Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will. Reviewed by Ed Voves and Anne Lloyd.

Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will

The Morgan Library and Museum

September 9, 2016 through January 2, 2017

Reviewed by Ed Voves and Anne Lloyd.

Charlotte Brontë's life was like a Victorian "three-decker" novel. Her incredible rise from obscurity to become a literary sensation with the publication of Jane Eyre in 1847 was followed by staggering family tragedies, then marriage, brief happiness and early death in 1855.

What sounds like the plot of one of her novels was actually Charlotte Brontë's path to immortality.

The Morgan Library and Museum in New York City has organized an exhibition in honor of the bicentennial of Brontë's birth. With the cooperation of the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire, and the National Portrait Gallery and the British Library in London, the Morgan's exhibit is worthy of Brontë's life and achievement. Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will sets a standard of curatorial excellence that will be hard to top.

Earlier this year, I reviewed part of this exhibition as it appeared at the National Portrait Gallery. The Morgan's exhibit, drawing upon three international famed institutions, is vaster in scale and superlative in the quality of the objects on display. 

In the earlier post, I focused upon the 1850 portrait of Charlotte Brontë, created by George Richmond. It was a gift to Bronte's father, Patrick, from her publisher, George Smith. In this review, I will comment upon several of the other Brontë treasures on view in the spectacular exhibit at the Morgan.

Born two hundred years ago in 1816, Charlotte Brontë was a product of what used to be dismissively referred to as England's "Celtic Fringe." Her father, the Rev. Patrick Brontë was born in Ireland in 1777, while her mother's family came from Cornwall. Charlotte Brontë was also a strong-willed Yorkshire woman at a time when the northern regions of England were the epicenter of the Industrial Revolution. She also represented, along with her sisters Emily and Anne, the final flowering of the literature of the Romantic Rebellion. Seldom has one little woman embodied so much British history and so much individual achievement in one, very brief life.

And Charlotte Brontë was a little woman.  In physical stature, that is. According to the joyner who made her coffin, she measured four feet, nine inches.

The first object to greet visitors to the Morgan exhibit is one of Charlotte Brontë's dresses, the so-called "Thackeray dress". Brontë is reputed to have worn this dress to an ill-fated dinner party at the home of William Makepeace Thackeray on June 12, 1850. She almost certainly did not wear the dress to dinner. But the story illustrates the "outsider" position of Brontë - and her sisters - in the British literary scene of the 1840's and 1850's.

The Brontë dress on view at the Morgan is of a type known as delaine dress. The word "delaine" originally referred to woolen dresses. By 1850, the term was used for light-weight dresses made of various printed fabrics, including wool-cotton mix as in the case of this dress.

Historian Eleanor Houghton of the University of Sussex has made a detailed study of this dress. She believes that Charlotte Brontë likely wore the dress for daytime business or social meetings, including one with Thackeray prior to the dinner party. The style was certainly acceptable for daytime use in 1850. But it would have been a laughable blunder to wear it at a dinner party when silk dresses were the norm. Charlotte Brontë was extremely sensitive about her appearance, so much so that she refused to have photos taken of herself when she was married in 1854.

Thackeray's thirteen-year old daughter, Anne, left a vivid account of the dinner party. She described Charlotte Brontë as "a tiny delicate, serious little lady, pale with fair straight hair, and steady eyes. She may be a little over thirty; she is dressed in a little barège dress, with a pattern of faint green moss."

According to Houghton, barège was a mix of woolen and silk threads, very much in fashion for evening dresses in 1850. When it came to fabrics, Charlotte Brontë clearly knew her "stuff."

To focus upon the "Thackeray" dress may seem obsessive, when the Morgan exhibit is bursting with "once-in-a-lifetime" treasures, including the manuscript of Jane Eyre. Yet, it is worth considering this dress along with a famous quote by Brontë who was responding to critics of Jane Eyre. "To you I am neither Man nor Woman - I come before you as an Author only - it is the sole standard by which you have a right to judge me - the sole ground on which I accept your judgement."

Brontë published Jane Eyre under the nom de plume, Currer Bell. When she and her sisters, Emily and Anne decided to "earn their fortune" as professional writers they chose enigmatic male names, Currer, Ellis and Acton, respectively. The surname "Bell" was, perhaps coincidentally, the middle name of their father's assistant curate and Charlotte's eventual husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls. 

