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jillianbald's review against another edition
Even though I am not a fan of English Gothic writing or the heavy Bronte novels, I enjoyed this story by Amy Wolf and would recommend it.
The author's detailed research and deep admiration of the sisters was not as glaring to me as it would be to a Bronte fan, and I had to look up what really transpired with the four siblings. I read the story as presented, which was a fun read with some unusual characters.
Maria was the narrator; her telling was a bit tiresome at several points, but I find that happens in some first-person POV novels.
In the end, I wanted a different conclusion for Maria and for Charlotte, and the last pages felt a bit rushed. The author was making a point with her choice of ending but, for me, it didn't fit the build-up. After all the tedious tragedies, I guess I wanted a final blow.
The author's detailed research and deep admiration of the sisters was not as glaring to me as it would be to a Bronte fan, and I had to look up what really transpired with the four siblings. I read the story as presented, which was a fun read with some unusual characters.
Maria was the narrator; her telling was a bit tiresome at several points, but I find that happens in some first-person POV novels.
In the end, I wanted a different conclusion for Maria and for Charlotte, and the last pages felt a bit rushed. The author was making a point with her choice of ending but, for me, it didn't fit the build-up. After all the tedious tragedies, I guess I wanted a final blow.
fallchicken's review
4.0
What a hoot! The Brontë sisters start a boarding school to help pay the bells and end up with a single student, one who's already been ejected from six other schools. History's changed a bit, but it could have happened this way, couldn't it?
gentillylace's review against another edition
4.0
In 1844, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë decided to establish a girls' school and published a prospectus, but nobody was interested in their venture. This novel is an alternate history of sorts, as it speculates what might have happened if they had a student.
Maria Shelby is a sort of Blanche Ingram/Ginevra Fanshawe type (if you are familiar with Jane Eyre and Villette, you know what I mean). At 18, she has been expelled from six schools and her father, a wealthy knight (whose first name is John, but is consistently referred to as "Sir Shelby" instead of "Sir John" -- a minor irritation) decides that his daughter needs to be far from the distractions of London in order to get enough learning into her head to make her marriageable. (How Sir John Shelby, who lives on Harley Street in London, found out about the Brontë sisters' school in far-off Yorkshire seems implausible, but is merely a pretext to get the story started.) Maria is of course aghast at the thought, but reluctantly goes to the Haworth Parsonage.
She finds the Brontë family very peculiar. The Irish paterfamilias is a creature of habit: he winds the grandfather clock every night precisely at 9 PM and shoots off his guns every morning. The reclusive and gruff Emily wears outdated clothes, which Maria, who dresses in the height of fashion, secretly ridicules. Although Anne is devout and pretty, she is familiar with the Romantic poets whom Maria's previous teachers had insisted were scandalously unsuitable for young ladies. Charlotte, tiny and bespectacled, is so intense that Maria thinks Charlotte is half-mad. As for Branwell, he has a habit of declaiming from Shakespeare and Byron at the dinner table. In the schools that Maria had attended, she learned almost nothing, but soon, despite herself, she is learning not just accomplishments for marriageable young ladies such as French (although learning from books by the scandalous George Sand), drawing and music: she is learning Latin and other subjects that women were not expected to be taught in... including love (for Branwell, who as an artistically inclined clergyman's son without a penny to his name, would not be considered an appropriate suitor for Maria by just about anybody, especially Sir John Shelby).
By the end of the novel, the divergences from our timeline are noticeable. History outside the Brontë family and friends seems to be little changed, however. If one can overlook the use of "Sir Shelby" and the one reference to the incumbent Prime Minister as "Mr. Peel" (Sir Robert Peel had succeeded to his father's baronetcy in 1830), this is a fun romp, especially for those who love the Brontës.
Maria Shelby is a sort of Blanche Ingram/Ginevra Fanshawe type (if you are familiar with Jane Eyre and Villette, you know what I mean). At 18, she has been expelled from six schools and her father, a wealthy knight (whose first name is John, but is consistently referred to as "Sir Shelby" instead of "Sir John" -- a minor irritation) decides that his daughter needs to be far from the distractions of London in order to get enough learning into her head to make her marriageable. (How Sir John Shelby, who lives on Harley Street in London, found out about the Brontë sisters' school in far-off Yorkshire seems implausible, but is merely a pretext to get the story started.) Maria is of course aghast at the thought, but reluctantly goes to the Haworth Parsonage.
She finds the Brontë family very peculiar. The Irish paterfamilias is a creature of habit: he winds the grandfather clock every night precisely at 9 PM and shoots off his guns every morning. The reclusive and gruff Emily wears outdated clothes, which Maria, who dresses in the height of fashion, secretly ridicules. Although Anne is devout and pretty, she is familiar with the Romantic poets whom Maria's previous teachers had insisted were scandalously unsuitable for young ladies. Charlotte, tiny and bespectacled, is so intense that Maria thinks Charlotte is half-mad. As for Branwell, he has a habit of declaiming from Shakespeare and Byron at the dinner table. In the schools that Maria had attended, she learned almost nothing, but soon, despite herself, she is learning not just accomplishments for marriageable young ladies such as French (although learning from books by the scandalous George Sand), drawing and music: she is learning Latin and other subjects that women were not expected to be taught in... including love (for Branwell, who as an artistically inclined clergyman's son without a penny to his name, would not be considered an appropriate suitor for Maria by just about anybody, especially Sir John Shelby).
By the end of the novel, the divergences from our timeline are noticeable.
Spoiler
There are happy endings for Charlotte (who marries the conveniently widowed M. Heger, the inspiration for Mr. Rochester and Paul Emanuel) and for Maria (who marries Branwell, who has become sober and a successful teacher and author in his own right).rebeccacarter's review
3.0
I think the book was trying to emulate the Bronte sisters' classics that it references. Even though the writing is good, it falls short of those famed books. And it's more noticeable simply because in reading the book, you think about Jane Erye and Wuthering Heights.
The story itself wasn't bad, although it started to get a little tedious when it got to the point where the sisters were publishing their books. The format turned from being a story, to being more like a documentary.
The story itself wasn't bad, although it started to get a little tedious when it got to the point where the sisters were publishing their books. The format turned from being a story, to being more like a documentary.
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