Charlotte M Yonge

Charlotte Yonge is a forgotten author today but she was a very prolific writer in the 19^th Century.  She was born in 1823, in Hampshire, and as a young woman became an ardent disciple of the High Church movement. 

This was a movement which sprang up in the Church of England in the early Victorian era, bent on restoring the Catholic side of the Anglican heritage.  Many clergymen at the time went over to Rome, because of conservative policiatlal and religious views.  They felt that the Church of England had lost its heritage, and that as a state church, it was bound to be affected by the politics of the time, which they saw as frighteningly radical.  Others felt that it was possible to revitalise and re dignify the Church of England, remaining in it and reforming it.  They attracted hostility form “Low church” people, because of their desire to bring in “Catholic” ritual, vestments and practices, such as the use of candles and incense... Many Anglicans and English people in general were very hostile, traditionally to Roman Catholicism and this extended to the increase in Catholic practices within the Anglican Church.

But the movement grew and while it did tend to attract ultra conservative people, it did have a positive side.  The colour and beauty of the ritual was felt to attract people, especially working class people.  Charlotte was the daughter of William Yonge, a country gentleman and was brought up and educated by him.  He was an intelligent but strict man and while she learned a lot from him, she also was somewhat limited, by her close relationship with him.  He was domineering and she looked up to him, and felt it was her duty to be an obedient daughter. She was an intelligent young woman but was afraid to think for herself.  She felt that women might be clever – but the cleverest woman knew she should be modest about her intelligence and use it under male guidance. It has been said that she never married because she could never find a man who matched up to her father.

Charlotte met with John Keble, one of the most famous of the early generation of Anglo Catholic clergymen.   He became a “Pope” to her, an inspiration and guide.  She began to write novels and used them to promote the Anglo catholic movement.    She was a novelist of family life, she also wrote children’s books, histories and historical novels. 

Her strict religious views and her deep conservative rigidity probably prevented her from being a great novelist, but she was a very good one.
In her time, very moralistic novels were popular, as people had high ideals.  so her better ones, like Daisy Chain, Pillars of the House,  Clever woman of the Family, etc., were all read by all sorts of people and loved. She did portray people who might seem improbably virtuous, and her views on women were old fashioned even in the later Victorian age.  But she could write realistic and lovable children, growing up, like Ethel, in Daisy Chain… I haven’t read all her works but I do enjoy some of them.  She’s not really my usual type of writer because she is very moralistic, but she’s an interesting character.  And at times it is nice to read about high ideals.

Rough Music a band story

Rough Music is set in the late 1970’s going on to 1980.  It is about an American country rock band, who are just beginning after years of hard work, to have some success.  TV appearances, talk of a movie, hits in the charts. They work hard and try to give their fans a show they will remember.  They care about the fans, but life on the road has a lot of hardships.  It has compensations, such as a generous supply of young women and easy access to soft drugs.  But as the musicians grow older, they acquire wives and children and feel the pull of being away from then.  They still sleep around, and don’t feel too much guilt about it.  Having women is one of the perks of being in a musical lifestyle.  However by the late 1970s musicians’ wives were beginning to complain about being left behind while their husbands partied, or fooled around, and to talk about “having a life of their own”.  And to complain that the husbands were never there when needed.  Jeff Randles and Brandon Sherwood are the 2 lead singers in the band, and they are good friends.   They understand each other and in some ways feel closer to each other than they do to their wives.  Jeff breaks up his first marriage because his wife Lacy is increasingly sick of his being away, and he finds her cold and uninteresting, but he makes a second marriage, to a girl he hardly knows, but has gotten pregnant. However, he does not know her well and has to adjust to marriage and being a father, while still trying to make a living doing what he loves.

This is not really a romance albeit it is about love relationships and marriage.  It is more about life in general, about how far we can compromise in terms of work we do, and how to make a marriage last when a lot of things are against it.  I liked writing it because I feel that in life, especially as we get middle aged, there aren’t any easy answers…. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452977780&sr=8-1&keywords=nadine+sutton

Charlotte Bronte , Mr Nicholls and her last years

Charlotte was dumbfounded when she was proposed to by Mr Nicholls.  She didn’t love him, and felt that they had nothing in common.  However, her father really lost his temper when he heard of the proposal.  His motives were mixed. He was afraid of losing his daughter; he was an old man and wanted her to be with him and look after him.  He also believed that she was too delicate to endure childbirth and that marriage would be dangerous for her.  And he didn’t like Mr Nicholls much either.  He believed that as a well-known novelist, Charlotte could do better, in finding a husband and that probably Mr Nicholls was boasting about his own family background in Ireland.  The man had nothing but a modest income as a curate…how could he keep a wife?

He got into such a rage that Charlotte hastily denied all desire to marry Nicholls and after a few arguments, the younger man left Haworth and his job.  The local people by now knew of Charlotte’s being a novelist; they all liked her and thought that this man wasn’t nearly good enough. He was considered very presumptuous, to have addressed a marriage offer to their “Miss Bronte”.

Charlotte felt that she should obey her father, even though she was now a mature woman.  But she was having second thoughts.  Mr Nicholls was not, in her opinion, very clever.  He was dull, shy and awkward, and she didn’t find him attractive.  But she was aware that she was getting older and did not have many chances of marriage. She realised that he genuinely loved her for herself, and if he wasn’t very interested in her writing, that was in its way a point in his favour.

Mrs Gaskell was staying with her, when this row over Mr Nichols was going on, and being happily wed herself, she felt that Charlotte too should have a chance of marriage.  She could see how lonely her friend was, and wanted to help.  She encouraged Charlotte to engage in correspondence with her admirer and to seriously consider his offer. Charlotte had rarely disobeyed her father, but she was beginning to develop some interest in the curate…As a girl, she would have refused to marry without love, but now, she was willing to be glad that he cared deeply for her.  Luckily for her, Mr Bronte disliked the new curate he had found and was beginning to soften.  Old Tabby, the family servant, told him that he should let her get married.  The local townsfolk began to miss Nicholls as well.  Charlotte pleaded with her father, telling him that not many men would want to marry her... She insisted that if she was married to Nicholls, he was willing to live in their home and help to take care of his father in law and take the burden of church work off him.

Grudgingly, Patrick gave in, but he refused to give his daughter away at the quiet wedding. Charlotte was very nervous of marriage, knowing that she and Arthur did not have much in common other than their church background.  He wasn’t “intellectual”.  But the marriage was quite a success.  They went to Ireland for their honeymoon and she found that Mr Nicholls’ family were “well bred” and comfortably off, grander than her own father’s background! She grew into a gentle love for him, being very happy at last to have a companion who wanted to be with her….

When back in Haworth, she referred to him affectionately in her letters as “My dear Arthur” and “my dear boy.” She helped more with his parish work and her father was able to relax and to feel the benefits of having a son in law living in.  The only fly in the ointment was Charlottes writing.  She told Nicholls that if she hadn’t been spending the evening with him she would have been writing, and showed him a story she had begun, which was later published as “Emma”, - the few pages she had written.  Marriage was taking up a lot of her time, and she had less to bestow on her work. It was set in a school and Arthur told her he feared the critics would think she was repeating her Jane Eyre and Villette themes.  She told him she would probably re write it several times till she got it the way she wanted.  But she never completed the novel.

She was busy, she was happy in a way she had never been; even if her husband was not an intellectual companion…She also became pregnant… Unluckily, she caught a bad cold, out walking with Arthur, and became very ill.  It’s not clear what was wrong… The chill may have weakened her and she may have also fallen victim to the family curse of TB, but she was almost vomiting persistently, and it seems as if this was related to pregnancy.  Her illness went on, exhausting her, and she died a mere 9 months after her marriage.

