1850. During a summer thunderstorm Elizabeth Gaskell travelled on a steam train through torrential rain. She disembarked at Windemere in the Lake District to stay with aristocratic friends and it was there that she met the enigmatic Currer Bell, author of the literary sensation Jane Eyre.
A lifelong friendship began and Elizabeth's cheerful extrovert personality helped to ease Charlotte's solitude and the strain of looking after her difficult father. Elizabeth's own literary success and influence also aided Charlotte but you do get the impression that the famous Mrs Gaskell was a bit gossipy and always had one eye on opportunites for herself. Arguably, it was her pushiness that enabled her to pull together her remarkable biography after Charlotte's death, cajoling Charlotte's friends and family into giving up their private correspondence, enlisting her own daughters in copying the letters out and finding the stamina to work long hours to complete the work. Needless to say she also secured herself a good pay deal!
The Invention of Charlotte Bronte has lots of interesting details but what I really loved was the description of Charlotte's wedding.
On Friday 9th June a box tied shut with a cord came from a Halifax dressmaker. Inside was a white muslin wedding dress and a lavender and silver silk 'going away' dress. Chalotte, once so hungry for mail that she often read and responded to letters on the same day, knew as soon as she opened the box that that the material reality of her marriage would be in her hands. She could not do it.
Charlotte, her husband-to-be and her father all became sick with nerves as the wedding date approached and on the evening before, cantankerous Patrick Bronte decided that he wouldn't be attending and therefore would be unable to give her away. Charlotte's friend and former teacher Margaret Wooler stepped in to give the bride away. Ellen Nussey, Charlotte's close friend also attended and decorated the table with posies of wildflowers gathered by young servant, Martha. Arthur Bell Nicholls walked over the moors to the church and Patrick finally decided to join them at the wedding breakfast.
The parsonage had some modest decorations prior to the wedding as Arthur Bell Nicholls would live there with his new wife and a spare room is converted into a study for him. Graham Watson makes the poignant point that although Charlotte's husband and father both have a study 'the three great writers of that house' had to write wherever they could find a space.
I still don't think we have a definitive biography of Charlotte's life, we probably we need a biographer of the stature of Claire Tomalin. However, I highly recommend this book.
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