BrontëBlog

Emily Brontë's poems in Catalan

2012-05-27T00:45:00.001+02:00

A bilingual (Catalan-English) edition of a selection of Emily Brontë's poems has just been published. The publishers announce an upcoming Spanish translation too:

L'hora atroç
Poemes d'Emily Brontë
Translated by Robert Langarita
Editorial Pendragón

Presentem un recull dels poemes d’Emily Brontë en edició bilingüe perquè el lector pugui gaudir de la musicalitat dels versos originals. La selecció ha estat feta amb la intenció última que el lector conegui millor i de manera còmoda l’autora de Cims borrascosos i el germen d’una tal obra mestra; ella, la seva personalitat i el seu geni són el nostre màxim interès
Rescatem especialment els poemes que han fet d’Emily Brontë l’autora gòtica que continua inspirant i atraientnos per la seva foscor, el seu hermetisme i la seva reserva. I no només pel recurrent tema de la mort, sinó també per la inquietant experiència que té per primera vegada amb dinou anys, que s’anirà repetint fins gairebé la seva mort i que esdevindrà el fet més transcendent de la seva vida: les visites del seu àngel radiant.

A brief comment can be read on El Mundo (via the publishers' Facebook) where you can also find some very nice pictures of the book's release on Sant Jordi 2012.

Gardens and Bluebells

2012-05-26T19:00:00.000+02:00

The Royal Horticultural Society remember how

The Brontës’ Yorkshire garden is the 2012 RHS People's Choice for small gardens - chosen from the Fresh, Artisan and Generation garden categories.

Horticultural Week also mentions the Brontës' garden, designed by Tracy Foster and Rebecca Chesney from the Brontë Weather Project has visited it. Welcome to Yorkshire has pictures of the garden and the winners.

The Times talks about female writers to coincide with the Orange Prize:

Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell sometimes stayed in each other’s homes, but they were more acquaintances than friends (Emily Midorikawaand Emma Sweeney)

Let's not abandon flowers, The Telegraph has an article about the most English of wild flowers, the bluebell:

For its fleeting appearance is part of the bluebell’s magic. Like spring itself, it never lasts long. There is a sad joy about it which is, no doubt, why it so appealed to the Brontë sisters.
Anne — on her way to York to become a governess — was characteristically gloomy until she “looked upon a bank” and her “wandering glances fell upon a little trembling flower, a single sweet bluebell”. The sight cheered her up no end, which — bearing in mind Anne Brontë’s character — was a wonderful achievement in itself.

The Austin Chronicle lists Now Now Oh Now in its theatre section:

They used to call it CL1000P, but now the Rude Mechs have transformed those earlier workshops into their newest multivalenced spectacle. This full production – inspired by evolutionary biology, the Brontës, and Live Action Role Playing communities – weaves together "a locked room puzzle, a lecture on sexual selection in evolutionary biology, and the world's weirdest night of Dungeons and Dragons."

The Guardian talks about the Stanza Stones project in West Yorkshire:

The contrast always seems so severe. You start down in the valley: it's steep-sided and dark, choked with lines of sooty stone houses that press up against the canal, the road and the river. Then you blast up through some woods and emerge in outer space, a place filled with light, cloud and long views. No wonder West Yorkshire has been jangling the literary nerve for generations, squeezing prose and poetry from residents pent up in the valley but with a yearning for the hills. Now I'd come out with friend and part-time poet Peter Finch, who lives locally, to find a few verses that had escaped up on to the moors, words written by Simon Armitage that have been inscribed on six rocks across a 47-mile route that snakes through the territories of Ted Hughes and the Brontës.

Counterpunch reviews The Last Warner Woman by Kei Miller:

The narration skips back and forth in time (beginning in the 1940s and ending, roughly, forty years later) and introduces the narrator known as The Writer Man. He collects the stories of Adamine, her mother, and numerous other characters, including several in Britain after Adamine has agreed to become the wife of a Jamaican who has recently lost his wife. But well before we hear of that marriage we learn that Adamine has been placed in a mental institution in Britain, a horrifying mirroring of her mother’s own situation in the leprosarium, a generation earlier. Milton Dehaney, the husband, has had her incarcerated because she talks back to him. Shades of Jane Eyre, which has already been glossed earlier in the story. Miss Lilly, one of the lepers, read and re-read Charlotte Brontë’s novel obsessively. The book couldn’t be taken away from her. (Charles R. Larson)

Salon wonders whether the Harry Potter or Twilight sagas are serious enough to enter scholar studies:

“Twilight,” which I suspect will have an even greater impact on America’s book culture because of the fan networks it has inspired, is doubly damned as unserious because it’s not only “for children” (that is, teenagers), but it’s also a romance, surely the most reflexively disdained of all literary genres. Throughout the early 19th century, all novels were seen in more or less this light: as fanciful stories read by silly women seeking escape from sterner truths, women all too prone to absorbing dangerously misguided notions of life and love. (For the record, I tend to agree with the later opinion, but that doesn’t mean I think “Wuthering Heights” beneath scholar interest.) As recently as the 1930s, it was controversial for any novel at all to be assigned to students at Oxford. Novels were regarded as recreational reading, not matter for significant study. (Laura Miller)

The Huffington Post has an article about the decline and failure of male role models for young boys:

Schools too, are increasingly becoming a place where men aren't present either as mentors or role models. According to the National Education Association the number of male teachers is approaching a 40-year low. With reading assignments with heroines, like Wuthering Heights, and the removal of recess and hands-on learning, it's becoming difficult for boys to find any subject in school that's interesting to them or that stimulates their imaginations. (Dr. Philip Zimbardo & Nikita Duncan)

We rather think that Wuthering Heights is not exactly a good example of a heroine-like book.

The National Business Review (New Zealand) publishes an article about E L James Fifty Shades of Grey:

Mr Grey descends from a long line of damaged heroes with lots of money who have set feminine hearts aflutter since the 1800s.
Remember Heathcliff (who wasn't very fanciable until he went off and made a fortune), Mr Rochester, from Jane Eyre , Max de Winter at Mandalay and, of course, the incomparable Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind.
In these books sex was alluded to, but not explicated. In these less imaginative times there is a need out there for well written literature that includes lots of great sex. (Lorraine Craighead)

The Wichita Falls Times Record reviews the film The Woman in Black:

The British moors are scary.
Case in point: "An American Werewolf in London," in which a werewolf attacks two American college students who fail to heed the warnings of the pub locals to not hike through the moors at night.
Second case in point: "Wuthering Heights" and multiple sightings of Cathy's ghost — yes, again on the British moors.
And then there's "The Hound of the Baskervilles." (Lana Sweeten-Shults)

Psychology Today begins an article with an Emily Brontë quote:

If I could I would always work in silence and obscurity, and let my efforts be known by their results - Emily Brontë. (Christopher Peterson)

Nonfiction (France) comments on a new edition of Virginia Woolf's works in French and begins the article like this:

“Laissés dans le train, oubliés dans un meuble, feuilletés, déchirés et finissant en lambeaux, les anciens volumes ont fait leur temps, et pour les nouveaux arrivants dans leurs nouvelles demeures se préparent de nouvelles éditions, prélude à de nouvelles lectures et à de nouveaux amis” . C’est par ces mots que Virginia Woolf accueillait les rééditions de Jane Austen, des sœurs Brontë et de George Meredith en 1922.

L'étrange bibliothèque de Calenwen (in French) and Integrated Skills post about Wuthering Heights; Victorian 9322 uploads two video tutorials of a Charlotte Brontë-inspired make-up and hair; the Bydgoszcz Gazeta (in Polish) talks about Wuthering Heights 2011.

John Williams's Jane Eyre re-issued

2012-05-26T01:37:00.001+02:00

La La Land Records releases of a limited edition of a remastered edition of the Jane Eyre 1970 soundtrack by John Williams:

Jane Eyre: Limited Edition

Limited Edition of 2000 Units

La-La Land Records and Capitol Records presents a remastered re-issue of acclaimed composer John Williams' (War Horse, Schindler's List, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Jaws) original score to the 1971 feature film period drama Jane Eyre, starring George C. Scott and Susannah York, and directed by Delbert Mann. Considered by many to be one of Williams' finest scores, this re-issue was remastered by Doug Schwartz from the 1/4" 2 track stereo album masters housed in the Capitol/EMI vaults. Sadly, the complete, recorded score has been lost to the ages, but this re-issue sounds better-than-ever and features stunning art design by Jim Titus and exclusive, in-depth liner notes by Williams historian Jeff Eldridge (the original LP liners are included as well). Produced by Lukas Kendall, this special re-issue is limited to 2000 units.

Track Listing:
Love Theme from Jane Eyre 3:15

Overture (Main Title) 3:55

Lowood 2:25

To Thornfield 1:51

Festivity at Thornfield 2:08

Grace Poole and Mason's Arrival 3:00

Meeting 3:07

Thwarted Wedding 2:37

Across the Moors 2:37

Restoration 3:56

Reunion (End Title) 4:22
Total Album Time: 33:42

More information on the NY Film Music Examiner.

Redolent of the Brontës

2012-05-25T08:24:00.002+02:00

The Telegraph wonders whether 'we read too much into writers' houses'.

These, and perhaps one of the most famous of all pilgrimage sites, the Brontë house in Haworth, are redolent of the figures they commemorate. (Philip Hensher)

While Flavorwire considers Wuthering Heights one of '10 Epidemically Overrated Books' (her loss):

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
Why is this book considered one of the most classic romances of all time? All of the characters are despicable and cruel to one another, the plot is awkwardly structured, and it’s all very boring and depressing, if you ask us. We realize that at the time of its writing, the book was groundbreaking, and we certainly thank the Brontë sisters for their contribution to women being recognized as great authors, but seriously, it’s 165 years later, so why are we all still reading this book? (Emily Temple)

We and all the readers of this blog are the anwer to the question.

A reader of the Batley and Birstall News looks at the anniversaries celebrated in 2012, such as

In the Spen Valley we have celebrated the Luddite rising of 200 years ago which resulted in the attack on Rawfolds Mill. [...]
December 29 sees the 200th anniversary of the marriage of Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell. This was at a time when Patrick was minister at Hartshead Church. (John Appleyard)

Agnes Grey is reviewed by Dee's Book Blog and Crónicas en ferrocarril. Swiat Rosemary posts in Polish about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Book to the Future writes about Wuthering Heights while Ma Petite Critique Ciné posts briefly in French about the 2011 adaptation. Angela Dissected focuses mainly on the Jane Eyre 2011 costumes.

BrontëBlog Readers to the rescue

2012-05-25T01:05:00.000+02:00

A BrontëBlog reader, Sabrina Sepp, is working on her dissertation From literary societies to fan culture and she has written to inquire whether our (other) readers would be so kind as to fill in this form for her.
Your help and time will be much appreciated - thanks in advance for helping a fellow Brontë fan.

Really chuffed

2012-05-24T08:22:00.001+02:00

Yorkshire is still thrilled about the gold medal awarded Tracy Forster's Brontës' Yorkshire Garden. From The Telegraph and Argus:

Yorkshire’s Brontë Garden has won a gold medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The garden, created by tourist agency Welcome to Yorkshire, celebrates the three Brontë sisters born in Thornton who went to live at Haworth parsonage, and the Yorkshire landscape which they found so inspiring.
Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “The garden has had a non-stop stream of admirers since the Chelsea Flower Show opened, but this was the ultimate goal, taking gold back to Yorkshire. This is the third time we’ve entered and we’re delighted to be going home with a gold medal for the first time. We hope to convert thousands of well-wishers into tourists over the course of the week.”

And The Huddersfield Daily Examiner features 'the drystone wallers involved in creating part' of the garden.

Mr Clegg and his son were approached by Tracy Foster many months ago and did their research into the Brontës.
Mr Clegg said: “I walked to Top Withens to get a feel for the place and studied the stones used in the walls up there.
“I managed to get similar stone from a disused Victorian quarry and we shaped it by hand for the garden, creating a folly at the back of a small dell which apparently inspired the sisters.
“We spent six days working at Chelsea and it was brilliant. It was very focussed and very intense, but people were really helpful and friendly, helping out with tools and equipment.
“It was a great atmosphere and when I heard the news we had won gold, it was brilliant and I was really chuffed”.

The garden can also be seen on InnSight TV.

The Argus-Press features a young writer:

Like many young women, 18-year-old Jane Mandley loves the romantic 19th century novels of Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë.
What sets Mandley apart is that she has actually penned a romantic 19th century novel of her own: “For the Jane Bennets.” (Sally York)

A Thing Like That! discusses Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights. Seçil Seçti writes in Turkish about Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre. And finally, Magnolie reviews (in Polish) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

The Ghost of Eyre or Jane Canterville

2012-05-24T00:02:00.000+02:00

Another high school production of Jane Eyre (in a 85 minutes version by Thomas Hischack, which we don't know about) opens today in New Hall, CA:

Jane Eyre and The Ghost of Canterville HallMay 24, 2012
Placerita Junior High School, Tanner Hall, 7:00 PM
25015 New Hall Ave.
New Hall , CA , 91321 US

Gold medal for the Brontës' Yorkshire Garden

2012-05-23T10:01:00.000+02:00

Picture source

Good news: Tracy Forster's the Brontës' Yorkshire Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show has won a gold medal. As reported by the BBC News:

A garden which recreates the West Yorkshire landscape that inspired the Brontë sisters has won gold at the Chelsea Flower Show.
The Brontes' Yorkshire Garden by Welcome to Yorkshire features elements of the moorland characteristic of the Pennine Moors which surrounded them.
Designer Tracy Foster said it aimed to convey the emotional essence of the place that inspired the sisters.
[...]
The Brontë garden is based on a particular location often visited by the sisters, where a bridge now known as the Brontë Bridge crosses a moorland stream.
This is now a popular tourist destination, being located on the path to the location widely believed to be a key setting for Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.
Gary Verity, chief executive of Leeds-based Welcome to Yorkshire, said: "The Brontës' Yorkshire Garden will showcase to the world the wild and wonderful landscape of Yorkshire as a source of inspiration for some of the finest literary works of fiction.
"We hope it will encourage more people to rediscover this area of Yorkshire for themselves as well as seeing more of our county's wonderful gardens."

The Guardian's Northerner Blog has an article about it too:

But this year the Yorkshire garden at Chelsea has finally achieved its ambition, and been awarded a Royal Horticultural Society gold medal.
That's what the biggest and brashest of England's counties naturally expects; (actually – interesting fact - historic Yorkshire also contains England's second-biggest county: the West Riding on its own beats Devon, Lincolnshire and other such rivals). But the organisers made the mistake of not enlisting the magical powers of the Mighty Sisters until now. [...]
But at last, this year, Charlotte, Emily and Brontë appeared in a dream to Gary Verity, the chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire which organises the garden, and said: "Daft ha'porth. It's us you need."
So it has proved. The massive metropolitan cliché mill grinds out unswerving descriptions of the sisters and their moors as wuthering and howling, but we who live here know better. Charlotte herself wrote of Emily after her death and how:
There is not a knoll of heather, not a branch of fern, not a young bilberry leaf, not a fluttering lark or linnet, but reminds me of her
And Emily carolled in one of her perhaps less original poems:
May flowers are opening
And leaves unfolding free
There are bees in every blossom
And birds in every tree.
Anyway, Verity arose and his staff carried out the ghostly instructions, recreating the 'Brontë bridge' which crosses the Brontë beck by the Brontë waterfalls on the way to Top Withens (aka Wuthering Heights) above the sisters' home village of Haworth. They also crammed in a goodly stock of plants, making the composition more garden than artificial construction. [...]
Tracy Foster, the garden's designer from Leeds, worked closely with the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth throughout the project, describes how the garden tried to source materials from nearby, including boulders from Dove Stones moor:
The stone is beautiful. We have deliberately not cleaned it so it has aged naturally and it is of the period when the girls would have been walking around the Yorkshire Moors and writing their novels. The stone still has its original lichens and mosses attached which look just perfect in the garden and really give a sense of the beauty and bleakness that epitomise the wonderful moorland landscape.
She is properly over the moon, deservedly:
My first Chelsea and I get gold, it doesn't get much better than this! I'm so proud of what we have achieved. I hope the high profile medal inspires more people to come to Yorkshire to see for themselves the landscape that brought gold to the garden. (Martin Wainwright)

The news is also reported by ITV News (with a video clip), the Harrogate News and The Times.

