Charlotte Bronte was born on April 21, 1816 in West Yorkshire and was the third child (there were six of them - Mary, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Patrick Branwell, Emily and Anne) in the family of a clergyman Church of England Patrick Bronte (originally from Ireland) and his wife Mary, nee Branwell.
When Charlotte was eight years old, her two older sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, died of consumption. This event made Charlotte responsible for the family, and the oldest of the remaining four children, which strengthened her personality and spirit.
The writer spent eight months in 1824 at Clergy Daughters School, in the village of Cowan Bridge, which served as the prototype for Lowood School in Jane Eyre. She then spent two years as a student at Roe Head School in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and worked as a teacher there for a further three years. It was at Roe Head that she made two true friends - Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. Then, in 1842-1843, she was in the boarding house of Madame Eger (Brussels), where she fell in love with her own teacher, Constantin Eger. Between 1824-1831, she and her brother and sisters were homeschooled by their father and Aunt Branwell. Charlotte was a great artist, needlewoman, and, of course, writer.
Mrs Brontë wanted her daughters to become governesses. Charlotte changed two jobs - for three months (in 1839) she lived with the Sidwick family in Stonegape, in the area of Loserdale. Then she spent six months with the White family in the Upperwood House mansion in Rawdon. Charlotte did not like her job, and suggested that the three of her sisters, Emily and Anne, open their own school in Haworth. Aunt Branwell wanted to arrange the financial side of the matter, but these plans never came to fruition.
What Charlotte really wanted was to be a writer. From a very young age, she and her brother Branwell practiced writing poems and stories, relying on their rich imagination and the fictional world of "Angria". As Charlotte herself claimed, her mind was so fertile that before the age of thirteen she wrote much more than after.
In 1846, Charlotte convinced her sisters to publish a collection of poems under the male pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell - it was a commercial failure. However, by the end of 1847, the debut novels of all three sisters were published, and Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" was an incredible success.
After the publication of the book “Shirley” in 1849, rumors spread that a simple teacher was hiding under the male pseudonym Currer Bell. Charlotte became a celebrity in literary circles, and the publication of Villette in 1853 only strengthened her reputation.
In December 1852, Charlotte received a proposal of marriage from her father's vicar, Arthur Bell Nicholls. Charlotte's father was against this union, partly because he considered his daughter too sick to bear a child and give birth to him without dire consequences, and, in order not to upset her father, Charlotte refused Arthur. Despite this, Bell Nicholls did not give up and continued his courtship, and the couple eventually married on June 29, 1854. The marriage was happy, but very short. Charlotte Brontë died on last date pregnancy March 31, 1855.
British novelist.
IN short biography Charlotte Brontë, which you will find below, we tried to outline the main milestones in the life and work of the writer. Read Akhmatova's biography to give your own assessment of her work.
Charlotte Bronte began to engage in creativity in her early years. The future writer was the third child of her parents. Patrick and Mary had four more daughters and a son. When the youngest daughter Anne was born, her mother became seriously ill. Doctors discovered she had an end-stage malignant tumor of the uterus. Mary's death was very painful. She passed away at the age of 38. The children remained in the care of their father. Soon Aunt Branwell came to see them. She supported her nephews morally and financially.
Studies
The biography of Charlotte Brontë is entertaining and arouses admiration for Brontë's nature. When the future writer was 8 years old, her dad sent her to study at Cowan Bridge. The older sisters were already there. Their names were Maria and Elizabeth. After some time, Patrick brought Emily there, who was 6 years old. You could say Cowan Bridge was the worst place for the younger generation. Boarders spent whole days in rooms that were poorly heated. Almost every day they were forced to eat rotten food. However, the girls did not express their indignation. If they committed any mistake, even the most insignificant, they were punished with rods.
A short period of time after arriving at school, the future writer’s older sisters were diagnosed with tuberculosis. When dad found out about this, he immediately came and took Mary and Elizabeth. But this did not save them. Soon after arriving home, the sisters died. They were buried with their mother. Charlotte remembered Cowan Bridge for the rest of her life. Many years later, the image of this hated " educational institution“she captured in her work “Jane Eyre.”
The writer's debut and other events in the biography of Charlotte Brontë
Returning to their father's house, the children began to draw knowledge from the home library and write their first works. Thus they had a chronicle of the kingdom of Angria. When the writer gained popularity, her children's works also began to be published. Many people literally read “Legends of Angria”. When Charlotte turned 15, dad sent her to a good paid boarding school. This gave her the opportunity to teach. The future writer gave almost all her money to educate her sisters. A few years later, Charlotte and Emily went to a Brussels boarding house. Their goal was to master the French language. Since the girls were unable to pay for their studies, they began teaching English to the younger boarders.
