“Laura Keyes as Charlotte Brontë,” March 15

Tuesday, March 15, 6:30 p.m.

Presented by the Moline Public Library

On March 15, literary history will come alive through a Moline Public Library presentation when historian and performer Laura Keyes delivers her virtual one-woman show on Charlotte Brontë, whose classic Jane Eyre remains a beloved staple of English literature 175 years after its first publication.

The eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature, Charlotte enlisted in school at Roe Head in January 1831 at age 14, and left the year after to teach her siblings Emily and Anne at home. The sisters eventually opened a school but failed to attract pupils, and instead turned to writing, each first publishing in 1846 under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Although her first novel The Professor was rejected by publishers, Charlotte's second novel, the sweeping Gothic romance Jane Eyre, was published in 1847. In the following year, the Brontë admitted to their Bell pseudonyms, and by 1849 they were widely celebrated in London literary circles.

In Laura Keyes' March 15 performance for the Moline Public Library, attendees are invited meet the passionate author Charlotte Brontë at different stages of her life, hear the story behind her written words, and learn how this middle child of six survived to share her family's collected narratives. The presentation follows Brontë's emotionally charged experiences as both student and teacher at various boarding schools, revealing how she must ultimately decide whether to submit her deeply personal manuscript of Jane Eyre to the publishers Smith, Elder, & Co. When we hear from Brontë again in early 1854, after she has experienced the death of each of her siblings, she is simultaneously experiencing the rapturous acclaim of London literary society. Is this praise and respect all Charlotte ever wanted? Or does she still long for a passionate romance?

Brontë portrayer Keyes graduated from UW-Madison with a Master’s Degree in Library Studies, is a library director in central Illinois, and has been presenting on historic topics for more than 10 years. She also performs one-woman historical pieces on such figures as Mary Todd Lincoln, Mary Harlan Lincoln, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, and portrayed suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton in an online program the Bettendorf Public Library hosted last summer.

The virtual program Laura Keyes as Charlotte Brontë will be presented at 6:30 p.m. on March 15, and while participation in the Zoom event is free, registration is required. For more information, call (309)524-2470 and visit MolineLibrary.com.