Only earlier this week I mentioned that though it was in many ways painful and was taking some serious avoidance my month of no book buying hasn’t been quite as difficult as I thought it would. This is both thanks to ReadItSwapIt and the Library as I mentioned in the earlier post. I also said I had received some lovely parcels from some lovely publishers and would let you know what had arrived and so I thought as its a Saturday and book shopping is so tempting I would tease you with these delights that you could run out and buy; as none of you are doing anything as silly as a self imposed ban like I am hopefully!! First up some classics…

I have been making a concerted effort to read more classics and two publishers you cant go wrong with are Vintage Classics and Oxford University Press. When a rather large thud resounded through the building from the letterbox I came down and found ‘The Bronte Collection’ which includes Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Villette and Jane Eyre. I will admit I didnt love Wuthering Heights but after reading The Taste of Sorrow by Jude Morgan which is all about the sisters earlier this year I think a Bronte-Binge is on the way and the season after New Year seems perfect for this don’t you think? Might be a good Xmas pressie for relatives this Christmas maybe. (Hang on did I just mention the C word before December starts – I should be ashammed!) They also sent The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever and a huge collection of his letters. I havent read any Cheever but am thrilled about these two delights. Oxford University Press kindly sent the last of the Sensation Season novels (don’t cry they may be back again next year) in the form of Charles Dickens ‘Great Expectations’ along with George Moore’s ’Esther Waters’ which hit my attention waves on BBC Radio 4’s Open Book show when they looked at neglected classics. Be warned – the neglected classics are dangerous list of books which could lead to a huge spree.

From the people at Harper arrived a very diverse collection of books in one big parcel, the postman is not a fan of this address – his arms certainly aren’t, quite an eclectic mix indeed. Two of the books are from thier new imprint Blue Door ‘The Ballad of Trench Mouth Taggart’ (great title) by M Glenn Taylor and Mots d’Heures: Gousses, Rames by Luis d’Antin Van Rooten the latter can only be described by a post on their new blog. Sounds bizarre but will give it a go. They also sent me Snow Hill a thriller by Mark Sanderson, who has written a memoir so heartbreaking I have owned it for years and never able to read, Mark will be doing a Savidge Reads Grills very soon. Last but not least by any means as actually this is one of the books I have been most excited about in weeks (as you know I am having an Agatha Christie binge) is ‘Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks’ compiled by John Curran, I had to stop myself reading it as soon as it arrived. It’s a treat for a very lazy Sunday.

Now in a few weeks I will be doing a piece on the books to look forward to over the next year, you can see the predictions I made for this year here should you wish. Already some are coming through the letter box and Sceptre have done some very clever marketing with a collection of three books and three characters “you simply must meet in 2010″. They are called Nevis Gow, Lindiwe Bishop and Jack Rosenblum and I shall tell you more about them in the forthcoming weeks. I just love how they have packaged it all, no titles or authors on the cover, intriguing.  Books already out arrived too and they are The Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt, which I think has a stunning cover, and Incendiary by Chris Cleave and you all know how I loved The Other Hand.

Another massive parcel has arrived from Orion. I have succumbed to the latest in the Twilight Saga and it seems more Vampire delights await me with the first two of Charlaine Harris’ series about Sookie Stackhouse (great name) which have become the incredibly successful True Blood tv series. I haven’t heard much on the blogosphere on these but am very much intrigued by them as have seen tonnes on the tube.  The final tome that you can see is one thats not out until June next year but I have been priviledged enough to be asjed to take a very early look at. ‘The Passage’ by Justin Cronin is massive, comes with very little, though intriguing blurb and has already had the film rites bought by Ridley Scott, more on that soon too as I think this is going to be huge (and not just in size) next year. And finally…

It’s always nice when a publisher emails you be they big or small. I have to admit I hadn’t heard too much about Honno Press when they emailed me asking if they could send me a catalogue. Honno Press is an independent publisher of Welsh Women’s fiction (so a bit like a welsh version of Persephone if you are a fan) and they have a wonderful selection of books, they also go the extra mile as they went through my blog and picked three books they thought I would love. A welsh sensation novel ‘A Burglary’ by Amy Dillwyn, a book where “each generation looks back into the tragic past, loves, secrets and lies are hauled into the open with surprising consequences for all” in ‘Hector’s Talent for Miracles’ by Kitty Harri and finally a collection of witty, wry and sharply observed stories about women with ‘Stranger Within The Gates’ by Bertha Thomas. Sounds like they have got me spot on!!!

Blimey. Now over to you… are Bronte’s and other classics the perfect pressies for Christmas and reading as Spring… erm… springs up? Who has read the Charlaine Harris books, are they like Twilight? Who has tried Honno Press and what did you think?  What will you be curling up with this weekend? What books have you accumulated of late?

