BOOK REVIEW: The Man in the Stone Cottage by Stephanie Cowell

The Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne) are renowned nineteenth-century authors whose writings are admired to this day. Their romantic, atmospheric masterworks (Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey, and others), have always inspired curiosity about the authors themselves. As the daughters of a country curate, they lived fairly circumscribed lives, and yet they certainly evoke far-ranging passions in their novels.

The Man in the Stone Cottage: A Novel of the Brontë sisters by Stephanie Cowell explores the lives and loves of these women through the eyes of Charlotte and Emily. Charlotte, who craves love, has attempted to leave home, to earn money as a teacher and, perhaps, expand her horizons; she returns, disappointed, to the security of home. Emily never wants to leave. Wandering the surrounding countryside is escape enough. She does not seek romantic love, but nevertheless, love—in the shape of a mysterious man who has come to occupy a hidden stone cottage on the moors—may find her.

In this beautifully written novel, Cowell breathes life into these two extraordinary women as well as the more peripheral characters: their sister Anne, their loving but overbearing father, and their derelict but beloved brother Branwell. Within their experiences are hints of the inspiration for events in their novels, but these are so subtly woven in, readers will not mistake the Brontës’ fiction for being autobiographical.

The tone of The Man in the Stone Cottage is bittersweet. The love and support of the sisters for one another is keenly felt, but they are not blind to each other’s foibles. Their devoted care of their father and brother is not without a tinge of resentment. (Or maybe this reader is resenting them on behalf of the sisters.) Their lives are not as limited as a cursory look at their biographies might imply. While this is a work of fiction, not biography, there is nothing in the story that rings false. Cowell’s novel provides a window into the hearts and minds of the brilliant writers and then expands upon what is known with an imaginative look at what could have been.

Thank you to the author and Regal House for a review copy!