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Where Sabrina, the Teenage Witch finds A Room of Her Own
2008-06-08 11:13:00
Sarah Barrett's newly released A Room of their Own opens today our newsround as it is featured today in Keighley News:Rare photographs illustrate a new book marking the 80th anniversary of the Brontë Parsonage Museum.A Room of Their Own celebrates the museum's past and features never-before-seen see pictures from its archives.Sarah Barrett's £4.50 book offers a short history of each of the rooms in the former home of the Brontë sisters.There is also information and the garden on the cellar, plus information about Brontë family members, servants and visitors to the house.The 24-page book, completed with a chronology and bibliography, is on sale at the museum in Haworth. (David Knights)The Akron Beacon Journal reviews the on going exhibition in the Akron Art Museum, Ohio :Bill Brandt: Shadows and SubstanceMay 31, 2008 - August 24, 2008Isroff and Bidwell GalleriesBill Brandt, England’s greatest twentieth-century photographer, began as a photojournalist and became a poet of lig...
More About: Teenage , Sabrina , Witch

Brontë Studies. Volume 33, Issue 2
2008-06-08 00:10:00
The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 33, Issue 2, July 2008) is already available on-line. We provide you the table of contents and abstracts: Editorial : pp. iii-iv(1) Author: Adams, Amber M.ARTICLES Charlotte Brontë's use of Italian Culture and Language in Her Later Juvenilia pp. 87-90(4) Author: De Leo, MaddalenaAbstract: Charlotte Brontë's Roe Head Journals and later novelettes are perused, exploring her possible knowledge and appreciation of Italian culture since her youth. Also analyzed is her usage of Italian in the Juvenilia. 'Loneness' in the Letters of Charlotte Brontëpp. 91-96(8) Author: Connor, SharonAbstractMuch of Charlotte Brontë's fiction explores the place of single women, in a society which held the role of wife and mother as the true female vocation. Charlotte's letters also express a search for a point of acceptance of her own single status, and that search is given the freedom of imagination in her...

Jane Eyre's spork
2008-06-07 10:00:00
Another Brontëite. From the Tampa Tribune, writer Linda White-Francis:"They still talk about those stories," she said, adding, "When I decided to become a serious writer, I went to the library and studied the work of authors like J.D. Salinger, the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen and Daphne Du Maurier." (Megan Hussey)The Brontë Parsonage Blog posts about yesterday's Beryl Bainbridge appearance at the Brontë Society June Weekend:After talking about events in her childhood and the ways they have entered her fiction, she spoke about her admiration for the Brontës ("they wrote such jolly good stories") and explained why she was writing mainly historical novels at the moment ("because I've now written everything I can about my childhood.......but I still get into my novels....I still put in things from my past..") and revealed that four months is her normal gestation period. (Richard)Să crezi în orice, căci însăşi viaţa este o speranţă! talks about the Brontë sisters in Roma...

Rehabilitating Patrick Brontë
2008-06-07 00:57:00
On the day of Patrick Brontë's death anniversary we bring you a couple of articles in praise of the real him.First of all, Justine Picardie has written a review of Dudley Green's biography for The Times and both of them try to bring down the myth by pointing out how Patrick wasn't the ogre Mrs Gaskell created. What made Patrick Brontë the father of genius? It's a question that has perplexed the biographers of his more famous daughters, but has never been fully answered. Dudley Green, a former chairman of the Brontë Society, is the most recent in a long line of biographers, though unusual in that his book is fully focused on Patrick Brontë, the first to do so in more than 40 years.Green's aim is explicit: to rehabilitate a man misunderstood and maligned since Mrs Gaskell published her Life of Charlotte Brontë in 1857. Unlike Gaskell's portrayal of Patrick as “a remote father given to eccentric behaviour and strange fits of passion”, Green believes him to have been a ki...

