Showing posts with label Haworth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Haworth. Show all posts

Saturday 4 February 2017

The Brontës

I hope nobody interested in the Brontë family missed Sally Wainwright's brilliant drama To Walk Invisible, which was shown over Christmas?

If you did, it's available on DVD and Blu-Ray.  Unmissable.

And don't forget to read about Branwell Brontë’s ‘honest and kindly friend’: Dr John Crosby of Great Ouseburn on this blog.


Tuesday 30 October 2012

Branwell Brontë’s ‘honest and kindly friend’: Dr John Crosby of Great Ouseburn

An article of particular interest to Brontë enthusiasts:

The experiences of Anne and Branwell Brontë in the household of the Reverend Edmund Robinson of Thorp Green near York had significant and dramatic consequences for them both.

Branwell never worked again after his sudden dismissal as tutor to young Edmund Robinson in June 1845; it precipitated the self-destructive decline that ended in his death in September 1848.  Anne’s novels Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall derive much material from her five years as governess to the Robinsons’ daughters and from the painful three years at Haworth Parsonage during which Branwell descended into drunkenness, irreligion and despair.

The cause of Branwell’s dismissal has long been a subject of debate, while in recent years there has been increasing interest in Anne and appreciation of her work. The lack of information about their time at Thorp Green has therefore been most unfortunate; the following account of Branwell’s ‘honest and kindly friend’ [1]  Dr John Crosby and his friends and neighbours, whose social life Branwell probably shared, may therefore be appreciated.