The Bronts and Religion

This is the first full-length study of religion in the fiction of the Bronts. Drawing on extensive knowledge of the Anglican church in the nineteenth century, Marianne Thormhlen shows how the Bronts' familiarity with the contemporary debates on doctrinal, ethical and ecclesiastical issues informs their novels. Divided into four parts, the book examines denominations, doctrines, ethics and clerics in the work of the Bronts. The analyses of the novels clarify the constant interplay of human and Divine love in the development of the novels. While demonstrating that the Bronts' fiction usually reflects the basic tenets of Evangelical Anglicanism, the book emphasises the characteristic spiritual freedom and audacity of the Bronts. Lucid and vigorously written, it will open up new perspectives for Bront specialists and enthusiasts alike on a fundamental aspect of the novels greatly neglected in recent decades.