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Showing posts with label Jane Eyre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jane Eyre. Show all posts

Saturday, October 03, 2026

Saturday, October 03, 2026 10:36 am by Cristina in , , , , ,    No comments
ScreenRant recommends the '3 Best Movies To Watch On Prime Video This Weekend (October 3-4)' and one of them is
Wuthering Heights (2026)
Over the years, there have been several adaptations of Wuthering Heights, the iconic 1847 novel by Emily Brontë. The latest high-profile release was this 2026 version starring Margot Robbie as Cathy Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff. Directed by Emerald Fennell, the new take on Wuthering Heights is sexy, intense, surprising, and utterly haunting. (Felipe Rangel)
Reviewing the new film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, a contributor to The Critic says that,
The visual palette was truer to my vision of Austen than could perhaps be expected in the world of Bridgerton and Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, even if there were a few more stray strands of Elinor’s hair (Daisy Edgar-Jones) than suited her character. (Felice Basbøll)
More films as La Presse (Canada) reviews Verity.
Autrice d’It Ends with Us, de Regretting You et de Reminders of Him, tous trois adaptés à l’écran, la prolifique Colleen Hoover aime traiter de sujets graves sous le couvert de la romance ou du thriller psychologique. C’est dans ce second camp que se situe Verity, thriller domestique où l’on retrouve de (très) faibles échos de Jane Eyre, de Charlotte Brontë, de Rebecca, de Daphné du Maurier, et de Gone Girl, de Gillian Flynn. (Manon Dumais) (Translation)
In fact, an article in The Wrap shows the current soaring popularity of book adaptations, claiming that
The latest adaptation of “Wuthering Heights” won over young women.  When it comes to building a guaranteed hit, a library card just might be the most valuable asset in town. (Christofer Hamilton)
The Observer has an article on Amy Winehouse's personal library, which can be viewed (sort of)
at a flat on Chelsea Embankment in the centre of the capital, where more than 400 of the books the performer owned are on display at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation. Or, nearly; the library, assembled by the artist Alex Margo Arden, comprises volumes of the same age, edition and condition as Winehouse’s ones, though none of them were actually ever in her possession. Arden calls them “parallel objects”. [...]
Most of the volumes are out-of-print paperbacks with glossy, candy bright covers. They have little resale value so Arden struggled to track them down online. There are themes: books about Hollywood (biographies of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Dean Martin, Alfred Hitchcock); about music (Frank Sinatra, Bob Marley, Peggy Lee); about gangsters (Ronnie Kray); and a few literary choices: Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. (Evan Moffitt)
Islington Tribune features publisher Valerie Brandes.
And as for favourite books that have helped shape her as publisher and would feature on her desert island reading list?
“The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Going To Meet The Man, by James Baldwin, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte,” she adds. (Dan Carrier)
Another contributor to ScreenRant finds echoes of Wuthering Heights in a new graphic novel: The Cutting Garden, written by Darcy Van Poelgeest; art by Erin Connally; letters by Aditya Bidikar.
The perfect combination between Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Darcy Van Poelgeest's Little Bird is the perfect read for fans of gothic dramas. Gothic drama thrives on psychological torment bred inside desolate, storm-swept estates. The oppressive interplay between isolated spaces and human madness is vividly captured by the classics born from the English countryside. Set against an untamed Yorkshire landscape that directly mirrors the destructive obsession between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights pursues vindictive cruelty within a haunted family line. Romantic devotion leads to ruin, while familiar domestic walls offer no escape from misery. (Nicolas Ayala)
A contributor to Unherd thinks that 'Jane Eyre could inspire a youth rebellion in China'. A contributor to Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross's newspaper The Observer discusses 'Control, obsession and desire' in Wuthering Heights.

Friday, October 02, 2026

Friday, October 02, 2026 7:48 am by Cristina in , , , ,    No comments
In the wake of China's decision to make Jane Eyre compulsory reading for teenagers, Hannah Betts from The Telegraph thinks that 'Jane Eyre is a dating manual for the modern era – but not in the way you think'.

When Emerald Fennell released her cartoonish take on Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, she explained its squishy, S&M silliness as being an adolescent fever dream. Yet, if teenage rebellion were the aim, that other Brontë novel of 1847 might have made a more likely candidate. I refer, of course, to sister Charlotte’s Jane Eyre: that manual for how a young woman might live – and love – independent of social norms.
This is why news that the text has been made compulsory for Chinese 14 and 15-year-olds comes as something of a surprise. The Communist Party made clear that this is to steer “the innocent, budding stage of first love”. So Brontë’s classic is now a conformist dating manual.
One wonders whether anyone in President Xi’s regime has read the novel. From the moment Jane fights back against her tyrannical male cousin, toeing the party line is emphatically not our heroine’s thing.
Instead, Brontë’s tale is one of constant rebellion against the conventions of love, work, society – whatever worldly authority is imposed. Contemporary critics linked the narrative to the revolutions that swept Europe in 1848. Jane was not only a proto-feminist, but a red under the chaise longue. However, she would be just as likely to rebel against the Five-star Red Flag as she would the domestic autocrat.
This, after all, is a heroine who proclaims: “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have as much soul as you – and full as much heart! … I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal – as we are!”
The man she addresses is rich and powerful; her employer has cross-dressed to flirt with her, while concealing his wife in the loft. It’s complicated, as contemporary parlance goes. Yet, what is never complicated – or compromised – is Jane’s autonomy.
The first and foremost lesson our roving rebel gives us is to love – or rather respect – oneself. In her life’s great crisis, beset by the thought “Who in the world cares for you?”, comes the “indomitable” cry: “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” A woman who has been haunted by beggary chooses vagrancy rather than terms she cannot accept.
Still, Jane determines that she will be loved body, brain and soul – or not at all. When offered the passionless union proposed by priggish St. John Rivers, she refuses to countenance such emotional deprivation. Rivers is what Love Island contestants refer to as “good on paper”, but intolerable in the sack.
Instead, Jane’s devotions are to, first, another female (the doomed Helen Burns); second, a man who married for money, abandoned a vulnerable wife, shagged his way around Europe, attempted bigamy, and was rendered maimed and vulnerable.
Behold, another love lesson: the right person, may be she/he that society deems wrong. Cathy baulks at Heathcliff. Jane embraces a castrated Byronic hero: mastering her master in a domesticity in which they can at last be equals.
When Jane declares: “Reader, I married him,” it is a triumph of radical self-assertion. Chinese educationalists may believe they’re signing up for Victorian values. However, in Brontë’s moral bruiser, they’re getting a counter-cultural heroine who would have no truck with Marxist-Leninist axioms or Xi Jinping’s “Chinese Dream”.
And how glorious this will prove: another generation of freedom fighters becoming Eyreheads.
The Indian Express makes a similar point: 'Beijing doesn’t get it – Jane Eyre is no model for domesticity'.
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is an unlikely heroine for a state seeking to teach young women a moderate face of feminism and the value of domesticity. Plain, financially constrained, lacking in social capital she might be, but Brontë’s heroine wasn’t short on self-awareness. She declares, “I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss.”
It is probably this insistence on equality that has lent the novel such appeal in China since it was first introduced in translation in the early 1920s. Now, however, the Chinese state has made it mandatory reading for ninth-grade students, arguably for quite different reasons: Beijing is waging an uphill campaign against plummeting birth and marriage rates. A 19th-century romance, with its promise of true love and a value system oriented towards home and hearth, could work as useful propaganda. In this modernist state re-reading, Eyre is rebellious, but not irredeemably so; independent, but not averse to settling down; outspoken, but unmistakably feminine. She is proof that a woman can have a mind of her own without turning her back on the domestic.
And yet, there are postscripts to this reading. Marriage at the end of Jane Eyre is undergirded by clarity. Eyre walks away from it when staying would have meant becoming lesser, unequal. Only later, with an inheritance of her own and the independence it guarantees, does she return to Rochester. Love becomes, in Brontë’s telling, a choice, not a surrender. Perhaps that is the lesson young readers will take away from it.
But Why Tho? reviews the new adaptation of East of Eden we get the mandatory dig at Wuthering Heights 2026.
Where “Wuthering Heights” left me angry, this Netflix Original has restored my faith in adapting classic literature. (Kate Sánchez)
Vulture also reviews East of Eden but mentions Wide Sargasso Sea instead.
How could any contemporary adaptation of East of Eden not linger on Cathy? After decades of perspective-shifting literary retellings like Wide Sargasso Sea and The Mists of Avalon and the current trend of feminist Greek myths, Cathy is an enigma begging for some traumatic backstory to staple her flaws together. (Kathryn VanArendonk)
We're in the middle of Literature Cambridge's Brontë Season:
Monthly, Saturdays, 5 September 2026 to 13 March 2027
18.00-20.00 British Time
19.00-21.00 Central European Time
Morning or Lunchtime in the Americas

Join us for a season of six lectures and seminars, live online, on the writings of three great English writers of the early nineteenth century: Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë. We study four of their powerful novels, plus the poetry of Emily Brontë and a selection of the extraordinary childhood writings of the sisters and their brother Branwell. You can book as many individual lectures as you like, or you can book the whole season at a discount. This offer closes on 4 September 2026, before the Season starts.

