Houghtons scrupulous debut investigates the life of Charlotte Brontë through the lens of her wardrobe ... Armchair fashion historians will be delighted. * Publishers Weekly * 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 A beautiful book and a revelatory addition to the Brontë biography. It uncovers insights that traditional biographies often overlook and serves as a reminder that material culture offers a vital pathway to womens histories This is a book to return to again and again, one that will make readers fall in love with Charlotte Brontë anew. * Brontë Studies Journal * 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 Houghtons 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
