The Brontesaurus: An A-Z of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte (and Branwell)

Description

Was Rochester a murderer? Did the Reverend Bronte carry a loaded pistol? What, precisely, does 'Wuthering' mean? Did the Brontes all have tiny feet? To celebrate the bicentenary of Charlotte Bronte's birth, eminent Victorian scholar John Sutherland takes us on an A to Z ramble through the world of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte (and not forgetting their dissolute brother Branwell). For fans of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, here is a light-hearted miscellany freighted with a working lifetime's scholarly expertise. With his reputation for intensely close reading of Victorian literature, John Sutherland explores the Brontes' lives, their characters, their novels and poems, and the ways in which we interpret them today - and above all he digs out those unexpected nuggets of fact that illuminate their perennially popular works.

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus at University College London and an eminent scholar in the field of Victorian fiction, author of many works including The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. He has also written the bestselling popular titles Is Heathcliff a Murderer? and Can Jane Eyre be Happy?, and such scholarly jeux d'esprit as Curiosities of Literature. His most recent books include How Good is Your Grammar?, Stars, Cars, and Crystal Meth and Orwell's Nose.John Crace is the parliamentary sketch writer for the Guardian newspaper, for which he also writes the regular Digested Read feature. He is the author of several books including, with John Sutherland, the multi-volume The Incomplete Shakespeare.

John Sutherland is among the handful of critics whose every book I must have. -- Jay Parini