∎ Download The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte James Tully 9780786707423 Books

The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte James Tully 9780786707423 Books

Download As PDF : The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte James Tully 9780786707423 Books

The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte James Tully 9780786707423 Books

If you love the Bronte Sister's books, you'll love this one about them, told from a servant girl who spent most of her life working at their home.
You can see some of the influences that inspired their great works.
And the suspicion cast upon Charlotte for the early demise of her sisters.
A Good Read all around.


Tags : The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte [James Tully] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <div>Using fiction to explore further his investigation into the Brontës' lives, noted true-crime author James Tully creates a murder mystery darker than anything produced by their imaginations and reveals a hidden side to their literary myth. In 1845,James Tully,The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte,Carroll & Graf,0786707429,2150743397,Literary,Mystery & Detective - General,Bronte family,Brontèe family,English Mystery & Suspense Fiction,FICTION General,Fiction,Fiction - Mystery Detective,Fiction Literary,Fiction Mystery & Detective General,Mystery & Detective - Historical,Mystery & Detective - Traditional British

The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte James Tully 9780786707423 Books Reviews

I was intrigued by this book when I recently saw it in the bookstore. The description and questions on the back caught my eye (How did three sisters in a remote parsonage know so much about the darker passions of love?), and made me curious enough to purchase it then and there. I must admit I was immediately drawn in by the introduction and the lawyer's description of his find. As a fan of the Bronte sisters, who wouldn't be thrilled with such a discovery? If only the rest of the book lived up to its beginning, or even, the questions that raised my curiosity in the first place.
On the back of the book, it is explained to us that the author, James Tully, although a "noted criminologist", chose to write this story as a novel. The introduction is written by a lawyer in the firm that had this story sealed, and we are asked to compare this narration to the popular version of the Bronte tale, and see which one seems to be the more likely of the two. The story then unfolds as young Martha, a maid in the Bronte parsonage, tells tale of all the happenings at Haworth over almost two decades. Her retelling is concluded at each chapter by the lawyer's conjecture of truths (or shall I say "truths") that add veracity to Martha's story. Martha's story lets us know about the evil doings of Arthur Bell Nicholls, Charlotte's husband, who had his hand in the mysterious deaths that occured at Haworth parsonage, including Charlotte's herself.
Tully has an interesting theory. It does seem strange and mysterious how three members of the Bronte clan died in such a short span of time and with similar symptoms. He raises some questions that might make you question what you know to be true about the Brontes. Yet this novel is far from enligtening or even satisfactory. I was disappointed when I finished reading. However, I am left with only one question after finishing this novel. If there is any truth to these accusations, why would a criminologist write this as fiction, and not as fact? Written as fiction, it reads as such.
I can't disagree that the characterization is, as one reviewer here puts it, misogynistic. It is, sure. A feminist reading of the book crucifies Tully in every way. That said, the existence of a femme fatale in a story does not make it a bad one, it makes the story-teller's voice one fearful of the female, and in this case, the only objection one can have to doing so is that the characters are fictional representations of real people. That those people created beloved works of literature makes them, by proxy, beloved themselves, and therefore some of us feel the need to protect them against misrepresentation. But it bears considering whether any historical person, regardless of the number of biographies written on them, are anything less than fictional people. Even Anne's character was arguably misrepresented by Charlotte, for reasons of Charlotte's own. So, have at it Tully, you scaredy-cat woman hater. Have your fun.

So one should NOT read this book with an eye to belief or disbelief, ironically it wrecks the value of fanciful novelization to decide whether it "could be" or "must not be" true. Although the events herein are probably not true, come on. And like most conspiracy-theoretical novels, the more you know about the subject the less you'll be able to suspend disbelief when the narrator makes a claim that you can readily disprove, so naturally you're probably going to enjoy this book less if you are a dedicated devotee of the family or an expert on the Haworth parsonage.

Still, I'm giving this book high marks for the same reasons I love the Sex Pistols, even though they were nothing like their myth and the musicianship was not the greatest (the writing here isn't superb and the characterization is definitely not 'round'); but this book is highly, highly entertaining for the way it thumbs its nose at convention and takes the giants down a peg, and the taste it left in my mouth at the end was of laughter. It also does a wonderful job of underscoring the inherent darkness of the Bronte ouvre, which was an important element of their works that I think can tend to be overlooked. This novel simplifies it, repacks it and hands it back as a whispered pub conversation among degenerates, and if you think that undermines the value of the Bronte sisters' impact on culture, you just haven't lived enough to understand Heathcliff, Rochester, Huntingdon, or Branwell.
I thought this book was great. Yes, it is a novel but a lot of the book is true. I looked it up on line. It is told by the lover of Charlotte's husband. According to the book he killed the brother then the two sisters then Charlotte. Took all of the money & his lover & fled to Ireland. He poisoned all of them.
If you love the Bronte Sister's books, you'll love this one about them, told from a servant girl who spent most of her life working at their home.
You can see some of the influences that inspired their great works.
And the suspicion cast upon Charlotte for the early demise of her sisters.
A Good Read all around.