Walk over the bleak, beautiful moors

The Times Walks gives directions and tips for a Haworth and Brontë Moors walk:

See the sisters’ notebooks and dresses in the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth; then walk over the bleak, beautiful moors by way of Brontë Bridge and Waterfall to the moody ruin of Top Withens farmhouse (“Wuthering Heights”). Loop back to Haworth via Ponden Hall (“Thrushcross Grange”).  (Christopher Somerville)

The Hindu praises Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea:

Long before this parasitic mode of writing became widespread, Jean Rhys, a writer of dark talent, wrote “Wide Sargasso Sea”. It tells the story of Antoinette Bertha Mason of the West Indies, whom Charlotte Brontë fans instantly recognize as Rochester’s first wife in “Jane Eyre”, confined in his mansion’s attic rooms by day and wreaking havoc downstairs by night.

When I read “Jane Eyre” for the first time, or even the fifth time, I lamented the existence of that madwoman. If Jane had run off with Rochester, I felt, he would not have ended up a blind amputee. As I matured, I appreciated her more upright refusal to live with a married man: it showed self-respect, and she acquired some sensible cousins and a hefty legacy besides. When we deconstructed the novel in Eng Lit, I was taught that Jane effectively castrated Rochester, turning him from a masterful, aspiring bigamist into a manageable half-cripple, before joining her fate to his. (Read more) (Latha Anantharaman)

Imelda Marsden publishes a letter in the Spenborough Guardian describing some of the local events celebrating the bicentenary of the Luddite attacks in the zone:

On Saturday morning there was the unveiling of the Luddite statue at Sparrow Park, Liversedge.
The Spen Valley Civic Society had worked very hard over six years to create this, so well done to them. The Rev Patrick Brontë would have been proud of them.
Guests then went to the reception at the Shears pub where the Luddites had met to plan their attacks in 1812. Well done to the landlord Paul Black and his staff – who were dressed in costume – and their Luddite beer.
On Saturday afternoon we were at Holly Bank school (formerly Roe Head where the Brontë sisters had attended) in Mirfield, where I presented Two talks with a Difference. One was with William Carwright, aka David Pinder dressed as Cartwright, the Rawfolds mill owner, about his mill being attacked by the Luddites. After the interval the next speaker, who was supposed to talk about Charlotte Brontë’s novel Shirley, which features the Luddites’ attacks, was held up at Skipton Castle, so retired teacher Barbara Lumb came to the rescue and talked about the novel. Barbara’s book on the Spen Valley is to come out later this year. A Brontë descendant of Rev Patrick Brontë’s sister, Sarah, was present.

Financial Times lists several properties with literary connections for sale. Including Ponden Hall:

Ponden Hall, West Yorkshire, UK, £950,000
Where High up on the Pennine Way, around four miles from Keighley and 181 miles north of London.
What A six-bedroom Grade II* listed detached manor house with two-bedroom annex and far-reaching views across the Yorkshire moors. The main body of the house was built in 1634 by the Heaton family. The current owners have restored the property and installed underfloor heating throughout, keeping its period features, including the library, once described as “the finest library in the West Riding”.
Why Emily Brontë visited and read in Ponden Hall’s library. It is believed to be the model for Thrushcross Grange in Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. (Emma Mahony)

According to the Yorkshire Post nerds cannot read classics. That was not always the case in the past:

I was always impressed by the way 40s film producer Val Lewton managed to insert a degree of subtle literacy into the schlocky projects he was handed by those above him.
Lewton was the guy who was told to make a movie called I Walked with a Zombie. He did, and borrowed wholesale the plot from Jane Eyre, transplanting it to a far-off land and smothering the whole film in voodoo. The studio chiefs loved it. So did Lewton. They hadn’t read the book; had probably never heard about it, but they had the horror flick they wanted. And Lewton had quietly triumphed. (Tony Earnshaw)

ABC Radio National (Australia) interviews the writer Andrew Motion about his book Silver: Return to Treasure Island:

So I thought, casting my mind around the sequels and prequels that work and thinking, for instance, about Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which gives us a very interesting take on the Hamlet story, or Jean Rhys's wonderful novel Wide Sargasso Sea which is about the first Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre, that they gave me a kind of pointer, which is to say that if I took a big step away from the original book I would solve this problem of competing with something that I was likely to lose in competition with and thereby to create something that was a sort of homage and certainly respectful towards it, but that stood at a significant distance from it by moving the whole story on a generation, as you said. (Interview by Michael Cathcart)

Manila Journal (Philippines) discusses the success of the soap opera Walang Hanggan in the Philippines:

Locally, the hit soap “Walang Hanggan” on ABS-CBN is also about revenge, with Dawn Zulueta and Coco Martin taking revenge on the people who oppressed them, notably Helen Gamboa.
The peg for this was Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights”, which has had several film and TV versions before (there’s a new one coming one with the lead character, Heathcliff, now played by a black actor). Even locally, it’s been done before as “Hihintayin Kita sa Langit” and “The Promise.”  (Mario Bautista)

Boldsky traces the origins of the Gothic style:

To put it in simple words, melodramatic mystery novels were called Gothic novels. Horror and anticlimactic endings were the defining elements of this kind of literature. 'The Castle Of Otranto' was the first example. Many un-put-downable horror stories from the likes of Ann Radcliffe and the Brontë sisters followed. Gothic literature was looked down upon (that is why the name 'Gothic') as a source of cheap entertainment and weak story telling. But it has given us classics like 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Jane Eyre'. (Anwesha B Chatterjee)

Le Nouvel Observateur (France) publishes an article about the Brontës and Haworth:

Leur nom est partout. C'est dans un taxi de la compagnie Brontë que nous avons parcouru la distance qui sépare Haworth de la gare de Keighley, dans le nord de l'Angleterre; Haworth où le visiteur peut louer le cottage Les Hauts de Hurlevent, commander un repas indien à La Brontë Balti House ou boire un Earl Grey dans l'un des salons de thé Ye Olde Brontë. (Read more) (Translation)

The Nashville Scene announces that yesterday's screening of Wuthering Heights 2011 at the Nashville Film Festival was cancelled; The Times recommends the Amazon Kindle app for iPhone to be able to read, among others, Wuthering Heights; Cher Parrow pinned on Pinterest a Jane Eyre book cover with a brief comment of the book; Le Nove Muse (in Italian) reviews Juliet Gael's Romancing Miss Brontë; Vivre de Lecture (in French) posts about Wuthering Heights; Steven Arntson, Haphazard Hollingsworth and Anacronía y Muselina (in Spanish) post about Jane Eyre which is also read by Wes in Bako; Slutterhouse 5 has created a poem using words Emily Brontë wrote; Chillibite, CJG Gazeta, Dziennik Polski, TVP, Tygodnik Powszechny, artPapier, Dziennik, Kafeteria (all in Polish) and Волжская Коммуна (in Russian) reviews Wuthering Heights 2011; Cinemax announces that the release of the film in Portugal will be on May 10th; The Phantom Paragrapher reviews The Flight of Gemma Hardy; Parra Reads posts about a recent book club meeting about Agnes Grey;  Kakav je film? (in Serbian) and MissCristinaMonica discuss Jane Eyre 2011; artPapier and Gazeta Wyborcza review The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in Polish;  Lady Nimuë of the Lake uploads to Flickr pictures of herself in a Catherine Earnshaw custom; Brontë Weather Project posts about TB and the weather and Città della Spezia (in Italian) talks about Desy Giuffré's novel Io Sono Heathcliff.

Finally, Sharon's Garden of Book Reviews, Meaghan Walsh Gerard, In the Country, Chapter 77, Anneographies, Arainfinitum, Lakeside Musing, the Brontë Sisters, Regando mi cactus, Cose da Libri, Leituras Brontëanas, whizzbang, The Dandelion Chronicles and even Roger Ebert's Twitter join Charlotte Brontë's birthday celebrations.