A Girl Walks Into a Book

Is there a young woman alive who hasn’t fallen under the thrall of Jane Eyre? Pennington did, at the age of ten, when her father gave her a copy of the book, forever changing her life. Today Pennington is a writer and a teacher, much influenced by the Bronte sisters and here, she examines every inch of their lives, from the well-known to things most of use never even guessed at. She looks at the way the times the Bronte’s were living in influenced their writing, times when a woman had no real rights at all. The story of the three sisters is an extraordinary one that I have read about before, but Pennington adds her own quirky sense of humor and anecdotes making this one of the most interesting and enlightening biographies/memoirs I’ve read

It is beautiful everytime.

When you fall into a book that speak of past and literature with the ability of bringing us somewhere else. In a world where there was a different education, different manners, different customs a life less frenetic, but, attention where problems existed.

A Girl Walks Into a Book What the Brontës Taught Me about Life, Love, and Women's Work by Miranda Pennington will be published this May 16 by Perseus.

It it not only very well written but this memoir tell like the Brontë with Jane Eyre followed step-by-step the existence of Miranda Peddington.

Miranda took inspiration by these sisters, their example, their re-start, their lessons, their life, their being eclectic and genial in a com-penetration of expectations and feelings and knowledge of herself, her world and her feelings.

Jane Eyre is a masterpiece because it's a unique tale of love, dedication, responsibility.
Someone at the end was chosen also in his disability: Mr.Rochester.
This one a universal message of real love.

Jane was young.
When she discovered that Mr.Rochester became blind at the end of the book she could have escaped away from a future of responsibility, but she didn't.
She did not go away because she loved him and she stayed, because she simply knew that that man was her man and she didn't want anyone else, whatever it would have meant, because she would have been happy with him.
It's a strong message, one of the most powerful message: real love exists.
It's not just a wonderful work of fiction, love, for let us cry when we read a romantic book or we watch a movie on TV with the happy end: no. these stories exist in real life. And Jane Eyre is a strong book. Not only: Jane Eyre is a masterpiece written in a wonderful stylistic way.

The words, lines contained in Jane Eyre are beautiful, lyrical, elevated, real expression of great soul and heart and these words resonate after centuries with the same strength and power of its time, remaining intact in the emotive impact that they generate in people's soul.

The story of Mr. Rochester, the complex, sometimes rude character, created in Jane Eyre deluded and hard because of a heavy past and some hidden secrets (a wife kept hidden for obvious reasons) with the desire to re-start a new life is very interesting to me.

He knew that he had found with Jane the right girl but what to do?

Telling or not telling the truth?

More adult than her, he preferred to keep this secret in his soul losing her, and losing her meant only disgraces and ruin for both these characters, because no one clarified, no one explained and the unsaid created a catastrophic result.

Jane went away without to trying to understand, thinking that after all there was another woman, a wife kept secret! and betrayed by the man she was trusting and with which she was ready to spend the rest of her existence with.

At the same time maybe Jane thought: "How can I love a man with under his roof also his legal wife? Why wasn't he clear after all?" A lot of turmoil. Other people knew but no one told her the truth and this one wasn't a little particular but a fundamental aspect of Rochester's life. Where was trust? Clarity? Just silence. It was too much.

Months ago I read and reviewed a novel I love so badly written by Sarah Jio, Always, that to me, different times, modern tale, was very similar in the message contained in Jane Eyre: to re-embrace again the first love although changed, and with problems.

The book by Miranda Pennington is plenty of informations about all the sisters Bronte, with the scheme of all the family Bronte and the detailed history of all of them. You will find many pictures of their books/manuscripts thanks to her numerous visit at museums where Miranda found a lot of material, informations, letters exchanged with editors, other writers and last but not least there is this dialogue, constant with this superlative work: Jane Eyre and what it means to her.

It's a trip into literature, it's a trip into psychology as well.

