*This post was first published in 2011*
Not that Charlotte Brontë's afterlife has been a quiet one. Much to her husband's distress when it came to personal matters (not when it came to 'professional' matters, though), her popularity started even before she died on March 31st, 1855. And it has only got bigger and bigger ever since. These days, she and her Jane Eyre are quite the buzz words, bringing new people to her world every day.
We know that Charlotte once wished 'to be for ever known' ('careful what you wish for', would have surely been Arthur Bell Nicholls's advice) but we do think her current popularity - and not just for the
Jane Eyre film, but for the rest of smaller-scale projects too - would surpass even her wildest dreams. Shy as she undoubtedly was, we do think that she'd be quite unable to hide a smile and a blush at all this. But oh would she be proud!
The picture is from the manuscript of the preface to the second edition of Jane Eyre (27 December 1847) which is located at the Rosenbach Museum and Library (Pennsylvania). Rosen-blog contains a few more pictures of the manuscript and a comment about the Thackeray-mad-woman-in-the-attic-controversy.
I think CB would be very proud and pleased and for the family's sake as well. I think she would not be able to refrain from saying " Well, I told you so" as she always had believed in all their talents.
ReplyDeleteI think it would shock her what their table recently fetched...the table she herself changed out for another . But that's just it. I think she changed that table and redecorated the parlor so it would not be exactly the room they all shared together , as that would have been too much to bare.
It was a cruel twist of fate she lost her siblings just as they had gained the fame she dreamed of as a girl. Charlotte tried her wings alone and found fame, even as great as hers, does not keep one warm at night or relive the loneliness of an empty parlor after evening prayers.
Arthur Bell Nicholls was no genius. He could not discuss the merits of a poem. But he loved Charlotte Bronte as she understood the emotion; with anguish and power. They spoke the same language in that regard. Both knew what it was to suffer for love's sake
Let us remember Charlotte said of Arthur
...To merit and win such a character was better than to earn either wealth, or fame, or power
This was no idle comment. Charlotte Bronte had won such laurels ...so I believe we can trust her judgement