The Brontes: A Life In Letters

Product Description

The Bronte story has been written many times but rarely as compellingly as by the Brontes themselves In this selection of letters & autobiographical fragments we hear the authentic voices of the three novelist sisters Charlotte Emily & Anne their brother Branwell & their father the Reverend Patrick Bronte We share in their progress over the years the exuberant childhood absorbed in wild imaginative games; the years of struggling to earn a living in uncongenial occupations before Jane Eyre Wuthering Heights & The Tenant of Wildfell Hall took the literary world by storm; the terrible marring of that success as one by one Branwell Emily & Anne died tragically young; the final years as Charlotte battling against grief loneliness & ill health emerged from anonymity to take her place in London literary society & finally found an all too brief happiness in marriage to her father's curate Juliet Barker author of the highly acclaimed biography The Brontes has used her unrivalled knowledge of the family to select extracts from letters & manuscripts many of which are appearing here in print for the first time Charlotte was a letter-writer of supreme ability ranging from facetious notes & homely gossip to carefully composed pages of literary criticism & most movingly of all elegiac tributes to her beloved brother & sisters Emily & Anne remain tantalizingly evasive Very few of their letters are extant Emily's are mere businesslike notes though these have been supplemented by her more revealing diary papers; Anne's letters are equally frustrating but only because their quality makes us regret their paucity Branwell emerges as distinctly as Charlotte from his letters Whether trying to impress William Wordsworth with his literary abilities showing off to his artistic friends or finally coming to terms with a life of failed ambition his character is laid bare on every page The Reverend Patrick Bronte's devotion to his children & passionate advocacy of liberal causes are equally well illustrated in what can only be a small selection from his voluminous correspondence The Bronte letters are supplemented by extracts from other contemporary sources which allow us to see the family as their friends & acquaintances saw them A brief narrative text guides the reader through the letters & sets them in context By allowing the Brontes to tell their own story Juliet Barker has not only produced an innovative form of biography but also given us the unique privilege of participating intimately in the lives of one of the most famous & best-loved families of English literature