The Life Of Charlotte Bronte

"A revolution as well as a revelation... Elizabeth Gaskell was Charlotte's close friend in the last years of her life. After her death, encouraged by Charlotte's father and stimulated by her own sympathetic identification with the author, she relentlessly pursued the facts about Charlotte's childhood, family and writing. Her aim was to let Charlotte speak for herself through her letters, but she had a further goal: to defend her against the charge of 'coarseness' levelled at her work. The result is one of the most atmospheric and perceptive biographies ever written, still deeply moving today: the powerful tribute of one woman writer to another. The most comprehensive paperback edition available, with introduction, notes, selected criticism and bibliography and chronologies"