Jane Eyre in La Mesa
2008-06-07 00:55:00
An alert from La Mesa , California, USNew Life Presbyterian Church of La MesaWe will be reading Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. Please join us Saturday, June 7th from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the church in the Fellowship Hall for discussion. This study will be using the Barne’s & Noble edition. Order your copy by contacting Linda Qualls at (619) 291-4381 (Evangelical Bible Book Store).Study and discussion questions are here, click here to download study questions. Categories: Alert, Jane Eyre

The Intrepidity of Charlotte Brontë
2008-06-06 19:34:00
Keighley News publishes a brief report about the recent half-term activities at the Brontë Parsonage Museum (remember?):Picture: Pictured, from left, are Benjamin Somers Heslam, nine, Samuel Somers Heslam and Thomas Knight, both 11. Source.Families enjoyed a creepy-crawly time at the Brontë Parsonage Museum during half term.Adults and children took part in a "churchyard challenge" at the Haworth museum, which involved following a graveyard trail.Along the route they could explore the undergrowth and catch bugs, recording how many different kinds they found.The museum also put on a series of guided walks around Haworth for the half-term spring break and allowed children to decorate their own "Brontë bag" at a drop-in craft activity day. A spokesman for the museum said that guests experienced what it was like to live in the village at the time of the Brontës.All the attractions were included in the entry price to the museum.We read in The Mirfield Reporter about a sponsored walk w...
More About: Charlotte

June AGM Weekend 2008
2008-06-06 00:13:00
Today, June 6, begins the June Annual General Weekend of the Brontë Society. This is the programme that contains, as usual, very interesting talks:Friday 6 June3.30 PM Dame Beryl Bainbridge.One of the nation's most prolific and best-loved authors will read from and discuss her work.West Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth.7.00 PM A performance by the theatre company 'Through the Window' of the earlier dramatic version of Jane Eyre.The play was originally performed at the theatre which became the Old Vic and has been adapted for the modern audience by Catherine McDonald (who also plays the role of Jane Eyre, in the picture, Rob Savage) from Patsy Stoneman's edited version. Cheese and wine included.West Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth.Saturday 7 June9.30 AM to 10.30 AM: Calling all Angrians: your chance to act, sing or write. An Angrians workshop in the creative arts culminating in a display of achievement at the end of the session (10.20 am).West Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth.11.00 AM An...
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Irma Vep and Colin Dexter
2008-06-06 00:04:00
A couple of slightly Brontë related events begin today, June 6:Arena Stage presentsThe mystery of Irma Vep (more information on previous posts)Charles Ludlam directed by Rebecca Bayla Taichman June 6 through July 13, 2008 in Crystal City, Virginia, US Charles Ludlam’s hilarious Obie Award winner gleefully ransacks literary, cinematic and pop culture as it satirizes everything from Hitchcock’s Rebecca and Victorian Melodrama to The Mummy's Curse, the Brontës and Shakespeare.And at the Leominster Festival in Leominster, Herefordshire, UK:Colin Dexter with Gabriel Woolf7.30pm The Minster College“Inspector Morse! author Colin Dexter is a fascinating man like the unforgettable character he created. An avid lover of Wagner’s music, a cryptic crossword wizard, teacher and educationalist, classical scholar, great wit, graduate of Cambridge but lover of Oxford, real ale ...

Jane Eyre, not so innocuous after all
2008-06-05 19:21:00
The student newspaper The Ontarion talks about the dance piece Nocturnes by Deborah Dunn (more information on previous posts) and well... just three words CHECK-YOUR-SOURCES:Nocturnes, a piece by Toronto's Trial & Eros, took the story of Charlotte Brontë's Wuthering Heights [sic] set to the music of Chopin in a manner which, although parts of the narrative were retained, was not mere translation."I didn't feel like I needed to necessarily tell the narrative, just the image and the archetypes of Cathy and Heathcliff, and going from there and allowing my own life to influence to piece," said Trial and Eros's choreographer and dancer, Deborah Dunn.While she did not entirely abandon a Victorian aesthetic, the sets and costumes and the dancing itself bore a noticeable surrealist influence. As to whether her audience relates to these personal influences, Dunn does not feel that that is entirely essential."I understand that it's not always the exact same thing," she said. (Duncan...
More About: Jane

