Emily's Ghost: A Novel of the Brontë Sisters

by Denise Giardina

Book Overview

Enigmatic, intelligent, and fiercely independent, Emily Bronte refuses to bow to the conventions of her day: she is distrustful of marriage, prefers freedom above all else, and walks alone at night on the moors above the isolated rural village of Haworth. But Emily s life, along with the rest of the Bronte family, is turned upside down with the arrival of an idealistic clergyman named William Weightman. Weightman champions poor mill workers rights,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039306915X
• ISBN13: 9780393069150
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Unforgettable Portrait

A fine new novel of the Bronte sisters and William Weightman, the brave liberal-minded pastor who came rushing into their needy and undernourished lives. The character of Emily is beautifully imagined, and Weightman (I confirmed through the internet and other sources) was a real historical personage and persistent presence in the lives of the sisters--one quite capable of impacting their lives in the manner depicted in this novel. After reading it, I felt, "This is the way it must have been" and even "This IS Emily!" Charlotte, on the other hand, may have been a little short-shrifted, although her personal failings--egotism, self-righteousness, a complete absence of humor-- are quite apparent in her own novels, and she too is convincingly portrayed in this one. We pity her, her sister Anne, lost brother Bramwell, and well-meaning, unimaginative father; but we are amazed and pleasurably confounded by Emily. Very highly recommended!

Her Best Yet

Denise Giardina brings the world of the Brontes to life in a vividly felt novel of Emily's last years. Her taut prose draws the reader into the pull between her modest financial and social condiditons in Northern England and the vastness of her imagination. We realize that Emily's romance was with more than the doomed characters most know her for; it was with life and compassion and the certainty that reality transcends the physical realm. Inspiring!

Beautifully Written

Although I am familiar with Wuthering Heights and Jane Erye, I feel ashamed of saying I have never read them. I really never knew too much about the Bronte sisters. I am glad that I had no expectations when I chose this book to read. I found it to be wonderfully researched and written. I was so curious about the Bronte family, that I began researching their lives on the internet. From the first page I was grabbed. I didn't want to put it down. I could visualize 19th century Britain and it wasn't a pretty picture. I visited London with my family last year and tried to picture what it was like in the 1800's. The modesty of the times intrigued me and almost made me long for a time when men and women were not so openly lustful of each other. It seemed more romantic to write letters of longing without the sexual overtones of today's society. I highly recommend this book to anyone. Bronte fans or not.

Insightful tale of Emily Bronte, author of Wuthering Heights

When I read Wuthering Heights,first published in the mid 1800's, I wondered about what type of woman would write a dark tale like this. Now I now longer have to wonder. This book, written after much research and travel by Denise Giardina, is an historic novel from a different perspective than other Bronte biographies, which usually came from only the writings of Charlotte Bronte. This is because Charlotte managed her sisters' literary inheritance. "Emily's Ghost" provides a more balanced look for most of the Bronte's. Giardina fills in the gaps of letters, writings and poems by the Bronte's. And from facts she interweaves fiction taken from the Bronte's' own books. It creates a beautifully written novel and love story.