‘The passions are perfectly unknown to her’

On Saturday 12 October around 80 of our members turned out to hear a talk by Dr Sandie Byrne of the University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education. It was the second time Sandie had addressed our group - but the first time that a speaker had considered the works of Jane Austen alongside the Brontës’. Below are a couple of reports by two members who attended the event.

Given the title of Dr.Sandie Byrne’s talk to the Brussels Brontë group on October 12, many of us die-hard Brontëans were looking forward to a classic confrontation with home-town favorite Charlotte coming out on top of her Chawton challenger. But Dr. Byrne, from the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, wrong-footed us right from the start in her talk ‘The passions are perfectly unknown to her’ - Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and romantic fiction.

Taking Charlotte Brontë's 1850 criticism of Jane Austen as a jumping-off point, Dr. Byrne compared the portrayal of passion and romance in the works of both authors. But she began by citing the scene in Austen's Persuasion when Anne Elliott sees Captain Wentworth for the first time in eight years. ‘There is passion there!’ Dr. Byrne said. She then catalogued some of the perceived differences between Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen where romance, romances and Romanticism are concerned. Austen's novels are often thought of as romance or ‘chick-lit,’ Dr. Byrne said, while Charlotte Brontë is considered more serious.

But the reality, as so often is the case, lies somewhere in the middle. Austen's novels are about survival as much as they are about love, showing women's plight, the fact that women have few options besides marriage, Dr. Byrne said. In Charlotte Brontë's works, women demand equality but also delight in having a master. Brontë's women demand passion; in Jane Austen, women don't demand passion, but Austen indicates it, Dr. Byrne said, as in the scene she cited from Persuasion.

Though Charlotte apparently wouldn't agree with this last bidder. Byrne quoted an 1850 letter from Charlotte to her publisher in which she says of Jane Austen: ‘She ruffles her reader by nothing vehement, disturbs him by nothing profound. The passions are perfectly unknown to her; she rejects even a speaking acquaintance with that stormy sisterhood.’

Charlotte is suggesting that real emotional responses are missing in Austen's novels, Dr. Byrne said. And she cited an 1848 letter to G.H. Lewes in which Charlotte compared Austen unfavorably with George Sand in this regard. Sand 'is sagacious and profound; Miss Austen is only shrewd and observant,' Dr. Byrne quoted, then added: ‘I can't help feeling that shrewd suggests shrew.’

To demonstrate both the passion and romance in Charlotte's work, Dr. Byrne read out the famous ‘equal, - as we are’ scene from Jane Eyre. ‘That's about as romantic as you can get -- with both upper-case and lower-case R,’ Byrne said.

But Brontë’s heroines balance the desire for independence with an opposing wish for dependence, juxtaposing an aspiration for equality with a desire for a controller, Dr. Byrne said. To help demonstrate, she read parts of Shirley Keeldar's conversation with Robert Moore in Shirley - with the label ‘leopardess’ playing on this complicated dual desire. Dr. Byrne pointed out the ‘kind of inverted hierarchy’ in this scene and compared it to the scene in Emma where Mr. Knightley wants Emma to marry him.

Jane Austen was influenced by Augustan poetry, whereas the Brontës were influenced by Romanticism, she pointed out. We classify Austen under Realism, while the Brontës’ works contain more elements of Gothic and the Romantic, including the ‘suffering Great Soul’; a brooding man with a past; the quest for self-fulfillment and the creative power of the imagination.

The bottom line for Dr. Byrne is that the works of both Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë have elements of romantic fiction, but also much more. She used the endings of Jane Eyre, Villette, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey to drive home her point. Both authors include romantic elements, but they also have Realist frameworks, she said. All four novels end in unconventional ways, but Villette and Northanger Abbey especially show both authors ‘breaking the frame,’ Dr.Bryne said, ‘indicating that the narrator knows it's a book’ and in the case of Lucy Snowe's story, saying ‘I'm not giving you an ending.’

In her own ending, Dr. Byrne left us with this thought:

‘Charlotte Brontë would have strung up Charlotte Lucas for marrying Mr. Collins. Austen is realist enough to say, “I understand.”’

Report by J.H.

Brussels hears of the romance in the works of Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë

On 12 October members of the Brussels Brontë Group gathered at the Université Saint-Louis, where Dr Sandie Byrne of Oxford University gave a talk on the romantic elements in the works of Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë.

Sandie gave us a whistle-stop comparative tour of ‘Jane Eyre,’ ‘Villette,’ ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ ‘Northanger Abbey,’ as well as Emily Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights.’

Charlotte Brontë suggested Austen’s work lacked poetry and sentiment, Sandie told the group. But does this mean that there is no passion or romance in her work?

Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennett were both characters full of passion and seeking equality, we learned. Both give speeches to their male counterparts in this vein.

But, Sandie remarked that the equality or emancipation that Jane gains at the end of Brontë’s novel is only gained through Rochester’s loss of sight and arguably, his emasculation.

This theme of emancipation and “the self” gives both novels Romantic elements, Sandie told us.

Indeed, there are aspects of the Romantic and romantic in both writers’ works, but Sandie noted that Austen wrote in a period of realism. As a result of this, one can note that whereas loss of love in the works of both Emily and Charlotte Brontë leads to total destruction, for Austen’s characters they just get “very miserable.”

Adding to this point, in Austen’s novels her characters have “everyday love,” they are just very nice to one another. By contrast Cathy and Heathcliff are eternally connected and go mad without one another.

Looking at the Gothic presence in the work of both writers it appears there is a veritable buffet of stormy weather, paganism, brooding male characters with dark pasts, ghosts – the list goes on…

However, Sandie noted that true to her realist roots, Austen uses the Gothic for ironic purposes – as seen throughout 'Northanger Abbey'. By contrast, Brontë is anything but ironic when Jane is locked in the red room and haunted by her Uncle. 

It was a truly enjoyable afternoon full of fruitful discussion and debate on the comparisons that can be drawn from the works of both novelists, to whose work we all enjoy to return time and again. As Sandie said, they are both so much more than romances.

Report by Laurel Henning

A woman with a Brontë mission: tracing the Irish roots of Arthur Bell Nicholls in Banagher (Ireland)

Every year during our annual holidays in Ireland, my husband Paul and I set ourselves a target or a mission: we follow the trail of a well-known Irish person. In the past years we have done the Michael Collins’ trail (Co. Cork and Dublin), we have followed the poet William Butler Yeats (Co. Sligo and Dublin), the Irish writers James Joyce (Dublin and surroundings)  and Oscar Wilde (Dublin, Co. Galway, Co. Longford), and last year we went to Edgeworthstown, the hometown of Maria Edgeworth (and visited her grave). It is usually more my personal mission than Paul’s because of the literary, historical and cultural interest I have in Ireland. Each year we also try and find “Brontë” links in Ireland, we even found a shop called “Brontë”  in Carrigaline (Co. Cork),  selling shoes of all things!

Arthur Bell Nicholls

This year my mission was really Brontë-related:  a visit to Banagher (Co. Offaly) to trace the Irish roots of Charlotte’s husband Arthur Bell Nicholls. The day of this mission was to be Saturday 20 July 2013, when we were travelling from Boyle (Co. Roscommon) to Dun Laoghaire (Co. Dublin) on our way back home. We planned to make a small detour to Banagher, the village where Arthur Bell Nicholls returned to after the death of Rev. Patrick Brontë, the town where he had spent most of his childhood and where some of his relatives still lived at that time.

As I already said, it had become more my personal mission , especially since I had read the book “ Mr Charlotte Brontë”. Paul is not so interested in literature and the Brontës but he was quite willing to drive me all the way to Banagher, because the town is situated in beautiful surroundings (we have been in the area before, though not in Banagher itself).

