Three Quartets

Richard Wilcocks writes:

On Saturday 11 October at 6.30pm in St Margaret’s Church Hall in Ilkley, there will be a (free) talk by Ian M Emberson entitled Three Quartets: the Rossettis, the Mendelssohns and the Brontës. It is an event in the Ilkley Literature Festival.

Ian is a writer, artist and former music-librarian who is the author of one book and many articles about the Brontës. The talk will be brilliant, I know, because I heard a version of it a while ago in the Parsonage cellar. He focuses on the childhoods of three gifted families, discussing how this background influenced their later achievements. In each case there are four exceptional children, slightly apart from their immediate surroundings, yet ultimately blending different cultures in their mature creative activities.

The talk is the result of extensive research: all three of the significant ancestors of the families were exiles in some way. For example Moses Mendelssohn, grandfather of Felix, was a partner in a silk firm in Berlin at the time of Frederick the Great and a writer on the theme of Immortality of the Soul, who achieved the status of ‘protected Jew’, which made a big difference at a time when Jews were subject to frequent restrictions and humiliations. Gabriel Rossetti was a political agitator and scholar who sought asylum in England, where he taught Italian at London University, and of course Patrick Brontë escaped a life of poverty in Ireland to go to Cambridge.

All three brought something beautiful, fresh and new from the outside to their country of settlement.

Below, Ian Emberson (look at his website here) – photo by Richard Wilcocks

Brontës.nl

Best wishes and good luck to Karin Quint, who is in charge of a new Brontë website based in the Netherlands. The website is here.

Charlotte's letter returns

Over 4000 miles away from where it was first written, an important Charlotte Brontë letter to her publisher William Smith Williams has been bought by the Brontë Parsonage Museum with financial help from a grant given by the MLA and V&A Purchase Grant Fund. It has just been put on display.

Written at a significant point in her life, the letter, signed in the pseudonym ‘C. Bell’, discusses reviews of her recently published novel Jane Eyre and also makes reference to the second edition.

Written in Haworth just three months after the first publication of Jane Eyre on 13 January 1848, the letter was purchased over seventy years later by an American Brontë Society member visiting England and it was taken back to the USA when she returned. It was inherited from her grandmother by Patti Engels of California, who sold it to the Brontë Parsonage Museum just a few weeks ago. For most of its time in the USA, the whereabouts of the letter remained unknown.

Collections Manager Ann Dinsdale commented: “Patti Engels did not want the letter to be sold in the United States. She was very keen that the Parsonage should have it.

“Now it has returned to where it was written. Charlotte relied on letters from Mr Williams after the loss of her sisters. He was the first person in the publishing world to spot her potential as a novelist."

Puppets at the Parsonage

Jenna Holmes announces:

Outdoor puppet theatre company Frolicked will be performing a specially commissioned new show at the  Parsonage next Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 August.

Museum visitors will be able to watch and interact with the performance, which has been inspired by the Brontës and the Parsonage. Visitors will be able to see the Brontës’ servants come to life in unexpected places around the Parsonage and its grounds. The company will be working at the museum and creating informal performances throughout the day.

Frolicked is a puppet theatre company based in Huddersfield, who specialise in designing, creating and performing with puppets in interesting and unusual spaces and locations.

There are also plenty of Contemporary Arts and Education events to interest museum visitors over the coming bank holiday weekend.

Today (22 August), chainsaw artist Dominic Clare (see below) will be carving a sculpture from a tree that was felled in the Parsonage garden earlier this year. You can watch Dominic Clare at work throughout the day at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

A reminder - currently on show at the museum is My Life Dreams: an exhibition of digitally manipulated photographs based on the Brontës by Swiss artist Annelies Strba. Visitors will also have the rare opportunity to see the famous portrait of Emily Brontë painted by  Branwell, which is on loan from the National Portrait Gallery.

All events are free with normal admission to the museum.

Below, Dominic Clare with Helix, a work from 2006. On his website, Giovanna de Sola Pinto writes.........

