Jane Eyre: text, context, urtext

A Call for Papers from Elise Ouvrard:


For more than 160 years, Jane Eyre has been the object of all sorts of readings, critiques and sequels. When it appeared in 1847, the novel enjoyed incredible success: Jane Eyre, an Autobiography was widely read, but its plot and heroine were also accessible through the first critical interpretations or the numerous plays that were adapted from the novel as early as 1848. Known at first or second hand ever since its publication, Jane Eyre nowadays belongs to the category of books that one can discuss without having ever read them. Yet, to Brontë scholars and enthusiasts, appreciating the plot without having a taste of Charlotte Brontë’s style seems impossible, claiming a clear understanding of the novel without resituating it in its context seems absurd, just as it feels pointless to try to appraise the talent of Charlotte Brontë’s literary descendants without having been carried away by her own genius. This special issue of LISA e-journal, to be published in the first quarter of 2009, intends to reexamine Jane Eyre, its context, its text and its scope as an urtext, in order to exploit the full richness of the novel and to allow the readers to become immersed once more in this major text of nineteenth-century British literature।

Returning to sources, with such a novel as Jane Eyre, means first of all exploring what surrounded its creation. Victorian England, Yorkshire, Haworth or the parsonage may all be apprehended as fundamental to the novel, and examining their importance may lead to a better understanding of the thematic background of the text. Other elements in the genesis of the novel equally deserve our attention: the collective reading at the parsonage, allowing each sister to use the other two as touchstones to test the quality of her writing, Charlotte Brontë’s involvement in the publication of the three sisters’ works, or the energy she spent writing Jane Eyre in only a few months, while her first novel wound its way from publisher to publisher and kept being rejected. The context sheds a precious light on the novel and also functions as a background against which the originality and timelessness of Jane Eyre may be traced.
The text itself, because of its uniqueness and also the way it merges History with its story, has been the object of many readings, from feminist to Marxist, from psychoanalytical to structuralist, and so on। It is true that the novel is very fertile ground for critical discourse and offers an invitation to react, to comment or to decipher. The fields of investigation are as wide as the text itself, wider even, if one considers the importance of intertextuality (Bunyan, fairytales…) and of all the other art forms that punctuate the text (like painting or folklore), incessantly enabling it to transcend itself.

Reexamining Jane Eyre also means reading its sequels and rewritings, considering Charlotte Brontë’s text as an urtext, an original text founding an artistic continuation. New connections may then be discovered between Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. The notion of quotation in works published afterwards may be of interest in a context of dissemination of Jane Eyre, as well as a study of adaptations for stage, screen or television, or of the illustrated versions of the novel that have been released so far.

Please send your proposals (20 to 50 lines), along with a short bio-bibliographical note, to Elise Ouvrard (ouvrard_elise@hotmail.com) or Charlotte Borie (borie@univ-tlse2.fr) before 30 September 2008 (the deadline for completed articles is 30 November 2008). Please follow the norms for presentation indicated on the LISA e-journal website

June weekend - Thornton

On the Tuesday (10 June) of the annual June weekend of the Brontë Society, a reading from Charlotte Brontë's letters took place in  St James's church hall. Readers were Robert Barnard and the organiser of the day's events, Angela Crow-Woods.

There were more readings after this, from Brontë poems, with commentaries, from Catherine and Ian Emberson, whose home page can be found here.

Later, there was a walk around the village. Of course, there was a significant pause outside the birthplace, which was sold in an auction last year to a London property developer. It is empty, but has, apparently, been "damp-proofed and repainted" inside. The tiny patch of garden at the front had been hastily dug over, unearthed bulbs on the surface.

Pictured above - a page from the register in the church, the well-kept ruins of the Old Bell Chapel, the old bell itself and the birthplace.

Simon Armitage this Friday

The current Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, read from his work in Haworth not so long ago. Now the next one (a good bet) will be at the West Lane Baptist Church on Friday 20 June at 7.30 pm. Make every effort to be there!

Simon Armitage has published ten volumes of poetry, for which he has won numerous awards, including a Forward Prize, Eric Gregory Award, and a Lannan Award, in addition to being shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and Whitbread Poetry Award. 

His Selected Poems was published in 2001, and his latest collection is Tyrannosaurus versus the Corduroy Kid (2006). Simon is also the author of All Points North (1998), and two novels - Little Green Man and The White Stuff. He has recently published Gig: The Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist (2008).

Tickets cost £9.50 (£5.00 16 years and under) and must be booked in advance. As part of this event the museum will be open until 7pm for those wishing to view the Elmet exhibition. For further details please contact the Brontë Parsonage Museum, 01535 640188/ jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk

New president announced

This Saturday, the current President of the Brontë Society, Rebecca Fraser, chaired the Annual General Meeting for the last time. A popular and approachable figure at the annual June Weekends for the past seven years, she has now stepped down. It was announced that Brontë Society Council has just invited the actor, entertainer, ex-MP and television presenter Gyles Brandreth to be the new president, and that he has accepted.

He can be seen in various BBC online videos, for example this one from The One Show.

Heather Glen in Haworth

The title of the annual lecture at 11am on Saturday was The Originality of Wuthering Heights. It was given by Heather Glen, a frequent visitor to the Parsonage, who is Professor of English in the University of Cambridge. This is a very brief summary which can not do full justice to a lecture which was fresh, accessible and full of new insights for most of the audience, the obvious product of meticulous research:

She began with a focus on the fact that Emily Brontë is sometimes referred to in various terms as a ‘one-off’, a lone genius who lived in a kind of “rustic ignorance”.

“Emily chose Scott as her hero at the age of nine….there is plenty of evidence in the Juvenilia,” we were told. “She was sharply aware of literary tradition."