When the sisters returned home, they decided to open their own boarding house. However, they didn't succeed. What parent would want to send their child to a poor house located almost in a cemetery? Therefore, after some time, the sisters were left without any money and were forced to give up the dream of their own enterprise. They had no choice but to start working as governesses again. Charlotte could not like the current state of affairs. First, she persuaded Emily and Anne to publish a collection of poems. And then she insisted on resolving the issue of publishing the novels. The three of them already had a “masterpiece”. Anne wrote Agnes Gray, Emily wrote Wuthering Heights, and Charlotte wrote The Teacher. The first two works were accepted, but the third was rejected. However, Charlotte did not lose the desire to be creative. Soon the girl wrote the novel “Jane Eyre”.
It is worth noting that Charlotte was not a beauty, but, as you might guess, appearance was not the key factor in the biography of Charlotte Brontë. For example, representatives of the stronger sex admired her intelligence. She often received marriage proposals. The novel "Jane Eyre" gained great popularity, and is still read with pleasure by millions of readers. The novel was also successfully filmed in modern times (read more about film adaptations in the article About film adaptations in general). This gave the writer financial independence. She was freed from the need to earn a living by teaching. Charlotte Brontë would most likely have written even more works. However, tragic events occurred every now and then in her life. First, her beloved brother died of tuberculosis. Later a short time Anne and Emily passed away. They got infected from their brother when they were caring for him. Dad began to rapidly lose his sight. Charlotte looked after him constantly.
Brief happiness of the writer
And now the writer turned 37 years old. She created wonderful stories about sublime feelings, however, she never managed to meet her soul mate. Then she was proposed to by Arthur Bell Nicholls, who played such an important role in the biography of Charlotte Bronte. This young man served for many years in the parish of Charlotte's father, Patrick, but the father really did not want his daughter to get married, because he was afraid of losing her. However, the girl inspired him that after the wedding she would stay in his house. Then her father allowed her to get married.
Charlotte Brontë found her happiness in marriage, but it was short-lived. The writer passed away a year after the wedding. Pregnancy took all her strength. She was buried with her relatives.
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Bronte Charlotte- English writer, better known by her pseudonym Currer-Bell, was born on June 21, 1816 in the family of a rural priest in Yorkshire. Charlotte Brontë was barely five years old when her mother died, leaving the poor priest with a family of 5 daughters and a son. Weak in health and fond of solitude, Patrick Bronte paid little attention to raising his children, who rarely saw him. Prisoners in a gloomy church house located isolated near the cemetery, the children were left to their own devices and to the care of their 8-year-old older sister Maria, who was responsible for running a meager household. Sick children did not know either the cheerful company of children, or the games and activities characteristic of their age: their spiritual and mental strength developed and strengthened with an abnormally accelerated speed in a special closed world, woven from images and their dreams of a non-childish fantasy. The harsh swampy terrain that surrounded them, devoid of variety and warm colors, the gloomy picture of the cemetery, the inhospitability and rudeness of the few inhabitants that the children had to encounter - this was the bleak reality that prompted the children to retreat even deeper into their inner ideal world, in which nothing was similar. to the surroundings.
From the early childhood One of Charlotte's favorite pastimes was inventing fantastic tales and putting her thoughts and feelings into fairy-tale form. The rest of the family also took part in these activities, weaving whimsical patterns into the outline of the story conceived by Charlotte. The event that left a deep imprint on the secluded life of this strange family was the entry of the older sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, into school in Coven Bridge (1824), not far from their village of Gaworth. An unwelcoming school that did not provide any food for them mental development and undermined their already poor health - was bright colors described by Charlotte in the novel "Jane Eyre". However, the sisters did not remain at school for long. A year later, the eldest, Maria, returned home sick and died, and a few months later her second sister, Elizabeth, followed her to the grave. Left as the eldest in the house, 9-year-old Charlotte was forced to take on the responsibilities of a housewife and continue her education at home, indulging in quiet and solitude in her penchant for writing.
In 1835, Charlotte took the position of governess, but poor health and the unattractiveness of life in someone else's house forced her to abandon these occupations. Charlotte decided to open a school with her younger sisters, and in order to prepare for this task, she and her sister Emilia decided to expand their knowledge of French language and literature on the continent. With the financial support of an old aunt, they spent two years in Brussels (1842 - 44), and a new world opened up before the nervous, impressionable Charlotte, which enriched and expanded her horizons with a stock of observations of a different nature, unfamiliar types and characters of people, private and alien to her. public life. Returning to their homeland, the sisters finally decided to show off the first fruits of their literary activity. In the spring of 1846, a small volume of their poems appeared under the pseudonyms Koppep (Charlotte), Ellis (Emilia) and Acton (Anna) Belle, which remained unnoticed by the public. This failure did not discourage the sister writers, and they took up writing stories in prose with the same passion: Charlotte wrote the story “The professor,” Emilia wrote “Wuthering Heights,” and Anna wrote “Agnes Grey.” The last two stories found a publisher, and “The professor” was rejected by everyone. Despite this, Charlotte continued her literary activity with her characteristic ardor and passion.