The New Zealand Herald reviews John Irving's In One Person:

[Billy] reads omnivorously, starting as a 13-year-old with Fielding and the Brontës. (David Hill)

And Vanity Fair Daily quotes Jane Lynch (of Glee fame) on her own perfume:

“Because I play Sue Sylvester on Glee, I think people must think I smell like a boys’ locker room. And I would have loved to make that fragrance, but unfortunately Kim Kardashian owns the copyright.” Lynch also has ideas about what to call it, and the packaging. “How about Coach, by Jane Lynch. I’m Not Ellen, by Jane Lynch. Or my favorite, with a literary bent: Jane Eyre. And I don’t want one of those fancy bottles made of butterflies and ribbons. I want my fragrance in a Pez dispenser. Push back my head and the fragrance sprays out.” (Bennett Marcus)

The Telegraph publishes the obituary of Malcolm Fraser:

From the mid-1980s, Fraser was a regular visitor to the United States as a guest director — notably of the world premiere of Bernard Hermann’s Wuthering Heights for Portland Opera in Oregon.

Serendipia posts about Wuthering Heights in Spanish while Wintercrosspubs shares a recreation of Top Withins. Ingenious Art reviews Jane Eyre. Deslecturas writes in Spanish about both novels. Cazando estrellas posts in Spanish about Jane Eyre 2011 and Novellarella writes about Jane Slayre. My Favourite Things and More writes about Sarah Freeman's Brontë in love. Dyskusyjne Kluby Książki na Dolnym Śląsku writes in Polish about a recent discussion about the Brontë sisters.

Voldemort, Cedric and Heathcliff

2012-05-23T00:02:00.000+02:00

A (very) funny book with some weird Brontë mentions:

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops
by Jen Campbell
Constable Publishers
Hardback
B format, 128 pp
Published 26th Mar 2012
ISBN: 9781780334837>

From the hugely popular blog, a miscellany of hilarious and peculiar bookshop moments. 'Can books conduct electricity?'
'My children are just climbing your bookshelves: that's ok... isn't it?'
A John Cleese Twitter question ['What is your pet peeve?'], first sparked the 'Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops' blog, which grew over three years into one bookseller's collection of ridiculous conversations on the shop floor. From 'Did Beatrix Potter ever write a book about dinosaurs?' to the hunt for a paperback which could forecast the next year's weather; and from 'I've forgotten my glasses, please read me the first chapter' to 'Excuse me... is this book edible?'
This full-length collection illustrated by the Brothers McLeod also includes top 'Weird Things' from bookshops around the world.

The very cover contains a Jane Eyre joke, but it is not the only Brontë one. The Wuthering Heights story is truly memorable:

Customer: Do you have a copy of Bella Swan's favourite book? You know, from Twilight?
(Bookseller sighs and apulls a copy of Wuthering Heights off the shelf)
Customer: Do you have the one with the cover that looks like Twilight?
Bookseller: No. This is an antiquarian bookshop, so this is an old edition of the book.
Customer: But it's still the one with that girl Cathy and the dangerous guy, right?
Bookseller: Yes, it's still the story by Emily Brontë.
Customer: Right. Do you think they'll make it into a film?
Bookseller: They've made several films of it. The one where Ralph Fiennes plays Heathcliff is very good.
Customer: What? Voldemort plays Heathcliff?
Bookseller: Well...
Customer: But that's Edward's role.
Bookseller: Wuthering Heights was written well before both Harry Potter and Twilight.
Customer: Yeah, but Voldemort killed Cedric, who's played by Robert Pattinson, and now Voldemort's playing Edward's role in Wuthering Heights, because Edward's character is Heathcliff. I think that Emily Brontë's trying to say someting about vampires.
Bookseller: .... that's 8 pounds.
Customer: For what?
Bookseller: For the book.
Customer: Oh, no, it's OK. I'm going to go and try and find the Voldemort DVD version.

A place 'laike' Yorkshire

2012-05-22T08:57:00.001+02:00

BBC News has a clip showing the Chelsea Flower Show, including Tracy Foster's The Brontës' Yorkshire Garden. And The Telegraph (with a slideshow here) mentions it too:

There are some extraordinary exhibits in the Artisan gardens category. The Satoyama Life garden is a peaceful space which underlines the importance of co-existing with nature in modern times. Adam Woolcott and Jonathan Smith's garden is inspired by the Dorset countryside immortalised by Thomas Hardy in Far From the Madding Crowd. Tracy Foster's Brontës’ Yorkshire Garden celebrates the rugged but beautiful Yorkshire landscape which inspired the famous Brontë sisters. (Lucy Jones, Louise Gray and Ed Cumming)

Perhaps people like this columnist from the Otago Daily Times with her preconceived idea of Yorkshire would do well to visit it if they can't go to the real thing.

In 25 years, Jessie Winn, who lived at the end of my street in Dunedin, has never been back to Yorkshire - but she never lets you forget it.
"Oh it were a gran' place, Yorkshire," she says at least once in every conversation.
Or "well yer miss it don' yer, a place laike Yorkshire?"
All I had in my mind's eye was a large batter pudding with the Brontë sisters hovering somewhere in the background and James Herriot delivering steamy calves in mucky barns.
And then I visited Jessie's gran' place and she is right. (Jill Malcolm)

The New Yorker's Page-Turner discusses literary fame:

Herein lies another lesson: the road to literary redemption can be long. Witness the fascinating trajectories of Charlotte and Emily Brontë. Charlotte has always been, as Tom Winnifrith notes in “The Yearbook of English Studies,” “everywhere,” while Emily was more or less “nowhere.” He attributes this not only to the critical reception of their respective novels at the time, but to the fact that “Charlotte was more famous, had lived longer, had written more novels, and had more friends to supply detailed information about her life.” To return to my high-school analogy, Charlotte was the popular one, Emily the retiring wallflower; but, as with John Hughes films, it’s the weirder ones who ultimately prove more compelling. And while different critics with different motives have vacillated between the two over the years, using Google’s Ngram as a proxy shows Charlotte to be much “spikier,” while Emily has had a long, quiet ascent—indeed, in the nineteen-sixties, as critics like D. Crompton and Q. D. Leavis were championing “Wuthering Heights,” they nearly drew “even.” (Tom Vanderbilt)

And the Scotsman mourns the fact that Scotland's favourite novel seems to be The Da Vinci Code (!).

There is, however, no place on the list for any Scottish novels, with English classics including Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and Great Expectations helping make up the top ten. (Chris Marshall)

Pinay Traveller has been to Brontë Country.

The Brontës' Yorkshire Garden by Tracy Foster

2012-05-22T00:13:00.001+02:00

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show opens today May 22 and finally the The Brontës' Yorkshire Garden can be visited for just four days:

The Brontës’ Yorkshire Garden
Sponsored by Welcome to Yorkshire
Designed by
Tracy Foster
Built by Aire Valley Landscapes
The Brontës’ Yorkshire Garden by Welcome to Yorkshire brings the Yorkshire landscape which inspired the famous sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
This year is the 165th anniversary of the publication of some of their most famous works: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey. The garden is based on a location the sisters used to visit to discuss their ideas and writing, which has become a popular tourist destination, as it is located on the path to the spot widely believed to be a setting for Wuthering Heights, Top Withens. The garden features a stream, a clapper bridge and elements of the landscape that are characteristic of the wild and windswept Pennine Moors.

Spitfire personality

2012-05-21T08:46:00.001+02:00

NY City Guide Examiner points to a great opportunity of getting tickets for Brontë. A Portrait of Charlotte for free:

Goldstar.com, the popular discount website is offering members (free to join on the Goldstar.com site) complimentary tickets to Brontë: A Portrait of Charlotte beginning May 24, 2012. The Ars Nova Building (511 West 54th Street) is hosting William Luce’s Tony Award-winning play.
The one-woman show stars Irish actress Maxine Linehan who captures Charlotte Brontë's unfailing sense of humor, spirit and resilience despite being raised in the repressive Victorian era. Theater and book aficionados will delight in Linehan’s portrayal as the star brings to life Brontë's courage and spitfire personality.
This summer head off Broadway and see the show that the LA Times has proclaimed as “an immaculate work of theater” and Variety calls “engrossing and entertaining.”
Come meet the real author of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights as the Alloy Theater Company’s thought-provoking period piece will leave you with a deeper understanding of the strength and determination Charlotte Brontë displayed. (Amy Carothers)

If not for free, remember that BrontëBlog readers do have a discount.

Book Snob posts about Brontë Country. O Falcão de Jade posts in Portuguese about Emily Brontë and her novel while Petit Corbeau posts briefly about Wuthering Heights in French. New Movies Review posts about Jane Eyre 2011 and Tanya Marriott has created a couple of highly original dolls of Jane and Mr Rochester. Once upon a time writes in Polish about Shirley.

Heathcliff Roses

2012-05-21T00:04:00.000+02:00

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show opens next May 22 and the excitement about The Brontës' Yorkshire Garden is getting high:

The Yorkshire Post explains some details of the garden:

Meanwhile, stone from a disused Victorian quarry at Dovestones Moor, part of Saddleworth Moor, has been put into place at the Chelsea Flower Show as part of “The Brontës’ Yorkshire Garden” by tourism board Welcome to Yorkshire.
The gritstone was chosen to be part of the garden which celebrates the authors and the landscape around Haworth.
Tracy Foster, who is putting the Brontë-themed garden together, said: “The stone is beautiful. We have deliberately not cleaned it so it has aged naturally and is of the period when the girls would have been walking around the West Yorkshire moors.
“The stone still has its original lichens and mosses attached, which look just perfect in the garden and really give a sense of the beauty and bleakness that epitomise the wonderful moorland landscape.”
The Brontës’ Yorkshire Garden is based on a location often visited by the sisters, on the path to Top Withens, where the so-called Brontë Bridge crosses a stream.
It is hoped the garden will build on the success of last year’s People’s Choice award-winning garden, “The Art of Yorkshire”, and encourage people to visit the region.
Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “The authenticity of the stones and the stonework really connect the garden to Yorkshire.
“I cannot wait for people to see the completed creation when the show opens on Monday. (sic)”
When the show has finished, all the stone will be returned to its original surroundings.

The Independent publishes an A-Z guide:

Y is for Yorkshire, and designer Tracy Foster's garden celebrates the wild moorland around Haworth that fired the imaginations of the Brontë sisters. It's a shame David Austin's new 'Heathcliff' rose is not included in this miniature Wuthering Heights. (Victoria Summerley)

Are you curious about the Heathcliff rose?

Heathcliff (Ausnipper)

Category English Roses (English Rose Collection)
Bred By David Austin
Flower Type Semi-double
Hardiness Very hardy
Fragrance Medium
Repeating Good
There are few roses as popular as those of deep crimson colouring – and none so difficult to breed. ‘Heathcliff’ is a beautiful addition to English Roses of this colour. It has large, fully double flowers of deep rosette shape. The colour is a deep crimson, with a certain softness that is reminiscent of some of the old red Gallica Roses. It is a healthy variety, with shiny, deep green leaves and rather upright growth. Its fragrance is most pleasing and rather unusual – basically Tea Rose with a mixture of Old Rose and just a hint of cedar wood.
Named for the character in Emily Brontë’s classic novel, Wuthering Heights.

Passion Beyond Death

2012-05-20T11:27:00.000+02:00

The screening of Wuthering Heights 1939 in the TCM programme The Essentials (yesterday, Saturday 19) is commented by some news outlets:

In any other year, Wuthering Heights might have walked away from the Academy Award ceremonies with top honors. But this was 1939, a year that has gone down in legend as Hollywood's crowning moment. It was the year of Gone with the Wind, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, and a host of other memorable movies. Nevertheless, Wuthering Heights was still one of the most acclaimed pictures of its time. Although not a financial success on its initial release, Emily Brontë's classic tale of a tempestuous love that retains its passion even beyond death eventually captured the hearts of audiences, and in spite of the numerous remakes and adaptations, this version remains, for most viewers, the definitive film adaptation. (...)
The film is noteworthy, too, for the cinematography of Gregg Toland. Creating a gothic, almost supernatural atmosphere for the tragic love story, Toland refined the deep-focus technique for which he would become famous and which achieved its greatest accomplishment in Orson Welles' landmark Citizen Kane (1941). (Rob Nixon on TCM)

As she has done since taking over co-hosting duties from Alec Baldwin, [Drew] Barrymore will sit down with TCM's learned film host, Robert Osborne to introduce this week's feature. During their introduction of the film, which coincidentally focuses on only sixteen of the tome's thirty-four chapters, Barrymore will reveal why she holds the film in such high regard. She is expected to tout the film's strong female character, something she's pointed out in most of the film's she's previously introduced as part of her time on The Essentials.
Osborne will no doubt lace his commentary with insider facts, including the popularity afforded its stars, Merle Oberon and Oscar-nominated Laurence Olivier. The duo brought the novel's ill-fated lovers, Cathy and Heathcliff, beautifully to life with the help of Best Supporting Actress nominee, Geraldine Fitzgerald. Throughout his life and career, Olivier would often cite Wuthering Heights, and working with directorWyler as the most educational experience of his life as an actor. (Jonathan Pinkerton on TCM Examiner)

Many movie and TV adaptations have been made of this gothic romance novel by Emily Brontë, but none has surpassed the teaming, in this 1939 movie classic, of Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier as passionate lovers Cathy and Heathcliff. Their screen romance here is a type of perfection as sheer as the cliffs on which they embrace. No moor, no less. (David Bianculli on TV Worth Watching)

Grough publishes an informal survey to visitors of Top Withins:

Dog walkers mingled with literary pilgrims who had travelled half way round the globe at a windswept ruin high on the Pennine Way.
That was one of the findings of an informal survey of visitors to Top Withens by artist Simon Warner and two tourism students conducted over the Easter holiday.
The ruined farmhouse high above Haworth in West Yorkshire is believed to be the inspiration for Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and attracts literary fans from across the world. But the building also stands on the Pennine Way, the 429km (267-mile) national trail that runs from Edale in Derbyshire to the Scottish border at Kirk Yetholm. (...)
“We spent two days near Top Withens, on the footpath leading to it and at Brontë Waterfalls, and asked nearly 50 people how far they had travelled, the reasons for visiting and their impressions,” he said.
“It was a fairly random exercise but I think we got a good cross-section of people and it would probably be a similar story whenever you went up there.”
He said: “Beyond a certain altitude it’s a pre-industrial landscape with just the remnants of the packhorse trails visible. (...)
Simon Warner will also be giving an illustrated talk, Picturing the Watershed, in which he will refer to earlier portrayals of the South Pennines uplands by artists like Bill Brandt and Joseph Pighills, and describe how his own landscape techniques have evolved from black and white photography to digital video. The talk, from 2pm on Saturday, 23 June, at the Manor House Art Gallery and Museum, Ilkley, is free and there is no need to book. (Liz Roberts)

The Derby Telegraph presents another walk with Brontë connections too:

This walk follows the River Derwent before gently climbing up the hillside to Hathersage, a village with strong literary connections.
Charlotte Brontë's best friend at school was Ellen Nussey, whose brother was vicar of Hathersage. In 1845, Charlotte stayed at the vicarage with Ellen for about three weeks. Inspired by what she had seen, she wrote Jane Eyre, set in Hathersage.

