I'm finally deleting a blog that I was briefly experimenting with for work in 2011, but there was one good post on it that I actually liked, so I'm transferring it here for posterity (well, as much posterity as one can expect from a Blogger blog):
Three Books By Charlotte Brontë
While other works by Charlotte Brontë have been published since her death, Charlotte saw three novels published during her life-time, which were written under the pseudonym "Currer Bell":Jane Eyre: An Autobiography
Well, obviously Jane Eyre wasn't Charlotte's autobiography, that was just a common way to indicate the book was written in first person and told a character's life-story. However, some aspects of Jane Eyre were autobiographical - Charlotte based some of the characters and settings in the first volume on her own childhood.
Jane Eyre is the most famous of Charlotte's novels, and the first she successfully published. It's one of the classic gothic novels of the early 19th Century. In the first volume we get to read all about Jane's miserable childhood. She's an orphan, left to the care of her aunt. The trouble is her aunt hates her and her cousins are all evil. They send her to Lowood - which has to be one of the worst schools ever encountered outside of a Dickens novel. She manages to avoid starving to death, freezing to death and dying of typhus fever. She even manages to avoid punching the school director, Mr Brocklehurst, in the face - something readers may be sorely tempted to do.
The second volume is the part that gets the most screen time in the many, many adaptions. Jane, now 18 years old, gets a job as a tutor for a young French girl living in an old house in the middle of nowhere. The girl's "guardian" (who may or may not be her father) is a thirty-something English man by the name of Rochester. He usually spends very little time at the family home, but after Jane moves in he sticks around for a bit. He is mysterious and brooding. The house contains a secret locked away in the attic. Things go bump in the night. She falls for him, but believes he is going to marry the rich, beautiful girl who keeps coming to his parties. And just what is in the attic, anyway? Or, rather, who*? There's a declaration of love, a promise of happiness and a wedding gone horribly, horribly wrong.
The third volume is a tale of lost families, secret identities and the mysterious, all conquering power of love. There's a fire, some disfigurement and mysterious psychic link that may or may not be based on the power of the moon. Or, it could just be Thursday Next** trying to save the day. Either way, it's a corker of a story and one that has been adapted into no less than twenty movies or television series – with more on the way.
Shirley: A Tale
Shirley is the second of Charlotte's novels to be published. While Jane Eyre was written as part of a writing circle with her sisters, Shirley was written after both Emily and Anne had died and is something of a tribute to them. It's remarkably different from Jane Eyre, and seems to have more in common with the works of Elizabeth Gaskell*** than any of the other novels written by the Brontë sisters. It’s the story of a love quadrangle: Caroline, who is poor, is in love with her (wealthier) cousin Robert, who is wooing Caroline’s (rich) new best friend, Shirley, who quite fancies Robert’s (poor) brother Louis. Robert and Shirley don’t really fancy each other that much, but Robert could do with the money and Shirley’s family don’t approve of Louis, so…
But it’s a social and historical novel, as much as a love story. It’s set during the height of the Luddite movement, and Robert finds his textile mill is under threat when he buys some of those new-fangled, labour “saving” frames that will put many of his employees out of work. Caroline and Shirley are trying to find their place in a world where the role of women is changing, and the future holds unknown opportunities. Apparently denied the man she loves, Caroline feels destined to become an Old Maid, but chafes at the lack of useful activities allowed to unmarried women. Shirley, a young woman with a man’s name, who has inherited a man’s property, finds expectations increasingly hard to juggle.
And it’s also a family story. The character of Caroline is a lot like Anne Brontë, and Shirley bares some striking similarities to Emily. The affection Charlotte has for these two characters shows – in spite of the fact that the book was written “in character” by “Currer Bell” and is dripping with irony. In the end, the characters are looking forward to the kind of bright future Emily and Anne would never see.
Villette
Villete was the last book published during Charlotte’s lifetime, and it’s something of a return to many of the themes that made Jane Eyre so popular. There’s a girl’s school, something mysterious happening in an attic and a dark, brooding man. Once again we are treated to the first-person narration of a vulnerable-yet-spunky young woman, and once again there is a family secret getting in the way of true happiness.
Lucy Snowe takes up employment at a girls’ school in a small French town called Villette. Amongst her struggles to “make it” as a teacher in a community that considers her an outsider, she also has to deal with her feelings for the gorgeous Dr John – something that is complicated by the fact that Dr John is quite taken with the equally gorgeous Polly.
Oh, and then there’s that French professor who is so rude and frustrating. He really is quite an annoying man. And why does he insist on spending so much time with her if he clearly doesn’t like her? And why does she let him get to her when she should just ignore him? And why is his cousin trying so hard to stop him from talking to her? And why does she feel so peculiar at the thought of talking to him…?
And what is in the attic anyway? The ghost of a dead nun? Surely you can’t be serious?
Be warned: the ending will make you want to slap someone. Probably Charlotte.
Two Books by Anne Brontë
Anne, who wrote under the pseudonym “Acton Bell”, was the youngest of the Brontë sisters, and hasn’t enjoyed the same enduring success as Charlotte and Emily. This is possibly because she had a strange tendency to think her romantic leads should be nice guys, rather than brooding jerks.Agnes Grey
Agnes Grey and Wuthering Heights were published at the same time – both before Jane Eyre was on the scene. Keen observers might note that Jane Eyre definitely “follows” the other books – it combines the gothic tones of Wuthering Heights with the “helpless governess in love” central character from Agnes Grey
Agnes, a poor young woman of some intelligence, is in dire need of a job. As an unmarried, educated woman of the lower middle-classes, the only job she’s really allowed to have is that of a governess. Unfortunately, most governesses are treated rather poorly. She goes to work for a family of rich obnoxious people. They are horrid, their children are horrid – heck, the whole town is horrid. She gives up that job and goes home.
She still needs the work, and she still has no other option but to work as a governess, so she takes up another position with another horrid family. These children (one of which is a teenage girl on the cusp of being considered a “woman”) are less likely to torture birds to death, but more likely to ruin your life for their own personal amusement. The teenage girl, Rosalie, is particularly brutal. Once she notices Agnes has taken a shine to the new curate, she goes out of her way to flirt with the poor man specifically to practise being a coquettish heartbreaker.
There’s much angst as Agnes watches a man she “truly admires” become the sport of someone she can’t stand but can’t stop. After her father’s death, she returns home to start a school with her mother and assumes she’ll never see her dear Mr Weston again…
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
This is Anne’s most famous book, and the one that comes closest to matching the style of her sister’s novels. There is a dark, brooding man in this one, but he sure as heck isn’t the romantic lead. Anne seems to be of the opinion that self-obsessed alcoholics aren’t really nice people and you probably shouldn’t marry them.
The lead character, Helen, flees from the self-obsessed alcoholic in question before he can be too bad an influence on their son. Oh, and also because he’s an abusive jerk who treats her badly. She takes up residence in the run-down Wildfell Hall using a fake name (secret identities) and tries to work to earn a living, using one of the only means available to her. No, this time it’s not as a governess, but rather as an artist. Both poorly paying jobs with little respect.
The townsfolk are suspicious, that Gilbert fellow living next door is quite nice (the story is largely narrated by him as a really long letter to a friend), and there is a secret waiting to catch up with them all…
One Book By Emily Brontë
Emily (Ellis Bell), the second youngest of the Brontë girls, only wrote one novel in her lifetime. This one novel, however, is insanely popular and has eclipsed everything written by her sisters with the exception of Jane Eyre. Beyond that, she is known for some poetry****Wuthering Heights
This is the only book by the Brontë sisters to be adapted as a hit song. However, Jane Eyre has more film adaptions - Wuthering Heights has only been adapted into fifteen film versions (so far). Just to put things in perspective, they’ve only made nine adaptations of Pride and Prejudice (so far [in 2011]).
Wuthering Heights is the classic gothic novel of the early 19th Century. It’s famously dark and wretched, and many readers have difficulty finishing the novel. There are dark, mysterious houses in the moors, acts of cruelty passed down the generations, forced marriages and a touch of madness. All this, and a dark, brooding man. There may even be ghosts.
The book basically involves a lot of people making each other miserable. The characters seem to take turns at this task: Hindley makes Heathcliff miserable because he feels like it, Catherine Senior makes Heathcliff miserable because she’s selfish, Heathcliff makes as many people as possible miserable for revenge…
Most of the characters die a miserable death, but the kids are all right. After making each other miserable for a time, Catherine Junior and Hareton (Hindley’s son) end up potentially living happily ever after.
* [The Libary has] a copy of Wide Sargasso Sea
** [The Libary has] a copy of The Eyre Affair
*** [The Libary has] copies of most of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels, as well as her biography of Charlotte Brontë
**** [The Libary has] copies of most of the Brontë sisters’ poetry – as well as books based on their early writings as children.
***** All images are taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/
