Her scholarship is impressive. ... Provides an immensely valuable record of what nineteenth-century English readers were thinking, and reminds us that Charlotte Brontë was one of them ... will become an indispensable resource for students of the Brontës and nineteenth-century culture. Glen shows us how, exactly, Brontë's novels are topical, and a picture of the age in which she lived and wrote emerges that is richer and more detailed than any we have previously had.

• Introduction ; 1. The mighty phantasm ; 2. 'Calculated abruptness': The Professor ; 3. Triumph and jeopardy: the shape of Jane Eyre ; 4. 'Dreadful to me': Jane Eyre and history (1) ; 5. 'Incident, life, fire, feeling': Jane Eyre and history (2) ; 6. The terrible handwriting: Shirley ; 7. 'Entirely bewildered': Villette and history (1) ; 8. 'The prism of pain': Villette and history (2) ; Epilogue ; Index

Her scholarship is impressive. ... Provides an immensely valuable record of what nineteenth-century English readers were thinking, and reminds us that Charlotte Brontë was one of them ... will become an indispensable resource for students of the Brontës and nineteenth-century culture. Glen shows us how, exactly, Brontë's novels are topical, and a picture of the age in which she lived and wrote emerges that is richer and more detailed than any we have previously had.

• Introduction ; 1. The mighty phantasm ; 2. 'Calculated abruptness': The Professor ; 3. Triumph and jeopardy: the shape of Jane Eyre ; 4. 'Dreadful to me': Jane Eyre and history (1) ; 5. 'Incident, life, fire, feeling': Jane Eyre and history (2) ; 6. The terrible handwriting: Shirley ; 7. 'Entirely bewildered': Villette and history (1) ; 8. 'The prism of pain': Villette and history (2) ; Epilogue ; Index

Her scholarship is impressive. ... Provides an immensely valuable record of what nineteenth-century English readers were thinking, and reminds us that Charlotte Brontë was one of them ... will become an indispensable resource for students of the Brontës and nineteenth-century culture. Glen shows us how, exactly, Brontë's novels are topical, and a picture of the age in which she lived and wrote emerges that is richer and more detailed than any we have previously had.

• Introduction ; 1. The mighty phantasm ; 2. 'Calculated abruptness': The Professor ; 3. Triumph and jeopardy: the shape of Jane Eyre ; 4. 'Dreadful to me': Jane Eyre and history (1) ; 5. 'Incident, life, fire, feeling': Jane Eyre and history (2) ; 6. The terrible handwriting: Shirley ; 7. 'Entirely bewildered': Villette and history (1) ; 8. 'The prism of pain': Villette and history (2) ; Epilogue ; Index