Gone with the Wind Part V

Rhett jeers at Ashley because he is jealous of Scarlett's affection for him. He points out to her that his family threw him out years ago because of his wild ways, and he managed to make his own way in the world and became a successful businessman and blockade runner. Scarlett gives Ashley a job, as manager of the sawmill and she continues to visit the business, driving herself alone. One day, she is attacked by some men who are living rough on a lonely part of the road. She manages to get away, but Frank feels obliged to defend his wife after she has almost been molested by black men, so he and some other men in the town set out to punish them. Scarlett does not know what is happening, because she rarely takes any interest in anything outside her own life, but the other women do. Rhett turns up and tells Melanie and Scarlett that the Yankee officers who are ruling the town are aware that Frank and his friends are making an attack on the men who tried to assault Scarlett and that they are very angry at the rebellious act.. He tells them that he found out because he is friendly with the Yanks and plays cards with them, and he advises that he must know where they have gone so that he can try and get them out before the soldiers find them. Melanie tells him, and Rhett manages to rescue most of the men, except for Frank, who was shot. He gets his prostitute mistress Belle Watling to swear that the men were in her whorehouse that night, and the Yanks find they have no case. They are maliciously amused to believe that a group of Southerners spend one night a week at the brothel. However, Scarlett finds, to her horror that she has been widowed again.

Gone with the Wind Part IV

Scarlett becomes pregnant and has a daughter, Ella by Frank. Rhett Butler was imprisoned after the war but is finally released. He has made a lot of money during the war, running the blockade to bring necessities into the South for the war effort. Scarlett has not forgiven him for deserting her on the road to Tara, to join the defeated Southern army. But she can't help liking him so she sees him occasionally and shows off the baby to him. Her son Wade Hampton is a nervous shy little boy and Scarlett finds him exasperating. Ashley comes home from the war and resumes living with Melanie and their son Beau, and Scarlett asks him to run a sawmill that she is thinking of buying. She realises that Ashley is not much good at being practical and he is not one of the Confederate veterans who has managed to start to make a new life for himself by setting up a business of his own.

Gone with the Wind Part III

Scarlett's war really begins when she goes home to Tara. Most of the slaves have run away, and her father is incapable of doing anything. Her sisters have been seriously ill and her beloved mother is dead. She has to take on responsibilty for the plantation, for her family and servants. She has always had a frivolous fun seeking life and now she is barely able to find enough to eat for her household. She is tired and weary and often harsh with her family and servants, but she accepts that she is the only one at Tara who can carry the burden of looking after them. When the war ends, many soldiers pass through Tara walking home, and one of them, a small farmer called Will Benteen, decides to stay... He has lost a leg but he's a hard worker and his own farm is gone and his slaves have left it. Scarlett next finds that the government is imposing heavy taxes on Tara and generally coming down hard on those who fought against the North. To get the money, she flirts with her sister SueEllen's admirer, a middle aged fusspot called Frank Kennedy. He has been hoping to marry SueEllen now the war is over, but Scarlett lies to him and tells him that her sister has accepted a new admirer.. She lures him to marry her and is able to save Tara. This means that she has to move back to Atlanta, and leaves Will to manage Tara. He proposes to Sue Ellen, who is furious at being jilted by Frank... and she accepts him. Scarlett realises that she is much better at business than her husband.. and urges him to make more money for them.

Gone with the Wind Part II

Scarlett's marriage only lasts a few nights, as Charles has to go to war. Scarlett becomes pregnant and has a son, Wade Hampton...and Charles dies leaving her a 16 year old widow. Melanie has married Ashley and is very fond of Scarlett believing that she is as grieved at Charles' death as she herself is. Scarlett and the baby go to Atlanta to stay with Melanie, and are trapped there by the war, which is soon beginning to go against the South. She meets Rhett Butler again and he asks her to dance at a fund raising party for the war. She is delighted as she hates being a widow in mourning. She lets him flirt with her, and she refuses to pay much attention to the war, or how badly its going. Melanie becomes pregnant and is due to give birth when Atlanta is burned. She has a son but is very ill and Scarlett manages to get Rhett to steal a horse and buggy to take them out of the city and back to her home of Tara. On the way Melanie is almost dying, but half way along, Rhett starts to feel guilty that he has not joined up and left others to do the fighting while he used the war to make money. He deserts Scarlett and goes off to join the army. Scarlett gets her maid and the 2 babies and Melanie to Tara, only to find that her mother has died of cholera and her father is helpless and demented.

