The life of Charlotte Brontë

by Elizabeth Gaskell

  5 (p. 155) “Mr. and Mrs. —?”: Mr. and Mrs. Collins are possibly the models for the abusive marriage portrayed by Anne Brontë in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).

  CHAPTER X

  1 (p. 158) “Mr. and Mrs.—”: Brontë was governess to the White family, Upperwood House, from March to December 1841. She was responsible for two children, aged six and eight. Of her charges Brontë observed: “The children are not such little devils incarnate as the Sidgwicks, but they are over-indulged, and at times hard to manage” (Charlotte Brontë to Ellen Nussey, March 21, 1841; in The Letters of Charlotte Brontë, vol. 1, p. 248).

  CHAPTER XI

  1 (p. 170) pensionnat of Madame Héger: Claire Zöe Heger (1804-1890), later fictionalized as Mme. Beck in Villette (1853), was the director of the school Brontë and her sister Emily attended in Brussels. Her husband, Constantin Heger (1809-1896), the model for Paul Emanuel in Villette, was a rhetoric professor at the Athénée Royale, an upper school for boys. In addition to teaching at his wife’s boarding school, he also conducted evening classes for factory workers.

  2 (p. 171) and straight returned to his wild Yorkshire village: Actually, Patrick Brontë visited the battlefield at Waterloo and toured Brussels before returning home.

  3 (p. 174) whose acquaintance I am glad to have made: Gaskell traveled to Brussels in May 1856 ”to have a look at“ the Hegers as part of her research for the biography (The Letters of Mrs. Gaskell, letter 271a). During this visit M. Heger shared letters Brontë sent him after her departure from Brussels; they revealed an obsessive attachment to her former teacher that was fueled by the intellectual and imaginative connection they had forged.

  4 (pp. 174—175) “”Je ne connais pas personellement M. Héger... appreciée par ses élèves:” Gaskell includes this letter, written by an unidentified correspondent who did not know M. Heger personally, as testimony to his upright character. Gaskell was perhaps anxious to protect M. Heger’s reputation in the event that Brontë’s attachment to him was surmised by readers of the biography. The writer describes M. Heger as a “noble” man of “principle and conscience” who is “profoundly and openly religious,” and who “makes everyone who comes into contact with him love him.” The writer, who has seen Mme. Heger only once, describes her as a ”cold“ woman who is nevertheless beloved by her pupils.

  5 (p. 179) “Mirabeau Orateur”:The quotation is from Étude sur Mirabeau (1834), by Victor Hugo (1802-1885). The Comte de Mirabeau (1749-1791), a great orator, was a political moderate active in the early stages of the French Revolution.

  6 (pp. 180-182) “De temps en temps... de Moise et de Josue”: Brontë’s essay celebrates the religious zeal of Peter the Hermit (c. 1050-1115), a lowly monk who led the First Crusade in 1096. “From time to time there appear on the earth men who are destined to be the instruments of great moral or political changes,” she begins. Among these great men she ranks “conquerors” like Alexander the Great and Attila, “revolutionaries” like Cromwell and Robespierre, and ”religious enthusiasts“ like Muhammad and Peter the Hermit. The essay generally extols men whose passionate natures propel them to great action and accepts the fact that they tend to have no moderation “either in good or evil.” Brontë especially admires Peter the Hermit, whom she describes as a poor, physically small, and relatively unattractive man who was able to sway nations through his eloquence, enthusiasm, and faith. Brontë assigns to Peter the Hermit the “double role of prophet and warrior,” and reveals her Western bias by remarking that “Mahomet never moved to action the indolent nations of the East as Peter moved the vigorous people of the West.”

  7 (p. 183) M. Héger took up a more advanced plan... synthetical teaching: M. Heger’s pedagogical method focused on analyzing rhetorical strategies among authors treating the same subject, with a view to discerning political and other buried agendas. This training aided Brontë in the novelist’s task of developing character complexity and framing a point of view.

  8 (p. 184) desire to do the will of the Lord: The authors and the works referred to are Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704), the funeral oration for Henrietta Maria (1609-1669), widow of Charles I, in 1669; François Guizot (1787-1874), Histoire de la revolution d’Angleterre (6 vols., 1826-1856); and Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), On Heroes, Hero-worship, and the Heroic in History (1841).

