Moor meetings and talks

Brontë Novel

There are many aspects of the Charlotte / Arthur story that seem tailor made for the novelist . One of the greatest is their secret meetings on the moor. If it didn't happen, I would have to invent it But it did!

It must of given Charlotte a thrill. Heretofore  such a meeting was an event found only in her  wild youthful  writings or mature novels.  Arthur Bell Nicholls was not the dashing and dangerous   Duke of Zamorna , the dark hero of Charlotte's juvenile  writings (  a great understatement! )  but Arthur Bell Nicholls  was REAL, perhaps disconcertingly so,  and  he adored her ...that has a charm all its own particularly at this lonely time in Charlotte's  life.

I have so many moor conversations  between them,   that I must carefully weave them  all together in terms of drawing the two  people slowly together. Charlotte and Arthur  both witnessed the same  things at the Parsonage over  the 8 years Arthur was there before declaring himself. But these events were seen  from  their very different view points  Their perspectives need to be expressed and exchanged. They have a lot to talk about and in doing so they  inform the reader.

 In fact I have a number of different  versions of the  same conversations. It's interesting to see the same idea in different words  Now  I have decide which of these conversations best convey the given  idea  and WHERE  to put  what  in the 18 months  of courtship . It also means splicing/ blending  different conversations together.

My on going research is often chagrining things too , which require rewriting scenes  . I believe one of the reasons Charlotte told her father about her proceedings when she did  was so she and Arthur  get out of the cold! lol

It's Ellen

Ellen Nussey

About 30 years ago a photo was discovered that many believed was of Charlotte Brontë in profile. ( seen here on the left) I've been on the fence about it for some time. It did seem like Ellen Nussey...yet  the nose did not seem the same  to me. ( as you can see here between the two photos ) But  I felt one day something indisputable would come  my attention  to help me decide  either way  and it has . Its the hair ..the ringlet .

 When I saw the first photo, said to be CB , it was so dark, I could not see the  ringlet  in the ear area.  It looked like the hair in the Richmond portrait.  Much later  I saw a lighter print and there was a complex ringlet. That didn't seem some thing Charlotte would have . I recently saw a good many photos of Ellen Nussey over the years and that ringlet is in them all. She only turns to a bun in old age. The hair tells me  the photo purported to be Charlotte  is sadly , of Ellen. We are still without a photo of Charlotte Brontë

Looking at writing from the inside out

Reading is a  very different  experience since I have been writing for three years now. It's like looking at writing from the inside out . Like the words are superimposed  on glass and I see them from behind is the best way to explain it . One sees the under pinning

E. M.  Delafield

The Brontes, their lives recorded by their contemporaries

E. M.  Delafield was an author best known for her book, Diary of a Provincial Lady. I found she compiled a book about the Brontes in 1935  that  grouped  referances by subject. It's interesting to see the material grouped together in this  manner

 She also wrote a enjoyable book called " Ladies and Gentlemen in Victorian Fiction"

An over view of Victorian fiction . Her introduction  begins 

The lover of the Victorian novel is not made, but born and not always in the Victoria era"

How true! I find this book a great help in writing my own " Victorian" novel  I gain a great deal by looking at Brontë books of  the past . There is a feast of them

And now for something silly;

 Baseball cards for Team Brontë

I found a web site that will allow one to make baseball cards from photos . Wouldn't it be fun to make Brontë baseball cards? So I did, with nicknames too!

They will be bigger if you open a new window for them

Trade 'em , collect 'em! lol

It's been so chilly in my studio, I haven't been painting , but hope to soon! 

okay, back to work!