PART 1 The Brontes and their background: a parsonage childhood 1. The path to maturity. 2. The deaths of Branwell, Emily and Anne. 3. Charlotte's later novels and marriage. PART 2 Contextual background: history and politics 4. Religion - the Evangelical movement and the Established Church. 5. The Oxford Movement; reading and literary influences - the Gothic, Byron; the juvenilia - the Glass Town Saga, Angria, Gondal, Emily Bronte's poems and the juvenilia. 6. The Brontes and the visual arts - Thomas Bewick, John Martin. 7. The condition of women question - education and employment for women in the 19th century, educational work, authorship - constraints on female authors, two feminist interpretations - Jane Eyre and Shirley. PART 3 Critical survey 8. "Jane Eyre (1847), "Villette" (1853), "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" (1848). 9. Emily Bronte's poetry. 10. "Wuthering Heights" (1847). PART 4 Reference section: brief biographies Original manuscripts and collections.