The Life of Charlotte Bronte (79 page)

The book will, I think, create a deep and permanent impression; for it not only presents a vivid picture of a life noble and sad, full of encouragement and healthy teaching, a lesson in duty and self-reliance; it also, thanks to its artistic power, makes us familiar inmates of an interior so strange, so original in its individual elements and so picturesque in its externals—it paints for us at once the psychological drama and the scenic accessories with so much vividness—that fiction has nothing more wild, touching, and heart-strengthening to place above it.

The early part is a triumph for you; the rest a monument for your friend. One learns to love Charlotte, and deeply to respect her. Emily has a singular fascination for me—probably because I have a passion for lions and savage animals, and she was
une
bête
fauve
in power, splendour, and wildness. What an episode that death of hers! and how touching is Charlotte’s search for the bit of heather which the glazed eyes could not recognize at last! And what a bit of the true religion of home is the whole biography!

—from a letter to Elizabeth Gaskell (April 15, 1857)

Women ought to be good biographers. They have a talent for personal discourse and familiar narrative, which, when properly controlled, is a great gift, although too frequently it degenerates into a social nuisance. Mrs. Gaskell, we regret to say, has, in the present work, so employed her talent that she appears too much in the latter light—as a gossip and a gad-about. There was not much to say of Charlotte Brontë, better known as Currer Bell, but the biographer was determined to say a great deal: she therefore makes a pilgrimage to every spot where her heroine was ever known to have set her foot. First of all, she devotes a chapter to Haworth, counting all the rooms and all the windows in the parsonage. The next chapter she devotes to a description of the character of Yorkshiremen, who appear to be the most unsocial beings on the face of the earth. In the third chapter she hies away to Cornwall, gives a long account of the customs of Penzance, Mrs. Brontë’s birthplace; favours us with some of this lady’s letters to her husband in the days of their courtship; informs us how Mr. Brontë used to saw off the backs of chairs, fire pistols through doors when he was angry, tear his wife’s silk dress to shreds, and every day of his life eat his dinner all alone by himself With amazing rapidity she then relates the birth of half-a-dozen children, kills off Mrs. Brontë, and sends Charlotte to school. Here comes a grand opportunity for describing the school at Cowanbridge—how it was started, where it was situated, who were the managers, what were the rules, how the girls were fed. Then comes another school at Roehead, and the biographer writes a gazetteer of the neighbourhood from the days of the Stuarts downwards. So she dwells on every incident. Miss Brontë, in passing through London, went to the Chapter Coffeehouse: Mrs. Gaskell, therefore, gives us the history of that tavern, carefully describes the different rooms, makes us familiar with the waiters, and enlarges on the kind of custom on which the house depends. Miss Brontë went to a school at Brussels: her biographer, therefore, beginning with the thirteenth century, writes the history of the Rue d’Isabelle, in which the school is situated, quotes long pages of Charlotte’s French exercises, with all her teacher’s corrections; is great on the subject of the school hours, the kind of rolls for supper, the number of lamps in the refectory, and presents us with an inventory of the bedroom furniture. All this information of the Dame Quickly sort, with which every chapter abounds, Mrs. Gaskell has seasoned with as much petty scandal as might suffice for half-a-dozen biographies.... The biographer even tries to persuade herself that the sad history of Branwell’s intrigue, every word of which she has since been obliged ignominiously to retract, is given to the public, not at all from any love of scandal, but in the Christian hope that it may meet the eye, and bring repentance to the heart, of the cruel lady who survives, and who is said to mix in the best society of the metropolis. Without pretending to half so high an opinion of Currer Bell as her biographer professes to entertain, we respect her too much not to condemn such an outrage upon her memory, committed in the name of friendship and sky-high religion. If it was impossible to write the biography without entering into these details, then it ought never to have been written. Whoever could speak in this vein of Currer Bell and her relations, has no genuine sympathy with that retiring nature who shrank from popular observation. Mrs. Gaskell is, indeed, lavish of her sympathy; but it is of the patronising apologetic kind, feeling for rather than with the sufferer; crushing her with condescension, overpowering her with affection, and rejoicing itself with a copious discharge of those cheap protestations which Sairey Gamp, over her brown teapot, might offer to Betsy Prig. If we do Mrs. Gaskell any injustice, we ask her pardon, and we dare say that in reality she is very different from the author of these volumes, who appears in the character of a shallow, showy woman, fond of her own prattle, and less intent on describing Currer Bell (even if it be by saying that she is “half a head shorter than I am”), than on speaking of “myself,” “my husband,” “our little girls,” “an aunt of mine,” “a friend of mine,” “a visit I paid,” “a letter I received,” “what I partly knew,” and “what my feelings were.”

