Ada's descent into something that may or may not be madness is gradual and entirely believable. A mix of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" with a horror twist, "Grey Dog" is an atmospheric and haunting view of nature's beautiful savagery, and of the incandescent power of feminine rage. Highly recommended. (Megan Mehmert)
Love of literatureI didn’t read until I was in my twenties, while recovering from TB. Wuthering Heights and Animal Farm kick-started me into the world of literature. (Richard Fitzpatrick)
Get an exclusive first look at 'Brave Enough For Love' - the final number of Jane Eyre - which will stream from Theatre Raleigh starring Julie Benko on August 31 at 7:30pm ET. The Tony-nominated musical, which received widespread acclaim during its recent summer run at Theatre Raleigh, will be available for one night only, with streaming access ending at 11:59pm ET. (Joshua Wright)
Spliced through the memoir are literary essays on Arthur Ransome’s children’s series Swallows and Amazons, Jane Eyre, The Bell Jar and the diaries of Dorothy Wordsworth, where Moss’s academic background shines through and offers relief from the difficult personal recollections. “Good fiction,” she notes, “holds conflicting stories, invites us despite itself to read against the grain,” echoing her own style in My Good Bright Wolf. (Sarah Gilmartin)
Rebecca 1940by Daphne du Maurier. Film directed by Alftred Hitchcock (...)Ever since I was a kid, I always loved the toxically romantic element of the story between the austere Maxim de Winter and his second wife, and since it’s loosely based on Jane Eyre, why not make it a double feature of period-piece horror classics? (Gwendolyn Kiste)
A Jane Eyre question in today's Crossword on USA Today. Some quotes now: Anne Brontë in Legit's boy-mom quotes and Southern Living's good night quotes. Charlotte and Emily Brontë in Reader's Digest list of truly unforgettable book quotes. Jane Eyre's Library (in Spanish) publishes pictures of this Danish edition of Jane Eyre.
Finally, the Brussels Brontë Blog describes a meeting between the author of the post and Irish writer Michael O'Dowd, author of Charlotte Brontë – An Irish Odyssey. The author and her husband met O'Dowd and his wife in Connemara, Ireland in June 2024, where they discussed Brontë-related topics, O'Dowd's writing process, and his views on Charlotte Brontë's cause of death. The meeting included visits to local sites and a lengthy conversation about various subjects.
Por eso, si nos atenemos a Charlotte Brontë, su invitación a la fortaleza parte de la fidelidad a los principios morales, aunque este hecho nos obligue a tener que ir a contracorriente y estar en el punto de mira del gestor del rebaño y las ovejas que lo conforman. Además, esa fuerza ha de surgir con firmeza y reciedumbre, otorgadas por la paz, el sosiego y la conciencia tranquila del que actúa con rectitud de acuerdo a Anne Brontë –su hermana menor– a pesar de las exigencias del relativismo o las prisas de la inmediatez de este alocado y errático mundo en el que el amor humano se ha ido progresivamente desvirtuando hasta convertirse en algo disperso, superficial, secundario e, incluso, virtual; hecho que haría chirriar el concepto sobre el mismo de Emily Brontë. (Emilio Domínguez Díaz) (Translation)
The verger tour also covers Poets' Corner, home to the tombs of literary giants like Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and the Brontë sisters. (Michael Wittner)
Actual News Magazine (in French) discusses Wuthering Heights. AnneBrontë.org explores Anne Brontë's early artistic abilities, showcasing her childhood drawings and discussing how her passion for art influenced both her life and her literary work, particularly The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Emily (2022)Emma Mackey nous emmène dans la campagne anglaise de l’ère victorienne, dans les pas de l’une des auteures les plus renommées de la littérature britannique : Emily Brontë. Célèbre pour son classique Les Hauts de Hurlevent, l'écrivaine est l’héroïne d’un film biographique écrit et réalisé par l'Australienne Frances O’Connor. Déterminée à faire revivre l'histoire d’Emily Brontë, qui fut pour beaucoup à la fois une légende et un mystère encore des siècles après sa disparition en 1848, la cinéaste a imaginé à quoi ressemblait la vie d’une femme dont les aspirations dépassaient les codes de la société de l’époque. Son enfance dans un presbytère du Yorkshire, la compagnie de ses sœurs (notamment celle de Charlotte Brontë dont elle était si proche), ses premiers poèmes et pièces de théâtre… Le tout, dans cette Angleterre idéalisée que l’on aime tant représenter au cinéma. (Marthe Mabille) (Translation)
Thursday 15th August, 1.15 - 2.15pmCanongate Kirk, 153 Canongate, EH8 8BNwith Dame Judith Weir, Master of the King’s Music and the Sacred Arts Festival Singers, directed by Calum RobertsonThe Edinburgh Sacred Arts Foundation Sacred Music Composition Competition recital. Scottish based composers under the age of 21 were invited to set religious texts to music. At this event, the winning submissions will be given their first performance by a professional choir under the direction of Calum Robertson, Director of Edinburgh University Singers. The Master of the King's Music, Dame Judith Weir, has been principal adjudicator, and will present the prizes.
Zoe Watkin’s rendering of Anne Brontë’s Poem ‘The Doubter’s Prayer’ was splendid – so dramatic, but imbued with such intensity – expressing something of the pain and anguish that can so often come as we engage with spiritual questions and angst. (David Charles)
It was when my two kids had both left for university and I approached 50 that it hit me: Elizabeth had Darcy, Jane Eyre had Rochester — what about me?
Fall quotes to celebrate the best the season has to offer, including one by Emily in Today and thankful ones to express your gratitude for all of life's blessings, including one by Charlotte, also in Today. TVGuide informs that Wuthering Heights 1998 airs on Talking Pictures TV at 9:05 PM, Saturday 17 August.
by Elizabeth A. KelloggScience 1 Aug 2024 Vol 385, Issue 670 pp. 495-496DOI: 10.1126/science.adr2473In the words of English novelist Anne Brontë, “…he that dares not grasp the thorn / Should never crave the rose” (1). If Brontë had lived in a warmer climate, she might have written a similar line about wild eggplant, cucumber, or rice, species that all produce sharp pointed epidermal outgrowths called prickles (inaccurately called thorns in roses). Prickles function as a physical defense against herbivores. On page 514 of this issue, Satterlee et al. report that homologous genes control prickle formation in all of these species—a discovery that addresses a major question in evolutionary biology about the origin of similar features in unrelated organisms, often as solutions to the same problem. The finding also provides valuable information for crop development and ecological investigation.
