Content area
A concise general introduction, conclusion, and epilogue enclose this four-section set, yielding a decidedly modular reading experience like that of a handbook or companion (as opposed to a traditional argumentative monograph). [...]while it is ideal for assigning to undergraduates or consulting during class preparation, it will frustrate scholars who expect detailed, nuanced readings of the novels shaped by a theoretically advanced understanding of the Industrial Revolution or by cutting-edge currents in feminist methodologies. The note of optimism struck by this final section is well earned, and readers seeking more in this inspirational mode should peruse Samantha Ellis's Take Courage: Anne Bronté and the Art of Life (2017). While this optimistic affirmation of the Brontés' depiction of social turbulence is indeed original, it is entirely inaccurate to claim that "there has not been an attempt to bridge the Industrial Revolution to the Bronté canon" (2)-certainly not with the fiftieth anniversary of Terry Eagleton's Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontës (1975) imminent.