BrontëBlog is 10 years old

Like so many things, BrontëBlog was a thought-over-the-summer-months project which actually saw the light in September. It was - and is - a labour of love which was born out of interest in what the Brontës were up to in their afterlife. In these ten years we haven't stopped  being amazed at just how alive they are: from big projects referring directly to them to tiny mentions in newspaper articles completely unrelated to them. We have learned a lot, and we hope you have, too. It is remarkable how the Brontës are now a household name alive and well in the modern-day liquid society  (to paraphrase Zygmunt Bauman) and we can't imagine what their reaction to this fact would be. Incredulity, probably.

Even if this labour of love is hard work - definitely harder than we expected back in 2005 - it is most certainly worth it and rewarding. To celebrate we have revamped the blog somewhat (more than it seems from the outside, actually). We have striven for it to be more accessible and the wealth of links and reading to be more readily available. We hope this is now the case but we are open to suggestions and comments and please don't hesitate to get in touch in case there is any glitch. Welcome back and please, do make yourself at home.

We would say that these last ten years have been particularly great for Brontëites but with the bicentenary celebrations starting next year we can see a time ahead that looks even more interesting. But for now, will you take a stroll down memory lane with us?

I have now been married ten years. I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth. I hold myself supremely blest - blest beyond what language can express; because I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine. No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am: ever more absolutely bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. I know no weariness of my Edward's society: he knows none of mine, any more than we each do the pulsation of the heart that beats in our separate bosoms; consequently, we are ever together. To be together is for us to be at once free as in solitude, as gay as in company. We talk, I believe, all day long: to talk to each other is but more animated and an audible thinking. All my confidence is bestowed on him, all his confidence is devoted to me; we are precisely suited in character - perfect concord is the result. (Jane Eyre, Chapter XXXVIII)

Music: Carles Cases, Esbozos en carbón, OST Eloïse (2009)