A cogently argued book....provides a unique perspective on the structure and content of the novels, and also represents a valuable historical background for any Bronte reader. - Bronte Studies This is an important and very useful approach to the always compelling Bronte sisters, one that takes the reader back to a most important element of their lives and the lives of their fictional characters, the gendered body and its individual and cultural ills. - Gail Turley Houston, The University of New Mexico
Beth Torgerson has done an admirable job of showing, as her subtitle indicates, the constraints of culture that inflected and arguably fuelled the Bronte sisters representations of illness. - Victorian Review
. . .a clearly written, well organized book - VIJ Reviews