What's Your Favorite Bronte Novel?

I hasten to mention I have not read VILLETTE or SHIRLEY yet!!

no big surprise here... of course its JANE EYRE! (I'm a poet and I didn't know it!) :o) Lori

My vote has to go for Jane Eyre, also. It's been a favorite since I was about 12. I am one of those who thinks Wuthering Heights is much ado about nothing, and I greatly enjoyed Tenant of Wildfell Hall. That is the extent of my Bronte reading, though, an oversight I intend to correct soonest!

The criticial reception of WH over the years is interesting. When it first came out in 1847, it was almost universally excoriated for being "coarse," every character was detestable, etc. THEN, many yeares after Emily's death, this incredible re-evaulation took place, and she's commonly thought to be a better writer than Charlotte. I readily acknowledge she was a better POET, but I have to say, I prefer Charlotte's novel to hers. And I understand that VILLETTE is just a tour de force -- George Eliot cou dn't stop talking about it.

Without doubt and without reservations, Wuthering Heights. Read it as simple Romance and like Lockwood you will find yourself confounded in your attempts to gain entry. Some people will always shudder and turn their backs on a novel that is anadulterated power, and both has closure and yet also resists it. I read it at the age of nine, and have come back to it every year of my life. Like Virginia Woolf said, it is not simply a statement about "I am" or "You are", but rather "We, the human race" and "You, the eternal powers". I this isn't too inarticulate...and don't even start me on the poetry!

Elena, I see you are a big Emily supporter! I haven't read WH for some time, & I intend to do so before I go to England at the end of September. I do remember being utterly unable to put it down until I finished. It's quite a challenge, betweeen the multiple narrators, Yorkshire dialect, & multi-generational plot. What is it about the book that draws you in?

Amy, it seems strange, but "Wuthering Heights" has been a part of my consciousness for so long that I haven't thought in years why it is my favourite novel. Like the beautiful image of Cathy's dream, it has changed the colour of my mind, like wine through water. It's not just a single element, it's everything. The poety, the fascinating way she manipulates her narrative and structure. The characters, of course. Even at the end of the novel, Nelly Dean - and the reader - are still asking who or what Heathcliffe is. And the younger Cathy, is equally vivid, even in her abscence. "Jane Eyre" is a superb work of genius. You only have to look at the way generations of women have responded to it as a voicing of their own journey. But "Wuthering Heights" doesn't seem to be operating on the same plain - it transcends it. Charlotte's is a voice of personal love and indignation and need. "Wuthering Heights" and its characters are operating on another, eternal level.

Thanks. I definitely look forward to reading this again with new insight.

Jane Eyre- my favorite book of all time. it has everything a book should have. The characters are great (Jane, Mr. Rochester are my favorites), the plot is interesting, and you have to think about it. I'm reading it for the second time now and am still finding new things. Charlotte Bronte was a genius for suspense; i never guessed what would happen in j.E but she gave you clues and foreshadowing. I just love that book. I've read Wuthering Heights, which i liked, but it was different. it's the kind of book that should be read many times before you can understand it. Villette was also very good. i'm reading Agnes Grey now so i'll see how I like that, which I'm sure i will. After all, can there be a bad Bronte novel?

NO!! I don't think so. Although THE PROFESSOR & SHIRLEY might be the least liked. Even so, I'd rather read the Bronte's lesser works than the best work of many other authors.

There has been something of a reassessment of Anne in recent years, both of her character and novels. This is particularly evident in "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", which had suffered in the past from Victorian incomprehension and Charlotte's verdict that it was a totally inappropriate subject for Anne's character - or at least Charlotte's interpretation of her character. Recent studies have held it to be a pioneering feminist polemic. I'm inclined to agree. She has an edge even on Charlotte's novels, which were daring enough when it came to education and the role of women in the society she lived in. She also has a wonderful, dry edge to her narrative style that is very appealing - and not dissimiler to Charlotte or even Austen.