That he has a great affinity with nature is very striking when one sees the large-scale site-specific commissions he has produced for public places throughout North Wales. One can immediately appreciate the depths with which he has responded to the sites, his thoughtful research into their historic origins and the ways in which his pieces are sensitively integrated into the environment.

Filming at Oakwell Hall

Thanks, Joanne Catlow, for sending us this press release and the photos:

Historic Birstall takes star role in Bronte classic

It's already well known to lovers of the work of Charlotte Brontë.

Now Birstall's Oakwell Hall is set to play a starring role in a major television adaptation of Wuthering Heights, her sister Emily's classic tale of romance and revenge.

The Elizabethan manor house has been picked as one of the locations for the filming of the drama, which is being made for ITV by production company Mammoth Screen.

Oakwell Hall's first brush with fame came in 1849, when Charlotte Brontë used it as the basis for a house called ‘Fieldhead’, the home of the heroine in her novel Shirley. In 1921, the historic building was also chosen as a location for a silent movie version of Shirley.

Wuthering Heights cast members include former Coronation Street favourite Sarah Lancashire and Andrew Lincoln, who played Egg in cult BBC Two show This Life. Band of Brothers actor Tom Hardy will portray Heathcliff while newcomer Charlotte Riley has landed the part of Cathy.

Filming meant that the hall was closed to the public for four weeks to allow for two weeks of filming plus time for the preparation and dismantling of the sets. Now re-open, the hall which was built in 1583 by John Batt, offers visitors an insight into the workings of a post English Civil War household.

The two-part drama for ITV1 is expected to be shown autumn 2008.

Kirklees events

David and Imelda Marsden write:

The filming of Wuthering Heights at Oakwell Hall is now finished. It will be shown on ITV1 in two ninety-minute episodes. The staff at the hall told us all about it – more later. In 1921 a silent version of Shirley was filmed at the hall, and the search for this is still going on.

We are holding a sponsored Luddite walk in North Kirklees - where Charlotte Brontë set Shirley. On 7 September 2008 at 1.30pm it will start at the Dumb Steeple in Mirfield, with North Kirklees Rambler Association member Ken Dews as the leader. A talk will be given on the route the Luddites marched in 1812 by Luddite expert Dr J A Hargreaves. Funds raised on the walk will go to Hollybank School in Mirfield which the Brontë sisters attended between 1831-1836 when it was called Roe Head. The school now caters for severely disabled young people aged five to nineteen, who are resident at the school, educated and cared for by dedicated staff.

For further details telephone 01924-519370 or 01535-648209 or email david.marsden1603@hotmail.co.uk or david.marsden9117@ntlworld.com

Also - the Ramblers Association have a stall at the Mirfield Show on Sunday 17 August where details and sponsor forms can be picked up. This is held near the site where Blake Hall stood - where Ann Brontë was a governess. Only the South Lodge remains.

Below, Charlotte Riley as Cathy and Tom Hardy as Heathcliff. Background vegetation may or may not be in the vicinity of Oakwell Hall. In this version by Blackpool writer Peter Bowker, Heathcliff kills himself when he hears of Cathy’s death.

Strba at the Parsonage

An exhibition of new work by Swiss artist Annelies Strba will go on show at the Parsonage tomorrow, Friday 1 August. The exhibition will be opened by Christoph Grunenberg, director of Tate Liverpool.

‘My Life Dreams’ is a series of digitally-manipulated images in response to the Brontës and the Parsonage, displayed throughout the period rooms of the museum. The exhibition is funded by Arts Council England and forms part of the Brontë Parsonage Museum’s contemporary arts programme.

‘My Life Dreams’ takes inspiration from Wuthering Heights, and the illustrations for the 1935 edition of the novel by the artist Balthus. Annelies Strba portrays a magical and entirely feminine world, in which her daughters and granddaughters (always central to Strba’s work) appear as ethereal figures suspended in dream-like landscapes.

The series of tiny works will be displayed imaginatively throughout the Parsonage, placed in spaces within the period rooms and amongst the Brontës’ own possessions.

