tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16586584.post963586885007586318..comments2024-03-14T07:34:26.650+01:00Comments on BrontëBlog: Romancing Miss Brontë - A reviewCristinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14863082224534612494noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16586584.post-90424715931435929152012-01-27T02:26:47.100+01:002012-01-27T02:26:47.100+01:00As someone who knew nothing about the lives of the...As someone who knew nothing about the lives of the Bronte sisters before reading this, I was surprised at how bleak the story was. I sympathize a lot with Charlotte. Arthur Bell Nichols was endearing in the beginning, but after he proposed he got steadily more infuriating. He had his heart in the right place, but was a bit of a control freak and couldn't quite comprehend that Charlotte was essentially settling for him. But I felt the most for her father, and thought it was incredibly disrespectful for Arthur to marry his cousin, of all people, after Charlotte died. I'm aware that it is a true story, which only makes it more heartbreaking. I suppose this kind of relationship was normal for its time, but nevertheless was a terribly bleak and sad story to read about.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16586584.post-4129949819657903702010-04-22T20:48:25.451+02:002010-04-22T20:48:25.451+02:00Yes I had the same thought today, that there are m...Yes I had the same thought today, that there are many ways to comment and interpret the actions and words of a person you know, let alone for someone you have never met. I guess we all tend to project things from our personality to understand others and fill the gaps.<br />I forgot to say that I like Arthur too :) .ksotikoulahttp://www.youtube.com/user/ksotikoulanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16586584.post-89579761009254156862010-04-22T15:59:31.123+02:002010-04-22T15:59:31.123+02:00Well, we will have to conclude that as Karen Joy F...Well, we will have to conclude that as Karen Joy Fowler wrote in The Jane Austen Book Club, "each of us has a private Austen", only in this case it's a private Charlotte Brontë. <br /><br />As I said, reading her letters (particularly those written after Anne's death and before her engagemente to Arthur) I don't see that description is wrong at all, but as with living people, not all of us form the same impressions.<br /><br />I do agree, however, with what you say about Charlotte being hard on herself and seeing her own faults only too clearly (her drawing of herself in that letter to Ellen Nussey written from Brussels is enough to see that).Cristinahttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16586584.post-2815524872925766152010-04-21T22:51:54.014+02:002010-04-21T22:51:54.014+02:00I have a difficulty trying to explain what I mean....I have a difficulty trying to explain what I mean. I know Charlotte was not one of her heroines (or she would be closer to Lucy Snowe than Jane Eyre who would perhaps be an ideal self for her) and I also admit that at times she was prejudiced against some people, but "ruthlessly harsh" is too much. For me a great deal of what she felt was natural/justified especially at the Roe Head period. She was a talented woman (a special needs person in a way - because charismatic people enter that category when they are too far ahead in intelligence for their age and tend to get bored and impatient when not occupied properly) plus a very determined to succeed person and her options were very very limited. She possessed the gift of a great use of language and she had to pass two hours trying to explain the difference between a verb and an article to young ladies who were not motivated at all (while knowledge for her was always very important). It was like forcing Picasso to draw only colorless squares. This was frustrating especially as she saw her best years pass and no way out of that situation. This also explains her behavior towards Branwell. Because he had the opportunities she was never offered and he took it all and threw it out of the window, while she was desperate of finding some action to surpass her frustrated love. What I am trying to say is that she was no more cruel to others than she was to herself (and she tended to criticize and expose/accept her own weaknesses) and that if sometimes it seemed so it wasn't willful as "ruthless" makes me understand.ksotikoulahttp://www.youtube.com/user/ksotikoulanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16586584.post-44529810148634320072010-04-21T17:08:35.598+02:002010-04-21T17:08:35.598+02:00Which is also why I think that the verb 'conce...Which is also why I think that the verb 'concealed' (in the weekly quote) is quite appropriate too, by the way.<br /><br />Even if it's years before Romancing Miss Brontë begins, her words on her pupils at Roe Head come to mind now, for instance. Those, to me, were certainly 'acerbic and ruthlessly harsh'.Cristinahttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16586584.post-37031606710979683352010-04-21T17:03:21.259+02:002010-04-21T17:03:21.259+02:00First of all, I'm glad you liked The Taste of ...First of all, I'm glad you liked The Taste of Sorrow, which I found amazingly good.<br /><br />And secondly, we chose the weekly quote precisely because it doesn't depict Charlotte as one of her heroines. The way she is described was - to me anyway - just right. Charlotte's letters and her opinions on people in them show this very clearly. She was harsh and sometimes judged people (whether rightly or wrongly) too fast. This is particularly true of the letters belonging to the period in which Romancing Miss Brontë takes place. <br /><br />That doesn't negate the fact that she was honest and kind or means that she said in public the things she wrote in private letters to intimate friends or acted upon them. <br /><br />Do take a longer look at the book if you can, you may like it even if the quote clashes with your idea of Charlotte.Cristinahttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16586584.post-77974848557579810202010-04-21T15:48:03.486+02:002010-04-21T15:48:03.486+02:00I haven't read this book yet and I was wonderi...I haven't read this book yet and I was wondering whether I should do so. I recently read "The taste of sorrow" which was really very good (I though I wouldn't like it because I have read several biographies and I am quite a purist) and then I read "The secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte" which had its good moments but I was disappointed seeing Charlotte applying Jane Eyre sections to her life (for me CB' s voice was always distinguished from her heroines) and sometimes felt more modern than it should. However, now that I saw your weekly quote of this particular book: "...Charlotte concealed an acerbic mind and ruthlessly harsh opinions on the weaknesses of the human species..." I am quite sure I won't like it. Charlotte Bronte may have been tart and abrupt sometimes, but she was known of being generally kind and honest as a person and her Jane Eyre always surprises me with its tenderness. I can see the sentence "ruthlessly harsh opinions on the weaknesses of the human species" better applied to Emily and still with great reservation as we don't know if she approved the example of her heroes in Wuthering Heights or was just depicting a state of mind.ksotikoulahttp://www.youtube.com/user/ksotikoulanoreply@blogger.com