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French Jane Eyre
2008-05-27 00:13:00
Two new editions of Jane Eyre in French . First, an edition including juvenilia by not only Charlotte but Emily, Anne and Branwell:Jane Eyre : Précédé de Oeuvres de jeunesse 1826-1847Hardcover: 1723 pagesPublisher : Editions Gallimard (20 mars 2008)Collection : Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (542)Language : FrançaisISBN-10: 2070114953ISBN-13: 978-207011495520-03-2008. 55,00 €Includes :Récits et poèmes (1826-1839) de Charlotte et Patrick Branwell BrontëPoèmes (1837-1848) d'Emily BrontëAlexander et Zenobia (1837) d'Anne BrontëPoèmes publiés (1841-1847) de Patrick Branwell BrontëPoèmes (1846) de Charlotte, Emily et Anne Brontë, et Jane Eyre (1847) de Charlotte Brontë .Édition publiée sous la direction de Dominique Jean avec la collaboration de Sylviane Chardon, Robert Davreu et Michel Fuchs, trad. de l'anglais par Sylviane Chardon, Robert Davreu, Michel Fuchs, Dominique Jean et Pierre Leyris, 1776 pages, rel. peau, 105 x 170 mm.And a new abridged version of Jane Ey...

Jane Eyre in Fort Wayne
2008-05-27 00:02:00
An alert from the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne , Indiana:Event Type: Book Group Date: 5/27/2008 Start Time: 7:00 PM Description: Discuss those classics you always wanted to read or would enjoy reading again. This month we will be discussing Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Library: Dupont Branch Location: Large Meeting RoomCategories: Alert, Jane Eyre

Time stops
2008-05-26 19:16:00
Let's begin with a short newsround around some non-English newspapers, shall we?We are very pleasantly surprised to find a review of the scholar book A Breath of Fresh Eyre on the German website Literatur Kritik. German-speakers might find it interesting.Il Velino - in Italian - has an article on gypsies which includes several references to Jane Eyre.Le Monde slips a reference to Charlotte Brontë in a very interesting - though not without controversy - article from its Books section.The Spanish El País rather digresses in a political article when it pauses to think that expression 'time stopped' is 'cheesy' and typical of Charlotte Brontë (?) when describing an eternal-love embrace. Oh, make of that silliness what you will.Another article from a Spanish newspaper, ABC, has Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters all uniformly tied to the 'romantic novel' category.The actual English news is not a paradigm of Brontë knowledge either. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, More...
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Dressing History
2008-05-26 00:06:00
Serena Dyer from Dressing History recently got in touch with us to share the news that her website was now online. It contains her wonderful designs of period clothes, such a Charlotte Brontë-inspired dress (in the picture),and much more besides, such as typical songs, etc. But who better to describe the website and everything behind it than Serena herself?My new site, Dressing History, is now online at http://www.dressing-history.co.uk . Dressing History provide accurate historical fashion reproductions, engaging historical interpretation, original garments for sale and a series of talks and accompanying books. With an emphasis on quality and historical accuracy, we are able to provide a reliable resource for dress historians, re-enactors, museums and the heritage industry. We believe in the importance of dress as a tool to understand the past, both when addressing the social history of and era, and in understanding individuals, and try to convey this in our work.Dressing History...

Good Luck, Alan
2008-05-25 13:02:00
We read on the Brontë Parsonage Blog that Alan Bentley, director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum will leave his position at the end of this month:I am leaving the Bronte Society on the 31st May to work freelance and to develop my consultancy business. It is sad to be leaving after seven highly enjoyable years and I hope it will not be the end of my association with the Brontë Society and the Brontë Parsonage Museum.I am sure that with the redevelopment of the exhibition room and the extra media interest which will follow next year's adaptations of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre and the possible Brontë movie, coupled with the continuing development of the contemporary arts and education programmes, the Society will continue to go from strength to strength. (Alan Bentley)From BrontëBlog we would like to wish Mr. Bentley the best of luck in all of his future endeavors.Categories: Brontë Parsonage Museum, Brontë Society
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Trees and roses
2008-05-25 11:07:00
Let's begin today with some update on the Wuthering Heights film project. Not really anything new but The Independent (Ireland) credits another Irish production company for the project:THE $15m budget movie Wuthering Heights could be shot in Ireland in late October after advanced discussions to bring the film to Ireland were held at the Cannes film festival last week.Michael Fassbender, who starred in the I'm Sorry Guinness advert, the semi-animated epic 300 and who plays the IRA hunger-striker Bobby Sands in Hunger, will play the role of Heathcliff in the romantic fiction.If some of the film is shot in Ireland, the film will be co-produced by British film producers, Ecosse Films, and the Irish production company, Octagon Films. The rest of the film would be shot in Britain. Octagon and Ecosse recently co-produced Becoming Jane, a romance about Jane Austen. (Louise MacBride).Keighley News republishes the news about the cyprus pine tree souvenirs initiative of the Brontë Society. ...
More About: Roses , Trees

