The Brontës

If you are interested in learning more about Brussels places associated with the Brontës, you might like to start with the following books written by two of our members, particularly if you have the opportunity to stroll around Brussels with one or other of these books in your hand.

Some of these books are available at
Waterstones, Boulevard Adolphe Maxlaan 71-75, 1000 Brussels

You will also find many other books and articles on Brussels and on the Brontës’ stay in the city in the bibliography.

Eric Ruijssenaars

Charlotte Brontë’s Promised Land

Published by the Brontë Society

This book is the result of extensive research. A brief summary of the early history of Belgium, and of the Brontës arrival in 1842, is followed by a comprehensive survey of the history of the Rue d’Isabelle, where the Pensionnat was situated, and the Quartier Isabelle. The heart of the book consists of the history and detailed description of the Pensionnat Heger, from 1803 to its demolition in 1910. The last chapters cover the Rue Royale and Brontë related places on the outskirts of Brussels, followed by a survey of cultural life in the city in 1842-1843.

Eight Appendices give account of early visitors to the Pensionnat. They are an important feature of the book and are of great interest to the reader. There is a detailed historiography and bibliography.

This is the result of an important research and detailed investigative work that has uncovered a previously neglected area of Brontë research.

The Pensionnat Revisited

Published by Eric Ruijssenaars

This book is a sequel to Promised Land. Subsequent research traces the various stages when the Isabella Quarter was demolished, culminating in the demolition of the Pensionnat itself.

The author discusses in detail the Tahon photograph, an important photograph clearly showing the Pensionnat. New research shows this photograph, previously believed to be around 1909, should probably be re-dated to an earlier period. This revaluation emphasises the importance of this piece of historical evidence, for showing the Pensionnat as the Brontës would have known it in 1842-43.

This second book provides a significant addition to the knowledge of the Brussels background of the Brontës.

Helen MacEwan

The Brontës in Brussels

In 1842 Charlotte Brontë (1816-55) and her sister Emily (1818-48) arrived in Brussels to improve their languages, five years before becoming best-selling authors. Emily stayed for a year, Charlotte for two. Although this is a little-known episode of their lives, it is a fascinating one. Two of Charlotte’s four novels, Villette and The Professor, were based on her time in Belgium, which was pivotal for her both as a writer and personally, since she fell in love with her married teacher Constantin Heger. This book describes the sisters’ life in Brussels and provides information on places with Brontë connections. Although the Pensionnat Heger school where they stayed has gone, there is still much to be seen of the city they knew.

In 1913 Charlotte’s highly emotional letters to her teacher were donated by his descendants to the British Museum and on publication caused something of a scandal. Since then those with an interest in the Brontës literary achievements have been intrigued by this influential period in their lives.

The book includes a wealth of illustrations and maps, extracts from Villette demonstrating how the novel reflects Charlotte’s experiences in Brussels, translations of four of the sisters’ French essays and of Charlotte’s moving letters to her teacher and a Brontë walk around the city with maps and historical information on places and people especially associated with the sisters’ stay.

Peter Owen, paperback, 2014, 218 pages, ISBN 978 0 7206 1588 3
Available in Brussels and UK bookstores and from the Brontë Parsonage bookshop.

Through Belgian Eyes: Charlotte Brontë’s Troubled Brussels Legacy

Charlotte Brontë’s years in Belgium (1842–43) had a huge influence both on her life and her work. It was in Brussels that she not only honed her writing skills but fell in love and lived through the experiences that inspired two of her four novels: her first, The Professor, and her last and in many ways most interesting, Villette. Her feelings about Belgium are known – her love for her tutor Heger, her uncomplimentary remarks about Belgians, the powerful effect on her imagination of living abroad. But what about Belgian views of Charlotte Brontë? How have Belgian commentators responded to her portrayal of their capital city and their society? Through Belgian Eyes explores a wide range of responses from across the Channel.

In the process, it examines what The Professor and Villette tell Belgian readers about their capital in the 1840s and provides the Brussels background to the novels. Brussels has inspired few outstanding works of literature, and that makes Villette, considered by many to be Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece, of particular interest as a portrait of the Belgian capital a decade after the country gained independence in 1830, and just before the city was transformed out of all recognition from the ‘villette’ (small town) that Charlotte knew. Her view of Brussels is contrasted with those of other foreign visitors and of the Belgians themselves.

Richly illustrated with over 60 pictures which bring Charlotte Brontë’s Brussels to life as never before.

Sussex Academic Press, paperback, 2017

Down the Belliard Steps: Discovering the Brontës in Brussels

Charlotte and Emily Brontë’s stay in Brussels in 1842-43 to improve their French was to prove a momentous one for Charlotte in particular. She fell in love with her French teacher, Constantin Heger, and her experiences in the Belgian capital inspired two of her four novels, Villette and The Professor. Yet the Brontës’ Brussels episode remains the least-known of their lives.

When Helen MacEwan moved to Brussels in 2004 she found that not many people there seemed to know much about the Brontës’ time in the city. She herself had a lot to find out about their life in the Pensionnat Heger at the bottom of the Belliard steps. In the process of doing so she met other people who were similarly fascinated by the story, and with them formed the Brussels branch of the Brontë Society.

For all these people, following in Charlotte and Emily’s tracks in modern-day Brussels was a voyage of discovery. In the course of telling the story of these Brontë enthusiasts, Helen finds some odd parallels between the Brussels of the Brontës’ day and ours and reflects on why finding out about the sisters’ stay in the city is so fascinating.

Brussels Brontë Editions, paperback, 2012, 146pp, ISBN 978-0-9573772-0-2 Available in Brussels English bookstores and from the Brontë Parsonage bookshop. Or order directly from the author. Contact at .

Derek Blyth

Brussels for Pleasure: Thirteen walks through the historic city

Published by Pallas

Derek Blyth, author of the acclaimed Flemish Cities Explored and Amsterdam Explored in the same series, has lived in Brussels for many years, and his book takes the visitor to the secret and surprising places of Brussels as well as round the grandiose monuments and spectacular museums. Thirteen city walks illustrated with historical paintings, engravings, maps, illustrations and photographs bring to life the various grand mansions, hotels and villas while exploring the centre of Brussels.
It also has a chapter on Charlotte Brontë (Walk 6: Charlotte Brontë and the Royal Quarter – Place Royale to Botanique.)
The guide also includes such joys as visiting Waterloo, the matchless art nouveau architecture, and surrealist art in the metro. Two chapters of further pleasures include the superb cemeteries, and the forests and villages on the outskirts of Brussels.It is a wonderfully informative guide for exploring Brussels on foot.

Other Authors

Alexander, Christine and Jane Sellars, The Art of the Brontës (Cambridge Univer­sity Press 1995).
Includes drawings Charlotte and Emily made during their stay in Brussels with some interesting remarks.

Anon, “An Unpublished Letter by Charlotte Brontë,” in: Transactions (Vol.15, nr. 2, 1967) pp. 123-5. On the last two pages a facsimile of the letter to one of her former pupils at the Pensionnat is given.

Anon, “Vagabondizing in Belgium,” in Harper´s New Monthly Magazine (Vol. 17, issue 99, August 1858) pp. 323-336. The first account of a visit to the Pensionnat, on pages 335-6 of this article, and a very nice drawing of the garden of the Pensionnat on the opening page.
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABK4014-0017-45

Anon, “Charlotte Brontë and Brussels,” in The Observer Budget  (18 June 1910).
A short but interesting article about the “impending disappearance of the Pensionnat”.
Reprinted in: Ruijssenaars, Eric, The Pensionnat Revisited. More light shed on the Brussels of the Brontës (Dutch Archives, Leiden 2003) pp. 17-18.

Anon., “After the Brontës. Life in the Pensionnat Heger,” in: The Times (17 August 1933).

Anon, “Brontë Exhibition in Brussels,” in The Times (23 March 1953) p. 5.
A short article about an exhibtion at the Musée Charlier.

Anon., “A Plaque is Unveiled in Brussels to Commemorate the Stay of Charlotte and Emily Brontë at the Pensionnat Heger,” in: Transactions (Vol. 17, nr. 5, 1980) pp. 371-4, ill.. With a photograph of the plaque.
These two articles were written after a plaque finally had been unveiled, on 26 June 1980.

