According to EnVols, 'If you’re obsessed with Pride and Prejudice, these 7 classic novels offer the same romantic atmosphere (they’re perfect beach reads for this summer!)' And so here's Jane Eyre as a beach read then: Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë An orphan raised in difficult circumstances, Jane Eyre refuses to submit to the injustices that mark her life. After becoming a governess at the mysterious Thornfield Hall, she meets Edward Rochester, a landowner who is as fascinating as he is enigmatic. Darker than Pride and Prejudice, this great classic nevertheless shares one of its essential ingredients: an intelligent, independent heroine determined to preserve her freedom. Charlotte Brontë crafts an intense romance driven by a protagonist whose strength of character recalls that of Elizabeth Bennet. (Amandine Enard-Hauger)
Guyana Chronicle reviews the novel A Tall History of Sugar by Curdella Forbes. Beware of spoilers, though. What truly makes a love story memorable is loss. Death casts a shadow over the lovers’ hopes and lends their passion gravity. Emily Brontë kills Catherine in Wuthering Heights; Erich Segal kills the beloved Jenny in Love Story; Tolstoy sends Anna Karenina beneath the wheels of a train. Even when death is absent, yearning serves the same purpose. Scott Spencer’s lyrical Endless Love sustains itself on obsession, separation and unattainability. The finest love stories rarely offer satisfaction. Instead, they leave behind hope, longing and an enduring belief in the impossible. Curdella Forbes’s A Tall History of Sugar belongs to this tradition. (Berkley Wendell Semple)
Far Out Magazine lists '10 movies that cast the right actor in the wrong role' and one of them is Alison Oliver in ‘Wuthering Heights’ (Emerald Fennell, 2026) Wuthering Heights earned a lot of backlash for Jacob Elordi’s casting as Heathcliff, who is implied to be a mixed-race character in Emily Brontë’s novel, but there is just as much issue with Margot Robbie being cast to play Catherine Earnshaw, who was too old to play a character who dies when she is a teenager, and she also has too much rigidity and spunk to portray a romantic lead defined as reserved. The obvious casting choice to play Cathy would have been Alison Oliver, who appears in the film as Isabella Linton, and has much better chemistry with Elordi. While Isabelle is an exaggerated character, it’s easy to imagine Oliver having the emotional capacity to make the role of Cathy both heartbreaking and tragically naive, based on her impressive performance in the HBO drama series Task. (Liam Gaughan)
A Brontë event organized by the Bradford Heritage Festival and the Brontë Parsonage Museum:
Once a day, 13-19 July, 2:00pm Meet outside the Museum Shop
For Bradford Heritage Festival, we're holding a guided moorland walk to Penistone Hill once a day. We’ll discover the landscape that inspired the Brontës and explore some remnants of its industrial past. Approximately takes 1hr 30mins. The walk is quite short, but includes some hills and rough ground underfoot, so sturdy footwear is essential. If the event is cancelled, we’ll contact you. We reserve the right to make changes to our programme. All information is correct at the time of booking. We kindly ask that you do not bring dogs or other pets to our in-person events unless stated otherwise (if you'd like to bring your service dog to an event, please let us know).
This is quite surreal. The Telegraph and Argus reports that the Bradford City football team have a new mascot called Brontë Bantam who has been to the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Bradford City have announced their new mascot, Brontë Bantam, in an announcement video that links to world-renowned authors Charlotte and Emily Brontë. The club have now created a sibling duo of mascots that truly represent the community and family atmosphere that surrounds the club. But they have also done it by bringing in the local area, specifically highlighting Haworth and the Brontë sisters, a beloved part of the West Yorkshire area and its history. (Sophie Bates)
The Globe and Mail has arts editor Judith Pereira and book critic Emily Donaldson answer readers' questions about summer reads.
How do you approach reading classics? I find it hard to get past the older language. Donaldson: I think the main challenge is attuning your ear to the unfamiliar language and pacing. But what feels awkward on page five often starts to feel natural by page fifty. Start with classics that are genuine page-turners: Jane Eyre, The Picture of Dorian Grey, The Count of Monte Cristo and virtually anything by Austen or Dickens all have strong narrative momentum, making the language easier to settle into than, say, behemoths like Moby-Dick, Middlemarch or The Brothers Karamazov. And do not feel obligated to slog through every book you try. Some became classics because they changed literature, not because they’re rollicking yarns. I also don’t think the goal shouldn’t be to check titles off a list – it’s to find the books that have earned their reputation because they still have the power to move/grab us.
Hardy and Free has been created by award-winning Yorkshire photographer Carolyn Mendelsohn and takes its name from a line in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights: “I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free...” It was originally commissioned by the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth in 2023 as part of its contemporary arts programme and then a new series of large-scale portraits with audio from the women involved, was created for Bradford 2025, UK City of Culture and adorned Kirkgate Shopping Centre. The photographs, which are three metres by two metres each are hung in a huge barn where they used to show the pigeons on the Yorkshire Show Ground. Hardy and Free explores the relationship between 12 contemporary women and the natural world, all sharing a profound emotional link with the landscapes that shape them. (Catherine Scott)
Several Brontë-related alerts at the Bradford Literature Festival for tomorrow, July 12:
Sunday, 12 July 2026 | 12:00 – 13:00 Loading Bay, BD1 3QR
Join volunteer Mark Musolf as he reflects on his remarkable journey at the Brontë Birthplace growing from casual helper to committee member, acclaimed tour guide, and a cornerstone of the Birthplace community.
