I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.
Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights

vrijdag 26 juni 2009

Oakwood Hall

Gawthorpe Hall

The Kay-Shuttleworths also came to hear about Charlotte Brontë who was becoming a well known author by this time and lived only 12 miles away in Haworth. They invited her to come and stay, which she eventually did in 1850 and then again in 1855. She also stayed with the Kay-Shuttleworths at their home in Windermere where she met Mrs Gaskell who became her great friend and wrote the first biography of Charlotte after her death. During Charlotte’s second visit to Gawthorpe in January 1855 it is said that she insisted walking out in the grounds and caught a chill from which she never managed to recover, she died two months later on 31st March the same year.

Zie ook onder websites:

www.grimshaworigin.org/WebPages/ShutGawt.htm




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donderdag 25 juni 2009

The Moors

spots





Top Withens




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Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 - 1865)

Elizabeth Gaskell, novelist who championed the working classes © Gaskell was a Victorian novelist, also notable for her biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë.

Elizabeth Stevenson was born in London on 29 September 1810, the daughter of a Unitarian minister. After her mother's early death, she was raised by an aunt who lived in Knutsford in Cheshire. In 1832 she married William Gaskell, also a Unitarian minister, and they settled in the industrial city of Manchester.

Motherhood and the obligations of a minister's wife kept her busy. However, the death of her only son inspired her to write her first novel, 'Mary Barton', which was published anonymously in 1848. It was an immediate success, winning the praise of Charles Dickens and Thomas Carlyle.

Dickens invited her to contribute to his magazine, 'Household Words', where her next major work, Cranford, appeared in 1853. 'North and South' was published the following year. Gaskell's work brought her many friends, including the novelist Charlotte Brontë. When Charlotte died in 1855, her father, Patrick Brontë, asked Gaskell to write her biography. The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) was written with admiration and covered a huge quantity of firsthand material with great narrative skill.

Gaskell died on 12 November 1865, leaving her longest work, 'Wives and Daughters' incomplete.





Het huis van Elisabeth Gaskell in Manchester. De trap binnen in het huis.



Zij was ook de schrijfster van Cranford

'Brookroyd'

After the death of Ellen's father, the family had to move to the much more modest 'Brookroyd'. Charlotte visited here on many occasions, and it was in this house where she corrected her proof-sheets of Jane Eyre - yet we are still told that Ellen, at this point and beyond, had no knowledge of Charlotte's novel writing! Ellen invited Anne to visit and spend some time here, but for one reason or another - possibly Anne's shyness and inability to socialise - the visit never took place.





maandag 22 juni 2009

Stanage Edge. Pride and prejudice.


The Derbyshire scenes filmed as part of Elizabeth and the Gardiners' tour were shot at Stanage Edge, Hathersage, Derbyshire.



Hathersage is waar Ellen Nussey woonde. Charlotte bezocht haar hier regelmatig. Zijn zij ooit naar Stanage Edge gelopen? Wat een prachtige omgeving.
Ik ga in ieder geval de film Pride and Prejudice met andere ogen bekijken. Ik heb de film op DVD. Ik ga naar het antwoord op zoek.
 

Hathersage

Charlotte Bronte visited Hathersage in 1845 to stay with her old school friend Ellen Nussey at Hathersage Rectory, whose brother was the vicar of the village and it was while he was away on his honeymoon that Charlotte arrived to keep her friend company for a few weeks during the summer.

You will probably arrive in Hathersage by car, but Charlotte arrived by stage coach and was met at the George Inn, a stage coach and post stop kept by the landlord Mr. James Morton. Charlotte used his name for the village in the novel where Jane Eyre, starving, exhausted and penniless begs for a piece of bread in exchange for a pair of gloves. Refused help, she follows a distant light across the moors and arrives at Moor House where she is taken in by the Rev. St. John Rivers.

