The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Volume 1The Life of Charlotte Bronte, by Elizabeth Gaskell, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences-biographical, historical, and literary-to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. In 1855 Charlotte Bronte, pregnant and married less than a year, fell ill and died of tuberculosis-the same disease that had killed her sisters and brother. Two years after Charlotte's death, her friend Elizabeth Gaskell, herself a well-known novelist, completed work on The Life of Charlotte Bronte, a biography that was met with immediate acclaim by readers curious to discover more about the enigmatic author of Jane Eyre. Both a work of art and a well-documented interpretation of its subject, Gaskell's biography is an extraordinarily vividand sensitive account of Bronte's outer and inner lives: her shyness and strangeness; her intense appreciation of the Bible, poetry, music, and the theater; her love of her family; and her fears of loneliness. Meant to be a defense and vindication of a noble, true, and tender woman, the book paints Bronte as an unforgettable figure careening between depression and exaltation. It also portrays her suffering. In her personal life, Bronte knew deprivation and loss, while in her artistic life, despite her fame, she had been taunted as coarse and had none of the advantages that a man might take for granted. A powerful tribute from one writer to another, The Life of Charlotte Bronte remains one of the most evocative and perceptive biographies ever written. Anne Taranto was educated at Columbia and Oxford Universities and at Yale University, where she earned a Ph.D. She has taught courses on the novel and on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature at Georgetown University and is currently at work on a study of Charlotte Bront?'s relationship to the literary marketplace. |
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admiration Agnes Grey Anne Anne Brontë appearance asked believe Brussels character Charlotte Brontë Charlotte's church Cowan Bridge curate Currer Bell daughter dear Dewsbury Moor duties Emily Emily Brontë Emily's expression father fear feel felt G. H. LEWES Gaskell girls give glad happy Hartshead hear heard heart hope impression interest Jane Eyre Keighley kind knew lady letter living London look Mary Messrs mind Miss Branwell Miss Brontë Miss Martineau Miss Nussey Miss Wooler moors morning nature never Nicholls night pain Papa pleasure poems present published pupils quiet received Roe Head seems sent Shirley sisters Smith speak spirits stay strong suffering Sydney Dobell Tabby talk tell Thackeray thankful things thought told took village Villette walk week wish woman words write written wrote Wuthering Heights Yorkshire
Popular passages
Page 264 - ... we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery which is not true praise.
Page 156 - I see more clearly than I have ever done before, that a private governess has no existence, is not considered as a living rational being, except as connected with the wearisome duties she has to fulfil One of the pleasantest afternoons I have spent here — indeed, the only one at all pleasant — was when Mr.
Page 32 - I'll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay, So thou wilt woo ; but else, not for the world. In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond ; And therefore thou mayst think my 'haviour light. But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true Than those that have more cunning to be strange.
Page 242 - I suffered much before I left Brussels. I think, however long I live, I shall not forget what the parting with M. Heger cost me. It grieved me so much to grieve him who has been so true, kind, and disinterested a friend.
Page 155 - I said in my last letter that Mrs. Sidgwick did not know me; I now begin to find...
Page 398 - The giant sat before me ; I was moved to speak to him of some of his shortcomings (literary, of course). One by one the faults came into my head, and one by one I brought them out, and sought some explanation or defence. He did defend himself, like a great Turk and heathen ; that is to say, the excuses were often worse than the crime itself. The matter ended in decent amity ; if all be well, I am to dine at his house this evening.
Page 256 - ... on pain of exposure to break off instantly and for ever all communication with every member of his family.
Page 120 - I am going to teach in the very school where I was myself taught. Miss Wooler made me the offer, and I preferred it to one or two proposals of private governess-ship, which I had before received. I am sad — very sad — at the thoughts of leaving home ; but duty — necessity — these are stern mistresses, who will not be disobeyed.
Page 293 - He read it trembling. It declined, indeed, to publish that tale, for business reasons, but it discussed its merits and demerits so courteously, so considerately, in a spirit so rational, with a discrimination so enlightened, that this very refusal cheered the author better than a vulgarly-expressed acceptance would have done. It was added, that a work in three volumes would meet with careful attention.