The Brontë Parsonage Museum has received funding to develop a series of projects that celebrate and showcase women's writing, as part of a vibrant contemporary arts programme that already exists at the museum. The Brontës were pioneering women writers and we hope that this project will enable a variety of writers, readers and visitors, to explore the museum, the Brontës and their work in new ways, but also to inspire new responses and creativity. There will be event days at the museum, as well as readings by prominent and emerging women writers (which will hopefully be podcasted on this site) and a writer in residence who will create a special project for teenage girls in the local community. All the events will be recorded here on this blog... (Jenna)
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maandag 24 augustus 2009
donderdag 13 augustus 2009
2009 Conference, Men in the Brontës' Lives
A report by Charlotte Jonné
(Note: I have done my best to give an accurate report of the speakers' ideas. If any inaccuracies have slipped in I apologise and will correct them if pointed out.)
As I am writing this, I am sitting on my bed in the lovely York Youth Hostel pondering events past, and basically not wanting to go back home. Home, which is – granted – a few degrees warmer, but not as appealing as a conference room filled with Brontë enthusiasts. A lot has happened over the past weekend. I have listened to eminent scholars making their points (accompanied by the occasional plugging of a book), I have got to know very nice people from all over the world (including fellow country…women I should say), and I have had heated discussions about the actor to play Heathcliff / Mr. Rochester in the perfect screen adaptation. The perfect screen adaptation which of course only exists in our mind’s eye (which is, I believe a submerged reference to Shakespeare’s Hamlet – an inside joke never hurts, but I’ll stop now, I promise). What I am trying to say, in this rather roundabout way, is that there was something for everyone at last weekend’s Brontë Conference at the University of York, the topic being Men in The Brontës' Lives - Influences, Publishers, Critics and Characters.
The very first lecture was by Christine Alexander, who talked about hero-worship and Charlotte Brontë. She agreed that there is a lot of hero worship in Brontë's work, because it was fashionable at the time, and because children model their behaviour on people they admire. The Brontë circle being as closed as it was, Charlotte had to look elsewhere, and found the Duke of Wellington among her father’s heroes. However, Alexander argues, Brontë always found a way of putting her admiration into perspective. Alexander then showed how this was done in throughout Brontë’s juvenilia and in Shirley.
The second lecture was given by Dudley Green, an expert on Patrick Brontë. He shed some light on the characteristics the Brontë children inherited from their father. Reverend Brontë made sure they had proper schooling and encouraged them to read, write, paint and play music. His religious influence can also be seen in the many biblical references in his children’s works. A special place in his heart was reserved for Emily, with whom he went shooting. He imprinted on Charlotte his sense of determination to succeed, which she would need when going to Belgium and when looking for a publisher. Patrick was paid a beautiful compliment on his parenting skills by M. Heger, who was impressed by the remarkable character of Charlotte and Emily.
The third lecture on Friday did not have a literary basis. Jane Sellars, an art historian, told us about the Brontë family portraits, of which there are two: Branwell's Pillar Portrait and Gun Group, which has been severely damaged. Sellars reviewed Branwell’s artistic influences and presumed intentions in painting his sisters, but also tried to look at the paintings afresh. She pointed out that the Pillar Portrait was painted when none of the sisters were famous, before the family tragedies. And yet, she argues, our modern-day perception of the portrait is distorted, because in our eyes, it has absorbed all the biographical information we now have about the Brontës.
On Saturday, Miriam Bailin gave us her views on the relationship between Charlotte Brontë and the critic George Henry Lewes. Lewes was the first person to characterise fictional realism, and that is what he wanted out of Charlotte Brontë: realism. He warned her about melodrama and was of the opinion that she should stick to her own experience. Charlotte recognised Lewes’s wisdom but did not accept it, since that was exactly what she had done in writing The Professor, a novel everyone was reluctant to publish. Brontë and Lewes had a lively correspondence, until he judged Shirley harshly, and revealed that the author was a woman. Charlotte felt wronged, since he had judged her as a woman and not as an author. Their frank interchange came to an end.
Michael O’Neill subsequently gave us a talk on Emily Brontë’s poetry and Romanticism, firmly establishing the ties between the Romantics (especially Shelley) and Emily’s poetry. He showed how Brontë reworked Romanticism, and how she responds to her predecessors.
Lucasta Miller, author of The Brontë Myth, gave us an introduction to Letitia Elizabeth Landon, an English poet and novelist, whose celebrity turned into notoriety after a series of scandals. Miller connects L.E.L.’s world with that of Charlotte Brontë. One similarity is the gossip: Charlotte Brontë was the alleged mistress of Thackeray. Unlike Landon, Brontë refused the part of the scandalous woman, and allowed no flirtation with anyone whatsoever. It is, however, interesting to ask the question: if Charlotte Brontë had lived in London, would she have been tempted?
Then Patsy Stoneman took the stage with her lecture on Rochester and Heathcliff as romantic heroes. As in earlier romantic stories, e.g. Jane Austen's, the relationship of Jane Eyre and Rochester is very Oedipal, Stoneman argues. He is an older man. He is also dark, moody, powerful, with hidden sorrows, not unlike Zamorna, Brontë’s Romantic hero. Whereas in the earlier stories it is often the heroine who changes, Jane Eyre revolves around the reformation of the hero. This has become a defining feature of modern romance writings. Rochester is gentler than many Byronic heroes and is prepared to share his life with his wife.
