Anne Brontë Reimagined
A View from the Twenty-first Century
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“With skilled close readings of her work, Hay convincingly argues that Brontë’s writing on loneliness and society’s expectations for women remain relevant … accessible … a fine place to start for readers new to her work.” Publishers Weekly
Anne Brontë is now widely believed to have written the finest of all the Brontë works—and the first ever feminist novel. Why, then, is she less famous than Charlotte and Emily? Discover the real Anne and why she remained for so long in her sisters' shadow.
Anne’s writing has often been compared harshly with that of Charlotte and Emily—as if living in her sisters’ shadows throughout her life wasn’t enough. But her reputation, literary and personal, has changed dramatically since Agnes Grey was first published in 1846. Then, shocked reviewers complained of her "crudeness" and "vulgarity"—words used to this day to belittle women writing about oppression.
Her second and most famous work, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, was groundbreaking in its subject matter: marital and alcohol abuse and the rights of married women. A book that refused to sweep difficult truths under the rug. A book so ahead of its time that even her sisters weren’t ready for it, Charlotte being one of its harshest critics. And yet today's critics see it as perhaps the best of all the Brontë works. With such a contradictory life and legacy: who was Anne, really? It’s time to find out.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hay, an academic at the University of Loughborough, debuts with a casual introduction to the life and work of Anne Brontë and her evolving reputation. Hay makes a case that despite early accounts that cemented her as the "frail" and "weak" sister and a lesser talent among the three, Anne "deserves to be regarded as a great writer." Though eager to avoid the "Charlotte-as-bitch" trap, Hay notes the negative effect Anne's sister Charlotte had on her work's reception: Charlotte's "Biographical Notice" contained a misunderstanding of Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, for example, that influenced critics. Hays also examines her subject's embrace of the unorthodox doctrine of Universal Salvation, which made readers "uncomfortable," and her desire in her novels to tell "unpalatable truths," which resulted in her work being labeled "coarse" and "brutal." With skilled close readings of her work, Hays convincingly argues that Brontë's writing on loneliness and society's expectations for women remain relevant, but a few of Hay's positions are a little tenuous, notably that Brontë is similar to musician Sufjan Stevens, and the comparison of Brontë's thoughts on goodness to the sitcom The Good Place. Even so, this accessible introduction to a "misunderstood" writer is a fine place to start for readers new to her work.
