Who Were the Brontës?

This is the title of the second exhibition that opens today, April 27, in the Brontë Parsonage Museum: (EDIT: Check the new post on the Brontë Parsonage Blog for more information about the official opening)

Who Were the Brontës?

Brontë myths tackled head-on in new exhibition
‘Who Were the Brontës?’ Exhibition – 27 April 2007 to April 2009

A new exhibition at the famous Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth hopes to tackle some of the commonly held myths and perceptions about the lives of the Brontë family head-on when it launches on 27 April 2007 for 2 years.
Visitors to the Museum will be taken on a journey of discovery and invited to interpret the evidence for themselves through the fascinating collection of objects, drawings, letters and hair samples of the Brontës, to arrive at their own conclusions to some fundamental differences between reality, fiction and established Brontë myths.
The lives of the Brontës have inspired many hundreds of biographies, novels, films and plays and Curator of the exhibition, Emma King (in the picture, courtesy of the Brontë Parsonage Blog), believes many of the stereotypical ideas of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë are at least partially or wholly untrue. Emma added “the popular story says that the Brontës lived a remote, rural life. It describes three sisters who lived in poverty with a distant father and unfriendly aunt. Their brother [Branwell] drank away the family money, forcing them to work. Yet before their tragic, early deaths they each wrote novels that would become famous around the world – the story is an attractive one, but not entirely true. This exhibition hopes to challenge some of these perceptions”.
One of the earliest documented writings about the lives of the Brontës came from Charlotte Brontë’s first biographer, Elizabeth Gaskell, whose manuscript of The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published some 150 years ago, is on display at the Museum until June 2007. Gaskell made the most of the tragic aspects of Charlotte’s life and her unkind portraits of Charlotte’s father and brother have been accepted as fact. Even 150 years ago, the book was met with libel action and threats of legal action. Mrs. Gaskell vowed never to write another biography, complaining that the book had landed her “in the hornet’s nest”.

“The thoughtless critics, who spoke of the sad and gloomy views of life presented by the Brontës in their tales, should know how such work was wrung out of them by the living recollection of the long agony they suffered” – Elizabeth Gaskell.
Branwell Brontë, the brother of Charlotte, Emily and Anne, has come in for particular criticism over the years, often being referred to as a drunkard, drug addict and jealous of his sister’s success. However, in reality Branwell’s poetry was admired at the time and was published 5 years before that of his sisters. He also seems to have done well initially in his job on the railway despite later dismissal and assertions of biographers. He was in fact promoted within 6 months with a good salary (Barker pp. 367-374).
So the myths and legends continued and the Museum hopes the exhibition will encourage visitors of all ages to decipher for themselves what is the real truth about this unique family with the help of some 21 st century technology.
New scientific research by The University of Bradford has recently thrown new light on a small part of the Brontë story. Dr. Andrew Wilson, an archaeological scientist at the University, carried out tests on Brontë hair from the museum’s collection for a recent ground-breaking Cornelia Parker exhibition at the Parsonage. He discovered that the Brontës ate a healthy and balanced diet and that they had a better diet than people living in the East End of London at the same time. The research disproves the myth that their father, Patrick, restricted his children’s diet.
The exhibition is free on admission to the Museum. (Diane E. Kay)

The other exhibition that is currently going on in the Parsonage is That Unlucky Book: The Life of Charlotte Brontë

(...) The exhibition explores the background to the book, the process of writing and the picture it painted of Charlotte Brontë, one of the 19 th century’s most popular and enduring novelists. Visitors can see objects rarely on display to the public, including letters written by Charlotte under her pen name “Currer Bell”, miniature books that Charlotte wrote during childhood and exquisite drawings that reveal her artistic as well
as her literary skill. The dress that Charlotte wore to go on honeymoon with her husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls, is also displayed following recent conservation work. (...)

One of the objects that can be seen for a limited time, as we informed, is the original manuscript of The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell:

(...) The handwritten manuscript has been lent to the museum by the Manchester University Library and will only be displayed for three months due to its fragile nature. It is Mrs Gaskell’s original copy of the three-volume book, which was also the first biography of one female novelist by another. Mrs Gaskell, a friend of Charlotte Brontë’s in the years before Charlotte’s death, wrote the book over a two-year period at Patrick Brontë’s request. The manuscript contains her own corrections and those of her husband, who she relied on to check her spelling and grammar.
The manuscript is a rare survival – Victorian manuscripts often languished in printing houses after books had been printed and were thrown away or lost. This one must have been reclaimed by its author as Mrs Gaskell’s daughter, Meta, gave it to the Manchester University Library in 1910. The book was only published in its original form for eight months, however – following the threat of legal action from people who accused her of libel, Mrs Gaskell was forced to make a series of changes to her original text which was withdrawn and replaced by a ‘revised and updated’ edition.
The manuscript is part of an exhibition that explores the background to Mrs Gaskell’s biography and the picture it painted of Charlotte Brontë, one of the most popular and enduring novelists in the English language. Visitors can see objects rarely on display to the public, including letters written by Charlotte under her pen name “Currer Bell”, miniature books that Charlotte wrote during childhood and exquisite drawings that reveal her artistic as well as her literary skill. The dress that Charlotte wore to go on honeymoon with her husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls, is also displayed following recent conservation work.

Categories: Arts-Exhibitions, Brontë Parsonage Museum