Lectures

• Saturday 5 Sept. 2026. Kate Eliot, Juvenilia of the Brontës
• Saturday 3 Oct. 2026. Trudi Tate, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847). SOLD OUT.
• Saturday 7 Nov. 2026. Greta Colombani, The Poetry of Emily Brontë 
• Saturday 9 January 2027. Clare Walker Gore, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847)  
• Saturday 13 February 2027. Corinna Russell, Charlotte Brontë, Villette (1853) 
• Saturday 13 March 2027. Alison Hennegan, Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) 

Thursday, October 01, 2026

Thursday, October 01, 2026 7:34 am by Cristina in , , , , ,    No comments
Warwickshire World has another review of Underdog: The Other Other Brontë.
Anne-marie Greene’s direction gives Sarah Gordon’s 2024 already feisty modern-day revision of the Brontë myth a quick-witted flair. Much of this is due to the clever, knowing portrayal of Charlotte by Alice Scott. She is a pink-haired, elfin dominatrix of the family. Her determination to place herself at the top of the literary tree is expressed by frequent asides through the fourth wall, which draws us onto her side while at the same time slightly repelling us at the unfairness of her treatment of her sisters, Anne in particular. We forgive her, up to a point, partly because of her sparky charm and her knowing comments about the (still) patriarchal publishing game, but also because we buy into her idea that without her there would have been no Brontës. Even Emily, passionately, often angrily played by Nicole Cortese, is sidelined by her.
And what of poor Anne? Anne, the nice one, Anne the modest, self-effacing one who suspends her literary ambitions to become a governess, one of the lowest rungs of the Victorian social ladder, where she is bullied and humiliated by her employers and their nasty children. Somehow, she turns this unhappy experience into a scathing condemnation of abuse within marriage which was revolutionary in her day, and hits the jackpot with her book sales.
But in order to succeed the sisters had to pretend to be men, otherwise they would have been dismissed as mere ‘women writers.’ But this brings a conundrum. By pretending to be men they are, in a sense, beating the men at their own game and are somewhat protected by the mask, provided their true identities remain secret. Once they are revealed they are subject to the very condemnation they challenged in spite of, and because of, their success.
Sarah Gordon’s play doesn't delve too deeply into the books themselves; rather it is the Brontë myth that is explored and its status as a repudiation of patriarchy. Even Branwell Brontë (Connor Bailey), their wayward, drunken brother, who aspired to be a painter though he lacked the talent, is somehow portrayed as a victim of this London-based snobbery. Ironically by working together to create the image of the Bell brothers,  partly in order to protect him from full knowledge of himself, the sisters cannot help but buy into that snobbery.
Charlotte tries to rip the façade off the dominant ideology of the time by making herself into a literary superstar and using her fame to overturn the orthodoxy. It is self-conscious promotion with its roots in the past and its flower very much in the present. The cast, including an excellent ensemble, have great fun with it, playing with a punk / Gen Z theme. The performances are top-notch throughout, the three sisters well balanced in their characters, Charlotte as the apex of a triangle that could only function as a collective. (Nick Le Mesurier)
Still on stage, Sussex World features Evie Depledge, who's currently playing Jane in Conn Artists' Jane Eyre.
“I've always loved the book. I love English literature. I first read Jane Eyre at high school when I was 11 or 12 or 13 and I just loved it. I'm very much an Austen and Bronte girl. I read all of them but I always remember Jane Eyre struck me as such a fantastic heroine.
“I think she has such a strong will. She is so passionate and so determined to keep to her values and her morality and her desire to do what is right. I think that fascinated me as a child. You often see in people their kindness or their bravery and she's kind and brave but I think the main thing for Jane is doing what is right. She is willing sometimes to make people a little bit upset but it comes from a place not of weakness; it comes from a place of wanting to do the right thing. I love her strength and I think it is that core that really attracted me to Jane as a person. And I'm really interested to see what resonates with me now. I read it as a young person, and to come back to it again now it's interesting to rediscover it and to see what really resonates now.” (Phil Hewitt)
QBurgh reviews the novel The Lost Brontë by Catherine Friend.
This time of year, you may come to crave dark, spooky stories, and “The Last Brontë” fits those needs perfectly with its Gothic deliciousness. Think: Daphne du Maurier-type, stormy-night squirms with a dangerously chaste, sweetly romantic girl-meets-girl twist for fun.
If it’s been awhile since you’ve read a Gothic novel, you’re in for a nice reminder of why you love them here. You can almost tick off the must-haves: a novel like this is nothing without a foreboding stone manor with damp walls; stone steps to a dank basement; a mysterious portrait; and a nearby bog, and author Catherine Friend gives readers every one of them. You’d be disappointed if there was no ghost, wouldn’t you? Ha. You can practically feel the cold blow through the attic, right? Yeah, it’s that kind of book.If you’re a fan of the Brontës, you’ll like this novel. If you love Gothic mysteries or Victorian romances, ditto. “The Lost Brontë” is good, no lie. (Terri Schlichenmeyer)
The University Echo wonders, 'Are the Books Really Better than the Movies?'
Nowadays, there are plenty of adaptations that blatantly acknowledge the literary classic that it is based on. In just February of this year, a movie adaptation of Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” hit theatres. [...]
The question becomes, are these adaptations a sign of a lack of creativity or is Hollywood’s ability to take literary classics unknown or disliked by the younger generations a show of creativity and innovative thinking? I’m not quite sure.
UTC junior Lexie Jones, a history and anthropology double major, gave her perspective on the question: “I don’t think it's a lack of creativity. Like ‘Wuthering Heights.’ I haven’t watched the new movie but it was a way to draw in people who probably would have never read the book.”
The movie adaptations may become a way to draw interest from our generation. The prospect of reading the classics, to most, might seem boring and a waste of time, especially if it has nothing to do with your major. The most popular book genres right now are romance or ‘romantasy,’ a term coined by TikTok. Fantasy, thrillers, science fiction and horror are the runner-ups. Classic fiction wasn’t really high on the list.
“Wuthering Heights” was advertised with phrases such as “drive me mad,” “come undone,” and "inspired by the greatest love story of all time.” The movie starred well-known actors Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, and was released on Valentine’s Day. The marketing was directed towards the generation that made romance the most popular book genre.
The movie only covered about half of the original novel, though. Watchers who were enamored by the love story on the screen can continue the story by returning to the novel. Adults who may have never considered opening the novel might just read it now, or at least stop and purchase it at the book store. (Haley Goodfriend)
Den of Geek lists '15 Movie Characters That Look Nothing Like Their Descriptions' and one of them is Heathcliff.
Heathcliff Was Described as Dark-Skinned
Emily Brontë repeatedly gives Heathcliff a dark complexion and describes him as “a dark-skinned gipsy in aspect.” Laurence Olivier’s 1939 Wuthering Heights became one of the character’s most famous screen versions despite looking very different. (Fernanda Arnaud)
El diario de Madrid (Spain) discusses Wuthering Heights and Emerald Fennell's take on the novel.
Hace poco inicié la relectura de la novela de Emily Brontë, Cumbres borrascosas, porque tenía una deuda con el libro. La primera vez que lo leí fue hace veinticinco años y siento que no fue la mejor lectura, pues mi habilidad como lector aún no se había desarrollado para obras como esta. El refrán «cada libro tiene su tiempo» es, por lo menos en mi caso, cierto.
Otro detonante que anticipó mi relectura fue la insípida, anodina, insulsa, adormecida, formulaica y pobrísima versión cinematográfica de Emerald Fennell sobre Cumbres borrascosas. El desarrollo psicológico de sus personajes y la atmósfera de la película se asemejan al ámbito de Cincuenta sombras de Grey: buscan desfogar un deseo carnal sin ningún tipo de composición narrativa que sustente la pasión entre los protagonistas. Quería quitarme ese amargo sabor.
El problema no es que Emerald Fennell haya cambiado la historia; desde el título entrecomillado se puede deducir que la película busca alejarse por completo de la obra literaria: omitió a Lockwood, quien se convierte en el repositorio de la historia, e ignoró la facultad narrativa de Nelly Dean. Estas licencias que se tomó Fennell no aportan valor a la cinta, sino que reflejan el afán de contar una historia distinta que no logra trascender y se queda en un vacuo entretenimiento de Hollywood.
El problema no es que Emerald Fennell haya cambiado la historia; desde el título entrecomillado se deduce que la película busca distanciarse de la obra literaria: omitió a Lockwood —el marco receptor de la historia— y despojó a Nelly Dean de su compleja ambigüedad como narradora no fiable, reduciéndola a un mero detonante de hechos trágicos. Además, en el filme es el Sr. Earnshaw quien termina ebrio e hipotecando sus propiedades hasta perderlas a manos de Heathcliff; sin embargo, en la novela original esta ruina personal y financiera recae enteramente en su hijo Hindley Earnshaw. Estas licencias no aportan valor a la cinta, sino que reflejan el afán de contar una historia efectista que se queda en un vacuo entretenimiento de Hollywood.
Al comprender las circunstancias de Heathcliff, deducimos que su comportamiento (cuestionable desde la moral) es el resultado de un contexto hostil: es un huérfano pauperizado y maltratado tanto por su padre como por su hermano adoptivos. Como bien señaló Karl Marx: «No es la conciencia del hombre la que determina su ser, sino, por el contrario, el ser social es el que determina su conciencia». Sin embargo, bajo la mirada moralizante y burguesa de la narradora Nelly, la personalidad de Heathcliff no es responsabilidad de una estructura social, sino estrictamente del individuo. De manera similar, la contemporaneidad —bajo el espejismo de que «el pobre es pobre porque quiere»— traslada la responsabilidad de un sistema de privilegios e imperfecto, hacia las clases bajas, culpándolas de su propia condición y favoreciendo el desarrollo de trastornos como la depresión y la ansiedad, así como fenómenos psicosociales de indefensión aprendida y vergüenza social interiorizada. ¿Podría considerarse a Heathcliff, entonces, como una advertencia de las pasiones y grietas que genera una estructura ciega a la salud mental del otro? (Juan Sebastián Sánchez) (Translation)

