An exhibition shedding new light on the Bront sisters opens next month at Haworth's Parsonage Museum.

The Business of a Woman's Life, in the Bonnell Room, marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charlotte Bront's novel Shirley. It opens on Saturday, February 6, and runs until January 9 next year.

The exhibition takes one of the main themes from the novel as its starting point, exploring the options open to women at the time the book was written. Lively displays will put both the novel and the sisters' own lives into historical and literary context, spotlighting important items from the Bront Society's own collections plus loaned exhibits. Among the items on loan will be the only surviving letter written by Maria Bran-well to Patrick - Charlotte's parents - before their marriage on December 29, 1812.

Other exhibits will include an essay - The Advantages of Poverty in Religious Concerns - written by Maria Branwell, and an 1853 copy of Shirley signed by Arthur Bell Nicholls who at that time was curate at the Parsonage and later became Charlotte's husband.

Displays from the Bront Society's own collections will include the famous letter to Charlotte from Robert Southey, the well known romantic poet and former Poet Laureate. He wrote that 'literature cannot be the business of a woman's life as it ought not to be', hence the title of the exhibition.

Also on view will be a number of other letters written by Charlotte throughout her life. A page from her writings at Roe Head, Mirfield - where she went to school and later taught - will be shown, plus a bound volume of Roe Head writings and drawings including a contribution from Charlotte.

Items relating to domestic life at the Parsonage - the Bront family's home - will be on show, such as an accounts book in Emily Bront's hand.

Further new Bront memorabilia on display in the museum this year relates to Anne and commemorates the 150th anniversary of her death. A card is available to visitors when they enter the Parsonage, giving biographical information about Anne.

and drawing visitors' attention to the special displays around the museum.

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