I was given an advance reading copy (arc) of this book from NetGalley.com in turn for a fair review. I believe this book has already been published, but it is going to be republished October 30, 2021. As an avid reader and a fan of the Brontes, I was curious about their mother who died very young. Most of what I have read about the Bronte siblings involved the unusual way they grew up with their aunt and odd father. Sadly, their tale is not a happy one. Maria Bronte, however, turned out to be a fascinating woman. She came from a wealthy family in Penzance and after the death of her parents continued to live there on her own in a very independent manner--quite unusual for the time. She was well-read, very social, and enjoyed her life. When she met Patrick Bronte, she fell hard and they married. For all intents and purposes, their union was a happy one until cancer claimed her. She left a grieving husband and several devastated children behind. Author Sharon Wright's telling of Maria's story shed a lot of light upon an often over-looked woman. However, Wright was often sidetracked by other stories that had little to do with her main subject. I found this distracting and many times, I felt like I was 'yanked' out of the story. If Maria had lived, I am sure that the Brontes would have led a totally different life. I am glad I read the book and I do recommend it if you are interested in this literary family. Just be forewarned that the author rambles on a bit.

Sharon Wright, Mother of the Brontës, 200th Anniversary Edition, Sword & Pen, 2021

Thank you, NetGalley and Pen & Sword, for this uncorrected proof for review.

Sharon Wright has brought to life the woman who gave birth to the famous writers; provided an image of a woman who also wrote (although not successfully or with the expertise we know of through the Brontë sisters); who cared for them alongside their nursemaids until her death when Maria was seven and the youngest, Charlotte, a few months old; who stood alongside her husband, Pat Brontë to give him the gravitas to succeed in initially unfriendly Haworth; and made their home there a pleasant environment in which to live. Maria Brontë also provided the children with a stalwart sister who, after her death, and Pat Brontë’s unsuccessful attempts to remarry, provided him with companionship, and them with another carer.

But all this is Maria as a wife and mother, not unimportant, but not the whole. Sharon Wright has gone back into Maria’s childhood, youth, and young adulthood in Penzance. She also provides an illuminating background to Pat’s life before marriage. Both came together in what appears to be almost a fairytale romance which began quickly after they met and became a happy marriage until Maria’s death at thirty-nine.

Because Wright dismisses Elizabeth Gaskell’s portrayal of the Brontës through her biography of Charlotte I felt compelled to give that a quick read to see where the problem lay. Charlotte’s recall of her father’s response to her mother in one instant, and Gaskell’s description of Maria as a sickly person are the particulars where Wright is at odds with Gaskell. It is the reader’s choice whether to accept one or other of the stories. For me, my lingering concern about Pat Brontë from his early attempted conquests, his sloth at times when writing to Maria, and his precipitate attempts to remarry after her death made Gaskell’s account a possibility. Regarding Maria and her health, I feel far more impressed with Wright’s interpretation – after all, this physically small woman successfully gave birth to six children in an era when it was all too frequent that the mother died in childbirth or shortly afterwards. Maria’s health did not fail until several months after Charlotte’s birth, and the explanation had little to do with her general health. She had cancer.

Returning to the story told by Sharon Wright : it is full of detail about both partners in the Brontë marriage, as well as the society around them. Written in the accessible language familiar in this publisher’s series, the stories are those of two characters about whom it is a delight to read. Maria Branwell began a fairly easy life in Penzance where her family was of some note. They also had a mixed background to the prestigious public image, an enthralling story of its own. Likewise, Pat Punty (as he was originally) had a mixed background. The story around his name is interesting – can you imagine Emily, Anne and Charlotte Punty having quite the same impact as Emily, Anne and Charlotte Brontë? However, there was nothing unique about the way in which names in that period changed - Maria Branwell’s family name also slid between Branwell, Bramwell, Bromwell and other iterations. These background stories are a wonderful read. Similarly, the Brontës’ married life, and the brief follow up of the children after Maria’s death, is well drawn.