There are many connections with Scott’s work – for example the fact that he often uses servant narratives - and Lockwood could be said to be in the Scott tradition to some extent, because of all the “polite, young civilised men” in the Waverley Novels who encounter a rude, uncivilised world, from which they eventually learn something. Lockwood, however, learns nothing: “Emily had nothing of Scott’s geniality, his sense of the ultimate triumph of civilised values….she was more racy than Scott….Wuthering Heights ends in ambiguity, not in moral richness…”

In Wuthering Heights, dialogue is used directly, without the intervention of an intervening narrator: “complex emotions and relationships are rendered through dialogue,” a product of Emily’s “precise, imaginative intelligence.”

We were asked to look at the passages printed out for us. The first was from Chapter 9:

I was rocking Hareton on my knee, and humming a song that began:

It was far in the night, and the bairnies grat,
The mither beneath the mools heard that –

When Miss Cathy, who had listened……..etc

This was followed by an extract from ‘The Ghaists Warning’, Appendix to Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake, which began:

…He’s married a may, and he’s fessen her hame
But she was a grim and laidly dame

When into the castell court drave she,
The seven bairns stood wi’ the tear in their ee.

The bairns they stood wi’ dule and dout;-
She up wi’ her foot, and she kicked them out.

Nor ale nor mead to the Bairnies she gave:
“But hunger and hate frae me ye’s have.”

…’Twas lang I’ the night, and the bairnies grat:
Their mither she under the mools heard that;

Etc

This was accompanied (as in the original which Emily would have read), by explanations and glosses, for example:

May maid, fessen fetched, dule sorrow, dout fear, grat wept, mools mould; earth

The story is about threats, revenge and the supernatural. A dead mother returns to her children from her grave because they are crying, a walking corpse which inspires terror and causes the dogs to snarl and howl. One of them is put on her lap and suckled…

“It is about a passion which transcends mortality… think of all the allusions to ballads and ballad motifs……”

With further examples, Heather Glen talked about the ‘leaping and lingering’ techniques which are common to ballads and to Wuthering Heights, where the lingering is on climactic scenes, and there are echoes……think of the first Cathy ‘captured’ until she is well at Thrushcross Grange and the second Cathy held at Wuthering Heights.

The rude, uncivilised world is perceived with the ‘protection’ of glosses, explanations……..and books. What does Lockwood pile against the window when the terrifying child ghost tries to get in?

Beryl Bainbridge in Haworth

Beryl Bainbridge started off the annual June Weekend today, talking to a large audience of Brontë Society members in the West Lane Baptist Church. 

She was asked questions by Anne-Marie Sanchez, and finished by reading from her latest, unfinished, novel, provisionally entitled The Girl in the Polka-dot dress. It is set at about the time of the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, allegedly by Sirhan Sirhan, but it is not a straightforward matter in this version, as might be expected.

After talking about events in her childhood and the ways they have entered her fiction, she spoke about her admiration for the Brontës ("they wrote such jolly good stories") and explained why she was writing mainly historical novels at the moment ("because I've now written everything I can about my childhood.......but I still get into my novels....I still put in things from my past..") and revealed that four months is her normal gestation period.

"There's no need to make anything up - ever," was her parting message.

Tomorrow's events include a lecture by Heather Glen, a church service, the AGM and a panel discussion.

Below, Ann-Marie Sanchez and Beryl Bainbridge:

Parsonage director to leave

Alan Bentley (pictured) writes:

I am leaving the Bronte Society on the 31st May to work freelance and to develop my consultancy business. It is sad to be leaving after seven highly enjoyable years and I hope it will not be the end of my association with the Brontë Society and the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

I am sure that with the redevelopment of the exhibition room and the extra media interest which will follow next year's adaptations of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre and the possible Brontë movie, coupled with the continuing development of the contemporary arts and education programmes, the Society will continue to go from strength to strength.

Elmet exhibition

Today, the Parsonage opens a special exhibition of photographs by Fay Godwin from her collaboration with Ted Hughes, Elmet. The evocative photographs of the local landscape will be displayed in the period rooms until 25 July 2008.

The photographs, on loan from the British Library, include images of the landscape that inspired the Brontës.

Elmet, published by Faber and Faber in 1994, is a revised and expanded version of Remains of Elmet, a celebration of places where the poet spent the first seven years of his childhood published in 1979. Hughes added several poems and left out others. The sequence is different as well. Hughes was unhappy with some of the poem-photo links in the first edition.

Below, Top Withins:

Pootering around in the churchyard

An activity day for families entitled Chaffinches and Churchyards was held today at the Parsonage Museum.

Spring was in the air this May bank holiday at the Parsonage. Families were offered a day of outdoor activities… with a difference. After children had visited the home where the Brontë family grew up, they all took special Discovery Bags and went to meet the inhabitants of Haworth Churchyard. Not the ghosts but some of the varied plants and creatures that like to call the churchyard home. The museum’s education officer Susan Newby, who ran the activities, said, “As well as being really interesting places to explore historically, churchyards can be a haven to a surprising range of species, all coming alive at this time of year. It was great to have a dig around and to see what turned up!”

In each bag was a pooter (yes, a real word!) to catch a mini beast and a ‘bug viewer’ to see it magnified. This was followed by drawing sessions - and grave rubbing when the churchyard trail was followed.

susan.newby@bronte.org.uk

Below, two enthusiasts:

Remembering Patrick Brontë

Imelda Marsden writes:


The 7th June 1861 was the date Rev Patrick Brontë died. The BrontëSociety is holding its usual June weekend church service at St Michaels and All Angels, Haworth on the 7th June 2008.

Patrick is not mentioned on the member's leaflet about the church service. However, Sir James Roberts is mentioned, for we do not decry the generous gift of the Parsonage to the Brontë Society for use as a museum in 1928 - eighty years ago. An interesting fact about the Brontë Society AGM in 1927 held at Healds Hall, Liversedge, is that it was put to members that a fundraising effort was needed to purchase Haworth's Church Parsonage as the current museum was becoming too small.

The Church trustees were looking for a price of £3000 to build a new parsonage home for the vicar. Sadly some of the founder members of the Society, who worked very hard putting a lot of time and effort in to establish the Society and the first Brontë museum, did not live to see the Brontë museum move to the Parsonage in August 1928.

