To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters Page #7

where is your son, Mr Bronte?

I've got him, Mr Riley!

Emily! Get him off me! I can't

breathe, Emily! Stop wriggling!

Stop struggling! You're not going

anywhere! I've done nothing wrong!

You've got the wrong man!

What were you legging it for then?

And why did you try and hit me,

you little twat.

Get your hands off me!

Are you Patrick Bronte? Up!

Are you Patrick Branwell Bronte?

Answer the man!

I have no idea who these people are.

You owe money

to some publican in Halifax.

And if the debt isn't paid,

they'll take you

to the debtors' prison.

You'd best pay up then, eh?

Take him.

What?

No! Papa, I'm sorry!

I'm sorry! I'm sorry!

I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!

Charlotte! Emily!

We have money. We have money!

We have money, please stop them.

Please. Hang on, boys!

Bring him back. If it's all right

with you, Reverend,

my colleagues'll keep hold of him

until I've got the remittance.

I shall require a receipt.

I shall give you one.

Come on.

It's all right.

"Gentlemen. I have received

your communication

"of the 5th instant,

for which I thank you.

"Your objection to the want of

varied interest in The Professor is,

"I am aware, not without grounds.

"I have a second narrative

in three volumes now completed,

"to which I have endeavoured

to impart a more vivid interest

"than belongs to The Professor.

"I send you per rail a manuscript,

entitled Jane Eyre,

"a novel in three volumes

by Currer Bell."

VOICES IN ANOTHER ROOM

BRANWELL:
One of us is not going to

leave that room alive!

I will either kill you

or I will kill myself!

Do you want me to kill myself? Eh?

Cos if I do, old man,

you can rest assured

that you'll have driven me to it

with your endless prayers

and your drivel!

Can you not understand,

can you not get the idea

that the only...only respite I have

from the misery of my existence

is being allowed

a little bit of something to drink.

I'm only asking for a shilling,

for God's sake!

Just...just take it.

He'll just go on and on until

he gets what he wants anyway.

And I just...

..I don't always have the energy...

..any more.

I know this is contradicting

what I've said before, but...

..my second thoughts are,

occasionally,

better than my first ones.

I think you should tell Papa

about Jane Eyre.

About how successful it's been.

Why?

I think it would help him to know

that we now seem to have found

a means of supporting ourselves,

possibly, in the event of...

whenever something happens to him.

Why Jane Eyre?

No, we'll tell him about everything,

but just...as a way in.

But then...he'll read it.

Now?

SHE KNOCKS:

Hello?

Papa?

Have you got a moment?

Yeah, quickly.

I've...

I've...I've been writing a book.

A book. And... Oh, well...

Would you like to read it?

No, I can't.

I don't have time.

And you know, with your tiny,

little writing, I can't see it.

But well done.

The thing is, you see...

it's published.

It's been published,

it's a properly published...

it's a book in three volumes.

Well, well!

Currer Bell.

No, he's famous, he's...

No, that's me.

That's you? What's you?!

That...

I've published under a pseudonym.

Currer Bell.

You see, it's the same initials.

And the thing is, it's just about

to go into a second edition.

It's...sold a lot of copies.

It's been really

quite unusually successful.

There's a stage play of it

in rehearsal as we speak

at a theatre in...

the Victoria Theatre, in fact,

in London.

It's been so, um...

hugely well received.

But I...

So...you're...?

You're...?! Yes.

And...I've made money.

With the prospect of making

quite a lot more.

And if we...if I continue

to work hard

and produce the kind of writing

that people are prepared

to pay money for,

then it should furnish us

with a comfortable existence.

Would you like me to read you

some of the reviews?

Well, I...

HE LAUGHS:

Why have you kept it such a secret?

To protect ourselves.

We've been accused of

vulgarity and coarseness.

I have "forfeited my right to be

called a member of the fairer sex"

according to Lady Eastlake,

who speculates that Currer Bell

might actually be a woman

and complicit in the revolutions

throughout Europe.

"We do not hesitate to say

that the tone of mind and thought

"which has overthrown authority

and violated every code -

"human and divine - abroad,

"and fostered Chartism

and rebellion at home,

"is the same which has also written

Jane Eyre."

Jane Eyre.

And why is it vulgar?

It isn't, Papa!

People are just squeamish about

the truth, about real life.

Our work is clever.

It's truthful.

It's new, it's fresh, it's vivid

and subtle and forthright.

But...more importantly,

the point is...

..we didn't want Branwell to know.

That's first and foremost

why we've kept it a secret.

It's not that he'd be scathing,

we can stand that.

It's because it's what

he always wanted to do.

And now it looks less and less

likely that he ever will,

it'd be like rubbing salt

into a wound.

No-one can ever know who we are.

We've agreed.

We just didn't want you

to worry that we weren't

doing anything with ourselves,

because we have been. We are!

So, who else knows, besides me?

No-one. I've not even told Ellen.

Tabby?

No-one. The publishers

don't even know who we are.

They think we're three men.

We'd like to keep it that way.

We just wanted you to know.

HE SIGHS:

Little Helen Burns.

That's your little sister, Maria.

Maria was our big sister.

Yeah. Of course she was.

Of course she was.

Not a day passes

when I don't think about her.

And little Elizabeth.

And your mother.

I am very proud of you.

I always have been.

CHURCH BELLS RING

"Sunday.

"Dear John, I shall feel

very much obliged to you

"if can contrive to get me

"fivepence-worth of gin

in a proper measure.

"Should it be speedily got, I could

perhaps take it from you or Billy

"at the lane top or what would be

quite as well, sent out for, to you.

"I anxiously ask the favour because

I know the good it will do me.

"Punctually, at half past nine

in the morning, you will be paid

"the fivepence out of a shilling

given me then.

"Yours, PBB."

CHURCH BELLS RING

HE COUGHS:

BELLS CONTINUE RINGING

(Have you got a minute?)

What?

We're going to have to go to London.

Who is? We are. All three of us.

When? Today.

Why?

Your...

Mr Newby must've... I don't know...

sold the first few pages of

The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall

to an American publisher

on the understanding

that it was written Currer Bell.

Well, it's obviously

a misunderstanding.

No. Will you...

please...see

that this man is a con man.

A rogue!

How many mistakes did

he print in Wuthering Heights?

Proofs that you painstakingly

corrected that he ignored,

and now this.

My publisher is livid

that I could have sold my next novel

to another publisher.

They have first refusal

of my next two novels,

and now they think I'm some kind of

unscrupulous double-dealer!

Well, just write and explain. No.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes