閱讀夏洛蒂·勃朗特 Charlotte Bronte在小说之家的作品!!! | |||
夏洛蒂·勃朗特夏洛蒂·勃朗特1816年生於英國北部的一個鄉村牧師家庭。母親早逝，八歲的夏洛蒂被送進一所專收神職人員孤女的慈善性機構——柯文橋女子寄宿學校。在那裏生活條件極其惡劣，她的兩個姐姐瑪麗亞和伊麗莎白因染上肺病而先後死去。於是夏洛蒂和妹妹艾米利回到家乡，在荒涼的約剋郡山區度過了童年。15 歲時她進了伍勒小姐辦的學校讀書，幾年後又在這個學校當教師。後來她曾作家庭教師，但因不能忍受貴婦人、闊小姐對家庭教師的歧視和刻薄，放棄了家庭教師的謀生之路。她曾打算自辦學校，為此她在姨母的資助下與艾米利一起去意大利進修法語和德語。然而由於沒有人來就讀，學校沒能辦成。但是她在意大利學習的經歷激發了她表現自我的強烈願望，促使她投身於文學創作的道路。
夏洛蒂·勃朗特出生於英國北部約剋郡的豪渥斯，父親是當地聖公會的一個窮牧師，母親是家庭主婦。夏洛蒂·勃朗特排行第三，有兩個姐姐、兩個妹妹和一個弟弟。兩個妹妹，即艾米莉·勃朗特和安恩·勃朗特，也是著名作傢，因而在英國文學史上常有“勃朗特三姐妹”之稱。
夏洛蒂·勃朗特的童年生活很不幸。1821年，即她5歲時，母親便患癌癥去世。父親收入很少，全家生活既艱苦又凄涼。豪渥斯是窮鄉僻壤的一個山區，年幼的夏洛蒂和弟妹們衹能在沼澤地裏遊玩。好在父親是劍橋聖約翰學院的畢業生，學識淵博，他常常教子女讀書，指導他們看書報雜志，還給他們講故事。這是自母親去世後孩子們所能得到的唯一的樂趣，同時也給夏洛蒂以及兩個妹妹帶來最初的影響，使她們從小就對文學産生了濃厚的興趣。
1824年，姐姐瑪麗亞和伊麗莎白被送到豪渥斯附近的柯文橋一所寄宿學校去讀書，不久夏洛蒂和妹妹艾米莉也被送去那裏。當時，衹有窮人的子女纔進這種學校。那裏的條件極差，校規卻非常嚴厲，孩子們終年無飽食之日，又要受體罰，每逢星期天，還得冒着嚴寒或者酷暑步行幾英裏去教堂做禮拜。由於條件惡劣，第二年學校裏就流行傷寒，夏洛蒂的兩個姐姐都染上此病，被送回傢後沒幾天都痛苦地死了。這之後，父親不再讓夏洛蒂和艾米莉去那所學校，但那裏的一切已在夏洛蒂的心靈深處留下了可怕的印象。她永遠忘不了這段生活，後來在她的小說《簡·愛》中，她又飽含着痛切之情對此作了描繪，而小說中可愛的小姑娘海倫的形象，就是以她的姐姐瑪麗亞為原型的。 夏洛蒂回到傢裏後，生活又像過去一樣，但她和妹妹們的興趣卻更加廣泛了。她們一起學音樂，彈琴、唱歌，畫畫，而最使她們感興趣的卻是學習寫作。勃朗特一傢一嚮離群索居，夏洛蒂姐妹自幼性格孤僻，在豪渥斯這個孤寂的村落裏，她們所能找到的唯一慰藉，就是面對荒野任憑想象力馳騁，編寫離奇動人的故事。當時夏洛蒂14歲，已寫了許多小說、詩歌和劇本，據她自己開列的書單，她共寫了11捲之多，每捲60到100頁。這些習作儘管還很幼稚，但已表現出相當厚實的文學素養和豐富的想象力。這樣的習作，可以說為她往後在文壇上一舉成名作了充分準備。
15歲時，夏洛蒂進伍勒小姐在羅海德辦的學校讀書。幾年後，她為了掙錢供弟妹們上學，又在這所學校裏當了教師。她一邊教書，一邊繼續寫作，但至此還沒有發表過任何作品。1836年，也就是在她20歲時，她大着膽子把自己的幾首短詩寄給當時的桂冠詩人騷塞。然而，得到的卻是這位大詩人的一頓訓斥。騷塞在回信中毫不客氣地對她說：“文學不是女人的事情，你們沒有寫詩的天賦。”這一盆冷水使夏洛蒂很傷心，但她並沒有因此而喪失信心，仍然默默地堅持寫作。 1838年，夏洛蒂離開伍勒小姐的學校。第二年，她到有錢人傢裏擔任家庭教師。這一職業在當時是受歧視的，而夏洛蒂更是親身體驗了作為一名家庭女教師的辛苦與屈辱。她在當時給妹妹艾米莉的一封信中這樣寫道：“私人教師……是沒有存在意義的，根本不被當作活的、有理性的人看待。”所以，她很快就討厭甚至憎惡家庭教師這一行當了。她在1839年和1841年分別當過兩次家庭教師，但每次都衹有幾個月的時間，因為她忍受不了。 也就是在這兩年裏，有人嚮夏洛蒂求婚：一次是她的一個女友的哥哥，另一次是一位年輕的牧師。但是，這兩次求婚都被她拒絶了，原因是她認為他們並不是真正愛她，衹是按傳統要娶個妻子而已。
