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Brontë’s Mistress
This dazzling debut novel for fans of Mrs. Poe and Longbourn explores the scandalous historical love affair between Branwell Brontë and Lydia Robinson, giving voice to the woman who allegedly corrupted her son’s innocent tutor and brought down the entire Brontë family.
Yorkshire, 1843: Lydia Robinson—mistress of Thorp Green Hall—has lost her precious young daughter and her mother within the same year. She returns to her bleak home, grief-stricken and unmoored. With her teenage daughters rebelling, her testy mother-in-law scrutinizing her every move, and her marriage grown cold, Lydia is restless and yearning for something more.
All of that changes with the arrival of her son’s tutor, Branwell Brontë, brother of her daughters’ governess, Miss Anne Brontë and those other writerly sisters, Charlotte and Emily. Branwell has his own demons to contend with—including living up to the ideals of his intelligent family—but his presence is a breath of fresh air for Lydia. Handsome, passionate, and uninhibited by social conventions, he’s also twenty-five to her forty-three. A love of poetry, music, and theatre bring mistress and tutor together, and Branwell’s colorful tales of his sisters’ elaborate play-acting and made-up worlds form the backdrop for seduction.
But Lydia’s new taste of passion comes with consequences. As Branwell’s inner turmoil rises to the surface, his behavior grows erratic and dangerous, and whispers of their passionate relationship spout from her servants’ lips, reaching all three protective Brontë sisters. Soon, it falls on Lydia to save not just her reputation, but her way of life, before those clever girls reveal all her secrets in their novels. Unfortunately, she might be too late.
Meticulously researched and deliciously told, Brontë’s Mistress is a captivating reimagining of the scandalous affair that has divided Brontë enthusiasts for generations and an illuminating portrait of a courageous, sharp-witted woman who fights to emerge with her dignity intact.
Yorkshire, 1843: Lydia Robinson—mistress of Thorp Green Hall—has lost her precious young daughter and her mother within the same year. She returns to her bleak home, grief-stricken and unmoored. With her teenage daughters rebelling, her testy mother-in-law scrutinizing her every move, and her marriage grown cold, Lydia is restless and yearning for something more.
All of that changes with the arrival of her son’s tutor, Branwell Brontë, brother of her daughters’ governess, Miss Anne Brontë and those other writerly sisters, Charlotte and Emily. Branwell has his own demons to contend with—including living up to the ideals of his intelligent family—but his presence is a breath of fresh air for Lydia. Handsome, passionate, and uninhibited by social conventions, he’s also twenty-five to her forty-three. A love of poetry, music, and theatre bring mistress and tutor together, and Branwell’s colorful tales of his sisters’ elaborate play-acting and made-up worlds form the backdrop for seduction.
But Lydia’s new taste of passion comes with consequences. As Branwell’s inner turmoil rises to the surface, his behavior grows erratic and dangerous, and whispers of their passionate relationship spout from her servants’ lips, reaching all three protective Brontë sisters. Soon, it falls on Lydia to save not just her reputation, but her way of life, before those clever girls reveal all her secrets in their novels. Unfortunately, she might be too late.
Meticulously researched and deliciously told, Brontë’s Mistress is a captivating reimagining of the scandalous affair that has divided Brontë enthusiasts for generations and an illuminating portrait of a courageous, sharp-witted woman who fights to emerge with her dignity intact.
308 pages, Hardcover
First published August 4, 2020
109 people are currently reading
7456 people want to read
About the author
Finola Austin
2 books201 followersFinola Austin, also known as the Secret Victorianist on her award-winning blog, is an England-born, Northern Ireland-raised, Brooklyn-based historical novelist and lover of the 19th century. By day, she works in digital advertising.
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May 15, 2022
5 "delicious, damning, dazzling" stars !!
9th Favorite Read of 2021 Award
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Atria books for an e-copy. This was released September 2020.
I am providing my honest review.
I am choosing not to approach this novel as historical fiction as I did not read it this way. My feeling is that the author's research inspired her to create something absolutely extraordinary.
Ms. Austin was able to do something incredibly accomplished and assured in her debut novel. She was able to move seamlessly between romantic melodrama and psychological portraiture that complimented and enriched each of these respective forms of writing.
This is the story of Lydia Robinson (alleged older married mistress of Branwell Bronte). Ms. Austin created a female narcissist of the most complex but understandable kind. She is vain, manipulative, unkind, immature, entitled and forever suffering. She is uncharitable, shallow, capricious and opportunistic. She is both a predator and a leech. Under the guise of female oppression and lack of opportunity she lashes out, uses and criticizes those around her. An unfaithful wife, a cruel mother and not accomplished in anything but guile. But we can't only hate her for she is trying to survive, to love and be loved. Lydia Robinson feels extraordinarily special but this is never reflected back to her. She is spurned, ridiculed, bullied and diminished, sometimes denigrated. Although we cannot forgive her for her manipulations and hurts, we can certainly understand why she does what she does. Branwell, a narcissist of an even lower variety worships her but in reality only sees himself and due to his weakness succumbs while Lydia will do anything to survive and even thrive.
The novel is full of heightened emotions, rapidly fluctuating scenes and people behaving very badly.
The romance is lush and forbidden. The dialogue is at times outlandishly humorous. The violins are always playing with full vibrato but are in tune and played beautifully.
This is a novel I enjoyed, admired and surpassed my expectations in every which way.
Lydia Robinson you are one Spunky Righteous Bitch! I Loved to Hate you but I Understood. I really did.
Thanks so much Ms. Austin for creating not another meek Victorian heroine but a villainess that (goddam it) we are rooting for !!
9th Favorite Read of 2021 Award
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Atria books for an e-copy. This was released September 2020.
I am providing my honest review.
I am choosing not to approach this novel as historical fiction as I did not read it this way. My feeling is that the author's research inspired her to create something absolutely extraordinary.
Ms. Austin was able to do something incredibly accomplished and assured in her debut novel. She was able to move seamlessly between romantic melodrama and psychological portraiture that complimented and enriched each of these respective forms of writing.
This is the story of Lydia Robinson (alleged older married mistress of Branwell Bronte). Ms. Austin created a female narcissist of the most complex but understandable kind. She is vain, manipulative, unkind, immature, entitled and forever suffering. She is uncharitable, shallow, capricious and opportunistic. She is both a predator and a leech. Under the guise of female oppression and lack of opportunity she lashes out, uses and criticizes those around her. An unfaithful wife, a cruel mother and not accomplished in anything but guile. But we can't only hate her for she is trying to survive, to love and be loved. Lydia Robinson feels extraordinarily special but this is never reflected back to her. She is spurned, ridiculed, bullied and diminished, sometimes denigrated. Although we cannot forgive her for her manipulations and hurts, we can certainly understand why she does what she does. Branwell, a narcissist of an even lower variety worships her but in reality only sees himself and due to his weakness succumbs while Lydia will do anything to survive and even thrive.
The novel is full of heightened emotions, rapidly fluctuating scenes and people behaving very badly.
The romance is lush and forbidden. The dialogue is at times outlandishly humorous. The violins are always playing with full vibrato but are in tune and played beautifully.
This is a novel I enjoyed, admired and surpassed my expectations in every which way.
Lydia Robinson you are one Spunky Righteous Bitch! I Loved to Hate you but I Understood. I really did.
Thanks so much Ms. Austin for creating not another meek Victorian heroine but a villainess that (goddam it) we are rooting for !!
August 3, 2020
Lydia Robinson has suffered great losses, including a young daughter and her mother. She is not in a good place when her son’s new tutor, Branwell Bronte, arrives. Branwell is the brother of Lydia’s daughter’s governess, Anne Bronte. Branwell is handsome, outgoing, charming, and ... young. Their ages are almost twenty years apart, quite scandalous for the mid 1850s.
They become involved in a tryst, while Branwell becomes more unsettled and even dangerous. Their relationship becomes a topic of spreading gossip, and their reputations are at stake. Everything may crumble down around them. Bronte’s Mistress is an entertaining and well-written story. I was hooked on it while reading.
Lydia is a character you will feel all kinds of emotions for - her great loss and her calculating ways. Branwell also offers a mix of emotions. I felt great empathy for both characters. Historical fiction fans and fans of the Brontes will not want to miss this rich and bold book.
I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
They become involved in a tryst, while Branwell becomes more unsettled and even dangerous. Their relationship becomes a topic of spreading gossip, and their reputations are at stake. Everything may crumble down around them. Bronte’s Mistress is an entertaining and well-written story. I was hooked on it while reading.
Lydia is a character you will feel all kinds of emotions for - her great loss and her calculating ways. Branwell also offers a mix of emotions. I felt great empathy for both characters. Historical fiction fans and fans of the Brontes will not want to miss this rich and bold book.
I received a gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
February 13, 2020
Story of the alleged affair, between the married Lydia Robinson and Branwell Bronte, her son’s tutor, illuminates “portrait of a courageous, sharp-witted woman who fights to emerge with her dignity intact.” It may not be a woman you’d sympathize with, but it gives voice to a woman who is voiceless and suffocating. She is a complex human character full of passion and worth of attention.
Yorkshire, 1843. Lydia has lost her youngest daughter and mother within the same year. She is dealing with grief, rebelling teenage daughters, scrutinizing mother-in-love, and impassive husband. She craves enjoyment, her husband’s love, his touch, instead she receives coldness.
Miss Anne Bronte is governess to her daughters and now Mr. Branwell Bronte joins the household to be her son’s tutor.
With the appearance of Mr. Bronte, the temperature in the room rises. Once again, she starts feeling the music that she plays and sings. She yearns for something more.
She’s been feeling lonely, without any aspirations, especially when she hears so much about Bronte sisters and their talents. But now, “the youthful fire” ignites inside her.
The use of library by Lydia and Branwell becomes frequent. They share their love for poetry, music, and theater.
She also notices situations in which her husband “would have lectured,” but Mr. Bronte listens and reacts with sympathy. She craves attention, which she can’t get from her husband.
The author paints a vivid portrait of a woman who craves excitement in her life and affection of her husband. Instead, she feels lonely in her marriage, thus making her suffocate. She puts an effort to stay connected with her husband, but receives unresponsiveness in return. She feels unfulfilled in her life and searches to fill that gap. She struggles “between expectation and the wish for more.”
The affair doesn’t consume the whole story. She is a strong woman and there is more to her than this. She is also a mother, who at times struggles with this role. But she is human and tries her best, which is honest best.
I’m in awe with the writing. The combination of developing characters, describing the surroundings, moving the story forward and making it very interesting is superb. This is the style of writing I enjoy very much. Subtle descriptions (not overdone) bringing depth and beauty. “(Instead), there are rolling hills and hidden waterfalls. Miles without fences and only the occasional rock to sit on…”
Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Yorkshire, 1843. Lydia has lost her youngest daughter and mother within the same year. She is dealing with grief, rebelling teenage daughters, scrutinizing mother-in-love, and impassive husband. She craves enjoyment, her husband’s love, his touch, instead she receives coldness.
Miss Anne Bronte is governess to her daughters and now Mr. Branwell Bronte joins the household to be her son’s tutor.
With the appearance of Mr. Bronte, the temperature in the room rises. Once again, she starts feeling the music that she plays and sings. She yearns for something more.
She’s been feeling lonely, without any aspirations, especially when she hears so much about Bronte sisters and their talents. But now, “the youthful fire” ignites inside her.
The use of library by Lydia and Branwell becomes frequent. They share their love for poetry, music, and theater.
She also notices situations in which her husband “would have lectured,” but Mr. Bronte listens and reacts with sympathy. She craves attention, which she can’t get from her husband.
The author paints a vivid portrait of a woman who craves excitement in her life and affection of her husband. Instead, she feels lonely in her marriage, thus making her suffocate. She puts an effort to stay connected with her husband, but receives unresponsiveness in return. She feels unfulfilled in her life and searches to fill that gap. She struggles “between expectation and the wish for more.”
The affair doesn’t consume the whole story. She is a strong woman and there is more to her than this. She is also a mother, who at times struggles with this role. But she is human and tries her best, which is honest best.
I’m in awe with the writing. The combination of developing characters, describing the surroundings, moving the story forward and making it very interesting is superb. This is the style of writing I enjoy very much. Subtle descriptions (not overdone) bringing depth and beauty. “(Instead), there are rolling hills and hidden waterfalls. Miles without fences and only the occasional rock to sit on…”
Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
June 12, 2020
Compared to his sisters eventual notoriety, not much is known about their brother, Branwell Bronte. History has portrayed him as something of a rogue, a drifter, a drunkard. However, in this story, we meet Branwell, a poor misunderstood young man searching for love in what seemed to be an austerely poor, emotionless environment.
When he is hired to tutor Lydia Robinson's young son, where his sister is governess to Lydia's other children, he finds himself attracted to the much older Lydia. He is a young man struggling to find his way in a family where his sisters are so intelligent and trying to make their mark in the world. All the happenings in this book occurred before the Bronte sisters make their forage into the world that would one day come to acclaim their work.
Lydia herself is struggling. She has lost in the space of a year, her mother and youngest beloved daughter. She is married to a cold unfeeling man, whose mother is a thorn in her side. Her other children are distant and emotionally detached from her. She is ripe for the attention and possible love that Branwell seems to offer.
As they come together, Lydia realizes she is besotted with Branwell for he is passionate, a writer of poetry, and someone she can cling to. And so the affair begins.
As she becomes deeply involved with Branwell, she begins to see how flawed he is, how needy, how erratic. The servants in the home are abuzz with rumor and innuendoes about the couple, and the relationship of passion soon fizzles out on Lydia's part as she tries to contend with the knowledge that others know she is an adulteress. Life does indeed fall apart for Lydia as her husband is gravely ill and at his death, she learns she is left penniless. Branwell himself is eventually banished and left to fall deeper in the dark quagmire of his heart and mind.
However, Lydia is a schemer and she has a way of ridding herself of Branwell as well as securing herself a future of wealth.
Much of what is written by the author is conjecture. There is no solid proof that indeed this affair did take place, but there seems to be various clues that might attest to its veracity.
In the end, I couldn't help but feel empathy for both Branwell and Lydia. Both were lost souls who could never seem to find that love and passion they both so desired.
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book due out August 4, 2020.
3.5 stars
When he is hired to tutor Lydia Robinson's young son, where his sister is governess to Lydia's other children, he finds himself attracted to the much older Lydia. He is a young man struggling to find his way in a family where his sisters are so intelligent and trying to make their mark in the world. All the happenings in this book occurred before the Bronte sisters make their forage into the world that would one day come to acclaim their work.
Lydia herself is struggling. She has lost in the space of a year, her mother and youngest beloved daughter. She is married to a cold unfeeling man, whose mother is a thorn in her side. Her other children are distant and emotionally detached from her. She is ripe for the attention and possible love that Branwell seems to offer.
As they come together, Lydia realizes she is besotted with Branwell for he is passionate, a writer of poetry, and someone she can cling to. And so the affair begins.
As she becomes deeply involved with Branwell, she begins to see how flawed he is, how needy, how erratic. The servants in the home are abuzz with rumor and innuendoes about the couple, and the relationship of passion soon fizzles out on Lydia's part as she tries to contend with the knowledge that others know she is an adulteress. Life does indeed fall apart for Lydia as her husband is gravely ill and at his death, she learns she is left penniless. Branwell himself is eventually banished and left to fall deeper in the dark quagmire of his heart and mind.
However, Lydia is a schemer and she has a way of ridding herself of Branwell as well as securing herself a future of wealth.
Much of what is written by the author is conjecture. There is no solid proof that indeed this affair did take place, but there seems to be various clues that might attest to its veracity.
In the end, I couldn't help but feel empathy for both Branwell and Lydia. Both were lost souls who could never seem to find that love and passion they both so desired.
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book due out August 4, 2020.
3.5 stars
August 3, 2020
2 stars
You can read all of my reviews at NerdGirlLovesBooks.
This is a well-researched historical fiction book about the supposed affair between the mistress of a home and Branwell Bronte, the brother of the daughters' governess Anne Bronte, and the other famous Bronte sisters.
Set in 1843, Lydia Robinson is the mother of 1 son and 4 girls, one of whom died earlier in the year, and wife to a neglectful husband. The book opens as she returns from the funeral of her mother, which she attended alone. Upon her return, she discovers that her husband has hired a male tutor, Branwell Bronte, for their son. Feeling alone, old and unloved, Lydia begins to flirt with Branwell and eventually they start an affair. When the affair is discovered by their servants, she puts an end to it and eventually Branwell is sent away.
I didn't care for this book and couldn't wait for it to end. I seem to be in the minority of reviewers so far, but I didn't like the writing style. There was almost no character building and therefore I didn't care for any of them. I really didn't care for Lydia, who seemed like a cold, callous, passive aggressive, petulant child. She was jealous of the relationship between her daughters and their governess Anne, but didn't do anything to try to get closer to her girls or befriend Anne. She felt the daughters should make the effort, which of course being teenagers and pre-teenagers, was unrealistic. Her son was barely mentioned other than to notice that he was always hungry or falling asleep, and she had nothing good to say about her husband.
This book and I just didn't click, but others seemed to really enjoy it, so perhaps you will too.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and Atria books in exchange for an honest review.
You can read all of my reviews at NerdGirlLovesBooks.
This is a well-researched historical fiction book about the supposed affair between the mistress of a home and Branwell Bronte, the brother of the daughters' governess Anne Bronte, and the other famous Bronte sisters.
Set in 1843, Lydia Robinson is the mother of 1 son and 4 girls, one of whom died earlier in the year, and wife to a neglectful husband. The book opens as she returns from the funeral of her mother, which she attended alone. Upon her return, she discovers that her husband has hired a male tutor, Branwell Bronte, for their son. Feeling alone, old and unloved, Lydia begins to flirt with Branwell and eventually they start an affair. When the affair is discovered by their servants, she puts an end to it and eventually Branwell is sent away.
I didn't care for this book and couldn't wait for it to end. I seem to be in the minority of reviewers so far, but I didn't like the writing style. There was almost no character building and therefore I didn't care for any of them. I really didn't care for Lydia, who seemed like a cold, callous, passive aggressive, petulant child. She was jealous of the relationship between her daughters and their governess Anne, but didn't do anything to try to get closer to her girls or befriend Anne. She felt the daughters should make the effort, which of course being teenagers and pre-teenagers, was unrealistic. Her son was barely mentioned other than to notice that he was always hungry or falling asleep, and she had nothing good to say about her husband.
This book and I just didn't click, but others seemed to really enjoy it, so perhaps you will too.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and Atria books in exchange for an honest review.
September 8, 2020
A wonderful debut novel. Based on the alleged affair between Branwell Bronte (sister to the famous Charlotte, Emily and Anne) and his employer Lydia Robinson. Lydia Robinson is grieving the loss of her mother and youngest daughter and feels that her husband has abandoned her emotionally. Hired by Lydia's husband as a tutor for their son,.Branwell soon begins to work his way into the mind and emotions of Lydia. Lydia is drawn to the romantic and tragic aura that surrounds Branwell, and the two soon become involved in a passionate liaison, risking Lydia's marriage, Branwell's precarious sanity, and livelihood as well as the fate of his sisters.
This is an moody and intriguing work of biographical fiction. With well drawn characters and a wonderful sense of the time and place, as well as the social structure of the time period it will appeal to fans of the Bronte's as well as fans of the Victorian time period.
Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC
This is an moody and intriguing work of biographical fiction. With well drawn characters and a wonderful sense of the time and place, as well as the social structure of the time period it will appeal to fans of the Bronte's as well as fans of the Victorian time period.
Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC
May 26, 2020
Set in Yorkshire 1843 this is a partly imagined tale of the affair between Patrick Branwell Bronte, brother of the famed Bronte sisters and his married mistress Lydia Robinson.
Set in Yorkshire 1843, Lydia is a woman left bereft by the recent deaths of her mother and baby daughter when she employs her governess' brother Branwell Bronte to tutor her young son. Once a young, spirited woman in love with her husband Edmund, she finds he has become emotionally and physically distant leaving her to question her womanly capabilities of attractiveness, desirability and motherhood. In her desperate need for love and intimacy she begins to share her thoughts and desires of fulfilment with 25-year old Branwell and finds they are drawn together not only emotionally but physically. As the affair progresses Lydia's indiscretions are revealed to her husband, her daughters and even the servants setting off a chain of destructiveness for her and her young lover.
While at times I really disliked Lydia's character she was a woman torn by the epitome of being the perfect dutiful wife and mother who needed so much more emotionally at a time when women were not allowed to voice their thoughts much less their needs. This was a deeply felt read of a woman literally dying within the confines of her marriage and life.
A wonderfully atmospheric debut, this earns a place among my favorites. Recommended.
Thanks to Atria books and Finola Austin for a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.
Set in Yorkshire 1843, Lydia is a woman left bereft by the recent deaths of her mother and baby daughter when she employs her governess' brother Branwell Bronte to tutor her young son. Once a young, spirited woman in love with her husband Edmund, she finds he has become emotionally and physically distant leaving her to question her womanly capabilities of attractiveness, desirability and motherhood. In her desperate need for love and intimacy she begins to share her thoughts and desires of fulfilment with 25-year old Branwell and finds they are drawn together not only emotionally but physically. As the affair progresses Lydia's indiscretions are revealed to her husband, her daughters and even the servants setting off a chain of destructiveness for her and her young lover.
While at times I really disliked Lydia's character she was a woman torn by the epitome of being the perfect dutiful wife and mother who needed so much more emotionally at a time when women were not allowed to voice their thoughts much less their needs. This was a deeply felt read of a woman literally dying within the confines of her marriage and life.
A wonderfully atmospheric debut, this earns a place among my favorites. Recommended.
Thanks to Atria books and Finola Austin for a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.
September 5, 2020
Anyone who knows anything about the Bronte family knows that the only son, Branwell, was a drunk and a wastrel.
While I hoped to learn something of interest about the alleged affair with the alleged Mrs. Robinson (yes, really!) all I got was a book with a bunch of really horrible, despicable, insufferable people with the exception of Anne Bronte who was governess to the Robinson children.
I almost gave up after reading this line attributed to Mrs. Robinson speaking to one of her daughters: “And use your parasol. You will lose your complexion.” (Pg.58) No idea why this line so irritated me.
My apology for not liking this book.
While I hoped to learn something of interest about the alleged affair with the alleged Mrs. Robinson (yes, really!) all I got was a book with a bunch of really horrible, despicable, insufferable people with the exception of Anne Bronte who was governess to the Robinson children.
I almost gave up after reading this line attributed to Mrs. Robinson speaking to one of her daughters: “And use your parasol. You will lose your complexion.” (Pg.58) No idea why this line so irritated me.
My apology for not liking this book.
July 31, 2020
This isn't the usual sort of book that I read. But I'm trying to branch out and the premise sounded so interesting. I'm glad I decided to try something a little different. I thoroughly enjoyed this story!
Lydia Robinson has faced the recent death of her daughter and her mother. She's grieving and a very unhappy wife. Her mother in law is horrid....and her teenage daughters misbehave. Lydia wants something more in her life...and she finds just the thing with her son's tutor -- Bramwell Brontë. Bramwell's sister Anne is governess to Lydia's daughters.
But.....the problem is....Lydia is married. The servants see and whisper about all goings on in the house. She is 43 and Bramwell is 25. Not only that but Bramwell's sisters know what is going on...and Lydia is afraid they will reveal what they know about the affair.
Can this strong, outspoken woman weather the storms created by her passion for life, boredom with propriety and whispered gossip??
I couldn't help but feel sympathy for Lydia as I read this story. Women had very few choices in life at that time. She's stuck in her marriage....she's stuck in her societal role....and when she does try to find some passion in her life, she chooses the wrong person. Bramwell is creative and engaging, but unstable. Lydia has to make some rough decisions in order to have her entire life not implode.
Very interesting, darkly passionate and emotional book. It makes me wonder what the real Bramwell was actually like. He always seems to be portrayed as a drunk and a mentally unstable person. He definitely gets left in the shadows of his famous literary sisters.
I enjoyed this book! I look forward to more by this author!
**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Atria Books. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
Lydia Robinson has faced the recent death of her daughter and her mother. She's grieving and a very unhappy wife. Her mother in law is horrid....and her teenage daughters misbehave. Lydia wants something more in her life...and she finds just the thing with her son's tutor -- Bramwell Brontë. Bramwell's sister Anne is governess to Lydia's daughters.
But.....the problem is....Lydia is married. The servants see and whisper about all goings on in the house. She is 43 and Bramwell is 25. Not only that but Bramwell's sisters know what is going on...and Lydia is afraid they will reveal what they know about the affair.
Can this strong, outspoken woman weather the storms created by her passion for life, boredom with propriety and whispered gossip??
I couldn't help but feel sympathy for Lydia as I read this story. Women had very few choices in life at that time. She's stuck in her marriage....she's stuck in her societal role....and when she does try to find some passion in her life, she chooses the wrong person. Bramwell is creative and engaging, but unstable. Lydia has to make some rough decisions in order to have her entire life not implode.
Very interesting, darkly passionate and emotional book. It makes me wonder what the real Bramwell was actually like. He always seems to be portrayed as a drunk and a mentally unstable person. He definitely gets left in the shadows of his famous literary sisters.
I enjoyed this book! I look forward to more by this author!
**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Atria Books. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
May 3, 2020
Finola Austin’s “Bronte’s Mistress” is a page-turning read full of passion and fire. The life stories of the famous Bronte siblings, Charlotte, Emily, Branwell, and Anne, have been chronicled in depth by countless biographers, and now and then in works of fiction. But an important aspect of Branwell Bronte’s life—his life-altering, doomed love affair with the infamous Mrs. Robinson, an older woman whose son he was tutoring—has never been examined in such depth before, and makes a tantalizing read.
Many historians view Lydia Robinson a predatory woman who took advantage of Branwell’s youth and innocence to satisfy her lust, with no concern for his heart and feelings. In my own novel, “The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte” (Avon books), the story of Charlotte’s life and journey as an author, and her relationships with her siblings and the two men she loved, I shared a similar view of Mrs. Robinson. I was worried, when I began Austin’s novel, that she would try to redeem Lydia Robinson—and I'm glad that she did not.
Austin’s novel is incredibly well researched, sticks to the facts of the true story almost religiously (with a few interesting additions), and thoughtfully and vibrantly imagines the rest, bringing Mrs. Robinson (and Branwell) to life as never before. She dares to give us a main character as flawed as Jane Austen’s Lady Susan and Margaret Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara—a real, hot-blooded woman who has desires and passions and isn’t afraid to act on them. And yet, while we can’t, in the end, like Mrs. Robinson (nor should we), from the first moment that we become privy to her private thoughts and personal anguish, we come to understand her wants and needs, and we sympathize with her lot in life. It wasn’t easy to be a woman in Victorian England, and being rich didn’t guarantee happiness—you were still a prisoner in a gilded cage.
The author’s beautiful language, lyrical descriptions, and deep, thoughtful characterizations will sweep you away to another time and place, and make you feel as though you’ve walked in Lydia Robinson’s shoes and lived her life. Highly recommended for readers of historical fiction and women’s fiction.
Many historians view Lydia Robinson a predatory woman who took advantage of Branwell’s youth and innocence to satisfy her lust, with no concern for his heart and feelings. In my own novel, “The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte” (Avon books), the story of Charlotte’s life and journey as an author, and her relationships with her siblings and the two men she loved, I shared a similar view of Mrs. Robinson. I was worried, when I began Austin’s novel, that she would try to redeem Lydia Robinson—and I'm glad that she did not.
Austin’s novel is incredibly well researched, sticks to the facts of the true story almost religiously (with a few interesting additions), and thoughtfully and vibrantly imagines the rest, bringing Mrs. Robinson (and Branwell) to life as never before. She dares to give us a main character as flawed as Jane Austen’s Lady Susan and Margaret Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara—a real, hot-blooded woman who has desires and passions and isn’t afraid to act on them. And yet, while we can’t, in the end, like Mrs. Robinson (nor should we), from the first moment that we become privy to her private thoughts and personal anguish, we come to understand her wants and needs, and we sympathize with her lot in life. It wasn’t easy to be a woman in Victorian England, and being rich didn’t guarantee happiness—you were still a prisoner in a gilded cage.
The author’s beautiful language, lyrical descriptions, and deep, thoughtful characterizations will sweep you away to another time and place, and make you feel as though you’ve walked in Lydia Robinson’s shoes and lived her life. Highly recommended for readers of historical fiction and women’s fiction.
February 19, 2020
In BRONTE'S MISTRESS, debut novelist Finola Austin ingeniously uses the ripe-for-the-telling story of the Bronte sisters' brother and his affair with Lydia Robinson, the mother of the children he tutors, as a vehicle for exploring the embittered moral landscape of a woman so constrained by society that every move she makes is a bizarre cry for help, a negotiation, and a rebuttal all rolled into one. This book starts with a wonderfully creative newspaper clipping, ends with an astonishing epilogue, and in between it grows from strength to strength as the plot (faithful in essence to the few real-life facts we have) winds tighter and tighter. The title of this book ironically puts Lydia Robinson in her societal place at the time, while the text elevates her complex and often troubling relationship both to her self and to others. This is not a book about a nineteenth-century affair - it is about using physical passion and experience to get at the very sense of self that society wanted women of the time to repress and even deny. It is a daring, troubling, and sophisticated first novel, and it heralds a most intriguing new voice in historical fiction.
August 9, 2020
This will come down as one of my favorite historical fiction novels that I have read this year - to be honest probably ever. I gave this amazing historical novel all the stars it deserved and more. I enjoyed every page of this book and I just could not devour this fast enough, only to reread it again and again.
Brontë's Mistress is a debut novel by Fiona Austin that is flawlessly written and meticulously researched historical fiction about the alleged affair between Branwell Bronte - the lesser known Bronte, and his employer's wife, Lydia Robinson. Branwell was employed by the Robinsons as a tutor to their young son Ned, and came highly recommended by his sister Anne Brontë, the governess for the Robinsons' daughters, Lydia, Bessy and Mary.
What I find amazing about the story is the gender role reversal where in this time period of early 1840's, portrays the woman as the temptress and the man the victim. This affair between Lydia, who was forty-three and Branwell twenty-five was known to have brought the Brontë family down to its demise with premature deaths for all the Brontë siblings.
Lydia is a strong woman who has suffered significant loss. First though the death of their youngest daughter Georgina, and most recently her mother who has succumbed to illness, and a lifeless and dispassionate marriage to an older husband. Lydia is a complex character and certainly a woman ahead of her time full of passion and restless discontent.
Austin beautifully delivered through the use of language and dialogue, a novel that transported me right in the middle of the Victorian countryside into the lives of the Robinsons and the Brontë's that I never want to leave. In true style, the story touched on the themes of women's struggles of being trapped, lacking choices and with passion just bubbling beneath the surface. I enjoyed reading Lydia's story, and reading her story in her point of view was a wonderful perspective - her thoughts and feminist point of view was refreshing.
This was a story that needed to be told, and I am glad Finola Austin took this to task, and delivered with nothing short than utmost reverence to this story.
In the end, I was compelled to reread again not wanting to leave the characters Austin dazzingly portrayed in these pages. I highly recommend this book.
Brontë's Mistress is a debut novel by Fiona Austin that is flawlessly written and meticulously researched historical fiction about the alleged affair between Branwell Bronte - the lesser known Bronte, and his employer's wife, Lydia Robinson. Branwell was employed by the Robinsons as a tutor to their young son Ned, and came highly recommended by his sister Anne Brontë, the governess for the Robinsons' daughters, Lydia, Bessy and Mary.
What I find amazing about the story is the gender role reversal where in this time period of early 1840's, portrays the woman as the temptress and the man the victim. This affair between Lydia, who was forty-three and Branwell twenty-five was known to have brought the Brontë family down to its demise with premature deaths for all the Brontë siblings.
Lydia is a strong woman who has suffered significant loss. First though the death of their youngest daughter Georgina, and most recently her mother who has succumbed to illness, and a lifeless and dispassionate marriage to an older husband. Lydia is a complex character and certainly a woman ahead of her time full of passion and restless discontent.
Austin beautifully delivered through the use of language and dialogue, a novel that transported me right in the middle of the Victorian countryside into the lives of the Robinsons and the Brontë's that I never want to leave. In true style, the story touched on the themes of women's struggles of being trapped, lacking choices and with passion just bubbling beneath the surface. I enjoyed reading Lydia's story, and reading her story in her point of view was a wonderful perspective - her thoughts and feminist point of view was refreshing.
This was a story that needed to be told, and I am glad Finola Austin took this to task, and delivered with nothing short than utmost reverence to this story.
In the end, I was compelled to reread again not wanting to leave the characters Austin dazzingly portrayed in these pages. I highly recommend this book.
