Lyn Reid Banks and the Brontes IV

The novel is more fun to read as Charlotte was having a livelier life, but she was still lonely and she was pleased when she met Elizabeth Gaskell, who was a well known novelist but a Unitarian. Charlotte took a liking to her; she felt very sorry for Charlotte, especially as she herself was happily married with 4 daughters and a busy life as a minister's wife. She and Charlotte met and talked a lot and then she discovered that Arthur Nicholls had finally proposed to her. Patrick however had taken such a fit of anger at the bare idea that Charlotte hastily dismissed him. She was still not very fond of him... He resigned his curacy and talked of going abroad as a missionary. However he stayed in England and tried to get to see Charlotte again. The villagers when they heard of the proposal, were hostile to Nicholls, feeling that he was not good enough to marry "their Miss Bronte". Although she was in her 30s she felt that she had to obey her father, which was easier as she had no attraction towards Nicholls. She still thought he was narrow minded, not very intellectual and stiff. But she was lonely and began to reconsider, as she could see that he genuinely loved her and that meant a lot to her as none of her previous loves had had more than a liking for her. Patrick still insisted that he did not believe that Nicholls was a suitable husband and that Charlotte was not strong enough for marriage. Mrs Gaskell encouraged Charlotte to consider him as a husband, she wanted her friend to have the married happiness that she had. Patrick had had to take on a new curate a Mr De Renzie to help him and as luck would have it he took a dislike to the man. De Renzie did not endear himself to the villagers and Patrick found him hard to work with. Mr Nicholls began to look a bit better by comparison. Charlotte began to write to Nicholls and met him and then she told Patrick that she wanted to marry him.. and that if she did, he would live with them, and look after the church and be a help to his father in law. Patrick was still stubborn but he could see that having his curate living in his house and taking on most of the parish work, would be an advantage. Tabby, the family housekeeper, now an old lady, told Patrick that he was doing wrong by Charlotte in not wanting her to get married.

Lynn Reid Banks and the Brontes III

Path to the Silent Country is interesting because Charlotte's life in her last few years was more lively and interesting than in her younger days. She had a social life... she was trying to broaden her field of writing and she eventually got married. However she was not really all that social, and while she did enjoy going to London and meeting new people, her shyness and her lack of worldly experience made it stressful for her at times. She was fond of George Smith and half wished she might marry him. But she knew that he was too much of a social creature to suit her and that his mother wanted him to marry a pretty young woman with money, not a woman like Charlotte who had no money apart from her earnings as a writer and who was older than him and plain. By now, her good friend Mary Taylor had gone to New Zealand where she opened a shop and made a new life for herself - . Charlotte loved Mary because she was intelligent and unconventional and able to understand Charlotte's ambitious intelligent nature. Ellen Nussey was a nice woman but not at all clever or independent minded. Charlotte still spent most of her time in Haworth, looking after her father and she was thrown into the company of Mr Nicholls because he was also supporting Patrick Bronte. She still did not like him much, finding him narrow minded and rather dull. But he surprised her when he bought her books to read and seemed to enjoy them very much, laughing at the caricatures of himself and the other curates... He seemed more humorous and willing to laugh at himself than she had expected. Patrick still was not all that fond of Arthur but he was grateful for all his help.. but he himself was inclined to think that Irish curates were fond of boasting about their grand origins, when they were probalby nearly as poor as he had been when he came over from Ireland. When he began to get hints that Arthur was in love with Charlotte, he got annoyed and felt that as a famous writer, she could marry better than a curate with no money. However he also was afraid of her marrying. He did not want to be left alone if she found a husband and he also felt that she was delicate and not strong enough for marriage and pregnancy. She had had overtures from Mr Taylor, who worked with George Smith but he was due to go to India for several years and Patrick felt that if she married him, it would not be until she was past the danger of child bearing. Charlotte's second novel, Shirley did not do so well, and she embarked on Villette, which was inspired by her time in Brussels and her love for M Heger. When she published Villette, it did reasonably well but Lucy is a depressing character and it was not so big a success as Jane Eyre. It also scandalised some people that the heroine was in love with 2 different men during the course of the novel. In addtion, she had an argument with her friend Harriet Martineau, who criticised the emphasis on love in the book - how all the female characters seemed to be obsessed with love and passion... and she felt that women should have other interests. Charlotte felt hurt at the criticism and broke off her friendship.

Lyn Reid Banks II

Dark Quartet is quite a good read but Im not sure how accurate it is, in terms of the lives of the Brontes. I think that Banks' research was based on what was available at the time and she tended to use all the stories about the Brontes that were available. Path to the Silent Country starts soon after Charlotte was left alone. Her father was depressed and afraid that he would lose his only remaining child so he fussed over his daughter and made her more anxious. He was very old and not too well and most of the parish work was being done by Arthur Nicholls. Nicholls was not too popular in the village and Patrick didn't like him much but he was forced to depend on him.He enouraged Charlotte to go for visits to her new literary friends, and was eager to hear of who she met and what life was like in London. Charlotte grew close to her publisher, George Smith, and his staff, and she tried to start writing again on her novel Shirley. She had abandoned the novel while the girls were ill and took it up again. Smith was eager to get the novel to publish as he had had a great success with Jane Eyre and hoped that another big novel from Charlotte would help his ailing firm. However she found it hard to get back to the book after a gap and the subject matter, (the Luddite Riots in Yorkshire) was not a good choice for her. She wanted to try and write about social problems but it was not her forte. She met Harriet Martineau, a writer and political activist who was scandalously an atheist, and in spite of their differences she made a friend of her. In London, she met Thackeray and other writers but did not always like them much. She was shy and unsophisticated and found them hard to understand. She was annoyed that Thackeray seemed so pleased to be a society figure and to associate with upper class ladies, as she wanted to believe he was a moralist which he was not. She was also annoyed when her new friends began to let slip the secret that she was Currer Bell the novelist when she had tried so hard to preserve her anonymity. When the news leaked out, she was upset that the literary set expected her to say clever things and participate in society life, while she was very uncomfortable with this and preferred to talk to the governess at one party. She also fell out with George Henry Lewes, George Eliot's live in partner, who told her that she and he had both written "naughty books", and she was furious at the implication that her book Jane Eyre was in any way naughty or immoral.

