Summary of Charlotte Brontë’s Secret Love
The year is 1842, and a young Charlotte Brontë, along with her sister Emily, moves from the English countryside to Brussels to study French and German. Their hope is to open a school of their own upon returning to England. In Brussels, they enrol at a boarding school run by Claire Parent. The newly independent Belgium, with its catholic and worldly-liberal values, comes as a shock to the Brontë sisters. After Emily returns to England, Charlotte falls in love with her teacher, Mr Constantin Héger, who is married to the headmistress.
Reasons to read Charlotte Brontë’s Secret Love
“Charlotte Brontë’s Secret Love” is a historical drama about the hopeless love of young woman for a married man, set in 19th-century Brussels. This woman happens to be Charlotte Brontë, who later achieved world fame as the author of “Jane Eyre”. Her sister Emily would go on to write “Wuthering Heights”. “The Master” is partly based on real events and offers an interesting portrayal of life in Brussels in the 1840s. The Brontë sisters did indeed spend time at a “pensionnat” in Brussels, located where the Bozar (‘Palais des Beaux-Arts’) stands today. Charlotte Brontë’s letters to Constantin Héger testify that she harboured strong feelings for him, though it is uncertain whether a romantic relationship ensued. Charlotte Brontë wrote two novels directly inspired by her time in Brussels. The first, “The Professor” (her debut, but only published after her death in 1857), is about an English teacher in Brussels. The second, “Vilette” (1853), tells the story of a young Englishwoman teaching in the fictional city of Vilette, believed to be based on Brussels. Jolien Janzing, the author of “The Master”, is a Dutch-Belgian journalist and novelist.
Setting: Brussels (Belgium)
Original title: De Meester – de geheime liefde van Charlotte Brontë in het negentiende-eeuwse Brussel
Year of publication: 2013
Nr of pages: 287
