Fascinating and Deeply Complex

The new exhibition of the Brontë Parsonage Museum on this article at the BBC website:

An exhibition chronicling how the home of the Brontë sisters became a destination for literary pilgrimage opens this weekend.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth - home of writers Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë - is hosting the Haworth to Eternity exhibition.

The display charts how the Pennine village became a tourist destination, showcasing letters, manuscripts, albums and other material from the museum archives.

Principal curator Ann Dinsdale said Haworth was "never a romantic place" before the Brontës "caused a sensation" with their novels in the mid-1800s.

She said: "It was a hard-working, industrial township and then in 1847 the Brontë novels were published under assumed names.

"They caused such a sensation when they were originally published that everyone wanted to know who the authors could be, and in 1850 it leaked out that they were three clergyman's daughters living in Yorkshire and people started making their way to Haworth.

"There was an idea very early on that all the places in the Brontë novels had actual, real-life counterparts so people started coming to Haworth.

"Charlotte was the sole survivor by that point and she witnessed literary celebrity and found herself being pointed out in church and being stared at in the village."

The exhibition includes Victorian souvenirs early tourists took from the village.

It also features scripts, photographs and props from TV and film adaptations of their novels, including Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Brontë fever was kickstarted two years after Charlotte's death in 1855, when author Elizabeth Gaskell wrote an autobiography titled The Life of Charlotte Brontë.

Ms Dinsdale said: "Although Gaskell painted a grim picture of Haworth as this remote, inhospitable place with surly villagers, rather than repelling visitors it actually encouraged them so you started getting people coming from as far away as America to see where the Brontës had lived and written their novels.

"Quite often they wanted to take away a souvenir so all those people who had lived in Haworth, who had been associated with the Brontës, started being tracked down and persuaded to part with their Brontë artefacts."

The exhibition coincides with the opening of the museum's new toilets - the first time the parsonage has had toilets open to the public.

The toilet block – built outside the Victorian parsonage – was funded through more than £100,000 of grants from Bradford City of Culture 2025 and Arts Council England. (Grace Wood)

Substack's Love Vintage etc. visits Haworth and shares pictures and comments: 

Haworth, the picturesque Yorkshire village famous for its literary family, is surrounded by far-reaching Pennine moorland: wild, windswept and scattered with bracken and heather. This powerful setting was a huge inspiration for the Brontës and their famous novels including Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Jane Eyre.

I arrived in Haworth at the tail end of a storm with dank, January drizzle providing an atmospheric backdrop to the cobble stones and charming York stone cottages on the main high street.

The walk past the station up Main Street, to the Parsonage and the Brontë family home, is familiar. I grew up in Yorkshire and primary school trips were either to Haworth or York.

But it was Haworth that captured my 9 year-old heart after seeing a display of tiny books made by the young Charlotte, Emily, Ann and brother Bramwell in which they created imaginary worlds. The Parsonage, now a museum, was the Brontë children’s home where they lived with their father, curate of the local church. The museum captures the family’s everyday life in the early-to-mid 19th century with a permanent exhibition of Brontë artefacts including letters, writing desks, clothing, manuscripts and furniture. (Michelle Mason)

From time to time, this story reappears. You know, did Branwell write Wuthering Heights? This time is the reissue of a new hardback edition novel of Chris Firth's Branwell Brontë's Tale. You know, novel. As in fiction. The Telegraph & Argus reports:

Did Branwell Bronte write Wuthering Heights, while living in Bradford? That’s the premise of Bradford author Chris Firth’s book Branwell Brontë’s Tale, which had a new hardback version launched this week.

The book, which caused shockwaves among Bronte enthusiasts when first published in 2005, examines the theory that it was Branwell Brontë not his sister Emily, who was the author of what is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written. Chris’s novel explores Branwell’s hectic creative and social life while working as a portrait painter in “the multi-cultural, bohemian districts of Manningham and Heaton in the 1830s”.