Q&A with Sarah Barrett
2008-06-05 00:14:00
Sarah Barrett, author of A Room of Their Own, a book that celebrates the 80th anniversary of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, has been so kind as to answer a few questions for us.When and how did you discover the Brontës? What was it about them that trapped you?I first remember going to Haworth with my Grandmother on coach trip from York where I lived at the time. I was about 9 or 10 years old. I remember thinking Charlotte’s boots were such a strange, elongated shape, and I tried to copy the drawings from the Diary papers for some reason when I got home. My Grandmother bought me an abridged copy of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights which I doodled in after reading. I still have them now so I must have loved them! Wuthering Heights struck me as hard to understand and a little weird, I enjoyed Jane Eyre immensely and tried to get hold of the real novel. I think every girl/young woman can relate to Jane.Which would you say is the novel which feels more ‘at home’ at the Parsonage? Wh...
More About: Sarah

Brontë, Eyre & Love
2008-06-05 00:05:00
An alert from Bolton for today, June 5:Thursday 5th June 2pmBolton Central LibraryCharlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre & Love Talk by Elizabeth Williams at the Gaskell Society.There will also be a Bronte/Austen & Gaskell quiz alongside the event. The winners will receive 2 Classic penguin books.Date | Time:Contact - Melanie Graaf on 01204 333173Email - libraries@bolton.gov.ukCategories: Alert, Talks

In favour of reading
2008-06-04 19:26:00
Now this is irritating. We had heard of this book in passing but we never imagined there could be such a thing as a book against reading, but it does exist and it's called The Solitary Vice: Against Reading by Mikita Brottman. From CityPaper: Brottman is the latest in a long line of philosophers and writers to question reading's value, and in this day of reading campaigns and self-important book clubs, the question of whether reading per se is a virtuous activity is timely. Brottman, unfortunately, is conflicted about her thesis and spends a significant portion of the book discussing other matters. But when she does tackle the issue at hand, she reminds us that earnest thinkers have wrestled with these questions: Why do we read? Why should we read? And should we ever be skeptical about this most virtuous of hobbies? ...At the heart of Brottman's argument against reading are her painful memories of growing up with books instead of friends. "There's no question," she writes in C...

Looking for Jane in Acton
2008-06-04 00:05:00
An auditions alert from Acton, Massachussets:Audition Announcement & Seeking Production CrewTheatre III is seeking actors and singers for its fall production of the musical “Jane Eyre.”Auditions will be held by appointment on Wednesday June 4th from 7:30pm – 9:00pm, Friday June 6th from 6:30pm – 9:00pm, Saturday June 7th from 10:00am – 1:00pm. Callbacks will be held the evening of Sunday June 8th.Please prepare 16 bars of a ballad NOT from "Jane Eyre" for the vocals. Auditions will also include a cold reading from the script in an English accent, if possible.Performances will take place November 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 21 and 22, 2008.All rehearsals and shows will take place at Theatre III, 250 Central St, Acton, MA.We will be looking to cast several children ages 10-16.Optional rehearsals may be held over the summer, and starting in the fall, rehearsals will move to three times a week. The tentative schedule is Monday evenings, Thursday evenings and Saturdays during the day...

