Growing up in a cold, cramped house, surrounded by unforgiving landscapes and faced with an aging father, worrisome brother and uncertain prospects, it is astonishing to think that Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë succeeded in writing some of the most celebrated and passionate literature of the 19th century.
Their novels are rich with latent desire and concealed yearning that somehow perfectly communicate the thoughts unspoken and deeds undone. In this revealing event, we will examine whether these three young women, comparatively sheltered and inexperienced, used their writing as an outlet for their own repressed emotion.
Join chair, Arifa Akbar, and our panel of literary historians and erotica experts, Claire O’Callaghan, Rowan Pelling and Louise Yates, as they step into the secret lives of the Brontës and explore the brooding desire that lies at the heart of their own passion for the sisters and their writing.