Emily Bronte and the Religious Imagination [Hardcover]

Readers of Emily Bront?'s poetry and ofWuthering Heightshave seen in their author, variously, a devout if somewhat unorthodox Christian, a heretic, or a visionary mystic of the moors . Rather than seeking to resolve this matter,Emily Bront? and the Religious Imaginationsuggests that such conflicting readings are the product of tensions, conflicts and ambiguities within the texts themselves. Rejecting the idea that a single, coherent set of religious doctrines are to be found in Bront?'s work, this book argues thatWuthering Heightsand the poems dramatise individual experiences of faith in the context of a world in which such faith is always conflicted, always threatened. Bront?'s work dramatises the experience of imaginative faith that is always contested by the presence of other voices, other worldviews. Her characters cling to visionary faith in the face of death and mortality, awaiting and anticipating a final vindication, an eschatological fulfilment that always lies in a future beyond the scope of the text.

Simon Marsdenis Lecturer in the School of English at the University of Liverpool, UK.

Marsden (Univ. of Liverpool, UK) examinesWuthering Heightsand selected poems in order to engage Emily Bront?'s religious position. Many biographies and critical studies--e.g., Lucasta Miller'sThe Bront? Myth( 2001) have tried to clarify Bront?'s spiritual beliefs. Marsden's volume relies heavily on modern critical discourse and the support of extensive notes; there are chapter notes and an extensive bibliography. This is a book for Bront? specialists with an interest in Victorian religion. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. S. A. Parker, Emerita, Hiram College, CHOICE

Marsdens largely thematic readings are sensitively attentive to language, and especially to the biblical and Miltonic resonances to which he calls attention. His reads are persuasive. Beth Newman, SouthelóS