There is an extensive bibliography and a useful index, making this a book that can be easily followed up from additional sources. I was pleased to see Maria Brontë being given a place in the lives of the famous writers – a place that resonates with life through Sharon Wright’s commitment to her as an interesting woman as well as mother and wife.

Sitting back in my English classes, I used to wonder what the authors of the books we were reading were like but I never thought I'd be glad I know more about what the mother of the famous Brontë sisters was like. This biography covers the entire life of Maria Branwell, from her birth in 1783 to her sickness and death at the age of 38. You'll learn about her upbringing in Penzance to a working-class family (with some interesting stories about her family's ties to the smuggling trade). You'll get to hear about the books she read as she started approaching spinsterhood, which includes some Jane Austen. You'll be inspired by her likely dangerous journey to join her aunt and uncle in Yorkshire to help them run their school and pleasantly surprised when it led to a romance with a handsome Irishman, the school's external classics examiner, Patrick Brontë. After they were married, Maria followed Patrick and his career as a priest, giving birth to future famous authors along the way. Eventually, Patrick was offered a difficult post at Hayworth (a setting that would eventually inspire Wuthering Heights) and you'll feel bad for how badly Maria and Patrick must have wanted the congregation to accept them. And when Maria gets sick later, your heart will break for the children she will leave behind, who will write stories featuring characters without mothers or characters with unique connections to their mothers.

For me, the best part was getting to read her words. She created authors people have studied in schools for years. She helped to shape the early years of writers that would someday grace hundreds of must-read classic novel lists. There's not much surviving of Maria Branwell, which the author notes could be why we never had a biography for her until now. But now you can read the pieces that are surviving: several letters she wrote to Patrick and a religious tract that she wrote but wasn't able to get published.

One thing I really appreciate is that in every part of Maria's life, the author takes the time to explain things about the culture or society in that day that could be helpful to know. You can tell that this was incredibly well-researched, not only because the author was told there wasn't enough information about Maria Branwell to create a full biography for her, but because she genuinely wanted to tell the story of the mother of the Brontës.

This was a quick easy read and one I really enjoyed as I love the Bronte sisters and this is such an interesting story of the mother of these very artistic and intelligent girls/women.

It is well researched, well written and brings life to a part of the Bronte's story and makes them seem so much more real. It told life stories, family stories and it transported me to a time and place so that I could then fully understand the lives this family lived.

It is history but it isn't boring, it is a wonderful and as I said it does bring the whole family to life not just the girls.

I highly recommend this book to any Bronte fans as well as fans of the times/eras that they lived in.

I thought I knew quite a lot about the Brontë family only to realise I knew next to nothing about the beginning....
Both parents, Maria and Patrick went literally a long way before they met! Mainly a biography about Maria, I was taken aback as to her origins, as to her own parents and as to her interesting and strong personality! I adored reading about her voyage through adulthood, from being an independent, educated woman to her becoming a prolific mother....
This biography appears very well researched. At the end of the book you can read Maria's letters to Patrick before they got married giving a lively voice to the mother of four genial children. Highly recommended!

Thank you so much for letting me read your book for free on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received an advanced readers copy thanks to Net Galley and Pen and Sword History in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Given how much I've read around the lives of the Bronte's, having grown up not too far from Haworth, I realised I'd never really been able to read much about Maria. The woman who is mentioned so frequently as a cause of heartbreak in all of her children's lives, but particularly Charlotte's. Reading this biography really rounded out the history of the Bronte's as a whole, and allowed a particularly interesting view of Patrick earlier in his life when he met Maria and demonstrating the legacy and impact Maria left through her children.
Overall, this is such a beautifully written biography, it's an engaging and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

The book "Mother of the Brontes" is a biography of Maria Branwell, mother of the most gifted literary siblings the world has ever known. Sharon Wright has taken a giant step to present before the readers a literary piece that's worth reading. Author's real triumph lies in bringing out this master piece as a 200th Anniversary special. The book will be most interesting for those eager to read and make a career in Literature.

The book is divided into 9 chapters with foreword, epilogue, acknowledgement, appendix, bibliography and index. The title of the each chapter is quite befitting and it holds the essence of the whole chapter. Authors has painstakingly written the social, political, Economical as well as the literary scene of the times. Readers will be happy to note that Maria is the contemporary of Jane Austen.

The book carries the enjoyable descriptions of Penzance, Georgian Architecture, Bran well Empire, clotted cream to name a few. I quote from page 9 " Unusually for the time, Methodists were keen to let women in on the act. Families such as Branwell educated their daughters as well as their sons." This point puts forth the initiations for women's education has started at that time itself. We all are grateful for Branwell's for gives us many literary figures.

For Charlotte and Emily the music came from their grandfather, I Quote from page 24 "This talent may have included Music. Maria was "possessing more than the ordinary talents, which she inherited from her father...." while Mr Branwell, the father, according to his descendants account, was a man of musical talent.'' Lilian Oldham states that he played the violin in the parlour at home. This inheritance may explain Emily Bronte's ability as a pianist, playing with precision and brilliancy according to Ellen Nussey."

The book unfolds many incidences with the reminiscences of Ellen Nussey and Elizabeth Gaskell. The Author's narration also captures the impact of French Revolution, Britain's war, family scandal in the life of Maria Branwell.

In the Victorian times, the place of honour in the earliest period was given to Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte. Likewise now Sharon Wright's Mother of Brontes deserves a place of honour.

(Received the book in the form of PDF from Net Galley in return of an honest review)

The literary Brontë family has a fascinating yet tragic history. All six children and their mother, Maria, died far too early which would have been crushing for Patrick (who made up his surname, by the way). To wonder about their potential had they lived longer is natural. As a young girl I grew up with a love for Charlotte's, Emily's and Anne's writing, along with several other Regency authors. This book is super informative, compelling and full of heart. I knew next to nothing about Maria but now feel I have a much better understanding of her personality, values and character, not to mention her husband and children.

Maria Branwell's prominent and upstanding family lived in Penzance. She was brought up in comfort but no amount of comfort could possibly compensate for the horrendous deaths of five of her siblings as babies. Her parents suffered unspeakable sorrow.

Maria and Patrick (Pat), a poor Irish curate, met and fell in love deeply and quickly and both believed they were each other's helpmeet though they were from different classes. They had six children in very quick succession and became published authors. They moved fairly often and pinched pennies, though occasionally bought themselves luxuries. If the couple hadn't met there would be no Charlotte, Emily or Anne. If they knew how venerated they are still, two hundred years later, they would be shocked and likely a bit mortified.

The author includes many historical details such as clothing, Wesleyan religion (Maria met Wesley at the tender age of six), the beautiful sampler Maria created (I embroider samplers), Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell bits, Thomas' secret, the description of Maria's smelling salts bottle and vicarage living (not all roses). But my favourite aspect is the inclusion of Maria's heartfelt letters which give such insight into her thoughts and perspectives. I like that she spoke her mind and had a sense of adventure!

My sincere thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this stupendous and memorable book. All Brontë fans would enjoy learning more about their lives and the Regency period. I am so glad I read it.

This biography of Maria Bronte, mother of the women who produced Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey, and so forth, fills in important material about their background. Although the girls were tiny when she died, Mother of the Brontes identifies key material that she left behind which may have influenced them. The book also helps to explain the class to which the Brontes belonged and their Aunt Elizabeth’s role in both their mother’s and the girls’ lives.

The author draws on family records as well as contemporary accounts of everything from smugglers to coach travel in the early 1800s. What it doesn’t provide is a clear portrait of the man Maria married, beyond saying that he had a thick (apparently Irish-influenced) accent and was thought “strange” by many of the people who knew him. As a result, we get a less than clear picture of their married life. While the author asserts that they were happy together, the reader wonders if he was a thoughtful husband—he seems to have thought little of getting his wife pregnant within days of the birth of each child, or of the burden that additional children would place on a woman with little household help beyond a couple of teenage girls. If anything, the story of the dress he had made for his wife “to his specifications” suggests a level of heavy-handedness which would certainly not be tolerated by most women today.

