Ah…the Bronte sisters. I admit a deep fascination with their books; how they rewrote womens’ lives and captured the times they lived in. Each and every book; Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights; The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; grasped the essence of life and landscape. Incredible… And here now is a new book for young readers that gives yet another view of Haworth, the Brontes and that moment in time by which we define and understand them. Here is the story of a poor, young woman, with dreams of a writing life while she struggles to make ends meet and support the remnants of her family…and, like the Brontes, refuses to be confined by her circumstances. With a little help, inspiration and encouragement from her employer….
THE BRONTE GIRL
author: Miriam Halamy
Zuntold Books (24 March 2024)
ISBN: 9781915758064
Haworth 1847. Mother and her beloved twin brothers have been taken by the Haworth ‘miasma’, leaving the remainders of her family in tatters. Fathers’ drinking has cost him his job; 12-year-old Kate seems to following his path, though filled with anger and it is down to 15-year-old Kate to keep her family from the workhouse. She takes a cleaning job at The Parsonage, home to the unconventional Brontë family. But Kate dreams of being a writer. Poverty and gender stand in her way and Luke Feather who wants to marry her, believes writing stories is a waste of time. When Charlotte Brontë discovers Kate’s passion, an important friendship, almost a mentorship, develops, as Charlotte fills Kates’ arms with books and her head with radical ideas of equality. Kate is thrilled when she spots clues that the Brontë sisters are writing stories and dreams of joining them. But how can Kate achieve her ambitions to write, while locked in the daily struggle to survive in Haworth?
A beautiful, mesmerising book; as mesmerising as the lives of the Bronte sisters themselves, the reader is given an evocative glimpse of a time, location and society long past, yet still as relevant today. The writing engages the senses; you can see and smell the landscape and the town, hear the voices as they gossip about the lives surrounding them that do not match their own and rale against the poverty, living conditions, illness and injustice of it all, feel the grime and the effort it takes to eek out an existence. Young Kate is a fascinating heroine; tired, but strong; bold, yet mannerly; confused, hard-working, courageous and, throughout, determined to carve out a life of her own making. She is different from other girls her age; not content with her fate of marriage, “respectability,” with a different type of servitude. But how can she turn her back on these things with her mother gone, her father drunk all the time, her sister running wild and being the only wage earner? Enter the Bronte household and the inspiration to step up for herself, in her own way.
The entire story hinges on the deep sorrow at the loss of her mother and little brothers and the mark that loss has left on herself, her father and her sister. The Brontes know quite a lot about that kind of loss; the parallels between their life and her own are unmistakeable. But like the Bronte sisters, she can use that; allow it to lift her into a different place. And by the end of the book, we see that is exactly what Kate intends to do.
This is utterly marvelous! An adept and meaningful work of historical fiction; gripping (I couldn’t out it down,) inspirational and thought-provoking. And…a brilliantly engaging look at womens’ rights and inequality. How far we have come, but how much further we have to go! An amazing offering from Miriam and Zuntold Books: https://www.zuntold.com/book-store/18
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