SPRING 2010
ILLUMINATION
The commissions of Jean France, Duc de Berry
The little office of the blessed Virgin Mary
Terce (The annunciation to the shepherds)
Sext (The adoration of the Magi)
Nones (The presentation in the temple)
SPRING 2010
CHARLOTTE BRONTË
. . . we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine . . . we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice.
Charlotte Brontë [1816-1855], novelist, poetThe Brontë family history was one of intellect, literary genius, and untimely death. In 1821 the seven siblings lost their mother to cancer. Four years later the two oldest sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, contracted tuberculosis in boarding school and died shortly thereafter. Three others, Branwell, Anne and Emily, also died of tuberculosis, with all three deaths falling within a nine month period [1848-49].
After the deaths of her last three siblings, Charlotte's life centered around the care of her elderly father. On occasion her publisher managed to persuade her to visit London where she socialized with the city's literary elite. During the early years of her writing career, Charlotte wrote under two noms de plume: initially as Lord Charles Albert Florian Wellesley, later as Currer Bell. It was not until after the deaths of her siblings that she finally revealed her identity as the author of the enormously popular Jane Eyre.
In June 1854, at the age of thirty-eight, Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nichols. It was a happy alliance. She became pregnant some months later and died the following spring, possible from complications surrounding her pregnancy. She is the only literary Brontë to receive recognition in her lifetime.
WORKS OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË
The Green Dwarf, A Tale of the Perfect Tense [1833]
Tales of Angria [1834]
Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell [1846]
Jane Eyre [1847]
Shirley [1849]
Villette [1853]
The Professor [published posthumously 1857]
Emma [unfinished]
Charlotte Brontë, chalk, circa 1850
Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you...it means that you do not treat your body as a commodity with which to purchase superficial intimacy or economic security; for our bodies to be treated as objects, our minds are in mortal danger. It means insisting that those to whom you give your friendship and love are able to respect your mind. It means being able to say, with Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre: "I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all the extraneous delights should be withheld or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give."
Adrienne Rich [1929-] poet, feminist, essayist