  9 (pp. 191-193) “Au Révérend Monsieur Brontë... de mes sentiments de haute consideration”: M. Heger’s condolence letter to Patrick Brontë includes a favorable report of his daughters’ progress at school and expresses the wish that they will soon return to finish their studies in order that they might become qualified teachers. At such time, M. Heger explains, he and his wife could offer one or both girls a post that would provide ”that sweet independence so difficult for a young person to find. This is not, understand well, Sir, this is not now a matter of personal interest for us, it is a matter of affection; you will pardon me if we talk to you of your children, if we concern ourselves with their future, as if they were part of our family.”

  CHAPTER XII

  1 (p. 199) “Sur La Nom de Napoleon”: The title should read, Sur La Mort de Napoleon. Brontë’s condemnation of Napoleon culminates in a paean to her childhood hero, the Duke of Wellington.

  2 (pp. 199-202) “Napoléon naquit en Corse... Wellington a de droit à sa reconnoissance”: Brontë’s essay, which deplores Napoléon’s demagoguery, negates his achievements and focuses instead on his death in exile on the island of St. Helena. “Others have told and retold his exploits, as for me,” Brontë explains, “I stop to contemplate the desolation of his final hour.” Brontë asks: “Between his cradle and his grave what was there?” Her answer: “A sea of blood, a throne, then more blood, and chains.” Brontë judges Napoleon on both a political and a personal level. She condemns him for “tearing up entire nations” to build his empire, but his greatest sin in her estimation was that he was not bound by human affection: “He did not love; he considered his friends and associates merely as instruments upon which he played, while they were useful, and which he threw aside when they ceased to be so.” Brontë’s national pride is evidenced when she contrasts Napoléon’s ambition and love of flattery with the political selflessness and “modesty” of his vanquisher, the Duke of Wellington.

  3 (p. 204) There were causes for stress and anxiety... particularly as regarded Branwell : The Brontës did not discover Branwell’s disgrace in the Robinson affair (see Introduction) until July 1845, a year and a half after the period under discussion here. Gaskell intentionally confuses the chronology of events in order to manufacture external reasons for Brontë’s depression.

  4 (p. 206) she was uncompromising truth: Gaskell manufactures a cover story for Brontë here. Mme. Heger’s coldness was the result of Brontë’s growing attachment to M. Heger not of religious differences. Gaskell became aware of the true reason for the estrangement during her visit to Brussels, when Mme. Heger on finding she was Brontë’s friend, refused to see her. Brontë’s unease about exposing the Heger affair through Villette is evidenced by her decision to reserve the right of translation of the novel. Nevertheless, a pirated French edition appeared in 1855.

  CHAPTER XIII

  1 (p. 215) But a weight hung over her: The remainder of this paragraph and the following one were omitted in the third edition due to a threatened libel suit from Mrs. Robinson, by then Lady Scott. Gaskell’s lawyers also printed a retraction in the Times (May 30, 1857). All unsold copies of the first and second editions were pulled from the shelves.

  2 (p. 216) The story must be told: Gaskell vilifies Lydia Robinson as the seducer of innocent Branwell. Patrick Brontë approved this version of the events, but it is unclear where the truth lies, or if there was indeed a sexual liaison, as Branwell claimed. See the Introduction.

  3 (p. 219) she thus writes to M. Héger: The text that follows is compiled from carefully culled extracts made by Heger for Gaskell from two of Brontë’s letters (July 24 and October 24, 1844). For the full French tex
t of the letters, see Gérin, Charlotte Brontë:The Evolution of Genius, Appendix D.

  4 (p. 219) “Il n‘y a rien que je craigns ... Agréez, Monsieur, &c.”: “There is nothing I fear as much as idleness, inertia, lethargy of the faculties. When the body is lethargic, the spirit suffers cruelly; I would not know this lethargy, if I could write. I used to spend days, weeks, entire months writing, and not altogether without success, since Southey and [Hartley] Coleridge, two of our best authors, to whom I sent some manuscripts, were pleased to give their approbation; but at present, my eyesight is weak; if I write too much I will become 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 dedicate it to my literature master, to the only master I have ever had—to you, Monsieur! I have told you often in French how much I respect you, how indebted I am to your kindness and your instruction. I would like to say it one time in English. But that cannot be; there’s no use thinking about it. A literary career is closed to me.... Do not forget to tell me how you are and how Madame and the children are. I hope to receive news from you soon; this idea cheers me, because the memory of your kindness will never be effaced from my mind, and as long as this memory endures, the respect that you have inspired will endure also. Accept, Monsieur, &c.” (translated by Anne Taranto).

  5 (p. 222) “Je crains beaucoup d’oublier le français ... j‘y irai” “I very much fear that I will forget my French—I learn half a page of French by heart every day, and I take great pleasure in the lesson. I want to assure Mme. of my esteem for her; I fear that Marie, Louise, and Claire will have already forgotten me; but I will see you again one day; As soon as I can earn enough money to go to Brussels I will do so“” (translated by Anne Taranto).

  6 (p. 225) never see Branwell Brontë again: Mr. Robinson’s will reveals this claim to be untrue. Branwell might have floated this face-saving rumor, or, as Barker suggests, Lydia Robinson may have done so in an effort to deter Branwell’s unwanted attentions (Barker, The Brontës, pp. 493-496).

  CHAPTER XIV

  1 (p. 228) an intelligent man living in Haworth: The man is John Green-wood, the Haworth stationer. According to Gaskell, Brontë counted him her only friend in Haworth (The Letters of Mrs. Gaskell, letter 337).

  2 (p. 231) railway panic: In the mid-nineteenth century several companies formed to build rail lines across England, selling shares on the stock market to raise money for their ventures. Especially notorious was George Hudson (1800—1871), the “Railway King,“” chairman of the York and North-Midland Company and a speculator who merged several companies into one conglomerate and engaged in what is now termed insider trading, to inflate holdings artificially. The bubble Hudson helped to create burst in 1847, bringing financial ruin to many investors.

  3 (p. 237) her father’s curate: Arthur Bell Nicholls (1818?-1906) came to Haworth as curate in May 1845. He was born in Ireland and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. Note how Gaskell frames Brontë’s apparent indifference to Nicholls as modesty.

  Volume II

  CHAPTER I

  1 (p. 246) Mr. Trench: Richard Chenevix Trench (1807-1886), professor of divinity, philologist, and later archbishop of Dublin, wrote On the Study of Words ( 1851) and English, Past and Present (1855).

  2 (p. 247) “the death of Currer Bell”: The anonymous obituary of Brontë by Harriet Martineau, a novelist who influenced Brontë, appeared in the Daily News, April 1855 (see Allot, ed., The Brontës:The Critical Heritage, pp. 301-305).

  CHAPTER II

  1 (p. 255) Mr. Smith: George Smith (1824-1901), Brontë’s publisher, revitalized the business founded by his father in 1816, making Smith, Elder and Company a house of literary distinction. Smith counted Ruskin and Darwin among his authors, and the success of Jane Eyre attracted other prominent novelists, among them Thackeray and Gaskell. Smith founded the Cornhill Magazine (1860), the foremost literary periodical of its day, and published the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1900).

  2 (p. 259) gentleman connected with the firm to read it first: William Smith Williams (1800-1875), Smith’s literary adviser, was the first to recognize the merit of Jane Eyre. Williams’s critical acumen was central to the firm’s success.

  3 (p. 259) The Reviews: Reviews of the first edition of Jane Eyre mentioned here appeared in the following periodicals (in these notes and the footnotes, brackets are placed around a writer’s name to indicate that the review appeared unsigned—that is, as an anonymous review): [H. F. Chorley], Athenaeum, October 23, 1847; Spectator, November 6, 1847; Literary Gazette, October 23, 1847; and [A.W Fonblanque], the Examiner, November 27, 1847. Other reviews ran in the Economist, November 27, 1847, and People’s Journal, November 1847. Reviews of the second edition of Jane Eyre include Elizabeth Rigby’s infamous, if unsigned, ad hominem attack in the Quarterly Review 84 (December 1848) and an unsigned notice by G. H. Lewes, in Fraser’s Magazine (December 1847). For a selection, see Allot, ed., The Brontës: The Critical Heritage.

  4 (p. 266) one who offered presumptuous and injudicious praise: Samuel Johnson admonished Hannah More to ”consider what her flattery was worth, before she choaked him with it.“ (Hester Lynch Piozzi, Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson [1786]). In The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791) James Boswell renders it: “Dearest madam, consider with yourself what your flattery is worth, before you bestow it so freely.”

  5 (p. 267) G. H. Lewes: The versatile and largely self-educated thinker George Henry Lewes (1817-1878) was a philosopher, journalist, literary critic, novelist, playwright, and sometime actor. He had a fraught professional relationship with Brontë, who thought he had a touch too much of dogmatism.”

  6 (p. 269) truth is considered a libel in speaking of such people: Gaskell is referring to Thomas Cautley Newby, who published Emily’s Wuthering Heights and Anne’s Agnes Grey in 1847, but rejected Charlotte’s manuscript of The Professor. Newby’s unscrupulous business practices deprived both Emily and Anne Brontë proceeds from the sale of the copyrights for their novels; more damagingly, his false advertising capitalized on the success of Jane Eyre to portray the Bells as one person.

  7 (p. 275) “I can understand admiration of George Sand”: The French writer George Sand (1804—1876) is celebrated as much today for her bohemian lifestyle and cross-dressing as for her prolific literary output as novelist, dramatist, correspondent, memoirist, and political tract writer. “My profession is to be free,” she once declared.

  8 (p. 278) “beyond anything due to a Bulwer or D’Israeli production”: Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) and Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) were politicians, novelists, and friends. Bulwer-Lytton’s sensationalistic bent made him one of the most popular writers of his day. Disraeli, who twice served as prime minister, wrote “condition of England” novels treating social issues. In suggesting that Lewes’s novel deserves more acclaim than a Bulwer or Disraeli production, Brontë is perhaps offering faint praise.

  9 (p. 278) water-supply to each house: Patrick Brontë campaigned the Board of Health in London for more than a decade for a clean water supply and improved sanitary conditions for Haworth. Although an inspector finally arrived in 1849 and advocated, among other measures, immediately closing the graveyard, Haworth did not receive a piped water supply until 1858. (See Barker, The Brontës, p. 814.)

  10 (p. 279) “That England may be spared the spasms... I earnestly pray”: Brontë fears that the working-class Chartist movement (1838-1848), which called for universal male suffrage and abolition of property qualifications for members of Parliament, would unleash a revolution in England like those that had been spreading on the Continent.

  11 (p. 286) Chatterton: The poet Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770), too avant-garde to be appreciated in his day, committed suicide at age seventeen. He later became an idol to the Romantics and Pre-Raphaelites.

  CHAPTER III

  1 (p. 296) “Quarterly Review” of December, 1848: Elizabeth Rigby’s anonymous review of Jane Eyr
e appeared this month (see endnote 3 to volume II, chapter II).

  2 (p. 297) “lama sabachthoni,”—still, even then let him pray... than judge with the Pharisee: Gaskell’s defense of Brontë overdramatically culminates in Christ’s appeal on the cross: “Why hast thou forsaken me?” (See the King James Version of the Bible, Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46.) For the parable of the publican and the Pharisee, see Luke 18:10-14.

  3 (p. 308) following account of the journey—and of the end: Ellen Nussey provided this eyewitness account of Anne Brontë’s death, albeit written in retrospect for Gaskell, who edited it.

  CHAPTER IV

  1 (p. 315) “three curates”: Two were based on Patrick Brontë’s former curates, James William Smith and Joseph Brett Grant, and the last on a curate of a neighboring parish. Brontë’s contempt for curates as a class is registered in a letter to Ellen Nussey: “At this blessed moment we have no less than three of them in Haworth-Parish—and God knows there is not one to mend another” (Charlotte Brontë to Ellen Nussey, June [18?], 1845; in The Letters of Charlotte Brontë, vol. 1, p. 399).

  2 (p. 320) Mr. Hall: William Margetson Heald, the vicar of Ellen Nussey’s parish, believed that either he or his father was the model for this character (William Heald to Nussey, January 8, 1850; in Wise and Symington, vol. 3, p. 63).

  3 (p. 324) mortified her far more than actual blame: Interestingly, the criticisms Lewes offers are not of the kind Gaskell enumerates here. Far from lowering the standard, he claims to raise the bar by taking Brontë to task for stepping ”“out of her sex—without elevating herself above it.” [G. H. Lewes], Edinburgh Review 91, January 1850.

  4 (p. 324) She often writes... the following... letters to Cornhill: The following letter is to James Taylor (November 6, 1849; in The Letters of Charlotte Brontë, vol. 2, pp. 280-281). Gaskell suppresses Taylor’s name as correspondent here and throughout presumably because she wants to deflect the suggestion that Brontë invited his marriage proposal. Brontë continued to correspond with Taylor after she rejected his suit and he left England to head Smith, Elder’s India office.