The Fan Carpet has a Q&A with Isabelle Methven, who plays Helen Burns and Bessie in Jane Eyre. The Musical.
Jane Eyre is regarded as one of the great works of English literature. What drew you to Charlotte Brontë’s story? Isabelle Methven: It’s actually my favourite book. I’ve loved it for years, so when the opportunity came up to be part of this production, I couldn’t have been more excited. Charlotte Brontë created such rich, truthful characters, and I think that’s why people continue to connect with the story today. It’s a real privilege to be part of bringing it to life on stage. Helen Burns and Bessie are very different characters, yet both help shape Jane’s journey. What has it been like exploring those roles? Isabelle Methven: That’s one of the things I love most about them. Helen represents kindness, compassion and forgiveness, while Bessie provides warmth and comfort in a very different way. They both leave lasting impressions on Jane, even though they’re with her at different points in her life. Finding those differences has been one of the most enjoyable parts of rehearsals. Music is such an important part of storytelling in this production. How do you approach performing songs that carry so much emotion? Isabelle Methven: For me, singing is really just an extension of acting. You’re never simply singing a beautiful melody. Every lyric has to come from the character and from what they’re feeling in that moment. If you’re truthful with the emotion, then the music naturally becomes part of the storytelling. Finally, what do you hope audiences take away from this production? Isabelle Methven: I hope they leave appreciating just how timeless Jane Eyre really is. Even though it was written almost two centuries ago, its themes are still incredibly relevant today. It’s a beautiful story, and I hope audiences fall in love with it all over again.
And The Fan Carpet also has an interview with three more actresses from the cast: First of all, could you introduce yourselves and tell us about your roles in Jane Eyre? Eve Shanu-Wilson: I’m Eve, and I’m playing Blanche in Jane Eyre: The Musical. Emily-Rose Samuel: Hello, my name is Emily-Rose Samuel and I’m playing Young Jane and Adèle. Poppy Jason: And I’m Poppy Jason, and I’m also playing Young Jane and Adèle. We share the role! Jane Eyre is such an iconic literary classic. What was it about this story that made you want to be part of it? Eve Shanu-Wilson: I love Jane Eyre. I read the book with my mum when I was about eight years old and we absolutely loved the BBC adaptation too, so it’s always been close to my heart. I also think the story’s themes of feminism and female empowerment are incredibly important today, and it’s wonderful that we get to tell that story alongside two incredibly talented young performers. Emily-Rose Samuel: I like Jane Eyre because it’s quite scary and dark. I like all the mysterious parts… Eve Shanu-Wilson: Careful… spoilers! Poppy Jason: I read the book with my mum as well, which made me really interested in Jane Eyre. I’m just so excited to be part of this because everybody is so talented. Eve Shanu-Wilson: She’s talking about me, obviously! We’re all talented!
The Wuthering Heights mickey-take is fun, but ancillary to the main event. (Brian Logan)
There are other reasons to retell our foundational stories. We may love them as works of art but be enraged by some of their assumptions – sometimes by the entire concept behind them. We return, again and again, but with gritted teeth. We say things like “they’re a product of their time”, and wonder if that’s a good enough excuse. The retellings that respond to this impulse are some of the classics of the genre. The writers who created them were caught between two impulses: nostalgia and rejection. Jean Rhys admitted as much in describing her response to reading Jane Eyre. She was swept up in it, but “vexed at her portrait of a ‘paper tiger’ lunatic [and] the all-wrong creole scenes”. Wide Sargasso Sea is Rhys’s modernist prequel to Brontë’s classic. It aims to give justice to the madwoman in the attic, aka English literature’s most famous Creole character. She is a walk-on part in the original, chaotic and exotic. Dominica-born Rhys’s version is both a takedown and a satire of Victorian ideas of empire, race, and morality. Mr. Rochester goes to the colonies to acquire a fortune by marrying a woman he has never met. But he can’t handle the Caribbean. Even the green is too green, the flowers too red, and his new wife’s eyes – he worries they might be too black. (Emily McBride)
AnneBrontë.org has a post on the manuscript of Jane Eyre, which reached the office of Smith, Elder & Co. on a day like today in 1847.
