Planet Century 19

BBC News covers the Red House story (don't forget to sign the petition if you haven't yet):

Joan Bellamy, author of a biography of Mary Taylor, said the sale of Red House would be a big loss to the history of the local area.
"It's a disaster. If it was sold then the history of the house would be in danger of disappearing," she said.
"The history of the area - the textiles, the Luddites and Charlotte Brontë's novel - all those elements represented by the house would disappear."
Kirklees Council said in its proposals for 2012 budget consideration that the possible closure of Red House at the end of September 2012 would mean a saving of £116,000 a year.
A council spokesman said: "Councillors have difficult decisions to make as there is a continuing need to achieve efficiencies from across the whole range of services in the three-year budget plan.
"The proposal to close Red House Museum is one of a large number of measures up for consideration which have been proposed to fill a very big gap in the council's budget and reduce expenditure."
The spokesman added that "no decision" had been made on the sale of Red House, and local residents were being invited to make their views known.

And the Yorkshire Evening Post has received a letter from a reader on the subject:

The Red House Museum is an integral part of the literary history of Yorkshire and of England.
Its value to the community and to the country is evidenced by the fact that it had 30,000 visitors from all over the world and is a place of learning and research.
In an age when much of Britain’s literary heritage is being lost, taking away such a valuable resource would be tantamount to permanantly removing a vital component of the literary history and traditions of a great people.
It also seems strange that when we are celebrating the 200th anniversay of Charles Dickens we should be considering closing a site of value to those other great literary giants – the Brontë sisters. It seems to me that Kirklees Council together with the Yorkshire Tourist Authority can make much more of the Museum and help, not only to increase its visitor numbers but to also use it as the Brontë sisters and the people of their times.
Judith Tampoe, by email

EDIT:   The Brontë Parsonage Blog posts more last minute information:

The Area Committee met yesterday evening in Cleckheaton Town Hall, and received a deputation of people who were deeply concerned about the threat to the existence of the Red House Museum. The public was very well represented - in fact the room was packed, every seat taken. Eight of the nine Spen Valley councillors sat in the front row, listening with what I took, fondly perhaps, to be approval. One of them sent apologies for being unavoidably absent. We must remember that the full Council consists of well over sixty members.
All of the deputation speakers were asked not to take up too much time and to avoid repeating points. On behalf of the Brontë Society, I gave brief details of the friendship between Charlotte Brontë and Mary Taylor, read descriptions of Briarmains taken from Shirley and generally repeated points made previously on this blog, adding that we were "horrified" by this proposal which had been "sprung upon us at short notice". Peter Jackson, on behalf of the Little Gomersal Community Association, using a set of well-prepared notes, made it quite clear that the proposal to close Red House was very unwelcome in the area, short-sighted and badly thought-out. Local historian Gordon North spoke about the radically-minded Taylors and the impact they made in the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, and in particular about Mary Taylor, a brave and strong-willed woman who had sailed to New Zealand in 1845 and who was treated with great respect in that country. Red House is often visited by New Zealanders. He also spoke about the excellent and imaginative educational resources on the site. Member of the Brontë Society Imelda Marsden added her voice, urging all councillors present to take heed of a swelling tide of indignation. The local press made copious notes.
All of the speakers were complimented by the chair of the area committee for sticking to the rules - and all of them were applauded enthusiastically. We were then told that the 'cabinet' meeting on 7 February to look at the proposal would be held in Huddersfield, and that it would be open to the public. (Richard Wilcocks)

The Globe and Mail has a slideshow of the best pictures of the day (January 30th) and slide number 3 is

A curator at the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits in Paris displays the miniature manuscript dated 1830 written by Charlotte Brontë. The museum bought the second issue of Young Men's Magazine, which contains over 4,000 words on 19 pages, written when Brontë was 14 years old.

NTD Television has a video on the arrival and display of the manuscript at the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits.

The Philadelphia Weekly looks back on the Sundance Film Festival:

I also quite liked Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, which sent many audience members streaming for the exits. Eschewing Masterpiece Theatre period tropes, the Fish Tank director chucks most of Emily Brontë’s dialogue, shooting Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s doomed romance with jagged, visceral immediacy. Arnold can’t quite stick the landing, but the movie’s rawness sticks in your ribs. (Sean Burns)

The London Evening Standard has an article on the local company Angels of Hendon:

Angels of Hendon provided clothes and accessories for four of the five movies up for best costume design at the Academy Awards.
Martin Scorsese's Hugo, the new version of Jane Eyre, Madonna's W.E. and Shakespearean drama Anonymous all feature clothes taken from Angels' huge stock or created by its 120 staff and contractors.
In Madonna's re-telling of the abdication crisis, the costumes were hailed as a hit. "The undisputed star is the wardrobe," You magazine affirmed. Hugo was "beautifully rendered," Anonymous "splendidly decked out" and Jane Eyre "sumptuously costumed" - even if the movie itself was "dry, drab and a little dull," according to critics. (Louise Jury)

Paradise weather all day. Sent letters to Ellen N. & C.F.

Paradise without, for I cannot move.

Began to work on Corfu D ― the little one: ― but worked ill. Fear of noise ― (which presently came in 4 Artillery men carrying up wood ―) & disgust at repetition of subject made me work badly ― & besides, I was unwell.

X1.

At 2. Lunched. At 3 ― most weary & sad ― yet, with a persistence I had not in old times ― I shall try to work again. O! these 4 Ascension pictures!

Worked on till 5.

Internally, a very wretched day, but outwardly calm & purple=bright Paradise.

Dined at 7.

& penned out till 10. Lapsista drawings.

The Lord be thanked ― the Maudes are out ― so stillness rains above & below.

But it is hard prison=work: albeit there is much to be thankful for indeed.

(After writing this, read over journal of this day & other following days of 1861: & surely ought to be content!)

XX

---

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

Some new Brontë editions:

1. Juniper Editions publishes the complete novels of the Brontës illustrated and in a ... purple edition:

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we have created a complete set of the Sisters Brontë books in custom purple jackets with a subtle Arts + Crafts movement design.  The books are published by the Folio Society and hence are very nicely illustrated and well designed books.  We just added our own touch to them by making the jackets in a pretty floral purple design.
Seven books total in the set as follows:

• Shirley by Charlotte Brontë, illustrated by Walter Hall
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, illustrated by Anthony Colbert
• The Professor by Charlotte Brontë, illustrated by Marion Wilson
• Villette by Charlotte Brontë, illustrated by Clark Hutton
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, illustrated by Charles Keeping
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë, illustrated by Julian Trevelyan
• Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë, illustrated by Anthony Moore.

(Via teaching literacy)
2. An Indian critical edition of Wuthering Heights:

Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë
Author: Sunita Mishra (Ed.)
ISBN: 9788125041863
The English and Foreign Languages University (EFL-U, Hyderabad)
Edition: 2011

Wuthering Heights is part of the series called Critical Editions, co-published with The English and Foreign Languages University (EFL-U, Hyderabad). This is a series intended to bring literary texts closer to students, of both postgraduate and undergraduate levels. Each edition in the series explores the structure and texture of the chosen text but also places it in its literary and cultural context. Annotations and glosses are provided wherever it is felt that students need help to understand the original. 

(Via The Hindu)


3.  And:

Jane Eyre  /  Wuthering Heights
Charlotte Brontë / Emily Brontë
ISBN: 9781908533012 / ISBN: 9781908533036
Publisher:Atlantic Publishing,Croxley Green
Transatlantic Press
31 January 2012

Libcom reviews Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights:

Rejecting the voluminous bourgeois baggage associated with the source material, Arnold sidesteps the sense and sensibility of period drama and literature and focuses directly on the scandalous pitch of Emily Brontë’s pioneering 1847 novel. But the book’s gothic Romanticism merely orchestrated the tragic repercussions of a passionate but socially impossible relationship, conveniently deflecting the authorial voice onto the commentary of servants as purportedly neutral observers who, nevertheless, fully conform to local norms. Whereas the film goes straight for the imaginative jugular, with no narration and scant dialogue interrupting the majestic ambient soundscape and scenery of rugged moorland. Thus the explicit and implicit menace of social hierarchy dressed in coercive legitimisation, polite conversation, hypocrisy and self-deception gives way to a primal vision of unthinking childhood exuberance, fear, cruelty and enchantment inexorably ground down, tainted and twisted by supposedly civilised society. (read more) (Tom Jennings)

The Independent looks at James Howson's (Heathcliff in this adaptation) work prospects:

James Howson was another figure in the unemployment statistics when casting agents came to Leeds seeking new talent to reignite the fire and passion of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.
He responded to an ad at the job centre and auditioned for the role of Heathcliff in the new film. Estranged from his family, he had been expelled from school at 14, served time for robbery and drug-dealing, and by 16 was living in a hostel with addicts and ex-convicts.
He was lucky. At 24, he suddenly became the first black man to portray the frustrated outsider on the big screen.
But having achieved critical acclaim for Wuthering Heights, joining the cast and crew at the Venice Film Festival where it was among the award-winners, he is now back living on the dole in his council flat in Burmantofts in Leeds. He was reportedly paid less than £8,000 for the role, though the film's budget was as high as £5m. (Liam O'Brien)

Also in The Independent, a review of the latest book by Helen Dunmore: The Greatcoat:

The creepiness builds when she hears a knock at the window and sees an RAF officer waving to be let in. The scene is vaguely reminiscent of Cathy's ghostly knocks on Lockwood's window in Wuthering Heights, and it carries a similar back-story of illegitimate love and morbid desire. (Arifa Akbar)

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reviews The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey:

Indeed, "The Flight of Gemma Hardy" is Livesey's echo of "Jane Eyre." As Livesey writes in a note to readers, she fell in love with Jane's story when she was just 9, living on the moors, before she herself attended a private girls school in Scotland where she was one of the poor kids. This novel became a way to write back to Charlotte Bronte and to recast "Jane's journey to fit my own courageous heroine and the possibilities of her own time and place."
Livesey takes on a fascinating challenge in bumping Brontë's Gothic romance out of its era and into the next century. From our perch in 2012, the 1950s seem fairly recent, and the harsh treatment Gemma endures more shocking than the harsh treatment of Jane -- almost unbelievable until you realize that, sadly, it isn't.
Likewise, we anticipate the romance with Mr. Sinclair -- Gemma's own Mr. Rochester -- with more than a little cynicism about love and class. Really, will Sinclair abandon his gilded lilies for Gemma, as Rochester did for Jane? Is the class gap greater in the 20th century or smaller? Can smart, stubborn Gemma hold her own the way Jane did?
Part of the great pleasure in reading this novel is the tension between the ways the two stories match and diverge. I'll leave that enjoyment to you. (Kristin Ohlson)

Quill & Quire advances what's to come as part of this year's Books on Film series of the Toronto International Film Festival:

When the Toronto International Film Festival and Random House of Canada host a book club, the guest speakers are bound to be impressive.
The second season of TIFF’s Books on Film series, which screens cinematic adaptations of literary texts followed by discussion, is drawing big names from both the publishing and film industries. [...]
Other guests include [...] feminist film critic and author Molly Haskell on Cary Fukunaga’s version of Charlotte Brontë’s classic Jane Eyre (March 26) (Sue Carter Flinn)

19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long 19th Century

No. 13 (2011): “Revisiting the Victorian East End”

Table of Contents

Articles

	Introduction: Revisiting the Victorian East End	Abstract PDF HTML
	Emma Francis, Nadia Valman

	Bedraggled Ballerinas on a Bus Back to Bow: The ‘Fairy Business’	Abstract PDF HTML
	Anne Witchard

	‘Playing Deaf’: Jewish Women at the Medical Missions of East London, 1880–1920s	Abstract PDF HTML
	Ellen Ross

	Jews in the East End, Jews in the Polity, ‘The Jew’ in the Text	Abstract PDF HTML
	David Feldman

	Reading Room Geographies of Late-Victorian London: The British Museum, Bloomsbury and the People’s Palace, Mile End	Abstract PDF HTML
	Susan David Bernstein

	‘Long Trudges Through Whitechapel’: The East End of Beatrice Webb’s and Clara Collet’s Social Investigations	Abstract PDF HTML
	Gabrielle Mearns

	Arthur Morrison, Criminality, and Late-Victorian Maritime Subculture	Abstract PDF HTML
	Diana Maltz

	The City of Others: Photographs from the City of London Asylum Archive	Abstract PDF HTML
	Caroline Bressey

Romantic Voyagers – Voyaging Romantics
Wellington, New Zealand, 29-30 September 2012
A two-day International Conference

Hosted by the School of English, Film, Theatre, and Media Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
We invite proposals for 20-minute papers on all aspects of Romantic voyaging, the period, its context and its authors. Papers which address the larger issues of ‘voyaging’ will be welcome too. The conference will include an opportunity to admire some of the treasures of the Rare Book collection of the Alexander Turnbull Library. There will also be time to explore the bracing sea-front and beautiful streets of Wellington with its numerous restaurants and bars, and to ascend via the famous cable car to the Botanical Gardens.

The keynote speakers are:
Dr Ruth Lightbourne (Alexander Turnbull Library)

Professor Vincent O’Sullivan, DCNZM

Professor Nicholas Roe (St Andrews University, Scotland)

250 word proposals for papers of no more than 2750 words together with a brief c.v. should occupy no more than 2 sides of A4 in a Word document (they will be copied into a composite file). Please do not send as a pdf. E-mail to the Conference Organizer Heidi Thomson heidi.thomson@vuw.ac.nz by 1 April 2012. All other enquiries should also be e-mailed to this address.
The Charles Brown Bursary of NZ$ 550 will be available to enable one unfunded postgraduate scholar working in the field of Romantic Literature (currently enrolled at either MA or PhD level) to travel to and deliver a paper at this conference. Please bring this announcement to the attention of qualified applicants.
Registration and website details are to follow.
Delegates need to arrange their own accommodation. There are a large number of Hotels and B&Bs in Wellington. Hotels within walking distance of the conference venue include: Novotel, Rydges, Intercontinental, Ibis, Bolton, Kingsgate Hotel.  The following website is useful for arranging accommodation: www.wellingtonnz.com/accommodation

We are very grateful to the author for sending us a review copy of this book.

Mai Più in Oscurità
Maddalena De Leo
Editore: Photocity Edizioni
ISBN  978-88-6682-044-4 
(in Italian)

The figure of Maria Branwell, the mother of the Brontës, plays a tangential role in the history of the Brontës themselves. Her early death when Charlotte was five years old (Anne was one year old) marked their lives not exactly because they remembered it much (it is well known that Branwell or Charlotte mourned the death of their eldest sister Maria much more) but because her absence in their lives was in some way canalised through their literature: Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette, Wuthering Heights... all contain motherless characters.

But the story of how the wealthy daughter of the bourgeoisie of Cornwall became the wife of an Irish parson in Yorkshire and eventually the mother of the most famous sisters in English literature is itself an engaging story. It contains adventure, passionate romance, humour, a shipwreck and a very moving and sad ending. These are the materials on which Hollywood was able to build high melodrama. Imagine what Douglas Sirk could have done with a similar story.

Maddalena De Leo is no Douglas Sirk, as a matter of fact her approach to the story of Maria Branwell is more along the lines of the Ettore Scola of  Le Bal or La Famiglia. Following the story from the perspective not of a ball room or a Roman house, but from Maria's annotations in a personal diary updated once a year (with a few exceptions) since she turned twenty (1803) until her death. In order to immerse the narrative in a wider scope and to have the chance to write an epilogue the author of this novel reconfigures the diary (which in a way can be read as a deconstructed Bildungsroman), as a Charlotte Brontë creation after reading for the first time the love letters that Maria sent to Patrick and which so nicely and eloquently describe the passionate nature of her dead mother. It's an understandable decision but we are not convinced that the diary entries of Maria Brontë are consistent with the style of a Charlotte Brontë who had already published Jane Eyre when the famous six love letters were given to her by her own father⁽¹⁾.

Nevertheless, Maddalena De Leo makes a great job creating a complex character who evolves through the narrative from the youthful, naïve and happy girl in a benign country such as Cornwall to wife and mother-of-six of a quite different world, the hard and demanding Yorkshire. If the first entries seem a bit monotonous or less interesting, that's because they were monotonous and uneventful years. Nevertheless, horror vacui compels the author to introduce all kinds of contextualisations: local descriptions, a bit of local history and superstitions.

Of all the elements in the book, this is the one that works the worst. The use (and abuse) of the superstions and folklore legends of  the Cornish area. This is certainly demonstrative of the huge body of research made by the author but its abuse is a drawback normally associated with debutant writers⁽²⁾, too eager to give too much information. But, at its best (see for instance all the Thornton entries) the book is able to recreate the atmosphere of a particularly happy time in the Brontë family: children laughing, walks, tea time with the Firths or the Morgans, and Patrick working on improving the local church. Maddalena de Leo argues that this was the happiest time in Maria's lifetime, just before the relative seclusion of Haworth and the terrible illness that would eventually take her life⁽³⁾. But the author is also able to give glimpses of Maria complaining about Patrick's scarce involvement in the care of the children or a funny description of her husband being "impetuoso como un toro" when she announces she is pregnant once again.

The book⁽⁴⁾ includes the first complete Italian translation of the six lovely letters between Maria and Patrick that are also the macguffin of this unambitious, nice and ultimately satisfactory attempt to bring light to the life of the mother of the Brontës⁽⁵⁾.

Notes:
(1) The problem might also lie in how Charlotte Brontë could sound in Italian. Italian is not our mother tongue and we may be missing some of the innuendos. We know that the author is preparing an English version of the novel and the question of style will be clearer then.
(2) Maddalena De Leo is also the author of various translations of Brontë juvenilia and poetry and a couple of young adult novels: La Risposta di Afsin and Una'@amica dal passato but this is her fist 'standard' novel.
(3) Professor De Leo doesn't put much of an emphasis on those final months when Maria Brontë suffered so much. Just a brief entry quoting that well-known desperate and deeply moving cry: "Oh, my children. Oh, God, my poor children." which was also the opening line of Jude Morgan's The Taste of Sorrow.
(4) A mention should be made to the (at best) pedestrian Photocity edition. The line spacing is excessive and the back cover blurb and spine use a font so small that they are virtually illegible.
(5) Which complements Angela Crow's Miss Branwell's Companion which followed the life of Maria's sister and eventual 'sucessor' in the Brontë household: Elizabeth Branwell. Apparently, Angela Crow has also a written a novel about Maria Branwell, Mrs Brontë, but it hasn't been released yet, as far as we know.

Perfectly lovely all day.

Went to Taylor’s early & paid his £50: ― what loveliness of mountain & sea!

Worked at Corfu A till 3.

Letters from Grenfell, & B. & Jane Husey Hunt.

No paper ― whereat angry.

Walked to Manducchio & the long round.

Dined with Miss Goldsmid & Mrs. Naylor: a pleasant evening.

home by 10.30.

---

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

We’re well into Season 2 of Downton Abbey and some obvious patterns in coupling are beginning to emerge in this historical or historic melodrama. Let’s examine how some of our favorite characters are getting on, shall we? (Caution: there will be spoilers for those who have not kept up with the series. Some might also [...]

We may complain about the current bout of cold weather, but it's nothing compared to what our ancestors put up with ... for a cold spell in Victorian London could freeze water pipes (most houses only had water supplied for a few set hours per week), burst gas mains and generally cause chaos. Here's James Payn - an overly florid but interesting journalist - on a cold spell in the 1860s:-

May this 10th of January, whereupon the Home Correspondent begins this paper - upon which, for the first time for a fortnight, his stony fingers have been able to hold a pen - be henceforth a festival among readers; and yet not a white day, for the frost is gone, and, by comparison, a very summer has succeeded it. Ever since last year (or December 31), the Londoner has been obliged to restrict his washing within continental limits, for the water has not "come in" at all. The turn cock, who, in ordinary weather, is considered a useless functionary, something like an aquatic beadle, whose duties nobody understands, has of late become a person of importance. His deputy - for it is not to be supposed that so great a man would do any work himself - has been the cynosure of all neighbouring householders. When would his Eminence please to come and turn on the water from the main at the top of the street ? has been literally the great question of the day. It is understood that he will ring a bell in the public thoroughfare, to give notice when that ceremony takes place; but this he declines to do, and therefore our households are kept in a state of indescribable anxiety, and perhaps miss the favourable hour after all. The street-boys surround the unaccustomed fountains, and enjoy the spectacle; but our unfortunate cook, who is momentarily expecting the kitchen-boiler to burst for want of its native element, is unconscious of the supply until it is too late. Under these circumstances, hot water for the hands has become a wicked luxury, and scarcely to be procured even for necessaries - such as toddy. If we have had no water, however, we have had plenty of gas, which has "escaped" in all directions, and with such alacrity, that there has been none left at the jets. Dirt and darkness have therefore been the position of most people during the late "glorious weather"; while in the case of those few persons who possess any scientific knowledge, there has been added to these disadvantages the well-grounded apprehension of being suddenly blown into the air. It has been said that the world may be divided into knaves, fools, and fox-hunters, in sly disparagement, as I conceive, of this last class of our fellow-creatures; but there is this to be asserted in their honour, that at least they never rejoice with the Thoughtless or Malignant upon the setting in of Frost.

M & H Online covers the Red House Story and mentions the online petition launched in order to try and save it. As usual: if you haven't signed it yet, please take a moment to do so, wherever you are from.

HitFix's In Contention looks at the Oscar contenders for Best Adapted Screenplay and thinks Jane Eyre should be among them:

Of the plausible nominees, this is a very respectable lot. I was nonetheless disappointed that Moira Buffini‘s adaptation of “Jane Eyre” never got more traction. (Gerard Kennedy)

The Tri-City Herald's Mr. Movie reviews the film giving it 4 stars:

Purists may not love this version. There are flaws. But it’s Jane Eyre and to Jane Eyre is divine. (Gary Wolcott)

Movie City News looks back on Sundance and reviews Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights:

Arnold shifts the perspective of the novel away from Nelly Dean, the storyteller, and Lockwood, the rapt listener, by truncating the tale to focus almost entirely on the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff. This shift of perspective is subtle but important; as a literary device, the entire tale is filtered first through Nelly Dean’s perspective as a storyteller, a gossip, and a lover of stories herself, and then through Lockwood’s own class biases as he listens to the tale; this greatly affects how the events are interpreted. In other words, where the book never attempts objectivity because the tale being told is clearly an embellished one, here there is no observer within the story itself, leaving us to interpret the events as if they are, in fact, objective truths within the world of the story.
For me, this didn’t quite work because without Nelly Dean’s embellishment and romanticizing, Cathy feels even less sympathetic in that she comes across as caring solely about money and security rather than love (true enough), while Heathcliff seems to be always just stomping around glaring angrily, slamming doors, and being generally ungrateful and recalcitrant without the sympathetic glean of Nelly Dean’s interpretation of events adorning them. Without Nelly’s lens to focus the tale, we have two characters who aren’t, in and of themselves, greatly likable; thus this adaptation becomes more an observation of events than a tragedy in which we come to feel significantly invested. [...]
Visually, Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights is stunningly beautiful, with desolate frames of windy moors, and the most realistic depiction of the sanitary conditions of its time since, perhaps, Tom Tywker’s Perfume. You can practically feel the chill, damp wind blowing you nearly sideways, the muck of the mud holding fast to your shoes with every step. Sound, too, is excellently used in augmenting the storytelling and creating a sense of time and place. But when we get to older Cathy and Heathcliff ( Kaya Scoldelario and James Howson), somehow we lose much of the passion that underlies the tale; the fire that smolders in Heathcliff’s breast, this ancient, destructive love, Heathcliff’s unrelenting fierce anger at being denied what he wants even after overcoming a lifetime of servitude and indignities, are played up by Nelly Dean’s sympathetic perspective, and that element is missing here. Arnold’s version of Wuthering Heights is certainly the most visually stunning of the film versions of this tale, but from a literary standpoint, Cathy and Heathcliff need Nelly Dean to soften them up a bit and make them more palatable. (Kim Voynar)

We are not sure whether this columnist from the Gloucestershire Echo has really read/watched Wuthering Heights:

AS the winter nights draw in, programmes such as Downton Abbey, Wuthering Heights and Great Expectations provide great escapism from the doom and gloom of the weather outside.

A Huffington Post columnist reminisces about reading (Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice) to an old lady. And as Valentine's Day is approaching, so the 'romantic' recommendations begin: Greensboro Books Examiner suggests Jane Eye and Wuthering Heights.

Very Aware recommends Hitchcock's Rebecca on Blu-ray if you like

Ghost stories like The Inkeepers or are excited for The Woman in Black this Friday, or like the Gothic elements in the newest take on Jane Eyre or like in novels like Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. (Manny Lozano)

Slant Magazine reviews the film The Woman in Black where

Daniel Radcliffe stars as Arthur Kripps, a lawyer whose namesake and familial distress (his wife died in childbirth and his cherubic son perpetually sketches him wearing a sad face) feels Dickensian, but after the single father travels to a village in order to sort out the very messy affairs of a recently deceased biddy who lived in its outskirts, he finds himself walking through Emily Brontë's foggiest nightmare. (Ed Gonzalez)

Laura's Reviews posts about Emily Brontë's poetry. At the Movies reviews Jane Eyre 2011 in Malay. Michael Peverett discusses Charlotte Brontë's sense of humour. Mystica reviews Justine Picardie's Daphne. Finally, an alert from Gainsborough:

The Gainsborough and District Fine Arts Society

The AGM for members of the Fine Arts Society will take place on February 2nd 2012 at l.15pm at Trinity Arts Centre.
The lecture will follow at 2pm from Mrs Elizabeth Merry on The Young Brontës and Art: visual influences on their creative development.
Drinks will follow at 3.15pm. (Gainsborough Standard)

.If you were wondering what to listen to in your car as you travel between Cut Bank, Montana, and McNab, Alberta (about a 105 minute drive, depending on traffic at the border), how about downloading Lewis Carroll’s mathematics book The Game of Logic, read as an audio book and free on iTunes?

