This stimulating study of Charlotte Bronte's novels draws on extensive original research in a range of early Victorian writings, on subjects ranging from women's day-dreaming to sanitary reform, from the Great Exhibition to early Victorian religious thought. It is not, however, merely a study of context.

Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (Bloom's Guides)

Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", set among the rugged beauty of the English moors, is the tragic and passionate story of Catherine and Heathcliff, two lovers drawn together from the moment they meet. Their love is consuming and destructive, forbidden and inescapable, making Bronte's tale an enduring classic of English literature. This new Bloom's Guides volume offers clear analysis perfect for students seeking valuable insight into this haunting tale praised for its innovative structure, originality, and poetic style.

The Tennant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

  Anne Bronte's second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, was described as "coarse" and "brutal" at the time it was written (1848). Nineteenth century convention was that women belonged in the home, under their husbands thumb. (Indeed, the idiom "rule of thumb" comes from the law that a man could not beat his wife with anything thicker than his thumb). Bronte, however, goes against custom in this novel of perseverance and pride.

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Villette is Charlotte Brontë's last novel, published in 1853. After an unspecified family disaster, protagonist Lucy Snowe travels to the fictional city of Villette to teach at an all-girls school where she is unwillingly pulled into both adventure and romance. However, the novel is celebrated not so much for its plot as in its acute tracing of Lucy’s psychology, particularly Bronte’s use of Gothic doubling to represent externally what her protagonist is suffering internally.

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

When her family becomes impoverished after a disastrous financial speculation, Agnes Grey determines to find work as a governess in order to contribute to their meagre income and assert her independence. But Agnes' enthusiasm is swiftly extinguished as she struggles first with the unmanageable children and then with the painful disdain of the family. Anne Bronte's first novel offers a compelling personal perspective on the desperate position of unmarried, educated women for whom becoming a governess was the only respectable career open in Victorian society.