Heathcliff, however, is different from the traditional hero of romance and the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff is far from Oedipal, Stoneman claims. It stems from an earlier psychological phase, the mirror phase, where the child needs another person as a mirror to reflect it back to itself. This love, comparable to love between siblings, is a heritage from the Romantics, and explains the doubt as to whether there is adult sexual attraction between Heathcliff and Cathy. Heathcliff is a Romantic hero with a capital ‘R’, his story being sad and epic, while Rochester has more of the traditional romantic hero with a small ‘r’; his is a more appealing storyline.
Next, Paul Edmondson established the tie between Shakespeare and Anne Brontë’s novels. He showed that Anne has digested and reworked Shakespeare’s work. She had a copy of his work and the creases in its pages indicate what she read, where she paused, etc. The plays she alludes to most are Hamlet and Othello.
Richard Mullen subsequently analysed the relationship between William Makepeace Thackeray and Charlotte Brontë. The two of them had several meetings and an animated correspondence. Theirs was a very ambivalent relationship; Charlotte was at the same time very pleased and displeased with him. Even after Thackeray had revealed her identity in public, she continued to go to his lectures, but five years after that, she was tired of him, and he of her, and their correspondence ended. Charlotte had got too close to her idol.
On Sunday, Mr and Mrs Cochrane, two local historians, lectured on Arthur Bell Nicholls, Charlotte Brontë’s husband. Nicholls has been neglected in Brontë studies, has always stayed on the periphery, because Brontë admirers in general have had a strong antipathy towards him. The Cochranes emphasised that this does not do him justice, and that we should be grateful to him, since he gave Charlotte one of the happiest years of her life.
After which Sue Lonoff brought up M. Heger. She split her subject up into four parts. Firstly, Constantin Heger, the busy, Catholic man who lost his first wife and child. Secondly, Charlotte and Emily’s professor, an inspiring man with remarkable teaching methods. Thirdly, Heger is transformed into M. Paul Emanuel in Villette. This is a radical revision of reality: in Villette, Emanuel is a bachelor, whereas M. Heger was very much a family man. Fourthly, Heger was very responsive to Brontë fans, answering questions and giving them Charlotte’s essays as souvenirs.
The last lecture was one from Margaret Smith, who talked about George Smith and William Smith Williams and their connection with Charlotte Brontë. Smith was a very good friend, gave her advice on financial matters and was even an alleged love interest, although he wasn’t in the least attracted to Charlotte. William Smith Williams sent her books and advised her to write a three-part work (Jane Eyre) rather than another two-part work like The Professor. Charlotte dissolved their correspondence with a rather cold letter.
To conclude the conference we were asked our opinion, and our suggestions for future Brontë Conference topics. Suggestions were: “Branwell”, “The influence of the Brontës on their contemporaries”, “Brontë and Shakespeare”, “Brontë influences”. In sum, there is enough material to keep on talking for many, many years to come!
Charlotte Jonné is a member of the Brussels Brontë Group (http://www.thebrusselsbrontegroup.org)
.
(Note: I have done my best to give an accurate report of the speakers' ideas. If any inaccuracies have slipped in I apologise and will correct them if pointed out.)
As I am writing this, I am sitting on my bed in the lovely York Youth Hostel pondering events past, and basically not wanting to go back home. Home, which is – granted – a few degrees warmer, but not as appealing as a conference room filled with Brontë enthusiasts. A lot has happened over the past weekend. I have listened to eminent scholars making their points (accompanied by the occasional plugging of a book), I have got to know very nice people from all over the world (including fellow country…women I should say), and I have had heated discussions about the actor to play Heathcliff / Mr. Rochester in the perfect screen adaptation. The perfect screen adaptation which of course only exists in our mind’s eye (which is, I believe a submerged reference to Shakespeare’s Hamlet – an inside joke never hurts, but I’ll stop now, I promise). What I am trying to say, in this rather roundabout way, is that there was something for everyone at last weekend’s Brontë Conference at the University of York, the topic being Men in The Brontës' Lives - Influences, Publishers, Critics and Characters.
The very first lecture was by Christine Alexander, who talked about hero-worship and Charlotte Brontë. She agreed that there is a lot of hero worship in Brontë's work, because it was fashionable at the time, and because children model their behaviour on people they admire. The Brontë circle being as closed as it was, Charlotte had to look elsewhere, and found the Duke of Wellington among her father’s heroes. However, Alexander argues, Brontë always found a way of putting her admiration into perspective. Alexander then showed how this was done in throughout Brontë’s juvenilia and in Shirley.
The second lecture was given by Dudley Green, an expert on Patrick Brontë. He shed some light on the characteristics the Brontë children inherited from their father. Reverend Brontë made sure they had proper schooling and encouraged them to read, write, paint and play music. His religious influence can also be seen in the many biblical references in his children’s works. A special place in his heart was reserved for Emily, with whom he went shooting. He imprinted on Charlotte his sense of determination to succeed, which she would need when going to Belgium and when looking for a publisher. Patrick was paid a beautiful compliment on his parenting skills by M. Heger, who was impressed by the remarkable character of Charlotte and Emily.
