The latest production from Mercer University Opera is no other than the Gordon & Caird Jane Eyre musical:
Music by Paul Gordon Lyrics by John Caird Stage Director... Samantha Mishima Friedman Conductor and Co-Music Director ... Richard Kosowski Co-Music Director ... Timothy McReynolds With Anna Grace Martin, William Little. October 22 to October 24, 7:30 PM Townsend School of Music -- Fickling Hall, Macon, GA
Be swept away in this romantic adaptation of Jane Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre. Follow the story of our independent and resilient heroine as she leaves the cruel world of the orphanage to become the governess at Thornfield Hall. At Thornfield, she falls in love with her brooding employer, Edward Rochester. Jane uncovers Rochester’s dark secrets and must decide what is best for her own interests. Will their passions bring them together or will Jane be left alone?
The Den, the Mercer University student newspaper, gives more information: Jane speaks her mind,” said Samantha Mishima Freidman, D.M.A., assistant professor of voice and director of opera. “She doesn’t let anyone get away with anything. She’s not afraid to tell people they’re wrong, which at the time was kind of a big deal, and she was sort of ostracized for it. Mercer has some pretty big personalities, and we have some ladies in the opera program who are strong and amazing, and I thought (this show) would fit really well with the people we had.” In addition, “Jane Eyre” is a particularly fitting production for the fall season. “It’s a perfect October show. It’s got a sort of spooky aesthetic to it,” said William Little, MUS ’28, who plays Rochester. “All of us have worked really hard. The songs are just gorgeous. We’re starting to sound really great, and I’m very excited to put it on for people.” Anna Grace Martin, MUS ’27, plays Jane Eyre and found the role to be a welcomed challenge. “Jane Eyre is a very complex character. In a single scene, she can go through all the stages of grief. Being able to kind of feel all of her joy and pain has really been a challenge, but it’s been really rewarding to be able to work through some of her inner workings,” said Martin, a music education major. Friedman said she was surprised at how much the students stepped up during rehearsals. “Anytime I have asked them to get to the next level, to push themselves a little bit further, they have pushed themselves even further than that,” she said. “So every day it’s exciting to come back and to see what new ideas they bring.” Friedman is assisted in the production by co-music directors Tim McReynolds, D.M.A., Helen Wall Rich Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano, and Richard Kosowski, D.M.A., chair of vocal studies and professor of music. Martin said it’s been rewarding to work with these faculty and her fellow cast members. “They’ve been so understanding with all of the very complex aspects of the character and helping me think through how she thinks,” she said. Friedman hopes the audience feels the message of forgiveness in the show. “The musical does a really good job explaining that forgiveness and tying it throughout. It’s one of the hardest things to do in your life, to truly forgive and let go, and I think that if people see that, they will leave changed in the best way possible,” Friedman said. (Isaac Linen)
The New Yorker lists Anne Carson’s Best Books and one of them is “Glass, Irony & God” The six pieces in Carson’s second collection are clear, sharp, splintered, and luminous. It includes her single most arresting poem, “The Glass Essay,” a chilly, desolate account of the end of a love affair, told by a speaker who believes that she is “turning into Emily Brontë / my lonely life around me like a moor, / my ungainly body stumping over the mud flats with a look of transformation / that dies when I come in the kitchen door.” The poem’s anguished meditations on love’s savagery and isolation are designed to draw blood. (Merve Emre)
The Guardian recommends 'Six inspiring cultural sites worth travelling to: from castles to Brontë country'. Brontë Parsonage in Haworth Literary types, you need to head to Haworth. Here, with stunning views of the Yorkshire moors, is the home where the Brontë sisters – Charlotte, Emily and Anne – wrote their novels including Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It’s now a museum displaying the world’s largest collection of bits and bobs from their lives. Think: handwritten manuscripts and first drafts of novels, but also the more delightfully mundane, such as pebbles collected by Anne, locks of the family’s hair, and Emily’s christening mug. The chance to journey back in time and pretend that you, too, are a Brontë sister, doesn’t end with the house and museum. The Brontë Society, which looks after the parsonage, will happily hand over maps for walks among the moors, so you can quite literally follow in their footsteps. Walk into Haworth town to find the Brontës’ birthplace and the church where the family, except for Anne, is buried. (Ellen C Scott)