The Vicarage is a solid, comfortable-looking house and remains much the same as it was in 1845. Wander around the small churchyard, read the tombstones and listen to the church bell chiming every quarter of an hour. Charlotte would have heard these same bells and, in the novel, the chiming of church bells herald significant changes in Jane's life. At night the only light on the hill, visible from the Vicarage windows, is from Moorseats (which becomes Moor House in the novel) and is the same light which leads Jane Eyre to the home of the Rivers family. Beneath the kitchen window is where Jane is said to have slumped from exhaustion and where St. John Rivers found her weeping and wringing her hands.

Brookroyd

The Rydings
Charlotte Bronte (along with brother Branwell) visited her friend Ellen Nussey at her home "The Ridings" in Birstall in September 1832.

Ellen Nussey later moved to Brookroyd House where Charlotte visited her many times.

Today the Rydings is on private land within an industrial complex, but the exterior is little changed since the days of the Brontes.

 

“a red ray piercing the dew”.

Dit vertelde Ellen Nussey aan Mary Duclaux over “shopping in Bradford””.

Emily chose a white stuff patterned with lilac thunder and lightning, to the scarcely concealed horror het more sober companions. And she looked well in it, with a grace half-queenly, half untamed in her sudden supple movements, wearing with pithuresque negligence het ample purple-spashed skirts; het face clear and pale; her very dark and plenteous brown hair fastened up behind a Spanish comb; her large grey-hazel eyes, now full of indolent, indulgent humour, now glimmering with hidden meaningsn now quickenend into flam of indignation “a red ray piercing the dew”.

Aan de hand van een online woordenboek heb ik het als volgt vertaald:

Emily koos een wit materiaal met een patroon van lila donder en bliksem, tot nauwelijks verholen afschuw van de meer sober ingestelde metgezellen. En het stond haar, met gratie half een koningin, half ongetemd in haar plotselinge soepele bewegingen, droeg ze met schilderachtige nalatigheid de ruime paars-spashed rokken; het gezicht helder en bleek; haar zeer donker overvloedig bruin haar, vastgemaakt met een Spaanse kam; haar grote grijze-hazel ogen, nu vol met indolent, genotzuchtig humor, dan fonkelend met verborgen meningen dan versneld met een flits van verstoordheid. Een rode straal doordringt de dauw. (Dit laatste lijkt mij een gezegde, waarvan ik de vertaling nog niet goed begrijp. Misschien iets van ""Een rode flits doordringt de saaiheid""?)
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zondag 21 juni 2009

Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65)

The writer Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65) lived in this Manchester house from 1850, and it is here that all but the first of her books were written. 84 Plymouth Grove is a detached Regency-style villa, which originally stood in the leafy outskirts of Manchester, ‘quite outside the smoke’. Elizabeth and William Gaskell and their four daughters loved its generous atmosphere, its spacious rooms and its walled garden. Many guests enjoyed their hospitality, including Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, John Ruskin and Harriet Beecher Stowe, When Elizabeth died William and their two unmarried daughters lived on in the house until the death of last survivor, Meta Gaskell, in 1913.





Gigot sleeves

De Victoriaanse samenleving was van geen belang voor Emily. Ze vond de romantische, Gigot mouwen van de jaren 1830 leuk. Ze droeg ze lang nadat ze ouderwets waren geworden. Op de school van Madame Heger in Brussel, werd ze geplaagd door de modieuze meisjes omdat ze geen korset droeg. Mede leerling, Laetitia Wheelwright, herinnerde zich dat Emily hun grappen altijd beantwoorde met, "Ik wil zijn zoals God mij gemaakt.heeft"

Victorian society was of no interest to Emily. Having taken a fancy to the romantic, gigot sleeves of the 1830s- she wore them long after they’d gone out of style. On the other hand, she had no use for false embellishment. While attending Madame Heger’s school in Brussels, she was teased by the fashionable girls for not wearing a corset. Fellow pupil, Laetitia Wheelwright, recollected that Emily always answered their jokes with, “I wish to be as God made me.”