The novel by Anja Daatje, Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris, has been translated into English:
by Anjet Daanje Translated from the Dutch by David McKay MacMillan Publishers ISBN: 9780374620615 August 2026
A thrilling literary puzzle that explores the haunted life and mysterious afterlifes of a writer and her work. Who was Eliza May Drayden? Is she just the quiet, intensely private person she seems to all the world in her little village of Bridge Fowling in the shadow of the West Yorkshire hills—or is there more to her than meets the eye? It is only after her death that Haeger Mass, her one book—a dark and cryptic novel—assumes a life of its own. In each new chapter of this literary treasure hunt that spans almost three hundred years, we see the conundrum through the eyes of a new generation of characters, each providing competing and interlocking versions of the life—and cursed vision—of this Emily Brontë–like figure. Scholars immerse themselves in the mystery of her life and are led to ruin; the curse that hangs over her comes to visit a young couple; a mysterious diary emerges with her strange and indecipherable poetry and sketches. Elements and symbols repeat in relentless and varying combinations from one story to the next as the years pass: as if the truth at the center of her work is fighting to break free. The Song of Stork and Dromedary is a philosophical puzzle that unfolds with the exuberance of a historical romp, ingeniously pivoting from Gothic horror to quantum mechanics to memento mori. In this thrilling, recursive tale, Anjet Daanje gets to the frantically beating heart of why we tell stories, and how we try to create meaning with them in a world filled with brutality and death. Daanje has crafted a conundrum that is as diabolical as it is heartbreaking. When we finally open the box that contains the secret behind the life of Eliza May Drayden, what will we see there—a vision of heaven or a vision of hell?
The Guardian reviews Bebe Cave's multicharacter comedy Swoon.Giving us a Victorian-era Tyra Banks as well as the Brontë sisters, Swoon is a highly impressive and creative feat of physical comedy, with an intelligent throughline that never takes away from the more slapstick and silly elements. The show has a wealth of jokes that rely on the audience having some knowledge of art history, but even without this, the message is clear: ridiculous men with pompous attitudes are forever contributing to the erasure of women. (Arusa Qureshi) Just Watch lists 'The 6 Most Controversial Literary Adaptations Of The Last 5 Years' and one of them is Wuthering Heights 2026 Wuthering Heights (2026) is the most recent adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel. However, the film garnered a lot of criticism before hitting theaters, with the most prominent being the casting of Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, a typically non-white role in the novel. But that’s not all; there was even more controversy surrounding the film, from the casting of Margot Robbie as Catherine, who was considered too old for the role, to the more sensual direction of the film. Abandoning the themes of the book, it had also been stated that this film was focusing more on the teenage romanticism young readers got when they read the book, which undermined the core values of the story. (Nicholas Brooks)
Couch Soup also lists Wuthering Heights as one of '3 Books to Read with Screen Adaptations Worth Watching'. Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Brontë in 1847, is about the tumultuous love story between Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff. It explores themes such as forbidden love, jealousy and even toxic masculinity disguised as passionate love. For me, the movie was slightly better than the book, though both seem problematic. Heathcliff is driven solely by his lust for Cathy and the jealousy he feels knowing she is with someone else. Each character has their own motives that drive them in their decisions. What I liked about the movie was the stylization of the film, especially Margot Robbie's stunning, though contemporary, looks. Robbie's chemistry with Jacob Elordi's Heathcliff was palpable. The book is more gentle to its characters and readers, but the dark nature of the story remains between both mediums. (Jasmyn Spann)
