Inspired by a question by Adam on Twitter last night:
Who is your favorite Brontë, and why?
We’re just curious. We could have made this a meme question, but there’s no slot open until 2014! 🙂
Feel free to comment below.
(If you spoil a plot in one of the novels below, please clearly mark your comment with “spoiler” and the title you mention before you spoil! Example: Spoiler for Jane Eyre follows.” Thanks!)
– The Club
Twitter hashtag: #ccdiscussions
The Classics Club 
Hello everyone! Here is my response:
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Charlotte simply because of my feelings for Jane Eyre. I find Anne childish in style, but have yet to read any Anne, and I’ve heard such good things about Agnes Grey.
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I have only read Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. I have to go with Emily because Wuthering Heights is my heart. 🙂
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I have never read Anne but considering that I’ve read Jane Eyre more times than I remember, I can most definitely say that Charlotte is my favorite Bronte.
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(Wee spoiler Alert!) Although I enjoyed reading works by both Emily and Charlotte, Anne’s The Tennant of Wildfell Hall just blew me away last year which I never expected. There is something about the female heroine that kept me spellbound, perhaps it was her downright refusal of adhering to society’s (even within a small community). I think both Emily’s and Charlotte’s works have suffered a bit in my reading enjoyment as I both reread them within an academical setting and as a result can only read certain theories or viewpoints in them. I probably have to reread them again in a few years.
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I don’t know I would do any of them justice because I have only read one of Charlotte’s and none of Anne’s and I haven’t read any of Emily’s poetry. But if I have to choose one, I would probably choose Charlotte because it was her book, Jane Eyre, that became my favourite book and really introduce me to the classics.
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I love this question, and I wish I could actually answer it. I just recently read Jane Eyre and it blew me away entirely. I am eager to read Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey as well as some of their other works…I can’t believe I hadn’t read them sooner!! Great answers everyone!
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I am definitely more eager to read Agnes Grey than the other, for sure. I didn’t include it on my list though…oh well!
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In the Guernsey literary and Potato Peel Pie Society the main character Juliet does! (Anne is her favorite Brontë). That’s one of my favorite books-I’ve probably mentioned it to you already a million times 🙂
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It’s amazing – HIGHLY recommend!
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Here is a link to a post I wrote on Anne and Charlotte. Be be warned there is a spoiler for “Agnes Grey” in there.
In the post I talked about how I have only read Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey. But for me Anne’s writing far surpassed that of Charlotte. I love Anne and can’t wait to the read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall this summer!
http://kdholley88.blogspot.com/2013/02/jane-or-agnes.html
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Definitely Charlotte! I adore Jane Eyre. I struggled with Villette, but it was such a fascinating novel and showed Charlotte’s depth and talent. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of her work. Wuthering Heights didn’t work for me and so far Anne’s novels haven’t struck me in the same way as Charlotte’s.
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I’ve always thought Wuthering Heights rather overwrought, so I much prefer Charlotte’s Jane Eyre. I love the story, but I also like its wider scope and what it says about the position of women at that time.
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Thank you for saying what I wanted to 🙂
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Emily for me all the way! Although ‘Jane Eyre’ or ‘Agnes Grey’, Charlotte and Anne respectively, are great novels and I will never deny that ‘Jane Eyre’ is one of the key novels in the English canon, I think ‘Wuthering Heights’ has to be the best Bronte novel. It broke all conventions at the time and even does so now, creating two protagonists who are perhaps not likable but beautiful. Whereas ‘Jane Eyre’ has a very stereotypical (Gothic) plot that is “reinvented”, as such, by creating a strong heroine, ‘Wuthering Heights’ is a story unlike any other in the English canon! Yes, I may be a bit of lovestruck teen when it comes to Emily, but I cannot help but wish she had written more novels! But they were all so damn creative and talented!
Rant over 🙂
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Charlotte Brontë ! 🙂
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I’ve tried to read Jane Eyre a couple of years ago and I couldn’t get through it. Granted, I wasn’t into reading as much and it was my first shot at a classic so perhaps it was too morose for someone who was just starting out…? I am currently reading Wuthering Heights though and I’m enjoying it a lot! It’s just so tantalising and all the characters fill me with feels and make me want to kill them. So I’ll have to say Emily anyway!