Next year, it will be 200 years since Rev Patrick Brontë came to Dewsbury as a curate and it is hoped the Society will acknowledge this fact. Mr W W Yates who was a prime instigator in setting up the Brontë Society and its first museum was on the Society's Council, and at one time, its chairman: one of his daughter's, Anna, was also on the Council. Both worked for the Dewsbury Reporter newspaper and are buried at Dewsbury Minster where their gravestones are still standing.

Brussels Brontë Weekend 18-20 April

Helen MacEwan writes:

It's been a long cold winter in Brussels but the sun finally came out in time for our guided walk around Brontë places, led by Derek Blyth, during the second spring weekend of events organised by the recently-formed Brussels branch to mark Charlotte Brontë's birthday.

This year Robert Barnard joined us from Leeds in the UK to take part in a meeting with writers in Waterstone's and also in the all-day conference on Les Soeurs Brontë à Bruxelles organised by a public library, which to our surprise was inaugurated by the Mayor of Brussels, who switched effortlessly between French, Dutch and English.

Eric Ruijssenaars and Maureen Peeck O'Toole, who also spoke at the weekend's events, joined us too, together with other members from the Netherlands, France and the Czech Republic.

For some gourmets the high point of the weekend was a Victorian dinner arranged by the conference organisers to round off a long day.

Pictured below:

Place du Musée near Chapelle Royale, Protestant church where Charlotte and Emily worshipped.

The guided walk, with Derek Blyth

Writers in Waterstones – with Robert Barnard

The Mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, inaugurating the Bronte conference organised by one of the main Brussels public libraries.

Eric Ruijssenaars speaking at the conference - with photo of Belliard steps down to rue Isabelle and the Pensionnat Heger

See link to Brussels group on the right.

Behind the scenes tours

Director Alan Bentley writes:

There will soon be chances to see behind the scenes at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, by taking advantage of a new 'special tour' scheme.

The first two will take place on 3 May and 24 May, with more dates to be announced shortly.

Get a new view of the story of the Brontë Family! Your guide will try to give you a special insight into the lives of the Brontës, and an understanding of why they still inspire people today.

The tour will culminate in a visit to the Parsonage Library, with a chance to view at close quarters a selection of items from the Brontë Society’s collections

Tours are restricted to a maximum of twelve people.

9.45 - meet your guide for a short introduction to the house and the surrounding features

10.00 - tour of the house with your guide

11.15 - visit to the Library and opportunity to view selected items from the collection.

11.45 - end of tour and your opportunity to go back to view the house at your leisure or visit the exhibition in the Old School Room opposite the Museum.

All this is being offered for the special introductory price of £12.95 per head. Unfortunately we are not able to offer reductions for children or concessions. There will be a minimum number on each tour of six people.

Pre-booking is essential. Call 01535 642323 to do it!

Jane Eyre "progressing well"

Classical Comics reports that Jane Eyre is progressing well. Sample pages can be seen below. Click on an image to enlarge it.

These are described as "still rough in terms of lettering" ........judge for yourself.

There is the possibility of a display at the Parsonage at the end of the year or in early 2009.

The company welcomes your comments, of course.

A little piece of history

There has been a rush to get hold of a slice of a tree said to be planted by Charlotte Brontë as part of her wedding celebrations in 1854. The tree unfortunately had to be felled in January as it had become unsafe.

The trunk is to be made into a sculpture but a limited amount of the wood from the smaller branches has been sliced up and packaged as a limited edition souvenir.

Members have been asked to donate money to the Brontë Society’s conservation fund in return for the package of history and have responded remarkably: in just over a week a thousand pounds has been raised to support the care and conservation of the Society’s collection of Brontë objects.

The limited edition packs have been offered initially to members of the Brontë Society in return for a donation of five pounds or more to the charity. Donations have been flooding in from around the world and include one donation of a hundred pounds.

The Brontës may have been surprised by the interest but they may have understood it. Charlotte was given a fragment of Napoleon’s coffin by her teacher while studying in Brussels. The small piece of wood is now in the Museum collection.

Mr William Callaghan - a Brontë Society member from Oxenhope - was the first to receive his slice of history from Alan Bentley, Director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum. The two men are pictured below.

When it was clear that the tree was sick the Brontë Society had sapling grown from seeds from the Cyprus Pine, and one of these has been planted in the Parsonage garden to replace the original tree.

BBC Radio 4 and the Brontës

A reminder from Parsonage Director Alan Bentley:

Today at 2.15pm BST -

Afternoon Play - I Believe I Have Genius

This play by Judith Adams (who was Education Officer at the Parsonage a few years ago) is based on the writings and letters of Charlotte Brontë, describing her experiences when she travelled to Brussels, as humble and obscure as the heroines of her later novels.

This should be available to listen to on the BBC website (Listen Again) for the next seven days.

Tomorrow

On Friday 18 April at 15:00 BST

Ramblings - Clare Balding explores routes with connections to the past.

She strides out across the moors behind Haworth in the footsteps of the Brontës with Ann Dinsdale and Judith Bland. They intend to walk to Top Withins, thought to be the inspiration for Wuthering Heights, but they wander a little off course and in doing so forge a much stronger connection to the famous sisters.

Available online at the BBC's Listen Again.

Brontë Exhibition in Brussels

Helen MacEwan writes:

One of the main Brussels public libraries, Bibliothèque Riches Claires, has organised an excellent exhibition on Charlotte and Emily Brontë's stay in Brussels in 1842-43. This is an initiative of the chief librarian, who had the idea after reading Brontë Society member Eric Ruijssenaars' books on this subject.

The library, with assistance from the Brussels Brontë Group, is also organising a conference on Saturday 19 April with six speakers including Robert Barnard and a member of the Heger family.

The organisers agreed to time the exhibition and conference to coincide with the Brussels Brontë Group's annual weekend of events.

