Charlotte and Emily: A Novel of The Brontës
By Jude Morgan
ISBN: 0312642733
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Source: Library
The historical facts about the lives of the Brontës to tell a fictional story were great. The story of the Brontës is an extremely sad one. First, their Mother dies leaving behind five daughters and a son with a staunchly religious Father. The two eldest daughters, Elizabeth and Maria die of consumption after being away at what was supposed to be a school of opportunities for poorer children. They were sixteen or seventeen upon their deaths.
Later on Branwell, the only son, dies of a combination of alcoholism, laudanum addiction and consumption.
Then Emily dies followed later by Anne, both of consumption.
The deaths of Branwell, Emily and Anne all happened within months of each other.
Charlotte is the only one left beside her father Mr. Brontë. Charlotte marries Arthur Nicholls, her father’s curate, but less than a year into marriage she dies of what is speculated to have been complications from pregnancy.
In this book we are given a glimpse into how Charlotte, Emily and Anne write their novels. The end result was timeless tales such as Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Jane Eyre, The Professor, Shirley and Villette. The Brontë’s were all prolific writers in their own right, but they also where staunchly shaped by their experiences as reflected in their works. Morgan shows this very well.
In fact reading this and remembering the Brontë works I have read I could see the shades of their experiences in their writing. The incidents in
Agnes Grey are real events that happened to Anne while she was a governess.
Jane Eyre’s terrible time at school are shadows of Charlotte’s time at the school which ultimately killed her sisters Elizabeth and Maria. The Yorkshire moors of Emily’s
Wuthering Heights are a reflection of the environment she lived in. One has a greater appreciation for their work when one understands the life they lived.
Jude Morgan does an excellent job of weaving the facts with a good story and while I already knew much of the Brontë’s I learned some more about them through this work. This is a good way for people who may not like biographies to learn about the lives of people they want to know more about. I cannot fault the author with his ability to tell a story because he does it so well.
I had some issues with this book however!
First, it is difficult to read. Morgan’s writing style is blunt, awkward and hard to get through. In a way it almost took away from the story and it wasn’t till I was almost finished with the book that I sort of adjusted to the writing. I don’t know if the way Morgan wrote this book was typical of his usual style, but in my opinion it was doing no favors to the book, but then in a way it was just like the sad, dismal lives of the Brontë’s and perhaps that was Morgan’s point.
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Finally, the original title of the book was The
Taste of Sorrow, but for the US publication the title was changed to Charlotte and Emily, which makes me upset. Just liked when Anne Brontë was alive she if overshadowed and pushed to the corner. This is a book about the Brontës which means Anne is a member too. It is unfortunate that Anne did not seem to warrant the same recognition as her sisters Charlotte and Emily. The published should have retained the original title as it was aptly reflective of the novel itself, but I digress.
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ENDS JULY 17TH!
