In search of the Brontes Part 2 - 2/6

A documentary produced by BBC in 2003 and broadcasted by the TV channel of Greek Parliament.
Directed by Samira Osmar. Program Consultant: Juliet Barker.

[@BAFFLED-u4o]

I loved The Professor.

[@ksotikoula]

I am not there yet and I don't remember the conversation. I will come to add once I re-read it.

[@iamme611]

Did you notice that the idea of instability in The Factory part of The Professor factory is presented again in Shirley. I imagine the political conversations between Hudsen and Frances as similair to those between Mr. Taylor and Charlotte!

[@72melmo]

I've always preferred Wuthering Heights to Jane Eyre. I've had fierce arguments with people over it. It was passionate and angry and fiery, and it was the book that introduced me to the classics. I've read it four times and plan to read it again.

[@juliewitt7496]

Emily is now regarded as being the most brilliant of the Bronte family.

[@BAFFLED-u4o]

Jane Eyre.

[@iamme611]

Am I the only one who can honestly say I like The Professor? It is slow from about page 50-100 though. The last 100 pages especially are passionate and engaging -- not artificial and stilted! The book is very modern in its depiction of a woman wanting a career, love and family. The first few chapters have an interesting commentary on the emerging factory problems in Victorian England later explored in Shirley. As you can see, I found part 2!

[@BAFFLED-u4o]

I read The Professor years ago and loved it.

[@ksotikoula]

By the way I am re-reading "The Professor" now for 2nd time after 6 or more years. I remember that I liked it. I am still now in the first 50 pages of the book. It will start to be more interested now that Crimsworth meets Zoraide! I am glad you found part 2 :b. I left a message in the ending of part 1 in order not to confuse another :).

[@koljenny]

we are saying the same thing ksotikoula.I have searched in the internet and found that she had a lot of lovers ,before and after that poor orphan young man.She was the one who made the first step.What a profligate woman!

[@iamme611]

Regarding the book's feminism, it is also worth noting in the conversation btw Crimsworth and Frances, her answer to his question of whether or not she would leave him if he treated her like I slave/abused her. Despite Charlotte's christian background, she, like Anne, believed women should be able to leave abusive marriage. The conversations is in Chapter XXV of my edition.

[@ksotikoula]

I remember this!Frances would rather die than tolerate all this.CB also in a letter responds about an acquaintance who said she would prefer to marry a tyrant than someone with no will,that she better then pray that he has a strong mind&a generous heart because without them a man is an "untrackable brute impossible to lead".It's a great answer for those who believed CB liked to be "mastered'.She admired strength&liked to measure herself against it,but would not willingly submit to misuse of it.

[@ksotikoula]

Mrs Robinson, as Charlotte guessed, had lied about a will of her husband that forbade her to marry again. After getting rid of Branwell, she went to take care of the wife of a relative of hers, who was a Lord, and after her death she married him and became a powerful Lady that threatened to sue Gaskell forcing her to change the chapter that referred to her. In Branwell's case she was obviously flattered that she could attract a younger man despite having grown up daughters.

[@samansarwar4205]

Seriously what do they have against Charlotte?

[@lorenatabares7036]

They wrote their novels in 2 months?

[@koljenny]

I am afraid that my answer is lost somewhere . I will repeat it.Charlotte may had a platonic and spiritual relationship, but we know that her feelings where not platonic.Jane escapes the temptation. Do you think that our beloved charlotte would have done the same if Heger had proposed?

[@ksotikoula]

I never said he made the first step, but he responded. He bragged about how fond his mistress was of him and how he slept with her. His relationship with Mrs Robinson had nothing of the spirituality Charlotte shared with Heger. What do you mean that you have the same opinion about Charlotte? I am confused there.

[@ksotikoula]

Sometimes I think that although she liked her heroine JE&defended the book,it was not exactly what she would like to write.She wanted to turn to reality&publishers insisted on more action&vivacity.We know that she liked more the first chapters of the book which she refused to change as less eventful.Truth has its own charm she told them.Not that Charlotte was not carried away by her own production.The Thornfield section was written within a month&she fell sick after driving JE out of the house.

[@ksotikoula]

I agree that she wasn't the best girl in the neighborhood, lol!, but Branwell had his share of responsibility as well. She was not the first woman he had ever been with and he was an adult too. And then look how he ended. Charlotte had her great deal of heartbreaking too but she never gave up. He was a weaker and more self-indulged character.

[@Vic35102]

emmly seems the warmer and more creative then Charlotte because instead of looking for something that would sell She Wrote form her heart

[@ksotikoula]

No you're not alone in liking "The Professor".Although written in not so very distinguished way "Jane Eyre" is it has its merits.Frances' arguments about wanting to work after marriage are pretty strong&of course this book has the same if not deeper sexual tension that Jane Eyre.I have met many fans that suggest it as the no1 book to read about teacher-student relationships.Charlotte trying to convince Smith to publish it after JE told him it has more pith&substance than many parts of JE!

[@koljenny]

I am afraid that i do not agree.He may have been an adult, but i think ,that a woman is the one who says the last word in the beginning of an affair.Are you sure that he was the one how made the first step? I have the same opinion about charlotte.

[@koljenny]

I think that the fact that they lived secluded lives,did not help.Imagination is helpfull in literature,but in real life...,especially in affairs ...it may be dangerous.

[@ksotikoula]

I can not say what she would do if he proposed something as radical as running away with her (neither could she I imagine). And it is of no point considering something that it could never be. But I don't think she would be involved in a real triangle. Somehow I don't feel she would ever become a mistress of a married man like Branwell. After all she would be happy enough if he had only continue to write to her. She needed more the sense that he loved her than the actual thing.

[@koljenny]

how do we call a married woman who seduces a man 17 years younger than her?I agree totally with Gaskell who says that she is in a way responsible for the deaths of the sisters .I wonder what happend to her after the publication of the Life.