The Brontë sisters tried every form of employment deemed suitable for gentlewomen to earn their bread. Governessing, managing a school of their own, all that was now at an end. Their hearts were not in it and their brother Branwell's erratic behavior forbade housing students even if they could find any.

A legacy left to the sisters by their Aunt Branwell allowed them some financial freedom, but it wasn't a complete answer. In the autumn 1845, during  this time of uncertainty , Charlotte Bronte came across her sister's Emily's poems. They electrified her. Charlotte faced down Emily's fury and insisted that the poems must be put before the public. The rest is history.

Charlotte Brontë, aka Currer Bell, had the right to insist upon being judged "as an Author only."  Though politically conservative, Charlotte Brontë was in the vanguard of the eminent Victorian women who would stubbornly smash the barriers of the "Old Boy" British establishment.

The "Thackeray" dress, Charlotte Brontë's portable writing desk, the Richmond's portrait and the manuscript of Jane Eyre testify to the front-row place which Charlotte Brontë earned for herself among the "greats" of English literature. But these objects from Brontë's later life can only be understood in terms of the wondrous "little books" and poems which she and her siblings created as children.
On display at the Morgan exhibit is a miniature manuscript book with water color drawings. It is dated to 1828, when the nine-year old Charlotte created this tiny treasure for her younger sister, Anne, later the author of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

There once was a little girl and her name was Ane” reads the opening line of Charlotte Brontë’s first tale, complete with misspelling. Looking at this incredible work of love, one is struck by the unshakable thought that here is “genius" or at least the seed of genius.

The Brontë treasures, currently on view in the gallery of the Morgan Library, certainly testify to one of the great sagas of creativity in human history. Why else would we continue to read Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Villette and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall? Why else would we throng to an exhibition such as Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will at the Morgan Library?

arteyewitness

What Time is To Walk Invisible: the Brontë Sisters on TV?

To Walk Invisible will air on Thursday 29th December at 9 pm on BBC1.

Read more: radiotimes

Book lovers, you can now read Jane Eyre in Charlotte Brontë’s original handwriting

To celebrate the bicentenary of Brontë’s birth, Parisian publishing house Éditions des Saints Pères are releasing 1,000 luxury editions of the earliest surviving manuscript copy of Jane Eyre.

Readers will be able to read iconic lines in Brontë’s own hand, from the book’s ominous opening sentence (“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day”) to its famous conclusion: “Reader, I married him”.

The manuscript reveals revisions made by Brontë as she worked, mostly focusing on reshaping Jane’s relationship with Mr Rochester. Brontë frequently struggled during the writing of Jane Eyre, telling her fellow writer and friend Elizabeth Gaskell that:

“It was not every day that she could write. Sometimes weeks or months elapsed before she felt she had anything to add to that portion of her story which was already written. Then, some morning she would waken up, and the progress of her tale lay clear and bright before her, in distinct vision.”

And even on these mornings, Brontë’s obligations as a dutiful daughter sometimes got in the way of her writing. Gaskell recalled that Brontë always had to “discharge her household and filial [daughterly] duties” before she was permitted “leisure to sit down and write out the incidents and consequent thoughts, which were, in fact, more present to her mind at such times than her actual life itself”.

The new gilded edition of Jane Eyre is illustrated with etchings by the 19^th century American artist Edmund Garrett, and one tree will be planted for each copy sold. With prices starting at £229, it’s not cheap – but if you fancy seeing the original manuscript for yourself without buying a copy, you can do so at the British Library.

Read more:
editionsdessaintsperes
stylist/jane-eyre-charlotte-bronte-manuscript
psychologies/inside-charlotte-brontes-mind

Éditions des Saints Pères are publishing their facsimile edition of Jane Eyre this Friday December 2nd (remember the price is £229 for preorders as opposed to £249 for orders after that date). A couple of sites feature this gem. Psychologies interviews Jessica Nelson, co-founder of the publishing house.

The 824-page manuscript contains important revisions and corrections centred around the portrayals of Jane's encounters with Mr Rochester. Written in Brontë's elegant hand, it gives readers unprecedented insight into her creative process. The manuscript's publication marks the culmination of this year’s bicentenary celebrations of Charlotte Brontë’s birth.
Each luxury edition is illustrated with etchings by Edmund Garrett and presented in a deluxe slipcase decorated with iron gilding. As well as being printed on environmentally-friendly paper, Éditions des Saints Pères have pledged to plant one tree for each copy sold. [...]

