Law and the Bronts [Hardcover]

In its exploration of legal issues presented in novels of the Bront? sisters, this book represents a significant and original contribution to the study, not just of the Bront?s and the mid-nineteenth century 'woman's novel', but also the situation of women in nineteenth century English law and the debates which moved around its prospective reform.Acknowledgements Introduction: The Bront? Cases Huntingdon v Huntingdon Heathcliff's Case The Rochester Wives The State and Shirley Keeldar Conclusion: The Trials of Lucy Snowe Bibliography Index

'Ian Ward's revelation of the 'subterranean jurisprudence' of the Bronte novels provides readers of all kinds with a new understanding of the social significance of this powerful group of stories. His engaging, essayistic style opens up the historical meanings and the continuing relevance of the legal issues with which the Bront?s engaged. Ward identifies the limitations of marriage and property law, the experience of violence and legal manipulation within the family, and the struggle between social authority and individual resistance as animating concerns of these novels, and as a key to their imaginative power over audiences then and now. This book fills a major gap in the interdisciplinary study of law and literature in nineteenth-century England.' - Kieran Dolin, Chair and Associate Professor, English and Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia

IAN WARD Professor of Law at Newcastle University, UK, having previously taught at the Universities of Durham, Sussex and Dundee. He has also held visiting positions at the Universities of Iowa, Montpellier, Lisbon, Alberta and most recently the Centre for Advanced Studies at the Ludwig-Maxmilien University in Munich, Germany. His previous publications in the area of 'law and literature', include Law and Literature: Possibilities and Perspectives (Cambridge UP, 1995), Shakespeare and the Law (Butterworths, 1999) and