In October 1849 her new novel"Jane Eyre", which immediately won a decisive success and was translated into many European languages, including into Russian (St. Petersburg, 1857). Few books with an unknown author's name on the title have been met with such general and unquestioned approval. Complete disregard for any convention, brightness and strength in the depiction of characters, unvarnished realism breathing with life's truth - all this had a fascinating effect on the reader and foreshadowed the appearance of a major, original talent on the literary horizon. The picture of the harsh northern nature with its rude but courageous types of inhabitants seemed to open up a new world unknown to literature and aroused general interest in the author, hiding under a pseudonym.
But the secret was strictly kept by the modest writer. "Shirley", the second novel by S. Bronte, which aroused particular interest with its masterfully drawn picture of the life of workers in the provinces, was written under extremely sad circumstances in the life of the writer; in September 1848, her brother Patrick Bronte, a promising talented young man, died, after several years of an absent-minded life that brought him to the grave. Emilia died in December 1848 and Anna in May 1849. When, after the appearance of her second novel (1849), the pseudonym of S. Bronte was revealed, the doors of the best literary circles London, but for the sickly and solitary girl, public attention was painful, and she spent most of her time in the old church house in Haworth. In 1853 it appeared last novel"Villette", which is not inferior to the first in its lively and truthful description of life in the boarding house, but is weak in terms of the harmony of the plot itself.
In 1854, despite bouts of illness that brought her sisters to the grave, Charlotte married a priest in the parish of her father, Nichols Bell, but she died on March 31, 1855. After her death her first literary experience, story "The Professor". Charlotte Bronte is considered one of the most talented representatives of the school of Thackeray, her favorite writer. Possessing an extremely nervous and impressionable temperament, she high degree possessed what Goethe calls the secret of genius - the ability to be imbued with individuality and subjective mood stranger. With a limited horizon of observations, she depicted with amazing brightness and truth everything that she had to see and feel. If sometimes the excessive brightness of the images turns into a certain coarseness of colors, and excessive melodrama in positions and sentimental conclusions weaken the artistic impression, then realism, full of life’s truth, makes these shortcomings invisible. Although the works of her sisters Emilia and Anna are rich in imagination, their literary significance is insignificant. Complete collection composition Charlotte and Her Sisters published in 1875 with a biography of Charlotte.
Charlotte's mother died of uterine cancer on September 15, 1821, leaving five daughters and a son to be raised by her husband Patrick.
Education
Cowan Bridge
In August 1824, her father sent Charlotte to Cowan Bridge School for the Daughters of the Clergy (her two older sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, were sent there in July 1824, and her youngest, Emily, in November). Upon admission, the following entry was made in the school journal about the knowledge of eight-year-old Charlotte:
School project
Announcement of the establishment of Miss Brontë's boarding school, 1844.
Returning home on January 1, 1844, Charlotte again decides to take up the project of founding her own school in order to provide herself and her sisters with income. However, the circumstances that developed in 1844 were less favorable to such plans than were the case in 1841.
Charlotte's aunt, Mrs. Branwell, is deceased; Mr. Brontë's health and eyesight weakened. The Brontë sisters were no longer able to leave Hoerth to rent a school building in a more attractive area. Charlotte decides to found a boarding house right in the Hoerth parsonage; but their family home, located in a cemetery in a rather wild area, scared off the parents of potential students, despite the monetary discounts Charlotte made.
Beginning of a literary career
In May 1846, Charlotte, Emily and Anne published a joint collection of poetry at their own expense under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Despite the fact that only two copies of the collection were sold, the sisters continued to write, with subsequent publication in mind. In the summer of 1846, Charlotte began searching for publishers for the novels of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell: these were, respectively, The Teacher, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Gray.
Having published her first book with family funds, Charlotte later wanted not to spend money on publication, but, on the contrary, to have the opportunity to earn money literary work. However, her younger sisters were ready to take another risk. Therefore, Emily and Anne accepted the offer of the London publisher Thomas Newby, who asked for 50 pounds as a guarantee for the publication of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Gray, promising to return this money if he managed to sell 250 copies out of 350 (book circulation). Newby did not return this money, despite the fact that the entire edition was sold out in the wake of the success of Charlotte's novel “Jane Eyre” at the end of 1847.
Charlotte herself refused Newby's proposal. She continued to correspond with London firms, trying to interest them in her novel "Teacher". All publishers rejected it, however, the literary consultant of Smith, Elder and Company sent a letter to Currer Bell, in which he kindly explained the reasons for the refusal: the novel lacked the fascination that would allow the book to sell well. In the same month (August 1847), Charlotte sent the manuscript of Jane Eyre to Smith, Elder and Company. The novel was accepted and published in record time.
Deaths of Branwell, Emily and Anne Brontë
Along with literary success, trouble came to the Brontë family. Charlotte's brother and only son, Branwell, died in September 1848 from chronic bronchitis or tuberculosis. Serious condition his brother was aggravated by drunkenness, as well as drug addiction (Branwell took opium). Emily and Anne died of pulmonary tuberculosis in December 1848 and May 1849, respectively.
Now Charlotte and her father are alone. Between 1848 and 1854 Charlotte was active literary life. She became close to Harriet Martineau, Elizabeth Gaskell, William Thackeray and George Henry Lewes.
