The Brontë Cabinet
Three Lives in Nine Objects
Format:Paperback
Publisher:WW Norton & Co
Published:15th Apr '16
Should be back in stock very soon
The story of the Brontës is told through the things they wore, stitched, wrote on and inscribed at the parsonage in Haworth. From Charlotte’s writing desk and the manuscripts it contained to the brass collar worn by Emily’s dog, Keeper, each object opens a window onto the sisters’ world, their fiction and the Victorian era. By unfolding the histories of the things they used, the chapters form a chronological biography of the family. A walking stick evokes Emily’s solitary hikes on the moors and the stormy heath—itself a character in Wuthering Heights. Charlotte’s bracelet containing Anne and Emily’s intertwined hair gives voice to her grief over their deaths. These possessions pull us into their daily lives: the imaginary kingdoms of their childhood writing, their time as governesses and their stubborn efforts to make a mark on the world.
"The Brontë Cabinet is full of illuminating and original insights, bringing aspects of the Brontës' lives into sharp focus for the first time." -- Literary Review
"The Brontë Cabinet does not fail to deliver, offering vivid interpretations of the lives and the works of these strange and fascinating sisters…" -- The Times
"Deborah Lutz’s engaging new study proves that there is indeed room for fresh perspectives...All lovers of the Brontës should read this book." -- The Guardian
"Full of interest…" -- The Sunday Telegraph
"This is a fine book, rich, immersive and illuminating, glowing with the life of the Brontës and their wild genius." -- Shahidha Bari - Times Higher Education
"In looking at the Brontës through their most precious possessions, Lutz lets us sneak a peek at their inner lives as well as their outer ones, in a sympathetic and informative way." -- The Independent
"...Lutz has found a way of teasing out some genuinely fresh insights into a subject that might otherwise feel as though it has been done to death." -- Mail on Sunday
"It [The Brontë Cabinet] is a dynamic, powerful and very accessible book, which abandons womb-to-tomb biography to look at the Brontës "through the 'eyes' of thread, paper, wood, jet, hair, bone, brass, fur, frond, leather, velvet, and ash"." -- The Times Literary Supplement
"Her [Lutz's] book is most fascinating not when it looks at the relics, the walking sticks and tiny shoes, but at the great mass of writerly and literary paraphernalia associated with the Brontës; the paperiness of their lives." -- The London Review of Books
ISBN: 9780393352702
Dimensions: 211mm x 142mm x 23mm
Weight: 284g
352 pages