Jane Eyre

 

Critical study of Charlotte Brontë

Patsy Stoneman has just published her critical study of Charlotte Brontë in the Writers & Their Work collection of Northcote House Publishers:

Charlotte Brontë
Patsy Stoneman
Northcote House Publishers. Writers & Their Work series
ISBN: 9780746311950

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is one of the most famous novels in the world; its heroine’s spirited response to hardship and temptation has engaged an eager readership since its publication in 1847. Jane Eyre, however, was not Charlotte Brontë’s only novel, and Patsy Stoneman’s book traces the development of her work from her exuberant early writing to her disturbing last work, Villette. A final chapter considers Charlotte Brontë’s shifting popular and academic reputation and the various adaptations and imitations of her work. Reading the novels in the context of Charlotte Brontë’s life and times, Stoneman emphasises her persistent engagement with power relations – within families, between classes and between men and women – and the changing narrative strategies with which she explores them. While keeping close to the words of the page, the book is informed by the critical perspectives of feminism, cultural materialism and postcolonialism. bronteblog

‘De Meester’

Interview with Jolien Janzing (Dutch) jolien-janzing-de-meester-bronte-in-brussel/
jolien-janzing

On this day in 1847

The manuscripts of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey were sent to the publishers; T.C. Newby. They were published in December 1847.  

In early August 1847, Charlotte submitted three novels to the firm of Thomas Cautley Newby: The Professor, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey. Newby rejected the first of these but agreed to publish the second and third. He agreed to print 300 copies but demanded his usual harsh terms for first time novelists: £50. This sum he promised to return to the authors once 250 of the 300 copies were sold.

 

Having obtained the money and set the book in type and sent proof sheets to the Bells, Newby then did nothing. The Bells (Brontës) wrote. Newby did not respond. He had his money. What further income could he expect from the venture?

 
Meanwhile, Charlotte pressed on. After Newby rejected The Professor, she sent the manuscript to Smith, Elder and Company. Like Newby they refused but in a thoughtful and courteous letter. The consequence was that later that same month the furiously writing Charlotte sent another manuscript, Jane Eyre. Its first reader, W. S. Williams, immediately saw its quality and passed it on to George Smith, who spent a Sunday ( ! ) reading it. This was late August 1847, as Charlotte’s cover letter is dated 24 August. By October, Smith, Elder and Company had published it. By December it was the talk of literary London.

Newby in October 1847 was still dilly dallying on Wuthering Heights, hesitating at a dubious commercial undertaking. He did not so neglect all his authors. In the same year as Wuthering Heights appeared, Newby published Anthony Trollope’s first novel, The Macdermots of Ballycloran, obligingly sent him by Trollope’s mother, Frances, a successful novelist. Judging shrewdly that the Trollope name was worth something, he brought out Trollope’s book at his own expense, suggesting when he could that it was the work of the then more famous mother. It was only when Jane Eyre proved that the Bell name might also be worth something that Newby resumed production on Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey. Even then he rushed the job, ignoring corrections Ellis and Acton Bell had made on the proofs he had supplied.

The three volume novel was, in mid-Victorian England, a standard format—Jane Eyre was so presented. Newby had no qualms about stretching what were really at most two volumes, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, into three by heavily leading the text—putting more white space between the lines. Volume I is 348 pages, Volume II 416—extended by today’s standards but not obviously fattened. Like the First Folio of Shakespeare, his three volumes from two Brontës are superficially well produced. There were two bindings, a ribbed deep claret for private purchasers and a plain cloth with paper labels for circulating libraries such as Mudie’s. Also like the First Folio, the text abounds in typographical errors, some obvious, some not. Charlotte noted to her publishers, “The books are not well got up—they abound in errors of the press.” There is no record, however, of any such point’s being mentioned in reviews, and such public as the book immediately had was too small to make much of an objection. Read more: englishmatters

  

Titles published by T. C. Newby in the year 1847:

1. Julia Addison.  The Curate of Wildmere.  3 vol.
2. Anonymous.  Cromwell in Ireland.  3 vol.
3. Emily Jane Brontë.  Wuthering Heights.  2 vol.
4. Anne Brontë.  Agnes Grey.  1 vol.
5. Hannah D. Burdon.  All Classes.  3 vol.
6. Elizabeth Daniel.  Jeremiah Parkes.  3 vol.
7. Elizabeth Daniel.  The Cardinal's Daughter.  3 vol.
8. John Ross Dix.  Jack Ariel.  3 vol.
9. Catherine Maria Grey.  Daughters.  3 vol.
10. Charles Frederick Henningsen.  Sixty Years Hence.  3 vol.
11. Burrows Willcocks Arthur Sleigh.  The Outcast Prophet.  3 vol.
12. Harriet Maria Smythies.  A Warning to Wives.  3 vol.
13. Anthony Trollope.  The Macdermots of Ballycloran.  3 vol.

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Time stands still in Bronte village after health and safety rules mean 1871 church clock can no longer be wound

Retired policeman Jens Hislop has climbed the steps of the church several times a week for 23 years to set the clock - which has been ticking since 1863 and is older than most of the church.
But an insurance inspection declared that Mr Hislop’s stepladder and winding platform - which have been at the church for decades - were unsafe, and the clock has been stuck at 5:20 since February.

The lower part of the church tower dates back four centuries to when Patrick Bronte, father of the famous Bronte sisters, had his living in Haworth.
The upper tower - where the clock is - and the rest of the church were rebuilt in 1871, but still contain Bronte relics and are popular with Bronte fans all over the world. Read more:dailymail

 Haworth vicar, the Reverend Peter Mayo-Smith, is pictured outside St Michael and All Angels Church, where a health and safety ban has been imposed on winding the Victorian clock

Testament of Charlotte Bronte Bell Williams

Arthur Bell Nichols married Charlotte Bronte in 1854. Charlotte Bronte died  in 1855. 
Mary Anna Bell Nichols born 1841 had a brother James Adamson Bell.  James Adamson Bell born 1826 died 1891. Married Elizabeth Gertrude Tyrell  around 1850. James and Elizabeth had 3 children: One of them: Charlotte Bronte Bell Born June 2 1864. Married Glover Williams  (She died in 1946 and left some Charlotte Bronte Jewelry).

This is what was in the Last Will and Testament of Charlotte Bronte Williams, Dated September 20, 1934

......the Turqoise and Pearl Ring which belonged to Charlotte Bronte (if she wishes to sell this Ring I desire  that the same shall be sold to the 'Bronte Museum' at Haworth Yorkshire)....

.....the Cameo Brooch which  belonged to Charlotte Bronte and if he shoud wish to sell same I desire that  is shall be sold to the 'Bronte' Museum Haworth Yorkshire. archiver/BELL

 archive/catalogue MUSEUM OF BRONTE RELICS

Drawing Charlotte Bronte

 

This delicate study of a single blue convolvulus stem with trailing tendrils was drawn around December 1832 by Charlotte Brontë. Now we've reproduced it  on a fridge magnet, so that you can enjoy it every single day. the-charlotte-bronte-botanical-collection
Fridge magnet measures 5.3cm x 7.9cm

Ring belonged to Charlotte Bronte

Object number	E.2007.9.2
Title	ring belonged to Charlotte Bronte
Description	tarnished gold band, slightly mis-shapen, set with with a central garnet and a small diamond to left and right of the garnet

More rings in the bronte archive (click)