Brontë Dissertation:

Over the course of October 2017 to March 2018, I composed an 8,601 word dissertation on the Brontë sisters. Through that arduous process, I complained many times over in my monthly wrap-ups. I moaned about how difficult it was to compose anything of meaning, and how depressing it was to read about the reality of Victorian marriage. But here I am, five months later, with a first class dissertation on the Brontës. I wanted to share my findings with you.

After a lengthy period of racking my brains, trying to choose an interesting topic to write on, jumping from research solely based on Charlotte to the Byronic hero, I finally settled on exploring the relationship between marriage and class in Charlotte’s Shirley, Emily’s Wuthering Heights, and Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. This allowed me to write and research the three people who mean the most to me. Before anyone wonders, because I know you will, I wasn’t allowed to write on Jane Eyre. I had previously written an assignment on it that covered similar topics.

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Victorian Literature Recommendations:

To celebrate getting a first in my undergraduate degree and simultaneously  getting accepted on my Victorian Literature Ma course, I thought I would discuss my favourite books from the period. I am lucky enough to study a period of literature that I’m so passionate about, and I wanted to share that with you in the form of some recommendations. To save repeating myself, I won’t mention the obvious ones (such as Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd because I’ve talked about them so much already).

Let’s get into it…

Charlotte Brontë’s Emma:

Spoiler free | 4 out of 5 stars | 19 May, 2018

Hundred of those who, like myself, recognised and admired that master-work of a great genius, will look with a mournful interest and regard and curiosity upon this, the last fragmentary sketch from the noble hand which wrote Jane Eyre

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In 1853, Charlotte Brontë began work on latest novel Emma. However, after her marriage to Arthur Bell Nicholls a year later, she never got round to finishing it. Whether that’s because married life was too demanding to take time away to write, or because Nicholls believed critics would ‘accuse [her] of repetition’, we don’t exactly know. All we do know is that Charlotte completed two chapters before sadly dying. It opens with Mrs Chalfont, a widow, detailing the arrival of a wealthy child, Matilda Fitzgibbon, arriving at her privately run school. After receiving no letter informing Mrs Chalfont if Matilda will return home for the holidays, she undercovers the truth. There is no May Park in the Midland County, and there is no Mr Fitzgibbon. With the help of a lawyer, Mr Ellin, they confront Matilda.

…and then it ends.