Description: The Brontë family produced and consumed art across a range of media and genres. Haworth Parsonage and the local region proved a crucible of inspiration not only for Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne, but also for their parents. Here were fostered the creative ambitions of four of the nineteenth century's most provocative novelists, poets and visual artists. In turn, the Brontës now sustain heritage, tourism and creative industries that adapt and disseminate their lives and work, their likenesses and words, across the globe: in books, on a plethora of screens (film, TV, computer and phone), in discarnate audio (radio and podcasts) and embodied on stage. The essays collected here offer the first panoramic and sustained examination of the Brontës' lives, work and legacies in relation to the visual, musical, plastic and performing arts, tracing their influences and transformations across the lives and cultural afterlives of this extraordinary literary family.
Brief description: Amber K. Regis is Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of Sheffield. Her previous work includes a critical edition of John Addington Symonds's Memoirs (2016) and various essays on life-writing, portraits, prefaces, Taylor Swift and grief. She is co-editor with Deborah Wynne of Charlotte Brontë Legacies and Afterlives (2017), to which she contributed a chapter on Brontë biodrama.
Review Quotes: A fresh and richly engaging collection of essays. Brontë enthusiasts will enjoy exploring the family's artistic relationships with the imaginary and material worlds around them. This wide-ranging volume also subjects the Brontës' artistic afterlives to some fascinating analysis, proving that the Brontës continue to exert a potent influence, from stage to visual art and now digital media.--Christine Alexander, UNSW Sydney