Stolen candles

Weird news from Haworth church as reported by Keighley News:

Church leaders in Haworth have been left puzzled and saddened by a “bizarre” theft.
At least a dozen large candles, including a symbolic Advent light symbolising the birth of Jesus Christ, were stolen from Haworth Parish Church in Main Street some time between Friday morning and 9am Sunday.
Priest-in-charge, the Reverend Peter Mayo-Smith, said the theft meant a Brontë Carol Service on Sunday – which was meant to have been candle-lit – had to go ahead with more modern illumination instead.
“They’ve taken about 12 to 15 of the bigger, more expensive candles,” he added. “What really upsets people is they’ve stolen what is known as the Christ Candle, which is at the centre of the Advent wreath and is lit to represent the coming of Jesus Christ. Having that stolen has struck a chord with people.
“The other larger candles were on the window sills – they left the smaller ones behind.”
Mr Mayo-Smith said the church had quickly replaced the stolen items in order to be ready for the annual torchlight procession carol service this Sunday.
He added: “We keep the church open because we want visitors to Haworth to be able to come inside. I feel more sad than anything else. It’s a shame someone has stooped to this level – it shows a lack of respect.”
Church warden, Diane Wilson, who first noticed the candles were missing, said: “To steal candles from a church just seems ridiculous. Yesterday in the church we prayed for the person who stole them. Myself and my husband have been here for 45 years and nothing like this has happened before.”
The church will again host the carol service at the end of the popular Haworth torchlight procession at 5pm on Sunday.
The procession itself begins at the bottom of Main Street at 4.30pm. Participants will slowly wend their way up the street carrying electric candles and singing Christmas carols accompanied by choirs and bands.
Saturday is Candlemas Eve in Haworth. Santa will lead the torchlight procession down Main Street at 3pm accompanied by the Holly Queen, Morris dancers, choirs and bands, finishing with carols around the street’s Christmas tree. (Miran Rahman)

Michael Dirdas lists his favourite books to give for Christmas in The Washington Post. Among them is:

Wuthering Heights (The Folio Society, $69.95), by Emily Bronte; illustrations by Rovina Cai. Lately, the Folio Society — the London-based publisher famous for its illustrated slip-cased editions — has begun to make some of its titles available in bookstores. All the society’s offerings are certainly worth seeking out, especially if you are tired of paperbacks with small type or would like more permanent hardcovers for your home library. But in this particular case, you might also want this edition of Bronte’s brooding elemental classic if you are a Patti Smith fan: She provides a knowledgeable and passionate introduction.

John Barrell doesn't seem to like to adjective 'Victorian'. Or so it seems in his article on the Late Turner exhibition at Tate Britain in the London Review of Books.

The curators don’t shy away from calling him a “Victorian artist”, a term which, though of course factually accurate for much of his later life and career, is unavoidably, provocatively, loaded. Who doesn’t flinch a little from the use of such a label, for so long a term of disparagement?’ Imagine calling Bleak House or Jane Eyre ‘Victorian novels’! If we did, who would read them? We should understand Turner instead as a ‘modernist precursor’, for that is the Turner that speaks most directly to us today – the ‘most compelling’ Turner because the ‘most familiar’. God forbid that exhibition curators should try to defamiliarise him.

And, more understandably, this columnist from The Huffington Post doesn't like clichés about women.

We've been typecast as lunatics for hundreds of years. For crying out loud, the word "hysteria" comes from the Greek for "uterus." Because hysteria -- nowadays, more commonly called the crazy cakes -- was thought to be exclusive to the ones with the wombs. And remember Jane Eyre? We're all "crazy women in the attic." Aren't we lucky. (Vicki Murphy)

Finally, only the final hours left to bid for the seven volumes of the The Life and Works of the Brontë Sisters - Thornfield edition (1899-1900, Harper & Brothers) on AuctionMyStuff. Here's the description:

Edited by Temple Scott. Introduction by Mrs. Humphrey Ward. Biography of Charlotte Bronte by Mrs. Gaskell. It appears that this set was issued, in America, in at least two forms. One is a set limited to 150 copies, in half cloth and with dust jackets. Such a set was auctioned in 2003 for $800. Other sets, such as yours, are not numbered and limited, but are available at prices ranging from $275 - about one thousand. One set, in blue cloth like yours, is priced at $700. In my experience, a set such as this would do well to sell at $250 - $350. This set in half cloth and boards, with paper labels on the spines, are larger pages, and handsomer bindings.