Brussels Bronte Group Website

We have a new addition to the links list at left: the Brussels Bronte Group website, associated with the Brussels Bronte Blog. This website is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in the Brontes, and particularly with the city Charlotte and Emily studied in. Their time in Brussels was crucial, especially for Charlotte who went on to include her experiences there in most of her novels. The site boasts what is probably the most extensive collection of information on Monsieur Constantin Heger (who was her inspiration for Mr Rochester), and the pensionat available online, including some fascinating images, such as these of the pensionnat gardens Charlotte immortalises in Villette. Below is an image of the gardens Charlotte refers to in Villette as the allee defendue.

Bronte Digest

In an effort to catch up on recent news, I have compiled one of my Bronte Digests. This should also save stress on those who receive Brontëana post through a feed (and especially Livejournal).

The Acting Company's production of Jane Eyre at Ball State University.
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Emens Auditorium
Cost: $5 for Ball State students

And in North Carolina:

JANE EYRE: An adaptation by Polly Teale of Charlotte Bronte's novel; 8 p.m., Farthing Auditorium, Appalachian State University, Boone. Presented by The Acting Company. Admission $16, $14 for seniors, $8 for students. Call 800-841-2787 or 828-262-4046.

See this post for other scheduled performances.

A glowing review of the North American DVD release of Jane Eyre 2006, praising its non-canonical approach:

[Jane]'s damaged, and this makes her undemonstrative to a fault – a bit of a pain, actually. She has to go on a journey to find her true character.
...
This Rochester is wrestling with a highly-developed dark side, losing, and rather enjoying it.

This article on muses is remarkable for mentioning dear Monsieur Heger:

A muse is used regularly by many well-known male artists. However, there are few instances where female artists have turned men into muses. The few examples include Charlotte Brontë's unrequited yearning for the married Monsieur Constantin Heger, her tutor, who became the model for Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre and for Paul Emmanuel in Villette, and Emily Dickinson's passion for her unidentified "Master" to whom she addressed some of her most fevered poems.

The times, they are a changin'? Apparently people are less interested in love nowadays:

Heather Schell, an assistant professor of writing, picked up similar attitudes when she taught a course called "Love, American Style" at George Washington University. Her female students loved to discuss the chick-lit book "Bridget Jones's Diary" and the sexual follies of Jones and her boss, Daniel Cleaver. But they were not enthralled with Edward Rochester's lengthy courtship in "Jane Eyre." Quick flings, or hookups, were okay, "but love was rarely mentioned in class discussions," Schell says.

Their favorite assigned reading? A poetry anthology called "The Hell With Love."

Science (and literature?) show that money can't buy love:

And there are precedents. Jane Eyre could only have Mr Rochester after he had lost his money and been blinded. Cathy's passion for Heathcliff deepened as he went mad and destroyed everything about him. Scarlett only loved Rhett when he was down on his luck. Could it be that there is something seriously damaged in the feminine psyche?

Villette Hell: Postgrad Adventure Game for Commodore 64

It is that time of year again. As I sit at my desk, trying not to think about the manila envelope bursting with in-class-essays for me to mark, I blog. It is all one can do, unless you do this. And since it mentions Villette in passing, it qualifies for inclusion here! I suppose you could call this a TA simmulation too. Some brief excerpts:

>read essay
With trepidation, you lift aside the cover sheet. Suddenly, the world around you seems to melt away...

Hell
You are in a maze of twisty little paragraphs, all alike. The path ahead of you is littered with sentence fragments, left broken and twitching at your feet as their pathetic spaniel eyes implore you to put them out of their misery. Dangling modifiers loop happily through the branches overhead. In the distance, that sound of undergraduate feet has turned into a heavy, erratic thwump - swoop - THWUMP you recognise immediately - it's a badly-indented long quotation, and it's coming closer.

>run
You wish.

A flock of commas scampers past, squeaking in a high-pitched, giggly way.

>inventory
You are carrying:
a purple pen
your grading criteria
a copy of Villette
5 crumbled dog biscuits
your TA contract
18 monographs you promised your supervisor you'd already read
a large amount of what-the-hell-am-I-doing-with-my-life angst
half a potato

>get commas
Tricksy little things, commas. These ones have embedded themselves in the comforting thicket of a nearby sentence.

>search for commas
Where do you want to search for the commas?

>search for commas around subordinate clauses
Surely you jest.