She was clearly in love with her husband and happy in the marriage and he was devoted to her.  After her death, he showed himself a decent and loyal man; he kept his promise to her, to look after her father.  He remained with old Mr Bronte for several years, till he died.  The 2 men weren’t that close.  Patrick found some comfort after his last child’s death, in delighting in her literary fame.  He wanted a biography written, whereas Mr Nicholls felt that it would be an intrusion on Charlotte’s privacy and his, and that he did not want such publicity for the woman he loved.  He hated the “autograph hunters” who were beginning to invade Haworth and even more, he hated journalists who wrote about his wife…

He and Mr Bronte argued about the issue of her literary works and having a biography written.   Mr bronte felt it would be good to have an authorised biography to counter the more wild and silly stories that had appeared.  In the end it was written by Charlotte’s good friend Elizabeth Gaskell and Patrick was not best pleased with it.  She portrayed him as extremely eccentric, and rather selfish. He noted several inaccuracies.  There was controversy about what she wrote about the Bronte children and their school, where the 2 girls died.  Lawsuits were threatened about her chapter about Branwell’s affair with Mrs Robinson. Mr Nicholls may have felt he was justified in his dislike of the whole project. But it was a well written biography which was the foundation for other works on Charlotte’s and the Brontes’ lives.

Eventually after Mr Bronte’s death, Nicholls went back to Ireland since he was not offered the clerical post in Haworth, and he gave up Orders and became a gentleman farmer.  He remarried, but seems to have always loved Charlotte. So in her way, she had her great romance…

Charlotte after her sisters' deaths

Charlotte’s domineering nature had some times irritated her sisters, particularly Emily, but they had all been very close, and without them she was lost.  Her father was worried that he would lose his last child and fussed and fretted over her, afraid that she might become consumptive. In spite of his affection, he was not much company for her, being used to keeping to himself... He still did his parish work, and had some help from a curate, but the rest of his time, he preferred to spend alone.

Charlotte had put aside her writing during the months while her sisters were ill and dying, but with great bravery she took it up again.  She had made friends with George Smith, her publisher, who was a charming man some years her junior.  Her friend Mary Taylor had emigrated to New Zealand, where she felt it would be easier for a radically minded woman like her to live.   Her family had been well to do business people, but had lost their money, and she hated dependence.  She did not want to be a governess, but in New Zealand she was able to open a shop, which would have been unusual behaviour in England.   So Charlotte had lost one of her few good friends, although they remained in touch by letter.  In the time following Emily and Anne’s deaths, she continued to write novels, though the two she published, Shirley and Vilette were not as popular as Jane Eyre.

She also formed a friendship with Elizabeth Gaskell, then a well-known writer, who was very different to Charlotte.  She was a happily married mother and a Unitarian, while the Brontes were Church of England and had some problems with  Dissenters.   
Apart from the death of her son, Mrs Gaskell  had not had much tragedy in her life, whereas Charlotte’s life had of late been nothing but tragedies… The two women discussed novel writing and careers for women.  Mrs Gaskell visited Haworth, but did not like her friend’s father, believing that Patrick was a selfish old man who took over Charlotte’s life.   When later, she came to write her famous biography, her prejudice against him rather skewed the book. 

However she was very fond of Charlotte and brought her some happiness and support in her career.  They mingled in literary society in London and visited Sir James Kay Shuttlewroth, who was something of a patron of writers.   Charlotte remained shy and awkward, and when in London, she didn’t shine at parties.  Thackeray was said to have left a party in his own house, for her, because it had become so heavy and dull.  Charlotte found that some of her literary idols such as Thackeray were not as wonderful as she had imagined when she actually met them.  She thought he was too fond of high society... And he rather dismissed her as a plain woman whom he also thought was too prim and proper and censorious.  Charlotte had dedicated Jane Eyre to him, which caused him some embarrassment.  She did not know that his wife was mentally ill (having suffered a breakdown after the birth of one of her children), and that he had had to put her in care, and that there were rumours that he was involved with another woman, since his wife was unwell.  Rumours then abounded that it was his ladyfriend (or his governess) who had written Jane Eyre, with its plot of a man with a mad wife, who marries his governess.

