The Brontë Myth

May 29, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-about-books, bio-memoir-diaries-letters, history, in-by-of-england, non-fiction, reviewed, victorians-and-wannabes, bronte-bronte-bronte

What if you were the most radical successful writer of your age and you were in danger of completely alienating genteel society (you know, those nice people who publish and buy your books) by speaking your mind, staying unmarried, and writing some seriously challenging books? What if you happened to have two sisters who were the same way?

Now imagine that you all die quite young and one of your closest friends tries to keep you popular by writing the most absurdly sentimental (and not terribly ac...more

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May 24, 2010 Moira Russell added it · review of another edition

Recommended to Moira by: Elizabeth most recently, Margaret earlier I think, lots of people really

Shelves: 2010-50-new-books-challenge

I'd had this book for years (the flyleaf indicates I bought it in 2004) and have been looking forward to reading it for such a long while I suppose it's only natural to be a little disappointed in it. I wish it had been more exhaustive and scholarly, but by the same token it's thankfully free of academic jargon. The style is fresh and engaging, if too colloquial at times. The book is roughly divided into two parts, detailing the posthumous reputations of first Charlotte and then Emily. Anne is c...more I'd had this book for years (the flyleaf indicates I bought it in 2004) and have been looking forward to reading it for such a long while I suppose it's only natural to be a little disappointed in it. I wish it had been more exhaustive and scholarly, but by the same token it's thankfully free of academic jargon. The style is fresh and engaging, if too colloquial at times. The book is roughly divided into two parts, detailing the posthumous reputations of first Charlotte and then Emily. Anne is considered on her own for about two pages, which is disappointing; for that and other reasons I found the title a bit misleading. I thought Miller would focus more on the cultural influence of the Brontes, especially how their works have become woven into high and low culture, rather than on the two sisters themselves as mythical figures. I found the chapters on Emily a lot more interesting than the ones concerning Charlotte, perhaps because Miller spends a great deal of time on Gaskell's biography, its errors, and its reception (which is indeed where a great deal of the myths about the Brontes get started, but there's been a lot more modern scholarship since then which gets treated glancingly only near the very end of both parts). The endnotes (no they're not footnotes people, look it up in your MLA; DFW uses them correctly) alternate between scholarly-style citations with endless 'ibids' and information that would have been welcome in footnotes. (Am I the only one who misses gleaning nuggets of insight from a few citations at the bottom of every page rather than having to comb through daunting page after page of tiny type consisting mainly of page numbers?) (Yes, I even read footnotes. All the footnotes.) I liked the sections on Emily's literary influences, and how Charlotte had struggled to contain Emily, unwieldy even after death, in her memorial writings, and wished they had been longer. This book strikes me as more a roundup - and a good one - of a lot of trends in Bronte scholarship than a work of great originality, and it's a lot less deconstructionist than I had somehow thought (that might have had something to do with Miller's constant references to Janet Malcolm's 'The Silent Woman') (this is a good thing). It is certainly entertaining.(less)

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Mar 21, 2009 Salma rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Chandra, Abigail, Bronwyn, Kelly Jo, and anyone else I'm forgetting on Kindred Spirits

Shelves: favorites, bronte-philia

The Brontes were like Elvis in their day. I realize this comparison isn't the best, but I make it because, like people who claim to spot the "King's" ghost to this day and visit Graceland as if it's Eden, literary fans through the past three centuries have apparently spoken to the Bronte sisters through seances and continue to flock to Haworth Parsonage like it's their personal Mecca.

What made three very simple clergyman's daughters reach the status of myth in Western culture? Lucasta Miller ex...more The Brontes were like Elvis in their day. I realize this comparison isn't the best, but I make it because, like people who claim to spot the "King's" ghost to this day and visit Graceland as if it's Eden, literary fans through the past three centuries have apparently spoken to the Bronte sisters through seances and continue to flock to Haworth Parsonage like it's their personal Mecca.

