tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617127303581824313.post1819215503245453452..comments2024-02-01T12:06:37.764+01:00Comments on Brussels Brontë Blog: Piecing together the story of the Brontë-Heger lettersHelen MacEwanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13095748374815049140noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617127303581824313.post-83426987530596881972017-06-27T17:53:44.647+02:002017-06-27T17:53:44.647+02:00Presumably she must have thought writing to the bo...<i>Presumably she must have thought writing to the boys' school was a way of avoiding interception. If that's so, she can't have been happy to find that he didn't respond to those letters: it wasn't that Madame Heger was stopping him. He just wasn't willing to reply.</i><br /><br />Indeed and it was only when the Taylors, Joe and Mary, having seen Heger personally and saying they had no letter for her, that CB finally accepted it was Heger who was silent and there would be no more letters...ever.Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05033117202223821117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617127303581824313.post-59271744672591973022017-04-04T05:13:58.759+02:002017-04-04T05:13:58.759+02:00I agree with Anne. I believe that Shorter printed ...I agree with Anne. I believe that Shorter printed his story about Letitia Wheelwright and Charlotte Bronte after both of the women were dead, which of course made it impossible for anyone to ask Wheelwright whether this had actually happened. I doubt that it did, frankly. Yes, Shorter must have been chagrined to see those letters to M. Heger in the Times; they made it fairly clear that he'd been very wrong in his pronouncements about Charlotte's feelings for Heger, and his for her. <br /><br />I believe that in Vol. 1 of Margaret Smith's "Letters of Charlotte Bronte" Smith prints statements by one of the Hegers' children about the letters she wrote M. Heger, saying that initially Bronte wrote more than once a week and that at some point she sent him a letter or letters at the address of the boys' school where he taught. Bronte seems to have suspected that M. Heger wasn't responding to her letters because Madame Heger was intercepting and destroying them. Presumably she must have thought writing to the boys' school was a way of avoiding interception. If that's so, she can't have been happy to find that he didn't respond to those letters: it wasn't that Madame Heger was stopping him. He just wasn't willing to reply.A. H. McCormicknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617127303581824313.post-65685087181911177642017-03-29T04:28:58.106+02:002017-03-29T04:28:58.106+02:00Clement Shorter was heavily invested in the idea t...Clement Shorter was heavily invested in the idea there was only friendship for M. Heger within CB's heart and Shorter vigorously fought down the notion there was anything else.He was an able writer and can half convince one even today. I can't imagine what is was like for him to open his copy of the London Times and see Charlotte's love letters, among the world's greatest, put the speculation to rest for all time and to find he was on the wrong side of history. <br /><br />What is remarkable about CB's reported statements to Laetitia is they make it sound as if it M. Heger was the one going to extraordinary lengths to keep up the correspondence when we know it was CB. They also made it seem it was CB who stopped writing when we know it was M. Heger. Perhaps CB was not sure what Laetitia had heard and covered her tracks so to speak. The statements ascribed to her sound too elaborate and detailed for LW to have made up imo. <br /><br /> Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05033117202223821117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617127303581824313.post-10384268993190567522007-03-30T08:27:00.000+02:002007-03-30T08:27:00.000+02:00This comment has been removed by the author.Helenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10426363637130347034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617127303581824313.post-902133201600079462007-03-30T00:31:00.000+02:002007-03-30T00:31:00.000+02:00I think Rebecca Fraser in her bio of Charlotte men...I think Rebecca Fraser in her bio of Charlotte mentions some of these discrepancies but I can't remember now if she gives any answers. I will have to re-read it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com