Bonnie Greer was a joiner. She was on the board of everything, from the Women’s prize for fiction to the British Museum, she was president of the Brontë society – she got stuck in. (Zoe Williams) Role in the Brontë Society A lifelong admirer of literature, Greer brought a fresh perspective to the organisation, which is dedicated to preserving the legacy of sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë and operates the famous Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth. During her presidency, Greer championed efforts to broaden the appeal of the Brontës’ work and attract more diverse audiences. She argued that the Brontës belonged to the world rather than a narrow literary elite and wanted the society to connect with younger people and communities across Yorkshire, including Bradford’s large and varied population. After several months of internal disagreements, she resigned as president in June 2015. (Amelia Short)
Many sites are also reporting that Jane Eyre is now mandatory reading for teenagers in China. From CNN: When teenagers went back to school in China earlier this month, one book on their new mandatory reading list stood out: the 19th century English novel “Jane Eyre.” The literary classic, originally considered a trailblazing tale of female empowerment, might seem a surprising choice in a country where textbooks are tightly curated by the state to ensure ideological conformity. But Beijing sees another message in Charlotte Brontë’s work –– the value of finding true love. The story presents a counterbalance to the “superficial notions about appearance and wealth” of the social media age, according to the state-run Beijing Daily newspaper. In recent years, online novels and micro dramas featuring outlandish plots of wealth flaunting, wronged lovers, brooding billionaires and ill-fated mistresses plotting revenge have become mainstream entertainment. And that’s attracted the attention of China’s censors. In June, the broadcasting regulator launched a campaign to crack down on “harmful and lowbrow” content seen as promoting “distorted” views on relationships and marriage. But reading the story of Jane Eyre –– an orphan girl who finds her independence while suffering a series of hardships and eventually falls in love with her wealthy employer –– will help China’s 14-year-olds “develop sounder values,” said Beijing Daily. “When children are first beginning to experience romantic feelings and are still naive and inexperienced, it is a crucial stage for developing a healthy character,” it said. The coming-of-age story has been wildly popular in China since it first arrived in the country in 1925 and has been translated, published and adapted into theatre and screen productions countless times. A British film even made its way to Chinese theatres in 1979, following the country’s turbulent Cultural Revolution. Jane Eyre –– who famously says to her future husband “do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong” –– has long been seen as an anti-repression heroine by the working class in China. And the book has long been accepted by China’s ruling communist party. But its inclusion in the curriculum is striking at a time when other forms of feminist discussion and activism have increasingly come under scrutiny in China. And some parents have questioned whether modern day Chinese youths who have been raised in a relatively comfortable environment, could understand or relate to the deep and complicated love story portrayed in the novel. One parent said that her son had asked whether reading Jane Eyre was “teaching girls in (his) class that their brain should being wrongly ruled by love.” The parent, writing on social media platform Xiaohongshu, said that her son couldn’t understand why Jane chooses to marry a man who was blind, and the whole thing looked like a bad deal. Qin Shiwen, a recent Chinese literature graduate in Beijing told CNN that including a classic like Jane Eyre into primary education “is very necessary.” “China’s basic education system places a heavy emphasis on academic knowledge and high achievement, but very, very little focus on love or character development,” said Shiwen. But the book, first published in 1847, has in recent years been criticized for its treatment of a character Brontë often describes as a ‘mad woman.” “The more I think about it, the more problematic I find it,” said Yan Hairong, a sociology scholar at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, pointing to the portrayal of the “mad woman in the attic” and the book’s “underlying themes of colonialism.” Yan has doubts whether the novel will help Chinese teenagers build up healthy values, saying some students may just absorb it “without critically examining the problematic ideas embedded within it.” “I have some concerns about teaching the novel at the middle-school level, particularly if it is presented as a textbook or as an example of profound romantic love,” Yan told CNN. (Sylvie Zhuang)
Beijing, however, sees a message about the importance of true love in the novel. According to the state-run Beijing Daily newspaper, the book offers a counterbalance to the “superficial notions about appearance and wealth” that have become widespread in the social media age. In recent years, online novels and short dramas featuring plots about flaunting wealth, unrequited love, billionaires and revenge have become popular entertainment. In June, China’s regulator launched a campaign against “harmful and lowbrow” content, including material portraying “distorted” views of marriage and relationships. According to Beijing Daily, the story of Jane Eyre – an orphan who goes through a series of hardships, asserts her independence and falls in love with her wealthy employer – could help 14-year-old students develop “sounder values.” “When children are first beginning to experience romantic feelings and are still naive and inexperienced, it is a crucial stage for developing a healthy character,” the publication said. The novel has been popular in China since 1925 and has been translated, published and adapted for the stage and screen many times. Jane Eyre has long been seen in the country as a heroine who stands against oppression, and the novel has also been accepted by China’s ruling Communist Party. Its inclusion in the curriculum, however, comes at a time when feminist debate and activism in China have come under increased scrutiny.
