The Little Book is Back

The Telegraph & Argus (and the Daily Mail, Press Association via AOL,  BBC, The Times, The Independent, Express & Star, Evening Standard, Keighley News or The Scotsman) cover the return of the little book by Charlotte Brontë recently auctioned in New York to the Brontë Parsonage Museum, 200 years later:

Picture by Danny Lawson/PA

A miniature  manuscript by the 13-year-old Charlotte Brontë has returned to her home in Haworth, 200 years after it was written.

The last of more than two dozen o
f the famous “little books” known to be in private hands was bought by a charity in April for 1.25 million dollars (£973,000) after surfacing for the first time in more than a century.

Its buyers, British literary charity Friends of National Libraries (FNL), donated the book to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, where it is now on display after returning this week.

he 15-page manuscript, smaller than a playing card, is dated December 1829, and is stitched in its original brown paper covers.

It measures 3.8in x 2.5in and contains 10 poems.

Its buyers have said it is “inch for inch, possibly the most valuable literary manuscript ever to be sold”.

It was last seen at auction in 1916 in New York, where it sold for 520 dollars. (...)

The miniature manuscript, entitled A Book Of Ryhmes By Charlotte Brontë, Sold By Nobody, And Printed By Herself, is a collection of 10 poems written by 13-year-old Charlotte Brontë.

It is well known in the world of Bronte scholarship, and is mentioned in Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Life Of Charlotte Brontë(1857).

The titles of the 10 poems – including The Beauty Of Nature and On Seeing The Ruins Of The Tower Of Babel – have long been known, but the poems themselves have never been published, photographed, transcribed or even summarised.

James Cummins Bookseller of New York City and Maggs Bros of London, who were selling on behalf of the owner, offered the book first to FNL and gave them several weeks to raise the 1.25 million dollars required.

Funds were raised from more than nine donors, including the Garfield Weston Foundation and the TS Eliot Estate.

For some bizarre reason The Review Geek recommends Wuthering Heights 1939 if you liked Persuasion 2022:

If you’ve loved Emily Bronte’s classic literary novel “Wuthering Heights” and want to see the story come to life on screen, you should undoubtedly choose the 1939 movie version of the novel directed by William Wyler. The romantic period drama movie’s stunning cinematography beautifully depicts the mood and tone of Brontë’s Gothic storyline.

The plotline centers on the tragic and gloomy romance involving Cathy, an orphan who’s adopted, and Heathcliff, who shared a home with them as children. Heathcliff is extremely disappointed when Cathy marries her wealthy neighbor despite their passionate relationship. Heathcliff, now an extremely wealthy man, visits the village after a long period and reignites their romance.

The intense, somber movie with lyrical writing beautifully captures every bit of the bleak drama from the classic novel. (Sarah Almeida)

The Yorkshire Post recommends some walking routes in the Yorskhire Dales:

Malham Cove
This large curved limestone formation was created by a waterfall that carried meltwater from glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age period more than 12,000 years ago. It has since become a prime attraction for nature lovers and hikers. The pavement was a filming location in the 1992 Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights starring Ralph Fiennes. (Liana Jacob)

CBR (woke)(over)analyzes Harry Potter characters:

Animalistic mannerisms and behaviors are another way writers code a character as having a mental health condition. (For example, the wife from Jane Eyre is described as a "clothed hyena"). Both Barty and Bellatrix are born from the association of mental health conditions and evil, which has aged poorly. (Annalyssa Fincher)

North Belfast News interviews a journalist-in-the-making:

One of the greatest things about literature also is the debates and discussions that there is to be had. For example, who is the real victim in Of Mice and Men? – Lennie or Curly’s wife? Where Heathcliff and Catherine soulmates or their own worst enemies? (Eimear Eastwood)

PopMatters reviews the film Time Out of Mind 1947: 

Instead, the narrator is Kate Fernald (Calvert), who goes back in memory to 1899 Maine. Like Victoria Winters, Jane Eyre, or The Spiral Staircase’s heroine, Kate is a servant in a big old mansion.  (Michael Barrett)

Jean-Charles de Castellbajac recommends Instagram feeds in ADMagazine (France);

Elise Roche : Quel est le compte le plus poétique à suivre ?
JCC : Celui de Greta Bellamacina, poétesse et réalisatrice, femme du poète et artiste Robert Montgomery. Son compte est comme un journal victorien de son quotidien dans la campagne anglaise avec son mari et ses deux enfants, à la manière d’Emily Brontë, sans oublier @zoedegivenchy et @rebeccaderavenel. (Translation)

Página 12 (Argentina) interviews the writer Margo Glantz:

Inés Hayes-  ¿Cuáles son sus escritoras preferidas?

M.G.: Muchas, en México, la Malinche, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Nellie Campobello, Elena Garro, Rosario Castellano; del extranjero, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, las Brontë, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor, Ursula Le Guin, Annie Ernaux, Ingeborg Bachmann, las poetas uruguayas, Molloy, Kamenszain, Ludmer, Tununa Mercado, Diamela Eltit, etc, etc. (Translation)