The Washington Post reviews the latest John Irving novel, In One Person:

Alarmed by the school physician, who claims that homosexual "afflictions" must be treated aggressively, Billy asks Miss Frost if she can recommend "any novels about young people who have . . . dangerous crushes." She leads him to Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Tom Jones and Great Expectations, hardly what the 13-year-old expected, but not as surprising as what she eventually reveals in the basement of the library. (Don't ask, don't tell!) (Ron Charles)

Kay Woodward, author of Wuthering Hearts and Jane Airhead, publishes a guest post on girls ♥ books; Viajando nas Letras e Imagens (in Portuguese) posts about Wuthering Heights.

Italian titles

2012-05-20T00:22:00.001+02:00

Some Italian Brontë-related books:

D'amore e di ragione. Donne e spiritualità
Laura Bosio
Editori Laterza, 2012
Collection; Saggi Tascabili Laterz
Serie: Festival della mente
ISBN: 9788842099093

«La spiritualità, e forse, in particolare, quella delle donne, non è sentimentalismo; al contrario, è desiderio di superare, fino a estinguerle, le vicissitudini delle sensazioni e dei sentimenti».

Nelle pagine di filosofe, poetesse, mistiche e scrittrici, dall'antichità a oggi, Laura Bosio rintraccia le tante espressioni della spiritualità femminile. La loro cifra non rinvia necessariamente «a un credo religioso, ma nelle modalità delle esperienze e nelle parole che le traducono trova punti di contatto inattesi. Amore è il termine che le accomuna. Un amore che contiene e trascende tutti i termini che lo rappresentano: affetto, simpatia, sollecitudine, devozione, carità, eros».

One of the women writers featured in the book is Emily Brontë (SoloLibri).

Agnes Grey
Anne Brontë
Newton Compton, January 2012
ISBN 978-88-541-3422-5
Grandi Tascabili Economici n. 692
Introduzione di Marisa Sestito
Edizione integrale

Agnes Grey, la protagonista dell’omonimo romanzo del 1847, opera prima e in parte autobiografica di Anne Brontë, fa la governante presso due famiglie della facoltosa borghesia inglese di età vittoriana. La sua famiglia è caduta in disgrazia e prendersi cura dei figli dei ricchi, indisciplinati e viziati, è l’unica scelta rispettabile che la ragazza possa fare per sopravvivere. Con una prosa elegante e scorrevole, la minore delle sorelle Brontë mette a confronto la grettezza della nobiltà dell’epoca, del tutto priva di scrupoli e di valori, e i sani principi morali di una giovane timorata di Dio, che cerca in ogni modo di smascherare il lato oscuro delle persone “perbene”.

«Ogni storia vera contiene un insegnamento; può capitare tuttavia che il tesoro sia ben nascosto e, una volta trovato, risulti esiguo e insignificante, un grinzoso gheriglio rinsecchito che miseramente ripaga la fatica di schiacciare la noce. Se questo sia applicabile o meno alla mia storia, non sono io la persona più adatta a giudicare. Penso a volte che possa risultare utile per alcuni, divertente per altri; ma ognuno può giudicar da sé.»

Cime tempestose
by Emily Brontë
Publisher: Crescere
Series: Grandi classici
Publication date: 2011
ISBN: 8883371291 ISBN 13: 9788883371295

Coming back to the Brontës

2012-05-19T19:38:00.001+02:00

It seems that the new date for the auction of the alleged Brontë sisters watercolour portrait (which is also allegedly attributed to Edwin Landseer) will be next May 24th:

A painting previously withdrawn from auction will finally go under the hammer after experts confirmed they believe it is linked to the Brontë sisters.
It was due to be the third in a hat-trick of items concerning the three literary siblings to be sold by the same auctioneer.
But the watercolour, believed to be painted by 19th-century English artist Sir Edwin Landseer, was withdrawn from the sale last month while auctioneers tried to track down a similar work by the same artist to check its links.
Jonathan Humbert, from JP Humbert Auctioneers in Northamptonshire, said the work will be offered for sale next week after experts confirmed it is by Landseer and is believed to show the Brontë sisters.
The work was previously attributed by a team from the National Portrait Gallery as well as four years of research by the vendor, but Mr Humbert said after further examination it is to be offered for sale and is expected to raise between £20,000 and £30,000.
He said: "We have spent quite some time trying to establish a link between Landseer and the Brontës and after cross referencing with other known pictures by Landseer, we are confident that we have a strong argument that this picture is as important as we hoped." (Source)

As usual, we would like to know more details about "the experts".

The Citizen (South Africa, where the film has just opened) doesn't like Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights very much:

Director Andrea Arnold could have named this adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 19th century classic “Withering Heights” – it’s packed with interminable shots of bleak, monochromatic countryside.
And yet, there’s a brittle beauty to this elemental world of wind and rain and muck that makes one pause and contemplate nature.
As a viewer, you may be rather confounded by the film. The liberties Arnold has taken might well offend Brontë purists, but then the original novel was received with some perplexity by the critics of its time.
The shifting moods of the rural Yorkshire landscape are as much a focus as the turbulent emotions of the piece’s central characters. Nature takes pride of place and the film offers a wildlife documentary-type effect, with dizzying camerawork that might give some viewers mild motion sickness.
While there is sparse dialogue and no music, the lovers’ world is far from silent, with the roar of the wind as it buffets the desolate plains a constant symphony. (...)
This is a film you need to be patient with if you are to appreciate its beauty. (Leigh-Anne Hunter)

Artlink likes it even less:

The film embraces highly emotional issues such as domestic violence, racism and the cycle of abuse, yet one finds no empathy with any of the characters. One has great difficulty warming to them. In a feeble attempt to gives the version some bite, director Arnold plays around with the sparse dialogue by injecting a modern vernacular to the many exchanges. It’s all so self-consciously pretentious with its lingering shots of butterflies and birds, the howling wind through the tall grass, the constant site of mud everywhere and Heathcliff looking forlornly at the hills.
This “withering” heights is one film where I couldn’t wait for the 129 minutes running time to end – it was excruciatingly bad. (Peter Feldman)

The Independent is the positive exception:

As refreshing as a dawn walk in winter on the Yorkshire moors, Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights shows how 21st century cinema can – and should – go about boldly revitalising even the most familiar literary properties. (...)
The film’s audacious unconventionality and a cast headed by four unknowns make it a tough commercial sell. But such is the enduring power of Wuthering Heights that there’s no reason why director and co-writer Arnold’s third feature shouldn’t prove an art house success in the mould of her Fish Tank (2009). (...)
Arnold’s Wuthering Heights is her most successful and satisfying feature to date. Her only real misstep is the inclusion of a newly-commissioned, unmistakably modern-sounding song by popular British neo-folk band Mumford & Sons during the final moments and over the closing credits. (Theresa Smith)

BizCommunity also mentions the South-African premiere of the film. Other reviews can be read on qulisty (in Polish), C7nema (in Portuguese), Полит-НН (in Russian) and Folkbladet (in Swedish).

AfterElton mentions a Wuthering Heights reference in the latest episode of Glee (Season 3, Episode 20): Props:

"We’ll be kicking off our 'Vintage' theme with the legendary Jim Steinman’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light." Rachel will do the solo, 'It’s All Com...'"
Rachel cuts him off. "'…Coming Back To Me Now'. One of Celine Dion’s most powerful ballads, inspired by Wuthering Heights." (Christie Keith)

The song was indeed inspired by Wuthering Heights, but the first version was not by Celine Dion but by Pandora's Box in 1989.