The Guardian never misses a chance to put down Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights. Reviewing Charli xcx's Music, Fashion, Film tour: a windswept soundtrack that more or less saved the otherwise dreadful Wuthering Heights (Adrian Horton) Quick lightning round! Tell us: The [book] that made you want to become an author: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (Elise Dumpleton)
Collider has selected and ranked 'The 8 Greatest Gothic Horror Books of the Last 25 Years' and one of them is Virginia Feito's Victorian Psycho, described like a cross between Jane Eyre and an especially nasty slasher movie. (Luc Haasbroek) Bonnie Greer, the American-born British playwright, novelist, critic and broadcaster, died on 15 September 2026, aged 77. For Brontëblog readers, Greer will be remembered for serving as President of the Brontë Society in 2011, a position she held until June 2015. She had already been involved with the Society's activities in Haworth, and her appointment reflected her longstanding admiration for the Brontës. She later said that she had accepted the presidency because
One of the reasons that I accepted the Presidency is not only because I love the work of the Brontës, but because both the members and the Council have been welcoming and supportive. And because of Yorkshire - the people and the region. (Brontë Parsonage Blog, November 2014) Her particular interest was Emily Brontë and Wuthering Heights. At the 2011 Ilkley Literature Festival, she discussed Emily's language and its musical quality, as well as Heathcliff, race and abolitionism. In 2012, during a Brontë Society Annual weekend, Greer participated in a discussion of Wuthering Heights (A Regular Black: The Hidden Wuthering Heights, with Terry Eagleton and Caryl Phillips) and revealed that she was writing a screenplay based on the speculation that Emily Brontë had met Frederick Douglass in Leeds in 18471. The connection between Emily Brontë and Douglass remained important to Greer. In 2015, in a Brussels Brontë Group weekend talk, she was still discussing possible Brontë links with the abolitionist, while also working to make the Brontës more accessible to younger and more diverse audiences. Also in 2015 she led, with Judith Watts, a Jane Eyre fan-fiction workshop at The Trouble Club in London. Greer resigned as president in June 2015 in a particularly agitated Brontë Society moment. Her Jimmy Choo moment at that year's AGM has become something almost legendary: According to witnesses, the meeting saw Bonnie Greer, the writer and President of the Society, keep order using her Jimmy Choo heel on the top table, as critics from both sides waiting to hear how the Brontë name should best be preserved. ( The Telegraph, June 2015)
Not any Jimmy Choo, though: Greer said she took a high-heeled shoe to Saturday's meeting as a light-hearted prop to use to keep order. "I brought my shoe because it's been, for some of us, so grim, that I thought, I'm going to make this funny," she told BBC Radio 4's The World At One. "So I brought out the shoe, made for me by Jimmy Choo himself, and said, 'I'm going to bang this if it gets out of control'." ( BBC News, June 2015)
Her association with the Brontës nevertheless continued. In 2018 she participated in a Liverpool panel discussion connected with Lily Cole's short film Balls, an Emily Brontë bicentenary project inspired partly by Wuthering Heights. There was also a Brontë connection in Greer's own creative writing. Her 2021 play Douglass, commissioned by The Faction and performed by Jude Owusu, explored the life and inner world of Frederick Douglass. A contemporary review noted that Greer's text incorporated quotations from Shakespeare, Emily Brontë and Douglass himself. 1. Something that was explored a bit later by Deborah Denenholz Morse in "The House of Trauma": The Influence of Frederick Douglass on Heathcliff in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, Victorians: A Journal of Culture and Literature, Number 140, Winter 2021, pp. 164-177. ↩
Broadway World announces that Jane Eyre the Musical now has a trailer. Southwark Playhouse has posted a trailer for its production of Jane Eyre, offering a first glimpse of the musical currently running at Southwark Playhouse Elephant. The clip previews the atmosphere of the staging, which brings Charlotte Brontë's novel to the stage through what the theatre describes as a lush and sweeping score. [...] The staging marks the UK premiere of the musical, running at Southwark Playhouse Elephant through 24 October. The trailer was shot by videographer Adam Nightingale. (Michael Major)
And here it is:
Still on stage, Northern Arts Review is looking forward to York Settlement Community Players' The Other Other Brontë, which opens at Theatre@41 on Monkgate on October 13th. The show by Sarah Gordon, which premiered in 2024 at The National Theatre London, will be performed at Theatre@41 on Monkgate from the 13th to the 17th October. It tells the story of the rivalry between the Brontë sisters from Charlotte’s perspective, and reveals some truths behind why we only know Anne as the ‘third sister’, or the Other Other Brontë. Director Claire Morley, who last directed for YSCP in 2014 with Brecht’s Drums in the Night says: “Directing Underdog really appealed to me because whilst it tells the story of this incredible literary family who are so entwined in the national (and Yorkshire!) cultural fabric, it doesn’t put them on a pedestal. We see them as flawed human beings. The dialogue and stagecraft is also very contemporary, which I love. I am looking forward to reflecting that further in aspects like the soundtrack. Expect current chart hits rather than choral music!” Lara Stafford (last seen as the title character in Anne Boleyn with Black Treacle Theatre at Theatre@41), YSCP regular Jess Murray, and University of York MA Theatre-Making student Millie Rhodes lead the cast as Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë. They are joined by a multi-rolling ensemble made up of local actors Nick Patrick Jones, Jon Cook, Maggie Smales, and Pamela Gourley. “We’re so thrilled to bring this very Yorkshire literary play to Theatre@41 this October,” says YSCP Chair, Natalie Roe, “We went on a cast and crew trip to the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, which helped everyone get into the world of the play. There’s such a great energy in the team already, we can’t wait to share Underdog with you.”
According to Biba (France), Lilia Hassaine's JE is a firm candidate to the Prix Goncourt. Ce livre d'une journaliste et chroniqueuse déjà connue du prix Goncourt se dessine comme un des favoris du concours. [...] Il s'appelle Je, mais ce n'est pas une autobiographie. Même si on ne connait pas la vie personnelle de l'autrice, il ne peut pas s'agir de cela car le roman se passe en 1831. On lit : "Île de la Jamaïque, 1831. Antoinette Cosway, créole de bonne famille, s'éprend d'Edward Rochester, un Anglais aussi impénétrable que fascinant. Mais à la séduction enflammée succèdent rapidement des scènes vénéneuses, où les baisers sont des blessures, où toute une société livre la jeune femme à son bourreau. Des années plus tard, Antoinette tente de conquérir sa propre histoire. "JE" se situe à mi-chemin entre roman victorien et thriller intimiste contemporain. Lilia Hassaine s'est inspirée du personnage de la première femme de Rochester dans Jane Eyre, le roman culte de Charlotte Brontë. Elle a choisi de lui donner une voix, un corps, une destinée." [...] Avec déjà une sélection par le passé, Lilia Hassaine devient déjà une habituée de ce concours. Cela pourrait l'avantager. Avec toutes les autres distinctions que le livre a déjà, il a vraiment ses chances. Enfin, la référence à un classique de la littérature peut aussi l'avantager. Outre cela, il n'est pas pour autant premier des ventes. Pour l'instant, C'était ça ou mourir D'Orélien Thélyson est numéro un des ventes, considéré comme le phénomène littéraire de l'année, il s'apparente comme le favori qui au final perd. Alors que "Je" est dixième du classement Datalib. En tout cas, les lecteurs semblent adorer. Babelio lui donne la belle note de 4,25/5. On peut lire entre autres : Livre de la rentrée littéraire 2026 et ce fut un coup de cœur ! Un livre magnifique, une plume efficace, un récit captivant. (…) Le roman met en lumière une autre vision de cette femme, victime de son temps, du patriarcat, de son époux, et des machinations l'ayant conduite à être enfermée et considérée comme "folle". Je ne pouvais pas lâcher ce livre." (Paul Mocka) (Translation)
Yorkshire Live recommends '10 best autumn walks in Yorkshire where you take in the stunning countryside' including Haworth A town near Bradford, Haworth is surrounded by stunning autumn walking trails. Whether you want to see the Brontë Waterfall or just the town itsel, the Victorian style of the town never fails to give off a great autumnal feel. (Sebastian McCormick)
This is too good to be true: JD+Kate Industries
Have you read the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte? No? Well, that’s fine, because the Mr. Rochester-Scented Candle will tell you everything you need to know: The book has a character named Mr. Rochester. He’s the dashing love interest who locks his wife in an attic. It has a protagonist named Jane Eyre. She’s the governess who starts to fall for her boss, Mr. Rochester. Do you think the wife-locked-in-attic thing will turn out to be a dealbreaker for her? (Here’s a hint: No it will not.) Mr. Rochester smells like cigar smoke. Mr. Rochester smokes a cigar, so Jane can always smell him coming. And since this candle smells like cherry tobacco, YOUR governess will always smell YOU coming, as you wander the halls pensively, late at night, holding a novelty candle. Mr. Rochester’s palatial estate, Thornfield, ends up getting burned down, leaving only smoking ruins. Sometimes when you lock your wife in the attic and propose to the governess, your house gets burned down. Actions have consequences!
