The Mother of the Brontës

As a huge fan of the Brontes and was thrilled to get an ARC of this to read. The author Sharon Wright here tackles the life of possibly the most mysterious of the Brontes, Maria Branwell. The research behind this book is clearly excellent and from the first there is a lot of detail and the chapters are well paced. It starts by dealing with Marias early family life in Penzance through her romance with Patrick, to her untimely death, as the mother of 6 small children in Haworth. The narrative is filled with little gems such as the precise book Maria bought on a shopping trip in 1810 and this helps the reader place Marias life in its wider context.
The book also deals quite extensively with the political and social context of the times. Which is both helpful and distracting. For example the author speculates regarding the possible involvement of Maria's father in smuggling without fully exploring the issue, and the positIon of Cornwall within the French Wars without discussing what this meant.
While I found this background information interesting I also found it a distraction, and especially in the beginning felt that Maria herself got a little lost.
I found the second half of the book to be much stronger, ‘seeing’ Maria in her element as a young mother in Thornton was fascinating and added a new perspective to the typical Bronte narrative. The chapter dealing with Maria’s death I found difficult to read, the author writes them in harrowing detail and her families grief is palpable.
All in all, I enjoyed this book very much and it adds much to the understanding of the Bronte story.
I was given an ARC by NetGalley, all opinions are my own.