A Brontë Sister Reading List

September 20, 2024

Literature

Nesha Ruther

Writer at Bond & Grace

The Brontë sisters were some of the most skilled writers of the nineteenth century, redefining and reshaping the literary canon in their own spectacular image. But what, exactly, does this image look like? It can be easy to condense the Brontë women’s legacy into one singular effect, but in truth, they wrote very different books that appeal to different tastes. Charlotte’s gothic love story Jane Eyre is distinct to the dark and surreal Wuthering Heights, which is distinct to Anne’s sharp autobiographical writing and scathing social commentary.

So to get you reading like a Brontë, this idiosyncratic list will be divided into four sections: books the Brontë sisters themselves read, and books inspired by Charlotte, Emily, and Anne respectively.

After all, to better understand the holy Brontë trinity, we need to give them each their time in the sun.

Books the Brontës Read

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

“This book I had again and again perused with delight,” Jane says in Jane Eyre. While Charlotte no doubt had Jane read Gulliver’s Travels to reflect the character’s desire for escape, it also indicates her own literary passions. Swift’s novel was a beloved children’s favorite during the Brontë’s lifetime and can be reflected in the imaginary kingdoms the girls were known to create as children.

King Lear by William Shakespeare

King Lear is mentioned explicitly in Wuthering Heights and we know the Brontës owned a very rare first folio of Shakespeare's works–an expensive and treasured item for a 19th-century middle-class family. Moreover, Charlotte even recommended reading Shakespeare in a letter to her friend. No doubt the bard himself influenced the Brontë girls with his precise structural choices and immaculate writing.

Books for Charlotte

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Du Maurier is believed to have used Jane Eyre as a literary north star for her seminal novel Rebecca. The key couples in both books feature age and class differences, as well as the gothic hallmarks of secrets, mystery, and innocent women bewitched by imposing men. Charlotte would no doubt love Rebecca like it was her own.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

This postcolonial and feminist prequel describes Mr. Rochester’s first marriage from the perspective of his wife Antoinette Cosway. Rhys imagines Cosway having grown up in Jamaica before being hidden away in that desolate English mansion. This rich and vivid reimagining is one Charlotte would surely be proud of.

Books for Emily

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Plain Bad Heroines takes all the terror-filled tropes of good gothic literature and uses them to further the sapphic love story of Flo and Clara, two boarding school girls who meet a terrible fate, and Merrit and Harper, a writer and it-girl actor who are telling Flo and Clara’s story over a century later. Full of mystery, intrigue, and countless twists and turns, even Emily might not be able to predict the ending of this one.

Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia

If you thought the English moors and the Mexican countryside couldn’t have anything in common, think again. Moreno-Garcia transposes the gothic genre into the world of 1950s Mexico. When Noemí Taboada receives a desperate letter from her cousin, she journeys to the strange and desolate High Place to rescue her cousin from her strange English in-laws and the devastating secrets the family harbors.

Books for Anne

The Woman Destroyed by Simone De Beauvoir

As the most oft-forgotten Brontë sister, Anne’s work deserves another glance. Her autobiographical Agnes Gray is sharp and scathing, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall explores the myriad of social issues women of the time faced. This makes Anne an ideal match for Simone De Beauvoir, who explored the lives and challenges of three women in this seminal work of fiction.

The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath

Plath’s chronicling of 19-year-old Esther Greenwood’s descent into madness is one of the finest literary works of the twentieth century, and one Anne would no doubt have delighted in. Both writers exquisitely documented the lives and emotional landscapes of women, particularly those plagued by mental illness. Anne would no doubt be proud of this literary descendent.

Whether you love the work of Charlotte, Emily, Anne, or all three, we hope you enjoy these Brontë- inspired books!