The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë by Laura Joh Rowland

The Bronte sisters need to publish under male names and seek work as governesses or teachers, the only other occupations available to educated women, is revealed. Londons pandemonium is detailed as well as the citys lack of sanitation Charlotte says it tasted of cholera, with the Thames creating the stench of decay. Descriptions of the filth, smells, and generally appalling living conditions in industrial Haworth, and other larger industrial cities, speak to the countrys worsening poverty. An important plot point is the widespread use of opium in China, and into brother Branwells weakening system.

Turmoils surrounding the Chartist insurrection, violence in Ireland, and the threat to England of Continental revolutions are referenced. Obsessed with a desire to obtain justice for this stranger who had engaged my interest and my sympathy, her own life is threatened as she tangles with a secretive Chinese man who had turned to crime after his family was killed during the opium wars in China.Įnglands political and social conditions are portrayed critically and realistically.

In Rowlands story, Charlotte unintentionally witnesses the murder of a woman she has befriended on the train to London. This view might be based on Charlottes letters, one of which states: It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action and they will make it if they cannot find it. Rowland challenges the reclusive image of Charlotte Bronte by giving her fictional character an action filled life.

The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë by Laura Joh Rowland