—from an unsigned review in Blackwood’s
Edinburgh Magazine
(July 1857)

Nor can we, with a due regard to literary justice, pass over in silence the grave offence of a similar character of which Mrs. Gaskell, the biographer of Miss Brontë, has herself been guilty. The life of this remarkable woman has been read with an avidity which does not surprise us, for both the subject and the manner of the book are well calculated to excite the deepest interest. But Mrs. Gaskell appears to have learnt the art of the novel-writer so well that she cannot discharge from her palette the colours she has used in the pages of ‘Mary Barton’ and ‘Ruth.’ This biography opens precisely like a novel, and the skilful arrangement of lights and shades and colours—the prominence of some objects and the evident suppression of others—leave on the mind the excitement of a highly-wrought drama, rather than the simplicity of daylight and of nature. To heighten the interest of this strange representation, and also to assert her own imperious sense of moral obligations, the biographer has thought it proper and necessary to introduce the episode of Branwell Brontë, a worthless brother of the three mysterious Bells, whose misconduct added a pang to their dreary existence; and in giving the history of this scapegrace Mrs. Gaskell has allowed herself to enter into details affecting the character and conduct of living persons, on whom she proceeds to pass sentence in a tone for which she now feels, or ought to feel, great shame and regret. It turns out that these details were borrowed from imperfect or incorrect evidence; no effort seems to have been made to verify the facts on which Mrs. Gaskell proceeded to consign another woman to infamy and to brand her with maledictions. The name and station of the lady thus assailed were easily identified, and it became known that she is a member of a highly honourable family; legal proceedings were threatened, and we believe commenced, to vindicate her reputation; and on the 30th May a letter appeared in the ‘Times’ newspaper from Mrs. Gaskell’s solicitor, stating that he was instructed
‘to retract every statement
contained in that work which imputes to a widowed lady, referred to, but not named therein, any breach of her conjugal, of her maternal, and of her social duties, &c ... [and] to express the deep regret of Mrs. Gaskell that she should have been led to make them.’ This apology has been accepted; though the disavowal of the false statements would have been more becoming to both parties, if it had not been conveyed in the studied phraseology of an attorney.

—from an unsigned review in the
Edinburgh Review
(July 1857)

I am much pleased with reading the opinions of those in your letters, and other eminent characters, respecting the “Memoir.” Before I knew their’s I had formed my own opinion, and the reading World’s opinion of the “Memoir” is, that it is in every way worthy of what one Great Woman, should have written of Another, and that it ought to stand, and will stand in the first rank, of Biographies, till the end of time.

 

—from a letter to Elizabeth Gaskell (July 30, 1857)

[Mrs. Gaskell’s] “Life of Charlotte Brontë,” for instance, although a very readable and delightful book, is one which a woman of strong head could not possibly have written; for, full as it is of fine qualities, of affection, of generosity, of sympathy, of imagination, it lacks the prime requisites of a good biography. It is written with a signal want of judgment and of critical power; and it has always seemed to us that it tells the reader considerably more about Mrs. Gaskell than about Miss Brontë.

 

—from
The Nation
(February 22, 1866)

1. Can one write a biography without possessing a store of empathy or antipathy for the subject? What would you surmise is the basis for Gaskell’s empathy for, or identification with, Brontë?