The third lecture on Friday did not have a literary basis. Jane Sellars, an art historian, told us about the Brontë family portraits, of which there are two: Branwell's Pillar Portrait and Gun Group, which has been severely damaged. Sellars reviewed Branwell’s artistic influences and presumed intentions in painting his sisters, but also tried to look at the paintings afresh. She pointed out that the Pillar Portrait was painted when none of the sisters were famous, before the family tragedies. And yet, she argues, our modern-day perception of the portrait is distorted, because in our eyes, it has absorbed all the biographical information we now have about the Brontës.
On Saturday, Miriam Bailin gave us her views on the relationship between Charlotte Brontë and the critic George Henry Lewes. Lewes was the first person to characterise fictional realism, and that is what he wanted out of Charlotte Brontë: realism. He warned her about melodrama and was of the opinion that she should stick to her own experience. Charlotte recognised Lewes’s wisdom but did not accept it, since that was exactly what she had done in writing The Professor, a novel everyone was reluctant to publish. Brontë and Lewes had a lively correspondence, until he judged Shirley harshly, and revealed that the author was a woman. Charlotte felt wronged, since he had judged her as a woman and not as an author. Their frank interchange came to an end.
Michael O’Neill subsequently gave us a talk on Emily Brontë’s poetry and Romanticism, firmly establishing the ties between the Romantics (especially Shelley) and Emily’s poetry. He showed how Brontë reworked Romanticism, and how she responds to her predecessors.
Lucasta Miller, author of The Brontë Myth, gave us an introduction to Letitia Elizabeth Landon, an English poet and novelist, whose celebrity turned into notoriety after a series of scandals. Miller connects L.E.L.’s world with that of Charlotte Brontë. One similarity is the gossip: Charlotte Brontë was the alleged mistress of Thackeray. Unlike Landon, Brontë refused the part of the scandalous woman, and allowed no flirtation with anyone whatsoever. It is, however, interesting to ask the question: if Charlotte Brontë had lived in London, would she have been tempted?
Then Patsy Stoneman took the stage with her lecture on Rochester and Heathcliff as romantic heroes. As in earlier romantic stories, e.g. Jane Austen's, the relationship of Jane Eyre and Rochester is very Oedipal, Stoneman argues. He is an older man. He is also dark, moody, powerful, with hidden sorrows, not unlike Zamorna, Brontë’s Romantic hero. Whereas in the earlier stories it is often the heroine who changes, Jane Eyre revolves around the reformation of the hero. This has become a defining feature of modern romance writings. Rochester is gentler than many Byronic heroes and is prepared to share his life with his wife.
Heathcliff, however, is different from the traditional hero of romance and the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff is far from Oedipal, Stoneman claims. It stems from an earlier psychological phase, the mirror phase, where the child needs another person as a mirror to reflect it back to itself. This love, comparable to love between siblings, is a heritage from the Romantics, and explains the doubt as to whether there is adult sexual attraction between Heathcliff and Cathy. Heathcliff is a Romantic hero with a capital ‘R’, his story being sad and epic, while Rochester has more of the traditional romantic hero with a small ‘r’; his is a more appealing storyline.
Next, Paul Edmondson established the tie between Shakespeare and Anne Brontë’s novels. He showed that Anne has digested and reworked Shakespeare’s work. She had a copy of his work and the creases in its pages indicate what she read, where she paused, etc. The plays she alludes to most are Hamlet and Othello.
Richard Mullen subsequently analysed the relationship between William Makepeace Thackeray and Charlotte Brontë. The two of them had several meetings and an animated correspondence. Theirs was a very ambivalent relationship; Charlotte was at the same time very pleased and displeased with him. Even after Thackeray had revealed her identity in public, she continued to go to his lectures, but five years after that, she was tired of him, and he of her, and their correspondence ended. Charlotte had got too close to her idol.
On Sunday, Mr and Mrs Cochrane, two local historians, lectured on Arthur Bell Nicholls, Charlotte Brontë’s husband. Nicholls has been neglected in Brontë studies, has always stayed on the periphery, because Brontë admirers in general have had a strong antipathy towards him. The Cochranes emphasised that this does not do him justice, and that we should be grateful to him, since he gave Charlotte one of the happiest years of her life.
After which Sue Lonoff brought up M. Heger. She split her subject up into four parts. Firstly, Constantin Heger, the busy, Catholic man who lost his first wife and child. Secondly, Charlotte and Emily’s professor, an inspiring man with remarkable teaching methods. Thirdly, Heger is transformed into M. Paul Emanuel in Villette. This is a radical revision of reality: in Villette, Emanuel is a bachelor, whereas M. Heger was very much a family man. Fourthly, Heger was very responsive to Brontë fans, answering questions and giving them Charlotte’s essays as souvenirs.
The last lecture was one from Margaret Smith, who talked about George Smith and William Smith Williams and their connection with Charlotte Brontë. Smith was a very good friend, gave her advice on financial matters and was even an alleged love interest, although he wasn’t in the least attracted to Charlotte. William Smith Williams sent her books and advised her to write a three-part work (Jane Eyre) rather than another two-part work like The Professor. Charlotte dissolved their correspondence with a rather cold letter.
