In this groundbreaking and unconventional biography, Lyndall Gordon dismantles the insistent image of Charlotte Bronte as a modest Victorian lady, ...
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Aug 19, 2010
Margaret
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If you're looking for a really detailed biography of Charlotte Brontë, this may not be exactly what you want, but if you're already familiar with her life and want a lively revisionist interpretation of Brontë's life and writings, then look no further.
Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë, written immediately after Brontë's death, makes her into a tragic figure, mourning for her dead sisters and brothers and trapped in a life of duty to her stern father: "a figure of pat More...
Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë, written immediately after Brontë's death, makes her into a tragic figure, mourning for her dead sisters and brothers and trapped in a life of duty to her stern father: "a figure of pat More...
Jan 21, 2012
Anastasia
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Lyndall Gordon has written a number of my favorite literary biographies, including her peerless book on Mary Wollstonecraft, mother to Mary Shelley and--far more important--the author of 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women' written in 1792, which was the first major milestone of Feminism. Oh, what a life she led. This older work by Gordon, on the life of Charlotte Bronte, author of 'Jane Eyre' which I hadn't read previously, put the same piercing but benevolent analysis to work on the subject-
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Aug 21, 2010
Saisudha
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While I think Charlotte Bronte and her interesting family makes for a good material, this book could have been shorter. The author really wants to make a point of how Charlotte Bronte has been misunderstood over the last century and a quarter/half, pointing out that she was not just the proper Victorian lady she projected to society, but a passionate, creative, unique and strong woman in private who converted the tragedies in her life into food for creativity. In this regard, Gordon made a stron
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Jan 12, 2011
Salma
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So, my Bronte obsession continues- when I saw this book half-price in Houston, I had to snatch it up. I think this bio may have been one of the answers to the Elizabeth Gaskell bio, where Charlotte was portrayed as an oh-so-Victorian suffering lily. In this one, as you've guessed from the title, Gordon focuses on Charlotte's passion, her drive, and her determination to express her truth.
There are some very interesting photographs in here (I didn't think Charlotte was as 'plain' as e More...
There are some very interesting photographs in here (I didn't think Charlotte was as 'plain' as e More...
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Jul 19, 2011
Pat
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I read Charlotte Bronte: A Passionate Life by Lyndall Gordon a few years after I had read the Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell. This one was the best by far. Even though Mrs Gaskell had met Charlotte, Lyndall Gordon pulls all of the available information together and comes up with a facinating portrait. There is so little known about Charlotte's husband Arthur but this book leaves no doubt that he loved her and was as passionate about her as Rochester was about Jane. As much as I
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Jul 16, 2011
Esoldra
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During my early teens I went through a Bronte obsession, I devoured as many biographies as I could. This one is one of my favourites. I was asked at the time why I read so many biographies of the same people as surely they all must be the same thing regurgitated over and over again - this is the one that laughs in the face of that theory and enabled me to justify reading different biographies on the same person- as otherwise I would never have come across this wonderful work.
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Feb 04, 2009
April
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Charlotte Bronte is definitely a very fascinating person, but I found that the book focuses too much on her writings and not her life. The author inserts Charlotte's writings too frequently. The book doesn't flow, it is too choppy and hard to understand because one minute you're reading about Charlotte and then the next minute you are reading something that she wrote and there isn't a smooth transition there. The author interprets all of Charlotte's writings as though everything Charlotte wrote
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Aug 23, 2011
Katrien
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I loved Lyndall Gordon's biography of Mary Wollestonecraft, and I loved this one about Charlotte Brontë. So human, so passionate. We get a glimpse of not so much the writer, as the woman through Gordon's interpretation.
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Sep 18, 2009
jacky
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I parts of this for a research project on Bronte I did in high school. I think I was a sophomore, but I wouldn't have read Jane Eyre yet, so I don't know why I would have picked Bronte. Anyway, I'm not sure how much of the text I actually read or how I determined which parts to read for the report.
Nov 25, 2011
Melanie
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Gordon's prose can be lugubrious (and she should be arrested for comma abuse), but her contemporary perspective on Charlotte Bronte is fascinating.
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