The Brontës in Brooklyn

Do you want to know something more about the Brontës and you live in New York? Now is your chance:

The Brontë Sisters at Brooklyn Brainery
Three Wednesdays, 3/21, 3/28, and 4/4, 8:30-10:00pm
515 Court St, Brooklyn, NY
50 $

Taught by Charlotte Bowen
Charlotte Bowen is a writer, polymath, and all around good egg who lives in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. She blogs about languages, history, and the joys of autodidactic learning at friendlypolymath.com.

The Brontë sisters -- Charlotte, Emily, and Anne -- are a fascinating study in contradictions: ardent feminists whose works nevertheless seem to embrace patriarchy, reclusive outsiders with a thorough knowledge of human nature, and devout Christians and royalists whose works nevertheless evince a skepticism about the established church and monarchy.
Over three sessions we'll resolve these contradictions and place the lives and works Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë within a broader historical and literary context. There's no need to have read their books ahead of time: if you're interested in history, feminism, sociology, or psychological portraits of interesting people, you're sure to find something to spark your imagination.

You can read the course preview by Charlotte Bowen here.

Some literature just shouldn't be taught in schools. Not because it's too racy or too incomprehensible, but because a two-week reading and a list of comprehension questions just go nowhere towards describing the historical and literary context needed to really understand and appreciate the real power of a great novel.
This is definitely the case with the Bronte sisters. If you're anything like me, you might have read Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights in school and not gotten a lot out of them. You may never even have heard of Agnes Grey, Villette, or The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Yet each of these novels has something fascinating to say about the time and place in which they were written, and the people who wrote or influenced them -- as any lucky person who rereads these books in adulthood will find.  (Read more)