This work is a part of the Lit2Go collection, a collaboration between the Florida Department of Education and the University of South Florida College of Education. Lit2Go is dedicated to supporting literacy teaching and learning by providing access to historically and culturally significant literature in K-12 schools.

They also have a complete audio book of Symbolic Logic, if you’re planning a longer drive. If you’d prefer to read The Game of Logic as a digital book or online, here it is free in many formats at Project Gutenberg.

   ---------------------
  |9        |         10|
  |         |           |
  |    -----x------     |
  |   |11   |    12|    |
  |   |     |      |    |
  |---y-----m------y'---|
  |   |     |      |    |
  |   |13   |    14|    |
  |    -----x'-----     |
  |         |           |
  |15       |         16|
   ---------------------

     COLOURS FOR              -------------
       COUNTERS              |5     |     6|
          ___                |      x      |
                             |      |      |
  See the Sun is overhead,   |--y-------y'-|
  Shining on us, FULL and    |      |      |
          RED!               |      x'     |
                             |7     |     8|
  Now the Sun is gone away,   -------------
  And the EMPTY sky is
          GREY!
          ___

 

In anunprecedented event for Puerto Rico, on Saturday, February 4, 2012, Museo deArte de Ponce will host an international symposium titled “Treasures of theCollection in Context: The Pre-Raphaelites in the Museo de Arte de PonceCollection,” Art Daily reports.

From 10 am to 5 pm, renowned specialists in art history and Victorianliterature will meet in this south-coast Puerto Rico city to discuss theartists and works contained in the museum’s world-famed collection. Thisconference represents the most important academic event ever held on thePre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in Puerto Rico. For more information, http://repeatingislands.com/2011/12/31/museo-de-arte-de-ponce-announces-symposium-on-treasures-of-the-collection-in-context-the-pre-raphaelites/

Edward Coley Burne-Jones, The Sleeping Beauty from the small Briar Rose series. Oil on canvas, 60 x 115 cm. Puerto Rico, Museo de Arte de Ponce.

Fine all day.

Slept well in the new room.

Wrote to C.F. & Ellinor & translated some of A.P. Stanley’s Eastern Church.

Invitations from Woolff ― & other bothers.

Calls on the kindly Decies ― & Sargents.

At 2.30 on Julia Goldsmid.

Went to Church with Mrs. Naylor ― & returned & sate at the Hotel St. George till 6.15.

To the Decies. Only Luard there.

A pleasant evening, as always, there.

---

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

Professor Moriarty In January of 1902, a little less than a year after the death of Queen Victoria or, as she was properly titled and styled, "Her Majesty Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India," Henry J. Raymond was buried in a mass paupers' grave in Highgate Cemetery. Although buried as Raymond, his

A press release from the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth re-opens today following a hectic month of activity including maintenance work, cleaning, conservation and development of new displays. The new displays feature several early Bronte manuscripts, including one of the four, tiny editions of the second series of Charlotte Brontë’s Young Men’s magazine, written when she was 13 years old. A fifth edition was sold at Sotheby’s last December for nearly £700,000, with the museum narrowly losing out to the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits, Paris.

Following a surge of renewed interest in the Brontës, with the high profile manuscript sale and two new Brontë movie adaptations in the second half of 2011, the museum is gearing up for another busy year.
Andrew McCarthyDirector, Brontë Parsonage Museum

The next few weeks offers a final chance to see an exhibition dedicated to the Brontës’ remarkable father, Patrick, which will be followed by a new exhibition looking at the fascinating history of the museum’s collection. There will also be an exhibition of costumes from last year’s film adaptation of Jane Eyre, and exhibitions of work by artists Rebecca Chesney and Simon Warner. These will focus on ‘weather’ and its historic and contemporary associations with the Brontës, and the moorland Brontë location, Top Withens. The Top Withens exhibition will include a survey of photographic images of this iconic site, as well as a sketch of Top Withens by the celebrated poet Sylvia Plath. There is also a packed programme of events with visiting authors.

We were delighted to see our visitor numbers rise last year by over 8% and with over 250 bookings for 2012 already, it’s clear that visitors will be coming to Haworth in significant numbers, from within the UK but also from overseas. We have some wonderful exhibitions and events planned that will make their visit here very special.

Wellington, New Zealand, 29-30 September 2012

Announcing a two-day International Conference, hosted by the School of English, Film, Theatre, and Media Studies,  Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

Click here for the complete flyer.

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers on all aspects of Romantic voyaging, the period, its context and  its authors. Papers which address the larger issues of ‘voyaging’ will be welcome too. The conference will  include an opportunity to admire some of the treasures of the Rare Book collection of the Alexander Turnbull Library. There will also be time to explore the bracing sea-front and beautiful streets of Wellington with its  numerous restaurants and bars, and to ascend via the famous cable car to the Botanical Gardens.

The keynote speakers are:

Dr Ruth Lightbourne (Alexander Turnbull Library)
Professor Vincent O’Sullivan, DCNZM
Professor Nicholas Roe (St Andrews University, Scotland)

250 word proposals for papers of no more than 2750 words  together with a brief c.v. should occupy no more than 2 sides of  A4 in a Word document (they will be copied into a composite file).  Please do not send as a pdf. E-mail to the Conference Organizer Heidi Thomson heidi (dot) thomson (at) vuw.ac.nz by 1 April 2012. All other enquiries should also be e-mailed to this address.

The Charles Brown Bursary of NZ $550 will be available to enable one unfunded postgraduate scholar working in the field of Romantic Literature (currently enrolled at either MA or PhD level) to travel to and deliver a paper at this conference. Please bring this announcement to the attention of qualified applicants.

Registration and website details are to follow.

Delegates need to arrange their own accommodation. There are a large number of Hotels and B&Bs in Wellington. Hotels within walking distance of the conference venue include: Novotel, Rydges, Intercontinental, Ibis, Bolton, Kingsgate Hotel

The following website is useful for arranging accommodation: http://www.wellingtonnz.com/accommodation

A letter from a former slave to his master has gone viral on the internet this week. The letter, in which the freedman chides the Tennessee man who had owned ...

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La Biblioteca Pública “Arroyo de la Miel” pone en Marcha un nuevo club de lectura denominado “Escribir en Femenino”. Este viene a sustituir al concluido en Diciembre destinado a profundizar en la escritora Jane Austin (sic).“No se trata de leer sólo obras escritas por mujeres sino también otras escritas por hombres pero que tengan como protagonista principal a una mujer”, así lo explicaba Elisa Almarza que se encargará de coordinar las labores de este club. Van comenzar leyendo obras de las tres hermanas Brontë, seguirán con autoras españolas del Siglo XIX y con autoras malagueñas de ese mismo siglo, para terminar revisarán tres obras con mujeres como protagonistas, La Regenta, Anna Karenina y Madame Bovary.El club comenzará su andadura el próximo 31 de Enero y se reunirán todos los últimos Martes de cada mes en las dependencias de la biblioteca a las 19 horas. Las plazas no están limitadas mas allá del aforo de la sala. (Benalmádena Digital) (Translation)

Lovely, & calm morning ― & all day through.

Painted at Corfu. A.

Removed all things out of the back room, & the Bedroom things with it ― turning the Bedroom into a “Showroom.[”]

Read Turner’s life.

Count G. Henckel v. Donnersmarck came ― returned from Alex.dria; ―― & brought letters from the Saunders: ― ― he is a bore.

Everything is a bore.

Did not go out.

Dined at 7 ― & penned till 10.30.

The wretched Mrs. Craven has played 75 variations till I was nearly crazy ― & now the Maudes are making a mad pothouse above me.

---

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

Dormice are in the news this week – not for their entertaining stories about treacle – but because of a newly viral video of a cute snoring guy.

The month-old video already has 2.3 million views on YouTube, and Slate has published an “Explainer” article answering the question “Do animals that hibernate get up to go to the bathroom?“

I’ve been aware that the Morris Society needs to think through the relation of its various media to each other: not just that between its well-established Journal and Newsletter, but, in our digital age, the relation of Journal to Newsletter to website to blog to Twitter to Facebook. But suddenly that initial awareness has cut rather deeper. For this is not after all just a pragmatic matter of communicational efficiency between a Society and its members or the wider world, but rather a much deeper theoretical and political issue: how do Morrisian values and practices survive, mutate, hopefully even thrive in the digital epoch?

The Crafts Council is leading the way here, with its touring exhibition on ‘Lab Craft: Digital Adventures in Contemporary Crafts’ late last year. But we will want to take the issue into other Morris-related fields too. What will be the fate of the book in an epoch of web publishing? Will the book as we know it go the way of the dinosaurs, or may this, in an unexpected dialectical reversal, be a chance for the Morrisian ‘book beautiful’ to reassert itself as electronic publishing deals with our more utilitarian reading? Even more crucially, what is the relation between the new digital media and social unrest or political activism? How crucial were blogs, tweets and Facebook to both the English riots and the Arab Spring of 2011? Are they bringing utopia closer to us, or pushing it further away?

Rich material here, surely, for a series of linked lectures in the Kelmscott Coach House by contemporary practitioners and theorists; and someone, ultimately, should write a good book on the subject. Martin Crick has just given us an admirable history of the Morris Society from 1955 to 2005, and we must now think through the shape of its next fifty years, of which digitality will certainly be one of the leading elements.

The Butterfly by John Atkinson Grimshaw

Painting of the Day Archive

The Red House story (sign the petition here) continues being featured in local newspapers such as the Yorkshire Post:

The world-renowned Brontë Society says the proposal to close Red House Museum at Gomersal is “an act of vandalism on the local tourist industry”.
The society’s former chairman, Richard Wilcocks, said: “A cut like this would cause irreparable damage, and an important part of the heritage of the Spen Valley and the whole country would be lost.
“Red House is of crucial importance not only for those dismissed in the (council’s) official impact statement as ‘Brontë enthusiasts’, a choice of words which implies that they make up a minor group in the same league as train-spotters, but for anyone who believes that the most fitting memorial to Mary Taylor, a highly significant historical figure, not only because of her lifelong friendship with Charlotte Brontë, is the museum situated in her house.
“Perhaps that should be national memorial – let’s move beyond the parochial.”
Director of the Brontë Parsonage at Haworth, Andrew McCarthy, said Red House attracted about 30,000 visitors a year, “quite good for a museum off the beaten track”.
He urged Brontë enthusiasts to write to Kirklees Council.
Councillors will discuss the budget cuts at a meeting on February 22 but members of the public can have their say at a public meeting tonight (from 7pm) at Cleckheaton Town Hall.
A council spokesman said: “Councillors have difficult decisions to make as there is a continuing need to achieve efficiencies from across the whole range of services in the three-year budget plan.
“The proposal to close Red House Museum is one of a large number of measures up for consideration which have been proposed to fill a very big gap in the council’s budget and reduce expenditure. No decision has been made yet.”
Submit views via communication@kirklees.gov.uk
To date over 100 emails and letters have been received.

This is not a 'difficult decision to make'. It's just a silly, self-damaging decision. Good for the 100 letters an emails, though - keep those coming and get as many people as possible to sign the petition.

The story has also reached a national newspaper: the Guardian.

One of the major shrines to the Brontë family is facing closure and sale because of budget cuts and recession – a combination that almost did for its wealthy owner in the days of Charlotte, Emily and Anne.
The Red House in Gomersal, in West Yorkshire's "heavy woollen district", is targeted in provisional savings drawn up by Kirklees district council, which is having to find savings of £64m in what councillors describe as "the most difficult financial landscape in living memory".
The proposal has triggered uproar led by the Brontë Society which is appealing for supporters to lobby the council to change its mind. The Red House, a handsome early Georgian mansion built of brick in the largely millstone grit area between Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Bradford, played a significant part in Charlotte Brontë's youth. [...]
The director of the Brontë Parsonage at Haworth, Andrew McCarthy, said the proposal had come as a shock, along with other suggested cuts including reduced hours at Oakwell Hall, another Kirklees museum that plays an important part in Shirley.
"We appreciate the challenges faced by local authorities in terms of balancing the budgets at the moment but this does seem a pretty drastic step that can be made in haste and repented at leisure," he said. "There are very few buildings which combine Brontë history and Brontë fiction in the way Red House does. It would be a huge loss."
A petition has also been launched to present to the council, which is not controlled by any one party and has seen cross-party negotiations over the coming budget. Kirklees's wellbeing and communities directorate, whose portfolio includes museums, has to make 19% savings from £129m spent last year to £105m. Councillors will decide the issue on 22 February.
Closure of the Red House in September would make a full-year saving of £116,000 with sale of the site an additional, one-off capital receipt, probably of around £750,000. The museum has won a raft of prizes, from Sandford educational awards to Loo of the Year, but drew only 28,602 visitors last year and fewer than 1,000 children in school parties.
Taylor almost lost the house himself in 1826 when his private bank went under without any hope of a government buyout to help it. He recovered by dint of his own efforts and a reputation, also ascribed to Yorke in Shirley, for helping his own workers find alternatives when his mill was forced into lay-offs during a recession. (Martin Wainwright)

The blog Secluded Charm is appalled by the story.

The Telegraph reports adapter Andrew Davies's thoughts on the Brontës:

He told an audience at the Hay Festival in Cartagena, Colombia: “I’ve declined quite a few – never classics. I’m glad nobody has asked me to adapt Wuthering Heights because I think I would make a mess of it. Everybody makes a mess of it. I think the Brontë sisters are mad. [...]" (Anita Singh)

The writer Ruskin Bond seems to have a more favourable opinion. He says to The Hindu,

“I still like going back to old favourites. I read ‘Wuthering Heights' as a boy and loved it. When I picked it up again, many years later, it kept me up all night! I wanted to be a writer even before I finished school. David Copperfield became a role model. I wanted to, like him, run away from home, but I didn't have much pocket money left to do that!” (Sravasti Datta)

This columnist from TIME Magazine hasn't read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall:

It’s dawning on me that the marriage plot, which maps so well onto novels by Austen and the Brontës and George Eliot, is misapplied to Dickens. It is far more productive to think of him as a writer of would-be divorce plots. (Radhika Jones)

I have to admit I don't understand this argument. Does he think that e-publishers will surreptitiously edit classic works? Perhaps sprinkle Beowulf with Starbucks adverts, or weave party political messages subtly into the text of Jane Eyre? In all honesty, I suspect that this is an example of a very clever man using his considerable brainpower to dress up unconscious prejudice in what sounds like reasoned argument. Mr Franzen doesn't like e-books; he prefers reading books. But he can't simply say as much, so he wraps it in a layer of talk about "permanence" and "responsible self-government". There's an analogy somewhere with an octopus squirting out a cloud of ink to cover its escape. (Tom Chivers)

Jane Eyre has been made and remade about a zillion times in the last century or so. Fontaine's version, directed by Robert Stevenson (later of Mary Poppins fame) and co-starring Orson Welles as Rochester, used to be the most famous one. (At least for the time being, Cary Fukunaga's well-received 2011 version starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender has become "the most famous" Jane Eyre movie.) Unfortunately, despite veteran George Barnes' moody cinematography, Stevenson's version isn't nearly as involving as Charlotte Brontë's novel.
Fontaine is okay in the title role, but her heart doesn't seem to be totally in the part. Worse yet, Welles' Rochester comes across as more creepy than brooding. It's too bad that Michael Fassbender wasn't around in the mid-'40s; he'd have been a much more adequate Rochester/Fontaine match. Aldous Huxley, by the way, was one of the film's credited screenwriters. (Andre Soares)

A reader of The Telegraph and Argus comments on installing wind turbines in the Bradford area:

Far from being a ‘blot’ (T&A. January 28), wind turbines could regenerate Bradford.
Of course they should not be planted next to the Cow and Calf or the Brontë Parsonage. Turbines should be at a suitable distance, but near, our built-up areas. [...]
John D Anderson, Bramham Drive, Baildon

The Brussels Brontë Blog posts about Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights. Loud and Little and Cicero (in German) discuss Jane Eyre. Where the Moon Sleeps shows pictures of a gorgeous edition of Shirley.

Very lovely all day.

Rose at 8. Bother the dead Rat.

Painted at Corfu A all day.

Did not go out at all.

Luard dined with me ―: a nice fellow.

Penned out: ― & bed at 12.

Ἐτελίωθη καὶ ὁ Γεννάρος.[1]

---

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

An alert from the FronteraFest 2012 (Austin, Texas):

Short Fringe 2012
Hyde Park Theatre

January 31, 20:00 h
"Wuthering Heights, The Entertainment."
Lyrics: Diana Prechter, Music: Kent Cole.
Fall in love. Get mad. See ghosts. Original songs and spoken text recapitulate the famous rock-n-roll narrative of Catherine and Heathcliff.

In 2011, Diana Prechter and husband Kent Cole wrote and began performing their original 25 minute song cycle which tells the story of the famous novel written by Emily Brontë, "Wuthering Heights." Using music from across genres, they sing and tell the story as "Wuthering Heights, The Entertainment."

Video: Let's Go Savages!

The song cycle has been performed before at Full English Cafe (Austin) last December 23.

First of all, if you haven't yet signed the Save Red House petition please take a moment to do so. It doesn't mind where you are from, just sign.

The Brontë Parsonage Blog addresses locals on the matter:

A public meeting of the Spen Valley Area Committee of Kirklees Council is scheduled for this Tuesday (31 January) in the Cleckheaton Town Hall, Bradford Road, BD19 3RH at 7pm. As the 'cabinet' meeting of the Council on 7 February is going to be closed to the public, this is one of few chances left to actually speak with councillors in the hope of influencing them to keep the Red House Museum in Gomersal open.
If you can make it, meet at 6.30pm outside the front entrance.

The Daily Mail suggests a trip to 'Emily Bronte's Yorkshire: Dreaming of Heathcliff in the land of fat rascals':

Heathcliff! Heathcliff! I call across the moors but my words are washed away by the wind. I'm halfway up a hill, sitting on a dry-stone wall outside the village of Haworth, reading Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë's only novel and my favourite book when I was a teenager.
At home, a copy of the famous portrait of the three Brontë sisters, painted by their brother Bramwell [sic], was tacked to the wall above my bed. The book echoed all my typical teenage anxieties - young passion, wild dreams and terrible injustices against me. [...]
With the recent release of a new film version, a whole new generation of youngsters has been introduced to the teenage lovers.
Today Haworth buzzes with bakeries selling curd tarts, Yorkshire parkin and scone-type cakes called fat rascals - and there are tea shops stacked with scrumptious treats (try the ginger cake at No10 Teashop near the Fleece Inn). But it's far quieter than it was in Emily's day.
Johnnie Briggs of Brontë Walks told me there were ten working cotton mills and the air would have been thick with smoke. The trade route from Bradford to Lancashire passed through the village and the noise of the traffic on the single main cobbled street must have been deafening. And then there was the smell: there were 790 homes in Haworth but only 64 toilets.
No wonder Emily liked to wander up the path behind the parsonage and across the moors to Top Withins, the crumbling farmhouse on which she based the remote, forlorn Wuthering Heights. Now a place of pilgrimage, these days signposts point the way, even in Japanese, making sure no one gets lost.
There is nothing much left to see except the hint of a ruin. But the landscape is the same - a patchwork of warm browns and dusty pinks cut by grey stone, the heather billowing like a surfing sea, the wind so strong it lifts your skirt and dries your face.
The Bronte parsonage, now a museum, is furnished as it was when the family lived there and attracts 75,000 visitors a year. The red mahogany dining-room table, where the sisters sat and scribbled in their tiny, cramped handwriting, stands in the middle of the dining room.
Against a wall, there's the green horsehair sofa on which Emily died, and in the bedroom, Charlotte's paisley dress, white leather gloves and thigh-high white stockings are on display in a glass cabinet. There's also a school report stating that the author of Jane Eyre 'writes indifferently'.
In the village, the old post office is now a general stationers run by Margaret Hartley, whose family have been in business in the village for more than 350 years.
'My great-great-great-grandad was the postmaster and served the Brontes,' says Margaret, 74. 'And this is the counter that the girls passed their manuscripts over.'
'The girls' is how the people of Haworth refer to Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, as if they were family. [...]
Despite the teeming tourists - and signs advertising Ye Old Brontë Tearooms and Heathcliff Bed and Breakfast - Haworth still grips your heart and imagination. It certainly reminded me of being a dreamy teenager again, staring up at Emily on my bedroom wall. (Dea Birkett)

And The New York Times reviews the Artemis Theatre production Wuthering Heights: Restless Souls:

An elemental wildness runs through “Wuthering Heights, Restless Souls,” Theater Artemis’s spare but impressively theatrical adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel. Though intended for young audiences (13 and up), this production never condescends. Quite the opposite: it can be ferocious, even scary, as it gives physical shape to the bond between Cathy and Heathcliff (Alejandra Theus and Joris Smit, both feral, both terrific).
That bond, of course, was forged in childhood. And this “Wuthering Heights,” which played over the weekend as part of Zoem! New Dutch Theater at the New Victory Theater, is particularly good at showing Cathy and Heathcliff’s almost-savage childhood world — full of taunting and roughhousing that threatens to turn violent or sexual or both — and the porous way it bleeds into the natural world just outside their door. “This is inside,” she tells him, before leading him just a step. “And this is outside.”
The set, a simple wooden platform with a white curtain and a chair or two, contains no scenery that hints at Brontë’s moors. But the director, Floor Huygen, and the sound designers, Florentijn Boddendijk and Remco de Jong, conjure an active landscape using bird and night sounds, branches and twigs, water and wind. In a wonderfully apt coup de théâtre two giant fans — one in each wing — whip up a storm as Cathy and Heathcliff wander. The wind blows around all sorts of detritus and threatens their home behind the white curtain, which flaps around exposing those inside. But it intoxicates Cathy and Heathcliff, who face its power head on, their hands slowly reaching out to clasp together.
The script has been expertly drawn from Brontë’s novel by Jeroen Olyslaegers, who, with Ms. Huygen, has found clear, dramatic ways to render the story. Long segments have minimal dialogue, but the essential passages from the book are here. The show concentrates on the novel’s first half, with the second part sketched in quickly by Nelly (An Hackselmans), the novel’s servant-narrator, who in this telling seems to have a kind of witchy insight into events past, present and future.
The big complaint to be made about this production, which features excellent ensemble work and top-notch stagecraft, is that its New York run included just four performances. It deserves to be seen by more people. (Rachel Saltz)

The Scotsman looks at the life and works of the writer Andrew Lang:

Old Friends was written in 1890 and has a dazzling premise: if literature really did describe the world rather than invent it, why should characters be restricted to their own books? Lang imagines Catherine Morland, Jane Austen’s gothic-obsessed heroine of Northanger Abbey, turning up at Rochester’s house from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Inspector Lecoq from Émile Gaboriau’s then famous series of novels arrests the eponymous Pickwick, with the help of Bucket from Bleak House. It is the beginning of crossover literature, which reaches its heights with works such as Alan Moore’s The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Christine Brooke-Rose’s Textermination, and its pulp incarnation in Pride And Prejudice And Zombies and Android Karenina. (Stuart Kelly)

The Yorkshire Post features the local artist Michele Howarth Rashman:

In fact, she’s beginning to acquire the image of a wild woman of the moors. She was recently described as “a charmingly rustic antidote” to the contemporary London art scene (which begs the question what on earth London art critics think goes on in West Yorkshire). But she is enjoying the fun, not least by insisting on drawing parallels between herself and West Yorkshire’s own weird sisters, the Brontës.
There are parallels. Like the talented girls from Haworth Parsonage, Michelle spends her days engaged in meticulous, minute work (“developing long-sight and a dowager’s hump”) and she has a keen eye, which can get her into trouble (“I do use people I know and it can get a bit tricky”). And while she chooses to base herself in Yorkshire, she exhibits with the best of her London contemporaries. In her case Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin rather than William Makepeace Thackeray. And then there is the family connection. On her father’s side she is a Howarth, but on her mother’s side there are Haworths too.
Parish records show her great-great grandmother was christened by none other than Patrick Brontë and her great-great-great-grandmother is buried in the parsonage graveyard. “I’m virtually a tourist attraction,” she insists happily. (Fiona Russell)

The Bangkok Post makes what we consider an obvious statement (though the likes of V.S. Naipaul may not think so):

Ophelia by Henrietta Rae

Painting of the Day Archive

Every political season brings a cascade of talk about the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, with commentators on television, and even some candidates, invoking them as the high point of political discourse.

Everybody seems to believe those seven debates in Illinois in 1858 were awesome. But what's the reality?

First of all, they weren't even debates in the way we think of a debate. They were more like dueling speeches, and long speeches at that.

And the content was pretty rough. Most TV networks today would shy away from broadcasting the crude race-baiting and racial slurs that were tossed about in front of cheering audiences in towns across Illinois in the summer and fall of 1858.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates are important, of course, They were a milestone in American history, and they certainly elevated Abraham Lincoln and put him on the road to becoming a national figure.