To conclude the conference we were asked our opinion, and our suggestions for future Brontë Conference topics. Suggestions were: “Branwell”, “The influence of the Brontës on their contemporaries”, “Brontë and Shakespeare”, “Brontë influences”. In sum, there is enough material to keep on talking for many, many years to come!
Charlotte Jonné is a member of the Brussels Brontë Group (http://www.thebrusselsbrontegroup.org)
.
A new Brontë portrait?
James Gorin von Grozny, from Devon, paid £150 for the work which he believes was painted by Sir Edwin Landseer in 1838.
But art experts say Landseer would have had no call to paint the sisters who were not famous at that date.
The only known portrait of the sisters was painted by their brother, Branwell.
In the painting, the figure believed to be Emily Bronte holds a pen and notebook, whilst Charlotte stands and Anne looks away to one side.
Mr Gorin von Gronzy had originally bought a different picture of three sisters from an auction house, but when he went to collect it, it had disappeared.
He said the auction house offered him a refund, or the picture he now believes is of the Bronte sisters.
Professor Francis O' Gorman, of the University of Leeds, an expert in Victorian Literature, said he was doubtful that the painting depicted the Bronte sisters.
"The Brontes were unheard of outside their family circle in 1838.
"There was nothing in the public domain which might have attracted one of the most famous painters of the early Victorian period to stop by and paint them", he said.
However, Mr Gorin von Grozny said that Landseer could have travelled through the Brontes' home town of Haworth whilst visiting his friend John Nussey at Bolton Hall in Yorkshire.
Nussey was the also brother of Charlotte Bronte's friend Ellen.
Mr Gorin von Gronzy said a small 'EL' monogram and the date 1838 visible in the crook of 'Charlotte's' arm, led to his belief that Landseer was the artist.
It is thought that the key to the painting's authenticity could lay in a sketch of a knee on the back of the portrait.
The sketch apparently shows a leg with a three inch scar just below the knee.
Mr Gorin von Grozny argued that a painting by Charlotte Bronte depicting a shepherdess, apparently with a similar scar on her leg, could have been a self-portrait.
The painting of the shepherdess by Bronte, based on Solitude at Dawn by Johann Henry Fuseli, appeared in a book called The Art of the Brontes.
And that would all be really exciting if there weren't big, huge 'but's to everything. And there's practically no need to write the arguments as a quick look at the picture clearly tells that these are not the Brontë sisters. Being three and holding a pen - when they were nearly 10 years away from becoming published authors - is not enough: the dresses, the faces, etc. seem to be all wrong, not to mention that the Edward Landseer - John Nussey - Ellen Nussey - Charlotte Brontë theory is a bit tenuous to put it mildly.
.
vrijdag 7 augustus 2009
De Brontes en Tennyson
Brontë scholarship has determined that Charlotte Brontë disliked Tennyson based on some comments to Elizabeth Gaskell and has, in general, overlooked his influence on her works. It is true that Elizabeth Gaskell relates her first meeting with Charlotte Brontë in the Lake District like this:
She and I quarrelled & differed about almost every thing,-she calls me a democrat, & can not bear Tennyson- but we like each other heartily I think & I hope we shall ripen into friends. (EG to Charlotte Freude, 25 August 1850)
And it is also true that Charlotte Brontë disliked Tennyson's In Memoriam (the poem that the poet devoted to his late friend Arthur Henry Hallam (1811-33), published in 1850).
But it is also true that Tennyson was not a rara avis in the Parsonage. After the failure of the Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, the sisters decided to send some of the unsold copies to well-known poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge, De Quincey and Tennyson (16 June 1847)(1)
Sir—My relatives, Ellis & Acton Bell and myself, heedless of the repeated warnings of various respectable publishers, have committed the rash act of printing a volume of poems.
The consequences predicted have, of course, overtaken us; our book is found to be a drug; no man needs it or heeds it; in the space of a year our publisher has disposed but of two copies and by what painful efforts he succeeded in getting rid of those two—himself only knows.
Before transferring the edition to the trunk-makers, we have decided on distributing as presents a few copies of what we cannot sell. We beg to offer you one in acknowledgement of the pleasure and profit we have often and long derived from your works.
I am sir, yours very respectfully,
Currer Bell (MS is at the Beineker Library at Yale)
And Tennyson was popular enough with at least Emily Brontë as to be chosen as a gift to her sister when Charlotte and Anne were in London in their famous July 1848 visit. They chose the recently published The Princess (1847). The familiarity of Charlotte Brontë with Tennyson is unquestionable: In February 1849 William Smith Williams (WSW) sent Charlotte a parcel of books including Tennyson's Poems, which Charlotte informed him she already possessed(2); in October 1850 reviewing for WSW Sydney Dobell's(3) The Roman, she praised him with a
You hear Tennyson indeed sometimes and Byron sometimes in some passages of the 'Roman'. (CB to WSW, 25 October 1850)
Fortunately, recently some scholars have begun to re-examine Tennyson's influence on Charlotte Brontë. We are thinking of Alison Hoddinott, who in a recent issue of Brontë Studies(4) exposed the so-called Perils of Biography: Charlotte Brontë and Tennyson:
It has been generally accepted by biographers that Charlotte Brontë thoroughly disliked Tennyson's poetry. This belief is based on a remark made by Elizabeth Gaskell in a letter written shortly after her first meeting with Charlotte. This article challenges the accepted view and explores the literary connections between The Princess and Shirley and between In Memoriam and Villette and argues that Tennyson had a complex influence on Charlotte Brontë's last two novels.