25. Emily BrontëHer band is really hoping the debut album’s moody cover art of misty moors and tortured lovers makes up for the narrative mess of the story, sorry, I mean music. [...]13. Anne BrontëThe unfairly-overlooked Brontë sister puts together a group that does goth-inflected deathcore. They become critical darlings, publicly beef with Lorna Shore, and serve as guest musicians with some of the most respected undergroundish metal acts working today. The band is doing great until some dipshit named Gilbert strongarms his way into being their manager, steals Anne’s business papers, embezzles from the merch revenue, and just runs the whole thing into the ground. [...]4. Charlotte BrontëBrontë’s masterpiece “Jane Eyre” is one of the biggest middle fingers ever waggled in the face of the Victorian patriarchy. Charlotte is going to start an outspokenly feminist, all-women/nonbinary deathgrind band with at least one current member of Ragana. Their debut record, the album art of which depicts Mr. Brocklehurst’s severed head on a stick, is co-produced by Erik Rutan and makes almost everyone’s year-end list. (Jason Clemence)
Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontëThis classic Victorian novel revived the entire Gothic genre of literature. Read this tale that revolves around the antihero, Heathcliff, who seeks vengeance on those who separated him from his beloved Cathy Earnshaw. (T. Edit)
Cumbres borrascosasEmily BrontëLa canícula no es un impedimento, sino quizás un acicate, para viajar a los fríos páramos de Yorkshire con esta novela publicada en 1847 bajo el seudónimo de Ellis Bell. Debajo de este nombre se escondía Emily Brontë, quien a sus treinta años creó un clásico inmortal que ha despertado suspiros y pasiones desde entonces.Arpa recupera este drama romántico, con ecos góticos y shakeasperianos que narra los amores del huérfano Heathcliff y Catherine Earnshaw. La identificación de los personajes con los parajes fríos y ventosos y sus desencuentros interesaron a sus contemporáneos pero no en la misma medida que a los lectores de las siguientes generaciones. Más de siglo y medio después, Cumbres borrascosas sigue siendo un imprescindible. (Gonzalo Núñez) (Translation)
The play – which resets Brontë’s story from northern England to South Lanarkshire and Perthshire – begins with the cast members arriving onstage shaking their umbrellas of, in this case, fictional Scottish rain.This production – which is performed in front of the backdrop of a generic Scottish landscape painting – creaks a little in designer Heather Grace Currie’s simple, broadly 20th-century creations.In part this is due to a number of actors playing multiple characters (for instance, there’s little narrative sense in the arch-moralist Mr Brocklehurst – portrayed by the ever-excellent Alan Steele – wearing turned-up jeans).A number of director Dick’s staging ideas don’t set the heather alight either.The decision to have the six-strong cast on or near the stage most of the time leads, distractingly, to actors standing around pointlessly or, worse, turning their backs to the audience as an indication that their character has, in fact, left the scene.Then there is the attempt to add some atmosphere by way of vocal effects (particularly the disturbed laughter of Rochester’s famously confined wife Bertha Mason) conveyed live via microphones. Modish this may be, but here it is repetitive and ineffective.The representation of the immolation of Thornfield Hall by way of a moment of interpretive dance is mercifully short.All of which is a great pity because, at its dramatic bones, this is a very decent rendering of the novel. Dick’s adaptation is crisp and meaningful, while Stephanie McGregor’s Jane is compellingly spirited and sympathetic.Johnny Panchaud is, simultaneously, broodingly fascinating and painfully conflicted as Rochester. The pair are backed by a strong supporting cast in a well-acted, nicely adapted, but unevenly directed production. (Mark Brown)
First impressions were surreal. Blue plaques that proudly hang outside declare it “once Europe’s largest hotel” and also the site where writer Anne Brontë died… I told you it had history. (Mieka Smiles)
One potential direction for the second season could involve exploring the other books in the series by Hand, Ashton, and Meadows. Each book focuses on a different historical or fictional figure, offering rich material for adaptation.For instance, the second book reimagines Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre with a feminist and fantastical twist, while the third book takes on the story of Western icon Calamity Jane.
Gordon uses the fact that Charlotte banned all publication of her little sister’s hit book ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ after she died at the age of 29 as her starting point and works backwards. Why might Charlotte have prevented her own flesh and blood achieving a legacy status? she asks. Was it, really, a means to lift herself up as the greatest Brontë of them all?So, the Charlotte we see is built with envy. She schemes openly to ensure she comes out on top and fears acutely that there is only the space for her own success. Gordon’s script pits Charlotte and Anne (a very good Rhiannon Clements) against each other, attempting to show the ridiculousness and total ineffectiveness of women fighting - there are always bigger (and usually male) fish to fry. But, in doing so, she ironically pushes the third Brontë sister, Emily, to the sidelines.We hear little of Emily’s writing process - Wuthering Heights, potentially the most boundary pushing of the sister’s novels, is due more grace! And Adele James - who is a powerful actor in the scenes where she does appear, deserves more stage time. If it was Gordon’s aim to teach her audiences about these celebrated novelists, she only succeeds in part. We don’t quite get to their artistic significance, both then and now and much of the play is bothered by showing - perhaps justifiably - how difficult it was for women of the day to flourish. But these are the Brontës - their place in the literary canon should seem justified, at the very least.Qualms aside, Gordon’s writing is fuelled by quick wit. The play’s short running time flies by, and her dialogue is rich with jokes and laughably vicious asides. She makes the fourth Brontë sibling, a wayward Branwell, into a drunken joke. The Poet Laureate Robert Southey is mocked and called a ‘bell***’. Designer Grace Smart has made the stage into a twirling semi-circular cock-pit: an apt home for humour. Actors disappear before they’ve finished talking - as if the stage is the evening’s mastermind. It is a stylish take on a classic story. With one last edit, who knows? It could have gone down in history. (Anya Ryan)
Beaumont’s prose after a significant loss is intensely emotional when describing the most heart-breaking consequence of female sexuality: the anguish of a mother without her babies. The desolating separation of interconnected souls, from lovers and sons alike, is the greatest source of Beaumont’s tragedy. Classics such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights are mirrored in Jean’s reality. (Rachel Pennington)
A book that is similar but worth the read is “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte. While both of these novels have strong female leads, the work of Bronte is way more eventful and has harder hitting quotes. (Liv Baker)
Anne Brontë died 175 years ago, on May 28, 1849, at Wood's Lodgings in Scarborough. To commemorate the anniversary of her passing, an event is being organized by the Festival Big Ideas in the Sea in collaboration with The Anne Brontë Association. This event will feature a collection of talks, readings, and performances that highlight Anne Brontë's literary works, her life, and her connection with the town of Scarborough
Tue 28 May 2024, 2:00PM - 3:30PM
All About Anne!The first event is All About Anne! Starting at 2pm, this event showcases how much Anne has inspired, and continues to inspire people in the arts. There will be original poetry performed by Charlotte Oliver and Emma Conally Barklem, and Scarborough born playwright, Wendy Pratt, will have a special performance of To be Undone: The Last Days of Anne Brontë. There is an opportunity to meet the writers, and even a book signing!
Tue 28 May 2024, 4:00PM - 5:00PM
Anne Brontë 175: Remembering Anne Bronte, Memorial Service St Mary's Church ScarboroughEntry to the Memorial Service is free.
Tue 28 May 2024, 7:30PM - 8:30PM
Anne Brontë 175: Tracking the Brontës, Presented by Eddie Lawler with Elaine MinnsTracking the Brontë’s is a one hour whistle-stop musical tour with the Brontë family on the railway lines they travelled along. Presented by Eddie Lawler with Elaine Minns. The 28th May was the day Anne Brontë died in Scarborough at the age of 29. The performance is in her honour and will be preceded by a visit to her grave.
Q: What is the action of “You on the Moors Now” and how does it resonate with you?A: In “You On the Moors Now” four famous heroines from four famous novels (Lizzie Bennet, Jane Eyre, Jo March and Cathy Earnshaw) all run away from their suitors and find each other instead. They go off on an adventure to find themselves and see the world, but their suitors are angry and wage war against them instead. Throughout so much of human history a woman's societal obligation has been to get married and have children. When the novels this play is based on were written the stakes of turning down a marriage proposal were so high, and yet each of these heroines fought for equality in their own way inside their story. This play- which bends time and space - allows them to do even more than they could in the time frames of their own story- liberating them beyond what could have been. These have been some of my favorite novels throughout my life, so it's thrilling to be able to explore these characters in a new light, and pay homage to the original texts.Q: What has surprised you about this process that you think the audience might really enjoy?A: The play is really physical — we're scaling cliff sides and running over hills. We wanted to really bring the adventurous landscape of the moors to life and the set really does that. Our scenic designer Andrew Mannion took a lot of inspiration from photos of the moors, but also kids clubhouses, war museums, old books and playgrounds. (Patrick White)
At one point in Gordon’s drama, Charlotte Brontë reflects on the perceived witchy nature of her and her sisters’ work; female collaboration has, at various points in history, been seen as a dangerous thing with wicked possibilities.Considering the Brontës’ firm place in the literary canon, and Sarah Gordon’s work alongside Natalie Ibu with this play, that assumption is proven true.Gordon’s work certainly akes time to acclimatise to - it is a bolshy, sweary love letter to the power of female authorship which worked well as a complete package, despite certain moments feeling slightly overworked and clunky. [...]Underdog follows the sisters’ struggle to publish their works, the - at times toxic - rivalry between them, and the heartbreaking deaths of Emily and Anne which cut short their flourishing literary careers.The boldness and bravery of the Brontës’ endeavour - often tackling taboo subjects of domestic violence, female independence, and financial inequality in an age of rapid industrial expansion - is entirely reflected in Grace Smart’s beautiful costuming.Charlotte (Gemma Whelan) wears a bright cherry-red gown, with Emily (Adele James) in blue and Anne (Rhiannon Clements) in purple.Gordon’s biting script for Charlotte is excellently handled by the inimitable Gemma Whelan. It is cheeky and witty and moves at a great pace.Gordon’s script truly sings, though, when she weaves the Brontës’ own words alongside her own. Anne’s death scene is expertly intertwined with Caroline’s near-death in Charlotte’s third novel Shirley, creating a stunning mix of the real and the fictional; when reflecting on Charlotte’s own futility, Whelan beautifully delivered Emily’s poem, High Waving Heather.More of these kinds of moments would have certainly tipped the play over into legendary status.A note once more on Grace Smart’s set design. In contrast to the natural landscape of the moor is a black, worn, scuffed backdrop which serves as a reminder of the contextual industrial setting the Brontës were writing in. Where the staging really came into its own was in the scene where Charlotte and Anne were exchanging letters. [...]There’s a lot of (at times unnecessary) swearing in Underdog. There’s also a lot of frivolity (a farcical carriage ride to London, say, or Anne’s persistent questioning of Charlotte) which could perhaps be trimmed. But alongside this, there are some excellent observations on a family who created such incredible cultural heritage from a small vicarage in Haworth. (Katie Bowen)
The Calder Valley[...] It is worth visiting just for a wander among the moorlands, but then there’s the brooding, eternally misty Todmorden, which is home to an indoor market serving impressively good coffee. Hike towards Pendle for moody cloudscapes one minute, glowing, sunlit hillsides the next. Literary types can turn the other way for a stomp across Brontë country, or head towards Sylvia Plath’s burial place in Heptonstall. (Sophie Dickinson)
One hundred and seventy five years ago, a young writer died of tuberculosis in Scarborough, where she had begged her sister to take her so that she might see the sea before she left this Earth. Anne Brontë was only 29, but she had already published poems and two striking novels, Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).The quietest of the three Brontë sisters is on the brink of a revival. Recent UK theatrical productions, especially Emme Hoy’s 2022 adaptation of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Sarah Gordon’s light but pointed Underdog: The Other Other Brontë running at the National Theatre in London, are bringing Anne out of the shadows at last.Anne was never completely obscure, but nonetheless thrown into the shade by the multitude of biographies devoted to her sisters, not to mention the deluge of TV and film adaptations. While the few standalone biographies are excellent, including Ada M Harrison and Derek