This special edition of The Oxford Companion to the Brontës commemorates the bicentenary of Emily Brontë's birth in July 1818 and provides comprehensive and detailed information about the lives, works, and reputations of the Brontës - the three sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, their father, and their brother Branwell. Expanded entries surveying the Brontës' lives and works are supplemented by entries on friends
and acquaintances, pets, literary and political heroes; on the places they knew and the places they imagined; on their letters, drawings and paintings; on historical events such as Chartism, the Peterloo Massacre, and the Ashantee
Wars; on exploration, slavery, and religion. Selected entries on the characters and places in the Brontë juvenilia provide a glimpse into their early imaginative worlds, and entries on film, ballet, and musicals indicate the extent to which their works have inspired others. A new foreword to the text has been also penned by Claire Harman, award-winning writer and literary critic, and recent biographer of Charlotte Brontë. This is a unique and authoritative
reference book for the research student and the general reader. The A-Z format, extensive cross-referencing, classified contents, chronologies, illustrations, and maps, both facilitate quick reference and encourage
further exploration. This Companion is not only invaluable for quick searches, but a delight to browse, and an inspiration to further reading.
Author Biography:
Christine Alexander is Emeritus Scientia Professor of English at the University of New South Wales. Her books include the multi-volume Edition of the Early Writings of Charlotte Brontë, Love and Friendship and Other Youthful Writings, and the British Academy prize-winning book The Early Writings of Charlotte Brontë. She has also published widely on gothic literature, Jane Austen, critical editing, literary juvenilia, and landscape gardening, and has co-edited The Child Writer from Austen to Woolf.Margaret Smith was formerly Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Research in Arts and Social Science, University of Birmingham, and a Vice-President of the Brontë Society. She has edited many of the Brontës' works, including The Professor, Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and The Letters of Charlotte Brontë.Contributors:Carol Bock, Associate Professor of English, University of MinnesotaDr Sue Lonoff, Senior Associate of the Derek Bok Center, Harvard UniversityVictor Neufeldt, Professor Emeritus of the Department of English, University of Victoria, British ColumbiaHerbert Rosengarten, Professor of English, University of British ColumbiaVirginia Rushton, formerly professional singer and voice teacherPatsy Stoneman, Reader in English, University of HullBeverley Taylor, Professor of English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill