This innovative and critically acclaimed study successfully challenges the traditional view that Charlotte Bronte existed in a historical vacuum, by setting her work firmly within the context of Victorian psychological debate. Based on extensive local research, using texts ranging from local newspaper copy to the medical tomes in the Reverend Patrick Bronte's library, Sally Shuttleworth explores the interpenetration of economic, social, and psychological discourse in the early and mid-nineteenth century, and traces the ways in which Charlotte Bronte's texts operate in relation to this complex, often contradictory, discursive framework. Shuttleworth offers a detailed analysis of Bronte's fiction, informed by a new understanding of Victorian constructions of sexuality and insanity, and the operations of medical and psychological surveillance.

Charlotte Bronte's fiction is examined in the context of Victorian constructions of psychology, sexuality, and insanity.
Reviews
'Invokes primary sources to explode any persistent myths that Bronte lived in a cultural vacuum.' New Scientist
'An excellent, illuminating book.' Rick Rylance
'[This] has made a major contribution to Bronte studies and indicated the way forward for further studies of Bronte's work within Victorian cultural debate.' Christine Alexander, Australasian Victorian Studies Journal
'An assured and original contributuion to the ever-expanding field of Bronte scholarship.' Anarchist Studies
'An impressive, densely-argued book.' Journal of Victorian Culture



Book Information
ISBN 9780521617178
Author Sally Shuttleworth
Format Paperback
Page Count 308
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 450g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 18mm