) Brontë.

Par Dean de la Motte, docteur en littérature comparée, Newport (EU). (Via L'Est Républicain)