In fact, Wright seems rather quick to come to Patrick Bronte’s defense, explaining away incidents that have become famous because they were described in Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography of Charlotte Bronte. While Gaskell clearly did not have all the facts at her disposal, Wright seems a little too quick to judge her ground-breaking work and to remember that she herself also may not have all the facts.

Even though I found this aspect of the book irritating, I do think it’s a useful addition to the work that’s been done on the Brontes. I especially liked the material describing Penzance, where Maria grew up, and her family there. This section demonstrated Wright’s gifts as a journalist who can gather disparate facts and weave them into an interesting narrative. With the caveat that we all should think twice before assuming that a marriage is happy because there’s no record of complaints, I recommend this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this historical biography of Maria Bronte (mother of the famous Bronte sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne) from her birth and childhood in Cornwall to her travels to Yorkshire and meeting Patrick, their marriage. parenthood, family life, and finally her long illness.

The author's comments regarding women's diaries and their importance in understanding what everyday life was like at the time captivated me. The official history was written by men of the time, but they hardly ever took the time to record the small nuances that help us bring a particular era to life. It is always interesting to hear about HERstory!

If you have the slightest interest in literature, history, herstory or the Brontes - this is a MUST read! I'd totally recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Pen & Sword, for the opportunity to read an ARC

A fabulously researched book which I absolutely loved!
Maria Branwell has spent 200 years in the shadow of her extraordinary children, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë. Now the first biography of Mrs Brontë appears as a beautiful bicentenary paperback edition in October 2021, with a commissioned portrait of Maria at 38 based on the only two existing images in the Brontë Collection. Sharon Wright’s critically-acclaimed biography reveals Maria’s fascinating life as a Regency gentlewoman who went looking for an adventure and found one. A sudden passion and whirlwind love affair led to the birth of the most gifted literary siblings the world has ever known. From a wealthy home in Penzance, Maria was a contemporary of Jane Austen and enjoyed the social status of a prominent family with secrets. So how did Maria fall for the penniless curate she called ‘My Dear Saucy Pat’ hundreds of miles from the home she loved? And what adventures lead lover Patrick Brontë to their fateful meeting in Yorkshire? What family scandals did Maria leave behind in Cornwall? How did wealthy and independent Miss Branwell of balmy Penzance adjust to life as Mrs Brontë in Yorkshire during the industrial revolution? And what was her enduring legacy in the lives of those world famous daughters and troubled son?

Praise for Mother of the Brontës. Buy this book it’s amazing ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I missed this book when it was first published. I’m pleased that an anniversary edition has been produced as hopefully it will revive interest in this little known story. I’ve read a few books about the Brontë family; most have concentrated on the daughters, a couple on Branwell and the father, but none have featured Mrs Brontë. Hers is probably the most interesting story of all and Sharon Wright does an excellent job of bringing this sidelined lady to life.

Her research appears to be meticulous and she has drawn a very compelling portrait of the lady from letters between Mr and Mrs Brontë prior to their marriage. There is little hard evidence, but from the facts, the reader learns that Marie Branwell came from Cornwall to Yorkshire to help at a school. She and her husband to be were from very different backgrounds, but it was clear that there was an attraction and their union gave the world a unique heritage it the literary daughters.

I really enjoyed this account. It gives more context to the background of this remarkable family and there are moments of genuine joy and sadness in the book. It’s short, but packed with detail and a truly fascinating slice of social history.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

An excellent biography. The author gives life to Maria Branwell Bronte as a person of interest, in her own right and not just as the mother of such renowned authors as the Bronte sisters. Well researched without labouring references and evidence in a way which disrupts pace, the author presents a very readable biography which could almost do as well as a work of fiction, so engaging is it.

