We Are Three Sisters: Self and Family in the Writing of the Brontes (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In "We Are Three Sisters," Drew Lamonica focuses on the role of families in the Brontës' fiction of personal development, exploring the ways in which it recognizes the family as a defining community for selfhood.

Drawing on extensive primary sources, including works by Sarah Ellis, Sarah Lewis, Ann Richelieu Lamb, Harriet Martineau, Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, and Elizabeth Gaskell, Lamonica examines the dialogic relationship between the Brontës' novels and a mid-Victorian domestic ideology disseminated in conduct books and home guides that held the family to be the original nurturer of subjectivity. Arguing that the sisters share a common interest in the familial influences on self-development and self-understanding, Lamonica draws connections among their works to prove this argument.

About the Author

Drew Lamonica is Professional in Residence at Louisiana State University Honors College in Baton Rouge and a Rhodes Scholar.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: University of Missouri Press (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826214363
• ISBN-13: 978-0826214362
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,885,366 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Topical ideas, December 28, 2003

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In the history of famous authors, the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, stand out. Firstly, that three siblings would prove to be so gifted in the same field. For example, we can only wonder what if Charles Dickens had had two such siblings?

Then, of course, there is the obvious factor that all three Brontes were female. At a time when wealthy British women had such circumscribed career choices. Ever since their lifetimes, many have thusly commented.

But apparently few have focused on how the Brontes depicted families in their fiction, and how these tied in with their own familial situation and the Victorian ethos of family. In retrospect, this is one of those analyses whose idea is stunningly obvious. But for some reason, a priori to this book, it has been little (none?) touched on.

Most interestingly, Lamonica suggests that while the Brontes never actually denied the prospect of a woman being content through her family, they never made this out to be the only choice. A very contemporary stance.