For over two centuries, Maria Branwell has been overshadowed by her extraordinary offspring—Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë. But in *Mother of the Brontës: When Maria Met Patrick*, Sharon Wright brings Maria out of the shadows, offering readers the first full biography of the woman whose life set the stage for the literary legends we know today.

This book isn't just about the Brontë siblings’ mother—it’s about a woman who led a fascinating life long before she became Mrs. Brontë. Hailing from a wealthy family in Penzance, Maria was a Regency gentlewoman with social standing and secrets. Wright paints a vivid picture of Maria's life in Cornwall, a life full of the kind of dramatic twists that could have inspired one of her daughters’ novels.

One of the most intriguing aspects of this biography is the whirlwind romance between Maria and Patrick Brontë, a penniless curate from Ireland. Their love story, which spans miles and social classes, is both heartwarming and tragic. Wright does an exceptional job of bringing to life not just Maria’s character, but also the social and economic contexts of the time. The meticulous detail about Penzance, the Branwell family, and the journey from Cornwall to Yorkshire is fascinating and enriches the narrative, though some readers may find the initial chapters a bit dense with historical detail.

Wright’s research is impressive, and she uses it to create a compelling narrative that balances historical context with personal storytelling. Through letters, portraits, and the scarce historical records available, she reconstructs Maria’s life with care and attention, allowing us to see her not just as the mother of famous writers, but as a woman in her own right.

The book is not without its challenges, particularly in the early chapters where the heavy load of information might overwhelm some readers. However, if you push through the initial deluge, you’ll find a richly rewarding story. The latter half of the book, focusing on Maria and Patrick’s life together, is particularly engaging and emotionally resonant, especially as Maria’s health declines and she passes away, leaving behind a legacy that would shape her children’s futures.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

At last a book about Maria Branwell. She seems to have been forgotten in the histories of her famous children. Her story is just as fascinating and this wonderful book, that has been so well researched, shows what an amazing life she had before she met Patrick Bronte and then of course her journey through motherhood. I really enjoyed her story as there doesn't seem to have been much written about her. Thanks to the writing of the author this book was interesting from start to finish.

Finally a book about the mother! Whenever i look into the Brontes there are books and books about the famous three, their brother and father but what about the mother? She has always been dismissed, just a baby machine that died and whose ghost hovers around the family.

I really enjoyed her story from romance to family and everything else in between. The book is well-written and definitely well-researched!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The second episode of my exciting new series called ‘Cleaning up my backlog’ features The Mother of the Brontës, a biography of Mary Brontë–look, the title is self-explanatory enough, haha.

The main issue of this book is that it unloads a lot of info upon the poor, unsuspecting reader right from the start. One doesn’t even have the time to acclimatize with the story that, bam, they’re swept away by the power of infodumping. Not gonna lie, I came this close to calling it quits, before realizing that The Mother of the Brontës just suffers from Manzoni’s curse: the first few pages of a novel are eye watering, but if you can get past them, it’s all smooth sailing.

Scratch that, it’s captivating.

Maria, the future mother of the Brontë sisters, makes for a good subject, because it’s unexpected. She’s not the big name(s) here, but she’s the main character in her own story, influencing the lives of her daughters from the sidelines. As someone who adores fresh takes, I have to tip my hat in Wright’s direction–well done!

The writing itself is pleasant enough, Wright crafting a nice rhythm as the pages go by. I couldn’t find any mistakes either, and that means that her proofreader has got an eagle eye. Once again, well done.

The beginning is the main culprit of the rating, a rounded up 3.5, but in all fairness, don’t get discouraged by that. You’d be missing out.

3.5 stars on GR, rounded up to 4.

This is a biography about the Brontës’s mother. I had never heard of their mother before so this was very enlightening. Maria Brantwell is a fascinating figure. I recommend this for fans of the Brontës!

Much much more than I expected

Do not let the tremendous amount of info dumping about the Bramwell's discourage you in the long first chapter. Although, the information is interesting it is a lot to absorb. When Maria meets Patrick is when the story really becomes engaging. I loved learning about the Patrick, his life in Ireland as well as his struggles making his way before meeting Maria. The historical events that are sprinkled in add a great timeline and much I didn't know.

Learning of Maria and Patrick's love story is sweet, but also very emotional when Maria becomes ill and passes. I admit there were tears. I became very uneasy reading things that Gaskell wrote that seemed to be inaccurate and had to be clarified by others.

Patrick was a devoted husband, father and clergyman. Elizabeth (Maria's sister) basically devoted her life to the raising of her sister's children. Even though, I knew that the Bronte children died young and in rapid succession, reading it was hard. Patrick truly endured many harsh realities in his lifetime.

