Patrick Brontë's birthday! ~ BrontëBlog

Friday, March 17, 2006

Patrick Brontë's birthday!

Friday, March 17, 2006 4:26 pm by Cristina 2 comments

This is just a reminder that today is Mr Brontë's birthday. He was born in 1777. Even if he hadn't had such a literary family we still think he would have deserved praise for the life he led. Now that Mrs Gaskell's mistakes are finally starting to wear off and his true character begins to shine - we wish him a very happy birthday! :)

Categories: Reminder

2 comments:

Mike3/21/2006 07:31:00 pm
So, not so much with Lizzie's version of the Bronte story? I figured as much. I picked up Lucasta Miller's The Bronte Myth -- will that give me a better idea?

And is Gaskell just not worth it in general? I own copies of both Mary Barton and Sylvia's Lovers -- should I keep them on this year's reading list?
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Anonymous3/21/2006 10:41:00 pm
Well - at least not with the fragments referring to Mr Brontë, no. But despite the inaccuracies, the Life gives you an overall picture which is good to have anyway.

The Brontë Myth will not help much. It will talk about what Elizabeth Gaskell did with her bio - the tricks she used to get the Victorians to understand such 'coarse' authors. Ms Miller sometimes takes things out of context to get you to realise this, though. Then the second part is on the 'afterlife' so to speak - adaptations, films, plays...

Mrs Gaskell is very worthy! She was a wonderful (I can't stress that enough) story-teller.

If you're looking for a thorough Brontë biography then I'd advise Juliet Barker's The Brontës. It has its advantages and disadvantages but it's still the most complete and researched.
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