A “brilliant” biography of the Brontë family, dispelling popular myths and revealing the true story of Emily, Anne, Charlotte, and their father (The Independent on Sunday). The tragic story of the Brontë family has been told many times: the half-mad, repressive father; the drunken, drug-addicted brother; wildly romantic Emily; unrequited Anne; and “poor Charlotte.” But is any of it true? These caricatures of the popular imagination were created by amateur biographers like Elizabeth Gaskell who were more interested in lurid tales than genuine scholarship. Juliet Barker’s landmark book is the first definitive history of the Brontës. It demolishes the myths, yet provides startling new information that is just as compelling—but true. Based on firsthand research among all the Brontë manuscripts and among contemporary historical documents never before used by Brontë biographers, this book is both scholarly and compulsively readable. The Brontës is a revolutionary picture of the world’s favorite literary family.

The extraordinary works of the three sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë have entranced and challenged scholars, students, and general readers for the past 150 years. This Companion offers a fascinating introduction to those works, including two of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century - Charlotte s Jane Eyre and Emily s Wuthering Heights. In a series of original essays, contributors explore the roots of the sisters achievement in early nineteenth-century Haworth, and the childhood plays they developed; they set these writings within the context of a wider history, and show how each sister engages with some of the central issues of her time. The essays also consider the meaning and significance of the Brontës enduring popular appeal. A detailed chronology and guides to further reading provide further reference material, making this a volume indispensable for scholars and students, and all those interested in the Brontës and their work.

A highly-illustrated retelling of the Brontë sisters life in Haworth in the Yorkshire Dales told from Charlotte Brontë's point of view. Produced to coincide with 200th anniversary of the birth of Charlotte Brontë, this book introduces the three extraordinary Brontë sisters: Charlotte, Emily and Anne. We also meet their brother Branwell. With a mix of strong story-telling and wonderful illustration, Mick Manning and Brita Granström relate the sister's tragically short lives in the remote village of Haworth in the Yorkshire Dales. They explore how the girls were inspired to become writers and the sensation their books caused when people realised they had been written by women. Each of the sister's greatest novels, Jane Eyre (Charlotte), The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne) and Wuthering Heights (Emily), are simply retold in engaging comic-strip form. The illustrations and text of this book really capture the life of the children of the moors and how the magic and wildness of their surroundings inspired their work. It is perhaps not surprising as Mick Manning was born and brought up in Haworth and, as a child, even played a shepherd boy in a BBC adapation of Wuthering Heights.

This special edition of The Oxford Companion to the Brontës commemorates the bicentenary of Emily Brontë's birth in July 1818 and provides comprehensive and detailed information about the lives, works, and reputations of the Brontës - the three sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, their father, and their brother Branwell. Expanded entries surveying the Brontës' lives and works are supplemented by entries on friends and acquaintances, pets, literary and political heroes; on the places they knew and the places they imagined; on their letters, drawings and paintings; on historical events such as Chartism, the Peterloo Massacre, and the Ashantee Wars; on exploration, slavery, and religion. Selected entries on the characters and places in the Brontë juvenilia provide a glimpse into their early imaginative worlds, and entries on film, ballet, and musicals indicate the extent to which their works have inspired others. A new foreword to the text has been also penned by Claire Harman, award-winning writer and literary critic, and recent biographer of Charlotte Brontë. This is a unique and authoritative reference book for the research student and the general reader. The A-Z format, extensive cross-referencing, classified contents, chronologies, illustrations, and maps, both facilitate quick reference and encourage further exploration. This Companion is not only invaluable for quick searches, but a delight to browse, and an inspiration to further reading.

Includes the novels Jane Eyre, Villette, Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

"A fresh and modern view of Charlotte Bronte--as a woman searching for love and as a writer who helped change society's perceptions about her sex. Her moving, eloquent portrait will interest not only Bronte devotees but all contemporary women."--Kirkus Reviews