Gone with the Wind

This was the only novel written by Southerner Margaret Mitchell - which was made into a film in 1939. It is racist and is unashamedly on the side of the Old South but it is a good read and was extremely popular when it came out. It is set in Georgia, beginning at the start of the Civil war. The heroine is Scarlett O'Hara, the daughter of an Irishman who came to America as a young man and won a plantation at cards. Gerald O' Hara managed to marry well, to Ellen Robillard, daughter of a French family, who had had an unhappy love affair and decided to marry him for security. They produced 3 daughters, Scarlett, Sue Ellen and Carreen, but their sons all died at birth. Scarlett is wilful and selfish and while she is sharp witted, she is not very intelligent. At the beginning of the war, she thinks of nothing but parties and admirers. However, while she has many suitors, Scarlett is in love with her neighbour, the gentle poetical Ashley Wilkes. One of her beaux tells her that Melanie Hamilton, Ashleys' cousin is getting engaged to him at the next day's afternoon barbeque. Scarlett can't believe that he could marry a dull quiet girl like Melanie, and she resolves to tell him that she loves him and wants to marry him. At the barbeque, she flirts with shy awkward Charles Hamilton Melanie's brother, and then corners Ashley in the house and tells him of her feelings. He is very upset, as he does care for her but he is aware of how very different they are and how they could not be a happy couple. He goes away leaving her to cool down, but she finds that her love scene has been witnessed by a guest, Rhett Butler who comes from a wealthy family who have disowned him because he is a lady's man. Rhett is amused by Scarlett's furious reaction to Ashley's desertion. Then she accepts a proposal from Charles Hamilton, to show Ashley that she does not care about his leaving her.

Winifred Peck novelist

Winifred Peck was born in 1882 to a clerical family. There was a Bishop in the family and they were well educated. She was also well educated, and went to a good girls' school which was unusual at the time. She then went on to Oxford, although women there could study for degrees they were not allowed to actually have a degree until the early 1920s. She made the best of her opportunities, and her first book was a historical biography of Louis IX of France. Some years later she started to write novels. She wrote some detective stories and was very popular. She married a civil servant, James Peck, who had a job in food control during the war. One of her novels published in 1940 was called Bewildering Cares, set in the early months of the war. It is in diary form, about a clergyman's wife in a provincial town, and her struggles to do her duty as "Mrs Vicar". Her son is in the army, and her husband is something of a scholar, so he sometimes finds it hard to understand and mix with ordinary working people. It is a bit limited as a novel because it is set before the Blitz which involved everyone in the war, and united the British people.. It has no plot as such. The heroine keeps busy, manages with only one servant and visits the poor and tries to soothe over quarrels among the church ladies. The parish has a crisis when the curate Mr Strang preaches a sermon on pacificism, which does not go down well but finally, they all make peace. The novel ends with Dick, her son, coming home on leave, prior to being sent abroad, and telling his mother that he is getting married.

Circle of Friends Part VIII

Eve is very upset by her own outburst of rage, and Benny wonders what is happening with Jack and Nan. The wedding plans seem to be off the table.. and she and Eve guess that Nan lost the baby. A little time passes and Eve and Benny begin to make plans for their next year at college. Mrs Hogan is happier and does not cling to Benny so much, now.. and its agreed that she and Eve can share a flat in Dublin for the next year. Jack visits Nan and she tells him that there's no need for them to get married now.. and that she has decided to drop out of college. She was never interested in it, and she is going to England to take a course in dress design which she would enjoy more. Jack is relieved, but feels a bit guilty. They say goodbye and Nan makes her plans to go to London. He has kept up his studies, and will go back to college in the autumn. Benny has a new admirer, a boy called Bill but she does not want to get involved with anyone. She realises that Jack is too handsome and charming and too fond of women to be an easy partner and that if she got together with him, she would always be on guard against his finding another woman. So she decides to keep her relationship with him as just a friendly one. THe gang have a picnic, and Jack turns up, rather late and a little uncertain of his welcome. Benny speaks kindly to him but it is clear that their love is over and Benny believes she will be happier.