DVD Reviews and more
2008-06-03 19:02:00
The upcoming US release of the Wide Sargasso Sea (2006) DVD (by Acorn Media) gets reviewed on BlogCritics Magazine:Wide Sargasso Sea — based on the 1966 novel by Jean Rhys, originally aired by the BBC in 2006 and finally releasing to U.S. audiences on DVD later this month — is a sensuous look at a descent into madness. Ostensibly presented as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, the story is about Mr. Rochester’s first wife, Antoinette Cosway, and how she transformed into that ghostly lunatic locked in the tower at Thornfield Manor.(...)This production is gorgeous; filmed in Jamaica, the colors and textures are lush and saturated. A couple of times the director used trite, swirling camera work to indicate the characters’ unstable states of mind which I found annoying. He should have trusted the actors’ capable performances; Rebecca Hall, as Antoinette, and Rafe Spall, as Edward, are heartbreaking in their bewilderment and anguish as their lives spiral out of contro...
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Julio César Oliva's Wuthering Heights
2008-06-03 00:15:00
A musical alert from México D.F. for today, June 3: El programa "La guitarra en el mundo", que conduce el compositor y guitarrista Juan Helguera todos los lunes, a las 21:00 horas, por el 96.1 de FM, cumple 37 años de existencia.Para conmemorar el aniversario, Radio UNAM ha organizado un ciclo de conciertos que continuará los martes 27 de mayo, así como el 3, 10 y 17 de junio, en la Sala Julián Carrillo, de la emisora universitaria (19:30 hrs)De acuerdo con Juan Helguera, el ciclo trata de presentar a los mejores exponentes de la escuela mexicana de guitarra. (...)Julio César Oliva uno de los grandes intérpretes y compositores mexicanos actuará el 3 de junio(...)Oliva interpretará el martes 3 de junio un programa que comprende algunas de sus composiciones como: "Estructuras amorosas", "Cumbres borrascosas", "Tres cuadros mágicos" y "Cascadas de Agua Azul", entre otros. (Notimex)Babelfish translation ->The program " La guitarra en el mundo", which presents the composer and...

Bertha, the green mutant
2008-06-02 12:10:00
The soprano Kelly Kaduce is interviewed in the Saint Louis Muse and remembers an anecdote from the 2006 Michael Berkeley's Jane Eyre performances in the Saint Louis Opera with the opera director Colin Graham, who recently passed away: In Jane Eyre rehearsals at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis [in 2006], he gave us a booklet of quotes from the actual novel that he was using for inspiration. (F. Paul Driscoll)Den of Geek! compares Ang Lee's The Hulk (2003) with Jane Eyre:What’s more, Ang Lee’s Hulk is not a superhero movie, it’s a family drama… It’s fecking Jane Eyre – but the madwoman in the attic of this emotionally stunted Mr. Rochester is a Gamma irradiated mutant. I love that movie, I love this movie… Orson Wells would’ve loved Hulk. (John Moore)The Nigerian newspaper The Tide News quotes Charlotte Brontë in an article about promoting reading in children: This is why that Children’s Day Rainbow Book Club and Rivers State Government packaged book reading project ...
More About: Green , Mutant , Bertha

German Brontës
2008-06-02 00:20:00
Some new translations and study guides published in the German market:Jane Eyre. Eine Autobiographie (Die Waise von Lowood. Eine Autobiographie)Hardback: 640 pagesPublisher: Anaconda (20 March 2008)ISBN-10: 3866472285ISBN-13: 978-3866472280Jane EyreGottfried Röckelein (translator) Paperback: 668 pagesPublisher: Dtv (April 2008)ISBN-10: 3423137010ISBN-13: 978-3423137010UNI-WISSEN Anglistik/AmerikanistikCharlotte & Emily Brontë: Jane Eyre, Wuthering HeightsMarion GymnichErnst Klett VerlagISBN: 978-3-12-939636-0Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights are frequently taught at schools and universities. This volume offers detailed analyses of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights which combine close readings with insights provided by various theoretical angles. Moreover, the book provides an introduction to various aspects of the biographical and historical context and practical advice on preparing for an exam.Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Translations...

