Brontës on Belgian stamps

Helen MacEwan writes from Brussels:

The Belgian post office has issued a beautiful set of stamps on the subject of "a literary walk through Brussels" with pictures of famous 19th century writers who stayed in the city.

The writers are Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, the Dutch writer Eduard Douwes Dekker and - Charlotte and Emily Brontë!

The Brontës stayed in Brussels in 1842-3, while the writers on the other stamps visited the city in the 1850s-1870s.

Charlotte Brontë was the only one of these writers who drew significantly on her Brussels experience in her writings.

Shocking though the Brontës' works may have been to some Victorian readers, Charlotte and Emily are in incongruous company in this set of stamps. Their convent-like life in a girls' boarding school in Brussels could not have been more different from the colourful and often squalid existence of the French writers who accompany them!

The Republican Victor Hugo came to Brussels as a political refugee, fleeing Paris for Brussels after Napoleon III's coup d'état, and stayed in Grand Place with his family – his mistress accompanied them and also lodged in Grand Place. Baudelaire, whose volume of poetry Les Fleurs du Mal had caused a scandal, came to Brussels to escape from his creditors. His plans of making money by giving lectures in Belgium came to nothing. He is remembered for eccentricities such as keeping a pet bat in his room and feeding it on bread and milk.

Verlaine and Rimbaud were reunited in Brussels in 1873 after one of the many rifts in their stormy relationship but were soon quarrelling again. Verlaine bought a revolver and shot Rimbaud, wounding him slightly, and Rimbaud reported him to the police. Although he later withdrew the charge of attempted murder, Verlaine was sentenced and spent two years in prison in Belgium.

The Dutch writer in the set, Dekker, who wrote under the alias of "Multatuli" (Latin "I have suffered much"), was also a controversial figure whose writings shocked his contemporaries. After leaving his job as an administrator in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), he spent his time in Brussels writing his novel Max Havelaar, an indictment of Dutch colonial rule

This very attractive set of stamps was designed by Jan De Maesschalck and costs €5.90.

Visit the Brussels Brontë Group by clicking HERE.

Mrs Gaskell's Bicentenary

Helen MacEwan writes from Brussels:

Readers of the Brontë Parsonage Blog may be interested in a recent report by Sue Corbett in The Times on the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth Gaskell which mentions our talk in Brussels.

The article begins:

It is time to move on from those corpse-strewn specials of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford shown on television at Christmas. For fans of the increasingly popular Victorian novelist, the mood of 2010 is distinctly cheerier, this being the year they celebrate their heroine’s bicentenary.

The author of Cranford, North and South and Wives and Daughters (all of them titles enthusiastically dramatised by the BBC in recent years), Mrs Gaskell was born in London on September 29, 1810, and on September 25 this year she will be honoured in the city of her birth when her name is added to a stained-glass memorial window in Poets’ Corner. For much of the rest of the year, however, the focus of commemoration will be on her adopted home city of Manchester (or “Drumble” as she calls it in Cranford).

For the rest of the article click HERE.

The Sunbeam and the Storm

An exhibition of new work by Yorkshire-based artist Jo Brown will open at the Parsonage on Friday 5 March 2010.


The exhibition, The Sunbeam and the Storm, will take place as part of the museum’s contemporary arts programme and will feature eight new abstract paintings by Jo Brown in direct response to the poems of Emily Brontë.


Jo Brown’s paintings are abstract and intuitive, and for this exhibition she has used colour, layers and mark-making to create a personal response to Emily's poetry - in particular focusing on Emily’s use of weather to express emotion. All of the titles in the exhibition are small quotations taken from the poems.


Jo's inspiration has often been partly drawn from poetry. She discovered the poems of Emily Brontë relatively recently after attending an arts event in Haworth, and her imagination was caught. The poems seemed to Jo heartfelt and moving, and an insight into the mind of the solitary Emily.


All of the paintings in the exhibition are for sale. The exhibition runs until Tuesday 4 May 2010.

