Letters, spin-offs and turbulent pasts

A contributor to Financial Times writes about reading famous authors' letters.

I’m all for Madame Constantin Héger’s approach. She discovered that Charlotte Brontë was in love with her husband after finding a few of the novelist’s letters to him torn up in the bin. Ever resourceful, she stitched them back together, leaving for posterity a record of 29-year-old Brontë at her passionate, obsessive best: “Day and night I find neither rest nor peace — if I sleep I have tormenting dreams in which I see you always severe, always saturnine and angry with me . . .” (Nilanjana Roy)

The Times has selected 'eight great literary spin-offs' and one of them is

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (1966)

Ever wondered about the first Mrs Rochester from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre? Wonder no more. Dominican-born Jean Rhys gave a voice to the “mad” Creole heiress, Antoinette Cosway, that Mr Rochester locked up in the attic. The story is told in the voices of Antoinette (“There is no looking-glass here and I don’t know what I am like now”) and Mr Rochester (“Here is the secret. Here”). It was published when Rhys was 76 after decades of silence (her early novels are terrific too), when many people thought she was already dead. Her cynical view on her renaissance? “It has come too late.” (John Self)

Elle features author Amy Tan in its Shelf Life series and asks her about the book

...I’ve re-read the most:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, because each time I re-read this story of a lonely young girl coming of age, I revisit my turbulent past at a similar age and gain new perceptions about my evolving self. (Riza Cruz)

Today we get another reference to the 'invisible string' in Jane Eyre. From PopSugar:

According to [registered psychotherapist Eloise] Skinner, the enduring popularity of the concept of invisible strings is not a recent phenomenon, even if it's recently popped off on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. It draws from a range of influences, spanning philosophy, physics, and East Asian folklore. This idea of the "invisible string" nods to the ancient belief in the red thread of fate, which connects two souls destined to be together.

Charlotte Brontë beautifully captures this notion in the novel "Jane Eyre," describing it as a string tightly knotted under the left ribs, bound to another similar string. (Morgan Sullivan)

Click2Houston has a video showing what goes one behind the scenes of Alley Theatre's Jane Eyre production. News 18 lists the '8 most romantic reads of all time' including Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. News 18 also lists '7 timeles novels that one must read' including both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre as well. Times Now News lists '12 houses of famous authors open for visitors' including the Brontë Parsonage Museum.