What made three very simple clergyman's daughters reach the status of myth in Western culture? Lucasta Miller explores this question. For me, personally, it is difficult to think of any books that equal Wuthering Heights, Villete, or Jane Eyre in brilliance (especially WH). But others may disagree- many hold authors such as Thackeray and Austen, even George Eliot, in higher esteem. Yet these authors don't have the mystique and sheer awe surrounding them that the Brontes do. Why is that?

The answer, as Miller postulates, is very simple and quite sad. And it can be traced to one woman. Elizabeth Gaskell.

When the Brontes' novels were first published, they were instantly claimed as genius. But here's the catch- that was when people thought the authors were men (they'd written under masculine pseudonyms, as most of you already know). When word somehow got out that Currer, Acton, and Ellis were really Charlotte, Anne, and Emily, people didn't know what to think. They were horrified that women should have written works of such passion. It wasn't right. The authors, naturally, must have mental problems, which must be rooted in a tragic life.

Elizabeth Gaskell took this last theory and ran with it in her "Life of Charlotte Bronte," written after Charlotte's death. Gaskell wrote some excellent novels herself, and although rich in depth and societal criticism, fire-women like Cathy and Jane cannot be found in her books. She didn't think it was normal for such women to exist in the female imagination. This could only happen, she decided, because the Brontes had led such an oppressive life that writing disturbing novels became their drug.

It is undeniable that the Brontes had had serious tragedies in their lives- such as the loss of their mother, siblings, and of course, Branwell's famous descent into addiction. But their lives were also balanced with fun, companionship, and travel. Gaskell downplays or excludes ALL the positive in their lives. On top of that, she completely makes up horrifying (and baseless) stories about Patrick Bronte, the patriarch of the family and various other Bronte acquaintances, so that it seems that Charlotte, Emily, Anne were mere Cinderellas in a world that was one giant Wicked Stepmother. It's interesting to note that Gaskell left town after the book's publication because she was afraid of the attack of libel lawyers.

Well, the lawyers attacked anyway (rightly so), and Gaskell was forced to revise the next editions of her book. But the damage was already done, and the myth had been created. Gaskell's biography was the basis of all Bronte bios that followed through the years, so the myth remained(s).

The rest of the book follows the creation and attempted unraveling of this myth. Miller writes with humor and clarity- her prose is as lucid as if she were receiving direction from the Bronte sisters themselves.

The book's one flaw is its lack of focus on Anne. Miller mentions in one page how sad it is that Anne has never gotten proper acknowledgement from biographers, and then does the same thing herself! Honestly, that was the only thing keeping me from giving this book a full five stars. Nevertheless, Bronte fans must get their hands on this book.

(less)

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Chandra Excellent review Salma! You have me very very intrigued! I really just can't wait to do my Bronte reading project this summer! We're reading Villette,...more
Mar 21, 2009 12:25pm

Salma Thanks so much! One thing I should have mentioned but didn't want to take up anymore space in the review- was that Charlotte's behavior also prompted...more
Mar 21, 2009 03:50pm

Jul 15, 2010 Margaret rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, brontes, literary-biography, authors-mn

The Brontë Myth is a "metabiography", a book about biography, in which Miller examines the myths and mysteries which have developed around the Brontë sisters, from Elizabeth Gaskell's seminal biography of Charlotte, which portrayed her as a Victorian saint, to the more recent conception of Emily as "the mystic of the moors". It's fascinating stuff, starting with Charlotte's shaping of herself and of her sisters through her comments on their books, her rewriting of Emily's poems, and the stories...more

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Dec 27, 2011 Ellen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For years, the myth of the Brontes, three lonely spinsters writing in the middle of the wild Yorkshire moors, surrounded by open heathland, has been perpetuated. Elizabeth Gaskell may be blamed for her initial romanticised biography, but blame must also be shared with early Victorian society. Whilst praising the "fine writing" of 'Jane Eyre', contemporary critic Elizabeth Rigby denounced its protatgonist as "a decidedly vulgar-minded woman" and called the novel "an anti-Christian composition". O...more

