Jane Eyre 2011: Week 1 - Volume the First: Part 1 - Chapters I-V

[MadgeUK]

It is the old 'blood is thicker than water' argument isn't it. Jane was only related to Mrs Reed by marriage whereas Mr Reed was a blood relative.

[Ellen]

MadgeUK wrote: "Thanks a lot for those comments Ellen about Cecil's critique Ellen."

You're quite welcome, Madge. Honestly, I really think you'd enjoy this book very much, and hope you have a chance to read it someday!

Have a wonderful week!
Ellen

[MadgeUK]

I'll look out for it Ellen, thanks. I have spent the weekend re-reading Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte, which occasioned many tears. The sadness of her life is scarcely imaginable. She lost her mother when she was 5, two of her sisters when she was 9, her aunt and brother when she was 32 and two more sisters shortly afterwards. She married when she was 38, had a few month's happiness and then died in childbirth later that year, possibly of typhus caught from a servant but aggravated by severe morning sickness which her malnourished body could not stand. (I thought of that tiny little dress at the Haworth Museum...). Her father, Patrick Bronte, outlived them all, no doubt because the women of the household had spent their lives looking after him! Absolutely tragic lives and a terrible waste of talent:(:(

[Ellen]

MadgeUK wrote: "I'll look out for it Ellen, thanks. I have spent the weekend re-reading Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte, which occasioned many tears. The sadness of her life is scarcely imaginable. She lost he..."

Oh, Madge, yes! Charlotte Bronte's life was very tragic indeed. So very sad a life, and yet out of that horrid existence she was able to create her amazing books. Triumph over tragedy, I think. I didn't know that her father was the only one to live a fairly long life, and as you said, he was taken good care of often at the expense of the lives of the women in his household. This reminds of Vanessa Bell's (Woolf's sister, the artist) huge rebellion against and dislike of her father's, Leslie Stephen, constant unremitting demands on her and Virginia for succor, emotional support, and so much more. Bell writes about how awful it was for her when she had to stand in front of her father and review the household accounts, which provoked histrionics from him that made her so very angry. This happened at the end of the Victorian years, and when Stephen died his children had mixed reactions. Woolf herself was grief-stricken, but Vanessa felt a sense of relief. Sad.