The Critical Recuperation of and Theoretical Approaches to the Brontës

Early critics praised the Brontës’ novels’ readability but condemned many of the writers’ themes as “coarse” and irreligious. Charlotte Brontë\u27s Jane Eyre (1848) and Villette (1853) enjoyed more early popularity than the novels of her sisters. Early questions about the writers’ identities, exacerbated by the siblings’ use of pseudonyms, gave rise to a tradition of biographical criticism that persisted well into the twentieth century. As literary modernism advanced, the critical reputation of Emily Brontë\u27s novel and poetry eclipsed that of her sister Charlotte; formalist critics found much to admire in the structure and composition of her masterpiece. Anne Brontë\u27s works received increasing critical attention as the twentieth century progressed, and the Brontës’ works attracted the attention of feminist critics, who read them as narratives of female empowerment. The many facets of the Brontës’ works have continued to attract the critical attention of postcolonial, poststructuralist, and political critics