Author Anne Bronte was keen rock collector, research shows.

bbc/uk-england-leeds-61535074

Anne Bronte was not only a talented writer but also a skilled rock collector interested in geology, researchers have revealed.

The youngest Bronte sister built up a collection of specimens before her death aged 29 in 1849.

It was thought she collected them for their aesthetic value, but research shared by Sally Jaspars has shown she was an informed geology fan.

Ms Jaspers is studying Bronte as part of a PhD at the University of Aberdeen.

She said: "Her interest in geology is mentioned in her literary works - indeed in The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall she references the science and a book by Sir Humphry Davy directly."

Ms Jaspers was helped by Stephen Bowden, from the university's School of Geosciences, who helped to analyse the collection housed at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire. 

Experts from the University of Leeds and a specialist spectroscopy company were also involved, and they found she had carnelians and agates which she collected in Scarborough, where she worked as a governess.

She also had flowstone and a rare kind of red obsidian, which originated outside of the UK.

Today we celebrate the 200th birthday of Anne Brontë.

Anne, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family, was born on 17 January 1820. Anne was born in the small Yorkshire village of Thornton on 17 January 1820, the sixth and last child of the Reverend Patrick Brontë, and his  wife Maria.

When Charlotte's friend Ellen Nussey visited Haworth in 1833, she reported that Emily and Anne were "like twins", "inseparable companions".

She described Anne: "Anne, dear gentle Anne was quite different in appearance from the others, and she was her aunt's favourite. Her hair was a very pretty light brown, and fell on her neck in graceful curls. She had lovely violet-blue eyes; fine pencilled eyebrows and a clear almost transparent complexion. 

Anne is called "gentle" Anne

• But Anne had a 'core of steel'. She was gentle, but also brave. 
• She published a volume of poetry with her sisters (Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, 1846) and two novels. Agnes Grey, based upon her experiences as a governess, was published in 1847. Her second and last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is considered to be one of the first sustained feminist novels, appeared in 1848. 
• With her sister Emily she created "Gondal".

Here you can find all my posts about Anne Bronte: brontesisters/ANNE-BRONTË

Nick Hollands "Anne Bronte 200 events" page.

Nick Holland

My special Anne Bronte 200 website now has details on new Anne Bronte books and #AnneBronte200 events in Haworth, Bradford, Scarborough, Manchester and Brussels! 

On this page annebronte200/events we’ll be listing events celebrating Anne Brontë in 2020, and also news of publications relating to Anne Brontë and her sisters. If you have an event, or anything Anne related, you’d like me to publicise then please email me at annebronte200@hotmail.com.

With Anne’s big birthday just days away we are pleased to announce details of five Anne Brontë celebratory events – in Haworth, Scarborough, Bradford, Manchester and Brussels! Click on the individual pages to find out more!

We also have news of two very special Anne Brontë publications! There are also Anne related theatre productions coming soon in Huddersfield and Oldham – keep your eyes peeled for more details on this site soon

Project Anne Brontë 200.

Project Anne Brontë 200 is an initiative run by a collective of musicians and poets, and headed by Pamela Nash*.  We are asking for your help to give the neglected Brontë sister centre stage and to further her legacy through the creation of new music for choirs as well as commemorative poetry in the run-up to 2020, the bicentenary of her birth.

"If Anne Brontë had lived ten years longer, she would have taken a place beside Jane Austen, perhaps even a higher place".... (novelist and poet George Moore, 1924).

 History has done a great disservice to Anne Brontë, and though she may now be stepping out from behind the veil, her contribution to literature still remains undervalued and unjustly overshadowed by her more celebrated siblings.  Until now, she has also been largely overlooked by composers, despite the striking musical affinities in her writing.   So we are appealing for you to join us in seizing the chance to address this under-representation of Anne and to shed new light on her through the powerful and magical medium of the choir, as we commission choral settings of her words - as well as specially-written poetry inspired by her.  crowdfunder/project-anne-bronte-200

Anne's grave.

Anne's grave this afternoon

facebook/ Peter Donnelly

Anne Bronte made 2 unfinished drawings of her pet spaniel Flossy.

Nick Holland‏ @Nick_Holland_

On #NationalPetDay Anne Bronte made 2 unfinished drawings of her pet spaniel Flossy, gifted to her by her charges the Robinson girls. But there's also this sketch - it could be a Robinson girl with Flossy, but I think it's a self portrait of Anne and her beloved pet!

We have recently added a splendid edition of Anne Bronte’s controversial novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to our collection.

 The book has been donated, following a crowdfunding appeal, by Bonnets at Dawn, a social media/podcasting duo who regularly discuss the works of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, with occasional detours into the works of other nineteenth century female writers.  Bonnets at Dawn, otherwise known as Lauren Burke and Hannah K Chapman (based in the UK and the US),  have visited Elizabeth Gaskell’s House more than once and are now well acquainted with the stories of Charlotte’s visits to 84 Plymouth Grove and the controversies surrounding Elizabeth’s biography The Life of Charlotte Bronte.

Books by the Bronte sisters must be at the top of that list.  Elizabeth Gaskell never met Anne Bronte as she had already died before her first meeting with Charlotte, but she had heard much about her. Charlotte vividly described the life of all her family to the ever- eager listener at their meetings together. Anne is an integral character in the biography The Life of Charlotte Bronte even though Elizabeth never had the opportunity to form her own first-hand opinion. Read all: elizabethgaskellhouse

"Like twins", "inseparable companions".

And then when Emily is 1 1/2 year old a baby sister is born in the  Bronte family

Anne Bronte

Birth on 17-01-1820

Fireplace in the dining room kleurrijkbrontesisters

As was the customary in those days, it’s likely that a local midwife would have helped with the birth and it would have taken place in front of the large fireplace that still forms the centre point of the building today annebronte

When Charlotte's friend Ellen Nussey visited Haworth in 1833, she reported that Emily and Anne were "like twins", "inseparable companions".

She described Anne: "Anne, dear gentle Anne was quite different in appearance from the others, and she was her aunt's favourite. Her hair was a very pretty light brown, and fell on her neck in graceful curls. She had lovely violet-blue eyes; fine pencilled eyebrows and a clear almost transparent complexion.

If we could travel back to the January day in 1820 and take a look at the baby Anne at Thornton Parsonage or the Brontë children at Kipping House just what would we see? We would see children just like any others, for when we look upon any infant in its cradle who can say what they will turn out to be or do? Baby Anne would grow up to be a very special woman indeed, one whose achievements are only now starting to be recognised. Wherever you are, stop to raise a glass of something cold or warm and say ‘Happy 198^th birthday, Anne Brontë!’
annebronte/happy-198th-birthday-to-anne-bronte/

A Brontë Advent – Haworth Christmas Events

What a beautiful photograph

I found it on the weblog from Nick Holland 

annebronte/a-bronte-advent-haworth-christmas-events/

Anne Brontë was undoubtedly the most devout of the Brontë siblings, so she in particular would have loved the Advent celebrations advancing week by week in her father’s church a short walk from the parsonage she called home – such as the lighting of advent carols and the singing of hymns. Christmas music was a particular delight to Anne – so much so that she wrote a poem called ‘Music on Christmas Morning’, which begins:

‘Music I love – but never strain
Could kindle raptures so divine,
So grief assuage, so conquer pain,
And rouse this pensive heart of mine –
As that we hear on Christmas morn,
Upon the wintry breezes born.’

We can imagine this warming sight as Christmas day dawned at the Haworth Parsonage: Emily Brontë, a highly accomplished pianist, playing a carol while Anne, who Ellen Nussey said liked to sing in a quiet yet sweet voice, sang to her family.

The village of Haworth also loves music at Christmas – and indeed the Advent Christmas period as a whole is one of particular joy in this beautiful moorside village. In recent decades the modern tradition of ‘scroggling the holly’ has drawn the crowds, but there is no scroggling this year – fear not, for there are lots of other exciting activities coming that are great for Brontë lovers and families alike.

This weekend is ‘choral weekend’ – one the whole Brontë family would surely have enjoyed. The 9^th of December is the night of the torchlight procession, a moving spectacle as folks in Victorian attire process up the steep and picturesque Main Street. Sunday the 10^th is even more spectacular, as a there is a candelit carol procession from 4.30 which culminates in a traditional carol service at St. Michael and All Angels’ Church.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum is also particularly magical throughout December – particularly on Thursday 8^th December – as there’s a chance to experience the parsonage by candlelight and then look at some of the Brontë treasures including manuscripts by Charlotte, Emily and Anne. It’s a tour I’ve done myself, and it truly is thrilling. Places are limited but you can find out more at the Brontë Society website here – where you’ll also find details of other events including Christmas wreath making workshops.

