Brontë Parsonage Museum: quirky and historic

The Brontë Parsonage Museum is one of 'The quirky and historic British attractions that have suffered in lockdown' according to The Telegraph.

Among the many treasure troves of British history struggling with Covid restrictions is the Brontë Parsonage Museum, over 200 miles north of Pollock’s in Haworth, Yorkshire. The former home of the Brontë family holds the world’s largest collection of the manuscripts and possessions of the three sisters and brother.

It is looked after by The Brontë Society, a charity and one of the longest-running literary societies. Within its walls, the sisters wrote their classics: surrounding moorland served as inspiration, nowhere as clearly as in Wuthering Heights. 

However, the museum has been able to reopen for just two full months since the first lockdown and limited space combined with social distancing meant that only six visitors could enter at one time. It has benefitted from the Arts Council England’s Emergency Fund and Cultural Recovery Fund, as well the job retention scheme. However, this hasn’t been sufficient to keep it going and a crowdfunding campaign was launched, bringing in £50,000. 

“A future where our world-class collection could not be shared with our visitors and audiences is unthinkable,” says Rebecca Yorke, from the Brontë Society and museum. 

“The Brontës overcame many obstacles in their short lives, and it is with their determination and spirit in mind, that we are reviewing what we do and how we do it, in order to increase our resilience and relevance,” she adds. (Emma Featherstone)

A young reporter for This Is Local London tells about how sh'e planning to spend Women's History Month 2021.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, I will be proudly watching feminist speeches that motivate me, immersing myself in some feminist pieces of literature to read, such as Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, re-watching Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s fantastic Ted Talk: ‘We Should All Be Feminists’. (Saambavii Suthakaran)

Firstpost interviews writer Kevin Barry:

His most memorable childhood book? His sister’s copy of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, which he read while being stuck at home sick. Barry descries it as his "first serious book" and the feeling of being transported that accompanied it. He still visits sections of the book every now and then. (Harsh Pareek)

A contributor to Book Riot on how she became a reader:

Eventually, I would start to explore other properties, from Jane Eyre to James Bond to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (Jessica Pryde)

The New Yorker reviews Netflix's Behind Her Eyes.

“Behind Her Eyes” is more of an inner simmer: its violence is largely psychological, like if Hannibal Lecter were a repressed housewife. The show also has supernatural elements, which reminded me of such series as “Stranger Things” and “The OA,” in which the real is dappled with the mystical in order to throw the characters’ innermost desires into high relief. In tone and genre, though, the show is closest to twist-heavy cinematic thrillers like “Diabolique,” from 1955, or “Deathtrap,” from 1982, or even “Wild Things,” from 1998—films that focus on a tight cluster of heated, passionate characters locked in a world whose rules keep changing. “Maybe his wife is crackers,” Louise’s friend Sophie says, when Louise expresses concerns about Adele’s well-being. “Proper Jane Eyre-in-the-attic stuff.” Sophie misspeaks: in Charlotte Brontë’s novel, it is not Jane Eyre who is locked in the attic but her rival and shadow double, Bertha Mason. And yet the comment is apt. In “Behind Her Eyes,” it is hard to tell who is warden and who is prisoner, who is crazy and who is sane, and the show revels in this uncertainty. Part of the fun for the viewer, too, lies in just letting go and seeing where the series’ dizzying hairpin turns will take you. (Naomi Fry)

Tom's Hardware (Italy) looks at the new books coming out in March.

Un tè a Chaverton House [Alessia Gazzola]

Uscita: 15 Marzo 2021

[...]

Ora zittire la vocina che lega la scelta di restare ad Alessandro, lo sfuggente manager della tenuta, non è facile. Ma devo provarci. Lui ha altro per la testa e anche io. Per esempio prepararmi per fare da guida ai turisti. Anche se ho scoperto che i libri non bastano, ma mi tocca imparare a memoria i particolari di una serie tv ambientata a Chaverton. La gente vuole solo riconoscere ogni angolo di ogni scena cult. Io invece preferisco servizi da tè, pareti dai motivi floreali e soprattutto la biblioteca, che custodisce le prime edizioni di Jane Austen e Emily Brontë. È come immergermi nei romanzi che amo. E questo non ha prezzo. O forse uno lo ha e neanche troppo basso: incontrare Alessandro è ormai la norma. (Giovanni Arestia) (Translation)

Cumhuriyet (Turkey) recommends several classic novels--Jane Eyre among them. The Gothic Library posts about Rose Lerner’s The Wife in the Attic. Maddalena De Leo has written about 'Anne Brontë and Music' on The Sisters' Room.