The Brontë Sisters
It is striking to contemplate that an awesome, singular, irreproducible wave of literature that would sweep the world for two centuries began in a parsonage in remote Yorkshire, England. The Brontë sisters and, to a lesser subsidiary extent, their older brother Branwell worked hard and professionally at making childhood dreams and fantasies become real in the fields of fiction and poetry.
Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-1848) , and Anne (1820-1849) are responsible for seven finished novels and a fair scattering of poetry. Each novel has grown in critical estimation with the passing years. Each novel is acknowledged by both fellow writers and generations of critics as strange, powerful, textured, dense, and simultaneously of their time and ahead of their time. Each sister has her distinctive voice, each her reader-partisans, and yet the feeling of a family of voices and thoughts and concerns is strong.
A legacy of influence is mysteriously vague in later literature — perhaps Thomas Hardy? But just say the phrase “the madwoman in the attic” or breathe one name, “Cathy . . .” — and you have the staying power of their creations.
I have included some associated fiction, including a mystery series with the sisters as the detectives and a notable Young Adult novel. I will be alert to adding other material as I discover it. Enjoy!
Selected Works of the Brontë Sisters
Selected Works of the Brontë Sisters
This handsome leather-bound edition includes the most acclaimed novels of each of the Brontë sisters: Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, Emily’s Wuthering Heights, and Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Originally published under male pseudonyms in the 1840s, these three novels later helped give rise to the feminist literary movement of the late nineteenth century, in which women’s perspectives became more accepted by the mainstream reading public. A scholarly introduction provides an overview of the sisters’ childhood in northern England, their literary influences, and their enduring legacy.