Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Bronte facts, wrong again

What IS it with these people and the Brontes? I blogged about the dread Daphne Merkin last week and her use of gossip about the Bs in her introduction to Wuthering Heights. Now I see that Polly Teale can't be bothered to get it right. In her introduction to the published version of her play BRONTE she says:
It took Charlotte months to persuade Emily to publish her work.
No, not really. I can understand if a dramatist exaggerates in a play in order to make a point, but she should get it right in her introduction. According to Charlotte's own "Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell":
My sister Emily was not a person of demonstrative character, nor one, on the recesses of whose mind and feelings, even those nearest and dearest to her could, with impunity, intrude unlicensed; it took hours to reconcile her to the discovery I had made, and days to persuade her that such poems merited publication.

Days. Not months. Why can't these people bother to do their homework? Is it because nobody bothers to fact check them?