November 15, 2019
I loved this thoroughly original take on a notorious scandal: the affair between the (married) Lydia Robinson and Branwell Bronte, her son's tutor. The writing is beautiful but not stodgy, i.e. true to the romantic spirit of a classic Bronte novel. There are also some clever modern insights into women's roles at the time. Lydia may not be a role model, but I found her an intriguing and ultimately sympathetic heroine. If you're a Bronte fan or love stories about the overlooked women of history, I highly recommend it. (Thanks to Atria Books for an advance copy, which I accepted in exchange for an honest review.)
August 23, 2020
I have been looking forward to this book all summer long. It has been on my radar since the spring and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and start reading.
I absolutely love the Brontes and a book like this just sounded so incredible! Not to mention that cover is totally giving me all the heart eyes. What I was most excited for in this novel was that it would explore the story of the Bronte’s brother rather than the famous and talented sisters.
It screamed new and exciting for me and since this is the author’s debut novel, it was just begging to be read and loved by audiences.
This book. This book. This book. It was so wonderful, and while I knew I would love it, I couldn’t believe how much depth and research this one had. Austin’s research shines in this novel. There are a ton of resources available for the Bronte sisters, but I would imagine that there must have been substantially less on their brother Branwell. I was so incredibly impressed with her research and how well she portrayed Branwell and Lydia.
This wasn’t just another Bronte story or retelling, but the influences are there for readers who like that sort of thing but for readers who want something modern, fresh, and different there is plenty to enjoy in this one too. For me, I didn’t know much at all about Branwell’s ‘ruin’ or his love affair with Lydia prior to reading this novel, but now that I am done, I want to know so much more.
I think the author really picked an intriguing subject matter for her first novel and I was impressed with her research of course but I found that I enjoyed the characters just as much. I wanted to keep reading to see how their relationship evolved and how things progressed between Branwell and Lydia. I was truly captivated and I couldn’t put this one down. I absolutely loved it.
This was a beautifully written novel with interesting content and rich in romance and history. I was completely hooked and couldn’t put it down. I was so happy that one of my most anticipated novels of the summer lived up to the hype. If you are a historical fiction fan, then this is a book you need on your shelf this summer. I loved it and have been gushing about it to all my friends! I can’t wait to see what Austin comes up with next.
See my full review here
I absolutely love the Brontes and a book like this just sounded so incredible! Not to mention that cover is totally giving me all the heart eyes. What I was most excited for in this novel was that it would explore the story of the Bronte’s brother rather than the famous and talented sisters.
It screamed new and exciting for me and since this is the author’s debut novel, it was just begging to be read and loved by audiences.
This book. This book. This book. It was so wonderful, and while I knew I would love it, I couldn’t believe how much depth and research this one had. Austin’s research shines in this novel. There are a ton of resources available for the Bronte sisters, but I would imagine that there must have been substantially less on their brother Branwell. I was so incredibly impressed with her research and how well she portrayed Branwell and Lydia.
This wasn’t just another Bronte story or retelling, but the influences are there for readers who like that sort of thing but for readers who want something modern, fresh, and different there is plenty to enjoy in this one too. For me, I didn’t know much at all about Branwell’s ‘ruin’ or his love affair with Lydia prior to reading this novel, but now that I am done, I want to know so much more.
I think the author really picked an intriguing subject matter for her first novel and I was impressed with her research of course but I found that I enjoyed the characters just as much. I wanted to keep reading to see how their relationship evolved and how things progressed between Branwell and Lydia. I was truly captivated and I couldn’t put this one down. I absolutely loved it.
This was a beautifully written novel with interesting content and rich in romance and history. I was completely hooked and couldn’t put it down. I was so happy that one of my most anticipated novels of the summer lived up to the hype. If you are a historical fiction fan, then this is a book you need on your shelf this summer. I loved it and have been gushing about it to all my friends! I can’t wait to see what Austin comes up with next.
See my full review here
August 6, 2020
Find this and other reviews at: https://historicalfictionreader.blogs...
I had mixed feelings jumping into Finola Austin’s Bronte’s Mistress. I love that the story takes its inspiration from a lesser-known chapter of Bronte history, but I was not convinced a novel centered on an alleged affair would work for me. I was hesitant, but I was curious, and the latter ultimately won out. I drown my nerves in my coffee cup, set the radio to Simon and Garfunkle, and jumped on in.
The truth of the affair between Mrs. Lydia Robinson and Branwell Bronte is shrouded in mystery, but the most common variations of the story imply it was the lady who brought the young man to ruin. Austin feels otherwise, and I was grateful for that. It takes two to tango after all, and I do not think possession of a Y-chromosome and a revered surname merits denial of that fact.
For the record, I was not particularly fond of any cast member, but life is full of challenging people. At the end of the day, I think Austin captured something real her character, something that played to the complexities of unhappy unions, the burden of unrealistic expectations, and the tragic realities of a society that did not allow women their own agency.
Having said that, I was drawn to what Lydia represents on a larger scale. At forty-three, she is older than most historical heroines. Her maturity allowed Austin to play with a unique perspective, and I liked the dynamic brought the narrative. I am younger than Lydia and living in the modern age, but one doesn’t have to look farther than the supermarket tabloids to see how women of a certain age are pushed to the periphery. Social invisibility is a relevant concept, and I admired Austin for tackling it as she did.
Bronte’s Mistress was a little slow for my tastes, but I do not regret the time I spent with it and would have no trouble recommending it to Bronte enthusiasts or fans of biographic fiction.
I had mixed feelings jumping into Finola Austin’s Bronte’s Mistress. I love that the story takes its inspiration from a lesser-known chapter of Bronte history, but I was not convinced a novel centered on an alleged affair would work for me. I was hesitant, but I was curious, and the latter ultimately won out. I drown my nerves in my coffee cup, set the radio to Simon and Garfunkle, and jumped on in.
The truth of the affair between Mrs. Lydia Robinson and Branwell Bronte is shrouded in mystery, but the most common variations of the story imply it was the lady who brought the young man to ruin. Austin feels otherwise, and I was grateful for that. It takes two to tango after all, and I do not think possession of a Y-chromosome and a revered surname merits denial of that fact.
For the record, I was not particularly fond of any cast member, but life is full of challenging people. At the end of the day, I think Austin captured something real her character, something that played to the complexities of unhappy unions, the burden of unrealistic expectations, and the tragic realities of a society that did not allow women their own agency.
Having said that, I was drawn to what Lydia represents on a larger scale. At forty-three, she is older than most historical heroines. Her maturity allowed Austin to play with a unique perspective, and I liked the dynamic brought the narrative. I am younger than Lydia and living in the modern age, but one doesn’t have to look farther than the supermarket tabloids to see how women of a certain age are pushed to the periphery. Social invisibility is a relevant concept, and I admired Austin for tackling it as she did.
Bronte’s Mistress was a little slow for my tastes, but I do not regret the time I spent with it and would have no trouble recommending it to Bronte enthusiasts or fans of biographic fiction.
January 11, 2021
Bronte’s Mistress
by Finola Austin
A Bronte reader comes to this book armed with “the rest of the story” awareness of the looming celebrity for all the members of this famous family. This tale starts at a known moment of Bronte family tensions – what to do with that odd man out, a troubled brother. Against the backdrop of the threadbare and earnest Bronte women springs a less earnest and future-eager Bronte man – Branwell. He’s leaving home to teach the rich and spoiled Robinson daughters. From behind the shadows steps their mother, Lydia Robinson. Many years his senior, insatiable and very interested in his potential for distraction and his family connections. . . and we are off!
From the first page I did not like this woman. All my Bronte loyalties spiked up, and still my inner voice had to remind me this was just an author’s reimagining about what could have been, may have happened. Lydia obsessed about Branwell’s family, and presumed a similarity to them, pretending friendships that existed. Of her own life’s dissatisfaction there was much to examine. . .and this book does that. I pitied everyone pulled in by her rip tide. . .even Branwell, who has never been my favorite.
At the book’s end, I had to set myself down hard in my “talking to self” chair and remind myself this was fiction, and a skilled author’s reimagining. (But just so you know. . . .I’m still mostly believing this one. It’s that good.)
A Sincere Thank You to Finola Austin, Atria Books and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.
by Finola Austin
A Bronte reader comes to this book armed with “the rest of the story” awareness of the looming celebrity for all the members of this famous family. This tale starts at a known moment of Bronte family tensions – what to do with that odd man out, a troubled brother. Against the backdrop of the threadbare and earnest Bronte women springs a less earnest and future-eager Bronte man – Branwell. He’s leaving home to teach the rich and spoiled Robinson daughters. From behind the shadows steps their mother, Lydia Robinson. Many years his senior, insatiable and very interested in his potential for distraction and his family connections. . . and we are off!
From the first page I did not like this woman. All my Bronte loyalties spiked up, and still my inner voice had to remind me this was just an author’s reimagining about what could have been, may have happened. Lydia obsessed about Branwell’s family, and presumed a similarity to them, pretending friendships that existed. Of her own life’s dissatisfaction there was much to examine. . .and this book does that. I pitied everyone pulled in by her rip tide. . .even Branwell, who has never been my favorite.
At the book’s end, I had to set myself down hard in my “talking to self” chair and remind myself this was fiction, and a skilled author’s reimagining. (But just so you know. . . .I’m still mostly believing this one. It’s that good.)
A Sincere Thank You to Finola Austin, Atria Books and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.
August 8, 2020
I came to this novel for the Brontë connection, hoping for a really good historical fiction about real-life people. I got a powerful tour de force about the limited lives of even upper class British women in the mid 19th century.
This book is so well written. I have more highlighted passages on my Kindle for this one than for any other book I’ve read recently. Gorgeous and lush prose, obviously meticulously researched, fascinating and intoxicating. It was nearly impossible to put down once I got started—first because of the tension between Lydia Robinson and Branwell, later just to see what Lydia would do next.
Neither Lydia nor Branwell are very likable characters. Lydia Robinson is complex: lonely, sad, passionate, desperate, selfish, shallow… she made me so mad at some points in the story, but at other points I realized she’s very much a product of her time and place. She’s a smart, emotional woman who is oppressed and limited, judged and neglected. Branwell is really a secondary character, and that’s just fine—he’s the tortured, struggling soul that does sort of get chewed up and spit out by his Mrs. Robinson, but I love the way he’s written here. The slow building of the romantic tension between these two is palpable and their inevitable relationship is scorchingly hot.
Despite being the titular mistress, Lydia is much more than an older, married woman dallying with a younger, freer artistic type. She’s a wife who very much loved her early relationship with her husband, is mourning the loss of a young child and her own mother, has a complicated relationship with her teenaged daughters, and is dealing with her own aging and loss of relevance. I couldn’t stand her, I was rooting for her, I wanted her to get on with her affair, I wanted her to go to her husband, I wanted her to be a better mother, I wanted her to find what she needed… and I mainly felt horrible for her and the limited options she had. Just listen to her:
‘It was tiring, always calculating how I might appear best, but what other options were available to me? If I had to tie myself to a mast—and I had to—it might as well be to the grandest, proudest ship.’
and…
‘He saved me and destroyed me all at once, taught me I could still feel so I could discover that I needed more than him.’
and especially:
‘There were women from here to England, crying over curtain fabric, scolding their children, and aching for change and love or, at least, excitement. And most, if not all, of them would be disappointed. Their fate and mine was too common to be the stuff of tragedy.’
