..Hey Folks!!
‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ by Oscar Wilde was without doubt a barrel of laughs I hope you’d enjoyed this past month as I had!!
Once I’d closed its cover nevertheless, I’d pondered for days-on-end what could hearten a writer to produce such fiction. Perhaps it was the product of personality (as Wilde had one of the best-known personas of his day), life experience (as he’d lived an adult life free of Victorian social obligation), or inherited ability (as both his parents, and his older brother, were writers).
After some time nonetheless, I’d concluded it was perhaps a combination of all three except had then proceeded to dwell upon the final notion above, first, because I was ashamed to admit I hadn’t known my favorite writer had arrived from a literary family (I know—shame on me! ha!) and, second, because as we revisit our ‘women in literature’ reading series, it’d leant an idea to honor a literary family.
That said, given several creative writing books I’d read that referenced it, I’ve always longed to read ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Bronte. Except when I’d realized she was the younger sister of Charlotte Bronte, authoress of ‘Jane Eyre’, I’d noticed I’d struck literary gold!
The Brontes were a nineteenth-century literary family from Haworth, England that consisted of novelists and poets and was underscored by three sisters: the abovementioned Charlotte (1816-1855) and Emily (1818-1848) in company with Anne (1820-1849). Given their literary work, each sibling achieved authorial popularity and success and indeed managed to curve her place in literary history.
But this hadn’t arrived on a silver platter…
Provided authoresses of their day faced prejudice, each sister was forced to publish under a pen name—Currer Bell (Charlotte), Ellis Bell (Emily), and Acton Bell (Anne)—which veiled their gender yet preserved their first initial (although more on why these names were selected to come).
For this month however, we honor eldest sister Charlotte, in particular, and her greatest triumph, ‘Jane Eyre’ (published in 1847), a novel I’d sought to read once I’d viewed its 1943 film adaptation of the same name which features Joan Fontaine and a twelve-year-old Elizabeth Taylor.
Based on Charlotte’s experiences at her childhood boarding school and as a governess, the narrative trails a sensible orphan named Jane from her days at Lowood—a poorly-kept boarding school—through her adulthood post as a governess at the fictitious Thornfield Hall estate where she falls in love with its rough-cut master, Mr. Rochester.
Hence, if you long to read a tale that explores classism, individualism, and romance, then for the month of August, head to your local library, snag ‘Jane Eyre’, and read it with me!
Many thanks, and we’ll ttys!!
Phil