Melville (Mel) Calman (19 May 1931, Stamford Hill – 10 February 1994, London) was a British cartoonist best known for his "little man" cartoons published in British newspapers including the Daily Express (1957–63), The Sunday Telegraph (1964–65), The Observer (1965-6), The Sunday Times (1969–84) and The Times (1979–94).

Biography[link]

Calman was the youngest of the three children of Clement Calman, a timber merchant, and his wife Anna (both Russian-Jewish immigrants who came to England about 1912).

Sent to Cambridge to avoid The Blitz in World War II, he was educated at the Perse School. Failing to gain entrance to Cambridge University, he returned to London where he enrolled at the Borough Polytechnic Art School, later studying illustration at St Martin's School of Art and Goldsmith College.

After two years of National Service, in 1956 he attempted to find work as a freelance cartoonist. Punch was discouraging about his work, but in 1958 he succeeded in placing work with the "William Hickey" column in the Daily Express. Although in regular work, he left the Express after five years, seeing no prospects being in competition with Osbert Lancaster and Giles.

In 1962 he began producing his trademark "little man" character for the Sunday Telegraph, and in 1979 he brought this as a regular and long-running contribution to The Times. Additionally, he made contributions to Cosmopolitan and House & Garden, as well as publishing some 20 books of his cartoons.

In later life he became an art dealer and collector, in 1989 co-founding the Cartoon Art Trust. In 1994, he died of a coronary thrombosis (heart attack) at the Empire cinema, Leicester Square while watching the film Carlito's Way with writer Deborah Moggach, his partner for the last ten years of his life.^[1]

He was married twice, to the magazine designer Pat McNeill and to the artist Karen Elizabeth Usborne. He had two daughters with Pat McNeill, the novelist Claire Calman and author and journalist Stephanie Calman.

He is buried alongside his mother and sister at the Jewish cemetery, Waltham Abbey, Essex.^[2]

Works[link]

Calman's trademark character was the angst-ridden "little man", who strongly reflected Calman's own lifelong depressions (in Who's Who he listed his recreations as "brooding and worrying").^[2] Topics focused on the little man's anxieties about health, death, God, achievement, morality and women, a style of humour that his Times obituary described as "of the black, self-deprecating Jewish variety, in the style of his New York heroes, James Thurber, S. J. Perelman and Woody Allen".^[3]

A small-format single-frame "pocket cartoon", the little man series used hand-lettered text in soft pencil and minimalist detail, a technique he had evolved due to early weaknesses in draughtsmanship.

Calman is commemorated by a Hackney historic plaque on his former residence at 64 Linthorpe Road; where he lived from 1931 until 1957.^[4]

References[link]

• Simon Heneage, "Calman, Melville (1931–1994)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 19 July 2007

External links[link]

• Mel Calman, British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent

Stewart Lee
Born	(1968-04-05) 5 April 1968 (age 44) Wellington, Shropshire, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Stand-up comedian, writer
Known for	Fist of Fun (1993–1995) This Morning with Richard Not Judy (1998–1999) Jerry Springer: The Opera (2001–2005) 90's Comedian (2005–2006) 41st Best Stand Up Ever! (2007–2008) Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle (2009–)
Spouse	Bridget Christie (2006-present)
Children	1 Son 1 daughter
Website
www.stewartlee.co.uk

Stewart Lee (born 5 April 1968) is an English stand-up comedian, writer and director. He made his name in the mid 1990s as one half of the radio duo Lee and Herring, a popular success followed through with extensive touring to built up a loyal live following. He gave up comedy in the early 2000s when he became disillusioned by the business and believed he was doomed to be a cult act with limited appeal who had reached the extent of any potential audience. Lee returned to stand up after co-writing and co-directing the surprise mock Broadway hit Jerry Springer - The Opera. Since then he has returned to the live circuit and though BBC and C4 specials and series, has rebuilt a niche audience and a reputation as an anti populist, anti "after the pub" comedian.

He remains a significant voice in UK stand up despite his refusal to appear on the panel shows that have seen many of his contemporaries eclipse him in ticket sales, if not critical acclaim. Although Lee's audience figures are comparatively low, he usually tours to 400-600 capacity venues and standing outside the comedy mainstream, he is well regarded by critics and has been a regular pundit on BBC political programming. In December 2011 he won the award for best male television comic for his series Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle which also won best comedy entertainment programme at the 2011 British Comedy Awards.^[1] A 2009 article in The Times referred to him as "the comedian's comedian, and for good reason" and named him "face of the decade".^[2] His stand-up features frequent use of "repetition, call-backs, nonchalant delivery and deconstruction",^[3] a device he jokingly ascribes to his tedious, exacting middle-class persona.

Lee has written music reviews for a number of publications including, since 1995, the Sunday Times.^[4] Through the early 2000s he was a regular presenter on Resonance FM 104.4.^[5] He is noted for his esoteric musical taste. Asked in 2003 what his current favourites were, he said "Most of my favourites are still going like The Fall, Giant Sand and Calexico. I listen to a lot of jazz, 60s and folk music but I really like Ms. Dynamite, and The Streets".^[4] He once said that the only band he liked that anyone else has heard of was R.E.M.. His debut novel, The Perfect Fool, includes an 'audio bibliography' – a list of recommended listening. This mentions that it was his love of the band Giant Sand that first attracted him to visit the American South West.^[6]

Background[link]

Lee was born in Wellington, Shropshire.^[7] He was adopted as a child and grew up in Solihull in the West Midlands.^[8] He attended private school Solihull School, on a scholarship.^[9] He is married to fellow comic Bridget Christie, with whom he has two children.^[10][11] He is a supporter of the British Humanist Association^[12] and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.^[13]

Career[link]

[edit] Early career: Lee and Herring and Fist of Fun

While studying English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford in the 1980s, he wrote and performed comedy in a revue group called "The Seven Raymonds" with Richard Herring, Emma Kennedy, Michael Cosgrave, Richard Canning and Tim Richardson, but did not perform in the well-known Oxford Revue, though he did write for and direct the 1989 Revue. Having moved to London and begun performing stand up comedy after university, he rose to greater prominence in 1990, winning the prestigious Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition. With Richard Herring, Lee wrote material for BBC Radio 4's On the Hour (1991), which was anchored by Chris Morris and was notable for the first appearance of Steve Coogan's celebrated character, Alan Partridge, for which Lee and Herring wrote much early material. After a disagreement with the rest of the cast, Lee and Herring did not remain with the group when On The Hour moved to television as The Day Today and their material was excised from an official release of the radio show in the mid-'90s (though a 2008 CD release would see it reinstated).

In 1992 and 1993, he and Herring wrote and performed Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World for BBC Radio 4, before moving to BBC Radio 1, for one series of Fist of Fun (1993). This was followed by three series entitled, simply, Lee and Herring. These shows mixed sketches with live links and music, in a format that Radio 1 seemed to favour at the time. (Other examples include shows by Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, and Simon Munnery in his guise as "Alan Parker: Urban Warrior".) Fist of Fun moved to television for two BBC Two series, and was followed in 1998 by This Morning with Richard Not Judy, which featured material in a similar vein, but was notable for being broadcast live in a Sunday morning slot. A change in BBC management after the second series of the latter effectively brought his partnership with Herring to an end but the two comedians retain similarities in the political and social acuity of their humour.

Throughout the late nineties he continued performing solo stand-up (something that has always been a mainstay of his career – even whilst in the double act with Herring) and has collaborated with, amongst others, Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding of The Mighty Boosh. Indeed, though Barratt and Fielding had worked together in the past, the first seeds of the Boosh were sown whilst working as part of Lee's Edinburgh show King Dong vs Moby Dick in which Barratt and Fielding played a giant penis and a whale, respectively. Lee returned the favour by going on to direct their 1999 Edinburgh show, Arctic Boosh, which remains the template of all their live work.

Career 2000–04: Quitting stand-up[link]

In 2001, Lee published his first novel, The Perfect Fool. It was republished in 2008.^[14] In the same year he performed Pea Green Boat, a stand-up show which revolved around the deconstruction of the Edward Lear poem The Owl and the Pussycat and a tale of his own broken toilet. This would later be condensed to focus mainly on the poem itself, and a 15 minute version aired on Radio 4. In 2007, Go Faster Stripe released a 25-minute edit on CD & 10" Vinyl.

During late 2000 and early 2001, Lee "gradually, incrementally and without any fanfare – or even much thought – gave up being a stand-up comedian",^[15](p2) and 2001 became the first year since 1987 that he did not perform at the Edinburgh Fringe.^[15](p28) Whilst Lee found himself gradually performing less and less standup and moving away from the stage, he continued his directorial duties on television. Two pilots were made for Channel 4, Cluub Zarathrustra and Head Farm, but neither was developed into a series. The former, however, would feature all the ingredients that would later appear in Attention Scum, a BBC2 series fronted by Simon Munnery's League Against Tedium character, which also featured the likes of Kevin Eldon, Johnny Vegas and Roger Mann, as well as Richard Thomas and opera singer Lori Lixenberg, in their guise as "Kombat Opera".