‘My Life Dreams’ will be on show until 31 October 2008 before it transfers to The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin.

“We are tremendously excited to be working with Annelies Strba and this exhibition continues the museum’s programming of bold visual arts projects. Annelies Strba‘s images visualise her own emotional response to the Brontës’ radical creativity and these vibrant images, placed amongst the Brontës possessions in this way, create powerful connections between the imaginative worlds of the Brontës and Strba’s own contemporary artistic practice.”

Jenna Holmes, Arts Officer.

Annelies Strba’s work has been inspired by a diverse range of locations and subjects, including her own life in Melide, Switzerland, the earthquake-stricken city of Kobe, the gloom of Auschwitz and the Cottingley Fairies. 

She has exhibited widely in recent years throughout Europe and the USA. Her work has been shown at, amongst others; James McCoy Gallery, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; European Museum of Photography, Paris; Tate Gallery, Liverpool and Barbican Centre, London.

Annelies Strba is represented by Frith Street Gallery, London.

Eighty years on

The Parsonage Museum will celebrate its 80th anniversary by holding a free open day for local residents next Monday 4 August. The museum will also be offering visitors aged 80 years or over free admission to the museum throughout August.
In addition, residents with a BD21 or BD22 postcode can gain free admission to the museum by presenting proof of address.

Artist Lesley Martin will be working with visitors to create a giant artwork on the front lawn, made from natural materials. Visitors are invited to bring along their own flowers and leaves found on walks in the area and to learn about the plants growing around the Parsonage.

The open day will launch a series of special arts events at the museum throughout August, including a chainsaw sculpture created from Charlotte Brontë’s tree and a specially commissioned puppetry theatre performance.

The Parsonage was acquired by the Brontë Society in 1927 and its doors opened to the public on 4 August 1928. A crowd of thousands arrived in Haworth to witness the opening.

Dewsbury events next year

Ruth Battye writes:

Patrick Brontë arrived in Dewsbury on 5 December 1809. To celebrate this event there will be special services in Dewsbury Minster on 6 December 2009. Dewsbury wishes to involve the Brontë Society and so a meeting was arranged in the Minster on 28 July 2008.

Those present were Rev Canon Kevin Partington, Team Rector of Dewsbury, Museum & Galleries (Kirklees) Manager,  a representative of Dewsbury Matters (a local history group), Batley & Dewsbury Town Centre Manager, a member of Dewsbury District Council, the President of Mirfield Historical Society and myself, representing the Brontë Society.

It was felt that although December would be a more appropriate time to hold celebrations and it would be good to share in the services which are to take place, the difficulty in travelling to Dewsbury during that month may well prevent many members from attending and so it was suggested that, in addition to the service in December, we hold our celebrations during a long weekend in September. The provisional dates are Friday 25 to 28 September 2009 inclusive.

Once we have a committee established we can begin coordinating all the different groups to organise what promises to be a thrilling time for local people as well as Brontë Society members. Hopefully this will be the launch of an annual event in Dewsbury.

Although this may seem to be a long way ahead, the planning of such an event does take time. I will keep the Parsonage Blog  informed of developments but people who are interested could contact me at +44 1535 642219, preferably on Wednesday or Thursday evenings, or e-mail ruth.m.battye@btinternet.com.

 
Imelda Marsden raised this matter to start with: you could contact her at david.marsden9117@ntlworld.com 

Rare portrait on loan

See a BBC video about the portrait of Emily Brontë here.

Meeting in Amsterdam

Maddalena De Leo writes:

In the first days of July just before leaving for The Netherlands on holiday I proposed that Helen MacEwan, the BS representative for Belgium, should gather the Belgian members from Brussels and possibly from The Netherlands for a meeting in Amsterdam in the period I should be there. It might be interesting for our two sections to exchange opinions and to know us by person in a country different from ours. It was also something not attempted by the Brontë Society as yet and eventually a key to new collaborative plans for the future.

