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The Life of Charlotte Bronte

by Elizabeth Gaskell

3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 · rating details · 2,353 ratings · 92 reviews

Intertwining fact and story, IThe Life of Charlotte Bront

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Published January 1st 2010 by MobileReference (first published 1857)

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Feb 17, 2009 Melinda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-lit, classics

After I read that wretched book by Gelsely Kirkland, I was refreshed and encouraged to read a biography of Charlotte Bronte. I recently read "Cranford", and Elizabeth Gaskell became of interest to me. In searching other books that she had written, I found that she had known and been a friend of Charlotte Bronte's, and was asked by Charlotte's father to write a biography of her after her death. Hence the beginning of reading "The Life of Charlotte Bronte".

It is a very worthwhile book, based large...more After I read that wretched book by Gelsely Kirkland, I was refreshed and encouraged to read a biography of Charlotte Bronte. I recently read "Cranford", and Elizabeth Gaskell became of interest to me. In searching other books that she had written, I found that she had known and been a friend of Charlotte Bronte's, and was asked by Charlotte's father to write a biography of her after her death. Hence the beginning of reading "The Life of Charlotte Bronte".

It is a very worthwhile book, based largely on the lovely letters written by Charlotte herself over the course of her lifetime to friends, publishers, and acquaintances. Oh what enjoyment to read letters that expressed such real and genuine depth of understanding about literature, art, character, and the place of Christians in a fallen world! (I am thinking here of the comparison of Charlotte's letters to so many blogs that are tepid, shallow, and so flabby in their language and intellectual structure! Whipped out in a "fast food" world of seconds and minutes contrasted with a "slow food" world where her letters took hours or days to write and evidenced long and deep thoughts, carefully considered and mulled over before being put on paper.)

I had always heard of the grim existence and life of the Bronte sisters. Mrs. Gaskell puts real faces to each of the Bronte children, and shows how the difficulties in their lives actually was used probably to mold them into the creative people they became. Six children were born into the home of Patrick Bronte, an Anglican priest and Maria, his wife. Tragically, the father outlived his wife and all six children. The first two daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, died within a month of each other when they were 12 and 11 years old respectively. They had contracted TB at the girls school they had attended for clergymen's daughters. Charlotte became the older sister caring for her younger sisters, her aging father and for her chronically ill brother. Branwell, the only son, died when he was 30, a broken and tragic young man. Seduced by the older wife of his employer, he suffered the loss of his job because of her, then was rejected by her and became an alcoholic and opium addict. Less then 3 months after Branwell died, younger sister Emily died from TB and grief at the age of 29. Less than a year later, youngest sister Anne also died, probably of TB, at the age of 27. Charlotte was left alone to take care of her aging father in his parish in Yorkshire.

While the environs in Haworth, Yorkshire were indeed severe and difficult, and the family situation filled with great trial and sorrow... I would not describe any of the Bronte's as grim. Charlotte was a deeply devoted Christian, who understood that much of our lot in life on earth involves suffering. Her father being an Anglican priest, she knew from her teaching in the church and from the Bible the truth of the fallen world we live in, and that truth enabled her to live with courage in very difficult circumstances. While she struggled with discouragement, poor health, and grief for long periods of time, she never despaired or projected any sentiment that would have reflected poorly on Christ who is her Lord. She loved her family, loved her father, and with her sisters banded together to write poetry and books suitable for publications. The perseverance of the three daughters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, to get their work published shows amazing tenacity and grit.

After reading "Jane Eyre", Charlotte's most famous book, I was struck by the vast education Charlotte had from the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, from the book of nature, and from books she read to educate herself. An interesting article to read alongside "Jane Eyre" is at http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/b... . The article is "Specific dates: the link between Jane Eyre, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Bible" and provides a fascinating link between the Bible Charlotte was so familiar with... the Book of Common Prayer used daily in their readings and prayers, and dates in the book of Jane Eyre. Fascinating reading!

She married when she was 39, and died a mere 9 months after her marriage, most likely of severe dehydration from terrible nausea and weakness from her pregnancy. She and the baby died and are buried in Haworth.(less)

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Nov 04, 2011 Sorcha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007