Jo Brown was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and studied in Yorkshire, at Bretton Hall College then Sheffield Hallam University, gaining a BA (Hons) in Fine Art in 1995. She has been a studio artist at Dean Clough, Halifax since 1995 and has exhibited regularly at municipal and commercial galleries in England, Scotland and the USA. As well as the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Jo has upcoming exhibitions at Cupola Contemporary Art Gallery, Sheffield; Gossipgate Gallery, Alston, Cumbria; 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire and a solo show at Whitfield Fine Art, Mayfair, London (September 2010).

 

Blue Ice Curdling by Jo Brown

Live in BD20, 21 or 22?

News release:


The Brontë Parsonage Museum has recently completed a project with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund to improve the presentation of the historic rooms of the Parsonage. To celebrate, admission to the museum will be free to local residents of BD20, 21 & 22 on Saturday 20 February . Locals are asked to bring a utility bill or other official proof of address to gain admission.


The museum is reopening following a major programme of work to improve its displays, which include a number of rare and important new acquisitions and items never previously displayed. Amongst these are items as diverse as Emily Brontë’s artist box, purchased at Sothebys in December, and a pair of Charlotte Brontë’s stockings.


The museum is keen for local people to come along and see the changes made, since many contributed ideas to the development project through a visitor survey and a series of open evenings last year. The museum is open 11.00am to 5.00pm  (last admission is 4.30pm).


We hope that people in and around Haworth will come and see the work that’s been done, which we feel has greatly improved the museum. There are some wonderful items on display this year, including things donated by local people, and these give an insight not only into the lives of the Brontës, but also life generally in nineteenth-century Haworth.


Andrew McCarthy
Director, Brontë Parsonage Museum
 

Volunteers needed

A message from Andrew Macarthy:
Would you be interested in finding out more about the Brontë Parsonage Museum and its remarkable collection? … discovering what goes on behind the scenes at the museum? … learning new skills and meeting writers, artists and visitors to Haworth and the museum from around the world?

The Brontë Parsonage Museum will be launching a volunteer programme shortly and is looking for volunteers to work as Museum stewards at the Parsonage. Those with some free time are being invited to put themselves forward as volunteer stewards, to work hours during the day, between Monday and Friday. Full training will be given.

As well as offering enjoyable, interesting and useful experience, volunteers will also receive various benefits including free admission to Brontë Society events. This initiative is part of a Heritage Lottery funded project which has involved various improvements being made to the historic rooms of the Parsonage, but also a range of activity to try and involve local people in the work of the museum.

The Parsonage is a fascinating place to work and volunteer stewards will have the chance to find out at close quarters, more about their local heritage and about the museum’s collection, which is constantly developing. Working directly with visitors to the museum and the chance to meet visiting authors and artists will I’m sure make this a very rewarding opportunity.

Andrew McCarthy

Director, Brontë Parsonage Museum

To find out more about volunteering at the museum contact Sonia Boocock, Administration Officer, 01535 640192 sonia.boocock@bronte.org.uk

Heritage Lottery Fund

2009 saw HLF celebrate its 15th anniversary. Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) sustains and transforms a wide range of heritage for present and future generations to take part in, learn from and enjoy. From museums, parks and historic places to archaeology, natural environment and cultural traditions, we invest in every part of our diverse heritage. HLF has supported 33,900 projects, allocating £4.4billion across the UK, including £341million to projects in Yorkshire and the Humber alone.

Emily Brontë and Parmenides

Maddalena De Leo writes:

On 7^th February an interesting meeting in English about Parmenides was held in Ascea-Velia, Italy, just the place where this ancient Greek philosopher was born and from which Eleatic School thought spread. The event was organized by Parmenideum (www. Parmenideum.com), an association whose purpose is the increasing of knowledge of the Eleatic School of Philosophy and, not least, of all its contemporary ramifications in intellectual life, science, and culture.

