Brontë mania : my Brontë project !

 

Hello, my name is Izabel and I'm a Brontëholic.

It started a long time ago, when I was about 12 (I think ?) and I read Jane Eyre for the first time. My sister was a fan of British novels and we had Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier (she loved Hitchcock, still does, and so do I), Jane Eyre and Wuthering heights among other books in our home. We had (and still have) a thing for stories taking place in Cornwall, Devon, Yorkshire, all Celtic countries in general - we're from a Celtic part of France, Brittany. We feel at home with them, love the atmosphere.

Jane Eyre ignited my love for British literature in general, British classics of the Victorian era in particular. I adore Jane Eyre, have always related to her, the fire under the ice, the polite and shy girl with a huge inner life and a taste for freedom. Jane Eyre is a passionate woman ! I have read Jane Eyre eight times in French, once in English. I have read Wuthering heights twice, The professor, Villette, Shirley, The tenant of Wildfell hall and their poetry once. 

I even have a necklace with a quote (I am no bird and no net ensnares me ; I am a free human being, with an independent will) :

Since I've been reading and re-reading so many British classics lately, since I instructed myself so much about Victorian literature and history, I was bound, I had to, I couldn't escape dedicating myself to the Brontës. Jane Austen was the last 19th century author I read of and about these last months, I knew and anticipated with glee the moment when I would reach the Brontës : here it is.

Lately, I re-read Wuthering heights and Emily's poetry : I loved Wuthering heights and read it with new eyes, but didn't like Emily's poems as much as I expected to. Then I read Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of Charlotte, I read the poems published under the names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (appreciated Emily's poems better) and I thought it would be great to do a Brontë project : re-read all their works, read different biographies, history books of that period, watch documentaries, read essays, and even novels derived from Jane Eyre (such as Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier - read recently also, but before my project happened). I also watched several TV and film adaptations of Jane Eyre, watched Youtube videos about the Brontës, their works, their lives, the parsonage.

I'm currently reading The professor by Charlotte, since it was the first novel she wrote, I'll begin a biography of the sisters by Laura El Makki probably today.

Next ? All their novels in publication order, then a biography by Peggy Hewitt, who worked at the Brontë parsonage, then of course Juliet Barker's books. I'm almost salivating, which is why I changed my first name of Brontë project to Brontë mania ! I'll do a recap each month of everything I've read and watched.

*happy sigh*