Das regt mich so auf!

All three Bronte sisters where borne in Yorkshire and although Charlotte Bronte was the third of six children, she was however the oldest of the three that I will be focusing on.
Charlotte ,was born on April 21 , 1816. Emily followed on July 30 in 1818 and the the youngest of the three Anne in January 17, 1820.
Sadly the mother of the Brontes died of cancer on September 15, 1821.

But this should just be an overview since I do not want to write a biography about these three sisters.
You can find that on the web if you are interested and I am very sure it will be better written then it would be if I had tried to write one.
In the last year I have -except for the last Harry Potter instalment – only read the books of the Brontes and although I haven´t read all of them yet (yes I know very sad , if you consider it to be a one year span of time,… but hey medcine takes up loads of time). But well, I read some of them and since I throughly enjoyed every one of the books I read from all three of them I wanted to take an opportunity to discuss and recommend them.

So here it goes.

I read all the three books published from the sisters in 1847 (their first novels) namely , „Jane Eyre“ from Charlotte Bronte, „Wuthering Hights “ from Emily Bronte, and „Agnes Grey“ from Anne Bronte.
I also read the 1848 published “ Tenant of Wildfell hall“ again form Anne Bronte and I am just know reading „Villette“ from Charlotte Bronte which was published in 1853.

I think it is commonly known that Wuthering Hights and Jane Eyre are the works of the Bronte Sisters that are best known because they are supposed to be superior to the others.
And while I agree that these two books are masterpieces I always thought that the work of Anne Bronte was dismissed to easily.
Although Agnes Grey is surely a book that should be read at least by anybody who enjoyed reading Jane Austen books – for it is no doubt superior to those – I would agree that it might not be a match for Jane Eyre and Wuthering Hights.
The novel Agnes Grey, like the novel Jane Eyre focuses on the life of a governess, a fate most girls who had a good education but no hopes in marrying rich had to follow. There are of course vast differences in those two novels, to mention a few, Agnes Grey has an intact home life whereas Jane Eyre’s parents are dead. Therefore, Jane Eyre experienced more hardship in her life while growing up.
And the other major difference might be that Agnes Grey is not happy with the family for which sheworks while Jane Eyre finds her first real home at the house where she is working.

So why do I think the book Jane Eyre is superior to Agnes Grey?
I think the major difference is in the way the characters are written.
The character of Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester are so well written they could be alive and the dialogs between the two of them are not only a match but a few notches better then the ones between Mr. Darcy and Eliza Bennett from Pride and Prejudice, and those where already excellent.

The dialogs are better because they do not always talk about love and each other , Jane Eyre -in contrast to Eliza Bennett – is a very well educated person who can discuss things like biology, philosophy, art and literature with Mr. Rochester but of course most of all they discuss morality which was also one major point of discussion between Eliza and Mr. Darcy.
In other words, Jane Eyre seems not only a match but sometimes even superior to Mr. Rochester in her discussion because she is the master of rational argument, Eliza Bennet on the other hand often seems like a girl who articulates her feelings, very well I have to admit but still just her feelings and most of the time she is inferior to Mr. Darcy.
The plot of Tenant of Wildfell Hall, as well as the way it is written can – in my opinion – easily hold up to the standards of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Hights.
Interestingly enough the book starts with a male narrator, which caught me quit of guard and I was surprised to find out that Anne would write from the point of view of a man, but after about 100 pages -if I remember correctly- it changes into the perspective of a woman because said man reads the diary of a woman and this continues almost to the end.
Now I will not give away anything of the plot because in this book this would really take away something from the wonderful reading experience, I will just give you one quote of the book that was printed on the backside of the book and which defenitely got my attention:

„„I no longer love my husband, I hate him“ , the words stare me in the face like a guilty confession.„

Last but not least I should probably say something to Wuthering Hights, it really is the book I read last and since I read it during my internship in the hospital when I did not have a lot of time to spare for reading, I have to confess it took a while.
I really recommend everyone to read this book a bit faster in order to not forget something from the beginning when you are in the middle.
This is a book that tells a story about mainly two persons Cathrin and Hethcliff in different phases in their life – simultaneously.
So while the narrator (suprisingly enough here a man as well) has met the said persons he asks questions about their past.
So you have the „now experience“ with the told stories from various different times.

I think it is easily imaginable that you can get mixed up there pretty quickly if you allow long reading gaps.

Nevertheless it´s a book you should absolutely read, the fate of Cathrin Earnshaw and Mr. Heathwcliff is something no one should miss.

Wuthering Hights is the book of the Bronte that convinces with such an original plot and twists in the story that it takes your breath away.
While Jane Eyre and Tenant of Wildfell Hall also have a plot which is full of surprises they do not reach the same level. They are however superior in their characters and the way they develop over the course of the novel as well as the interaction between different characters.

So this has been my Bronte experience, I can only recommend to any of you try it as well !

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Thanks to Alex