Letter from Charlotte back to the parsonage.

The hammer has descended, and the letter from Charlotte Brontë to William Smith Williams, dated October 18, 1848 – is now on its way from the auction room in New York to the Parsonage. Written just after the death of Branwell and at a time when Emily was displaying distressing symptoms of Tuberculosis (she died three months later), the letter is highly significant, even though there are no references to these things.

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A letter written by Charlotte Brontë as she grieved over the death of her brother Branwell and fretted about the health of her younger sister Emily is on its way back to Haworth.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum outbid other collectors to get the letter for $55,000 (£39,000) at an auction in New York.
It will join a treasure trove of artifacts acquired by the museum in Haworth over the past six months.
This latest item was written by the author of Jane Eyre, on October 18, 1848, shortly after Branwell died. It was sent to William Smith William, the reader at her publisher Smith Elder and Co.
Ann Dinsdale, the museum’s collections manager, said: “This was a very sad period of her life. Branwell had just died and Emily was showing symptoms of the TB which would kill her three months later.
“The letter doesn’t refer to these things, but it talks about her being ill. I think her deep unhappiness was manifested in this ill health.”

Mr William became a friend to Charlotte having spotted her potential as a writer when she sent her first novel The Professor to the publishing house. It was not accepted but he encouraged her to write Jane Eyre, which the company published.
Mrs Dinsdale said staff followed the auction online and were very excited when they realised the hammer had gone down on their bid.
Once the letter arrives back in Haworth, it will join the other recently bought artifacts including a poetry manuscript written by Charlotte as a 13-year-old and Emily’s artist’s box.

The Bluebell, gedicht van Emily Bronte

The Bluebell is the sweetest flower

That waves in summer air

Its blossoms have the mightiest power

To soothe my spirit's care

There is a spell in purple heath

Too wildly, sadly dear

The violet has a fragrant breath

But fragrance will not cheer

The trees are bare, the sun is cold

And seldom, seldom seen

The heavens have lost their zone of gold

And earth her robe of green

And ice upon the glancing stream

Has cast its sombre shade

And distant hills and valleys seem

In frozen mist arrayed

The Bluebell cannot charm me now

The heath has lost its bloom

The violets in the glen below

They yield no sweet perfume

But, though I mourn the sweet Bluebell

'Tis better far away

I know how fast my tears would swell

To see it smile to-day

For, oh! when chill the sunbeams fall

Adown that dreary sky

And gild yon dank and darkened wall

With transient brilliancy

How do I weep, how do I pine

For the time of flowers to come

And turn me from that fading shine

To mourn the fields of home!

Brieven van Charlotte Bronte

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Rebecca Fraser

Op dit moment lees ik

 met veel plezier

 het boek Charlotte Bronte

 van Rebecca Fraser

Ik dacht dat ik bijna alles wel wist

maar in dit boek

komen dingen naar voren die mij

onbekend waren

zoals

het adres

waar Charlotte haar brieven aan Monseigneur Heber naar toe stuurde

en was Branwell een blackmailer?

 

Rebecca Fraser has worked as a researcher, publisher's editor and journalist, and has written for many publications including Tatler, Vogue, The Times and the Spectator. She has also illustrated two children's books, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and Robin Hood. She is married and has three daughters. Her first book, a biography of Charlotte Brontë-, was very well received, and she has recently become President of the Brontë- Society.