Charlotte Bront 's Thunder [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

--and those are only a couple of words I can fumble for to describe my reaction to this well-researched and very controversial new biography. A lot of it makes horrifying sense and readily seems to answer questions, yet I'm still full of questions. I've read, and own, many -- and I mean MANY, between Elizabath Gaskell's 1857 book and this one -- Bronte biographies; a conservative estimate is about 90, and I grab every new one which is released every few years.

But I'm still struggling with some of these admittedly fascinating revealations.

1) If Emily, with her sloppy and badly spelled diary papers, was definitely not the genius who wrote Wuthering Heights [and it's a very good argument that Charlotte was the true author, I admit] how is it that Constantin Heger considered HER to be the superior and more brilliant student when she and Charlotte were at the school in Brussels? And why would Charlotte writing for Anne repeat the same governess theme over again?

2) I've suspected for years that there was much more than met the eye with what was going on between Charlotte and Heger -- however, how could they slip away for such liaisons under the constant scrutiny and carefully adept surveillance of Madame Heger? Maybe a tryst hidden among the hedges in the garden could have been managed. Or in the alley. I have to admit, my jaw absolutely dropped in reading the anagram code in Charlotte's letters. But -- sneaking off to an inn? How could Constantin and Charlotte slip away and be missing during the same time without arousing Madame's suspicions? She had already figured out Charlotte's infatuation for her husband and the fact that Heger was encouraging it. Was this manageable, or did they adeptly lie and provide convincing enough alibis that they could get away for at least a few times? And, did this go on with other students? Would Constantin have just limited his sexual interests only to his plain little gifted 26-year-old student? I don't doubt that Charlotte certainly didn't have to be presentably pretty and alluring to draw the notice of Heger; her brilliance, her worship of him, and a certain emotional worldliness in her personal makeup would have definitely caught his attention. But. . . . WAS this relationship authentic, manageable, consummated?

3) Branwell was dissipated, debauched, depraved and ruined. But murdering his Aunt? It seems the "introduction of arsenic" goes a long way into explaining a lot of fatal intestinal diseases going on around unsanitary Haworth parsonage, when the raw sewage, graveyard miasmas, and almost certain abdominal cancer genetic in both Elizabeth Branwell and her younger sister Maria more sufficiently present the reason for Autn Branwell's sudden demise. Same for Arthur Bell Nichols supposedly finding it necessary to poison his wife. Although, I have to admit it is a convincing theory when Charlotte's will was suddenly changed and he COULD get his hands on her authorship money. I buy Lyndall Gordon's theory that it was not pregnancy morning sickness which killed Charlotte, but a virulent contagious intestinal virus which killed old Tabby at the same time -- again, the dirty, diseased village surroundings provide reason enough for this. Why would Charlotte, who convincingly wrote had a very enjoyable time on her honeymoon traveling to Ireland to meet Arthur's family (and none of the supposed anagrams in THESE letters to Ellen were scrutinized by the author)return home only to be slowly and sytematically poisoned by Arthur putting arsenic into her food, right under the Reverend Patrick Bronte's nose? Didn't the servants prepare the meals? Would Arthur dare to be so blatant, even in the lawless, male-dominant, Masonic-controlled community? Was supposedly alcoholic Papa allegedly stealing the Mason lodge's wine supply reason for such retaliation? And raping Charlotte? Her fame was getting known in the village; she was a literary figure with an admiring London circle. Arthur was going to drag her into a private men's lodge to sexually assault her in order to put her in her place and teach her a lesson? Again, even in the wilds of barbaric Haworth, who would so boldly pull that on Currer Bell, with her ever-widening circle of friends all over the country whom she could go to for help, confide in, seek refuge with, despite the repressions in those secretive Victorian times?

