Author: Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 7

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 13 Comments
Day #7: A Book That’s Hard to Read
What can make a book hard to read? Only two things. Poor writing and/or using a language that I don’t read. Latin perhaps. 
But I’m going to answer this by talking about a book I found hard to read…until it wasn’t. 
There were some pronoun issues when I first started this. I was all wait, what? Who? Huh? But once I got into the groove it was all good. I wouldn’t say it was smooth as butter but ya know, it worked. Whatever the issues were Ms Mantel had them all ironed out by the time she wrote Bring Up The Bodies because that was even better.
If you start this one and it’s a little slow going, give it a chance. It irons itself out. 

Review: Charlotte & Emily: A Novel of the Brontës by Jude Morgan

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 31 Comments

Charlotte and Emily: A Novel of the Brontës by Jude Morgan
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin, paperback
Publication Date: April, 2010
Category: Historical, General
Source: Library
Recommended by: Sam @ Tiny Library
I had a hard time finding this at first because in Great Britain the title is The Taste of Sorrow 

Description:
From an obscure country parsonage came three extraordinary sisters, who defied the outward bleakness of their lives to create the most brilliant literary work of their time. Now, in an astonishingly daring novel by the acclaimed Jude Morgan, the genius of the haunted Brontës is revealed and the sisters are brought to full, resplendent life: Emily, who turned from the world to the greater temptations of the imagination; gentle Anne, who suffered the harshest perception of the stifling life forced upon her; and the brilliant, uncompromising, and tormented Charlotte, who longed for both love and independence, and learned their ultimate price. 

My Thoughts:
First, a word about the title: Why? Why do they call these books different things in different countries? And why did they leave poor Anne off of the title in The United States? Sigh, poor Anne. 

I believe that this is the first Morgan book I’ve ever read. I do think that if I’d have read any of his other work I would have rushed out to find the rest immediately. This book was excellent. 

Oh that Brontë family! The awful boarding school, the spoiled drunken brother, the deaths of such young sisters…the tragedies never ended for them. Only Charlotte lived to be 40, and she outlived her 5 siblings by years. Were the novels they ended up publishing to be expected because of their bleak lives? Or is it a miracle that they were able to write at all? 

Keep in mind that this is a work of fiction, but it did bring the Brontë family to life for me. I enjoyed this very, very much and would recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction or in the lives of the Brontë sisters.

What Other Bloggers Thought:
Tiny Library
Readin’ and Dreamin’
Iris on Books