"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë

from the bronteblog:

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)

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:

booktryst/when-bronte-met-thackeray

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

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
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William Wood, village carpenter and nephew of Tabby. carpenter+William+Wood+of+haworth

Bronte Birthplace

Short movie of the Bronte Birthplace

facebook/ bronte birthplace

Dr Robert Barnard, a former chairman of the Bronte Society, author and compiler of the Bronte Encyclopaedia, has died.

The Telegraph and Argus has published an obituary of Robert Barnard:

A former chairman of the Bronte Society, author and compiler of the Bronte Encyclopaedia, has died.
Dr Robert Barnard was also a prolific crime writer as well as being a “mine of information” on Haworth’s most famous residents.
He died on Friday at Grove Court Nursing Home in Leeds, at 76.
Along with his wife Louise, he compiled The Bronte Encyclopaedia in 2007, referred to by the society as “a cornerstone for modern Bronte scholarship.”
He was chair of the society twice and also wrote a book on Emily Bronte’s life.
Essex born and Leeds based, Mr Barnard spent lots of time at the Bronte Parsonage and around Haworth.
He started writing crime novels in the 1970s, writing over 40 books and short stories and receiving the Cartier Diamond Dagger award in 2003 for services to crime fiction.
Marcel Berlins, critic at The Times, called Mr Barnard: “One of our most original and versatile bloodspillers.”
The Bronte Society’s Richard Wilcocks said: “Well known in the Bronte Society, he was a professor, a scholar and an award-winning crime writer.” bronteblog

From the Treasure Trove: warming pan.

Bronte Parsonage Museum

From the Treasure Trove: warming pan.

We recently received this warming pan on a loan.

On cold nights, the Brontes would have filled it with coal to keep their beds warm.

facebook/Bronte-Parsonage-Museum

Bronte Society e-newsletter 30.9.13

Another item on loan to us is the Brontës’ brass warming pan, which was sold at the 1861 sale of the Brontës' posessions after Patrick Brontë's death. The Brontës would have used it to warm their sheets before getting into bed and we're delighted to have an object that would have brought the Brontës so much comfort in cold times! It is in need of conservation work so won't be going on display right away. We will keep you updated on its progress. 

"After a struggle of twenty minutes... Branwell started convulsively, almost to his feet, and fell back dead into his father's arms..."

From the Treasure Trove: Branwell's funeral card.

"After a struggle of twenty minutes... Branwell started convulsively, almost to his feet, and fell back dead into his father's arms..."

(p.670, The Brontes, Juliet Barker) facebook/Bronte-Parsonage-Museum
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The cause of Branwell's death was stated in his death certificate as chronic bronchitis and marasmus (wasting of the body). Charlotte said of her brother "I seemed to receive an oppressive revelation of the feebleness of humanity; of the inadequacy of even genius to lead to true greatness if unaided by religion and principle. When the struggle was over.....all his errors, all his vices, seemed nothing to me in that moment....he is at rest, and that comforts us all. Long before he quitted this world, life had no happiness for him." bronte

Emily’s paint box, Patrick’s glasses, the Exhibition Room In the 1970s

From the Treasure Trove: Emily’s paint box
 

From the Treasure Trove: Patrick’s glasses. 

In her book about The Brontes, Juliet Barker writes: 

“Charlotte was shocked on her return to Haworth at the beginning of 1844 to discover that, despite his activity, her father’s health had deteriorated rapidly in her absence. He was now sixty-six years of age: his eyesight was failing rapidly and he had to face the prospect that he might soon go blind”.

 In the 1970s the Exhibition Room looked like THIS:

From: facebook/Bronte-Parsonage-Museum

But I am very very sorry that my inadvertent blunder should have made his name and affairs a subject for common gossip......

The dedication here referred to is that to Thackeray.  People had been already suggesting that Jane Eyre might have been written by Thackeray under a pseudonym; others had implied, knowing that there was ‘something about a woman’ in Thackeray’s life, that it was written by a mistress of the great novelist.  Indeed, the Quarterly had half hinted as much.  Currer Bell, knowing nothing of the gossip of London, had dedicated her book in single-minded enthusiasm.  Her distress was keen when it was revealed to her that the wife of Mr. Thackeray, like the wife of Rochester in Jane Eyre, was of unsound mind.  However, a correspondence with him would seem to have ended amicably enough. [408]

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

‘Haworth, January 28th, 1848.

‘Dear Sir,—I need not tell you that when I saw Mr. Thackeray’s letter inclosed under your cover, the sight made me very happy.  It was some time before I dared open it, lest my pleasure in receiving it should be mixed with pain on learning its contents—lest, in short, the dedication should have been, in some way, unacceptable to him.

