Friday Favorite: Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë turned 200 yesterday.

The Brontë blog offered a plethora of cool links, and The Brontë Parsonage Museum is celebrating in grand style. So it seemed fitting to celebrate here by sharing some CB-related favorites (and future favorites?).

Favorite Charlotte Brontë novel and film adaptation:


While Lucy Hughes-Hallet makes a good argument for why Villette is better (and I do love Lucy Snowe), my heart will always belong to Jane Eyre. There's quite a pile of film/TV adaptations, but my favorite is the 2011 film directed by Cary Fukunaga (and this will be news only to more recent blog followers). It does compress the story, and perhaps Fassbender and Wasikowska are too pretty, but for me this movie nails Jane's quiet strength and Rochester's anguished yearning. (I also enjoyed the Toby Stephens/Ruth Wilson mini-series and probably need to watch it again soon.)

Favorite non-fiction books about Charlotte/The Brontës (click photos for more details):



Non-fiction books I've partly read/plan to read:



A fun thing I just discovered:


There are so many modern riffs on Jane Eyre, but this is the first middle grade option I've seen!

Thirteen-year-old Charlotte is obsessed with Jane Eyre. She dreams of living in a Gothic Mansion in the Yorkshire countryside instead of attending Harraby Comprehensive School. Charlotte's love-life is pretty much non-existent, except for the gorgeous Jack Burley, who doesn't seem to notice her. Resigned to her boring life for the time being, she decides to find a Mr. Rochester for her mum. Charlotte's prayers are answered in the form of the dark, handsome new French teacher. But Charlotte has to control her imagination and aspirations of being a bridesmaid, because Mr. Grant turns out to be not nearly as charming as his sideburns had promised.

The book is only available from used book sellers, but you can find the audio (with sample) at Audible.com.


Me in Haworth, many years ago...

[Cross-posted at Livejournal]

Brontës on the Brain

I finished a first draft of my latest project, which had been dragging on FOREVER. The ending is a bit sketchy, but at least I have something to work with, so YAY!

I am very good at rewarding myself for finished tasks, and this weekend was no exception. Friday night, I re-watched Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre (2011), my favorite of all the adaptations.


It's no secret that I adore Michael Fassbender. He's probably too handsome for this role, but he has such a lovely intensity. And he can be ugly when the situation requires it. I love the early scenes with Jane in which his face tightens, his mouth flattens into a sneer, and his eyes flash with contempt for the world.


And Mia Wasikowksa is appropriately small and plain, but also projects the necessary fierceness. It is only in this adaptation that I fully experience the seductiveness of Rochester's attention to her, and the tragedy of having to walk away from the freedom, inspiration, and affection offered to her at Thornfield.


I also watched Les Soeurs Brontë (1979), which has become available on US DVD only recently, as far as I can tell. (I bought it on Blu-ray.) It's a beautiful film, shot partially on location in a way that capitalizes on the wide, bleak vistas of the Yorkshire moors.


I'd gathered in advance that the film was more about Branwell than the sisters, but I still found myself resenting the time devoted to his addictions and failures. In the documentary that accompanies the feature film, the director states outright that "in the final version of the film, it's like a vampire story, if you will, or virgin-vampires, in a way, who appropriate and accomplish the artistic destiny of their brother." BLECH! One could argue that Branwell was the one with the most external conflict, the most drama, and that his life translates better to the screen. As Claire Bazin says in the documentary, the imaginations of the sisters "were fertilized and developed by an interior richness, by their internal life." How do you represent that rich interior life on film? I don't know. What films have effectively represented the dramatic interior life of a writer?

(And anyway, the sisters did have dramatic lives--traveling to Brussels, opening their own school back in Yorkshire, governessing for crazy families, etc.)


Surprisingly, Emily Bronte was my favorite character in the film, and it wasn't just because (in this incarnation, at least) she liked to roam the moors in trousers and shoot guns. She was strange and passionate--a true brooding heroine. I never knew or had forgotten that the titular heroine of Charlotte's Shirley was based on her. I am not a fan of Wuthering Heights or Emily's poetry, but I think I would watch the heck out of a film that was mostly about her. Isabelle Adjani was absolutely mesmerizing to watch (and you can bet I'll be watching La Reine Margot and Camille Claudel ASAP).

I need to watch again, but for now my verdict on Les Souers Brontë is that it's a must-watch for obsessive Brontë fans, but may also be of interest to French film buffs. The cinematography is gorgeous.

In other news, I hope something comes of this notion of a BBC Brontë biopic (mentioned in 11th paragraph).

[Cross-posted at Livejournal]

Friday Favorite: Audrey Eclectic

I recently discovered an Oklahoma artist named Heather Sleightholm.

I think it was on the Brontë Blog that I first saw her Jane Eyre mug.

I HAD TO GET THAT MUG.


So I did. It was hand-painted just for me. Isn't it gorgeous?


Love the quote on the back. :)


I also found this!

You see, I am working on a new story, and when I saw this original painting, I literally screamed "THOSE ARE MY CHARACTERS!" I only have an outline and 20 pages, and I confess to wondering whether this story is really going anywhere, but now at least I can SEE the characters. This should help immensely.

If you like what you see, please visit Audrey Eclectic's Etsy Page. I'm certain you'll be delighted by her offerings!