夏洛蒂和艾米莉都不願離開傢到外面去謀生，但僅靠父親的收入又無法生活，於是她們便想在本村辦一所學校，教當地孩子讀書，這樣也許能維持生計。她們都想教法語，可是她們的法語並不好。這時，在她們傢裏幫助照料傢務的姨媽挺身而出，拿出她所有的積蓄，讓姐妹倆到布魯塞爾去攻讀法語。
這樣，她們就進了布魯塞爾的一所法語學校。這所學校是由一對姓埃熱的夫婦辦的，並由埃熱先生親自教授法語。埃熱先生的法國文學造詣很深，勃朗特姐妹倆在他的教誨下，僅用一年時間，就掌握了法語基礎知識，還閱讀了大量法國文學名著，瞭解了各種流派作傢的創作風格和藝術特點。但是，對夏洛蒂來說，在布魯塞爾的一年間，給她留下最深刻印象的卻是埃熱先生本人。他不僅學識淵博，聰明過人，還有一種對年輕女子非常有吸引力的男性氣，即容易激動，有點粗魯，但十分率直、爽快。夏洛蒂內心已愛上這個有婦之夫，但她始終沒有明確表露。埃熱先生對她則全然無心，所以她就把這種微妙的情感一直壓在自己心裏。 從布魯塞爾回國後，夏洛蒂便和兩個妹妹一起開始籌辦學校，還挂出了“勃朗特姐妹學校”的招牌。可是，她們萬萬沒有想到，在幾個月裏竟然沒有一個學生來報名入學，等來的衹是上門收稅的官員。
辦學的理想破滅了。夏洛蒂覺得，寫作也許還有出路。1845年秋天，她偶然讀了妹妹艾米莉寫的一些詩，突然想到她們三姐妹可以合出一本詩集。於是她們商量之後，每人拿出一些詩合在一起，用當時已去世的姨媽留下的一些錢自費出版了一本詩集。她們沒有署真名，而是分別用了三個假名：柯勒·貝爾、埃利斯· 貝爾和阿剋頓·貝爾。儘管她們的詩寫得很美，卻沒有人註意，出版後衹賣掉了兩本。
但是，不管怎麽說，詩集的出版對她們來說總是一件大事。她們的創作熱情受到了激勵，於是三姐妹又開始埋頭寫小說。這時，夏洛蒂已三十歲。她花了將近一年時間，寫成一部長篇小說，取名《教師》；妹妹艾米莉和安妮則分別寫了長篇小說《呼嘯山莊》和《艾格尼斯·格雷》。她們把三部小說一起寄給出版商。不久，出版商回覆她們說，《呼嘯山莊》和《艾格尼斯·格雷》已被接受，但夏洛蒂的《教師》將被退回。
這對夏洛蒂來說可是個不小的打擊。但她沒有退縮，反而憋着一股氣又開始寫另一部長篇小說。這就是《簡·愛》。
《簡·愛》中的人物和情節，大多是她在生活中經歷過或者非常熟悉的，再說她又充滿了激情，所以寫作進度很快，不到一年就脫稿了。稿子交出去後，令出版商大為驚喜，通宵不眠地審讀。最後，出版商認定它是一部傑作，决定馬上出版。就這樣，兩個月後，《簡·愛》（1847）就問世了，而兩個妹妹的作品此時還在印刷之中。
不久，三姐妹的三部作品全部問世。當時的英國文壇大為震驚，因為三姐妹的三部長篇小說都非常出色，尤其是夏洛蒂的《簡·愛》（初版時作者署名為柯勒·貝爾），更是引起轟動，大街小巷裏都在談論這部小說，人們還到處打聽和猜測，作者到底是誰？
勃朗特三姐妹在文學創作上的成功，給勃朗特一傢帶來了極大的歡樂。但是不久，傢裏就發生了一連串不幸事件。1848年9月，她們的弟弟患病去世。三個月後，艾米莉染上結核病，相繼去世。夏洛蒂擔心小妹妹安妮也會染上，不巧事情正是這樣。安妮得病後拖了5個月，也離開了人間。
夏洛蒂深受打擊，她衹有全身心投入寫作，才能暫時遺忘內心的悲痛。她埋頭寫長篇小說《謝利》，於1849年8月完成，10月出版。《謝利》使她再一次獲得巨大成功。這之後，她便去了倫敦。在倫敦的幾年裏，她結識了不少作傢，其中最有名的是薩剋雷和蓋斯凱爾夫人。薩剋雷對她的作品評價很高，而她則把《簡·愛》第二版題獻給薩剋雷，以表示對這位著名作傢的敬意。蓋斯凱爾夫人成了她的摯友，兩人過往甚密。 她還完成並出版了長篇小說《維萊特》，並於一八五三年十一月開始創作長篇小說《愛瑪》。
一八五四年六月二十九日，三十八歲的夏洛蒂終於剋服固執的老父的反對，和阿貝尼科爾斯牧師結了婚。遲來的愛情給她帶來了慰藉和歡樂，但婚後的幸福竟是那麽短暫，六個月後的一天，夏洛蒂和丈夫到離傢數英裏的荒原深處觀看山澗瀑布，歸途中遇雨受寒，此後便一病不起。一八五五年三月三十一日，三十八歲的夏洛蒂不幸離開了人間，還帶去了一個尚未出世的嬰兒。
第二版本：
