Film Review: Emily (2022)

As the author of a novel inspired by the scandalous lives of the Bronte siblings (Bronte’s Mistress), I’ve fielded a lot of questions recently about Emily, the 2022 biopic about the most mysterious Bronte sister, which only came to theaters in the US last month. Have I seen it? Do I like it? Is it accurate??

In this blog post I’m finally breaking down my response to the movie into two sections—highlights and lowlights. I’d absolutely love to hear your opinions too!

Highlights

Location/Setting: The movie was shot on location, largely in the Brontes’ hometown of Haworth. It was a thrill for me to see the Bronte siblings on film in the parsonage, where they lived, and on the moors where they would have roamed. Emily is beautifully filmed, and the movie would be worth watching for the Yorkshire landscape alone.

Acting: The actors, especially Emma Mackey who played the title role, were stellar (although clearly cast for their talent rather than for any family resemblance between the siblings!).

Boosting Bronte-Mania: Critics and audiences alike seem to have really enjoyed the film, which is great news for Bronte fans (and Bronte-related authors like me). I hope it encourages even more readers to pick up Wuthering Heights and the other Bronte novels.

Lowlights

Romance: I was saddened, although not surprised, that much of the movie was given over to a fictional romance between Emily Bronte and the curate, William Weightman. I understand the film industry’s desire to add bodice ripping to every period drama. However, there was enough scandal in the Brontes’ lives without making more up and I felt the romantic focus took away from who I believe Emily Bronte really was—reclusive, introverted, and not writing from personal experience when she penned the violent passion of Wuthering Heights.

Publication History: The end of the movie was truly horrifying to me, and not because of the Bronte siblings’ speedy deaths. The screenwriters took a huge liberty in changing the publication history of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre and suggesting that Charlotte only penned her famous novel in response to Emily’s success.

Charlotte and Anne: Speaking of which, both Charlotte and Anne came out of the Emily biopic particularly badly. While Charlotte’s genius was chalked up to mere sibling rivalry, Anne’s writing aspirations were barely mentioned. I appreciate that this was a movie about Emily, but do we really need to keep putting Bronte sisters down to raise others up?

Sibling Relationships: Branwell, the Bronte brother, also gets a lot of screen time. What was most puzzling to me here was that the movie suggested there was most sympathy and kinship between him and Emily, presenting them as the “fun” ones, compared to an uptight Charlotte and generally useless Anne. In fact, Branwell and Charlotte were incredibly close, as were Emily and Anne—that’s why these were the pairings in which they wrote their juvenilia. There were some early references to the siblings’ childhood make-believe worlds, but this aspect of their relationships was severely underdeveloped in favor of making Emily and Branwell our bad girl/boy rebels.

Lydia Robinson: Finally, as the author of a novel all about Branwell’s affair with Lydia Robinson, his employer’s wife, I was of course intrigued to see how the movie would cover this episode. Sadly, nothing that happened at Thorp Green Hall, or the impact this had on the Bronte family, made it into the movie. Instead, there was just a brief and confusing scene featuring Branwell flirting with a married woman closer to home. Hollywood scouts, if you’re reading this, there was a real Bronte love affair, and one with the scope for multiple sex scenes—you just need to read Bronte’s Mistress. ;)

So, there you have it—this has been my take on Emily. The film is beautiful and well-acted and few of my gripes will matter if you don’t know much about the Brontes. But if you do, you might find yourself screaming at the screen like me… 

Bronte fans, do you agree or disagree? I’d love for you to let me know—here, on Facebook, on Instagram, or by tweeting @SVictorianist.

Review: John Eyre: A Tale of Darkness and Shadow, Mimi Matthews (2021) – Part of the John Eyre Virtual Book Tour

I’m something of a Bronte fanatic. After all, my own debut novel (Bronte’s Mistress) was inspired by a real-life scandal that rocked literature’s most famous family. So I was delighted to be asked to participate in the virtual book tour for John Eyre: A Tale of Darkness and Shadow, Mimi Matthews’s new Bronte-inspired Gothic romance. As part of the tour, 35 online influencers specializing in historical fiction, Gothic romance, and paranormal fiction are celebrating the release with interviews, spotlights, exclusive excerpts, and reviews. 