Charlotte met her future husband in the spring of 1844, when Arthur Bell Nicholls arrived in Howherth. Charlotte's first impression of her father's assistant was not at all flattering. She wrote to Ellen Nussey in October 1844:
Similar reviews are found in Charlotte's letters and more later years, however, they disappear over time.
Charlotte married in June 1854. In January 1855, her health condition deteriorated sharply. In February, a doctor who examined the writer came to the conclusion that the symptoms of illness indicated the beginning of pregnancy and did not pose a threat to life.
Charlotte suffered from constant nausea, lack of appetite, and extreme weakness, which led to rapid exhaustion. However, according to Nicholls, it was only in the last week of March that it became clear that Charlotte was dying. The cause of death was never established [ ] .
Charlotte died on March 31, 1855, aged 38. Her death certificate listed the cause as tuberculosis, however, as many of Charlotte's biographers suggest, she could have died from dehydration and exhaustion caused by severe toxicosis. It can also be assumed that Charlotte died of typhus, which could have been infected by her old servant Tabitha Aykroyd, who died shortly before Charlotte's death.
The writer was buried in the family crypt in St. Michael's Church, located in Howerth, West Yorkshire, England.
Early creativity
Charlotte Brontë began to write early: her first surviving manuscript ( ) dates from approximately 1826 (author 10 years old). In 1827-1829, the Bronte children came up with several large and small games that served as the basis for their further creativity. In her children's autobiographical note, "The Story of the Year" (12 March 1829), Charlotte described the origins of the game "Young People", from which the "African" saga would develop in the coming years:
Charlotte and Branwell Brontë. A fragment of the group “Portrait with a Gun” (the painting itself was destroyed; only its photograph, a copy and a fragment with the image of Emily have survived). Work by Branwell Brontë, circa 1834-5.
| Dad bought soldiers for Branwell in Leeds. When Dad got home it was night and we were in bed, so the next morning Branwell came to our door with a box of toy soldiers. Emily and I jumped out of bed, I grabbed one and exclaimed: “It's the Duke of Wellington! Let him be mine! When I said this, Emily also took one and said let it be hers. When Ann came downstairs and she took one. |
Children's and youth works (Juvenilia)
The following list of Charlotte Brontë's juveniles is incomplete (full list too extensive).
First page of Charlotte Brontë's manuscript, The Secret, 1833.
The names written in square brackets are given by the researchers.
- Two romantic stories: “The Twelve Adventurers” and “The Adventure in Ireland” (1829) The last work is, in fact, not a story, but a story.
- Young People's Magazine (1829-1830)
- The Search for Happiness (1829)
- Characters of the Eminent Men of Our Time (1829)
- Stories about the islanders. In 4 volumes (1829-1830)
- Evening Walk, poem by the Marquis of Duero (1830)
- Translation into English verses of the First Book of Voltaire's Henriad (1830)
- Albion and Marina (1830). Charlotte's first "love" story, written under the influence of Byron; Marina's character corresponds to the character of Hayde from the poem "Don Juan". Charlotte's story is somewhat mystical in nature.
- The Adventures of Ernest Alembert. Tale (1830)
- The Violet and Other Poems of the Marquis of Duero (1830)
- Wedding (1832)(poem and story)
- Arthuriana, or Scraps and Remains (1833)
- Something About Arthur (1833)
- Two stories: "Secret" And "Lily Hart" (1833)
- Visits at Verdopolis (1833)
- Green Dwarf (1833)
- Foundling (1833)
- Richard the Lionheart and Blondel (1833), poem
- Leaf from an Unopened Volume (1834)
- "Spell" And « Savor in Verdopolis" (1834)
- The Dump Book (1834)
- Snack Dishes (1834)
- My Angria and the Angrians (1834)
- "We Weaved a Net in Childhood" [Retrospective] (1835), one of Charlotte Brontë's most famous poems
- Current Events (1836)
- [Exile of Zamorna] (1836), a poem in two songs, “The Green Dwarf”, the poem “The Expulsion of Zamorna”, the story “Mina Laurie”, the youth novel “Caroline Vernon” and “Farewell to Angria” - a prose fragment whose genre is difficult to determine.
- "Charlotte Bronte. Five little novels" (1977, edited by U. Zherin). This book includes the novellas A Current Event, Julia, and Mina Laurie, as well as the young adult novels Captain Henry Hastings and Caroline Vernon.
- Tales of Angria (2006, edited by Heather Glen). This book includes the stories "Mina Laurie" and "Stancliffe Hotel", a short novel in letters "The Duke of Zamorna", the novels "Henry Hastings" and "Caroline Vernon", as well as diary fragments that Charlotte Brontë wrote while she was a teacher at the Row -Hede.
Mature creativity
Novels 1846-1853
In 1846, Charlotte Brontë completely completed a novel specially written for publication, “The Teacher.” Under the pseudonym Currer Bell, she offered it to several publishers. Everyone rejected the manuscript, but the literary consultant at Smith, Elder and Company, William Williams, saw the potential of the aspiring author and wrote a letter to Currer Bell, explaining that the book had to be attractive to the public and, therefore, sellable. Two or three weeks after receiving this letter, Charlotte sent the manuscript of the novel Jane Eyre (written between August 1846 and August 1847) to Smith, Elder and Company.
