Book Review: Mother of the Brontes

 

Mother of the Brontës

When Maria Met Patrick - 200th Anniversary Edition

by Sharon Wright

Pub Date 30 Oct 2021 |

 Pen & Sword,  Pen & Sword History

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  History  |  Nonfiction (Adult) 

  I am reviewing a copy of The Mother off the Brontes through Pen &Sword, Pen &Sword History and NetGalley:

For 200 years Maria Branwell has been in the shadow of her extraordinary children, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë Now the first biography of Mrs Brontë appears as a beautiful bicentenary paperback edition in October 2021.  This book contains a commissioned a commissioned portrait of Maria at 38 based on the only two existing images in the Brontë Collection.   

In Sharon Wright’s critically acclaimed biography the reader will learn more about Maria Branwell’s life as a Regency gentlewoman who went looking for an adventure and found one.   A sudden passion and a whirlwind love affair led to the birth birth of the most gifted literary siblings the world has ever known. From a wealthy home in Penzance, Maria was a contemporary of Jane Austen and enjoyed the social status of a prominent family with secrets. So how did Maria fall for the penniless curate she called ‘My Dear Saucy Pat’ hundreds of miles from the home she loved?  What adventures won over Patrick Bronte?  What family scandals were left behind in Cornwall?  How did wealthy and independent Miss Branwell of balmy Penzance adjust to life as Mrs Brontë in Yorkshire during the industrial revolution? And what was her enduring legacy in the lives of those world famous daughters and troubled son?

I give Mother of the Brontës five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!