At the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Lee directed Johnny Vegas' first DVD, Who's Ready For Ice Cream?, a move away from the traditional "stand-up comic releases a DVD" format, involving a plot in which Vegas loses his comedy "mojo" and has to track it down via a journey of personal discovery. The DVD also features footage of Vegas' actual standup set as additional extras.

In 2004, Lee returned to stand-up comedy^[16] with the show Standup Comedian, which earned him a "Tap Water Award" in Edinburgh and was released on DVD in October 2005. This features extra footage of performances from his earlier career on Five's "Comedy Network". This show was toured extensively throughout the UK, Australia and US. Reviewing the comedy of the decade, Dominic Maxwell in The Times wrote of Lee's 2004 return to stand-up that it was "one of the boldest, smartest, most technically assured hours of stand-up I've ever seen".^[2]

[edit] 2005: Jerry Springer The Opera and 90s Comedian

Jerry Springer – The Opera at the Cambridge Theatre in London

In January 2005, Jerry Springer - The Opera, a satirical musical/opera based upon The Jerry Springer Show, was broadcast on BBC Two, following a highly successful West End run for several years, and as a prelude to the show's UK Tour. Christian Voice led a number of protest groups who claimed that the show was blasphemous and highly offensive. In particular, they were angered by the portrayal of Jesus Christ. Disputes arose, with supporters claiming that most of the protesters had neither seen the show nor knew of its actual content. Others supported the right to freedom of speech. Several Christian groups protested at some of the venues used during the UK Tour. The show was broadcast with a record number of complaints prior to its transmission. In total, the BBC received 55,000 complaints.^[17] A private court case brought by Christian Voice against Lee and others involved with the production for blasphemy was rejected by a Magistrates' Court.

In 2005, Lee tackled the subject of the religious hatred he experienced after the broadcast of Jerry Springer – The Opera in his stand-up show, 90s Comedian. This show has earned him some of the best reviews of his career, largely due to the un-checked vitriol he unleashes in the latter half of the set, "taking no prisoners" in his attempt to display what he claimed was the lunacy of sacred cows. A recording was made in Cardiff in March 2006. This was filmed by a group of amateur enthusiasts who were disappointed that there was no distribution deal in place because of the commercial failure of the Standup Comedian DVD and the controversial nature of the new show's material. These "enthusiastic amateurs" became GoFasterStripe^[18] and, having set themselves up in order to film the show, have gone on to film the works of many other "non-mainstream" comedians, including sets from Tony Law (Lee's support act on the 2009 If You Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One tour), Simon Munnery (whose BBC television comedy series -Attention Scum - was directed by Lee) and several by Lee's former partner Richard Herring.

[edit] 2006: What Would Judas Do?

Many assumed Lee would bring a new hour of stand up to Edinburgh in 2006 to consolidate his "comeback" success, but he did not. Implying that it might have happened under different circumstances, he commented at the time on his website that, "I assumed I was going to be working out 6 half hours of stand-up for a TV project but it fell through". However, he did visit the festival as director of a production of the Eric Bogosian play Talk Radio with a cast which included Phil Nichol, Mike McShane, Will Adamsdale, Stephen K Amos and Tony Law.

In 2006, in addition to his directorial contribution to Talk Radio, he gigged regularly and appeared on television and radio, in – amongst others – Armando Iannucci's Time Trumpet, as a version of himself thirty years in the future looking back and commentating on the present day. The show ran on BBC2 between August & 6 September 2006. Also in August, Lee presented a programme in the Five series Don't Get Me Started. The documentary discussed the issues of blasphemy, free speech, religious censorship and the rise in protests from religious groups over perceived attacks on their faith. This was an area of interest to Lee, following the Jerry Springer -The Opera controversy (see above). The programme was renamed from New Puritans to Stewart Lee Says What's So Bad About Blasphemy? without Lee's prior knowledge.^[15](p234)

He separated from his long standing management company, Avalon, after a promised BBC series fell through (and because of a loss of trust resulting in part from incidents such as the retitling of the blasphemy documentary),^{[15](pp228–236)[19]} and appeared on the BBC Radio 4 quiz Quote Unquote, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and on Have I Got News for You, purportedly to pay for his wedding.^[20][21]

[edit] 2007: Stewart Lee – 41st Best Stand Up Ever!

Stewart Lee presented and organised Resofit, a benefit for Resonance FM.

