The Life of Charlotte Brontë — Volume 2

The next year opened with a spell of cold dreary weather, which told severely on a constitution already tried by anxiety and care. Miss Brontë describes herself as having utterl...

Soon after she returned home, her friend paid her a visit. While she stayed at Haworth, Miss Brontë wrote the letter from which the following extract is taken. The strong sense...

After her visit to Manchester, she had to return to a re-opening of the painful circumstances of the previous winter, as the time drew near for Mr. Nicholl's departure from Hawo...

An article on "Vanity Fair" and "Jane Eyre" had appeared in the Quarterly Review of December, 1848. Some weeks after, Miss Brontë wrote to her publishers, asking why it had not...

The tale of "Shirley" had been begun soon after the publication of "Jane Eyre." If the reader will refer to the account I have given of Miss Brontë's schooldays at Roe Head, he...

"I can write to you now, dear E----, for I am away from home) and relieved, temporarily, at least, by change of air and scene, from the heavy burden of depression which, I confe...

The difficulty that presented itself most strongly to me, when I first had the honour of being requested to write this biography, was how I could show what a noble, true, and te...

The reader will remember that Anne Brontë had been interred in the churchyard of the Old Church at Scarborough. Charlotte had left directions for a tombstone to be placed over h...

Her life at Haworth was so unvaried that the postman's call was the event of her day. Yet she dreaded the great temptation of centring all her thoughts upon this one time, and l...

She wrote to Mr. Williams, September 29th, 1850, "It is my intention to write a few lines of remark on 'Wuthering Heights,' which, however, I propose to place apart as a brief p...

During this summer of 1846, while her literary hopes were waning, an anxiety of another kind was increasing. Her father's eyesight had become seriously impaired by the progress...

During the earlier months of this spring, Haworth was extremely unhealthy. The weather was damp, low fever was prevalent, and the household at the Parsonage suffered along with...

Her father was always anxious to procure every change that was possible for her, seeing, as he did, the benefit which she derived from it, however reluctant she might have been...

"The staircase of Brick Court is said to have been filled with mourners, the reverse of domestic; women without a home, without domesticity of any kind, with no friend but him t...

so for three weeks. Up to this period, since my marriage, I have had excellent health. My husband and I live at home with my father; of course, I could not leave HIM. He is pret...

State of Charlotte Brontë's health at the commencement of 1847--Family trials--"Wuthering Heights" and "Agnes Grey" accepted by a publisher--"The Professor" rejected--Completion...

Remarks on friendship--Letter to Mrs. Gaskell on her and Miss Martineau's views of the Great Exhibition and Mr. Thackeray's lecture, and on the "Saint's Tragedy"--Miss Brontë's...

Miss Brontë's visit to Miss Martineau, and estimate of her hostess--Remarks on Mr. Ruskin's "Stones of Venice"--Preparations for another visit to London--Letter to Mr. Sydney Do...

The biographer's difficulty--Deep and enduring attachment of Mr. Nicholls for Miss Brontë--Instance of her self-abnegation--She again visits London--Impressions of this visit--L...

Letter to Mrs. Gaskell on writing fiction, etc.--The biographer's account of her visit to Haworth, and reminiscences of conversations with Miss Brontë--Letters from Miss Brontë...

"Currer Bell" identified as Miss Brontë at Haworth and the vicinity--Her letter to Mr. Lewes on his review of "Shirley"--Solitude and heavy mental sadness and anxiety--She visit...

Intended republication of "Wuthering Heights" and "Agnes Grey"--Reaction after her visit to Scotland--Her first meeting with Mr. Lewes--Her opinion of Balzac and George Sand--A...

Commencement and completion of "Shirley"--Originals of the characters, and circumstances under which it was written--Loss on railway shares--Letters to Mr. Lewes and other frien...

Visit to Sir J. and Lady Kay Shuttleworth--The biographer's impressions of Miss Brontë--Miss Brontë's account of her visit to the Lakes of Westmoreland--Her disinclination for a...

An unhealthy spring at Haworth--Miss Brontë's proposed visit to London--Her remarks on "The Leader"--Associations of her walks on the moors--Letter to an unknown admirer of her...

Mr. Brontë afflicted with blindness, and relieved by a successful operation for cataract--Charlotte Brontë's first work of fiction, "The Professor"--She commences "Jane Eyre"--C...

Miss Brontë revisits Scarborough--Serious illness and ultimate convalescence of her father--Her own illness--"Villette" nearly completed--Further remarks on "Esmond" and "Uncle...

The Quarterly Review on "Jane Eyre"--Severe illness of Anne Brontë--Her last verses--She is removed to Scarborough--Her last hours, and death and burial there--Charlotte's retur...