I was very excited about the whole expedition. And the nearer we got to Banagher, the more excited I became. Finally I saw the sign indicating that we entered Banagher. Now, we had to locate the churchyard where Arthur was buried and the house where he had spent the last years of his life. As a way of preparing myself for this mission, I had just finished reading the book “My dear boy” , telling the story of Arthur’s life. I knew from that book that the house and the church were “at the top of the hill”.   

Entering Banagher

When entering the centre of Banagher there was a road going uphill. We took this road and noticed there was more than one church along that road (which seemed to be the main street), but at the top we saw a church spire and we were convinced that this was the church we were looking for.

The "Hill"

At the top of the hill (called appropriately “The Hill”) we found a beautiful old church surrounded by an old graveyard and a stone wall, which was indeed St Paul’s Church of Ireland (mentioned in the book). However, there was one big problem: the gate was closed and there was no other way of entering the churchyard (climbing over the gate and the wall was certainly not an option!!). In vain we tried to call the rector whose telephone number was mentioned on the board at the entrance.

I then went to one of the neighbouring houses to ask whether they knew who was in charge of the key, but although they were very helpful, they could not get hold of the person responsible.

Apparently, at that particular moment there was a funeral of a young local man going on in one of the other churches and everybody in town seemed to be at that funeral. I was referred to the house known as “Hill House” where perhaps they might be able to help me further. I was very excited because that was in fact the house where Arthur lived with his second wife and where he died.

Following the directions and description I was given,  I finally found the house in question (located on the same road very near to the church). Charlotte showed me the way! The house at “The Hill”  was known in Arthur’s day as “the Hill House”, now it was a B&B and renamed “Charlotte’s way” (I noticed the sign at the entrance). 

The B&B sign "Charlotte's Way

Hill House in the past

Hill House today

I really would not have recognized the house from the pictures I had seen in “My dear boy”:  it was a beautiful yellow-painted house with a beautiful porch entrance, and a paddock in front where 2 ponies ran around, flowers everywhere. I was so thrilled to be there!

I saw a man coming out of the house and explained the situation. I asked him whether he could help me locate the person in charge of the churchyard key. His name was John Daly and his daughter owned the house. He told me that up to six months ago he would have been able to help me with the key, but since the church had been vandalized six months ago (and nearly burned down) the gate was kept closed at all times (except Sunday church service). He would try to sort this out, in the mean time I could go in the house to meet his daughter Nikki. I just could not believe my (Irish) luck: was this a fairytale? Was I dreaming in broad daylight?

In the house I met Nikki, who gave me a very warm welcome (the Irish way). She showed me around the ground floor pointing out a few items of interest  related to Charlotte : a portrait of Charlotte painted by a friend artist based on the Richmond portrait, the crest of the house, a copy of the pillar portrait of the Brontës (the original was found in the attic of Hill House after Arthur’s death) which had a very prominent place in the sitting room, the room where Arthur ‘s body was laid before his burial. I was allowed to browse around on my own in all the rooms of the house and I could even take pictures. I really could not believe it. I really thought I was dreaming.

Hill House, now “Charlotte’s way B&B”, is a beautiful Georgian house (17^th century), lovingly refurbished inside to modern standards but keeping the spirit of the house intact. It made a wonderful impression upon me. The ground floor contains a small sitting room, the dining room with annexed a large sitting room (where the portrait of the 3 sisters is exhibited), the hall (with Charlotte’s portrait and the crest of Charlotte’s Way) and the kitchen. A beautiful staircase (though not the original staircase which Arthur would have known) leads us to the first floor where there are 4 bedrooms. One of these bedrooms was Arthur’s room, another bedroom was the room in which Charlotte had tea when she visited the house and the family on their honeymoon. At the top of the staircase (the former attic) there is one more bedroom. The basement was converted to a storeroom and a bedroom with a large window opening up to the garden in the back.

While I was browsing around the house Paul came back to let me know that (by coincidence?) someone had turned up at the church gate with the key and was waiting for me to show me around the graveyard and the church. Finally, my mission could be completed: I was going to see the grave of Arthur Bell Nicholls and his second wife Mary Anna (née Bell).

Mrs Fay Clarke, church warden of St Paul’s church,  was indeed waiting for us at the gate. She brought us straight to the graves of the Bell family. Arthur’s grave was the grave at the right hand side of the plot.

I had brought a pot of lavender with me and on behalf of the Brussels Brontë Group I put it on Arthur’s  grave together with a poem of Charlotte  (“Memory”) and some Connemara pebble stones.

The poem reads as follows:

“Though sunshine and spring may have lightened

The wild flowers that blow on their graves;

Though summer their tombstones have brightened,

And autumn have pall’d them with leaves;

Though winter have wildly bewailed them

With her dirge-wind as sad as knell;

Though the shroud of her snow-wreath have veiled them,

Still how deep in our bosoms they dwell!”

I held a moment of silence in memory of Arthur Bell Nicholls and his second wife, and in memory of the whole Brontë family. For me this was a very emotional moment!

Then we went inside the church, such a quiet and peaceful place! There was a beautiful stained glass window dedicated to the Bell family of Cuba House (where Arthur grew up with his uncle, aunt and cousins) . 

Fay told us that Cuba House was demolished many years ago (in the 1980’s). What a shame! And the same could have happened to this beautiful old church: Imagine that all this could have been destroyed by fire six months ago, if the vandals had had their way!!!! Luckily there was an alert fireman staying in Charlotte’s Way who heard the noise and reacted immediately. The church was badly damaged, but saved. The vandals were prosecuted.

We thanked Fay for taking the time to show us around the graveyard and the church. I really was very grateful that I was given this opportunity. It really was my lucky day!

We returned to Hill House (Charlotte’s Way) where we were invited for coffee/tea in the garden. The landlady Nikki proved to be very passionate about the house. She knew and loved  the house from her childhood, because her mother was a housekeeper there. When the house came up for sale, she jumped at the opportunity . She is a nurse and initially it was her intention to turn the house into a nursing home, but it proved to be an impossible task to comply with all the requirements needed for a nursing home (e.g. lift). So she turned it into a B&B. She is running the place on her own, but she said she never feels alone in the house because there are so many good spirits still present in the house. The house is steeped in history, and breathes warmth and hospitality, …….. and Brontës!

She has been writing a book on the history of the house, which will be published in the near future. I’m really looking forward to reading it.

During our chat in the garden (it was such a lovely warm and sunny day)  Nikki told us that she had many English fishermen staying in the house at regular times (the region is a well-known fishing spot), but that she wanted to emphasize the Brontë-link of the house a little bit more in future. She was planning to visit Haworth in the autumn this year.

The fishing link got Paul interested in the house, and he got talking to Nikki about all angling events in the area. So who knows, one day soon we might come back here to stay: angling and Brontës – a perfect combination for us!

We said goodbye to Nikki and John and thanked them for the warm welcome and hospitality we received. A last picture from me in  front of the house was taken, and then we left Hill House….. and Banagher.

I really believe this was my very lucky day: I could not have been happier and I think my face must have shown a smile all the time. It was wonderful that everything turned out so well in the end.

Not only did I reach my initial target (visiting the grave of Arthur Bell Nicholls) but I got more than I expected (a visit to Hill House).

My personal mission was accomplished! But since there is so much more to explore in Banagher (and surroundings) I’m sure we will be back here, rather sooner than later!

