What Do I Read Next?
- Anne Bronte is the least known of the three Bronte sisters who wrote novels. Her debut novel, Agnes Grey (1847), written concurrently with Jane Eyre, tells the tale of a discontented governess. Her second book, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), is considered more ambitious and intense. Charlotte Bronte was troubled by Anne's portrayal of the heroine's alcoholic husband, inspired by their brother Branwell Bronte.
- Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Bronte was commissioned by Reverend Patrick Bronte shortly after Charlotte's passing and was first published in 1857. Gaskell, a prominent English novelist of her era, met Charlotte in 1850, and they became close friends. The candid nature of Gaskell's biography sparked controversy, leading to the removal of some passages in later editions. Nevertheless, the first edition remains in print and is now regarded as a classic of English literary biography.
- Charlotte Bronte's poetry is featured in a modern Everyman edition of the Brontes' Selected Poems, alongside works by Emily, Anne, and Branwell Bronte. This edition, published in 1985, was edited by Juliet Barker, the curator and librarian of the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth. Barker is also the author of a family biography titled The Brontes.
- The Brontes (1969) by Phyllis Bentley is an illustrated biography of the three Bronte sisters—Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—part of Thames and Hudson's "Literary Lives" series. This book excels in depicting the living conditions of Charlotte Bronte and connecting the places where she resided to her life and literary work.
- Readers have observed some parallels between Jane Eyre and Daphne du Maurier's 1938 romantic suspense novel Rebecca. The story is narrated by a young woman who recounts her early marriage to a wealthy widower, Maxim de Winter. The mysterious death of the first Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca, casts a haunting presence over the grand English manor where the new Mrs. de Winter now lives.
- Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) by Jean Rhys serves as a "prequel" to Jane Eyre. In this novel, Rhys envisions the life of a young Edward Rochester and his first wife in Jamaica, years before the events of Jane Eyre.
- Bronte (1996) by Glyn Hughes, a young British author residing in West Yorkshire, is a fictional exploration of the inner and outer lives of the Bronte family, including Charlotte.
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