Charlotte in Love: The Courtship and Marriage of Charlotte Bronte

As a Bronte scholar, I read Charlotte in Love with a critical eye, finding Brian Wilks' repetitive use of common Bronte ideas and common Bronte quotes almost boring at times. Then I started to realize that just because Wilks repeated something didn't mean he was lazy in his research. He merely drove his points home with good research and well-placed (if somewhat overused) Bronte information. In the overarching progression of his telling of Charlotte's life, Wilks can seem to go back and forth on the timeline, which frustrated me at points. I was eager to get on to the parts that the title promised me. I wanted to hear about Arthur Bell Nicholls, his courtship with Charlotte, their clandestine meetings when Patrick Bronte was squinting at his books in his study, etc. That section of the book was brief but delicious. Like a fine truffle, it was consumed all too quickly, and I had to go back to read it again. Wilks' repetitiveness had gotten into me, it seems. The inevitable end broke my heart as all biographers' stories of Charlotte do, but this time Wilks was able to provide a twist. His inferences from Arthur and Patrick's letters and future actions give an extra air of sadness. I'm so glad I hadn't read this prior to my visit to Haworth Parsonage; I didn't need the extra pathos when entering Charlotte's room that day. Wilks lays it on subtly, but expertly and surprisingly with an anecdote from Arthur's burial. Overall, I consider it a good read for Bronte fans (especially the final quarter of the book) and an excellent resource for new fans. From Fantasy Author Sandy Lender