This is an opportunity to see a lot of interesting pictures, photos and books on Brussels in the period of the Brontës' stay and to find out more about the Quartier Isabelle and the Pensionnat Heger. There is also plenty of material on the Brontë and Heger families, and a display of Brontë novels and biographies in French from Brussels libraries with Wuthering Heights translated in at least seven different ways!

Exhibition Les Soeurs Brontë à Bruxelles, Bibliothèque des Riches Claires, rue Riches Claires 24, 1000 Brussels, from 10 to 29 April 2008. Exhibition opening hours: Monday to Friday 13.00 to 17.00; Saturday (except for 19 April): 10.00 to 12.00

Details of the conference on 19 April and of the other events taking place can be found on the Brussels Brontë Group website

Facebook Brontë

Alan Bentley, Director of the Parsonage Museum, writes:

Why not join the Facebook Brontë group?

There are now fifty-four members. The link to the site is here. Of course, you will have to join Facebook.

We are also looking at setting up a Myspace page and are about to tender for a revamp of the main website - www.Bronte.info

Brontë in Chicago

Remy Bumppo Theatre Company presents the American premiere of Brontë, 20 March to 4 May at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theatre, 2257 N Lincoln Ave. Chicago , IL 60614 .

Brontë Parsonage Blog readers are invited to take advantage of a special half price ticket offer for any Friday performance. Contact the company (see below)

This is from the publicity:

How is it possible that three Victorian spinsters, living in isolation on the Yorkshire moors, could have written some of the most powerful and passionate fiction of all time? Polly Teale's inventive drama - directed by James Bohnen - examines the lives of three of the most studied and discussed writers of all time.

Spurred by their brother's tumultuous personal life, Charlotte , Emily and Anne Brontë write from their remote home on the Yorkshire moors. Brontë evokes both the real and fantasy worlds of the Brontës, as the sisters' austere surroundings give way to the boundless power of imagination.

Contact Remy Bumppo

Tomorrow, 5 April, members of the Region 5 American chapter will attend a performance. You might still have time to join the party, in which case please contact the Region 5 representative, Dr Margot Peters at margot.peters@charter.net

Below, production shot of Heathcliff and Cathy:

April in Brussels

For information on the forthcoming Brussels Brontë Weekend (18 to 20 April) please scroll down a little and click on the link on the right for the Brussels group. All you need to know is there.

The Brontës: Revisiting Inner Space

This one-day conference is on 28 March, organised by l'Université Toulouse II-le Mirail, France (see previous post), with Catherine Lanone, Laurence Talairach-Vielmas and Charlotte Borie as directors.

This is the conference's introductory statement:

Much has been said about the way in which Charlotte and Emily Brontë transposed the Gothic sense of enclosure and located alienation within the domestic constraints imposed upon women. This colloquium aims to study the ways in which the sisters negotiate the boundaries of self and society and (re)locate or conceal intimacy, especially through the tropes of sincerity and theatricality.

Interest may range from the way in which they create a visual world of their own in the juvenilia, pictures, poems, letters or novels— not to mention the essays written in Belgium, which obey and challenge the constraints of form and language.

Particular attention may be paid to the function of embedded pictures or theatrical moments within the novels, reflecting or challenging the way in which the narrative voice represents the self. The dialectical play on mask and revelation may be connected with wider cultural debates and issues, possibly focusing on the way in which the private self may be exposed through
transpositions, from the Victorian performances of Jane Eyre on stage discussed by Patsy Stoneman to twentieth-century rewritings.

Daphne

On Friday 18 April
 at 7.30pm, at the Parsonage, Justine Picardie will be reading from her new novel Daphne
 and discussing the Brontës and Daphne Du Maurier with Du Maurier's
 eldest daughter Lady Tessa Montgomery.

This event includes champagne
and canapes and a special opportunity to view rarely seen Branwell
 Brontë manuscripts once owned by Du Maurier. £10 - Tickets in advance (£10) from jenna.holmes@ bronte.org. uk/




See Kazam Media News

Conference in Toulouse

Charlotte Borie writes:

At the University of Toulouse, we have created a website to promote a one-day conference on 28 March.

We invite everyone to take a look at it here.

Kosminsky's Wuthering Heights

Peter Kosminsky’s 1992 adaptation of Wuthering Heights stars Sinead O’Connor as Emily Brontë and Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche as Heathcliff and Cathy. It will be shown at 7.45pm at the West Lane Baptist Centre in Haworth on Friday 28 March

With a screenplay by Anne Devlin, Kosminsky’s is the first film adaptation to include the whole of the story. The film has spectacular cinematography by Mike Southon, a wonderful musical score by Ryuichi Sakamoto and the dubious distinction of having been spoofed in the Simpsons: Kamp Krusty.

Tickets are £5/ £3 (under 16s) and should be booked in advance from
jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk - .

Resurgam

Jenna Holmes writes:

Resurgam is the title of an exhibition of paintings, inspired by the Brontës, by artist Bob Littleford, which opened last weekend and will continue until 19 April.

A self-taught artist, Bob Littleford was born in Oldham in 1945 and worked riveting door handles and as a dustman before becoming a full-time artist in the 1970s. He began producing paintings inspired by the Brontës after hearing Bernard Herrmann’s opera adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Resurgam is an exhibition of new work based on his response to the Brontës' lives and works.

This exhibition is free on admission to the museum.

Below, I flew as in a dream and Last Lines:

Wild at the Parsonage

Parsonage Director Alan Bentley showed a party of six film-makers around last week, all of them connected with Brontë - the movie - which will start filming in May and which is directed by Charles Sturridge.

Amongst them was Nick Wild, managing director of Film Squared, the production company based in Holmfirth, Yorkshire.

"The party was given a pretty comprehensive guided tour," Alan told the blog. "They were taken behind the scenes and looked at every detail.

They were particularly interested in the current exhibition - No Coward Soul.

It is still unlikely that the film will include shots of the Parsonage, but Nick Wild is talking about using Haworth.

We are now expecting visits from the principals: Natalie Press is coming soon....."

Brontë is being backed by Mel Gibson’s Icon Entertainment production company and was quite a topic of conversation at the recent Berlin Film Festival.

