Vulnerability and determination

The Times has picked 'The best historical fiction books of 2023' and one of the books listed is

Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen Powell

Europa Editions £14.99

Karen Powell’s debut novel, The River Within, was a tale of class, grief and love set in 1950s Yorkshire. Her second travels further back into that county’s past and revisits the lives of its most famous writing family, the Brontës. The story of moorland isolation, early deaths and burgeoning creativity is a familiar one, but Powell, with Emily as her first-person narrator, gives it new energy, capturing the vulnerability of the three sisters and their determination to make the most of their talents. (Nick Rennison)

The best Gothic literature in USCDornsife:

In the mid-19th century, writers and sisters Ann, Charlotte and Emily Brontë helped revive the Gothic tradition with novels like Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, in which an orphaned heroine finds both romance and terror on a country estate. The novel demonstrates how writers were becoming increasingly interested in the internal world.

“In Jane Eyre, for example, the heroine appears to be very self-contained and restrained, prudish even, but inside, there’s this riot of passionate emotion going on,” says Russett.

The sisters grew up reading Radcliffe as well as the Romantic poets, for whom the natural world was a source of potent inspiration, explains Russet. “The Brontës’ work is a synthesis, in some ways, of both the Romantic interest in landscape, self-expression, imagination and also the Gothic themes of imprisonment and escape,” she says. (Margaret Crable)

Jacqueline Maley and gender in literature in The Sydney Morning Herald:

“Literature,” wrote the great poet, “cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be.”

Robert Southey, Britain’s poet laureate from 1813 to his death in 1843, was responding to a letter from a young correspondent seeking his advice on her early work. She wanted to know whether she might fashion a writer’s life for herself. It was 1837.

Southey continued, warming to his theme: “The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure she will have for it, even as an accomplishment and a recreation. To those duties you have not yet been called, and when you are you will be less eager for celebrity.”

His correspondent was discouraged, but not entirely. Ten years later she wrote Jane Eyre, one of the greatest works of English literature. There was a reason why Charlotte submitted her manuscript under the male pseudonym of Currer Bell. Her sisters Emily and Anne Brontë used the masculine monikers Ellis and Acton. Mary-Ann Evans wrote as George Eliot. (...)

I can’t speak for other women, but my version of the Roman Empire is the Brontë sisters - their wild, isolated weirdness, the startling, it-will-out nature of their talent, and the enormous burdens they faced as women writers – are ceaselessly fascinating to me. How did they do it?

I thought of the Brontës again recently, when I read a story about the gender bias in the authors and poets studied by final year students in NSW.

While authorities have increased the number of female authors, out of 105 authors, poets and film directors on the set text list, 61 per cent are men and 39 per cent are women.

The English head of an all-girls school told the Herald her teachers often chose writers like Margaret Atwood and Emily Dickinson to “counterbalance the many male voices in the curriculum”.

Thank god for the Brontës - their unlikely incubation in the Yorkshire Moors has considerably boosted the female ranks of the canon.

But despite being a Brontë stan, I find the idea of a gender quota for literary texts profoundly silly. (...)

Charlotte Brontë’s work does reflect female experience in a more explicit way. Jane Eyre is universal in its themes but much of its originality comes from the candid interiority of its plain heroine. No character like Jane had ever been considered worthy of literature before, and her close first person narration made the modernists possible. Crucially, Jane rages against the strictures of her femininity and depicts what we would now call toxic masculinity with clear-eyed precision.

Speaking of which: Brontë’s reply to Southey skated elegantly the line between propriety and sarcasm. “In the evenings, I confess I do think,” she wrote to him. “But I never trouble anyone else with my thoughts. I carefully avoid any appearance of preoccupation and eccentricity, which might lead those I live amongst to suspect the nature of my pursuits.”

Southey’s letter is now owned by the Brontë Parsonage Museum. His poems are not studied, and few outside academia remember his name.

The Guardian interviews writer Alice Birch:

Jude Rogers: What were your favourite books?

A.B.: I’d fill my suitcase for holidays with books and put a swimsuit on top. That was it – I’d read everything. I had my Roald Dahl and Jacqueline Wilson phases like everyone else, but I read Wuthering Heights, Sylvia Plath and Thomas Hardy very young. I was a sucker for a big, sad story, and still am.

The Daily Star interviews racy model turned cam girl Peachy Treats. Why on Earth is that interview on this blog? Check this out:  

On another occasion, Peachy Treats had a different kind of experience. She detailed: "I had a private session with a guy who wanted to read a section of a Jane Eyre book to me, while I sat with my boobs out. It was honestly very pleasant." (Christine Younan)

The Bolton News talks about the Manchester Half Marathon:

Elsewhere, Lostock’s fell runners travelled to the beautiful Brontë Country for the Withins Skyline Fell Race. (...)