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Jul 19, 2010 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Bronte Myth is sort of a biography of the Bronte sisters, but it's not just about them, it's about how they have been portrayed by other biographers, playwrights, novelists, etc. and where all the romantic ideas about them came from (the author calls it a "metabiography"). I never realized what celebrities they were, albeit after they died (for Emily & Anne), or how controversial their work was at the time it was written. I had read Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Bronte but didn't unde...more The Bronte Myth is sort of a biography of the Bronte sisters, but it's not just about them, it's about how they have been portrayed by other biographers, playwrights, novelists, etc. and where all the romantic ideas about them came from (the author calls it a "metabiography"). I never realized what celebrities they were, albeit after they died (for Emily & Anne), or how controversial their work was at the time it was written. I had read Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Bronte but didn't understand the extent to which it slanted the story to make Charlotte into a Victorian heroine of the home and to get people to forgive her for writing such a racy book as Jane Eyre. But it's not just Gaskell, Charlotte herself contributed to the hype about her sisters by trying to apologize for their even more subversive novels after they were dead. And then over time the spins on these sisters' lives changed as people's values changed, making Charlotte or the more mysterious Emily rise in popularity (poor Anne- the author acknowledges she never got much attention, and doesn't give her much new attention, either.) Anyway, people are interested in this stuff- it's like the literary equivalent of whatever they're writing about in the supermarket tabloids- and it's fascinating how it all plays out.
On a more particular note, the author refers to Virginia Woolf a lot, mostly b/c of her ideas about biography & how tricky it is to blend the objective & subjective truths of a person's life. Also the author tells the story of when Woolf actually visits the Parsonage museum and she is quoted as saying that it was all very moving but the fact of Charlotte Bronte being a great writer was kind of lost in the emphasis on all these relics and bits of how she lived. This is interesting b/c I think of Woolf almost immediately when I think of the Brontes, all b/c way back when I was in high school I saw this one-woman show on PBS that was an adaptation of A Room of One's Own and I was struck by the part where she compares Charlotte to Emily (and Jane Austen), saying that Emily & Jane were somehow able to write as women elegantly & truthfully but Charlotte's indignation make her not able to fully express her genius. At the time I was really interested in this idea and spent a lot of time thinking about whether she was right. And now I wonder, did Woolf think this purely on the basis of the texts, or did the biography/mythology play into it a little bit, too? Maybe it has to, a little, and that's part of the point of this book. (less)

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Dec 07, 2009 Charles Matthews rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review originally ran in the San Jose Mercury News on January 25, 2004:

You probably think of ''Jane Eyre'' as the kind of novel you'd feel safe in recommending to a 12-year-old girl (if you know a 12-year-old girl who'd read a novel about a Victorian governess instead of the latest dish about Paris Hilton).

But as the British critic Lucasta Miller tells us in her provocative history of the reputation of the Bronte sisters and their work, when Charlotte Bronte's novel was published in 1847,...more

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Nov 17, 2011 V. Briceland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Miller's book isn't a biography—all the Brontes are dead and buried by the end of chapter two. Instead, it's an examination of the ways in which a manufactured and tweaked familial biography has informed and, at times, overshadowed the literary accomplishments of the three Bronte sisters.

Miller chronicles how, after the shocked and repulsed reaction of their contemporaries to the collected pseudonymous works of Acton, Currer, and Ellis Bell, Charlotte Bronte immediately began fabricating a publi...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Furqan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, the-brontës, great-and-terrible-women, literary-biography, victorian-england

This excellent literary biography succeeds in its bold attempt to debunk the myth surrounding the lives of Brontë family - the myth which was created by Charlotte Brontë herself, and later embellished and perpetuated by her friend Elizabeth Gaskell in her classic, though very misleading biography: The Life of Charlotte Brontë.