Wednesday, September 30, 2026

The Telegraph and Argus has an article on last weekend's Brontë Women’s Writing Festival.
Now in its 16th year, the festival ran from September 25 to 29 in Haworth and featured a packed programme of events at the Brontë Parsonage Museum and online, highlighting women’s voices across fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and scriptwriting.
Sam Harrison, first-time programmer of the festival, said: "It's been really good.
"This is actually my first time programming the festival this year, and so I was very nervous beforehand"
"The main thing was I really wanted people to come away feeling like they had a really good time.
"Everyone's really enjoying it. The feedback's been really good and the speakers have been great.
"I feel very lucky that we've had such an amazing group of women writers come together."
The festival opened with a sold-out talk by writer Sally Wainwright, who discussed her work including the BBC drama To Walk Invisible, which marked its 10th anniversary this year.
He said: "Sally Wainwright was great, she was sold out and she's become just part of the Brontë legend.
"We're, again, so grateful that she was able to come and be part of the festival and celebrate 10 years of To Walk Invisible.
"It's a film that means so much to so many people still."
The programme included a gothic fiction panel with Essie Fox, Heba Al-Wasity, and Stephanie Bramwell, a discussion on historical novels with Liz Flanagan and Anna Craig, and a poetry event inspired by Emily Brontë’s The Hawk.
The festival also offered online events and workshops exploring themes of literature, history, and the environment.
Mr Harrison said the organisation had partnered with the British Library on the newly produced Wuthering Heights facsimile.
A workshop featuring Anna Chilvers and Clare Shaw also took place, inspired by their Book of Bogs project and aimed at educating people about the importance of peat.
Mr Harrison added, "They are also curating our poetry at the Parsonage event, which is at the end of October as well, so that will be really exciting."
He said, "It's so inspiring to hear these up and coming writers and just listening to their processes of creating.
"I think it's nice because you get so many people who are aspiring writers or creators.
"You hope that they can come and it will just give them a bit of a boost to keep going and keep pushing with their dreams."
As the festival wrapped up, Mr Harrison said even the weather had played its part.
She said: "The weather's also been good, which is very rare for Haworth." (Amelia Short)
Warwickshire World reviews Underdog: The Other Other Brontë.
Although the plot rightly discusses the iniquitous vulnerability and powerlessness of women in society at the time, as the sisters have to initially publish using male pseudonyms and discussion in literary circles that women could not have written works such as theirs, the power of the play lies in the family dynamics, and the characters that each actor portrays.  Emily gives a rarely heard view, defending Branwell as being a victim of the expectations that are put on men.
It is important to remember that Sarah Gordon’s excellent script is rather like those ITV true crime dramas, based on known facts but with some licence of what was said by whom, in other words, it’s all true apart from the bits that aren’t.  The Criterion has put on a play which is both highly entertaining and thought-provoking and thoroughly deserves the enthusiastic applause. (Charles Essex)
Nine (Australia) has one more review of Sense and Sensibility of the kind that includes a message for Emerald Fennell.
Fennell, take note: you don’t have to completely revolutionise a period romance and stuff it full of sex and anachronisms to make it work for modern viewers. (Maddison Skipper)
No, you don't have to, but you can.