>search for commas prefacing speech
You spy a clutch of young semi-colons here, looking slightly confused.

>get semi-colons
You have the clutch of young semi-colons.

>throw semi-colons in direction of my own writing
I don't think you need any more of those, young lady.

>but I'm a Victorianist!
That's no excuse.

>search for commas at randomly-chosen intervals in middle of sentence in places where NO COMMAS SHOULD BE because despite correcting this THREE TIMES NOW and doing writing workshops in class and handing out links to resources like confetti it was all in vain
Ah, there they are! You gather up the commas, making sure you don't get bitten in the process.

>n
You head north.

[...]

>look for thesis statement
Okay, I'll humour you on this one. Where do you want to look for this 'thesis statement' of yours, in a first-year essay, in the dreaded Batch #3, written by a student whose previous two essays just scraped a pass...

>read TA contract
TA Contract, paragraph 5.2(b): "Any grumbling, weeping or tearing out of hair that is not actively homicidal in nature is considered par for the course, sucker."

>sigh
Indeed.

>look under lampshade
Which lampshade, the fake-satin lampshade of irrelevant biographical detail or the frilly velvet lampshade of waffle?

>look under frilly lampshade
You find a thesis statement clinging to the underside of the lampshade. It is very small and appears to be ashamed of itself.

[...]

A flock of rogue its/it's soar past you, their cawing sound echoing across the desolate landscape.

>shoot down wrongly-apostrophised plurals
With what?

>shoot down wrongly-apostrophised plurals with laser-eye beams of TA wrath
Sizzling slightly, they plummet to earth.

Janian Media Presentations

I am overwhelmed by the amount of media handed to me this week, mostly thanks to Thisbeciel. Since my earlier post about the Doyle/Harris musical I have been offered a DVD of the production- so watch out for a review of that sometime later. Off the top of my head, there are the two television films from 1957 and 1949 with Patrick McNee and Joan Ilan, and Charleton Heston and Mary Sinclair. There's the renown Bloom/Quayle audiobook, an opera, a Romanian audiobook (perfect for a family friend...), perhaps a dozen radio adaptations? One of these features Ingrid Bergman as Jane, another has Michael York as Mr. Rochester. On top of this, there's the BBC radio adaptations of Wuthering Heights, Villette, The Professor, Shirley, and Jane Eyre (with Sophie Thompson and Ciaran Hinds).

Phew.

And that's just what is relevant to Bronte studies. In addition, there's this Multimedia Presentation for the BBC's 1973 mini-series. It is described as a 'teaser' of sorts. I have not seen it yet, since I am still on the old dial-up connection but others have complimented it. From the same site there are also three video clips from the 1944 Jane Eyre with Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles here.

Bronteana Book Meme!

Glaukopidos informs me that I've been tagged for a book meme that has been circulating on Classics blogs. I've never posted a meme on Bronteana before, and it isn't news or an anecdote. So, I suppose this is an interview with myself.

1. One book that changed your life:

Villette, by Charlotte Bronte. It was only after I read Villette that I became interested in the Brontes. And this was not that long ago either: perhaps two years ago. I took it to heart, and owe to it my determination to become a Bronte scholar.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. I imagine that the novel will change when I read it again. It is a totally different experience each time.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte (really, are you surprised?).

4. One book that made you laugh:

An Aislinge MacConglinne (The Vision of McCongline), annonymous medieval Irishperson. Well. It has a saga in it about the 'mighty peerless chieftains of the tribes of food,' with such characters as Cakey MacWrist-y-hand and Filch MacSmooth-juicy-bacon.

5. One book that made you cry:

Shirley, by Charlotte Bronte. I believe it is the only book that made me cry, while Villette came very close.

6. One book that you wish had been written.

I wish Charlotte had finished Emma. Those were some of her finest opening chapters. The rewrite, by Clare Boland was not convincing.