Anon., ‘Charlotte Brontë’s School,’ in: The World (London, December 10, 1890) pp. 33-4.
The third account of a visit to the Pensionnat and Charlotte’s Brussels.
Reprinted in: Ruijssenaars, Eric, Charlotte Bronte´s Promised Land. The Pensionnat Heger and other Brontë  places in Brussels(Brontë Society, 2000) pp. 67-69.

Barker, Juliet, The Brontës (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London 1994).
A very good scholarly family biography.

Blyth, Derek, “Walk 6. Charlotte Brontë and the Royal Quarter. Place Royale to the Botanique,” in Brussels for Pleasure. Thirteen Walks through the Historic City (Trafalgar Square, 2003) pp. 191-209.

Brown, Lilian Rowland, “Charlotte Brontë and Belgium,” in: Nineteenth Century and After 79 (April 1916) pp. 847-60.
Written in the light of the new bond between Britain and Belgium in the First World War.

Busch, Selina, Brussels in Brontë Times. A Historic Picture Album (Culemborg, 2005)
Limited edition.
“This attractively produced volume should be studied in conjunction with the two earlier books on Brussels by Eric Ruijssenaars …. Selina Busch has now provided a visual representation of the Brussels which Eric Ruijssenaars has so meticulously recreated.  All Brontë students have cause to be grateful to both of them for so vividly bringing to life the city which Charlotte and Emily would have known.” Dudley Green, in Brontë Studies (Vol. 30, pt. 3, Nov. 2005) p. 269.

Chadwick, Ellis H., In the Footsteps of the Brontës (London, Pitman, 1914) pp. 199-230, 400-9, ill.. Reprinted in 1971.
Some good chapters on Charlotte’s Brussels. Con­tains also a copy of the prospec­tus of the “Maison d’éduca­tion pour les jeunes demoiselles, sous la direction de Madame Heger-Parent,” a reprint of two articles on M. and Mme. Heger (see Heger historiograp­hy), photographs of Miss Frances Wheel­wright and Mdlle. de Bassom­pière, a letter from Mme. Heger to Laeti­tia Wheelwright (dated 21-9-1842) and a very speculative chapter about a third visit of Charlotte to Brussels in 1850.
Mrs. Chadwick knew Paul Heger, Frances Wheelwright, the Jenkin­ses and Mlle. de Bassompière personally.

Chadwick, Esther Alice, (Mrs. Ellis Chadwick), “A Gift from M. le Professeur Constantin Heger to Charlotte Brontë,” in: The Nineteenth Century (April 1917) pp. 846-61.
Contains the text of the “Discours prononcé par M. le profes­seur Constantin Heger, à la distibution des prix de l’Athénée Royal de Bruxelles, le 16 août 1843,” and a “Résumé du dis­cours prononcé par M. le Professeur Constantin Heger à la distribu­tion des Prix de l’Athénée royal de Bruxelles, le 15 Août 1834.” Mrs. Chadwick has in fact dated them wrongly the other way round.

Chapple, J.A.V. and Arthur Pollard eds., The Letters of Mrs. Gaskell (Manchester 1966).
Contains interesting material about the making of The Life, but little about Brussels.

Chapple, J.A.V., “A Sense of Place: Elizabeth Gaskell and the Brontës,” in: Transac­tions (Vol. 20, pt. 6, 1992) pp. 313-28.
A facsimile of a letter from Mrs. Gaskell to Laetitia Wheel­wright, making enqui­ries, is reproduced on the frontispiece of Transactions, vol. 5, pt xxvi, 1916.

Charlier, Gustave, “La Vie Bruxelloise dans Villette,” in: Revue de l’Université de Bruxelles (May/June/Ju­ly 1933) pp. 383-404. Reprinted in Passages (Brussels 1947), a collection of essays by Charlier. A first shortened translation appeared as “The Brus­sels Life in Villet­te,” in: The Contempo­rary Review (Novem­ber 1933) pp. 568-74. A second shorte­ned trans­lation by Ph. Bentley, “Brussels life in “Vil­lette.” A visit to the Salon in 1842,” was published in: Transactions  (vol. 12, nr. 5, 1955) pp. 386-90.
It is a pity the whole article has never been translated into English. See ‘Cultural events’.

Clark-Beatttie, Rosemary, “Fables of Rebellion: Anti-Catholi­cism and the Structu­re of Villette,” in: A Journal of English Literary History (Vol. 53, nr. 2, Summer 1986) pp. 821-47.

Cory, Charlotte, “Seeing Brussels as the Brontës saw it,” in: The Bulletin. The Newsweek­ly of the Capital of Europe, April 16, 1993, pp. 34-5.
Written on the occasion of the first ever Brontë Society Excursion to Brussels in its 100 years of existence. The author “discovered that the Brussels of the Brontës was still there.”

Cumberland, Gerald, “Charlotte Brontë’s Street in Brussels Today,” in: Cornhill Magazine (n.s. Vol. 30, May 1911) pp. 604-9.
The author (1879-1926) paid a visit to the Pensionnat when most of the quarter had already been demolished, presuma­bly about a year before the publication of this article. He was one of the very last Brontë pilgrims to have entered the buil­ding.
Reprinted in: Ruijssenaars, Eric, Charlotte Bronte´s Promised Land. The Pensionnat Heger and other Brontë  places in Brussels (Brontë Society, 2000) pp. 84-86.

Cumberland, Gerald, “Charlotte Brontë´s Love. New light on an old theme,” in Daily Citizen (2 August 1913.
Partly reprinted in: Ruijssenaars, Eric, The Pensionnat Revisited. More light shed on the Brussels of the Brontës (Dutch Archives, Leiden 2003) pp. 59.
In which he gives another account of his visit.

Dunbar, George S., “Proper Names in Villette,” in: Nineteenth Century Fiction (Vol. 15, nr. 1, June 1960) pp. 77-80.
Explanations for Charlotte’s choice of names.

Duthie, Enid L., ” Charlotte Brontë and Constantin Heger,” in: Contemporary Review 187 (March 1955) pp. 169-73.

Duthie, Enid L., The foreign vision of Charlotte Brontë (Mac­Millan 1975) pp. 82-104 and 164-7.
‘Foreign settings in the novels’ and ‘Foreign life and charac­ters in the novels.’

Field, W.T., “Two Brussels Schoolfellows of Charlotte Brontë,” in: Transactions (Vol. 5, pt. xxiii, 1913) pp. 25-9, as well as the frontispiece of this part which shows photo­graphs of Laetitia and Frances Wheelwright and Mlle. de Bassompiere.

Gérin, Winifred, Charlotte Brontë. The evolution of genius (Oxford 1967) pp. 186-203, ill..
A very good chapter on Brussels.

Gaskell, E. C., The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857).

Green, Joseph J., “The Brontë-Wheelwright Friendship,” in: Friends’ Quarterly Examiner: A Religious, Social and Miscella­neous Review 50 (November 1916) pp. 104-23 and 220-40.
This article dwells on the friendship between Charlotte and the Wheelwrights and gives reprints of a number of letters, from Charlotte, Mme. Heger and Mrs. Gaskell to Laetitia, from the Wheelwrights to Mr. Shorter and to the author and a good deal of other useful information on ‘Brussels.’

Harding Davis, Rebecca, “The Love Story of Charlotte Brontë. The Hero of Villette,” in Saturday Evening Post (Philadelphia, 13 January 1906).
Reprinted in: Ruijssenaars, Eric, The Pensionnat Revisited. More light shed on the Brussels of the Brontës (Dutch Archives, Leiden 2003) pp. 55-58.
An account of a visit to the Pensonnat in 1891.

