No longer 'bland, passive, and boringly angelic'

Vox interviews Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, authors of the groundbreaking book The Madwoman in the Attic.

In 1979, The Madwoman in the Attic became one of the first books of feminist literary theory. It examined books by 19th-century women writers like the Brontës, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen; writers who today are considered safely part of the canon, but who in the 1970s were rarely granted serious scholarly attention. The title comes from Jane Eyre’s madwoman in the attic, and from one of Gilbert and Gubar’s great insights: that the madwoman is not just a nonsensical flourish of lurid gothicness. She is the anger of Jane Eyre, trapped in the attic of her mind. She is the violent rage of all women, forced into an unforgiving and overlooked corner of the narrative.

The Madwoman in the Attic gave us a way of reading the passionate, violent emotions of women writers who for a long time were considered bland, passive, and boringly angelic. (Constance Grady)

In The Telegraph, Clive Aslet claims, not without reason, that 'Churchyards are the overlooked wonders of England'.

When the Brontë sisters walked out from their father’s parsonage, they avoided the churchyard and went to the moor instead. Wuthering Heights was the result.

My London refers to Hathersage as 'The picturesque hidden gem only 2 hours from London'.

Much of the present church was rebuilt by Sir Robert Eyre after his return from the Battle of Agincourt, with the church boasting some fine memorial brasses to the Eyre family inside.

Sir Robert is said to have built seven houses in and around the village, including his home, North Lees Hall.

Literary fans will be intrigued to know that Hathersage is said to have inspired some of Charlotte Brontë’s best known work.

Many of the locations in Jane Eyre were based on locations in and around the village, as well as being directly referred to as the village of Morton in the book.

It's also rumoured that Mr Rochester’s ‘Thornfield Hall’ is widely based on North Lees Hall. (Ellen Jenne)