The path opens up and continues over several boggy plateau to the race’s highest point on Dick Delf Hill before joining the paved path of the Pennine Way. From there, the route begins to drop and passes the ruins of Top Withens before crossing the famous Brontë Bridge. (Rachel Stevens)

English as a second language in The Gauntlet:

Books, on the other hand, became my best friend ever since I got familiarised with a long page of words and words. I attempted with the Diary of the Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney to pure literature Jane Eyre by English author Charlotte Brontë. (Nghi Doan)

Nerd Daily interviews the author Rebecca Hanover:

Elise Dumpleton: What was the first book you read that made you realize you wanted to be an author?

R.H.: Am I allowed to say Twilight? (Insert laughing-crying emoji here). The truth is that many of the classics I read growing up, which surprised me by being so twisty, and so suspenseful, were the original inspirations for me. Jane Eyre. Crime and Punishement, Wuthering Heights. These are the OG domestic suspense novels!

Observer recommends Halloween books:

‘Starling House’ by Alix E. Harrow. Macmillan

This Southern Gothic is full of nightmares, romance and dark fairy tale magic. Protagonist Opal is trying to scrape up enough money to support her little brother’s dreams of getting out of their small southern town of Eden, Kentucky, and passes by the old Starling House (the town’s famous spooky structure) every day on her way home from work. Arthur, the irascible ward who guards its gates, suddenly offers Opal an unexpected job that would more than pay for her brother’s schooling. Pulled in by the secrets of the house and the nightmare creatures beneath, she’s also drawn toward the brooding Heathcliff-esque guardian within. (Brigid Flanagan)

La Vanguardia (Spain) reviews the novel La naturaleza secreta de las cosas de este mundo by Patricia Pron:

La naturaleza secreta de las cosas de este mundo está curiosamente ambientada en Manchester, y digo curiosamente porque en el “epílogo” confiesa que “nunca he estado allí”, algo que le permite “inventármelo todo, sin las distracciones que provocan el conocimiento y, eventualmente, el recuerdo”. No menos aparentemente curioso es que señale las numerosas frases de autores integradas en el epílogo, que titula más comedidamente El orden secreto de las cosas, con Virginia Woolf y Henry James como “los autores que más han influido en la escritura”, sin mencionar Cumbres borrascosas de Emliy Brontë, que ocupa un puesto destacado en el desarrollo de la novela. Hay dos relatos que son dos puntos de vista; uno de los personajes se llama Edgar, y Heathcliff desaparece y vuelve al cabo de tres años. (J.A. Masoliver Órdenas) (Translation)

Nouvelles du Monde (France) lists the favourite books of actress Maren Eggert;

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

 J’ai longtemps hésité entre ce livre et le très différent Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë. Mais de toute façon, il fallait que ce soit l’un des deux. Ce que j’admire chez cette dernière, c’est l’ordre, le regard psychologique qu’elle a sur les personnages. Charlotte donne une forme même à l’obscurité. Et avec Emily, j’aime ce côté incohérent, émotionnel et irréfléchi.

Cela semble tellement cliché, mais je trouve les passions débridées des personnages, la nature sans fond et destructrice, écrites par une si jeune femme, particulièrement remarquables. Surtout comment elle décrit la nature. Quand j’ai lu ceci pour la première fois, j’ai pensé : Oui, c’est comme ça que l’amour doit être. Si puissant, si gros qu’on ne sait même pas où le mettre. Bien sûr, c’est là que mon côté dramatique apparaît. (Translation)

Correo Braziliense (Brazil) lists several artists who have read audiobooks for the Brazilian market: 

O único romance da escritora inglesa Emily Brontë, O morro dos ventos uivantes, foi publicado em 1847. Narrada por Bianca Bin — atriz brasileira que interpretou a protagonista Clara em O outro lado do paraíso e atuou em diversos outros papéis em novelas e peças de teatro —, a história retrata o amor entre Heathcliff e Catherine, dois personagens que crescem juntos e se apaixonam, mas são separados por suas diferenças sociais. (Giovanna Kunz) (Translation)

BuzzFeed (in Spanish) guesses your age according to your literary preferences using, among others, Wuthering Heights. Spoiler alert: it's not very accurate. El Heraldo (Colombia) quotes from Wuthering Heights in an article about the death of a local serial killer.