No One Else is Going to Define Her

A new upcoming novel about Charlotte Brontë is announced in The Irish Times, Charlotte by Martina Devlin:

Lilliput Press have acquired world rights for Charlotte by Martina Devlin. The novel explores the life of one of the world’s most famous literary figures, Charlotte Brontë, by fusing the drama of real events with Devlin’s distinctive style. Narrated by Mary Nicholls, who went on to marry Charlotte’s widower Arthur, we weave back and forth in time through the story of Brontë's marriage, her death, and her afterlife as a haunting presence in the lives of those closest to her. This is a story of three lives irrevocably bound, of passion and obsession, of mutual admiration and friendship, which shows us Brontë's brief but pivotal time in Ireland as never before.

Publisher Antony Farrell said: “The Brontë sisters are considered a jewel in the crown of England’s cultural heritage, so reclaiming Charlotte Brontë for Ireland, where she spent her honeymoon, conceived her only lost child, while seeking out her Prunty forebears in Co Down, is indeed a balancing of the books. The passionate author of Jane Eyre has never been so tellingly evoked in this poignant evocation of her end of days.”

Devlin said: “Objects have an undeniable power. After a visit to Haworth Parsonage Museum in Yorkshire, where I saw Charlotte Brontë’s dresses, sewing box, beaded moccasin slippers, wedding bonnet and a toy tea set she and her sisters played with as children, I became convinced I had to write a novel about her. I knew her father Patrick was an Irishman, as was her husband Arthur Bell Nicholls – but I was surprised to discover that he brought her to Ireland on their honeymoon in 1854. Arthur, who was Patrick’s curate in Haworth, was proud of his homeland and keen to share its attractions with his famous novelist wife.” (Martin Doyle)

Houston Public Media interviews Melissa Molano and Chris Hutchison, Jane and Rochester in the current Jane Eyre production in Houston:

The Alley Theatre has adapted the classic literary work in a production that runs through the weekend and stars Melissa Molano in the title role and Chris Hutchison as her boss and eventual love interest, Mr. Rochester.

Hutchison and Molano tell Houston Matters producer Michael Hagerty there is still plenty for an audience to identify with, even for a story that's 177 years old.

“It really is about a young person trying to just figure it out and figure life out,” Molano said. “And I feel like no matter what age you are, we never stop doing that.”

Eyre was a proto-feminist of sorts, long before feminist was a term, as she expresses herself and redefines her station in life several times throughout the story.

“She doesn’t let anybody else define her,” Molano said. “And that is what is so — I keep using this word but it’s the best word — is so empowering to me. Even with the person she falls in love with — the people she loves, the people she cares about — no one else is going to define her or tell her who she is. She’s in charge of that.” (Michael Hagerty)

You can listen to the complete interview here.

The author Kate DiCamillo chooses her favourite books in Parade:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

It happens to everyone. They read picture books and then Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys or whatever “kids” book strikes their fancy. Then they make the leap–consciously or not–to their first book clearly written not for them, but for adults. DiCamillo still remembers when it happened for her. 

“Rainy day,” says DiCamillo. “Betty [her mom] wouldn't take me to the library and I pulled Wuthering Heights off the shelf. I was maybe ten, eleven [years old]? It went right over my head, but I didn't stop reading. It cast a spell.” (Michaerl Giltz)

Reactor Magazine reviews the novel Dream Date by Sheridan Smith:

An unexpected combination of Wuthering Heights and A Nightmare on Elm Street. (...)

Returning to Wuthering Heights, Katie’s characterization touches on different points and perspectives in Brontё’s novel: in the opening pages of Dream Date, Katie is like Mr. Lockwood, a visitor to the region who finds himself at Wuthering Heights and in the dark of a stormy night, has a surprising encounter with a spirit connected to that place. Like Lockwood, Katie is both frightened and intrigued by this interaction, with each of them eventually drawn to hear the story of who the spirit is, how they came to be, and why they remain. However, Katie has a more intimate connection as well, playing Catherine to Heath’s Heathcliff, as the two become increasingly focused upon one another. Unlike Brontё’s Catherine, however, Katie is not the only girl that Heath has been fixated on: a local legend recounts Heath’s romance with a girl named Cindy. Despite Heath’s interference, Katie has made a couple of friends at school, including Raquelle, whose older sister is a friend of Cindy’s and who is all too happy to tell the whole dark tale when Katie sees Heath’s picture in an old yearbook and starts asking questions. Cindy dumped Heath at prom, a rejection he responded to with violence. Heath threatened Cindy, saying “nobody dumped him, and he was going to make Cindy understand that … even if he had to kill her” (174, emphasis original). He got on his motorcycle and headed for Cindy’s house—which is, of course, Katie’ new home—but he got into a fiery single-vehicle accident on the way there, and was dead before he could get his revenge. While the relationship dynamics between Cindy and Heath don’t directly echo the complicated interactions between Brontё’s Catherine and Heathcliff, there are some similarities in their toxicity. (...)

The influences of Wuthering Heights and A Nightmare on Elm Street are an unexpected combination in Smith’s Dream Date, but these allusions offer readers the opportunity to think beyond the specific subgenre conventions of ‘90s teen horror and take in the larger landscape. The traditional Gothic tensions of Wuthering Heights, including the significance of place and emotion in hauntings, draw the savvy reader’s attention back to those long established tropes, which are reframed here within the ‘90s horror context, still resonant and powerful.  (Alissa Burger)

OnEurope has looked into the Eurovision Festival rehearsals (so you don't have to, which is nice) and goes mercilessly on Norway's entry:

Your lead singer is all arm waving thinking she is Kate Bush in Wuthering Heights but ending up looking more like Kate Middleton at a rave sponsored by Waitrose or the Women's Institute. (Phil Colclough)

Downthetubes reviews the book A History of Fans and Fandom by Holly Swinyard:

Explore fandom history beyond the 20th and 21st centuries, including the Shakespeare Jubilee in 1769, likely to be one of the first “fan conventions”, how the Brontë siblings wrote fanfiction, and the early sci-fi and literature fanclubs that grew out of the 1800s. (John Freeman)

The Independent visits the Peak District:

At Hathersage, just three minutes further down the tracks, the David Mellor Visitor Centre is joined by the burial place of Robin Hood’s Little John in St Michael’s churchyard and vistas that inspired Charlotte Brontë while she was writing Jane Eyre, including Stanage Edge (a two-mile walk away). (Ian Packham)

Love quotes, including one from Wuthering Heights, from classics in Times Now News. Happy anniversary messages in The Pioneer Woman also includes a Brontë quote and May quotes in Good Good Good.