Below, Natalie Press (to play Charlotte) in a scene from the TV production of Bleak House:

Ceilidh on 15 March

Pat Berry, Chairman of The Friends of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, writes:

After the success of last years St Patrick's Day Ceilidh, the Friends of the Brontë Parsonage Museum will again be celebrating the event. This year the ceilidh will be held in The School Room, Church Street, Haworth where Patrick Brontë himself started a Sunday School and Charlotte Brontë taught.

The ceilidh is on Saturday 15 March from 7.30pm until 11pm - and once again the music will be provided by popular band Northern Comfort. There will be a licensed bar and the ticket price includes a pie and peas supper.

Tickets are available from the Museum Shop or by ringing and cost £8.50 for adults and £3.50 for children. Why not come along and have a great night out and support the work of the Museum at the same time?

Bob Barnard in Headingley

The first ever Headingley LitFest takes place soon, beginning on Wednesday 12 March with an illustrated talk by Nicolette Jones, who is not only the children's book reviewer for The Sunday Times, but the author of a biography of the Victorian philanthropist Samuel Plimsoll and his campaign on behalf of sailors The Plimsoll Sensation (Little, Brown) which was published in 2006. The name of the book is the name of the talk, which will be delivered in Headingley library at 7pm on Wednesday 12 March.

Saturday events in the LitFest include Tea with the Brontës - which will begin at 4pm in the New Headingley Club in St Michael's Road. The audience will be able to sip tea and consume cakes, listening at the same time to a talk by Bob Barnard entitled People the Brontës Knew, based on A Brontë Encyclopedia by Bob and Louise Barnard (Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN: 978-1-4051-5119-1) which was published in July 2007.

Headingley is part of Leeds, a city about twenty miles from Haworth. Headingley is well-known for its stadium (cricket and rugby) but not so well-known for its literary connections: Arthur Ransome (Swallows and Amazons) was born there, before being sent to school in the Lake District, Alan Bennett (History Boys) lived over his father's butcher's shop there, J R R Tolkien (Lord of the Rings), who before Oxford was a professor at Leeds University, had a terrace house on the Otley Road and Kay Mellor (Ring of Gold, television version of Jane Eyre) lives there today.

For full details, go the Headingley LitFest.

For tickets to any events, ring 0113 2786948 or 0113 2756652

Patrick Brontë - Father of Genius

Dudley Green's biography, published by The History Press , should appear in May this year, priced at £20. ISBN: 978 1 84588 625 7

This is from the publisher:

Patrick Brontë (1777–1861) was the father of the famous ‘Brontë Sisters,’ Anne, Charlotte and Emily, three of Victorian England’s greatest novelists, but he was a fascinating man in his own right and not nearly such an unsympathetic character as Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë would have us believe.

Born into poverty in Ireland, he won a scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge, and was ordained into the Church of England. He was perpetual curate of Haworth in Yorkshire for forty-one years, bringing up four children, founding a school and campaigning for a proper water supply.

Although often portrayed as a somewhat fobidding figure, he was an opponent of capital punishment and the Poor Law Amendment Act, a supporter of limited Catholic emancipation and a writer of poetry.

This is the first serious biography of Patrick Brontë for more than forty years.

New exhibition opens

News release:

No Coward Soul is the new and special exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum celebrating the life and work of Emily Jane Brontë.

For the very first time members of the public are invited to come and view our entire collection of objects and artefacts associated with the world famous Brontë sister and author of Wuthering Heights.

The exhibition guides our visitors through the most significant aspects of Emily’s life: her childhood, her love for animals, her writing, and how she felt about spending time away from her home here at the Parsonage.

We have chosen to display some very special and rare objects belonging to Emily to accompany the information about her life.

We hope that visitors to this unique Emily exhibition will gain a deeper insight into the life and soul behind the legend.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum is open seven days a week.

Please contact the museum on 01535 642323 for information on opening times and entry charges or Ann Dinsdale - Collections Manager on 01535 640198, for information on the No Coward Soul exhibition 2008.

Restoration work begins on Brontë piano

Sarah Laycock from the Parsonage writes:

After over a hundred years build-up of dust, dirt and strands of Emily’s hair, the Brontë family piano is finally going to be restored to full working order. The only problem we have now is - who’s going to play it?

Up until now, the cabinet piano, presented to the museum in 1916, has been displayed and admired as a piece of authentic Brontë furniture but with the help of private funding, we are now able to restore the inside mechanism so that it can be appreciated by all as a musical instrument.

The piano was mainly used by Emily, although Branwell and Anne would have also used it to a lesser extent. Ellen Nussey once described Emily playing ‘with precision and brilliancy’ and by the time Emily went to Brussels in 1842, her playing was of such a high standard that she was taught by one of the best music professors in Belgium.

The piano was probably made in London between 1810 and 1815. It bears the inscription John Green, music agent of 33 Soho Square, London. It has a fairly short five octave keyboard of ivory keys which will be kept intact, and the broken hammers and strings which are hidden behind a screen of maroon-coloured pleated silk will be replaced so that the piano will play for the first time in over one hundred years.

Piano restorer Ken Forrest (pictured below) has examined the piano and informed us that there are parts missing which will need to be replaced and it will need to be completely restrung. He also said that the ivory keys are going to be kept but are in need of some renovation. He is going to be researching similar pianos in order to gather together more information before restoration can take place. Cabinet pianos were popular in the 1830s and 1840s but today are rather unusual when compared to the more valuable pianos such as the Grand.

Our cabinet piano is one of many items that were auctioned off in the 1861 sale of Brontë objects. It was bought by a Mr Booth of Oxenhope and sold many times before it was donated to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in 1916.

Wuthering Heights this Sunday

If you are in the UK, you might like to note that the Richard Cavanagh - Orla Brady version of Wuthering Heights is to being shown on ITV3 this Sunday 3 February from 15.20 to 17.45.

