Charlotte Brontë and Her Circle

Clement King Shorter

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Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle, by Clement K. Shorter
The Project Gutenberg eBook, Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle, by Clement K. Shorter
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle
Author: Clement K. Shorter
Release Date: August 8, 2006 Language: English
[eBook #19011]
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLOTTE BRONTE AND HER CIRCLE***
Transcribed from the 1896 Hodder and Stoughton edition by Les Bowler.
CHARLOTTE BRONTË AND HER CIRCLE
BY CLEMENT K. SHORTER LONDON HODDER AND STOUGHTON 27 PATERNOSTER ROW 1896
PREFACE
It is claimed for the following book of some five hundred pages that the larger part of it is an addition of entirely new material to the romantic story of the Brontës. For this result, but very small credit is due to me; and my very hearty acknowledgments must be made, in the first place, to the Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls, for whose generous surrender of personal inclination I must ever be grateful. It has been with extreme unwillingness that Mr. Nicholls has broken the silence of forty years, and he would not even now have consented to the publication of certain letters concerning his marriage, had he not been aware that these ...

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• Publié par: isso
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 20
• Langue: English

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Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle, by Clement K.
Shorter
The Project Gutenberg eBook, Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle, by Clement
K. Shorter
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle
Author: Clement K. Shorter
Release Date: August 8, 2006 [eBook #19011]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLOTTE BRONTE AND HER CIRCLE***
Transcribed from the 1896 Hodder and Stoughton edition by Les Bowler.
CHARLOTTE BRONTË AND HER
CIRCLE
BY CLEMENT K. SHORTER
LONDON
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
27 PATERNOSTER ROW
1896p. vPREFACE
It is claimed for the following book of some five hundred pages that the larger
part of it is an addition of entirely new material to the romantic story of the
Brontës. For this result, but very small credit is due to me; and my very hearty
acknowledgments must be made, in the first place, to the Rev. Arthur Bell
Nicholls, for whose generous surrender of personal inclination I must ever be
grateful. It has been with extreme unwillingness that Mr. Nicholls has broken
the silence of forty years, and he would not even now have consented to the
publication of certain letters concerning his marriage, had he not been aware
that these letters were already privately printed and in the hands of not less
than eight or ten people. To Miss Ellen Nussey of Gomersall, I have also to
p. virender thanks for having placed the many letters in her possession at my
disposal, and for having furnished a great deal of interesting information.
Without the letters from Charlotte Brontë to Mr. W. S. Williams, which were
kindly lent to me by his son and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Thornton Williams, my
book would have been the poorer. Sir Wemyss Reid, Mr. J. J. Stead, of
Heckmondwike, Mr. Butler Wood, of Bradford, Mr. W. W. Yates, of Dewsbury,
Mr. Erskine Stuart, Mr. Buxton Forman, and Mr. Thomas J. Wise are among the
many Brontë specialists who have helped me with advice or with the loan of
material. Mr. Wise, in particular, has lent me many valuable manuscripts.
Finally, I have to thank my friend Dr. Robertson Nicoll for the kindly pressure
which has practically compelled me to prepare this little volume amid a
multitude of journalistic duties.
CLEMENT K. SHORTER.198 Strand, London,
September 1st, 1896.
p. viiCONTENTS
PRELIMINARY
CHAPTER I PATRICK BRONTË AND MARIA HIS WIFE
CHAPTER II CHILDHOOD
CHAPTER III SCHOOL AND GOVERNESS LIFE
CHAPTER IV PENSIONNAT HÉGER, BRUSSELS
CHAPTER V PATRICK BRANWELL BRONTË
p. viiiCHAPTER VI EMILY JANE BRONTË
CHAPTER VII ANNE BRONTË
CHAPTER VIII ELLEN NUSSEY
CHAPTER IX MARY TAYLOR
CHAPTER X MARGARET WOOLER
CHAPTER XI THE CURATES AT HAWORTH
CHAPTER XII CHARLOTTE BRONTË’S LOVERS
CHAPTER XIII LITERARY AMBITIONS
p. ixCHAPTER XIV WILLIAM SMITH WILLIAMS
CHAPTER XV WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY
CHAPTER XVI LITERARY FRIENDSHIPS
CHAPTER XVII ARTHUR BELL NICHOLLS
p. xiLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
CHARLOTTE BRONTË Frontispiece
PATRICK BRANWELL BRONTË facing page 120
FACSIMILE OF PAGE OF EMILY BRONTË’S DIARY facing page 146
FACSIMILE OF TWO PAGES OF EMILY BRONTË’S DIARY facing page 154
ANNE BRONTË facing page 182
MISS ELLEN NUSSEY AS A SCHOOLGIRL )
MISS ELLEN NUSSEY TO-DAY ) facing page 207
THE REV. ARTHUR BELL NICHOLLS facing page 467
p. xiiiA BRONTË CHRONOLOGY
Patrick Brontë born 17 March
1777
Maria Brontë born 1783
Patrick leaves Ireland for Cambridge 1802Degree of A.B. 1806
Curacy at Wetherfield, Essex 1806
„ Dewsbury Yorks 1809
„ Hartshead-cum-Clifton 1811
Publishes ‘Cottage Poems’ (Halifax) 1811
Married to Maria Branwell 18 Dec. 1812
First Child, Maria, born 1813
Publishes ‘The Rural Minstrel’ 1813
Elizabeth born 1814
Publishes ‘The Cottage in the Wood’ 1815
Curacy at Thornton 1816
Charlotte Brontë born at Thornton 21 April 1816
Patrick Branwell Brontë born 1817
Emily Jane Brontë born 1818
‘The Maid of Killarney’ published 1818
p. xivAnne Brontë born 1819
Removal to Incumbency of Haworth February
1820
Mrs. Brontë died 15
September
1821
Maria and Elizabeth Brontë at Cowan Bridge July 1824
Charlotte and Emily „ „ September
1824Leave Cowan Bridge 1825
Maria Brontë died 6 May 1825
Elizabeth Brontë died 15 June 1825
Charlotte Brontë at School, Roe Head January 1831
Leaves Roe Head School 1832
First Visit to Ellen Nussey at The Rydings September
1832
Returns to Roe Head as governess 29 July 1835
Branwell visits London 1835
Emily spends three months at Roe Head, when Anne takes her 1835
place and she returns home
Ellen Nussey visits Haworth in Holidays July 1836
Miss Wooler’s School removed to Dewsbury Moor 1836
Emily at a School at Halifax for six months (Miss Patchet of Law 1836
Hill)
First Proposal of Marriage (Henry Nussey) March 1839
Anne Brontë becomes governess at Blake Hall, (Mrs. Ingham’s) April 1839
Charlotte governess at Mrs. Sidgwick’s at Stonegappe, and at 1839
Swarcliffe, Harrogate
p. xvSecond Proposal of Marriage (Mr. Price) 1839
Charlotte and Emily at Haworth, Anne at Blake Hall 1840
Charlotte’s second situation as governess with Mrs. White, March 1841
Upperwood House, Rawdon
Charlotte and Emily go to School at Brussels February
1842
Miss Branwell died at Haworth 29 Oct. 1842Charlotte and Emily return to Haworth Nov. 1842
Charlotte returns to Brussels Jan. 1843
Returns to Haworth Jan. 1844
Anne and Branwell at Thorp Green 1845
Charlotte visits Mary Taylor at Hounsden 1845
Visits Miss Nussey at Brookroyd 1845
Publication of Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell 1846
Charlotte Brontë visits Manchester with her father for him to see Aug. 1846
an Oculist
‘Jane Eyre’ published (Smith & Elder) Oct. 1847
‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Agnes Grey’, (Newby) Dec. 1847
Charlotte and Emily visit London June 1848
‘Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ 1848
Branwell died 24 Sept.
1848
Emily died 19 Dec. 1848
Anne Brontë died at Scarborough 28 May 1849
‘Shirley’ published 1849
Visit to London, first meeting with Thackeray Nov. 1849
p. xviVisit to London, sits for Portrait to Richmond 1850
Third Offer of Marriage (James Taylor) 1851
Visit to London for Exhibition 1851
‘Villette’ published 1852Visit to London 1853
Visit to Manchester to Mrs. Gaskell 1853
Marriage 29 June 1854
Death 31 March
1855
Patrick Brontë died 7 June 1861
p. 1PRELIMINARY: MRS. GASKELL
In the whole of English biographical literature there is no book that can
compare in widespread interest with the Life of Charlotte Brontë by Mrs.
Gaskell. It has held a position of singular popularity for forty years; and while
biography after biography has come and gone, it still commands a place side
by side with Boswell’s Johnson and Lockhart’s Scott. As far as mere readers
are concerned, it may indeed claim its hundreds as against the tens of
intrinsically more important rivals. There are obvious reasons for this success.
Mrs. Gaskell was herself a popular novelist, who commanded a very wide
audience, and Cranford, at least, has taken a place among the classics of our
literature. She brought to bear upon the biography of Charlotte Brontë all those
literary gifts which had made the charm of her seven volumes of romance. And
these gifts were employed upon a romance of real life, not less fascinating than
anything which imagination could have furnished. Charlotte Brontë’s success
as an author turned the eyes of the world upon her. Thackeray had sent her his
Vanity Fair before he knew her name or sex. The precious volume lies before
me—
p. 2And Thackeray did not send many inscribed copies of his books even to
successful authors. Speculation concerning the author of Jane Eyre was
sufficiently rife during those seven sad years of literary renown to make a
biography imperative when death came to Charlotte Brontë in 1855. All the
world had heard something of the three marvellous sisters, daughters of a poor
parson in Yorkshire, going one after another to their death with such
melancholy swiftness, but leaving—two of them, at least—imperishable work
behind them. The old blind father and the bereaved husband read the
confused eulogy and criticism, sometimes with a sad pleasure at the praise,
oftener with a sadder pain at the grotesque inaccuracy. Small wonder that it
became impressed upon Mr. Brontë’s mind that an authoritative biography was
desirable. His son-in-law, Mr. Arthur Bell Nicholls, w