I can’t finish this review without also mentioning how starstruck I was when the Brontë sisters were mentioned or appeared. Especially Charlotte, of course.
This book is an astoundingly good debut. I can’t wait to see what Finola Austin does next.
This book is so well written. I have more highlighted passages on my Kindle for this one than for any other book I’ve read recently. Gorgeous and lush prose, obviously meticulously researched, fascinating and intoxicating. It was nearly impossible to put down once I got started—first because of the tension between Lydia Robinson and Branwell, later just to see what Lydia would do next.
Neither Lydia nor Branwell are very likable characters. Lydia Robinson is complex: lonely, sad, passionate, desperate, selfish, shallow… she made me so mad at some points in the story, but at other points I realized she’s very much a product of her time and place. She’s a smart, emotional woman who is oppressed and limited, judged and neglected. Branwell is really a secondary character, and that’s just fine—he’s the tortured, struggling soul that does sort of get chewed up and spit out by his Mrs. Robinson, but I love the way he’s written here. The slow building of the romantic tension between these two is palpable and their inevitable relationship is scorchingly hot.
Despite being the titular mistress, Lydia is much more than an older, married woman dallying with a younger, freer artistic type. She’s a wife who very much loved her early relationship with her husband, is mourning the loss of a young child and her own mother, has a complicated relationship with her teenaged daughters, and is dealing with her own aging and loss of relevance. I couldn’t stand her, I was rooting for her, I wanted her to get on with her affair, I wanted her to go to her husband, I wanted her to be a better mother, I wanted her to find what she needed… and I mainly felt horrible for her and the limited options she had. Just listen to her:
‘It was tiring, always calculating how I might appear best, but what other options were available to me? If I had to tie myself to a mast—and I had to—it might as well be to the grandest, proudest ship.’
and…
‘He saved me and destroyed me all at once, taught me I could still feel so I could discover that I needed more than him.’
and especially:
‘There were women from here to England, crying over curtain fabric, scolding their children, and aching for change and love or, at least, excitement. And most, if not all, of them would be disappointed. Their fate and mine was too common to be the stuff of tragedy.’
I can’t finish this review without also mentioning how starstruck I was when the Brontë sisters were mentioned or appeared. Especially Charlotte, of course.
This book is an astoundingly good debut. I can’t wait to see what Finola Austin does next.
February 14, 2020
Most stories of the Brontes are set in their home village of Haworth gray and windy on the edge of the moor. There we see Charlotte, Anne, Emily, and Branwell venture into the world to try to earn their way, clinging to miserable jobs in other people's homes, returning home to be together when they can. But, always the exception, brother Branwell returns dismissed, a drunk, opium eater. The suggestion is that he had an affair with the lady of the house where he was a tutor.
"Bronte's Mistress" tells the story of this affair from the point of view of Lydia Robinson, that very lady. Her world has been rocked by the loss of both her youngest daughter and mother. Her husband is behaving coldly. Her son has a new young tutor who is frankly admiring of her.
Finola Austin's novel is fearless. Lydia is hard to like. She's sad, lonely, angry. Relationships at home are spiky. Her daughters are growing up and she is afraid that she will never feel real love, passion. Her relationship with Branwell is messy and will make the rest of her life even messier. Her tragedy is that she briefly found passion in the wrong place and will never find it again.
Austin's extensive research pays off in the best way. She paints a picture of remote estates, people marooned far from outside company, women anxious about their survival in the world when that entirely depends on who they marry, people anxious in upper class homes worried about hanging on to a shred of dignity, employees terrified of losing their positions. Where does newly-awakened Lydia fit, or will she fit anywhere?
"Bronte's Mistress" is a very satisfying novel and a fascinating addition to the Bronte's work, and those fine modern books that imagine the stories from another point of view. This seems to be Austin's first novel and I hope she's hard at work on the next one. She has terrific imagination backed by a gift for research and period expression.
Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader, thanks the publisher and Netgalley for this delicious read.
"Bronte's Mistress" tells the story of this affair from the point of view of Lydia Robinson, that very lady. Her world has been rocked by the loss of both her youngest daughter and mother. Her husband is behaving coldly. Her son has a new young tutor who is frankly admiring of her.
Finola Austin's novel is fearless. Lydia is hard to like. She's sad, lonely, angry. Relationships at home are spiky. Her daughters are growing up and she is afraid that she will never feel real love, passion. Her relationship with Branwell is messy and will make the rest of her life even messier. Her tragedy is that she briefly found passion in the wrong place and will never find it again.
Austin's extensive research pays off in the best way. She paints a picture of remote estates, people marooned far from outside company, women anxious about their survival in the world when that entirely depends on who they marry, people anxious in upper class homes worried about hanging on to a shred of dignity, employees terrified of losing their positions. Where does newly-awakened Lydia fit, or will she fit anywhere?
"Bronte's Mistress" is a very satisfying novel and a fascinating addition to the Bronte's work, and those fine modern books that imagine the stories from another point of view. This seems to be Austin's first novel and I hope she's hard at work on the next one. She has terrific imagination backed by a gift for research and period expression.
Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader, thanks the publisher and Netgalley for this delicious read.
September 6, 2020
I just fell down (one of many) the Brontë rabbit 🐇 holes. where to START. Hmmm. I’m immediately following my writing of this by diving into Agnes Grey. By turns I am drawn to, sympathetic of, irritated and disgusted by the same people, including Lydia. Could be said of the people in real life as well.
One certainly doesn’t need to be a great Brontë reader to enjoy the book, I’ve read my share, but would never suggest that I had a special interest. But this! What a truly amazing glimpse into the Brontë family (hmmm maybe not from the most flattering angle ....or is it???) in leaving this review I will say this. All of them were deeply unhappy, it having nothing to do with their circumstances, beyond the time they were born into. I would like to take a minute of arrogance to imagine that, if born in today’s world, that at least some of their melancholic nature might find some relief. However, to date, we still have no answer for self absorbed narcissism or pecking someone to death through constant critique. 🕯📚
One certainly doesn’t need to be a great Brontë reader to enjoy the book, I’ve read my share, but would never suggest that I had a special interest. But this! What a truly amazing glimpse into the Brontë family (hmmm maybe not from the most flattering angle ....or is it???) in leaving this review I will say this. All of them were deeply unhappy, it having nothing to do with their circumstances, beyond the time they were born into. I would like to take a minute of arrogance to imagine that, if born in today’s world, that at least some of their melancholic nature might find some relief. However, to date, we still have no answer for self absorbed narcissism or pecking someone to death through constant critique. 🕯📚
February 8, 2020
Bronte's Mistress, the story of the alleged affair between Branwell Bronte and Lydia Robinson, his employer's wife, is a flawlessly written and meticulously researched novel that allows its readers to feel both the passion and frustration of the time period.
Lydia, a woman born well before her time, was a passionate creature seeking all of life's pleasures. She refused to be hindered by a society that preferred its women seen but not heard, and sometimes not even heard. She suffered at the hands of a husband who didn't know how to love her, and in seeking a life filled with passion made some poor choices. But could she have done any better?
I found this novel spot-on, a worthy read, and just a little bit scary. I fear society is still not entirely comfortable with a woman willing to take life by the horns.
Thank you to the author and Atria books for allowing be to read an Advanced Readers Copy of this book.
I highly recommend this book!
Lydia, a woman born well before her time, was a passionate creature seeking all of life's pleasures. She refused to be hindered by a society that preferred its women seen but not heard, and sometimes not even heard. She suffered at the hands of a husband who didn't know how to love her, and in seeking a life filled with passion made some poor choices. But could she have done any better?
I found this novel spot-on, a worthy read, and just a little bit scary. I fear society is still not entirely comfortable with a woman willing to take life by the horns.
Thank you to the author and Atria books for allowing be to read an Advanced Readers Copy of this book.
I highly recommend this book!
November 13, 2019
A richly atmospheric and compelling portrait of a woman torn between societal expectations and her wish for more, this story of the married woman who had an affair with Branwell Bronte is complex and thoughtful, frustrating and fascinating and hard to put down. In fighting her own passions, her growing daughters, her in-laws, her husband and the rigidity of a woman's life in this time period, Lydia's struggles feel very real. I was very happy to get an early look at this novel and am pleased to recommend it. Bronte's Mistress stayed with me long after I finished it.
January 13, 2020
This was unbelievably tragic and at times quite difficult to read. But wow, absolutely gorgeous writing and amazing attention to historical detail, especially for Bronte fans. I think I read a blurb that said this book is perfect for English majors and die-hard Angophiles, and I'd have to agree with that assessment. Beautifully written, and an ode to women whose voices we have not known because the society they lived in did not appreciate their voices.
May 3, 2021
For my full review: https://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/...
Brontë's Mistress centres around the alleged affair between Branwell Brontë and his employer's wife Mrs Robinson. Mrs Robinson. Yes. She literally was called Mrs Robinson and may indeed have inspired The Graduate. Doo dee doo dee doo doo doo doo dee. Actually the affair isn't very alleged. Branwell was very open about it and seemed to have had the expectation that they would marry if her husband would only do the decent thing and die. And someone was keeping him in gin money during his latter days so even the level-headed Judith Barker (dispeller of most Brontë myths) seems to agree that this incident was legit and that Mrs R probably paid Branwell money post-affair to keep him quiet. So it seems that the Brontë brother really did dip his pen in the company ink and for that he really did get the sack. Mrs Robinson has been one of the various villains of Brontëdom and even threatened to sue Mrs Gaskell for libel when The Life of Charlotte Brontë was published. Finola Austin's novel poses the question as to whether this reputation was strictly deserved.
There has been a trend in recent years for revisionist perspectives on long-vilified females of history and so I was expecting Austin's novel to illicit sympathy for Lydia Robinson. Indeed, early chapters did seem to support this. Through Lydia's first person narration, Austin reminds us that Lydia had recently been bereaved of both her mother and her toddler daughter shortly before Branwell joined the household. Austin imagines an overbearing mother-in-law, an indifferent husband and a lifetime of disappointment. Did Lydia just end up in bed with Branwell out of loneliness and frustration? She would hardly be the first woman to succumb to temptation.
The problem comes from the fact that Lydia is wildly inconsistent as a character. She reminded me vividly of Philippa Gregory's off-kilter depiction of Margaret Beaufort in The Red Queen. In that case, Gregory's own dislike for the House of Lancaster led to her forcing Beaufort into long-winded and incoherent rants. In this case, Lydia veers from mawkish grief to rampant rabbit style pursuit of Branwell to satisfy her long-neglected sexual desires. Most of the time, she seems like a toddler stamping her feet and throwing tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. I could only feel sympathy for her daughters. She seemed exhausting.
