Overview

Meet the real, thinking, feeling woman that was Charlotte Brontë, as told in this biography by the surviving witnesses to her life – the clothes that she once wore. These garments were present as she penned Jane Eyre, as she walked the cobbled streets of Haworth, and as she stood with her fiancé at the altar in the summer of 1854. Yet, until now, their testimonies had remained unheard. Renowned Brontë scholar and dress historian Eleanor Houghton’s innovative, richly illustrated biography, Charlotte Brontë’s Life Through Clothes, finally gives voice to the gowns, bonnets, shawls, corsets, parasols and boots that make up the novelist’s wardrobe. Secrets are revealed in their very fibres. Brontë’s steel busked corset tells the story of corporate espionage and forbidden love, whilst her striped, silk dress shows how she coped with the new-found pressures of fame. When exposed to 21st century technology, a tiny sample of fabric from her ‘Thackeray Dress’ reveals important innovations of the Industrial Revolution going on around her and a black lace veil, worn after the deaths of her siblings, expresses how she dealt with repeated familial loss. These clothes, some of which still bear the imprint of her foot or the sweat from her pores, prove themselves to be far more than mere celebrity curios. When ‘read’ alongside letters, portraits, her novels and the recollections of those who knew her well, Charlotte emerges as a woman altogether braver, more vulnerable, less isolated, less provincial, more fashion conscious than anyone ever expected. Myths are shattered, preconceptions challenged, and, the real Charlotte Brontë, beyond the famous author, finally emerges.

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9781350514089

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Reviews

As expertly constructed as a Chanel suit. The clever ploy of exploring Charlotte's life through the unique prism of her clothes uncovers a whole new landscape beyond the standard biography. I thought I knew Charlotte, but now I feel I understand her better. -- Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of Girl with the Pearl Earring and The Glassmaker In this revelatory biography, Eleanor Houghton recreates the life of Charlotte Brontë less through the words that she wrote, but instead the clothes that she wore [...] Houghton's exquisite drawings of surviving garments truly set this biography apart, and make it such a pleasure to savour. -- Susan Holloway Scott, bestselling author of I, Eliza Hamilton and The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr No longer must we picture her slogging through life in dull tones of sepia. In Houghton’s enlightening and compassionate analysis, even Brontë's dark ‘Quakerish’ governess dress emerges as an emblem of deliberate self-expression rather than repression. -- Christine Nelson, curator of Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will, Morgan Library & Museum, US, and author of The Brontës: A Family Writes Houghton's writing is personable and vivid, and her intricate illustrations imbue this book with an artful kind of magic. A true delight. -- Ruby Granger, Educational YouTuber and Content Creator, UK This beautifully written, brilliantly argued study unlocks the secrets of Charlotte Brontë's wardrobe – a collection of signifiers as compelling, Houghton reveals, as her novels. An indispensable book for lovers of fiction and fashion alike. -- Caroline Webber, Barnard College, Columbia University, US and author of Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution Beautifully illustrated and fluently written, Eleanor Houghton reveals just how central Charlotte Brontë's relationship with clothing was to both her self-image and the ways in which she shaped her most famous characters. This book offers a distinctive and original contribution to Brontë scholarship. -- Maria Hayward, Professor of Early Modern History, University of Southampton, UK Not simply the definitive reading of the contents of this archive, but a fascinating model for integrating fashion and literary history. -- Michael Meeuwis, Assistant Professor of English, University of Warwick, UK Houghton's meticulous analyses and illustrations of an extensive, widely overlooked body of evidence reveal the local and global underpinnings of the Victorian authors prints and patterns, fabrics and furbelows, and the manifold complexities of Brontë's public and private self-fashioning. -- Cornelia Pearsall, Professor of English Language and Literature, Smith College, US Eleanor Houghton's genius for evoking other worlds is revealed through her prose and the affecting delicacy of her illustrations, which capture the unfolding of both the Regency and Victorian eras, and Charlotte's life. This is an unforgettable portrait of a woman whose intelligence and unyieldingly romantic idealism would culminate in a masterpiece of English literature. -- Antonella Gambotto-Burke, journalist and author of Apple: Sex, Drugs, Motherhood and the Recovery of the Feminine

Author Information

Eleanor Houghton is a Brontë scholar, writer and illustrator. She studied English at the University of Oxford before being awarded a Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in History. In 2022, in collaboration with the Brontë Parsonage Museum, she curated a large-scale exhibition on the surviving wardrobe of Charlotte Brontë. An expert in 18th and 19th century clothing, literature and social history, she often works as consultant for film and TV, novelists and museums. Her detailed drawings are widely sold and exhibited.

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