The Invention of Charlotte Bronte : Her Last Years and the Scandal That Made Her

Doomed survivor of a family of geniuses, Charlotte Bront� had a life as dramatic as Jane Eyre. Turning her back on her tragic past, she reinvented herself as an acclaimed writer, a mysterious celebrity and a passionate lover. Doing so meant burning many bridges, but her sudden death left her friends and admirers with more questions than answers. Tasked with telling the truth about Bront�'s life, her friend, the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, uncovered secrets of illicit love, family discord and professional rivalries more incredible than any fiction. The result, a tell-all biography, was so scandalous it was banned and rewritten twice in six months - but not before it had given birth to the legend of the Bront�s. The Invention of Charlotte Bront� is a darker take on one of the most famous women writers of the nineteenth century, showing Charlotte to be a strong but flawed individual. Through interrogating known events and introducing new archival material into the story, it challenges the established narrative to reveal the Bront� family as they've never been seen before.