Reading a few basic facts about how Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln did battle will demonstrate that what you've heard about the Lincoln-Douglas Debates is not necessarily accurate.

Read the full article: Seven Facts About the Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Illustration: Depiction of a Lincoln-Douglas Debate/Getty Images

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Follow on Twitter: @History1800s

Today is the anniversary of the first assassination attempt on an American president, which was foiled by bad luck and the notorious anger of the target, President Andrew Jackson.

On January 30, 1835, President Jackson visited the Capitol to attend the funeral of a member of Congress. After Jackson passed through the rotunda, a man armed with a pistol stepped out from behind a pillar and pulled the trigger.

The gun misfired, making a loud, but harmless, noise. The attacker, a Washington resident named Richard Lawrence, pulled out a second pistol, and tried again. That gun also misfired.

Andrew Jackson, who had been shot at plenty of times, and had even carried one enemy's pistol ball in his body for decades, reacted in his usual fashion. He took his walking stick and proceeded to give Lawrence a good thumping.

Lawrence survived the beating by the president, and was put on trial, where the prosecuting attorney was Francis Scott Key, who, of course, is better remembered today for writing "The Star-Spangled Banner." As Andrew Jackson was so controversial, and had plenty of enemies, some people believed Lawrence might have been part of a conspiracy. But he was judged to be insane and committed to mental institution.

Read the full article: Andrew Jackson Survived an Assassination Attempt

Illustration: Andrew Jackson, who carried a walking stick and used it against an attacker/Getty Images

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Rainy mist ― early, cleared at 12.

Worked a little at Corfu ― A. Translated some of A.P.S. Eastern church.

Letter, & paper, & F.L. poems by Alex.ra steamer.

The letter contained

Mr. & Mrs. Franklin Lushington’s cards.

The Corfu (A.) went on very tolerably.

Kind note from Mrs. Decie: ― the Decies inviting me every Sunday: ― particularly good & kind, ― since they are wholly free from want of any visitors.

At 4 ― Lord Ernest Bruce ― a bore ― & his son.

At 5 ― walked by the Kokali house ― Χριστὸς is better ― & back by 6 to, Hotel St. George. ―

Sate awhile with Miss J.G. ― & Mrs. Naylor. At 7 ― home. Dined. After which, Maudes 6 dogs below annoyed me horribly: ― &, wishing to retreat to bed ― the drain began again ― so I grew half crazy with disgust, & hustled the bed mattress onto the west room floor ― sitting to fisnish the Καλαμὰ drawing in a rage. ―

10.30 ― I really half resolve to pack up all, & finish what I can in London: ― going a tour in the Islands till it is time to go back. It does not seem possible to exist here. ―

Vedremo dimani.[1]

X9

---

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

All right, so I love castles.  Don't forget that the castles scattering Great Britain today scattered them equally during the Regency. Our lords and ladies saw them then, just as we see them today. Well, perhaps not quite, because work to make them accessible has happened more recently. But they were there.

We found Wardour Castle an English Heritage site in Wilshire quite by chance when we were driving out to one of the great houses. Of course we could not resist taking a peek.

The castle was destroyed during the English civil war and although the Arundells managed to come through it all in the end, in the mid 1700's they built a new castle (really a palladian manor house) and the castle was left to grace the estate as a kind of folly.

The old castle is unique in Britain, having been built as a six sided structure in  the late 14th century, mimicking those the owner, Lord Lovell had seen in France.  So you can see the actual shape of it, I am including an artists impression of how it looked when it was built.

You will not doubt notice the little clump of daisies beneath the sign.

So my interest is in the castle as a ruin, since that is how it would have been for our Regency ladies and gentlemen visiting this part of the country, and who knows, perhaps they stayed with Lord Arundell.  But if you like castles or earlier periods of history, no doubt you will also enjoy looking at the ruins.

Next time we will take a look around the castle and its grounds and a sneak peek at the New Cast5le.

Until next time, Happy Rambles

As viewers of Downton Abbey, we have gotten to know Highclere Castle, its setting, well.Sir Barry remodelled Highclere Castle for the third earl of Carnarvon from 1839 to 1842. The architect had just finished building the Houses of Parliament. The house once looked quite different and was Georgian in feature. Extensive renovations were made during [...]

The latest issue of The Brontë Society Gazette is now out (Issue 56. January 2012. ISSN 1344-5940).

ARTICLES
Winter Greetings by Helen Krispien
My Favourite Brontë...  by Sharon Marshall, Val Wiseman and Rachel Lee.
Putting Jane Eyre in context by Emily Waterfield
Letter from the Chairman by Sally McDonald, Chairman of Council
Winning competition entries published
The Brontë Society Conference 2011. Homerton College, Cambridge by Maureen Peeck
Ilkley Literary Festival: The Brontës, Bonnie Greer and Afternoon Tea by Richard Wilcocks
Even in death, is there no certainty? by Bob Duckett
A Modern Brontë rarity by Benjamin L. Clark
Poetry Corner: April at the Parsonage by Dorothy Newsome; Ellis Bell by Adriana Marcorini; Winter by Louise van ProosdijMembership News: NBT's The Brontës by Josephine Smith; News from the Membership Committee by Ruth Battye; New plaque on Anne Brontë's grave by Stephen Whitehead; Noel Christopher Cullington's painting: The Meeting of Waterways; In Memoriam: Thomas Cottam.
Intertextual "telepathy"? by Erik Eriksson.
Parsonage People: Rachel Lee
In defence of Branwell by Judith Bland
Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre by Richard Wilcocks
Post-It:  Booking forms for the June AGM weekend 8-12 June 2012, Haworth; "Mrs. Brontë by Angela Crow; The Daphne Carrick Memorial Scholarship, 2012; London and South East Region News by Val Wiseman; New Brontë Group in the York Area.
The Weather Project by Helen Krispien

The Vintage Festival by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Painting of the Day Archive

At the end of the Civil War the United States was faced with a massive humanitarian crisis. The South was devastated, its transportation system wrecked ...

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BlogCritics reviews the upcoming The Brontës of Haworth DVD release:

Playwright Christopher Fry's The Brontës of Haworth, a five-episode dramatization of the lives of the 19th century literary sisters and their tortured brother televised in England in 1973 but never shown in the United States will be available in February in a two-disc DVD set from Acorn Media. Beginning with their widowed father's birthday gift to the young Branwell of the set of toy soldiers which became the inspiration for the children's early imaginative efforts as they joined together to create a fictional world modeled on the Byronic romances popular at the time, Fry traces their attempts to make their way in the world, their failures and their success, culminating in the sister's monumental achievement and early deaths. (...)
Clearly it is [Michael] Kitchen and perhaps [Alfred] Burke who are the stars of this production. Perhaps not as oddly as it would seem in a film about the Brontë family, much of the early episodes are concerned with the tragic life of Branwell rather than that of his sisters. He is after all a man haunted by demons beyond his control, the kind of fodder no dramatist can resist.  (...)
The DVD runs approximately 260 minutes. The only bonus material it contains is a short prose essay on the Brontë's home in Haworth. (Jack Goodstein)

The Pittsburgh Stage and Screen Examiner also post about the release.

The Sundance screenings of Wuthering Heights 2011 are reviewed:

The book itself, gives you more of a sense of inherent evilness in both Heathcliff and Cathy.  While their love might be true and intense, there are no other redeeming qualities in either of them. This rendition does do a great job of showing why Heathcliff becomes so embittered, which is a bit of a departure from the book.  I also loved that the director cast unknowns in the lead roles – to me, this is what indie film making should be about. See this movie if you have never been diagnosed with ADD, can sit through three  hours of overwrought, but beautiful cinematography, or are a sucker for an original take on an old story. (David J. Fowlie in Keep-it-Reel)

Heights’ spartan brutality is truly haunting. However, it is doomed to collect decidedly negative online feedback. People who go to Brontë films do not want to see something new and different. They want the “Oh, Heathcliff” scene on the moors. This is not that kind of film. It viscerally expresses a host of tactile sensations, de-emphasizing melodramatic plot turns. Despite a comparatively weaker third act, it is a bold work that really stays with you after viewing – but due to its nature, it is only recommended for adventurous, fully informed audiences. (Joe Bendel in Libertas Film Magazine)

The Daily Mail makes a reference to Wide Sargasso Sea in an article about Salman Rushdie and Indian censorship:

Second, a writer's worth to a literary culture is not decided by how prolific she is. Jean Rhys didn't write much - five slim novels. There was a gap of twenty years between her fourth and fifth novels. As it turned out, her last one, Wide Sargasso Sea, was the one that gave her lasting fam.

The Observer complains about the lack of nominations for women directors this year:

All the women. We Need to Talk About Kevin? Wuthering Heights? Bridesmaids? New director Angelina Jolie's excellent Bosnian war drama In the Land of Blood and Honey? Dee Rees and her brilliant, cool, powerful film about black-American lesbian life, Pariah? Kelly Reichardt's neo-western, Meek's Cutoff? Oh, and guess what, Madonna's W.E. is a thousand times better than royal borefest The King's Snooze, in which a man spends two hours overcoming a speech impediment while Helena Bonham Carter looks on. (Bidisha)

A Younger Theatre talks about Josie Long's The Future is Another Place:

A hard message to sell but a vital one, and one which is thankfully underpinned with a wonderfully original comic voice by Long, taking in imagined feuds between the Brontë sisters, and a meeting between Ringo and the other Beatles in which they call him up on ruining their albums by slipping children’s songs in the middle, which had me in hysterics. (Tristan Pate)

Miami Herald reviews Gemma Hardy's The Flight of Gemma Hardy:

Livesey works some sort of magic in The Flight of Gemma Hardy, which is too entertaining to be superfluous, too wise in its understanding of human nature to be a mere retread. Best of all, you don’t have to know Jane Eyre to enjoy it, though it’s clearly an offspring of and tribute to Bronte’s work. (...)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/29/2614173/beloved-classic-jane-eyre-gets.html#storylink=cpy (...()

Livesey fills Gemma’s journey — back to her past in mysterious Iceland, ahead to her future with and without Mr. Sinclair — with revelations, betrayals and surprising friendships and realizations. Gemma longs for a home: “I never meant to be a wanderer,” she says. But: “Perhaps being a wife was not the only choice.” Livesey takes a page from E.M. Forster to impart her message: Only connect. Only connect — with friends, with a lover, with family, with your past — and the whole world opens up before you, just like that. (Connie Ogle)

The Maine Sunday Telegram talks about yet another author with a Brontë past, Sarah Thomson:

Thomson grew up in the Midwest -- in St. Louis and Madison, Wis. Her world was populated by J.R.R. Tolkien, Lloyd Alexander, Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen. (Bob Keyes)

And The Spectator finds a Brontëite in Gloria di Piero (MP for Ashfield):

She has a soft spot for Wuthering Heights and Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. (...)
Wuthering Heights, in my view the greatest love story ever. My mate Lindsey and I read it on hols in Corfu straight after we'd done our A levels. (Fleur MacDonald)

The Calgary Herald reviews the concert of the Calgary Philarmonic Orchestra with Jeans'N'Classics:

[Jean] Meilleur performs his role of frontman cover-band capably, Leah Salomaa’s take on [Kate Bush's ]Wuthering Heights was quite wonderful, the Jeans musicians delivered a steady stream of rock shadings and quality solos, and the CPO, well, even at half speed they’re still an orchestra that can throw down with the best of them. (Mike Bell)

The New York Post announces that Drew Barrymore will be the co-host of TCM's The Essentials which will schedule Wuthering Heights 1939 in the new season. Also in the Post a brief comment about Jane Eyre 1944 (Monday, 8 p.m., TCM):

Joan Fontaine is Jane Eyre, who in 1800s England, goes straight from an abusive, orphans' charity school to a position as a governess to the ward of rich, gloomy Mr. Rochester (Orson Welles). Although he is above her station in 19th-century English society, she begins to fall for him, and he seemingly begins to have feelings for her as well. Did you really think it would be that easy? From the novel by Charlotte Brontë who, along with her sister, Emily, endured similar conditions at their charity boarding school.

The Sag Harbor Express has an intriguing Brontë reference:

As some of you might remember, I asked for chickens for Christmas, and the universe, not my husband, brought them to me. (...) Needless to say, I now have six fluffy chicks in the basement in a pet shop rabbit cage covered with a packing blanket. Very Jane Eyre. (Paige Patterson)

Raizononline Portal posts about the Brontës (in Portuguese); Jane Eyre 2011 is reviewed on 30diary (in Italian), videosöndag (in Swedish) and Oscar Completist.

If possible, lovelier still.

Yet, it must needs that I stay in & work: ― these 4 upper Ascension subjects try me dreadfully ― only, if I leave them I could not well enjoy going out, knowing how impossible it will be for me to move from Corfu, unless they be done & sold. So I have to reflect on the destiny of millions ― who cannot even enjoy the sun in doors as I do. A keen sense of every kind of beauty, is, I take it, if given in the extreme ― always more or less a sorrow to its owner, ― tho’ productive of good to others. ― The coming of J.G. does not aid me either, but rather the contrary. ―

Bye & bye, after several interruptions, Maude came in & what with talking, & one’s work going wrong, & the thought of dining up there with the Forts & Cravens, ― I grew over irritable, ― & now could “cry bitterly” as J.E. said. It is seldom nowadays that I am so “utterly cast down.” ― Weariness of life ― & loneliness!

Rushed out at 5, blinded & weary; ― nor seeing the hill nor sky. Met the nice Decies ― who stopped, & Sir H.J. Stokes, who stopped also. Round by Kastrades, & called at the Kokalis ― Χριστὸς is better: saw all the family. Called at the Sargents: saw no one, & home.

Dined at the Maudes. Fort & Mrs. F. next to whom I sate. Craven & Mrs. C. Maude & Mrs. M. ― Sterling ― & L. By great effort I got tho’ dinner & evening ― but with greatest difficulty. This weary work won’t do.

Fresh row between Maude & Paramythiotti about the dogs, ― wh. Maude ought not certainly to keep in the cellar.

Down in my room by 11. & penned out Kalama drawing till 12.30[.]

“Trouble on trouble ― pain on pain” ― the drain smell is beginning again. I shall not be able to live here anyhow, if anywhere in Corfû.

---

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

The LipService theatre company is touring again the UK with their spoof, Withering Looks:

The Radlett Centre
Withering Looks
28th January

The Curve, Leicester
Withering Looks
7th February

Bedford Corn Exchange
http://www.bedfordcornexchange.co.uk/
Withering Looks
8th February

The Donut Chesterfield
Withering Looks
8th March
International Women's day event

Leeds City Varieties
Withering Looks
9th March


Square Chapel, Halifax
Withering Looks
10th March

Georgian Theatre, RichmondWithering Looks
16th March

Kendal Brewery Arts Centre
Withering Looks
17th March
breweryarts.co.uk

After being performed in Tokyo and Houston, the revised version of Gordon & Caird's Jane Eyre (or Jane Eyre 2.0 as it is sometimes called) opens this weekend in Atlanta:

Jane Eyre. The Musical

Music & Lyrics by Paul Gordon
Book & Additonal Lyrics by John Caird
Legacy Theatre, Atlanta

January 27th - February 19th, 2012
With: 

Katie Mitchell, Stephen Mitchell Brown, Jill Bergeron, Anna Bridgeman, Amy Bridges, Erin Burnett, Alexandra Duncan, Ben Isabel, Erin Lamb, Ed Richardson, Preston Watson, Amanda Wilborn and Hannah Wilkinson.

Romance. Secrets. Haunting. These are the words that might come to mind while taking a walk through the ethereal English moors of the 5-time Tony nominated Broadway musical, Jane Eyre. This musical adaptation of the 19th century novel by Charlotte Brontë features the work of composer lyricist Paul Gordon (Emma) and book-writer/lyricist John Caird (Les Miserables; Children of Eden), whom have granted the Legacy the regional premier of their new version of the show. This is one you will not want to miss. 

Broadway World adds:

Mr. Gordon states that “Jane Eyre 2.0 is a leaner and more concise version of the show that played. Broadway in 2001. We have tuned the story and made the production more acceptable for regional theaters around the country to produce. We are very proud of the improvements and changes we have made and hope that audiences will enjoy Charlotte Brontë's moving story of love and forgiveness.” (...)
This version boasts a reduced orchestra from the original New York production as well as new and rewritten music and lyrics. The book has been cut extensively throughout in order to bring focus to the emotional love story between Jane and Rochester. The cast has been reduced to thirteen, with most actors doubling or tripling roles.

The Citizen has further information:

Mark Smith, Artistic Director of the Legacy and Jane Eyre’s director, first approached Gordon and Caird in the Fall of 2010 after having read the article on Playbill.com.
“The musical’s soundtrack has always been one of my favorites.  The haunting and memorable melodies, combined with the story’s timeless and enduring themes, made a considerable impression on me.  After reading the article, I knew that the Legacy with its intimate, yet grand auditorium could be the perfect place to stage this new version of the show.  Mr. Caird and Mr. Gordon were incredibly gracious and excited about the possibility of bringing this version to Atlanta and to the Legacy for its regional premiere.”

Contradiction: Oberon and Titania by Richard Dadd

Painting of the Day Archive

Victorian Periodicals Review: Volume 44, Number 4, Winter 2011

The Red House story is beginning to reach local papers. The Spenborough Guardian reports many locals are against the closure:

Red House – ‘a cultural and educational gem’ – could be lost forever under council plans to sell it off.
Kirklees says closing the award-winning Gomersal museum and moving its exhibits to other museums would save £116,000 over two years.
However the plans have caused anger with critics saying it is yet another example of north Kirklees making the biggest sacrifices.
MP Mike Wood said: “We knew Kirklees was considering reducing the opening hours, and that was bad enough, but to hear they want to close it altogether was a bombshell.
“Red House is a credit to our area, and we cannot sacrifice it in a forlorn attempt to save money at all costs. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. [...]”
Gomersal councillor Lisa Holmes, said she and her Tory ward colleagues would do their utmost to fight the plans.
“It’s an absolute shame,” she said. “I have spoken to the staff who are devastated, not just for their jobs but because they know the vital service it provides. We realise we have massive savings to make, but we will do whatever we can to find an alternative to closure. There is a big challenge ahead of us but we must protect our heritage.”
Vice-chairman of Spen Valley Civic Society Gordon North said: “People cherish Red House and I am sure they will be as disgusted as we are that the one museum in the Spen Valley could go.
“It attracts local, national and international visitors, and it’s not just because of its Brontë links. The Taylor family was incredibly important in the story of the Spen Valley – Mr Taylor was one of the first woollen manufacturers and opened the Bank of Gomersal, while his daughter Mary Taylor was at the forefront of the feminist and equality movements – and you might think that a Labour council might recognise that.”
Red House was bought by the old Spenborough Council in 1969 to be opened as a museum telling the story of the Spen Valley.
Former Spenborough councillor Michael McGowan, who went on to become an MEP, said only last year he had taken a group of visitors from New Zealand to Red House, because of Mary Taylor’s links with their country.
“It’s a fantastic resource, a cultural and educational gem, and we mustn’t lose it,” he said.
The move has also been condemned by Carol Brontë, who first visited Red House as curator of the Brontë Museum in Northern Ireland. Her husband, James Wallace Brontë, is the great-great-grandson of the Rev Patrick Brontë’s youngest brother.
“I’m absolutely devastated,” she said. “Why close this famous tourist destination? It’s a very special place and I would urge Kirklees to think again.”
Brontë Society trustee Stephen Whitehead said: “The Taylor family was so important to Charlotte that she featured them as the Yorkes in Shirley and Briarmains is an exact description of Red House. It is an irreplaceable asset and this is not the way to manage your heritage.”
President of Cleckheaton Rotary Club Bill Stevenson said they had great concerns about the length of time for objections – February 7 – and urged the public to attend Tuesday’s Spen Valley area committee meeting to air their views.
The meeting is at 7pm at the town hall, Cleckheaton.
A spokeswoman for Kirklees said difficult decisions had to be made.
“The proposal to close Red House Museum is one of a large number of measures up for consideration which have been proposed to fill a very big gap in the council’s budget and reduce expenditure,” she said.
No decision has been made yet and people are invited to make their views know by contacting communication@kirklees.gov.uk or Communities and Leisure, Museums and Galleries, The Stables, Ravensknowle Park, Wakefield Road, Dalton, Huddersfield, HD5 8DJ. (Margaret Heward)

The Telegraph and Argus looks at it from a Brontë point of view:

The director of the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth has condemned proposals to close a popular museum with strong connections to the famous literary family.
The future of Red House Museum, Gomersal, will be discussed at Kirklees Council’s Cabinet meeting on February 7 as part of budget talks.
But parsonage director Andrew McCarthy said: “We appreciate the challenges faced by local authorities in terms of balancing the budgets at the moment but it does seem a pretty drastic step that can be made in haste and repented at leisure.” [...]
It is said ‘Briarmains’ – the house Charlotte wrote about in her second novel, Shirley – was based on Red House and some of the characters were thought to have been inspired by the Taylor family.
Mr McCarthy said: “The Taylor family as merchants, bankers and mill-owners did a huge amount to shape that part of the West Riding and they are a great part of the heritage of the area and there is this very strong link with the Brontës, particularly Charlotte.
“She stayed there on many occasions in the 1830s as a guest of her close friends Mary and Martha Taylor.
“There are very few buildings which combine Brontë history and Brontë fiction in the way Red House does. It would be a huge loss.” (Sally Clifford)

Please keep letters/email coming to local authorities (see list in this post) and if you haven't yet, do sign this online petition. And spread the word too!

Another fighting front is the repairs of the Haworth Parish Church. The news of the many initiatives that have been done (and have to be done) to raise the money have crossed borders and are mentioned in quite a good article in El País (Spain):

El organismo público English Heritage se comprometió a donar 120.000 euros para la primera parte del trabajo si la iglesia conseguía recaudar 75.000 euros. El plazo acababa el viernes 20, después de ser prorrogado en un par de ocasiones. "En las últimas horas hemos conseguido el último céntimo del dinero que necesitábamos, hemos conocido que English Heritage nos dará su donación pero también nos han dicho que la obra nos costará 50.000 libras más, una auténtica patada en la boca" explica Peter Mayo - Smith, el párroco anglicano de Haworth. El dinero ha tardado tanto en llegar que el precio de la obra se ha elevado. "English Heritage nos ha dado permiso para comenzar la obra de la parte sur del tejado en primavera pero es nuestra responsabilidad lograr la diferencia con el precio actual y, teniendo en cuenta que hemos tardado más de un año en recolectar 75.000 euros, no las tenemos todas con nosotros. Sin embargo, tengo esperanza y transmito a la comunidad, que tanto ha ayudado. Esto es como una carrera de triatlón. Ya hemos superado la prueba de la natación pero nos quedan el ciclismo y la carrera a pie para dar por concluida la obra". (Maruxa Ruiz del Árbol) (Translation)

Anyway, some things never change, and one is John Mullan's Brontë mentions on his '10 of the best' for the Guardian. Today he looks at nightmares:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.  Poor Lockwood gets snowed in on a visit to Wuthering Heights and has to stay the night. He dreams that he puts his hand through the bedroom window and has it seized by "the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand". There is a sobbing voice and suddenly a terrifying child's face. It is Cathy, and the rest of the novel is an explanation of this dream.

Strange, though, that he has left out Jane's in Jane Eyre.

This columnist from The Hindu should read the books he mentions before he preaches about their 'social purpose':

Realism and romanticism can be either passive or active. Passive realism usually aims to depict reality truthfully, without preaching anything. The novels of Jane Austen, George Eliot and the Brontë Sisters are examples. In this sense, they are socially neutral. However, sometimes passive realism preaches fatalism, passivity, non-resistance to evil, suffering and humility. (Markandey Katju)

Sure, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to name but one novel is as 'socially neutral' as a book can get.

TIME Magazine wonders,

But why were Victorian writers so into orphans? Oliver set the trend (the novel was eight chapters into its serial run when Victoria was crowned queen, in June of 1837),  and then there’s Jane Eyre and Heathcliff and Daniel Deronda and Dickens’ own Pip and Estella, in Great Expectations, to name just a few. (Radhika Jones)

Mainly because there were many of them in real life too.

The Guardian comments on the bookishness of this year's Oscars:

It's not classic novels that attract movie-makers. Of the books turned into nominated films this time, only Michael Morpurgo's War Horse (1982) was not published in the noughties. The others are Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret (filmed as Hugo), Jonathan Safran Foer's 9/11 novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Moneyball by Michael Lewis (the second non-fiction sports title by him in three years to generate a Best Picture nominee, as he also wrote the source of Blind Side), and two debuts, Kaui Hart Hemmings's The Descendants and Kathryn Stockett's The Help. It's the first time for quite a while – conceivably since 1940, when Gone with the Wind won and Wuthering Heights was among the nominees – that versions of two novels by women have been listed for the most coveted Oscar. (John Dugdale)

Too bad Jane Eyre (and Wuthering Heights too, why not) haven't been featured more prominently.