There were some lectures in the morning and a discussion workshop with Parmenideum’s founder, Mr Habeeb Marouf (from London) as a chairman. A concert was also held in the evening with Belgian cello player Mr Nicolas Deletaille and multimedia music composed by Mr René Mogensen. During the meeting our BS member Maddalena De Leo read the following considerations which drew the audience’s interest and attention to our beloved Brontë theme:

A SHORT NOTE linking an aspect of Parmenides thought to Emily Brontë’s poetic.

   As a long time scholar of Emily Brontë, the famous English author who lived in the mid-nineteenth century, I found in one of her poems a useful hint to today’s discussion about Parmenides Being/Not Being principle.

   I refer to the last two stanzas in the famous poem No coward soul is mine, probably written in 1845 and seemingly one of the last in her production but surely Emily Brontë’s crowning poetic peak and the consummation of her thought.

Though Earth and moon were gone

And suns and universes ceased to be

And Thou wert left alone

Every Existence would exist in Thee.

There is no room for Death

Nor atom that his might could render void

Since Thou art Being and Breath

And what Thou art may never be destroyed.

The Brontës' biographer May Sinclair was the first and maybe the only critic to underline for us in her work The Three Brontës (1912) that these stanzas can be considered as a direct link to ‘one of the most ancient of all metaphysical poems, the poem of Parmenides on being’ so referring to Parmenides De Natura, 28 B8, vv. 19-25:

[Greek: pos d' an epeit apoloito pelon, pos d' an ke genoito;

  ei ge genoit, ouk est', oud ei pote mellei esesthai.

         *       *       *       *       *

  tos, genesis men apesbestai kai apiotos olethros.

  oude diaireton estin, epei pan estin homoion

  oude ti pae keneon....

                         ....eon gar eonti pelazei.]

   Surely Emily Brontë never heard of Parmenides in her remote Yorkshire village but her deism in this poem is conveyed towards an entity whose existence is the Being versus all the rest that is in any case a Not Being and we understand this in her last verse in particular ‘What thou art may never be destroyed’ where the author’s convinction is asserted as an absolute truth just following Parmenides path.

                                                                              

                                                                                

Reference texts:

1.     1 Brontë Emily, Poesie, opera completa, edited by Anna Luisa Zazo, Oscar Classici Mondadori, 1997

2.     2 Sinclair May, The Three Brontës, 1912

The Radical at Red House

In the pictures - Red House and 'Mary Taylor' at the piano.

David and Imelda Marsden write:

A interesting exhibition - Mary Taylor - An Independent Yorkshire Woman - is on now at the Red House Museum in Gomersal and not to be missed. It finishes on 18 April.

Mary Taylor was Charlotte Brontë's schoolfriend, and an inspiration. Charlotte visited and stayed at Red House, the family home of the Taylors and depicted the family in her novel Shirley.There are various items in the exhibition relating to Charlotte.

Mary Taylor was a woman who lived a unusually independent and adventurous life for a woman of her time, and was a pioneering feminist in the nineteenth century. She taught boys English in Germany, emigrated to New Zealand and started a business, then, after making a good living, returned to Gomersal.

She was the leader on mountaineering expeditions for women in Europe, and wrote magazine articles and a novel Miss Miles : A Tale of Yorkshire Life Sixty Years Ago. The exhibition gives the visitor a real insight into Yorkshire history, and gave us some new facts we did not know about. Well done to the Curator and staff at Red House for an informative and interesting exhibition.

And well done to the Parsonage Museum for sucessfully acquiring items at the two recent auctions. We are looking forward to viewing them.

To read about Mary Taylor in Wellington, New Zealand, click THE CUBA STREET MEMORIES PROJECT.

Reopening 1 February

The Parsonage is preparing to reopen on Monday 1 February following a redevelopment project which has been supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The project began with a series of events aimed at encouraging local people in and around Haworth to find out more about the museum and its collections and contribute their ideas on how its presentations might be improved. This included a free local residents’ day and several open evenings for representatives of local community groups and local residents. The open evenings included guided tours of the museum and library, and an opportunity to see items from the museum’s collection relating to the history of Haworth and its nineteenth-century community.