-¿Por qué 'Cumbres borrascosas' ? -Todos tenemos al menos un libro que nos persigue, que hemos leído en diferentes momentos de la vida y que, en cada momento, nos ha devuelto, como un espejo, una imagen distinta de quiénes éramos, y para mí ese libro sin duda es 'Cumbres borrascosas'. -¿En qué medida es una novela moderna, actual, o imperecedera? -Creo que basta con entrar en Goodreads (comunidad virtual de catalogación de lecturas) y ver los comentarios apasionados o directamente encendidos que suscita para entender que hay algo en este texto que sigue siendo inasible, excesivo, capaz de enfrentarnos a nuestras idealizaciones y nuestras sombras. Tiene también muchas grietas, contradicciones internas que animan la conversación en torno a la misma, la posibilidad inagotable de la exégesis. [...] -¿Lo de la fidelidad al texto a la hora de abordar una adaptación resulta muchas veces una coartada convertida en una trampa cuando no se quiere arriesgar? -Me parece complicadísimo adaptar novelas al cine y creo que hay que entender que una adaptación no es la novela en sí, sino la lectura que la directora ha hecho de dicha novela. Eso es bonito, enfatiza que, en cada lector, el texto se renueva y se hace otro. Lo que sí es inquietante es que absolutamente todas las adaptaciones hayan decidido amputar la segunda parte de la novela, que se queden en la supuesta historia de amor y no en las posibilidades que Emily Brontë les da a los hijos de la nueva generación de enmendar los errores de los padres. Y aquí es donde las películas tienden a romantizar lo que en la novela simplemente se muestra como problemático. -¿Cuál es, en su opinión, la adaptación audiovisual más acertada de la novela, o la que aporta algo diferente? -La adaptación del 2011 de Andrea Arnold (protagonizad por James Howson y Kaya Scodelario) me parece visualmente preciosa, y es la que más se atreve a mostrar esta coexistencia sin edulcorar entre el amor y la violencia que atraviesa a Heathcliff, y la que enfatiza cuestiones de raza y de clase que, en general, se suelen dejar de lado. -¿Heathcliff y Catherine serían hoy carne de meme en las redes sociales? -Bueno, creo que después de la adaptación de Emerald Fennell, cuya propuesta tiene un tono deliberadamente paródico, ya lo son un poco. (Guillermo Balbona) (Translation)
Southern Living lists '60 Classic Books Everyone Should Read In Their Lifetime' including Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë brings to life Jane Eyre‘s titular heroine through a vivid internal world, one as dynamic as the wild English landscape, but one often at odds with the social strictures of the novel’s early-19th century setting. [...] Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë In Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë presents a world of conflicts, frictions between families, passions, and attachments—especially those of Catherine Earnshaw and the tortured Heathcliff—across an untamed landscape. (Caroline Rogers and Rebecca Angel Baer)
The Times of India's love quote of the day was 'Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same'. La Tercera (Chile) has an article on more people reading classic novels, including those by the Brontë sisters.
A new novel with the Brontës at the core of it:
by Catherine Friend Bywater Books ISBN: 978-1612943466 August 18, 2026
Yorkshire, 1898. When twenty-two-year-old Lilianne Loxley is sent to Lord Bexton’s isolated estate to work off her uncle’s debts, she expects drudgery—not danger. With her gift for mimicry, she becomes Bexton’s secretary—and his reluctant forger. Soon she’s trapped in a scheme to create a “lost” novel by Emily Brontë, a deception that could make—or destroy—fortunes. The house is full of secrets: footsteps echo in empty corridors, lemon-scented ghosts haunt her sleepless nights, and a portrait seems to watch her every move. Yet it’s the living who unsettle her most—especially Wren McAllister, the sharp-tongued maid whose defiance hides a tender heart. Drawn together by loss and longing, Lily and Wren risk everything for a freedom neither has ever known. As the line between truth and invention blurs, Lily uncovers a shocking connection to the Brontë family—and to Bexton himself—that will force her to choose between love, loyalty, and the dangerous power of her own pen. Catherine Friend’s The Lost Brontë is an atmospheric gothic romantic mystery steeped in secrets, desire, and literary intrigue.
