"I have written about the joys of love. I have, in my secret heart, long dreamt of an intimate connection with a man; every Jane, I believe, deserves her Rochester."
Charlotte Brontë—although poor, plain, and socially unconnected—possesses a deeply passionate side which she reveals only in her writings, creating Jane Eyre and other novels that stand among literature's most beloved works. Living a secluded life in the wilds of Yorkshire with her sisters Emily and Anne, their drug addicted brother Branwell, and an eccentric father who is going blind, Charlotte dreams of a real love story as fiery as the ones she creates.
When an impassioned proposal throws Charlotte's household into confusion, she takes up her pen to examine the truth about her life, exposing her deepest feelings and desires, her triumphs and shattering disappointments, the inspiration behind her work, her scandalous, secret passion for the man she can never have . . . and her intense, dramatic relationship with the man she comes to love: the handsome Irishman, Mr. Arthur Bell Nichols.
"Who is this man who has dared to ask for my hand? Why is my father so dead set
against him? Why are half the residents of Haworth determined to lynch him—or
shoot him?"
The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë is a powerfully compelling, intensely researched literary feat that explores the passionate heart and unquiet soul of Charlotte Brontë. It is Charlotte's story, just as she might have written it herself.
