I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte: Lyndall Gordon on Charlotte Bronte and Robert Southey
Lyndall Gordon examines Charlotte Bronte's response to advice from poet laureate Robert Southey that 'Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life'.
In the 200th anniversary of her birth, Charlotte Bronte's true identity revealed through five powerful, poignant letters.
The poet laureate Robert Southey's letter to Charlotte Bronte is now infamous: "Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it even as an accomplishment and a recreation."
The scholar and Bronte biographer Lyndall Gordon, explores Bronte's response to this letter, in all its ambiguity: "In the evenings, I confess, I do think, but never trouble anyone else with my thoughts."
Producer: Beaty Rubens.
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- Wed 24 Feb 2016 22:45Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3
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