The worst off was Charlotte Brontë. Her written work, like Kafka's, was influenced by her work-for-pay. Unlucky for her, Brontë's job as a governess paid terribly -- her adjusted annual salary would be less than $2,000 today -- and while meals were free, her employers deducted petty fees such as clothes washing. Lucky for us, her resentments surfaced in "Villette" and "Jane Eyre." (Carolyn Kellogg)
zaterdag 20 maart 2010
Tales of Angria
Charlotte Brontë
Edited by Heather Glen
ISBN: 9780141035628
Published : 04 Mar 2010
Publisher : Pocket Penguin Classics
In 1834 Charlotte Brontë and her brother Branwell created the imaginary kingdom of Angria in a series of tiny handmade books. Continuing their saga some years later, the five 'novelettes' in this volume were written by Charlotte when she was in her early twenties, and depict an aristocratic beau monde in witty, racy and ironic language. She creates an exotic, scandalous atmosphere of intrigue and destructive passions, with a cast ranging from the ageing rake Northangerland and his Byronic son-in-law Zamorna, King of Angria, to Mary Percy, Zamorna's lovesick wife, and Charles Townshend, the cynical, gossipy narrator.