Actress Mia Wasikowska, pronounced vash-i-KOV-skə, is in negotiations to star in a film version of Jane Eyre directed by American director Cary Fukunaga. Mia Wasikowska is known for her role in Edward Zwick’s film Defiance, and she portrays Alice in Wonderland in the Tim Burton movie to be released in March 2010.

There have been many movies and tv series, done as period drama, of the book Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. The last movie adaptation of Jane Eyre was from 1996, and starred Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt. Jane Eyre the Musical was on Broadway circa 2000, and there is an excellent cast recording. A steamy BBC series from 2006 stars Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens.

While Jane Eyre is by no means a feminist treatise, Jane Eyre is a wonderfully interesting and independent woman character, especially since it was written in 1847, the Victorian period. And, a later book by Charlotte Bronte, “Shirley”, went even further with the idea of strong, women characters.

The news about actress Mia Wasikowska is mentioned in an entertainment article here and Mia’s Wikipedia entry here.

Below are some of my favorite scenes from various versions of Jane Eyre, as posted on YouTube:

His name is St. John Rivers.  Every. Darn. Time.

I admit, after having read this book four or five times, this shouldn’t surprise me.  The book is in stages.  The childhood stage.  The long and dreary Lowood School years.  Thornfield, Thornfield, wonderful Thornfield, and then…. St. John Rivers.  Sigh.

I understand that he’s a very important foil for Rochester.  He is everything good, and straight, and narrow, but also everything cold, hard and passionateless.  Actually, worse, he has passion, but denies it thoroughly.  St. John Rivers is exactly as unappealing as Charlotte Brontë ever could have wanted, and that’s a fact.  What’s also a fact is that it makes for slow reading.  Trudging, more like.

Don’t get me wrong, this is my favorite book in the history of books (or at least in the history of books I’ve read, which is a decent number for my four-and-score years) but St. John Rivers is a drag.  He just is.  He’s more cringe-worthy than Mr. Collins of Pride and Prejudice, because at least Eliza isn’t listening carefully to every word Mr. Collins says.

I suppose I could always skip over St. John… but I never do.  I just don’t roll that way.  And if I did I might miss his sisters who I do adore.  I honestly want to pluck him from the book sometimes, though.  He’s just so unenjoyable to read.  Though I suppose if he were gone, there’d be no one to save Jane from starving to death, would there?  And we can’t have that, so St. John will have to stay, no matter how much I whine and resist him.  Poor Rosamond Oliver.  He really must have been pretty for her to fall for him like that.

~Lisa, who has six more books to finish (this one included) before hitting her goal of 52 books in 52 weeks.  It may just happen this year!

There was an interesting piece in the Independent on Sunday’s The New Review this weekend.

In the Arts & Books section, Joy Lo Dico had written an article about a new collection of “Love Letters Of Great Women”, edited by Ursula Doyle, and published by Macmillan.

The publication of this collection was the opportunity for Lo Dico to write about women’s billet-doux, mentioning such examples as Anne Boleyn, writing a letter prior to Henry VIII deciding to chop her head off.

Now, we have no problem with the article, per se. It’s the illustrations for the feature that interested us.

Here’s the contemporary portrait of Anne Boleyn, as commonly used to illustrate articles about her.

But here’s who the Sindy describes as “Anne Boleyn”.

Notice a difference? The contemporary portrait has been eschewed, in favour of a 19th century, romanticised, prettified version of what Boleyn may have – but probably didn’t – looked like.

Presumably, this version fit the romantic and more domestic story it illustrated better than the powerful, hands-on-hips Tudor original.

The arts have had a tendency to prettify famous women in history. Apparently, we can’t deal with plain heroines. It’s ironic that Charlotte Bronte created in Jane Eyre an unconventional looking, plain, woman as her heroine, when she has been subject to prettification herself.

Even while she was alive, London society couldn’t deal with the fact that a famous female novelist, seen as romantic for her isolation in a moorside vicarage and her corset-bursting tales, could actually be a four foot something, cripplingly short-sighted, plain Yorkshirewoman.

George Richmond painted a somewhat romantic portrait of Charlotte in her lifetime, that now adorns many books by and about her.

This was itself seen, by some, as too plain; a further, even more airbrushed, version of Richmond’s portrait was required to match people’s perceptions of what a romantic novelist should look like.

So when a photograph of Bronte – taken around the time of her marriage in the 1850s – surfaced over 100 years after Bronte’s death, you can imagine the shock.

No, actually, you can’t. It looks like an ordinary Victorian woman, doesn’t it? But that was the problem – the 20th century readers didn’t want their romantic heroine to look like an ordinary married woman in her 30s anymore than the Victorians did. There were headlines about her frumpishness, with fans denouncing the photo as a fake – they couldn’t deal with their idol not looking like a romantic ideal.

