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The Brussels Brontë Group organises meetings and events in
Brussels throughout the year. You will
find details of these below.
Annual Brontë weekend: each year we organise a weekend of events
around the date of Charlotte Brontë's birthday (21 April). Details of our previous events click on the Past Events link.
Guided walks: we organise regular guided walks around Brontë places
in Brussels. The walks take around one and a half hours and are usually held on
a Sunday morning in central Brussels. If you'd like to register for the next
one, please email helen.macewan@ec.europa.eu. Your
name will be put on a mailing list and you will receive details of the next walk
organised.
Reading group: our reading group specialising in 19th
century literature (not just the Brontës!) meets every few weeks for an informal
discussion. More details below.
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GUIDED WALK
Sunday 14
March
10.00: A guided walk around
Brontë places in Brussels. Please register as soon as possible if you are
interested.
The guided walk takes
between one and a half and two hours. Details of the meeting point will be sent
to those who register for the walk.
To register email Helen MacEwan at:
helen.macewan@ec.europa.eu
Non-members welcome.
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BRUSSELS BRONTË
GROUP
The Belgian branch
of the Brontë Society
A BRONTË WEEKEND
IN BRUSSELS
Friday 23 April to
Sunday 25 April 2009
PROVISIONAL
PROGRAMME
This programme
may be subject to change.
All events are
open to non-members.
This is the fourth
consecutive Brontë weekend organised by our Group in Brussels around the date of
Charlotte Brontë's birthday (21 April). As usual there are various events taking
place over the weekend.
The theme this
weekend is Brontë biographies. 2010 is the bicentenary year of the birth of
Charlotte Brontë's first and most famous biographer, Elizabeth Gaskell. We have
organised a talk on her by Prof. Angus Easson, who has edited Mrs
Gaskell's Life of Charlotte
Brontë for Oxford World's Classics, and,
in complete contrast, a meeting with writer Jude Morgan whose fictional
biography of the Brontës, The Taste of
Sorrow, came out in 2009. Jude Morgan is
the author of many works of historical fiction including Passion, inspired by
the lives of the Romantic poets Byron, Shelley and Keats.
N.B. Please note that it is
essential to register for all the events. To do so please send an email to Helen MacEwan specifying which events you wish to attend
(helen.macewan@ec.europa.eu).
Friday 23
April
Room P61, Facultés Universitaires
Saint-Louis, Bld. du Jardin Botanique/Kruidtuinlaan 43, 1000 Brussels
Access map:
www.fusl.ac.be/fr/233.html
19.00: Welcome buffet followed by Brontë quiz
Informal buffet supper followed by a quiz on the Brontës' lives,
the theme of the weekend.
Saturday 24
April
Room P61, Facultés Universitaires
Saint-Louis, Bld. du Jardin Botanique/Kruidtuinlaan 43, 1000
Brussels
Entrance charge: €7 for one talk
or €12 for the two talks organised today (morning and afternoon). Pay at the
door. Please register as soon
as possible if you wish to attend the talk(s).
11.00: On the
Brussels trail: Elizabeth Gaskell and The Life of Charlotte
Brontë.
A talk by Prof. Angus
Easson.
When Elizabeth Gaskell was asked
by Patrick Brontë to write the life of his daughter, she already knew Charlotte
well, but the demands of a biography meant she had to range widely to establish
facts, particularly for the Brussels period. It became clear to her, already
knowing Villette and having early access to the
posthumously-published The
Professor, that much autobiography was
woven into them. In pursuit of materials, she visited Brussels, was given the
cold shoulder by Mme Heger, but met M. Heger and realised something of the
nature of the relation between him and Charlotte. This talk will trace this
journey of discovery and consider how Gaskell faced the dilemma of writing about
events potentially damaging to the living and to the memory of the dead. Given
as a talk, rather than a lecture; intervention from the audience is welcome.
Professor Angus Easson has
taught at the universities of Newcastle upon Tyne, London (The Royal Holloway
College) and Salford, where he was professor of English until his retirement in
2000. He has published widely on Romantic and Victorian literature, notably on
Elizabeth Gaskell, and has edited the Oxford World's Classics edition of
The Life of Charlotte Brontë. He is currently working on supplements to the Pilgrim
Edition of the Letters of Charles Dickens and a book on Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Break for
lunch
14.30: Meeting with novelist Jude
Morgan
Jude
Morgan is the author of many works of
historical fiction including Passion, inspired by the lives of the Romantic
poets Byron, Shelley and Keats. His recent fictional biography of the
Brontës The Taste of
Sorrow came out in 2009. He
will talk about the researching and writing of the novel and answer questions.
Sunday 25
April
10.00:
A guided walk around Brontë places in Brussels (details will be posted) Please register as soon as possible if you are
interested.
12.00:
Meeting of
the Brussels Brontë Group (details will
be posted).
Taking advantage of
the presence of UK and Netherlands members at the weekend's events, an informal
meeting will be held to exchange ideas and information and discuss future
projects for Brussels Group.
13.30:
Lunch in a
Brussels restaurant or possibly picnic in the park, weather permitting
(details will be posted).
Contact person: Helen MacEwan
( helen.macewan@ec.europa.eu)
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Brussels Brontë Group Reading
group
Are you tired of reading groups
that only read
modern fiction?
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We invite you to join our group specialising in
19th
century English literature, for people who are interested in books by
and about the Brontës and in the history and literature of the
19th century in general.
We want to return to the
classics that have stood the test of time and also fill in our
knowledge of the period by reading:
- The
Brontës and works relating to them (biography, criticism,
modern novels inspired by the Brontës....)
- Jane Austen,
Hardy,
Dickens, George Eliot....
- Biography and
history providing background to the 19th century
Books on our
reading list for 2009-2010
Note that this
year we are organising talks on two of the books on our reading list: Villette and The Life of Charlotte Brontë.
- Charlotte Brontë:
Villette
- Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Jane Austen: Mansfield Park
- Henry James: The Turn of the Screw
- Elizabeth
Gaskell: The Life of Charlotte Brontë
Contact helen.macewan@ec.europa.eu for more
information
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