Jane Eyre in Rockdale
2008-05-25 00:12:00
Somewhat belatedly, we present this Australian production of Jane Eyre:Picture Source. Jane EyreThe Guild Theatre - Community Theatre GroupRailway StreetCnr Walz St, RockdaleBy Constance CoxDirected by Anthony Stirling-EdgarSmall, plain and poor, Jane Eyre comes to Thornfield Hall as governess to the young ward of Edward Rochester. Denied love all her life, Jane can't help but be attracted to the intelligent, vibrant, energetic Mr Rochester, a man twice her age. But just when Mr Rochester seems to be returning the attention, he invites the beautiful and wealthy Blanch Ingram and her party to stay at his estate.Meanwhile, the secret of Thornfield Hall could ruin all their chances of happiness.Performance DatesMay 16th till June 7th 2008May: 16, 21,23,24,28,30, 31 at 8 pmMay: 17, 18, 24, 31 at 2pmJune: 4, 6, 7 at 8pmJune: 7 at 2 pmThe CastClare Mason, Paul Newton, Veronica Saville, Peggy Leto, Olivia Regueria Garcia, Adrian Thompson, Yolanda Spata, Denise Kitching, Geoff Greenup, Pr...

Heathcliff of the potting shed
2008-05-24 10:18:00
The Guardian publishes a top ten of the best smokes in literature. Number one is Mr. Rochester's in Jane Eyre:Jane Eyre, by Charlotte BrontëOnce upon a time, the smell of cigar smoke was thought to be delicious, arousing. In the proposal scene of Brontë's novel, Jane catches the whiff of Rochester's cigar - "I know it well" - in the garden at Thornfield. It mingles with "sweet-briar and southernwood, jasmine, pink, and rose". With the heroine giddy on these blended scents, only one outcome is possible.Zadie Smith writes also in The Guardian about George Eliot. Jane Eyre is mentioned when Middlemarch is discussed:The older reader is more likely to accept the justness of Virginia Woolf's famous judgement: "One of the few English novels written for grown-up people." Middlemarch is a book about the effects of experience that changes with experience. Jane Eyre is understood by the 14-year-old as effectively as the 40-year-old, possibly better. Surely few 14-year-olds can make real ...
More About: Heathcliff

A Room of Their Own about to be released
2008-05-24 00:04:00
A couple of months ago we posted about A Room of Their Own, a book by our friend and collaborator Sarah Barrett celebrating the 80 years of the Brontë Parsonage as a museum. We now have the gorgeous cover and back cover of this unique book (click on the images to enlarge them), which will be available just in time for the AGM weekend at Haworth from the Parsonage shop for just £4.50.For information about other sellers or to place an order, just send and email to cbellpublishers@aol.com.Categories: Books, Brontë Parsonage Museum
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Jane Eyre is breathtaking
2008-05-23 20:50:00
A couple of reviews of the the performances of Polly Teale's Jane Eyre at the Clay Center in Charleston, WV.The Charleston Gazette: The play is set in many short scenes, which are brought together with graceful transitions, aided by tasteful lighting and music. The single set was dark and beautiful, and served well in most scenes, except it sometimes seemed a bit cramped when characters needed more distance from each other.Jane begins the story as a headstrong young girl, who becomes a restrained and modest woman. In Teale's adaptation, she physically leaves part of herself behind, as her willful alter ego is locked in the attic. The play gives a vivid depiction of Jane's battle between duty and desire.Jane's youthful self returns in later scenes as Brontë's character Bertha, a madwoman in the attic. As Bertha, Marlette Carter shows a range from youthful energy to disturbing adult passions. Bertha's reactions depict Jane's inner feelings throughout the play. Her presence is ...