Stanford’s 1959 volume, Edward Chitham’s 1991 Life and Nick Holland’s illuminating In Search of Anne Brontë, they struggle to compete with the deluge of content devoted to Charlotte and Emily.I had, like many people, neglected her woefully; reading Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall just recently was a hair-raising experience, an introduction to her merciless eye and boldness in tackling taboos — the casual viciousness of Victorian children, alcoholism and marriage, domestic abuse.At 19, Anne became a governess at Blake Hall in Mirfield, less than 20 miles away from the Brontës’ home at Haworth. It was, she wrote in a letter, “misery” to be charged with children who acted like “mischievous turbulent rebels”; her only outlet in those eight miserable months was secretly writing Agnes Grey, which drew freely on her travails. Her protagonist occupies a position light years away from the genteel governessing of Jane Eyre. “The name of governess, I soon found, was a mere mockery as applied to me,” Agnes writes. “My pupils had no more notion of obedience than a wild, unbroken colt.” The boy in her care delights in torturing baby birds; the girl turns into an obdurate block, lying on the floor during her lessons.Some of her biographers speculate that Mirfield inspired one of the stately manors in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, while Ponden Hall in Yorkshire may have inspired Wildfell Hall itself. She creates a stirring heroine in Helen Huntingdon, who supports herself as an artist by — astonishingly for the period — selling her own accomplished sketches and paintings. She then runs away from home with her young son to Wildfell, rejecting suitors with the bald proclamation that she simply does not like them.But Anne also conjures the horrors of life with an alcoholic husband. She, Emily and Charlotte had first-hand experience of alcoholism — their brother Branwell drowned his artistic gifts in drink, and the sisters were left to nurse him or clean up his frequent messes. When Tenant was published, the novel stirred up both praise and accusations that it was scandalous. Charles Kingsley, reviewing it for Fraser’s Magazine, said it was powerful and interesting, but also declared that it was “utterly unfit to be put into the hands of girls”. The Spectator felt it necessary to warn readers of the author’s “morbid love for the coarse, not to say the brutal”.Reading the Brontës, perhaps the greatest difference is, while Charlotte wrote for readers who might prefer high romance to the dreary messiness of life, Anne wrote for governesses like herself — gentlewomen who found themselves thrust into a demeaning position, grappling with little tyrants and their indifferent parents. For, if Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are passionate love stories, Tenant is an anti-romance, profoundly disillusioned by the realities of courtship and marriage — and thus perhaps the first truly feminist novel. In 1914, the suffragist May Sinclair called it “faintly prophetic, propped between Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, it stands as the presentment of that Feminist novel which we all know.”One of the great literary mysteries concerns Charlotte Brontë’s refusal to allow Tenant to be republished after Anne’s death. Was this sibling rivalry, or a desire to protect her sister’s posthumous image? Or perhaps it was a fear that Anne had succeeded too well in drawing an accurate portrait of Branwell in his cups. It was only after Charlotte’s death in 1855, of complications in her pregnancy after her brief marriage, that the book finally returned to the public eye.For anyone searching for the real Anne, not the frail, little, gentle woman of myth, I urge them to read her fiery preface to Tenant’s second edition, published just a few months before she died. “All novels are or should be written for both men and women to read,” she writes. “If I can gain the public ear at all, I would rather whisper a few wholesome truths therein than much soft nonsense.” What an unexpected pleasure, to find an author who eschews “soft nonsense”, dipping her pen instead in black irony and molten steel. (Nilanjana Roy)
It's Scarborough's Big Ideas By The Sea festival over the next two weeks. (...)The Big Ideas Festival features bell ringing, with a 'big dig' involving members of the public and a tribute to Anne Brontë ahead of the 175th anniversary of her death, on 28th May. (Andrew Snaith)
This dour, low-key possession story is one not often adapted, mostly because it's so short. Still, the best one is a 1964 classic by the icon of cult cinema, Roger Corman, who just sadly passed away. The Tomb of Ligeia is the final entry into Corman's Poe Cycle, and by far the most obscure story he decided to adapt. He and writer Robert Towne ran into the issue of having to expand the story, so they took a tale of a man's descent into grief and made a hidden gem with notes from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca, and enough weird psychological complexes and Byronic hero shenanigans to enthrall anyone looking for a darker take on the regency romance. (Rhianna Malas)
The fact that the BBC hasn’t commissioned an Austen adaptation in years – not to mention an Eliot or a Brontë or whisper it… a Trollope – implies “a crisis, or at least transition, in the genre of literary costume drama”, as the writer and broadcaster Mark Lawson argued last year. The in-depth, slow-burn adaptation that crams in the minutiae of the novel– for a textbook example, see Andrew Davies’ 2005 version of Bleak House, starring Gillian Anderson and Anna Maxwell Martin – seems to have fallen entirely out of style. Perhaps it is simply too expensive for a British broadcaster to broach these days, without the mega-budgets boasted by streamers.
Your favourite literary character?Like a bad friend I love them and leave them, but the characters of Elizabeth Bennett, Jane Eyre, Tess, Anna Karenina are among my abiding favourites.
The Paul Madore Chorale presents a concert of music and poetry celebrating the earth and the life it supports. The three parts of the program are A Year in New England, Siesta, and Hello Earth, with poets ranging from Emily Brontë through Walt Whitman to Robert Frost. Their words have been set to music by such varied composers as Randall Thompson, Englebert Humperdinck, and Ola Gjeilo. Come join us for an exciting afternoon of music both classic and new. The performance is Sunday, May 19, 2024, at 3 pm at the First Baptist Church, 221 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA 01915. (Patch Salem)
Classic Movie: Wuthering Heights (1939)Mon, May 20, 2024 at 5:45 PMRogers Memorial Library, 91 Coopers Farm Rd, Southampton, NY, 11968This adaptation of the Emily Brontë novel set in 19th-century England tells the classic tale of unfortunate lovers Heathcliff and Cathy, who despite their deep love for each other, are forced by circumstance and prejudice to live their lives apart. The film starred Merle Oberon, Sir Laurence Olivier, Hugh Williams, and David Niven, and received eight Academy Awards nominations, winning for Best Cinematography. (Patch Southampton)
7. Wuthering Heights 1939Literary purists were appalled by this adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel, which only depicts 16 of its 34 chapters, slashing an entire crop of characters from the narrative. Yet director William Wyler perfectly captures the gloomy, tragic mood of the book, thanks in large part to Gregg Toland’s atmospheric black-and-white cinematography (which won the Oscar). Olivier and Merle Oberon perfectly embody Heathcliff and Cathy, the doomed couple at the story’s center. The film does an expert job recreating Victorian England (with Thousand Oaks, CA, standing in for those windy hills), while the operatic performances make our hearts swoon. “Wuthering Heights” earned seven additional Oscar bids, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Olivier (he lost to Robert Donat in “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”). (Zach Laws & Chris Beachum)
Nexos reviews a Spanish translation of a selection of the poetry of Lorine Niedecker quoting from a 1947 letter where she said: 'The Brontës/had their moors, I have/my marshes!
Bird es posiblemente su mejor película, lo que no es moco de pavo si pensamos en obras como Fish Tank (2009) o American Honey (2016), que a este cronista nunca le han convencido del todo –sí, sin embargo, su inspirada adaptación de Cumbres borrascosas–. (Carlos Reviriego) (Translation)
Waiting for Heatcliffe (sic)? A fine way to promote Wuthering Heights at The Empire in the late 30s. (Derek James)
The greatest of writers often worked in solitude or isolation, either from choice or because there was no choice: Dostoevsky from a prison cell; Thoreau from the wilderness of Walden; Steveman from a remote island in the Pacific; Victor Hugo from his exile on the island of Guernsey (where I saw his study and desk, still carefully preserved); Emily Brontë and her sisters from a lonely parsonage on the Yorkshire moors; William Blake from a humble country cottage.
So, after all the trouble that Tess has caused the Mother, why does she get to live? The answer lies in that little book titled Jane Eyre that AJ briefly pulls out of Tess’ luggage earlier in the film. A huge subplot of the novel involves a woman, Bertha, held against her will in the attic of her husband’s home. She manages to wander the house at night and is mistaken as a ghost by Jane, the new object of her husband’s affection. This little Easter egg adds an extra layer to the film’s interrogation of the historical and social treatment of women. Frank, the former owner of the house, was able to keep dozens of women locked up right underneath the noses of his neighbors without so much as a second glance. Even after the neighborhood deteriorated, Frank’s legacy of torture remained. (Raquel Hollman and Emma Kiely)
I’m not the only one to feel this. Ask any woman of a certain age and sensibility to tell you their favourite books about friendship – I’ve done this a lot lately, because I’ve been editing an anthology on the subject – and nine times out of 10, they will say Jane Eyre and Lace, putting no paper between the two. The obituary writers can joke all they like about that scene with the sheikh and the goldfish, but the unavoidable truth is that she’s as much of a touchstone for some of us as Charlotte Brontë.
Blanca Schofield: First book I couldn’t finishR.W.: I don’t think I got anywhere with Great Expectations as a child. Recently it’s Ulysses — I keep trying. I’ve never read Jane Eyre cover to cover.
Death alone could stop creation. Keats could not escape tuberculosis, neither could Anne and Emily Brontë; Mozart died early possibly as a consequence of an childhood attack of rheumatic fever.
Todas las historias verídicas encierran una enseñanza, aunque en algunos casos cueste encontrar el tesoro y, aun al hallarlo, resulte tan minúsculo que ese fruto seco y marchito apenas compense el esfuerzo de romper la cáscara, advierte la novelista y poetisa británica Anne Brontë, quien previno sobre la utilidad o no de su novela. (Isabel Gamboa Barboza) (Translation)
Mithu Sanyal liest am Montag in Saarbrücken aus ihrem Bestseller „Identitti“. Keine Karte für die ausverkaufte Lesung bekommen? Wir haben mit Sanyal vorab über den Irrwitz von Identitätswirren gesprochen, aber auch über obsessives Lesen und Emily Brontë. (Sophia Schülke) (Translation)
„Jane Eyre“, Charlotte BrontëIn dem 1847 veröffentlichten Roman Jane Eyre werden gesellschaftliche Normen dargestellt, die uns heute sehr veraltet erscheinen. Bertha, die Frau einer der Hauptfiguren, wird für verrückt gehalten und weggesperrt, weil sie sich nicht so verhält, wie es sich für eine richtige viktorianische Frau gehört. Sie wird sogar als Vampir und bekleidete Hyäne beschrieben. Außerdem haben die Bedürfnisse der Männer Vorrang vor denen der Frauen - eine ganz andere Sichtweise als die, die wir im 21. Jahrhundert haben.„Sturmhöhe“, Emily BrontëSturmhöhe gilt als einer der größten Romane, die je in englischer Sprache geschrieben wurden, und erzählt die Geschichte des ungleichen Liebespaares Catherine und Heathcliff. Heathcliff wird von seinem Adoptivbruder wie ein Diener behandelt und setzt später einen Kreislauf des Missbrauchs fort. Manchmal wird er auch körperlich gewalttätig. Damit dieses Werk für das moderne Empfinden geeignet ist, müsste ein Großteil der Gewalt und des Klassismus abgeschwächt werden. (Roxane Jérôme) (Translation)
The Lancashire Telegraph announces that The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever will return to Preston next July 21st. Diario Hoy (Argentina) publishes a short article about the Brontës who call them "little puppets with no master" and publishes a picture of some three women who are not the Brontës. Despite it all, the article is not so bad. The Deccan Herald quotes Emily Brontë saying “May is the month of expectation, the month of wishes, the month of hope,”. The thing is, she never wrote that, as far as we know.
