The cyprus pine tree becomes Branwell

The Telegraph & Argus gives the chance to see the results of Dominic Clare's work with the Parsonage's cyprus pine tree that was felled last January:

The “black sheep” of the Bronte family was chosen as the unlikely subject for the latest piece of artwork to commemorate the literary family.
Chainsaw artist Dominic Clare spent a day carving a sculpture of Branwell Bronte from a tree felled at the Bronte Parsonage Museum earlier this year.
Fascinated visitors to the Haworth museum were able to watch Mr Clare in action as he drew the outline of Branwell’s face onto the wood, then used a chainsaw to cut the lines.
The tree, which had become diseased, was one of a pair of Cypress pines believed to have been planted in the Parsonage garden by Charlotte Bronte and Arthur Bell Nicholls as part of their wedding celebrations.
A seedling from the tree was taken before it was felled and has been replanted in the same spot.
The sculpture of Branwell is set to be displayed at the museum throughout the summer.
An information panel inside the museum explains to visitors that Branwell is seen as the black sheep of the family. With that in mind, why was the artist so keen to make him the focus of his work?
“I was taken by the self-portrait that Branwell did and I used that for inspiration to carve a larger version onto the panel,” said Mr Clare, from Beddgelert, in North Wales.
“I just like the marks Branwell makes on the paper – he was an artist himself obviously,” added Mr Clare.
Jenna Holmes, arts officer at the museum, said: “It’s a fantastic thing for visitors to see. It’s quite a dramatic sight to see an artist working with a chainsaw.
“It was a tree that was believed to have been planted by Charlotte Bronte on her wedding day in 1854 and unfortunately it had to be felled this January because it had become diseased. We thought it would be a lovely way to commemorate the tree and create a fun event for visitors.
“A sapling was taken from the original tree so something will, hopefully, grow back in the same spot as the original.”
A description of Branwell, displayed on an information board near the museum entrance, said: “The popular story is that he was an alcoholic drug addict who wasted his talents and held his sisters back.
“As a young man, Branwell showed great promise as an artist and writer. His family were very proud of his talents. His poetry was admired by experts and was published five years before any of his sisters’ work. He also played an active part in Haworth life.
“Branwell did abuse drugs and alcohol in the last years of his life after a failed love affair. But Mrs Gaskell exaggerated Branwell’s downfall in her biography of Charlotte, and later writers have followed her lead.” (Will Kilner)

A video can also be watched here.

The Telegraph & Argus also reports some of the reactions to the project of building a new hotel in Haworth which we published yesterday.

The San Francisco Gate announces that Rosanna Gamson's Ravish dance piece will be present at next October's Litquake Festival:

The raucous literary festival Litquake teams with ODC Theater for a slate of dancer-writer collaborations. On opening night, gymnastic stuntman Scott Wells teams with the spunky Michelle Tea; other matchups include Katie Faulkner and Tess Uriza Holthe, and Alejandro Murguia and Erika Shuch. The later nights of the festival present Los Angeles choreographer Rosanna Gamson's "Ravish," a dance-theater piece about the Bronte sisters. Oct. 8-12. Project Artaud Theater, 450 Florida St., San Francisco.

The Times has an article about animal protagonists in adult literature. Sam Savage's Firmin appears:

His first meal is Finnegans Wake - the “big one”. Firmin subsequently develops (literally) a taste for high literature. Lettuce, he discovers, “tastes like Jane Eyre”. Flaubert is “salty and tart”. Firmin becomes subtle as Proust in the books he devours. (John Sutherland)

TravelWeekly might push metaphors too far:

Of the many people I have got to know well in the travel industry, it’s a fair bet none would describe me as anything like a character from a classic English novel.
No, the stress of writing this column hasn’t tipped me over the edge. And no, I’m not about to start flouncing about like Keira Knightley.
But I do have an admission – I’m starting to feel a bit like Jane Eyre. You see, the trade has a nasty secret almost as shameful as having a mad relative locked up in the attic. (Julia Lo Blue-Said)

More reviews of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga:

Although Meyer tries to portray this pair as a modern Romeo and Juliet or Heathcliff and Catherine (references to whom are glaringly frequent), Bella and Edward’s relationship is more like that of predator and prey. For one thing, the scent of Bella’s blood tortures Edward, who drinks animal blood to keep from killing humans. (Gina R. Dalfonzo in National Review)

And of Irina Reyn's What Happened to Anna K.:

To others, Anna's blend of beauty, elegance and mystery embodies "the Russian soul." But Reyn shows that the romantic siren song of her favorite novel, "Wuthering Heights," explains her missteps as much as any Old Country mystique. After a few years, she will seek her Heathcliff in her cousin's former beau, David, a Queens College adjunct and aspiring novelist. (Dan Cryer in Newsday)

The Book Smugglers interview author Susan Holloway Scott:

The Book Smugglers: Who (or what) are some of your influences? Any favorite authors?
Susan: If we’re talking influences, I’d have to say all those grand old historical writers that I devoured as a teenager.(...) I also read tons of older books that weren’t strictly “historical”, but the contemporary novels of their time, like Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Alexandre Dumas, the Brontes, and Henry Fielding (though as speedy a reader as I was, I didn’t finish any of those in a single day!)

Categories: Books, Branwell Brontë, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Dance, Haworth, In the News