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“SUCH A STRONG WISH FOR WINGS”: THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË AND ELIZABETH GASKELL’S FALLEN ANGELS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2014

Meghan Burke Hattaway
Meghan Burke Hattaway*
Affiliation:
The Ohio State University
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Extract

Elizabeth Gaskell undertook the writing of The Life of Charlotte Brontë with a highly specific purpose in mind: it was meant, first and foremost, as a defense. Spurred by the urgings of longtime family friend Ellen Nussey, who was despairing over “the misrepresentations and the malignant spirit” at work in recent commentaries about the late author of Jane Eyre, Patrick Brontë had written to Gaskell only three months after his daughter's untimely death in 1855 and expressed the hope that an “established Author” like herself might produce a biography of Charlotte Brontë immediately. Gaskell was thus charged with the work of presenting to the world a definitive account of the celebrated, if enigmatic, writer's life, in defiance of the inflammatory and rumor-filled posthumous reports that were circulating.

Type
Research Article
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 671 - 690
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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