17 - Life Of Charlotte Brontë Volume 1 by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Delve into the fascinating life of Charlotte Brontë, the eldest among the renowned Brontë sisters, recognized as pillars of English literature. Her most celebrated work, Jane Eyre, stands as an everlasting classic. Just two years post her demise, her close friend Elizabeth Gaskell penned down her biography. This compelling biography invites you to discover more about the extraordinary Charlotte Brontë. Please note that Volume 2 of this work is also available as a separate recording.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Volume one, section seventeen, of the Life of Charlotte Bronte.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot Org. Recording by Bruce Pirie and.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
The French read by Ruth Golding.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Volume one,
section seventeen, Chapter twelve. Towards the end of January, the
time came for Charlotte to return to Brussels. Her journey
thither was rather disastrous. She had to make her way alone,

(00:42):
and the train from Leeds to London, which should have
reached Euston Square early in the afternoon, was so much
delayed that it did not get in till ten at night.
She had intended to seek out the Chapter coffee house,
where she had stayed before, and which would have been
near the place where the steamboats lay, but she appears
to have been frightened by the idea of arriving at

(01:03):
an hour which, to Yorkshire notions, was so late and unseemly,
and taking a cab. Therefore, at the station, she drove
straight to the London Bridge Wharf, and desired a water
man to row her to the Ostend packet, which was
to sail the next morning. She described to me, pretty
much as she has since described it in Vallette, her

(01:24):
sense of loneliness and yet her strange pleasure in the
excitement of the situation. As in the dead of that
winter's night, she went swiftly over the dark river to
the black hull's side, and was at first refused leave
to ascend to the deck. No passengers might sleep on board,
they said, with some appearance of disrespect. She looked back

(01:45):
to the lights and subdued noises of London, that mighty
heart in which she had no place, and standing up
in the rocking boat, she asked to speak to some
one in authority on board the packet. He came, and
her quiet, simple statement of her wish and her reason
for it quelled the feeling of sneering distrust in those

(02:06):
who had first heard her request, and impressed the authority
so favorably that he allowed her to come on board
and take possession of a berth. The next morning she sailed,
and at seven on Sunday evenings she reached the Rue
de Isabel. Once more, having only left Haworth on Friday
morning at an early hour. Her salary was sixteen pounds

(02:27):
a year, out of which she had to pay for
her German lessons, for which she was charged as much,
the lessons being probably rated by time, as when Emily
learnt with her and divided the expense, namely ten francs
a month. By Miss Bronte's own desire, she gave her
English lessons in the cloths or school room without the

(02:47):
supervision of Madame or Monsieur age. They offered to be
present with a view to maintain order among the unruly
Belgian girls, but she declined this, saying she would rather
enforce discipline by her her own manner and character, then
be indebted for obedience to the presence of a gendarme.
She ruled over a new schoolroom which had been built

(03:09):
on the space in the playground adjoining the house. Over
that first class, she was survellant at all hours, and
henceforward she was called Mademoiselle Charlotte. By Monsieur Aget's orders.
She continued her own studies, principally attending to German and
to literature, and every Sunday she went alone to the

(03:30):
German and English chapels. Her walks, too, were solitary and
principally taken in the Alle des Fondieu, where she was
secure from intrusion. This solitude was a perilous luxury to
one of her temperament, so liable as she was to
morbid and acute mental suffering. On March sixth, eighteen forty three,

(03:56):
she writes, thus, I am set by this time. Of course,
I am not too much overloaded with occupation, and besides
teaching English, I have time to improve myself in German.
I ought to consider myself well off and to be
thankful for my good fortunes. I hope I am thankful,
and if I could always keep up my spirits and

(04:16):
never feel lonely or long for companionship or friendship or
whatever they call it, I should do very well. As
I told you before, Monsieur and Madame Agier are the
only two persons in the house for whom I really
experience regard as esteem, and of course I cannot be
always with them, nor even very often. They told me

(04:36):
when I first returned that I was to consider their
sitting room my sitting room also, and to go there
whenever I was not engaged in the school room. This, however,
I cannot do in the daytime. It is a public
room where music masters and mistresses are constantly passing in
and out, and in the evening I will not, and
ought not to intrude on Monsieur and Madame Agier and