Harland, Marion, “In Villette,” in: Where Ghosts Walk. The Haunts of Familiar Characters in History and Literature (Lon­don and New York 1898) pp. 279-97.
Another pilgrimage report. All of them are of course very interesting and one wishes more had been written at the time. This lady’s real name was Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune which can cause some confusion.
Reprinted in: Ruijssenaars, Eric, Charlotte Bronte´s Promised Land. The Pensionnat Heger and other Brontë  places in Brussels (Brontë Society, 2000) pp. 79-83.
Of some interest is her article in The North American Review of April 1890 (Vol. 150, isue 401, pp. 527-529):
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABQ7578-0150-51

Harper, Janet, “Charlotte Brontë’s Heger Family and Their School,” in: Blackwood’s Magazine 191 (Edinburgh, April 1912) pp. 461-9.
Reminiscences of (apparently) an ex-pupil.
Reprinted in: Ruijssenaars, Eric, Charlotte Bronte´s Promised Land. The Pensionnat Heger and other Brontë  places in Brussels (Brontë Society, 2000) pp. 87-92.

Higuchi, Akiko, “Concert at the Fête in Villette,” in: Trans­actions (Vol. 20, pt.5, 1992) pp. 273-283.
About the identification of the actual concert in the Park.

Higuchi, Akiko, The Brontës World of Music.  Music in the Seven Novels of the three Brontë Sisters (Yushodo Press, Tokyo 2005.
See especially Chapters 5 and 6, on the music in Villette and The Professor, in which she also describes places in Brussels and events. With illustrations.

de Knevett, Edgar, “Charlotte Brontë’s School in Brussels,” in: Transactions (Vol. 6, nr. xxxiii, 1923) pp. 129-34.
The author was the first person in Brontë historiography who saw M. Tahon’s La Rue Isabelle, 11 years after that book was published. This article is more or less a review of that book.

Lemon, Charles, “The Origins of Ginevra Fanshawe,” in: Trans­actions (Vol. 16, pt. 81, 1971) p. 15.
Suggests that Ginevra Fanshawe was based on Susanna Rodway Mills, also a pupil at the Pensionnat.

Macdonald, Frederika, “The Brontës at Brussels,” in: The Woman at Home (July 1894, Vol. II, No. 10) pp. 279-91, ill..
The first good article on the history of the quarter, written by an ex-pupil of the Pension­nat.
Note. In a bibliography in the 1897 Transactions a review of this article, in The Critic (Vol. 25, 1894, p. 29) is wrongly listed as a publication of its own on Brussels.
Reprinted in: Ruijssenaars, Eric, Charlotte Bronte´s Promised Land. The Pensionnat Heger and other Brontë  places in Brussels (Brontë Society, 2000) pp. 70-78

Macdonald, Frederika, “Monsieur Heger,” in: The Bookman (June 1896) p. 78.
An obituary.

Macdonald, Frederika, The Secret of Charlotte Brontë / Follo­wed by Some Reminis­cences of the Real Monsieur and Madame Heger (London 1914) 263 pp., ill..
The first part of this book is about ‘Charlotte Brontë’s letters to M. Heger,’ (“These letters supply the Key to the Secret of Charlotte Brontë”). ‘Part II’ gives the very inte­resting reminiscences. This was for a long time  the only book to have been published solely on the Brontës and Brussels. Yet, it gives remarkably little information on the places in the novels. Chapter II of Part II, ‘My first introduc­tion to Charlotte Brontë’s professor’  was first published in the Cornhill Magazi­ne (Vol. 35, n.s., 1913) pp. 519-33.

“M.B.-E.”, “Brussels, August 28. – I have just spent an hour amid the scenes of Charlotte Brontë´s great novel ´Villette,´” in Westminster Gazette (4 September 1899).
Partly reprinted in: Ruijssenaars, Eric, The Pensionnat Revisited. More light shed on the Brussels of the Brontës (Dutch Archives, Leiden 2003) pp. 54.

O’Byrne, Cathal, “Charlotte Brontë Goes to Confession,” in: Blackfriars 12 (August 1931) pp. 484-8. Reprinted in her The Gaelic Source of the Brontë Genius (Sands & Co, 1933) which was reprin­ted in 1970.
On Charlotte’s attitude to religion, and her going to confes­sion in the St. Gudule. Includes a reprint of the letter she wrote to Emily about it.

Pinion, F.B., “Appendix 3. The Carré of the Pensionnat in The Professor and Villette,” in: A Brontë companion. Literary Asses­sment, Background and Reference (New York 1975, (original­ly MacMillan 1975)) pp. 374-6. Also useful are pp. 268-71, 332-8 and ill. page 21.

