Marie Gevers and the Brontës

Author Éléonore Desclée mentioned in her Feb. 15 presentation the Brussels Brontë Group that one of her assigned books in literature class in high school was a novel by the Belgian author Marie Gevers (1883-1975). 

This writer has a curious Brontë link. 

In 1955, she visited the Congo to give a lecture tour. On a flight to Albertville, now Kalemie, she noticed that the newspaper sheet she had used to cover her guide to the Congo contained an article about Charlotte Brontë marking the centenary of Charlotte’s death. 

This led Gevers to remember that the imaginary countries in the Brontë juvenilia were partly inspired by their reading about Africa. Gevers spent the rest of the flight musing about the Brontës, including Charlotte’s love for Constantin Heger. She was met at the airport by a colonial administrator whose wife led the association responsible for the lecture tour. He introduced himself as Jacques Heger. He turned out to be a great-grandson of Constantin Heger. 

During her stay in Albertville, Gevers had a long talk with the couple about Charlotte’s legacy in the Heger family. 

Gevers relates this episode in an article called Les Brontë en Afrique (1956) and I relate it in my book Through Belgian Eyes: Charlotte Brontë’s Troubled Brussels Legacy (2017), which contains information on many books and articles by Belgian writers who have referenced the Brontës. Fascinating insights can be gained by viewing the Brontës' lives "through Belgian eyes." 

 Helen MacEwan