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Tuesday 5 February 2008

Patrick Brontë - Father of Genius

Dudley Green's biography, published by The History Press , should appear in May this year, priced at £20. ISBN: 978 1 84588 625 7

This is from the publisher:

Patrick Brontë (1777–1861) was the father of the famous ‘Brontë Sisters,’ Anne, Charlotte and Emily, three of Victorian England’s greatest novelists, but he was a fascinating man in his own right and not nearly such an unsympathetic character as Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë would have us believe.

Born into poverty in Ireland, he won a scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge, and was ordained into the Church of England. He was perpetual curate of Haworth in Yorkshire for forty-one years, bringing up four children, founding a school and campaigning for a proper water supply.

Although often portrayed as a somewhat fobidding figure, he was an opponent of capital punishment and the Poor Law Amendment Act, a supporter of limited Catholic emancipation and a writer of poetry.

This is the first serious biography of Patrick Brontë for more than forty years.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It was reading Man of Sorrow by Lock & Dixon back in the 60s that started off my life long interest in the Brontes. I always felt poor Patrick was hard done by and am putting in a pre-order for this book now.

Thank you for alerting me to this.