Get Even More Visitors To Your Blog, Upgrade To A Business Listing >>

The English woman myth

According to The Telegraph and Argus, Thornton is planning on bringing back its Thornton Gala next year:

Next year will be a big year for Thornton, when it celebrates 200 years since writer Emily Bronte was born in the village. (Chris Young)
And still locally, The Telegraph and Argus tells the story of a Haworth 'female plumber' who's been discriminated against in her trade.
Lysette added: “Throughout history, women have been trying to get into roles that they were not previously invited into – like the Bronte sisters, who were also from Haworth. It’s nice to think I may have a small part in that.” (Alistair Shand)
Tor lists 'Five Books That Have Fun Mashing Up Sub-Genres' including
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Thursday Next is a veteran of the Crimean War; she owns a pet dodo and works as a literary detective. This means that she investigates crimes against books … because in her world, thanks to the Prose Portal, it’s possible to enter works of fiction and affect their stories. In the course of the book, Thursday chases a supervillain into Jane Eyre and … I’d better not spoil it. But The Eyre Affair and its sequels are jaw-dropping combinations of mystery stories, thrillers, and fantasy that keep going in directions you’d never expect. (James Alan Gardner)
Folio Weekly does a quick roundup of the Brontës and movies.
The movies fell in love with Jane Eyre from the start, pumping out eight versions in the Silent Era, followed by at least 15 film and small-screen adaptations. Wuthering Heights, because of its more complicated plot, generated only one silent film; later came the many varied adaptations—including a Bollywood musical!
Though the Brontës have been the subject of much biographical speculation ever since their deaths, filmdom has, for the most part, avoided this. There have been only three major film biopics—the first was the 1946 Hollywood production Devotion with Charlotte (Olivia de Havilland) and Emily (Ida Lupino) sparring over Rev. Arthur Nicholls (Paul Henreid).
The cast, including Sidney Greenstreet as William Makepeace Thackeray and Arthur Kennedy as Branwell Brontë (the alcoholic brother), is supported by Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s impressive score. But the movie is derailed by a script so stupid and silly, it plays like an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther venomously dismissed the movie as “a mawkish costume romance” and “a ridiculous tax upon reason and an insult to plain intelligence.” (Pat McLeod) (Read more)
Berkeleyside reviews the film God's Own Country, which
 spotlights the raw beauty of the still largely undeveloped Yorkshire moorlands, which in many respects haven’t changed much since the days of Wuthering Heights. (John Seal)
The Film Stage reviews it too:
Judging from the precision of the characters and the seamless storytelling at hand, it’s incredible to believe that God’s Own Country is director Francis Lee’s debut feature. His story of brooding farmer Johnny (Josh O’Connor) and Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), the Romanian worker he falls in love with, have all the makings of a legendary romance, something the Brontë’s would’ve written in less oppressive times. (Jose Solís)
The trailer for Fifty Shades Freed has just been released and we are rendered speechless by Nerdable's deep understanding of Victorian literature.
The trailer features a lot of luvvy-duvvy scenes of Christian and Ana declaring their undying dedication for each other, so maybe this will be more focused on the emotional side of the relationship. Problem is, a committed marriage isn’t sexy, at least not when it comes to fiction. Jane Eyre ruined plenty of Victorian pantaloons, not because it actually showed Jane and Mr Rochester having plenty of God-approved bonking, but because it didn’t show that. The most they ever share is a single socially unacceptable kiss, and if that was enough to get your great-great-great grandmother weak at the knees, who are you to say it should be done differently? Romance stories usually end at marriage because there is no barrier keeping them apart anymore. (Connor Tomelty)
Independent (Ireland) suggests a drive around Yeats country:
Head north here to see the poet’s grave at Drumcliff (“Cast a cold eye...”) and, if time permits, take a spin around Mullaghmore for Wuthering Heights-style views of Classiebawn Castle, before detouring inland towards the epic Gleniff Horseshoe and Benwiskin. (Pól Ó Conghaile)
Whatever that means.

This description of Washington State’s Hoh Rain Forest in The New York Times is similar:
Though it was noon and the sun was strong, mist clung to the headland, blanketing the beach like something from Emily Brontë. It was the kind of landscape that promised transformation, a wardrobe opening onto Narnia. (Meghan O'Rourke)
Quartzy discusses 'the French woman myth'.
“Very lovely she looked, very gracefully she danced, very joyously she smiled. Such scenes were her triumphs—she was the child of pleasure.”
That’s how Charlotte Brontë described the French girl antagonist in Villette, her 1853 novel about an English girl’s romantic musings while teaching in a French school. And 164 years later la femme française remains a powerful and intimidating myth—with her understated style, her brooding sensuality, her decadent tastes and slender figure. (Roya Wolverson)
The problem with that is that those words are used to describe Ginevra Fanshawe, an English - not French - girl. And of course, it's not a French school either.


This post first appeared on BrontëBlog, please read the originial post: here

Share the post

The English woman myth

×

Subscribe to Brontëblog

Get updates delivered right to your inbox!

Thank you for your subscription

×