Circle of Friends Part VII

Jack reacts very differently to Simon; he accepts that the baby is his and that he has to marry her. He goes to see Benny and tells her that he is going to have to marry Nan, because she is having his child. She is devastated, but Eve tells her she must put on a brave face and be the one who tells his group of friends about the upcoming marriage... she doesn't want to be pitied by them. Benny takes her advice and they go out on the town, meeting friends and telling them the news about Jack and Nan. Eve is furious with Nan for taking advantage of Benny's absences to steal her boyfriend, and she finds it hard to hide her anger. She also wonders about Nan's relationship with Simon, and why that came to an end. Nan isnt talking. Meanhwhile Sean has moved into the hotel and is soon proposing to Dorothy, the owner, and they plan to get married. Benny's mother starts working in the shop and seems to be enjoying it. She tries to get over Jack and is relieved that he has gone to work in his uncle's law office and isnt coming in to college. Eve had planned a party in her cottage, and the group had been buying in food and drink for it. She hopes that Jack will have enough common sense not to turn up. The day of the party arrives and the party is going well when Jack suddenly turns up, with Nan. Aidan tells Eve that in spite of his faults, Jack is his friend and he cant snub him because he is getting married to Nan so she agrees to be polite. Nan seems very cool and calm, though nobody is very friendly to her. Then, she makes a remark about the piano in the cottage.. and Eve realises something. Some of the locals had said that they heard music from the little house, and she suddenly guesses... Simon plays the piano, so the noise must have been him playing it, which means that Nan sneaked into Eve's cottage to have sex with him.. and then later with Jack. The baby is not Jack's, its Simons. Eve has always had a hot temper and she loves Benny, and is enraged to hear that Nan not only stole into her home with 2 different men, but also worst of all, stole Benny's boyfriend. She has been using a knife to prepare food when Nan came to talk to her, and still holding the knife she shouts at Nan and the other girl backs away, and falls into a glass door. Nan is badly cut and Eve is horrified though she did not harm her. Aidan and another of the boys get Nan into a car and take her to hospital, and she is looked after. Her injury is fixable but the shock and loss of blood cause her to miscarry.

Circle of Friends Part VI

Benny tries talking to Sean hoping to catch him out, and she and their maid try and persuade Mrs Hogan to think about learning to manage the business. Sean gets uneasy and tells Benny, untruthfully, that if the books dont add up, it is because Eddie Hogan was a careless forgetful businessman.. and that he often took money out of the till and did not replace it. Benny has been looking through her father's papers and knows that her father paid for all her clothes by cheque, so he was not dipping into the shop's funds. She is not sure how she can prove this, however. But then she has to go to the rooms upstairs, where Sean lives, to get an old sewing machine, and she comes aross an old desk with numerous bags of money in its drawers. She finally has proof that Sean has been stealing from the business. She and her mother call in the local doctor as a witness and they confront Sean and tell him that they know how dishonest he has been and while they dont want to prosecute, they want him gone. Sean is furious and lashes out at them, insulting Benny.. and saying that the shop will close without him to run it. He leaves and goes to the local hotel where the owner-manager is a widow who likes him. She offers him a job as manager of the hotel and he decides to pay court to her and to grab at this opportunity to get a business of his own. Meanwhile, Benny and her mother prpeare to take over management of the shop. Benny notices that her mother seems happier with the prospect of having something to do, and they decide to sell their house and put the money in the business. Benny hopes that if her mother is occupied, she herself may become more able to spend time in Dublin and keep Jack company. Jack however has been a bit irritated by Benny's never being around, and he becomes friendlier with Nan. She has a crisis in her life, though and is driven to make a drastic change. She finds she is pregnant by Simon, and when she tells him, hoping that he will propose, he offers her money for an abortion. He tells her that she always knew they would never marry, and Nan starts to make other plans. She flirts with Jack and lures him to Eve's cottage, where they make love a few times. Then she tells him that she is pregnant by him.

