Sign of Our Times

Remember, tomorrow July 19:

Kirklees Council:
We will be holding information sessions at our museums and galleries, which will give you an opportunity to find out more about the ‘Cultural Vision’ and ask questions.
Tues 19 July 6pm Red House Museum
Places must be booked in advance here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/kirklees-museums-galleries-information-session-tickets-26370689442

Nick Holland on his blog AnneBrontë.org explains quite nicely the importance of the Red House Museum with their links to the Brontës and the Taylors. 

Greenacres is a house in Mirfield which is on the market. The Yorkshire Post  Lifestyle section describes it and mentions that the Brontë could (may, might... who knows) have visited it:

Dating back to 1742, Greenacres is steeped in local history but its best claim to fame is that the Bronte sisters used to play in the garden.
Charlotte was a pupil then a teacher at nearby Roe Head School and her sisters Charlotte and Anne also studied there.
“They used to jump over the wall and play in the fields, which are part of our grounds,” says retired GP, Dr Abdul Hamid, who bought the house in 1988.

It's a sign of our times when a private property tries to increase its value with a loose connection with the Brontës whereas a public property, like the Red House Museum, with a strong link with them is threatened with closure.

The BBC Proms Extra event of today, July 18th,

7:45 Monday 18 Jul 2016 Imperial College Union
Arts & Ideas: Marking the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth, Claire Harman, her biographer and Yorkshire-born novelist and author of ‘Chocolat’ Joanne Harris discuss her life and work.
The discussion is presented by Dr Gregory Tate from the University of St Andrews who is one of the New Generation Thinkers selected by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council in a scheme to find academics interested in turning their research into radio.
Producer: Torquil MacLeod.
Edited version broadcast on BBC Radio 3 during tonight’s interval

This brief Charlotte Brontë comment on The Hindu In School section is a bit bizarre:

This English author made us cry with the story of Villette and inspired us through Shirley. The passion, with which she wrote and diligence with which she expressed her love for life, is evident in her books.
She was a narrator from whom we couldn’t get a clue as to what lay before us. Brontë wrote under the penname Currer Bell as she recognised that society was male dominated. Her works include Jane Eyre, Villette and Shirley .
An inspiration : I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. (Jane Eyre)
All about teeth : Bronte spent much of her earnings from Jane Eyre on dentistry.

Also in The Hindu a game, Qwikipedia:

 Ever been on Wikipedia to look up an article? More often than not, we start with one topic, click a few links and within no time, are reading about something else.
Qwikipedia is a game that tries to quench this curiosity in us. The objective is to get to a particular Wiki page, starting from a specific article, using minimal clicks.

And this is today's challenge:

Monday’s Marauder
Uganda —> Charlotte Brontë
Send in your paths for the above to school@thehindu.co.in with the subject: Qwikipedia . (Visudha Nagarajan)

YorkMix announces that next November

 BBC History Magazine’s History Weekend returns to York for the second year running on November 18-20.
Building on the success of last year’s debut festival, more than 20 leading historians and authors will be sharing their passion for the past with fellow history lovers at the Yorkshire Museum and the 14th century Hospitium. (...)
Also appearing will be Juliet Barker on discovering the real Charlotte Brontë.

Gulf News summarises Wuthering Heights:

Though the Victorian novel portrays reality and strained relationships, the plot turns chaotic with disturbing elements. Critics have observed that a reader will understand better every time he/she reads between the lines.
One of the powerful quotes from the book that tugs at my heartstrings is: “If he loved you with all the power of his soul for a whole lifetime, he couldn’t love you as much as I do in a single day.”
The novel starts off as a not so delightful reading, but gradually gets engrossing and intriguing. The author has deftly handled contradictions amidst melodrama and tragedy. (Priyanka Nateri)

The Straits Times thinks that Engelbert Humperdinck, the singer is an 'huggable Heathcliff':

With his slicked bouffant, screaming-red shirt and pocket square, black jacket and trousers, he was a swarthy, huggable Heathcliff, swaggering such that it seemed the evening might descend into cheesy "I was there" reverie. (Cheonk Suk-Wai)

La Región (Spain) talks about the paintings of Nuria Guardiola and quotes from Wuthering Heights:

Es esta una propuesta que coincide en verano mas no es de verano, que hay en ella un decir coherente y maduro, con sabor autobiográfico, de la profesora artista. Pues ‘la gente honesta no oculta sus actos’, como diría la Emily Brönte (sic) de ‘Cumbres borrascosas’. (Xabier Limia de Gardón) (Translation)

LubimyczCzytać  (Poland) recommends holiday reads:

 Wichrowe wzgórza. Emily Brontë
A jeżeli w te wakacje macie ochotę na dobrą opowieść o miłości, to koniecznie sięgnijcie po „Wichrowe wzgórza” Emily Brontë. Tylko ostrzegam: To naprawdę mroczna historia! Miłość, obsesja, zemsta... a wszystko to w atmosferze bezkresnych, smaganych wichrem wrzosowisk. No i ten Heathcliff! (Catherine Pużyńska) (Translate)

Froggy Delight (in French) gives some examples of the madwomen in the attic examples in music:

Vous connaissez le mythe littéraire de la Folle dans le grenier ? Les exemples sont légion, de Bertha dans Jane Eyre à La Prisonnière des Sargasses de Jean Rhys, l’histoire de cette prétendue folle, relue d’un point de vue féministe. Aucune ne l’est vraiment, au fond. En musique aussi, il y a des disques de Folles dans le grenier : "You’re not mad you’re just lonely" de Delphine Dora et Half Asleep, "White Chalk" de PJ Harvey, et tout un tas d’albums des soixante dernières années.
Dans son dernier album, Cate Le Bon va encore plus loin : "I’m a dirty attic", chante-t-elle. Autrement dit, elle dépasse la condition de Folle dans le grenier : elle EST le grenier. Deleuze aurait adoré. J’avais envie d’en discuter un peu avec Sing Sing, du groupe Arlt, parce que je vois une filiation assez évidente entre leur musique et la sienne. (Mickaël Mottet) (Translation)

Badische Zeitung talks about the Stimmen Festival at the Rosenfelspark in Lörrack, Germany:

Holly MacVe aus Yorkshire, jenem armen Landstrich Nordenglands, der die Fantasie der Dichterinnen beflügelte, hatte es zum Einstieg ungleich schwerer. Die blonde Sängerin knüpfte so gar nicht an die Wuthering Heights-Romantik der Brontë-Schwestern aus ihrer Heimat an, sondern hat sich einem US-amerikanischem Klangidiom verschrieben – insofern auch sie Nomadin.  (Stefan Franzen) (Translation)

Hello! (Serbia) lists passionate couples in literature:

Džejn i Mr. Ročester
Radnja je smeštena u ruralnu Englesku 1820. godine u vreme kada su novac i imetak bili značajnijih od svega ostalog. Junakinja čuevanog romana Šarlote Bronte, Džejn Ejr još kao devojčica ostala je bez roditelja, a odgajala ju je okrutna ujna, koja je vrlo brzo šalje u internat ne bi li se tamo obrazovala. Bledunjava i neugledna Džejn nakon toga se pojavljuje kao guvernanta u domu Ročesterovih. Između nje i gospodina Ročestera za koga ona veruje da je udovac, strasti se polako rasplamsavaju, ali ona otrkiva da je njegova žena (inače mentalno obolela) živa i da se nalazi zatočena u jednoj od prostorija kuće. Nakon ovog saznanja Džejn je skrhana, ali ponajviše jer ju je Ročester lagao, zbog čega odlazi. Iako nam se sve vreme čini kako je ovo jedna od onih tmurnih i tužnih engleskih drama, kraj je ipak srećan: Ovo dvoje život ipak ponovo spaja i ljubav se među njima ponovo rasplamsava, and they lived happily ever after! (Translation)

E. Lockhart writes on the WHSmith Blog  about the connection (if any) between her novel We Were Liars and Wuthering Heights; Literary Branches has a post on Jane Eyre. On Les Soeurs Brontë (in French) continues the analysis of Villette.