Heathcliff and Waterloo

Brontë Parsonage Museum intern Alana Clague writes an article on this year's exhibition for Keighley News.

The title of the new exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum is The Brontës, War and Waterloo.
At first the connection between these may not be immediately apparent, however with the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo upon us this exhibition intends to bring to light the importance of war and the Battle of Waterloo on the Brontë family.
Haworth sits at the top of a hill in the Worth Valley surrounded by the Pennine moors.
The Main Street of the village looks much as it ever did; it is a captured moment in time that has altered little. While there have been some changes, photographs show that it would not be unrecognisable to the Brontë family who moved there in 1820.
Post-War Britain is most often used to describe the period after 1945 at the end of World War Two. It is a period commemorated in Haworth every year with the 1940s weekend, a time that takes in both during and after the war.
Whilst this is the first image that would come to our modern mind, it is not the only Post-War Britain to have existed. In 1815 the Battle of Waterloo was fought and won, the following year Charlotte Brontë was born and was swiftly followed by her brother and two younger sisters.
The eldest Brontë children, Maria and Elizabeth, had been born in 1814 and 1815 which was during the Napoleonic Wars.
Though Haworth may seem now to be a quiet place, certainly far away from these battles on the European continent, it was not completely isolated as it was near the industrial Bradford.
Despite the end of the Napoleonic wars, conflict and warfare were a part of society and Wellington was a family hero for the Brontës.
It is with this information that the new exhibition has been shaped, recognising the role of their heroes in their Juvenilia and later writings, and the role of war in life of the Brontës.
It takes a great deal of time and effort to get an exhibition off the ground and this concept was just the starting point. From this idea themes were decided and the text panels were written.
Usually this is a job that would be completed by the Collections team at the museum but this exhibition had a unique opportunity to work in conjunction with an academic studying the Brontës and their writing.
Once the panel copy has been collated, the text has to be edited and transferred to the text panels. These panels will have images and currently we are investigating options for these.
At the same time objects are being picked, making sure each one fits in with the case and text panel theme.
It is from there that the object labels will be written and printed, the Brontës and Animals exhibition will be removed and The Brontës, War and Waterloo will take its place on March 16. (David Knights)

Still in the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Keighley News also features the temporary exhibition Heathcliff Adrift.

What did Emily Brontë’s wild anti-hero Heathcliff do after storming away from Wuthering Heights?
A possible answer is portrayed in a new collection of poetry on display at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth.
In Heathcliff Adrift, award-winning writer, Benjamin Myers, explores what the famous fictional character might have done during his ‘missing’ three years.
Accompanying the poems is a selection of stunning landscape photographs by Yorkshire photographer, Nick Small.
Heathcliff Adrift forms part of this year’s contemporary arts programme at the museum. The work, conceived by Benjamin, asks where Heathcliff went and what he saw.
His journey came when the industrial revolution was in its earliest days, and the ragged beauty of the landscape was under threat from the arrival of mechanisation.
Jenna Holmes, the museum’s arts officer, said: “We’re thrilled to be working with Benjamin and Nick for this fantastic exhibition.”
Heathcliff Adrift runs until June. Visit bronte.org.uk or call 01535 642323 for more details about the exhibition and museum opening times.

Vanguard Dahlonega reviews The Selection Series by Kiera Cass.

Overall the book had great potential. It was definitely a good concept, so much that the CW almost put it on nighttime television. Is it as good as Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte? Well no, but it’s an easy read and people need to pick up a quick trashy read every now and then. (Molly Morelock)

Göteborgs-Posten (Sweden) reviews the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey.

Hur erotisk är E L James erotik överhuvudtaget? Min första tanke när jag ser Dakota Johnson i rollen som Anastasia ramla in på Christian Greys kontor – otymplig, stammande, i flickig blus – är att hon är väldigt lik Jane Eyre när hon anländer till godset Thornfield Hall och strax därefter faller för den rike godsherren. Hemma hos miljardären Grey finns visserligen ingen galen fru på vinden. Däremot skuggan av en misshandlande mamma ruvande i barndomen. När nycklarna så småningom vrids om till de hemliga rummen i båda världarna blir förlösningen dubbel.
Den klumpiga oskulden får sex och maktmännen förlöses från den onda kvinnan i det förflutna: kontrollen återställd!
Om E L James hade skrivit en kinky version på Charlotte Brontës roman hade jag inte klagat. (Malin Lindroth) (Translation)

SF Weekly has a recap of this week's Great British Bake-Off:

Then there was my favorite, little sweet Martha, who reminds me of Jane Eyre's best friend at the orphanage... you know, the delicate one that dies from that 19th century grand combo, consumption and purity. (Katy St. Clair)

Reno Gazette-Journal reports that,

Wooster High School student Whitney Reyes has landed the top spot in Washoe County's Poetry Out Loud semi-finals.
She recited "Cartoon Physics, Part 1" by Massachusetts poet Nick Flynn and "Ah! Why Because the Dazzling Sun" by Emily Brontë in the competition where students learn about, memorize and present poetry "out loud" to an audience. (Susan Skorupa)