John Eyre is (as you might have guessed from its title!) a gender-swapped retelling of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847). John is a tutor working under the employ of a fascinating Mrs. Rochester at Thornfield Hall. The housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax has morphed into a butler, Mr. Fairfax. It’s not much of a spoiler to say that the maniac in the attic is a hidden husband, not a secret wife. 

What might be less obvious at first glance though is that this isn’t just a take on one nineteenth-century novel, but two. Bronte’s Jane Eyre meets Bram Stoker’s 1897 Dracula in this fast-paced read. This is not as outlandish an idea as it might seem at first glance. Author Mimi Matthews details in her Author’s Note several passages in Bronte’s novel that borrow from vampiric imagery (e.g. [Rochester:] “She sucked the blood: she said she’d drain my heart.”). And the Gothic Yorkshire setting lends itself to violent, as well as psychological, horror. 

The structure of Matthews’s novel is more indebted to Dracula than Jane Eyre, as Mrs. Rochester’s letters and journal make up a significant portion of the narrative. While John is definitely our main character, this decision means that Mrs. Rochester is available to us in a way Bronte’s Mr. Rochester never is. Matthews’s Mrs. Rochester is still attractive and magnetic—to John and to readers—but our access to her makes her more human and less dangerous than her masculine namesake. It’s also tricky to entirely reverse the original power dynamic in a nineteenth-century setting. John is Mrs. Rochester’s subordinate by position, wealth, and class. But he is still a man, with all the privileges this entails, and he takes the lead romantically and physically at moments when I would have liked Mrs. Rochester to seize the reins. 

Matthews excels at building atmosphere and in delivering clarity at a line level even while her characters move in a fog of confusion. I delighted in the Gothic creepiness of the Milcote mists, the mute children John tutors (a distorted mirror of Jane Eyre’s talkative Adele), the casement bed (hello, Wuthering Heights!), and the role of laudanum in the plot. Obviously, this isn’t the book for those who prefer their historicals firmly rooted in reality, but if you enjoy paranormal details there are plenty to soak in here. 

One way in which John differs from Jane is in the loss of his religious faith, something which preoccupies Jane for much of the original book. This plays to the interests of modern readers, while also removing the driving force behind Jane’s flight from Thornfield, following her disastrous would-be wedding day—her desire to save her soul and her beloved’s. As a result of this change, the dénouement of the novel is action-packed, and the chapter inspired by Bronte’s most famous scene is soon followed by the climax.

John Eyre doesn’t pretend to be a serious examination of gender dynamics, as Jane Eyre often is, and questions of race are also less prominent than in other Bronte-inspired fiction (this Mr. Rochester still benefitted economically from slave labor, but there is no suggestion that Bertha’s heritage may be non-white).

I’d highly recommend John Eyre to other Bronte fans who are happy to read works that play with the sisters’ worlds. This is a book that is beyond anything else fun—fun to uninitiated readers, but even more fun if you’re familiar with its source material. 

Have you read John Eyre? What did you think of it? Let me know—here, on Facebook, on Instagram, or by tweeting @SVictorianist. For updates on my blog, my book, and me, make sure you sign up for my monthly email newsletter below.

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August Articles About Bronte’s Mistress

It’s the last day of September and the last few months have been so busy that I’m still recapping August!

In previous August-related posts, I shared the articles by me that were published last month to highlight the release of my debut novel, Bronte’s Mistress, and the written Q&As and interviews I participated in. Today though, I’m sharing the best of the best of the articles written about the book by others. Let’s get into it.

Yorkshire Post

Christian Science Monitor was a great champion of Bronte’s Mistress, telling readers that the novel “speculates delightfully” about what might have occurred between Branwell Bronte and Lydia Robinson.  The publication also included in the book at #4 in their list of the best books published in August. 

Larne Times

Bookreporter named my book a Bets On pick and published a wonderful review, calling the novel “seductive in its tone even when the more amorous scenes are pages behind you.” 

Shelf Awareness gave Bronte’s Mistress a starred review, writing that “this intriguing early Victorian drama unveils the enigmatic temptress who allegedly seduced the infamous Branwell Bronte and caused much grievance to his exceedingly protective sisters.” 