We don't know for sure, of course, if Charlotte Brontë felt the influence of Tennyson or loathed him, but what we do know is what Tennyson himself thought of the Brontës. According to his son and biographer Hallam Tennyson who printed Charlotte's letter to his father in his book: Alfred Lord Tennyson: A memoir (1897):
For the sisters Brontë my father had the highest admiration. (p. 262)
Notes
(1) Curiously enough in a review of the 3d edition of Jane Eyre (which included a reissue of The Poems), the Standard of Freedom's reviewer (21 Oct 1848) commented
"We meet wandering echoes of Wordsworth" (as in Acton Bell's Memory) and of Tennyson.
.
She and I quarrelled & differed about almost every thing,-she calls me a democrat, & can not bear Tennyson- but we like each other heartily I think & I hope we shall ripen into friends. (EG to Charlotte Freude, 25 August 1850)
And it is also true that Charlotte Brontë disliked Tennyson's In Memoriam (the poem that the poet devoted to his late friend Arthur Henry Hallam (1811-33), published in 1850).
But it is also true that Tennyson was not a rara avis in the Parsonage. After the failure of the Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, the sisters decided to send some of the unsold copies to well-known poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge, De Quincey and Tennyson (16 June 1847)(1)
Sir—My relatives, Ellis & Acton Bell and myself, heedless of the repeated warnings of various respectable publishers, have committed the rash act of printing a volume of poems.
The consequences predicted have, of course, overtaken us; our book is found to be a drug; no man needs it or heeds it; in the space of a year our publisher has disposed but of two copies and by what painful efforts he succeeded in getting rid of those two—himself only knows.
Before transferring the edition to the trunk-makers, we have decided on distributing as presents a few copies of what we cannot sell. We beg to offer you one in acknowledgement of the pleasure and profit we have often and long derived from your works.
I am sir, yours very respectfully,
Currer Bell (MS is at the Beineker Library at Yale)
And Tennyson was popular enough with at least Emily Brontë as to be chosen as a gift to her sister when Charlotte and Anne were in London in their famous July 1848 visit. They chose the recently published The Princess (1847). The familiarity of Charlotte Brontë with Tennyson is unquestionable: In February 1849 William Smith Williams (WSW) sent Charlotte a parcel of books including Tennyson's Poems, which Charlotte informed him she already possessed(2); in October 1850 reviewing for WSW Sydney Dobell's(3) The Roman, she praised him with a
You hear Tennyson indeed sometimes and Byron sometimes in some passages of the 'Roman'. (CB to WSW, 25 October 1850)
Fortunately, recently some scholars have begun to re-examine Tennyson's influence on Charlotte Brontë. We are thinking of Alison Hoddinott, who in a recent issue of Brontë Studies(4) exposed the so-called Perils of Biography: Charlotte Brontë and Tennyson:
It has been generally accepted by biographers that Charlotte Brontë thoroughly disliked Tennyson's poetry. This belief is based on a remark made by Elizabeth Gaskell in a letter written shortly after her first meeting with Charlotte. This article challenges the accepted view and explores the literary connections between The Princess and Shirley and between In Memoriam and Villette and argues that Tennyson had a complex influence on Charlotte Brontë's last two novels.
We don't know for sure, of course, if Charlotte Brontë felt the influence of Tennyson or loathed him, but what we do know is what Tennyson himself thought of the Brontës. According to his son and biographer Hallam Tennyson who printed Charlotte's letter to his father in his book: Alfred Lord Tennyson: A memoir (1897):
For the sisters Brontë my father had the highest admiration. (p. 262)
Notes
(1) Curiously enough in a review of the 3d edition of Jane Eyre (which included a reissue of The Poems), the Standard of Freedom's reviewer (21 Oct 1848) commented
"We meet wandering echoes of Wordsworth" (as in Acton Bell's Memory) and of Tennyson.
.
zaterdag 1 augustus 2009
30 juli geboortedag van Emily
Would this independent, spirited young woman ever have suspected her one novel would have had such a legacy? Not only are all the Brontes' characters of enduring interest, but the Brontes themselves lived lives which have continued to fascinate us two hundred years later.
Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights have inspired a number of examples of Fanfiction. Branwell, Charlotte, Emily and Anne have been the inspiration for novels, sometimes speculating about lesser known parts of their lives, and sometimes transporting them through time. (Maureen)
Moving forward, it is necessary to spend some time with Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, as not only was Bronte one of the first prominent female novelists, but moreover, she had a firm grasp on the prodigious male-female archetype—that is, the androgynous aspects of human beings. She states effervescently, “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath—a source of little visible delight, but necessary…I am Heathcliff—he’s always, always in my mind—not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself—but, as my own being…”
Horoscoop van Emily
http://chta.wordpress.com/personen-astrobiografieen/emily-bronte/ .
Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights have inspired a number of examples of Fanfiction. Branwell, Charlotte, Emily and Anne have been the inspiration for novels, sometimes speculating about lesser known parts of their lives, and sometimes transporting them through time. (Maureen)
Moving forward, it is necessary to spend some time with Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, as not only was Bronte one of the first prominent female novelists, but moreover, she had a firm grasp on the prodigious male-female archetype—that is, the androgynous aspects of human beings. She states effervescently, “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath—a source of little visible delight, but necessary…I am Heathcliff—he’s always, always in my mind—not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself—but, as my own being…”
Horoscoop van Emily
http://chta.wordpress.com/personen-astrobiografieen/emily-bronte/ .
zaterdag 4 juli 2009
portrait
We are fortunate that this, the only portrait of the three sisters together, has survived. Shortly after Patrick's death in 1861, Charlotte's husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls, took the portrait back to Ireland with him where he placed it, folded, on the top shelf of a wardrobe; and there it lay (along with the Emily fragment from the 'Gun Group Portrait') for the next fifty three years, being discovered, and subsequently sold in 1914, by his second wife, Mary Anne Nicholls, after Arthur's death in 1906. Charlotte's friend and eventual biographer, Elizabeth Gaskell, was shown the portrait by Charlotte during her first visit to the Parsonage in September 1853 (several years after Anne and Emily, whom she had never met, had died). In her biography, 'The Life of Charlotte Brontë', written two years after Charlotte's death, she described the event, and the portrait, thus:
'. . . there could be no doubt about Branwell's talent for drawing. I have seen an oil painting of his, done I know not when . . . It was a group of his sisters, life size, three-quarters' length; not much better than sign-painting, as to manipulation; but the likenesses were, I should think, admirable. I could only judge of the fidelity with which the other two were depicted, from the striking resemblance which Charlotte, upholding the great frame of canvas, and consequently standing right behind it, bore to her own representation, though it must have been ten years and more since the portraits were taken. The picture was divided, almost in the middle, by a great pillar. On the side of the column which was lighted by the sun, stood Charlotte, in the womanly dress of that day of jigot sleeves and large collars. On the deeply shadowed side, was Emily, and Anne's gentle face resting on her shoulder. Emily's countenance struck me as full of power; Charlotte's of solicitude; Anne's of tenderness. The two younger seemed hardly to have attained their full growth, though Emily was taller than Charlotte; they had cropped hair, and a more girlish dress. I remember looking on those two sad, earnest, shadowed faces, and wondering whether I could trace the mysterious expression which is said to foretell an early death. I had some fond superstitious hope that the column divided their fates from hers, who stood apart in the canvas, as in life she survived. . . . They were good likenesses, however badly executed.'
'. . . there could be no doubt about Branwell's talent for drawing. I have seen an oil painting of his, done I know not when . . . It was a group of his sisters, life size, three-quarters' length; not much better than sign-painting, as to manipulation; but the likenesses were, I should think, admirable. I could only judge of the fidelity with which the other two were depicted, from the striking resemblance which Charlotte, upholding the great frame of canvas, and consequently standing right behind it, bore to her own representation, though it must have been ten years and more since the portraits were taken. The picture was divided, almost in the middle, by a great pillar. On the side of the column which was lighted by the sun, stood Charlotte, in the womanly dress of that day of jigot sleeves and large collars. On the deeply shadowed side, was Emily, and Anne's gentle face resting on her shoulder. Emily's countenance struck me as full of power; Charlotte's of solicitude; Anne's of tenderness. The two younger seemed hardly to have attained their full growth, though Emily was taller than Charlotte; they had cropped hair, and a more girlish dress. I remember looking on those two sad, earnest, shadowed faces, and wondering whether I could trace the mysterious expression which is said to foretell an early death. I had some fond superstitious hope that the column divided their fates from hers, who stood apart in the canvas, as in life she survived. . . . They were good likenesses, however badly executed.'
dinsdag 30 juni 2009
This is the schoolroom where all three of the Brontë sisters taught
Patrick Bronte was a passionate believer in educating children, particularly poor children.This no doubt came from his own impoverished background growing up in Ireland, the eldest of ten children. Through his own talent and sponsorship, he was able to rise from these humble beginnings to enter St John's Cambridge to study for the ministry.
Patrick and his family arrived in Haworth in 1820, determined to improve the lives of his parishioners. In 1831 he persuaded the Church Trustees to release a small parcel of land on Church Street for the building of a Sunday School. He then requested and was granted £80 from the National Society to contribute towards the building of the school. The Sunday School building was opened in the summer of 1832 The commemorative plaque over the door was composed by Patrick, and reads:
'This National Sunday School is under the management of trustees of whom the incumbent for the time being is one. It was erected AD1832 by Voluntary Subscription and by a grant from the National Society in London. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Prov. XII.6'
In 1843 Patrick secured a further grant from the National Society to enable a salaried master to teach at the school on weekdays. In 1843 the first of three extensions were built, the second in 1850-3, and the third in 1872. The later extensions are still extant and form the two gable ends opposite the Parsonage.
