The Brontës

by Patricia Ingham

The extraordinary creativity of the Brontë sisters, who between them wrote some of the most enduring fiction in the English language, continues to fascinate and intrigue modern readers. The tragedy of their early deaths adds poignancy to their novels, and in the popular imagination they have become mythic figures. And yet, as Patricia Ingham shows, they were fully engaged with the world around them, and their writing, from the juvenilia to Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, reflects the preoccupations of the age in which they lived. Their novels, which so shocked their contemporaries, address the burning issues of the day: class, gender, race, religion, and mental disorders. As well as examining these connections, Ingham also shows how film and other media have reinterpreted the novels for the twenty-first century.

The Brontës is a lively, accessible, and critically topical exploration of the novels of the three sisters, and includes a chronology of the Brontës' websites, illustrations, a comprehensive index, and suggestions for further reading.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Classics, Books About Books, History, Criticism, English Literature

304 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2002

About the author

Patricia Ingham is senior research fellow and reader at St. Anne's College, Oxford. She is the general editor of Thomas Hardy's fiction in Penguin Classics and edited Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South for the series.

Reviews

[Moira · Rating 1 out of 5]

So far (p 44), biographical/cultural details are rather disappointing - sketchy and Victoriana/Bronte 101 (Branwell was dismissed as a railway clerk! here are the Corn Laws!) - reading this for some of the later critical chapters, including one about cinematic adaptations I already read. Someone really ought to write a satire about the Bronte/Woolf/Shelley-Byron-&c biographical industries....Satisfyingly, Charlotte is presented as more prickly, Emily as less otherworldly and Anne with more strength of character than in other Bronte books I've read.

(p 102) omfg slog slog SLOG slog through this book, which is not only dull and worse, inaccurate in not a few places, but also v awkwardly written. To forestall the inevitable 'If you hate it so much why are you still reading it?' question - 1. I read everything I can get my hands on about the Brontes. Everything. They are my homegirls. I look for every crumb of insight I can find about them no matter how much chaff I have to winnow to get it. 2. It's by the OUP and I thought it would be much better and 3. I actually hate abandoning books. I don't casually read, or read books I don't like, for just this reason. It drives me nuts to do so. Yes I put the - in anal-retentive, but after about 10-20 pp or so, I will grind through something rather than put it down.

....also, altho the book is about 'The Brontes,' it focuses somewhat inevitably on Charlotte -- since a lot of her letters and juvenilia still exists. At least Anne and Emily get some running analysis throughout the whole book rather than being confined to a chapter or two....altho using Heathcliff as an example of supposed class mobility really is something for the angels to weep over.

During the entire (dull, lengthy, and unsympathetic) discussion of Shirley Charlotte Bronte is taken to task for not being Elizabeth Gaskell. sigh. I suppose Charlotte does bring it on herself somewhat, and I've certainly never been able to read Shirley myself (and I don't believe anyone who says they enjoy it -- altho come to think of it I don't think I've heard anyone say that, ever) but REALLY. ET TU, OUP?

(234) If this author mentions 'Marxist Terry Eagleton's Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontes (1975) (GOSH I thought Eagleton was a LIBERTARIAN! //eyeroll) in a book written in 2006 I will reach through the page and bitchslap her, not least because of his crappy views on gender, which she handwaves away. My marginal count is six times so far.

[lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. It offered an really useful insight to the Bronte novels in terms of their context, so it included topics like religion, class, gender, psychology, etc. Taking that into consideration, I probably wouldn't recommend this for a leisurely read - I only picked it up because I'm doing my dissertation on Charlotte and I thought it would be useful to bring into my discussion. In terms of the actual reading, it was a little heavy, sometimes bordering on the line of a little tedious, however some chapters were really engaging. For example, I really enjoyed the chapters on the "gothic states of mind", "Wuthering Heights and Christianity" as well as the lives of the family and the fabrics of society. They were full of useful and interesting discussions on the novels, offering perspectives I've never thought of.