Quarm, Joan, “In Search of Villette: A Journey to Brussels, 1982,” in: Nova. The University of Texas at El Paso Magazine (November 1983) pp. 8-12, ill..
A very disappointing article by an apparently distinguished scholar from Texas.

‘Rambler’, “Brontë, Multatuli and the Others,” in: The Bulle­tin. The Newsweekly of the Capital of Europe, April 22, 1993, p. 36.
About the disregard of Brussels towards its (literary) monu­ments.

Raymond, Ernest, In the Steps of the Brontës (London, Rich and Cowan, 1948, 324 pp.). Reprinted in 1971.
Mr. Raymond was one of the last to visit the quarter before it was finally completely demolished. Otherwise the title says it all.

Reminiscinces of Mrs. Louise Heymann and her sister Mrs. Trevor Hankey, ex-pupils, “prompted … by Mr. M.H. Spiel­mann’s recent article in The Times on Mlle. [Louise] Heger who died in July at the age of 94.”

Rhodes, Margaret G., “Where are the Letters?” in: Transacti­ons (Vol. 15, nr.3, 1968) pp. 250-1.
The author suggests Charlotte buried letters of M. Heger somewhere on the moors.
Corrigan, Eileen M., “Charlotte Brontë’s Brussels: Does Anyt­hing Remain?,” in: Transactions (Vol. 15, nr. 5, 1970) pp. 421-3.
“The answer is yes,” is the opening line. “Tread softly, Traveller.”

Ruijssenaars, Eric, Charlotte Bronte´s Promised Land. The Pensionnat Heger and other Brontë  places in Brussels (Brontë Society, 2000).

Ruijssenaars, Eric, The Pensionnat Revisited. More light shed on the Brussels of the Brontes (Dutch  Archives, L eiden 2003).

Ruijssenaars, Eric, The Tahon Photograph Redated, in Brontë Studies (Vol. 30, pt. 1, March 2005) pp. 61-65.
This article is a rewritten version of one of the chapters of The Pensionnat Revisited. Evidence shows the photograph was not taken in 1909, as Tahon stated, but more than fifty years earlier, with the pensionnat exactly what it looked like when Charlotte was there in 1843.

Shorter, Clement, The Brontës and Their Circle (London, J.M. Dent & Sons, 1914) 476 pp., revised edition, first published in 1896 as Charlotte Brontë and her Circle (Hodder and Stough­ton).
A good combination of the ‘life and letters.’ Especially of interest is Chapter IV, ‘The Pensionnat Heger, Brussels’ (pp. 81-110). The Brussels chapter in 1914 is a much improved version of the 1896 and 1908 ones (see below). It is a good thing that without too much difficulty and quite cheap­ly at that the 1914 book can still be bought in second-hand books­hops. I have found two slightly different 1914 editions. Shorter (1857-1926) did also visit the Pensionnat.

Shorter, Clement, “New Light on the Brontës,” in: Transactions (Vol. 1, pt. viii, 1898) pp. 13.
A short account of his visit to the Pensionnat, some years earlier.

Shorter, Clement, The Brontës. Life and letters (Hodder and Stoughton, London 1908, 2 vols.).
“Being an attempt to present a full and final record of the lives of the three sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë from the biographies of Mrs. Gaskell and others, and from numerous hitherto unpublished manuscripts and letters.”
The chapter on Brussels is merely a reprint of the Brussels chapter in Shorter’s Charlotte Brontë and her Circle (see above).

Smith, Margaret, ed., The Letters of Charlotte Brontë. Volume I, 1829-1847 (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1995).
The excellent edition of the letters.

Spielmann, Marion H., “A Great Heart’s Tragedy,” in: Daily News and Leader (31 July 1913).

