Reading

Abstract

On the face of things, the Brontës’ education was remarkably slight and provincial. This provincial tone does in some measure appear in their published works, but it will not do to take at its face value Charlotte’s view, exemplified in her Preface to Wuthering Heights, that Emily’s work is ‘rustic all through’. From small children the whole family were avid readers totally chewing up what they read and discussing it among themselves before their own work issued in print, at first the mock print of their small magazines and juvenile tales, then the real print of poems and novels.