January saw Lee open his show What Would Judas Do in a double bill with Mark Ravenhill's Product: World Remix at London's Bush Theatre.^[22] He announced at the time that he was also writing – with Tony Law - a sitcom pilot about the god Thor, for BBC Two, and script-editing another pilot, a sitcom about the Brontë sisters.^[23] In February, he organised a tribute to cult comedian Ted Chippington entitled "Tedstock" at London's Bloomsbury Theatre. This was designed, in part, to raise money to fund a CD release of Chippington's work – which was available to buy on the night - entitled "Walking Down The Road". The show included a one-off performance from Lee and Herring, along with fellow Ted fans Simon Munnery, The Nightingales, Phill Jupitus, Josie Long and Stephen Carlin.

Lee's first new stand up show since "90s Comedian" was developed over the first half of 2007. In March 2007, Lee was named 41st best stand-up of all time in a Channel 4 survey listing the "100 best standups". In this poll, he beat Dave Allen, George Carlin, Steve Martin, Robin Williams and Tommy Cooper. Channel 4 did not reveal exactly how the voting was conducted, but 150,000 members of the public were polled, as were an undisclosed number of experts.^{[citation needed]}

2008[link]

At the Edinburgh Festival in 2008 Lee performed potential material for his recently announced BBC2 series, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, in a work in progress show at The Stand, billed as Scrambled Egg. Over the three weeks of the festival, Lee worked on a large quantity of new material, and updated old favourites for possible inclusion in the show, which began filming the following November. A follow up to Johnson & Boswell also aired, again featuring Munnery & Jupp. Elizabeth & Raleigh, Late But Live was featured at the festival before touring the country in the autumn. In November, Lee began filming for his 2009 TV show, and on the 16th November, reunited with Herring another one off performance of their old double act at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith during one of the gigs Richard Herring curated there. They were joined by Paul Putner in character as the Curious Orange. With initial filming out of the way, Scrambled Egg was reprised at London's Hen & Chickens Theatre in December to fully polish the stand up sections of the forthcoming TV project ahead of filming in January 2009.

[edit] 2009: Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle and If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask for One

Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, a new six part comedy series featuring standup and sketches, began a six episode run on 16 March 2009. The executive producer was Armando Iannucci and the script editor was Chris Morris.^[24] The first episode received positive reviews from The Independent^[25] and The Daily Mirror.^[26] The show received a negative review in Time Out, written by Lee himself, in which he described himself as "fat" and his performance as "positively Neanderthal, suggesting a jungle-dwelling pygmy, struggling to coax notes out of a clarinet that has fallen from a passing aircraft".^[27] The Guardian named Comedy Vehicle as one of its top ten television highlights of 2009, commenting that it "was the kind of TV that makes you feel like you're not the only one wondering how we came to be surrounded by so much unquestioned mediocrity".^[28] One of the show's few negative reviews came in the Sunday Mercury, which stated: "His whole tone is one of complete, smug condescension".^[29] Lee subsequently used this line to advertise his next stand-up tour.^[30] Lee frequently uses negative reviews on his posters in order to put off potential audience members who are unlikely to be fans of his comedy style.^[31]

The first episode was watched by approximately 1 million viewers,^[32] though the figure rose by 25% when BBC iPlayer viewings were factored in and, uncharacteristically, viewing figures rose over the series.^[33] The series was the BBC's second most downloaded broadcast during its run. In May 2010, the series was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for best comedy programme.^[34]

Lee also had a show at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, named Stewart Lee: If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask for One in which he performed his own version of the song "Galway Girl".^[35] In the Galway stage of this show Sharon Shannon performed the song with Lee. In December 2009 Lee was beaten to the title of Best Live Stand-Up by the comedian Michael McIntyre at the British Comedy Awards ceremony.^[36][37]

Lee caused controversy on his If You Prefer a Milder Comedian tour with a routine about Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond. Referring to Hammond's accident while filming in 2006, in which he was almost killed, Lee joked, "I wish he had been decapitated and that his head had rolled off in front of his wife".^[10] The Daily Mail termed this an "extraordinary attack"^[38] and, having been doorstepped by a Mail journalist, Lee replied "It's a joke, just like on Top Gear when they do their jokes".^[39] Lee subsequently explained the joke:

The idea of what's acceptable and what's shocking, that's where I investigate. I mean, you can't be on Top Gear, where your only argument is that it's all just a joke and anyone who takes offence is an example of political correctness gone mad, and then not accept the counterbalance to that. Put simply, if Clarkson can say the prime minister is a one-eyed Scottish idiot, then I can say that I hope his children go blind.

—Stewart Lee^[10]

In an Observer interview, Sean O'Hagan says of the Hammond joke that Lee "operates out in that dangerous hinterland between moral provocation and outright offence, often adopting, as in this instance, the tactics of those he targets in order to highlight their hypocrisy".^[10]

[edit] 2010: Vegetable Stew

On 4 January, Lee appeared on Celebrity Mastermind, with jazz-improv guitarist Derek Bailey as his special subject, winning with 26 points^[40] in aid of the Motor Neurone Disease Association.^[41] On the 9th of February, Armando Iannucci, the executive producer of the first series of Comedy Vehicle, announced that there would be a second series of the show.^[42] On 10 April an updated version of The 100 Greatest Stand-Ups was broadcast on Channel 4, in which Lee was declared the 12th best stand-up comedian.^[43] The May Day weekend saw Lee curating a programme of free jazz at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, at the invitation of festival director Tony Dudley-Evans.^[44][45]

Lee's second book, How I Escaped My Certain Fate: The Life and Deaths of a Stand-Up Comedian, was published by Faber and Faber on 5 August 2010.^[46][47] The book features annotated transcripts of Lee's Stand-Up Comedian, '90s Comedian and 41st Best Stand-Up Ever shows and has received positive reviews.^{[48][49][50][51][52]} It is dedicated to Ted Chippington.^[15]

Lee's 2010 Edinburgh Fringe show is entitled Vegetable Stew.^[53] Prior to the start of the festival, Lee wrote an e-mail to the publicist of the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards, copying in other comedians, in response to the announcement of a poll to find the public's favourite act from 30 years of the award, which was previously known as the Perrier Award. Lee wrote:

Think about the logic of it for a moment. Who among those you are asking to vote has even heard of Frank Chickens, who for all anyone under 30 knows may be the best act on the list? It is not possible for the outcome of this vote to have any credibility.^[54]

As result of his e-mail going viral with the encouragement of Richard Herring and Robin Ince, Frank Chickens took the lead in the poll.^[55] During the polling, Lee wrote that: "In my e-mail I chose at random Frank Chickens, the Japanese female performance art duo, as an example of possibly worthy winners who would not get a look-in under this illogical and unfair voting system, and the Twitter world has adopted them as a cause". He stated that it was never his intention to influence the vote, "but they are now leading the field, and it appears we should embrace them. If Frank Chickens become Comedy Gods then Foster's will have been helped to actually sponsor some actual art, and fans of Foster's all over the whole world will be made aware of that wonderful, indefinable, mischievous, playful thing we call the Spirit Of The Fringe!".^[56] Frank Chickens went on to win the public vote.^[57] As a result of the Frank Chickens incident, Lee was awarded the Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt award for best publicity stunt at the Fringe. The award's organisers stated: "The fact that Stewart did not intend to unleash publicity does not negate his success".^[58]

[edit] 2011–2012: Carpet Remnant World

A new live show, originally running in London in late 2011 and then as a touring show in the UK through August 2012.^[59][60][61] A live DVD edited from 2 performances in Sheffield has an announced release date of 12 November 2012.

Selected works[link]

Books[link]

• Fist of Fun (with Richard Herring; non-fiction) BBC Books, 1995. ISBN 0-563-37185-4; ISBN 978-0-563-37185-4
• The Perfect Fool (novel) Fourth Estate, 2001. ISBN 1-84115-365-6; ISBN 978-1-84115-365-0
• Sit-Down Comedy (contributor to anthology, ed Malcolm Hardee & John Fleming) Ebury Press/Random House, 2003. ISBN 0-09-188924-3; ISBN 978-0-09-188924-1
• More Trees to Climb by Ben Moor (foreword)
• Death To Trad Rock by John Robb (foreword) Cherry Red
• The Wire Primers: A Guide to Modern Music (chapter on The Fall)
• How I Escaped My Certain Fate - The Life and Deaths of a Stand-Up Comedian Faber & Faber 2010 ISBN 0-571-25480-2
• The 'If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One' EP Faber & Faber 2012 ISBN 978-0-571-27984-5
• TV Comedian (to be published Summer 2012)

DVDs[link]

• Stand Up Comedian [2005] (2|entertain)
• 90s Comedian [2006] (Go Faster Stripe)
• 41st Best Stand Up Ever [2008] (Real Talent)
• Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle [2009] (2|entertain)
• If You Prefer A Milder Comedian Please Ask For One [2010] [Comedy Central]

CDs[link]

