The Brontës (Authors in Context)

by Ingham, Patricia

• ISBN13: 9780192840356
• ISBN10: 0192840355
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-03-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The extraordinary creativity of the Bronte 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 havebecome 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, Patricia Ingham also shows how film and other media have reinterpreted the novels for the twenty-first century.The book includes a chronology of the Brontes, suggestions for further reading, websites, illustrations, and a comprehensive index.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
A Chronology of the Brontës	xii
Abbreviations	xx
1. The Lives of Charlotte, Emily; and Anne Brontë	1	(36)
The Family Circle	1	(10)
Pupils and Teachers	11	(6)
The Wider World: Brussels	17	(7)
The Literary Arena: Triumph and Despair	24	(6)
The Solitary Life of a Literary Celebrity	30	(3)
Marriage and a New Family Circle	33	(4)
2. The Fabric of Society	37	(33)
The Game of Politics 1815-1855	38	(6)
Social Class	44	(6)
The Nature and Roles of Women	50	(7)
Varieties of Religion	57	(3)
Madness and the Mind	60	(6)
The Empire and the Orient	66	(4)
3. The Literary Context	70	(30)
Literary Resources	70	(6)
Angria and Gondal	76	(5)
Publishing, Publication, and Reviewing	81	(6)
Censorship and Public Taste	87	(4)
The Brontës on the Novel	91	(9)
4. The Brontës' Novels and Social Class	100	(28)
Class Boundaries	100	(2)
Policing the Frontier: the Governess Problem	102	(3)
The Sufferings of the Governess	105	(5)
Class Conflict in Shirley	110	(11)
Social Mobility in Wuthering Heights	121	(7)
5. Gender, Nationality, and Race in the Brontës' Novels	128	(27)
English Femininity and Domestic Life	128	(8)
Escaping Feminine Stereotypes	136	(5)
Eastern Feminity and Jane Eyre	141	(5)
Masculinity	146	(9)
6. The Brontës and the Psyche: Mind and Body	155	(29)
Reading the Mind	155	(12)
The Secret Self	167	(9)
Gothic States of Mind	176	(8)
7. Religion in the Brontës' Works	184	(31)
The Politics of Religion	184	(11)
Religion as Ethics	195	(12)
Wuthering Heights and Christianity	207	(8)
8. Recontextualizing the Brontes	215	(36)
1850-1900 Adaptations and Criticism	216	(7)
1890-1930 Early Twentieth-Century Films and Criticism	223	(3)
1930-1970 Films and Criticism	226	(8)
1970-2000 Criticism, Films, Television, and Opera	234	(17)
Notes	251	(5)
Further Reading	256	(6)
Websites	262	(1)
Film and Television Adaptations of the Brontës' Novels	263	(2)
Index	265