2. Do Brontë’s letters reveal a side of her character that Gaskell does not explore? Do Brontë’s own words ever contradict Gaskell’s claims? Do you feel that Gaskell always understands her subject correctly? If not, can you point to moments in the Life when Brontë’s own words jar against Gaskell’s interpretation of them?

3. Do you ever feel while reading this biography that Gaskell is less interested in Brontë the individual than in Brontë the symbol of the suppression of women?

4. Can you identify literary techniques (foreshadowing, compression, metaphor) that Gaskell, a novelist, brings to bear on Brontë’s life story? If so, what impact do these techniques have on the narrative?

5. How would you characterize Gaskell’s relationship to the reader? Does she directly address the reader at times? At what moments does she do so, and to what effect?

6. Do you get a sense of Brontë’s character development over the course of Gaskell’s biography? Can you trace a character arc? What are the culminating moments of Brontë’s life story as it is shaped by Gaskell?

Barker, Juliet, ed.
The
Brontës:
A
Life in
Letters.
Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 2002. This readily available paperback edition is an excellent starter for those interested in exploring the Brontës’ correspondence.

Smith, Margaret, ed.
The Letters of Charlotte
Brontë. 3 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995-2004. This long-awaited, scrupulously annotated edition is the most reliable source of Charlotte Brontë’s letters.

Wise, T. J., and J. A. Symington, eds.
The
Brontës:
Their Lives, Friendships, and Correspondence.
1932; 4 vols., Philadelphia: Porcupine Press, 1980. Although sometimes unreliable, this remains the most comprehensive source of letters by and to the Brontës.

Alexander, Christine, ed. An
Edition of the Early Writings of Charlotte
Brontë.
2
vols. Oxford: Blackwell, 1987—1991.The most comprehensive collection of the juvenilia.

Winnifrith, Tom, ed.
The Poems of Charlotte
Brontë. Oxford: Blackwell, 1984.

For those looking to venture beyond Brontë’s prose writings.

Barker, Juliet.
The
Brontës. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995. A meticulously researched history of the Brontë family.

Fraser, Rebecca. Charlotte Brontë. London: Methuen London, 1988. Highly readable and reliable.

Gérin, Winifred.
Charlotte
Brontë:
The Evolution of Genius.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967. A watershed biography that remains unsurpassed in its combination of breadth of coverage and critical insight.

Gordon, Lyndall.
Charlotte
Brontë:
A Passionate Life.
New York: W W Norton, 1995. A perceptive, impressionistic bio-critical account.

Allot, Miriam, ed.
The
Brontës:
The Critical Heritage.
London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974. Contemporary reactions to Brontë’s work.

Moglen, Helene.
Charlotte
Brontë:
The Self Conceived.
New York: Norton, 1976. Shuttleworth, Sally.
Charlotte
Brontë
and Victorian Psychology.
Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Alexander, Christine, and Margaret Smith, eds.
The Oxford Companion to the
Brontës. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. A remarkably detailed and scholarly compendium of facts relating to the Brontës’ lives and works.

Pollard, Arthur.
The Landscape of the
Brontës. New York: E. P Dutton, 1988. Contains a trove of photographs illustrating places the Brontës lived, visited, and featured in their novels.

Gaskell, Elizabeth.
The Letters
of Mrs.
Gaskell.
Edited by J. A. V Chapple and Arthur Pollard. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1966.

Easson, Angus.
Elizabeth Gaskell.
London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979.

Uglow, Jenny.
Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories.
New York: Farrar, Straus Giroux, 1993. Detailed and engaging bio-critical study.

D’Albertis, Deirdre.
Dissembling Fictions: Elizabeth Gaskell
and the
Victorian Social Text.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

Easson, Angus.
Elizabeth Gaskell: The Critical Heritage.
London and New York: Routledge, 1991. A collection of contemporary reviews of Gaskell’s work.