In her Life of Charlotte Brontë, E. Gaskell described the reaction that the new novel caused:
| When the manuscript of "Jane Eyre" reached the future publishers of this wonderful novel, it fell to the lot of one gentleman connected with the company to read it first. He was so greatly struck by the character of the book that he expressed his impressions in very emotional terms to Mr. Smith, who seemed extremely amused by this excited admiration. “You seem so fascinated that I don’t know if I can believe you,” he said, laughing. But when the second reader, a sober Scotchman, not subject to enthusiasm, took the manuscript home in the evening and became so deeply interested in the story that he sat up half the night until he finished reading it, Mr. Smith's curiosity was sufficiently aroused that he wanted to read the novel himself, and, however great there were praises lavished on him, he found that they did not sin against the truth. |
Charlotte sent Jane Eyre to publishers on August 24, 1847, and the book was published on October 16 of the same year. Charlotte was pleasantly surprised when she received her fee. By modern standards it was small: the author was paid 500 pounds.
In 1848-1849 Charlotte Brontë wrote the second of her published novels, Shirley. The external circumstances of her life, however, were not conducive to creativity: at the beginning of 1848, a scandal concerning the authorship of her sisters’ novels (“Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë and both Anne’s books, “Agnes Gray” and “The Stranger of Wildfell Hall” were attributed to Currer Bell ), forced Charlotte to come to London and reveal her pseudonym. During the latter part of this year her brother Branwell and sister Emily died. It was also obvious that Charlotte's youngest sister, Anne, would not live long; and indeed, she died in May 1849. Two months after that, in August, Charlotte graduated from Shirley. On October 26, the book was published.
In 1850-1852, Charlotte wrote her last (and perhaps best) book, “Villette” (The name “Town” is a misnomer, since Villette is the name of the capital of Labascourt: place names are not translated). The novel is distinguished by a very heavy atmosphere - a consequence of the grief experienced by the author. The writer puts main character V deadlock situations: death of loved ones, loss of friends, longing for a destroyed home. Lucy Snow, according to the author, is doomed from the very beginning to failure, troubles and hopeless loneliness. She is an outcast from earthly happiness and can only hope for the Kingdom of Heaven. In a sense, you can say that Charlotte took out her own pain from the loss of her family on her heroine. The book is distinguished by intimacy and exceptional psychological persuasiveness.
"Villette" was published on January 28, 1853 and became last work, which Charlotte managed to finish.
Unfinished fragments
After Charlotte Brontë's death, several unfinished manuscripts remained. One of them, containing two chapters under the title "Emma", was published shortly after the author's death (Claire Boylan finished the book in 2003, calling it "Emma Brown").
There are two more fragments: "John Henry" (circa 1852) and "Willie Allyn" (May-June 1853).
Meaning
Charlotte Bronte is one of the most talented representatives of English romanticism and realism. Possessing an extremely nervous and impressionable temperament, she possessed to a high degree what Goethe calls the secret of genius - the ability to penetrate the individuality and subjective mood of an outsider. With a limited range of observations, she depicted with amazing clarity and truth everything that she had to see and feel. If sometimes the excessive brightness of the images turns into a certain coarseness of colors, and excessive melodrama in positions and sentimental conclusions weaken the artistic impression, then realism, full of life’s truth, makes these shortcomings invisible.
Elizabeth Gaskell's posthumous biography of Charlotte Brontë, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, was the first of many biographies of the writer to be published. E. Gaskell's book is not always reliable, but its main drawback is that it almost completely ignores the early literary creativity Charlotte Bronte.
Constance Savery
Biographies
- "The Life of Charlotte Brontë" - Elizabeth Gaskell, 1857.
Bronte Charlotte (married - Nicholls - Beyll) - an outstanding English writer (1816 - 1855), author of the famous novels: "Jane Eyre", "The Town". "Teacher". She had an amazing power of imagination, what Goethe called the secret of Genius - the ability to instantly penetrate into individuality and the characteristics of perception completely strangers and fictional images.
Charlotte Brontë was born on June 21, 1816, in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, to the clergyman Patrick Brontë and his wife Mary. In addition to Charlotte, the family had five more children. In 1820, the Brontë family moved to Haworth, a remote place in Middle England, where Patrick Brontë received a small parish. There, in 1821, Mary Bronte died, leaving orphans in the hands of her unmarried sister-in-law and husband. After the death of his wife, Father Patrick, a once cheerful man who loved to sing beautiful spiritual songs in the evenings and wrote poetry (he even published two small volumes with his meager funds!), withdrew into himself, became gloomy, forgetting about poems, songs and smiles: He cared , as best I could, about raising children and their education.
Love often blinds people and makes them insensitive to everything except it.
