'Charlotte Brontë' is an irresistible biography of 'Jane Eyre' and its author

Literary biographer Claire Harman’s retelling of the life of Charlotte Brontë, published to coincide with the bicentennial of Brontë’s birth, is a must-read, even for those familiar with the story.

Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart By Claire Harman Knopf Doubleday 480 pp.

The popularity of "Jane Eyre" and mystery surrounding the identity of its author – whose pseudonym was the gender-ambiguous “Currer Bell” – created a sensation in Victorian England when it was published in 1847. The novel still resonates today, testifying to the power of its protagonist’s voice, which seethes with frustrated desire, and indignation at the social and economic injustices faced by girls and women. Virginia Woolf criticized these qualities as failings – Brontë’s own grievances disrupting her writing – but in fact, they are what give "Jane Eyre" its force. Brontë’s publisher famously read the book in one sitting, canceling a friend’s visit and impatiently dismissing the servant who interrupted to bring his lunch.

Brontë’s life bore little resemblance to Jane’s, but was in its own way as gothic, providing fuel for her novels. Literary biographer Claire Harman’s retelling of those events in Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart, published to coincide with the bicentennial of Brontë’s birth, is an irresistible read even for those familiar with her story.

Charlotte’s isolated youth gave her material to draw from and space to hone her craft. The six Brontë children ranged from one to seven when their mother Maria died, leaving them to the care of a remote father (his evolution from Patrick Brunty, son of an Irish farmhand, to Reverend Brontë is where Harman’s story begins). Within a few years, Charlotte’s older sisters died as well, having contracted tuberculosis at the Cowan Bridge school, which Charlotte later fictionalized, lambasting it for its harsh religious doctrine and unsanitary conditions.

Left to themselves, the remaining siblings – Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne – did chores and studies, took walks on the moors Emily would immortalize in "Wuthering Heights," and wrote poetry and fiction. 

Harman emphasizes the parallels between Charlotte and Branwell, who were just a year apart, by juxtaposing episodes of their youth. The two collaborated on stories set in the fantastical Angria, and both wrote to renown poets for encouragement – Southey’s response taught Charlotte a lifelong lesson in adopting a male persona so as to be judged on her writing, not her gender. Both experimented with opium (at least, Harman makes a convincing case that Charlotte did) and harbored an obsessive unrequited love for someone married.  Branwell’s privilege as the only son worked against him, however. His father’s homeschooling afforded him knowledge of the classics, but deprived him of peers, and his freedom to travel and socialize (which Charlotte desperately longed for) led to opium addiction. 

Charlotte, by contrast, learned to navigate socially through her schooling, where she made lifelong friends, despite her oddities and social unease.  Even her unreciprocated love for her married teacher, Constantin Heger, and later for the dashing young editor, George Smith, she transmuted successfully into fiction. And these relationships, however painful, had their rewards: the former gave her an intellectual mentorship that was crucial to her growth as a writer, and the latter introduced her to London’s social and cultural life.

Harman draws our attention to the radical experimentation in Charlotte’s writing throughout her life, including a postmodern moment in her juvenilia when the hero wonders if he is “the mere idea of some other creatures brain.”  It’s a stylistic move worthy of Vonnegut – and Charlotte was just 14. "Jane Eyre," Harman notes, was the first novel ever written in the first-person voice of a child. 

Equally new was Brontë’s expression of indignation over the exploitation of children, a subject just being explored by Dickens – Harman notes that the two authors “marked a sea-change in how … writers showed adult psychology being forged from childhood experience.”

"Jane Eyre" was radical, too, in questioning social expectations placed on women. Jane’s very act of falling in love with Rochester before he declared his affection was a rebellion against the social order. For these reasons the novel was accused of being “half savage & half freethinking,” “anti-Christian” in its “tone of ungodly discontent,” and its heroine a “hater.” This passionate tone generated criticism for "Villette," as well, though it inspired admiration in a yet-to-be-published George Eliot.

By the time Charlotte wrote "Villette," her three remaining siblings had died within the space of a year, and the novelist was haunted by these losses.  Charlotte went on to have a happy, albeit short-lived, marriage, due to a condition related to pregnancy that led to an excruciating death. 

Her final visit to London had taken her to the Stock Exchange, Bedlam asylum, and the Foundling Hospital, signaling an interest in tackling broader social issues in her future novels than the narrowness of her life had previously allowed her to.  It’s a loss to us all that she wasn’t able to do so.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Charlotte Brontë' is an irresistible biography of 'Jane Eyre' and its author
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2016/0322/Charlotte-Bronte-is-an-irresistible-biography-of-Jane-Eyre-and-its-author
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe