Customer Reviews

Emma Brown

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Reader, I married him." Few sentences in English literature are more resonant for women. Millions of us have been inspired by the story of Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester: a triumph of brains and character over money, looks or superficial charm. When Brontė-phile and author Clare Boylan became aware that Charlotte's last piece of fiction was a twenty-page fragment originally entitled EMMA (curious, considering that Miss Austen's novel of the same name had been published in 1816), she decided that it deserved completion. This book is the result.

Happily, EMMA BROWN is not simply a pastiche. Yes, it borrows elements from all of Brontė's novels --- the governess who falls in love above her station from JANE EYRE, the ambiguous ending from VILLETTE, the blossoming of social conscience from SHIRLEY. There is also more than a touch of Wilkie Collins-style mystery and Dickensian melodrama. But the book has a rousing pace and beating heart all its own. The plot rockets right along, moving from high society to low, from the mean streets of London to the calmer splendors of village life. Above all, it is propelled by the tension among three intriguing figures whose secrets are gradually revealed --- a young girl known first as Matilda Fitzgibbon, then as Emma Brown, who is presented as an heiress at the local school for young ladies; our narrator, Mrs. Chalfont, a widow who adopts Emma when she proves to be neither rich nor well connected; and Mr. Ellin, an enigmatic local bachelor who joins forces with Mrs. Chalfont to find Emma's true identity (and, in the process, his own). This is a real page-turner, with dizzy switches between past and present, one subplot and another. I couldn't wait to see what happened next.

One of the many pleasures of EMMA BROWN is the style: rich, but never dense or slow. Boylan writes easily and well in the leisurely, philosophizing narrative voice so typical of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novel. The characters' inner conflicts and musings are expressed less directly than in contemporary fiction, mediated by moral observations, sharp social commentary and the contemplation of nature.

Boylan is witty, too. Speaking of her late husband, Mrs. Chalfont says, "It was not the quality of marriage that dismayed me, but the quantity of it. Confined in close proximity to the plump and whiskery personage who considered me as much his property and as much for his usage as if I were his pipe or slippers, I had need to remind myself that this shackling was not for a week or a year, nor for the number of years to which a criminal might be sentenced to bondage, but until one of us ran out of breath."

This jaundiced view of matrimony makes it clear that female dependence and independence is a central theme of EMMA BROWN, one of the qualities that raises the book above mere imitation and gives it a moral and psychological center. The seeds of feminism are certainly present in Brontė --- that's why she is so well loved --- but Boylan takes the idea further, giving explicit value to the autonomous, educated woman who possesses both courage and self-conviction. The female characters in EMMA BROWN are emphatically more interesting than the males, yet it is Mr. Ellin, meditating on his own clouded history and Emma's, who brings out a second theme: "We have most of us mislaid our past, although some of us have done so on purpose."

In this pre-Freudian era, people were pretty much on their own in finding the roots of their unhappiness and attempting to reconcile their former and present selves. The main characters in EMMA BROWN are spiritual-psychological detectives. Although the ending is not walk-into-the-sunset happy, they all discover something important about themselves.

In any historical novel, particularly a recreation, there is a temptation to show off your research. For the most part Boylan wears her knowledge lightly; at times, though, details feel dragged in. When Emma befriends a homeless waif named Jenny Drew, who carries around dead babies in lieu of dolls and earns her living by collecting and selling dog feces, you suspect that these facts were found in a monograph on the misery of London's poor. And perhaps the attitudes in EMMA BROWN (including a proto-animal rights sensibility) are a little too p.c. to be true. You can't quite forget that a modern woman wrote this book.

But so what? Boylan isn't trying to copy JANE EYRE; she's using the conventions of a Victorian literary form, combined with the insights and convictions of our own age, to bring the author's voice back to life. Brontė was a radical soul born at a time when strong, passionate women had to hide themselves; EMMA BROWN shows them struggling to emerge. I think Charlotte would have liked that.

--- Reviewed by Kathy Weissman

The first two chapters are Bronte's, the last fiction before her death in 1855. Acclaimed Irish writer Boylan continues this sketch, remaining true to Bronte's interests and style in developing a romantic mystery of identity and Victorian social issues.

Bronte's narrator, Isabel Chalfont, a youngish widow, takes in a young girl called Matilda Fitzgibbon. Her purported father had delivered the child, along with a trunk of sumptuous clothing, to the fledgling, struggling, Wilcox School. But her fees went unpaid, her father's address proved fictitious and the man himself had disappeared.

Petted as a wealthy prize, the child is reviled when proved poor. Introverted and miserable, her memory clouded, she nevertheless arouses maternal feelings in the childless Isabel. But shortly after remembering her real name - Emma - the girl runs off to find the mother who sold her, and efforts to discover her origins and whereabouts meet little success.

