“The Brontës: Charlotte Brontë and Her Family” by Rebecca Fraser

543 pages, Crown, ISBN-13: 978-0517564387

The Brontës: Charlotte Brontë and Her Family was the first book written by Rebecca Fraser in 1988; Fraser, a writer and broadcaster for the BBC, is also the daughter of famed historian Antonia Fraser, and I think this bio of the Brontës shows from whence she came: it is detailed; it is informative; it is…exhaustive, both in the way it was researched and the way it was written, just like her mother’s books. You’ll learn everything about this unique family (for instance: Charlotte was not the eldest sibling, as there were two older sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, who died aged 12 and 11 respectively) in excruciating detail (again, just like dear old mother). Raised on the wild moors of Haworth, England, Charlotte and her family – that would be parents Patrick and (briefly) Maria Branwell Brontë, and siblings Emily, Anne and Branwell (but then you knew that I’m sure, Dear Reader) – compensated for the bleakness of their surroundings by writing about imaginary kingdoms. Eventually, Charlotte, Emily and Anne turned to writing novels, which they published with varying degrees of critical success: Anne’s were virtually ignored, Emily’s Wuthering Heights was universally panned for its “contemptible” characters and lack of art, while Charlotte’s Jane Eyre created a sensation, with those ever-fascinating Victorians being both intrigued and appalled by its heroine’s independence, seeming rejection of religious values and right to feel as passionately about life as a man. Almost overnight, Charlotte became famous, but tragedy soon followed. Within months, her tormented brother Branwell, then Emily, and then Anne died of tuberculosis. Only Charlotte survived: a tiny, plain, almost toothless woman who despaired about her looks and longed for the romantic love she wrote about in her novels. Happily, she was finally able to marry in middle age her father’s curate, a prosaic man who nevertheless was kind to her. But happiness was short-lived; nine months after their marriage, she became pregnant and died, at age 39, of the disease that had killed her sisters and brother.

With scholarship and sympathy, Fraser presents a fresh and modern view of Charlotte Bronte: as a woman searching for love and as a writer who helped change society’s perceptions about her sex. She is thoughtful and is willing to contemplate different angles to certain topics (such as Charlotte’s letters to her teacher M. Heger) which lends a balanced feel to the biography – and placing Charlotte and her writings within her own era was brilliant as I believe that it really put things in perspective, both to how she was perceived then and how we perceive her now. A few things are outdated – such as the idea of Emily Brontë being a mystic – but these quibbles can be easily remedied with a little independent research. Charlotte’s life was marked with sorrow and loss: her mother died when she was five, and was followed to the grave four years later her two older sisters, Maria and Elizabeth; Charlotte also outlived her younger siblings, with brother Branwell and sisters Emily and Anne dying in 1848 and 1849 (Charlotte herself died in 1855, three weeks short of her 40^th birthday). All this is told with thoroughness and diligence by Rebecca Fraser…with a style as dry and uninspired as anything her mother wrote. Sorry to keep harping on this, but this book could have been so much more enjoyable in the hands of a more gifted and entertaining writer. From a factual basis it is top-notch: everything and anything you ever wanted to know about the Brontës is there to be found; you just have to wallow through the ponderous prose to glean the information you seek. But if you can do that, then The Brontës is well worth the effort.