Mrs Gaskell's "right understanding of the life of my dear friend, Charlote Bronte", created a sensation in Victorian England, and it is no less gripping today. Its clever interweaving of facts, anecdotes and characters, its meditative digressions and the overall leisureliness of its pace allow the reader the sort of insider glimpse of this vanished world that no modern biography - however pacy, racy or downright scandal-mongering - could ever do. This edition comes complete with a finely-tuned introduction and copious notes by Elizabeth Jay.