First published not long after Bronte's death - Gaskill was a contemporary and a friend - the first edition suffered controversy, as many of the people referenced were still alive, and some objected to their inclusion. This edition is the 1st edition, with plenty of detail in the appendix to detail the differences with the changed 3rd edition.[return][return]Volume 1 details Bronte's younger years; with much contextual narrative as to both the Yorkshire people's personality type and that of the...more First published not long after Bronte's death - Gaskill was a contemporary and a friend - the first edition suffered controversy, as many of the people referenced were still alive, and some objected to their inclusion. This edition is the 1st edition, with plenty of detail in the appendix to detail the differences with the changed 3rd edition.[return][return]Volume 1 details Bronte's younger years; with much contextual narrative as to both the Yorkshire people's personality type and that of the immediate family; the death of some of her siblings, and her mother at an early age; the solitude the family seemed to prefer and the ill health they all seemed to suffer from. The education is also covered - Charlotte's early schools giving inspiration for Lowood in Jane Eyre for instance. Time is also spent in Brussels learning French and German and provides yet more inspiration for those Bronte girls who were there (e.g. for "The Professor" and "Vilette".) [I am disappointed that this edition does not provide translation of those passages in French for those of us whose French is weak!][return][return]Volume 2 was much more interesting for me. This is the time that Jane Eyre (along with Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey) is published. Less input now from Gaskell, with much of the Volume II provided by letters written by Bronte herself, and shows to some extent how she deals with the fame of having written such a book as Jane Eyre, along with dealing with all the gossip about whether the Bell family are male or female. At the same time she has to deal with her three remaining siblings dying in relatively quick succession (< 1 year) with Branwell having brought shame on the family due to his debts, drink and doomed affair with a married woman. [rumoured to be the inspiration of Causabon's stipulation that Dorothea should lose all money if she ever married Ladislaw][return][return]Her visits to London in particular are interesting, as you hear of her interaction with her contemporaries - Thackery, Dickens etc. Her comments on Jane Austen made me smile (paraphrased as: "Who is she? What's this Pride and Prejudice about then?"). [return][return]In the absence of her siblings, and with her increasing fame, she also travels more, and sees more of friends and other "famous people". [return][return]Her marriage to a curate that she had known for years and which was pitifully short is lightly covered in the final chapter. Her father objected to her marrying at all, which delayed the marriage for several years. The reason for the objections were never made clear in the book - I suspect Mr Bronte was still alive when the book was published - but I personally think by reading between the lines that as an old man used to having the almost explicit attention of his daughter didnt want to share her with anyone else.[return][return]The marriage ended in her death within the year of the marriage, and was due to her suffering an ultimately fatal bout of ill health(less)

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Nov 23, 2012 Mel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century-non-fiction, victorian, gender-issues, women-s-history, biography, british-history

This is the last of Mrs. Gaskell's books that I'd not read. I left it till the end because it was a biography and not a novel, and because I didn't care all that much for Jane Eyre (though I did love Wuthering Heights). I did however greatly enjoy this biography. It wasn't really like a modern biography, full of life and love, but rather a more impersonal look at her life and times. I found it a fascinating look at women's history and literature in the early 19th century. It also greatly increas...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Dorothea rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is not the one book to read about the Brontës, but certainly not to be skipped if one is reading several.

It was completed and published only two years after Charlotte's death, by a personal friend of Charlotte's who was also a friend of her father's and who gained access to many of Charlotte's letters and who traveled to all the places that were important to Charlotte and interviewed people there who knew her.

So, despite the omissions, the softenings, the biases that Mrs. Gaskell wrote alon...more This is not the one book to read about the Brontës, but certainly not to be skipped if one is reading several.

It was completed and published only two years after Charlotte's death, by a personal friend of Charlotte's who was also a friend of her father's and who gained access to many of Charlotte's letters and who traveled to all the places that were important to Charlotte and interviewed people there who knew her.

So, despite the omissions, the softenings, the biases that Mrs. Gaskell wrote along with the truth, her Life of Charlotte Brontë is important, nearly as a primary source. In it are not only long excerpts from many letters (which can, of course, be found elsewhere) but also Mrs. Gaskell's own reports of conversations with Charlotte and clear descriptions of Haworth, the Rue d'Isabelle in Brussels, and other places that were so important to Charlotte's life and writing.

The Life is also very beautifully written. I'm now eager to read Mrs. Gaskell's novels, but I think one pleasure to be expected from them -- her ability to describe a landscape -- is probably greatest in this biography, since the landscapes are real. As I'm not a Victorian reader with boundless patience, I often skip over descriptions of scenery, and I almost did so at the beginning of the Life. That would have been a mistake! This chapter, which carries the reader from the Leeds and Bradford railway, to Keighley station, to the steep hill of Haworth village, leads the reader into the Haworth church, to stand before certain inscriptions to the right of the communion table.

Anyone familiar with the story of the Brontë family will of course know what these are: the grave-markers of a family marked by death. Mrs. Gaskell gives their texts in full. A more powerful, somber, and appropriate beginning to Charlotte Brontë's biography, I can't imagine.

I read the Penguin Classics edition, edited and introduced by Alan Shelston in 1975. He explains that the text given is that of the first edition. The biography was substantially revised for a third edition: some new material was added at that time but two major episodes (that of the Cowan's Bridge school for clergymen's daughters, upon which Charlotte Brontë based Lowood in Jane Eyre, and that of Mrs. Robinson's role in Branwell Brontë's downfall) were revised to be less scandalous. Notes and an appendix give the important additions and changes of the third edition.

