Brontë clothes

Northern Soul features the temporary exhibition Defying Expectations: Inside Charlotte Brontë’s Wardrobe at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

Charlotte Brontë is an icon to many for her writing but has yet to be celebrated through her clothes. However, a new exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum is set to change that.

Defying Expectations: Inside Charlotte Brontë’s Wardrobe, co-curated by the Brontë Parsonage Museum and Dr Eleanor Houghton, a historian, writer and illustrator, features more than 20 pieces of Charlotte’s clothing and accessories and offers an intimate insight into both her domestic and literary lives.

Unlike Charlotte’s most famous protagonist, Jane Eyre, who was a conservative dresser, the Yorkshire literary legend was engaged with current fashions and many scientific and technological advances in the textile industry.

Charlotte was actively involved in the fast-changing mid-19th century Britain as it transitioned into an industrialised multi-national empire. The beaded moccasins on show in Defying Expectations are thought to have been a gift from her publisher in New York and she was likely to be the first person in Haworth to own an ‘Ugly Bonnet’, a fashion item she would have bought on a visit to London. A striped evening dress discovered hidden away during previous renovations of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, the former family home, was recently confirmed as having been owned by Charlotte. The dress was proved to be Charlotte’s during an extensive period of research conducted over the last six years by Dr Eleanor Houghton, who is the first scholar ever to have studied the Brontë Clothing Collection in such detail. (Helen Nugent)

The Telegraph and Argus announces the Brontë Parsonage Museum's very first Big Bronte Clothes Swap.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum is hosting its very first Big Bronte Clothes Swap on Sunday.

The swap, which is free, will help shoppers to trade and donate clothes.

Organised in celebration of International Women’s Day and supported by Bradford Council and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the event will take place in the Old School Room, Church Street, where Charlotte and Emily Brontë taught needlework.

There will be tables, rails and hangers ready for any unwanted clothes and accessories.

Programme Officer from the Brontë Parsonage Museum Sassy Holmes will be leading a talk about a new exhibition ‘Defying Expectations; Inside Charlotte Bronte’s Wardrobe’, and the importance of sustainable fashion. There will also be a Fix Up corner offering advice and information on creative ways to revitalise items of clothing.

*The Big Brontë Clothes Swap, Old School Room, Church St, Haworth, Keighley BD22 8DR,

Sunday 13 March, 12-4pm. Free admission. (Helen Mead)

The Telegraph and Argus recommends the book The Origins of Queensbury, Properties and People in a Pennine Landscape by John H Patchett.

Historic buildings featured in the book include the Old Bell Chapel, where the cupola was erected by Patrick Bronte as part of his 1818 restoration. (Helen Mead)

Times of India shares '5 epic life lessons we can learn from literary heroines' and one of them is

Find satisfaction in what you have: Jane Eyre from 'Jane Eyre'

Jane, a plain and honest woman, is the narrator of this novel. Though she is subjected to hardship and oppression, she succeeds in asserting herself and maintaining principles of dignity and justice. She is a strong proponent of social equality and values emotional and intellectual fulfillment.

Her famous quote: “I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”

An essay on LitHub discusses 'Why Are So Many Men Still Resistant to Reading Women?'

But the UK and the US still have a very long way to go. When Esquire magazine drew up a list of “The 80 Best Books Every Man Should Read,” described as “the greatest works of literature ever published,” only one was written by a woman, Flannery O’Connor, and she had a ​gender-­neutral first name. Female authors from George Eliot to the Brontë sisters to J. K. Rowling have had to change or disguise their names to persuade men and boys to read them. I was very tempted to publish this book under the name of M. A. Sieghart. (Mary Ann Sieghart)

Telam (Argentina) interviews writer Fernanda Ampuero, who mentions the gender bias in the literary canon.

Hemos sido borradas de la historia de la literatura. Se iluminó el otro lado, condenándonos a la oscuridad, pero no al silencio. ¿Les suenan las hermanas Brontë, Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, Mary Shelley, Armonía Somers, Clarice Lispector, Nélida Piñón, Elena Garro, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Carson McCullers, Shirley Jackson, Safo, Amparo Dávila, Alicia Yánez Cossío, Ida Vitale, Aurora Venturini, Rosario Ferré, Margarita Elio, Mercé Rodoreda, y un infinito etcétera? Todas ellas escribieron antes que nosotras. Perplejidad ninguna. Las mujeres hemos escrito siempre, lo que pasa es que el foco lo movían ellos. (Dolores Pruneda Paz) (Translation)

20 Minutos (Spain) on why 20th-century writers owed much to their 19th-century counterparts:

El siglo XIX cobra vital importancia. Sin predecesoras como Jane Austen, las hermanas Brontë o George Eliot, las mujeres del siglo XX no hubiera podido escribir. Todas ellas compartían una peculiar característica: "Desoyeron por completo la perpetua amonestación del eterno pedagogo: escribe esto, piensa lo otro". (Marisa Fatás) (Translation)

Palatinate wonders whether there's such a thing as originality.

Similarly, Jean Rhys’ sequel to Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, explores the postcolonial elements to the story that Brontë had not fully developed. These inspirations taken from canonical works are not mere imitations, they provide original perspectives, and profoundly change the way these works are perceived. (Talia Jacobs)

Yesterday Everett Post celebrated women but they could have done with some fact-checking:

There are many famous women throughout history. Tokyo Rose, Florence Nightingale, Joan of Arc, Amelia Erhardt [sic], Jane Austin [sic], Jane Eyre [sic], Anne Frank, Rosa Parks, Marie Currie [sic], Alice Paul and Lucy Burns to Queen Elizabeth, who has reigned in England for 70 years. This is just a sampling of women who have changed the world. There are too many to list, it is infinite. (Marcee Maylin)

Express focuses on a mistake made recently by a librarian on the quiz show Tipping Point.

When Ben asked which author wrote the 1815 novel Emma, the retired librarian thought the answer was Charlotte Brontë, however, the correct answer was in fact, Jane Austen. 

Ben was left stunned by Jean's incorrect answer and teased her by saying: "Librarians will be furious with you there Jean." (Rebecca Jones)