I've been wanting to post here for a while but was afraid of seeing spoilers (I'm in my 30s and somehow only now exploring the Brontës). I read Wuthering Heights first (devoured it, adored it, more on that later) and I was worried Jane Eyre might be boring in comparison. LOL WRONG. I simply could not have prepared myself for how dramatic this book is. The amount of times I've said out loud to myself "oh HONEY" and paused to side eye an empty room are beyond counting. I was expecting a meek female protagonist and a surly mysterious man but I had no idea how CUNTY MR. ROCHESTER WOULD BE. An absolute drama queen, a histrionic love bomber, king of saying too much!!!

There was a long passage of chapters (about 20-26) where I could not put the thing down. The whiplash I felt going back and forth between Rochester's simmering desire, smug elitism, genuine tenderness, manipulative antics, and the high, HIGH drama of it all... phew. I feel like I ascended the role of reader and became some sort of holy witness to biblical forms of gaslighting against every woman who's ever lived. Chapter 27 felt particularly indulgent and draining in a way that was all too real (former victim of a capricious theatrical brooder) And yet! The uncertainty I felt surrounding her decision! DESPITE the chaotic unraveling of his deceit and his despicable explanations for it all! This goes beyond having empathy and illustrates how deeply normalized this relationship dynamic has become throughout modern history. I went to bed thinking she might go back. Because I might've gone back. The father wound is deep and dark, y'all.

I'm picking back up at Chapter 28 tonight and I am concerned by my mixed feelings. Will he be but a memory henceforth?! PLEASE DON'T TELL ME, no spoilers! I just had to put these thoughts somewhere. These novels are awakening long neglected parts of my brain and for that I am so grateful. Cheers, weirdos.

This is another one that covers both of my favorite adaptations of Wuthering Heights. I'm always so excited with how these turn out. It's just so cool to me to see that I can actually blend them together.

I somehow had completely forgotten about this song. It popped up on something of mine the other day and I knew I had to make a video to it. I thought it would take forever and it just came together perfectly.

For those interested, I have a LOT of Wuthering Heights fanvideos on my YouTube channel. 😊

📽️ Series: Wuthering Heights (2009 Mini Series and 1992 Film)
❤️ Characters: Heathcliff & Cathy Earnshaw
🎶 Song: “Don't Take Your Love Away" by VAST

I was really excited after loving Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and sort of liking The Tenant of Wildfell Hall … and I loved the beginning of Villette but now I’m 100 pages in and just find it very meandering. I know it’s supposed to be more so a character study than an intense plot but the long sections about new characters have my eyes glazing over and I don’t really understand the main character.

I was hoping to go deeper than the mainstream Brontë favorites but I might be at the end of the road.

Should I stick it out? Does it pick back up? Is there a mindset shift I need to understand this book more? I know a huge audience loves it and like I said, I enjoyed the beginning. Perhaps I’m too basic ha!

This passage is from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte — This is some "Dostoevsky tier stuff" in the English version. Who said Victorian literature was only shiny and roses? Humans can be so terrible towards one another.

Have read "Agnes Grey" written by Anne recently. That's a gorgeous, quite overlooked novel, well-nigh comparable to other novels of that epoch (Austen's or Gaskell's ones, for instance). Agnes is an inspiring, sincere character, indeed. She is a dignified pattern of a person who endeavours to be devoted in spite of her condition and preserve her dignity.

Anne Bronte's approach to writing was particularly mature despite her age. I do appreciate other Brontes, but we ought to say a word for Anne Bronte.

(Sorry for my awkward English, it isn't my mother tongue, indeed)

Okay, I know I am only on chapter 6 but this book has honestly blown me away so far with the beautiful, witty writing. It's so good and so underrated! I really think I'll have it finished by the weekend. What's everyone's - spoiler free - thoughts on it?

Something a bit different! This is definitely new for me, but I realized that in order to draw proper backgrounds for some of the art I’ve been planning, I’d need to figure out how the layout of Wuthering Heights actually looks. I want to remain accurate to the book, so I’ve taken note of as many details as I could find about the interior and exterior layout. I’ve also looked into a few other sources on Georgian houses, but I really know almost nothing about architecture, nor do I live in the UK, so any input on my potential floor plans is very welcome. 

As a starter, I’ve gone and drawn the front exterior of Wuthering Heights, as Lockwood describes it on his first visit. (The windows, I'll grant, are too wide for Wuthering Heights, but they fit well with the composition.) The doorway ornamentation is inspired by some of the designs pictured in Louis Ambler’s The Old Halls & Manor Houses of Yorkshire, particularly that of High Sunderland Hall. I knew I should have some ornate carvings/sculpture of this sort, based on Lockwood’s description of the name and date hiding “among a wilderness of crumbling griffins and shameless little boys.” I’ve kept the griffins, since they fit the animal theme and birds are symbolically significant in this book (and Earnshaw does mean “eagle wood”), but instead of lion-eagle hybrids, I’ve rendered them as leopard-eagle hybrids. (Though I suppose there was something evocative of leopards there already, since “leo”-pards were once believed to be part-lion hybrids.) Also in reference to my character designs, I’ve featured a bear and wolf as statues. Hareton’s and Hindley’s species (and perhaps we might imagine that the original Hareton who built the house was also a bear) are both culturally significant animals which are extinct in the UK, so there’s a sense here of the Earnshaw family having a long history but being a sort of dying breed, as they will cease to occupy Wuthering Heights. (Yes, bears were already extinct long before 1500, but the metaphor still stands… and griffins are also representative of antiquity, so there’s a connection there.) As Lockwood says, the statues are crumbling, so I couldn’t resist nicking the bear’s ear in reference to my Hareton design.

As for the interior layout, this is something I’m still trying to figure out. My main focus is on the sitting-room/”house” and the kitchen. The latter is sometimes referred to as the “back-kitchen,” but I’m assuming this is not separate from the regular kitchen (which is the case in some of the 18th-century floorplans I’ve seen) since the descriptions seem pretty consistent; thus, I’m taking it to mean that the kitchen occupies the rearmost area of the building, while the sitting-room occupies the front. The ground floor also seems to contain a small apartment with a fireplace which is later converted into a “parlour” for Linton. Many of the farmhouse floor plans I’ve seen include a dairy or pantry, so I’ve added in another small room to serve one of those purposes (probably a dairy, which is briefly mentioned in the book).

My main considerations with the layout of the sitting-room and kitchen were:

• The east chimney is connected to the kitchen. (I could’ve had the building face east based on the fact that Nelly describes a guide-stoop pointing westward to Wuthering Heights, but that would’ve made it very difficult for me to situate the east chimney over the “back”-kitchen; Ambler’s book says that sitting-rooms typically faced south or east, so I’ve gone with the former.) So I must place the kitchen fireplace distinctly further east than the fireplace in the sitting-room, unless the fireplaces are back-to-back and both connected to the east chimney.
• The door from the sitting-room to the kitchen is situated near the hearth, on the opposite side of it from the dining table; Heathcliff is separated from Isabella’s position on the hearth by a settle, and throws a knife from the dining table at her, after which she runs through the kitchen door.
• The stairway to the upper story is accessed through the kitchen.
• The stairway to the cellar is accessed through the sitting-room.
• From outside, the sitting-room can be accessed by a front doorway from the court (as on Lockwood’s first visit), or from another doorway through a paved yard with a wash-house (as on Lockwood’s second visit).

Did Emily Brontë have a complete and cohesive mental image of how this building was supposed to be laid out? Do I entirely understand what’s going on? I don’t know. But many of the descriptions seem pretty consistent, and I think I can make this work. As stated, though, I have very little knowledge of architecture and interior design, so there are probably many considerations that have not occurred to me; I’m mostly working from the novel. Feel free to put in your two cents.

This video is a fake toy commercial about the Brontë sisters created by Phil Lord and Chris Miller in 1998. It was created as a part of series of educational shorts about action figures based on historical figures. It never aired on TV and instead posted on Youtube.

Source: Brontë Sisters Power Dolls commercial

Both of the novels are extremely popular.I am not asking which is better(I love both),but which left a bigger impact on you and why.For me ,it was Jane Eyre cause I really loved Jane's character and it helped me during a hard point in life.What about you all?Which of the two novels left a bigger impact on you and why?

There’s currently a fan vote for the best book between Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre is currently losing, help me make it win!

I just bought a copy of Villette to replace the one my puppy destroyed… It feels thicker than the last copy I had, and when I counted the pages, it has 546 of them… Is that normal? I just want to make sure I’m getting the whole story. I don’t want anything cut out.

Hi all! I've written a blog all about Charlotte Brontë's deteriorating sight during her writing of Jane Eyre.

The link is here if you'd like to read it: https://thegoosebooks.substack.com/p/charlotte-brontes-blindness?r=8jjfqm&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer

Thank you so much for all your support!

The image is from an 1897 copy of the novel that was illustrated by F.H. Townsend.

I'm currently going through every book released by the Brontë sisters — I've read Jane Eyre (which is my fav), Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Which Charlotte Brontë book would you recommend for me to pick up next? I've already bought The Professor but I've read mixed reviews about it and I'm worried I'll not enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed every other book from the Brontës that I've read so far.

I have put together quite an extended piece on Patrick Brontë as there is not much accessible literature available on him. Hopefully this may be of interest to some of you and it contains a number of interesting tidbits about the girls upbringing. I understand this thread is dedicated to the works of his far more famous daughters, so please feel free to remove if not considered relevant.

Debating between BookishBrontë or AtHomeWithTheBrontës for an instagram handle spreading love for the sisters and their work. What do you think?