If you wish to learn more about Banagher or Hill House (Charlotte’s way B&B), here are some useful links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banagher

https://maps.google.be/maps?q=banagher+town+plan&ll=53.183626,-7.979497&spn=0.003523,0.008229&hnear=Banagher,+County+Offaly,+Ierland&gl=be&t=h&z=17

http://www.charlottesway.com

For further reading, the following books are recommended:

“My dear boy - the life of Arthur Bell Nicholls “(Margaret and Robert Cochrane)

“Mr Charlotte Brontë – the life of Arthur Bell Nicholls” (Alan H. Adamson)

Marina Saegerman

5 August 2013

Brontë Society AGM weekend in Haworth 8-9 June 2013

This year around 12 members of the Brussels Brontë Group headed for Haworth for the annual Brontë Society AGM weekend. Visitors to Haworth are not always in danger of getting sunburned on the moors, but this year the weather was so kind to us we needed our sun hats. Many of us joined an organised walk to Top Withens, the ruined farmhouse high on the moors thought to have inspired the location of Wuthering Heights, led by local historian Steve Wood, who also gave a talk on the history of the spot over the weekend.

One of the fixtures of the weekend is of course the Annual General Meeting itself, which gives an insight into how the Brontë Parsonage Museum is run. The Bronte Society, which currently has around 1500 members, is one of the oldest literary societies in the world (in the UK there are societies in honour of practically every well-known writer). It was set up in 1893 and has run the Museum since the Parsonage was gifted to it in 1928. The governing board, or trustees, of the Society (‘Council’) is elected by members and delegates the day-to-day running of the Museum to a Director and other staff. As well as maintaining and acquiring manuscripts and artefacts, and books for its library, the Museum is a vibrant creative centre with a very full educational and arts programme (talks by writers, art exhibitions, activities for schoolchildren).

The AGM always includes a presentation on developments during the year at the Museum which this year was given by its new Director, Ann Sumner. The TV Brontë documentary broadcast in March, in which our Brussels members took part, was seen by over 10 million viewers and has brought many new visitors to the Museum. The main excitement in the past year was the complete redecoration of the Parsonage with bespoke wallpapers and curtain fabrics, based on analysis of evidence such as scraps of wallpaper surviving from the period. Some rooms reflect the look of the house when all four siblings were alive, others Charlotte’s improvements and ‘gentrification’ when she became wealthier in the 1850s. On Sunday morning we were able to inspect the new look at a special early opening for members only.

A new acquisition was on view that is of particular interest for Brussels members: a devoir, French essay, of Charlotte’s that fell out of a book in a private collection last year – apparently the owner had no idea it was there. Members contributed £3000 towards this purchase.

Called L’Amour Filial, it was written in August 1842 and includes a few corrections by M. Heger. How many other undiscovered Belgian essays of the Brontës are out there? Could there be one in an old volume on your bookshelves or perhaps in an antiquarian bookshop in Brussels?

Under the new Director there are plans to further improve and also expand the Museum. ‘Visioning strands’ in the ‘vision for the future’ include a café and toilets.

The walk up to Top Withens

Brontë Society members at Top Withens

Apart from walks on the moors, the AGM and visits to the Parsonage, another traditional feature of the weekend is a special service for Society members in the church where Patrick Brontë preached for 40 years. Whether habitual church-goers or not, most members appreciate this opportunity to remember the members of the Brontë family in the church where they are buried and where they worshipped each Sunday. There are readings by Society members and Museum staff. The address always reflects on a particular member or aspect of the Brontë family and is often given by a guest speaker, this year the Vicar of Hartshead where Patrick was curate before moving to Haworth. (Poor Patrick was destined to be a curate all his life. He was never Vicar in Haworth because at that time it was part of the parish of Bradford rather than a parish in its own right). The address included anecdotes of the problems faced by new curates in Haworth, where the church trustees and congregation sometimes objected to the ministers appointed for them by Bradford; on one occasion they caused havoc during a church service, prevented an unpopular new incumbent from preaching his sermon and hounded him out of the village.

This year, local primary schoolchildren took part in the church service, singing and reading one of Charlotte’s poems.