Wuthering Heights by mistake
2008-05-23 14:58:00
The International Herald Tribune reviews extensively Ruth Brandon's Governess: The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres. The review is full of Brontë mentions: Early in Queen Victoria's reign, 30 percent of adult Englishwomen were single - and considered, as one social commentator put it, "redundant." If of gentle birth and no means, without a family to care for, an extra woman naturally sought work as a governess. Living in another family's home made romance unlikely and isolation inevitable, with poverty and unemployment always on the horizon. It was a grim life, grimmer still because it was the only choice open to many. As Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre decides, "I want this because it is of no use wanting anything better."In "Governess: The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres," Ruth Brandon covers about 80 years in the profession, concentrating on the era when a rising cadre of nouveaux riches and an abundance of single women came together to make the at-home lady educ...

Brontë Parsonage Alerts
2008-05-23 00:30:00
New alerts from the Brontë Parsonage Museum for the following days:Special Guided ToursThe museum has announced a series of special guided tours of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, for the first time in many years. The tour will give members of the public a rare opportunity to look behind the scenes and see some of the treasures from the Society’s world famous collections. The next tour date will be Saturday 24 May. Tours are restricted to 12 people and pre-booking is essential.24 May and 21 June more dates to be announced shortlyGet a new view of the story of the Brontë Family and an opportunity to see behind the scenes. For the first time for many years we are able to offer the public a tour of the Brontë Parsonage Museum plus a look behind the scenes and a closer look at some treasures from the Society’s world famous collections.9.45 meet your guide for a short introduction to the house and the surrounding features10.00 tour of the house with your guide11.15 visit to the Libr...

The Anne Brontë biography debacle
2008-05-22 19:26:00
The Wall Street Journal publishes a book excerpt from the forthcoming book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows: “ I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.� January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, ...
More About: Biography , Anne

Jane Eyre in Charleston
2008-05-22 00:07:00
Polly Teale's Jane Eyre opens today, May 22, in Charleston , West Virginia:Jane Eyreby Charlotte BrontëAdapted by Polly TealeCharleston Stage CompanyThursday-Saturday, May 22-24, 29-31, 2008 @ 8:00 PMClay Center for the Arts and Sciences of West Virginia One Clay Square Charleston, WVJane Eyre is obscure and plain but locked up in the attic of her imagination lives a woman so passionate, so wild, so full of longing, she must be guarded night and day for fear of the havoc she would wreak. Teale's stunning visual imagery and powerful style transform Bronte's great novel into deeply affecting drama.Categories: Jane Eyre, Theatre

Amely Bölte, a German Jane Eyre?
2008-05-22 00:03:00
A scholar alert from Chawton, UK:READERS, WRITERS, SALONNIÈRES:FEMALE NETWORKS IN EUROPE, 1700-1900An interdisciplinary two-day conference to be held at Chawton House Library, Hampshire, 22nd and 23rd May 2008. The conference is one in a series being held in conjunction with the Netherlands Research Organisation (NWO) project "New Approaches to European Women's Writing" which is based at the University of Utrecht and is directed by Dr Suzan van Dijk. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw an explosion of interest in Europe in foreign languages and literatures, and recent research has begun to explore the part played by women in cross-cultural interchange. This conference seeks to examine the trans-national links between literary women in Europe in the period 1700-1900.Thursday 22 May 2008Elisa Mueller-Adams (University of Sheffield):A German Jane Eyre? Amely Bölte and the English Governess NovelIn spite of her large œuvre which includes almost 30 novels and collections of ...

"I could have HIT her!"
2008-05-21 19:20:00
There is a new book - released May 2008 - out there called Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West (that's the link to the book's official website - very tempting, if you ask us!) by Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon. A couple of sites talk about it today. From The Christian Science Monitor: It can be read as an armchair travel book or relied upon as a trip planner. Either way, it catalogs and comments on a goodly number of book-related travel destinations. There are author homes (everything from John Milton’s cottage to Tolstoy’s country retreat), book-related sites (the house that stood in for Pemberly in “Pride and Prejudice,� the Yorkish town where Charlotte Bronte conceived and mentally set “Jane Eyre,� hotels that Edith Wharton and Henry James enjoyed on their grand tours), and information about literary walking tours, festivals, etc.Intelligent Travel posts an interview with the authors together wit...