I really like Anne's work. When I was younger, her extreme piety kind of turned me off, but upon re-reading AGNES & TENANT recently, I was struck by her dry, ironic humour which very much reminds me of Jane Austen. Still, there's something about Charlotte's fiery metaphoric language & passion that just engages me in a way that Anne does not. But isn't it wonderful that a single family produced at least THREE geniuses?!

there's something about Charlotte's fiery metaphoric language & passion that just engages me in a way that Anne does not. I agree, Amy. And Jane's core of steel is just no match for Helen's. Not to mention that the equal of Rochester is not found in Anne's books.

Yeah, Mr. Weston seems like a nice guy, but he doesn't have that Byronic appeal. Ditto with Gilbert Markham in TENANT. I think Anne was actually stronger writing women, whereas Charlotte could write BOTH men & women with a flair!

JANE EYRE, no doubt about it! I read passages of the book almost every week, I love the Jane/Rochester dialogues, I think it is a beautiful hymn to womanhood and love. I�ve also read Villette and The Tenant. They are both quite good, even though I much prefered Villette. Lucy Snowe is a very endearing heroine. But, for me, the love story of Rochester and Jane has this strange, wonderful appeal that one can�t resist. And now that I�ve seen the new adaptation, I feel even more in love with the novel than e er before. Let`s just say that Samantha Morton matches the picture of Jane that I have in my head.

I just re-read the first 200 pgs.of JE today -- what a great book!! It is just so engrossing -- even though I know the plot like the back of my hand, I still can't wait to find out what happens next! And the quality of Charlotte's poetic language & metaphors just puts other writers to shame. What a genius -- we are so lucky to have four novels by her!!

the quality of Charlotte's poetic language & metaphors just puts other writers to shame. I know that's a big part of what keeps drawing *me* back...

There's a real dreamlike quality to her prose in JE too. It's just a tour de force of writing -- I can't think of another novel that has this level of intensity, except for (surprise!) WUTHERING HEIGHTS.

Here's some of the Virginia Woolf critique that I mentioned before, one genius writing about another: The meaning of a book, which lies so often apart from what happens and what is said and consists rather in some connection which things in themselves different have had for the writer, is necessarily hard to grasp. Especially this is so when, like the Brontes, the writer is poetic, and his meaning inseparable from his language, and itself rather a mood than a particular observation. WH is a more difficult book to understand than JE, because Emily was a greater poet than Charlotte. When Charlotte wrote she said with eloquence and splendour and passion `I love', `I hate', 'I suffer'. Her experience, though more intense, is on a level with our own. But there is no 'I' in WH. There are no governessess. There are no employers. There is love, but it is not the love of men and women. Emily was inspired by some more general conception. The impulse which urged her to create was not her own suffering or her own injuries. She looked out upon a world cleft into gigantic disorder and felt within her the power to unite it in a book...That gigantic ambition is to be felt throughout the novel - a struggle half thwarted but of superb conviction, which is not merely 'I love' or 'I hate', but 'we, the whole human race' and 'you, the eternal powers...' the sentence remains unfinished. It is not strange that it should be so; rather it is astonishing that she can make us feel she had it in her to say at all... And so we reach these summits of emotion not by rant or rhapsody but by hearing a girl sing old songs to herself as she rocks in the branches of a tree; by watching the moor sheep crop the turf; by listening to the soft wind breath through the grass...How, we are allowed to ask, can there be truth or insight or the finer shades of emotion in men and women who so little resemble what we have seen ourselves? But even as we ask it we see in Heathcliff the brother that a sister of genius might have seen; he is impossible we say, but nevertheless no boy in literature has so vivid an existence as his... it is as if she could tear up all that we know human beings by, and fill these unrecognizable transparences with such a gust of life that they transcend reality. Hers, then, is the rarest of all powers. She could free life from its dependence on facts; with a few touches indicate the spirit of a face so that it needs no body; by speaking of the moor make the wind blow and the thunder roar...

I love Virginia Woolf's literary criticism -- she has wonderful things to say abut Jane Austen too. What book is her criticism of WH in? I would love to have this! Thanks.

The source I used was the Emily Bronte book in the Penguin Critical Anthologies Series (Penguin Books, 1973). It was originally published as an essay in the "The Common Reader" entitled "Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights". I don't know if you've come across this series before, but it is an excellent source for criticism since the publication of the novel. I don't know if there is a critical anthology for Charlotte and Anne - they are not included in the list of other titles in the series in the book. I don't know if the book is still in print - I picked up my copy in a second hand bookshop years ago.