Several sites comment on designer Joseph Altuzarra bringing 'Wuthering Heights Romance to Old Navy'. From Marie Claire:
Altuzarra didn’t treat the project as a scaled-down version of his namesake line. “I wanted to approach it in a very similar way that I do my own runway collections,” he says. As with many of his collections, that meant beginning with books as inspiration.
At the time, Altuzarra had recently read Emily Brontë'sWuthering Heights and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and was “steeped in this world of romantic literature and romantic heroines and these windswept Scottish moors.” The novels became the collection’s central references, informing a wardrobe built around what he describes as a “sense of yearning, of desire, that kind of deep romance.” Or, as Posen puts it: “bringing your Jane Austen fantasies into today.” (Irina Grechko)
“Drawing inspiration from the Regency and early Victorian literary eras, the collection reflects the romance and mystery of classic Romantic and Gothic fiction,” according to a press release. Inspired by Wuthering Heights, these designs are meant to be worn passionately (and to frolic through wide fields in). (Victoria Montalti)
Treating it "like capital F fashion," Altuzarra reveals he approached the Old Navy partnership the same way as his eponymous ready-to-wear label. "I often start my own collections with a book as the inspiration," he tells me. "I had just read Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice. I really imagine this collection on a windswept Scottish moor." (Josephine Hadjiloucas)
Toscana Libri (Italy) reports that today Wuthering Heights will be part of the programme Libri Liberi (a programme for bringing literature into prisons) at Carcere Minorile G.P. Meucci in Florence.
Ci sono libri che attraversano il tempo senza perdere la capacità di parlare al presente. Storie nelle quali passioni, conflitti, desiderio di libertà e conseguenze delle proprie scelte continuano a interrogare generazioni di lettori. È il caso di "Cime tempestose", unico romanzo di Emily Brontë e uno dei grandi classici della letteratura inglese, al centro del nuovo appuntamento di Libri Liberi, la rassegna promossa dalla Fondazione De Sanctis che porta la letteratura all'interno degli istituti penitenziari italiani.
Dopo la tappa milanese al Beccaria, Libri Liberi arriverà a Firenze il 30 settembre, al Carcere Minorile G.P. Meucci, per un incontro dedicato all'opera di Emily Brontë. A guidare i ragazzi attraverso le pagine del romanzo saranno la scrittrice Camilla Baresani e l'attrice Francesca Inaudi, chiamate a intrecciare lettura, racconto e confronto intorno a una storia che, a quasi due secoli dalla sua pubblicazione, conserva intatta la propria forza. (Translation)
Both The Times and Firstpost discuss China's decision to make Jane Eyre a mandatory read for teenagers:
Reader, I studied it. For Chinese schoolchildren, there will be no escape from now on from the romantic fantasies of early Victorian England. 
Ninth-year pupils across China have begun their last autumn term at middle school to discover that the classic Charlotte Brontë novel Jane Eyre has been added to their compulsory curriculum. 
It was already an option for literature in translation classes. The fact that it has become compulsory, it is being made clear, is out of concern for teenagers’ love lives.
“The innocent, budding stage of first love is a crucial period for shaping a well-rounded personality,” Beijing Daily, the capital’s Communist Party-run paper, told students by way of explanation. “Rather than letting fragmented information occupy a child’s mind, it’s better to help them establish a value system by reading a timeless literary classic.” 
There is a logic to the choice by leading educationalists, who have been standardising the literature curriculum across provinces. Local authorities still have a degree of autonomy in what they teach, in separate maths and English language curriculums, but President Xi’s regime is deeply concerned about national morals, particularly among the young, and keeps a close eye on all cultural influences. 
Young Chinese people are going through two fads, both of them seen as problematic. One, as seen in many societies, is their reluctance to pair up, get married and have children. China’s birth-rate is unsustainably low, in part because of young women’s determination to stay single, pursue careers and eschew motherhood. 
The second fad is a passion, particularly among the same young women, for gothic romantasy novels, many of them gay-themed. Xi, despite the theoretically egalitarian and revolutionary underpinnings of Communism, is a strong promoter of traditional marriage and family values. (Richard Spencer)
. Note has a post on a trip to Haworth. Jane Eyre is a perfect autumn read for both Martha Stewart and BookClub (AI-generated).

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

The Telegraph and Argus reports on the conversation with playwright and screenwriter Miram Battye which was part of this past weekend's Brontë Women's Writing Festival.
A new BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre is in the works, promising to be the most faithful yet.
It is set to be a five-part series, written by playwright and screenwriter Miriam Battye, and produced by Working Title.
Ms Battye shared insights into the project during a talk at the Brontë School Rooms on September 27.
Ms Battye said: "It is going to be a limited series, but less limited than perhaps a film adaptation."
Each episode will run for an hour, allowing more time to explore the novel’s characters and themes.
Ms Battye said: "I give enough time to feel for every part of the book that you need to feel for and for the characters.
"Some of those are moments that I don't think have been adequately seen on screen."
She described the BBC as "incredibly supportive, warm collaborators" and confirmed that she has written two of the five planned chapters so far.
Ms Battye said: "The unique selling point of the upcoming drama was it was going to be one hundred percent faithful to the novel."
"I want the adaptation to include a huge amount of Charlotte Brontë's dialogue."
The writer revealed that she created the adaptation with actress Amy Lou Wood in mind.
Ms Battye said: "There really wasn't another vision in my head.
"Amy is an actress of kind of quite staggering talent."
Ms Battye reportedly approached her before anyone else was cast.
She said: "I went to the BBC and I said, Amy is the pitch.
"Essentially, it is me and Amy."
Ms Battye also addressed questions about whether there was any pressure to sexualise the adaptation, especially in light of Emerald Fennell’s recent version of Wuthering Heights.
Answering, "No, there’s no pressure.
"I believe that sexuality is a part of the book.
"I've never felt pressured to make anything overt that isn't already there."
The first episode will focus entirely on Jane’s childhood, which Ms Battye described as "almost a third of the book."
She said: "The fist episode is going to be about a ten-year-old girl.
"It's actually not going to be about Amy Lou Wood's performance of it."
She also intends to present a more nuanced view of Lowood School.
Ms Battye said: "Occasionally in adaptations it's seen as just a place of privation and sort of horror.
"I’ll debate this, but I also think I'm so interested in the joy at Lowood School.
"The idea that it's the first place a young girl discovers the idea of a home."
Ms Battye first read Jane Eyre at 15 [...] "There was a time when I was reading it every year so I’ve clocked in at least a good nine or ten readings." (Amelia Short)
The New York Times features the fact that Jane Eyre is now compulsory reading for ninth graders in China.
Nearly two centuries after “Jane Eyre” first defied the conventions of Victorian England, China is requiring a new generation of teenagers to read her story.
The British classic has long been popular in China and was already recommended reading for schoolchildren. But this fall, ninth-grade students across the country are being required to read the novel in full, according to Chinese state media. One report in an official newspaper held it up as an anti-materialistic love story that young people could learn from.
The book, in which the young orphan Jane Eyre works as a governess in the household of the wealthy but elusive Mr. Rochester, is widely celebrated in China for its themes of independence and equality between women and men.
A Chinese translation appeared as early as 1925, and there have since been numerous translations and adaptations for stage and screen. A British film adaptation was shown in Chinese theaters in 1979, just a few years after the end of the Cultural Revolution, as China was reopening to foreign culture.
Ping Zhu, a literature professor at the University of California, San Diego, who researches Chinese feminism and literature, said the novel is compatible with the Chinese government’s vision of women’s equality — one that can coexist with traditional gender roles and the heterosexual nuclear family. Its inclusion in the ninth grade textbook comes as China struggles with population decline and the government encourages young people to marry and have children, she said.
“‘Jane Eyre’ is about an independent woman, but she’s not too outrageous in her challenge of patriarchal power,” Ms. Zhu said. By the end of the novel, Jane has married Mr. Rochester and had a child. “All these things are what the Chinese government wants the younger generation to do,” Ms. Zhu said.
Published in Britain in 1847, “Jane Eyre” was striking for its depiction of a poor young woman insisting on her independence, dignity and equality in a society in which women — particularly married women — had severely limited legal and economic autonomy.
The novel has long been celebrated in China for its feminist themes, with state media often quoting Jane’s declaration to Mr. Rochester: “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart!” (Yan Zhuang and Li You) (Read more)
Arts Professional has an article by creative director of Bradford 2025 Shanaz Gulzar on ' the courage it takes to build a lasting cultural legacy'.
The first two-thirds of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights features a region and its people stripped of confidence. But by the end, the fluttering moths on the quiet moors serve as a beautiful allegory for regional reclamation, as City of Culture did for Bradford. The imagination, creativity and ability to shapeshift is still here: it created the opportunity for industry and now creates a new culture-led renaissance. [...]
Brontë Parsonage Museum is an interesting example of cultural infrastructure development: a tiny house at the top of Haworth village, known across the world. The Brontë Society had a long-held ambition for a presence closer to the heart of Haworth. Buoyed by their growing confidence as partners of Bradford 2025, delivering capital projects such as Changing Places toilets, access ramps and a partnership with Pa Gya! literary festival in Ghana, they bought three buildings in late 2025. This provides a unique and much needed additional space for their archives, exhibitions and team members – a visionary example of ensuring investment is used to enable a substantial future impact for the village and organisation.  [...]
Emily Brontë uses the metaphor of physical foundations, comparing an unyielding, eternal love for Heathcliff to “the eternal rocks beneath”. The businesses, the cultural sector, the communities, the audiences – all have fed into and created this solid foundation. It’s essential to build on that and recognise the transformation that they bought into. Wuthering Heights is a blueprint for regional renaissance; even when a place looks empty, dark or aggressively stereotyped by the outside world, the real investment is the one the community makes in itself.
The garden takes its inspiration from the exposed landscapes of the Yorkshire uplands: dry-stone walls, moorland planting and the way plants and wildlife respond to sometimes unforgiving conditions. [...]
Mr Roberts, founder of Patterned Earth, a garden and landscape design practice in Netherton, said: “I wanted to take a little piece of the landscape I know and love in Yorkshire to Belvoir.
"The moors, dry-stone walls and plants that somehow thrive in quite unforgiving conditions have always fascinated me.
“Weathering Heights was a playful nod to Wuthering Heights, of course, but the ‘weathering’ was important too.
"The garden was really about how landscapes, plants and wildlife respond and adapt to the conditions around them.” (Steve Teale)
A contributor to Her Campus suggests Cathy Earnshaw as one of '15 Niche Pop Culture Reference Halloween Costumes'.
Catherine Earnshaw From Wuthering Heights
If you want a costume that is actually pretty and makes you look like you stepped directly out of a dramatic period film, Catherine Earnshaw is calling your name. Think flowing dresses, romantic hair, moody makeup, and enough Victorian drama to make everyone wonder whether you’re about to run across a windswept field screaming someone’s name. It’s especially fun if your friend dresses as Heathcliff. Just remember: the more dramatic your photos are, the better. A normal smiling selfie simply will not do. (Danielle Okogho)
Spanish writer Espido Freire writes about women writers for Artículo 14 (Spain).
Este pasado cuando, como todos los años, visité con mis viajeras de las rutas literarias que organizo Haworth, la casa de las hermanas Brontë estaba llena. Coincidía que un festival de literatura femenina se celebraba a escasos metros, en las instalaciones en las que Charlotte Brontë hubiera deseado abrir una escuela. Por eso o por el día soleado, había visitantes que se detenían ante la mesa de la cocina, la cama en la que murió su hermano Branwell, sus recuerdos, como si los objetos conservaran todavía una parte de la energía de quienes los tocaron; algunas lectoras se conocían de memoria episodios de Jane Eyre o de Cumbres borrascosas, (como siempre, Anne es la gran ausente en esta casa) y personas que habían viajado hasta Yorkshire porque querían ver dónde había vivido aquellas mujeres, dónde habían subido aquellas escaleras custodiadas por un reloj de abuelo y dónde habían escrito allí algunos de los libros que formna parte del patrimonio sentimental de generaciones enteras.
La posteridad puede ser muy generosa con las escritoras, aunque no sea más que para compensar con lo cruel de sus vidas. Lo sabemos todas, Charlotte, Emily y Anne Brontë publicaron primero como Currer, Ellis y Acton Bell, nombres ambiguos en un mundo que, si bien acababa por aceptarlas, si eran exitosas, desconfiaban de una mujer con ambición literaria. Dos siglos después, pagamos una entrada para visitar su casa, examinamos sus diminutos manuscritos, reconstruimos sus horarios y costumbres, admiramos su coraje, escogemos una preferida y convertimos en santuario aquello que, mientras ellas vivían, no eran sino cuatro paredes opresivas. (Translation)