Actualitté (France) announces that Quitter Hurlevent de Laurence Werner David is on the shortlist for the Prix François Billetdoux 2024.
Students and faculty members of the English department gathered in the garden outside of Bradley House to plant Bleeding Heart flowers in honor of the recently deceased English major Caroline Rogers. Professor Meg Cronin organized the planting in coordination with the physical plant team.Professor Cronin taught Caroline in her class “The Brontës,” where their final exam was scheduled during the time of the planting. “Our final was scheduled for this afternoon, but after her death, I knew we needed to do something different,” Professor Cronin said. “We could not sit in that room without her and take a final exam.” Many of Caroline’s classmates attended the planting and worked with one another to place six Bleeding Heart flowers in the Bradley House garden. (...)After students planted the flowers, they gathered around to read a poem by Emily Brontë called “No Coward Soul is Mine.” Students then stayed for a brief moment of silence for prayer and reflection in front of the memorial that they had just created. (Patrick McGann)
I just reread “Jane Eyre” for the third time. It is not a perfect novel. It has some improbable coincidences and (spoiler alert) Jane really should have figured out that Mr. Rochester’s insane wife lived upstairs. In spite of its weaknesses, the brilliance of the prose and touching romance shines through, making it my favorite novel. Yes, I also enjoy chick flicks. (Paul Olson)
The Brontë sistersThere were three Brontë sisters, but many know only about Charlotte, author of Jane Eyre and Emily, author of Wuthering Heights. The lesser-known Anne may have been a better storyteller, but something derailed her career, and some believe it was Charlotte. “Charlotte had always underestimated and patronized” Anne according to Penguin Publishing Group, and Charlotte may have taken the idea for Jane Eyre from Anne’s Agnes Grey. Not that Anne was entirely blameless; it’s been said she used her book, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, to critique both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Clearly, these three understood that there’s no one who can get under your skin quite like a sister. (Lauren Cahn)
At secondary school, I was one of the few people in my class who actually enjoyed studying the likes of Jane Eyre, Lord of the Flies and The Great Gatsby - so much so, that I went on to study English Literature for four years at university. (Rhoda Morrison)
Anne Brontë: The First Feminist Novelist?In her classic novels, Anne Brontë fearlessly championed women’s issues, challenging not only Victorian social mores but English law and Church of England theology.In just two novels, Anne Brontë took on the plight of governesses and married women’s legal rights (or lack thereof), as well as putting forward her own theory of universal salvation, which, at the time, was considered blasphemous and highly controversial. Yet today, her fame has yet to reach the heights of her two older sisters, Charlotte and Emily. Here, we will look into why that is the case – and why it is an unfair reflection on Anne as a writer – by exploring her life, work, and values. (...)Anne’s reputation, then, has suffered through unfair criticism, neglect, and poor editorial decisions, the effects of which can still be seen in accounts of the Brontë family. However, since the 1990s, biographies of Anne have helped question the narrative of Anne as “the other Brontë” and there has been a concerted effort to reevaluate her work in a manner that recognizes its radical politics. Through her classic novels, Anne Brontë sought to challenge social injustices and to improve the lives of others, and it is as such that she deserves to be remembered. (Catherine Dent)
Paula becomes both the lady of the house and the madwoman in the attic, to borrow a phrase usually applied to Victorian novel Jane Eyre. In Jane Eyre, which, as it so happens, was also turned into a 1944 film, Jane’s stay at Mr. Rochester’s home quickly sees strange things happening. As his governess, she hears noises and voices in the attic, to say nothing of the fire that mysteriously starts in the middle of the night. Later, as she’s set to marry Rochester, there is a scandal at the altar: He is already married. His wife Bertha fell victim to congenital madness, you see, so he kept her locked and hidden in his attic. It was the only thing he could think to do. Jane runs away in the middle of the night, but returns later in the novel. Bertha has since burned the entire house down and died, and Rochester is disabled in the process. Jane agrees to marry him, and they look together toward the future—one that presumably doesn’t end with Jane in the attic.Of course, there’s no guarantee that won’t happen, just as there was never a guarantee that the man Paula quickly married wouldn’t try to drive her to madness. While Gaslight isn’t a straight adaptation, this influence, and the Jane-Bertha dichotomy, plays out in the single character of Paula. She must hold both realities and both experiences because the man she was supposed to be able to trust has thrust them upon her. (Drew Gillis)
Es curioso, además de triste, pensar que encontré una novela como Cumbres borrascosas a los pies de un cubo de basura. Es también poético saber que ese cubo de basura es el que recoge los deshechos de los habitantes de la Casa de las Flores, lugar en el que vivió Neruda, y en cuyos ladrillos se guarda el recuerdo de los encuentros entre los grandes poetas de su generación. Qué habrían pensado ellos al ver una obra, sea cual sea, despreciada hasta el ridículo, solitaria entre la suciedad, anhelando unos ojos que se posasen sobre ella y la salvasen de tan terrible destino. (...)Quizás el cuerpo desalmado que cometió tal injuria no llegó a leer la que sería la mayor obra de Emily Brontë, su única en solitario. Sería alguien que no entendió lo que ella escribió: que “el mundo es para mí una horrenda colección de recuerdos diciéndome que ella existió y yo la he perdido”. En realidad, es reconfortante pensar que leyó esas palabras y no fue capaz de comprenderlas, porque quien las lee y ha experimentado el dolor de una pérdida no puede evitar sentirse herido por el cortante filo de su significado. (...)Pero, el final. Emily Brontë, cómo vas a escribir una combinación de palabras tan bella como lo hiciste en el final de Cumbres borrascosas. Tan sentido, tan sutilmente bello y a la vez tan poco comentado por los críticos. Se han resaltado muchas frases de esta obra, pero nunca la que pone el punto final, y no hay ninguna como esa. Por los mismos motivos éticos que me impiden tirar un libro a la basura, no me permito escribir aquí esas palabras, pues es un final que debe ser leído en exclusiva por el lector que descubra la novela al completo. Solo puedo decir que yo sí me detuve al lado —del libro— bajo el cielo sereno, siguiendo con los ojos el vuelo de las libélulas entre las plantas silvestres y escuchando el rumor de la suave brisa. Aquel que tiró el libro a una basura frente a La Casa de las Flores, sepa que no ha de tener inquietos sueños porque su libro duerme ahora en un lugar tan apacible como el estante más alto de mi librería. (Natalia Loizaga) (Translation)
Ante la imposibilidad de firmar con su nombre, muchas escritoras del pasado se vieron obligadas a buscar formas alternativas de publicación, como es el caso de las hermanas Charlotte, Emily y Anne Brontë, célebres autoras de obras como “Jane Eyre”, “Cumbres Borrascosas” y “La inquilina de Wildfell Hall”, usaban los seudónimos masculinos: Currer, Ellis y Acton Bell.Hacerse pasar por hombre para publicar: un rotundo no negociableEsta elección se debió a lo controversial que podían ser sus temas, que incluían romances desafiantes, alcoholismo y violencia, considerados inmorales para su época. Hoy sus novelas se valoran como obras de arte innovadoras en la historia de la literatura. (Juan Sebastián Ramos) (Translation)
While to some critics such experimentalism brought to mind the deconstruction approach of Jacques Derrida, Mr. Auster often described himself as a throwback who preferred Emily Brontë over the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, as he said in a 2009 interview with the British newspaper The Independent. (Alex Williams in The New York Times)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Follow the journey of the resilient and passionate Jane Eyre as she navigates through adversities and seeks independence and love.
