A new book by Helen MacEwan, founder and active member of the Brussels Brontë Group, about the Brussels experience by the Brontë sisters. Helen MacEwan is also the author of
Down the Belliard Steps.
The Brontës in Brussels
Helen MacEwan
Peter Owen Publishers
ISBN 978 0 7206 1588 3
In 1842 Charlotte Brontë (1816–55) and her sister Emily (1818–48) arrived in Brussels to improve their languages, five years before becoming best-selling authors. Emily stayed for a year, Charlotte for two. Although this is a little-known episode of their lives, it is a fascinating one. Two of Charlotte’s four novels – Villette and The Professor – were based on her time in Belgium, which was pivotal for her both as a writer and personally, since she fell in love with her married teacher Constantin Heger. This book describes the sisters’ life in Brussels and provides information on places with Brontë connections. Although the Pensionnat Heger school where they stayed has gone, there is still much to be seen of the city they knew.
In 1913 Charlotte’s highly emotional letters to her teacher were donated by his descendants to the British Museum and on publication caused something of a scandal. Since then those with an interest in the Brontës’ literary achievements have been intrigued by this influential period in their lives.
The book includes a wealth of illustrations and maps, extracts from Villette demonstrating how the novel reflects Charlotte’s experiences in Brussels, translations of four of the sisters’ French essays and of Charlotte’s moving letters to her teacher and a Brontë walk around the city with maps and historical information on places and people especially associated with the sisters’ stay. For anyone who takes an interest in the life and work of the Brontës or who appreciates the literary associations of places, this is a compelling read.
HELEN MACEWAN is a translator and former teacher who lives in Brussels. Her experiences as the founder of the Brussels Brontë Group, the Belgian branch of the Brontë Society, which organizes guided literary walks and conferences in the city, are related in her previous book Down the Belliard Steps.
The book will be presented by the author next June 26 at the Waterstones Brussels store. Here you can find the author herself talking about her book.
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This looks excellent! I'm glad attention is being given to this part of Bronte history . To me one of the more interesting parts was how "well" Emily stood this removal from Haworth. Given her experience at Roe Head, and Law Hill , one would not guess it.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenHowever I believe the chance to hear fine music there often had to help.One of Emily's few keepsakes was for a concert. Also behind a curtain provided by Madame , at the end of the school''s dormitory, the sisters were able to recreate the little bedroom above the front door at the Parsonage . A small patch of Haworth was made in Brussels .
Emily also kept a tight hold over Charlotte . CB knew she could not press her sister socially or she might revolt . The English people there had dropped the Bronte sisters after a time due to Emily's muteness and even hostility of manner ...but they gladly took CB up again when she returned alone.
Charlotte then made friends with the Wheelwrights, the Jenkins and Dixons .( relatives of Ellen) Not people she would have sought out normally , but there was nothing normal about Brussels in the sister's experience. Charlotte really began to decline after these English friends departed
Once Emily was back in Haworth and became the mistress of the Parsonage , both due to Aunt's passing, she was not returning to Belgium.
Emily proceed to have perhaps the happiest time in her adult life for that span when it was just she and Papa . With Patrick's habits, the house would be almost as free to her as the moor ...as he was either out or in his study while Martha and Tabby were mostly in the kitchen .
Baking bread and sweeping floors and other chores were the only calls of this" upper world" Emily had to answer. Both she and Papa enjoyed the music Emily had learned when abroad and because of his failing eye sight Patrick taught Emily to shoot.
It indeed greatly suited Emily to stay in Haworth. However I'm guessing it suited Charlotte that she remain there as well
Charlotte could hide from herself the nature of her love for Constantin Heger ...but not from Emily . The complex emotional constructs needed to make loving a married man and hating his wife seem alright, even virtuous, could not function very well or at all under the daily gaze of those sisterly and knowing grey eyes . If Charlotte returned, it suited her to return alone and she did
Then and afterwards Charlotte learned something not to her liking. She learned all her great Genii powers could not command beings in this upper world. Belgium was not Angria
While Charlotte of course knew that intellectually, emotionally she needed to learn it from personal experience, It was a hard course of study
The pain found in her unanswered letters to Heger is harrowing. I believe he stopped answering in part because he not know what to say. This was an obsession that could not be stamped out with wisdom., he had tried that... It had to be left to burn itself out
Shortly after I posted that I read the Dixons were the cousins of the Taylors and wish to correct my mistake . Certainly having the Taylor sisters in the area had to help too . That ended about the same time of Willie Weightman and Aunt Branwell's passing ...when Martha Taylor died as well. in the fall of 1842.
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