Includes the novels Jane Eyre, Villette, Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

A “brilliant” biography of the Brontë family, dispelling popular myths and revealing the true story of Emily, Anne, Charlotte, and their father (The Independent on Sunday). The tragic story of the Brontë family has been told many times: the half-mad, repressive father; the drunken, drug-addicted brother; wildly romantic Emily; unrequited Anne; and “poor Charlotte.” But is any of it true? These caricatures of the popular imagination were created by amateur biographers like Elizabeth Gaskell who were more interested in lurid tales than genuine scholarship. Juliet Barker’s landmark book is the first definitive history of the Brontës. It demolishes the myths, yet provides startling new information that is just as compelling—but true. Based on firsthand research among all the Brontë manuscripts and among contemporary historical documents never before used by Brontë biographers, this book is both scholarly and compulsively readable. The Brontës is a revolutionary picture of the world’s favorite literary family.

In its exploration of legal issues presented in novels of the Brontë sisters, this book represents a significant and original contribution to the study, not just of the Brontës and the mid-nineteenth century 'woman's novel', but also the situation of women in nineteenth century English law and the debates which moved around its prospective reform.

This new edition gathers together some of the best recent analyses of the lives and works of the Brontë sisters - Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Several works of the authors are examined, including the classic novels Jane Eyre and Wuthering heights.