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caterinaanna's review against another edition
2.0
I'm afraid I found this rather turgid and didn't enjoy it much. It re-tells the plot of some other Bronte novels as well as [b:Jane Eyre|10210|Jane Eyre|Charlotte Brontë|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327867269s/10210.jpg|2977639], interweaving them with chunks of their life story. It doesn't deal with all of the novels equally eg [b:Shirley|31168|Shirley|Charlotte Brontë|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1299948983s/31168.jpg|2685457] gets a mention, but there is little on what Charlotte might have drawn from when writing it. If you haven't read a biography, you might discover things you didn't know - the generally accepted facts are pretty much stuck to, to the extent that I found it somewhat hagiographical. There is a lot of not very detailed description; the author didn't seem to have a feel for either Yorkshire or London, so I was disappointed but unsurprised to find 'pants' used for trousers later in the book.
katpyro's review against another edition
2.0
Slogged through this audiobook- it sort of felt a bit pointless, like the author was trying to write a biography but then decided to turn it into fiction by assigning thoughts and feelings and dialog to the various family members. Feels very plotless that way.
gwynsvan's review against another edition
3.0
This novel describes Charlotte Bronte writing Jane Eyre, imagining how she might have included elements of her own life in the plot. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, describing Charlotte's life with her father and siblings, and her crafting of the novel. After Jane Eyre is published, however, I felt the book deteriorated into a novelization of Bronte's biography. I just wasn't as interested anymore. I was also troubled at times, throughout the book, by the author's sentence structure. There were often dependent clauses with no clear relation to the main clause. I wondered why Kohler didn't have a better editor. All the same, I recommend this book to any dedicated fans of the Brontes or Jane Eyre.
raehink's review against another edition
4.0
A fictional account of the writing years of the Bronte sisters, with Charlotte at the forefront. It's easy to pick up the threads of reality that became Jane Eyre, as well as Wuthering Heights. I enjoyed this immensely and came away with more appreciation for the Brontes and how authors mostly do write what they know.
maa's review against another edition
2.0
Once again, I'm not quite sure how to review this.
I don't think I liked it very much. Yet I read it in one day... So... What does that say, except that I had a lot of time on my hand today?
I guess a lot of my love for Jane Eyre when through this reading, but I was never totally convinced by the narrative.
It is half biography, half fiction, maybe with a bigger half of fiction. It is descriptive, a lot. Too much for my taste. Not that I don't like descriptions, but it read more like some very long stage directions, contrived, between a flow of consciouness kind of thing and a proper victorian distance, maybe? I don't know. The scenes where Charlotte has some sort of illuminations as to how to get her book further seemed artificial. I'm not super fond either of Charlotte's character either here. She seems petty and angry and slightly vengeful.
Also I did not need to have an image of Charlotte's father banging his obliging yet not-very-into-it wife, thank you very much. Also also, is Jane Eyre really THAT oedipian? Pl-eeeease!
But, yeah. It made me want to go back to Jane Eyre, to read more biographies about the sisters, and it has picked my curiosity about Emily in particular. So I guess, as they say : brownie points for that.
2.5
I don't think I liked it very much. Yet I read it in one day... So... What does that say, except that I had a lot of time on my hand today?
I guess a lot of my love for Jane Eyre when through this reading, but I was never totally convinced by the narrative.
It is half biography, half fiction, maybe with a bigger half of fiction. It is descriptive, a lot. Too much for my taste. Not that I don't like descriptions, but it read more like some very long stage directions, contrived, between a flow of consciouness kind of thing and a proper victorian distance, maybe? I don't know. The scenes where Charlotte has some sort of illuminations as to how to get her book further seemed artificial. I'm not super fond either of Charlotte's character either here. She seems petty and angry and slightly vengeful.
Also I did not need to have an image of Charlotte's father banging his obliging yet not-very-into-it wife, thank you very much. Also also, is Jane Eyre really THAT oedipian? Pl-eeeease!
But, yeah. It made me want to go back to Jane Eyre, to read more biographies about the sisters, and it has picked my curiosity about Emily in particular. So I guess, as they say : brownie points for that.
2.5
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