The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne by Catherine Reef

My first book of the year is a juvenile biography: The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne by Catherine Reef.

I found this book informative and engaging. It describes, as you might expect, the lives of the Bronte siblings (including two older sisters who died young, and a brother who lived to adulthood but died within a year of Emily and Anne). The author draws parallels from the lives of the sisters to memorable scenes and characters from their books. It's clear that Reef has done a great deal of careful research, and that her subjects live in her imagination and therefore in the pages of the book.

While I have read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, I haven't yet read anything by Anne Bronte -- perhaps I will find myself inspired to pick up Agnes Grey or The Tenant of Wildfell Hall some time this year.

(Reviewed from a copy borrowed through my library system.)