The Brontes

by Juliet Barker

Overview

The story of the tragic Brontë family is familiar to everyone: we all know about the half-mad, repressive father, the drunken, drug-addled wastrel of a brother, wildly romantic Emily, unrequited Anne, and "poor Charlotte." Or do we? These stereotypes of the popular imagination are precisely that - imaginary - created by amateur biographers such as Mrs. Gaskell who were primarily novelists and were attracted by the tale of an apparently doomed family of genius.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 Based on first-hand research among all the Brontë manuscripts, including contemporary historical documents never before used by Brontë biographers, this book is both scholarly and compulsively readable.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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605984599
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	06/01/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	1184
Sales rank:	210,003
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Juliet Barker, author of Agincourt and other critically acclaimed works of history and biography, has a PhD in history from Oxford University and was for six years curator of the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth. She has been involved with all recent research into the Brontës and has made many major new finds that are revealed for the first time in this book.

Table of Contents

Preface to the second edition ix

Acknowledgements xi

Foreword xv

Introduction xvii

Maps of Haworth and Vicinity xxi

1 An Ambitious Man 1

2 The Promised Land 35

3 Good Neighbours and Kind Friends 72

4 A Stranger in a Strange Land 103

5 Charity-Children 134

6 Scribblemania 165

7 Emulation Rewarded 198

8 Angrians Arise! 234

9 The Infernal World 263

10 Losing Battles 298

11 Slavery 333

12 Patrick Boanerges 373

13 A Wish for Wings 409

14 Isolated in the Midst of Numbers 448

15 Monsieur Heger 484

16 Mrs Robinson 521

17 The Book of Rhymes 564

18 Three Tales 601

19 The Shadow in the House 641

20 Stripped and Bereaved 673

21 No Longer Invisible 709

22 The Society of Clever People 744

23 Running Away From Home 777

24 Villette 814

25 Tomkins Triumphant 850

26 So Happy 883

27 Saintliness, Treason and Plot 916

28 The End of All 954

List of Illustrations 980

Abbreviations 983

Notes 988

Index 1155

Editorial Reviews

Definitive. Barker’s greatest service is to rescue the family of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne from myth, who were provided particularly hideous stereotypes by Charlotte’s first biographer, Elizabeth Gaskell. The doom and tragedy are there.

The Daily Beat

Barker’s updated and enthralling biography of the Brontës carries us deeper into the everyday realities of their strange world. The stuff of lurid legend.

Maureen Corrigan

Somewhere in this remarkably detailed and insightful biography of the Bront familyfocusing specifically on the father, Patrick, and his four gifted childrenCharlotte is "accused of seeing in the dark." It can be said that Barker, who has produced other works on the Bronts (e.g., Selected Poems, Tuttle, 1993), has illuminated the dark surrounding the lives and works of the entire clan, using original manuscripts, letters, essays, juvenilia, and newspapers of the time. Patrick is seen as a caring father and a writer of merit and literary influence on his children. Branwell's underrated writings are shown to be a great inspiration for Charlotte. According to Barker, none of the girls were victims. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne wrote of brutal events, but certainly they were not always autobiographical. True, Charlotte was dominating, Emily was dependent on fantasy, and sweet Anne had a backbone of steel. Charlotte, when in good health, referred to herself as being "fat." Barker has written a very fat book. For literary collections.Robert L. Kelly, Fort Wayne Community Schs., Ind.

Library Journal

A definitive history of this fascinating literary family written by a Bronte scholar and former curator and librarian at the Bronte Parsonage Museum. Barker's hefty opus integrates newly-discovered manuscripts and letters from every member of the family as well as fine photographs and reproductions of manuscripts and drawings. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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