And this attitude seems to be prevalent even today, in a national newspaper, by the sub, or the picture researcher, or whoever.

Anne Boleyn can’t be a proud, haughty, strong woman. She has to be depicted in her Victorian chasteness, all downcast eyes and sad mouth. That fits the “domestic bliss” image being promoted in this feature.

But just like the girly interpretations of Charlotte Bronte’s image, it’s fake, and does the women in question no favours.

]]> http://costumedramas.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/some-news-on-new-jane-eyre-feature-film/ Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:45:40 +0000 Judy http://costumedramas.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/some-news-on-new-jane-eyre-feature-film/

Sorry not to have been around, but life and work are getting in the way of blogging, as ever. I was interested to hear today that things seem to be developing a bit with the projected feature film of Jane Eyre . Originally, Juno star Ellen Page was supposed to be playing the title role, but she dropped out a while ago and now it is said that the heroine will be played by Mia Wasikowska, who is also playing Alice in the new Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland, with Michael Fassbender as Mr Rochester.  Here’s a link to the full information at Variety.  

by Charlotte Bronte

This was an okay book, but definately nowhere near as good as Emma. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a page turner in the slightest, although the last volume did pick up a little bit. I really didn’t understand Jane’s character at all during her time with Rochester. I failed to see any redeeming qualities regarding him. If you compare him with Mr. Darcy of Pride & Prejudice fame, the dullness is even more obvious. You can completely understand why Elizabeth hates Darcy, as much as you can completely understand how and why she eventually falls in love with him. He ends up being a thoroughly charming man. Mr. Rochester, on the other hand, seems dull in comparison, and I rarely believed that Jane loved him. Her thoughts and actions really didn’t prove her amorous feelings for her master. I can put it down to the social climate of the time, but I haven’t had this doubt over a character from a classic before. Albeit, I’ve not read that many classics yet, so we’ll see how I take with the next heroin I read.

I finished listening to The Thirteenth Tale over the weekend, and I’m looking forward to writing in more detail about it soon, but I’m not quite ready to yet. There are pieces of it I want to reread and mull over before discussing it in greater detail; it’s a book that takes some serious thought and consideration to fully (or as fully as possible) grasp.

But as I’ve been thinking about it, I came to the realization that I’ve never before read a novel that so fully revolves around other books and stories. Not for the sake of its plot; that is entirely Setterfield’s own. But the atmosphere, the characters, the settings — all are shaped by British literature of 18th and 19th centuries. And the reliance on and repeated mentioning of these books make me want to curl up with them myself.

A quick (and not complete, I’m sure) list of the works mentioned:
Jane Eyre
Sense and Sensibility
The Woman in White
The Castle of Otranto
Lady Audley’s Secret
The Spectre Bride
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Villette
Middlemarch
The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes

I’ve read Sense and Sensibility, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Wuthering Heights to various degrees of enjoyment, and though I haven’t read The Case Book, I am familiar Sherlock Holmes. I’ve long been meaning to read Middlemarch, and I’m now adding the Woman in White to my list as well.

It is my love of Jane Eyre, however, that truly makes me identify with the characters of this book. Jane Eyre is one of the few books where I can distinctly remember when I read it (at least for the first time).* I received it as a Christmas gift when I was 13, and quickly fell for it. I credit Charlotte Bronte’s masterpiece with opening my eyes to the richness of classic literature; though I’ve still only read a fraction of the amazing works out there, I may not have dared to approach even many of those had it not been for Jane Eyre crossing my path first. It’s a book that I’ve read several times but haven’t revisited in years; after finishing The Thirteenth Tale, I’m thinking I may need to make some time to do exactly that soon.

*Pre-Goodreads, of course; now I document approximately when I read everything through their site.

The Yellow Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, just one I read earlier - a lot earlier

I am the sort of person that if I read something and I like it, and the way that it’s been written, I shall then proceed to read as much as possible by the same author.  So consequently, when I first discovered libraries I read one of the Andrew Lang Fairytale books (can’t remember which colour) which contained many fairytales and carried on until I had exhausted them all.

Sam Pig Alison Uttley

From there I progressed to Folk tales from different countries and this kept me going for a bit.  Other series that I liked reading as a child were the Sam Pig books by Alison Utterly.  I just like the way that these were written and the illustrations.  I read one Sherlock Holmes book and this lead to just having to read them  all.