I'm thrilled to have read this book. I haven't read alk of the Bronte novels, but now I am more eager than ever to do so.

Reading the letters, at the end, and seeing the photos were great additions.

The book starts off by saying that not a lot is known about the mother of the Brontë sisters, which means that the book is mostly not about Maria Branwell. The first half or so instead sets the scene of what Maria was eventually born into - the bustling seaside town of Penzance, Methodist preachers, threats of invasion by the French, and so on. We find out about the Branwells, who they were and where they came from. As a result I found it a bit difficult to get into at first, because I wanted to know more about Maria and all I was getting was the history of Penzance from before she was born. It's necessary to understand who she was, on the other hand, and if you only go by what it known about the actual woman herself, it would have been a very short book.

I'm glad I stuck with it, because it gives a great look into life in the past. What a long and arduous journey it would have been to travel from Cornwall to Yorkshire by stagecoach - and how dangerous those things were! Even today, with modern cars and modern roads, you're looking at a seven hour drive to get from Penzance to Thornton in light traffic, so in those days Yorkshire might as well have been in a foreign country.

We learn about Maria's siblings and what happened to them. We eventually get to meet a peculiar Irish clergyman, and get to read some of her correspondence to him. (Patrick's letters sadly appear to be lost to history.) They had the kind of relationship you'd find in a good romance novel. The only problem is of course that it wasn't to last. Maria passed away from cancer, leaving a grieving husband and a bunch of small children. Perhaps even sadder is that Patrick didn't just outlive his wife, he also outlived each and every child they had together.

There's a good sense of humour in the pages and the author has done a great job with bringing these people back to life. While it may not be all about Maria Branwell, piecing together the circumstances around her is an impressive work and I'm happy to have read it.

It is well documented about lives of the Bronte sisters - Charlotte, Anne and Shirley, through the novels and poetry they wrote and biographies other people have written, even more is known about their brother - Branwell Bronte and their father - Patrick Bronte than the matriarch of the Bronte family - Maria Branwell. This book goes some way to rectifying this biography of her life in this treasure of a book that uncovers her life and her part as an individual and as part of the family she created.

Really delving into history and setting the scene to create background to how things were in the time of Maria's life, it goes into detail about the backdrop of socio/economical/political scenes. This I felt was necessary to people now and into the future to understand how things were and also puts her life into context. You really get under the surface of how the world looked when she was alive, not just in broader terms, but also the families she may have known or seen around Penzance in Cornwall, the houses that were there and religious beliefs. It provides a focused texture and understanding in the first few chapters.

The book becomes even more compelling to discover why Patrick, so penniless, left Ireland and Maria leaves Cornwall for Yorkshire and how they courted each other and fell in love, even though there was class division of him being poor and her being wealthy, with social standing, but attraction and love won out, however unlikely that would initially seem, but they did and created a life and family together.
There are letters of this period of time, which were later handed down the family. There are extracts of her letters in the book, that feels really special to read and gives readers a glimpse into her letter writing style and means the book is able to retain some of her "voice" for present and future generations. It heightens providence and a real care of the Bronte family. The research is meticulous and the passion of its author - Sharon Wright to ensure this part of the family's history can be read about in this way, really shines through.

There's a look into day to day life within the Parsonage that really brings the place, that is still standing, located in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England, (now a museum), to life. It shows life within those walls of husband and wife and their children, who, especially their daughters, were to become literary giants, whose work is still popular and is now shown in many media forms. Lesser known however, is that Maria could also write and there is a little bit of this within the book.

The book takes readers right to the end of Maria's life and the impact her death had on how the family then behaved in their day to day living and continuing of their own lives.

This is an absolutely fascinating read and to be able to read it in her bicentenary year makes it somewhat even more lovely.

I really enjoyed this book, for as long as I have remembered I have loved the works of the Brontë's, but I didn't know anything about Maria, their mother. This book was obviously researched in great detail but it also felt very readable and not dry or dense at all. I loved the fact that she came from Cornwall (where my mum's side of the family is from) so I loved reading about old Penzance. A thoroughly enjoyable historical book.

Such a wonderful book. I'm a huge Bronte fan so it was delightful to be able to delve further into the lives of this fascinating family

I had some trouble getting into it but overall it was a really enjoyable book about the Brontes. I didn't know much about their mother, but she has turned out to be quite an interesting woman. It was interesting to read about her life and how she influenced her children. It's obvious that the book has been well-researched. I really love the letters she exchanged with Patrick, as it portrayed him I think in a way that he's not often portrayed as. Would definitely recommend to anyone interested in the Brontes.