Passing Charlotte Bronte

I always love passing Charlotte Bronte on my way to work

Kimberley Eve of the blog Victorian Musings

The Brontës. A Family Writes.

This is a companion book for the Morgan Gallery & Museum's exhibition on Charlotte Brontë:

The BrontësA Family WritesChristine Nelson
ISBN: 9781785510601
Scala Publishers
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 96
Images: 75

The Brontës of Haworth were a prodigiously imaginative literary family. From the earliest manuscripts of Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne – written with a quill pen in a minuscule hand designed to mimic the printed page – to explosive novels, such as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, written in adulthood by Emily and Charlotte, the family’s writings continue to fascinate. This elegantly designed, fully illustrated publication provides an intimate portrait of a singular family of writers through the manuscripts, rare printed books, personal documents, and private letters preserved in the Brontë collection of the Morgan Library & Museum, one of the world’s finest. It accompanies a major exhibition at the Morgan from 9 September 2016 to 2 January 2017. bronteblog

“Mystery is irksome, and I was glad to shake it off”.

George Richmond: Charlotte Brontë, 1850

What the Brontës Made

Francine Prose

Even those who think they know all there is to know about the Brontë family will likely be surprised by many of the documents and artifacts included in “Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will,” currently on view at New York’s Morgan Library.

Curated by Christine Nelson, the exhibition reinforces our notions of Charlotte Brontë’s daring, ambition, and courage, and of the tragic circumstances over which she prevailed. In one letter, Charlotte describes the 1848 visit to London during which she and her sisters Emily and Anne revealed to her publishers that the novels they had submitted under male pseudonyms (Currer, Acton and Ellis Bell) had in fact been written by women (“Mystery is irksome, and I was glad to shake it off”). The publisher was initially surprised, but nevertheless decided to show the sisters around London, introducing them not as authors but as his “country cousins” the Misses Brown. Read all: nybooks/what-the-brontes-made

Jane Eyre facsimile manuscript to be published for 'Brontë bibliophiles'.

One of Edmund Garett’s illustrations to Jane Eyre.

Illustration: Courtesy of the British Library and Éditions des Saints Pères

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Editions des Saint Pères

Each book is hand numbered from 1 to 1,000

To be released on 2 December 2016

ISBN: 979-10-95457-30-5.

Cover: Avorio

Paper: Fedrigoni Avorio Luxury Paper

Published for the first time

A facsimile of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 manuscript of Jane Eyre, written in the author’s flowing hand, will be published for the first time in December. This edition of the earliest surviving copy of Brontë’s classic joins a roster of facsimiles published by the French press Éditions des Saints Pères, including Madame Bovary, Les fleurs du mal and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The reproduction is accompanied with etchings by Edmund Garrett from an edition published in 1897. According to the publisher, the fair copy is “neat, with most notable revisions and corrections centred around her portrayal of Jane’s encounters with Mr Rochester”.

This 824 page manuscript of Charlotte Brontë’s elegant and nimble handwriting is one of the British Library’s most precious treasures. Because of the great technical challenge that the task of reproducing it presents, the manuscript has remained unpublished until today. Les Saints Pères has taken on the challenge. An edition limited to 1,000 hand numbered copies

Set in Northern England, during the reign of George III. From the heroine’s turbulent childhood  to her discovery of love and all its tragic implications, to the birth of her first son: Jane Eyre is one of the greatest bildungsromans of all time. In August 1847, Charlotte Brontë received a letter from the publisher Smith and Elder, rejecting her first novel but adding, ‘that a work in three volumes would [be met] with careful attention’. She then sent them this unique manuscript—no earlier drafts are known to survive today. Published in October 1847, the novel was an immediate success.

The three volumes of this manuscript, reproduced using only the finest materials, are presented together in a deluxe slipcase. Included: etchings by Edmund Garrett from an 1897 edition of the novel.

Each volume is hand assembled, bound and sewn with end-band and bookmark. Each book is printed on luxury paper. The slipcase and book cover ornamentations are made using gilded iron. Our books are printed with vegetal ink, on environment friendly paper.

Éditions des Saints Pères co-founder Nicholas Tretiakow hailed the novel as “a compelling gem of English literature, a novel so many of us hold close to our hearts”. “We wanted to rise to the challenge and offer this beautiful and rich manuscript to the public for the very first time,” he said.