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

When I discovered Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (which we had to read in school), I began to realise what ‘literature’ was really about.  Dickens also had the same effect on me, I devoured nearly his books, with varying degrees of enjoyment (though I still haven’t read ‘Edwin Drood’).  This habit  has stayed with me as an adult.  When I saw ‘Tipping the Velvet’ on TV, I decided to read the book, from there I have now read all Sarah Waters books: some are better than others, but I just love they way in which they are written – I like the style.  Having said that, Patrick Hamilton’s books, of which I have enjoyed an extensive one after the other phase, tend to be erratic (the author showing through sometimes too much), enjoyable though

Great-expectations one of my favorites

An author I could not get enough of about 25 years ago was Stephen King.  His works translates fabulously to the screen,  My hubby doesn’t like him, says he has a tendency to waffle on.  I disagree.  When for example, you read something like ‘The Shining’ it’s true that half the book is taken up with describing the hotel – but that’s the genius of King, he builds atmosphere so skillfully.  Then when the ‘hotel’ or scene of the horror is set and is then  so vivid in your imagination  - he just steps right  in and frightens the hell out of you, lol!

Stephen King the shining

Lot’s of writers I could write about: lot of books and writers I am going to write about, lots of books I have read, lots of books I have read and forgotten about. Yet so many books to read – I look forward to that.

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me.”

Emma Nadeau as Jane, in Little Green Pig’s production of Jane Eyre, opening in December.

More info.

I’m feeling lonely today. Go ahead, call me an emo child. Boo hoo.

So I thought I’d read some poems on loneliness. I found some I really liked so I decided to put it up here.

Loneliness

by Rainer Maria Rilke

translated by Robert Bly

Being apart and lonely is like rain.
It climbs toward evening from the ocean plains;
from flat places, rolling and remote, it climbs
to heaven, which is its old abode.
And only when leaving heaven drops upon the city.

It rains down on us in those twittering
hours when the streets turn their faces to the dawn,
and when two bodies who have found nothing,
dissapointed and depressed, roll over;
and when two people who despise eachother
have to sleep together in one bed-

that is when loneliness receives the rivers…

Evening Solace

by Charlotte Bronte

The human heart has hidden treasures,
In secret kept, in silence sealed;­
The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures,
Whose charms were broken if revealed.
And days may pass in gay confusion,
And nights in rosy riot fly,
While, lost in Fame’s or Wealth’s illusion,
The memory of the Past may die.

But, there are hours of lonely musing,
Such as in evening silence come,
When, soft as birds their pinions closing,
The heart’s best feelings gather home.
Then in our souls there seems to languish
A tender grief that is not woe;
And thoughts that once wrung groans of anguish,
Now cause but some mild tears to flow.

And feelings, once as strong as passions,
Float softly back­a faded dream;
Our own sharp griefs and wild sensations,
The tale of others’ sufferings seem.
Oh ! when the heart is freshly bleeding,
How longs it for that time to be,
When, through the mist of years receding,
Its woes but live in reverie !

And it can dwell on moonlight glimmer,
On evening shade and loneliness;
And, while the sky grows dim and dimmer,
Feel no untold and strange distress­
Only a deeper impulse given
By lonely hour and darkened room,
To solemn thoughts that soar to heaven,
Seeking a life and world to come.

SOUNDTRACK-KATE BUSH-The Kick Inside (1978).

For the longest time, Kate Bush was my soundtrack for reading.  There was something about her voice and her musical style that I felt was conducive to reading (must be the Wuthering Heights connection).

This, her first record, was recorded when Kate was 19, and now that I’m older (and have heard her later discs) I can really hear how young she sounds.  And with that youth comes a certain degree of naivete.  If you bring any amount of cynicism to this disc, it completely crumbles.  I mean she’s a teenager in the late 70s, so there’s an awful lot of earnestness here.  There’s Buddhist chants, there’s a lot of well written feminist thought, there’s an interpretation of Wuthering Heights.  There’s even whale songs in between tracks!

But there’s also a lot of songs about lost love.  And the thing that is so strange about that is, if I understand her biography correctly, she was not terribly worldly.   So the songs about lost men or Berlin pubs or even pregnancy are unusual to say the least.  And they show a furtive imagination.

So, you get songs of love and longing.  Songs about “Strange Phenomena.”  But you also get some wonderfully weird lyrics, like my favorite couplet: “Beelzebub is aching in my belly-o / My feet are heavy and I’m rooted in my wellios”

And I just love the audacity of her writing a song about Wuthering Heights (and, yup, it got me to read the book).  Not to mention the audacity of the notes she hits in the song.

Because clearly the thing most notable on the disc is her voice.  She wails and screeches and hits notes that were previously unheard in popular music.  The chorus of “Over the Moon” is striking in its ambition.  And let’s not forget the outrageous opening notes of “Wuthering Heights” (she’s so out there that she had to re-recorded it for the greatest hits record to try to get more airplay).  But no matter how otherworldly and at times bizarre her singing is, there is no doubt that her voice is a phenomenon unto itself.  Just listen to the gorgeous control she uses on “The Man with the Child in His Eyes”).