Wall Street Journal reviews Gothicka by Victoria Nelson:

It is also the underpinning, though artfully concealed, of works such as the Brontës' "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" (and even, though Ms. Nelson does not mention it, of an apparently much primmer text such as Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice"). Charlotte Brontë's refashioning of Mr. Rochester, from the dark anti-hero into a soulmate who delivers the heroine into "the journey of her true life," anticipates the explicit treatment of this theme in the"Twilight" romances: The demon lover Edward Cullen quite literally offers the heroine the "kiss of death." The twist is that, instead of reforming him, Bella Swan is fated, as Ms. Nelson puts it, "to find her true identity by dying and triumphantly joining him on a transformed dark side." (Elizabeth Lowry)

The Miami Herald reviews John Irving's In One Person:

By the time he turns 15, Billy Abbott has developed an unfortunate habit of getting “crushes on the wrong people.” He is obsessed with Miss Frost, the suspiciously tall librarian with “broad shoulders” and “young, barely emerging breasts” who introduces him to Fielding and Brontë and Dickens. (Rene Rodriguez)

And Lovely County Citizen reviews Vanessa Diffenbaugh The Language of Flowers:

Love and hope. Two things Diffenbaugh considers of great importance in her "other" career as both natural and foster mother, and two things missing from her protagonist's experience. As her novel, considered "a Jane Eyre for 2012," went to press, the author had concerns that some aspects of it would not be well received by those in the foster care industry. (C.D. White)

The New Zealand Herald talks about books for all ages:

Or rather, I should say that this idea - that certain books break age barriers - is coming around again. As Colfer pointed out, 19th century books ostensibly for children like Treasure Island and Alice in Wonderland are considered unqualified classics. In the same Auckland Writers & Readers Festival session, fantasy author Emily Rodda suggested that Oliver Twist and Jane Eyre would be considered YA rather than adults' books, were they to be published for the first time today. But in the 19th century, everyone from children to grandmothers read those stories aloud to each other. (Janet McAllister)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/18/2804405/about-a-boy.html#storylink=cpy

Louiville.com describes a local garden and... well, there are some problems identifying who wrote what:

Yew Dell Gardens in Crestwood, KY is a refuge of green beauty that will immediately put you at peace with yourself and the world at large. The perfume of roses hangs heavy in the air and the urge to sit a spell and read a Jane Eyre novel will seem so right you can’t explain it. (Julie Gross)

We rather suspect this is not a metaliterary joke but exactly what it seems, a blunder.

Several news outlets mention how Paul Gordon has been honored by TheatreWorks:

TheatreWorks, the nationally-acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, presented its annual TheatreWorks Honors Gala. The event honorees were Chairman and Former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank Ken Wilcox and Tony-nominated Broadway composer Paul Gordon (Jane Eyre), both of whom have dedicated their lives to bringing forth vision, innovation, and creativity. The gala was held Saturday, May 12, 2012. (Broadway World)

The Vancouver Sun talks about Victorian writers in general; My Favourite Things and More! reviews The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 1996; My Wonderland has some nice gifs from Jane Eyre 2011; La Sofitta di Camilla (in Italian) participates in Le Due Settimane delle Sorelle Brontë hosted by Cipria e Merletti (with other posts on Jane Eyre nowadays and Jane Eyre 2011); Smart Woman (in Romanian) posts about the Brontës; Writer's Block 23 has rediscovered Jane Eyre and JulzReads has just read it; Miss Drama posts in Portuguese about Wuthering Heights; Treasured Tales for Young Adults interviews Eve Marie Mont, author of A Breath of Eyre. Finally, a curious exhibition of porcelain dolls inspiredy by literary characters in Chita (Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia):

Всего в коллекции читинки Людмилы Травкиной более 20 кукол - среди них есть Эмма Бовари, Маргарет Шлегель, Джейн Эйр, Анна Каренина, Булгаковская Маргарита и многие другие героини известных литературных произведений. В своё время всех своих любимец читательница библиотеки собрала сама - они выпускались вместе с номерами журналов. (Zabinfo) (Translation)

Korean Heights

2012-05-19T00:49:00.001+02:00

Published in the Korean magazine Singles (May 2012):

Publication:
Singles Korea
Issue: May 2012
Title: Wuthering Heights
Model: Jin Jung Sun
Photography: Kim Youngjun
Styling: Jung Min Kang

(Via Anne De Carversville)

Rolling around in the mud together

2012-05-18T09:20:00.002+02:00

The Mail & Guardian picks Wuthering Heights 2011 as the movie of the week.

In the most extraordinary way, Arnold achieves a kind of pre-literary reality effect. Her film is not presented as another layer of interpretation, superimposed on a classic and all those other remembered versions, but an attempt to create something that might have existed before the book — something on which the book might have been based, a raw semiarticulate series of events, later polished and refined as a literary gemstone. That is an illusion, of course, but a convincing and thrilling one.
Cathy and Heathcliff are both outsiders: the woman dependent for her future on a marriage proposal, the man on a benefactor’s charity. It is as children that their love is happiest and most uncompromised — and, probably, most clearly doomed.
That said, the decision to use two separate actors to play Cathy and Heathcliff, in their younger and older guises, was for me a little uncomfortable: it is understandable, of course, but the younger leads are, in fact, not so very young, and their later selves are not so very much older, and the apparent transformation is an oddly artificial effect.
It is a minor consideration, given that there is so much in Arnold’s film that is exhilarating. The film gave me something I never expect to get from any classic literary adaptation: the shock of the new. (Peter Bradshaw)

The Oxford Student also comments on this adaptation:

For generations of readers, the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff was shrouded in mystery; with only Nelly’s incomplete version of events to go on, they had no way of knowing exactly how the two children managed to cement their lifelong connection on the lonely moors. That is, until they saw the 2011 movie version—with Nelly, demoted from her position of narrator to minor servant, the camera was finally free to follow the children out into their refuge in the wilderness and record in detail all the activities that led to their bond. As readers, critics and probably Emily Brontë herself would be surprised to learn, these bonding activities consisted mainly of staring at each other in silence. One wouldn’t expect chats about the weather and exchanges of recipes, but it seems strange that two such intelligent children would have no profound conversations, no exchange of stories and fantasies.
The implication, of course, is that their connection is powerful enough to transcend words; after all, this is a couple whose relationship is strongest when they are rolling around in the mud together. [...]
Significant silences are a common feature of many genres, from high culture to sheer escapist entertainment, from Wuthering Heights to Drive. (Rachael Goddard-Rebstein)

Word and Film reports that Jeffrey Eugenides's The Marriage Plot is to be a film too and looks at recent on-screen literary adaptations:

Hollywood seems to be getting serious in its on-again, off-again romance with the nineteenth-century novel. Things started heating up late last year when director Joe Wright (“Atonement”) fast-tracked his high-gloss production of “Anna Karenina.” Then came “Submarine” director Richard Ayoade’s very promising cinematic rendering of Dostoyevsky’s The Double, starring Mia Wasikowska, who’s suddenly become the redux romantic heroine of choice with her finely calibrated performance in last year’s gothic iteration of “Jane Eyre” and her upcoming title role in the upcoming adaptation of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, which added Ezra Miller, the creepy kid from “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” to its talented cast earlier this week.
Now it seems that romantic novels may have upgraded to “trending” status — a distinction that places the last century’s literary giants in dubious company alongside the likes of “The Avengers” and John Travolta’s masseuse – now that Greg Mottola has signed on to direct a big-screen adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ post-college novel, The Marriage Plot, about post-college romantic and intellectual entanglements (whose title references the narrative device of choice for bourgeois turn-of-the-century novelists like George Eliot and the Brontë Sisters). The classics have always been fertile terrain for filmmakers who have produced a reliable yield of fortifying cinematic meals. A few of the best examples of canon-to-celluloid renderings include Ang Lee’s “Sense and Sensibility,” the A&E “Pride and Prejudice” miniseries starring Colin Firth as Darcy, Orson Welles’ and Cary Fukunaga’s versions of “Jane Eyre,” and Scorsese’s doomed love epic, “The Age of Innocence.” But none of these adaptations has packed the emotional power and timelesness befitting such major works of art. (Christine Spines)

