Charlotte Brontë, at 21 years old, showed all the signs of a young writer’s frustration: she was angry at herself for remaining unknown and angry at the world for its reluctance to know her, Peter Ackroyd writes. The author was born on this day in 1816.
Seven years after his marriage, Patrick Brontë announced that “Providence has called me to labour in His vineyard at Haworth.” Haworth was described by a clergyman as almost a “heathen village,” whose inhabitants treated people “like wild beasts,” and this is the impression that Brontë biographers have tried to maintain. The fact is, however, that Haworth was not a backwater on the edge of desolation but a prosperous industrial town.
It is Charlotte’s vulnerability and emotionalism that really make her the paramount Brontë sister—and, indeed, the heroine of Barker’s biography. Or perhaps “heroine” is not quite the right word, since in this notably candid account she emerges in many respects an unsympathetic creature. We thought that she was Jane Eyre, but all along she was Mr. Rochester. We can also be quite sure that this somewhat unflattering description is, for once, no figment of the biographical imagination.
The book of poems sold only two copies, and Charlotte decided that they should all move quickly into prose. She published “Jane Eyre” in 1847; later that same year, Emily and Anne published “Wuthering Heights” and “Agnes Grey,” respectively. “Jane Eyre” was an almost unprecedented success. The other two novels did much better than the poems, but their earliest critics generally regarded the narratives as wild and depraved, and they were, of course, right.
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