Charlotte’s shyness and naivety made her ambivalent about mixing in London society.  She was pleased for her gift to be recognised but she wanted to preserve her anonymity.  She also was prudish and censorious, at times and this didn’t go down well.  She and Mrs Gaskell did form a warm relationship, however, and thanks to this friendship,  Charlotte managed to find some real happiness, perhaps the most she had had in her not very long life.

Arthur Bel Nicholls, the curate at Haworth, was a prim and rather narrow minded man, who had not interested Charlotte at first.  She didn’t care for curates, although they were the only men that she met, at home.  She found them uninteresting and narrow in their religious views.  Patrick was not overly fond of his curate either, but he needed help with his work, as he grew older.  He had regained some of his sight but he was an old man.   

So Charlotte was amazed when out of the blue, Arthur Nicholls proposed to her. She had had no idea of his being in love with her, and while she had to a degree recovered from her sad love for Heger, she didn’t think of marriage.  She believed herself to be very plain, and not attractive to men.  She had had proposals, but they were from clergymen looking for a helpful wife and she had no hesitation in turning them down.  But In spite of being “resigned to spinsterhood”, she did long for masculine affection, and marriage.  

She was very lonely in the years following her sisters death.  She kept busy with her work, and with the duties of a “clerical daughter” for Patrick.  She did enjoy some of her trips to London or to stay with Ellen Nussey… but at home, she was very much alone.  
Her novel "Shirley" was interrupted by the deaths of Anne and Emily.  She had to leave it but then afterwards, went back and finished it. It was not her forte, writing about industrial conditions in Yorkshire at the time of the Napoleonic wars and it is not her best work.  It didn’t do nearly as well as Jane Eyre.   Her next novel Villette was more complex and in some ways a finer work than Jane Eyre, but it was not as popular.   She was pleased to be able to earn money through her writing, but she found it hard to churn out novels for publication in the way that other Victorian novelists did.  Her friendship with George Smith had included, I think a little romantic attraction on her side. However,  he was younger, he was very busy with his work and he married a woman of his own age, in due course.  So the friendship became a little cooler.

So while her work and her social life were a help to her, Charlotte was a lonely woman, now in her 30s.  She wanted something more….

Charlotte Bronte Part III, Emily and Anne

Charlotte’s triumph in getting her first novel published and its being such a success should have been a happy Time for the family, but it didn’t last long.   Emily had quarrelled with her domineering older sister about the issue of publishing; she seemed to write mostly for herself and her sisters and didn’t at all desire to show her work to the public.  She didn’t seem to care about money.  But she was depressed at the lack of understanding from the critic, although her book sold.  Some critics did appreciate her talent, even if they deprecated the violence, the passionate emotions, and “impropriety” of the story of Wuthering Heights.   They felt that given time, Ellis Bell might mature into a great writer.

 But tragic days were in the offing for the Bronte family. Branwell had become a serious problem for them, since his dismissal form this job at the Robinsons.  He was drinking and using opium, and getting into debt.  Some biographers believe that Mrs Robinson remained in touch with him and sent him small sums of money but it’s not clear if this was the case.  When her husband died, he believed that she would send for him and they would be married... But whether there had ever been an affair or not, Mrs Robinson didn’t send for him, and he was devastated... and his health began to decline through 1847 and 1848.    His drinking exacerbated his weakness and a family proneness to TB… He set his bed on fire, and in the end Patrick Bronte had to take him into his own bedroom, to keep an eye on him during the night.

