Synopses & Reviews
The compelling story of the Brontës is told through the things they wore, stitched, wrote on, and inscribed at the parsonage in Haworth. From Charlotte's writing desk and the manuscripts it contained to the brass collar worn by Emily's dog, Keeper, each object opens a window onto the sisters' world, their fiction, and the Victorian era. By unfolding the histories of the things they used, the chapters form a chronological biography of this interknit family. A walking stick evokes Emily's solitary hikes on the moors and the stormy heath--itself a character in . Charlotte's bracelet containing Anne and Emily's intertwined hair gives voice to her grief over their deaths. These possessions pull us into their daily lives: the death of their mother and two sisters, the imaginary kingdoms of their childhood writing, their time as governesses, and their stubborn efforts to make a mark on the world.
Review
"The most mundane object carries a lifetime of experience within it. Daily life, and the objects of daily living, can speak to us, if we are willing to listen. Deborah Lutz has listened to what the Brontës' possessions tell us, and produced an original, enlightening and acute reading of these original, enlightening and acute women's writings." Judith Flanders, author of The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London
Review
"A passionate, intelligent, and stylish book. Deborah Lutz works a kind of magic around the Brontës' possessions and evokes their lives, works, and legacies more vividly than ever. A brilliantly original study that all Brontë lovers will want to read." Claire Harman, author of Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World
Review
"What an impressive web of detail, housed within compact and elegant sentences! This jeweled book--an act of intricate divination--brings the Brontës to life by performing a magical investigation of the objects surrounding them.
Review
"Lutz skillfully uses the titular nine objects to explore the relationship between the sisters' world and their fiction... Lutz commends Emily [Bronte] for her 'visceral engagement with her subject matter,' and the same could be said of Lutz in this illuminating biographical study." Publishers Weekly
Review
" yields up all sorts of fascinating new angles on the famous siblings...illuminating." Maureen Corrigan
Review
"[E]xponentially raise[s] the Brontëan stakes.... makes a powerful case for the value of the material world, personally and culturally, then and now." Fresh Air
Review
"This is a marvelous analysis of screenwriting and, with any luck, should help a great many people achieve their dreams." Rebecca Steinitz Boston Globe
Review
"Lutz's insights...prove fascinating.... In honoring keepsakes' power to open history's gates, works like also offer a useful corrective to our current culture's emphasis on virtual reality." Rebecca Steinitz Boston Globe
Review
"Brontë aficionados will enjoy the deft interweaving of artifact, biography, and literature, but the greatest pleasure is the expanding chain of associations Lutz creates in each chapter.... is an engaging read for fans of the Brontë sisters, of course, but also for anyone interested in material culture, the Victorian era, and the history of everyday lives--especially women's lives." Danny Heitman Wall Street Journal
Review
"Even for a convinced sceptic, John Yorke's book, with its massive field of reference from Aristotle to Glee, and from Shakespeare to Spooks, is a highly persuasive and highly energetic read." Patricia Hagen Minneapolis Star Tribune
Review
"This jeweled book--an act of intricate divination--brings the Brontës to life by performing a magical investigation of the objects surrounding them. Deborah Lutz exercises a dowser's wondrous rigor; with erudition, deep feeling, and an almost mystical sense of an inanimate object's communicativeness, she pioneers a new way of looking at detritus and keepsakes, and a new way of writing biography." Danny Heitman Wall Street Journal
Review
" is full of illuminating and original insights, bringing aspects of the Brontës' lives into sharp focus for the first time." Wayne Koestenbaum, author of
Synopsis
An intimate portrait of the lives and writings of the Brontë sisters, drawn from the objects they possessed.
Synopsis
In this unique and lovingly detailed biography of a literary family that has enthralled readers for nearly two centuries, Victorian literature scholar Deborah Lutz illuminates the complex and fascinating lives of the Brontes through the things they wore, stitched, wrote on, and inscribed. By unfolding the histories of the meaningful objects in their family home in Haworth, Lutz immerses readers in a nuanced re-creation of the sisters' daily lives while moving us chronologically forward through the major biographical events: the death of their mother and two sisters, the imaginary kingdoms of their childhood writing, their time as governesses, and their determined efforts to make a mark on the literary world.
From the miniature books they made as children to the blackthorn walking sticks they carried on solitary hikes on the moors, each personal possession opens a window onto the sisters' world, their beloved fiction, and the Victorian era. A description of the brass collar worn by Emily s bull mastiff, Keeper, leads to a series of entertaining anecdotes about the influence of the family s dogs on their writing and about the relationship of Victorians to their pets in general. The sisters' portable writing desks prove to have played a crucial role in their writing lives: it was Charlotte's snooping in Emily s desk that led to the sisters' first publication in print, followed later by the publication of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.
Charlotte's letters provide insight into her relationships, both innocent and illicit, including her relationship with the older professor to whom she wrote passionately. And the bracelet Charlotte had made of Anne and Emily's intertwined hair bears witness to her profound grief after their deaths.
Lutz captivatingly shows the Brontes anew by bringing us deep inside the physical world in which they lived and from which their writings took inspiration.
"
About the Author
Deborah Lutz's books include Pleasure Bound: Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism and Relics of Death in Victorian Literature and Culture. The Thruston B. Morton Professor of English at the University of Louisville, she lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and Brooklyn, New York.