Patsy Stoneman has just published her critical study of Charlotte Brontë in the Writers & Their Work collection of Northcote House Publishers:
Charlotte Brontë
Patsy Stoneman
Northcote House Publishers. Writers & Their Work series
ISBN: 9780746311950
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is one of the most famous novels in the world; its heroine’s spirited response to hardship and temptation has engaged an eager readership since its publication in 1847. Jane Eyre, however, was not Charlotte Brontë’s only novel, and Patsy Stoneman’s book traces the development of her work from her exuberant early writing to her disturbing last work, Villette. A final chapter considers Charlotte Brontë’s shifting popular and academic reputation and the various adaptations and imitations of her work. Reading the novels in the context of Charlotte Brontë’s life and times, Stoneman emphasises her persistent engagement with power relations – within families, between classes and between men and women – and the changing narrative strategies with which she explores them. While keeping close to the words of the page, the book is informed by the critical perspectives of feminism, cultural materialism and postcolonialism. bronteblog
....from her exuberant early writing to her disturbing last work, Villette
BeantwoordenVerwijderenOne must always remember the last 1/3rd of Shirley and all of Villette was the only writing Charlotte ever did without a Bronte audience listening to it and commenting on it as she composed
That had to effect the writing I think...it may have made her bolder. There was no one to call her to account . Who knows?
Charlotte perhaps would not have been so bold as to say of her rival Madame Heger/Beck
.... Not the anony in Gethsemane , not the death on Calvary, could have wrung from her eyes one tear "
One can see Anne lending over in a voice laced in irony
Truly Charlotte? Not one tear?
I commend Madame Heger's forbearance for not taking the first boat over to confront the tiny Brit in love with her husband with a well chosen frying pan lol
In this love experience Charlotte reminds me of Branwell in that years of living in the wild world of Angria did not prepare either of them for normal human love relations. Once they ventured out from Glass Town , huge, prat falls awaited...
This brother and sister went down the same road. They fell hard, as hard as only a Bronte can, for a totally unsuitable, unavailable person . Branwell was her twin still
Thanks to the forbearance of the Hegers, and the fact she was made of sterner stuff, CB was able to recover, Branwell did not .
But I think can be said he did not want to , that he could not leave
Angria after all
I wish to add the difference in the fate of Genius Tallie ( which means Princess and or dew) and Genius Branny was not simply Charlotte had more fortitude and the spectacularly unavailable object of her love was wiser than Branwell's ....both true, but there was more and it's something Anne was at pains to point out in her work as well
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThat is, the far more circumscribed lives of woman in the Bronte era.
Branwell could get drunk and wallow at the Bull night after night and the next day be treated as Mr. Branwell , fine gentleman
If Charlotte did that for one night, she would soon find herself in a cart on her way to Bedlam
I'm over stating to make a point, but not by much...while less freedom is not to be desired, it helped Charlotte somewhat in this case and was a check on her behavior when in crisis
If Branwell had something like this , his fate might of been different....But he was a gentleman and allowed to do whatever he wanted with no real social consequences ...add a Angria style love affair, ( whether just in his mind or in reality, the effect was the same ) and you have a highly explosive mix .
Branwell ultimately couldn't leave Angria
But Charlotte eventually did....so who had more freedom really ?
I was thinking more on this and one could say Charlotte's and Branwell's first love experience were strikingly similar events. It looks different from each other, but that because each were the mirror image of the other
BeantwoordenVerwijderenCharlotte did not join Branwell in his descent at the Bull and lay out her broken heart for all to see in a tap room, or Yorkshire village .
However her just as wild heartache was indeed put on display and for all to see. She wrote Villitte .
Thanks to the alchemy of genius, Charlotte could turn her heartbreak in to art , .and for whatever reason, Branwell could not . It had to play out in his life
It's fascinating to view these two next to each other in regards to their love experience . On the surface Charlotte and Branwell's paths look very different...but they were twins still , just in reverse.
There seemed little sympathy between them for the three years of Branwell's decline at Haworth ..However we usually cannot sympathize with another person going though the same event, but who chooses a very different method of dealing it
Instinctual hackles rise and a deep level of self protection kicks in , it's almost out of one's control
When Branwell had passed, Charlotte could then be alive to her love for him.But before it was simply too dangerous and she had to protect herself . She could have been swept away like he was if just a few things were different