Monday, September 28, 2026

Monday, September 28, 2026 7:32 am by Cristina in , , , ,    No comments
A couple of reviews of Sense and Sensibility 2026 mention previous adaptations of Wuthering Heights. From Film Focus Online:
Whereas other classic period literary works have been re-adapted and changed to either fit modern settings at the time (Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Bridget Jones’s Diary) or have the filmmaker’s own vision cast over the source material causing fan uproar (most recently with this year’s Wuthering Heights), this very much is a traditional period drama in the vein of the aforementioned Austen adaptations I mentioned up top. (Jack Ransom)
Two other movie adaptions are for me the clear template for this film. Firstly, 1999’s The Winslow Boy, a Terence Rattigan play adapted and directed by David Mamet of all people, which on the surface is about a miscarriage of justice against a schoolboy, but is actually about how his older sister chooses which of her three suitors to marry. In the USA it was also rated G, which remains possibly the most surprising thing Mr. Mamet has done in his career. The other is 2011’s Wuthering Heights, Andrea Arnold’s unhappy adaption of the famously melodramatic novel by Emily Brontë. Largely filmed outdoors, with a great feeling for the weather, it has a rawness and sense of danger that remains palpable fifteen years later. It’s clear that Ms. Oakley decided, possibly because of these two films, to push her heroines onto rocks and hillsides to make it as easy for us to connect to their raw emotion, and that those emotions would be expressed in language to which even the littlest ears can listen. (Sarah Manvel)
Elle also mentions Wuthering Heights 2026 when commenting last night's VMAs.
On the 2026 VMAs red carpet, things took a darker turn. A Victorian gothic flavour hit the carpet, with Charli XCX, in a midriff-baring bandeau and skirt ensemble by Saint Laurent, leading the charge.
Call it a hangover from Margot Robbie’s Wuthering Heights press tour looks, but outfits that took their cues from the neo-Victorian aesthetic peppered the carpet. Black and lace appeared in equal measure, as did sumptuous materials like velvet and a generally witchy vibe. (Noni Reginato)
Polygon recommends watching 1991’s Dark Shadows: The Revival.
A young woman embarks on an unexpected journey. Despite the excitement and possibilities of her future, there’s also fear. She boards a train that will take her to a new home atop a stormy cliff at the edge of the sea, a place defined by the fog and its history. She’s a governess, and she’ll be responsible for teaching and caring for a wealthy boy.
This premise might sound like it’s from a classic Gothic story like Jane Eyre or The Turn of the Screw. But it’s actually from 1991’s Dark Shadows: The Revival, an NBC series that distilled the long-running original Dark Shadows soap opera into a 12-episode melodrama. It’s the best way to enter the world created by horror icon Dan Curtis, and it’s streaming in full on YouTube. (Maria Loreto)
Folha Vitória (Brazil) features rebel girls from literature, including Jane Eyre. AnneBrontë.org features Francis Grundy's account of the last time he saw Branwell Brontë.

Sunday, September 27, 2026

Sunday, September 27, 2026 12:46 pm by M. in , , , , , ,    No comments
The book list of Rory Gilmore still appears in the news from time to time. Woman's World makes a list including:
‘Jane Eyre’ 
“How about some Charlotte Brontë?” It’s no secret that Rory is a big fan of Charlotte Brontë, as showcased in several episodes of the series, and one of her preferred books is Jane Eyre. Rory frequently mentions the author and the 1847 novel is the perfect comforting read for fall. The author is discussed in a Season 1 episode when Dean asks how he can repay her for bringing him cookies and she responds by asking him to read Brontë. While she doesn’t specifically mention Jane Eyre, it is later seen in the spinoff series, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life and it should be on your fall TBR (to be read list). (Julianne MacNeill)
The novel also appears in the Mental Floss list of Autumn reads:
Jane Eyre // Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë’s classic tale of romance, long-buried secrets, and one headstrong woman’s coming-of-age odyssey is steeped in both Gothic atmosphere and biting social commentary. It tells the story of a headstrong young woman’s journey from an orphanage to a governess post at Thornfield Hall, the domain of the mysterious Mr. Rochester. While the book has a reputation as a romance, in truth it is more of a dark look at the social expectations and struggles that characterized Victorian England. With its sprawling country houses, rainy weather, hidden rooms, and themes of growth, decay, and transformation, it’s a classic autumn read for a reason. (Eden Gordon)
Another Brontë novel is on the Autumn list of Clara (Spain):
Cumbres Borrascosas by Emily Brontë
Los protagonistas están unidos por un amor intenso y complicado que queda marcado por los celos, el orgullo, las diferencias sociales y el resentimiento, y cuando Catherine decide casarse con otro hombre, Heathcliff se marcha y, años después, regresa dispuesto a vengarse. 'Cumbres borrascosas' es un perfecto libro para leer este otoño. (Melissa González) (Translation)
The Indian Express mentions some dishes in English novels:
Seed Cake, Jane Eyre
In Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, a small seed cake and tea become a memorable moment of comfort for Jane during her difficult years at Lowood. The modest treat stands in contrast to the hunger and poor food associated with the school, making the simple act of sharing food especially meaningful. (Aanya Mehta)
For this writer in DailyWire, Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights is hard to forget:
Most of us have already (thankfully) forgotten about the BDSM atrocity that besieged us in February in the form of “Wuthering Heights,” and while Nolan’s “Odyssey” was a decent standalone film, it did little justice (at least in my view) to Homer’s original creation. (Liza Libes)
But for Vogue Spain is one of the films of the year:
 “Una historia de amor y venganza”, se anunció a finales de septiembre de 2024. Cumbres borrascosas es un clásico de la literatura, una de las obras maestras de Emily Brontë. Y eso puede ser bueno o no tanto, pues todos los ojos estarán puestos sobre una historia de sobra conocida por todos. ¿Y sobre qué trata esto? A saber: la tempestuosa Catherine Earnshaw y el vengativo Heathcliff viven un romance apasionado mientras conviven en un lugar conocido como el título de todo esto, Cumbres borrascosas. Y, bueno, en el libro ese amor nunca pasaba de una mera obsesión. Y hay a quien no le ha gustado nada esta película, pero otros la consideran una obra maestra. (Alberto Sisí Sánchez) (Translation)
The film is now on the Canal+ (France) catalogue. Télé-Loisirs reviews the film:
Avec Emerald Fennell, rien n’est sage ni subtil. Costumes majestueux, décors fantasmagoriques, brume, crachin et tempêtes sur la lande anglaise : le film impose une esthétique grandiloquente, parfois à la limite du grotesque. La réalisatrice insuffle à l’ensemble un ton très pop, étonnamment drôle par moments. Sensuel, excessif, filmé avec un point de vue féminin assumé, Hurlevent divisera forcément. Cette relecture courageuse et moderne conserve pourtant toute la violence du roman. Emily Brontë aurait adoré ! (Hélène Lisle) (Translation)

Elle (France) lists several alternative Wuthering Heights adaptations. 

Verbotene Liebe, Ausgrenzung, Rassismus – Emily Brontës Weltklassiker „Sturmhöhe“ steckt voller Themen von hoher Aktualität. Eindrucksvoll zeigt das Franz-Joseph Diekens Inszenierung am Altonaer Theater.
Im Zentrum steht die obsessive Liebe zwischen Catherine (Linda Stockfleth) und Heathcliff (Celio-Silvestre Tamele) – eine toxische Beziehung, zerstörerisch wie eine Naturgewalt. Obwohl Linda Stockfleth ihre unberechenbare Catherine allzu schrill und einförmig hysterisch anlegt, überzeugt das Zusammenspiel des Ensembles. (Brigitte Scholz) (Translation)
Maria Shriver's Sunday Paper features Fall, Leaves, Fall by Emily Brontë. The David Austin's Emily Brontë Rose makes an appearance in this Times article. The last episode of the Behind the Glass fourth season podcast is already available:
For the final episode of series 4, Sam and Mia are joined by historian, author and content creator Dr Rebecca Marks! Rebecca holds a Master's in Art History and a PhD in English Romantic Literature. She’s currently writing a book on Gothic art and literature with Penguin, which will be released at the end of 2027.
What came before Thornfield Hall and Wuthering Heights? We hope you're in the mood for ghosts and goblins as we dive into what makes a Gothic novel, writers who may have inspired the Brontës and why Patrick had the equivilent of movie posters on his wall...

Saturday, September 26, 2026

Saturday, September 26, 2026 10:23 am by Cristina in , , , , , ,    No comments
Liverpool Echo describes Haworth as 'The cosy autumnal village with cobbled streets, dark history and Halloween draw'.
Nestled within the Yorkshire countryside, Haworth was the former residence of the Brontë sisters: Charlotte, Emily and Anne, whose surrounding moorlands provided inspiration for Emily's novel Wuthering Heights. Their ancestral home has been converted into a museum, cementing Haworth's status as an essential stop for enthusiasts of English literature. (Christopher Megrath)
That use of ancestral deserves The Princess Bride's reply of 'You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means'.

Derbyshire Times also suggests an autumnal trip to Hathersage.
4. Hathersage
Hathersage has strong literary connections - having inspired Charlotte Brontë while she was writing Jane Eyre. The nearby North Lees Hall (pictured here) also became the main inspiration for Thornfield Hall. (Tom Hardwick)
BookTrib features The Water House by Nneoma Ike-Njoku.
Where did this book even come from? “The novel started out as my thesis during my MFA at Cornell,” the author explains. “I had this idea of a girl and her brother, this sibling relationship, which is at the heart of the novel. The dynamics of this family and the relationship between the siblings, and the roots of all of that, was also something I was interested in very early on. I read Jane Eyre for the first time in graduate school (late, I know!) and soon after that I read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, and I was mind-blown. The Gothic as a vehicle for the story of this family started to appeal to me early on, this picture of a house that’s no longer able to hold its secrets, and the novel grew from there.
“Jane Eyre and Rebecca both play with things that are revealed and the things that are kept hidden, both from the characters and from the reader. I was also very fascinated by black Gothic, with books like Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Octavia Butler’s Kindred, and a lot of Buchi Emecheta’s work, like Second Class Citizen, which plays with the idea of not just physical confinement but psychological confinement within systems. Add to that the burden of innocence on a character when human beings and circumstances conspire to paint you guilty or deprive you of a voice.” (Neil Nyren)
Cosmopolitan (Spain) highlights the fact that during an interview with Jack Edwards, Nicole Kidman mentioned reading the Brontës when growing up. 'Then I moved into the Brontës and all of the yearning', as she put it.

More pop culture: Business Insider reviews Taylor Swift's four new tracks and finds Brontë echoes in Patient Zero:
Swift subverts the classic "scorned woman" trope by recounting these wrongs, not with vengeful rage, but with calm, chilling clarity. "When the fever turns a dreamer into a pathetic ghost / If he's killing you, I see you, I was patient zero," she sings in the song's final lines.
She's like Bertha Mason in the attic, warning Jane Eyre of Mr. Rochester's evil, or Rebecca, hovering like a wraith over her murderous husband's estate; she's the woman who haunts the narrative long after she's gone. (Callie Ahlgrim)
Ici (France) has a 3-minute radio clip on Lilia Hassaine's JE. Geeks has a post on why Jane Eyre is a masterpiece.
1:47 am by M. in ,    No comments
A new production of  Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre adaptation opens today, September 26, in Colchester. Later, the production will be performed in Kingston, Newcastle, and Chester:
A Mercury Theatre Colchester, Rose Theatre & Storyhouse co-production, in association with Northern Stage and supported by a grant from The Royal Theatrical Support Trust
Jane Eyre
Adapted by Sally Cookson, Mike Akers and the original Company.
Directed by Lily Dible
With Oscar Adams, Gabriel Akuwudike 
Mercury Theatre, Colchester 
26 September to 10 October
Rose Theatre, Kigston upon Thames
13 October to 20 October
Northern Stage, Newcastle
3 to 7 November
Storyhouse, Chester
10 to 21 November

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me.”
One woman’s fight for a life that is worthy of her courage, and a love that is worthy of her heart.
Orphaned as a young girl, the passionate and sensitive Jane longs to escape the clutches of her cruel aunt.
Freedom beckons when she is offered the job of a governess in the house of the brooding and secretive Mr Rochester.
As intrigue turns to attraction, Jane finds herself drawn in by Rochester’s mercurial charm. But when the truth finally comes out, she will be forced to choose between the man she wants, and the woman she wants to be.
Nearly two centuries on, Charlotte Brontë’s groundbreaking story is as thrilling and relevant as ever in this bold production directed by 2025 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award-winner Lily Dyble, based on Sally Cookson, Mike Akers and the original company’s trailblazing adaptation.
1:02 am by M. in ,    No comments
The exhibition Paula Rego: Visions of Literature (containing the Jane Eyre suite of lithographs) comes to Rugby:
26 September - 21 November
Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, Little Elborow Street, Rugby, CV21 3BZ

Explore the extraordinary imagination of one of the great artists, printmakers and storytellers of our time. Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature will present three of the artist’s most ambitious series of graphic works; Jane Eyre, Nursery Rhymes and Peter Pan. Each series will be accompanied by a variety of personal items from the artist, many of which have never been publicly displayed before. Unseen preparatory sketches, etching plates and Rego’s very own childhood copy of Peter Pan will offer audiences an intimate portrayal of the artist’s lifelong fascination with literature and an insight into how the artist transformed this material into startlingly original, rebellious and unexpected images.