4) Juliet Barker provides, for me, enough evidence that Branwell, with his own messily dysfunctional life and substance abuse problems, had a liaison going on with Lydia Robinson. Sure, he was a liar, a forger, probably a thief. He reveled in the grubby macho world of pugilism and getting the village girls pregnant. But that sprawling of an obsession for his employer doesn't seem feasible as erotomania constructed out of thin air, when the Robinson family servants and doctor were in constant communication with him and legal action had to be taken.

Again, this is a brilliant new theory on the tragedy of Charlotte's personal life and her exceptional literary genius. But so very much remains, for me, implausible and unanswered. . . .

The revelations garnered from the perusal of Charlotte Bronte's novels and her letters in which thousands of hidden clues tell the real circumstances in her life and which are revealed in "Thunder" are so shocking you will be left gasping.

Bronte in Greek means "thunder." The original name of the family was Brunty but Patrick, the father of the famous children, wrenched the name into a new one. What's in a name? Everything.

"Charlotte Bronte's Thunder" is an iconoclastic book that will convincingly topple Emily off her pedestal as the wild, strange, totally original author of "Wuthering Heights, one of the greatest works in English literature. The research undertaken to write this 500 page tome is staggering and Michele Carter will convince you that Charlotte wrote "Wuthering Heights" and ALL the Bronte books issuing one by one like phantoms from Haworth parsonage.

The diary papers of Emily's reveal a girl who at sixteen wrote musings that were"awkward, freakish and immature" as well as misspelt. Childishly, she was still absorbed with the Gondal stories the children wrote when they were children. "No Coward Soul is Mine" the magnificent poem always attributed to Emily, could not have issued from the mind of Emily, a girl who simply did not have the mental building blocks or the talent to create great literature.

Branwell had the extraordinary "trick" of writing Greek with one hand, Latin simultaneously with the other. This type of ability can often be seen in savants who can do amost unexplainable things totally beyond a simply intelligent person. Author Michele does not imply that Branwell and Charlotte were savants but perhaps something akin to them with highly unusual mental capacities.

Like Branwell's two hands writing different languages, Charlotte could simultaneously create an anagram and "translate" it into perfect English prose. She could invent the anagrams while she was walking around and perform her magic trick in her head, an astounding ability. She commented constantly on the corruption and vice alive and well right down the street in Haworth, and much of that vice she laid right at the door of the Three Graces Masonic Lodge, where her brother Branwell was secretary. Patrick Bronte was a Mason.

Charlotte was a devastating social commentator. Her accusations were right in plain sight in the form of anagrams for all to see but her contemporaries couldn't see them. Here are simple samples of anagrams from "Anagram Genius"- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: "O noble heart! Entry by a reject" and "her better enjoyable cot yarn". Most of Charlotte's anagrams as revealed by Author Carter are a great deal more complex. She notes that anagrams often yield different results with different "translators" but Bronte's overwhelming tone cannot be missed.

The character of Branwell as revealed in anagrams hiding in Charlotte's novels, in her letters, everywhere, is a shocker. Not only did he sniff turpentine at age twelve to get high, he stole by pretending to be a crippled beggar, he got a local servant girl pregnant, and may have made homosexual advances to the Robinson's young son, Edmund. His famous dalliance with Mrs. Robinson was all in his head, a fabrication. He was also suspected of being a forger, his dexterity with a pen making that easy. By his late teens Branwell was an opium addict and an alcoholic. Charlotte had her brother pegged and he doesn't come out very well in the wash. There is a lot more about him as revealed by Author Carter in "Thunder."

Hundreds and hundreds of Masonic-fuelled words, gestures and scenarios occur in "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights", "The Professor" and all the Bronte books both as anagrams or in plain sight. Author Carter finds and explains them to you. When Jane is imprisoned in the Red Room, that room becomes a symbol for a Masonic lodge, red being the color of blood and of significance to Masons. Mr. Rochester's brother-in-law, who is savaged by his insane wife is named Richard Mason. Red, the color of blood, is featured in the small room where Jane attends to Mason while Rochester goes for a doctor. The room is an allegory of a Masonic lodge.