Mother of the Brontës
When Maria Met Patrick - 200th Anniversary Edition
by Sharon Wright
Pub Date 30 Oct 2021 |
Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword History
Biographies & Memoirs | History | Nonfiction (Adult)




I am reviewing a copy of The Mother off the Brontes through Pen &Sword, Pen &Sword History and NetGalley:


For 200 years Maria Branwell has been in the shadow of her extraordinary children, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë Now the first biography of Mrs Brontë appears as a beautiful bicentenary paperback edition in October 2021. This book contains a commissioned a commissioned portrait of Maria at 38 based on the only two existing images in the Brontë Collection.




In Sharon Wright’s critically acclaimed biography the reader will learn more about Maria Branwell’s life as a Regency gentlewoman who went looking for an adventure and found one. A sudden passion and a whirlwind love affair led to the birth birth of the most gifted literary siblings the world has ever known. From a wealthy home in Penzance, Maria was a contemporary of Jane Austen and enjoyed the social status of a prominent family with secrets. So how did Maria fall for the penniless curate she called ‘My Dear Saucy Pat’ hundreds of miles from the home she loved? What adventures won over Patrick Bronte? What family scandals were left behind in Cornwall? How did wealthy and independent Miss Branwell of balmy Penzance adjust to life as Mrs Brontë in Yorkshire during the industrial revolution? And what was her enduring legacy in the lives of those world famous daughters and troubled son?




I give Mother of the Brontës five out of five stars!



Happy Reading!

I have read many books about the Brontes since falling in love with them in my childhood and had a reasonable picture of the life of the Brontes at the parsonage but only a sketchy impression of their Mother so I welcomed this book.
Giving the book its full title, ‘The Mother of the Brontes: When Maria met Patrick’ it spans the timeline of Maria’s life, with some biographical details of the young Patrick. I’m not sure that this is the best title for the book. It is of course about more than their meeting and it is really largely contextual rather than biographical certainly for the first half.
The early chapters provide a political and sociological background which is wide ranging and often a little frustrating as it often went off on an overly detailed tangent. This section of the book provides a lot of wonderful detail about Penzance, local families, the houses and religion for example but I did not feel it really enlightened me as to Maria’s character. This section of the book also introduces some details which point to possible influences for the Bronte novels.
For me the strength of the book lay in the latter half with Maria and Patrick leaving their native Penzance and Ireland (respectively) and moving to Yorkshire. The picture of their early courtship is built up from a collection of letters from Maria to Patrick which Patrick later handed to his daughter, Charlotte. These reveal and emerging love, a sense of humour and duty and a good degree of chemistry. They are included at the back of the book.
I learned many things from the latter part of the book. There was a wonderful sense of living in the parsonage, of Maria’s day to day life, of the little Brontes. I had not realised that Maria aspired to be a writer and a fragment of her work is included. As Maria is diagnosed with cancer and the children move softly and silently around the house there is a feeling of great loss and an understanding of how the Bronte novels often reflected this in their novels.
Bronte fans will always welcome a new book on the subject and I certainly went away feeling that I had gained another insight.
With many thanks to Netgalley and Pen and Sword for a digital copy of this title.

Maria Bronte, nee Branwell, has always been a shadowy figure in the history of that remarkable family, so I was intrigued to read a biography about her. I thought the author gave a very detailed account of the history surrounding Maria's early life in Cornwall. They also brought to the fore different aspects of Maria's personality, aside from the usual pious wife bearing pain with fortitude. It was refreshing to see the passionate lover in her letters to Patrick during their courtship, her enjoyment in being a reader of novels, and even trying her hand at writing a religious article.

Overall, this is a worthy addition to the body of work already compiled on the Bronte family. I enjoyed reading it and recommend it to anyone who is interested in the history of the Brontes.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Pen & Sword, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

I initially discovered the Bronte sisters in the school library when I first attended secondary school. Having fallen in love with their novels and back stories at such a tender age, they remain amongst my favourite books. Being a diminutive, bespectacled girl myself, I particularly identified with Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and I love it still.

I have read several biographies of the Bronte sisters over the years, but this is the first that I have read that is specifically about their mother, Maria Branwell. I was fascinated to learn how this intelligent, well to do young woman from Cornwall ended her life as the impoverished wife to an eccentric clergyman in Yorkshire.

The author has clearly completed extensive research for this book and as a result has been able to produce this informative volume, and to demonstrate Maria's progression both geographically and socially. I very much enjoyed reading the letters that Maria wrote and sent to Patrick prior to their marriage. Sadly, these letters are one-sided as only Maria's letters survive but the author was able to ascertain information about Patrick based on Maria's responses.