It's so complicated?
2008-06-01 11:06:00
The Hindu reviews The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Divakaruni:Karna’s portrayal offers nothing new. His brooding, reclusive presence is reminiscent of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Shashi Kapoor’s Karan in Shyam Benegal’s “Kalyug”, a film adaptation of the Mahabharata. (Priya Krishnan)The Guelph Mercury mentions the performances of Deborah Dunn's dance piece Wuthering Heights at the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival:The third professional act, entitled Wuthering Heights, drew inspiration from Charlotte Bronte's popular novel (sic). (Nicole Visschedyk)It's so complicated to check this kind of thing? A simple Google search would be enough. It's even worse when the journalist even dares to describe Emily Brontë's novels (yes, in plural) as romantic novels:[L]a película mantiene su interés a pesar de no ser más que una novela “rosa” en la tradición de novelas de Jane Austen o Emily Bronte, por ejemplo. (Vanguardia, México)Página 12 describes Jane Eyre 1...
More About: Complicated

The Blindman in the classic
2008-06-01 01:18:00
A paper and two talks given in recent conferences:The blindman in the classic: feminisms, ocularcentrism and Charlotte Brontë's Jane EyreAuthor: David BoltAffiliation: University of StaffordshireTextual Practice, Volume 22, Issue 2 June 2008 , pages 269 - 289National Conference on Undergraduate Research at Salisbury University 2008 (April 10-12)MOTHER-FIGURES IN VICTORIAN FICTION: WORKING-CLASS MATERNAL REPLACEMENTSJessica N. Mattson (Christa Zorn) Department of English, Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, IN 47150To understand the role of the mother, specifically the biological mother, during the Victorian period, or rather that of her absence, in many Victorian novels, it seems vital to determine the construction of her role by society. Nancy Chodorow’s The Reproduction of Mothering gives us an important lead in the investigation of the roles of mothers whether we look at the described roles in etiquette guides from the Victorian period or in the mother figures in early ...
More About: Classic

T' maister's dahn i' t'fowld
2008-05-31 10:48:00
John Mullan writes in The Guardian about the different uses of dialect in Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting and compares it to Emily Brontë's use of Yorkshire dialect in Wuthering Heights:Such dialect may be thoroughly non-standard in its spelling, but it is transparent compared with, say, the speech of the servant Joseph in the first edition of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. "'T'maister's dahn i' fowld. Goa rahnd by th'end u' laith, if you went tuh spake tull him." This is his first sentence in the book, and makes Welsh's Edinburgh smack addicts seem lucid in comparison. (After Emily Brontë's death, her sister Charlotte rewrote the dialect to make it easier for those she called "Southerns".)Well, actually the first edition of Wuthering Heighs reads: "T' maister's dahn i' t'fowld. Goa rahnd by th'end ut'laith, if yah went tuh spake tull him". Charlotte Brontë edited it to: "T' maister's down i' t' fowld. Go round by th' end o' t' laith, if ye went to spake ...

Sing and Dance
2008-05-31 01:30:00
Two alerts for today, May 31:1 - Deborah Dunn's dance piece Wuthering Heights (more information on this previous post) is being performed at the 2008 Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival (Guelph, Ontario, Canada):Mainstage AFriday, May 30th | 8pm | Gala/Talkback | 9:30pm | $28Saturday, May 31st | 4pm | $25Trial & Eros [Montréal]Wuthering Heights (2007)Choreographer: Deborah DunnInspired by Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Nocturnes explores the darker side of romantic love. Six characters, finding themselves in three couples, enact the themes of desire, possession and loss within a piece that unites melancholy and humour. The score mixes pieces by David Cronkite, which were inspired by Chopin's Nocturnes, with three original Nocturnes. The costumes by Deborah Dunn, Josée Gagnon and Sarah Tracey are a gorgeous hybrid of Victorian and contemporary design.Photo by Nicolas RuelPhoto of Sara Hanley, Sonya Stefan, Audrée Juteau.2 - And in Arcata, California:The Humboldt Light Ope...
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Charlotte Riley as Cathy and more names
2008-05-30 19:59:00
Baz Bamigboye writes in The Daily Mail about the ITV's new Wuthering Heights miniseries produced by Mammoth Screen and points out to her Cathy : Charlotte Riley (Picture Credits: Bee Gilbert) and not Katie Riley as was previously reported.Charlotte Riley, who will play Catherine Earnshaw opposite Tom Hardy's Heathcliff in a two-part version of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, which Coky Giedroyc starts shooting next week for ITV. No, this is totally different from the big-screen production I've been banging on about for months, which films in the autumn. Ms Riley, currently to be seen as Anya in The Cherry Orchard at Chichester, will also appear in Stephan Elliott's film of Noel Coward's Easy Virtue later in the year. Burn Gorman, Andrew Lincoln and Sarah Lancashire also star.EDIT:Thanks to Faye who in a comment has pointed us to this Digital Spy discussion where several more names, besides Tom Hardy as Heathcliff, Andrew Lincoln as Edgar Linton and Sarah Lancashire as Nelly ...
More About: Names

Eerily Atmospheric Brontë
2008-05-30 19:07:00
Yesterday we posted an interview with Shannon McKenna Schmidt, one of the co-authors of Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West. Today it's the other co-author, Joni Rendon, who chooses for USA Today her top ten of favourite literary hikes including Brontë country, of course:The Brontë Waterfall and Top WithensHaworth, England"The windswept Yorkshire Moors immortalized by the Brontës are one of the most eerily atmospheric places to hike in England," Rendon says. "A 2½-mile walk from the sisters' former home, the Brontë Parsonage Museum, through heather-strewn hills leads to their favorite destination, a gentle waterfall and stream. Rest on the stone slab known as the Brontë chair before walking a mile farther to see the ruins of an isolated farmhouse, Top Withens, the possible setting of Wuthering Heights." (Kathy Baruffi)Hollywood Today reviews Laura Joh Rowland's The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë:“What p...
More About: Atmospheric

Mr Charlotte Brontë
2008-05-30 00:05:00
As we have previously informed on BrontëBlog, Alan H. Adamson's new biography of Arthur Bell Nicholls has been published by McGill-Queen's University Press:Mr Charlotte Brontë The Life of Arthur Bell Nicholls Alan H AdamsonA biography of Charlotte Brontë's husband that highlights his protection of her literary reputation.Cloth (0773533656) 9780773533653Release date: 2008-02-28CA $29.95 | US $24.95 | UK £13.996X9216pp19 b&w photosFew people seeking to avoid the glare of publicity have had more of it turned on them than Charlotte Brontë's husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls. Some critics have implied that he not only put a stop to her writing but might even have inadvertently caused her death.Alan Adamson's biography takes recent scholarship into account and adds new material about Nicholl's family, education, and early life in Ireland to give a more balanced view. The book explores why Brontë, cool and often hostile towards Nicholls in the early days of his curacy at H...

Charlotte in politics
2008-05-29 09:25:00
Taking into account Charlotte Brontë's interest in politics, we are quite sure she would have liked being quoted at a conference session of the Delegation of the European Commission to the USA:Ján Figel’—EU Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and YouthPromoting Understanding and DialogueNAFSA Conference session: International Student and Scholar Mobility: Programs, Trends, Challenges and ImpactWashington DC, 27 May 2008(...)In the end, what really counts is that higher–education systems are better connected and that more and more young people receive a good education in their countries or anywhere else in the world.And the reason was simply explained by Charlotte Brontë:Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among rocks.The quote is from Jane Eyre (Chapter XXIX).The Daily Freeman interviews Shannon McKenna Schmidt, one of the co-auth...
More About: Politics

The House of Dead Maids
2008-05-29 00:05:00
We have discovered via Becky's Book Reviews a new book by Clare B. Dunkle based on Wuthering Heights that will be published in 2010:The House of Dead Maids (working title), a Wuthering Heights prequel which will probably be scheduled for early 2010.Ginee Seo of Atheneum (Simon & Schuster) acquired The Sky Inside and The House of Dead Maids for her own imprint of Ginee Seo Books and asked me to write The Walls Have Eyes for her.Becky's Book Reviews interviews the author and gives more information:And I was very very intrigued to see that you’re working on a prequel for Wuthering Heights! Can you share any little tidbits—tease us a bit with what’s in store for readers—I must say I’d be eager to read both of those!The Wuthering Heights prequel draft is done, and I think it horrified my editor when she got it—something like sending a rabid Chihuahua through the mail. It's based on a li...

