Brontë Studies. Volume 32, Issue 3

The new issue of Brontë Studies (Volume 32, Issue 3, November 2007) is already available on-line. We provide you the table of contents and abstracts:

Editorial : Brontë Conference 2006 pp. iii-iii(1) Author: Duckett, Bob

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

The Haworth the Brontës knew
pp. 181-192 Author: Whitehead, Stephen

Where did the Brontës get their books?
pp. 193-206 Author: Duckett, Bob
Abstract
The question of where the Brontë children got their knowledge of literature — of where they got their books — has exercised Brontë scholars since the time of Mrs Gaskell. One popular source claimed is that of the Keighley Mechanics' Institute library. But this is unlikely. There were many other places where books were available. Obtaining books before the development of public libraries was not as difficult as many believe. Several local sources are noted here.

'The likeness of a Kingly Crown': John Milton's influence on Charlotte Brontë
pp. 207-216 Author: Emberson, Ian

Wuthering Heights and the Waverley novels: Sir Walter Scott's influence on Emily Brontë
pp. 217-226 Author: Oda, Yukari
Abstract
Sir Walter Scott's novel Waverley is compared with Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. Their narrators are unreliable in their own ways: Emily's inconclusive manner of speaking is similar to Scott's wavering literary identity between history and fiction. Scott's heroes fuse themselves into the unified ending whereas Emily's Lockwood remains at a distance as an onlooker. This stillness is considered to be her expression of resistance to Scott's happy endings. Emily is in conflict with Scott's harmonious endings and reaches her original sphere of ambiguity and coexistence.

Why Anne Brontë wrote as she did?
pp. 227-243 Author: Leaver, Elizabeth
Abstract
One of the most significant recent developments in Brontë scholarship has been the renewed interest in the fiction of Anne Brontë and the awareness that she deserves more sympathetic and informed treatment from Brontë researchers. This article contributes to that debate by focusing on Anne's second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The article argues that The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is an important mid-nineteenth-century text and offers a robust enquiry into middle-class female experience in mid-Victorian England. Working outwards from its central premise that 'Matrimony is a serious thing', the article suggests that the novel's reformist impulse finds powerful resonance in the non-fictional writings of Florence Nightingale. Anne Brontë's creative experimentation with different forms of first person female narrative technique is also explored in some detail.

The Church Census and the Brontës
pp. 245-251 Author: Winnifrith, Tom

ARTICLES

The Cloistering of Lucy Snowe: an Element of Catholicism in Charlotte Brontë's Villette
pp. 253-259 Author: Edgren-Bindas, Tonya
Abstract
Charlotte Brontë's Villette offers a staunchly negative portrayal of the Roman Catholic Church, and this portrayal has allowed the novel to be commonly characterized as anti-Catholic. Nevertheless, the staunchly Protestant Lucy Snowe appears to have a paradoxical attraction to the Catholic faith. This is seen most clearly in Charlotte's use of the nun. The ghostly nun is meant to be the most horrifying aspect of the novel — a young woman who was buried alive and comes back to haunt Lucy at the pensionnat. However, the dead nun is ultimately a double of Lucy. Despite her overtly negative feelings toward Catholicism, Lucy figuratively assumes the position of a nun. And her beloved M. Paul (an ultra-Catholic figure within the book) takes on many Christ-like attributes. Charlotte's religious references and inclinations in Villette are unmistakable, and they appear to be more than a simple superficial leniency toward the Catholic faith on the part of the author; Charlotte was seemingly drawn to and fascinated by some aspects of the Roman Catholic Church.

REVIEWS (pp. 261-272)

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