I may have run across this series or something like it on PRIDE & PREJUDICE. I do enjoy reading literary criticism, though some academics tend to spin off wildly in support of a pet theory... Virginia Woolf, Henry James, & E.M. Forster are my favorites -- being novelists, they bring a deeper understanding to the party!

E M Forster included this in his "Aspects of the Novel": `The emotions of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw function differently to other emotions in fiction. Instead of inhabiting the characters, they surround them like thunder clouds, and generate the explosions that fill the novel from the moment when Lockwood dreams of the hand at the window down to the moment when Heathcliff, with the same window open, is discovered dead. WH is filled with sound - storm and rushing wind - a sound more important than words and thoughts. Great as the novel is, one cannot afterwards remember anything in it but Heatcliff and the elder Catherine. They cause the action by their separation: they close it by their union after death. No wonder they "walk"; what else could such beings do? Even when they were alive their love and hate transcended them' The review then goes on for a little longer. I know what you mean about literary criticism. It caused me no end of mirth when I was at Uni - academics that seemed to lived so cloistered that their favourite literary works were more real to them than reality. And they all had distinct little theories. I used to call it "pushing the wheelbarrow" - they all had their own little theory to push along. But it so interesting to throw theories into the air and see which ones flew.

Yeah, some of them are so outrageous you have to ask yourself: "Did they READ the book?" I've read some essays comparing Jane Austen to the architecture of the times; to Mozart; etc. Another review that made me laugh compared a SCIENCE FICTION STORY to a "Romansbilden"!! (excuse my poor spelling). But when a critic is really perceptive, Virginia Woolf in particular, it absolutely adds to understanding of the work.

Oh Amy, I�m glad that you mentioned Henry James. I know it doesn�t have much to do with what is being discussed here, but it seems to me that he isn�t discussed enough. I mean, his books have some of the most impressive heroines ever created (Catherine Sloper, Isabel Archer) and the stories are so good. Besides they give you a lot to think about. There�s a lot of human understanding in those novels. I don`t find them very complicated to read, though I�ve heard the contrary. I am now reading Portrait of a ady and I find it terrific. I�ve already seen the film and, though it was very good, it doesn`t come close to the depth of the novel. What say you (to Henry James and his writing)?

I haven't read much James, but I do like him very much, especially since he was such a major fan of Jane Austen, & I think that it shows. Most of the films made of his work are just God-awful (the Cybil Shephard PORTRAIT) but I've been seeing trailers for WINGS OF A DOVE with Helena Bonham-Carter that might actually be good. I THINK this comes out around X-mas in the States...

Was Cybil Shepard in a version of Portrait of a Lady? I only remember her from Daisy Miller, which is based on a very short novella of HJ�s. She was very young, the movie�s probably from the 70s. I only saw the end, so I can�t judge it, but it seemed to me a very dark version. The novella is dark as well (I read it some time ago), so I guess they kept the tone, wouldn�t mind seeing the whole thing. Actually the things I�ve read by James are on the dark side. Washington Square (which is a GREAT book) and Portrait (and Daisy Miller). There�s a definite tragic streak to each one. And there`s also true Austen flavour to some characters, so I recommend it to every JA fan. But on to the Brontes! A family that never gets boring!... ;-) I`ve been rewatching SM`s (it is definitely HER version, even though Ciaran is good as well) Jane Eyre...ahhh...�big dreamy smile�...

Ah Luisa, how I envy you! I dearly hope to pick up a copy at the Bronte Parsonage next week!! And you're right -- Cybil was in DAISY MILLER (did her then-b.f. Bogdanovitch direct her in it?) She wasn't very good. I am really intrigued about the new Bonham-Carter H. James adaptation -- the trailer looks great, & I will definitely go. It will be something to cling to over Christmas when we're being assailed with more TITANICS & FLUBBERS.

Yeah, Wings of The Dove should be something to look forward to. HBC plays a baddie, it seems. I think she is a very good actress, from what I�ve seen, so I�m also very curious to see it. On to another thing that doesn`t have much to do with the Brontes, but I have to ask: have you by any chance heard of a BBC TV adaptation of The Mill on the Floss with that actress from Breaking the Waves?

Yes! I just saw a Coming Attraction for it on PBS, and it looked great!! The scenery was absolutely beautiful. I have no idea when this is slated to air, but I assume it's next season?? They were promo-ing TENANT at the same time, & I am really excited to see this!!

Well, I�ll probably have to buy Mill through the Net, cause I don�t see them showing it here. But no matter. Amy (or anyone kind enough to help me), I have a favour to ask. Did you know that there�s a new Jane Eyre page at A&E`s ? I�ve trying to get in, but everytime I go there, my computer shuts down and I don�t get to see anything. I wonder, could anyone give me the gist of what is said in the Samantha Morton interview (maybe even mail the interview to me...)? Thanks, Luisa

So it's finally up! I was wondering when they would do this. Sure, I would be more than happy to e-mail you the text of her interview!

Thanks, Amy, you`re a pal! ;-)

Luisa, I made the journey to the A&E Web site, but was foiled! I didn't see JANE EYRE anywhere -- they still have "The Making of IVANHOW" & "Emma On Location." Please give me the URL & I will go back & get that interview for you. Sorry!

No really, I do know how to spell IVANHOE -- it's one of my favorite books. It is very very early here....

It is interesting that Scott had an influence on all the Brontes, perhaps most markedly in Emily.

Yes!! Charlotte once commented to Ellen that any novels written after Scott weren't worth reading. I understand that the landscape of Gondal & even of WH borrows some features from Scott's Scotland?? Here's a bizarre theory, but do you think that Emily was influenced by the Ivanoe/Rowena/Rebecca triangle in IVANHOE, which she may have employed for the Cathy/Heathcliff/Edgar one in WH?

Amy, sorry I couldn`t get back to you sooner. I guess you don�t need that URL anymore, since I saw the interview at Ramble. Thank you. I just wished the reporter had asked a bit more about her plans, her life as an actress, etc, than about what it was like to "be" Jane Eyre. I mean, she answered what you would expect: what`s it like to be anyone else? But the questions seemed repetitive to me. I read it all, but I was tired at the end.

Is that on the Republic of Pemberley "Ramble" Board? I would like to see that. Thanks.

Amy, that's quite an interesting idea, and one that hadn't occured to me. Offhand, I can't recollect any discussion of "Ivanhoe" as a potential influence on Emily. Most usually mentioned are "The Black Dwarf", "Old Mortality" and "Waverley". TBD has a character called "Earnscliff". I don't think there's a direct correlation between the "Ivanhoe" triangle and WH, although there may be a more general influence. One of the strongest candidates for a literary source for WH is "The Bridegroom of Barna", published in "Blackwood's" in 1840, which bears a lot of plot similarities. indeed, John Hewish suggested that "One feels that had Simmonds read WH he might have charged Emily Bronte with plagiarism". Not that it is in any way on a parr with WH. I haven't read "Ivanhoe" in while, however, so I'll pick it up again and see if it strikes me as a potential source. I think there might be some similarities with some of the Gondal plotlines (at least as far as anyone can determine the Gondal plotlines). Speaking of Gondal...it's no secret where those deer wandering around on the hills and characters like "Flora" and "Douglas" came from!

Amy, the interview with Sam Morton is indeed on the Ramble board, I thought YOU had put it there, that�s why I didn�t give you the URL (as well as for the tiny reason that I don`t know how to give links).Anyway, the Jane Eyre thing is in Behind the Scenes at A&E`s.

Thanks Luisa! That is so strange -- every time I got to the A&E website, I see IVANHOE & EMMA, but no JANE EYRE!!! Could you give me their URL? Maybe I can accessing an old one. Thanks! Elena -- IVANHOE rules, though it is much more of a traditional swashbuckling Romance than WH, that's for sure. Ivanhoe himself is bold & noble; Rowena is pure; Rebecca is pretty darned interesting though -- an intelligent, ethical woman who puts the Templars to shame. I don't know what Scott would have thought of WH -- he might have been a little shocked!