When you think of the Brontë family, you think of the three sisters, the dissolute brother and behind them their vicar father, white-haired and stern. If you're a fan then perhaps you know that with them also lived their Aunt Branwell, sister to their long-dead mother. The figure of Mrs Brontë has always been shadowy and forgotten. When Wright first wondered aloud why there was no biography of Maria, she was told that 'there isn't enough on her'. Wright's response was 'I bet there is [...] if you grab your pen and your notebook and go looking properly'. The result is her self-described 'prequel' to the Brontë story. These are not the 'famous' Brontës, but rather the 'before they were famous' family members. Yet their story is no less fascinating and the book itself is a tribute to Wright's perseverance and investigative skill. One of the best new Brontë biographies of recent years, The Mother of the Brontës shines a new light on what and who the Brontë sisters came to be.

The wonder of how Maria ever came to meet Patrick has always been rather eclipsed by Patrick's side of the story. While he was always rather circumspect in how he shared the details, what he pulled off was little short of miraculous. Going from a poor farming family in Ireland across the sea to England to study at Cambridge with nothing but his brains behind him was quite the accomplishment. Yet there is a further incredible piece to the puzzle. His wife was a Cornishwoman who happened to be visiting Yorkshire and together they had six children, three of whom grew up to produce some of the finest novels within the English canon. In the twenty-first century it might be no strange thing for a man from Ireland and a woman from Cornwall to meet but in the early years of the nineteenth century, it was highly unusual.

Wright traces back to Maria's life in Penzance. Incredibly, she lived there until she was in her very late twenties, only travelling north aged twenty-nine to assist her aunt and uncle who had opened a school. While the Brontë sisters always seem to have been on the edge of society, their mother was firmly within the upper middle-class. Her father was Thomas Branwell, a successful merchant and pillar of the community. He was also a smuggler. In 1778, he was charged with 'obstructing the Custom Officers in searching his dwelling'. Wright found further documentation to indicate that he was in business with men wanted for murder who were described in 1791 as 'the most notorious smugglers in that part of the kingdom'. Of course, smuggling was rife in Cornwall during that era so Mr Branwell would have been in good company. But this is the money that paid for Maria and her sister Elizabeth's annuities. Elizabeth Branwell, who brought up the Brontë children as their Aunt Branwell, made savings from her legacy which she left to the Brontë sisters. It was this money which paid for Charlotte and Emily to travel to Brussels. It was the same money which allowed them to self-publish their poetry. The proceeds of crime was what kick-started the Brontës' literary careers.

I can imagine that Wright was delighted to unearth this revelation as it definitely propelled her book into the headlines. However, the book also has a lot more to offer. It puts Maria's life in context in a way that I had never seen it before. After decades as a mere footnote, she takes on three dimensions. She lived twenty-nine years in Penzance, a busy and thriving town. Maria would have been at the centre of this, attending functions similar to those described in Jane Austen novels. She was also an avid reader, was part of a reading circle and counted as childhood friends some prominent figures such as Sir Humphrey Davy. For several years after her father's death, she lived independently with her mother and sisters. She had a whole life before she ever met Patrick.

Still, meeting Patrick was clearly a defining moment in Maria's life. The nine letters which she wrote to him are analysed, quoted from and included in the book's appendix. As someone who enjoys letter-writing and always feels a pang of sadness when so few people respond, I was deeply impressed by the accomplishment of her correspondence. Maria's warmth shines in her letters, as does the couple's obvious strong feelings towards each other. This was a whirlwind courtship and one apparently fuelled by a deep sexual attraction. Given that Patrick is most famous as an irascible and difficult elderly man, it is worth remembering this earlier self. Before all that made him infamous, he was a man so in love that he could not keep his engagement to himself, with his blushing bride-to-be scolding him for his blabbing.

I had known that Maria and Patrick's wedding day was a joint ceremony with the two friends who had introduced them. However, I had not known that there was a third bride. Charlotte Branwell, Maria's youngest sister, also got married that day. Her wedding was down in Penzance but the three women had coordinated their ceremonies to take place at the same hour. Again, the details such as these may seem small but they bring these people to life. Maria is a woman far from home and unsure when or if she will again meet with her closest kin but on her wedding day, she can feel the connection between them all.