As always, too, there were lectures and entertainment. In his talk on Byron and Emily Brontë in a cosy Main Street café venue, the Yorkshire poet Andrew Mitchell read us his narrative poem The Death of Lord Byron about the progress of Byron’s funeral cortege from London to the family vault in Nottinghamshire, giving the thoughts of some of those who saw the procession pass – Keats, Coleridge and the poet’s former lover Lady Caroline Lamb, among others. He then examined similarities between Byron’s and Emily’s personalities and writings. We learned that Byron was able to give freer rein to his love of animals than Emily; while studying at Cambridge he kept a menagerie that included a bear and three monkeys. Pointing out that the concept of the Byronic hero, which influenced Emily in Wuthering Heights, was in turn influenced by Milton and the character of Satan in Paradise Lost, Mitchell categorised Wuthering Heights as a Romantic novel in the Miltonic tradition.

The entertainment provided over the weekend included Michael Yates’ play The Brontë Boy featuring a tortured Branwell Brontë. Most of this play was fairly predictable though there were some surprises – such as a voluptuous, giggly Emily – and some apparently deliberate deviations from the facts; for instance, Heger returns one of Charlotte’s letters to her, which she then reads it to her brother. And jazz singer Val Wiseman, who leads the Society’s London group, performed the songs on her album relating the story of the Brontë family and their novels and fictional characters, Keeping the Flame Alive.

Val Wiseman in concert

The witty and moving lyrics were written by Val herself. On Sunday night, as is the tradition, we provided our own entertainment at a dinner in the Old White Lion, attempting to write limericks on Brontë themes and enjoying a sketch called Fawlty Parsonage written by the Brontë Society Membership Officer and performed by Museum staff.

Museum staff perform the comedy sketch Fawlty Parsonage

Monday and Tuesday we had excursions to two interesting historical houses, the Elizabethan Levens Hall near Kendal in the Lake District and Oakwell Hall in Birstall. 

Levens Hall in Cumbria

The Brontë link with Levens Hall is somewhat tenuous (not that we minded this!); the 1999 BBC series of Brontë biographer Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters was filmed there. We also visited the farmhouse in Silverdale, Morecambe Bay, where the novelist spent summer holidays.

Oakwell Hall in Yorkshire, the model for Fieldhead in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Shirley

Oakwell Hall has a less tenuous link with the Brontës; Charlotte visited it when staying with her friend Ellen Nussey and used it in her novel Shirley as Fieldhead, the home of the novel’s heroine. We were given a brilliant guided tour enlivened by ghost stories and the sight of groups of schoolchildren, demure in period costume with white caps, being instructed in crafts of the period by ladies in shawls and aprons.

The next Brontë Society AGM weekend is on 14-15 June 2014. The full programme of events always begins on Friday and ends on Tuesday. We hope many more Brussels Group members will join us in Haworth next year.

Helen MacEwan

  

Marina Saegerman writes:

One of the most pleasant surprises of the weekend for me was Val Wiseman’s performance on Saturday evening. I knew Val had a beautiful voice and I had heard some of her songs on CD, but the way she brought the Brontë story through her songs and her comments was just amazing.

There was a wonderful feeling of intimacy with the audience and so much respect for the Brontë family. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and could have stayed a bit longer to listen to Val’s interpretation of the Brontë’s lives and work. Very good entertainment.

On the other hand, “The Brontë boy” was a bit of a disappointment to me. Having read so many good reviews, I expected so much of it. The respect I found in Val’s performance was lost to me in this one. I could hardly recognize father Patrick, Charlotte, Anne and certainly not Emily (my goodness!!). And Branwell was all too gloomy all the time, it seemed as if he really was doing everything against his will. The only character I liked was John Brown. On the whole, I had mixed feelings about this play. I would certainly not recommend it further.

But throughout the weekend I really enjoyed the walks and the talks, and the wining and dining, and the excursions. It is a pity that the Brontë Society has decided to move the AGM to a date a week later, and that therefore I might most probably not be able to attend!

The BS excursion to Brussels; a 20th Anniversary

This year sees the 20th Anniversary of the first Excursion made by members from the Brontë Society.
A few of our current BBG members were there to witness that week in April 1993.
Eric Ruijssenaars and Maureen Peeck have given their personal accounts.

