Bronte Avoids Libel

It probably didn’t escape your attention that Dan Brown of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ fame was sued recently for alleged plagiarism (he won). Well, an author having legal problems is nothing new: Charlotte Bronte had to write an apology to the headmaster of a school she used as the basis for one in Jane Eyre in order to avoid a libel action. This event has been revealed in a set of letters soon to be auctioned.