Skip to main content

“The Vanished Bride”: Light and Shadow and the Brontës


With everything feeling so serious at the moment maybe you need a light read to take your mind off things.

The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis (Rowan Coleman) is a delightful read for Brontë and mystery fans. It imagines the Brontë sisters as amateur sleuths who set about solving the mystery of the disappearance – and possible murder – of a young woman in a neighbouring town. Their investigations lead them to realisations about the darkness and light in human nature, and it also allows us to imagine that we know them more intimately.


When I read the synopsis of this I was imagining something along the lines of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. In other words something that aimed to be tongue-in-cheek, slightly camp and generally good fun, but ultimately fell a bit flat.

However this delivered so much more. On the surface it is a fun, light-hearted, humorous whodunit and the author is not above tipping a sly wink or two to the clichés of mystery writing. There is one cinematic description of the sisters throwing open the door on a stormy night to an unexpected visitor, complete with the obligatory crack of thunder and flash of lightning at exactly the right moment, which made me laugh out loud. If this were made into a film I would definitely watch it!

But the book also has a depth that throws the high points into relief, as Coleman also acknowledges issues that were important concerns to the Brontës – in particular the social and creative oppression of women. It’s not always done in the most subtle or sophisticated way, but she does a good job at hinting at the darkness in human nature while staying restrained enough to keep it on the gentler side of gritty; sensitive readers need not worry.

The personalities of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell – and even the indomitable Tabby – are obviously based on what we know of them from different sources, and it’s clear the author has done her research. Their characters are boldly drawn, and the sibling dynamic between them – complete with their bickering, exasperation, clashing egos and deep affection – is so familiar to anyone who grew up with siblings, and is just lovely to read. I loved how the sisters interacted with Branwell, and I think I warmed more to Emily through this than I was ever able to from Wuthering Heights!

I think “Bella Ellis” (a brilliant pen name by the way) had as much fun writing this as I had reading it. It is implied that the details and incidents in the book were the inspiration for a lot of the material in their novels and, as I enjoyed myself immensely drawing the connections between characters and events, I won’t spoil it for you by giving away too much here. Suffice it to say, it’s definitely a Brontëphile’s book.

It looks like this is the first book in a series and I hope it is, because I would certainly read any others.

Brown Brontë rating: 4 stars

The Vanished Bride is by Bella Ellis, and published by Hodder & Stoughton

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram , like my page and join The Brown Bronte's Book Club to let me know what you thought of this review!
Shabnam
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Six Striking Titles For Mother's Day

The pandemic has meant lots of us have not been able to see or visit our own mothers for a whole year or more. There are many who are dealing with the pain of having lost their mothers during this time. For those of you who are yourselves mothers – whether you’re homeschooling, working from home or not for whatever reason, worrying about work, finances, the mess in your home, the amount of time the kids are spending staring at screens, or generally feeling like you’re doing a rubbish job – fear not, you are not alone. I have put together some of my recent reads about the joys and sorrows, fears and hopes of modern motherhood. They’re not all pandemic-specific, but a lot of them focus on the big eternal concerns as well as the minutiae of mothering. Sad or funny, long or short, thrilling or thoughtful – I hope there is something here to suit different tastes. And the best part is, you don’t have to be a parent to enjoy any of them! So take a look below, at my Six Striking Titles f
1 comment
Read more

Chatting with Kate Morrison, Author: A Book of Secrets

Something special on the blog today, readers: I'm thrilled to be chatting to Kate Morrison, author of stunning debut A Book of Secrets, as part of its Random Things Tour. Join us as we talk about historical research, women's independence and racism in Elizabethan England. "A Book of Secrets is the story of a woman named Susan Charlewood living in Elizabethan England. Born in what is now Ghana, Susan is enslaved by the Portuguese but later rescued by British sailors, who bring her to England. Once in England, she is raised in an English Cathoic household. When Susan comes of age, the family marry her off to an older Catholic man, John Charlewood. Charlewood runs a printing press and uses it to supply the Papist nobility with illegal Catholic texts and foment rebellion amongst the Catholic underclass. When Charlewood, Susan takes over the business and uses her new position to find out more about her origins.  A look at racial relationships at the beginning of the eve of the
6 comments
Read more

Sultana’s Dream: A Bengali Feminist Sci-Fi Utopia

Sultana’s Dream is a science fiction short story by the Bengali writer and activist Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain , which was first published in the Indian Ladies’ Magazine, Madras, in 1905.  It imagines the journey of a woman – Sultana - to a fantastical place called Ladyland, “free from sin and harm, where Virtue reigns supreme”. Here, the powers and spheres of men and women are reversed so that women are active in public life, and men are restricted to domestic duties.  The result is a utopia where there is no crime, violence or corruption. Their main diet is fruit; they use technology to carry out manual labour and grow crops, and flying cars to travel. Work is carried out more efficiently as women do not waste time smoking and talking, and they come up with innovative, non-violent ways of defending themselves against enemies. At a time when India was under British colonial rule and women’s emancipation had not yet become a reality even in Britain, Hossain satirised the patri
Post a Comment
Read more