But strangest of all was Austin's re-imagining of Lydia' 'relationship' with the Brontë family. Brontë's Mistress supports the idea that Agnes Grey's second section contains a probable portrait of the Murray family. If we accept that, vain society hostess Mrs Murray is likely to be reasonable imitation of the real Lydia. Via her own avatar Agnes, Anne Brontë seems to have struggled with the contempt in which she was held in her position as a governess. Mrs Murray was superficial, fawning vaguely over her children before wandering off again to gaze in a mirror. She scolded Agnes for any attempt to impose discipline and performed impressive mental gymnastics to put the blame for any misdemeanour squarely in the court of the governess rather than her offspring. Mrs Murray had no interest in Agnes' personal life. Yet Austin imagines that Lydia is fascinated by them. And here I found myself incapable of suspending disbelief.
I could just about credit Branwell recounting some of his Angrian stories to her. Having read them, they don't seem like the most natural material for pillow talk. But fine. Maybe he really did call Lydia his 'princess of Angria'. But where it gets very weird is the notion that Charlotte is somehow 'connected' to Lydia. Austin has Branwell tell Lydia that the two of them are 'alike'. Lydia describes Charlotte as her 'twin', her 'distorted mirror image'. She dreams of her often. Most bizarre of all, the novel's climax is when these two women finally meet. It feels incestuous for Branwell to see Lydia as akin to his sister. It also feels absurd to imagine that an attractive and sexually confident woman would have ever felt threatened by someone like Charlotte Brontë who may have been a literary genius but was wracked by self-loathing and social anxiety. Also insulting to compare a literary genius to a character with no creative output. It just ... didn't make sense.
Then things got stranger. Somehow Lydia was granted a strange omniscience over all things Brontë. In the latter section of the novel, she discovers that the Brontë sisters have written novels. She reads them all and pronounces her opinions, describing Wuthering Heights as 'strange and romantic as Emily herself'. On my Kindle, I annotated that with '????????' How would Lydia Robinson possibly know this? Emily was a private woman who she most likely never set eyes on in her life. The further I got with the book, the more I wondered whether Lydia was perhaps not Mrs Robinson, but rather a proxy for the views of Finola Austin herself.
The whole of Brontë's Mistress reads like a piece of misguided pro-Charlotte propaganda, as if the very idea of Charlotte was enough to change Lydia's entire destiny. More upsettingly, there is quite a nasty little scene where Lydia scolds Anne while discussing Branwell:
'Ask Charlotte,' I went on. 'She has some understanding of what Branwell is and of the great writer he could become. Your brother tells me she has his spirit, a twin flame burning red inside her. The same light he saw smouldering in me.'
Miss Brontë raised one eyebrow. How dare she stand in judgment over me? I had a mind and a soul as much as the Miss Brontës. What had any of them ever achieved to hold themselves so high?
I lashed out. 'But you don't have it in you. That is why you will always be in your siblings' shadows'.
Was that a tear, hovering in her eye? If it was, she willed it not to fall. Miss Brontë held every muscle in her body tense as if steeling herself for a physical blow.
This passage felt like the opinion of the author, praising Charlotte and Branwell as superior writers to Anne. And it rubbed me up the wrong way for a variety of reasons:
I am really bored of the Branwell obsession. It's as if rather than saying, 'Wow, three talented authors in one family - incredible!', people instead say, 'But why not the boy? Surely he would have been better than them if only he'd had the opportunities'. Well ... he did get the opportunities, he just squandered them. And I've never found his poetry particularly impressive. Maybe he really was just mediocre.
It's pretty clear that Anne was the best prose stylist within the family. She was maturing fast as a writer and she was cut off in her prime. She wrote Agnes Grey at the same time when Charlotte's best effort was The Professor. Her second published novel was Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Charlotte's second published novel was Shirley. The latter has its moments but it is a bit of a hot mess. Tenant packs one heck of a punch.
In terms of courage, Anne Brontë had it in bucket-loads. Her literal last words were 'take courage', spoken to Charlotte. The reason her books didn't take flight the way that Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights did is that they make people uncomfortable because Anne is writing about issues which the contemporary audience would have rather ignored. Yet Anne did it anyway. Courage. But then after Anne was dead, the less courageous Charlotte (not judging, she was grieving and plus relentless public backlash must have been incredibly difficult) ran round and spread a story of Anne being meek and mild and not knowing what she was doing.
It feels really childish to have to 'pick a sister' within the Brontë fandom. And writing a scene where your lead character makes your not-favourite-sister cry feels ... mean. It reminds me of Harry Potter fan fiction written circa 2005 where authors tried to make Ginnie stupid and rude because they were cross that Harry ended up with her rather than Hermione. Why can't we just accept that all three sisters were literary geniuses with different areas of focus?
It was this scene that made me realise that I couldn't possibly write a review that would align with the goals of Austin's publicity tour.
Structurally speaking, I also found Brontë's Mistress to be quite peculiar. Reading the final section, I felt like it did not make a great deal of sense in terms of plot arc but given that Lydia's movements were motivated due to money worries, I guessed that Austin was just hamstrung by real-life events. Always a problem in historical fiction - life rarely follows a good story mountain pattern. But no. In the afterword, Austin admits that there is 'no evidence' that the Robinsons ever experienced any financial difficulties ... so the whole baffling final section was pure dramatic licence.
Even more peculiar, the story ends with Lydia's confrontation with Charlotte and then a final lament that she could not be Charlotte herself. Which again ... doesn't seem plausible. But it is such a surprising choice. Surely a more obvious choice would have been to include Lydia's reaction to being named in The Life of Charlotte Brontë? Indeed, while I struggle to imagine Lydia caring a jot for the opinion of anybody in the Brontë family, Mrs Gaskell would be more of a worthy adversary. They were both minister's wives, both active in society. Mrs Gaskwell's righteous indignation was clearly something to behold. And then the delicious moment when the new Lady Scott was able to strong-arm Mrs Gaskell into a retreat - what a finale that would have made had it been used.
Brontë's Mistress was a frustrating read because there are occasional glimpses of what it could have been. The real Mrs Robinson really had had an annus horribilis. Maybe she was just in need of validation. Judith Barker noted in her biography that Mrs Robinson was gifted jewellery by her husband not long after Branwell's sacking which suggests that the two of them managed a reconciliation before his death. That would have been an interesting plot. Anguished wife thinks she's found comfort in the arms of the oh-so-understanding young tutor. Tutor turns out to be thoroughly arrogant and entitled and has a drinking problem to boot. What to do? How to extricate herself from this embarrassing and indiscreet affair? To the rescue comes Mr Robinson, her boring yet ultimately forgiving husband. It could have been like the final scene in Brief Encounter. But then - the twist when Lydia's sins return to haunt her via Mrs Gaskell's book! It could have still have been dramatic while also remaining plausible.
I really liked Austin's depiction of Anne's relationship with the Robinson girls. While they did not always treat her fairly, they clearly held her in deep affection. They protest loudly when Lydia ponders dismissing her. When one girl has made a foolish life decision, she goes to find Anne in the middle of the night for comfort. While she finds them frustrating, Anne obviously cares for them and tries to promote their best interests. I also thought that there was something so powerful in Lydia's line in the final chapter, 'Readers were so quick to lap up the sorrows of moping governesses when that was only one side of the story'. She's right. We only hear about the sufferings of Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey and Lucy Snowe ... and indeed William Crimsworth. We have no idea what it must have been like to actually employ them. And it is also true that the Brontë sisters of Haworth knew but little of the daily grind of marriage and motherhood. You can't claim to know the truth about someone else's marriage from the outside. But unfortunately the version of Mrs Robinson who we meet in Brontë's Mistress not one likely to inspire sympathy.
So long cast as the Great Seductress, Mrs Robinson has had an unfair press down the centuries. I would hope that we have reached an era which is more understanding of the toll that motherhood can take on one's mental health. The pandemic has shown how it is consistently women who take on the emotional burden of raising children. And just because Mrs Robinson had a governess and nursemaids does not mean that she did not bring up her own children. But the focus of Brontë's Mistress never seems to be about the stresses and strains of motherhood, it's just that Lydia wants to get laid and to have expensive things. When she moves into the house of her dying cousin with the goal of stealing said cousin's rich husband, the novel reaches pantomime levels of villainy. Lydia is written as someone with very few moral qualms.
Biographical fiction is a tough genre. If it's done carefully then one can gain an exciting insight into a historical figure. If it's done incautiously, it can cause me a physical headache as I worry about what the poor deceased person would think of their image being misused in this manner. I am reminded of the quotation from the final pages of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall:
It's the living that chase the dead. The long bones and skulls are tumbled from their shrouds, and words like stones thrust into their rattling mouths: we edit their writings, we rewrite their lives. Thomas More had spread the rumor that Little Bilney, chained to the stake, had recanted as the fire was set. It wasn't enough for him to take Bilney's life away; he had to take his death too.
Hilary Mantel admitted that this was her way of admitting that her book could be wrong - possibly even morally wrong. To weave your own story around someone who was once living, to thrust your words like stones into their rattling mouths. In this case, I think that Lydia Gisborne, known at other times as Lydia Robinson and Lady Scott, had an ill-advised dalliance with a foolish young man which it is obvious that she came to regret. She would not be the first and she will not be the last to rue such a relationship. I think the burning shame that one can feel at the memory of intimacy with someone who has proved unworthy was punishment enough. To be rendered ridiculous even further via the medium of fiction feels unfair.
Brontë's Mistress centres around the alleged affair between Branwell Brontë and his employer's wife Mrs Robinson. Mrs Robinson. Yes. She literally was called Mrs Robinson and may indeed have inspired The Graduate. Doo dee doo dee doo doo doo doo dee. Actually the affair isn't very alleged. Branwell was very open about it and seemed to have had the expectation that they would marry if her husband would only do the decent thing and die. And someone was keeping him in gin money during his latter days so even the level-headed Judith Barker (dispeller of most Brontë myths) seems to agree that this incident was legit and that Mrs R probably paid Branwell money post-affair to keep him quiet. So it seems that the Brontë brother really did dip his pen in the company ink and for that he really did get the sack. Mrs Robinson has been one of the various villains of Brontëdom and even threatened to sue Mrs Gaskell for libel when The Life of Charlotte Brontë was published. Finola Austin's novel poses the question as to whether this reputation was strictly deserved.
There has been a trend in recent years for revisionist perspectives on long-vilified females of history and so I was expecting Austin's novel to illicit sympathy for Lydia Robinson. Indeed, early chapters did seem to support this. Through Lydia's first person narration, Austin reminds us that Lydia had recently been bereaved of both her mother and her toddler daughter shortly before Branwell joined the household. Austin imagines an overbearing mother-in-law, an indifferent husband and a lifetime of disappointment. Did Lydia just end up in bed with Branwell out of loneliness and frustration? She would hardly be the first woman to succumb to temptation.
The problem comes from the fact that Lydia is wildly inconsistent as a character. She reminded me vividly of Philippa Gregory's off-kilter depiction of Margaret Beaufort in The Red Queen. In that case, Gregory's own dislike for the House of Lancaster led to her forcing Beaufort into long-winded and incoherent rants. In this case, Lydia veers from mawkish grief to rampant rabbit style pursuit of Branwell to satisfy her long-neglected sexual desires. Most of the time, she seems like a toddler stamping her feet and throwing tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. I could only feel sympathy for her daughters. She seemed exhausting.
But strangest of all was Austin's re-imagining of Lydia' 'relationship' with the Brontë family. Brontë's Mistress supports the idea that Agnes Grey's second section contains a probable portrait of the Murray family. If we accept that, vain society hostess Mrs Murray is likely to be reasonable imitation of the real Lydia. Via her own avatar Agnes, Anne Brontë seems to have struggled with the contempt in which she was held in her position as a governess. Mrs Murray was superficial, fawning vaguely over her children before wandering off again to gaze in a mirror. She scolded Agnes for any attempt to impose discipline and performed impressive mental gymnastics to put the blame for any misdemeanour squarely in the court of the governess rather than her offspring. Mrs Murray had no interest in Agnes' personal life. Yet Austin imagines that Lydia is fascinated by them. And here I found myself incapable of suspending disbelief.
I could just about credit Branwell recounting some of his Angrian stories to her. Having read them, they don't seem like the most natural material for pillow talk. But fine. Maybe he really did call Lydia his 'princess of Angria'. But where it gets very weird is the notion that Charlotte is somehow 'connected' to Lydia. Austin has Branwell tell Lydia that the two of them are 'alike'. Lydia describes Charlotte as her 'twin', her 'distorted mirror image'. She dreams of her often. Most bizarre of all, the novel's climax is when these two women finally meet. It feels incestuous for Branwell to see Lydia as akin to his sister. It also feels absurd to imagine that an attractive and sexually confident woman would have ever felt threatened by someone like Charlotte Brontë who may have been a literary genius but was wracked by self-loathing and social anxiety. Also insulting to compare a literary genius to a character with no creative output. It just ... didn't make sense.
Then things got stranger. Somehow Lydia was granted a strange omniscience over all things Brontë. In the latter section of the novel, she discovers that the Brontë sisters have written novels. She reads them all and pronounces her opinions, describing Wuthering Heights as 'strange and romantic as Emily herself'. On my Kindle, I annotated that with '????????' How would Lydia Robinson possibly know this? Emily was a private woman who she most likely never set eyes on in her life. The further I got with the book, the more I wondered whether Lydia was perhaps not Mrs Robinson, but rather a proxy for the views of Finola Austin herself.
The whole of Brontë's Mistress reads like a piece of misguided pro-Charlotte propaganda, as if the very idea of Charlotte was enough to change Lydia's entire destiny. More upsettingly, there is quite a nasty little scene where Lydia scolds Anne while discussing Branwell:
'Ask Charlotte,' I went on. 'She has some understanding of what Branwell is and of the great writer he could become. Your brother tells me she has his spirit, a twin flame burning red inside her. The same light he saw smouldering in me.'
Miss Brontë raised one eyebrow. How dare she stand in judgment over me? I had a mind and a soul as much as the Miss Brontës. What had any of them ever achieved to hold themselves so high?
I lashed out. 'But you don't have it in you. That is why you will always be in your siblings' shadows'.
Was that a tear, hovering in her eye? If it was, she willed it not to fall. Miss Brontë held every muscle in her body tense as if steeling herself for a physical blow.
This passage felt like the opinion of the author, praising Charlotte and Branwell as superior writers to Anne. And it rubbed me up the wrong way for a variety of reasons:
I am really bored of the Branwell obsession. It's as if rather than saying, 'Wow, three talented authors in one family - incredible!', people instead say, 'But why not the boy? Surely he would have been better than them if only he'd had the opportunities'. Well ... he did get the opportunities, he just squandered them. And I've never found his poetry particularly impressive. Maybe he really was just mediocre.
It's pretty clear that Anne was the best prose stylist within the family. She was maturing fast as a writer and she was cut off in her prime. She wrote Agnes Grey at the same time when Charlotte's best effort was The Professor. Her second published novel was Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Charlotte's second published novel was Shirley. The latter has its moments but it is a bit of a hot mess. Tenant packs one heck of a punch.
In terms of courage, Anne Brontë had it in bucket-loads. Her literal last words were 'take courage', spoken to Charlotte. The reason her books didn't take flight the way that Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights did is that they make people uncomfortable because Anne is writing about issues which the contemporary audience would have rather ignored. Yet Anne did it anyway. Courage. But then after Anne was dead, the less courageous Charlotte (not judging, she was grieving and plus relentless public backlash must have been incredibly difficult) ran round and spread a story of Anne being meek and mild and not knowing what she was doing.
It feels really childish to have to 'pick a sister' within the Brontë fandom. And writing a scene where your lead character makes your not-favourite-sister cry feels ... mean. It reminds me of Harry Potter fan fiction written circa 2005 where authors tried to make Ginnie stupid and rude because they were cross that Harry ended up with her rather than Hermione. Why can't we just accept that all three sisters were literary geniuses with different areas of focus?
It was this scene that made me realise that I couldn't possibly write a review that would align with the goals of Austin's publicity tour.
Structurally speaking, I also found Brontë's Mistress to be quite peculiar. Reading the final section, I felt like it did not make a great deal of sense in terms of plot arc but given that Lydia's movements were motivated due to money worries, I guessed that Austin was just hamstrung by real-life events. Always a problem in historical fiction - life rarely follows a good story mountain pattern. But no. In the afterword, Austin admits that there is 'no evidence' that the Robinsons ever experienced any financial difficulties ... so the whole baffling final section was pure dramatic licence.
Even more peculiar, the story ends with Lydia's confrontation with Charlotte and then a final lament that she could not be Charlotte herself. Which again ... doesn't seem plausible. But it is such a surprising choice. Surely a more obvious choice would have been to include Lydia's reaction to being named in The Life of Charlotte Brontë? Indeed, while I struggle to imagine Lydia caring a jot for the opinion of anybody in the Brontë family, Mrs Gaskell would be more of a worthy adversary. They were both minister's wives, both active in society. Mrs Gaskwell's righteous indignation was clearly something to behold. And then the delicious moment when the new Lady Scott was able to strong-arm Mrs Gaskell into a retreat - what a finale that would have made had it been used.
Brontë's Mistress was a frustrating read because there are occasional glimpses of what it could have been. The real Mrs Robinson really had had an annus horribilis. Maybe she was just in need of validation. Judith Barker noted in her biography that Mrs Robinson was gifted jewellery by her husband not long after Branwell's sacking which suggests that the two of them managed a reconciliation before his death. That would have been an interesting plot. Anguished wife thinks she's found comfort in the arms of the oh-so-understanding young tutor. Tutor turns out to be thoroughly arrogant and entitled and has a drinking problem to boot. What to do? How to extricate herself from this embarrassing and indiscreet affair? To the rescue comes Mr Robinson, her boring yet ultimately forgiving husband. It could have been like the final scene in Brief Encounter. But then - the twist when Lydia's sins return to haunt her via Mrs Gaskell's book! It could have still have been dramatic while also remaining plausible.
I really liked Austin's depiction of Anne's relationship with the Robinson girls. While they did not always treat her fairly, they clearly held her in deep affection. They protest loudly when Lydia ponders dismissing her. When one girl has made a foolish life decision, she goes to find Anne in the middle of the night for comfort. While she finds them frustrating, Anne obviously cares for them and tries to promote their best interests. I also thought that there was something so powerful in Lydia's line in the final chapter, 'Readers were so quick to lap up the sorrows of moping governesses when that was only one side of the story'. She's right. We only hear about the sufferings of Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey and Lucy Snowe ... and indeed William Crimsworth. We have no idea what it must have been like to actually employ them. And it is also true that the Brontë sisters of Haworth knew but little of the daily grind of marriage and motherhood. You can't claim to know the truth about someone else's marriage from the outside. But unfortunately the version of Mrs Robinson who we meet in Brontë's Mistress not one likely to inspire sympathy.
So long cast as the Great Seductress, Mrs Robinson has had an unfair press down the centuries. I would hope that we have reached an era which is more understanding of the toll that motherhood can take on one's mental health. The pandemic has shown how it is consistently women who take on the emotional burden of raising children. And just because Mrs Robinson had a governess and nursemaids does not mean that she did not bring up her own children. But the focus of Brontë's Mistress never seems to be about the stresses and strains of motherhood, it's just that Lydia wants to get laid and to have expensive things. When she moves into the house of her dying cousin with the goal of stealing said cousin's rich husband, the novel reaches pantomime levels of villainy. Lydia is written as someone with very few moral qualms.
Biographical fiction is a tough genre. If it's done carefully then one can gain an exciting insight into a historical figure. If it's done incautiously, it can cause me a physical headache as I worry about what the poor deceased person would think of their image being misused in this manner. I am reminded of the quotation from the final pages of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall:
It's the living that chase the dead. The long bones and skulls are tumbled from their shrouds, and words like stones thrust into their rattling mouths: we edit their writings, we rewrite their lives. Thomas More had spread the rumor that Little Bilney, chained to the stake, had recanted as the fire was set. It wasn't enough for him to take Bilney's life away; he had to take his death too.
Hilary Mantel admitted that this was her way of admitting that her book could be wrong - possibly even morally wrong. To weave your own story around someone who was once living, to thrust your words like stones into their rattling mouths. In this case, I think that Lydia Gisborne, known at other times as Lydia Robinson and Lady Scott, had an ill-advised dalliance with a foolish young man which it is obvious that she came to regret. She would not be the first and she will not be the last to rue such a relationship. I think the burning shame that one can feel at the memory of intimacy with someone who has proved unworthy was punishment enough. To be rendered ridiculous even further via the medium of fiction feels unfair.
December 16, 2020
The Brontës. Their novels are some of my absolute favorites to read and re-read. Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Agnes Grey are books that had such an impression on me as a teenage reader.
There’s always been some mystery around what actually happened between the Brontë sisters’ brother, Branwell and Mrs. Robinson. The consensus is that there was an affair and that she likely ruined poor Branwell. Now, whether any of that is true–I guess we’ll really never know. Whether Lydia Robinson was a nefarious employer who took advantage–will remain a mystery.
But, Austin writes a remarkable story on what, in her mind, might have happened.
I won’t lie. This book, while very well written and intriguing, was a challenge for me. I adore books that are full of lively, colorful, sympathetic characters. However, I found that Brontë’s Mistress was full of people that just, quite frankly, couldn’t get behind.
Lydia Robinson was written as a sad, unloved woman. She recently lost her precious baby daughter, and her husband’s love, all in the same year. To be in a marriage like that would be abominable. However, I found Lydia to be the kind of character that had absolutely no care for how her actions affected anyone else–including her living children, whom she barely seemed to tolerate.
Branwell, as fleeting as he was in the story, just seemed a joke. He was a drunken man, looking for love. Full of poetry and inspiration, he latched on to Mrs. Robinson and saw something in her that no one else could see.
