"It is worth in any case to see what one exceptional woman writes about another equally exceptional... It should stand and indeed will stand at the forefront of biographies forever" [Patrick Bronte].
"The Life of Charlotte Bronte" by Elizabeth Gaskell was first published in 1857 as a direct popular testimony for readers of Victorian society who would like to learn more about the author who gave Jane Eyre the subtitle "An Autobiography".
Writing about Charlotte Bronte, whom she deeply admired - although she did not like her books as a whole - Elizabeth Gaskell outlines the struggle of a woman-artist for whom she had "predicted a solitary life" until her marriage at a mature age.
The result of her work - the first comprehensive biography of a female author by a female author - created the myth of the Brontes itself. According to what Elisabeth Jay writes in her introduction to this edition, Gaskell weaves facts, dates, characters, and unpublished material with exceptional technique. Charlotte Bronte was for her "an imaginative creation and, as such, acquired her own breath."