Glass Town: The Imaginary World Of The Brontës

"The Brontës – bestselling Charlotte, oddball Emily, underestimated Anne and unstable Branwell – have long fascinated literary critics, history buffs, feminist theorists and anyone interested in the roots of creativity. Growing up in isolated Yorkshire, enduring the deaths of their mother and two sisters, the siblings escaped by writing elaborate stories about imaginary kingdoms. Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel (named for one of their realms) deftly intermingles quotation with storytelling and history with fantasy. Her drawings are harsh and deliberately untidy, channeling the frantic, awkward passion of a precocious child. Sometimes they seem poised to burst forth from the page, defying physics in tribute to the seething spirits that gave us Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights."