Review on Mr Brontë's letters

Yesterday we commented on Patrick Brontë's lucky day and we didn't expect him to make another appearance until months afterwards. But lo and behold! Yorkshire Post Today has a small review by Lizzie Murphy on the brand new edition of his letters.

It seems that Patrick's figure is finally shedding the cloak Mrs Gaskell put on him and showing his true colours to the world thanks to Brontë scholars devoted to restore him to his rightful place and character. We can't help but praise these efforts. It was about time!

This is how the letters came to be published, and also how they reveal Mr Brontë's true sympathetic character:

Mr Green [the editor] , who taught at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School for more than 30 years, decided to make a collection of Mr Bronte's letters, of which there are some 250, when he retired in 1995. One of his most exciting discoveries was a cache of 26 letters, most of them unpublished, at the Church of England Record Centre in London. They were written by Mr Bronte to the National Society at the time of the foundation of the National School in Haworth.

Mr Green said: "They reveal a man fighting to maintain the school and save it from closing due to money shortages. He was working for the people of Haworth.You can't judge him by 20th century standards. He cared about his family but he did not hug and kiss his children very often."

This new book sounds like a great contribution to the Brontë bibliography, and Mr Green seems to have been an empathic editor.

Categories: In_the_News, Books, Scholar, Patrick_Brontë