Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Summary
The Brontës and Education is the first published full-length investigation of the topic stated by its title, as The Brontës and Religion (1999) was of Christianity in the Brontë novels. Like its predecessor, The Brontës and Education aims to enrich the reading experience of present-day audiences by increasing their understanding of dimensions in the Brontë fiction that are otherwise easily overlooked. That is not all it attempts to do, however. To a greater extent than The Brontës and Religion, this new book looks beyond the works of the Brontës to the wider social context in which those works were created.
All the seven Brontë novels are seriously and variously concerned with education in both its main senses, that of upbringing and that of knowledge acquisition. They were written by professionals in the field: the four of Patrick Brontë's children who survived adolescence all taught for a living. Education was the foremost issue in societal debate throughout their lives, and their lives were constantly touched by education. For that reason, biography plays a more prominent role in this study than in the earlier volume. Fortunately, the last fifteen years have witnessed the publication of first-class biographical research which has done away with many of the myths surrounding the Brontës and laid the foundation for fresh critical scholarship with biographical references.
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- Information
- The Brontës and Education , pp. 1 - 6Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007