Secret Lives of Authoresses
Soulhuntre finds the undisguised sexual masochist in Ayn Rand. He's right; it's there. And Tanya Gold strips away the Victorian veneer from Charlotte Brontë and finds that the author, "poor, plain, obscure and little," was ... an undisguised sexual masochist. Here, from a letter to her unrequited, older love object:
I always prefered Emily to Charlotte (and I have my suspicions that Ann might have been the most erotic of the bunch, but she never got to prove it). But Gold makes me think twice about the plain little sparrow.
"Day or night I find neither rest nor peace. If I sleep I have tortured dreams in which I see you always severe, always gloomy and annoyed with me. I do not seek to justify myself, I submit to every kind of reproach - all that I know - is that I cannot - that I will not resign myself to losing the friendship of my master completely - I would rather undergo the greatest physical sufferings. If my master withdraws his friendship entirely from me I will be completely without hope ... I cling on to preserving that little interest - I cling on to it as I cling on to life."
I always prefered Emily to Charlotte (and I have my suspicions that Ann might have been the most erotic of the bunch, but she never got to prove it). But Gold makes me think twice about the plain little sparrow.
