Anne Brontë Reimagined: A View from the Twenty-first Century

By Adelle Hay

Anne Brontë: for so long underestimated, from her own day to modern times. But why exactly has this remarkably talented and pioneering author been so overlooked? Anne’s writing has often been compared harshly with that of Charlotte and Emily – as if living in her sisters’ shadows throughout her life wasn’t enough. But her reputation, literary and personal, has changed dramatically since Agnes Grey was first published in 1846. Then, shocked reviewers complained of her ‘crudeness’ and ‘vulgarity’ – words used to this day to belittle women writing about oppression. Her second and most famous work, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, was groundbreaking in its subject matter: marital and alcohol abuse and the rights of married women. A book that refused to sweep difficult truths under the carpet. A book so ahead of its time that even her sisters weren’t ready for it, Charlotte being one of its harshest critics. And yet could this even be the best of all the Brontë works? With such a contradictory life and legacy: who was Anne, really? It’s time to find out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Saraband
• Release date: Jan 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781912235650

Adelle Hay

Adelle Hay is a lifelong Brontë aficionada and a passionate advocate for Anne Brontë’s place in the canon of classic English writers, alongside her better-known sisters, Charlotte and Emily. The Brontës inspired Adelle’s love of books from a young age, and she even went on to become a bookbinder before starting work on an academic project that focuses on textual criticism of Anne Brontë’s work, and how it has been edited ever since. Adelle’s dream is to create a digital archive of all the Brontë manuscripts in existence, ensuring the sisters’ seminal writing is preserved for future generations to read, interpret and enjoy.