Jane Eyre

The bride is about a foot tall, has a long, flowing mane the color of cornsilk and wears a placid smile. She is made of porcelain and is draped head to toe in a lace wedding dress and sweeping veil. The name of the doll on display at the Peabody Library is not Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella but Jane Eyre. If that strikes you as odd - as stupendously, absurdly, bizarrely misconceived - chances are that you've actually read Charlotte Bronte's classic novel. Just for starters, the Jane in the novel wore her dark hair in a tight bun. She is fierce, and decidedly mousy-looking.

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar - another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: SUPERCILIOUS The handy British expression toffee-nosed , for "pretentiously superior" or "snobbish," is evocative but informal. For starchy occasions you may want to use supercilious (pronounced soo-per-SIL-e-as). A supercilious person displays that he thinks himself superior to others, is disdainful, contemptuous, haughty, or scornful.

Just when Jane Austen's boomlet seemed to be at last petering out, along comes Charlotte Bronte.AIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!Now that I've got that out of my system, I must point out that Franco Zeffirelli's adaption adaptation of Bronte's highly tTC melodramatic "Jane Eyre" is quite an effective piece of work. It may even restore William Hurt to leading manhood; it certainly should boost Charlotte Gainsbourg to leading womanhood.These roles, played most legendarily by Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine in a 1944 version, are fully realized by the stars.

This month, Amazon rolled out the second-generation Kindle, whose new features include a voice "reading" the work. About the same time, media futurist Jeff Jarvis announced that his new book, What Would Google Do?, could be purchased in a 23-minute video version - perfect for a busy executive's morning treadmill workout. What's next? Reading Moby Dick on your cell phone? Actually, that's already available. Clearly, the definition of a "book" is changing. Whether or not you're a fan of the latest technology, you'll have to come to terms with this new world.

The commercial networks, led by NBC, which announced its fall schedule Monday, aren't the only television operations getting ready for a new season.Cable networks, too, have a bunch of new offerings for the coming months. And with TV writers throughout the country primed to cover the network's fall lineups, is it an accident that some cable operations have chosen now to reveal what the next year has in store?Of course it isn't. Here's a sampling of what the cable folks want us to tell you about.

Charlotte Bronte(1816-1855)Bronte and her sisters wrote a collection of poems in 1845 with male pseudonyms to avoid the prevalent chauvinism. They issued the poems at their own expense; only two copies were sold.Bronte's "Jane Ayre" was, however, immediately successful. It concerns a woman's dilemma: following her affections for a man or succumbing to the pressure of social mores. It was published less than two months after she submitted it to Smith, Elder and Co. "Jane Eyre" is Bronte's most noted piece of writing.

Tony nominations Best Play: "The Invention of Love," "King Hedley II," "Proof," "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" Best Musical: "A Class Act," "The Full Monty," "Jane Eyre," "The Producers" Book of a Musical: "A Class Act," "The Full Monty," "Jane Eyre," "The Producers" Original Score: "A Class Act," "The Full Monty," "Jane Eyre," "The Producers" Revival - Play: "Betrayal," "The Best Man," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "The Search for Signs...

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar - another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: SUPERCILIOUS The handy British expression toffee-nosed , for "pretentiously superior" or "snobbish," is evocative but informal. For starchy occasions you may want to use supercilious (pronounced soo-per-SIL-e-as). A supercilious person displays that he thinks himself superior to others, is disdainful, contemptuous, haughty, or scornful.

'JANE EYRE' LIVES The George Peabody Library traces Charlotte Bronte's classic novel Jane Eyre through history at the new exhibit Eyre Apparent. The exhibition displays memorabilia related to the book and shows how, over the years, the novel's meaning can be adapted to the culture of the times and how the book has been interpreted in new ways. .................... The exhibit is at the George Peabody Library, 17 E. Mount Vernon Place. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays and noon-5 p.m. Sundays.

"The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte, the Secrets of a Mysterious Family: a Novel," by James Tully. Carroll & Graf. 288 pages. $24.In Josephine Tey's "Daughter of Time," an ailing Scotland Yard inspector lies in his sickbed and reconsiders the murders of the two princes in the tower. Drawing on the historical record and his own instincts, he comes up with a new scenario about the crime that most know through Shakespeare's "Richard III."True crime writer James Tully has employed a similar model for his latest book.

The bride is about a foot tall, has a long, flowing mane the color of cornsilk and wears a placid smile. She is made of porcelain and is draped head to toe in a lace wedding dress and sweeping veil. The name of the doll on display at the Peabody Library is not Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella but Jane Eyre. If that strikes you as odd - as stupendously, absurdly, bizarrely misconceived - chances are that you've actually read Charlotte Bronte's classic novel. Just for starters, the Jane in the novel wore her dark hair in a tight bun. She is fierce, and decidedly mousy-looking.

'JANE EYRE' LIVES The George Peabody Library traces Charlotte Bronte's classic novel Jane Eyre through history at the new exhibit Eyre Apparent. The exhibition displays memorabilia related to the book and shows how, over the years, the novel's meaning can be adapted to the culture of the times and how the book has been interpreted in new ways. .................... The exhibit is at the George Peabody Library, 17 E. Mount Vernon Place. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays and noon-5 p.m. Sundays.

Emma Brown: A Novel From the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Bronte. By Clare Boylan. Viking. 4484 pages. $25.95 When Charlotte Bronte died too young at 38, she left four novels and a sliver of a fifth, Emma Brown. Jane Eyre is, of course, the crown jewel, but Shirley and Villette are fine books, too -- enough so to secure Bronte's reputation as a major English writer. The fragment is a tantalizing literary artifact, a bare 20 pages whose tart wit and rich plot ingredients pull the reader in with great efficiency.

Rachel Kempson, 92, the matriarch of the Redgrave acting clan and one of the clarion voices of British stage and screen, died Saturday at her home in Millbrook, N.Y. The cause of death was not released. Ms. Kempson was perhaps the least known of the Redgraves in the United States. But in Britain, her performances in large and small roles in Shakespeare's plays were greatly admired, as were her appearances in other treasured British classics, including Richard Sheridan's 1777 comedy, The School for Scandal, in which she appeared over the years both as Maria and, earlier, as Lady Teazle.

Sarah: My one and HBOnly By Tamara Ikenberg SPECIAL TO THE SUN I have about the same chance of getting tickets for "The Producers" as I do of stealing Matthew Broderick from Sarah Jessica Parker. And that's just one of the reasons why I'm tuning in and turning on to HBO's "Sex and the City" tonight instead of the Tonys on CBS. Call it "Producers" envy. Call it lack of culture. Call it a preference for watching four female carnivores carnally conquering New York instead of a bunch of sissies breaking into song.

Tony nominations Best Play: "The Invention of Love," "King Hedley II," "Proof," "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" Best Musical: "A Class Act," "The Full Monty," "Jane Eyre," "The Producers" Book of a Musical: "A Class Act," "The Full Monty," "Jane Eyre," "The Producers" Original Score: "A Class Act," "The Full Monty," "Jane Eyre," "The Producers" Revival - Play: "Betrayal," "The Best Man," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "The Search for Signs...

Emma Brown: A Novel From the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Bronte. By Clare Boylan. Viking. 4484 pages. $25.95 When Charlotte Bronte died too young at 38, she left four novels and a sliver of a fifth, Emma Brown. Jane Eyre is, of course, the crown jewel, but Shirley and Villette are fine books, too -- enough so to secure Bronte's reputation as a major English writer. The fragment is a tantalizing literary artifact, a bare 20 pages whose tart wit and rich plot ingredients pull the reader in with great efficiency.

This month, Amazon rolled out the second-generation Kindle, whose new features include a voice "reading" the work. About the same time, media futurist Jeff Jarvis announced that his new book, What Would Google Do?, could be purchased in a 23-minute video version - perfect for a busy executive's morning treadmill workout. What's next? Reading Moby Dick on your cell phone? Actually, that's already available. Clearly, the definition of a "book" is changing. Whether or not you're a fan of the latest technology, you'll have to come to terms with this new world.

"The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte, the Secrets of a Mysterious Family: a Novel," by James Tully. Carroll & Graf. 288 pages. $24.In Josephine Tey's "Daughter of Time," an ailing Scotland Yard inspector lies in his sickbed and reconsiders the murders of the two princes in the tower. Drawing on the historical record and his own instincts, he comes up with a new scenario about the crime that most know through Shakespeare's "Richard III."True crime writer James Tully has employed a similar model for his latest book.

Charlotte Bronte(1816-1855)Bronte and her sisters wrote a collection of poems in 1845 with male pseudonyms to avoid the prevalent chauvinism. They issued the poems at their own expense; only two copies were sold.Bronte's "Jane Ayre" was, however, immediately successful. It concerns a woman's dilemma: following her affections for a man or succumbing to the pressure of social mores. It was published less than two months after she submitted it to Smith, Elder and Co. "Jane Eyre" is Bronte's most noted piece of writing.