The Brontes
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The story of the tragic Bronte family is familiar to everyone: we all know about the half-mad, repressive father, the drunken, drug-addicted wastrel of a brother, wild romantic Emily, unrequited Anne and 'poor Charlotte'. Or do we? These stereotypes of the popular imagination are precisely that - imaginary - created by amateur biographers from Mrs Gaskell onwards who were primarily novelists, and were attracted by the tale of an apparently doomed family of genius.
Juliet Barker's landmark book was the first definitive history of the Brontes. It demolishes myths, yet provides startling new information that is just as compelling - but true. Based on first-hand research among all the Bronte manuscripts, many so tiny they can only be read by magnifying glass, and among contemporary historical documents never before used by Bronte biographers, this book is both scholarly and compulsively readable. THE BRONTES is a revolutionary picture of the world's favourite literary family.
'As a work of scholarship it is briliant . . . For those with a passion for the Brontes, or for Victoriana, or for sheer wealth of historical minutiae, it is a stupendous read' INDPENDENT ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this updated edition of her landmark 1994 biography, Barker (former curator of the Bront Parsonage Museum at Haworth and author of Agincourt) expansively narrates the story of a family that left an indelible mark on literary history. The epic volume begins with patriarch Patrick and moves through the lives of his most famous children: Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. Despite their compulsive writing habits and creation of fantasy worlds, Barker emphasizes that the Bront s were a normal family, though one that suffered terrible tragedies. Barker restores a rich context to the writers and their works by recounting their education, creative collaborations, and frustrated love lives. Most fascinating is Barker's attention to the pseudonymous publication and reception of the Bront s' first poems and novels. Despite the implicit argument that to understand one Bront requires understanding the others, Emily and Anne remain ciphers. But with extensive quotations from journals, manuscripts, letters, and other primary sources, Barker has performed a heroic feat of archival research, effectively exploding the mythology that inevitably grew to surround these brief, incandescent lives. While its level of detail and extensive footnotes will most appeal to scholars, Barker's sensitive and elegant writing stimulates genuine pathos for the doomed family. The volume is sure to remain the most readable scholarly standard for years to come.
