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A review by missbryden
The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell
3.0
Coming from reading all the Brontes books in order, and also a biography of Anne, by or in chapter 14, I was annoyed with Charlotte, when she relates, in a letter, the challenges with Branwell during and after the occasions when he was a tutor in the same house where Anne was governess. Charlotte relates the challenges of having him at home and the state he's in, but little to nothing about Anne having had to observe his goings on in their workplace, a private home.
But otherwise, I didn't see the publicising of names and scandal, that Samantha Ellis complained of in [b:Take Courage: Anne Bronte and the Art of Life|29779226|Take Courage Anne Bronte and the Art of Life|Samantha Ellis|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1483433033s/29779226.jpg|50149148]. My paperback edition is apparently a copy of the first edition, and yet apparently Gaskell had to edit and produce another edition after complaints that it shared too much about Mr. Bronte and Branwell. Yet in this edition most names are referenced in initials or blanks only, and the scandal of Branwell in the Robinson home (where he and Anne were working) is unnamed. Though I can see that describing his carrying on and self-medicating with opium and alcohol would've been displeasing to the father and friends still living, though Gaskell largely quotes from Charlotte's letters.
After her sisters' death, I felt more sympathy and ultimate sadness with the narrative. Charlotte spent years alternately in depression, and also had a great deal of communication on literary matters, writing to friends and publishing colleagues of who she saw and heard, what she read, and about her own writing.
To read of her ultimate and brief happiness with her husband before she died was that much more sad.
But otherwise, I didn't see the publicising of names and scandal, that Samantha Ellis complained of in [b:Take Courage: Anne Bronte and the Art of Life|29779226|Take Courage Anne Bronte and the Art of Life|Samantha Ellis|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1483433033s/29779226.jpg|50149148]. My paperback edition is apparently a copy of the first edition, and yet apparently Gaskell had to edit and produce another edition after complaints that it shared too much about Mr. Bronte and Branwell. Yet in this edition most names are referenced in initials or blanks only, and the scandal of Branwell in the Robinson home (where he and Anne were working) is unnamed. Though I can see that describing his carrying on and self-medicating with opium and alcohol would've been displeasing to the father and friends still living, though Gaskell largely quotes from Charlotte's letters.
After her sisters' death, I felt more sympathy and ultimate sadness with the narrative. Charlotte spent years alternately in depression, and also had a great deal of communication on literary matters, writing to friends and publishing colleagues of who she saw and heard, what she read, and about her own writing.
To read of her ultimate and brief happiness with her husband before she died was that much more sad.