As she got older, she reined in some of the excesses of her voice (while unleashing excesses in other areas!).  She would begin multitracking her voice for awesome effect, as well as using some surprisingly deep gutteral vocals on other songs.

Kate would go on to write a few brilliant records in to 80s.  And this is certainly a fun starting point.

Of course, I’m disappointed that the US cover is the one featured above, which is clearly dumbed downed for US audiences who didn’t get (or like) her.  Because check out the cool original cover.  I mean, I’m not even sure what it’s all about, but it’s certainly more interesting!

[READ: November 6, 2009] “The Godchildren”

I loved the premise of this story from the get go.  And I thought it was a genius way to bring together three strangers who know each other.  The three characters: Amanda, Susan & Chris are the godchildren of Vivien.  Vivien was a friend of each of their parents, but she herself never had any children.  So, it was agreed early on that the three kids would occasionally spend a day with Vivien.  But the parents soon lost interest in talking to Vivien and the kids’ visits became something of a substitution for the parents actually talking to her.

And so, for most of the kids’ young lives they would hang out together at Viviens’s house, but they would never see each other anywhere else.  I loved the idea that these three young people had a secret life together that they would never admit anywhere else.  In fact, when they were teenagers, the three of them were afraid they might run into each other out at the pub.

The story proper is set many years later, when the three children are grown and with children (but no longer spouses) of their own.  Vivien has just died, and they are called to her house to see if they want anything as mementos.  And so these three people who haven’t seen each other (or Vivien for that matter) in some twenty years are now thrust back together in a musty old house that is smaller than they remember and full of memories.

It was interesting to watch these adults regress into familiar personalities that they had when they were younger, while trying to retain their adult attitudes.  And it was even more fascinating to see what secrets were revealed as the story ends.  All of this emotional backstory and intrigue in a mere 6 pages.  It was a really compelling story, and quite frankly I would loved it to have been a lot longer.

It’s available here.

Emily Brontë
Born: 30 July 1818
Died: 19 December 1848
Work: Poetry and Wuthering Heights
The fifth of six children. Emily lived just a year after Wuthering Heights was published

Charlotte Brontë
Born: 21 April 1816
Died: 31 March 1855
Work: Poetry and several novels including the classic Jane Eyre
She died just nine months after her marriage. Was he that bad…

Branwell Brontë
Born: 26 June 1817
Died: 24 September 1848
Work: Poetry and Portrait Painter
Branwell’s image, part of  ‘The Pillar Portrait’ (above) but painted over, is now becoming visible again (due to his faulty mixing of paint)

These are the facts. But what do we really know?

THE TRIAL OF THE BRONTES

Emily Brontë’s far from home
She’s got a hat and a coat and a mobile phone
And a laptop – to write books on
And ribbons of steel in her hair
oh, Emily

Charlotte Brontë’s washing her hair
She’s got a tap and a sink and a kitchen chair
And she waits for Emily to return
And while she waits, she writes
- with a pen
why, Charlotte

Old man Branwell wants to be read
But he’s not really old ‘cos he’s already dead
And steals ideas from the sisters of time
And while he thieves, he smiles
for there’s fire in his heart
no! Branwell

The tourists of Haworth search for their own
Passing through time but still all alone
Assumptions, abstractions, not understood
Judged without knowing – If only they could

say how it really was

***

Anne Brontë, the other sister who lived to adulthood, died on 28 May 1849.

Charlotte lost three siblings in just eight months.
This is a fact. But what do we really know?

Commentary

The Brontës have always been favourites of mine, but I wonder about their place in history. Branded and hyped, their very real gifts are in danger of being lost.

We should focus on the baby, not the bathwater.

The Brontës have much to teach us if we get beyond the surface. They had difficult lives and their achievements, although all the more remarkable for that, are very much a function of the isolated and somewhat terrible world in which they lived. What price creativity?

Would you like to have lived their lives? And what do we really know about what went on in their hearts?

In this piece I’ve tried to subvert the story a little, bringing Emily into the modern world, but turning her into her antithesis – in reality it would have been Charlotte who had the mobile phone and the laptop – she was the more pragmatic of the two.

As for the ribbons of steel in Emily’s hair, I do see Emily as more single minded – this was reflected in both her life and work, and was her weakness as well as her strength. Charlotte’s strength was her persistence – her willingness to plough on, little by little, day by day. Pragmatism again.

Ribbons of steel is a crucial phrase in the poem. Why? Because Emily was steely, because it conjures up the purity, the essence, the beauty of her. And I liked the phrase and so included it. That, perhaps, is my weakness.

I’m not sure we should sacrifice art for beauty. But we do.

The Brontës didn’t have that choice.

