A Victim of Circumstances
Charlotte Bronte. By Rosamond Langbridge. (Heinemann. 8s. 6d.)
As it is called on the title-page " a psychological study," Charlotte BrontO's newest critic treats the great novelist's life as "an epic of endurance" and not as a plain tale. Perhaps she is right ; the tale is too well known to tell again for its own sake. Its human interest is inexhaustible, but it belongs now to the commentator not the biographer. The book is full of sparkling sentences, and is throughout lively and provocative. To take one brilliant morsel at random : " Affectation is the profuse apology of those who have no personality and know it." Miss Langbridge's chapters glitter with such sayings.
How much had the intolerable unhappiness of the Bronte household and the incredible ill-luck which followed them through life to do with their genius ? The writer does not throw a great deal of light upon this insoluble problem. What did their father stand for in the development of their strange personalities ? Miss Langbridge lays at his door almost all his children's faults and sufferings. He was a very terrible man no doubt, but hardly the complete bogy here described. He was interested in his children ; he did want them to speak openly to him, though he could think of no better method of overcoming their awe than suggesting that they should put on a mask to remove their embarrassment. He did not allow them the natural amusements of normal children, but did they ask for them ? They were not normal children. He never broke their proud spirits ; they still had the bitter grit to die standing. Branwell went his own way— to the devil ; and the daughters went theirs—to fame. We are inclined to think that Mr. Bronte met his match in each of them.
Miss Langbridge sets herself to destroy the " St. Charlotte Myth " conceived by Mrs. Gaskell. To her mind Charlotte, apart from her genius, was the pitiable victim of circum- stances, her childhood spoiled by a cruel father, her youth by unrequited love, love which found no reply in the heart of its object but an impatient " Damn the woman ! "
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