The mad woman at the Grange
2008-05-28 19:27:00
We are sad to open this post reporting the death last Monday of Sydney Pollack. The Brontës reach practically everywhere and thus we read the following on The Baltimore Sun: Pollack movies, such as the tragicomic romance The Way We Were (1973) and the exhilarating show-biz comedy Tootsie (1982), shot into the realm of beloved classics usually reserved for Old Hollywood love stories such as 1939's Wuthering Heights (one of his own favorites) or romantic comedies such as 1940's The Philadelphia Story (another Pollack favorite). (Michael Sragow)The New Zealand Herald has an article on 'mad women' (that would be its not very politically correct description anyway). Journalists never fail to surprise us. You would expect a reference to Bertha, the 'mad woman' in English literature par excellence, wouldn't you? Well, you get a short allusion to Cathy instead. It's easy to get carried along in the throes of a romantic passion for a man who's "mad, bad and dangerous to know" but l...
More About: Woman

Scarborough, 28 May 1849
2008-05-28 00:15:00
On Anne Brontë's death anniversary, what better than letting her speak for herself?Severed and gone, so many years!And art thou still so dear to me,That throbbing heart and burning tearsCan witness how I cling to thee?I know that in the narrow tombThe form I loved was buried deep,And left, in silence and in gloom,To slumber out its dreamless sleep.I know the corner where it lies,Is but a dreary place of rest:The charnel moisture never driesFrom the dark flagstones o'er its breast,For there the sunbeams never shine,Nor ever breathes the freshening air,­- But not for this do I repine;For my beloved is not there.O, no! I do not think of theeAs festering there in slow decay: ­-'Tis this sole thought oppresses me,That thou art gone so far away.For ever gone; for I, by night,Have prayed, within my silent room,That Heaven would grant a burst of lightIts cheerless darkness to illume;And give thee to my longing eyes,A moment, as thou shinest now,Fresh from thy mansion in the skies,With...
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Beryl Bainbridge Launches Brontë Weekend
2008-05-27 22:10:00
A press release from the Brontë Parsonage Museum:BERYL BAINBRIDGE LAUNCHES BRONTË WEEKEND6 – 8 JUNE 2008Dame Beryl Bainbridge, one of the nation’s most prolific authors, will be visiting Haworth on the afternoon of Friday 6 June 2008 to launch the Brontë Society’s annual weekend. Beryl Bainbridge will be reading from and discussing her work at the West Lane Baptist Centre at 3.30pm. Tickets cost £5.00 and will be available on the door.An evening panel event on Saturday 7th June will see prominent authors Sally Beauman, Stevie Davies, Helen Dunmore and Toby Litt discussing Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights and how it has influenced their own writing. The event coincides with the Brontë Parsonage Museum’s special exhibition for 2008, No Coward Soul, which focuses on Emily Brontë. 8pm, Tickets cost £12.00 and should be booked in advance from jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188.Jane Eyre’s wardrobe is brought to life with the return of the popular History ...
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Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers in the Web
2008-05-27 15:48:00
Two very different articles coincide today quoting a well known paragraph from Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. The Times does it in an article about cricket:In the build-up to this Test match, Michael Vaughan said that England go out to bat in every first innings with the aim of reaching 400. Just for the record - because it may not be obvious - I must state that whenever I lift the lid of my laptop I intend to write the next Wuthering Heights. That does not happen, either.(...)Selectors responded to England's last defeat by dropping Stephen Harmison and Matthew Hoggard. This time the bowlers have kept them in the game and today may well represent one final chance for certain batsmen. The sleepers, as Emily Bronte put it, would have suffered some unquiet slumbers last night. (Richard Hobson)And the Mail on Sunday ends an article about the English willage West Tanfield like this:As Emily Bronte wrote: 'I wondered how anyone could ever imagine anything but unquiet slumbers for t...
More About: Sleepers