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UK Wedding News

27/01/2012

Charlotte Brontė's Letter's Of Infatuation Revealed

Love letters which reveal Charlotte Brontė's unrequited love for her Belgian professor are to be published.

The celebrated novelist shows her infatuation for Professor Constantin Héger, in the previously unpublished material.

Charlotte wrote letters to him and despite the fact that Héger tore up three of them and threw all four away, incredibly four of her letters have survived. Curiously, it is thanks to his wife – who retrieved them and sewed them back together – that we are able to read them today.

One letter in French reads: "If my master withdraws his friendship from me entirely, I shall be absolutely without hope."

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The intimate exchange date back to 1844, two years after Bronte met the teacher, and three years before the publication of Jane Eyre.

Another letter reads: "I must say one word to you in English - I wish I would write to you more cheerful letters, for when I read this over, I find it to be somewhat gloomy - but forgive me my dear master - do not be irritated at my sadness - according to the words of the Bible: 'Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaketh', and truly I find it difficult to be cheerful so long as I think I shall never see you more."

The tale is reminiscent of 1853 novel Villette about a young women with an obession for her Belgian tutor.

Rachel Foss, of the British Library, told The Telegraph: "Having been burnt, sold, cut up and destroyed, it is remarkable that these letters have survived.

"Seeing the torn-up letters with the careful stitches holding them together is remarkably evocative and moving. You get a really vivid sense that they have a story to tell."

Love Letters: 2000 Years of Romance, is published by the British Library and features correspondence from Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII, Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde.

(GK)



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"Love letters which reveal Charlotte Brontė's unrequited love for her Belgian professor are to be published."