This hardback edition of the historical thriller brings “the excitement, adventure and vivid detail of Victorian Bradford to life and celebrates Bradford’s rich, multicultural historical past”. Says Chris: “It is little known that Emily never claimed to have written Wuthering Heights, although Branwell is recorded (in the Halifax Guardian, June 1860) as having read from its opening chapters in Haworth. Both Emily and Branwell died before the book became a widespread seller. Many Brontë experts, off the record, now concur that the novel was most likely a collaboration between the close-knit pair.” (Emma Clayton)

Shockwave? Many Brontë experts? Off the Record? Don't let facts stay in the way of a good conspiracy theory. 

The Devonsville Press's Gothic Book Club is going to read Wuthering Heights, "the ultimate Valentine or Anti-Valentine book".

Rebecca is a hard act to follow and, whilst Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is closer in influence and narrative, it almost felt a little too close to dive right into just yet (but we will be reading it at a later date, don’t worry). (...)

Last February, we explored Jo Walton’s Lent, which I urge you to check out if you haven’t already. This is particularly applicable to those of you who aren’t a fan of Wuthering Heights, which we are reading this month. It’s understandable that some people might vehemently dislike this book, as Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel is divisive to say the least. It’s arguably the perfect Valentine’s or Anti-Valentine’s selection (of which you can choose accordingly).

I feel that such divisiveness is part of what makes it fascinating. Wuthering Heights is a deeply complex book; not in approach or language (save for some regional dialect), but in emotion. It’s hard to align yourself with the main characters. The reading experience vastly changes depending on age and perspective. The overwhelming nihilism and sadistic behaviour of Heathcliffe can be too much for some, and I respect that.

Still, for those willing to step into the storm, Wuthering Heights is a tumultuous experience of obsession, vengeance, manipulation and passion. If this is one of your first forays into nineteenth century literature, you are in for a wild time, because the pace, tone and impact of this book is so intense that it’s easy to see why it remains a classic to this day. It’s strangely accessible, and feels strangely modern in terms of pacing and intrigue. (Colin J. McCracken)

Studenti (Italy) has no problems, though, in recommending the book for Valentine's Day. 

Financial Review reviews The Australian performances of the Wise Children production of Wuthering Heights:

[Emma] Rice channelled her rage into this production, and the result is the folk protest song to Bush’s chart-topper. She replaces the novel’s narrator, the housekeeper of Heathcliff’s tenant Mr Lockwood, with a Greek Chorus of wildly dressed, dancing figures called The Moors.

At one point they sing “if you want romance, go to Broadway”, and do they ever mean it.

That is not to say that the chemistry between this production’s Heathcliff (John Leader) and Catherine (Stephanie Hockley) doesn’t crackle - they are compelling every moment they are on stage. (...)

The dark themes were at the forefront, and attempts to leaven them with slapstick-oriented humour sometimes jarred. Also, as good an idea as The Moors were - amid the darkness, you will fall for their compassionate leader, Nandi Bhebhe - they fact that they mostly sing in unison means some of the all-important words were difficult to understand. However the earthy melodies and baroque sound (complete with cello and accordion alongside the acoustic guitars and rhythm section) were a nice antidote to the usual musical diet of West End sugar, while Catherine’s big solo number giving Alanis Morissette vibes was a highlight.

Rice’s script doesn’t shy away from the complexity of Bronte’s original plot, at one point even joking about how difficult it is to keep up amid all the cousins marrying each other. At two-and-a-half hours plus interval, you could argue this was 30 minutes too long - but then what is time when you’re rambling along the Yorkshire moors, as alive and as exposed to feeling as is this show? (Michael Bailey)

Any News also explores Emily Brontë's novel:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is more than a classic novel-wild, haunting exploration of love, obsession, and destructive unchecked emotions. Set against the wind-swept Yorkshire moors, the story unfolds through the lives of two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, whose fates are intertwined in a web of passion and vengeance.

At its core, the novel is a stark reminder of how love, when twisted by pride and revenge, can consume everything in its path.

The central theme of Wuthering Heights revolves around the destructive nature of obsessive love and the cycle of revenge. The story revolves around the relationship of Heathcliff and Catherine; their love for each other is so intense that it becomes above rationality and morality. It becomes a deep passion that becomes a source of suffering not only for them but also for people surrounding them. Brontë depicts how emotions without control may lead to havoc and leave pain and regret for the generations that follow. (Nida Faraz)

New books for February in Alta Journal or Los Angeles Times:

Brother Brontë, by Fernando A. Flores

Taking place in 2038, Flores’s novel unfolds in an apocalyptic authoritarian Texas, where women have become forced laborers and reading is illegal. In the town of Three Rivers, literature has become an underground activity, cherished by the last literate citizens, including Neftalí. As the government and polluting corporations become more violent, it’s up to Neftalí and her best friend, Prosperina, to create a rebel organization to fight back against destruction and dictatorship. MCD, February 11 (Jessica Blough, Maisie Hurwitz and Will Garrett)

English Ghost Stories in The Collector:

Emily Brontë’s Gothic masterpiece is remembered for its tempestuous lovers, windswept moors and tragic family drama. However, when creating her novel, Emily Brontë chose to open with a violent and terrifying ghostly encounter. In the opening of the novel, Lockwood (the narrator), spends the night in a forbidden bedroom after being caught in a storm. He has read the names Catherine alongside Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and Linton, all carved in the wooden window frame.

As he sleeps, he is awoken by a knocking on the window pane and, thinking it a branch, reaches out to break it. The reader is then startled to read that Linton’s wrist is grasped by the ice-cold fingers of Cathy’s ghost. Her specter cries that she has been ‘a waif for twenty years,’ have inspired countless other works of fiction including the song Wuthering Heights by  Kate Bush. (Lauren Jones)

The Jewish Chronicle recommends Netflix's shows like Too Much: 

Jewish multihyphenate Lena Dunham, creator and star of the beloved HBO series Girls, has turned her personal move to London into fodder for this exciting new series. Part comedy, part drama, the premise revolves around recently single New Yorker Jessica (Megan Stalter) who decides to take a job in London where she will (supposedly) live a life of solitude like a Bronte sister as she comes to grips with her heart-wrenching breakup. (Eliana Jordan) 

Telva interviews the author Virginia Feito about her novel Victorian Psycho:

César Suárez: ¿Qué has tenido en tu universo de inspiraciones durante el proceso de escritura?

V.F.: Obviamente American Psycho, y todo el universo de Emily, Anne y Charlotte Brontë, Cumbres borrascosas, Agnes Grey..., incluso sus biografías. He tomado cosas que les ocurrieron realmente en su vida: por ejemplo, a Emily le mordió un perro con rabia y ella misma se cauterizó la herida en casa con una plancha. Mucho Dickens, lo ridículo y ostentoso de sus personajes... Y un libro maravilloso de Joyce Carol Oates, Zombi, sobre un asesino en serie que es tan obsceno y tan grotesco que me resulta gracioso. (Translation)

We read on La Nazione and La Gazzetta della Spezia how the Istituto Parentucelli Arzelà hosted their 'Notte del liceo classico' event, combining classical and modern elements with a focus on peace and humanity. A highlight was class VA's performance of 'The mad woman in the attic', drawn from 'Jane Eyre' and 'Wide Sargasso Sea', which explored women's roles in Victorian society and themes of otherness, alongside various musical and theatrical performances.

Another Wuthering Heights review, from a local student,  can be found in This is Local London. And Liberiamo (Italy) thinks that this is a book you should read at least once in your life. A Brontë question in a pub quiz published in Oswestry & Border Counties Advertizer. Sportskeeda recommends Jane Eyre 2011 if you like Malcolm's List. The Bronté Birthplace Facebook wall has an interesting post:

 Ever wondered what the Brontë Birthplace looked like before restoration? Now you can explore it for yourself!

Thanks to Vision Digital Culture Limited digital twin creation, we have a virtual tour showcasing the house’s original features before renovation work began. Step inside the birthplace of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë as it was in April 2024!