The New Yorker discusses 'The Boom of the Sex-Recession Movie'- In February, I went to see Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” at my local movie theatre, in Brooklyn. Next to me sat a man and a woman in their twenties. Early in the film, as Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) and Cathy (Margot Robbie) breathlessly spy on a couple of servants engaging in a bout of horse-and-rider-themed roleplay, the man beside me began to squirm. This display of light bondage proved merely an amuse-bouche to the erotic banquet that Fennell had prepared. There are no sex scenes in Emily’s Brontë’s novel—the star-crossed protagonists never so much as kiss—but in Fennell’s adaptation they came and came and came: Heathcliff and Cathy snogging in a little carriage; Heathcliff and Cathy going at it on a dining table; Cathy furiously masturbating on the moors as Heathcliff sneaks up on her to watch. My neighbor reacted to such displays with a series of what Brontë would have called “ejaculations,” gasping and groaning in horrified astonishment. “Oh, my God!” he exclaimed. “He’s a sex addict!” he reported to his date, who had slipped away to the bathroom just as Heathcliff leashed up another poor girl and turned her into his willing slave. When the credits rolled, he sat, stunned, head in hands, tears rolling down his face. “That was so fucking dope,” he said, between sobs. (Alexandra Schwartz)
Spanish newspaper Público recently published an imaginary interview with Jane Eyre in which 'she' discussed beauty standards. Opino que la apariencia no debería confundirse con la verdad. Que el aparato externo no es la esencia genuina de las cosas y que los muros blanqueados jamás deberían responder de la condición del sepulcro. Pero esta cuestión no solo ha importado en este siglo. Las mujeres que buscan alcanzar un ideal de belleza están ahí desde tiempos inmemoriales, porque mientras libran esa batalla no tienen tiempo ni fuerzas para luchar por la dignidad del alma, la independencia de la mente y la firmeza del carácter. No me malinterprete: hay mujeres bellísimas que cumplen las otras tres condiciones, pero el equilibrio es difícil porque el tiempo y las fuerzas son finitas. Nosotras debemos elegir qué guerras queremos ganar, y quizás la batalla final sea aceptar que podemos ser feas sin que nada pase. Pero todo el mundo quiere mirarse en el espejo y verse bien. El problema es en qué medida "verse bien" depende solamente del espíritu de cada cual. Mi marido sugirió vestirme de raso y encaje, y adornar con rosas mi cabello, igual que hacían todas las esposas de nuestra misma posición, y yo le respondí: si haces eso entonces yo no me reconocería y habría dejado de ser Jane Eyre, tu Janet. Me convertiría en una mona enfundada en una chaqueta de arlequín o en un grajo revestido de plumas de pavo real. Y añadí: yo no digo que sea usted guapo, señor, aunque le ame; precisamente porque le amo tiernamente no lo hago, así que no me adule usted a mí. La belleza es relativa, pero el ideal de belleza de una sociedad no lo es. (Antía Yáñez Rodríguez) (Translation)
A columnist from OkDiario (Spain) picks up that last sentence to discuss beauty standards as well, together with an AI-generated image of a copy of Jane Eyre (surely there's some metaphor in that?)
the latter half of the 19th century and into the early 20th century [when] there took place in some towns and villages in the Pennines of West Yorkshire what was sometimes referred to as “the annual casting off of the apron strings”. [...] The Keighley Hen Pecked Club was the creation of Henry Thompson, the landlord of the Royal Oak on Damside. He was better known as Harry Tap and later owned the White Horse Brewery at Hermit Hole and the inn across the road. The idea of forming a club may well have been sparked by a popular book of the period – The Hen-Pecked Husband by Harriet Ann Scott – which focused on the domestic struggles within the Victorian household. Although now largely forgotten, it was said to rival Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in popularity at the time. (Robin Longbottom)
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