The Bronte Books Ranked

Today, April 21st, marks the anniversary of Charlotte Brontȅ's birth back in 1816. That's as good a reason as any to do what I've intended for some time and rank the seven books of all three Brontȅ sisters. I'm sure there will be as many combinations as readers, but here is mine.

The top four are those I'd recommend as must-reads for everyone. When you've read them, you've read the very best. 

The bottom three, in my opinion, can be passed over unless you're a Brontȅ completist who aims to read them all just to tick them off. I wouldn't recommend anybody select one from that trio to start with, anyway.

THE TOP FOUR

 1) Wuthering Heights

Although I've considered changing my mind over the years, because I was never a great fan of either Heathcliff or Catherine, this is still my top pick. The book holds a special place in my heart because of my circumstances when I first read it. I was 15 years old with ambitions to be a fiction author myself, and learned a lot about story craft through my own passion-driven analysis of this book. I still enjoy how various narrators make this Gothic family saga so multi-layered. Most of all, I love seeing the second generation of characters begin to mirror the mistakes of the first, until a sudden, touching twist of grace changes the trajectory. Emily Brontȅ convinces us that ancestral curses aren't set in stone. The gentle, loving final glimpses we get of my three favourite characters, Nelly, Hareton and Cathy, still make me smile whenever I think about them. (My review is here.)

2) Villette

For me, this was Charlotte's Magnus Opus. I get a sense that she poured her own self into the creation of restrained and reflective Lucy Snowe, the young English teacher in Brussels who falls for two different men. Author vulnerability is probably never rawer than this, but Charlotte lets her guard down with such lavish and stirring prose, drawing from all sorts of cultural and literary sources to make a somewhat drab and homely tale into a masterpiece. Making me fond of the overbearing, bossy Monsieur Paul gets my thumbs up too, because I normally shy away from control freaks like him. The ending is certainly controversial, but I'll give no spoilers. (My review is here.)

3) Jane Eyre

I have many friends who would place this masterpiece at the very top, and I understand why. Jane is such a refreshingly grounded and sensible main character. Her integrity and developing rapport with her intimidating employer, Mr Rochester, is delightful to read. So is his awesome epiphany. The fact that a harried, world-weary cynic like himself decides a modest young governess holds the key to all he's been looking for is pure satisfaction. In her quiet, modest way, Jane turns Rochester's life upside down. We're even willing to overlook the concealing of his deep, dark secret, which proves how successfully Charlotte wrote him, for it's pretty darned shocking. (My review is here.)

4) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

It's cool to think how Anne, the youngest sister of all, made it her personal mission to write a revelatory story with an unforeseen, unprecedented theme: Girls, don't ever romanticize bad boys! Even her sister, Charlotte, thought Anne was making a colossal mistake to focus on an alcoholic jerk like Arthur Huntingdon as a main character. I imagine Charlotte, who had such a way with words, would have been very persuasive, but Anne gently stuck to her guns. Thank heavens she did, or we would never have had this excellent early example of feminist literature. If this novel helped just one hapless victim of domestic abuse face facts and take action like Helen, it would have been a success, but there have surely been thousands, and even more to come. (My review is here.)

THE BOTTOM TRIO

5) Shirley

This has all of Charlotte's evocative detail and brings to life her own backdrop of Yorkshire during the Industrial Revolution. But her character Caroline Helstone's way of handling her supposedly unrequited love for mill owner Robert Moore disappoints me. You wouldn't find Jane or Helen taking on such a weepy, mopey attitude, to the point of death. No bloke is worth dying with lovesickness over, let alone a calculating dude like Robert with dollar signs for eyeballs. My favourite character, Shirley herself, isn't even introduced until a couple hundred pages into the story, and even longer for her cool romantic interest, Louis Moore. So this story gets thumbs down for both irritation and longwindedness too. (My review is here.)

6) Agnes Grey

This is Anne's attempt at what Charlotte does in Villette, to fictionalize her own personal experiences. Sadly, she hasn't pulled it off half as well. Agnes comes off as a sanctimonius martyr of a governess, always ready to blame setbacks on her employers. This waters down Anne Brontȅ's valid observations, that these girls lived tough and thankless lives. It does have the admirable Mr Edward Weston going for it, but he's not enough to boost my ranking from second bottom. (My review is here.)

7) The Professor

It's Charlotte's very first novel, which some critics say should never have seen the light of day. Hear hear. It's the only Brontȅ novel I've got rid of, because the main character's attitude kept making me angry. William Crimsworth is a know-it-all, 21-year-old school teacher who looks down on others with such smug condescension, it completely undermines the underdog position Charlotte is going for with him. He is this story's hero, yet I'd hate to have had him as a teacher, or have him teach my kids! Still, it gives me great pleasure to award the wooden spoon to such a deserving book. (My review is here.)  

There's my ranking of the seven Brontȅ novels. I'd be interested to see yours, if you'd be willing to tell us in the comments below. From 1 to 7 (or however many you've read) go ahead and rank them from best to least favourite.