There are also nods to popular classics such as Wuthering Heights, Psycho, The Haunting of Hill House, and much more. If you're a reader of any kind, you'll be tickled by a lot of these mentions. (Rebecca Mills)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë unfolds on the desolate Yorkshire moors, charting the volatile relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, which descends into a cycle of revenge.Brontë weaves Gothic elements of curses and a haunting estate into a narrative that echoes the dark complexity found in Frankenstein, crafting a timeless tale of passion and retribution. (Anujj Trehaan)
Kate Bush somersaulting across my late-night television screen singing “Wuthering Heights,” and Peter Gabriel leading me to the poetry of Anne Sexton with “Mercy Street.”
After a brief intermission, Daniel Daley Sextet took the stage to perform a slow, soulful cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ (Cécile McLorin Salvant’s version) led by Maya Moh, whose stunning vocals continued throughout the night. Accompanying her were band members Milo Flynn (keys), Taylor West (bass), Kiran Buzza (guitar) and Charlie Saville (drums). (Madeline Whitmore)
As Andrew Stauffer notes in his excellent new biography, moody fictional males from Emily Brontë's Heathcliff to Neil Gaiman’s Dream owe a debt to Byron’s haunted protagonists. (Thomas McLean)
Wide Sargasso Sea 1993Adapting Jean Rhys’ feminist, anti-colonial take on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea tells the story of that novel’s “madwoman in the attic,” here a West Indian Creole heiress who enters into an ultimately unhappy marriage with Mr. Rochester, and in the process finding herself isolated and alone in England, even more adrift than she had been in the Jamaica of her birth. The movie is damn sexy, which earned it that NC-17, though not everyone agreed it had reached its lofty ambitions (the Washington Post called it, “coffee-table pornography with sound effects.”) (Ross Johnson)
Emily è un film sensibile e appassionato, nonché cinetico che predilige la telecamera a mano e il montaggio seguendo da vicino il ritmo della performance feroce e carismatica di Mackey, attrice rivelazione della serie tv Sex Education. La sua Emily Brontë è imbronciata, mortificata dalla realtà che la circonda, tende a intrufolarsi in spazi privati o nella sua testa, è la pecora nera della famiglia spesso rimproverata dal padre autoritario. Il film potenzia le sue emozioni turbolente con un paesaggio sonoro denso, luci tremolanti, una fotografia calda e suggestiva. O’Connor dà a questo film d’epoca una veste diversa, anche molto sexy. Trova un piacere nei tocchi goffi, negli sguardi rubati e in questi personaggi molto coperti che strappano via i vari strati di vestiti in preda alla passione e all’istinto. Il risultato è un’avventura emozionante, ricca di sfumature e nuova per il genere a cui sembra appartenere. (Letizia Rogolino) (Translation)
Es un programa inteligente, lleno de pequeñas observaciones inteligentes y también sorprendentemente divertido. Vemos la ambición de las tres hermanas, frustradas por la falta de igualdad de oportunidades e ideando planes para triunfar en un mundo de hombres; en particular, somos testigos de la a veces fea ambición de Charlotte, que no permitirá que nada (ni siquiera la lealtad a su propia familia) se interponga en su deseo de estar “en la habitación donde sucede” y llegar a ser tan famosa como Byron. El guión está lleno de frases divertidas y también tiene algunos momentos divertidos y surrealistas. (Pedro Pérez) (Translation)
Scam (France) publishes the shortlist of the Prix François Billetdoux which includes Quitter Hurlevent by Laurence Werner David. The Brussels Brontë Blog publishes a post by Octavia Cox on Anne Brontë and sea symbolism.
