Charlotte Brontë’s Unfinished Novels: Ashworth

Introduction Charlotte Brontë is best remembered as the author of Jane Eyre (1847), a literary masterpiece and my favourite novel of all time. In her lifetime she also published two other novels, Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853). Another novel, The Professor, was published posthumously in 1857 after being rejected by publishers a decade earlier. Prior to this in 1846, Poems by Charlotte and her…

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The Mother of the Brontës by Sharon Wright – Review

Despite our love of and fascination with the Brontës, there are still many gaps in the story of the world's most famous literary sisters. In our quest to better know the lives, hearts, and minds of those who penned literary classics such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Brontëites have attempted to find out…

Literary Discoveries in 2019

At the beginning of 2019 I drew up my reading challenge for the year and aimed to read at least 30 news books in addition to ticking off specific tasks such as reading a new piece of Brontë inspired fiction. I hoped that by making a list, I would be able to read more widely.…

Haworth and the Brontë Bell Chapel, Thornton

The small village of Haworth in West Yorkshire is famous for being the home of the Brontë family. It's a place I've loved to visit over the last few years, often accompanied by our lovely fluffy friend, Bob the bichon. Since Bob's passing in April, I hadn't felt able to return to Haworth because I…

Beautiful Brontë Books

Here's a post with few words and lots of photos of various Brontë books that I own or have come across in libraries over the past few years. I'm mainly steering clear of Brontë inspired fiction though as I blog about this quite a bit. Reader, do you own any of these editions?    …

Two Romantic Tales by Charlotte Brontë -Part Two: An Adventure in Ireland

In my last post, Two Romantic Tales by Charlotte Brontë -Part One: The Twelve Adventurers, I looked at the origins of the Brontës' famous twelve toy soldiers both on and off the page. Presented to Branwell in 1826 by the siblings' father, Patrick, these characters kickstarted the Brontë juvenilia on the page and were arguably the literary…

Two Romantic Tales by Charlotte Brontë -Part One: The Twelve Adventurers

The origins of the Brontë juvenilia are now legendary. Patrick Brontë's gift of 12 toy soldiers to his son, Branwell, in June 1826 was the catalyst for the creation of the Brontë siblings' paracosmic world of Glass Town. Each of the surviving Brontë siblings (Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne) chose a soldier of their own,…

Branwell Brontë’s Misery

June 26th 2019 marks the 202nd anniversary of the birth of Patrick Branwell Brontë (1817-1848), ostensibly nothing but a failure and disappointment to his family. The only son of Patrick and Maria Brontë, Patrick Branwell (better known as Branwell) had lofty ambitions, great creativity, and ultimately fatal demons. He also had three incredibly talented and…

More Brontë Inspired Literature: Mr. R. by Tracy Neis

Back in April, the author of a rather intriguing piece of Brontë inspired fiction, Tracy Neis, contacted me to very kindly offer me a copy of her novel, Mr. R. With the tagline, "A Rock & Roll Romance" and a Mr. Rochester re-imagined as an ageing rockstar and Jane as the nanny who cares for…

Hiatus – See You All Again Soon

I'll be honest, 2019 has been a pretty terrible year for me. Throughout it all I've tried to, in the words of Charlotte Brontë, "wag on as usual". However, with deaths, illnesses, and a whole host of people trying to make life difficult, I feel I've just reached a point where I'm finding this to be impossible.…