The building remained a school until it was replaced by a larger building in 1903, but still continues to serve the community for which it was built.
Patrick and his family arrived in Haworth in 1820, determined to improve the lives of his parishioners. In 1831 he persuaded the Church Trustees to release a small parcel of land on Church Street for the building of a Sunday School. He then requested and was granted £80 from the National Society to contribute towards the building of the school. The Sunday School building was opened in the summer of 1832 The commemorative plaque over the door was composed by Patrick, and reads:
'This National Sunday School is under the management of trustees of whom the incumbent for the time being is one. It was erected AD1832 by Voluntary Subscription and by a grant from the National Society in London. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Prov. XII.6'
In 1843 Patrick secured a further grant from the National Society to enable a salaried master to teach at the school on weekdays. In 1843 the first of three extensions were built, the second in 1850-3, and the third in 1872. The later extensions are still extant and form the two gable ends opposite the Parsonage.
The building remained a school until it was replaced by a larger building in 1903, but still continues to serve the community for which it was built.
a sampler of Emily Bronte
This is a reproduction of a sampler which Emily Bronte worked when she was ten years old. The reproduction is authorized by the Bronte Society, and the original may be seen at the Bronte Parsonage Museum, Haworth, England.
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BRONTË PARSONAGE MUSEUM RECEIVES £50,000 FROM HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND TO SUPPORT NEW DEVELOPMENT
Monday, June 29, 2009
BRONTË PARSONAGE MUSEUM RECEIVES £50,000 FROM HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND TO SUPPORT NEW DEVELOPMENT
The Brontë Parsonage Museum has been awarded a grant of £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support a programme of exciting new developments.
The museum has ambitious plans to completely refurbish the historic interiors of the Parsonage over the next two years. This will involve researching and introducing a new decorative scheme to the Parsonage rooms, the renewal of interpretation giving visitors of all ages information about the house and the family, and installing new object cases and displays. The project will also seek to create a greater focus in the museum on Haworth’s history and the social-historical context in which the Brontës lived. As part of this initiative there will be a programme of community activity to involve local people in the project. The Heritage Lottery Fund grant will fund stage 1 of the project which will involve the introduction of new interpretation, object cases and displays and the community programme of events which will begin with a local residents’ free admission day on 15 August.
The museum, which was home to the famous Brontë family for over forty years, and is where Charlotte, Emily and Anne’s great novels were written, recently completed a major refurbishment to its permanent exhibition space located in an extension to the original Brontë house. The refurbishment was the first major development at the museum in over twenty years and the new exhibition space, Genius: The Brontë Story, which includes the treasures of the museum’s collection as well as fun interactive displays for children, has proved a big hit with visitors. This latest project will see further improvements to the museum.
Fiona Spiers, Head of HLF, Yorkshire and the Humber Region, said:
This fantastic project will really bring the museum’s collections to life for everyone to explore. HLF is dedicated to supporting projects that open up our heritage for locals and visitors to learn about and enjoy.
We are delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund is supporting us with this work. The Brontës are the heart of Haworth but they were part of a broader community when they lived and wrote here and the museum has an important role in reflecting that and in forging links with the twenty-first century Haworth community. This project will hopefully allow us to work in partnership with that community to reinterpret the Brontës and the Parsonage for the next generation.
Andrew McCarthy, Director, Brontë Parsonage Museum
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BRONTË PARSONAGE MUSEUM RECEIVES £50,000 FROM HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND TO SUPPORT NEW DEVELOPMENT
The Brontë Parsonage Museum has been awarded a grant of £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support a programme of exciting new developments.
The museum has ambitious plans to completely refurbish the historic interiors of the Parsonage over the next two years. This will involve researching and introducing a new decorative scheme to the Parsonage rooms, the renewal of interpretation giving visitors of all ages information about the house and the family, and installing new object cases and displays. The project will also seek to create a greater focus in the museum on Haworth’s history and the social-historical context in which the Brontës lived. As part of this initiative there will be a programme of community activity to involve local people in the project. The Heritage Lottery Fund grant will fund stage 1 of the project which will involve the introduction of new interpretation, object cases and displays and the community programme of events which will begin with a local residents’ free admission day on 15 August.
The museum, which was home to the famous Brontë family for over forty years, and is where Charlotte, Emily and Anne’s great novels were written, recently completed a major refurbishment to its permanent exhibition space located in an extension to the original Brontë house. The refurbishment was the first major development at the museum in over twenty years and the new exhibition space, Genius: The Brontë Story, which includes the treasures of the museum’s collection as well as fun interactive displays for children, has proved a big hit with visitors. This latest project will see further improvements to the museum.
Fiona Spiers, Head of HLF, Yorkshire and the Humber Region, said:
This fantastic project will really bring the museum’s collections to life for everyone to explore. HLF is dedicated to supporting projects that open up our heritage for locals and visitors to learn about and enjoy.
We are delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund is supporting us with this work. The Brontës are the heart of Haworth but they were part of a broader community when they lived and wrote here and the museum has an important role in reflecting that and in forging links with the twenty-first century Haworth community. This project will hopefully allow us to work in partnership with that community to reinterpret the Brontës and the Parsonage for the next generation.