‘Underdog’ explores the relationships of the Brontë sisters beneath their authorial works and any preconceived notions about their sisterhood. Sarah Gordon’s play tackles the competition between the young writers fighting for ‘women’s one spot at the table’. Humorous references to the likes of Byron, Thackeray and Dickens are protested by a defiant Charlotte Brontë (Gemma Whelan) who speaks desperately of her need for fame and literary immortality - to the despair of a ‘mouse-like’ Anne Brontë (Rhiannon Clements).Quite unfathomably, the play does not include much of Emily Brontë (Adele James), rather projecting her character as someone to chide Charlotte on not wanting to share her authorial stardom, despite being the quite ingenious writer of ‘Wuthering Heights’, also overshadowed by the likes of ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’.When taking our seats my partner and I were struck - Gemma Whelan herself emerged from the sides of the theatre and introduced herself as ‘Charlotte Brontë’ in a palpable Yorkshire accent. She makes her way around the audience asking us our favourite Brontë novels, scoffing when not written by herself (‘Villette’ earning a ‘Great choice!) The Dorfman Theatre was beautifully set with a mound of wild flower growth inspired most likely by the natural flora of Yorkshire, violently pulled to reveal the dark undergrowth as a ceiling for the commencing play. The stage featured a turning disk at the centre used humorously and quite perfectly to encapsulate the Brontës physical search for their place in the authorial world, a disco ball dropping down when visiting London among literary high lives.The second act of the play becomes heavy, taking on the death of Anne Brontë and exposing how Charlotte edited Emily’s poetry after death, and refused a reprint of ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’. Charlotte Brontë is consumed by the death of her sisters and her strive for fame and at times masculinity, culminating in a very ‘Gen-Z’ haunting inclusion of pop super-star Olivia Rodrigos ‘feminine rage’ anthem, ‘all-american bitch’.‘Underdog’ explores a reality where girls are not always supporting other girls and competition is essential to achieve. The Brontë sisters are seen like never before leaving to question who the real ‘OtherOther Brontë’ is. Anne, possibly, dying young and never achieving the same fame as that of her sisters, or Emily publishing only a sole novel, or even Charlotte, overshadowed by her publishers and her ‘one-hit wonder’ with Jane Eyre. Or perhaps director Natalie Ibu hoped to show that each sister spent a life trying to separate themselves from each other, yet are overall entangled by more than a last name. Definitely a must-see, ‘Underdog’ runs at the National Theatre through to the 25th of May. (Rosanna McNeil)
My love of film is down to my dad who was a major film buff.We were one of the first families to get a video recorder and I have lovely memories of snuggling up on the couch watching favourites like Rebecca, The 39 Steps, King’s Row and Jane Eyre.As a family, we watched these films multiple times and were able to quote dialogue freely to each other and indeed hum the tunes. (Richard Fitzpatrick)
In part, this piece seeks to rehabilitate Anne from the shadow of her sisters, Charlotte and Emily. On the whole, it does this, although little is known about Anne, and much of her posthumous reputation was controlled by the dominant and surviving Charlotte. All three sisters wrote their first novel at the same time in the intense atmosphere of the parsonage at Haworth, their childhood home. They had plundered their father’s domestic library and imbibed deeply of the surrounding Yorkshire moors. The 1846 drafts by Anne and Emily were immediately accepted; Charlotte’s was rejected.Two twists emerge. The first is the competition between the sisters, and Gemma Whelan’s feisty portrayal of Charlotte is the least sympathetic. She begins the show, wandering through the stalls in a flame-red dress, hectoring the audience in flat vowels with questions over their favourite Brontë novel. One chap got sat on. She is the colossus — of both this play and the Brontë legacy. What follows tries to unpick that somewhat.The second twist is that, at first, the sisters were published under a male pseudonym as the Bell brothers. Brontë loyalists will know this, but not everyone. Although they were unmasked, and their real identity became known, it was as much to do — so this play says — with Charlotte’s wanting due recognition for her own work. Publishing was a male-dominated world, and the sisters were something of a novelty. Sadly, their early deaths ended arguably one of the brightest of family talents in the Victorian era. The battle-of-the-sexes thing is a little clumsily done, yet also amusing. There’s a knowingness to this play. “We may have died young, but we still have an amazing reputation,” the sisters seem to say.The problem is Charlotte. Whelan plays her convincingly as gobby and domineering, and a domestic bully. At times, the vulnerability and fragility emerge, but rarely. Adele James’s sweet, floaty Emily is a lot more appealing, as is the gentle Anne of Rhiannon Clements. They are much nicer and not developed enough; how could they be, given that it’s the Charlotte Show and they both expired so soon? Unforgivably, Charlotte suppressed Anne’s Wildfell Hall after her death; the limelight had to be hers alone.The supporting cast are all men (nothing gender-blind here) and match up energetically. James Phoon plays the useless drunkard-brother, Branwell. Adam Donaldson and Kwaku Mills join Nick Blakely with comical results: one moment, a stagecoach complete with clopping horse; another, nasty patrician publishers in hats and coats with cigars. Blakely is a particular highlight in skirt roles such as Mrs Ingham of Mirfield, who brings Anne in as a governess, and then Elizabeth Gaskell, who wrote the first biography of Charlotte, but didn’t seem to get it.Everything is beautifully staged in Fran Miller’s production. Natalie Ibu’s witty direction brings a great deal of fun, including a gentlemen’s club turning into a nightclub. Grace Smart’s set and costumes are striking, with Zoe Spurr’s lights creating much intimacy and ambience. But it is difficult to know for whom this piece is intended. It is probably not for literary buffs; and the sight of women oppressing other women feels counter-narrative, which could be the point after all. (Simon Walsh)
I first saw The King Tide last September at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it’s haunted me ever since. The rugged Newfoundland landscapes (shot in and around the microscopic outport of Keels), the vibrant cinematography and hypnotic score, the gothic-tinged story – a baby with mysterious powers washes ashore a remote island fishing village – combine to create a film both timeless and out of time. It’s written and directed by contemporary Canadians – Albert Shin and Christian Sparkes, respectively – but could have been conceived, equally plausibly, by Charlotte Brontë, Daphne du Maurier or Stephen King. (Johanna Schneller)
In my “Dear roommate” essay to get into Stanford, I asked you about your pet preferences and listed all the pets that I’ve owned (everything except for a cat and dog). I now know that you like slightly fucked-up looking chihuahuas and your favorite birds are crows. I also told you that my shelves were going to be full of books that I haven’t read (still very true), but now they contain books that you’ve gifted me: a beautiful copy of “Wuthering Heights” and a lesser-known Murakami. I warned you about my massive soundtrack playlist that I use to study, now even longer after we’ve watched so many movies and TV shows together. (Emma Kexin Wang)