According to Comic Book, Wuthering Heights: House of the Damned ' Is Already Doing 3 Things Better' than Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights:With a recently released trailer for Wuthering Heights: House of the Damned, director Becca Hirani (the Elevator) posits a different spin on the story, one that is leaning into gothic horror in three key ways, setting it on track to embrace the spirit of the novel, rather than distort it. 3. Cathy’s Ghost Has Agency in This Version of Wuthering Heights When Mr. Lockwood, a new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, arrives at Wuthering Heights, he soon finds etchings under a windowsill. The etchings spell out the name Catherine Earnshaw and then Catherine Linton. While investigating, Mr. Lockwood comes face to face with a ghost who breaks through the window pane, slamming him against the wall by gripping his throat. The ghost of Cathy is absent from Fennell’s adaptation along with many that came before it, but is present in the trailer for Wuthering Heights: House of the Damned. The element is distinctively horror, especially in the way Hirani uses it. Here, the ghost is not passive or something belonging in the house, but rather a spirit acting against Mr. Lockwood. It amps up the danger Mr. Lockwood is in, a danger that was previously relegated to the characters still alive. Audiences know to be wary of Mr. Heathcliff, but it is an adaptational twist to give Cathy back this capacity for violence from beyond the grave. In the novel, Brontë leaves Cathy’s ghost ambiguous. The presence is felt through knocking and a repeated cry heard through the window, along with rumors spread about town, but it isn’t something that’s able to harm Mr. Lockwood in the way Hirani’s does. 2. Violence that Can’t be Romanticized in House of the Damned Hirani’s Wuthering Heights from the get go is off to a better start with the inclusion of Cathy’s brother Hindley. Fennell’s adaptation erased the character completely, choosing to give his abusive traits to Cathy’s father. But with Hindley in the narrative — as long as he isn’t suddenly the perfect brother — the violence in the film is no longer solely romantic. The visual symbols of violence in Hirani’s Wuthering Heights: House of the Damned are not a noose or handcuffs trying to erotic but rather smashed glass, a sharp knife, and bloody eyes. The romance of Cathy and Heathcliff is present but it is framed completely differently. No longer the greatest love story ever told, it is now “the most harrowing romance of all time”. The film’s synopsis paints Heathcliff as obsessed in the wake of Cathy’s death and from her influence “turning murderous on all who dwell there.” It’s a shift from Heathcliff’s revenge plot in the book, inflicted there on the resulting children of the Earnshaw and Linton families. Instead, it is more immediate. Heathcliff, with the aid of Cathy’s ghost, is likely going after those who currently dwell in the house rather than a future generation. 1. Wuthering Heights as Haunted House Narrative At its core, Wuthering Heights is a story of a haunted house, and Hirani’s visuals reflect this. The house looks unassuming from the outside, but inside, every room is cast in shadow. The characters have to resort to candlelight and even then, much is still obscured from view. The frame narrator Mr. Lockwood isn’t supposed to be there. He’s renting out the sister property Thrushcross Grange, depicted as lighter and a pleasant place to live, but his own niceties have brought him to Wuthering Heights, wanting to know his neighbors. It is Mr. Lockwood then who should be most primed to escape. Yet, as the trailer shows him painfully looking in the mirror as his reflection is replaced with Cathy’s, not even him can do that. He is stuck at Wuthering Heights, much like the Earnshaws. With the emphasis placed on Cathy’s ghost, it raises the question if Wuthering Heights will be depicted as haunted prior to Cathy’s death. As mentioned before, the exterior shot of the estate looks rather normal. There are no overgrown branches or broken windows, but rather it is the inside and Cathy’s influence there that places it as haunted. The violence may have existed before her death but the physical markers don’t appear until after it. (Archie Wagner)
Meanwhile, Uno (Argentina) recommends watching Andrea Arnold's take on the novel.
Billboard shares the 5 best moments from Charli XCX's Music, Fashion, Film Tour in New York. “Dying for You,” from Charli’s Wuthering Heights soundtrack released earlier this year, was a much-appreciated “Oh right, this song” selection from a set that already feels historically underappreciated. (Andrew Unterberger)
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