Connect Savannah is fascinated by Michael Fassbender's versatility:

As part of his four-score from 2011, Michael Fassbender turns up in A Dangerous Method as Carl Jung, the Swiss doctor often deemed the father of modern psychology. Watching him tackle Jung as a cautious, conflicted man, it's hard to see the same person who was so brooding in Jane Eyre, so, uh, magnetic in X-Men: First Class, and so raw in Shame. Yes, there's a reason so many of us think Academy Award nominee Michael Fassbender sounds a helluva lot better than, say, Academy Award nominee Jonah Hill. (Matt Brunson)

Film School Rejects on Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights at Sundance:

To see Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, one of my most anticipated films of the festival. A gorgeous visual feast, it’s a sumptuous and sensual film, just heaven on the eyes. Emotionally, though, it’s a toughie – for the sole reason that the characters of Cathy and Heathcliff are awful, selfish, wretched people. Their love story is one of destruction of all kinds, and Arnold rendered it in a way that is true to its source material. (Kate Erbland)

And de Volkskrant (Netherlands) talks about the premiere of the film at the Rotterdam Film Festival (IFFR).

The Chicago Tribune discusses fictionalised biographies:

Or "Charlotte & Emily" (2010) by Jude Morgan, if your curiosity runs to the famous scribbling sisters who turned out"Jane Eyre" and"Wuthering Heights" in between bouts of melancholy. (Julia Keller)

And Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy makes it to The New York Times' Editors' Choice.

THE FLIGHT OF GEMMA HARDY, by Margot Livesey (Harper/HarperCollins, $26.99.) An appealing novel about a young girl that recasts “Jane Eyre.”

The New Zealand Listener sums up a Midsomer Murders episode:

Midsomer Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Midsomer sticks it the the actors: in A Tale of Two Hamlets, an arrogant actor (Charlie Beall) is killed in a summerhouse explosion, and then the director of one of his movies is electrocuted. It seems there’s a feud going in in Upper and Lower Warden over the works of a Victorian male writer called Ellis Bell – which, literary geeks, was the pseudonym of Emily Brontë. (Fiona Rae)

EFE covers the Spanish premiere of Albert Nobbs and lists several films where women are dressed like men. Including Les Soeurs Brontë 1979:

Otros ejemplos destacables los encontramos en "Las hermanas Brontë" (1979), con Isabelle Huppert como una de las célebres escritoras[.] (Carlos Palencia) (Translation)

Las Provincias (Spain) revisits the zombies and mentions a mashup that cannot be other than Wuthering Heights and a Werewolf...and a Zombie Too:

Los zombis, los muertos vivientes, los caminantes putrefactos, demarran a principios de los años 30 con 'La Legión de los hombres sin Alma', de Victor Halpernin. Desde entonces no han parado de crecer y ahora la zombificación es total, completa, rotunda, exitosa, con lo cual sospechamos que están aquí para quedarse pues el género no sólo se ha consolidado en el cine y en la pequeña pantalla ('Walking Dead'), sino que ha saltado al comic y a la literatura, revisionando clásicos como 'Cumbres Borrascosas' o avanzando al galope gracias a norteamericanos como el hijo de Mel Brooks, Max Brooks (véase su 'Guerra mundial Zombi', o a paisanos nuestros como Juan Miguel Aguilera y Javier Negrete. (Translation)

Ginger Generation talks about the Valentino collection in the Paris Fashion Week (in Italian):

La moda italiana chiude in bellezza la settimana della moda parigina. Impalpabile, leggera, sognante: la moda Valentino è tutta un tulle. Abiti dal sapore vittoriano, che sembrano usciti da un romanzo delle sorelle Brontë: colli alti con fiocco, maniche a sbuffo e gonne ampie.  (Francesca Parravicini) (Translation)

Michel Vivoux remembers first loves in La Depeche (France):

Soudain, la petite fille se rue sur moi, me serre dans ses bras, me fait un énorme bisou sur la bouche, et me dit un de ces « je t'aime » comme on peut en entendre dans « Les Hauts de Hurlevent » ou autre « Autant en emporte le vent ». (Translation) 

Good reviews for the theatre play The  Sisters Three: das Leben der Schwestern Brontë performed at the Linzer Posthof theatre:

Die einengende Welt der „Three Sisters“ wurde auch durch die Videoprojektionen (Renate Schuler) und atmosphärische Musik (Willy Hackl) heraufbeschworen. Joachim Rathke hätte in seiner Inszenierung allerdings durchaus mehr auf die Kraft der Literatur vertrauen können. Das erfreulich zahlreich erschienene Publikum war bei der Premiere am Donnerstagabend trotzdem großteils sehr angetan.Vorstellungen. (Birgit Thek in Neues Volskblatt) (Translation)

Eingebettet in zahlreiche Originalzitate aus Briefen, Tagebüchern, Romanen vermischen sich Wirklichkeit und Fiktion, Tragik, aber auch Komik zu einer intensiven Stunde, die in der Regie von Joachim Rathke darstellerisch aus dem Vollen schöpft, manchmal nahe an der Grenze zu Theatralik und Parodie. Das Bühnenbild ersetzen, bis auf Tisch und Stühle, Renate Schulers atmosphärische Videoprojektionen: als Fenster in die Öde, als in den Gedichten viel zitiertes Meer der Seele.
Willy Hackls Klangkulisse unterstreicht die Emotionen, wobei ihm oft ein hartes Pochen genügt, um Beklemmung spürbar zu machen. Langer Applaus für einen fast schon zu intensiven Abend.
Neu und gut also discusses this production. (Karin Schütze in Nachrichten) (Translation)

The Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany) talks about the 250th Anniversary Catalogue of Henry Sotheran Booksellers:

Auch die literarischen Klassiker sind vertreten. Der erste Gedichtband der Brontë-Schwestern, schlicht „Poems“, veröffentlicht noch unter den männlichen Pseudonymen Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, war 1848 ein Misserfolg - und ist heute eine Rarität, die man für 2250 Pfund erhält. (Mareike Hennig) (Translation)

The MocArty RMF Classic (Poland) nominations have been announced. Dario Marianelli's Jane Eyre soundtrack has been nominated for Best Film Music.

Sydsvenskan (Sweden) interviews the author Ingrid Elam:

Vilka mer eller mindre väl dolda fiktioner vill jag lyfta fram? Nyfiket skärskådar hon Charlotte Brontë i ”Jane Eyre” och konstaterar: (Katarina Tornberg) (Translation)

The Times looks at the price of literary manuscript, remarking on the £690,000 recently fetched by Charlotte Brontë's unpublished juvenilia manuscript. Pete Medway posts about an old edition of Wuthering Heights. And the Brontë Sisters shares a picture of a man baptised by Patrick Brontë; Dilettabrizzi reviews Jane Eyre on Paperblog.

Unwell. ― Painted at 2 Corfus ― till 3.

Called on Julia Goldsmid & Mrs. Naylor ―& walked with them to Kastrades, ― & then, (Straham A.D.C. joining us, ―) to the Casino.

Miss G. walks but little: so we returned by 5.30.

Afterwards, I went again to Kastrades & got home by 6.20.

Dined.

Penned out till 10.20. Kalama drawings.

Χριστὸς is ill again ― & G. has gone to his mothers. I think Χριστὸς will die.

---

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

The Secret by Fernand Khnopff

Painting of the Day Archive

The Publisher’s Weekly blog PWxyz ranked The 5 Books that Inspire the Most Tattoos, finding Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in the top 5. Their online research seems to be thorough, even if the methods aren’t scientific: “We spent an untold number of hours combing the Internet’s two most extensive literary tattoo sites: Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos and The Word Made Flesh, then cross-checking the most frequently occurring tattoos with Google searches and Google image searches, all to get to the bottom of what books inspire the most tattoos and why.” Lewis Carroll’s book was beat out only by… Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, only because of the popularity of the phrase “So it goes.” So it goes.

2. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Evidence:  hip “Who in the world am I”, twinkle twinkle feet,shoulder caterpillar, hip “take care”, ankle cheshire, back nonsense,leg dodo, forearm “we’re all mad here”, shoulder cheshire, feet rabbit and hatter.

Alice has inspired the most varied collection of tattoos of any book. Its wide cast of characters, quotes and images are all represented: the Cheshire Cat, the Dodo, the White Rabbit, and the Caterpillar all have fans out there. Out of the quotes, “We’re all mad here” was the most commonly occurring. Credit Alice‘s popularity among the tattooed to the fully-realized world Carroll created, and for tone specific to its story. More than any other book on this list, you’d be likely to get an Alice tattoo because it simply looks great and is hyper-intricate. Tim, who has an image of the Cheshire Cat on his shoulder blade, said on Contrariwise: “The Cheshire Cat is the only creature in Wonderland who uses logic. Though his words often seem mocking and bizarre, his process is always logical. To me the Cheshire Cat symbolizes the fragility of the border between genius and insanity.”

 

First of all, we have set up an online petition to try and save Red House from being closed down and sold. Please do take a moment to sign it here.

A couple of headlines today have made us think that we had gone back in time to 1913 when Charlotte's letters to Constantin Heger were first published. The Telegraph writes 'Charlotte Brontë's lost love letters revealed':

The letters were sent by the Jane Eyre novelist to Professor Constantin Heger, an older man with a wife and children.
Heger tore them up in shock, but they were retrieved from a rubbish bin by his wife who sewed them back together and preserved them.
One, composed in French, reads: "If my master withdraws his friendship from me entirely, I shall be absolutely without hope."
Another, with a postscript written in English, reads: "I must say one word to you in English - I wish I would write to you more cheerful letters, for when I read this over, I find it to be somewhat gloomy - but forgive me my dear master - do not be irritated at my sadness - according to the words of the Bible: 'Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaketh', and truly I find it difficult to be cheerful so long as I think I shall never see you more." [...]
By the time Heger was shown the letters by his daughter on his death bed, Bronte had died age 38 and was a recognised writer. The family decided to keep the correspondence, but the writer's love for Heger was tactfully omited from a biography written by her friend, Elizabeth Gaskell.
Rachel Floss, of the British Library, said: "Having been burnt, sold, cut up and destroyed, it is remarkable that these letters have survived.
"Seeing the torn-up letters with the careful stitches holding them together is remarkably evocative and moving. You get a really vivid sense that they have a story to tell."
Love Letters: 2000 Years of Romance, is published by the British Library and features correspondence from Oscar Wilde, Henry VIII, Rupert Brooke and Lord Nelson.

And the Daily Mail: 'Charlotte Brontë’s lost love letters to married professor were preserved by his wife'

It was a tale of unrequited love that could have been plucked straight from one of her novels.
Charlotte Brontë’s infatuation with her Belgian professor might never have come to light if it were not for the salvaging of her secret love letters.
The papers, written in 1844 when the author was 28, were torn up in shock by the older man, who was married and had children. But perversely, they were later found by his wife in a rubbish bin and sewn back together – possibly to preserve evidence of an indiscretion.
Three of the letters, addressed to Professor Constantin Heger, were composed entirely in French, one saying: ‘If my master withdraws his friendship from me entirely, I shall be absolutely without hope.’
One further letter had a postscript written in English, which is now to be published by the British Library in an anthology of love letters written by historical figures.
It reads: ‘I must say one word to you in English – I wish I would write to you more cheerful letters, for when I read this over, I find it to be somewhat gloomy – but forgive me my dear master – do not be irritated at my sadness – according to the words of the Bible: “Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaketh” and truly I find it difficult to be cheerful so long as I think I shall never see you more.’ [...]
The letters still have the marks where their horrified recipient tore them up or tried to burn them.
Even after his wife had rescued them, Professor Heger tried to dispose of them again when his daughter showed them to him as he lay on his death bed in 1896.
But by this time, Miss Brontë – who had died aged 38 in 1855 – was already seen as an important writer and it was decided they should be preserved.  [...]
After Brontë’s death, her friend Elizabeth Gaskell wrote her biography, attempting to bury the story of unrequited love to preserve her honour. The young woman’s reputation would have been ruined had it been well-known that she pursued a man so aggressively.
Love Letters: 2000 Years of Romance, is the first ever anthology to reproduce original love letters in each of the writers’ own hand. (Eleanor Harding)

Just a remark here: the letters were once 'lost' (not exactly lost, just privately owned by the Hegers) but have been in the British Library and widely known since 1913. And anyway we thought the book had been released back in November.

Another book, The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey, continues gathering reviews and being deemed Jane Eyre-inspired. Macleans looks at the connection:

In 1958, at the age of 10, Gemma Hardy is the unwanted ward of her late uncle’s wife. She is sent off to boarding school, where she earns her keep by cooking and cleaning and where she must fend off the abuse of other students. Clever and hard-working, Gemma is not quite 18 when she goes to work as the au pair of an unruly little girl who lives with her uncle, the mysterious Mr. Sinclair, in the Orkneys in Scotland. Despite the differences between Gemma and Sinclair—he is more than twice her age, educated and of means—a strong connection sparks between them. Then Gemma discovers a secret from his past which she cannot abide.
Sound familiar? It should—the story is based quite closely on Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë’s tale of the feisty, wise-beyond-her-years orphan, still widely read more than 150 years after publication. So why reinvent one of the great classics of English literature? Part of Jane Eyre’s brilliance lies in its portrayal of children as both sophisticated and vulnerable emotionally—they “can feel,” Brontë wrote, “but they cannot analyze their feelings.” Livesey’s adaptation brings those feelings into closer relief, granting readers greater intimacy with the beloved character.
While Gemma, like Jane, is remarkably resilient, she is not immune to the confusion and contradictions that live in all young people. When her aunt puts on a rare show of tenderness, Gemma unwittingly melts—“It was so long since anyone had touched me with a semblance of affection.” When her cry for help lands a teacher in trouble, she atones with fervour. Desperate to discover her roots, she betrays a couple to whom she has become close. And on the romance front—this is, above all, a love story—Gemma is idealistic but also red-blooded. Livesey does not shy away from the inherent discomfort in the story’s liaison between a teenager and much-older man, but Jane Eyre fans will not be disappointed—not one ounce of passion is sacrificed. (Dafna Izenberg)

The Christian Science Monitor comments on it as well:

Lonely and having lost her mother, nine-year-old Margot Livesy “fell in love” with “Jane Eyre.” Now, the award-winning Scottish writer transports Charlotte Brontë's classic to 1950s and '60s Scotland in her new novel, The Flight of Gemma Hardy.
While living some 140 years in the future, fierce, justice-demanding Gemma will be instantly recognizable to Brontë's readers. (In this case, she comes with an affinity for birds and an Icelandic back story, having been brought to Scotland by her vicar uncle after her parents die.) The first chapters hew closely to the original: the selfish aunt, the spoiled cousins, the horrible boarding school – check, check, check.
Like Brontë, Livesy attended a Lowood-like establishment, where she “prayed nightly for the school to burn down.” [...]
But if the Orkneys are a satisfying stand-in for Thornfield Hall, occasionally grumpy banker Hugh Sinclair is no Mr. Rochester. Their love affair feels perfunctory – almost a whim on his part. And while a rich 41-year-old male being attracted to a penniless 18-year-old isn't exactly improbable, it's not the stuff that epic romances are made of. It's also really tough to come up with an obstacle to true love that can top a madwoman in the attic. Reader, I didn't want her to marry him.
In a contrast with “Jane Eyre,” where a reader can't wait to get back to Thornfield, the last third of “The Flight of Gemma Hardy” gets even stronger. Livesy deviates a bit more from Brontë's playbook as Gemma makes a place for herself in the world. And while Jane never sat for her O levels, you just know she would have aced them. (Yvonne Zipp)

Hispanic Business reports that Michael Thomas Ford is releasing a new Zombie Austen novel next month:

In Jane Vows Vengeance by Michael Thomas Ford (Ballantine, Feb. 28), our erstwhile gothic gal needs to let her fiancé know that she's not just dead, but undead. She also needs to get away from Lord Byron and Charlotte Brontë -- and who could blame her?

The Star carries a story about three literary sisters... which are not the Brontë sisters:

Sheffield-born siblings Danuta Reah and Penny Grubb are both acclaimed crime authors - with their older sister Sue Knight a published poet - and they each focus on the dark world of crime in their novels.
Now the family are being described as a contemporary version of the ultimate literary dynasty - Yorkshire’s Bronte sisters – as Danuta and Penny prepare for their first joint book signing in Sheffield.
Danuta, of Endcliffe Vale Road, Endcliffe, said: “I wouldn’t want to compare myself with Charlotte Bronte or one of her sisters, these are classic writers, but in a way we’re doing a similar thing.
“Crime fiction looks at darkness in society, the awful things people do to each other, that reaches out to a wide audience like the Brontës did.”
Like the Brontes, the family love the wild moors of their home county and are all talented, with younger brother John Kot an astrophysicist.
Penny, 56, who now lives near Hull, said: “It is a flattering comparison. When we were little we used to play games and write reams. Unfortunately, unlike the Brontë family we didn’t keep that.”

HitFix's In Contention thinks Jane Eyre 2011 deserved a Best Cinematography Oscar nomination:

On balance, it's a sightly enough group of films, though I can't help wishing the branch had shown a little more ingenuity in their choices: this would have been a lovely place to recognize some visually astonishing arthouse items too modest or too tricky to get a foothold in major categories: "Jane Eyre," "Melancholia," "Meek's Cutoff"... take your pick. (Guy Lodge)

The Philadelphia Inquirer also thinks that Jane Eyre deserved more:

Oh well, in the eyes of Oscar, it's the year of the domestic. "Albert Nobbs," "The Help." Which makes it even harder to explain why "Jane Eyre" was overlooked. (Gary Thompson)

A couple of reviews of the film Albert Nobbs mention Mia Wasikowska's Jane. The Sacramento Bee says,

Wasikowska is its lyrical heart. The actress was excellent going through her own stages of repression and rebirth as Jane Eyre earlier this year. . . (Betsy Sharkey)

And according to Times Union,

and Wasikowska proves that the deer in the headlights thing she did in "Jane Eyre" was a performance, not a mannerism. (Mick LaSalle)

The Jerusalem Post has an article on the British Film Festival (February 4-12 at Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv venues).

The opening movie is Andrea Arnold’s new version of Wuthering Heights. It’s a reworking of the beloved Emily Brontë classic, which is meant to shock its audiences as the original book scandalized readers.
Heathcliff is not a Gypsy but a runaway slave from the Caribbean, who uses profanity and fights back when he is called by a racial slur.
Viewers who remember earlier screen versions, notably the Merle Oberon- Laurence Olivier 1939 film directed by William Wyler, should be warned – this isn’t your grandmother’s Wuthering Heights. Arnold is known for her gritty, realistic films Fish Tank and Red Road. (Hannah Brown)

The film The Grey is reviewed by Toro Magazine:

And while we may wish to applaud the filmmaker’s attempt to add some social relevance and substance to an otherwise traditional yarn about the tenacity of the human spirit, there is little to gain by grinding down the action to give each death scene a soulful soliloquy more in keeping with the writings of Emily Brontë than those of Jack London. (Thom Ernst)

The Telegraph and Argus makes a pun on Bradford City's football player Andy Haworth:

With a name like Haworth, City’s “other” on-loan winger should fit in fine in West Yorkshire.
Andy Haworth would certainly love to hit the ‘Wuthering Heights’ as he looks to put a frustrating time at Bury behind him. (Simon Parker)

The Indiana Statesman recommends Wuthering Heights. And Liz Lochhead Scotland's poet laureate would seem inclined to agree with that, judging by this interview in The Herald:

What is your favourite book? Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro, because I'd felt she was being valedictory in her previous one, The View from Castle Rock, but, no, there it was, yet another collection of dazzling short stories, as great as ever. Oh, and Wuthering Heights. Of course.

The New York Times suggests Wuthering Heights: Restless Souls.

The Huffington Post wonders whether you can be addicted to love:

From Romeo and Juliet (underage bride, double suicide) to Wuthering Heights (animal torture, violent death) and Jane Eyre (insane hidden wife, arson), every great love story had two things in common: A healthy dose of suffering and a body count. (Catherine Townsend)

This blogger's favourite novel is Jane Eyre and Pop/Media Explosion looks into what is to be learned about friendship from Jane Eyre. Al borde de un ataque de cine (in Spanish) and Close Caption (in Turkish) review the 2011 film adaptation. Livros e vagalumes is giving away a copy of Wuthering Heights in Portuguese while Queenie and the Dew posts pictures of a 1950s edition of the novel. Subtle Melodrama reviews The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. And Laura's Reviews posts about The Brontës: A Beginner's Guide by Steve Eddy.

Romantic Circles is delighted to announce the publication of a new volume in our Praxis series, Romanticism and Disaster, co-edited by Jacques Khalip and David Collings.

In essays by Scott Juengel, William Keach, Timothy Morton, and Rei Terada, this volume considers and responds to the timely concept of devastated life by addressing how the capacity to read, interpret, and absorb disaster necessitates significant changes in theory, ethics, and common life. What if the consequences or “experience” of a disaster were less about psychic survival than an unblinking desire to face down the disaster as a challenge to normative structures?

As a whole, Romanticism and Disaster attends to the rhetorical, epistemological, political, and social effects of Romantic critique, and reflects on how processes of destruction and reconstitution, ruination and survival, are part and parcel of Romanticism’s grappling with a negativity that haunts its corners. Put in this way, “disaster” does not signal a referential event, but rather an undoing of certain apparently prior categories of dwelling, and forces us to contemplate living otherwise. In confronting the end of things, what are the conditions or possibilities of existence amidst catastrophe? What is a crisis, and what kinds of challenges does it occasion? What can be philosophically gained or lost by analyzing disaster in its multiple sites, contexts, and instances?

Romanticism and Disaster can be found here.

We’ve heard the term, “Behind the green baize doors”, but what exactly does it mean? You hear this reference most often in regard to servants and in old books. Baize was a sturdy green cloth attached to a swing door.  The insulating fabric prevented noises from disturbing the individuals on either side: The ‘Green Baize [...]

Calm ― gray ― fine.

Accounts.

Worked at 3 Corfûs.

At 2.30 came the Trieste boat, with a glass ― I saw Miss J. Goldsmid & her party.

But the Vessel was declared in Quarantine by some Ionian bother, & it was 4 before they got out.

Called at their Hotel & saw Julia Goldsmid.

Walked from 5 to 6.30 ― by Kastrades, & to sea, home. ―

Dined.

Penned out till 10.30.

XX8

Dreadful night, from a rat gnawing a hole through from the drain into my bedroom. ill.

---

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

Alice in Wonderland is increasingly popular as a wedding theme on reality television and in life (one “credit crunch” bride has even described it as recession-defying). As ever, some couples go further than others. This week many blogs have been reposting these pictures of newlyweds Erin and Matt – a couple with a vision, to be sure. You can see many more pictures at BitRebels.

 

The Theater Artemis production of Wuthering Heights opens in New York:

Wuthering Heights: Restless Souls
Theater Artemis
’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
The New Victory Theatre, New York, US
January 27 7 pm
January 28 2 pm ; 7 pm
January 29 3pm

Co-produced by Theater Antigone of Kortrijk, Belgium

Edgar and Heathcliff have always been Catherine's whole world, and the battle between her heart and her head consumes her. "Choose, choose, and make peace with your choice," her housemaid Nelly urges her in this fearless stage adaptation of Emily Brontë's sweeping love story. Played on a spare set evoking the wild and mysterious nature of the moors, this contemporary production exposes the timeless nature and inescapable power of the classic novel. "From adolescence to old age: there is not a story that is as famous and universal as that of love that will tear people apart. And this is where the strength of this performance lies, in its appeal across generations." – De Morgen (Belgium)

"Wuthering Heights is drama that grabs onto you and never lets go." – Het Parool - Joukje Akveld

NEW VIC EXTRAS
Zoem! New Dutch Theater Special Exhibit
(Informative display about Dutch productions)

SIGN-INTERPRETED PERFORMANCE
Sun, Jan 29 at 3pm

POST-SHOW TALK-BACK
Sun, Jan 29 at 3pm

FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY
New Vic Studio: Family Workshops
Sat, Jan 28 at 4:30pm

First of all, we would like to bring to your attention a very important post published by the Brontë Parsonage Blog:

Last week, Kirklees Council made public its budget proposals.
In addition to the recently publicised reduction in the opening times of Museums and Galleries across Kirklees, the proposals now include the complete closure of Red House Museum in Gomersal. If these proposals are passed, Red House would be closed in September and the buildings sold - not necessarily as a museum.
Red House was built in 1660 and was the home of the Taylor Family until 1920.  It has important Brontë connections and is now furnished as a home in the 1830s when Charlotte Brontë was a frequent visitor.  Red House, the Taylor family and the Spen Valley area were all featured in Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley.
Also on site are the recreated 1830s gardens, the restored Barn which illustrates the numerous Brontë connections in the area and the renovated Cartsheds which houses the 'Spen Valley Stories' gallery.
Last year the site received almost 30,000 visitors and was recently awarded its second Sandford Award for the quality of its heritage educational services for schools.  The site is an important asset for Kirklees and local businesses as a tourist destination which attracts visitors from all over the world to the area.
Unlike Council Services which can be cut and reinstated in better economic times, if the proposal to close and sell the site were passed an extremely important part of Spen Valley's heritage would be lost forever. Kirkless Council Impact Statement.
Richard Wilcocks writes:
So the Communities and Leisure Service department of Kirklees Council is recommending that the Red House Museum in Gomersal should be closed down in less than nine months. Just like that! Once again, a local authority is calculating that a short-term capital gain and a removal of dedicated museum staff is going to make up for the loss of one of Kirklees’s few tourist attractions, which is much more than a museum and a learning centre. It could be put on a list of national treasures. It is important not only for those dismissed in the official impact statement as ‘Brontë enthusiasts’ (note that these come after the local businesses in the sentence) but for anyone who believes that the most fitting memorial to Mary Taylor, a highly significant historical figure, not only because of her lifelong friendship with Charlotte Brontë, is the museum situated in her house. Perhaps that should be national memorial – let’s move beyond the parochial.
I well remember a book launch of about a decade ago, held in the Red House grounds: Joan Bellamy, who was at the time a member of Brontë Society Council, had just published More Precious than Rubies, a title which has Mary Taylor, Friend of Charlotte Brontë, Strong Minded Woman underneath it. All present were complimentary about Red House, its exhibitions and the expertise to be found within its red-brick walls, and they were not just being polite. It was described as a great aid for those concerned with education – and if proof is needed that the place is still a great aid, look online at this document. Explaining her title, Joan said that it could easily apply to the museum as well, which she greatly admired.
Now the treasure could be sold off – apparently, one quick-off-the-mark developer has already suggested that the seventeenth century building could be converted into very desirable flats, and that a chic little bistro could be put into it as well.
The Council Cabinet are to meet on 7th February.  There is to be no public consultation but they are inviting 'public dialogue'.  The whole set of proposals – including overviews of the council spending and the approach of each directorate – is available on the Council website .
Comments can be made on the website, via a local Councillor or by e-mail to consultation@kirklees.gov.uk
Brontë Society Chair Sally McDonald is busy writing letters about this, and plenty of other people (no, you don’t have to be a Society member) are using their keyboards to send emails. You as well? Letters to newspaper editors, protests to local MPs, messages to local radio and television – you could affect the outcome. The list below is not exhaustive, so please include your own contacts. You don’t have to be resident in Kirklees. Or England.
BBC Look North – christa.ackroyd@bbc.co.uk
Calendar – ITV Yorkshire – calendar@itv.com
Radio Leeds – layla.painter@bbc.co.uk
Yorkshire Post – yp.newsdesk@ypn.co.uk
Yorkshire Evening Post – eped@ypn.co.uk
Huddersfield Daily Examiner – editor@examiner.co.uk
Batley & Birstall News – batleyeditorial@ywng.co.uk
News Editor of Spenborough Guardian – Margaret.heward@ywng.co.uk
Mirfield Reporter – dewsburyeditorial@ywng.co.uk
News Team at Morley Observer – Erica.madelin@ypn.co.uk

Please do as Richard suggests: write letters/emails protesting against it and have anyone in the least interested in preserving history do so as well, be they Brontëites or not. It's not just that they are closing down (and selling!!) one precious museum, it's the fact that once they start doing that you never know when they will stop.

