The best of nuns

The Charleston Gazette talks about the upcoming novel by Denise Giardina: Emily's Ghost:

When you open the pages of Denise Giardina's new novel, you slip into the world of the Brontës as effortlessly as one of Emily's ghosts.
Whether you are very familiar with the lives of the famous Brontë sisters or know very little about them really doesn't matter for the success of this novel.
In "Emily's Ghost: A Novel of the Brontë Sisters," Giardina has decided who she wants her characters to be and your previous knowledge or lack of it is irrelevant. That doesn't mean she has cast them so that they bear no relation to the real Brontës; it simply means that she has managed to make them more real than both reality and fiction.
The people who come to life for the reader graciously allow you to be a presence in the rooms in which they interact. You are ushered into their conversation and thoughts as they try to decipher the meaning of their lives.
You may begin to speculate with them about the paths they should take.
The carefully controlled pace of the story also contributes to the sense that the characters and dramatic climaxes are speaking for themselves.
As you would imagine in the lives of the Brontës, there are some crucial developments, but it is the content rather than any artificial pacing device that drives the engaging action of the story.
At the core of the novel is a relationship between Emily and one her father's curates, William Weightman. Emily and William work their way through the discovery of their attraction and affinity for each other, and then through all the difficulties such a relationship would present for each of them.
The reader sees a young woman who is deeply protective of her need for freedom, and a young man ultimately concerned about being good and doing good.
Weightman is involved in the Chartist movement, one aim of which was to give the vote to working-class men who thought their problems could be solved by government reforms. However, there is a workers' plot afoot to shut down the local textile mills in a dramatic fashion.
Giardina's Emily Brontë embodies the intense longing for freedom and the love of the moors that haunt her only novel, "Wuthering Heights."
The novel follows recent scholarship in depicting Emily Brontë as more independent in thought and more talented perhaps than her famous sister Charlotte.
Giardina cleverly contrasts the dispositions and attitudes of the three Brontë sisters by close depiction of their everyday interaction with each other. We begin to understand why each wrote the major novel that she did.
While this seems in no sense intended as a biographical novel of Emily or of the group of the three writing sisters, the author remains true to main events in their lives.
Readers of Giardina's previous novels are aware that social issues are near and dear to her heart. Sometimes she has been so engaged with them that her characters instruct her readers as to what they ought to feel about injustice.
The small parish of Haworth over which Emily's father, Patrick Brontë, presided was one center of the textile industry. People who worked in the mills there, including very young children, suffered the poverty and disease typical of the poor during the evolving Industrial Revolution.
These are issues that should engage any thinking person, but Giardina wisely lets the questions of social reform and justice fit naturally into the lives and concerns of the people whose story she is telling.
Just as there is no insertion of a lesson on the history of the Brontës, there is no intrusion instructing the reader as to what one ought to feel about poor mill workers. The descriptions speak for themselves; the reader is free to make independent judgments.
This novel is the work of a mature artist who has invested her identity into that of her characters and has let them produce the effect of the story. You'll remember this book and reflect on it for a long time. (Carol Campbell)

The Telegraph and Argus publishes details about a new tourist guide to 'the Pennine areas of West Yorkshire'.