Ms. Wright has written an informative, elucidating and illuminating book about the mother of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte. It is a very accessible and easy to read biography which I very much enjoyed.

Before reading this biography, I knew virtually nothing about Maria Bronte, the mother of the famous Bronte siblings - and only a tiny amount about her husband Patrick. This book is published in the bicentenary year of Maria Bronte's death.

This was an interesting read, and I feel I learned a lot from it - not only about the Brontes and their connections to Cornwall, but about the period in history that they grew up in from a "social history" point of view.

The book includes extracts from letters, and testimonies obtained from those who knew the family, as well as some of Patrick's poetry, so again, was interesting from that point of view. Maria was clearly a cultured and intelligent woman, and her financial means (before and after her marriage) helped her to retain a certain standing in society.

Sharon Wright is obviously very knowledgeable about the family, and has woven together an interesting mix of known facts, history, and impressions of the life and times of the family and how they lived.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

This was a particularly admirable read given how little is documented/known already about Maria. It really sets the Brontes in history--allowing the reader to learn about other goings-on (Napoleon, Jane Austen's career up to that point, other notable authors, religious movements and their impacts on the extended Bronte and Branwell families) leading up to Charlotte, Emily, and Anne's births. The book also taught me plenty about challenges of that time, whether childbirth struggles or pandemics (*twitch twitch* *cough* COVID-19 *cough*).

I reread _Jane Eyre_ earlier this year, and especially appreciated the author's analysis of how the loss of her mother impacted Charlotte's life and writing. I'm even more curious now to reread Wuthering Heights, and explore Anne's books (as I've not read any of hers) and some of Charlotte and Emily's lesser-known writings.

The read was a bit dry at times (a common occurrence, for me anyway, with biographies), and ironically my favorite parts came near the end (and after Maria had already died). Wright eloquently examines the impact of what books Maria chose to bring with her still spoke beyond her death and on to today:

"All that remains of Maria's mind and heart ... is one solitary love letter and the books that followed her from one life to another, surviving the stormy sea, consoling the ones she left behind. Maybe they are the best keepsakes of a life lost in the shadows for 200 years, because they are composed of words." (eARC loc 2559)

Being a bit of a coastal fanatic (my favorite vacation memories involve the coast near where I live), I also loved Wright's description of Charlotte and the sea:

"Charlotte's impressions of the Sea never wore off; she would often recall her views of it, and wonder what its aspect would be just at the time she was speaking of it."

Note: Inclusion of a lesbian author of the day, mostly presented as a counterpoint to Maria. I didn't fully feel this necessary, and felt it out of place with the inclusion and exploration of Methodism, Anglicanism, and both denominations' impact on the Brontes and their lives.

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Maria Bronte, mother of the famous Bronte literary sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne) hit the genetic jackpot - what other mother can you think of who gave birth to not one or even two but three geniuses - at the same time she had tragic bad luck in that she died before she could see her children grow up to become admired and famous. (While Emily didn't quite achieve literary fame in her lifetime, Charlotte most definitely did, and to a lesser extent Anne did as well). Because the children were all so young when Maria died, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to read about her because how much impact could she really have had on their lives? How much of Maria was there to fill a book? But being a Bronte aficionado, I decided to give it a try and I'm really happy I did. There are definitely times when author Sharon Wright relies on filler, and there was often more about the time period and locale (Penzance for much of the book) than Maria and the man who would become her husband and the famous father of the Brontes, Patrick. But once the pair finally meet and quickly fall in love and decide to marry, the book whizzes by. (And certainly it is interesting to find out various tidbits such as the Brontes were descendants of a man who, if not a pirate, was mixed up with them.) However, as much as I wanted to Maria to get on with the business of birthing my three favorite writers, I also fervently wished I could have gone back in time and warned her off, told her to stay home in her comfortable, well-off Penzance life, knowing the tragic death that awaited her.

This was a very fantastic biography of Maria Branwell, mother of  the Bronte Sisters. We get an insight look to her early life In Cornwall and a history lesson of her time which made the book even more interesting and informative.

Wright did an amazing job tying together what its known and written about Maria and the unknown. If you’re Bronte fan or interested in women’s lit, this would be a great read.

Side note, while I enjoyed the book, I did find the writing a little dry. Almost textbook like.

Before reading this I knew exactly nothing about Maria Branwell, other than her name, of course. Now, after reading this biography, I feel as though I know everything there is to know!

Wright’s book truly does do the subject matter justice. Armed with ample amounts of speculation on bits we don’t know for sure, perfectly sized chapters and in depth discussions surrounding Branwell’s life, it’s the perfect book for those hungry to know more about the Brontë’s.