Published two years after the novelist's death, this two-volume work is the first and the best-known of the many biographies of the Brontļæ½ family. Written by the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65), the book was instrumental in the creation of the Brontļæ½s' public image as a family set apart by literary genius and personal tragedy. Gaskell's chief source for the biography was some 350 letters between Charlotte and her friend Ellen Nussey, letters which Charlotte's husband had asked Nussey to destroy after his wife's ...
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Published two years after the novelist's death, this two-volume work is the first and the best-known of the many biographies of the Brontļæ½ family. Written by the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65), the book was instrumental in the creation of the Brontļæ½s' public image as a family set apart by literary genius and personal tragedy. Gaskell's chief source for the biography was some 350 letters between Charlotte and her friend Ellen Nussey, letters which Charlotte's husband had asked Nussey to destroy after his wife's death, fearing they would damage her reputation. Volume 1 consists of 14 chapters and covers the Brontļæ½ ancestry, Charlotte's time at school and as a governess, her juvenilia, the 'deplorable conduct' of her laudanum-addicted brother Branwell, and the publication of her poems, along with those of her sisters Anne and Emily, in the volume Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell in 1846.
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This is a nicely organized biography on Charlotte Bronte. The author goes into deep discussion of the culture at the time. I read this for a class and had some trouble finishing the book due to my own dislike of Bronte. I never liked the Bronte sisters' books. The biography is enjoyable even if not a fan of Charlotte Bronte. I can admit it was well written and well organized.