Orla Brady is now an almost unbelievable 46 years old (see the photo below and the previous post) and is apparently the 'lady in red' in The Singing Butler - the ubiquitous Jack Vettriano watercolour in which two lovers are dancing on a windswept beach.

The self-taught Vettriano used The Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual as a starter, he revealed when the original painting went for three quarters of a million pounds in 2004. The hacks then started digging and found that Orla was one of the models in the guide, and his muse.

Find more in this article from You magazine.
www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/you/article.html?in_article_id=509011&in_page_id=1908

Searching for the perfect Catherine

Paul Thompson writes:

Having now watched my fifth version of Wuthering Heights (the 1978 Hutchison/Adshead version), I set to wondering why none of the actresses who played Catherine (the elder) quite worked for me. The answer came to me as I looked at the timeline of the novel and I think it boils down to their ages.

If we look at five of the best-known versions and compare the approximate ages of the 'Catherines' at the time, we get:

Film Actress
1939 Merle Oberon aged 28
1970 Anna Calder-Marshall aged 23
1978 Kay Adshead aged 24
1992 Juliette Binoche aged 28
1998 Orla Brady aged 37


In the book, Catherine is 15 when Heathcliff runs away and just 18 when she dies. Even the youngest of the actresses is five years older and the oldest is 19! (although, admittedly, Orla Brady looked much younger). However, each of the actresses appears clearly adult, not the teenager than Catherine was. We should also remember that an 18 year old was not the adult they are considered today: people did not come of age until 21.

If you think of Catherine as a slightly immature teenager rather than an adult, it brings a whole new aspect to the story. Her spitefulness towards Isabella, the "dashing her head against the arm of the sofa", her attempts to make herself ill: these become more believable if we imagine a younger teenager performing them. There is also a deeper pathos to the scene in chapter 12 where Catherine in her delirium wishes she were back in Wuthering Heights. If we think of her as a child then rather than a spoilt adult, we can have more sympathy for her. We could feel the loneliness and sadness of a child forced into an adult's world.

It would be fascinating to see a version of Wuthering Heights with Catherine played by a teenage actress (or one who could pass as teenage). It would be rather like seeing Juliet of Romeo and Juliet played as the 13 year old she was supposed to be. It would need an actress of great skill and subtlety, of course, able to switch from mature love to childish petulance, but what a role. And what a new interest it would add to the scenes with Heathcliff.

(As an afterthought, looking at those rumours of Angelina Jolie being lined up to play Catherine, her age this year will be 33 - not a good omen.)


The Reader’s Guide to Wuthering Heights


Below, Merle Oberon with Laurence Olivier in the 1939 version

Brontë - the movie

NEWS RELEASE:

Local film maker looks to regional businesses to keep Brontë movie in Yorkshire

One of the largest movies ever to be filmed in Yorkshire is in danger of leaving the region, warns leading Yorkshire movie producer, Film Squared based in Sheffield. The company is offering local businesses the opportunity to help bridge a gap in the financing of its latest project Brontë which is being represented by Mel Gibson’s Icon Entertainment at next month’s Berlin Film Festival and is due to start filming this spring.

The film about the lives of Yorkshire’s most famous writing family and starring a raft of UK and US talent is short of just £350,000 after a backer withdrew because of the current problems with the international money markets.

“As a result of the funding problem, we may be forced to relocate the filming to another more cost-effective location, but we desperately want to keep the film in Yorkshire,” explained Producer Alistair Maclean-Clark.

“This prestigious project will encompass the very best of Yorkshire – its production has been made possible by local investment, including the support of Screen Yorkshire, Business Link and Objective 1 and it will be directed by the Emmy and BAFTA award winning Yorkshire-man Charles Sturridge of Brideshead Revisited fame. We believe Brontë is set to become another great film building on the current successes of the British film industry – it would be tragic for it to be shot anywhere but Yorkshire.”

The £5million movie is a joint project for Film Squared and Pinewood Studios-based AMC Pictures - and unlike many UK films, Brontë has already secured distribution and global representation through Mel Gibson’s Icon Entertainment.

Film Squared’s Nick Wild believes that the Yorkshire business community will rally round, “We have already had great support from some passionate local private investors and financial professionals and are now looking to extend that opportunity. With global cinema and DVD distribution the project offers great possibilities for local brands to be involved with this high profile project and spread their brand around the world. We are working with many of the local agencies and have a whole raft of opportunities to be involved from high-level corporate sponsorship to tax efficient investment regimes for private investors.

“We are also calling for help from local companies who may be able to reduce production costs by providing support services, anything from hotels to car hire. The project is an important media project for Yorkshire that will boost the local economy and stimulate tourism; it would be fantastic if the local business community played its part in helping us to make this great film happen in the region.”

Maclean-Clark added, “Unfortunately time is not with us. The impending Screen Actors Guild strike in June and the end of the tax year means that we have to move quickly over the next month if we really want to make this happen.”

For more information, please visit the movie's web site (see links) or contact Nick Wild at Film Squared on .

Wuthering Heights, 2009

Classical comics has been in touch with the Parsonage Blog to inform us that their new version of Wuthering Heights will be coming out in 2009. More details nearer the launch, no doubt.

The best version

WUTHERING HEIGHTS 1978: A WINNING CHALLENGE BY THE BBC

Maddalena De Leo from Ascea Marina, Italy, writes:

I’ve just finished watching the 1978 BBC dramatization of Wuthering Heights on two DVDs which I bought last summer in the Parsonage shop and now I really consider it to be the best among the various screen adaptations of Emily Brontë’s novel ever realized.

Of course I knew that BBC dramatizations are always of the finest level (Pride &Prejudice, North and South etc.) but I was amazed in finding this almost unheard of adaptation so adherent to my beloved novel and above all, so careful and attentive to those particulars often ignored by other directors, with only a few differences from the original text. No wonder that the BBC never attempted to adapt Wuthering Heights again.

Thanks to its running time of 255 minutes and its five episodes, the mini-series Wuthering Heights (directed by Peter Hammond and starring Ken Hutchinson and Kay Adshead, originally transmitted in the UK from September to October 1978) boasts many strong points, from the particularly vivid atmosphere of the moors conveyed from the beginning to the very last scene and the authentic use of Emily’s own language and phrases. Cathy and Heathcliff’s affection for each other is rendered through the intensity of their looks and not by words while the recurrent close-ups underline the force of passion in a most effective way.

Also the minor characters are well-drawn, each in his or her own peculiarity, although we find a ‘milder’ Joseph and a pleasantly strong Isabella with a will of her own, which departs from any other known adaptation of the novel. For once we have no narrator of the story and Nelly Dean appears only in her role of a servant, not always or entirely convinced that her master's actions are right. Notably the burning fire in the enormous fireplace at the Heights is put into the limelight just when the main characters’ souls are torn by agony and their inner cold.

On the other hand, there are obviously a few weak points, mainly the missing snow substituted by a frequently driving rain on the moors always announcing fatal events or, in episode two, a too long childhood against a too short teen period for Cathy and Heathcliff. This last character appears as an old man even when he is still young, almost as a hunchback with a displeasing voice, but Ken Hutchinson’s interpretation of him in the last stages of the character’s life is superlative.

The image of dying Heathcliff is not easily to forget. A regrettably missing moment in so attentive an adaptation is the beautiful passage in the book in which while lying in the moor the second Cathy and feeble young Linton speak of what they like more in life.

What else is to be said? All Brontë lovers can only enthusiastically welcome this blessed reproposed offer by the BBC after so many years of oblivion.

Appeal for donations

Parsonage director Alan Bentley writes:

It is now twelve months since the launch of our purchase fund appeal. In that time £50,000 has been spent on acquiring a dozen new items for the collection, with £10,000 of this having been generously donated by members of the Brontë Society. Because we have been able to show this level of support from our membership, we have been able to get grant aid to support these purchases from the National Art collection Fund and the V&A/MLA purchase fund adding up to over £8000.

It is important that we continue to add to the collections and ‘bring home’ Brontë items to Haworth. Eighteen months after the foundation of the Brontë Society, sufficient material had already been collected to merit the opening of the Society’s first museum in 1895, and the collections have continued to grow steadily ever since.

The collections are used as an important resource by scholars from around the world, in our education work and to bring alive the Brontë story for the thousands of visitors who come to the Parsonage each year.

I am now widening the appeal directly to the readers of the Brontë Parsonage Blog, many of whom might not be Brontë Society members. You are invited to send us donations to help us compete in the sale rooms and ensure that we all have the opportunity to create a direct link to the Brontës through their belongings.

All donations are welcome either as one-off donations (in any currency) or regular monthly payments. It is important we receive regular donations to the purchase fund as the items we are interested in acquiring are usually to be sold at auction – and it is not always possible to make appeals for specific objects beforehand.

You are also invited to make donations to the Education and Collections Care funds. Please send a cheque to the Parsonage for my attention, payable to the Brontë Society. We can also deal with credit cards and Direct Debit payments – ring me on +44 1535-642323 to make the arrangements or email info@bronte.org.uk

Thanks!

Alan Bentley
Director, Brontë Parsonage Museum
Haworth
Keighley
BD22 8DR
United Kingdom

Call for papers

From Dr Elise Ouvrard:

The Brontës and the Idea of Influence

In March 2007, Stevie Davies, Patricia Duncker and Michele Roberts gathered around Patsy Stoneman at Haworth in Yorkshire to talk about the influence that the Brontës had had on their evolutions as authors, and more generally, about the source of inspiration that the most famous family of writers in England could represent. Patsy Stoneman had already tackled the topic by publishing a book entitled The Brontë Influence in 2004 with the help of Charmian Knight.

The issue of LISA e-journal « Re-Writing Jane Eyre: Jane Eyre, Past and Present » is further evidence of Charlotte Brontë’s influence on the writers of the following decades or centuries. So far, these studies have been quite limited and this field of research, “the Brontë influence”, offers a wide range of possible developments.

Moreover, if the four authors’ poetry and novels have already been the object of numerous studies, there is much left to write about the influences which were exerted on the Brontës, whether religious, literary, philosophical or cultural. Taking account of the context of a work is often a good way of understanding the issues underlying a text: the path taken by the Brontës, their journeys, their stays abroad, the books they read, etc. could prove to be very enlightening. Besides these external factors, one could also consider the interactions between the three sisters, who wrote in the same room and who read passages from their works aloud.

A final aspect to identify and study could be the influences which are exerted within the Brontës’ works themselves. How can one account for the progress of the heroes and heroines? How is the influence that characters have on one another expressed? What role does nature play in the destiny of characters? Which other elements intervene in the novels?

This dossier devoted to the Brontës intends to analyse the works through the perspective of influence and three different fields of research can thus be considered:
- influences on the Brontës
- the idea of influence in the Brontës’ works
- the Brontë influence on the writers of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.


Please send your proposals (one A4 page maximum) to:
Dr. Élise Ouvrard (ouvrard_elise@hotmail.com)

Accepted articles will be published in the thematic dossier “The Brontës and the Idea of Influence” in the “Writers, writings” section of LISA e-journal:
http://www.unicaen.fr/mrsh/lisa/publicationsGb.php?p=2&numId=0&it=dossiers

Charlotte's illness

Patrick Brontë considered that his daughter Charlotte was not strong enough for marriage, and he sems to have been right at the time, before doctors and hospitals were able to cope properly with hyperemesis gravidarum, a kind of extreme version of morning sickness. This was probably what took her away on 31 March 1855. The catch-all 'phthisis' was written on her death certificate.

American member Paul Danigellis draws our attention to the following article in the Guardian newspaper: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ally_fogg/2008/01/the_bucket_stops_here.html

To quote:

This is morning, afternoon, evening and night-time sickness and it blights somewhere around three in a thousand pregnancies. At its worst, the sufferer is unable to keep down so much as a sip of water, leading to severe dehydration and malnutrition. This is so debilitating that reading, watching TV or facing daylight may become unbearable.

