The Letters of Charlotte Brontė: Volume III: 1852 - 1855: 3 - Rilegato

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0198185995 ISBN 13: 9780198185994

Casa editrice: OUP Oxford, 2004

Riassunto

This final volume of Charlotte Brontė's letters covers the period from 1852, when she eventually completed Villette, to March 1855, when she died at the early age of 38. Published in January 1853, Villette reflects experiences and moods conveyed with sharp immediacy in the correspondence of the preceding years. In December 1852 one of her most dramatic letters described the crucial event in her private life: Arthur Nicholls's proposal of marriage, when, 'shaking from head to foot' he made her feel 'what it costs a man to declare affection where he doubts response.' Mr Brontė's furious opposition to the match was not overcome until 1854, the year of Charlotte's marriage on 29 June. In the all too few months before her death, she came to love and trust Nicholls, her 'dear boy' and her 'tenderest nurse' during her final illness.

The letters in this volume include on the one hand Charlotte's brief curt note to George Smith on his engagement to Elizabeth Blakeway, and on the other a newly discovered letter describing with cheerful briskness Charlotte's purchase of her own wedding trousseau. Complete texts of letters previously published inaccurately or in part provide valuable insight into her other friendships. Those to Elizabeth Gaskell in particular have an important bearing on our interpretation and assessment of her Life of Charlotte, published early in 1857; and the inclusion of Harriet Martineau's angry comments on the Life ('Hallucination!' [Friendship] was never attained.') enhances our understanding of Charlotte's break with Martineau after her review of Villette. The redating of a letter has shown that the long estrangement between Charlotte and her oldest friend, Ellen Nussey, caused by Ellen's hostility to the idea of Charlotte's marriage with Nicholls, lasted without a break from July 1853 until late February 1854. The volume includes some of the touching notes from Charlotte's bereaved husband and father, written in response to condolences on her death. Mrs Gaskell's graphic account of her visit to Haworth in 1853 forms one of the appendices; others provide the texts of fragmentary letters, identify known forgeries, and list addenda and corrigenda for volumes 1 and 2.

Su questo libro

Recensione

Margaret Smith's edition, now complete, is a triumph of scholarship: copiously and usefully annotated, and meticulously cross-referenced. It will be an indispensable resource for generations of Brontė scholars to come. But it will also be read by many, and not merely as a scholarly resource. (Heather Glen, Times Literary Supplement)

The appearance of this third and final volume ... marks the culmination of a monumental publishing achievement ... [Margaret Smith] deserves the highest praise for the sheer doggedness with which she has pursued bits and pieces of letters through salesrooms and private collections ... She is also a model editor. The standard of her annotations is superb, and no worthwhile cross-reference to the Brontės' lives or works is allowed to slip through her net ... this wonderful collection does allow us clearly to hear the impassioned voice of one of the greatest letter-writers in the language. Three cheers for Margaret Smith and the Clarendon Press for an immaculate edition. (Mark Bostridge, The Independent on Sunday)

Of the hundreds of books I have reviewed in the last half century only two could be classified as definitive. Margaret Smith's three volumes of Charlotte Bronte's correspondence are a model of conventional scholarship, unassailably definitive. They will survive as long as the serious study of English literature survives the efforts of postmodernist critics to reduce it to a jargon-ridden wasteland. (Raymond Carr, The Spectator)

L'autore

Margaret Smith is Honorary Fellow for the Institute of Advanced Research in Arts and Social Sciences, University of Birmingham.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: OUP Oxford
• Data di pubblicazione: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0198185995
• ISBN 13: 9780198185994
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 440
• Redattore: Smith Margaret