Jane Eyre in Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Angel's Game
2008-05-21 00:05:00
The Angel's Game , the "prequel" to Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind, was recently published in Spanish. A few weeks ago, the Spanish newspaper El Periódico de Aragón interviewed the author and asked him,--Los referentes literarios abundan en sus novelas. En esta, junto a Fausto, sobresalen Dickens, Jane Eyre y una mezcla de terror entre Le Fanu y Stephen King.--Sí, hay mucha novela gótica del XIX. Me gusta horrores. Además de Le Fanu, me encantan las historias de fantasmas de Maupassant. Son oscuras y fascinantes. Y hay referencias a la novela fantástica contemporánea, no solo Stephen King, miles de lecturas que me ayudan a dinamitar los tópicos esnobs que obligan a citar solo a tótems. (Ricard Ruiz Garzón)- Literary references abound in your novels. In this one we have found traces of Faustus, Dickens, Jane Eyre and a sort of terror similar to Le Fanu's and Stephen King's.- Yes, there is plenty from the 19th-century Gothic novel. I like it a lot. Apart from...

I'm your father, says Heathcliff
2008-05-20 20:16:00
Many newspapers today mourn the loss of the A&P heir, Huntington Hartford II. Among those who give the most information on what interests us is the Miami Herald:He also funded Broadway productions, including his own short-lived 1958 adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre with Eric Portman as Rochester and Jan Brooks in the title role. (Adam Bernstein)Too bad it seems to have been a flop, but the intention was there.The Fiver in The Guardian makes a joke about being a 'literature bluff':It might not be obvious to you, but the Fiver's a bit of a Russian literature buff. Its favourite bit of War and Peace comes just after the bit where Anna Karenina's husband pushes that old woman in front of the train to get the Kazmarov sisters' money and the only way of saving Moscow from the armies of jumped up French pipsqueak Michel Platini is for Leo Tolstoy to write a rousing 553-page treatise on Russian peasant farming methods. It's even better than the bit in Wuthering Heights ...
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What's in an Audiobook?
2008-05-20 00:05:00
The question might seem almost a parody of Shakespeare’s famous words but it can easily be answered by saying that in an audiobook is a pure delight of the spirit, that sort of atmosphere by which everyone can wonder in a different sphere to be away from problems and worries.The audiobook practice is a singular approach to the reading of classic literature texts. While widely diffused in Great Britain, it is still scarcely known in Italy and not yet recognized as the very useful form of cultural entertainment as it is. Some few important Italian publishers have started only recently to pick up some very famous masterpieces in Italian literature, like Dante’s Divine Comedy to let readers enjoy its dramatization while reading the immortal verses, and some minor ones are just trying the commercial experiment with the foreign best-sellers read in Italian by well-known actors.As an Italian by birth, I have admired and followed this audio-reading practice since I was a young girl. At...
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Jane Eyre in River Falls
2008-05-20 00:03:00
An alert from the River Falls Public Library, River Falls, WI :Third Tuesday Book Club Jane Eyre - Tuesday, May 20 at 7 p.m The next title for the Third Tuesday Book Discussion at the library will be Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Copies are available for check out at the library. The discussion will be held on Tuesday, May 20 at 7 p.m. and is open to everyone. Nancy Miller will be the moderator! Meetings for the Third Tuesday Book Club will be at 7 p.m. in the board room in the library. Categories: Alert, Jane Eyre

Heathcliff-esque crushes
2008-05-19 19:23:00
Variety reports a tiny tidbit on Ellen Page's Jane Eyre in an article discussing the state of BBC Films and their presence in Cannes. With Mel Gibson set to star in “Edge of Darkness� and Ellen Page attached to “Jane Eyre,� BBC Films has arrived at Cannes in much healthier shape than many feared this time last year, when news broke of a major restructuring at the movie arm of the U.K. pubcaster. ...“The powers that be see BBC Films as very distinct,� Langan insists, rejecting the suggestion that its editorial agenda has become “more televisual than filmic.� She cites the “Jane Eyre� project with Page and Ruby Films as evidence. The BBC made a fresh TV version of Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel last year, and Langan said, “If we were TV-minded, we wouldn’t be doing ‘Jane Eyre’ again so quickly.� (Adam Dawtrey)We don't really see where Langan is getting at, but - uh - okay.Something altogether different but currently in the news like mad are many B...
More About: Heathcliff

Elmet at the Parsonage
2008-05-19 00:12:00
A very interesting new exhibition opens today, May 19, at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:ElmetMonday 19 May until Friday 25 July, Brontë Parsonage MuseumFay Godwin was one of the nation's best loved landscape photographers. Ted Hughes, who was born and brought up in the areas of Yorkshire that she photographed, was inspired to write verse in responding to her images. The result is commonly regarded as one of his more personal texts. Their collaboration was published in 1979 as The Remains of Elmet. Both Ted Hughes and Fay Godwin went on to add to the sequence, and Elmet (1994) was the result.This special exhibition is a rare opportunity to view the original exhibition prints of the Elmet photographs, recently acquired by the British Library.Free on admission to the Brontë Parsonage Museum.Keighley News adds: advertisement Jenna Holmes, arts officer at the museum, said: "We are very grateful to the British Library for loaning us these incredibly evocative photographs."El...

The beggarly salary of Hillary Rochester
2008-05-18 16:29:00
The Washington Times reviews Ruth Brandon's Governess: The Life and Times of the Real Jane Eyres. This is its first paragraph:Jane Eyre, who not surprisingly finds herself in the subtitle of this informative book, is in the minds of many people the archetypal governess, yet there could have been few less typical either as to character or destiny. Her creator, Charlotte Bronte, though, knew her stuff on the subject from personal experience: She had herself been a governess at the beggarly salary of 20 pounds per annum. (Martin Rubin)The mention is quite accurate:(...) I am fairly stablished in my new place. It is the family of Mr. White of Upperwood House, Rawdon. The house is not very large but exceedingly comfortable and well regulated; the grounds are fine and extensive. In taking the place I have made a large sacrifice in the way of salary, in the hope of securing comfort by which word I do not mean to express good eating and drinking, or warm fire, or soft bed, but the society ...
More About: Hillary , Salary , Rochester

Brontës Documentary
2008-05-18 00:07:00
Just published this month:Dictionary of Literary Biography: Brontës Documentary Volume 340Published by Gale Cengage Learning(Matthew J. Bruccoli (Director), Richard Layman (Director))This award-winning multi-volume series is dedicated to making literature and its creators better understood and more accessible to students and interested readers, while satisfying the standards of librarians, teachers and scholars. Dictionary of Literary Biography provides reliable information in an easily comprehensible format, while placing writers in the larger perspective of literary history.Dictionary of Literary Biography systematically presents career biographies and criticism of writers from all eras and all genres through volumes dedicated to specific types of literature and time periods.* Published/Released: May 2008* ISBN 13: 9780787681586* ISBN 10: 078768158X* $254.00The complete table of contents and sample pages can be found here. The volume is structured like this:Works by the BrontÃ...

It captured the essence of the story
2008-05-17 17:13:00
A review of the new musical based on Jane Eyre recently premiered in Redlands, California has been published in the Redlands Daily Facts:LifeHouse's new musical "Jane Eyre" accomplished what I think is most important in the adaptation of a book: It captured the essence of the story."Jane Eyre," the 46th new musical in the theater's 14 years, is based on the novel by Charlotte Bronte. Of all the books I had to read in high school, it was one of the few I liked. I have read it a few times since then.Jane (Jennifer DeWitt) has a Dickensian childhood and becomes a governess at an estate in England. She and the master of the house, Edward Rochester (Tedd Smith), fall in love and plan to be married before the revelation of a mystery and Jane's morals force her to leave.LifeHouse is, of course, a Christian theater, and works Christian themes into all its productions. In the case of "Jane Eyre," it was in line with the book. Producer Wayne Scott in his message in the program cited Jane'...
More About: Story , The Story

