She was raised motherless on remote Yorkshire moors and sent away to brutally strict boarding school at a young age. She watched helpless growing up as, one by one, her five beloved siblings sickened and died; by the end of her short life, she was the only child of the Bronte clan remaining. And most fascinating and tragic of all, throughout her adult life she was haunted by a great and unrequited love - a love that tortured Charlotte but also inspired some of the most moving, intense and revolutionary novels ever written in the English language. Charlotte was a literary visionary, a feminist trailblazer and the driving force behind the whole Bronte family. She encouraged her sister Emily to publish Wuthering Heights when no-one else believed in her talent. She took charge of the family's precarious finances when her brilliant but feckless brother Branwell succumbed to opium addiction. She travelled from Yorkshire to Europe to the bright lights of London, met some of the most brilliant literary minds of her generation (Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, William Thackeray), and became a bestselling female author in a world still dominated by men. And in each of her books, from Villette and Shirley to her most famous, Jane Eyre, Charlotte created brand new kinds of heroines, inspired by herself and her life, fiercely intelligent women burning with hidden passions. This beautifully-produced, landmark biography is essential reading for every fan of the Bronte family's writing, from Jane Eyre to Wuthering Heights. This is the literary biography of the year; if you loved Claire Tomalins Charles Dickens, this event is not to be missed.
'An extraordinary book, crammed with scholarship and glittering with trivia ... Harman's book offers so many delights ... This is a fantastic compendium' Independent on Sunday on 'Jane's Fame
'A shrewd but unstuffy critic, Harman's prose rings with good sense, affection and humour... [She] manages to be not only scholarly, but indecently entertaining.' Daily Mail on 'Jane's Fame'
'Rich and colourful'...Harman's book is a delight from beginning to end... This superb biography not only handles the familiar material with flair but goes further than previous biographies' Sunday Times on 'Robert Louis Stevenson: A Biography
'Superbly readable... she has excellent taste. A marvellous and eventful read Evening Standard on 'Robert Louis Stevenson: A Biography
'There is no doubt that Harman is the first to treat this fascinating subject in an accessible, lively manner unshackled by academic jargon. It's the quality of the insights and the interpretations that make this book such a good read' -- Sunday Telegraph on Jane's Fame'
Author
About Claire Harman
Claire Harman's biography of Sylvia Townsend Warner was published in 1989 by Chatto (Minerva pb 1990) and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for a book of value from a writer of growing stature. She was Co-ordinating Editor of PN Review from 1981 to 1984; has written short stories for radio; written for most of the major British literary papers; and edited Sylvia Townsend Warners Diaries (1994) to wide acclaim. She has taught 19th and 20th century literature at Manchester University and now lives in Oxford with her daughter and two sons.