Circle of Friends Part V

Meanwhile, Nan has been seeing Simon Westward and has decided to let him sleep with her in hopes of luring him into marriage. He takes her to hotels but he's not really well off enough to keep on doing that. Nan however thinks of Eve's cottage, in Knockglen, which belonged to her mother and father, and which she has never really liked. It is empty most of the time and Nan suggests that they can go there to make love. Benny tries to work out if there is any way of keeping Sean from getting a partnership, and wonders if her mother might take an interest in the shop and get her mind off her loss. She is relieved when she tells Jack that she has to go home one day, to help her mother and he wants to go to a film, and Nan, who happens by, says she will go with him. After the film, Jack goes home and Nan runs into Simon Westward and they go to Eve's cottage. He is very attracted to her but he has no intention of marrying a Catholic girl from a not very grand background. He is still looking around for a girl from England who has some family money.

Circle of Friends Part IV.

Benny can't stand Sean and worries that her parents seem to be pushing them into a relationship. In the new Year, she goes to Dublin one Saturday, to meet Jack and her friends, pleading that she has an extra lecture. Eddie, her father, dies suddenly of a heart attack during the afternoon. Benny, badly shaken, comes back to Knockglen as soon as she hears the news and she finds that her mother is completely devastated by her husband's death. She is very upset but she can see that she is tied to her home even more than before. Then Annabel, her mother and Benny get a nasty shock learning from Sean that Mr Hogan had recently offered him a partnership. The business was not doing well, and he had worked there for 10 years with no prospect of promotion so Mr Hogan agreed to make him a partner. Benny is worried at the idea of Sean being master of the business and she begins to wonder why the business was doing so badly. This additional worry means she has even less time to spend with Jack, and she worries about losing him to a girl who is in Dublin.

Circle of Friends Part III

Benny enjoys college but she is depressed by the fact that her parents expect her back at home every evening and she doesn't get much chance to socialise. She manages to get to a party being held at Jack's house and he realises that she is very attractive in an unusual way. He asks her out, and she is so thrilled. Nan however has higher ambitions than meeting a student. She has found out that Eve is a cousin to a well to do Protestant family, and decides to pursue Simon. Eve is grateful to Simon for helping her out but her pride won't let her have much to do with the family, in case they think she is trying to get on socially or be helped financially by them. Nan thinks Eve is a fool not to make use of her connexions, although she is not fully aware that the Westwards are not that well off any more, and that Simon himself hopes to marry someone with money to help out with the farm's problems. Benny starts to go out with Jack but she can't meet him that often, as she is still expected home every night. Eve is going out with Aidan now and Nan still has her eye on Simon. She persuades one of her admirers to go with her, to gatecrash a society wedding.. where the Protestant landowner will be a guest. Jack's parents know that he is going out with Benny and his mother is not too keen on the romance. Meanwhile Benny has an uneasy feeling about her parents. They wanted her to go to college but nowadays the shop isnt doing very well and she begins to wonder if they are hoping that she would marry Sean and go into the business.

