Brontë Studies. Volume 35, Issue 3

The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 35, Issue 3, November 2010) is already available online. We provide you with the table of contents and abstracts:

Articles

'I am Heathcliff ': Lockwood's Role in Wuthering Heights
pp. 185-193(9) Author: Berlinger, Manette
Abstract:
Lockwood, the outer frame narrator of Wuthering Heights, is commonly thought to be a priggish, sentimental, effete London dandy, incapable of comprehending the unearthly passion of his diametrical opposite, Heathcliff. Throughout the novel, Lockwood fails to understand the full significance of the story he witnesses and learns of from Nelly Dean. Although this view has merit, I would like to argue that it is only partially correct. Lockwood is more than Heathcliff 's Other; he is also his double, an alterego who parallels Heathcliff 's experience as he negates it. And just as Heathcliff evolves towards fulfilment, so, too, does Lockwood. The improbable but ineluctable harmony of these opposite but resonant characters lies at the heart of Emily Brontë's vision, not only of character, setting, plot, theme and narrative, but of life itself.

Wuthering Heights: An Amoral Novel?
pp. 194-207(14) Author: Tytler, Graeme
Abstract
There has been a tendency among Brontë scholars to look upon Wuthering Heights as an essentially amoral book. The chief reason for this view seems to be the assumption that Catherine and Heathcliff are in some sense transcendental creatures, and hence not to be judged by the moral values of ordinary human society. Yet a careful reading of the entire narrative suggests that the author is, as it were, intent on putting all her main characters to the most searching of moral tests, whereby in one way or another they each reveal their respective attitudes to various facets of truth. This enables the reader not only the better to discern the moral essence of each character, but to distinguish between the characters with considerable objectivity. And whereas it is rightly agreed that Wuthering Heights should not be read as some kind of moral tract, it would still be true to say that Emily is none the less mindful of the primacy of basic moral principles.

Charlotte Brontë's 'Anecdotes of the Duke of Wellington'
pp. 208-214(7) Author: Alexander, Christine
Abstract
'Anecdotes of the Duke of Wellington', written in a small handmade booklet by Charlotte Brontë at the age of thirteen, importantly adds to the Brontës' reading history and provides further evidence of Charlotte's particular veneration of the Duke of Wellington, one of her personal heroes who appears in various guises and transformations in her juvenilia and novels. This essay discusses the identification of the previously missing continuation of the manuscript and its significance, and provides a complete transcription of the whole of 'Anecdotes of the Duke of Wellington' for the first time.

The Professor and the Contemporary Working Milieu
pp. 215-221(7) Author: Butterworth, Robert D
Abstract
In The Professor, Charlotte Brontë wishes for thematic reasons to impress on the reader that the world of work her protagonist enters is very much that of the here and now. One of the functions of the part of the novel set in industrial England is to establish the contemporary nature of the story. It thus reflects the class rivalry, the character of entrepreneurs, the values, the expectations concerning workers, the relationship between employers and employees, the business practices and the physical environment of the contemporary working milieu.

Revisioning the Brontë Myth and Producing the Prince of Publishing: Charlotte Brontë's Relationship with George Smith
pp. 222-231(10)  Author: Howells, Elizabeth
Abstract
Charlotte Brontë's relationship with George Smith was complicated. The author and her publisher had a professional, intellectual and personal relationship characterized by force and influence on both sides, one not easily understood, vexed, sometimes entirely pragmatic, and strikingly human and contemporary in its unmythic character. The limitations of the Brontë Myth and also characters in the novel Villette — a novel in which Smith himself is said to appear — must not be overlooked and, rather, should be looked over to take in the unwieldy and undetermined expanse of this complex relationship.

Rose Ann Heslip (1821-1915): Charlotte Brontë's Cousin and her Descendants
pp.  232-247(16)  Author: Marsden, Imelda A.
Abstract
An account of the later part of the life of Rose Ann Heslip, cousin of Charlotte Brontë, which was spent caring for the family of her daughter, Emily Bingham, in Ayrshire and Bradford. Rose Ann contested the generally unfavourable picture drawn of her Irish ancestors by Dr William Wright and was visited by some early members of the Brontë Society. The article concludes with a note on her descendants. Some elusive contemporary newspaper accounts featuring Rose Ann are reprinted.

'Well that is beautiful, Miss Jane!': Jane Eyre and the Creation of the Female Artist
pp. 248-266(19)  Author: Miller, Kathleen A.
Abstract
This article suggests that female artistry in Jane Eyre serves an integral purpose in Jane's individual psychic identity development and in her courtship with Edward Rochester. It views Jane's practice of and attitudes towards artistry in light of various female models in the novel who are either artists themselves or appreciators of art. Her art, either as storyteller or painter, helps to serve her domestic artistry as she (re)imagines the domestic life and landscape of Jane and Rochester's life at Ferndean. Female artistry functions to promote a feminist agenda of gender equality in Charlotte Brontë's text.

Rachel, Queen of the Stage: Charlotte Brontë's 'Vashti'
pp.  267-277(11)  Author: Walker, Michael
Abstract
Rachel Félix, like her contemporary, Charlotte Brontë, died before the age of forty, yet, during her brief life, she entranced audiences with the power of her acting and gained great acclaim throughout Europe. She became the literal incarnation of the tragic heroine. In 1851 Charlotte took the opportunity to see Rachel act in London and was so moved by her performances that, when she came to write Villette, she based the character 'Vashti' on Rachel. This article looks at the life and times of the great tragedienne.

'The Pillar Portrait' Reconsidered
pp.  278-286(9)  Author: Fermi, Sarah
Abstract
Branwell Brontë's famous triple portrait of his sisters (the Pillar Portrait) has been of enduring interest ever since it was rediscovered in a cupboard in Ireland in 1914. This paper will dispute the reliability of Mrs Gaskell's identification of the left-hand figure in the Pillar Portrait as Anne Brontë, and present circumstantial evidence that this figure is actually Emily Brontë.

John Wilmot, Mr Rochester and William Harrison Ainsworth
pp.   287-291(5)   Author: Dingley, Robert
Abstract
This article argues that, although Charlotte Brontë's characterization of Edward Fairfax Rochester may owe something (as has been suggested by Murray G. Pittock) to the historical figure of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680), it is also possible that she drew hints from the Earl's depiction in William Harrison Ainsworth's bestselling novel Old St. Paul's (1841), where the Restoration rake displays a chameleon-like facility in disguise and twice attempts to entrap the woman by whom he is obsessed (and who in turn loves him) in spurious wedding ceremonies.

Recent Acquisitions at the Brontë Parsonage Museum
pp.  292-295(4)   Author: Dinsdale, Ann

Reviews pp. 296-310(15)

Categories: Brontë Society, Journals, Scholar