A Life

Charlotte Brontë

The definitive biography of an extraordinary novelist, by acclaimed literary biographer Claire Harman 
 
'There was no possibility of taking a walk that day . . .' With these words Charlotte Brontë began Jane Eyre and changed English literature irrevocably. 
 
Claire Harman's landmark biography provides a bold new view of one of Britain's best loved writers, uncovering an inner life that touched the furthest extremes of human emotion. 
 
Harman shows us an intense and troubled young woman from an astonishingly creative family, whose early works were produced in total secrecy. Struggling against the conventional limitations of both life and literature, Charlotte created a new kind of heroine which both shocked and inspired her Victorian contemporaries. Love, loss, ambition and heartbreak: the anonymous author poured everything into her ground-breaking books, but lived it first. 
 
'Harman [is] a master-storyteller in her own right. Her account of Bronte's life is a level-headed, highly readable and always intelligent. A delight from start to finish' Sunday Times 
 
'Subtle, measured. Full of insight into Bronte's fiery intellect as well as the tragic intensity of her experience' Helen Dunmore, Observer 
 
'Three rounds of applause... a superb retelling of Charlotte's story' Mark Bostridge, Spectator

Harman's sane, unshowy re-telling is exactly right for the bicentenary next April. The result is a retooled classic biographical narrative, shipshape and serviceable for the next 200 years

Elegantly written, consistently perceptive...[Harman] succeeds in bringing Charlotte back to life in all her spiky vulnerability

This is a comprehensive biography to enjoy and admire. Harman writes well and she is a fine and sensitive critic

Harman... portrays Bronte's complexity and dark genius in elegant prose with deep human sympathy

Superb retelling of Charlotte's story (...) admirably concise

Harman tells [Charlotte's] story with quick wit, a sharp sympathy, and a fire and fury of her own

Full of pleasing and piquant detail, scraps of passing recollection assembled from the various lives and letters in which the Brontes featured and from which we might reconstruct their world

Elegant, sensitive, beautifully paced and moving. [Claire Harman] has... produced a work that is affirmative, edifying, inspiring and humane

Revelatory (...) adds freshness and texture to her account with original speculations. As someone who once wrote a book about the Brontës' afterlives, few people can have read as many biographies of them as I have. I thought I was Brontë-ed out, but reading this book-which will be equally accessible to someone coming to Charlotte for the first time-has drawn me back in

Three rounds of applause...for Claire Harman's superb retelling of Charlotte's story

[An] excellent new bicentennial biography....Ms. Harman writes with warmth and a fine understanding of Ms. Brontë's literary significance. Above all, she is a storyteller, with a sense of pace and timing, relish for a good scene and a wry sense of humour

A vigorous new biography (...) Harman does a splendid job

A substantial biography (...) that lets the disparate pieces speak for themselves

Harman renders her daring novels fresh, interweaving what shocked critics then with what surprises us still

Prepare to suffer similar time-loss at the hands of Harman, Brontë's most recent biographer and a master storyteller in her own right. Level-headed, highly readable and always intelligent, Harman's account of Brontë's life and work is a delight from start to finish

A subtle, measured biography, full of insight into Bronte's fiery intellect as well as the tragic intensity of her experience

Harman brings a fresh eye to many of the same papers studied by Gaskell to compile her Charlotte Brontë: A Life. The Gothic atmosphere and heart-breaking details remain, but Harman achieves a great feat by making the story seem new again

Claire Harman is the award-winning biographer of Sylvia Townsend Warner (1989), Fanny Burney (2000) and Robert Louis Stevenson (2005) and the author of the best-selling Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World (2009). She writes regularly for the literary press on both sides of the Atlantic and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2006. 
Her most recent work is Charlotte Bronte: A Life.

Raised motherless on remote Yorkshire moors, watching five beloved siblings sicken and die, haunted by unrequited love: Charlotte Brontë's life has all the drama and tragedy of the great Gothic novels it inspired. 
 
Charlotte was a literary visionary, a feminist trailblazer and the driving force behind the whole Brontë family. She pushed Emily to publish Wuthering Heights and took charge of their precarious finances when her feckless brother turned to opium. In Jane Eyre she introduced the world to a brand new kind of heroine, modelled on herself: quiet but fiercely intelligent, burning with passion and potential. 
 
This is a truly gripping and illuminating account of one of our best-loved novelists.

A Biography

Sylvia Townsend Warner

Winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 
 
'One of the most shamefully under-read great British authors of the past 100 years' Sarah Waters 
 
The poet Sylvia Townsend Warner rose to sudden fame with the publication of her classic feminist novel Lolly Willowes in 1926, but never became a conventional member of London literary life, pursuing instead a long writing career in her own individualistic manner. Cheerfully defying social norms of the day, Warner lived in an openly homosexual relationship with the poet Valentine Ackland for almost forty years. Together, they were committed members of the Communist party and travelled twice to Spain during the Civil War, but Warner paid for her outspokenness with years of neglect, and channelled much of her emotional and intellectual energy into letters, poems and heart-breaking diaries that remained unpublished during her lifetime. In this enthralling and enlightening biography, Claire Harman tells the story of Warner's remarkable life and restores her to her rightful place as one of Britain's most unique and brilliant writers. 
 
"As passionate and truthful, elegant and enchanting as its subject." George D Painter 
 
"Harman skilfully weaves Sylvia's stories and letters into the biography, and the brilliance of the samples on display constantly takes you aback... Outstanding" Sunday Times

Claire Harman turns her skilled and thoughtful biographer's eye to Sylvia Townsend Warner. 
 
Sylvia Townsend Warner was a twentieth century English novelist, poet and active member of the Communist party in Britain. also spent time as a musicologist and composer and lived the majority of her adult life in an opening homosexual relationship with her lover, Valentine Ackland. This biography makes use of her previously unpublished diaries, as well as those of Valentine, to draw an intimate and lively picture of an extraordinary twentieth century woman.

Claire Harman

A brilliant piece of literary detective work

[A] scandalous Victorian mystery... Harman tells the story with clarity and vigour

[Harman] is a storyteller, with a sense of pace and timing, relish for a good scene and a wry sense of humour

[A] riveting investigation into a transgression that scandalised the literati of Victorian London in 1840. An engrossing fireside festive treat

This beautifully produced and impressively researched historical account of a celebrated Victorian murder with a literary twist reads like a thriller. I devoured it in one sitting, and was at once enthralled and chilled. Highly recommended!

A fascinating portrait of Victorian London amid the rising popularity of the novel

A riveting investigation into a true and vicious murder that shocked Victorian London

A fascinating account.... As Harman skilfully reveals, the real story behind the famous murder is the complex one about the harmful influence of fiction on the mind of the reader.

The book's heft lies in its rich detail...characters and settings are so vivid that Murder By The Book will surely soon be snatched up by television producers seeking their next Victorian crime drama

Harman resists sensationalising the murder... Instead, she offers a long view of the circular relationship between crime and literature

There is enough ambiguity in the story of Russell's end to satisfy even the most ardent lovers of detective fiction, and Harman's enjoyment at piecing together the evidence is clear

Enthralling . . . A page-turner that can hold its own with any one of the many murder-minded podcasts out there

Its opening scene is the stuff that classic murder mysteries are made of . . . Ms. Harman is a tireless researcher and a droll stylist

Harman demonstrates a flair for distilling reams of research into a succinct, lively narrative. The book is an exemplar of how to write taut, issue-driven historical nonfiction. With an appreciation for pithy quotations, telling details and amusing gossip, she's quick to spot a fascinating aside . . . As riveting as this true-crime story is, what elevates Murder by the Book above sensationalism is its focus on how this case heightened concern over the malevolent influence of violent entertainment

An assiduously researched and superbly written book that ends with Harman examining unanswered questions, and reminding us that truth can be stranger than fiction

A fascinating, exhaustively researched exploration into how art can influence society and vice versa, Murder by the Book turns an unflinching eye to the ways in which biases born of economic inequality affect the way crimes are investigated and prosecuted. It's a true crime devotee's delight

Harman effectively uses a novelist's approach to recreate a now obscure 1840 English murder case that was a sensation at the time . . . By exploring concerns about the glorification of criminals in the fiction of the day and addressing some lingering mysteries, such as whether Courvoisier had an accomplice, Harman adds depth to a fascinating true crime narrative.

An endlessly fascinating, bookish tale of true crime in Victorian England . . . Lovers of Drood, Sherlock, Jack the Ripper, and their kin real and fictional will relish the gruesome details of this entertaining book.

A Sensational Chapter in Victorian Crime

On a spring morning in 1840, on an ultra-respectable Mayfair street, a household of servants awoke to discover that their unobtrusive master, Lord William Russell, was lying in bed with his throat cut so deeply that the head was almost severed. 
 
The whole of London, from monarch to maidservants, was scandalized by the unfolding drama of such a shocking murder, but behind it was another story, a work of fiction. For when the culprit eventually confessed, he claimed his actions were the direct result of reading the best-selling crime-novel of the day. This announcement amazed the key literary figures of the time, from Thackeray to Dickens, and posed the question: can a work of fiction do real harm?

Claire Harman

Praise for Murder by the Book

A brilliant piece of literary detective work

[A] scandalous Victorian mystery... Harman tells the story with clarity and vigour

Vivid and punchy

A brilliant piece of literary detective work

[A] scandalous Victorian mystery... Harman tells the story with clarity and vigour

Vivid and punchy

A brilliant piece of literary detective work

[A] scandalous Victorian mystery... Harman tells the story with clarity and vigour

Vivid and punchy

Books by Claire Harman

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