The Awl discusses Clarice Starling, of The Silence of the Lambs fame:

A young woman, cut loose for the most part from family and community, comes to live in a strange new land. After she arrives she is told of a brilliant but mysterious and, by all accounts, frightening man, whose reputation is based at least in part on his inability or refusal to relate to any of his peers. When he meets the young woman, however, he is immediately transfixed by her, and their strange kinship—which mystifies and in some cases frightens other characters—fuels the resulting narrative.
If this sounds familiar to you, then you probably recognize it from (a) Jane Eyre; (b) nearly every subsequent romance novel ever written; or, more recently and most prominently, (c) Twilight. And if that particular take on Hannibal and Clarice's relationship surprises you, then you're probably unfamiliar with the place where Hannibal Lecter, romantic hero, can be found most frequently outside the confines of Harris' novels: fanfiction. (Sarah Marshall)

The Montreal Gazette reviews Waiting for the Monsoon by Threes Anna:

One Dutch reviewer says the book reads like “Slumdog Millionaire meets Jane Eyre,” and I’m inclined to agree. (Getta Nadkarni)

WCVB also finds echoes of Jane Eyre in William Landay's Defending Jacob:

The hot new thriller Defending Jacob is burning its way up the bestseller list; meet the local author behind this publishing phenomenon. A new book recounts Boston’s Great Molasses Flood; a local builder turns life with a bookie father into his first novel, and a veteran writer produces a Jane Eyre for modern readers. Plus, a former model turns a clear eye on the beauty business.

The Washington Post reveals that the woman who has won the Sophie Kerr Prize is a Brontëite and The Wall Street Journal finds a mansion in the Bronx that is apparently 'straight out of Wuthering Heights'.

Zimmer mit Stuck posts in German about Jane Eyre 2011.

Jane Eyre Illustrated App

2012-05-18T00:02:00.000+02:00

Trajectory Inc. has released a collection of Classics Illustrated comics for Ipad, Iphone and Ipod Touch. Including the 1947 Jane Eyre issue, illustrated by Harley M Griffith and adapted by Harry Miller:

Jane EyreBy Charlotte Bronte
Genre: Romance
Number of Original pages: 48
One of the world's most beloved novels, Jane Eyre is a startlingly modern blend of passion, romance, mystery, and suspense. Immediately recognized as a masterpiece when it was first published in 1847, Jane Eyre is an extraordinary coming-of-age story featuring one of the most independent and strong-willed female protagonists in all of literature. Poor and plain, Jane Eyre begins life as a lonely orphan in the household of her hateful aunt. Despite the oppression she endures at home, and the later torture of boarding school, Jane manages to emerge with her spirit and integrity unbroken. She becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she finds herself falling in love with her employer-the dark, impassioned Mr. Rochester. But an explosive secret tears apart their relationship, forcing Jane to face poverty and isolation once again. Beautifully illustrated, this classic tale will capture children's interest and spark their imagination inspiring a lifelong love of literature and reading.

Yorkshire and Hampshire lasses

2012-05-17T10:11:00.001+02:00

Heather Barbieri writes in The Huffington Post about Jane Eyre and her family:

The leather-bound copy of Jane Eyre sits on my bookcase, amidst the others I've collected over the years, a library to which I return, as both reader and writer, time and again.
Alphabetized newer paper and hardbacks stand alongside older novels, dating to the early 1900s, handed down through generations of my family, pages puckered slightly from contact with water--tears, rain from a day outdoors when the weather changed quickly, who can say? Books with history, the history of the readers--my grandmother and mother--who forgot their difficult lives while immersed in the ivory pages.
Precisely how Jane Eyre came into my grandmother's hands is the subject of debate, as were so many things in the Weatherill family. She may have borrowed, and never returned, it from her grandmother, Frances, writing her name, Esther Archer, on the flyleaf. (Read more)

The New York Observer reviews the film Hysteria by Tanya Wexler:

Hysteria is Jane Austen with a vibrator—a movie about the invention of the scandalous electro-mechanical device that changed women’s lives forever. Set in the Victorian era of scientific ignorance and cultural Puritanism, its style is still more Restoration comedy than Victorian decadence—postcolonial feminism with a temperament more Austen than Brontë. Nothing to snicker about here. (Rex Reed)

Big Think also mentions the Brontës and Jane Austen when writing about this UK literary map sold by The Literary Gift Company.

It's funny to see the Brontë sisters, wedged in a part of their Yorkshire, so far apart from Jane Austen, a Hampshire lass. These ladies are lumped together on many a reading list and in quite a few libraries. (Frank Jacobs)

Austin 360 looks at the wide ranging influences of The Rude Mechs' new play Now Now Oh Now.

Evolutionary biology. Aesthetic determinism. Live action role playing. Puzzles. The Brontë sisters. Choice versus chance.
The Rude Mechs are making a new play again. And, as usual, the celebrated Austin theater collective is pulling from seemingly disparate sources.
But, as usual, they've found a poetic and inventive way to blend multifarious ideas into one compact 90-minute play. (Jeanne Claire van Ryzin)

A Star-Telegram columnist posts about finding accommodation in London:

A couple of days after arriving not knowing anyone, I went by a grad student dorm that was too gloomily Jane Eyre-ish, then found a listing through the university I'd be attending. (Linda P. Campbell)

Books I Done Read posts about Little Miss Brontë: Jane Eyre. This & That reviews Syrie James's The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë. Susycottage looks at this photograph. And finally YouTube user Portalomdvu shares footage taken at Top Withins.

Jane Eyre in Texas

2012-05-17T01:23:00.001+02:00

A high school production of Robert Johanson's Jane Eyre adaptation opens today, May 17, in Kyle, TX:

LHS Theatre Presents:
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre
May 17th - 19th

All shows will be at 7:00pm at the Lehman High School Theatre.

Tickets are $5

See the LHs Theatre for more information: http://www.lehmantheatre.com/index.htm

Ma Look What They Have Done to My Moor

2012-05-16T10:23:00.002+02:00

Good news for Brontë country residents and visitors. Like all fairy tales featuring an evil character, the Haworth clamper tale seems to have reached its happy ending (we hope). The Telegraph and Argus reports:

Wheel clampers who act like “modern-day Dick Turpins” will be banned from operating on private land under a new law welcomed by former Speaker of the Commons Betty Boothroyd, businesses and visitor attractions in one of Bradford district’s most important tourist honeypots.
Campaigners have been battling for more than a decade to rid Haworth’s notorious Changegate car park of its clampers, following years of negative publicity about how their behaviour drives away tourists.
It is hoped there will be a boost in visitor numbers to the famous village where the Bronte sisters lived, when clamping on private land becomes a criminal offence later this year under the Protection of Freedoms Act.
Those who have fallen victim to the Changegate clampers include the former Speaker of the Commons, Betty Boothroyd, who was clamped in 2008 while visiting Haworth with a friend after their valid parking ticket fell face down on the dashboard of their car to obscure it.
Welcoming the new legislation Baroness Boothroyd, told the Telegraph & Argus: “It is about time. People have been taken for a ride by these cowboys for too long.”
The life peer added: “They are just cheating the public. I was very annoyed about it at the time and have had masses and masses of letters since, from overseas visitors to Haworth, about these people who have thoroughly shamed the area by what they have done.”
At the time, car park owner Ted Evans accepted that the pair had bought a valid ticket but said it had not been displayed properly.
Stephen Whitehead, a trustee of the Brontë Society who has been campaigning for a change in the law for more than a decade, said: “There has been a catalogue of complaints against the Haworth clampers.
“I have seen old men shaking and old women crying after receiving a punishment that was completely disproportionate to any crime they may have committed. Because it has been so outrageously administered, it has given Haworth national and international publicity – which has been totally negative.
“Everyone involved with the tourist industry in Haworth has been affected because it has stopped people coming.
“This will remove that blight from the village.” (Marc Meneaud)

Picture source

And more local news as The Telegraph and Argus also mentions that artist Ashley Jackson is now backing the protests against the planned wind farm on the moors.