Throughout "Wuthering Heights" Charlotte Bronte "inserts a layer of Masonic allegory along side a narrating layer that depicts Heathcliff's efforts to seek revenge." She is mocking the Masons because Heathcliff is corrupt. Freemasonry, being steeped in Egyptian and Greek mythology is revealed in Heathcliff's origins. "That he was a gypsy Egyptian was no accident". Cathy dies on March 20, the spring equinox when Isis is celebrated.

When the Bronte manuscripts were being circulated a very respected Victorian critic named Sidney Dobell had come to the conclusion that all the books issuing from Haworth were by Currer Bell. Charlotte always maintained there were three authors. "Her deception was her protection against specific men who might discover her code and then learning that she was exposing ...fraud" - illegal activities of the Masons).

There is a great deal of proof that Charlotte wrote both "Agnes Grey" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", novels attributed to Anne's authorship. (When would Anne have found time to write two books? She was busy as a governess). Many of the thoughts and descriptions of "Anne's" characters are echoed in passages of "Jane Eyre"..

Author Carter notes some interesting observations about Emily's poetry. In her biographical notes Charlotte writes "The following are the last lines my sister Emily ever wrote" when referring to Emily's most famous poem "No Coward Soul is Mine." But the remark says "lines" not poems. Emily was in the habit of writing lines of Charlotte's from Charlotte's dictation. Emily herself also says next to another piece of work "Emily Jane Bronte transcribed Febuary 14". Transcribed means copying out for someone else. And she misspelled February, something a twenty-seven year old woman shouldn't have done. Something Charlotte would not have done.

Concerning the death of Aunt Branwell, be prepared for a shock. All of the girls were away, but Branwell was home as was Patrick Bronte. Branwell the alcoholic and drug addict was desperate for money. He saw a place to grab some: his Aunt. Charlotte in her codes believed Branwell poisoned Aunty with arsenic because the woman's agonizing symptoms resembled such a poisoning and she had always been in good health. Charlotte voiced her suspicions in the first paragraph of "Wuthering Heights". On the surface we have Lockwood saying "I have just returned from a visit to my landlord." Tucked inside is this message: "am livid over aunts murder". Branwell cried crocodile tears at the Aunt's death but he had actually despised her and frequently said so.

Some of the most startling observations in "Thunder" concern Charlotte's adoration of the Pensionnat's owner, Constantin Heger. Hidden anagrams in Charlotte's works state emphatically that the two had a fully sexual affair. Heger was vital to Charlotte's metamorphosis from an incipient writer to a full fledged one. An inspired teacher, he turned on the tap. Charlotte suffered profoundly when Heger never wrote her after she returned to Haworth.

There are many examples revealed in "Thunder" that strongly indicate Charlotte wrote "Wuthering Heights." How could two women as opposite in character as Charlotte and Emily use the same texts for inspiration (Paradise Lost) "have the same attitudes, write the same themes, use identical symbolic systems?"

And what does Charlotte have to say about her future husband Arthur Bell Nicholls? He certainly had no appreciation of her talent: "Currer Bell could fly up to heaven for all he cared" What does she have to say about her marriage and the last nine months of her life? You'll learn all in "Thunder". Arthur Bell Nicholls was a Mason, a significant fact.

Haworth was a den of iniquity, the scene of just about every conceivable vice. Somehow one misses Emily, the reclusive genius, her black hair blowing as she strides across the moor, Keeper at her heels, pulling the characters of Cathy and Heathciff by osmosis from the glowering skies, the writhing trees. That Emily is an illusion, but in her place is Charlotte, her torch of truth held high, her incredible talent and courage an inspiration forever.

"Charlotte Bronte's Thunder" is very comprehensive and I found I had to back-track many times to try and understand an issue. Some of the issues I never did understand, like why Charlotte married Nicholls, although the reasons are discussed at length. If you are a Bronte aficionado (and who isn't?) don't miss "Thunder". Little Charlotte, the size of an eleven year old girl, was one of the greatest literary giants of all time.