The work that has been done in the museum following this public consultation includes new interpretation, which will help tell visitors the Brontës’ story and the story of their home. There will also be new object casing and displays around the house, which will include some remarkable new acquisitions to the museum’s collection including Emily Brontë’s mahogany artist’s box and her geometry set recently bought at auction in London. The box contains ceramic mixing dishes, remnants of paint, quill nibs, a paint tray, sealing wax with miniature envelopes and a glass bottle. The museum has also purchased a special miniature poetry manuscript by Charlotte Brontë. The two microscopic poems written by Charlotte in 1829 are signed “U. T” (“us two”) which suggests that they were jointly produced by another Bronte sibling, possibly Branwell. Neither of these items have been on public display before.

The museum also appealed to local people to get in touch if they believed they had items that may once have been owned by the Brontë family. As a result several intriguing items came to light which will also feature in the new displays. These Include a hymn sheet from Haworth church dating from the Brontë period and three bound volumes of the Family Economist once owned by Tabitha Brown, former Brontë domestic assistant and sister to Martha Brown – former Brontë servant.

We’re delighted with the improvements to the Parsonage and sure that these will enhance the experience of visiting. The new casing and displays are allowing us to show more of the treasures of the museum’s collection and more of the collection that relates to the Haworth community in which the Brontës lived. It’s wonderful to be able to exhibit new items which have come to us through the generosity of local people. We’ve also tried to create the new displays in such a way as to make the Parsonage feel even more like a domestic home and so we hope people will come along and see the new look and enjoy some of the wonderful new displays.

Andrew McCarthy
Director, Brontë Parsonage Museum

Serve on Council?

Paid-up members of the Brontë Society are invited to serve on Council. This is made up of twenty-one Ordinary Members and three Honorary Officers - Secretary, Treasurer and Publications Officer.

Ordinary Members of Council are elected for a three-year term and may serve three consecutive three-year terms before being required to stand down for one year. Honorary Officers are elected annually and are required to stand down after three consecutive one-year terms. In June 2010, all three current Honorary Officers and one Ordinary Member will complete their maximum terms and will be standing down. Four further Ordinary Members have completed their three-year terms and must stand down, but will be eligible for re-election.

Nominations are invited for the Honorary Officer posts and for up to fifteen Ordinary Members to serve on Council (which meets regularly in Haworth) for the periods 2010 - 2011 (Honorary Officers) and (Ordinary Members).

There is no financial reward: the Society is a charity. Travel expenses for attendance at meetings are paid.

If you are interested, check that you have been a fully paid-up member for at least one year, make sure that you have a proposer and a seconder (who must also be paid-up members) and compose a statement of up to one hundred words describing yourself. You will also need a recent passport-sized photo. Your nomination must reach the Council Administrator no later than Saturday 27 February. If you have not already received a nomination form, contact the Parsonage.

The election will be by ballot only.

Don't Leave Him Now

Don't Leave Him Now is a song written and performed by Val Wiseman and Brian Dee, one of the songs from the Brontë tribute album Keeping The Flame Alive. See www.brontelegacy.com


You can listen to it now in an improved high definition version on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr6qY4ydanw


Alternatively, you can google: Don't Leave him Now Val Wiseman and it will also take you to the YouTube site.

Orphans

Helen Kirk writes:

I am currently doing an MA in Victorian Studies and am putting together my dissertation proposal which I am intending to do on the portrayal of orphans in the works of the Brontës and how this links to their own experiences of mother-loss and isolation.

I was wondering if you knew of any links that the Brontë Sisters had with regards to orphans as they grew older, i.e. any references to any of them visiting Coram's Foundling Hospital for example. Any advice or tips on where to look would be much appreciated.

(Reply to email address on the right - or click on comments below)

A literary prize

Buon Natale a tutti i nostri lettori in Italia!