Woman & Home

I was delighted that my novel received coverage in Yorkshire, home of the Brontes, with this piece in the Yorkshire Post. Bronte’s Mistress, they write, is a “great story, extremely adeptly told.”

The Historical Novel Society Review

And I was also very happy to see Bronte’s Mistress show up in a few lists last month, including in Surrey Life and Silver Petticoat Review. 

Finally, in addition to the major review sites (see Goodreads, Amazon US and Amazon UK), here are ten of my favourite reviews of Bronte’s Mistress from Bronte/book bloggers. Thank you all for making August a great launch month!

Austenprose

Best Historical Fiction 

A Bookish Way of Life

Bronte Blog

The Eyre Review

Laura’s Reviews

The Lit Bitch

Nurse Bookie

Reading the Past

Sprained Brain

Haven’t ordered your physical, digital or audio copy of Bronte’s Mistress yet? Find a list of suggested places to buy here, or get in touch with your local independent bookstore. Want to get my most important updates delivered straight to your email inbox? Sign up for my monthly newsletter below.

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August Articles by Finola Austin, Author of Bronte’s Mistress

Wow. August was such a month that we’re now midway through September and I still haven’t recovered! Thank you so much to those of you who made the release of Bronte’s Mistress so special. Haven’t ordered your copy yet? There’s a list of places you can buy the book here (please note, for those of you in the UK, Waterstones is your best bet for speedy delivery…thanks, Covid). 

I’ve previously run roundups of the February/March, April/May, June/July articles featuring Bronte’s Mistress. But in August so much happened that I’m divvying up the content into three posts. In this first, I’ll list the articles I wrote that were published during release month. In the second, I’ll share the Q&As and interviews I did, which included some great questions! And, in a third blog post, I’ll detail some of the wonderful articles and reviews penned by others.

So, without further ado, let’s get into it.

The article I was most proud of getting published last month was a piece for Women Writers, Women[‘s] Books on “How Writing My First Novel Prepared Me To Write My Debut Novel.” While the release of my first book was a huge moment of celebration, I’ve been rejected many times along my writing journey. I was so pleased with the positive response I received when I shared this story with others. If you’re a writer who’s aiming for publication, know that it does happen. You don’t need connections. You can get an agent from cold querying. You can pick yourself up and write another book.

I was also pleased to have two of my articles land in MAJOR publications. I wrote an essay, “Was The Graduate Inspired by a Bronte Family Scandal?” for LitHub (one of my favourite websites), following the death of Charles Webb, author of The Graduate. And I wrote about the inspiration for my book for Oprah Magazine (!) in “This New Novel Explores the Secret Lives of the Other Two Bronte Siblings.”

I also courted controversy in a piece for Frolic on “What I Learned Writing About One Of History’s ‘Bad Feminists’.” I talked Bronte scandal with Historia Mag in “The Bronte Affair: researching the scandal that enveloped literature’s most famous family.” And I shared “6 Tender Stories of Forbidden Love” with Off the Shelf, showcasing some of my favourite reads when it comes to taboo romance.

I was also a guest blogger for three of my favourite blogs as part of the Bronte’s Mistress Blog Tour. I shared “10 fascinating facts I learned about the Brontes while researching Bronte's Mistress” with Bronte Blog (home of all things Brontes online). And, while we can’t travel right now, I gave readers a glimpse into my research trip to Yorkshire in “The Villages of Great and Little Ouseburn—the Forgotten Stops on the Bronte Trail,” for English Historical Fiction Writers. Finally, I was a guest for a day on the Silver Petticoat Review, writing a piece on “The Brontes and the Victorian Mrs Robinson.”

Writing and publishing these personal essays has been hard work, but it’s also been very rewarding. With each one, I’ve considered something new about Bronte’s Mistress and what my novel means to me. I dreamed of writing pieces like this when my novel existed only in my head. Thank you all for reading them!

Do you have a book club that would love to read Bronte’s Mistress? If so, I’d love to join your meeting via Zoom! Download the Bronte’s Mistress reading group guide and contact me via my website. Alternatively, get in touch via Facebook or Instagram or by tweeting @SVictorianist. 

