The dense Brontë manuscripts

Hardly a day goes by when we don't discover just how many people have been inspired by the Brontës. The New York Times brings to our attention - in an article about something else - one more Brontë-related work:

Mr. [Arthur] Bicknell, who was 32 at the time and had written a couple of scripts — including “Masterpieces,” a historical drama about the Brontë family — said he had become aware early that there were problems with the play, and the production. (Campbell Robertson)

A couple of articles from the Financial Times. Firstly, a review of the Writers' Rooms exhibition which closed a few days ago in London.

Even more claustrophobic is the "Brontë dining room, Haworth": the strict verticals of the patterned wallpaper set against the rigorous horizontals - table, mantelpiece, bookshelves - recall the dense Brontë manuscripts, economically covered in tiny script, written both across and downwards, in superimposed layers. (Jackie Wullschlager)

You can see the painting here.

And secondly a review of The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth by Frances Wilson, which has appeared previously on BrontëBlog.

One of Wilson's most telling moves in The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth is to compare their mutual dependence to the equally intense and baffling passion shared by Emily Bronte's Cathy and Heathcliff. Wilson even contends that Bronte's conception of a love so elemental as to be beyond consummation was partly influenced by the account of Dorothy and William's domestic life published by Thomas de Quincey in 1839. Like the 19th century's most famous literary lovers, William and Dorothy were orphaned young and kept apart: it was not until 1790, when Wordsworth was at Cambridge, that they were able to recover the bond of their early years.
Wilson cites a range of modern medical authorities on incest and plausibly argues that it was precisely the interruption of their familial life that motivated their determination never to be separated again. Dorothy "petted" William, treasured not only his poems but his half-eaten apples, and the question of her moving out in honour of the arrival of Mary never arose. In later years, alas, her eccentric ways curdled into dementia; increasingly she came to resemble another Bronte heroine - Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre. (Mark Ford)

As you know today is Charlotte's birthday. Some bloggers from all around the world have written posts celebrating it: Chris from Book-a-rama, who is currently reading Daphne by Justine Picardie (which she won in a BrontëBlog contest!), Desde París a Buenos Aires in Spanish, Abbond Girl in Italian, Life for Rent in Portuguese. Jane's Mad Howls celebrates by casting on the so-called Charlotte Brontë shawl. Lucy Ann White discusses Villette.

Slayground interviews author Jody Gehrman who picks Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights as two of her ten favourite books of all time.

Renata Cordeiro translates the poem No Coward Soul Is Mine into Portuguese as Eu não tenho a alma covarde.

A little sweet, a little sour has read and liked Laura Joh Rowland's The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë.

And to conclude we suggest you read Justine Picardie's account of last Friday's talk - with Lady Tessa Montgomery, Daphne du Maurier's daughter - in Haworth, complete with pictures. Very much worth it.

Categories: Books, Brontëites, Charlotte Brontë, Haworth, Poetry