The Bronte Myth
Published on 3. January 2002
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-0-09-928714-8 (ISBN)
Description
A fascinating and wonderfully readable deconstruction of the countless myths that have grown up around the Brontes.
Since 1857, hardly a year has gone by without some sort of Bronte 'biography' appearing. These range from pious accounts in Victorian conduct books to Freudian pyschobiographies, from plays, films and ballets to tourist brochures and images on tea-towels, from sensation-seeking penny-a-liners to meticulous works of sober scholarship. Each generation has rewritten the Brontes to reflect changing attitudes - towards the role of the woman writer, towards sexuality, towards the very concept of personality.
The Bronte Myth gives vigorous new life to our understanding of the novelists and their culture and Lucasta Miller reveals as much about the impossible art of biography as she does about the Brontes themselves.
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FROM THE AUTHOR
Since 1857, hardly a year has gone by without some sort of Bronte 'biography' appearing. These range from pious accounts in Victorian conduct books to Freudian pyschobiographies, from plays, films and ballets to tourist brochures and images on tea-towels, from sensation-seeking penny-a-liners to meticulous works of sober scholarship. Each generation has rewritten the Brontes to reflect changing attitudes - towards the role of the woman writer, towards sexuality, towards the very concept of personality.
The Bronte Myth gives vigorous new life to our understanding of the novelists and their culture and Lucasta Miller reveals as much about the impossible art of biography as she does about the Brontes themselves.
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FROM THE AUTHOR
Reviews / Votes
A brilliant and riveting examination of the Bronte phenomenon * Daily Mail * Written with wit and relish, and packed with irresistible detail * The Times * Literary history is seldom related with such a pleasant combination of brio and erudition * Sunday Times * Crisply written and witty - Lucasta Miller sends the reader straight back to the wonderful novels that inspired such hommages * Independent on Sunday * A sharp-witted study in literary reputation - Miller supplies a deft and immaculately detailed tracing of the many 'constructions' of Charlotte Bronte * Observer * Miller's unputdownable and erudite book has not only left us with a clear picture and greater understanding of the Brontes, but tells us a lot about ourselves too * Daily Mail *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
257 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-928714-8 (9780099287148)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Lucasta Miller is a biographer and critic, whose articles have appeared in a wide number of publications, especially the Guardian. She is the author of two previous books on nineteenth-century literature, The Bronte Myth and L.E.L.: the Lost Life and Mysterious Death of the 'Female Byron', and is currently an Honorary Research Associate at University College, London and a Royal Literary Fund Fellow.