Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Silver Falls Library | YA 741.5 FAWKES | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | TEEN GRAPHIC 921 Bronte, Charlotte 2019 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | J GRAPHIC 921 Bronte, Charlotte 2019 | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!--I have as much soul as you,--and full as much heart!
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is a beloved classic, celebrated today by readers of all ages and revered as a masterwork of literary prowess. But what of the famous writer herself?
Originally published under the pseudonym of Currer Bell, Jane Eyre was born out of a magnificent, vivid imagination, a deep cultivation of skill, and immense personal hardship and tragedy. Charlotte, like her sisters Emily and Anne, was passionate about her work. She sought to cast an empathetic lens on characters often ignored by popular literature of the time, questioning societal assumptions with a sharp intellect and changing forever the landscape of western literature.
With an introduction by Alison Bechdel, Charlotte Brontë before Jane Eyre presents a stunning examination of a woman who battled against the odds to make her voice heard.
Author Notes
Glynnis Fawkes is an Ignatz Award nominated cartoonist and illustrator living in Burlington, VT. She has worked as an illustrator for archeological excavations since 1998 on sites in Greece, Crete, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, Syria, and Lebanon. She is currently at work on a book about her first trip to Greece, a draft of which received the MoCCA Arts Festival Award in 2016. Find out more about Glynnis and her work at glynnisfawkes.com.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up--This graphic work about the author of Jane Eyre captures Charlotte Brontë's spirit, talent, and drive. Fawkes not only focuses on her subject's harsh life but also highlights the moments of joy and pure imagination abundant in the famous literary family's early days. While Emily, Anne, and Branwell make many appearances, Charlotte's siblings are featured mostly as points of comparison. Fawkes emphasizes the aspects of Brontë's life that are reflected in her most famous work. In her author's note, Fawkes explains that she tried to use quotes from primary sources, including Brontë's surviving letters and writings, in the text, but admits to inventing many of the conversations. Keeping true to Brontë's spirit, the narrative is filled with wit and personality. Equal parts dark and light, the two-tone illustrations mirror the gloomy settings that the Brontës inhabited, from the dramatic but unforgiving moors to the stark and bleak schools where their older sisters died. These panels are just as necessary for the characters' development as the sharp dialogue and text. The appendix further elaborates on the figures, objects, and factual events featured in the art. VERDICT A wonderful peek into the early life of one of the most celebrated literary figures of the Western world. Libraries that serve middle and high schoolers will want to add this work to their collections.--Shelley M. Diaz, BookOps: The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library
Publisher's Weekly Review
Fawkes's lively biography of Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) depicts the formation of a writing life with wit and insight. The three Brontë sisters, along with their brother Branwell, spend much of their loss-riddled childhood co- authoring the dramatic saga of a fantasyland, Glass Town, in and around Haworth Parsonage in Yorkshire. As young adults, their storytelling anchors their experiences as Charlotte receives poor treatment at school, chafes under her work as a governess, and-along with her sisters-faces the realities of getting published as a woman writer. One of the joys of Fawkes's slender volume is that Charlotte does not suffer in noble silence; she is openly ambitious, even resenting what teaching steals from her creative life. Though some of the portrait's strengths can be attributed to the subject herself-this book relies heavily on her letters and poems-Fawkes is a deft and economical editor. With sure-handed, irreverent illustrations, she captures life on the windswept moors and masters the art of Victorian side-eye. Her Charlotte Brontë is as smart, brooding, and rebellious as Jane Eyre, and her volume offers an accessible introduction to and an elaboration on the Brontës' work. Ages 10-14. Agent: Judy Hansen, Hansen Literary. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
The Center for Cartoon Studies continues its series of comic-format biographies (Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller, rev. 5/12; Thoreau at Walden) with Fawkes's well-researched look at Charlotte Bronte's life prior to the publication of Jane Eyre. According to the appended author's "postscript," Charlotte (among the Bronte sisters) "left the most evidence in the form of letters, diaries, and novels," which Fawkes quotes from as much as possible, though dialogue is mainly invented. Readers follow the chronological, episodic story depicting key moments from Charlotte's formal studies at austere boarding schools, her later teaching jobs, and her travels and time abroad in Belgium. Fawkes highlights Charlotte's rather bleak childhood (her mother and two eldest sisters died); her creativity inventing imaginary worlds and producing tiny, hand-lettered magazines with her siblings; and the difficulties she faced being taken seriously as a woman writer in the nineteenth century. Although panel layouts are unvaried and text-heavy, the monochrome bluish-purple palette nicely captures both the Brontes' beloved West Yorkshire moors and their harsh school environments. Fawkes's intricate line work skillfully places focus on characters' expressive faces, while Charlotte's energized writing sessions emphasize her undeterred spirit and dedication to her craft. An introduction by Fun Home graphic novelist Alison Bechdel plus Fawkes's discussions of particular panels in the back matter provide additional illuminating commentary. Appended with a bibliography. Cynthia K. Ritter November/December 2019 p.109(c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
This graphic biography presents Charlotte Bront and her family as they persist through abundant struggles.Readers see Charlotte grow from a cynical child in a family of six to an adult writer searching for a publisher. In telling her story, Fawkes includes lighthearted moments, like the reading posture necessitated by her nearsightedness or the dramatic fantasy world she and her siblings collectively imagined over the years. These temper the predominant, unavoidable melancholy over things such as the deaths of her two older siblings and the indentured drudgery of time as a teacher. Most successfully, Fawkes communicates the threat of poverty should Charlotte and her sisters be unable to secure financial independence, with few options available for Victorian women. Fawkes deftly weaves narration from Charlotte's writings into appropriate biographical scenes. Despite setting notations, scene changes are sometimes jarring, and the ending is especially abrupt, cutting off at the moment of Charlotte's success, as the title suggests. Fawkes' illustrations appear as black-and-white, shaded pencil drawings in a style that cartoonist Alison Bechdel aptly describes in the introduction as "crisp and engaging." A postscript by Fawkes explains her artistic and textual choices and personal "love" for Charlotte's "persistence" and "imagination." Sources for much of the narration and selected bibliography close.A biography that goes beyond static history, inspiring respect for Charlotte and encouraging writers and artists to defend their work through adversity. (Graphic biography. 12-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Before she wrote Jane Eyre, one of the world's best-known novels and one that's never been out of print since its 1847 publication, Charlotte Brontë wrote another novel, The Professor, that was roundly rejected by publishers. Before that, she was a teacher at a boarding school; before that, she had attended boarding schools herself, and lost sisters to their poor conditions. She spent her early life with her five siblings, wandering the remote moors of England, playing fanciful games, and writing stories and poems with her sisters. In moody, cool-toned illustrations, Fawkes' graphic biography measures out Charlotte's early life, making its way through a childhood peppered with tragedies and an early adulthood met with rejection and roadblocks. Sharp-faced, sharp-tongued Charlotte shines through, easily distinguishable in the art. Her voice, too, comes through clearly; Fawkes writes in an author's note that she incorporated many of Charlotte's own words, taken from letters and writing, into the dialogue. A panel discussion afterward helps readers parse fact from invention and glimpse behind the scenes of this inventive biography.--Maggie Reagan Copyright 2019 Booklist