Maddalena De Leo from the Italian Section of the Brontë Society sent us this article:

A LITERARY PRIZE TO Prof. MADDALENA DE LEO for her article about a comparison she drew between Wuthering Heights and a novel by the Italian writer Francesco Bruno

On 18^th December 2009 Professor Maddalena De Leo from Ascea Marina (SA) was awarded a literary prize for an article in Italian she wrote and published in an Italian newspaper and on the Internet dealing with a comparison between an aspect of Wuthering Heights, the famous novel by Emily Brontë, and Paese di eriche e ginestre, the only novel written by the Italian critic and journalist Francesco Bruno who lived in Naples during the first part of the twentieth century.

Every year a journalistic prize and a cultural evening are held to commemorate this literary man by his still living relatives. The seventh edition of the event was held this year in Naples in the elegant Red Room of Libreria Guida, a very antique and renown bookshop in the very historical centre of the city. It was a delighting evening in which three important Italian journalists gave lectures on Futurism and Francesco Bruno’s critical contribute to it at the beginning of the last century.

Our BS member Maddalena De Leo received a plaque and a cheque by Mr Francesco D’Episcopo, Professor of Italian Literature at University Federico II in Naples and the approval and the economical contribution of the direct heirs of the late journalist and critic, Mr Francesco Jr. and Enrico Bruno and their mother, Mrs. Maria Novi Bruno.

Prof. De Leo explained to the public what inspired her to draw so strange a parallel between two worlds apparently so different, the North of England and the South of Italy, eventually the word ‘heather’ used by both the authors to describe their birth landscape. By going on in the reading of Bruno’s novel, Mrs. De Leo realized instead that the real parallel in the two novels was to be found in the inmost nature and the different fate of their main characters and so she worked on this idea.

You can read here the winning article by Professor De Leo translated into English by herself:

ARCHANGELS AND DEVILS IN LITERATURE, A REVERSE PATH

by Maddalena De Leo

Recently I came across a rare book that is virtually unknown even to Italian readers. Written by Francesco Bruno, an eminent journalist, critic, and essayist this book was a unique and fascinating discovery. Entitled "A Country of Heather and Gorse" the work is nearly impossible to find in either bookshops or libraries.

Mr. Bruno's life spanned a good deal of the twentieth century lasting from 1899-1982. Snatched by death just before completing the book it was never given a conclusion. It is my intention through this article to do just that. We would. perhaps, never even have heard of this work if it wasn't for his son Elio. A journalist and critic in his own right we owe a great deal of the preservation of this classic to him. Another tireless promoter of Mr. Bruno's work is Professor Francesco D'Episcopo. We are indebted to him for keeping the literary works of Bruno alive.

The novel takes place in a rural setting, so familiar to the works of his contemporaries. It is reminiscent of Deledda and Verga where love of the land and pride in property ownership form the basis of so many of their stories. The landscape forms a backdrop against which even the birds are given human-like qualities. These fluttering birds actually seem to not only witness but in fact understand human affairs.

The title of this work could easily be "A Country of Thrushes and Alder" because of its location. Set in Ascea-Velia a lovely Mediterranean region the naturaly beauty of the land is vibrantly depicted. It is in fact the birthplace of Francesco Bruno and he has very tender feelings for it.

There are several references to the harsh sun of the south which causes devastating droughts. He also alludes to historical facts which occurred during the seventeenth century. There are allusions as well to social injustice and outright piracy all of which Mr. Bruno has accurately captured.

His descriptions of plant life is also quite captivating. Heather, like the plant broom, both grow in cold, harsh, remote and unproductive lands. The author's protagonist, Archangel, like the plant heather can survive and even thrive in the most difficult environment. His life, like that of the heather plant endures in a sterile and barren environment.

Archangel is a devout person trusting in Providence just like the characters created by Manzoni. He is an asset to his fellow countrymen lending support whenever he can. This goodness to others is not reflected in how the character views himself. Archangel is in fact dissatisfied with his sterile existence and is increasingly worried about the fact that he has no children.

The psychological imagery employed by Mr. Bruno is also utilized in one of the world's most famous novels "Wuthering Heights." The "land of heather" in this case refers to the fertile and highly imaginative mind of its author Emily Brontë. In "Wuthering Heights" birds along with harsh winds and a barren landscape form a relationship to mankind's suffering.