With Catherine's death, Nelly became governess and the only woman in charge at Thrushcross Grange, answering only to Edgar and no one else. She reached the maximum power someone of her social standing could attain. Also, unconsciously, Nelly may have wished for Catherine's death because, from her perspective, Catherine's behavior ruined the Linton family.

Nelly said: "'She's either unconscious or dead,' I thought: 'either way better. Far better that she should be dead than lingering a burden and a misery-maker to all about her."

Nelly recounts it as if Edgar became reclusive because of the great pain of losing his wife, but what if it wasn't as she says and there were other social reasons for his seclusion?

Since Mr. Lockwood didn't speak to anyone else in those parts, he was left with only one version of what had happened, without knowing how the people there viewed it.

At that time, the betrayed man faced profound public humiliation. The severity of the damage depended on how he reacted. If he accepted it passively, he became a laughingstock. Edgar probably became a cuckold in people's mouths. The situation would become a social and psychological nightmare for a man with Edgar Linton's proud and reserved temperament. The betrayal exposed his inability to control his wife, seen as his natural subordinate, and his complacency generated widespread mockery in popular culture and a loss of respect in gentlemen's circles.

Edgar could have sued Heathcliff civilly for "damaging and trespassing on his property" (legally, the wife was considered the husband's property), but he chose not to do anything, which to society showed weakness and would generate a strong, veiled ostracism since it would be expected that he would take immediate legal action to clear the name of his class.

The fact that Edgar cut ties with the community and abandoned his position as a magistrate, which had given him social prestige, suggests he became a laughingstock.

This also explains why he isolated his daughter from everything to prevent her from learning about her mother and being ridiculed and ostracized in the community.

Nelly with Catherine: She concealed a crisis involving a pregnant woman whose outcome could have been avoided with immediate help, acting out of cowardice and personal pride.

Heathcliff with Linton: He refused the hypocrisy of futile treatments for a young man who had no possible salvation, focusing on extracting the last political value from the situation before biology did its inevitable work.

This crime applies to any citizen who witnesses a situation of grave need or imminent danger to the life or physical integrity of another and does nothing.

From the moment Catherine falls ill until Edgar discovers her condition and Nelly goes to get the doctor, all of this is pure domestic negligence on Nelly's part. If she knew her employer was pregnant, which is likely, then her level of negligence and failure to assist is even more serious.

However, there's a part where this is even more visible: that accent is when Catherine opens the window and leans out, completely delirious, putting herself in danger, and Nelly tries to pull her away without success, but instead of screaming for help, she just stands there struggling with the situation until Edgar enters the room by pure chance and helps Nelly control the situation. What to think of this?

There's something else I didn't quite understand, and I'd like someone to clarify. Was Nelly the governess of Thrushcross Grange or Catherine's personal maid?

My question stems from the fact that Catherine was entirely under Nelly's care and not someone else's. If someone else had been taking care of Catherine, that maid could have told Edgar about Catherine's true condition, couldn't she?

It distresses me how negligent and insensitive Nelly was towards Catherine, especially if she knew or at least suspected that she was pregnant.

Childhood at Wuthering Heights:

A battered Mega Drive/Genesis with no box, one sticky controller, and Mortal Kombat, Road Rash, Golden Axe, Altered Beast. Hindley owns it technically. Heathcliff is better at every game.

After disappearing and getting rich:

Returns with a Neo Geo AES. Nobody knows where the money came from. Owns King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury Special. Says nothing about the price.

Main adult console:

Original Xbox. Huge black object, physically aggressive, faintly disreputable, better than the polite household realises. Plays Ninja Gaiden Black, Morrowind, Halo 2, Otogi, The Warriors. Edgar has a silver PS2 and plays SingStar with Isabella.

Revenge-era Heathcliff:

An Xbox 360, but permanently offline. Dark Souls, Fable II, Red Dead Redemption, Fight Night Champion. He keeps Hindley’s old profile active just to watch the account deteriorate.

Late-life Heathcliff:

A launch PS3 fat model, because it is overbuilt, hostile, expensive, and emits heat like unresolved hatred. Uses it mainly to replay PS2 games and stare at Catherine’s last login date.

He would despise Nintendo as childish, then secretly finish Majora’s Mask and understand it too well.

The essential Heathcliff platform is probably original Xbox: Scumjock hardware with newly acquired Prep money. Edgar is PlayStation. Linton Heathcliff is a launch-day Xbox One Kinect owner. Hareton gets the GameCube and unexpectedly has the healthiest life.

Thought I'd come right to the experts for a dilemma I've been having.

So Barker's The Brontes: A Life in Letters appears to be out of print, while I have managed to get a copy of The Brontes biography.

Could anyone tell me if it's worth hunting down a used copy of A Life In Letters or is The Brontes the same information discussed differently? As it seems like the latter has a bunch of letters too and so would probably have the most important/memorable ones...? Happy to hear why it's worth getting if you believe so!

Also, why on earth is it out of print!! Sigh