Bronte Blog

By HD Silversmith

Thanks to the Brontë Blog, which is the single best online resource for aficionados of all things Brontë, I've discovered three Brontë-related pieces of contemporary fiction -- by three different authors -- which I've ordered from Amazon. (Amazon is the site from which I've grabbed the descriptions below). Regardless of reviews or quality, I try to read all such works because, like so many girls, I imprinted on the Brontës when I was an adolescent:

Click on the links below for more information:

• The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë

"I have written about the joys of love. I have, in my secret heart, long dreamt of an intimate connection with a man; every Jane, I believe, deserves her Rochester."

Though poor, plain, and unconnected, Charlotte Bronte possesses a deeply passionate side which she reveals only in her writings—creating Jane Eyre and other novels that stand among literature's most beloved works. Living a secluded life in the wilds of Yorkshire with her sisters Emily and Anne, their drug-addicted brother, and an eccentric father who is going blind, Charlotte Bronte dreams of a real love story as fiery as the ones she creates.

But it is in the pages of her diary where Charlotte exposes her deepest feelings and desires—and the truth about her life, its triumphs and shattering disappointments, her family, the inspiration behind her work, her scandalous secret passion for the man she can never have . . . and her intense, dramatic relationship with the man she comes to love, the enigmatic Arthur Bell Nicholls.

"Who is this man who has dared to ask for my hand? Why is my father so dead set against him? Why are half the residents of Haworth determined to lynch him—or shoot him?"

From Syrie James, the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, comes a powerfully compelling, intensely researched literary feat that blends historical fact and fiction to explore the passionate heart and unquiet soul of Charlotte Bronte. It is Charlotte's story, just as she might have written it herself.

About the Author
Syrie James is the author of the best-selling novel The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, which was named a Best First Novel of 2008 by Library Journal. A member of the Writers Guild of America, Syrie is also a screenwriter and lecturer. Syrie received a B.A. in English and Communications from the University of California, where she was awarded a departmental citation for outstanding accomplishment in English. Syrie lives with her husband and their two sons in Los Angeles.

• The Taste of Sorrow

Product Description
From an obscure country parsonage came the most extraordinary family of the nineteenth century. The Bronte sisters created a world in which we still live - the intense, passionate world of JANE EYRE and WUTHERING HEIGHTS; and the phenomenon of this strange explosion of genius remains as baffling now as it was to their Victorian contemporaries. In this panoramic novel we see with new insight the members of a uniquely close-knit family whose tight bonds are the instruments of both triumph and tragedy. Emily, the solitary who turns from the world to the greater temptations of the imagination: Anne, gentle and loyal, under whose quietude lies the harshest perception of the stifling life forced upon her: Branwell, the mercurial and self-destructive brother, meant to be king, unable to be a prince: and the brilliant, uncompromising, tormented Charlotte, longing for both love and independence, who establishes the family's name and learns its price.

About the Author
Jude Morgan was born and brought up in Peterborough on the edge of the Fens and was a student on the University of East Anglia MA Course in Creative Writing under Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter.

• The Crimes of Charlotte Brontë

"My name is Martha Brown, and for over 20 years I was servant to the Bronte family at Haworth Parsonage." So begins a deposition in this provocative if melodramatic novel by crime writer Tully (Prisoner 1167: The Madman Who Was Jack the Ripper). The story begins in modern times when solicitor Charles Coutts discovers Brown's deposition hidden in his 200-year-old law firm's antique-filled attic in Yorkshire. Coutts becomes fascinated by Brown's claim that the Bront?s were likely murdered and that elder sister Charlotte both knew and approved of Anne's death. To propel this doubtful scenario, Tully weaves together historical research and speculation to produce a revisionist, sinister picture of the Bront? clan. The chief villain here is not the accepted cause of fatalityAthe ravages of advanced tuberculosisAbut their father's associate, Reverend Arthur Bell Nicholls. Tully posits that Nicholls had a Svengali-like hold on the sisters, which likely inspired the creation of their novels Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey. A decade after the publications of their books, all three sisters are dead (along with their brother, Branwell, and their father) and Brown's detailed plot involves manipulative envy, property acquisition and poison. Brown's deposition falters stylistically in that it neither reconstructs Victorian language nor produces a modern equivalent, but the mystery it unravels will intrigue or vex readers familiar with the Bront? legacy. Coutts's comments suggest that the "authorized" version of this legacy is romanticized and mythic, a pure pastoral tale of three brilliant sisters languishing in the English countryside. Instead, Tully sees plagiarism, sexual indiscretions and a murder plot alongside religious fervor and burning literary ambitions. Just as interesting are the harsh details of servant Brown's daily struggles and her fly-on-the-wall perspective.

The first of the three (and the most recently published) has already arrived.  Can't wait for the other two!