I would definitely recommend reading all of the Bronte novels before picking this up though. I sometimes got lost when Ingham discussed certain novels and poetry which I hadn't read - it was hard to give my full attention to these chapters because a) I had no idea what was going on and b) I didn't want to get spoiled (but, alas, I did). Other than that, I have nothing bad to say about this one. It was well researched - Ingham covered a whole range of things, from biographical readings, to contextual, to psychological, to Marxist, etc. She even spoke in detail about different adaptations of their novels, from an early stage production in the late 1800s to an early 2000s opera adaptation of Jane Eyre. It's clear she spent a lot of time gathering information, re-reading the novels to pick out the useful quotations, and doing extra reading to support her points. Very engaging read!

[Matthew Gurteen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-Read: April 2023

Upon re-reading, I have decided to lower my rating to four stars. Although this is still a must-read for anyone who is studying or writing about any of the Brontës, it is not as comprehensive as it could be. It is a unique hybrid of biography and literary criticism. In being both, however, it is simultaneously neither. This book must be read alongside others.
,
Original Review: March 2020

A must-read for anyone who is studying or writing about any of The Brontës: sisters, Branwell or Patrick. Although I would not recommend this book as a biography, it does offer a lot of useful insights into the Victorian society that influenced their writing. I particularly enjoyed the information on Catholic Emancipation and its impact on all three of the sisters' religious world views.

[Ape · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative and a must read for anyone interested in the works of the Bronte sisters. It does assume you've read all the books by the sisters, so if you hate spoilers, it might be better to read all the novels before picking up this book. There are chapters on the lives of the sisters, their literature; and then on society at the time, social structure, gender, class, race, religion, states of mind and how all these aspects of life appear in their books and indeed how their writing was affected by these issues. There's also a final chapter on the various interpretations of the books over the decades since they were written. The stories have not always been told as faithful copies of the books. Interestingly this was done to what was required by society at the time - for example as the second world war was coming to a close, Jane Eyre is meek and mild with no fire in her, and is there only to serve macho Rochester. Perhaps to "help" the women who had taken up all the vacant jobs to return to the kitchen as the men returned from war. It made me wonder if this still happens with films and tv series today, certain themes put in to manipulate society.
Another thing I'd never considered was the standard interest and belief in phrenology (lumps and bumps on the head) and physiognomist (that various facial features represent personality traits) and that the Brontes followed all this - so those overly detailed descriptions of characters' faces aren't just them getting over descriptive on a visual sense, but they are also showing you the character's personality in that way.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really enjoyable biography/literary criticism of the Bronte sisters and their works. Author Patricia Ingham provides the cultural, historical and religious backdrop to the sisters' books and notes the different ways in which each one of them challenged the role of women and the middle class in their society.

I particularly liked how Ingham addressed the under representation of Anne Bronte and her works despite her own contributions to literature in bringing issues of alcoholism and abuse to light in a time period when such things were not talked about. Though not light reading, it is well worth the read as it is meticulously researched and flows very well. Ingham clearly presents various sides and treatment in literary criticism, plays, movies and society's reactions to the books in different time periods and how it shaped the way they were analyzed and portrayed on the stage and screen. She also notes the rise and fall of the popularity of the more well known of the Bronte canon like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights according to what was happening in the world at given times, like recessions and world wars. An enjoyable read that made me want to check out more of Ingham's work.

[ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read. Very helpful in explaining the historical and social context in which the Bronte sisters lived and published their works. Very good information also on "the making of Britain" for a non Brit.
The last chapter on "Recontextualizing the Brontes" and how their works have been presented, interpreted and re-interpreted until the 2000's was my favourite.

[Destiny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first part of this and it shed more insight upon the Bronte family. But I admit around the second half of the book I started to get bored and I skimmed a bit. But the bibliography is excellent.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything you could ever want to know about the Bronte sisters. I do wish it would've gonr into Victorianism more, but that's really my only complaint. Overall a nice and enlightening read for my Bronte class.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent contextual material with some criticism for my A-level English Literature students to consider.

[mae]

there's only so much you can do with a book like this but i felt like it lacked nuance in a lot of instances. it works well as a very basic, general overview