(04:59):
their children. Thus I am a good deal by myself
out of school hours, But that does not signify I
now regularly give English lessons to Monsieur Agier and his
brother in law. They get on with wonderful rapidity, especially
the first he already begins to speak English very decently.
If you could see and hear the efforts I make

(05:20):
to teach them to pronounce like Englishmen and their unavailing
attempts to imitate, you would laugh to all eternity. The
carnival is just over, and we have entered upon the
gloom and abstinence of Lent. The first day of Lent
we had coffee without milk for breakfast, vinegar and vegetables
with a very little salt, fish for dinner, and bread

(05:42):
for supper. The carnival was nothing but masking and mummery.
Monsieur Agier took me and one of the pupils into
the town to see the masks. It was animating to
see the immense crowds and the general gaiety, but the
masks were nothing. I have been twice to the des
those cousins of men whom I have before made mention.

(06:03):
When she leaves Brussel, I shall have nowhere to go to.
I have had two letters from Mary. She does not
tell me she has been ill, and she does not complain.
But her letters are not the letters of a person
in the enjoyment of great happiness. She has nobody to
be as good to her as monsieur age is to me,
to lend her books, to converse with her sometimes, et cetera.

(06:26):
Good bye when I say so. It seems to me
that you will hardly hear me. All the waves of
the channel heaving and roaring between must deaden the sound.
From the tone of this letter, it may easily be
perceived that the Brussels of eighteen forty three was a
different place from that of eighteen forty two. Then she

(06:49):
had Emily for a daily and knightly solace and companion.
She had the weekly variety of a visit to the
family of the Deeds, and she had the frequent happiness
of seeing Mary and Martha. Now Emily was far away
in Haworth, where she or any other loved one might
die before Charlotte, with her utmost speed, could reach them.

(07:11):
As experience in her aunt's case had taught her, the
deeds were leaving Brussels, so henceforth her weekly holiday would
have to be passed in the Rue di Isabel, or
so she thought. Mary was gone off on her own
independent course. Martha alone remained still and quiet forever in

(07:32):
the cemetery beyond the Porte de Louvain. The weather, too,
for the first few weeks after Charlotte's return, had been
piercingly cold, and her feeble constitution was always painfully sensitive
to an inclement season. Mere bodily pain, however acute, she
could always put aside, but too often ill health assailed

(07:55):
her in a part far more to be dreaded. Her
depression of spirits when she was not well was pitiful
in its extremity. She was aware that it was constitutional
and could reason about it, but no reasoning prevented her
suffering mental agony while the bodily cause remained in force.

(08:15):
The agis have discovered since the publication of Villette that
at this beginning of her career as English teacher in
their school, the conduct of her pupils was often impertinent
and mutinous in the highest degree. But of this they
were unaware at the time, as she had declined their
presence and never made any complaint. Still, it must have
been a depressing thought to her at this period that

(08:37):
her joyous, healthy, obtuse pupils were so little answerable to
the powers she could bring to bear upon them. And
though from their own testimony her patience, firmness, and resolution
at length obtained their just reward, yet with one so
weak in health and spirits, the reaction after such struggles
as she frequently had with her pupils have been very

(09:00):
sad and painful. She thus writes to her friend E
April eighteen forty three. Is there any talk of your
coming to Brussels during the bitter cold weather we had
through February and the principal part of March. I did
not regret that you had not accompanied me. If I

(09:24):
had seen you shivering as I shivered myself, if I
had seen your hands and feet as red and swelled
as mine were, my discomfort would just have been doubled.
I can do very well under this sort of thing.
It does not fret me. It only makes me numb
and silent. But if you were to pass a winter
in Belgium you would be ill. However, more genial weather

(09:46):
is coming now, and I wish you were here. Yet
I have never pressed you, and never would press you
too warmly to come. There are privations and humiliations to
submit to. There is monotony and uniformity of life, and
above all, there is a constant sense of solitude in
the midst of numbers. The Protestant the foreigner is a

(10:08):
solitary being, whether as teacher or pupil. I do not
say this by way of complaining of my own lot.
For though I acknowledge that there are certain disadvantages in
my present position, what position on earth is without them?
And whenever I turn back to compare what I am
with what I was, my place here with my place

(10:30):
at missus Blank's, for instance, I am thankful. There was
an observation in your last letter which excited, for a
moment my wrath. At first I thought it would be
folly to reply to it, and I would let it die. Afterwards,
I determined to give one answer once for all three
or four people, it seems, have the idea that the

(10:51):
future apeu of Mademoiselle Bronte is on the continent. These
people are wiser than I am. They could not believe
that I crossed the sea merely to return as teacher
to Madame Ages. I must have some more powerful motive
than respect for my master and mistress, gratitude for their kindness,
et cetera. To induce me to refuse a salary of

(11:13):
fifty pounds in England and accept one of sixteen pounds
in Belgium, I must, forsooth have some remote hope of
entrapping a husband somehow or somewhere. If these charitable people
knew the total seclusion of the life I lead that
I never exchange a word with any other man than
Monsieur Agier, and seldom indeed with him, they would perhaps

(11:36):
cease to suppose that any such chimerical and groundless notion
had influenced my proceedings. Have I said enough to clear
myself of Socilian imputation. Not that it is a crime
to marry, or a crime to wish to be married,
but it is an imbecility which I reject with contempt
for women who have neither fortune nor beauty to make

(11:57):
marriage the principal object of their wish and hopes, and
the aim of all their actions, not to be able
to convince themselves that they are unattractive, and that they
had better be quiet and think of other things than wedlock.
The following is an extract from one of the few
letters which have been preserved of her correspondence with her

(12:18):
sister Emily, May twenty ninth, eighteen forty three. I get
on here from day to day in a Robinson Crusoe
like sort of way, very lonely, but that does not
signify in other respects. I have nothing substantial to complain of,
nor is this a cause for complaint. I hope you

(12:40):
are well. Walk out often on the moors my love
to Tabby. I hope she keeps well. And about this time,
she wrote to her father June second, eighteen forty three,
I was very glad to hear from home. I had
begun to yet low spirited at not receiving any news,

(13:02):
and to entertain indefinite fears that something was wrong. You
do not say anything about your own health, but I
hope you are well. And Emily also, I am afraid
she will have a good deal of hard work to
do now that Hannah, a servant girl who had been
assisting Tabby, is gone. I am exceedingly glad to hear

(13:22):
that you still keep Tabby considerably upwards of seventy. It
is an act of great charity to her, and I
do not think it will be unrewarded, for she is
very faithful and will always serve you when she has occasion,
to the best of her abilities. Besides, she will be
company for Emily, who without her would be very lonely.

(13:45):
I gave a devoir written after she had been four
months under Monsieur Age's tuition. I will now copy out
another written nearly a year later, during which the progress
made appears to me very great.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
Front This wee San Carentra sier la mort de Napoleon
Napoleon naquill On cors a mareu a, Saint Helene, andreced's
Ilrian Canvas de Brulon desire a les mons ill naquis
fist and Sant plegontium a Moreaux, Emperor mas saon courne

(14:24):
a don la faire, and tressn Barso sa trente quillatille
la carriers Solda parnu des chen de vattai un mar
de saint antrone piducen en core de faire savis se
la conciel laid Braine's extreme touche later la trombele lumineus

(14:49):
mossieur lessieux, sier Napoleon Rouberso, mayor brie Don Lameson, paternel
I lave de frere de sir please Uta rodn palles
elutin family kill me mess your son ledmore Napoleon and
seule pludmer need frere need sir need the famed Don

(15:12):
Fhan daughters Rodion says exploer more Germaretta contemple la brodnomo
sadernier ill la exile a captive and sene cern a
k nouveau promete sibillatimondo son orque promette a vult rodeu

(15:38):
a creator ildo balle third ciel poor anime co kilme
e Louis Bonaparte, ilra voulu gree no basan home mezzanon
pierre a done in existence in arm and son a
regigontesque in La pazzi te rachel la.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Ville at the NACII Jupiter Antinnie lampierate de de promete
l riva vivo a lassim duco cars and see poor
puneer lambision past the Buenaparte, la providence, la giscascu, la