A famous Yorkshire landscape artist is backing an anti-wind farm campaign, describing controversial plans for wind turbines in Brontë country as “money-making vandalism”.
Watercolour painter Ashley Jackson contacted the Thornton Moor Wind Farm Action Group following concerns that plans to put up turbines will “desecrate” views believed to have inspired Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights.
Mr Jackson, 70, said: “As a 16-year-old boy I wrote in my sketch book that I wished to create with a brush what the Brontë’s did with a pen. I cannot then stand back and watch as the landscape that inspires me is desecrated by concrete and metal. These windmills on the moor have been set in tonnes of concrete beneath them. What happens to this when the windmill is no longer productive. Who will remove this from our landscape? Man is destroying the world and this is money-making vandalism."
Mr Jackson has allowed the campaign to use one of his watercolour paintings on their campaign literature. The artwork, called ‘Ma Look What They Have Done to My Moor’, formed part of his 2010 exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London.
Anthea Orchard, chairman of the action group, said: “Mr Jackson contacted us after the media coverage of the test mast because he was so concerned about what was happening and the damage to the moors.
“We are delighted that he is supporting us.”

South from Haworth is Stevenage where

The street names were also themed. One area paid tribute to great British women: Brontë's Pass, (unintelligible), Elliot Road, Austin Pass, Siddons Road (David Greene and Gary Younge on NPR)

Litte Rock Books Examiner reviews the novella Waltzing with the Wallflower by Leah Sanders and Rachel Van Dyken:

Aside from the title, which ingeniously targets chick lit lovers the world over, the premise of the book sounds like a combination of “Jane Eyre”, “Cinderella”, and “Pygmalion”, mixed with a dash of “Emma” for good measure. (Jennifer Lafferty)

A chemistry teacher recalls a funny anecdote on Corante's In the Pipeline:

But when I came back for the Thursday session, the first first wave of ether vapor washed over me and nearly stretched me out on the tiles. I taught the entire lab from the hallway, shouting and waving like Monty Python's "Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights". (Derek Lowe)

New York Irish Arts reviews William Luce's Brontë. A Portrait of Charlotte. Jane Eyre 2011 is reviewed by Daily Movie Review and Maksquibs Cinematheque. Alekseypavlovic posts in Turkish about Wuthering Heights 2011. Reader's Reach writes about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Diamante Literário posts in Portuguese about Juliet Gael's Romancing Miss Brontë. And finally Flickr user Ferndean Manor has uploaded a picture of the moors.

Brontë in Herne Bay

2012-05-16T00:04:00.000+02:00

Another amateur production of Polly Teale's Brontë which is currently being performed in Herne Bay, Kent, UK:

Herne Bay Little Theatre presents
Brontë by Polly Teale

Directed by Christine Ramsay
Toby Mercer (Branwell Brontë), Jessie Kingshott (Anne Brontë), Ben Holliday (Patrick Brontë), Natasha Girling (Charlotte Brontë), Mariah Young (Mrs Rochester) and Elen Jones (Emily)

14th to 19th May 2012
The play is very topical at present with films of both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in cinemas now. There has also been a good adaptation of Tenant of Wildfell Hall on Radio 4. The play centres on the troubled relationships within the Brontë family. This is a challenging and fascinating play, showing tantalising glimpses into the lives of the family and how they developed as writers. After you have seen the production I am sure you will all be rushing out to Waterstones to read the novels they wrote.

Additional information can be found in Canterbury Times.

Woof-Fear-Rink-Kites

2012-05-15T08:31:00.003+02:00

The Irish Emigrant Online reports an event recently organised by the Alloy Theater Company (currently playing William Luce's Brontë. A Portrait of Charlotte).

Supporters of the Alloy Theater Company were recently hosted at a cocktail reception to celebrate the upcoming production of Brontë: A Portrait of Charlotte, directed by Timothy Douglas and starring Irish-born actress Maxine Linehan.
The intimate gathering took place at the chic, Upper East-Side restaurant Desmonds, home of acclaimed chef and restaurateur David Hart, who prepared a spectacular menu for the guests. On the night, Ms. Linehan treated all present to a reading of one of Charlotte Brontë’s many letters.

Crikey's Lit-icism has a guest post by January Jones (apparently not the actress of the same name) on adaptations ruining the originals:

Reading these adaptations of the Jane Eyre narrative has caused me to reconsider, and consequently, dislike the original. Just as reading Rebecca after Wide Sargasso Sea left me unconvinced by Maxim’s explanation that he murdered his late wife because of her sexually deviant behaviour. Despite this, I can’t help wondering whether such a reaction is fair to the original work, which in this case is ultimately a work of its times. Or has reading the later works encouraged me to view the original more critically? Either way Jane Eyre will never be the same loved story from my youth, I just haven’t decided if this is a good thing.

Now for something fun. Here's an example of one of Wired's Geekmom's Puzzles of the Week:

EXAMPLE:
Using the clues, find the name of the the famous novel:
The sound a dog makes
The only thing to be afraid of
Where skaters skate
Flown on strings
EXAMPLE SOLUTION:
Woof
Fear
Rink
Kites
So you would need to send us the solution: Wuthering Heights. (Sophie Brown)

Read'n'Dream writes in French about Jane Eyre and Book Rhapsody comments on it being April's book of the month at a book club while Tiptoe Through, Lost in Translation, Yo Soy Kaplan (in Spanish) and Livros e outras felicidades (in Portuguese) post about the 2011 adaptation. My Reading Rainbow writes about Wuthering Heights. Elinor, Elizabeth, and Emma counts Charlotte Brontë among her favourite authors.

Finally, an alert from Kannapolis, North Carolina:

Kannapolis Classics Book Club — Do you love the classics? Want to catch up on the classic books you missed in high school and college? Then we have the book club for you. The Kannapolis Classics Book Club meets the third Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. Anyone is welcome to come. The May book is “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë. Tuesday, May 15 at 5:30 p.m. (Salisbury Post)

Now Now oh Now

2012-05-15T00:57:00.001+02:00

Do you remember the work in progress theatre production CL1000P by the Rude Mechanicals Company? Now the production will be premiered with a new title:

NOW NOW OH NOW
Created by Rude Mechs
Concept, Structure, and Content development by Madge Darlington, Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah, and Shawn Sides
Staging by Shawn Sides | Writing by Hannah Kenah
Performers: Robert S. Fisher, Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah, Lana Lesley, E. Jason Liebrecht, and Shawn Sides

May 17 - June 9, 2012
Thursday - Sunday
7:00 PM and 9:00 PM
Running time: approx 75 minutes

The Off Center, 2211-A Hidalgo Street, Austin, TX

Rude Mechs is proud to present the first fully mounted production of NOW NOW OH NOW, previously presented in various workshop versions under the working title “CL1000P.” Inspired by evolutionary biology, the Brontës, and LARP communities, NOW NOW OH NOW invites you to enter into an interactive puzzle for the stage about the importance and impermanence of selecting for pleasure over survival. A triptych tribute to everyone’s inner geek, NOW NOW OH NOW embodies Rude Mechs’ desire to create a more tangible, social, active, and personal experience for the audience. The performance marries serious scientific content with the nerdy pleasure of puzzles and gaming and the undeniable satisfaction of Murder Mystery Theatre. This intimate consideration of how our individual choices lead us through life and impact the world takes a locked room puzzle, a lecture on sexual selection in evolutionary biology, and the world's weirdest night of Dungeons and Dragons and weaves them all together to paint a picture of why the things you find beautiful are important to the world.

“NOW NOW OH NOW” is performed for an intimate audience of only 30 people, so there will be multiple showings of the performance each night. The audience experience is roaming so we recommend that you wear comfortable shoes and consider leaving big purses and bags at home.