Boylan branches out to tell the story from several perspectives. Chief among them are Isabel, Emma, and Mr. Ellin, a man of indolent habits with hidden depths and a secret past, the one who brought Emma to Isabel and now undertakes to find her "father."

Emma, alone and soon robbed, finds herself among the lowest of the low in heartless London - but not so low she can't take on another girl, even younger and less fortunate than herself. Together they face hunger, homelessness and the work available to children, including prostitution.

Each character's present is illuminated by their past - unjust treatment and romantic reversals deform or temper character - and the plot comes together in a proper Victorian tangle. Boylan's writing ("Holy Pictures," "Beloved Stranger") is always choice and atmospheric, and the Bronte connection gives her free reign to incorporate melodrama, romance and unsavory Victorian attitudes towards class, parental rights, poverty and the ownership of children and women.

A sweeping, involving, Bronte-esque novel.

It's nearly impossible to recreate another author's writing style. In fact, Clare Boylan undoubtedly took this project on knowing that it could possibly subject her to all manner of abuse. Nevertheless, I think she did an excellent job.

The things that indicate she is NOT Charlotte Bronte are subtle ones. The author indicates at the end of the book that Bronte was leaning toward social reformation at the time of her death, and she developed her story along those lines. One of the tip-offs that the writer is not 19th century is the very modern shock and dismay at 19th century social conditions. Most of the main characters are, or become fired up with 1960s idealism, and try to save the world from poverty and injustice. A true 19th century writer wouldn't feel - or more likely wouldn't dare to challenge to this degree - a social structure England took for granted at that time. More likely she would comment on it and tug at your heartstrings like Dickens, and set the story up to enable the wealthy to save the poor heroine, but wouldn't have them indignantly devoting their wealthy lives to the betterment of the poor. It would have made a 19th century author appear "odd".

But that's one of the delightful things about the novel. When I read 19th century books (and I've read many) I often get irritated by shallow concerns the characters have, like the obsession with Tess of the D'urberville's loss of her virginity (yeah, so?) and building an entire book around how it ruined her life. A 19th century audience could relate. A modern audience would not see or fully appreciate what the problem was.

So we have a book with all the elements of a 19th century novel, but a story with an appeal to a 21st century audience and characters slightly more evolved and socially conscious than your typical 19th century English lords and ladies. That's nice.

Emma Brown is a not very pretty young girl who has no memory of her past, and from the little she can recall thinks she has been "ruined" and is not fit to live. She is plopped by a Mysterious Man into a school for girls dressed as a wealthy heiress and then is revealed to be a pauper (much like Shirley Temple in "The Little Princess"). The school is run by three women who love her when she's rich, and hate her when they learn she's poor. In steps a local widow, who takes the child to live with her until she runs away with a sum of money intended for the repayment of her room and board at the school. In steps a local bachelor who devotes time and money to alternately attempt to locate the Mysterious Man among the wealthy and Emma somewhere in the teeming filth of the London slums. Enter an angelic, crippled, ragged slum child whose "baby doll" is the corpse of a little infant she found in the gutter (she would replace him with another corpse as soon as he began to look "unnatural" - infant corpses were everywhere, she explains, and she likes them because they keep her company), whom Emma befriends while she is living on the streets.

I loved the story. It was just contrived enough to be convincingly 19th century -- literature from that era is always filled with contrived coincidences and everything falling into place at the end. This novel does that, but not in a predictable way.

I also found the dialog hilariously true to Victorian literature, and wondered if the author was smiling as she wrote it. It was every bit as over-written as the dialog in any 19th century novel (in a good way). She gets five-stars for hitting the dialog nail right on the head! It's obviously not going to appeal to someone who prefers modern literature, but for those of us who swallowed the classics whole -- and for anyone who gets the joke with the speeches and letters they banter back and forth -- it was like opening a time capsule and finding a lost 19th century novel.

Well worth the read. Very good book - and very brave effort! I don't know that I would personally have dared to attempt it!

I purchased this novel for two reasons. One, I am a big fan of the Bronte sisters (my favorite novels include both "Wuthering Heights" and "Jane Eyre) and two, because my daughters name is Emma Brown.
Boylan does a wonderful job of being true to Bronte's style while infusing her own thoughts and nuances to the story. Interesting characters and a true Victorian feel make this book well worth reading.
I have always been interested in the Victorian era. The last "modern Vicotrian novel" that I read was "The Crimson Petal and the White" by Michel Faber. I loved the writing style and the detail but was ultimately let down by a lack of ending. "Emma Brown" does not disappoint.

I would absolutely recommend this novel to those who can appreciate Victorian literature. I was an English major in college and find myself incredibly bored by most contemporary writers. Ms. Boylan does an excellent job of writing in Bronte's style. While it is obvious that the work is not entirely Bronte's, as one of the other review mentioned, that is besides the point. The book is thoroughly enjoyable and a great read!

