The Yorkshire Post has a heartbreaking article on this 'new chapter' for the Brontë Parsonage Museum, which is scheduled to reopen next week.
The year had begun well. The second of six matchbox-sized volumes written by the author of Jane Eyre had gone on public display for the first time, following its purchase at auction in Paris. And an exhibition marking the 200th birthday of her sister was running alongside.
But what came next – the longest closure for 92 years – was a chapter as dramatic as anything dreamed up inside the old house during the 19th century.
With the summer season lost and the Brontë Society facing an uncertain financial outlook as it prepares to let in visitors, six at a time, from next weekend, the stakes have seldom been higher.
Yet some of the staff were concerned more for the former occupants of the Parsonage than for their own future.
“It was really unfair on Anne,” said Rebecca Yorke, the society’s head of communications. “As the forgotten sister, it seemed ironic that we had to close in her anniversary year.”
To make amends, the Parsonage Museum has extended the exhibition devoted to her life and work, until the beginning of 2022. And her bicentenary has been marked with a digital “Brontë Lounge”, launched in July.
The extent to which social distancing was practiced by the family in a village rife with disease and little sanitation, is not known. [...]
In deciding to reopen, the Brontë Society, like many others, had walked a tightrope between safety and sustainability.
“It’s a beautiful, intimate house where space is very limited and footfall was always going to have to be reduced,” Ms Yorke said.
“At least it will mean that visitors will have more space to themselves. It will become very atmospheric.
“We’re hoping that a typical group might be a household of four and another two people. But coach parties don’t work like that, and we’re not expecting international visitors or school groups any time soon.”
She added: “Our biggest enemy at the moment is uncertainty. When we opened for the year in February, with Charlotte’s little book on display and with events planned for Anne’s anniversary, we had every reason to believe it would be a really good year.
“But missing the summer season has given us a huge hurdle to get over and our financial future is now quite vulnerable.”
Earlier in the year, the society secured emergency funding from the Arts Council and is now applying to the organisation’s cultural recovery fund.
The first visitor to the reopened Parsonage next Thursday will be the local MP, Robbie Moore. Members of the Brontë Society will be allowed inside from the next day and the public the day after, with admission by pre-booking only. (David Behrens)
Yorkshire Live asked readers to recommend the must-see places in and around Bradford and of course, the Brontë Parsonage Museum came up (as did the KWVR).
Express discusses why 'prequels usually flop'.
A way to avoid trouble is to write about a character created by another author, preferably one who is, a) dead, and, b) safely out of copyright. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys gives us the tale of the first Mrs Rochester, the "madwoman in the attic" from Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre, using it to examine issues of race, feminism and colonialism. (John Connolly)
Coincidentally,
Trouw (Netherlands) features
Wide Sargasso Sea too.
Enríquez lee historia y mitología, además de literatura y periodismo. De crítica literaria, muy poco. Cuando era chica comenzó leyendo a Dickens, Brontë y a Austen. (María Paula Lizarazo) (Translation)
The News Trace has '300+ General knowledge questions and answers for your virtual quiz', including
Title all 5 Brontë sisters. (Mr Josh)
The Book Family Rogerson includes both Hathersage and Haddon Hall among other 'atmospheric literary places to visit in Derbyshire'.
0 comments:
Post a Comment