The Brontës: Wild Genius on the Moors: The Story of a Literary Family

by Juliet Barker

To Monsieur Heger alone Charlotte confided the pain of her depressed spirits and the consequent lethargy which afflicted her. I would not know this lethargy if I could write – in the past I could spend days, weeks, whole months writing and not without reward – for Southey and Coleridge – two of our best authors to whom I had sent certain manuscripts were good enough to show their approbation of them – but at present my sight is too weak to write – if I write much I will go blind. This weakness of sight is a terrible privation for me – without it do you know what I would do Monsieur? – I would write a book and I would dedicate it to my literature master – to the only master I have ever had – to you Monsieur. I have often told you in French how much I respect you – how much I am indebted to your goodness, to your advice, I would like to say it once in English – it cannot be – it must not be thought of – the career of letters is closed to me – that of teaching alone is open to me – it does not offer me the same attractions – it does not matter, I will enter it and if I do not go far it will not be for lack of diligence.112 The fact that she was writing in French seems to have broken down the natural reticence and modesty which would once have held Charlotte back from declaring her feelings for any man so openly. It was almost as if the constraints of writing in a foreign language actually liberated her: she could put into French what she could not say in English because she d...