Brontë Parsonage Museum & Brontë Society

© Ellie Stevenson, 2009

Most books I’m fine with checking out at the library. Then there are some books I must own. There is no real criteria, but I would imagine one would be the ability to find repeated enjoyment out of it. A book to occasionally show a close friend after a glass of wine. With that, I MUST have Poisoned Pens. I’ve alluded to it twice this week and after reading the review, I’m sure it needs to be with me. (The Telegraph reviews it with a book about literary hoaxes, which would interest me, too.)

As The Telegraph notes, Gary Dexter, the editor of Poisoned Pens keeps his examples at mutual authoricide.

The result is a particularly articulate catalogue of spite and spleen that becomes, when the focus shifts from the page to the person, a real bitch-fest. De Quincey goes for Wordsworth’s legs (‘not a well-made man’); DH Lawrence calls Jane Austen an old maid, and Charlotte Brontë, having written Jane Eyre, a pornographer. However, when Noël Coward says of Oscar Wilde, ‘what a tiresome, affected sod’, you can’t help thinking ‘takes one to know one’.

It is a delight to read Martin Amis at his most destructive because his ability to pinpoint the negatives in an author’s work amounts to criticism of positive value: ‘While clearly an impregnable masterpiece, Don Quixote suffers one fairly serious flaw – that of outright unreadability.’ His annihilation of Michael Crichton’s The Lost World is a masterpiece in itself: ‘Animals … are what he is good at. People are what he is bad at. People, and prose … Out there, beyond the foliage, you see herds of clichés, roaming free.’ It is entirely in keeping with the spirit of his enterprise, and very wicked, for Dexter to end with Tibor Fischer’s wounded, scalding fan letter to Amis himself: ‘Shoot me if I ever produce anything like Yellow Dog.’ No doubt Mr Amis has his imaginary rifle at the ready.

Telling Tales by Melissa Katsoulis and Poisoned Pens by Gary Dexter: review – Telegraph

“It is an easy, liquid name; not soon forgotten.”

(Charlotte Brontë, Shirley, 1849)

***

“It’s as common a French name as can be.”

(Ngaio Marsh, Last Ditch, 1977)

I remember I was very much amused when I frst heard her Christian name; it was Zoraïde… But the Continental nations do allow themselves vagaries in the choice of names, such as we sober English never run into. I think, indeed, we have too limited a list to choose from.

(Charlotte Brontë, Villette, 1853)

Sympathies exist,
Presentiments and signs
That baffle our mortal comprehension;
To dream or to see
Or to feel or to hear
What seems not to be there.
But such things exist,
Things beyond this earth,
Things beyond our sacred
Thoughts of heaven.
These are the things that reason defies –
But reason sometimes lies.

-Paul Gordon, “Jane Eyre”, a musical based on the novel by Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre:

Me, she had dispensed from joining the group; saying, “She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance; but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation, that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner—something lighter, franker, more natural, as it were—she really must exclude me from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children.”

“What does Bessie say I have done?” I asked.

“Jane, I don’t like cavillers or questioners; besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent.”

Do you remember the positive indignation of adult severity in the face of your early self-expression? I think the knife really twisted because you knew they were just flying by the seat of their pants, arbitrary jerks running scared, threatened by your stabs at mastery. They had no more particular power or experience than another kid facing you down in a play war.

Don’t forget that. Every person who attempts to wave some type of banner of authority in your face is probably prickly-sweaty under the arms and hopped up on 90% couch fort bravado. Poke their pile of cushions with a stick and see if it tumbles down.

Stole this from a friend – I can never resist a good book meme!

What books are your comfort reading–the ones you slink back to in times of stress?
Books are a bit Turret’s like for me—if I read something kind of awful, my own life seems better by comparison, I guess?  So when I’m really stressed, I like to read books about hard times, like Joanne Greenberg’s I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, or The Joy Luck Club.  That said… I might always lean towards no-brain fun, too.

What was your favorite book as a child, and why?
Mmm… let’s see.  When I was very small it as Who’s a Pest? a book by Crosby Bonsall about a little boy who everyone insists is a pest—even though he says he’s not.  It’s a strange, funny little book, that involves everything from mean sisters to talking animals, and an all-consuming pit.  It’s hard to explain, you’d have to read it.  When I was a little older, though, I was a big fan of Mercer Mayer books, and the Alexander books by Judith Viorst (especially Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday).

What was your favorite book as an adolescent, and why?
Undoubtedly Just as Long as We’re Together by Judy Blume.   That book almost single-handedly got me through the break-up with my first (and second, really) best friend.  Stephanie Hirsch was the first fictional character who I really saw as a reflection of my life—or what my life could be.  She was what Rory Gilmore would be in a few years down the line.  This is also the book that got me serious—at age eleven—about writing young adult books.

