The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë

In the same vein as James’ novel on Jane Austen comes this take on Bronte’s life. She flows easily back and forth between known fact and conjecture about the author’s thoughts and romantic feelings. For me, the romance didn’t feel central to the story. Instead it’s more about the bond of the Bronte sisters and their struggle to find their voices despite their circumstances. James clearly did a lot of excellent research about Charlotte’s life and an afterward even clarifies the few bits that aren’t factual.

I loved it because I was able to learn more of the facts of Charlotte Bronte’s life in an accessible way. I knew the general story, but this clarified quite a few things about her family for me. I cared less about the show more romantic relationship, though that was part of the true story as well. The book really made me want to read Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography of Bronte. The two authors’ friendship added such a sweet aspect to Charlotte Bronte’s life, especially after all of her sisters had passed away and she had no one left to talk about her writing. I can’t imagine that kind of loneliness. Not only did she lose her family, she also lost her community of fellow writers.

BOTTOM LINE: A great one to pick up after reading Charlotte Bronte’s work. It’s not an earthshattering book, but if you love the Brontes, and I do, this novel is a wonderful way to see what their lives were like. It makes their bodies of work even more impressive when you take into account all the obstacles they overcame to get published.

“One man cannot be everything to a woman, nor should he be expected to be.”

“It’s not easy, but a clever woman can find time to do the things that matter to her.” show less

I still have my copy of Jane Eyre from when I was nine so I am easily the target audience for this fictionalized take on Charlotte Bronte's inner life. Yes, I fell in love with Jane and Rochester when I brought home a rather large mass market sized book fresh from the always enticing Scholastic Book Club flier. When I was a little older and had a bit of disposable income (ie an allowance plus birthday money), I promptly bought myself all of Bronte's books as well as Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. And just as promptly, I read them all. So happily spending hours with imagined diaries that shed some light into the lives of these clergyman's daughters who lived such isolated and fairly constrained lives show more out beside the moors made perfect sense to me.

Opening as Charlotte is debating whether or not to accept the marriage proposal of her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, the diaries then proceed back in time to the day that Mr. Nicholls arrived at Haworth parsonage. Not much substantive is known about the years between Mr. Nicholls taking the curate's position and when he and Charlotte Bronte wed so James has a fairly blank canvas on which to weave her tale. The diaries span the writing and the publications of most of the major works by the sisters Bronte but this doesn't shut out the imagined intricate daily life of the family. Charlotte's feelings towards the shy Mr. Nicholls grow and change realistically throughout the eight years of the narrative. In addition to Charlotte's life, the reader is treated to both Anne and Emily's characters and to the sad waste of Branwell's life.

All of the characters, as seen through Charlotte's eyes, come alive although occasionally Anne and Emily seem a bit interchangeable. The story is impeccably researched, the language authentic feeling, and James has imagined a story that most Bronte fans will enjoy thoroughly. In some ways, her tale of Charlotte's life almost seems like an undiscovered plot from one of Bronte's own works. And while she cannot possibly reproduce inner thoughts and feelings as they definitely were, she has done a wonderful job imagining the possibility. Although this is called a diary, it is not written in traditional diary format (not that I would have been put off by such a convention although I know other readers would). It is, of course, written as a first person narrative and has a confidential tone to it in many places but it is still a respectful and almost staid rendering of these momentous eight years. I enjoyed the book as a fictional peek into an author for whom I will always have a very special feeling and I suspect that even folks not familiar with the Bronte's work can appreciate this as an historical fiction. show less

'“There is one place,” said the voice in my head, “where you have always found consolation and refuge in times of need: your imagination."'

Syrie James has taken the abundant resources available about the Brontes, and turned it into an amazing fictional account of their lives, as seen through the eyes of sister Charlotte. Not actually in a daily diary form (for which I'm grateful - I'm not a fan of those!), the set-up here is Charlotte looking back over her life, from the dreadful boarding school that would later serve as inspiration in her novels to how she and her sisters started writing and their brother's mental health issues. This book takes you into the Brontes world; I was a little sorry to see it end.

I enjoyed this novel more than I expected, as it presents the love story of Charlotte Bronte and Arthur Bell Nichols as its own sweeping romance. Fictional portrayals of the Brontes always run the risk of becoming sad and depressing, but I found this one compelling and intriguing. I appreciated this presentation of the story, even if the inevitable ending could not be avoided.

The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte is top-notch biographical fiction. Syrie James has clearly researched and studied primary source materials of Charlotte and those who knew her in order to create this fictionalized retelling of Charlotte's innermost thoughts and outward actions.

Not only are readers privy to learning more about the life of Charlotte Bronte but also the story incorporates details of the lives of her father, her sisters Emily and Anne, her brother Branwell, and the love of her life Arthur Nichols. James also richly recreates the geographic setting of the moors and the Yorkshire countryside. For fans of Jane Eyre and other historical fiction, this will be a quick read and well worth picking up.

Intriguing historical fiction carries the plot through the seemingly never-to-end 6 to 8 year prelude of Charlotte's marriage to Arthur Nicholls. Syria James causes Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and their father to become lively and imaginative characters whose quirks and prejudices are wildly out in the open after the sisters finally share their writings.

Maybe one day I'll stop reading every Brontë-related work of fiction that I hear about, since I usually hate them. Unfortunately, I haven't learned yet, and this book was embarrassingly bad.

There's a flimsy romance novel set-up: when Arthur Bell Nicholls meets Charlotte Brontë, they get off on the wrong foot. Will they ever learn to overcome their differences? The reader is then dragged through the vaguely-biographical story of Charlotte's life, into which the author has inserted episodes from the Brontës' stories as if they had happened in reality exactly as they were written in their books.

It's also a real problem when you try to use Charlotte Brontë as your first-person narrator when your prose is nothing like in style or show more quality. Two of my favorite awful quotes:

Emily Brontë to her father, when there were two other male visitors at the dinner table: "You must be joking." (I'm surprised the author didn't have Patrick answer back saying, "No, like, I totally wasn't joking, dude.")

And Charlotte to Arthur on their wedding night: "'I take it,' I said breathlessly, 'that you have brushed hair before?'" (This actually made me laugh out loud and brought to mind an interview for a job at a barbershop or something.) show less