Brontë Society AGM weekend in Haworth 8-9 June 2013

The Bronte Society, which currently has around 1500 members, is one of the oldest literary societies in the world (in the UK there are societies in honour of practically every well-known writer). It was set up in 1893 and has run the Museum since the Parsonage was gifted to it in 1928. The governing board, or trustees, of the Society (‘Council’) is elected by members and delegates the day-to-day running of the Museum to a Director and other staff. As well as maintaining and acquiring manuscripts and artefacts, and books for its library, the Museum is a vibrant creative centre with a very full educational and arts programme (talks by writers, art exhibitions, activities for schoolchildren).


The main excitement in the past year was the complete redecoration of the Parsonage with bespoke wallpapers and curtain fabrics, based on analysis of evidence such as scraps of wallpaper surviving from the period. Some rooms reflect the look of the house when all four siblings were alive, others Charlotte’s improvements and ‘gentrification’ when she became wealthier in the 1850s. On Sunday morning we were able to inspect the new look at a special early opening for members only.

Apart from walks on the moors, the AGM and visits to the Parsonage, another traditional feature of the weekend is a special service for Society members in the church where Patrick Brontë preached for 40 years. Whether habitual church-goers or not, most members appreciate this opportunity to remember the members of the Brontë family in the church where they are buried and where they worshipped each Sunday. There are readings by Society members and Museum staff. Read more on: brusselsbronte

Local legend claims that the dead pear tree in the garden was given by an infatuated member of the Heaton family to Emily Brontë.

bronteblog  and  The Telegraph makes you want to buy it on the spot:
A historic manor house which may have helped inspire Wuthering Heights is on the market for £950,000. Grade II listed Ponden Hall is less than two miles away from the picturesque Yorkshire town of Haworth, where the Brontë sisters grew up with their brother Branwell.
Emily Brontë, who visited the house with Branwell to use its extensive library, is traditionally said to have based Thrushcross Grange, the grand home of the wealthy Linton family in Wuthering Heights, on the property. Read more on the blog and newspaper

pondenhall

The biographer Winifred Gérin has suggested that Ponden Hall is more likely to have been the model for Wildfell Hall, the old mansion in Anne Bronte's novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
 

Auction at Bonhams

The Keighley News shares the results of yesterday's auction at Bonhams:
A rare first-edition copy of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre has sold for £39,650.
The work, the first published novel penned by Haworth's legendary literary sister, went under the hammer at Bonhams this afternoon.
It had a pre-sale estimate of between £30,000 and £50,000.
The buyer is an overseas collector, who wishes to remain anonymous. The Bronte Society, which runs the Parsonage Museum at Haworth, said it was not among the bidders.
The three-volume book – published in 1847 using Charlotte's pseudonym, Currer Bell – is marked in pencil with its original price, 31 shillings and sixpence. (Alistair Shand)

A video of the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits concerning the Young Mens Magazine manuscript that is in exhibition in Paris:

Post Scriptum Young Mens Magazines de Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë
Thornton, 1816 - Haworth, 1855
Manuscrit autographe, intitulé Second series of the Young Mens Magazines. No Second, datant de septembre 1830.
La romancière britannique rédige ce manuscrit inédit à l’âge de 14 ans. Cette œuvre fait partie d’une série de Magazines écrits au cours de l’adolescence de Charlotte Brontë. Ils sont directement inspirés du Blackwood’s Magazine, revue mélangeant actualité internationale, faits divers et contes populaires, que Patrick Brontë lisait à ses enfants et qui alimenta fortement leur imagination. Young Men's Magazine s’inscrit ainsi dans l’univers fantastique de Glass Town, le plus ancien des mondes fictifs créés par les quatre enfants Brontë. Branwell rédige alors en parallèle le Branwell’s Blackwood’s Magazine, dans le même esprit que les Magazines de sa sœur, Charlotte. Le manuscrit présenté ici se compose de trois textes intitulés : « A letter from Lord Charles Wellesley » (« Lettre de Lord Charles Wellesley »), « The Midnight Song » («Le Chant de Minuit ») et « Journal of a Frenchman [continued] » (« Journal d’un Français [suite] »). Le manuscrit se termine par une page d’«Advertisements » (« Annonces ») dans laquelle on peut notamment lire : « À saisir. Un cheval de toute beauté !!!! Pour celui qui sait comment tricher ». Les travaux de jeunesse des enfants Brontë revêtent une importance capitale, tant les univers créés au cours de cette période ont influencé leurs œuvres écrites à l’âge adulte. Ainsi, dans « A letter from Lord Charles Wellesley », on découvre une scène décrivant comment Caroline Krista met le feu au lit de Charles Wellesley. La description de cet acte de folie n’est pas sans rappeler l’une des scènes les plus connues du célèbre roman de Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, lorsque Bertha, l’épouse démente de M. Rochester, met le feu au lit de son mari.

Bronte blog

The BS excursion to Brussels; a 20th Anniversary

This year sees the 20th Anniversary of the first Excursion made by members from the Brontë Society.
A few of our current BBG members were there to witness that week in April 1993.
Eric Ruijssenaars and Maureen Peeck have given their personal accounts.

In the dark days, when Villette and Brussels were all but forgotten, Pearl Cragg and Elle were the only Villette fans left. Pearl made pretty much annual pilgrimage journeys to Brussels. She knew all most of what was known, which wasn’t much however. Without Pearl the Society might still not have organised an Excursion to Brussels. The greatest compliment I later got for my books were given by her. They were her constant bedside books, she once told me. Pearl was also there at the 2003 Excursion. That was her last visit to Brussels. The rise of the BBG must have pleased her greatly. She died in 2011. Dyddgu remembers that Pearl laid one rose on M. Heger’s grave.
Read more on: Brussels Bronte

200.000 visitors....

Father's Day: Patrick Brontë, Tyrant or Teddy Bear?

And at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:


Father's Day: Patrick Brontë, Tyrant or Teddy Bear?
Join us for a short talk on the world's most famous literary father
June 16th 2013 12:00pm - 02:20pm

Charlotte's biographer Elizabeth Gaskell painted him as a stern authoritarian who destroyed his wife's dresses and denied his daughters meat with their meals. We now know, though, that the Gaskell biography was far from reliable. Evidence may, in fact, point to a man who was loving and tolerant, and encouraged his daughters' education in a way that was completely out of step with the attitudes of the time.
To celebrate Fathers' Day we're offering a short talk on the phenomenon of the astonishing self-made Patrick Brontë, father's of the world's most famous literary family, 'Tyrant, or Teddy Bear?'
Here you can read what kind of a man Patrick Bronte really was.