Introducing…the Bronte’s Mistress Blog Tour!

It’s August! That means it’s finally release month for my debut historical novel, Bronte’s Mistress, which will be published by Atria Books on August 4! I’d love to see you all at my virtual launch event at Strand Book Store, NYC, which will be the night before on August 3 (register here). And, if you love the Victorian period as much as me, please consider ordering Bronte’s Mistress in hardcover, audiobook, or e-book now.

As a blogger who’s shared my passion for nineteenth-century literature and culture with you here for the last seven years, I’m especially excited to use this post to announce the Bronte’s Mistress Blog Tour, which will be running from August 3 to August 16.

What does this mean? Two weeks of great content as popular blogs and websites specialising in historical fiction, historical romance, and women’s fiction feature guest blogs and interviews with me, and excerpts from/reviews of my novel. The tour is being organised by Laurel Ann Nattress of Austenprose and I’m looking forward to all the stops!

Think of this blog post as the blog tour contents page. Each day throughout the tour, I’ll update the list below with links to the newly published pieces.

Introduction – Austenprose

Before the official launch of the tour, Austenprose published an exclusive preview of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 3 – Bronte Blog

A guest blog by me on 10 fascinating facts I learned about the Brontes while researching Bronte's Mistress 

Aug 3 – The Reading Frenzy

A Q&A with me about my main character Lydia Robinson, her parenting choices, and the Bronte siblings’ demons

Aug 3 – Austenprose

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 4 – Lu Reviews Books

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 4 – Best Historical Fiction

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 5 – English Historical Fiction Authors

A guest blog by me on the villages of Great and Little Ouseburn—the forgotten stops on the Bronte trail

Aug 6 – Historical Fiction Reader

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 6 – Captivated Reading

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 7 – Reading the Past

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 7 – Diary of an Eccentric

An excerpt from Chapter Three of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 8 – Nurse Bookie

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 10 – Frolic Media

I’m interviewed by fellow historical novelist Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Aug 10 – Historical Fiction with Spirit

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 10 – Bronte Blog

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 11 – A Bookish Way of Life

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 12 – Chicks, Rogues and Scandals

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 12 – Laura’s Reviews

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 12 – Historical Fiction Reader

A Q&A with me, including who I would cast in a Bronte's Mistress movie...

Aug 13 – The Lit Bitch

An excerpt from Chapter Five of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 14 – Silver Petticoat Review

A guest blog by me on the “Victorian Mrs Robinson”

Aug 14 – The Reading Frenzy

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

Aug 16 – Probably at the Library

A review of Bronte’s Mistress

I hope you enjoy the tour! And if you pre-ordered Bronte’s Mistress, thank you so much. I hope you love it. If you did, please review the novel on Goodreads and Amazon, and spread the word. You can also connect with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

 

If you’d like to win a signed hardcover copy of Bronte’s Mistress, sign up to receive my email newsletter below. If you’re already subscribed, or if you sign up in August 2020, you’ll be in with a chance of winning one of three signed copies (open internationally). Winners contacted September 1. 

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TV Review: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1996)

I’m a huge lover of all things related to the Brontes. In fact, my debut novel, Bronte’s Mistress, which comes out in under two months (!), prominently features several members of literature’s most famous family. However, somehow it still took a pandemic in the year of Anne Bronte’s bicentenary to make me wonder if either of her novels had been adapted for film.

Turning to IMBD, I discovered that Anne, the youngest of the three novel-writing sisters, had been overlooked on the big screen, as much as elsewhere. There are a slew of adaptations of Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Emily’s Wuthering Heights, but Anne’s Agnes Grey and Charlotte’s other novels have yet to been given the Hollywood treatment. There is just one lone TV adaptation of Anne’s second, more controversial, novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. This was made by the BBC in 1996. Thankfully for those of us in quarantine, it’s currently available via Amazon Prime Video.

The miniseries, which is three episodes long, was directed by Mike Barker and stars Tara Fitzgerald as runaway wife Helen Graham, Rupert Graves as her abusive husband, and Toby Stephens as Gilbert Markham, the farmer who falls for the mysterious “widow” renting nearby mansion Wildfell Hall.

I was initially sceptical about how the book would translate to film, comprised as the novel is of letters and a diary but, reader, I loved it.

There are minor plot alterations, especially related to the more streamlined cast of secondary characters, but the TV adaptation remains true to the spirit of Anne’s novel. We are closer to Gilbert’s perspective in the first and third episodes, but, when he is handed Helen’s diary, it is her voice that details her unhappy marriage.

The adaptation also does a great job of editing down some of Anne’s most didactic passages, leaving us with the best of Helen as she begs her husband to prepare for heaven, or argues that boys should be protected from vice as much as girls, directly calling out gendered double standards in Victorian childrearing.

I especially enjoyed the shots of the Yorkshire landscape and the original soundtrack (composed by Richard G. Mitchell). The Tenant of Wildfell Hall certainly has its dramatic moments but, as in Agnes Grey, Anne favours a quieter romance, and the music and setting enhanced this. Charlotte found her youngest sister’s second novel shocking because of its depictions of alcoholism and debauchery, but today we might look at the book as a heart-warming second chance romance.

If you’re a lover of costume dramas, consider checking out this lesser known adaptation. I hope that eventually Anne’s Agnes Grey makes it onto our screens (and Bronte’s Mistress, of course!).

Bronte’s Mistress is available for pre-order now. Order today and you’ll have it in your hands on release day in August. And join my mailing list for updates on events and more.

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Neo-Victorian Voices: Ill Will, Michael Stewart (2018)

Heathcliff is half of one of the most famous couples in nineteenth-century literature, yet he’s absent for a significant portion of Emily Bronte’s 1847 Wuthering Heights, a novel that’s inspired a myriad adaptations and retellings. What happened to Heathcliff to transform him from a brutish orphan into a calculating villain? Where did he come by the wealth that catapults him to a higher social position from which he could wreak his revenge?

Michael Stewart takes on these questions and more in his 2018 novel Ill Will, subtitled ‘The Untold Story of Heathcliff’. The result is a novel that’s, crucially, true to the spirit of Wuthering Heights, as it fills in the gaps in the original narrative. The coarseness of Emily Bronte’s characters, the violence of their actions and the immediacy of her language set her apart from her peers. Michael Stewart’s novel would have been unwritable in the 1840s and still shocks today, with graphic depictions of assault and murder and curse words that may put some readers off, especially in the mouth of the key supporting character—a prepubescent girl.

Stewart’s Heathcliff sets off on foot from Wuthering Heights to Manchester and then Liverpool, in search of his origins (and enough food, money and shelter to survive). But the journey is fraught with dangers—highwaymen, unrest among the labouring classes, the dark anger towards Cathy, Hindley and Linton that he feels inside.

Michael Stewart

Michael Stewart literally walked the walk in doing his research (recreating Heathcliff and Mr Earnshaw’s pilgrimage) and it shows. He renders the Northern English landscapes, urban and pastoral, in bleak and exquisite detail, sometimes losing himself a little too much in his catalogue of British birds and horticulture (there’s only so many times you can read the word ‘peewit’ in succession!).

The plot will also delight students and scholars of the Victorian period. Years of debate—about Heathcliff’s race, for instance, and the quasi-incestuous nature of his relationship with Cathy—are explored. In fact John Sutherland’s wonderful essay, ‘Is Heathcliff a murderer?’, was the catalyst for the novel’s creation.

Less successful, perhaps, are the passages where the genre borders on mystery, with Heathcliff and his youthful companion, aptly named Emily, interviewing a series of unsavoury characters to work out our anti-hero’s lineage. While sly nods to the Bronte siblings’ real lives in the names of places and people are a clever touch, the conceit feels a little too early twentieth-century detective fiction. The novel recovers once we’re back to bloody fights and living in the wild.

Ill Will is a Gothic tale conceived in the twenty-first century, set in the eighteenth and based on a nineteenth-century masterpiece. If you’re looking for the Heathcliff of costume dramas, or like your historical fiction to be decorous and well mannered, you may be disappointed. But something tells me Emily Bronte herself would have approved.

Which novel would you like to see the Secret Victorianist read next as part of the Neo-Victorian Voices series? Let me know—here, on Facebook or by tweeting @SVictorianist.