All things Jane

BBC recommends ten great places to start listening to Radio 4's flagship series In Our Time, hosted by Melvyn Bragg. One of the suggested programmes is on

Wuthering Heights

Melvyn and a team of experts gather to explore Emily Brontë’s only novel, published in 1847, a year before her death. The book tells the story of Heathcliff and Cathy – a tale of love, hatred, revenge and self-destruction over two generations in a remote moorland home.

Our Culture explores book-to-film adaptations and their history.

Outside of the murky world of horror, adaptations of literary works were also popular. These lent themselves especially well to historical films and ‘costume dramas’. These period films were first popularised by the 1910 iteration of Jane Eyre, the Charlotte Brontë novel. 

Book Riot recommends '8 of the best poetry anthologies' and one of them is

100 POEMS THAT MATTER BY THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS

This one contains a diverse collection of poems spanning classic and contemporary voices, such as Emily Brontë, E.E. Cummings, Mary Oliver, Rilke, Audre Lorde, Sylvia Plath, Amanda Gorman, Tracy K. Smith, Ada Limón, Maya Angelou, Ross Gay, Joy Harjo, and Warsan Shire, among others.

The book is organized into six chapters, each centered around a specific theme or topic. It gathers works that have previously appeared in earlier collections by various poets, even including poems in Spanish.

Richard Blanco, the editor, explains what poems are and how few people read them now. He recommends this book to people who don’t understand poetry. (Arvyn Cerézo)

Litchfield Independent Review features writer Julie Klassen.

As a self-declared fan of all things Jane — “Jane Eyre” and Jane Austen — it’s not surprising all Klassen’s stories take place in England during the Regency era of the early 1800s.

“The truth is I have always loved England,” she said. “I read ‘Secret Garden’ and ‘Jane Eyre.’ I knew I loved England, old England, but that specific time you can blame it on Mr. Darcy.” (Kay Johnson)

The Emory Wheel features Assistant Professor of Dramatic Writing at Emory University, Kimberly Belflower, whose

office is littered with trinkets — from a One Direction pencil holder to a Rococo-style porcelain figurine — showcasing her love of “small and weird” objects. Next to her desk, a bulletin board displays black and white photographs of people who inspire her: Sylvia Plath, Sandra Cisneros, Caryl Churchill, Georgia O’Keeffe, Audre Lorde and the Brontë sisters. (Alexandra Kauffman)

Times of India (ChatGPT really) analyses Jane Eyre as a 'A tale of independence, love, and resilience'. Finally, Independent Catholic News reports the death of the actor John Cairney (1930-2023) who played Branwell Brontë in the 1956 BBC production of the 1932 play by Clemence Dane, Wild Decembers.