‘And, to tell you the truth, I fear this must have been the case; he does not say so, his letter is most friendly in its noble simplicity, but he apprises me, at the commencement, of a circumstance which both surprised and dismayed me.

‘I suppose it is no indiscretion to tell you this circumstance, p. 409for you doubtless know it already.  It appears that his private position is in some points similar to that I have ascribed to Mr. Rochester; that thence arose a report that Jane Eyre had been written by a governess in his family, and that the dedication coming now has confirmed everybody in the surmise.

‘Well may it be said that fact is often stranger than fiction!  The coincidence struck me as equally unfortunate and extraordinary.  Of course I knew nothing whatever of Mr. Thackeray’s domestic concerns, he existed for me only as an author.  Of all regarding his personality, station, connections, private history, I was, and am still in a great measure, totally in the dark; but I am very very sorry that my inadvertent blunder should have made his name and affairs a subject for common gossip.

‘The very fact of his not complaining at all and addressing me with such kindness, notwithstanding the pain and annoyance I must have caused him, increases my chagrin.  I could not half express my regret to him in my answer, for I was restrained by the consciousness that that regret was just worth nothing at all—quite valueless for healing the mischief I had done.

‘Can you tell me anything more on this subject? or can you guess in what degree the unlucky coincidence would affect him—whether it would pain him much and deeply; for he says so little himself on the topic, I am at a loss to divine the exact truth—but I fear.

‘Do not think, my dear sir, from my silence respecting the advice you have, at different times, given me for my future literary guidance, that I am heedless of, or indifferent to, your kindness.  I keep your letters and not unfrequently refer to them.  Circumstances may render it impracticable for me to act up to the letter of what you counsel, but I think I comprehend the spirit of your precepts, and trust I shall be able to profit thereby.  Details, situations which I do not understand and cannot personally inspect, I would not for the world meddle with, lest I should make even a more ridiculous mess of the matter than Mrs. Trollope did in her Factory Boy.  Besides, not one feeling on any subject, public or private, will I ever p. 410affect that I do not really experience.  Yet though I must limit my sympathies; though my observation cannot penetrate where the very deepest political and social truths are to be learnt; though many doors of knowledge which are open for you are for ever shut for me; though I must guess and calculate and grope my way in the dark, and come to uncertain conclusions unaided and alone where such writers as Dickens and Thackeray, having access to the shrine and image of Truth, have only to go into the temple, lift the veil a moment, and come out and say what they have seen—yet with every disadvantage, I mean still, in my own contracted way, to do my best.  Imperfect my best will be, and poor, and compared with the works of the true masters—of that greatest modern master Thackeray in especial (for it is him I at heart reverence with all my strength)—it will be trifling, but I trust not affected or counterfeit.—Believe me, my dear sir, yours with regard and respect,

Currer Bell.’

Gutenberg
Rosenbach/I-didnt-realize-he-had-insane-wife

Charlotte & Arthur’s marriage settlement.

Bronte Parsonage Museum

From the Treasure Trove: Charlotte & Arthur’s marriage settlement. Shortly before her marriage, Charlotte had a marriage settlement drawn up so that if she were to die before her husband, her money would pass to her father. The terms of the settlement were overturned when she wrote her will.

Critics, it appears to me, do not know what an intellectual boa-constrictor he is.

The devotion of Charlotte Brontë to Thackeray, or rather to Thackeray’s genius, is a pleasant episode in literary history.  In 1848 he sent Miss Brontë, as we have seen, a copy of Vanity Fair.  In 1852 he sent her a copy of Esmond, with the more cordial inscription which came of friendship.

TO W. S. WILLIAMS    ‘Haworth, October 28th, 1847.

‘Dear Sir,—Your last letter was very pleasant to me to read, and is very cheering to reflect on.  I feel honoured in being approved by Mr. Thackeray, because I approve Mr. Thackeray.  This may sound presumptuous perhaps, but I mean that I have long recognised in his writings genuine talent, such as I admired, such as I wondered at and delighted in.  No author seems to distinguish so exquisitely as he does dross from ore, the real from the counterfeit.  I believed too he had deep and true feelings under his seeming sternness.  Now I am sure he has.  One good word from such a man is worth pages of praise from ordinary judges.

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

‘December 11th, 1847.

There are moments when I can hardly credit that anything I have done should be found worthy to give even transitory pleasure to such men as Mr. Thackeray, Sir John Herschel, Mr. Fonblanque, Leigh Hunt, and Mr. Lewes—that my humble efforts should have had such a result is a noble reward.