Amy, I sure hope this helps you! Here goes: http://www.aetv.com/scenes/janeeyre/ Is this what you meant by URL (sorry, I�m completely ignorant)? I can now access the pages with the interviews without interruptions, which is great. I`ve devoured everything that`s there... ;-) Anyway, hope you can get there without further ado.

Oh, I didn`t think this would create an immediate link! How great! ;-)

Thanks Luisa! I did manage to get to the JE page before I left for England. I'm glad that they acknowledge the book to such a large extent, and all of the information about is actually ACCURATE (at the Parsonage in Haworth, they have the pub. date of JE as being 1848 instead of 1847!). oh well...

So, you did buy the new Jane Eyre? Have you seen it? ;-)

I did, and then promptly LOST it, can you believe that? In fact, I had bought a ton of stuff at the Parsonage gift shop -- books, the new JE, the new TENANT -- and my bags somehow got lost on the way from Yorkshire to London to Munich to Sussex! Oh well...at least it airs this Sunday & we can tape it. My fiance does have the TENANT though and we watched it a bit -- looked pretty good. I especially liked Toby Stephens as Gilbert -- he really fit the part. Though Tara Fitzgerald initially came off very harsh as Helen, which was not my mental picture of the character from the book....

Yes, I know what you mean. I thought she looked a bit of a cold fish at first. But my heart kinda went out to her with the development of the story and at the end I thought it was quite a performance. I mean, with the kind of things she has to go through, it�s obvious why she builds this wall around herself and her son. Gilbert is her only hope for a little happiness. Toby Stephens is great as Gilbert, IMO. I liked him (and his beautiful, rugged accent!) from the start. BTW, Amy, let me once again wish you all the best for your wedding. I do hope you`ll be very happy! :)

Thanks Luisa!!! I really apreciate that. My Tim is coming out from England on 11/8, & he's going to be staying with me here in L.A. for 5 weeks! Then we both go back for his graduation (he just got his M.A. from Loughborough Univeristy) & spend X-mas in England. THEN, we're hoping for the wedding to take place in January!! As far as TENANT -- I too was really impressed with Toby Stephens. His look & performance were just superb. As far as Fitzgerald: I never had a mental picture of Helen being so har -bitten & cold initially, just sort of stand-offish with the nosy neighbors. Even so, I liked Fitzgerald better as the character warms up to Gilbert... JANE EYRE is tonite on A&E!!! It's at 5 P.M. & 9 P.M. PST, and they're re-running it on Tuesday. Get those VCR's ready!!!

Guess your enthusiasm kinda fizzled out after the first five minutes or so of Jane Eyre, huh, Amy? ;-)

I don't even think it took that long, Luisa! The Red Room sequence was so ludicrous & overdone that I knew we were in trouble! It was like a Fun House at a carnival, was it not? It seems that most of the ladies on the Austen Board hated this version too, so we are not alone....

Well, I�m glad YOU are not alone, Amy, cause, for my part, I thought the new adaptation had lots of good in it. But I�ve already said enough on this score. The novelty is starting to wear off. ;-)

Yeah, I know what you mean. Now that I've ranted & raved across 2 boards, I think I've gotten it out of my system. BTW, TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL airs on PBS this Sunday, 10/26, at 9 P.M. PST!!! I saw a bit of it in England & it really looked good!

My favourite Bronte book would have to be Wuthering Heights. I love that entire book. After Emily I like Anne Bronte's books. And then Charlotte. IMO Charlotte overused her tortured love story, although telling it from the male perspective was interesting in The Professor, but then in Shirley, with the pupil - student (although that was more in the background), and in Villette, and in Jane Eyre (although I found that one fairly good) I also found that the begining of Shriley really good, and then once she'd lost her family it was very predictable towards the end. (That's all just my opinion) Although it would have been interesting to see where s e would have gone with Emma. I really liked Agnes Grey, I found the passage where she drops the rock on the birds very powerful. I've loved the Bronte books forever though, although all of them are due for a re-read. I should really finish my book of unifinished novels by CB.