"The Excursion"

It was twenty years ago last month that the memorable Brontë Society Excursion took place. Not only was it, on hindsight, an important step towards the creation of the Brussels Brontë Group, it also quite changed my life. In a way the Excursion feels like it happened fairly recently, but in reality it has entered the realms of history, with research needed to recall those magical five days.I remember the excitement started months before, when Selina, our friend Elle and I decided to join. Elle, as readers of Helen’s book will recall, had made me a Villette fan and researcher. I had written for her a history of the Isabella quarter. It became the first chapter of my first book, which might not have existed without that Excursion. And my career certainly would have been different without the book.The ‘photographic memories’ I have are only a few. Selina dressed as Jane Eyre is unforgettable to all. Apart from her, the other scene that comes to mind is us three and three British ladies, in the Park, near the Kiosk, probably. One of them was Dyddgu Pritchard-Owens, from north Wales. She’s still a dear friend. I thought we first met on the Tuesday, but she, when I asked her about it on the phone, immediately said it was at the graves of M. and Mme. Heger at Boitsfort, on the Wednesday.  

Pearl Cragg was one of the other two ladies. In the dark days, when Villette and Brussels were all but forgotten, she and Elle were the only Villette fans left. Pearl made pretty much annual pilgrimage journeys to Brussels. She knew all most of what was known, which wasn’t much however. Without Pearl the Society might still not have organised an Excursion to Brussels. The greatest compliment I later got for my books were given by her. They were her constant bedside books, she once told me. Pearl was also there at the 2003 Excursion. That was her last visit to Brussels. The rise of the BBG must have pleased her greatly.

She died in 2011. Dyddgu remembers that Pearl laid one rose on M. Heger’s grave.

I remember M. Fierens giving a fascinating talk. An eternal regret is that I did not make notes. I also remember a few scenes at the Place Rogier hotel where the Society members were staying, and waving goodbye to them when they left from there on the Friday. There is also the memory of Charlotte Cory and me sitting at a bar, somewhere, on the Wednesday I think. She was quite impressed by the pile of research papers I showed her, and encouraged me to apply for the Brontë Society Centenary scholarship. Charlotte does deserve much credit for organising the Excursion to Brussels, for the first time in, indeed, the Society’s 100 years of existence.

Slowly some memories come back. Maureen Peeck, a dear friend ever since too, I first met at about the arrival of the coach from England with the Society members. At the Place Rogier. That cannot have been before about 3 pm. The British members must have been horribly exhausted. The coach had left from Haworth at 2 am, according to the the programme booklet. “Approximate arrival at Ostende: 3 pm.”The Tuesday we spent in and around the Isabella quarter. 

On Wednesday we visited Boitsfort and Waterloo, and in the evening there was the great party at the residence of the British ambassador. A great party indeed, yet I only have the scenic memory of the photograph I have, and nice flowering plants behind where the photographer stood. On Thursday we went to the Park Theatre, but I remember nothing of that. 

In the evening Charlotte Cory presented her (second) novel at Waterstone’s, of which I have some memories. But not of the last meal togethether at the Grand Place afterwards. But after Dyddgu told me, I do now remember too a last, quite lenghty meeting in the hotel lounge.I will always remember it vividly as a wonderful week, one of the very best in my life. 

Eric Ruijssenaars


Account of the 1993 Brontë Society Excursion

Recently I spent a pleasant day in Leiden with Eric Ruijssenaars. Naturally we were reminiscing about our Brontë experiences and suddenly realised that we had known one another for twenty years. We met 20 years ago in Brussels at the April 1993 Brontë Society Excursion. I had never been to Brussels before and, though I had been a life-member of the Brontë Society since 1974, I had never then been to any Brontë events. This was because they were always held at awkward times of the year for me. Of course I had been to Haworth at Christmas and in the summer as we had a holiday cottage in Oxenhope. 

