Brontë Studies. Volume 31, Issue 1.

The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 31, Issue 1, March 2006) is already available on-line.

We provide you the table of contents and abstracts:

Editorial pp. iii-iv(1) Author: Duckett, Bob

ARTICLES
Pink Silk and Purple Gray: Charlotte Brontë's Wish-Fulfillment in Villette pp. 1-6(6) Author: Quarm, Joan
Abstract:
When Charlotte Brontë wrote Villette she was miserably lonely. She used her work as a retreat to the past, with herself as the protagonist, Lucy Snowe. By comparing Lucy's condition with that of Paulina Home and Ginevra Fanshawe, the writer expressed her attitudes to varying types of women and their place in society. Although the book is an appeal for justice to plain poor girls, it expresses unconscious prejudices against certain types of men.

'The Ever-Shifting Kaleidoscope of the Imagination': Modern Illustrations to the Brontës pp. 7-22(16) Author: Cooke, Simon
Abstract:
The works of the Brontës were not illustrated during their lifetimes and it was not until the twentieth century that visual interpretation of their work became a mainstay of popular editions. The illustrators of the Brontës' own time were unequal to the task of visualizing the texts and it was only in the modern period that artists, equipped with the visual language of expressive distortion, were able to find pictorial equivalents to match and interpret the writers' challenging explorations of psychology, sexuality, love and relationships. This article examines the perceived modernity of the Brontës' texts as it is visualized by outstanding designers such as Barnett Freedman, Peter Forster, Paula Rego and Fritz Eichenberg. The focus for this analysis is on a close reading of text, illustration, and the relationship between them: how the artist responds to written information, how the visual equivalent is offered and what affect this has on the process of reading. The article demonstrates the process of endless revision and enhancement which takes place as a result of showing the texts in images that are widely disparate, controversial and challenging.

The Faery and the Beast pp. 23-29(7) Author: Heiniger, Abigail
Abstract:
Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre is influenced by the classic fairy tale hopes and dreams of the traditional 'Beauty and the Beast'. Yet Charlotte's message also stands apart from the fairy-tale tradition because, through Jane Eyre, she harnesses all the power of a fairy tale to challenge the ideas that gave rise to the stereotypical ideal Victorian woman. Coventry Patmore's mid-nineteenth-century poem 'The Angel in the House' represents the type of cultural mythology that Charlotte Brontë was already challenging in the pre-Victorian era. She realizes that the best way to defeat this myth is to replace it with a new one of her own making. In the vein of 'Beauty and the Beast', Patmore's poem demands beautiful women to inspire men. Charlotte Brontë's character Blanche Ingram fulfils Patmore's demands, but it is only the fairy-like heroine Jane who has the power to rehumanize Rochester. While Blanche is surrounded by references to classical mythology, Jane is associated with fairy tales like 'The Fairies and the Hump-Back' or 'The Legend of Knockgrafton'. Unlike classical myths, fairy tales are a genre that was largely preserved by women, and therefore it can empower a heroine to become a woman's ideal woman, rather than the artificial man's ideal woman.

Arthur Bell Nicholls (1819–1906) pp. 31-36(6) Author: O'Sullivan, Betty
Abstract:
An account of the life of Arthur Bell Nicholls in Ireland before and after his time in Haworth.

Classic Reprint

The Geography of Wuthering Heights pp. 37-52(16) Author: Flintoff, Everard
Abstract:
The originals of the houses Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange have long puzzled readers of the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The late Everard Flintoff wrote a most detailed consideration of this issue in the Durham University Journal. This paper is reprinted here by popular request. Despite the unusual amount of carefully considered detail in the novel, no one known house or location entirely fits the details provided by Emily Brontë. The relative claims of High Sunderland Hall and Ponden Hall in particular are considered.

Short Items

Charlotte Brontë and the Thames Watermen pp. 53-55(3) Author: McCarthy, Margaret
Abstract:
An account of the Thames Watermen whom Charlotte encountered on her travels to Belgium. (A shortened version of a talk given at Haworth in May 2005)

Joseph Redman, Haworth Parish Clerk, C. 1826–1862 pp. 56-56(1) Author: Wood, Steven
Abstract:
An extract from the book Haworth: 'A strange uncivilized little place', by Steven Wood, published by Tempus Publishing, 2005. This extract is published by kind permission of the author and Tempus Publishing.

George Smith (1789–1846) Co-Founder of Smith, Elder and His Family pp. 57-59(3) Author: Penty, Norman E.
Abstract:
An account of the family of George Smith, founder of the publishing company Smith, Elder, and the father of George Murray Smith, Charlotte Brontë's publisher.

Re-reading Jane Eyre as a Christian Allegory pp. 61-62(2) Author: Shell, Alison
Abstract:
First published in the Church Times, 5 November 2004. Reprinted here by kind permission of the Church Times and Dr Shell.

Brussels in 1847: Extracts from the Journal of Jenny Heslop pp. 63-66(4)
Abstract:
Extracts from the journal and diary of Jane Damaris Audland, née Heslop, relating to her visits to Brussels in August and September 1847. Transcription and annotation by Christopher Audland

A Discussion of Patrick Branwell Brontë: by The Same pp. 67-74(8) Author: Torres, Maria Elena
Abstract:
The script of an entertainment presented at the dinner that ended a two-day Brontë Conference at Pace University, New York, in April 2004.

The History of Top Withens pp. 75-81(7) Author: Kayes, Christine
Abstract:
A history of Top Withens farm, popularly regarded as the locality of the fictional Wuthering Heights. Includes an eye-witness account in the time when it was inhabited.

Reviews pp. 83-92(10)

Categories: Journals, Scholar, Brontë_Society