The Guardian goes a bit tabloid talking about the Brontës' maternal grandfather and his 'dirty' business around Penzance. The 'revelations' appear in a new biography about Maria Brontë to be published at the end of the month,
The Mother of the Brontës: When Maria Met Patrick, by Sharon Wright.
The grandfather of the Brontë family has always been portrayed as a gentleman merchant and an upstanding figure of his Cornish community. But new research has revealed that Thomas Branwell was, in fact, involved with murderous smugglers and that without his dirty money his granddaughters Emily, Anne and Charlotte might never have published their famous novels.
Long before the birth of his grandchildren, Branwell was indicted for “obstructing the Customs Officers in searching his dwelling”, according to Custom House records of 1778.
Other documents show he had been in business with men who were wanted for murder and who were described in a 1791 report as “the most notorious smugglers in that part of the kingdom”. Evidence of his illegal business dealings was unearthed by Sharon Wright while researching a forthcoming book on Branwell’s daughter, Maria, who married the poor Irish curate Patrick Brontë. Maria died aged 38, leaving their six children in the charge of her sister, Elizabeth.
Wright told the Observer that Branwell, who died in 1808, has always been seen as a “Penzance bigwig”, an astute businessman who traded in tea, among other goods, and who owned an inn run by his brother.
She was astonished to discover a murkier side to him – yet Branwell’s illegal dealings provided a legacy that enabled his grandchildren to pay for the publication of their writings.
“We wouldn’t have Wuthering Heights or Agnes Grey without their grandfather’s involvement in the well-armed and even murderous smuggling operations running out of Penzance. The family money left to Emily and Anne … paid for these works of genius to appear in print for the first time.
“No-one has ever connected the Brontës to Cornish smuggling before and this part of the family fortune is in startling contrast to the genteel life their mother and aunts lived amid Regency Penzance society.”
Ann Dinsdale, principal curator of the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, described the evidence as “fascinating”, casting light on how Branwell’s legacy enabled his granddaughters to get published: “In effect, their books were vanity published,” she said. “They paid for the publication of their poems in 1846. Then Emily and Anne actually paid for their novels to be published. They couldn’t find a publisher who was willing to take on their publication. So they ended up financing it themselves.” (Dalya Alberge)
The Sunday Herald reviews the children's book
The Fantastically Feminist (and totally true) Story Of The Astonishing Authors: The Brontës by Anna Doherty
I’m unbelievably happy to finally get the chance to review this one. It’s certainly different to what I normally do in the sense that it’s not a novel, or even a collection of fairytales or poetry. The Fantastically Feminist (and totally true) Story Of The Astonishing Authors: The Brontës By Anna Doherty is beautiful, not only when looking at its contents, but with its design as a wide, short book with a certain weight to it gives it a feeling that is reminiscent to a scrapbook. There’s something subconsciously comforting about its design as it feels like the sort of book one might fill with pictures of and notes on loved ones, which in a way is exactly what it is. (...)
There was also a very healthy approach to the books the sister’s wrote and bringing them to attention of children. I feel that a lot of the time when faced with books that are classics or just a little older, it can be difficult to get children to find an interest in them but this does it so much better than I could have imagined. In my experience, books of a different time are rarely as scary and difficult to understand as many of people first believe. The emotions and messages that are portrayed in a good book will, by putting a little effort into it, transcend time and capture any reader. I think that this book is crucial to show to children, and for someone of any age to read, who loves the Brontës’ works, or is just looking to try something a little different. (Gemma E. McLaughlin)
Books that changed the writer Malla Nun in
The Sydney Morning Herald:
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Reading creates empathy. Despite being set in a foreign landscape that was far from anything that I’d experienced, I felt absolutely connected to Jane’s story. I wanted to be Jane: small but filled with inner strength and a blazing courage. Jane said things like, "I’m no angel and I won’t be one till I die: I will be myself." Those words, coming from a woman’s mouth, still have a revolutionary sting. Viva Jane!
How Iris Murdoch taught writer Sarah Perry to love the Gothic in
The Telegraph:
Iris Murdoch's The Bell (1958) is a Gothic novel, and its protagonist Dora Greenfield, arriving by train at the threshold of Imber – its gates concealing sundry lakes, lodges, abbey walls and drowned bells – a Gothic heroine. She is haunted with "letters and telephones and imagined footsteps on the stairs"; she suffers "from guilt, and with guilt came fear". She is the second Mrs de Winter swooning at Manderley's clotted banks of scarlet rhododendrons; she is Catherine Morland approaching Northanger Abbey with marriage and Mrs Radcliffe on her mind; she is Jane Eyre knocking on Thornfield's door, had Jane Eyre been large and faintly stupid.
iNews advocates for audiobooks:
Admitting you listen to books is like catnip to a certain strain of literature snob. (Other characteristics include: getting jittery at the mention of diversifying the canon, and muttering snatches of Rudyard Kipling in moments of stress.)
“Oh, you just listened to Wuthering Heights? You probably won’t know who Heathcliff is, then?” sneers a twerp from your book club, before lecturing you about the other protagonist, whom he insists is called “Kitty”. (Gwendolyn Smith)
La Verdad (Spain) presents de book
Breve Historia de la Misoginia by Anna Caballé Masforroll:
Su autora, Anna Caballé Masforroll comenta que una mañana de domingo, paseando por los puestos de libros del mercado de San Antonio, compró un librito cuyo título le llamó la atención, Cinco novelistas inglesas, firmado por Charles David Ley. Abriéndolo por el índice vio que trataba de las cinco grandes novelistas inglesas del siglo xix: Charlotte, Emily y Anne Brontë, Jane Austen y Mary Ann Evans, más conocida como George Eliot, un grupo de escritoras que se atrevía a romper los paradigmas masculinos exponiendo públicamente su visión del mundo a través de sólidas ficciones sustentadas en la propia subjetividad. (Translation)
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