(16:21):
more san suivi roque iole the latlantique poet la ou
si attil sainte luis fou jon la floor said antsatier,
la vauteur d'n parle, la fable poet ra till souferro
see said suave duqueur set fund alarm quitrti lexilee luandami

(16:46):
a de sa patri parasnes pasa tribue gratuitemo and Apoleon
nu men fables killney prouva jerme cont don seti le
s s paralland a vaccion sodater conquerorson desite don l

(17:07):
carrier de gloires a rete parano stakle damur u damite
rete new parla mande uniform rappele parlavard Ami Louis jame
ill new Babuzan communist de slier o made u navire
needs rai avec de la sire il nedute pala jon

(17:32):
de serene ill dedie is the female affair poor executise,
grand proge, Napoleon, Sir regarde pa maname may come line
car nacion dan pep ill nemea ill ne consider ami
s prog co com dees astromens o kelilta tom kill

(17:56):
thirty kill a kill, juttad cote on till Cesaire, the
letter conte supermeta, don pard Approcia, Giuseppe Credu, course Alex
Santi Monte petier U, the suller delarm la Pierre quicuv
arrest son Ame Rapidia Tussola an Adi guius gel Vieu

(18:22):
cruel la manquillous separa des fame ed son fan no
setta in manquis com la sienne ne tromblein need a passion,
need a carnt sete la mand nome frour gravencu quia
vessu devenir Buonaparte Evasis Cates said calla de fete naple

(18:48):
eumiliate Nila, Victoire, Honor gayer uvre leg Marie Louise Nepala Fame,
the Napoleon Cela fran France Napoleon a pousse se la
France kill m Leno and fonte la perte de le
rope voi la la divorsquegere voi la lunion killed faux

(19:14):
brisee ferme legime, laveuard de timi the de tretra protesta
contracet santance uvre legime, set abuse, the drad la victoire,
se fuleo, pier levanque, colague leter se, montre clement callouvrosbra

(19:35):
pau resservoir commode son enemie des armee fermei legime, lngue
letter or repertadri coutes a conseil car partu e tu
jour iliadsame, fable, timore, bianto, sedut parla flattery ue frayer parlor,

(19:57):
prog mela pavida, permi canem se, trouva quin gasse, colakrant
quiema sir patrimieux casaronome and penetrable. Devon le menace inaccessible
or lane is a presente. Devon le conseide la nacion

(20:21):
a leuve on Saint Francis, oh no elos adir uvre
legime colla traison settees carce Trier could concilier the tempourisee
a buenaparte MoES say circus se guer don le rope

(20:41):
sign your uncle, commune victim soulecuto du bouche ilfo finier
avec Napoleon, Buenaparte, ufrea tour d'armos dei dur gene pad mania,
nimi te diton soir manports count de des moi genepasisiam

(21:03):
a faer in reputation on the erro man yanim mesa
gerier si la c repolsib le rope quiss a mer
epuise rossur de song le rope don vu negligent prior
cupe cavoussette do then renomede clemens vosette, fable e bien

(21:28):
jervien vosete en voi Buonaparte, saint elene nes tepache pas
and at andrei sele sel cornvonade je vou lads jeri
fleshy pour vou se la kill duardetra and no passare
conta Napoleon m soda generean contre louis seertan Leon royal

(21:56):
or pride qui vounette code chacal mena Poleon emperour said
all shows the lextir pride you soil delpe fermeilegime a
silouiki parlor and situ jour sugarde sa parmas cell la

(22:17):
Come to the les the lady angel repet set on
me le gald Napoleon parlojeni come trump the character, come
tur come e levasion, thence debut. He led you two
to spet Napoleon Buonaparte, Edita vid the nome at the

(22:42):
gloire Arthur Wellesley, missus SUSI need a luna, need a
lord lopinion public the popularity at shows the grand val
whose the Napoleon poor Wellington opinion public remain rincles souffle

(23:02):
de son a flexy blevonte fe disperrettra, come in build
savont Napoleon flatter le purple Wellington le brusque lan cherchell
esa plaudisimo lordre nsss SUSI could you temue yage de
circonscience conte lapprouve set as total laurente lobe said oh

