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The Brussels Brontë group has attracted people of
different nationalities, both in Belgium and its neighbouring countries.
Below are accounts by
some of
our members of what led them to join our group.
Maureen Peeck, a
long-standing member of the Brontë Society living in the
Netherlands
“My
name is Maureen Peeck (born Maureen O'Toole). As you will gather I am
of Irish
ancestry. I am a Brit, born and bred in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Bradford is about 8 miles from Haworth and
I went there many a time as a girl. The whole area around the big, then
industrial, city of Bradford was lovely countryside, mostly moorland
and we
were forever off to Shipley Glen, Ilkley or Haworth moors, or
hitch-hiking to
the Dales or the Lakes. However I married a Dutchman and went to live
in the Netherlands! Living abroad makes one more aware
of
one's own
background, culture and language, I find.
I
taught English Lit. for many years at Utrecht University until my retirement. Of course I have often
given
courses on the Brontës, and done research in this field. I am
particularly
interested in Emily Brontë as a poet and her place in the
canon of English
poetry.
I
now teach part-time at the University, this time giving courses to
older
people. I continue to give Brontë courses and in this
way I keep abreast of what is going on in Brontë matters which
I find very
stimulating.”
Derek Blyth, a British
journalist living in Brussels
“I
have worked in Brussels as a journalist and travel writer for the past
16
years. I first began to take an interest in the Brontës while
researching a
book about Brussels. After reading Villette, The Professor and Mrs
Gaskell’s Life, I began to do research in the city archives
to locate some of
the places mentioned in the novels. The work led in some strange and
unexpected
directions as I tried to locate the Protestant Cemetery (probably marked by a grassy square off the
Chaussée
de Louvain), La Terrasse (possibly a vanished girls' boarding school
near
Avenue Louise) and the house at 3 Rue des Mages (possibly still
standing in a
cobbled lane behind the Cathedral).
I also became interested in Constantin
Heger, who
played an
important role in the young Belgian state (founded 12 years before Charlotte travelled to Brussels) and the development of the Belgian education
system.
His son Paul played a key part in establishing the Brussels Free University and the Solvay Library in Park
Leopold. But he is best known to Brontë readers for presenting
the British Library
in 1913 with Charlotte’s four letters to Heger.”
Eric Ruijssenaars, author of
"Charlotte Brontë's Promised Land" and "The Pensionnat
Revisited"
“To
impress a girlfriend who was especially fond of Villette
I started to send her copies of articles about Brussels and the Brontës. I soon got
interested in the subject
myself and it became clear that though much had been written about
Charlotte
Brontë and Constantin Heger, work remained to be done on
researching the
Brussels of the Brontës. Thanks to a scholarship from the
Brontë Society I was
able to do just this. My first book was published in 2001. I
subsequently
unearthed further information about the demolition of the rue
d'Isabelle area
in Leopold II's modernisation of the city at the turn of the century,
leading
to a second book in 2003... and research still remains to be
done.”
Helen
MacEwan, British resident living in Brussels
“I re-read Villette
shortly after starting a new
job in Brussels.
Like Charlotte Brontë I was experiencing life in a country and
city unfamiliar
to me. Re-reading Villette while
actually living in Brussels
made me much more interested in the setting of the novel and provided a
starting point for learning more about the history of the city.
I was led on to read Eric Ruijssenaars' books on Charlotte
Brontë's Brussels.
This prompted me to contact him and Selina Busch, who illustrated the
books,
and the idea of the Brussels Brontë Group was born.”
Selina Busch, Dutch Brontë Society member
“My first introduction to the world of Villette, Brussels and the
Pensionnat was in 1992. I had recently got into contact with two other members
from Holland and I soon got infected with their enthusiasm for this subject. One of them was
Eric Ruijssenaars who had already begun his research on the Pensionnat. I became
more and more involved, and as I had a creative background, I was asked to make illustrations for his books.
In another creative moment in 2004, my other
Dutch friend Elle Vaessen and I put up a plaque in the Rue Terarcken, as a
personal honour to the vanished Quartier Isabelle and the Pensionnat. I also made my own book
in 2005; a historical picture album of “Brussels in Brontë Times”,
bringing together lots of images showing Brussels as the
Brontës could have seen it. A few months later, Helen MacEwan contacted me and
she informed me she had plans to organize something for members from Belgium and the Netherlands; this
was the start of the idea to set up a Brussels Brontë Group.
Now 15 years on,
it seems the infection has just kept on spreading…”
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