Miller confidently reveals the motivations behind the genesis of the myth and how it came to and still to some extent continue to cloud our perception of the "real" Brontës...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

Following the Brontë sisters through their many reincarnations at the hands of biographers, Lucasta Miller reveals as much about the impossible art of biography as she does about the Brontës themselves. Their first biographer, Mrs Gaskell, transformed their story of literary ambition into one of the great legends of the 19th century, a dramatic tale of three lonely sisters playing out their tragic destiny on top of a windswept moor. Lucasta Miller reveals where this image came from and how it to...more

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Jun 06, 2010 Ana T. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010, non-fiction

When I started the All About the Brontës Challenge I went to look for books about them, this one seemed intriguing and I couldn’t resist picking it up when I happened upon it.

The Brontë Myth is about what has been written through the years about the Brontë sisters and their work. Miller first discusses how they were seen by their contemporaries, how their work was received and the need they felt to hide themselves behind their pseudonyms of Currer, Acton and Ellis Bell. Considering how their wor...more When I started the All About the Brontës Challenge I went to look for books about them, this one seemed intriguing and I couldn’t resist picking it up when I happened upon it.

The Brontë Myth is about what has been written through the years about the Brontë sisters and their work. Miller first discusses how they were seen by their contemporaries, how their work was received and the need they felt to hide themselves behind their pseudonyms of Currer, Acton and Ellis Bell. Considering how their work was received it is no wonder that Charlotte Brönte felt the need to maintain a certain reserve when dealing with others and that, after her sisters died, started to work on a story of their lives trying to protect them from an aggressive public opinion. Her relationship with Elizabeth Gaskell led the latter to write The Life of Charlotte Brönte. The first biography written about her would influence many of the future ones but is a somewhat romanticised version of her life, aiming to restore her reputation in the eyes of the Victorian society and attribute her "coarse" writings to a miserable childhood and the wildness of moors. Miller believes the truth to be very different but this idea, reproduced in many future books about the Brontës is the beginning of The Brontë Myth.

What Miller attempts to do is a study of all that body of work that has been produced over the years about the Brontë sisters, the different perspectives in different ages but also the different perspectives by different authors. Everything contributed to create an idea of them that is sometimes far from the truth although considered as such. She also refers some of the movie and series adaptations of the sisters’ work, some completely changed from the original story, and the Téchine adaptation of their lives.

I find it curious that one of the books I considered reading for the challenge was precisely the biography by Gaskell. I think every reader, or at least this reader, likes to read books about authors and their books and for that alone this The Brönte Myth is a really interesting read. Although it is a bit dry at times the information that provides was so interesting that I wanted to write down every book suggested and movie mentioned just to compare my opinion with Miller's. Some of them I will definitely track down and after reading this book I am curious about what the future will bring to add to the Brontë Myth.

Grade: 4/5(less)

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Jan 16, 2008 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

A very interesting read if you like the Brontes. The author basically gives us a history of readers' and critics' (mis)perceptions of the literary family. I walked away from it with the realization that I'd bought into too many of the myths myself.

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Jan 02, 2012 Colleen O'Neill Conlan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bio-memoir, literary-criticism

This book explores the nature of biography, and how the biographer's agenda shapes our perception of the subject. The Bronte sisters have been written about so many times since their early deaths in the mid 1800s. Their lives and work have been interpreted and reinterpreted hundreds of times, beginning with Mrs. Gaskell's effort shortly after Charlotte's death. Each new version serves as a corrective, of sorts, for the ones that came before. Part biography, part literary criticism, interesting a...more

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Jul 09, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I picked this book up thinking it would be an accurate biography of the Bronte sisters, instead it's a critique of every biography written about Charlotte and Emily (nobody seems to care much about Anne) from just after Charlotte's death to almost the date of publish.

I thought I knew something about Charlotte but most of a what I knew was incorrect. They were outright lies and misdirections deliberately spread around by her first biographer.

Later biographers twisted the sisters in every way...more

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Nov 16, 2011 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: school, did-not-finish

I picked this up for research purposes on an Emily Bronte/Wuthering Heights paper I'm working on, and I was disappointed to find that while it's meant to cover all three sisters, most of the book is dedicated to Charlotte, a few chapters to Emily, and what seems to be next to nothing on Anne. Since my time is limited and I had to get ahold of this book via an Inter-Library Loan, I won't be able to read all that I want, but I will most likely return to it soon.

