The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne

By sheer coincidence, I read The Bronte Sisters immediately after Dorothy Sayers's Are Women Human? and found many threads of connection between Sayers's and Charlotte Bronte's insistence that women (and their work) should, indeed must, be considered as human first and foremost. Charlotte and her sisters struggled much more than Sayers did against the attitudes that would confine women to a narrow scope of endeavour defined by men, but the attitudes are still recognizable even now. Sayers, writing around 1940, is approximately halfway between the Brontes and the present, so it's interesting to see social attitudes sampled at 80-year intervals ... interesting to see what has changed, and appalling to see how much has stayed the show more same.

Also, this biography was well-written, enjoyable to read, well-illustrated, and informative. I feel that I know the Brontes much better and after a thorough introduction to their entire work, I'd like to read some of the books I have yet to encounter. show less

I found this book informative and engaging. It describes, as you might expect, the lives of the Bronte siblings (including two older sisters who died young, and a brother who lived to adulthood but died within a year of Emily and Anne). The author draws parallels from the lives of the sisters to memorable scenes and characters from their books. It's clear that Reef has done a great deal of careful research, and that her subjects live in her imagination and therefore in the pages of the book.

For some students, the first-time appearance of a Brontë novel on a syllabus is cause for a disgruntled groan. More often than not, however, the devilish Heathcliff or strong-willed Jane surprises readers and wins over another generation of Brontë admirers.

But what about the women behind the fascinating novels? The sisters’ childhood was spent on the beautiful moors of Yorkshire, along with their brother, Branwell, and their father, a reverend. Unfortunately, their childhood was marred by sadness; their mother died when they were children, and two older sisters followed not long after. Because of that, the sisters and Branwell became insular and made up fantastical tales of lands of their own invention. The creativity never left show more the sisters, and despite taking jobs later in life they loathed, they each produced a masterpiece, written under male pseudonyms, that caused quite the stir when their books were published in the 1840s.

Although the book covers the lives of each of the three sisters, the story never feels rushed, and a great deal of time is given to each sister, who were quite different in personalities. Even for those that haven’t read a Brontë work, the book interweaves just enough synopses of their works for that purpose, but not too much to bore those that have read them. The lives of these three young women were certainly brief, but as Reef’s book illustrates, what they did in that short time was nothing short of magnificent. Highly recommended. Grades 7 and up. show less

I've read several biographies of the Brontes and several (but not all) of their books and this is a great retelling of their fascinating story for teens. The numerous illustrations, including pictures of people and places involved in their lives and their own writings and drawings, are a great addition that usually get omitted from adult biographies. The author, Catherine Reef, also does a great job of connecting what they wrote about to what they experienced in life, literary connections that you don't usually see in biographies for younger people. If you hadn't read any other biographies, this would be a great first one, and if you were only going to read one, this would be an excellent choice too. (As a reader, I never felt talked show more down to, by the way.) show less

Reef does a great job of exploring the fascinating lives of the Bronte sisters without getting too bogged down in small details. Unfortunately, the appeal of this book may be limited among teens, but a good book talk may get some interested, especially if they've read any of the Bronte sisters' novels.

As a school librarian I have read many excellent books written for young adults, and I consider this to be one of them. It is a brief biography, with only 190 pages, but packed into those pages are the sorrows and joys experienced by Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Branwell. I ached when each sibling died, knowing the sorrow their death caused, and the talents that were taken from us too soon. The author, Catherine Reef, has a beautiful writing style, one that I believe adults can also enjoy. This work might be short, but I believe, very well done. I would definitely recommend this title to anyone wanting to learn more about the Bronte family.

I never could get into the Bronte sisters' actual works of fiction, but I had always heard that much of their fiction was based on their real life experiences, which is what led me to this book, which I really enjoyed for several reasons.

First, it is an extremely fast read. If you wanted to, you could pound this out in a day. If you buy the Kindle version, the footnotes begin around 70% of the way through the book, so the last 30% of the book is not actual text.

Second, it's an interesting look at the lives of the Bronte sisters, as well as their father, brother, and some of their friends. The women's books are, to some degree or another, vastly influenced by their experiences as middle-class women with little social standing. The show more author summarizes the books each sister wrote, along with their critical and popular reception. The book moves at a brisk pace, quoting just enough of the literature to be relevant and not over-sampling.

I have found, on reading this book, that I have a greater appreciation for Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights now. I still don't really care for those books, but now that I see them in their political and social context, I understand them better. I would actually suggest this book to anyone who has to read any of the Bronte books for school - I wish I had had something like this when I was in high school. It is definitely easy to read and will probably give a reader of Bronte fiction a better understanding of the books themselves and the Bronte sisters' real goals in writing those novels. show less