Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell: Their Lives, Friendship and Writings
Brontë and Gaskell are well-known literary figures who must always appear in any list of prominent Victorian writers. These women not only shared literary success, but also a powerful and enduring friendship and after Brontë`s early death, Gaskell was asked by the father Patrick Brontë to write about his daughter`s life. This book focuses on the friendship and the biography written afterwards. It does expect some knowledge of the main protagonists, but I learned more about what I half knew and a lot of details I didn`t know and closed the book with a much better understanding of the lives and writings of the people. It shows the difficulties of writing about a friend, especially one who has died so tragically. What should one reveal, what should one avoid and how to balance honesty with protecting a reputation?
There are so many interesting details from the strong level of research put into this book. It is bizarre to think that everything earnt by Gaskell was automatically owned by her husband. It is also ironic and rather pleasing that the poet Robert Southey, who told Brontë that women shouldn`t write but instead be immersed in the proper duties of domesticity and motherhood, is not read much these days except perhaps by academics, whereas Jane Eyre continues to be sold, studied and regularly appears on lists of best novels ever (as it should do, in my opinion). Lots to learn with some fascinating insights, yet written in a well-paced and comprehensible style, it encourages the reader to return to the writings of both authors.
