Review by Elisa Fierro
“Reader, I did
not marry him.” This is the arresting beginning of Vanessa Gebbie’s Chapter
XXXVIII – Conclusion (and a little bit of added cookery) with abject apologies
to Charlotte Brontë, one of the short stories in
the new collection Red Room: New Short Stories
Inspired by the Brontës (ISBN 978-0-9572897-3-4).
Red Room, edited by A. J. Ashworth and published in paperback by Unthank
Books in 2013, is comprised of twelve short stories and a poem, written by some
of Britain’s best contemporary writers to celebrate the Brontë sisters and
their unexhausted modernism. According to the editor, part of the sale profits
of the book will be donated to the Brontë Birthplace Trust to help spread
awareness of both the village and the building where the three sisters and
their brother, Branwell, were born.
The Brontë
Birthplace, located at 72/74 Market Street in Thornton (West Yorkshire), was a
museum until 2007, thanks to the passion of the late novelist Barbara
Whitehead. After being sold, it has recently become a café. At the time of the
sale, the Brontë Birthplace Trust was raising the necessary funds to acquire
the building, and their mission is now to try to secure it at a future date for
Brontë lovers worldwide.
This collection
of short stories, Red Room, is a continued commitment
of Unthank Books towards contemporary short fiction and classic literature. The
contributors – all writers of remarkable standing in contemporary British
literature and winners of prestigious awards like, for example, the BBC
National Short Story Award - have all waived their fees. Their generosity is
shared by Unthank Books, as mentioned earlier, to help the Trust give the Brontë
Birthplace its deserved position among the most important literary birthplaces
in the world.
The Brontës and
their work inspire all of the carefully crafted stories in Red Room, but a previous knowledge of the sisters’ novels – although
certainly desirable – is not absolutely necessary in order to enjoy this
book. Everybody can find something
to his or her taste: the authors deal with a variety of themes (from children
abuse to supernatural sheep), write in different styles, and set their stories
in the past as well as in the present, showing how human traits and situations
described by the three sisters transcend time and place.
The previously
mentioned Chapter XXXVIII – Conclusion (and a little bit of added cookery)
with abject apologies to Charlotte Brontë, by
Vanessa Gebbie, offers a humorously alternative ending to Jane Eyre, where Jane and Rochester do not marry but live as companions, while
Rochester develops an interest for cooking with a penchant for oddly mixed
ingredients (after all, he is blind!). The author’s (never random) good humor –
through Jane’s first person narrative – doesn’t spare any character of the novel,
including St John Rivers, whose fate is described in a way highly appropriate
for him: “St John is unmarried: he never will marry now (Who would marry him,
reader? Look at the verbiage up with which one would have to put)”.
Modern values
are the theme of Rowena Macdonald’s A Child of Pleasure. Inspired by the relationship between Lucy Snow and Ginevra Fanshawe
in Villette, the story is about Liza Frost, a
teacher giving private lessons, and Jemima Fenchurch, her student. Jemima is
not in the least interested in passing her exam, and often tries to demean Liza
by pointing out her plain appearance, her solitary life, and her lack of
wealth. Jemima is “about as sensitive as a brick”, has been indulged all her
life, is self-centered, and only believes in beauty and money. However, at the
end of the story, Liz and the reader are left wondering if, after all, Jemima
was right. “I had been wrong: she was nobody’s appendage” – don’t we all want
to be a celebrity like her, without a care in this world and sure that we will “suffer
as little as any human being I have ever known”?
Heart-rending is
the atmosphere of Carys Davies’ Bonnet. The headwear of the title is one that
Charlotte, on her way to meet her publisher George Smith in London, has embellished
with a new lining, “a lustrous, pearly pink like the interior of a shell”. Smith
has written Charlotte a letter telling her about his recent engagement – a letter
that she had not yet received when she embarked on her trip. In reality, the
trip never took place, because at the time Charlotte had stopped going to
London to see her publisher. However, there has always been much speculation
about the feelings that Charlotte might have entertained for the young,
charming George. They were certainly friends, and it is possible that she –
bereft and alone after the death of all her siblings – might have hoped to have
him as life companion. Throughout the story, Charlotte is acutely aware of her
plain appearance and clothing, especially during the meeting: “… it is the worst imaginable thing for
her to sit and feel the bright new silk around her face, like a shout, and see
how embarrassed he is, how he can’t look at it.” In Victorian England, like
today in our modern, multicultural, open-minded society (sarcasm intended),
there is an incredible amount of pressure for women to be physically
attractive. It takes a lot of self-esteem not to feel, like Charlotte, “always always acutely and painfully conscious” of the way we look as opposed to
the way we are expected to look. I am sure that many women can relate to that –
I for one certainly do.
I have chosen to
use these three stories to illustrate how varied and multifaceted the
collection Red Room actually is, and it is a
totally subjective choice. I do not doubt that every reader will find his or
her favorites, as the rest of the stories combine elements of fiction, realism,
fantasy, even fairy-tale, and are filled with characters who, while based on
the Brontë works, are strong in their own right.
In My Dear
Miss … Zoë King imagines a lively epistolary
exchange between Jane Eyre and Emma Woodhouse, where the latter – faithful to
her character – tries to set Jane up with “a certain young clergyman, Mr. Elton,
a handsome and intelligent addition to our circle.”
Contrasting with
this playfulness are Sarah Dobbs’ Behind all the Closed Doors, dealing with the loss of a parent at a very early age, and Alison
Moore’s Stonecrop, where an abusive stepfather
gets what he deserves from his young victim.
On the other
hand, stories like The Curate’s Wife, by
Felicity Skelton, will appeal to lovers of historical fiction and romance, for
its depiction of a fortuitous meeting between Charlotte and a well-known
historical character – with interesting consequences.
Subsequently, Ashton
and Elaine, by David Constantine, is a fairy-tale
version of Heathcliff and Catherine’s story in which an adopted child finds a
loving family and a supportive teacher, so that we can all be hopeful for him
and his future.
Although the
stories show a variety of subjects, two elements tie them all together: their
authors’ captivating imaginations and their desire to bring the Brontë sisters
to a wide modern audience, an audience who might or might not have a good
literary background knowledge. At the end of the book, actually, the reader
with less familiarity with the Brontës will find help with understanding the
context of each story in the final section, entitled Inspirations, where every author explains how he or she came to write that
particular piece of short fiction.
Being a Brontë
lover myself, I am always an avid reader of anything related to the sisters and
am sometimes disappointed by what is published; but this collection did not
disappoint! The works in this book show how modern the Brontës will always be,
how they can still inspire good literature, how the characters they created can
and shall hook a contemporary reader, and make him or her reflect on the human
condition. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne are alive and well, and they are waiting
for you in the Red Room.
(Elissa Fierro is Representative of the Heartland West Region, one of the American Chapters of the Brontë Society. She teaches Italian at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.)