• 90s Comedian [2007] (Go Faster Stripe, digital-only release)
• Pea Green Boat [2007] (Go Faster Stripe, also 10" vinyl)
• 41st Best Stand Up Ever [2008] (Real Talent)
• What Would Judas Do? [2009] (Go Faster Stripe, 3-CD box set)
• The Jazz Cellar Tape [2011] (Go Faster Stripe, CD)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Stewart Lee

• Official website
• Stewart Lee biography at Debi Allen Associates
• Unofficial Lee and Herring website

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)

Charlotte Brontë
Portrait by George Richmond
Born	(1816-04-21)21 April 1816 Thornton, Yorkshire, England
Died	31 March 1855(1855-03-31) (aged 38) Haworth, Yorkshire, England
Pen name	Lord Charles Albert Florian Wellesley Currer Bell
Occupation	Novelist, poet
Nationality	English
Genres	Fiction, poetry
Notable work(s)	Jane Eyre Villette
Spouse(s)	Arthur Bell Nichols (1854–1855 (her death))
Signature

Charlotte Brontë ( /ˈbrÉ’nti/; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards. She wrote Jane Eyre under the pen name Currer Bell.

Early life and education[link]

Charlotte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire in 1816, the third of six children, to Maria (née Branwell) and her husband Patrick Brontë (formerly surnamed Brunty or Prunty), an Irish Anglican clergyman. In 1820, the family moved a few miles to the village of Haworth, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate of St Michael and All Angels Church. Charlotte's mother 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 (Charlotte later used the school as the basis for the fictional Lowood School in Jane Eyre). The school's 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.^[1] At home in Haworth Parsonage Charlotte acted as "the motherly friend and guardian of her younger sisters".^{[citation needed]} She and the other surviving children — Branwell, Emily, and Anne – created their own literary fictional worlds, and began chronicling the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of these imaginary kingdoms. Charlotte and Branwell wrote Byronic stories about their imagined country ("Angria") and Emily and Anne wrote articles and poems about theirs ("Gondal"). The sagas which they created were elaborate and convoluted (and still exist in partial manuscripts) and provided them with an obsessive interest during childhood and early adolescence, which prepared them for their literary vocations in adulthood.^{[citation needed]} Charlotte continued her education at Roe Head, Mirfield, from 1831 to 32, where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor.^[1] During this period, she wrote her novella The Green Dwarf (1833) under the name of Wellesley. Charlotte returned to Roe Head 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. Politically a Tory, she preached tolerance rather than revolution. She held high moral principles, and, despite her shyness in company, she was always prepared to argue her beliefs.^[2][3]

Brussels[link]

Plaque in Brussels

In 1842 Charlotte and Emily travelled to Brussels to enroll in a boarding school run by Constantin Heger (1809–96) and his wife Claire Zoé Parent Heger (1804–87). 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 experiences in The Professor and Villette.

First publication[link]

In May 1846, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne self-financed the publication of a joint collection of poetry under the assumed names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. These pseudonyms deliberately veiled the sisters' gender whilst preserving their real initials, thus Charlotte was "Currer Bell". "Bell" was also the middle name of Haworth's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, whom Charlotte would later marry. Of the decision to use noms de plume, Charlotte 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.^[4]

Although only two copies of the collection of poetry were sold, the sisters continued writing for publication and began their first novels, continuing to use their noms de plume when sending manuscripts to potential publishers.

[edit] Jane Eyre

Title page of the first edition of Jane Eyre

Charlotte's first manuscript, called The Professor, did not secure a publisher, although she was heartened by an encouraging response she received from Smith, Elder & Co of Cornhill, who expressed an interest in any longer works which "Currer Bell" might wish to send.^[5] Charlotte responded by finishing and sending a second manuscript in August 1847, and six weeks later this second manuscript (titled Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) was published. Jane Eyre was a success, and initially received favourable reviews. Straightaway there was speculation about the identity of Currer Bell, and whether Bell was a man or a woman. A couple of months later this speculation heightened upon the subsequent publication of the first novels by Charlotte's sisters: Emily's Wuthering Heights (by "Ellis Bell") and Anne's Agnes Grey (by "Acton Bell").^[6] Accompanying this speculation was a change in the critical reaction to Charlotte's work; accusations began to be made that Charlotte's writing was "coarse",^[7] a judgement which was made more readily once it was suspected that "Currer Bell" was a woman.^[8] However sales of Jane Eyre continued to be strong, and may even have increased due to the novel's developing reputation as an 'improper' book.^[9]

[edit] Shirley and family bereavements

Following the success of Jane Eyre, Charlotte began work in 1848 on the manuscript of what was to become her second novel, Shirley. However the manuscript was only partially completed when the Brontë household suffered a tragic turn of events, experiencing the deaths of three family members within a period of only eight months. In September 1848 Charlotte's brother, Branwell, the only son of the family, died of chronic bronchitis and marasmus exacerbated by heavy drinking, although Charlotte believed his death was due to tuberculosis. Branwell was also a suspected "opium eater", (i.e. a laudanum addict). Emily became seriously ill shortly after Branwell's funeral, dying of pulmonary tuberculosis in December 1848. Anne died of the same disease in May 1849. Charlotte was unable to continue writing during this period.

