tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16586584.post7791692155448342140..comments2024-03-14T07:34:26.650+01:00Comments on BrontëBlog: Starry-eyed Charlotte's problems with punctuationCristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14863082224534612494noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16586584.post-91007453836699635582007-10-02T18:29:00.000+02:002007-10-02T18:29:00.000+02:00Hi Franca,Thanks for your comment. You see, there ...Hi Franca,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for your comment. You see, there are quite a few sources that deny what Mrs Gaskell wrote. Besides, as valuable as her biography is, Mrs Gaskell tended to go - right from the beginning of her acquaintance with Charlotte - for the legendary versions of things, and she placed too much trust on people who would share stories with her, without double-checking them.<BR/><BR/>Here is what Winifred Gérin - a well-known Brontë biographer - writes in her biography of Branwell Brontë (pp. 297-298):<BR/><BR/><I>Branwell's death, following on so wild and romantic a life, inevitably gave rise to many exaggerated accounts which, for their Gothic and macabre details, would have appealed to Branwell himself. Mrs Gaskell, hearing them years later (certainly not from Charlotte) gave them credence and inserted them in her biography. Francis Leyland, who had the truth direct from the Brown family, emphatically denied Branwell's reported defiance of death; he did not meet it standing, but in his father's arms, to which, in a last gesture of filial love, he resigned himself.<BR/>Martha Brown, who was in the room, could also deny the story that Branwell had died with his pockets full of Mrs Robinson's letters.</I><BR/><BR/>I hope that helps.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16586584.post-68922539110125685392007-10-02T01:55:00.000+02:002007-10-02T01:55:00.000+02:00Hello:I'm the person who wrote the "Death a Day" b...Hello:<BR/><BR/>I'm the person who wrote the "Death a Day" blog about Branwell's end. I am interested to see your comment that Mrs. Gaskell's account of him dying standing up is not true. It smelled pretty false to me, too, which is why I said simply that she had written about it, rather than presenting it as fact. But thanks for the correction. <BR/><BR/>By the way, how do you know it's not true? I have little doubt you are right, it's just the amateur historian in me would love a proper source to refute Mrs. Gaskell.francahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01679640584551046133noreply@blogger.com