I was quite surprised at the large number of members on the excursion and how nice they were to me, a new-comer. There was such a feeling of camaraderie. I soon met up with Eric R and Selina Busch as they were the Dutch contingent and I also live in the Netherlands, (though English). They took me on a little tour of Brontë sites. They were already researching the area and had been studying the archives at the city registers. They took me down the narrow rue Villa Hermosa which comes to a dead end at a side wall of Le Palais des Beaux Arts. Originally of course this had led down to the rue d'Isabelle where the Pensionnat was situated.  

Another highlight was our visit to the British Embassy on the anniversary of Charlotte Brontë's birthday. We were all supposed to dress in Victorian costume and indeed many people had actually entered into the spirit of the thing (see photo on p 13, Brontë Society Gazette, issue 9, July 1993) and really looked the part. 

We had a very enjoyable afternoon with tea on the lawn. 

Then on another day there was the underground exploration led by the city architect. They had just started excavating the ancient palace of Charles V which lies under the present Place Royale. So we had to slither down a steep and long sandy slope and be led through the darkness ending up amazingly in the original rue d'Isabelle which we followed until it ended in another wall of the Palais des Beaux Arts. 

This was the part of the street which the Brontë sisters could not have known. So while their part of the street has been demolished the more ancient one remains.

Finally, I well remember that M. Fierens, a descendent of  M and Mme Heger, gave us a very stimulating talk about his family. And of course our visit to Waterloo.

Maureen Peeck

The excursion was later reported in the BS Gazette by Charlotte Cory, who had helped to organize it.

Brussels learns about a new Bronte novel and sculpture - in ‘gothic’ surroundings

On 7 May members of the Brussels Brontë Group were guests at the launch of a novel about the Brontë sisters’ time in Belgium. ‘De Meester’ (‘The Master’), a new novel by Dutch author Jolien Janzing, charts Charlotte’s arrival in Brussels with her sister Emily, and her subsequent relationship – professional or otherwise - with school master Constantin Heger. 

The event was held in Brussels’ magnificent 15^th century town hall. The city authorities opened up the hall’s Gothic chamber and adjoining reception area for speeches and celebratory drinks.

Jolien’s exciting book is for now only available in Dutch, but readings at the launch event included sections translated into English. Jolien was able to take the audience through events ranging from the well-documented - the Brontës’ life in Haworth and arrival in Ostend – to unfamiliar new scenes. Intriguing new passages included characters discussing King Leopold’s infidelities, and hints that Charlotte’s confession at the Cathedral of Saint Michael and Saint Gudule may have been prompted by more than just loneliness.

Jolien Janzing reads passages from her novel 'The Master'

The author also read an imaginary letter from Charlotte to her ‘master’, while Lex Jansen, her publisher, read a speculative reply from Monsieur – which, if real, would have given the eldest Brontë sister good reason to believe herself his “favourite pupil.”

Jolien Janzing’s foreign rights agent Laetitia Powell told the audience that translators from several countries have expressed interest in the new novel, opening up the possibility that the book will become available to read in other languages. Powell added that at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) ‘The Master’ was selected from hundreds of applicants to be put on a shortlist of contenders to be made into a film. Powell promised to keep fans up to date with progress towards a translation or a film.

To round off the spring evening’s cultural events, sculptor Tom Frantzen presented more good news for Brontë lovers in Brussels. The Flemish artist showed his audience a wonderful small model of a windswept Emily and Charlotte. If the project is approved and funding is found, this will be installed as a life-size statue close to the Belliard steps the sisters descended 170 years ago. Frantzen’s many other works include animals at the Africa Museum, and a figure emerging from a manhole in Molenbeek to trip up a police officer – as well as the well-known Madame Chapeau and Het Zinneke in the city centre.

Joliens signs her book

Emily Waterfield

To see a trailer for Jolien's book, please click on the following link: http://www.bronteinbrussels.com/themaster/themaster.html