What's coming to the Brontë Parsonage Museum

Keighley News offers further details of what's to come once the Brontë Parsonage Museum opens its door again on Thursday.

Emily At Home is the title of the first talk on February 6, exploring the domestic side of Emily and her writing.
A spokesman said: “As someone who revelled in the wild extremes of nature, freedom and the outdoors, Emily also seemed to embrace the quieter pleasures of the everyday, of the familiar routine of life with her family at the Parsonage.”
Future talks include the poetry of Emily Brontë (March 6), Heathcliff (April 3), the origins of Wuthering Heights (May 1), and Emily Brontë and nature (June 5).
Brontë Treasures will begin in February 23 at 2pm, focusing as usual on the world’s largest collection of Brontë artefacts, manuscripts and personal belongings.
The spokesman said: “Brontë Treasures offers a unique opportunity to go beyond the security cord into the Parsonage Library for a close-up viewing of some of the items not on display.
“During the special two hour-long sessions, a member of our curatorial team will share facts and stories about a number of carefully-selected objects.
“They will offer a specialist insight into the lives and work of this inspirational family. Fascinating and moving in equal measure, Brontë Treasures is a not-to-be-missed experience.”
Parsonage Unwrapped will begin at February 23 at 7.30pm with Writing The Brontës.
The spokesman said. “Since the publication of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë in 1857, countless biographers have researched, detailed and occasionally embellished the lives of the Brontë family.
“Join principal curator Ann Dinsdale for an evening considering Gaskell, Leyland, Du Maurier, Gerin and Barker and how their perspectives have shipped understanding of Haworth’s most famous family.” (Jim Seton)

Sheffield Telegraph reviews the novel Elmet by Fiona Mozley.

The South Pennine landscape is as rugged, brutal and changeable as Daddy, the looming figure at the centre of the novel, whose behaviour is terrifying, and yet tender. And as the novel progresses and the violence within Daddy bubbles and grows, the landscape itself becomes increasingly bleak. Just as the moors drew Danny and Cathy together, it divides them, prompting comparisons with Heathcliff searching for his Cathy on those same moors centuries before. (Anna Caig)

Creative Loafing has a bookstore owner reminisce about the time a couple requested books for a literary-themed wedding (as it turned out, they only wanted nice-looking books, regardless of their content).

I immediately thought of those great novels with grooms in morning coats and brides in empire waists, mumbling vicars and stumbling groomsmen, all living happily ever after. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen observes, “it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” Books often extol marital bliss for sure, so they must be a good omen for a prospective husband and wife.
But then I began to remember those books with disastrous weddings and marriages. There is that unfortunate business in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre when Jane discovers Rochester’s secret lurking in the attic. Well, “I declare the existence of an impediment,” indeed! (Ben Wiley)

Now that a bar in NYC's East Village has forbidden the use of the word 'literally' inside its premises, The Cut looks into 'The 300-Year History of Using ‘Literally’ Figuratively'.

The emphatic “literally” is not a millennial invention; it goes back to the 1700s at least, though Smith gets it right that it’s English. John Dryden, a man who is best known as the founder of literary criticism and the prohibition against the terminal preposition, was an early user of the emphatic “literally.” Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, Vladimir Nabokov, and David Foster Wallace all used the emphatic “literally” in their works. (Kory Stamper)

Beware of spoilers - The Loop lists what we know so far about the second season of The Handmaid's Tale:

In the first season Alexis Bledel was only able to appear as a guest star on the show, but the time she had on screen was definitely memorable; she did secure an Emmy for the role, after all. So it seemed like a no-brainer for Miller and co. to promote her to series regular this year and expand on her story. While we don’t know just how much screen time Emily (who was named after Emily Brontë, by the way) will actually get, we do know that we’ll see her in the Colonies when she does reappear. Fingers crossed we’ll also get a good flashback story or two. (Amber Dowling)

The Brontë Society Young Ambassador Lucy Powrie offers a few 'Brontë non-fiction recommendations'on her YouTube channel.