Speaking about stories she read when quite young, she says ".for I read them in childhood, and childhood has a very strong faculty of admiration, but a very weak one of criticism." I found that a poignant observation, for I too have a great love for some literature that came to me young and still impresses my soul although I would be forced to confess that they are inferior to other works which touch me less. She accepted herself as a faulted human being and she was welcoming of constructive criticisms that she felt might increase her understanding of her own foibles. Her determination in completing her novels in the face of some real criticism, is a testament to the strong character she possessed and her belief in God's presence in her life. With such a somber beginning to life, she had every right to expect more happiness and comfort in later years, but little of that was forthcoming. That Charlotte was subjected to many of the events at school that parallel those at Eyre's beginning is horrible to think and the death of her own sister, Maria, is the event that precipitates her character of Helen. I was struck by how much of what makes so gripping is torn from actual experience. We are seeing Charlotte's life as she herself saw it, and while that cannot be all of the truth of a life, it can surely be most of what is significant. Much of Gaskell's approach is to quote from the considerable correspondence of Charlotte herself, which gives this a pointedly personal flavor.
Having been written so soon after her death, this biograph might perhaps lack in the objectivity which a later biography could present, but whatever might be lacking in that quarter is well made up for in spirit and understanding. What a remarkable discourse this is on the life of Charlotte Bronte, as assembled by her friend, Elizabeth Gaskell.
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