Everything You Always Wanted to Know About The Brontës But Were Afraid to Ask

Arguably one of the more interesting events in the on-going Brontë Society AGM Meeting is the panel with Brontë biographers that will be held tomorrow, June 2. A couple of newspapers talk about it today. The Halifax Evening Courier highlights Juliet Barker's presence:

A CRAGG Vale author will join other experts in a discussion about the Bronte family tomorow.
Were the Brontes mistreated by their father? Was Emily's Heathcliffe based on a real-life lover? Did Charlotte destroy Emily's second novel?
All these questions and more will be answered at the Bronte Society event at West Lane Baptist Chapel, Haworth.
Juliet Barker, of The Old Vicarage, Cragg Vale, wrote a book about the family called The Brontes.
She will join Edward Chitham, Rebecca Fraser and Lyndall Gordon in a panel discussion event chaired by novelist Justine Picardie.
In particular, they will discuss Mrs Gaskell's biography, The Life of Charlotte Bronte, published in 1857, two years after Charlotte's death.
Juliet said: "Due to the links the Brontes had with Halifax, I'm sure this will be a popular event for people from the town.
"Emily taught at the former Law Hill School, Southowram, Charlotte bought her wedding outfits in Halifax, and Branwell had his first poems published here and was friends with many of the town's writers, musicians and poet.
"The idea is to discuss Mrs Gaskell's novel. In my view this was not a biography but a work of fiction.
"She wrote a lot of myths about the Brontes."

The Yorkshire Evening Post gets a little bit tabloid:

THE lives of the Brontë sisters will be under the microscope on Saturday as four biographers explore the truths and fictions behind rumours of abuse, anorexia and sibling rivalry.
Juliet Barker, Edward Chitham, Rebecca Fraser and Lyndall Gordon will take part in a panel discussion event in Haworth, chaired by novelist Justine Picardie.
Andrew McCarthy, deputy director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, said: "Four such prominent authorities on the Brontës have never been brought together in this way."

The Times Literary Supplement reviews Janet Gezari's Last Thing (check our review):

The precise point at which we die
'Absorbing...[Gezari's] thoughtful and sustained engagement with Emily Bronte's poetry has nothing of the brittle 'argument' of much contemporary critical discourse. Last Things provides an example of what reinvigorated critical humanism might look like.' (Joe Phelan)

And now, some reviews around. Daphne du Maurier's The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë gets a review from Sandy's Blog. You can contrast it with our own review of the 2006 edition. Critical Mass reviews Wuthering Heights and Epinion does the same with Jane Eyre (in Portuguese).

Finally, a new Brontëite. Author Nicole Young is interviewed on Relz Reviewz:

Do you read fiction yourself? If so, some favourite authors or books both Christian and/or secular?
I love fiction and grew up with the classics. Bronte’s Jane Eyre is still my all-time fave, with Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind coming in a close second.

Categories: Brontëites, In the News, Jane Eyre, Talks, Wuthering Heights