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Feb 17, 2008 Faith Bradham rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bios-etc

A very good, thorough biography, I thought. I learned many new things, which is always good. But I did think that she rather harped on how much biographers have misrepresented the Brontes -which is true, of course- and didn't seem to take into account that SHE'S a biographer and could be doing the same thing. And Anne was rather neglected ... Miller remarks on how Anne is so often overlooked, and then promtly overlooks her herself, giving Anne less than a chapter and giving Emily and Charlotte t...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Michelle Prendergast Sweeney rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, autobiography-biography

A competent biography that works to eradicate the misconceptions propagated by previous biographers and in some cases Charlotte Bronte herself. It became repetitive in its focus on how the sisters and their work have been misrepresented by Victorian mores. In addition, its almost exclusive emphasis on Charlotte became redundant; even in the chapters whose titles indicate that Emily is the subject, Charlotte is pushed to the forefront and Anne is all but forgotten although with extant scholarship...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Clare rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Brontë Myth engagingly explores the mythology surrounding the women of Haworth, from the way Charlotte perpetuated it herself to modern interpretations of their lives. It’s a fascinating look at how seemingly objective facts can tell very different stories. Very well done.

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Apr 09, 2009 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love how Miller keeps saying that everyone before her was biased because she is too! Don't know how much of it you can trust, but I found it very interesting. A great look on two of the three Bronte sisters.

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Sep 16, 2009 Michaela rated it 2 of 5 stars

There was interesting info within, but goodness -- very poorly organized.

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Sep 17, 2012 Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bronte

As the title says this books brings to light the many myths about the Bronte family. Mostly because they died young and were so closed off from others (mostly because of the time they lived in, where they live and little bit because of who they were) there are a lot of myths that different authors, poets, director, and the general public created about this now famous family.

An interesting read for anyone who enjoys reading about the small but powerful Bronte family. And I mean powerful in the li...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Wallace marked it as to-read

Rec'd by Lyndsey

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Jul 08, 2009 Laurel rated it 3 of 5 stars

critic

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Feb 27, 2011 Liz rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book has been on and off my reading list for almost a year (not that it was uninteresting, but that I was busy with other projects and kept putting it aside). Indeed, I think Miller's biography does the Bronte sisters justice - she dispels many of the myths that have surrounded the sisters since their deaths and turns them from unreachable saints to relatable women once again. Highly recommend for anyone interested in the lives of the Brontes.

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Nov 13, 2010 Luci rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this metabiography of the Bronte sisters. It was unlike any other biography I had read before. It didn't trace their lives per se but their literary afterlives, discussing all kinds of things from biscuits to film. A very interesting book!

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Mar 29, 2007 Helen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favouritebooks

Miller dispels the myths surrounding the life and novels of the Bronte's, specifically Charlotte. She shows how Elizabeth Gaskell's biography about Charlotte, written shortly after Charlotte's death, exaggerates and even at times makes up facts about the Bronte's life (as when she states that Patrick, their father, abused the children). Miller shows the continuing fabrication of these myths and in effect exposes the real Bronte's.

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Apr 02, 2009 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-criticism

Through extensive research, the author sifts through the myths and legends that surround Bronte biography (and criticism) to present a more accurate portrait of the sisters. Some of the misconceptions are new to me; the observations on their lives would be interesting to anyone with a mild interest in the Victorian period, not just fans of the Brontes' works.

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Mar 23, 2013 Muriel Areno rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book explores fact and fiction among all the biographies that have been written about the Brontë siblings, as well as the biographers' motivations. We learn a lot along the way. A well-written and exhaustively researched book that will please lovers of 19th century literature and history.

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Jul 24, 2009 Manisha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

It is interesting to see how the Bronte sisters were portrayed and criticised over the years, but this gets dull about halfway through the book.

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Nov 28, 2010 Elvira rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

An interesting look at the history and myths surrounding the Bronte sisters and how trends in society have affected the ways biographies have been pursued and written.

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