The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell is the influential first biography of Charlotte Brontë. Relying on multiple first hand testimonies and Gaskell's own memories of Brontë, its subjectivity was challenged immediately on publication and while its integrity is contested among scholars, it remains a significant source for all subsequent writing on the Brontë family. Its first edition, published in the spring of 1857, was withdrawn after complaints of slander were made to its publisher Smith, Elder & Co., prompting them to issue censored second and third editions within five months. Despite initial controversy it was praised by contemporary critics, inspired literary tourism to the Yorkshire setting of the book which continues to the present, and anticipated social and cultural discussions about the situation of women in male-dominated cultures half a century before the formal women's movements began in Britain. Now it is considered an important text that expanded the possibilities of the biographical genre and established the lives, as well as the work, of Brontë family as notable cultural subjects.
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👉 The Life of Charlotte Brontë in the context of Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (née Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer detailed studies of Victorian society, including the lives of the very poor. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. Her only biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was controversial and significant in establishing the Brontë family's lasting fame. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford (1851–1853), North and South (1854–1855), and Wives and Daughters (1864–1866), all of which have been adapted for television by the BBC.