Anyway, onto lighter matters. More reactions to the Jane Eyre Oscar nominations (or lack thereof).

The California Literary Review:

Costume Design I just want Jane Eyre to win, partly because the costumes were excellent and partly because it was shamefully overlooked in the Art Direction category. Its prospects would have been grim up against Harry Potter, but even so… (Brett Harrison Davinger)

StarNews Online's Bookmarks:

Even Charlotte Brontë could walk on the runway, were she still with us. The 2011 version of “Jane Eyre,” starring Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska, is in the running for a Best Costume Oscar. (Ben Steelman)

Nicole Kidman joins Meryl Streep in prasing Mia Wasikowska's Jane. From her Official Website:

I just worked with Mia Wasikowska and she is so so talented. Her performance is Jane Eyre is gorgeous. Xo Nic

Reuters quotes from Andrea Arnold's description of her own take on Wuthering Heights:

Andrea Arnold, the delightfully British director of what she called “the cover band version” of "Wuthering Heights." (Jeremy Walker)

Inquirer Lifestyle has an article on 'a foodie's literary adventures':

“A Brontë Kitchen” by Victoria Wright is probably what one can buy at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Yorkshire, England, but I found it in a used book shop. The Parsonage is where the famous literary sisters—Charlotte, Emily and Anne—lived and wrote their novels, using the moors around their home as their bleak setting. It is in the kitchen where they gathered to write and help out their cook as she prepared their meals.
The recipes, however, were gathered from old cookery books of the time. Of course I had to look for Yorkshire pudding and there it was. The procedure asked the cook to “beat the batter with a wooden spoon until your arm aches” and revealed the secret to a good pudding—“a dash of cold water… will turn to steam and make the pudding rise.” (The Bluecoat Press, 1996) (Micky Fenix)

The Irish Echo interviews a Brontëite, the historian Christine Kinealy:

Name three books that are memorable in terms of your reading pleasure.
“Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë (1847) –  I love the Brontë sisters’ writings. This is a dark, yet smoldering, example of it. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde  (1891) – at his quotable best, but so much more than that. “The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists” by Robert Tressell (1914) –  almost 100 years later, the political message remains pertinent. (Peter McDermott)

This columnist from KSL is quite the Brontë enthusiast too:

In my adult life, like meeting good friends, I’ve known the joy of reading. “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Jane Eyre” and “The Man Who Listens to Horses.” (Teri Harman)

MSN India looks at the work of Shilpa Gupta:

Gupta, based in Mumbai, is busy preparing for a solo exhibition at the Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, where she plans to showcase a work titled 'Bell-jar'. This consists of a library of stainless steel books by authors who have written under pseudonyms to either hide their gender as women, like George Elliot and the Brontë sisters, or their religious identity, like Ali and Mino. "It reflects on the idea of hidden authorship and the kind of discrimination that stems from it," says Gupta whose work focuses on the marginal and discriminated sections of society. Her interactive videos, websites, photographs, sound and public performances subversively probe ideas such as desire, religion, and notions of security on the street and on the imagined border. (Georgina Maddox)

The Brooklyn Paper looks at a forthcoming game show on NPR where

Host comedian Ophira Eisenberg tests eager beavers with games such as “Better than Bieber” (contestants fill in the blanks for Justin’s songs) and “Replacement Math” (the total number of Brontë sisters plus the Marx Brothers). (Kate Briquelet)

Which is, of course, quite a tricky question as the actual total number of Brontë sisters would be five but we think in this case they mean only the famous writers, so it's three.

Town Topics mentions the Cathy and Heathcliff image of Dorothy and William Wordsworth created by Frances Wilson in her 2008 biography The Ballad of Dorothy Wilson.

KO Video thinks that this outfit seen on Evanescence's video for My Heart is Broken is

a formal outfit befitting a scene from Wuthering Heights (Mike Petryczkowycz)

Yeah...well... not really.

Les Soeurs Brontë discusses (in French) the film Devotion. Flickr user Inukshuk's images shares a work in progress called Cathy's Path. Wuthering Heights 2011 is reviewed by Media Gulch and Vintagerockchick while Jane Eyre 2011 is the subject on Inside the Secret Window (in Portuguese) and Saucy Salad. Atelier di una lettrice compulsiva (in Italian) writes about the original novel. My Beads...My Art...My Life has put together a Jane Eyre-inspired outfit. Finally, Laura's Reviews interviews Syrie James, author of The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë.

The Plague by Arnold Böcklin

Painting of the Day Archive

If possible ― more perfectly fine.

Medicine. At home ―: ― called at the Maude’s till at 1. Went to Sir C. Sargents, & with him to the Exhibition ― & then to the Viro road.

Home by 6.

Dinner εις τὸ Παλάτιον.[1]

---

[1] At the Palace (NB).

---

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

The Sisters Three - Das Leben Der Schwestern Brontë
Idea/Concept: Daniela Dett and Nora Dirisamer
With Daniela Dett, Nora Dirisamer and Katharina Bigus
Director: Joachim Rathke
Music: Willy Hackl
Stage: Renate Schuler
Linzer Posthof
January 26, 28, 30, 31 20:00 h

Wer kennt sie nicht, die Romane der Schwestern Brontë: "Sturmhöhe", "Jane Eyre" und "Agnes Grey" gehören mit zu den wichtigsten Werken der englischen Literatur. Doch es sind nicht nur ihre Bücher und Gedichte, die uns heute noch faszinieren. Das von Leid und Schicksalsschlägen geprägte Leben dieser drei Frauen selbst ist zum Mythos geworden. Anne (Nora Dirisamer), sanft und unerschrocken, Emily (Daniela Dett), das Naturkind, empfindsam und erbarmungslos und Charlotte (Katharina Bigus), die unter ihrer grauseidenen Schicklichkeit ein stürmisches Herz verbarg - drei Genies, die in Kunst, Sprache und Gedankenwelten Zuflucht suchten, zuhause im Graubereich zwischen Realität und Phantasie.
Wie könnte es gewesen sein? Hören wir hinein in die Einsamkeit des bedrückenden Pfarrhauses in Haworth, erträumen uns ein raues Moor Nordenglands, erleben das Korsett des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts, das Frauen gesellschaftliche und private Entfaltungsmöglichkeiten abschnürte. Setzen uns der unerbittlichen Stille aus, die nur vom Läuten der Totenglocken und vom Klang des schneidenden Westwinds unterbrochen wurde. Tauchen wir ab. Nähern uns an. Erfühlen.
Erleben Sie eine sinnliche Reise und tauchen sie ein in die Welt der Brontës!

Nachrichten publishes an article about the production.

January 1812. We are still in the first year of the Regency and here is what the ladies were wearing in January.

Lady’s Monthly Museum
Cabinet of Fashion

A plain muslin dress, made high to fit the bosom with a plaited ruff; the front of the dress confined with coral clasps; earrings and necklace to correspond. Hungarian mantle, with double capes, trimmed with white swansdown, and fixed at the throat with cord and tassels. A small eastern turban, the same colour as the mantle, with white feathers; buff gloves and shoes.


I really like the modesty of this first gown. It has an elegance about it that appeals to me. And the ruff is very Elizabethan/Tudor. Note the hairstyle. She is sporting one, which always appeals to me, the long tress or curl coming over one shoulder.

The second figure is:

A riding dress of fine Georgian cloth, of a green colour, ornamented with frogs militarie in front and finished at the pocket holes with the same. Hat of green velvet, trimmed with white fur. Buff boots and gloves.

Pocket holes, an interesting way to describe them. I always like the idea of military styled riding dresses for ladies, but this view shows the train to perfection. This would ensure the lady's legs are well covered once she is sideways on the horse. I don't know what Georgian cloth is, do you?

So here we see what the ladies were wearing as we approach the end of the first year of the Regency.

Until next time, Happy Rambles

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Gustave Doré

Painting of the Day Archive

Let's start with the reactions to the Oscar nominations. First of all, reactions to Michael O'Connor's costume design nomination:

The Contra Costa Times quotes Michael O'Connor as having said,

"I'm absolutely thrilled and delighted to be nominated for my work on 'Jane Eyre.' "

Clothes on Film naturally looks at the nominations in depth, comparing them with other awards nominations such as the BAFTAs or the Costume Designers Guild (Michael O'Connor's work in Jane Eyre is nominated in the Period Film category):

Michael O’Connor for his bleak, deep and meaningful version of Jane Eyre. (Chris Laverty)

HitFix's In Contention:

Best Costume DesignThis is the one category where I was most confident in my predictions: “The Artist,” “The Help,” “Hugo,” “Jane Eyre,” “My Week with Marilyn.” Oops! I’m thrilled Mark Bridges pulled off his first nomination for “The Artist” and that Michael O’Connor earned his second nomination for “Jane Eyre.” It is also delightful, if unsurprising, to see Sandy Powell back in the race for her rich threads on “Hugo.” However, “My Week with Marilyn” and “The Help” were omitted in favor of “Anonymous” and “W.E.”  Three films -- “Anonymous,” “Jane Eyre” and “W.E.” -- were not nominated in any other categories. I say good on this branch for looking past the quality of the films in coming to their nominations?
As far as the race for the win is concerned, it seems to me as though the three solo nominees don’t have much of a shot against the two Best Picture frontrunners. Powell’s work is more obviously showy but Bridges’s intricate threads were cited by the BFCA and I think his film will ultimately triumph in the big category. So this could go either way. (Gerard Kennedy)

WIBW:

The past is again present in the Best Costume Design category, from an England Elizabethan ("Anonymous"), Edwardian ("W.E."), and Romantic ("Jane Eyre"), to 1920s Paris ("Hugo") and Hollywood ("The Artist").

And now for the so-called Oscar snubs:

The Philadelphia Inquirer sums it up:

Michael Fassbender had a great year, but came away empty, and his co-star in "Jane Eyre," Mia Wasikowska, was neglected. (Gary Thompson)

My Fox Phoenix:

4. Michael Fassbender for Best Actor in "Shame"
Easily the year's most daring performance and possibly the most intense. His portrayal of a sex addict in New York City combined both the savage and the subtle, a feat which few other actors could pull off. Fassbender had a banner year in 2011 for his additional work in " X-Men: First Class," "Jane Eyre" and "A Dangerous Method." The Los Angeles Film Critics and the Golden Globes saw fit to recognize him - it's truly a shame that the Academy didn't.

The Canberra Times:

Despite an endorsement from Hollywood legend Meryl Streep at the Golden Globe awards recently, Canberra-born Mia Wasikowska failed to pick up a nomination for her starring role in Jane Eyre. Wasikowska was also commended by top US critics for her performance in the new adaptation of the classic Charlotte Brontë novel. (Garry Maddox)

As far as we can see, no one has yet mentioned Dario Marianelli's wonderful soundtrack being left out. Quite a snub, that one too.

Anyway, onto the other recent Brontë film (and also snubbed at film awards like the BAFTAs). Television Without Pity's The Moviefile saw Wuthering Heights 2011 at Sundance:

The wise move would have been to just go home, but because the movie was Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights -- which I've been eager to see since its premiere at Toronto last year -- I sucked up my courage and gripped my seat as the bus drove through the blinding snow, slipping and sliding on the icy roads. We arrived at the theater moments before the movie started and Arnold was on hand to thank us for braving the storm. And may I just say that Wuthering Heights was absolutely worth the trek. A full review can wait for its release later this year courtesy of the good folks at Oscilloscope, but this is the kind of bold adaptation of a classic 19th century novel that I wish the recent Jane Eyre film had been. It's raw and emotional and vibrant in a way that too few period productions are. I can't wait to experience it again, preferably when I'm not exhausted after a day full of movies and junk food. (Ethan Alter)

Female First reviews the DVD (to be released in March) and gives it 5 stars out of 6.

The Yorkshire Post has an article on tourists from abroad coming to walk in Brontë country:

Brontë enthusiasts from as far away as Australia are preparing to make a pilgrimage to West Yorkshire to take in the countryside which inspired the novels.
The literary tourists are being encouraged to make the trip by Bradford businesswoman Helen Broadhead, a historian and Brontë expert.
Ms Broadhead leads Brontë fans on walks to buildings and places that were significant in the lives of the sisters.
After relaunching her website, www.helensheritagewalks.co.uk, she has seen a rise in interest from across the globe.
“I have already received several inquiries from Brontë enthusiasts in the USA and Australia about my guided Brontë walks around Haworth and venues, such as Oakwell Hall, Red House Museum – now, sadly, threatened with closure – and Shibden Hall in Calderdale.
“All these venues have Brontë connections: Oakwell Hall and Red House were used by Charlotte Brontë as models for her houses in Shirley, and it is widely accepted by Brontë scholars that, in her writing of Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë was influenced by the stories and houses she came across during her time at Law Hill School in Southowram, near Shibden Hall.
“It seems that international tourists are not put off by the winter weather. This week I took two Korean ladies, a mother and daughter from New York, on a first ‘Taste of the Moors’ walk.
“The weather had taken a turn for the worse but they felt that the wind and rain only added to the atmosphere.
“The older lady said that her heart started to beat with excitement as she came onto the moors on Penistone Hill.
“Her favourite of the Brontës’ novels was Wuthering Heights, a favourite with many Korean females, her daughter said.”
Ms Broadhead said Haworth needed improved transport links to capitalise on international tourism.

MSNBC actually thinks these walks are a thing of the past:

Fifty years ago, the media’s archetypal American abroad—say, a fedora-topped Jimmy Stewart squiring Doris Day through Marrakesh—inspired adventurous viewers to go and see Morocco for themselves. In this, they were much like the 19th-century English tourists who visited the sites of Brontë novels—distant precursors of the newer, stranger breed that scholars call “media tourists.” (Chris Norris)

Speaking of Brontë walks, The Telegraph and Argus reports on the Stanbury Splash race,

The course, which involves over 1,300ft of climbing, is one of a classic series of races on the Bronte Moors above Haworth organised by Dave and Eileen Woodhead. (Colin Davidson)

More from the Yorkshire Post, as it carries a funny anecdote concerning Gary Verity, Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive:

SOMETIMES it’s hard being in the public eye.
Gary Verity, the chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, has had plenty to celebrate recently.
His team walked away with a world travel award earlier this month, so it’s hardly surprising that his face is becoming well known.
Mr Verity was recently visiting an exclusive club in London, when a woman seemed to recognise him.
Had she perhaps been inspired by his efforts to promote Yorkshire to a global audience? Or perhaps she wanted to say how much she was looking forward to visiting Brontë country?
Sadly, not.
“Aren’t you Hugh Bonneville?” she asked.
Mr Bonneville is, of-course, best known as one of the stars of costume drama Downton Abbey.

Patheos interviews the writer Taylor M. Polites about his forthcoming novel The Rebel Wife:

KAREN: Did you intentionally craft Gus as a more cunning Scarlett O’Hara?
TAYLOR: I wanted Gus to be a great heroine, tragic or heroic, but in the vein of the great women of fiction who always fascinated me.  Scarlett O’Hara was definitely a major player in my pantheon of women heroines.  But there were so many more, Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina, Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair, Lizzie Eustace from Trollope’s The Eustace Diamonds, Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, even Cathy from Wuthering Heights, Isabel Archer from The Portrait of a Lady, Lily Bart from The House of Mirth.  These were women who captivated me, moved me, made me cheer or writhe in frustration.  Since The Rebel Wife is set in the South with a female heroine who survived the same upheavals that Scarlett faced, comparisons are inevitable, and I don’t shrink from those either.  Gone With the Wind was such an important book to me when I was growing up.  I hope The Rebel Wife embraces its best parts and challenges its worst.  There are whispers of GWTW throughout the book.  I want Augusta and The Rebel Wife to take their place in the tradition of Southern books and Southern heroines. (Karen Spears Zacharias)

Gather has a recap of Jane by Design: 'The Finger Bowl,' Season 1, Episode 4 where

All that talking brings Jane and Billy to school with Billy not having a chance to lay it out for Jane, and then it's too late. Lulu walks up to Billy and kisses him. Jane is gobsmacked, and not a little angry. She feels betrayed and she and Billy exchange dueling wrong summations of the theme of Wuthering Heights. The English teacher is apparently a bit dense and has no idea what is going in. (K Lee)

The following comes from the Guardian's live feed of the Pakistan vs England crciket match:

39th over: Pakistan 103-3 (Azhar Ali 24, Misbah-ul-Haq 1) Azhar leaves another beauty from Broad that seams back a long way and just bounces over the top of off stump. The next ball brings a huge shout for LBW that is turned down by Bruce Oxenford. I thought it was bat first but replays weren't conclusive either way. That was a fine over from Broad. "I'd like to hear – and (this is the important thing) see – Sir Geoffrey doing a rendition of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights, interpreting the emotional plight of Heathcliff and Cathy through dance as well as song," says Sam Jordison. (Andy Bull)

And yet another unexpected Wuthering Heights reference comes from an article on Kim Kardashian on Heckler Spray.

Basically, that’s a lot of soul-searching over a 72-day marriage. The kind of soul-searching that saw the willfully stupid Kim going to the vapid, finance hungry Kardashian family for advice on what to do. It’s like Wuthering Heights or something. (Mof Gimmers)

Babyology makes quite a blunder when introducing the clothes available at Little Bookwormz:

I won’t pretend otherwise, my favourite design is ‘E is for Emily’ – I never tire of the Cathy and Heathcliff drama and the simple, stylised graphic of Emily Brontë is fabulous.

We are sorry to say, though, that that Emily is clearly not Brontë, but Dickinson.

OpEdNews quotes from Jane Eyre:

Tired of being mean? Tired of being on the receiving end of meanness? The nasty trait produces a lot of unnecessary suffering, both for the person who's being mean (the "hell of your own meanness," a character says in Jane Eyre) and for the recipient of the meanness. Meanness is often a compulsive behavior that's difficult to remedy without deeper insight. (Peter Michaelson)

The Book Jotter posts about Jane Eyre while A Classic Case of Madness needs some help with Adèle's French. La bobina writes in Spanish about the 2011 adaptation. Just Can't Know posts about April Lindner's Jane and Moi, Clara et les mots and J'ai pad d'idée write in French about Sheila Kohler's Becoming Jane Eyre. Got Good Reads??? and Jesse's Books post about Wuthering Heights while Laura's Reviews writes about the 1939 adaptation.

Finally a reminder from The Telegraph and Argus:

CALENDAR: The Haworth Couldn’t Wear Less calendar is still for sale. It’s not too late to help locals raise money for Haworth Parish Church Restoration Fund and Bronte Spirit, the Bronte School Room development project. All profits will be divided between the two projects. Calendars are £6 each or £10 for a pair of ‘his’ and ‘hers’ and can be purchased from Haworth Main Street shops or visit their their website www.HaworthCalendar.co.uk, or Twitter @HaworthCalendar. (Kath Gower)

if possible ― fairer: perfect calm & sunshine.

Worked at all 4 Corfus ― figures & goats.

Letters from
A. Empson ―
Mrs. Musters
J. Edwards
Ellis Ashton
& Mrs. Bell.

At 5 ― went to Ascension.

Dined at 6.45.

Penned out ― but not much; as there were 2 papers, the Westminster, & 2 vols. of Turner’s life[1] ― all come to day ― to read.

---

[1] Probably Walter Thornbury’s The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A. 2 vols. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1862.

---

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

if possible ― fairer: perfect calm & sunshine.

Worked at all 4 Corfus ― figures & goats.

Letters from
A. Empson ―
Mrs. Musters
J. Edwards
Ellis Ashton
& Mrs. Bell.

At 5 ― went to Ascension.

Dined at 6.45.

Penned out ― but not much; as there were 2 papers, the Westminster, & 2 vols. of Turner’s life¹ ― all come to day ― to read.

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

1. Probably Walter Thornbury’s The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A. 2 vols. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1862.

It’s rare that I purchase a Jane Austen sequel. Generally, publishers will send books for review or I’ll pick up a copy at the library. When Death Comes to Pemberley was announced I did not hesitate to purchase a copy for my Kindle. P.D. James, the book’s author, is a highly regarded mystery writer with [...]

Two alerts for today, January 25:

In Saint Paul, Minnesota. At the University of St Thomas:

The campus community is invited to join this month’s book club discussion hosted by theLuann Dummer Center for Women.
The club will discuss Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, in Room 103, O’Shaughnessy Educational Center.
Even if you have somehow escaped reading this classic, you are still welcome to join in the conversation. Bring your lunch or a beverage. (St. Thomas Bulletin)

In Knoxville, TN:

Brontë Society: Discussion of Mary Taylor; Charlotte Brontë's confidant and life-long friend. 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, Panera Bread 4855 Kingston Pike. Info: 865-681-7261. (Knoxville News)

The Oscar nominations are finally being announced today, but we still have a few last-minute guesses, predictions and hopes. EDIT after nominations announcement: according to the nominees list released by the Academy, Jane Eyre 2011 is only nominated for Costume Design (by Michael O'Connor). (And Michael Fassbender has been completely left out of the picture, even if he was a big favourite for his many films!). Picture Source: Frocktalk.