Miranda Pennington talked of Elizabeth Gaskell because she add according to her the sisters' Bronte portrayed under a "negative light." I read and discovered Elizabeth Gaskell for case, picking up North and South at the library two years ago. What a wonderful and relaxing book it was that one as well.
The splendid and positive words contained in North and South, the good feelings expressed, the contrast between the British dreaming countryside and the city, the complexities of problematic that the protagonists will sort out with irony and good sentiments let me think she was another exceptional writer.

Miranda grew up with the powerful influence of Jane Eyre, much more than all the other books by the other sisters Bronte or other authors for teenager.

She tells she received the book when she was 10 years old. This book Jane Eyre in grade read and reread a lot of times, at different ages to give to her the most important answers to her questions that she was/is searching for, still guiding her along her life.

That answers that we must add only a classics can give to a reader.


Highly recommended book!

A Girl Walks Into a Book gives a heartfelt look into fandoms and why we bond with characters, stories and creators. With the topic being the Brontes, the book has a "sophistication" that most people do not see with comics, bands, videos games, and current literature. Not only are the Brontes special to the author, it legitimizes "fangirls" to the "intellectual" community.
Pennington walks the readers through her life as well as the life of the Brontes showing the parallels between all four of the women's lives and how these similarities make the characters and story resound on a personal level.
For me, the book was very meta. I love Jane Eyre for the same reasons the author does. I bonded with the author because she understands from first hand experiences why these characters and stories mean so much to me. We both love Jane Eyre over the idea of not fitting in but not giving up (and we both love Tom hardy as Heathcliff). The author gets my love for Jane Eyre and this just reaffirms my own feelings.
Towards the end of the book, she admits she's come to the end of the Brontes' story. And really, the book should have ended there. The ending of the book follows her pilgrimage to the Brontes' home.
As a fan girl, I appreciated this as a huge moment in her life (like my first Dragon Con), but I lost the connect to the author and her subjects. I am not that level of fangirl for the Brontes and lost interest as she detailed her significant other's journey to the hospital. But I believe a bigger Bronte fan may just enjoy that in depth look into the women's life.
Easier to read that many of the Bronte novels, A Girl Walks into the Book shows readers how and why characters stay with us.

At first it’s really not clear if this book is to be counted as a work of fiction or non-fiction. Ultimately it reads like a wonderful story that envelops the Bronte sisters and Pennington in ways that are peculiar and satisfyingly strange. Eventually one must decide that it must come down on the side of non-fiction because so much of it is based on the real lives of both the aforementioned. Pennington turns a quirky personal love life story into a hilarious comparison to all the things that can be learnt from the stories written by the three Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne.


Sometimes we read to find ourselves; sometimes we read to escape ourselves; sometimes we read to see ourselves more clearly.

Throughout the course of the book Pennington looks at how her current life experience could be seen to be mirrored in one of the Bronte’s novels. She starts with the classic Jane Eyre and explains her first love of reading it as a child and how so often as an adult she felt a kinship with the fictional character. Indeed, Pennington seems to behave as if all the characters from a Bronte novel were once real people.

“….it still startles me to be reminded that they aren’t real. It seems much more likely they exist in the ether somewhere, fully formed and waiting for a reader to bring them to life again.”

Themes such as what is love, who are you meant to be and what does real love looks like are covered and more. We travel through Pennington’s life, comparing different situations and stages that align with different portions of Bronte novels. All novels share insight and a working knowledge and a course of action such as Wuthering Heights being a cautionary tale for overzealous attachment to one’s first love. Agnes Grey is a mentor for finding a job, finding another one if needed, succeeding in one’s career and learning to stand on your own two feet. Shirley gives insight into female friendship and women’s options in life. These comparisons are often both comic and insightful.

The fact that these things happened in life and in literature is part of what gives them resonance. It’s what allows the Brontes to capture detail and write so realistically. It’s what makes them true.

This is entertaining and yet one feels the very rawness of Pennington’s confessional style on every page. For those who have not read the entire Bronte canon, it serves as a tempting suggestion to throw oneself fully into the business of self-education. Pennington herself is honest about her faults that make her all the more real for her struggles and all the more accessible as a person. This is a delightful book that will please both the ultimate Bronte lover and the uninitiated.

