The Three Brontës

In this 1912 volume, popular writer and suffragist May Sinclair builds on the extensive bibliography on the Brontë sisters with an absorbing look at their lives and works. "Because the best things about the Brontës have been said already," Sinclair writes, pointing to the appreciations of Mrs. Gaskell, Madame Duclaux, Clement Shorter, and Maurice Maeterlinck before continuing, "I have had to fall back on the humble day-labour of clearing away some of the rubbish that has gathered around them." What follows, though, is one of the freshest, most fascinating appraisals of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë, including insights on everything from Charlotte's fear of children ("She was afraid of children; she was awkward with them; because such passion has shynesses, distances, and terrors unknown to the average comfortable women who become happy mothers") to the secretiveness surrounding Emily Brontë ("She stands apart in an enduring silence, and guards for ever her secret and her mystery"). This is a must-read for Brontë fans or anyone just curious about the eminent literary sisters.