A contributor to The Daily Tar Heel uses Wuthering Heights to discuss 'impermanent preferences'. One of the most memorable moments from my senior semester of college was seeing Emerald Fennel’s “Wuthering Heights.” I watched it on Valentine’s Day at Silverspot Cinema with my sister and six of her friends, and I liked it way more than I should have. Ever since I was little, I remember hearing, “The book is always better than the movie.” Up until I saw “Wuthering Heights,” I used to believe it too. When I read Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” my sophomore summer, I remember feeling underwhelmed. In my Apple Books review, I gave it three stars; I had hoped that book would shake my soul, and it did not. That was really sad for me, given how much I had enjoyed her sisters’ works — Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” and Anne Brontë’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.” The week after watching the newest adaptation of Wuthering Heights was really stressful for me. It pained me to admit to all my friends that I had enjoyed the 2026 film more than the 19th century tome. I mean, I really loved it. I was sobbing so hard that people were turning around and pointing. I wasn’t the only one — a couple other girls in my row were similarly shaken. I won’t name names, but you know who you are. When it came out, the “Wuthering Heights” adaptation was very controversial. Some described it as “hollow,” while others said it was worse for Emily Brontë than tuberculosis. Most critics had at least one thing to say: it’s nothing like the book. The thing is, definitives are hard. Saying a book is “always” better than the movie is both false and highly unproductive. It’s a kind of snobbery; people who say this either want to feel smart, or they want to make you feel stupid. To me, preferences and absolutes should not be allowed in the same room. [...] After watching “Wuthering Heights,” I went around to all my friends saying it was probably the best movie I’d ever watched and I really believed it at the time. Now, I see that my reaction had a lot to do with how my life looked last spring. I’m putting off rewatching it, because I’m scared I won’t like it as much the second time. Knowing our preferences aren’t fixed or absolute, it can be hard to make choices. How can you know what you’ll want in three months? 10 years? You’re asked to decide things now which are permanent — even when you know your preferences are fleeting. (Anna Garziera)
Denizen shares some Halloween ideas inspired by this year's pop culture's biggest moments. Cathy and Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi have made doomed romance look extraordinarily glamorous in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. Think extravagant period gowns, romantic corsetry, dark tailoring and a suitably brooding expression. The perfect couples costume for those who appreciate a little gothic drama, and a thoroughly dysfunctional love story.
Speaking of wearing something connected to Wuthering Heights. Digital Spy focuses on 'Bake Off star Noel Fielding's W uthering Heights jumper'.
Fielding's eclectic collection of jumpers has become a staple of the beloved Channel 4 baking show, and in Tuesday night's episode (October 20) he rocked a blue knit depicting a series of women in red dresses dancing around the moors. The design is by Australian-based label Wah-Wah, as part of its collaboration with award-winning artist Tara Booth, in homage to musical icon Kate Bush. Noel has a history of paying tribute to the British singer, whose debut single 'Wuthering Heights' – inspired by the Emily Brontë novel of the same name, which was of course also adapted for the big screen this year – topped the UK chart in 1978, when the song-writer was just 19 years old. As part of the BBC's Let's Dance for Comic Relief, which aired back in 2011, Noel Fielding took to the stage to perform his own rendition of Kate Bush's hit song, referencing her iconic music video – more specifically, the second version, which saw the singer wearing the floaty red dress, dancing among woodland. (Laura Jane Turner)
Midi Libre (France) announces the publication of Éric Cazorla's first book of poetry. De La Bête aux Fauvettes, l’album dessine un cheminement très personnel. Il débute dans un monde qui heurte le poète, traverse la mélancolie et le temps, avant de trouver dans la poésie une forme de refuge. Éric Cazorla y évoque également Emily Brontë et pose, avec Le Dogme, les valeurs qui nourrissent son écriture. "Cet album de poésies est un dogme où je liste les valeurs que j’épouse et celles que je délaisse", explique-t-il. (Translation) Trouw (Netherlands) reviews the Dutch translation of Deborah Lutz's biography of Emily Brontë. The Telegraph and Argus shares some pictures of children's activities at the Brontë Parsonage Museum over the years. Brussels Brontë Blog looks back on this past 'Brontë weekend with a special Irish theme'.