Tretiakow’s co-founder Jessica Nelson said that the pair were inspired to set up the press after attending an exhibition of manuscripts and first drafts in Paris 10 years ago. “We were totally moved and astounded by what we saw. We already had a passion for literature but we were astonished,” she said. “Nicholas said that in 10 years’ time we would create our own publishing house and specialise in the production of manuscripts, and that’s what we’ve done.”

According to Nelson, print runs are limited to 1,000 or 2,000 copies per book, with reproductions aimed at bibliophiles, collectors and those passionate about a particular author. The Jane Eyre copies will be priced at more than £200, and Éditions des Saints Pères plans to follow the novel’s release with further titles in English next year. (Alison Flood)

theguardian/jane-eyre-facsimile-manuscript-to-be-published-for-bronte-bibliophiles-edmund-garrett

Charlotte Brontë at The Morgan Library & Museum's Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will exhibition

Kimberly Eve of Victorian Musings is telling about

America finally meets Charlotte Brontë at The Morgan Library & Museum's Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will exhibition September 9, 2016 through January 2, 2017

Read more: kimberlyevemusings

Visit the Manuscript of 'Jane Eyre' in New York.

How did Charlotte Brontë go from scribbling in secret to one of England’s (and literature’s) most famous names? Look for the answer in a passage in Jane Eyre, in which her famously plain heroine tells her husband-to-be that she is a “free human with an independent will.” That bold declaration is at the center of a new exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York—one that celebrates the author’s 200th birthday with a look at the forces that turned her into a writer.

Brontë has been at the center of literary legend since her first published novel, Jane Eyre, appeared under a pseudonym in 1847. The book was immediately loved and loathed for emotions that flew in the face of convention and courtesy, and the identity of its author became a much-contested question. But even after Brontë was discovered to be the person behind the pen name Currer Bell, myths about her childhood, her family members and the atmosphere in which she became an author have persisted. Read all the article; smithsonianmag

'A remarkable, gritty quality'

Source

The Daily Mail features Sally Wainwright and her forthcoming To Walk Invisible.

Sally Wainwright, who wrote TV hits Happy Valley and Last Tango In Halifax, has slammed period shows for projecting a ‘very sanitised, 21st-century television view of history’.
Wainwright made the comments while discussing her new BBC film To Walk Invisible, about the Bronte siblings — Charlotte, Emily, Anne and brother Branwell — and their clergyman father Patrick, who is played by Jonathan Pryce.
I noted that the marvellously acted movie, which will be shown on BBC1 later this winter, has a remarkable, gritty quality to it.
‘Well, I really didn’t want to create a Sunday evening chocolate box thing,’ she said. ‘We have a slightly manicured view of what the past was like.
‘Often history is about wealthy rich people — and about men. We get so many costume dramas, which are very popular and people love them.
‘But they’ve all got very white teeth! They’re all immaculate,’ she complained of the period programmes on both the BBC and ITV.
‘It’s a very sanitised, 21st- century television view of history. When I watch certain period dramas, I often feel it wouldn’t be weird if someone whipped out a mobile phone. It wouldn’t look out of place, because everything is so clean and slick and polished — and healthy and hygienic.
‘I don’t want people to feel like that,’ she added.
Sally Wainwright, a daughter of Yorkshire — raised in Sowerby Bridge ten miles from Haworth, home of the Brontes — said that Charlotte and Emily both had poor teeth
Wainwright, a daughter of Yorkshire — raised in Sowerby Bridge ten miles from Haworth, home of the Brontes — said that Charlotte and Emily both had poor teeth.
The portrait that Wainwright presents in her film, which she also directed, certainly feels authentic. I was struck by how the actors captured the sense of a proper family: one who argued, and swore at each other — yes, even in the 1840s.
Wainwright established a kind of Bronte boot camp at a rented house on the moors at Haworth, where cast members Finn Atkins (Charlotte), Chloe Pirrie (Emily), Charlie Murphy (Anne) and Adam Nagaitis as Branwell did Bronte things for a week.
‘I wanted them together, so they’d feel like a family,’ she explained.
They were shown around the Bronte Parsonage Museum by principal curator Ann Dinsdale; and one evening they had dinner with Juliet Barker, who wrote a biography of the Brontes in 1995.
‘And somebody came and told them how to write with ink. We had a whole afternoon of getting our fingers covered in ink,’ Wainwright recalled gleefully.
‘By the end of the week they were so bonded.’
The film’s focus is about how well Branwell bonded with alcohol and opium — and how his sisters had to tip-toe around him for much of the time, ‘probably half-loving and half-hating him’.
But somehow, the sisters managed to produce great works of literature, including Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights; while Branwell, who had undeniable talent, produced nothing and has, Wainwright said, become famous ‘for failing’. (Baz Bamigboye)

bronteblog 

Photographs of the exposition in The Morgan Library in New York. In honor of Charlotte Brontë 's 200th birthday

I am happy to show you these photographes from Anne Lloyd

She visited the exposition in The Morgan Library in New York

Here's what Anne is blogging about it

""In honor of Charlotte Brontë 's 200th birthday, The Morgan Library in New York is having, what can only be called an historic exhibit.  On display, for the first time in American, are both the George Richmond 1850 portrait of Charlotte and the famous " column"  portrait of the three sisters by their brother Branwell.

I  never expected they would leave the UK. Branwell's  portrait of his  three sisters is usually always on display at the National Portrait Galley in London. But because it is subject to fading, the 1850  chalk  portrait of CB  Richmond is not normally on display even in the UK...but here it is in New York!. Read more  on stayathomeartist

Close up of CB's dress

Charlotte Brontë 's writing desk

themorgan.org/exhibitions/charlotte-bronte

List of what the Morgan CB show have on exhibit.

I received this message from Anne Lloyd

She had a press preview for the Morgan CB show!Here's a list of what she saw on exhibit 

List of what the Morgan CB show have on exhibit 

Branwell's column painting of his sisters

The CB Richmond portrait

CB 's 1850 dress/ little blue flower print

CB's boots

a 1856 copy of CB's birth registry

Patrick's copy of of the certificate of registry for CB's marriage
(church copies of the documents in their records)

CB and ABN's Marriage license

CBN's will

Letters from CB to William S. William about the passing
of Branwell and Anne's decline

An copy book from Charlotte's Brussels school days

The famous water color portrait of Anne in profile done by CB

The Misses Bronte's Establishment handout

Funeral cards for Branwell, Emily and Charlotte

PB's cottage poems

Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell poems

CB's handwritten manuscript of " Jane Eyre"

CB's handwritten manuscript of " The Professor"

CB's earliest known production...1829 " book for Ann"

A manuscript of Anne's poetry

A manuscript of Emily poetry

A story in Branwell's hand

Oldest photo of the Parsonage

CB's Roe Head diary

CB's list of " what I written so far" "
Tales of the Islanders" etc.

CB's Writing desk

CB's Paint box

Mary Taylor's personal copy of Jane Eyre, CB sent
to New Zealand and Mary's letter to CB about it

Contemporary published editions of all the sister's books

sermon notes of PB from 1811 based on Mathew 3:11

A good many drawings

little men magazines

CB's Atlas

Photo of Arthur Bell Nicholls

Photo of Rev Bronte

Rev Bronte's copy of the book of Common Prayer

One of Patrick 's letters where he sent snippets of CB 's
hand writing upon request

Wow, this really is a very good collection
I wished I could see it

Preparing Charlotte's 'Thackeray' dress for transit to New York

Bronte Parsonage Museum: We are really looking forward to the opening of the Celebrating Charlotte exhibition at The Morgan Library & Museum next month. Here is Sarah, our Curator, with Ann, our Principal Curator, preparing Charlotte's 'Thackeray' dress for transit to New York.

I wish Charlotte could have known this. Her dress to a museum in New York. And I wish I was curator of the Bronte Parsonage Museum and could touch all these wonderful memories of the Brontes.

Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will, a new exhibition opening at the Morgan Library & Museum.

CHARLOTTE BRONTË’S LIFE AND WRITINGS

SHOWCASED  IN MAJOR NEW EXHIBITION AT THE MORGAN 
ORGANIZED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE BRONTË PARSONAGE MUSEUM  AND THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON 

Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will September 9, 2016 through January 2, 2017

New York, NY, August 17, 2016 — From the time Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre was first published in 1847, readers have been drawn to the orphan protagonist who declared herself “a free human being with an independent will.” Like her famous fictional creation, Brontë herself took bold steps throughout her life to pursue personal and professional fulfillment. Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will, a new exhibition opening at the Morgan Library & Museum on September 9, traces the writer’s life from imaginative teenager to reluctant governess to published poet and masterful novelist.
 