Circle of Friends II

Benny meets Eve in Dublin on the first day of college, and Eve tells her she is going to find some way of getting to University. Then, both of them are involved in a traffic accident. Benny is not hurt but Eve is. When waiting in hospital for treatment they meet some of their fellow students who were also there when the car crashed. One is a very beautiful girl of 18 called Nan Mahon; she is a Dubliner, and her father is a small builder. However he is also given to drinking and hits her downtrodden mother Emily quite often. They also meet Jack and Aidan. Jack is the son of a well to do doctor and is studying law. He is very handsome and charming and Benny is attracted to him. Aidan fancies himself as a bit of a wit, and he takes a liking to Eve who laughs at him. Eve goes back home to the convent where the nuns make a fuss of her and she tells Mother Francis who has looked after her, that she could not stand the convent in Dublin. She decides to approach the Westward family to ask if they would pay for her to go to college. She approaches her cousin, Simon, who is managing the estate, his father is now an elderly invalid... and he feels a bit guilty that the family has neglected her and he agrees to pay for her university fees. She gets a job in Dublin helping out a lady who rents rooms to students...and prepares to start her new life. The 2 girls like Nan, but dont realise that she is very ambitious. She is not academic and is mainly going to college in hopes that she will meet someone well to do and marry him.

Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy I

This is one of Binchy's mid life novels which was very successful and which was made into a film in the 1990s. It was not a very good film. The novel is set in the late 50s, and the heroine is a rather plain girl called Benny (Bernadette) Hogan. She is the only child of doting parents, who live in a village called Knockglen, not too far from Dublin. Benny becomes friendly with a girl from her school Eve Malone, who is an orphan; her parents were of different faiths and eloped. Her mother died when she was born and her father who had a drink problem died soon after. Her maternal family, the Westwards were the Protestant landlords of the area and were not keen to take in an infant who would have to be reared as a Catholic, so she was finally taken care of by the local nuns who ran the school. Eve was happy in her unusual home, but she was pleased when she and Benny became friends. Benny's father was a bit disappointed to have no son to take on his family business, a mens tailors, so he takes on an apprentice Sean who moves into rooms over the shop. Sean is a bit of an Uriah Heep and the 2 girls dont like him. When they are 18 Benny is expected to go to University but there is no money to send Eve. She is instead sent to a convent in Dublin, where she will learn typing.. and she hates the idea.

Lyn Reid Banks Part VI

Patrick was worried by Charlotte's pregnancy and she soon became ill. She had severe vomiting, a condition that affects some women in pregnancy and it was clear that she was seriously ill. Arthur nursed her devotedly but she grew weaker. It seemed her short period of married happiness was coming to an end. She was exhausted and felt too ill to be glad that she was having a baby. Arthur had promised her that he would take care of Patrick if anything happened to her, and now, she was clearly not going to recover, so he braced himself to agree to stay with the old man till he died. She told him that they had been so happy, and she could not quite believe she was going to die, but she was fading away. Tabby, her old nurse, died of old age just before Charlotte also passed away. The story ends there, with Arthur taking up the burden of looking after Patrick which he did for 6 years. He then gave up his orders and returned to Ireland, and he later married a cousin of his, Mary Ann Bell who was a fond wife to him for many years. But his great love was always Charlotte. The two novels are very good albeit Banks used the historical works that were available at the time. She seems to have rather put in every good story about the Brontes that she came across, rather than selecting and checking things out, but it was still an entertaining work. The First novel was weaker than the second, I think, because in their early years the Brontes did have a narrow and difficult life. Branwell's alcoholism and weak nature caused problems and the girls were forced to go out as teachers and governesses, a job that was ill suited to their retiring natures. Particularly Charlotte was touchy and did not like being treated as a social inferior, and Emily hated being away from Haworth. Anne stuck out her jobs better but she was shocked at the immorality, as she saw it, of the families she worked for. Their trip to Brussels did not end well. Emily hated it and while it did give her more education, she was glad to go home and never left her village again. Charlotte went back after her aunt's death, and regretted it because she ended up falling in love with M Heger and suffering acutely when he made it clear that he did not return her feelings and that he felt she must not keep on writing to him. Madame Heger pushed her out of her job and Charlotte suffered for some time after she went back home. Their plan for a school of their own never got off the ground. Then within a couple of months, the 3 siblings, Emily Branwell and Anne all died of consumption, leaving Charlote alone. The next novel covered her years as a famous writer and is more entertaining, even if her prickly nature always made her difficult to socialise with. Its very sad that her period of marital happiness was so short. I've enjoyed the 2 works very much.