(23:29):
sis a purple quilladore buena parte sirite Saint serge contre
la mort de Wellington par fois I louis temue yasa
collare es a n parde grant parades ur le monde
bete fov helor a vacu impossibility. The senator roma le

(23:52):
moderne corioland Twisi regard lemerte, furios il croise se brner
verse your large patrine a sule debou sur since i
la tonde ill brother said Trumpete populaire don le flo
verne mourier aquel capadluis a cola ful enters the s

(24:16):
rebellion venelles che le pier dimetra the hotem Patricia ma
prise homage do dui comlin n deer a done rue
de llando a du vont saint palle ducal dapsy il ropus,
Jean plan devre de da lancal mode mprasmond pepe enthusiast,

(24:40):
said fierte more next clue pass on Louis in her
modesty partu is a soustrial lodge s de robe panegyric
jame in ne parolees says explorer James in the surf
canotre leuison par on surprisence son caracter e gillons grandeur,

(25:04):
a surpass n verite saluid the touto erro modern la
gloire de Napoleon, creton ne nui cam la vigna de
genas al sufi dan jour poor, la flea trier, la
gloire the Wellington a comele viller, shan quillombrage, le chateau

(25:27):
de se perre, sieur le reve du Shannon, the schen Croi,
lantemo iluisfore duton poor pu ver leil se branch nourse
a pour en francais, don lussl ser racine pro friend
quis s chevetre, don font de monts solid de la

(25:48):
terre meslor labre seculaire in a brin La bla com
rocque ui, la sabas brave e, la foux duton, el
le fort de von a des d'mpet ilfort ras pertetra
ancieg le a lnge leterire poor quelconnesse, la vallur de

(26:10):
sinerrout dans anciegle leroux Pontierre sore combienre wellington a des
drois assare connaissance.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
How often, in writing this paper in a strange land,
must miss Bronte have thought of the old childish disputes
in the kitchen of Haworth Parsonage, touching the respective merits
of Wellington and Buonaparte. Although the title given to her
devoir is on the Death of Napoleon, she seems yet
to have considered it a point of honor rather to

(26:43):
sing praises of an English hero than to dwell on
the character of a foreigner. Placed as she was, among
those who cared little either for an England or for Wellington.
She now felt that she had made great progress towards
obtaining proficiency in the French language, which had been her
main object in coming to Brussels. But to the zealous
learner Alps on Alps arise, no sooner is one difficulty

(27:07):
surmounted than some other. Desirable attainment appears and must be labored.
After a knowledge of German now became her object, and
she resolved to compel herself to remain in Brussels till
that was gained. The strong yearning to go home came
upon her, the stronger self, denying will forbad. There was

(27:30):
a great internal struggle. Every fiber of her heart quivered
in the strain to master her will, And when she
conquered herself, she remained not like a victor, calm and
supreme on the throne, but like a panting, torn and
suffering victim. Her nerves and her spirit gave way. Her
health became much shaken. Brussels, August first, eighteen forty three.

(27:56):
If I complain in this letter, have mercy and don't
blame me, for I forewarn you I am in low spirits,
and that Earth and Heaven are dreary and empty to
me at this moment. In a few days our vacation
will begin. Everybody is joyous and animated at the prospect,
because everybody is to go home. I know that I

(28:16):
am to stay here during the five weeks that the
holidays last, and that I shall be much alone during
that time, and consequently get downcast and find both days
and nights of a weary length. It is the first
time in my life that I have really dreaded the
vacation alas I can hardly write. I have such a
dreary weight at my heart, and I do so wish

(28:39):
to go home. Is not this childish pardon me, for
I cannot help it. However, though I am not strong
enough to bear up cheerfully, I can still bear up
and will continue to stay d v some months longer
till I have acquired German. And then I hope to
see all your faces again. Would that the vacation were

(29:03):
well over. It will pass so slowly. Do have the
Christian charity to write me a long, long letter. Fill
it with the minutest details. Nothing will be uninteresting. Do
not think it is because people are unkind to me
that I wish to leave Belgium. Nothing of the sort.
Everybody is abundantly civil, but homesickness keeps creeping over me.

(29:26):
I cannot shake it off. Believe me, very merrily, vivaciously, gaily,
yours c. B End of Section seventeen