Juliet Barker - The Brontes: Wild Genius on the Moors, the Story of Three Sisters

25. The Brontes: Wild Genius on the Moors, the Story of Three Sisters by Juliet Barker (1994) (Revised and Updated Edition 2012)
Length: 1,184 pages
Genre: Non-Fiction
Started: 26 March 2013
Finished: 3 April 2013
Where did it come from? From Netgalley
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 4 January 2013
Why do I have it? Mareena downloaded this book for me as a 'just because' gift - which is what we call spontaneous gifts that we acquire for each other from time to time. She downloaded this ebook onto her Kindle along with three others for me to read. I like reading anything about the Brontes and their lives and Juliet Barker is a new author for me.

The story of the tragic Bronte family is well-known to everyone: we are all familiar with the half-mad, repressive patriarch, Patrick Bronte, the drunken, drug-addicted wastrel brother, Branwell, wildly romantic Emily, unrequited Anne and "poor Charlotte". Or are we? These stereotypes of the popular imagination are precisely that - imaginary - creations of amateur biographers like Elizabeth Gaskell who were primarily novelists and were attracted by the tale of an apparently doomed family of genius.

The Brontes: Wild Genius on the Moors, the Story of Three Sisters by Juliet Barker demolishes the myths, yet provides startling new information that is just as compelling - but true. Based on firsthand research among the Bronte manuscripts and among contemporary historical documents never before used by Bronte biographers, this book is both scholarly and compulsively readable. 

If I had to say one thing about this book and Ms. Barker's writing, it would be: 'Less is More'. On the whole, I enjoyed reading this book as I am very interested in anything about the Brontes. However, I do have to say that I found Ms. Barker's writing to be incredibly detailed. So much so, that I had to give this book a B+!

B+! - (89-85%)
   
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight