Charlotte Brontë

Harman brings a fresh eye to many of the same papers studied by Gaskell to compile her Charlotte Brontë: A Life. The Gothic atmosphere and heart-breaking details remain, but Harman achieves a great feat by making the story seem new again

Marcus Field, Independent

A subtle, measured biography, full of insight into Bronte's fiery intellect as well as the tragic intensity of her experience

Helen Dunmore, Observer

Prepare to suffer similar time-loss at the hands of Harman, Brontë's most recent biographer and a master storyteller in her own right. Level-headed, highly readable and always intelligent, Harman's account of Brontë's life and work is a delight from start to finish

Sunday Times

Harman renders her daring novels fresh, interweaving what shocked critics then with what surprises us still

Sunday Telegraph

A substantial biography (...) that lets the disparate pieces speak for themselves

Daily Telegraph

An immensely readable biography

Woman and Home

A vigorous new biography (...) Harman does a splendid job

Mail on Sunday

[An] excellent new bicentennial biography....Ms. Harman writes with warmth and a fine understanding of Ms. Brontë's literary significance. Above all, she is a storyteller, with a sense of pace and timing, relish for a good scene and a wry sense of humour

Economist

Three rounds of applause...for Claire Harman's superb retelling of Charlotte's story

Mark Bostridge, The Spectator

Revelatory (...) adds freshness and texture to her account with original speculations. As someone who once wrote a book about the Brontës' afterlives, few people can have read as many biographies of them as I have. I thought I was Brontë-ed out, but reading this book-which will be equally accessible to someone coming to Charlotte for the first time-has drawn me back in

Lucasta Miller, The Independent

Elegant, sensitive, beautifully paced and moving. [Claire Harman] has... produced a work that is affirmative, edifying, inspiring and humane

Sunday Express

Full of pleasing and piquant detail, scraps of passing recollection assembled from the various lives and letters in which the Brontes featured and from which we might reconstruct their world

Financial Times

Harman's sane, unshowy re-telling is exactly right for the bicentenary next April. It gathers up the best of what has been written before and deals tactfully and decisively with the sillier aspects of the Bronte mythology. The result is a retooled classic biographical narrative, shipshape and serviceable for the next 200 years

The Guardian

Harman tells [Charlotte's] story with quick wit, a sharp sympathy, and a fire and fury of her own

Evening Standard

Harman... portrays Bronte's complexity and dark genius in elegant prose with deep human sympathy

The Lady

Superb retelling of Charlotte's story (...) admirably concise

The Spectator

Elegantly written, consistently perceptive...[Harman] succeeds in bringing Charlotte back to life in all her spiky vulnerability

Daily Mail Book of the Week

Finely judged and authoritative

Sunday Times Book of the Week

This is a comprehensive biography to enjoy and admire. Harman writes well and she is a fine and sensitive critic

The Times