The Brontë Novels as Historical Fiction
The article looks at the Brontës' reasons for setting the action of their novels in the past, from the late-18th-century setting of "Wuthering Heights" to the twenty-year backdating of "Agnes Grey". The bulk of the article, however, deals with Charlotte Brontë's condition-of-England novel "Shirley". Like other well-known nineteenth-century novelists, including Dickens and Thackeray, the Brontë si
