''The Life of Charlotte Brontë'' is the posthumous
biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
of
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature.
She enlisted i ...
by fellow novelist
Elizabeth Gaskell.
The
first edition was published in
1857 by
Smith, Elder & Co. A major source was the hundreds of letters sent by Brontë to her lifelong friend
Ellen Nussey.
Gaskell had to deal with rather sensitive issues, toning down some of her material: in the case of her description of the
Clergy Daughters' School, attended by Charlotte and her sisters, this was to avoid legal action from the Rev.
William Carus Wilson, the founder of the school. The published text does not go so far as to blame him for the deaths of two Brontë sisters, but even so the Carus Wilson family published a rebuttal with the title "A refutation of the statements in 'The life of Charlotte Bronte,' regarding the Casterton Clergy Daughters' School, when at Cowan Bridge".
Although quite frank in many places, Gaskell suppressed details of Charlotte's love for
Constantin Héger, a married man, on the grounds that it would be too great an affront to contemporary morals and a possible source of distress to Charlotte's still-living friends, father
Patrick Brontë
Patrick Brontë (, commonly ; born Patrick Brunty; 17 March 1777 – 7 June 1861) was an Irish Anglican priest and author who spent most of his adult life in England. He was the father of the writers Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë, and of ...
and husband.
She also suppressed any reference to Charlotte's romance with George Smith, her publisher, who was also publishing the biography.
In 2017, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' named ''The Life of Charlotte Brontë'' one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time.
Notes
References
*Lane, Margaret. ''The Brontë Story: A reconsideration of Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë''.
1953.
External links
Complete text*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Life of Charlotte Bronte
Non-fiction works by Elizabeth Gaskell
Biographies about writers
1857 books
Bronte, Charlotte