The Bronte family – their extraordinary literary output, as well as their fascinating lives – have become something like a cottage industry, inspiring imitators, adaptations, a tourist attraction, tea towels, dance, music, and even the names of three asteroids. What accounts for this popularity? Is it the novels themselves? Or is it what is sometimes seen as the sensational aspects of their lives? In this course we will look at the novels, reading them as classic works of literature, understanding them as separate artifacts, but also examining their interrelations. At the same time, we will consider our continuing fascination with the Bronte family. We will also read Jean Rhys’s retelling of Jane Eyre’s story through the eyes of the madwoman in the attic. And we will examine the historical conditions of the time and the geographic and sociopolitical differences between Yorkshire, where the sisters mostly lived, and London, seen as the center of literary life.
