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  • The Brontë Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne
  • Karen Coats
Reef, Catherine . The Brontë Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Clarion, 2012. 231p. illus. with photographs ISBN 978-0-547-57966-5 $18.99 R Gr. 6-9

Although readers may not encounter the work of the Brontë sisters until high school, this biography for middle-schoolers introduces a fascinating, close-knit family with lively imaginations who liked nothing better than to run free on the moors that surrounded their home and make up stories and poems about imaginary kingdoms. [End Page 167] Their mother died when they were quite young, leaving their care to an aunt and their ambitious father, Patrick Brontë. He wished his girls to have an education, but the school he chose was a dismal failure; the teachers dispensed harsh treatment, even when the girls were ill, and this led to the deaths by tuberculosis of two of the five Brontë sisters, leaving Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and brother Branwell on their own. More schools were tried, but the girls and their brother preferred their remote home, and none succeeded at finding jobs they liked. Branwell became addicted to alcohol and drugs, and while the girls attempted to be governesses and teachers, they eventually returned home and began to write and publish their work under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Reef 's narration of the family's fates and fortunes highlights the closeness of the siblings, their failures whenever they strayed too far from one another, and the tragedy of their early deaths. She places their writing in the context of both its time and the sisters' own preoccupations, and she gives extensive plot summaries as well as detail on how the works were received. Photographs, portraits, movie stills, and drawings also provide context and will inspire readers to pick up one of the novels of these important, if not prolific, authors.

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