—from an unsigned review in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (July 1857)
JAMES FITZJAMES STEPHEN
Nor can we, with a due regard to literary justice, pass over in silence the grave offence of a similar character of which Mrs. Gaskell, the biographer of Miss Brontë, has herself been guilty. The life of this remarkable woman has been read with an avidity which does not surprise us, for both the subject and the manner of the book are well calculated to excite the deepest interest. But Mrs. Gaskell appears to have learnt the art of the novel-writer so well that she cannot discharge from her palette the colours she has used in the pages of ‘Mary Barton’ and ‘Ruth.’ This biography opens precisely like a novel, and the skilful arrangement of lights and shades and colours—the prominence of some objects and the evident suppression of others—leave on the mind the excitement of a highly-wrought drama, rather than the simplicity of daylight and of nature. To heighten the interest of this strange representation, and also to assert her own imperious sense of moral obligations, the biographer has thought it proper and necessary to introduce the episode of Branwell Brontë, a worthless brother of the three mysterious Bells, whose misconduct added a pang to their dreary existence; and in giving the history of this scapegrace Mrs. Gaskell has allowed herself to enter into details affecting the character and conduct of living persons, on whom she proceeds to pass sentence in a tone for which she now feels, or ought to feel, great shame and regret. It turns out that these details were borrowed from imperfect or incorrect evidence; no effort seems to have been made to verify the facts on which Mrs. Gaskell proceeded to consign another woman to infamy and to brand her with maledictions. The name and station of the lady thus assailed were easily identified, and it became known that she is a member of a highly honourable family; legal proceedings were threatened, and we believe commenced, to vindicate her reputation; and on the 30th May a letter appeared in the ‘Times’ newspaper from Mrs. Gaskell’s solicitor, stating that he was instructed ‘to retract every statement contained in that work which imputes to a widowed lady, referred to, but not named therein, any breach of her conjugal, of her maternal, and of her social duties, &c ... [and] to express the deep regret of Mrs. Gaskell that she should have been led to make them.’ This apology has been accepted; though the disavowal of the false statements would have been more becoming to both parties, if it had not been conveyed in the studied phraseology of an attorney.
—from an unsigned review in the Edinburgh Review (July 1857)
PATRICK BRONTË
I am much pleased with reading the opinions of those in your letters, and other eminent characters, respecting the “Memoir.” Before I knew their’s I had formed my own opinion, and the reading World’s opinion of the “Memoir” is, that it is in every way worthy of what one Great Woman, should have written of Another, and that it ought to stand, and will stand in the first rank, of Biographies, till the end of time.
—from a letter to Elizabeth Gaskell (July 30, 1857)
HENRY JAMES
[Mrs. Gaskell’s] “Life of Charlotte Brontë,” for instance, although a very readable and delightful book, is one which a woman of strong head could not possibly have written; for, full as it is of fine qualities, of affection, of generosity, of sympathy, of imagination, it lacks the prime requisites of a good biography. It is written with a signal want of judgment and of critical power; and it has always seemed to us that it tells the reader considerably more about Mrs. Gaskell than about Miss Brontë.
—from The Nation (February 22, 1866)
Questions 1. Can one write a biography without possessing a store of empathy or antipathy for the subject? What would you surmise is the basis for Gaskell’s empathy for, or identification with, Brontë?2. Do Brontë’s letters reveal a side of her character that Gaskell does not explore? Do Brontë’s own words ever contradict Gaskell’s claims? Do you feel that Gaskell always understands her subject correctly? If not, can you point to moments in the Life when Brontë’s own words jar against Gaskell’s interpretation of them?3. Do you ever feel while reading this biography that Gaskell is less interested in Brontë the individual than in Brontë the symbol of the suppression of women?4. Can you identify literary techniques (foreshadowing, compression, metaphor) that Gaskell, a novelist, brings to bear on Brontë’s life story? If so, what impact do these techniques have on the narrative?5. How would you characterize Gaskell’s relationship to the reader? Does she directly address the reader at times? At what moments does she do so, and to what effect?6. Do you get a sense of Brontë’s character development over the course of Gaskell’s biography? Can you trace a character arc? What are the culminating moments of Brontë’s life story as it is shaped by Gaskell?