Bronte's Mistress by Finola Austin

The Bronte family history is filled with so much drama it would make a bingeable television mini-series. Charlotte, Emily and Anne are well known. Their only brother Branwell is not.

Branwell felt the loss of his mother and two older sisters keenly.  Branwell and his younger sisters created an alternate reality, detailed in books and drawings. His father homeschooled him with a Classical education while his sisters went away to school.

Branwell was a product of the Romantic Era, and inspired by poets and painters, he hoped to make his mark as a poet or artist. 

As too often happens to precocious geniuses, Branwell never  achieved his best at anything. In fact, he failed in everything. His last years were spent in ill health, alcohol and drug addiction complicating his tuberculosis, despairing over unrequited love while his sisters cared for him. Charlotte Brontë wrote in a letter, 'the faculty of self-government is, I fear almost destroyed in him.'

Famously, Branwell painted a group portrait of his sisters and himself, then later painted out his image. That portrait inspired my Bronte Sisters quilt.

Branwell's last position was as a tutor for the family where his sister Anne was governess. Over those 30 months, Branwell and his charge's mother, Lydia Robinson, had a love affair. Her husband was sickly and she was a charming woman of 43. Branwell, like his famous sisters, was small, fair with red hair, a prominent nose on which sat spectacles--nothing like the typical romantic hero. 

In her biography of Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskill paints Mrs. Robinson as a wicked women. After her husband's death, she did not run to Branwell's arms. She married a wealthy man of 75. Whatever she may have felt for Branwell, money and a safe social status was more important. Branwell died heartbroken.

In Bronte's Mistress , Finola Austin imagines Mrs. Robinson telling the story of her love affair with Branwell.

In the novel, Lydia Robinson sought the attention and affection of the man she married and gloried in their early passionate affection. Throughout the novel, she still seeks his attention. Lydia struggles with aging, and worried about the loss of her beauty, she craves affirmation of her continued attractiveness.

To complicate her life, Lydia has contentious relationships with her teenage daughters and her overbearing mother-in-law.

Lydia can be cold and imperious toward her daughters. She married for love but does not countenance her daughters doing the same; she knows how unreliable love is, while money lasts.

Mr. Robinson treats governess Anne Bronte with dignity, but Lydia does not care for her. The feeling is mutual. Anne thinks her mistress is vain and shallow and ill-tempered.

When Mr. Robinson hires Anne's brother Branwell to tutor their son, Lydia notes his spirit, his intelligence, and his good looks. Attraction grows between them, and Branwell being a true Romantic, throws himself into the fire of love. Lydia revels in the attention, teaching her young lover how to please her.

Austin's portrait of Lydia Robinson is interesting and complex. Austin uses the character of Lydia Robinson to explore the constraints the Victorian Age placed on women, particularly their sexuality. In seeking their own destiny, the daughters show they share their mother's spirit if not her values.

Austin's portrayal of Branwell portrays his charms and his demons, and his inexperienced naivety. She incorporates his poetry into the novel. Lydia comes to realize that Branwell is weak, unreliable, and not as great a talent as he made out.

I wish that Mr. Robinson's motives were clarified. Why has he rejected Lydia's advances? Was it the death of their youngest child? Did he want to avoid another pregnancy, knowing he was ill? Did his illness affect his ability to fulfill his wife's needs? Clarification would turn him from cold villain to frail human.

Austin shows Anne incorporating her experiences into her novels, and imagines Lydia Robinson's second marriage as inspiration for Charlotte Bronte.

Austin's deeply flawed characters are desperate for love. In his time, Branwell's addictions would have been considered character flaws, weakness. And Lydia's sexual desire an aberration.

As someone who loves 19th c fiction and the Bronte's novels, I enjoyed Bronte's Mistress. I look forward to reading more by the author.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

from the publisher

Yorkshire, 1843: Lydia Robinson—mistress of Thorp Green Hall—has lost her precious young daughter and her mother within the same year. She returns to her bleak home, grief-stricken and unmoored. With her teenage daughters rebelling, her testy mother-in-law scrutinizing her every move, and her marriage grown cold, Lydia is restless and yearning for something more.

All of that changes with the arrival of her son’s tutor, Branwell Brontë, brother of her daughters’ governess, Miss Anne Brontë and those other writerly sisters, Charlotte and Emily. Branwell has his own demons to contend with—including living up to the ideals of his intelligent family—but his presence is a breath of fresh air for Lydia. Handsome, passionate, and uninhibited by social conventions, he’s also twenty-five to her forty-three. A love of poetry, music, and theatre bring mistress and tutor together, and Branwell’s colorful tales of his sisters’ elaborate play-acting and made-up worlds form the backdrop for seduction.

But Lydia’s new taste of passion comes with consequences. As Branwell’s inner turmoil rises to the surface, his behavior grows erratic and dangerous, and whispers of their passionate relationship spout from her servants’ lips, reaching all three protective Brontë sisters. Soon, it falls on Lydia to save not just her reputation, but her way of life, before those clever girls reveal all her secrets in their novels. Unfortunately, she might be too late.

Meticulously researched and deliciously told, Brontë’s Mistress is a captivating reimagining of the scandalous affair that has divided Brontë enthusiasts for generations and an illuminating portrait of a courageous, sharp-witted woman who fights to emerge with her dignity intact.

Bronte's Mistress
by Finola Austin
Atria Books
Pub Date September 2, 2020 
ISBN: 9781982137236
hardcover  $27 US, $12.99 ebook