As part of the Brontë Birthplace team he shares the fascinating stories of the Brontë family and this special house, helping others to connect with the Brontës’ legacy and leave with a deeper appreciation of both the family’s story and the place where it began. In this insightful talk, Musolf charts the history of the project, its evolving aims and the tremendous successes achieved through dedication, collaboration and local pride.
Irene Lofthouse
Folkloric Legends and Influences of the Brontës
Sunday, 12 July 2026 | 13:30 – 14:30 Loading Bay, BD1 3QR
The Brontë children were surrounded by storytellers from birth, hearing tales from different voices and areas. With parents from the North of Ireland and Cornwall, both places redolent with myths, legends, and their own stories related in geographical accents. Listening to genteel Thornton company would have contrasted much with servants’ speech, which in turn would have been different to that in Haworth and Keighley. Dialect, myths and legends in each place were influenced by past migration, and new communities settling in the areas during the Brontës’ lives. In this talk, Irene looks at these influences, the accents and dialect the Brontës heard around them, on visits to Keighley, and how these may have found their way into their written work. Sunday, 12 July 2026 | 14:45 – 15:45 Loading Bay, BD1 3Q
Step into the shadowed world of passion, obsession and moral ambiguity in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Join acclaimed Brontë scholar Dr Claire O’Callaghan and popular literary culture specialist Dr Jo Parsons for a thought-provoking discussion exploring the novel’s dark romantic legacy and its influence on contemporary phenomena, such as Twilight, After and The Vampire Diaries. Together, they will examine the enduring appeal of dark romance tropes including longing, intensity and toxicity, while questioning the ethics behind these narratives. Is Heathcliff a romantic hero or something far more troubling? Discover why stories of destructive love continue to captivate audiences across generations and popular culture today.
Sunday, 12 July 2026 | 16:00 – 17:00 Loading Bay, BD1 3QR
With new adaptations and viral discussions bringing classic literature to new audiences, the Brontë sisters are once again at the centre of cultural conversation. Join acclaimed author Lucasta Miller and renowned Brontë scholar Dr Claire O’Callaghan as they explore how our understanding of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë continues to evolve in the 21st century. From Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre to modern film and television adaptations, this engaging discussion examines why the Brontës’ stories of passion, ambition and rebellion still resonate today. Discover how contemporary audiences are reshaping the myths, legacy and enduring appeal of one of literature’s most celebrated families.
The birthplace of the Brontë sisters will host an event looking at its own history as part of Bradford Literature Festival. The Brontë Birthplace in Thornton re-opened last year, and on Friday Bradford-born heritage champion Steve Stanworth will share his 26‑year journey restoring and celebrating the building. The event, being held at the Thornton attraction, is part of Bradford Literature Festival, and will take place at 6.30pm on Friday. At the event, Mr Stanworth will explain how he helped to return the Brontë Birthplace on Market Street to its Regency character. He has also played a central role in restoring the Brontë Bell Chapel and, with Christa Ackroyd, created the Brontë exhibition at St James’ Church. Patrick Brontë himself wrote that his happiest years were spent in Thornton, a sentiment that underpins Steve’s lifelong dedication to preserving this remarkable heritage.
7. Helen Graham escapes her disastrous marriage to Arthur Huntingdon in which Anne Brontë novel? (Olav Bjortomt) Ara (Spain) writes about the upcoming Zoe Kazan adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden: It will be necessary to see if Kazan's adaptation maintains the epic and tragic spirit of the author, who delves into the problem of identity, betrayal, inheritance, and love without concessions, or if it creates a digestible product, as Emerald Fennell did with Wuthering Heights, which Mariana Enríquez described as a "boring and silly" film, as it turned a dark and demonic story that explores the beauty of the abyss, depression, and love for darkness into something sexy. Will the same happen with Steinbeck? We will see. (Pol Guasch) AV Group talks about the new Criterion release of David Lynch's The Elephant Man: When Merrick is revealed, the reactions from those who see him are almost uniformly panicked (though some respond with a commingling of the grotesque and erotic that wouldn’t be out of place in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights). (Jacob Oller) The Telegraph India announces the Indian streaming premiere on JioHotstar of Wuthering Heights 2026. EuroWeekly News wonders about the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever arriving in Potsdam. Vintage Reads posts about The Invention of Charlotte Brontë by Graham Watson. Monroe County Public Library, Southwest Branch, Meeting Room A Saturday, July 11, 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Join us for our quarterly Movies vs. Books Club! Popcorn and candy will be provided during the movie. Age 18 and up. Read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, then join us to watch the 2011 film adaptation directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. You can request a copy of the book be placed on hold for you when you register to attend, or read or listen to a digital copy on Libby or Hoopla. Afterwards, we'll tackle the question: which was better—the book or the movie? Please contact Becky Craft at bcraft@mcpl.info if you have any questions about this program.
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