Synopses & Reviews
Charlotte Brontë's death in 1855 deprived the world of what might have been her masterpiece. The twenty unfinished manuscript pages that are the nucleus of
Emma Brown signaled her most compelling work since
Jane Eyre the story of a young girl, Matilda, brought by her father to a small school in provincial Victorian England. The school, Fuschia Lodge, is foundering, so its headmistress is delighted to welcome a new pupil especially one so elaborately dressed, with an apparently rich father who is "quite the gentleman." But when Matilda's tuition goes unpaid and it comes time to make arrangements for the Christmas holidays, she is shocked to find that the identity of the father, Conway Fitzgibbon like the address he left behind does not exist.
So who is the mysterious Matilda? She herself will not say, and it falls to a local gentleman, Mr. Ellin, and a childless widow, Isabel Chalfont, to unravel the truth. From the drawing rooms of English country society to the grimy backstreets of London's seamiest reaches, from the dandified members of the citys elite clubs to the blowsy ranks of its brothels, Emma Brown follows the search first for Matilda's true identity and then for the girl herself.
With all the wit and pathos of the novel's originator, Clare Boylan's accomplished pen has seamlessly developed Brontë's sketch of a girl without a past into a stunning portrait of a Victorian society with a shameful secret at its heart.
Review
"Emma Brown is a powerful and magnificently written novel that does ample justice to the two brief chapters from which it sprang." Miranda Seymour, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Though Boylan has clearly attempted a work in the Brontëan spirit, incorporating lines from the writer's letters, it's Boylan who deserves credit for the heavy lifting here. She's fashioned a gothic orphan saga from what amounts to a suggestion, one that gives no hint of the complications she has envisioned from it....In Emma Brown Boylan speaks simultaneously from the soapbox and the easy chair in front of the fire." Charles Taylor, Salon.com
Review
"Bold and engrossing but not, in the final analysis, especially convincing." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Whether this novel is anything like the one Charlotte would have written is beside the point; Boylan's work succeeds on its own as a compelling tale." Booklist
Review
"Boylan has fashioned a credible Victorian novel....Verging on melodrama, with a plot a little too coincidence-laden, this successor to Jane Eyre is still entertaining and should be popular with readers who cannot get their fill of Victoriana." Library Journal
Synopsis
When Charlotte Brontë died in 1855, she left behind twenty pages of a novel that signaled her most compelling work since Jane Eyre. One hundred fifty years later, Clare Boylan has finished Brontë’s novel, sparking a sensational literary event. With pitch-perfect tone that is utterly true to Brontë’s voice, Boylan delivers a brilliant tale about a mysterious young girl, Matilda, who is delivered to a girls’ school in provincial England. When everything about the girl’s wealthy background turns out to be a fiction, it falls to a local gentleman, Mr. Ellin, and a childless widow, Isabel Chalfont, to begin a quest for her past and her identity that takes them from the drawing rooms of country society to London’s seamiest alleys. With all the intelligence and pathos of the novel’s originator, Boylan develops Brontë’s sketch of a girl without a past into a stunning portrait of Victorian society with a shameful secret at its heart.
About the Author
Clare Boylan is the author of seven novels, which include Holy Pictures, Room for a Single Lady, Black Baby, and Beloved Stranger. She has also written several works of nonfiction.