‘I was glad and proud to get the bank bill Mr. Smith sent me yesterday, but I hardly ever felt delight equal to that which cheered me when I received your letter containing an extract from a note by Mr. Thackeray, in which he expressed himself gratified with the perusal of Jane Eyre.  Mr. Thackeray is a keen ruthless satirist.  I had never perused his writings but with blended feelings of admiration and indignation.  Critics, it appears to me, do not know what an intellectual boa-constrictor he is.  They call him “humorous,” “brilliant”—his is a most scalping humour, a most deadly brilliancy: he does not play with his prey, he coils round it and crushes it in his rings.  He seems terribly in earnest in his war against the falsehood and follies of “the world.”  I often wonder what that “world” thinks of him.  I should think the faults of such a man would be distrust of anything good in human nature—galling suspicion of bad motives lurking behind good actions.  Are these his failings?

They are, at any rate, the failings of his written sentiments, for he cannot find in his heart to represent either man or woman as at once good and wise.  Does he not too much confound benevolence with weakness and wisdom with mere craft?

‘But I must not intrude on your time by too long a letter.—Believe me, yours respectfully,

‘C. Bell.

gutenberg.org/files/

Stay at home artist/he-will-not-separate-us:

My Bronte novel is roaring along so I can barely keep up.  I have some scenes I  should have typed into the computer already, I'm behind in my transcribing.

 I write in long hand and then type the scenes in... Pad and pens are everywhere because I don't know when or where some of the novel will beam in . If I don't get it down right off, I can forget a good deal. ....and if I don't transcribe in a timely fashion , I find it hard to read my  own writing ! 

I put a topic heading  on each scene so I will know what it is about when I read it later....I seem to jump around time line wise... but the fact I'm doing  a historical novel makes  the writing a novel  possible I think . Because I don't have to figure out a plot or what happens next...that's already been done by the real people I'm writing about .... The other thing that makes it possible is my librarian  / writer husband will look it over and proof read it when it's finished lol 

There's alot of crying and laughing as I write and there still is a  ton to do when  I weave these scenes together into  their proper  time sequence. Meticulous work

Charlotte's letters will be an essential  aid. A big thank you to Margaret Smith,  the letter's editor. Her foot notes are a joy and allow the reader to understand CB's great letters more

Also a must is Juliet Baker's " The Brontes "  and so many other books, a Bronte novel should have  a bibliography  as much as a regular Bronte biography  !
 
and let me just say writing this is soooo much FUN 

Arthur’s pocket watch

Bronte Parsonage Museum

From the Treasure Trove: Arthur’s pocket watch. This watch is inscribed inside the cover, ‘Presented to the Revd. A. B. Nicholls by the teachers scholars and congregation of St Michael’s Haworth Yorkshire May 25th 1853’. Nicholls left Haworth for a short time after Charlotte rejected his proposal of marriage.

Reputation and legacy Thackeray (Part IV)

Thackaray

During the Victorian era, Thackeray was ranked second only to Charles Dickens, but he is now much less read and is known almost exclusively for Vanity Fair. In that novel he was able to satirise whole swaths of humanity while retaining a light touch. It also features his most memorable character, the engagingly roguish Becky Sharp. As a result, unlike Thackeray's other novels, it remains popular with the general reading public; it is a standard fixture in university courses and has been repeatedly adapted for movies and television.

 

In Thackeray's own day, some commentators, such as Anthony Trollope, ranked his History of Henry Esmond  (wiki/The_History_of_Henry_Esmond) as his greatest work, perhaps because it expressed Victorian values of duty and earnestness, as did some of his other later novels. It is perhaps for this reason that they have not survived as well as Vanity Fair, which satirises those values.
Thackeray saw himself as writing in the realistic tradition and distinguished himself from the exaggerations and sentimentality of Dickens. Some later commentators

have accepted this self-evaluation and seen him as a realist, but others note his inclination to use eighteenth-century narrative techniques, such as digressions and talking to the reader, and argue that through them he frequently disrupts the illusion of reality. The school of Henry James, with its emphasis on maintaining that illusion, marked a break with Thackeray's techniques.

Thackeray's former home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent is now a fine dining restaurant named after the author. thackerays-restaurant
2 Palace Green, a house built for Thackeray in the 1860s, is currently the permanent residence of the Israeli Embassy to the United Kingdom.^[11] A Royal Society of Arts blue plaque was unveiled in 1887 to commemorate Thackeray at Palace Green.^[12]