In 1836 Gigot sleeves collapsed abruptly and so costume began to develop the sentimental 'early Victorian look' we associate with Queen Victoria's early rule. By 1840 the collapsed sleeve was much narrower, but still retained a restrictive seam line on the dropped shoulder. The early Victorian tight fitting pointed bodice was much longer and had a very small tight fitting waist. All the boned bodice seam lines and trims were directional to emphasize the small waists. The boning also helped stop the bodice from horizontal creasing.

public traffic

Daarom vroeg ze Ellen zo snel mogelijk te komen en bood haar aan de sjees uit Haworth te sturen om haar af te halen van het station in Keighley, zodat ze de laatste 6 kilometer niet hoefde te lopen. Een sjees kon je huren blz. 234



Haar vader maakte bezwaren tegen de reis per diligence omdat ze van daaruit moest lopen naar Birstall.

Sinds de opening van de spoorlijn is Sowerby Bridge een voortdurend strijdtoneel geweest van het heen en weer rijden van omnibussen blz. 257

In het Latijn betekent omnibus zoveel als ‘voor iedereen’. Uiteraard kent het gelijknamige rijtuig zijn grenzen, maar het is een rijtuig dat in verhouding erg veel mensen kan vervoeren. De omnibus kreeg bekendheid als echte bus in het Londense openbaar vervoer.



De reis naar Bridlington verliep niet vlekkeloos en rechtvaardige de zorgen van haar vader en tante omtrent twee onbegeleide jongedames. Het eerste deel van de reis, van Leeds naar York, ging per trein, maar de rest moest worden afgelegd per diligence. Helaas was die vol en hoewel Ellen en Charlotte verder werken gestuurd in een open rijtuig, werden ze niet opgemerkt door de Hudsons, die hen kwamen ophalen. Ze stuurden daarom een bericht naar het hotel waar het rijtuig zou aankomen dat de jongedames per postkoets moesten worden doorgestuurd naar hun huis.


You will probably arrive in Hathersage by car, but Charlotte arrived by stage coach and was met at the George Inn, a stage coach and post stop kept by the landlord Mr. James Morton.

The Parlour

The Parlour

Parsonage

Parsonage

Charlotte Bronte

Presently the door opened, and in came a superannuated mastiff, followed by an old gentleman very like Miss Bronte, who shook hands with us, and then went to call his daughter. A long interval, during which we coaxed the old dog, and looked at a picture of Miss Bronte, by Richmond, the solitary ornament of the room, looking strangely out of place on the bare walls, and at the books on the little shelves, most of them evidently the gift of the authors since Miss Bronte's celebrity. Presently she came in, and welcomed us very kindly, and took me upstairs to take off my bonnet, and herself brought me water and towels. The uncarpeted stone stairs and floors, the old drawers propped on wood, were all scrupulously clean and neat. When we went into the parlour again, we began talking very comfortably, when the door opened and Mr. Bronte looked in; seeing his daughter there, I suppose he thought it was all right, and he retreated to his study on the opposite side of the passage; presently emerging again to bring W---- a country newspaper. This was his last appearance till we went. Miss Bronte spoke with the greatest warmth of Miss Martineau, and of the good she had gained from her. Well! we talked about various things; the character of the people, - about her solitude, etc., till she left the room to help about dinner, I suppose, for she did not return for an age. The old dog had vanished; a fat curly-haired dog honoured us with his company for some time, but finally manifested a wish to get out, so we were left alone. At last she returned, followed by the maid and dinner, which made us all more comfortable; and we had some very pleasant conversation, in the midst of which time passed quicker than we supposed, for at last W---- found that it was half-past three, and we had fourteen or fifteen miles before us. So we hurried off, having obtained from her a promise to pay us a visit in the spring... ------------------- "She cannot see well, and does little beside knitting. The way she weakened her eyesight was this: When she was sixteen or seventeen, she wanted much to draw; and she copied nimini-pimini copper-plate engravings out of annuals, ('stippling,' don't the artists call it?) every little point put in, till at the end of six months she had produced an exquisitely faithful copy of the engraving. She wanted to learn to express her ideas by drawing. After she had tried to draw stories, and not succeeded, she took the better mode of writing; but in so small a hand, that it is almost impossible to decipher what she wrote at this time.