Roaming Haworth Moor in quest of their alter ego
2008-05-17 17:00:00
First, some reviews of books with Brontë references more or less relevant: Stevie Davies (author of Emily Brontë: Heretic or Four Dreamers and Emily) reviews Anne Donovan's Being Emily for The Guardian:Like the world of Wuthering Heights, Being Emily is built on the grave of a mother: "with her gone, things had got intae a guddle". In Emily Brontë's novel, the guddle takes the form of a romantic maelstrom of volcanic proportions in which God and man are called into question by the needy protagonists, Catherine and Heathcliff; who, seeking one another, fly asunder.What sane person would actually want to be Emily Brontë? Even Emily Brontë did not always seem to savour it. But generations of Brontë readers have entertained the same fantasy, roaming Haworth Moor in quest of their alter ego, to encounter foul weather and return with a head cold. Sociopathic, riven, angrily shy, Emily acknowledged as her sole law the desire to go "where my own nature would be leading". Homeward.In...
More About: Alter Ego , Roaming , Quest , Alter

A Gifted Brother
2008-05-17 00:05:00
An alert from the Australian Brontë Association for today, May 17:Sat 17th MAY Sarah Burns – BRANWELL BRONTË – A GIFTED BROTHER2008 marks the 160th anniversary of the death of Patrick Branwell Brontë, the only son and fourth of Patrick and Maria Brontë’s six children. Branwell was a promising writer and artist with a rich imagination. Although he was the first of the Brontë siblings to appear in print, he would never gain money or success and was destined to live in the shadow of his three sisters – Charlotte, Emily and Anne. After attempts at careers as a painter, railway clerk and tutor, Branwell ended his days depressed, ill and addicted to alcohol and opium. His death on 24 September 1848 at the age of 31, from chronic bronchitis and marasmus (wasting of the body), greatly affected his family. In a letter to WS Williams of Smith & Elder on 6 October 1948, Charlotte said: “I … asked myself what had made him go ever wrong, tend ever downwards, when he had so m...
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Wuthering Heights: the 'over the top luverly' mansion
2008-05-16 20:36:00
The news about Sienna Miller replacing Natalie Portman as Cathy have only left room in the press for weird stuff today. Such as this article from The Tribune on 'snoose' where the following is said:One of the brighter (relative term) guys figured out that if he went into the library and pretended to be reading a book, the teacher who was in charge of the library was so pleased that we were actually reading, she would leave you alone. That was when you could get your hit of snoose. The problem of where to spit was easily solved. ... The solution was to simply take a book off the shelf, open it, spit into the book, and then put it back on the shelf where it would likely rest undisturbed for at least the next three months. During this time, everything would dry out and the only evidence would be an ugly brown stain that would be heaviest on pages 104 and 105 but would fade out by pages 100 and 109. ...There developed a protocol for this procedure. Some books were sacrosanct. Noth...
More About: Mansion

Sienna Miller, the new Cathy?
2008-05-16 06:13:00
According to the Daily Mail:Sienna Miller is in early talks to play Cathy , the heroine of Wuthering Heights, while Michael Fassbender the fast-rising London-based actor has now signed (as this column was first to predict) to play the brooding figure of Heathcliff.Sienna entered negotiations following the dramatic withdrawal from the production of actress Natalie Portman.Ms Portman, by the way, may have a hard time avoiding those involved in Wuthering Heights at the Cannes Film Festival, since she happens to be on the main jury.This column broke the news that Portman entranced director John Maybury after actively pursuing the role of Cathy Earnshaw.Maybury and producers from Ecosse and Hanway Films were so taken by Portman's enthusiasm that they handed her the role - plus casting approval over who would play Heathcliff, and she accepted.Then, with little warning, she quit.Maybury had already screen-tested Fassbender and was knocked out by the power of his acting. The actor's portra...

Private Sphere to World Stage
2008-05-16 00:05:00
A newly published scholar book with Brontë content: Private Sphere to World Stage from Austen to Eliot by Elizabeth Sabiston, York University, Canada * Imprint: Ashgate * Illustrations: Includes 1 b&w illustration and 1 line drawing * Published: May 2008 * Format: 234 x 156 mm * Extent: 224 pages * Binding: Hardback * ISBN: 978-0-7546-6174-0 * Price : £50.00 » Online: £45.00 Emily Dickinson's poem, 'This is my letter to the World/ That never wrote to Me --', opens the Introduction, which focuses on the near-anonymity of nineteenth-century women novelists. Close readings of works by five British novelists—Jane Austen, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot—offer persuasive accounts of the ways in which women used stealth tactics to outmaneuver their detractors. Chapters examine the 'hidden manifesto' in Austen's works, whose imaginative heroines defend women's writing; the lasting impact of Jane Eyre, with its modest heroine who takes...