英國女小說傢，艾米莉·勃朗特之姐，是活躍在英國文壇上的勃朗特三姐妹之一。她是三姐妹中年齡最大的。三姐妹 出生在英格蘭北部約剋郡一個與世隔絶的村子裏。父親是個窮牧師。全靠他們一位小有資産的姨媽資助他們上學，並留給他們財産。後來三姐妹利用這筆財産的一部分自費出版了他們的第一部詩歌合集。童年的夏洛蒂常和其他兄弟姐妹一起用小本寫一些奇特的故事。基於父母遺傳的天分和他們後天的努力，三姐妹都有名擅長寫作，1847 年，他們都發表了小說，夏洛蒂用柯勒貝爾的筆名發表了《簡· 愛》。夏洛蒂當過教師和家庭教師，也曾與妹妹艾米莉一起於1842年去比利時布魯塞爾學習法語和古典文學。 夏洛蒂的作品主要描寫貧苦的小資産者的孤獨、反抗和奮鬥，屬於被馬剋思稱為以狄更斯為首的“出色的一派”。《簡·愛》是她的處女作，也是代表作，至今仍受到廣大讀者的歡迎。 實際上，勃朗特三姐妹自幼便熱愛寫作，常常一起在本上寫一些關於伯爵的小說，可惜日後都丟失了。夏洛蒂還出版過詩集。她的其他小說有：《雪莉》（1849）、《維萊特》（1853）和《教師》（1857）。其中《維萊特》可以看做是她個人的小說體自傳，與她的人生經歷十分相似。這位天生體弱的女作傢是十九世紀英國文壇上一顆璀璨的明珠。
勃朗特姐妹
1847年，《簡·愛》和《呼嘯山莊》在英國先後出版。這兩部作品的出現，引起了文學界強烈的轟動；而這兩部不朽的名著竟出於名不見傳的兩姐妹之手，更成了英國文學史上的佳話。這兩姐妹就是夏洛蒂·勃朗特和艾米莉·勃朗特。夏洛蒂的《簡·愛》因題材的新穎和感情的真摯立即引起當時評論界的重視，而艾米莉則憑着《呼嘯山莊》這部有着奇想象力的小說在英國文學史上占有突出地位。然而人們沒有想到，這兩姐妹的成功卻源自她們那孤獨、苦悶和不幸的生活。
凄涼、孤獨的童年
勃朗特姐妹生長在一個窮牧師家庭，她們的母親在孩子們還很年幼時患肺癌去世，這使全家陷入了不幸。失去了母親，孩子們的童年就象沒有陽光的深鼕，凄涼而沒有歡樂。所幸的是，她們的父親－－那位窮牧師－－學識淵博，他親自教她們讀書，指導她們看書讀報，這些都給了她們很大的影響，這也算是不幸中的萬幸。
由於生活的凄苦，勃朗特姐妹不得不在慈善學校度過了一段童年。因為學校裏的生活條件十分惡劣，夏洛蒂和艾米莉的兩個姐姐先後患肺病死去，這給夏洛蒂極其沉重的打擊。後來，她將這傢學校搬進了《簡·愛》，並且為了紀念她的姐姐，在書中塑造了一個海倫·彭斯的可愛的小姑娘的形象。此後，夏洛蒂和艾米莉就回到傢裏，與弟弟勃蘭威爾和妹妹安妮一起自學。
她們的傢居住在荒涼偏僻的山區，再加上這個家庭一嚮離群索居，因此她們遊玩的場地衹有一望無際的沼澤和西邊的曠野。她們常在曠野裏散步，感受着曠野的氣氛，特別是艾米莉，她表面沉默寡言，內心卻熱情奔放，她將曠野的感受全寫進了《呼嘯山莊》，構成了《呼嘯山莊》的獨特氛圍。為了打發寂寞的時光，她們四個便常常讀書、寫作詩歌以及杜撰傳奇故事，她們自辦了一個手抄的刊物：《年輕人的雜志》，自編自寫自讀，這給她們帶來了莫大樂趣，對她們以後成為著名的作傢是一個初步鍛煉。婁時，夏洛蒂寫了許多小說、詩歌和劇本，據她自己在14歲時開列的作品名單，就有22捲。
艱苦工作後的解脫
為了生活，勃朗特姐妹先後離傢出外當家庭教師，屈辱的生活激起了她們強烈的憤怒之情。夏洛蒂倍感歧視和孤獨，她憎恨家庭教師這個行當，兩次都衹工作了幾個月就離開了，但這段經歷卻為《簡·愛》提供了極其重要的素材。在艱若、閉塞的生活中，勃朗特姐妹經常利用晚上的一點餘暇積極地寫作，作為對一天枯燥乏味的辛勞工作的一種解脫。尤其是艾米莉，她除了工作之外，還要承擔全家繁重的傢務勞動，洗衣服、燒菜、烤面包，為了隨時記下寫作素材，她在廚房裏幹活時，總是隨身帶着紙和筆，衹要一有空隙，就立即把腦瞭瞭裏涌現的思想寫下來，然後繼續燒飯。
這一段時期，她們一直沒有停止創作活動。1836年，夏洛蒂把自己寫的幾首詩寄給了當時著名的桂冠詩人騷塞，不料騷塞竟認為文學不是婦女的事業，而且認為夏洛蒂沒有特殊的才能。他决不會想到，正是這個他認為沒有特殊才能的夏洛蒂·勃朗特在10年後會成為轟動英國文壇的作傢。
勃朗特姐妹曾打算合力辦一所學校，可是印了招生廣告，卻沒有人來報名。這時她們唯一的弟弟勃蘭威爾由於環境的刺激，養成了酗酒的惡習，並為此丟掉了工作，成為家庭的負擔。1845年秋季的一天，夏洛蒂偶然看到艾米莉寫的一本詩集，她深受感動，想到寫作也許是一條出路，於是，她動用了去世的姨媽留給她們的遺産，與兩個妹妹合出一本詩集。但是儘管詩寫得很美，卻未能引起人們的註意，衹賣掉了兩本。
小說創作上的成功