Forgetting the fact that I didn’t care for the characters–including Mr. Robinson–This story was wonderfully written and told. Austin absolutely immersed me in this story and kept me hooked, waiting to see what trouble would befall our main players.
I’m thrilled to have gotten the chance to read this. And, I’m really excited to read more by this author.
There’s always been some mystery around what actually happened between the Brontë sisters’ brother, Branwell and Mrs. Robinson. The consensus is that there was an affair and that she likely ruined poor Branwell. Now, whether any of that is true–I guess we’ll really never know. Whether Lydia Robinson was a nefarious employer who took advantage–will remain a mystery.
But, Austin writes a remarkable story on what, in her mind, might have happened.
I won’t lie. This book, while very well written and intriguing, was a challenge for me. I adore books that are full of lively, colorful, sympathetic characters. However, I found that Brontë’s Mistress was full of people that just, quite frankly, couldn’t get behind.
Lydia Robinson was written as a sad, unloved woman. She recently lost her precious baby daughter, and her husband’s love, all in the same year. To be in a marriage like that would be abominable. However, I found Lydia to be the kind of character that had absolutely no care for how her actions affected anyone else–including her living children, whom she barely seemed to tolerate.
Branwell, as fleeting as he was in the story, just seemed a joke. He was a drunken man, looking for love. Full of poetry and inspiration, he latched on to Mrs. Robinson and saw something in her that no one else could see.
Forgetting the fact that I didn’t care for the characters–including Mr. Robinson–This story was wonderfully written and told. Austin absolutely immersed me in this story and kept me hooked, waiting to see what trouble would befall our main players.
I’m thrilled to have gotten the chance to read this. And, I’m really excited to read more by this author.
November 11, 2019
Lydia Robinson, the married woman with whom Branwell Bronte allegedly had an affair, tells her own side of the story in Finola Austin's beautifully written and meticulously researched novel, Bronte's Mistress, which I was lucky to get the chance to read in advance of publication (thank you to Finola Austin and Atria!)
Austin's Lydia--unhappily married, affection-starved, and unfulfilled--is exquisitely nuanced. I felt deeply for her, even as I was frustrated by some of her choices. The affair with Branwell is merely one facet in a finely-cut gem of a larger story. Austin's great strength is that she is able to write so that both Lydia's own strengths and weaknesses seamlessly coexist, creating a thoroughly, beautifully, complicatedly human character. One gets the feeling that, were she born into a different time, Lydia truly could have become the person she wants to be; there is true tragedy in seeing her fall back, again and again, into the same societal traps against which she also rails.
Bronte's Mistress gives voice to a woman who, until now, has been voiceless; and, indeed, to thousands of women whose lives, like Lydia's, were so terribly suffocating.
Austin's Lydia--unhappily married, affection-starved, and unfulfilled--is exquisitely nuanced. I felt deeply for her, even as I was frustrated by some of her choices. The affair with Branwell is merely one facet in a finely-cut gem of a larger story. Austin's great strength is that she is able to write so that both Lydia's own strengths and weaknesses seamlessly coexist, creating a thoroughly, beautifully, complicatedly human character. One gets the feeling that, were she born into a different time, Lydia truly could have become the person she wants to be; there is true tragedy in seeing her fall back, again and again, into the same societal traps against which she also rails.
Bronte's Mistress gives voice to a woman who, until now, has been voiceless; and, indeed, to thousands of women whose lives, like Lydia's, were so terribly suffocating.
August 10, 2023
3,5 passionate stars!
🍎🍎🍎
Historical fiction that sheds light to the much speculated affair of Branwell Bronte and his employer's wife, Lydia Robinson. The affair that, allegedly, was the beginning of the end for the Bronte family and esp. , Branwell. The book is full of actual facts concerning the Bronte family but they are partly fictionalised because after all "Bronte's mistress" is a novel and a work of fiction. Finola Austin did a good job in researching and adding real events of the Bronte siblings here and there into her book. I was almost convinced that it was truly Lydia Robinson narrating the events of her scandalous life.
I can easily guess which Bronte sister is the writer's favourite one, after mentioning her all the time. It is Charlotte, who is my personal favourite as well. However, i do love Emily's and Anne's work just the same but Charlotte has written my all time favourite book, Jane Eyre, so yeah, she is in the top of my list.
3,5 stars for Finola and her wonderful exploration of what might have been a scandalous affair between two historical figures. Loved it!
🍎🍎🍎
Historical fiction that sheds light to the much speculated affair of Branwell Bronte and his employer's wife, Lydia Robinson. The affair that, allegedly, was the beginning of the end for the Bronte family and esp. , Branwell. The book is full of actual facts concerning the Bronte family but they are partly fictionalised because after all "Bronte's mistress" is a novel and a work of fiction. Finola Austin did a good job in researching and adding real events of the Bronte siblings here and there into her book. I was almost convinced that it was truly Lydia Robinson narrating the events of her scandalous life.
I can easily guess which Bronte sister is the writer's favourite one, after mentioning her all the time. It is Charlotte, who is my personal favourite as well. However, i do love Emily's and Anne's work just the same but Charlotte has written my all time favourite book, Jane Eyre, so yeah, she is in the top of my list.
3,5 stars for Finola and her wonderful exploration of what might have been a scandalous affair between two historical figures. Loved it!
September 18, 2020
I love reading about the Brontë sisters, but I must admit, I have never cared for nor been interested in learning more about their wayward brother, even though he was so dear to them. This fictional take on the supposed affair that aided his spiral into ruin intrigued me, though, and while Branwell fills the pages, it is Lydia who is center stage in this tale. This was a winsomely written exploration of two lost, passionate souls gravitating toward one another. The characters are complex and while none of them are entirely likable, they always felt authentic. Women have always been painted as Eves in the garden, tempting Adam to ruin, and I loved the authors forthright, unapologetic approach to the character of Lydia. She is a woman trapped in a lonely union, past the gleam of youth, and grieving, but she is also someone who longs for passion and who is a tenacious survivor. Even when she is not sympathetic, she is always admirable. This is an evocative tale that is impeccably researched, and though the pace is quite slow in places, I found it a rewarding read.
February 17, 2020
Brontë’s Mistress really fell flat for me. The story had so much potential and while there were aspects that I found compelling, the characters were uninspired and not well rounded. There was very little depth and I was not able to be fully pulled into the story. Mrs. Robinson was not a like-able character. She was extremely needy and melodramatic. I struggled with understanding the attraction that Branwell had with her and vice versa. The relationship progressed with little interaction between the two and I was left feeling like I missed something. I wish the characters were written with more personality and life. This book had potential, it just didn’t work for me.
My thanks to @netgalley and Atria for the ARC.
My thanks to @netgalley and Atria for the ARC.
August 4, 2020
Lydia Robinson entered history as the seducer of the much younger Branwell Bronte. More than a hundred years later, Finola Austin gives her the chance to tell her side of the tale.
Bronte’s Mistress is an outstanding book that takes historical facts and expands them into compelling fiction. The Bronte siblings and the Robinson family come to life in an entrancing and realistic way.
Branwell Bronte was the less-known brother of the famous Bronte sisters. He was a dreamer, a poet that drunk in excess and had difficulties staying employed.
Trying to keep him away from trouble, his family sent him to work at the same house as his younger sister Anne. Anne was the Robinson’s governess, and Branwell became tutor to their only son Ned.
While in this post, Branwell got acquainted with the lady of the house, Mrs. Lydia Robinson.
Lydia was facing a middle-age crisis. Her marriage was lukewarm at best, and she was possibly depressed. Branwell’s youth and energy made her feel restored and loved. She saw in his troubled temperament a reflex of her own internal turmoil.
The author did an excellent job describing Lydia’s personality and its numerous facets. She took the time to show the many tons of gray that lay in between the black and white facts.
Both Lydia and Branwell were very flawed, and the author did not make excuses for them. I like how she balanced the story showing their vulnerabilities, their reasoning, and the villainy that surrounded them.
Lydia was a force to be reckoned with. Finola Austin brings her to the spotlight and exorcizes the many prejudices she faced as a woman of her time. The result is fascinating and inspiring.
Bronte’s Mistress is a must-read debut. Highly recommended!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Bronte’s Mistress is an outstanding book that takes historical facts and expands them into compelling fiction. The Bronte siblings and the Robinson family come to life in an entrancing and realistic way.
Branwell Bronte was the less-known brother of the famous Bronte sisters. He was a dreamer, a poet that drunk in excess and had difficulties staying employed.
Trying to keep him away from trouble, his family sent him to work at the same house as his younger sister Anne. Anne was the Robinson’s governess, and Branwell became tutor to their only son Ned.
While in this post, Branwell got acquainted with the lady of the house, Mrs. Lydia Robinson.
Lydia was facing a middle-age crisis. Her marriage was lukewarm at best, and she was possibly depressed. Branwell’s youth and energy made her feel restored and loved. She saw in his troubled temperament a reflex of her own internal turmoil.
The author did an excellent job describing Lydia’s personality and its numerous facets. She took the time to show the many tons of gray that lay in between the black and white facts.
Both Lydia and Branwell were very flawed, and the author did not make excuses for them. I like how she balanced the story showing their vulnerabilities, their reasoning, and the villainy that surrounded them.
Lydia was a force to be reckoned with. Finola Austin brings her to the spotlight and exorcizes the many prejudices she faced as a woman of her time. The result is fascinating and inspiring.
Bronte’s Mistress is a must-read debut. Highly recommended!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
September 1, 2025
Enjoyed this way more than I expected! Finola Austin really did a great job with this, seamlessly blending historical realism and just enough of the Bronte biography to keep fans engaged while also creating a whole new cast of characters. I feel like she didn't go for the obvious here which I appreciated--pretending it was some love story between Lydia and Branwell--she actually leaned into some of the views on Lydia Robinson at the time and created a character who felt really real because she was truly not likeable at times yet you understood where she was coming from. I think this book really showed how impossible it is to be a woman and how many contradictions there are --**cue America Ferrera's monologue in Barbie**--and it still felt very real to modern day. Lydia was not a nice mother and she sometimes bordered on delusional but I didn't find myself repulsed by her as I would have been with a lesser writer, I think.
I liked the perspective on Branwell Bronte and Charlotte really haunted the narrative throughout, but one thing that I kept thinking is how the family would probably not be remembered at all if it weren't for the fact that they had a poor, plain, and unobtrusive governess who turned out to be the legend Anne Bronte!
-A line that really stuck out to me: "Give up your body for years to birth them, stand quiet when they reject, deceive, abuse you and, if you are a mother, you will still be called selfish, probably by the very man who gave your children nothing but his name." - p. 126
I liked the perspective on Branwell Bronte and Charlotte really haunted the narrative throughout, but one thing that I kept thinking is how the family would probably not be remembered at all if it weren't for the fact that they had a poor, plain, and unobtrusive governess who turned out to be the legend Anne Bronte!
-A line that really stuck out to me: "Give up your body for years to birth them, stand quiet when they reject, deceive, abuse you and, if you are a mother, you will still be called selfish, probably by the very man who gave your children nothing but his name." - p. 126
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