The exhibition celebrates the two-hundredth anniversary of Brontë’s birth in 1816, and marks an historic collaboration between the Morgan, which holds one of the world’s most important collections of Brontë manuscripts and letters, and the Brontë Parsonage Museum, in Haworth, England, which will lend a variety of key items including the author’s earliest surviving miniature manuscript, her portable writing desk and paintbox, and a blue floral dress she wore in the 1850s. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a portion of the original manuscript of Jane Eyre, on loan from the British Library and being shown in the U.S. for the first time, open to the page on which Jane asserts her “independent will.” Also shown for the first time in America will be the only two life portraits of Brontë, on loan from London’s National Portrait Gallery.

Read more: themorgan//BrontePressRelease
themorgan/charlotte-bronte

The Morgan Library

JP Morgan was famous for being a rich and powerful financier.  He arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric.  He was a big player in the steel and rail road industries, negotiating with such players as Andrew Carnegie and Charles Schwab.   But, as many wealthy power men of the day, JP had other passions besides money.  For JP, it was the written word.  So much so that he built himself a private library to house his insanely large and valuable collection of rare books and ancient manuscripts.

The Morgan Library was completed in 1906 but it wasn’t until after JP’s death (1913, see photo below) that the library was opened to the public, around 1924.  The library still houses many rare books, music manuscripts and has a considerable collection of Victoriana, including one of the most important collections of Gilbert and Sullivan manuscripts and related artifacts but many of the more valuable pieces from his original collection now reside in major museums and other institutions.

One of the most interesting things about the library is its former librarian.  Morgan, a man who never allowed women employees to work at his bank, hired a twenty-something African American woman, Belle de Costa Greene.  Greene became Morgan’s trusted friend and a powerful woman in the world of rare books, manuscripts and art.  She enjoyed a colorful life moving between bohemia and the elite in NYC and beyond.  An enormous accomplishment for a young Victorian woman of color.  However, she was fair skinned, she presented herself as Portuguese and people seemed to look the other way.  You can visit the office where she worked in the North Room of the library.  She later became the first Director of the Morgan Library.
Read all: travelingmom/historical-hotspots-in-nyc-morgan-library-a-museum/

Also coming up in July

 

We endeavour to send these newsletters every 4-6 weeks, but there is so much going on at present, we thought you'd like to know you can also get the latest news by following us on twitter @BronteParsonage and @BronteShop, Instagram @bronteparsonagemuseum and facebook at BronteParsonageMuseum.

Our free Tuesday talk in July will focus on Villette, Charlotte Brontë's final (and some say greatest) novel. Head along to the Museum for 2pm on Tuesday 5 July to delve into the secrets of this haunting and deeply autobiographical novel.

Our friends at the National Media Museum in Bradford are hosting Jane Eyre: Afterlives on Saturday 9 July at 7.30pm. Samira Ahmed, of BBC Radio 4's Front Row, will lead a panel discussion on the Brontë phenomenon before a screening of the 1943 film version of Jane Eyre, starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine. Follow this link to purchase a ticket for this fascinating evening.

Poetry Festival at the Brontë Parsonage Museum

Keighley News announces the first Poetry Festival at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

A field behind the Brontë Parsonage Museum is the setting for Haworth's first-ever poetry festival. Poetry at the Parsonage will bring dozens more than 100 poets and performers from across Yorkshire to Haworth on Saturday and Sunday, July 2 and 3.
The Word Club of Leeds has teamed up with the Brontë Society to organise a packed programme of readings and workshops. 

The festival has been organised on behalf of the Brontë Parsonage Museum by Matthew Withey. He said: “Poetry at the Parsonage will be the biggest gathering of poets anywhere in Britain this year.“It is a free-to-enter festival with sets by more than 100 performers, all coming together on the edge of the moors that inspired some of the finest poetry in the English language.“The weekend will be fabulous feast of words and we invite people to bring their families and share it with us.” 