雖然如此，這本詩集的出版仍鼓舞了她們的創作情緒，於是勃朗特姐妹埋頭寫起小說來。這一年，小妹妹安妮·勃朗特寫成了《艾格妮斯·格雷》，艾米莉寫成了《呼嘯山莊》，夏洛蒂寫成了《教授》。前兩部都被出版商接受了，衹有《教授》被退回。但夏洛蒂沒有灰心，她開始寫《簡·愛》，小說中的人物和情節很多都是她從生活中經歷過的或是熟悉的。她用了一年時間以相當快的速度寫好了《簡·愛》，兩個月以後，書出版了，而《艾格妮斯·格雷》和《呼嘯山莊》直到《簡·愛》出版後方纔出版。然而是衹有《簡·愛》獲得了成功，受到重視，《呼嘯山莊》卻不為當時的讀者所理解。
Biography
Charlotte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire in 1816, the third of six children, to Patrick Brontë (formerly "Patrick Brunty"), an Irish Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Maria née Branwell. In 1820, the family moved a few miles to Haworth, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate. Mrs Brontë died of cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters and a son to be taken care of by her sister Elizabeth Branwell. In August 1824, Charlotte was sent with three of her sisters, Emily, Maria and Elizabeth, to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire (which she would describe as Lowood School in Jane Eyre). Its poor conditions, Charlotte maintained, permanently affected her health and physical development and hastened the deaths of her two elder sisters, Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who died of tuberculosis in June 1825 soon after their father removed them from the school on 1 June.
At home in Haworth Parsonage, Charlotte and the other surviving children — Branwell, Emily and Anne — began chronicling the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of their imaginary kingdoms. Charlotte and Branwell wrote Byronic stories about their country — Angria — and Emily and Anne wrote articles and poems about theirs — Gondal. The sagas were elaborate and convoluted (and still exist in part manuscripts) and provided them with an obsessive interest in childhood and early adolescence, which prepared them for their literary vocations in adulthood.
Charlotte continued her education at Roe Head, Mirfield, from 1831 to 1832, where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. During this period, she wrote her novella The Green Dwarf (1833) under the name of Wellesley. Charlotte returned as a teacher from 1835 to 1838. In 1839, she took up the first of many positions as governess to various families in Yorkshire, a career she pursued until 1841.
In 1842 she and Emily travelled to Brussels to enroll in a boarding school run by Constantin Heger (1809 – 1896) and his wife Claire Zoé Parent Heger (1814 – 1891). In return for board and tuition, Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. Their time at the boarding school was cut short when Elizabeth Branwell, their aunt who joined the family after the death of their mother to look after the children, died of internal obstruction in October 1842. Charlotte returned alone to Brussels in January 1843 to take up a teaching post at the boarding school. Her second stay at the boarding school was not a happy one; she became lonely, homesick and deeply attached to Constantin Heger. She finally returned to Haworth in January 1844 and later used her time at the boarding school as the inspiration for some of The Professor and Villette.
In May 1846, Charlotte, Emily and Anne published a joint collection of poetry under the assumed names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Although only two copies were sold, the sisters continued writing for publication and began their first novels. Charlotte used "Currer Bell" when she published her first two novels. Of this, Brontë later wrote:
Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because—without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called 'feminine' -- we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise.
