Bronte biographers part I (till 1900) I am still busy with this blog, so it can change.

I am reading the Bronte Myth of Lucaste Miller

In the years after Elisabeth Gaskell till  1900

• Rumours about the relationship between Charlotte Bronte and Constantin Heger.
• Biographers and writers believed or attached these rumours.
• Biographers believed that everythng Charlotte wrote is from her life
• Working class education started.
• Cheap editions of the novels flooded the market
• English literature began to take root as an academic subject.
• Concept ideal women artist. A new spiritality. Charlotte's subdued social manner is spiritual superiority.
• Emily appeared as child of the moors.
• No careful examination of the evidence, but devotion to the subjects
• The question came up: Who did write Wuthering Heights? Branwell or Emily Bronte or together?
• Women wanted  role models who symbolized female freedom from social conventions.

BIOGRAPHERS  ( and writers)

 

1867 William Dearden "Who wrote Wuthering Heights"?

 

Under the headline 'Who wrote Wuthering Heights?' Dearden described a meeting which had taken place in the summer of 1842 between himself, Branwell and their sculptor friend Joseph Leyland at the Cross Roads Inn between Haworth and Keighley. A month earlier, the two poets had each agreed to produce a verse composition set in the mythical time before the Deluge. But when Branwell arrived at the appointed pub to show off his handiwork, he found that he had accidentally picked up the wrong manuscript. What he read out was not the antediluvian poem 'Azrael or the Eve of Destruction' he had written in answer to Dearden's challenge, but a fragment whose scene and characters 'so far as then developed' were, according to Dearden, 'the same as those in Wuthering Heights, which Charlotte Bronté [sic] confidently asserts was the production of her sister Emily'. bronteblog/wuthering-heights-at-cross-roads-inn
kleurrijkbrontesisters/william-dearden

 

 

 

1883 Laura Carter Holloway An hour with Charlotte Bronte  

 

 

1877   Thomas Wemyss Reid- Charlotte Brontë: A monograph e-book charlottebronte 

Had been given access by Ellen Nussey to correspondence

 of Charlotte's which Mrs. Gaskell had not seen

He hinted that Charlotte ""had tasted strange joys"" at the Pensonnat Heger

 

1883 Gutenberg/ EMILY BRONTË/ Mary Robinson (click the link to read the book)

The Life of Emily Brontë

Mary Robinson wrote to Ellen Nussey asking for help with material.

She wanted  to humanize Emily, a free spirit, child of the moors.

She wanted to give a "Death blow"" once and for all to the theory that Branwell Bronte had written Wuthering Heights

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How could a simple young woman, a clergyman's daughter, have created the brutal and passionate Heathcliff? The first biography of Emily was by A. Mary F. Robinson, Emily Brontë (1883, reprinted 1978) Mary Robinson, thought she had found the answer. Emily herself was not a bad person; no, she was a bright, charming girl. It was her older brother Branwell, who had put such evil thoughts into her head. Emily was, in Robinson's biography, an innocent victim of his depravity—so close to Branwell that she had no choice but to pour her agonized soul and his agonized sufferings into a strange book. (Miller, 238-241) maidsbrmyths

 

Clement King Shorter

 

 

Was the first to suggest that Charlotte had probably destroyed Emily' s and Anne' s  letters and literary effects.

 

1899  Marion Harland Charlotte Bronte at home

 

Believed Charlotte could not be emotially attached to Heger.

  

1911 gutenberg/ Malham Dembleby/The key tot the Bronte's work

There is nothing in Charlotte' s novels that is not a direct copy from life.

He believed Charlotte Bronte wrote also Wuthering Heights 

Crimson curtains

facebook/Bronte-Parsonage-Museum=stream: At long last our new, specially-woven curtains - as close as we can get to those ordered by Charlotte for the room - are up! Made from union cloth and dyed crimson, Charlotte was unhappy with the colour. The good news is, we love them!

The dining room would also have been used to entertain visitors, and therefore it is the room most often described in articles and contemporary accounts. Like the bedroom directly above, this room was enlarged by Charlotte in 1850. The dining room, sometimes called the parlour, is furnished in a simple style. Elizabeth Gaskell said, 'The parlour has evidently been refurbished within the last few years, since Miss Brontë's success has enabled her to have a little more money to spend... The prevailing colour of the room is crimson... bronte/museum-and-library/inside-the-parsonage

According to forensic analysis, the room was papered both before and after Charlotte's 'gentrification', and the chosen paper is a contemporary design, in scarlet to match the curtains. Several years ago, a scrap of wallpaper was found in Branwell's Studio which can now be dated to the Brontë period. Allyson McDermott matched it with an almost identical sample - also contemporaneous with the Brontës' time - which was found inside a housemaid's cupboard at Kensington Palace. The wallpaper has been reproduced. bronteparsonage/historic-redecoration
 

Late last year a document in faded brown ink fluttered out of a book

Every so often a Brontë object or document so rare and precious comes up for sale that it's hard to believe it could end up anywhere but here at the Parsonage. Late last year a document in faded brown ink fluttered out of a book whose owners had never before suspected its existence. Closer inspection revealed it was addressed to 'M Heger', and, anticipating that it might be something very special, its owners took it to a London agent for identification. A very important appeal from the Brontë Society:

Photographs on Pennistone and the Bluebell

hathawaysofhaworth had a photograph taking day yesterday

 and  took several photographs on Pennistone.

 

From this weblog: The past image is of  the gown with a correct shaped collar which I made myself out of vintage Victorian lace as early collars from the 1830s are too expensive for everyday work wear so I thought I would share the shots of the collar these are taken at  the St Ives estate nr Bingley, the bluebells are just starting to come out there so its a nice trio if your staying in Haworth as it’s not far from Haworth.

 

 

The Bluebell

The Bluebell is the sweetest flower
That waves in summer air:
Its blossoms have the mightiest power
To soothe my spirit's care.

Emily Bronte
literature/bronte

A fine and subtle spirit dwells
In every little flower,
Each one its own sweet feeling breathes
With more or less of power.
There is a silent eloquence
In every wild bluebell
That fills my softened heart with bliss
That words could never tell.

Anne Bronte
The_Bluebell-by-Anne_Bronte

L'Amour Filial

Keighley News gives more details about the Brontë Society appeal for bringing to Haworth an unpublished manuscript by Charlotte Brontë, L'Amour Filial:

The Brontë Society is seeking help raising funds to buy the work, a homework essay written by Charlotte for the man she loved.
The society was told in December of the previously unknown piece, which is in private ownership.
A single-page document, written in French on both sides, it was assigned as homework by Charlotte’s teacher, Monsieur Constantin Heger, at the Pensionnat Heger school he and his wife ran in Brussels. Heger has added his corrections to the work.(...)
The Bronte Society declined to say how much it needed to buy the manuscript, entitled L’Amour Filial, but said it had already been “generously supported” by the Victoria & Albert Purchase Fund and the Friends of National Libraries.
Society chairman, Sally McDonald, said: “The fact this work is unpublished adds enormously to its significance. We are delighted to launch this appeal and thank all those who have so far contributed.”
Visit bronte.org.uk to make a donation.

thebrusselsbrontegroup/heger