 | Anne Brontë and the Trials of Life The trials Anne Brontë experienced in her lifetime left her with a deep interest in the psychology of suffering. This study, which considers both her novels and her poetry, focuses on the exploration of suffering in her work by examining her anatomisation of the trials her characters face and the strategies they deploy to cope with them. The novel Agnes Greyis read as a study of a woman working in circumstances in which her professionalism is unacknowledged and denied, while The Tenant of Wildfell Halldepicts an individual who is trapped in a deeply alien and uncongenial environment. Equally, struggles to face adversity, achieve happiness and find and retain religious faith form the subjects of her poetry. The book concludes by considering the common ground between Brontë's heroines and their experiences and her overall views about how to confront life and its trials. Robert Butterworthwas educated at the University of Leeds and is a lecturer and Victorian scholar who has published work on Anne Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, George Gissing and Thomas Hood. His previous book, Dickens, Religion and Society, was published in 2015. |