Bronte Charlotte
He gave his daughters, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emilia, to the Cone Bridge orphanage, but the conditions there were so harsh that soon the two older girls, fragile and sickly from birth, died of transient consumption! Two more mounds with the surname "Bronte" appeared in Haworth Cemetery.
The frightened father took Emilia and Charlotte from the boarding school and from now on their strict aunt was in charge of their upbringing and education, or rather, books from their father’s library. Patrick Bronte treasured his library and carefully compiled it, sometimes ordering very expensive books from London. He did not forbid the children to read them, but in return he demanded complete submission to a strict daily routine and the strictest silence during his classes! He prepared so carefully and nervously for his stern sermons that he was distracted by the slightest noise!
In addition, he received parishioners with complaints and requests, so that the children could not talk too loudly or run around the house with a ball and dolls, although they sometimes wanted to do so!
Some circumstances of life stubbornly escape our memory. Some turns, some feelings, joys, sorrows, strong shocks after time are remembered to us unclearly and vaguely, like the erased, flickering outlines of a quickly spinning wheel.
Bronte Charlotte
Instead of the forbidden running small family Brontë looked for other, no less exciting activities: inventing a play for home puppet theater, publishing your own literary magazine....
The scenery for the plays was usually painted by the youngest and most adored brother, Branwell, whose gift as a subtle portraitist and artist manifested itself very early. The first of the plays was called "Young People" and told about fabulous soldiers performing feats in the name of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington. This play was performed in the Bronte house for a whole month, until it got boring. True, the only spectator was the old grumpy maid Tabby. But the children were incredibly happy about her presence!
And the father, as before, remained silent, dined alone, wrote his sermons, gave orders to the cook in a sharp voice, and sometimes, in a fit of unaccountable melancholy, more like madness, he jumped out into the yard and fired into the air from an ancient gun. Before you run out of ammo!
Men, and women too, need deception; if they don't encounter it, they create it themselves.
Bronte Charlotte
To replace the quickly boring plays and dramas, the restless Charlotte, who became the eldest after the death of her two sisters, soon came up with a new amusement: she gave everyone an imaginary island, asked them to populate it with characters, and adventures and daily life on these magical islands, write it down in a small journal book or take turns telling it out loud every evening.
This is how it arose Wonderland Angria, the prototype, the source of the poetic world of all three Bronte sisters. In Angria there were knights and wizards, dukes and pirates, beautiful ladies and cruel queens: The Duke of Zamorna, the ruler of Angria, not only fought successfully, but also weaved skillful love intrigues, in the description and invention of which Charlotte was a great master! Sitting in a small room on the second floor and looking out the window, she no longer noticed the dullness of the landscape, the low gray clouds, the gusts of wind. She was completely immersed in the World of her hero’s imagined passions. Sometimes she herself didn’t know what was more real: the boring gray life of Haworth or the stormy chronicle of Angria?! “Few people will believe,” she wrote in her diary, that imaginary joy can bring so much happiness!
However, Patrick Bronte did not really like the fact that children, having never received a serious education, grew up too quiet and withdrawn. He decided to send one of his daughters to the well-established Margaret Wooler boarding school, famous for its advanced and humane (they did not use corporal punishment!) methods of education. Emilia refused to go to the boarding house. Charlotte left.
I like it when flowers grow, but when picked they lose their charm for me. I see how they are doomed to destruction, and I feel sad because of their resemblance to life. I never give flowers to those I love, and I do not want to accept them from someone I care about.
Bronte Charlotte
Subsequently, she recalled with great tenderness and warmth the time spent in Rowhead, at the Wooler boarding house, where she received not only a serious education, which finally developed her natural gift for writing, but also loyal friends who supported her throughout her life. She graduated from it in 1832, and from 1835 to 1838. worked there as a teacher French and drawing. All the teaching experience, the pedagogical reflections of the thoughtful and loving student Miss Bronte, were later reflected on the pages of her novels.
The youngest of the sisters, Anne, also brilliantly graduated from the same boarding school in 1838, by that time she had also begun to engage in writing.
By nature, all Brontës had a cheerful, lively and hardworking character; they liked music, singing, witty and lively conversations, and solving charades and puzzles. The sisters, oh, how I didn’t want to return to the “house - a prison open to all winds” (R. Fox)! They found a way out: Charlotte began implementing the project for the future “private school of the three Bronte sisters in Haworth” (she was counting on an inheritance from her aunt and her small savings), and Anne managed to secure a position as a governess in the wealthy Robinson family. Branwell was also placed there, after his unsuccessful attempt to conquer the elegantly capricious London public with his artistry. The exhibition of his drawings was severely criticized in one of the capital's newspapers, Branwell drank out of chagrin, squandered all the remaining money that his father and sisters collected bit by bit and returned to Haworth, inventing a colorful legend about how he was robbed.
When I am pushed away, I move away; when I am forgotten, I will not remind myself with a glance or a word.
Bronte Charlotte
Having taken the place of a home art teacher in the Robinson family, Branwell soon came up with nothing better than to fall in love with the mistress of the house and fervently confess everything to her. Mrs. Robinson was outraged by the insolence of the “teacher”; Branwell was thrown out of the house in disgrace, and Anne lost her job along with him.
This incident completely threw Branwell out of balance; in addition to daily drunkenness, he became addicted to opium and life in the house became like absolute hell!
Everyone was in constant tension every day, waiting for their brother’s next wild trick! There was still not enough money to create a school, we had to forget about the plans for a while, but the sisters did not give up!
Life is such that you can’t predict anything in it in advance.
Bronte Charlotte
In 1842, Charlotte and Emilia Bronte went to improve their knowledge at the pedagogical boarding school of Eger, in Brussels. Charlotte's godmother provided money for the trip.
It must be said that Charlotte Brontë went to Belgium not only for the knowledge that confirmed her title as a teacher, but also in an attempt to forget about Patrick Brontë’s handsome and charming assistant, the young priest William Weightman, who greatly interested her and broke the heart of the youngest, Anne, forever. William was a well-educated man, a wonderful and sensitive friend: but the trouble was: he was engaged to someone else! Charlotte, competing with her sister for William's attention, was the first to come to her senses, trying to hide her own feelings as far as possible. But this did not change the situation in any way. William, in response to Anne's confession, only confirmed his love for another. Charlotte left. Soon after leaving, she learned that Weightman had gotten married, and a year later she heard about his untimely death.
"Passionate love is madness, and, as a rule, remains unanswered!" - Charlotte bitterly lectured her hopelessly in love sister in one of her letters. She had the right to say that.
People have equally inexplicable likes and dislikes. One person, who, as reason tells us, is distinguished by decency, for some reason inspires a feeling of hostility and we avoid him, and another, known for his difficult character and other shortcomings, attracts us to himself, as if the very air around him brings us good.
Bronte Charlotte
She herself was whirled by a whirlwind of insanely unrequited passion for a married man, Monsieur Paul Heger, the owner of the boarding house, the father of five children. The smart, hot-tempered, charming and at the same time egocentrically tough Frenchman Eger first liked the ardent and enthusiastic adoration of Charlotte, a girl “very smart and serious, but with an overly sensitive heart and an imagination without boundaries!” Very soon Monsieur Heger began to repent of encouraging Charlotte’s love, and when the secret of her heart was unraveled by Madame Heger, he completely lost interest in the student and tried in every possible way to avoid her. Life in a boarding house, side by side with a loved one who did not notice her at a distance of two steps, became unbearable for the impressionable, vulnerable Charlotte! But, possessing a strong character, she calmly packed her things, carefully packing all the small gifts and notes from her beloved, said goodbye to the residents of the boarding house, and only after that notified Eger himself about her departure and departure from Belgium. He seemed confused, but did not restrain the “strange little governess.” Let him leave with his silent sister, always writing something in a notebook! He is calmer. Madame Eger's jealousy will end, not so unreasonably! It’s all good, of course, but why so much heat in ordinary flirting?!
Charlotte returned home with a broken heart. Emilia was hovering somewhere in dreams and clouds, constantly writing something: Anne, too, wandered around the house like a thoughtful shadow. Branwell continued to drink, and in short breaks between binges he grabbed brushes and paints: At times, Charlotte wanted to cry out loud from melancholy! She could hardly contain herself. And in the evenings she sat down at the table and poured out all her feelings in letters to her beloved. Letters that she did not send to him, because she knew that she would not receive an answer: One of them contains the following lines: “Monsieur, the poor need little for food, they only ask for the crumbs that fall from the table of the rich. But if they are deprived of these crumbs , they will die of hunger. I also don’t need much love from those I love: But you showed a little interest in me: and I want to maintain this interest, I cling to it, as if a dying person clings to life!
What can be added to this piercing cry of a soul mortally wounded by love?: Nothing. Confused to remain silent: Letters - bright, impetuous, filled with emotions, feelings, desires and passion - a whole box was found after Charlotte's death.. She wrote them every evening, mentally talking to her loved one!*
After all, usually only what lies outside is visible, but we leave everything that is hidden inside to God. A weak mortal like you, who is not capable of being your judge, should not be allowed into this sphere; take what is inside you to the creator, reveal to him the secrets of the soul with which he has endowed you, ask him how to withstand the suffering that he has prepared for you, kneel before him and pray to him so that the darkness will be illuminated by light, so that the pitiful weakness was replaced by strength, so that patience tempered desire.
Bronte Charlotte
It seems that Charlotte decided to write the novel “Teacher” - a “biography” of her feelings for Eger only because she passionately wanted to free her soul from oppressive melancholy, to distract her from the abyss of madness, so as not to hear the hysterical cough of the always cold Anne, drunken Branwell's songs, the dull murmur of prayers and psalms in my father's room.
One day she accidentally opened Emilia’s album and read with delight her poems, which were unlike ordinary women’s poetry - too fast-paced, bright, laconic. Charlotte was so amazed by all this that she decided to publish a collection of the sisters’ poetry at her own expense, hiding the true female names under the pseudonym: "The Bell Brothers". In those days, women who squeaked were looked at askance, and Charlotte remembered all too well the rebuke of the famous Robert Southey, to whom she had sent her poems several years ago. Southey scolded them and advised Charlotte to do a truly womanly thing: get married and run a house, and in literary world don't meddle! A collection of poems by the Bell Brothers was published in May 1846.
He earned high critical praise. The poems of Alice Bell (Emilia) were especially noted.
Then I did not yet know that sadness caused by the vicissitudes of fate, for some people, is the most sublime state of mind; I also didn’t know that some plants don’t release fragrance until their petals are crushed.
Bronte Charlotte
Inspired by the success, Charlotte decided to publish a book of prose by the Bell Brothers. She proposed three things for publication: her novel “The Teacher,” “Wuthering Heights” for Emilia, and “Agnes Gray” for Anne. Her own novel was rejected, Emilia’s book was not noticed by critics * (*It was a resounding success after the death of the twenty-year-old novelist. Robert Fox called this book “a manifesto of English geniuses” - so high did Emilia’s beautiful, ever-rebellious spirit soar on the pages of the novel about difficult but true love , by that time already terminally ill! But that’s a different story - the author), but Anne’s novel was received very favorably by critics and readers.
Charlotte, more rejoicing at her sister's success than lamenting her failure, showed enormous power spirit, already on October 16, 1847, finishing the new novel “Jane Eyre” - the story of a little governess, poor and ugly, who managed to win the heart of the rich, almost disappointed in life, owner of the castle with towers - E. Rochester.
We will not retell here the contents of a book that the whole world knows by heart and has been reading for the second century! It is romantic and fabulous, this book, and at the same time so real and tragic that it is impossible to tear yourself away from it until the last page: You read it and imperceptibly realize that love, sympathy for a small and thin woman, invariably dressed in black, with huge with full-face eyes, imperceptibly and forever creeps into your heart, like love for mysterious and distant England, with its constant fogs, hills, thickets of yew and wild rose, with its evergreen lawns, clear cool lakes and red brick or gray stone castle towers :. In which live - maybe still! - people like little, loving, courageous Jane and ironic, brilliantly secular and deeply unhappy Edward Rochester.
Everything someday reaches its culmination, its extreme point - both any feeling and life situation.
Bronte Charlotte
Charlotte's novel was a resounding success; several publishers competed with each other to acquire republication rights. W. Thackeray invited Charlotte to London, sincerely admiring her talent and wanting to get to know her.
Charlotte, thanks to his invitations, visited the capital several times, met writers and publishers, and attended Thackeray’s lectures on English literature(in 1851).
After reading her second novel, “The Town,” about the fate of the extraordinary girl Lucy Snow, who survived an unhappy love, but retained an unbroken and proud spirit, he wrote striking words about Charlotte Bronte, which are very rarely quoted:
As soon as I become convinced once that someone’s nature is incompatible with mine, as soon as this person undermines himself in my eyes with something deeply contrary to my rules, I break off this connection.
Bronte Charlotte
“Poor woman with talent! Passionate, small, life-hungry creature, brave, tremulous, ugly: Reading her novel, I guess how she lives, and I understand that more than fame and all other heavenly treasures she would like to have some - Tomkins loved her and she loved him!:"
Charlotte still hoped to find love, to heal old wounds. She became seriously interested in the publisher Smith, who reciprocated. By that time, Charlotte had buried her brother Branwell (October 1848), her beloved Emilia (December 18 of the same year, 1848!), and was seriously concerned about the health of the fading, fragile Annie. Together with Smith, they took Annie to sea swimming in Scarborough, (Scotland), but this did not help. She outlived Emilia by only six months: Charlotte was left completely alone, not counting her old father, who had lost his last strength from grief!
But something kept stopping Smith. He didn't dare make an offer. They understood each other perfectly, perfectly, and talked for hours about anything! But Smith could not become “Tomkins” for Charlotte. It was another drama for the shy and proud Chalotti, as he called her!
Respect yourself enough not to give all the strength of your soul and heart to someone who doesn’t need it.
Bronte Charlotte
Finally exhausted from loneliness, Charlotte agreed to marry her father's successor in parish, Arthur Nicholls-Bayle. Did she love him? It is impossible to say for sure: She was always brought up in a strict tradition of sacrifice to family duty and honor. Throughout the five months of her short marriage, she diligently fulfilled the duties of a pastor’s wife and mistress of the house. I could no longer engage in creativity freely.
She secretly tried to write something and hid it in the table. Shortly before her death, the novel "Shirley" was published, which was met with interest by both the public and critics.
We waited with hope for new heights of Bronte's talent. But the hopes did not come true. On March 31, 1855, the one whom Arthur Nicholls called “only the daughter and wife of a parson” passed away. More than a hundred years have passed since her death, but people still come to Haworth, to the small house - the museum of the “fairy writer” Charlotte Brontë, whose father and husband were "only humble country priests."
Respect yourself enough not to give all the strength of your soul and heart to someone who doesn’t need it, and in whom it would only cause disdain. 