Introduction

Abstract

Writing a new life of Charlotte Brontë is rather like going for a walk on the moors above Haworth. There are familiar landmarks and unexpected views, both of great beauty. There are dreary stretches, hidden pitfalls and sudden squalls which blow up out of nowhere. The twisting paths and the complexities of Charlotte’s life have been well covered, but seem still to be insufficiently appreciated. There is a timeless quality about the landscape and about Charlotte’s story, but against this one has to balance grim relics from the nineteenth century and garish intrusions from the twentieth.