A Friction so Compelling

Far Out Magazine explores literature’s weirdest female deaths:

Women in literature suffer. Whether it’s at the hands of villains, lovers, or bad writing – their role is, more often than not, coloured by some sense of tragedy, and nowhere is that more evident than in writing from around the 19th century. While it was a period marked by progress and great books and novelists emerged from it – the likes of Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Mary Shelley – the female perspective is sorely lacking from many a death scene. (Poppy Burton)

Columbia News interviews the brand new Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Edwidge Danticat:

Eve Glasberg: What was your path to a career that embraces academia and writing?

E.D.: At Barnard, I was enamored, like so many were, with the late English Literature and Africana Studies Professor Quandra Prettyman. I remember going to her office one day after I wrote a terrible paper on Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, and she asked me what I read in school that I loved when I was a kid. I said Voltaire's Candide because we read it at school in Haiti when I was 11. She was very impressed by something I had completely taken for granted. Impressing her became a kind of passion for me. I went home and reread Candide that day, and ended up majoring in French literature.

Collider lists Michael Fassbender's 'most underrated movies': 

Jane Eyre 2011

Cary Fukunagua’s gripping retelling of the classic novel Jane Eyre shows a more romantic side to Fassbender than he is seldom allowed to portray. Fassbender stars as Edward Rochester, the lonesome Byronic hero who becomes the target of Jane Eyre’s (Mia Wasikowska) affection. Fukunaga delicately hints at the sexual tension between them through many sequences where the two characters are separated or do not speak. It’s a credit to Fassbender and Wasikowska's excellent chemistry that the friction between the characters is so compelling.

Although the classic novel has been adapted to the screen several times, Fukunagua's Jane Eyre might just be the definitive version. The film's melancholy tone, Wasikowska's performance, and the score received moderate attention in 2011, but overall, Jane Eyre got overshadowed due to the absolutely stacked line-up Fassbender had that year - he also starred in X-Men: First Class, A Dangerous Method, and Shame, all of which pretty much eclipsed any chance Jane Eyre had. (Liam Gaughan)

SheBudgets lists the most influential books of all-time:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë died only a year after her only novel was published, which is a crying shame as her talent is immeasurable. In Wuthering Heights, we follow the story of Heathcliff, a man so in love with a woman by the name of Catherine that he is willing to destroy anyone and anything that comes in between him and the love of his life. The story of true love is epic and unforgettable, and it’s the perfect example of the power that greed and jealousy has over a person’s life and its destructive abilities. (Camille Moore)

The Conversation (in Spanish) focuses on Virginia Woolf as a journalist: 

A los 22 años, Virginia Woolf publica su primer artículo en The Guardian. Una edad en la que muchos de los jóvenes periodistas de hoy están aún haciendo prácticas. Su amiga Violet Dickinson le presenta a la redactora jefe del suplemento femenino –la única puerta de entrada para una mujer que aspira al periodismo en aquella época– y Virginia le propone colaborar. Primero publica una reseña sobre el novelista americano W.D. Howells y luego el artículo, titulado “Peregrinaje a Haworth”, aparece sin firma en el mes de diciembre de 1904. En él, Virginia relata su visita al presbítero Haworth Parsonage, donde vivieron las hermanas Brontë. Así inicia su carrera como periodista. (María Santos-Saiz) (Translation)

La Voz de Galicia (in Galician) lists the favourite books of the year and includes the first ever translation to Galician of Jane Eyre:

Jane Eyre. O inesquecible personaxe, o clásico incuestionable da literatura inglesa e unha das grandes obras de Charlotte Brontë —que viu a luz baixo o pseudónimo de Currer Bell— está en hora boa porque goza dunha casa fermosa que lle construíu Irmás Cartoné nunha exemplar e coidadísima tradución ao galego a cargo de Celia Recarey. A editorial cumpre xa dez anos de vida cun catálogo de traducións que, tempo é de dicilo, constitúe un orgullo colectivo. (Ramón Nicolás) (Translation)

The Epoch Times (Germany) and the pleasures of reading:

 Ich kenne ein ähnliches Gefühl. So erinnern mich die felsigen Strände eines Sees in Nordamerika an „Jane Eyre“ von Charlotte Brontë. An diesem Ort beschäftigte ich mich zum ersten Mal mit dem Klassiker der viktorianischen Romanliteratur. (Annie Holmquist) (Translation)

Die Welt (Germany) and couple separation:

Es ist die ultimative Geschichte über Hoffnung – oder aber, nüchterner betrachtet, von Abhängigkeit und verschwendeten Lebenskräften. In Emily Brontës „Sturmhöhe“ geht das Nachhängen alter Träume sogar so weit, dass der liebeswahnsinnige Heathcliff seine Cathy aus dem Grab ausbuddelt – ein Anblick, den er nicht lange überlebt. Das Festhalten an alten Gefühlen wird hier nicht nur metaphorisch, sondern wortwörtlich zum Klammern an den Tod. Auch Goethes Werther geht bekanntermaßen daran zugrunde, dass er an einer verlorenen Liebe festhält. (Lena Karger) (Translation)

Micromega (Italy) discusses Maryse Condé's La Migration des Coeurs:

Prende un classico della Letteratura europea, Cime tempestose di Emily Brontë, e lo trasferisce al Caribe. Il risultato è eccezionale, pare che al romanzo della Brontë sia stato iniettato un qualche tipo di steroide, esso si è inturgidito, è rigoglioso, mentre smorto slavato appare ormai il suo modello. (...) La vicenda è presto detta: si racconta la storia d’amore fra Razyé e Cathy (per la Brontë erano Heathcliff e Catherine), di natura tanto selvaggia che come ciclone travolge ed eradica qualunque cosa gli sbarri il cammino, e le cui conseguenze si propagano ancora per le generazioni successive, condizionandone l’esistenza. (...) La celebre struttura a scatole cinesi di Cime tempestose viene mantenuta anche nel rifacimento, in cui però assume – staremmo per dire – un valore quasi politico. (Andrea Maffei) (Translation)

Matching Opening Lines to Classical Novels in BookRiot, including The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Žinių radiją (Lithuania)'s radio programme Savaitės knygų apžvalga (next Saturday 9, 15.30h) will include a review of Villette. Cimacnoticias (México) mentions the pseudonyms used by the Brontës.