The Brontë Story



The Brontë Story is a graduated reading book for English learners which tells us about the story of the Brontë sisters.: the writers of Jane Eyre (Charlotte), Wuthering Heights (Emily) o Agnes Grey (Anne), among other titles.

In this book, the story is told by their father, Patrick Brontë. This is funny, if we take  into account that he asked Elizabeth Gaskell to write the biography of her daughter Charlotte. Elizabeth was a famous writer and further to that, she had been a friend to her daughter.


Vicary, T. The Brontë Story. OUP, Oxford: 2000

It must be mentioned that the biography written by Gaskell, Life of Charlotte Brontë (published in Spanish in 2000 by  Alba Editorial) was the first biography about an English woman writer written in English.

Coming back to our book today, if you are already familiar with the life of the Brontë sisters, you will like it because:

• It is very well written
• It is structured around important moments in their life
• It includes a glossary and reading activities.

The author, Tim Vicary, is a teacher and writer. He lives near Haworth, where the Brontës lived. He usually goes with his students to visit the Brontë Parsonage Museum.


Further reading in Spanish

Freire, E. Querida Jane, querida Charlotte Por la ruta de Jane Austen y las hermanas Brontë. Ed. Aguilar, Madrid: 2004.

Montero, R. Historias de mujeres. Alfaguara, Madrid: 2001.

Anne Frank Diary

Anne Frank. The Diary of a Young Girl

Just arriving from Amsterdam (reason why I did not write on the blog this week) I would have liked to visit the house where Anne and her family were hidden. Eventually I could not go as it was a  very short stay and I should have bought tickets in advance!. I will have to come back.

Summary

On 12 June 1942 Anne is given a diary as a gift in her 13th birthday. In the diary she writes about all important things in her life: school, friends, boys, etc.

Suddenly, her life dramatically changes when her older sister, 16 years old, is called to appear before the authorities. Normally this means she is going to be sent to a concentration camp. Her parents decided to go into hiding in the office where the father was working. Another german family was living with them and later on another person joined them. Anne wrote in his diary everything she lived under those circumstances until 1 August 1944, when all of them were arrested.

Opinion

This is a book complicated to define because it deals both with the world of an adolescent and at the same time with the outside world, that world she cannot enjoy always present in the diary. Like other diaries, it ends in a sharp way. One knows the end is near because the pages in the book are finishing but at the same time, Anne has a whole life to live and tell.

The form of writing is epistolary.  The letters are addressed to a friend called Kitty. It is outstanding the  hability of Anne as a writer, especially because she is only 13 years old when she started the diary and 15 when she finished. She had a lot of books to read around and this relationship between reading and writing is often found in great writers, e.g. in The Brontës  or Virginia Woolf.

In a way, the Diary remains me of the film by Roberto Benigni, The Life is Beautiful, because through the eyes of a girl, we are told about the situation lived by Jewish people in Holland during the Second War World.

You can find a lot of information and material to work with this book and the historical moment  in The Anne Frank House, webpage of the House (now converted into Museum) where she lived her last years in Amsterdam. In resources section below, I have chosen some useful links to start with.

If you have not read it yet, it is really worthwhile.

Resources

• Anne Frank Timeline in English to study the history of 20th century through the story of Anne's family.