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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

Claire Harman on Charlotte Bronte, Governess

The Essay: I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte

The Essay: I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte: Episode 1: Claire Harman on Charlotte Bronte, Governess

I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte

Episode 1

Episode 1: Claire Harman on Charlotte Bronte, Governess

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte, Claire Harman on Charlotte Bronte, GovernessClose menu

Biographer Claire Harman discusses Charlotte Bronte's experience as a governess.

Charlotte Bronte's biographer, Claire Harman, discusses the writer's experience as a governess, as seen in her letters.

Charlotte Bronte's true identity revealed through her powerful and poignant letters.

1.Bronte's biographer, Claire Harman, on her experience as a governess.

Among the 900 surviving letters of Charlotte Bronte, the ones written while she was a governess most vivdly reveal her characteristic blend, as a young woman, of unhappiness and frustration mingled with hope and ambition. 

Claire Harman sets out the drab, demeaning details of Bronte's career as a governess, and her passionate longing for a more fulfilling life. In her letter to her old school-friend, Ellen Nussey, Bronte writes enviously of another friend who has been travelling in Belgium: "I hardly know what swelled to my throat as I read her letter - such a vehement impatience of restraint and steady work - such a strong wish for wings - wings such as wealth can furnish - such an urgent thirst to see - to know - to learn - something internal seemed to expand boldly for a minute - I was tantalised with the consciousness of faculties unexercised.....". 

Producer: Beaty Rubens.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Charlotte Bronte's true identity revealed through her powerful and poignant letters

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The Essay

I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte

Episode 1: Claire Harman on Charlotte Bronte, Governess

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