Victorians! discussion

Section 3: Volume II Chapters 1-7

The novels, deaths of Emily, Anne and Branwell

Again, here are a few broad introductory questions to get things going. Feel free to comment on anything at all that struck you from this section.

This is perhaps the section we’ve all been waiting for – a certain level triumph in the publication of the Brontë sisters’ most enduring novels, and the tragedy in the loss of her remaining brother and sisters.
On which of these you feel Gaskell focuses more?
Does the emotion of these life-changing events come across successfully?

This is also the period in which Charlotte finally admits to being Currer Bell. Did you get the impression that her letters to publishers and others had a more masculine tone when she wrote as Currer Bell than the personal letters she wrote as herself?

At this stage, Charlotte begins to mix in literary circles and gets to know Elizabeth Gaskell, Harriet Martineau and William Thackeray. How did these new acquaintances affect her life and career?

I am loving this book, and reading The Life of Charlotte Bronte at the same time as Gaskell's novel North and South is especially rewarding. Being so immersed, I feel close to Gaskell, thinking about her intentions and craft. The reason I bookmarked a page just now was to share my enthusiasm and this comment: in the notes at the beginning of the first section thread, mention was made of some persons thinking TLOCB reads like a novel. I have kept this in mind and would say, much of it does not. But the best example of when it does, I think, is the part I just finished. Vol.. 2, Chapter 2...the publishers' dispute over legal rights and the belief Acton and Currer Bell are the same person, and Anne and Charlotte's trip to London to prove they are two separate persons.