What is the most unread category of books gathering dust on your bookshelf–the books you’ve bought but just never get around to reading?
The ones I buy but haven’t read?  Are probably mainly in the non-fiction genre.  There are certain periods of history that I love—love, love, love, like the American Revolution and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, and so I have a few books that I own that cover those periods, but I haven’t read any of them.  Also under that list would be anthologies.  I have a few either from classes (writing on music, etc) and gifts from friends, but I just don’t jump into them very often.

What kind of books would you like to say you read, but never do?
There are a few of them.  I tend to get very comfortable either in classics or in young adult or children’s fantasy… so almost anything outside of that is (embarrassingly) kind of a gray area for me.  The ones that I’d really love to say I read are mystery novels—I feel like I’m missing out on a great genre, and the ones I’ve read I’ve enjoyed, but I just don’t go looking for them.  I’d also like to say that I appreciated a good Grisham—because really, everybody is supposed to like Grisham, but all I’ve read was The Pelican Brief, and that was enforced (high school book report).  I’d like to say I’d read Michener, too.  My mother loves his novels, and I love the look and the idea of them… but I’ve never so much as opened one.

What’s the oddest book you’ve ever read?
Does The Host count?  Because I have likened parts of that novel to a Miyazaki film on crack.  Outside of the illustrious Miss Meyer, however… I would have to say… actually, no.  I really think The Host might be the oddest book I’ve read.

What book were you never able to get through,despite the recommendations of people you respect?
I can’t think of one off the top of my head.  Possibly Wicked?  Maybe Eragon as well.

What’s the book it took you a couple of tries to get into, but was as good as promised once you finally made it?
I don’t do this very often.  The only one I can even remember is Jane Eyre.  Which I started for the first time when I was twelve—I hated the childhood section of that book, and so I kept putting it down.  It remains to this day the only book I’ve ever literally thrown across the room (more than once, I believe) in frustration—and my ugly little orange paperback bears the marks as proof.  It took me months to get through Lowood.  Once I got to Thornfield, though, I was hooked, hooked, hooked, and it is almost definitely my favorite book of all time.

What’s your favorite short story–or do you even have one?
I’m not very good at reading short stories, I’ll admit.  There was one in a literature book of mine in high school, though, called “Chasing Summer,” that I really loved, all about a couple who, after a thermo-nuclear war, chase the patches of light that make their way through the nuclear winter sky.  I also really love “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury… actually, I love his “A Sound of Thunder,” also.  Reason why I’ve always wanted to read more Bradbury (that should go with Grisham and Michener, above).

The desert island. Three books (and collected works don’t count. If you want the Lord of the Rings it’ll cost you all three slots). Go:
1. Jane Eyre… it’s a debate between this and Persuasion, but as yet Jane Eyre continues to have the smallest of edges.
2. Great Expectations—maybe.  Not because it’s one of my favorites (it’s kind of not) but just because I think analyzing it would last me years. 
3. Fingerprints: Payback by Melinda Metz.  At least I think I’d pick this one.  One of the last three, at least.  It’d kill me not to have the full series, though.  Mindless fun—well, mostly mindless.  And one of my biggest fiction OTPs.  Yes, I know you’ve never heard of it.

There had been rumors that celebrity actress Ellen Page would be part of a new Jane Eyre project. Though, two reports say she has definitely separated from the project.

The good news is, the project is moving forward! Reports say that this project will focus on the gothic elements in Charlotte Bronte’s book.

(excerpt from) We Are Movie Geeks
SIN NOMBRE Helmer Stepping to JANE EYRE

The director behind SIN NOMBRE, Cary Fukunaga, is in final negotiations with UK’s Ruby Films to helm a new adaptation of JANE EYRE…Fukunaga, whose SIN NOMBRE tore up audiences around the world on this year’s festival circuit, is an up-and-coming director who is quickly making a name for himself…

Ellen Page was attached to star in the adaptation, but she left the project some time ago.

And another story: here.

Britain (or at least the British Mills and Boon readership) has voted Edward Rochester the most romantic character in English literature, bumping (who else) Fitzwilliam Darcy from his top spot. Colour me unconvinced! Rochester always struck me as a bit of a greasy one, condescending and manipulative; and Darcy’s all very well and good, but frankly a bit dull.

My vote for the most attractive male lead is Henry Tilney, the only Austen hero (and it must be an Austen hero, I will not consider anyone else, she says, fumbling to burn all evidence of her adolescent crush on the execrably selfish Angel Clare) who’s actually funny. Also responsible for the line: “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” Naturellement.

Wild Things: It’s Released! Did you know??

• Pitchfork interviews Spike Jonze.

