The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Volumes 1-2

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The posthumous biography of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1857, draws heavily from the hundreds of letters Brontë wrote to her friend Ellen Nussey. Gaskell navigated sensitive topics, notably softening her portrayal of the Clergy Daughters' School, which Charlotte and her sisters attended, to avoid legal repercussions from its founder, Rev. William Carus Wilson. While the biography refrains from directly blaming him for the deaths of two Brontë sisters, the Carus Wilson family issued a rebuttal. Gaskell also omitted details of Charlotte's love for the married Constantin Heger, believing it would offend contemporary morals and distress Charlotte's surviving friends and family. Additionally, references to Charlotte's romance with her publisher, George Smith, were excluded. Born in 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire, Charlotte was the eldest of the surviving Brontë sisters and a prominent English novelist and poet, best known for her classic work, "Jane Eyre," published under the pen name Currer Bell. Following the death of her mother in 1821, Charlotte and her siblings were raised by their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, after the family moved to Haworth, where their father served as curate.