The Sydney Morning Herald is not very hopeful:

Mia Wasikowska was praised in Meryl Streep's acceptance speech at the Golden Globes but seems unlikely to be recognised for her performance in Jane Eyre. (Garry Maddox)

Streep's shout-out to Wasikowska during The Iron Lady star's Golden Globes speech might have swung some votes the younger actress' way had Oscar voting not closed the Friday before. (And, yes, we know, Streep name-checked Wasikowska's other noteworthy 2011 movie, Jane Eyre, but same difference—the pub came too late, unless, that is, Streep was lobbying for the Aussie behind-the-scenes. And, by the by, if Streep was talking up Wasikowska to her Academy friends, then we take back everything we said about Theron in the Best Actress race, and we hereby give that slot to Wasikowska. How's that for conviction?) (Joal Ryan)

Alt Film Guide thinks that all of Michael Fasbender's stunning performances will be condensed in Shame:

Also, Academy members who enjoyed watching Fassbender in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, or Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre may choose to vote for him in Shame, as — barring an upset of Dennis Hopper-ish proportions — that's Fassbender's only viable Oscar ticket. (Andre Soares)

The Wuthering Heights 2011 screening at Sundance is discussed by Austin Movie Blog:

Saturday saw the U.S. premiere of Andrea Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights.” Anyone who has seen Arnold’s “Red Road” or “Fish Tank” will recognize her unique style in this invigorating take on the classic novel. By shooting the film in a square 4:3 aspect ratio rather than the usual widescreen approach, Arnold eschews the usual David Lean approach to literary adaptation, choosing to focus our attention on the beautifully expressive faces of her non-professional actors rather than the blustery vistas of the English landscape. This film joins Cary Fukunaga’s recent “Jane Eyre” as encouraging examples of what can be done with too often told tales. (Stephen Jannise)

Speaking of films. This is what Syrie James, author of The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, says in an interview on USA Today's Happy Ever After:

Joyce: Before becoming a novelist, you had a successful career writing screenplays for major television networks and studios. Anything we might have heard of? Did you adapt any screenplays from books? Would you consider adapting Forbidden?Syrie: In my years as a screenwriter, I sold 19 scripts to TV and film. Most were TV episodes (such as Starman) and TV movies, including Once in a Lifetime, starring Lindsay Wagner and Barry Bostwick, which I adapted from a novel by Danielle Steel. It originally ran on NBC, and often reruns on the Lifetime Network. I have adapted my Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë novels for the screen, and hope they'll get produced one day. [...]
Joyce: You're a huge fan of Charlotte Brontë. If you had to choose the best film adaptation of Jane Eyre, which one would it be? If you were writing Jane Eyre the screenplay, what aspect would your film have that would be different from the other film adaptations?Syrie: My favorite Jane Eyre adaptation is the 2006 BBC miniseries directed by Susanna White and starring Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens. The script was wonderful, the stars had great chemistry, and the entire production was beautifully filmed. I think it's the only version that properly shows the passion between Jane and Rochester. I'll have to go back and watch it again, but as I recall, my main complaint in that version was that Jane's time spent at Lowood School as a child was too brief. It's an important part of the novel, because it sets up Jane's character — and it was a direct reflection of Charlotte Brontë's personal experience at a similar, horrible school, where two of her sisters died. I admired the structure of the 2011 version from Focus Films, because they found a way, using flashbacks, to effectively tell a long and detailed story in only two hours. However, it ended too abruptly. One of the most romantic parts is when Jane comes back to Rochester at the end, to find him wounded and grieving. There's some wonderful, playful, romantic dialogue in the book there that I'd include if I was doing an adaptation. (Joyce Lamb)

The Times shares a couple of tips on education and reading. For Year 8:

You might be doing your child a disservice by handing down your well-thumbed classics: don’t be sniffy about repackaging aimed at children — for example, Jane Eyre with an introduction by Jacqueline Wilson.

And for Year 9:

Stress that “classics” now were page-turners from the start (Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, Jane Eyre, anything by Jules Verne). 

The New Zealand Herald looks at writing and pseudonyms while the Daily Mail reports that Charlotte has been voted 'America's favourite baby name'.

Ajax and Cassandra by Solomon Joseph Solomon

Painting of the Day Archive

Call for Papers - Deadline Extended to 16th March

Locating Revolution: Place, Voice, Community 1780–1820

Aberystwyth 9–12 July 2012

A conference jointly hosted by the Wales and the French Revolution Project at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies; the Centre for Romantic Studies, Aberystwyth University; and the Department of English, Swansea University.

This conference explores the relation between geography (considered as place, landscape, cartography and real and imagined space) and change during the period of the revolutionary wars. In what local, localised forms did the European upheavals of the age manifest themselves? How were social, religious and political loyalties conditioned by particular landscapes and environments? What were the coordinates of loyalism and opposition in particular rural, regional, urban and metropolitan communities? The conference seeks to place ‘history’ in specific locations, mapping connections across Europe, the Atlantic, and the wider world. It also sets out to consider the dramatic material forms that Romanticism, revolution and reaction took at this time. Delegates are invited to consider a range of cultural productions, material objects and literary forms with a view to revealing how the multiform phenomenon we term ‘Romanticism’ was experienced on the ground and in precise cultural locations.

Abstracts for 25-minute papers, and suggestions for panels, should be sent by 16th March 2012 to Angharad Elias (a.elias@wales.ac.uk). Panels on the following are particularly welcome:

• local/regional/national/European identities

• readings of ‘place’ and ‘space’

• cartographies of loyalism and opposition

• four Nations criticism: refining the ‘British’ response

• neglected /silenced voices

• oral traditions

More information available at: http://frenchrevolution.wales.ac.uk

Author C.M. Rubin (The Real Alice in Wonderland) has a new blog post at The Huffington Post about Sir William Blake Richmond’s 1864 painting of the Liddell sisters, now on display at the Tate Liverpool’s Alice in Wonderland exhibit (which closes January 29th – hurry!)

In the summer of 1864, Alice Liddell (Lewis Carroll’s inspiration for Alice in Wonderland) and her two sisters, Lorina (who inspired the Lory) and Edith (who inspired the Eaglet), posed for up to 10 hours a day while the distinguished English artist, Sir William Blake Richmond, created one of his most famous paintings, called The Sisters. The painting of the three Liddell sisters set against the background of the Great Orme, Llandudno’s famous mountain, is one of the highlights of the Tate Liverpool’s Alice in Wonderland exhibition. Sir William Blake Richmond painted the portraits of the most prominent people of the day. The Sisters, well received by the art critics of the day, was regarded by Richmond as a milestone in his career. Sir William had this to say about Alice Liddell:

“Little Alice, to whose pretty face and lovely coloring no reproduction can do justice, is seen on the right in profile, peering at the big volume on her sister’s lap.” [continue reading...]

Very lovely ― calm & bright all day.

Worked savagely at small Corfû all day.

Invitations to dinner, from Luards, Maude ― &c. &c. ―

Short walk at 5½ ― to 6½.

Dined at Luards’ ― pleasant enough: a clever & nice lad.

Home by 11.40.

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

Morning (Le Matin) by Henri Fantin-Latour

Painting of the Day Archive

Yesterday’s Cul de Sac for you amusement. Courtesy of GoComics.

The Sydney Morning Herald thinks that Mia Wasikowska is one of 'Australia's top chances for Oscar nominations' although it is considered a 'long shot'.

If there is a major surprise when the Academy Award nominations are announced early Wednesday morning (AEDT) Australian actress Mia Wasikowska could be the reason.
A few weeks ago the best actress Oscar prospects for the Canberra-born 22-year-old's critically-acclaimed, but quickly forgotten, starring role in Jane Eyre were as healthy as the Costa Concordia cruise ship.
The tide recently turned.
One of Wasikowska's champions, ironically, is the woman most likely to win the best actress Oscar, Meryl Streep.
The US star used a portion of her acceptance speech after winning the Golden Globe last week to remind the world about Wasikowska's performance as Jane Eyre in the new adaptation of the classic Charlotte Bronte novel.
"How about Mia Wasikowska in Jane Eyre?" Streep, a short-priced favourite to win the third Oscar of her career for playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, asked the A-list crowd at the Globes that included many Academy-voting members.
Wasikowska remains at long-shot odds of 100/1 and would have to squeeze out one of the five actresses who appear set to receive nominations: Streep; Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn); Viola Davis (The Help); Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs); and Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin). [...]
Wasikowska is Australia's only chance at picking up an acting nominee. . .

Examiner's Kevin Thomas thinks Jane Eyre might be nominated in the following categories: Best Musical Score and Best Costume Design. And according to him the film would also be a runner-up for Best Art Direction. While The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg only sees it nominated for Best Costume Design although he reckons it should be a contender for Best Musical Score.

And this is how The Daily Beast describes Michael Fassbender's Rochester:

the moody, sideburned Rochester in Jane Eyre (David Ansen)

The Celebrity Cafe takes a look at Michael Fassbender's filmography.

Jane EyreThe classic tale of Jane Eyre has been told over and over again in countless TV and movies. Sometimes it appears that Jane Eyre is a fixture of literature and dramatic arts. Casting Fassbender in this latest edition and adaptation was somewhat controversial. The role of Mr. Rochester has been played by so many actors and it has been believed that Fassbender was too handsome. Despite the criticism the film was able to create a Rochester who had so much broody moods that you forget how handsome his face is. Even in the scene where Fassbender asks Jane if she found handsome you don’t think about what he looks like. This is a good example of why Fassbender's is one of those actors who does not rely on his looks even though he totally could. (Jackie Morrison)

The Huffington Post briefly discusses Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights:

I saw three very impressive films at Sundance yesterday and was reminded why I'm here. The first, Wuthering Heights, helmed by the formidably talented and charming director Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank), was tough and as much of an inundation on the viewers as the blizzard outside. It is a challenging and unapologetic film to say the least, but does everything Indie cinema should in leaving you thinking about it for hours and possibly days. (Liliana Greenfield-Sanders)

Another writer for The Huffington Post is not so thrilled though:

5:10 p.m. My second movie at Sundance is Wuthering Heights, which caused me to have fond memories of my first Sundance movie, Elena. Wuthering Heights is pretty. Wuthering Heights is a really long movie and it feels even longer. There should be a term for this, like the wind chill or heat index: "Wuthering Heights has a running time of 128 minutes, but the length index is going to make it feel more like 140 for all you folks out there." (Mike Ryan)

In the meantime, Variety brings up memories of Wuthering Heights 1939:

The great Sir Laurence Olivier complained in his memoir that his producer, Samuel Goldwyn, was constantly nattering at him over his performance in "Wuthering Heights' and that he rarely heard from his director. (Peter Bart)

The New Hampshire Sentinel Source wonders what to do with the books when you are 'getting rid of stuff'. Here's a problem common to book lovers in general and Brontëites in particular:

 I found, as I picked up book after book, that my own history was embedded in the pages. Which edition of “Jane Eyre” would I keep? The pretty one, or the one I had first devoured? The pretty one went in the box. (Sarah Spykman)

This Salon writer doesn't seem to share the love for Jane Eyre, at least not for the main character:

The stress was mounting. One evening, after patiently listening to my jealous wheedling, he left for a reading alone. I pitched “Anna Karenina” at the door, then passed the rest of the night with a bottle of Malbec and one of my very favorites: “Wide Sargasso Sea.” Ever read that one? The heroine gets so crazy over the loss of her husband’s love she sets herself on fire, along with Thornfield Hall, the home of the much less endearing Jane Eyre. (Katie Crouch)

TheIndependent.com has apparently found the reason why people don't enjoy reading Jane Eyre (don't they really?):

There's a reason that people don't generally like reading classic novels like "Jane Eyre" or "The Grapes of Wrath." It's because they've been beaten to death in classrooms across the nation, so that reading them has become a chore, not something to be enjoyed.
As Mark Twain said, "Classic: A book which people praise and don't read." (Olivia Exstrum)

The Sydney Morning Herald paraphrases from Jane Eyre:

Between me and my children there is, to paraphrase Rochester in Jane Eyre, a string: knotted in my chest to another string in their little ribs. Too far apart, for too many days, and it may snap - leaving me ''bleeding inwardly,'' as Rochester puts it. Standard parental love, really. (Damon Young)

It is a while since we last saw a sports chronicle mentioning the Brontës. Well, the Denver Post certainly makes up for the long time:

Alistair Cooke should have been the TV host. Herman Melville could have written the scripts. Think football's version of "Wuthering Heights" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" back to back.
The AFC and NFC championship games Sunday were masterpiece theater. (Woody Paige)

So how was the book? posts about Agnes Grey. And Flickr user JL La Rouge shares a picture of Top Withins.

The Brussels Brontë Blog has a post on an 1855 Jane Eyre play co-written by Alphonse Royer and Victor Lefèvre. Romantique Innocence By Nailah D'arcy writes about the novel and La Piccola Ricamatrice (in Italian) is stitching something inspired by Jane Eyre (to be revealed soon, we hope). Inspired Ground thinks Jane Eyre 2011 has one of the best movie locations of last year and A Girl and a Gun: A Cinematic Blog gives the film 3 1/2 stars.

Finally, BookieMonster is giving away three copies of Jane Eyre 2011.

We all laugh about knowing Luddites, people who just can't handle new technology. But the actual Luddites were no joke.

As machinery was introduced into the woolen trade in England 200 years ago, weavers who had been producing cloth in their cottages for generations saw a very real threat to their way of life. Improvised armies set out by night and began smashing the new machines.

By the winter of 1811-1812 nighttime raids to destroy "shearing frames" became widespread in some regions of England. Taking their name from a local legend, a boy named Ned Ludd who had broken a machine, the rebellious machine smashers called themselves Luddites.

The Luddite raids turned violent, and eventually Parliament made "frame breaking" a capital offense. The British Army was sent out to suppress the mayhem.

Ultimately, the men smashing textile machinery with hammers couldn't win. Spies and informers infiltrated the movement, trials were held, and a number of Luddites wound up at the end of a rope.

Read the full article: The Luddites

Illustration: the mythical General Ludd/Getty Images

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Follow on Twitter: @History1800s

Fine ― warm ― cloudy at times.

Having to go to see the “Exhibitions,” did not begin oilwork. ― Placed a small Florence, & a large Jánina on canvass ― & squared a long Corfû.

Col. Maude sate from 11.30, to 1.30 ― a good-natured fellow ― but I grow weary of interruption.

Then Craven wrote ― asking me to go up to night.

At 2.30 ― went out & saw the Exhibition ― a necessary duty ― & pleasing enough in itself ― but, inasmuch as it brought me in contact with Le Mesuriers, Valsamachis, Woolffs, Capt. Clifford & others ― a bore.

Came home at 3 ―& squared the Corfu ― G. not in till 5.30.

Dined, & penned out Delvino till 11.

Bad night ― indigestion.

X7

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

Continuing  snippets of the news two hundred years ago to celebrate and 200th anniversary of the beginning of the Regency era.

1811

• May 22: - several peoplewere  killed by a house falling at Seven Dials.  

• This was in one of the poorest and most notorious regions of London in the Parish of St Giles where one also found the worst of the rookeries.  A dangerous place for any Regency buck or miss to wander at any time of the day, but even worse for those that lived there. 
• Near to Covent Garden, it was called Seven Dials because of the way the streets and alleys come together in one intersection which originally had a sundial in the centre. The first plan in 1690  was for six  streets, but the developer Thomas Neale who planned this to be a smart end of town with large fronted shops, added a seventh in the final plans in order to increase his income from rents.  It never achieved its potential. After his death, the houses were subdivided and quickly became slums, renowned for  gin shops. At times, the area threatened to descend into the undesirable depravity of the St Giles "Rookery" to the north, but it was predominantly a working neighbourhood, with woodcarvers, straw-hat manufacturers, pork butchers, watch repairers, booksellers, pubs and breweries.
• At one point each of the seven apexes facing the Monument housed a pub, their cellars and vaults connected in the basement providing handy escape routes should the need arise.These days it is very different. It has boutique style shops and a new sense of community. Over 25% of its buildings are "listed" (protected) and many date back to the 1690's. Clearly not the one that fell on these poor people.

• June14: -The proceedings of the House of Commons state the number of French prisoners in England to be near 50,000.
• Aug. 21: - A comet made its appearance above the horizon. The Great Comet of 1811.  It is estimated that this comet comes around once every three thousand plus years, so I won't be around to see it the next time. The drawing is by William Henry Smyth in 1811.
• Sep.11: - Discovery made at the Queen's house that her majesty's court dress had been stolen. Really, how bad is that?
• November unrest: -- Bands of men appear wearing masks and armed with muskets, pistols and hatchets and break into the small hosiery workshops scattered thoughout country villages. Hammermen carrying hung heavy iron sledgehammers smashed open the doors of the workshops and beat at the wide stocking frames until they are destroyed. E.g. Nov 4 6 frames broken at the village of Bulwell on November 4, a dozen at Kimberley a few nights later. November 13 70 frames smashed in a single attack at Sutton-in-Ashfield. Claimed allegiance to “General Ludd”. Magistrates cannot police the rural jurisdictions. A military force, a squadron of dragoons, the Mansfield Volunteers, two troops of Yeomanry were ineffective.

That is it for now, I hope you enjoyed this peek of life in the first year of the Regency. Until next time Happy Rambles.

The recent release of the comic book Mythoi Book II: Where the Circle Begins (Art by Jed Soriano & Brian Soriano. Written by James Ninness) is a good excuse to mention that this comic series contains an explicit Wuthering Heights reference. Quoting from the wikipedia:

MYTHOI is a sixty-issue American comic book limited series by writer/creator James Ninness. It was published in 2010 by the Semantink Publishing. Single issues of MYTHOI are released digitally with trades collecting every six issues printed as the issues are completed.
The story follows the journey of five figures from different mythologies as they attempt to save the world from an ominous foe. The group consists "Vito", a child vampire, "Taros", son of the Greek god Ares, "Yuki", a yūrei, "Wiglaf", son of the Cain and heir to Beowulf, and "Touch", a cybernetic assassin from the future. As the five heroes are brought together under varying circumstance, they must learn to work and live together despite their differences. Each character possesses a different set of skills, specific to their root mythology and eventual destiny. 

The Panels on Pages review gives us clues of another (familiar) character:

The recipe for Mythoi is simple but ingenious – take the supporting characters from ancient lore and put them in the sandbox of the modern world. The result is something like Ultimates meets Fables, where the son of Ares (yes, Greek god of war, Ares) is brought in to investigate an attack on the President by a pack of werewolves led by Heathcliff (of Wuthering Heights, not the one who ran afoul of the junkyard cats) under the employ of – no, that would be telling. The point is, it’s a fantastic cacophony of fantastic characters brought together by fate in the form of writer James Michael Ninness. The story takes some fun twists and turns as it unfolds, and by the end of Book II, the scene is fairly well set for these characters and their future together.  (Jason Kerouac)

The author, James Ninness, says in this interview on Has Boobs, Reads Comics:

For a special story added to the TPB, Ninness and his Editor Benjamin Glibert knew they needed something a little different. “For Heathcliff and Catherine I wanted to do something more in the vein of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It felt write for the setting of the story and the design lends itself well the comic book form,” he said. (Nerdy Bird)

An Offering to Venus by John William Godward

Painting of the Day Archive

This free kids’ game was added last week at the so-called bestonlinekidsgames.com. We were hoping for an action-packed hunting game on open oceans and strange islands or a shoot-em-up video game in the style of Deer Hunter. (Actually, when you think about it, The Hunting of the Snark has many scenarios that would translate excellently into a video game. Anyone care to join the Beaver hunting the Jubjub in an increasingly narrow valley?) However, this game from Hairy Games seems to be mostly a fork poking at pictures of Snark characters and getting its prongs bent. “The Hunting of the Snark is combination of mazes, jigsaw and hidden objects puzzles games. This game is crated [sic] of famous story of mysterious creature, Snark who lived in a lonely island and the quest of some brave explorers to find it, by Lewis Caroll [sic sic sic].” The game was designed by Long Leaf’s Friends, and the pretty cool art is by B. Rybacki.

This Sunday, PBS will air on most stations an hour presentation of  Secrets of the Manor House, a documentary narrated by Samuel West, that explains how society was transformed in the years leading up to World War One. Expert historians, such as Lawrence James and Dr. Elisabeth Kehoe, discuss what life was like in these [...]

An article on life in the Inner Circle in 1898, from the Windsor Magazine. Nice to see mention of the spring-operated station-indicators and weighing-machines (see pics below):

UNDERGROUND LONDON: A CHAT ABOUT ITS RAILWAYS.
By G. E. MITTON AND WILFRID KLICKMANN.
Illustrated by A. J. FINBERG.

HEAVY sulphurous smell, an atmosphere like a yellow fog in London, an orderly succession of earsplitting bangs, and the wave .of a green flag. This sounds like a description of a battle where artillery has been brought into play, but it is merely the scene of an underground station on the District Railway.

    London is being still further riddled with railways : the electric, cutting right through the heart of the City and West-End, and the Brompton and Piccadilly —a diagonal line for the convenience of Clubland —are in immediate prospect. Whether these will affect the dividends of the existing companies remains to be seen. If the atmosphere is freer and the motion quicker, probably they will. Man will give up much to save his precious time; he will consent to be half suffocated for ten minutes, and temporarily deafened for the sake of half an hour. Yet the most ardent admirer of the railways cannot say it is joy to travel them. They are convenient, they save time, but that anyone should choose to live down in these stygian regions must pass comprehension. There are worse jobs. Perhaps the men who go round with scavenging carts have as much dirt a to their daily allowance as a driver on the Underground; but that men can be found to undertake this task is another mystery.

    I went tour on a tour of inspection in the underground regions to ascertain the views of the men themselves on the question, and was agreeably surprised to find that instead of a mournful round of endurance, they seem quite satisfied and enjoy their work.
    I commenced my raid in search of a man off duty. A friendly porter, impressed into the service, unearthed an engine-driver from a coaling-shed at the end of the platform and brought him to me. He was an honest  looking fellow, delightfully grimy ; one felt one had got hold of the real article. I should not have liked him half so well if he had been cleaned up for the occasion. We sat and chatted together on one of the ample seats of the platform, and had the satisfaction of feeling that we were affording a gratis entertainment for the passengers in the constant succession of trains which every few minutes ran banging into the platform before us.
    My man needed very little pumping ; the porter had evidently given him a tip that he was expected to talk, for it came out spontaneously.
    "I've been on duty now five-and-twenty years. We begin by being a fireman, ye know, and that's at about eighteen or nineteen, and ye get on to be a driver. We get eight shillings a day. That's not bad pay, but then there's no pension ; ever such a little would be a help. Ye see we're on the same footing as policemen and other public servants, the responsibility is on us ; we've got to stand our own ground same as the captain of a ship, and it's wearing that is. We ought to have a bit to look forward to. I'm not an old man yet "—and I smiled as I met his cheery glance and vowed him in the prime of life.
    "But tell me," I continued, " something about your everyday life. We above ground think it bad enough to run along these dismal tunnels from one station to another, but to be all day on duty --" 

    "Well, now, 'tisn't half as bad as ye make out," he said confidentially. "Ye get used to it, and think naught of it. And then it's arranged so's we aren't all day and every day on the Inner Circle ; one day maybe we're off to Putney or Richmond, and another to Ealing. Then one day a fortnight we have a day off, and then there's sheds; that takes up four hours, cleaning your boilers and such like ; there's only one day the week we go round and round the circle."
    "And how many times round then?"
    "It varies ; maybe five or six or seven."
    Seven times round the Underground swallowing an atmosphere too thick to breathe! the grinding of the brakes echoing 182 times at the stations! The slow dropping of water on the brain would be an infinitely preferable madness. I hastened to inquire if there was any break or dinner-hour off.
    "Oh no ; we get it when we can, answered, without deeming it any hardship that part of his daily diet should be augmented by smuts!
    "On days you run round the circle you come back to where you started from at the end, I suppose?"
    "Ay ; sign off where we signed on, that's it. Difficult to arrange where we're to go? Ay, I suppose it is, but we have naught do with that. We goes by the time-table. Hours? 4.30 in the morning to 2.15 in the afternoon. No, it's not the work I mind ; ye soon gets used to that. I'd as soon do it as anything. You've to keep awake, of course.  I haven't ever had a collision, but I've saved three, and that's something! You'd like to hear of that? "
    I assented.
    "Well, the first was near Baker Street, where I nearly ran into a ballast train, and the next was some Great Western coal trucks near Earl's Court, only the third was a tunnel accident—I overtook a train."
    "I thought that wasn't possible."
    "They say it ain't," he remarked smiling. "But I'm speaking of a long while back, and I suppose it ain't possible nowadays. It was in a tunnel, and I saw the tail-lights ahead, so I clapped on the brakes, showed a red light and blew my whistle. No harm done; but if I hadn't a-been looking out I'd have crushed up against it and had them trucks a-top of my engine, and then it would have been marked up against me same as if it had been my fault. I've been a teetotaler the is twelve years," he remarked with sudden and startling irrelevance; perhaps he thought I suspected him of only seeing red lights which had no material existence.
    "Find that answer? " I asked.
    "Ay; and that's my train coming into the station now, or I'd have told you more."
    I let him go, but doubted his ability to tell me more. To an imaginative mind the dark tunnels of the Underground seem full weird horrors, but to the prosaic man, whose aim is daily bread, they dwindle into everyday facts devoid of fear.
    The next link in the chain was again my friendly porter, who gave me some intermediate notions of his own position. The porters' hours vary from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. one day and 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. the next. The work consists chiefly of odd jobs, lamp cleaning — at which each takes his turn — coupling engines and shutting train doors; not much luggage about to bother a man. He is liable to be shifted about from station station, but may remain stationary (no pun intended) for a considerable time. His wages come to one pound one week and twenty-two shillings the next, the larger amount including a Sunday's work.
    Not many tips are there on the Underground or chances of increasing his income by secondary methods. But then there is the glorious prospect of the dizzy height of a guard's position looming before the humble porter. The man to whom I talked seemed impatient of dallying, and the reason was apparent when a strongly built official drew near to us.
   

"Yon's the inspector," said the porter with indicative motion. "He'll tell you a deal more than I can. I've only been on this job a short while, and he's been here this long while."
    I took the hint, and sauntered up to the man. He was a fine specimen of the product of discipline, combined with a habit of authority—a man on whose probity and respectability one would not be greatly disinclined to stake one's reputation.
    At first he seemed a little chary of my questions, but finding that I was not devoid of a sense of humour, he broke the ice by a good laugh, and we were on the best of terms. He had been inspector for some seven-and-twenty years, of which the last nineteen had been spent on the boards where he now stood. He had a fund of information and anecdote, and asserted readily that he could write a book of his reminiscences.
    The inspector himself has hours similar to those of the porters, varying from the earlier time ending at three one week, to the later beginning at that hour the next. He began his career in one of the railway signal-boxes, and is now responsible for the whole conduct of the station, exclusive of the booking-office.
    "Complaints?" he echoed, in answer to a suggestion of mine. " I should think there were. They'll complain of anything. But it's best to take it all in good part."
    "Chiefly?" I asked.
    "Chiefly? Why, missing trains, and so on ; and then they'll lay the blame on us, or the board man will have put up the wrong train in the indicator. He can't always tell, you know, which one is coming, though he knows which one ought to come, and if another runs in before it—why, the general public will never think of looking on the train to see for themselves, but will get in, and when they find they're wrong I'll hear about it. But as for questions -- you'd think they had nothing else to do! Old ladies are the worst " — with a smile; and he proceeded to mimic an imaginary conversation.
    "Which is the train for King's Cross?"
    "It'll come to this platform, ma'am."
    "When will it come?"
    "It'll be the next one in, in five minutes."
    "Which way will it come?"
    "This way."
    "And how many stations are there between here and King's Cross?"
    He looked at me and laughed. "That's it," he said—"over and over again. I generally tell them—it's best in the end. Then," he continued after a minute, "there are the people who will get out before the train stops. They'll pick themselves up and run, for fear of us summoning them."
    "You don't mind if they don't fall, I suppose?"
    "Oh no ; but we are down on them if they do. We have to keep some check on them or they'd be bringing an action against us for damages, saying that the engine moved on with a jerk, or some other excuse."
    "Have you ever had to give evidence in a case of that sort?"
    "No, but I've often enough had police-court cases arising from the railway, and they're bad enough! I'll tell you one of pickpocketing. A lady got out here in a great state and came to tell me she'd had her purse stolen. I asked her if she'd had anyone pushing up against her in a suspicious manner, and she said yes, an ill-looking fellow a few stations back. Well, as it happened, we were standing up near the steps, and could look the whole length of the platform, and I saw at the far end a fellow dodging about suspiciously on the very platform we were on, and I called her attention to him, and asked if he was anything like the one she had noticed, and she said he was the very man. Well, there stood then—it's done away with now—a sort of collecting-box for the booking-office, with a slit in it like a letterbox, and I saw this fellow brush up against it and drop something in the slit—I could almost fancy I saw something shine as he did it—anyway there wasn't much doubt but he'd hit on what he thought an original plan for getting rid of the purse, which might incriminate him. We marched down to him, and I told him what the lady said. Of course he said she'd made a mistake, and a lot more - I asked her if she would give him in charge. Oh yes, she would, rather ; so I collared my man, and went up for a policeman. There wasn't one about, so I walked him off to the office. On the way he kept asking me to let loose of him, and he'd go quietly. 'Yes,' says I, ' that's likely; but though my muscles are as good as yours, my legs aren't, and once I let you go I'd see you round the next corner.' Well, a detective came around to the station and opened the box, and there sure enough was that very lady's purse. That was an odd thing, wasn't it?"
    I remarked that the man must have been a fool to get out and stand about.
    "But he wouldn't think the lady would have got out at that same station, likely. And he was a good thief too, one that was wanted for other jobs of the same sort—a good one to catch. He got twelve months' hard."
    I inquired if the lady had remembered the inspector's services for good.
    "No," he answered, " but the Company did. I got half-a-sovereign and my expenses when I went to give evidence. I was very well satisfied. Oh, they treat us well enough - over a matter like that."
    At that moment a shrill short whistle sounded.
    "That's for me," said my companion. "I'm keeper of the cloak-room, and I have to go and attend to it ; but I'll come back."
    I sat down on one of the seats meanwhile, and jotted down a few notes of what he had said. It was not a bad place this station—wide and airy enough, and dry. A man might live comfortably at such a job. Life on the Underground is not all dirt and sulphurous atmosphere. In a station of the pattern of Blackfriars or Baker Street one's conceptions of the infernal regions might be greatly enlarged, but here there was nothing offensive.  I remembered how, one dark winter's evening, I had seen a little newsboy hopping about - in the draughty dimness of one of these mentioned above, and had pitied him from the bottom of my heart. Yet on inquiry it turned out that he was not unhappy. It was eagerness to sell that first attracted my attention—he was so evidently a new hand.
    "But you don't make anything by the sale do you?" I asked.
    "Oh no," he answered. " It's all the same us; but if we got a commission I could make --" He paused.
    "You sell a great many papers?"
    "Why, a heap!"
    "How long are you here?"
    "From six in the morning to half-past six at night."
    "That's a long time. What do you think of it all? Rather gloomy sometimes?"
    "I don't know. It's cold at whiles."
    "Better than being at school?"
    "Better than being in the streets "—with warmth.
    "And what do you get for it?"
    "Six shillings a week."
    I added to his income for that week and received the grateful thanks of his bright little face, from which the baby roundness had not altogether departed.
    But this is a digression. The inspector completed his duties upstairs and returned to me again.
    "What do. you think I've been for now?" he asked as he approached. "A lady has lost her umbrella, a valuable one—ivory handle with a gold head. She says she left it at the booking-office, and the clerk says he's never seen it, and I told her if one of our men had come across it he'd have brought it to me. She's going to the lost property office."
    "And where is that?"
    "Moorgate Street for the Metropolitan, and Victoria for the District, then the Hammersmith and City have one at Notting Hill. She'll make inquiries. What else would you like to know?"
    "Collisions," I suggested, by way of giving him a fresh impetus.
    "Well, there aren't many of them. It's worked on the absolute block system. In some parts they have electric interlocking, so that it's impossible for a train to catch up another. We haven't that yet, but it's absolutely safe. I do remember a collision, but that was four-and-twenty years ago, when things weren't so perfect as they are now. I was in the cabin then, and it was by Hammersmith Junction. There's a decline there, and a Great Western engine was dragging a District train—they're not very powerful engines—and the train began to drag back down the decline. The junction had been signalled clear, but the train got across it again, and another ran into it ; no lives were lost, but there was a lot of breakage."
    For about the fifth time during our conversation an Inner Circle train ground slowly to a stop at the platform before us and suggested a fresh line of inquiry.
    "These guards haven't so much to do as on the bigger lines," I said. "No luggage."
    "No, but it's a worrying sort of business stopping every two or three minutes—it keeps them occupied ; they've got packages to sort too, and they'll be continually stopped. Now on an express a man'll get maybe a clear hour to get through in."

    Then I remembered suddenly the comparatively new indicators fixed in some of the District trains, which show the name of the station before arrival. I had always thought it part of the guard's duty to work these, for sometimes the indicator may pass over several flaps before it stops at the right one, and it seemed to me this must be done by human agency. The inspector put me right.
    "No, it's much simpler than that," said he. "There's a flap of wood sticking up between the lines, soon after the train leaves any station, and this strikes a spring on the bottom of each carriage as they pass over, and this sends the indicator round. When some stations belonging to a branch line have to be missed out, there are three or four of these, as many as are wanted, in a row."
    "But it must be exceedingly difficult to arrange."
    "Yes, I suppose so. If they answer we're going to have them on all the District lines." 
    "Soon?"
    "Yes, soon ; but they won't be all round the circle, you know, because the Metropolitan haven't taken to them. "
    "And how can you tell if they answer?"
    "It is part of the guard's duty to report. There have been very few failures so far—hardly any. They come expensive at first, of course, but the advertisements have helped to pay."

II.—THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY SYSTEM. BY WILFRID KLICKMANN.

THE terror of the tunnel is a thing of the past. When London's vast underground organisations are considered, it seems incredible that England's great railways, at the time of their projection, had to face substantial opposition because tunnels were an essential feature. The passage through a tunnel of only a few minutes, it was urged, would be fraught with alarms, discomfitures, and liability to various diseases.
    Events appear to move more quickly and in an increased ratio as the world grows older. To-day the passengers by the Metropolitan Railway are said to number nearly a hundred millions per annum, the majority of whom accept the idea of tunnel travelling with as much equanimity as they buy a newspaper.
    Notwithstanding anathemas variously expressed, the Underground railway of London pursues the dark and noisy tenor of its way with an increased knowledge of its own importance, and a consciousness that it cannot be done without.
    Sometimes it is referred to as "that Underground" with terrible emphasis, but to the constant traveller it is technically known as the Inner Circle. Not all of these, however, know that the circle is formed by the union of two railways, the same lines or "metals " being used by both companies. Practically the southern half of the circle is pal t of the Metropolitan District Railway Company's system, the northern semicircle being owned by the Metropolitan Railway. To be exact : Aldgate to Kensington High Street (via King's Cross) } owned by the Metropolitan Railway; Kensington High Street to South Kensington } owned by the Metropolitan Railway and Metropolitan District Railway; South Kensington to Mansion House } owned by the Metropolitan District Railway; Mansion House to Aldgate }  owned by the Metropolitan Railway and Metropolitan District Railway. 
    The joint-ownership sections are known as the West and East Joint Connections, the lines for these portions having been duplicated.
    To have built this circle other than underground would have involved such an enormous initial outlay in the purchase (only for demolition) of expensive buildings on a succession of sites amongst the most valuable in the world, that not for a single moment could the idea be entertained. As it is, if all the spaces now represented by ventilating shafts were utilised for buildings, no small income would be assured. Not that such an alteration is desirable; on the contrary, were the companies able to add more ventilation, either by additions to the number of existent shafts, or by mechanical fans to create continuous currents of air in the tunnels where the traffic is most congested, the comfort of passengers would be increased.
    The directors are always endeavouring to improve the ventilation, and a cordial relationship subsisted between the Metropolitan Railway and a committee of the Board of Trade appointed early this year to report on this particular subject.
    The day after the Metropolitan Railway Company opened their first section, in 1863, no less than thirty thousand people travelled on the line. The accommodation has materially improved since then, for a picture published in 1862 in, I think, the Illustrated London News disclosed an interesting sight. A goodly contingent of passengers were seated in the old-fashioned open carriages, similar in design to the modern goods truck. These formed part of the trial train, and the view was taken near Portland Road station.
    The first section of the District Railway (South Kensington to Westminster) was opened in 1868. By adding here a little and there a little, way was made in 1884 for the first two trains to journey round the completed circle. A District train travelled on the inner rail while a Metropolitan train ran on the outer rail.
    The fact that there are now twenty-seven stations, distributed over a short distance of thirteen miles, testifies to the great utility, if not absolute need, of the system. Each station is daily the scene of surging crowds of people who are "something in the City," and people who are not, but would like to be - people with parcels, children, burdens and grievances. All have one purpose in common—a desire to leave that particular station at the very earliest opportunity, either by train or by staircase exit.
    No other railway in the world has so many stations proportionate to its short length as the Circle, and for promptitude and regularity in running, the service would be hard to excel. The secret is found principally in the smartness of the guards and platform executive. You must decide before the train comes in whether you travel by it. The man who hesitates is not lost, he merely waits for the next train. Snow, fog and inclement weather offer no hindrance to the Underground, for it simply revels in a fog. If necessary, it could supply one or two of its own on the shortest notice, with no diminution in strength if you take a quantity.
    Much has been done to lessen the evils consequent on the use of steam motive power, such as numerous outlets for the escape of fumes and the employment of engines designed to consume most of their own smoke. Of late years there has been very great improvement ; yet the friendliest of critics would reluctantly admit that a genuine appreciation of the flavour from the Inner Circle tunnel is an acquired taste in more senses than one. In spite of conditions which are decidedly an inconvenience to some, though others by habit disregard them, there is an enormous daily traffic on the Inner Circle, and to meet the demand the companies offer a magnificent leading line in penny fares. In fact, the work of the directors is beyond praise. They have reduced all their fares to such a low tariff that, were it not for unreasonable and extortionate shareholders, the day surely would not be far distant when the public would be asked to travel for nothing.

    Prior to the advent of the penny-in-the-slot machine there could be seen at every Underground railway station weighing-machines of the old original shape—veritable balances, in which one could be weighed and sometimes found wanting. It was a queer race of boys who manipulated the weights—the sort of pigmy you would naturally expect to find underground, and in looks not unlike a deformed undersized brother to Smith's bookstall boy. The species is now extinct, and the delicately-poised, red velvet cushions no longer tempt old gentlemen to weigh themselves in order to secure a comfortable seat while waiting for the train.
    It will be noticed that many of the carriages have large figures, 1, 2 or 3, on the doors to specify the class. For the sake of the younger generation, who may not have heard the legend, I crave permission from the seniors for mentioning the incident of the Irishman who repudiated the charge of travelling in a class superior to that for which he had taken a ticket. Said he, " I paid twopence for my ticket, and naturally got into a carriage with a 2 on it!"
     Visitors to London usually make early acquaintance with the Circle, for it is so planned that it unites nearly all the London termini of the great railways, and is a connecting link with every suburb of London. The old lady from the country, who begged the guard not to forget to put her out at London, did not realise that there are four hundred railway stations in our capital, and that it is about an hour's journey to cross London by train.
    Every railway has a distinguishing characteristic, be it a particular tint for its posters or a special colour for its engines. The Inner Circle, however, makes a special feature of advertisements, and a favourite amusement with passengers is to find the name of the station amidst the multifarious appeals to one's pocket and credulity which cover the walls. The advertising contractor before long will have entirely obscured the stations' names ; but provided they are known beforehand they can sometimes still be detected with a sharp eye. Who knows? Some day we may see the porters' uniforms embroidered with artistic suggestions of favourite brands, with medicinal remedies labelled over the parts affected. By paying a slight premium, advertisers' wares could be announced by the porters simultaneously with the destination of the train.
    At some of the Underground stations there are movable signals on the platforms giving a complete list of the stations at which the incoming train will call. An excellent contrivance, and one which other companies might follow with advantage. It saves numberless questions, and has appreciably improved the tempers of the porters. Another most useful device adopted by the District Railway is the marking of every ticket with either I or O and the erection of large signboards ALL TICKETS MARKED I (or O) THIS WAY. Notwithstanding these notices some people prefer to make assurance doubly sure by asking the long-suffering men at the barriers.
    As is well-known the platforms are reached by steep flights of stairs, at the bottom of which is the inevitable gate. By horrible ingenuity every gate is so hung that when shut it is out of sight of the would-be passenger hurrying down the steps. Londoners are used to having gates shut in their faces ; but to be at the wrong end of long descending vista, and see the gate closedby an invisible porter, is an exasperation. Some victims assume a stoical indifference, until a fellow-sufferer expresses himself in manner more emphatic than polite, when they may look towards him feelingly, with a "Thank you, sir ; I am obliged to you." Some discuss with the porter the ethics of the situation. Others again vent their wrath by impotently shaking the bars of the gate, and are all the calmer for the exercise, such ebullition of feeling causing a wicked joy in the breasts of the onlookers!
    It cannot be said that architecturally the stations are attractive. Occasionally you see a neat little pile like Portland Road station, but the majority are to be found discreetly retiring behind houses and shops, with an apologetic expression for their existence. No doubt there are people who eagerly devour the long lists of names forming the external adornment of stations, but so far as the writer's personal observation goes, most folks show a remarkable haste in departing as well as in arriving.

Some Sundance reviews of Wuthering Heights 2011 (Picture: Agatha A. Nitecka):

I saw a new version of "Wuthering Heights" by director Andrea Arnold ("Red Road" (still my favorite of hers), "Fish Tank").  It's a beautiful, stark and cruel film, very true to the Emily Brontë novel in combining the rawness of nature with the fickleness of human passion.  Arnold chooses to cast Heathcliff as black-skinned, not merely swarthy, and she uses very contemporary cinematography and editing.  She also gets remarkable performances out of her child stars, Shannon Beer and Solomon Glave, who fill the roles of young Catherine and Heathcliff with fire and grit.  Not to every taste, but very good. (Shawn Levy in The Oregonian)

By positioning Heathcliff as a racial minority in the narrative, Brontë creates a much more complicated story about obsession, bestiality, and revenge than previous adaptations and teenage girls obsessed with the literary character would lead you to believe. Arnold channels the original tone of the novel as she depicts a love story with unsatisfying, unsettling results. (...)
This hopeless, dirty, consumptive world is what makes the book so interesting, and what this adaptation capitalizes on. Arnold has moved away from the hopelessly romantic towards the merely hopeless and in doing so has finally made a version of Wuthering Heights with some depth. There is more to glean from this contemplatively paced (be warned: another way of saying very slow) film than one viewing affords. I look forward to watching and rewatching this film as both a companion piece to an incredible novel, and as a separate work of art, worthy of being considered for its own merits. (Whitney Borup in Film Threat)

"Wuthering Heights" is pretty. "Wuthering Heights" is a really long movie and it feels even longer. There should be a term for this, like the wind chill or heat index: "'Wuthering Heights' has a running time of 128 minutes, but the length index is going to make it feel more like 140 for all you folks out there."  (Mike Ryan in Moviefone)

Arnold is a feisty director with a singular vision, and Wuthering Heights is definitely a singular take on Emily Brontë's story. Purists, be warned; this is not the high gothic romance we read in high school. (...)
The movie is long and slow and makes the viewer work to meet it halfway. One could argue that Heathcliff could spend less time peering in Catherine's windows and letting the rain soak him to the bone as he sulks on the moors, but the experience verges on the meditative.
Although it takes place in the eighteenth century, the handheld camera work and quick cut editing gives it a more modern feeling. It is grim and muddy and sometimes utterly mundane, but also beautiful and even sensuous at times.  (Jenni Miller in Movies.com)

Everything from Arnold’s casting to her grip on visceral emotion captured through the lens of the camera is to be noted when watching her films. “Wuthering Heights” brings us to a fresh reinvention of the ages-old story of 18th century orphan and his love for a farmer’s daughter. The retelling of “Wuthering Heights” is surely another gem in the upcoming roster at Sundance 2012. (Pouya Asadi in Sound Colour Vibration)

The film has little dialogue, especially in the first half as we watch the young lover's relationship develop, and it has no music soundtrack. Arnold relied on the stark beauty and wildness of the film's location––the western end of Swaledale in North Yorkshire––along with its magnification of natural sounds (the wind on the moors, fingers scraping against bark, etc.), provided by French sound designer Nicholas Becker, to give Bronte's novel the texture and emotion usually provided through a film's script and soundtrack. Dare I say that Arnold has perhaps surpassed the classic story given to us by Brontë through this visual masterpiece.
I do, however, have one gripe: the actors. Making their film debut in Wuthering Heights, the young Heathcliff and Catherine played by Glave and Beer respectively are case perfectly for their roles as adolescent lovers. Beer has an untamed look about her that is exactly as I pictured Catherine to be, and though he says little, Arnold's choice in Glave as Heathcliff (and interpreting Heathcliff's outcast persona as an issue of race) was genius. At the halfway mark, when the characters grow up and the cast is swapped for James Howson (Heathcliff) and Kaya Scodelario (Catherine), and the script becomes more talky, I was a little disappointed by the execution. The last half of the plot is the most tumultuous, full of tragedy, heartbreak, drama, but Scodelario's acting doesn't live up to the novel's characterization of Catherine's insanity. Fist-time actor Howson recites his lines in an almost robotic tone, and though his obsession with Catherine should also be maddening, I felt nothing as he struggled with his emotions.
All in all, this was an amazing film that is worth seeing if only to appreciate the beauty of the Yorkshire countryside and experience a fresh interpretation of a Victorian classic. Even with the story-line liberties taken by Arnold and the so-so acting in the last half, Wuthering Heights is sure to exceed expectations.  (Esther Merono in SLUG Magazine)

The Richmond Times-Dispatch talks about Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy:

Margot Livesey, who grew up in the Scottish Highlands where her father taught at a private school for boys, is no stranger to fiction, and her seventh novel, "The Flight of Gemma Hardy," reverberates with some of Livesey's experiences. Gemma, orphaned young, is sent to a boarding school where she is both servant and student. As a young adult, she takes a job as an au pair on the Orkney Islands in a story that pays homage to Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre."

And The Boston Globe reviews it:

Born in Yorkshire in 1816, dead by age 38, Charlotte Brontë left behind a seemingly timeless, improbable oeuvre that longer-lived authors can only envy: two books of poetry and more than a dozen novels, best known among them, written under the pseudonym “Currer Bell,’’ “Jane Eyre.’’ It was clearly admiration, not envy, that moved Scottish-born author Margot Livesey to write an homage to the proto-classic, proto-feminist tale of a female protagonist who suffers but never seeks rescue. (...)
“ ‘The Flight of Gemma Hardy’ is, in my mind, neither my autobiography nor a retelling of Jane Eyre,’’ Livesey has written. “Rather I am writing back to Charlotte Brontë, recasting Jane’s journey to fit my own courageous heroine and the possibilities of her time and place.’’(...)
No spoiler alert required: Neither the stunning plot twists that Livesey supplies, nor her satisfying surprise ending, will be revealed here. What is revealed in “The Flight of Gemma Hardy’’ is an exceptionally well-plotted, well-crafted, innovatively interpreted modern twist on a timeless classic, one that’s sure to delight the multitudes of Brontë fans, and the multitudes of fans that Livesey deserves.  (Meredith Maran)

As The Denver Post:

"The Flight of Gemma Hardy" is not so much a reboot of "Jane Eyre" as it is an homage. Margot Livesey sets her version in the middle of the 20th century, after the end of World War II and before the social turbulence of the late 1960s. (...)
"Jane Eyre" is, simplistically, a coming-of-age story and a social criticism set in a Gothic landscape. Livesey owns the soul of the story. Gemma's prickly pride and her "appealing" defiance make it hard to begin, let alone maintain, relationships. She can only come to maturity through a journey that is as introspective as it is challenging; she must experience her own faults before she can have empathy for those of others. (Robin Vidimos)

Girls With Books also posts a review.

HitFix's Guy Lodge publishes his dream Oscar ballot in the crafts fields including several for Jane Eyre 2011:

Best Cinematography: Adriano Goldman, "Jane Eyre"
Blauvelt's yellowed, dust-veiled Oregon Trail vistas in "Meek's Cutoff" make ingenious use of the Academy ratio to imprison its lost characters in their limitless landscape. The film shares with "Jane Eyre" a keen artist's eye for the fleeting, witchy opportunities afforded by natural light, an unaffected sensibility video artist and photographer Har'el takes to more rapturous extremes in her self-shot doc "Bombay Beach."
Best Costume Design: Michael O'Connor, "Jane Eyre"
O'Connor's more Oscar-friendly costuming of "Jane Eyre" weaves unusually precise details of character, class and age into its mile-wide crinoline skirts.
Best Makeup: "Jane Eyre"
[T]he subtext-packed range and wit of the hairstyling in "Jane Eyre".

Best Original Score: Dario Marianelli, "Jane Eyre"
Over in the traditionalist's corner, Marianelli's typically swoony but appropriately reserved work on "Jane Eyre" was a career high[.]

DVD Verdict reviews Jane Campion's The Piano Blu-Ray:

At its best, The Piano plays like the lost masterwork of one of theBrontë sisters. I suppose it can be described as a romance, but it would be moreaccurate to describe it as Romantic.  (Clark Douglas)

La Crosse Tribune presents yet another production of The Mystery of Irma Vep at La Croix Black Box Theatre in the FineArts Center at Viterbo University:

“If you’re interested to see how the plots of movies like‘Gaslight,’ ‘Rebecca,’ and ‘Dracula’ combined with the romance ofnovels such as ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Jayne Eyre,’(sic)  this is theshow for you,” said production manager Sadie Ward. (Geri Parlin)

AgnosLibertine, Writer's Wavelength and Thursday's Book Orgy post about Wuthering Heights;  Dish on Hiatus has visited Haworth and Les Soeurs Brontë (in French) publishes a nice post of Brontë winter scenes.

Last summer my son and I made a little You Tube video entitled ‘William Morris in Lancaster’ which commemorates Morris’s lecture here on Tuesday 2 November 1886, when he addressed 600 Lancastrians in Palatine Hall on ‘Socialism: The End and the Means’. Three key reasons for doing so. I want first to highlight Morris’s profile locally and to launch a campaign to get a blue plaque celebrating that visit on the wall of Palatine Hall (we already have a plaque which records Charles Dickens’s stays in the Kings Arms Hotel here in 1857 and 1862).

Second, because my students only come across Morris towards the end of our chronologically organised Victorian Literature course, when we get to the 1880s, too late in the day for him really to become a force in their own thinking. So with the You Tube video I can highlight his local presence for them rather earlier in the course and then keep a Morrisian socialist and utopian orientation towards the other writers on it active throughout. I want Morris to be a contemporary ‘tool for thinking’ for them, not just another dusty Victorian.

Part of our You Tube video concerns the history of the Lancaster branch of the Socialist League set up in the wake of Morris’s lecture here; and I feel, thirdly, that we have too little local history of the League, too little sense of its colourful local characters, polemics, struggles, successes and failures. We know the story of some of the key London branches quite well, but there are plenty of other groups up and down the country whose record remains to be fully reconstructed both from the local press and Commonweal reports. So may I suggest that UK readers of this blog consider posting a You Tube account of their own local Socialist League branch? Such videos may only be brief tasters of the full histories we need, but they will at least get us started.

A visit yesterday to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich - a place I can shamefacedly confess I have never visited before - and a tour of the newly refurbished Caird Library.

The museum itself hosts all sorts of great stuff, from these relics of the doomed Franklin Exhibition ...


to a boat-pilotting simulator, where you can dock your vessel in Sydney or New York harbour, or choose to rescue drowning members of the public near Dover. [Hint - take your kids to that one!]

The Caird library has undergone a massive refurbishment, creating a state-of-the-art archive and study space for visitors. I particularly liked this arrangment, below


which is a device for seeing ships' plans - you move around the image on the small screen, and can blow up sections onto a much larger screen above (actually much bigger than my picture suggests). Apparently about 4000 of 1,000,000 of the archive's plans have been digitised; but there's more coming.