• We’ve All Been Wondering Lately about “What Makes a Children’s Classic.”(NYT Arts Beat)

• Ohmahgawd–Wild Things, Wild Things, Wild Things.

Lit.

• This essay on the importance of the humanities is outstanding.(Harper’s)

• Gigantic is interviewed by Fictionaut.

• “But, reader, I loved him.”  On Charlotte Brontë’s Mr. Rochester as the most romantic character in literature.  Oh, yes.

• Reading!: the demand of literature

• From last week, The Millions on Lit’s Nobel Prize and new glories for the small press.

• Blah, blah, blah are writers these days risky enough?

• 1989!

Music

• Dirty Projectors played New Yorker Festival, and Indiechik tells us what went down

• Patti Smith is making appearances.

Orson Welles e Joan Fontaine, Jane Eyre (1944)

A editora inglesa Mills and Boon é especializada em publicar romances em papel jornal no estilo Harlequin [Julia, Sabrina, Bianca, etc.] – de fato, a casa inglesa fundada em 1908 foi comprada pela norte-americana em 1971. Juntas, a Harlequin Mills and Boon dominam 75% do mercado britânico no gênero.

Eles fizeram uma enquete entre seus leitores perguntando qual o personagem literário mais romântico. O resultado foi divulgado no início deste mês durante o festival literário de Cheltenham: para surpresa de muitos, o primeiro lugar ficou com o cruel, amargo e impossível de ser amado Mr. Edward Rochester, do romance gótico Jane Eyre escrito por Charlotte Brontë em 1847.

O Telegraph ilustrou o artigo em que a novelista Penny Vincenzi comenta sobre a paixonite que tem pelo rude Rochester com uma imagem da série exibida pela BBC em 2006, com Toby Stephens no papel. Eu já comentei antes que Toby Stephens é bonito demais para interpretar…

Aquela face pálida, esverdinhada e angulosa; a testa maciça; as sobrancelhas cerradas e longas, os olhos profundos, as linhas rígidas, a boca firme e cruel, toda energia, decisão, vontade, não seriam bonitas de acordo com os cânones. [Brontë, Ediouro, trad. Sodré Viana, p. 122]

Isso pode ter influenciado o resultado da votação, sejamos honestos. Essa adaptação ainda tá bem fresca na memória. Não sei se o resultado seria o mesmo se a enquete acontecesse logo após a versão do Zefirelli, com aquele Rochester fraco do William Hurt [embora eu admita que votaria nele, no heroi de Jane Eyre, a qualquer hora].

O Fitzwilliam Darcy de Austen aparece em terceiro lugar, seguido do Heatchliff de Emily em quarto e do Rhett Butler em quinto. A lista completa:

1. Mr Rochester [Charlotte Bronte] em Jane Eyre

2. Richard Sharpe [Bernard Cornwell] na série Sharpe

3. Fitzwilliam Darcy [Jane Austen] em Orgulho e Preconceito / Pride and Prejudice

4. Heathcliff [Emily Bronte] em O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes / Wuthering Heights

5. Rhett Butler [Margaret Mitchell] em E O Vento Levou / Gone With The Wind

6. Mark Darcy [Helen Fielding] em O Diário de Bridget Jones / Bridget Jones’ Diary

7. Capitão Corelli [Louis de Berniere] em O Capitão Corelli / Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

8. Henry DeTamble [Audrey Niffenegger] em A Mulher do Viajante do Tempo / The Time Traveller’s Wife*

9. Gabriel Oak [Thomas Hardy] em Longe da Multidão / Far From The Madding Crowd

10. Rupert Campbell Black [Jilly Cooper] em The Rutshire Chronicles

De Austen eu prefiro um heroi de Razão e Sensibilidade: o Coronel Brandon. E Heathcliff… por mais que Wuthering Heights seja um dos meus Top Favoritos Foréva, Heathcliff não entra na minha lista de Top Letrinhas Fazíveis – que, até o momento, é formada por Anthony Cade [O Mistério de Chimneys, Agatha Christie], Lord Vetinari [Discworld, Terry Pratchett] e Mr. Rochester. Oh, e Eric Northman [Southern Vampires Mysteries, Charlaine Harris].

“[...] o herói romântico é motivado por uma virtual conflitualidade – com os outros, com a sociedade, consigo mesmo – directamente condicionada pela radicalidade com que assume determinados valores românticos” (BUESCU, 1997, p.231).

Dessa forma, este personagem retrata sentimentos de solidão, tristeza, desilusão que, quando ligados a conflitos amorosos tendem a resultar em situações de grande tragicidade tal qual suicídios, exílios, etc. [Juliana Yokoo Garcia]

* Adaptado para o cinema com o título Te Amarei Para Sempre, estreia hoje no Brasil [info Rato de Biblioteca].

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