After Anne's death Charlotte resumed writing as a way of dealing with her grief,^[10] and Shirley was published in October 1849. Shirley deals with the themes of industrial unrest and the role of women in society. Unlike Jane Eyre, which is written from the first-person perspective of the main character, Shirley is written from the third-person perspective of a narrator. It consequently lacks the emotional immediacy of Jane Eyre,^[11] and reviewers found it less shocking.

In society[link]

In view of the success of her novels, particularly Jane Eyre, Charlotte 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 and Elizabeth Gaskell, and acquainted with William Makepeace Thackeray and G. H. Lewes. However Charlotte never left Haworth for more than a few weeks at a time as she did not want to leave her ageing father's side. Thackeray’s daughter, the writer Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie recalled a visit to her father by Charlotte:

…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.^[12]

Friendship with Elizabeth Gaskell[link]

Charlotte sent copies of Shirley to selected leading authors of the day, including Elizabeth Gaskell. Gaskell and Charlotte subsequently met in August 1850^[13] and began a friendship which, whilst not necessarily close, was significant in that Gaskell would write a biography of Charlotte after Charlotte's death in 1855. The biography, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, was published in 1857 and was unusual at the time in that, rather than analysing its subject's achievements, it instead concentrated on the private details of Charlotte's life, in particular placing emphasis on aspects which countered the accusations of 'coarseness' which had been levelled at Charlotte's writing.^[14] Though frank in places, Gaskell was selective about which details she revealed; for example, she 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.^[15] 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 has been argued that the particular approach of The Life of Charlotte Brontë transferred the focus of attention away from the 'difficult' novels of not just Charlotte but all the Brontë sisters, and began a process of sanctification of their private lives.^[16]

[edit] Villette

Charlotte's third published novel (and her last to be published during her lifetime) was Villette, which came out in 1853. The main themes of Villette include isolation, and how such a condition can be borne,^[17] and the internal conflict brought about by societal repression of individual desire.^[18] The book's main character, Lucy Snowe, travels abroad to teach in a boarding school in the fictional town of Villette, where she encounters a culture and religion different to her own, and where she falls in love with a man ('Paul Emanuel') whom she cannot marry due to societal forces. Her experiences result in her having a breakdown, but eventually she achieves independence and fulfilment in running her own school. Villette marked Charlotte's return to the format of writing from a first-person perspective (that of Lucy Snowe), a technique which she had used so successfully in Jane Eyre. Also similar to Jane Eyre was Charlotte's use of aspects from her own life history as inspiration for fictional events in the novel,^[18] in particular her reworking of her own time spent at the pensionnat in Brussels into Lucy spending time teaching at the boarding school, and her own falling in love with Constantin Heger into Lucy falling in love with 'Paul Emanuel'. Villette was acknowledged by the critics of the day as being a potent and sophisticated piece of writing, although it was still criticised for its 'coarseness' and for not being suitably 'feminine' in its portrayal of Lucy's desires.^[19]

Illness and subsequent death[link]

In June 1854, Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate and, in the opinion of many scholars,^[who?] the model for several of her literary characters such as Jane Eyre's Edward Rochester and St. John Rivers.^{[citation needed]} She became pregnant soon after the marriage. 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."^[20] 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^[who?] 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.^{[citation needed]} Charlotte was interred in the family vault in The Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Haworth, West Yorkshire, England.

Posthumously, her first-written novel was published in 1857. The fragment she worked on in her last years in 1860 has been twice completed by recent authors, the more famous version being Emma Brown: A Novel from the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Brontë by Clare Boylan in 2003. Much Angria material, too, has appeared in published form since the author's death.

Gallery[link]

• 

  Branwell Brontë, Painting of the 3 Brontë Sisters, l to r Anne, Emily and Charlotte Brontë. Branwell painted himself out of the painting of his three sisters.

• 

  Charlotte Brontë, photograph, 1854

• 

  A postum idealized portrait by Duyckinick, 1873, based on a drawing by George Richmond

• 

  Portrait by J. H. Thompson at the Bronte Parsonage Museum.