Indeed, her novels were deemed coarse by the critics.[citation needed] There was speculation about the identity of Currer Bell, and whether Bell was a man or a woman.
Title page of the first edition of Jane Eyre
Charlotte's brother, Branwell, the only son of the family, died of chronic bronchitis and marasmus exacerbated by heavy drinking in September 1848, although Charlotte believed his death was due to tuberculosis. Branwell was also a suspected "opium eater", (i.e. a laudanum addict). Emily and Anne both died of pulmonary tuberculosis in December 1848 and May 1849, respectively.
Charlotte and her father were now left alone together. In view of the enormous success of Jane Eyre, she was persuaded by her publisher to visit London occasionally, where she revealed her true identity and began to move in a more exalted social circle, becoming friends with Harriet Martineau, Elizabeth Gaskell, William Makepeace Thackeray and G. H. Lewes. Her book had sparked a movement in regards to feminism in literature. The main character, Jane Eyre, in her novel Jane Eyre, was a parallel to herself, a woman who was strong. However, she never left Haworth for more than a few weeks at a time as she did not want to leave her aging father's side.
Thackeray’s daughter, the writer Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie recalled a visit to her father by Charlotte Brontë:
“... two gentlemen come in, leading a tiny, delicate, serious, little lady, with fair straight hair, and steady eyes. She may be a little over thirty; she is dressed in a little barège dress with a pattern of faint green moss. She enters in mittens, in silence, in seriousness; our hearts are beating with wild excitement. This then is the authoress, the unknown power whose books have set all London talking, reading, speculating; some people even say our father wrote the books - the wonderful books... The moment is so breathless that dinner comes as a relief to the solemnity of the occasion, and we all smile as my father stoops to offer his arm; for, genius though she may be, Miss Brontë can barely reach his elbow. My own personal impressions are that she is somewhat grave and stern, specially to forward little girls who wish to chatter... Every one waited for the brilliant conversation which never began at all. Miss Brontë retired to the sofa in the study, and murmured a low word now and then to our kind governess... the conversation grew dimmer and more dim, the ladies sat round still expectant, my father was too much perturbed by the gloom and the silence to be able to cope with it at all... after Miss Brontë had left, I was surprised to see my father opening the front door with his hat on. He put his fingers to his lips, walked out into the darkness, and shut the door quietly behind him... long afterwards... Mrs. Procter asked me if I knew what had happened... It was one of the dullest evenings [Mrs Procter] had ever spent in her life... the ladies who had all come expecting so much delightful conversation, and the gloom and the constraint, and how finally, overwhelmed by the situation, my father had quietly left the room, left the house, and gone off to his club.”
In June 1854, Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate, and became pregnant soon thereafter. Her health declined rapidly during this time, and according to Gaskell, her earliest biographer, she was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness." Charlotte died, along with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855, at the young age of 38. Her death certificate gives the cause of death as phthisis (tuberculosis), but many biographers suggest she may have died from dehydration and malnourishment, caused by excessive vomiting from severe morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum. There is also evidence to suggest that Charlotte died from typhus she may have caught from Tabitha Ackroyd, the Brontë household's oldest servant, who died shortly before her. Charlotte was interred in the family vault in The Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Haworth, West Yorkshire, England.
The Life of Charlotte Brontë, the posthumous biography of Charlotte Brontë by Gaskell, was the first of many biographies about Charlotte to be published. Though frank in places, Gaskell suppressed details of Charlotte's love for Heger, a married man, as being too much of an affront to contemporary morals and as a possible source of distress to Charlotte's still-living friends, father and husband (Lane 1853 178–183). Gaskell also provided doubtful and inaccurate information about Patrick Brontë, claiming, for example, that he did not allow his children to eat meat. This is refuted by one of Emily Brontë's diary papers, in which she describes the preparation of meat and potatoes for dinner at the parsonage, as Juliet Barker points out in her recent biography, The Brontës. It was discovered that Charlotte wrote 20 manuscript pages of a book, but died before she could finish; Clare Boylan finished it in 2007 as Emma Brown: A Novel from the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Brontë.