7. One book that you wish had never been written.

Wide Sargasso Sea would be the smart answer, just so I would save time in explaining that it and Jane Eyre are not narratively compatible. I can't say I wish any book were not written. No, wait... There Was Mr. Cristi. I helped publish the thing. I edited it. I nearly went mad trying to write backcover copy for it. 'Just pretend to like it- say why people should read it.' I drew a blank for so long that I finally snapped and, looking at the Penguin copy for Charlotte's The Professor which makes it sound like a tale of seduction, I set to work. I believe I did use the phrase 'Mrs. Christi sucks the marrow out of life' but only in desperation. I even hinted at illicit goings-on and sinister implications surrounding the completely benign Mr. Bedlington, but as the publisher said: 'the backcover is the only place where hyperbole and lies are encouraged.' (Thus, in an anthology I am actually published in I am hearalded as one of Canada's emerging authors (very emergent- as that is my one and only publication to date). And that the books is 'the best ever'. I kid not). Anyway, no one- the publisher, the author's family, the 30 or so editors working on it- thought it had the slightest merit as a novel. I think we went with Gritty Realism in the end, which is good for anything!

8. One book you’re currently reading:

I am currently between books. I just finished Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:

North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell. Would you believe it, they don't have a copy in the entire library system of this city!

10. Now tag five people: I tag Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog, Mysticgypsy, Frankengirl, Pennyforyourdreams, and Austenblog!

On the Trail of a Trek Allusion


Captain’s log, stardate 48734.2. Sometimes it’s a good idea to get away from being a captain for a while. To that end, I’ve started participating in a new holo-novel. The setting is ancient England.

Before I began blogging, a friend of mine finally broke down and read Jane Eyre after hearing about it from me. After she was converted, she admitted that she had seen a Jane Eyre fantasy on Star Trek Voyager, and thought it all so dull that she didn't want to read it. Well, today, I tried looking for this fantasy, and I found something quite different.

Captain Kathryn Janeway's favourite 'holonovel' is one in which she plays Mrs. Lucille 'Lucie' Davenport, governess to Lord Burleigh's two children Henry and Beatrice. The actress who plays Janeway said herself that the story is 'Jane Eyre time' and 'a gothic romance' but I don't see much of a similarity. Apparently the obstacle consists in the children disapproving of the romance. Still, I found this picture interesting. It's caption read 'Lucie finds love.' For a moment, I could be persuaded that this was a picture from Villette. Anyway, here's our Lord Burleigh (there's also a Mrs. Templeton, who disapproves of Lucie, and keeps the secrets of the late Mrs. Burleigh and the house so well that I have no idea what they might be).

And more of the... excitement? Beatrice fears her father will discover that she can play the piano. The revelation of Burleigh's love for Lucie was the result of a technical malfunction in the holodeck and wasn't actually part of the novel's plot. Little Henry 'becomes very upset.' Well, if I were a starship captain I'd want to spend my free time pretending to be a governess too. What fun that would be! Of Burleigh's character I cannot find anything, but my friend's description made me think of Linton Heathcliff... Here, then, are the Burleighs. All information is courtesy of Memory Alpha:

Bronteana is a Year Old!

The internet's first Bronte blog began on this site one year ago today. I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this blog so much over the past year, and to my readers especially. Thanks to Thisbeciel, Kristin, Monica, Biedroneczka, Thais, Alisa, Aidan Brack, Lousie in Manchester, Vaire, Lillieoz for the many tips and files you have sent in as well as helping with uploading links- my computer is notoriously slow. Thanks also Paul Gordon, composer of Jane Eyre: The Musical for allowing me to pester him from time to time.

Now, the story of Bronteana! A little more than a year ago a friend of mine started a Classics blog on blogger (Classics as in Homer, Classical Greece and Rome etc.). You will notice it is the only non-Bronte-related link on this entire site: Glaukôpidos: An Anachronism in Modernity. I keep a personal blog, and often felt that the Bronte content had long ago taken over so I decided to follow her lead. At first I had no idea what I was doing. I thought I would try some literary criticism but I couldn't come up with something every day! There are also early illustrated posts- such as Edward Bulwer Lytton in Petticoats. Eventually I discovered the wonders of google and other search engines. So there's news and a bit of everything besides debating and sharing my huge collection of... well, Bronteana. Which brings me to the name. Glaukopidos wanted me to name this blog 'BronteBlog', but I didn't like the name (no offense to BronteBlog ;).

This year has been incredible, very interesting and a lot of fun. Within the first few months I had emails from some very interesting people, including someone who believed they are a direct descendent of Constantin Heger, and someone who really is a cousin of the Brontes. Writers have written in, publishers have sent me their manuscripts (I got to see a preview of Branwell- which I reviewed unfavourably, much to the publisher's annoyance...). I enjoy hearing from my readers, because it lets me know that you are having as much fun as I am. I am gratified also, that my efforts caught the attention of the Bronte Society Gazette early this year. It has been a most wonderful year!

