The Life of Charlotte Brontë — Volume 1Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
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The Life of Charlotte Brontë — Volume 1
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
Brontë, Charlotte, 1816-1855; Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Biography
On the 29th of July, 1835, Charlotte, now a little more than nineteen
years old, went as teacher to Miss W---'s. Emily accompanied her as a
pupil; but she became literally ill from home-sickness, and could not
settle to anything, and after passing only three months at Roe Head,
returned to the parsonage and the beloved moors.
Miss Bronte gives the following reasons as those which prevented Emily's
remaining at school, and caused the substitution of her younger sister in
her place at Miss W---'s:--
"My sister Emily loved the moors. Flowers brighter than the rose bloomed
in the blackest of the heath for her;--out of a sullen hollow in a livid
hill-side, her mind could make an Eden. She found in the bleak solitude
many and dear delights; and not the least and best-loved was--liberty.
Liberty was the breath of Emily's nostrils; without it she perished. The
change from her own home to a school, and from her own very noiseless,
very secluded, but unrestricted and unartificial mode of life, to one of
disciplined routine (though under the kindest auspices), was what she
failed in enduring. Her nature proved here too strong for her fortitude.
Every morning, when she woke, the vision of home and the moors rushed on
her, and darkened and saddened the day that lay before her. Nobody knew
what ailed her but me. I knew only too well. In this struggle her
health was quickly broken: her white face, attenuated form, and failing
strength, threatened rapid decline. I felt in my heart she would die, if
she did not go home, and with this conviction obtained her recall. She
had only been three months at school; and it was some years before the
experiment of sending her from home was again ventured on."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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