Christmas at the Parsonage

The 1953 Wuthering Heights adaptation where Richard Todd played Heathcliff was part of the BBC Sunday-Night Theatre. And it's funny how some things never change - call it tradition - as the beginning of this review of the TV adaptation of Andrea Levy's Small Island in The Independent goes to show.

Sunday-night drama on the BBC is usually of the "costume" variety. An expensive adaptation of Austen, Dickens, or Brontë, starring a dame such as Eileen Atkins or Judi Dench. It's their kind of format: very formal, very English, and very, very safe. (Guy Adams)

Incidentally, Ruth Wilson - Jane Eyre in 2006 - also plays a part on it.

Christmas gift ideas keep on coming. From the Liverpool Daily Post:

The Complete Book of Sisters, by Luisa Dillner (Faber & Faber, £12.99): A light-hearted look at sisterly love – from famous siblings through the ages, to the rows, rivalries and great friendships of sisterhood. This entertaining collection features sisters ranging from the Brontes to the scrapping Mitfords, the Pankhursts, sisters of Lenin and Hitler, and those of the kings and queens.

And not for Christmas but for May 2010. Romancing Miss Brontë by Juliet Gael is announced on Library Journal.

Gael, Juliet. Romancing Miss Brontë. Ballantine. May 2010. 432p. ISBN 978-0-345-52004-3. $25.Following close on the heels of Denise Giardina’s Emily's Ghost, which imagined an attraction between Emily Brontë and her father’s curate, William Weightman, here’s a tale of Charlotte Brontë and her relationships with (and eventual marriage to) her father’s subsequent curate, Arthur Bell Nichols. Austen, the Brontës, who’s next? For historical fiction fans. (Barbara Hoffert)

The Armenian Reporter has an article on the arrival of the Artbridge bookmobile:

The Artbridge bookmobile brings a broad range of book types to the villages, from classic English titles like Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Jane Eyre to contemporary works, travel books on Armenia and the world, encyclopedias, nature literature, Armenian authors, books on artists and political works. Although the bookmobile is currently sponsored by Artbridge, Ter-Vardanyan is working with Havan to arrange ways of providing public funding for the project. (Elaine Krikorian)

The Telegraph and Argus has a lengthy article on all the Christmas activities taking place in Haworth (this weekend, for instance, is Pantomime Weekend) as well as on the locals that enliven the village these days. Part of the article focuses on the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

The Bronte Parsonage is a popular place for visitors wanting to peep into this famous literary family’s past. Regardless of the time of year or season, most people who come to Haworth naturally migrate to the museum enthralled by the tale of the sisters whose romantic writings are still as current and powerful today. There is currently an exhibition of costumes used in the televised adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.
Chatting with museum director Andrew McCarthy, I discover it is something of a sanctuary for those wanting to briefly escape the festive frivolity.
In keeping with tradition, the museum’s celebrations tend to be low-key as that is how Christmas would have been commemorated in the Brontes’ bygone times.
Andrew, whose extensive knowledge of the family stems from his English and History degree studies, explains the Brontes were essentially pre-Victorian so Christmas for them would have been a religious festival in the similar way we celebrate Easter with less of the razamataz associated with Christmas.
“It is an important religious festival, they would go to church but beyond that, and as far as I understand it, certainly I don’t know of any reference within their readings or diary papers to Christmas so it obviously was not remarkable enough for them to comment about it,” explains Andrew.
Following that tradition, the parsonage is decked out in traditional holly and ivy trimmings too, the celebrations tend to be low-key, according to Andrew, although in recent years they have organised Christmas trails around the parsonage for children.
“It is fairly low-key but it is atmospheric in a traditonal way,” he says.
May be we can all take a leaf out of the Bronte’s book and while enjoying the razamataz, spare a thought for what the season actually means too.
“I love Christmas, I think it is a little bit over-commercialised and that one of the things about the Parsonage is the decorations are very traditional so we do offer something of the earlier traditions of Christmas,” says Andrew.
“There is the Christmas glitz as well in Haworth and there is room for everything and I think that is a good thing for visitors coming into Haworth.
“It is wonderful the way it has developed over the years and I can’t think of anywhere else that does Christmas in the same way as Haworth. The atmosphere here is special.”

Blogs: The Book Case discusses the article published in the Guardian a few days ago on the Twilight-born passion for the Brontës. A 2009 Journey posts about Wuthering Heights. And Orgullo y Prejuicio reviews Agnes Grey in Spanish.

Categories: Books, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Fiction, Haworth, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights