Description
Title: The Brontes in Brussels
Author: MacEwan, Helen
Format: Paperback
Publication date: 06/11/2025
Imprint: PUSHKIN
ISBN: 9781805680345
In 1842, five years before they would become bestselling authors, Charlotte Bronte and her sister Emily arrived in Brussels. They were there to improve their French and German, but the years they spent in a pensionnat being taught by the charismatic Constantin Heger would do much more than polish their languages. It was a crucial turning point for both their writing and their personal lives. Each came away from Brussels a more mature and capable artist; Charlotte, having fallen lastingly in love with Heger, left with a broken heart and the inspiration for two novels, The Professor and Villette.
Based on the Brontes’ letters, diaries and essays, as well as research into the Brussels of the time, this is a fascinating look at a formative period in the lives of two great writers. Tracing the influence of their Brussels years through their writing, MacEwan gives us insight into their artistic formation, and paints a vivid picture of the bustling 19th-century city that opened the sisters’ eyes to life beyond Haworth Parsonage.
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