I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.
Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights

zaterdag 5 oktober 2013

Maney Publishing.

The Leeds-based firm is behind academic journals which aim to provide answers to life, the universe and almost everything.
From humble beginnings in 1998, the firm has grown to become one of the world’s most influential academic publishers. It has a truly global reach; for example, its publication – The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine – is based in the US hospital where the actor Christopher Reeve was treated after he was paralysed in a fall.
By the end of 2013, Maney will have published its 150th journal, and chief executive Michael Gallico has his sights set on further expansion into Australia and China.
By the end of 2013, Maney will have published its 150th journal, and chief executive Michael Gallico has his sights set on further expansion into Australia and China.
“The journals maintain academic dialogues between subject specialists on an international basis,” he said. “We’re the largest publisher of archaeology journals worldwide. Viking archaeology in North America has parallels with work being done in Scandinavia.”
All this helps to add to the sum total of human knowledge. There’s also a place for more offbeat lines of research.
The journal Textile History carried an article with the arresting headline – Did Sergeant Pepper really just want to give peace a chance? – which attempted to analyse why so many rock and pop bands chose to wear military uniform in the 1960s. Another article – What do you want to be when you grow up, Mr Doctor? – described how people’s names can influence their career choice. This article appeared in the aptly titled Names: A Journal of Onomastics.
The company was founded in the heart of Leeds in 1900 by Walter Maney, as a specialist typesetter and printer.
It was bought by the Huddersfield-based Charlesworth family in 1995, who hired Mr Gallico as CEO in 1997. It entered the world of academic publishing the following year, with Bronte Studies, which is dedicated to the lives and works of the Bronte sisters of Haworth, West Yorkshire.
“It’s a very successful journal,” said Mr Gallico. “The Brontes are a perennial subject of interest.”

"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë


Freda Warrington chooses for The Huffington Post her favourite Gothic romance novels, among which is
"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë
What is there left to say about "Wuthering Heights"? We studied this in school and I loved it, despite the convoluted structure: Instead of a straight narrative, we have a visitor being told the story by a housekeeper. (Does anyone else feel like screaming at Victorian novels, “Oh, please get on with it?”) But what a story – the wonder of "Wuthering Heights" is that the characters are so scandalously horrible, selfish, even violent. Cathy and Heathcliff demonstrate their love by being as vile as possible to each other. Jane Austen this isn’t. And we love them for it.
The Peninsula Pulse also selects the novel as one of 'Three Fantastic Fall Reads'.
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
This book has captivated me since it was assigned in a sophomore English class. Heathcliff! "What a hottie?" I thought, "I hope someday somebody loves me like that." I've since changed my mind…he's a bit too clingy and goes a bit crazy, like digging-up-dead-bodies crazy.
The famous novel is set in 1801, in the barren, stormy landscape of the Yorkshire Moors. Young Heathcliff, an orphan boy, and Catherine, the daughter of the wealthy Mr. Earnshaw, are inseparable, in love.
But class, jealousy, and selfishness keep them apart and what ensues is a dark, sinister and tragic drama that has nearly every character experiencing despair at the hand of Catherine and Heathcliff's passion for one another – that continues beyond the grave. (Sally Slattery)
And it also makes it into The Roanoke Times' The Back Cover. It is a book 'to curl up by the fire with'.
Wuthering Heights,” by Emily Brontë
No one does bleak like a Brontë sister, especially Emily. “Wuthering Heights” is not so much a love story as a passionate one. This book has a great atmosphere to read about, yet not inhabit — wild and fraught and crazed. It’s full of characters you don’t want to meet, moors you don’t want to roam and houses you don’t want to enter. “Wuthering Heights” is great to curl up with not just because of its intense characters, but the intense emotions it spurs in readers. Most people love or hate this book, and it’s easy to see why: Heathcliff, Cathy and the rest of the Earnshaws and Lintons themselves stagger along the thin line between love and hate, taking readers along for the ride. Like the wind that rattles the treetops and the whirling snow, Heathcliff is himself a chaotic force and nature — fun to watch, not to experience. (Suzanne Wardle)

donderdag 3 oktober 2013

Charlotte Bronte and Thackeray


This is what introduced William Makepeace Thackeray to Charlotte Brontë aka Currer Bell: 
 "There is a man in our own days whose words are not framed to tickle delicate ears: who, to my thinking, comes before the great ones of society, much as the son of Imlah came before the throned Kings of Judah and Israel; and who speaks truth as deep, with a power as prophet-like and as vital - a mien as dauntless and as daring. Is the satirist of 'Vanity Fair' admired in high places? I cannot tell; but I think if some of those amongst who he hurls the Greek fire of his sarcasm, and over whom he flashes the levin-brand of his denunciation, were to take his warnings in time - they or their seed might yet escape a fatal Ramoth-Gilead. Read more on:

woensdag 2 oktober 2013

Blue plaque installed at railway station to celebrate Brontë links

The Friends of Sowerby Bridge Railway Station commissioned the plaque as part of a wider project by the group to promote the Brontë link and the work was supported with a Calderdale Council grant.
The original railway station was around 500 yards away from the existing one and Brontë was employed there as assistant clerk in charge, after his attempt to join the Royal Academy of Art had failed in 1836.
The appointment was confirmed in board papers of 1840 and after a spell there he was promoted and moved to Luddenden Foot by the Manchester and Leeds Railway. His connection with the railway ended when he was sacked
in 1842 over a financial discrepancy.
The plaque has been installed on the exterior wall of the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms, which are part of the original present railway station and close to the newly created Brontë garden, another 
initiative from the “friends” group, which will be planted with 
species which featured in Brontë novels.
The group was formed in 2010 with the intention of improving the station and the 50 volunt-
eers currently involved work in close partnership with Northern Rail.
They hold regular meetings, with regular Saturday morning work sessions where volunteers tidy up the station and maintain its planted flower tubs. yorkshirepost

zondag 29 september 2013

Trail Guide, a new initiative from English Heritage, the Brontë Society and Bradford Council:

Yorkshire Post presents the Haworth Village of the Brontës’ Trail Guide, a new initiative from English Heritage, the Brontë Society and Bradford Council:

“The idea of the trail was that it would highlight areas of the town that people don’t know so well,” says Deborah Wall of English Heritage. “And we wanted to give people a sense of what it would have been like when the Brontës were here.” Featuring 27 places of interest, it’s designed to take visitors a little off the beaten track and prove that there is more to the place than just Jane Eyre.“The Brontës are just a part of Haworth,” says Christine Went, heritage and conservation officer with the Brontë Society. “And they saw their own history as much bigger than that. Haworth was an important part of the textile industry in the 19th century but when Elizabeth Gaskell wrote Charlotte Brontë’s biography she portrayed the sisters as living in an isolated place. Charlotte, for her own reasons, perpetuated that idea – I think she was trying to make excuses for the writing of the novels which had been poorly received by some.” (...)
The new trail and and booklet are part of a wider project to preserve and enhance Haworth for future generations. The conservation project has involved replacing frontages of shops and businesses in the village in keeping with the 19th-century heritage of the village, maintaining the cobbles, or setts, on the Main Street and installing new windows into the old Schoolhouse, which played such an important part in the Brontë siblings’ lives. It was built in 1832 as a Sunday school with funds from the National Society and from public subscriptions generated through the efforts of Patrick Brontë.
“Charlotte, Anne and Branwell would all have taught at the Sunday school – there is some doubt about whether Emily did because she had strong views of her own on religion,” says Christine.
“Every year the Brontës would hold a tea party for the Sunday school teachers at the Parsonage – most of the other teachers were mill girls.”
Another point of interest on the trail is the home of carpenter William Wood who made much of the furniture still in the Brontë Parsonage and was employed by Patrick to do odd jobs including painting and decorating. “He also made all the Brontës’ coffins,” says Christine. “And he made cases for Barraclough clocks – the Barraclough family lived in Haworth. There is a Barraclough clock in the Parsonage and Ellen Nussey, Charlotte’s great friend, wrote how, after the death of her siblings, Charlotte would sit alone in the parlour with just the sound of the clock ticking.”
Christine and Deborah both acknowledge that the legacy of the Brontës is one of the main attractions for visitors to Haworth but they hope the trail and booklet bring out other aspects. “Really we want to broaden people’s understanding of its history,” says Deborah. “Down to a certain point on Main Street not much has changed really – Charlotte could walk up the hill today and still recognise it.”
Haworth Village of the Brontës’ Trail Guide is free and available from Brontë Parsonage Museum, the Tourist Information Office and other shops in the village. bronteblog

The Masonic Lodge at Haworth, known as the Three Graces, underwent something of a revival in the 1830s. Kenneth Emsley wrote (BST, v. 20, pt 5, 1992) that the lodge contained “a wide cross-section of members from the local community,” especially skilled artisans. Branwell was initiated, probably through the instigation of John Brown, while still under age, in February 1836. The society no doubt ministered to the love of secret organizations which is seen in the juvenilia and is part of the underbelly of Romanticism. Branwell was a regular attendant in 1836–7, thereafter an occasional one – one of many examples in his life of an early enthusiasm which exhausted itself. The fact that Branwell was willing to act for a time as secretary (probably one of few in Haworth capable of doing so) and that Patrick was willing to preach a special sermon for them, illustrates the loss of that revolutionary impulse in the movement that had attracted men such as Mozart. The Lodge met first in the Black Bull, then in the King’s Arms, and later had a permanent home in what is now Lodge Street, then known as Newell Hill. This tiny cul-de-sac was also home to the Haworth Mechanics’ Institute, and to William Wood, the Parsonage’s carpenter and cabinet-maker. blackwellreference
-------------
William Wood, village carpenter and nephew of Tabbycarpenter+William+Wood+of+haworth

The Parlour

The Parlour

Parsonage

Parsonage

Charlotte Bronte

Presently the door opened, and in came a superannuated mastiff, followed by an old gentleman very like Miss Bronte, who shook hands with us, and then went to call his daughter. A long interval, during which we coaxed the old dog, and looked at a picture of Miss Bronte, by Richmond, the solitary ornament of the room, looking strangely out of place on the bare walls, and at the books on the little shelves, most of them evidently the gift of the authors since Miss Bronte's celebrity. Presently she came in, and welcomed us very kindly, and took me upstairs to take off my bonnet, and herself brought me water and towels. The uncarpeted stone stairs and floors, the old drawers propped on wood, were all scrupulously clean and neat. When we went into the parlour again, we began talking very comfortably, when the door opened and Mr. Bronte looked in; seeing his daughter there, I suppose he thought it was all right, and he retreated to his study on the opposite side of the passage; presently emerging again to bring W---- a country newspaper. This was his last appearance till we went. Miss Bronte spoke with the greatest warmth of Miss Martineau, and of the good she had gained from her. Well! we talked about various things; the character of the people, - about her solitude, etc., till she left the room to help about dinner, I suppose, for she did not return for an age. The old dog had vanished; a fat curly-haired dog honoured us with his company for some time, but finally manifested a wish to get out, so we were left alone. At last she returned, followed by the maid and dinner, which made us all more comfortable; and we had some very pleasant conversation, in the midst of which time passed quicker than we supposed, for at last W---- found that it was half-past three, and we had fourteen or fifteen miles before us. So we hurried off, having obtained from her a promise to pay us a visit in the spring... ------------------- "She cannot see well, and does little beside knitting. The way she weakened her eyesight was this: When she was sixteen or seventeen, she wanted much to draw; and she copied nimini-pimini copper-plate engravings out of annuals, ('stippling,' don't the artists call it?) every little point put in, till at the end of six months she had produced an exquisitely faithful copy of the engraving. She wanted to learn to express her ideas by drawing. After she had tried to draw stories, and not succeeded, she took the better mode of writing; but in so small a hand, that it is almost impossible to decipher what she wrote at this time.

I asked her whether she had ever taken opium, as the description given of its effects in Villette was so exactly like what I had experienced, - vivid and exaggerated presence of objects, of which the outlines were indistinct, or lost in golden mist, etc. She replied, that she had never, to her knowledge, taken a grain of it in any shape, but that she had followed the process she always adopted when she had to describe anything which had not fallen within her own experience; she had thought intently on it for many and many a night before falling to sleep, - wondering what it was like, or how it would be, - till at length, sometimes after the progress of her story had been arrested at this one point for weeks, she wakened up in the morning with all clear before her, as if she had in reality gone through the experience, and then could describe it, word for word, as it had happened. I cannot account for this psychologically; I only am sure that it was so, because she said it. ----------------------She thought much of her duty, and had loftier and clearer notions of it than most people, and held fast to them with more success. It was done, it seems to me, with much more difficulty than people have of stronger nerves, and better fortunes. All her life was but labour and pain; and she never threw down the burden for the sake of present pleasure. I don't know what use you can make of all I have said. I have written it with the strong desire to obtain appreciation for her. Yet, what does it matter? She herself appealed to the world's judgement for her use of some of the faculties she had, - not the best, - but still the only ones she could turn to strangers' benefit. They heartily, greedily enjoyed the fruits of her labours, and then found out she was much to be blamed for possessing such faculties. Why ask for a judgement on her from such a world?" elizabeth gaskell/charlotte bronte



Poem: No coward soul is mine

No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the worlds storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heavens glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.


O God within my breast.
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life -- that in me has rest,
As I -- Undying Life -- have power in Thee!


Vain are the thousand creeds
That move mens hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,


To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by Thine infinity;
So surely anchored on
The steadfast Rock of immortality.


With wide-embracing love
Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.


Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.


There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou -- Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.


--
Emily Bronte

Family tree

The Bronte Family

Grandparents - paternal
Hugh Brunty was born 1755 and died circa 1808. He married Eleanor McClory, known as Alice in 1776.

Grandparents - maternal
Thomas Branwell (born 1746 died 5th April 1808) was married in 1768 to Anne Carne (baptised 27th April 1744 and died 19th December 1809).

Parents
Father was Patrick Bronte, the eldest of 10 children born to Hugh Brunty and Eleanor (Alice) McClory. He was born 17th March 1777 and died on 7th June 1861. Mother was Maria Branwell, who was born on 15th April 1783 and died on 15th September 1821.

Maria had a sister, Elizabeth who was known as Aunt Branwell. She was born in 1776 and died on 29th October 1842.

Patrick Bronte married Maria Branwell on 29th December 1812.

The Bronte Children
Patrick and Maria Bronte had six children.
The first child was Maria, who was born in 1814 and died on 6th June 1825.
The second daughter, Elizabeth was born on 8th February 1815 and died shortly after Maria on 15th June 1825. Charlotte was the third daughter, born on 21st April 1816.

Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls (born 1818) on 29th June 1854. Charlotte died on 31st March 1855. Arthur lived until 2nd December 1906.

The first and only son born to Patrick and Maria was Patrick Branwell, who was born on 26th June 1817 and died on 24th September 1848.

Emily Jane, the fourth daughter was born on 30th July 1818 and died on 19th December 1848.

The sixth and last child was Anne, born on 17th January 1820 who died on 28th May 1849.

Top Withens in the snow.

Top Withens in the snow.

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