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A review by sandylender
The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë by Syrie James
3.0
Anyone who has studied Charlotte Bronte, as I have, will be appalled by what Syrie James has done to her here. Thank God this isn't "The Secret Diaries of Emily Bronte," or the ghost of Emily Bronte would likely rise from the grave and do great harm to James. Charlotte was a bit less averse to the idea of being "outed" when it came time to reveal her identity to society, but that doesn't mean she was ready to expose her innermost thoughts.
Charlotte Bronte did not leave behind a secret diary, so students and scholars shouldn't get excited by the title or concept of this work of fiction. It's obvious that James has done an enormous amount of research--and has dropped all the appropriate names in the acknowledgments--and it is for that research and its application throughout the novel that I don't drop my rating of the book to a mere 1 star.
I cannot warn scholars strongly enough to take this fictional novel with a grain of salt. The story of Charlotte's life has been told in biographies before without the flowery additions of fictitious people, made-up dialogue, conjecture, inference, and a machinistic wedding night scene that embarrassed me FOR Charlotte. I felt as if the poor woman was watching me read the scene and was trying to tell me, "No! No! It didn't happen that way! He didn't say that! I didn't do that! Stop looking at us that way!"
I felt her watching me as I read the scene of Monsieur Heger "kissing" Charlotte in the garden and felt her saying, "You don't understand! This author wasn't there! That's not what happened!" I felt as if Charlotte wanted to take the book out of my hands a dozen different times because I was reading lies about her.
To Charlotte, I'm sorry to have read this so-called romance novel. I know your life was so much more than what's represented on these pages and held much more emotion. But I had to give it a read-through. I had to know if the author was anywhere close to the mark. To Harper Collins and Avon, while your author has done an exemplary job of research, the execution is a travesty. I would only recommend this book to serious Bronte scholars who can separate in their own minds what is fact and what is fiction. New Bronte readers should not confuse themselves with this jumble of information.
I recommend (and own) instead: The Life of Charlotte Bronte
The Bronte Myth
The Oxford Companion to the Brontës (Oxford Companion To...)
There are a variety of others on my Bronte reference shelf, but these are excellent resources. Also, if you can find it: The Belgian Essays of Charlotte and Emily Bronte
From Sandy Lender
"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Charlotte Bronte did not leave behind a secret diary, so students and scholars shouldn't get excited by the title or concept of this work of fiction. It's obvious that James has done an enormous amount of research--and has dropped all the appropriate names in the acknowledgments--and it is for that research and its application throughout the novel that I don't drop my rating of the book to a mere 1 star.
I cannot warn scholars strongly enough to take this fictional novel with a grain of salt. The story of Charlotte's life has been told in biographies before without the flowery additions of fictitious people, made-up dialogue, conjecture, inference, and a machinistic wedding night scene that embarrassed me FOR Charlotte. I felt as if the poor woman was watching me read the scene and was trying to tell me, "No! No! It didn't happen that way! He didn't say that! I didn't do that! Stop looking at us that way!"
I felt her watching me as I read the scene of Monsieur Heger "kissing" Charlotte in the garden and felt her saying, "You don't understand! This author wasn't there! That's not what happened!" I felt as if Charlotte wanted to take the book out of my hands a dozen different times because I was reading lies about her.
To Charlotte, I'm sorry to have read this so-called romance novel. I know your life was so much more than what's represented on these pages and held much more emotion. But I had to give it a read-through. I had to know if the author was anywhere close to the mark. To Harper Collins and Avon, while your author has done an exemplary job of research, the execution is a travesty. I would only recommend this book to serious Bronte scholars who can separate in their own minds what is fact and what is fiction. New Bronte readers should not confuse themselves with this jumble of information.
I recommend (and own) instead: The Life of Charlotte Bronte
The Bronte Myth
The Oxford Companion to the Brontës (Oxford Companion To...)
There are a variety of others on my Bronte reference shelf, but these are excellent resources. Also, if you can find it: The Belgian Essays of Charlotte and Emily Bronte
From Sandy Lender
"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."