Shelston's introduction is a bit more severe on Mrs. Gaskell than I thought justified (although I'm easily swayed by good writers) but I was glad of his argument that she was compelled to write this biography because she perceived Charlotte Brontë as a real-life version of one of her own heroines -- a moral paragon. This was a good thing to keep in mind while reading the Life; it explains not only the major omission of Charlotte's feelings for M. Heger (an omission which can also be explained by readers' sensibilities and the need for approval by Charlotte's still-living father and widower) but also some minor smoothed edges.(less)

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Feb 29, 2012 Patty Apostolides rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The life of Charlotte Bronte is very revealing, for it describes not only her life, through letters and correspondence, but the life of her family. It shows how hard she worked in earning her keep, and trying to get her work published. It also showed her close relationship with her sisters. Illness was a significant part of her life and that of her sisters. Death also visited her from a young age, as she experienced the death of family members.

Her brother's character and faults were overly state...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Maia B. rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abominations, boring, historical, too-long

What a load of rubbish. Gaskell writes for pages and pages and pages and PAGES about every single solitary thing - from Charlotte and Emily's school in Brussels (giving us a detailed description of the history of the street it was on and every detail of what its rooms looked like), to Branwell's "affair" with a married woman.

Gaskell tells us that the reason she's telling us about Branwell's liaison is that she wants the woman involved to be ashamed of herself. First and foremost, it's none of h...more

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May 31, 2011 Marie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Most of us now know how wrong Gaskell got some things. That being said, if she had not recorded the life of "her dear friend", the Brontës as we know them would not have been propelled to the mythical heights which have fueled their popularity. Gaskell does a good job of weaving Charlotte's life into a fantastical story, but left out major elements -- things that would have been improper or embarrassing to publish, and totally skewed and falsified other things to add to the romance and intrigue...more

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Jul 06, 2010 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

It took me several weeks to read this, but, oh, I enjoyed it. I had just re-read both Jane Eyre and North and South - this book let me enjoy both authors at the same time! Charlotte Bronte and Elizabeth Gaskell were good friends towards the end of Charlotte's life, although they only met a few times. After Charlotte, the last of the six Bronte siblings, died, her father asked Elizabeth Gaskell to write her biography. It went through two revisions after the original version was published because...more

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Mar 10, 2010 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: brontephilia, best-beloved

After her first meeting with Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell wrote the following in a letter to a friend:

"She and I quarrelled & differed about almost every thing,-she calls me a democrat, & can not bear Tennyson- but we like each other heartily I think & I hope we shall ripen into friends."

...If that sentence doesn't fill you with love and make you excited to read this book, then there's probably no hope for you at all.

This book is a lot more than a biography of Charlotte Brontë...more After her first meeting with Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell wrote the following in a letter to a friend:

"She and I quarrelled & differed about almost every thing,-she calls me a democrat, & can not bear Tennyson- but we like each other heartily I think & I hope we shall ripen into friends."

...If that sentence doesn't fill you with love and make you excited to read this book, then there's probably no hope for you at all.

This book is a lot more than a biography of Charlotte Brontë. Some of the other topics it touches on, directly or by way of object lesson: feminism/women's place in art and society, the limits and pitfalls of biography, censorship, myths about the Brontës, celebrity, the balance between being a writer and being a person, railway speculation, the history of Haworth, outdated Penzance fashions. It is a heady brew of awesomeness.

Charlotte's letters to her friends and publishers are the main draw here. They're well-chosen to convey her personality--wry, critical, kind, anxious. Props to Ellen Nussey for not destroying Charlotte's letters even under pressure from Arthur Bell Nicholls. I love, love, love thinking about these boss ladies writing letters back and forth, exchanging books and their opinions of them, and being dear friends. I love George Smith and his thoughtful book selections, too.

The introduction by Jenny Uglow in this edition is good and not too long. However, Graham Handley's "other critical apparatus," as the cover so obnoxiously describes it, is not that great. The endnotes often point out the obvious while neglecting interesting subjects. Also, unless you speak French, I'd recommend looking out for an edition that translates the French letters and exercises, at least in summary.

Especially in the early part of the book, you can see where Gaskell got some of the material she uses in her own novels, but this doesn't have the tone or style of her other prose. Still, it's pretty great. You can argue that the book has well-documented issues, but it was Victorian England after all, and by now I think its issues are part of its charm.(less)

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Apr 09, 2009 Valerie added it · review of another edition

Note that which edition of this you get matters substantially. This book was written while some of the people within were still alive, and there were several lawsuits and threatened lawsuits that forced Mrs Gaskell to do substantial rewrites.

The edition I have has both the original and the rewritten text--often as footnotes, but in a few cases whole chapters had to be reprinted whole, with one version moved to an appendix.

Some of the rewrites proved beneficial--for example, in a search for new m...more

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Jan 16, 2010 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, history

I read this as a stand-in Gaskell while I was waiting for more of her fiction to arrive at the library. I can see why this biography is still considered one of Gaskell's important works.

First of all, Gaskell makes heavy use of letters to and from Bronte to illustrate Bronte's life and character. This is good biography practice, of course, but it also lets you see just how much more intellectual Bronte had become by the end of her life. Her letters become much more interested in ideas, and much m...more I read this as a stand-in Gaskell while I was waiting for more of her fiction to arrive at the library. I can see why this biography is still considered one of Gaskell's important works.

First of all, Gaskell makes heavy use of letters to and from Bronte to illustrate Bronte's life and character. This is good biography practice, of course, but it also lets you see just how much more intellectual Bronte had become by the end of her life. Her letters become much more interested in ideas, and much more thoughtful as the book draws to its conclusion. The letters and conversations Gaskell chooses to include give the sense of a character developing through life, even if they are a bit rose-colored.

The book also did much to make me overcome my distaste for the Brontes. Their whole childhoods seem to be made up of Edward Gorey illustrations come to life - a mother who died soon after bearing the 6th of her children, a distant, though accomplished, father, a creepy manse for a home with an aunt for governess, little neighborhood society, two older sisters who die young, and the rapid deaths of Charlotte's remaining brother and two sisters just as their literary productions became recognized. Gaskell clearly loved Charlotte Bronte and thought she was brilliant, but maintains a Victorian insistance that Bronte was Finally Whole when she got married, even better when she got pregnant, despite the miserable illness and death that quickly ensued.

Gaskell-as-author is very present in the book, and since that is something I enjoy in biography & history, I loved her interpolations. The OUP edition I had was made from the 3rd edition that Gaskell put together, which eliminated some of the names and scenes mentioned in earlier editions because people had objected or Gaskell had been threated with libel suits. As usual, Gaskell doesn't shy away from difficult topics - like Bronte's distress with Harriet Martineau's book to do with atheism, or the fact that Bronte didn't see how indelicate Jane Eyre could be, etc. This sounds all fussy - it isn't - it's a firm statement of Bronte's character in the face of what must have been quite a lot of criticism. Because the book is made up mostly of recounted conversations and letters, Bronte's voice shines nearly as clearly as Gaskell's.

I was surprised to like it so well. Good stuff.(less)

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Dec 04, 2011 Janet Lynch rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

I wanted to read a novel by "Mrs." Gaskell and couldn't decide which one, so of the twenty volumes by that author that I loaded on my Kindle, I chose this biography instead. I was greatly anticipating Bronte writing of "Jane Eyre," but was disappointed to discover that the work abruptly ends before that time of her life. I have since learned that I seem to have only Volume One of the biography and there's a Volume Two. There's a lot of great stuff in volume 1 about a single, intelligent, creativ...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Patra rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think someone who writes a biography has one of two purposes. Either to let the subjects speak for themselves or to interpret their subjects lives and intentions. I feel like Elizabeth Gaskell did a bang up job in letting Charlotte Bronte come through the pages and speak to me personally. I prefer to read a biography where the subject speaks louder than the author. There is some Elizabeth Gaskell in this book, but not too much and she doesn't stand in the way of letting us get to know Charlott...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Kivrin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, non-fiction, brit-lit

I've heard this biography disparaged by others who love Charlotte Brontë, and so I fully intend to read other biographies for the sake of comparison. However, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this account of Ms. Brontë by one of her contemporaries.

ETA a few quotes (from Charlotte's letters) that really resonated with me:

"I have some qualities that make me very miserable, some feelings that you can have no participation in—that few, very few, people in the world can at all understand. I don't pride m...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

It's amazing to be able to read a biography of Charlotte Bronte written by someone who knew her. Ms Gaskell used her skill developed as a novelist in presenting events, and in some places she was so strongly indignant on the Brontes' behalf--the Lowood school, Branwell's relationship with his employer's wife--that she had to make modifications in the third edition. (This version has all the third edition changes highlighted in the notes so the reader can compare for themselves) She made extensiv...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Shannon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: victorian

The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell starts out a bit slow. Rather than jumping right into Charlotte’s life, Gaskell introduces the reader to the environment and character of Yorkshire where Charlotte was born and lived. Gaskell wants to make a case immediately that the “coarseness” Charlotte was accused of was a result of her enviroment. Gaskell essential tries to explain to the cultivated Londoners and other critics of urban England, that Charlotte comes from the wild and obnoxiou...more The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell starts out a bit slow. Rather than jumping right into Charlotte’s life, Gaskell introduces the reader to the environment and character of Yorkshire where Charlotte was born and lived. Gaskell wants to make a case immediately that the “coarseness” Charlotte was accused of was a result of her enviroment. Gaskell essential tries to explain to the cultivated Londoners and other critics of urban England, that Charlotte comes from the wild and obnoxious Northern countryside, where people are distrustful, outwardly hostile, and rude but truthful and loyal at heart. It’s an amusing peek at how rich city people see those that live out in the country. Although Gaskell’s description of the people of Yorkshire is obviously skewed, it surely also contains some truth.

As I read the book, I felt like Gaskell was continually explaining why Charlotte was the way she was and almost making excuses for her. Of course, part of an autobiography is to explain a person’s character but I would much rather be shown a personality than told of one. To my modern sensibilities and perspective no excuse is needed for Charlotte. I can draw the conclusions myself that Charlotte came from a wilder, more independent environment and that her isolation left her incredibly lonely. I wished Gaskell would have left off telling me these things over and over and would have spent more time telling me about Charlotte’s artistic side.

The Life of Charlotte Bronte sorely lacks in it’s portrait of Charlotte as an artist. Most of the book is Charlotte’s letters, with Gaskell setting up or filling in between letters. Perhaps Charlotte just did not talk about her artistry, her methods of writing, inspiration, etc. Still I think Gaskell would have done Charlotte a more timeless justice if she would have focused more on Charlotte, the novelist, and less on Charlotte, the faithful daughter and homemaker.

But I do believe the book is written this way on purpose. Another distinct point Gaskell wants to make was that Charlotte did not neglect her…womanly duties, as it were, in favor of her writting. Sad that this point has to be made but I can understand Gaskell, and other friends and family of Charlotte’s, felt it was important to do her that justice. When you read some of the reviews of Charlotte’s work, especially Jane Eyre, you can understand why Gaskell wanted to refute how Charlotte’s character was being drawn. What was then called coarseness and unwomanly in Charlotte’s work we see today as passionate, emotional, strength, and independance. Qualities few, even fellow women, would accept in the 19th century.

"Jane Eyre is throughout the personification of the unregenerate and undisciplined spirit…….It is true Jane does right, and exerts great moral strength, but it is the strength of a mere heathen mind which is a law unto itself. No Christian grace is perceptible upon her.

Altogether the autobiography of Jane Eyre is preeminently an anti-Christian composition. There is throughout it a murmuring against the comforts of the rich and against the privations of the poor, which, as far as each individual is concerned, is a murmuring against God’s appointment–there is a proud and perpetual assertion of the rights of man, for which we find no authority either in God’s word or in God’s providence–there is that pervading tone of ungodly discontent which is at once the most prominent and the most subtle evil which the law and the pulpit, which all civilized society in fact, has at the present day to contend with. We do not hesitate to say that the tone of mind and thought which has overthrown authority and violated every code human and divine abroad, and fostered Chartism and rebellion at home is the same which has also written Jane Eyre"

–Elizabeth Rigby, the Quarterly Review 1847

Gaskell does show us through Charlotte’s letters, how completely unjust this review is. Charlotte was accepting, almost to a fault in my opinion, of her life as laid out by God. She felt is was her duty, and stuck with it tenaciusly even after the success of her books, to stay with her father in complete isolation in Yorkshire. Anyone who has read Villette knows Charlotte’s deep innate belief in the predetermination of God. That He has already decided who shall lead a happy blessed life and who shall suffer. All her life Charlotte live in acceptance of this. Her novels do show a rebellious nature, but it is always a rebellion against man, against a society that would unjustly keep her character down. Not a rebellion against God. Her heroines are in fact searching for the truth of how God, not Man, would have life lived.

Some of the most wonderful parts of The Life of Charlotte Bronte are when Charlotte talks of her books. I almost jumped out of my chair when I read her letter about the ending of Villette. Those of you that have read Villette and have in turns: wondered, been certain, then doubtful, and shook the book in frustration, will finally have your answer. But I will not give it away here.

The Life of Charlotte Bronte was published just 2 years after her death. Because many of the people mentioned in the book were still alive, almost all names are abbreviated to an initial. This really disturbs the narrative and prevents you from sinking into the story. Also for privacy, and the risk of lawsuits, very little is told of the people in Charlotte’s life. Although Gaskell gives us a glimpse into Charlotte’s personality and a detailed history of her life, it feels one dimensional without those people around Charlotte fleshed out. In the end, I’m left wanting more detail and more truth about Charlotte, her books, and the events that impacted her life. Luckily, I have Juliet Barker’s massive The Brontes already on my shelf to, hopefully, fill that void.(less)

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Jan 22, 2013 Amy Wolf rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a complete hagiography. Do NOT accept this as anything resembling Charlotte's actual life. Mrs. Gaskell, a good friend, had a fixed Victorian agenda: to paint Bronte as "the ghost in the graveyard" who experienced nothing but tragedy & was as pious as a priest.
Anyone who's read her letters to M. Heger (and her books!) knows far different. Plus, Charlotte truly enjoyed writing & being with her family. She got a chance to be lionized by the intelligensia of London, her glimpse at "...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Raelene rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs-biography, the-books-of-2012

Gaskell's biography is of course a biography, but more importantly, it's a text in its own right with clear authorial intent. It's a biography in letters and draws primarily upon Charlotte's own letters (even though you can't help but wonder what Gaskell chose to leave out). More than a history of Charlotte's life however, it's an argument and a treatise in defense of Charlotte and women's writing in particular (and of course, is the first biogrphy of a woman novelist by a woman novelist - which...more

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Dec 27, 2011 James Kelly rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you're looking for a biography of Charlotte Brontë, don't stop here. Gaskell's work is more fiction than fact, motivated by a desire to rescue Charlotte from accusations of being base and unfeminine. Because her works were deemed inappropriate from the pen of a woman, Gaskell attempts to portray Charlotte as a properly quiet, demure and retiring woman whose work merely reflected the harsh, brutal world around her. Consequently everyone around Charlotte is vilified and her environment painted...more

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Jul 18, 2011 kelley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, kindle

Elizabeth Gaskell's biograpy of Charlotte Bronte was very detailed. It was not a story but a narration of facts and events that occurred throughout Miss Bronte's life. Mrs. Gaskell describes everything with such detail that you can put yourself in Charlotte’s world. Much of the work includes actual letters written to and by Charlotte. These letters are an invaluable resource for exploring the life and mind of this remarkable woman. Along with a narration of facts and events in Charlotte’s life M...more

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Apr 26, 2011 Erin Blakemore rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow. This is the ur-Brontë biography, the one that all other biographies are clearly based on in part or in whole, and it's just as chatty, engaging, and passionate as Mrs. Gaskell herself.

Though the bio's insistence that Charlotte was pure, womanly, and perfect get annoying, it's really the most loving and immediate biography of CB I've ever read...and the only one that made me cry multiple times.

Maybe it's just my love of both women, but I highly recommend this one if you're only going to di...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Katrina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biographies-letters-diaries, e-book

I really enjoyed this book, and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this is probably one of the best biographies I've read in years.

Before starting Gaskell's book, I only knew the bare bones of the Bronte family's story as well as a few anecdotes told to me by a couple of English teachers back in school. So it was quite an nice eyeopener to have some the knowledge gaps filled in as it were.

The book is quite a hefty read and Gaskell spends quite a lot time in the beginning of the biography...more

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Oct 20, 2009 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-literature

I found this deep and sloggy water to tread through. For someone who knew Charlotte Bronte, I was astonished at the heavy hand with which Gaskell appeared to be writing. It was as if her need to see Charlotte well treated robbed Elizabeth Gaskell of all her lightness and verve (as seen in Cranford or Wives and Daughters...). I also wondered if she was editing her friend's life as she wrote -- making it a mechanical thing. Of course, they are all questions I can never answer, but absolutely cloud...more

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May 05, 2013 Karolína Moravcová rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh, my dear poor, little bird...ensnared in the thousands of cynical nets, social conventionalities of your ungrateful time! The bird entangled but never ceasing to struggle on with that helpless fealing of the denied free airs on the unconscious heights above her... The bright flame of your innermost heart, Charlotte, though nourished only with the bitterly hopeless dream-drops stintingly let out of your rich imagination, denies every notion of time and space and soothes the feminine intuitions...more Oh, my dear poor, little bird...ensnared in the thousands of cynical nets, social conventionalities of your ungrateful time! The bird entangled but never ceasing to struggle on with that helpless fealing of the denied free airs on the unconscious heights above her... The bright flame of your innermost heart, Charlotte, though nourished only with the bitterly hopeless dream-drops stintingly let out of your rich imagination, denies every notion of time and space and soothes the feminine intuitions of your women readers - gives through such a genial ray of the most profound and natural understanding - a thing seldom felt among our kind since the prehistoric society.
Since I read this book I don´t only admire your writing skill and sensitivness, but feel you as one of the most intimate friends! Our minds touch each other whenever I open Jane Eyre or Villette, or read one of your personal lettres... But how do I wish I had been there when the time of the mortal part of your existence was stifling and mortifing your spirit...and your desperate mind was forced to flee into the comforting world of your lofty imagination as far as the free green meads rolling beneath Mr.Rochester´s feet as he ran to greet you, to smoothe your just tears and give you the new strenght to toil on...-I would have shared your day-dreams and fears, I would have tried to solicit you, to make you aware of your constrained, but still unextinguished proud naturality inside you, and to persuade you to give it finally the sway, to see what all you could have still achieved...even in your difficult position! You were so shy, so scared of the other people´s looks and remarks, so sensitive to cynicism of the refined society, by the consequence lacking any single feeling of self-confidence - wild child from the Yorkshire moors - thinking yourself ugly, dull for company ("poor, obscure, plain and little")..-I would have told you how beautiful your really had been...as every living creature whose mind isn´t stupefied and countenance falsened!
I can still feel the bitter tang in my mind after perusing those lettres of yours, which were exposed to the public judgement for the very first time in this book, together with all the remarks, experiences and opinions of your closest ones, yet untarnished by time, composed into one compelling history (touching me deeper than even any of your own novels - its effect increased by the strong consciousness that it´s the true person whose emotions we share) by your devoted friend with the similar interests and mission - another excelling female writer - Mrs. Gaskell.
I feel as if I have just come with you through all your life, step by step, pain by hope, hope by pain (in all that your acqueintances were allowed to uncover from your coarsely dim and yet hiddenly so tossed a living. (What had you been crying out without uttering any word and hardly any sound, and yet with all your soul, in the bitter watches of the nights, when all your life seemed shrinking..as inside a cage? ..I think I have a notion now.)

{I would fain to meet your beloved sister Emily, too.. Maybe I could have become the only being beside her sisters whom she would have been able to respect and talk to without restarint...- her mettle seems to be so much alike my own...- much more than that of yours, Charlotte - but yours is so strangely familial to me, now; and I feel a certain connection between me and you like a tiny untimely ribbon winding throughout the centuries with its acute touch of the put down and yet unbeaten naturality of independent(feminine) spirit.}(less)

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May 24, 2011 Kj rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: research, own-it

In my late teens, I read nearly every Charlotte Brontë biography in the cannon, except the most famous one: the one written by her friend, fellow author Elizabeth Gaskell. I skipped it for a few reasons. One, every contemporary biography essentially ransacks Gaskell's work, citing it every three pages or so. So, I kind of felt like I'd already read it. Second, Brontë biographies were my introduction to "Mrs. Gaskell" and they didn't paint her in the best light. Most 20th century Brontë biographe...more In my late teens, I read nearly every Charlotte Brontë biography in the cannon, except the most famous one: the one written by her friend, fellow author Elizabeth Gaskell. I skipped it for a few reasons. One, every contemporary biography essentially ransacks Gaskell's work, citing it every three pages or so. So, I kind of felt like I'd already read it. Second, Brontë biographies were my introduction to "Mrs. Gaskell" and they didn't paint her in the best light. Most 20th century Brontë biographers see Gaskell as having written a hyper-glossed apologetic for Charlotte's feminine merits, highlighting wherever possible, no matter how illogical, that Brontë was a model daughter and housekeeper. I assumed therefore that "Mrs Gaskell" was ashamed of Charlotte's passionate nature and literary ventures, and was trying to bury them under a safe Victorian "angel in the house" motif.

Fifteen years later, having read some of Gaskell's fiction, I know that couldn't be the case. Gaskell was anything but ashamed of strong women or iconoclasts. So was what Brontë biographers implied true? It was time to find out for myself.

First of all, the greatest challenge (for me) reading Gaskell's Life of Brontë is that I've never read 19th century biography. It is one behemoth of a genre, and one that few of us have context for anymore. Back in the day, it seemed the great past time (or duty) of every great writer was to eulogize other great writers with epic biographies. If you want to explore some of these, Charlotte Brontë herself suggests "for biography, read Johnson's Lives of the Poets, Boswell's Life of Johnson, Southey's Life of Nelson, Lockhart's Life of Burns, Moore's Life of Sheridan, Moore's Life of Byron," and so on. So entering Gaskell's Life of Brontë is to some extent, an expedition into the world of those leather-bound tomes full of dates, correspondences, and panegyrics from one great author to another. As one who reads 150 year-old fiction on a nonstop basis, this genre still felt quite foreign.

In persevering, though, I found some things well worth the search. I read the Oxford Classics edition and highly recommend it for its notes. The main challenge in reading, is that Gaskell is bound both by Victorian propriety and by perceived obligation to her friend Charlotte, to protect both her privacy and her reputation. Thus, no juicy bits or suppositions about what's happening in-between the lines of her letters (and life). But the Oxford notes offer great annotations and corrections when possible. That enervating habit of 19th century authors to blank out names of people and places, gets filled in by flipping to the end notes. Hallelujah. (Though this did triple the length of reading time).

I still felt pretty distant from the Charlotte Brontë presented in the pages. The version of her you get is so much Gaskell's redaction, that despite 70% of the text being letters from Brontë's own hand, it still feels emotionally and contextually distant, (at least for this modern reader). But that's likely a genre and context issue. It's clear that Gaskell wanted Brontë's critics to know that the author of Jane Eyre, Shirley and Villette was an unassuming and unpretentious woman who lived a quiet life of suffering and struggle, and who shied away from fame. Against Brontë's detractors who accused her pseudonymous "Currer Bell" of being "course" and "un-Christian," Gaskell displays the deep moral and spiritual convictions, reservedness and compassion that epitomized this Yorkshire curate's daughter.

Though Gaskell's Life of Brontë is perhaps less illuminating of Brontë's relationships and life choices than is contemporary scholarship, the work is indeed, as Charlotte's father Rev Patrick Brontë said, "in every way worthy of what one great woman should have written of another."

What I enjoyed most was the amount of correspondence time Brontë takes in recommending and critiquing literature. Her relationship with her publishers turned into what seemed a perpetual book club of trading books and reviews. And what sticks out so often is that Brontë rarely mentions plot construction, setting or even language. Her responses almost always center on what the author uncovers or expresses of true human nature, or how the heart and mind of the author is revealed in their writing. That's how I read Brontë's writing as well. Not surprising then that it was in these passages that I got the clearest sense of who this woman was, and as a result, drew nearer to her.

Gaskell's Life of Brontë is a must-read for any Brontë devotee, even if only to gain respect and sympathy for the short and impacting friendship shared by two culture-shaping women, who could never have predicted the reach of their legacies. This is Elizabeth mourning the loss of her friend Charlotte, in the kindest way she could think of. It's much appreciated.(less)

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Aug 12, 2009 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an interesting biography of Bronte written by one of her contemporaries, even another female author of the time (E. Gaskell of "North and South" etc.). Charlotte came across as very humble and probably listened too well to what the critics said about her work. It appears that her best book was written first, before she was opened to what others said. I also think it's funny that she didn't care for Jane Austen's work, but dealt with a lot of similar themes (womanhood, marriage, social ex...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Furqan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People interested in the myth of Brontes

Shelves: classics, biography, the-brontës, non-fiction, victorian-literature, great-and-terrible-women

The history of Bronte family is marred with the record of diseases, alcoholism, unrequited love, loneliness and their untimely deaths. Their lives are as much as fascinating as the literary Classics they later came to write.

The life of Charlotte Bronte was published by Elizabeth Gaskell two years after the death of her friend (albeit not a close one) Charlotte Bronte. While this book is a classic in its own right, for being the first of its kind and introducing the name of Bronte to the wider V...more The history of Bronte family is marred with the record of diseases, alcoholism, unrequited love, loneliness and their untimely deaths. Their lives are as much as fascinating as the literary Classics they later came to write.

The life of Charlotte Bronte was published by Elizabeth Gaskell two years after the death of her friend (albeit not a close one) Charlotte Bronte. While this book is a classic in its own right, for being the first of its kind and introducing the name of Bronte to the wider Victorian audience, this biography should not be treated as a "definitive" account of Bronte family. Gaskell purposefully tries to create a 'fiction' out of lives of Brontes by including various misquotations, factual inaccuracies (although of little consequence) and deliberate misrepresentations of events to give a really romanticised portrayal of Charlotte Bronte and her family. E.g. while Charlotte is represented as a "tormented soul", always sympathetic and altruistic, her sister Emily is maligned as hardhearted, egotistical, and a dog-beater! Charlotte's unrequited love for Constantin Héger (her French teacher and a married man) is not even alluded to, despite of the glaring evidence. Of course, Mrs.Gaskell can't truly be blamed for it, as an account of Charlotte's passion for a married man would certainly have offended Victorian virtues and would have sullied the reputation of Bronte family for years to come, not to forget that many of the Charlotte's relations, including her father and husband were alive and Gaskell couldn't have afforded to betray their confidences.

On a positive note, I learnt a great deal about the life of one of my favourite authors. Almost half of the book consists of the exquisite and heartfelt letters written by Charlotte to her friends and literary correspondents. Gaskell meticulously chronicles Bronte's life in a linear and coherent fashion, while capturing the heart and soul of Victorian Yorkshire through her lovely descriptions of the settings and few local anecdotes. (less)

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Nov 16, 2009 Terri rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: listened-to, librivox

Many of the reviews I read of this book fault it for skimming over some details of Charlotte's life. In particular, reviewers felt that the book only focused on the good and didn't bring out any of the "dark secrets" from her life. Personally, I think it's better for this.

Elizabeth Gaskell was a close friend of Charlotte Bronte and wrote the book as a tribute to her good friend. As such, she praised her friend. Wouldn't we all want our friends to remember us in a postive light? Also the book was...more

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May 28, 2009 Shyla rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3.5 stars. I had high expectations with Gaskell as the biographer, but somehow she managed to put a boring spin on everything--the first third of the book was especially bad. But the information in the middle to end of the book and the frequent excerpts from Charlotte's letters made it well worth reading. I liked that she showed Bronte's flaws (the shyness and insecurity was a bit over the top) but still made Bronte fascinating and loveable. I do wish she would have gotten into some of the juicy...more

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Jun 09, 2010 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-memoir, literary-criticism

This book enchanted me despite its flaws. It begins with an excruciating two-chapter description of the Yorkshire landscape, the Yorkshire personality, Haworth, and Haworth parsonage, and my interest lagged until the Bronte family entered the scene. Gaskell unabashedly tried to show the best side of Bronte in her biography, as both her friendship with Bronte and the fact that she wrote the book at the request of Patrick Bronte, Charlotte's father, would incline her to do. I'm glad because I thin...more

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About Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson (29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to simply as Mrs. Gaskell, was an English novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. She is perhaps best known for her biography of Charlotte Brontë. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor, and as such are of interest to socia...more

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“If we would build on a sure foundation in friendship, we must love our friends for their sakes rather than for our own.” — 90 people liked it

“And besides, in the matter of friendship, I have observed that the disappointment here arises chiefly, not from liking our friends too well, or thinking of them too highly, but rather from an over-estimate of their liking for and opinion of us; and that if we guard ourselves with sufficient scrupulousness of care from error in this direction, and can be content, and even happy to give more affection than we receive -- can make just comparison of circumstances, and be severely accurate in drawing inferences thence, and never let self-love blind our eyes -- I think we may manage to get through life with consistency and constancy, unembittered by that misanthropy which springs from revulsions of feeling. All this sounds a little metaphysical, but it is good sense of if you consider it. The moral of it is, that if we would build on a sure foundation in friendship, we must love our friends for their sakes rather than for our own; we must look at their truth to themselves, full as much as their truth to us. In the latter case, every wound to self-love would be a cause of coldness; in the former, only some painful change in the friend's character and disposition -- some fearful breach in his allegiance to his better self -- could alienate the heart.

(quoted from a letter by Charlotte Brontë to her publisher)” — 2 people liked it

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