Charlotte is often criticised for being unkind to Branwell as he declined, but my sympathies are with her.  She had worked hard, in jobs she didn’t like, to earn a living, while he had failed at every job he got.  She had now struggled to her work published and to persuade her sisters to write for publication.  Branwell had had a few poems published in newspapers but he was not willing to work hard at preparing a novel or any work for publication.  He dismissed novels as easy to write, but his own attempt at novel, is a feeble effort…

 Now, in 1847/8 he was a serious liability.  They didn’t tell him about their success in getting the novels published, because it would upset him or he might give away their identities.   

His health got worse but the family seem to have been taken aback by the speed of his decline… He died aged 31 in September 1848.

The Brontes were grieved and shocked, although he had been such a trouble to them.  His father felt the loss of his only son, very painfully. 

Emily went to his funeral; she caught a bad cold, and soon began to show symptoms of TB.  Her decline was also very rapid.  She refused to let her sisters help her and would not see a doctor.  She insisted on doing her housework and normal tasks, although she was getting weaker.   By December, she was desperately ill.  Always slender, she became bone thin, and afflicted with a terrible tubercular cough. She still refused medical aid, and Charlotte particularly felt helpless at the way she rejected any help.  The two sisters had loved each other but had disagreed over things, particularly the issue of whether they should publish their works.  Emily had only agreed under protest to Wuthering Heights being published and had insisted on their using pseudonyms.  She feared the loss of her privacy and anonymity.   When Charlotte had had to go to London to see her publisher George Smith, to let him know that she was a woman, (due to rumours about the real identity of “the Bells”,) Emily had point blank refused to go or leave Haworth.  She had also been insistent on staying with her publisher Thomas Newby, who was a dubious character… when Charlotte wanted her to change to Smith.  She felt that George Smith had treated her very well with the publication of Jane Eyre, and been “a gentleman” – Emily preferred to stick with Newby even if it was to her disadvantage.

Now, in her final illness, it was very painful and hurtful to Charlotte that her younger sister still was at odds with her, refusing her sisterly love and offers of help.  She told her sisters she would have no “poisoning doctor” near her.  Charlotte wrote to a doctor, hoping for some advice, and the doctor replied and sent medicine but Emily would not take it.

She was in what Victorians described as “Galloping consumption”, and it’s unlikely that anything would have cured her or even slowed down the progress of the disease.   She soon reached a point where she could hardly breathe or speak, and finally said that she would see a doctor, if they brought one... but it was too late.  She died lying on the sitting room sofa…painfully and traumatically.

She was buried on 22^nd December, 1848 - 3 days after her death. 

Charlotte was very upset, but soon her last sister, Anne, became ill, displaying symptoms of TB, also.  She had probably caught it from Emily. Victorians didn’t realise that the illness could be transferred from person to person, and didn’t take hygiene precautions.  The Sisters shared a bedroom…

Anne was more tractable than her stubborn sister, with whom she had been very close. She knew that she would probably not recover but she was willing to see medical men and take their advice. 

Charlotte hoped that her sister might survive, and did her best to look after her.   Anne’s health got worse, and in the spring of 1849, she expressed a wish to go to Scarborough; she had visited there, with the Robinson family when she had been their governess.  She went there with her sister and Ellen Nussey and died there at the end of May.
Charlotte was now left alone with her elderly father, the last of his six children.  She had lost 3 siblings in 10 months.  Her success as a novelist had raised her hopes that she might write other works.  She believed that she would be able to make a living as a writer, rather than have to be a governess again. And that her sisters could do the same.  Now her sisters were gone, she was lonely and had no one to discuss her work with….

Beds and Blue Jeans taster, Sam's trying to flirt...

“Yeah but I don’t know.  Pattie’s not the career type.   Thing is Amber, we never –“

Sam broke off. He had been about to say that he and Pattie had never discussed anything much.  They had slipped into a live-in relationship, she had had the baby. He didn’t want to criticise his girlfriend, to another woman.

“My goodness,” Amber interjected suddenly, “I’ve got to go.  Sam, it sure was nice to chat and catch up on things.  But work calls. I’ve got to get back by 2 o’clock.”

