At the Casbah with Jane Eyre

A few days ago an event called Jane Eyre: The Well-Dresses Governess by The History Wardrobe took place at the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Keighley News carries an article on it.

Gillian Stapleton, pictured, from The History Wardrobe, wore a handmade frock meant to imitate Jane Eyre's "best dress", as described by Charlotte Brontë in her 1847 novel.
Mrs Stapleton, a costume historian and seamstress who co-runs the company The History Wardrobe, based the dress and other garments on 1840s' modest fashions from contemporary magazines.
Her design was also drawn from a dress worn by Charlotte Brontë herself, which is exhibited at the museum.
Collections officer at the parsonage, Linda Proctor-Machley, said: "It is interesting because we are actually seeing somebody dressed in the costume and it brings Jane Eyre off the page and into real life. You can reach out and touch her.
"People have really responded well to it and we have had a lot of interest."
Mrs Stapleton presented a 20-minute costume performance called "Jane Eyre, the well dressed Governess," with readings from Elizabeth's Gaskell's "The Life of Charlotte Brontë", some of Charlotte's letters and excerpts from Jane Eyre.
The presentation was an extract from an hour-long lecture that The History Wardrobe plans to perform at venues across the country. Mrs Stapleton said: "I read Jane Eyre when I was at school and completely fell in love with the book.
"I wanted to turn it into work and The History Wardrobe gives me that chance."
Mrs Stapleton worked on the dress for six months before presenting it at the museum. "I had to think about what was available to a young woman of humble tastes who still wants to present herself as a lady," she said. (Lisa Campbell. Picture source)

Another Jane Eyre-related event will be taking place across the pond. According to The New York Observer the event taking place in New York next Saturday August 18, A Night at the Casbah, will include a unique kind of dance:

If we had wheels, we’d be speeding north to Cooperstown (which is somewhere near Albany, we think), where a restored 1830’s English-style country house called Hyde Hall will provide the backdrop for a curious fund-raising dinner-dance titled “A Night at the Casbah” (i.e., that place in Tangiers where our parents get Persian rugs). All manner of summer-home-owning Manhattanites will dance the night away in incomparable Jane Eyre-goes-Morocco style. The theme, a rep tells us, was dreamed up by co-chair Mitchell Owens, an editor at ELLE DECOR and a Morocco enthusiast. Best of all, “we’re going to have a camel, a belly-dancer, and costumed servers!” she said. Let’s hope for the belly dancer’s sake that the camel isn’t in a furious state of satyriasis. (Sara Vilkomerson)

More information (venue details, etc.) can be found on the New York Social Diary.

The event might sound a little surprising, but the Brontës - with their love for the Arabian Nights - would have enjoyed it.

The Christian Science Monitor talks about dress codes for language, it seems that the use of 'shall' sounds Brontë-ish to the writer:

"Shall" as the first-person declarative counterpart to "will" has largely disappeared – from American English, at least. "I shall go with you" sounds straight out of the Brontë sisters. (Ruth Walker)

The Chicago Tribune briefly comments on Maureen Adams's Shaggy Muses.

Book Publishing uses Jane Eyre for tips on writing about hunger and Wuthering Heights for tips on tone.

A fan of Wuthering Heights - Jace9999 - has uploaded a video with a tribute song to YouTube, all made by himself.

Categories: Brontë Parsonage Museum, Jane Eyre, Music, References, Wuthering Heights