I spent the day catching up on my reading. I’m nearly finished with
- The Brontes, A Life in Letters
by Juliet Barker. This biography is a volume of letters between Charlotte, Anne and Emily and their friends and publishers, as well as some surviving correspondence from their father Patrick and brother Branwell. These letters give a vivid picture of their lives covering everything from the ordinary duties of maintaining a household, the embarrassment of Branwell’s addictions, and their struggle to keep their anonymity as Currer, Acton and Ellis Bell.
What stands out most is that over the 160+ years since these letters were written only circumstances change, not the challenges of daily life or relationships. As women and writers we face the same stuff, we’re just in a different day and time. Even cyber-hacking of our email is really nothing new. Charlotte’s husband Arther Bell Nichols
‘thought she wrote “too freely” and was “incautious” in what she said.’
and made her dear friend Ellen Nussey promise to burn the letters she received. He did not want them being read by others for whom they were never intended. These unedited, often quickly written letters show us the person of Charlotte Bronte, not the literary figure. Thank goodness Ellen reneged on her promise!
Yet, I am so thankful that circumstances have changed. Especially in the field of medicine. As an asthma suffer who is currently enduring painful inflammation and cough brought on by the recent cold weather I rely on my oral medication and inhalers for relief. With the amount of discomfort I still experience, I do not want to imagine the agony that Anne and Emily experienced as they succumbed to consumption while living in the cold, wet moors. Charlotte’s descriptions of their stoic suffering while often refusing medical intervention makes these two women even more remarkable. Therefore during this bout of asthma I feel compelled to not to complain, but to Bronte Up! and keep writing.