And now, the apology. I meant to have a lot of fun stuff prepared for this occasion but nothing has come through. The archives are still a horrendous mess, I have not been able to finish moving the resource site to Dalhousie, and the media files I meant to post are not uploaded... even this post is almost an hour late.

For the future. Well, the first post was a demand to the BBC that it release its 1973 production of Jane Eyre. That came to pass in the fullness of time (ie, this past spring/early summer) so, I think I'll start demanding their 1970 production of Villette!

Another Update on BBC Bronte Films


Once again, our thanks to LaMcKay for providing the following stats on several BBC productions currently unavailable:

Jane Eyre (1963) was broadcast on 7-4-63. The BBC 2 classic serial 28-12-68 Tenant of Wildfell Hall is complete as is their Wuthering Heights first broadcast 28-10-67 (4 episodes). Villette 1970 (also from BBC 2) aired on 31-5-70 and had 5 episodes.

And finally Blogger is allowing me to post images once again. This is the picture I found earlier this week of Daphne Slater who played Jane Eyre in the 1956 BBC series (playing opposite Stanley Baker). I have not been able to verify what the image is from- but the watch definately makes one think that this is not an image from the production! The search continues.

Update: Jane Eyre 1963 and Villette 1970

The internet is a marvellous thing. I am astounded by how quickly this search is going. Before I started keeping this blog, work was slow and frustrating. Being in touch with so many Brontephiles like myself is making my work go far more smoothly!

The newest information comes from Bronteana reader, LaMcKay. There is both good and bad news. The bad news is that the 1963 version of Jane Eyre, with Richard Leech and Ann Bell (the photo I discovered earlier this week from this production is here), is unlikely to be released. The current opinion is that the series is missing two of its six episodes- episodes two and three. While most of us would loudly cry that this is no reason to hold it back, it would look awful to the marketting deptartment I'm sure if one third of the production were missing.

The good news is that the current opinion is that Villette survived the archive purge intact! This gives me great hope that it could be released someday. LaMcKay suggests that Jane Eyre could be released with it as bonus material, but I think it is unlikely. What they might do would be to put together a boxed set. To my knowledge there have been no boxed set of Bronte films- only discounts if you buy Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. It is a thought. I must say that the interest in a 'new' Bronte work- which is neither Jane Eyre nor Wuthering Heights- should be immense. Add this 'lost' footage, and 1968 Tenant of Wildfell Hall (I am not sure this one exists, to be fair) and a loss just isn't an option. Everyone will want to have this collection I am absolutely certain.

Review of Voice and the Victorian Storyteller by Ivan Kreilkamp

This review of Voice and the Victorian Storyteller provides an interesting critique of the book's discussion of a particular passage from Jane Eyre. The passage is quoted in a section of the book on Charlotte Bronte and the trope of 'witheld speech.'

There is a striking example in his discussion of the famous episode of extrasensory perception in Jane Eyre, in which Rochester tells Jane that he cried out to her and heard her reply, and Jane realizes that the words he “heard” were those she had actually spoken (“I am coming: wait for me!”):

The passage is quoted in full, and then follows the critique, that the author had omitted a sentence in order to shape the passage to his argument. The work also discusses Villette.

Voice and the Victorian Storyteller
264pp. Cambridge University Press. $85.0 521 85193 9

Contents:
1. ‘The best man of all’: mythologies of the storyteller;
2. When good speech acts go bad: the voice of industrial fiction;
3. Speech on paper: Charles Dickens, Victorian phonography, and the reform of writing;
4. 'Done to death': Dickens and the author's voice;
5. Unuttered: withheld speech in Jane Eyre and Villette;
6. ‘Hell's masterpiece of print’: voice, face, and print in The Ring and the Book;
7. A voice without a body: the phonographic logic of Heart of Darkness.

Addendum: BBC Archive Project

Biedroneczka writes in with a little more information on the list she provided of BBC adaptations of Jane Eyre, specifically the two radio adaptations I have not found yet- the ones from 1990 and 2004:

"There's practically no info on the 1990 version. As far as I remember, it's only 30 minutes long. The 1994 programme is indeed the one with Ciaran [Hinds]. And the info on the 2004 one reads as follows: Anne-Marie DUFF reads Charlotte BRONTE bold and passionate story of a woman's search for independence and love on her own terms. Lonely, ignored and ill treated, the orphaned Jane is growing up at Gateshead. Abridged by Sally MARMION. Producer Di SPEIRS. 15 episodes, 15 minutes each. BTW, Here's the link to the site: http://open.bbc.co.uk/cataloguemeta. Sadly, the catalogue is currently unavailable."

The catalogue seems to be in a prototype stage at the moment, according to its blog but is going through a review process. This is how the project is described on the BBC's website:

This experimental catalogue database holds over 900,000 entries. It is a sub-set of the data from the internal BBC database created and maintained by the BBC’s Information and Archives department. This public version is updated daily as new records are added and updated in the main catalogue. This figure is so high because, for example, each TV news story now has an individual entry in the catalogue.

Perhaps more importantly for our purposes is that it clearly excludes productions which no longer exist. It is safe, I think, to suppose then that the 1956 and 1963 Jane Eyre productions are still extant. Once the project is up again, we should be able to see if 1970 Villette, the 1968 Tenant of Wildfell Hall and perhaps others we don't know about are also hidden away there.

Bronte News and Update on BBC Search
Last Sunday Kenneth Griffith, Mr Mason in the 1970 production of Jane Eyre with Susannah York and George C. Scott, died at the age of 84. Thanks to peridramnews for the notice.

Well, now we have this article from the Guardian about the limited re-release of Daphne duMaurier's Rebecca. In passing this painfully psychoanalytic article suggests that all romances are paedophilic.

Whether it's Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Bridget Jones's Diary or any old Mills and Boon novel, the grist that feeds the fantasy mill is the same.

Several Bronteana readers have sent in some info which should be helpful in tracking down some of these remaining adaptations which are not currently available. Liz, who wrote to the BBC about the Villette mini series sends the whole text of their email reply which certainly suggests that the series exists but that copyright arrangements prevent distribution of copies- thus, the letter writing compaign mentioned earlier.

Also, Biedroneczka sends along a list she found of BBC productions of Jane Eyre from a site connected to the BBC archives. This is the list (programmes denote episodes):

6 programmes in 1956
6 programmes in 1963
5 programmes in 1972 (radio)
5 programmes in 1973
11 programmes in 1983
3 programmes in 1990 (radio)
4 programmes in 1994 (radio)
15 programmes in 2004 (radio)

In my travels I came across one source claiming there had been productions in the 1940s as well. It is possible that they were mistaken, or perhaps this list is of those versions extant. The 1972 radio adaptation must be the Megwynn Owen/Patrick Allen series. And possibly the 1994 version is the one with Sophie Thompson and Ciaran Hinds. I have not heard the 1990 and 2004 versions yet (15 episodes?!).

Villette BBC 1970

Bronteana reader Liz has been writing to the BBC regarding their 1970 mini series of Villette, featured in this old Bronteana post (including photos of the actors who played Lucy Snowe and Monsieur Paul Emmanuel). She infers that the production still exists from their comment that it is 'not commercially available' and the recomendation that she write to BBC Worldwide to have it released. So, then, the hundreds of you out there who read my posts each day, this is the only adaptation of Villette. If it still exists, it should be available. If you feel as I do, send a polite note to BBC Worldwide and hopefully it will not take 30 years as Jane Eyre 1973 did!

BBC Worldwide. Commissioning Editor, BBC Worldwide Ltd, Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane, London, W12 0TT

Bronte News

So, here's today's news and the backlog as well. I thank you all for your supportive comments. I am feeling more at ease now. The etext is also finished but I would like to check it against the text before posting it to the Resource Site.

Author Sarah Waters claims Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights influence her work, such as her novel Fingersmith.

Here is another review of Reader, I Married Him by Michele Roberts.

Jane Eyre is not part of this lady's emergency kit. Well, her loss. A friend of mine keeps a small copy of Villette at all times 'in case of emergency!' It would also come in handy for Random Acts of Bronte.

Canadian cities can learn a thing or two about marketting from Haworth.

Forget 'York' and 'Lancaster', this English class has a head-to-head literary death match- or rather a 2 hour quiz- with teams including 'The Bronte Sisters,' in Qatar:

There were six teams of senior students each consisting of six members with shingles commemorating Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Agatha Cristie, Bronte Sisters, Sarojini Naidu and Tagore.