Really enjoyable

This book is a beautiful memoir and a love affair with books. I enjoyed this book immensley. If you love the Bronte sisters, books about books, or memoirs this book is for you. I highly recommend it.

This book did not have a magnetic pull that drew me in and did not release me. Instead it was like going into a stream and letting yourself be lulled along by the soothing current.

The plot is relatable. As readers we've all had that moment of finding the right book at the right time and it having a lasting impact on us. For Pennington, that book was Jane Eyre. Reading it led her down a Brontë rabbit hole that she shares with us in this biography / autobiography combo. Using the lives and tales of all the Brontës, the author uses the parallels in both to carry the narrative along.

My favorite thing about the book was the author's voice. She was honest and raw, but in a way that did not feel contrived or forced.

This is an interesting book, although it was not quite what I expected. It is a literary memoir of the author focused around how the Bronte sisters' writing impacted her life and guided her through difficult times. It is written in a fairly informal conversational style, although she does throw in some unfamiliar vocabulary. She describes growing up, her educational and career experiences, as well as a series of romantic relationships, all while weaving in biographical and literary information about the Bronte family. Charlotte's writing is her clear favorite, and with the research materials available there is more emphasis on Charlotte's life and work than the rest of the family. She includes plot summaries (definite spoilers for all of the novels) and literary analysis of the writing while relating it to events and decisions in her own life. Even with the personal aspect, it is full of interesting information about the Bronte family and quoted passages from letters as well as the novels. I developed more respect for the accomplishments of these sisters, learned a lot, and will definitely be adding more of their writing to my to read list.

I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
This non-fiction work is the story of a love affair – that of the author with the work of the Brontës. It functions as a biography of the three sisters as well but my favourite parts were her grounding the stories and characters in her real life and how she found that different Brontë books appealed to her at different ages, inspiring and comforting her. Her re-readings of Jane Eyre and finding new things at different points in her life strongly resonated.
I’m a huge fan of the sisters’ work so found the biographical elements very interesting but really appreciated reading about, and recognising in myself, the passion Pennington has for Charlotte, Emily and Anne. If you’ve read any Brontë biographies you are unlikely to discover any new information here but it’s still a delightful read and might even inspire those new to the Brontës’ work to dive headlong in.

This charming bibliomemoir reflects on Pennington’s two-decade love affair with the work of the Brontë sisters, especially Charlotte. She has read and reread the books (and watched the film adaptations) innumerable times over the years to get her through life’s crises. It’s really clever how she gives side-by-side chronological tours through the Brontës’ biographies and careers and her own life, drawing parallels and noting where she might have been better off if she’d followed in Brontë heroines’ footsteps. If you’re set on avoiding spoilers, keep in mind that Pennington discusses all of the plots in detail, so you might want to skim over some parts. I especially enjoyed her cynical dissection of Wuthering Heights, a novel I too have struggled to like (“If I met Wuthering Heights at a cocktail party, I would have literally nothing to say to it. … It’s the Macbeth, if not the Titus Andronicus, of the Brontë canon—it shows us evil, but teaches us nothing”) and her research visit to Haworth. A must for Brontë fans.

1. I am not sure how Miranda Pennington and I aren't best friends. We lived in the same neighborhoods in Brooklyn, we went to the same restaurants and concert venues and we are both delightfully obsessed with Jane Eyre.

A Girl Walks Into a Book is the memoir/in depth study of the Bronte family. Miranda, much like myself, fell in love with Jane Eyre and Mr Rochchester at an early age and have continued to let it guide us both into adulthood. Pennington does an in-depth analysis of all of the Brontes works, careful not to gloss over anything about Branwell and his addictions, as well as comparing her own life and experiences to the Brontes at the same time. It's a risky move, but one that was well worth it.

This is a lovely book, for anyone, not just the Eyre obsessed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Whenever a reader is so touched and affected by a book or books, or even an author, it's worth sharing. And Pennington makes one want to turn their lives into a book, even if only fictional.