She reached for her purse- but he put his hand out and forestalled her.
“No, sweetie, I invited you to lunch.  I’m gonna pay. “

She laughed and then gracefully gave way.

“You’re such a perfect gentleman.  OK.  But this was fun and next time I’ll invite you.”

The story is available on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/dp/B01370SMFO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1472894698&sr=1-1&keywords=beds+and+blue

Charlotte Bronte II

On leaving the Heger School, Charlotte was painfully unhappy.  It’s not clear what was said to her, but it seems as if Mme Heger pushed her into leaving Brussels. I believe that Heger realised it too, that his pupil, a plain but intelligent young woman of whom he was fond, had developed an inappropriate love for him.  He and Mme Heger felt that they had to get her to leave, fearing embarrassment and scandal, but he was also sorry for her and believed that she would be better to go home and get over her feelings.

Charlotte however remained in love for some time.  She begged permission of M Heger to write to him but he stipulated that these letters should be limited to "one every 6 months".  Charlotte longed to write more often, and wrote some painfully loving but very proper letters.  However Heger didn’t respond.  The story of her continuing love for him is sad to think about, she was so unhappy and  desperately pleading for a little friendship and affection from him.

He threw away some of her letters but Mme Heger rescued them, perhaps because she was aware of the possibility of scandal and wanted to preserve evidence.

She gradually recovered to an extent and was occupied with family problems, such as Branwell’s drinking and bad behaviour, and her father’s blindness.

 The girls continued for a while to believe they might be able to set up a school and did some advertising, but no one was interested in sending their daughters to a remote place like Haworth… and the plan eventually languished.

Charlotte began to think of other ideas for occupying herself and making some money.  She persuaded her sisters to put their poetry together and try to get it published as a joint effort.   Emily was furious when Charlotte revealed she had accidentally seen her poems and read some and was for a time very unwilling to agree to get them published.   She gave in, reluctantly, but when the book came out, in 1846, it only sold 2 copies.

 But Charlotte was a determined young woman and didn’t give up hope.

She was always the leader of the 3 of them in trying new schemes, such as setting up their own school or going to Brussels to learn more...  or starting to write for publication.  They had all written since they could hold a pen, but apart from Branwell none of them seems to have seriously considered trying to make money or get published.  Charlotte had written to the Poet Southey as a girl, asking whether he thought that she had talent, but he responded that literature was not the business of a woman's life.
Emily would not have been put off by such negativity from an outsider, but she positively hated the idea of submitting her work to the gaze of the public.  Anne seems to have been quietly willing to agree, once the notion of publication was suggested.  She was shy but not completely or aggressively retiring like her sister.

 Charlotte was the most normal of the girls.  She was shy and also quite sharp tongued and critical of people.  She disliked most of her employers, and was socially awkward but not to the extent that Emily was.  She was willing to engage with the outside world, whether by writing and getting published or by making friends.  She didn’t have many friends but did engage in social life, later, as a writer.  She had two friends Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor, whom she had known from school and who remained close to her all their lives.

 At this stage, Patrick was virtually blind and underwent an operation for cataract, which was very painful.  It meant that he had to go to Manchester. Charlotte had to accompany him.  While he was recovering she started to write Jane Eyre, and then began to try and get it sold.   Her sisters were engaged in writing and submitting their books - Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey. 

However their publisher Newby was a decidedly “dodgy” character and didn’t treat them very fairly.  Charlotte’s Jane Eyre was read by George Smith, a young man just starting out in publishing.  His reader thought it was so wonderful he urged that it should be published…

 It was an overnight success.  Emily and Anne’s books which were published as a 3 volume, set, (the first 2 volumes was Wuthering Heights and the third one was the short work -Agnes Grey), didn’t do so well, although some discerning critics could see the talent, in Emily’s work. Finally, Charlotte’s pressuring of her sisters and her hard work was beginning to pay off….