Bibliography[link]

Juvenilia[link]

• The Young Men's Magazine, Number 1 - 3 (August 1830)
• The Spell
• The Secret
• Lily Hart
• The Foundling
• The Green Dwarf
• My Angria and the Angrians
• Albion and Marina
• Tales of the Islanders
• Tales of Angria (written 1838–1839 - a collection of childhood and young adult writings including five short novels)
  • Mina Laury
  • Stancliffe's Hotel
  • The Duke of Zamorna
  • Henry Hastings
  • Caroline Vernon
  • The Roe Head Journal Fragments

The Green Dwarf, A Tale of the Perfect Tense was written in 1833 under the pseudonym Lord Charles Albert Florian Wellesley. It shows the influence of Walter Scott, and Brontë's modifications to her earlier gothic style have led Christine Alexander to comment that, in the work, "it is clear that Brontë was becoming tired of the gothic mode per se".^[21]

Novels[link]

• Jane Eyre, published 1847
• Shirley, published in 1849
• Villette, published in 1853
• The Professor, written before Jane Eyre, submitted at first along with Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, then separately, and rejected in either form by many publishing houses, published posthumously in 1857
• Emma, unfinished; Charlotte Brontë wrote only 20 pages of the manuscript, published posthumously in 1860. In recent decades, at least two continuations of this fragment have appeared:

• Emma, by "Charlotte Brontë and Another Lady", published 1980; although this has been attributed to Elizabeth Goudge,^[22] the actual author was Constance Savery.^[23]
• Emma Brown, by Clare Boylan, published 2003

Poetry[link]

• Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846)
• Selected Poems of The Brontës, Everyman Poetry (1997)

	Novels portal
	Poetry portal

Notes[link]

References[link]

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J. M. Dent & Sons; New York, E. P. Dutton.
• Margaret Lane (1953) The Brontë Story: a reconsideration of Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë.

Further reading[link]

• The Letters of Charlotte Brontë, 3 volumes edited by Margaret Smith
• The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell
• Charlotte Brontë, Winifred Gérin
• Charlotte Brontë: a passionate life, Lyndal Gordon
• The Literary Protégées of the Lake Poets, Dennis Low (Chapter 1 contains a revisionist contextualisation of Robert Southey's infamous letter to Charlotte Brontë)
• Charlotte Brontë: Unquiet Soul, Margot Peters
• In the Footsteps of the Brontës, Ellis Chadwick
• Charlotte Brontë, Rebecca Fraser
• The Brontës, Juliet Barker
• Charlotte Brontë and her Dearest Nell, Barbara Whitehead
• The Brontë Myth, Lucasta Miller
• A Life in Letters, selected by Juliet Barker
• Charlotte Brontë and her Family, Rebecca Fraser
• The Oxford Reader's Companion to the Brontës, Christine Alexander & Margaret Smith
• A Brontë Family Chronology, Edward Chitham
• The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte, James Tilly, 1999
• I Love Charlotte Bronte, Michelle Daly 2009

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Charlotte Brontë

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Charlotte Brontë

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Charlotte Brontë

• Website of the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire
• Online editions of Charlotte Brontë's works at eBooks@Adelaide
• Works by Charlotte Brontë at Project Gutenberg
• Charlotte Brontë – Drawing by George Richmond (National Portrait Gallery)
• Modern Day Images of Charlotte Bronte Residences
• Charlotte Brontë and Her Circle, by Clement K. Shorter, from Project Gutenberg
• Charlotte Brontë at the Internet Book List
• More Information about Charlotte Bronte
• Charlotte's Web: A Hypertext on Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre
• Memorial Page for Charlotte Bronte on FindaGrave
• Various images depicting residences of Charlotte Bronte
• 'Napoleon and the Spectre', taken from the manuscript of the Green Dwarf
• 'The Secret' and 'Lily Hart': An Early Manuscript by Charlotte Bronte

v t e Brontë sisters Charlotte The Green Dwarf (1833) Jane Eyre (1847) Shirley (1849) Villette (1853) The Professor (1857) Emily Wuthering Heights (1847) Anne Agnes Grey (1847) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) Collaborative work Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846) List of Brontë poems Family Patrick Brontë Branwell Brontë Maria Brontë Elizabeth Brontë Maria Branwell Arthur Bell Nicholls See also Brontë Country Brontë Parsonage Museum Brontë Waterfall Brontë Way Cowan Bridge School Constantin Héger Ellen Nussey Gondal Victorian literature