And at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:
Father's Day: Patrick Brontë, Tyrant or Teddy Bear?
Join us for a short talk on the world's most famous literary father
June 16th 2013 12:00pm - 02:20pm
Charlotte's biographer Elizabeth Gaskell painted him as a stern authoritarian who destroyed his wife's dresses and denied his daughters meat with their meals. We now know, though, that the Gaskell biography was far from reliable. Evidence may, in fact, point to a man who was loving and tolerant, and encouraged his daughters' education in a way that was completely out of step with the attitudes of the time.
To celebrate Fathers' Day we're offering a short talk on the phenomenon of the astonishing self-made Patrick Brontë, father's of the world's most famous literary family, 'Tyrant, or Teddy Bear?'
Here you can read what kind of a man Patrick Bronte really was.
Father's Day: Patrick Brontë, Tyrant or Teddy Bear?
Join us for a short talk on the world's most famous literary father
June 16th 2013 12:00pm - 02:20pm
Charlotte's biographer Elizabeth Gaskell painted him as a stern authoritarian who destroyed his wife's dresses and denied his daughters meat with their meals. We now know, though, that the Gaskell biography was far from reliable. Evidence may, in fact, point to a man who was loving and tolerant, and encouraged his daughters' education in a way that was completely out of step with the attitudes of the time.
To celebrate Fathers' Day we're offering a short talk on the phenomenon of the astonishing self-made Patrick Brontë, father's of the world's most famous literary family, 'Tyrant, or Teddy Bear?'
Here you can read what kind of a man Patrick Bronte really was.
: Patrick Brontë, Tyrant or Teddy Bear?
BeantwoordenVerwijderenIn fairness we should view the man as a teddy bear for next 145 years since he was viewed as a tyrant for 145 years at the start lol
It's never to be forgotten Lily Gaskell was first and last , a novelist.
She whip up several of the stories found in Brontë history and when brought to account by others , she was made to hastily clime down from the dizzy heights she scaled in purple prose
Mrs. Gaskell , the novelist, who thought Charlotte Bronte wrote " naughty books" and who thought the little books done in CB's youth, " seemed the product of near insanity " needed a villain for her novel/bio about Charlotte and she elected Rev Patrick Brontë,
Though thoroughly ill used by Gaskell , Rev Brontë , unlike others, never raised a protest in public , indeed he always came to her defense.
In private when the injustice of his portrait was brought to his attention, his attitude seemed to be a mild " novelists must have their stories "
If there was any truth to Gaskell tales about the fire breathing Irishmen sire of Genius, one would think Patrick would have violently gave her what-for at least ! lol
But Patrick understood , as few would, that this book was the price of Brontë fame. He was more than willing to pay the price. Even if his children were dead, the name would live. From total loss he wished at least some consolation
However that doesn't mean we now do not allow justice its voice today . Thanks to the work of Juliet Barker , Patrick's real portrait finally began to emerge
It was only the Victorian reverence for the institution of Marriage that saved Arthur Bell Nicholls from similar treatment in the Gaskell's book But that did not stop Gaskell from blacking Arthur's name in private at every opportunity .
Her record in this matter is shocking . She knew she greatly wronged these men, Charlotte's loved ones, and the guilt weighted on Gaskell somewhat when she spoke of her "fear" of them.
Lily did not fear the Patrick and Arthur. They were unfailing civil to her . She feared the wrong she did them ....I imagine it was quite a welcome in heaven when Mrs. Gaskell passed. . I can see Charlotte at the pearly gates with a rolling pin nearly as big as herself .
In her biography of Charlotte Bronte Mrs Gaskell makes it seem she spoke directly with the dismissed Bronte servant and she told her of Patrick's wild temper. But in a 1850 letter to Katie Winkworth, Mrs.G says she heard these tales from Lady Kay-Shuttleworth before meeting Charlotte. So the Patrick stories were in Mrs. G's head even before she meet Charlotte Bronte and these stories about Patrick were at best 3rd or fourth hand. Yet they were treated as Gospel for 150 years until Barker's book debunked them ... They now being resurrected again by Harman's
BeantwoordenVerwijderenMrs. Gaskell also told Ms. Winkworth that CB was already tainted with consumption like her sisters. This lie,(what else can it be called) started the rumors of Charlotte's being ill in 1850...which she had to refute to Mrs. Smith. Mrs.Gaskell was writing her novel about CB well before Charlotte's passing