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laurenjpegler's review
4.0
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!
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!
merrybelletrist's review
3.0
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.
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