Haworth, Saltaire and Ilkley feature heavily in a new campaign designed to attract visitors to Pennine areas of West Yorkshire.
Five local authorities – including Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale Councils – have combined to boost short breaks and increase visitor spending in the area.
Pennine Yorkshire, the rural areas of West Yorkshire, will be promoted via a new website, inspirational brochure and marketing campaign.
Two pages of the 20-page guide are dedicated to Haworth and Bronte Country, with the guide picking out the Bronte Parsonage as the first destination for many visitors.
Haworth’s cobbled main street, lined with small independent shops, pubs and tea shops, is also brought to the reader’s attention.
The guide goes on to conjure up inspiring images of puffs of white steam rising over the beautiful Worth Valley – the first indication of an approaching train on the Keighley and Worth Valley heritage line.
For a special meal out, the Weavers restaurant in Haworth is recommended as a “popular choice”.
The moors above Ilkley – the focus of Yorkshire’s best-known anthem – are also mentioned in the guide.
Meanwhile, Salts Mill in Saltaire is praised as “one of the North of England’s most stunning surprises” owing to the fact it is now home to the world’s finest collection of works by local artist David Hockney.
Under the section entitled Attractions for all the family, the guide picks out East Riddlesden Hall, near Keighley, which has been described as a “brooding mansion” by the National Trust.
The Shipley Glen cable tramway, near Saltaire, which was opened in 1895, also receives a mention.
In the section looking at culture and the arts, the guide focuses on Ilkley’s beautiful Manor House, which stages frequent art exhibitions, and the Alhambra Theatre, a jewel in Bradford’s crown.
In terms of the area’s food and drink, the guide urges visitors to indulge in afternoon tea at Bettys venerable tea rooms and dinner in the Michelin-starred Box Tree, both in Ilkley.
It adds that Haworth’s Cheese Shop offers a choice of a dozen Yorkshire cheeses, while regular farmers markets are held in Otley, Holmfirth and Hebden Bridge.
Liz Tattersley, manager of West Yorkshire Tourism Partnership, said the economic climate could mean more domestic trips being taken, giving the area a “genuine opportunity” to attract more visitors.
She said: “The new website and marketing campaign will capitalise on this, raising the profile of the Pennine Yorkshire region which is personified by open moorland, wooded valleys and a strong industrial heritage.
“Pennine Yorkshire is renowned for attractions including the World Heritage Site in Saltaire, Haworth and its Bronte associations, Holmfirth and ‘Last of the Summer Wine’, plus Hebden Bridge, voted the fourth funkiest place in the world.” (Will Kilner)

Indeed, The Mirror seems to have taken the campaign to heart, as it is already promoting Yorkshire as one of 'the best of British coach holidays'.

YORKSHIRE
Soap fans are in for a treat-on-Crusader Holidays' Emmerdale and Heartbeat Weekend in the Yorkshire Dales. You can opt for a three-or four-day trip which also takes in landmarks from Last of the Summer Wine landmarks. Look out for Marlon and Donna during a trip to the home of Emmerdale, or re-create some Wuthering Heights moments at Haworth, home of the Bronte sisters. You can step back in time and take an optional train ride to Goathland - Heartbeat's Adensfield.
Info: Three nights' dinner, B&B at the Hilton Hotel in Bradford and excursions cost from £179 per person. Go to http://www.crusaderholidays.co.uk/ or call 01255 425453. (Rachael Tinniswood)

But apparently not everyone explores Brontë Country when they have the chance to. From The Times:

The England rugby union XV that many supporters felt should have been consigned to boot camp after the defeat by Ireland on Saturday will spend three days from tomorrow in the most luxurious hotel that Yorkshire has to offer.
If every facility of Oulton Hall, near Rothwell, is available to them, they will be able to bask in “sumptuous Egyptian cotton linen” on the custom-made beds, enjoy the “award-winning cuisine” and the “fabulous spa”, though it is fair to say that they may not be exploring Brontë country and the Yorkshire Dales, as recommended by the hotel’s literature. (David Hands)

Via Brontës.nl, we notice that John Mullan has picked 'ten of the best nuns' for the Guardian's Ten of the best section. One of them comes from the pages of Villette:

Charlotte Brontë's ghostly Nun
In Villette, Lucy Snowe heads to a fictionalised version of Brussels to teach in a girl's school housed in a former nunnery which is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a young nun who broke her vows. Lucy scorns the credulous pupils who believe the legend, but then twice, in her lonely wanderings, she herself encounters "The NUN!"

The Liverpool Echo has a quiz which includes a question that BrontëBlog readers will have to think very hard to answer (NOT!):

10. What were the Christian names of the three Bronte sisters? (Pamela Hoey)

A couple of blogs for today: Love for Books posts about Emily Brontë in Dutch. And Maureen's Graphics Journal has uploaded several Jane Eyre 2006 icons.

Categories: Haworth, In the News, Villette