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Currently, my order stands like this — Charlotte, Anne. I don’t care for Emily at all.
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So far I have only read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and my favorite Bronte definitely is Charlotte. Jane Eyre brought such admirable and believable feminine spirit, it is one of my all-time favorites. But Emily too has a powerful way in writing that makes Wuthering Heights a haunting book. (I mean, LITERALLY haunting to me).
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Charlotte is my favorite Bronte! I love her writing, her stories, and her characters. I also love Anne and Emily’s writing, but Charlotte’s my favorite.
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My first choice is Charlotte Brontë for Jane Eyre. Second choice is Emily Brontë for Wuthering Heights.
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I have enjoyed all the Brontë novels (I believe I have read them all: Jane Eyre, The Professor, Villette, and Shirley by Charlotte, Wuthering Heights by Emily, and Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne). Villette and Shirley are my current favorite Brontë novels, so I suppose that would make Charlotte my favorite author, but I prefer to go by the books because when I read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights several years ago (as an emotional teenager) I preferred the latter.
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Minor Wuthering Heights spoiler ahead.
Without a doubt, I love Miss Emily. I was crushed in middle school when I realized she had only written Wuthering Heights. I turned to Charlotte and Anne to fill the Emily void, but they never quite did the trick for me. Wuthering Heights made such an impression on me that I looked for my Heathcliff in every bad boy I dated… which ultimately was not so great. Still, does not negate my love for Emily.
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Jane Eyre is my favorite book by far, and I really enjoyed my recent first read of Villette. These are the only works of Charlotte that I’ve read, though I look forward to reading more. I feel like I know Charlotte very well, from her books but also from reading biographies. I have read Wuthering Heights but did not enjoy it. Someday I would like to give it another try though. So as of right now, Charlotte is my favorite. However, I have never read either of Anne’s works, so perhaps I cannot make a full judgment until I do!
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I love “Jane Eyre”! If I were to rate my favourite books Jane would be high up on that list. I have also read “Wuthering Heights” and “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” and if I love JE, TTOWH is my number 2 and WH is number 3:-)
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The only work of any of the Bronte sisters I’ve read is Jane Eyre, so I can’t really say 😉 However, I have on my reading list the major works of Anne, Charlotte, and Emily, so hopefully I’ll get to read them by the time I’m 20 (I’m 16 now, and my reading list is huge).
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I haven’t read Anne yet, either, but I much preferred Jane Eyre to Wuthering Heights, so I have to go with Charlotte for now.
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I haven’t read anything by Anne yet, but I loved Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre was one of the first classics I ever read for pleasure when I was in middle school and it really influenced my reading choices from then on. I never could get into Wuthering Heights though. I tried reading it a couple times in high school (because it was one of my mom’s favorites) and never got past the second chapter. Then it was assigned in my literature class my first year of college, forcing me to read the whole thing. Still didn’t like it.
But I’ll read Jane Eyre over and over again! 🙂
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Kayla, I also first read Jane Eyre when I was in middle school. I feel like it dramatically affected the books I read afterwards and the type of person I became. I have since read it about 15 times and I always find something new to discover!
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I loved Wuthering Heights, became obsessed with Jane Eyre and read it a hundred times, but there is something so raw and real about Anne that makes me inclined to chose her as my favorite. Though Charlotte is up there too. It is kind of difficult to chose between any of them, really. They were all so talented and I actually find each one to be different from the other two. I think Charlotte provides better structure, Emily is the most poetic and Anne is the most poignant.
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I love your descriptions of them! Very observant of you.
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Thank you! 🙂
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I found each sister to be unique as well, but it’s been too long since I’ve read Anne or Emily, that I wouldn’t be able to describe their style at this point. But I’m really interested in your descriptions of each Bronte. What do you mean when you say “Charlotte provides better structure”?
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I think she provided a better structure to the plot as a whole. Jane Eyre felt more complete to me than Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey or The Tennant of Wildfell Hall.
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Loev all the Brontes … what a talented family!! I would say Emily has always been my favourite, i like her style and her way with words. Like there would be a “hidden meaning” behind her text…. difficult to explain…
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