elizabeth gaskell the life of charlotte brontë

Though the biography is considered quite credible and fairly thorough, there were some matters that needed to be downplayed. Gaskell drew much of the material from Charlotte’s letters to her dear friend, Ellen Nussey.Ĭharlotte, in a portrait by George Richmond, 1850 The first edition of The Life of Charlotte Brontë was published by Charlotte’s publisher, Smith, Elder, & Co. Gaskell barely three months after Charlotte died. He, in fact, made the first overture to Mrs. The project was approved by Charlotte’s father, Patrick Brontë, a curate, who had by that time outlived all of his six children. Gaskell, as she was known, was at the time also a respected novelist, having published Mary Barton and Ruth. The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskellwas also published that same year (1857), helping to seal her legacy and reputation. Two years after her death, The Professor, the first novel she had written (but which remained unpublished in her lifetime) was published. When Charlotte died of complications due to pregnancy in 1855, she had nearly reached her thirty-ninth birthday. And though she was still known as “Currer Bell,” the male pseudonym she’d use to break into the publishing world, her true identity had been established.īut it was not to last. Jane Eyre, Shirley, and Villettehad all been published, and Charlotte was recognized as a major talent.

The grief at losing her sisters at ages thirty and twenty-nine, respectively, may have been easing with the happiness she found as the wife of Arthur Bell Nichols, and the widespread recognition of her talents as a writer. Charlotte Brontë (1816 – 1855) outlived all five of her siblings, including her literary sisters, Emily and Anne.

Elizabeth gaskell the life of charlotte brontë