Helen was really enthusiastic for the idea and in a short time she emailed all the BS members she knew, receiving a positive answer from all. On my part, I got in touch with Veronica Metz, the lead singer of the Dutch Celtic band ‘Anois’ since I heard she’s working on a project based on Emily’s poems set to music at the moment. Veronica promptly agreed to be present to the meeting.

On 8 July 2008 at 3 pm sharp my hotel in Amsterdam saw the arrival of a group of people, each coming on their own and asking for me. Surprisingly there were at the door Helen MacEwan, Selina Bush, Eric Ruijssenaars, Maureen Peeck-O’Toole, Sherry Vosburgh, Jenny Hoffman's friend (she was ill and unfortunately couldn’t come that day), Veronica Metz with her band and, absolutely by surprise, my Belgian BS penfriend Luc Bormans and his girlfriend.

When we sat down in the small breakfast room of the hotel and after having bravely defied the hotel receptionist’s fury, calming him down by buying some drinks, I started by asking Veronica about her musical work on Emily’s poems and about her inspiration for it. She told us that all was due to her visit to Haworth Parsonage some years ago and to the magnificent view of the moors behind it. She kindly handed each of us a CD-demo of her Emily Brontë and the conversation so started was followed by questions and answers dealing with the organization of our two sections, on our meetings, the blogs, the web and the magazines edited by each section.

After a short break with the Anois music filling the air and a really friendly atmosphere among members - all chatting as old friends both in Dutch and English - I gave Helen an Italian ceramic plate commemorative of the event and we all drank a toast with the champagne I brought from Italy for the occasion. I then read my lecture ‘The Brontës and the Sea’, a topic I chose for our being in Amsterdam, thanking all for their presence there.

What a success and what an incredible BS meeting this was, only planned in a few days and by e-mails! By leaving as real friends we all wished to possibly meet again in Brussels or Italy in the future hoping to experience again so lucky a Brontë day.

Below, the complete group, Maddalena with Helen MacEwan, Maddalena with Anois:

The Perfect Heathcliff

Richard Wilcocks writes:


I'm starting to feel sorry for Gordon Brown, after, I admit, a few sniggers yesterday. I travelled down to London at an unearthly hour yesterday morning, so missed out on the Radio 4 Today programme and the morning papers. I have now caught up, thanks largely to exhaustive coverage of the matter on Brontë Blog.


Andrew McCarthy (Parsonage Acting Director) said all the right things, of course, as did Juliet Barker (hear her again online at the BBC)....do we really want a man who identifies with a character who hangs dogs as PM? It's an amusing parlour game, I suppose. Which character in fiction most resembles (insert name here)? It's a parlour game played by point-scoring politicians as much as by journalists who would have us believe that they have actually read Wuthering Heights rather than just seen the film or the synopsis on Wikipedia. Mind you, I'm not sure whether Gordon Brown has read the book or not.......so what did he actually say in the New Statesman?

Not very much, it seems. Thanks again to Brontë Blog for quoting this from the NS:

Heathcliff? Absolutely

Most observers agree the Prime Minister has improved at the despatch box after being mauled by David Cameron early on. But Brown remains an unsympathetic figure in the eyes of the electorate. His advisers may have tried to turn his brooding seriousness into an electoral asset, but they must secretly hope he would share more private moments with the public, which seems to have decided that he lacks warmth.

There is a human side to Gordon. He may be uncomfortable talking about himself, but on the train home our conversation is punctuated with laughter, and most of it is neither nervous nor insincere.

Is he a romantic? I ask. "Ask Sarah," he chuckles. Some women say you remind them of Heathcliff, I suggest. Brown is, after all, brooding and intense. "Absolutely correct," he jokes. "Well, maybe an older Heathcliff, a wiser Heathcliff." (Gloria di Piero)

So Gordon Brown chuckled. He was picturing in his mind some of the women who thought he reminded them of Heathcliff, no doubt. He was recognizing the ludicrous nature of the comparison. After all, he doesn't look at all like Sir Laurence Olivier. You don't find women like that everywhere! What else could he have said other than what he did say?

I think he has a hidden witty side, a dry sense of humour, perhaps.