In agreeing to be Patrick's wife on that romantic day out to Kirkstall Abbey, Maria's life was turned upside down. She never returned to Penzance although her elder sister Elizabeth visited her twice. Maria proclaimed in one of her letters to Patrick before their marriage that she hoped that he would take charge effectively in all matters. Yet still, it must have been no small matter for a woman approaching thirty and used to having management of her own affairs to be reduced to merely the 'wife of' someone. The newlyweds took a little while to get their bearings and their own home at Thornton Parsonage which must have also made the transition more difficult. Still, once installed at Thornton, there is every sign that the growing family was a great success. Maria had a thriving social life, good friends and healthy children. In later life, Patrick referred to the time in Thornton as the happiest period of his life.

It was the size of the family though which meant that they had to move on. With six children, Thornton Parsonage could no longer hold them. From there, matters appear to have gone downhill. There was the infamous insurrection from the Haworth congregation who refused to accept Patrick as minister, leading to a year of wrangling before he could take up the post. And then Maria became ill. Although her ailment has been generally accepted as uterine cancer, Wright theorises quite convincingly that it was more likely to have been cancer of the cervix. At only thirty-eight and after less than ten years of marriage, Maria Branwell Brontë departed this life.

Maria's daughters grew up with few memories of their mother. Their elder sisters Maria and Elizabeth might have remembered more but they too passed away only a few years later. It was their Aunt Branwell who kept the house, living with their father for over twenty years. Yet it is apparent that their mother still held enormous significance. Charlotte redrew the profile portrait of their mother to be more flattering. Her heroine Jane Eyre looks up to the moon for solace and the moon speaks to her as a mother. Her later heroine Caroline is on her deathbed and recovers when her long-lost mother suddenly appears. The two Catherines in Wuthering Heights both grow up without mothers. Helen Huntingdon was sent to live with an aunt after her mother's death. There are motherless women across the Brontë canon. Indeed, the very fact that Agnes Grey does have a mother and a highly capable one at that feels like a form of wish fulfilment - it is part of Agnes' happy ending.

As I finished Wright's biography, I felt as though the erasure of Maria Brontë from the family story was just symptomatic of how the Brontës sisters' femininity is always diminished. They had to publish under male names. There have long been conspiracy theories that their brother Branwell wrote or assisted or inspired their work. So much time and so many pages have been spent pondering why Branwell never amounted to more, ignoring the miracle of three talented writers in one household. Their father Patrick's meteoric rise from poverty in Ireland is celebrated but less so how Maria also managed a 400 mile journey to reach Yorkshire, losing many of her belongings in a shipwreck. Her sister Elizabeth made the voyage twice. It's all part of the same trend which insists that all three of the Brontë sisters must have had lovers to have written the way that they did. Anne most likely did not love William Weightman. Equally, Emily seems to have never had much of an interest in anyone at all. Even in the twenty-first century, commentators still need to re-orientate the Brontë story towards men. Yet they told stories about pirates, adapting them from the Cornish tales that their Aunt Branwell passed on. They thought of their mother. She may have been missing but she still mattered.

Wright is an engaging and down-to-earth writer. It struck me that her early admission that she had come to Brontë fandom slightly later in the game was perhaps one of the reasons why Wright was able to offer such a refreshing perspective. The Mother of the Brontës does not get dragged into the controversies which have so dogged the fandom down the centuries. Where she encounters them, she offers her own theory and moves on. But more than anything, Wright's book left me feeling such sadness for the family that they lost this woman so young. You get the feeling that everything could have been different. With Maria's annuity, the family's finances could have been easier. While Aunt Branwell was a dutiful substitute, she had hoped so much to be able to return to Cornwall. Perhaps the girls would not have been sent to Cowan Bridge to lighten her load. More pertinently, it seems that Maria had had a track record of smoothing any feathers which her husband might ruffle. Patrick might have been an easier man to know. There are so many question marks but the Brontë story would have definitely been very different. The Mother of Brontës is a wonderful tribute to a lady who was clearly both loving and loved. Essential reading for all Brontë fans!