Spielmann, Marion H, ‘Charlotte Brontë in Brussels.’
This article has been published in two different versions, notably as “Charlotte Brontë in Brussels. A nursery of genius. New light on the novels,” in: The Times Literary Supplement, April 13, 1916) pp. 177-8. And as “Charlotte Brontë in Brus­sels,” in: Butler Wood ed., Char­lotte Brontë 1816-1916. A Centenary Memo­rial (London 1917) pp. 81-109. The latter versi­on claims to have “numerous emen­dati­ons and additions” (p. 83) but these are hard to discover. In fact, the article is much weakened by the fact that a most interesting plan of the Quartier Isa­belle, based on a drawing by Louise Heger was left out of the book.
Reprinted in: Ruijssenaars, Eric, Charlotte Bronte´s Promised Land. The Pensionnat Heger and other Brontë  places in Brussels (Brontë Society, 2000) pp. 93-101.

Spielmann, Marion H., The Inner History of the Brontë-Heger Letters (London 1919) 7pp.. In that same year also published in: Fortnightly Review 111, pp. 599-605.
Useful knowledge concerning the history of (the publication of) the letters.

Spielmann, Percy E., “The Brontë – Heger Mystery. A Step towards its Solution,” in: Transactions (Vol. X, pt. 55, 1945) pp. 284-5.
A bit of speculation on the degree of affection felt by Char­lotte for M. Heger by Spielmann’s son.

Stevens, Joan, “A Note on Mossmans,” in: Trans­actions (Vol. 16, pt. 81, 1971) pp. 47-50.
About the connections between the Belgian Mossmans family, the Brontës, the Taylors and the Dixons.

Stevens, Joan ed., Mary Taylor. Friend of Charlotte Brontë. Letters from New Zealand and elsewhere (Auckland/Oxford 1972).
Apart from editing a very useful edition of Mary Taylor’s let­ters, Mrs. Stevens has done good research on ‘the identity of the chateau de Koekelberg’ (see ‘Other places in Brussels.’) On page 145 there is a painting of the chateau. Contains also extensive genealogical details about the Taylors, the Dixons and the Nusseys who it appears were all related to each other.

Tordeur, J., “Souvenir: le Séjour Bruxellois des Soeurs Brontë Évoqué sur un Mur du Palais des Beaux-Arts,” in: Le Soir (29/30 June 1980), ill..

Trafton, Adeline, “A Visit to Charlotte Brontë’s School in Brussels,” in: Scribner’s Monthly 3 (New York, December 1871) pp. 186-8.
Reprinted in: Literary Budget (London, 13 January 1872) pp. 229-30.
The first report from a Brontë-pilgrim.
Reprinted in: Ruijssenaars, Eric, Charlotte Bronte´s Promised Land. The Pensionnat Heger and other Brontë  places in Brussels (Brontë Society, 2000) pp. 58-60.
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABP7664-0003-34

Wallace, Robert K., “Emily Brontë and Music: Haworth, Brussels and Beethoven,” in: Transactions (Vol. 18, pt. 92, 1982) pp. 136-42.
On Emily as a piano-player, the possible influence of Beetho­ven, Liszt and other composers on her writings and the con­certs she may have visited in Brussels.
Here also should be noted the 1979 lp-record named: ‘A musical evening with the Brontë family. A selection from the family music albums played on period pianos by Alan Cuckston’ (Swin­sty Records FEW 01).

Wolfe, Theodore, “Scenes of Charlotte Bronté’s [sic] Life in Brussels,” in: Lippin­cott’s Magazine  (Philadelphia, December 1886), pp. 542-8.
Reprinted in his A Literary Pilgrimage among the Haunts of famous British Authors (Philadelphia-London 1895.)
The second one.
Reprinted in: Ruijssenaars, Eric, Charlotte Bronte´s Promised Land. The Pensionnat Heger and other Brontë  places in Brussels (Brontë Society, 2000) pp. 61-66.

Wroot, Herbert E., Persons and places. Sources of Charlotte Brontë’s novels (New York 1966) pp. 150-163, 171-8.
This work was first published by the Society “between 1902 and 1906” and became Vol. 3 of Transactions (1906). “A re­print, with amplifications and corrections, appeared in 1935.”* This edition was republished in 1966 in New York.
A fine systematic approach to Brussels and the novels. H. Wroot died in 1939, at the age of 71.
*C. Lemon, “A Centenary History of the Brontë Society,” pu­blished as Supplement to Vol. 20 of Trans­actions (1993) p. 11.