Lyn Reid Banks and the Brontes Part V

Patrick finally gave in, and agreed to Charlotte marrying Nicholls. SHe arranged a small empty room as a study for her new husband and they planned their wedding. They kept things quiet but on the day Patrick had another upset and told her that he could not give her away at the ceremony. Charlotte was hurt but she and her friends checked out the prayer book and found that there was no mention of the giver away having to be male, so it was decided that Miss Wooler, her old teacher, could do the giving away. Charlotte and Mr Nicholls went to Ireland for their honeymoon and she was pleased when she found that he had not been boasting about being from a genteel family. He had been brought up by an uncle who kept a school and the family welcomed her. Their home was comfortable and they were reasonably well off... and she seemed to grow fonder of Nicholls as she settled into married life. When she and Nicholls came back to Haworth she was quite happy and Patrick was relieved to have his curate back to take the work off his hands. Mr Nicholls was kept very busy, but Charlotte found that he wanted her to help him in his work and she accepted this as part of married life. She enjoyed the little get togethers in Haworth society much more as a wife than she had done when she was the daughter of the clergyman. She told Ellen that Mr Nicholls wanted a lot of her time now and she was pleased by this. She didn't see Mrs Gaskell partly because Mr Nicholls was a rather bigoted High Churchman and not too keen on dissenters, and partly because she was so busy, but her friend was delighted that Charlotte was now busy and happy. However she did have less time for writing and she told Arthur that she had started a new story but had not had a chance to do much. SHe showed it to him and he suggested that as it was about a school the critics might say she was repeating herself. She told him that she usually changed things around a lot before she completed a story. Arthur did not stop her writing but he did not see her as Currer Bell the writer, but as his wife, Charlotte... and she was rather pleased and flattered that he did not care about her wealth and fame. She and Ellen had their small problems, as Ellen was rather jealous of her friend being married and devoted to another person, and Arthur felt that the two women were too free spoken in their letters to each other, chattering about other people. He told Charlotte that Ellen must promise to destroy her letters when she read them, in case they fell into the wrong hands. Charlotte was amused by this but Ellen was rather annoyed, and while she did promise, in fact she kept Charlotte's letters and they still chatted freely. Then after a few months of happiness, she and Arthur went out for a walk and got wet and she caught a cold. She was not well and then symptoms of pregnancy surfaced.

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.

Brideshead Revisited IV

Several years pass and Charles loses touch with the Flytes. Julia is married to Rex Mottram who is a successful Tory politican. Lady Marchmain dies, and the Flyte house in London is turned into apartments. Charles is successful in his painting but he is dissatisfied with his life. He has married Celia Mulcaster, the sister of one of Sebastian's college friends but the marriage is not very successful. Charles finds out she has been having an affair and decides to go abroad to paint in the South American jungles. He spends a long time there and then comes back home, sailing on a luxury liner. He finds Julia is also a passanger on the voyage. Celia is seasick as are many of the passangers, so Charles and Julia can spend time together and talk. She tells him she is very unhappy with Rex - they had a baby but it died. She then had an affair with a man and went to America to see him but the affair died out and now she is coming home. Charles tells her about his marriage and how he still misses Sebastian and the 2 of them become lovers. She tells him Sebastian is still living abroad and Cordelia has gone to Spain to nurse. She tried being a nun but it didn't work out. Brideshead is managing the family estate and seems to be happy in his odd dull way. When they get back to London they continue their affair and visit Brideshead castle at times. After a while Julia starts to hint that they are a happy couple and perhaps they should get married. In Catholic terms, marrying a divorced man like Charles is wrong, but she feels she should try and put her life in order, before war might break out. Charles' makes plans to get a divorce from Celia, and is generous to her because he wants the marriage ended. Then Bridey (Lord Brideshead) tells them that he wants to get married. He has never shown any interest in women and now they are very surprised. He shocks them by telling Julia that he tolerates her affair with Charles and her marriage to the divorced Rex, but that his ladylove Mrs Musprat, is a devout Catholic and a middle class woman and she would not be willing to visit a fallen woman like Julia.