Lynn Reid Banks

Lynn Reid Banks was a writer and playwright, who died recently. She wrote 2 books about the Brontes, ficitionalised biographies called Dark Quartet and Path to the Silent Country. The first book covers the Brontes' lives from childhood until the siblings died leaving Charlotte alone, and the second one covers the last few years of her life, covering her time as a famous author, her marriage to Arthur Nicholls and her sad tragically early death. I like the second novel better, as it is pleasant to read of Charlotte's brief period of being famous and her having a more social life than before and her short but happy marriage to Arthur. She was desperately depressed at the deaths of her siblings within a few months of each other, first Branwell dying of drink related problems and TB. Emily caught a cold at his funeral and went into what was called Galloping Consumption. She refused any medical help and she would not let her sisters take care of her or discuss her illness and she kept on struggling to lead a normal life till the day of her death. Charlotte was tormented by the way she refused to help herself or let anyone help her. She died, and left her 2 sisters and father alone. Then Anne fell ill and they were told that she too had TB. She did try to get better, and did not insist on fighting alone, so it was easier to cope with her illness. She took medicines, but it did not help. She too declined rapidly, and realised she was not going to survive. She asked Charlotte if it was possible for her to go to Scarborough, where she had once spent a holiday, in hopes that the sea air might help her. They went on the trip, Charlotte accompanied by her friend Ellen Nussey, and they had a few days of at least seeing Anne happy in the seaside town. But she soon got worse and she felt it was better to die at Scarborough rather than give her father the pain of burying a third child. She died peacefully, and Charlotte buried her in Scarborough and then returned home. In desperation, Charlotte decided to try and go on writing, to take her mind off her terrible losses. M/F

Brideshead Revisited Final Part

The lovers say goodbye and Julia now has inherited Brideshead Castle. Charles is depressed but he begins to consider the Catholic point of view. He joins the army, to try and take his mind off his troubles and war breaks out. Julia and Cordelia join the women's services. Charles gets disillusioned with the army in a while, but goes on with his work, trying to find some meaning in it. A couple of years into the war, he and his unit are transferred to a new location and to his surprised horror he finds it is Brideshead. He finds it a painful reminder of his love for Julia whom he has not seen since he parted from her at Lord Marchmain's deathbed. He finds that Julia has turned the house over to the army, for billetting soldiers and its rather a mess as the previous soldiers did not take good care of it. He gets his unit settled in and then finds that Nanny Hawkins, Sebastian's beloved Nanny is still living there, and he goes to see her. She remembers him and is pleased to see him. Sebastian is still living in North Africa, still drinking on and off and his friend Kurt has killed himself in a prison camp. But he still has remnants of his Catholic faith. Charles talks to Nanny and she gives him news of Julia who is abroad. Charles has by now converted to Catholicisim so he understands why Julia felt she had to end their affair. He leaves Nanny and goes to see the Chapel, which had been deconsecrated but is now a chapel again and is used by some of the troops. He says a prayer and hopes that by his part in the drama over Brideshead, he has done some good, even if it is just the Chapel being re opened, and his being able to pray there.

Brideshead Revisited VI

JUlia is trying to get a divorce but Rex is not keen as he is very busy with his political career. Charles is divorced from Celia. He is at Brideshead and Lord Marchmain is very clearly dying slowly. He is scared of death but he is still reluctant to see a priest or have the last rites. Charles worries as he fears that Julia is being influenced by her childhood as a Catholic and by Bridey, who wants his father to see a priest. He thinks that if Julia gets involved in the family row she will start to return to her Catholic beliefs and she wont want to get a divorce and marry him. Bridey sends for a local priest, an Irishman, who comes to see Marchmain and he tells him that he is not dying and that he does not want to see him. The priest retreats but there is increasing tension between Charles and Julia and Bridey who are now on the same side. He and Julia argue, Charles saying that Lord Marchmain does not want to see a priest and that he is scared of dying so to bring a priest in will only scare him more. However, she Cordelia and Bridey are insistent and when Marchmain becomes unconscious they get the priest in. He anoints Lord Marchmain and the old man moves around and Charles is terrifed that he is going to upset Julia by wiping off the oil.. but instead he makes the sign of the Cross. Julia believes that this is a sign that he is glad to be anointed. A few hours later he dies, peacefully. Charles knows that this is the end of his affair with Julia. She tells him that she can't marry him now, that she has returned, however faintly to her childhood religion.

Brideshead Revisited V

Julia is very upset and angry.. and so is Charles. Cordelia comes home from Spain and says she will probably take up nursing if there is a war. Then Lord Marchmain startles them by saying he is coming home. He returns with Cara, and he is obviously ill and wants to die at Brideshead. Cara is Italian but she is married for convenience to someone English so she can stay in England. Lord Marchmain has met Beryl Brideys new wife and hates her for being vulgar, silly and overly Catholic. He reckons its unlikely that she will provide an heir and neither will Sebastian, so he decides to leave the castle to Julia. Julia has met Beryl by now and says that she's not as prim and proper as Bridey has made out. She has been friendly to Julia and said that a lapsed Catholic is often nicer than the rest of the family. Julia reckons that she is marrying Bridey for security and money (as she has 2 children by her first husband) but she's not a bad person.