Andrew McCarthy, Director, Brontë Parsonage Museum
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maandag 29 juni 2009
De foto van Patrick Brontë
De foto van Patrick Brontë, die 29=-6=2--9 is geveild voor 1476 pond, gaat terug naar Haworth. De anonieme koper van het portret, een vrouw uit het zuiden van Engeland, schenkt het aan het Brontë Parsonage Museum. “Dit moet niet in particuliere handen blijven”, liet zij weten in een reactie. De foto was sinds 1898 ‘vermist’, toen deze werd verkocht voor 5 pence uit de boedel van The Museum of Brontë Relics. Onlangs dook het portret op tijdens een antiekmarkt. De koper heeft bijna drie keer meer betaald dan verwacht. Eerder schatte het veilinghuis de waarde van het portret op maximaal 600 pond.
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Wat betekent Gothische literatuur?
Ik kom regelmatig de term Gothic tegen i.v.m. Emily Bronte. Ik ben op zoek gegaan naar de betekenis. Het betekent "Horror". En uit Wikepedia haal ik het volgende:
De invloed van Byronic Romanticism duidelijk in het werk van de zusters Brontë. Emily Brontë 's Wuthering Heights (1847) het Gotische zit hier in de Yorkshire Moors, spookachtige verschijningen en een Byronic held in de persoon van de demonische Heathcliff. Terwijl Charlotte Brontë 's Jane Eyre (1847) een krankzinnige vrouw op zolder toevoegt. The Brontës' fiction is door sommige feministische critici als voorbeelden van vrouwelijk Gothic.
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De invloed van Byronic Romanticism duidelijk in het werk van de zusters Brontë. Emily Brontë 's Wuthering Heights (1847) het Gotische zit hier in de Yorkshire Moors, spookachtige verschijningen en een Byronic held in de persoon van de demonische Heathcliff. Terwijl Charlotte Brontë 's Jane Eyre (1847) een krankzinnige vrouw op zolder toevoegt. The Brontës' fiction is door sommige feministische critici als voorbeelden van vrouwelijk Gothic.
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vrijdag 26 juni 2009
Gawthorpe Hall
The Kay-Shuttleworths also came to hear about Charlotte Brontë who was becoming a well known author by this time and lived only 12 miles away in Haworth. They invited her to come and stay, which she eventually did in 1850 and then again in 1855. She also stayed with the Kay-Shuttleworths at their home in Windermere where she met Mrs Gaskell who became her great friend and wrote the first biography of Charlotte after her death. During Charlotte’s second visit to Gawthorpe in January 1855 it is said that she insisted walking out in the grounds and caught a chill from which she never managed to recover, she died two months later on 31st March the same year.
Zie ook onder websites:
www.grimshaworigin.org/WebPages/ShutGawt.htm
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donderdag 25 juni 2009
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 - 1865)
Elizabeth Gaskell, novelist who championed the working classes © Gaskell was a Victorian novelist, also notable for her biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë.
Elizabeth Stevenson was born in London on 29 September 1810, the daughter of a Unitarian minister. After her mother's early death, she was raised by an aunt who lived in Knutsford in Cheshire. In 1832 she married William Gaskell, also a Unitarian minister, and they settled in the industrial city of Manchester.
Motherhood and the obligations of a minister's wife kept her busy. However, the death of her only son inspired her to write her first novel, 'Mary Barton', which was published anonymously in 1848. It was an immediate success, winning the praise of Charles Dickens and Thomas Carlyle.
Dickens invited her to contribute to his magazine, 'Household Words', where her next major work, Cranford, appeared in 1853. 'North and South' was published the following year. Gaskell's work brought her many friends, including the novelist Charlotte Brontë. When Charlotte died in 1855, her father, Patrick Brontë, asked Gaskell to write her biography. The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) was written with admiration and covered a huge quantity of firsthand material with great narrative skill.
Gaskell died on 12 November 1865, leaving her longest work, 'Wives and Daughters' incomplete.
Elizabeth Stevenson was born in London on 29 September 1810, the daughter of a Unitarian minister. After her mother's early death, she was raised by an aunt who lived in Knutsford in Cheshire. In 1832 she married William Gaskell, also a Unitarian minister, and they settled in the industrial city of Manchester.Motherhood and the obligations of a minister's wife kept her busy. However, the death of her only son inspired her to write her first novel, 'Mary Barton', which was published anonymously in 1848. It was an immediate success, winning the praise of Charles Dickens and Thomas Carlyle.
Dickens invited her to contribute to his magazine, 'Household Words', where her next major work, Cranford, appeared in 1853. 'North and South' was published the following year. Gaskell's work brought her many friends, including the novelist Charlotte Brontë. When Charlotte died in 1855, her father, Patrick Brontë, asked Gaskell to write her biography. The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) was written with admiration and covered a huge quantity of firsthand material with great narrative skill.Gaskell died on 12 November 1865, leaving her longest work, 'Wives and Daughters' incomplete.
Het huis van Elisabeth Gaskell in Manchester. De trap binnen in het huis.
Zij was ook de schrijfster van Cranford
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