I asked her whether she had ever taken opium, as the description given of its effects in Villette was so exactly like what I had experienced, - vivid and exaggerated presence of objects, of which the outlines were indistinct, or lost in golden mist, etc. She replied, that she had never, to her knowledge, taken a grain of it in any shape, but that she had followed the process she always adopted when she had to describe anything which had not fallen within her own experience; she had thought intently on it for many and many a night before falling to sleep, - wondering what it was like, or how it would be, - till at length, sometimes after the progress of her story had been arrested at this one point for weeks, she wakened up in the morning with all clear before her, as if she had in reality gone through the experience, and then could describe it, word for word, as it had happened. I cannot account for this psychologically; I only am sure that it was so, because she said it. ----------------------She thought much of her duty, and had loftier and clearer notions of it than most people, and held fast to them with more success. It was done, it seems to me, with much more difficulty than people have of stronger nerves, and better fortunes. All her life was but labour and pain; and she never threw down the burden for the sake of present pleasure. I don't know what use you can make of all I have said. I have written it with the strong desire to obtain appreciation for her. Yet, what does it matter? She herself appealed to the world's judgement for her use of some of the faculties she had, - not the best, - but still the only ones she could turn to strangers' benefit. They heartily, greedily enjoyed the fruits of her labours, and then found out she was much to be blamed for possessing such faculties. Why ask for a judgement on her from such a world?" elizabeth gaskell/charlotte bronte



Poem: No coward soul is mine

No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the worlds storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heavens glories shine,
And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.


O God within my breast.
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life -- that in me has rest,
As I -- Undying Life -- have power in Thee!


Vain are the thousand creeds
That move mens hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,


To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by Thine infinity;
So surely anchored on
The steadfast Rock of immortality.


With wide-embracing love
Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.


Though earth and man were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.


There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou -- Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.


--
Emily Bronte

Family tree

The Bronte Family

Grandparents - paternal
Hugh Brunty was born 1755 and died circa 1808. He married Eleanor McClory, known as Alice in 1776.

Grandparents - maternal
Thomas Branwell (born 1746 died 5th April 1808) was married in 1768 to Anne Carne (baptised 27th April 1744 and died 19th December 1809).

Parents
Father was Patrick Bronte, the eldest of 10 children born to Hugh Brunty and Eleanor (Alice) McClory. He was born 17th March 1777 and died on 7th June 1861. Mother was Maria Branwell, who was born on 15th April 1783 and died on 15th September 1821.

Maria had a sister, Elizabeth who was known as Aunt Branwell. She was born in 1776 and died on 29th October 1842.

Patrick Bronte married Maria Branwell on 29th December 1812.

The Bronte Children
Patrick and Maria Bronte had six children.
The first child was Maria, who was born in 1814 and died on 6th June 1825.
The second daughter, Elizabeth was born on 8th February 1815 and died shortly after Maria on 15th June 1825. Charlotte was the third daughter, born on 21st April 1816.

Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls (born 1818) on 29th June 1854. Charlotte died on 31st March 1855. Arthur lived until 2nd December 1906.

The first and only son born to Patrick and Maria was Patrick Branwell, who was born on 26th June 1817 and died on 24th September 1848.

Emily Jane, the fourth daughter was born on 30th July 1818 and died on 19th December 1848.

The sixth and last child was Anne, born on 17th January 1820 who died on 28th May 1849.

Top Withens in the snow.

Top Withens in the snow.

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