A new Romanian paper and an Italian Bachelor's thesis: by Nicoleta-Cosmina Iliescu Journal of Romanian Literary Studies 45 (2026), pp 152-159 Summary/Abstract: British women's fiction has long provided an important space for questioning dominant assumptions concerning gender, class, and identity. Although Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, and Virginia Woolf belong to different literary periods, their works share a sustained engagement with the representation of female resistance and the critique of patriarchal structures. This article examines the theoretical relationship between literary subversion and female agency by bringing together the historical contexts in which these writers produced their works and the critical perspectives that have shaped their interpretation. Drawing on feminist literary criticism, together with concepts developed by Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Antonio Gramsci, Pierre Bourdieu, and Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, the study explores how literary texts challenge dominant ideologies through narrative strategies, representations of femininity, and alternative forms of subjectivity. Rather than viewing subversion solely as explicit opposition to social norms, the article argues that it frequently operates through irony, narrative experimentation, psychological complexity, and the gradual reconfiguration of female identity. By examining the theoretical foundations of British women's fiction, this study highlights the ways in which Austen, the Brontës, and Woolf contributed to a ...
by Constanza Zanetti Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari - DISLL, 2025 Abstract Analysis of women's writing in nineteenth-century England, relating texts and historical context. An investigation into how economic, political, social, and cultural factors —and the resulting moral and ethical norms— influence the narrative structure of novels and the characterization of female and male characters in selected case studies. An analysis of the nineteenth-century English publishing world, focusing on women writers' practices, strategies, and authorial practices, to assess how material conditions have guided thematic and formal choices.
The Telegraph and Argus report on a visit to the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton by BBC presenter Reeta Chakrabarti. BBC presenter and author Reeta Chakrabarti's visit to Charlotte Brontë's birthplace has been hailed as a “magical evening”. Guests gathered at the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton on October 17 to hear Ms Chakrabarti discuss her novel, Finding Belle. The book explores mental illness, relationships, marriage and identity, themes which echo parts of Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë wrote the novel nearly 180 years ago. [...] Rosie Preston-Cook, Media and Communications Lead for the Brontë Birthplace, said: "It was an absolutely magical evening. We were so honoured to have someone of Reeta's calibre agree to come to the Birthplace. "She was so wonderfully charming and down to earth. It really was a fantastic event and everyone really enjoyed it." Organisers said the visit showed the continuing influence of Charlotte Brontë and her sisters. Ms Preston-Cook said: "Having someone like Reeta come to the Birthplace really highlights how influential the Brontë sisters remain to be." (Amelia Short)
Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, released at the beginning of the year, turned Emily Brontë’s novel of brutal abuse and doomed love into a campy BDSM melodrama while clumsily erasing the original’s racial dynamics and insights. Becca Hirani’s Wuthering Heights: House of the Damned doesn’t replicate Fennell’s. It’s, instead, a failure in a completely different, clunkier, but no less thoroughgoing way. For unaccountable reasons, Hirani chose to center the movie on Mr. Lockwood (Ross Townsend-Green) the hapless tenant of Thrushcross Grange. In the novel, Lockwood serves as the oblivious framing narrator of the tragedy of the forbidden love between adopted, racialized Heathcliff (Sky Cheema) and Catherine (Elle O’Hara.) In House of the Damned, though, he’s the main character, and main victim. He visits Wuthering Heights to greet the owner of the land on which he’s situated, is insulted, and then quickly succumbs to the ill influences of Heathcliff’s mansion of spookery. Those spookeries are scattershot and rapidly multiplying, as if Hirani is desperate to let you know that she’s shooting a horror movie here. There are ghosts, serial killers, body horror, nightmare visions, and, in the tradition of Psycho and many another film in the genre, there’s cross-dressing and homosexuality deployed to show Just How Bad Things Have Gotten. It’s possible that Hirani intended to suggest parallels between queer relationships and the forbidden love of Heathcliff and Catherine. But the film is too diffuse and confused to make that metaphor connect. Brontë’s words come out of character’s mouths, expressing the torment and pain of overbearing love. But with so much screentime for the hesitant, snickering, unappealing Lockwood, there’s little space for the movie to describe or illustrate the contours of the relationship that supposedly powers the movie. We don’t see Catherine and Heathcliff’s love develop; we don’t see it sour; we don’t even meet Edward Linton, the man Catherine marries, or understand why he’s attractive to her and simultaneously insufficient. Similarly, maidservant Nelly (Nicola Wright) is robbed of her buried malevolence. Mr. Earnshaw’s (Simon Weir) vacillating altruism and cruelty is approached in only a single, ineffectual scene. As for Heathcliff, he becomes a standard horror villain—unstoppable, mad, and therefore semi-anonymous. He’s less sympathetic and less frightening with his actions divorced from reason and calculation. He’s not a person but a trope, and as a result the (racist) cruelty inflicted upon him, and the cruelty he inflicts, is disconnected from each other and from any real emotional payoff. Wuthering Heights is a complicated novel, whose twisted plot and nested unreliable narration winds around, parallels, and throttles its themes of ingrown passion, strangled desire, self-deception and self-wounding. It’s a much more difficult work to adapt than, say, Jane Austen’s novels, not least because current romcom themes map more easily onto past romance novels than the current horror genre fits into throwback gothic. Translating Emily Brontë into the idiom of present day feature film is no mean feat, and it’s not a surprise that various creators have stumbled in trying. But while the missteps here are understandable, that doesn’t make the movie any more enjoyable. Fans of the original novel will be baffled and frustrated that Hirani doesn’t seem to know who the story’s supposed to be about, much less what to do with it. Fans of horror will be irritated as one hoary cliché after another is wheeled out (the ghost passing in the background when the protagonist is looking the wrong way; the creeping body growths that must be disgustingly popped; the ritual murders) almost at random, with no special innovation or visual panache, much less logic. Maybe someone, someday will manage a Wuthering Heights adaptation worthy of the original. But not this year. (Noah Berlatsky)
Why has romantasy become the biggest literary genre in the world? So popular it is now spilling into television and feature films, with hits such as Heated Rivalry (sporting romance), Wuthering Heights (historical) and The Hunting Wives (steamy contemporary), in a moment The New York Times has described as “smut renaissance”. (Matthew Condon) Parade has an AI-generated article on Gothic Romance.
An alert for today, October 21, at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in partnership with the Elizabeth Gaskell's House, via Zoom:
Wed 21 Oct, 7:00pm Online via zoom
In the shadows of 19th-century domesticity, writers Elizabeth Gaskell and Anne Brontë used the gothic to question the status of powerful and abusive men. Beyond the supernatural, how can we read short stories like The Grey Woman as powerful criticisms of the real monsters in Victorian society? While Elizabeth Gaskell is famous for her social realism, she was also a prolific writer of gothic and supernatural fiction. Ghost stories like The Old Nurse’s Story use eerie atmospheres and psychological terror to explore family relationships and the weight of the past. Anne Brontë shattered the silence of the domestic sphere with The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. By depicting a woman’s flight from an abusive marriage and her struggle for financial independence, Brontë replaced spectral horrors with something more terrible, the reality of women’s contemporary status. Join us this Halloween to explore the real monsters and madness hidden in the works of these two groundbreaking women.
Speakers: • Dr. Amy L. Montz is Professor of English Literature at the University of Southern Indiana, USA. • Andrew Stodolny is Learning Coordinator, Brontë Parsonage Museum
Part of Short Stories - The Gothic Season and in partnership with Elizabeth Gaskell’s House.
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