Strange ideas about Charlotte and Branwell Bronte

• Charlotte had a brown skin
• Charlotte and Ellen Nussey were lesbians
• John Lennon was Branwell in an earlier life

• Charlotte Bronte had a brown skin.

I received this reaction on my blog What did the Bronte Sisters look like?

Did you all notice the descriptions of brown and black skinned persons in Jane Eyre? Villette is described as of 'brunette'complexion, on the first page. Her Juvenalia on Angria stars with the lament of an African Queen. According to her publisher Smith, her face was marred by the shape of her mouth and complexion. She is supposed to have had a large mouth. Ugly was used to describe subnasal prognatism, a classical African facial trait. So I presume Charlotte Brontë had brown skin, and generous Black lips. 'Ugly' could mean she looked African. Perhaps today we would not judge so harshly. The same story about missing portraits and unlikely portraits is also found in the stories about Jane Austen (1775-1817). My research is : 'The eloquence of her blood; Was Jane Austen Black? We are dealing with the fall out of the French Revolution and that of 1848, when black supremacy was overcome. The nobility was brown and black of complexion, and despotically oppressed their white serfs. 

Door egmond codfried op What did the Bronte Sisters look like? op 12-10-11

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The Suppression of Lesbian and Gay History

Women in particular have been brought up to value discretion, modesty and propriety, and families take special care to protect the unblemished reputation of their female members: this ‘would have ensured that most passions between women were presented in letters and memoirs as harmless and innocent’ (Donoghue 1993). But at the same time, women tend to record more intimate personal details in their diaries and letters than men, possibly because they are urged to cultivate their sensibilities and express their feelings more than men, so it is not surprising that documents of possibly-lesbian important are frequently suppressed. None of Ellen Nussey’s letters to Charlotte Brontë survive; presumably they were destroyed just as Nussey was asked by Brontë’s husband Arthur Bell, soon after their marriage, to destroy those she had received from Brontë because of their ‘passionate language’. She refused, but her proposed biography of Brontë had to be suppressed because Bell refused to grant her copyright permission to quote any of the letters.

Women’s feelings for other women are regularly trivialized in biographies, while their feelings for men are exaggerated. To dismiss the love of Charlotte Brontë and Ellen Nussey as an ‘adolescent crush’, as has been done, is to define adolescence ‘as a somewhat protracted period continuing until the age of 25 or so’ (Miller 1989). 

http://rictornorton.co.uk/suppress.htmc

It is not surprising that Mrs Hall’s connections arouse envy in others. None of the Brontës had children and, to my knowledge, no one has ever claimed there to be any illegitimate offspring, even for the decadent Branwell. Direct descendancy being out of the question, Audrey Hall has the next best thing: Ellen Nussey, Charlotte Brontës best friend, and the recipient of hundreds of Charlotte’s elegantly penned letters. The Nussey family were inter-related with the Cookes and the Taylors, two great mill-owning families from whom Audrey is herself descended. They all lived in the Birstall area, a few miles east of Haworth, and Audrey’s family would have met Charlotte Brontë when she stayed with Ellen Nussey. Rather daringly, I mentioned controversial claims of a lesbian affair between Charlotte and Ellen. Audrey dismissed this right away. “There’s no evidence at all – my family would have known. charlotte cory/bronte/afriendofcharlotte/

Letters to Charlotte: The Letters from Ellen Nussey to Charlotte Brontë 

Caeia March
* Paperback: 290 pages
* Publisher: Pink Press; First edition (14 Oct 2010)
* ISBN-10: 1907499431 * ISBN-13: 978-1907499432

Ellen I wish I could live with you always, I begin to cling to you more fondly than ever I did. If we had but a cottage and a competency of our own I do think we might live and love on till Death without being dependent on any third person for happiness. (Charlotte Brontë to Ellen Nussey, 26 September 1836)

Certain fragments from Charlotte Brontë's private correspondence have sparkled endless debates, but few - if any - have been as thoroughly discussed and examined as the above⁽¹⁾. bronteblog/letters-to-charlotte

• Similarities between Branwell Brontë and John Lennon

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In the Jewelle St. James book, the author notes the similarities between Branwell Brontë and John Lennon: Branwell, like John, was an artist and a poet. Branwell drank and did drugs, actually he did more than doing drugs, he was an addict. Branwell, like John, lost his mother at an early age, and had sisters but no brothers. Oh, and Branwell had good friends in Liverpool. … Branwell and John both drew caricatures, depicting aspects of their lives. [And finally - ] Branwell’s self portraits are the image of John Lennon! The nose, the glasses, everything.

Unfortunately, the book neglects to include photos to illustrate the point, so here we go, internet to the rescue!There aren’t that many pictures of Branwell Brontë to go by, but of those we have, the similarities with John Lennon are indeed striking, right down to the glasses.
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We swear that this is not a joke. Believe it or not, this has just been published:

The Lennon - Brontë Connection
Jewelle St. James  
Foreword by Judy Hall
Paperback: 162 pages
Publisher: St. James Publishing; 1st edition (October 14, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0973275243
ISBN-13: 978-0973275247

Is ex-Beatle John Lennon the reincarnation of Branwell Brontë, troubled brother to England's most literary sisters? The untimely death of John Lennon in 1980 prompted a Canadian woman, Jewelle St. James, to investigate life after death and other spiritual phenomena. Research spanning thirty years, and ten journeys to England, was necessary to unravel past-life mysteries and other surprising connections. bronteblogimagine-with-branwell