The Essence of the Brontes: A Compilation with Essays

by Muriel Spark

Overview

First published in 1993, this book brings together Muriel Spark’s writings on the Brontë sisters, including a selection of their letters and a selection of Emily Brontë’s poems. Perceptively but unsentimentally, Spark considers the Brontës’ lives and works, including their generally disastrous attempts at teaching, and reflects on her own fascination, as a writer and a reader, with Emily Brontë and with “the immortal Wuthering Heights and its nightmare hero.” This edition features a new foreword by Boyd Tonkin, the literary editor at the Independent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847772466
Publisher:	Carcanet Press, Limited
Publication date:	10/01/2014
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Muriel Spark was an acclaimed novelist and poet. She became Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993 in recognition of her contributions to literature, was awarded the Golden PEN Award in 1998, and was twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She is the author of several books, including The Comforters, Loitering with Intent, The Mandelbaum Gate, and The Public Image.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vi

Introduction: Muriel Spark and the Brontës Boyd Tonkin 1

Foreword Muriel Spark 7

List of Illustrations 10

1 The Brontës as Teachers 13

2 Letters of the Brontës 21

Introduction 27

The Letters 41

3 Emily Brontë: Her Life 191

1 Fact and Legend 192

2 The Basic Story 200

3 General 255

Appendix 264

4 Selected Poems of Emily Brontë 267

Introduction 269

The Poems 277

5 At Emily Brontë's Grave, Haworth, April 1961 314

6 My Favourite Villain: Heathcliff 317

Principal Works of the Brontës 320