Friday, September 25, 2026

Friday, September 25, 2026 7:37 am by Cristina in , , , , , , ,    No comments
The Telegraph and Argus reports that the Old School Room in Haworth has just been given a 'facelift'.
The Old School Room in Haworth, whose original section was constructed in 1832 by the Rev. Patrick Brontë, has had five windows on its north-facing wall replaced as part of essential restoration work.
Averil Kenyon, chairman of The Brontë Spirit, the charity that maintains the building, said: "The south wall windows were replaced back in 2012, and it has taken us 14 years to raise sufficient funds to undertake the restoration of the north-facing windows.
"We’re delighted with the result because the new windows have been designed to match the style of the windows that were originally part of the building."
The project cost £24,000 and was supported by grants from the Bernard Sunley Foundation and The Pilgrim Trust. (Harry Williams)
Chester Nub News announces a stage adaptation of Jane Eyre to be performed at Storyhouse starting November 10.
A powerful new stage adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's classic Jane Eyre arrives at Storyhouse this autumn.
Directed by Lily Dyble, Jane Eyre will run at the Chester venue from Tuesday 10 November to Saturday 21 November. [...]
"Charlotte Brontë's revolutionary masterpiece Jane Eyre remains as potent today as it did when it was written in 1847, said Storyhouse creative director Suzie Henderson.
"This dynamic and imaginative new stage adaptation promises to present it in visceral and powerful fashion.
"I'm delighted to be able to reveal such an exciting cast of talented actors who are working with Lily Dyble in the rehearsal room to bring her thrilling storytelling vision to life for our audiences here at Chester."
The role of Jane will be played by Olivia Marcus, while Gabriel Akuwudike will appear as Edward Rochester. The cast also includes Oscar Adams, Aamira Challenger, Millie Faraway, Andrea Gatchalian, Kate Kordel, Robyn Rose-Li and Leo Wan.
Jane Eyre is a Storyhouse, Mercury Theatre Colchester, and Rose Theatre co-production, in association with Northern Stage, supported by a grant from the Royal Theatrical Support Trust (RTST).
The production is based on Sally Cookson, Mike Akers and the original company's acclaimed adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's groundbreaking novel.
Set designer is Anna Yates, costume designer is Khadija Raza, lighting design is by Lucia Sanches Roldan, and Joseff Harris is sound designer and composer. Movement director is Natasha Harrison, Fight director is Rachid Sabitri and intimacy director is Haruka Kuroda. Casting is by Helena Palmer. (Dherran Titherington)
Broadway World reports the cast of this production too.

For The Guardian, musicals seem to be a new thing. Reviewing a stage adaptation of Three Men in a Boat:
The 135-minute show is punctuated by eight musical numbers and, though it is now almost obligatory for classic literature to be sung and danced (the most recent victim Jane Eyre), this is a logical candidate. (Mark Lawson)
The fact that a theatre critic makes that comment and doesn't even know Jane Eyre. The Musical is new to London but not actually new (the first production in Toronto was exactly 30 years ago), so hardly 'most recent' shows quite a degree of ignorance. Many musicals have been written in 30 years.

The Standard reviews the new film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, reminding us of reviews of Joe Wright's take on Pride and Prejudice twenty years ago:
Things are moody and at times almost Brontë-esque thanks to Arnaud Potier’s autumnal cinematography and the rolling, rain-lashed hills. (Hannah Pettit)
El País (in Catalan) reviews the novel Mons on trobar-te by Berta Creus.
Aïllada al poble diminut de les muntanyes pirinenques on ella i en Sebastià van anar a raure, en bona part perquè era el lloc on vivia un amic comú —que a l’inici de la novel·la es converteix en la nova parella de la protagonista—, la Jara sembla una reencarnació del Heathcliff de Cims borrascosos (una de les citacions que encapçalen la novel·la és d’Emily Brontë), com si perseguint-lo i invocant-lo en tot moment tingués també la prerrogativa de fer-lo present: inquieta i nerviosa, el busca pels paisatges que recorrien o al riu on es banyaven, acariciant els guants de llana que li havia regalat, o en les tres ratlles horitzontals —“una de ben recta que separa el cel gris clar del mar gris fosc, i una de desdibuixada que separa el mar gris fosc del prat mig gris”— de la fotografia que hi ha penjada al menjador. (Ponç Puigdevall) (Translation)
Rissi Writes posts about Jane Eyre 2006. The Brussels Brontë Blog features Lilia Hassaine's JE.

Thursday, September 24, 2026

Thursday, September 24, 2026 8:16 am by Cristina in , , , ,    No comments
Today marks the 178th anniversary of the death of Branwell Brontë.

According to Deadline, the new microdrama of Wuthering Heights will 'Premiere at America’s First Microdrama Festival' in October.
Alza Festival, which is run by vets of Tribeca and TikTok, kicks off its first edition with a wealth of content from the buzzy new medium [...]
The same is the case for the vertical Wuthering Heights, set on a present-day American ranch, which premieres Sunday. (Max Goldbart)
The grudge against Emerald Fennell and her take on Wuthering Heights never dies. Reviewing the new adaptation of Sense and Sensibilty, Tatler says, 'Emerald Fennell, take note: Sense and Sensibility has a romanticism that Wuthering Heights might envy'.
Oakley’s film is beautiful, too, shot in a naturally diluted light reminiscent of Joe Wright’s 2005 Pride and Prejudice, with its soft skies and washed-out greens. In this respect, it feels more Brontë than Austen. Marianne does have a great deal of Cathy about her. There is a heightened romanticism here that Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights might well envy. (Dora Davies-Evitt)
University of Virginia Today wonders, 'Are women-authored novels having a moment?'
If Hollywood is the measure, classic novels written by women are all the rage. 
In the coming months, “House of the Dragon” actor Emma Corrin will star as Lizzie Bennet in a Netflix adaptation of  “Pride and Prejudice,” Daisy Edgar-Jones will headline a new “Sense and Sensibility” movie, and Aimee Lou Wood will play the titular character in a television adaptation of “Jane Eyre.” Earlier this year, director Emerald Fennell’s version of “Wuthering Heights” grossed more than $240 million at the box office. [...]
Austen, in particular, may be the most widely adapted writer in English after William Shakespeare. Though she and other authors like the Brontë sisters lived relatively short, geographically confined lives, their work has been reimagined across the world, from California to India.
“But their minds were so expansive,” [Cristina Richieri Griffin, an assistant professor in the English department at the University of Virginia] said. “I love the idea that their writing planted seeds that eventually sprang into work that didn’t exist for almost 200 years after they were writing their novels.” (Alice Berry)

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Wednesday, September 23, 2026 1:05 am by M. in , ,    No comments
A new production of  Anne Dudley's Jane Eyre musical adaptation opens today in Billingham, UK:
by Anne Dalton
Forum Theatre Billingham
23/09/2026 to 26/09/2026

Experience the passion, mystery and romance of Jane Eyre - The Musical, from award-winning writer Anne Dalton, creator of the internationally acclaimed Her Benny — winner of the International Quest for New Musicals. 
Starring Janet Cowley (The Phantom of the Opera), alongside Peter Brindle (A Christmas Carol), Elena Porter, Megan Hughes and Peter Chapman (Joseph), this sweeping new production brings Charlotte Brontë’s beloved classic thrillingly to life. 
 New to the story or a lifelong fan? Be transported through eerie Yorkshire mists, haunting secrets and soaring emotion in this powerful Gothic musical filled with unforgettable songs, sparkling dialogue and breathtaking drama.
Follow Jane from her difficult childhood to the grandeur of Thornfield Hall, where she meets the darkly charismatic Mr Rochester — a man hiding a devastating secret. Intelligent, independent and fiercely determined, Jane proves more than a match for her brooding employer.
Will love conquer the shadows of the past? 
 Laugh, cry and be swept away by this truly magical theatrical experience.

Tuesday, September 22, 2026

In The Telegraph and Argus, Brontë Parsonage Museum director, Rebecca Yorke, discusses the proposed West Yorkshire tourism levy.
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, said: "We have not consulted our local accommodation partners or our visitors about the possible introduction of an overnight visitor levy, but understand why there might be concerns.
"The current economic climate continues to put pressure on the budgets of businesses and visitors alike and many tourist destinations have already been impacted by increased costs, e.g. the price of fuel and car parking charges."
She stressed the need for transparency if a levy is introduced.
Ms Yorke said: "While the introduction of a tourism levy will bring us in line with many European destinations, we believe it's important that its purpose is clearly communicated and articulates how the income generated by it will be used." (Amelia Short)
Awards Watch reviews the new film adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility while reminding readers of the fact that:
Just this year, Emerald Fennell crafted her own spin on Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” and Christopher Nolan struck box office gold with his version of “The Odyssey,” proving there is always new material to mine, even if it makes literary purists uneasy. (Sophia Ciminello)
Southern Living lists '23 Books To Read When You Want To Cozy Up On A Rainy Day' including
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
A gothic story of longing set between two neighboring estates in a bleak northern England setting, Wuthering Heights follows multiple generations of love stories between destructive characters and passionate romantic tangles. Obsessive love, social class, and even a few ghostly hauntings come into play in this page-turner that feels like one endless rainy day. (Arabella Hau)
Vanguardia (Mexico) also includes Wuthering Heights on an autumn reading list.

Stroud Times recommends going to see the local production of Underdog. The Other Other Brontë Sister. A contributor to Kumparan discusses 'Why Jane [Eyre] Chooses Self-Respect Over a Comfortable Life'.

Finally, the podcast The Book Club discusses Jane Eyre:
The Real Love Story Behind Jane Eyre Was Much Darker 
Join Dominic Sandbrook and Tabitha Syrett as they delve into the fascinating story behind the writing of Jane Eyre, the world it was born of, and the novel itself.

Monday, September 21, 2026

Monday, September 21, 2026 7:10 am by Cristina in , , , ,    No comments
A reviewer from NTDaily compares Practical Magic 2 unfavourably with respect to Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights.
It is not that every film needs a blockbuster budget to justify its worth, but other mid-budget films released this year, such as “Wuthering Heights" or even “The Sheep Detectives,” do not have these same visual problems. This is despite both films having comparable budgets and similar amounts of CGI to “Practical Magic 2.” (Riley Morgan)
A contributor to The Conversation mentions Wide Sargasso Sea in an article about The Other Bennet Sister and new perspectives in reading classic novels. Librotea (in Spanish) lists Jane Eyre among other books in which love wins. Autumn poems on AnneBrontë.org.

Sunday, September 20, 2026

Sunday, September 20, 2026 10:54 am by Cristina in , , , ,    No comments
A columnist from Stylist says she grew up 
studying Jane Eyre in school and being drawn to characters who are always unapologetic and tenacious, some characters come into your life to teach you lessons – that you should take up more space or challenge the rules a little. (Harriet Curzon)
A contributor to Norfolk Daily News writes about The Professor.
Many critics cite Brontë’s noticeable personal prejudices throughout the story as well as a plot lacking intensity and depth as reasons to consider this the lesser of her four novels. They may be right on one level, but others note that Brontë cleverly used a male narrator to point out and address areas in which women weren’t treated as they should have been, most noticeably in the workforce and in terms of their pay.
Whether you see the story’s flaws or prefer to see its good points, “The Professor” deserves a read by anyone wanting another glimpse into the mind of the woman who gave us “Jane Eyre.” (Tammy Marshall)
HuffPost highlights the fact that Ella Bruccoleri hadn't read any Jane Austen prior to playing Mary Bennet in The Other Bennet Sister.
“It’s mad, isn’t it? But I’m from North Yorkshire, and I just thought Jane Austen wasn’t a writer for me. She was more for posh southern people. I used to read loads of Brontë because that was the world I was from,” the actor said. (Amy Glover)
For some reason, Hartford Courant has parents describe their kids as if they were books.
“Like a great character in a romance novel, Evelyn plays a leading role in life. Her fierce independence, passion for life, and intense love for family makes her a modern Jane Eyre.” (Chris John Amorosino)

The Brontë Sisters UK explores her personal collection of Wuthering Heights editions.

3:16 am by M. in ,    No comments
A new Brontë-related paper:
Afuh Didachos Mbeng, Department of Official Languages and Translation, University of Ebolowa
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, RSIS International, vol. 10(3), pages 8159-8167, March 2026

This article discusses female education and punishment in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and Buchi Emecheta's Second-Class Citizen, and considers the novelists as writers who do not only advocate for the education and empowerment of the woman, particularly the girl child but also shed light on the societal punishments and limitations imposed on them. In other words, the article shows that both authors emphasize the significance of education in empowering girls and promoting personal growth while critiquing societal restrictions and punishments that girls who desire education face. To both novelists, limited access to education for the girl child, patriarchal oppression and social stigma which characterize(d) Victorian and the post independent African societies serve as containments that attempt to suppress potentially subversive feminist narratives. Using new historicist approach, and drawing from Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punishent, and his observations on the nature and purpose of punishment to show both novelists' destabilization of class and gender hierarchies, the work offers insights into the contentious relationship between British fin de siècle and postcolonial African societies on the one hand, and the education of the girl child on the other hand, thereby questioning the authenticity and representation of society as a disciplinary unit, leading to the conclusion that Brontë and Emeheta harbor a social and cultural agenda with focus on female education. 
And this chapter:
Doppeltes Übersetzen. Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffers Theaterstück ›Die Waise aus Lowood‹ (1853) und Charlotte Brontës Roman ›Jane Eyre‹ (1847) (Double Translation. Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer's Play 'The Orphan of Lowood' (1853) and Charlotte Brontë's Novel 'Jane Eyre' (1847))
by Dr. Felix Lempp (Institute for Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Bern)

from this recently published book:
Broterwerb, Alltagsgeschäft, künstlerische Praxis: Studien zu Übersetzerinnen aus der Sammlung Varnhagen (Breadwinning, Daily Business, Artistic Practice: Studies on Women Translators from the Varnhagen Collection)
Edited by Jadwiga Kita-Huber and Frederike Middelhoff
Brill Verlag
ISBN 978-3-7705-7089-8
September 2026
 
Der Band widmet sich bislang unerschlossenen oder kaum erforschten Übersetzungen von Frauen, die mit einem der größten Handschriftenarchive Europas – der in Krakau (Jagiellonen-Bibliothek) aufbewahrten Sammlung Varnhagen – in Verbindung stehen. Für Akteurinnen wie Rosa Maria Assing, Sarah Austin, Helmina von Chézy, Caroline de Crespigny, Ottilie von Goethe oder Henriette Schubart bedeutete das Übersetzen nicht allein eine finanzielle Einnahmequelle. Vielmehr war es im Spannungsfeld von künstlerischem Selbstausdruck, dem Verlangen zur Mitgestaltung ästhetischer Geschmacksbildung und alltäglichen Formen schriftlicher, oftmals mehrsprachiger Kommunikation verortet. Die Beiträge nehmen die Schriften der Übersetzerinnen und ihre aus der Sammlung Varnhagen ersichtliche Vernetzung zum Anlass, die vielfältigen Praktiken des Übersetzens zu differenzieren und sowohl die ästhetischen Strategien als auch die kulturpolitischen Maximen der Übersetzerinnen zu ermitteln.