The library put a few of its treasures on display. The thing that caught my eye was this beautifully illustrated mid-Victorian diary, relating to a 3 month voyage to Australia in 1854. The pictures of the writers' cabin and the dining quarters were particularly lovely:



The tour ended with a behind-the-scenes look at the rolling stacks and a glance at the thousands of masters' certificates held by the library - currently awaiting digitisation by Ancestry.com - which are a family history treasure trove for those of you with maritime ancestors.

My thanks to everyone at the Caird Libray for a fascinating tour.

Fine ― gray at times: ― but very close & warm.

Worked ― not very well, ― at Dionysiou ― from 9 to 3.

Letters ― (Trieste & Alexdr. Boat ―) from Ellen: ― Fred ― & his son are in Genl. Price’s army.

& T. Cooper. ― “Called up” at the Maudes ―

Walked from 4.00 ― to 6.15 ― calling at the Kokalis ― Χριζὸς is better.

Dined alone. Penned out, the old Delvino drawing of the Castle.

[Transcribed by Marco Graziosi from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3.]

This is a recently self published book with not many information about (not even a cover):

Fallen Angel
George Newell Hauton
Publisher: George Newell Hauton (10 Dec 2011)
ISBN-10: 0957020503
ISBN-13: 978-0957020504

What we know about it comes from this review on Abigail's Ateliers:

It is a short story of just over a 130 pages long. Its basic plot outline is that for many years,  perhaps since her death, the ghost of Charlotte Brontë walks around unseen in Haworth while sleeping at the parsonage. The ghost falls foul of a long dead witch who creates some form of  enchantment which means that Charlotte will without warning become visible and real. Charlotte has a brief romantic interlude and eventually is freed from the enchantment and can go back to walking unseen around her home town.

The Laboratory by Hon John Collier

Painting of the Day Archive

Tidying up some loose ends from 2011, I found a couple of books that still deserve a mention. Comics and crosswords – what more do you need on a Saturday?

Larry in Wonderland: A Pearls before Swine Collection gathers together almost a year’s worth of Stephan Pastis’s bizarre parliament of animals. In these strips, which ran between August 2009 and May 2010, Pastis really had fun with a Wonderland theme, introducing such characters as the Mad Ducker, Cheshire Snuffles, Tweedledum Pig, and Tweedledee Idiot Pig.

The book is currently only $6.49 on Amazon.

Mad Hatter Crosswords reproduces 75 puzzles from the New York Times. An admirably dedicated reviewer has identified them as the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday crosswords published between January 2009 and April 2010. The Mad Hatter connection doesn’t seem to go beyond the cover illustration, through it is true that crosswords go very well with tea.

The collection is published by St. Martin’s Griffin and is available from Amazon for $7.99.

 

 

 

The Haworth Parish Church has been able to raise the money for the reparations but it now seems that they need even more.We read on BBC News:

The cost of repairs to the church where the novelist sisters Charlotte and Emily Brontë are buried has unexpectedly risen by up to £50,000.
St Michael and All Angels Parish Church in Haworth, West Yorkshire, had raised the £65,000 needed to secure £100,000 in funding from English Heritage.
But rising costs of building work now means it requires up to £50,000 more.
The roof of the church is badly damaged and water has damaged the original wall paintings.
Discussions are under way to decide whether the offer of an English Heritage grant will still stand.
An English Heritage spokesperson said: "We're disappointed to hear that Haworth Church has met this last minute funding challenge.
"We know how important the repairs to the church are and want to support them as much as possible in getting this fantastic historic church repaired."
John Huxley, secretary at Haworth church, said: "We were overjoyed to learn we had reached the total, then knocked sideways by finding out building costs had gone up by so much.
"The reaction from the public to help raise funds has been absolutely phenomenal."
The church said a meeting would be held on Tuesday to discuss further fundraising options.

The Telegraph & Argus adds:

But as that target was reached yesterday church secretary John Huxley said he received the “gut-wrenching” news that due to escalating building costs it would need tens of thousands of pounds more than it had originally thought.
He said English Heritage was being “very helpful, very supportive and very sympathetic” and was looking at ways it could help. “What was due to be one of the most joyful days in the church’s history has turned very sour,” he said last night.
“This morning we thought we were home and dry. To get this bombshell as the day has gone on has been gut-wrenching.”
Fundraising events and schemes have been organised by residents and people keen to help restore the church, which is the burial place of the Bronte sisters.
They included the production of a “Haworth Couldn’t Wear Less” calendar and the donation of proceeds from the sale of 100 limited editions of a painting of the Bronte sisters by artist Stella Vine.
Mr Huxley said: “A lot of money has come in from well-wishers.
“We have raised something in the region of £40,000 ourselves which is an unbelievable result for a church of our size.
“Once we have got over the disappointment we’ll have to dust ourselves down.
“Where we’ll get the money from I don’t know. We’re just hoping there’s someone out there who can help us.
“Lots of people have been very generous and kind but we’re throwing ourselves on their mercy again.”
Donations can be made online at haworthchurch.co.uk or cheques made payable to ‘Haworth Church Restoration Fund’ can be sent c/o the treasurer to 17 North View Terrace, Haworth, BD22 8HJ. (Tanya O'Rourke)

The Yorkshire Post includes a video.

The Haworth housing development projects are discussed in a very good article in The Telegraph:

There is a Brontë Hotel in Haworth, and a Brontë minicab company, and Ye Olde Brontë Tea Rooms. Not forgetting the Brontë Balti House (free delivery for orders over £6).

Charlotte, Emily and Anne would have been amazed to discover how ubiquitous their family name has become. The sisters were unwitting authors of an industry when, in search of childhood entertainment, they began making up stories, personal histories of the toy soldiers given to their brother Branwell by their father Patrick, perpetual curate of St Michael and All Angels.

The Brontë myth enshrouds Haworth and its overlooking moors even more completely than Shakespeare's does Stratford. This corner of the industrial West Riding is captured in literary amber.

"Haworth expresses the Brontës; the Brontës express Haworth," wrote Virginia Woolf after a visit to the village in 1904. "They fit like a snail to its shell."

Climb the steep, cobbled high street to the parsonage where the family lived and the modern world fades. The churchyard is dark even on a clear blue winter afternoon, its tall, gothic gravestones bent this way and that, blackened, mossy faces recording lives snatched away by consumption, typhoid and malnutrition. Crows mourn overhead, completing the melancholy. Even the Japanese coach parties, up to five a day in the summer, cannot dispel its essential silence.

The Saturday Monitor (Uganda) discovers Brontëites in every corner. Like Olivia Kaguliro Mulerwa, storyteller and aspiring writer:

As a romantic, I admire the love that Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte) has for Mr Rochester. It is so pure and so real. An unattractive heroine and a troubled man with a complicated past, I can’t think of a more compelling love story. (Beatrice Lamwaka)

Or the actor, author and playwright Robert Leleux in the Huffington Post:

I suppose I always did that anyway. I did that with "Jane Eyre." I wanted to marry Mr. Rochester. When she says, "Reader, I married him," I was so jealous I wanted to kill her. I feel like that's just what little gay boys do.

Or the French writers Guillaume Musso and Annie Ernaux:

Dans ses sources d'inspiration, Musso cite volontiers Emily Brontë, qu'il a « dévorée » à l'âge de quinze ans[.] (Thierry Gandillot in Les Echos) (Translation)

«La littérature n'est pas seulement témoignage. La littérature apporte des modèles d'existence. C'est extrêmement important. J'ai lu très longtemps pour chercher le sens de ma vie, comment je pourrais vivre. J'ai été frappée en relisant, 50 ans plus tard, Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë. J'étais absolument ahurie de voir que beaucoup de choses me sont venues de ce livre. Comment Jane se construit, s'interroge et ne veut dépendre de personne. C'est très beau.» (Chantal Guy in Le Point) (Translation)

The travel section of The Guardian lists several cottages in the Lake District and Yorkshire, including one in Haworth:

Or head to the wild and windy moors of Brontë country – sitting in the Pennines above Haworth is the Brontë Barn (sleeps six, available throughout the peak season, £960), where exposed beams and stonework mix with cool contemporary design. (Catherine Nelson and Isabel Choa)

The York Press talks about the David Hockney's London exhibition: A Bigger Picture which may boost the tourism in East Yorkshire:

They will do now, or so hopes the Country Landowners Association (CLA), which anticipates a tide of tourists in this age of “staycation Britain”, in much the way that All Creatures Great And Small boosted the Dales and all bookish things Brontë furnish the Moors.

A couple of fashion references. The New York Times talks about the latest Comme des Garçons collection:

All these elements felt warmly and securely Comme des Garçons, but perhaps the most appealing thing about the show today was the silhouette: longish and free at the waist, with those full shorts (or knee-length skirts) and, naturally, hairy calves before the splash of pink at the ankles. One impulse was romantic — Jane Eyre, I thought — the other punk. (Cathy Horyn)

It seems that the last collection of Emporio Armani has some Wuthering Heights inspiration:

Un inguaribile romantico che vola al di sopra della moda senza mai esserne condizionato. "Penso a libri come Cime Tempestose o Lady Chatterley e a uomini dall 'aria misteriosa ma che si pongono in modo pacato, mai aggressivo", spiega Armani alla fine della sua sfilata. (Paola Bulbarelli in Il Corriere della Sera) (Translation)

Ha riletto 'Cime tempestose' e 'Il nome della rosa' Giorgio Armani nel tratteggiare il suo uomo romantico che ha una storia dietro e dentro di sé. (Eva Desiderio in Il Quotidiano) (Translation)

Al via allora a cappe dilana, cappelli, mantelle alla Heatchcliff di CimeTempestose, pantaloni morbidi a metà stada tra quelli per farejogging a quelli più classici. (Paola Montanaro in GQ) (Translation)

Giorgio Armani si ispira ad Emily Brontë e al romanticismo poetico di Cime tempestose. La sua è una poesia fatta di eroismo, laddove interpreta con grande stile capi intramontabili come il montgomery, sottolineandone l’affidabilità di Emporio Armani. (Stylosophy) (Translation)

The Millions discusses 'the literary pedigree of Downton Abbey':

We experience the grandeur of Rochester’s Thornfield Hall only through the eyes of Jane Eyre, the governess. Class roles are more fluid in Wuthering Heights, but between Heathcliff and Catherine, one is always on the way up and the other on the way down. (Garth Risk Hallberg)

Grantland lists several great writers who wrote for Hollywood:

Aldous Huxley. He fared pretty well, adapting Brave New World, Ape And Essence, and A Woman's Vengeance from his own work, and contributing to successful versions of Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and the biopic Madame Curie. (Molly Lambert)

Newsday quotes from the new Elizabeth II biography "Elizabeth The Queen" by Sally Bedell Smith:

Throughout her girlhood, Elizabeth had time blocked out each day for "silent reading" of books by Stevenson, Austen, Kipling, the Brontës, Tennyson, Scott, Dickens, Trollope, and others in the standard canon.

The Sunday Herald reviews The Locked Ward by Dennis O'Donnell:

It might have tried to banish the image of the first Mrs Rochester starting fires in Jane Eyre, or Renfield biting down on an insect in Dracula, or Patrick McMurphy staring into space after his lobotomy in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Those images are old ones. But they stick. (Mark Smith)

Bootsnall lists several people's homes turned into museums. Such as the Brontë Parsonage:

The Brontë sisters, much beloved by British and foreign classics lovers alike, live on in the heart of England with the preservation of the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, where the sisters lived, grew up, and were inspired to write their novels. Brontë Country, as the area around the place where they lived is collectively known, features a collection of quaint villages and large expanses of moors such as the ones in which the fictional Heathcliff and Catherine, the protagonists of Wuthering Heights,  lived out their passionate love. The Brontë parsonage is maintained by the Brontë society, which endeavours to preserve the possessions of the sisters, as well as the house’s original furnishings. (Denise Pulis)

E!Online makes some Oscar predictions. Michael Fassbender is a clear contender in the Best Actor role for Shame:

Arguably the biggest breakout of the year—appearing in box office blowout comic book stuff like X-Men: First Class to the lovey dovey classical lit adaptation of Jane Eyre—it was for Shame that Fassbender will likely land an Oscar nom. (John Boone and Ted Casablanca)

The Philippines Star interviews the actor Paulo Avelino:

His current major is sharing the lead with Julia Montes and Coco Martin in Walang Hanggan.
Loosely adapted from Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Paulo plays Nathaniel Montenegro, the rich guy who’s hopelessly in love with Katarina Alcantara (Julia Montes), the rich girl who only has eyes for the poor boy, Daniel Valencia (Coco Martin). “My character here is a person who is bulag sa pag-ibig. With Katarina, he’s thinking, ‘I’m not really expecting you to love me. I’m just giving you my love without expecting anything back,’” Paulo says. Ain’t love grand? (Cai Subijano)

Badische Zeitung (Germany) reviews the Matthias Breintenbarg's Wuthering Heights adaptation on stage in Freiburg:

Breitenbach kann sich auf sein Schauspielerquartett verlassen: Mit Verve, mit Spielfreude, manchmal mit einer angemessenen Portion Ironie und Komik meistern Drieschner, Melamed, Albrecht und Happel bei der Premiere die nicht leichte Aufgabe, über 75 Minuten in diesem Stück präsent zu sein. Eine feine Ensembleleistung in einem Stück, das gut neben dem Roman von Emily Brontë bestehen kann, weil es ihn ernst nimmt. Warmer Applaus. (Heidi Ossenberg) (Translation)

Deutschlandradio Kultur (Germany) interviews the Belgian author Jan de Leeuw. We understand his point but we mostly disagree:

Trotzdem bin ich davon überzeugt, dass das Privatleben eines Autors seine Bücher nährt, und dass es ihnen neues Leben verleihen kann. Die Brontë-Schwestern würden wohl kaum noch gelesen werden, wenn wir nicht wüssten, wie sie gelebt haben, in Haworth, und dass sie an Tuberkulose gestorben sind. (Translation)

Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland) talks about Mike Leigh's filmography and mentions "the Brontë motto" in Career Girls 1997:

We "Współlokatorkach" (1997) Katrin Cartlidge i Lynda Steadman grają przyjaciółki ze studiów, które spotykają się po latach w Londynie i przeprowadzają bilans życia. Tworzą kontrastową, dopełniającą się parę: jedna jest "rozważna", druga "romantyczna", jak w powieści Austen. Obie, samotne z wyboru, wywikłały się z nieudanych związków, mają pracę, prezentują się elegancko. Obroniły siebie, ale czy zwyciężyły? Co zostało z ich aspiracji? Co mogą z siebie dać innym? Próbują, jak kiedyś, dla żartu, wróżyć sobie z "Wichrowych wzgórz", otwierając książkę w byle jakim miejscu: "miss Bronte, miss Bronte, czy wkrótce znajdę prawdziwe szczęście?". Palec wskazuje słowo "męka". (Tadeusz Sobolewski) (Translation)

The Ft. Lauderdale Movie Examiner and North West Indiana Times  think that Jane Eyre 2011 will be nominated to the Best Costume Design Oscar (the last one also thinks that it has some chances in the Best Edition category); Hoofddorpse Courant (Netherlands) reviews the film;  Old-Fashioned Charm posts a Brontë Unscramble Game; the Brontë Sisters discusses the sisters' railway investments; Benalmádena Digital (Spain) talks about a new local book club (Escribir en Femenino) which will open reading the Brontës.

Finally, Laura's Reviews has a guest post (by us), part of the Victorian Challenge 2012.

The web abounds with the fascinating tales and photographs of modern 'urban explorers' who have plumbed the depths of the Fleet sewer and similar subterranean passage-ways, whether with the approval of the relevant authorities, or without. I have, however, found their earliest ancestor - a photo-journalistic account of the Holborn subways and nearby sewer, from The Strand of 1898. It's not a fascinating piece of writing, to be honest, but the photographs are occasionally interesting - at least, I like the one showing street names underground. Anyway, if London tunnels are your thing, cast an eye over this ...

Underground London

[From Photos. by George Newnes, Limited]

It is a time-honoured saying that, if you want to know anything about this great Metropolis of ours, you must not go to a Londoner in search of information. This is, no doubt, a trite remark, but the more one goes about, and the longer one lives, the more apparent becomes its truth. The foreigner—intelligent or otherwise—who comes to London is very properly inquisitive; he questions, he inquires, he seeks for all that is curious or interesting, with the natural consequence that, after a very few weeks' residence, he can often give points to the man who has lived in the "heart of the Empire" all his life. The average Londoner, on the contrary, is apt to take things very much for granted. He knows that, on the whole, matters affecting his safety and his health are well managed, and, such being the case, he does not bother his head much about the why and the wherefore. The vast organization, the capable administration, the host of details which have to be carefully thought out and rigorously applied—all these things are with the majority of people entirely overlooked. The end is good ; why bother about the means? Thus is it that the average Londoner, and not least the travelled Londoner, while he waxes enthusiastic over the wonders he has seen abroad—tells us about the admirable municipal arrangements which prevail in New York, and describes with animation the wonderful catacombs of Paris and Rome—remains in total ignorance' of the fact that here, in our great City, he might feast his eyes upon wonders no less remarkable did he but know of their existence. But it is useless to dilate in this vein ; the Londoner will not be persuaded to go and see the wonders which lie at his very door. Only through the medium of the ever-inquisitive journalist, always prying about in the dark places of the earth, does he sometimes learn about and admire these native wonders, of the very existence of which he had not hitherto dreamed.

    I am bound to admit that, so far as the nether world of the City was concerned, until a short time back I was not much better informed than the generality of my fellows. It is true I knew that there were such places as subways and sewers ; but that was about all. I had hardly the faintest conception of what they were like, and probably should have continued to remain in ignorance had it not been for a visit I paid them a few months back. Quite by accident I came across the "Report of the Improvement Committee of proceedings in connection with the Holborn Valley Improvement," which was issued five-and-twenty years ago, and desultorily turning over its pages, I was struck by the various references and diagrams in connection with the subways. The thing took my fancy : I discovered how ignorant I was of the underground arrangements which so I greatly add to the comfort and safety of those sojourning within the "one square mile"; and I determined, with as little delay as possible, to make of good the defect in it my education.

    So I applied to the City Commissioners of Sewers for the necessary authority, and right willingly was it accorded. The Chairman, Mr. H. G. Smallman, entered enthusiastically into the matter, remarking that if the thing was going to be done at all, it should be done thoroughly. Remember, this was the very first time that it had been proposed to write an illustrated article on the subject. The Chairman was rather dubious as to whether we should be able to get any satisfactory photographs of the sewers; but at all events, he expressed his willingness to do all he could to help us. So that we started on our task under the best of auspices.

    Behold us, then, one September afternoon assembled outside the large iron gate beneath Holborn Viaduct— that gate which most people have noticed, but the purpose for which it is used known to very few. Besides the Chairman, there were Captain Robert Gresley Hall, D.L., the Chairman of the Streets Committee ; Mr. D. G. Ross, the City Engineer ; and Mr. H. Montague Bates, the Chief Clerk to the Commissioners, who, according to Mr. Smallman, is virtually the " permanent chairman." The photographer, with his assistant and the writer, brought our little party up to eight all told. When the gate opened at our summons, Mr. W. J. Liberty, the City Inspector of Subways and—under the Engineer — head of all practical matters appertaining to them, was waiting to show us over his territory. The iron gate, through which the sunlight was streaming, closed with a clang, and walking up two or three stairs, we set out along one of the thorough-fares of the underground city.

    In the first instance, I experienced a feeling of disappointment. The reality was so different from what I had expected. My idea had been that a subway would prove as Mr Mantalini might have said, a "demnition deuced damp" sort of a place, smelling of the earth, dark and filled with an atmosphere resembling that of a charnel-house. And what did I see? A long, clean, and well garnished looking passage, dimly illumined by gas-jets (which, by the way, were specially provided for our visit), and having an atmosphere almost as healthy as that we had just left. But the feeling of disappointment soon gave way to one of admiration when we walked along the subway, and the uses of the various pipes which ran along one side were pointed out to me. They include the mains of the Gas, New River, Hydraulic Power, and Electric Light Companies, also the pneumatic tubes and hundreds of wires belonging to the G.P.O.; and the arrangements whereby the service mains are connected to the various houses show that simplicity which constitutes the high-water mark of mechanical ingenuity. The usual time for making the connection is half an hour, and in case of non-payment of rates, a house can be cut off from its gas, water, electric light, or power supply in a few minutes, and this, moreover, without the unfortunate tenant or the general public knowing anything about it.

    I was rather amused to notice that the names of the various streets under which we were passing were posted upon the walls, as were also the numbers of the houses served by the mains. Thus, in case of emergency or fire, all that has to be done is to cut off the service at the particular branch where the mischief has occurred. As we went along, the Superintendent explained to me the exceedingly ingenious manner in which the difficulties incidental to the construction of the subways had been surmounted, and also pointed out how they were ventilated and generally kept sweet and clean. But as this is not a technical article, I need not weary the reader with such details, interesting as they are to those with a knowledge of underground engineering. Perhaps the most interesting subway of them all is the length on the southern side of Holborn, between Farringdon Street and Shoe Lane, which is lighted by gratings, filled with glass lenses, placed at intervals of 40ft. These render it sufficiently light by day for the purposes of inspection and work. The only daylight which gets into the others comes through the ventilating gratings in the footway, and this has to be supplemented by artificial light. It might be thought, in view of the possibility of leakage from the gas mains, that working in the subways might not be unattended by danger. The idea certainly struck me, and I speedily inquired of the Superintendent whether it was safe to smoke. His answer speedily reassured me. Every morning, before any work is done, a most complete inspection is made; armed with "Davys," the Superintendent and some of his men make a complete tour of the subways, testing doubtful-looking places, and if anything wrong be discovered, speedily setting it to rights. And be sure an extra inspection is made before the arrival of any distinguished visitors.

    Presently, I was astonished to learn that we actually stood over the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway! There we were, after painfully making our way through a subway which necessitated our walking bent double, in order to avoid striking our heads against the girders, directly above Snow Hill Station. Yes, there is no doubt about it. As we wait we can distinctly hear a train come in and the porters calling out its destination. It seems exceedingly close, but closer still, above us, we can hear the footsteps of the people on the pavement in Snow Hill. It is rather uncanny this, and especially so when one learns that only 6in. separates us from the street above and only a bare ¼in. of iron girder (for we are literally in a girder) prevents us from falling some 40ft. on to the metals ! It is a novel experience (especially when the train is moving below, and the spot in which we stand is positively vibrating!), and we are glad to have had it, but everyone is obviously concerned in trying not to allow his sigh of relief to become too apparent when we resume our journey. If anyone looks pale, it must, of course, be attributed to the cramped position in which we have been standing!
    Shortly afterwards we arrived at a spot which, we were informed, was immediately under the Prince Consort's statue at Holborn Circus.

    Coming back to the Superintendent's office, I was shown a great number of coins nailed to the counter. These, I was told, came through the gratings placed at intervals for ventilating purposes. It appears that gentlemen who make a business of passing spurious coin sometimes find it necessary to get rid of their stock-in-trade with the utmost despatch; they drop the coins through the gratings under the impression that they will fall into the sewers and be effectually lost. Alas! for the guilty one's hopes, the coins are found shining on the clean stone floor of the subway, and go to swell the stock in the superintendent's office. I asked him whether other articles were ever found. He replied: "Yes, we get plenty of empty purses. This is what the light-fingered gentry do. They take them from the pockets, or so-called 'pockets,' of ladies, and after carefully emptying them, drop them down the shafts. We find most of these in the dark days of winter, and chiefly in the neighbourhood of crowded Smithfield. I seldom find a gentleman's purse ; they mostly belong to City work-girls. The professional thieves know that when these girls draw their scanty wages on Saturday, they usually go to the great markets at Smithfield to make their little purchases, and ply their nefarious trade accordingly."

    Another interesting object in the Superintendent's little room is the "Visitors' Book." In it the names of foreign visitors predominate ; during the last year or so, scientific men, engineers, and sanitarians from Brazil, Malta, San Francisco, Finland, Santiago, Cologne, Copenhagen, Sydney, and, in fact, almost every great city, have visited the subways. And in nearly every instance the visitor has written a few words expressing his surprise and admiration at what he has seen. I could have stayed a long time chatting to the Superintendent, but the shadows were already beginning to draw in, and it was time for us to start upon the second half of our journey.

    First he took me to the subway sewers which lie under Holborn Viaduct. These sewers are quite unique in their way. As nearly as possible they follow the natural slope of the ground as it descended originally from the hills to the level of Farringdon Street, and consequently between the underside of the subways and the sewer is a large space, and the effect, when looking up from the latter, is very striking. Standing in the sewer (by the way, one is able to traverse these sewers dry-shod, a platform running along one side) one seems to be in a lofty vault. It is, of course, pitch dark, for even the glimmer of light coming through the gratings in the roadway which relieve the murkiness of the ordinary sewers is absent here. The space under the road in Farringdon Street is utilized for business purposes, large cellars having been constructed, with which communication can easily be made from the houses in the vicinity. These sewers are ventilated by square openings and shafts, and receive all the drainage from the houses on the Viaduct. Very great care and ingenuity have been exercised in the construction of these sewers, and also in the disposal of the gas, water, and telegraph pipes in the subways ; in fact, everything is so easy of access that it is thought that only under the most exceptional circumstances will it ever be necessary to open up the roadway, and thus cause a hindrance to traffic and stoppage of business.