A gifted Yorkshire novelist tackles his region's most famous literary family, illuminating their inner lives and the sources of their creativity. Hughes (The Rape of the Rose, 1993, etc.) lives not 20 miles from Haworth, staging ground for the Brontâs' short, tragic lives, and he ably captures the harsh natural beauty and even harsher human attitudes that informed the siblings' writings. More importantly, he sensitively delineates their thorny personalities: Charlotte, furious at the world for the injustices it visited on a poor, plain parson's daughter, prone to turning her anger on her family before she found a more fulfilling outlet writing Jane Eyre; Branwell, weak and dissipated, but possessed of a genuinely loving heart; Emily, whose mystical connection with the Yorkshire landscape left little room for human ties; and gentle, devout Anne. Their father, the Reverend Patrick Brontâ, gets a more measured treatment than some biographers have accorded him; Hughes emphasizes his pride in his daughters over the selfishness that also characterized the minister. The author hews to the known facts about this much-profiled family, though he imagines some intriguing local tales as the foundation for Emily's Wuthering Heights and speculates intelligently about the emotional wellsprings of Charlotte's novels. Sensibly, he focuses more on the siblings' intense relationships among themselves and with the divine order (questioned by all four with anguish) than on their literary achievements, which have been amply examined by generations of critics. Although Hughes paints well-rounded portraits of Charlotte and Emily, he basically reiterates the conclusions drawn by such biographers as Winnifred GÇrin; he really excels in depicting Anne and Branwell, whose death scenes are almost unbearably moving. The author evokes with fierce passion the dreadful seven months in 184849 during which consumption claimed first Branwell, then Emily, and finally Anne, almost equalling in intensity Charlotte's ghastly letters from that period. Nothing really new here, but, still, a sensitive, full-bodied rendering of the always fascinating Brontâs. (First printing of 60,000)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-14816-X
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