It’s certainly beginning to feel a lot like Christmas here in Yorkshire, by which I mean that it’s absolutely freezing of course, but life feels good when you wrap up warm and read a Brontë book with a warm drink near to hand!

Coming Soon Without the Veil Between Anne Brontë A Fine And Subtle Spirit Book Trailer

This book gives us Anne. Not Anne, the ‘less gifted’ sister of Charlotte and Emily (although we meet them too as convincingly drawn individuals); nor the Anne who ‘also wrote two novels’, but Anne herself, courageous, committed, daring and fiercely individual: a writer of remarkable insight, prescience and moral courage whose work can still astonish us today. ~ Deborah Bennison, Bennison Books https://booklaunch.io/dmdenton/withou... Thank you to Deborah Bennison of Bennison Books, author Thomas Davis, and author Mary Clark for words used in the text of this video. The music is Song Without Words, No 46 in C minor, OP 102 by Mendelssohn, Public Domain, Royalty Free music from Musopen

International Women's Day: an apt passage form Anne's 'The Tenant of the Wildfell Hall'

“I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be. All novels are or should be written for both men and women to read, and I am at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.”

‘Take courage, Charlotte, take courage’.

Anne Brontë’s final words to her sister Charlotte were ‘Take courage, Charlotte, take courage’, and they have proved to be inspirational not only to her sister, but to people across the world over a century and a half later. Read all on this beautiful article of Nick Holland: annebronte/take-courage-the-final-words-of-anne-bronte/

Flowers for Anne's birthday.

The Brontë Society

Flowers for Anne's birthday

Thank you very much to the person who sends them every year -

they are much loved

Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life.

If you’ve read Samantha Ellis’s charming bibliomemoir How to be a Heroine – a heartwarming trip down memory lane as she looks back over the literary ladies that have shaped her life – you might be surprised to discover it’s Anne Brontë, the oft-overlooked 'third Beatle' of England’s most famous literary siblings, who’s the subject of her second book, Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life.

Better known Charlotte and Emily were both integral to the journey recounted in How to be a Heroine, Ellis’s entire enterprise inspired by an argument with her best friend regarding the respective allure of passionate headstrong Cathy Earnshaw versus dependable independent Jane Eyre. The stories told in both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are held aloft as grand romances, inspiring a host of adaptations, sequels and prequels from fan fiction through to Jean Rhys’s revisionist masterpiece, Wide Sargasso Sea. Similar approbation for Anne’s novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), would be tricky since it lays bare the underbelly of the romance fantasy, taking a leading lady “who starts out like other Brontë heroines, charmed by a sexy dangerous man,” Ellis explains, “but she sees the light and leaves him.” As Ellis points out, this depiction of female agency was radical for its time. While readers today will no doubt find the story hugely "refreshing," it wasn’t exactly what people either expected or wanted in the mid 1800s.

This novel (Anne’s second and final work) is central to Ellis’s project though, her modus operandi being to “see Anne through the stories she told, not the stories told about her,” especially since when it comes to the latter, there are two significant stumbling blocks. Firstly, nowhere near as much is known about the baby Brontë as compared to her more famous sisters; and secondly, what is available has been filtered through Charlotte, who suppressed the publication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall after Anne’s death (by then she was the only surviving sibling). Hence the image of the “virginal Victorian spinster, sweet and stoic, selfless and sexless, achieving very little before wasting away at twenty-nine” has held sway. Not least over Ellis herself. Until, that is, the day she was shown Anne’s last letter, written only five weeks before her death. Despite the writer’s failing health, Ellis is captivated by the “hope and spirit” she sees on the page.

As such, Take Courage is as much an account of Ellis’s own discovery of Anne's work as it is that of her subject’s life, and herein lies the book's unique appeal. Ellis – who is, it should be noted, as intelligent and perceptive a reader as she is an evocative storyteller – truly writes from the heart, which isn’t to say she hasn’t done her research. She has. But if you’re looking for a run-of-the-mill scholarly biography heavy with footnotes, this isn’t what Take Courage is. Instead it’s a deeply sympathetic and interesting re-evaluation of a woman ahead of her time who has much to teach us all about living courageously. independent/books/reviews/take-courage-anne-bronte

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• Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life
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