Winifred Gerin's biography, Charlotte Bronte: Evolution of a Genius.

In december last year I received by post a parcel from Philadelphia, USA

Inside the parcel this biography of Charlotte Bronte by Winifred Gerin

Anne Lloyd sent it to me

Anne and me got to know each other through this blog

She told me, she started to be interested in the Bronte Sisters because of this biography

My love of the Bronte Sisters started after reading Jane Eyre when I was a girl

Years later I was reading the biographies of The Brontes of 

Juliet Barker and of Rebecca Fraser

Both biographies I loved

I learned a lot about the Brontes

Anne told me that this biography of Winifred Gerin is the best

I am reading it on the moment and I am impressed

I learn to understand things even better

What I find very interesting is that W G

interweaves the books Charlotte wrote

with the events that took place in the life of Charlotte

Winifred Gerin's biography

Charlotte Bronte:

Evolution of a Genius

Winifred Gerin's biography, Charlotte Bronte: Evolution of a Genius, was published in 1967. She used a variety of sources in writing the biography including Bronte's juvenile writings (preserved in manuscript only), and Bronte's letters. Gerin researched the personalities and backgrounds of Bronte's known acquaintances and visited sights from Bronte's life (from Thorton, to Cowan Bridge, to the home in Ireland where she stayed on her honeymoon) (Gerin xv). Gerin received information on Charlotte Bronte's experience in Belgium first hand from the Heger family. All of this was published for the first time in her biography. 

Gerin focused on Bronte's "evolution towards fulfillment" (xv). Gerin viewed Bronte’s grief as an essential part of her character. Gerin revealed the passion that Bronte had felt for M. Heger, which was something Gaskell had not done. Gerin also saw the importance of Bronte's childhood writings and felt that they traced Bronte's development as a writer. She felt that they were the "key to her mature productions" and spent a great deal of time analyzing them (xv). 

Gerin's biography recognized how the events in Bronte's life shaped her character. She recognized that Bronte's love for M. Heger was an important factor in her life and included it in her book. She was as concerned as Gaskell with defending Bronte, rather with presenting facts, and thus she did not omit things or modify them as Gaskell did. One hundred years later, women are viewed differently. What was once considered coarse, is no longer so. Gerin was able to present Bronte's life as it was. 
Read on: 123helpme/view.
wiki/Winifred Gerin

"Like twins", "inseparable companions".

And then when Emily is 1 1/2 year old a baby sister is born in the  Bronte family

Anne Bronte

Birth on 17-01-1820

Fireplace in the dining room kleurrijkbrontesisters

As was the customary in those days, it’s likely that a local midwife would have helped with the birth and it would have taken place in front of the large fireplace that still forms the centre point of the building today annebronte

When Charlotte's friend Ellen Nussey visited Haworth in 1833, she reported that Emily and Anne were "like twins", "inseparable companions".

She described Anne: "Anne, dear gentle Anne was quite different in appearance from the others, and she was her aunt's favourite. Her hair was a very pretty light brown, and fell on her neck in graceful curls. She had lovely violet-blue eyes; fine pencilled eyebrows and a clear almost transparent complexion.

If we could travel back to the January day in 1820 and take a look at the baby Anne at Thornton Parsonage or the Brontë children at Kipping House just what would we see? We would see children just like any others, for when we look upon any infant in its cradle who can say what they will turn out to be or do? Baby Anne would grow up to be a very special woman indeed, one whose achievements are only now starting to be recognised. Wherever you are, stop to raise a glass of something cold or warm and say ‘Happy 198^th birthday, Anne Brontë!’
annebronte/happy-198th-birthday-to-anne-bronte/

Birth of Emily Bronte. What happened in the year she was born?

Emily Brontë was born on 30 July 1818 in the village of Thornton Market Street on the outskirts of Bradford to Maria Branwell and Patrick Bronte. She had three sisters older than her, Maria (4 year old), Elisabeth (3 year old) and Charlotte (2 year old) and one brother Branwell  (1 year old). 

Maria, mother of Emily Bronte

During this time Patrick was curate at the Old Bell Chapel in Thornton.

Referring to his five years' residence at Thornton, Patrick Bronte wrote in 1835,

" My happiest days were spent there."

From an old diary, published by Prof. Moore Smith in the Bookman, October, 1904,

and written by his 

grandmother, who, as Miss Firth, lived near the Brontes at Thornton in her early days, it is evident

that both Mr. and Mrs. Bronte enjoyed themselves in a quiet way, visiting and receiving visits

from the Firth family, who lived at Kipping, and from Mr. and Mrs. Morgan and uncle Fennell.

There were very few houses in Thornton at that time, so that Patrick Bronte would be able to get

round to his parishioners fairly often; he was always a faithful pastoral visitor. Miss Elizabeth

Branwell, Mrs. Bronte's sister, spent several months at the Thornton parsonage in 1815 and 1816,

and as she is constantly referred to in the diary, it is probable that she was responsible for some

of the social intercourse between the Brontes and prominent families in the neighbourhood,

and was able to render help to Mrs. Bronte in the management of her young family.

The Regency era 1811 - 1837

The Regency in Great Britain was a period when King George III was deemed unfit to rule and his son ruled as his proxy as Prince Regent. The Regency era ended in 1837 when Queen Victoria succeeded William IV.

This era encompassed a time of great social, political, and economic change. War was waged with Napoleon and on other fronts, affecting commerce both at home and internationally as well as politics. Despite the bloodshed and warfare the Regency was also a period of great refinement and cultural achievement, shaping and altering the societal structure of Britain as a whole.

Driving these changes was not only money and rebellious pampered youth, but also significant technological advancements. In 1814 The Times adopted steam printing. By this method it could now print 1,100 sheets every hour, not 200 as before—a fivefold increase in production capability and demand.^[4] This development brought about the rise of the wildly popular fashionable novels in which publishers spread the stories, rumours, and flaunting of the rich and aristocratic, not so secretly hinting at the specific identity of these individuals. 

"Where is Emily Bronte in all of this".

Brontë 200

                                - Making Thunder Roar: Emily Brontë 

Emily Brontë is one of the greatest writers in English literature, and yet very little is actually known about her. What we do know survives as fragments of information from the people who knew her best, while years of fascination by her biographers have introduced speculation and myth to fill the gaps in our knowledge. To mark the bicentenary of Emily Brontë’s birth, this exhibition invites a number of well-known Emily admirers to share their own fascination with her life and work. Specially commissioned contributions from Maxine Peake, Lily Cole and Helen Oyeyemi amongst others result in a thoughtprovoking selection of Emily’s possessions, writing and artwork as well as some of the well-loved household objects she used daily. These personal responses to Emily acknowledge the gaps in our understanding about this intriguing writer, but also encourage fresh perspectives on her life and work. bronte parsonage

I think you know there is a great dispute going on in nowadays "Bronteland". If you don't know what I'm talking about search on Google "Nick Holland" or "Lily Cole". In all of the reactions on the social media and in the newspapers I found one response from someone and suddenly I realised: "That is my question as well".

"Where is Emily Bronte in all of this"

This year I publish all kind of interesting information concerning Emily Bronte

I start with the excellent blog of Nick Holland 

annebronte/ did-emily-bronte-write-a-second-novel

Did Emily Brontë Write A Second Novel?

We are now half way through the first month of 2018 (tempus fugit), which is of course the year above all other years that we remember the brilliant Emily Brontë. Her writing has captured the imagination of the world for a hundred and seventy years, but in many ways she remains an enigma. She didn’t make pronouncements on politics or the society of her time, she wasn’t a letter writer, she hardly interacted with other people at all when she could avoid it – to Emily Brontë, writing was everything. One of the greatest mysteries surrounding her life is why she only wrote one novel, the brilliant Wuthering Heights, and there has long been speculation over whether she had commenced or completed a second novel?

The evidence for a second prose work by Emily is found in a letter from Thomas Cautley Newby dated 15^th February 1848. The letter, now part of the Brontë Parsonage Museum collection, is addressed to Ellis Bell and reads:

‘I am much obliged by your kind note & shall have great pleasure in making arrangements for your next novel. I would not hurry its completion, for I think you are quite right not to let it go before the world until well satisfied with it, for much depends on your new work if it be an improvement on your first you will have established yourself as a first rate novelist, but if it falls short the Critics will be too apt to say that you have expended your talent in your first novel.’

Newby was the man who had published both Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë, although he believed the writers to be called Ellis and Acton Bell. It is often said that Newby may have meant to address this letter to Anne Brontë, Acton Bell as he knew her, as she went on to write The Tenant of Wildfell Hall for him. This seems unlikely to me, however, as although he deliberately caused confusion about the Bell’s names when trying to sell rights to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in America (causing Anne and Charlotte Brontë to make their ill fated journey to London in the summer of 1848) he was above all else a businessman focused on making money and therefore unlikely to mix his authors up. The greatest proof is that the letter was found within Emily Brontë’s writing desk after her death, so it seems clear that it was intended for her, and that she had at least considered writing another novel. If Emily Brontë did write at least some part of a second novel, what happened to it?

Read on: annebronte/did-emily-bronte-write-a-second-novel