The Invention of Charlotte Brontë: Her Last Years and the Scandal That Made Her

Doomed survivor of a family of geniuses, Charlotte Brontë had a life as dramatic as Jane Eyre. Turning her back on her tragic past, she reinvented herself as an acclaimed writer, a mysterious celebrity and a passionate lover. Doing so meant burning many bridges, but her sudden death left her friends and admirers with more questions than answers. Tasked with telling the truth about Brontë’s life, her friend, the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, uncovered secrets of illicit love, family discord and professional rivalries more incredible than any fiction. The result, a tell-all biography, was so scandalous it was banned and rewritten twice in six months – but not before it had given birth to the legend of the Brontës. The Invention of Charlotte Brontë is a darker take on one of the most famous women writers of the nineteenth century, showing Charlotte to be a strong but flawed individual. Through interrogating known events and introducing new archival material into the story, it challenges the established narrative to reveal the Brontë family as they’ve never been seen before.