Helen Mort, one of the headliners, said events like the festival created a sense of community and encouraged poets to support one another.“Yorkshire has a thriving poetry scene and it’s good to bring everyone together. ”Charlotte’s Stage, at the Old School Room next to the Brontë Parsonage Museum, will see performances by Mark Connors, Helen Mort and Alan Buckley on the Saturday, and Gaia Holmes, Clare Shaw, James Nash and Kate Fox on the Sunday. The Saturday line-up for Emily’s Stage at nearby West Lane Baptist Centre includes Ilkley Young Writers and Lorna Faye Dunsire, who appeared as part of Charlotte’s bicentenary celebrations in Haworth in April. 

Eddie Lawler, also known as the Bard of Saltaire, will headline Emily’s Stage on the Sunday. The event will be compered by Yorkshire favourites Craig Bradley, Geneviève L Walsh, Winston Plowes and Mark Connors of Word Club. Performances will begin at noon each day. Visit bronte.org.uk/whats-on for further information and tickets. (David Knights)

April-in-the-Parsonage-garden

 

Rough winter melts beneath the breeze of spring…
No man nor beasts to folds or firesides cling,
Nor hoar frosts whiten over field and tree;…
Now let us, cheerful, crown our heads with flowers,
Spring’s first fruits, offered to the newborn year,…

Extracts from To Sestius, Patrick Branwell Bronte

 

April in the garden has centred around Charlotte’s 200th birthday on the 21st of the month. Getting the garden ready for such a joyous occasion was a particular pleasure and it was also pleasing that the day was a fine, bright and sunny day.

One small event that excited Jenny and I most from the garden point of view was the planting ceremony in the rear garden of the gift of a standard rose generously donated by David Austin Roses in memory of Charlotte. It is actually a rose called ‘Crocus’ which we were able to choose ourselves. We thought this most apt for Charlotte with it being slightly understated, but a very pretty creamy white colour. We were thinking of her likeness to the ‘Little Snowdrop’ as she was described on her wedding day. Read all: bronte./april-in-the-parsonage-garden

I will collect all kinds of congratulations on the 200 celebrations/birthday of Charlotte Brontë.

 

I will collect all kinds of congratulations on the 200 celebrations/birthday of Charlotte Brontë,

Happy 200th Birthday Charlotte Bronte!

This beautiful cake, which will be delivered by conference organiser Eleanor Houghton later today, will be cut and served to delegates at our conference in Charlotte Bronte's honour on the 13th and 14th of May.

http://www.chawtonhouse.org

 

Parsonage looking beautiful - filled with #britishflowers thanks to @SarahSimply

 

Happy 200th Birthday Charlotte Bronte!

Today, 21st April 2016, marks a very special day indeed – it’s the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of the world’s most loved novelists: Charlotte Brontë. Celebrations will be taking place on all continents, and I myself will be having a slice of cake and a glass of bubbly in Haworth later today; it should be a birthday party to remember, and of course we’ll also be honouring Emily Brontë and our own dear Anne Brontë in 2018 and 2020 respectively. In today’s blog we’ll take a brief look at Charlotte’s life and at just why she’s so popular two centuries after her birth.

 

Nick Holland: annebronte/happy-200th-birthday-charlotte-bronte

 

 

Historic England ‏@HistoricEngland

Happy birthday Charlotte Brontë! Here are 7 buildings which witnessed her life http://bit.ly/1MJJccg

 

This was the birthplace of Maria and Patrick Brontë’s four youngest children, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne. It was home to the Brontë family from 1815 when Patrick was curate at the church of St James in Thornton, until 1820 when the family moved to Haworth.
heritagecalling/buildings-to-mark-the-bronte-bicentenary/

                        

Happy 200th birthday, Charlotte Brontë!

Ponden Hall ‏@PondenHall   

 

 

Hip hip hurrah!

(tweehonderdmaal) voor Charlotte Brontë, auteur van de klassieker Jane Eyre en de oudste van de drie schrijvende Brontë-zusjes. Zij werd tweehonderd jaar geleden geboren op 21 april 1816.
canvas.be/c/de-brusselse-avonturen-van-de-bronte-zusjes

Brussel. Zicht op de Isabellastraat. Achteraan de Sint-Goedele. Het witte U-vormige gebouw (links) is het pensionaat Heger

Op 21 april is het tweehonderd jaar geleden zijn dat de Engelse schrijfster Charlotte Brontë geboren werd. De High Tea Birthday Party in Hotel Métropole op 24 april is misschien de gelegenheid om (over) Brontë te lezen.

The Brussels Brontë Group werkt samen met beeldhouwer Tom Frantzen (van onder andere Zinneke) aan een standbeeld van de zussen Charlotte en Emily in Brussel. Een ideale locatie ervoor zou Bozar zijn, waar het Pensionnat de Demoiselles Heger-Parent stond.
bruzz.be/brussel-muze-van-charlotte-bronte

mara ‏@oneandonlymaart                       

Happy birthday Charlotte! #charlottebronte

 

  themorgan/exhibitions/charlotte-bronte

  

@GaskellsHouse getting ready for #CharlotteBronte tea party

 

 

Portrait Gallery ‏@NPGLondon

A pen and ink self-portrait by Charlotte Brontë , on the manuscript of her poem 'Sunrise' #Bronte200

 

 

 

@Nigella_Lawson Celebrating Charlotte's birthday@BronteParsonage with trusted apple and almond cake #Bronte200pic.twitter.com/OX3UBo3wrx

      

 

Brontë Parsonage ‏@BronteParsonage

Charlotte's cake baked by @SANDYDbakes. It was delicious. #Bronte200

 

Facebook/Flower workshop
  

   

 

On this day in History, Charlotte Bronte born on Apr 21, 1816

 

On this day in History

 Charlotte Bronte born on Apr 21, 1816

200 years ago

 

theconversation/

why-charlotte-bronte-still-speaks-to-us-200-years-after-her-birth

 

The Brontës are remarkable for being three successful authors from one family. But, more remarkably, Charlotte, Emily and Anne were all women who were successful at a time when women didn't have much freedom, either at home or in society. I have always loved their novels which are full of strong female characters who challenge the social conventions of their time. And I can still see their impact today through writers, musicians and film-makers who are continually inspired by them.

But were they really feminist pioneers in their own lifetimes? And what did they really do for women? Read  more: bbc

 

Celebrations  for Charlotte Brontë's bicentenary will be taking place across the world, but here's our guide to what's happening in Haworth ...
           

The Old School Room, Haworth, 11am - 4pm
Charlotte's Birthday Party

We're throwing a party for Charlotte and everyone is invited! There will be tea, birthday cake and a few surprises, so please come along and help us celebrate.

We'll be joined by pupils from Haworth Primary School, who will perform early scenes from Jane Eyre and during the afternoon we'll have music from local performers Charlotte Jones and Eddie Lawler, also known as the Bard of Saltaire.


Members of Otley Cycling Club will be riding between Thornton and Haworth with a floral tribute, which will be laid in the Parsonage Garden at approximately 1pm.  Rev Peter Mayo-Smith will lead the proceedings and there will be a reading by our 2016 creative partner Tracy Chevalier.


Artist Julia Ogden will help visitors make a birthday card for Charlotte and there will also be the opportunity to learn more about the Bronte Society.

At 2.45pm Great British Bake Off contestant Sandy Docherty will present a cake baked especially for the occasion and at 4pm a rose bush (kindly donated by David Austin Roses) will be planted in Charlotte's honour.

 

Brontë Parsonage Museum, 10am - 8pm  Celebrating Charlotte

Join us for what is sure to be a memorable day at the Museum!  BBC Radio Leeds will be broadcasting live from the Parsonage between 9am and 12pm so please come along and join in the fun.

Visitors to the Museum will be invited to hear talks on different aspects of Charlotte Brontë's life, including her experience of school at Cowan Bridge, getting published and her time in Brussels.   Talks will take place at 10.30am and 2pm.  Tracy Chevalier will give a talk about her exhibition, Charlotte Great and Small at 6.30pm.

There will also be the opportunity to meet with members of our Collections team and view some of Charlotte's possessions, letters and manuscripts in the library. These  'Treasures' sessions will take place at 12pm, 2pm and 4.30pm.

The Museum will be open until 8pm and visitors arriving after 6pm will be invited to join us for a celebratory drink.

All activities are free with admission to the Museum, but as space is limited, places to the talks and Treasures sessions will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. charlottes-birthday-party

  

Happy 200th Birthday Charlotte Bronte!
This beautiful cake, which will be delivered by conference organiser Eleanor Houghton later today, will be cut and served to delegates at our conference in Charlotte Bronte's honour on the 13th and 14th of May.
http://www.chawtonhouse.org