Violence and the BrontësLanguage, Reception, Afterlives

Explores the role of violence in relation to Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë’s literary productions, receptions and cultural legacies

• The first major study to pinpoint violence as central to initial responses to the Brontës’ fiction
• Reveals how such early receptions continue to inform readings and reimaginings of the Brontës’ literary works and lives
• Brings together criticism from Victorian studies, neo-Victorian studies, and violence studies in an analysis of poetry, prose, reviews, films, stage productions, and TV series
• Suggests, through the case study of the Brontës, the power of literary violence and its influence on understandings of language and authorship

The well-known and well-loved writings of Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë are full of violence. From the many battles waged in their early writings to the violent emotions and threats expressed in their published novels, the Brontës’ representations of brutality shocked Victorian reviewers and continue to surprise readers in the twenty-first century. Violence and the Brontës accounts for such intense reactions by reading the sisters’ literary violences as transformational, encompassing harm, pain and suffering while at times also signalling creativity and even renewal. Through a new reading of the Brontës’ major works, as well as film, stage and television adaptations, this book argues that violence is at the centre of the Brontës’ imaginative engagements with nineteenth-century life. In the process, it demonstrates how violence continues to be vital to interpreting the Brontës’ reception history and afterlives in modern culture.