Would Charlotte Bronte have used words and phrases like "neurotic", "prime site", "mindless entertainment", and "middle class", as Clare Boylan does in finishing a Bronte manuscript? Not in any Victorian novel I have read! But worse than the frequent anachronisms is the soppy plot. Absolute tommyrot. The book is a waste of time, but its ersatz Bronte-esque romantic aura will make it a favorite of those who like that sort of thing.

Stepping back into the Bronte era, Emma Brown is as familiar as any of the fiction of the Bronte sisters, although this novel is extrapolated from 20 manuscript pages into a full-length work of fiction by Clare Boylan.

Capturing the sense of time and place, Matilda Fitzgibbon, a young lady of substance, is delivered into the care of the Misses Wilcox at their school by her father, Conway Fitzgibbon, Esq. When a letter to the school is returned to the headmistress, marked "no such address", inquiries are made. It seems that Miss Fitzgibbons is not a person of quality, after all, is, in fact, a fraud and most likely penniless. A local bachelor, Mr. Ellin, does his best to locate any clues about the unfortunate girl as a convoluted trail winds from fact to fact, connecting one part of the story to another.

At the same time, we learn the story of the widow, Isabelle Chalfont, whose own young life was one of hardship, although she now lives comfortably as a widow of some means. Struggle is familiar with poverty as well and the loss of her love, who was sent away to separate him from her. The widow welcomes the child into her home, gradually uncovering a little information about her past, the girl's real name, at least, which is Emma. The widow determines to help the girl find her mother, when Emma disappears, running off to London to search alone.

Thereafter, Boylan takes on the persona of a female Charles Dickens in a Victorian nightmare complete with starving orphans, children bought and sold as chattel, men with evil intentions and purveyors of every sort of disparagement. Before the tale comes to an end, the main characters have ridden an emotional roller coaster and Emma endures more emotional and physical torture than any child in the most heinous Victorian setting. Indeed, children living in poverty in London are fodder for any injustice, with few enough good-hearted people to care for them.

I am reminded of the early black and white movies, before sound, when the squirming damsel is tied to the railroad tracks, nearly annihilated. Like the old broadsheet newspapers exposing social injustice with moral outrage, this novel is a stew of pitiful creatures in need of rescue. Will the train run over the fair damsel? Will Emma Brown ever achieve a life of peace and freedom from want? What does the future hold for this child full of grace and love that she makes the perfect Victorian heroine, embodying all the aspects of a virtuous young lady?

While Emma Brown retains the tone and intent of a Bronte novel, to compare this work to Sarah Dunant or Susan Vreeland is a disservice. For Bronte fans, and I have loved Jane Eyre all my life, this is a sweet reminder of the talented Bronte sisters, but when compared to other recent historical fiction, it would be unfair to rate Emma with these accomplished authors. Still, Boylan is on the right track, succeeding in her intent and offering Bronte enthusiasts an unexpected treat. Luan Gaines/2004.

Perhaps my problem with the book is that I was expecting Charlotte Bronte, and that's NOT who I got. Halfway through the book I was ready to toss it aside, but kept holding on. There's just way too much happening in this book, even at the very end there's drama happening. Most of the story's events are quite depressing there's no real romance to spice it up. The one decent romance that does happens starts off promising, then falls off early on then is picked back up at the end only to have they guy die at the end. Needless to say there is no satisfying romance as is found in other Bronte works. The story was decent, I found the shifting point of views to be a bit irritating. Every chapter or so was told from a different point of view and you kind of have to read for a bit before you figure out who's side you're reading. It's not one I would read again, nor recommend, but I was really looking forward to it, so I'm happy I got it out my system.

This book is not something that Charlotte Bronte would want to be associated with, I'm sure. There are far too many coincidences in the story, among other problems. I found myself reading the whole thing, continually hoping for something better. But nothing better ever came. A complete waste of time. If you're looking for something good to read, try Jane Austen, the Brontes, or Elizabeth Gaskell!

While the writing was acceptable, I felt that the juxtaposition of the classes in this novel was very forced. The differnce between the classes is too obvious. The contrast between the rich world (the students in the Wilcox school and the Cornhills) and the streets of London (and Isa's forced marriage to the grocer, and Mrs. Cornhill's predictable and obvious snobbery) was not one that led me to feel any of the injustice. I was left cold by the overall plot. One thing that truly bothered me was the fate of Mr. Cornhill and Isa. I felt that the way it happened in the book left something to be desired, and was not in true Bronte style. The characters and their development also left something to be desired. They were too predictable at times, and Mr. Ellin was just annoying. There were few occasions when I sympathized with any character, other than Isa (and only at certain points in the plot). There was nothing spectacular about this novel, though I won't discourage anyone from reading it. It was fast paced and it did hold my interest.