[...]

Sarojini Naidu Bronte Sisters and Tagore were pipped at the post though raced hard.

Religious and literary pilgrimages merge in this article which mentions the venerable home of the Brontes.

And we have some very strong voices of protest against David Brooks' earlier article about gendered education which listed the Brontes as among the favourite books of women. You will have to scroll down to read this letter.

The 'lost classic' of Welsh literature, described as 'the Welsh Wuthering Heights' is to be made into a BBC radio4 production. The novel is called Country Dance:

Country Dance is a story of passion, jealousy and revenge centred around a young girl who grows up in an isolated rural community on the border between England and Wales.
She keeps a diary of everyone she meets but her daily scribblings fall into the wrong hands.

The Folly of Adaptation?

Still enjoying the bliss. I asked a favour of Thisbeciel, and it was granted. She has provided this screencap of the filmographies main screen, featuring a great moment from the volume 1 DVD of the BBC's Jane Eyre 1973:


Only now did I realise that unfortunately, it looks like they have grafted Mr Rochester's head onto Lord Ingram's body... just behind Blanche. Oh dear.

So far the folk reviews of the production are very positive. We have young men 'enthralled', older married gentlemen in tears, older ladies in giggles (my mom responding to the repartee, which she had me play over again), and several young ladies in stages of excitement and joy (myself included).

In my search for more news on Jane Eyre 2006 today I came across several very interesting discussion threads. When it first became definate that there would be a new production, the reaction was largely positive with only a slight inital disappointment that it wasn't one of the other novels, one which has not been adapted yet- like Shirley- or one whose adaptation will probably never again see the light of day- such as Villette. I would like to know, now, what you think. How do you feel about another remake of Jane Eyre? Secondly, one of the opinions I came across was not in favour of another adaptation on the grounds that the novel had 'long since outlived its time' meaning the modern world has moved on in some way, that Jane Eyre no longer works or speaks to modern human beings. What are your thoughts on this?

T. H. Robinson Shirley Illustrations


I have been quite busy this morning uploading a lot of illustrations at the Bronteana Resource Site. It will take me some time to actually get all of them linked, but I hope to have each artist catalogued over the next few days. For now, something a little different. There are 8 full-colour illustrations of Charlotte Bronte's Shirley available here. I have scanned them from my own edition so I have a few things to say about the volume. It is a Collins Clear Type Press edition, although not one of their lovely palm-sized books. This one is very large by comparison (I have the Collins Clear Type Press editions of Jane Eyre and Villette as well- their illustrations will be scanned in eventually...). Also, since these are from my own edition, I have them in 100 dpi, but they are also available in a much higher resolution upon request.

Jane Eyre Illustrations

I have just finished uploading the first of many sets of illustrations at the Bronteana Resource page. This time we have the Walter L. Colls illustrations of Jane Eyre, to match his illustrations of Villette, which were added last month or so. The link to the Resource page is on the links list to the left, for future reference.

This Friday I write my most final of final exams, and then there will most likely be more etexts and illustrations to add in the coming days and weeks.

A First Look at Agnes Grey

My copy of Agnes Grey arrived in the mail a few days ago. In two days I had finished it, despite having much to do (hope none of my professors are reading this...But, then, it was for a good cause). I ended up with the Everyman paperback edition which includes a selection of Anne's poetry. I read the introduction, which was, to me, informative although I question it as I did catch one error which skewed things a bit. The writer claims that proof of how Aunt Branwell's Methodism had produced a kind of hysteria in the children is seen in Charlotte 'seeing' an 'angel' beside Anne's crib. Charlotte never claimed to have seen an angel, but a fairy which is not at all the same thing. I don't believe Aunt Branwell putting much faith in fairies as messengers of the divine (and anyone at the time who did believe in them would be more alarmed at seeing one by a baby's crib, yes?).

I have been working and studying with a publisher for nearly a year now, so I must speak out at the disgraceful state of the backcover copy even though it is of little consequence. Agnes Grey is not a long book by any means... It does not take long to write backcover copy. Why on earth, then, is Rosalie consistently referred to as Matilda about 5 times in the tiny paragraph of text? Could they not flip through the book for 3 seconds and check her name? There, I've said my peace. I really think publishers need to abandon these glued bindings as well. It's only a 10 year old copy and it already creaks because the glue has gone hard. Unfortunately almost all books published today are bound in this fashion.

On reading AG itself: I had a repeat of the feelings I experienced while reading Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Once again I was probably unduly critical as I read and once again I was baffled. Now, I had 'played' Anne Bronte before and prepared for the experience by reading what I could which might help me do her justice. I have a first edition of Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle by Shorter. So, I opened the section on Anne and what did I find? The first line declares that there's no doubt that Anne would be forgotten entirely, her works discarded, if she had not been Charlotte Bronte's sister! Harsh words! I was puzzled then, and I am puzzled now. It isn't because I would like to appreciate Anne's work- there is simply much to appreciate! If you doubt me, consider that I have been trying- actually trying- to appreciate Jane Austen and I find I still cannot. My feelings are that Anne is a better writer- but before I am torn limb from limb I will admit that I have peculiar tastes and that there are flaws in Anne's work which may lower her work's value after my initial enthusiasm wanes. However, I can never see justification in pronouncing her work so utterly forgettable!

I have a peculiar way of feeling when writing is genuine and when it is contrived. Much of what I've helped publish this year is contrived (again, hoping the publisher doesn't see this... No, actually I have told him so). Anne's work is genuine, and makes me believe in it. Her beginnings are stronger than any of Charlotte's novels, and continue with an unerring movement towards the end, maintaining a steady flow- until the end. And here is where the fault lies. Her endings are disappointing, not as strong as the rest of her work by far. And being the last impression of the entire work, I think they tend to colour how the book is remembered. I recall when I read Tenant that I was convinced it was superior to all but Jane Eyre and Villette until I reached the end. There is a curious hestitancy in the endings of Tenant and Agnes Grey.

This post is already extremely long, so I will have to keep the rest of my thoughts on the book for another time.

Librivox Villette

LibriVox- "acoustical liberation of books in the public domain." The site publishes audio books in the public domain, recorded by volunteers. Thanks to Heather, a co-ordinator for writing in to tell us about Villette, the first collaborative LibriVox Bronte work. There are no finished Bronte works yet although Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights are being recited by two people attempting solo recordings. Most pressingly, under 20% of the chapters are claimed as of yet and they still need volunteers to recite chapters.

Aw, no Vanity Fair? ... Well, I do think that book just might kill anyone attempting a solo recitation.

A friend of mine has a similar project on hand. Very slow productions of Shakespeare, which each part recorded separately online and then pasted together. It is very very slow work. And, I myself have a project which, from the start, was doomed to never actually be done- to put together a similar performance of Jane Eyre: The Musical. The trouble (...one of the troubles) is that all of my friends willing to entertain the idea are young ladies, so our Rochester is a soprano and I'm playing St.John Rivers (I am likewise a soprano, but this isn't quite so bad in St.John's case. No, really, some of his demo songs are very high! It's creepy...). It doesn't matter that I have dark hair and dark eyes, but I do burst out laughing at inappropriate times. Very out of charater.It will never, ever, ever be recorded (although I do have one clip of our (Miss) Rochester singing 'As Good As You').

Anne-ecdotes

This is yet another personal testamony of a Brontephile in the land that forgot the Brontes. Today, in the very room where last week I had heard a tirade against all three sisters, someone began to talk to me about them, knowing of this blog. I was delighted, and surprised when he assumed that of the three Anne was my favourite. She is not, in fact, but it made me feel strangely happy nevertheless.

And, I did finally break down and order a copy of Agnes Grey. It should be arriving next week.

Some related Bronte news from the homefront- I did convince two people to read Jane Eyre this week. This is astonishing progress, believe me. Although I think the first person will not be pleased with the book... After rejoicing, I remembered that this particular person loathes and despises anything even remotely religious. I brought in a Bible once, to prepare for a medieval lit seminar I had to give, and she hissed at it. So... I'm not sure what she'll make of Jane Eyre! Alas. And the second is the fellow mentioned above who hasn't read the book, "but I saw the movie and that was enough." The minx. But anyway, he was only kidding. He also said he wanted to give "Violet... Violette... that V one, you know," a try. Oh bliss- I don't think many of you will comprehend this, but I had to get a copy of Villette from a friend in Iowa...

Lastly, blame me who will, I was alone in an auditorium room for several hours today so I worked on a short story (based on JE), talked out loud to Charlotte while I did so, then sang Amarilli, Mia Bella. No one else will ever know!