Myths of Poer A Marxist Study of the Bronts [Paperback]

Myths of Power - Anniversary Edition sets out to interpret the fiction of the Bront? sisters in light of a Marxist analysis of the historical conditions in which it was produced. Its aim is not merely to relate literary facts, but by a close critical examination of the novels, to find in them a significant structure of ideas and values which related to the Bront?s' ambiguous situation within the class-system of their society. Its intention is to forge close relations between the novels, nineteenth-century ideology, and historical forces, in order to illuminate the novels themselves in a radically new perspective. When originally published in 1975 (second edition in 1988), it was the first full-length Marxist study of the Bront?s and is now reissued to celebrate 30 years since its first publication. It includes a new Introduction by Terry Eagleton which reflects on the changes which have happened in Marxist literary criticism since 1988, and situates this reissue of the second edition in current debates.Acknowledgements New Introduction to the Reissue of the Second Edition Introduction to the Second Edition Introduction Jane Eyre The Professor Shirley Villette The Structure of Charlotte Bront?'s Fiction Wuthering Heights Anne Bront? Notes Index

Reviews of First Edition

'...a valuable book for anyone wanting to move beyond critical pieties to an understanding of the relation between the Bront?s' work and their society. Dr Eagleton asks questions which ought be asked.' - Juliet Dusinberre, Notes and Queries

'...this is a book of real stature, of cogent and steely argument and analysis...'

Adrian Poole, Cambridge Review

'The increased prominence of largely forgotten texts by women writers, working-class writers or black writers, in part came from work undertaken by Eagleton. 'But, interestingly, Terry himself hasn't really gone down that route,' says Widdowson. 'His criticism had been largell3!