The publicity people at Birmingham Rep have moved swiftly. There is now a site devoted to windswept Gordon here. You can add your comment if you want.

Wuthering Heights in Birmingham

Pictured here - April De Angellis




Here are some publicity paragraphs from Birmingham Rep:

A brand-new adaptation brings Emily Brontë's passionate and spellbinding tale of forbidden love and revenge to life on stage. Set on the wild, windswept Yorkshire moors, Wuthering Heights is the tempestuous story of free-spirited Catherine and dark, brooding Heathcliff. As children running wild and free on th emoors, Catherine and Heathcliff are inseparable. 

As they grow up, their affection deepens into a passionate love, but Cathy lets her head rule her heart as she chooses to marry the wealthy Edgar Linton. Heathcliff flees broken-hearted only to return seeking terrible vengeance on those he holds responsible, with epic and tragic results.

April De Angelis is one of the UK's most innovative dramatists. Her plays have included A Laughing Matter at the National Theatre, Hush at the Royal Court and The Warwickshire Testimony for the RSC.

More information from Birmingham Rep

Birmingham Repertory Theatre 20 September to 18 October 2008

Invitation to vote

Chris Routledge writes:

I am the online editor of The Reader Organisation. You may have heard of us in connection with The Reader magazine.

We are starting a campaign to get 'classic' literature on the Richard and Judy TV Book Club show and we are holding a poll to decide which of five novels to champion. One of the five is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and I wondered if your readers/members might be interested in voting. The link (to a post on our blog) is here.

The poll closes at the end of July.

Best wishes!

Richard Wilcocks adds:

I voted for it - that's one more! The Reader is now on our links list.

Emily portrait comes home to Haworth

Arts Officer Jenna Holmes writes:

A National Portrait Gallery Loan and rare poems manuscript return to Haworth for first time in nearly 150 years to crown the 2008 exhibition No Coward Soul at the Parsonage.

As part of the 2008 exhibition focusing on Emily Brontë, the museum is delighted to able to display her Gondal poems notebook and a rare portrait of Emily painted by her brother Branwell. Both of these items are currently on loan to the Parsonage for a limited time only.

In 1861, after the Brontës had died, the Gondal poems notebook left Haworth for Ireland with Charlotte’s widower Arthur Bell Nicholls. Following his death in 1907, the manuscript was auctioned in a sale at Sotheby’s and purchased by Mrs George Smith, widow of Charlotte’s publisher. It was then bequeathed to the British Library in London by the Smith family and for the first time since 1861, returns to the Parsonage where it was originally composed.

The iconic portrait of Emily by her brother Branwell was once part of a larger painting called ‘The Gun Group’ portrait. It was cut out by Arthur Bell Nicholls on the death of Patrick Brontë in 1861 and was later found on top of a wardrobe along with ‘The Brontë Sisters’ portrait (also by Branwell) by Arthur’s second wife Mary Ann Nicholls after his death.

It is now owned by the National Portrait Gallery. This is a very rare opportunity for visitors to see the portrait outside of its usual London location.


Special loans and No Coward Soul exhibition 2008 – Ann Dinsdale Collections Manager – 01535 640198 ann.dinsdale@bronte.org.uk

McCain recalls loss on 'Jeopardy'

Paul Daniggelis sends this Associated Press report:

PIPERSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Who is Heathcliff?

The name of the doomed romantic hero in Emily Brontë's novel 'Wuthering Heights' eluded John McCain more than 40 years ago, robbing him of a second straight win as a contestant on the televised quiz show 'Jeopardy',  the Republican presidential hopeful said Monday.

Riding aboard his Straight Talk Express campaign bus, McCain, well-read and a trivia buff, recalled his two-day appearance on the popular program in 1965. He won the game the first day, and lost the next day in the final round.

So, what was the Final Jeopardy question that tripped him up?

The famously competitive Arizona senator recalled it exactly. "Cathy loved him, but married Edgar Linton instead."

McCain said he knew the name of the book, but that his answer — What is Wuthering Heights? — led to his elimination.

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.