
Charlotte Bronte
Rebecca Fraser(Author)
Vintage (Publisher)
Published on 6. November 2003
Book
Paperback/Softback
560 pages
978-0-09-944968-3 (ISBN)
Description
'If men could see us as we really are, they would be amazed', wrote Charlotte Bronte, the outwardly conventional parson's daughter who had rarely met any men beyond those of the church or classroom by the time Jane Eyre was published in 1847.
From the landscape of the Yorkshire moors, an appalling childhood and a family decimated by consumption, Jane Eyre came as an instant literary sensation. It also brought Charlotte Bronte the notoriety that was to remain with her for the rest of her short and tragic life.
Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte's first biographer, attempted to clear Charlotte of the charges of passionate immorality that were levelled at a woman author - and an unmarried one at that. Rebecca Fraser, 130 years later, placed Charlotte's life within the perceptual framework of contemporary attitudes to women. Her biography is an invaluable contribution to Bronte scholarship, which shares her admiration for a woman prepared to stand out against some of the cruellest Victorian ideas about her sex.
From the landscape of the Yorkshire moors, an appalling childhood and a family decimated by consumption, Jane Eyre came as an instant literary sensation. It also brought Charlotte Bronte the notoriety that was to remain with her for the rest of her short and tragic life.
Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte's first biographer, attempted to clear Charlotte of the charges of passionate immorality that were levelled at a woman author - and an unmarried one at that. Rebecca Fraser, 130 years later, placed Charlotte's life within the perceptual framework of contemporary attitudes to women. Her biography is an invaluable contribution to Bronte scholarship, which shares her admiration for a woman prepared to stand out against some of the cruellest Victorian ideas about her sex.
Reviews / Votes
"Fraser excellently brings out the raging Charlotte" * Times Literary Supplement * "The most enjoyable and readable biography of Charlotte Bronte since Mrs Gaskell's" * Literary Review * "Rebecca Fraser has used her abundant material with a dexterity and sypathy that is beyond praise" -- Nigel Nicholson "Worthy of its subject...[combines] a social historian's sense of place...[with] a novelist's imaginative feeling for detail" * New York Times *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Illustrations
2
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
475 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-944968-3 (9780099449683)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Rebecca Fraser
Charlotte Bronte
E-Book
03/2012
1st Edition
Vintage Digital
€11.99
Available for download
Person
Rebecca Fraser is a writer and broadcaster whose work includes a biography of Charlotte Bronte which examines her life in the context of contemporary attitudes to women. President of the Bronte Society for many years, she wrote the introductions to the Everyman editions of Shirley and The Professor and is a contributor to the BBC History website. Her most recent book, A People's History of Britain, is a highly readable account of British history. It has been described as `an elegantly written, impressively well-informed single-volume history of how England was governed during the past 2000 years.'