Charlotte Brontë

Harman's sane, unshowy re-telling is exactly right for the bicentenary nextApril.The result is a retooled classic biographical narrative, shipshape and serviceable for the next 200 years * The Guardian *
Finely judged and authoritative * Sunday Times Book of the Week *
Elegantly written, consistently perceptive...[Harman] succeeds in bringing Charlotte back to life in all her spiky vulnerability * Daily Mail Book of the Week *
This is a comprehensive biography to enjoy and admire. Harman writes well and she is a fine and sensitive critic * The Times *
Harman... portrays Bronte's complexity and dark genius in elegant prose with deep human sympathy * The Lady *
Superb retelling of Charlotte's story (...) admirably concise * The Spectator *
Harman tells [Charlotte's] story with quick wit, a sharp sympathy, and a fire and fury of her own * Evening Standard *
Full of pleasing and piquant detail, scraps of passing recollection assembled from the various lives and letters in which the Brontes featured and from which we might reconstruct their world * Financial Times *
Elegant, sensitive, beautifully paced and moving. [Claire Harman] has... produced a work that is affirmative, edifying, inspiring and humane * Sunday Express *
Revelatory (...) adds freshness and texture to her account with original speculations. As someone who once wrote a book about the Brontës' afterlives, few people can have read as many biographies of them as I have. I thought I was Brontë-ed out, but reading this book-which will be equally accessible to someone coming to Charlotte for the first time-has drawn me back in * Lucasta Miller, The Independent *
Three rounds of applause...for Claire Harman's superb retelling of Charlotte's story -- Mark Bostridge, The Spectator
[An] excellent new bicentennial biography....Ms. Harman writes with warmth and a fine understanding of Ms. Brontë's literary significance. Above all, she is a storyteller, with a sense of pace and timing, relish for a good scene and a wry sense of humour * Economist *
A vigorous new biography (...) Harman does a splendid job * Mail on Sunday *
An immensely readable biography * Woman and Home *
A substantial biography (...) that lets the disparate pieces speak for themselves * Daily Telegraph *
Harman renders her daring novels fresh, interweaving what shocked critics then with what surprises us still * Sunday Telegraph *
Prepare to suffer similar time-loss at the hands of Harman, Brontë's most recent biographer and a master storyteller in her own right. Level-headed, highly readable and always intelligent, Harman's account of Brontë's life and work is a delight from start to finish * Sunday Times *
A subtle, measured biography, full of insight into Bronte's fiery intellect as well as the tragic intensity of her experience -- Helen Dunmore, Observer
Harman brings a fresh eye to many of the same papers studied by Gaskell to compile her Charlotte Brontë: A Life. The Gothic atmosphere and heart-breaking details remain, but Harman achieves a great feat by making the story seem new again -- Marcus Field, Independent