If you've ever been hit by a bad oyster you can possibly sympathise, but imagine such food poisoning lasting not for a day or two but for 8, 16, even 36 weeks. In the days before IV drips, the condition was fatal for the likes of Charlotte Bronte, but now patients are mostly kept alive with regular inpatient stays and the magic of a saline bag.

Written on the Body in Chicago

Brontë Society member Margi Cole wishes all Parsonage Blog readers a Happy New Year, greets everybody she met last June in Haworth, and says she is looking forward to the June weekend in 2008. The following is from a recent press release from TDC:

The Dance COLEctive (TDC), under the direction of award-winning choreographer and teacher Margi Cole, will perform a revised work, a premiere and two revivals for its Second Journeys Winter Concert Series February 21–23, 2008 at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, 1306 S. Michigan Ave.

The program features a reconstruction of Artistic Director Margi Cole’s Written on the Body, plus works by choreographers Colleen Halloran, Jennifer Kayle and Ellie Klopp.

TDC also will participate in The Dance Center’s FamilyDance Matinee Series, presenting an hour-long performance geared toward families preceded by a movement workshop free to ticket holders on Saturday, February 23.

Written on the Body uses the lives of the Brontë sisters as a point of departure in its exploration of gender roles and stereotypes. The hidden identities of authors Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, as well as the hardships they endured throughout their lives in Victorian England, provide the framework. Cole interprets the Brontës’ masculine and feminine personas, using images of power, strength, vulnerability and intimacy, exploring how each attribute can be related through movement.

Music for the piece is by Kevin O’Donnell, costumes are by Atalee Judy and videoscape is by Michael Cole.

“A pseudonym represents a way of disguising one’s identity to remain invisible,” Cole explained. “It is also a way to represent yourself as something other than what you are in order to be accepted. During the 19th century, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë’s pseudonyms—Ellis, Currer and Acton Bell—allowed the three sisters to conceal their identities under a masculine persona. The work is titled Written on the Body because our bodies are where our truest histories are written.”

Chicago choreographer Colleen Halloran is creating a new work, tentatively titled It Is Okay To Leave. Working with five dancers, including guest artist Dardi McGinley Gallivan, the piece takes place in an atmosphere of suspended reality and explores issues of departure, observation and time. Sound design for the work is being created by Susan Aldous.

Also on the program are two revivals. Channel is a commissioned solo for Margi Cole by Ellie Klopp, former associate director of Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, with music by Alvin Curran. Jennifer Kayle’s award-winning at the receding edges is a moving meditation on the human and spiritual connection to the body of the earth and on the dangers of disconnection. Set on four squares of plastic grass, images of community, scarcity and disintegration appear and disappear in this poetic landscape.

American echoes of the Parsonage

Barbara Tanke from Elma, New York writes:

Since I had to move back to Western, NY last fall for my mother's failing health, I have discovered (by accident) an 1810 house near her nursing facility that reminds me of the Brontë Parsonage.

It is at the end of a lane, and when I was waiting for traffic to pass, I thought I was looking at the Brontë house - or one similar in style. Here are photos of the exterior and the inside window.

This is the Hull House, built in 1810, which the community is trying to renovate back to its original state. I see that it was built about 30 years after the Brontë Parsonage and wondered if there was any English inspiration to it. I will have to research further.

I have a nice warm feeling that I am back in Haworth -- if but momentarily -- when I go visit my mother.

Below, the Hull House:

Fourth Brontë Sister?

This painting by Branwell will soon be on display in the Parsonage – a portrait of Mrs Maria Ingham of Stanbury.

“We made a successful bid for it at the recent auction,” Librarian Ann Dinsdale told the blog. “She looks quite handsome, I think.

You could say she looks a little like a fourth Brontë Sister, if you look at the style and put it next to Branwell’s other portraits. Of course we’ve got her brother Robert already.

Now they are reunited! The Parsonage is going to close soon, to reopen in February 2008, and when we do, visitors will be able to see Maria.

They will also be able to see some other new acquisitions: three Victorian envelopes which we bought at a small auction house in Colchester called Reeman Dansie Auctions. One contains a lock of Charlotte’s hair, one a lock of Anne’s hair, and the third contains a ring which belonged to Charlotte.

The envelopes were given by Ellen Nussey to her friend Lady Morrison in the 1880s.”

Rebecca in Haworth

Martin Rippingale writes:

Next Friday brings a chance, I am noting, that if you can get to Haworth in Yorkshire you can watch the 1940 movie version of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.

I would love to attend and to walk around the Brontë Parsonage as a prelude, but I’ll just have to fix myself up with a DVD viewing.

It cleaned up at the awards ceremony at the time, for good reason: Fontaine is at her emotional finest and Olivier is as impressive as always as Maxim de Winter, with those slightly clipped cultivated tones which made him such a wow in the London theatre.

Londoner Alfred Hitchcock made his mark as a director in the States with this movie as well, doubtless taking a bet that a novel published a couple of years previously to great critical applause would bring in the audiences – and it did.

Over in England, there was a war in progress, so I imagine the blitzed-out Brits escaping into a gothic du Maurier world, where the horrors were different. Sunken boats with bodies in them? It happened every day in the Atlantic – or come to think of it, the ocean not too far from Cornwall.

John Harrison and Robert Sherwood wrote the screenplay, and it hits the mark because according to all allegations and reports, the producer David O Selznick had an attack of sensitivity and demanded that it be faithful to the novel.

It is not a hundred percent faithful though. In the novel, Rebecca is slain by a slug from Maxim’s gun. Not so in the movie of course. The burning down of Manderly at the movie’s finale was not in the novel either, so perhaps the guy who called the shots – Selznick – was more influenced by Jane Eyre than Daphne du Maurier.
Richard Wilcocks adds:

The film will be shown at the West Lane Baptist Chapel at 7.30pm. Contact Andrew McCarthy on 01535 640194 to make sure of your seat. Entrance £6.00