The character Heathcliff is an evil, selfish, and dominating man. He is the antithesis of Bruno's Archangel. Even though Archangel is a good man and Heathcliff an evil one they both share a similar fate. Both men are disappointed by the paths their lives have taken.

Both men adopt the false belief that if they work hard and protect their land they will get whatever they want from life. Both live in homes that are isolated from the rest of the world. Bruno's "Casa Romita" perfectly corresponds to Bronte's "Heights."

Bruno tells us at the end of chapter two "the story of men is changeable and cannot be contained by any rational force." Only death will draw a veil of oblivion over the inevitably stormy passions experienced in these so far off lands, one sunny and the other solitary and exposed to winds. Only by his lonely and irreligious death the diabolical Heathcliff will be able to obtain, although superficially, that peace he never enjoyed in life, and certainly for the Archangel a reverse path will be accomplished based again on a melancholy resignation and an acceptance. So in the end both Archangel and Heathcliff await death as the final and true peace.

I believe this may well be the never written yet inevitable conclusion to this enigmatic novel.

Below, Professor Francesco D’Episcopo presents a plaque and a cheque:

Commemoration in Dewsbury

Dewsbury Minster is to celebrate the arrival of Rev Patrick Brontë in December 1809 at what was then called All Saints Church with a service on Sunday 6 December at 6.30pm

The Bishop of Wakefield, the Rt Rev Stephen Platten, will lead the commemoration.

For further details telephone 01924 457057.

From Imelda and David Marsden

Help raise the funds

News release

The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire has been stunned by news of two auctions in as many weeks, both featuring Brontë treasures of a kind that have not been seen at public auction in many years.

On 4 December, Christies in New York will host an auction of the William E Self library which includes numerous Brontë lots. The most significant of these is an extremely rare first edition of Emily’s only novel, Wuthering Heights. This is the copy owned by her sister Charlotte, who revised the novel for a new edition published after her sister’s death, and contains her pencilled-in corrections. There are also three lively letters from Charlotte Brontë to Henry Nussey, brother of her close friend Ellen Nussey. The letters include Charlotte’s reflections on family, work, the relationship between men and women, and marriage. One of the letters is Charlotte’s response to Nussey’s proposal of marriage. The sale also includes a miniature poetry manuscript produced in childhood by Charlotte.

These lots alone are expected to fetch in the region of $280,000 or £170,000 and the museum is desperately trying to raise funds to ensure that these items are returned to a public collection in the UK and not lost to a private collector.

It’s rare for such significant items to come onto the open market and there’s no doubt that these are items which are of such great significance to our cultural and artistic heritage that they should certainly be thought of as national treasures. It would be very sad indeed if these treasures were not repatriated or were lost to a private collection. We feel that these are things which belong here in Haworth and we’re appealing for people to get in touch if they can help us raise the funds to make sure this doesn’t happen.

Andrew McCarthy

Director, Brontë Parsonage Museum

This will be followed on 17 December by an auction at Sotheby’s in London, which features items from the Law Collection and includes Charlotte’s mahogany writing desk, a pencil drawing by Emily, and an extremely rare surviving personal possession of Emily’s, her artist’s box and geometry set. As an independent charity the museum is constantly trying to raise funds to support its work, a fundamental part of which is seeking to acquire such important Brontë material and making it accessible to the public.

It’s very difficult for us to compete in a market where these items can fetch such high prices and we need the support of organizations and individuals to make sure that they are returned to Haworth where they surely belong. If anyone feels they can make a financial contribution to help us, this would be very much appreciated

Andrew McCarthy

Director, Brontë Parsonage Museum

Click for Daily Telegraph report

Gyles Brandreth standing on his head

Richard Wilcocks writes:

Thanks, George and several others, for your enquiries about our President's gymnastic abilities. Yes, he can stand on his head, and he did so in York. He did it for the One Show on television not so long ago as well........see this post for the photo.

The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë

Syrie James writes:

Exciting news! The Women’s National Book Association has named my novel, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, one of the Great Group Reads of 2009. I am delighted because I truly believe that Charlotte’s story will open up lively discussions about a host of timely and provocative topics.

The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, by Avon/HarperCollins Publishing in July 2009, is the result of many years of intense research and writing. As a devoted Brontë scholar, I was intrigued by how many of Charlotte's own life experiences found their way into her novels, and I found immense pleasure in bringing her true story to life on the page.

The novel begins with an impassioned proposal from Charlotte’s father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, who has carried a silent torch for Charlotte for more than seven years. Charlotte greatly disliked Mr Nicholls when they first met, but her feelings have evolved and changed over the years. Does she love him? Does she wish to marry him?

Seeking answers, Charlotte takes up her pen to examine the truth about her life. In these pages, she exposes her deepest feelings and desires, her triumphs and shattering personal disappointments, her scandalous, secret passion for the man she can never have—the man who was the basis for all the heroes in her books, including Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre —and the intimate details of her compelling relationship with Mr Nicholls, the man she eventually comes to love with all her heart.

At the same time, we learn of Charlotte’s relationship with her family, the inspiration behind their work, and their evolution as novelists. Although Charlotte and her sisters Emily and Anne did not have a single connection to the literary world, and lived in an era when women rarely saw their work in print — and despite their difficult circumstances at home, including an alcoholic brother and a father who was going blind — all three women became published authors at the same time. I cannot think of any other family in history who have achieved such an extraordinary feat, and I wanted to celebrate that and reveal how it happened.

As part of my research I made an extended visit to the Brontë Parsonage Museum. I owe a debt of gratitude to Ann Dinsdale, the Collections Manager, for her gracious welcome to both the house and library, and to Sarah Laycock, the museum’s Library and Information Officer, for sharing many wonderful details about Charlotte’s clothing and other garments in the collection. I also was privileged to receive an unforgettable, attic-to-cellar tour of the former Roe Head School in Mirfield which Charlotte attended, which still sports the legend of a mysterious attic-dwelling ghost.

I hope you will enjoy reading The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë as much as I enjoyed writing it. My first novel, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, became a bestseller and was named a Best First Novel of 2008 by Library Journal. I welcome visitors and messages at my website, www.syriejames.com

ISBN 978-0061648373

A remarkable cache

News release from the Parsonage:

A remarkable cache of new Brontë treasures have recently been donated the Brontë Parsonage Museum by a private owner living in Manitoba, Canada. The items were given to the museum by Mr Tony Hart, whose great grandfather was the nephew of Mary Anna Bell, the second wife of Arthur Bell Nicholls. Nicholls’ first marriage was to Charlotte Brontë and took place at Haworth Church in 1854, although Charlotte died the following year, possibly in the early stages of pregnancy. Mr Hart’s great grandfather emigrated from Ireland to Canada in the 1870s.

The items donated all belonged to Charlotte Brontë and include a gold brooch set with garnets, a beautifully carved ivory visiting card case and card, a fragmentary manuscript by Charlotte, dated 1829 and entitled ‘Anecdotes of the Duke of Wellington’, an ink drawing of a ‘Wellington monument’ accompanying the manuscript, and a signed engraved portrait of Charlotte. The items would have been taken to Ireland by Arthur Bell Nicholls in 1861 after Charlotte’s death and may have been given to Mr Hart’s great grandfather as keepsakes.

It’s very rare indeed for such a wonderful group of items to emerge under any circumstances, but we feel extremely fortunate and grateful to Mr Hart for donating what is certainly a very valuable collection indeed to the museum. Some of these items are quite unique within the context of the museum’s collection and so to have them return to Haworth after so many years, and all the way from Canada, is very special.

Ann Dinsdale

Collections Manager

The new items are now on display at the Brontë Parsonage Museum and can be seen along with many other treasures from the museum’s collection as part of an exhibition focusing on Charlotte Brontë.